Title: A Verse by Verse Study of Colossians.

Lesson 11 – The Preeminence Of Jesus Christ.  (Part Three)   

Text: Col. 1:13 – 20 Today’s study Verse 18

A. Introduction.

     1. Last week

          a. Last week we looked at His preeminence as the Creator. Colossians 1:16 “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:”

          b. Everything was created by Him and for Him to use for His own glory.

          c. As the Creator of all things this alone makes Him preeminent everything is subject to Him as He commands.

     2. The four points of preeminence shows He and He alone is King of kings and Lord of lords.

          a. Jesus Christ is Saviour. Shows salvation does not exist outside of Jesus Christ.  

          b. Jesus Christ is the creator. He uses all things in existence for His glory as He please.

          c. Jesus Christ is head of the Church. The church, as a human body cannot exist of function with out a living head.

          d. Jesus Christ is the Beloved of the Father.

B. His Preeminence as head of the church.

     1. Paul writes V. 18 “he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.

          a. Did anyone else that penned   New Testament books talk about Christ as head of the church? Only Paul, This could be because Paul was the Apostle to the church.

          b. Others wrote about Christ starting and growing the church however to Paul the church was already started so he recognized Christ as the head of it which was indeed right.

     2. Paul says He (Christ) is head of the body and after a short pause names the body in which he is speaking about, The Church.

           a. I do not know if so many misunderstand the head of the body phrase as much as they do the body itself. The body here is the called out assembly of believers that comes together in a local meeting to worship the Lord in Spirit and Truth.

           b. I think some misunderstand and mistake the “family of God” with the body of Christ.

          c. Paul also defines the body to us, 1 Corinthians 12:12-14 “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. (13.) For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. (14.) For the body is not one member, but many.”

           d. Now we could look at this as a “Universal” body of all believers as some do but the question I must ask where is the body? Why refer to the church as the body? I believe to localize it and to show what it is a body of members assembled together in one single location. In other words, (as Brother Harace Hammond used to so correctly point out) how can a body be a body if it is scattered around the world. 

           e. What about baptism, it is worthless without a local church. The Lord gave the local church membership at Jerusalem authority to baptize not the universal world.

          f. So, the body is a local body not a universal one and that local body is (as Paul so correctly put it) the church.

      3. The teachers of universalism will say a person at the point of salvation is immediately baptized by the Holy Spirit and therefore automatically becoming a church member, however I must ask, wasn’t Jesus baptized by John? And why was John baptizing to start with? If the Holy Spirit is the baptizer of the saved then why do we have a baptistery in our church?

      4. They say the church was not of one denomination? Why was John named (by God) The Baptist? And why is it that real Baptist are the only ones to still hold to the teachings of the New Testament churches. Jesus was baptized by John (the Baptist) but for some reason Jesus was not a Baptist. Everyone since than that has Baptist Baptism is a Baptist except Jesus, that doesn’t make since.

      5. The teachers of universalism say the church is “in Him” but Baptist say the church is by Him or she was started by Him. According to them the Holy Spirit started the church in Acts 2 would not that put the Holy Spirit as the head or did the Holy Spirit install Jesus as the head?

C. Jesus is Preeminent in the church because He is the head.  “he is the head of the body, the church:”

      1. This same teacher of universalism said that head means in the Greek “source” and “origin” as well as “leader” or “ruler” and I say well done, however this same teacher that defined head as “origin” is the same one that gave the origin to the Holy Spirit.

       2. Jesus Christ is the Origin because during His earthly ministry He started the church, He is the source because the head supplies the body in everything. He is the leader because the church never functions without the command coming from the head. And He is the ruler because it is His. He started it, He built and builds it, He leads it, and rules it as He pleases.

     3. No man on earth has authority to fill any of these offices, we are members, pastors, clerks, deacons, song directors, or etc. but not the head!  

     4. Ephesians 1:22 “And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,”

     5. Ephesians 5:23 “For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.”