sunday sermon

As we look back we have learned that there was false teaching coming into the church at Colossae and it was attacking the Preeminence of the Supremacy of Jesus Christ .

There was legalism

Mysticism

Asceticism

And philosophy

It is crucial church, that we remember that all false teachers, all false teaching attacks Jesus Christ.

They will always attempt to say Jesus is good, but you must do this or that, or read this book or that book, instead of just simply studying your Bible and walking your faith out to the best of your ability.

Also, when the Supremacy of Jesus Christ in the life of a believer is attacked, so is the gospel

Here at FCC, we teach simply teach the Bible simply one verse at a time, because Jesus said, “Sanctify them by your truth, your Word is truth!”

So throughout chapter 3 we have been getting a picture of authentic Christianity, Paul moved from doctrine to duty and now he is going to move into our domestic lives, or our lives in the home.

To sum it up church Paul gave us many imperatives, but there was three that he emphasized:

We are to let the peace of God rule in our hearts.

We are to let the Word of Christ dwell richly within us>>> Garbage in, Garbage out>>> We make time for what is most important in our lives church. One way you know you are allowing the word to dwell richly within you is you will be teaching and admonishing one another Paul shared in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, you will be singing to the Lord church.

The song that you sing the loudest is where you spend most of your time.

Jesus said, “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks!”

We are to do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus and give thanks church, or rather live a life of thankfulness unto the Lord and others.

If we have these three operating in our lives church, then the next section will come as no surprise to you.

Paul shifts from focusing on what our walk should look like, to walking it out in our homes.

Paul taught us about what it looks like to be an authentic Christian, to truly walk our what we believe in our behavior, but now he says authentic Christian, one who not only professes, but possesses Christ is to live it out in their home.

Walking our faith out, putting doctrine in shoe leather church, must start in our homes.

Colossians 3:1–2 NKJV

If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.

It is a natural by-product to serve one another in our homes church

So lets look at what the Apostle Paul is saying to the church

Colossians 3:18 NKJV

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.

This might be a little uncomfortable for some here today and I want you to know there is an all out attack on the Christian home.

God instituted marriage all the way back in Genesis:

Genesis 2:24 NKJV

Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

God said a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife.

This is Adam and Eve church, not Adam and Steve.

Marriage is between a man and a women, not two men or two women

The devil is attacking the institution of marriage and if you have the home, then you have the people.

Media is promoting a lifestyle that God is not ok with church and we must guard our hearts because out of them spring the issues of life.

Paul goes right to the wife or to the women not as a male chauvinist, but rather a gentle loving shepherd church.

Under Jewish law a woman was a thing; she was the possession of her husband, just as much as his house or his flocks or his material goods were. She had no legal right whatever. For instance, under Jewish law, a husband could divorce his wife for any cause, while a wife had no rights whatever in the initiation of divorce. In Greek society a respectable woman lived a life of entire seclusion. She never appeared on the streets alone, not even to go marketing. She lived in the women’s apartments and did not join her menfolk even for meals. From her there was demanded a complete servitude and chastity; but her husband could go out as much as he chose, and could enter into as many relationships outside marriage as he liked and incur no stigma. Both under Jewish and under Greek laws and custom, all the privileges belonged to the husband, and all the duties to the wife.

Paul did not address the wives first because they were the neediest! The Gospel radically changed the position of women in the Roman world.

It gave them a new freedom and stature that some of them were unable to handle, and for this reason Paul admonished them .

We also see a parallel here in:

Ephesians 5:22 NKJV

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.

1 Peter 3:1–2 NKJV

Wives, likewise, be submissive to your own husbands, that even if some do not obey the word, they, without a word, may be won by the conduct of their wives, when they observe your chaste conduct accompanied by fear.

But this submission is not just a command for women, men, but rather a mutual submission as Paul exhorted the church at Ephesus to do:

Ephesians 5:21 NKJV

submitting to one another in the fear of God.

So what does submit to your won husband mean?

It means that you do go submitting to someone else's husband for sure.

But let’s look at the word submit:

Submit- hupotasso (“under” + “to put in order”) – to arrange under, it means “to subject oneself.” It has the concept of putting oneself under (hupo), not by compulsion, but willingly.

A Greek military term meaning “to arrange troop divisions in a military fashion under the command of a leader”. In non-military use, it was “a voluntary attitude of giving in, cooperating, assuming responsibility, and carrying a burden”.

The fact that one soldier is a private and another is a colonel does not mean that one man is necessarily better than the other. It only means that they have different ranks.

God does all things “decently and in order” (1 Cor. 14:40).

If He did not have a chain of command in society, we would have chaos.

The fact that the woman is to submit to her husband does not suggest that the man is better than the woman. It only means that the man has the responsibility of headship and leadership in the home.

Headship is not dictatorship or lordship. It is loving leadership. In fact, both the husband and the wife must be submitted to the Lord and to each other (Eph. 5:21). It is a mutual respect under the lordship of Jesus Christ.

True spiritual submission church is the secret of growth and fulfillment.

Colossians: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary A Word to Wives

When a woman submits to the loving leadership of her husband and follows God’s intention for her, she is fulfilled and so is the husband. Efforts to reverse or confuse the duties of wife and husband destroy the blessing each is to be to the other.

The bottom line here is submission is not talking about slavery church, but rather freedom.

It is not talking about inferiority or superiority, but rather how God has designed men and women to be.

When the wife submits to her husbands, note that it is fitting in the Lord

And by the way ladies, this only comes when your husband is loving you the way Christ loves the church, it only comes as a result of his self-sacrifice and unconditional love he show toward you in the home.

So Paul is not degrading women here, but rathe building them up and giving them new life and duties.

It is crucial that your remember that women were thought of as property back in the days before Jesus showed up

And God set things in order here.

Christian wives have been commanded by God to be subject to their husbands. Even though this whole concept is being attacked and challenged in our world today, this is the way God’s Word commands wives to relate to their husbands.

Paul wrote:

1 Corinthians 11:3 NKJV

But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.

Paul wrote:

Paul wrote: “That they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the Word of God will not be dishonored” (Titus 2:5).

Church the believer lives in four spheres of life: 1) The believer lives in Christ; 2) The believer lives in the home; 3) The believer lives in the church; 4) The believer lives in society.

Of these four spheres of life, we are equal in Christ.

Galatians 3:28 NKJV

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Life in Christ is equal in position.

However, life in the home, in the church and in society does have rank distinctions. There is authority structure in the home, in the church and in society and those authority structures are to be recognized and submitted to according to the Word of God.

God is glorified by willing submission to rank structure which He has sovereignly ordained.

SECRET TO A LONG MARRIAGE A couple was celebrating their golden wedding anniversary. Their domestic tranquility had long been the talk of the town. A local newspaper reporter was inquiring as to the secret of their long and happy marriage. “Well, it dates back to our honeymoon,” Explained the man. “We visited the Grand Canyon and took a trip down to the bottom of the canyon by packmule. We hadn’t gone too far when my wife’s mule stumbled. My wife quietly said, “That’s once.” We proceeded a little farther when the mule stumbled again. Once more my wife quietly said, “That’s twice.” We hadn’t gone a half mile when the mule stumbled a third time. My wife promptly removed a revolver from her pocket and shot him. I started to protest over her treatment of the mule when she looked at me and quietly said, ‘That’s once.’”

Note: Staring down the barrel of a gun is probably not the best picture of submission.

In fact, the Bible doesn’t tell men to make their wives submit. Put your guns away. The responsibility of submission is the wife’s lesson to learn. The husband has other things to pay attention to.

Colossians 3:18 NKJV

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.

Now the adverbial clause” as fitting in the Lord” is very important. The verb “fitting” means as is due the Lord. Two things are implied: 1) Willing submission to a husband is something a Christian wife owes God. When a wife does this she obeys God; 2) Willing submission and subjection to a husband is to be in the context of what is fitting for a Christian woman to do. In other words, the submission is not to godless, immoral, or impure commands; the submission to the husband is in the context of what is “fitting in the Lord.”

It is important as we leave this section that we remember Paul had the highest regard for Christian women and he was the one who commanded that they be viewed and treated as persons, not things.

A women is commanded to submit to her husband by the Lord church

Colossians 3:19 NKJV

Husbands, love your wives and do not be bitter toward them.

Husbands, God has commanded us to love our wives.

Are you loving your wives men?

And apart from having a relationship with Jesus Christ, the love that Paul is talking about here is simply not possible .

2. A husband is commanded by God to agape his wife

It is interesting that even though God commands the wife to submit herself to her husband, He does not command the husband to give commands to the wife; but He does command the husband to love his wife.

H.A. Ironside said it is right here where many husbands fail. They demand submission from the wife but don’t show the biblical love of Christ.

In Greek , there are three words used for love: 1) Eros–the passionate and erotic type of love; 2) Phileo–the affectionate and friendship type of love; 3) Agape–the divine and sacrificial type of love.

Wives may be legitimately loved in accordance with all three concepts, but the particular word used here by Paul is agapao, or the agape love, the highest level of love.

Dr. Ogilvie said this simple principle of “submissiveness” is the basis of a great marriage (pg. 130).

Husbands have been commanded by God to love their wives at the highest level of love–beyond the emotional, beyond the affectional, in the sphere of the sacrificial and the purposeful. Husbands are commanded by God to think through things pertaining to their wives and promote their best good, the biblical good.

Proverbs 18:22 NKJV

He who finds a wife finds a good thing, And obtains favor from the Lord.

Love your wives men!

Be the high priest of your homes!

Pray with your wife and wash her in the Word!

Paul said this to the church at Ephesus and this is the parallel to the passage we are in here in Colossians

Ephesians 5:22–28 NKJV

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself.

When is the last time you washed her men?

Colossians 3:19 NKJV

Husbands, love your wives and do not be bitter toward them.

Men, there are tow commands here for you:

Agape your wife- lay your life down for her sacrificially and unconditionally. This means without condition. Not if you do this for me, I will love you, but rather I love you no matter what you do!

Do not be bitter or harsh toward them!

It is clear that Paul knew there was some of this going on in the church, he knew that men struggle with harshness which I believe is rooted in resentment.

Bitter-pikrainō (pik-rah'-ee-no)-to be embittered v. — to be or become marked by strong resentment or cynicism. to be irritated with, to grow angry with.

The word “bitter” is one that means to be sharp, to be harsh and to be pointed with his wife. The construction is a present imperative with a negative prohibition, which means a husband can continually and habitually demonstrate a harsh attitude toward his wife, and God is commanding him to stop it.

The passive verb indicates that there may be moments in which a wife does something that may cause the husband to become bitter, sharp and harsh.

However, the husband who continually and habitually demonstrates a bitter, harsh attitude toward his wife is one living in direct disobedience to the commands of God. I Corinthians 7:33 tells us that the husband is to seek how he may please his wife, not push her around.

1 Peter 3:7 NKJV

Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered.

Honor your wife men, love your wives as Christ loves the church and gave his life for her!

The key to rid any bitterness (resentment toward your wife) Is forgiveness.

SILENT TREATMENT

A man and his wife were having some problems at home and were giving each other the silent treatment. The next day the man realized that he would need his wife to wake him at 5 am for an early flight to Sydney. Not wanting to be the first to break the silence, he finally wrote on a piece of paper, “Please wake me at 5 am.” The next morning the man woke up, only to discover it was 9 am, and that he had missed his flight! Furious, he was about to go and see why his wife hadn’t awakened him when he noticed a piece of paper by the bed. It said, “It’s 5 am, wake up.”

It doesn’t pay to not forgive.

The bottom line is that we are called to submit to each other in the fear of God

And we are called to love each other church.

1 Corinthians 13:4–7 NIV

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails!

How are you doing with the commands the Lord has given you?

Is it a struggle?

If it is, I am guessing your time with the Lord is lacking.

So over the next week church, let strive to spend more time with the Lord and less time doing things that feed our flesh.

Next week, we will look at Children obeying their parents and what this looks like.

If we have the peace of God ruling in our hearts, The Word of God dwelling in us richly, then guess what, we will do everything in the name of Jesus!

Not only in our work places, but most importantly in our homes.

Ministry starts in the home!

Prayer

Announcements

Are there any announcements?

Please pray for Kymbra and Penny

Benediction

Proverbs 3:3–4 NIV

Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man.

THE LORD BLESS YOU!

YOUR MISSION STARTS NOW!

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