Introduction To Colossians | DNA of a Vibrant Church | Colossians 1:1-8

Colossians 1:1-8

¹Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, ²To God’s holy people in Colossae, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ: Grace and peace to you from God our Father.

³We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, ⁴because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people— ⁵the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel ⁶that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace. ⁷You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, ⁸and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.

INTRODUCTION

Today we are embarking on a new sermon series from the letter to the Colossians.

Colossians is one of the smallest of Paul’s epistles. Don’t let the short length of this letter fool you. It is full of transforming messages for those who are prepared to hear. It is packed with the amazing treasures about who Jesus really is and about how to live wisely in a world which is often hostile to His way.

This letter was written from Prison

Colossians 4:18 I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you.

It was written during one of Paul the Apostles’ many imprisonments for announcing Jesus as the risen Lord. He is aware that embracing the way of Jesus may involve suffering. But he insists that his somehow becomes part of the means by which the message of Jesus, the King can extend throughout the world.

When Paul writes his prison letters, one of the things he is writing about is to say, “This is what is going on in my life and you should not worry about that.” They might think that Paul, the apostle is in prison, possibly facing death. What will happen to us if we follow the same message? Paul says, “No, the fact that I’m in prison is part of the service of the gospel and it actually serves to advance the message.”

The parallel piece to Colossians is the letter to Philemon. In the letter to Philemon was sent at the same time as Colossians, because Philemon lived in Colossae, Paul says, “Get a guest room ready for me because I am coming to see you as soon as I get out of prison.” Paul is writing both these letters from prison, probably from prison in Ephesus.

Audience:

The city of Colossae no longer exists. The city is in ruins in this day, covered up with earth for centuries.

The church at Colossae was a very young church, probably founded by Epaphras (1:7). Paul has never met these church members. When Paul was writing, he has recently heard about them coming to faith. This is a young church in completely new territory, just struggling to come to terms with what this is all about, what faith in Jesus actually means:

So Paul is writing this letter to:

• To say how to be a Christian?
• How to get going?
• How to put down roots and become firm in faith, hope, and love.
• Encourage them.
• To strengthen their faith.
• To tell them, that though in their world there are many different philosophies, many different ideas out there on the street, there is one true wisdom which somehow includes all of the wisdom within itself, and that wisdom is to be found in none other than Jesus himself. They don’t need any wisdom from anywhere else. Once you understand Jesus, you will find that understanding growing and swelling and embracing all the other human wisdom.

But Paul’s message is powerful for us right now, as we seek to live in the fullness of Christ’s love and in obedience to his ways.

Challenges of being a Jesus follower in the 1^st Century:

Socio-political Context: It was a dangerous thing to become a Jesus follower in the ancient world. Every city, every town, every village had local gods and goddesses that they worshipped. Worshipping the gods and goddesses was a way of keeping the city safe, because in ancient view, every city and village had two inhabitants; the gods were the local inhabitants as were the human inhabitants. The ones you could see and the ones you could not see. It was important to keep the unseen ones happy because if you didn’t bad things could happen like an earthquake, a famine or a flood or some great disease. If that happened people would say, “This happened because we were not worshipping the gods properly, we were not paying them their due or keeping their festivals or offering the right sort of sacrifices. They had priests who were saying, “This bad things has happened because you were not doing this or that.”

Now, Jesus followers came into town and said, “There is another Lord, another God, the Jewish Messiah, the One True God who is the Father of Jesus, and we worship Jesus as the image, the very reflection and embodiment of this God, therefore, we are not going to worship the other gods.” That is bad news. When people fail to turn up for the regular procession, festivals, and sacrifices, the neighbours will notice. “Oh! They say that there are a part of this new group, the way. They say they have got the one true God. So watch out, if bad things happen in town, we know whom to blame.”

It was not like an individualistic culture like the west today, everybody knew everybody and they would involve in everyone’s business. If people started following Jesus, the neighbours would notice.

Early Christian author, Tertullian the great theologian said, “Every time anything bad happens in a town, the shout goes up, Christians, it must be their fault.”

Nero blamed the fire of Rome on the Christians and persecuted them as a result.

Paul was encouraging them to be steadfast and patient and to hold onto to the hope which they had because things were going to be tough.

So in that world of philosophy on one hand, local politics where Caesar the emperor has statues all over the place, his face is on the coins, Caesar is watching out and Caesar is now the new divinity on the block. So in a world where you have old philosophies, other religions, Judaism, plus Caesar. Now if you start to follow Jesus who is the Jewish Messiah, don’t you need to be part of the Jewish community? This is very confusing for a young church. Just as today when we plant a church in the metros where we have multiple communities, different philosophies it is very confusing. We need pastoring, you need teaching, you need helping. So this letter is written to give that kind of pastoral help and teaching to a new, fresh, eager but endangered little community.

Paul had similar challenges in Galatia, in Southern Asia Minor. But as in Galatians, so in Colossians according to Paul, Jesus is the centre.

Who is Jesus according to Paul?

• Jesus is Israel’s Messiah.
• Jesus is the world’s true Lord in a world where the word ‘lord’ meant Caesar. The word ‘lord’ also meant ‘master.’
• Paul sees Jesus as the fulfilment of the Jewish story, fulfilment of the world’s story.

So Paul walks them through the different things that following Jesus actually means to be people who are the fulfilment of that Jewish story, the ones who God has rescued from sin as God had rescued Israel from the Egyptians. They are the people who are the true temple already. These are the people who are the true circumcision.

For Paul, the death and the resurrection of the Messiah, Jesus, constitutes all his people as new creation people, renewed humans, sharing already in the power of the new creation in their lives, and looking forward to the ultimate hope of new creation, the inheritance when it comes.

Colossians 1:1-2 ¹Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, ²To God’s holy people in Colossae, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ: Grace and peace to you from God our Father.

Author: Paul identifies himself as the author.

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus: The word ‘apostolos’ or apostle means “the one who is sent” or a title of someone who has known and followed Christ as a leader. His apostleship is by the will of God.

Timothy our brother: Paul writes this letter with Timothy, mentioned as our brother, not only Paul’s brother but the brother of the church in Colossae as well. We see ourselves as a family of God. Paul puts himself in that family he is telling the reader, “Though we have not met we are all brothers and sisters, and I want you to know that Timothy the one who writes with me is also our brother, having shared conviction and shared faith in Christ Jesus.”

The church is a community that is sharing common life as family across traditional boundaries.

Colossians 3:11 Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.

They are sharing life together in a way that was unprecedented in the ancient world.

Towards the end of the letter, when Paul addresses different categories of people, he does not address in a political or philosophical way, he address women, husbands, children, slaves, and master. He treats them as responsible people. This is unprecedented. Paul sees that this community has come into existence in Colossae, there is nothing like it in the ancient world.

The synagogue communities looked after their own very well. The Roman army and the Roman civil service were a kind of a transnational community that incorporated many people, but they owed allegiance to Caesar, they were very male dominated and imperial minded. But for Paul, the communities that are springing up now are like nothing that anyone had ever seen before. Therefore, Paul thanks God that there is one of those God communities in Colossae. This does not happen by accident. It is not the decision of men. The sort of community they were showed that the word of the gospel had done its own work. That is one of the main themes of these verses here.

Recipients: God’s holy people, saints, those set part for God.

The term ‘saint’ does not mean beatification by Pope. Paul uses the word saint for those who are the redeemed family of God. We are the true people of the creator God. You are as a result the Lord’s faithful family, brothers and sisters. Jesus now has a family, brothers and sister. They are marked out by nothing other than their faith in Jesus and their faithfulness to his gospel.

Grace and peace to you from God our Father.

Grace: Grace is about God reaching down to the underserved and doing something that they could never do for themselves. Paul who was once a persecutor of the Lord Jesus Christ encountered him on the road of Damascus and instead of spanking him on the head, God showed him grace. Grace becomes a reminder of what God has done to us who did not deserve his mercy.

Peace: The settled state which results for having been grasped by that grace, the grace which comes from God the Father himself.

“The richness of the Jewish greeting ‘peace’ should not be lost sight of since it denotes not simply cessation of war but all that makes for wellbeing and prosperity in the absence of war, and not simply individual or inner peace, but also social wholeness of harmonious relationships.” – James Dunn, Scholar, 1939-2020

Colossians 1:3-8

³We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, ⁴because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people— ⁵the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel ⁶that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace. ⁷You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, ⁸and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.

Colossians 1:3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,

Thanksgiving: This letter is all about thanksgiving. Paul wants them to learn how to thank the Lord, the one true God. Paul wants them to celebrate and give thanks because the creator God, the Father has been revealed in Jesus. God who is now their rescuer, the one who is transforming their lives and will continue to do so.

Paul is telling them about thanksgiving.

He is also telling them about living as thankful people, being grateful people, thankful to God in everything, despite everything. Thankful for what God has done, thankful because of what God will do, thankful in the present to be part of the family that call Jesus as Lord.

We can imagine Paul there in prison, it was a dark time for Paul, but he is teaching himself as well to thank God for all the good things which have been happening. Here, he is thanking God that a community has sprung up in Colossae, a community which is a community of love.

Colossians 3:3

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,

Prayer: Paul is constantly praying. He I am sure kept the regular Jewish times of prayer, probably morning, noon and night; praying to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob but now to the same God who is known in Jesus and in the power of the Spirit.

So Paul is praying for them and for many others; day-by-day, hour-by-hour.

Epaphras will never stop praying, he is praying for his friends and family in Colossae.

Colossians 4:12 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.

The prayer of this unsung heroes, unknown heroes is one of the things that anchors the letter whole through, this is also one of the things which anchors the gospel all through. It is by the prayers of many faithful people that God’s work goes ahead. Often I think only on the last day we will discover just who is really responsible for all the prayers that hold our lives, at church and at the world at large in Christ. Faithful prayer of the people of God like Paul, like Epaphras is part of the message of this letter. But the key message in this letter is the faith, hope, and love, the three virtues, the triad which we have to learn if we are to be faithful followers of Jesus. That is what Paul is going to be teaching in one way or another throughout this letter.

The reason Paul is praying:

Colossians 1:4-6a

⁴because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people— ⁵the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel ⁶that has come to you.

We find the triad of: Faith, hope and love here like in various other Paul’s passage. (1 Cor. 13).

What is this hope?

V5 the hope stored up for you in heaven.

You have heard the true message of the gospel:

Truth: In a world of lies and deceit, Paul says there is truth that you can rely on, that you can depend your life on, that refreshes you with hope. This truth is the truth of the Gospel of Jesus which has come to you, which is bearing fruit, and growing throughout the whole world

Colossians 1:6b In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace.

Echo of creation: Paul is now echoing scripture all the way back to Genesis 1 where God creates plants have the seed in them, and then going to grow and abound and flourish. That idea of the word of God, which functions like a seed which will produce new plants.

This goes back particularly to Isaiah 55 to the great promise of new creation.

When God takes his power and reigns (Isaiah 52), when the servant does his terrible work of dying and rising again (Isaiah 53), then the covenant with Israel will be renewed (Isaiah 54), and creation itself will be renewed (Isaiah 55). Paul now says, “You are part of that renewal.” That is the underlying message that is coming through here.

Many people think that one day we will go to heaven and that constitutes the hope. But that is not how this sentence works at all. Someone said, “It is like a man who has just been told that he has just inherited a fortune which is being kept safe in the vaults of the bank. That does not mean that he has to go and live in the vaults of the bank, in order to take possession of the fortune. No, it is kept safe there for him so that when it is appropriate, he can take it out.”

So in the same way, for Paul, the idea of something being kept safe in heaven has the connotation of God keeping his future purposes safely stored away against the day when they will be brought out and displayed on full public view.

So, Paul’s vision of inheritance here in Colossians (as in Romans 8 and Galatians 4) is of the whole creation being renewed and of human being who have followed Jesus being raised from the dead to share in that new creation. Here and elsewhere, for Paul, the hope is of new creation at the moment kept safe in the heavenly places, but waiting to be brought out on stage.

So that is the hope which he wants to set before them. Because they are a small number in a town which is bound to be hostile. They are bound to find neighbours saying, “What is all this about Jesus? Why are you refusing to worship the traditional way? Why do you go to church? Don’t you think that bad things happen to people like that?” The hints being, “If the gods don’t strike you, maybe we will.”

Paul says, “No, we are the people who are going to inherit the world.” Jesus said that on the sermon on the mount, “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Mt. 5:5”

Paul says, they have heard about this from Epaphras and he told us about it.

Colossians 1:7-8 ⁷You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, ⁸and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.

Epaphras has come from Colossae to Paul in Ephesus and has said, “There is a community, they have discovered Jesus as a living reality in their own personal lives and in this little communal life which they are starting.” Paul says, “Epaphras is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf.”

Paul wrote this letter to encourage the Colossians to address the issues that Epaphras had raised and then to challenge them to a greater devotion to Jesus. The letter design and flow of thought are easy to follow.

The remainder of the letter focuses on:

• Jesus as the Exalted Messiah; 1:1-23.
• Apostle Paul’s suffering in prison is for the exalted Jesus; 1:24-2:5.
• The pressure tempting the Colossians to turn away from Jesus; 2:6-23.
• The new way of life that Jesus’s resurrection opened up for; Ch. 3-4.

CONCLUSION

We just saw the introduction to the letter to the Colossians. We looked at some strong introduction statements of Paul. We will be looking at this letter in the coming weeks.

LIFE APPLICATION POINTS

Embracing The Way Of Jesus May Involve Suffering. Paul was encouraging them to be steadfast and patient and to hold onto to the hope which they had because things were going to be tough.

The Church Is The Family Of God.

We Are To Live As Thankful People. Being grateful to God in everything, despite everything. Thankful for what God has done, thankful because of what God will do, thankful in the present to be part of the family that call Jesus as Lord.

It Is By The Prayers Of Many Faithful People That God’s Work Goes Ahead.

We Are To Hold Onto The Christian Triad: Faith, Hope, And Love. We are to live with faith in Jesus, love for God’s people, and the hope is of new creation.

The gospel is the only truth in the world.