come to these passages in scripture, and the Lord just kind of puts you right into it. There are certain subjects. How about that? All right, good. Not going to let that bother me. Sometimes you come across certain subjects in your study that just grab hold of you. And this is one of them. all week, immersed in Colossians chapter 1, verses 15 to 20. And the reason I get so excited about this is because it's talking about how great Jesus is. And there's nothing that should get God's people more excited than a passage that talks about who Jesus is, and his greatness, and his preeminence. So this is a wonderful passage I've been waiting to get here, and here we are. It's just great. As we come to the word of God this morning, we come to this passage that is among the most crucial in all of scripture. And the reason is that this particular passage is it's filled with such import because it answers the most important question that can ever be asked. Back in Matthew chapter 16, keep your finger there in Colossians, but come with me to Matthew chapter 16. In Matthew 16, Jesus and his disciples have come into the district of Caesarea Philippi. Now, this is a region with a long history of idolatry. And Jesus and the disciples could have looked around them at the time of this account, and seeing the ruins of pagan temples everywhere over the landscape, in addition to current monuments to Roman gods and to Caesar himself. There was a reason that Caesarea Philippi was called Caesar's Philippi. And they could have seen all of this idolatry and all of this paganism. And it is in that context of what we today would call religious pluralism that Jesus asks this question, who do people say that I am? Verse 15 of Matthew 16. Or verse 13, rather. Who do people say that the Son of Man is? You see, it was clear even then that Jesus was calling upon people to make a decision concerning Him. And so He asks His disciples, who do people say that I am? And that's a question to which innumerable answers have been given. The disciples said that some thought He was John the Baptist. come back to life. Others thought he was Elijah. Others thought he was Jeremiah. Others were saying some other prophet of God come back. And people still say that about Jesus today. That's one of the answers given to this question. When we ask, who do people say that Jesus is, they'll say he's a prophet. That's what Islam says. Jesus is simply one in a long line of prophets testifying to Allah, they would say. Of course, there are many other answers given today as well. Some don't believe he existed at all. Some believe that he was nothing more than a good teacher. Of course, that's pretty much been laid to rest. Many of you are familiar with the argument that C.S. Lewis has popularized concerning this statement that Jesus is just a good teacher. And Lewis says that's not even an option. You just think it through a little bit, and you understand how absurd that is. You called Jesus a good teacher, and yet Jesus is the one who himself placed himself at the center of every individual's eternal destiny. He said, either you come to me, or you will spend eternity in hell. I'm the only way to get to the Father. I'm the only way to get to God. Now, if he was a good teacher, and that's all he was, He would either be lying about that. He'd know it wasn't true, and he said it anyway, in which case he would not be good, certainly. Or he was a lunatic. It's not true, but he really believed it was true. He was the center of the universe, in which case he's not a good teacher. And that only leaves one other option. He's the lord of the universe. He is who he said he is. And so Lewis says, Don't give me any of this tripe about him being a good teacher. It's not an option that he left open to us. But people persist because they don't think things through very well in saying that he was just a good teacher. Other people say that he's some kind of Eastern guru. All the New Age philosophies will go this way, and Hinduism, Buddhism, they will all pay homage to Christ, but simply as some kind of wise man from the past. But whatever people may say about him, one thing's true. He cannot be ignored. He calls for a decision to be made. And we see the truth of that in Matthew chapter 16 as well. Jesus does not let His disciples off the hook by simply stating what other people were saying about Him. He calls them to come to their own conclusions. And so once they tell Him what other people are saying about Him, in verse 15 He says to His disciples, but who do you say that I am? And that's an even more important question than what other people say he is. Who do you say that Jesus is? That's an extremely important question. And Peter, answering for the disciples, said, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. See, Peter knew. But Peter didn't know because he was so intelligent. Peter didn't know because he was so spiritual. Peter knew because in the sovereignty of God, Jesus says, the Father had revealed it to him. Verse 17, blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. The Father had revealed that truth to him, and that leads to the most important question of all, the most important issue of all, and that's the question that is addressed in our passage in Colossians 1. What other people say about Christ is an important issue. What you say about Christ is an extremely important issue, but the most important of all is not what other people say about Him, and not what you say about Him, but what God says about Him. Because we don't know anything about Jesus unless God first reveals it to us. Just as Peter knew that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the Living God, because the Father revealed it to him, the only way we can know anything of Christ is if God reveals it to us, and He has done that in His Word, specifically here in Colossians chapter 1. And so let's spend some time this morning delving into the revelation that God has given to us concerning who Christ is and what he has done and the preeminent place that Jesus has above all other things. As God has revealed that to us through the Apostle Paul. Who is this Christ? In Colossians chapter one, verse 15 through 20, we read this. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things have been created by him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church. And he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he himself might come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in him and through him to reconcile all things to himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross. Through him, I say, were the things on earth or things in heaven. So the first thing that Paul tells us about who Jesus is, is that he is the image of the invisible God, verse 15. Now the God is invisible. is a given in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. But in John 1, verse 18, which begins by affirming this, saying that no one has seen God at any time, he goes on to say, but the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has explained him. the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, has explained this God whom nobody has seen, this invisible God. As I spend the week in my study working through the Word of God and then come here before you on the Lord's Day to explain the Word of God to you, I'm performing a process that's called exegesis. It's looking at the text and bringing out of the text and explaining what's there in the text. Jesus is the exegesis of God. God is there, and He is in His glory, and He is in His heaven, but no one's ever seen Him. How do we know about Him? We know about Him through Jesus. How does He do that? Well, much of the answer is found in our text as we understand how Christ is the image of God. The Greek word translated image is the word from which we get our word icon. If you go into a Greek Orthodox church, you will see pictures all over the walls of saints and of Jesus, and they're called icons. And they are one-dimensional, they're just flat, they're a little distorted. They're not supposed to be representations of, they're not supposed to be the reality itself, but rather a representation, a symbol of the reality that lay behind them. That's what an image is. That's what an icon is. Sometimes the word is even used to speak of a picture in scripture. And from that kind of a usage, we can say that Jesus is the portrait of God. But the meaning goes even beyond that, because the icon or the image of God also carries the idea with it of revealing the character of God as well. And so someone comes to you. It says, show me God. Tell me what God is like. What do you do? You open your Bible, and you take them to the Gospels, and you show them Jesus. Because when you show them Jesus, you are showing them God. you are showing them all of the attributes of God in the person of Jesus Christ. God's goodness and holiness and righteousness, his power, his justice, his mercy, it's all there in the person of Christ. And so Christ, as the image of the invisible God, is not just a plaster representation of him, but he's the revelation of what God is really like. The writer of Hebrews expresses this same thought. in very powerful language in hebrews chapter 1 verse 3 when he says he is the radiance of his glory the exact representation of his nature that's what jesus is the radiance of his glory the exact representation of his nature and the greek word translated exact representation means It's the impress that's left by a die on a coin or on a wax seal. It's the image that is left there. It's the exact impress of the essence of God. That's who Jesus is. And that comes right out of the Orthodox doctrine of the Trinity. God is three persons, but one essence. The reason Christ can be the exact representation of the essence of God is because he is God. It's not a hard job to do for him. He is God. Simply by being himself, he is representing God to us in his very nature. And so Jesus, then, is the image of the invisible God. But Paul doesn't stop there. He goes on to describe another aspect of who Christ is when he says that Christ is also, verse 15, the firstborn of all creation. Now, this can be a little tricky, unless one is willing to do more than be content with a superficial reading of the text. At first sight, it may seem that Paul is saying Jesus is the first created being. He's the first one to be created in all of creation. But that's not what he's saying at all. That's what the Jehovah's Witnesses tried to make it say, and that's what 1500 years before they came along, the heretic Arius tried to make it say. And that's what the Gnostics, whom Paul was fighting against here as he wrote this epistle, tried to make it say. But if we delve a bit deeper, we see that's not what Paul is saying at all. We need to understand that as we come to the word of God, we cannot interpret these words with an English dictionary. The text was written in Greek. And so we need to be careful that we don't import our own idea of what this means. When we think of firstborn, we usually think of the oldest child. It's chronological, the first one who was born to someone. But that's not what it means in scripture all the time. It certainly can mean first child, but more often and more importantly, it's a term which means first in rank or honor. It means preeminence. And this is how the term is used back in Psalm 89, verse 27, when the psalmist is speaking of the Messiah. Psalm 89, verse 27. Let's come back and read a few more verses so we get an idea of what the context is. Verse 22, the enemy will not deceive him, nor the son of wickedness afflict him. I shall crush his adversaries before him and strike those who hate him. And my faithfulness and my loving kindness will be with him. And in my name, his horn will be exalted. I shall set also his hand on the sea and his right hand on the rivers. And he will cry to me, thou art my father, my God, the rock of my salvation. I also shall make him my firstborn. the highest of the kings of the earth. My loving kindness will keep him forever, and my covenant shall be confirmed to him. So I will establish his descendants forever and his throne as the days of heaven." This is a messianic prophecy. It has a twofold meaning. It is speaking first of David, but more importantly, it is speaking of the Messiah that is yet to come. And the Messiah is referred to as the firstborn. Now, are there more than one Messiah? No. So what does firstborn have to do with anything? Was there a second Messiah that was going to be born after the firstborn was? No. It is a term of preeminence. The Messiah is above all things. He is preeminent. in all things. The people of Israel were called the firstborn to indicate their high position as recipients of the Father's love. Exodus 4, verse 22, Israel is referred to as God's firstborn. Now, is Israel the first nation that ever existed? No. It can't be a chronological thought there. Is there more than one chosen people? And Israel is the firstborn of God's chosen nations. But there are others. Scripture doesn't say anything about that. Israel is the only chosen nation of God. They are the firstborn. They are preeminent above all other nations because they are God's chosen people. Come with me to Genesis chapter 41. And we'll see this very clearly as we compare Genesis chapter 41 to something that is said later on in Jeremiah. Genesis chapter 41, verse 51 and 52, Joseph is naming his children. And we read in verse 51 of Genesis 41 that Joseph named the firstborn Manasseh. For he said, God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father's household. And he named the second Ephraim. For he said, God has made me fruitful in the land of my infliction. Now keep that in mind. Manasseh is the first born. Ephraim is the second born. Now come with me to Jeremiah chapter 31 and verse 9. Manasseh firstborn, Ephraim secondborn. But in Jeremiah chapter 31 in verse 9, we read this. With weeping they shall come, and by supplication I will lead them. I will make them walk by streams of waters on a straight path in which they shall not number. For I am a father to Israel and Ephraim, is my firstborn. But didn't we just read that Manasseh was the firstborn? Now God's saying, Ephraim is my firstborn. Well, what happened? In Jeremiah, God is speaking of a place of prominence. Manasseh had fallen into sin and had lost their place of prominence in the sight of God. Ephraim was raised to this place of preeminence. And so now in Jeremiah and also in the book of Hosea, if you read through Hosea as we are studying together on Thursday mornings in our men's study, Ephraim becomes a term that is used synonymously with Israel. When God wants to speak of Israel, he sometimes uses the term Ephraim, just as he does here in Jeremiah. And so Manasseh is the actual firstborn, but through their sin, they lose their place of preeminence, and Ephraim is raised to that place of preeminence, even though they were second born chronologically. And so we come back to Colossians chapter 1, and we see that when Paul calls Christ the firstborn over all creation, he meant that the highest honor belongs to him. Christ is preeminent. He is completely supreme over all things. And so Christ is the image of the invisible God. He is the firstborn. He is preeminent over all creation. He is also, Paul tells us, the head of the church, verse 18. He is also head of the body, the church, and he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead. Christ is sovereign over his church. I am not the head of this church. The elders are not the head of this church. The congregation isn't the head of this church. Christ is the head of this church. That is crucial. It is a crucial aspect of who he is. He is sovereign over the church, just as he is sovereign over everything else. When we become believers, we become a part of Christ's body through the baptizing work of the Holy Spirit. And as members of his body, we are totally dependent upon the head. Christ for direction. He is to control us. And the reason for Christ's exaltation as the head of the church is that he is the firstborn from the dead, Paul tells us. Now, we just saw this word, firstborn, where it means firstborn in rank. It means honor. It means preeminence. And it means the same thing here. Paul was not saying that Christ was the first one to be raised from the dead. We know that's not true because Jesus himself, prior to his resurrection, raised people from the dead. Go back and read about Lazarus. Perfect example. Lazarus, come forth. That was prior to Jesus' death and resurrection. So he wasn't the first one chronologically to be raised from the dead, but he does have that preeminence in that he is the most important one to be raised from the dead. Because Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15 that if Jesus wasn't raised from the dead, none of us will be either. Our faith is in vain. There is no hope. If Jesus was not raised, we will not be raised. If Jesus was not raised, your faith is a sham. Let's get up, turn out the lights, and go home. There's no reason to be here. But he was raised from the dead. And he is preeminent in his resurrection because through his resurrection, we have the promise that we too will be raised because he is the head over the church and we are his body and he is going to raise his body. That's who God says Christ is. Now, what does God say about what Christ has done? Well, we come back up to verse 16, and we see that one of the things that Christ has done is he created everything. Jesus is the creator. When you go back and read Genesis chapter 1, and God says, let there be light, and God says, let there be all these plants, and let there be the animals, and let there be the sun, and let there be the moon, and let there be man, see throughout that entire chapter, Jesus. because Jesus is the one who is doing it. Yes, the entire Godhead is playing a role there. The Spirit was moving across the face of the deep, and God said, let us make man in our image. All of the Trinity was involved. But in a special way, Paul tells us that Jesus is the creator. He is the agent of creation ex nihilo, from nothing. The extent of His creation is dazzling. It includes even the angels. Look at verse 16. For by Him all things were created, both in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things have been created by Him and for Him. In the scriptures and in rabbinic literature, These four descriptions of thrones and dominions and rulers and authorities refer to four classes of angelic powers, with the last two referring to the highest order of the angelic realm. And so when those folks come to your front door with their little suitcase and their little black Bibles and their magazines, and they try to tell you that Jesus is a created being, not only as a created being but he is in actuality Michael the Archangel. Then you come back here to Colossians chapter 1 and you read verse 16 in your own Bible because they change it. For by him all things were created and not only all things but all things including rulers and dominions and and thrones and dominions and rulers and authorities, all the angelic powers were created by him, including the archangels. So he could not be one of those, because he created those. Now, they'll open up their Bible, and they'll change some things. And they'll say, and you'll read in their Bible, for by him all other things were created. See, they changed the scriptures, and they put words where they don't belong. There is no such word as other, but they wanted you to think that Jesus is a created being, and so that he was created first, and then he created everything else. That's not what the text says. Jesus created everything that is. He didn't need to be created, because he is, in fact, God. Now the Gnostics that Paul was dealing with thought that Christ was some kind of spiritual emanation that came from God. And Paul boldly says here that he is not just a created being, but he is the true God himself who created everything, even the invisible spirit world. Christ is the creator of all. We're well aware of what this implies when we think about a universe. that is millions of light years across, so far that we can see. We don't know how far it goes, but it's at least millions of light years from one end to the other that we can get in our view. It's an amazing thing. Christ created all of it. All of the stars that are encased in that massive universe, Christ created. But our Earth is pretty astounding, too, because not only did he create that vastness, but he created the tiniest thing you can imagine. You know, there are over 800,000 cataloged insects. He created all of them. Billions in some of those species, all created by Christ. all controlled by him as well. He's not only the creator of creation, he is also in the end the goal of creation as well. Don't miss this. He is before all things and in him all things hold together. Come down and look what else this says about him. All things have been created through him and for him, verse 16. All things have been created by him or through him and for him. That's an astounding statement. Some can, you can even translate this word for as toward, which makes the sense even more dramatic. Everything has been created by him and toward him. The entire creation is moving toward Christ. Its culmination will be in him. Everything began with him. Everything will end with him. All things sprang forth at His command, and all things will return to Him at His command. He is the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega, and one day everything that exists is going to give Him glory, because He is their Creator. It's an astounding statement that Paul makes in this one verse. Now, since this is true, it has implications for us. We need to live completely for Him, and any other course of action is irrational for the believer. It makes no sense whatsoever. Paul used similar logic in Romans, chapter 11, 36, where he said, for from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen. And then he calls us to total commitment, which he concluded was your reasonable or logical for rational service, Romans 12.1. So as believers in Christ and those who say we are his people, we need to ask ourselves the question, am I living my life in a rational, logical manner? That means, am I living my life in the light of the preeminence of Christ? Does he have first place in everything? If he does not, If there is some idol that we're placing between ourselves and Christ, we are living irrationally. We are living illogically. Christ is the creator of all, and as such, he is preeminent over all and demands that we live our lives in the light of that preeminence. But look what else Paul says in verse 17. He's not only the creator, but he's also the sustainer of all things. And here Paul reaches the apex of his argument. Christ is preeminent not only because he's the creator, but also because he's the sustainer. He keeps everything going. The tense that Paul uses here tells us that Christ continues, even now, to hold all things together. He didn't create things and just let them run. He created the world, and he is active in it, and he sustains it. And apart from his continuous activity, everything would disintegrate in a split second. The writer of Hebrews puts it this way. The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His nature, sustaining all things by the power of His Word. Just as Christ created everything by the power of His Word, He just spoke and it came into being, He sustains everything by the power of His Word. You cannot take your next breath unless Christ sustains you and gives it to you. everything we are and everything we do every moment that we exist we exist because he is sustaining us there's a medieval painting which shows Christ in the clouds and below him all of the things of earth all the people all of the animals all of nature and from Christ to every object in that painting runs a gold thread and that artist was picturing exactly what we're talking about. Everything on earth exists and is sustained because of the power of Christ coming down and sustaining them each moment of their life, of their existence. Christ is the sustainer. But as Paul is wanting to do, he leaves the best for last. Verse 20, We see what Christ has done that makes him preeminent above all things. Paul says, he has reconciled all things to himself. Through him, through Christ, God has reconciled all things to himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross. So what specifically are we speaking of when we talk about the reconciling work of Christ? We're talking about the atonement. Christ coming to this earth in the form of a man and going to the cross and shedding his blood, giving his life so that you and I can be reconciled to God through faith in him. That's why Christ is preeminent. No one else has done that. No one else could do that. Christ is the only one. which bears out exactly what Christ said through his earthly ministry, no one comes to the Father unless they come through me. Because I am the one who makes atonement. I am the one who gives the perfect sacrifice. I am the one who reconciles sinners separated from God because of their sin to a holy Father. Through my blood, through my atonement, through my righteousness, That's what Christ does in his reconciling work. He has reconciled us to himself through the blood of the cross. This is who Christ is. This is what Christ has done. And seeing Christ as Paul here presents him will keep us from heresy, first of all. It will steel us against a scaled down Christ that has captured so many lost hearts. Everyone wants to make Christ less than he is. They want to bring him down to their level. They want to make him just another created being. They want to make him just another man. Maybe an exceptional man, but a man just the same. And that cannot be done if one is going to deal with God's revelation of who Christ is. Because Christ is not just one of us. He is not even a superior one of us. He is God himself. And he is preeminent because of that. Paul's hymn here sings of the supremacy of Christ in all things. It is meant to stretch the purity of our minds. It is meant to dominate our thinking. It is meant to change us. When we truly understand what's being said here, it is amazing that we should look anywhere else for meaning and for purpose in our lives. It can't be found anywhere else. This is the apex. Christ is the pinnacle. For all that we are and all that we experience, he knows best how to fix and order our lives because he created us, and he sustains us, and he knows us better than we know ourselves. He's preeminent. Christ chose to enter into his own creation and take on a body created and sustained by his power to die and to undergo resurrection and so be the firstborn among the dead and first rank in salvation. It's a wonder when you think of what he gave up to come and give himself for us. He is the preeminent example of sacrifice. Paul wrote of that in Philippians as well. The Gnostics, in all their arcane speculations, could never have dreamed up anything as stupendous as this. Never. As a matter of fact, they thought it was foolishness. That's what Paul says. He wrote to the Corinthians. He says this gospel is just ridiculous. unless God changes your heart and enables you to understand it and see it for what it is. So the world thinks we're fools because we believe that God came and humbled himself and went to the cross and died a criminal's death. The Gnostics didn't think any more of it than the Corinthians did. But the philosophers, such a plan, such a dream as this could only come from the mind of God. Now, what does it mean to us? Simply this, verse 18, so that he himself might come to have first place in everything. And he will have first place in everything. It's going to happen. And it starts with his own people. Christ must have first place in everything, but especially in the hearts of His own people. He must have first place in our families. He must have first place in our marriages. He must have first place in our professions. He must have first place in our ministries, in our intellectual life, in our time, our love, our conversation. He must have first place in our eating and our playing, in what we watch, in our art, in our music, in our worship. Every aspect of our life, Christ must have the preeminence. He demands it, and he deserves it. He must have first place in everything that you can imagine. He is preeminent, and we must respond to him according to that preeminence. Let's give him that now as we come to him in prayer. Our great father. Your son is amazing. He is glorious. He is preeminent over all, and we bow before him. Father, there are so many times when we lose sight of the glory of Christ and the dull, dirty things of this world creep into our affections and they begin to take preeminence in our lives. Father, may that not happen. May you preserve us from that. May we not settle for broken cisterns that can hold no water when we have the fountain of living water in Christ. Father, may your spirit work within us to make us appreciate the glory of your son. And may we be so enraptured with him that we cannot help but tell others of him. Do that, Father. Make Christ not only prominent, but make him preeminent in our hearts. For we ask it in his name, our wonderful and glorious Savior. Amen.