Colossians 1:15-23 "The Preeminance of Christ" - Jimmy Alexander

Well, turn with me, if you will, to Colossians chapter 1, and today we will be looking at verses 15 through 23, which is all about who Christ is and what he has done.

Colossians 1 · chapter mention

And just as a reminder from our earlier lessons of Colossians, Paul is sending a letter to the Colossian church because they were dealing with numerous false beliefs.

And one of the most widespread heresies they encountered was something called Gnosticism, which is derived from the Greek word gnosis, which means to know.

I'm sure you guys are familiar with the term agnostic, means don't know, I don't know.

Gnosis means I do know.

And so Gnosticism was a belief system that claimed special knowledge could bring salvation.

It involved harsh treatment of the body and long periods of meditation until you received special revelation from God.

And the special revelation was an awareness that everything spiritual was good, and everything material or physical was bad.

And this led to the belief that Jesus Christ had two persons in one.

So there was Jesus the man, and then there was Christ the divine God.

And so they claimed that Christ the God came into Jesus the man during his baptism, and then he kind of came and went as he pleased, is what they taught.

And then conveniently, before the crucifixion, Christ the God left Jesus the man, so it was just Jesus the man who died on the cross for our sins.

And so this obviously was very problematic, because if this was true, then we have no guarantee of our salvation.

It implies that the atonement was insufficient.

This ruins the very foundation of Christianity.

And just so that we're all aware, you know, false teaching has the common traits of distorting the nature of God, perverting the work of Christ, minimizing the power of God, and elevating the importance of man.

And so the Colossian church is now left wondering, could these Gnostics be right?

Maybe we're missing out on this secret revelation.

And if you're anything like me and you have FOMO, the fear of missing out, you hear something like this and you wonder, is there something more to Christianity?

Is there some kind of spiritual blessing I'm missing out on?

And so Paul's response in verses 15 through 23 is to set things straight.

And I love Paul's method here.

He doesn't start off by saying, you know, let me define Gnosticism, let me get into the weeds of their belief.

Instead, Paul combats heresy by simply teaching the truth.

You know, the best way to identify a counterfeit bill is to study and know a real one.

And in the same way, the best way to identify false ideas about Christ is to know the real one.

And so Paul writes a theologically rich poem about Jesus Christ.

And his goal is to remind them of the true nature of Jesus Christ.

And this is what we all need, time and time again, when we start playing around with sin again, during seasons when we begin to doubt if we're truly forgiven, or when we feel like Jesus is just distant and our view of him becomes blurry, we need our minds renewed once again of who Jesus Christ is and what he has done.

And so Paul raises the eyes of the Colossians this morning, and he starts his poem in verses 15 through 20 saying, He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn 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.

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.

So behold, church, this is our Savior, the redeemer of our souls, the one who holds our lives in his hands.

So who is Jesus?

What is his nature?

What is he like?

Well, Paul starts by saying in verse 15 that he is God.

He is the visible image of the invisible God.

Or as Hebrews 1 puts it, the sun is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being.

If you want to know God, if you want to know how God speaks, how he works, how he moves, look at Jesus Christ.

This is why Martin Luther famously once said, he said, I know no God except Jesus Christ.

Now this is vital regarding our faith, because if it's true, as false teachers say, that Jesus is an angel or a demigod or a mere man, then we are toast.

Okay, our salvation is not secure.

It baffles me when cults are so adamant on making Jesus less than God.

Trust me, you don't want that.

Because only an eternal sacrifice can atone for an eternal crime against an eternal God.

If Jesus is not God, then his mediation is limited, his atonement is insufficient, and we have no comfort of forgiveness.

But if it's true that Jesus is God, then all we need is him.

As Charles Spurgeon once said, if a man has Christ, then what else does he want?

If a man has Christ, he has everything.

If I want perfection and I have Christ, I have absolute perfection in him.

And to support this argument further, Paul says that he is the firstborn among all creation.

Now this is kind of funny because false teachers will point to this and say, aha, there it is.

Jesus was the first created and the firstborn.

Therefore, he's not God.

But if you are any student of the Bible, or if you have any basic understanding of Greek language, you would realize that this term firstborn, it means rank, not birth.

In the ancient world, to be firstborn didn't refer to the fact that you were born first.

It is a term of position.

It literally means to be exalted to the highest place.

And so this term that false teachers point to ironically emphasizes his divinity and complete sovereignty.

And Paul basically explains this term further in the next verse.

For by him, Jesus, all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, dominions, rulers, authorities, all things were created through him and for him.

So Jesus is the creator and rules over all.

You know, many theologians believe in Genesis 1, when God said, Let there be light, that he was talking to Jesus.

That Jesus is the one who made it happen.

So this implies that Jesus existed before all creation and was directly involved in creation itself.

And therefore everything is under his sovereign rule.

Look at the verse thrones, dominions, spiritual powers, even demonic powers.

He rules over them all.

So there has never been a time in human history where Jesus kind of lost control of things.

There was never a time when Jesus said, oh no, they thwarted my plans, they corrupted my Bible.

Oh no, they started a war without my knowledge.

They outsmarted me.

Never.

The world may seem out of control to you.

Society may seem totally chaotic.

Even your own life might feel aimless.

But here's the reality: Jesus is in total control over all things, and he is working everything in this universe according to his plan.

And what supports that argument is fulfilled prophecy.

Proves that.

100%.

So Jesus Christ is not this weak, pitiful, kind of sissified king that modern culture tries to make him out to be.

He is the Lord of all creation.

He's ruling over the universe, commanding the stars, governing all of heaven.

He sets boundaries for demons, and when they overstep that boundary, he banishes them.

He's orchestrating all of history according to the end goal of his glory.

And to support this argument further, Paul says in verse 17, he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

So he's not just above all and before all, but he is actively holding the whole universe together.

So he's not this king who lives far away and he's not involved in daily life.

In every moment of the day, he keeps all of history ticking by the millisecond.

And so the only reason this world hasn't moved an inch and is destroyed by the sun, you know, the only reason I can take my next breath, the only reason the whole world continues to move and have its being is because Jesus Christ holds it all together.

You know, scientists they have a lot of knowledge concerning atoms and molecules, but one thing they can't really explain is the force that kind of holds it all together, right?

Why aren't molecules just kind of floating around?

Why are molecules bound to physical objects?

What's holding everything together?

And their answer is, well, it's kind of a strong force, is what they say.

And we agree in that.

It's the strongest force.

It's Jesus Christ.

He's upholding and sustaining life.

And this doesn't just apply to the universe, but to the church as well.

Paul says, He is the head of the body, the church.

And so Jesus didn't start a church and walk away and say, hey, good luck.

Throughout scripture, Christians are referred to as members of a body.

It's a glorious illustration.

There is only one body, but it has many members.

And what holds the whole body together is the head of Jesus Christ.

So Rick and I do not hold this church together.

Christ does.

We're just under-shepherds of the great shepherd.

Ephesians 1.23 says this the church is his body.

It is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with himself.

He is the one saving people.

Not church strategies, not human wisdom or strength, but Christ Himself.

And so Jesus started the church, he builds the church, he preserves the church, and he, not a pastor or a pope, is the final authority of the church.

And so the only reason the church continues to remain and flourish over the last 2,000 years, despite extreme persecution and hostility, is because Christ is the head of it.

And since he is the head of it, the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

Why?

Because the head of the church, the founder, is the Lord over all creation.

And he has all power and knowledge.

And so Paul goes on to say that he is the beginning.

He is the firstborn among the dead.

What does this mean?

This doesn't mean that Christ was the first to be resurrected in a general sense.

In the Old Testament and in the New Testament, we see people resurrected.

But what it does mean is that Christ was the founder and the initiator of a new era where people, believers, can directly escape death, conquer sin, and go directly into God's very presence.

He was the pioneer, if you will, who paved the way to heaven.

Before the cross, Old Testament saints didn't go directly to God.

They went to a place called Paradise, which is located in Hades, if you will.

It kind of acted as a holding cell.

And that's why Jesus said to the thief on the cross, Today I will see you in paradise.

Not heaven, but paradise.

But after Jesus paid every penny for our sin on the cross, he died, he went to paradise, and he took paradise to heaven.

He released a host of Old Testament believers to go directly to heaven.

As Matthew 27 says, right after Jesus died, the graves were opened, and many bodies of saints who had fallen asleep were raised, coming out of the graves after his resurrection.

So when Jesus took his last breath on the cross, he died, he went to paradise, he told them the good news, and he took every Old Testament saint directly into the presence of God.

Ephesians 4.8 says, when he ascended up to the highest place, he led captives into captivity and gave gifts to people.

He is the great pioneer who paved the perfect road for us to go directly into the presence of God.

There's no longer any gap, no obstacle between us and God.

And so when we die, there's no purgatory, there's no holding cell, there's only a direct path to the God of our salvation.

In death we share in Christ's resurrection and go directly into the presence of God Almighty.

Which is why Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5, when we are away from the body, we are at home with the Lord.

So what does this all mean?

If Jesus is God, if he is above all, if he's ruling over all creation, if he is the head of the church, if he was the first to truly conquer death, what is our conclusion?

Well, look at the end of verse 17.

That in everything he is preeminent.

Christ is first, he is surpassing all others, the greatest, the greatest of all, the most superior.

And therefore, he is all we need.

You don't need the world plus Jesus.

You don't need sin plus Jesus.

You don't need hidden knowledge out there plus Jesus.

You don't need Jesus plus money or more stuff or better circumstances.

The only thing you need is the one who is all-knowing, all-sufficient, and all-powerful.

The only one you need is the one who is before all and above all and through all.

The only thing you need pertaining to life, peace, and satisfaction is Jesus Christ.

He is all we need.

And Paul goes on to say in verses 19 and 20 that the fullness of God was pleased to dwell in Christ.

Through Christ, all things will be reconciled by the peace that he made on the cross for our sins.

And so now that Paul has kind of got our attention on Christ, we're awestruck by his utter majesty and his divine glory, Paul now transitions our attention to us.

He says in verses 21 through 23, and you, who were once alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he is now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him.

If indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.

So this is kind of funny.

It's kind of like looking at a sewage tank after a night of gazing at the stars.

We're not above all.

Okay, we look at Christ and we see his majesty, his splendor, his holiness, but then we look back at ourselves and we kind of go, ew, you know, I'm gross.

I'm not sovereign.

You know, I'm hostile to God in many ways, and my evil deeds prove that.

Now, this is a problem, isn't it?

You know, if Jesus is all powerful, how is he going to solve this issue?

You know, I can believe that Jesus is in total control of the universe, but how is he going to take an evil sin lover and make them a holy God lover?

If I'm separated from God, if I have a love for sin that I can't seem to fix, and if I totally deserve his wrath, what is Jesus going to do about that?

How will he ever make me a wretched sinner right with God, who is utterly holy?

It's a cosmic issue.

Yet Christ was able to do it.

And how did he do it?

Look at verse 22.

He reconciled you to God, and here is how he did it in his body of flesh by his death.

So Jesus Christ, the Son of God, took on flesh.

Like Barabbas, that cross should have been prepared for you and I.

But Christ took our place, he paid every last penny and totally satisfied the wrath of God against our rebellion.

And since God accepted his sacrifice, since it was sufficient, there is now no work we must do to earn God's approval.

And what Christ gave us was a gift, the free gift of salvation that is obtained by grace through faith.

So Christ not only paid for our sins, but he offers us his righteousness free of charge.

Not only did Jesus clear our accounts, But he offers us his righteousness and his purity so that when God looks at us, he wouldn't just see us as neutral, not neutral, but as holy and blameless saints.

There is so much more to say here about this great salvation, how we receive the Holy Spirit, how we're adopted into God's family, how we receive the eternal promises of God.

And I simply just don't have time to go into all those details, but the point here is this: look at the verse.

We are now presented holy and blameless and above reproach before God the Father.

Holy meaning set apart, unique, sanctified.

Blameless meaning you can't be accused of wrongdoing before God or people.

And above reproach meaning innocent in the eyes of the law.

This church is total, complete reconciliation.

If you have put saving faith in Jesus Christ, you are a child of God, and God sees you as holy and blameless.

Jesus Christ was sovereign even over your depraved, sinful mess.

He was sovereign over it.

Although the gap between us and God seemed hopeless, Jesus bridged that gap sufficiently and totally.

Paul says, this is true if you continue in the faith steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel you heard.

So here we are given a warning.

This only applies to those who persevere.

Now this is important because Paul never wants to give someone false assurance to those who insist on living their own way or embracing false teaching.

Okay, and just to be clear, this isn't a statement saying that you can lose your salvation.

Paul's not saying, you know, hey, you need to stick with it.

And if not, Jesus is gonna somehow go back on his promise.

He will somehow remove his cleansing blood and bring back up your old sinful account that he destroyed on the cross and somehow de-resurrect your new nature and then revoke his irrevocable promises.

So that's not what Paul's talking about here.

That doesn't fit with Scripture.

What Paul is saying here is this if you continue to believe, if you continue to have faith, if you continue to follow Jesus, that proves that you are genuinely saved.

It's the parable of the sower.

True saints persevere.

If you can fall away, if you can embrace false teaching so easily and delightfully, then you never understood or truly received salvation to begin with.

It doesn't apply.

So if God has begun a good work in you, he will finish it.

If God is the author and the finisher of your faith and salvation, he will finish it.

If the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable, as Romans tells us, then nothing can separate you from his love, as Romans 8 tells us.

As John 6 says, if the Father has granted you Christ, you will not be lost.

But let this be a warning to the fakers, to those who claim Christ, but have never truly received him as Lord and Savior.

So, church, as Peter says in his second letter, make your election and calling sure.

Test yourselves, examine yourself, the authenticity of your faith, so that you might be approved and have assurance that you are a child of God who is destined for glory.

And Paul closes his argument this morning by reminding this church at the end of verse 23 that this gospel has been proclaimed throughout all creation, of which he is a minister of.

You know, sometimes when we're introduced to a false teaching, we begin to wonder, you know, maybe I'm the one wrong.

Maybe the false teachers are right, maybe I'm missing out on something.

And what we need in these moments is just some assurance that one, we're not alone in our doctrine, and two, we're standing on orthodoxy and apostolic authority.

And so Paul reminds these Christians, first and foremost, that the true gospel message that they are standing on, it's spreading throughout the world.

It's considered the core beliefs that make Christianity Christianity.

It is Paul's gospel being proclaimed around the world, not that of the Gnostics or the mystics or the legalists.

And so Paul stamps his apostolic authority on it by saying, of which I am a minister of.

Now, how reassuring.

Sometimes we just need reminders like that.

We've all been there.

We doubt the validity of the Bible.

Maybe our minds start to question if Jesus was truly God.

Perhaps we begin to doubt the means of our salvation.

And we just need reminded of what the apostles taught, what Christian Orthodoxy has taught, and what other faithful churches are teaching.

And realizing that we are standing on the core, time-tested truth of and message of Christianity 101.

We need that reminder.

So, Proclamation Church, what do we do with a text like this?

What is our application?

And I would like to start off by sharing a story with you guys.

You know, years ago, I went to uh a mission trip in Guatemala, and it was just an amazing experience for me.

Uh the terrain was beautiful.

I remember we landed on the plane.

There it was very tropical, there were volcanoes, mountains, and uh it was just like a whole nother world to me.

And it was just so exciting, so moving, breathtaking.

I was awestruck by the trip.

And then a year later, I decided to go back, but I went with some new people, and we landed at the airport, same thing.

We got in the car, and all the newbies uh were doing the same thing I was on the first trip.

They were amazed, and they're like, wow, look at that mountain, look at the culture, they were so excited, and they were kind of nudging me, saying, Jimmy, look, look at the mountain, look at the volcano.

And my response was, yeah, it's alright.

But I've seen it before.

You know, I already know this land, I've already been here before.

And so it was less attractive.

And in the Christian life, we do this with Jesus Christ.

Over time, our eyes and our hearts begin to drift from his beauty.

We forget his majesty.

Life gets busy, sin starts to slowly creep back into our lives, more Netflix, less time in the word and prayer, and even worse, when we hear the teaching about the gospel or the nature of Jesus Christ, we say in our hearts, not this again.

I already know this.

I've already accepted him.

Let's move on to more spiritual things.

But we never outgrow the gospel.

No Christian ever graduates the beauty of Jesus Christ.

Do you realize that eternal life is Christ Himself?

He defines that for us in John 17, 3.

Jesus says, and this is eternal life, that you may know the only true God in Jesus Christ.

So eternity, it's not merely a quantity of life, it's a quality of life with Christ.

We should never grow cold in hearing about who He is and what He has done.

If there is anything that the Old Testament teaches us, it's that we are a forgetful people.

I can barely remember Molly and I's anniversary half the time.

Okay, we need to be reminded.

Our minds need to be renewed each day, and our hearts need to be stirred time and time again on who Christ is and what he has done.

And so what we need is for someone to grab our chins, lift our heads, and say, look again and again and again at who Jesus Christ is.

We need someone to remind us to fix our eyes on Christ because everything in our Christian life overflows from where our focus is.

And if our focus is on anything other than Jesus Christ, well, you can expect despair and discouragement and darkness.

And so perhaps this is the cause of our spiritual apathy.

It's not your circumstances, it's not because the church is failing, it's not because you lack discipline.

Perhaps your ingratitude, your sin struggle, your discontentment are simply because you are not looking at Christ and growing in your knowledge of Him.

And because of that, as 2 Peter 1 says, you are ineffective, unproductive, nearsighted, and blind, forgetting that you have been cleansed of your past sins.

So, church, look this morning at Jesus Christ with an open Bible.

Look at him and do so with biblical accuracy.

Read through the Gospels.

We are no different than the Colossians.

We live in a syncretistic culture that is trying to redefine our beliefs.

There are so many false religions out there, worldviews and ideas about who Jesus is.

I can't even keep track.

And so be reminded that He is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-glorious, and allow His glory and His love to push out of you any sin.

And may it grant you repentance and allow His majesty to reignite in you a spiritual fervor.

Church, let us fix our eyes on Christ this morning, beholding his beauty.

Let's pray.

God, we look to you this morning.

You are the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Lamb of God.

And Lord, one day, perhaps someday soon, you will return.

And the fullness of your glory will be revealed to the world.

Every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that you are Lord.

Father, we long for that day.

We long for the day where uh the dim mirror will be removed and we will see you as you are in the fullness of your glory.

But Father, in the meantime, help us, Lord.

Help us to renew our minds.

Help us to have an accurate view of you and protect us, Lord, from false teaching, from wrong ideas, wrong beliefs about who you are.

Would you grant us this morning with an accurate view of you and help us to do the diligence of being students of your word?

May we read many good books, but may we live in the living word.

And so, Father, we thank you this morning for this message.

We pray this in your name.

Amen.