Closing Thoughts (Colossians 4:2-18)
Notes
Transcript
Key Passage
Key Passage
Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.
And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains.
Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.
Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity.
Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.
Tychicus will tell you all the news about me. He is a dear brother, a faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord.
I am sending him to you for the express purpose that you may know about our circumstances and that he may encourage your hearts.
He is coming with Onesimus, our faithful and dear brother, who is one of you. They will tell you everything that is happening here.
My fellow prisoner Aristarchus sends you his greetings, as does Mark, the cousin of Barnabas. (You have received instructions about him; if he comes to you, welcome him.)
Jesus, who is called Justus, also sends greetings. These are the only Jews among my co-workers for the kingdom of God, and they have proved a comfort to me.
Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.
I vouch for him that he is working hard for you and for those at Laodicea and Hierapolis.
Our dear friend Luke, the doctor, and Demas send greetings.
Give my greetings to the brothers and sisters at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house.
After this letter has been read to you, see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans and that you in turn read the letter from Laodicea.
Tell Archippus: “See to it that you complete the ministry you have received in the Lord.”
I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you.
Sermon
Sermon
Introduction
Introduction
Today will conclude our journey through the book of Colossians
But there is one more sermon left in this series and we will do an entire book of the Bible next week.
Our passage today begins with some concluding thoughts that will bring us back to almost all of the key points of this book.
So as we navigate our text today, we will be bouncing back to different points in Colossians
As a reminder, Colossians is a book written to a church in Colossae
Written by Paul while he was in prison
This church had received the Gospel and Paul is encouraging them to hold onto that Gospel
Some false teachers had come and presented a “Gospel-and” theology.
Jesus is the center of the Gospel and Paul wants the Colossian church to know that.
Last, Paul directs them to Kingdom living
How to live a life that is honoring and glorifying to Jesus Christ.
Put off the old self and put on the new self
How to live according to God’s order in our family, in our jobs and in our world.
After all of this instruction, Paul brings the letter to a close:
Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.
This church had a tremendous blessing that they may have thought was a hinderance
They did not have any of the great Apostles plant their church. They had some guy named Epaphras who had received the Gospel and then spread the Gospel
As a result, the Gospel took root in this church and lives were changed.
But they didn’t have great instruction on things like false teachers. What are they supposed to do with them?
Paul instructs them first of all to devote themselves to prayer
This is a tremendous statement of faith.
They were to first of all depend on the wisdom, truth and direction God would give in prayer.
In our world, we often seek wisdom from others, then ask God to give confirmation to the decisions we have already come to.
But Paul is instructing this church differently.
Go to God first. Then move from His guidance.
The foundation must be Jesus Christ and that foundation is built when we spend time in prayer.
Be watchful/or alert
They are instructed to be watchful or alert
They had already been tempted by false teachers.
These false teachers were bringing teachings that said, “Jesus-and”
“You can be a Christian, but if you want to be a better Christian, you need to observe certain days or celebrations”
“You can be a Christian, but you need additional knowledge and wisdom to know more about God.”
“You can be a Christian, but you need additional experience and feeling to know you are closer to Jesus”
It is never Jesus-and. It is always Jesus.
When there are teachings that have nothing to do with the Gospel and nothing to do with Jesus, we need to bring them to God in prayer. We need to bring them to the Word.
The reality is that there has never stopped being false teachers and false teachings in this world.
They are always at the doorsteps of the church ready to bring down the Kingdom of God.
This is why the church is ordered in the way that it is.
Jesus Christ is the head. We must always keep our eyes on Jesus.
We go to Him in prayer
Discipleship
Mature help teach and train less mature believers and point them to Jesus as they follow Jesus.
Eldership
Elders in a church have a job of protecting the flock from false teachers.
Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
False teaching will always take our eyes off of Jesus.
It will almost always be about special knowledge
Or about being more palatable in the world
If we were to put this in other terms, they say, “If you would just be more like the world, then the world would receive you better.”
If you would just dim your light, more people would be attracted to the light.
But when the light is the holiness of God, it is the light that brings to our attention the places where we most need God!
Gratitude
As we devote ourselves to prayer, we must be alert and have hearts of gratitude
Gratitude sets our eyes on who Jesus is, not on who we are.
If we look at ourselves, we see our sin, our problems, our temptations and our failures.
But when we recognize who Jesus is and the impact of the Gospel and the grace we have received
We have nothing but gratitude for who He is and what He has done.
In fact, as we live the lives God has called us to live, Paul makes this case emphatically:
Col. 2:7- “...overflowing with thankfulness”
Col. 3:15- “And be thankful”
Col. 3:16- “…singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.”
Col. 3:17- “…giving thanks to God the Father”
And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains.
Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.
This brings this book to completion in a way.
This book begins with this statement:
We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,
Paul had devoted himself to prayer for the Colossian church
Now Paul is asking for their prayer in his own life.
Paul is clear here that he is in chains because of the Gospel.
I find this interesting in light of the false teachers that were tempting the Colossian church.
Do you think that Paul was tempted to tame down the Gospel.
Can’t he have the Gospel and people’s approval?
No! Paul said, the Gospel is what it is. There may be consequences to the Gospel.
I will pay the price, but I will not soften the truth that all men are sinners and are in desperate need of one Savior, Jesus Christ, who is God in the flesh.
And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains.
Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.
Paul is asking for the Colossian church to pray for him as he is praying for them.
Paul wants to preach the Gospel but the door is literally not open. He is in prison
I think some of us pray for open doors in things in life.
“God, open the door for this or that.”
We sit around waiting for an open door.
How we define an open door is usually along the lines of “easy”
God make it easy for me to do your will.
that is not what Paul is asking for here.
Paul knows that preaching the Gospel will likely cause him more jail time, more beatings, and possibly even death.
That is the open door that Paul is looking for.
It is all worth it to him for the sake of the Gospel
In fact, in Paul’s request, we see three things at work.
God’s part
God will always be faithful with His part
Paul’s part
His role is to go and preach the Gospel to the world around them.
He wants to proclaim the Gospel as clearly as possible, come what may.
Colossian Church’s part
Prayer
Paul recognizes that prayer is not a minimal role, but a massive role
As we sit here in church today, we have the same request
We must always pray for God’s part to be clear to us.
We must always pray that God would open the door for the Gospel to be presented in our community and in the world around us.
We must understand the roles that all of us have in the body of Christ
All of us are here to serve a specific function.
All of us are here to grow as disciples of Jesus
Your role is not my role. And my role is not your role.
All of us need to serve our role for the Glory of God.
He is the head, we are the body.
Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity.
Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.
Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders (unbelievers)
We have to recognize that when we are interacting with an unbeliever, it is an opportunity for them to see the grace of God.
It says that our conversations must always be full of grace and seasoned with salt.
In order to understand this, I want to go back one chapter and look at a concept for us dealing with the world around us.
But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.
It says we must rid ourselves of these things.
When do we feel these things?
When I feel anger, I feel justified in that anger.
They did something stupid and it inconvenienced me, so now I am angry.
The same is true for everything on this list.
Every time I engage in one of the words on the screen, I am justified (in my mind) when I do.
But that is not grace
It may be completely justified to feel and act the way that I want to act.
But I am instructed to put off these things.
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
Instead of these things, I am called to clothe myself in these attitudes and responses.
In my mind, when anger is justified, but I respond with compassion, there is a word for that…grace
When I am right in my feelings of unforgiveness, but I respond with kindness and forgiveness, there is a word for that…grace
We aren’t simply called to do this because it is hard.
We are called to do this because it is the heart of the Gospel and the nature of the love God calls us to.
We are sinners deserving of wrath
But God sent His son to die on the cross and pay the penalty
He could have responded with wrath, but instead He responded with love and compassion.
He showed grace
His grace is rooted in His love. We are created in the image of God. We are known and love by Him.
We are to follow Jesus’ example in this.
We are called to show grace to others
God showed His grace to us. We show grace to others.
No one is deserving.
But grace shows the love and nature of our Heavenly Father
When we live in this way it is very different from the world.
Paul references “seasoned with salt”
That points back to Jesus in Matthew 5 talking about how we are called to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world
Grace is contrary to the nature of sinful mankind.
It is the heart of God in holiness, not man in his sinfulness.
It is a life of contrast to the world around us.
We cannot live like the world and expect the world to see Jesus.
If Jesus is our Lord and the highest authority in our lives, we must adjust our lives and perpsectives so that our actions reflect His nature, not our attitudes.
Now onto the weird names and lists.
Tychicus will tell you all the news about me. He is a dear brother, a faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord.
I am sending him to you for the express purpose that you may know about our circumstances and that he may encourage your hearts.
It seems as if Tychicus was given the task of mailman.
He is delivering this letter to the Colossian church.
Paul is giving Tychicus credibility when he arrives to the Colossian church
Tychicus is not a false teacher. He is a good guy, who is a friend of Paul and a faithful minister and servant in the Lord
He has surrendered his life to Jesus.
Tychicus is there with Paul, visiting in prison and carrying the messages that Paul is sending to the Colossian church.
He is coming with Onesimus, our faithful and dear brother, who is one of you. They will tell you everything that is happening here.
You can underline the name Onesimus.
We are not going to talk about it too much today, but next week we will dive into his story.
He is a runaway slave.
That portion last week that gave instructions to slaves and slave masters included some additional explanation that some of the other commands didn’t carry.
It is possible that it was added because with the letter being sent to the Colossian church was a message to the slave owner that Onesimus ran away from
Paul writes a letter specifically to the slave owner, a man named Philemon.
My fellow prisoner Aristarchus sends you his greetings, as does Mark, the cousin of Barnabas. (You have received instructions about him; if he comes to you, welcome him.)
Look at this picture
Paul is in prison.
We might think he is incapable of fulfilling his role. He can’t go preach the Gospel and plant churches.
Instead, he is sitting in prison writing letters to churches to teach and correct them.
He is preaching the Gospel in prison and starting something of a church that people in prison and people coming to prison all participate in.
Mark also is mentioned.
This is important in Paul’s life.
Early on in Paul’s missionary journeys, Mark began the journey and left the team.
Paul was very upset about this saying that Mark had abandoned them.
But the story of Mark is one of redemption
Mark was immature once, but continued to keep his eyes on Jesus
He continued to mature and grow.
Now while Paul is in prison, guess who is coming to visit him?
Mark
Also, if Mark were to ever visit the church in Colossae, Paul is giving his recommendation to receive him well.
Later on in Paul’s life (2 Timothy) he asks for Mark to come visit because Mark is of value to him in his ministry.
Lastly, this guy who had failed, and abandoned Paul went on to write a very significant piece of literature.
The book of Mark. Literally the Gospel and the life of Jesus Christ
We all may fail, but may we take a look at Mark as inspiration. God redeems.
Jesus, who is called Justus, also sends greetings. These are the only Jews among my co-workers for the kingdom of God, and they have proved a comfort to me.
Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.
I vouch for him that he is working hard for you and for those at Laodicea and Hierapolis.
Paul was not too popular among the Jewish crowd. They were the ones often trying to add the Jewish law and customs to Christianity.
Paul continued to emphasize that Jesus was enough. Not Jesus plus the law.
Epaphras was the guy who planted this church. It was very meaningful for him to continue to participate in the ministry of the church by wrestling in prayer for them.
That seems like an odd phrase.
I want to pick up what that looks like.
There is a word called intercession.
Now we can pray for someone, or we can intercede for someone and I feel these are two very different things.
People often say, “Pray for me”
But to intercede for someone is a deep step forward.
When the Colossian church had a struggle, Epaphras took on that trouble as if it were his own and went to God on behalf of the Colossian church.
Every false teacher, every church conflict, every person who falls in sin, every struggle.
Epaphras didn’t just say, “Dear Jesus, help them. Amen.”
He went to God as if it were his very own life.
He pleaded and begged God for wisdom, protection, and guidance for this church.
He stood in the gap between this church and God.
We see numerous examples of people standing in the gap in prayer for another person.
It is much more than simply prayer.
It is wrestling, struggling and persevering in prayer.
This is what we know about Epaphras.
He brought the gospel to Colossae
He wrestled in prayer to them
It is my hope that this becomes a beacon of direction for us in our lives.
In our families, may we be seen as the one who brought the Gospel and wrestled in prayer
In our churches, may we be seen as those who live the Gospel and wrestle in prayer
May we be known for the Gospel and our prayer
Epaphras
Our relationship with Post Falls
They had the vision of a church and the Gospel taking effect in Newport...
Our dear friend Luke, the doctor, and Demas send greetings.
Give my greetings to the brothers and sisters at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house.
Luke, the author of the book of Luke is also visiting Paul in prison
And so is Demas, another disciple
Paul asks for the Colossian church to greet the Laodicean church and to the church meeting in Nympha’s home.
These areas were all geographically near each other.
After this letter has been read to you, see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans and that you in turn read the letter from Laodicea.
They were instructed to read the letter to their church then swap letters with the Laodiceans and read each others letters.
I wonder what was in that other letter. It wasn’t Scripture, but this was.
Tell Archippus: “See to it that you complete the ministry you have received in the Lord.”
I don’t know who Archippus is. But I want to take a moment and look at this command.
“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it?
For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you,
saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’
Jesus is pleading with us to count the cost.
Our brand of cultural Christianity has no cost. It is like saying, “Do you have enough money for a dollar store TV dinner. It’s only one dollar.
None of us would put a whole lot of thought into that decision.
Jesus is saying, the cost of following me is literally everything in your life including your very life.
There is nothing left for you to give up if you choose to follow Jesus.
Counting the cost is a very important decision.
If you were to look around Christianity today, imagine what you would see.
I believe you would see a landscape of unfinished towers. You would see ruins of abandoned towers. You would see half-glimmering lights in some who have decided to stop building and live in the uncompleted decaying tower.
We have the appearance of greatness, because we look at how many tower addresses we have in the phone book. But if you were to drive down the street, you would see very few finished towers.
We feel like our unfinished towers are ok, because everyone else around us has unfinished towers as well.
We even think that this is what they are supposed to look like.
It is no wonder that the world looks at the kingdom of Christianity and sees this wreckage and says, “Do they really have something I need? They say they have these great towers (lives), but all I see is a neighborhood of ruins.”
Finish the work
I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you.
Conclusion
Conclusion