If you have your Bibles, we're going to be in Colossians this evening. And Colossians chapter one, and when you find your place, if you would stand to honor the reading of God's Word, and it is a privilege to fill in the pulpit while Pastor Josh is out tonight. And so just want to thank the church for everything that you guys do for us as a staff.
It is a privilege and an honor to serve alongside you all and to be brothers and sisters in Christ. And so as we begin to read the scriptures tonight in chapter one, verse 14 down through 19, the Word of the Lord says, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature, for by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by him and for him, and he is before all things and by him, all things consist. Verse 18, and he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence, for it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell.
Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you Lord for your word and the truth that is in it. Father, as we come to this midweek service, we come to glean from your word.
Lord, we come to seek the truth of the scriptures. Lord, as we open the sacred text tonight, Lord, may we see that you are preeminent, that you require and demand that you would be first place in our hearts and in our lives. Father, as we begin tonight to look at this message, Lord, hide me behind the cross. Give me the words to speak, clarity of thought, and Lord, I just pray in this building tonight, if there's anyone that doesn't know Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior, whether it's in the kids, the teens or here in the adult sanctuary, Lord, that tonight would be the night of salvation for them. Lord, I pray for those that may have had a long, stressful week so far, Lord, that they would find peace and comfort in your word. Lord, as we seek the living God, Lord, be with us and just continue to work mightily through this congregation, for it's in Christ's name that we pray. Amen.
You may be seated. Well, at first, when I was asked to preach, Alex said, you better not talk about suffering because people are really going to start to wonder about you. And I said, well, you know, Jeremiah, he was out there and he preached for 40 years, nobody repented, and he had a tough go of it. But no, tonight, I've titled the message, why should Christ be magnified? And so why should Christ have first place in our lives and in our hearts? And why should he be first in our church and in our communities as well as in our nation? Why should he be of preeminence or utmost importance? If you think of the sun, S-U-N, sun, it is the center of our solar system.
And it's holding planets, moons, countless asteroids in its orbit based upon its gravitational pull. And there would be chaos if it was not there. In much greater way, Christ is the center of all of creation, holding everything together in perfect harmony. Consider a master artist who's every stroke of the paintbrush onto the canvas to create the life that's there, the imagery, holding everything in that unimaginable beauty that's there. Christ is the divine artist through whom all things were created and without whom nothing would exist. And so here in Colossians 1, Paul, he does not paint a picture of Christ as merely as a teacher or a prophet or a moral leader.
He is painting and picturing Christ here at the very center of all of creation. He is the one who holds everything together, the one who holds everything that was made or ever will be made. And just as the sun anchors our solar system, so too does Christ anchor our lives, our churches and our world. And so why should Christ be first in everything? Why should Christ be first in my life? Why should Christ be first in your life? And so tonight we're gonna jump into this profound truth and discover why Christ is supreme.
He is all sufficient at everything and everything and anything. And so because when Christ is truly at the center of our lives and when he is truly in where his proper position is at the head of everything, everything else falls into place. And so the background into the church of Colossae, anytime you fill in and do a one-off, you kind of got to give a background into it to catch everybody up to what is going on in this book of Colossians. And so the church at Colossae, there were some false teachers that had come in. It was an early form of Gnosticism and basically in that they believed that anything that was physical was evil and only the spiritual was good. And so therefore there was a false teaching that Jesus, that God would not come into human flesh because to be human and to be physical material was to be evil in the Gnostics teaching. And so this was a heresy that was attacking the church. It was attacking the very foundation of the gospel because it attacked who Jesus Christ was and who he is. And so there's still a remnant of this going around in our world today, I would tell you, in the cults and the occult. And then also in the pseudo-Christian groups, I would say, the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Mormons, they attack the deity of Christ.
The Jehovah's Witnesses, they do not believe that Jesus is God and that he was created. He was a creative being, much like the Mormons believe. And so the question according to this sacred text tonight is, why should Christ be magnified or exalted to first place or first priority in my life? And so the first point tonight is magnify Christ because he is the revelation of God. We need to elevate him or magnify him because he is the revelation of God. And we see that there in verse 15, who is the image of the invisible God. And so with this verse, the great Christological passage of this epistle begins. It aims to refute this false doctrine, this heresy of Gnosticism according to the angelic mediators usurping the place and functions of the sun and nature and grace. And so he and he alone, he is the creator, the redeemer, he is the savior of the world.
And he is sovereign from the beginning of the universe and included in all these angelic powers that are listed here. Christ must be exalted because he is the revelation of God. And so this word here, image, it comes from the Greek word, ekon, which means an exact representation and revelation. It was used of an idol, a picture or a statue.
And so it is this word from which we get our English word, icon. This is the same word that's used in Matthew 22 of Caesar and the portrait on the coin, as well as in Revelation 13, verse 14 of the statue of the Antichrist. In Matthew 22, 20 says, and he said unto them, whose is this image and subscription? And then it says, or superscription. And then Luke 20, 24 says, show me a penny whose image and subscription, superscription hath it.
They answered and said, Caesars. And then in Revelation 13, 14, and speaking of the statue that would be built, it says that they should make an image to the beast. This image is the statue or the idol that they will build to the beast, the Antichrist. And so what does Paul mean to infer about Christ by saying that he is the image of God?
It seems to mean at least two things when we look at the text. It is through Christ that we see and learn about characteristics of God. And so we see that the characteristics, the nature of God is revealed through Christ. Scripture teaches that God is a spirit, right? John 4 24, God is a spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth. So God does not have flesh and blood and we could not see Him. God has revealed Himself in the Bible at times through theophanies, I would tell us. And you say, what is the theophany? It is a big theological term or theologian term that basically God took forms of various things throughout scripture.
And you may remember that He appeared to Moses in the fiery bush that would be a theophany of God, or as a cloud as He's leading the Israelites through the wilderness, a cloud by day, a fire by night, to reveal Himself to people in a tangible way. And they were always temporary. They were never permanent.
They were always temporary in nature. But these did not fully depict the personage and the character of God. And so it has always been the desire of mankind to see God.
And you've probably heard people say this, maybe if you've witnessed to them, well, if God would just show me this sign, this miracle, this wonder, then I would believe. And look at Exodus 33 verse 18. This is Moses speaking to God and he said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. And then two verses later, God's response to Moses is, and he said, thou canst not see my face, for there shall no man see me and live. But because no one could look upon the full display of God's glory and live, God showed Moses only a portion of His glory. If you remember that, He hid Moses in the cleft of the rock and as his train passed before him, Moses was, he comes down and he's transfigured in a way. His hair is bright and he's been changed because he has seen the hem of God's garment.
And so the question that we have to say is, so then how can we see God? And in tangible ways and like electricity, there's some electricians in this room. You can't necessarily see electricity itself, right? You can see the effects of electricity. You touch a live wire, you're going to know it, right?
Depending upon how bad or what voltages through that, you're going to know even more so than some others. But I would say that this is an illustration like a light bulb. Just as a light bulb reveals that the electricity that powers it, Christ reveals God's nature and His character.
Now you can see electricity directly, you can't see electricity directly, but you can see the effects through the light that is given off from the electrical source. And similar, we see the invisible God through the visible Christ. John 1 18 says this, no man has seen God at any time, the only begotten son, which is in the bosom of the father, he hath declared him. And I really like how the New American Standard Bible references this in John 1 18, it says, no one has seen God at any time, the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the father, he has explained him. And then John 1 14, it says that, and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of only of the begotten of the father, full of grace and truth. Hebrews 1 3, who being the brightness of his glory in the express image of his person, express image is speaking of like literally stamped out, like a coin that would be stamped out. The New American Standard in Hebrews 1 3 says, and he is the radiance of his glory and the exact representation of his nature. Second Corinthians 4 4, who is the image of God should shine on to them.
And so Jesus said this to his disciples. And John 4 or 14 9, he says, Jesus saith unto him, he says, he that saith or that hath seen me, hath seen the father, and how saith thou then show us the father. And as he's speaking to Philip and the disciples, they're asking to see what the father is like.
And he's just like, you've been with me all this time. And if you've seen me, you have seen the father. And so how is it that you're still asking to show you the father? And so in Christ, God was manifested in ways that had not been clearly demonstrated in the Old Testament. And that might bring us to in what ways did Christ uniquely did demonstrate God the Father in his incarnation. And first Christ revealed God through his teachings. He told Philip in John 14 14 10, believe us now, not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me, the words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. And so Jesus claimed to say what only God had told him to say as well.
And John 8 28, it says this, then say it said Jesus unto him, when you have lifted up the Son of Man, then shall you know that I am he and that I do nothing of myself, but as my father hath taught me, I speak those things. And perhaps the best illustration of this is the Apostle John and his declaration that he and the association of the name that he gives Jesus in John chapter one, verse one, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. And so when when John calls Jesus the word, he's giving an expression of one that functions or purposes of Jesus. By using the name word, it was meant to convey that Christ is the expression of God.
I love what Warren Wiersbe says on this. He says, on the logos, the word much as our words revealed to others our hearts and minds. So Jesus Christ is God's word to reveal God's heart and mind to us.
I'll say that again, the word as much as our words that we speak reveal about our heart, our mind, our state that we are in. So the revealed word of Jesus Christ, he reveals God's heart and mind to us. And so when we look at the teachings of Jesus, we see the very words of God. When Jesus taught that we are to love our enemies and pray for them, when he taught that hate is equivalent to murder, we hear the very words of God, the very nature, the very heartbeat of God in Jesus's teachings.
In these words, we find a standard that is much higher than our own standards because they come from the father in heaven. And so the second thing that this does is that Christ reveals is that Christ reveals God through his person. And Jesus revealed many character traits, not fully known about God through his personage, why he was here on earth and that God is a servant. And the first one is that God is a servant. We see that in Philippians two, verse six and seven, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men.
And so this word in these two verses, six and seven here comes from the Greek word morphe, which actually means it's an outward expression of the inward nature and is an outward expression of the inward nature. And so Christ did not become God because he has always been God. Jesus, the man was the outward expression of who God is and always was. And at the same time, he's demonstrating God's servanthood nature. And you think about Christ, he is continually serving and he's just constantly pouring out, pouring out, continually to serve, continue to serve. And you see this in Mark 10 45, even the son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. And so he gives his life a ransom for all of us. He laid down his life so that we could have eternal life.
It was Emmanuel God with us that was able to allow us to observe the nature of God. Jesus bent down as you think about this and he's washing the disciples feet. And Peter at first, he's like, I, you will not wash my feet. And Jesus says this in John 13 eight, thou shall, and this is Peter saying at first, Peter says unto him, thou shall never wash my feet. And Jesus answered him, if I wash thee not, thou has no part with me. And if you remember that text, Peter's like, wash me all then Lord, wash me completely down. He's like, I don't want to be a part from Christ.
He's like, I want it completely washed in that manner. But Christ was humbly serving and continued to humbly serve until he went to the cross. In fact, Christ tells us this, that he would serve us in a future kingdom. When we get done, when life is done here on earth, Christ is preparing a marriage supper of the lamb and he is coming and he is serving the servants.
That is so profound to me. Look what it says in Luke 12, 35 through 37, let your loins be girded about and your lights burning and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord. When he will return from the wedding and when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he cometh shall find watching.
Barely I say unto you that he shall gird himself and make them sit down to meet and will come forth and serve them. And so here's this paradoxical metaphor that Christ is giving this paradoxical story, basically that he is sharing that the servants who had been faithfully serving and ministering why the master was gone. When the master returns, you might think of the master saying, thank you for taking care of this while I was gone. Thank you for doing what I asked you to do or perhaps not even noticing at all and simply going about his ways, but not our master. The master dresses himself to serve.
The servant sat at the table and the master came and waited on them. And that's what Christ is going to do to us at the marriage supper. In that day, we are going to be served. And it's crazy, it's profound when you think about that, that he's continually serving, continually pouring himself out, but this is who he is and this is what he does. And he exemplifies the nature of God as he served here on earth and as he's going to do in the future as well.
This specifically refers to Christ's second coming when he will reward his faithful servants. You think about that with crowns and we're going to cast them back to him because we are not worthy of those. He's the only one that is worthy of those and he's going to grant us authority to rule over cities and nations and somebody would be appointed over Xenia.
Hopefully, you know, maybe we'll get a different city, right? And who wants to be in Xenia your whole life and eternal life for that millennial reign, I should say, right? I mean, you might want something else.
Maybe Xenia is your place. That's okay. I'm just saying there might be other places that you have in mind and maybe you can work that out.
I don't know how that's going to work, so don't ask me afterwards, all right? But he's going to do those things. He's going to appoint us to that. And the second meaning of image here in verse 15, it also conveys the idea of a representative. The icon or ekon is used 29 times in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Sept of Jewent. The first being used in Genesis in verse 27, and God said, let us make man in our image. And so the word image was used of Adam in Genesis and as he was made in the image of God, God made Adam a representative of him and to all of creation. But because of the fall, and he was called to rule over the earth as God ruled over the heavens, and he was set to rule with character and holiness. But because of the fall, that took it away, right?
He fell short. Scripture also calls Christ the last Adam. And it says this in 1 Corinthians 15, 45, and so it is written, the first man, Adam was made a living soul. The last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Two verses later in verse 47, the first man of the earth is earthly, meaning Adam.
The second man is the Lord from heaven. And so where Adam failed to represent God, and he fell into sin, Christ has not and will not ever fail God. He is the perfect sinless son of God. He is seated to the right hand of the throne of God on high.
And so you see that he will never fail. He is the perfect representation of everything that God is because he is God. And so Christ's representation of the father specifically is having his authority. And what I mean by that is, Jesus came and he was able to forgive sins.
And you remember the Pharisees are like, that's blasphemy. Only God is able to forgive sins. Jesus is God, so he's able to forgive sins.
He's able to grant eternal life to those who come to him. And God chose the son to be the channel through which salvation would be made available. John 17, two says this, as thou has given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou has given him. Acts 4, 12, neither is there salvation in any other, for there's none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.
John 14, six, Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes unto the father, but by me. And so Jesus represents God's authority by being judge over all the earth.
You know, people don't have a problem with baby Jesus in the manger. They think that's cute, but when he comes back in final judgment, he is the one who's judging. God the father has given that over to Christ.
It says this in John 5, 22, for the father judges no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the son. The second thing, the second point tonight, why we must magnify Christ is because he is supreme over all of creation. We see that in verses 15 through 17, it says the first born of every creature for by whom or all things created that are in heaven and in the earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by him and for him.
And he is before all things and by him, all things consist or being held together basically. And so Paul makes the argument that not only should Christ be exalted because he is the exact image of God, but because Christ is to be exalted because he is the first born or the supreme over all of creation. And so this text has been misused by the false cult that we talked about earlier, the Jehovah's witnesses, the Mormons, they take this, they twist it to make it seem that the interpretation in terms of first born teach that Christ was created and therefore is not God. They take this text, they take one scripture and they twist it out of context. And that's the scary part is that you can take one verse and you can twist scripture totally out of context. You verify scripture with scripture, right?
And so they fail to do that. And so however, not only is this misunderstood with the phrase of first born, but it is also neglects the context of the rest of scripture, the teachings on Christ being God and not part of creation. The meaning of the terms first born, it can mean one of two things. The first one is like we just mentioned, first born being first in nature, they were the first child to be born. And we see this used of Jesus's birth to Mary, right? Luke 2 seven says, and she brought forth her first born son. Jesus was the first born of Mary's children.
He was the first chronologically. So this term could be used in the sense or in the context. However, this is not the meaning of this text tonight. It is not what is used here in Colossians. First born can also mean in position, rank, or to be supreme. The context for which Paul used first born here in Colossians, it means to be first in rank, the priority, the supreme one. And in the Greek and Hebrew culture, the first born received the inheritance of the father, didn't they?
The first born male always received the inheritance of the father. The first born was the special one in the family. Anybody have a sibling that's the special child?
Like, okay, we probably don't want to raise hands, you know, like maybe are you the special child? No, but it's usually the baby, right? It's the baby of the family. The baby gets the special treatments.
It's all leave them alone. They're the baby. Like, oh, make, I mean, I grew up with like drill sergeant dad, and I don't even know what I categorize my mom as, but the parents I grew up with is not the parents my youngest sister grew up with.
Like she had roommates. I had parents and military drill sergeants is what I had. But you know, these, these siblings, the babies, they seem to get everything that everything goes their way. The first born though did not mean by chronological order in some instances. For instance, remember Jacob and Esau. Esau was the first born wasn't he?
But who did the birthright go to? And went to Jacob. Jacob was the, the, the supreme one, the priority.
He was first in rank, even though he was not born first. And it gives us that account in Genesis 25 verse 33. And we also see that this is God talked about Israel, Exodus chapter four, verse 22, and thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, even my first born. And so Israel wasn't the first nation, but God says they are the first born.
They are, they are preeminent. They are his chosen people, right? And he's going to turn his attention back to Israel at the end of the church age.
And so Israel, again, was not that first nation. We also see that Christ was predicted to be God's first born among many Kings in the world. Psalms 89, 27 says this, also I will make him my first born higher than the Kings of the earth.
And so when we look at this verse here, we first have to look at the context in which it was written. And this is David. This is speaking of David at first, King David, who was the youngest or last born of Jesse's children. Remember as Samuel comes and they line up all of the children of Jesse and they leave David out in the field. Cause he's the baby of the family.
He's out there protecting the sheep and they've lined them all up. And he's like, surely it's gotta be one of these boys. And it wasn't any of them.
Right. And he's like, you got another son. And so they ended up bringing the other son in and surely it's David, but David was not first in the birth order. He was the baby of the bunch. And so it literally is talking about Jesse here as far as David being as far as from what he could being the literal first born, but note what God says about him in that verse.
I will make him my first born. And so the Bible sometimes uses foreshadowing and you've heard pastor Josh talk about types of Christ and David, and there's a greater David. And so here, this is speaking of David, but it's also a foreshadowing of the greater David in Christ.
And so the Psalmist refers to King David being elevated in rank above others to the preeminent position, which is exactly how Paul is using this Greek word, protostochos. And so was Christ the first born King on the earth? No, obviously there was other Kings before him, before his physical birth.
Absolutely not. But we know that he is the King of Kings. He is the Lord of Lords as revelation 1916 tells us. When Paul says first born over all of creation, he is referring to Christ supremacy. He is over all of creation. Look at verse 16 of Colossians one for by him were all things created. And then you go to the bottom of that verse, all things were created by him and for him. And so Christ cannot be the first created and the creator of all things, can't he?
That's like, that's a contradiction in itself. When you think about that, he can't be created and the creator of all things. And so all things would then have to include him if it were true.
The context itself contradicts the teachings of the Jehovah's witness and other cults. So does the rest of scripture. Scripture clearly teaches that Christ was eternal. John one, one through three, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made. Genesis one, one in the beginning, God Elohim, the Trinity there, the triune God.
When it's got the I M at the end of that, that's speaking of a plurality. When you see Elohim cherubim, it is a plurality. It's speaking of the triune God and it's saying God created the heavens and the earth. Christ was eternal.
It speaks of the spirit being across the face of the deep and the word being spoken and created. And so Christ was there in the beginning. He is God.
It was through him that everything was created. Jesus used the language to declare his eternality and deity as well. When you think of John chapter eight verse 58 and he's speaking and the religious Pharisees are around him, the religious leaders of that day, he says this, Jesus said unto them, verily, verily, I say unto you before Abraham was, I am.
I am is Ego Emi. This is going directly back to God's covenant name as he revealed himself to Moses in Exodus chapter three verse 14. And God said unto Moses, I am that I am. And he said, thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you. And this was Moses asking God, what should I say to them and to get them to come to the promised land?
And who shall I say sent me to do this? And he says, the Ego Emi, I am that I am. It is the covenant name. It is the, the, the Ego Emi of God. It is his self existent one. And so this very name expressed God's eternality, his self existence. Christ cannot be created and still be the creator. Like I said earlier, he has always existed and therefore is deserving of our honor and our praise and deserving of glory. And so next Paul gives reasons why Christ is over creation and why he should be exalted. So why should Christ be exalted over creation?
We just saw it. He's the creator. The scope of God's creative work in and through and to Christ is limitless. First Corinthians chapter eight verse six says, but to us, there is but one God, the father of whom are all things. And we, we in him and one Lord Jesus Christ in whom are all things and we by him. And so Jesus created not only the visible world that we see, you know, we can walk out and obviously we see the visible world. We can see the first heavens and that's the, the atmosphere in which we live and that we breathe the air. We can see the second heaven, which is the cosmos at night.
We can see the stars, the moon and our sun, but he also created the angelic hosts and is therefore over them as well. Listen to what the writer of Hebrew says in chapter one, verses four through six, being made so much better than the angels as by an inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they for unto which of the angels said he God at any time thou art my son. This day have I begotten thee. And again, I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son. And again, when he bringeth in the first begotten of the world, he says, and let the angels of God worship him.
And that chapter later on, it goes on and that's where I really love to get into some debate sometimes with Jehovah's witnesses and Mormons. And they talk about the deity of Christ and you get to verse eight and God, the father says to Christ, the son that he is God and his throne will reign forever. That is a great verse to refute anybody that wants to deny the deity of Christ and him being eternal. Christ is superior to the angels. God declared that all of the angels must worship Christ and called the Messiah, his son, which was never said about any of the angels.
And that's what's interesting because you go back to the Gnostics and what Paul is writing here to refute and they believe that the angels, the spirits were the highest ranking, that the material items were evil. We all understand this to some degree. Those of us who have children as parents, we want our children to honor and respect us, don't we? And oftentimes we didn't respect our parents growing up either. It's like, ah, now I see it. I get it. I have to go back and apologize to mom and dad.
I am so sorry I put you through all of that. But we want them to respect and honor us because we gave birth to them. And God allowed us to do that. How much more so should we give thanks to Christ because he is the creator of all things?
How much more should we give him reverence and respect because he is the creator of all things? And so every creator creates something for a purpose and therefore our purpose is found and fulfilled completely in Christ. We look at our world and we have people all around us searching to have that fulfillment, to be fulfilled by something and they're searching and they're desperately turning to things that will not fulfill in the end. And Ephesians 2 10 says, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
And it is only through Christ that we will be completely satisfied or that anyone will be completely satisfied. And it is foolish for a man to live life without knowing and submitting to the will of God, his creator. The creator ultimately knows what is best for us. He knows what will fulfill us and what ways we will be most useful for his kingdom. He created each one of us for a specific purpose. It's no mistake that we're here in the day and age that we are. God has created us for this season.
We look at the world that is going on and the things that are unfolding around. It didn't take God by surprise. He has you on purpose here for a reason and for a purpose I should say, and for a reason and that is to give him glory and to bring others to Christ. Instead of submitting to God as Christ did and saying thy will be done, most prayers seek to get God to change his will to ours.
You know, we do that at times. Oh God, if you could just make this happen, and I've done that in past seasons of my life and we pray for an easier path instead of tougher shoes to help us get through that season. Because Christ is the creator, we should seek him for the wisdom about everything. You know, when we have trials and difficulties come up in life, we should go to Christ. We should seek wisdom. Obviously we can go to godly counsel as well, but do we take our problems to Christ first? Do we pray about it? Or do we just as men sometimes jump in and try to fix it? You know, usually if you're like me, you make it worse.
You watch a YouTube video and you make it worse or something like that, right? It's like, oh, that's why we have professionals, right? It just costs us more money.
Sorry, dear. But we do that. And so what we first should do is stop. We should pray. We should go to the Lord in it and seek him and seek wisdom.
Think about this. When you want help with something, wouldn't it always be better to just go to the creator and ask them how to do that? Anybody ever bought some assembly required furniture? You get some pieces of furniture.
They're not labeled. There's a miscellaneous bag of screws and the instructions might as well just be a picture front and back and there's not a whole lot of detail to it. How much easier, and you got spare parts at the end. They're like, honey, they send extra parts. They always do.
It's like, no, they don't. There's never extra parts. Everything is supposed to be in there and it's supposed to be in that object. How much easier would it be if you had the designer or the creator of that piece of furniture right there as you build it? It would make it so much easier, wouldn't it? That's why I don't have any hair. I pulled it all out.
No, just kidding. But again, it would make it so much easier if we had the creator, the designer on our side and consulting him. Listen to what Paul says in Colossians 2 verse two through three says that their hearts might be comforted being knit together in love and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding to acknowledge of the mystery of God and of the father and of Christ in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. God's not in the business of hiding things from us. He wants to abundantly answer our prayer requests. He wants to give us the answers and wisdom that we need. Now, there may be seasons of waiting and you may be in one of those seasons.
I'm in one of those seasons of waiting. You're praying and you're praying, you're fasting and you're praying like, Lord, will you reveal this to me? But there's lessons to be learned in the waiting season as well, I would tell you. In Christ is hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Do you think it was important for them to hear that? Do you think it's important for us to hear that?
It's absolutely important for us to know that. They are tempted to seek special wisdom. The church at Colossae, they're trying to circumvent. They're going to get the special knowledge from the Gnostics that had no special knowledge. They just needed the scriptures.
They were trying to circumvent. And so secondly, he is the goal of creation. Christ is the goal of creation.
I love some of these things that David Gusek says of all things Jesus has created. And as we sit here tonight in our air conditioned room, three inch cushion seats, everything seems to be kind of normal, right? But meanwhile, the earth is spinning at 67,000 miles per hour right now. And most of you still have your hair on your head. It's not coming off.
Some of us already lost it. And that's about eight times the speed of a bullet fired out of a gun. Think about this.
While the sun is orbiting, also our sun is orbiting around the Milky Way galaxy at 143 miles per second, or roughly 514,000 miles per hour. Yet we are perfectly held in place and controlled because God is sustaining all of it. This one's kind of creepy. There are more insects in a country square mile than there are humans on the face of the planet.
It's pretty gross when you think about it. But he is literally sustaining every creative thing that has been created. Think about bees. They can make their own air conditioning.
If the temperature in the hive gets too hot, they're able to create their own air conditioning system for the hive to cool it down. You may ask somebody about that out in the world and they say, well, there's this pool of sludge that just created everything and lightning hit it. And then yeah, no, there's too much design and intricacy and what God has created. Everything was created to give God glory.
This is typical even of things that we have created, right? We create a painting. I mean, Lisa is artistic in everything and she's showing me pictures and she's like, look what I did. Look what I made.
They're amazing. And it's to give the artist, it's credit to the artists and to give them glory in what they've done. And it shows their creator skill.
It shows their wisdom and their creativity. In similar ways, everything that Jesus Christ has created was made to bring him glory. Listen to what David said in Psalms 19, verse one and two, the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night showeth knowledge. Revelation 4 11, thou are worthy O Lord to receive glory and honor and power for thou has created all things. And for thy power, for thy pleasure, they were created. And so David in Psalm 19 is declaring and proclaiming that the heavens are God's preachers.
When we go out tonight and you can see a beautiful sunset or in the morning, you see a beautiful sunrise. Those are pictures and pointing to God. That's general revelation. And so they are preachers of God. Every day they speak of God and bring him glory. Listen to Romans 11 36 for of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory forever.
Amen. And so thirdly, he is eternal as verse 17 tells us he is before all things and by him all things consist. And so what does Paul mean by Christ being before all things? This is speaking of his eternality.
Micah 5 2, but thou O Bethlehem, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel whose goings forth have been from old and from everlasting. And this is what makes Christ transcendent. Meaning that there is nothing like him. What I love about God is that he is transcendent. He's so far above, but beyond what we could even comprehend.
Yet he is imminent and near to us. And the heavens had a beginning. The earth had a beginning and humanity had a beginning, but Christ has always been.
He's been eternal. And so fourthly, he is the sustainer of creation. We see that in verse 17 and by him all things consist.
And this comes from the Greek word sisteme, which means to put together by way of composition or combination, to show, to prove, to establish, exhibit to be composed of or to consist of. It is in the perfect tense, which means that he is continually holding it together. You think about that for a moment as we're sitting here in the stats we listed earlier, they're all perfectly being held together by Christ, by the spoken word of God. It is in this perfect tense that if it ceased to hold all together, everything would fall apart. And there is a day coming when God says he will dissolve the earth and the heavens, he will create a new heaven and a new earth.
And Hebrews 1 3, going back to that passage, who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person in upholding all things by the word of his power. According to Greek scholar A.T. Robertson, all things were created has the idea of stand created. It is standing created.
It is remaining created. Roberts adds that the permanence of the universe rests then on Christ's foremost more than gravity. It is a Christ-centric universe.
You know, the threat of nuclear wars and people saying, oh, it'll destroy the earth, it'll dissolve the earth, this, this, this, and this. Christ is perfectly upholding everything. It'll be destroyed when he is done with it. And so Christ holds all things together by the power of his word in the same way that the world was created through the spoken word. As God said, you know, he began to speak the world into existence.
It is now being sustained by that same spoken word. God is the only one who stains and sustains and provides us with every good thing. And that's why we must exalt him.
James 1 17 says, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the father of lights. And so Christ is still sustaining everything, every man, everything, even those that hated him. You think about that as he's going to the cross and he's being crucified. He totally could have called down legions of angels to save him.
He is allowing the men that spit on him to drive the spikes into his body. He's sustaining them in that moment and allowing those things to happen. And it is for this reason and his preeminence that we must give him glory because he holds all things together. Lastly tonight, magnify Christ because he is the head of the church. Colossians 1 18, and he is the head of the body, the church who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead that in all things he might have preeminence. Another reason Christ is to be exalted is because he is the head of the church. The metaphor of the church being a body and Christ being the head is rich.
What does Paul mean by the metaphor Christ being the head of the church and in the Greek terminology and the Greek usage, the word head meant a source or the origin as well as the leader or the ruler. And so Jesus is the source of the church. The church had its origins with him. You think about that in Matthew 16, Jesus said, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Now the church, again, it started with him. He supplies the life to it through the spirit and it is a representation.
It represents Christ's leadership. It is the brain which directs every part of the body. You think about that. Our brains control every aspect of our body. There's certain things we don't even have to think about because involuntary muscle and, and just nerves, like I don't have to think about breathing. You don't have to either.
Thankfully, that's a good thing because I'd probably suffocated a while back. And so similarly in this, the church must stay connected to Christ in order to discern his will. This is why we must be in his word.
We must live in the word and we must be guided by the Holy Spirit. This also reminds us that the pastor is not the head of the church. The denomination is not the head of the church. The state is not the head of the church. Christ is the head of the church and we must foremost see him as the head of the church. Secondly, Christ being the head of the church represents life. And I'll say this, a body without a head is dead.
There can be no life without a head. Without this connection, there can be no fruit of the spirit, no joy, peace, self-control, long suffering, and even there can be no salvation. It takes us back to John 15, the illustration of the branch and the vines and the branches can only thrive and bear fruit when they are connected to the vine, right? Apart from Christ, the branches wither and die.
And Christ said this in John 10, 10, the thief come for not but to steal and to kill and to destroy have come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. And so we often miss this abundant life due to being detached from the vine. Question, in what ways are you seeking to stay connected to the vine?
Self-reflection for a moment. What ways are you seeking to stay connected to the vine? What ways am I seeking to stay connected to the vine? And how can we tell when we are not where we should be or connected as we should be? And I think there's some signs to this and some of them are a lack of the fruit of the spirit.
It can be a lack of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, meekness, faithfulness, and self-control. Another way it may manifest itself is a spiritual dryness or emptiness. And what I mean by that, prayer life may seem stagnant at times.
We've probably all been there. Our prayer life seems stagnant. Maybe reading scripture seems like a chore instead of a joy or a privilege to wake up in the morning and read the word. And these are all signs that we may be disconnected from the vine or not connected the way that we should be. Thirdly, there's an increased struggle with sin when we're not connected like we should be.
Much like a boat that is not, if you've ever lost an anchor out on a boat and you don't realize it, you start to drift and you don't notice it right away. And then you look up, and especially if you're talking or you're doing different things, and then you look up and you've drifted way out, you have come disconnected from the anchor. And much like us, when we are disconnected from Christ, we tend to drift and we drift into sin.
And the further we drift, the more sin we drift into, the fourth thing is a loss of peace and joy. Now, when we are disconnected from the vine, we are not in the word, we are not connected, anxiety, worry, and dissatisfaction often take over. It's just like a lamp. We could have a lamp up here on the stage, and if it's not plugged into the source, as hard as it tries to light up, it's not going to. It doesn't have the resources needed to connect to make it demonstrate or put off the light that it would.
It cannot give light a light no matter what. In the same manner, we cannot experience true peace and joy of Christ when we're not plugged into Him. And so the fifth thing is that there's a decreased desire for God's presence when we're not connected to the vine like we should be.
And the sixth thing often that comes up is there's an isolation or a pulling away from Christian fellowship or community. And this being connected to Christ often leads to fellowship, right? As you're connected to the vine, I mean, I love our church. I love the sweet fellowship that we have. I mean, some of you are closer to me than my actual family.
This is an amazing work of God that is going on. And when you're walking in the Spirit, you're connected to the vine, there is this great fellowship with other believers. But as you disconnect, you tend to pull away, you start to isolate yourselves and myself from the church and fellowship, and it is an indication that our connection to the vine has weakened. And so in conclusion tonight, I had a first point, but we're going to skip that.
We're out of time. In conclusion tonight, why is Christ the preeminent one? Why should Christ be magnified in our lives and in the entire earth?
And we've seen it through those points tonight. Christ is the exact image of God. He is the revelation of God the father. Secondly, Christ is the first born of God, whom God has given all the rights and privileges. He is the creator.
He is the sustainer. Thirdly, he is the head of the church. That's why he needs to be, the three reasons why he needs to be utmost priority. He needs to have preeminence. And I would ask us tonight, in what areas of your life and in my life is God calling us to apply Christ's preeminence more?
What must we do to make him first place in our lives and to keep him there? Just like a compass, a compass will always point to true north, won't it? Our lives should always point to Christ, keeping him at the center. If the compass is broken or misaligned, it leads us astray, doesn't it? Anybody ever had a broken compass and you're like, man, this is not going the right way.
I'm totally lost. Similarly, if Christ is not the center of our lives, we lose direction and purpose as well. And so tonight, do we need to remove anything that is taking away from Christ, that is keeping him from being first place in all aspects of our life? He doesn't want just some of it.
He wants all of it. Will we have a time, and here in a moment we will have a time where you can come and you can deal with the Lord. And you know, there may be some things there that you need to lay down. You need to put Christ back in the driver's seat of your life in certain aspects of your life.
And some of it may be scary. You may be afraid to give that over to him. But can I say there's nobody else better equipped to handle that than him? He can far better handle our lives than what we can. I make a mess of my life when I start trying to do it Braden's way.
