Colossians: Alive in Christ | Colossians 1:15-20

This is our third week in the book of Colossians.

You heard Diana read from chapter 1, verses 15 to 20.

Now, if you wanted to assemble the three or four passages that best described Jesus,

that most succinctly and fully defined the doctrine of Christology,

the study of Jesus, like the description of who Jesus is,

then easily you would choose this passage as one of them.

Phrase after phrase, clause after clause, a beautiful recitation of who Jesus is.

And it reminds me of the royal titles of the Austrian emperors.

Our family lived in Austria for three years,

and we learned there that when you earn a title, like doctor or professor,

it becomes your name.

So your name is now Herr, Doctor, Professor, Thomas Hinson III, right?

It's all one name.

That's to distinguish you from other people and to define who you are.

It's your identity.

And the emperor had the most elaborate name in the empire.

So, for instance, Austria's second-to-last emperor's title was His Majesty, Franz Josef I,

by the grace of God, Emperor of Austria, Apostolic King of Hungary, King of Bohemia, Dalmatia, Croatia,

Slavonia, etc., etc.

And there were, in total, 24 additional titles in addition to His name.

It was meant for shock and awe, right?

When you heard His name, you looked in every direction, and for hundreds of miles, you know,

this person was the owner and ruler of all those lands.

Franz Josef was sovereign.

He owned it all.

He ruled it all.

And I think Paul is doing something similar here in this letter, too, with something like titles.

But this is actually more of a song, a hymn, a poem.

You might remember from our previous two weeks together that various teachers infiltrated this young, vibrant church in Colossa.

And they were teaching the Colossians that if you want to go deeper, if you want more fullness,

if you want more security, then take Jesus, yes,

and add to it this thing or that thing from a Greek mystery, religion, or from Judaism, or what have you.

And Paul, in this letter, doesn't waste any time.

He drops the mother of all poems here right at the beginning of this letter,

saying you can't add anything.

Jesus is everything.

Period.

Period.

It's a dense passage.

We could spend several months on it.

You could teach a whole seminary course on this passage.

But then it would lose the effect, perhaps, that Paul is aiming for.

So we're going to just spend a little bit of time on each successive clause.

And then after that, I'll suggest what may be three appropriate responses that Paul is looking for.

Now, first, let's pray.

Father, we're here because we love you.

Father, we want to know you better.

So would you help us to see your son more clearly?

Would you help us to understand him better?

Would you help us to know him better?

That we might know you better?

And have our lives pour forth praise and worship and adoration to you and for you.

For you are and all you have done.

From eternity past to eternity future.

We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Well, let's start at the beginning.

Jesus is the image of the invisible God.

The Apostle Paul here sounds like the Apostle John does in the beginning of his gospel.

John 1, 18 says,

No one has ever seen God, the only God, who is at the Father's side.

He has made him known.

No one has ever seen God, the invisible God.

But Jesus, at the Father's side, has made him known.

Now, imagine a letter written by a Greek in Paul's day.

At the end of the letter, the letter might say,

I've enclosed an image of myself.

And then there's a stamp.

Now, the wax in this letter is like to the stamp, as Jesus is to the Father.

Image, icon of the Father.

Exact representation of his being, as we read in Hebrews chapter 1.

Hebrews 1 · chapter mention

So if you want to know what God is like, then you look to Jesus.

And it can be a helpful corrective to ways we misunderstand who God is.

Do we tend to think of God as this set of theories or propositions?

Well, then look to Jesus.

You'll see that God is a person.

Do we tend to think of God purely in terms of love and never in terms of holiness,

so that in our minds, God ends up being just a giant cosmic softy?

Then we look to Jesus, who's flipping tables in the temple,

who has words of sharp rebuke.

Woe to you, Chorazin.

Woe to you, Bethsaida.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.

Do we tend to think of God as a harsh taskmaster,

full of wrath and disapproval?

Well, then we look to Jesus,

and we see that God is gentle, tender,

full of patience and compassion,

full of love for the outcast,

for the poor, for the lonely, for the sick.

Jesus shows us not only who God is,

but who humanity was meant to be.

When God created the world,

the climax of that creation was humanity,

who he made in his own image,

according to Genesis 1.

Humanity was designed to be the perfect vehicle

for God's self-expression in this creation.

And here we find Jesus fulfilling that purpose.

This clause tells us that it is only in Jesus

that we understand what divinity and humanity really mean.

Okay, moving along.

He's the firstborn of all creation.

It might be tempting to read this and think

that Jesus was a part of creation.

And some have read that into this.

There's a heresy in the 4th century called Arianism,

named after its chief proponent, Arius.

Who taught that there was a time when Christ was not.

That Christ had a distinct beginning.

That he was the first of everything that God created.

That Harsley lives on today.

The Jehovah's Witnesses believe and teach the same thing.

But that is misreading this verse.

Firstborn doesn't refer to origins.

It refers to rank.

It's a title.

Referring to rank and dignity.

A king is firstborn.

Right?

But it's a title.

Firstborn.

It's a title that can be bestowed.

We read in Psalm 89.

That God says of David that,

I will appoint him to be my firstborn.

I will appoint him to be my firstborn.

The most exalted of the kings of the earth.

So this teaches us that Christ is supreme.

First in rank and dignity above all of this creation.

And not only is he above all things,

but all things were created by him and they find their origin in him.

For by all things,

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.

Wherever you look,

or whatever realities you can think of,

you discover entities which,

even if they do not acknowledge the fact,

owe their very existence to Christ.

He rules everything and everyone because he created everything.

Therefore,

for those who have been redeemed by Christ,

the universe no longer holds any terrors.

They know that their redeemer is also the creator and the ruler and the goal of all.

The universe has no terrors because Jesus created it all.

He rules it all.

And we read in the next clause that he is before all things

and in him all things hold together.

Before all things is another phrase that refers to primacy in rank and dignity.

But he holds all things together.

He prevents the world from falling to utter chaos.

The universe owes its continued cohesion and coherence

not to an idea or to a virtue or to a movement

or to some abstract unseen force

but to a person,

the risen Christ.

He's the reason an electron

remains encircled around a nucleus.

He explains the music of the spheres,

the fine-tuned dance of planets and moons

and their synchronized orbits around the sun.

And it explains the possibility of love.

He holds the universe together.

He can hold your family together.

He can hold your relationships together.

He can hold your friendships together.

He can hold your marriage together.

things only make sense when Christ is kept at the center,

including the church.

He's the head of the body, the church.

He's Lord of his people.

He's the locus of our unity and coherence.

He's the source of our sustenance and direction.

And he's the beginning, the firstborn from the dead.

Many Jews in Paul's day

believed that the resurrection of the dead

would be a large-scale, singular event

that lay sometime in the future.

The resurrection of the dead was an event

that would begin the age to come.

Paul is saying that that event

has already been inaugurated.

Elsewhere, Paul writes that Christ has been raised from the dead,

the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

The firstfruits and the harvest are all one harvest.

It's all one event.

So do you want to know what your future holds?

Well, look to the resurrection.

His resurrection,

His resurrection

guarantees the resurrection

of all those who follow Him.

Not only that,

Paul is saying that God brought forward

into the present

that age to come

in the midst of this present age

in order that the power of the new age

might be unleashed upon our world.

Through the resurrection of Jesus,

He is making all things new.

that in everything He might be preeminent.

Jesus has always been Lord in right.

With His resurrection,

He becomes Lord in fact.

His defeat of sin and death

makes Him Lord in fact.

Do you doubt that Jesus

is indeed Lord?

Then look to the resurrection.

The Hebrew says that

it doesn't appear,

it doesn't look,

in the present,

that all things are placed under His feet.

This phrase shows us God's purpose.

That ultimately He

will bring all things

under His rule in Christ.

For in Him all the fullness of God

was pleased to dwell.

In Christ is found

the fullness of God.

The Colossians were

not to seek bits of the divine

and various other gods

or spiritual beings.

all of the divine

is found in the risen Christ.

He is the only means

to access it.

Jesus is the only way to God.

It was true for the Colossians

and it is true for us.

Jesus said,

I am the way,

the truth,

and the life.

And no one comes to the Father

but through me.

and through Him

to reconcile to Himself

all things,

whether on earth

or in heaven,

making peace

by the blood of His cross.

Sin stood

as a barrier

between God

and His human creatures.

Sin results in death.

But when Jesus died,

sin's power

was exhausted.

It's the fulfillment

of Isaiah 53

which says,

He was pierced

for our transgressions.

He was crushed

for our iniquities.

The punishment

that brought us peace

was upon Him

and by His wounds

we are healed.

Does this mean

that every single human

gets reconciled to God?

It doesn't.

Reconciliation

requires something of us.

We'll get to that

in a minute.

But what it does mean

is that God's purposes

in reconciliation

include the whole world.

In the creation,

it was man

that was supposed

to bring God's order

upon the earth.

Human sin

led to the creation's fall

and now man's reconciliation

can lead to the restoration

of all of creation.

Paul writes

in the book of Romans,

for we know

that the whole creation

has been groaning together

in the pains of childbirth

until now.

And not only the creation,

but we ourselves

who have the first fruits

of the Spirit

grown inwardly

as we eagerly wait

the adoption of sons,

the redemption of our bodies.

redemption is not to be thought

of dualistically,

right?

That the created world

is bad stuff

and redemption means

getting rescued from it.

Christ still loves

what he has made

and still belongs to him.

Redemption is not

an invasion

from an outside

hostile realm,

but the Lord of this world

comes to claim

his rightful possession.

All right.

We did it.

We zoomed through it

really quick.

That was a lot.

And it's really thick and dense.

But as we said,

Paul is trying to

elicit a response.

So now it's time

to ask the question,

so what?

Before we do,

I'd like just to make

one general observation

about this passage,

top to bottom.

Like, what can you say about it?

I think you can

summarize it this way.

That Paul is saying

Jesus is God.

Jesus is God.

Where do we see

that most clearly?

Well, it says he's the image

of the invisible God.

It says that in Christ,

all the fullness of God

was pleased to dwell.

But I think the other things

that he says

makes it even more clear.

Let's talk about

how the Jews conceived

of the uniqueness of God.

As you know,

the Jews were strictly

monotheistic.

Very self-consciously

monotheistic.

Twice a day,

they would recite

this verse

from Deuteronomy,

Deuteronomy 6 · chapter mention

chapter 6.

Hear, O Israel,

the Lord our God,

the Lord is one.

He's one.

Love the Lord your God

with all your heart

and with all your soul

and with all your mind.

Now, in their minds,

how was the one God unique?

Like, what distinguished him

from everything else

that claimed deity

or divinity?

I mean, as a whole,

they didn't use categories

like from Greek metaphysics

to describe God's uniqueness.

Like we would.

Like we would say,

God is omniscient,

he's omnipotent,

he's omnipresent,

therefore,

he's God.

No, that's not how

they went about it.

Over and over,

we find in literature

from this period,

we find that God's uniqueness

from all other reality,

from all other pagan gods,

lies in his unique identity.

It's an identity.

Namely this,

that God,

the only true God,

the God of Israel,

is the sole creator

of all things

and the sole ruler

of all things.

He's the sole creator

of all things

and the sole ruler

of all things.

First,

in creation,

God acted alone.

Isaiah 44,

24,

says this,

Thus says the Lord,

your Redeemer,

who formed you

from the womb,

I am the Lord

who made all things,

who alone

stretched out the heavens,

who spread out the earth

by myself.

I spread out the earth

by myself.

God had no helper.

No one else had any part.

So that's creation.

Now,

in his sovereignty,

he employs servants

like a royal court,

but they are merely servants.

There are no co-rulers.

And so we read,

when we read in this passage

that by him and in him

all things are made,

it's not that Jesus

was a helper.

Jesus is being identified

directly with the God of Israel.

And when we read

that Jesus is the firstborn,

first in rank,

that he's preeminent,

Paul isn't saying that

God is sharing his rule

with Jesus,

Paul is again

directly identifying Jesus

with the God of Israel,

the one God.

Now,

some people look at the Bible,

scholars will look at the Bible

and say,

now Jesus said a lot

of great things.

And then later,

the church came along

like Paul

and said that he's God,

but that's not really

who Jesus claimed to be.

Well,

actually,

he did.

He did claim divinity.

in relationship to Israel itself,

God's uniqueness

actually lay

in his name.

His uniqueness lay in his name.

Yahweh,

which sounds like

I am,

right?

So in John 8,

when Jesus says to those

who are trying to kill him,

before Abraham was,

I am,

I am is God's name,

Jesus is identifying himself

with the God of Israel.

And that's why

those who are trying

to kill him in that moment

picked up stones

and tried to stone him.

They knew exactly

what he was doing.

Okay.

Now,

what does this mean

for all of us?

I would suggest

that there are three,

or I mean,

at least three,

responses

that are required

based on what we've heard today.

Now,

the first is to decide.

Decide if you believe

the claims that Paul

is made about Christ.

Decide if you believe

the claims that Jesus

made about himself.

That Jesus was creator of all.

That he's ruler of all.

That Jesus is God.

C.S. Lewis

famously made the argument

that one cannot dismiss

Jesus as just a teacher

or a good person

or even a prophet

because he didn't

claim those things.

His claim was much more extreme.

He had,

like we just heard,

he claimed to be God.

And if it wasn't,

if Jesus wasn't God,

if he wasn't

what he claimed to be,

then Lewis wrote,

he would either be a lunatic

on the level

with the man

who says he is a poached egg

or else he would be

the devil of hell.

You must make your choice.

Either this man was

and is the son of God

or else a madman

or something worse.

You can shut him up

for a fool,

you can spit at him

and kill him as a demon,

or you can fall at his feet

and call him Lord

and God.

But let us not come

with any patronizing nonsense

about his being

a great human teacher.

He has not left

that open to us.

He did not intend to.

So that's the first response

to this passage.

Decide and believe

or not believe.

But we're faced

with a decision.

And if you believe

the claims that Jesus

made about himself,

if you believe

what Paul teaches here

in Colossians,

then the next response

is as C.S. Lewis suggests,

to fall at his feet

and call him Lord

and God.

This is for all of us.

Falling at his feet,

calling him Lord,

means we repent

of our claims

to lordship.

We are like,

we're like

Francius titles.

We are wanting to

lay claims

to everything

that our eye beholds.

We want to grasp

at everything around us

and say,

it's ours.

I am the Lord

over my finances.

I'm the Lord

over my time.

I'm the Lord

over my body

and I can do

what I want with it.

I'm the Lord

of my abilities.

I'm the Lord

of my resources.

I can do

what I want with them.

And so we set up

ourselves

as rival lords

to the one

who has created

and really owns

everything.

And that's not

just being

bad.

that's cosmic

rebellion.

And this is why

we need reconciliation.

And only God

can accomplish that.

Jesus took

that rebellion,

that cosmic rebellion

and all of its

consequences

on himself

when he died

on the cross

and there he

dealt with it.

The only thing

we can bring

to this reconciliation

process

is our confession,

our emptiness,

our brokenness,

our need.

Interestingly,

we find this

very same thing

in the Austrian

royal funeral rite.

When Franz Josef

died in the year

1916,

his body was led

from St. Stephen's

Cathedral

through the streets

of Vienna

in the most

elaborate

and ornate

funeral procession

you've ever seen.

No one does death

quite like Vienna,

I learned.

And like his

predecessors,

Franz Josef's

casket

would have been

brought

to the

Capuchin church

under which

lies the crypt

where many

of Austria's

emperors

and empresses

lay interred.

And on behalf

of the deceased

emperor,

the high

chamberlain

knocks three

times on the

door of the

church

with the

royal mace

and the

prior of the

Capuchins

calls out,

who seeks

entry?

And the

chamberlain,

on behalf of

the deceased

emperor,

replies,

his majesty,

Franz Josef

the first,

by the grace

of God,

emperor of

Austria,

apostolic king

of Hungary,

king of

Bohemia,

Dalmatia,

Croatia,

Slovenia,

Galicia,

Lodomeria,

and Illyria,

king of

Jerusalem,

archduke of

Austria,

grand duke of

Tuscany and

Krakow,

duke of

Lorraine,

Salzburg,

Styria,

Carinthia,

Carniola,

and the

Book of

Vena,

grand prince

of Transylvania,

Margrave of

Moravia,

count of

Habsburg,

and the

Tyrol,

and the

prior calls

out,

we do

not know

him.

Again,

three knocks.

Who seeks

entry?

And the

high chamberlain

calls out,

emperor

Franz Josef,

apostolic king

of Hungary,

king of

Bohemia,

and the

prior again

says,

we do not

know him.

Who seeks

entry?

And the

chamberlain

then kneels

down and

humbly

says,

a poor

sinner,

Franz Josef,

who begs

God's

mercy.

mercy.

And the

prior then

opens the

door to

the church

and its

crypt

and commands,

enter.

What are you

claiming lordship

over?

What areas

of your life

are you trying

to keep

from Jesus'

reign?

God's

sin?

How have you

set yourself

up to

as a

rival lord,

to the

creator and

ruler of

all things?

Living in

reconciliation

with God

means renouncing

our claims

on anything,

falling on

our knees

before him,

and pleading

for his

mercy.

I'm

suggesting

three

responses

to this

passage.

The first

was to

decide

and to

believe.

The second

is to

repent.

The third

is to

worship.

Worship.

Paul used

a poem

to say

these things

because he

was going

for maximum

impact,

for shock,

for awe,

but not

just to

our

minds.

He

means to

engage

our whole

selves,

our minds,

our bodies,

our souls.

So let's

get to that

right now.

Ordinarily,

we end our

sermons with

a prayer.

And we'll

do that same

thing together

tonight.

We're going

to do it

together.

So would

you please

stand?

We're going

to pray

together the

hymn found

in Colossians

1.

So if we

can go back

to it.

And when

you see

he is

the image,

say you

are the

image.

And you

see by

him,

say by

you all

things were

created.

Okay?

Let's pray.

Lord Jesus,

you are the

image of the

invisible God,

the firstborn of

all creation.

For by you

all things were

created,

in heaven and

on earth,

visible and

invisible,

whether thrones

or dominions,

rulers or

authorities,

all things were

created through

you and for

you.

And you are

before all

things.

And in you

all things hold

together.

And you are

the head of the

body, the

church.

You are the

beginning, the

firstborn from

the dead, that

in everything you

might be

preeminent.

for in you

all the

fullness of

God was

pleased to

dwell, and

through you to

reconcile to

himself all

things, whether

on earth or

in heaven, making

peace by the

blood of your

cross.