Colossians 1:1-8 - We Are Thankful for the Church
Colossians • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
2 To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: 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 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints,
5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel,
6 which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth,
7 just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf
8 and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.
It’s Mother’s Day! Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there!
Many a young woman looks forward to the days of mothering children in her home AND if the Lord grants the gift of children, those days prove right the old adage, the days are long but the years are short.
We are in the thick of those years in our house and we can already feel how quickly they will pass us by.
I’m certain all of us are thankful for our moms…no mom is perfect but they love us with everything they’ve got.
Mother’s Day is the THIRD most attended Sunday for churches in America…behind Easter/Christmas. Moms want you to be in church. :)
There is a connection here…the Church is the Bride of Christ and it is to be a place where the Christian is nurtured and cared for as a mother cares for her children.
The letter to the Colossians is an encouragement to the church to continue to lovingly nurture the children under her care with the fundamental truths of the Gospel as the first recieved it.
COLOSSIANS: Christ, the Church and the Christian
COLOSSIANS: Christ, the Church and the Christian
The Challenge in Colossae we will look closer at the end of chapter 2
but in summary...False Gospels have arisen among the followers of Jesus
There is worship of angels
submission to “elemental spirits of the world”
asceticism and self-made religion that appear to have wisdom
In response, throughout this letter Paul hold’s up a clear picture of Christ, the Church and the Christian to the Colossians and to us to be reminded of where our true hope lies.
Christ
Colossians has one of the highest Christology’s of any of the letters.
According to Colossians, Jesus is the authority of all creation, through whom, by whom and for who creation was made
The Church
Colossians calls the church to purity of the Gospel
Colossians calls the church to unity under Jesus
The Christian
Colossians calls the Christian to commit all of life to Jesus
Colossians calls the Christian to unwavering hope in the simple Gospel received at first
So, let’s look a little closer at the start of this letter.
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
2 To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.
1:1-2 - Greetings
Paul, sent by Jesus Christ by God’s will
It is likely due to the later nature of this letter’s writing that Paul was in prison in Rome
With Timothy [IN ROME] …(likely with Epaphras (v8) who has journeyed to Rome for HELP)
We don’t know the nature of Epaphras business in Rome if it was just to ask for help dealing with pastoral affairs back in Colossae, but I would imagine he could be part of some coordinated efforts to support Paul while he is in prison from churches and regions where Paul and other disciples of Jesus had planted churches.
TO the saints (HOLY ONES) and faithful brothers
We are not made saints by our efforts or by our abstaining, we have become holy ones because we are in Christ.
GRACE/PEACE from God our Father
1:3-8 - We thank God for you!
3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,
Paul thanks God for the Colossians
In his thanksgiving, he explicitly associates Jesus with GOD
God is the Father of Jesus > He is of one nature with God
Jesus is our Lord > He is Lord
Jesus is the Christ > He is Messiah, our Savior
Colossians 1:4–5 (ESV)
4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints,
5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.
Epaphras has shared with Paul about the fruit of the Gospel in Colossae
1) we have heard of your FAITH in Christ Jesus
2) we have heard of the LOVE you have for the saints
3) and of the HOPE in heaven
Colossians 1:5 (ESV)
5…of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel,
The Gospel is THE word of Truth
This recalls to us the claim of Jesus in response to his disciples when He is explaining that he is headed to the Cross in John 14...
1 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.
2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?
3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.
4 And you know the way to where I am going.”
5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
As we will continue to see at the start of this letter, Paul is plainly trying to remind the Colossians the Gospel of Jesus Christ is THE TRUTH. The Gospel alone is sufficient in and of itself to draw us to the Father. Any thing we ADD to it only detracts from what God has already accomplished in Christ Jesus.
6 which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth,
The Gospel bears fruit AND increase
The Gospel is bearing fruit in a similar way throughout the world
You Colossians have HEARD the Gospel
You Colossians have UNDERSTOOD the Gospel
7 just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf
8 and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.
Epaphras: Church Planter in Colossae
cf: Phillip Acts 8:26ff
GO WITH THIS...
We are sent with the Gospel to bear fruit
GOING: Paul & Timothy (1-2)
GOING: Epaphras (8)
STAYING: Colossae (v6 - among you)
The fruit of the Gospel is not primarily numeric, it is foremost to grow in FAITH, HOPE AND LOVE...
Let us grow in FAITH - Believing the Lord is faithful to provide for all He calls us to
1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Let us grow in HOPE - Setting our lives on that which is eternal
Let us grow in LOVE - Putting the interest of others ahead of ourselves
4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
BOOK OUTLINE
1)
1:1-2 - Greeting
1:3-8 - We thank God for you!
we have heard of your faith
we have heard of the love you have for the saints
because of the HO
2)
1:9-14 - We pray for you
that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding
Transfer from domain of darkness to the kingdom of His beloved Son
3)
1:15-20 - Jesus, the image of the invisible God
Creation
Church
Salvation
1:21-23 - Once hostile, now holy
4)
1:24-29 - Rejoice in suffering with Christ
2:1-5 - Struggling for the Church
5)
2:6-7 - Alive in Christ!
2:8-15 - WOW
6)
2:16-23 - The appearance of wisdom
7)
3:1-4 - Raised with Christ
8)
3:5-11 - Put to death what is earthly
9)
3:12-17 - Put on then
10)
3:18-21 - Households
11)
3:22-4:1 - Work
12)
4:2-6 - Pray!
4:7-18 - Greetings
