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I want to draw your attention to
our text this morning first 

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before we read it, because the 
five verses in Colossians 115 

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through 20 have two sections. 
There's the early strophy and 

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then a second strophy, and verse
17 separates those two. 

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So take a look at verse 17. 
Verse 17 begins by saying, and 

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He is before all things, and 
that actually summarizes the two

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verses previous. 
Now look at the second-half of 

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verse 17. 
And in Him all things hold 

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together. 
And that actually introduces the

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remaining verses in Colossians 
115 through 20. 

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This is such a beautiful 
confession of the Christian 

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faith of our hope in the Lord, 
of the reality of His Spirit in 

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the world. 
Instead of me reading it to you,

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let's read it together. 
He is the image of the invisible

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God, the first born of all 
creation. 

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For by Him all things were 
created in heaven and on earth, 

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visible and invisible, Whether 
Thrones or dominions or rulers 

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or authorities. 
All things were created through 

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Him and for Him. 
And He is before all things, and

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in Him all things hold together,
and He is the head of the Body, 

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the Church. 
He is the beginning, the first 

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born from the dead, that in 
everything He might be 

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preeminent. 
For in Him all the fullness of 

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God was pleased to dwell, and 
through Him to reconcile to 

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Himself all things, whether on 
earth or in heaven, making peace

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by the blood of His cross. 
For in Him the whole fullness of

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the Deity dwells bodily. 
And you have been filled in Him 

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who is the head of all and 
authority. 

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This is the word of the Lord. 
Thanks, Father in heaven, may 

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the words of my mouth and the 
meditations of our hearts be 

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acceptable to you. 
O Christ our Rock, and our 

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Redeemer, whose name we pray. 
Amen. 

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Please be seated. 
I would say if we were honest 

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with ourselves as a group of 
folks, we love firsts. 

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We pay extra money to be first 
at Disney World. 

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We love to be first in pretty 
much everything, in our 

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achievements, in sports, in 
sales. 

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We even have an anthology of 
firsts called the Guinness Book 

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of World Records, and our 
passage stands glaringly before 

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each one of us today and asks, 
is Christ first? 

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Is Christ first in our thinking?
Is he first in our speaking? 

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Is He first in our acting? 
And sometimes we might readily 

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say, well of course, and then 
there might come a time in life 

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when we need to forgive another 
person and we don't necessarily 

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put Christ first there to say, 
oh Lord, please help me. 

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I would say that these 5 verses 
and the extra verses from 

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Colossians chapter 2 are the 
most profoundly simple and 

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breathtakingly complex verses we
could encounter. 

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I I would say that if you were 
to gather the whole of scripture

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in just five verses, perhaps you
would snip these out. 

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And that's why some people call 
these verses the Holy of Holies 

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of Colossians. 
So how can we talk about the 

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Infinite in 20 minutes? 
Let's jump in, shall we? 

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So take a look at verse 15. 
He is the image of the invisible

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God, the first born of all 
creation. 

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The Holy Spirit opens up the 
curtain of the eternal counsel 

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of God and lets us behold the 
glory of the second Person of 

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the Godhead who stands at the 
center of all of God's covenant 

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purposes. 
And here we are invited to look 

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into the cosmos before Genesis 
1, before light, before stars, 

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before time itself. 
Here we are told of the second 

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Person of the Godhead long 
before Genesis One. 

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In theology we call this time in
Christ's eternal life, His pre 

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existence, and in these two 
clauses of verse 15 we see the 2

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dimensions of His pre existence,
His relation to the Father and 

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His relation to creation in 
relation to His Father. 

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He is not only the image of the 
invisible God, but as the second

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person of the divine Trinity, He
is the absolute image, the 

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eternal second Person, the 
perfect radiance of the Father's

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glory. 
And before the first word of the

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Bible is ever spoken, the Triune
God exists in perfect love, and 

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the Son, the second person, 
reveals the fullness of that 

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glory. 
Hebrews 1/3 says it best. 

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He is the radiance of the glory 
of God and the exact imprint of 

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His nature, upholding the 
universe by the word of His 

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power. 
Now the second phrase in verse 

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15 shifts from Christ's eternal 
relation within the Trinity to 

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the his relation with creation 
itself, and it says He's the 

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first born of all creation, but 
his first born. 

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That does not mean He had a 
beginning. 

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The beginningless beginner is 
begotten. 

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Begotten means born of, not 
created. 

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It refers to what we call an 
eternal procession of love. 

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The theological word for it is 
eternal generation. 

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And so when we think of Christ's
pre existence, before he became 

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a man, we think of this eternal 
generation, this divine 

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relationship from eternity past 
without beginning, always pure, 

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completely unbroken and eternal.
The second person of the Godhead

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as the first born doesn't refer 
to his beginning, but his 

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status. 
First born means superior. 

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First born means sovereign, not 
a beginning. 

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He is the divine stamp of the 
invisible God, the sovereign one

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over all creation. 
Psalm 89 speaks of this. 

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It says, I will make him the 
first born, the highest of the 

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kings of the earth. 
There was never a time that 

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Christ did not exist, and first 
born refers to His sovereignty, 

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His superiority. 
He is the source of everything. 

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There is no rule, there is no 
authority anywhere above Him, 

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His superiority. 
He is the source, His rule and 

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authority. 
This is what first born means. 

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He is superior over all of 
creation. 

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Let's continue with verse 16. 
For by Him all things were 

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created in heaven and on earth, 
visible and invisible, where the

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Thrones or dominions or rulers 
or authorities, all things were 

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created through Him and for Him.
Now look at these prepositions 

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in this verse. 
There's one at the very 

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beginning in verse 16 for by 
Him, and then there are two at 

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the end. 
Look at the two at the end, 

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through and for. 
Combine these three very simple 

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English words. 
Unfold the majesty of Christ in 

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creation first by by Him by 
means agency. 

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The second person of the Godhead
before He becomes a human being 

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is the agent of creation. 
Creation happened on behalf of 

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the will of the Divine Trinity, 
because of the second person of 

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the Godhead. 
He was the agent of creation 

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through through him that 
preposition, you know, moving 

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through, moving from one side to
another, to change from one 

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state to another. 
It's the sphere of creation, the

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sphere in which creation takes 
form. 

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The second person of the Godhead
is the sphere of creation. 

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Through him, chaos becomes 
order, darkness becomes light, 

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mud becomes man, and work moves 
into rest. 

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And then that last preposition 
for him. 

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And now this is really 
interesting because the tense 

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changes here in this 
preposition, in this part, we go

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to a present tense. 
And when we have present tense, 

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that means there's an ongoing 
action, something into the 

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future. 
It shifts here, meaning that the

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future of creation is meant for 
Christ, for him. 

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Romans 11 says For from him and 
through him and to him are all 

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things. 
And it ends by saying to him be 

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glory, forever, Amen, creation, 
moving into the future by, 

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through, and for forever. 
Now look what's in between those

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prepositions. 
All things. 

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That's pretty easy to 
understand, isn't it? 

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All things in heaven and on 
earth, visible and invisible, 

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whether Thrones or dominions or 
rulers or authority. 

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All things, everything, 
everything, everything belongs 

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to that little boy in the animal
feeding through that helpless 

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human being born in a barn, the 
alpha and Omega of creation. 

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Sometimes when I go through this
passage, this is a great place 

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to stop and say, could we just 
pray, sing a hymn and leave? 

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Because what else is there to 
say other than thank you God, 

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Amen. 
But let's go on to verse 17, 

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shall we? 
And he sums up the point in 

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verse 17. 
And he is before all things. 

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Two decades after the Holy 
Spirit inspired Paul to write 

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these words here, the Holy 
Spirit would inspire the apostle

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John to write similar words that
sound like this. 

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In the beginning was the Word, 
and the Word was with God, and 

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the Word was God before any 
covenant was made in history, 

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before Adam, before Noah, before
Abraham, before Moses, before 

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David, the eternal second person
of the God had lived in perfect 

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session with the Trinity. 
It's difficult for us, maybe not

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for you, but for me, it's 
difficult for me to get out of 

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my head that Jesus was not a 
human being in eternity past, 

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while he was in heaven with the 
Trinity, in that glorious 

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celestial heavenly realm where 
angels were created, there was 

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the second person of the 
Godhead. 

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Adam was the first human being. 
And yes, Adam was created in the

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image of God. 
He was formed with a head and 

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with a body, a design that would
become powerful metaphors to 

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help you and me understand our 
Lord's relationship with His 

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church. 
Adam was called to rule, but he 

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failed. 
And in infinite love, God made a

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covenant, a covenant of grace, 
whereby a human being would come

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and do what Adam could not. 
But there's more. 

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Throughout the Old Testament, we
see these glimpses of this 

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mysterious figure who would 
eventually become the human 

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Redeemer we so desperately 
needed. 

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And this figure would have a 
variety of descriptions. 

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He would be called the Angel of 
the Lord or the commander of the

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Lord's army. 
The 4th man in the furnace. 

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A visitor with Abraham, One who 
stopped Isaac from being killed.

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One who physically wrestled with
a man named Jacob. 

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The voice from a burning Bush 
that was not being consumed. 

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A radiant man standing before 
Daniel. 

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These are just a few, these pre 
Incarnate glimpses of the second

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person of the Godhead in his pre
existence. 

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And these theophanies allowed 
humans to behold God without 

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perishing. 
For no one can see God and live.

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And the third person of the 
Godhead had not been gifted to 

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humanity and upon God's covenant
people yet. 

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Only the second person of the 
Trinity could reveal God in 

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these moments. 
But we needed a man who could 

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redeem us and then in the 
fullness of time it happened. 

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The pre existent 1. 
The eternal Son became a human 

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being, though he was in the very
form of God. 

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Christ made himself nothing, 
taking on the form of a servant 

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and being born in the likeness 
of man. 

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He is no longer called the Angel
of the Lord. 

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He is no longer called the 
commander of the Lord's army. 

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But now he shall be given a 
name. 

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Emmanuel shall now be his name. 
God with you and me, and we know

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him as Jesus, for He will save 
his people from their sins. 

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This brings us to the 
second-half of verse 17 and 

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going on into 18. 
And in Him all things hold 

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together, and He is the head of 
the body, the church. 

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He is the beginning, the first 
born from the dead, that in 

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everything he may be pre 
eminent. 

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Holding all things together 
means consistency. 

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Jesus gives everything that we 
see, feel, touch here. 

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Everything, everything, all 
things. 

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Holding it together means 
consistency. 

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Anything that has consistency in
the world is because of the Lord

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Jesus Christ. 
Amen. 

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Why? 
We worship Him. 

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And the focus shifts very 
quickly now from Christ's pre 

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eminence over creation to his 
pre eminence over redemption 

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with swift precision. 
Right here, the metaphor of the 

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head and the body, made possible
by Adam's design, are used to 

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describe Messiah's sovereignty 
over redemption. 

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Now He is the first born from 
the dead. 

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Now He has sovereignty over the 
dead. 

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00:17:01,320 --> 00:17:03,920
Now he has superiority over the 
dead. 

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This is one of the clearest 
texts in the New Testament that 

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Christ's resurrection is the 
beginning of a new creation. 

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Oh yes, we're waiting from his 
pre existence to when he was a 

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man. 
We're waiting for when He comes 

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again and makes a new heaven and
a new earth. 

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00:17:23,560 --> 00:17:27,319
But remember, all things are 
created for Him, which includes 

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the future. 
He is creating things new now. 

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He is making a new creation. 
Now He has made you a new 

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creature. 
He is renewing His church. 

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And when we talk about the 
redeemed creation, what is the 

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most precious part of that? 
To the sun? 

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The church, and we see the word 
here that's used throughout the 

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Old Testament and the New 
Testament for the church. 

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The word is ecclesia. 
It means to be called out. 

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Abraham was called out, Israel 
was called out, you were called 

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out. 
You are part of the ecclesia. 

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You are part of the Lord's 
church. 

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You are the most precious thing 
to the sun. 

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And through his obedience and 
death and resurrection and 

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ascension, Jesus becomes a new 
kind of humanity, because he 

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rises first, born from the dead,
and ascends to heaven to become 

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the first human being in all of 
history to be at the helm of the

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universe. 
Isn't that a beautiful thought 

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that at the helm of the universe
right now is the same pre 

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existent second person of the 
Godhead who took on flesh just 

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like you and me, and now that 
risen and ascended perfect 

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person is at the helm of the 
universe? 

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Hallelujah. 
Adam was made from dust, but 

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Christ came from heaven. 
Adam failed, but Christ 

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prevailed. 
Adam passed on death, but Christ

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gives resurrection life to those
that belong to him. 

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First Corinthian said the first 
man, Adam became a living being.

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The last Adam became a life 
giving spirit. 

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But it is not the spiritual that
is first, but the natural and 

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then the spiritual. 
The first man was from the 

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earth, the man of dust. 
The second man is from heaven. 

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As was the man of dust, so also 
are those who are of the dust. 

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And as is the man of heaven, so 
also are those who are of 

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heaven. 
Just as we are born the image of

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the man of dust, we shall also 
bear the image of the man of 

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heaven, says First Corinthians 
verse 19. 

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Let's finish up verse 19. 
For in him all the fullness of 

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God was pleased to dwell. 
Echoes the familiar Christmas 

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verse. 
We hear this time when John 114 

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says, and the Word became flesh 
and dwelt among us, and we hear 

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about how Jesus tabernacled 
among us because the temple and 

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the Tabernacle is the place on 
earth where God was present. 

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And when Jesus comes, all the 
fullness of the Trinity is 

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dwelling in Jesus. 
God with the same words are used

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in Psalm 68. 
God was well pleased to dwell in

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Zion. 
The Lord will dwell in the holy 

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place. 
Where's the holy place now? 

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Jesus? 
Jesus is the temple. 

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Jesus is the Tabernacle. 
God is pleased to dwell in him, 

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verse 20, and through him to 
reconcile himself to all things,

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whether on earth or in heaven, 
making peace by the blood of the

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cross. 
And here is Jesus first born 

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from the dead, bringing 
reconciliation by giving himself

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and redeeming his ecclesia, his 
Church, where he triumphs 

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victoriously over death and 
gives his people eternal life. 

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So the question is, is Christ 
preeminent in your life? 

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Is he first in your heart, in 
the way you think, in the way 

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you feel, in the way you act, in
the way you worship, in the way 

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you conduct your business? 
Think about church ministry, 

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lead your family, interact with 
Co workers, love your husband or

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your wife or your family or your
friends or the way you forgive 

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others. 
Is Christ first, Is Christ 

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first. 
Holy Spirit, we bow before you 

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and we thank you for these 
majestic words. 

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We thank you that in Him the 
whole fullness of Deity dwells 

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bodily, and though we cannot 
comprehend it, nor will we until

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we see you, you have been 
filled. 

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We have been filled in Him who 
is the head of all rule and 

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authority in this majestic and 
mysterious and income 

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uncomprehensible majesty and 
description of who you are. 

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Now you invite us to your table.
We have heard your majesty and 

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your transcendence, and now we 
will see and taste your love and

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presence. 
Ho, Spirit of the Lord, thank 

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you for caring for us so 
tenderly, so beautifully, and so

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perfectly. 
In your name we pray. 

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Amen.