Good News!

Welcome

United Service next week as we celebrate the 110th anniversary of the church. Please plan to come next week and stay with us for the meal afterward.

We are starting a new series on the Book of Colossians today. Colossians is a letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Colossae and it focuses on Christ as the firstborn of God and the center of the Christian’s life.

Colossians 1:1–8 CSB

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will, and Timothy our brother: 2 To the saints in Christ at Colossae, who are faithful brothers and sisters. Grace to you and peace from God our Father. 3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints 5 because of the hope reserved for you in heaven. You have already heard about this hope in the word of truth, the gospel 6 that has come to you. It is bearing fruit and growing all over the world, just as it has among you since the day you heard it and came to truly appreciate God’s grace. 7 You learned this from Epaphras, our dearly loved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, 8 and he has told us about your love in the Spirit.

[pray]

I want you to be aware that we are changing our format for Wednesday nights, our Family Night. This will be along the line of a mid-week service with worship and prayer along with a deep-dive Bible study on the text from Sunday. The idea behind this is that you can have access to a pastor to answer your questions and have some guided discussion.

6pm Family meal

7pm Bible Study

We are doing this separated by language so that you can get the mid-week support that you need.

We need the support of our English speaking group to make this work.

Will you pledge to support us in this by coming to join us on Wednesday evenings for Bible Study?

I. First Steps in Bible Study

As we embark on a new study, especially one of Paul’s letters to the early church, I like to mention that serious students of the Bible start out the study of a new book by take a few moments to understand several things:

First Steps in Bible Study

Who is writing the book?

To whom are they are writing it?

Why are they writing the book?

Are there any themes run throughout the book?

We get those answers by reading the book and by looking at the context in which the book was written.

Like many of the biblical letters that we have recorded we can see right up front who wrote the letter and to whom it was written...

Colossians 1:1–2 CSB

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will, and Timothy our brother: 2 To the saints in Christ at Colossae, who are faithful brothers and sisters. Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

Paul is writing along with Timothy, his young partner in ministry.

Colossae was a city about 100 miles from inland from the port city of Ephesus along a trade route not far from Laodicea, which hosted another well-known early Christian church. While Colossae was once an important city, the construction of a new trade route had left Colossae behind. It became a city that was not what it used to be. Formerly a cosmopolitan center of trade, Colossae became a backwater rural community.

If it were not for the church at Colossae, the city might have been known, but never famous. The Christians at the church in Colossae were recognized as faithful brothers and sisters in Christ and earned a letter of recognition from the great Apostle Paul.

Paul never travelled to Colossae that we know of. He did not start the church. Apparently Epaphras, one of Paul’s proteges, started the church and had possibly informed Paul of the believers who were there.

Paul considered the Colossian church to be one of his own churches—enough so that he felt that he had the authority to provide correctional oversight. While he might never have met many of these believers in person, he had certainly heard of them. You might say that they were famous for their faith.

The Purpose for the Letter

Paul was concerned about a philosophy that had taken root in the church that denied the supremacy of Christ.

Colossae was known for its intellectualism and interest for philosophy and religious dialogue. It was this interest and pursuit of open dialogue that promoted a threat to Christianity in the early church.

A false teaching called Gnosticism had infiltrated the church at Collosae. Gnosticism taught that salvation came through a special, revealed and superior knowledge. The Greek word for this ideology is γνῶσις (gnōsis), which means “to know.” So the gnostics were “people in the know” who considered themselves spiritually elite to all the lesser Christians. These gnostic believers taught that anything physical or created was evil and only the spiritual things were considered good.

These gnostics figured that God, who was spirit, could not be involved in creation of physical matter, which would be an evil thing outside of his desire or capability.

The idea that followed was that Jesus could not have had a human body, which would be evil. This led to the idea that Jesus was a ghost/spirit/phantom being and therefore Christ was not the Creator and the incarnation of Christ was not real.

The secret knowledge of the gnostics was that one would work his way from Christ to perfection through a series of disciplines, secret passwords, astrology, and elements of Christianity. It really was a perverted gospel that bore no resemblence to the gospel taught by Paul and the other disciples.

Whenever the church begins to entertain false ideologies and false teachers, there is a diluting of Christian faith. For this reason Christians throughout the ages have followed Paul’s example to put down false ideas that threaten the purity of the gospel message.

Paul’s point in writing this letter (along with Timothy) was to address this heresy that had infiltrated the church. Paul’s response to this heresy could be boiled down in the theme found in chapter 3...

Colossians 3:11 CSB

11 In Christ there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all.

The core message, “Christ is all and in all.” sums Paul’s message up pretty well, though he takes 4 chapters to support this point. In the coming weeks, we’ll explore this in depth and examine what it means in our lives today.

II. Paul Prayed for the Colossian Church

As is Paul’s custom, he opens his letter with a prayer for the people that he is addressing.

Colossians 1:3 CSB

3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,

I find this passage to be a beautiful example of how we should be with each other in the faith. Too often we get caught up in muttering discontent about each other when something happens that we don’t like.

How much nicer would it be if we could talk about each other in this way?

Paul refers here in verse 3 to God as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul describes God as having been the one who...

Colossians 1:13 CSB

13 He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son he loves.

Paul counts us all as brothers and sisters in Christ, as we saw earlier in verse 2.

I love that Paul prays so passionately for these believers. One scholar noted that there is no punctuation in this prayer (vv 3-8). That’s more than 100 words without punctuation. Paul is pouring out a passionate plea for the saints at Colossae. And we can see that Epaphrus, who likely started the church at Colossae, who at the time was with Paul, also spent time striving in his prayers for these beloved saints in Christ...

Colossians 4:12 CSB

12 Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, sends you greetings. He is always wrestling for you in his prayers, so that you can stand mature and fully assured in everything God wills.

How often can we be found to spend any time at all praying for other believers in the faith?

Certainly when someone asks for prayer or we learn that they are in a difficult life situation we might stop to pray, but how often do we take time out of our day to pray specifically for our brothers and sisters in the faith, who are here in this church. Much less do we pray for those in other churches in other places.

All of us are in need of prayer!

There is nothing more sacred to me than to learn that some blessed brother or sister in Christ has been spending time in prayer for me or for my family.

III. Epaphras had been Bragging on the Colossian Christians

Epaphras had encouraged the other apostles and disciples to pray for the Christians as Colossae. Paul told them in verse 3 that there was a group praying for them. And he continues...

Colossians 1:4–5 CSB

4 for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints 5 because of the hope reserved for you in heaven. You have already heard about this hope in the word of truth, the gospel

Paul’s words of encouragement are meant to build up these believers and help them know that they may be isolated physically in their rural community, but they are not isolated spiritually. In fact they are being held up before the throne of grace as they are being washed in the prayers of the saints on a regular basis.

Paul reminds the Colossian church time and again that their trust is to be found in Father God and the Lord Christ Jesus.

Christ is their focus and they should not take their eyes off of Jesus.

Paul’s desire in writing this letter to to remind them to hold firm to their faith and to continue to plant their roots deep so that they will not be easily confused or stray from the faith that they have been given.

IV. Unity is a Big Deal

Colossians 1:4 CSB

4 for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints

Paul also encourages them in verse 4, saying that there is a love that they have for other believers.

Paul encourages this love for each other in his other writings. We can see it in the letter to the Ephesians (1:15-16) and in the personal letter to Philemon (5).

Paul does not explicitly describe how the believers at Colossae love their brothers and sisters in Christ. However, I think we can extract that there is a thread of love and prayer happening here. Love is in the air and what better way to love others than to pray for them.

Paul says later in the letter:

Colossians 3:14 CSB

14 Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.

Unity is a big deal. It is one of the most important things that a church can foster. Every church needs unity! When we’re in a church like ours, unity is an even bigger deal. When we have natural, physical, cultural, and linguistic divisions—like the ones that we have in a multilingual and multicultural church—it can be easy to slip into a negative dialog that disparages one group or another.

I have watched and experienced the negative patterns that come to bear:

when people feel left out (or even irritated) because of language differences

when one group expects preference of one sort or another because of the group they belong to

when factions develop that pit one group against each other

These things foster negative patters that break down unity. Trust me! I’ve seen it! I’ve seen it in the church. I’ve seen it in our local Baptist association.

We as a church have to continue to fight this battle for unity! I know that it’s a struggle and I know that not everyone believes in it. But, I can think of nothing better for our church than making it look more like heaven—even if we have to navigate some messy situations on the road to unity.

For this reason, Paul often taps out a rhythm of unity. In this letter, we can point to...

Colossians 3:11 CSB

11 In Christ there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all.

Paul writes similar statements in Colossians, Galatians, Ephesians, and Romans. This is primarily because the church at that time was made up of Jews and Gentiles from all over. However there was a great prejudice that the Jews and the Jewish way were superior and that Gentiles were inferior to Jews.

Paul fought that battle for many years, especially as the Judaizers sought to impose Jewish tradition on Gentile believers. This was one of the many false doctrines that Paul battled in the early years of the Christian church.

This prejudice was not unlike the general sentiment that we sometimes have in churches here along the border that English is better than Spanish. However, I have seen it go both ways where those who speak English look down on those who cannot speak English—as well as primarily Spanish speakers look down on those who only speak English.

As a church, there is probably no better way to love each other than to treat each other equally without regard to language or culture or background. After all, we are not English speakers or Spanish speakers who stand in opposition with each other.

We are Christians, in whom there is no race, there is no prejudice, there is only Christ and Christ is all and in all.

V. The Gospel is Good News and our Great Hope

Paul talks about the power of the gospel and the hope that it brings to us.

In 5b...

Colossians 1:5–6 CSB

5 because of the hope reserved for you in heaven. You have already heard about this hope in the word of truth, the gospel 6 that has come to you. It is bearing fruit and growing all over the world, just as it has among you since the day you heard it and came to truly appreciate God’s grace.

We call the gospel message of Jesus Christ “Good News” for a reason. The phrase “Good News” was first used to refer to the message of Christ when Luke recorded the message of the angel, Gabriel, about the impending birth of Jesus...

Luke 1:19 CSB

19 The angel answered him, “I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and tell you this good news.

While we have said before that we are born into sin, this means that we are separated from God. We cannot come to him through any act or work of our own heart or spirit. We are wholly separate from God and condemned to death because of our unavoidable sin.

The good news is that we have a way to escape that sinful condition and avoid the death sentence of condemnation that we have upon us.

The good news is that Jesus Christ prepared a way for us to experience forgiveness and have the death sentence removed.

The good news is that we can choose to believe in Jesus and accept the way that he is offering to be forgiven for our sins.

-----

The Lord’s Table

We now move to the Lord’s Table as we remember the sacrifice and the salvific work that Christ completed on the cross. As we do regularly, we come to the table reflecting upon his sacrifice and we remember the reason that He made that sacrifice.

This is an appropriate time to reflect on your readiness and upon your personal condition before God.

[pause]

I know that a few of you come from a tradition of closed communion, which means that only members of the church are allowed to participate in communion. But here at FBC Pharr, we practice open communion. That means that we leave the decision to participate or not participate up to you.

If you are a Christian, who believes in Jesus Christ, and have taken him as your Savior and your Lord, we invite you to participate with us, if you feel it is appropriate.

Scripture teaches us that if there is any sin in your life or conflict with your brother or sister that might keep you from participating in this meal, then do not participate. If this is the case with you or if you do not know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, please allow the bread and the cup to pass and do not participate.

If this is you, please do not feel guilty or compelled to participate. There is no judgment or condemnation here. However, if this is you, please seek one of us out to get answers to questions that you might have or to correct some things in your life. We are here to serve you.

[pause]

Jesus came to this world to open the doors of Heaven to us by taking our say sin upon Himself and provide a way that we might enter into the presence of Almighty God.

[distribute the elements / pray / send out the deacons]

You’ll notice that you have two cups, one inside the other. The bread is in the bottom cup. You can gently separate the two cups.

1 Corinthians 11:23–24 CSB

23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

This is the body of our Lord, Jesus Christ, take it and eat in remembrance of His body broken for for us.

1 Corinthians 11:25–26 CSB

25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

This is the blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Take it and drink in remembrance of His blood poured out for us.

For by eating this bread and drinking this cup, we join together in proclaiming the Lord’s life, death, and resurrection until His return to us.

Doxology

Praise God from Whom

All blessings flow

Praise Him all

Creatures here below

Praise Him above

Ye heavenly host

Praise Father Son

and Holy Ghost,

Amen