Oh Father, this is our prayer. So thankful to you for the
promises that you have made. We come even at this moment,
pleading your promises, pleading that You truly would bless those
who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
Praying that You would open up this word that you have given
us, planting it in good soil, enabling fruit to be born, that
a Dark World would notice. Notice in such a way from the
radiance and the fragrance that they would want to know what is
different about you. And we would have the joy of
telling them it is Christ the Lord and me.
Father, would you fix our eyes upon the wonder of Jesus,
transform us even now we pray in Jesus name, Amen.
This morning I'm going to be reading from Colossians 1, 15
through 20, and then chapter 2, verses 9:00 and 10:00.
I'm going to be using the same exact text along with another
one next week. So we're just going to hit a
small portion of this remarkable statement about Jesus.
This is God's word, and all scripture is.
God breathed all scripture. It is all useful for teaching,
rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness.
But when you need a statement about who Jesus is, there is
none better than what the Holy Spirit carried the Apostle Paul
along to write to the Church of Colosi in the midst of heresy,
of Gnosticism, of thinking that was not right about who Christ
is. So listen to what Paul wrote and
be encouraged of Jesus. Paul says 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
at the Church. He is the beginning, the first
born from 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. For in Him the whole fullness of
Deity dwells bodily. And you have been filled in Him
who is the head of all rule and authority.
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Please be seated. For those who are wondering,
this sermon is going to be about 15 minutes.
I didn't mean that to be funny, but that's why we're going back
to this text next week. You could never do justice.
Frankly, you could do justice to one sentence in this passage.
You've heard me say before that I never slept on Christmas Eve.
Ever. Never.
Every Christmas Eve was the same, 2 1/2 weeks from now my
heart would swell for that day. The 1st 15 1/2 years of my life.
I did not celebrate Christmas as a Christian, but I celebrated.
I would lay in bed sharing a room with my older brother and
my eyes would be fixed in two places.
I would be looking through the mini blinds out into the sky
just wondering might I see something glorious?
I never did. But underneath the door there
was another light, and when that light actually would go out, I
knew that if I waited 3 to 5 to 10 minutes, I could go out, walk
down the hall and look at a tree still lit with things
underneath. And that was glorious.
I never slept on Christmas Eve. In fact, I still have a hard
time sleeping on Christmas Eve. I love it.
Christmas Day usually involved discipline of this child in many
different ways, but it also involved other things.
And one of the great traditions was that I, along with my four
siblings, would call our grandparents and particularly my
dad's mom and his stepdad, my step grandfather.
They would listen to us detail everything that we had received
and I would speak the longest. I would go through every detail
of every gift they seen. And they were so patient.
That call would take longer than an hour.
And what was amazing is they would be at the house in about
two hours. And that is when I would show
them that which I spoke to you as a representation.
This is it. This is the fire truck, this is
the GI Joe, this is the Red Ryder BB gun.
This is whatever it was. The words on the phone were
verbal representations of what it was. 19/18/93, I think it was
1893 in Chicago, there was the World's Columbian Exposition.
During that time, 21 million people would visit Chicago who
20 years earlier had experienced the Great Fire.
Part of this Expo was called the World Parliament of Religion.
Every religion in the world that wanted to be there could come
and send their best representatives and make their
best points deal. Moody, recognizing the
opportunity that was there, commissioned evangelist to go
out into what he called preaching post in different
churches. They rented big tents.
And he was urged by his followers, attack, attack all of
these religions, put the holes in these religions, show people
that they're wrong. And he said, no, I refuse to do
that, what I'm going to do. And he's quoted saying I'm going
to make Jesus so attractive that men will turn to him.
And that's what he did and thousands of people during the
world's have come Colombian exposition came to Christ.
There's no other place in Scripture than what Paul has
given us that is doing that very thing.
He is making much of Jesus. I did not know Christ for the
first 15 years of my life, but for the past 44 years I have
celebrated Christmas as a child of the living God.
And I want to tell you that when we enter into this season, the
excitement of knowing there's so much here that I don't
understand. There's so much here that I have
not seen. There is so much awe and wonder
to who He is that my heart continues to swell in the joy of
hearing His word say this is who He is this morning.
For just a few minutes, let's look at the text.
What does Paul say? Go with me first, the verse 15.
He, this is Jesus is the image of the invisible God.
Now I want to invite you to do something Martin Louie Jones
would say. If you've known Christ for over
50 years, what we read in this passage should continue to
overwhelm your soul, soul with the wonder of who He is.
If you're just hearing this for the first time, what's being
said of Him can be said of no other.
It should overwhelm your soul. Who is this baby?
Who is this baby that's born in this Manger?
And a moment ago you heard the choir as they were singing the
second to last stanza, said Lo. Within a Manger lies he who
built the lofty skies. Who is this baby?
This baby, Paul tells us, is the image of the invisible God, the
first born of all creation. For a lot of people, what they
immediately think, and often they think wrongly about what's
said here, is that, oh, Christ resembled God.
He did resemble God, but it's not a mere resemblance.
Yesterday at boxes of blessings and oh, out of ministry.
What an incredible thing to witness.
My youngest son was there with me.
We were walking around. Some of you hadn't seen him in
years. He's as tall as me now and he
looks just like me. Many of you said so, except for
the hair color that's coming. But here's the truth.
He actually the way of similarities is not the exact
representation of me. Jesus, the baby in the Manger is
the exact imprint, the exact image of God.
He is not just a mere representation.
He is not just a picture. If you want to see what God is
like in His character and His nature, look to the baby and the
Manger. You don't start to when he was
30 and began his public ministry.
You look to the baby in the Manger because the baby in the
Manger is not going to become God.
The baby in the Manger is the one who made the very womb from
which he came from, the one that whose breast he nurses.
He made that breast, the one in where the angels filled the
skies. He made those lofty skies.
The little fingers that were his as they grab on to his mother's
are the fingers that made everything that we can see or
have seen or will see. If you were to look in books
that describe nature, the thousands upon thousands of
types of animals and insects, Jesus, the one who's in the
Manger, made them all. He's the exact image of his
Father because he himself is God.
I want to invite you this week to soak in these passages, this
verse, these verses, verse 16. Paul says, 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.
I think that has to blow our minds.
I love it when somebody says to me, I'm struggling to believe
certain things in the Bible. I mean, did Jesus really walk on
water? Well, he did.
I have a hard time believing that.
Well, don't start there. Start with the reality that he
made the water. Start with the reality that he
made all water. Start with the reality that he
made every foot and every finger and every finger nail.
Everyone, not just stop. This is who he is.
Every time I see a nativity scene, and now they're
everywhere, in our house, in the church, in your homes.
I'm reminded of a trip that we took to a large country in Asia
with students from this church where it was illegal to talk
about Jesus. But we were teaching
conversational English. And one of the themes of our
classes was to speak about American holidays.
And I remember listening to one of our students, I think she was
a junior at the time. She had brought with her a
nativity set. And there before about 30
students in this very dark country, she explained the real
meaning of Christmas. Yes, we talked about other parts
of the Christmas holiday in America.
We talked about Saint Nick. We talked about Christmas trees.
We talked about Christmas carols, those that are fun to
sing and those that are more fun to sing that speak of the real
meaning of Christmas. And it's this sweet junior in
high school took the figurines of Joseph and Mary and the baby
Jesus. This young man who was very
bright, 1516 years old, looked directly at her when she'd
finished, he said, and you believe this is true.
I was videotaping this. I have it behind him to his left
was a young girl named Tina, about the same age.
And when he said, and you believe this is true, she was
doing this. I believe I captured this best
we can on video regeneration. That young woman who was dead
apart from Christ that day, came to saving faith in Christ.
Two weeks later, Jason traveled to the United States to be part
of our cultural exchange, he himself peppering one of our
youth residents with questions. Russ Whitfield was the one give
his life to Christ. Both of them, about 15.
Up to the time they were 15, they had never really heard of
Jesus, certainly didn't celebrate him because they
didn't really celebrate Christmas at all.
But now, forever, they will. And you believe this is true if
you're in Christ, you believe everything that Paul is saying
about who this baby is. This season, like every
Christmas season, is an onslaught of things to distract
you and me from what really matters most.
When Paul uses the word preeminent in verse 18, he says
of Jesus, he's the beginning, the first born from the dead,
that in everything he might be preeminent.
It's a great word. What does it mean?
It means supreme. It means ahead of all others.
When it says first born, it doesn't mean he was the first
creature created. That's not true.
It means in rank and power and right.
He and He alone is preeminent. He and He alone is supreme.
When Paul talks about the fullness of Christ, verse 19 For
in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.
And then again in verse 9. For in Him the whole fullness of
Deity dwells bodily. What does he mean?
And this is where I'm going to leave us.
The baby in the Manger was a real baby who was a real man, A
real baby who is right now a real man.
He was fully God, and He is fully God, and He was fully man,
and He is fully man When we rush through the season and allow all
the trappings to distract us because we just checked boxes.
We can't do this with His word. This is who He's revealed
Himself to be. That word fullness is where
we're going to pick up next week.
But let me leave you with this Spurgeon, Speaking of this
passage. This idea of fullness is this.
There is in Christ Jesus a fullness of blessing,
unspeakable, unknown, a fullness of grace to pardon, of grace to
regenerate, of grace to sanctify, of grace to preserve,
and of grace to perfect. There is in Him a fullness at
all times, a fullness by day and a fullness by night, A fullness
of comfort and affliction, A fullness of guidance and
prosperity. A fullness of every divine
attribute, not some of them. A fullness of every divine
attribute, of wisdom, of power, of love.
A fullness which it is impossible to survey or to
explore when we speak of God and one of his attributes being his
incomprehensibility. That's what CS Lewis is saying.
If you've walked with Jesus for 50 or more years, if you just
now are beginning to show interest in Jesus, go to His
Word. What does His Word say?
These 5 or 6 verses say so much. So go there today, see what it
says about Him, and ask the Holy Spirit to tell you through His
Word. What does it mean that He's
preeminent? What does that mean for my life
today? What does it mean during this
Advent season? Well, it means everything.
And that's where we're going to start next Sunday.
Father in Heaven, it's so wonderful to stand in and behind
and on your word. None of these words that Paul
wrote could be spoken of anyone else.
And these words are trustworthy and true.
Father, whenever we see a Nativity scene, whenever we hear
a line from a Christian Christmas hymn that speaks of
your preeminence, wake us up. Wake us up again to the glory
that is yours alone, and to the grace, the fullness of your
grace, that has been bestowed to all who are in Christ.
And make us for your glory, Jesus, a faithful people eager
to live in the reality of your preeminence.
We pray in Jesus name, Amen. Please stand.