Pauls Epistle to Colossians (3)

First Baptist Church Leominster

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We have friends here today we haven't seen in many years, Christine, McGuire, or some. They were in our church in Munich.

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Have I seen you since we left Munich? One? Okay. All right.

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Now, he was one year old when we left Germany, so I must have visited you in the hospital when he was born, right?

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I did, yeah. Time goes on. Time passes. Here we are. So here we are in Colossians 1 of our study of this prison epistle of the

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Apostle Paul. He wrote several of his epistles from a prison cell in Rome.

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Last Lord's Day, we gave attention to verses 9 through 14, and we read it a few minutes ago.

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We'll not read it again. But in those verses, 9 through 14,

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Paul indicated to this church in Colossae that he was always praying for their spiritual growth.

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Even since he heard of them becoming Christians, he began to pray for them that they would grow and that they would live a life that was pleasing to the

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Lord. But today we want to give our attention to verses 15 through 20, which we read.

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And here we read of the preeminence of Jesus Christ over all of God's creation.

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Now, we read this once, but I want to read it again because this is one of the most beautiful passages setting forth the person of the

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Lord Jesus Christ that we have in all of Scripture. And so Colossians 1, 15, he is the image of the invisible

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God, the firstborn of all creation. Let me just interrupt. You notice verse 15, this is the

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ESV, English Standard Version, begins with the pronoun he. Now that's right, but that would already indicate to you there's something going on here.

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It actually is part of a single sentence. It mentions Christ earlier, now he, the pronoun.

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It's really a subordinate clause within the larger context. He, Jesus Christ, is the image of the invisible

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God, the firstborn 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.

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All things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

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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.

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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.

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And so again, the paragraph designations in our English Standard Version, which we read, the

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ESV, do not reflect the grammar of the original Greek that Paul wrote. We pointed this out last week, that although we have a paragraph division designating verses 9 through 14 as a single paragraph, actually when

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Paul wrote his original letter, there was one sentence beginning with verse 9 and continuing all the way through verse 17.

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For those of you that might be informed, that's actually the sentence division that's in the

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United Bible Society's Greek text. But if you followed the other major Greek text,

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Nestle's, he actually has one sentence going from verses 9 all the way through verse 20.

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And so even some of the modern Greek texts differ as to how the sentence should be divided.

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One of the modern Greek New Testament sets forth verses 15 through 20 in poetic format.

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Interestingly, none of the English translations do. But there is one Greek text that does.

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And if you would put it into English, you would put it, say, in the format that you have in your notes, if you're looking at it, on page 2, verses 15 through 20.

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And so I've set it forth in poetic format. There is a pattern involved here in these verses.

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There's actually division of subject between verses 15 and 16 and verses 17 through 20.

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But there's similarity of expressions and even words, vocabularies between the first and the second section.

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It seems to be a poetic setting forth of the passage. There's a cadence in the words and phrases, which has led some scholars to believe that actually verses 15 through 20 is an ancient first century

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Christological hymn that Paul was using. And once he mentioned

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Jesus Christ, this came to his mind, of course, inspired by the Holy Spirit. And he set forth this ancient hymn.

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Now, that may be true. I think it probably is. It may not be right. But I think it probably is true that he adopted this ancient hymn for this letter to the church at Colossae.

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As one scholar has said, if it is not a literary gem composed by the apostle himself, it was probably a hymn or other fixed testimony of the early church adopted by Paul and reproduced here by him, either without change or with alteration suitable to the needs of the

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Colossian church. And he did that elsewhere in his letters. And so it wouldn't be a great surprise that he did so here as well.

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Here, of course, before us, we have the Lord Jesus set forth in the loftiest, even the loveliest of terms.

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The selection of words and the manner of expression, the way they are set forth to the reader, would cause us or should cause us to have the greatest thoughts of the

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Lord Jesus, exalting him in the highest possible position that we're capable of doing in our thinking.

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As one wrote, Paul breaks into a doxology to the grandeur and glory of Jesus Christ.

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By doing this in a kind of hymn, he invites the readers to worship the Son of God. And I think that's right there.

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This is devotional, not just informative. It's not just a reciting of truth, but it's a, you know, it's a celebration of the truth for who he is.

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And I think that's how the readers of this epistle or those who listen to the epistle that was being read would have probably received it there at the church at Colossae.

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Now, before we consider the statements themselves of these verses,

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I think it's important that we recognize the doctrine or teaching of these verses that suggested is not overtly declared perhaps, but certainly is suggested in this, in its service, this passage of service in Paul's instruction to the church.

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In one sense, it is easy to understand why the translators would set these verses apart in a paragraph separate than what went on before, because it appears to be quite different in its statements, beginning with verse 15.

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It's entirely Christological. Jesus Christ is set forth in all of these clauses and phrases, exalting him.

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A casual look at verses 9 through 14 and verses 15 through 20 may suggest, yeah, it ought to be in two different paragraphs.

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But again, actually, this is not the case. The apostle had stated that he had been praying for the spiritual growth of these

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Christians in the church of Colossae. And in those verses, verses 9 through 14,

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Paul set forth the matter of living so as to please God. And so in verse 10, we have

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Paul identifying actually two of the ways, but one of the ways of pleasing God was to be increasing in the knowledge of God.

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You please God as you grow in your understanding of who he is and what he's like and what he's doing in the world.

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Since you please God by increasing in the knowledge of God, it is fitting, therefore, that the apostle sets forth the glory of the

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Lord Jesus Christ before these Christians. Is that not right? He's helping them to increase in their knowledge of God by setting forth

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Christ in this way. And that's how you can see why it's really a continuation of the same thought.

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And again, originally in the Greek text, it was still the same sentence. One sentence, interestingly.

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And so by increasing in their knowledge of Jesus Christ, as our Lord has set forth here is the sovereign

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God and Lord of all that exists. Paul is helping these Christians to increase in the knowledge of God.

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He was leading them in a very practical way to please God as they grew in their understanding of him.

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Now, we have also, by the way, underscored here a very important doctrine of historic

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Christianity. And again, this might be subtle, but it is present.

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And this doctrine is that God is revealed to us most clearly and fully through his son, Jesus Christ.

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And so when Paul would have these people increase in the knowledge of God, he set forth

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Jesus Christ before them. And the fact is, if you want to know

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God, what he's like, you study Jesus Christ, don't you? Jesus Christ is the one whom

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God has chosen to reveal himself to us. And so if we are to walk in a manner worthy of the

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Lord, fully pleasing to him by increasing in the knowledge of God, when the apostle therefore would instruct them on the knowledge of God, he set forth the person of Jesus Christ as the full revelation of God to mankind.

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And that's an important doctrine that evangelicals need, I think, to recover and to emphasize in today's world.

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One can only know what the true God is like and have a true relationship with the true God when one comes to know thoroughly the person and work of Jesus Christ, his son.

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And you cannot know God. Even Christians, I hear evangelicals talking generically about coming to know

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God. There's a fear, and even forbidden in places, to mention the name of Jesus Christ.

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It's okay to mention God generically. And they speak in Christian terms, everything but leaving

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Jesus Christ out. That's a defection and a departure from the way

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Christians have understood how you come to know God. And so this is an important matter.

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We can know the truth of this doctrine through several ways. First, the holy scriptures reveal the nature and being of the true

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God as incomprehensible to us. You and I cannot comprehend the being of God.

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He's infinite, and we are finite. He's holy, we're sinful.

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But we are incapable of knowing God in his essence, in his being.

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Calvin taught rightly that God in the depths of his being is past finding out. He wrote, his essence is incomprehensible.

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That is, his divinity wholly escapes all human senses. You and I are incapable of understanding the essence and being of God.

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God is a creature, we are his creatures, and we are therefore incapable of knowing what he is like and how we may know him.

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And therefore, he has to mediate this knowledge of him to us, and he does so through Jesus Christ.

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And that's really the only way you can truly come to understand.

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And yet, although the infinite creator God is incomprehensible, the scriptures tell us that he is knowable.

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Seems to be a paradox. He's incomprehensible, and yet at the same time, he's knowable.

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In fact, the scriptures tell us to know God is an essential requisite to salvation.

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Jesus said to his father, this is eternal life that they may know you, the true

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God, only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. But in order for this to take place,

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God therefore must condescend to us and reveal himself to us in a way, in a form, that we can comprehend.

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And this is one of the primary reasons that God sent his son into the world, so that we can know the true God, know what he's like, as we read in 1

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John 5, 20. And we know that the son of God has come and has given us an understanding that we may know him who is true, and we are in him who is true, in his son

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Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. And so one of the major purposes or reasons for Jesus Christ to come into the world is so that we could know this otherwise incomprehensible

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God with regard to his essence or his being. For no one can know the true

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God apart from Jesus Christ. We believe that we have an exclusive religion, and I don't back off from using that word religion, that's what

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Christianity is. When you live out your Christian faith, it's a religion, it's a practice. And we believe and we advocate, of course, it's exclusive, it's the only true religion in the world.

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And you can only, and one of the reasons is you can only know God through his son Jesus Christ, and you cannot know

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God any other way. And so any other religion that has any other way or form of knowing

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God other than Jesus Christ as revealed to us in the scriptures, we would advocate is false.

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And we know in a pluralistic world that's not popular, but that's true. And we need to make it clear and make it known.

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Our Lord Jesus claimed exclusive knowledge of the father, as the father knows me even so I know the father,

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John 10, 15. And therefore only Jesus Christ is able to reveal the father to his people.

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He declared in Luke 10, 22, all things have been delivered to me by my father.

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No one knows who the son is except the father, and who the father is except the son, and the one to whom the son wills to reveal him.

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You cannot know God, you cannot even know Jesus Christ in his eternal being, second person of the trinity, or God the father, the first person of the blessed holy trinity.

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He has to be revealed to us, and Christ alone can do this. And so John wrote in his gospel, no one has seen

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God at any time, the only begotten son who is in the bosom of the father, he has declared him.

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And so one of the foundational doctrines of Christianity is that you can only know

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God through Jesus Christ. Christ reveals God to us.

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And so no one who claims to know God apart from Jesus Christ really knows

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God. That's a given. The true God can only be known and worshipped as the true

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God through his son, Jesus Christ. For God has set forth his son as the only mediator between fallen man and himself.

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You gotta go through him. No one can enter the presence of God except it be through the veil of Christ's torn body on the cross.

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When God raised Jesus his son from the grave and set him on his eternal throne in heaven as the promised son of David, God declared he would only acknowledge them who acknowledged his son.

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And so it's essential to come to God through Jesus Christ. God will not receive anyone who fails or refuses to come to him through his son.

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Our Lord declared in John 14, 6, a verse we can all quote, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

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No one comes to the father except through me. And our Lord declared in John 10, most assuredly, you know, cut it in stone, mark it down.

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Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs up some other way, the same as a thief and a robber.

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You can only come to God through Jesus Christ. And so since the coming of Jesus Christ, in order to know and honor

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God, one must know and honor Jesus Christ. Our Lord Jesus taught, for the father judges no one but has committed all judgment to the son that all, now notice, all should honor the son just as they honor the father.

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He who does not honor the son does not honor the father who sent him.

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All religions, all over the world, no matter how sincere, how devout they seem to be, if they fail or refuse to honor the son of God as he is set forth in the scriptures and beautifully set forth in the passage before us, they are not honoring

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God. God has declared that you need to honor the son in the same degree, measure, as you honor the father.

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And that's the only honor that he receives. No one can know the true

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God apart from Jesus Christ. Again, the Lord Jesus claimed exclusive knowledge of the father.

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As the father knows me, even so I know the father. And therefore only the

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Lord Jesus Christ can reveal the father. John wrote in his gospel, no one has seen

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God at any time. The only begotten son who is in the bosom of the father has declared him.

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Jesus Christ is the only way in which people can come to know the true

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God. No one who claims to know God apart from Jesus Christ actually knows

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God. And so the Lord Jesus Christ is the way to know

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God. And so it's reasonable, is it not, that the apostle Paul, when he told this church of Colossae he was praying for them, since he heard of their faith and their love for the saints, their faith in Christ, their love for the saints, he ceased not to pray for them, that they would live lives that were right before God and pleasing to God.

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And one of the ways of pleasing God was to increase in the knowledge of God. And in order to do that, you need to know

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Jesus Christ. And therefore he set forth the person of Jesus Christ in this beautiful, full manner.

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And so knowing God through his son, Jesus Christ, is the essence of what it is to be a Christian. This is really the nature of the

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Christian life, growing in our knowledge of him. That's why we're here.

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This is what we do. And I think this is what we'll be doing through eternity. He's an infinite

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God. We will never arrive. And he will be revealing himself. Paul told us he's going to be revealing his kindness to us for eternity.

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That's just one aspect of his dealing with us. We'll be learning of God and growing in our knowledge of God, our relationship with God in eternity,

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I believe. Now, before we look directly at the verses set before us with regard to the glory of Christ, which begins with verse 15, it might be good for us to just look over verses 13 and 14 closely because we had to pass over them rather quickly last

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Lord's Day. And so beginning well with verse 11, where Paul wrote, may you be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the father who's qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.

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He's delivered us from the power of darkness, conveyed us into the kingdom of the son of his love in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.

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Verse 13 speaks of God's working of bringing salvation to his people through Jesus Christ.

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Paul here speaking of God, the father, and Paul wrote of three aspects of our salvation that the

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God, the God, the father has secured for us. That's what we have in verse 13.

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First, we read that God, the father has delivered us from the power of darkness. He had just written of God having qualified his people to share in the inheritance of light.

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You have that in the previous verse. And here he speaks of God delivering us from the power of darkness.

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His people are destined to inherit the realm of light. And to do so, they first needed to be delivered from the power of darkness, darkness into light.

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This expression, power of darkness, is seen in Luke's gospel in his account of our Lord in the garden of Gethsemane.

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Our Lord spoke of it, made use of this term, when he spoke with the ones who came to arrest him.

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Jesus said to the chief priests, captains of the temple, and the elders who had come to him, have you come out as against a robber with swords and clubs?

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When I was with you daily in the temple, you did not try to seize me, but this is your hour, and here it is, the power of darkness.

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And Paul declares in Colossians 1 that God the father has delivered us from the power of darkness.

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F .F. Bruce, an English commentator about the middle of the 20th century, excellent commentator in my opinion, described this well.

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These last words of his refer to the supernatural forces marshaled against him by Satan for decisive combat, the hour of darkness.

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The dark power did indeed have its brief hour of opportunity against the son of man, but it was only a brief hour, and it ended in the utter defeat of that dark power.

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By virtue of his conquest then, Christ now has the domain of darkness and rescued those who had hitherto been fast bound under the control of its guardians.

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Here, no doubt, Paul has the Colossian heresy in view. For those very guardians, the world rulers of this darkness, as they're called in Ephesians 6 .10,

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are the principalities and powers to which the Christians of Colossae were being urged to pay some mead of homage.

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And that mead is a correct word, I had to look it up. When you have a meditation, you have a mead.

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But why should they do such a thing? They had already been rescued from the sphere dominated by those principalities, translated into the realm of the victorious son of God.

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In other words, why should they give heed to this power of darkness, these principalities? No longer was there any need for them to live in fear of those astral powers which were believed to control the destinies of men.

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Their transference into the dominion of light had been accomplished once for all.

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And that's what Paul is declaring to these people. He's giving you say you're fearful, you're concerned about these powers of darkness.

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Hey, you've been delivered from it. The Lord Jesus conquered all of that. He dealt with the power of darkness and it had its way, you know, but just a matter of hours and then it was conquered and God has delivered you.

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Well, not only are we delivered from darkness, but the second aspect of the

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Father's work of salvation is that he has conveyed us into the kingdom of the son of his law, his beloved son.

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Here's a statement of realized eschatology. That's an important phrase, realized eschatology.

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Eschatology is a doctrine of last things. Realized eschatology means that in this church age, the last things are being experienced.

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And this is what Paul is really declaring here. We've been conveyed into the kingdom of his dear son.

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Some of you were at the Bolton conference not too long ago and one of my sessions I dealt with this, that if this is really a part of the gospel, the good news of the kingdom being realized.

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And I heard after the fact, you know, of several, but one in particular pastor who reacted to me greatly because I spoke about the present realization of the kingdom and to him, no, the kingdom is future when

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Jesus comes. And so he reacted very negatively to Lloyd who was sitting next to him. And this is an important matter.

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Paul says you've been translated into the kingdom of his dear son. It's speaking about the present reality of the kingdom of his son.

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And you're in it. You've been brought out of the kingdom of darkness. You're in the kingdom of light.

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You're in the kingdom of his son. Now that kingdom will be more fully manifested and realized at the second coming, but it's present now.

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And we are a part of that now. If you're not a part of that now, then you're still in the power of darkness.

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And what kind of hope or, you know, promises that have for you? No, the apostle

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Paul spoke about realized eschatology, the promise held forth in the old

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Testament of the long awaited kingdom of God over which the promise son of David would reign is come into existence into being through Jesus Christ.

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And so, although it's not stated overtly here, it certainly is elsewhere. The formation of this kingdom and the inauguration of Jesus Christ as its king occurred after our

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Lord was crucified. He destroyed, as it were, the kingdom of darkness. And it's a power to keep his people in its clutches when he was crucified and when he was buried and then raised, he ascended into heaven and he was seated at the

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Lord as Lord at the right hand of the father. And so when the Lord saves people through faith and repentance, he delivers them from the kingdom of darkness.

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He makes them a citizen of the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God over which the Lord Jesus rules over them.

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And so as King, say, as ancient King David protected and delivered his people, we've got a greater king now who protects and delivers his people as king, as Lord of Lords.

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And so when God saves one of his people, he snatches him out of the kingdom of darkness, makes him a citizen of the kingdom of God.

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He keeps them safe, secure from all alarm. As the hymn goes, the evil one touches him, not first John 5, 18.

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All the evil one can afflict him and torment him. But with, with regard to touching him, really doing harm or damage to him spiritually, the devil is rendered absolutely powerless.

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The Lord is faithful who will establish you and guard you from the evil one is the promise of every

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Christian. And so there is a sense in which Christians have already been glorified.

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That is, they have received here and now the glory that is yet to be revealed. There is the present and yet the future aspect.

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And both things have to be understood and both things must be held in balance.

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And to emphasize one to the exclusion of others will get you into trouble. Well, the third aspect of our salvation that Paul sets before his readers is verse 14, in whom we have redemption through his blood.

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And we might even say, even the forgiveness of sadness. In verse 13,

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God's work of delivering us and preserving us is set forth. Now here in verse 14, God's work of purchasing us is set forth.

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And this, this purchase or redemption is the payment that Jesus Christ made on behalf of his people in order to satisfy

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God's justice. We, of course, owe God a great debt for having transgressed his laws.

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Our debt of sin was great. We might even argue that our debt of sin was infinite because it was against an infinite

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God. That's how Jonathan Edwards explained and justified hell.

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We deserve infinite hell because we sinned against an infinite God. You can spend 10 million years in hell, but you will not have paid your debt of sin to an infinite

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God. Infinite hell is a just punishment, even for sin committed in a finite life because it was done against an infinite

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God. And I think that it satisfies very well the teaching of Scripture.

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Nevertheless, the Lord Jesus redeemed us by his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.

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Our debt was great. Lord Jesus, through his death, of course, pouring out his life on our behalf, he satisfied that debt, fully paid that debt.

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And so, as one wrote, just as according to Israel's ancient law, the forfeited life could be ransomed, so our life forfeited through sin was ransomed by the shedding of Christ's blood.

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Our sins have been fully forgiven. We who have believed on the Lord Jesus for our salvation, redemption.

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And so there you have three aspects of salvation set forth in verse 14.

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We've been delivered from the domain of darkness. We've been placed down as citizens in the kingdom of God.

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And we've been redeemed by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus, even the forgiveness of our sins.

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Well, now we can give our attention to verse 15 and following. We've read it twice.

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We won't read it again. In these verses, we have two major themes.

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We have the preeminence of Jesus Christ in creation, verses 15 through 17. And then secondly, we have the preeminence of Jesus Christ in redemption, verses 18 through 20.

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Two subjects. And they are different subjects. And so here you have

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Jesus Christ set forth as the source and meaning for all that is and all that occurs in history.

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He is preeminent above creation. He is preeminent in the matter of redemption. And so there's security set forth here for the one in Christ Jesus.

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William Hendrickson, a sound reformed commentator, wrote of the practical application of the teaching of this passage.

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The present day application of this truth is immediately evident since the Christ of Calvary rules the heavens and the earth in the interest of his kingdom to the glory of his name, always overruling evil for good.

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Neither automation, nor bomb, nor communistic menace, nor depression, nor economic unbalance, or fatal accident, nor gradual decline in mental vigor, nor hallucination due to nervous disorder, nor any invader from outer space, about which some people have nightmares, will ever succeed in separating us from his love.

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He who tells us how to go to heaven and actually brings us there also knows how the heavens go.

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For he, all things have been created and holding together in him, through him, unto him, and causes them to perform their mission to go to the place predestined by him.

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So this is a comforting doctrine, isn't it? Christ, who is for you, is preeminent over creation and he is preeminent over redemption.

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And so here before us, God set forth the person and work of our Lord Jesus. The verses identify and describe for us what

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Jesus Christ is truly like, who is in truth. And this is important because, of course, there are many churches who will stand up and say they are preaching

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Jesus, but it's not the Jesus as he set forth, say, in this passage before us. And yet many people are duped because they assume that when they hear the name of Jesus and maybe he's even spoken about from in the

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Bible, they assume that that movement, that church, that person is legit. But this is not the case, of course.

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For there are those who promote a false Jesus, another

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Jesus, as the Scriptures declare, and people are deceived by that.

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Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 11, oh, that you would bear with me in a little folly, and indeed you do bear with me, for I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy.

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They had been deceived by false teachers. For I fear lest somehow, as the serpent deceived

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Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that it is in Christ.

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It's not that difficult. It's pretty straightforward, pretty clear. For if he who comes and preaches another

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Jesus whom we've not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you may well put up with it.

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And people do that today, too, don't they? They put up with the teaching of another

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Jesus, another gospel, and yet they think that somehow those people are of God.

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And so it's important that the Jesus we believe in is the true Jesus as he's displayed before us in Scripture.

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And here before us is one of the clearest and fullest expressions of his person.

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There are actually nine specific traits of our Lord set forth by the apostle. We don't have time to work through them today.

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And so we'll pick up next week with this. But again, verses 15 through 17, we read of the

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Lord Jesus and his preeminence in creation. And then secondarily, we'll read of his preeminence in our redemption.

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Let me urge you to read over these things, ponder upon them, maybe meditate upon them. And next,

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Lord's Day, Lord willing, we'll give some more full attention than what you had before you in these notes.

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I felt kind of bad actually having this kind of a sketchy explanation. And now we'll have opportunity to expand it somewhat.

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Lord willing, let's pray. Father, thank you for your word.

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And thank you, Father, for your glorious salvation that you've given us through Jesus Christ.

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He is our Savior and he is our Lord. And we have full trust and compliance and confidence in him as our

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Lord and Savior. And our salvation is not dependent upon us, what we do or what we don't do, but rather it's upon you, our

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Father, who've determined to save us and that you've sent your Son to accomplish that task.

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And he's fully successful in all that you set him out to do. And so we pray, our

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Father, that you would encourage your people, perhaps those who are struggling, clinging to Christ, trusting, we pray,

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Lord, that you'd settle their hearts and give them peace and a sense of security and joy as they trust themselves to Jesus Christ and him only and solely.

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We pray, Lord, that you would remove any false prop or false understanding that may have encroached in our minds about these matters and help us, our

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Lord, to affirm fully, finally, our sufficiency in Christ, for we pray in his name.