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The Child Who Was God (Colossians 115–20) John MacArthur · THE BELIEVER'S CHURCH | Let’s Build Our Faith Together

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: It's always a special joy for me also to come
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: to the Christmas season and have the opportunity to focus
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: on the simple and yet profound message of the birth
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: of Christ.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: You know, it is an irony of.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Rather significant proportions in America that we celebrate the birth
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: of someone we refuse to acknowledge.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Sort of a curiosity, we have.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: George Washington's birthday and Abe Lincoln's, and they have to
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: share a day, and Martin Luther King gets his own day,
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: and we, to my knowledge, I've never yet heard of
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: anybody from the ACLU suing someone for celebrating the birth
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: of any of those three.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: It amazes me.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: That in any public setting on public property we can't
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, we can't sing His
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: praise or articulate His uniqueness without the threat of a
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: lawsuit or a ban. Now the truth is nobody wants
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: to stop the celebration. That's not the idea, not the
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: commercial world anyway. They want the money, not the government.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: They need the taxes that buying and selling and traveling produces.
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  Speaker 2: And not the party goers. They want the fun.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: If we can just have the party without Jesus, everybody
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: will be happy. The birthday of Jesus, frankly, has become
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: very useful. It has immense pragmatic value if you can
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: just keep Jesus out of it. You might get the
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: impression based upon that that Jesus is an insignificant person,
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: the figment of some well-meaning Christian's fantasies or some character
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: of archaic antiquity who has been embellished through the years
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: to have become something He never really was, and we're
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: just kind of stripping it.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: Down to the way it ought to be.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: Is Jesus someone less important than George Washington, Abraham Lincoln,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: or Martin Luther King? Is Jesus someone about whom we
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: shouldn't be making so much fuss and certainly not so
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: much articulation.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: Of the character of His life and what He said
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: and why He came?
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: Is Jesus someone to be pushed into the background should
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: we keep the party and get rid of the person
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: whose party it is?
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: Is He insignificant?
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Should people who want to proclaim Christ and sing His
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: praises be silenced? Well, the Apostle Paul wants to help
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: us to understand who Jesus is. And I want you
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: to look in your Bible to Colossians chapter 1. Among
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: all of the passages of Scripture that we might have
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: looked at to see the reality of the child who
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: was God.
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  Speaker 2: None is.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: More grand than this one in the first chapter of Colossians.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: I want to read to you starting in verse 15.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Listen to what the Bible says about Jesus Christ. He
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: is the image of the invisible God. the firstborn of
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: all creation. For by Him all things were created, both
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things have
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: been created by Him and for Him, and He is
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
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  Speaker 1: He is also head of the body, the church, and
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: that He Himself might come to have first place in everything,
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: for it was the Father's good pleasure for all the
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: fullness to dwell in Him. Every one of those statements
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: that is made from verse 15 through verse 19.
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  Speaker 2: Is absolutely exclusive. They are true of Him and nobody else.
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  Speaker 1: And the sum of them all is at the end
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  Speaker 1: of verse 18 where it says that He is to
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: have the first place in everything. No one else is
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  Speaker 1: the image of the invisible God. No one else can
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  Speaker 1: be the firstborn of all creation. No one else can
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  Speaker 1: be the creator of things in heaven and earth, visible
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  Speaker 1: and invisible. No one else sits over the thrones and
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  Speaker 1: dominions and rulers and authorities. No one else is before
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  Speaker 1: all things and holds all things together. No one else
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  Speaker 1: is the head of the body, the church. the beginning,
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  Speaker 1: the firstborn. No one else has all the fullness dwelling
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  Speaker 1: in Him to.
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  Speaker 2: The pleasure of the Father.
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  Speaker 1: Those are all absolutely exclusive statements. And what they tell
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  Speaker 1: us is that Jesus Christ is utterly unique. There is
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  Speaker 1: no one like Him. He is beyond everyone else. He
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: is infinitely beyond everyone else. And if we're going to
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: slight somebody at His birthday, better it be a man
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: than the God-manned. The humble birth of Jesus Christ that
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: we read about a little while ago from Luke's gospel
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  Speaker 1: in the manger, which is a feed trough in a stable,
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  Speaker 1: the humble garment that wrapped His little body was never
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  Speaker 1: intended to be a quiet facade to hide the reality
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  Speaker 1: that God was being born. Although the world has tried
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  Speaker 1: to make it that, it was really a demonstration of condescension.
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  Speaker 2: Servanthood, humiliation.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: Frankly, those people who have tried to find in the
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: accoutrements of Christmas a simplicity and a humility that covers
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  Speaker 1: up reality have a hard time explaining how an event
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  Speaker 1: so humble could be the most widely known event on
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  Speaker 1: the face of the earth.
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  Speaker 2: If Jesus wasn't so.
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  Speaker 1: Unique, how in the world did we set up the
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  Speaker 1: calendars of history by His birth. Seems to me that
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: all the protesting about Jesus, all the trivializing of His
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  Speaker 1: birth is like the confession of which Shakespeare commented when
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  Speaker 1: he had one of his characters say, methinks you protest
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  Speaker 1: too much, the betrayal of a wicked motive. The truth
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: is that as the angel said, this is Jesus who
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  Speaker 1: will save His people from their sins. And as the
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  Speaker 1: prophet said, His name shall be called Emmanuel, which is
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: God with us. The truth is, what you have in
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  Speaker 1: the birth of Christ is a Savior who is God
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  Speaker 1: in human form. God entered our sin-polluted world without being
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  Speaker 1: tainted by it. He took our guilt. He bore our griefs.
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  Speaker 1: He carried our sorrows. He was wounded for our transgressions.
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  Speaker 1: He was bruised for our iniquities. He was raised for
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  Speaker 1: our justification. He ascended to intercede for us, to prepare
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  Speaker 1: us a place, and will return to take us to
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  Speaker 1: be with Him forever. This is Emmanuel. This is God
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  Speaker 1: with us. To slight the child of Christmas is to
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  Speaker 1: blaspheme the God of heaven.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: He is unique. No one has ever been like Him.
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  Speaker 2: No one ever will be.
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  Speaker 1: In the book of Revelation, John has an amazing experience
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  Speaker 1: in chapter 5 as he is taken by means of
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  Speaker 1: a vision into the very throne room of heaven and
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  Speaker 1: the presence of God is He sees God seated on
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  Speaker 1: a throne and in the hand of God is a scroll.
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  Speaker 1: That scroll represents the title deed to the universe. The
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: universe at the present is in the hands of a usurper, Satan,
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: the archenemy of God and the destroyer of souls. And
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: Satan now is the god of this world, the ruler
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: of this age. But God is seen in the picture
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  Speaker 1: of Revelation 5 holding a title deed to the.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: Earth and to the universe in His hand and saying,
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  Speaker 2: who is.
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  Speaker 1: Worthy to take the title deed and to open its
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: seals and take back the world and the universe? And
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: as John looks, all of heaven and earth is scanned
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: and no one is found worthy.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely no one.
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  Speaker 1: No great intellect, no great academician, no great military leader,
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  Speaker 1: no great Monarch, ruler, king, emperor, no great religious man,
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  Speaker 1: no one is found, and John begins to weep.
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  Speaker 2: And he's weeping because no one has.
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  Speaker 1: The authority or the ability to rise to take back
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  Speaker 1: the universe from the usurper. And in the midst of
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: his tears, he can discern one stepping forward from the throne,
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  Speaker 1: who is both a lamb and a lion, none other
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  Speaker 1: than Jesus Christ, and He reaches to the Father's hand
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: and He takes the scroll. In all the universe, He
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  Speaker 1: alone is worthy. In all the universe, He alone has
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  Speaker 1: that authority and that ability. There is none like Him.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: And if ever there is a celebration for anyone, there
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: should be a celebration for Him. And to exclude Him
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  Speaker 1: from the celebration is the most profound kind of blasphemy.
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  Speaker 1: He is God in human flesh, come to save.
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  Speaker 2: But to see... the greatness of His person.
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  Speaker 1: One needs only to go back to the text which
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: we read. Now, I must admit to you that I
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: had a little struggle in my heart between this text
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: and Hebrews 1, 1 to 3, so I'm going to
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  Speaker 1: throw Hebrews 1, 1 to 3 in along the way, okay?
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: Because they're so parallel.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: And I want you to see a portrait painted by
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: the Apostle Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: that gives us a series of strokes that reveal Jesus
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: Christ in each of these five strokes represents a particular relationship.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: We see Christ in His relationship to God, then in
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  Speaker 1: His relationship to the created universe, then to the unseen world,
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: then to the church, and then to all other revelations.
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  Speaker 1: Let's start with Jesus in His relation to God. Verse 15.
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  Speaker 1: He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn
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  Speaker 1: of all creation.
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: Now, you need a little bit of background.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: I won't take a long time on this, but just
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  Speaker 1: to help you know the setting, the church in Colossae
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  Speaker 1: was confronted by typical religious error at that time, as
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: churches are today. There were false teachers then, as there
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: are now, people purveying lies as if they were religious truths.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: And there was a group of these religious teachers. They
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: thought they had the super knowledge, the superior knowledge. They
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: were the supposed spiritual intellectuals of their time. And they
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: thought that Christianity was a common, mundane, low-level kind of religion.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: And they had elevated themselves to a much higher one.
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  Speaker 1: They fancied themselves as the spiritually elite, the theologically elite,
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  Speaker 1: the intellectual elite.
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  Speaker 2: And they twisted the Scripture in their quest for a
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  Speaker 2: superior position.
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  Speaker 1: Now just to give you a brief kind of understanding
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  Speaker 1: that will help you fit this into the context, they
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: believed in creation out of evil matter. They believed that
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  Speaker 1: an evil being created the universe and that all that
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  Speaker 1: the evil being created is evil.
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  Speaker 2: Therefore, matter is evil. All matter is evil.
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  Speaker 1: Anything that is physical is evil. They believed that spirit
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: was good. Anything invisible and intangible is good. So, God
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  Speaker 1: could never take on a body. That would be for
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  Speaker 1: good to be mixed with evil, and God who is
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  Speaker 1: good would never do that.
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  Speaker 2: In fact, God who is good would never have created anything.
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  Speaker 2: Who created?
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  Speaker 1: Well, they said God created a series of emanations or
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: angel beings out of Himself in a long, almost infinite
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  Speaker 1: line of creations from Himself.
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  Speaker 2: And God is far, far, far away.
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  Speaker 1: And as He spun off these emanations, they kept coming
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  Speaker 1: down a descending ladder. And at some point, they went
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  Speaker 1: past the point of good and they entered into evil.
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  Speaker 1: And one of those evil ones created matter. some foolish
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  Speaker 1: evil sub-God, and now the rest of human history is
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: people trying to fight against the stupidity of this sub-God
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  Speaker 1: who created matter and messed up a perfectly good spiritual world.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: Jesus could never be God in human flesh because the
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  Speaker 1: true God is good and He wouldn't touch flesh.
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  Speaker 2: Whoever has flesh is evil.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: Jesus, they said, was one of these good emanations, and
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  Speaker 1: Jesus also would never take on a physical form because
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  Speaker 1: He would never associate with evil. So God didn't create.
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  Speaker 1: Jesus is not the creator God. God would not incarnate
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: Himself in human form, and neither would Jesus. Paul is
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: writing against this background, and he simply says to them,
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: Jesus is the image of the invisible God. And in
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: verse 16, by Him all things were created. Get rid
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: of this ridiculous system that you've developed and understand this,
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  Speaker 1: there is one God and He created. And that one
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  Speaker 1: God came into the world in the form of Jesus
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  Speaker 1: in human flesh.
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  Speaker 2: That's truth. In relation to God then.
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  Speaker 1: Jesus is the image of the invisible God.
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: He is the replica. the iconion. He is the reproduction.
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  Speaker 1: In Hebrews chapter 1 and verse 3, it says this,
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: making really the same point, Jesus is the radiance of
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: God's glory and the exact representation of His nature. He
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  Speaker 1: is the radiance of God's glory. That is to say,
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: He is the shining forth of God. He is the exact,
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: says the writer of Hebrews, representation of God's person. He
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: is not only the brightness, but He is the essence,
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: the substance. This term, image, is the classical Greek term
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: for a die or a stamp. He replicates God. He
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: is the exact reproduction of God. As John tells us
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: in his account of the birth of Christ, we beheld
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: His glory.
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: And what glory was it?
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: The glory as of the only begotten of the Father,
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: full of the same attributes that are characteristic of God. Paul,
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: writing in Philippians 2, says, Christ at one point was
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: in the form of God, but divested Himself of that
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: and came in the form of man. He is the
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: precise copy, reproduction, replica of God. He is the very
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: substance and essence of God. He is the radiance of
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: God's shining glory in human form. That's why He could
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: say in John 14, 9, if you've seen Me, you've
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: seen the Father. In fact, He is not just a
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: sketch of God. Verse 9 of chapter 2 in Colossians says,
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: In Him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form.
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: And back in verse 19 of chapter 1, all the
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: fullness is caused to dwell in Him. In 2 Corinthians 4, 4,
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: Paul says, Christ who is the image of God.
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  Speaker 2: He is a full image.
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  Speaker 1: Manifestation and revelation of God. Paul wants it crystal clear
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: that there is no equivocation as to the identity of
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. He is God in human flesh. That's not
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: unreasonable if you look at the life of Christ.
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  Speaker 2: Think of it this way.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: If God were a man, what would we expect Him
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: to be like? Well, if God were a man, here's
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: my list. I would expect him to be sinless.
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  Speaker 2: Jesus was.
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  Speaker 1: He was in all points tempted like as we are
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  Speaker 1: yet without sin. Even Pilate who sat as his judge
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  Speaker 1: after all of the hullabaloo.
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: That had gone on came to this conclusion. I find
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  Speaker 2: in him what? No fault.
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  Speaker 1: The Roman centurion came to the Same conclusion, and so
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  Speaker 1: did the thief on the cross. Nobody could ever bring
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  Speaker 1: an accusation against Him. A trial before Annas, a trial
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: before Caiaphas, a trial before Herod, passed back to Pilate,
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: nobody could come up with anything. If God were a man,
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: I would expect Him to be sinless. The record of
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: history and the affirmation of apostolic testimony, and the truth is,
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: Jesus was sinless.
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: If God were a man....
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: I would expect Him to speak the most profound and
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: greatest words ever spoken.
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  Speaker 2: Wouldn't you? Jesus did.
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: The comment of His detractors was, we never heard anybody
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: speak like this. And every time He preached, they were
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: absolutely astounded. If God were a man, I would also
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: expect Him to exert a profound influence over human personality.
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  Speaker 2: He did.
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: The impact of Jesus Christ on humanity is without equal.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: In fact, if you just look at the disciples who
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: were basically bumbling common characters, who had a hard time
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: comprehending seemingly some of the basic issues of theology and truth,
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: but the power of Jesus' life transformed them into people
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: who changed the world.
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  Speaker 2: And still He's transforming people Influence.
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  Speaker 1: I would expect that if He were God, He would
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: have that kind of influence. Now, if God were a man,
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: I would also expect Him to do miracles.
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  Speaker 2: Jesus did.
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  Speaker 1: Repeatedly, publicly, unarguably, dramatically, prolifically. And if God were a man,
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  Speaker 1: I would expect Him to.
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  Speaker 2: I would expect him to know the future. Jesus did.
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  Speaker 1: He predicted things about himself, things about the nation Israel,
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: details about the future, the.
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: End of the world. If God were a man, I
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: would expect Him to show us what God was like.
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  Speaker 2: He did.
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  Speaker 1: We saw in Him love and kindness and mercy and grace.
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  Speaker 1: that was absolutely, utterly, and beyond anything any human could
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: ever experience. And we saw in Him a level of virtue, fairness, wisdom,
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  Speaker 1: the likes of which the world has never seen. Any
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: way you look at it, if God were to come
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: into the world as a man, He would come out
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  Speaker 1: Jesus Christ.
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  Speaker 2: And that's the case.
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: Jesus Christ is the exact reproduction of the invisible God.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: He makes the invisible God visible. If you trivialize the
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: birth of Christ, as I said earlier, that is a
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: monumental form of blasphemy because it is a striking of
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: a blow against the revelation of the eternal God in Christ. Furthermore,
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: verse 15 identifies Jesus as the firstborn of all creation.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: That is not a reference to time. He wasn't the
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: first person born in creation. Adam was made, and then
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: Eve was formed out of His rib, and then they
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: started having babies. There were plenty of them before He
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: was born. It doesn't mean that he was the first
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  Speaker 1: person ever born in all of creation. What it means
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: is that of all of creation, he is the prototokos.
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: That is to say, the ranking one. In ancient times,
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: firstborn meant the heir, the supreme one, the superior one,
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  Speaker 1: the one with the right of inheritance, the one with
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: the rights of privilege and prestige and honor. Jacob was
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: not born first, but he was the prototokos.
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  Speaker 2: He was the heir.
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: Perhaps you can understand it if you understand Psalm.
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  Speaker 2: 89, 27. God says, I will also.
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  Speaker 1: Make him my firstborn, the highest of the kings of
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  Speaker 1: the earth. Firstborn being defined as the king of kings,
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  Speaker 1: the supreme one.
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: Hebrews 1 also says, speaks of this.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: Verse 2, His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things.
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: That's the issue.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: And that's why in verse 3, at the end, He
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: sits down at the right hand of the majesty on high.
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: He sits down on the very throne of God.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: Paul is saying in relation to God, He is the
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: exact representation of God, and of all who have been created,
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: He is the heir, He is the supreme one, He
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: is the ranking one.
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: He is the ultimate one.
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: Paul declares then that Jesus is God, the exact replica
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: of God, the.
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: Supreme being of all who have ever existed.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: Some people may be confused about whether Jesus claimed this
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: Certainly the Jewish people of his time weren't. They wanted
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: to stone him for blasphemy, John 10.33 says, because they said,
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: you being a man, make yourself God.
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: Indeed, he was God.
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: Thomas had it right when he reached out his hand
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: and commented, my Lord and my God. Look at the
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: second relationship in verses 16 and 17. Not only do
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: we see Jesus in His relationship to God, but in
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: His relationship to.
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: The world or to creation.
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: Verse 16 says, for by Him all things were created,
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: Then at the end of the verse, all things have
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: been created by Him and for Him, and He is
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: We're dealing here not with a man, not just with
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: a great man. We're dealing here with the Creator and
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: the sustainer of the whole universe. Whatever is in heaven
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: and on earth, whatever is visible or invisible, it's all
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: created by Him. It's all created for Him. He is
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: before all of it, and in Him, all of it
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: hangs together. He is the Creator.
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: He is the Creator.
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: And again, that is exactly what we read in Hebrews 1-2.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: Through whom also He made the world. Or literally, by
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: whom He made the world. The whole universe, the whole cosmos,
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: the whole material universe was made by Jesus Christ. I mean,
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: just to think about that is mind-boggling. If you could
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: bore a hole in the sun and start dumping earths
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: into it, you could put 1,200,000 earths in it and
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: still have room for 4,300,000 moons.
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: The sun is inconceivably massive. The sun is 93 million
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: miles away.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: The nearest star, Alpha Centauri, is five times bigger than
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: the sun.
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: Now the moon is only 211,463 miles away. It's just
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: a walk really. It's true.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: You can walk to the moon in 27 years if
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: you can go 24 miles a day. A ray of
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: light travels at 186,000 miles.
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: Per second.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: Reaches the moon in 1.5 seconds. Now, if we can
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: go that fast, if we can get up to that speed,
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: we can reach Mercury in four and a half minutes.
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: It's only 50 million miles away. In fact, in two minutes,
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: we can be at Venus. That's just 26 million miles.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: In four minutes and 21 seconds, we can hit Mars.
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: It's only 34 million miles away. And then if we
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: want to take a little longer trip, we can go
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: all the way to Jupiter. That's 367 million miles, and
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: it'll take us 35 minutes and 11 seconds. And if
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: we want to go to Saturn, well, that'll take a while.
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: That's an hour and 11 seconds. It's 790 million miles away.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: And then if we still want to go further, we
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: can go to Uranus, which is 1,608,000,000 miles, and Neptune,
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: which is 3 billion, and Pluto is past all of that.
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: And when you get all the way to Pluto, you
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: haven't left the front porch. Betelgeuse, this amazing star, is
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: 880 quadrillion miles away.
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: Are you ready for this?
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: And has a diameter that is greater than the Earth's orbit.
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: That is a big star. Who made all that matter?
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: Who made all that stuff? Jesus. Somebody ought to tell
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: the ACLU some of this, you know? Might help them.
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: He made the creation, and He made it good, didn't He?
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: Man stained it with sin, and He will one day
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: come back to recreate it, bring it to the glory
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: originally intended. Look at verse 16 at the end. All
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: things have been created by Him.
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: And for Him.
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: For His own good and His own pleasure and His
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: own purposes. He is before all things. He had to
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: be before all things or He couldn't have created them.
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: That is to say, Jesus is preexistent. He was alive
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: before the incarnation, and in Him all things hold together.
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: He was before the creation because He was the Creator.
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: He is the one who holds it all together. He
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: is the cohesion.
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: We don't accept the deist view that He wound up
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: the world and then walked away.
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: He holds it together.
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: Hebrews 1.3 says He's upholding all things by the word
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: of His power. He's the principle of cohesion. He's what
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: keeps everything moving, keeps everything in orbit. Do you understand that?
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: Do you understand that the bodies in the universe don't
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: stay in their orbits just because they stay in their orbits?
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: They stay in their orbits because He keeps them there?
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: And do you understand that when you go down and
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: you look inside an atom and you're looking for the
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: components of an atom and a neutron and a proton
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: and an electron are doing exactly what they're doing inside
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: an atom, not because there's something about them that sustains itself,
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: but there is a God who is making them function
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: in that way consistently.
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: He's holding it all together by the word of His
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: own power.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: Do you understand that if the earth's rotation slowed down,
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: we would alternately freeze and burn? He's got to keep
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: this deal moving at the same speed all the time.
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: Our globe is tilted at an exact angle of 23 degrees,
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: which enables us to have four seasons. If it weren't
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: tilted like that, vapors from the ocean would move north
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: and south and pile up massive continents of ice on
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: both ends, and we would have some major problems in
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: the rotations.
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: To say nothing of seasons.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: If the moon didn't remain at the exact precise distance
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: it is from the earth, the ocean tide would inundate
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: all the land twice a day who keeps all that
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: stuff in place if the ocean even slipped to a
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: few feet deeper than it is carbon dioxide and the
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere would be completely absorbed and
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: no vegetable life could exist who sustains the delicate balance
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: of It is Jesus Christ. He is before all things,
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: and in Him all things cohere, all things hold together.
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: And all of that was in the manger. Creator, sustainer,
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: before all things. This child is the beginning of creation,
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: the end of creation, the upholder of creation, and the
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: goal of creation. Look thirdly at His relationship to the
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: unseen world. In the middle of verse 16, all things
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: were created by Him. whether thrones or dominions or rulers
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: or authorities. Now, those terms are familiar to any student
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: of the New Testament because they are indicative of ranks
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: of angels. You will see those terms a number of
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: times in Paul's writing, several times in his letter to
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: the church at Ephesus. What it tells us is that
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: he is the creator and the king over all the angels, right? Thrones, dominions, rulers,
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: authorities just talk about the strata or the ranks of angels.
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: He is over them all.
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: The highest angelic princes are subject to Jesus Christ, whether
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: they be seraphim or cherubim or whether they be demons
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: or Satan himself. The very angels who said that night,
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: glory to God in the highest, were the servants of
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: the baby in the manger.
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: They had been created by Him.
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: Angels, whether elect angels, holy angels, or fallen angels, are
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: subject to Christ. They would not exist apart from His
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: creative power, and they could not continue to exist apart
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: from His sustaining power. In Hebrews, again, chapter 1 and
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: verse 7, it says that He makes His angels winds.
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: It's talking about a creative act. And His minister is
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: a flame of fire. But of the Son, He says,
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. When God
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: made angels by His creative act, when Christ made angels
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: by His creative act, He made them ministers.
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: That's a word for servants.
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: But when God sent His Son, He wasn't a servant anymore.
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: He said, thy throne, O God, is forever and ever.
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: And the angels worship him because he is the sovereign.
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: Verse 6, when he again brings the firstborn into the world,
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: he says, and let all the angels.
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: Of God worship him. Angels are servants. He is the
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: one to be served. He is the king. He is
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: the sovereign.
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: There is a fourth relationship here that I would point
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: out to you. Look at verse 18. We have seen
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: Jesus in His relation to God, to the created universe,
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: and to the unseen world of angels. Now Jesus in
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: His relationship to the church. He is also head of
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: from the dead, so that He Himself might come to
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: have first place in everything. Some tremendous truths here. He
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: is the head of the body, the church. Biblically, the
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: metaphor of the body is often used. The church is
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: like a body and Christ is like its head. That's
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: comprehensible to us. It means what we would assume it means.
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: The ability to produce growth in your brain At the
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: base of your skull is a small cavity. In that
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: cavity is contained a gland that is called the pituitary gland,
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: is related to growth. It carries the growth hormone, among others,
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: that stimulate growth. And growth of the body is directly
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: related to the power provided by the head. Our cerebrum
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: controls parts of the body. Cerebellum has been called the
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: harmonizer of muscle action. All the functions of the human
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: body are under the control of the brain, both voluntary
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: and involuntary. They are stimulated by what goes on in
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: the head.
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: Growth, guidance, and.
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: Certainly all the thought processes are contained in the mind
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: and the head, that give the direction to all that
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: we do and say and think. And that simply illustrates
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: the fact that Christ is the source of all truth,
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: all knowledge, all wisdom, all growth, and all guidance.
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: In His church. He is the head of the church.
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: Secondly, he says, he is the beginning. He is the
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: beginning of the church. He is the source of the church.
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: Matthew 16, Jesus said, I will build my church. That
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: is the idea here. The church is the creation of Christ.
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: He is the source of its existence. Truthfully, its most
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: prominent member by virtue of resurrection, which we shall see
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: immediately in a moment.
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: He is the archaic. He is the pioneer. He is
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: the forerunner. He is the leader.
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: He is the source of the church. Not just its head,
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: but its creator, its source. And then follow along in
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: verse 18. He is also the firstborn from the dead.
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: There's that prototokos again. It's not that He's the first
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: person ever resurrected. There were people in the Old Testament
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: resurrected There were people that Jesus raised from the dead
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: before He Himself was resurrected. We're not talking about first
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: in time, but of all who have ever been raised
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: or ever will be raised, He is the prototokos. He
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: is the supreme one. Here Paul zeroes in on the resurrection.
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: He was born, but He was raised from the dead,
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: the firstfruits of them that slept. His resurrection is a
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: guarantee of the ultimate resurrection into eternal life of all men, He.
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: Is not a dead hero. He is a resurrected God-man.
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: And of all who have ever come from the dead,
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: He is the supreme one, the superior one. You can't
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: dismiss Jesus as some dead historical figure.
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: He is alive.
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: He is the head of the body, the church. He
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: is the source, the initiator of the body, the church.
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: And He has given birth from death to the whole
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: church by.
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: His own resurrection.
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: As a result of all of these things, as a
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: result of being the very reproduction and replica of the
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: invisible God, the most ranking individual of all those created,
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: as a result of being the Creator Himself who made
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: everything in the universe visible and invisible, as a result
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: of being the sovereign over all the spiritual world, as
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: a result of being sovereign and leader and authority and
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: source and life for the church, the end of verse
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: 18 says, He Himself has come to have first place
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: in everything.
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: He is absolutely preeminent. And it stands to reason.
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: Doesn't it, that one who is first in rank in
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: the universe, who is point of reference, who is agent, goal, forerunner, sustainer,
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: governor in the sphere of creation, one who is head
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: of the church, beginning and first in rank of those resurrected,
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: would be the preeminent one. How inconceivable it is then
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: to have a holiday in which we celebrate and try
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: at the same time to ignore the one who is
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: the reason we celebrate. And when you're ignoring someone, it's
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: not just some historical personality, but rather the living God.
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: And then just to make sure nothing gets left out
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: after having said it all in verse 19, Paul adds
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: a word about Jesus in his relationship to all other revelations.
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: It was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: to dwell in Him. All the powers of deity, all
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: the attributes of deity. Verse 3 of chapter 2 says,
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Verse 9 says,
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: all the fullness of deity. Everything is in Him. Everything
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: is in Him. He is the fullness of God's essence,
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: God's glory. And it's in Him and Him alone. And
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: that is to say, if somebody comes along after this
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: and says, I'm God, don't believe it. He needs no supplement.
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: He has no rivals. There are no more revelations. It's
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: in Him and Him alone that God has put all
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: the fullness of His own deity because it pleased Him
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: to do that. Now the closing question is why? And
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: the answer comes in verse 20.
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: Listen.
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: And through Him, to reconcile all things to Himself, having
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: made peace through the blood of His cross. Through Him
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: I say whether things on earth or things in heaven.
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind,
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: in His fleshly body through death in order to present
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: Why did Christ come into the world?
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: To save sinners, to go to a cross, to shed
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: His blood, through death pay the price for sin in
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: order that He might present you to God holy and
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: blameless and beyond reproach. He came to gather a redeemed
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: humanity to take back to God. He came into the
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: world to save sinners. That's why He was to be
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: called Jesus. He came to bring reconciliation between sinners and
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: a holy God. He came to remove the curse of
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: the universe and to reconcile the universe to its original
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: intended created purpose. He came so that He might gather
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: together men and women like you and like me and
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: all the others throughout all of human history that God
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: set His hand upon and to gather them together and
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: present them to God holy and blameless and beyond reproach.
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: He came to save from sins and bring us to
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: God to reconcile the lost. He took our flesh in
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: Him that we might become holy as He is holy.
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: It's a tremendous truth. As Joab, you remember in the
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: Old Testament, pleaded for Absalom, the wayward rebel son, and
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: brought him to David, and David kissed him. So Jesus
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: Christ brings us to the kiss of God so that
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: we might be reconciled. This is the meaning of Christmas.
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: Nothing less and certainly nothing more. It's a sad thing
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: in our culture that Christmas on the one hand is
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: trivialized and on the other hand it is assaulted in
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: an effort to remove the only thing about it that
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: is important. eternally important. And I think in closing, it
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: behooves us at a time like this to take every
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: opportunity we can to make sure that people do understand
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: what Christmas is really all about. I'm not defending December
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: 25th as if it were the day that Jesus were born.
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: That's very unlikely.
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: I'm not defending all of the stuff that goes on
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: around Christmas, but I am saying If the world is
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: going to give us an opportunity to focus on the
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: birth of Jesus Christ, let's.
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: Take advantage of it.
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: Let's take advantage of it in order to worship and
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: praise Him because that's right and in order to speak
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: of Him to those who so much need to hear. Foolish,
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: foolish people who want to eliminate Jesus Christ. Keep the party,
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: just get rid of the reason. And in so doing,
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: in their effort to gain the world, they lose their souls.
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: We have a tremendous responsibility to them. Let's bow together
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: in prayer. Father, it is with great thankfulness and gratitude
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: of heart that we acknowledge you this morning as our Savior,
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: because this is not something that comes from us, but
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: from you.
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: This is a gift.
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: We can't even comprehend why you would be so gracious
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: as to give it to us, but we thank you.
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: Pray for those who do not know Christ. We pray
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: that at this Christmas season, particularly through the testimony of
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: faithful folks who belong to Christ, people's hearts might be
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: turned toward the Savior. And while the world is doing
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: everything it can to cover up the reality of Christ,
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: blurring completely the celebration of His birth, the concept of
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: the incarnation, the truth of salvation, Lord, may we speak boldly.
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: As the attacks escalate, may the witness escalate as well.
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: And give us the privilege of leading people to the
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  Speaker 1: knowledge of Christ.
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  Speaker 2: These things we ask for His glory. Amen. You've been
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  Speaker 2: listening to John MacArthur, Bible teacher with Grace To You.
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  Speaker 2: For free access to all of John's lessons and a
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  Speaker 2: listing of study Bibles and books available for sale, visit
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  Speaker 2: Grace2U' s website at gty.org. John MacArthur and Grace2U reserve all
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  Speaker 2: copyright protection under applicable law.
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  Speaker 1: Our copyright policy is available at gty.org, and it includes
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  Speaker 1: instructions for and limitations on duplicating this digital file.