Welcome to the sermon podcast of Exodus Church, located in Belmont, North Carolina.
For more information about our church and the many ways you can be involved, you can go to our website at exoduschurch.com.
My name is Tyler. I'm one of the pastors here, and I'm really excited to be able to open God's word with you this morning.
This morning, we're continuing in our series called Designed, where we're looking at God's design throughout the whole Bible.
We've seen God's design in creation. We've seen his design in marriage and families and children.
And we've seen how God's design was marred by sin.
In Genesis 3, the world is plunged into sin.
We see Romans 1, the world that we're living in, where constantly us and everyone around us are tempted to exchange created things.
The created God for creator created things.
But this morning, we get to reflect on another beautiful aspect of God's design.
And that is that even in our sin, God had a plan for our salvation.
Worked out before the foundations of the world, that even as humanity was drawing away from God, that God had a plan to make himself known and near.
And God's design was that the second person of the Trinity, the Son, Jesus, would become man.
That he would become the image of the invisible God on our behalf, and that he would die to save us.
And that in every way that sin marred the image of God, Christ was to restore this design.
And I think that that's a beautiful message.
And so this morning, we're gonna look at Colossians 1, Colossians 1, 15 through 20.
So you can go ahead and turn there.
Now, Colossians is a book in the New Testament.
It's a letter written from Paul.
Paul wrote it while he was in jail to a people that he didn't know.
He didn't plant this church. He had never been to this church.
He didn't necessarily know people that were a part of it, but he heard about this church from a friend of his, Epaphras.
We see that in the opening verses of Colossians.
And he starts this book like he would a lot of his letters, doing a pretty standard greeting.
But then before he gets into really the meat of the exhortations and expectations in the letter, he kind of takes this short little pause in verses 15 to 20.
And he just gazes at the beauty of Christ.
And he does this through a poem.
He writes in super poetic language.
Some commentators believe that this was a hymn that would have been sung in the early church.
But he pauses and he gives them this short poem to gaze at the beauty of Jesus.
Before we read that poem, before we read these verses, I wanna just tell you a short story that might kind of help you think about what it looks like to gaze at beauty.
My wife and I, about a year ago, we were in New York City.
And one of the things that we did while we were there is we went to the Met, which is a giant museum.
I wanna say it's like 2 million square feet.
So it's more than you can try to see in a day.
And we tried anyways.
And it's filled with all of these different exhibits of history and art.
And there's musical instruments and ancient weapons and just everything you can possibly imagine.
And what that meant is that as we went through, some of the things really kind of struck our interest and others didn't as much.
And so some rooms we'd come in and we would just like read everything we could and we'd just be fascinated with it.
And then other rooms, we would just like blow through, like it was nothing impressive, even though it was like priceless artifacts or whatever.
We're like, eh, it's fine.
And we'd blow through and we'd go to the next room.
And we were in one of these rooms that I kind of had, I'd seen everything that I thought that there was to see, but Christy was still lingering.
She was like reading all the little things.
And I came to the end of the room and I didn't wanna be rude and like hurry her along.
And in the room just ahead of us, I could see, there was just this little like in-between room and I saw a bench.
And I thought that bench has my name on it.
We'd been walking around for hours.
And so I thought, yeah, I'll sit for a minute.
I'll look at a map.
I'll plan what we're doing next.
So I sit down at the bench and this room was super unique.
It was a pretty small room and all of the walls were white.
In all the other rooms, there was stuff on every single wall.
No matter where you looked, you saw something.
But in this room, all the walls were white and there was just a bench, a piano and a painting.
And I pull out my map and I'm figuring out what section we're gonna go to next.
And I keep kind of catching myself looking up at this painting.
And it just kind of catches my eye.
And the first, it was like the colors of it.
It was kind of really interesting colors.
And I looked down at the map and I caught myself looking back at it.
And then I noticed like kind of the strangeness of the painting, the strangeness of the, all of the people in the paintings.
It wasn't like abstract.
It was just kind of strange.
And I just kept looking at it.
And five minutes passed, six minutes passed.
I think probably about eight, nine minutes had passed until Christie kind of comes and sits at the bench next to me.
And she starts looking at her map and I just sort of blurted out.
I said, I've never connected with a piece of art so much in my life.
And she looked up and she kind of like laughed because she knows like, I'm not like an art guy.
I'm not like a connoisseur.
I don't know anything about art, but something about this painting, I just kind of connected with me.
So she kind of looked at it.
She made a couple of like comments about how weird it was.
I was like, yeah, I know, but keep looking.
And she kept looking and eventually she's like, yeah, I like it too.
And I said, and I kind of made my, I made my end.
I could tell I had hooked her enough.
And so I said, hey, you've been saying for a while that there's a spot in the living room that you want to hang something.
If we can find that print, can we hang it in our living room?
And I think she thought I was bluffing.
So she's like, yeah, sure.
If we find that print, like you can do it.
So I like took a picture of the plaque and I like, I was like, I'm going to find it.
And sure enough, it's hanging in my living room.
So if you ever want to invite yourself over to come look at it or, you know, visit my community group or something, you can come and see it for yourself.
But what happened was out of everything in this whole museum, right?
I'd seen thousands of pieces of art, priceless art from people that I've actually heard of, which says something.
And yet none of them really stood out to me.
They were all really nice.
I liked them.
But something about this piece, when I saw it, it just captivated me and I couldn't take my eyes off of it.
And then when my wife came close, I said, you should look at this too.
You should look at the beauty of this painting.
And then I went one step further and I said, we should purchase this and hang it in our house so that anyone who comes in our house can stare at the strange beauty of this painting.
And I think this is what Paul is doing in this passage.
I think he's captivated by the beauty of Christ and he wants other people to see it too.
He's saying, look with me at the beauty of Christ.
And there's no better way to do that than through a poem, through a song lyric, a hymn.
He says, think about the beauty of Christ.
He's never met those that are part of this church, but he says, if I can just hook them with the beauty of Christ, if I can just get them interested at looking at Christ well then the rest of this letter is gonna go really well.
Everything I call them to, really hard things, it's gonna go really well because they're gonna be captivated by the beauty of Christ.
And so that's what we're gonna do this morning.
We're gonna be captivated by the beauty of Christ.
We're gonna look at him and we're gonna focus in on what I think is Paul's main point of giving this poem.
And that is that Paul believes that Jesus is first.
He's first in all things.
He is preeminent, Paul says.
He is first in all things.
And he knows that if the Colossian church can grasp onto that, that everything else in their life will fall into place.
And so we're going to look at Colossians 1, verses 15 through 20, and we're gonna see that Jesus is first.
And if he's first in all things, well then he should be first in our lives.
And if he's first in our lives, then he should be first in our church as well.
So let's read together Colossians 1, verses 15 through 20.
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.
And he is the head of the body of the church.
He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.
For in him, 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.
Would you pray with me?
Father God, I thank you for passages like this that just captivate us with beauty.
I ask that you will do that this morning, that you will draw the attention of our hearts on your son, Jesus, and that we would be captivated by him and that we will see him as first in all things, that we will put him as first in our lives.
God, we love you.
I pray this in Jesus' name, amen.
So the idea that I wanna convey this morning is that Jesus is first.
This is Paul's main idea that he's trying to convey to the Colossian church that Jesus is first in all things, and that if he's first in all things, he should be first in their lives and our lives.
The word that we see throughout this passage is preeminent.
Preeminent is showing that Jesus is of greater rank and of greater worth than anything else, that Jesus is greater.
And when we see the word preeminent, what I want you to see is that this means Jesus is first.
Jesus is first in all things.
And Paul gives four examples throughout this poem of how Jesus is first.
And we're gonna take a look at each of them.
We're gonna see that Jesus who is first is supreme.
We're gonna see that Jesus who is first is the source of all things, that Jesus who is first is the sustainer of all things, and that Jesus who is first is our savior.
So take a look at verse 15, and we'll see this Jesus who is first is supreme.
Verse 15 says, he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
So right from the get-go, we get two really beautiful titles for Jesus.
He's the image of the invisible God and the firstborn of all creation.
When we see the title image of the invisible God, what this is saying is that Jesus perfectly reveals to us who God is.
Jesus perfectly reveals to us who God is.
He makes the invisible God visible to us.
One of Jesus' disciples before Jesus left the earth asked him before he left, he said, Jesus, show us the father before you leave.
And look how Jesus responds in John 14.
He says, have I been with you so long and you still don't know me, Peter?
Or Philip, rather?
Whoever has seen the father has seen, whoever has seen me has seen the father.
How can you say, show us the father?
Jesus says out of his own mouth, if you wanna know what God looks like, look at me.
And if you've seen me, then you've seen the father.
Jesus is the image of the invisible God.
In this passage, the Greek word for image is the word iconus.
It's where we get the English word icon, right?
Sometimes my job is really easy up here.
When you look at one thing, it points out another thing.
But that the Old Testament equivalent of that word, set limb is used in Genesis one.
It's used in a lot of places, but one of the places it's used is Genesis one, when God says, let us make man in our own image, after our own likeness.
We talked about earlier in this series, the importance of being made in the image of God, that humans are made in the image of God.
And that gives us inherent value and worth.
Every single human has inherent value and worth, because we have been made in the image of God after his own likeness.
That means we get to reflect God in the world around us.
But Jesus isn't made in the image of God.
Jesus is the image of the invisible God.
We get to reflect God's glory.
Jesus reveals God's glory.
Jesus is the image of the invisible God.
Verse 19 of Colossians one says, in him, the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.
Hebrews one three says it similarly.
Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God, the exact imprint of his nature.
Jesus perfectly reveals to us who God is.
He makes the invisible God visible.
Jesus, who is first is supreme.
Nothing else in the world can perfectly reveal to us who God is except for God.
And Jesus does.
Jesus reveals to us who God is.
Jesus put on flesh.
He dwelt among us.
He was Emmanuel God with us.
Jesus is supreme because he is God.
And then the second title we see in verse 15.
Jesus is the firstborn of all creation.
Now of all verses in the New Testament, this one has probably been twisted and misused more than maybe any other.
Jesus is firstborn of all creation.
There have been some that have tried to take this title and spin it to mean that Jesus was created.
That if he was the firstborn of creation, then that must mean he was the first thing created.
And I hope you can see that if that is how we are to understand this verse, it would unravel everything about our faith.
It would drastically change how we are to think about God, how we are to think about who Jesus is and what he does, our own salvation, right?
If Jesus is a created thing, then what place does he have earning my salvation?
So you'll be really glad to know that's not what this verse means.
Jesus is not just another created thing.
In the Bible, the word firstborn is used a couple of different ways.
Sometimes it is used to mean first in time, the first thing born, right?
The oldest child of a family or something like that.
But oftentimes in terms of inheritance or consecration, that term firstborn, maybe wouldn't be the actual first child.
It might be the firstborn male, right?
It was a title of position, of rank.
And the Old Testament uses it all kinds of ways.
Like in the case of King David and Israel, both of them are called firstborn, not in time, not that they were the first created, the first created King or the first created nation, but in terms of position, that positionally they were firstborn in the eyes of God in the world.
And that's what's happening here in verse 15.
Jesus is the firstborn of all creation.
He is greater, He is above.
He outranks everything in creation.
He is supreme.
I think the NIV translates really helpful, translation is really helpful here when it says He is firstborn over all creation.
He's firstborn over all creation.
This is Paul's way of distinguishing Jesus from creation.
Jesus is greater, He is supreme.
Jesus is greater than anything in creation that we could love or want or desire.
Jesus is greater than wealth.
Jesus is greater than power.
Jesus is greater than you.
He's greater than me.
He's greater than your kids.
Jesus is greater than good barbecue.
Jesus is greater than fall weather.
Jesus is greater than anything that we could want or desire.
There's a lot of things in this world that we are to enjoy and that we can enjoy, but those things are not meant to be worshiped.
And we are not made to worship those things.
So please love your kids and raise them right, but don't make them an idol in your life.
Don't put them in the first spot above Christ.
Maybe you're single and you desire to be in a relationship.
That's a really good goal.
It's just a really bad God.
That will not satisfy you in the way that Jesus will.
Nothing will, nothing that we put over Christ will satisfy us in the way that God has meant to.
So there's plenty of things that we can enjoy, but may we say Christ is better than all of that.
Christ is greater than all of that.
Jesus who is first is supreme.
And if you want to know what the supreme God looks like, look to Christ.
He's supreme in all things and He should be supreme in our lives.
In verse 16, we see that Jesus who is first is the source.
Take a look at verse 16 with me.
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.
Jesus is the source.
He's the starting point for all creation.
The one through whom all things were made.
This verse beautifully shows Jesus's role in creation.
He was active.
All things were made by Him, through Him and for Him.
One preacher said that this verse helps us praise through prepositions.
All my English nerds are like, yes, praise Him through prepositions, right?
Created by Him.
He's the source of all created things.
Through Him, He's the agent at work.
Creation didn't come about by a bunch of random things.
Random events and random series.
There was a designer who designed and all things were created for Him.
He is the goal of all created things.
His glory.
Psalm 19 one says, even the skies declare the glory of God.
Y'all, the skies and the mountains and the birds and the flowers praise God.
And so He deserves praise from us as well.
May we praise Him as well.
All creation was made for Him and for His glory.
All things made by Him, through Him and for Him.
Jesus is not merely another created thing.
All things were made by, through and for Him.
He was there before the beginning of all things.
He was active in the creation of all things.
Paul, make sure that we know it's all things because he says the word all six times in six verses.
All things.
And in case that's not enough, in this verse, He gives all of these series of opposites that demonstrate how all He's talking about.
Making sure that we know He means all.
In verse 16, He says, heavens and earth, visible and invisible, rulers and dominions, rulers or authorities.
And so I don't think Paul is expecting us to like break down every single one of those, but rather he's saying all of it He made.
All of it He created.
He's using this as a literary device to say everything visible and everything invisible and everything in between.
There is nothing that He didn't make.
John 1, 3 says about Jesus, all things were made through Him and without Him was not anything made that was made.
If there's a made thing, it was made by Jesus.
H.B. Charles says, if you check the label on any created thing, you'll read made by Jesus.
Every created thing.
Jesus who is first is the source.
He was before all things and everything made finds its beginning in Him.
And then verses 17 and 18, Jesus who is first is the sustainer.
Verse 17 says, and He is before all things.
And in Him, all things hold together.
Jesus is first, He's supreme over all.
He's the exact image of the invisible God.
He's the source of all things, all things created through Him and for Him.
And He's the sustainer.
In Jesus, we don't have an impersonal God.
There have been some who have said about creation that there was some God-like force that must've started creation and stepped back to watch it unravel year after year after year.
But that's not what scriptures tell us about Jesus.
It says that Jesus is active in His creation, holding all things together, big and small.
Jesus keeps His eyes and His hands on the smallest details, even down to the cells of our bodies and of the greatest movements of the galactic bodies.
Jesus is in control of everything you can see in a microscope and everything you can see in a telescope.
Jesus is in control, holding it all together.
One theologian, H.G. Mule said, Jesus keeps the cosmos from becoming chaos.
Humanity has always tried to explain what holds everything together.
Why is the world not just devolving into chaos all the time?
For the ancient pagans, they often attributed this unity of the world to their ancient gods and their pagan gods.
And they would cry out in pray, asking for rain and asking for protection against storms.
That was their answer of why the world didn't fall apart.
And then a lot of modern people in our culture today, they've moved beyond silly myths about paganism.
And instead, they turned to secularism to understand why the world doesn't fall apart.
And they try to explain through study and debate, what holds the world together.
But secularism can't give the answer apart from God.
What is it that keeps the world working?
Why does matter hold together?
Why does the sun rise in the East and set in the West?
Why is the earth exactly where it needs to be and held right there from the sun, where it can sustain life?
Why are storms kept in check?
Yes, there's storms, but why are storms not just destroying everything all the time?
What is holding all of this together?
Mysticism can't give the answer.
Secularism can't give the answer.
We have the answer right here in Colossians 117.
Jesus holds it together.
Jesus' hands are held around creation, holding all things together.
And so let me ask you, if Jesus cares enough to have his eyes on the smallest details, and if he's strong enough to have his eyes on the largest details, well, then don't you think he can handle every problem in your life?
If you'll allow me to be a little poetic for a second, we're reading a poem.
Maybe I would say, if he can uphold the stars, then we can trust him with our scars.
If he can sustain the cosmos, then we can trust him in our chaos, right?
We can trust this Christ.
We don't have a small Christ.
We don't have a Jesus that's not strong enough to handle our problems.
And we don't have a Jesus that doesn't care about our problems.
And yet we still find it so hard to trust him sometimes.
If you're like me, you have all these plates spinning in your life, right?
I've got my family and my kids and my wife and my job and my church and my community and my friends and all these things that I'm trying to keep spinning.
And it's really hard.
And yet we have Jesus who holds all of it together.
And yet I find it so hard to trust him.
I don't need to face any of these problems on my own.
I can go to Christ.
I can ask for his strength to sustain my life.
I don't need to be the one that holds my life together.
I don't have to face my problems and my responsibilities alone.
We serve the God who holds the stars.
He can handle our problems.
He sustains all things.
And then in verse 18, we see, yes, he sustains all things, but more than that, he sustains his church.
Verse 18, he is the head of the body of the church.
He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.
So he sustains all things and that includes his church.
He's active in creation and he's personal in his creation as the head of the church.
This word picture of the body is used all throughout the New Testament to talk about the church, that we are the body and that he is the head.
And here Paul is using it to show the absolute dependency that the body has on the head.
He is the head and we are the body.
That means he has final say and authority on what happens in his church.
That means he has final say and authority on what happens in the lives of those that make up his church.
Jesus is the head of the church.
And that's not just this church.
That's not just Exodus church.
That's the church global.
That's any true believer.
Jesus is what unites us to churches all the way across the world.
In fact, Jesus is what unites us to the church that this letter was written to thousands of years ago, that we are united to them in Christ, because Christ is the sustainer of his people.
Christ is what unifies and sustains his church.
And we're called to be his body.
We're called to be his hands and feet in the world.
We're called to glorify him and praise him in the world around us.
And just in case we don't want to submit to him, that we don't want to submit to him as our head, Paul reminds us that he has the absolute right to make this claim on his church and on our lives.
Verse 18 says, he is the beginning, meaning he's God.
He was here before anything else.
He is God.
And he continues, he's the firstborn of the dead.
Now we've already seen this term firstborn pop up in verse 16, when it says he was firstborn of creation.
And now we're told he's firstborn of the dead.
Again, this is expressing rank.
Not that he's the first person to have ever come back to life.
We know that that's not true.
Jesus himself rose people back to life.
But what it's saying is positionally, he is the firstborn.
He is the chief of those who are going to be raised to everlasting life, us.
He is the head.
He is the first.
He's the forerunner in that.
One paraphrase says it this way.
He was supreme in the beginning and leading the resurrection parade.
He is supreme in the end.
Jesus is leading the resurrection parade.
What is true of Jesus and his resurrection will be true of his people.
He has said anyone who is in Christ, held by Christ will raise like he rose to never die again.
Jesus who is first is the sustainer.
And this is very good news.
And then finally, Jesus who is first is the savior.
He's our savior.
Look at verses 19 and 20.
It says, for in him, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.
And through him to reconcile himself to all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
Only the one who is the exact image of God, the image of the invisible God can pay for our sins.
Only God himself can reconcile a sinful people.
And Jesus has done that.
Only Jesus could.
And Jesus made peace by his blood on the cross.
And so get this, Jesus is first, he's preeminent.
Jesus is supreme, he's above all things.
He's first in rank, he's first in position.
Jesus is the source of all things.
All things are created through him.
Jesus is the sustainer.
He's holding all things together.
And that same Jesus is our savior.
That same Jesus gave his life and shed his blood to reconcile us, a sinful people, to himself.
The preexistent, preeminent Jesus laid down his life for sinners like you and like me.
All the ways that sin unraveled God's good design.
Jesus on the cross said it right.
Jesus on the cross made it right.
He reconciled us to himself by blood.
Paul explained in one of his other letters in Romans, Romans 5, that many of us can kind of get our heads around someone dying for a good person, but we can't imagine dying for an enemy.
Romans 5, six through eight, it says, for while we were still weak at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.
For one would scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person, one would even dare to die.
But God shows his love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
While we were still sinners, hostiles, running from God, enemies of God, he made peace on our behalf by his own blood on the cross.
Jesus, who is first, is our savior.
So Paul has written this beautiful hymnic poem declaring who Jesus is.
And in verse 18, he tells us the point of all of it, that in all things, Jesus would be preeminent.
That we would acknowledge him as first in our lives.
Jesus, who is first in time here before anything else.
Jesus, who created all things, sustains all things, who shed his blood on the cross to make peace for his people.
Jesus is first in all things.
And so my question this morning that I wanna leave us with is, is Jesus first in your life?
Christian in the room, you've probably heard all of this before.
You've heard before that Jesus should be first in all things, that Jesus is first in all things and should be first in your life, in your heart.
And yet, if you're like me, it's really easy to let other things creep in.
It's really easy to exchange designed things for the designer.
It's really easy to let something else slip into the number one spot.
It's really easy when things start to feel hectic in my life for me to think that I'm a better sustainer than Jesus is.
And for me to try to take control of my own life rather than surrender control to him.
It's really easy to let other things become the chief goal of my life.
Power, money, relationships, having kids that look the most obedient, job promotions.
So many things that we could chase after that could become the chief goal of our life, but none of them can take the place of Christ.
None of them are first and none of them should be treated as first in our life.
And so Christian, is Jesus first in your life?
And maybe you're here and you've never put your faith in Jesus.
Maybe Jesus has never been first in your life.
Maybe you're hearing this for the first time or maybe you're just really hearing it for the first time.
And you think I've never made that choice.
I've never put Jesus as number one in my life.
I've never heard that this one who was pre-existent and preeminent died for me.
Well, I would beg you, make him first today.
Put him first in your life today.
I'll be here, I'll be in the back somewhere.
I'd love for you to find me.
I'd love to talk about what it looks like to make him first.
There's not like magical words you have to say.
You have to surrender to him.
He's already done everything necessary for you to be able to come to him.
He made peace on your behalf.
And so come to him because only the one who was God has the power and the authority to save you from your sin.
And that was Jesus.
He did it.
He has the power and the authority to save you.
Exodus Church, Jesus is first in all things.
My hope and prayer is that this morning as we have seen this beautiful passage that our hearts will just be captivated by the beauty of Jesus and that we won't help but be able to draw others and say, look at this Jesus with me.
Look how beautiful he is.
Look at this one who is preeminent first in all things.
And that every one of us would put him first in our lives every day, that we would acknowledge him as first.
Would you pray with me?
Father God, I thank you for passages like this that just speak to our hearts.
God, I pray that you will continue to draw our hearts towards you, that you will continue to show us all the ways that you're first.
God, reveal in our hearts all the ways that we have not made you first, that we have not treated you as such.
And I pray that for every one of us in here that you would be first in all things.
God, we love you.
I pray this in Jesus' name, amen.