A Leader Worth Serving, a sermon preached by Dr. Wilson

Col 1:15-18

Over the Last few weeks I have discovered that our brother Paul has laid out for us a prerequisite for Love and leadership in the church. We have observed how he was passionate for them because of their faith in Jesus Christ and their love for the gospel. Paul said that Epaphras had given them the report of the faith that was in the church.Once again let me say how much I like this letter, because in it we discover some amazing facts about Church Leadership.

• As a leader in the Church you got to love the church
• As a leader in the Church you must want to guard the Church
• As a leader in the Church you ought to want to see her grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord.
• As a leader in the church you must pray for the church

And as a leader you must look out for one another and continue to encourage each other in the faith.

Tonight, we see a shift in the teaching of Paul and we begin to see why he is thankful for the church.

He is thankful because of the Leader of the Church.

He gives us the powerful picture of who our leader is and why he has the authority to do what he does in the church.

The Portrait of our Leader

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

Paul in his thesis of what good leadership is gives us the example of our Lord and savior to look up too. He calls Jesus visible image (eikoon)

This word means that Jesus is the very stamp of God the Father as he was before the Incarnation and is right now in glory (Phil 2:5-11; Heb 1:3).

Jesus as our Leader of the Church looks like God, acts like God, serves like God and He is God!

• When He was seen on earth he was the stamp of God!
• When he did the miracles on earth, they were done by God,
• When he rescued us from Hell it was the stamp of God!
• Whatever you see Jesus doing in the gospels, you see God doing in the earth.

Example:

At several of my Jobs as an administrator, I had a rubber stamp that I kept for the secretary. On the stamp was my signature. In my absence (When I was invisible to the staff) my stamp was used to authorize my, my power, and my authority in the office to get things done.

• Because of my stamp, I didn’t have to be present.
• Because of my stamp, the staff could operate on my behalf.
• Wherever the signature was it was my approval for the office.

Application:

When Jesus came to earth, He was already God.

He was his own authority, His own Power

However, man had never seen this power in the flesh! So, he wrote his own signature in the incarnation, and wrapped in flesh.

So, when He signed off on a miracle, we would know it was God

• As servants of Jesus Christ, we have got to know who our Leader is.
• As servants of Jesus Christ, we have got to know who our savior is.
• As servants of Jesus Christ, we have got to know who our helper is
• As servants of Jesus Christ, we have got to know who our redeemer is.

He is the visible Portrait of our Father in heaven. When you have seen Jesus, you have seen the Father

He is the first-born “The son of Man & the Son of God”

He is the Alpha and the Omega, and there shall never be another like Him! He is the only stamp of God!

The Power of our Leader

16 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.

Paul in this verse wants us to know the endless boundaries of his Power.

Paul begins with the power to create other things to start with.

He describes Jesus as Creator, maker, designer, developer, life giver and the one who has given all life to everything Created.

He points us to two worlds, Heaven and Earth!

Let’s start with Heaven;

• He is the creator of the Spiral galaxy which houses our milky way
• He is the creator of our Irregular galaxy which houses its own trillion stars
• He is the creator of the Elliptical Galaxy, that house a family of independent stars
• He is the creator of the lenticular Galaxy, that spiral galaxy without a spiral structure, framing its own stars and sending them to and fro.

I have not even mention the planets in our own galaxy, the Milky Way, Pluto, Mars, Venus, the stars that give us light and Heat.

It was from the Power of our Leader that created those things!

Look at the Earth:

• It was our leader that created the Atlantic Ocean, the Artic Ocean, The Pacific Ocean, and the Indian Ocean!
• It was his power that scooped out the continents and separated them from the waters;
• It was his power that gave us North, South, East and West.
• It was his power that, that brought us mountains and valleys, Deserts and Beaches, Snow and Rain, Sunshine and Clouds.
• It was His power that gave us gravity, and Grace, snowflakes and zephyr breezes.
• Our God has all power in Heaven and Earth.

Note:

He also made the unseen Spirits in the earth and the heavens. The good ones and the Bad ones.

The Angels are his design; they fly because he designed them to do so.

They sing because he put the vocal cords in the right place.

The devil is His devil. He was created to bring God honor and Glory in the earth.

Observation:

This verse alone reminds us that our leader cannot be compared to any other, there is none like Jesus! As our Leader, he knows no limitations. He has all power and authority in the earth!

Application:

• As servants of Jesus Christ, we have got to know the power of our Leader.
• As servants of Jesus Christ, we have got to know the power of our Savior.
• As servants of Jesus Christ, we have got to know the power of our helper.
• As servants of Jesus Christ, we have got to know the power of our redeemer.

The Position of our Leader

17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.

Paul in this verse wants us to know the endless boundaries of his Position

Before there was time there was Jesus

Before there was a beginning there was Jesus

Before there was a yesterday there was Jesus

Before anything thing ever existed, there was Jesus

Paul uses the word Consist, because it describes the perfect ability from God to place together and to hold together.

• Whatever God places together it holds together!
• Whatever God hooks up, it can’t be torn apart
• Whatever God designs it can’t be outdone

The Praise for our Leader

18 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.

Note:

Paul knew the false teaching that had crept into the church by the Gnostics (enemies of god) they had a Jesus as being just another Spirit.

So, Paul wanted the Colossians to know He was more than Just a Spirit. But, he was the HEAD of the BODY, THE CHURCH!

He was God. He was the Leader of the Church to whom they owed all things.

He wanted them to know the (Pre-eminence “the first Place over everything”) greatness of The Christ! Without Jesus, there is no Church, without Jesus there is no Salvation

Without Jesus there is no Heaven. Without Jesus there is nothing!

Application:

• I am glad today that Jesus made Himself the Visible image of the invisible God.
• Because He did, we have a picture of what God is like.
• I am glad that God sent his only Begotten Son to earth to die on our behalf.
• Because He did we know what leadership is like.
• I am glad today that Jesus lived sacrificially because the standard for leadership is found in Jesus.
• He came. He gave, and he rose from the dead, that we might have eternal life.
• He is a Leader Worth Serving, I am going to stay with Jesus, until the end of my days, and then I am going to stay with him in eternity
• He is a leader worth serving, my life has been mad3e better because of HIM
• He is a leader worth serving My Home is made better because of Him!