The Pre-Eminence of Jesus Christ | Christ Above All Things

I don’t know if you know the theme of this conference, so I’m going to tell you what it is. It’s a Holy Spirit conference on the kingdom of God in motion. Did you know that? I reflected on that a great deal. I believe that the thought of the kingdom of God in motion means advancing, and there are brothers and sisters here and ministers who are here, and who will be coming here, to hear about that kingdom and about its forward advance. There is something that goes above and beyond anything else that we, no matter who we are, must put first above and beyond all else. Sometimes we seem to have the gift of overlooking the obvious. I want to talk to you about that which comes first in any endeavor, and that which comes first definitely in anything that means a forward move of the kingdom of God.

I’m going to read three verses of scripture if you’d like to follow me. They are out of the greatest single book centered on Christ that has ever been written or ever will be written, and I’m coming to the very heart and soul of those three verses. I cannot reach them, nor can you, but we’re going to listen to them. It’s Colossians, chapter 1, verses 16, 17, and 18. If you have a Bible, then if you’re following. If not, please listen carefully because this is not a Scripture that’s easy to understand.

In my translation: For in Christ all things were created, both in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether things, thrones or dominions or rules or authorities, all things have been created through Christ and for Christ, in Him, through Him, for Him, and Christ is before all things. And in Christ, all things are held together. Christ is also head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that in Christ Himself all things will come to have, in Him, preeminence. That in Him all things will come to have first place in Christ alone. He shall have first place. By the mercies of God, let’s talk about this now.

Let me ask you this. That all things would have first place in the Lord Jesus Christ. If there is anything that is not to be overlooked, it is that Jesus Christ is to be preeminent above all things. Now, let’s talk about that because it gets exciting. Let me tell you some things that you might never have been exposed to before. First, it is in Ephesians 1, and I want you to hear Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1: that you may be granted a Spirit of wisdom and revelation that you might come to understand…and I’m going to paraphrase…the length and the breadth and the depth and the height of all that there is in the experiential knowledge of knowing Jesus Christ. Now y’all, and thank God we understand y’all. What I’m going to say to you, you may or may not know, and I want to speak as one who entered the ministry at the age of 18, and I did not know that in all things Christ Jesus might have preeminence. This can only come to you…there are some things you can’t get out of just reading scripture. There are things that you can’t get from reading a book. There are some things you can only receive by revelation, and thank you so much. Please don’t act like a bunch of Baptists. Talk to me. Now, I do not wish to address a bunch of pickles, bumps on a pickle. I want to hear people. Thank you so much.

Now, I am saying to the Lord, and I’m saying to you, to give us a spirit of revelation that we might come to understand the riches that are in Christ Jesus, first of all, that He might have preeminence in all things. We’re going to try to take just a few moments to discover what are the places where He is preeminent. Now listen to this passage of scripture. One of the last things that Paul ever wrote was in Second Timothy 1:9, and this is what he said. He spoke of a time before time. There is a time before time. You’ll have to get that out of your margin. There is a time that existed before time, and then in Titus, which is one of the last things he ever wrote, Paul made one of the most amazing statements that ever could be made. Neither you nor I will ever, ever be able to comprehend it in Titus 1:2, and that is that there was an age before eternity. An age before the eternals. An eon before the eons. A time before the eternals. There was something that existed before there was existence, and this is a mystery I cannot even hope to fathom: a time before eternity.

Then, in Hebrews 1 and Ephesians 1, you read that there was a creation, and that in that creation Christ created all things. Now that’s after the time before eternity. Now, so what have you got here? You’ve got a time before eternity, and then you have a time when creation occurs. In Hebrews, then in Ephesians, and my goodness, there are so many passages that speak of “before,” and then speak of the creation, such as in Colossians 1, which I read to you: that He, Christ, created, and creation was for Him, through Him, and in Him. So, we have a time before eternity. We have a time in the eternals when there is a creation.

Now, I’m not even going to tell you about the rest, and we’ll get there in a few moments, because after the time of creation, Jesus Christ came to be preeminent in everything.  It’s in 1 Corinthians 3. For Jesus Christ has been made unto us, wisdom, sanctification, redemption, and righteousness. These are those things which He is. Now, He’s the first of many brothers and sisters. He’s the first of the new creation. He is the first brother of brothers and sisters in the creation. He is so many other things that we will discover in a few minutes, but beyond all else, take this one point, that it is not scripture that is preeminent. It is, forgive me, but it’s not even the Holy Spirit that is preeminent. From the viewpoint of God the Father, Jesus Christ is preeminent in all things. The Father is determined that His Son, Jesus Christ, be preeminent in all things. It is the wish of God the Father that Jesus Christ be preeminent in absolutely everything. The preeminence, the first place of Christ, is covered before creation, in creation, in His redemptive work, in His enthronement. He is not only first above, but He is first before those things which are visible, invisible, thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers. In all of these things, He takes first place. If we can see eternity past and eternity future, then we will see something else, and that is, not only is He first place in all these things, He is these things, in a future that has not yet unfolded for us, but will unfold for us someday and which has already been unfolded by Him in the fact that He is free of space and time and wanders the universes. He already is all things. In Him, all things are preeminent. Now we’re going to go back and take a look at His being Him who existed before the eternals. Saints, may God give you a revelation. May the Holy Spirit help us.

Take everything away. Take the cosmos, all of creation. Make sure you get rid of the angels. There’s nothing. No, that’s not correct. There’s not even “nothingness.” Colossians say that He might become All in All, but in a time before the eternals, He was All. He was not only first place; He was not only preeminent; He was all there was. He was the All, and one of these days He will be…1 Corinthians 15:24…He will be All that there is in All. Before times eternal, He was all.

Now you need to understand something, and so do I. It is this that Mr. Einstein made very clear to us: you cannot have time without mass. Therefore, you cannot have time if there’s no creation, and there was no creation, and there’s not even eternity. I’m trying to explain to you that He was all, and don’t try to imagine Him as all plus nothingness. No, even nothingness was not there. In any direction the mind can conceive, it was Christ, and it was Christ, and it was Christ, and it was Christ. And that’s all there was. The Father’s glory was in a Son who was All. This is the Christ of preeminence.

Let me try to explain something to you that cannot be explained. Revelation calls Him the Alpha and the Omega. Revelation does not say that He is the Alpha and will become the Omega. He is already at the end. He’s at the end. He is at the same time at the beginning. Now saints, I will refer to you a passage of scripture I have already read to you in First Corinthians, verse 16, when it says, “For all things were created not only for Him, not only through Him, not only to Him. All things were created in Him.” I cannot grasp a cosmological Christ, a Christ of all creation, but here He is so big, so small…no, none of that. If there’s no mass, there’s no dimension. He’s not up, He’s not down, He’s not sideways, He’s All. There is no ticking of time, no calendar, only Christ. There is no mass. There is no creation. He is everything. There is nothing going on except Christ. You cannot even say that He is the eternal Christ because there’s no eternity. It’s Christ, Christ, and it’s Christ. And now He who is the creator creates.

Now, try to think of the galaxies, the stars, and the moon. Think of everything that you can imagine. All these things called gravity, the weak force, the strong force, the quirks, the charms, the protons, the electrons, and the atoms; they’re not there—nothing except Him. Now, when He creates, He will create mass, and so we’ll have the ticking of the clock, and things will begin, but you must remember that He was preeminent before there was a beginning. When He makes a beginning, He has first place in the beginning. He is the beginning, and He will also be the end, but He will be the end at the same time that He is the beginning. He is first place, not was first place.