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Nobleton Community Church
29084 Sentinel Street PO Box 224
Nobleton, Florida 34661
Rev. Paul V. Lehmann, Pastor
813-389-8683
Nobletoncommunitychurch.org
info@nobletoncommunitychurch.org
OUR VISION IS:
To experience SPIRIT-FILLED WORSHIP AND PRAYER
To be involved in EVANGELISM, DISCIPLINING AND TRAINING PEOPLE
To use our SPIRITUAL GIFTS
To SERVE AND REACH PEOPLE FOR CHRIST, BOTH
“ACROSS THE STREET AND ACROSS THE WORLD”
Nobleton Community Church
Date April 12, 2026
Text Colossians 1:15-27
Pastor Paul Lehmann
Captain Reginald Wallis from Great Britain, whose evangelistic crusades and convention ministry blessed thousands of young and old on both sides of the Atlantic, used to define the word “Christian” as follows: He would say, “spell out the word CHRISTIAN. Then take the letter (a) from near the end of the word and put it at the beginning. Now what do you read?
“A CHRIST IN” So a Christian IS A PERSON WHO HAS CHRIST LIVING IN THEM.
The Bible teaches that people by nature, according to Ephesians 2:1 “ are dead in their transgressions and sins.” In other words, a person doesn’t have that divine element which makes him or her alive to God. This fact can be true of anyone, regardless of educational, cultural, or religious background or training. God’s answer to this basic deficiency of being “dead in our sins” is life as it is in Christ.
We need to understand some things about this life in Christ. First of all, in chapter one and verse 15 of our text, we see;
THE MAJESTY OF THIS LIFE IN CHRIST
Verse 15 –Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. Some (like the Jehovah’s Witnesses) teach that Jesus was a created being, just like the angels, but he was created first. But in verses 16-18, we see that Paul is talking about “presidency,” meaning Christ was the first to come from the dead in true resurrection life. Not that He was created first. It is a title that refers to His exalted position, but the timing of his physical birth. Among the Jews, the firstborn son was especially favored by his parents. But it also means “supremacy in rank.” Both meanings apply to Jesus. Christ is before all creation in time, and he is also over it in rank and dignity. The major stress, however, is on the idea of supremacy. There was a heresy being taught in Colossae, and we don’t know exactly what it was, but because Paul puts so much emphasis on who Christ is and was, and the sufficiency of Jesus Christ alone, it probably had to do with presenting Christ as insufficient in himself. The same thing is still happening today. People are led to believe that we still have to do SOMETHING in order to be saved. In order to have eternal life. We are too often taught that what Jesus did for us isn’t enough. We have to keep trying to earn our salvation. This is what all of the world’s false religions and pagan religions teach. Christianity, as taught in scripture, presents Christ as the all-sufficient sacrifice for our sins. He is “the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” We must put our full trust in him alone as our Savior.
Then there is the statement which declares that all that God represents is embodied in what Jesus Christ is. He is the image of the invisible God; he is the radiance of the glory of God and is seen in HIS CREATIVE LIFE.
Paul depicts Jesus as the mediator, agent, and Goal of all things. This includes declaring His authority above all negative cosmic powers, which are also subjects of His creation who fell from their first estate. The word designates both the act of creating and the product of a created act.
By Him all things are created…and in Him all things are held together. As John tells us in his gospel, all things were made by Him (Christ), and without him nothing was made that has been made. (John 1:3). The countless constellations of our universe were brought into being by the creative act of the Son of God. What is more, they are held together by the same outgoing of divine power. Only in recent years have scientists realized that everything that holds together must have an integrating point. And they are absolutely correct in their assumption, because centuries ago, Paul declared that by Christ all things “hang together” (verse 17). What a glorious concept this is of the majesty of the creative life of Christ.
Scientists who are not Christians like to refer to this creative power that created the universe as “the Big Bang Theory,” however, it is far more logical that we recognize that there was “intelligent design” involved in creation and not just “chance.”
An American cutlery manufacturer wrote years ago, “it takes a girl in our factory two days to learn to put the 17 parts of a meat chopper together. It may be that these millions of worlds, all balanced so wonderfully in space, just happened; it may be that, by a million years of tumbling about, they finally arranged themselves. I don’t know. I am merely a businessman, a plain manufacturer of cutlery. But this I do know: that you can shake the 17 parts of a meat chopper around in a washtub for the next 17 million years, and you’ll never make a meat chopper.” Pretty profound!! Only God could have created the Universe and everything in it, including us.
Not only do we see his majesty in his creative life, but, secondly, we see his:
MAJESTY IN HIS REDEMPTIVE LIFE
This is made clear by the witness of Paul to Agrippa when he told him of the calling that God had given him. (Acts 26:18) His task and our task is: “to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in God.”
The Jews were always God’s chosen people, but now the door has been opened to the Gentiles (that’s us), and to all people everywhere, to all nations.
The second idea is that God has translated us into the kingdom of God.
This is a transfer from the kingdom of darkness and of this world into the realm of God. It means a transference from darkness to light.
It means a transference from slavery to freedom. It is redemption, and that is the word used for the emancipation of a slave, and for the buying back of something which was in the power of someone else.
In Washington D.C., there was an “Emancipation Day Parade” , and they celebrated all weekend. I doubt if one word was spoken about the redemption that we have because of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
It means a transference from condemnation to forgiveness. We don’t deserve anything but condemnation, but through the work of Jesus Christ, we discover the love of God and the forgiveness of God; and we can know that we are no longer condemned like a criminal at God’s judgement seat, but a forgiven sinner, and now the way home is open.
Because now it means a transference from the power of Satan to the power of God. Through Jesus Christ we are liberated from the grip of Satan and we are able to become a citizen of the Kingdom of God. Just as an earthly conqueror transferred the citizens of the land he had conquered into a new kingdom and a new land, so God in his triumphant love transfers us from the realm of sin and darkness into the realm of holiness and light and love.
Verses 18, 20 And he is the head of the body, the Church…making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” This is the story of the gospel. —The Good News. The only way to be reconciled to God. Ever since we were separated from God because of sin, there had to be sacrifices of animals where there blood was shed. Now in Jesus he is the supreme sacrifice. We read in John 1:29 where John the Baptist sees Jesus and says:. “Look here comes the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”
Christ is all and in all in the life of His people. For, in the first place, our life all begins by receiving Him. “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him” Colossians 2:6. It is not receiving a sacrament, a creed, a system of theology, a set of moral precepts, but a living, personal Savior. That is salvation. “Whoever comes to me I will never drive away” John 6:37. Then in that verse 6 we are also told to continue to live in him. . The continuance and progress of our “Christin” life is just as simple and as personal. It is a life of dependence and communion, step by step, receiving him afresh as our all-sufficiency, our wisdom, strength and holiness. Be holy, because I am holy. God says. But we can’t do that in the flesh. Only as the Holy Spirit empowers us—He makes it possible.
We are taught in verse 10 of chapter 2, that we are complete in him. That is to say, He fills up every possible need of our life and being. For the deeper life os sanctification is simply Christ within. This is the mystery, Paul says in our passage; verse 26, and verse 27; “that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is CHRIST IN YOU, THE HOPE OF GLORY.
This is so plain and simple. It is not a process of teaching, or even the formation of a character. It is acquaintance with a Person, and intimate union and fellowship with Him so that He actually comes into our being and becomes the Source and Strength of our very life, reliving His own life in us; and we falling with perfect naturalness into His will, His plan, His steps and all His perfect life. So deep and intimate is this union that a great variety of figures are introduced to express and illustrate its fuller meaning. In the following 2 chapters of Colossians we read; 2:7 We are built up in him, verse 12 we are buried with him When we were dead in our sins verse 13 we were raised with Christ 3:1. Our life is hidden with Christ in God. 3:3. He Himself is our very life verse 4.
And then when it comes to the question of conduct, our actions are to be determined by our relation to Him. It is because we are in Him that we are to act like Him. And so we read, “whatever you do, whether in word or deed do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus.” 3:17.
To act in the name of Jesus is to act as if you were Jesus, to sustain His character, His dignity and the life that would be expected from Him if He himself were here. But it is our relation to Him that inspires our conduct. We need the powerful motive of his life and love, yes, and the actual force of his indwelling Spirit to enable us to live out His life in our daily conduct and conversation.
We have a high calling as children of God. The consciousness of our high calling and our union with such a Master and Lord, must lift us above the world and all its ways.
It is said that the Dauphin of France, the poor orphan child of the murdered Louis XVI and his queen, was committed by his enemies to the care of a very brutal and wicked man who was to teach him only that which was evil. The poor boy had to look and listen to nothing but that which was degrading and wrong, but often he would say when tempted to stoop to the level of his companions, “I cannot say, I cannot do such things. I was born to be a king!”
Yes, there was an impulse and a memory of higher things, and it kept him above the low and the base. The love of Christ, the life of Christ, the higher spiritual consciousness which His presence give must lift us to the place of holiness and lead us to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called. IT IS CHRIST IN YOU, THE HOPE OF GLORY. It is because of his amazing love and grace that you can be lifted up beyond a mediocre life, spiritually speaking, —allowing His life to be lived through you here and now, so that the hope of one day living with him in glory will become a reality.