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

Now then, Michelangelo did it this way…that’s not the way Christ did it. Christ did it this way. All creation is in Him. In Christ are all things that are created. Now what does that mean? Well, that means that everything there is, is in Christ. Let’s try to imagine that for a moment. Time is now in Christ. Mass, electrons, protons, and atoms are now inside of Him. This is where He gets alpha and omega. I’m going to try to do this with my hand. You follow me. I cannot draw a circle and say that is Christ, because that would limit Him. Let’s do that. Here’s Christ. This is Christ. Inside Christ is eternity. Inside Christ is beginning. Inside Christ is the end. E N D, and in Christ is us.

Now, this is Christ over here, and He’s going to watch time, and I’m being tricky…be careful. He’s going to watch things happen. Someday He’s going to be Omega. Dear saints, if He has enveloped creation, then any direction you move, it is Christ. It is the living Christ. So, He’s not just journeying with us through time. You are looking at a Lord who is Lord of time, Lord of space, and a Lord who not only moves through time and moves through space, but He is also present anywhere He chooses to be in space and time. Therefore, He is not only alpha but also omega. He is not only beginning, but He is also ending, because everything over here is in Him. That means over here is the end of creation, the end of the cosmos, the end even of everything, including the new creation, when there will be Christ who is All in All. That means He’s here, and it means He’s here.

Now then, praise the Lord. The Calvinist and the Arminian just met in peace. They did not have a Christ big enough to understand. They were time-bound and space-bound, but He’s not time-bound or space-bound. He wrote our names into the Book of Life, and you can’t take it out. The Arminian says, “Well, it’s in the Book of Life, but He might take them out.” So, the Calvinists say, “No, you’re wrong.” Then the Arminian says, “No, wait a minute. You can’t go and live in this way and that way and the other and expect God not to take your name out of the Book of Life.” It doesn’t work that way. Saints, He’s here, and He’s here. (The beginning and the end) So He comes to the end of the creation. He comes to the end of everything, and He sees the great host of the redeemed, and He looks around. Oh, you made it. Hallelujah. You’re there. Praise the Lord. You made it, sister. You’re there. You’ve made it. Hallelujah, sister. Brother, you made it. The Lord is there at the end, while He’s at the beginning, He sees you’ve all made it. So, what does He do? He goes to the beginning, having seen all who have made it, and He goes to the beginning, and He writes your name in the Book of Life. Well, don’t just sit there, say praise the Lord! This is the Christ who is, no matter where you mark time, or where you mark space, or where you mark anything, He is first place. All things are in Him, and when the universe is dissolved, where are you going to stand? You’re going to be in Him. Praise the Lord.

Alright, that’s creation, and that’s before creation, and there He is first. Now then, we come as believers to time and space. By the way, it’s not very long. It starts here and ends here. I don’t know exactly where we are. I don’t know if we’re here, here, or here, but I’ll tell you one thing: here’s the end, and it and the mass will unfold, and there will not be anything left anymore there except those who are in Christ. You were chosen in Christ before the foundations of the world to present you holy and perfect before God the Father in Christ, and He did His choosing at the beginning and the end simultaneously. Praise the Lord.  We Arminians and we Calvinists are both secure in a Lord who is free of space and time, and that’s not the end of it. I’m going to get off the subject for just a moment, then we’ll talk about the Lord a little bit more. I’m completely removed from the subject…kind of. I’m going to ask you to forgive me for a personal reference. I don’t normally do that.

Well, I was 25 years old, and that actually happened…I was 25. I entered a ministry that nobody in the world had ever had before me, and when I left, no one’s ever had since then. At that particular time, when Billy Graham began to rise, citywide campaigns disappeared. I say this with all modesty and humility, but I am trying to put it in context. There was still someone who was being sponsored citywide. I was 26 years old. I was running citywide campaigns in America, not because I was a mass evangelist, but because I was a personal evangelist. Whole cities and churches would come together, and I would teach the churches how to lead people to Jesus Christ. Until that moment, we had all been in the grips of R.A. Torrey’s book, How to Win Souls, which was a terrible book. It was basically telling people how to argue with folks, and that doesn’t work. This was more Christ-centered. Then the people went out door to door. The goal was to knock on every door in the city. People had been trained, and if they were invited in, they would go in to lead them to the Lord.

I have moved even beyond that. When I go to talk to somebody about the Lord, I don’t want to talk to them about what they believe or where they live or what they think. I will tell you what you have to do, and this is the very nature of man. Sit down and tell them, ‘I want to talk about Jesus. The last time I led someone to the Lord, this is how I did it. I said I’m going to sing a song, and I want you to sing the words after me. So, I began singing the first stanza, then the person repeated the words after me, and then I sang the next stanza, and they repeated it. The third one, and he repeated it, and the fourth one repeated it, and the fifth, and he repeated it, and now in the sixth stanza, he was saved because it was a song that spoke of nothing but the Lord Jesus Christ. His wife was with him, and she got saved. I am telling you, saints of God, that it is Christ. It’s just Christ. It is only Christ, and anything else that you waste your time on is coming in second.

I give you another illustration of how, recently, talking about the tabernacle has gotten really popular. Well, the first time I heard about the tabernacle…Moses tabernacle in the wilderness, this is how I was taught. Okay, there are these fences, and there are these silver discs, and these poles, and these curtains, and there’s one opening on one end, but when I get there, there’s a burnt offering that I have to go through. Then I go from that to a laver and polished brass, where I look, get washed, and get exposed. Then I go from that into the holy place, which has a lot of gold in it, and in it was bread that was there for display, and that bread was for me to eat. Then there is this incense altar, with prayers rising to God. Then finally…Finally, I enter the holy of holies, which is entirely cubicle and perfect; in it is a rectangular box made of acacia wood and gold, and there is Christ.

Well, no. Absolutely not. No, sir. No, ma’am. Listen, it is Christ. It is Christ. It is Christ. The great 12 tribes…when the ark sat down, they sat down. When the ark was picked up, they moved. They moved in that direction if the ark went that direction, they went that way if the ark went this way and every tribe measured itself off the ark, and the ark alone. The ark was everything, and when they went to build the tabernacle, they measured off the ark. The ark first, then the holy place, then the incense altar, and the showbread, and then those different things I have to pass through, and finally, and only finally, is there a burnt offering waiting for me.

Listen to me, saints. First, give me Christ. Saturate me with Christ. Give me nothing but Christ. Give me Christ and Christ alone, and make Him preeminent in all things, and I will go there where He is in the holy of holies, outside space and time, and touch Him, and I’ll make a beeline for that altar of burnt offering, and I’ll jump on it with joy. Don’t talk me into a burnt offering until I have become intoxicated on my Lord, that He might have preeminence in all things, that the kingdom moves upon the centrality, the first place, and the preeminence of the Lord Jesus Christ, and nowhere else.

I think it’s in Luke 24. They’re on the road to Emmaus. Oh, how our hearts warmed when He spoke to us. But the passage doesn’t end there. I think it’s verse 27. Listen to what He says. Listen very, very, very, very carefully because upon this hinges your ministry and the kingdom of God. …and Christ spoke of Moses and the prophets and the psalms, His place in Moses, in the prophets and the psalms, that they might understand the scripture. That turns everything upside down. Now, brothers and sisters called of God to minister; no, we do not present the Scripture in order to display Christ. No, Scripture is not preeminent. Christ is preeminent, and you may not understand this, but try it and see the difference it makes. We present the Lord Jesus Christ and Christ and Christ and Christ and Christ and it is Christ who illuminates the Scripture.

Your message is Christ. Your life is Christ – Philippians – Christ, my life. I’m going to take a moment to explain what that means. It means this. It means that He came not to give us grass or fish. He didn’t give us tree life. He didn’t give us cattle life, and He didn’t come to give us human life. Nor did He give us come to give us abundance. Oh boy, I’m saved, and I’m going to be abundant. He came to give you…I don’t know, sometimes I’m wondering if we’re clear about this… He came here on this earth to give you the Highest Life in the universe. He came to give you nothing less than the Life that God lives by. God gave that life to Christ to live by, and having come, He came to give His Life, His divine Life, that you might live by that Life and by that Life alone. He gave to you and me the Life of God itself, in us, to live by Christ. That Christ living in us might be preeminent above all else. That in Christ all things will find their preeminence in Him.

Now, please go with me to Colossians 3. It’s beautiful. I hope you’ll go home and read it, and I think it will help us understand creation. Let no man, not even preachers, let no man speak to you or bring you into bondage concerning weeks or months or years, our observances, our moons, our stars, nor phases of the moon. Let no man bring you into the bondage of the Passover. All these things are but shadows. The only thing that’s real in this universe is Jesus Christ and His Life. His life in Him and His life in you. Everything else is a reflection, a shadow of Him. So next time that big thing in the sky is full, you go out there in the yard, and you say to somebody, “You know what that is?” And they’re going to say, “That’s the moon.” You know, it is not the moon. That’s not the moon. All things in creation are but a symbol, a shadow, a type, a reflection of Him who is preeminent in all things. That moon got its idea of creation from Him who is the moon. And the stars are but a shadow of Christ. They were made in a reflection of Him, like a mason chisels a stone while looking at a human. All creation was looking at the Lord Jesus Christ and became a shadow of Him, for He is preeminent in creation and in all things.