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THE GREATNESS OF CHRIST - AS THE IMAGE OF GODColossians 1: 15-20INTRODUCTIONOne of the physical therapists that helps our son Jared has pictures of many of her patients on the wall of her office. One day when I was there with Jared I was looking at the pictures and noticed one where her patient, a child, was in her wheelchair with her mother next to Cher, the pop singer. When I asked about the picture the PT told me that the mother of this little girl was a fan of Cher. She isn’t just a normal fan, however. She went to every concert that Cher performed in the U.S. last year, some 40 concerts in all. The picture was from a special concert to benefit disabled children and this mother and her daughter were given front row seats to that concert along with a backstage pass to go see Cher. Needless to say the mom was overjoyed with the opportunity to actually meet and talk with Cher. You could see her joy in the picture. This woman is convinced for reasons that are a mystery to me that Cher is a most impressive person. Seeing her perform in person is a source of great joy for this woman. Most of us cannot relate to this woman’s fascination with Cher. How could it be possible for a person to be so enamored with a person like Cher? What would possess a person to spend such time and money and give so much of her life to traveling around the country to see her in concert? While her affection for Cher may be unusual yet she is portraying something that is true of every human being. All of us give time and attention to the things and people that are impressive to us. You cannot convince normally sane men that sitting in the cold woods for hours on end, waiting to see a buck is a complete waste of time. You cannot persuade normally sane people that organizing their life around the next episode of Survivor is foolish. You cannot talk a generally rational woman into staying home when it’s freezing cold outside when she is called upon to baby-sit for her new grandbaby. Every person is impressed with people and objects and activities to which we give our time, attention and money to enjoy. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the message that he is the most impressive of all beings. Being a Christian is not primarily about being a more moral person or a more religious person or a more caring person. It is about being a person who is more impressed with Jesus Christ than with anyone or anything else in the world. In the words of the apostle Paul the message about Jesus is “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” To be a Christian is to be a person in whom, “God has made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” This is the reason we come to church, read our Bibles, have family worship, go to a small group Bible study, meet with other Christians in spiritual conversation: we want to be more impressed with Jesus than we currently are. I have picked a passage out of the NT that is written for this specific purpose, to show forth in the clearest, most concise manner possible the greatness and the glory of Jesus. We are going to meditate upon this revelation of Jesus together with the prayer that he will appear to us more glorious than when we arrived here this morning. I want us to be wild about Jesus and to live in a way that shows how crazy we are about him. MAIN POINT Jesus Christ is more impressive than everything and everyone because… I. He is the visible expression of the invisible God (v. 15a) As we begin looking at the greatness of Christ here in this passage I want to say a word about how these verses fit into the overall argument of this letter that Paul wrote to the Christians living in the town of Colossae. Paul had never been to this town or met these Christians. A man named Ephaphras, whom Paul had taught the gospel to, is the one who had gone to this town and preached the gospel and established this church. However, while Epaphras was still present a group of people began teaching a false gospel. They claimed that their message came directly from angels and emphasized human wisdom and effort and a secret knowledge that was given only to a special few by supernatural visitations. Epaphras had gone to Paul and reported what was happening and so Paul wrote this letter and sent it by the hand of another trusted disciple, Tychicus. The point of the letter is that Jesus Christ is more impressive and powerful then all angels. His salvation is infinitely superior to any other promise of salvation through human effort or angelic visitation. What this letter helps us to understand is that there are many different ways to go to hell. Many people will go to hell because they lived their whole lives impressed with houses and cars and sex and parties and jobs and lawns and sports teams and hobbies and money rather than with Christ. However, there will also be many people who end up in hell who renounced “worldly” loves and joined a church or mosque or synagogue or temple. Yet, while they don’t love getting drunk anymore, it still isn’t Christ they love. They love a certain kind of moral lifestyle or a particular way of doing religion or a certain teacher or doing good in the community or a particular kind of social circle or a particular theological system. In other words, if Satan can’t keep you impressed with the world outside of religion he will seek to trap you by impressing you with the world inside a religious system. The point of this letter, really of the entire Scriptures, is that Jesus Christ is the most impressive of all beings and he is the one we are to be taken up with in the church. In short, Christianity is Christ. He is to be the center of our lives, not a particular way of living or singing or thinking or serving. This first thing that Paul tells us to impress us with the greatness of Jesus is that he is the image of the invisible God. God, in his actual being, exists outside of the realm of human perception. He cannot, in his actual being, ever be seen or touched or tasted or heard. He is beyond human perception and comprehension in his actual being. As Paul says in another of his letters God “alone is immortal and lives in inapproachable light, no one has seen him or can see him.” If humans are to know the only God who exists, then he must take the initiative to reveal himself to us. The Scriptures tell us that God has revealed himself to us through creation. The existence of the universe makes it is as plain as the nose on your face that there is a God of eternal power who exists in a manner completely independent of this universe of matter and energy. God has also revealed himself through choosing Abraham and his descendants as his people through whom he would bring a Savior to the world. He spoke to his chosen people and through them to the rest of the world by the written Scriptures delivered through the prophets. “For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” However, the ultimate revelation that God has made of himself is in and through the person of Jesus Christ. Think with me for a moment about what this means that Jesus is the image of the invisible God. He is saying that the developing baby in the womb of Mary that was then brought forth through the travail of childbirth in a stable in the backwater town of Bethlehem was the most powerful and clearest revelation of the eternal and invisible Creator of all things. He is saying that all that humans can know about God is perfectly revealed in this man, Jesus. Jesus, as a person, is the “enfleshed” or incarnated God of the universe. As the apostle John says it in John 1:18, “The word became flesh and made his dwelling among us and we have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only who came from the Father full of grace and truth…. No one has ever seen God at any time, but God the one and only who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.” It is the Christmas story that sets Christianity apart from every other religion in the world. Other religions claim that God has revealed himself through prophets or visions or angels or supernatural miracles. However, it is only in Christianity that the invisible God made himself visible by taking on human flesh in such at way that Jesus is fully human and fully God united forever in one person. The identity of Jesus as God and Lord is the central claim of Christianity. If you are considering whether or not to be a Christian, it is him and his claim to be God that is the main issue. Your eternal well-being depends upon whether or not you see the man Jesus as the image of God. He is not a image of God but the image of God. It is as C.S. Lewis said in his classic work, “Mere Christianity”, “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic, on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg, or he would be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a mad man or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to do so.” The apostle Paul begins his description of Jesus with this central and most important of all things: this man Jesus is the visible expression of the invisible God. Jesus Christ is more impressive than everything and everyone because…
II. He is the Creator and Sustainer of all things (vv. 15b-17) What Paul does next is show that this person who is the exact representation of God’s very being in human flesh is not merely an image like the reflection of a person in the mirror, nor is he a second, subordinate god or god-like creature. He is not the image of God like all humans are made in the image of God. The NT writers strain the boundaries of human language as they attempt to explain the nature of God in light of the coming of Jesus. What was only hinted at in the OT is made evident in the person of Jesus. God is not a simple unity but he is a trinity in unity. There is only one God and yet this one God has eternally existed as three persons, each one distinct from the others, each one fully God and yet there is only one God. In what follows in vv. 15b to 17 Paul ascribes to Jesus, the image of God, all the work of God as the Creator and Sustainer of all things. His goal is to show the divinity of Christ by stating how Christ was and is involved with the creation. He begins by telling us that Christ is the firstborn of all creation. The use of “firstborn” cannot simply mean that he is the first of all created things. As we’ll see the next two verses make this very plain. But also, the word “firstborn” while it often means the first child born to human parents is regularly used to point to supremacy of person, not merely order of appearance. “Firstborn” refers to exalted status, not just chronology. Psalm 89:27 is the classic example and is important because it is used in the NT to refer to Christ though in the original Psalm it refers to David. The Lord says about David, “I will appoint him my firstborn, the most exalted of the kings of the earth.” David was not the first king in the world by order of appearance. However, he was made the firstborn, as most exalted of all kings by God. His exalted status is in the fact that one of David’s descendants would rule over the universe forever. Therefore, to say that Christ is the firstborn of all creation is to say not only that he came before all creation but that he is exalted over all creation. Why is he the firstborn of creation? Verse 16 says it is because all things in the heavens and on the earth, all things visible and invisible were created and have been created in him and through him and for him. Nothing that exists came into existence nor continues to exist apart from Jesus Christ. He is the agent of creation and most surprisingly, creation was created for him. The passive verbs are used to show that Jesus was not alone in creation. It is a mutual partnership between the Father and the Son. The key thing to see is that the entire work of creation, which is everywhere ascribed to the only God, was also the work of this very human person who walked on earth and only years before this was killed on a cross. This is one of the most shocking claims in Christianity. Paul at the end of Romans 11 says about God that “all things are from and through him and for him, to him be the glory forever.” Jesus Christ shares this glory with God the Father. He is the originator of all things, the agent in creating all things and he is the end for which all things exist. All things exist to serve his purposes, to show forth his glory. This cross normally hangs in my office. A good friend of mine who lives down in Illinois made it for me. Let me pass it around and then if the last person could make sure I get it back after church. It is an amazing piece of artwork. It is very impressive. However, while this is impressive we would never praise this wood for its existence. We all know that the object did not create itself but was created. The beauty of the object causes us to be impressed with the one who created, not the creation itself. This creation bears witness to the glory of my friend Mark McLane as an artist. That is the whole argument that Paul is making here, Jesus is impressive because he is the one who created this entire, impressive creation. Whenever we are impressed with any part of creation we are to immediately think about how much more impressive is the one who made it. Notice how Paul wants us to know that the “all things” include both the created world of matter and energy and the created world of invisible angelic beings. Regardless of their power or rank in heaven and regardless of whether or not they are for God or opposed to God, all invisible powers were created in, through and for Jesus. There is no power in the universe over which Jesus Christ does not exercise sovereign power. There is no one and nothing more awesome or fearsome or intimidating than he. Whatever being in the universe you may be impressed by or afraid of, Jesus Christ is infinitely more impressive and fearful because he is the one who created and sustains whatever or whoever you are impressed with. Paul emphasizes this fact in v. 17 when he says that Jesus is before all things both in time and in supremacy and that he is holding all things together. Jesus Christ is the glue that is holding the entire universe together, including all men and angels who are living in open rebellion to him. There are no random molecules in the universe. Jesus is involved at every moment in every part of this creation, holding it together, sustaining all things for his purposes. Why does this pulpit remain a pulpit and not merely turn to smoke and drift away? Why does this church building remain a building and not turn to water and flow away? Why does your physical body continue to exist as a living organism with beating heart and functioning cells? Why does my voice create sound waves that then travel through the air and come to you as intelligible speech? Jesus holds it all together. He is the explanation behind all merely physical/chemical/biological explanations. As a Christian this ought to inspire joy and rest and praise. We do not live in a universe that is out of control. We live in a world that is continuing to exist by the will and power of our Savior. No demon or human power exists apart from his sustaining power and so we have nothing to fear. If you are not a Christian this thought ought to inspire terror. The one against whom you are rebelling is holding your life in his hands. You continue to exist by his will. There is no reason why he should continue to hold you in existence and every reason he should end your existence in this life and send you into eternal torment. When you live impressed with everything but Jesus Christ you use the life he upholds and the creation he sustains to ignore, despise and dishonor him. Why should you not fear? Jesus Christ is more impressive than everything and everyone because…
III. He is the head of the church (vv. 18-20) This Christ who is the creator and sustainer of the entire universe, both the visible and invisible creation is also head of the body, that is, the church. By using the illustration of the head to the body Paul tells us that Jesus is both the one who controls the church and who gives life to the church. Just as our heads direct our bodies and sustain the life giving functions of our bodies, so Christ directs his church and sustains the life of the church. The one who is the greatest being in the entire universe and who rules over the entire universe is intimately related to and connected to the church. The church is his body. I do not think you could think of a more powerful image of the unity of Christ with his people. He is not the head of creation. He is prior to and supreme over creation because he made it all. But he is united only to the church. The church is personally run by and sustained by Christ. The one in whom all things were created and through whom and for whom creation exists is none other than the personal head of the whole church and of every local church. We all have heard the cliché, “It’s not what you know. It’s who you know.” Most of the time we use that cliché to describe something we know to be true but we don’t like. Those who are related to the people in power or who have a relationship with those who control the money in an organization are usually the ones who get the best jobs, the free benefits. The point that Paul is making is that if you are a member of the church of Jesus Christ, then the one who is as closely connected to your church as a head is connected to its body is in control of the universe. There is nothing that he cannot do and there is nothing he will not give to benefit us, his body. It’s better than having a brother who is the Vice President of some major corporation. It’s better than having a dad who is the President of the U.S. In the rest of vv. 18-20 Paul gives us a glimpse of some of the benefits that Christ has provided and is providing to his body. He is also showing us how it is that Christ has come to be our head. The first thing he says is that Jesus is the beginning, the firstborn out of the dead. Why does he begin with talking about the resurrection? The body always follows the head. Your head sets the direction for the rest of your body. Jesus is the first human to be raised from the dead. That means that his entire church is going to join him in resurrection life. He is our head and because he is the firstborn from the dead every member of his church that dies can expect to join him in the resurrection. This also tells us that the church is not comprised only of all living Christians but of all believers who have died and who will die prior to the final consummation. Jesus is head over all the church, both the living and the dead. Therefore, Jesus has first place in all things. He is first over all creation and he is first over all of the new creation. He is the agent who made the first creation and he is the one who gives life to the renewed creation. Because he lives, we know that we who are part of his body will also live. Verse 19 tells us in one brash and bold statement why it is that Jesus has such power and such prestige. “God was pleased to have all his fullness to dwell in him.” He possesses divine, eternal life because all that God is, Jesus is. Again, here is the mystery of the Trinity. God the Father placed all his fullness in God the Son so that the Son is eternally God and was not ever created. This fullness of God resided in the human Jesus while he lived a very human life. Rather than God’s presence being located in a temple, he lived in the person of Jesus and he continues to do so for all eternity. He cannot die, nor can he stay dead. He is life and gives life to all who belong to his body and therefore he has come to have first place in all things. Who or what can compare to Jesus? Finally, Paul wants us to understand how Christ’s headship over his church and his supremacy over creation are ultimately going to be joined together. God, through Christ’s death on the cross, reconciled the entire universe to himself, he made peace with his entire creation through Christ’s death. There are a couple of things that this short statement communicates. First, the fact that the universe needs to be reconciled to God, that he must make peace with the creation, tells us that the universe that we currently inhabit is at odds with its creator. Reconciliation and peace-making always refer to the process of bringing together persons who are enemies. God is opposed to the creation, both the seen and unseen universe, and the creation is opposed to God. The only way that peace could be made between the warring parties is through the bloody death of the one in whom all the fullness of God dwelt. Here is another one of those astonishing claims of the Bible. The death of Jesus at a point in time, on a real Roman cross through real human suffering was the most powerful event that ever took place since the creation of the universe. It was through that death that the creation, which was alienated and separated from its creator, was brought back into right relation with its creator. It was God himself who died and through that death restored this broken world. Does this mean that all rebellious humans and angels will one day live in peace with God, enjoying his presence forever? The answer to that is no as the rest of this letter makes clear. Why does Paul use such a sweeping statement? What he wants us to know is that the death of Christ is the greatest act that was ever done so that we will be impressed with Christ. The reconciliation and peace making work of Christ results in different things for different people and angels. For those who trust Christ this reconciliation is into a relationship of mutual love and pleasure in each other’s company. For those who remain in hostility to Christ it results in eternal condemnation. Let me use a military illustration. The Allied Army in WWII reconciled Germany and Japan to the rest of the world. Germany and Japan were in opposition to the rest of the world. Through the suffering and death of millions of Allied soldiers, these two countries, which were are war with the rest of the world signed treaties of peace with the world. Now, within each of these countries there were many who were punished for actively fighting against the rest of the world. However, there were many in both of these countries that came to enjoy friendship with the U.S. and its allies. Both Germany and Japan are today friends with the U.S. even while many Germans and Japanese were executed and killed fighting the Allied forces. While not a perfect analogy it helps us to understand how it is that the death of Christ reconciles some into a relationship of friendship with God while others are subjugated to Christ against their will. I know this because of Colossians 2:14-15 which shows these two kinds of peace. Those who are part of the church have their sins erased through Christ’s death and those who oppose him are conquered by his death. What Paul is saying here is not that the whole world is currently in the condition of being restored but that by Christ’s death everything was accomplished for the complete and final restoration to take place. The hard work is over. Reconciliation has been accomplished. All that is left to do is rearranging the furniture. We, as the body of Christ, announce this greatest of all news, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself. As we announce it, some believe his good news and are immediately brought into a relationship of love and friendship with God. However, for all those who refuse the reconciliation that is now offered, there is a day coming when Christ returns to restore the entire universe when these will be forced, against their will, to acknowledge Christ as King and Lord and Judge of all. All his enemies will be placed under his feet in eternal torment in hell. I beg you, in the words of the apostle Paul, be reconciled to God now through Christ that you may know him as your head and greet him as your friend on that final day. Jesus Christ is more impressive than everything and everyone because…
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2004 John Swanson |