Prison Letters Colossians Introduction
Prison Letters Colossians • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Good morning! I am excited this morning as we jump back into our prison letters series. In this series, we have covered Paul’s letter to the Ephesians and Philippians.
Today we start our journey through the book of Colossians. After we finish the letter of Colossians then we have just Philemon left and it is one chapter.
I am excited this morning to start this journey through Colossians with you because the letter is written to a young church. By young, I mean a new church.
Paul is in prison in Ephesus.
He has never visited the town of Colossae where this church is.
He did not start this church and he has not visited this church
Ephesus is probably a two to three day journey to Colossae (Pics of Google maps)
Paul is known for ministering in well known trade cities and key places. Colossae is not that. Colossae is more out of the way. It is a smaller community.
This letter is likely written to a small group of about 20 people.
How to Study Scripture
How to Study Scripture
This is a quick overview of how to study scripture. Many years ago I taught a Sunday School class on this subject. Some of you might remember.
This picture comes from a text book Grasping God’s Word by J. Scott Duvall and J. Daniel Hays.
As we study scripture, This is a break down of the goal.
Step 1: Grasp the text in their town. What did the text mean to the biblical audience?
Step 2: Measure the width of the river to cross. What are the differences between the biblical audience and us?
Step 3: Cross the principlizing bridge. What is the theological principle in this text?
Step 4: Grasp the text in our town. How should individual Christians today apply the theological principles in their lives? This step consists of several substeps.
Step 1: We want to understand the text in their town. What was their culture like. What were the challenges that they were facing. What was the situation in which the text was written.
Step 2: Measure the width of the river to cross. Differences in language, culture, circumstances. Sometimes the differences are wide and it is hard to cross from their town or they are smaller and it is easier for us to cross from their town to our town.
Step 3: List the theological principles that are in the passage. When you list the theological truths, you are discerning what is timeless in the passage and this is the start of bridging the gap between the Biblical test and our contemporary world.
Step 4: a. Observe how the principles in the text address the original situation
b. Discover a parallel situation in a contemporary context.
c. Make your application Specific
So this morning I am giving you some of what it will take for us to grasp the text in their town.
They are a young church
There is about 20 of them.
What was life like when it came to faith?
Lots of different beliefs at this time.
Many different little “g” gods at the time and in their culture.
The gods would control the culture.
I think this is an important piece to understanding todays passage.
How would the gods control the people?
So you have all these different gods. You might have a god for the rain or a god for the sun. You might have a god for fertility. All these different gods.
You had to appease the gods. You had to keep them happy.
If you acted out in the community, then people might would blame you for the gods.
Life was very public. Only the wealthy or those with power could live a private life.
People knew what you were doing and they knew who you worshipped and served.
If you made a mistake, then people might would say you are the reason that it did not rain for us like it was supposed to rain.
(Give an example of someone in the room)
Can you imagine this social pressure?
With the passage of time and the movement of people from one area to another, the lines between different cults and religious ideas could get blurred, and the phenomenon known as ‘syncretism’—the mixing of religious ideas and practices from a wide range of sources—became quite common
In addition to the gods, you had Judaism.
The Jewish male population in Laodicea that is nearby was about 11,000.
Rome had about 40,000 to 50,000.
We know form a variety of sources that Judaism, in one form or another, was attractive to many pagans weary of the confused, often amoral religion of their own background, and it is likely that Christianity would make a similar impression on pagan hearers.
It would therefore be easy (as we know from Galatians) for young converts to Christianity to become muddled, and to imagine that, having become Christians, they must complete the process by becoming Jews
So this is some background to the letter that helps us understand the text in their town.
Now I want to show the Bibleproject overview video for this letter and then we will jump in to the first two verses on the letter.
(Bibleproject video)
It would be dangerous to convert to Christianity during this time. You have all the little gods and you have Judaism.
Now you have the good news of the Gospel.
If you change the way you live, then people could be come upset at you for following a new way. You could be the reason that all the gods are getting “upset”
or
Jews could be upset that you are proclaiming to be a part of the family of God but you are not following all that laws of the Old Testament.
This is the context that this letter from prison is written.
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will, and Timothy our brother:
Paul did not start the church of Colossae. He also has not visited Colossae. So He opens the letter and states that he is an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will.
Unlike most of the other apostles, he had not been a follower of Jesus during his earthly ministry; but he had been appointed, through his own encounter with the risen Lord.
This gave him special authority not only in the churches he had founded himself but even in those which, like Colossae he had not.
As we work through their town and bring it to our town we see that this letter is written by Paul as an apostle of Christ Jesus by
God’s will
Remember it is by God’s will. God’s will spans more than the time of Paul. It goes all the way back to the Old Testament and in the beginning we see the plan of salvation the God had for us his people.
Timothy our brother
2 Corinthians, Philippians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians and Philemon.
Timothy was most prominent of Paul’s partners, traveling companions and assistants, Timothy shared a close bond of affection and mutual understanding with Paul, which is of course reflected in the two letters addressed to him personally.
2 To the saints in Christ at Colossae, who are faithful brothers. Grace to you and peace from God our Father.
Saints
Holy; that is, set apart for God himself.
Faithful brothers
Firmly committed, steadfast
In Christ and at Colossae (Serving Jesus where you are)
Colossians and Philemon: An Introduction and Commentary 1. Opening Greeting (1:1–2)
Paul is writing to the Colossians with one great desire—that they should grow into full Christian maturity
It is in this greeting is to be understood; grace and peace to you form God our Father
Grace is the favor of God upon our life.
It is God’s free gift to us who don’t deserve to receive his favor.
8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—
9 not from works, so that no one can boast.
God looks on you with favor.
What a contrast from the other religions at this time! What a contrast from Judaism!
God looks on you with favor and you don’t deserve it.
God loves you.
God loves you so much that it was his plan to send his one and only son Jesus to die on the cross to take the penalty of sin that we deserve.
I think about their town and move it to our town and I get it. This greeting says grace and peace.
