In his sermon titled 'The Preeminence of the Lord Jesus Christ,' Peter Allison explores the exalted nature and divine attributes of Jesus as presented in Colossians 1:9-17. The sermon underscores Jesus Christ's role as the image of the invisible God, emphasizing His divine attributes such as His eternal existence, wisdom, power, and authority. Jesus is described as the firstborn over all creation, signifying His preeminence and authority rather than a temporal beginning. The sermon elaborates on how Christ created all things, both visible and invisible, through His power, and how He continues to sustain the universe, including every atom and star. Allison stresses that everything was created through and for Jesus Christ, encouraging believers to live lives pleasing to Him as an expression of worship. The sermon concludes by calling believers to meditate on Christ’s glory and live in a way that reflects His supreme authority and delight in His creation.

Please turn with me this morning to Colossians chapter 1. As I mentioned yesterday, we will be starting a short little series here on the person, in the work of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and doing so from across the pages of Scripture, the Old and New Testament. But this morning I would like to begin hearing Colossians. We'll be looking at verses 15, 16, and 17 in the message, but for the reading this morning, I would like to start at verse 9 of Colossians, chapter 1. So please give heed to the reading of God's Word.

For This reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might according to His glorious power, for all patience and long-suffering, with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.

And He is the Head of the body, the Church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of the cross." Thus far the reading of God's Word, may He add His blessing to the reading and the hearing of it. Almighty Heavenly Father, you are most glorious, most excellent, most wise. We ask that you would open our eyes, that we may behold that wisdom and that beauty and that glory and that power. May you fill our hearts and our minds to overflowing with wonder and devotion and love and adoration.

For you, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the Prince of Peace, the Everlasting Father, We ask that you would work this, even now within us and upon us. And I ask that you would sanctify me and cleanse these unclean lips, that from a vessel of clay these wonders may be proclaimed, that the glory would belong to you and not to man in Jesus name we ask amen Well, Napoleon, the man who tried to conquer the world, as many others have tried to do and failed. He is reputed to have said on his deathbed or shortly before he died. And I think this is a true quote. I found it quoted in an author writing in 1869, who seemed to be, from what I could tell, quoting from French works that were speaking of Napoleon.

It was also quoted in 1918 in a sermon in the Expository. So I think this is an accurate quote. I know there are lots of things attributed to people. And for our purposes this morning, it doesn't really matter whether he said this or not, but I believe he did, at least as far as we can tell. But he said, he is reputed at least to have said, that I die before my time, And my body shall be given back to the earth and devoured by worms.

What an abysmal gulf between my deep miseries and the eternal kingdom of Christ! I marvel that whereas the ambitious dreams of myself and of Alexander the Great and of Caesar should have vanished into thin air. But a Judean peasant, Jesus, should be able to stretch His hand across the centuries and control the destinies of men and nations." Now such a sentiment, while it's representative of things that people might say about Jesus Christ, people say many things about Christ. And This is often quoted by those who are seeking to defend the deity of Christ. And yet, this is wholly inadequate and far too small an adequate conception of Jesus Christ.

Far too small, wholly inadequate to explain or describe the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, He certainly does that, but He does far more. He does far, far more. I'm sure even the youngest among us who could speak could tell us that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that He is our Savior, that He is our Lord. And those things are all true statements.

But this morning I want to ask you, have you considered Jesus Christ? Have you meditated on how exalted and glorious He is? And glorious He is. Have you been overwhelmed with His glory, His power, His majesty, His wisdom? Have you seen like Isaiah that his glory fills the whole earth?

Like Paul, as you think about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and His beauty, His wisdom, His excellencies? Do you break out in doxology? Can you not restrain yourself from proclaiming His praise? We can't worship somebody that we don't rightly know. And we can't worship Him rightly if we don't know and understand Him rightly.

And so this morning I would like for us just to consider and just to think again, just to remember, just to call to mind, just to meditate upon the glory, The wonder, the excellencies, the wisdom, the power, and the dominion that belongs to Jesus Christ, who He is. Paul says that Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God. Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God. Now you might be thinking, but doesn't the Bible forbid images of God? Yes it does.

Doesn't people who worship the golden calf, or even the bronze serpent that Moses made and called the people to look upon, to be healed. When they worshiped those images, God was angry with them. They provoked the wrath of God. So, this is not saying, Paul is not saying here that the physical attributes of Jesus' human body is a representation of God, certainly not the invisible God. Nor is this to be understood as if he is saying that Jesus is, or his body is even an imperfect or artificial image.

Like the image of a king on the face of a coin, or the image of a great hero of the nation set in stone in a park. Those aren't exact images. The king is not metal, he is flesh and blood. His image appears on metal, but that is an imperfect image. It is just a likeness.

That picture, that statue carved in stone or in bronze, may look a little bit like the person it is an image of, But it's not an exact image. It's a representation, but it's an imperfect one. That man wasn't made of stone, he's not made of bronze. So These are at best imperfect images. Even it says in Genesis that Adam had a son in his own image, in his flesh.

Now that's a lot more of a representation. It's a little bit closer because Seth is of the same substance, the same nature of his father Adam. But This word image, while it does certainly refer to physical constructs, physical images, it can also refer to something, a likeness that is not tangible. A son can be in the image of his father in that he has the same moral characteristics, the same perseverance, the same determination. And so Jesus Christ is in the image of the Father, in that he is the same substance of the Father.

He is eternally in the Father, and the Father is in him, John said. He is the express character, or the perfect image of a father. He perfectly represents the father. He is the essential image of the father. He is not merely the image of God, but he is the image of the invisible God, the Father.

Because the Father cannot be known to us except in His Son. Through Christ's offices as a prophet, as a priest, as a king, through His work of mediation, his attributes, his affections, the excellencies of God shine forth. Apart from Christ, these would be incomprehensible to us. They would be invisible to us as creatures. So as the image of the invisible God, Christ manifests the invisible Father.

God is a spirit. He doesn't have parts, And yet he was clearly manifested in Christ living among us. John says that he dwelled, he tabernacled among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory of the Father, full of grace and truth. Paul told Timothy, without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifested in the flesh.

The invisible God was manifested in the flesh. He was shown to us. That's a great mystery. He was justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world and received up into glory. You see Christ represents the Father to us in His understanding and in His wisdom.

Just read Proverbs 8, as we have looked at probably a year or two ago. A whole chapter devoted to explaining and proclaiming the wisdom of Jesus Christ. Christ represents the Father to us in His almighty power and in His eternity. Christ is the mighty God and He is the everlasting Father. John tells us that in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God in the beginning.

Already there, already existing at the very beginning. Jesus Christ represents, is the image of the Father to us of the invisible God, because He is eternal, He is everlasting. He was present, already present, in the very beginning. Jesus said of himself most assuredly, I say to you before Abraham was, I am. I am.

Claiming for himself that self-existent nature that God revealed to Moses the burning bush the God who is I am that I am Jesus said I am And in saying that he was saying that he is self-existent as well He is the image of the invisible God in that He is self-existent. He doesn't derive His existence from anyone else. Christ represents the Father to us in His permanency, in His unchangeableness. Things other things, everything else can perish, but Hebrews says that He remains. They will grow old like a garment, but you are the same and your years will not fail." Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

In being that everlasting Son of God, He represents to us the image of the invisible God. Christ represents the image of the invisible God in His being everywhere present, in His knowing all things. Christ, in His divine nature knew all things. There was nothing that He didn't know. He knows our hearts, He knows what we're thinking, He knows what we do.

And in knowing all things, in being everywhere present, in being able to hear our prayers, our cries all the time, anytime. He's representing to us the image of the invisible God. You see, these excellencies, these perfections of the invisible God cannot be communicated to a mere creature. And thus to be in the image of the invisible God, to have all of these attributes, these perfections, these excellencies, is to say that Jesus is God. Because None of these things could be communicated, could be given, could be true of someone who is merely a creature.

Paul goes on to say in verse 15 that he is the image of the invisible God, But He is also the firstborn of all creation, the firstborn of every creature. Now at first glance that might seem to be going backwards. That might seem to be saying that, taking back everything that we've been saying about Christ and being the image of the invisible God. Some people, you've probably had them at your house, some people take this to mean that He was the first thing that was created. He is the firstborn of the creation of the creatures.

So how do we understand this? Firstborn. Does that mean that He is a part of the creation? Well, sometimes it can mean first born child. It's used of Christ when He was born.

He was Mary's first born. Mary brought forth her first born son and laid him in a manger, wrapped him in swaddling clothes. God slew the angel of death slough all the first born in Egypt. But other times it has various metaphorical meanings, first born. Jesus Christ is called in Romans 8 the firstborn of many brethren.

Or in Hebrews, he speaks of the general assembly and church of the firstborn. In the Old Testament, firstborn often refers to that oldest son who had the rights of inheritance. But it doesn't always mean that. God says of Israel in Exodus that Israel was his firstborn and there was no secondborn. But Israel, Jacob, wasn't even the firstborn in his family.

Jacob was the secondborn. Esau was the firstborn. And In Psalm 89 the Lord says of David, I will make him my firstborn, the highest of the kings of earth. Obviously this is a metaphorical use of firstborn to refer to That person who has dominion, who has authority, who has rule, who has preeminence. Because David was not the firstborn in his family, he was the youngest of a large number of brothers.

And he certainly wasn't the first king to ever rule. And so firstborn doesn't have to mean first in time. It doesn't even have to mean that we are a part of whatever we are first born of. It simply means here that Christ is the ruler. Christ is the Lord.

Christ is the heir of creation. And then the very next phrase goes on to solidify this understanding of that, that Christ is the firstborn over all creation, for by Him, by Him all things were created. By Him all things were created. Christ made all things by the word of His power. In the beginning, He already was.

If he is the creator, then he can't be a creature. Because creatures cannot create. They cannot bring something into existence out of nothing. And so if Christ created all things, then he can't be a creature, or he would have had to create himself. Because it clearly says that by him, all things were created that are in heaven and that are in the earth visible and invisible whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers All things all things were created by Jesus Christ Well if he himself was created then that means he created himself, which certainly cannot be.

If he is a creature and he didn't create all things, then he didn't create all things, namely himself. And so, first born among all the creation has to clearly mean that he is preeminent over all creation. He is the ruler over all creation. He is the heir of all things. He is the creator of all things.

Things in heaven and on earth. That pretty much covers everything we know about in the material world. Things in heaven and things on earth. All the heavenly bodies. Just to create, we can't even begin to count all of the stars.

We have a hard time understanding just how massive a star is. The fact that one star can send light for billions of light years. The light has to travel for billions of years to get to us. That doesn't mean the earth is that old. But the light would take that long to get to us, just from one star.

What a massive light. What a massive amount of power. And yet, He didn't create just one, but He created an innumerable number and spread them out over a distance that so far we can't even imagine where it ends. The stronger the telescopes we get, the farther we see. And we have yet to see the end.

We can't even see it. We can't imagine it, let alone visit these places. And yet, he has created all these stars, and he directs their course. He has created all the planets. He has created this earth and everything that is in it.

He has created all the metal, the iron, the gold, and the silver, and He has put it in the ground for us to dig out. He has created all the isotopes. He has given each of these elements their own unique properties. Properties that we are still learning about. Just the elements here on earth, there are still many things we don't know about the properties of elements.

He created it all, made it, and he didn't use anything to do it. Scientists today talk about creating life, and there are biochemical problems, hurdles that prevent them from doing that. But even if they were to somehow figure out how to create life out of carbon compounds, and oxygen, and water, and so forth. They would not have even begun to copy what God did in the creation of the world, what Jesus Christ has done in the creation of the world. Because they are starting with something.

They started with what God already made. Christ, in creating the heavens and the earth started with nothing. He spoke and out of nothing things came into existence. We can't even take something. We can't even take the molecules that God has already created and make life.

All we can do is in some small way rearrange some of the things that God has made. And we can make a bridge, We can make a house, we can make a building, and we cut down the tree, and we use the wood. But we can't even begin to make the tree. We couldn't even make the tree out of the things that God has already made. And yet God has made the tree out of nothing.

We can make a bridge out of steel, but all we're doing is refining, rearranging something that God already made. Atoms that he's already made. We're not making that steel out of, we're not starting from nothing. But not only has Christ made everything that we see in the heavens and the earth, But he's made it all out of nothing. He's also made everything that we can't see.

All the things that are visible and invisible. There is nothing made that is not fall into the category of visible or invisible. Those are comprehensive categories. They cover everything. Things are either seen or unseen.

Jesus Christ has made both of those. Whether they are seen, whether it is the world, the heavens and the earth, or the unseen, thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, they have all been created out of nothing by the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. The angels, God made. Satan and all his angels, God made him. God made him.

Powers, the hosts of heaven, the things that we cannot see, the spiritual forces that we don't know, that we cannot see. God made all these things. But not only did he make everything, many people today make things. We've seen that we don't really make anything like God makes it. Many people today make things, make big things and wonderful things.

But so often the things that we make are for other people. We are paid to make something for somebody else. But That's not why Jesus made the world. He wasn't working for anybody else. He wasn't in anybody else's employment when He created the heavens and the earth.

All things were not only created through him, but they were created for him. God created the heavens and the earth, everything that is visible and invisible, for himself, for his own glory, That Christ might take delight in what he had made. That he might have pleasure in it. He himself. And he said of everything that he had made, it was all very good.

All things, visible and invisible, things in heaven and things in earth, were created for the pleasure of our Lord Jesus Christ. Why should we do anything? Because it pleases Jesus Christ. Why should we set a guard over our eyes and our lips? Because it pleases Jesus Christ.

Why should we prepare food in a feast and set it before a family? Because it pleases the Lord Jesus Christ. Why should we dig copper and gold and iron out of the hills and the earth and make things with it like bridges to cross rivers because it pleases the Lord Jesus Christ. Why should we tend a garden, make plants, Pull weeds because it pleases the Lord Jesus Christ. Why should we serve one another?

Because it pleases the Lord Jesus Christ. Why should we forgive Those who sin against us? Simply because it pleases the Lord Jesus Christ. Why should we worship Him? Why should we study His Word?

Because it pleases the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything in heaven and earth, visible and invisible, was created for Him, for His pleasure, for His glory. When we do not live to please the Lord Jesus Christ, we are not fulfilling the purpose for which God created us, for which Christ has made us. He is before all things. All things were created through Him and for Him and He is before all things.

He existed before anything was created. He is the cause of all things. He is before all of creation in dignity, in preeminence, in power, in wisdom, in dominion. He is before everything. He is preeminent.

Preeminent in time, being from all eternity to all eternity. He is preeminent in glory, in majesty, in dignity. But having created all things for himself and for his own pleasure, he then continues to hold all things up. In Him all things consist. There's an awful lot in those couple words.

Jesus Christ, in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, all things consist. Our next breath comes from Him. Where does the sun get its light? It is for the whole age of the earth, since the very beginning, since God created it in the beginning of the universe. The sun has been shining, sending out an immeasurable amount of energy continuously.

It never needs to go down for a repair, for an overhaul. It never stops. It has never stopped for one moment. Why? Where does it get the fuel, the energy to do this?

From God, from Jesus Christ. Because in Him all things exist and subsist. All things consist. It is in Him that we live and that we move and that we have our being. And it's not just our sun, that's just one of an innumerable multitude of stars that God is continually sustaining.

That is, That energy that that sun is throwing out comes from Jesus Christ. And it's not just the stars, but every galaxy, the planets. He directs their course of the sun, the moon, of all the stars, of every planetary body in the whole universe. Jesus Christ is moment by moment directing the course and the path of these things. And it's not just these big things, but it's even the subatomic things.

Every atom, every particle that makes up the atom. The scientists tell us that these particles are always zooming about and they have very complicated equations to maybe calculate where these things are. They move so fast We really have no concept of where they are. And yet, it is Jesus Christ that these things consist. Is He who directs the course of even these particles, Even these atoms in our body, but throughout the whole known universe.

This is mind boggling. What Jesus Christ does in holding all things in existence, moment by moment. It's all directed by Christ. You think of air traffic controllers. They have a very stressful job, I'm told.

I've never actually done this job. But they have a very stressful job That of directing airplanes at an airport and if you've been at an airport, you know that Planes take off every couple a minute maybe Maybe an average of two a minute or something like that. A plane is taken off and maybe a couple are landing. So there's five things and there's maybe a number more sitting on the runway. And they are directing them.

And this is taxing and I don't doubt that it is. It's very taxing because they hold in their hands the lives of hundreds of people. And one little mistake, this has happened. An air traffic controller directs a plane to land on a runway that isn't free and we have a collision and people die. And usually when that happens, these people, because of the weight, the emotional burden, their mistake caused the death of some people.

They often are completely unable to even go back to work. They need to have somebody with them for the next two to three months just to be near them, to keep them company because of the burden, the emotional burden upon them that their mistake cost the lives of some people. And yet, this is just a handful of planes. This doesn't even begin to describe what the Lord Jesus Christ directs every second, of every minute, of every hour, of every day, of every year, century after century, since the world has been in existence. Jesus Christ knows where everything is, where everything is moving.

He directs their course, all perfect, without any mistake. Gravity always works. Did you ever wake up in the middle of night and gravity was down for repair? No. That's true because God is faithful.

God never sleeps, He never slumbers. Gravity is the work of God, as is every other aspect of the world in which we live. It works the same way every minute of every day, every day of every year, every year of every century. It always has. Because Jesus Christ, in whom all things consist, maintains that.

Some of the Puritans described it as the angels. When the wind blows the leaves on the tree, they said it is God's angels that are moving the leaves on the tree. We now, we think we know, we understand that in some sense even matter is in some sense just energy. I mean, I was on a submarine and we turned uranium into power to make the boat go. And we could run on a couple pounds of uranium for years, driving a submarine of many hundreds, thousands of tons at very fast speeds and going for years on a pound of uranium.

That uranium that was turned into energy and used ultimately to heat the ocean. What sustains this matter that is all around us, that we are standing on? What keeps it from just being energy, light. It's Jesus Christ in whom all things consist. Jesus Christ sustains the created order.

Apple trees produce apples. Why? Because Jesus Christ causes that to happen. Deer give birth to deer. Because Jesus Christ sustains the world that He created, moment by moment.

Every contraction of our heart is from Jesus Christ. He never gets tired. He never gets weary. Even while he was on the cross and even in the grave, his power sustained the world. It gives life to everything that lives.

We don't sustain ourselves, Jesus Christ does, both physically and spiritually. He owns us. He has created us out of nothing. He sustains our life. He feeds us.

And He's also redeemed us. We belong to Him. He created us for His own pleasure. Is your heart filled with Christ? Do you long to please Him?

Is He pleasing Him on your mind? As you are on Christ's mind, as he sustains you moment by moment. Are you drawn and desire to worship him? To praise him for all of his excellent greatness? For all of these wonderful excellencies that we have been describing, is your heart drawn to worship Him, to praise Him, to delight in Him, to please Him in all that you do?

Is your desire to please him do you think of those exercises those spiritual exercises as duties that we have to do Or that which we want to do, simply because He is pleased by it. He created us so that we could worship Him, so that we could praise Him. He is worthy of all our praise. We cannot give Him too much praise. We cannot worship Him too much.

We can praise Him for all eternity and still not begin to praise Him. Are you used by Him? He created us for a purpose. He created us to speak and to act. He created us that He might use us for His own glory.

Be used by Him. Is that your heart's cry? Jesus Christ is our beautiful Savior. He is the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, the wonderful Counselor, the mighty God. May we day by day praise Him, worship Him, please Him, and delight ourselves in Him as He delights in His people, in us.

In His people, in us. Almighty Heavenly Father, we thank You for this picture that You give to us in Your Word. We ask that you would fill our hearts and our minds with your beauty and your wonder. Father, we ask that our hearts would be drawn up to You in ever greater devotion and worship. Father, may You perfect praise from our lips.

May You use us for your own glory. And may we delight in desire to be used by you, delight to go where you call us and to do what you call us to do, simply because we want to please you. We want to please You. Father, we ask that You would open our eyes and open our hearts, that You might shed abroad in us, shed abroad in us, that we may know and see the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen.