August 21, 2022
Morning Service

We have walked with Jesus through the study of the Gospel of Matthew and saw what it meant to follow Him.  We moved from there to Paul’s first letter to Timothy where we have learned how to “conduct ourselves in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of truth.” (I Tim 3:15) It was not until last week that the Lord revealed to me where we need to go next. It came from Paul’s exaltation of Jesus as the “King of kings and Lord of lords” in 6:15. As we follow Jesus we need to know Him as He is the “Lord of all!”  We had begun a study on Paul’s letter to the church at Colosse in February of 2020 and there was this thing called “Covid 19” that interrupted us from finishing it.  That letter describes Jesus and His divinity more completely than any of the other NT books.  We will begin this study today and ask the Holy Spirit to guide us to a new and deeper understanding of who Jesus is and what that means for us.

Colosse was a small town much like our own small town.  Paul had never visited it, but the church was alive and well there.  It was led by a man named Epaphras, who commentaries believe may have been saved as Paul traveled through Ephesus.  The church was battling false teaching that was a combination of all the religions in the area and Epaphras had sought Paul out in a Roman prison to ask him to clarify what had become a cloudy path.  He had confidence and faith in Paul that he would set the fellowship that he led onto the correct path.  The NT scriptures were not yet assembled, so Epaphras’ greatest source to truth was to talk with the Apostle Paul and as a good leader did just that. In his fellowship the believers were being attacked on every side by those claiming that they alone knew the truth.  Greek speculation, Jewish legalism, and Oriental mysticism were all combined into one package known as “Gnosticism.”  They claimed to have special and superior knowledge of spiritual things even more than that of even the apostles.  They taught that true happiness could only come from the knowledge of the deep secrets that were revealed only in their cult.  They believed the divinity of the spiritual realm did not translate into the physical world; thus negating the teaching of the human side of Jesus.  There are many of the same type of teachings alive today with Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witness and the Unity church; each claiming to have a “new or deeper” revelation of spiritual things.  There are those who are now also choosing to simply ignore parts of the scriptures that don’t align with what “they think” is truth; same sex marriage, gender identity, and abortion are some examples of this.  We must be very careful with our involvement with any such claims that are taught to be received from God.  Paul told the Galatians this:

Gal 1:6-9 I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, (7) which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. (8) But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. (9) As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.

            Paul cannot be any clearer than this.  We have been given all that we need to follow Jesus and we do not need anything added or subtracted to what we have been given.  Our Bible needs to be our filter that we run everything through.  If it lines up, then believe it.  If it does not reject it.  God has chosen to speak to us through this Word which is entirely true and divine.  Trouble will come when we “conform” our beliefs to what the world believes or “tolerate” others beliefs that do not line up with the gospel message.  Jesus stated plainly for us that “I am the Way the Truth and the Life and no one comes to the Father except through Me!”  We must teach the Truth, the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth.  Let’s begin our study in this letter Paul wrote to our small town.

 

Col 1:1-8 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, (2) To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colosse: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (3) We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, (4) since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints; (5) because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, (6) which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth; (7) as you also learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, (8) who also declared to us your love in the Spirit.

            Paul was chosen by God to be an apostle; he was handpicked by God to share the good news of Jesus to the Gentiles.  He fulfilled this calling upon his life with a great diligence and demonstrated that as he is writing this letter from prison.  Epaphras had sought him out and explained to him the strong status that the church in Colosse held.  Notice first of all though Paul had never met them, he prayed for them giving thanks for their strong testimony.  They had truly met Jesus and were following Him by demonstrating transformed lives.  “Let me tell you about my Jesus and let My Jesus change your life!”  There is a change when we truly receive Him into our lives and it is not a “one and done” change.  It continues as we journey through life with Him.  Certain things of the world lose their vigor and we focus more on Him than anything else.  The church at Colosse had a strong foundational faith in Jesus believing that He is the “Christ the Son of the Living God.”  That faith gave them a base to love all the saints as Jesus loved them.  They clung tightly to the “hope which is laid up for you in heaven.”  They not only had heard the Word of God, but they were “doing it” by “bringing forth fruit.”  It is the natural spiritual evolution of a person who diligently seeks to know God and follow Him.  As we continue down the path following Jesus, we grow in our faith.  It is less about what we do and evolves into it is just who we are; an obedient, yielded child of God.  Paul continues this line of thought as we move on.

 

Col 1:9-12  For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;  (10)  that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;  (11)  strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy;  (12)  giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.

            Paul had mentioned previously that he had “prayed for them always.”  Here he reveals what he was praying for them to receive.  He asked that they “be filled with knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.”  To have knowledge of something is one thing, but to gain spiritual understanding and wisdom from that knowledge is Paul’s goal for us.  We not only know the truth but we understand it and are able to apply that understanding to our lives; that is really a pretty good definition of wisdom.  Wisdom is the application of knowledge and understanding.  Notice what this produces in our lives.  It allows us to “walk worthy of the Lord” seeking to please Him from a pure heart, clear conscience and sincere faith.  We have a desire within us to fulfill the commands Jesus has laid out for us knowing that it pleases Him and places us as a tool in His hands to build His kingdom.  We live a life that is fruitful in our actions reflecting the change that has occurred in our heart.  Our actions, words and attitude shine with the love of Jesus to those around us.  Our hunger for Him is not satisfied, but stirred up such that we want more of Him pursuing a deeper knowledge of who He is.  You will find that the deeper your roots go in Jesus, the sweeter He becomes. We are strengthened through the Holy Spirit to live a life full of patience, longsuffering, joy and thankfulness.  Notice in verse 12 that God has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.  How has God done that?  Through Jesus!

 

Col 1:13-14 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, (14) in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

            Through Jesus we are delivered from the wages of our sin; death (Rom 3:23) and accepted into the kingdom of God.  He brings us out of darkness into the light.  We are redeemed (saved, rescued, justified) through His blood and our sins are forgiven.  This only occurs when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior.  He is the only Way to salvation and a new beginning.  This Jesus, the Man we followed through Matthew, is much more than just a Man; He is God in the flesh.  He is our everything and we are complete in Him.  Next week we will dive in as Paul explains in detail the divinity of Jesus. 

 

Heavenly Father thank You for revealing to us the Truth.  Grant us a hunger for it and the ability to discern the Truth from false teaching.  Empower us to walk worthy of the calling You have place on our lives.