I want to invite you to turn with me and your Bible to Colossians chapter 1, as we continue our study of Paul's letter to the Colossians. If you're going to use one of our big blue Bibles, it's on page 1251. And we're going to look at Colossians chapter 1 verses 15 through 23 this morning as we continue this series. Here now God's holy, true and life-giving word, Colossians chapter 1, starting in verse 15. He is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation. 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 before Him and He is before all things. And in Him all things hold together and He is the head of the body, the church, He is the beginning, the first born from the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent. For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven making peace by the blood of His cross in you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 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. If indeed you continue in the faith, stable instead fast, 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. This is the word of the Lord, a spray together, Father in heaven, thank you for revealing yourself to us in your word and by your spirit and most of all in the person and work of your son, the Lord Jesus Christ. What an amazing passage, the riches of which we couldn't exhaust if we tried the rest of our lives. Father would you pray that you will bless our time now that you will fix our eyes on Christ and shake our hearts loose from the things that compete for our attention and our love and let all of our hearts in minds be aimed at Christ and His glory. Form us, shape us, renew us and Holy Spirit help us to see the glory of Jesus in this passage and use this time to transform us that we might be more equipped to continue our mission to make disciples, both of our neighbors and the nations. We pray all these things in Jesus name. Amen. Man, it's so exciting to have 27 new members joining and it makes me think of one of my favorite parts of the membership class and that is where I get to explain the fact that if you like the way the American judicial system works, you can thank the Presbyterians for that because actually see one of the things that you should know about our church if you don't is that I'm not in charge, which is a very, very good thing. In a Presbyterian church, the church is led by a group of elders and we would call that the court, they're the ones with authority, but the elders of the church are the lowest court, we would say, and they oversee the church, but then there's the Presbyterian, and that's all of the ordained pastors in a region or in an area, we're part of the central Florida Presbyterian, but it doesn't stop there, then the highest court is the general assembly which is all of the ordained teaching elders, pastors in the country, and then nothing goes beyond that, so there's three levels, there's the session or the elders and the Presbyterian and the general assembly. Now, if that sounds familiar, it's because our judicial system includes the district courts, and if things need to go to a higher level, they go to the circuit court, and if it needs to go to a higher level, it goes to the supreme court, right? Well, guess where they got that, and so I always tell them in the membership course, if you like the way our court system works, thank the Presbyterians and you're welcome, right? So, that's an exciting thing, but think about that, the Supreme Court is the highest court in the land, right? It is preeminent in that sense, nothing goes above that, you know, the Supreme Court is asked to hear 7,000 cases a year, but it actually only hears 100 to 150 cases, and a lot of people want to get their case in front of the Supreme Court, well, again, because they are the Supreme Court, there's nothing higher than them in our judicial system. What they decide is going to be the law of the land, right? Or the interpretation of that law, and I think that can actually be helpful in us understanding what Paul is seeking to do here in this next passage. Because ultimately, what he's trying to get us to understand is that Christ is the ultimate Supreme Court of the universe as it were, that there's nothing higher than him, that he is preeminent in all things. That word preeminent means supreme. It means above all others, superior. And one of the things that is central to the gospel is the fact that Christ, the Son of God, is preeminent in all things. Now, in Colossae at this time, when Paul wrote this letter, there were people pressuring the Colossian Christians to look to other things, philosophy, different worldview, even religious practices, to sort of understand life and maybe even flourish spiritually. And Paul is saying, no, no, no, all that stuff is inferior. We want to keep our eyes fixed on Christ, the one who is preeminent in all things. So that's our focus for this morning. That's central to the good news of Jesus Christ is that he is preeminent in all things. And what Paul is going to do here is we're going to see that number one, he's going to talk about Christ being preeminent in the creation of all things. So we'll talk about that first. Second, we'll talk about how Christ is preeminent in the renewal of all things. And then third, therefore, Paul is going to remind the Colossian Christians and us here this morning that it's so important that we keep Christ preeminent in the gospel, in our understanding of how we are made right with God and how we can know we have eternal life. So those are three things for this morning. Christ preeminent in the creation of all things. Christ preeminent in the renewal of all things and Christ preeminent in the gospel. So keep your bottles open. Go ahead and look at verses 15 through 17. And let's look there first to talk about how Christ is preeminent in the creation of all things. And here's what Paul is basically going to say. He's going to say that the Son of God, Jesus Christ, is superior to all created things because he created and sustains all things. Take a look, verse 15. See that is Christ, is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation. Now, let's stop there and make sure we understand what he's just said, there's a lot there. When he says that Christ is the image of the invisible God, he's wanting us to know that in Christ and the person of Christ, we see everything there is to know about God. He reveals to us what God is like. So he's the image. It's a little more confusing what he says next. The first born of all creation. Now some people will look at that and say that means that Christ is created, but he's not. The Son of God is uncreated and I want to show you how Paul is teaching this very clearly. When he uses the word first born, he's using it as a title of superiority. In that culture, the first born was superior in their view. And so he's using it as a title, not as a way to suggest that the Son of God was somehow created. In fact, the reason that we know that is he's saying Christ is the image of the invisible God and he's superior to all of creation because he created it all. Look at the next verse, verse 16. For or because 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. So he's totally superior to all created things because he created all things. Look at verse 17 and he is before all things. Here's where he's talking about the pre-existence of the Son of God. He existed before all created things exist. And then he says, and in him all things hold together. So even now all things, all created things are held together by the Son of God, by Christ. That's pretty amazing. One author says this, what holds the universe together is not an idea or a virtue but a person. The resurrected Christ. Without him, electrons would not continue to circle nuclei, gravity would cease to work, the planets would not stay in their orbits. And the reason, again, that Paul is writing this is because he knows the Colossian Christians are being pressured to look to other things, to make sense of life. And Paul here is saying, no, look to the one who made everything, who designed everything with the Father and the Spirit. Look to the Son, look to Christ, keep him at the center. He knows how everything works because he designed it and made it all. So I read about this, South American company who ordered a printing press from a manufacturer in the United States. This was many, many years ago. And so they ordered the printing press and the South American company receives all the pieces, all the parts for the printing press, and they go to work trying to put it together. And after a few days, it's all put together but they can't get it to work. And so they're getting pretty worried because they've got some deadlines that they're supposed to be printing some things. So they send a telegram, which kind of tells you when this was. They send a telegram to the U.S. manufacturer. And they say, please send someone immediately, we cannot get the machine to work. Please do this right away. And so the American manufacturer realizes this seems pretty urgent. So they send somebody. Now when he gets there, the South American company notices right away, this guy's really young. He doesn't speak any Spanish. And so they're immediately frustrated. And they fire off another telegram. And it says, your man is too young. Please send somebody with more experience immediately. Well then they get a telegram in return from the U.S. manufacturer. And it says, the man we sent designed your machine, he can get it to work. Of course, of course, the one who designed it all, made it all, is going to know exactly what to do. He's going to know exactly how things are supposed to be. And that's what the Apostle Paul is showing us about Christ, that Christ created and sustains all things. And therefore, it doesn't make sense for us to look elsewhere to understand life. It doesn't make sense to look elsewhere to try to flourish spiritually. Rather, we should be locked on to Christ, the one who made us, who designed us, who knows how everything works. You know, some of you are familiar with Robbie's Echorice, world-renowned Christian philosopher teacher. He says this, no other worldview, religious or otherwise, has the explanatory power for all the existential realities that you and I confront in our lives. In other words, nothing other than looking to Christ provides explanations that finally begin to make sense of the world. You know, the older generation tends to wrestle with the question, what is true? What is true? And here Paul is saying, everything that's true, you're going to find through a growing knowledge of the one who made and designed all things with the Father and with the Spirit, which is why we then, by application, want to look to Christ, understand all of life. How do we do this marriage thing? We look to Christ to learn. How do we do this parenting thing? We look to Christ to learn. How do we make the best use of our time in college? We look to Christ because he's the one who designed it. He knows how it's supposed to work. It's good news that Christ is preeminent in the creation of all things, but that's not where Paul stops. Next, look at verses 18 through 20. Now he's going to tell us that Christ is also preeminent in the renewal of all things, and that he's involving the church in the process of his renewal of all things. Take a look. 18, he says, and he Christ is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the first born from the dead, that in everything, he might be preeminent now, let's unpack this first because there's some things that can be a little confusing. When he says he's the head of the body, he's saying he is the leader of his body, which is the church, and notice a head is united to the body, okay, that's important. And by faith we are united to Christ. We have union with Christ, the creator and sustainer of all things. So he is the head, he's the leader, and he's also the beginning. Paul says, what does he mean when he says Christ is the beginning? It means that he's the founder, it means he's the one who's beginning something. He's doing something, and he's got us the church in tow. He's the first born from the dead. Now that's a reference to the resurrection. Christ rose from the dead, which shows that God has accepted what he's done on our behalf, and that through faith we are saved. But also the resurrection of Christ is a promise to you and I who believe that one day we too will be raised to new life, given these new glorious bodies and the new heavens and new earth. But when that happens, Christ will still be preeminent. He will still be above us, over us. And so he's using that word first born again as the one who's superior to all those who are going to be raised to life. But notice that he's saying that Christ is doing something and he's bringing us along with. With the head, where the head goes, the body goes to. You know what's interesting about cats? They do. We have nine lives according to the wives tale. But they also don't have collarbones, which means they can actually get their, whatever they can get their head through, they can get their whole body through. Okay, sorry I had to see that. But think about that for a second, right? They've got these whiskers right and the whiskers tell them how wide their head is and if the whiskers can get through, they know they can get everything through. And that's probably an awkward way to tell us that what we're seeing here is we are united to Christ by faith, Christ who's doing something, something global, something cosmic, something so much bigger than us, what's he doing? Let's look at verse 19. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, the very presence of God and through him with his church into, to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. Okay, being part of a church just went global because what Paul is saying here is that what Christ is doing, having rescued us by making peace between us and God through the blood of his cross, paying for our sins, he's now involving us in what he's doing, which is to reconcile all things to himself. Now that's not teaching that all will be saved. The Bible makes very clear that only those who put their faith in Jesus will be saved. What Paul is saying is that all of the broken systems of the world that lead to misery, that lead to people in despair, that lead to people starving, that lead to governments collapsing. All these broken systems, Christ, is going to renew that word, reconcil, you know, when we use the word reconcil, we tend to think like we were fighting, then we made up, now we're reconciled. And that's part of it, but it literally is a Greek word that literally means to transfer something from a certain state into a different state. Look back at chapter 1 verse 13, what is he done for us who believe? He has delivered us from the domain of darkness, the broken world with all the broken systems. And he's transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved son, the kingdom where everything is under the righteous rule of God and therefore flourishes. And ultimately then what Paul is saying is that Christ is in the process, having rescued his church now, he is bringing the renewal of all things throughout the world. The renewal of broken systems, broken families, broken institutions, broken political things, government stuff, businesses, he's bringing renewal as far as the curse is found as we sing at Christmas. One author says, it is God's intention to bring peace to his fallen and fractured universe, to bring all things again into subjection to his sovereignty, to bring all his enemies into subjection. This intention will finally be accomplished only when Christ returns and glory to establish the kingdom in its final form, but God invites human beings in the present time, both to participate in this reconciliation and to become agents through whom God's work of reconciliation can begin to be carried out. As we're involved in our own believing of the gospel and applying it to our lives, as we're involved in the gospel advancing, we're not just involved in people trusting in Jesus and then having the promise of eternal life, but we're actually involved in the renewal of all things. Christ is making all things new and he's doing it as the kingdom is coming through the church. See in God's kingdom since he's good and knows how everything works, everything that is under the rule of God, flourishes because it operates according to its good design. One of the ways that we see this, the importance of being part of a church and knowing that Christ our head is renewing the world and bringing us along, using us in the process. One of the ways that we see this is on Christmas Eve. I love Christmas Eve at our church. One of the things that we do on Christmas Eve is the candlelight part of the service. I remember that from this year or other years. What happens? The lights go down and everybody has a candle. Unless you're a little kid, then you've got the glow stick and you hold that instead, which is for safety. What happens? The choir will come and they will light their candle on the Christ candle. Then what do they do? They walk down and everybody is standing here and they've got their candle and they start lighting people's candles and the light grows and grows and grows throughout the whole room. This once dark room suddenly begins to be filled with this beautiful light. I'll tell you what, the best seat in the house at night is the back row. It's not because I can't tell if you're sleeping back there. It's because you see this happen, you back there, see that light, starting dim and then it gets bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and it's coming at you and then all of a sudden we're singing at the top of our lungs and the room is shining bright and that's what's going to happen in this world. Christ as he's redeeming people and families is involving us, his church, in bringing the good news of the gospel all over the world and it's spreading his light and transforming things and we get to be a part of that by simply trusting Jesus, obeying Him, following Him. We are part of the renewal of all things. That's huge. See, the younger generation asked the question, what works? What's going to fix this messed up world and Paul is saying Christ and you with Him? Christ is what comes under the righteous rule of a good king begins to flourish and this is not news, 19th century French sceptic, sceptic, philosopher W. E. H. Lecky who wrote a book called A History of European Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne. I'm sure you're going to go out and get that tonight. But listen to what he said. The character of Jesus has not only been the highest pattern of virtue but the strongest incentive in its practice and has exerted so deep and influence that it may be honestly said that the simple record of three short years of active life has done more to regenerate and soften mankind than all the disquisitions of philosophers and all the exhortations of moralists. Jesus sceptic saying the person of Christ and people who follow Him do more good in this world than anything else in it. This is why, by the way, we can stand and humbly hang on to the things that Christ teaches us in His Word that are different than what society is saying. I mean, we've all seen the way our society is trying to change the way we understand the sanctity of human life, but we can say, wait a second, they know not what they do. We're going to keep our eyes on the king, the one who knows how things are meant to work. We're going to continue to believe what he has said about the sanctity of human life. And not just that, but in all things, we can know that as we follow Him and trust Him and by the power of the Spirit obey Him, we are involved in the renewal of all things. That makes being part of a church global and beautiful. The younger generation wants to know what works, what will change this world, Christ. And therefore, Paul says, thirdly, that we must keep Christ preeminent in the gospel. Look at verses 21 through 23. And here's where Paul is going to make sure we're laser-focused on the heart of the gospel. And to remind us, we must continue in faith because it's only through faith that we are reconciled to God. We can't make ourselves right with God. The Christ has reconciled us to God on the cross. Take a look. Verse 21. And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 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. What is Paul saying? Just reminding them that when they didn't know the Lord, they were doing things that were wicked. They were doing things that were evil, but now they've been fully reconciled, permanently reconciled to God, not by what they did, not by achieving some level of holiness, not by quitting this thing or starting that thing, not by anything they did. How were they reconciled to God? He tells them in the body of Christ at his death, earlier he said it this way, making peace by the blood of his cross. See, when Jesus died on the cross, he was paying the debt of our sins so that all who believe in him could stand before God, forgiven and declared righteous so that we could know for certain that we, one day, when judgment day comes, will stand before God Almighty and He'll say, you are holy, you are blameless, you are above reproach, all because of what Christ has done for you. If indeed, verse 23, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable in steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation of which I, Paul, became a minister. This is why, by the way, that we're always reminding one another that we need to preach the gospel to ourself. We want to keep our faith in Christ. We want to do things that help strengthen our faith. That's why we talk about being in worship regularly, in community with one another, participating in the mission. These are simple things that continue to strengthen our faith, strengthen our faith. But ultimately, what Paul wants here is that when we think about how we've been reconciled to God, we're not thinking about ourselves, we're thinking about our king, we're thinking about Christ and what he has done. And because of what he's done on our behalf, we can know for sure, through faith, we have been forgiven. We have been declared righteous, we're holy, blameless, and above reproach. Can you imagine standing there on Judgment Day before Almighty God? And because of your faith in Christ, you know what he's going to say. Welcome home. You are holy and blameless beyond reproach. Can you even imagine? In an awkward moment at our community group, a couple weeks ago. And it started out awkward, got better, so I decided I'll tell you about it. It's trying to be cool, and I was using technology. So I had on my phone, the Sermon Discession Guide, but I was beaming what was on my phone to my TV screen, okay? So cool. Whatever's on my phone now is on the TV screen, okay? And we're reading the discussion questions, and I'll send, I get a notification, and everybody can see it. And I just kind of swipe it away, and they're like, we'll hold on. Because the notification said, say, give me your face. And so I'm like, let's move on. And they're like, no. You got to tell, we all saw, say, give me your face. What is this all about? So I decided, okay, I'll tell you. And I'm glad I did. I'm gonna tell you, too. A few months ago, I began to just feel in my heart that I wanted to do something with my children that would help them lock in the certainty of my love for them, as well as something that they would remember when I'm gone, right? And so what I came up with is, when we talk them in, we pray with them, we sing a song usually, and give them a kiss. And what I've added to that is now, the last thing that happens before I leave the room at night, is I say to them, give me your face. And they turn their face to me. And I take my hand, and I place my hands on their cheeks. And I put my forehead on their forehead. And I look them in the eyes, and I say, I will love you for eternity. Do you realize that the heart of the gospel is that because of what Christ has done for us on the cross, if we have our faith in Him, you and I can rest assured that at all times God is looking at us, hands on our cheeks, forehead to forehead, and saying, I love you for eternity. And that's good news. That changes lives, families, communities. So Paul says, Christ, preeminent in all creation, Christ, preeminent in the renewal of all things, Christ, preeminent in the gospel, now and forever. Let's pray, Father, a lot of us struggle to believe that you love us as deeply as you actually do. Would you, Holy Spirit, lock in the good news of the gospel, lock in the truth that we're reconciled to you, not by what we do or not do, but fully and finally by the finished work of Christ? And as we believe that good news and know that you look upon us saying, I love you for eternity, would you fill us with a great desire to see Christ preeminent in our lives, preeminent in our city, preeminent in this world, that the whole world would come to know what you've revealed to us, that He is supreme and that He is making all things new, come Lord Jesus, we pray in His name. Amen.