The Preeminence of Christ: Part 2
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
The hymn:
The five verses we looked at last week and that we’ll continue to look at this morning - verses 15 - 20 is considered by many to be a hymn. It may have been sung in the early churches.
Many of the hymns and spiritual songs we sing today are deeply rooted in scripture and even quote scripture.
Depending on which translation you might have it may be separated out The ESV heading is the “Preeminence of Christ” and the CSB titles it “The Centrality of Christ”
The five verse of this hymn can be divided into two sections:
Section 1 (15-17) - Jesus is supreme over all creation: All things were created by, through, and for Him.
All of creation finds its purpose in Christ.
Not only is Jesus the creator of all things - that everything was created through Him and that he upholds all things - He sustains all things… but He is the purpose for all things: All creation, seen and unseen; all history, past, present, and future - known and unknown - He is it’s rational. He is its purpose. He is the meaning behind all things. All of creation points to the glory of God - and “in Him (Jesus) all the fulness of God was pleased to dwell.” (v.19)
Section 2 - Jesus is supreme over the church and the new creation(v.18)
If you profess to be a Christian - keep your eyes on Christ (-tian = follower of Christ)
Do not worship angles as some in the Colossian church were doing
Don’t look to other “spiritual beings” or practices
See to it that no one takes you captive (takes you hostage - puts constraints on you) by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.
Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.
If you worship anything or anyone else other than Jesus Christ, you are practicing idolatry.
Charles Spurgeon: “The gospel cannot be woven into the fabric of old tradition without unravelling its purity. A Christ- centered faith cannot co-exist with idols, for they are enemies of the cross.”
When you add to Christ and His work (if you say he is not enough), you devalue Christ.
The two sections of the hymn:
Christ is preeminent or supreme over all creation. (Was the main focus of last Sunday)
Christ is preeminent over the church and the new creation. The assembly of New Covenant believers.
Lets pray...
The Text
The Text
In this this hymn, Paul captures the fullness of who Christ is and all that He has done.
Jesus, the instrument of creation. The eternally begotten Son in whom all things exist and uphold their being: He has condescended, humiliated himself, to come to take part in His creation - to become one of us, a human man. To be murdered by us - in order that he would become head of His church.
He lowers Himself that we may be raised up to Him. Elevated and brought out of the swamp of sin and suffering.
We were “once alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds” (v. 21)
Main focus this morning is on v. 18
And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.
“He is head of the body, the church.”
“He is head of the body, the church.”
How important is your head compared to the rest of our body? Do we need our head? What does the head do?
Command center:
tells our heart to beat, our lungs to take in a breath (subconsciously)
Directs and guides our hands and arms and legs in coordination with our eyes and ears and other senses (pick up a pen - what to write)
Decision maker:
I’m hungry, what should we eat
I should get up and go to work
I should call my sister and tell her I love her
Without the head the body cannot function and dies.
The other parts of our body are essentially there to serve the head
The heart and lungs sends oxygenated blood to the brain
The hand brings food to the mouth that sends it to the stomach to give our brain nutrients
Without my head, the rest of my body doesn’t really have much purpose, does it?
All of creation finds it’s purpose in Jesus:
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
All of the church finds its purpose in its head - Jesus Christ:
Colossians and Philemon The Head of the Church, the Firstborn from among the Dead (1:18–20)
If Christ is the head of the church, it means that the destinies of creation and the church are bound together and that God’s purposes for all creation gestate in the church’s congregational life. The church
That’s not to say that we should not love one another and strive to help one another and make sure everyone’s needs are met. But that is not the end unto itself.
Without the head, the body (the church) looses its purpose.
The head, Jesus, guides the church. He is the “command center”. We’ve lived long enough as individuals on our own, choosing for ourselves what is right and what is wrong. Now we are born again, born of the Spirit, and we look to Christ to understand what is right and what is wrong. Only God is good - and we look to Him because He defines goodness.
We listen to the head now. We look to Jesus to guide our lives. God is the author of the Bible: What does God’s word say about a certain subject? How does the Bible direct me to live? It’s not a take-it-or-leave-it / optional kind of thing.
You have died to yourself and been raised again with new life and you look to Jesus in all things.
We don’t just sprinkle a little bit of Jesus on our life. Jesus wants all of you. There is no part of your life that you should not let Jesus into.
“Jesus, I’ll have you at church on Sunday, but not at my job.”
“I’ll let you into my life when it suites me - when I’ve totally made a mess of things.”
Where you need Jesus the most, is where we are least likely to let Jesus in....
But we don’t just need Jesus to be the head in our individual lives, but he is the head of the church.
He guides us in church life. How a church behaves and moves as a body. The Bible gives us directions on how the church should function and be lead.
What is one thing the church is to do as a body?
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
That is the great commission.
What else is the church directed to do as a body?
Love one another
Worship God together
Jesus as the head of the church guides the church - and he is it’s source of life.
Just as our body needs the head in order to function, otherwise it dies - so, too, does the church need its head. If the church detaches itself from the head - that is Christ - it dies.
The source of life for the church is Jesus Christ. It is in Him that we find our purpose as a church, and our source of life.
and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.
I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
We, the body of Christ, find our purpose in Him, and our source of life in Him.
“He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead.”
“He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead.”
And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.
Those words, “He is the beginning” is an indication that something new has taken place. Something has changed.
Jesus is the beginning of something. What is he the beginning of?
“He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead.”
Jesus came to dwell among us, He “died for our sins in accordance with Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day” (1 Cor 15:3-4)
The Christian faith hinges on Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. The resurrection is the ultimate proof that He was who He says He was. Paul says, “If Jesus wasn’t raised from the dead, we as Christians are most to be pitied.”
And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
Jesus was crucified and arose from the dead on the third day - into a new body. A new creation. Unlike the old one. His resurrected body - His eternal body. He is the “firstborn from the dead.” His resurrected body is the beginning of something new. He is the first of all those who have put their faith in Christ.
Jesus is the first human to defeat death, and in Him is new life, and He gives that new life to us who believe.
Jesus, before His crucifixion, told His disciples:
“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.
having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.
Jesus’ death and resurrection is the beginning of something new. A new covenant, marked with His own blood.
Through faith, we are given new life, but we have not yet received our new, sanctified, resurrected body. Death has been defeated, but sin is still active in the world until Christ returns and we are with Him in the New Creation: The New Heavens and New Earth - in our New bodies.
Through faith in Him that was raised from the dead - we receive new life, where we were once “alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds,” we are transformed and are now able to seek the things of God. Our hearts have been transformed and made new. We are slowly changing and begin to see things as Jesus sees them. We think as He thinks. We can love as He loves. In Him only, can we worship God in Spirit and in truth.
But we are not all the way there. When Christ comes to bring all things to an end, we will be truly united with Him and we will receive our transformed bodies.
For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
We are:
(having been) buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.
That same power that worked in Christ to raise him from the dead is now working in you - to transform you - mold you into His likeness. And it will be accomplished. God will finish what He began in you.
And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
We live in a sinful world - and we are still sinners - but you can be assured - if you have put you faith in Jesus - that what he began in you He will bring to completion. You will feel burdened by your sin - sometimes you may doubt your salvation because your heart is so burdened by the sin in your life that the Spirit reveals. But Christ is working in you to make you more like Him - and we love it because we love Him - but sometimes it hurt.
Conclusion
Conclusion
And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.
All of creation finds its purpose in Christ.
Christ is the head of the church: We, the body of Christ, find our purpose in Him, and our source of life in Him. He seeks to reside in every aspect of your life.
Christ is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead: He is the first of all those who have put their faith in Him. Everyone who has repented of their sin and turned to Jesus in faith. If you have trusted Him with your life - He has given you a new life, that is now being transformed, and He has given you a hope that there is something more in the future. More beautiful than you can imagine.
If you haven’t, call on Him now as saviour. Outside of Him there is no hope.
If you have - if you have given a true confession and have called Christ as your Lord and Saviour, look to Him as your head, and the head of the church.
Let’s read this hymn together again:
