The New Testament reading is from the book of Colossians 1. We'll be reading just verses 15 through 20 this morning. Colossians 1, beginning at the 15th verse. He, that is Christ, 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. Amen so far, the word of God, let's pray. Lord open our eyes this morning that we may behold wonderful things from your word. We pray that you would speak to us and teach us through our Lord Jesus Christ. We ask for the help of your Holy Spirit that we might preach clearly and faithfully and boldly and that we might hear with humble and teachable hearts the very voice of the one who calls us by name and washes us in his blood. even Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. Amen. In a few moments, we will share together at the Lord's table, and we will hear the words of our Lord Jesus when He says that we are to do this in remembrance of me. But what exactly does that mean? We sometimes think, well, I'm supposed to remember that Jesus died on the cross for my sins and I'm to recall that his body was broken and his blood was shed so that I might know forgiveness and have a way to heaven. And that's true. That's certainly an integral part of the Lord's Supper. That's why Jesus says, this bread is my body broken for you. This cup is my blood shed for you. But it's always interesting to me when I read the words of institution that Jesus did not say, do this in remembrance of what I've done for you, as if his work is all that's involved. Instead, Jesus tells us, do this in remembrance of me. It's as if Jesus wants us to think about who he is and what he represents, not just what he's done. We are to remember Jesus for all that he is in and of himself and not simply focus on the blessings that he has provided for us by his atoning death on the cross. And it seems that that's kind of what the Apostle Paul has in mind here at the beginning of his letter to the Colossians. The Colossian Christians were, for the most part, unknown to Paul personally. He did not found this church like he did some of the others in the New Testament. He was not the organizing pastor of this congregation as he had been in other cities. But Paul knew the Colossians somewhat and he knew their situation. He also knew that they were being tempted by some new teachers who had come to town and these new teachers preached what Paul would have referred to in Galatians as another gospel. The new teachers had come along saying it wasn't enough to believe in Christ for salvation, you need to do something to add to Jesus' work. They seem to have been telling people you need to observe all the feasts and festivals of the Jews. You need to be circumcised. You need to follow the laws of Moses. You need to not only be an adherent of the teachings of Jesus, but you also need to follow in the ways of the Old Testament. In addition to that, there were other teachers who seemed to have come to Colossae who were saying, well, You need a kind of deeper and more personal experiential knowledge of Jesus. It's not enough just to know him by faith. You need to kind of walk in the deep secrets of this new religion. You need to follow something of the mysteries. You need some kind of secret knowledge of Jesus that's not available to everyone. But we can show you the way. We can teach you how to live a deeper, more victorious, more satisfying, productive Christian life. But you've got to know the secrets that we as new teachers can unlock for you. And Paul is writing to the Colossians to say, look, that's not the gospel at all. The gospel is in Jesus Christ. The gospel is in knowing who he is and what he has done. The gospel is in resting in Jesus and in his perfect and finished work on your behalf. The gospel is knowing that Jesus has loved you with everlasting love, that he came into the world to save you. He has gone to heaven to prepare a place for you, and he has pledged that he will do everything necessary to bring about your eternal salvation. What you need, Paul tells the Colossians, is a bigger view of Jesus. You need a bigger Jesus than what these people are selling you. They're all telling you that Jesus is good, but you need more than Jesus. And Paul says, what I'm here to tell you is that if you have Jesus, then you need nothing else. Because in Jesus are all the riches of the knowledge and grace and power of God. And in Jesus, you share these things. So keep your eyes fixed on him, but make sure that you keep your eyes on a Jesus who is big enough to save you. And to introduce the Colossians to this subject, Paul gives us this little introductory paragraph that we just read in verses 15 through 20 of chapter one. There are two things that Paul has in mind here. One is that Jesus is preeminent or has the first place over the whole created world because he is the creator of all things. And then second, Jesus is the preeminent one or he has the first place over the church. as his body of people whom he has redeemed by his blood, making peace for them with God through his atoning death. But in both cases, what Paul wants us to do is kind of stretch and grow our understanding of who Jesus is. Because the bigger Jesus is, the bigger the gospel is. Let's see how this works out. In verse 15, Paul tells us that Christ is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over the whole created universe. Now, we all know that in Genesis chapter one, the Bible tells us that human beings were made in the image of God. But Paul's language here is a little different. He doesn't tell us that Jesus was made in the image of God. He tells us that Jesus is, in himself, the express, clear, full, perfect image of God. In Jesus, we see God. And this is where Paul is kind of cracking the door open for us so that we can grasp where this whole letter is going to take us. That when we see Jesus of Nazareth, born of the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem, growing up in Nazareth, ministering in Galilee, going to Jerusalem, dying on the cross for our sins, rising from the dead on Easter morning, ascending to heaven 40 days later, ruling at the right hand of the Father now in glorious exaltation. When we see this Jesus, it's important for us to remember that we see God doing these things. Now for Paul that was fundamental to understanding what it means to be a Christian, but it wasn't just Paul. You might remember that the Apostle John in that passage we frequently read during the Christmas season tells us that Jesus, the Word made flesh, was with God and He was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him. Without Him was not anything made that has been made. And what's John telling us in those opening verses of the Gospel of John? That Jesus is God. and that Jesus did God things. He has life in himself. He has light in himself. And he is the creator of the universe. When we read Genesis 1.1, God created the heavens and the earth. John saying, that was Jesus there. Along with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Jesus existed long before he was ever born on Christmas day. Long before he was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary. The God-man, Jesus, was the eternal Son of God who existed from all eternity, who lived with the Father and the Spirit, who created the world. And that's why Paul adds at the end of verse 15, he is the firstborn of all creation. It's not firstborn in the sense that we usually think of it, our oldest child, as if Jesus was the first child God ever had. That's not the idea. It's the idea of the firstborn as the one who gets the family name and who gets to have all the rights of primogeniture, the one who got the double share of the estate of the whole family, The firstborn gets extra blessing, extra recognition, extra authority. He is before all the others when the blessings are poured out. And Paul tells us, Jesus, when it comes to the creation, Jesus gets all the attention. He is the one who is supreme and exalted. Why? Because verse 16, by Him all things were created, whether they're heavenly things or earthly things, whether they're physical things or spiritual things, it doesn't matter. All things were created through Him. He was the agent of creation and they were created for Him. They were created for His honor and glory. Why? Because He was God and God deserves the glory. Verse 17 adds, he's before all things, and in him all things hold together. He's the God of creation, the God of providence. And when Paul wants the Colossians to think about Jesus he doesn't want them just to see Jesus as a good man, or as a model teacher, or as some great philosopher of ethical systems. He wants us to see that when we look at Jesus of Nazareth, We are beholding the God who made us, the God who upholds us and sustains the whole universe. And this is the God who came to us as a baby in Bethlehem, who loved us, and who sacrificed for us, and who bore the wrath for our sins so that we might never taste that wrath. When we behold Jesus Christ and say, I am a Christian, Then we are saying, I believe that Jesus Christ is God, the creator God, the ruler of the universe. He is God almighty. Now think about what that means for the Lord's supper. When we'd say, do this in remembrance of me. We're saying that the God who made me, the God against whom I have sinned, the God whom I have offended, the God who is grieved and embarrassed and ashamed by my behavior, the God against whom I have rebelled, this God, who is my judge, came to save me. He is the one who loves me. who endured the humiliation of Jesus walking rejected by his own people. He is the God who was willing to suffer for my sins. How often have we sung, alas, and did my savior bleed and did my sovereign die? Would he devote such sacred head for such a worm as I? Was it for crimes that I had done he hung upon the tree? Yes. My God, my sovereign, my Lord has not only made me and blessed me, he has saved me. The God of all creation is in Jesus Christ of Nazareth. But more than that, Paul goes on to add in verse 18, he's the head of the body, the church. He's 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, the whole creation. has been blessed by the coming of Jesus Christ. But what Paul adds in the second part of this paragraph is that those of us who know Christ, who are His body, the church, are the particular benefits of Christ's coming. We know blessings that others don't have. Jesus rules over us as our mediatorial king. He rules over us not only as our Savior who has atoned for us by His death on the cross, But he has gathered to himself a church out of every language and nation and tribe and tongue and people on the face of the earth, a number too great to count, a number that includes people from every generation of people from all kinds of backgrounds. Jesus has gathered for himself this people, this church of which he is the king. and He is ruling and governing and protecting and defending these people so that they will never ever be lost. He has reconciled them to God, the Holy God. He has made peace between these people and God by His death on the cross. And in all of this, It is so that he might be what Paul calls preeminent or Supreme, or have the first place is the way some modern translations put it. The idea is that Jesus has gathered for himself a church so that he might be glorified in that church. The Colossians needed to remind, be reminded of that. Jesus didn't gather them as a church in Colossians so that they might get everything they want and have all their miracles every day and experience deep and wonderful blessings. Although they might get some of those things, the church Paul says doesn't exist for you. The church exists for Christ. The church exists to glorify him. You're a great master, savior King. The church exists so that Jesus might have the preeminence. And of course, the Colossians weren't the only ones who sometimes got that wrong, were they? How often do we measure the church by what we like and don't like, what we prefer and don't prefer, and whether we feel like our needs are met or not met, and whether we kind of feel comfortable or uncomfortable. And the Bible keeps reminding us that the church doesn't really exist for us. We exist for Christ. We teach children in the Presbyterian church, the very first question of the catechism, what is the chief end or purpose of man? And we tell them right up front, the man's chief end or man's chief aim in life is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. God made us for Himself. God made us to serve Him. And God has come to us in Jesus Christ. And as His redeemed people, we have no greater goal today than to honor and glorify Him. We get to sing His praises this morning. We get to pray to Him and ask for His blessing and ask for His work to go forward. We long to hallow His name and to see His kingdom come and His will be done in earth as it is in heaven. And we are glad to offer ourselves to Him as living sacrifices. We come to the table to remember not only that Jesus died for us as our God on the cross, but also that we now belong to Jesus and we have an obligation to glorify him and to serve him. And we come confessing our sins and rejoicing that he has atoned for those sins, having made peace by the blood of his cross, but also remembering that he is the head of the church, the firstborn from the dead, and we are his people. He is our king. Our great duty is to serve the one who loved us and gave himself for us. The Colossians kind of got that backwards. They thought that maybe Jesus had died to make a way for them to get what they wanted. I hear that a lot nowadays. Jesus lives to make sure that all my plans are fulfilled and all my desires are met. And so that all of my wants are honored. And if Jesus doesn't do those things, I become kind of disappointed. But Jesus reminds us that he doesn't really so much exist for us as we exist for him. But we exist for him because he is for us. He did come to save us from our sins. He did come to call us out of the world into his body, the church. He did make us for himself and he has made us so that we can glorify him. And we glorify him best when we understand that he loves us most and that he has died for our sins, that we might be reconciled to God. And when we come to the Lord's table, all these things come together. When Jesus says, do this in remembrance of me, he's telling us, remember who I am. I am your creator, your maker, your keeper. I am holy. You sinned against me, but I have come to save you from your sins. And I have come to claim you as my own and you belong to me. I have bought you not with gold and silver, but with my own precious blood. And I have bought you that you might glorify me because I have the preeminence. I'm the supreme one. I get the first place. Come and offer yourself to me today as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. Let's pray.