Sermon artwork

Colossians 1:15-23

Preached by Bart Erlebach on 2nd February 2025

Scripture

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

(ESV)

Generated Transcript
Good morning, everyone. God's word for us today is from the book of colossians. You need to turn to page 1 1 8 2 in the blue bible that are near you, and we're gonna be start reading from sentence 15, and I'll just give you a few seconds just to get there. So it's colossians chapter 1, starting at sentence 15 as page 1 1 8 2. The sun is the image of the invisible god, the firstborn over all creation.

For in him, all things were created, things in heaven and on earth visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him, all things hold together. And he's the head of the body, the church, He is the beginning and the firstborn among the dead so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For god was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him. And through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross.

Once you were alienated from god and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior, but now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you wholly in his sight. Without blemish and free from accusation if you continue in your faith, established, and firm, and do not move from the hoop held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant. Great. Thank you.

Abrae for leading. Thank you, Paul, for reading that for us. My name is Bart Erbach. I'm pastor here. Hope church, and it's really good, to welcome you and, to open up god's word together.

So let me lead us in prayer before we look at that wonderful passage together. Heavenly father, thank you for this passage about Jesus. And as we look at it together, father, please would you open our eyes more to his greatness? Help us to understand these words, and father may they impact our hearts and our lives. Our men.

Very rarely in life. There are moments which transform you, which change you. Now I'm not just talking about the smaller things, like when you realize that sugar on cooked tomatoes works really well. I'm sensing not everyone in the room has had that realization. Or marmite on cheese on toast, under the cheese?

Oh. You haven't had that realization yet, obviously. There's no going back once you've had these realizations. No. No.

We're talking about bigger things. There are just a few times in your life, probably, where your life is changed. By a realization. I mean, it it it comes on the scale. Sometimes for people, it it's the vastness of the universe.

When you realize how vast it is, how tiny we are in comparison, if you haven't had that realization yet, have a chat with the guy who did the prayers, have a chat, with Max, because he does, he's a rocket scientist, that kind of thing. So have a chat with him. He has done talks before that I've been at, which just blow your mind. The scale of the universe and where we are in it, have a chat with him afterwards. That kind of realization can change you.

Now it can be other things. Maybe if you've lived in another country for a while and you've then come back home and you go, actually, things there were just so different. It has changed my outlook on life. This passage has the power to do that. It is a stunning passage talking about Jesus.

Who he is, what he's done for us. It presents us to g with Jesus in such a way. We can't help but be changed by it. And it's that perspective change that we all need and the colossians needed it as well. Because, actually, even if you've grasped the size of the universe, then the next day you go back to work, you back go back to normal things, and actually, you can revert to the way you were before.

And you need to re remember those things. And, actually, if you've been a Christian for some time, you probably need to keep coming back to Jesus to be re amazed at who he is. His amazing supremacy, his incredible nature. We need to keep coming back to it. And the colossians did as well.

This is a letter we're diving into that, that Paul wrote to the colossians. And there was a particular problem that the colossians were facing. We've talked about this over the last couple of weeks. It was a problem which was either there amongst them or was about to come of people saying to them, look, Jesus is okay, but what you really need is something x strap. Jesus is alright, but you need Jesus plus something more.

And what does Paul do for them? He lifts Jesus before them again and says, Really? Look at who Jesus is again. Be in awe of him. Now we're gonna divide the passage into 2 parts.

Jesus, the maker of all things. If you could move me off, that'd be great. Thank you. Jesus, the maker of all things. Jesus, the reconciler of all things.

That's where we're gonna head. That's where we're gonna see in the passage. So we're gonna begin first 1, if you move on, Jesus, the maker of all things. Now there's more to it than just that Jesus made all things. Have a look at the verses.

You're gonna need the passage open in front of you because we're gonna go through it pretty carefully. And what we see here is just staggering. So start at verse 15. The son okay. That is Jesus.

The son is the image of the invisible god. What does that mean? Jesus makes the invisible god visible. He is the image the seeable thing of the invisible god. He makes the invisible visible.

John, in his gospel, describes Jesus like this, describes the incarnation like this, when Jesus Cayman was born on earth, he says. No 1 has ever seen god, but the 1 and only son who is himself god, and he's in the closest relationship with the father has made him known. So Jesus is the invisible god made visible. You wanna see god. If you'd been there 2000 years ago, you could have seen him.

And it says he is the firstborn over all creation. Now some have mistakenly said that that means Jesus was born at some point, that he wasn't, and then he was born. But that's not true. That doesn't fit with the context. Because Jesus, it's gonna it's gonna say, made everything that was created.

He can't himself have been created. No. To say he's the first born means that he's the highest in rank, in families then, the first born was the highest in rank. If you're a first born here, you may be feeling quite pleased with that. It would be that you were the highest in rank.

You were the main person who'd got the inheritance. So for Jesus to be the firstborn overall creation means he is superior to it all, in authority over it all. And then Paul explains further for verse 16 4. That must mean this is explaining what's come before. So he's the firstborn overall creation 4 in him.

All things were created. In him. All things were created. Which certainly means everything depends on Jesus for its creation. In him, some translations go for by him.

All things were created. And the emphasis here is on everything, isn't it? All things were created. Paul repeats this idea over and over again in different ways, doesn't he? So he says whether things on earth or things, sorry, where the things in heaven are on earth.

Well, that is everything. Right at the beginning of the Bible, first verse of the Bible in the beginning, god created the heavens and the earth. So when it says Jesus, created everything in heaven and on earth, that means everything. So you could think about everything on earth or anything that you know of that's on earth. Maybe you've watched some, some nature documentaries, maybe those David Attembroke ones on Asia, or those incredible documentaries where you see, amazing animals around the world.

You think Jesus made all of those things. Whether that's things on mountain tops or things in valleys, whether in deserts, whether in the depths of the ocean, whether wherever Jesus made it all. Everything created by him. And we are talking about the person who lived 2000 years ago. Paul's talking about someone, the lord Jesus who died 30 years before he wrote this.

He's saying that person who walked on earth, he is the 1 who created everything. And that includes all people, every person, made by Jesus, and that includes you, made by Jesus. You know, you turn objects over. Sometimes they say, made in wherever, could turn you over on you would be made by Jesus. You were created by him.

Things in heaven, and on earth goes on. Visible and invisible. That's another way of saying, everything because either things are visible or they're invisible. And that means he made it all. Everything you can see.

But all the invisible things as well. And maybe that relates to the sort of spiritual realm. Maybe that's, angels or demons, some dismiss the idea. Others get fixated on the those. But the Bible tells us it's real, and the invisible world.

Jesus made it all, and is therefore superior to it all. Things in heaven and on earth. Things visible and invisible. And then he says, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities. So Paul picks out here the authorities, the powers.

Everything that has any kind of power, Jesus made it, and is therefore superior over it. So that includes the greatest powers that exist. In those days, maybe it was the Roman Emperor. Now what powers do you think of that exist in the world? Well, we probably think of human powers, don't we?

We'll think of the great powers around the world. Maybe you think of America, maybe you think of Russia, China, those great powers that are quite frightening to us, actually, aren't they? And some of those leaders who are quite friendly, what would it be like to be in the room with Donald Trump? I have no idea what that would be like. What would it be like to be in the room with Vladimir Putin?

I think that would be quite frightening. That would be quite terrifying. Yeah. I'd be concerned. I'd say something stupid and end up somewhere, you know, end up in some prison somewhere.

I'd, you know, it would be terrifying, wouldn't it? Jesus made all authorities all powers, and is therefore superior over them all. That's what this is saying. This is absolutely comprehensive, isn't it? Absolutely everything depends on Jesus for its creation.

That's what those verses are saying. But notice also end of verse 6 seen, all things were created through him. Now that's interesting that Paul says that uses the word through. That implies Jesus isn't the only 1 involved in creation. He didn't act alone.

It was god the father working through the son, working through Jesus to make everything. Every member of the godhead, father, son, and holy spirit, we're involved in creation. We believe in 1 god, in 3 persons, not 3 gods, but 1 god in 3 persons, and all were involved in creation. We know the father created, and he created through the son, through Jesus. And we know the Holy Spirit was there at the beginning in creation as well.

In Bible, right at the beginning, second verse of the Bible tells us that the Spirit was hovering over the waters of the deep. Father, son, and Holy Spirit, all involved in creating everything. And more than that and this I mean, it blows your mind already, but a little bit more verse 16 at the end. I think these verses are incredible. All things were created through him, and for him, which means everything was created with a purpose.

And that purpose was a person. Now that is vital to know, isn't it? You need to know the universe has a purpose. It has meaning, which means every per every person has a purpose and has meaning. And that meaning is in relation to Jesus.

But the Bible tells us we've cut ourselves off from god. We've cut ourselves off from Jesus. We were created for him, but we've cut ourselves off from him. Now what does that do to our sense of meaning and purpose? By cutting ourselves off from him, we become purposeless.

Which why we struggle with the question so many of us, so struggle with the question of what's the point of life? What's the purpose? We're left in a deep sense of anxiety, of depression, We think we need to make up our own meaning in life. We think this is liberating that we can be whoever we want to be, but actually we find we end up with meaninglessness, and we struggle with that purpose. We're we're a bit like people talk about it.

It's a bit like, fish who decide that they want the freedom of leaving the ocean. They leave and end up on the shore flapping around, die. So too, with us, if we think, oh, we, we want the liberation of being away from god and away from Jesus and doing our own thing and being our own meaning in life. We end up on the shore flapping around in anxiety and depression and struggling to know what the meaning is when we need to come back to the 1 for whom we were made. This says You will never make up your own meaning and your own purpose.

You need to come to your creator, the 1 you were made for. You were made for Jesus, and you'll only know meaning and purpose when you come back to him. Paul goes on. He says, verse 17, he is before all things. I mean, he existed before all things.

Clearly, for Jesus to have made everything, he must have existed before everything existed, before everything was made. He was there before it all. There was never a time when he did not exist. And furthermore, and in him, all things hold together. Jesus, it says, holds everything together.

Everything depends on him not just for creation and for purpose, but for continued existence. You and I only exist today because Jesus holds us together. If he stopped saying so, you and I would drop into non existence. He holds us together. Do you see our dependence on Jesus is total?

You might have thought maybe an oh, Jesus. He was just a maybe Christianity just says Jesus was a wise teacher. Do you see how that idea significantly underplays what Christianity says Jesus is. It's not just a wise teacher, not just not just a man, yes, born on a fully man, but this is the 1 who made it all through whom all things were made, for whom all things were made, and who holds it all together. To realize who Jesus is is to have 1 of those life changing, perspective changes.

It changes the way you view Jesus. And it changes the way we approach Jesus, just to apply this a little bit further. It changes the way we approach Jesus if we realize this. Sometimes we approach Jesus as just the 1 who who who meets our needs. Now it is important to come to Jesus with our needs.

But we can do it in a way which is not to take this into account. So those who aren't Christians might do this. For instance, sometimes non Christians will say, Jesus, if your god then deal with this crisis in my life. And it can be real significant crises that they will say, look, Jesus, this is on the line now. If your god deal with this.

And it seems like everything depends on that for them. And sometimes as Christians, we can do it too, demanding that Jesus meets our needs. And if he doesn't, our faith is shaken or we give up on it. But we need to come back to who Jesus is first, have this perspective changing encounter with him. Because as we see who Jesus is, that he is the 1 through whom you were made, for whom you were made, and who holds you together, The right next move is not to demand from him, but to worship him.

To bail before him, submit to him. And, yes, we are amazingly to bring our needs to him, but it is in the context. It needs to be in the context of worship. The lord's prayer. How does it begin?

It doesn't begin Give us today our daily bread. It doesn't start with the needs. Yes. We're to bring our needs to god, but it starts with worship, our father in heaven. Hello, be your name.

Your kingdom come, your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Do you see it's in the context of worship that we bring our needs to god. So with Jesus. You see, if we come to Jesus and say, look, if you're god deal with my crisis.

Actually, I think this verse these verses are saying, just pause there a moment and realize what you're saying. If you're god, If you're god, if you're the creator, if you're the 1 I depend on, for existence, if you're the 1 I was made for. Then worship is the right next response. And Jesus could have, as our creator, good reasons for saying no to our demands, may be painful, it may be hard. But if he is god, he might have very good reasons for saying no.

And part of worshiping him is to submit to him and say, not my will be done, but your will be done. Jesus is the maker of all things. Second part of the passage. Jesus is the reconciler of all things. Correct.

Thank you. So the focus now shifts It shifts from creation to reconciliation, from verse 18 onwards, there's that shift that takes place. This section assumes that we know that all that's been made, the whole of creation, is not in a good relationship with its creator is not in harmony with its creator. And we've seen that actually in the verses before today's verses, where it talks about, us being in the dominion of darkness, So verse 13, of chapter 1, for he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the son he loves. So that means mankind is in darkness.

We're not in good relationship with god. And Jesus is the 1 who reconciles us to god. We are alien alienated from god, estranged from him, and Jesus brings us back to him. Jesus is not just the creator, but the reconciler. He makes us, and then he's gotta mend us.

Someone in our family has started watching a bit more formula 1. Watch drive to survive. Some of you might have watched that feel like formula 1. I'm not particularly into it. But those the detail that they go into as they make those cars is incredible.

And, of course, the most interesting bit in a formula 1 race is when the crashes happen. That that's that's the interesting bit. I'm not, you know, don't want nasty things to happen to people, of course, but Thaddi's the most interesting bit, isn't it? How heartbreaking must it be for those people who've spent so long making, crafting, being fine tuning those cars to see them smash up and think we've gotta remake that. Jesus is our creator, not just creates, but he also reckons us.

He he remakes us. He repairs. He deals with the damage that has been caused. So it says, verse 18. And he is the head of the body, the church.

Now this new this is the new humanity Jesus is making, the church. Brought a group of people brought back into relationship with him. It says, he is the beginning, to be the beginning, is gonna refer to time, but also authority and sovereignty. It says he's the firstborn from the dead. Firstborn from among the dead.

That is when Jesus rose to life again, he was the first of this new humanity that Jesus was making. But do you remember firstborn? We saw it before. Firstborn over creation. Firstborn, from the dead.

Firstborn means highest authority, highest in rank. He's highest in rank in this new humanity. First born. First born, he's first born over everything, creation, new creation. So that in everything, it says, he might have supremacy.

First 19, for god was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him. Okay. Here again, we have the relationship between god the father and god the son. There is, and there is the fullness of god dwelling in Jesus. There's nothing left over.

Nothing missing. I was trying to think of an illustration, silly illustration. You know how after a meal, if you've got leftovers, you try to find a tub to put the leftovers in. For me, I I I I searched through the place to find a pot, and it's just a miracle. If I find a a lid that fits the pot.

That feels like a success to me. And therefore, what however big it is, that's what the stuff's going into, but there may be stuff left over in which case I've made a mess of it and need to start again. When it comes to god putting his fullness in just it's ridiculous. It's an awful illustration. When it comes to god, fullness of god is in Jesus.

There is nothing left over. There's nothing missing in the sun. All the fullness of god. The son is not the father, but all the fullness of the father is in the son. Now that's very important for us.

That means when you read about Jesus, when people saw Jesus, they were seeing god himself. There was nothing missing. So Jesus perfectly reveals god to us. Now often people don't quite take that on board. So sometimes you might talk to someone, you might say, you could ask someone.

When you think of god, what do you think of? And people give you think about it now. When you think of god, what do you think of? Sometimes if you talk to people, you might, well, you might hear all kinds of things, but often there's a kind of well god is distant, or god is a judge. He's just he's just mean, he's nasty, or, you know, you can get all kinds of things like that.

That's what people think of. And they say, okay. Now describe Jesus. How would you describe Jesus? And from what you know of him?

And you'll often get a very different answer. People will say, wow, Jesus is kind, compassionate, loving, loving to those who are on the outside. He was, you know, he's all those kind of things. You get And that is very different from what they think god is like. But all god's fullness dwells in Jesus.

So as you see Jesus, as you think about Jesus, that is exactly what god is like. God is like Jesus because Jesus has all god's fullness in him. That is what god is like, loving, compassionate. He is the judge. But who Jesus is, he has all the fullness of god in him?

That's what makes him what he is. But the big thing this does for us, the fact that all the fullness of god is in Jesus is spelled out for us in verse 20. You see, the sentence continues. And through him to reconcile to himself all things. So with the fullness of god dwelling in Jesus, the man Jesus Christ, God is able to reconcile all things to himself.

And notice the emphasis again in verse 20, as we saw earlier, verse 20, it's a it's a repetition, isn't it from earlier whether things on earth or things in heaven. So again, that's saying everything. All of creation can be reconciled to god through Jesus. How? Verse 20 again, end of the verse, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross.

So this is saying incredibly, you've got god, father, son, and holy spirit. And creation over here. And there is darkness over creation, all because of mankind's rebellion against god. There is a rift a broken relationship. And then they came the son of god.

God, the sum, come to us, born on earth, though he had existed for all eternity, born among us, And with all the fullness of god dwelling in him, he reconciles us to god, not simply by being born, not simply by existing among us. But by dying on the cross. And when Jesus died on the cross, there was darkness, and he cried out my god, my god, why have you forsaken me? Baring the punishment you and I deserve for our rebellion against God, for rejecting him, for turning away from him. The cross is the way that we can the creation can be reconciled to god.

Now saying Jesus recognize all things to himself doesn't mean every single person is reconciled to god. Each person needs to put their trust in Jesus in the cross, and so come back to god. The peace has been won, but you do need to stop fighting against god. The way has been made open to come back to god. It does mean this is saying the impact of the cross is on more than just those who turn to Jesus.

It's on the whole of creation, which will 1 day be fully restored or recreated all possible through Jesus' death. And Paul now applies what we've heard directly to the colossians. He shows this reconciliation at at work in their lives, and notice, of course, it's all because of Jesus. So verse 21. And once you once you were alienated from god and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior, that is where they were, that is where you were.

Where we all were, where mankind is alienated from god enemies of him. But verse 22, now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you wholly in his sight without blemish. And free from accusation. Jesus's physical body through death, we can be reconciled to god in order to be presented to him, blemish free. Holy.

Without accusation. That is staggering. If you're a Christian, that is your status before god.blemish free. No accusation against you. And nothing else can deal with the darkness, with the enmity between us and god, the alienation, nothing else can deal with it.

Our good works won't do it. No other religion can do it. You can't wash your sins away or the problem away in a holy river somewhere. No amount of rituals or pilgrimages can do it. None of them will reconcile us to god.

Because the only thing that can bring peace between us and god is god himself coming to us and dying on the cross. It isn't that all religions are just different paths up the mountain. That doesn't take the problem seriously enough. The problem is far worse than that. The darkness is too great.

The rift between us and god. Is so great that the only solution possible was for god to come to us, to be born as 1 of us and die on the cross. Do you see the life changing majesty of Jesus? The creator of all things? And the reconciler of all things.

Our maker, awesome in majesty and authority, our redeemer, bloody, and dead on a cross. The 1 in whom, all the fullness of god dwells shedding his blood to get us back into relationship with god. The relationship we were made for. And so Paul says, verse 23. If if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel.

This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant. Other than worship, this is the application, isn't it? What do we need to do? Hold on to the faith, to faith in Jesus. Notice the way it's expressed, established, firm, not moved.

Attach yourself to Jesus, and don't shift. Be absolutely immovable, you know, with the storms that have come, recently. Maybe if you've got things that are outside, you've had to, do something to make sure they don't because if you don't do something, they're gonna fly around. So you make sure they're inside or you make sure they're tied down or they're secure or something like that. Paul is saying, be immovable on Jesus.

There will think there will be things that will try to shift you from him, try to make you think you need something else on top of Jesus that you need extra thing. There'll be things that try to shift you. Be immovable from Jesus. Why would you go anywhere else? The maker of all things, the reconciler of all things.

And being immovable takes action Let me give you this quote from Jack Miller, who was a pastor. He says this. Drifting does not take any effort at all. Just stop cultivating the knowledge of Christ, and the evil current of secularism does the rest. I think that's really helpful for us.

If if you wanna drift, just don't do anything. You'll drift. No. No. Being immovable on the gospel on Jesus takes action.

It takes you committing to it. What's that gonna mean this week that you do your bible times? That you keep coming back to Jesus every day. There is nothing more important. You might think there are other more important.

Other people will say there are more more important things in your life. There is nothing more important than sticking with Jesus. Because of who he is, the maker of all things, and the reconciler of all things. I'm gonna give you a minute of quiet. We've covered a huge amount in that.

There is a lot to cover in that passage. Wonderful truths about Jesus. And I want to encourage you now just to take a minute. To respond in your hearts to god. Maybe you're coming to him for the first time through Jesus, reconciled, but maybe you just need to be in awe again and to commit yourself to be immovable from the faith in Jesus, a minute for your own time with the lord.

That's pray. Heavenly father, we thank you that this passage lifts our eyes again to see the incredible supremacy of Christ. Further move us this morning to be changed by this passage, that our whole lives would be changed by it, that we would be in awe and worship Jesus, our maker, the 1 in whom all the fulness of god dwells. And father help us If we have not yet, to come to you through Jesus, through his reconciling work. And if we have help us to rejoice in that and to see Jesus is all we need.

Further lift Jesus more before our eyes, and when we go from here and into this week with the reality of who Jesus is continue to shape the way we live. Oh, man.