Sermon Notes - Colossians 1:15-23 - Who Jesus is! - Littleby Baptist Church - May 8, 2022

 1.     So far…

2.     Paul is thankful for all he has heard about the young Colossian church.

a.      He is thankful that they have been faithful in loving others.

b.     He is thankful that the Gospel is growing in them.

3.     Paul encouraged the church to seek Godly wisdom and knowledge.

a.      To let God, work in them and show them His will.

b.     To bear the fruit of faithful servants.

c.      To hold on to the promise of what is to come.

d.     And most importantly to know that sin no longer defines them.

e.      They and we have been redeemed and forgiven.

f.      We are no longer who we were… we have been shown mercy and grace.

4.     As we start at verse 15, we are reminded who our Savior is.

a.      These verses were written to refute the Gnostic beliefs that Jesus was a man, and that Christ was some imperfect low-level deity.

b.     That were written to provide assurance that Jesus is greater than what we face.  

c.      These are the words I read when I need a reminder about who Jesus is.

5.     Colossians 1:15

a.      He is… there should be no doubt about what these words tell us.

b.     If we believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God, these are facts. Jesus is what Scripture says He is.

c.      Image of the invisible God… we tend to think of this like how a son is the image of his father.

                                                    i.     That is part of it, but it is so much bigger than that.

                                                  ii.     Image here implies that Jesus is the representation and manifestation of the Father.

                                                iii.     John 14:9 ‘The one who has seen me has seen the Father.’

d.     Being the image of the invisible God should put to bed any doubts about who Jesus is.

e.      He is not some lower-level spiritual deity that the Gnostics would say He is.

f.      He is a perfect representation of the Father.

g.     Not one of many paths or deities, He is the path.

h.     Firstborn over all creation… Jesus existed before anything else.

i.       Genesis 1:1

                                                    i.     Jesus existed before the heavens and the earth.

                                                  ii.     He simply existed before. Before what? Before everything.

j.       Firstborn also speaks to Jesus being sovereign.

                                                    i.     Firstborn son would lead the family after the father passed.

                                                  ii.     For Jesus that means that He is Lord of lords and King of kings.

1.     He is before all things and all people.

6.     Colossians 1:16

a.      EVERYTHING was created by our King.

b.     In heaven and on earth, visible and invisible…

c.      The entire universe, the things we can see and those that we cannot.

d.     Thrones, dominions, rulers, and authorities are mentioned in direct response to the false teachings that have been creeping into the church.

                                                    i.     Jesus created everything, which counters the false teachings of different things being made by different deities.

e.      All things created through and for Jesus…

                                                    i.     Adds to Him being the creator and sustainer.

                                                  ii.     Everything exists as part of His ultimate plan.

                                                iii.     All of it is under His authority and subject to His will.  

f.      Jesus is over all!

7.     Colossians 1:17

a.      It is through Christ that all things continue to exist.

b.     Through the power of Jesus:

                                                    i.     The eco system brings the refreshing rain.

                                                  ii.     The wind continues to blow.

                                                iii.     We continue to breath.

c.      He holds all of creation together.

d.     He makes the world go around.

8.     Colossians 1:18

a.      Head of the body, the church… The instant one believes we are filled with the Holy Spirit and become part of the ‘Church’.

                                                    i.     Christ is our head, He is our leader, our Savior, our Lord.

b.     Beginning, firstborn from the dead…

                                                    i.     Christ died almost 2000 years ago and was the first to rise from the dead.

                                                  ii.     The first to receive an immortal body.

c.      First place in everything…

                                                    i.     John 1:1-3 – Jesus existed before all of this began.

                                                  ii.     He was resurrected before any other.

                                                iii.     And was exalted by the Father… Philippians 2:8-9

                                                iv.     He was given a name above all names.

d.     Jesus is first in many ways, there are likely many that we do not understand.

e.      With all of that… we need to make sure He is first in our lives.

9.     Colossians 1:19

a.      This is a strong rebuttal to the Gnostic beliefs that there was a big difference between God and the lower deities.

b.     They believed that God and Jesus would never connect as one was purer than the other.

c.      Here, Scripture is telling us that the Father and Son are connected.

                                                    i.     The fullness of the Father was in Jesus… The Father was fully present in Christ.

                                                  ii.     The Father was completely connected to Jesus.

                                                iii.     There was no separation between them when Jesus walked this earth.

1.     The only time they were disconnected was when Jesus became sin hanging on that cross, but that was specific planned event.

10.  Colossians 1:20

a.      Jesus shed His blood to reconcile humankind with God the Father.

b.     Through His sacrifice sins are forgiven and the path to eternity in Glory is paved.

c.      Everything… is another challenge to the Gnostic beliefs.

d.     They did not think the spiritual world needed saving, but here ‘things in heaven’ points to all created things.

                                                    i.     We can only speculate about what in heaven needs reconciliation, but it is included in what Jesus did.  

e.      The things on earth points to all who believe.

f.      The relationships between the Father, humans, and other parts of creation were restored by what Jesus did.

g.     The Gnostic’s small deity would not have been capable of doing what Jesus did.

11.  Colossians 1:21

a.      We are sinners, and without any intervention by the Awesome Jesus… we are evil.

b.     Our thoughts and actions are against God.

12.  Colossians 1:22

a.      This is a direct point against the Gnostic belief that salvation comes from knowledge and their belief that deities, like Christ, cannot die.

b.     More importantly, Paul is saying that we are reconciled to God by the death of the only perfect man to walk this earth.

c.      In doing so we have become holy, faultless, and blameless in spite of all of our imperfections.

                                                    i.     In spite of our evil actions before we followed Jesus.

                                                  ii.     With Jesus we are holy, faultless, and blameless.

d.     Only because of our God becoming a man and dying for us are we reconciled.

13.  Colossians 1:23

a.      A simple prayer starts us on our journey with Jesus, but it is just the beginning.

b.     Matthew 13:4-7 – Matthew 13:18-22

c.      Most of us know very little about Jesus on day one.

d.     For our faith to grow, we need to strive to understand what it means.

e.      We need to be steadfast, grounded, established, firm…

                                                    i.     We need to get into the Word of God. We need to read it and study it.

                                                  ii.     We need to let the Holy Spirit work in us.

f.      We are to trust in Jesus, the Author and Perfector of our faith.

g.     Day by day we need to grow as we depend on God.

h.     Matthew 13:8-9 – Matthew 13:23

14.  Faith in the Hope of the Gospel of Jesus is based on hearing and understanding the Word.

15.  An understanding that is planted, cultivated, nurtured, so that it can grow.

a.      It takes time and effort.

16.  An understanding that grows and bears fruit beyond measure.

17.  Our Lord, the creator and sustainer of the universe has taken our place, He paid for our sins…

18.  He has made us Holy… Faultless… Blameless.

19.  Our job is to remain grounded in Him and steadfast in our faith in Jesus.

20.  We grow by spending time with Him and His word.