Christ Be Magnified in Me

Christ Be Magnified in Me
Colossians 1:13-29
November 23, 2025

This book was written by Paul to the church in Colossae to strengthen their faith,  because there were those who were harassing the church with teachings that were opposed to the very foundational truths the Church of Christ was built on.

There were Judaizers wanting to turn them back to salvation on based on the law and circumcision, undermining the gospel of grace and being saved by faith.

Then there were Gnostics with their heretical teachings wanting to lead people astray. Gnosticism was a blend of Jewish legalism, Greek philosophy, mystical practices, and angel worship.

Their core beliefs were the following: The material world is evil and corrupt, created by a lesser deity. Salvation does not come through faith or grace, but through hidden, secret knowledge revealed to the select few who are deemed ready and worthy, journeying towards spiritual enlightenment to find their path back to the spiritual realm.

 It focuses on personal insight and inner transformation. They rely heavily on use of symbolism and symbols to convey complex ideas, requiring interpretation to unlock deeper mystic meaning.

They denied the full humanity of Christ, believing He only appeared human. Others believed Christ was a divine being who temporarily inhabited the man Jesus.

In the Gnostic belief system, there were widely varying practices depending on their point of view. Some practiced asceticism, denying the body to free the spirit.

Others went to the opposite extreme, believing that since the body was evil, moral behavior didn’t matter.

When we look at this from a modern perspective, it is easy to see that these beliefs are still around and are actually becoming more prevalent in  our times.

Illus – Walk into your nearest bookstore, and you will see hundreds, if not thousands of books with this ‘religion’ at its center. Today it is under the banners of New Age, Meditation, Self-help, and many other classifications. Themes like “The Power of Positive Thinking”, “You can Heal Yourself,” “The Power of Now”, “The Healing Power of Crystals’ which all seems so innocent and progressive, has its roots in deep paganism and Gnosticism. Symbolism and these beliefs found in Secret Societies that are still rife in our society.

It has new names, more modern vernacular, but it is still the same heretical religion.

Unfortunately, today, because there is a lack of knowledge, even Christians get swept up and caught in these occult  and heretical practices without knowing it.

The problem is that many have separated their spiritual or faith life from their practical living. Christianity is left at the church doors on a Sunday, so real life can be lived in the real world.  

Yet these evil spiritual principles have entered through society, social media and the workplace, sidelining Christ, but opening many up to other spiritual “truths”, and it is not discerned as such because it is part of their “real” life or job.

Illus – How many have gone to sales training, team building events, corporate retreats and have been bombarded with New Age principles brought into the workplace as part of personal or skills development. Positive thinking, Manifest the Future you Want.

This is why this topic is so important. Paul was anchoring them in the truth about Jesus, because ultimately, it affects every sphere of your life. If you don’t know the truth, your mind can be led into bondage, and it will affect your spiritual life as well.

Your thoughts and spiritual philosophy will set the direction of your life.

The enemy is fine with people sitting in church, listening to sermons, as long as their spiritual life is seen as distinctly separated and seen as irrelevant to the rest of their lives. As long as he has their thoughts captivated by the ‘real world’ viewpoints, he is happy.

So tonight’s study, as Paul breaks it down, is a summary focused on who Jesus is. It is the basic truth and foundation of our faith.

As we study this, ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the lies you have believed or which might have taken root in your mind, and let the truth set you free.

I. He is Incomparable

Paul starts of by showing them that there is no one and nothing that compares to Christ.

A. He is the image of God

• Jesus said, “ If you have seen me, you have seen the Father. Now we know He is not talking about in the flesh. God cannot be contained in human form. Yet the fullness of the power of God resides in Jesus.
• The problem that needed overcoming was how an all-powerful God could reveal Himself?
• On amount Sinai God showed Himself in the most powerful display the mind of man can fathom, revealing His power. This made the people scared of God and did not draw them to relationship.
• So God gave them the ten commandments to reveal His heart and nature, but they turned it into clinical rules, not conducive to relationship.
• Enter Jesus, who came to show who God is, not in physical form, but in who He was and through His actions.

B. All fullness dwells in Him

• This means Jesus is not partially divine; He fully embodies God. He has the complete divine nature and attributes ( God’s essence) dwelling in Him.

C. He is the firstborn

• Many get confused by this verse and this is used by the Jehovah’s witnesses. They say that if Christ was the first born, it means that He had a beginning. Thus, He is not eternal, and can’t be God.
• Firstborn here does not refer to ‘in sequence’, like first, second , third, but He is the first in preeminence. There is no one above Him. He has the name above all names.
• Verse 18 says He is the firstborn from the dead. He was the first to overcome death and grave, being fully man and fully God, thereby having the authority to raise other from eternal death as well.

Romans 8:29, …  so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren.

• He was the one who in bodily form overcame death and was raised to life, never more to die.

D. He is before all things

• Paul again establishes that Jesus was the author and source of creation. One with God, eternal. This was also what Jesus proclaimed.

John 8:58, Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.”

• This is why the religious leaders wanted to stone Jesus, although even they discerned that He was from God.
• Jesus’ resurrection became the confirmation that everything He said about Himself was the truth. This is why Paul can with confidence make these declarations.

E. He is the head of the body, the beginning

• When speaking of the body, Paul is referring to the mysterious spiritual body, the mystery of the ages, revealed in the New Testament to be the church.

Ephesians 1:22-23, . And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

• He is the leader. Church is not the building, but the collective organism of those who have come to faith in Jesus.
• A body gets its directions and instructions from the head. He leads us individually and collectively through His indwelling Spirit.

F. By Him all things were created

• Genesis 1 tells us, “In the beginning, God created.” The word Godthere in Hebrew is Elohim, which is plural. The Hebrew singular for God is El. The dual tense is Eloi. And Elohimis the plural tense for God.
• That is a hint of the Trinity, right in the very first verse of the Bible.
• This is what John alludes to in John 1 – “In the beginning was the Word…” which we know speaks of Jesus. “ And the Word became flesh and dwelled among us.”

John 1:3, And all things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made”

Hebrews 11:3, By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.

Ps 33:6, By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth. (NIV)

• From the smallest atom to the greatest star, all of creations shouts out: There is a God!

V16 – For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him.

• That is why no evil principality can compare to Jesus. They are all created beings. He is the creator God.

Philippians 2:10-11, Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth…

G. He holds all things together

• Many think that this is just a figurative statement. But I suggest to you that this is more literal than we think.

Illus – Protons are positively charged. We know that two positive masses repel each other, yet multiple protons are able to stay together in an atom held together by some unknown ‘glue’. Scientists don’t know what it is, so they call it the strong nuclear force. It is the strongest force there is that is only found in the atom.  It is what keeps everything in the universe together. If it was not there, the whole universe would just be hydrogen atoms.

• Paul tells us that Christ holds all things together. If the Lord releases His hold on the universe for just a second the whole universe would go up in a gigantic bang.

II. He Rescued Us

• Christ is the one that rescued us from the domain of darkness. Satan doesn’t have a kingdom, because he is not a king. He has an oppressive domain through which he enslaves people in sin and lies.
• It is like a rebel tyrannical force taking control of an area and oppressing the inhabitants.
• It is important to understand that if you have not received Jesus, you are by default a slave under Satan’s dominion.
• V 21- Although you were at one time estranged and alienated with a hostile attitude of mind in wicked activities.
• People say that they wish God would just leave them alone. They want to live their own lives. They want to make their own choices. They want freedom. That freedom is an illusion, because they are already captured and on their way to hell.

Luke 4:18, He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives…

• If you come to Christ, you are transferred to the kingdom of His Beloved Son. Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords.
• When He died on the cross and rose on the third day, the power of the evil one was destroyed. Jesus took back the keys of sin and death.

A. He reconciles us

• This is why He has the authority and power to now reconcile us to God.

Colossians 1:20,  and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, 

• His body and blood became the payment and atonement for our sin.

Ephesians 2:13, But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

• Paul in verse 22 makes special mention that Christ has reconciled us through His fleshly body through death, to present us before Him holy and blameless beyond reproach.

• With this he destroys the claim that Christ was not really God in the flesh, as the Gnostics proclaimed. He had to be son of God, perfect, and son of man, of the flesh, to be the perfect intermediary atoning for our sin.

B. He is our Hope of glory

• 27 – Christ in us, the hope of glory
• The Gnostics believe that humans have a divine spark that is contained deep in the body which must be awakened through gnosis (spiritual mysteries) to return to its divine fulness.
• Can you see the clever deviation and subtle deception? It focuses on self-effort, self-actualization, self-exaltation, performance, outperforming others to get on top.
• It is the lie of Genesis 3. You can become like God. It is the lie of the tower of Babel. In fact, it has stayed the pursuit of the rebellious soul wanting to be God, rooted in the demonic occult.
• No matter what it is dressed up as: new age, enlightenment, Buddhism, Taoism, Shintoism, Freemasonry, or whatever other cultic system, the aim is to become your own god.
• The truth is, there can be only one God. There cannot be two all-powerful, perfect beings. There is only one God. And if you really have to be honest, just the fact that you know you are not perfect, have not existed forever, and do not have all power and control already disqualifies you, and every other person who ever lived.
• The conclusion is then, if you cannot become God, then you are being played by another force who wants to use you as a pawn. Surprise surprise, enter Lucifer, Satan.
• He can never become God, because he is a created being, but he can draw the worship due to God away through lies a deception, puffing people up in their pride.
• There was a spark of life in man. More than that. There was a continual life in man while in unbroken fellowship with God. But man was severed from it when they sinned in the garden.
• The only way back to the Father God, back to life, is through Jesus.

John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.

• He is the source of life that brings new birth in our Spirits. He is the one that makes us alive again.

John 10:10, I came that you may have life…

• He alone is our hope of glory. Glory for eternity, but also in the now, living to the glory of God.
• What is the result of the glory?
• Verse 28- So we may present every man complete in Christ.
• All of this is to bring you to completion again. The enemy has fractured all of us with deception, lies, hurts, insecurities.

Illus- Let’s say there is a masterpiece painting that was stolen by a jealous person, torn up into thousands of shredded puzzle pieces and scattered to the wind…The original artist painstakingly goes out to find the pieces…

• The glory of God in us is to restore us again; bit by bit; piece by piece, to the glory of God. The more whole you become, the more glorious you are, the more the Creator is praised and glorified.

Hebrews 12:2, He, for the joy [of obtaining the prize] that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising and ignoring the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God.