All Things were Created by Him

ALL THINGS WERE CREATED BY HIM

Study Text:   Colossians 1:15-20

Introduction: 

- The most important question that anyone can ask and explore is ‘Who is Jesus Christ?’ So many people do not know the right answer to that question.  Jesus Himself, when he walked on this earth turned to His disciples one day and said ‘Who do you say I am?’ It is a critical question. 

- There is no One just like Jesus. He is vastly superior to and different from anyone else who has ever lived on this earth. In the city of Colosse the church was being infiltrated by those who had a distorted faith. Paul's approach to this problem is very instructive. He does not attack the heresy but emphasizes the truth.

-  Many in our day know that there is a lot of wrong "out there" but they do nott know what the truth is. In our passage this morning Paul underlines the most important distinctive of our faith. 

- Paul tells us that Jesus was more than one of the prophets. He speaks in much stronger terms: "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation." The Bible reveals that Jesus stands uniquely as the One who is God in human form. He reveals to us God's image. He is the "image of the invisible God".

- Any presentation of Jesus that is less than divine is a false presentation. Anyone who seeks to make Jesus merely a good man, a great teacher, or a prophet from God is teaching a lie. He is uniquely God who became like us to rescue us. If you want to begin the journey to experiencing God's goodness in your life, the journey starts with Jesus.

- The study shall be discussed under three sub-headings:

1. The Peculiarity of His Identity

2. The Panorama of His Importance

3. The Power of His Influence

1. The Peculiarity of His Identity

- Two great things were revealed to us on His identity:

i. Jesus “is the image of the invisible God”. Paul is saying that when you see Jesus Christ, you also see Almighty God. Jesus reveals God perfectly. 

- That was what Jesus told His disciples, John 14:9. That was the declaration of John in John 1:18. The writer of Hebrews said that Jesus was “the express image of His person”, Heb. 1:3. That phrase means that Jesus is the “precise reproduction of God in every respect”.

ii. Jesus “ is the Firstborn of every creature”. The Lord Jesus is first in rank, standing over all created beings, because He is their Creator. Psalm 89:27. 

- Jesus is called the “firstborn” here because He is preeminent over His creation and He is the One Who possess the right on inheritance over it. Simply stated, Jesus is peculiar in His identity because He is God!

2. The Panorama of His Importance

- We are told that “He is before all things”. The word means “to be in front”. This reminds us that Jesus Christ is “in front” of everything and everyone in the universe. 

-      Nothing is as important as Jesus. Nothing is to come before Jesus. Nothing is to outshine Jesus. Nothing is to eclipse Jesus.

-  He is to be out in front in our lives, in our families, in our priorities, in our churches, in our dreams, in our worship, in everything; He is to be all-important One we follow after. He is superior in His importance because He is in first place!

- Jesus Christ is the Creator. Everything that exists in the universe was made by Him, and for Him, John 1:3. Everything you can see with your eyes, and everything that is invisible to the naked eye, was brought into being by Him. If it exists, He made it.

- Not only did He make this world and all that exists within it, this verse says that “by Him all things consist”. The word “consist” means “to put together”. This literally means that Jesus is the power that binds the universe together. 

- The only reason the planets and stars follow their prescribed orbit is because He holds them in place. The only reason the molecules that make up our bodies, and the world around us don’t fly off into space is because He holds it all together!

-  Don’t think for a minute that we don’t need Him! He is sovereign over the entire universe which He has created!

- He is the “head” of the church. It does not belong to me or to you; it belongs to Him alone. It does not exist to benefit you or me the church exists to bring glory to Jesus Christ. 

- In the church, He is to have “the preeminence”. That is, He is to “have the first place”. He is to be the focus of all we do in the church. He is to be the centerpiece. He is to be the hub around which the church revolves. The only reason the church exists is because He died to redeem it. 

- Thus, Jesus and Jesus alone is to be worshiped. Jesus and Jesus alone is to receive all the glory. Jesus and Jesus alone is to be the center of attention in the church. Every song, every sermon, every prayer, every lesson, every testimony, everything we do and allow in the church must serve to exalt Him, or it has not place in the church.

- Our salvation came “through His blood”. This reminds us that the salvation we enjoy in Jesus came to us because of His death on the cross. We are free today because He died for us. 

- We have the hope of Heaven because He died for us. Our sins are forgiven because He died for us. We have the ability to live a holy life now because He died for us.

- The redemption we enjoy today was free, Rev. 22:17; Isa. 55:1. It was free, but it was not cheap. It cost the Lamb of God His life. He willingly laid down His life on the cross to redeem us from our sins and to purchase us unto Himself.

3. The Power of His Influence

- We are told that Jesus is “the head of the body, the church”. The word “head” means “to be supreme, chief, master, Lord”. 

-      He is the head of the church in the sense that He has all the authority in the church. The church is not ours; it is His! He died for the church. He purchased the church with His Own blood. The church is His.

-      He is the “head of the body”. Your head controls your body. Every movement, every action, every start and stop is determined by the head. Your body responds only to commands from your head. Your body does not listen to my head, nor mine to yours. The same is to be true with the church, the body of Christ. 

-      We are to take our marching orders from Jesus alone. Only He has the right to control the direction of the church. Only he has the right to command the church. Only He has the right to lead us to where He wants us to be. 

-      As the Head, Jesus is responsible for His church. He is responsible for its protection, for its reproduction, for its growth, for its provision, and for its continuation. The church is not our responsibility; it is His. 

-  My responsibility and yours is to submit to the Head and fulfill the place within the body that He has assigned to us. He is superior in His influence because He is in control of His church. 

- This passage reveals three powerful provisions that are ours through His salvation.

1.  It Provides Redemption 

-  His salvation purchased us from the bondage of sin and set us free to live a holy life to His glory. We were all trapped in the deadness, darkness, depravity and doom of our sins, Eph. 2:1-3, but Jesus Christ paid the redemption price in His blood, 1 Pet. 1:18-19. 

- He delivered us from the cruel bondage of our old master and brought us into His Kingdom, Col. 1:13, to live there as saints and sons of Almighty God. Now, we are His because He had redeemed us, 1 Cor. 6:19-20. We should praise him for the redemption we enjoy in Jesus, Psa. 107:2.

2.  It Provides Reconciliation

- Not only has He redeemed us to God; He has also reconciled us to God. Before we came to Jesus, we are “alienated” from God. That word means “to be cut off”, and our former condition is vividly described in Eph. 2:13.

- We were also “enemies”. That word means “to be hateful”. Our fallen natures were hateful toward the Lord. We had no use for Him and wanted nothing to do with Him, Rom. 8:7. 

-      In Him, we who were afar off are brought near. We who were hateful toward God are caused to love God. Peace had been declared between us and God.

3.   It Provides Restoration

- The power of His salvation is so complete that He is able to present us before God “holy, unblameable, and unreproveable in His sight.”

- The blood of Jesus is so powerful that it can take the vilest of sinners and wash them so clean that in the sight of God, they are viewed as a sacred thing, spotless and beyond accusation. In Jesus Christ, fallen humanity is restored to a place of rightness with God!

 - The power of His salvation is revealed in the greatest change it affects in the lives of believers. Those who know the Lord persevere in their faith. Those who know the Lord are “grounded and settled”. That is, they are built on a “firm foundation” and they are “steadfast”. They cannot be turned away from their faith in Jesus, or the “hope” that He gives them in the Gospel. 

- The fact that God could take us, nothing more than a bunch of old sinners who ought to be in Hell, save us by His grace, set us free from the bondage of sin, put us on a new path following Jesus, and then for us to stay on that path year after year, proves that Jesus Christ is superior in His salvation. 

Conclusion:

- The first priority of the Devil is to turn us away from Christ. If He can't turn us away, He will seek to distort the true image of Christ so that we serve an illusion and  not reality. So what is so great about Jesus?

1. When you know Jesus then you know God. When you see Jesus then you have seen the invisible God. If you do not know Jesus then you do not know God. If you do not have a relationship with Jesus then you do not have a relationship with God.

2. Jesus is the head and has first place in everything. Jesus must have first place in everything in your life. He created you and he must be first.

3. We come to God through Jesus who reconciled us. Jesus is great because he made peace between God and us. Jesus brings us near to God. Jesus made a relationship with God possible