Supremacy of the Son in Creation

Welcome to Encounter, everyone. Glad you guys are here to join us. And we have Timmy coming here as a guest. We’re thankful that you’re here. So if you’ve been with us the first time, this is the second message we’re having in the series. We’re going through our series called Complete in Christ, a look into the book of Colossians. And so today I’m going to be covering through the small task of the supremacy of Christ in all of creation. Just three verses, but slowly as I was studying through this Scripture and I was coming up with notes and the presentation for this, three verses became pages and pages of notes, trying to be covered in just three verses. And so today the problem wasn’t, “am I going to be short on time?” I’m a little worried about going a little over time. But we’ll see, we’ll trust in God tonight. And I pray that as I speak, that it’s not me speaking, but I pray that it’s God and the Holy Spirit is speaking through me. I pray that He ministers to you just as He’s minister to me while I was preparing this.

So for a little bit of context on the book of Colossians, today while recovering verses 15-17, we need a little bit of a background. It’s been mentioned today by Merin earlier. The Church of Colossae was a church that was struggling with what was known as religious mixing. In other words, not only did they hear the true message of the gospel that Paul has shared with them through their brother Epaphras, there was other ideas that were entering into the church at the time that was in addition to the message of the gospel. The idea that Christ wasn’t truly a deity, but Christ was a created being. Or perhaps we should worship angels. And so I want to give a little bit of context. Paul has never visited the Church of Colossae. You see, he sent a messenger named Epaphras who is a co-worker, and we’re going to read those verses right now.

Colossians 1:3-5, Paul says, we always thank God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and pray for you because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love you have for all God’s people. The faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel. And so if we look at just some of the things that Paul says about the Church of Colossae, one, we know that they were told the true message of the gospel, two, they had a faith that was in Christ Jesus, three, there was a love for God’s people. If we look at this, we would think to ourselves, man, that’s some great descriptions for the Church of Colossae. Those are things that we as a church strive for. We would want a faith in Christ Jesus. We want a love for God’s people. We want knowledge that’s based on the truth. And then Paul is thanking God whenever he thinks about this Church and he continues to pray that God enriches them with wisdom and knowledge and understanding and that they thank God for bringing them into the kingdom of Christ.

So what was the issue? Well, we spoke about it. The issue was the Church not only had these traits, but they also believed in those other things. Prince alluded to them last night during all night prayer. People can think that Christ is a good teacher, a heretic, a lunatic. People have their own opinions that come from the world that if you don’t know God, if you don’t know who Christ really is, you might think that Jesus any sort of these things. But we’re going to go back into a passage that we’ve covered maybe ten times last night. We’re going to go back into Matthew 16:15-17. If you’ve heard this last night, you’ve heard this so many times. I want to read it again. But what about you, he asked? This is Jesus speaking to Peter. Who do you say that I am? Simon Peter answered, you are the Messiah, the Son of the living God. Jesus said, blessed are you, Simon, Son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And so it’s very interesting here, if you look at this passage, this was not human beings who said this is who Jesus Christ is. Human beings were saying at the time, yeah, he’s Elijah. He is a good teacher. Maybe he’s just a prophet. But Jesus was very, very intentional speaking to Peter, this wasn’t revealed to you that I was the Son by human flesh and blood. No, this is revealed to you that I am the Son by the Father in heaven. It’s very, very crucial that we understand this point because this is the million dollar question. Who is Jesus Christ? And if you can answer that question, the only way that you can actually answer it, is by God the Father revealing to you and me who Jesus Christ is.

You in the world can think that he’s a good teacher, but you will not know that he is the Son until the grace of God has entered your life and shown you Jesus not just a good teacher, he is the Son. And so God the Father is revealed to us that Jesus is the Son. The next question is, who is the Son? And so Paul writes this very carefully in the book of Colossians 1:15-17. We’re going to read it right now. It says, he 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, he is before all things and in him, all things hold together. Now, like I said, the Church of Colossians had already heard the true message of the gospel from Epaphras, but as his false teachings started to creep into the church, what does Paul do? He doesn’t call them out immediately. He first thanks the church, he lets them know, “hey, I’m an apostle of God,” established the credibility that he was sent from God. He thanks the church and he prays for the church and then look what he does. He says, he is the image of the invisible God, talking about the Son. Paul counters false teachings with knowledge of who the Son truly is. And so tonight, we’re going to be going over who the Son or who Jesus Christ is as it is told in Colossians. And I pray that as we are reading just these three verses, that portions of Scripture start to come to you from all over the Word, from the Old Testament, from the New Testament, and it’s revealed to you more and more who Christ really is.

And so the first words is, the Son is the image of the invisible God. If you can keep going, by the way. Next one, sorry. Yeah, he is the image of the invisible God. Now the word image in the Greek is spelled E-I-K-O-N, eikon, that’s the pronunciation, pass it on. Correct me if I’m wrong. But it basically means the exact representation and revelation of the invisible God. That’s what image means. So in other words, Christ is the image of the invisible God. He is the revelation of the invisible God. He is the representation of the invisible God. In other words, the God that we ourselves could not see for all of humanity, Christ is the image of. He is the representative. He is God and he’s showing God. Where do we see this in Scripture? Well, in the Old Testament, there were plenty of cases where God would appear into an object and show his presence. Like for example Moses talking to the burning bush or the pillar of cloud by fire going before the Israelites. These are what’s known as theophanes. And so they were showing glimpses of God’s characters but did not reveal really who God was. And so Moses one day asked God, “God can I see your glory?” And God said, “if you see me, I will, you will die. You can only see my back. But before that, I will cover you in the cleft of a rock.” And so theologians will debate that this rock, this cleft is Jesus Christ covering or as an example of Christ covering Moses as he’s being shown the back of God.

And so the Old Testament, Moses, no matter how close he was to God, no matter him being given the law to show the Israelites, seeing all the wonders could not see the face of God. He could only see his back or he would die. And so if the cleft of the rock was able to show Moses the back of God, how much more will Jesus Christ reveal to the New Testament believer who the father is? And so even his disciples, when Jesus with them on the earth were wondering, can you show us the father? John 14:9, it’s right here, it says, Jesus said to disciples, don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time, anyone who has seen me has seen the father. How can you say, show us the father? Don’t you believe that I am in the father and the father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own, rather it is the father living in me who is doing his work. And so Jesus is an image of the invisible God, you see the father through him. Not only that, John 1:18 has an even greater description of this. It says, no man had seen God at any time, the only begotten son which is in him, the bosom of the father he had declared him. That is the KJV. No one has ever seen God but the one and only son who is himself God and is in close to relationship with the father who has made him known. And so Jesus shows us the father.

And not only that, he is the very Word talked about in John 1. So when he teaches, he teaches the very words of God. So mankind is without any excuse. If you were a Pharisee back in the day and you were talking about, “hey, this is what scripture means. This is how I will interpret scripture for you. You cannot heal on this day, you cannot do this on this day, you can do that on this day.” But if the invisible God has made himself known to creation, we are without excuse. Because God’s word is truly law. If what Jesus says is true that he is truly God, then we have no excuse but to obey his words as the words of God. And so we can suppress the truth all we want and we’ll say, oh, he’s just a good teacher or no, he’s just a prophet. But if he was God, then he speaks with authority. And so we’re going to continue.

So in verse 15, not only is he the image of the invisible God, he’s the first born of all creation. Now the next lesson is Jesus is the first born and we might think first born meaning something like the lines of Jesus Christ was created being. He was like he was given birth to Jesus. Well, that’s not what the Jewish audience would have understood what first born meant during this time. First born meant first in rank and in inheritance. And then the supreme one, it means that Christ is the first born. He is the first to die, the first to rise and all the inheritance is his. Christ is our big brother who we get to share in his inheritance and he was the first to do it and we follow him. And so let’s keep going. He’s not only the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation.

And so we are going to continue to see 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. So if you were wondering, okay, yes, maybe Christ showed us God and yes, the inheritance is his. Yes, he died, he rose again and we can follow in that. He goes even more into a deeper understanding of who Christ is. Christ in him, all things were created. So he wasn’t just showing God, everything that we know, the visible, invisible, all authority, all dominion was created in him. And so in him, all things were created through him and not just through him, for him. And so if Christ is the son of God, if Christ is the image of the invisible God, and if everything was created by and for Jesus, then he’s not just a prophet, he’s not just a good teacher, but that means all of us, the created beings were created by Jesus and for Jesus. One theologian said, “there is not one square inch in all of the world that the risen Lord does not say is mine.” Everything that we know or even don’t know is Jesus Christ, his authority is over it. And so Paul is making it very clear to the Church of Colossae, he is not just superior to the angels, the angels aren’t worthy of worship. Jesus Christ is worthy of worship and we read in Ephesians 2:10 for we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. So we are the created beings, created in Christ Jesus, very important, because in Christ Jesus, through his existence, we were created. We were created to do works because Christ exists and we were Christ, we are for him.

Now, if you were some sort of designer or inventor or creator, you would know that what you create always has a purpose. And guess what? The thing that was created doesn’t get to determine its purpose, only the creator does. So if the Ford company creates a truck, the purpose of the truck was to drive. The truck doesn’t just get to say, no, I want to fly now. And so if we ourselves are the created beings in Christ Jesus to do good works, then Jesus Christ has full authority and command of our destiny. And he has prepared in advance for us to do these works. And so that means in all of our lives, there is some work that God has already prepared in advance for us to do. And you might not know at all what that work is at this current moment, but the only way you can find it is in Christ Jesus. Spend time in the Word, spend time with them, meditate with them. Jesus Christ will reveal his purpose in your life through the power of the Holy Spirit.

And so the last portion says, and he is before all things and in him all things hold together. And so this was to the Pharisees pure blasphemy. Because if he is before all things, we’re going to dive into this next portion, that means not only did he exist in their present time over 2,000 years ago, he existed before even their patriarch Abraham. He existed before the foundations of the world. And if that is truly who is in front of them, then he has full authority. And the only one in all creation says, I am is God. And so we’re going to read here John 8:56-58 and the Pharisees are confronting Jesus. And he says, your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad. So the Jews said to him, you are not yet 50 years old and you have seen Abraham. Jesus said to them, truly, truly I say to you before Abraham was, I am. For him to say before Abraham was, I am. There is something even deeper than just saying he existed before Abraham. Yahweh revealed in the Old Testament to Moses when Moses says, who shall I say sent me to Pharaoh in the Egyptians? What do Yahweh say? I am sent you. So if Jesus Christ is claiming that he is I am, then he is Yahweh. He is the Creator. And he existed far before the Pharisees or even their patriarch who they said, we’re Abraham’s descendants. But no, Jesus existed even before him.

We see in Hebrews 1:1-3, in the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways. But in these last days he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed heir of all things and through whom also he made the universe. The sun is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. And so we as Christians don’t have to doubt and say, there is a God out there somewhere. Maybe he created this universe, maybe he was someone else. But we have full confidence that the invisible God has made himself known through Jesus Christ. And if Jesus Christ truly is the Son of God, which once again you won’t understand unless the Father has revealed it to you, the Son is the image of the invisible God. But if he is, that means we can look through all of Scripture and every example where it points to Christ. We can look through the gospels. We can look through the beatitudes, the parables, the cross, the resurrection, the ascension, the commission, acts of the apostles, all of Paul’s letters. We can look at David in the Old Testament and Moses wanting to see the glory of God. We can see the kingship, the judges. We can see the prophets speaking about a man who is to come. And we can say that that is all pointing to Jesus Christ. He is the Word and he sustains all things. So Jesus Christ, the Son, is everlasting and he sustains everything.

So let’s read these three verses together and I want us to kind of think through this. It says, he 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. So if Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God, meaning he shows God, if Jesus Christ is the firstborn of all creation, meaning he is first in rank, and if by him all things were created and for him all things were created. And if he sustains things by the power of his word and he is before even Abraham, then isn’t Jesus Christ sufficient more than enough in just who he is? Do we need to add to Jesus or take away from Jesus? If Jesus Christ truly, if we believe the Father has revealed to us that Jesus Christ truly, truly is the Son of the living God, do we need anything more? And so the Church of Colossae, much like our own churches in the modern day, struggle with the same problem. It’s when life gets tough or our viewpoints get a little bit difficult to grasp with, we start to doubt whether Jesus is enough. Is his word truly enough? Is it old? I mean, Jesus spoke and the gospels were over 2000 years old. Is that still relevant for our modern day society when we’re dealing with all sorts of issues, problems? Does Christ even know what AI is? Does Christ know the struggles that the modern day believer does as they watch on their webs? I said, webs, I meant internet, sure, sure. But my point is, it’s easy for us to say, man, he doesn’t get us. He doesn’t understand our modern day. This was over 2000 years ago. How could he possibly know what we’re going through?

And so the world is full of these false doctrines that have been pre-packaged, doctrines that say, hey, prosperity gospel is the way to go. We want to trust in our abilities. God will prosper you. God wants you to do all of these things, but don’t suffer. We don’t want to suffer. We can take that part out. Or people will say, hey, there are many ways to get to heaven. Why can’t you just love people? If I’m a Muslim or if I’m a Hindu or I’m an atheist or I’m agnostic, can’t I also get to heaven? I’ve done so many good deeds and good works way more than you have. So why am I not going to heaven? And our answer is Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life no one gets to the Father except through him. And so we’re combating the world and what seems logical and makes sense with the truth of Scripture and the gospel. But if Jesus Christ is the Son of God, then this is revealed to us, not by us. This is revealed to us by the Father. And if the Father has revealed it to us, that means we are of no position to question Jesus Christ’s full sufficiency. He is a sufficient Savior, not because we came up with that idea. We didn’t walk around saying Jesus Christ is this, this, this, this and this. But no, God, the invisible God has made Himself known through Jesus Christ and saying this is the words of God.

And so let’s be honest here. We’ve been blessed with the church that is strong in the Word. It’s not too difficult for us to see false doctrine in the world around us and to just call it out. We can see this pastor, this church or this preacher here, or maybe the song lyric and be like, nah, that’s not biblically sound. That’s not scriptural. We’re blessed with great pastors, preachers, commentaries. We examine even the songs that we sing on a given week to make sure that those lyrics are right in tune with God’s Word. And the more scripture, the better. We’re blessed with commentaries. We read books. We have small groups. And so we become so in tune with what the Word of God really is like and what is false doctrine. But there’s something we also need to consider. False doctrine stems from one thing. It comes from not trusting in the Lordship of Christ. It comes from a heart that is unyielding to the Lordship of Christ. So when you think of prosperity gospel, you’re thinking the Lordship of Christ isn’t enough. When you’re thinking that you’re being progressive and you think, hey, this is how God should define marriage. You’re not trusting the Lordship of Christ. When you think that your way in any way is better than his way, you’re not trusting the Lordship of Christ. And for the sake of convenience, we compromise Christ’s Lordship and supremacy in our lives. The Book of Colossians is not just a warning against false teachers, false doctrines. It is a warning to us as the church who have heard the true message of the gospel. It is a warning for us to not be conceited, not to be convinced that we ourselves can do anything outside of God’s supremacy.

And so I’m going to close with this image as the worship team comes forward. Go to the painting. Yeah. So there was a man, are you going to have it? Oh, okay. There was a man who was famous in the time of the Renaissance period, known as Leonardo da Vinci. Maybe some of you have heard of his name. He was a famous painter, inventor. He did many different works and his fame grew out throughout the land. And he’s famous for one painting known as the Mona Lisa, if you’ve ever heard of it. And one other painting, because he is a devout believer, says he is, he painted the last supper. And it was an image. You have image? Okay, it’s fine. Okay. We’re going to go with that. So here it is. So, all right. So if you all can see this. There it is. Okay. Perfect. Perfect. Okay. So, so Leonardo da Vinci, he was a believer and he wanted to captivate and capture. The moment where, okay, okay. He wanted to capture the moment where Judas betrayed and all the reactions of the disciples and Jesus. And so when he was painting this magnificent portrait, the paint was drying and he was beginning to examine his great masterpiece. And he was saying, this is pretty good. But I want to have someone else come, one of my close friends, colleagues, someone who I want to confide in to come and examine the painting too. So they can give their commentary on the painting. So he invites one of his close friends and the friend walks up and says, wow, like what a magnificent painting. I’m paraphrasing here. He looks here and says, wow, what a great painting. There is this, what a nice cup. And in the painting, there was this golden cup that was ornate, illustrated and looked beautiful. And the friend said, hey, you know, that cup is worthy to be drunk by the master. And so, drank. So, Leonardo da Vinci, he took his paintbrush, blotted out the cup. And the friend said, why did you do that? And you don’t see a cup here, right? Leonardo da Vinci said, there is nothing that I want that will take away from the face of my master. Nothing that detracts away from the face of my master. And so he blots out this golden cup that anyone would say, hey, now we can just add that. It looks perfect by the side of Jesus. Jesus can hold into it and our lives will still look pretty good. It’s not doing anything bad. But Leonardo da Vinci understood that Christ was the subject of the painting. Christ is in the first more, he is the ones we should fix our eyes upon, not the cup.

And if there’s anything in our own lives that detracts us from Christ, our master’s face, if there’s anything that we, in our paintings, in our lives that we say, in addition to Christ, that takes the spot of him, I pray that as the Holy Spirit convicts us, we slowly start to brush it away. And the canvas of our life points to the Creator that shows this is a picture of what I can do to this person. This is not their life. This is my plan and purpose of I am supreme over this person’s life. So as you sing these songs, I pray that we trust in God and we focus our face, our eyes on the master. I’ll close us off in prayer as the worship team comes.

Heavenly Father God, we just come into your presence tonight Lord. We just thank God for giving us God this word Lord, God these songs, we’re blessed so much God. Lord, it’s so easy for our hearts to think that we know it all God, that we have it all put together. Lord, I pray God, these false teachings, false heart Lord, this idea that we are somehow able to come up with our own theology Lord, or that we can do this and still follow you when your word says no God. I pray God that these things be out of our lives God and there’s anything that’s taking the place of you God. Any idol that we put before you God that’s sitting there Lord, God let us fix our eyes upon you Lord. And I pray that by the Holy Spirit that we got rid of it Lord. But only you can get rid of the idol in our lives, but only you can change the transformers God. You are the supreme one Lord. God you are the son of the living God. You are the image of the invisible God. The firstborn of all creation, all things are created by you and for you Lord. So I pray God that we as you’re created is an obedience to you our master Lord. So I pray. Amen.