Sunday May 17 Colossians 1:1-8

May 17, 2020

preaching notes for Colossians 1:1-8

This begins a summer sermons series on the Book of Colossians

Tentative summer sermon series dates/scriptures

May 17          Colossians 1:1-8

May 24          Colossians 1:9-14

May 31          Colossians 1:15-23

June 7            Colossians 1:24 – 2:5

June 14         Colossians 2:6-23

June 21         Colossians 3:1-11

June 28         Colossians 3:12-17

July 5             Colossians 3:18 – 4:1

July 12           Colossians 4:2-6

July 19           Colossians 4:7-18

Announcement

·        The official statement from the Governor is that Churches can open at 25% of their capacity. For us that means that next week, May 24, we can hold Worship indoors at the usual time of 10:30 a.m... usual time, but not quite the usual practice. We will sit apart, masks are suggested. We will also Facebook live and post the services online, respecting those that stay at home.  We have a large enough facility, especially with the Fellowship Hall opened up and considered seating, that we can do this confidently. 

·        The change in restrictions is not a 'zero chance' of spreading the Corona virus - but a way to proceed, with wisdom, behaving ourselves.  Most likely we will not everyone will return automatically - but as we see fit.

Children's Message

Special Music

READ: Colossians 1:1-8

1Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by

the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

2To the holy and faithful brothers in

Christ at Colossae: 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 the saints--

5the faith and love that spring from the

hope that is stored up for you in heaven

and that you have already heard about

in the word of truth, the Gospel

6that has come to you. All over the world

this Gospel is bearing fruit and growing,

just as it has been doing among you

since the day you heard it and

understood God's grace in all its truth.

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.

"Salutations"

Introduction: During WW II America Air-Dropped Pianos for Troops in Battlefields

            You thought pianos dropping from the sky is a gag for cartoons? Then hear this story out. During World War II, all kinds of production involving metals, such as iron, copper, and brass, that was non-essential to the war effort were halted by the American government. This was because these metals were needed to make guns, tanks, and artillery. Many musical instrument makers were affected by the new regulations, which meant that either they had to manufacture something else the military could use, or wait for the war to end, which was as good as going out of business.

            Piano makers Steinway & Sons was also affected by the restrictions. Instead of shutting down their factory, Steinway decided to bide their time manufacturing parts for troop transport gliders. Their patience was rewarded when the US Military granted them a contract to make heavy-duty military pianos. By June 1942, Steinway’s workers had designed a small upright piano, no more than forty inches wide and weighing 455 pounds. It was light enough to be carried by four soldiers. Each piano was treated with special anti-termite and anti-insect solution and sealed with water-resistant glue to withstand dampness. The best part was— the piano used only 33 pounds of metal, about a tenth as much as a typical grand piano.

Known as “Victory Verticals,” these pianos could be packed into crates and conveniently dropped by parachutes along with tuning equipment and instructions. An estimated 2,500 pianos were dropped to American soldiers fighting the war in three continents. (Kaushik, “That Time When America Air-Dropped Pianos for Troops in Battlefields,” Amusing Plant, 7/12/19)

            Colossians is our Piano.  A gift air-dropped into our laps for these times.  A surprising WORD to carry us through the battles we face.  A reminder our home that lifts the Spirit. 

Colossians, the Book

·        From whatever angle you look at our current times, Colossians is up to date. Although it was written nearly 2000 years ago, maybe around 63 A.D., it is a timeless message that speaks to what we are facing today...to the problems and crisis of our age, it presents Jesus Christ as the answer.

·        Ours is an age of science and knowledge. 95% of all the scientists who ever lived are alive today. The past century has seen a tremendous increase in all areas of technology, science, from Astrophysics to Zoology. Every year millions of pages of scientific and technological literature are published/posted, and offered globally. Over 60,000,000 pages a year. Even specialists find it difficult to keep up with the flood of discoveries and information made available.

·        Such a scientific approach and with the growth of discoveries, the question remains, the 'age-old' question remains of how God relates to the universe. Is God a part of the created universe, or its creator? Did the universe evolve, or was it created, or was it created to evolve? Colossians calls forth many of those questions. But Colossians 1:16 says, "for by him all things were created, both in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things have been created by him and for him."

·        We also live in an age of pluralism, an amalgamation of all religions. Many people are seeking to unify the world's religions. Some seek a unity of political and social action. Others unity based on common experience. It that manner it matters less who God is, then it does that we all acknowledge a single God in common. Such a religious stew would be a body without a head. There can be no unity apart from truth.

·        Rebellion against all forms of authority also marks our world. Absolutes do not exist. Truth, especially religious truth, is viewed as relative and merely personal. All religious traditions are assumed to be of equal value. It is not popular to think that one religion exclusively holds the truth. In this kind of religious climate, Jesus becomes merely a wise teacher and promoted of truth and morals. Jesus is stripped of his uniqueness.

·        Colossians speaks clearly to Jesus' true identity and what sets him apart from other good people.  Far from being just another leader or teacher, he is "the image of an invisible God, the firstborn of all creation (Colossians 1:15), the one in whom all "the fullness of God dwells in bodily form" (Colossians 2:9).

·        This is an age of pragmatism as well -- people want to know what works. If you want to sell people on something, anything - from palates to dish soap, you just need to tell them it will make some difference in their life; just tell them it will help them be/have a better "whatever." This is a practical age, and people are asking basically one question: Does it work? People want to know the same thing about Christ, Christianity.  Does he really change a life? Will I have peace? Does he give joy? Does He really bring happiness? Does He give meaning to life – power, hope, purpose?

Background...

·        Paul wrote Colossians. Sometimes scholars challenge that, but it has direct ties to the book of Philemon, and many other things point to his authorship. The date depends upon his time of imprisonment. He wrote it from prison, but which imprisonment? It might have been during his third missionary journey while in Ephesus.  But more likely it was his final imprisonment and under house arrest  in Rome. 

·        Colossae was located in the region of Phrygia, in the Roman province of Asia, in what is now part of Turkey. With nearby Laodicea and Hierapolis, it was part of a triad of cities in the Lycus Valley, about 100 miles east of Ephesus. Colossae is an ancient city, it was around during King Xerxes of Persia in 481 BC. Sort of like Dexter and Hagerman, it used to be on the main trade route between Roswell and Artesia. But eventually it was bypassed for a more direct route straight to Artesia (through Laodicea).  By the time of Paul the city was small and overshadowed by more prosperous neighbors. Not a famous city, a very insignificant one. By the 8th century it was largely abandoned, and completely destroyed in the 12th century. The largely Gentile population had maybe a Jewish element to it as well. ...possibly drawn there by the wool industry, agriculture. Because Colossae had a mixed Gentile and Jewish population, it is not surprising that the heresy threatening the Colossian church contained Jewish and pagan elements.  As we study further in the book, those heresies will come to light. As does the sufficiency and the reign of Christ!

·        Paul says that he is thankful for what the Gospel has accomplished and he calls the Gospel the truth. We often hear people say when they want to emphasize their honesty - "And that's the Gospel truth!" Ever hear that? Some people say it who don't even know what the Gospel truth is.  Why do people, when they want something to be believed, say - And that's the Gospel truth? Why? Because for all time, the Gospel has been associated with the truth ... they're synonymous. It is the truth. And that's why people say that. 

Epaphras

·        7You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf,

·        On Paul's third missionary journey, he went to Ephesus which was a great center of Asia Minor. And Paul stayed there for three years.  During the three years that he was in Ephesus, he never visited Colossae, as far as we know, but people started coming to him from all over Asia Minor. And you know that during those three years the church at Ephesus was founded, and all seven churches of Revelation 2-3 were founded. There was Ephesus, Laodicea, Smyrna, Philadelphia, Pergamum, Thyatira; all of those churches were founded during that time, and so was the church in Colossae, and so was the church in Hierapolis. They were all outgrowths of Paul's ministry on his third missionary journey as he ministered there.

·        In Acts chapter 19, verse 10, it says that, "all that dwelt in Asia Minor heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks." Verse 26, when they wanted to throw him out, they said, "Moreover you see and hear, that not only in Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia Minor, this Paul has persuaded and turned away many people, saying they are no gods which are made with hands."   From his ministry there -- people would come hear the Gospel and then go back to their homes. From Colossae came a group of people - Epaphras, Philemon, Apphia, Archippus. From Laodicea came Nymphas. All of them received Christ under the ministry of Paul. All of them went back to be used of God to begin churches. The most influential person in the beginning of those three churches in those cities was Epaphras.

·        He is mentioned again in chapter 4. Epaphras had come to visit Paul from Colossae and was converted. Apparently, Epaphras had been used to found all three churches outside of Ephesus. When Paul finished up his three years at Ephesus. He spent a winter in Greece writing, and then he started back to Jerusalem. He gathered the collections to take to the poor saints - went all the way back to Jerusalem. He arrived at Jerusalem, and you remember the terrible trouble that happened? They threw him in jail. The next thing you knew he wound up in Caesarean jail. He pleaded his case to Caesar and  they shipped him to Rome.

·        And now he's in Rome and he's a prisoner, but as a prisoner he has liberty for people to visit him. So, in the Roman confinement, chained to a soldier, and Epaphras arrives from Colossae and tells him about the Colossians and out of that comes this letter. A church Paul had never been to, as far as we know. A church he had not founded.  Around the end of his imprisonment, Epaphras arrives, tells him about the church. He gave a favorable report. 

·        Here is a congregation of Gentiles, and they've got a smattering probably of Jewish believers, and they've got a problem. There's a heresy that's beginning to creep into the congregation and Epaphras, their pastor, is really concerned. He makes a trip of a thousand to thirteen hundred miles, depending upon which way he took, to go to Rome and see Paul - and he pours his heart out to Paul. He says, in effect, “the people are amazing, Paul, but there’s an imminent danger.” And Paul writes to them and says, “Hey, you are super people, but let me warn you about something.” Further on you'll hear him say, “Don’t let anybody beguile you.” It wasn't that they'd already been, it was that they were in danger of being beguiled.

·        Quaker theologian D. Elton Trueblood once described America as a "cut flower civilization." Our culture, he argued, is cut off from its Christian roots like a flower cut at the stem. Though the flower will hold its beauty for a time, it is destined to wither and die. The letter to the Colossians connects them to their roots. 

·        There is a battle and Paul/Epaphras drop in a piano.  I don't mean that as a joke.  It is the source of great joy, a reminder of home, it brings them together, it is everyone working for the cause...

Through preserved ancient Greco-Roman and Jewish letters - we know letters followed very regular conventions. They could be altered in various ways, but followed a general pattern or form. There were four general elements of ancient Greco-Roman letters, and you see them in Paul's writing.

·        opening salutation containing writer's name, the recipient's name, and a greeting.  It is the case that they signed their name first - shih makes a certain sense that you know who is speaking to you.

·        a prayer, blessing, or thanksgiving

·        the body of the letter (what the sender wanted to say that occasioned the letter)

·        final greeting and farewell

Most of the New Testament letters follow this convention.

Paul's Salutations in Colossians include:

·        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 the saints-- the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the Gospel.

This Gospel/Good News, this unbelievable truth is the source of Paul's thanksgiving in Colossians 1:3-8.  "We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your Faith, Hope, and Love (or faith, love and hope - different order): 1 Corinthians 13:13-- "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." The holy triad of Christian virtues...

Faith

·        What does it mean to believe? What is he saying? How do you become a Christian? How do you receive this good news? Simply by believing. The word, in the Greek, the verb is pisteuo, to believe, to have faith. The word simply means to be persuaded...to be convinced that something is true and to trust it.

·        Look at Hebrews 11, "Faith, is the substance of things hoped for." In other words, you...you hope for something and as you hope for something that is unseen, your faith gives it present reality. Faith is not wishful longing, it is knowing with absolute authority and absolute certainty, it is taking something you can't see that seems way out there and giving it substance.

·        Go back to Noah. He's incredible. God said - Noah, it's going to rain (Genesis 6-7). And the first thing Noah did was try to visualize rain because it never had rained ever in the history of the world. And he tried to visualize rain and then he tried to visualize a flood, and he believed God and so that unseen reality got immediate substance in his mind. He became convicted and his faith brought action and he built an Ark in the desert.  To me, is unbelievable. You know how long it took him to build it? A valid answer is 70 years!!!!

·        Illustration: Charles Spurgeon use to tell a story about two men in a boat. They were caught in a very, very severe rapids and they were going to a place where there was a waterfall and even worse rapids and there was really no way, if they ever hit those rapids, that they would ever live. And they began to struggle for their lives. And as they were carried swiftly down stream, they were carried toward the perilous rocks and the falls and some men on the shore saw them and tried to save the two men and they threw a rope out. By this time the men had fallen out of the little boat, were struggling in the current. One man caught the rope and was saved. At the same instant, said Spurgeon, the other man who could have seized the rope, in the panic of the moment, grabbed onto a log that was floating by and that was a fatal mistake. One man was drawn to the shore because he had a connection with the people on the land. The other clinging to a log was carried down through the rapids and never found again.

·        Faith gives you a connection with the shore. Faith gives you a connection to Jesus Christ. Anything else is grabbing a log. It doesn't go anywhere but along with you to your doom. And Paul says, first of all, Colossians, I want to thank God that you got the rope, not a log.

·        They laid hold of something real, and as we read - many around them had a hold of logs.

Faith is a cause for Paul's thanksgiving..."we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints..."

Love (for the Saints)

·        Illustrator/painter Gustave Dore, one of the patron saints of the DreamWorks team of Spielberg/Katzenberg/Geffen, was handed a painting of Jesus just finished by one of his students. Asked for his critique, Dore studied it, his mind searching for the right words. At last he handed it back to the student. "If you loved him more," he said, "you would have painted him better."

·        The way people talk about (paint) their Church is the same way. Have you ever noticed that those who speak well of their Church are always talking about the people who represent the Church to them personally.  And that those who talk badly about their Church are always talking about certain people in particular?  Does that sound weird to you - the way I said that?  But it makes perfect sense.  If they are talking about the Church building - they make that clear... I love our/their stained glass.  Note: We gave up the stained glass in order to be present with people, even in this parking lot... get it?

Love for the Saints... There is a connection here between love and saints/holiness...

·        Do you know what a saint is? "... those ones that they have statues of." "Doers of good deeds." Not exactly...  The word saint in the original Greek - has no ethical or moral meaning at all. It has no righteous character in its terminology. It has no moral significance.  It simply means “set apart one, a separated one.” I have said this to you recently.  We speak of a church as a holy place. Now, that doesn't mean that the brick and the stone and the wood has some kind of ethical quality. It doesn't mean this is moral mortar. No. What it means is it's holy, only in the sense that this has been set apart for the use of God's people.

·        We speak of the Bible so often, and we say the "Holy Book." The paper is not morally different than any other paper, and the ink makes for normal everyday words. But when we say it's a holy book, we mean that of all the books in the world this book has been set aside as the one single book through which God conveyed His truth. It's set apart from all other books.

·        “Holy” means “set apart.” You know what a Christian is? He/she is holy. That does not make, necessarily, an ethical or moral statement about them. It simply says that they have been set apart from the world to belong to God. 

·        For some with a most practical bent - the authentic mark of a true believer is service. For them service is the hallmark of the true Christian, especially service to the poor and the needy. They're right in what they affirm, because without good works of love, service, and philanthropy, faith is dead. Since Jesus came not to be served but to serve and to give his life in service, we must give our lives in service, too, if we are authentic followers of Jesus. Since he was the champion of the poor, we must be champions of the poor as well.

·        But, "If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames"—presumably in martyrdom—"but have not love, I gain nothing." Love is greater than service it seems then from Paul's first letter to the Corinthians. Knowledge, revealed truth, is vital. But love is greater than knowledge. Knowledge puffs up. Love builds up, he says in another place. Faith is indispensable, but love is greater than faith. is essential, but love is greater than service.  It is "the greatest of these..."

·        Love is the greatest thing in the world. It is not an accident that the first and greatest two commandments are to love the Lord our God with all our being and then to love our neighbor as ourselves.

·        Moreover, God has set his love upon us, and he has come in the person of his Son and given himself in love even to death on the cross. The Holy Spirit pours God's love into our hearts. He who loves calls us also to love. Love is the principle, the pre-eminent, the distinguishing characteristic of the people of God. Where there is no love, there is no life, and there is no authentic Christian commitment. Holiness begins with love and ends with love. There is no holiness without love.

So, our faith is more than a conviction of the mind, it is the overflow of the heart, it is sound doctrine and it is love. And we have the commandment to love and the new capacity as the Spirit of God has poured His love in us. We skipped an awful lot of things that we need to say about love... to continue on and say that the Gospel truth not only is received by faith and results in love, but it rests in hope. 

Hope

·        Look at verse 5: "For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the Gospel." I just thank God not only for your faith, but I thank God for the love that results and I thank God for the hope that you have.

·        Because hope is so powerful, the enemy tries to steal it. I urge you not to let them do that, because if you cannot take away your hope, and his operations against you are compromised. No matter what happens, keep believing and hoping.

·        Isaiah 40:31 helps us understand this. Many people are familiar with this in the King James Version, which says, "But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." Do you know what that word 'wait' means? It doesn't mean to go sit in a chair somewhere and do nothing until God moves. The word wait has the same definition as the word of hope. In fact, the NIV uses hope instead of wait in this verse. "But they that hope upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles..."  So wait means to wait expectantly, looking and longing for God to move in your life.

·        What hope is this? "It's laid up for you in heaven." The verb means reserved, it's the divine-lay-away-plan. Peter calls it, as we mentioned this morning in I Peter 1:4, "An inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you." We have a laid-away inheritance in heaven...what a fantastic truth.

·        elaborate... what waits us...

·        But it does not cause us to be idle, but to "Stop Gawking and Get Going" - quote form Ray Perez this week that we ought to have made into a shirt. (His description of what the Angel tells the disciples who were staring off into heaven as Jesus ascended.)

We see all three of these virtues in Epahpras...

Conclusion

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 the saints--

5the faith and love that spring from the

hope that is stored up for you in heaven

and that you have already heard about

in the word of truth, the Gospel 6that has come to you.

·        What is the Gospel truth? We who are Christians, we ought to use the term in its right sense. When we talk about the Gospel truth, what are we saying? Well, the word Gospel, as it appears in verse 5, is the word euangelion from which we get evangelize, or evangel, it simply, really, is a technical term for "good news." And it originally was a term used in relationship to a battle. 

·        We find that in some non-biblical records of the past, there would be occasions when a certain city would fight another city, and in Greece particularly the country was divided into city-states and each city-state would maintain its own army and everything like that. So, they would be in battles. And frequently there would be a great battle and everybody in the city would be waiting to hear news from the battlefield. There weren't any telegraphs so there had to be messengers. All of a sudden, on the horizon, the messenger would appear, returning to the city from the battlefield. He would come flying into the city and usually by his appearance it would become very, very obvious what the news was - good or bad. And the word that is used to describe that is euangelion, the good news, the news of victory. And that is indeed the Gospel. It is the news of victory.

            Do you feel you/we are in a battle?  Even end-times? (If so, what?) We have been given a messenger in Paul and Epaphras...

·        Epaphras - like a messenger , returning to the city from the battlefield. He comes flying into the city with the good news, the news of victory. And that is indeed the Gospel. It is the news of victory.

Special Music

Lord’s Prayer 

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.  Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.  For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.  Amen.

Benediction