15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by1 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. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
[1] 1:16
(ESV)
Colossians 1:15-20
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by1 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. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Hey, everybody. If you can go ahead and start opening your bibles, turning to Colossians chapter 1. My name is Jeff. I'm an associate pastor here at Redeemer. If we haven't met before, it's very nice to meet you.
Jeffrey Heine:I would like to meet you without a microphone on and after the service. We'll be in Colossians chapter 1. We've been going through this study of Exodus, since the beginning of October. And a few times since the start of this study, we've kind of paused in in the progression of Exodus to look at something particularly in the new testament and to see the connections, to see how these things go together, to see how this story unfolds and continues and how we are called to live, this life in Christ today. So that's what we're going to be doing tonight.
Jeffrey Heine:We're going to be looking at Colossians chapter 1 verses 15 through 20. A way to think about this text, Paul's words to the Colossians, is to really think of this section here as a hymn or a poem. To see it as, within the Greek and also the way that it's been translated into English, a lot of repeated words. There's a rhythm to it. And so that's the way we're going to treat it tonight.
Jeffrey Heine:And so let us first hear these words from the Apostle Paul to the Colossian church, chapter 1, verses 15 through 20, and let us listen carefully, for this is God's word. 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.
Jeffrey Heine:And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead. And in everything he might be preeminent, 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. The word of the lord.
Connor Coskery:Thanks be to god.
Jeffrey Heine:Let's pray. Oh, lord, we desire to behold your glory. We wish to see Jesus. And so, spirit, lead us. Lead us to truth.
Jeffrey Heine:Comfort our restless hearts. Guide us in the way of trust and obedience. May we behold the grace and truth, may we seek his face, and may we be forever satisfied. We pray these things through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Jeffrey Heine:I'd like for us to begin. I'm going to ask you a personal question. So if we just met a few moments ago, I apologize for this, but I'd like to ask you a personal question, and I'd like for you to seriously think about it. The question is this: where do you derive your significance? What makes you important?
Jeffrey Heine:What is it? Is it something that you do? Is it your job? Is it a status? Is it your resources, your possessions, your marriage, your family, your kids?
Jeffrey Heine:What is it? Where do you derive your significance? I think this is an important question for each one of us to ask and to answer. I've started to learn in my own life that I have an insatiable need to be significant. In the darkest parts of my heart, further than that, it's I don't just it's really hard to be significant.
Jeffrey Heine:Sometimes I'm content just to feel significant, just to feel important. Even if it's fleeting, and even if it's for a small amount of time, if I can just feel significant, I will chase that down, feel significant, and then the feeling fades I have to do something again. I have to find something meaningful. I have to find and do something to feel significant. Last week, when Joel, was teaching out of Exodus 34 and Moses asked, God, show me your glory.
Jeffrey Heine:Joel talked about how we have a difficult time really getting into all the complexities of what glory means. How do we really define that glory? It's complex. One of the words that he came to, in teaching us was the weight, the weight of glory. Another word that he used was a heaviness, that there's this weight of glory, this heaviness to God's glory and his reality.
Jeffrey Heine:Another word that I think is helpful is the word significance, his importance, the weight of his significance displayed. Doctor. Alan Ross, a Hebrew scholar, he's a professor at Beeson Divinity School here in town. In his book Recalling the Hope of Glory, he wrote this. He says, To speak about God's glory is to declare his importance or the display of his importance in history and in creation.
Jeffrey Heine:When we read of God's glory, we are reading about the weight of his significance being on display, the weight of his importance. So now in Colossians chapter 1, the apostle Paul is writing to a church that he has never met before. He's not seen them face to face before. So he's writing them this letter because there have been some controversies that have started to creep into that congregation in Colossae. Some heresies.
Jeffrey Heine:Some people were coming in wanting to gain power or to have a voice. They started teaching these things that are not true. So in an effort to address these concerns, Paul writes a letter. But he doesn't begin it the way that I probably if I found out that there was some trouble going on in a home group, and I was drafting a letter, I would start off with, here's a problem that I've heard about. Here's a response.
Jeffrey Heine:Here's a problem, and here is a response. That's not what Paul does. In a really interesting fashion, what he does here is he begins in chapter 1 to hold up the glory of Christ. Now why? Why would he do that?
Jeffrey Heine:Why wouldn't he just start off with problem, answer, problem, answer, problem, answer? It's because the glory of Christ is a calibrating truth. What I mean by that is the truth and reality of Christ's glory puts everything else in its rightful place. That's why he starts there. So when we are asking questions about the glory of God, it's helpful for us to go to a description like this, a description of the glory of Christ really in 2 different, spheres.
Jeffrey Heine:Number 1, verses 15 through 17, we see the glory of Christ in creation. And then in what we could call the second stanza of this hymn, this hymn of the glory of Christ, in verses 18 through 20, we see the glory of Christ in the church. So let's examine this together. The first stanza, 15 through 17, he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. Here, Paul is talking about the nature of Jesus, that he is the image of the invisible God.
Jeffrey Heine:At the end of the Exodus study that we're doing and after Easter, we're going to go through John's gospel. And in the beginning of John's gospel, he writes this, No one has ever seen God, the only God. Who is at the father's side? He, Jesus, has made him known. It is through Jesus that we actually see the invisible father.
Jeffrey Heine:He is the image of the invisible God. He's the first born of all creation. Now, by this, Paul's not saying that he was the first created being. By firstborn, it's really harking back to Psalm 89, where the Lord says of King David, I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth. So what what Paul's talking about is that Jesus as the firstborn of all creation is that he's the height of all creation.
Jeffrey Heine:Of all the created things, the incarnate Christ, God made flesh, is the greatest, the highest of all things made. Then to clarify that in verse 16, For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible, invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. Now this is a dangerous claim. This is a dangerous claim for Paul to be making here, and the reason that it's so dangerous is because the creator is supreme. The Jews would have known that Yahweh alone was their creator, and to say that Jesus created all things.
Jeffrey Heine:Verse 16, For by him, all things were created. All things were created through him and for him. To say something like that, of Jesus, that's a dangerous and bold claim. This isn't just a parable teaching Jesus who just wants to give some wise sayings. You know, he's not he's not Walmart Jesus who just wants to greet you and give you a sticker with a happy face and just see if he can do anything for you.
Jeffrey Heine:No. By him, all things were created, All things created through him and for him. If this is true, if this is true that all things were created through him and for him, that is a calibrating truth. That is a truth that sets everything else in its proper place. And this must be received or denied, that Jesus created all and all was created for Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:And that teaches me another thing. Things were not foremost created for me, and I cannot use creation for my end. We cannot use creation to build up our significance because all of these things are for him, and that changes things. We cannot gain our significance from these created things, our marriages, our children, our families, our jobs, our money, our sexuality, our power, our status. What we have can't make us who we are.
Jeffrey Heine:What we have can't build up this significance, because all things are through him, and ultimately for him. I am not my own. That changes things. It changes how I look at all things. If all things were created through Him and for Him, then all things are affected by this.
Jeffrey Heine:Right? This is controversial in our culture. It's controversial in our own hearts. Because if we follow this logic, Jesus isn't just some king that has assumed power. He didn't just arrive to this throne.
Jeffrey Heine:He didn't just assume power and get to this point and now say, I need and want your praise and adoration. What's being talked about here is that Jesus is due this adoration and praise. He's not seeking it. He's owed it. That's a big difference, because we like to think of meaningfulness and and significance.
Jeffrey Heine:David Brooks, a New York Times columnist, he talks about the philosophy of meaningfulness, which is essentially that we need to do things to feel meaningful, and that's how we will derive significance. But the problem is this. David Brooks writes this, the ultimate authority of meaningful is just that warm tingling we get when we feel significant. It's a paltry substitute because meaningfulness is built solely on emotion, and it's contentless. It's irreducible.
Jeffrey Heine:Because it is built solely on emotion, it's subjective and relativistic. You get meaning one way. I get meaning another way. Who is any of us to judge another's emotion? You see, Jesus didn't simply do a bunch of meaningful things.
Jeffrey Heine:We're talking about who he is, supreme over all. He is preeminent over all creations, all things created through Him and for him. Then verse 17, look with me. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. Creation maintains its being.
Jeffrey Heine:All things are held together by Jesus, and that is a present tense reality. Jesus' creative authority wasn't simply exercised at creation, Genesis creation. No. His creative authority endures as long as creation endures. He is presently, actively holding all things together.
Jeffrey Heine:And many of you have met him in this place. You've met him in this place in a waiting room at the hospital when you were confronted quite abruptly that you do not hold all things together, and you have desperately cried out to the one who does, and you are trusting in the fact that he holds all things together right now. When everything seems to be falling apart, Jesus is holding it all together. And many of you have known that that truth, that calibrating truth in very intimate ways. But we need that.
Jeffrey Heine:Right? We we we need to know that that's true Because let's be honest, we aren't holding much together. Like, we're barely holding our selves together. The fact that you're here and you have clothes on is like you're doing well right now. If you're parents, your kids had shoes on when they came in, they might not have shoes when they leave, but they at least had shoes on when they came in here.
Jeffrey Heine:See, we need to know that Jesus is holding all things together because we are confronted with the stern reality that we are not. This is our hope. All things were created through him. All things were created for him. All things are being held together by him.
Jeffrey Heine:Here we see the glory of Christ in all of creation. And then the second stanza, the glory of Christ in the church. Look with me in verse 18. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.
Jeffrey Heine: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. So in verse 18, the first half there, Jesus, we just saw in the first stanza is over creation and just like that, He is over His church. Paul uses that language that he regularly uses to the church as a body. He did that to the Corinthians when he was writing a letter to them. A lot of turmoil going on in that congregation.
Jeffrey Heine:A lot of struggle and pain, a lot of sin going on, a lot of deceit. And he was writing to them to remind them that they are 1 body in Christ. He says, for the body does not consist of 1 member, but of many. This being the head of the body is talking about how Jesus is not only the authority, which he is, he is the authority over the church, but also the head as in the life giving source. The life giving source is Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:And similar to creation being completed and sustained by Jesus, the church was created by the work of Jesus and held together. If we can borrow that language from the first stanza, the church is held together by Christ. I know many of us here have had disappointments within the church, and where it too can seem like everything's falling apart. Yesterday, I was working in the yard for a little while. The gingers of my sort don't, we can't be out there for very long.
Jeffrey Heine:It's a limited amount of time. I'm actually already over the sunshine. I think it's a bit much. We can just kind of go back to our caves. But I was, I was doing a a wee bit of yard work, and, everyone kind of comes out in Crestwood.
Jeffrey Heine:People were just walking everywhere and runners, and there was a couple they came by on the sidewalk there next to me, and and I heard them talking about how there are just so many denominations. It might have been one of you, even. I don't know. They were talking about just how there are so many denominations and so many so many different churches and and kind of factions within within the church. Was it maybe?
Jeffrey Heine:It was some of you? Okay. And and so as I was as I was thinking about that, I was as I was doing my limited, physical exercise of the day, I was I was thinking about how it just seems like everything's falling apart sometimes within the church. I can think about my own experiences or my own disappointments, and you have yours. When I think about how the church is made up of broken people in a broken world, it can seem really discouraging.
Jeffrey Heine:But we have to come back to this calibrating truth, this this truth that sets everything in its right place and know that Jesus is holding it all together. He loves his church. He died for his church. He reigns and rules now for his church. And that is a comfort.
Jeffrey Heine:There's a great comfort in in these, sometimes trying occasions. And so we come to that that Jesus is over His church. There's His glory in the church. And then we see in as we continue in verse 18, just as he's over creation, just as he's over the church, he is over the resurrection. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.
Jeffrey Heine:Preeminent in creation as the firstborn of creation and also the firstborn of the dead. And what he means by that, what Paul is talking about is that this first fruits of the resurrection, the power and the authority and all that changed in the moment that inside that tomb, dead Jesus took a breath. And as the air filled his lungs, the the firstborn of the dead, that victory that he experienced in that moment became a promised victory for us. When we sing Christ is risen, I often think about the funerals that I've been to, the gravesides that I've stood at. It's actually really hard for me to get through that song just any time because I just think about think about Peter as he ran to the tomb.
Jeffrey Heine:I picture him running to every graveside that I've ever stood at and calling for people to wake. Wake up. Wake up. He's alive. So when we say death, where is your sting?
Jeffrey Heine:If you have stood by that graveside, you know that sting. So when do we get to say where is it? When does it get to go away? Because right now I feel it, and I know you feel it too. But he is the firstborn of the dead.
Jeffrey Heine:Another one of those times where Paul just takes like 2 words, and he puts them right next to each other, and it's bizarre. He's going to do it again. Just wait. So he is ushering in this new life. He is this promise of the resurrection because he himself is that resurrection.
Jeffrey Heine:He has that victory and that victory is a promise to us. Then in verse 19, For in him, Jesus, all the fullness of God the father was pleased to dwell. It pleased God that his fullness would be in the son, Jesus Christ, God incarnate. And through him, Jesus, to reconcile to himself, God the father, all things, whether on earth or in heaven. Again, just going into the expanse of his victorious work that this cosmic renewal would come whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
Jeffrey Heine:There it is, peace by his blood. There would be peace. Now, the kind of peace and and love that I that I want to talk to my kids about, this this peace that Jesus brings, but I have to realize that if I'm gonna talk about the peace that Jesus brings, I also have to talk about the blood of God. When Paul was talking to the Ephesian elders, as recorded in Acts chapter 20, He's talking to them about their responsibility to care for the flock. In explaining that to them, as he wants to tell the the elders the value of the people in the pew, they probably didn't have pews, but the the value of the people in the pew is that they were bought by the blood of God.
Jeffrey Heine:We have to hold this in mind, that this is the Jesus that we are singing to, this is the Jesus that we are hoping in, this is the Jesus that we are praying and singing and seeking to follow. It is this Jesus, that the word became flesh and dwelt among us, John writes. And he says, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of the only son from the father, full of grace and truth. Throughout Jesus's ministry, as the the disciples were following him from kind of place to place and hearing his teaching and seeing his miracles, he did a lot of acts, that were wondrous, and they they beheld these miracles. But there were people that, as we see in the Old Testament, there were people that did miracles and miraculous works throughout the life of God's people.
Jeffrey Heine:So when it when we see that John is saying we beheld his glory, that's because there were some some unique moments where the glory of Christ was especially displayed. I'm talking about times like, in Matthew 3, the baptism of Jesus, where we hear the voice of God the Father. I'm speaking about that pleasure he has in his son. The transfiguration recorded in Luke 9, where Jesus is standing with Moses and Elijah. Moses, the one who wanted to see the glory of God is standing next to this brilliantly glorified Jesus in this moment where this curtain of God's glory is pulled back and the glory shines through in Jesus at the transfiguration.
Jeffrey Heine:Again, the voice of the father talking about the pleasure he has in his son, And then also that unlikely place where we see the glory of Christ, and that's the cross. Perhaps the time where he looks the most human, naked, beaten, bloodied, crying out in so much human pain, but also in that spiritual pain, the agony of God's wrath being poured out on him for our sin, and the glory of Christ in this redeeming work, in this redeeming love, the glory of Christ displayed cross. It's the blood of his cross that has brought us peace. This is how things are all things are are reconciled to God the father. And it's the glory of Christ in this redeeming work.
Jeffrey Heine:And the glory of Christ is our hope. You see, when we see and know the truth of Christ's glory in all things, we see all things differently. We see all of life differently. Our marriages, our jobs, our children, our money, our status, how we used to derive that significance, how we used to try to feel important. We are liberated by Christ's significance to love and serve those people, not to build our identity from that, not to build our significance from it, but we lean fully on the significance, the glory of Christ, So that when you get fired from your job, if that's the only way that you are significant, then you have become insignificant.
Jeffrey Heine:If it's money and the stock market crumbles, where's your significance now? Where is your meaning? When your family, when something happens to your family, are you insignificant? If that is all that we are building our significance on, we're building our significance on things that can be taken away from us. But not the significance of Christ, not his glory.
Jeffrey Heine:So I have another personal question for you. Do you see Christ glorious like this? Do you? When you think of Christ, when you think of Jesus, is this the Jesus that you are thinking of? Is this the Jesus that you pray to?
Jeffrey Heine:Is this the Jesus that you walk with? Is this the Jesus that you meet with? Because if we believe in this kind of glory, then our our lives should look different than those who don't believe in this kind of glory. Now, not in the way that the person in the cubicle next to you, that you're like your job, like what you're working on should look different, not in that kind of way, but your motivation, the why not rather be wrong, not being cutthroat to climb some corporate ladder, not being stingy with your resources, particularly your time, also your money. But our motivation changes because we're not trying to build up our significance from these things because these things were created for him.
Jeffrey Heine:We can live into that. It is liberating to believe in this glorious Christ. Our hope is Christ's significance, His glory in us. And in His glory, we are liberated to love and serve. We can burn out our lives for the glory of Christ because all of these things were created through him and for him.
Jeffrey Heine:This is the glory of Christ in creation, the glory of Christ in the church, and and God willing, the glory of Christ in our hearts. Let's go to him in prayer. Oh, God. Let us be astonished at the glory of Christ. Let us be filled with gratitude at his compassion.
Jeffrey Heine:And, lord, may we know your glory. May we know more of it day by day, And may we shine forth as as the moon shines forth the sun. May we shine forth the glory of Christ to those around us, that they too may by and by perceive your glory, The glory as of the only son of the father, full of grace and truth. We pray these things in the glorious name of Christ. Amen.