A couple of weeks ago I took our little boat to the lake with my dad and my six year-old son on his first fishing trip. He was so excited he almost couldn't sleep the night before (in case you can't tell from the photo)! Even though we didn't catch many fish we had a blast out on the water. As my son told his mom while shrugging his shoulders when we arrived back home, "some days the fish just don't bite." He was right, but there was one area of the lake where the fish seemed to be biting. We pulled between some fallen trees and on my first cast I reeled in a fish. Since it was the only action we had all morning I figured this was a place where we might want to sit for awhile. I shut off the motor and we soon had multiple lines in the water waiting for the next catch.Unfortunately, the slight wind that had previously gone unnoticed soon began pushing us across the lake away from the fallen trees where the fish were biting. Within minutes I was starting the motor and taking us back to the fallen trees only to be pushed away, yet again, by the wind the moment the roar of the motor subsided. One small thing, that we didn't have with us, could have solved the problem: an anchor.
We all need anchors in our lives; something that can hold us firm when we begin to drift away from where we are supposed to be; something that can counter the many forces that seek to detrail our priorities and blur our boundaries. We need anchors that will stand strong no matter how fierce the winds around us become.
One such anchor comes in the form of a letter written in the middle of the first century A.D. to a group of Christians living in a small city called Colosse. The Christians in Colosse came to faith in Jesus through the faithful ministry of a man named Epaphras but they soon found themselves being blown off course by the winds of false teaching. Around AD 62 news of their struggle against the false teaching reached one of the pillars of the early church, the apostle Paul. At the time, Paul was almost 1,000 miles away imprisoned under house arrest for preaching the gospel of Jesus in Rome. He could not travel but he could write, so he penned the letter that we now call the book of Colossians.
While there are countless vital truths packed into this short letter, one section stands above all others as a solid anchor for our lives. In Colossians 1:15-20 we find a densely packed description of the person of Jesus that is unparalleled in the rest of the Bible. With laser-like focus Paul describes seven eternal, life-altering realities that impact everything in creation and every area of our lives.
7 characteristics of Jesus, which fittingly quailfy Him to "be preeminent" (1:18) in everything:
(1) Jesus reveals God - "the image of the invisible God" (Col. 1:15a)
- While God made man in the image of God (Gen. 1:27), Jesus is the image of God (cf. John 1:18; 14:8-9; 2 Cor. 4:4). Jesus didn't take on flesh to be like us humans. Rather, humans were created in the likeness of God - Jesus.
- "To call Christ the image of God is to say that in Him the being and nature of God have been perfectly manifested - that in Him the invisible has become visible." (F. F. Bruce, "Colossian Problems," Bibliotheca Sacra 562:101.)
- As Jesus said, "anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father." - John 14:9
- "Firstborn" denotes 2 things: (1) He preceded the whole creation; i.e. before the creation came into existence - He was. Jesus eternally existed with the Father. (2) He is sovereign over all creation in rank. There is nothing and nobody who ranks higher.
- This echoes the words of Psalm 89:27 where God says of the coming Davidic king, "I will make him firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth."
- Jesus was not the first thing created as some cults teach. Jesus is the Creator.
- Jesus is the agent of creation and He is the goal of creation (cf. John 1:3; 1 Cor. 15:25; Phil. 2:10-11)
- Without His powerful hand holding all things together we would cease to exist.
- Jesus is the head of this new special body of people, in which there is "neither Jew nor Gentile" but a whole new creation of God.
- This should form your view of the church. This church is all about and under the authority of Christ. The church isn't about us. It isn't about our needs being met or getting our way. It's all about Jesus!
- Verse 18 may sound a lot like the end of verse 15 but the meaning is different.
- Jesus was the first to rise from the dead to eternal life. Others had been brought back from the dead only to die again. Jesus' resurrection was an eternal resurrection. He continues to live "on the basis of the power of an indestructible life."
- That first Easter morning saw the dawn of a new hope for humanity as Jesus' resurrection marked his triumph over death (1 John 3:8).
- Just in case you're tempted to think that Jesus being the "image" of God somehow makes him less God, Paul adds yet another statement clarifying the full deity of Jesus.
- Later in Colossians 2 we read that "in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form."
- Jesus is the only way to God the Father (John 14:6).
- Jesus has gained submission of all things through His sacrifice - either willing or unwilling. One day, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of the Father. (Romans 14:11; Phil. 2:10)
REMEMBER: You can only give up your desire to compete in the world when you accept being complete in Christ.
For more on the book of Colossians visit the Geist Community Church website and search for the Colossians sermon series preached during the summer of 2013.
