All things were Made Through Him - The Creative Work of Christ

I will start with a bit of a confession. I do not love doing series like the one that we are in Now. Where we look at a text and use that as the inspiration to launch into something bigger and deeper. Its not that I think they are wrong or Bad. I would argue that each and every one of the greatest preacher of all time (Charles Spurgeon)’s sermons were like this. It is probably for that reason that I just struggle thinking that I am good enough to do them. This particular sermon has kicked my rear end more than any other I can think of in recent memory.

And the biggest reason that I have wrested with it is that although we are looking at in particular just ONE verse in John’s prologue, the thought behind it is one that we don’t give enough thought to and it is huge. It is hugely important. It i s hugely huge in weight and worth. And that is the creative Work of Jesus Christ.

John 1:3 ESV

All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

Just think about it, when was the last time you sat back and thought of the work of our savior in not just saving, but in creating. In making? Because John is explicit here. Jesus is creator. In fact, it is not theologically or biblically wrong to say that creative power of God lies in the hands of the second person of the trinity. John says: ALL THINGS WERE MADE THROUGH HIM

Paul says in Romans 11:36

Romans 11:36 ESV

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

also in Col 1.16

Colossians 1:16 ESV

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 before we dive into the different thoughts and points I have for us I was to start with this sort of point .5 This season, this CHRISTMAS season what we are celebrating is the most profound mystery in the universe. that the one who created the universe and all that is in in saw fit to enter into his creation. When we think of that child in the manger it is not just some helpless innocent babe, but that is the one who created heavens and the earth, and more to the point, created ME AND YOU. the sovereign Lord of heaven and the creator and Lord of Earth lay in that manger some 2000 years ago in Bethlehem. there is a great and cosmic weight to that, the one who created the stars in the heavens, who spread the heavens out above us came down, entered into creation for the express purpose of saving sinners! praise be to God for that. So before we dive into the thoughts of “so what” and more points like that I would like that weight to fall upon us for a second.

As we wrestle with thoughts about the “commercialization of Christmas” as we wrestle with the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, as the world ad all that is around us seeks to rob us of joy and power this season remember this: that the miracle we celebrate this season is that (to summarize last week) the divine second person of the Trinity entered into creation, or (as we will see the week) the creator of the universe, and therefore the creator of you and me, is the one who came down.

And so today as we contemplate the creative work of Jesus i would like to break this down into two separate thoughts. First what that communicates about our savior that he creates, and then what the means to us, those saved by him.

First we see that his creative work shows his POWER

Shows his POWER ...

This is the obvious one, but probably the most important. what does the fact that “all things were made through him” tell us? It tells us that he is powerful. how powerful? the most!

It is critical that biblically, but also just practically, we understand what is being communicated in creative language. It is considered the quintessentially Divine and highest power. Logically that works like this: What is the most powerful thing you can think of? on earth? we might start by thinking about things like nuclear bombs, or something like that? but think ab out it, what is more powerful than the most powerful bomb? how about the scientist that create it? because creating shows a certain kind of power. and so we push it, what is the most powerful thing in the universe? We can think HUGE like Black holes, we can think really really small like the “strong nuclear force” either way what is more powerful than both those things? how about the one who created them both?

this becomes the sort of build up and outcome of the thought of last week. He is divine he is God? How can you prove it? because he is the creator. In the old Testament the question was framed sometimes like this: why can we know Our God is stronger/better.greater than the God’s of all the people around us? partially we can look at his deliverance, we can look to his continued faithfulness (even in the face of our unfaithfulness, but that is a sermon for another day). but Ultimately we look to the fact ath he is the creator.

Even When God was “conversing” with Job and God wanted to put Job in his place this is the first place that he goes. It is “where were you when I created the earth, when I separated the oceans and seas form dry land? where were you when i called Light to come into existence out of darkness.

So what John is telling us here is that our savior is powerful. in a more practical and a more tangible way than “JUST” saying he is God. John is telling us he is the all powerful one. he is the creator! and it was there, in the helpless child born of the virgin Mary that all that power was contained.

That is the mystery of the first advent. that it would be thinly veiled, but we would see that creative power break through. Later as that child grew into a man and performed miracles. He healed all sorts of sicknesses and infirmaries? how? because he made the bodies he was healing? so of course he could heal them perfectly. He multiplied and fed thousands? how? because he wrote the laws of nature and as the creator of them he can bend them and break them even to his will and whim. This is why when in Mark 4 jesus calms the storm the disciples look around and ask: “Who then is this, that even the wind and seas obey him?”

mark 4:41 “And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?””

It is the creator who holds such power over every part of his creation in his power. and it is that powerful one that we call our savior.

but there is another angle I would like to understand here, that power communicates something else. IT communicates his PREEMINENCE

… and PREEMINENCE

This is a word we might have heard, but I think it is helpful to ask our good friends Merriam and Webster what exactly this word means

having paramount rank, dignity, or importance

Lets look at these three in turn. Because Chrsit is the creator he is paramount, he is the highest in rank. There is none above him, because anyone or any thing that tries to usurp this power has no argument. in a very real way jesus has the ultimate: I brought you into this world so I can take you out of it, sort of argument because he created the world! He is the firstborn from the dead, Col and Revelation make that argument, to state his pre-eminiece, but this goes eve higher, he is the highest in rank in all the universe, sitting at the right hand of the father, he is preeminent in rank.

Secondly dignity. he is the most distinguished. Why is he worthy of all glory honor and praise, partially because he saved us, worthy is the lamb who was slain. but ultimately because he is the creator God he is worthy of all glory honor and power. he deserves the heights praise because we owe our very existence to him!

As an aside, this is why denying who God is, denying that he is, is such a grave sin. Because he made us, it is such a warping of the world, a warping of how things are, it places us, the ones that owe all praise and allegiance to God over and above the one who made us.

but the third par of this definition preeminence means that he is paramount, or highest in RANK DIGNITY and IMPORTANCE.

Again Logic demands this: if he didn’t create us, we would not exist, so by definition he is most important, but more (and dare I a philosophy major say this!) but higher and more important than even logic, SCRIPTURES testify to the fact that he is the most important. We could go a lot of places, but lets go to John 1:3 “All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” the passage we have been dealing with this morning.

TO dive in deep to the “without him was not anything made that was made. So without Chrsit there is nothing. he is the most important part of every equation. he has paramount importance because he holds everything together.

again to give us a real quick verse: Colossians 1:15-17

Colossians 1:15–17 ESV

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.

Creator Chrsit language saturates all of Scripture, and we miss it to our detriment, for the Holy writers were sure to tell us that it is of vital importance that we recognize that he one whom we praise as savior is the one who created all things. and one of the reasons that we have to remember this, is because for all the Scripture writers, there were real tangible benefits to us because Chrsit is the creator.

So I would like to, for the “application” portion of this message turn our attention to what benefits we receive in contemplating or knowing, and ultimately because of the creative power of Jesus Chrsit.

Because as another aside really quick, I truly believe that this is the best type of application that we can have. If I tell you to stop sinning, that may help you a little, or heap guilt on you. But to say: look to your savior, cherish him., love him, and see that he calls you to holiness! I find that much more impact.

So today Look to your savior, look to his power, his preeminence, look to his creative work and bask in the Glory of what that means for us, those who are his people, called by his name, saved by his power.

so first it means for us: PURIFICATION.

Gives us PURIFICATION …

Turn with me really quickly to Hebrews 1:1-3

Hebrews 1:1–3 ESV

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

I just want to walk through this one really quickly, because this is deep and rich and holy mole-y there is a lot here, but I want to draw out for us a few key points.

One: First note that again in verse 2 we have testimony that Jesus was the creative one in the trinity. But it comes to us in a specific lens. God used to talk to us in prophets, he used to tell us things though his law, through people, but now, how much more are we blessed, he speaks to us through his son.

The son who is the heir of all things. He is truly the son of God because he will inherit (the son’s blessing) ALL THINGS. but he will inherit them in one sense but wait, he is already preeminent because he CREATED THE WHOLE WORLD. He is the radiance of God, he he the powerful one, again here like in Colossians 1 he UPHOLDS everything. but we can ask a question: so what?

here’s the second point, and here is the so what for you. Because he is the powerful creator God, he can PURIFY us. to read it again: Hebrews 1:3

Hebrews 1:3 ESV

He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

His creative power is tied intimately for the writer of Hebrews to the purification he makes for us. It is because he washes us, MAKES that's creative language again, he MAKES us new. His creative power: Cretes in me a clean heart of God

Psalm 51:10 ESV

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

so because he creates, because of his creative power, says the writer of Hebrews we know hat he can truly purify us from our sins. And that creative power then WORKS within us.

So we can then rightly say that this purification is both instantaneous, such that we are made new, washed clean, our sins as far from us as the east is from the west. But also that creative work is progressive, such that he is working and shaping and purifying us. So that today I am more made in the image of Chrsit than I was yesterday. I love a little better, I serve a little better, I am made anew by the creative power of God.

Lets ask it this way: What can Jesus create? well, just a cursory look around me in this earth he can create many beautiful things. He created the beautiful organ mountains, in my humble estimation, the most beautiful mountains when the sunset lights them up in pinks and oranges, there is nothing more spectacular and beautiful. Jesu can make that, because he did make that. But he also made me. When I look in the mirror what I am looking at is something made by Jesus. and so he can create in me a more pure heart.

I can think about that, but also I can see that. and church If I may hop on a hobby horse for a second. THIS is a huge part of why we need one another, why we need fellowship and why we need church. Because I can see people that he is purifying, I can see his creative work on display in the lives of people around me. I can hear testimony from your lips of what God has done in your life in purifying you and even better, I can see that the sin that once so easily entangled you can break the bods of that through the creative power of Chrsit at work within you.

It purifies us, but then the ultimate aim or Goal, and I want to be careful with this one, but also I can’t NOT say it: IT perfects us.

… and PERFECTION

On one hand we can talk about the ultimate Goal of sanctification, but that is a goal that we will miss this side of heaven. But really that is the clue and the way that we have access to that one.

As we went through Isaiah, there is only 1 passage that I regret how we went through it. And that is Isaiah 65:17-25 the proclamation of the New heavens and the new earth. And that is because I don’t want us to mss this point, that what we await, what we look forward to is perfection. So lets read it again really quick.

Isaiah 65:17–25 ESV

“For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress. No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days, for the young man shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed. They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain or bear children for calamity, for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the Lord, and their descendants with them. Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain,” says the Lord.

This is the hope and promise that we await. it is creation rejoicing as the anointed king, as our savior. as the suffering servant. as the messiah and as, as we have noted at length today, the Creator, creates anew a new heaven and a new earth, perfect and beautiful.

And this advent season we know that this is what we are talking about and looking forward to at the SECOND advent. Chrsit, the creator is coming back. this time coming in power. coming to rule, coming to establish justice and mercy and goodness, coming to establish the new heavens and new earth that he is creating.

That is why we rejoce this season.

lets pray.

Related Media

Related Sermons