The Christmas season is upon us. It is one of the most beautiful and joy-filled times of the year with all of the snow, Christmas lights, family get togethers, food and gift giving. But this year is different.
2020 has definitely been one of the most tumultuous years in my memory. Covid19 has rocked the world, racial tension and injustice has left its ugly mark in many of our states and political upheaval has divided our country horrifically. The emotional, relational and financial trauma of this year is still unfolding in many different ways. Marriages are beyond strained; addiction levels have skyrocketed and financial pressure for many is beyond bearable.
In the midst of all the chaos of this year, there is still something beautiful that is taking place in this season. Christmas is all about the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who left his comfortable, swanky spot in Heaven to come to this sin-soaked, broken world to live the perfect life we could not live, to do miraculous things we could not do, to die on a cross for his sin-filled enemies, to leave the grave empty three days later and to return to heaven shortly after giving a promise of his return in glory to set everything right in the future; this is the message of the gospel and Christ reigns supreme at its center.
This is why I say that this year, as devastatingly ugly as its been, is still a beautiful season. Why do I say this? Why do I say that an ugly year is actually a beautiful thing? I say this because, God in his sovereign kindness did not see fit to give us an easy year; instead he gave us a really tough year. Why would I say that a tough year is a beautiful thing?
I say that this ugly year has been a beautiful thing for the same reason that I say Christmas is a beautiful thing. At the end of the day, the suffering and the difficulty that God allows or even ordains or decrees in our lives is beautiful (just like the ugliness of the cross) because it’s always meant to show us that Christ reigns supreme over everything, the empty tomb is evidence of this. As you look back over this year and as you begin to engage in the Christmas season, I pray that you would remember that Christ is the Lord of all, or he is not the Lord at all.2
Every unanswered question you have today; every painful experience you’ve had this year; every disappointment you’ve wrestled with (or are wrestling with); every shortcoming you struggle with; every unmet desire you have that keeps you awake until all hours of the night, is under the sovereign hand of our loving and kind, King of Kings and Lords and Lords, Jesus Christ who reigns supreme over everything.
There is nothing that gets past him, there’s nothing he doesn’t see, there’s nothing he hasn’t experienced and he’s not so far away from you that you can’t come to him right now with all of your junk. He came here so that you could come to him and find all of your hope satisfied in his supreme presence. Look at Colossians 1:15 – 17 with me…
COLOSSIANS 1:15 – 17…
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Despite all of the evil in this world, Christ reigns supreme; this really is the message of the text in front of us today. The Colossian church was planted years earlier by the apostle Paul while he was planting the church in Ephesus (Acts 9:10); Epaphros and Philemon were among the very first believers in Colossae and now, years later those earliest leaders have brought word to the apostle Paul in prison informing him that heretics were on the loose in the church (Col. 1:7 – 8).3
The heretics that were running loose throughout the Colossian church were called Gnostics (who believed that physical matter was evil and invisible spirituality was better) and these false teachers had the smooth outer look of Christians but their doctrine or their teaching was laced with complex legalism, secret societal behavior and astrology all wrapped up in Christian language; they believed they had the insider track on how to be right with God as they demoted Jesus to an imperfect man (because he was a physical man therefore he couldn’t be the perfect God) so he was merely the first rung on their complex ladder to get to heaven.4 So evil was running rampant throughout the church in Colossae but the apostle Paul writes here to remind the church that Despite all of the evil in this world, Jesus reigns supreme.
#1: JESUS REIGNS SUPREME OVER ETERNITY (V. 15)
This is why the apostle Paul says that Christ “is the image of the invisible God” (1:15); Christ reigns supreme in eternity. Jesus is “the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God” who deserves our “honor and glory forever and ever” (1 Tim. 1:17). Moses looked forward to the supreme reign of Christ from eternity with faith, enduring the evil of his day (Heb. 11:27) and the apostle John saw Christ reigning supreme in eternity as he referred to Jesus as “the Word, and Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). Jesus reigns supreme over eternity.
When Paul calls Jesus the “image of the invisible God” he’s saying that Christ is the exact, perfect, imprint, portrait, representation or revelation of God; Jesus is not some second-rate emanation, emissary, messenger or step on a ladder from the true God; Jesus is God in the flesh, Immanuel, God with us (Matt. 1:22 – 23).5 Jesus reigns supreme over eternity. There’s nothing that has happened to you and nothing that will happen to you without it passing across the desk of Jesus Christ first. Despite all of the evil in this world, Jesus reigns supreme.
#2: JESUS REIGNS SUPREME OVER CREATION (V. 15 – 17)
This is why the apostle Paul says that it was by Christ “the first born of all creation” that “all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (1:15 – 17); Jesus reigns supreme over creation.
Christ’s supremacy in creation can be seen in four ways in these verses: Christ is the supreme firstborn (vs. 15); Christ is the supreme Creator (vs. 16); Christ is the supreme Goal of Creation (vs. 16); and Christ is the supreme Sustainer of all things (vs. 17).6 When Paul refers to Jesus as “the firstborn of all creation” he’s not necessarily referring to his literal birth, he’s referring to his rank and honor in eternity as the Creator who created everything out of nothing and then condescended to be born among his creation as Immanuel or God with us.
Everything in all of creation finds its ultimate purpose or goal in Christ Jesus because he is the one who literally holds everything together; he is the invisible glue in a world that is spinning headlong into destruction. Ultimately, Christ reigns supreme in creation because he is the first and the last, the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega who will bring ultimate restoration and reconciliation to this world (Rom. 11:36; Rev. 21).7 This is why I say that Jesus reigns supreme over creation… Because at the end of the day, despite all of the evil in this world, Jesus reigns supreme.
CONCLUSION…
When David wrote the words of Psalm 89, he was looking forward to the Messiah, the Christ who would reign supreme in eternity and in creation. This is why David cried out, “I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord, forever; with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations (vs. 1)…Let the heavens praise your wonders, O LORD (vs. 5)… O LORD God of hosts who is mighty as you are (vs. 8)… you rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise, you still them (vs. 9)… The heavens are yours; the earth also is yours; the world and all that is in it, you have founded them (vs. 11)”.
In short, David was looking forward to the Messiah who would reign supreme over all of eternity and all of creation because David knew that if Christ is not the Lord of all then he is not the Lord at all. I pray in this Christmas season, as we come near to the end of a tumultuous year, that you would find hope and healing and courage and strength in the truth that the condescended, crucified, risen and returning Christ does indeed reign supreme over all of eternity and over all of creation. Despite all of the evil in this world, Jesus reigns supreme.
And there is no better place to witness the supremacy of Christ than the foot of a bloody cross in the doorway of an empty tomb as you look forward to eternity in your Father’s presence. In the coming of Christ in this Christmas season we remember that Jesus was born to die and yet in his death, the power of hell could not hold him and on the third day he left the tomb empty and he ascended into heaven leaving us with a promise of his return to set everything right again. In all of this, Christ proved that he reigns supreme over Satan, Sin and Death.
How could Jesus do this? How could Jesus in fact dies for the sins of the world and then leave the tomb empty three days later? Jesus was able to do this because he does in fact reign supreme over all of eternity and over all of creation. Despite all of the evil in this world, Jesus reigns supreme. Amen! – Let’s pray as we begin to prepare to praise God through music…
1 Unless otherwise specified, all Bible references in this paper are to the English Standard Version Bible, The New Classic Reference Edition (ESV) (Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, 2001).
2 R. Kent Hughes, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon: The Fellowship of the Gospel and the Supremacy of Christ (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, ESV Edition, 2013), 230.
3 Ibid., 212.
4 Ibid., 212 – 213.
5 Ibid., 230.
6 Ibid., 231.67Ibid., 231 – 232.