As we started this letter, one of the things that I shared was the fact that the Apostle Paul was concerned. He’d never met the people at Colossae, never been there. It had been started probably by believers who had gotten saved under his ministry at Ephesus, which was about a hundred miles west of Colossae.
And they had probably gone over and established this church. The church was growing, and there were people getting saved. And they loved the Lord.
And the Apostle Paul, when he opened the letter, commended them for their faith and what he’d heard about it. But he was distressed. And one of the things he was distressed about was false teaching, and those that were coming in saying, We’ve got truth that is extra-biblical.
We’ve got truth that only the elite or special can know. They were called Gnostics, those that had special knowledge. They’re still with us today.
They say that they have special knowledge of Scripture that the average person can’t comprehend unless you go to them and they will show you. Some of the things that we’ve already looked at, we looked a little bit last week at legalism and how it was not Jesus only, but it was Jesus and the law that got you saved. But we just mentioned earlier this morning, the law can save no one but only point out our sin.
So why would anybody go back under the law when they can experience the freedom and grace that is found in Christ? I want us to split this morning. Because there was a heretical doctrine that was coming into the church that angels were to be worshipped. And that angels were something that men should look to.
Well, if you don’t think that that’s with us today, you haven’t seen movies or watched television programs. Most of the things you see about angels that Hollywood puts out is absolute lies. And God never intended angels to be worshipped.
This morning, we’re going to go back into some of the area that we’ve already looked at in Colossians. And so if you have your Bibles and return back with me to chapter one of Colossians. And I want us to show you why angels cannot be worshipped, should not be worshipped, do not desire to be worshipped.
Unless they’re a fallen angel. And we’re going to look at what their place is and who Jesus is. Because I want you to know that there are false teachers and false cults that are in the world today that would teach Jesus is just the highest created being and that’s the highest of all the orders of angels.
Is that true? We’re going to look at this morning and see what the name of Jesus means and what is his name. And what makes Jesus different from the angels? Let’s begin at chapter one, verse 15. Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature? For by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible.
Whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by him and for him. And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn of the dead, that in all things he might have preeminence.
For it is pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. And having made peace through the blood of his cross by him to reconcile all things unto himself by him, I say whether they be things in earth or things in heaven, and you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled. In the body of his flesh through death to present to you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight.
If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven, whereof I, Paul, am made a minister, who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church. That’s just Paul in prayer. Heavenly Father, as we look at who is Jesus in relation to the angels, help us to understand and see from your word and from this study that Jesus is God come in the flesh.
Colossians 1:15-24
Lord, help us to understand and desire to worship him truly in spirit and in truth, understanding what he’s done for us. This we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Paul makes some interesting statements. We looked at these earlier in our study. But I wanted to reemphasize them because later on in the message this morning, we’re going to be looking at the name of Jesus.
And I want you to understand the significance of his name. The power of his name. The authority of his name.
And Paul reveals to us a glimpse of all of that in his introduction. As you look at this in verse 15, he starts out and says, Who is the image of the invisible God? The firstborn of every creature. Now, it’s interesting.
Jesus came and men had never seen God. Remember when Moses was on Mount Sinai and the Lord passed by, he took Moses and he put him in the cleft of the rock and he said not to look until he had passed by. And all that Moses saw was the backside or the hindered parts of the Lord.
Scriptures tell us that no man sees God and lives. But people saw Jesus and lived. But I want you to understand the unique thing that happened.
God did not come to earth in all of his glory, in all of his majesty, in all of his power, in all of his might, and reveal himself to man. But instead the scriptures tell us by the hand of the apostle Paul that he emptied himself. What does that term mean? He emptied himself.
It means he willfully gave up his position of authority and glory in the sense that he possessed in heaven. Where if you as a near sinful man, looked on the holy God of heaven sitting on his throne, you would immediately die. Jesus emptied himself of that glory.
He emptied himself by leaving that position in heaven and coming to earth and taking on the form of a man. Earlier in the service this morning I mentioned to you that as the disciples sat around the Passover with Jesus, they did not comprehend who they were in the presence of. They were in the presence of the God who created everything.
They thought they were in the presence of the Messiah. Well they were. They thought that they were in the presence of what God had revealed to Peter.
When he said, Thou art Christ. And they were. But they did not comprehend who he truly was.
Paul reveals to us some of that. First of all, he possesses the image of the invisible God, the Father in heaven. And the firstborn of every creature.
Does this mean that he was created like the Jehovah Witnesses say? Does it mean that he is some type of special angel that has inherited this planet like the Mormons would say? And that you have that same opportunity? No, when it says he is the firstborn of every creature, it’s speaking of position. And the firstborn positionally has two things that are very unique. The firstborn has the birthright.
You can go back and see in the account of Jacob and Esau, where Esau traded the birthright for a cup of soup. That’s how little he thought of the birthright. The second thing is he possesses the blessing.
So birthright and blessing are found with the one who possesses the position that is referred to for Christ, the firstborn. But it’s much more than that. Jesus is sovereign Lord over all the angels.
And his example that he gave at his first coming revealed that. And again, the disciples, although being with him and seeing it, didn’t comprehend his power and his position. If you read, for example, in Luke’s Gospel in chapter 4, verse 41, you will see that he cast out the demons.
In Luke 7, verse 21, he again cast out demons. Demons are fallen angels. Demons are angels that rebelled against him.
The amazing thing that happened when he cast these demons out is they knew exactly who he was. And they pleaded with him that he wasn’t there to judge them before their time. Not only did they know he was their creator, they also knew he was their God.
And that they stood worthy of judgment. And one day that judgment would come. Jesus has also created angels.
Let’s take a look at verse 16. For by him all things created that are in heaven, that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things are created by him and for him. How many things are created by Jesus? Everything.
Everything that exists was created by him. Who has that kind of power? Not an angel. As a matter of fact, an angel can’t create anything.
How do I know this? Look at Satan. When’s the last time you saw something Satan created? All Satan can do as a fallen angel, and Satan was at one time after creation the most powerful angel that God had created. His purpose was to lead the rest of the angels and worship before the throne of God.
And if you study about him, you will see that he also is very musical. It’s not by chance he understands how to influence people with music, and how to take kids down his road through music. That was Satan, until sin was found in him.
And it’s interesting, he was created by God. And yet if you look today, can Satan create anything? All that Satan does is imitate what God has done. Except he does it in a wicked and evil way.
Trying to undermine and destroy all that God stands for, trying to wage war against his creator, and trying to justify why he convinced one third of the angels to follow him and leave heaven. How do we know that Satan can’t create anything? Well, there’s coming a ruler in this world, and everything in prophecy is pointing to the fact that we’re getting closer to there every day. And this ruler of the world is going to be, it says, the Antichrist.
Satan is going to empower him with his wicked, evil desires and power, and he’s going to try and make him savior of the world. The only problem is, he’s going to lead to the world’s destruction and judgment, not its salvation. And Satan creates an unholy trinity, as God has a holy trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Because Satan is trying to copy God. It’s interesting. I was reading a study a number, this was a few years ago, and they were trying to make life in the science labs.
And the DNA molecule is the basis of life. And they were trying to create life. And so they tried to copy those molecules, but they couldn’t make them.
And when they did make them, they were backwards, and nothing would live. That’s Satan, trying to copy what only God can do. But Jesus came and created everything.
Angels were created by Jesus for His benefit. It says that in verse 16 as well. They were created by Him and for Him.
Angels are sustained by Christ. We find that in verse 17, it says, And He is born all things, and by Him all things consist. Do you know why you’re sitting here today? Because of the grace of Jesus.
Do you know why unsaved people are still breathing and living today? Because of the grace of Jesus. Everything in this world, existence consists and is sustained by the power of the Lord. You know, men think they’re so great.
Some men are very smart. Some men are very powerful. Some men possess great authority.
But guess what? When God says, It’s your time to die. Death comes. And no matter what your power, authority, brains, you cannot stop it.
Some men are so delusional, they fall into the trap of Satan. They think that if I could just plug myself into this giant computer, and I can make my brain become part of the cloud, and then when my body dies, I’ll still exist. Well, guess what? You don’t have to do that because you still exist.
The only problem is you exist in hell. The Bible tells us that even after death, you exist. Jesus gave the example, and it wasn’t a parable, about the rich man who was waiting his day of judgment, and there was the beggar who was a righteous man.
They both existed after death. It was before Jesus had come, and so the full transaction had not occurred to bring the one gentleman who was righteous into heaven, what happens to us as believers, but there was this gulf that separated them. And the rich man, the unbeliever, cried over to Lazarus, the believer, and said, Send someone to my brothers and let them know.
Let them know what? Death isn’t the end of things, but you’re preparing in this life for death, and that God sustains all things, even here, and I am awaiting my day of judgment. I don’t want them to have to face it. Go and tell them.
You know what he was told? Will they believe it if someone comes back from the dead? Would they believe it? Would your brothers believe it? The Pharisees, when Jesus raised the different Lazarus from the dead, the Pharisees immediately were planning to kill him because he was a problem to them, because he showed the power of God, and that Jesus was God. So they wanted him out of the way. It’s interesting.
Jesus rose from the dead. There’s been men that have tried to disprove that fact. Some of the best minds in the world tried to disprove it, and often times what happens is they come to faith in Christ.
There’s a trial lawyer from Harvard who tried to disprove it, and afterwards he said the evidence is so strong, one can only believe that Jesus is exactly who he says he was. He rose from the dead, and he’s God. He sustains all things.
The disciples were sitting in his presence, not grasping the magnitude of who sat before them. Angels are commanded to worship Christ. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter 1, verse 6. Hebrews chapter 1, verse 6. And again, when he bringeth in the first begotten into the world, he saith, and let all the angels of God worship him.
When Jesus came into this world, all the angels were to worship him. Not only do they worship him, but we need to understand the concept of worship here. This word means they revere him, they respect him, they’re in submission to him, they cannot violate his will and authority.
So, angels worship him. Angels worshiping God is also seen in Revelation chapter 7, 11 when you’re seeing God the Father sitting on the throne, and angels are worshiping around. So, if angels are worshiping Jesus, and they’re called to worship Jesus when he came to earth, and they’re called to worship Jesus and revere him, and they’re in submission to him, and then it shows these same angels before the throne of God the Father in Revelation.
So, who is Jesus? And is he an angel? And should we be worshiping angels? Well, it’s interesting because in Hebrew chapter 2, if you’re still over in the area of Hebrews, if you want to turn to Hebrews chapter 2, verses 6 and 7, it talks about an interesting thing. It says, But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man that thou art mindful of him, or the son of man that thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels. Thou crownest him with glory and honor, and didst set him over the works of thy hands.
It’s giving a description of what God’s plan was for his creation before man rebelled. But it’s also giving a description of what Jesus had to become to redeem man back. So, we just got done seeing that Jesus created the angels, Jesus sustains the angels, the angels worship Jesus and are responsive to him and obey him.
And now we see that when God the Father determined, along with the Son and the Spirit, prior to the creation of the world, that the way to redeem man was to send the Son to take on the form of man, to become a little lower than the angels. I want you to understand what that means, a little lower than the angels. In order to understand it completely, you need to go back and read in the book of Genesis, Creation of Man.
You’ll see that when man was created, he was given and God created him for the authority to be the steward and overseer of his creation, this world. Man willfully chose to reject that position. Adam sinned.
And you say, well, didn’t we just read that submissive to the will of God? Why wasn’t Adam submissive to the will of God? Why wasn’t Satan submissive to the will of God? They are, but God gave them the ability to choose and they chose wrong. Because everyone is sitting here today, the ability to choose, even after you become a Christian, the scriptures tell us that we will not lose our salvation, but we still have the ability to choose, to make decisions on behavior and actions, walking with God or against God, even as a Christian. And if the Bible tells us that we who are gods will one day, and have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus, will one day stand before him at the bema seat, which is the reward seat, to receive our rewards for how we lived our life on earth as a believer in Christ.
How did we respond to Jesus’ leading? How did we take advantage of those situations he gave us to honor him and to glorify him and to be used by him? Every one of us, whether you’re a believer, bema seat, unbeliever, judgment seat, but we’ll all stand and give an account one day and who will the account be given to? Well, Adam will have to give an account one day. Adam will have to give an account to the Lord Jesus Christ, his creator.
Why did you willfully choose to give up your position of being overseer and steward of my creation? Because Adam was created, and it says that every person is created in the image of God. Adam was created in the image of God. You and I have been created in the image of God.
Not that we have his nose or his eyes, it’s that we have a spirit soul who has been created in his image. As God created Adam, and he willfully chose to rebel, the only means of salvation would be a payment for that rebellion. And the payment couldn’t be made by angels.
The payment had to be made by a man. But the problem was, every man that came after Adam, every man, woman, and child that came after Adam, willfully chose to rebel. And if you don’t think that you have willfully chosen to rebel, I challenge you to examine your heart and see how many times you have sinned against God’s will.
How many lies have you told? How many lusts have you harbored? How much hatred have you possessed? How many lies have you told? Every one of us has rebelled. So the answer isn’t in this audience, the answer isn’t anywhere in this world with anybody who has ever lived. So God took on the form of a man, and he lowered himself a little lower than the angels.
The angels stood above man in creation, and they got to go into God’s presence and worship before his throne where man was on his created earth. Angels were given special abilities that man does not possess. Angels, there’s angels here right now around us.
Demons and angels are here. The Bible tells us that. You can’t see them.
They’re in a different realm. They’re there. They can travel faster than we can.
They do not die like we die. So they’ve lived ever since their creation. That is why fallen angels can be so deceptive in occultic practices like Ouija boards and tarot cards and other things where they tell you things that you go, It must be true.
Nobody would ever know that. Well, guess what? Angels can be there and have seen it. We’re a little lower than the angels, and so God took on the form of a man a little lower than the angels.
Stop and think about that, man. Giving up your glory, giving up your position to become and walk amongst your created beings, your creatures, your men and women. So he did that.
And as he did that, he realized the only way to pay the penalty, and we shared this before many times, the only way to pay the penalty is the price has got to be paid. If you go out here and violate some law in the city of Fargo, the price has got to be paid. You drive a hundred miles an hour down the street right in front of the church, and there’s a policeman sitting in our parking lot, you will be ticketed for a number of things probably, and a price will have to be paid.
It doesn’t matter if you don’t have the money. It doesn’t matter if you say, I’ve only the first time I’ve ever done that. Don’t intend to do it ever again.
It doesn’t matter. You violated the law. The price has got to be paid.
Now, if I would come and pay your ticket for you, the law would be justified because your penalty would have been paid. A number of years ago, Billy Graham was traveling, and I’m not a great fan of Billy Graham, but he was traveling and he was going from one meeting to another, and he was driving himself, and he was speeding. He went through this little town, and they saw him, the policeman stopped him, gave him a ticket, and he said, you need to appear before the judge.
So he went over to the judge in this little town. He walked in and he goes, What? Why, you’re that evangelist! You’re the guy I saw on TV! Aren’t you him? Yeah, that’s me. Really? That’s amazing that I would get to meet you.
And they talked for a while, and then Billy Graham got up because the conversation was very pleasant, and got up to start to leave, and the judge says, wait a minute, where do you think you’re going? He said, well, I was going to leave. He said, you’ve got a ticket to pay. You violated the law.
You can’t just leave my court without paying the fine. So Billy Graham went back and he pulled out his wallet and was beginning to take the money out, and the judge says, I’m going to pay it for you. So my court cannot be said that we did an injustice, your penalty’s been paid, we’re going your way.
Well, much more than a traffic ticket committed by an evangelist, our sins are worthy of hell. And Jesus came and made himself a little lower than a man, a little lower than an angel, on the form of a man, that he could be like us. Emptying himself of his position of glory.
Emptying himself, he was still God, which is evident throughout the Scripture. You see the miracle he did and everything else, but yet became a little lower than an angel. And as he did that, did he become any less God? And I want us to look, and I’m going to take some points from Reynolds Schauer’s book on angels.
And I’m going to just go through these points quickly because we’re running out of time. First, I want you to see that God exalted Jesus Christ. Highly exalted means to be raised someone up to the loftiest height.
This is paralleled to set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion. When Jesus rose from the dead, he was sat at the right hand of God the Father. And we know that this happened because if you go in the book of Acts, and you realize that when the first martyr occurred, Stephen was being stoned.
He looked up in heaven and saw the Son at the right hand of the Father. And the amazing thing is Jesus had been seated at the right hand of the Father. I think he stood showing honor for Stephen’s faithfulness.
But he was at the right hand, the hand of the position of power, the position of authority. He possessed it all. Second, God gave him a name which is above every name.
This is paralleled to far above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come. His name is more powerful than any name. Remember at the beginning of the service today I talked about the fact that the Jews, they won’t pronounce the name of God in the Old Testament, Yahweh.
That’s the name of God in all his power and authority. He has other names which spell his characteristics, like Jehovah-Jireh. But Yahweh encompasses everything.
It’s the depth of his power. It’s who he is. So sacred that certain Jews will not even pronounce it.
Well, God says Jesus’ name is going to be above every name. So how can it be above that name? Well, we’re going to see in a moment. Third, the word translated above indicates that Paul was referring to the name that is more exalted, more excellent, more glorious than any other name.
In other words, it is a unique name, not a common name shared by other human beings. By contrast, the name of Jesus, the Greek form of Yahshua, and there are Yahshuas or Joshuas in Israel today. There are hundreds of Jesuses in Mexico.
It’s not a unique name, but this is a unique name. It has been shared by many other men in both ancient and modern times. Fourth, the fact that this name is above every name indicates that it is the supreme or highest name in the universe.
Only one name fits this description. Guess what that name is? In English, it’s Jehovah. In Hebrew, it’s Yahweh.
The personal name of God. Because God is the supreme being of the universe, His personal name must be the supreme name. I want you to understand some things.
When Jesus was walking on the earth, there was a couple times. The Pharisees picked up stones and stones. One was when He was talking to them and the discussion about Abraham came up.
And Jesus told the Pharisees, Before Abraham was, I am. That I am, that I am, is the meaning of Yahweh. There is none other besides me.
My existence is totally dependent on me. He was stating to them with that statement. I am God.
You are standing before your creator. And they picked up stones to stone Him for blasphemy. They knew exactly what He was saying.
In His letters to the church, the Apostle Paul says that at the name, and it’s referred to as Jesus, but it really is Yahweh. Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess, Yahweh is Lord. Do you understand the significance of Jesus being before His disciples at that Passover and them not having a clue of who they were standing before? Do you understand the heretical blasphemy of those that would say we should worship angels? Or that Jesus is somehow the highest created angel when everything that you look at in Scripture reveals He is Yahweh God.
And the sad thing is, many people will not accept the depth of His love. You know, you stop and look at it. Why did He empty Himself? Why did He take on the form of a man who was a little lower than the angels, way lower than God, took on that form, came to earth? It was because of one four letter word in English.
Love. The depth of His love for you and me. He looked beyond our rebellion, beyond our sin, and said, I want to buy them back.
Go to the book of Hosea and see the picture of what God is doing on a daily basis around our world when He has someone come to Him. Hosea’s wife, Gomer, had pursued every man that came down the pike until all of a sudden she became so repulsive to her lovers, they wanted nothing to do with her. And Gomer, Hosea’s wife, who had violated their covenantal relationship more than once.
And if you read the text, you don’t even know for sure how many of the children she has bore are Hosea’s and how many are her lovers. At the end of this account, a woman who lived in the Middle East at that time, it wasn’t like you could go out and get a degree to be a lawyer as a woman. You were dependent on a man for your existence.
And she finds herself standing naked on the slavery block, being sold to the highest bidder, this woman who had violated everything covenantally that she had ever stated to Hosea, stands there being sold. Remember who the highest bidder was? Hosea. Hosea bought her back.
Why? As an object of the depth of God’s love for us. He took her in the form of a man. He who is God.
He whose name every person, every being, everything He’s ever created will one day confess He is Lord. With capital letters, emptied Himself to buy us back so we could be His again. Let’s just close in prayer.
Lord, I pray that You would help us understand the depth of Your love, the depth of Your commitment to redeem us. And redemption shouldn’t have been an option. And Lord, may we be filled with praise and thanksgiving for who You are.
This we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.