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We’re in the second week of our journey through the Apostle Paul’s letter to the church at Colossae, popularly called Colossians.  Last week I talked about how these letters are known as Epistles, which means they were written for a group of people and meant to be read aloud.  They are also called “occasional documents”, which means that they were written in response to a specific occasion, specific issues that were arising in this church.  This means that while we have the answers, we don’t always know the questions, but we can try to reconstruct what was going on by paying careful attention to what Paul focuses on.

Last week we talked about how this gospel is a truth that is growing and bearing fruit all over the world, which was meant to encourage the church at Colossae that they are not alone in their discipleship, that God is causing this movement, this revolution, to spread like wildfire all over the world. 

Beginning in verse 15, Paul continues to talk about the gospel of Jesus Christ, dealing with the question of who this Jesus really is: 

¹⁵ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.  ¹⁶ For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.  ¹⁷ He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.  ¹⁸ And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.  ¹⁹ For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him,  ²⁰ and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.  ²¹ Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.  ²² But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation--  ²³ if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant 

Let’s look at three things from this passage about who Jesus is, and what that means for us today.