Thank you for being with us today. This teaching is brought to you by Heralds of Hope; we are a small ministry using media to make disciples. We recently started working our way through Paul’s book to the Colossians. In chapter one, there is a remarkable passage about our Messiah. These five incredible verses will be the focus of our teaching today and the next lesson.
In this lesson and the next, we will discuss the Preeminent Christ. J Mark will explain this passage by looking at three proofs of His preeminence. The three proofs are relationships: one to His deity, another to creation, and the last to the church. Let’s go to Colossians one and grow our understanding of Jesus.
Our world is filled with deception. Dishonest people prey on others’ ignorance or carelessness to cheat them out of their money or possessions. This problem isn’t new; it has existed since sin entered the human family.
When I was in my late teens, I traveled to a big city with my brother, who was a truck driver. On the street, a man approached me wearing a dozen or more watches on his arm. He claimed he would sell me a brand-name watch at a very low price. So, I bought one.
Later, when I showed it to my brother, he said, “It’s either fake or stolen.” He was right. We looked at the watch closely, and it wasn’t a brand I knew. It was a piece of junk.
Once, when I was visiting an Asian country, my host told me that he didn’t think the country had a properly licensed copy of Microsoft Windows! It was all pirated or bootleg. The same was true in the myriad shops along the streets of the capital selling brand-name footwear and clothing. He told me that the vast majority of it was knock-offs from China.
Watches, software, clothing, and other things aren’t of much enduring value. If a dishonest or shrewd salesman takes advantage of me, the consequences usually aren’t that great. I may lose some money or end up with a worthless product.
But what if I believe things about myself and about the world that aren’t accurate? What if my beliefs about God and Jesus aren’t correct? What are the consequences of that? Deception in these areas can lead me to eternal ruin!
The people in Colossae struggled to understand who Jesus was adequately. Gnosticism was making inroads into the church. Gnosticism embraced a Jesus but not the Jesus of divine revelation in the Holy Scripture. Paul knew that unless the Believers in Colossae truly understood who Jesus was according to Scripture, they were headed for eternal ruin. Similarly, many people today have a distorted view of Jesus. They create a Jesus out of their imagination.
In Colossians 1:15 to 20, Paul emphatically proclaims Christ as preeminent. That means He is supreme over everything and everyone. Paul emphasizes Christ’s relationship to three specific things to prove his assertion. To learn those particular things, let’s read Colossians 1:15 to 20. After I read the Scripture, I’ll share my teaching on “The Preeminent Christ.”
15 He [Jesus]is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
16 For by Him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, dominions, principalities, or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.
17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.
18 He is the head of the body, the church, the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that He may have the preeminence in all things.
19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, <...
