This sermon is the second message in a series of messages through the New Testament book of Colossians. Based on Col. 1:15-23, the message focuses on the words of Paul as he describes various qualities and characteristics of Jesus, the Son of God. A video recording of the worship service in which this message was preached can be viewed by clicking here.
Written Excerpts:
Introduction:
Last Sunday we started a new series of messages going through the book of Colossians. We looked at verses 1-14 of chapter one in which the author, the Apostle Paul, expressed his prayers for the recipients. His first mention of prayer was letting them know that He gives thanks to the Lord for all that God had done and was doing in their lives. Then he shares his prayer for God to help them to increase in knowledge, strength, and obedience.
When Jesus was speaking to His disciples one day, He asked, “Whom do men say that I am?” (Mark 8:27). After they responded with some of the things they had heard, He then asked, “Whom do you say that I am?” (v. 29). You may already know that Peter responded with these words, “You are the Christ.” The most crucial question every person must answer in their own minds and hearts is this, “Who do you say that Jesus is?”
Long ago I learned the fact that false doctrines and false religions can be identified by their beliefs about Jesus. And apparently it was one of the concerns that Paul had about the believers in Colossae. Last week I mentioned that one of the up-and-coming problems in that region was the early stages of Gnosticism, which held very faulty views of Jesus. So he is explaining several key concepts about Jesus in this very first chapter.
What are the key elements in the accurate description or picture of
Christ as presented by Paul? There are three mentioned here.
I. Jesus Christ is the
exact representation of God.
I previously explained that one of the doctrines of the Gnostics was all matter is evil. Jesus could not truly be God because he had a physical body, which means he partakes of evil. There were various theories or schools of thought that tried to explain Jesus in different terms than truly the divine Son of God. For example, one view stressed the belief that the “Christ” designation “Messiah” only came upon Jesus at his baptism and then left him prior to the crucifixion. There were other variations of explanations offered. But the Apostle Paul cuts through all of the speculative theories and boldly proclaims that He (i.e. the Son – v. 13) is the exact image of the God we cannot see.
Col. 1:15 (NKJV) He is the
image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
Heb. 1:3 (NKJV) who
being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person…
“Image” has a stronger meaning than the word “likeness.” While likeness carries the idea of resemblance or similarity, “image” also includes the idea of derivation. (Lenski)
The Son, Jesus, is the exact stamp of the Father. And it is expressed
in even higher terms in v. 19.
Col. 1:19 (NKJV) For it
pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell,
Jesus isn’t partially God or partially divine, but He is, in fact, the
full representation of God in bodily form.
Col. 2:9 (NKJV) For in Him
dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;
“firstborn over all creation” – a phrase that, on the surface, sounds like
it is saying the Son of God was created.
It is a way of saying that He is the eternal Son, eternally “born” of the Father, but He is eternal none-the-less. It also expresses the fact that He existed prior to all creation in time and rank. (Tyndale Commentary)
Paul is proclaiming the deity of Christ and establishing the fact that He is the eternal Son of God providing the exact image and likeness of the Father for everyone to witness. Really, if you want to know who God is, look at Christ. If you want to know what God is like, look at Christ. If there is anything you want to know about God, look at Christ.
Power – look at walking on
the water, calming the stormy sea, healing the sick, sight to the blind and
coming out of the grave.
Love – listen to him say,
“Neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more;” look at him lying down on the
cross and stretching out his arms for the whole world as he shed his blood and
gave up life.
Purity/holiness – he was
tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin.
Anger – look at him go
into the temple and throw over the tables and whip the religious crooks right
out of the temple area.
Christ is God acting like God in the lowly raiment of human flesh. – A. W. Tozer (Draper's Book of Quotations for the Christian World)
II. Jesus Christ is the
agent of creation.
The Son is not only the “firstborn of all creation,” meaning that He existed before creation, which by the way, is what John says in John 1:1. “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” But, this Son is the agent of everything that is created.
cf. John 1:3 (NKJV) All
things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
The way Paul describes it, there is nothing left out. Everything that came into existence came because the Son of God made it. Look at what all is included (vv. 16-17)
Col. 1:16-17 (NKJV) 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.
“consist” – old verb, to place together and here to cohere, to hold
together. (A.T. Robertson, Word
Pictures in the New Testament)
He made it all. It all exists for His glory. It all holds together by His power. Rather that Jesus being some product of creation – several stages removed from the divine – He is the agent of all creation because He is divine. He existed before everything else, and He is the reason for everything else.
III. Jesus Christ is the
head of the church.
Col. 1:18 (NKJV) 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.
The next element in this eloquent description of Christ by the Apostle has to do with His work in the world through His body, the church. Some have pointed out that the letter to the Ephesians and the letter to the Colossians both have a great deal to say about the church. While Ephesians emphasizes the church as the “body,” Colossians emphasizes Christ as the “head.”
As the head of the church, He gives it coherence, purpose guidance, and control. He is the “beginning” or cause/source of the church. He is the “firstborn from the dead” or the conqueror of death, through His own resurrection.
(Tyndale New Testament Commentaries – Colossians and Philemon) Firstborn’ here, particularly when taken
... in the sense of ‘beginning’, implies that Christ’s
resurrection, though presently unique, will be acted out by a great company of
others.
“that He might have the preeminence” – so that everything should all point to Him as source/creator/author, and everything should glorify Him. He is exalted!
Col. 1:19-23 (NKJV) 19
For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell,
20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. 21 And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled 22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight-- 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.
All of these words and phrases emphasize different phases of the work that Christ has done in and for His church. He did it all and continues to do it all so that “He might have the preeminence!”
Conclusion:
I believe it was while I was still in Bible college that someone said, when people leave our churches after the worship service it should not be our goal for them to say, “what a great message,” or “what a great preacher,” but “What a great Christ!” I haven’t done an adequate job today describing Him as I’d like. What a great Christ we serve! What an awesome Lord and Savior!
There is a verse that will be coming up in our next message, but I want
to mention a portion of it now.
Col. 1:27 (NKJV) … Christ in you, the hope of glory.
This wonderful Lord, Jesus the Christ, can live within each and every
one of us through His Spirit!
Closing Song: Have You Any Room for Jesus?
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