The Preeminence of Christ

The health of our marriages makes or breaks the Kingdom of God. How? By showing our children and society how Christ loves His Church.

Let's get started. The Preeminence of Christ is my title. In thinking about the preeminence of Christ, Paul, in one of his letters, actually uses that word. That's in Colossians. Colossians chapter 1, we're going to start reading verses 1 through 8. Verse 1: "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ," who are in Colossians. "Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." So Colossians is a letter written by Paul and Timothy. Paul is the one who actually penned it. So they wrote it to the faithful brethren in Christ, who are in Colossians. By extension, they wrote it to us as well.

I don't think it was just for the church in Colossians. Obviously, it was preserved until now. It's for us and to all the church today. Verse 3: "We give thanks to God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you." The "we" here is referring to Paul and Timothy. They're the ones that wrote it. Verse 4: "Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints, because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you, since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth, as you also learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who was a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, who also declared to us your love in the Spirit."

Paul is a master of run-on sentences. Epaphras was a man, as far as I was able to discern, who was a convert from Colossians, from whom Paul was able to read the health of that particular congregation. Some sources that I read said that Epaphras was the leader of the church in Colossians, but I felt I couldn't find any conclusive evidence for that. But no doubt Epaphras was giving positive reviews to Paul. Paul was writing the letter from elsewhere. Yet in verse 6, he says, "The gospel is bringing forth fruit from among you." So Epaphras was definitely commending them to Paul. And then here in verse 8, Epaphras has declared to us your love in the Spirit.

We'll read the next section, verse 9. "For this reason, we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you." You know, a lot of times we tend to focus on praying for the lost, for the ones that that that aren't in the kingdom. But we see here that Paul and Timothy pray for their church in Colossians, the faithful ones, ceaselessly. Arguably, the the faithful ones are the the very ones who need protection from the evil one. It was convicting to me that that we actually that I actually remember the the faithful ones, the ones that are already faithful. It says, "Since the day we heard it." So it seems like Paul started his ceaseless prayers after he found out of their good works and of their faithfulness.

And then we'll read on to see how Paul prayed for them. "To ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might according to his glorious power for all patience and longsuffering with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light." So this is how Paul prayed for the faithful ones in Colossians. And in verse 12, he reminds us to be thankful to the one who has made it even possible for us to experience redemption.

I don't think we should ever forget that and to take that for granted. God gave us a huge gift in in making it even possible for redemption, being redeemed back to him. Then continuing on with that thought, verse 13, "He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of his love, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sin." We are delivered from the power of darkness. In other words, it has no more control over us. That doesn't mean we're going to stumble and fail sometimes. But as far as being controlled by the darkness, we are no longer controlled by the darkness because he has delivered us.

His power delivered us. Moving on to verse 15, "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he may have the preeminence." Hence the title for my message.

So Paul uses the word here preeminence. So what does preeminence mean? Well, I trust that everyone here knows what it means, but I'll just, for the younger ones, I'll just give the definition. The preeminence means the state of having paramount rank, dignity, or importance. In other words, the state of being supreme. Paramount, supreme, preeminence, they're all synonymous with one another. The point is, nothing is higher, nothing comes before, nothing is more important. It never comes second, always first. That's what preeminence means. So Christ must be first in our lives. So why does he have the right to be preeminent in our lives? So let's go back to the previous verses and highlight some possible reasons that he does have the right to be preeminent in our lives.

Verse 15 says, "He is the firstborn of all creation." 16, "All things were created through him and for him." Verse 17, "And he is before all things, and in him all things consist." He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning. Why shouldn't he have the preeminence? I mean, we'd be a fool to think that he has the right to be preeminent because he is all in all. We wouldn't have anything without him. So now let's get a little more specific and think a little more detailed in making Christ preeminent in our lives. Let's discuss preeminence in marriage, preeminence in our relationship with others, preeminence in our hobbies and entertainment, preeminence at work, preeminence with our money, preeminence with our eating.

So I believe the most important question in all these things is, what would Jesus do? You all no doubt remember the WWJD craze about 10 or 15 years ago. Super important question, what would Jesus do? What would Jesus do about this? How would he relate about that? It's a super important question, but it was made pesky by the modern Christian world trying to sell t-shirts and wristbands and unimaginable things to sell, WWJD. Everything with a little space to put their letters, they made it. But awesome question, a question we have to ask ourselves. So let's look at preeminence in marriage. Ephesians 5, verse 25 says, "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it."

How does Christ love the church? He gave himself for it. He gave his life. That's how much he loved the church. And so Paul here is saying, "Husbands, love your wives in that way." Going down to the same chapter, verse 29, says, "For no man ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes it and cherishes it, even as the Lord of the church."

Paul here in Ephesians is likening the relationship in marriage to Christ and his church. Direct parallel here. As men, how do we love our wives? By nourishing them and cherishing them, even as the Lord of the church. Direct parallel, how how Christ loves his church. Now, the church is portrayed in the in the New Testament as the bride of Christ. Who's our bride? A couple of questions. Does society see Christ's love for his church by how we love our wives? Does society see the church's love for Christ by how wives revere their husbands? The health of our marriages makes or breaks the kingdom of God. How? By showing our children and society how Christ loves his church.

We have to make Christ preeminent in our lives. At the core of society, I'm talking about society in general, at the core of that is our good is a good marriage. Like if you zoom in close enough, zoom in so the picture is pixelated, good marriages are at the core. Because from marriage comes procreation, and that's how societies sustain themselves. If you don't have a good relationship in your marriage, no father, no mother, everything falls apart. And that's that is with all societies. The society wonders why why things are going downhill. And it's because marriages are no good. It all comes back to the relationship between a man and his wife. We have to make Christ preeminent in our marriage.

Let's look at preeminence in our relationship with others. So this is Luke 14:25-27. It says, "Now great multitudes went with him." This is Jesus. "And he turned and said to them, 'If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.'" So the preeminence of Christ. I take this verse to mean that should the choice arise, God forbid, whether to be loyal to Jesus or members of your own family, Jesus comes first.

And if that's the case, it probably will seem like hate to the aforementioned family members. Verse 26, "If you come to Jesus and think you can have all the relationships just as important, you cannot be my disciple." Jesus always comes first. There's nothing that comes above him. Preeminence in our hobby of entertainment. Just misspelled. Preeminence. What would Jesus do for a hobby? What would he do for fun? What kinds of entertainment would he engage or stay away from? Would he engage in hobbies or entertainment that cost a lot? Would he engage in hobbies that have high risk? Would he enjoy adrenaline rushes? Now, obviously, there are not cut-and-dried answers to all these. It just, I'm going to have, for the rest of the time, I'm going to basically be asking questions, open-ended questions, just for our own um our own thinking and our get our thinking um jogged a bit.

So preeminence at work. What kind of employee would Jesus be? Would he always round his hours worked in favor of himself? Would he make himself part of the team instead of just taking him a paycheck? Could he be labeled as a workaholic? You know, after all, a workaholic is someone who just has good work ethic.

Would he be a lazy employee? Talking about Jesus. How often would he take off? Let's look at what kind of an employer would Jesus be? Would Jesus ever advantage himself over his employees? Would he pay above what is expected? Would he be an easy employer to work for?

Would he be willing to go dig a ditch with the guy? Would he be interested in his employees' lives outside of work? Would he treat his employees in such a way that the employee loves to work for him?

Preeminence with their money. How would Jesus spend his money?

With the thought of the poor effect of spending.

Would Jesus have to have the most expensive? How much would Jesus give away?

Where would he give it?

Preeminence with our eating. Would Jesus dine on mince and slices of quince?

How often would he eat a pantry meal?

Would the thought of the poor affect his eating habits?

Would he eat would Jesus eat until full and then a little bit more? You know that feeling, you're full and then a little bit more? Especially if the food's good. Would he waste food?

So with all the questions I just asked, I believe it's important to ask our own selves these questions and maybe even exhort one another to self-examine, but leave out the detailed judgments of one another.