Christians need to be regularly reminded of the preeminence of Christ in their lives and in their churches, said Alabama pastor John Brock.
Brock, pastor of Highland Baptist Church in Florence, addressed “The Preeminence of Christ in the Called” at the Alabama Baptist Pastors Conference on Nov. 10 at Whitesburg Baptist Church in Huntsville. He observed that Colossians 1:18 is the only place in the New Testament where the word “preeminence” is used to describe Jesus. Another translation uses “first place” instead, he added.
Brock said the Apostle Paul gave two reasons why Jesus is “first place” or “preeminent.”
Christ is preeminent because of who He is, Brock noted. He observed that Paul set the record straight for the Colossians because they were being influenced by false prophets.
“We still battle false teachers who diminish the glory of Christ in their teaching by making Him less than we know Him to be,” the pastor said.
“There is no greater correction for theological error and no greater cure for lukewarm Christianity than a fresh vision of Christ,” Brock said.
Second, he continued, Christ is preeminent because of what He has done. “Let me summarize what Paul says about the work of Christ on our behalf. In Colossians 1:13-14, he says that God ‘rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the Kingdom of His beloved Son’ … because (on the cross) Christ Jesus redeemed us through His blood and sent our sins away.”
Brock then turned to his assigned task of how to connect the next generation of ministers to the preeminence of Christ and offered some observations.
We must make the preeminence of Christ the primary subject of our prayers for the next generation. He encouraged pastors to pray that the next generation of ministers:
- Will have the wisdom of Christ.
- Will have a worthy walk with Christ.
- Will have a work that produces fruit.
- Will have the strength to endure.
- That their worship will be filled with joy.
We must make the preeminence of Christ the pronounced priority in our own lives. “Christ will only be preeminent in the next generation to the degree that He is preeminent in this generation,” Brock acknowledged.
Brock observed that it is easy to look at past generations of the church and Christian leaders and throw stones at the places where they failed. “But we should be very careful about that because one day a future generation will look back at us and criticize us for our failures. Every generation succeeds and fails,” he added.
We must make the preeminence of Christ the practical plan of our ministry to the next generation. “We don’t read a lot of detail in the New Testament about how Paul called out all of these men who became the next generation of leaders in the church,” he said.
“We do know that from the time of Acts 6 the church was always looking and watching for leaders the Holy Spirit was raising up.”
The preeminence of Christ in the next generation is why we must finish well in this generation. He cited Paul as an example of finishing well. In 2 Timothy 4:7, Paul wrote, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith.”
“When we fail to finish well, we betray the next generation,” Brock concluded.
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