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Introduction

Your view of Jesus is too small. So is mine. Tonight, I want to blow apart the box you’ve place Jesus in and point to a Christ that is more glorious than you’ve ever seen Him before. When you and I walked into this rec center today, we had some picture of who Jesus was. I hope that by the end of our time together, I can expand that picture just a little bit more than it was when we walked in today.

Colossians 1:15-20

¹⁵ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. ¹⁶ 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. 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.

There are over a dozen truths about the person of Jesus in those 5 short verses. Scholars call it one of the most Christ-centered passages in all of Scripture. Today I want to focus on 3 snapshots of Jesus from Verses 15 and 16. First of all…

Snapshot #1: Jesus is the image of the invisible God Col 1:15

¹⁵ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

To grasp the full meaning of this passage, lets take a few minutes to look at the historical background of what was happening in first century Colossae

Historical Background

According to MacArthur’s teaching on Colossians, the Colossian church plant was confronted with false teaching, heresy and religious errors from the secular culture much like our church plant is surrounded by non-biblical teaching and erroneous religious thinking here in the Verde Valley.

There was a group of religious teachers who believed that they had special knowledge of religious things and thought of themselves as the spiritual elite, the intellectual elite and the theologically elite. They saw Christianity as common, mundane and unsophisticated. They twisted the scripture to fit into their secular religious beliefs and viewed their position as superior to the common Christian perspective.

Here is the essence of their basic belief system: They believed that God created a series of angel-like sub-gods out of Himself along with an almost infinite line of other spiritual creations. Along the way some of these beings passed from good to evil and one of the evil sub-gods decided to commit the ultimate atrocity by creating matter.

They believe that everything spiritual is good. The invisible and intangible is good. BUT, everything physical is evil. God was not the creator of the physical universe and is very far removed from creation. He could not have ever taken on a body because God is good and bodies are evil.

Therefore Jesus could never have come as a man, because God would never have put on flesh or any other kind of matter because matter is evil and God is good. So they reasoned Jesus is not the creator God and Jesus would have never come in human flesh.

Paul is going to set the record straight – in no uncertain terms. The Colossian culture had an unbiblical understanding of the nature of God.

Our culture also has an unbiblical understanding of both the nature of God and the deity of Jesus. Both issues are addressed in our teaching today. So let’s look at what God’s word says about the nature of the physical universe:

Jesus Radiates God’s Glory

First of all, God’s word says that no one has seen God the Father. The Apostle John in John 1:18 says, “¹⁸ No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he (Jesus) has made him known.” No one has seen God, but Jesus has made God known. How did Jesus make God known to us? By living among us. By taking on flesh. John 1:14 says “¹⁴ And the Word (Jesus) became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Jesus is full of God’s glory and full of grace and truth because God is glorious and filled with grace and truth. Paul is going to deconstruct the theory that the material universe is by nature evil by proving that Jesus was God in human form.

It is clear that Jesus came to earth in the flesh. In Philippians 2, the Apostle Paul makes it totally clear that Jesus came not as a spiritual being, but as a physical, material human being. Philippians 2:5-8 states: “⁵ Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷ but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸ And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” It is clear from both the apostle John and the Apostle Paul that Jesus came to earth physically, in the flesh.

Paul proclaims that Jesus is the image of the invisible God. In other words, He is the visible image of the invisible God. Eikōn (i-cone) is the Greek word translated as image. As it is used here, it does not mean a mere likeness – like Jesus seems to appear like God. It means that Jesus is the exact and full representation of God’s character and attributes. Jesus claimed in John 14:9, “…Whoever has seen me has seen the Father…” That is to say that the nature and being of God is PERFECTLY revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. Hebrews says it this way:

Hebrews 1:3a “³ He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature”

The first thing the writer of Hebrews proclaims is that Christ is the radiance of the glory of God. He is the radiance of God’s shining glory in human form. Referring to the radiance of God’s glory emanating from the Person of Christ, Paul writes in 2 Cor 4:6 “⁶ For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

Next, the writer of Hebrews explains that Christ is the exact imprint of God’s nature.

Hebrews 1:3a “³ He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature”

If we take Christ’s exact representation of God to its natural conclusion, then it means that Jesus shares every attribute of who God is including God’s eternal existence. Reading ahead in Colossians, Paul writes in verse 19, “For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell

God never changes (Mal 3:6 says ,” For I the Lord do not change;”) – He’s immutable. Christ is the exact imprint of God’s nature. Therefore, Christ is also unchanging. That means that Christ has always been the exact representation of God’s nature from all of eternity past and he will continue to be the exact imprint of God’s nature into all of eternity future.

When Paul says that Christ is the image of the invisible God, he is making 2 things crystal clear to the Colossians.

1. Christ is God in human form.
2. Christ is the full representation of God’s nature and character.

Let’s move on to the next phrase…

Snapshot #2 Jesus is the firstborn of all creation Col 1:15

¹⁵ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

In our culture, firstborn points to birth order. Lots of people were born before Jesus. How can he be firstborn? In this context, firstborn is not referring to birth order.

In the Hebrew culture, firstborn pointed to a position, not a birth order. The firstborn was

• the heir,
• the superior person,
• the son with the right of inheritance
• a person with rights of privilege, prestige and honor.

Speaking of the Messiah, the psalmist writes in Ps 89:27 that God the father will make Him “²⁷ … the firstborn,    the highest of the kings of the earth.” Firstborn in this passage is referring to the King of King…The Supreme Being. Hebrews 1:2 states that Jesus is the, “appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.”

It’s clear that this statement about Christ was never intended to mean that Jesus was the first of all beings to be created. On the contrary, Paul was trying to communicate that Jesus was the author of creation, not the first among many other created beings. It means that through Jesus, the whole of creation came into being. . And then as the one in the position of the firstborn, Jesus is the rightful heir of all things. All creation was made by Him and for Him

Paul is saying that in relation to God, Jesus is the exact imprint – a perfect representation of who God is. Then, Jesus is the heir of all things. He is the highest in rank. He is the most supreme being of all who have EVER existed.

Canyon Bible Church is not confused about Jesus’ claims of deity. The Jews in Jesus’ time were not confused about His claims either. At one point, he made his claims to deity so clear that they wanted to stone him for blasphemy. In John 10:32-33, there is a heated discussion between Jesus and some Jews who wanted to kill him:

³² Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” ³³ The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.”

Jesus made claim after claim to be God. You cannot have the Jesus of the Bible and not embrace his deity. As we read on, Paul clearly states in verse 16 that Jesus is the creator

Snapshot #3: Jesus is the creator of Heaven and Earth Col 1:16

¹⁶ 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 created the universe? The word through is the word dia and it mean “by the means of.” Paul is saying that God created the heavens and the earth (Gen 1:1) by the means of Jesus. Certainly no man could do that. The Apostle John agrees that the universe was created through Jesus in John 1:3: “³ All things were made through (by the means of) him (Jesus) and without him was not any thing made that was made.”

I hope it is becoming crystal clear to you that we are not just dealing with any ordinary man. We are dealing with a great and powerful God-man through whom all creation came into being. Jesus is proclaimed as both the creator and the sustainer of the universe. Whatever is created in the physical universe was not created by an evil sub-God, but was personally created through the holy and righteous Son of God. He created the universe and proclaim, “It is Good!”

Our universe reveals the glory and the majesty and the power of the one who created it. We can see Christ’s glory in the intricacy of a cell or in the diversity and complexity of life here on earth. We can see his order and brilliance in the mathematical precision of the laws of physics and chemistry. The heavens declare the glory of God and the creative power of Christ in a special way. Psalm 19:1 proclaims that “The heavens declare the glory of God,     and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.”

The universe is not only beautiful, it is also unimaginably large. The universe contains objects of size and mass at distances that our minds cannot begin to grasp. Let me offer you just a couple of illustrations:

Illustration

Let’s consider our sun. The sun is a glowing hot ball of hydrogen gas. It is over 100 times the diameter of earth. If it were hollow, it could hold over 1 million earths. It derives its energy from the fusion of hydrogen to helium in its core. It’s a wonder of nuclear physics. It is effectively a totally stable hydrogen bomb and an extremely efficient source of energy. It is placed in the exactly right position to provide to perfect amount of heat and light in order to sustain life here on earth. The sun sits 93 million miles from earth. How far is that from us? If you were to drive a car 65 miles per hour, you would not be able to reach the sun in your lifetime. It would take 163 years to reach that distance. It seems almost wasteful to create an object so massive to simply warm the earth, until we consider that God through Jesus created the sun as a simple demonstration of his immense power.

God through Jesus proceeded to create an in calculable number of these stars…some of unbelievable sizes. The star Betelgeuse is the size of earth’s orbit around the sun. There are over 100 billion stars in our galaxy alone. He made each of those stars personally by speaking them into existance, He placed them with His fingers and ps 147:4 says, “He determines the number of the stars;    he gives to all of them their names.” He was intimately involved in the creation of stars and even more so in the lives of His people.

God paints beautiful artwork in the universe and he does it on a canvas of unimaginable size. Every star and everything we know on the earth was created through Jesus – and for Jesus.

Conclusion

Read with me verse 16 one last time:

¹⁶ 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.

Later in this series I hope to touch on Christ’s dominion over powers, rulers and authorities. Let’s close with this truth and life application.

Life Application

All things were created through Jesus and for Jesus Col 1:16

Paul teaches that God created all things through Christ. And…all things were created for Him. All that came into being exists for Christ – all of creation exists to display the greatness of Jesus. Nothing – absolutely NOTHING – in the universe exists for its own sake. Everything:

• from the bottom feeders in the ocean to the most distant galaxy…
• from the small particle to the largest star….
• from the most boring subject in school to the most fascinating scientific discovery….
• from the ugliest cockroach to the most beautiful sunset….

Everything exists to make the greatness of Christ more fully known. Here are some implications of those truths:

1. As a church, we desire to be intentional about making Jesus the center of attention. Every ministry and every service and every activity has Christ at the head, Christ as the focus and Christ as the center
   1. We make Christ the center of our church by reading His word
   2. We make Christ the center of our church by pulling down distractions that would keep people from worshipping their King – UG ministry
   3. We make Christ the center of attention by using God’s word as the authority for every teaching here at our church…. And then as the ultimate authority in our lives

Teaching Outline

Snapshot #1: Jesus is the image of the invisible God Col 1:15

Jesus came to earth in the flesh.

“⁵ Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷ but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸ And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”  Phil. 2:5-8

Jesus is the image of the invisible God.

“…Whoever has seen me has seen the Father…”  John 14:9,

Image: Eikōn – Jesus is the exact and full representation of God’s character and attributes

Christ is the radiance of the glory of God

“³ He is the radiance of the glory of God…” Heb. 1:3a

“⁶ For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” 2 Cor 4:6

Christ is the exact imprint of God’s nature.

“³ He is…the exact imprint of his nature” Heb. 1:3b

Snapshot #2 Jesus is the firstborn of all creation Col 1:15

In the Hebrew culture, firstborn pointed to a position, not a birth order

²⁷ … the firstborn,    the highest of the kings of the earth.” Ps. 89:27

Hebrews 1:2 ““appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.”

You cannot have the Jesus of the Bible and not embrace his deity. John 10:32-33

Snapshot #3: Jesus is the creator of Heaven and Earth Col 1:16

Through: dia – “by the means of.”

“³ All things were made through him (Jesus) and without him was not any thing made that was made.” John 1:3