The king is coming, the king has already come, yet He is coming again.
”You are understanding the position of the world, of My creation. I have come – as a helpless baby, born in the most menial environment, dying in shame and disgrace. Many have said and will say – is that really a king? Can that be the King? The time is coming soon when all doubt will be removed and I will appear in all My glory. Every important person, king, ruler, Pope, judge, whoever, will have vanished and my glory will fill the world instead. So be patient – enjoy the foretaste of My Kingly rule as you celebrate My first coming at this time.”
As Christmas rushes up on us, I have decided to look at the passage I am going to preach on on Christmas Day today. So please read Colossians 1:15-22. I will be focusing on the potential that was wrapped up in the little, helpless baby, born under the most menial conditions. I believe many people will be stuck on the baby part and miss the fact that this was only the beginning, a most inauspicious beginning.
There are 4 things I will be emphasizing.
1 He was and is God: vs 15 “He is the image of the invisible God. Vs 19, God was pleased to have all His fulness dwell in Him.” When this truth first hit me it changed who I was. Jesus, not just a great and holy person, but actually God Himself, in human flesh.
2. He created all things and sustains all things. Note the repetition of all, 6 times. This means from the furthest galaxies, thousands of light years away down to the tiniest atom or particle present here on earth. (As an aside, are you aware that each tiny atom is a picture of the stellar system, a nucleus with particles rotating around it?) Notice also in vs 17 In Him all things hold together. He is holding the strings of the whole world together. Nothing is out of His control!
3. Twice He is called the Firstborn vss 15, 18 This doesn’t refer to some sort of birth, it refers to His position of authority. He has authority, firstly over all creation and secondly of the “body, the church.vs 18.” Our church does not have a Pope or bishop or head of Synod as its head. There is only one head and that is Jesus Himself. We are made part of that only because we have been born into it, not by choice of membership.
4. What did He come to do? He came with a specific purpose – “to reconcile all things to God, whether things on earth or things in heaven by making peace through His blood, shed on the cross” vs 20. He has dealt with our alienation and enmity to God and brought us into a relationship, based on His bodily death on the cross. Vv 21-22.
Friends, as you read this passage it should shine and sparkle like the most beautiful jewel and fill you with absolute wonder. What a God we serve. I do so pray that every person who will be at our service next Thursday will catch a bit of a glimpse of who this little baby really was and is and that it will transform their lives. Will you all pray that God will make His word come alive at that service. God bless, till next week.