0012 - Colossians 1:15-20

Episode 12 – Colossians 1:15-20

In this episode of The Break Check Podcast, we continue into Colossians

For the first time, we’re walking verse-by-verse through a book of the Bible—starting with Colossians . Together, we read the passage and unpack Paul’s message to the church in Colossae: faith in Christ, love for the saints, and the hope laid up in heaven.

We talk about:

• Who Paul is writing to—and why it matters
• The power of a Gospel that is “bearing fruit and growing”
• What authentic Christian faith actually looks like
• How encouragement and gratitude shape a healthy church

This marks a shift for us as we begin reading Scripture in order and slowing down to really discuss it. No cherry-picking. No rushing. Just opening the Word and letting it speak.

If you’ve ever wanted to study the Bible more intentionally but didn’t know where to start, this is a great place to jump in.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the Break Check Podcast. I'm Lewis. And I'm Joe. And this is episode 12. 12. In which we are continuing our series through Colossians. Colossians. Five verses today. I think that's the most verses we've read.

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Yeah. Yeah. So far. This one may be longer than the usual. Do you ever do you ever just hear me over here just hyping you? You know, you got one of those really good like rappers. You're you're my little John. I'm your Yeah! I'm over What? I'm over here just like Colossians. Yeah. I'm your hype, man. Okay, we're gonna change it up on our on our opener question, right? So this is uh I think you should tell the story behind the question just a little bit. What's going on with that? What do you got there? Okay, so this uh my wife and I were in Mardell. This was many moons ago. I've had this box sitting on my nightstand for I don't even know, a couple months. Christian culture questions.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:53

So this is just cards with questions, and I had a whole box of them. And so we thumbed through it and we faithfully picked one. And the question today is if you were Noah, which animal would you have left off the ark?

SPEAKER_01 1:08

So it's hard question. That's a hard question. Because like I don't like just you can't just like pick one, right? Because every animal has a purpose. I think this also really kind of like points back to God and his like divine nature in creating everything. Because like if you just like eliminated a species of whatever off the planet, something is going unchecked, right? Like the squirrels check the trees, right? We'd have so many trees everywhere, or whatever, or like the anteaters check the ants. So um, I I don't know. I put some dot into this and I think I'm picking gopher.

SPEAKER_00 1:43

Okay. That's fair. I like gopher.

SPEAKER_01 1:45

I don't know what gopher eats, but I do know that it likes to like destroy my mom's flower beds. And I've seen the damage they do to a front yard, and I don't I just don't I'm not messing with that, you know?

SPEAKER_00 1:56

Right. Gopher. Good one. I like it. If I were Noah, I'm leaving the skunks off the mark.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

See, you gotta explain. First of all, you're offending people with this. You know, people domesticate and have pet skunks.

SPEAKER_00 2:12

Well, I'm sure somebody has a gopher somewhere or a squirrel, you know.

SPEAKER_01 2:14

Well, I feel like gopher, you know, I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong about the gopher, but I've pet a squirrel or a skunk. And they're they're like pretty solid. Like they get them like de-skunked where they can't spray their skunk juice everywhere. And they're basically just a really kind of different cat.

SPEAKER_00 2:32

Yeah. Well, my my reasoning is because I mean, have you ever been sprayed by a skunk? No, obviously not. Obviously not. You spend enough time out in the country.

SPEAKER_01 2:41

I do have a funny story about a skunk, but go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 2:44

Yeah. Spend enough time out in the country or your dog gets sprayed by a skunk. That happened to me as a kid. I didn't actually get sprayed, but the dog, I mean, pretty bad. It's pretty bad. Um I have to be honest though, I took this question to my wife because I was having a really hard time. Because all animals, again, are gods creatures, and um, you know, struggling with it. And I asked her, she was like, undoubtedly skunk. My wife has the nose of a bloodhound. I think she could smell a mosquito fart from like three counties away. And so she she yeah, yeah. And so she like skunk obviously would just is offensive to her. So I'm like, that's a good one. So I'm totally stealing it from her because I agree with my wife.

SPEAKER_01 3:30

No, I mean, like, okay, here's my funny skunk story. Me and my dad were out hunting, right? And we're walking through the woods because my dad and I have great, absolutely A tier, excellent patients. And so we get out there at like six o'clock before it's before it's uh um why are you looking at that face up?

SPEAKER_00 3:50

I just feel like that was a big that was like a you're being facetious. Oh, I'm being incredibly facetious again. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_01 3:55

Make sure you just um make a chicken my trip good. We're sitting, we sit there, and it's dark, and we'll sit for like an hour. Sun comes up, we ain't seen crap. Ain't no turkeys come falling out the tree because it's from the roost. We're like, this sucks. Let's start walking around. And I don't know if you're a hunter or if you've hunted. That's pretty much the worst thing you can do. Correct. You start making all this noise, and we're big A humans, and everything within the vicinity is like, Well, we're not going over there. And so, you know, it's terrible, and we do that. And we're walking through the the the woods, and we see in this field what looks like a turkey fan, right?

SPEAKER_00 4:31

We see this turkey fan, and we're like hand signals for the podcast listeners who just went through a complete total third base coach call.

SPEAKER_01 4:43

We're like, Yeah, yeah. All right, and we go and we start walking, we get real close up to this thing, and we like peek our head above the bush into the field. It's a skunk tail. Skunk tail. We're staring down the barrel of the beast. Oh goodness, and we uh we're like, cool, and we like back up slowly. I would have just I mean, you guys had bows or sh guns? Shotguns. And in that moment, in that moment, me and my dad were like, Look at us a couple of idiots sneaking up on a skunk.

SPEAKER_00 5:17

That's straight up clamp it style behavior.

SPEAKER_01 5:20

My dad is my dad will and I'm actually kind of surprised we didn't shoot it. My the first turkey my dad shot, we're shooting buckshot out of a 12 gauge, and he shot his first turkey at like 80 yards. Wow. He shot it at 80 yards. The turkey didn't like die, it just started like going crazy, ran 40 yards forward and shot it again, and then ran another 40 yards forward and got like point blank and put it out of misery. Wow, incredible. But don't tell Gay Morton we did that.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

I'm not gonna tell anybody you did.

SPEAKER_01 5:54

All right, well, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:56

I mean, all all seven of our listeners.

SPEAKER_01 5:59

Probably thought that was funny. Probably thought hopefully there's like some Oklahoma Hillbilly out there listening.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

Like, yeah, that's probably what they said. Yeah, they probably said that exact thing. All right, so we're in Colossians uh one, verse 15 through 20. Read it to us.

SPEAKER_01 6:16

I don't want to. Uh okay. It's subtitled The Preeminence of Christ. I think that's important. Uh 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 th 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. He is the head of the body of the church, he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in every everything he might be preeminent. 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. Hmm. Lots. That's a lot. But it's also being like in my opinion, Paul's just like, Jesus is pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00 7:07

Jesus is the bomb.com. Absolutely 100%. But we start let's start with let's define what is what is preeminent mean. Let's let's define that. So I I got it. I did it. I I wrote the the definition down. Being superior to all things, uh being superior to all others, having the highest rank, importance, or authority.

SPEAKER_01 7:35

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 7:36

So Paul is telling us Jesus is the tip of the spear. Yeah. 100%.

SPEAKER_01 7:43

Yeah, I think that's a good definition because um in a lot of circles, when you debate about the Trinity, people are like, well, Jesus prayed to God. Does that mean that Jesus is less than God? And this is the thing that people struggle with. Jesus is not like Jesus is a human, is a human with God's nature. Right? They're one in nature, not one in being, necessarily. Um, and I think this makes a lot of sense when you think about God in this context, because God is not necessarily a being. We don't know what God is. Like, he's outside of our existence entirely. And so if you try to put him in a box of something that we can understand, you're missing the mark.

SPEAKER_00 8:29

Man, that's so true. My pastor, I told you Sunday he really brought the rain. So much so that I had to send him a text. Like, bro, thank you for such a spirit-filled message. And he said, you know, we want a God that we can understand. We want to bring God down to a level that we understand, that we can manage, that we can put him inside of that proverbial square. Um, and essentially it's it's almost like we put God on trial, and we're the judge, right? But that is not at all how it is, right? God stands above all that. Um, and so I I pulled some pretty good information, kind of a verse by verse, um, from the study Bible, and it really plays into what you're saying. Excuse me. So verse 15, you know, Paul isn't speaking of a of a created son, right? Um he is he he's explaining the rights and the privileges of a firstborn son, but the son that is Jesus Christ has always existed. Right? It's always been there. So there's not been a a so Jesus wasn't a created, he is the creator, right?

SPEAKER_01 9:46

Yeah, I think I think it's I think you know, when we talk about Jesus the man, um, I think that's kind of what this verse 15 is playing at. Like he Jesus the man was the first created, um, and then by him all everything else was created, um, but also at the same time he was created in the image, in the nature of God, and so that makes him like, you know, he is in nature the uncaused cause. If that makes sense. It does. It does.

SPEAKER_00 10:20

It does. Um, you know, it I th you know, one thing you're kind of getting at, and and I think people do struggle with is Jesus is 100% God, but also 100% man, right? So so Jesus arrived on earth and was born of a virgin. Yeah. So that there is an undoubtable tie to the the son of man. Yeah. Right. He is he is living, breathing, and can die. The only way God could do that is to create him as man, as to, as, as to birth him as yeah, as a living, breathing human, right? Um, knowing all along what Jesus was gonna do for us.

SPEAKER_01 11:08

I think I almost wonder if you can think about it like this of like he's a man, the same way you and I are men, right? Like, but what makes you and I different, it's not like necessarily our DNA or our chemical makeup or like the physical things that make us humans, right? It's something that we can't necessarily understand, the soul. It's the soul, it's true. It's what makes us tick, because it you can't even be like it's your brain, it's what makes you think. Because why does a dog that has a brain not um articulate its thoughts in a way that is as complex or advanced as a human's, right? What's keeping dog from that? And I think it's soul. And so when you when you look at Jesus, he was fully man, right? He had the same brain or whatever that everybody else does, but his soul was fully God, and that's where that's where he be gets his um his divine nature from. That's right.

SPEAKER_00 12:07

Yeah. Man, I um I gotta say, I mean, it's it's what's what's amazing is verse 15, 16, 17, uh, and then some of 18 is Paul he says it, you know, uh Jesus is the son and then uh doubles down and then doubles down again, and he he reiterates and reiterates and drives the point home of what he's trying to say about Jesus. And then, you know, in verse 18, so we'll skip ahead, right, a little bit. Verse 18 talks about you know, back to the body of Christ and brings Jesus as he is the head of the church, he is the head of the body, right? Because Paul references Corinthians and other letters, right, talking about the body of Christ, and the church is the body, right? And then and and gives, you know, Jesus being the head of the body, and he is the purpose. Um so verse 18, and then man, verse 19 for me. Absolutely my favorite verse in this entire passage.

SPEAKER_01 13:10

Hmm. You have to explain that. When we were talking about this beforehand, you said that, and I was like, I read this verse and I could understand why you would like it. Um, but I mean, I I read 15 through 18, and I'm I'm I think that's incredible. Um, and so I'm wondering what what in verse 19 sticks out to you specifically.

SPEAKER_00 13:30

Fullness. It's the word fullness, right? And and I 100% plagiarize what I put in my notes from my study Bible, right? So so basically what I said here is as Paul references the fullness in verse 19, it can be taken back to the old testament um in Ezekiel 44 4, where Ezekiel says, I looked and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the temple. Right? So when we talk about the fullness, Jesus is not only bears God glory, God's glory, but all the but but all that God is dwells in him.

SPEAKER_01 14:10

So what's the context of that Ezekiel verse?

SPEAKER_00 14:16

Well, I didn't read backwards to get the context, but Ezekiel was talking about God coming into the temple.

SPEAKER_01 14:23

Well, yeah, I'm just curious about like, well, because there's a couple times. Is this talking about David? Is this talking about Solomon? Is it talking about uh Jeremiah? You know, I won't, I'm just curious. We'll have to look into that later. Yeah, it's talking about God. Well, no, no, no, no, God's presence and is the glory of God. God's presence and glory enter the temple on multiple occasions. Uh a big one I think about is the tent of uh presence with Moses, right? Yeah, and they sure everybody came out and worshiped when they saw the fire go into the tent with Moses. Right. Um, and another big one is uh David bit rebuilds the temple or builds the temple, I believe. Or no, that was Solomon. David David restores the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, right? And we get another God moment there. And then Solomon builds the temple for the first time, and the presence of God filled it up. Right. Um, and I believe Jeremiah restored the temple and removed all of the false idols from it. And again, we have another thing. So I'm just curious uh when it which one Ezekiel is talking about.

SPEAKER_00 15:32

Well, I mean, I'm I mean, I think he's talking about the one that that happened within his time, but I you know, there are many, there are many references of God filling the temple with his presence and his glory. Um, I think the study Bible picked that one in this case, um just just to bring forward the the fullness of God. And and this was this is kind of what I was getting at, you know, why this is my favorite verse in this passage. Um, because Jesus is not only bears God's glory, but all that God is dwells in him, he possesses the wisdom, power, spirit, and glory of God. So to say all this divine fullness dwells in Jesus is to say he's fully God. So in a roundabout way, Paul is telling the church of Colossae that Jesus is in fact fully God in that verse.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

Hmm. I wonder if there's something to be said of uh Paul in Romans talks about your body being a temple. Right. And how how you know, instead of the temple being a place anymore, it's your inner self, your your heart, your your your uh your posture and how you handle the safe like this inner heart within yourself. It's not like your your heart pumping blood throughout yourself, but this like I almost wonder if it's kind of talking back to this soul we were talking about earlier.

SPEAKER_00 16:55

Uh Jesus tells the Pharisees, You will destroy this temple and I'll rebuild it in three days. Right. And so I think that his intention there was the body is the temple.

SPEAKER_01 17:04

And so that may very well be what they're when we put this in context of verse 19. Um, when it says, For in him all the fullness of God was pleased well, all the fullness, so like all the all. It's weird. Um, and so it's like it's like uh Jesus was the perfect temple for God. That's right. And so, because it doesn't even say that in the verse reference for Ezekiel 44. Um, the Ezekiel 44 says, I look and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the temple. Right. So we're not talking about all the glory, we're just talking about the glory of the Lord filled the temple, right? And so I think it's interesting uh of like this uh literary style of Paul establishing Jesus as the perfect temple for God's presence.

SPEAKER_00 17:51

Absolutely. Yeah, because we just referenced several times God's glory filling the temple, God's glory filling the tent, God's glory filling the ark, and and everything created even under the instruction of God by the hands of man has failed, right? All the way up to the birth of Jesus, right? And Jesus being the perfect temple because he was sinless and perfect in all ways, right? Jesus was perfect, and so what a perfect temple for God to dwell in, and it's pleased to dwell, right? So not only was did God dwell within Jesus, Jesus is fully God and God is pleased to dwell within Jesus, right? Um all a bunch of I mean when we get this is like the first step of getting down into the theological weeds of uh you know one of Paul's letters. But um, you know, that's why I really love the way Paul communicates here because he doesn't just come right out and say, Hey guys, follow Jesus because Jesus is God. He uses uh you know these Old Testament references, right? He uses the proper language and he spreads this out so that uh it's easier to understand. If I were to walk up to you and say, Jesus is God, I mean to a to a new believer, even an unbeliever or even a new believer, you'd need to explain that a little bit more. What do you mean?

SPEAKER_01 19:27

Yeah. And I think uh I think I think uh where it gets confused is people don't Jesus is God, but people also confuse like God the Father as God, right? I think that's a a common disconnect I see of like God the Father is shouldn't be lumped in as just God. Because when you think about God as a whole, you should think about Jesus, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit. Correct. So when you say Jesus is God, that's true. God the Father is God, that's also true, and that Holy Spirit is God. But when you say when you when you when you think in your head and you hear the word God and you think God the Father, you're you're cutting out kind of some of his fullness, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 20:18

No, it makes perfect sense. And I agree with that. For sure, for sure. Well, and then uh verse 20, um, you know, Paul talks about um and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of the cross. He's just essentially bringing full circle that Jesus' death and resurrection um ultimately quells this rebellion. Right? It it gives us a way um you know for believers to to go and be with God. Right? It gives us our salvation, um, and so we're able to be reconciled through the blood of the cross.

SPEAKER_01 21:04

Yeah. Yeah, it kind of puts a nice little bow on the on the passage. Um Paul is doing a lot of work to kind of establish what who Jesus is, what Jesus did, and what it means for you. That's right. Um there's a lot to unpack um when you really I think try to read between the lines and understand exactly what Paul is saying um about Jesus. Um, but at the end of the day, he's just trying to drive home this point that uh that this great and powerful being did what it did to reconcile each and every each each not every person, not everything, but not every person or you know, every church, but everything back to God.

SPEAKER_00 21:51

That's right. That's right. Well, and and like Lewis said, there is a lot to unpack. I I agree with that, and I think that we are um only skimming the surface of of what even this five verse um passage in Colossians is is telling us and what it's telling the the church of Colise. I think that there's a lot of information here. So we urge you, the listener, to go read this yourself and study it. There's some wonderful resources for you. But I think that just about sums it up. What do you think? I ain't got nothing else. Got nothing else, huh? Well, you mean to pray us out of here and for sure. All right. Father we love you and we thank you for your word God. We thank you for the way it's communicated to us and we so thankful for this opportunity to get together and talk about it, Lord. And we pray for our families. We pray for each other God and we pray for the listener Lord. If there's anyone that doesn't know you God I I pray that you you put a thought in their mind and a weight on their heart that they that they go to seek you Lord. And in Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen remind everybody you can find us on all the social stuff you know pretty easy to get us there. Like us subscribe all that kind of stuff and we're so glad you joined us.

SPEAKER_01 23:19

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 23:20

See you next week.

SPEAKER_01 23:21

Peace