Sermon Tone Analysis

*Big Idea:*  Jesus is God the Son and Supreme over all Creation.

Unifying Phrase: 3 Qualities of Christ’s Supremacy over creation

 

/1.

/*/Jesus is the /**Uncreated**/, Visible Image of God/*/   He is the image of the invisible God/

 

What is the purpose of a logo?

I will show you some famous logos and you see if you can name them without any wording associated with the logo.

These images are made to represent the real thing.

Jesus here is referred to as the */eikon /*of God.

The Greek word */eikon/* is used in three main ways in the New Testament.

First you have the */eikon/* on a coin or a sculpted */eikon/* of someone else.

In */ /*Matthew 22, Jesus takes a denarius which was a Roman silver coin and he asks, “Whose likeness (image) and inscription is this?” 21 They said to Him, “Caesar’s.”

So they saw a coin with an image was Caesar on it.

But Caesar was not physically lying on the coin.

It was an image of him.

So this form of */eikon /*is only representation or picture of a real, physical person or thing.

So is Paul saying that Jesus was just a representation of God but not the real thing?

The anwser is no.

The second definition of */eikon/* is an image or likeness of something but not an exact copy of them.

You could be referred to as the */eikon/* of your parents for you contain a resemblance or likeness to them but you are not identical to them.

We are even told in Genesis that we were made in “God’s image” but this classification must be viewed differently from Jesus as the */eikon /*of God.

John Macarthur says,

“/Man is not a perfect image of God.

Humans are made in God’s image in that they have rational personality.

Like God, they possess intellect, emotion, and will, by which they are able to think, feel, and choose.

We humans are not, however, in God’s image morally, because He is holy, and we are sinful.

Nor are we created in His image essentially.

We do not possess His incommunicable attributes, such as omniscience, omnipotence, immutability, or omnipresence.

We are human, not divine.*[1]*

“/

 

The true definition of Jesus as the */eikon/* of God is that he is the exact representation and manifestation of God.

If you think of God and his being as “invisible” as Paul calls Him, then we can look at Jesus as the visible image of the invisible.

Jesus allows us to see God where we could not see God before.

For Paul brings this point home later in Colossians 1:19, /For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, /and 2:9, /For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form.

/

 

Jesus even says of Himself, “/He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?/

The second truth about Jesus is …

2.     *Jesus is the King of All Things Created*-/   the firstborn of all creation.//

//For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him/

 

*Jesus’ Rank over Creation* /the firstborn of all creation/

There has been much debate about the term “first-born” here in verse 15 of Colossians.

It is the very proof text that the Jehovah’s Witnesses use to say that Jesus was a created being.”

They argue that Jesus is the eldest in Jehovah’s family of sons.

They say he was a created being and he was just an agent of creation instead of co-creator with God.

Thus they deny his deity and equality with God.

They use the Greek word */prototokos /*and translate it as firstborn outside of its true context.

Macarthur comments on the true meaning,

/Although *prōtotokos* can mean first-born chronologically (Luke 2:7), it refers primarily to position, or rank.

In both Greek and Jewish culture, the first-born was the son who had the right of inheritance.

He was not necessarily the first one born.

Although Esau was born first chronologically, it was Jacob who was the “first-born” and received the inheritance.

/

 

Exodus 4:22 says, ““/Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Israel is My son, My firstborn.”/

Israel is called God’s firstborn because of rank among all people in God’s eyes not because it was the first nation born of all people.

Psalm 89:27 says, “/I also shall make him My firstborn, The highest of the kings of the earth./

God claims David as His firstborn, yet he was the youngest of his brothers.

*Jesus’ Role in Creation:*/  For by Him all things were created/ 

So you can see here, that Jesus is titled “firstborn” out of rank in the universe.

He is the King of creation, and the next small phrase explains why he has been given that title.

“in him, all things were created.”

He is firstborn, supreme above creation because “in Him” all things were created.

This speaks of Jesus as being the agent of creation.

Not only was Jesus, “in the beginning” as John 1:1 tells us, but all creation started with Him.

We learn in Genesis that all persons of the Trinity were involved in the act of creation.

The Father, Son and Holy Spirit each had their part.

The Father “is presented as the architect; he determined to bring creation into existence.

The Son, Jesus, actually brought the plans into existence.

Through his creative imagination and power, the created order exists.

He is, in a sense, the foreman of the construction.

The Spirit, finally, does the actual work of applying the plans in a hands-on relationship to creation.

This statement about Jesus, therefore, speaks to Jesus’ originating the details of creation and bringing them into existence by his own creative energy.”

*Jesus’ Range of Creation*/: both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible/

As we learn of Jesus’ rank and role in creation, we can now see the range of His creation.

First, we must notice that in verse 15, He is said to be first-born of “all creation.”

All is the Greek work “pas” and it is found here once, and four times in the next set of verses.

/He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn *of all creation*.//

//For by Him *all things* were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—*all things* have been created through Him and for Him.// //He is before *all things*, and in Him *all things* hold together./

/ /

What point do you think Paul is trying to make about the range of Jesus’ creation.

How much of existence did Jesus create?

ALL THINGS.

But in case you missed his point, he makes the same point in a different way.

He says, “/both in the heavens and on the earth, both visible and invisible./”

Now this list is know in poetry as a chiasm, which is a line of poetry that follows a pattern such as a-b~/ b-a.

Here Paul follows that structure by joining A-heavens, B-earth~/ B-visible, A-invisible.

Here “heavens” is referring to that which is above the earth and unseen, much like the general spiritual realm, where things on the earth are the visible, physical realm.

If he uses this chiasm as a range of God’s creation from the earth to the heavens, what is left out?

Nothing!

Because Jesus created it all.

*Jesus as Reason for Creation  */all things have been created through Him and *for Him*/

Paul makes one last point here in this phrase and that is that the purpose that creation came into being was because of or for the sake of Jesus.

All things were created for Jesus.

Because it was in God’s will and plan to exalt His Son.

We learn this in Philipians,

 

/For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,// //so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,// //and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father./

One author illustrates this beautifully by saying,

/Everything exists to display his glory, and ultimately he will be glorified in his creation.

Paul’s argument in these verses may be illustrated by an artist who produces a sculpture.

Originally the idea and details of the sculpture come from the mind of the artist.

He builds the proportions, the perspectives, the figures, and the emphases desired from the statue.

Then, the sculpture is constructed by the artist as he and he alone can “see” it.

Finally, those who admire the finished work think of the artist who imagined, planned, and accomplished the work of beauty.

As long as the sculpture stands, people remember and appreciate the artist.

In the same way, Jesus is the central point of all of creation, and he rules over it./

Paul made a point to teach these truths to the Colossians because of the heresy from the false teachers in this church.

They confused the Colossian Christians with their belief that Jesus could not have been God because he was human.