Christ Incarnate: The Image of the Invisible God (Colossians 1) 28th December 2025

Thank you. May be seated.

Good morning everyone

and on behalf of the the Heric family

and I wish you a happy Christmas and I

trust that the the new year coming will

be blessed as well. I hope that you've

had time and opportunity with your

families over this holiday season uh to

be together uh to rejoice in the

goodness and grace of God

uh to celebrate together. What a special

time of year it is and we are thankful

uh for these special opportunities.

I started wearing glasses

when I was about 11 or 12 years old. I

was playing baseball

and I was playing third base which is

about 20 or so meters away from home

plate and it was getting a little bit

dark and I noticed as I was standing

there waiting for the batter to

hopefully hit the ball to me um that I

wasn't really able to see the home plate

or the batter very clearly. So I told

the coach and then I told my parents and

they arranged for me to have my eyes

examined and of course been the first

time I'd had that done. So everything

was new. I sat in the chair and the the

the eye doctor put this big machine in

front of me, asked me to rest my chin on

the on the chin holder and then he

proceeded to,

you know, put different lenses in in

front of my my eyes and then he he would

ask me questions like, is is this is

number one clearer or is number two

clearer? And through the process of

examination, elimination and comparison,

we eventually found out that I was

nearsighted, which means I could see

things reasonably clearly when they were

up close, but as they got farther away,

I had trouble with that. So they

prescribed the glasses and I started

wearing that was 55 years ago. Uh, so

I've been wearing them for quite some

time. But I was I was shortsighted. But

I needed help to be able to see things

clearly as they got farther away from

me. I needed the assistance of those

lenses to help me see properly.

We've been working our way through this

series over these last three weeks,

Christ incarnate. Uh we saw at the

beginning of the month that Christ is

seen as the suffering servant from

Isaiah chapter 53.

Isaiah 53 · chapter mention

that he is seen as the the word made

flesh in John chapter 1. That he was

John 1 · chapter mention

seen last week as Peter spoke as the the

radiance of the father's glory in

Hebrews chapter 1. This morning we're

Hebrews 1 · chapter mention

going to see one more picture of Jesus

Christ, one more portrait of Jesus

Christ incarnate, and that is in

Colossians chapter 1, the image of the

Colossians 1 · chapter mention

invisible God he's called there. Let's

turn in our Bibles to Colossians chapter

Colossians 1 · chapter mention

1

and we'll read verses 15-

23.

Colossians chapter 1:es

15-

23.

Paul says, "He," speaking of Jesus, "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.

He is the beginning, the firstborn 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 himself to himself all things,

whether on earth or in heaven, making

peace by the blood of his cross.

And you who once were alienated and

hostile in mind doing evil deeds, he has

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 have heard which was which has

been proclaimed in all creation under

heaven and of which I Paul became a

minister. Let's let's pray together.

Father, we thank you.

Thank you again for

the celebrations and the feasts and the

the enjoyment that we have come through

in this past week.

Father, we we don't take it for granted

that we have these these times and we

pray that we have made the most of the

opportunity

to remember our savior Jesus Christ

coming to earth as a man.

Father, we we see him as that infant in

the in the manger, but he is so much

more

than a baby. He we really can't

understand the incarnation

unless we also understand the cross.

Father, this morning as we see these as

we listen to these words, as we speak

about these these statements that the

Apostle Paul makes, we pray that you

would give us understanding that we

would we would be able to see Jesus

clearly,

that our vision would be sharpened, our

focused, our focus would be would be

improved

and we would see him as you reveal him

to be. Help us as we do this in Jesus

name. Amen.

If you're taking notes this morning,

we're going to look at three separate

statements that Paul makes regarding

Jesus Christ. The first of those is in

verses 15-1 17. And that is that Jesus

is the creator and sustainer of all

things. And secondly, in verse 18, we'll

see that Jesus is proclaimed to be the

head of the church.

And lastly, in verses 19- 23, we'll see

that Jesus is the reconciler of sinners

to God.

In verses 15 and following, Paul

launches into what some have described

as a hymn of praise concerning Jesus

Christ. He's he's began the letter with

a a word of introduction. He had not

been to the church in Colasse

personally, uh but he knew about them.

He had heard about them. people had

brought reports back to him about them.

And as he heard those reports, he was

able to rejoice in what God was doing.

And he he mentions that in verses three

and following of the first chapter.

And then he he offers a prayer of his

hope that God would continue to work in

their lives to sta stable them and

steady them in the midst of difficult

situations. And then he launches in in

verse 15, he launches into this this

hymn of praise to Jesus Christ.

And some have described this. One

commentator has described this paragraph

that is verses 15 through 23 as as

one of the the the most revealing the

one of the most rich portions of

scripture concerning Jesus Christ

himself. He says probably no paragraph

in the New Testament contains more

concentrated doctrine about Jesus Christ

than this one.

And I was I was dumbfounded as I studied

through this passage in preparation for

this message that there's so much I've

been learning so much that I had just

taken for granted or just overlooked

before.

There's so much to digest here. And I'm

sure that I'm not going to be able to do

justice to what's here. But I hope that

you'll you'll be able to see a glimpse

of of what God wants us to know and to

see and to learn and understand about

our Savior Jesus Christ.

And before Paul launches into these

proclamations,

he starts with a very important

statement, probably one of the most

important statements he'll make in this

verse, in this in this book. And that is

in verse 15.

He says he, and that's speaking of

Jesus, he is the image of the invisible

God, the firstborn of all creation. What

does it mean for Jesus to be the image?

We we use that word in in modern

language, in modern English. We we use

that to to describe someone who looks

like someone else. He's the he's the

spitting image of his parents or of his

father or of his brother or whatever. It

mean it means he he looks like the

person being compared to. Now, of

course, Paul is very careful to to say

that he is the image of the invisible

God. He's not saying that God has a that

we that we can see God, that God is

invisible. The Apostle John, as he

writes the gospel, he he speaks to the

the woman at the well and says that that

God is spirit and we that worship him

must worship him in spirit and truth.

God doesn't have a a body like you and I

have. So the image that Jesus is of God

is not a physical visible image.

But what's in display for us in Jesus

Christ is the character of God, the

nature of God, the thoughts of God, the

words of God. Jesus is the image of God

in the sense that he is the he is the

living breathing embodiment of all that

God is.

And that's that's how he begins this

section of of the book.

It's not a physical characteristic. It's

but it's a it's a it's a character on

display. He is he is the image of God in

that sense.

Other passages of scripture and we've

seen some of those in our study this

this over the holiday period. Uh John,

the apostle John in first John in John

John 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1 verse one, in the beginning

was the word and the word was with God

and the word was God. verse 14 of that

same chapter. And the word became flesh

and dwelt among us and we beheld his

glory, glory as of the only begotten of

the father, full of grace and truth. Uh

in John 1 18, John continues to say, "No

one has seen God at any time, the only

God who is at the father's side. He has

made him known."

And so much so that Jesus himself as he

speaks to his disciples just before he

is taken and arrested and taken to the

cross he says in chapter 14 verse 9 he

says that whoever has seen me has seen

the father.

Jesus shows us the father. Jesus

describes to us the father. Jesus

manifests the father to us.

That's what it means when Paul says he

is the image of the invisible God. One

commentator said he makes the invisible

visible. What we can't see about God the

Father, Jesus makes visible. He makes

understandable. He displays that for us.

And as as Paul continues to speak of

Jesus Christ, he moves down and he's

going to make four statements about

Jesus. And I hope you'll be able to see

these. He says in verse 15, he is the

firstborn of all creation. And we need

to take a moment to to understand what

it means to be the firstborn in this

sense.

Most of the time when we use that word

to to describe someone, we're talking

about, well, he or she was the firstborn

in the family.

Uh I'm not the firstborn in my family.

I'm the fourthborn in my family. uh my

oldest brother George is the firstborn

in our family which means he was the

first of us to come. That's not the

sense in which Paul uses the word here.

It has the idea of the first in terms of

priority, the first in terms of

importance, the first in in terms of

rank or place.

As the firstborn, he would be the heir

of all things.

So Paul says that he is the firstborn of

creation.

He is over and above creation. He is not

part of creation. He is above creation.

He rules over creation.

So all of the statements that Paul is

going to make here have reference to

Jesus in relation to creation. He is

above it. He is not part of it. Unlike

the the false teachers who were

pestering the church in Colasse,

teaching that Jesus was less than God.

Paul proclaims that Jesus is above the

creation. He is not a part of it. He

rules over it.

And not only that, but Paul goes on in

verse 16 to say he created all things.

Notice in verse four, verse 16, the

first word is for or because

Jesus is the firstborn. That is he's

over all creation because he is the

creator of it.

Notice in verse 15, it talks about all

creation. Verse 16, all things. Verse 16

again, all things. Eight different times

we see that phrase all things used here

in this passage. They all refer to the

things that Jesus has made. He can't be

both creator and created which the false

teachers in Colassi were proclaiming

that Jesus wasn't the creator of all

things. He was the first of God's

creation

and he therefore created all other

things. But that's not what Paul is

saying here. very clear. We can't walk

away from this passage with any other

idea than that Jesus is the creator, not

the created.

We We can't stumble out of here this

morning falsely understanding that Jesus

was somehow created and then he created

everything else. Paul makes it

abundantly clear to us that Jesus is the

creator of all things. We've already

seen that in our study this this

Christmas season. In John chapter 1:3,

John makes it clear there is he all

things were created by him and

everything that was made was made by him

and nothing was made that was made apart

from him.

He is the creator of every single thing

in the universe

seen and unseen. He is the creator. Paul

is very clear and we can't we can't walk

away with a misunderstanding of that.

And thirdly, he all things exist for him

in the second part of verse 16.

For by him all things were created in

heaven and on earth, visible and

invisible, whether rulers or thrones or

dominions or rulers or authorities, all

things were created through him. That

is, he is the he is the agent who

brought all of these things into

existence. and they are for him. That is

they were created for his purposes. You

and I are not created for our own

purposes. We are created for him

to do his will to accomplish his

purposes.

And lastly, not only is he proclaimed as

the creator of all things,

but he is he is proclaimed as the

sustainer of all things in verse uh 17.

And he is before all things. Again, a

reference to his preeminence, his

importance. He is before all things. And

in him all things hold together.

He's the the glue that keeps everything

moving and working as it should. If he

were to remove his restraining,

sustaining hands, there would be utter

chaos. You think the You think life as

we see it now is chaotic? And it can be

chaotic. It has been chaotic over this

past week.

If he were to remove his sustaining

controlling hand and just say, "Have at

it."

We don't want to experience that. He

holds things together. And it's not just

this the big things, you know, the the

astrophysical

things. It's the minute details of our

lives. He sustains us in them. His hand

is in all of that. So Paul begins this

this hymn of praise to Jesus by

proclaiming him to be God

creator and sustainer.

That is his position in the universe.

That is his position over that which

he's created. He is its creator and he

is its sustainer.

And then Paul begins to speak of Jesus

in another relation. He was speaking of

him in relation to the creation. But now

he's going to change and speak of Jesus

in his relation to the church.

Verse 18.

And he Christ is the head of the body,

the church.

He's going to say something else about

Jesus. He is the beginning

in um

verse 18 as well.

And the firstborn from the dead. There's

that word again. Let's think about those

three phrases. The head.

The head expresses the thoughts of

source or origin or leader or ruler.

That Jesus as the head of the church

just like he is the head of creation.

Just like he is over all creation in

charge of creation its ruler. He is also

the ruler of the church. He is its

origin. He is its beginning.

It belongs to him. It's his possession.

We as the local church belong to him.

He is our head. He is the one who gives

us direction. He is the one who leads

us. He is the one who guides us. He is

the one who provides and protects us.

But not only that, he's the beginning.

He's the He's the He's the the one who

began it all.

And thirdly, he's the firstborn.

There's that word again. Again, he's not

talking about first in order.

Although being the firstborn from the

dead, he is the first who has been

raised to life and never to die again.

Your resurrection, which is promised, my

resurrection, which is promised, is tied

to his resurrection.

Without his resurrection, there is no

resurrection. And Paul will make a case

for that in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. If

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

Jesus hasn't been risen from the dead,

then no one will be

because our resurrection is tied to his.

That's what it means to be the firstborn

from the dead. He is the firstborn, the

one who ra was raised from the dead,

never to die again. And when we

experience that re that resurrection, we

too will live forever because of him.

Why was all of that? Why does he occupy

that position in the church? What is the

purpose of all of that? Paul goes on to

say at the end of verse uh 18 that in

everything he might be preeminent.

He is all of this to the church so that

the church recognizes him as the the

foremost,

the first, the the beginning, the one

who is in charge, the one who dictates,

the one who rules,

the one who guides, the one who protects

in everything. He might be preeminent.

He might have first place as one

translation or he might have supremacy

as another translation. The church is

entirely Christ's.

Its head, its beginning, its source, its

origin, it's sovereign.

So Jesus is the image of the invisible

God. Jesus is the head of the church.

And lastly, Jesus is the reconciler of

sinners. Verses 19- 23. Notice again,

Paul confirms his deity for us. So

again, we can't walk away from this

passage without knowing, without being

literally hit in the face with this

truth. Jesus is God. For in him, verse

19, for in him all the fullness of God

was pleased to dwell.

That statement serves as a prelude to

what's going to come.

Jesus is the God man. All the fullness

of deity dwells in him. So, anything

that could be said of God the Father can

also be said of God the Son in terms of

their their nature, their character.

He is God in flesh.

He is the God man. Paul's going to say

that again in Colossians chapter 2:9.

Notice there.

For in him the whole fullness of deity

dwells bodily.

Again, Paul makes no mistake. He lives.

He leaves no room for confusion. Jesus

is God.

And this truth, this statement qualifies

Jesus to be the one through whom God

will reconcile all things to himself.

Notice in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 18.

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

Don't turn there, but just listen as I

read that portion. 1 Corinthians chapter

1 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

5 18 to 21. All this is from God who who

through Christ reconciled us to himself

and gave us the ministry of

reconciliation. That is in Christ God

was reconciling the world to himself,

not counting their trespasses against

them and entrusting to us the message of

reconciliation. Therefore, we are

ambassadors for Christ. God making his

appeal through us. We implore you on

behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

for God's sake for for our sake he that

is God made him Jesus to be who knew no

sin to be sin for us

so that in him we might become the

righteousness of God the fullness all

the fullness of God was pleased to dwell

in Jesus Christ FF Bruce says this

describes that word as the totality of

divine essence and power is resident in

Christ he is the one allsufficient

intermediary between God and the whole

and the world of humanity and all the

attributes of God, his spirit, his word,

his wisdom, his glory are disclosed in

him.

All that is in all that God is,

Christ is

in that sense.

And then Paul goes on to describe that

work, that work of reconciliation in

verses 20 and following. and through him

to reconcile to himself all things. This

this work was necessary because of sin.

He noted he mentions that in verse 21.

And you who once were alienated and

hostile in mind doing evil deeds. The

reason Jesus came as the reconciler is

because of our sin. Our sin demanded

payment.

And the payment for sin, as Paul says in

Romans 3, is death. For the wages of sin

is death. The gift of God rather is

eternal life through Jesus Christ our

Lord.

The reason why Jesus comes as the

reconciler is because there are people

who need to be reconciled. And we need

to be reconciled because of our sin.

And that that that reconciliation

required a death. It required a payment.

Notice in verse 20, by the blood of his

cross in verse 22, in his in his body of

flesh by death. Jesus Christ paid that

penalty for us.

The problem of sin must first be removed

before reconciliation can take place

before that hostility between ourselves

and God can be removed. And until that

happens, we are at war with him.

We are fighting against him. Until we

are reconciled, until that takes place,

we are in open warfare with God. But

once the death has been made, once Jesus

Christ died for our sins, taking upon

himself the weight and the penalty of

all that we have done, past, present,

and future,

God is satisfied in that sacrifice

because Jesus was the perfect sacrifice

fully paying the penalty. Imagine that.

And it's not just me personally. It's

all of us. All of our sin

in the past, in the present, in the

future. All of it has been paid for in

that one sacrifice,

in that one substitution for us.

I don't know about you, but that makes

me stop and and and thank be thankful. I

don't do that enough.

And the result of that reconciliation is

peace.

I am no longer at war.

The hostility has been removed.

And God graciously

through his son welcomes me

not as his enemy but as his child.

What a wonderful truth.

What a wonderful thing to think about

this morning.

And the reason why Jesus reconciles us

is stated in the end of verse 22

in order to present you holy and

blameless and above reproach in him.

Jesus Christ as the image of the

invisible God is creating the image of

God in us

through the process of sanctification.

So that one day when we stand face to

face with the savior who redeemed us,

we will be like him.

He will make us like him.

We struggle and we strain and we fight

against sin now and we often fail.

There's coming a time. Well, that will

no longer be the case

where sin will be no more.

Where the struggle for holiness will

will be removed and we will have been

made complete in him.

I'm looking forward to that day.

And just so that Paul makes sure that we

understand, he goes on in verse 23

to talk about the reality of that work.

What what is what what is the

implication of that reconciling work?

Verse 23 says, "If indeed you continue

in the faith stable and steadfast, not

shifting from the hope of the gospel

that you have heard which has been

proclaimed in all under in all creation

under heaven and of which I Paul became

a minister." There's no there's no note

of of uncertainty with Paul. He's not

saying if you continue and I'm not

really sure whether you will.

Now the construction of the sentence

there is if you continue and you do or

you will because that's what Christ does

in the life of someone who trusts him.

He not only saves them and then in the

sense of paying the penalty for their

sin but he works in them to keep us

to help us as we move along our journey.

We're not left to figure things out for

ourselves. We're not left to to fight as

best we can and do the best we can. He

is with us. He is walking with us. And

Paul

brings that home to the the believers

here in Colasse. If indeed you continue

and you will because Christ will make it

so.

Doesn't mean that we will be perfect. It

doesn't mean that we won't fall. It

doesn't mean that we won't struggle. It

doesn't mean that we won't strive. It

doesn't mean we won't fail.

But ultimately he will bring us through.

We we we listened as we heard from Shane

and others in Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Nothing can separate not even ourselves.

Nothing can separate us from the love of

God in Christ Jesus.

And all that Christ all that God has

promised us will be fulfilled because of

Jesus.

Where does that leave us?

As we try to I'm going to ask you to try

and remember what you've heard prior to

today.

But as we we we come to the end of this

series

about the incarnate Christ,

where does that leave us? How how I'm

going to ask you a couple of questions.

How big is our Jesus?

How high is our view of Jesus? How

exalted is our theology of Jesus?

Paul was writing to the church here in

Colasse. They were they were being

hassled

by false teaching.

It later became known as Gnosticism.

It may not have been a full-blown system

at this point in history, but it became

some such. But parts of the parts of the

teaching that they were being pestered

with was was a a downgrading of Jesus

from the place of creator to creature.

The false teachers that were pastoring

this church were teaching that Jesus was

not the creator of all things. He was a

created being and then he went on to

create all other things.

That lie is still with us today.

There was also the the the teaching also

included the idea or the denial of

Jesus's full humanity, his real humanity

and his full deity.

Not only was he a created being, but he

was not a divine being.

And he wasn't really fully human either.

And this teaching also downplayed his

his work of redeemer, his work of

salvation.

And so Paul speaks all of these truths

in the midst of falsehoods that were

being that were swirling around the

Colossian believers.

You know, those those issues really

haven't changed very much in couple

thousand years.

Those those things are still with us.

There are multitude of teaching

teachings regarding Jesus Christ which

are circulated in our world both

organizationally and personally. We we

talk to people. We we we get leaflets in

the door about various organizations and

all of them minimize Jesus.

They take the biblical Jesus and they

strip things away from him. So that is

no longer unique. He's no longer one of

a kind. He's no longer savior. He's just

a good person,

a great moral teacher,

a wonderful individual.

It shrinks Jesus down to a comfortable

size

so that we can handle him, so we can

manage him.

It demotes Jesus from his rightful place

of supremacy in the church.

It may recognize him but it does not

exalt him.

That teaching is still with us today in

various forms. And Paul is very clear.

Those things are false.

Jesus is God. Jesus is creator not

creature. Jesus is redeemer.

And he makes sure that we understand

that Jesus is the only

creator and sustainer. Jesus is the only

head of the church. Jesus is the only

reconciler of sinners.

So I ask that question again. How big is

our God? How big is our Jesus?

How high is our view of him? How exalted

is our theology of him?

If our view of Jesus is anything less

than those things,

then he's too small.

He's not able to save us

and we will never live stable lives.

That's not the Jesus of Christmas.

Jesus is all that the Bible proclaims

him to be. That infant in the manger

is God. And I know it doesn't look like

it as we have him in our nativity

scenes,

but he is God. Before

he was born into human existence, he was

God. He continued to be God on earth as

the God man. And he is God now. The

resurrected son of God.

Jesus is the savior, the sovereign,

the sufficient

sustainer.

He is the God that we worship. He is the

God of Christmas.

And I trust that our Christmas

celebrations have included him

not as a part of our celebrations but as

the celebration.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for

time

this morning to pause

and to seek to understand

these these truths

to take time away from our our busy

schedules and to remember him.

Thank you Lord for your love for us.

Thank you for giving to us

an indescribable gift.

Jesus is that gift.

Lord, may we celebrate him

as we gather together. We pray in Jesus

name. Amen.