Colossians 1:15-23
March 31, 2024
I want to ask you a personal question,
“Have any of you ever struggled with being color blind?”
I am not color blind, though some people think I may have a touch of it, I don’t.
Anyway, for some people, being color blind can be a real struggle.
I want you to check out this guys reaction.
This is a man who has struggled with being color blind all his life, and he receives a pair of glasses that corrects his color blindness.
Can you imagine having a brand new perspective, a completely different way of seeing things?
Do you suppose he is still as in awe as when he first put the glasses on?
Or, do you think, maybe he has gotten use to all the colors?
A lot of things amaze us at first, and then get boring later, not because they’re boring, but because they become routine.
- You get a new job, it’s amazing, it’s the job you’ve always wanted, you buy a new outfit for your first day, you get there 30 minutes early because you are so eager and then in a few months or maybe as long as a few years that job becomes routine.
- You get a new car, it’s awesome, you want to go around and pick up all your buddies us and drive them around, you wash it every day, and keep it spotless inside and out, but over time it’s just a car and it becomes your new routine to just put gas in it and wash it if it hasn’t rained in a while.
It’s called hedonic adaptation.
Cassie Holmes, professor at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management says, “We humans have a powerful propensity to adapt after continued and repeated exposure. Seeing the same thing, doing the same thing, or being with the same person again and again lowers its impact on our emotional experience. Put simply, we get used to things over time.”
It helps us when we’re in pain.
We adapt to hard things and they become normal.
But there’s a downside: we also start to adapt to things that are amazing and they become blah.
We lose our amazement at what’s truly amazing.
It’s one of the greatest spiritual dangers we face.
Because it’s possible to see the beauty of Jesus, and be captivated by it, only for that beauty to become routine, and for us to begin to fill that place in our lives where only Jesus belongs with lesser things.
That’s exactly what happened with the church we’re going to talk about today.
When this letter was written, Colossae was a small, agricultural city with a diverse population that had seen better times.
But the good news of Jesus had reached that town.
A church had started.
But that church had a problem: they had a high view of Jesus, but they were tempted to start to hold on to things that had nothing to do with Jesus.
In other words, their view of Jesus started to become obscured by other things.
They wanted to add some Jewish legalism, ritualism, and mysticism to their faith in Jesus.
We do that too.
As a church, we’re committed to a high view of Jesus.
He’s everything to us.
But I also recognize that it’s easy to start to let other things crowd in and obscure that view of Jesus.
Actually, nothing is more common than the danger to lose our view of Jesus and start to let other, lesser things crowd in, causing us to miss the beauty of something far greater, far more glorious than we can imagine.
And so Paul says, let me tell you about Jesus.
Today’s sermon is an attempt to get rid of our hedonic adaptation and take a fresh look at Jesus so we’re amazed again.
As well as introduce those of you who don’t hold a high view of Jesus, meaning, Jesus is not your Lord and Savior because you have refused to surrender your life to him.
But I am hopeful that through the power of the Holy Spirit you will be amazed either for the first time or again.
Years ago in Chicago, a famous evangelist named D.L. Moody said, “I am going to make Jesus Christ so attractive that men will turn to him.”
He knew that giving people an accurate view of Jesus would accomplish more than anything else he could do.
That’s what I want to do today too.
Colossians 1:15-23
The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
21 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. 22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— 23 if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.
On this Resurrection Sunday,
WE NEED A PROPER PERSPECTIVE OF WHO JESUS IS.
The first thing Paul does in our passage is to describe who Jesus is.
And so, who is Jesus?
That really is the question, isn’t it?
It’s like Paul is saying that we need to take a fresh look at who Jesus is, because seeing him for who he is changes everything.
I like Paul’s approach here.
He doesn’t begin with the false teachers and the dangers they face.
Nothing wrong with that approach; in fact, Paul does that in other letters.
But in this case, it seems that Paul has decided that the main issue is that they’ve forgotten how glorious Jesus is.
Their primary need is to take a good, hard look at who Jesus is, because once they do, that will solve a bunch of other problems.
It’s like Paul is saying, “Let’s deal with the most important issue here.
Once we take a fresh look at who Jesus is, it will start to sort out a lot of the other problems we face.
Until we get this right, nothing else will really matter.”
So who is Jesus?
Take a look at who Jesus is, because seeing him just may be what we need.
Many of our biggest problems are solved by seeing who Jesus really is.
Sometimes what we really need is to see the glory of Jesus.
First, SEE JESUS AS SUPREME (15-17)
The supremacy of Christ is a doctrine surrounding the authority of Jesus and His God-nature.
In the simplest of terms, to affirm the supremacy of Christ is to affirm that Jesus is God.
Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines supreme as “highest in rank or authority” or “highest in degree or quality.”
In essence, there is none better.
The supreme of something is its ultimate.
Jesus is the ultimate in power, glory, authority, and importance.
In our passage this morning, Paul makes it plain that Jesus is over all things.
Christ is called “the image of the invisible God” and “the firstborn over all creation” (Colossians 1:15).
The word firstborn may seem confusing.
In the Greek language this is the word πρωτότοκος
It does not imply that Christ was created (as in the doctrine of the Jehovah’s Witnesses).
Instead, the term firstborn refers to a position of authority.
To be “firstborn” was to hold an honored position.
Paul immediately goes on to explain Jesus’ role in creation: “For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him” (Colossians 1:16).
This means that Jesus is not created but is Creator.
He is God.
Paul goes on to say, “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 and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy” (Colossians 1:17–18).
Paul highlights multiple areas in which Christ has authority—over creation, over the Church, over death, and finally “in everything.”
Christ is both before all things and encompasses all things (“in Him all things hold together”).
Therefore, Christ is supreme.
This doctrine is essential to our view of and worship of Christ.
The supremacy of Christ affirms that Jesus is fully God.
He is not simply a man greater than the rest but is truly above all creation, as only God can be.
Jesus is unlike any other, supreme over all.
Christians are called to be like Jesus, but this is through the work of the Holy Spirit.
Philippians 2:12–13, Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.
The supremacy of Jesus teaches us that He is not simply a spiritual being above the rest.
Paul tells us that through Him all things visible and invisible, in heaven and on earth, i.e., spiritual and physical, were created (see Colossians 1:16).
Hebrews 1:4 calls Jesus superior to the angels.
This truth negates any tendencies toward angel worship.
Jesus created the angels and is above them.
We are explicitly told He is greater than they.
Therefore, we need only worship Jesus.
Similarly, that Jesus created the things of earth means that creation is not worthy of our worship.
Jesus is supreme over both the physical and spiritual realms, thus giving both arenas importance while still remaining sovereign over them.
When we understand the supremacy of Christ, we have a more accurate view of Him.
We more fully understand the depth of His love; we are more able to receive and to respond to His love.
Theologians believe that Colossians was written, in part, to combat heresies rising in Colossae.
It seemed fitting to Paul to affirm the supremacy of Christ in order to quash these misled beliefs.
He affirmed Christ’s supremacy, His lordship, and His sufficiency for us.
The supremacy of Christ is central to an accurate view of His Person, His work, our status as believers, and the Kingdom.
So, Paul is saying, there is nobody above Jesus.
Nobody ranks higher than him.
He is supreme.
When it comes to God, Jesus shows us what God is like.
When it comes to creation, he’s over all of it.
He’s the highest over everyone and everything.
Nothing and nobody is better than Jesus.
See Jesus’ supremacy.
Second, SEE JESUS AS SALVATION (18-20)
This truth that Jesus is supreme over all is essential for our salvation.
God is infinite and, therefore, our sin against Him is an infinite offense.
In order to atone for this offense, the sacrifice must be infinite.
Jesus, as God, is infinite and is the only sacrifice worthy of God to redeem us to Him.
The fact that Jesus is supreme excludes us from saying that He is only one of many ways to God.
He is not just a good moral teacher whom we may choose to follow; rather, He is God, and He is over all.
Jesus said about himself in one of my favorite passages, John 14:6, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Jesus’ supremacy also makes it evident that we cannot atone for our own sins.
In fact Hebrews 10:4, “It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”
Jesus both fulfilled and replaced that system.
Salvation is not based on works as Ephesians 2:4-9, But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
I want to share with you a very touching video with film director, Brian Ivie, it is his testimony.
Brian directed the film, The Drop Box, and while making the film he surrendered his life to Jesus after witnessing the compassion of a South Korean pastor who cared for abandoned babies, who were left in the Drop Box.
Here is his story.
It was not Brian’s working in himself, but the work of God on him that lead him to salvation.
If you are here today and you are sitting there saying, what do I need to do to be saved then listen to Acts 16:31, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.”
God has already done all of the work.
All you must do is receive, in faith, the salvation God offers.
The Apostle Peter explains to us in Acts 2:38, Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Then Paul says in, Ephesians 2:8-9, For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
Fully trust in Jesus alone as the payment for your sins.
Believe in Him, and you will not perish (John 3:16).
God is offering you salvation as a gift.
All you have to do is accept it.
Jesus is the way of salvation (John 14:6).
We are going to have our elders and staff and prayer team members available to you this morning, because I am sure some of you are having questions, like, is it really that simple?
They are here to encourage you and help you.
Maybe you are here this morning and you have become routine in your relationship with Jesus, you have lost your vivid perspective and that is a terrible place to live.
The same elders, staff and prayer team members are here for you also.
We are to celebrate the fact that Christ is risen, He is risen indeed, and we are to surrender to Him and live for Him.
