The Christ Hymn: A Timely Song for the Church in Colossi - Audio
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In junior high I had to take a test. I had to list the United States presidents from top to bottom. And I wasn't very good at memorization. I'm still not very good at memorization but the teacher at the time, he had a trick for us. He taught us a song and it went something like this and you can join in, feel free if you know it. Washington Adams, Jefferson, Madison Monroe Adams, Jackson Van Duren Harris, and Tyler Polk, Polk Taylor film, or Pierce Buchanan, Lincoln, Johnson, Grant Hayes, Garfield Arthur, Cleveland Harrison, Cleveland McKinley, Roosevelt, Taffhausen Harding, Coolidge Hoover, Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon Ford, Carter Reagan, Bush, and Clinton. Who was president at the time? What do you think of that? Huh? Wow. Junior High, mind you. And I still know that song by heart. I will always know the list of the U.S. presidents. Why? Because my junior high teacher put it to song. He put it to song. Friends, this morning, we are going to read a song. It's a hymn. In New Testament scholarship circles, it's known as a Christ hymn. It would have been composed in and around the decades following the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, likely by the Apostle Paul himself for a disciple or close associate of Jesus, a leader in a church. And these songs of which there are a number of them in the New Testament would be sung, would be recited from memory by local gatherings of churches across Asia Minor, as they grew to understand the doctrine of Jesus Christ. As they read the Old and New Testaments, and as they began to understand more and more, who this Jesus was, who had came and lived and died and rose again, they put doctrine, they put theology about their faith to song, much like we sing great hymns and songs in the more modern-age praise songs, which speak of our great faith in the theology and the doctrine of that faith. Paul said on your outline there, and by the way, the title of this message is "The Christ hymn, a timely song for the church in Colossae, The Christ hymn, a timely song for the church in Colossae." Open up your Bibles to Colossians chapter 1, and if you're grabbing a pew Bible, you can turn to page 622. Colossians chapter 1 is where we will spend some time here this morning. And in chapter 3 of that same letter, remember Colossians is a letter written from Paul, the apostle Paul, to the church in Colossae. And in chapter 3 of that letter, Paul said this, verse 16, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom, teaching, and admonishing one another in songs and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." So Paul even says in his letter to the church at Colossae, you're to sing songs, hymns, spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. He knew and anticipated that the church would be singing, much like we sing today. And so in his letter in chapter 1, verses 15 to 20, he wrote, he recited that perhaps he wrote himself a very famous Christ hymn at the time. Beginning in verse 15, and going to verse 20, we'll read it one time through together. Verse 15 of Colossians chapter 1, here is the Christ hymn. He, that is Jesus, he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation, 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. And he is before all things, and in him all things consist, 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 for it please the Father, that in him all the fullness should dwell, and by him to reconcile all things to himself, by him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of his cross. Whether written by Paul himself, which is what I believe, or whether it was quoted from memory and written by perhaps another disciple of Christ or a leader in the church, this is unquestionably what New Testament scholars would call a Christ hymn. You say, well, how do you know it's a song? Well, there are a number of indicators in the Greek language that would suggest this. I don't want to go into great details. If you're really curious, we can talk about it afterwards. But there are a number of indicators based on the syntax and the grammar and the way it's arranged that this would have been
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In his message, Pastor Neil discusses the nature of Jesus Christ; that He is the preeminent One; that all things exist iin Him, and that in Him, the fullness of Deity indwells.