Colossians 1 verse 18. Hear, for this is the word of the Lord. 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. Amen. If we were to summarize in layman's terms what Paul is saying about Jesus Christ in verses 15 through 20, he is saying that Christ is both the Creator as well as the Redeemer. But as we zero in in our text this morning, which comes from the second half of verse 18, he is still in a way describing Christ as the creator, the one who is preeminent or reigns supreme over creation. And in verse 18, he is emphatically saying that Christ is preeminent or the creator of the new creation in his resurrection from the dead. He creates a new creation, as in He makes a new people, a new creation, and He creates a new creation in order for His people to dwell in. And this is what is behind when Paul calls Him the beginning. What does it mean when Paul said that Jesus Christ is the beginning? Does it mean that Christ was the first being to be created by God? Well, no, if we consider the book of Revelation. Throughout the book of Revelation, God, as well as Jesus speaking in the first person, referred to himself as the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. When John wrote to the church in Laodicea, Jesus told him to write that these words are the words of the Amen. the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation. Remember that throughout this text, the common repeated two-word phrase has been He is. He is the beginning, not just He was in the beginning. He is the beginning in the timeless sense, meaning He was, is, and always will be, the beginning. Again, what does this mean? Is it speaking of chronological order or the timeline of creation? Well, no. See, the words that have described Jesus as being the head, the beginning, and the firstborn all have similar functions and meanings. An important text to consider when we think of Jesus as the beginning is what we read earlier in Proverbs 8, verses 22 to 23. It says, the Lord possessed me at the beginning of His work, the first of His acts of old. Ages ago, that is eternity past, I was set up at the first, before the beginning of the earth. The word for the beginning and the first, they share the same root word. And there are differing translations for this word based on the context. It can also be translated as the first, the best, the chief, the choice part, or, as we heard last week, the head. And in Proverbs 8, 22 to 23, where it says that the Lord possessed me, fathered me, begotten me, who is me? In the context of Proverbs 8, it is wisdom. Wisdom is a person in Proverbs 8. And this person of wisdom has divine and creative power. Think of how Jesus was called the Word in John chapter one, who was in the beginning with God and who was God. This is similar to what the author of Proverbs 8 is saying about wisdom. In the beginning was wisdom, and wisdom was with God, and wisdom was God. All things were made through wisdom, and without wisdom was not anything made that was made. Paul would later say that Jesus Christ is the wisdom of God. Because when we read Proverbs 8.22 in the English translation, it says, the Lord possessed me, wisdom, at the beginning of his work. But in the strict Hebrew translation, the word at, in at the beginning, is not there. It should read, the Lord possessed me, the beginning of His work. Wisdom in Proverbs 8 is saying, I am the beginning of creation. I am the first, I am the chief, I am the head of creation. Jesus, in other words, is the first and the last, the beginning and the end. He is the chief, the head, the sovereign creator and redeemer. but He is not only the beginning of the old creation, what we will consider today is how He is the beginning of the new creation in His resurrection. So when we considered Christ as the head of the body, the church, we concluded that He is the head in the sense that He is the source of the church's life, He unites the church to himself and under himself, and he governs the church with absolute authority. And so just as he is the head of the church in this way, when we say he is the beginning, we're not just saying that he is the beginning in the sense that he was the first to get the ball rolling. He is the beginning in the sense that he is the divine sovereign God. who rules and has absolute authority and power to bring on the new creation just as he created the old creation before. And so we're going to approach this text in a similar way today as we consider Christ as the beginning and the firstborn and what that means for us. I will cover four points with some points of application. First, Christ is the beginning of the church Second, Christ is the beginning of the new life. Third, Christ is the firstborn from the dead. And lastly, Christ is preeminent in everything. So first, Christ is the beginning of the church. Again, this is not saying he is the first member of the church, no. He is the beginning in the sense that he is the reason why the church exists. Remember that the Father chose us in him, in Christ, before the foundation of the world. And Jesus has ultimate authority to give us the right to become children of God. So we can say that Jesus is the source of the church. Without Jesus, there is no church. There are many churches who claim to be churches, Yet they want to be churches without Jesus as the beginning. Many want to make their own good works the beginning. But Jesus is the beginning. In fact, Jesus is the beginning of our good works as well. So I'm not at all saying we're not to be devoted to good works, but we are to understand where our good works come from. It begins in Jesus. All we need for faith in life comes from Jesus. It doesn't come from our own know-how, our own knowledge, our own practice, but it comes from Jesus. God, our Heavenly Father, has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. For all the promises of God find their yes in Him. One of the most important articles of faith that we confess is what Paul confessed. that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Of who I am, not who I was. Of who I am, the foremost. That was his mission. From the moment he was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit, in many ways his miraculous birth, Mark the beginning of the new creation although it was in seed form. Here is a sinless human being that the world has never seen since Adam and Eve before the fall. Here is the spotless Lamb of God that will be given up as a sacrifice for our sin in order to make us spotless and blameless. Here is the true Passover Lamb Here is the beginning of salvation for God's people. This, beloved, is what the kingdom of God is all about. The kingdom of God is a new creation entirely. It is not of this world. This is what the church stands for. And Jesus came to save his church, that is his gathering, and do what? Well, he came to redeem them by his own blood and grant them new life. So secondly, Jesus is the beginning of new life for believers. He came to grant us new life and he is the beginning of this new life so that we can live in a loving fellowship with God in a new creation. Paul said to the Corinthians, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, He is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. Jesus said that he came that his disciples may have life and have it more abundantly than he clarifies what that life is in John 10, 28 when he said, I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand. What a comforting word. What a great source of encouragement that is. Christ has us in His hand and He will not let go, even when it seems that we tend to wander and the enemy gets the best of us. It only seems that way. But He said that no one will snatch us out of His hand. Now the question is, ultimately, how? How did he accomplish all this? Well, we know it begins with the life, death, and resurrection. His life was lived perfectly for us. His life is not only a pattern for Christians to live by. It is that, but it is also much more than that. Most importantly, his life was lived perfectly to replace our life, so to speak. His life was lived perfectly to be accounted to us, to be credited to us. And when did that transaction take place? At the cross, when He died as a sacrifice. Now His blood has covered us and God passes over us so that there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So that now we have been made beloved children of God. So He is not just the beginning of our new life, as in He begins it, but also He has ultimate power over our new life. He sustains our new life. And just as He was raised to new life and glory, we too have been raised to new life because He is the beginning of the new creation. Listen to Paul in Romans 6. We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death. In order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. By the Holy Spirit, through the ministry of the gospel, The Spirit gathers the elect from the four corners of the earth and grants them new life. By the Spirit, he calls a people to himself. He builds his church. He saves them. He unites them to himself in union and communion with God that they may share in this new life. By the Spirit, Jesus changes and slowly transforms them into his own likeness so that their lives would follow the pattern of his own life, death, and resurrection. Beloved, have you realized that in Christ you are a new creature? You are a new creation. We're not old creatures with new habits. No, we're a new creation altogether. It is a miracle indeed, isn't it? For those who receive Jesus. The fact that you received Jesus is clear evidence that you are a new creature. And in the gathering of the saints through the ministry of the gospel, we're being conformed to Jesus, no matter how slowly, yet graciously and patiently. So I say to you today, do not be discouraged. Do not be led astray from Christ and his word, because it says, He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. If you can't tell whether or not you're a new creature, I commend you to seek forgiveness at the cross of Christ and rely on His power and His power alone to make you new, not your own. You can't do it in your own strength. You can give up on that, It is not achieved by a strict devotional regimen. It is not achieved by spiritual discipline, so to speak, Bible study, prayer, reading. No, you must rely completely on the work of Christ. Christ is the beginning of your salvation. Not your good works, not what you achieved, but your faith is to be based solely on the person and work of Christ. This is your greatest comfort in life and in death, because his person and work is not wavering. It is not going to fall short. You will fall short of his standards for sure. You will fall short in your faith for sure. But his salvation will never fall short. because it comes from the eternal counsel of God before the foundation of the world when he chose us in him. When speaking of Jesus, Peter quoted Isaiah 28, 16, and it applied to Jesus when he said, for it stands in scripture, behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone, chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. But whoever doesn't believe in him the stone will crush. This was basically the message of Jesus throughout his entire ministry. Those who rejected Jesus because they thought they were righteous in and of themselves, Jesus warned them that they would be crushed by the stone. In our text, we see a movement from old creation to new creation, from the son as the creator of the old to Jesus, Jesus' resurrection and what he accomplished in his resurrection. So now, the Christian is being conformed to his image. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And this leads to our next point. Thirdly, He is the firstborn from the dead. Just like he was the firstborn of all creation in verse 15, he is the firstborn from the dead into the new creation. Now, it is true that this may be speaking of order in time. Yes, Jesus is the firstfruits of those who fell asleep and who will be raised on the last day. He is the first to be raised from the dead and to never die again. He is the forerunner on our behalf, who, as the high priest in the order of Melchizedek, has entered the most high place in heaven after dying on a cross, tearing the temple curtain in two, and sprinkled his blood on the mercy seat of heaven as a sacrifice for our sins. Yes, he is our forerunner in this sense. In that sense, he is the firstborn from the dead as the one who went before us, and for us to secure our heavenly inheritance. He was the first to be raised into glory. That is all true. But that is not all of what it means when it says that he is the first born from the dead. He is not just the first to be born from the dead as in he is not just the first to be raised from the dead to never die again. We know that others have been raised from the dead like Lazarus and those who were raised after Jesus was crucified and died. We read this in Matthew 27, many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many. So firstborn from the dead does not just mean that he was the first to be raised from the dead, but rather, He is the firstborn in the same way that God made David the firstborn, even though he was the youngest of Jesse's sons. He was made the firstborn, which means he was made the highest of the kings of the earth. So Jesus is the firstborn from the dead, the highest king of the earth, who not only was raised from the dead, but he now rules over all the living and the dead. He sovereignly rules over death, unlike Lazarus and the others. In fact, they were all raised by the power of Christ and they all had to die, but not Jesus. Jesus didn't die again. Paul said to the Romans, We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died, he died to sin once for all. But the life he lives, he lives to God. He died once and was raised to rule and reign so that we may have life as well. So ultimately, as he was raised from the dead, What this means is that he conquered death. He is preeminent over death. Listen to Paul in his letter to the Corinthians. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order, Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. In Revelation, when John fell at Jesus' feet after seeing his glorified state, Jesus replied, fear not, I am the first, and I am the last, and the living one. I died, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades. He has ultimate sovereignty and power over not only your new life, but also over your death. But for what? For what end? Well, when we consider these titles together, that he is the beginning, and the firstborn from the dead. What Paul is communicating here, he is communicating that Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. The end of what? The end of death. So we can say, he is the beginning of the church's life and he is the end of her death. So beloved, he is the firstborn from the dead for us. to deliver us from death and hell. He lived, died, was raised, and entered into heaven as our representative head. What a gracious Savior indeed. What a gracious Savior indeed. This should be the greatest motivation for us to live for Him. What a great encouragement and an anchor for our hope as Christians. Jesus is himself our comfort. Jesus is our peace in the moment when we face death. Death is the last enemy that has already been conquered. So that way we can say with Paul, for to live is Christ and to die is gain. Also, Jesus as the firstborn from the dead is our assurance that we too will be raised. He told his disciples, because I live, you also will live. Jesus was the firstfruits, the firstborn from the dead, and you, beloved, are the harvest. Do you live with this confidence that when you finally close your eyes in death, you will be with Jesus? Only by his grace and mercy. Now, we must admit, not all of us live with this confidence. many of our days of our lives won't have this confidence, especially when we're facing the daily struggles of life. But that is why Paul is reassuring us in the word of God today that if you trust in no one else and nothing else but Christ and Christ alone, you can have this confidence. But he not only has divine sovereignty over life and death, but he has divine sovereignty over all things. Listen to what John wrote in Revelation. Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come. And from the seven spirits who are before his throne. And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of kings on earth. This title of firstborn or the beginning is not limited to the church or the new creation, but it is overall. old and new. So finally we have come to our main point in this entire text and what Paul was trying to communicate to the Colossians. Paul was just trying to communicate that Jesus is preeminent over everything. In contrast with the false teachers of his day who were teaching that praying and worshiping angels would achieve spiritual growth. He's saying no. Christ is preeminent in everything. He is all we need for spiritual life and godliness. His place is first place among all things created, whether it is old or the new creation. His place is first place in creating man and in redeeming and saving man from his sin. He has the greatest authority and he is the first in ranking above all created things. He is sovereign over all things and all authorities. God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name. And He reigns right now. He reigns right now. Whether we see it or not, He is creation's King. And this idea of God exalting man to have dominion over all creation goes back to what Adam was supposed to be. Adam was supposed to be the vice regent or king over all God's creation. He was to rule with dominion, yet shamefully, he forfeited that role when he fell into sin. But Christ has come to accomplish what Adam failed to accomplish, what we all failed to accomplish, and it was realized when he rose from the dead. Listen to Paul in Romans 1. Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures, concerning his son, who was descended from David according to the flesh, and was declared to be the son of God in power, according to the spirit of holiness, by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord. Christ came to take dominion over all things. But the main difference between Adam and Jesus is that Christ Himself manifested in His flesh what He already was in His divine person as the Son of God. He manifested the truth that He is preeminent in everything. He is preeminent as the divine Son of God who rules and reigns from all eternity over all creation. And He is preeminent as the divine Son of God who took on flesh, bore our sins on the cross, and rose from the dead on the third day to bring us a new creation. He proved His preeminence, His superiority, in the fact that He is the beginning of the church in her life and the firstborn from the dead. This means that He is first in both nature and first in grace. He is preeminent in everything, in heaven and on earth. Whether men want to acknowledge Him or not, He is first. Now, what does this mean for us all here today? Well, this weighty topic has great bearing on all of our lives. What this text is ultimately saying is that Jesus is king. And if Jesus is king, then we are his subjects. And as his subjects, we are to seek to please him in all things. If he is the beginning of the church, then we are to go to him for all things. He is to become our all in all. Remember, he is the beginning and the end. Well, you might ask, what about the middle? What about this life? What about our current Christian lives? Is it up to me to sustain it? Does he begin? And do I work to keep it going? Well, no. Well, no. He preserves us as well. He preserves us as well. We might even ask, well, what about when I am aware of all of my corruption and my sins in this life? What about when I worry, when I'm anxious or doubting or lacking faith? Do I have to pick myself up by my bootstraps and get to work to sustain my own Christian life? Well, no. Christ is the beginning and the end of your faith. So guess what, he's there in the middle. He is sustaining your life. And when we seek to please him, it is only by his power. And it is not just out of duty or some form of legalism, but it is out of a loving gratitude for what He has done for us, and what He continues to do for us, as He continues to intercede for us, to forgive us, to build us up by His appointed means, simply put, all because He loves us. And His love doesn't change. His love doesn't waver like our love. His love is the same from beginning to end. His love doesn't change based on how well we're doing as Christians. If that was the case, you should have no assurance at all. No, His love never changes for us. And it is out of His love for us that we love Him. If you have never studied the Heidelberg Catechism, I know I've recommended it many times from this pulpit, but I recommend it. The structure of the catechism is guilt, grace, and gratitude. It expounds the guilt of the sinner. We're all guilty of sin. We're all lost and dead in sin. But by God's grace, he sent his son to live, die, and rise for our salvation. He applied our redemption to us by the Holy Spirit. And now we live for him out of gratitude. out of gratitude. We're not trying to earn anything from him. But it is because we love him and we will love his appearing when he returns for us. If he is the beginning of the church's life, if he is the firstborn from the dead, what a hope we have in him. What a hope we have that when we die, we will be with him. and His love and His power does not waver for His saints. And how grateful should we be? We ought to be singing loud and joyous praises right now for His salvation from death. So after we remember Him today in the Lord's Supper, we remember what He has done for us, and after we feast on Him, Let us join our voices and sing to the ruler of the kings of the earth, the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, who is in everything preeminent. Amen.