SPEAKER_01: So let's begin our time by reading from the Word of God.
SPEAKER_01: Would you follow with me as I read from Colossians 1 beginning in verse 15?
SPEAKER_01: Look down to your scriptures and let's read the Word of God together.
SPEAKER_01: Colossians chapter 1 and verse 15.
SPEAKER_01: He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
SPEAKER_01: And he is the head of the body, the church.
SPEAKER_01: He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.
SPEAKER_01: For in him all 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.
SPEAKER_01: This is the Word of God.
SPEAKER_01: Charles Darwin loved science.
SPEAKER_01: Of course, he became famous the world over for his career, and at the end of his life he wrote an autobiography in which he recounted that science became the chief enjoyment and sole employment throughout his entire life.
SPEAKER_01: And in the course of writing this autobiography, he also revealed something of a very strange occurrence that happened in his mind.
SPEAKER_01: He recounts this change in these words.
SPEAKER_01: Up to the age of thirty or beyond, poetry of many kinds gave me great pleasure.
SPEAKER_01: And even as a schoolboy, I took intense delight in Shakespeare.
SPEAKER_01: Formerly, great pictures gave me considerable music, very great delight.
SPEAKER_01: But now, for many years, I cannot endure to read a line of poetry.
SPEAKER_01: I have tried to read Shakespeare and found it so intolerably dull that it nauseated me.
SPEAKER_01: And some of you are saying, that's how I've always felt.
SPEAKER_01: What changed?
SPEAKER_01: I have also almost lost any taste for pictures or music.
SPEAKER_01: My mind seems to have become a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of large collections of facts.
SPEAKER_01: The loss of these tastes is a loss of happiness.
SPEAKER_01: I read that because Darwin provides for us a rather famous example of this very simple principle of human nature.
SPEAKER_01: You become what you behold.
SPEAKER_01: That is, whatever you place as the highest in your affections and your goals and your ambitions will have a transformative effect on your character throughout your life.
SPEAKER_01: You will become what you behold.
SPEAKER_01: So if you like Darwin, make your work the preeminent thing in your life.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not just talking about being a good and diligent worker, which Paul is going to exhort us to at the end of Colossians chapter 3, but I'm talking about making it your obsession, your chief enjoyment, what is occupying the preeminent place in your life.
SPEAKER_01: If that is what consumes you, then you will become a machine for producing the kind of work that you are employed to do.
SPEAKER_01: Or if you become a person who is obsessed with money and make that the preeminent thing in your life, you will become a shallow, shriveled up person who is incapable of enjoying the depths of relationship you were made for.
SPEAKER_01: Or if you become a person who is obsessed with sexual perversions, then you will become a perverted person because you become what you behold.
SPEAKER_01: What occupies the chief place in your affections will change you.
SPEAKER_01: Conversely, if what occupies the chief place in your affections is Christ, then through the course of your life you will become more like Christ.
SPEAKER_01: If your life is characterized beholding the glory of Christ and delighting in Christ, if he is your preeminent affection and joy, if he is what occupies your passions and desires, ambitions and goals, then through the course of your life, the Spirit will change you to be more like what you're beholding, to make you more like Christ.
SPEAKER_01: As we've been studying the letter to the Colossians, we have seen that this letter was written to a people who were relatively new believers and living in an environment where there were many different competing factors for their attention.
SPEAKER_01: A plurality of influences vying for their attention.
SPEAKER_01: If you do this, this will make you happy and a satisfied person.
SPEAKER_01: And Paul picks up his pen and writes this letter to the Colossians to anchor them in this great reality.
SPEAKER_01: The greatest need you have in your life is for more of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: In your union with Christ, all of your spiritual needs are provided overabundantly, and your one need in your life is to know more of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And at the heart of this letter is this what we could call this hymn that Paul exalts in in verses 15 through 20, where he sets before the Colossians Christ in his glory and sets for them a pattern.
SPEAKER_01: If you, like Paul in these verses, are consumed with Christ, then just as Paul was increasingly conformed to Christ through his life, so too will you.
SPEAKER_01: We this morning will only go through verses 15 through 19.
SPEAKER_01: We'll leave verse 20 for next week.
SPEAKER_01: But in these five verses that we'll study this morning, we see two ways that Christ is preeminent.
SPEAKER_01: And if he is objectively preeminent in the world, then he ought to be subjectively preeminent in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the first way Christ is preeminent in this text.
SPEAKER_01: He is supreme in creation.
SPEAKER_01: Look down at your Bibles at verse 15.
SPEAKER_01: And the first thing that Paul says in verse 15 is something of the relationship that Jesus has with God.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 15, he, Jesus, is the image of the invisible God.
SPEAKER_01: And that language, being the image of God, ought to trigger all kinds of associations in our mind.
SPEAKER_01: As careful readers of Scripture, we'll find that that's a very important term in the Bible, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: It occurs in the very first chapter in Genesis chapter 1, verse 27.
SPEAKER_01: God says, Let us make man in our image and after our likeness.
SPEAKER_01: So if humanity is created in the image of God and Christ is the image of God, what's the difference?
SPEAKER_01: And the difference is rather clear.
SPEAKER_01: It's that four-letter word made.
SPEAKER_01: Humans are made in the image of God.
SPEAKER_01: Christ is unmade.
SPEAKER_01: He is the image of God for all of eternity.
SPEAKER_01: So human beings being made in the image of God means that we were made to reflect God, to be like God in some important respects.
SPEAKER_01: And being made in the image of God gives us dignity and value.
SPEAKER_01: Every individual having dignity and value, not based on what they achieve or who they are, but based on the image of God they bear.
SPEAKER_01: But the scripture also tells us that we have all gone astray and turned away from the God for whom we were made.
SPEAKER_01: So the image has been marred and we don't reflect God the way that we ought to.
SPEAKER_01: And the scripture further tells us that when we are redeemed, when we come into a relationship with Christ, we're reoriented towards God, and the rest of our time on earth is a progressive time of being conformed back into the image of God for which we were made.
SPEAKER_01: We saw Colossians chapter 3, verse 10, that told us that what sanctification, what Christian maturity looks like is being renewed after the image of your Creator, being brought back into conformity with the image of God, the way you were made.
SPEAKER_01: But Paul says this many ways.
SPEAKER_01: One important way is in Colossians 2 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 18, where he says, We all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image, from one degree of glory to another.
SPEAKER_01: This comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: So as a redeemed person, someone who knows Jesus, has the eyes of their hearts open to behold the glory of Christ, as you behold the glory of Christ, the Spirit of God works in your life to change you progressively to resemble the image you're delighting in, to make you more like the image of Christ, who is the image of God.
SPEAKER_01: So what Paul is saying here is that Jesus reveals God.
SPEAKER_01: All that is in God is in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And unlike us who are made to reflect that image, Jesus in his own nature is that image, fully sharing in the totality of the divine essence for all of eternity.
SPEAKER_01: And what Jesus being in the image of God means for us is that he makes God known, the image of the invisible God.
SPEAKER_01: Certainly, in the Old Testament, God makes himself known to his people, but there's a gap, isn't there?
SPEAKER_01: There's a frightening gap.
SPEAKER_01: We cannot look upon God and live.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus coming into the world reveals God in a full and complete way and makes the invisible God accessible to us.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews chapter 1, verse 3 says, He's the radiance of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: And John chapter 1, verse 1 says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and that God comes into the world for this reason to reveal God to us.
SPEAKER_01: And John chapter 1, verse 18, he says, No one has ever seen God, the only God who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.
SPEAKER_01: So for Jesus to be in the image of God means that he reflects all of the glory, all of the nature, all of the essence that is God.
SPEAKER_01: All that is in God is in the Son.
SPEAKER_01: And for us, what it means is he reveals and makes accessible all that God is.
SPEAKER_01: Now, the scripture also teaches us that in the created world that God has made, something of God's invisible attributes are evident.
SPEAKER_01: Romans chapter 1, verse 20 says that God's invisible attributes, namely his divine power, is evident in the things that have been made.
SPEAKER_01: So by examining how complex and incredible the world is, you see something about the God that made it, his power and creativity.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus reveals God entirely.
SPEAKER_01: All that is in God is made known in the person of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I just want to say one other thing here.
SPEAKER_01: If we are asking the question, what does it mean to behold the glory of Christ?
SPEAKER_01: And John told us that in his becoming flesh, he's revealing the glory of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: We could ask the question, does that mean that I somehow have less access to the glory of Christ than the apostles who saw him face to face?
SPEAKER_01: In fact, in John chapter 1, verse 14, John says that the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory.
SPEAKER_01: Glory as of the only begotten from the Father.
SPEAKER_01: So, John, did you have greater access?
SPEAKER_01: Because you could see the outline and the shape of his beard, you could see the sp the speckled suntan on his skin, did that mean that you have greater access to the glory of Christ than I do in the 21st century?
SPEAKER_01: Biblically, the answer would be emphatically no.
SPEAKER_01: If Jesus were to have become incarnate in the 21st century and we had 24-7 live stream access to Jesus walking around the Galilee, we would have no more access to beholding the glory of Christ than we do right now.
SPEAKER_01: Because the glory of Christ is not perceived in his physical molecules.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, the rest of that verse I just quoted a moment ago, John chapter 1, verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: John finishes by saying, He became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory.
SPEAKER_01: Glory is of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
SPEAKER_01: The glory of Christ is not evident in the physical body, it's evident in his grace and truth.
SPEAKER_01: The glory of God is revealed in the person of Christ to the eyes of faith, who have their eyes opened by the Spirit to behold God in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: So if you want to know what God is like, look at Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Look at the way he responds to sinners.
SPEAKER_01: Look at his tender mercy to receive sinners.
SPEAKER_01: Look at his absolute holiness to reject false religion.
SPEAKER_01: Look at all that is in Christ and his actions in the world, and you will see all that is God.
SPEAKER_01: This is in fact what Jesus told his disciples in John chapter 14.
SPEAKER_01: You remember as he's gathered the apostles in the night before he's going to be taken from them and he's teaching them about what's going to happen.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
SPEAKER_01: No one comes to the Father but through me.
SPEAKER_01: And Thomas says, That's what we want.
SPEAKER_01: We want to see the Father.
SPEAKER_01: Show us the Father, Jesus, and it is enough.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says, Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_01: You've been here so long, and you don't know who I am.
SPEAKER_01: If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.
SPEAKER_01: All that is in the Father is in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Then Jesus goes on in John chapter 14, and he says, Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?
SPEAKER_01: The words that I say to you, I do not speak of my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.
SPEAKER_01: Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me.
SPEAKER_01: That's profound reality.
SPEAKER_01: There's an eternal interpenetration between the persons of the Father and the Son, so that they pervade one another, sharing the same divine essence, so that the fullness of all that is in God, all of his attributes, his power and mercy and glory and wisdom is an absolute radiant perfection found in the person of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: So if you want to know God, know Christ.
SPEAKER_01: I can't say that about my Father.
SPEAKER_01: Neither can you.
SPEAKER_01: Frequently in our society say to people, you look like your father.
SPEAKER_01: You act like your father.
SPEAKER_01: But there is no person on earth who can say that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me.
SPEAKER_01: And I do not speak of my own authority, but the Father dwells in me and does his works, so that all of my works are 100% father acting and 100% son acting, because we interpenetrate one another for all of eternity.
SPEAKER_01: This is a great reality that Christ is revealing to us.
SPEAKER_01: He is the image of God.
SPEAKER_01: If you want to see the invisible, look at Christ.
SPEAKER_01: He makes the invisible visible.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing that is in God is restrained from us, it is withheld from us.
SPEAKER_01: It's all unfolded before us in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: The only problem that we have is not that our Jesus is too small, it's that our view of him is too small.
SPEAKER_01: The only problem that we have is we have too small a comprehension of the glory of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: This is what Paul is setting before us, but he doesn't stop with this statement about his relation to God.
SPEAKER_01: He goes on at the rest of verse 15, look down at the scripture.
SPEAKER_01: After saying he is the image of the invisible God, Paul then says, and he is the firstborn of all creation.
SPEAKER_01: The firstborn of all creation.
SPEAKER_01: If you are a seasoned reader of Scripture, then you're very familiar with this term because it occurs all over.
SPEAKER_01: But when we first come to the scriptures, this can be a bit of a confusing term, can't it?
SPEAKER_01: What does it mean to be the firstborn of all creation?
SPEAKER_01: Does that mean that he is like the first thing that God created, so he's the firstborn in that sense?
SPEAKER_01: But it's helpful to remember in the ancient Near Eastern world, firstborn could be a chronological term, the first person who's born, but it can also be a title of eminence.
SPEAKER_01: That is, the firstborn is the person in the family who is set to receive the totality of the father's inheritance.
SPEAKER_01: And that person wasn't necessarily always the firstborn chronologically.
SPEAKER_01: As I said a couple weeks ago, even if there were 17 daughters born to the family, none of them would be counted firstborn.
SPEAKER_01: It would pass over them to the firstborn son.
SPEAKER_01: And there are times in which the firstborn son chronologically is bypassed, and another son is the one who receives the inheritance, and that one is the firstborn.
SPEAKER_01: He's the preeminent one who receives the totality of the Father's inheritance.
SPEAKER_01: So we should ask the question in this context: is Paul using this word to say that Jesus is the first one created, or that he is supreme over all of the creation?
SPEAKER_01: And the way that we would answer that question is by reading the next verse.
SPEAKER_01: So let's do that.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 15, he's the firstborn of all creation.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 16, because by him all things were created.
SPEAKER_01: So if there is all the created things in this jar, and then the creator in this jar, which jar is Jesus in?
SPEAKER_01: He's in the creator jar.
SPEAKER_01: He's in the uncreated jar.
SPEAKER_01: He's in the one, there's only one being in that jar.
SPEAKER_01: It's God.
SPEAKER_01: That's what Paul is saying.
SPEAKER_01: He's the creator God.
SPEAKER_01: All things are made by Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So in this sense, of being firstborn means he is the preeminent one.
SPEAKER_01: He's the one who stands outside of creation, for everything has its existence in him.
SPEAKER_01: The firstborn over all creation would be a good way to understand that.
SPEAKER_01: He is the preeminent one who stands outside of the creation because he is himself the creator.
SPEAKER_01: This is who Jesus is.
SPEAKER_01: And you notice this word all that Paul uses.
SPEAKER_01: All things were created by him.
SPEAKER_01: And that becomes a motif through the rest of this song.
SPEAKER_01: Seven times in these five verses, we get it again and again.
SPEAKER_01: He is supreme over everything is what Paul is communicating to us.
SPEAKER_01: Specifically, if you look down at the text, he says he's the creator of things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible.
SPEAKER_01: That is the totality of creation, both the things that you can perceive with your senses, and the things that are only perceptible by your mind.
SPEAKER_01: So everything from the reality that this world operates by consistent laws of nature, and that there are laws of logic by which we can make inductions and deductions about reality, the fact that our world is constant and there are repeatable experiments, and that there are sound conclusions that we can draw based on rational principles, is all because Christ made the world this way.
SPEAKER_01: Then he goes on and says, not only things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, but whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, and that's talking about all powers, human and suprahuman, all entities that exist, angels and fallen angels, and every human and every power and every society, all of it under the sovereign reign of Jesus, who brought it into existence and guides its existence.
SPEAKER_01: And then Paul says at the end of verse 16, all things are created through him and for him.
SPEAKER_01: Which means that everything exists, exists for this purpose.
SPEAKER_01: For Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That's why everything exists.
SPEAKER_01: And if that weren't true, there would be no reason for the world to exist.
SPEAKER_01: Because the sun's gonna implode and all of human life is gonna be snuffed out like a candle, and it'll be like it never was even here.
SPEAKER_01: If this isn't true, if Christ doesn't bring the world into existence for his own purposes, then there is no purpose.
SPEAKER_01: There's no purpose for the world, and there's no purpose for your life.
SPEAKER_01: But if this is true and it gloriously is true, then there is a purpose for every season under the sun, and there is a purpose for every occasion in your life.
SPEAKER_01: You exist for Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And you can find meaning, purpose, direction, and fulfillment when you orient your life around this great reality that you are made for someone.
SPEAKER_01: You are made to know Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Then Paul goes on in verse 17, and he says this.
SPEAKER_01: And he is before all things, talking about temporal existence.
SPEAKER_01: Obviously, the creator is there before the creation.
SPEAKER_01: And that verse speaks of his transcendence, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_01: For all of eternity, before there was anything that you can even conceive of, what are the things you can conceive of?
SPEAKER_01: Time and space and matter and logical principles.
SPEAKER_01: Christ has existed outside of that for eternity.
SPEAKER_01: There is a world outside of time in which he has existed, overflowing in self-sufficiency, the Father and Son, radiating infinite love and joy, the radiance of their love and joy so complete.
SPEAKER_01: It is God.
SPEAKER_01: It's the Spirit interpenetrating the Father and Son for all of eternity, overflowing in effulgent glory and enjoying the inter-Trinitarian persons.
SPEAKER_01: That's who Jesus is.
SPEAKER_01: Before all of this existed, he was doing a lot of stuff, but he was never bored without you.
SPEAKER_01: So why did he make you?
SPEAKER_01: And why did he make this world?
SPEAKER_01: Verse 16 told us.
SPEAKER_01: For him.
SPEAKER_01: He made creatures in his image capable of enjoying the same glory that he had been enjoying for all of eternity.
SPEAKER_01: This is what we're for.
SPEAKER_01: This is what Jesus Himself prays.
SPEAKER_01: Father, I pray that they whom you have given me may be with me where I am to see my glory.
SPEAKER_01: The glory that you gave me before the foundation of the world.
SPEAKER_01: That's what you were made for.
SPEAKER_01: And that Christ, who has transcendently existed, the rest of verse 17 says, in him all things hold together.
SPEAKER_01: So this transcendent God has become inescapably imminent in all of the created order, so that everything that he made is held together by the word of his power, Hebrews 1-3 says.
SPEAKER_01: Just think about that for a second.
SPEAKER_01: I'm under no illusions that I'll be able to trick you into thinking I'm a scientist.
SPEAKER_01: But I did go to high school.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember that they taught us about atoms, and atoms have a nucleus, and they've got electrons radiating around them.
SPEAKER_01: And they told us in high school that if you blow up an atom so that the nucleus is the size of a blueberry, then the entirety of the atom will be larger than a football stadium.
SPEAKER_01: And that what is between the electron orbiting around the nucleus and the nucleus is just empty space.
SPEAKER_01: And what is holding it together?
SPEAKER_01: I know the answer to this question.
SPEAKER_01: Christ.
SPEAKER_01: For all of eternity, every atom in existence held together by Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And you are composed of a billion times a billion times a billion atoms.
SPEAKER_01: And Christ is holding all of them together and orchestrating together to make you who you are.
SPEAKER_01: And you're just one person, and there are seven billion of us on this planet.
SPEAKER_01: And this is a big planet far beyond anything that you can imagine.
SPEAKER_01: And you could take a million of these planets and stick them inside of the sun.
SPEAKER_01: And the sun is just one of two hundred billion stars in our galaxy.
SPEAKER_01: And our galaxy is one galaxy among a hundred billion galaxies in the world.
SPEAKER_01: And to the vast expanses of space, all the way down to the hollowness of an individual atom, there is Christ holding it all together every moment, always and forever.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just that he's holding the laws of space together, it's that Proverbs 21 says, He holds the hearts of the kings in his hands and directs them wherever he will.
SPEAKER_01: Or Psalm 139, where can I go from your presence?
SPEAKER_01: Oh Lord, if I ascend to the heavens, you're there.
SPEAKER_01: If I descend to Sheel, you are there.
SPEAKER_01: He's pervading everything.
SPEAKER_01: He's controlling your life.
SPEAKER_01: He's personally and intimately involved in every detail of your entire life.
SPEAKER_01: This is Christ, absolutely and utterly supreme in all of creation, the fullness of the radiance of the glory of God, creating a world for his own glory and sustaining it and guiding it in every moment for his own purposes.
SPEAKER_01: And Paul is at pains for us to recognize this really, really basic reality.
SPEAKER_01: If this Christ holds all of this together and you are in him, then he can hold you together too.
SPEAKER_01: And the only problem that you have in your life is that you need more of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: There is no problem in your life too big for Christ.
SPEAKER_01: But it might be too big for the tiny Jesus that you imagine.
SPEAKER_01: But the Jesus you imagine is like an Adam compared to the universe of the Christ who is actually there.
SPEAKER_01: The one problem we have in our life is we increasingly ever need to behold more of the glory of Christ, the unsearchable, unending riches of this great, glorious person who we've been united to in this act of redemption gifted to us through his death and resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: Christ is supreme in creation, and when you know him, he becomes supreme in you.
SPEAKER_01: Which leads us to the second thing that Paul teaches us in this passage, and that is that Christ is supreme over the new creation.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 18.
SPEAKER_01: He says, He is the head of the body, the church.
SPEAKER_01: The church.
SPEAKER_01: Another one of these kind of multivalent words that can mean different things in different contexts.
SPEAKER_01: Frequently, when people begin reading the scriptures, they get confused and say, What is this?
SPEAKER_01: Seems like the church can mean a hundred things.
SPEAKER_01: It can't mean a hundred things, but it can mean a couple things.
SPEAKER_01: And I think a helpful analogy is to use the word family.
SPEAKER_01: If I stop you in the hallway, you stop me and ask, Brian, how's your family?
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to presume that you are referring to probably my wife and my kids.
SPEAKER_01: People live under my roof.
SPEAKER_01: But I might reply to you, Oh, we're doing great.
SPEAKER_01: Last week we went and visited family, and now all of a sudden I've expanded the scope of that term, and you know what I mean.
SPEAKER_01: I mean I went to go visit my parents or cousins, etc.
SPEAKER_01: Likewise, the word church can refer to an individual local body with elders overseeing it, with individual members who are joined to one another, who are ministering with their spiritual gifts, so that the whole body grows together in love up into maturity in the head who is Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Also, these individual bodies are constituted into an even greater body, the universal church that transcends time and culture and language, so that through the ages and across the nations, the entirety of the church is one organic unity, because, as Paul says in verse 18, there is one head, namely Christ.
SPEAKER_01: It's been well said, a body without a head is dead, and a body with more than one head is a monster.
SPEAKER_01: The church has one head, Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Which means that there is no one else who has authority in the church.
SPEAKER_01: Christ has singular divine authority to regulate and to guide his church.
SPEAKER_01: And the way that he does that is through his voice of the scriptures.
SPEAKER_01: Christ also then will provide for his church and protect his church.
SPEAKER_01: And being the head of his church also means that he is the source of the church's life.
SPEAKER_01: So the church is a vibrant and living entity insofar as it is connected to its head, to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: There's one other thing I think is worth mentioning about this text is yes, it is true that you are individually united to Christ directly, so that you have an individual personal union, communion with Christ.
SPEAKER_01: But scripture also says that the way that we relate to Christ in our life is in the church, in the body, the church.
SPEAKER_01: We are not isolated bodies.
SPEAKER_01: We are a united body.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, the way to experience vibrancy in your union with Christ is only and exclusively insofar as you are participating in the membership of the church, as you are united to the church, as you are experiencing life in the church, as your life is grafted into the lives of the other believers who are also united to Christ, insofar as you are exercising your spiritual gifts and being taught and grown and serving in the church.
SPEAKER_01: I am not a church, and you are not a church, but we are a church, and together we are the body of Christ, who is our sole, singular, all-sufficient head, guiding us by his divine authority and giving us everlasting life.
SPEAKER_01: He is the head of the church, but then he goes on and says, He's the head of the body of the church.
SPEAKER_01: Look at the rest of verse 18.
SPEAKER_01: And he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: Now that word beginning, your translation might say he's the ruler, because it's the same Greek word arche that's translated in verse 16 as rulers.
SPEAKER_01: This is a word that can mean ruler or beginning, depending on context.
SPEAKER_01: And I think beginning is the best way to understand it.
SPEAKER_01: Because there seems to be a shift here in what Paul is focusing on.
SPEAKER_01: Look at also the way he uses the word firstborn.
SPEAKER_01: He's the firstborn from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: Now, does that mean that he is the supreme one over the dead?
SPEAKER_01: In other words, in verse 15, he told us that he's the firstborn over all creation because he's the creator.
SPEAKER_01: He's outside of the creation.
SPEAKER_01: He made it, so he is the preeminent one over the creation.
SPEAKER_01: Is he using the term in the same way here to say that he is the preeminent one over the dead?
SPEAKER_01: Or what does he mean?
SPEAKER_01: Well, let's look at the rest of the sentence.
SPEAKER_01: In the rest of verse 18, he says, He's the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that in everything he might be preeminent.
SPEAKER_01: So if you read the preeminent meaning into firstborn, then you have a sentence that reads, He is the preeminent one of the dead, so that in all things he might be preeminent.
SPEAKER_01: Which is one of those wonderful sentences straight out of the redundancy factory of redundancy.
SPEAKER_01: A better way to understand this text is he is the firstborn from the dead, in a chronological sense, the first one to be resurrected from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: He's the leader, the architect, he's the captain, he's the one who establishes the reality of new creation, resurrection from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: And because he is the one who is the first to be resurrected and to guarantee others will trail in his wake, he ought to be preeminent among all those who participate in new creation that he started.
SPEAKER_01: He's the firstborn from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: Now I think that you can see this all over Scripture, but I want to look at one particular text.
SPEAKER_01: Look at on the screen, 1 Corinthians and chapter 15.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says that Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits or firstborn of those who have fallen asleep.
SPEAKER_01: For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.
SPEAKER_01: For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
SPEAKER_01: Christ is the first one who's resurrected from the dead, and his resurrection of the dead guarantees that all those who are united to him will participate in a new creation, resurrected from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: Now I think it would be helpful to think about maybe the way these two passages relate to one another, both verse 15 to 17 and verse 18-19.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 15 says that Jesus is supreme over all creation because he stands outside of it and he created it.
SPEAKER_01: But verse 18 and 19 says that he's supreme over the new creation because he enters into it and participates in it.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus participates in the resurrection of the dead.
SPEAKER_01: He is the firstborn.
SPEAKER_01: Now, of course, by the way, Jesus did resurrect people during his earthly ministry.
SPEAKER_01: Even prophets like Elisha resurrected people, but those people died again.
SPEAKER_01: Lazarus went back to the tomb a second time.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus resurrected with an indestructible body and an everlasting life that will never pass away.
SPEAKER_01: And his resurrection of the dead is the first fruits of a new created order that everyone who belongs in Jesus will participate in everlastingly.
SPEAKER_01: And I think it would be helpful for me.
SPEAKER_01: I mentioned at the very beginning, this word firstborn gets used a number of times throughout Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Let's just track them very briefly, because if you track the uses of firstborn, you kind of see something of the arc of redemption that God has traced for us in Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: The image of God that we started with in verse 15 goes all the way back to the garden.
SPEAKER_01: God created humanity in his image for the purpose of knowing and enjoying him.
SPEAKER_01: The first question in the catechism: what is the chieftain of man?
SPEAKER_01: To glorify God and enjoy him forever.
SPEAKER_01: But we don't do that.
SPEAKER_01: We've turned away from God, are separated from him.
SPEAKER_01: And this creation is under a curse, under judgment.
SPEAKER_01: But God has elected to come into this world and to do all that was necessary to restore what was lost by sin, to resurrect a new creation.
SPEAKER_01: And the way he does that is through a series of promises.
SPEAKER_01: First, he elects Abraham and gives him a promise that one of your descendants will restore what was lost in Adam.
SPEAKER_01: Then the promise narrows to David, and God says to David, one of your descendants will be a king who will reign over a kingdom that will have no end, reign over a new created order where God will dwell with his people forever.
SPEAKER_01: And one of the passages where that promise is elaborated is Psalm 89, where God is describing this descendant of David who's going to be a king over God's everlasting kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: And in the middle of Psalm 89, God says this I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: So someone is going to be a descendant of David who will be the firstborn to bring about the new created order.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus is that person, descendant of David, who bears the wrath that sinners deserve, resurrects from the dead, is the firstborn of a new created order.
SPEAKER_01: But then the scripture tells us he ascends into heaven, and when he ascends into heaven, Hebrews and chapter 1, verse 6, pardon me for putting the wrong reference on the slide, but this is Hebrews chapter 1, verse 6 says, and again, when he brings the firstborn into the inhabited world, and that's referring to the inhabited heavenly realm where Jesus is now, he says, Let all God's angels worship him, which is itself a reference to what Daniel preached tonight, Deuteronomy 32.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus is, in a sense, experiencing the firstfruits of the new created order and a new heavenly realm inhabited by saints and angels who are worshiping him and participating in a in a very limited sense the new created order that Jesus is ushering in.
SPEAKER_01: But it's not yet complete.
SPEAKER_01: One day he will come to earth, and this earth will pass away, and he will bring a new heavens and a new earth, and until that day, he's doing something in the world.
SPEAKER_01: He is bringing all of his people into relationship with Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And if you are in relationship with Christ, this is what God is doing in your life right now, is he conforming you to the image of the firstborn.
SPEAKER_01: As Paul says in Romans 8.29, those whom he foreknew he predestined, to be conformed to the image of his son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
SPEAKER_01: That is what God is doing in your life, is conforming you to the image of the firstborn, so that you would be fit, suited, to participate in the new created order that the firstborn over all creation is bringing to this world.
SPEAKER_01: Then Revelation, the book where all of the strings are tied together, and we're told about that everlasting kingdom that Jesus will come and bring.
SPEAKER_01: How does John introduce Jesus as the one who will bring the new created world?
SPEAKER_01: In Revelation chapter 1, verse 5, he says, Grace to you and peace from him who is and was and is to come, that's the Father, and from the seven spirits who are before the throne, the Holy Spirit, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, and of all the titles to give to Jesus, there's a lot of them.
SPEAKER_01: We crowned him with many crowns, we just sang.
SPEAKER_01: What's the particular crown for understanding Jesus in this new created order?
SPEAKER_01: He's the firstborn from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: When he resurrected from the dead, he guaranteed all who belong to him will likewise participate in a new created order with resurrected bodies and perfected souls where we'll behold the glory of Christ unendingly.
SPEAKER_01: This is what God is doing in the world.
SPEAKER_01: And this is what God is doing in your life.
SPEAKER_01: So many of the things that we do will pass away.
SPEAKER_01: Anything that you do that is apart from conformity to the image of Christ is meaningless.
SPEAKER_01: It's gone, it's fading away.
SPEAKER_01: But everything in your life that participates in your conformity to Christ is a first taste of an unending new creation of which Christ is supreme.
SPEAKER_01: This is what God is doing in the world, and what he's doing in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: I think Paul would say to us very simply: there's a lot of things in our life that are vying for our attention, just like the Colossians.
SPEAKER_01: But we only ever have one problem we need more of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: We need to behold the glory of Christ more and more and more and more.
SPEAKER_01: That's the one reality that can never be taken from us.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Father, we do worship you because you've given us your son.
SPEAKER_01: And you who did not spare your own son, how will you not also with him freely give us all things?
SPEAKER_01: And so we look forward to the day when we will see you face to face, and our labors will be gone, and we will pass from darkness into everlasting light.
SPEAKER_01: And we pray that you would give us patience with endurance to live lives worthy of the gospel, worthy of Christ, worthy of the call that you placed on our lives.
SPEAKER_01: We pray that you would conform us to the image of Christ this week, to make us ambassadors, to bring more into conformity to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: We bless you.
SPEAKER_01: And thank you for the gift that it is to know him.
SPEAKER_01: We pray that you would expand our view of him.
SPEAKER_01: So make us more like him.
SPEAKER_01: We pray these things in his name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And now for a parting word from Pastor Jesse Johnson.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining us.
SPEAKER_00: If you're in the Washington, DC area, I would love to see you at Emanuel Bible Church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information on our church or our current service times, go to IBC.church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: location, go to TMS.edu.
SPEAKER_00: I hope this resource has been a blessing to you and it helps you seek the Lord daily, serve others around you, and share the gospel with boldness.