Encouraging, Continuing Conclusion pt. 3

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a privilege to proclaim the Word of God to the saints of Durbin Memorial Baptist Church.

There have been many times in which I have spent an evening with friends playing games, eating good food, having deep conversations, as the evening goes on, it is just refreshing and joy to have been around loved ones, sharing that time together. Sooner or later, however, it comes time for that time to end. It’s bitter sweet. On one level you have exhausted the moment and have done much of what you had hoped to accomplished together, on another level you want that moment to continue on and on. You end up glad the evening had a successful conclusion and sad that it had to end.

Today we are finishing up the longest sermon series I have ever had the privilege of bring to a congregation. In many ways, for me personally, it feels like the satisfying ending of an evening spent with friends, fulfilling and yet still pining for more goodness. For all but three weeks of just about the last six months, we have been walking line by line, word by word through the book of Colossians. I don’t want to overly romanticize this study because all of God’s Word is beneficial to us, but I truly hope that through this study you have been edified and have grown in your understanding of the Word of God, and not just your intellectual understanding but your actual response in daily living! I hope that Living the Christian Life has been described and applied! As we come to the end of our look at this book, I want to use this morning as a summary so that we can take the highlights from what we have been instructed and not just leave them in past but take them with us into the future.

You see, we are not called to simply chew upon the Word of God and spit it out after a short while but to digest it, to dwell upon it, to be filled with the Word of God. We see the great glory of God spread across each page of His Divine Word. We are to long for the pure spiritual milk that flows there from. I am bringing this because anytime we finish a study of a portion of the Word of God, our response ought not to be, “well that was neat.” and then forget about it. Our response out to be praise the Giver of His of Word and a desire to follow Him more closely.

Before we put the book of Colossians to a close, as it will likely be a long time before we go through this book again corporately, I want to make sure we understand it. So this morning, I want to go over three aspects of the book, Context, Content, and Conclusion.

Let’s begin with the Context.

Context

Throughout this series, I’ve discussed different aspects of how and why this letter came to be, but today I’d like all of us to have a strong grasp on exactly what was happening as Paul wrote this letter to the church at Colossae.

Let it be known that Paul was under arrest in the city of Rome at the time of writing this letter. He was chained up to a Roman Guard. This means that he was physically chained to the guard on duty at all times. We know from historical records and Roman sources that being chained to a soldier was typical protocol for a prisoner under house arrest. The same Paul we know who is estimated to have walked over 10,000 miles throughout his missionary activities, was at this point confined to single residence with a guard mere feet away at all times. “His eyes, which were always on the Gentile world, were not restricted to four walls.” And yet, despite being a prisoner, this Paul would write some of the most powerful letters and doctrinal explanations that would be included in the Holy Scriptures.

While Paul was in prison, there was another man, Epaphras, who was a leader in just a small house church in Colossae. It’s believed that Epaphras came to know the Christ through Paul’s preaching in Ephesus. After coming to faith, Epaphras likely took what he knew and shared it with those he loved. From there a house church was born! Now what a novel concept! A man coming to faith in Jesus Christ and so excited that he shares what he’s learned with those around him! And from there things get better! Other people begin to believe! The church is growing both numerically and in practical holiness! They are bearing fruit and it is increasing!

That little house church in Colossae was a bright spot in a dark world. But there was a big problem. Dark forces were at work around the church. Some people were starting to attend the gatherings that were not interested in learning about the true Christ. They wanted this passionate group of people to follow them instead of the Lord. So they started teaching new things to the church. They told them that Christ couldn’t be the Creator. They told them that Christ was God but that He wasn’t really ever on earth in physical form. He was more like an allusion, what we might call in the modern day, a hologram. They told this group of Christians that if they really wanted to know God, then the group would have to join in on ascetic practices, and various religious and progressive schemes at the end of which they would be able to reach God. These smooth talking teachers seemed so smart! They were so confident in their message. Some of the Colossians were led away to pursue this Gnostic nonsense. Poor Epaphras did everything he could to fend off and diminish the presence of these heretics, but he needed help. So it’s possible that after many sleepless nights, agonizing over what the Lord would have him do to protect the congregation, Epaphras decided it was time to pay Paul a visit in Rome.

Now we’re not told how exactly Epaphras came to find Paul in the big city of Rome, but we can imagine that it would have been an emotional meeting. Epaphras would have found spiritual reprieve in the presence of the chained apostle. Paul would have been encouraged by receiving word of the spreading kingdom despite his bondage. Paul cares deeply for the work of the Kingdom and for the believers of Colossae, though he has only met this one man from that area. So he gets to work for the sake of the Kingdom. “Immediately Paul’s brilliant, original intellect set itself to analyze the Colossian problem: here is a little church overflowing with the joy of new faith, and now comes a desolating philosophy.” Paul would have prayed deeply and diligently and at the right time, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, he called for his Secretary and began dictating this letter. A beautiful letter of encouragement. A call to continue beyond the letter’s conclusion.

May we now examine the Content.

Content

Because of the speed with which we are going to use through the entirety of this letter, I’m not going to have the verses on the screen, but I would encourage those following a long to open your Bibles to Colossians 1. We’re going to walk through the whole letter and hopefully accentuate some of the things you’ve already highlighted as we walked through this text originally.

The letter begins with an expression of thankfulness that this church miraculously exists. The gospel has gone out then and continues today to go out all across the earth. Despite the drudgery in the world that we witness as people continue to live in sin, we can take solace knowing that God’s Word is still going out, the gospel is still being proclaimed, and not just being talked about, but it is bearing fruit, people’s lives are being changed. They are repenting from sin, turning to Christ, and living their lives for the glory of God. Where the gospel goes, God is given glory, and this should cause those who know the gospel to celebrate! Paul is celebrating and giving God glory for the spread of the gospel. We see in verses 9-14 that this spread of the gospel is because of the Father. He is the one who delivers us from the domain of darkness and transfers us to the kingdom of Christ, the only place where there is redemption, forgiveness of sin! May we thank God for the faithful work of those who have served before us and are serving Him today!

From there we see a poem, a divine love song, a heavenly hymn that proclaims the Supremacy of Christ. Allow me to read for you Colossians 1:15-20

Colossians 1:15–20 ESV

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

Think of the marvelous truth contained in this hymn!

Jesus is the image of the invisible God. This means that Jesus Christ is the Physical and tangible representation of the God that cannot by any other means be seen. In Christ, the invisible God became visible!

Jesus is called the firstborn of creation, we understand this not as His time of creation, He was completely out of time!, we understand firstborn of creation as describing His position and right of inheritance. There is no one higher, no one above Jesus.

Jesus is the one who through whom all things were created. Not only were all things created through Him, but they were created for Him! One pastor noted that Einstein theorized there were 10 octillion stars in the universe. How many is that? Well, on thousand thousands make a million; 1000 million make one billion; 1000 billion make one trillion; 1000 trillion make one quadrillion; 1000 quadrillion make one quintillion; 1000 quintillion make on sextillion; 1000 sextillion make one septillion; 1000 septillion make one octillion. Now take that and you have 10 octillion. If you were to right it on paper it’d be a ten followed by 27 o’s

Well if Einstein is correct, and who knows? He could be underestimating! But either way all 10 Octillion of those stars were created by Jesus and for Jesus. He made those and every other thing you know of in this universe and made them out of nothing but the word of His power.

Not only that but Jesus holds all things together. Christ is “gravity and centrifugal and centripetal force. He is the one who keeps all entities in space in their motion. He is the energy in the universe.” “Jesus must be God. He made the universe, existed outside and before it, and preserves it.”

We see that Jesus is the head of the Body, the church. He is the Pre-eminent, the God-Man raised from the dead on the third day. He is Fully-God. It was quite literally an act of God, when Christ gave His life on the cross. Jesus, fully and eternally embodying every divine attribute of God, that is Jesus, being God, made reconciliation, peace, by the blood of His cross.

Everything else Paul writes in the book of Colossians flows from the reality of this supreme Jesus.

It is because of the Supreme Jesus that there is hope despite the dire situation of Sin. Those without Christ are alienated, hostile in mind, and doing evil deeds. But the solution is Christ! Through God given faith in Jesus Christ, hostility is replaced with loving service! Unsaved man is hostile toward God and Jesus places us into a friendly relationship. In this friendly relationship we recognize the right order to creation. We give God glory for being our Creator. The sign of receiving salvation is continued service to the Creator! By the grace of God, the power of the Holy Spirit, believers will always be brought back to the Lord and joyfully live for Him.

This letter penned by Paul is a means of God’s grace and guidance given to the Colossians thousands of years ago and us here today so that believers in Christ may grow in faith and living for God so that believers will be “presented mature” as it says in Colossians 1:28.

Basically the first Chapter of Colossians ends by showing how magnificent it is to pursue holiness for the glory of God when we also understand that our personal strength is not the catalyst for production, but rather the energy and growth we see comes from Christ who powerfully works within us!

Paul is telling the church at Colossae to press on in following the true Gospel because it is a worthy endeavor and the very power of God will be the wind in their sails.

Chapter two begins by letting the church know that they are not in this journey alone. We see that the Colossian church was united together, knit together it says in 2:2, in love and the shared truth of Christ. They were a healthy church working together for the glory of the Lord.

He reminds the Colossians of the true life they have been given in Christ. God has made believers alive, by forgiving us of their sin! If you look at Colossians 2:6-15 you see that those who believe have been made righteous before God! Prior to Christ, all of us have a record of debt, a list of offenses we have against the Holy God. On this record are not only the things we actively did wrong, but the standards of righteousness we were unable to reach! If we were to take this list of offense to the cosmic court it would be a quick and easy full conviction! The just God has every right to render the most severe of punishments against our heinous sin. So what does He do with the record of Debt and list of offense? He CANCELS the debt! For all those who believe in Christ Jesus, the debt is no more! The legal demands have been set aside and we are given new life in Christ Jesus! This section is a reminded to the Colossian Believers surrounded by false teachers where their justification before the Lord is truly found—in Christ!

Chapter 2 verse 16, “There fore let no one pass judgment on you… [verse 18] let no one disqualify you.” Because you have Christ, don’t get caught up in the nonsense! The end of chapter 2 becomes a didactic passage explaining the folly of the false teacher! Because of the greatness, sufficiency, and supremacy of Christ we should not fall into the traps of legalism and mysticism. We should not feel down on ourselves for not having some contrived, imaginative, emotional experience. Nor should we add limits to make us feel better about our spiritual condition. Paul is reminding the Christians at the church of Colossae that they have died to that old world. They didn’t need legalism, mysticism, and asceticism. They are complete in Christ and in Christ alone.

So because Christians are saved by Christ alone, may we dwell on Christ alone!

Colossians 3:1–4 ESV

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

You HAVE [PAST TENSE] died, your life IS [CURRENTLY] hidden with Christ, and WHEN Christ appears [in the future], the believers identification with Christ broke their relationship with sin in the past, gives security in the present, and a glorious hope for the future. That is where believers ought to focus their attention. And when our eyes are turned to Christ, it effects every aspect of our lives. We begin to put off the old things, we reject the old ways. The sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desires, and covetousness which is idolatry. We know the wrath of God is coming upon such things and We have no business living in them anymore. That may have been our old homes before we knew the grace of God, but we don’t live there anymore! When we know Christ our community is transformed! We no longer have our relationships to others defined by anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk. We don’t have to lie to one another. We don’t have to define our selves by the cultural, socio-economical, or racial barriers that define the world. Rather we know that particularly within our community of believers, Christ is all and in all.

God has given the believer better virtues to strive for than what this sinful world has to offer. We see that in response to the grace God has shown us in calling us to be His own beloved children, we are to put on compassionate hearts, kindness, meekness, patience, putting up with one another, forgiving one another, and having a caring, deep and affection love that ties all of these virtues together.

Pursuing Godliness for His glory impacts community and corporate church life. There is Christ-centered peace in the congregation. There is thankfulness for the provision of God. There is commitment to teaching, learning, and dwelling in the Word of Christ, understanding it to be the rich treasure trove of God’s glory. And there is submission to the Lord.

Paul clearly explains the deep impact Christ has on believers in chapter three, thus far through verse 17. Verses 18- chapter 4 verse 1 make these virtues even more practical by explaining how they transform every relationship we have in our lives. Wives submit to your husbands. Husbands love your wives. Children obey your parents. Fathers do not be harsh with your children. Slaves obey your masters. Master treat your bondservants fairly.

All of this, beginning in chapter one through where we find ourselves in the beginning of chapter 4, is a highly intentional, and brilliant presentation from the mind of Paul and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This is all one giant message. We are shown, “Since Christ is cosmic fullness, he is also the One who brings relational, domestic fullness to our lives.”

Chapter one sets the stage for the greatness of Jesus. Chapter 2 shows the insufficiency of things other than Jesus. Chapter 3 shows the implication of Jesus. And then chapter four, getting into the conclusion and the verses we looked at last week, we see the real application of a life consecrated to Jesus. Through the love and grace displayed in the conclusion of this letter we see that Paul isn’t simply writing to them pithy ideas that sound good on paper but have no practical value. Through the end of chapter four you see the eternal purpose and value of Tychicus’ work, the redemption of a lost and worthless man like Onesimus, the steadfastness of Aristarchus, the forgiveness given to and shown by Mark, the racial reconciliation of Justus, the commitment of Epiphras, the love and greetings of Luke. These are not indications of the mentioned people being anything particular special, but rather examples of God doing extraordinary things through ordinary instruments.

What magnificent, God-breathed and God-honoring content there is contained in the book of Colossians. Let’s take just a few minutes to look at the last few verses to serve as our conclusion.

Conclusion

Colossians 4:15–17 ESV

Give my greetings to the brothers at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house. And when this letter has been read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans; and see that you also read the letter from Laodicea. And say to Archippus, “See that you fulfill the ministry that you have received in the Lord.”

Let’s make just a few notes before wrapping things up this morning. First you should not that Paul had never met the brothers at Laodicea or their host Miss Nympha. But we do not have to personally know every one to greet them in the name of the Lord. I would hope that the gospel of Christ would be so deeply impressed upon our hearts, that we, like Paul, would cheerfully greet anyone we hear of working for the glory of the Lord.

It should also be noted that these letters, the book of Colossians and the letter we no longer have that was written to the church in Laodicea were to be treated like Scripture. They were to be read to the whole of the congregation. The issues and content would have been slightly different depending on the location and local challenges, but there is benefit to churches reading the letters even when they were not the primary recipient. Why is this important? Because it sets the precedent for our own study and application of these letters even though they are not particularly addressed to the Church of Durbin Memorial. We do not throw out the teaching in the epistles as some claiming the name of Christ would like to do, but rather accept it and allow the Lord to work on us through it.

We should also note that Archippus had a job to do, a ministry commissioned from the Lord. Paul is reminding Archippus to steward his life well and take his calling seriously. We don’t know exactly what Archippus’ ministry was. Nor do I know the particular role that the Lord has for you! But we should all see to it that we see to fulfilling what the Lord has called us to do! We should actively be desiring to serve the Lord!

What a beautiful letter with much for us to glean. We could ponder upon the theological and practical implications of the book of Colossians for months! (in fact, that’s kind of what we did.).

But I want you to think back for a moment at the context. Think about the ink being splashed upon the paper. For sometime, maybe an hour or more, Paul has been dictating this letter, taking each word prayerfully and seriously. He’s coming to the end of his letter and though he used a secretary for most of the time, it comes time to close the letter and he wants to do that with his own hand. It’s possible that as we went to reach for the letter, he snapped back out of the heavenly world of pondering on the greatness of Christ and into reality. Its possible he felt the tug of the chain as we walked across the room and remembered he was still attached to the roman guard. It’s possible that he remembered the prison he sat in. “The exhaustion after such an hour of high communion [with God, writing this letter] made him consciously dependent, and all his profound teaching, all his thunderings and lightnings, ended in simple cry that goes straight to the heart:”

Colossians 4:18 ESV

I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you.

Paul was in jail, but despite his surroundings, He was on a mission to serve for God’s glory. Remember my chains.

A pastor once said, “These words extend further than to mere pecuniary support, or even mere prayers: they were ever to keep before them the fact that one who so deeply cared for them, and loved them, and to whom their perils of false doctrine occasioned such anxiety, was a prisoner in chains: and that remembrance was to work and produce its various fruits—of prayer for him, of affectionate remembrance of his wants, of deep regard for his words.”

I hope that we all have a deep regard for the words contained in the book of Colossians. Not simply because they were written by Paul, but because this book contains the truth, the gospel, the greatness of Jesus. It’s my sincere hope that as we conclude this series, that grace be with you. May God’s unmerited, freely given favor rest on you. May you realize you are sinner in need of Savior and that Jesus is that Savior. May we all rest in the grace of God.

Let’s pray.