The Bible Study Podcast, episode 296.

Today, the Bible Study podcast continues a study of the book of Colossians.

Welcome to the Bible Study podcast.

I'm your host, Chris Christensen.

This is part two in a study on Colossians. We started last week, and we did just the introduction and some of the prayers, some of the things that Paul was praying for for the people of Colossae, or Paul and Timothy, and you may recall that he was praying that they would bear fruit. He was praying that they would joyfully give thanks to the Father. And then we had probably my favorite phrase in Colossians, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of His Holy People in the Kingdom of Light, for he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves.

And then as we're talking about Jesus, Paul gets into this section here in Colossians 1,

verses 15 through 23 that talks more about Jesus. And it's a portion that most Bibles will label,

and the labels were put on later, the supremacy of the Son of God. And it goes like this.

The Son is the image of the invisible God,

the firstborn over all creation, for in Him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth,

visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through him and for him.

He is before all things and in him all things hold together.

Let's just look at that part so far.

This is one of a few places in the Bible that talk about Jesus within a context that is broader than the scope of his earthly ministry and broader

than the scope even of his earthly ministry and then going forward from that to present day or

into the future, but going backwards instead like John did at the beginning of his gospel,

John put it this way, and the beginning was the word, and the Word was God, and the Word was God.

And Paul says it very similarly.

He says that basically that Jesus, the Son of God, was present at the time of creation, and then goes on to say, as John did, John says that he was the word.

Well, the word you may remember was how the world was

created according to the Genesis story. In Genesis, it says God spoke and said, let there be light.

Light be. And it came into existence. In John, he says, in the beginning was the word and the word

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