Turn with me to Colossians chapter 1. And if you guys looked at the bulletin, I regret to inform you, my name is not Jehoshaphat. That is a king of Judah. First Kings. It's Jihad. I thought that was funny, reading that. Our text this morning is going to be Colossians chapter 1. I'm going to be preaching from verses 15 through 23. But for context, we're going to read the majority of the first chapter starting at verse 1 through verse 23. I'll go ahead and give us a little bit of context after we read the word. So if you would follow along with me starting at Colossians 1 verse 1. This is the word of the Lord. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother, to the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae, grace to you and peace from God our Father. We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. of this you have heard before in the word of truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing, as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood it, the grace of God in truth, just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, and has made known to us your love of the Spirit. And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for all endurance and patience, with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Amen. 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 to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. And you, who were once 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 heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven and of which I, Paul, became a minister. That's going to be our text this morning. Before we get into the exposition, I hope you have an outline in front of you that should help you guys follow along. So before we proceed with the exposition, in order for us to further understand this passage in its entirety, it would be helpful to look at a brief context of the epistle itself. So the church in Colossae is a relatively new church, stemming from Paul's missionary journey in Acts 19. This is a church that the Lord had planted by the proclamation of the gospel. This is a fruit of the gospel proclamation in Paul's ministry. And the Lord used not only Paul, but Epaphras as well. We read in verse 7, chapter 1, Epaphras is called a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf. And we know that the Lord would use Epaphras to plant this church in somewhat difficult circumstances. So this wasn't necessarily a church that Paul had even visited, let alone planted himself. Nonetheless, the Lord used his ministry specifically regarding Epaphras. And after a typical Pauline greeting, similar greeting to what we usually see in the epistles, Paul suggests the news, the initial news from Epaphras was overall encouraging. So he states that he is encouraged by their love for the brethren, their faith in Christ, because of the hope that is laid up for them in heaven, And while Paul received this news with joy, and overall it was good news, when we read the epistle in its entirety, we do see that there was certain problems that were happening in the early church. One of those being the false teachings that were creeping up into the church. And we know this really because Paul spends the entire second chapter of this epistle warning the brethren in Colossae. of these dangerous teachings that would ultimately be contrary to scripture. For example, in chapter 2 verse 8, which we won't spend a lot of time in, Paul says, see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition. according to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to Christ. So, there was a teaching coming into this church, this early church, that was not according to Christ and Him alone. Now, that would even include saying it is Christ plus something, like we see in Galatians, when we read Galatians. And like the church in Colossae, a biblical worldview, a biblical view of our Lord and Savior is precisely what we need when dealing with false doctrine. And that's what we will focus on today. And in the climax of Paul's prayer for the church at Colossae, he reminds them of the same gospel message that they originally received. The Father being rich in mercy, full of grace, delivered them from this state of darkness, this state where they are alienated, they are hostile in mind towards God, to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have the redemption, forgiveness of sins, we have love, hope, And I call this the climax within His prayer, because that's really the central theme of this entire epistle, is that we have a superiority that we see in Christ, and that He is preeminent over all things. And it is by His work and His alone that we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins. So this moves us to the first point of our outline, verse 15. verse 15, which reads, He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. So this depiction of Christ is important when we try to understand this entire passage. And I would argue that if we get this part of this text wrong, if we get verse 15 wrong, we're going to get the rest of the text wrong. So it's extremely important that we look at this. What does it mean for Christ to be the image of the invisible God? Well, let's first take a look at the word image. In the Greek, the word used here is icon, which means likeness, or form, or appearance. So Paul is not saying that Jesus is partially God. He's not saying He's just partly God. He's not saying he's a god, lowercase g, as the Jehovah's Witnesses claim. Paul is not saying that Jesus merely resembles God. Rather, he's saying that Jesus is very God and very man. He's saying that Christ is the all-sufficient, holy Son of God. This Greek word icon is used in another place in Scripture, 2 Corinthians 4. which reads, in their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. And again, another place, Paul refers to Christ as the image of God. Philippians 4.6, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. So the statement that Christ is the image of the invisible God is important here because Paul is saying simply that Christ is God. This is an apostolic teaching that was originally received by the Brethren in Colossae from Epaphras. This is not something new that they're hearing, in other words. Commentator Douglas Moose says something that I really appreciate, and that's Colossians 1.15a, this first part of this verse that he is the image of the invisible God, is the heart of the gospel. And now, why would he say this? Why would this commentator, who has some of the best commentaries on Paul's epistles, say this? It's because this is the truth that separates biblical Christianity with everything else. The superiority, the preeminence of Christ, The heart of this message exemplifies the perfect, meritorious work of Christ on our behalf. That He is the One in whom we have redemption. The commentator says that the deity of Christ is the heart of the gospel because only the Son of God can take the wrath of God and yet still reign as King over His creation. And in regards to His creation, He's superior. Verse 15b says, He is the firstborn of all creation. And Paul's emphasis is Christ and His role in creation, and here he says that He is the firstborn of all creation. Ultimately, what this means is that Christ is supreme over His creation. The Greek word that is translated to firstborn, the word prototikos, can mean different things in different contexts, but when it comes to Christ, it is solely a reference to His supremacy and His superiority. It is not a reference to His temporal priority, as the Jehovah's Witnesses or the Mormons would read this text. Rather, it is a reference to his rank, or his superiority. So what the apostle is not saying is that Christ is the first created being. He's not even saying that Christ is a created being at all. That would be completely contrary to the initial message that Epaphras brought to the church. What he is saying is that when it comes to creation, Christ is superior over it. He was in the beginning when it happened. As John 1.1 says, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Paul's message to the Brethren and Colossae is that when it comes to creation, Christ is supreme over it. And he upholds all things in the universe. And this is a clear demonstration when we think about it, of His role in creation, as Creator of all things. Only God can uphold His creation. In addition, when we study the word Firstborn in this context, or just in general, when we study it in the scriptures, it can have other meanings, like I said before. For example, firstborn does not always denote temporal priority with Ephraim and Manasseh, for example. Ephraim is a firstborn when it comes to temporal priority, but the scriptures tell us that Manasseh was a firstborn. Or another example being Ishmael and Isaac. So it's important to understand the word here in its context so we don't end up having a view of Christ that the Witnesses have or the Mormons have. And that's a big issue with the Jehovah's Witnesses. They add the word but and other in this text about six different times to completely take away from the text something that does not say And really when it comes down to it, that should serve as a challenge for us when we are dialoguing with someone who has a false faith, who is destined to hell because of their belief. We have to engage with the text knowing exactly what it says, and this is an ultimate example, with a witness, when they would come up to you and say, well, firstborn means he's first created, without that knowledge, without that understanding, it could be difficult to refute. Verses 16-17 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. So for Him. So again, Christ is the Lord over all creation. And having this foundation laid out with verse 15, we know that Christ is not only God in the flesh, and not only first, and not the first created being, as the Aryan heretics would claim, and the witnesses would claim today. But we can also conclude that without Christ, nothing in existence actually can exist. That is, reality simply does not exist without Christ. He's the creator of all things, and let's think about that. As Christians, we know, by faith, the one who has created this universe. We know the God of creation. That is extremely important. From even the smallest molecules, That is, even the smallest things we can't see to the largest oceans that we can, we know the Creator of all those things. And all of that creation has its identity in Christ. And there is a little bit of a polemic tone we see in verse 16. And it is likely Paul is writing this specifically combating these false teachings that are creeping into the church. Paul is giving the church in Colossae the ultimate refutation of anything false, and that is a biblical view of Christ. When he says, things invisible, that is, the things that we can't see, or things visible, the things we can, such as the earth, or animals, or sky, we know that Everything in existence has value because it is made by God. Specifically, we can find this example in human beings. We know that they have value and dignity and worth being made in the image of God. And he also in this text says, invisible. And many commentators actually believe this is a reference to immaterial spirits. One of the false teachings that was creeping into the church was angelic worship, as well as Gnosticism. So there is a clear polemic tone here in verse 16. And through him and for him. As I stated earlier, Christ is the goal of creation. This means that everything created, visible and invisible, are for His honor and His praise. Again, looking back to verse 15, the word prototokos carries a very powerful meaning in this passage. Christ is King and He is superior, and this creation was made by Him and through Him and for Him. It is made for His glory. just like us, in the same way are made for His glory. Think of our catechism, as we read, what is the chief end of man? Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, as we read. This is what Paul is saying in this passage. In his role in creation, Christ is creator of all, the firstborn over all, the one who is deserving of all glory. And since He is the goal of creation, He would have to be the creator of all things. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. And in order to understand this verse, I decided to break it down really into two parts. Christ being before all things, and in Christ all things hold together. So Christ being before all things, to quote Gill here, not only in dignity being preferable to angels and men in his nature, names, offices, and works, and worthy of more honor than all creatures, But he is before all things in existence, as he must and needs to be, since they are all made by him. He was not only before John the Baptist, his forerunner, before Abraham, who saw his day and was glad, before the first man that was made, but he is before the angels, even in their being, in the heavens and the earth and its creation. And he is before any creature formed and therefore must be God, who is everlasting to everlasting. And this is really the last point that Paul makes before transitioning from Christ being supreme over creation to him being supreme in redemption, as we see in verse 18. And I've already referenced Genesis 1 and John 1, emphasizing that Christ was in the beginning He is before all things in existence. And again, this is not a new teaching, this is the original teaching that this church was brought. And like I said earlier again, without Christ, reality simply does not exist. And to emphasize that point, using this text here in verse 17, without Christ sustaining His creation, what we have, what we would see is complete chaos. So without Christ intervening, we have nothing but absurdity, nothing but chaos. The laws of logic are only understood because of Christ. The gravity that we know is true is only true because of Christ. The order and balance that we see in our world is only here because of Christ. So when I make that statement saying that without Christ all we have is chaos, that is exactly what I mean. A completely chaotic world. Hebrews 1.3 says, He is the radiance of the glory and exact imprint of his nature and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. And this is a humbling truth for us, His covenant children, because He sustains us. Like today, as we hear His Word, as we partake in the supper, He sustains us. He sustains us in regards to our salvation. And when we think of Christ and His power, what we really should think about is the cross, and the redemption that we have in Him, the sacrifice that we see in Him. and the new identity that we have in him. Verse 18 says, and he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead. That is, he might be preeminent. So he is superior over the church. He is superior over you and I. He is the one that we look to to direct our steps. He is the one that we trust by faith. He is the one that spiritually feeds us every Lord's Day. He is the one that intercedes for us. The divine nature is in Christ, and it pleased the Father that the goodness, the supremacy, the sovereignty, the power of God might be made known in His Son. And ultimately, this is the fullness that we see in verse 19, which says, For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile all things to himself, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. So again, like I mentioned earlier, in Christ we do not see part of God or a fraction or something incomplete. But what we see is the eternal Son who tabernacled among us, taking on flesh, a display of ultimate humility for us, and in Him we have the fullness of the Godhead bodily. In Him all fullness dwells. Consider John 1, verse 14, which says, And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And that is what we see in Christ, full of grace and truth. And the power to do all things is found in the person and work of Christ. We have a Savior that is sufficient, that is all-powerful, that is all full of grace, as the Gospel says. He is the author of reconciliation. The fullness found in Christ should deeply encourage us. As I stated earlier, we have a personal, loving mediator, worthy of all glory and honor and praise. And He has redeemed us by His blood. And in Him we have the redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins in accordance to the riches of God's grace. That's Ephesians chapter 1. And it is by Him. It is by Him to reconcile all things to Himself. By Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. And here, really, we see the transition of Paul moving to the atonement of Christ. And while it pleased the Father for all the fullness to dwell in the Son, it was indeed the will of our God to crush the Son. And it was pleasing for Him to do so. That same Old Testament book we read today, Isaiah, 53rd chapter tells us, the Lord was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief. If he would render himself as a guilt offering, he will see his offspring. He will prolong his days and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in his hands. And that is something for us to think about, Christ being our guilt offering. The emphasis on the word our, Think about that, Christian. As one of my heroes of the faith, Charles Spurgeon, says, the gift of Christ Jesus is the highest grace that even God himself can bestow. Nothing can go beyond that. Listen to this then. He that spared not his own son, but freely delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him freely give us all things? That is what we see in Christ, the greatest gift. from God. Within Christ's ministry of reconciliation, we must address a key presupposition that we have discussed in Sunday School, that we have heard read to us, that is, we are in need of reconciliation. We are in need of restoration. This is absolutely the case. Mankind has turned away from God as a result of sin. What we see today with fellow image-bearers of God is those either in Adam, which is the majority, or in Christ. You have either fallen in need of redemption, in need of God's grace, or you are imputed with the righteousness of His Son. There is no gray area in between. With that said, there is not one person in this world that does not need the gospel. If those that are saved, that are imputed with the righteousness of Christ truly are, then they know why they are, and they would receive the beauty of the gospel with open arms. And those who you preach to, who you know are not saved, they need the gospel because it is a matter of life and death. So I say it again, there is not one person in this entire world that is not in need of the gospel, and not in need of this good news. Those in Christ will enjoy our risen King all eternity, and those who die in their sin will spend an eternity in utter conscious torment. They will be given the justice they are deserving of. This is the same justice that we were once deserving of. Therefore, with this gospel proclamation must come mercy, must come compassion. As we see the ultimate example of compassion and mercy in Christ himself. And that's what this text ultimately shows us. Christ redeeming his bride and showing the ultimate act of humility and faithfulness and it started with him tabernacling among us. Philippians chapter 2, verses 8 through 11. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death of the cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven and of those on earth. and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." And the Colossians seem to have a difficult time really applying this and believing it. And we know this to be true by looking at verses 18 and 19 in the second chapter. And I told you we wouldn't go there again, this is the last time. Verses 18 and 19 in chapter two, which says, let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind and not holding fast to the head from whom all the body nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments grows with increase that is from God. We don't need to seek humility outside of Christ, because in Christ we have all we need. The influence of the Gnostics at this time in the church in Colossae was misleading the Colossians, specifically in regards to not holding fast the head, not holding fast to Christ, and by looking at other things to substitute that. And this is common today, false religion or philosophy taking away from Christ. It's common today, it was common in the early church as well. And we are warned of this, brethren, the same way Paul is warning these brethren in Colossae. The confidence we have, the hope that we have, the faith that we have must be in Christ and Him alone, or it is a counterfeit faith. He is the one who has made peace for his elect through the blood of his cross. And let us consider 2 Corinthians 5.19 which says that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself not imputing their trespasses to them and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. So this peace that we read, this reconciliation has been made and is with Christ and his creation. And he did this for an undeserving, sinful, fallen people. Which moves me to the last point of our outline. Which I have titled, Once Estranged, Now Restored. That's going to be verses 21 through 23 in Colossians 1. which says, and you who were once 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 heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister. Paul uses the words alienated and enemies to describe the former state of the brethren in Colossae. And likewise, that was to the former state of all of us here who profess Christ and trust Him and Him alone. So these are not words that are just applicable to the brethren here in Colossae, but they're applicable to the brethren here at Mountain Reform Baptist Church. This is once the state we were in alienated, estranged. So another word for alienated can be the word estranged. And this can mean hostile or indifferent too. To quote the 58th Psalm, the Psalmist says, The wicked are estranged from the womb. They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies. So estranged from the womb. And again, to echo David in that 51st Psalm, Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity. So we must remember that we were once two enemies of God, born sinners. Paul is reminding the Colossians that it's the same truth that, like us, they were once in this state. But they are no longer in this state. The key word here being the word once. as well as that powerful second clause that we read in verse 21, yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death. Paul reminds the brethren in Colossae that their relationship has been in fact restored by the creator of this universe. That peace that they have has been made by Christ and his blood alone. And this applies to us as well again. This is something that we must remember when preaching the gospel. This is something that we must remember when considering the person and work of Christ. This indeed is a humbling truth to delight in. That because of his death, as his children, we are presented holy and blameless and above reproach in his sight. As the rest of verse 22 says. This is very identical to what Paul said to the church in Ephesus in the first chapter, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. We are clothed in his righteousness. See, Christ did something that we could never do. He paid for our sins. He died for our sins and he did it perfectly, obediently. And the Colossians needed this reminder, they needed to know this because some of them were clearly falling away from trusting Christ and Him alone. And really, this should serve as a reminder for us as well. This is a church that received the word with joy that Paul was encouraged by, yet were not trusting in Christ and Him alone. And Paul's exhortation to the Colossians is found in verse 23, which says, if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister. Paul puts the exclamation point in this section, in this chapter, by exhorting these saints. that they may, by the grace of God, persevere to the end and are not moved away from this good news that they received by their dear brother Epaphras. This is the same gospel that we profess today. The same gospel that Paul says in Romans is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes. This was a struggle that these brethren had, and it was a struggle to live and breathe this gospel preached by Paul. So when we look at this exhortation, verse 23, when Paul urges them to not move away from the hope of this gospel, we clearly know why. Because there was a fear, because of these teachings that were coming in the church, that this could be the case. But the ultimate repudiation of that false teaching is the person and work of Christ, is a biblical Christology. Paul knew these various men corrupting the Colossians were ultimately attacking the Bride of Christ, and therefore he had to defend the Bride of Christ as he should have. And some have said, since this warning starts with the word if, then it must depend on us and us alone, possibly, to preserve our own salvation. We would all know that this is furthest from the truth. Our salvation is by Christ, it is for Christ, and it is in Christ, and it is purely a gift. So, actually, when Paul uses this word if here, he rightly assumes that these brethren are, in fact, in the faith. And if they were like us, as Philippians chapter one says, he has begun a good work and you will complete it to the day of Christ Jesus. That is my word of encouragement at this point, brethren, that we would trust in Christ, that he will preserve us to the end. And though oftentimes that can be difficult, that can be very hard to do, but we must continue to focus on the gospel, to saturate ourself in his word, to partake in the means of grace, to sit under sound preaching, to fellowship with the brethren, to surround ourselves by the beautiful providence that God has given us. Let's look to the Lord in prayer. Lord, thank you for this Lord's Day. Thank you for this opportunity to bring the word of God here this morning. Lord, I pray that you would use your word to instruct us, to teach us, that the knowledge would not just stop with us, Lord, but that it would turn to you in worshiping you for the king of the universe, for the one who has given us life. Lord, when we partake in the bread and the cup, I pray that we would look to your son and see the sacrifice that we have in him, that the blood reminded of us the blood that was poured out for our sin. Lord, we give you thanks. In Jesus' name, amen.