The Son Before All Things

​ Sequence 1 is the Aleph standing alone — the first letter, the ox and the leader, the number of absolute unity, and the only letter in the alphabet with no sound of its own. Every other letter makes a noise; the Aleph is silence given a shape, and all sound passes through it. The year opens on the letter that carries every voice and speaks with none, and today's theme is the Son who existed before anything that could be spoken about Him. He is the One through whom all things were said into being, and He was Himself unsaid — silent, prior, and holding everything together before the first sound was made.

The theme.

We open the quarter where the apostles open their account of the Son — not at His birth, but before anything existed to be born into. Colossians places Him prior to creation and superior to it, and the whole of CMI's worship this quarter stands on that ground: we are not celebrating a good man who was later honoured, nor a teacher promoted after His death. We are celebrating the One through whom everything that exists was made and for whom it was made. Establish this first because everything else in the quarter depends on it. A congregation that begins with the Son's usefulness will end with a religion of benefits. A congregation that begins with His supremacy can survive a year in which the benefits are delayed.

The School of Scriptures.

I.The Image of the Invisible God

Paul does not say the Son resembles God; he says He is the image of the invisible One. Hebrews puts the same claim differently — the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature (Hebrews 1:3). Teach the congregation that we do not learn what God is like from our circumstances, our upbringing or our instincts about fairness. We learn it from the Son, and where the two disagree, the Son corrects the rest.

II.All Things Through Him and For Him

Two prepositions carry the doctrine. Through Him — He is the agent of creation, not a product of it. For Him — creation has a purpose and the purpose is a Person. Apply it directly: a life organised around any other end is not merely unwise, it is aimed at the wrong target. Ask the congregation what their week is actually for.

III.In Him All Things Hold Together

The verb describes continuous sustaining, not a single act of assembly. Whatever is still standing in your life is being held. Teach this against the anxiety of the self-managed believer, who behaves as though the coherence of their world depends on their own vigilance, and who therefore cannot rest.

IV.The Glory He Had Before

In John 17:5 the Son asks the Father to restore the glory He had with Him before the world was. He is not requesting promotion; He is requesting return. Close by showing that the humility of the incarnation is measured by the height it was a descent from (Philippians 2:5-8), and that this is the character of the One we come to the Table to receive.

The Table.