Have you ever seen something so beautiful, so stunning, so breathtaking, that you just had to stop and take a look? Maybe the leaves turning in the Minnesota Fall. Perhaps you’ve traveled to the mountains out west and the closer you get, the more stunning the view becomes. Or you are up in a plane and fly over something fantastic and you just have to look down and enjoy. We’ve all had experiences similar to that.
My wife and I love going to South Dakota. We enjoy traveling to Custer State Park to drive the wildlife loop to see all the animals. We see mule deer, white tail deer, pronghorn, prairie dogs, elk big, horn sheep, and even mountain goats. But there’s one animal that makes us stop above all the others—the buffalo. Many times we’ve come around a corner in a road only to find the herd of buffalo grazing right alongside the road. And so what do we do? We stop and park. We pull off to the side of the road and park a while so that we can gaze at these unique creatures. This summer we took our first trip to Rocky Mountain National park, and we drove to the top of the mountain onto Trail Ridge Road which winds around the peaks at 12k feet. And it was so beautiful, you just wanted to stop and gaze off getting lost in the beauty of it all.
In our passage today Paul, the writer of Colossians, encounters Jesus. He pulls off to the side of the road in a sense and puts it in park so that we can gaze at the glories of Jesus Christ. This passage has been called the “Colossian hymn” because in the original language of the New Testament it appears that verses 18-20 was written as a form of verse—this is a poem or a hymn with two stanzas. We’ll come back and deal with that in our final sermon of the series. But these verses sings praises to Jesus Christ, presenting Him as true Deity and exalting Him for His matchless worth.
This is a glorious passage. This passage deals with our values—what we treasure in life, and sets Christ up as far beyond anything people in the world may value. People value many different things in the world today. There are many things people treasure. Boys and girls, you can draw something that you treasure, or someone might treasure. Some people treasure money. Some treasure their possessions. Others their families, or jobs, or hobby. These things are good, but these are not the most important. Here in this passage, Paul shows us what is most important—who is most important.
God desires that we have His Son, Jesus Christ at the center of our lives. In a world that is consumed with lust, money, fame, and pleasure, God desires that our treasure be Jesus Christ. He wants us to be consumed with the incredible worth of His Son Jesus. This passage displays to us the greatness of Jesus Christ. A correct understanding of the matchless worth of Jesus should cause us to treasure Him and praise him above all else. Jesus should be our greatest treasure. That’s our big idea this morning.
Big Idea: Jesus is our greatest treasure