Well, in the movie The Natural stars Robert Redford, he plays a
character named Roy Hobbs who is an aspiring baseball player
wants to become a professional baseball player.
Well, in the course of his journey, a woman asked him, what
is driving you in this? Why?
Why are you pursuing this dream? Becoming professional baseball
player? Roy Hobbs has this sort of far
away look in his eyes. Then he says to her, so that one
day when a little boy walks by, he'll point at me and say, there
goes Roy Hobbs, the greatest that ever was.
And this woman looks at Roy Hobbs and she looks pretty put
off, she thinks really like, that's it.
She strikes her as very vain, very kind of selfishly
ambitious. But I think if we're honest, we
can all relate a little bit with Roy Hobbs.
Often times, if we're honest, our daydreams are filled with
greatness and of us wanting to be great, of wanting to be
praised, of other people saying great things about us.
We want to leave a legacy. We want to be memorable.
We want to be remembered far after our life.
I think of the famous quote and clip of Muhammad Ali the boxer
ranting over and over again, I am the greatest.
I am the greatest in our heart of hearts.
So often we want that too. We think that, we say that, but
even if we are not consumed with a kind of selfish ambition or or
vain conceit, we still are kind of obsessed with even
discussions about greatness. Think of all the discussions,
all the debates on who is the GOAT, who is the greatest of all
time, right? Whether it's LeBron or Jordan,
whether it's Mozart or Beethoven, whatever the topic
is, we constantly are discussing greatness.
We love beholding greatness, majesty, glory.
We want to be in the presence of greatness.
And I think that is because we are created by God to behold
true greatness, to behold God's greatness.
And this passage, Colossians 115 through 20, helps us do that.
It helps us behold true, marvelous, majestic greatness in
the person of Christ. And the only right response to
this is worship. The only right response to
seeing the majesty and the glory of Jesus is deep soul stirring
self, forgetful worship, adoration, praise of Him.
And that is my hope and prayer in this time is Michael just
prayed that as a result of this time in this passage, our hearts
would be stirred, our affections would be stirred for Christ to
behold true greatness, the greatness that we were all
actually made to behold. And so with that, let me read
Colossians 115 through 20. For us, He is the image of the
invisible God, the first born 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, and He is the Head of the Body, the
Church. He is the beginning, the first
born from among the dead, that in everything He might be
preeminent. For in Him all the fullness of
God was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile to
Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace
by the blood of His cross. Six points this morning.
First, Christ is the supreme manifestation of God.
Second, Christ is the supreme Creator.
Third, he is the supreme, eternal sustainer. 4th, He is
the supreme head of the church. 5 He is the supreme resurrected
one, and six, he is the supreme Redeemer.
And I'll repeat these as we go through, but six points and
that's where we're headed. So first, Christ is the supreme
manifestation of God. You look at verse 15 says he is
the image of the invisible God. So in Jesus, in Christ we see
God and Jesus actually himself said this in John 14/9.
He says whoever has seen me has seen the Father.
That is a massive statement. In fact, years ago, I remember
sitting in a doctor's appointment with one of my
doctors for our son, and this doctor we had known gotten to
know over a few years, and he'd become very dear to us.
He gave incredible treatment to our son, and I was burdened for
him to know Christ and I wanted to share the gospel with him.
I knew he was retiring, so this might be one of the last
opportunities I got to share the gospel with him.
And so through it, so I pray, Lord, please give me an
opportunity to bring up our faith.
And throughout the course of the appointment, I can't remember
how it came up, but it came up and we started talking about
Jesus and I started to make the point that Jesus was God and
claimed to be God. And I quoted Jesus in John 14-6
where he says I am the way, the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.
And this doctor's statement was that's quite an egotistical
statement. And I paused and I said you're
absolutely right. That is a very egotistical
statement. If Jesus isn't God, if Jesus
isn't God, that is a very egotistical statement.
But he is God. And so for Jesus to say that
it's just a statement of the truth, how could he say anything
different? And we see in this passage that
Jesus is God. He is the image of the invisible
God because he is God. And that word image is the Greek
word icon, and it's loaded with meaning.
So if you think back to Genesis 1, right, God created Adam and
he said let us make man in our image.
He made man to reflect the image of God.
But then we know just two chapters later that man sinned,
and because of sin that image was fractured.
Men no longer imaged God as he was meant to, but in Jesus we
see the restoration of that image in Jesus, not only do we
see God because he is the image of the invisible God in Jesus we
also see man as he was meant to be.
We see Jesus imaging God perfectly Sin fracture that
image. Jesus is the perfect image of
God and it's so much more than just a lifeless photo.
We hear that word image and we might think, oh, it's, it's a
photo and and a photo is, is worth 1000 words, right?
But what we have in Jesus, particularly in the pages of
Scripture and through the Holy Spirit as he enlivens the person
of Jesus to us so we can know him personally, we have so much
more than a lifeless photo. We see what he did, what he
said, how he acted. We even see recounted his face
of compassion as he saw the crowds that they were helpless
and harassed like sheep without a shepherd.
He was real, he was touchable. He became tangible, he became
killable for our sake. And that's what John says in
first John when he says that which was from the beginning,
which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which
we have looked upon and have touched with our hands.
John saying he's real. It's not just a legend, just
not, not just an old story. It's not just a, a lifeless
photo. He's real.
We touched him, we saw him, we walk with them, and we can know
him personally so much better than a picture.
I don't know if you remember the movie Castaway years ago,
starring Tom Hanks. He was stranded on a deserted
island, and one of the only personal items he had was a
picture of his wife. And there's this one scene where
he's falling asleep in this cave and he has a flashlight and he
is falling asleep. And he clicks the flashlight on
and he looks at the picture. Then he clicks it off.
Then a few seconds later, he clicks it back on.
He looks at the picture and then he clicks it off.
And he keeps doing that. Why?
Just because he he was lonely and he missed his wife and he
just wanted to be reminded of what she looked like.
Well, Can you imagine if years later he was talking to someone
and they said, man, it must have been so lonely for you on that
island. Not with anybody else.
Can you imagine if he said, well, I mean, I had her picture,
so I had a flashlight. I could look at her whenever I
wanted. So it really wasn't that bad.
Of course not, right? A picture might be worth 1000
words, but being in person is 1000 times better than a
picture. That's one of the reasons why
it's so important to worship in person rather than a live stream
or online. Nothing can replace looking in
someone else's eyes, listening to them.
Have someone listen to you. A handshake, a hug, an
encouraging word. Looking at someone else even as
we worship, as scripture says, address one another in psalms
and hymns and spiritual songs, as we see other people singing
these rich spiritual truths and we see I know what they've been
through this week. And to see them sing in Christ
alone, my hope is found that enriches my worship in person is
worth 1000 pictures. And that's what we have in
Christ. We see him and right now we can
see him. It's it's more than a lifeless
photo right now. We still see, as Paul says in
First Corinthians 13, as through a mere dimly, but one day we
will see him face to face. Isn't that so encouraging,
Saints? One day we will be embraced by
this Savior that we sing about and we pray to and we talk about
and we read about. We'll see him.
We will be with him in person and it'll be true what the hymn
writer says in the sands of time we're sinking the bride eyes not
her garment, but her dear bridegroom's face.
I will not seek glory, but the King of grace.
I will not look at the crown he give us, but on his pierced
hand. The Lamb is all the glory in
Emmanuel's land. The Lamb is all the glory in
Emmanuel's land. We see him now more than a
lifeless photo, but oh man, we will be with him face to face
one day in heaven. That day is coming, friends.
That is real. And we have that to look forward
to. But as we behold the image of
the invisible God in Jesus, it's also our responsibility to
imitate him, to also try to image him as the perfect image
of God. And that's what Paul says in
Ephesians 51, right? He says, imitate me as I imitate
Christ. So we're called to in a sense,
as the body of Christ, be little mini Christs, be the image of
the invisible God that people can't see, but our love for one
another. And as we obey Christ, it makes
Jesus real to them. It's like when Paul says, I fill
up what is lacking in the cross of Christ.
He's not saying that Jesus's cross lacked anything in terms
of redemptive purposes. What he's saying is it's it's
lacking in that people weren't there.
They couldn't see Jesus have the nails driven through his hands
and feet. They couldn't see the drops of
blood fall from his skin in the Garden of Gethsemane.
It's the love of Christ displayed in the people of God
that makes the cross real. That's what he that's what he
means by filling up what is lacking.
Well, the same is true when we imitate Christ.
We are making the invisible God visible to people.
That's what Agustin said. What?
What convinced Agustin of the truth of Scripture more than
anything he said was the love that the church had for one
another. As he saw the pastor Ambrose in
Milan and the other church members in Milan loving one
another, he thought this is real, this is true because he
saw the image of the invisible God being worked out in the body
of Christ. And this can be difficult
because we are sinful. Every day we struggle to imitate
Christ in any way. Every day we are painfully aware
that while we've been freed from the power of sin, we have not
yet been freed from the presence of sin.
And so it's difficult, but it's also scary, right?
It's scary because God is invisible.
We are visible. And so that means if we imitate
Christ, if we act differently than the people in our workplace
or at our school or wherever, if we boldly share the gospel,
well, if people reject us or mistreat us or persecute us, it
feels as if we're suffering alone.
But we're not. I had a mentor back in high
school who ran a ministry with a lot of his students in our high
school, and he would often come up to our high school at the
dismissal bell in the afternoon just to see us, just to say hi,
encourage us. And he met the world.
But one day he showed up and he was standing in the student lot,
and the dismissal bell rang and students were pouring out of the
doors into the lot. And it was then that he realized
that someone had vandalized all the cars in the parking lot.
And he was the only one for miles standing there.
And so as students came into the parking lot, they were looking
at the cars. They're looking at him.
And they're like, who is this guy?
He was like maybe in his 50s at the time.
And he thought and he just, he chuckled and he laughed and he
prayed silently and he said, you know, God, this isn't that
funny. You're invisible.
I'm very visible right now. I know you're with me, but it
feels as if I'm suffering alone. That's never really the case.
In fact, when people reject us, when people persecute us, it's
actually Christ in us that they're rejecting, not us.
And that's why Peter says in first Peter 4, rejoice in so far
as you share Christ's suffering because you are blessed.
If you're insulted for the name of Christ, the Spirit of God and
of glory rests upon you. That's why the apostles, after
being beaten, went home rejoicing that they were
counted, honored enough to suffer for the name of Christ.
Suffering for the name of Jesus actually enhances our union with
Christ and enhances our knowledge of what it means to be
a Christian. And it also enhances our
understanding of the suffering that Christ went through for our
sake. And so it grows us in our love
for him. So Jesus is the image of the
invisible God. We are called to imitate him and
make the invisible God visible to the people around us.
But Paul also says here that not only is he the image of the
invisible God, but he is the first born of all creation.
What does that mean? It sounds like on the surface
that Paul is saying that Jesus is a created being.
He's the first born of all creation, and that's exactly
where Arius went, ancient heretic Arius who taught
Arianism, who taught that Jesus was the greatest of all created
beings, but he was a created being, so he was not equal to
God. Arianism was condemned from the
early church councils. But the truth is, is the very
next sentence of Arius just would have read a little bit
further. I think his entire
interpretation would have been blown to bits because look at
verse 16, the very next sentence.
Paul says. For by him all things were
created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether
Thrones or dominions or rulers or authority.
So he created all things. Who could do that except for
God? And then he says all things were
created through him and for him. He created all things, and all
of these things are made for His glory.
How could God create someone and make all things that He's made
for their glory? That would be idolatry.
That would be false worship. God would do no such thing.
So the only logical explanation is that Jesus is God.
And So what does the title first born of all creation mean?
Well, it was the title of honor. In Exodus 422, Israel is called
God's first born son. It's they were his cherished
people, his chosen ones, and God the Son is especially so.
And also in the passage that was read earlier in Psalm 89, verse
27, it's used as a title for the coming Messiah.
Verse 27, Psalm 89 says I will make him my first born higher
than the kings of the earth. So Jesus is the first born of
all creation. He's honored over all creation.
And so contrary to Arianism that says that Jesus wasn't God, this
verse actually shows us Jesus's deity, that he was God, He was
divine. So this passage speaks not of
Christ origin or his creation. It speaks of his honor.
He is the supreme manifestation of God because he is God, but
he's also the supreme creator. That's our second point.
Christ is the supreme Creator. We've already shown that Jesus
was God. But just for good measure, as we
just read, Paul explains that Jesus was not created, but he
himself created all things in verse 16.
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.
So the biblical pattern is God the Father creates through the
sun. So think of Hebrews one where it
says in these last days God has spoken to us by his Son, whom he
appointed the heir of all things, through whom he also
created the world. Or think of John 316 For God so
loved the world that he sent his Son, right?
So God the Father initiates and he carries out his plan
throughout. He carries out his word through
his Son. God creates the world in Genesis
1 by doing what? Speaking.
He speaks and things are created by the word of his power.
He creates all things well. John 1 compares Jesus to the
Word, the Word made flesh. Jesus, His Trinitarian role, is
the agent through which God the Father creates.
And so Jesus created all things. All things were created through
him and for him. And just look at the
comprehensive nature of Christ creating power.
All things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible,
Thrones, dominions, rulers, authorities.
Like that's pretty much it. That sums it up.
I think of John 1 when he says by him all things were made and
without him nothing was made that has been made.
They're going out of their way to say it's all from Christ.
Every particle, every atom, every molecule of the universe
is all created by Jesus. Without Christ there is nothing.
He created sunrises, He created sunsets, He created mountains,
He created meadows, He created music, He created families, He
created laughter, He created love, He created food.
He created all things, and he created you.
Quite frankly, whether you acknowledge that or not, the
thing that this passage teaches us is that if Jesus created all
things, that means if we deny his existence, if we deny his
creating power, that means we do so using a mind and breath and
lungs that God gave us. We curse him with the very gifts
he gave us, and we need them to curse Him.
That's what prompted Christian philosopher Cornelius Van Till
to remark that we if we deny Jesus, we are like a child that
has to climb up on his father's lap in order to smack him in the
face. It's that level of dishonor and
disrespect. We take the gift that he's given
us and we rely on them to curse him, to make arguments against
him. And so Christ created every
throne, every dominion, every ruler and authority in heaven
and on earth. And what a comfort when we mourn
bad leaders, when we see corruption of justice, to know
that Christ in his perfect wisdom that is beyond us and his
perfect sovereignty, He has created and established those
leaders to bring about his perfect will and our good.
He created all things. He made them and he will use
them for our good. And most importantly, we know
that Jesus is on his throne. He doesn't run for re election.
He establishes dynasties. He doesn't worry about his.
And that's an incredible comfort when we see bad leaders.
But not only did Christ create all things, he created them for
him, Paul says. I think it's maybe easier for us
to remember as Christians, or yes, God made everything.
Everything we see God created, maybe we can forget that as
well. But I think it's especially easy
to forget that all things are made for him.
I was taking a trip up to New York City with our son Jonathan
not too long ago. And in the car ride up we were
talking about Romans 11 and the doxology.
It says for from him and through him and to him are all things.
And so we just started talking about that verse and what it
meant. So what is what does it mean
that this trip is from God? Well, that was kind of easy to
answer. You know, we're just going up to
have a fun time in New York City and thought, well, he provided
us life, he give us breath, he gave us this car to do it.
Well, what does it mean that it's through him?
Well, he's sustaining us right now.
He's enabling us to do it. I have to, I have to be honest,
we had to pause. We got, what is this?
What does it mean that this is to him?
What is a fun trip to New York City?
How does that glorify him? And eventually we thought, well,
even even laughter that we experience, even the joy we
experience getting to take in God's creation.
All these things are back to God for his glory.
But I think that's the hardest one for us as Christians to keep
in the forefront of our minds. Your job is for Jesus.
Your money is for Jesus. Your marriage is for Jesus.
Your kids are for Jesus. Not to fulfill you, not
primarily to bring you happiness, it's for Jesus.
Your school work is for Jesus. Your GPA is for Jesus.
Your recreation is for Jesus. Your vacation is for Jesus.
Your retirement it's for. It's all for Jesus.
It's all for His glory, that we might bring Him honor and
praise. And so all things are made by
Christ and all things are made for His glory.
I was in a store years ago with our kids and I picked up this
video game. And on the back of the video
game I read this description. And this is what the description
of the video game said. It's one of those, I don't know,
fantasy games, I know nothing about video games, but you go
through stages, you try to beat the game, but this is what it
said. Now you can take control of the
action and be at the center of your own adventure in this
fantasy world. Be the center of your own
adventure in this fantasy world. Whoever created that video game
was not reading Colossians one. It's all about Christ.
And I think what what I found so striking about that, it's not
that it was a description of a video game, is that it was too
often the description of life by many people.
We can take charge and we can be at the center of our own
adventure in our fantasy world. That's life.
That is the definition of life to so many people.
And yet that's actually terrible news.
It's terrible news. Jesus openly said.
Whoever loses his life for my sake, he will find it.
We are most alive, we experience the most adventure, the most joy
in life when we are losing ourselves in the majesty and the
glory of Christ, living for him and his glory, not our own.
And so don't waste your time building your own, I'm sorry to
say it, pathetic legacy that will easily be forgotten.
It's so much better to be 1 little pixel in a grand display
of Christ glory than to use our whole life trying to illuminate
our own pathetic little glory and legacy that will so soon
burn out and be forgotten. Even the people who really made
it, founding fathers of our country, all these people, they
have statues that are really just collecting bird poop all
day. That's as good as it gets.
But how much better to live for Christ's glory?
Don't live for our own pathetic legacy.
Live for Christ. And what will help us do this?
What will stoken us a zeal to live for Christ's glory?
More than anything, I think it's doing continually what we're
doing right now, gazing at the beauty and the grandeur and the
majesty of Christ. John Owen wrote a book called
The Glory of Christ. It's an absolute masterpiece.
Read anything by John Owen. I think there is rejoicing in
heaven when even 1 Sinner reads a John Owen book, but that book,
especially the Glory of Christ is phenomenal is the last book
he wrote. This is a quote from that book.
He said only a sight of Christ's glory and nothing else will
truly satisfy God's people. Truly satisfy God's people.
The soul which can be satisfied without beholding the glory of
Christ is not a soul for whom Christ prays.
One of the greatest privileges the believer has, both in this
world and for eternity, is to behold the glory of Christ.
All things are made by Him and for him.
He is the supreme Creator. But not only is Christ the
supreme Creator, he is also the supreme eternal sustainer.
That's our Third Point. Christ is the supreme eternal
sustainer. Christ wasn't created.
Saw that earlier and here Paul again highlights Christ's
eternal nature in verse 17. He says and he is before all
things and in him all things hold together.
Christ is before all things, He is eternal.
He never had a beginning and that will break your brain
trying to think about that. FF Bruce said no matter how far
back our imagination may press, we can never reach a point of
which we may say there was once a time when he was not.
We will never reach a point in our imagination where we can say
there was. There was a time when he he was.
He always has been and he always will be forever, for eternity.
But not only is he eternal and before all things, he sustains
all things. He holds all things together.
And that's what Paul says. He holds every molecule, every
particle, every atom in the universe together, every
millisecond of every day. And he always has.
Albert Einstein in 1917 wrote a paper on quantum mechanics ended
up being transformative for the field of physics.
But his findings in that paper actually deeply disturbed him,
and especially as the years went on.
And what disturbed Einstein about quantum mechanics was the
way in which atoms and photons responded or acted.
He noticed that when a photon emitted from an atom, it was
unpredictable. There was no way of of seeing
how exactly it would act, what it would bind to.
And to Einstein, this was troubling because it seemed to
him that it destroyed the principle of causality, the idea
that A leads to B&B leads to C, and that's what gives us a
repeatable universe that enables science, right?
If things are just random and happening all over the place,
there's no causality. How can we do an experiment?
Because we have no way of knowing that things will be the
same, right? We can't isolate any variables.
And that really disturbed Einstein.
It led him to his famous saying where he said God doesn't play
dice, saying God, God wouldn't make a universe like this.
Einstein was kind of a Jewish deist.
Well, Werner Heisenberg was a Nobel Prize winning physicist
who was friends with Einstein, and he was also a Christian.
And Heisenberg understood why this disturbed Einstein, he
said, I get it. I get what you're saying.
This seems to destroy causality. How can we do science?
But this is what Heisenberg wrote to Einstein.
He said we can console ourselves that the good Lord God would
know the position of the particles and thus he could let
the causality principle continue to have validity.
In other words, Heisenberg was saying, yes, the principle of
causality is important and God did make a universe that has
causality and we see that all over the universe.
But he said, Einstein, what is better than the principle of
causality is resting everything we know in our epistemology and
in our understanding of knowledge on not a principle of
causality, but on the eternal and unchangeable one of Jesus
Christ. He's saying God, God knows.
You might not know, you might not be able to predict where
that photon is emitting to, but Jesus knows, and he is the one
on the entire that on which the entire universe rests.
He is better than the principle of causality.
Things might seem random to us. Things might seem unpredictable
or out of control. They are never that way to
Jesus. He knows exactly what is
happening because he's holding all things together.
I also love on that topic what Werner Heisenberg wrote when he
said the first gulp of the glass of natural sciences might turn
you into an atheist, but at the bottom of the glass, God is
waiting for you. The first gulp, the first, the
first glimpse might think, oh, things are just random.
Is God really at work? But at the end of the glass, God
is waiting for you. He holds and sustains all things
perfectly, sovereignly, powerfully.
And not only does God sustain all things in the universe
ontologically, physically, He also holds all things together
providentially. Every single detail of your life
God has labored over. Do you?
Do you see or realize how much God cares about detail?
Think about the creation of our universe.
There's a myriad of things. If they were even slightly
different, life on earth would be unsustainable.
If you look at the Old Testament, God says, here are
the exact blueprints for the Tabernacle.
Here are the exact blueprints for the temple.
Here's exactly what the priest should wear.
He's exact. Here's exactly what the priest
should say. We see similar instructions for
the ordering of the New Testament church.
God cares about detail, and He brings that meticulous care to
detail to your life. You might think that no one has
thought about your life in as much detail as you have.
That's not true. God has thought about it.
You might have stayed up all night laboring, stressing over
details of your life. You haven't thought about it as
much as God has. God never sleeps and He is
perfect in wisdom and sovereignty.
He has labored over every detail of your life and nothing has
come into your life that has not passed through the fingertips of
your loving Heavenly Father and through Christ Himself.
Even an unexpected lead pastor search.
No matter what is going on in your life or in the life of this
church, it does not surprise Christ.
He holds it all together providentially.
John Flavell, who's a Puritan, wrote a book called The Mystery
of Providence. He's a Puritan, and it's a
phenomenal book. And he essentially argues that
as Christians, we rob ourselves of so much joy and peace
precisely because we don't meditate on the Providence of
God. We don't think about it.
And so I highly commend that book to you, but I also just
recommend that you'd spend time today, this week, meditating on
the Providence of God. Think about what are things that
God has done in your life and what is the timing in which he's
done it? That was perfect.
That ended up being a blessing that you wouldn't have chosen,
but ended up being a tremendous blessing to you.
Think about meditate on the Providence of God.
So Christ is the supreme eternal sustainer, but he's also the
supreme head of the church. That's our fourth point.
Christ is the supreme head of the church.
In verse 18, Paul says Christ is the head of the body, the
church. He is the supreme head of the
church. Christ is the head.
He is the most important. You can transplant almost
anything in the body. You can't transplant the head.
It is irreplaceable. And so Jesus as the head gives
life and spiritual vitality to the church.
He has ultimate authority over it.
And what a what a privilege to be a member of Christ's body
with him as our head is. What led Agustin to say every
believer is not just a Christian, but Christ because we
are a part of his body with him as our head.
So individual believers are united to Christ, but we're also
united to him through his church, of which we are a part.
And we have to see the inseparable connection there,
right? If we are not a part of the
church, then we're separated from the head.
That's why church membership, being a part of the visible
church, is so important. We want to be a part of the
universal church, the invisible church.
We must be a part of the visible church to connect ourselves to
Christ, the head of His church. Jesus died for His church.
He loves His church. He gave up himself for His
church. Ephesians 5 says He sustains His
church, and He promises that the gates of hell will not prevail
against His church. We don't get that promise,
friends, about any other Christian organization.
There have been many parachurch ministries and organizations
that have come and gone. Many of them have been used
faithfully and fruitfully by God.
But we don't have that promise about any other institution
besides the church, which is just yet another reason why we
should be a member in a significant part of the local
church. And so Christ is the head of the
church, but he's also the supreme resurrected one.
That's our fifth point. Christ is the supreme
resurrected one. Verse 18 Paul says he is the
head of the body of the church. He is the beginning, the first
born from the dead, that in everything he might be pre
eminent. He is the beginning of all
things because he is the creator of all things as we've been
talking about. But he's especially the
beginning of a new creation and a new Kingdom of believers of
which he was the 1st. And that's clear because when
Jesus rose from the dead, he became the first born from among
the dead. Everyone since Adam, before
Jesus had died, no one had come back to life.
When Jesus was resurrected from the dead, he became a new Adam,
the new start of a new order, a new creation.
And every person who places their faith in Jesus is a part
of that Kingdom. The first Adam sinned, and all
of his descendants bore his distinguishing mark of sin, but
the second Adam, Jesus rose from the dead, and everyone who
trusted him bears his distinguishing marks, which are
the Spirit and Sonship and eternal life.
The first Adam entered into the Garden and disobeyed and sinned,
and as a result the world fell with him.
The second Adam, the better Adam.
Jesus entered into the Garden of Gethsemane and he obeyed.
And his obedience was far more difficult.
He swept drops of blood. He was so agonizing over what he
had to suffer in our place, and yet he redeemed us.
He obeyed perfectly. On Christmas, the sunset on
Adam's broken and sinful creation, and on Easter the sun
rose on the new creation of Jesus Christ.
He is the first born from the dead.
He is the first born of a new creation, and all believers are
part of it. And all of this the end of verse
18 says so that Christ would be preeminent in all things.
He is insurpassable. He cannot be eclipsed.
No one can have more glory than Him.
He is the first born of all creation, and He has redeemed
us. And that leads us to our last
point, that Christ is our supreme Redeemer.
We've already looked at verse 19.
For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell when he
looked at him, being the image of the invisible God.
Look at verse 20, Paul says. And through him to reconcile to
himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace
by the blood of his cross. Interesting.
He reconciled all things to himself.
Often times we think of Jesus and His redemption.
We just think of humanity, think of people that He's redeemed.
But Paul's clear here. He's reconciled all things to
himself. Well, what does that mean?
When Genesis 1, God created man perfect.
But in Genesis 3, when they sin and God pronounces the curse on
Adam, do you remember what He said?
Cursed is the ground. Because of you.
It'll bring forth thorns and thistles.
It'll make work hard. Later in Romans 822, Paul says
all creation groans for the new heavens.
In the new earth. There are a myriad of sinful
causes because of the fall, even in creation, not just with us
personally, though many of them flow from people and sin in
humanity. But one day when Christ ushers
in the new heavens and the new earth, when we walk by lush
fields and there are north no thorns, when crops always yield
their fruit, when there are no mosquitoes by God's grace, and
when there are no when there's no carnage because of natural
disasters, when there are no more diagnosis of cancer in
loved ones, then with one voice we will all say, praise God, who
through Christ reconciled to himself all things, not just us,
all creation, all reconciliation flows through Christ and his
cross, including our personal redemption.
You know, the Colossians were doubting Christ's power.
That's why throughout the book Paul points out that Christ is
supreme. The Colossians were.
Saying yes, Jesus is powerful, we need Jesus, but they also
were looking to angelic powers, super other supernatural powers
to sort of try to supplement Jesus powers, but they were also
doubting their redemption. They were doubting that they
were really forgiven. And so if you see what Paul is
doing here, he's answering both, because if you grasp Christ's
supremacy, you will also have full assurance in his
redemption. If you see what Jesus is capable
of, who he is, what he's done, then how could you doubt
anything that he did, including your redemption?
And that's actually Paul's exact argument in Romans 834 when he
says who is to condemn Christ? Jesus is the one who died more
than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of the
Father, who indeed is interceding for us.
Paul saying you're doubting, like, do you know who Jesus is?
Look, look at this. He created all.
He's the image of the invisible God.
He's the first born of all creation.
All things were created by Him. He sustains all things.
He holds all things together. How could you doubt any single
thing that He did, including your redemption?
If you know who Jesus is, you cannot doubt that.
And Homer's book, The Iliad, tells the story of the battle
between the Akayan army and the Trojan army.
And through much of the story and much of the battle, the
great Akayan warrior Achilles is sidelined.
He's kind of brooding over this personal vendetta he has against
one of the Acadian commanders, Agamemam.
And but eventually his friend Patrick List is killed by
Hector, the leader of the Trojan army.
And that gets that stirs Achilles and he enters the
battlefield. And as soon as Achilles enters
the battlefield, a tremor of fear and horror goes to the
entire Trojan army. They all, they all hear the
whispers of Achilles is coming. And Achilles marches slowly but
surely toward the gates of Troy, and no one can stop him.
It doesn't matter how great, how big, how tall, how great of a
warrior they are. He effortly leaves a wake of
Trojan bodies and warriors in his wake.
And everyone whispers to themselves Achilles is coming
and no one can stop him. Well eventually he makes his way
to the gates of Troy. He meets Hector.
Hector's so terrified he runs around the city 4 times but then
finally faces Achilles, and Achilles easily defeats him.
Friends, our wonderful and glorious Savior Jesus Christ
marched steadily toward the cross to accomplish our
redemption, and there was nothing that anyone could do to
stop him. And now there is nothing that
anyone could do to separate us from Him.
Can you imagine how the demons shook with fear when they heard
God is coming? Can you imagine the horror that
Satan felt when he looked into the Manger and saw the God man
veiled in flesh the deity? Do you remember how the the
voice of the demons cracked with horror as God effortlessly
commanded them to flee? Can you imagine how Satan
quivered with fear as he faced down the righteous 1 seeking to
put him to death, only to have his throat stepped on as Jesus
rose victoriously over death in the resurrection?
When you doubt whether you are forgiven.
When you doubt if Christ is enough.
When Satan tempts you to despair and tells you of the sin within,
look up. Look up and see him there, Your
eternal Supreme Creator, the Majestic One, the Supreme 1
making an end to all of your sin.
And this should cause us to worship.
What can make us worship? Like seeing the Supreme One
redeem us. Like that The One who created
all things hanged on a tree that he made.
The one who holds all things together was held to a cross
with nails through his hands and feet, and the one who made all
things was pierced for our transgressions.
Do you see his glory? Is he precious to you?
Do you love him? Do you desire to adore and
worship him? I hope so.
John Owen said no man will ever
become like Christ by imitating Him if he knows nothing of the
transforming power of beholding His glory.
If we are to imitate Christ, first we must behold His glory.
We must get hearts and minds filled with the knowledge of
Christ and love and adoration and affection to Him.
When love for Christ burns in our hearts, then it won't be
able to be contained on our lips and in our life.
And so with that, let me pray close this.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for your grace and sending us
your Son. We thank you for this
opportunity to dwell on the majesty, the supremacy of your
Son. And we confess, Lord, we do not
think about it as often as we should.
Fill our minds, fill our hearts, give us through your Spirit,
power to grasp the height and breadth and length and depth of
your majesty and grace and holiness and power, and of your
great, great love for us, so that we might proclaim your
gospel, your good news, your glory to anyone who will listen.
Help us to imitate you, to show you the invisible and eternal
God to a world who desperately needs to see you.
And we pray all this in Christ's precious name, Amen.