Sermon Tone Analysis

Claim: Christ is supreme over all: revealing God to us and redeeming us to God

Focus: Have faith in Jesus as the only, and completely sufficient, way to stand faultless before God

Function: To magnify Jesus over all, exciting us to a persevering faith in Him!

PRAY

Blow up your ballon of awe at how awesome Jesus is until it explodes and the gases escape expanding eternally!

last week,

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

16 For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.

17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.

19 For God was pleased to have all his fulness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

21 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behaviour.

22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— 23 if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel.

This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

We saw, as we began our series in Colossians

that Christian life is all about

living in the kingdom of Jesus

by faith in Jesus and

love for all the saints (other Christians).

That life is founded on the death and resurrection of Jesus on the cross,

If you’re planning to find an excuse to leave half-way through the sermon don’t

for the forgiveness of sins,

but crucially is now motivated by the Hope we have in Jesus for eternity.

Verse 5 sums it all up well.

If you’re planning to sleep, don’t.

It was the beginning of Paul introducing us to

If you’re planning to plan your next holiday, or work out what’s for lunch don’t.

some of the themes of this letter.

If you’re planning to dismiss the next 20mins as irrelvant nonsence becasue you don’t believe in any of this stuff - then don’t

Nothing must distract you from today’s passage.

We also considered the purpose of why Paul wrote this letter

- and if you remember we concluded

that we can’t be precise about the problem or porblem’s

Paul is addressing in Collosse.

Given that we don’t know what Paul is addressing specifically,

but still trusting God that all of scripture is useful for us to walk in faith with Jesus,

we concluded that the antidote,

the solution this book offers has to be applicable to,

well,

basically all of Christian life, whatever we are going through.

Nothing is more important than the

That antidote, or solution, the core theme of this book is -

the supremacy of Jesus is all things.

Last week considered then

how the hope we have in Jesus,

founded on the work of Jesus

is ALL we need to please Jesus in every-way.

And then this week, v15 to 22,

just in case we haven’t grasped how great it is to have Hope in Jesus,

Paul moves on to exult Jesus in all His glory.

Perhaps the false teaching in Collosse had something to do with who Jesus was,

or how important his role in this life was?

Perhaps you’ve grown up believing in Jesus - believing the Gospel even.

But have we FILLED our minds with who Jesus is?

I expect we are fairly familiar with the life of Jesus

on earth as a Man.

But here today,

Paul raises the bar on our understanding of Jesus.

We will see the not just the character and work of Jesus as a man,

but we will see Jesus eternal, Jesus who is God!

What was Jesus up to during creation for example.

What role does Jesus play today in the world.

What position does he hold in the heiracy of the heavenly realms,

What role does he play in making a relationship with God possible?

Who is this Jesus we have hope in?

Who is this Jesus we have hope in?

Who is this Jesus who has freed us from darkness?

Who is this Jesus who is the King of the Kingdom we live in?

Who is this Jesus that our lives are to be worthy of?

Who is this Jesus who we are to seek to please in every way?

Is he worth staking our entire lives on?

Is he worth loosing our lives of worldlyness

Is hope in him enough?

Is Jesus enough?

Let’s see shall we...

Our first point then -

1 - Jesus: The Image of God

v15 introduces the 2 main themes of verse 15 to 20.

So let’s look at the first:

v15a

He, Jesus, is the image of the invisible God,

But he is the image of God.

When we look at Him, we look at God...

Is he like a mirror then that reflects the likeness of God?

No - becasue he is not ‘an image’ or ‘a reflection’ of God - he is ‘the image’ of God.

He is ‘who we look at’ to see God.

So is he the image like a

a son who represents the family heritage and characteristics of his father?

No, becasue in v19 something more is going on here.

v19a - For God was pleased to have all his fulness dwell in him..

He makes God’s character known in this earthly spehere in which we currently live.

IF you want to see who God is,

What is God like,

What are God’s priorities,

He makes God’s character known in this earthly spehere in which we currently live.

What does God love,

How does God act.

Well,

IF you want to see who God is,

My Children do not have the ‘fullness’ of me dwelling within them!