The Supremacy of Christ
Colin Bird
Colossians 1:15-29
Bob made the comment in one of his earlier sermons that there is no mention of the trinity in the scriptures, yet it is widely agreed in today’s modern thinking that we acknowledge the existence of the Trinity. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The three in one and one in three. We must therefore conclude that each has equal authority, and one element does not reign supreme over the others. But I wouldn’t be wrong if I said that we do consider the characters of each member to be completely different and that there is, so to speak, a hierarchy. Simply put, God the Father is the commander, ably assisted by his adjutant, the Holy Spirit, and his captain, Jesus Christ who commands the foot soldiers on the ground and reports to the
commander.
God the Father, the commander, has always been considered aloof. He is the almighty power that resides and reigns from heaven. Elevated above all things and who has no equal. When Moses was leading the Israelites out of Egypt, God met with him at the tent of meeting, not face to face, but from within a pillar of cloud. Later,
Moses when questioning whether he was the right person to lead the nation requested a sign from God and said to him “show me your Glory”. God said to him “there is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back: but my face must not be seen.”
To look on the face of God meant instant death. John writes in Chapter 1 “no-one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Fathers side, has made him known” and again in Chapter 6, Jesus said “no- one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father”.
Then there is the Holy Spirit, the adjutant. The essence of God. How do you quantify him? If ever there was a mystery, then the Holy Spirit is it. Each of us will have our own personal understanding of who and what the Holy Spirit is. And then we have Jesus Christ our mediator between God the Father and us. He is our saviour, friend, brother, sister, teacher, advisor, comforter, confidant and more.
He is the person we turn to at that moment in our life when we need someone. He is the one that gives us hope to fulfil our purpose. Life has purpose. Otherwise, what is the point of us being here?
When we look at the trinity, it is Jesus we identify with most. To say that God is our friend, brother, sister, teacher, advisor, comforter and confident may raise a few eyebrows. The truth is, God and Jesus are one in the same, so we should be able to identify these characteristics in God.
In our reading today, Paul writing to the Colossians states “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created:
things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together”. Paul is saying that Christ has always existed – He is before all things.
John in his writings also brings to light that Christ has always existed “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.
These two writings conclude that Christ and God are one in the same and have been together since before time. But what about the third member of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. What of his existence?
Where do we start. Let’s start at the very beginning. A very good place to start.
Genesis Chapter 1 starting at verse 1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters”. There it is ..... Father, Son and Holy Spirit together at the beginning of time.
In biblical times and by that, I mean old testament times, the firstborn son received the fathers blessing and from that he who would inherit the Fathers estate. The first born was regarded in higher standing than any siblings to follow.
Paul when he says that Christ is the image of the invisible God, goes on to declare that he is the firstborn over all creation. As the firstborn, Christ is the one who receives God’s blessing and is granted the inheritance of all of creation. Everything on earth and the heavens belong to him. But it goes further than that. In verse 18 he
says, “He is the head of the body, the church, he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy”.
Not only does Christs estate comprise all of creation and everything that lives and grows and flourishes within it, but it also includes all those who have gone before. They all belong to Christ and why would he make that statement unless to highlight the fact that the dead were not lost and that they were an important part of Christ’s inheritance.
Throughout old Testament times God was this power and authority that directed the lives of the Israelites. He wrote the commandments that paved the way for them to follow and remain as God’s people. But it was the adherence to, and not the laws themselves that drove a wedge between them and God and as Paul writes in verse 21
“you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds, because of your evil behaviour”...... You were enemies in your minds!
God was never the enemy. He had to admonish and punish them admittedly, but that was because of their own disobedient behaviour. God was seen as the enemy because they were weak in spirit and easily enticed by the comforts they had foregone for years of wandering. Even after given residence in their new land they
were drawn away from God to be absorbed into the cultures within which they mingled. And the wedge was driven in further until the point came whereby the rock that should have been the foundation of their faith, was cleft.
For generations they existed without that force, that energy that gave them purpose and identity. These people were now God’s chosen in name only.
We now know what had to be done to mend this rift. God had saved his people before, and it was time to do it again.
The blood of a sacrificial lamb, a lamb without blemish was painted on the doorpost to signal to the Avenging Angel of Death to Passover that house and spare those inside whilst he searched out to kill the firstborn of all those in Egypt. All those blessings passed from father to son destroyed in one swipe of his hand. That was the power and punishment that God metered out on those who went against his chosen.
But what was he to do when his chosen eventually went against him?
God gave them space in the hope that in time they would come back to him. The problem was they had only ever evidenced an invisible Power that seemed quick to anger and was to be feared. Where was the God of love, compassion and mercy?
Where was the friend, bother, sister, teacher, advisor, confidant? No one had seen this side of Gods character, but the time had come to reveal himself. No more the invisible God.
God was about to show himself, not only to his chosen but to everyone. God in his love for his creation decided to expand the family of the chosen to anyone who would open their ears and hear, open their eyes and see and accept the good news that was before them.
Christ already existed. He was there at the beginning of time, but he was about to reveal himself in such a way that people would understand and accept. Christ had to be presented in human form so that people would relate to him even though it would take a special event for them to truly understand who he was. So it was that Jesus of Nazareth was born and baptised in the Jordan river where The Spirit of God came down on him and from that moment Jesus the Christ began his ministry of reconciliation.
Paul writes in Verse 19: “for God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
It is important to note two things from this verse.
Firstly, God did not just give a part of himself to be revealed in Jesus, it says he was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him. In John chapter 14 John records Jesus’ words “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own.
Rather it is the Father living in me, who is doing his work”.
The second thing to note “by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross” Remember how in verse 21 Paul wrote “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behaviour” well now we are no longer alienated or see God as our enemy, and we have been offered peace because our bad behaviour has been washed away and forgiven.
Those who painted their door frame with the blood of the sacrificial lamb were saved. Those who accept the sacrificial blood of Jesus, they too are saved, and their sins are washed away.
Verse 22 “God has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death, to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation. What a fantastic gift, but that promise comes with a proviso, and that is “if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel”.
Don’t let Christ’s sacrifice be for naught.
The title of today’s message is “The Supremacy of Christ”
I often feel that we underestimate the position and authority of Jesus. It is wonderful to converse and hang out with Jesus as though he was one of our buddies. The fact that we can, proves that Gods plan to reveal himself to us in human form worked.
But would we behave and treat God the same way. Somehow God demands more respect in our eyes, yet we need to remember what Jesus said about himself -
John 10:30 – “I and the Father are one”.
In closing, Paul reveals a mystery which has been kept from mankind until this moment. Verse 25 he writes “I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness – the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations but is now disclosed to the saints. To them God has
chosen to make known among the gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery which is - Christ in you.
From the Almighty power that no person dared look upon for fear of death, through the years of emptiness endure by self-imposed separation. To an unrecognised messiah who didn’t vanquish the oppressor through the sword but rather gave up his life in love that we could be reconciled back to that same Almighty power in whose
presence we can now stand and lift our eyes and gaze upon his glory without fear. All this is now possible the moment we open our hearts and through faith allow Christ in.
And the mystery is this. Christ is in you and if we accept the trinity then God and the Holy Spirit are in you too. They have always been there, we just didn’t know it.
But now we do.
And all Gods people said “Alleluia”
Amen.