Clarity of Christ

Porch, how are we doing? You look good. You look great. Hey, thanks for being here. It's always fun to be together on an evening like this. Special shout-out to some Porch.Live locations we have tuning in from all over the nation. Special shout-out to Porch.Live Indy and Porch.Live Fort Worth. We're so grateful you guys would be a part of this evening.

I'm really excited about tonight. I have to be honest. When we decided to do a series in the book of Colossians, this was the text of Scripture that I felt the most weight concerning, so I'm really eager to get into this. I think it would be helpful to set things up with a story. If you've ever moved to a new city, then you know it can take a bit to figure out your way around town. Yes? Anybody from out of town who now lives here in Dallas, Texas?

What's the way you figure out the landscape of a new land? What do you do? You take notice of different landmarks. You do what I did. I made the move from College Station, Texas, to my first big city ever, which was Houston at the time. So, my wife Brooke and I make our way into Houston, and we're settling into the area. I have never lived in a place this large, so I have to figure out how to navigate the widespread wild of the Bayou City.

So, I just started taking mental notes of different landmarks I saw around town. I looked across the skyline and saw certain structures or buildings that looked significant. They stood out from the rest of the horizon. Or I was driving through town, and I'd make note of different restaurants or parks that would be unique to that individual space. Or, as I would go from one place to another, I would think about the bridges I was passing over.

These landmarks became significant for me because they helped me to figure out where I was in the city. Now, as I was doing this and I was taking mental notes down, there was one landmark that stood out as especially significant because it was graffitied all over town. It was this name of "Toeflop." Yes, you heard me correctly. Toeflop was a graffitied name that I found literally everywhere. It was on buildings and bridges and byways. It was all over the place.

It was noticeable at first because it was such a unique name, but then, as I kept driving and kept seeing it, I started to realize, "Man! This individual, whoever Toeflop is, has really made a business of getting their moniker out there on the rest of the city." It didn't take much effort to find that a public piece of property adorned with their unique signature in the city was virtually everywhere.

So, it got me wondering. "Who is this person? Who is the real Toeflop? Will they please stand up? Is it a guy? Is it a girl? Is it a group? Who is this person? Are they still on the lam? Have they been caught? Have they 'fessed up or are they still out there doing their thing?" So, what I began to do was conduct some research, which is very typical of my personality. I decided to scour the Internet and learn as much about this person as I could.

Do you know what I found? What had started in Houston, Texas, had spread all over the nation. Toeflop wasn't just in Houston. Toeflop was in Philly, in Queens, and in Atlanta. It was in New Orleans and Memphis. It had even made its way all the way across the pond to London itself. Whoever this person was had emblazoned their signature all over the watching world. This name was popping up everywhere.

The subculture of contemporary American graffiti writing would put it like this: Toeflop had reached a level of ubiquity known as "going all city." They had transcended one space and had moved into all variety of spaces, which is significant, because in most places, graffiti writing is actually illegal, which raised a couple of questions in my mind, because they were still at it.

The first question was "If their anonymity is so important, if they're not willing to 'fess up to who they are, why do they keep doing this? Why do they keep graffitiing their name, putting their identity out there for people to wonder 'Who is this person?'" Like, why take the risk? If this is illegal, if it's against the law, why go to the trouble of emblazoning your signature and causing people to ask the second question I was facing, which was, "Who are you? Who is the real Toeflop, and will we ever actually know?"

Well, I can't speak for Toeflop, specifically, but here's why I tell you that. In a similar way, Jesus himself has gone all city. What started in Jerusalem made its way out into Judea and Samaria, and it has spread all the way to the ends of the earth, even here to our own city of Dallas, Texas. Across cultures, backgrounds, stages of life, socioeconomic statuses, and ethnic lines, Jesus has been similarly tagging his name across all of creation, and he has left people from all backgrounds of life asking the question, "Who is this guy? Who is Jesus? Who is he really?"

The good news, according to the apostle Paul in the Scripture we're looking at tonight, is we can know. We can rightly identify who he is. "Is he just a moral teacher, somebody my parents believed in when I was growing up, someone who failed me at some point so I stopped following them? I hear he's a carpenter. Who is he?" The apostle Paul is going to tell us. He's going to tell us not only who he is, but he's going to point to the fact that he is something so much more than we realize.

Just as a reminder, as we're looking at the letter of Colossians, Paul was writing this letter to a group of young believers who were asking the question, "Okay. I believe in Jesus. Now what? I've placed my faith in him. What does it look like, then, for me to ascend in life, to experience greater depth of relationship with him and impact in the world? How do I grow in his likeness? What does it look like for me to move forward and mature as an individual?"

He was answering a question for them that many of you are probably asking yourself. You don't want to stay as you are. (I hope not.) You want to grow. You want to get better. You want to continue to advance. The reason it's significant for these Colossian Christians, and for us, is the world is prescribing and pressuring a bunch of different solutions to help you get there. They know you have a desire, a yearning for maturation, so they're looking at you and saying, "We can help with that. We can fix your problem. Just do the things we tell you to do."

So, Paul, as he writes to these believers and to us, is telling us, "Hey, if you want maturity in life, you need clarity of Christ." That's the main idea, the big picture of the book of Colossians. If you want a fruitful future, a hope in the days ahead, a deeper experience in life… I think we can all say, "Yes, that's what I want. Kylen, you're reading my mail. I want a deep, rich, full experience in the future." It's found through this man. That's what Paul would say. Paul wants us to know that when you see him clearly, you see yourself more clearly as a result.

It's like in dating when you DTR. I don't know if y'all have ever heard of this or if this is even still a thing. DTR means to define the relationship. Why is it important to define the relationship? Because where there is an absence of definition there is an abundance of confusion. When Brooke and I were dating, just to give you a personal example from my own life, we started out, and there was total clarity about what we were doing.

We were just trying to get to know each other. We were just spending time. We were being private and public. We were learning each other's stories, figuring out each other's hopes, indulging each other's dreams, and thinking about what was ahead. We were just getting to know each other, and it was great. There was total clarity…that is, until I unexpectedly kissed her. Then there was no clarity. That was not my best moment.

What happened in the moment I did that is I absolutely shifted the nature of our relationship. We went from just getting to know one another to "I don't know what we're doing with each other." Literally, not an hour after it happened, my beloved bride texted me those four dreadful words: "We need to talk." So we did. The next day rolled around, and she squared up with me. She had a couple of questions.

First, she wanted to know how we had arrived at that point to which I was able to answer that I had deep, unbridled emotions for her. Secondly, she wanted to know, in light of it, "Where does our relationship now stand?" You see, she knew she deserved clarity, so she was willing to seek out that clarity on what we were so she could have clarity of who she was within that relationship. The same is true with God. When we see him, we see ourselves. We know how we fit into the equation.

So, the apostle Paul is looking and saying, "Let me tell you who he is. Let me lead you through a divine DTR." So who is he? Well, it says this in Colossians 1, starting in verse 15: "He [Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation." That word for image here is the Greek word eikon. Eikon is where we get our English word icon. So, what's an icon? An icon, according to the dictionary, is a person or thing regarded as a reflective symbol of something important, which is exactly what Paul is pointing at.

He's saying that eikon doesn't just communicate that God is similar to Jesus or God is like Jesus. If Paul wanted to do that, if he wanted to communicate that they were similar in essence, there's a completely different word for that he could have used, but he chose to use this word eikon, because he was trying to communicate they are of the same substance. They don't just resemble each other; they reflect each other.

It's like in The Lion King. How does Simba "Remember who you are"? Well, Rafiki takes him and leads him to a pool of water. He has him stare down to that pool of water, and as he does, he sees a reflection of not just himself but his father. He's reminded of his true identity, that he is the one true king. That's what Paul is saying. In Jesus, you get a mirror image to the Father. In Jesus, you see a perfect reflection of who God is in essence.

If you want to know who God is, you just need to look at Jesus, because Jesus is the deity on display. That's the first thing we need to understand about him. He is God in the flesh, and to believe that he is anything less than that is a complete invalidation of his being, which happens all the time and is, in fact, Paul's point right here.

You see, the heretics Paul is confronting in Colossae had been propagating this idea that "Man, you can follow Jesus, but he's not God. He's fine. He's good. You can spend time with him. We'll tolerate him, even, but if you want the height of human experience, the climax of spiritual ascent, what you need is more than he has to offer. You're going to eventually need to either add on to him or move on from him."

In the worldview of these heretics in Colossae, Jesus was an inferior spiritual being. So, Paul is looking at them and saying, "Whoa! That is not the case whatsoever. Jesus is God." The relevance of that for us is massive, because our world is also saying something similar about him.

Our world is looking at Jesus and being like, "It's fine. Do what you want. You can walk with him, but his moral code is a little bit narrow-minded. It's fine. You can walk with him, but his position on sexuality is kind of out of date. The world is evolving quickly. He needs to keep up. It's fine. You can walk with him. Do what you want, but all of his commands and ordinances are not really culturally relevant to today. They're stuck in the past. They need to get with the times."

You see, we face a similar heresy today that would say Jesus is less than God, but to say something like that and to live in light of something like that is to invalidate his very being. It's to indignify him as something less than deity. It's to look at Jesus and say he's either other or lesser than God, and he's not. That's not the case.

As we look at Jesus, we know he's not just a moral example to follow. He's not Mother Teresa. He's not Gandhi. He's not just a wise teacher or a spiritual prophet to consider, like Muhammad or Buddha. He's not a revolutionary leader, like Spartacus or William Wallace. He's more. Porch, he's more because he's God. Jesus is God incarnate.

The Scriptures attest to this. John 1:18 says, "No one has ever seen God. The one and only Son, who is himself God and is at the Father's side—he has revealed him." Jesus has taken the invisible reality of God and given us a visible reflection. He reflects all the integrity of God's character and reveals all the morality of God's nature. If you want to know who God is, look at him. That's the guy.

Some of you here in this room, in a large space like this, have sat and wondered, "God, if you would just speak to me, if you would just reveal yourself to me, if you would just show yourself, I'd believe. Just peel back the clouds. Descend into my reality. Speak into my world, and my belief is yours."

He has done it! God has done it. God did descend from the sky that had split, and he has spoken into our reality and made himself known, because Jesus Christ is God. Do you get it? This is massive. Your understanding, your comprehension of it is so vital, because everything you do in life hinges upon your comprehension of this truth.

So, if you want to know God, you need to know him. Hebrews 1:3 says, "He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature…" That word for imprint in Greek is the word charakter. In English, it's the word character. What does it mean? Literally, it's a noun for an engraving tool, something you would use to make an impression on something else, which I think is really awesome.

It's a really helpful word picture because that is the function Jesus performs. Jesus is engraving God's signature on the world. Jesus is impressing God's nature to you and me. Why do star-crossed lovers engrave their initials in the side of a tree? Because it immortalizes their bond. "No matter what comes, hell or high water, the world will know we are one." In a similar way, Jesus is the engravement of God's own character. He is an immortalized representation to us that we can actually understand.

Don't you think this is awesome? I was processing this earlier. The fact that God has chosen to reveal himself through a person is the most helpful option available. God has revealed himself through this book, and God does reveal himself through times past by supernatural means, but what we know most clearly is God has made himself known through a person.

I know how to get to know someone else. What do I do? I sit with them. I listen to them. I talk with them. I spend time with them. I walk with them. This is the case with Jesus. God has said, "I want you to know me. So, what's the best way for you to get to know me? Spend time with my boy." Spend time with Jesus because he is him. They are one and the same.

Jesus is the deity on display. What you'd see of God is what you see in Christ. He's the Almighty made manifest. And, as Paul keeps going, he's the firstborn of all creation, which feels confusing. Can we just level with each other? That feels like a weird swerve. Paul just unpacked that Jesus is God, and now you're telling me that Jesus is born? That doesn't sound like a God I really want to follow. Why? Because God is not created. God is Creator.

So, what's the breakdown? What is the confusion around this idea? Jesus is both the image of the invisible God and also the firstborn of all creation. What does Paul mean? Well, Paul is actually using this to attack a heresy that was hotly debated then and hotly debated through history that Jesus was a created being, that he was, in fact, the first created being. He was the firstborn being.

Paul is speaking to it, and he's saying, "No, you have a misunderstanding of this." It's not that Jesus was created; it's that he has preeminence. That's what it was. If you study through the Old Testament and look at the language of a firstborn, what you find is it's not specific to birth chronology (the order in which you were born); it's specific to position or rank.

Let me explain it to you like this. If you were to answer the question, "What is your favorite movie?" the equivalent of your firstborn for film would be whatever you answer. Your answer would likely not be the first movie you ever saw. It would not be the movie you watched first in order of sequence. It would be the movie you deemed best, preeminent, priority, ranked above the rest.

If I asked you, "What's your favorite meal?" the equivalent firstborn food for you would hopefully not be the first thing you ever ate. It would be a meal that you deemed as first or priority or preeminent, above everything else. That's what Paul is saying, and this is what we need to know. Jesus is the firstborn in that he is preeminent. You see, he wasn't born as we naturally know. He has no origin story. He has no created being, no start date, because he always has been. He was, is, and always will be.

Psalm 90:2 says, "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God." Revelation 22:13 says, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end." The same is said of Jesus himself. John 1:1: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Hebrews 13:8: "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever."

So, what does Paul mean when he's saying he's firstborn of all creation? He's saying that he's first place. He's preeminent. He has the ultimate priority. You see, your firstborn, according to the Scriptures, is not decided in order of sequence but in order of supremacy. That's what Paul is trying to communicate in calling Jesus the firstborn of creation. He is supreme over all creation. He has rank, priority, and dignity over all of it, which is what Paul explains as he keeps going.

He gets to verse 16 and says, "For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him." This verse is telling us Jesus has three very distinct roles in the creative process. It's telling us that all things were created by him, through him, and for him.

To put it in layman's terms, he's the designer of creation, the builder of creation, and the owner. He's the cosmological Chip and Joanna Gaines. He's the guy who knew how to set everything up. When he considered creation, it was his idea. He designed it. He sat down and authored it. He dreamt it. He planned it. He mapped out all of the blueprints. He knew exactly what he wanted it to look like.

But he didn't just design it. It's not only by him; it's also through him. He's the builder of it. He took his own plans and put them into action. He took a vision and brought to it execution. He decided to implement everything he had dreamt up when he considered, "What do I want creation to look like?" And he owns all of it. He's the designer, the builder, and the owner. What does an owner have? An owner is entitled to all of the benefits that that which is subject to their ownership affords.

Jesus receives all of the benefits of creation. All things were created for him, so all things roll up to his glory. That's what he's pointing to. Dutch theologian Abraham Kuyper said, "There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry, 'Mine!'" There's not a square inch…visible, invisible, celestial, terrestrial. It does not matter. Everything is his. It's all his.

If you want to see Jesus clearly, what you need to see is that Jesus is the Creator of the cosmos. He is the deity on display, and he is the Creator of the cosmos. He made everything. He's the artist of all creation. By him and through him all things were created. It's interesting. The language here, if you go and read it in the Greek, doesn't imply that Jesus took some preexisting material and made something out of it. It's saying he took nothing and made something.

For point of reference, he didn't just go pick a bunch of wildflowers, bring them back to the house, and make a floral arrangement. He didn't just take chaos, bring it back to his heavenly home, and order it into control. No. He invented the seed. He thought of it. It was his idea. He was the one through which it was created.

He invented the seed, and he thought to himself, "You know what would make sense? This is crazy, guys. We're going to take it, and we're going to bury it in the ground. But wait! It's going to germinate while it's there. It's going to lay roots, and then it's going to sprout forth. You may think they'll all look the same, but they won't. They will be a million in multitude, different shapes and sizes and colors."

Jesus created something from absolutely nothing. There were no raw materials, no natural laws, no preexisting ideas, and his creative work… This is wild. It's anything but a local operation. It's a cosmological construction. It expands to the farthest reaches of the universe. I was studying this. There's a law called Hubble's law which would attest to the fact that, according to observed physical cosmology, the universe is, in fact, still expanding, which would tell us that he's not done making things. Jesus is still creating.

As NASA attests to this observable law, what it says is that all of the universe is still expanding at upwards of thousands of miles per second, which for the believer is amazing, because it would say that all of creation is still desperately trying to catch up to those first words which were echoed from eternity past: "Let there be light." It has never slowed down. It's still burning on the fuel of what was first said. That's power, and that's Jesus. That's what he has to offer. That's what he's willing to speak into your life.

All things were created by him and through him. And here's what's crazy: all things were created for him. So, every week… Think about it for yourself. I was processing it in my world. When you sit down and make a grocery list, how do you assign what goes on the list? Well, it gets on the list because it accords with your desire. It's what you want. Right?

Now, it could be a variety of desires. Desire by necessity… "I want to smell good, so I need body wash. I want clean teeth, so I need toothpaste. I want a clean home, so I need disinfectant." That's desire by necessity, but you also have desire by affinity, those things you want. "I want ice cream because it tastes good." You put on your list, that grocery list which you are making for yourself, those things you desire.

Jesus has created all things for himself, according to his own desire, which includes you. Jesus wants you. He desires you. He looks at you and says, "You, as you are, as I've made you and will continue to elevate you to be, is what I want for myself." Yet what we see in verse 17 is he's before all things, which dignifies Jesus with a sort of supremacy that should leave even the most self-confident person here in this room wondering if they're actually worthy of that kind of desire.

Verse 17 says, "And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together." That's as transcendent as someone can get. You don't get bigger than that, that you're before all things, that nothing holds a candle to you, that nothing is comparable to you, that you are matchless in your essence. That is transcendent. That's who our Jesus is.

Let me put it to you like this. Think of the most iconic celebrity in your world, the person you're desperate to meet one day. You got it? Now imagine that they were desperate to meet you, and they knew you were going to be here tonight, so they flew from wherever it is they live on their private plane, and they traveled here to our little location. They came in knowing you were going to be in this space somewhere, so they started to scour the seats, looking for you, because they just wanted to be associated to you. They just wanted to meet you.

How crazy would that be? Whoever that person is who came top of mind for you, Jesus is before them. He's above and beyond them. He is matchless in comparison to them. What's amazing is he does want to be associated to you. He did travel an unbelievable distance to get here tonight, and he is scouring this room in search of you because he wants relationship with you. How would that leave you feeling? Like, how does it make you feel to think, "Man! That person I desire so badly to be associated with wants to be associated to me"?

How would that leave you feeling? Honored? Like, "They want little ol' me? They want to know me?" Nervous? "I didn't know they were coming. I need to take time and get myself ready. I'm not prepared for this moment." Unworthy? "If they know me, they're not going to want anything to do with me." Excited? "What does this mean? Maybe I'm going to get to hop on the plane and go back with them where they came from."

Friend, whatever that feeling is, that feeling is meant for Jesus. He's worthy of all the raw emotion you give the thought of someone so incomparably great wanting all of you exactly as you are. This is what Colossians is telling us. How do I know that? Because that's where Paul goes in verse 18. He says in verse 18, "And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent."

When you turn to this section and you get to verse 18, it makes a massive shift from where the rest of the passage has been going. If you read through these nine verses, you find three shifts all marked by three verses. The first section, which we worked through over the course of the last 30 minutes, is verses 15-17, and it's all talking about Jesus as Creator. When you come to verses 18-20, it's all about Jesus as Savior. Then when you get to verses 21-23, it's all about you and your response to these things.

As this section opens up, we see that Paul moves the conversation away from an emphasis on Christ's transcendence to an emphasis on Christ's immanence. What does immanence mean? It means a personal knowing. Transcendence…he's powerful. Immanence…he's personal. You can know him. He is universal in his rule and reign over everything, but as we come to verse 18, we learn that he is individual in his seeking and saving.

Why is that? Because Jesus (this is our third and final identifier for him) is the Savior of the world. That's what Paul is getting at when he says things like, "He's the head of the body, the church. He's the beginning. He's the firstborn from the dead." He's trying to help us understand that Jesus isn't just supreme over old creation, everything we've talked about, everything from the star to the atom, everything from the seen realm to the unseen realm.

He isn't just supreme over that, over old creation. When we get here and learn that he's the firstborn from the dead, the head of the church, we see that he is supreme over new creation. What's new creation? It's what the prophet Ezekiel foretold. Jesus is the one through whom it's fulfilled. It says in Ezekiel 36:26, "I [God] will give you a new heart. I'll put a new spirit within you. Not an old heart. Not an old spirit. I'm going to give you a new heart and a new spirit. I'll remove your heart of stone, and I'll give you a heart of flesh."

That's why he's the head of the body, the church. Notice, this reads body. He's the head of the body, not the head of a building. Jesus did not come to seek and save and sacrifice his life for the sake of some brick-and-mortar sanctuary. No, he came to seek and save and sacrifice his life for the sake of bruised and broken sinners. That's why he has come: not because the church is a building, but because it's a body, and he's the head of it.

Why does he say he's the head? Because wherever your head goes, guess what goes with it: your body. It's just the way it works. Your body goes wherever your head does. Your head is the governing, guiding, deciding force over your human machine. Here's what's fascinating. You can lose an arm, you can lose a leg, you can lose an eye, and while less than ideal, you can keep going. You can keep moving forward. But if you lose your head, it's all over. You're not going anywhere. The body ceases to move.

This is how it is for the believer. He is our head. Disconnected from him, we have no movement. We have no life. The apostle Paul says that in him we find our living and our being and our doing. It's how we move and live and exist. Christ is not just the head, though. He's the firstborn from the dead. What does that mean? It means that had Jesus not resurrected, no one is resurrected. If he had not gone into that tomb and then three days later walked out of that tomb, none of us would lie in the grave and rise forth one day.

He's the firstborn from the dead. He's preeminent even over that, not just in life but in death. He has conquered all things. You see, Christ is not merely someone who lived and died and of whom we read and we learn. No, he is the one who arose and is alive forevermore. He's not a dead hero. He's not a past founder. He's not a subject of study. He is alive. That's who Jesus is.

Revelation 1:18 says, "[I am] the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades." Shouldn't that verse change the way we engage with him? That verse, the fact that he is the one who holds the keys to death and hades, should change the way we engage. Yet here's the thing. To those of you in the room who are Christians, it has left us treating Jesus far more like he is our specialty than our reality.

We walk with Jesus in a way where we have cursory Christian cordial answers whenever someone asks us how life is. We know the right things to do, and we actually do them, because we want to be on the good side of God. We have quotable captions that we post on Instagram. We play the religious game, yet here's the thing: many of us are hiding the fact that we're actually so very disenchanted with the person of Christ.

Somewhere along the way, he ceased being God and just turned into a game. He just turned into one we know a lot about, talk a lot about, and associate ourselves with, but he no longer wildly impacts our day. Speaking to the Christian in the room, this message for you, as we talk about the real Jesus, is a wake-up call. It's looking at you and saying, "There's more. There's more to be had with him. There's more to be seen with him. There's more to enjoy with him. He is preeminent. He is supreme. He is unbelievably incomparable, and he's yours."

That should change everything about the way we walk with him. It should lead us out of a desire for intellectual assent and into intimate connection. It should cause us to want to be with him, to enjoy him, to listen, to spend time, because, as Paul keeps going, we see… "For in him all the fullness of God [the totality of the divine, the fullness of the deity] was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross."

Here is the point of this passage. There is so much more to this man than meets the eye. There's so much more to this man than you will find anywhere else. As you scour the earth and seek after satisfaction, you will not find it the way you can find it in him. It's in Jesus that the fullness of life is found, that abundant, deep soul satisfaction is available. It's not in your job. It's not in your relationship. It's not in the hope of something happening one day down the line; it's in him.

The beauty of this passage is it's saying that he, this cosmological Christ, the supreme Savior of the world, wants you to find all of that right here with him. He wants you to seek and search no longer but come and be satisfied, starting today. How do I know that? Because Paul tells us, as he ends this passage, that we, who were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, have been reconciled through faith.

We've been reconciled through faith in the death of that deity, of that Jesus, who was put on display, hung for the watching world to see. We know we've been forgiven because as he, the Creator of the cosmos, hung upon a cross, which he himself had created, he bled out and cleansed us in his own death of all our iniquity. We know we've been saved because, by faith in the Savior who rose for the sake of sinners like you and me, we can have hope, hope that it is…not maybe but is…going to be better.

He is the preexistent, preeminent Christ. He has been, he is today, and he will always be, and where he now sits, he wants to bring you home to himself. The question is…Now that you see him clearly, what do you see about yourself? What's revealed by way of the definition you see marked upon that man Christ, and what does it lead you to do from here? Let me pray for us.

Father, I just confess. I'm really so insufficient for this text, but, God, your Word is not insufficient to speak. I am so unworthy to communicate such wonder, yet you, God, are so loving you want that wonder to be known even still. Jesus, you truly are one of a kind. You truly are of the highest and best order. There really is no one who compares.

So, God, I just pray that here, now, in this moment, we might be willing to lay down whatever it is we've looked at you and said, "That's better. This is preferred. I want that instead." Would we surrender those things to you tonight, and would we see in you the fullness of God in the image of the Son. As we see you clearly, God, right now in this moment, as your Spirit works and moves and speaks, would we be sensitive to the clarity it's trying to bring to us about ourselves.

O God, we're so unworthy of one as highly exalted as you who would condescend here to this earth below, taking on our likeness, becoming like us, dying the death we deserved, and rising forth in new life that we might become like you. We respond to you now in light of this good news. It's in Jesus' name, amen.