The Preeminence of Christ — Erlo Stegen

We ask you Lord Jesus to be with us, speak through your word, open the eyes of the blind, may the deaf hear, so that the light of heaven would shine in our hearts. Amen. We find our text today in the letter to the Colossians chapter 1 and we read from verse 17 and 18.

The Preeminence of Christ

And he is before all things and in him all things consist that speaks here of our Lord. 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.

Let's start with that first word in verse 17. He is before all things. And then at the end of verse 18, that in all things he may have the preeminence. Do you hear what God says about our Lord Jesus Christ?

That he is before all things, he must be before everything. And he is the beginning of all things. This is the position of Jesus Christ, the first and the last. I wonder whether to you Jesus is also the first and the last.

Whether in your life he is the beginning and the end. Jesus said that he who loves father, mother, wife, children or anyone else or himself more than me, he is not worthy of me. You who have a wife or husband, ask yourself who is the greater one to you?

Is it the Lord Jesus or is it your spouse? Your mother, your father, compare them to the Lord Jesus. Who is actually the first? Among your brothers and sisters and them or your children, who is the first?

Is it them or is it the Lord? And I don't want you to leave the service here today without the knowledge and without the firm decision that Jesus is indeed the first and the last. Jesus is also the source of all good things.

All creation was made by him and all things continue to exist through him. It is an awful tragedy. It is an awful tragedy, a terrible danger that people don't know this about the Lord Jesus Christ. That he must have the pre-eminence in everything.

It is terrible if you don't comprehend that in your own family. It is a tragic thing if a preacher doesn't understand it. It is also terrible if politicians don't understand it. It is a fearful thing to think that anybody in any form of leadership should not fully understand that Jesus is number one.

And that is why it is a terrible, accursed thing. It is an abomination, an abomination to remove the Lord Jesus Christ out of our classrooms, out of parliament, refusing to pray. If you don't... If you don't understand it now, you will understand it on the day of judgment.

When everyone from politician through to preacher through to father, mother, children, all of us will stand before him and you will understand it as they who have not acknowledged him are cast into hell.

Christ’s Birth and Death Changed History

There is a booklet written by the CFT branch in Pretoria. I read it last night and I couldn't put it down. And in that they have also made a summary of some of the things that Dr. Kennedy has written in one of his books.

Where he explains about this matter, where they say that the birth of Jesus has changed the world. And I would like to say that the death of Jesus has changed everything. Some of these points I am going to use from this extract.

I highly recommend that you take this and really count it as a sin if you don't. Just seek this out and read it for yourself. Let it dispel the darkness from your mind. Now this is a time in these weeks where the politicians are canvassing.

And they are going up and down the land promoting their party. And I say to anyone that if politics is more to you than Jesus Christ himself, you will regret it one day. And the very things that they proclaim and that they are promoting anyway will fizzle out one day.

And so it would be a terrible thing if you have been zealous for politics and not for Jesus Christ who takes the preeminence and will last forever. Consider also their enthusiasm for politics, their zeal going up and down promoting what they believe in.

How much more so we with the gospel? How shouldn't we be zealous with such a fiery zeal for our Lord Jesus Christ? In this extract it starts by saying, had Jesus never been born, this world would be a miserable place to live in.

For he is the first, he is the greatest, no one has ever been like him. He is the one who died the death of the cross. There is a certain film made by a certain man. He had lived an immoral life before, but he says that this story of Jesus Christ and his cross has revolutionized his life.

And so for years he contemplated how to make a film of the last hours of the Lord Jesus' life. And so he has made it, but he hasn't told the half. There are some who criticize that the film exaggerates.

I would rather say no, the story of the cross goes far beyond what he has tried to depict. Jesus has come with light, he has come with his way, he has come with life and with understanding. What if he had never come?

There are some, I know of one person in particular who said, I don't even believe that Jesus ever came and that he ever was crucified like that. But that same person when he writes a letter will say, I'm writing it in the year 1999 or 2004, not understanding the significance of even the date.

Because it refers immediately to A .D. There is also the B .C. era. Some people are just sitting on their brains. A .D. meaning Anno Domini. In other words, the year of the Lord. Because every book refers to that date referring back to the birth, the time of our Lord Jesus Christ.

When you write 1994 or 2000 or 2004, you are automatically acknowledging the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. In Revelation 21 verse 5, Jesus says, Behold, I make all things new. Jesus cannot touch something without it being made new and revolutionized.

When Jesus was born, the era was made new. Time was revolutionized and counting began. He touched time. His birth has changed time forever and we need to note that whatever he touches is eternally revolutionized.

Everything that the Lord Jesus has touched and all blessings in this world has been because of Jesus. And all academics, all professors who don't acknowledge the Lord Jesus, they automatically make themselves to be fools.

So when Jesus came, it utterly changed the way we use the word. The way we use time and the way we think about time. And that same atheist who says, well, he was never there, but they are acknowledging it even when they write the date.

Everything, every era, every kingdom, every empire always crumbles and disappears into nothing. But the kingdom of the Lord Jesus and he himself never sees rottenness or decay. Napoleon said, I search in vain in history to find anyone similar to Jesus Christ or anything which can approach the gospel.

Human Dignity and the Value of Life

I'll touch a few things and speak to you as an educated person. Even the very sanctity of life, the value of a human person, the value of people has been made by Jesus Christ. Before the coming of Jesus, what was a person's life worth?

It was cheap. The value of a human life was considered from a barbaric point of view to be cheap, to be worth nothing. That is how many still today who are atheists, like in our country, they just take a life and they consider the next person's life to be worthless.

But to those who have Jesus, because of Jesus coming, they value highly the value, the dignity of the next person. And so we proclaim now that every single human being is worth more than the whole world put together.

Just one soul, whether an adult or even a baby, every person is more valuable than the world put together. That is because of Jesus. Before his coming, what was a human being? They would consider life to be like that of a goat, just to be slaughtered.

The question is then, had Jesus never come, had he never died on the cross, what would it be like in this era? Would you be here? You probably wouldn't even exist. But before Jesus came, the nations would take their children, the pagans, and offer them.

And even offer their babies as sacrifices to the demons to be burnt. There's plenty of archaeological evidence all over the world of those temples, those altars where they would sacrifice babies to demons, to spirits.

There's plenty of evidence of altars where people would sacrifice their very own children. Just think how cheap lives were. The prophets of Baal and Asheroth and them, they would sacrifice babies, children, people, being murderers.

And you find that the pagan heart still today counts that life to be cheap, where a person would sacrifice their own children, a mother will abort her very own baby who is inside her. In those days there was the practice of infanticide, where a mother, if her child was infirm or in any way disabled, they would take the child out to the forest to be eaten by beasts, animals.

Do you see what the world would be like without Jesus? And look at it, you struggle and you kill, it's not that you're killing English or Africans or whatever others, you're killing your own children.

The Christians, those who had received Jesus, Those first Christians then rescued these babies, they counted every life as precious, and they cherished lives, they took these children, raised them up as believers, they started orphanages, they started homes.

It's because of what Jesus brought. Those who don't have Jesus, they don't have anything to show of what they have really done. They spend their lives on their own desires, on their drugs, on their alcohol, on their immorality.

If you don't have Jesus, you don't have anything to show of what you have done. If you don't have Jesus, you don't have anything to show of what you have done. If you don't have Jesus, you don't have anything to show of what you have done.

And those with Jesus in their hearts know His words, because Jesus speaks. He said, for instance, let the children come to me. And so that is why the Christians have always counted lives, children, as very precious to God, and have rescued and saved children.

On the other hand, you'll find that ungodly governments like ours proclaim that you can legally kill your own child in the womb, abortion. I don't know how people who abort their babies will be able to stand on Judgment Day.

When one thinks of people like Joseph Stalin, who had so much blood in his hands, and as he was dying, how he cried out that, I'm drowning in a sea of blood. And that is only naturally the case, because people who refuse Jesus Christ automatically have a murderous heart and want to kill.

A person without Jesus has no pity and mercy on the infirm and little children, but one who has Christ in the heart will be compassionate even to the most disabled child, whatever might be wrong with them.

Christ’s Elevation of Women

And you women should especially serve the Lord Jesus and have Him in your hearts, because before Jesus came, women weren't considered to be of real value. Their lives were cheap. Their lives were cheap.

For a very long time, we've been saying that if you don't have the Lord, you girls will be cheap. That is why we say that AIDS travels with wheels. Haven't we been saying this for a long time? That a girl doesn't know where this lorry driver comes from, he's driving a log lorry and she just allows herself to be picked up and she gets AIDS from it.

And Without Christ, you'll find that the culture denigrates women, doesn't treat them of any value. If only you knew when we were growing up what it was like. You are in a different era now, but if you knew then how they treated women, how her life was considered to be of no value.

It is through Jesus that the lives of women have been seen to be of value. He has uplifted their lot. So live accordingly. Do you know that during the Roman Empire, half of the population were slaves?

The Gospel and the End of Slavery

In Athens, where Paul preached, three quarters of the population were slaves. And you know what a life of a slave was like? A slave didn't earn a salary. He was treated like a dog. The slave owner could treat him as he wanted to and abuse him according to his whim.

If he wanted to kill him, he could do that, just as he felt. Do you remember the story of that girl who was 16 years old? Remember the story I've told before you who are here, that 16 year old girl who was manacled as a slave?

Slavery has always been rampant, but it was through the Gospel and its influence, through the Lord Jesus Christ, that slavery was brought to an end. But in Islamic countries, there is slavery practiced till today.

Christians have tried to get rid of slavery in Islamic countries. No, the slaves want to make an uprising. The slaves have tried uprisings in Islamic countries. And they've tried to fight against their lot and slavery.

But you would be surprised if I were to say the name of a person who has been brought over to just suppress the truth and not to allow this to be known and where there is active fighting against this practice.

God worked through his people centuries ago. People in Britain, like William Wilberforce, who brought an end to official slavery in those kingdoms. I was just mentioning Mr. Sinzheimer's husband had been named Wilberforce.

Christian Compassion for the Poor and Vulnerable

But should you remove the Lord Jesus out of a culture, if you take him away, there is automatic devolution, de-civilization, a going backwards. It is Jesus who taught us to care for the poor. Let me read for you, for example, a verse in the Bible, like Proverbs.

Proverbs 14 verse 21. He who despises his neighbor sins, but he who has mercy on the poor, happy is he, he is blessed. He who despises his neighbor sins, but he who has mercy on the poor, happy is he, he is blessed.

He who despises his neighbor sins, but he who has mercy on the poor, happy is he, he is blessed. He who despises his neighbor sins, but he who has mercy on the poor, happy is he, he is blessed. Jesus emphasized compassion on the weak, on the hurt, on the poor.

Take for example his parable about the good Samaritan. Others ignored him. This man who was suffering there, who had been beaten up, but it was a Samaritan, a person of mixed race, who felt compassion.

The Lord Jesus used that as an example. His civilization, western civilization. Jesus used that as an example. Jesus used that as an example. He who has mercy on the poor, happy is he, he is blessed. He who despises his neighbor sins, but he who has mercy on the poor, happy is he, he is blessed.

Old age homes were established as a direct result of Christian principles, the teachings of Jesus. Widows, orphans, the sick and the disabled were not cared for by the state, but by the church. When politicians try to do these things themselves, they make a mess of it.

It is Christians who have made a success of helping the poor, the widows, the orphans, etc. Only then is there progress, is there civilization. Look for example at the Salvation Army, which was established in many countries today.

They are the ones who have been helping the poor, helping those who don't have and taking in the socially rejected. If any group that rejects the gospel, if you put your cross to support them and vote for them, I feel sorry for you.

Christian Foundations of Education

Schools were established as a direct result of Christian civilization. There were missionaries, there were priests who went and established schools in every country where they were. Colleges and universities were established because of the religion of Jesus Christ.

But today, now you find people in those very institutions where they reject the gospel. Where they now insist out with the gospel, let it go away, but remember that these colleges and universities, that they even exist, and that these books and things that you read that might be against the gospel now, but they were established originally through Christian civilization.

Oral languages became written languages through missionaries, through Christians who went and established a written code of what was orally spoken. And they put it down, that's why you can read and write.

They originally taught the Bible, they taught the people to read the Bible. If your teacher never taught you, I teach you today. If your teacher never taught you, I teach you today. If your teacher never taught you, I teach you today.

Like in India where they have not had old age homes in the past, but they have had for a long time old age homes for cows. They would build special buildings to look after aged cows, but not for people.

In Germany today, heathendom is beginning to return. In Germany today, heathendom is beginning to return. In Germany today, heathendom is beginning to return. In Germany today, heathendom is beginning to return.

In Germany today, heathendom is beginning to return. So the opposite, the confusion, the contradiction comes in because they downgrade the gospel of the Lord and that which is pagan they upgrade and make that to become preeminent.

That which is pagan they upgrade and make that to become preeminent. That which is pagan they upgrade and make that to become preeminent. Luther and Calvin said all education must be in accordance with Jesus Christ because he has established education.

And those nations which accepted those teachings have progressed, they have become civilized and they have invented things because Jesus Christ enlightens the mind. And those nations which accepted those teachings have progressed, they have become civilized and they have invented things because Jesus Christ enlightens the mind.

And those nations which accepted those teachings have progressed, they have become civilized and they have invented things because Jesus Christ enlightens the mind. And scientific advances also through Christians but compare it to other countries that have not received the gospel like in China and in India and see the degradation, the poverty, lack of progress.

You'll find on the other hand those Indians who came to our country here, they've been clever, they've advanced and they came as cane cutters and they've progressed since then but back in their own country you'll find millions still sleeping on newspapers in the street.

Christianity, Science, and Economic Progress

Take out the gospel of Jesus and you'll see, remove the light and darkness automatically has entrance. Extract the salt and you'll find that rottenness will set in. The scientific age is pre-eminently through Christianity and there are some who say that science and religion and Christianity is in contradiction.

Not at all, it is because of Christianity that science came into being. There was the age of the steam engine, that era. Now it's more properly called the nuclear age. Or the computer age. Or the space age.

The scientific revolution has had its basis, its roots in Christianity or those who had a Christian background. Those without the gospel still used animal dung to stop them sweating under their arms on that.

As a deodorant. Try and expel the gospel, try and dismiss Jesus and you'll see what will happen. You devolve to become like the primates. Other people will laugh about you, will scoff as they drink tea discussing what happened to you.

I don't have time to mention all the different points, the sun would go down and anyway this afternoon I need to go somewhere. Even economic progress had its foundation in the gospel. Just look at people who have been connected to missions.

Those who have built at missions or around missions, those who have been in that environment have progressed economically. They and their offspring have been more educated and have had better jobs. A person with Jesus stops sweating under his arms.

A person with a lazy lifestyle, they become hardworking, they become inventive, they are able to build and do things that mean progress to them and can supply their needs. A hundred years ago orphanages were still in existence in Europe but it's not necessary anymore because of the economic progress that has been made.

It's not necessary anymore because of the economic progress that has been made. It's not necessary anymore because of the economic progress that has been made. It's not necessary anymore because of the economic progress that has been made.

It's not necessary anymore because of the economic progress that has been made. It's not necessary anymore because of the economic progress that has been made. It's not necessary anymore because of the economic progress that has been made.

It's not necessary anymore because of the economic progress that has been made. You'll only go backwards. You can take any other field like health. There's been progress because of the gospel. It is the gospel that causes people to be healthy.

It is the gospel that causes people to be healthy. It is said we now have freedom in our country. What freedom when there are so many people dying as never before. Look at the people dying because of diseases like AIDS, because of criminality.

There's never been as many people dying in South Africa because of these unnatural causes than since this freedom. Go to an AIDS patient as they're dying and ask, well, what has freedom done for you? There's no medicine like the medicine of the gospel.

The gospel heals people. Jesus commanded his people to go out and to pray for the sick, to lay hands on the sick. Jesus' gospel is connected to health and healing. And there is no pill like the gospel because it is also protective in nature.

Not only does it heal, but it secures you from being attacked by these things because you don't do the things that will cause ill health. Yes, there are the sicknesses. But remember, hospitals... Hospitals were founded because of Christianity and the present hospital systems, nursing.

That began with Christians, even though today you might find unbelievers and atheists in these very hospitals. But why don't you go and read history and understand these things? Or do you still need to be nursed because you're such a baby, you don't know your very own history?

You'll find that there are still hospitals in existence, like St. Augustine's and St. John's. Hospitals like that because of their Christian background. But today you'll find doctors working in them who don't believe in Christ and who give injections and practice their medicine, being atheists.

More than 100 years ago, before the 20th century, you found that there were hospitals, but they were made for the poor. Rich people were seen to by doctors at home. But today you'll find that there are still hospitals in existence, like St. John's.

Christian Contributions to Medicine and Public Health

And he, Louis Pasteur, for instance, as a Frenchman and an outspoken Christian, he was involved in the area of bacteriology and made great progress in that field. Bacteria, germs, the tiniest invisible things but which can cause diseases.

Today we use words like to pasteurize something. That means to make completely germ-free. They would stop the bacteria through different techniques and we know that because of Louis Pasteur. Like the practice of sterilization today.

It wasn't like that before, but it was through these Christian doctors that they invented these things like we would sterilize water today, make sure that no germs find entrance. Vaccines. Have you been vaccinated?

If you feel on your arm, or don't you both, you should know on your arm already that you've been vaccinated. Vaccination against many deadly diseases. Vaccination against many diseases was based on the research of these Christian scientists.

If you come with other stuff and reject the gospel, then rather keep quiet about it. If you keep your mouth shut, people will at least think you're a fool. Think that you're wise if you don't say foolish things.

Even if you are a fool, but if you keep your mouth shut, people might think you're a wise man or a wise girl. The average lifespan of the world is 28 years. In the time of A .D. 33, the average lifespan that's across the world was approximately 28 years of age.

People died very quickly and few made it to old age. But by 1990, the average human lifespan was 62. But with the increasing lifespan, it was directly the influence of missionaries and what they brought to these different areas.

It was because missionaries also taught a different lifestyle and they said don't live in this way. Don't use drink, don't be drunk, don't use these narcotics and so that helped them. They also built hospitals for the sick.

The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is all things and it also makes people to be healthy. You know what scientists have found as they researched among doctors? Scientific studies have shown that going to church and being committed spiritually is good for your health physically and mentally.

And it's not preachers who try to preach the gospel. It is scientists who have researched and found that those who are committed spiritually, who go to church, they are more likely to live longer and to have a healthier life because of the way that they live.

Some doctors in hospitals, they even recommend for the patients that they should be able to sing choruses, they should have the Bible read to them, that they would feel better even physically. When my wife was about to pass away, she told me that the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is all things.

And it's not preachers who try to preach the gospel. Because the presence of Christ, even if we are dying, is there. If you want to discard Christianity, then go back to complete pagan living with the skins and with all those things that you know from the past.

Doctors also said, your wife has been so courageous, she should have been dead a long time ago. I said to them, it is the Lord who brings that about. Let Jesus be preeminent in all things. Ask yourself, is Jesus first to you?

A Call to Make Christ First

If he's not the first to you, and it's instead your girlfriend or boyfriend or son, repent today. If Jesus is not the very first one in your life, make him to be the first today. I ask you, your wife, your husband, your old person or child, whoever you are, is Jesus the first in your life?

If he's not, make him to be the very first. If you doubt that, it would be good if you would openly choose the Lord Jesus Christ, publicly show. You could come down here and kneel, calling on the Lord, if you have not made him the first in your life, in the past.

You see, in everything, in schooling, in health, Jesus is number one. He is the first. He has preeminence. Make him preeminent in your life too. Shall we pray? Lord Jesus, examine every single life, every heart here, whether you are the first in the life of that person.

And if there is anyone who hasn't given you the first place, and hasn't given you the first place, Lord, grant them repentance, so that they will be able to mourn and to repent and turn away from their sins, that you might be the first in their lives.

That it might be clearly evident in every life that Jesus is the number one in their lives. Amen. You can be seated. Lawrence Nightingale, you may have heard of her. She was born in 1820, and died in 1910.

Christian Service in Nursing and Humanitarian Aid

She is the founder of modern nursing. And that she had compassion on the sick and the wounded was directly because of the Gospel. She was especially influenced by a certain pastor in Germany, a Lutheran pastor.

His name was Theodore Flitner. She was blessed by him. She was directly influenced by that spiritual influence. And she said, I don't want to get married, I just want to serve. She went out helping ex-convicts.

She taught nurses how to nurse. She went into war zones when the British were at war with the Russians. She went into war zones when the British were at war with the Russians. She went into war zones when the British were at war with the Russians.

She recruited nurses from young ladies from Christian groups, and it was the Lord first. Today, nursing is so different. It's money first, and the needs of the patient come second. It's money first, and the needs of the patient come second.

She became a legend in her time. She became known as the body with the lamp because she would go into these war zones and hospitals visiting late at night with her lamp. And she became a heroine through that.

Even the Red Cross had its roots in Christianity. Even the Red Cross had its roots in Christianity. The founder of the Red Cross was a man called Dunant, a Christian man who witnessed a battle in Italy and saw the battlefield and the dead.

He got a committee of five together, founded the International Red Cross, which would work on any side with non-political alliances, would not take sides with any group. In 1864, there were about twenty-four members of the Red Cross.

It was in 1864 when he got twenty-four delegates from sixteen different nations together and they founded officially then the International Red Cross. Millions have been helped. It was as a direct result of his Christian belief that it happened.

I feel sorry for you who don't have the Gospel. Maybe it's only in hell that you'll wake up and realize the truth. It shouldn't need me to tell you. You should be knowing these things of yourself. You should study to know these things.

And you should call out to him to make sure that he does have the preeminence, he who died and rose again. There shouldn't be any person in this world who's ashamed of being a Christian and propagating the Gospel.

But if you are, forgive me repeating and repeating you're the biggest fool in this world. Your brains, whether they be great or little, are in your backside and not in your head. And you're sitting upon it.

You can sit on eggs after twenty-one days. They'll hatch if your weight isn't too big to break them. But these eggs that you are sitting on, I don't think you'll have any chicks in this world and in the world to come.