Colossians: Christ Alone

Good morning Harmony!

Last week we finished our series on heresies, and this week we begin our series in Colossians.

And Colossians is an interesting Pauline epistle, because Paul probably never actually visited Colossae.

And - it’s also an important epistle that was written to address early false teachings and heresies that were occuring in Colossae.

You see, while Colossae was a primarily Gentile city that was about 100 miles east of the seven churches of Revelation 2 and 3, it still had a large Jewish faction to it. The church here began during Paul’s ministry in Ephesus through Epaphras, who likely became a believer through Paul in Ephesus and then traveled back home to Colossae and planted the church there.

And word had gotten back to Paul while he was in prison in Rome that something was amuck.

So, Paul is in prison, has never actually stepped foot in Colossae, and he’s writing them a letter.

And what he’s addressing throughout the book is this heresy that has arisen. It’s a heresy that stated a couple of things.

First and foremost, the heresy that we addressed a few weeks ago, this heresy that Paul is addressing stated that Christ was a created being that was less than God.

It also stated that a secret knowledge above Scripture was necessary for salvation and that things that were observable in the Old Testament Law were also required of the follower of Christ.

And this heresy was enough of a problem that Epaphras makes this journey to visit Paul in prison in Rome.

So this is something that is important to the church in Colossae, and it’s something that is important enough for Paul to write this letter to the Colossians to correct them.

Now today, we’re just going to really see the introduction of the letter. But within that introduction, we’re going to see the importance of the Gospel and how it is through Christ alone that we are able to be reconciled to God.

Our main point for today is that:

Main Point: Paul opens his letter to Colossians with a prayer and an introduction to the power of Christ.

It’s the introduction that Paul gives the Colossians, that still helps us today.

Beginning in verse 1:

Colossians 1:1–14 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. 9 For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, 10 so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, so that you may have great endurance and patience, joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light. 13 He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son he loves. 14 In him we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Would you pray with me?

From our passage today, we can find four themes that relate to us by Christ alone.

The first theme that we see in verses one and two is that:

1. We are part of the FAMILY of God thru Christ alone, vv. 1-2.

In verses one and two Paul is introducing who is writing the letter and who the letter is to:

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, an apostle - he has seen the resurrected Christ, Jesus came to him as he was on his way to crush and persecute Christianity as we know it, and Jesus came and said why are you persecuting me and then directly calls Paul to become an apostle. That’s all found in Acts chapter 9.

Along with Paul is his protege, Timothy, and Paul is writing this letter to the saints in Christ at Colossae.

So it’s a letter written to believers. This isn’t a to whom it may concern letter, it’s written to believers in Christ who have been witnessing this heresy.

He goes on to say who are faithful brothers and sisters.

Believers in Christ become a part of the family of God as brothers and sisters in Christ. Notice it doesn’t say brothers and sisters in society, or in blood, or even in close proximity, it says that those who are in Christ and only those that are in Christ are a part of the family of God.

The last part of the verse gives a prelude to what is to come - grace to you and peace from God our Father.

It’s by the grace of God through Christ alone that we become a part of that family. That grace alone holds us in faithfulness to Christ and to the family of God. It’s not anything that I can do or have done that can earn my place in the family of God.

This letter is to those who have received Christ and believe that He alone through His infinite mercy and grace is able to bring them into the family of God.

That’s how we are all able to be a part of the family of God. It’s through Christ alone.

The second theme that we see is that:

2. We have the HOPE of God thru Christ alone, vv. 3-6.

In verses three through six Paul thanks God for the family of God and then he says we’re praying for you:

Colossians 1:3–6 CSB

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.

We always thank God for the family that God has provided us, and here Paul is telling the Colossians that he thanks God for the family of God that Christ bought.

And Paul says that when we pray for you, brothers and sisters in Christ, we thank Him for the faith that you have through Christ and the love that you have for all of the saints because of the hope - that hope, that is found in the relationship we have with Christ, with God, is reserved for us in Heaven.

So let’s develop what Paul is saying here so that we are able to understand this hope a bit more. This hope, it’s a result of our faith alone, that was provided by the grace alone that had to come from the Father through Jesus Christ alone.

Our hope in Christ stems from our relationship with Christ, because it’s a result of our faith that is produced by Christ through the grace that is provided by Christ, so it’s only in Christ - Christ alone - that we are able to have this hope.

And this hope is a hope for eternity in Heaven, we heard about this hope through the Gospel, that is growing because of the faith that you have to go and share the grace of Christ with the world, and it has been doing so since you received it.

Our hope is not in this world, it’s found in the Word of God and its a hope of that eternity with Him where there will be no tears and no sorrow and no pain.

And the hope is bearing fruit and growing because you’re sharing it.

I see those stickers on cars and stuff that are for the freemasons that say “to be one ask one.”

First off, I will advise against doing that, because that will lead you down a path of heresy. If anyone here is a freemason, that is not compatible with Christianity because they fail in the aspect of Christ alone in their beliefs, along with some other issues.

And the reason the growth is happening here in Colossae is because instead of to be one ask one their drive was to make a disciple tell some. To make some, tell some.

Through Christ and His grace that imparts their faith to them they received hope and responded to that hope because the Gospel of Christ was real to them.

They received Christ and His grace by faith and this produced more faith and hope that gave them the faith and hope to share the Gospel with the world around them.

And remember, this is all because Epaphras heard the Gospel a hundred miles away and brought it back to his home town of Colossae.

And that’s important because we are a part of the family of God through Christ alone and we have the hope of God through Christ alone, and also:

3. We have the KNOWLEDGE of God thru Christ alone, vv. 7-10.

Verses seven through ten speak of where this knowledge of Christ and who He is came from.

Colossians 1:7–10 CSB

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. 9 For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, 10 so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God,

Paul says you learned the hope that you have and the grace that was given to you by way of Christ from Epaphras, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf - he is full of faith in Christ, and he is the minister that has been provided to you by Christ.

He has told us about your love in the Spirit - that’s the work of love taking place by way of the Holy Spirit. He’s there with Paul and has told Paul that these folks that these letters are being written to are hopeful, faithful, loving believers in Christ.

And Paul says that since the day that it was reported to him, they have not stopped praying for the Colossians. Since the day that Epaphras reported to Paul both that there’s a problem, as we will get to, and that there is a faithful group of believers, they have not stopped praying for them.

Then Paul tells them what they are specifically praying for - the knowledge of God’s will, God’s wisdom, and spiritual understanding.

See Paul is writing to the faithful believers in Christ, to seek God’s wisdom and will and spiritual knowledge because there are these false teachers that are teaching contrary to the Gospel.

And these false teachers are going after the church, the bride of Christ, working to lead them astray.

So Paul says we are praying for you every day to walk faithfully in Christ and not to be led astray by the false doctrines that are coming from the unbelievers bringing in their human knowledge.

Paul says we want you to be able to walk worthy of the Lord in everything, pleasing Him and continuing to bear good fruit - continuing to go and make disciples, continuing to grow in the fruit of good works, the fruit of the Spirit, and growing in the knowledge of God.

Paul doesn’t say in the proper knowledge of God, because it’s implied because the knowledge of God is proper knowledge.

Paul says you know the truth, the Gospel of Christ, how that involves grace alone through Christ alone, and how that develops your works - stay in that correct knowledge of God, the Word and what we have taught you, and continue to grow and bear the fruit and make more disciples.

That knowledge comes through knowing Christ! Pauls not instructing the lost or the unsaved of Colossae, he’s addressing believers and he’s telling them to hold firm to what it is that they have - the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

Paul is praying for them and he’s telling them that he’s praying for them because he knows about the struggle that is occurring there in Colossae between the gnostics and the Jews that are trying to create their own false gospel.

False gospel is not new to our time today - it ws occurring right there in the first century church!

Now because we are family and we have the hope and knowledge of God through Christ alone, Paul says in verses 11 through 14 that:

4. We have the POWER of God thru Christ alone, vv. 11-14.

Verses 11 through 14 tell us that we have the power of Christ because of the grace He has given to us:

Colossians 1:11–14 CSB

11 being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, so that you may have great endurance and patience, joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light. 13 He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son he loves. 14 In him we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Paul is continuing in telling the Colossians what it is that they are praying for, and it’s the strength and power that comes from our relationship and belief in Christ alone!

Paul is praying for knowledge, then he shifts to the strength and power to get through the adversity of this false gospel.

And this power is according to God’s glorious might.

Then he says so that you may have great endurance and patience.

The strength and power that Paul is speaking about, from a Roman prison, are to have the endurance and patience of Christ.

Paul isn’t saying that this strength and power are going to be so that you have whatever you want or victory in the way you want, he’s saying this is strength and power to endure the same things that Christ endured. Persecution, loss, suffering, depression, temptation, the power to endure through all of that, joyfully giving thanks through all of that.

It’s according to His glorious might because through that endurance and patience we have joy still and that is going to continue to grow and bear more fruit.

And remember, joy is not necessarily hapiness. Joy is found in our hope, that is found in Christ, whose grace allows us to participate and share in the inheritance of the light, the Gospel of Jesus Christ that redeems and frees us from the dark.

Because of His grace and mercy we receive the inheritance of the Gospel that saves us from the realm of darkness and sin and we are transferred from what it is that we deserve to the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, the Kingdom of God, and because of that alone we are redeemed and forgiven of our sins.

These four themes in the first fourteen verses even though they are introductory verses, provide us the simple understanding of how Christ alone is the gospel truth.

We are part of the family of God through Christ alone.

We have the hope of God through Christ alone.

We have the knowledge of God through Christ alone.

We have the power of God through Christ alone.

Do you know Christ alone as your Lord and Savior?

A pastor in California was giving an invitation at the end of his Sunday morning message when a five-year old boy, sensing the invitation of the Holy Spirit came down the aisle. Not knowing if the boy was old enough to understand salvation, the pastor took him to his office and began to ask some theological questions. The more he questioned, the more confused the boy became. Finally, in exasperation, the little fellow stopped and innocently pleaded, “Pastor Patterson, in your message this morning you said that if I would come and ask Jesus to save me—He would! Now, did you really mean that or not?”

The pastor said, “I didn’t ask him any more questions after that.” He helped the boy to respond to God’s invitation by inviting Jesus Christ to be his Saviour.

It’s that simple. If you will ask Jesus to save you - He will!

Paul has opened his letter to Colossians with a prayer and an introduction to the power of Christ. You can know that power to become a part of the family of God, to receive His hope, His knowledge, and His redemptive power today.

Would you stand and pray with me?

Prayer - Lord, thank You for Your mercy and grace. Father, if there is anyone here today that doesn’t know You Lord I pray that You speak to that person and call them into a relationship with You today. That they would know the grace, mercy, hope, knowledge, and power of Jesus Christ and that they would walk away today free from the power of darkness today.

In a moment we’re going to have a song of invitation, where you can come forward if you’ve made that decision to turn to faith in Christ, and we’d like to talk more with you and help you with that. I would encourage you to not leave here without speaking to someone about any questions you have, and right now as the music plays softly or as we sing you can come forward and we’ll just have a conversation or after service is over you can catch one of us and we’ll talk. We’d love to share the simple message of Christ with you today, to believe and trust Him as Lord and Savior.

If God is calling out to you and He’s saying to you that you need to know Him today, let’s make sure that you know Him today. As the music plays, won’t you come?