Sermon Notes

Colossians 1:15-18 December 10, 2000  
Clearing Christmas Confusion

 In America we celebrate two Christmases, one sacred and one secular. Unfortunately, both occur on December 25th, which can lead to some mixing of the messages. Delia Stewart’s A View From The Back Pew offers some signals that your family has wassailed into Christmas Confusion.

1. Your child looks at the nativity scene nestled serenely beneath your tree and says, “What’s that camel doing in Santa’s workshop?”

2. Little Johnny is writing a letter to Baby Jesus at the North Pole, asking for a pony like the one Mary Christmas rode in the pageant at church last year. You gently correct Johnny’s error: it was a donkey.

3. You sing “Amazing Grace” to the tune of “Frosty, the Snowman.”

4. Your pre-schooler adds a green Play-Doh creature to your manger scene insisting, “Mommy, you forgot the Grinch.

5. In the plywood caravan of magi on your roof, the lead camel sports a red 200-watt nose.

6. Your kindergartner comes home with a story that wise guys from back East (probably from Brooklyn) gave the first Hanukah presents to three kids named Golda, Frankenstein, and Murray.

7. You’ve been searching your Bible for the story of Amahl and the Night Visitors.

8. You’re surprised when it isn’t eggnog in those tiny cups at communion.

9. Your spouse repaints the front yard nativity scene and gives Joseph a red suit and white beard.

10. You remember the Bible says Jesus was living in a “house” when the wise men arrived; this explains how they were able to come down the chimney.

 You may be a yuletime fool, but rather than flog yourself with prickly holly branches of guilt when you’ve confused about Christmas, the solution to Christmas confusion is in correcting chaotic conceptions. This is simply done by being reminded that even at our worst, even when we hate Him, even when we’re confused, God loves us enough to send His beloved, perfect Son to bear the punishment for our twisted thoughts and imperfect lives. So while the world around us celebrates with gifts wrapped in paper and ribbons and credit card invoices, we celebrate a Gift wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger: God’s unlimited, undeserved love in the form of a baby. That’s Christmas.

Confusing? Sometimes, maybe. Amazing? Always, absolutely.

In the midst of holiday madness, of shopping frenzies and school programs, Advent comes to help us refocus, re-evaluate and retool so that we can discern what Christmas is all about. This morning we will take a look at a passage which should put into perspective what Christmas is all about. Even if we don’t confuse Gabriel with Frosty or "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" with "Grandma Got Run Over by Reindeer," we can easily fall prey to a sentimentalized Christmas which robs the majesty of Christ by presenting Him only as a cuddly infant with dimpled cheeks. Christmas cuteness disarms the power of Incarnation, rendering it impotent and controllable. To allow us to rid our minds of Christmas confusion let’s look again at what God’s Word tells us about the Incarnation. But rather than turning to the familiar scene in Luke this year, let’s look at Colossians 1:15-18 to see that Christ is supreme over all creation. 

15. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

16. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.

17. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

18. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.

Christ clears our confusion by showing us the Godhead

Paul understood the critical importance for the church in Colosse and for us as well, that we need to understand who Christ is. There is a danger that when we confuse the person of Christ, we confuse his work on the cross and so lose our bearings on what we are to believe and how we should live.

The church receiving this letter was enamored with a spirituality that promised much but offered little, a piety without substance or truth. False teachers had infiltrated the church promoting a Jesus who was certainly important, but was not supreme, a Jesus who offered help, but was not sufficient to save.  Jesus was just one of many beings who could help unravel the mysteries of life. To these lies, Paul clears up their confusion: Christ is the only picture we have of the Godhead.  

How does Christ clear our confusion? He is the image of the invisible God

What does it mean that Jesus is "the image of the invisible God?" I’ve told the old joke about the little boy who was drawing pictures on the floor one day as his mother was working. She asked him, "What are you drawing?" He said, "I'm drawing a picture of God." "But no one knows what God looks like," she said. "They will when I get through!" the boy replied.

Certainly we can not encapsulate God by our own design. The second commandment forbids it. But that is not to say that God can not, has not done so. In Christ we see God most clearly.

The word “image” here is eikon. In Greek the term is used of an artist’s rendering, of a likeness on a coin. In the eastern church, the term is used of the paintings of the saints, representations to point the worshippers attention to a fuller understanding. In our generation "icon" has taken on special importance, as computer junkies clicking an icon open the program we desire. We may know the fullness of God through His icon, Jesus.

Wesley's wonderful phrase from "Hark, The Herald Angels Sing" restates the truth we see in verse 15: "Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;  Hail the Incarnate Deity." God is no clearer to us than in Christ.

Scripture tells us that God is certainly seen through creation. The heavens declare the glory of God. We must never be so cut off from our world as to forget the splendor of God, the power and majesty of God as when we encounter His universe, whether the expansiveness of the starry night or the minute detail in the human body. Yet, as wonderful as all that is, how much greater has God revealed Himself than when God the Son came to earth, taking on flesh.

This is what John in his prologue tells us when he writes that no one has seen God, but God the only Son has made Him known. In John 14:9 Jesus’s disciple, Philip, asks to be shown the Father, to which Jesus replies, “Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?"

The author of Hebrews says the same thing in his letter when he writes: "The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word."

Jesus Christ shines forth God. Just as the radiance of the sun reaches the earth, lights, warms, gives life, so the glorious radiance of Christ is the life of God. The brightness of the sun is the same nature as the sun. The brightness of the sun is as old as the sun; never was the sun without its brightness. The brightness can't be separated from the sun. Next, He is the exact representation of God's being. He is not only the brightness but He is the essence. The word used here is a term of the engraver’s work, so that what is seen is a copy of the original.

God is invisible to us not only in that He is Spirit; He is also invisible to our sinful and finite minds. Not only can we not discover God through a telescope, we can not discern Him properly through our philosophical musings. But God shines a spotlight upon Himself by means of a baby in a manger. If you want to know the character of the God we worship, if you desire to have a better understanding of the one who made you and how much He cares for you, look there!   To seek Him anywhere else is to form an image of God that is nothing more than an idol.

But in the cradle and the Cross, the swaddled infant and the suffering Savior, God’s majesty is paradoxically revealed. His omnipotence is seen in weakness, His dominion is seen in the helplessness of the manger. This should not further confuse us, but overwhelm us, that our God is so great that the abject poverty of the cattle stall can not obscure the riches of His grace.  

If confusion reigns in your mind whether the God of the universe loves you, whether the one who created you can care for you, you need look no further than Bethlehem to see God’s compassion for you. Yet it does not end with the incarnation that first Christmas morning. God’s mercy is lived out for us in flesh and blood on the Cross. There, the depth of His love is seen in a bleeding Savior and, three days later, in the risen Lord.

Christ clears our confusion by showing us His supremacy 

Christ is supreme as the Firstborn

What “firstborn” is not

Because “born” connotes beginning, this passage has been used to teach that Christ was not the eternal Second Person of the Trinity because He had a beginning as the firstborn of God. In the 4th century this term was the center of the controversy between Arius and Athanasius over whether there was a time when the Son was not. The Church settled the issue in the Councils of Nicea and Chalcedon by making it clear that God the Son is eternal and has always been the Son. Yet the heresy stemming from a misunderstanding of this term continues. There are those who come knocking on your door, spreading confusion through their literature, saying that Jesus is a great deity, but is not Jehovah. Well dressed young men on bikes may promote moral ideals, but they are confused as to what this term means.

What “firstborn” does mean

“Firstborn” is the Greek prototokos (from protos, first, and tikto, to beget). While it does refer to one who is the eldest in the family, the term carries with it the ancient view of special standing awarded to the firstborn. The term means first in priority, supreme. To understand this term we must not forget that the context is King!

The NIV helps clear the fog. He is “over creation.” Verse 16 further specifies the matter by saying that all things were created by Him. He could not be a created being if He created “all” things. Notice how throughout this passage Paul is clear on this point.

To be firstborn over creation is to say that Jesus Christ is sovereign over all that exists. He is the architect, the builder as well as the owner.

The understanding of this term is expressed in our call to worship in Psalm 89:24-29. To be the firstborn is to be the one who rightfully rules on the throne in Heaven. The Father’s approval rests on Him.

The author of Hebrews in 1:6 also uses this term to describe the supremacy of the Son, that all else in the universe must give Him worship.

Christ is supreme over all creation

Why is it important that Christ is the firstborn over creation? Because of the confusion which reigned in the world at that time. False teachers propagated the idea that a good god could not contaminate himself with matter. He had to have someone else do the dirty work. A lesser being would be responsible for this, in fact, an evil being was to blame. Matter is by its limited nature was deemed evil and only spirit was good as was anything invisible and intangible. God could never take on a body, that mix good with evil and a god who is good would never do that.

To this Paul gives a resounding NO!  To make it clear that matter is not evil – we have the incarnation. We may rightly complain about the materialism of the holidays but let us never run from one sin into the arms of another. The worship of matter is wrong. We can not save ourselves through what we own. But it is equally wrong to adopt pseudo-spirituality which repudiates all things physical. God loves matter, CS Lewis once said, he created it!

That it is wrong to see sin as synonymous with substance is made clear by a baby in a manger. It is argued by Paul that Jesus Christ, the image of God has supremacy over creation as the firstborn of creation. The firstborn of Mary is validates that what God created in six days was and is now good! 

In verse 16 we see Jesus’s special status of supremacy over all as the one who created all that there is.

Here the aorist passive form of the verb is used. Aorist, emphasizing historical fact, passive pointing to Christ as the mediator of creation. Look at the end of verse 16, same verb, but a different tense. There Paul uses the perfect, reminding us of the continuing nature of this creation. Christ made it and it is still owned by Him. 

What is more, it is created by Him and for Him. The entire universe bears His fingerprints which show His care as well as His ownership. All that there is points to Him and is for His own glory. For centuries people have sought meaning and purpose to life while always surrounded by a universe constantly shouting of God’s ownership.  

To drive the point home even more, Paul summarizes in verse 17 by saying that He is before all things and holds all things together.

The word “hold together” (sunhistemi) means to stand beside. It is used of giving approval to something (I stand by my work!) as well as making sure a thing endures, holds tight, as someone who has created an object will keep a careful eye on his creation to guarantee that nothing harms it.  

Christ is the glue to the universe, the foundational principle by which all that is, is. If it were possible for Christ to step back from that which He made, it would cease to be. Every breath you take, every atom, molecule, compound, substance exists by His very word.

Hebrews 1:3 says He's upholding all things by the Word of His power. He's the principle of cohesion. If the earth's rotation slowed down, we would alternately freeze and burn. The sun has a surface temperature of 12,000° F. If we get any closer we’d be crispy critters, any further would make last week look like a blast furnace. Our globe is tilted at an exact angel of 23 degrees which enables us to have four seasons. If it weren't tilted like that, vapors from the ocean would move north and south and pile up massive continents of ice on both ends and we would have some major problems in the rotation, to say nothing of seasons. If the moon didn't remain at the exact precise distance it is from the earth, the ocean tide would inundate all the land twice a day.

Who sustains the delicate balance? It is Jesus Christ, He is before all things and in Him cohere, all things hold together. And all of that was in the manger. Creator, sustainer, before all things. This child is the beginning of creation, the end of creation, the upholder of creation and the goal of creation. It is for this reason that the great Dutch theologian, Abraham Kuyper, said,

"When Jesus looks at his universe from his exalted throne at the right hand of the Father, and he sees the great galaxies whirling in space, the planets and the people upon this planet, and all the minute details of life here including the details of our individual lives, there is nothing that he sees anywhere of which he cannot say, 'Mine!'" 

In light of all this, when we contemplate the incarnation during this advent season we will end the confusion in our frenetic lives. For in that child in the manger is one and the same as the creator of the wood and straw, He is the Lord of Mary and the object of worship by angels. For this reason we must never forget that:

Christ has cosmic authority

It's common in contemporary Christianity to engage in strange speculation about unseen powers. Neo-paganism has crept into the Church through occult practices whereby people attribute god-like authority to spirit beings. People live in fear of demonic forces at work, seeing territorial demons holding power over geographic regions, requiring Christians to engage in shamanism and divination to gain control. Others claim generational spirits cause the replication of ancestral sins and so engage in a warfare unknown in Scripture.

There is indeed personal evil, spiritual forces at work in our world. But what we must never forget is that they are under the thumb of Christ. It is He who made them and they are answerable to Him. We need not live in fear, for the Infant of Bethlehem rules over all. 

Christ has civil authority

Moving from the cosmic scene to the institutional venue ... Christ is still on His throne. The events of the past month have unsettled us used to tranquility in our land. Pundits from either party are perplexed as to what the future holds. But as concerned as we may become, as much as we should pray for a peaceful transition, we must never forget: Christ’s authority is not determined by the vote of His creation, but by the decree of the Creator. Christ rules now in both heaven and on earth and nothing can unseat him. No act of congress can enact a law forbidding His authority, no court can overturn His right to rule.  

Christ has personal authority

We can and should always find these truths to be personally comforting. It is not just that Christ is supreme over universal forces but cares little about us. The Incarnation is constant proof to the contrary. If the demonic should not frighten you, if the Democrats and Republicans do not cause fear... then your mother’s comments during the Christmas holidays should hold no authority to either make you or break you. The turmoil of your past has no claim to you. The hurts others have inflicted on you which the holidays seem to dredge up each year claim no authority. Christ has come and purchased for Himself a people.  

The muddled thinking of sin may confuse us for a time. But when the frantic pace of this time of year gets too much, when the lies of the world take hold, fly back to the good news that the Son of God who created you, is the son born to Mary, the very same God who came to suffer and die for your sins.

Sermon Notes