The Pre-Eminence of Christ
Notes
Transcript
Well Good Morning and Happy Mothers Day! While Mothers Day looks and feels much different this year than most in years past, I pray that you will celebrate in the best way possible at the moment, one of the greatest gifts ever given to mankind, Mothers, Aunts, Grand mothers sisters and cousins that have helped teach, train, care for and love us. To my Mom, Step Mom and mother in law, I want to say, I love you and happy mothers day!
This is the Day that the Lord has made and we will rejoice and be glad in it!
This morning, we have changed venues a bit, so we can work on some tech updates here at the church that we are really excited about! As we make some slight adjustments, we are encouraged all the more of how wonderful it will be when our church will be full of your smiling faces once again.
As we continue to work through our study through Colossians, we come to where Paul
pauses to offer praise to the One who has paid the redemption price of all people for God. Paul will reiterate the same reasons for the Colossian believers to be thankful to God as we talked about last week, though in different words of course in the next section. In our passage today we will consider Paul’s argument for and explanation of the Pre-eminence of Jesus Christ. We will look at Jesus in relation to God, the Universe and the Church.
Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;
Let’s Pray...
Jesus Christ in Relation to GOD
Jesus Christ in Relation to GOD
Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
Made in God’s IMAGE
Made in God’s IMAGE
Image means likeness.
Although humans also bear God’s likeness, we are not sinless as Christ is.
Christ is the prefect, absolutely accurate image and likeness of God.
Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
The very form of God.
Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
He is God in Human Flesh
The FIRST-BORN of All Creation
The FIRST-BORN of All Creation
While the word for first-born can mean chronologically, here, and in other passages primarily refers to position or rank.
The position of first-born son was the son that had the right to the inheritance. This son was not necessarily the first- born chronologically. We see this with Esau being born first, but Jacob being the the one who received the inheritance as the “First-Born.”
Likewise, Jesus is the One with the Right to the inheritance of all creation.
Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;
Now, I want to be clear here, the use of the term “first-born” in reference to Jesus Christ does not mean that he was or is a created being. This idea does not harmonize with the rest of the scriptures like
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
and here in
For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
In Micah we see that Christ is eternal.
But thou, Beth-lehem Ephratah, Though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; Whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.
This is an important point to note here as Paul is writing to refute the errors and false teaching that some of the Colossian believers were falling into. Some were teaching that Christ was a created being, the most If God created Jesus, then he could not be God or equal with Him.prominent of created beings, but created none the less.
If God created Jesus, then he could not be God or equal with Him, and thus not be able to be perfect and sinless and further not be able to give His life as a sacrifice to ransom us from the dominion of Satan, sin and death.
Jesus was not just the first in a long series of God’s created beings, He is the Perfect Image of God. He is the Preeminent inheritor of all of creation. He existed before all things were created and holds rank over all creation. These truths define Christ in relation to God and refute the false teachers positions.
Paul will further undermine their false teaching in our next point.
Christ in Relation to the UNIVERSE
Christ in Relation to the UNIVERSE
For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
In these verses, as in many other places in the scriptures, we see Paul (or other writers) giving reason or explanation that Jesus Christ’s primacy over all creation.
He is CREATOR
He is CREATOR
First, Paul says that He is the Creator. The false teachers at Colosse believed that Christ was the first and most important created being of all God’s creation, but were convinced that it must have been someone or something else that created the universe. This is why we see him insisting that by Him (Jesus Christ) were all things created. We see John affirming this fact in
All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
and the writer of Hebrews saying
Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;
Many of the people in that day, as well as today, view all material things as evil and thus could not have been created by a Good, Perfect and Holy God. They saw the spiritual intangible realm as good and the physical as evil. This philosophy is refereed to as Dualism, and is as Paul shows here and other places, unBiblical.
Because of this, Paul wrote that Jesus made all things, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible. He says that Jesus is God and He created the universe.
Lets look for a second at the magnitude of the universe to get just a glimpse of the knowledge, power and wisdom of our Creator.
Our sun for example, is 100 times the diameter of the earth and could hold 1.3 million earths inside it. and it’s light which travels at 186,000 miles per second reaches earth in about 8.5 minutes. And for that same light to reach the next nearest star, it would take more than 4 years. The milky way Galaxy alone contains an estimates hundreds of billions of stars. and that is just one of the estimated millions or billions of galaxies in the universe. By astronomers estimation, there are about the same number of galaxies as the number of grains of sand on the all the world’s beaches. Not only are there too many galaxies to count, they were all intricately designed. Take spiral galaxies for instance, perfect spiral shapes circling their star and maintaining their spiral shape over about 6 to 8 thousand years since they were spoken into existence.
That’s too grand to even begin to wrap our minds around and yet the scriptures say very clearly that Jesus Christ created all of it.
This is why we see the Psalmist saying:
The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, And night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, Where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, And their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,
Paul writes similarly in
For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
He is Before ALL Things
He is Before ALL Things
Christ also has primacy over creation because He was there before all things.
John writes this in
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.
and
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;
and Jesus said in
Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.
He didn’t say I was, He says “I am” He said “I am Jehovah” the eternally existent one. He is described in Revelation as
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
The fact that Jesus Christ is God and He existed before the creation of time and all other things, means that He is eternal, and thus has primacy over all creation.
Jesus Christ in Relation to the CHURCH
Jesus Christ in Relation to the CHURCH
And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
Paul lays out 4 great truths in this verse about Christ’s relation to the Church
Christ is HEAD of the Church
Christ is HEAD of the Church
The Church is here referred to as a body and Christ is the Head of the body. This is not to say that Christ is the president of a company, but views the church as a living organism that is inseparably tied together by the Living Christ. Paul tells the Corinthian believers that they are all members of one body (locally manifested in their particular church) fitly joined together to exercise their various and diverse gifts to minister one to another. It is Christ that fits each part of the body together for the furtherance of the gospel through the Local Church. His life lived out through all the members of the local body of believers provides this unity. As Head of the Church, it is Christ who directs and leads the body through their service and support for one another as we see in 1 Corinthians 12:15.
Christ is the SOURCE of the Church
Christ is the SOURCE of the Church
The word beginning here is used to refer to both the source of the Church and the Head of the Church.
According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
This verse tells us that it is Christ who gives life to His church. Let me be clear in this. Christ gave His life a ransom for all. All people can accept the free gift of salvation. There is no arguing against that. But it is His sacrificial death and resurrection on our behalf that made salvation possible in the first place. As Head of the Church, Christ holds the Chief position, or Highest rank in the Church as he is the Beginning and Originator of the Church.
Christ is the PRE-EMINENT One
Christ is the PRE-EMINENT One
As a result of His Death and Resurrection, Jesus has come to have First Place in everything. Paul emphasizes this point in verse 18 like He did in his letter to the Church in Philippi saying.
And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Paul explains that Jesus Christ is supreme over the visible world, the unseen or spiritual world, and the Church and Summs it all up in verse 19 saying.
For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;
As we spoke of earlier, there was false teaching going on in the Colossian Church and another facet of that false teaching was that there were different aspects of divine power and attributes that were divided amongst the different parts of creation or different created beings. Paul’s statement here refutes that by saying that All the fullness of divine power and attributes dwell in Christ. He writes later in
For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
It is through Him all the Fullness of Christ becomes available to believers.
And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.
So what should our response be to Paul’s statements about Christ in this passage?
As believers, we can rest not only in the Truth of the Gospel as we have discussed over the past several weeks, but in the fact that Jesus is the Head, the Originator, and the maintainer of all things. He is eternal, He is all powerful, all wise and all knowing. He created everything we can see and that which we can’t. He made the Church possible, provided the way of salvation, forms and joins together each church body and leads it as Head of the Church.
Let us recognize the Majesty of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and Give Him His rightful place of Pre-Eminence or First Place in our lives. And as such, may we view view Him and His Word as ultimate authority in our lives.