I Say to You

Colossians 1:16-20

Intro

How many of you have at least one sibling? Personally, I have 5 siblings. My oldest brother died before I was born, so I have never gotten to meet him. I grew up with two older siblings, and then when I was 14, my dad got remarried and I gained two more siblings that are a lot younger than me. There were times when I was a kid when one of my brothers or sisters would walk into whatever room I was in and say something like, “you need to go clean your room,” or “you need to go wash the dishes,” or “you need to go take the trash out.” If you have a sibling, you’ve had this experience. They aren’t ever polite about it. They don’t say please. They don’t frame it as a question. And they probably don’t even look at you while they say it. And 100% of the time, they got one response from me. Can you guess what that response was?

“Why?”

It was basically the nice way of me asking, “Who do you think you are coming into my space, disrupting my peace by just simply existing, and then making demands of me that you have no authority to make?” Again, if you have a sibling you’ve felt this way, I can almost guarantee it. But their rebuttal was always a check mate that would lead me to my feet and in the direction of whatever their dumb face just came and told me go do.

“Because Dad said so.”

Now, I say all of that on this side of growing up. For some reason, most of us just grow up thinking our siblings are like the worst people to ever live. However, now I’m 25 and I talk to both of my biological siblings everyday about everything. My whole life, my grandma said, “Just watch. Y’all are gonna grow up and become best friends.” And while “best friends” might be a bit of a stretch… I mean I’m THEIR best friend… but yeah, I think they’re pretty cool too.

You see, my siblings did not have any sort of authority to come into my room and tell me what to do. However, whenever they added the qualifier that my Dad was the one who originally said it, the statement had all the authority it could have ever needed.

We see this played out in the Bible, a lot. All over the old testament in books like Exodus, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, and any other book where a prophet was speaking, there would be a clarify statement that established authority before the prophecy was given. These clarifying statements included words like, “this is the word of the Lord.” or “thus says the Lord.” It was important that these clarifying statements are made because without them a significant amount of meaning is lost. If it’s the word of the prophet, who cares. If it’s the word of the LORD, changes everything.

For example, if a prophet were to deliver a prophecy that God is going to destroy a city because of their sinful ways as, “I’m gonna destroy your city because of your sinful ways.” The people of the city would be like, “whatever, dude.” However, if he says, “this is the word of the Lord, ‘I’m gonna destroy your city because of your sinful ways.’” Then things become a lot more real because of the authority of the one who made the claim.

Transition

If you have been with us recently, you’ll know that we are walking through the Sermon on the Mount. This is Jesus’ longest and most famous sermon recorded. And the verses that we will be studying next begins a section of this sermon that establishes the authority of Jesus and the standard in which He expects people to live. Over the next several weeks, we will be studying what that standard is and my prayer is that it is incredibly revealing to you about the way that you are currently choosing to live against the back drop of how the Lord is calling you to live. But tonight, I want to talk about the authority of Jesus. Because you’ll see in these verses that Jesus doesn’t use the same clarifying statements that the prophets used. Where the prophets would have said, “The Lord says to you,” Jesus says, “I say to you.” Going back to the analogy of my siblings telling me what to do, when Jesus says, “I say to you,” it would be like my Dad walking in the room and telling me to clean my room or do my chores.

Let me make this even more clear for you just in case you still are not grabbing on to what I am trying to say here. When Jesus speaks, He speaks with the same authority as God, because He is God.

Let’s just take a glance at the first example of this and then we will jump back to talking about the authority of Jesus

Matthew 5:21–22 ““You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.”

It is natural to read these verses and immediately think, “Is Jesus changing what Scripture means? Is He saying that there’s an error in the 10 commandments? I thought that God never made mistakes?” and the short answer to that is, “No Jesus is not changing Scripture, no the Bible has no mistakes, and God has never made a mistake. ever.” Just a few verses before this in v. 16, Jesus says,

Matthew 5:17 ““Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”

What Jesus is doing here is not changing or contradicting, He’s clarifying. Jesus is essentially saying, “Let me be more specific since you didn’t seem to get it the first time I said it.” He can do this because He has the authority to do this.

One theologian said it this way, “To Jesus, a statement needed no authority other than the fact that He made it. He was His own authority.”

To qualify the authority of Jesus for you tonight, I want to use a different passage of Scripture to inform the way that you will read those that we are studying in Matthew 5. The big ole seminary term for this is called intertextuality. So when you get in the car tonight and your mom asked you what you learned, just say “intertextuality” and she probably won’t ask anymore questions.

Anyways urn with me to Colossians chapter one. We are going to start reading in verse 15 and while you are turning there I want to give some context for this passage. this is one of my favorite passages of scripture because of how intensely Paul describes the person, work, and YOU GUESSED IT authority of Jesus Christ. So, let’s read this passage together and get fired up about just how awesome Jesus is.

Colossians 1:15–20 “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. 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. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.”

I could preach to you for an entire week about this passage and just how incredible of a picture of Jesus it paints. But tonight I just want to pull out four statements and use those statements to qualify the authority of Jesus. So, if you’re taking notes, I would start a new line and write the heading, “JESUS HAS AUTHORITY BECAUSE HE IS…”

JESUS HAS AUTHORITY BECAUSE HE IS…

CREATOR (V. 16)

Let’s take a look back at verse 16 of Colossians 1.

Colossians 1:16 “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.”

Who can give me a good definition of the word “creator” without using any form of the word create? My best effort before I googled it was “SOMEONE WHO MAKES SOMETHING.” However, the definition that Google gave me actually kind of surprised me, in a good way. The first defintion that comes up when you google the word “creator” is, “a person or thing that brings something into existence.” Which Cailee wanted me to make sure and tell you that she got right before I told her what Google’s definition was.

Then the second definition on the entire internet for THIS word is, “used as a name for God.” Even google recognizes God as the creator.

But so what? Why is it a big deal that we recognize God as creator? Lots of people create things right? There are songwriters that create songs, or artists that create art. There are content creators that create well… content, and film makers that create films. I mean I CREATED this sermon. So, if being a creator is not the impressive part, then what is? Jesus doesn’t have authority because He is a creator. He is the Creator, and more importantly, YOUR creator.

Looking back at verse 16, it says “for by Him (what?) things are created?” All things. and All things includes you and me. So, Jesus has authority because He. is. THE. Creator.

You were CREATED by God to bring Him glory.

Let’s take a look at verse 17 and uncover the second reason on why Jesus has authority.

Colossians 1:17 “And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”

SUSTAINER (V. 17)

Everybody take a deep breath in… and out… God gave you that breath. That’s how He sustains you. Make sense? Next point.

JUST KIDDING!!

But breathing is a great illustration for how Jesus is our Sustainer. Every inhale and exhale, not only did He create and gift to you, but He is involved with. And if He is involved with your breath, how much do you think that He is involved with the heart, mind, and soul. One author writes that,

God is also the Sustainer of all things. He is active not only in the universe coming to be but also in its continuing to be.

Norman L. Geisler

Sometimes we view our life as some thing that we are owed. As if we have done anything to deserve any part of this life. We make decisions based on how much comfort and momentary satisfaction we will experience in a moment. Without ever considering what the long term implications of those decisions are and whether or not we even have the authority to make those decisions.

You are SUSTAINED by God to bring Him glory. Are you doing that? Everyday, He is giving you breath, a heartbeat, and 24 hours of opportunity for you to do all that you can to bring Him the most amount of glory possible. Are you doing that? Is that how you view your days? Or is that something that’s not even on your radar? You think “I’m young. I need to just get all this partying, and rebellion out of my system and then one day later in life, I’ll get it together.” “I’m gonna live for me now, but I’ll live for Him later.” Do you know how insane that sounds? I could spend way too long on that, so I’m not even gonna touch it. But just know that those trains of thought are utterly foolish and anyone who tells you that that is an okay way to live is leading you astray. Maybe your like me. You, FOR SURE, are not getting it right all the time and God isn’t receiving as much glory from your life, but also you are trying to live a life avoiding sin and you are making a true effort to bring God glory with the way that you live. There is the reality that we are all sinners and we all for short of the glory of God. (see Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” ) However, this does not let us off the hook and it is extremely important that we do not take lightly to task of bringing God glory with our life.

The reason why you are alive is to bring God glory. He is in control of your “continuing to be.” Jesus has authority because He is Sustainer.

We are gonna skip a few verses and jump down to verse 20 to uncover this third reason on why Jesus has authority.

Colossians 1:20 “and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.”

SAVIOR (V. 20)

Jesus has authority because He is THE Savior. Is He your Savior? Let me tell you how Jesus becomes your Savior. *SHARE 3 CIRCLES*

GOD (V.19)

Jesus being God is the summation of these three previous points. look at verse 19

Colossians 1:19 “For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,”

The fullness of God is exactly what we have just unpacked. It is the reality that He is the creator of all things and the continuing of all things. Also, in His infinite wisdom, He knew that the only way more man to be reconciled to Himself in loving relationship was through the sacrifice of Himself on the cross as the payment for our sin.

Closing

Jesus has authority over all things including you and your life. Are you living in a way that reflects that? As we dismiss to small groups, I want that to be the question that you hang on to. You don’t give Jesus authority. He already has it. It is our responsibility to live our lives in a way that is submissive to that authority that He already has.