Christ is All | Colossians 1:1–2
Notes
Transcript
Good morning church! If you have your Bible’s, and I hope you do, please go ahead and grab them and head to the book of Colossians. I am really excited this morning to kick off a new series through this book. As I have begun studying this I think the Lord has a lot to show me personally and us corporately through it. So to that end, I kind of want to just set up the series and the next couple months before we dive into the book.
I am in no rush to work through this. I have the book pretty much lined out at this point and if everything stays as it this will run us through August—roughly 18 weeks. However, I anticipate there to be things that cause us to slow down and spend some extra time on it. So, I’m not promising we’ll be done with it by then. With that in mind, many of you know that my farming responsibilities really start to consume my life in August and September. So during that timeframe Will is going to preach more often and we’ll continue to tap on our friends that have preached here before. They may or may not carry on in Colossians. I tell you all of this because I want you to know the plan and where we’re going, and like a really good brisket, we’re going to go low and slow through the book of Colossians.
Now, the second thing I want you to be aware of is that starting next week we will have the Colossian scripture journals available. Jennifer has ordered those and I believe they’ll be in by then. These are a great opportunity for you to be able to really do a deep dive in the book and make notes that go along with it. I think they’re a great resource.
Speaking of resources, tomorrow I will post on our church Facebook Group a couple links that I will utilize and are free to anyone who wants to join in studying this. THey’re SUPER helpful and I absolutely commend them to you.
On top of that, I plan to send out a text weekly—most likely on Friday/Saturdays with the verses we’ll be covering and a question to go along with it. I did this yesterday. One of the best ways for you to get the most out of our time together is to come prepared. If you didn’t get that text and would like to then you can take out your phone right now and scan that QR code on the screen. If you do that, we’ll have your information up to date and be able to ensure you get the text starting next week.
So that’s the long and short term outlook for this book and this pulpit. What I want to do today is seek to answer the question that I sent to you yesterday…why does the book of Colossians matter to you? My hope is that after today that as always you have a bigger and clearer view of Jesus and a renewed commitment to hearing & studying His Word. Church, it truly is a glorious book and I think it gives one of, if not the most clear pictures of the sufficiency off Jesus in all of the NT. I’m excited to dive into it.
So to start here’s what I want to do. I want stop and ask God to help us. Help us understand His word. Help us obey His word. Help us to see Him. and Help us to stay committed to studying this book—both together on Sunday mornings and individually at home. So let’s read Colossians 1:1-2, and then I’ll end it like I always do—this is the Word of the Lord, because what I’m about to read is God’s Word. Don’t lose sight of that. Don’t forget the weight of that. Our response should be always when we hear God’s Word—Thanks be to God. God has spoken to me. Thank you Lord. So I’ll read, end the reading with that. You’re welcome to join me in saying Thanks be to God it’s actually a common response to the reading of God’s Word. and then I’ll say let’s pray. So, hopefully you’re at Colossians 1:1-2 now. Let me read this, we’ll pray, and then jump into why this book matters to you. Paul begins:
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father.
This is God’s Word. Thanks be to God. Let’s pray.
If you’ve been at Liberty for sometime then you know that we always like to start a book with a general overview in which we seek to answer the who, what, when, where and why of the book so that before we begin looking at the trees individually we have an understanding of the forest. Today I do want to provide that overview, but instead of it just being a book report or a history lesson I want to give the answers to you as we approach them in these verses. But also, as we understand the historical importance of this book I want to see the specific application for us today from just this intro.
Paul in these two verses does more than just say, dear Colossians. He actually sets up the whole book. He wants his readers to understand that Christ is all. Christ is the one who transforms, sustains, & satisfies His people. There isn’t anything else that can bring them what they’re looking for. So since Christ is all what are we to do? In the grace of God, live out your Christ transformed identity. That’ll be our main point this morning and there’s two observations this morning that I think call us to that. First is this:
Christ transforms identities & relationships.
Christ transforms identities & relationships.
The very first word of the book shows us this. Paul. The author of the book. Now who is Paul and what do we know about him? I’m sure you remember the Damascus road experience. Paul, formerly Saul, was headed to Damascus to try and stop the uprising movement of Christians, but along the way he has a blinding, life transforming encounter with the risen Jesus. Remember how Paul described himself in Philippians 3:5-6
circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
When it came to religious fervor and sold out for a cause no one could out-do Saul. He was the model of Judaism and righteousness, yet on that road the encounter with Jesus changed everything about him. In fact, the change was so significant in Saul that his very name became Paul, but it wasn’t just his name—his identifying marker—that changed, it was also his purpose. In his recounting of his Damascus road experience in Acts 22:14-15 Paul describes his new calling:
And he said, ‘The God of our fathers appointed you to know his will, to see the Righteous One and to hear a voice from his mouth; for you will be a witness for him to everyone of what you have seen and heard.
Now instead of persecuting the church, Paul became a missionary for the church. Christ absolutely and positively transformed Paul into a new person and in doing so he gave him a new task. He made him an apostle.
Now what is an apostle? There are some traditions today that claim that apostleship continues on to this day, but I would disagree with that and I think that the Scriptures do too. Look with me to 1 Cor. 15:8-9
Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
Paul seems to say here that apostles were specifically called. Not all of Jesus’ followers were given that title. Specifically, he says that he was unworthy to be called an apostle. So for one to be an apostle, they must be called. But is it just any calling? I think these verses say no. It’s to those to whom Jesus appeared and called. Mark confirms this in Mark 3:13-15
And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him. And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons.
So what is an apostle? According to the Scriptures, an apostle is one who was specifically called by Jesus for the purpose of preaching and exercising authority to cast out demons. Now since Jesus now resides seated on His throne at the right hand of the Father the office of apostleship has ceased.
Paul was specifically called by Jesus on the road to Damascus to do these things. His purpose, his identity and his relationships were eternally changed. But I think there’s something worth thinking on for just a minute here. Who was Paul an apostle of? This is obvious, but it’s worth acknowledging—The one who transformed him! Jesus Christ! All that Paul did, all that he said then was for the purpose of promoting Jesus, but not just that, because he was an apostle, what Paul said and did carried the authority and weight of the person who called him. In other words, the words that Paul said were the very words Jesus intended to communicate with His people.
Church, why should you commit to studying Colossians? Because we long to hear what Jesus has to say to us. And in hearing his words guess what happens? What happened to Saul on that road to Damascus? He heard the words of Jesus and was radically transformed because that’s what Christ does. He transforms our identities and relationships.
Paul continues to work this out in these first two verses. It’s not just him that’s transformed, but it’s also the guy who’s co-writing this letter: Timothy. We just looked at Paul, let’s take a quick minute and look at Timothy. Acts 16 Tells us that Timothy was from Lystra and “was the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek.” So he had a somewhat diverse upbringing, but ultimately he was a follower of Jesus. As Paul passed through he was impressed by this guy and asked him to join him on his missionary journeys.
Timothy really blossomed into this model disciple that Paul would send out to “set churches in order,” appoint elders, plant churches, and just provide pastoral oversight. It is likely that Timothy was well known, and likely even known directly to the church at Colossae. But why would Paul include Timothy in the greeting of this letter?
I think what Paul was showing was a few things. He was showing how he personally handled the authority given to him by allowing other people to look in, and I think he was always taking opportunities to further the discipleship of those who were following him. But I also think that if Timothy would’ve been to Colossae and known the people there then it would’ve helped establish some relational ties between them & Paul because as we’re going to look at shortly, Paul had never been to Colossae.
Now while those things might be the case, what we do know is true is how Christ transformed Paul’s relationship to Timothy. What does he refer to him as? Timothy our brother.
So Christ has transformed the life of Saul to now go by Paul and in doing so ended up pairing him with what seems to be a long and deep relationship with this guy named Timothy and they’re writing the letter to another very specific group of people. Colossians 1:2
To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae:
Now, we’ve asked who’s Paul, who’s Timothy, and there’s one last group that we gotta ask the same thing of…who are the saint’s & faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae? But really, before we answer that question we have to answer the question: what is a saint?
As I’m sure many of you know the Pope died this past week. I saw some articles pop about it and decided to read one or two. I was curious if any of them had a prediction as to who the next pope would be. One of the things I read was about a particular cardinal who was upset and arguing that he had a right to be a voting member of the next pope, despite the fact that he had been successfully prosecuted for embezzling during his time as the cardinal who oversaw the process of sainthood.
Now, I’m not a catholic scholar and I don’t pretend to know the depths of their views of what it means to be a saint, but I do think that the Roman Catholic view of sainthood has influenced the broad majority of people’s views. So is a saint this super holy special person that after they’ve been dead for a while are all the sudden recognized for their contribution to the faith or society? Is that what Paul means?
Interestingly enough, no. That’s not what Paul means and it’s not what the Scriptures show a saint to be. Here in verse two “saints & faithful brothers” are not two different groups; it’s one group that he’s referring to in two different way. To be in this group one must be “in Christ” and anyone who is “in Christ” is in this group.
So what then does it mean to be “in Christ”? That phrase is one of Paul’s favorite phrases and he uses it often throughout all of his writings. One commentary I read had a list of like 9 things that show what it means to be in Christ, but another said that to be in Christ is an inexhaustible list and can’t really be worked out linearly. So I’m not going to give you a nice list this morning to take home, because I think a huge part of this book is actually written for that purpose. I think if you were to try and summarize what does it mean to be “in Christ” the answer I’d give you from Colossians is that to be in Christ means that Christ is all. He is everything. He transforms our very nature like with Saul to Paul and pharisee to apostle. He transforms our relationships—here in verse 2 it’s the saints and faithful brothers. This isn’t all one big family by blood; it’s much deeper than that. This is a family that has been bought by the blood of Christ. Because of this they aren’t just friends, or don’t just go to the same church together, they’re brothers.
This word brother here is the word adelphos and was widely used in the ancient world to stress the intimacy of relationship. It indicated a “second home.” So Paul was stressing here they are members of the same family and should adopt the attitudes and actions necessary to maintain familial unity.
So to be in christ means that Christ is our everything. The word we use today is to be a Christian. In fact, Paul never refers to followers of Jesus as Christians, but he does often refer to them as saints. And as saints, with Christ being our everything, he’s transformed our nature, and our relationships, but notice this: It’s not just our relationships with each other. We were strangers to one another, but now we’re brothers. But even more importantly our relationship to God has been transformed. Now I’m getting a little ahead of myself, but in the next phrase how does Paul refer to God? As God our Father! God isn’t some distant being. He’s a present father. He’s not a father like this one who gets frustrated with his kids when they don’t perform on the baseball field as he had hoped. he’s patient, Kind, loving, and slow to anger. He’s a good father.
So to be in Christ means to have our relationships fundamentally transformed. God is now our Father and anyone else who is in Christ is our brother. Do you see how Christ transforms our relationships and our identities? In Christ you’ve been given a new name because you’ve been adopted into a new family. One that has a perfect Father. The family resemblance you are now to bear is different that what the rest of the world calls for. The way you relate to those who are in Christ is fundamentally different because Christ has transformed your relationship to them. If all of this is true, then the question for you and me is this: Has Christ fundamentally transformed who you are? No, this doesn’t mean that you have to have a Damascus road experience and audibly hear the Words of Jesus. But, through hearing His Word, He grants you faith and that same faith transforms you into a new creation like it did Paul. Does your life look like the rest of the world, or because Christ is your all you’re different? Does the way you relate to one another reflect the redeeming, reconciling work of Jesus, or does it look like the worlds self-promoting, self-seeking ways? Does your relationship with God reflect that as of a Father or as something much more devious?
Christ transforms these relationships because he has transformed our identities. Saul become Paul. Timothy and these people at Colossae become brothers all because of Christ. Now what do Paul and Timothy do with the calling God has placed on their life? They faithfully live it out, and in doing so guess what happens?
Christ delivers the grace & peace of God.
Christ delivers the grace & peace of God.
That’s our second point this morning. Christ delivers the grace & peace of God. That seems profound to me. As Paul and Timothy faithfully live out their new identity, relationship, and purpose that Christ worked in them, Christ now delivers the grace & peace of God to a whole group of people in this city of Colossae—and in turn the rest of church for all of time. Isn’t that incredible?
Now this letter is specifically addressed to the saints & faithful brothers at Colossae. What do we know about this city? Colossae was located in what is now a part of Turkey near the Lycus River. At the time of the writing of this letter, which was around 60-62 AD, it had begun to lose it’s place of prominence. Originally it was positioned on a major highway that caused it to be an intersection of all sorts of trade, and was well known especially for it’s wool industry and textile production. So it was quite a bustling city, but the Romans had decided to reroute that highway to go through the city of Laodicea. Because of that the Colossae was becoming just another countryside town.
So why then would Paul take the time to write this letter to the middle of nowhere people? Well don’t get me wrong, it seems like at the time of the writing of this letter it still was an important place. But more importantly than that Paul cared for these people because of a relationship he had with the guy who planted the church at Colossae.
Now I mentioned this earlier, but from what we can tell Paul had never been to Colossae and he certainly hadn’t planted the church there. That belonged to this guy named Epaphras. We don’t know a whole lot about Epaphras, but here’s what we do know. He was from Colossae—we see this in Col. 4:12. If you look down towards the end of Col. 1:6-7
…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, just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf…
So at some point in His life Epaphras heard the gospel and believed it. Some biblical scholars think that likely happened during Paul’s ministry at Ephesus, although that’s pure speculation. But when he heard it he was changed by it and went back home to tell people about the Christ. God blessed his ministry and the church in Colossae began to grow.
Now I think it’s worth noting here real quickly that the church in Colossae wasn’t just one big group that met in one place, but it was comprised of house churches. We see this in Col 4:15
Give my greetings to the brothers at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house.
Some lady named Nympha apparently had a house that a church met at. So it seems that even at this stage in the life of the NT church there were some specific, frequent gatherings of groups of people.
So Epaphras spreads the gospel in Colossae, smaller individual churches began to take root, but something happens that causes Epaphras to go, hold on a minute. There’s a problem here. So he packs his bags to go find Paul and get his input on the issue. Paul is under house arrest in Rome awaiting trial by the emperor. Epaphras finds him and it seems like he ends up in jail alongside Paul because in Philemon 23 we read this
Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you,
As they’re in jail Epaphras explains to Paul what’s going on in Colossae to Paul, in his concern for the church and being led by the Spirit writes this letter to the church at Colossians, but he doesn’t just write Colossians, he also writes Ephesians and Philemon. So it’s going to be important that as we move forward we understand what’s going on in those two books because they were written at the same time as this one.
Now, what was the issue that the Colossians faced? The short of it is we aren’t totally sure. Paul never straight up addresses a specific teaching in this book, but he does say in Col. 2:8
See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.
We do know then that someone is impressing on this new and growing church that they must still partake or understand in some sort of additional philosophy or tradition that ties back to the elemental spirits of the world. Now we’ll dive more into that verse when we get there, but we aren’t exactly sure what those things are. It’s disputed as to what exactly the philosophy & traditions were, but I think we can get pretty close based off what Paul addresses and our understanding of history.
Historically, we know that there was a Jewish population in Colossae, and that it was a Roman city. So this means that both Judaism, and cultic Roman paganism were the two dominating religions of the city. What it seems like is that there’s some sort of syncretism happening here. Syncretism is the syncing of multiple religions. So, as people in the city, both Jew and Gentile alike, heard and believed the gospel and came to faith in Christ they brought with them their traditions and philosophies they had been raised in. Those philosophies and traditions said that in order to experience the fullness of God one had to go through some sort of mystical, ascetic experience built on human tradition. Just to help define terms—ascetic means severe self-discipline. So like fasting for an extremely long time, or flagellation where you beat yourself.
So Paul, hears Epaphras’ concern for this heresy that has arisen in Colossae and in turn he writes this letter. Now why does all of this matter to us? I listen to a lot of podcasts. During the election cycle I heard or read something that said more Americans today get their news from podcasts than they do major news networks. So, if you’re a podcast listener then one that I would commend to you is The Daily Briefing by Al Mohler. Mohler is the president of The Southern Seminary and he produces a podcast each day of the week in which he goes over some of the major headlines of the day and provides both a biblical and historical view. They’re usually about 25 minutes long and very trustworthy. I think you’d enjoy.
Anyways, on Friday he said one of the major breaking headlines was the the PCUSA or the Presbyterian Church announced that it was shuttering it’s missions arm and firing all missionaries. Now the PCUSA is the liberal arm on the Presbyterian church and not the more conservative PCA. Now why are they doing that? Money. Yes, they’ve run out of money, but more than that Mohler pointed out that around the turn of the 21st century some PCUSA missionaries to China reported that as they were there their confidence in and understanding of Christ as Lord began to waver. They failed to understand that the fullness of God was found in Christ alone, like Paul says in Col. 2:9. So now, they began to look for grace & peace in other things because Christ wasn’t all.
You see church, syncretism today is alive and well. And if Christ isn’t all, then you begin to look for something else. The world we live in promises and gives identity, purpose, satisfaction and relationships, grace, peace in any and everything but Jesus. It says that Jesus isn’t enough. That he can’t fully satisfy you. So what do we do? We go look somewhere else. We try to find the grace and peace our hearts long for in jobs, money, identity, sports, you name it. So why study Colossians? Because this book specifically addresses our current culture and tells us that what your heart is looking for is only found in Christ be Christ is all.
Paul & Timothy believed it. Paul & Timothy experienced it. It transformed their relationships and identities and then it called them to a new purpose in which they cared for a group of people they may have never even met. In their care, they write this and say, Grace and peace to you.
Now this is a common greeting of Paul in all of his letters. He has some formulation of these words, although they all tend to have some variation. Grace: Paul begins and ends the book of Colossians with it. Grace to you in V2. Col. 4:18 Grace be with you.
Grace be with you.
What Paul is saying here is that this letter is the grace of God to you. Which means that Paul, and Timothy, and Epaphras, and even Tychicus who carried this letter is proof of and a means of God’s grace towards them. But it’s not just the letter & their ministry that is a means of God grace towards them, but also that it will take the grace of God for them to understand this letter and then live out the contents of it. You see, this whole thing inside & out is wrapped up in the grace of God. Grace coming in, grace carrying them through, and grace leading them out. What is grace? Unmerited favor. Why study Colossians? Because you want to live in, and know, and experience the grace of God.
Grace & peace. Peace is the Greek word eirene. The Hebrew word is Shalom both of which point towards harmony, wholeness and serenity. Piper says that the peace Paul is calling for “isn’t just the absence of conflict, but the abundance of delight.” You see the letter of Colossians doesn’t just point towards the removal of conflict, but the one thing that can heal conflict and bring about the abundance of delight.
So in other words, the book of Colossians is a means of God’s grace towards you, and it shows you where the peace of God the father comes from. But even in these verses Paul tells us…It’s only in Christ that we find the grace & peace of God. It’s in Christ that Paul becomes an apostle. It’s in Christ that Timothy and the church at Colossae become brothers & saints. It’s in Christ that we find God the Father. Christ is all. He is the one who transforms our identities & relationships. He is the one who calls us to new and specific task. He is the one by whom we find the grace and peace of God. So what do we do? Like Paul, like Timothy, like the church at Colossae, In the grace of God, live out your Christ transformed identity. As you do that, the miraculous thing is that God mediates His grace and peace through you to others.
So what do we do with all of this? I think there’s really just two questions to ask. Here’s the first: 1) Have you been transformed by Christ? Has your identity and relationships and entire purpose been flipped upside down because He is your all? Or, are you indistinguishable from the rest of the world? Have you allowed syncretism to affect and influence who you are? If that’s you, then I want to invite you over the next several months to study the book of Colossians with me. What you’re going to find is that there is only one thing that can satisfy your hearts deepest desire; there is only one thing that can heal your deepest hurts; there is only one thing, one person, who can reconcile your most important relationship. His name is Jesus and he loves you, and he wants to speak to you and call you into grace and peace. It’s yours to have in Christ. All you need to do is look and listen to Him.
The second question is for those who have been transformed by Christ. Are you living out your Christ transformed identity in the grace of God, or have you allowed the empty, deceitful philosophies, or the human traditions to guide your life? The call for you today is to look to Christ and find the fullness of God. He alone has grace and peace. So, In the grace of God, live out your Christ transformed identity. Let’s pray.
