Colossians 1:15-20 –

¹⁵He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. ¹⁶For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. ¹⁷And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. ¹⁸And 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. ¹⁹For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, ²⁰and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

Introduction

I want to thank Darrel very much for preaching last Sunday. I was able to listen to his sermon on the way home from the conference that Pastor Colin and I attended. It was clear, biblical, hopeful, immediately applicable, and Christ-centered—all the ingredients of a good sermon. I prayed that you all would have been as encouraged by it as I was. In particular, I prayed that the things he commended to us would be our mind and heart whenever suffering comes our way (which, providentially, fits very well with this sermon). Thank you, Darrel. You served us well.

And now, welcome back to Colossians. More specifically, welcome back to Colossians 1:15-20. More specifically still, welcome back to the heart of the letter and Paul’s answer to the question of how the Colossian Christians (and all followers of Christ) are to navigate hardship (persecution and false teaching for the Colossians).

His answer is to make sure that nothing other than the preeminence of Jesus (the supremacy of Jesus; the reality that Jesus has first place in everything; that Jesus is all and in all) is at the center of the story we tell ourselves whenever trials—whatever their form—befall us.

At the same time—and this really is the key, Grace Church—in order to make sure the preeminence of Jesus is truly and helpfully at the center of the story we tell ourselves in times of trial, Paul knew that we must know, in real, concrete terms what it means that Jesus is preeminent; how Jesus is preeminent; what forms Jesus’ preeminence takes.

In other words, it does us no good to believe lies about Jesus’ preeminence. And it is not enough to know true things about Jesus’ preeminence in vague or abstract ways. To find real help through real suffering, we need to know the specifics of Jesus’ glorious preeminence. We need that now every bit as much as the Colossians needed it then.

As I mentioned in my last sermon on Colossians, we’re going to consider the various aspects of Jesus’ preeminent nature (mentioned in this passage), slowly over the next several weeks. We’ll begin looking at them this morning with the first aspect named by Paul and the big idea of this sermon: Jesus is preeminent in that He is the image of the invisible God. The main takeaway is to learn look unto Jesus when life is hard by remembering that He is with us and that one day we will see Him face to face.

What does it mean that Jesus Is the image of the invisible God?

There are two main questions that drive this sermon: (1) What does it mean that Jesus is the image of the invisible God? And (2) How does knowing that help us in our suffering?

God Is Spirit and Spirit Is Invisible

In answer to the first question, there are three key points: God is spirit and spirit is invisible, God made Himself visible at times throughout the OT, and Jesus is the ultimate revelation of God.

In the famous passage recounting Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus taught several significant truths. Among them is the fact that “God is spirit” (John 4:24). By that He meant that God the Father is non-physical. He has no body or parts. He has no size or dimensions.

That God is spirit means that He is not a being. He is being.

Scholars have called this “pure being” or “the fullness or essence of being” (Grudem, ST, 187).

This is why God’s most holy name is “I AM” (Exodus 3:14).

And He is not optional being, but necessary being. He can’t not be. And all other being comes from Him.

And yet, spiritual being is undetectable by ordinary senses. Like wind, spirit is very real and able to bring about very real effects, but it is also invisible. The Father is spirit and He is invisible. That is a key aspect of His nature and our experience of it.

Before we move on, Grace Church, if this aspect of God’s nature does not stir you to worship, you do not yet understand it. For millennia, philosophers and theologians have pondered the question of what constitutes “being” (the fancy word is “ontology”). The greatest human minds recognize the significance of the question, even if they are incompetent to truly grasp it. God is the answer to the question. He is spirit. He is being. He is the purest and highest form of reality. He is the only non-derivative reality.

That’s staggering. That’s amazing. That is worthy of our praise. That is part of what makes Jesus’ preeminent and His preeminence help in times of trouble.

I invite you to pause and pray, asking God the Father to fill you with the awe and peace that will come as you recognize that He is more fully real and present right here, right now than anything you can see with your eyes.

God Made Himself Visible

While it is staggering, amazing, and worthy of praise, the fact that it makes Him undetectable by ordinary senses makes us wonder how we can even know there is a God, much less how we might interact with Him or have a relationship with Him, much less find help from Him when life is hard.

There are two answers to this question. First, God made us with spirits. While that’s a different sermon for a different day, it’s important to note that there is “some communication from God to us of a spiritual nature” (Grudem, ST, 188)—His spirit to ours. In other words, and this is all I’ll say about it, as Romans 1 teaches, even though the fact that God is spirit means we can’t perceive him with ordinary senses, we are made with more than ordinary senses such that everyone knows there is a God through conscience and creation—through His effects in us and around us.

The second answer, which I’ll say more about since it’s more relevant to this sermon, is that God has, at times, made Himself detectible by our senses. He has chosen to allow people to hear and feel and even see Him through created means.

Have you ever heard the term “theophany”? It’s a combination of two words, “God” and “appearance”. Combined, as I imagine you can imagine, they refer to an appearance of God. Theophanies are all over in the OT. God made Himself felt, heard, and seen to His creatures through various aspects of His creation (wind, fire, light, etc.). Let me share a few examples.

The first is found right at the beginning of the Bible. In Genesis 3, Adam and Eve, still in the Garden of Eden, “heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. ⁹But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, ‘Where are you?’”

As we just saw, God is spirit. Which means, again as we just saw, that He has no body to walk with, much less rustle leaves or grass as He walked (“the sound of the Lord walking in the garden”). Likewise, He has no mouth with which to speak (“He called to the man and said…”). And yet Adam and Eve heard and saw God because God made Himself audible and visible through ordinary (even fallen) eyes and ears by means of the things He made (grass and twigs and pebbles and vibrating molecules/atoms?).

Another early OT theophany is found in Exodus 3. There we Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law when, unexpectedly, he encountered “the angel of the Lord” (which is God Himself). God “appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush.” And there, “the Lord saw that [Moses] turned aside to see [Him].” God “called to him out of the bush, ‘Moses, Moses!’ … ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’”

The invisible, God of spirit made Himself seen and heard for the benefit of His chosen spokesman.

A bit later in Exodus (24:7), God appeared to all the Israelites. This time, “the appearance of the glory of the LORD was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel.”

Maybe the most famous OT theophany ...