Colossians: Bigger Than I Thought

Background:

There is a key theme throughout the entire book of Colossians, and that theme is that Jesus has absolute supremacy and sole sufficiency! Jesus is supreme, superior, and surpasses all others.

Paul is writing from prison in Rome. This is one of four letters known as the prison epistles. The purpose of the letter is to correct false teaching that had infiltrated the church at Colossae. The problem was “syncretism”, combining ideas of Greek philosophies and Jewish legalism with Christian truth. The resulting heresy later became known as “gnosticism”, emphasizing hidden knowledge and denying the deity of Christ as God & Savior. “Gnostic” comes from the Greek word “to know”. Agnostic is one who does not know. Gnostics were the ones “in the know”. They were the spiritual aristocracy in the church.

Paul had never visited Colossae. This local church had been founded by Epaphras and other converts from Paul’s missionary journeys.

We’re going to continue unpacking the way Paul combats this false teaching as we work through the book of Colossians together.

Story: Seeing Zion NP & Grand Canyon for the first time

Passage: Colossians 1:15-20

He is the image of the invisible God,

the firstborn over all creation.

16 For everything was created by him,

in heaven and on earth,

the visible and the invisible,

whether thrones or dominions

or rulers or authorities—

all things have been created through him and for him.

17 He is before all things,

and by him all things hold together.

18 He is also the head of the body, the church;

he is the beginning,

the firstborn from the dead,

so that he might come to have

first place in everything.

19 For God was pleased to have

all his fullness dwell in him,

20 and through him to reconcile

everything to himself,

whether things on earth or things in heaven,

by making peace

through his blood, shed on the cross.

Pray: (Pause 3-5 seconds)

Title: Bigger Than I Thought

Main Points: Christ’s Supremacy Declared...

1. In The Gospel Message (1-12) Last Week
2. In Redemption (12-14) Last Week
3. In Creation (15-17)
   1. “15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.”

   2. Jesus is God.

      1. This is such a powerful text on the divine nature of Jesus.
      2. “I and the Father are one.” - John 10:30
      3. “the Father is in me and I in the Father.”” - John 10:38
      4. “And the one who sees me sees him who sent me.” - John 12:45

      5. Jesus is the exact representation of God! WOW!

         3. Nature of the Trinity

      6. The nature of the trinity is that there is One God in Three Persons.

      7. Illust: Bring up 3 people (stand in a row)
      8. The Father, Son, and Spirit are distinct persons, each person is fully (100%) God, and there is only One God. Deut 6:4, 1 Corinthians 8:4, 1 Timothy 2:5
      9. “The being of each Person is equal to the whole being of God.” - Grudem, Systematic Theology 1994
      10. “God is one Essence (what you are), but three Persons (who you are)” - Theologian Norman Geisler

      11. Illust: Trinity in prayer

          1. We pray to the Father, through the Son, and in the Holy Spirit.
          2. “But you, dear friends, as you build yourselves up in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting expectantly for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life.” Jude 1:20-21
          3. “Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” - John 14:6
          4. “For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.” Ephesians 2:18
          5. “God is one and three at the same time, but not in the same way.” - John Piper
             4. What does “firstborn over all creation” mean?

      12. The title firstborn does not mean that Jesus was created, but it is a metaphor for his authority and rank as supreme over all creation.

      13. It speaks of His position, not His origin.
      14. Like a firstborn prince in a king's household. He has been given all authority and priority.

      15. We see this referenced other places in Scripture as well… Psalm 89:27 & Exodus 4:22 where Israel is called God’s “firstborn”.

          5. “16 For everything was created by him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities— all things have been created through him and for him.”
          6. False teachers were teaching that everything physical was corrupt and everything spiritual was good. Therefore they reasoned that Jesus could not have been God, because He was physical. They reduced & denied His deity based on their heretical philosophy.
          7. Paul clearly teaches that Jesus is over all physical and spiritual worlds. He created them and he rules over all of them. They exist for His glory alone!

      16. Christ has no rivals

      17. He has no equals

      18. He is Lord & Supreme of all seen and unseen

          8. Illust: Beautiful Boulder

      19. You ever walk around the mountains and think “Wow, thank you Jesus” You ever on a mountain top skiing thinking “God you are so creative!” Does the beauty of His creation not cause our hearts to worship.

          9. It’s quite possible that Paul was addressing their false doctrine of worshiping angels (Col 2:18) as well. Jesus created angels and has all power and authority over the angels.
          10. “17 He is before all things, and by him all things hold together.”

      20. All things were not only created by Jesus, but He is the Sustainer of all things! This makes us not independent of Him, but fully dependent on Him for all things!

      21. Illust: Driving through Utah and hiking to a mountain top.

      22. Stats: 210 Billion Trillion stars in the observable galaxies

          1. In 2016 astronomers estimated 2 trillion observable galaxies. 10 times more than what was previously thought. The Hubble telescope brought many to estimate that there were 100-200 billion observable galaxies. Newer data has brought the estimate back down to hundreds of billions.
          2. Most of the cosmos has yet to be studied… I am no astronomer, but I would imagine there is far more out there than we think.
          3. Roughly 4500 stars in the sky on a dark clear night
          4. Our own Milky Way is home to over 300+ billion stars.
          5. Even if there are only 200 billion galaxies that we can observe, and let’s take the average of the stars in our own Milky Way, that would be 60,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars. (sixty sextillion, 22 - 0’s)

          6. One of the farthest galaxies we know

             1. A “light year” is 5.88 trillion miles, MACS0647-JD is one of the farthest galaxies that we know of, it is the equivalent of light traveling 13.3 billion light years away. It contains roughly a billion stars.
             2. In The Church (18-20)
                1. “18 He is also the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything.”
                2. “19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile everything to himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”

Closing: Is Christ’s supremacy declared in your life?

“Jesus is something, but not everything.”

“Jesus is necessary, but not enough”

“Jesus is everything.”

“Jesus is enough”

Jesus + Nothing = Everything!