Christ is presented as the supreme head of the church, demonstrating his majesty in his divine person, his power over the universe, and his position over the church. The sermon highlights that Christ, as the image of the invisible God, is God incarnate, not merely a representation. It further explains his universal power as the creator and sustainer of all things, emphasizing that "firstborn of every creature" signifies his preeminence, not his created status. Finally, Christ's role as the head of the body, the church, is explored, emphasizing the vital relationship and his position as the source of the church's life and the one who deserves preeminence in all things.
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brought your outlines with you. There may be someone here tonight who wasn't here on Sunday. If so, you don't yet have an outline. It's page number one. If you need such an outline, if you would raise your hand, maybe someone would very graciously come and take a sheet from the front and pass it to you. All right, we have need of two. Jack, would you like to take a couple of those outlines off the front seat for me? And there's another gentleman over there, lady at the back, another lady here, lady beside her. Just keep your hands up and then we'll see that you get the outline.
Now tonight we're going to move on to page two also, but at least I hope so, so that we can move along in the epistle. Let's turn to the Colossian letter. just while these sheets are being passed out. Thank you. Is everybody taken care of? All right, let's read together, shall we?
And we're going to read just like we read on Sunday, using the marks of punctuation. The reason being, I don't know what you do when you sit down to study a portion of the Word of God. The first thing I do is read it. Then I read it again, and I read it again, and I read it a fourth, maybe a fifth time. and then I get a pencil and a paper and I write down every phrase in the section one after the other. So I have a list of the phrases. In this way the content is impressed upon me in some detail.
So we'll do that and we're going to read from verse fifteen through verse nineteen. I'm going to read to the first mark of punctuation, which in this case is a comma, and you're going to read to the next one, which will be a colon. Alright, let's see if we are wide awake, and as you read these phrases, or as I read them to you, see if you can grasp them, just concentrate on them, and think about them as we read them. It is speaking of the one who is called in verse thirteen his dear son. That is the Lord Jesus. Now verse fifteen. Who is the image of the invisible God?
For by him were all things created, and that are in earth, whether they be thrones, or principalities, All things were created by him, and he is before all things, and he is the head of the body, who is the beginning, that in all things he might have the pre-eminence.
Now at that semicolon, we're going to call a halt for the moment. Now would you take your page one, please, and notice, I don't think we need to take time to go over what we covered on Sunday, but we did seek to put this letter into its proper background, and then we made mention of the fact that in the first fourteen verses, which we are calling section one, the name of Christ is brought before the church. In fact, that name is mentioned five times in the first four verses, and each form is different.
And then, as the rest of the fourteen verses unfold, we find the name of the Lord Jesus mentioned again. Now we noted that in the first section, that name is associated with two things. It's associated with greetings to the saints, and it is associated with gratitude to God. That's why we read in verse three, we give thanks to God, and in verse twelve, giving thanks unto the Father. Now we saw that the Apostle Paul was grateful for two things. He was grateful for fruit of two kinds, and he was grateful for fellowship of two kinds.
I'm not going to say any more about that first section because I want us right away to go on to section two. Now it's not a very long one. Verses fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen and nineteen, but probably... In these verses we have some of the most majestic language that is used of the Lord Jesus anywhere in the Bible. Now we've noticed that this letter is a Christological letter. Christ is the theme of the Epistle to the Colossians. That's why we've dwelt upon his name, and now we are brought face to face with his person.
And what we are going to see, if you look at page one, is this, the majesty of Christ displayed to the church. And we're going to see that majesty displayed in a threefold fashion in his person as God, in his power in the universe, and in his position over the church. Let's go back again then to verse fifteen, where our second section begins. We read, Who is the image of the invisible God? Now here is His Majesty, displayed to the church, in His person as God.
He's the image of the invisible God. Let's analyze that. Let's think about that. The invisible God. Now this is more than just a suggestion that we cannot see him and he hasn't been seen in the past. Actually, when he is here called the invisible God, the thought is that he cannot and will not be seen. I don't know whether you expect to see the Father in the glory.
I don't know whether you ever expect to see God the Father. The thought here is, he is, and that's a word that takes in the past and the present and the eternal future, the invisible God. He cannot be seen, and he will not be seen. You remember, to Moses God said, Thou canst not see my face and live. Said the Lord Jesus, no man has seen God at any time. Now there have been occasions when God has made himself visible in this form or that form or the other form, but God essentially cannot and will not, and this is his will, be seen.
So we have an invisible God. Now how are we going to get to know an invisible God? It can only be if we have someone capable of revealing him to us. And so we read in verse fifteen he is That is the Lord Jesus, his dear Son, verse thirteen, who is the image of the invisible God. Now what does that word image conjure up in your mind? It's a Greek word icon. If you go to the Middle East, if you go to Israel and you visit some of the holy sites there, you'll find yourself from time to time going into this Orthodox Church or that Orthodox Church, and you cannot visit these Orthodox Churches without seeing what are called icons, and the word comes from this Greek word.
But the icon in these... these Orthodox churches actually betrays the word in its original meaning. For the icon in these churches or the icons are exactly the antithesis of what the word icon here means, because it does not mean a little model or a representation. An image... is not a model. I heard about a woman whose husband was described in her hearing as a model husband. She wasn't quite sure whether that was a compliment or not, so she went home and took out a dictionary to find out what a model was, and it said a small cheap imitation of the real thing.
Now I don't think she was very happy about that description of her husband. But I used to drive down the Garden State Parkway on Sunday morning, very often on my way to the many of the assemblies and churches where I used to preach. when we lived in New Jersey, and sometimes I would count the cars that passed me with little plastic images magnetically stuck on their dashboards, or else I would count the little stone statues or cement statues in the gardens of some of my neighbors.
These are things that people think about. when they see that word image. And I want to disabuse your mind of that thought right at the very beginning, because the word image here could very accurately be translated the incarnation of the invisible God. You know, I read the writings of some of the early church fathers. You've all heard of Chrysostom. He was making a comment on that word and he said it means very simply a faithful likeness. Another one of them said, God without change.
But a more modern writer and I put it down because I liked it so much, Dr. John Edie says this, a real and perfect Now that's the precise meaning of the image of the invisible God. Dr. Reedy goes further. He not only says a real and perfect likeness, but he adds no feature absent, none replaced, and none impaired in fullness or dimmed in lustre. I didn't think I could improve on that, so I'm quoting him. That's a beautiful definition of the meaning of the word that is here, rather sadly, translated image.
The thought is that he, the Lord Jesus, is the incarnation of the invisible God. Not like God, not a representation of God, not just a link with God. but God manifest in the flesh. And in getting this truth across to his readers, the apostle is reminding them that Jesus Christ is God, the Son. There's his majesty, displayed to the church in his person as God.
The scripture says he is antichrist, but denies the oneness between the Father and the Son. Don't let anybody ever shake your conviction that Jesus Christ always was, is and ever will be, and never for an instant ceased to be God the Son. It's very striking that this should be here in the Colossian letter because there was an infamous heresy called the Colossian heresy. that the Apostle Paul has in mind in this letter to combat, and this may well be the first blow that he strikes at it, which placed the Lord Jesus as a rather exalted being, along with other, to these Colossians, exalted beings, angels.
They dared to place the Christ of God with angels as one of them, when, of course, he towers way above all. join all the glorious names of wisdom, love and power, that mortals ever knew that angels ever bore, all are too mean to speak his worth, too mean to set my saviour forth. Why? Because he's God the Son. Always was, and always will be. And never for an instant, not even when on the cross he cried, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Never for an instant ceased himself to be God. Now notice what follows. Because here we have the majesty of Christ displayed to the church in his power in the universe. It says, the firstborn of every creature... For by him are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by him and for him and he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
Now that's very majestic language. These are tremendous things to say of the Lord Jesus. And here is a parade of his majesty in his power in the universe. I've summed this up on the outline like this. He created it. All things were created by him. He controls it. All things were created by him and for him. And he continues it. For by him all things consist. Now before we look at those three things in a little more detail, what about this word firstborn?
The firstborn of every creature. It cannot mean that he is the first creature born because he's not a creature. He's God the Son. What does it mean the firstborn of every creature? Now, I'm not going to take time to do this, but you might like to take a concordance and look up the word firstborn. I think most of you realize that this, in a sense, is a title, and it certainly is applicable as such right here in our portion in the first chapter of Colossians. It is a title that signifies the air.
But it is used very interestingly in other places in the Bible to signify the most outstanding or maybe prominent or in some instances illustrious, something that stems first in prominence. Now if you will take your concordance and look up the word firstborn, you'll find it's rather intriguing. Because, for instance, it is used in Job, chapter eighteen and verse thirteen, don't look at it now, I promise you I'll quote it accurately, the firstborn of death.
Now there's a strange expression. If you will put it into its context there in Job chapter eighteen, you'll find that the kind of death that is being described is a very extreme kind of death, and the first born of death here is the most prominent, the primary. That's the thought. It's not just death, but the first born of death. Again, if you look in Isaiah chapter fourteen in verse thirty, and your concordance will bring that reference back to your mind when you look it up, you'll find there again a strange expression. the firstborn of the poor.
And if you will again put that verse into its context, you will find that it means the pauper of the paupers, the most extreme of the poor. The thought again is the most prominent, the one that is poorest of the poor. Now it may seem to be a different kind of thought, and yet the idea is there in both of those instances. When you come to Psalm eighty-nine, you find there's a verse there which says, I will make him my firstborn, and it's speaking of David, and if you'll put that text into its context, you'll find there a description of exaltation and dignity and being placed in a foremost position.
Exactly the same thought again. We find it used of Israel. And again, the thought is of extolling and exalting Israel. And you'll remember the church is called the Church of the Firstborn. And immediately thereafter, you'll read of their being enrolled. That's the marginal reading. Enrolled in heaven. My, that's an exalted position. So whether it's talking about death, or talking about the pauper, or talking about David, or talking about Israel, or talking about the church, the thought here is that of being the foremost. So that this word firstborn is not just a title, but it means the foremost.
And here is the Lord Jesus called the foremost among all creation. Not part of it, but the one who made it. and the one through whom it is controlled, and through whom it continues. Now let's look at those three things very quickly. He created it. I don't think that calls for very much comment on my part, for by him were all things created. Then the end of that verse sixteen says, all things were created by him. And then there's a catalog in between those two.
Things in heaven, things on earth, things visible, things invisible, thrones, dominions, principalities, all powers. Now you might like to list those eight things and think about them critically and quietly, and you'll find nothing, absolutely nothing is left out. And that's deliberate. because it underscores what we've read twice here, by him, were all things created, and all things were created by him. There wouldn't be any universe.
There wouldn't be any matter. There wouldn't be anything apart from the Lord Jesus, because all things were made by him. You look at Ephesians chapter three and you'll find it says, God created all things by Jesus Christ. Have you ever thought about it? It was the voice of the Lord Jesus that said, let there be light and light sprang into being at the creation. It was the voice of the Lord Jesus that said, let the waters be gathered together, let the dry land appear and let it bring forth. All things were made by him. But then the verses tell us, all things were made for him.
The creator of them is the controller of them. He does what he chooses with them because they were made for him as well as being made by him. It's rather intriguing to think. When you look up into the sky and you see a shooting star, no heavenly body falls out of its place. But the Lord Jesus decrees it, orders it, and brings it about. We understand that our own universe is very rapidly widening and the stars and the planets are at a very rapid pace moving away from each other.
Who's responsible for that if indeed that's happening? None other than the Lord Jesus. He who made these things is the one who is moment by moment and hour by hour controlling them. What a beautiful job he does of it. So much so that man can know where any planet is going to be at any given time in the next one hundred years in the ordinary course of events. Everything is so meticulous. Everything is so controlled. Everything is like God Himself so orderly. And the Lord Jesus is responsible for it all.
But then it says, and it's very interesting, verse seventeen, he is before all things, that must surely be, since he made them and controls them, he is before all things, and by him all things consist. Now that word consist is a word that might better be translated cohere. I think I've told some of you before about a visit. that I once made to the Brookhaven Laboratory. I was invited by one of my Christian friends who was a scientist out there, along with four other Christian friends that I had. They called me up one day when I was living in New Jersey, and Brookhaven Laboratory is out on Long Island in New York, and they said, We've closed down the cyclotron.
We know that you're interested. If you'd like to come over, this is a good opportunity to see the cyclotron. We'll also introduce you to our nuclear reactor. And if you want to see these things, you'll never have a better opportunity. So I put down what I was doing, and I got into my car, and I crossed the George Washington Bridge, and I made my way out along the island there to Brookhaven. When I arrived, I was greeted by my five friends, all ready to take me to lunch. And pay for it. So that, of course, was a very happy situation. We had a nice lunch together. Then off we went on our trip of exploration. They showed me the nuclear reactor.
They explained it to me. I knew a little bit about it. And I had talked with them about it in the past. That's how they knew that I was interested. But then we made our way to the cyclotron. I don't know whether you know anything about a cyclotron. Well, it's a circular kind of a gadget covering acres and acres of ground. Before we went into the circle of the cyclotron, we went into a little room that was mostly glass walled. And they said to me, now this is the gun room. So I looked around. It didn't look like a gun room to me. There wasn't a rifle there. There was certainly no cannon.
I couldn't even see a revolver. I said, what in the world do you call it the gun room for? They said, because believe it or not, the length of this room is actually the barrel of a gun. The barrel is not made of steel. It's made of a very powerful magnetic field. They said, now here, and they showed me an area of containment, and they said, now this is the breach of the gun. This is where we put an isotope, and then we fire a bunch of protons out from the isotope, down that barrel, that magnetic field, into the circumference of the cyclotron.
and that little bunch of protons goes around the circle. Then we left the gun room and we went into the circle. And every few yards there was a great big machine, and incidentally it had a yellow notice on it which said, radioactive do not linger. We went from one to the other, and they explained to me, every one of these big machines was a huge and powerful electromagnet. Now they said, when our little bunch of protons comes across this machine, the machine accelerates them, makes them go faster. When it gets to the next one, they go faster still, and the next one faster still.
And these electromagnets were all the way around the circle. And so they said eventually our little bunch of proton is going so fast it's no longer a bunch. Now our protons have lined up and they're traveling in single file around the circle and they're going very, very fast and getting faster and faster and faster. And at a given instant we fire one of them out of the circle at a target and we photograph the instant of impact. They showed me some of the pictures. And here was proof that we who thought at one time you couldn't split the atom had absolute photographic proof that you can not only split the atom, but you can split the particles of the atom.
They showed me one picture where a proton had struck the target, and then there were three separate trajectories like streaks on the plate. showing that the proton had broken up into three parts and they'd gone in three different directions. I was very fascinated. I said to them, now, how much did this machine cost? Well, scientists, you know, they roll the billions off their tongues like you roll the dollars these days. I whistled. And then with bated breath, I asked, who paid for it? And my worst fears were confirmed, the taxpayer.
Then I said, since you saw for it to spend my money this way, please tell me, is the machine turning over a good profit? It is making money for us. They said, it doesn't have any practical use at all. What? You spend all that money to produce nothing? Well, what did you make the machine for? Well, they said, do you remember when you went to school? I said, barely, it must be a hundred and five years ago. Well, do you remember in your science class, your teacher suspended two bar magnets? Oh, yes, I remember that. I also remember discovering that held a certain way, they came together.
If I turned one of them around, I couldn't bring them together. They insisted on shoving each other apart. Why I said, I even remember the principle my science teacher taught me. Like poles repel, unlike poles attract. Right. Well, they said, do you realize that the atom, which is the building block of all matter, is the only area in which that principle does not pertain? If that principle operated within the atom, which is the building block of all matter, the atom couldn't stay together. It would disintegrate, it would fly apart, and no atom, no matter. You wouldn't be here. We wouldn't be here.
Nothing would be here. We don't know why that operation or that principle is not in operation in the atom. In other words, we can't understand why the atom doesn't fly apart. I said, I wish you'd ask. And then I quoted Colossians chapter one, By him all things cohere. Now that's why that principle doesn't operate in the atom. That's the reason why the atom doesn't fly apart. You take Jesus Christ out of the picture, and everything must disintegrate. It cannot continue without the one who created it and controlled it.
What a wonderful Saviour we have. All things were made by him, all things were made for him, and all things cohere and continue through him. There's the majesty of the Lord Jesus, displayed to the Church in his power in the universe. Now look how our portion ends. Verse eighteen. And he is the head of the body of the Church. who is the beginning, the first born from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence, for it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell."
Here's the magister of Christ displayed to the church in his position over the church. I want you to notice three things here also, they're on your outline there. We have a relationship. and he is the head of the body, the church. Now what a relationship that is. I want to come back to that. And then we have a reserve or a reservoir. It says here, who is the beginning, the first born from the dead. The thought there is one of reserve or reservoir.
And then there is the thought that we have a responsibility. that in all things he might have the preeminence. I want to give to you the New English Bible translation for this verse, or rather the twentieth century New Testament. This is how it reads. And he is the head of the church, which is his body. Now there's the thought of relationship. The first born from the dead, he is to the church the source of its life. Now there's the thought of reserve. that he in all things may stand first, and there's the thought of responsibility. Now in the last five minutes, can I dwell upon these three things, the head and the body?
Now we are living in days when medically marvelous things are done. That's why we are praying for Connie, and that's why we are praying for her husband. We know that God can come in and give skill to the surgeon so that a miracle takes place. He can even do it without them. But God sees it so often to use these medical men to our good and our blessing. We thank God for them. They do marvelous things. Think of the stories that you read about transplants. You can have a corneal transplant. You can have a kidney transplant. They are, as you know, experimenting still with heart transplants I think there's still one man alive who had a heart transplant a year or two ago and still he lives now even though medicine is gonna continue to improve and marvels to grow I'm quite sure there'll never be any such thing as a head transplant The reason being the relationship between the body and the head and the head and the body is far too vital.
There isn't a more vital relationship. It's a marvelous thing that God has given it to us as an illustration of our association as the Church of God with the Lord Jesus. And He is the head of the church, which is His body. You know that the Bible says that we are members of his body. And do you know it says that we are members in particular? And do you know it says we are members one of another? We are bound together in the same bundle of life. We are flesh of his flesh, bone of his bone, and part and parcel of each other.
I may have said it before, I don't know. But I have two pinkies. They're probably... If you leave out my little toe, among my smallest members. Now, if I was in a bad mood today, and I didn't know how else to vent my spleen, if I were to put my pinky down on the floor just out of peak and stamp on it, do you know what would happen? It's very small, but it's firmly attached to me. And my whole body would vibrate with pain because, although it's a small member, it's part of my body. Now, you and I are part of the body, and so we're part of each other.
And the Bible says if one member suffer, all the other members suffer with that one member. And so when we foolishly hurt one another, what do we do? We hurt ourselves. He that touches you touches the apple of his eye. I used to think of that verse and say, isn't it nice that on the apple of God's eye somebody touches me, they touch the apple of his eye. But, you know, I just wonder, I'm not being dogmatic, whether this isn't the word of the people of God, he that touches you, that is, harms you, pokes his finger in his own eye. Can there be something of that in the verse? Because certainly if we're going to hurt each other, we are going to hurt ourselves.
It's not possible to bring pain to a fellow believer without eventually the pain coming back on your own head. there's such a vital relationship not only between the body and the head but between member and member that's why we should be constantly looking out for each other's welfare because in so doing we are benefiting ourselves we're also honoring and pleasing the Lord Jesus but then it says The first born from the dead, he is to the church the source of its life. When the Lord Jesus saved you, he didn't immediately abandon you to do the best you could toward living a Christian life.
He put at your disposal everything that you need for moment by moment complete victory. How shall God not with him freely give us all things? God hasn't withheld a thing from you that he intends you to have. He wrapped it up in awe in one sacred parcel, the person of the Lord Jesus. And so in him there is a reservoir of sufficiency so that it matters not what comes into your life. Christ is enough to aid you, enable you, and to deliver you. Because everything that you need is found in him.
The hymn writer wrote it, All that I want is in Jesus. He satisfies. Joy he supplies. Life would be worthless without him for all things in Jesus. I find. So there is a relationship, such as exists between the head and the body. There is also a reserve, a vast and adequate reserve in the person of the Lord Jesus. But you know, it's possible to have that reserve, to have access to that reservoir, and still not to be tapping the source. Lots of believers are defeated in their lives. It's not because there's anything wrong with the Christ of God.
It's because there's something blocking the channel between his power and the life of that believer. The adequacy is there. The sufficiency is there. The supply is available. But we've got to enter into possess our possession by faith. We've got to lay hold of what there is in Christ for us so that we can be victorious, so that we can be happy, so that we can be useful. so that our lives can glorify God. We can't draw it from ourselves. Our resources are far too meager, but everything we need is found in him. The firstborn from the dead, he is to the church the source of its life.
And then comes the thought of responsibility, that he in all things may stand first. I think that we sometimes in our quieter, more thoughtful moments, ask ourselves distressfully, why is the Lord Jesus not first in my life? Why is it that I think so often first about me? Why is it that I think so often early about my family? Why is it that my career or my bank balance fills my vision? Why is the Lord Jesus not really first in my life?
Now it's the will of God that he should be. And if he's not, then we are not happy Christians. We can think about joy and we can read about joy and we can know all that there is to know about joy. We won't experience it if the Lord Jesus is in any other place than first place. Can I remind you again of the words of Captain Reginald Wallace? He used to say, in the heart of every believer, the Lord Jesus is resident. But only in the hearts of some believers is the Lord Jesus resident. Does he come first? Shall we pray?
Lord Jesus we thank thee for all that thou art. We thank thee for any measure in which we appreciate something of what thou art. We thank thee Lord for the portrayal of thyself that we have in these five short verses. We thank thee for the majesty that is thine. May our meditation tonight have made us more appreciative of thee and more willing because of that appreciation to lay what we have and what we are at thy feet and indeed to make thee first in our lives. We ask, Lord Jesus, seeking thy glory and praying in thy precious