[0:01] Colossians chapter 1. We'll be starting there at verse 13. And I'd like to read some verses here that we're going to look at. So if you stand with me. I'll be starting with verse 13.

Colossians 1 verse 13. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His of his love, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

 

[0:38] For by him, all things were created that are in heaven, that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created through him and for him.

He is before all things and in Him all things consist.

And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.

Lord, we thank You again for Your Word. We just ask, Holy Spirit, that You have Your way in our hearts.

Lord, we just thank You for another day that You've given to us, a day that's never been before.

Never again will this day ever come.

Help us to fully embrace all that you afford us.

 

[1:35] We just thank you so much that we recognize that without you we can do nothing.

We recognize this is the day that you created, that we would rejoice in it.

And we also recognize the Lord that you are the head of the church, that we're one body, and that we're to function accordingly in a healthy way that glorifies you. So just help us to grow in our faith and strengthen us, we pray in Jesus name, amen. Can all be seated.

And so, you know, beginning a study, I kind of look at it like you're running a relay race.

When, if you ever watch relay races or if you ever run relay races, I used to run the relay race, the 440 back then.

440 yards, not 400 meters. Anyway, I was the second leg.

And so, they start off running and then you have a mark.

And when they hit that mark, you've practiced this a hundred times, you know where you can turn and start running as fast as you can. And then they yell, stick.

And then you put your hand back there in one quick sweep, next thing you know there's a baton in your hand when it works right.

 

[3:01] There's been, before there's a baton in my hand then out of my hand, that's scary.

But anyway, put a baton in your hand and you don't even miss a stroke of your, and you go and the same thing, stick, stick, and if you do it right.

And so I kind of look at Bible studies that way.

It's like you gotta get a little bit up to speed sometimes to say, okay, rather than just drop in because what you don't wanna do in a relay race, if you're the second leg like I was, is you wait until he gets to you. That doesn't work. You know, like you just stand there until he gets to you. Then he runs you over and you're flat on your back. You know, that doesn't work. Did that paint the picture for you? Yeah. So, that's what introductions are for when we're doing Bible studies. The title of the message.

 

[3:50] The incomparable Christ. And so the context is we must look back. You pick up in verse 3 and 4.

 

[4:00] Apostle Paul, he says, we give thanks to God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints. And so Paul, those that were with him, had been praying continually for the young believers there in Colossae, the church there. And, so praying since they heard of their faith in Christ Jesus. And so also noting that they have God's love being evidenced through their life. And then remember, and you look at verse 9, so he says, for this reason we also since the day we heard since the day we heard of it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will and all wisdom and spiritual, understanding." So for this reason, Paul says, we've been praying that yes, recognizing yes, you are believers, you do have faith in Jesus Christ, you do have God's love but no doubt about that we know that yet we are praying that you grow up.

 

[5:20] This is what he's really conveying. I think a good thing to mention here is that a baby Christian, a new Christian, will have both faith and love, but not have necessarily knowledge.

 

[5:38] To guard them against the attacks of the enemy. So for new believers, there's always a learning curve and our Heavenly Father is always patient. And He's always patient, much more patient than a good parent.

 

[5:57] Would be. And you know a good parent knows when a baby's a baby, a toddler's a toddler, or a youngster's a youngster and so forth as you know that all works out. But some are quicker learners and some excel in faith and others are slower. But, eventually we have gotten enough knowledge under our belt or enough experience, you might call it, in our life and eventually we've believed long enough and we're too mature in our faith and you know it's like life's progression from a baby to a toddler to a youngster to a teenager. That's usually the worst right there, the teenager you know to the adult and you know like that you know barring any physical or mental disabilities they should, you know the normal course of things eventually mature.

 

[7:11] And, you know, that's really today's subject, in part. It has to deal with maturing, growing spiritually, growing in knowledge of the one they have faith in.

It's already been said, hey, this is who you have faith in.

Such understanding would prove to be wisdom, verse 10, and would then mean that they would follow Christ in a worthy manner, pleasing God and being fruitful.

There, verse 10, verse 11, to be strong by his power.

And that would work out through patience, long-suffering, joy, thankfulness, and that they're qualified by God himself.

In verse 12, we can confidently look forward to our inheritance, again, verse 12.

And so, because we are in the light. You know, God has ministered to us. And again, this is the context. And so.

 

[8:16] There's about to be the passing of the baton here in this study. This is the context. Paul would say, okay, we have established you have faith. We've established that you have love in Jesus, who is the Christ, but I, Paul, will be describing in greater detail the person of Jesus Christ, the one in whom you trust, the one in whom you believe in and have faith for salvation. You know, the one described there in verse 13 and 14, and just in the New Living Bible it says there in in those two verses, for he has rescued us out of the darkness and gloom of Satan's kingdom, and brought us into the kingdom of his dear son, who bought our freedom with his blood and forgave us all our sins.

Who is this one?

 

[9:18] Who is it that qualified you? Who is it that delivered you?

Who is it that promised you the inheritance?

Who is it that paid the ultimate price to redeem you?

Is he qualified? Does he have enough clout to give you these promises that you would trust in him?

And so in these verses 15 through 18, Paul answers those questions.

And this is why Paul describes who Jesus is and why they and we, you know, of course, can completely trust in Him.

No matter what comes their way, no matter what comes our way, we can trust in this one that Paul describes.

Paul in these few verses, in verses 15 through 18, gives a comprehensive description of the person of Jesus Christ.

And Paul will address who Jesus is.

 

[10:28] If you ever doubted his qualifications to be your savior, or to doubt his promise of eternal life.

If you've ever been there.

After this, after this description, who would doubt, who would question the validity of the promises of Jesus Christ?

Obviously an unbeliever would, but as believers, this is to encourage us to trust in Jesus Christ and all that Jesus has made and given us already, Paul will write, it's all in Jesus, it's all in Christ Jesus.

And notice there in verse 15, where it says, he is the image of the invisible God.

So Paul in this section will address who he is, again, Jesus, he is divine, that Jesus is eternal, that Jesus is the creator, he's the sustainer, that Jesus is sovereign, And that...

 

[11:47] It's all His providence, in other words, Jesus rules, and that He is the head of the church.

All in these four verses. So there's a lot here. And we know that a person can come to faith, and have God's love, and yet we know, and yet not know much about what the Bible teaches about God. And this is a lifelong pursuit of course. I've been a Christian now since 1975.

And that's a long time. And I'm still studying the Bible and I'm just amazed by how rich the Word of God is. But it's so wonderful to continually learn the Word. And I might add, necessary for spiritual health? I mean, so often we hear, you know, about bladder health, gut health, you know, bone health, heart health. What about spiritual health?

You know, if you think about it, if your bladder was infected, you know, you would be reminded of that. And you know, you would be constantly reminded of that and so if you were reminded that you had a bladder infection, you wouldn't start doing pushups and pullups.

 

[13:17] And sit-ups. No, you'd probably drink a lot of cranberry juice and a lot of water, a lot of liquids, a lot of, you know, maybe take antibiotics if whatever's recommended. You would do all those things. And so guaranteed if you have poor spiritual health, you will be continuously reminded of that. So what do you do? Go more, you know, camping, go more, watch more TV. I mean, what do you do? You know, to try, you know, that's like doing push ups when you have a bladder infection.

And you just don't recognize the fact that, no, that means you need to hear from the Lord.

You need to draw closer to Him. You need to pray, you need to do those things that would then help your spiritual health.

And not to give you a five-point plan, but I think that you know enough about hearing from the Lord.

And so that's what's important. And so.

 

[14:28] And so here in verse 15 again, it says there, he is the image of the invisible God.

The word image there, it means in likeness of one, it speaks of divine nature.

Jesus said, John 14, nine, where he said, I have been with you so long, and yet you have not known me, Philip.

He who has seen me has seen the Father. So how can you say, show us the Father?

And so by Jesus being the image of the invisible God, Jesus has displayed Him.

It says in John 1, 18, no one has seen God at any time.

The only begotten Son who is the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.

Jesus is the image of the invisible God, kind of like the spiritual realm.

The spiritual realm is all around us, but you don't see it.

The Bible says that God is everywhere present. The Bible teaches that God is everywhere present, but yet you don't see him.

 

[15:39] You know, God is invisible, but yet he's manifested, imprinted himself through Jesus as the exact image of God.

God. And so, yet invisible, I like to refer to God's fingerprints are everywhere. And these verses reveal the only one who has left those fingerprints. It's not a crime scene, it's a creation scene. It's Jesus Christ who had left Jesus Christ who's leaving the fingerprint of God in the work that happens through the Holy Spirit. And so he is the image of the invisible God. Notice there it says, the firstborn over all creation. It speaks of first in order. And the first.

 

[16:45] So the JWs and others would say here that it was as if Jesus didn't exist before, but then existed, as the firstborn. But we know as it tells us there in verse 17 that He is before all.

And you know it tells us in John chapter 1, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. And so, you know if you were to interpret this as meaning he didn't exist before, then, that would contradict Scripture. And God's Word doesn't contradict itself. And, And that's why the correct interpretation when we read this, and also in context, is he was first born regarding creation.

 

[17:49] And not speaking of his divine nature as God, but rather his physical nature as a man, where he also preceded all creation.

Before creation was, Jesus existed.

You know, we have Revelation 13, 8 that tells us, and all who dwell on the earth will worship Him.

This is a passage speaking of the Antichrist, whose names have not been written in the book of life of the Lamb.

That's Jesus slain before the foundations of the world. So he pre-existed his own creation as the Lamb slain.

Slain. And so before he was ever placed in the womb of Mary, He pre-existed.

 

[18:40] And so he's the first born over all creation, what being taught there.

For by him all things were created.

That was created, all things, anything, everything, spiritual, material, physical realm.

You know, if you see it or not, Jesus brought it into existence.

And we know from John's Gospel, again, the record there, chapter 1, in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God, of course Jesus being the Word, all things were made through Him.

And without Him nothing was made, that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

And the light shines in darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it then when we drop down there into verse 14 chapter 1 it says and the word jesus became flesh dwelt among us and we beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten of the father full of grace and truth.

 

[19:53] And so he created all things, all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were curated through him because he's creator God and for him. And so this is why we're here. This is why you're here. This is why I'm here because we are created for him and for his pleasure. You know, let's not miss that or think otherwise. Life is short. That's why we shouldn't miss that or think otherwise.

We don't have enough time for that. Some of us are more shorter time than others.

I would say because of the rapture, but it may be  just the natural way that God just calls us home, the natural way.

You know, we don't die, we sleep.

And then at that resurrection our physical bodies will be joined to our spirit. We'll be forever with the Lord. That's our hope. You know. Where do we go? What hope do we have without Jesus? You know and that's why you see the desperation in the world. They have nowhere to turn. You know. And so you know we trust in the Lord and we're going to be in His presence.

 

[21:17] Soon, no longer in the presence of temporal things this world has to offer.

Can you imagine if your hope was only in the temporal things that the world has to offer?

You know, that's why the world believes that he dies with the most toys, wins.

You know, it's a sad, sad way of believing.

But you know it tells us in Ephesians chapter 2, we are His workmanship.

Created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

 

[21:52] And then in Philippians 2.13, for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. So we're created unto good works, we are His poema, but it is Him who's doing the work through us. So it's all about Him and all that He does. The good works are, works that potentially will accomplish God's will. I mean A to Z living, but not bad works. Bad works are those that have ill intent or selfish motives, and all of us have plenty of them under our belts.

We all got a bunch of them. We're not gonna be rewarded for them.

We're gonna be rewarded for the good works, but fortunately God is the God of new beginnings and fresh starts.

 

[22:41] He starts us all over again because he's God. In 2 Corinthians 5.17, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

Old things have passed away, behold, all things have become new.

Old things, bad works, passed away. They no more plague us.

They no more taint us. You know, we're able to move forward. In men's study yesterday, we're talking about the Apostle Paul, and just how he had this horrible past of persecuting the church, you know, voting for the murder or for the killing, the execution of Christians and so forth and so on. And yet he was able to receive the grace of God, yet by grace he continued to serve the Lord and be used so mightily by God because God of grace forgave him. And so, you know, we could look at that and say, really? You know, how bad was our past? What did we do, that, you know, maybe the devil wants to hold over your head to keep you from moving out with confidence? But no, we're to operate in the forgiveness of the Lord and in the grace of God because none of us are qualified.

It's God who qualifies us. It's not anything that we've done.

It's Him who's done the work of salvation and that we just receive it.

 

[24:07] And so then we see here in verse 17, and He is before all things.

And so again, He preexisted, is before also means above all things.

And there's no exceptions to the all things, whether they're living or they're lifeless.

He's above all things.

And at one point, Jesus, dealing with the religious leaders, he said to them, he said to them in John chapter eight, when he said, Jesus said to them, most assuredly I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.

And they knew that he was proclaiming to be God at that point, and of course wanted to stone him.

What are you talking about? Taking the title of God, what do you mean?

You're not even 50 yet.

You're saying before Abraham was I am? and.

 

[25:02] You know, so he pre-existed before all things and in him all things consist.

It means held together. When Jesus lets go, it all comes apart. He's holding it together.

So you know, you have the world who move forward, you know, claiming to have all the answers and so forth. But you know their life is held together because of Jesus Christ. And they don't even give Him the time of day and they will, you know of course curse Him, reject Him. And disbelief in God's grace just holds it all together in the midst of all that. And fortunately some of those who take that position today will end up changed, their heart changed and they'll become believers. The Lord knows who they are. But He holds it all together. Jesus not only created all, but Jesus also keeps it all together until that time for it to come apart. And we see that time is coming, but keep in mind, the timing for that is not determined how wicked man gets, how bad things get, but it's when God decides it's time.

Because, rightly so, we see the world getting more wicked, more wicked and more wicked and we say it's about time.

 

[26:31] That's the way we conclude. But it'll be that perfect time when he decides. Because the world has been wicked. Go back into history and look at history. The world has been wicked. We seem to be in the United States that sort of feel a little bit sheltered and we see it, you know, heating up here and becoming more wicked. But the world has been wicked. So you can't determine that. We just know the signs of the times and in the way that the globe is connected, is more so we see how there could be a one world government real easy, and there's a lot of things described in prophecy, we could see how that could, that's more the reason.

 

[27:15] Because the world has always been wicked and horrible. The worst atrocities imagined all the way from the beginning.

And so, and so he holds it all together. I like the way John Corson words it, quoting him on that verse.

An interesting law of science known as Coulomb's Law of Electricity says, that like charges repel, and you can prove Coulomb's Law of pushing the positive ends of two magnets together, each other and to each other and feeling them repel each other.

You know, I remember as a kid I used to do that And I think, what the heck?

It's something invisible there, there's a force and it's invisible. How could that be?

 

[28:05] Something I can't see is pushing these two things together. As a kid I remember thinking that's invisible and there's a force there, you know.

And so when he says opposite charges attract like.

 

[28:19] Charges repel. But here's a great mystery. In the nucleus of the atom protons are packed together that are all positive charged particles.

What keeps these positive charged protons from repelling like the magnets?

What holds them together and science doesn't know? You can study quantum physics and learn lots of you know hypotheses and theories yet to this day it's a mystery to science but not for believers. For scripture tells us the real answer. It is Jesus Christ who holds all these things together. And the day is coming when he suddenly will let go. You know,  I think it's termed atomic glue.

 

[29:14] You know, a man has, you know, learned to kind of unleash the atoms and the atom bomb, how explosive it is, and so forth.

But he continues here, he says, by Him all things are held together, not just physically, but in my life personally.

My emotions, my family, my mental stability are held together by Jesus.

By Him all things are held together. By Him all things consist.

And I like that application, because it's so true. If He didn't hold me, if He didn't strengthen me, if He didn't allow it all to come together, it would all come apart.

You know, Jesus says, without me, you can do nothing. Do we take that literally?

Yeah, we take that literally. your next breath, your next heartbeat.

 

[30:04] It's by Him. But knowing that should give you great confidence because there's so many things.

The world throws insecurity at you and the word throws security at you.

Which are you gonna stand on? The insecurity that the world tries to slip in or the truth that Jesus hands over to you?

You know, it's by choice we believe or we don't believe. our faith is increased or it's not.

And so it all consists, and it says, and he is the head of the body, the church.

And so he's the head, since the loss of the head destroys life, without the head, the church would have no life.

Creation would not exist without the head.

Jesus is the head and of the body of the church who is the beginning. The beginning. He is the origin and he is the active cause is the meaning of it. He's the active cause. You heard that expression cause and effect? Well, Jesus caused it and the effect is everything that we see around us.

 

[31:29] He's the beginning, you know, and he's the cause and the effect.

And so, the firstborn from the dead, it speaks of Jesus' resurrection, the first to be raised glorified in his physical body and never to die again.

You know, he is the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he may have, preeminence. And so that means He's first in rank, first in influence. He in all things holds first place, which He has of course with the Father, with the Holy Spirit all being one God. Jesus Christ. And Paul is saying to the church there in Colossae. Okay, you have faith and you have love. That's evident. But do you have knowledge?

 

[32:32] Of who it is that you have faith in and that you have knowledge or love in. Now, you know, God is so patient.

And it's interesting because if somebody makes the decision to follow Jesus Christ and you share the gospel with them and they come to terms with, you know what, I am a sinner.

I am a sinner.

 

[33:03] And you described to them that Jesus Christ came as God's only begotten son, died on a cross, shed his blood for them.

And they received that message and they say, yeah, Lord, I'm a sinner.

 

[33:20] Lord, forgive me, I need to be cleansed by your blood. And they make that commitment to Jesus Christ and then you go down to the water.

Like so much in scripture, you go down to the water, they're baptized and all.

And then the person that's involved with that says, hey, you live in this area, you need to go to a church where the Bible's being taught.

And this is very important because you need to be discipled.

He knows that the enemy is gonna try and take his feet out from underneath them.

He knows what's next for that young believer.

Paul says, you know, you're new believers, you're babies in Christ, you have faith and you have love, but now we pray for that knowledge.

So here they are born again, you know, ready for heaven because of the work of Jesus Christ.

They take their last breath here, they take their next breath in heaven going home before they ever make a church service because of that decision.

But now you have life to live. And Paul is saying, you need to learn.

You need to understand because that becomes the sword of the spirit is the word of God, double edged, sharp.

And so when the enemy comes in and throws a lie at you, you go, what are you talking about?

 

[34:37] You know, that's a lie because you know the word. And you know, God just seems to put this special bubble, this guard around his new believers like a parent would a baby, watching for every little thing.

But eventually, they come into understanding. So then they read the Bible, and then they come up with, they read those scriptures and they go, oh, Jesus is all of that.

Oh my goodness, I didn't know any of that.

 

[35:07] But they trusted in Jesus Christ for salvation. And so, in one sense, it's kind of odd because it's like, you may be a slow learner, you may be a quick learner, no pressure in Christ, just that you're learning.

So he's given you a certain measure of responsibility and gifting.

So all you are to do is to be faithful in that, not to be pressured because someone else has some other gifting. And, you know, like we pressure each other in school.

That was always a pressure situation. You know, you always knew the ones who were fast learners, you wanted to kind of warm up and say, hey, can you kind of help me with this a little bit?

Or sit close to them if you're a cheater and you could copy their paper.

You know, but it's not that way in the Lord.

You know, I mean, in the Lord, you could be the slowest learner and the Lord will love you and bless you, And yet you can be a fast learner, and again, the Lord will love you and bless you, but at the same time, are you being responsible with what God has given you?

That's the main thing.

You know, and our God is patient, amen? All right, let's stand together.

Now, if you need prayer, Mike, Jeremy will be up here to pray with you guys.

 

[36:32] Lord, so just want to thank you for today.

Just thank you, Lord, for this body of believers.

Lord, we thank you that you have given us your word.

Holy Spirit, you open up our understanding.

Lord, you're so patient with us. Lord, I don't know what everybody might be struggling with here, but you do know.

You know, all of us have challenges in our life for sure.

Some of us walked in here more victorious than others. Some of us might've walked in here defeated.

 

[37:11] Having a bad week or whatever the case may be and just head down and yet holding it up for everybody to see.

But Lord, you know, there's no false pretenses before you that aren't known.

And so we might be able to fool one another, but we can't fool you.

So I asked, Lord, that we would be those that in integrity would serve you and honor you and glorify you and bless our brothers and sisters with the giftings we've been given.

And just be that responsible one, Lord, and grow in our faith that we would be healthy spiritually, following you, being able, Lord, to bless others, receiving first the fruit in our own hearts, and then passing it out as you give it to us.

So again, we thank you for being the one who sits on the throne and it gives us great confidence to live this day and the days that you give us ahead.

Ahead Lord. So thank you again, in Jesus name. 

Amen. God bless you