Colossians chapter 1 verses 15 through 17. You can find that on page 748 in your pew Bible. It's page 748. Colossians chapter 1, I'll be reading verses 15 through 17. Again, this is God's holy word. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through him and for him, and he is before all things, and in him all things consist. I will never forget the first words that I said to my real estate agent after I walked out of the house that I eventually would buy and currently live in. We walked into the house, my family, my wife and I, and within 30 seconds, I was very much turned off to the house. It had yellow paint on the walls in the living room. And if you have yellow paint in your house, forgive me, I just am not into it. It had some dirty carpet. And most noticeable, it was just very junky. The owners were still living there, and it was just very junky and dirty and stinky. There's just no way else to describe it. And I could not see past all those cosmetics. And I spent just a few minutes, I walked around kind of like just because we were there and I walked out. I was kind of waiting on my wife, my real estate agent who will remain anonymous even though half of y'all know who he is. And I remember saying to him, I said, there is no way I'm going to buy this house. And I was dead set against buying this house. And it's interesting because he knew what we wanted. He knew our budget. I mean, we had been through a lot of houses. He knew kind of what was going on. He also, of course, knows the industry well and the business well. But within a few minutes, one conversation, he had totally changed my mind to where I was willing to make an offer. He helped me see through This is more or less the point. He helped me see through all the distractions, all the mess to see the value of the home, not just for itself, but also for us. He helped me see that. And one of the struggles that I have, that you have, is to, in the midst of the world's, in the midst of the confusion, the distractions of life, all the different competitors that we face, that draw our hearts, that draw our attention, one of the great needs that we have is to see through all of that, junk, and to see the one thing that's most glorious, the one thing that's most valuable, and that one thing is a person. And that person is the Lord Jesus Christ. What Paul is doing in this section is very much what my real estate agent did for me. He's painting a picture. He's helping us see the glory and the value of the Lord Jesus Christ. He more or less has already begun, Paul that is, to do that for the Colossians in this epistle. You notice he's kind of gravitated from what they need to be doing and what he's praying for them, that they be strengthened with all might, etc., verse 11, that they would be thankful, verse 12, to the Father, what He did, and to the Son, and dying for them. And now he's, in the Greek, it's really just one sentence. Paul is writing with much affection and love about the Lord Jesus. And now he's writing directly about Christ. And he wants the Colossians to think high thoughts of Christ. They are facing more or less heretics, false teachers in Colossae who do not, just like heretics today, like the Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons, Do not deny Christ, do not throw Him away completely, but He's not sufficient. He's really not preeminent. You know, if you really want to know what you need to know, then let's talk about this over here. You know, these lulls over here, these angels over here. We've looked at some of that. Chapter 2, verse 18 mentions angels. You know, Christ is really not all that great. What's so great about Christ? Well, Paul wants to address that. He begins to address that here, and what we see Going all the way down to verse 20 is really an argument for why Christ is superior. He's preeminent. Verse 18, which we'll talk more about next week, Lord willing, says that in all things He may have the preeminence. We have a preeminent Christ, a superior Christ. And in these verses and in this sermon, It is specifically in relation to all creatures and even creation itself. Christ is superior to all creation because he, being truly and eternally divine, has created all things and continues to preserve and rule over them. That's the lesson this morning I want you to see. Christ is superior to all creation. Because being truly and eternally divine, He has created all things and continues to preserve and rule over them. That's what I want you to see this morning. Three reasons, three answers to the question, what's so great about Christ? First, look with me, beginning of verse 15 and also the beginning of verse 17. Simply this fact that Christ is truly and eternally divine. A truth that many of you know and love and believe and a truth that I want you to focus on. A truth that's in some sense throughout scripture. We read in Isaiah 9. A child is going to be born to us. He's going to be mighty God. Mighty God. The Bible is full of the divinity of Christ. We see that later on in this book. Chapter 2, verse 9, in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Romans 9, 5. Paul says, referring to Christ, that He is the eternally blessed God. And that truth is also mentioned here, and I want you to see it. Verse 15, it says, He is the image of the invisible God. Now, when you look at a picture, or an image, say on Facebook or something, you see a picture of someone, there's a sense in which you are looking at them, you see them. Now, the illustration is not perfect, but God, the Father, and I think we should understand this to be referring to God, the Father, partly because he just referred to the Father, but also because there's a sense in which God cannot be seen. if you recall that verse, that no one can see God. God is a spirit. Speaking for a second from theological terms, we can talk about God's essence, his substance. There's one God, three persons. We can't see the substance of God, but here I think he has a more, and relates to the Father. And the idea is that when you, and this is the point, when you see Christ, you see the Father. When you see Christ, you see the Father. That's what's being said. He is the image of the invisible God. He who is otherwise invisible, you see him when you see Christ. Now Jesus said this in John 14, 9 to Philip. You recall that story, he said, that scene. Jesus says to Philip, he who has seen me has seen the Father. The writer of Hebrews says that Christ is the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person. Now the confusion, and so the idea is that You see the Father when you see Christ, because Christ's God. He's truly divine. That's my point. Now, there's some confusion with this verse. And in fact, throughout at least two places in my sermon, I want to spend a little bit of time talking about the text and doctrine. It's important for us to stop and to be honest with this scripture. Sometimes the scriptures can appear to contradict itself. Man. Okay, Adam. Okay, all of you, me, we are also called the image of God. But in a different sense, and that's where it's confusing. You may recall 1 Corinthians 11, 7. Where there, man is the image and glory of God. Genesis 1, 27. So he created man in his own image. Image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. But it's very clear from The context of this passage that Jesus is the image of God in a different sense. I mean, he's he's lifting Christ up as he were. He is the creator. He's the preserver. He's the ruler of all things. And there's a different sense being described here. When you when you look at mankind compared to, let's say, dogs or other creatures. Man is an image of God in the sense that we learn something. We see, quote unquote, something of God in man. Man's got an intellect. Man is a moral creature. Dogs don't sin. Okay? Sorry, they don't. They're not moral creatures. Mankind has dominion over all the creatures. Okay? The Lord. The Lord God has dominion. You see, we see something of God in man, but when we see Christ, it's of a different sense. It's because He's truly divine. Something that is clearly stated in other places. And to put icing on the cake, as it were, Paul says at the beginning of verse 17, something else that points to his divinity is his eternality. Verse 17 says, and he is before all things. And this is getting at time. He is before all things in the sense of time. He's always been. The Son of God was never created. It's hard to kind of even think about that. And the reason why he's never been created is because he's God. There's always been a son. The father to be the father must eternally be the father. And so this points us to the divinity of Christ. And I want you to know that I'm looking at this passage of scripture, verses 15 through 17, logically this morning. I want to kind of package it a little bit for you. Paul is full of love. He's writing. He's speaking of Christ all the way down to verse 20. So I'm kind of packaging it for you logically here. Christ is truly and eternally divine. I want you to think about this in its significance. There's two things to think about. The first is that we must recognize this truth. We must hold to it. It's basic, but it's essential. It's essential. I do not intend to go on and on about why it's essential to believe that Jesus is God. It would take me away from the purpose of my discourse. If Christ is not God, then salvation cannot occur. It can't happen. I say this because there are people who call themselves Christians in our city, especially in this area, who don't believe in it. Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, to name two. I want you to know that they are objects of our evangelism. We need to know that Jesus is God. He is God of Gods, as the ancient creeds have said. But, more to the fact, Paul is trying to lift Christ up to us. Your Savior is God. He's important. He's valuable. He's powerful. I want you to think about Christ in such ways. You can identify with this story. I share this story about my brother. I do this type of thing, too, so it's not meant to, you know, make him look somewhat odd or something. But my brother, Philip, who many of you have met, who lives in Sacramento, he told me a story. A few weeks ago, he went to Utah. It wasn't for business. It's for a wedding. A friend of his, a girl in Georgia, was getting married to someone in Georgia, but they're very wealthy, so they're having kind of an event wedding, flying people to Utah, talking big money here, okay? He, just put it this way, he didn't spend any money that weekend. He's in Utah, and he's at the reception, having a good time, and people are talking, a lot of wealthy people there, and he's noticing this one person that's getting a lot of attention, an older gentleman named Arthur Blank. Arthur Blank. I don't know if any of you know who he is. I didn't know who he is. But he founded, co-founded Home Depot 40, 50 years ago. Home Depot. He owns the Atlanta Falcons. He owns the Atlanta United professional soccer team. Worth $4.7 billion. I like lose the ability to even think about how much money that is. And people are doting over him, adoring him. He was nervous standing next, you know, near him. Like, should I shake his hand? Like, I don't know. And you can identify, he's an important man. He's a powerful man. Valuable man. How much more should we esteem the Lord Jesus Christ? He's God. He created. all the hardware, as it were, that's in Home Depot. He's more valuable than Arthur Blank. Christ is truly and eternally divine. What's so great about him? What's so great about Christ? Well, there's a sense in which that's kind of the paramount reason. Everything else kind of flows from that, but we go from his person to his work. What does Christ do? Well secondly, the second reason why you should have a high view of Christ is because Christ created all things. He created all things. That is found in verse 16. The text says, "...for by Him all things were created that are in heaven, that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created through Him and for Him." Now this point is clearly stated here. He created all things. All things were created by Him. Then it says, that are in heaven and that are on earth. This is a figure, a speech, this is a way of speaking. It's a Hebraism. You recall in Genesis 1.1, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Well kids, I don't know if you've thought about this, but it's not like He didn't create the sea. Okay, that phrase, the heavens and the earth encompasses all things. The dirt, everything under the earth, the seas, everything in the seas. Clearly stated, he created all things, but Paul wants us to think about this in a different light. He wants to emphasize it, just in case there was any confusion. Things that are visible, oh and all those invisible things too. There are invisible things. Here Paul is slowly migrating into the angel realm. He wants to talk about angels because the Colossian teachers were talking about angels. He created the invisible things. Angels, I realize that they can manifest themselves physically, but they are corporeal. They are not physical. They are invisible. He is hinting at that. Then he says, not just no matter their abode or their habitation, but their rank. He's talking about angels, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. Now I want to prove to you that's what he's talking about. It may not be apparent to you that he's talking about angels, but he is. He's using a language that refers to human government. Thrones and such. Dominions, we could say thrones would be the White House. I'm just drawing a general comparison. Dominions would be maybe the governor of California. Principalities would be maybe the Fresno County. And then powers would be maybe the mayor or something like that. You get the picture. Now that's how those words are typically used. And Christ is Lord over all. He's the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. But it's not just human government. In fact, what's really in view here is angels. I want you to know that. The reason for that is in the plural. These words are plural. Thrones, dominions, principalities, powers. They're in the plural. In the plural, they're often used to refer to angels. One place where that's clear is Ephesians 3, verse 10. You can also see this in Ephesians 1, 20-21. But I'll read to you Ephesians 3, 10. And just in mid-thought, it says, to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places. Principalities and powers in the heavenly places. Well, there it may be referring to the good angels, but here it's more general. And this is something that the Colossians are facing, this infatuation with the worship of angels. Chapter 2, verse 18. Now, I want you to think about something that I wonder, I tend to doubt that you particularly maybe, but you particularly struggle with, but yet Christians do struggle with this. There's an infatuation with angels. There is. Think about it. Christ wants, or Paul wants them to have a high view of Christ. Angels. Now, it's not just the Roman Catholic Church, but certainly the Roman Catholic Church. Even the Western Church, throughout the centuries, there was an infatuation with angels. People worshipped them. People prayed to them. Pride into, you know, what can we learn about angels? We don't know a lot about angels. I talked about the hierarchy of angels here. There appears to be a hierarchy, a rank structure, but we don't really know much. Michael, the archangel, what does that mean? Cherubim, they are mighty, they are strong, they are warrior angels. Seraphim, they praise God, but we don't know a lot about angels. The thing is, don't be concerned about it. What is Paul saying here? Listen, don't be too concerned about it. Don't pray to angels. Pray to the Father through Christ. Pray to Christ. He's in charge of the angels. He dispatches them. He's preeminent. He's the one. Focus on Him. I'm gonna come back to that in a moment, make another point about angels. But I want you to think about Christ and His preeminence. There's something else about this verse, and I want you to think about it in light of Him creating all things. And that's why He did. I look at the end of verse 16. Two thoughts really, again, under the heading of Christ creating all things. The last sentence of verse 16 says, all things were created through Him and for Him. Now I want to speak to you about the purpose of creation, but before I do that, I want to make another doctrinal point from this verse. All things were created through Him. I don't know if you are confused about this, but here Paul is saying that particularly the second person of the Trinity created all things. Yet if you have your Bible cap on, there's places in Scripture where the Father created all things. And the Holy Spirit was the author of creation, if you will. I have in mind a few verses here. Genesis 1-2 refers to the Spirit. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. The Spirit of God. Or in Acts 4-24, it says, So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, you are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them. Is there confusion in this text? Well, no. One commentator writes, in fact, this is Dr. Piper, my seminary professor, he said, the Father decreed it, the Son spoke each into existence, and the Spirit preserved it, and at the Son's command, particularized and energized what the Son commanded. And the reason why I mention this to you is not just because I want you to be confident that the Scriptures do not contradict, but because the text says all things were created through Him. There's a sense in which He's suggesting that the Father decreed it through Christ, that the Word and the Spirit actualized it, energized it. This last point here, under my second overall point, is why God created all things. For what purpose? Two words. For Him. Very instructing. Very practical for us. Why do you exist? For Him. And it's for Him, specifically for His purposes, in the sense of for His glory. It's about Christ. Listen. I have to remind myself this as well, but I want you to think about it. It's not about you. It's just not. It's about Jesus. It's about His glory for Him. Everyone, Isaiah says, everyone, this is in 43.7, everyone who is called by my name whom I have created for my glory. Very important for us to stop and think about this. I sometimes can get frustrated. Perhaps you can get frustrated with life, upset with how things are going. Perhaps you're struggling with a disappointment in life. And of course, there's things can happen that where you get angry or upset or disappointed. It has nothing to do with what I'm about to say. But I want you to think about why you may get angry. Or even now you may be sad about your life. Is it because you had a goal? Is it because you're going after something that you want? And not realizing that, well, that didn't work out for me, but I can still glorify Christ. Christ is still on the throne. You see, this idea of living for Christ helps you have peace in life. Listen, if you live for yourself, Which, I mean, the purpose of life for unbelievers is to be happy. If you boil it all down, all comes out, you know, it's about me. Listen, if you live your life for yourself, then not now, eventually you will be confused, and you'll be unhappy. Because you're made. You're made to live for Jesus, for His glory. I want you to think about that. It's comforting, especially in the midst of disappointment. Especially if you're struggling with something that makes you angry. Remind yourself that you live for Him. It's about Him. Christ is preeminent. Your life is about Him. He created you. And this is the second reason why you should think highly of Him. But there's another reason. There's another reason why you should have high views of Christ. And that is that He continues to preserve and rule over all things. He continues to preserve and rule over all things. Look at verse 17. Verse 17, the second part, it says, and in Him all things consist. And in him all things consist. I like the ESV. It says, in him all things hold together. Christ is not only the word which brought about creation. He's also the one holding all things, keeping all things together from, as one commentator wrote, falling back into nothingness. Gravity. It's the hand of Christ. He created it. He makes it so it's holding all things. That the planets don't just fly off their orbit. He's controlling. He brought you here. In other words, He governed your car as you drove here. He preserved you. He's causing your heart to beat. And it's all things. In Him. All things consist. One of the mysteries of life and something that because we're finite and not infinite like God we can't understand it. Two things. One, God is sovereign over all things and powerful and God is holy and not a sinner. Man is culpable for sin. All the things that have happened to you that are painful, God is in control through Christ. All things. He preserves all things. This is also stated everywhere throughout Scripture. We sang about it in Psalm 148. Kids, Psalm 104. Y'all like the fact that Leviathan, the sea monster, swims. He plays in the ocean. It's because of Christ, kids. He enables that to happen. Hebrews 1.3 Christ is upholding all things. by the word of His power. Every creature would sink back again into its former nothingness if the divine preservation were withdrawn." And connected to this idea of preservation, again our Catechism question 11, what are the works of God's providence? God's works of providence are His most holy, wise, powerful, preserving all His creatures and all their actions. Part of that You notice it is preserving and governing. It is His governance. It is His rule. He exercises dominion. There is no conflict. The devil is Christ's devil. From our vantage point, because we are not infinite and holy and perfect like God is, sometimes we wonder if God is in control. God is. And he's ruling all things. The idea of ruling comes from verse 15. You notice I skipped the second phrase of verse 15. A phrase, it's been, in some sense it's hard to understand, it's been misused. So he preserves and rules over all creation, an idea that's connected. Second part of verse 15. The first born over all creation. What does that mean? Christ is the firstborn of all creatures. Now, does that mean that Christ is the first creature? I mean, if the Jehovah's Witness came up to you on the street, and pointed to this scripture, what would you say? I mean we have to explain this phrase. We can go to other passages like John 1.1, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. We can point to passages like John 8, where Jesus says to the Jews, before Abraham was, I am. And they began to want to stone him, because he's saying he's God, and he's always been. He's not created. Well, the way we explain this is that Paul is using, if you like, another Hebraism. The word firstborn can have the idea of coming forth. In fact, it's used that way toward Christ in his human nature, in other places of Scripture. Think about the firstborn. Did he have the heir? Was he an heir to the home? Was he going to be the master? Was he going to be the ruler, as it were, of the household? One commentator writes, For the eldest born, by the law and custom of most nations, firmly were, and to this day are, the principle of the family, the heads, and in a manner lords, of their brethren. Hence originated this kind of language, putting eldest, and here's the point, putting eldest or firstborn to signify the head, the lord, and the master. So he's the ruler. Now that's not just a cultural thing. It's in the Bible. There's evidence for that. Psalm 89 27 referring to the son of David. This is a psalm that's more or less messianic. Psalm 89 27 says, also I will make him, literally I will make him firstborn. What's that? The highest of the kings of the earth. You see? Firstborn is being used to indicate rule. Because I want you to be clear on it. Again, it's helpful to... We need to be theologians. Everyone here is a theologian. Some of you are more aware of that than others. We need to have our doctrine. Second Chronicles 21.3. This is the father of Jehoram. I'm not sure who he was. One of the kings of Judah. their father gave them great gifts of silver and gold and precious things with fortified cities in Judah, but he gave the kingdom to Jehoram because he was the firstborn." Jehoram was going to rule because he was the firstborn. That's the idea. Now, preservation, ruling, connected ideas. I want you to think about it. I want you to have high thoughts of Christ. Here's how I want you to think about it. Because I do this at times, I'm sure that in some sense you do this as well. Sometimes Christians live like practical atheists. I want you to think about this for a second. Practical atheists. As if God is not God. As if God is not preserving all that we do and ruling over all that we do. Do you struggle with fear? Listen, do you have a problem with fear? You go to bed at night, and you lock the door more than once. I want you to lock your door. God is going to protect you through normal means. He has given you a brain. But are you fearful? Kids, you go to bed at night, your parents put you down. They make sure the window is shut. You're afraid. Listen kids, I was afraid when I was young. But I want you to think about the fact that Christ, He preserves all things. He rules over all things. Now you get in a car and you put your seatbelt on, but you don't get on the interstate because you could get killed. Well, you know, be safe. Okay? If you don't have to use the interstate, don't use the interstate. But don't forget, In the midst of your attempts to be safe and to drive the speed limit and obey the laws, yes, God's in control. He really is. Listen, He really is in control of all things. He preserves you. Are you afraid? I'm not rebuking you, I want to encourage you. I want to encourage you. I know some of you are fearful. Is my health going to hold out? Listen, be wise. With some diligence, be healthy. Listen, if you get cancer, I can't explain it all. It's because Christ gave you cancer. I can't explain it all. But God is really in control of all things. Don't be afraid. Because this passage of scripture specifically addresses angels, I also want to say something to you. Because, you know, we live in a culture where if you go to the theater and, you know, or go to the movie store or whatever, Netflix or whatever, I mean, there's horror films, there's fascination with, to some degree at least, demons and demonic manifestations. And what I'm here to tell you is this, do not be afraid of demons. That may sound kind of strange, but I want you to think about it, okay? I want you to think about it. Because I know you're like me. You're like me. And maybe you've had an encounter with some type of demonic manifestation. I'm not denying that. Listen, demons are real. Satan's real. But I'm here to tell you, the devil is Jesus' devil. He rules over them. He dominates. He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. Don't get fascinated with it. Don't pry into it. But don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Christ, He really is preserving and ruling over all things. I want you to have high views of Him. Christ is superior to all creation. Because being truly and eternally divine, He created all things. And He continues to preserve and rule over them. You are just like me. You're in this world. You're working. You're focused. And there's temptations. There's things coming into your life. And there's clutter. There's trash, as it were. And I walked into that house with my real estate agent. And I couldn't see Pastor Bill. I want you to push things aside. I want you to see Christ. I want you to think upon Him. He really is superior. Do you have these types of thoughts? Do you have this type of view of Christ? May we, as the psalmist say in our hearts, who have I in heaven? And on earth, there is no one that I desire beside you. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we lift up our hearts again to you. We ask that you would help us to see the glory of the person and of the work of your son, the Lord Jesus. We pray that you would press it upon our minds and on our hearts, that you would inflame our love for him, to live for him, to serve him. Father, encourage us. Help us to know yet again that you are a mighty God, that your son is a mighty Savior who rules over all. Give us this comfort and give us this renewed faith in these things for we ask in his name. Amen.