Colossians 1:3-8

Introduction

We are starting a new journey in the Scriptures through the book of Colossians. This book is written by Paul in prison and the delivered by a man named Epaphrus. He never actually met with these people or established this church because it said that he had HEARD of their faith. But Paul stayed in Ephesians which was really close to Colossians. This Church was in a small town but it was a location that many different people from many different faiths came from. So, Paul is writing to this church to remind them of the importance of Christ and His position as the only way to salvation. Gnosticism is one of the ways of thinking that you could reach some type of spiritual perfection if they entered into the teachings that they were teaching. And Jewish legalism was being taught as well so there was this big obsession with being perfect and gaining a works based faith where they do everything through works to be right with God. These teachings were ultimately undermining the very person and work of Jesus Christ. They were teaching that Jesus wasn’t really the Son of God but just one of God’s beings. So many different teachings were entering the minds of the believers at Colossae and Paul was trying to rip those things away from them before they corrupted their church by really driving home one thing. The person and the work of Jesus Christ in all things for His purposes. So tonight we are going to be looking at the introduction of this letter and how Paul starts off addressing this group of people. He starts with an encouragement to them and the work of the gospel in them. Many times we need a word of encouragement in our lives when we feel like nothing is going our way, we messed up, we did the wrong thing, and Satan jumps on that and tries to tell us we aren’t God’s people. So tonight we are going to look at an encouragement from Paul and what that means for us today.

They heard the Gospel (5b-7)

It is centered on Jesus Christ

The gospel is built upon the person and work of Jesus Christ in His life, death, resurrection. The false teachers were trying to take Jesus and make him like every other prophet or angelic being which was completely destroying the gospel at its core. Jesus Christ is superior in the Gospel and without Him and the fact that He is the Son of God and died on the cross for our sins the gospel literally means nothing and loses all of its power. (i.e. that’s like telling someone to make peanut butter without peanuts, or banana split without a banana, or make a log cabin without wood, or make a house without a foundation.)

It is the “Word of truth” (5)

This was also striking at the heart of the false teaching. Saying that God’s word is the Word of truth was implying that the “extra” stuff that you needed to believe in to become spiritually perfect is not the truth.

Everyone has faith in something or believes in something but your faith is only as good as the object or person that you put your trust and faith in. Jesus tells us He is the only way. You can have faith in your works, someone else, or something else but none of those things have the power to save except for Jesus.

It is the message of God’s grace (6b)

Grace and mercy are two things that are common in Christian lingo: Grace is God giving us what we don’t deserve and mercy is God sparing us from what we do deserve. God has shown grace to these people and they have accepted that grace and now Satan is trying to use false teachings to derail this group of people. (i.e. John Selden very well read historian in the 1600’s and had a library of 8000 books and at the end of his life he said “I have surveyed most of the learning that is among the sons of men, and my study is filled with books and manuscripts on various subjects. But at present, I cannot recollect any passage out of all my books and papers where I can rest my soul, save this from the sacred Scriptures: ‘The grace of God that bringeth salvation has appeared to all men’ (Titus 2:11).”)

It is for the whole world (6)

They Believed in Jesus Christ (1:4)

It is possible to hear the gospel and not believe in it. Millions of people have heard the good news of Jesus and still reject salvation and haven’t believed. One of the main concepts behind most Disney movies is the idea that “if you believe you can achieve” and most of the time belief belongs to some magical substance that comes to your aid in the darkest of times to show you the right path and sometimes it is hard work or just pure chance, and it is good for a fairy tale story but sometimes that creeps into our lives and the way that we think that if we just believe in that magical Karma that if we do good then good will happen to us or if we believe we can do something then all of a sudden it will happen. But really we get it twisted because the focus becomes about us and what we can do to earn something. That’s where it becomes dangerous because Jesus is teaching us that we need to believe in Him to have eternal life. If we believe in Him then we find strength in Him. If we believe and have faith in Him then we are secure. If we believe in Him we have been given grace and right standing before God. Nothing else can do that for us except for faith in Jesus.

They were Discipled (1:7)

They became Faithful in Christ (1:6,8)

Because of Epaphras being faithful to teach and disciple the people of this church they had become faithful to Christ. They had experienced the grace, mercy, and love of God. Epaphras stuck around to teach these new believers and they saw growth in their faith. The more they learned about Christ the more they loved him, and the more they loved him the more their faith grew. Faith and love go hand in hand and the growth of their faith came from a growth in their knowledge and love for God. They not only knew more about God, but it spurred them to love Him more. They didn’t gain knowledge just for the sake of knowing more but it produced change in the life of these believers in Colossae.

Application

Encouragement for you

Encouragement for salvation

Encouragement to be discipled

Encouragement to stay faithful to Christ

Encouragement to grow in your faith and love for Christ