This week we continue our walk through the book of
Colossians and today we find a passage that we need to slow down and not miss
what Paul is telling the people of Colossae or us gathered here in God’s house
this morning. I want us to focus today
on God’s Word and so turn with me to the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the
Colossians and read along with me today’s Scripture text.
15 He
is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16
For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth,
visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or
powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is
before all things, and in Him all things consist. 18 And He is
the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the
dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.
This passage of Scripture speaks to the divine nature of
Christ like no other passage in the Scriptures.
Let us jump right into our Scripture starting with verse 15. 15 He
is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. Christ is the manifestation
of the divine. In this verse Paul is
telling us that Jesus is God spelling out who He is and the Scriptures support
this, especially in the Gospel of John where we find Scriptures to support the
divinity of Jesus Christ. We read in
John 10:30 that Jesus and the Father are one
and a little later in chapter 10 in response to the Jews who wanted to stone
Him, Jesus told the people gathered around Him that the Father is in Him and He is in the Father. The writer of John sets the tone of this
wonderful gospel in the very first verse when he writes that the Word was God, meaning that Jesus
was God. And finally in the 14th chapter of this beautiful gospel
Jesus says to Philip when Philip has asked Jesus to show the disciples the
Father, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you
have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me
has seen the Father…
As we can see in just these 4 verses from John, it is evident that Jesus is God
– and there are so many more Scriptures that affirm the divinity of Jesus
Christ throughout the pages of the Bible.
It is important that we
come to grips with the divinity of Christ in order to move forward in our
understanding that Christ is sovereign
over all. Look at verse 16 with me, 16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven
and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or
principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.
In this verse we see how Christ is supreme over all things and is in control of
this world and the heavenly world. When
I think of the thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers I think of
worldly things. In Ephesians chapter six
we are told that we don’t wrestle against flesh and
blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of
darkness of this age…We need to understand Satan will use thrones,
dominions, principalities, and powers to achieve his evil desires to separate
people from God. Yet in this verse we
find that Jesus is over them and we have numerous Scriptures that support this
apology. We read in Romans 9:5 that
Christ came and He is over all. In other words everything is under Jesus’
control. We are told in Revelation 1:5
that Jesus is ruler over the
kings of the world. I don’t know about
you but this gives me great comfort this morning because there is an abundant
number of evil men, and yes even women, who are suppressing and leading their
nation in fulfillment of Satan’s plan over and above God’s plan. However, as we are learning this morning that
Jesus is sovereign and is the supreme ruler over this world and that this supremacy
will come to a total culmination when Jesus comes to set foot back on this
earth when He will begin His thousand-year reign on earth. Although we may know that Jesus is Lord of
lords and King of kings, many do not see Him in this manner. He is seen as a prophet, a good role model,
but not a Savior and Master in many peoples’ lives today. Yet, there is coming a day when He will be
crowned Lord of lords and King of kings. I want you to notice that Jesus is one Lord
over many lords and one King over many Kings.
At Deuteronomy 10:17 we see another affirmation of Jesus Christ’s
divinity when we read this about God which corresponds to what we hear
concerning Jesus in the New Testament. Read along with me, "For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great
God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe."
We read that at Revelation 19:16 when Jesus returns to take His place on the
throne at His return we read, “And He has on His
robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.” With this power and sovereignty there is no
doubt that Jesus is in control!
The third point of today’s text shows us that Christ holds all things together. Let’s read verse 17 together - 17 And
He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. In this verse we see
that Christ sustains all
things and in Him everything is held together. At the bottom of your insert you see a
statement and I believe it is very profound because if we take Jesus out of the
equation we have nothing to hold our life together. In other words
it is Jesus who holds our life together.
In Jesus everything is protected. Now this doesn’t mean we will not see
calamity or devastation – it means that no matter what situation we are in He
will not leave us alone; the Holy Spirit is ever with us who have confessed
Jesus Christ as our Savior and no matter what the future holds we are under the
His wings of comfort and protection! In
Jesus everything is prevented from disintegrating
into chaos. Chaos comes from Satan, not
Jesus; so as long as we focus on Jesus He will lead us through the difficult
times of our life with a peace that passes all understanding. There is no greater story that explains this
point than when Peter stepped out of the boat to walk to Jesus. As long as Peter focused on Jesus he was able
to have a peace in the midst of chaos, but the moment Peter took his focus off
of Jesus He began to cave in and sink in the mire of devastation and
chaos. Brothers and sisters as long as
we put our hope and trust in Jesus Christ chaos will never prevail – and we
know that the Scriptures proclaim there is coming a day when Jesus will come
and peace will truly be achieved. In
Jesus we need to understand that we are not independent of Him.
We are told at Hebrews 13:8 that Jesus Christ is the
same yesterday, today, and
forever. This means that the
Jesus who created the world, the Jesus of the Old Testament, the Jesus of the
New Testament who lived almost 2000 years ago was and is still on His throne
today! I am amazed that so many people
know who Jesus is, yet do not know Jesus; they have the book knowledge or know
who Jesus is through reading about Him, but don’t know the life-changing Jesus
that gives grace to those who call on His name.
In other words we know Him in our minds, but don’t have Him in our
hearts. We need to come to the
realization that our live will never have order if we take Jesus out of our
life – He is the glue that holds our life together! We cannot live independently of Jesus if we
proclaim Him as our Lord and Savior.
Verse 17 teaches us that we must trust Jesus daily to protect us, care for us, and sustain
us. It means we need to be totally
committed to a Savior who wants all of life and not just part of it; and in
that commitment our hope, trust and faith is dependent upon Him – not our
circumstances – not our own understanding – not our own desires – it is all
about Jesus and trusting Him so much that the peace of God will flow through
our very soul. This verse ends with the statement that in Him all things
consist. This means that all things are
united in Him, all things are under His dominion, Jesus holds all things
together, there is no where you can go that Jesus hasn’t already been there,
and in Him all things are made one! What
great news of hope we find in this passage of Scripture this morning.
Finally in verse 18 we see 3 points
this morning. First that Jesus is the
head of the body – the church. We can
read in 1st Corinthians chapter 12 and in Ephesians 4 that the
church is representative of the body of Christ.
This is important because many churches don’t represent Christ very
well. Dissention, gossip, negativism,
divisions, power, and pride are some things that can overtake a church that
does not have Christ as it chief cornerstone.
As a church and people of God we should always be aware of where Jesus
Christ is set in our list of priorities, whether in our personal life or the
life of the church. Is He at the top of
our priorities or down the list? Next in
this verse we see that through Christ death has been defeated. Let us read
verse 18 together: 18 And He is the head of the body, the
church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things
He may have the preeminence. We find
in John 3:16 that through Christ we have eternal
life and we know that this is
because God loves so much that He desired this to take place. We are told in 1st Corinthians
15:20 that Christ is the firstfruits
of those who die and in 1st Thessalonians 4:14 we are told because
Jesus was resurrected so
shall we be resurrected. What great news
that is to each one gathered here this morning to know that our future is
secure. When we confess Jesus Christ as
our Lord and Savior death has no victory over us – we are united and made one
in Jesus Christ for all of eternity.
Now, I don’t want us to miss the last phrase of this passage where it
says, that in all things He
may have the preeminence. This word
preeminence is such a special word. It
means that Jesus is above others, whether in influence or power – he is to be
first in rank or influence. This means
that Jesus has the highest rank, influence and power over all things and with
this knowledge we should place Him at the head of our lives and the life of the
church. That should be and must become
the priority of all of us gathered here today and must become the priority of
Emanuel Reformed Church.
Is Jesus supreme in your life? Does
Jesus have influence and power in your life?
Without Jesus our life will fall apart.
Each one here this morning has the ability to accept or reject what
Jesus is trying to do in your life. I
often wonder why we do not want to go to the one who created us, why we don’t
totally trust and place our complete hope in the One who knows us better than
we know ourselves; unlike us He holds our future and knows what is going to
happen. I pray today you will lay your
life, your burdens on the cross and trust the one who is over all things;
controls all things, and desires to be our everything if we will only surrender
to Him. May God speak to those who this message was given to this morning! Let us pray…
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