I.     In the next five or six versus we are going to find out several things about the Lord Jesus Christ.

A.  Christ is: (1) the image of God, (2) the Firstborn over Creation, (3) Creator of the universe, (4) Head of the church, (5) Firstborn from the dead, (6) the fullness of God, and (7) the Reconciler of all things.

1.    There is no other list in scripture that gives us so many of the characteristics of Christ and his deity.

B. Colossians 1:15-20

1.    The first of these characteristics are found in verse 15 which says, "Who (Christ) is the image of the invisible God." (Cf. 2 Corinthians 4:4)

a)    The Amplified Bible says, “He is the exact likeness of the unseen God.”

(1)  (Hebrews 1:3) says that Jesus is the express image of the Father.

(2)  Jesus said in (John 14:9) if you have seen me you have seen the Father.

b) Anyone who saw Christ, the visible manifestation of the invisible God, has thereby “seen” God indirectly.

(1)  John 1:18 says, "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.”

(2)  Even though Jesus is not the Father, Jesus is still the perfect image and representation of the Father.

(3)  A mirror being your image, sometimes a child is referred to as being in your image or that they look just like you.

C.  In the second half of verse 15, Paul says that Jesus is, "the firstborn of every creature."

1.    The statement "FIRSTBORN" is to show supremacy over all creation, as the following versus indicate.

2.    "Firstborn" does not refer to him as being part of the creation.

a)    In the very next verse we can see that he created all things. If he created all things then he himself could not be created.

b)    You cannot create yourself.

c)     The Jehovah's Witness believe that Jesus is a created being and to back up their point they have added the Word "other" six times in these verses in their Bible (New World Translation).

(1)   This is a complete error on their part. The Word other does not even appear once in the Greek manuscripts, but they have erroneously added it six times.

3.    But the Greek does use the word "Firstborn."

a) How can we explain that? Just as we said, firstborn means supremacy. Turn to Revelation 1:17.

b)    Here "FIRST" means "ABSOLUTELY FIRST."

c)     It implies SOVEREIGNTY.

4.    So firstborn denotes two things.

a)    First, he proceeded the whole creation.

b)    Second, he is sovereignty over all his creation.

D.  Let's go on to verse 16. (Read)

1.    The third characteristic we have here is that JESUS HAS CREATED ALL THINGS.

2.    He goes on to add whether they are visible or invisible.

a)    He created the entire universe, both the material world and the immaterial, the physical world and the spiritual world.

b)    He then adds, "whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, all things were created by him and for him."

E.  Verse 17a (And he is before all things).

1.    Again, this shows his supremacy.

2.    Verse 17b (and by him all things consist.)

a)  When he says that all things consist by him, that literally means that ALL THINGS COHERE OR ARE HELD TOGETHER BY HIM.

II.   The fourth characteristic we see comes from VERSE 18 (read)

A.  In the FIRST PART of that VERSE it says that “HE IS THE HEAD OF THE BODY, THE CHURCH:”

1.    Turn to Ephesians 1:22-23, Ephesians 5:23

2.    We can clearly see that Jesus is the head of the church and we are his body.

B. In the last half of VERSE 18 gives us the fifth characteristic, it says, "WHO IS THE BEGINNING, THE FIRSTBORN FROM THE DEAD”

1.    This does not mean the first that was brought back to life from the dead.

2.    But rather it refers to being raised from the dead that would never die again.

3.    The first raised from the dead victorious in a glorified body.

C.   

WOLCC Thursday, March 6, 2003 & March 13, 2003

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