Sermon Tone Analysis

Colossians 1:15-23

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stephen Caswell © 1999

 

 

Introduction

 

/Is Jesus Christ able to meet all of our needs?

Is His salvation sufficient?

Or do we need something more?

Do we need Christ plus an experience, or Christ plus special knowledge?/

This is the question that the Gnostics raised at Colossae.

They reasoned that God was to holy to come into contact with sinful mankind.

Because of this they claimed that Jesus Christ could not be God.

He was a lesser god or angel, an emanation from the divine, but not totally God.

They claimed that Jesus Christ alone was not able to complete our salvation.

He was important, but you needed more.

In fact they developed a complete philosophy of how this all worked.

So the apostle Paul answered these arguments with one of the clearest passages in the Bible testifying to Christ's deity and His complete Salvation.

*/Paul answers the question of Christ's position with three strong arguments./*

*I.

Christ's relationship to God.*

*II.

Christ's relationship to Creation.*

*III.Christ's relationship to the Church.*

*/Firstly we see/* Christ's relationship to God.

 

*Colossians 1:15 a says:* /Who is the image of the invisible God/,

 

Have you ever been asked, /What is God like?

/It can be hard to answer, because He is so great.

God is all powerful, all knowing, and everywhere.

Three other characteristics are.

1.* God is light.*

He is holy, glorious, pure, perfect, sinless, righteous.

2  *God is love.*

He is gracious, merciful, kind, long suffering, forgiving.

3. *God is life.*

He sustains, provides for,  and maintains creation.

/These are His attributes./

/But what form does God take?

/God is Spirit and cannot be seen by man.

God is holy and man cannot stand before Him in His glory.

When the Lord appeared at Mount Sinai, He appeared in the form of thick cloud, fire, smoke and lightning and spoke through a trumpet earthquakes and thunder.

These things have no form.

*Deuteronomy 4:15-16 */Take careful heed to yourselves, for you saw no form when the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, "lest you act corruptly and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of any figure: the likeness of male or female, /God does not take any physical form that we could imagine.

God is far beyond our imagination.

Any attempt to make an image of God leads to idolatry.

This happens all too often.

*/But Colossians 1:15 says that, Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God./ John 1:18 says:* /No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him./

Through Jesus Christ God revealed His nature, His divine likeness to mankind.

Jesus Christ revealed God perfectly to mankind.

He showed us the Father's love and compassion through service and sacrifice.

He demonstrated God's holiness and zeal for righteousness when He cleansed the temple of the merchants and money changers.

He showed the Father's wisdom when He silenced those who tried to trap Him with loaded questions.

He demonstrated the Father's power through His miracles His resurrection from the dead.

Illustration From A Coin

 

When you pick up an Australian coin you see an image on either side.

On one side is an image of the queen.

/How did it get there?/

All the coins carry the same image.

/How does this happen?

/The people at the mint make a die from which they press the coins.

The master die contains the image of the queen and that is pressed onto the coins so that they receive an exact duplicate of the original die every time.

In a similar way Jesus Christ is an exact duplicate of God the Father.

He perfectly represents the invisible God because He is God.

In fact when Philip asked Jesus to show them the Father, Jesus said this. *in John 14:9 :* /Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?

/ /What is Christ's relationship to God?/

He is the visible image of God! 

 

II.

Christ's relationship to Creation.

- /Firstborn/

 

*Colossians 1:15 says: */Who is the image of the invisible God/,  /the firstborn of every creature: /

 

/a.

Firstborn Of Creation - His Majesty/

 

Jesus Christ is referred to as the */firstborn/* of all creation.

/Does this mean that He was created first and then He created everything else?/

The Jehovah's Witnesses claim this.

The word /prototokos /[prwtotokos]/ /means position of importance or placement rather than generation.

Illustration Of The Firstborn

 

In Israelite culture the firstborn received more privileges than the younger sons.

They had greater responsibility in family affairs.

They would take over as head of the family when the father died.

They received a greater share of the inheritance, as much as two thirds of it.

This is quite evident in the story of Esau and Jacob.

Jacob cheated Esau out of the birthright and the blessing.

Both of these belonged to the eldest son.

Even though Jacob was a twin and born shortly after Esau, Esau still received the privileges of being firstborn.

But this doesn't just speak of order, the term firstborn also carries the idea of placement.

In *Psalm 89:27* God says that He will make Solomon His first born.

Solomon was not the oldest son.

But the Lord placed him in the position of the firstborn.

So Jesus Christ is first in position over all creation, He was not the first to be created.

This is evident as we look at the following verses.

/b.

Firstborn Of Creation - He Made It /

 

*Colossians 1:16 says: */For by him were all things created, that 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: // /

 

 

1.

He Made It All For Himself

 

Jesus Christ is the one that has the position of priority in creation.

No doubt God the Father and the Holy Spirit were involved at creation but Christ was the one most greatly involved.

Paul use three different prepositions to describe Christ's involvement.*/

/*

 

*/Firstly /*Paul says /For/ /by Him/ /all things were created./

This really should read, */Because /*/in Him/ [en autw] /all things were created.

/He was the sphere in which they were made.

*/Secondly/* it says /all things were created by Him.

*Through* Him is the meaning here/ [di autou].