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CHRIST IS SUPREME
A. Introduction: For a number of weeks we have been looking at what the people who walked and talked with
Jesus believed about Him. The 27 documents (books and letters) that make up the New Testament
were all written by eyewitness of Jesus (or close associates of the eyewitnesses).
1. These men wrote what they saw and heard from Jesus, as well as what they came to believe about Him—
who He is, why He came into this world, and what He accomplished through His death and resurrection.
a. We are living in a time of increasing religious deception (Matt 24:4-5; 11). Much of the deception
centers on Jesus—who He is, why He came to earth, and how Christians are supposed to live.
1. It has become increasingly common to hear people say that, although Jesus was a good man
who gave us principles to live by, He never claimed to be God, nor did He rise from the dead.
2. Others say that Jesus came to bring peace to this world and to teach us how to love each other.
He was just one of many wise teachers in antiquity we can look to for guidance on how to live.
b. And, since Jesus is called the Son of God, even sincere Christians see Jesus as less than He really is.
They don’t have a clear understanding of who He is, why He came, or how Christians should live.
2. We’re taking time to look at who Jesus is and why He came, according to the eyewitnesses. We want to
be so familiar with Jesus and the message He proclaimed that we can easily recognize false Christs and
false gospels. (We’ll deal with how we’re supposed to live in an upcoming series.)
B. The first Christians (the eyewitnesses) believed that Jesus was and is God become fully man without ceasing
to be fully God—one Person with two natures, human and Divine.
1. Before we look at what the eyewitnesses wrote about Jesus, we need to make some statements about the
Bible itself—what it is and why it was written. The Bible is a collection of 66 books written by more
than 40 authors over a 1500 year period (1400 BC to 100 AD).
a. The Bible reveals God and His plan for humanity. Every book in the Bible somehow adds to or
advances God’s revelation of Himself and His plan. The Bible is 50% history, 25% prophecy, and
25% instructions for living.
b. The Bible reveals that God created human beings to become His sons and daughters through faith in
Him—sons and daughters who live in loving relationship with Him and are fully glorifying to Him.
1. However, humanity has chosen independence from God through sin, making us all unfit for the
family. But God devised a plan to recover His family through Jesus. Eph 1:4-5
2. Through His sacrificial death on the Cross, Jesus opened the way for sinful men and women to
be restored to God through faith in Him and His sacrifice. I Pet 3:18
c. The Bible is progressive revelation. God has gradually revealed Himself and His plan until we
have the full revelation given in Jesus in the New Testament.
1. The New Testament was written by eyewitnesses of Jesus (or close associates of eyewitnesses)
men who walked and talked with Jesus, saw Him die, and then saw Him alive again.
2. They wrote the New Testament documents as part of their efforts to tell the world who Jesus is
and what He accomplished through His death, burial, and resurrection
2. The Bible reveals that God is Triune. He is one Being who simultaneously manifests as three distinct,
but not separate, Persons—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit (the Trinity).
a. Two thousand years ago the Second Person of the Trinity, God the Son, took on a full human nature
(incarnated) in the womb of a Jewish woman, a virgin named Mary. When He was born into this
world, He was given the name Jesus, which means Savior. Luke 1:31-35; Matt 1:18-25
1. Jesus is called the Son of God because He is God and possesses the qualities of God. In the
culture Jesus was born into, son of meant sameness of nature, on the order of. When Jesus
called Himself the Son of God, everyone understood what He was saying. John 5:17-18
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2. Jesus is also referred to as the Son of God, not because He is somehow less than God, but
because God is the Father of His humanity. His human nature was conceived by the power of
God the Holy Spirit in Mary’s womb. Matt 1:20; Luke 1:35
b. Jesus (God the Son) was and is co-equal with God the Father. But He took a subordinate position
for the purpose of accomplishing our redemption and salvation from sin. Jesus lowered Himself,
not by putting off His Deity, but by taking on a human nature.
1. Although Jesus was God, He humbled Himself and took on a full human nature so that He could
die as the perfect sacrifice for sin (Phil 2:6-8; Heb 2:9-15). God Himself came into this world
to die for our sin. He came to seek and save His lost family (John 3:16; Luke 19:10),
2. And although Jesus is the Son of God, He is not less than God. Jesus is God with a human
nature. When He took on a human nature in Mary’s womb, Jesus remained what He was—
Eternal Deity. This is the mystery of the Incarnation. I Tim 3:16
c. None of the eyewitnesses attempted to explain the Trinity or the Incarnation; they simply accepted
what they saw and heard. Note something that Paul the apostle (an eyewitness) wrote about Jesus.
Notice that in his statement, Paul references the Trinity and Jesus’ two natures, human and Divine.
1. Rom 1:1-4—This letter is from Paul, Jesus Christ’s slave, chosen by God to be an apostle and
sent out to preach his Good News…about His Son Jesus (NLT), Who as to the flesh (His human
nature) was descended from David; And [as to His divine nature] (Amp) was shown to be the
Son of God when God powerfully raised him from the dead by means of the Holy Spirit (NLT).
2. Jesus’ resurrection authenticated everything He said about Himself. Every doubt or question
the eyewitnesses had, as to Jesus’ true identity, was removed when they saw Him alive again.
3. Inaccurate and even false teaching about Jesus is not unique to our time. Even before the eyewitnesses
died, challenges to the gospel message (who Jesus is and why He came) began to arise.
a. False teachers denied either the humanity of Jesus (He wasn’t truly a man) or the Deity of Jesus (He
wasn’t truly God). By the second century these ideas developed into what is known as Gnosticism.
b. Gnosticism comes from a Greek word that means to have knowledge. Gnostics claimed to have
special knowledge about God that was not available to everyone. They believed that through this
knowledge one can escape the prison of the physical body at death and be reunited with God.
c. They believed that knowledge gained through secret doctrines and mystical experiences is the key to
this salvation. There was a wide variety of sometimes conflicting beliefs under the umbrella of
Gnosticism. Here are some of the Gnostic beliefs related to who Jesus is and how we should live.
1. Some viewed the physical world as evil which led to the claim that Jesus was not a material,
physical being. Some Gnostics taught that He only seemed to be human and only seemed to
die and rise from the dead. This led to a denial of the Incarnation and His bodily resurrection.
2. Some believed that Jesus was just one of several manifestations of an eternal, incomprehensible
God. They said that Jesus was a special man, but not Divine. He was indwelled by God’s
power (the Christ) at His baptism, but the Christ left Him before the crucifixion.
3. They taught that because the physical world is evil, what you do with your body is unimportant.
You can either be an ascetic and practice extreme self denial or indulge the body’s every desire.
4. Much of what the eyewitnesses wrote about in the New Testament epistles (letters) was written to
address and counter these and other various false ideas. Consider a quick, but important side note.
a. We often try to understand the Bible from the standpoint of what it means to me. But the Bible was
not written to you and me. The Bible was written by real people to other real people at a specific
point in history, to communicate important information about God’s redemptive plan.
b. Everything in the Bible was written by someone to someone about something. In order to properly
interpret a verse, we must always consider these three factors because they set the context. A
passage can’t mean something to us that it would not have meant to the original readers and hearers.
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c. For the rest of the lesson we’re going to consider some things Paul wrote to a specific church (group,
assembly of believers) that was being affected by false teachings—the church at Colossae. This
will help us see what the eyewitnesses and the first Christians believed about Jesus.
C. Colossae was a minor city about one hundred miles east of the great city of Ephesus. Both cities were
located in what is today western Turkey. Paul went to Ephesus, preached the Gospel, established a church,
and spent three years there teaching the believers (AD 56-59).
1. His efforts were tremendously successful, and his ministry greatly impacted the entire region (Acts
19:1-20; Acts 20:31). Although Paul himself never went to nearby Colossae, it is believed that the
message of Jesus and His resurrection spread to the city through the effects of Paul’s work at Ephesus.
a. Paul wrote an epistle (letter) to the Colossians while imprisoned in Rome, on account of his faith in
Jesus (AD 60-61). The letter was in response to a visit from a man from Colossae named Epaphras.
1. Epaphras may have been converted to Jesus under Paul’s ministry at Ephesus, and may have
been the founder and pastor of the church at Colossae.
2. Epaphras brought word to Paul that the believers in Colossae were being influenced by false
teaching. Paul wrote the Epistle to the Colossians to address this issue.
b. We don’t know exactly what the false teaching was because Paul didn’t say. Paul didn’t have to
explain things to the Colossians that we might need explained, since he was writing to people who
already had an established context for his words of instruction. Remember, he wasn’t writing to us.
2. We have to piece together what the Colossian heresy was through what Paul wrote. (A heresy is a
teaching that contradicts the teachings of Jesus’ original apostles.) The Colossian heresy seems to have
been a mixture of Jewish legalism, Greek philosophy, and eastern mysticism. It was probably an early
form of Gnosticism, as opposed to full blown Gnosticism (which developed in the 2nd century AD).
a. Paul’s response to the Colossians in his letter indicates that the teaching said that complete salvation
does not come through faith in Christ alone. According to this heresy, one has to keep aspects of
the Jewish law and have secret knowledge obtained through mystical experiences.
b. It stressed circumcision, dietary regulations, ritual observances, and worship of angels. Note some
of the statements Paul made which give us an idea of some of the aspects of this false teaching.
1. Col 2:8—Don’t let anyone lead you astray with empty philosophy and high-sounding nonsense
that comes from human thinking and from the evil powers of this world, and not from Christ
(NLT).
2. Col 2:11—When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised”, but not by a physical procedure.
It was a spiritual procedure—the cutting away of your sinful nature (NLT).
3. Col 2:16-17—So don’t let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink, or for not celebrating
certain holy days, or new-moon ceremonies or Sabbaths. For these things were only shadows
of the real thing, Christ himself (NLT).
4. Col 2:18-19—Don’t let anyone condemn you by insisting on self-denial. And don’t let anyone
say you must worship angels, even though they say they have visions about this…these people
…are not connected to Christ (NLT).
c. Notice that in each statement, Paul brought it back to Jesus. In the letter, Paul’s answer to the false
teaching was to clearly state who Jesus is and what He has done for us. In response to the idea that
there is a secret wisdom and hidden mystery given to enlightened individuals, Paul wrote:
1. Col 1:25-27—I have been commissioned to make known the “mystery hidden for ages and
generations…which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (ESV).
2. Col 2:2-4—I want (you) to have full confidence because (you) have complete understanding of
God’s secret plan, which is Christ himself. In him lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge. I am telling you this so that no one will be able to deceive you with persuasive
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arguments (NLT).
3. In his letter, Paul included an early creed or statement of belief (Col 1:15-20). The concept of putting
together creeds, which were then either recited or sung, goes back to the eyewitnesses and began
immediately after Jesus’ crucifixion, resurrection, and return to Heaven.
a. The gospel was communicated orally at first, and oral creeds helped people learn and remember the
doctrine (or teaching) of the apostles. These creeds tell us what the eyewitnesses and the first
Christians believed about Jesus. They believed that Jesus was and is God. Let’s look at the creed.
b. Col 1:15—[Now] He (Jesus) is the exact likeness of the unseen God—the visible representation of
the invisible; He is the Firstborn—of all creation (Amp).
1. Note, Jesus can’t be a created being (just a man) because no created being can perfectly express
the image of the invisible God. Jesus is the Firstborn of all creation (every created thing).
2. The Greek word translated firstborn is prototokos. The first readers understood this word to be
a title, not a reference to birth or origin. Firstborn does not mean that God created Jesus or that
that Jesus had an inferior relationship with (was less than) the Father.
A. The word can mean firstborn as in first son born. The word is used 130 times in the first
Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures (the Septuagint, 285-246 BC.). Half of those
130 times are found in genealogical lists, where the word does mean firstborn son.
B. But, in the rest of the passages, it is used as a title that refers to position rather than the first
one born. God refers to Israel as His Firstborn (Ex 4:22; Jer 31:9). Israel was not the first
nation created. They were chosen by God for a special redemptive relationship with Him.
The Scriptures were given to Israel and Jesus came into the world through Israel.
c. Col 1:16-17—For 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. And he is before all things and in him all things hold together (ESV).
1. Creator is a characteristic of Deity. Jesus is God the Creator. There is nothing that is not
under Jesus’ power because all things were created by, through, and for Him, in the heavens and
on earth—both seen and unseen rulers.
2. All things consist or hold together in Him: He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact
imprint of his nature and he upholds the universe by the word of his power (Heb 1:3, ESV);
d. Col 1:18—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 (ESV).
1. Head means the chief, the one to whom others are subordinate. Beginning means the origin or
active cause (He is the Creator). Firstborn is the same word Paul used in v15. Jesus is the
first to be raised from death, the leader in resurrection. The emphasis is on first, not origin.
2. Preeminent means supreme in rank, dignity, importance. Jesus has priority (preeminence)
over all creation because He is God the Creator, and He has sovereignty or power over all things
because He is the Omnipotent God, the upholder and sustainer of all.
e. Col 1:19-20—For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him (Jesus), and through him to
reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through
through his blood, shed on the cross (NIV).
1. Fullness means completeness or full measure—God, in the completeness of His Being, indwelt
Jesus. Col 2:9—For in Him the whole fullness (same word) of Deity dwells bodily (ESV).
2. Jesus was and is the God-man. The value of His Person (fully God as well as fully sinless
man) qualified Him to take away our sins by the sacrifice of Himself and reconcile us to God.
D. Conclusion: In his letter Paul stressed the preeminence of Christ and the completeness of the salvation He
provides. We need to become convinced that Jesus is Supreme, above all, God Incarnate. More next week!