Immanuel Sermon Audio
Colossians (51:66)
Amen. So take a Bible and find Colossians. We're in book 51 of 66. We're still on track to finish up with the book of Revelation the last week in May, last Wednesday night in May, and we're gonna combine a couple of books along the way, some of these shorter letters in the New Testament, but 51 of 66 tonight. Book of Colossians. On the surface, when I tell you a few things about the city of Colossae, it probably will feel like or seem like you living in Odessa, Texas in 2016. There's not a lot that we have in common with these people, but I'm gonna tell you about the city a little bit just so you know something about the people that Paul's writing to, and then I'm gonna tell you a few things about the religious climate in and around Colossae, and even though there's a lot of differences with the place and the time we live today, when you when you understand the religious climate in their city and in their area, I think you see a lot of similarities, and then because you see those similarities, the book becomes pretty easy to apply to our lives. So just a few things about the city of Colossae. These are on your outline, and I didn't give you anything to fill in here, but it's a small agrarian community about 120 miles east of Ephesus, and so you can see on this map, way over there on the right down in the bottom, that green over on the bottom right corner, that's the Roman province of Judea, and so Jerusalem is right down there, way on the bottom right corner. The water, here's the Mediterranean Sea, and the yellow crazy-looking thing over there is Greece, and then the brown thing is what we call Turkey, but in in Paul's day, it was Asia, and you can see in that red box that there's a couple of cities, Hierapolis, Laodicea, and then down at the bottom is Colossae. It was in the Lycus River Valley, it sat right on a river, and it was right near the base of Mount Cadmus, and so there's Mount Cadmus, a pretty stunning view, and the city of Colossae just sat down at the bottom of that mountain right there, and so when you look in history, a lot of the things that Corey told you about, Philippi, or I've told you about Ephesus, or the churches in Galatia, we know those things because ancient writers tell us those things, and you can study them outside of the Bible and learn about those cities. There's not a whole lot outside of the Bible about Colossae, there's a few things, sometimes it's spelled with a K, some Bible translations actually spell it with a K, but we don't know a whole lot, and scholars say because we don't know a whole lot, it probably wasn't really big because a lot of the big cities in the ancient world, we have a lot of things written about them, records, and things like that, not a whole lot from Colossae, so it probably was not a large city. The textile industry was the big economic driver in Colossae, they were known for producing a special kind of wall, they bred a special kind of sheep, and they had a certain way of producing this wall, and everybody thought it was the greatest, and it was sort of had its own brand, it was called Colosinus wall, and people loved it, and they sold it all over the Roman Empire, they were on a major trade route, and so that helped them get their product out. One interesting thing about the city, you can't see where the city's at in that picture, that was just the best picture of Mount Cadmus I could find, the city's never been excavated, they know where it's at, and you can go there, and you can see some of the features of the city, but a lot of these ancient cities, like I've showed you pictures of Ephesus, and I showed you the street, and the library, and the town square, and all that, well at different points in history that just got covered up with ground, and cities got conquered, and they leveled them, and flattened them, and you know it just sort of gets covered up over hundreds, and hundreds, and hundreds of years, so Colosinus covered up, we know exactly where it's at, but it's never been excavated, and archeologists have asked the the government of Turkey for permission to excavate that city, and they've given archeologists permission to excavate other cities, they've just never given them permission to excavate Colosinus, and so we know where it's at, and you can go there, and you can see some features of the city, they say that you can see in a a Cropolis, you can see a theater, you can see the graveyard, and you can see a handful of buildings, they haven't found a Jewish synagogue, scholars do think there was a big Jewish population there, but they haven't found that yet because they haven't been able to sort of dig around for that kind of stuff, so kind of interesting that it's never been excavated. Back to that map, it was connected with these three cities, Hierapolis, Laodicea right in the middle, and Colosse down south, and actually the elevation in Colosse is a little bit higher than the other two right there by the mountain, and these three cities were kind of like sister cities, they were kind of, they all went together, people thought of them together, and there was road connecting them, and one interesting thing about them, we talked about this a few months back when we were going through the letters in the book of Revelation, is that in Laodicea they did not have a water supply in Laodicea, which is very, very rare for ancient cities, almost no ancient cities that don't have their own water supply because it's just logistically much harder for them to get water, what they did in Laodicea is they built high-pressure stone pipes, and they piped water from one or two places, they piped it from the north, from Hierapolis, or they piped it from the south in Colosse, and the funny thing is Colosse, I showed you that picture of the mountain, right, so you saw the snow cap on top of that mountain, it snows and the water comes down, you ever been to the mountains and drank out of a mountain spring, and it's just freezing cold water, so in Colosse they're known for having icy cold water coming right down off the mountain, when you go north to Hierapolis, you can Google this, I should have got you a picture, they have medicinal hot springs, and it's sort of this rock formation in the side of the hill, and these people go bathe, I mean they've been doing this for thousands of years, they go bathe in these hot springs, and it's just naturally hot, and Laodicea right in the middle has no water, but they take that hot water from Hierapolis, and they pipe it down south, and they take that cold water from Colosse, and they pipe it up north, either way by the time the water gets to Laodicea, what's it like, lukewarm water, and what does Jesus say to those people, he says, "Your lukewarm, I'm gonna spit you out," and sometimes we read that as a Americans who don't know anything about these cities, and we think, is Jesus saying, he says, "I'd rather you be hot or cold," is he saying he'd rather me be like a Satan worshipper than a mediocre Christian? Is that his point? No, that's not his point at all, he's talking to people who couldn't get hot water or cold water, they just had to settle for lukewarm water, and they realized this lukewarm water, it's not good for a whole lot, I mean it'll keep you alive, but it's not refreshing like the cold water in Colosse, and it's not, doesn't have any medicinal value like the hot water in Hierapolis, it's just kind of eh, and Jesus is saying, "I wish you were useful for something, you're not, you just like lukewarm water," and when they heard that, they would have understood exactly what Jesus was saying, so just a little interesting fact there, connected with those other two cities. It was destroyed in about 60 A.D. by an earthquake, it was a big earthquake, got Laodicea and got Colosse, and one of the interesting things about that is, you know how in the United States when we have a disaster, at least these days, FEMA rolls in and you're so relieved because FEMA showed up, right, but roll your eyes, right, that's like a, I don't know what emoji you would use on Facebook for that comment, but it'd be like eye roll or something like that, but FEMA comes and they help you, and they give you money and they give you a place to stay. The Roman government did the exact same thing, when there was a volcano or an earthquake or a flood or whatever, they would send aid, they would send relief, those people paid taxes, and then when they needed help, Rome would help them. When the earthquake flattened these two cities, they turned the aid down and said, "We'll rebuild ourself," so these are prosperous cities, these are people who were very successful in life, and when their city got flattened by an earthquake, they just said, "We don't need to help, take the FEMA trailers, turn them back around, we'll rebuild it ourself." So, destroyed in 60 AD, and depending on the Bible scholar you read some, I would say most think that Paul wrote this letter before that earthquake, and then a few scholars think that he wrote it after, but it was pretty close either way. So, let's talk about the religion in the city, and I'm just going to give you four words here that describe the religious climate in this community. First word is animism, second is pluralism, third is syncretism, and the fourth is asceticism. We'll talk about each of these. Virtually all the people in this area called Asia would be animistic peoples, and animism is kind of a big concept and a fuzzy concept. It's hard to define it exactly, but just generally speaking, these are people who believed in spirits, for lack of a better word, okay? Unseen invisible spiritual beings that were very much real, invisible does not mean they're not real, very much real, but you couldn't see them, and these spirits inhabited the physical world. They inhabited mountains, they inhabited trees, they inhabited forests, and hot springs, and the sun, all sorts of stuff, and they sort of had control over the physical creation, and they also believed that through their religious activity they could influence these spiritual invisible beings. Maybe you could say they even thought they could control them by offering certain sacrifices or doing certain things or performing certain rituals that they could then gain power over these spiritual forces. This is exactly, for example, what we see when we go to Kenya, and there's all sorts of people there, and a lot of people there claim to be Christian, a lot of people there claim to be Muslim, but the reality is that most of the folks there are just animists, and when the rubber hits the road, what they really believe is that they're surrounded by spiritual beings that have influence over their life, and that by doing certain things, charms, amulets, sacrifices, etc., etc., that they can control those beings or win their favor or earn their favor or even manipulate them so that life goes better for themselves. And you see it in Africa, you see I've seen it in South America, you see it in Central America, you see it in the United States of America, you see it all over the world, this idea of animism, and so these people were very much animistic people. Also, they were pluralistic people. If you wanted a modern-day definition of pluralism, you would basically say this is the idea that all roads lead to heaven, right? Just all religions are equally good. You can be a Christian or a Muslim or a Buddhist or a Hindu or whatever you want to be, an animist, and as long as you're a good one, you have the opportunity or the chance of getting to quote-unquote eternal life, however you define that. And in Colossae, they were definitely pluralistic, and so I told you they couldn't excavate the city, right? I haven't been able to dig it up, archeologist, but they can sort of walk around and see what's on the surface, dig a little bit, and they found tons and tons of coins, it's not unusual, all these coins are on the city. And here are, this is not a comprehensive list, I just stopped because I got tired of typing these up, and I didn't want to find any more pictures. Here are a few of the gods that they have found on coins around Colossae, and so I'm going to start on the top left and go across and then go down and tell you about these gods. So top left is Artemis of the Ephesians, remember Ephesus 120 miles away, so that statue may look familiar if you were here a few weeks ago. Artemis was a goddess of fertility. Zeus told you that Laodicea was connected with Colossae. If you go way back in history, Laodicea was not always called Laodicea it was originally called the city of Zeus. So just right up the road, Laodicea, city of Zeus. Men, Emian, God of the moon, read about him today and he's one of the few deities in any ancient pantheon where a male God is associated with the moon, almost always its female goddess is associated with the moon, but men was one of them. And then right next to men is his sister Selene, who was also a goddess of the moon, so I guess they shared that. Isis was an Egyptian goddess, they found Egyptian coins in Colossae with the goddess Isis on there, goddess of nature and magic. Serapis is the next one, and this one is interesting. I think Serapis, that's top right, is that the one I'm on? The guy with the thing on his head. Serapis is interesting because when a bunch of Greek rulers took control over Egypt, they realized they had a problem and they realized these Egyptian people worship these gods and we worship these gods and that's gonna be a, it's gonna be hard for us to get together on anything because we don't see eye to eye on that. So they made up a new god and this is one of the gods they made, Serapis. And on his face in his hair they made him look Greek, so when you see his face you're like well that looks kind of like a Greek thing, you know he's got the big flowing beard and whatever. But apparently these statues of him, he's clothed in Egyptian clothing and it was like a compromise. Like hey you have yours and we have ours but let's make a new one that we can share and we can agree on this and so they invented this guy and I don't remember what he was the god of but it doesn't really matter since they made him up out of nowhere. Athena, goddess of wisdom, Demeter, god of the harvest, Hijia, goddess of hygiene, cleanliness, health, interesting. Helios, god that was a god of the sun, actually the personification of the sun. Tyke, the goddess of cities, she protected cities so she would be a goddess that every city would want her to protect them, that she would have been in a lot of different places. Seibelly, the great mother, Hecatey, the goddess of magic, on and on and on and on you get the idea, okay. All these gods all over this area and nobody in this region at this time thought. No one, it's hard for us to get this. No one thought we all know Zeus is the only real god. No one thought that. Nobody said well all those idiots that worship Athena. I only worship Hecatey. I mean how stupid do you have to be to worship? They just worshiped all of them. It was just not a thing. It was just very pluralistic even to the point where if you want to make up a brand new one, fantastic. We'll add him in. He's as good as any of the others. So very very pluralistic. Anything goes. And because they were very pluralistic, go back to the four words there. They were also very syncretic or you can say syncretistic either way. Syncretic or syncretistic. Syncretism was common and what that means is you take different religions and you mix them and you get something totally different in the end. And if you want to see that where I've seen that most clearly is in South America when you go to visit a Roman Catholic Cathedral. If you'll get somebody to give you a tour and explain lots of the parts in it. The last time we went I went to one was in in Cordoba, Argentina and they took us in and they said look the Spaniards came here and they made everybody become Catholic. They just said you know gun to your head you're a Catholic now. Okay I'm a Catholic. Great. And then they said build this cathedral. Build this church for us. So these guys are building this church and they sort of give them some direction but they also give them some leeway. And so they're pointing out all over the cathedral. And the thing that stood out to me the most is that we walk to the very middle and they say look straight up. So we walk to the very middle up there at the front in front of the altar and you look straight up and then it's way up there right big steeple thing goes way up there. And the guy says what do you see right at the very very very top. Forget all the pictures on the sides. What's on the very top? They say well it looks like a son. It is a son. Guess what these people used to worship before they were Catholic. The son and they built that church and they said huh we'll show you. We'll put your statue of Jesus right here and we'll put this statue here and we'll paint this guy on the wall here but at the very top goes our guy. And they took two things and they just mixed them together. That's syncretism and that was very very common in Colossae. People had this idea okay. You got to understand this seriously. You can just mix faiths just blend them together. This is like cafeteria style first style theology right. When you go through first you go through and you say if you're like me you go through the whole line and you say I don't want any of this but some of my friends who work here at the church like Corey go through and they say what do you get from the meat. What are you gonna pick? We'll pick something. Salisbury steak says mmm that Salisbury steak looks delicious. The baked fish looks kind of funny today so I'm gonna pass on the fish and I'm gonna take some Salisbury. You get down to there to the potatoes. You're going with french fries or mashed. Mashed. Pass on the french fries. I don't want any of that but I'll take some of this. Then you get down to that what did you say? Brown gravy. Brown gravy on the mashed. Then you get down to the vegetables. What are you taking in green beans? Asparagus. You always get asparagus when we go eat. Not dieting. You just got brown gravy. The diet's off. Fried okra and mac and cheese. I'm gonna pass on the salad. I'm gonna go with the fried okra and the mac and cheese and you go through and you take a little bit of this and you don't take whatever you want. That's syncretism. I'm gonna take a little bit of this one but not all of it and I'm gonna take a little bit of this one but I don't want any of that and I'm gonna take a little bit of this and I'm gonna make my own thing and it's just gonna be this mix of whatever. Lastly they were very ascetic. A seticism was common and so you can read about people in this area. It was it was not unusual for them to mutilate themselves in an attempt to control the spirits around them. It would not be unusual if for example they went to the witch doctor or the shaman because their kid was sick and he said well you need to cut your finger and squeeze the blood out of it. Crazy things. I mean they would physically hurt themselves thinking that that would control these little deities, little g-gods. Self-denial things like fasting from certain foods, refraining from certain activities all in attempt to not to honor the gods but to control them, to manipulate them, these gods and these spirits all around them. So that's the religious climate. I'd back up from that and I say okay how does that compare to the United States? On the one hand you look at that first one and you say we're not as animistic as a lot of people around the world, okay? People in the United States, people in Western Europe tend to believe that there is a god up there but this is the physical world and spiritual beings don't have a whole lot of impact. That's how we live day-to-day and you know that's true. You can say oh no no I believe in spiritual beings and I say great but if your kid gets sick are you going to call me to pray for him first or are you going to call the doctor first? 99 times out of a hundred you're going to call the doctor first and then you may ask me or somebody else to pray for him but the fix for you is a physical fix. They need a pill and so we tend to not think in terms of these spiritual beings. At the same time just look at the movies we like. Look at the movies in the United States that make a lot of money and tell me we don't want to believe in spiritual unseen forces. I mean you just go down the list and I'm not picking on movies or telling you not to go to movies. I'm just saying we can deny it all day long in our everyday life but when we pay our own money to be entertained we have this built-in desire to want to believe in these unseen spiritual forces that have impact in day-to-day life in different ways and so I think that's I think that's true of us. Pluralism is definitely true in the United States of America as well as syncretism. I mean you go to the average church and you just poll the people sitting in a pew about what their beliefs are and what doctrines they accept and reject and then you compare that to quote-unquote orthodox Christianity. The faith once for all delivered to the saints passed down through the centuries and you'll say they're in a Christian church but they're not Christian. They don't even believe basic Christian doctrine and there's just this weird mix and there's certainly the idea that if you believe that that's good for you. I believe this it's good for me that's pluralism that syncretism asceticism probably not a whole lot of that in the sense that we're trying to control spiritual forces by hurting ourself but probably a lot of the idea that you can do things that will have spiritual benefit for you in the afterlife. You can be a good person you can do this do this not do this not do this and there's going to be a payoff for you down the road you can work your way in you can earn your way in you can be a good person if you die in your good person you go to heaven that's the idea well you did something or you didn't do other things and that somehow gives a spiritual benefit to you so very similar in that regards. So I think the letter and the things excuse me that Paul is saying to this church are important for us to hear. A couple things just about the church in the book and then we'll get into doctrines the church in Colossae was started by a guy named Epaphras and that happened while Paul was in Ephesus so fill that in and then look at a few verses with me go back and look at Acts 19 10 verse 1 and Acts 19 says it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth Paul passed through the inland country and he came to Ephesus and it says down there in verse 8 that he went to the synagogue and for three months he spoke boldly reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. Some of those people in the synagogue became stubborn and they continued an unbelief speaking evil of the way before the congregation so what do Paul do he would drew from them and he took the disciples with him reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus this continued for two years so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord both Jews and Greeks. So you got to listen to what Luke's telling you he's saying Paul goes to Ephesus he spends three months preaching in the Jewish synagogue until they get fed up and they run him off so when they run him off he takes all the believers all the Jewish believers with him and they go to the hall of Tyrannus which was like just a building there in town they go to this hall and that's where he starts preaching and he does that for two years so he's there for over two years the longest city he ever stopped at in all of his missionary journeys Corinth was about 18 months Ephesus was over two years but Luke says he's preaching in Ephesus at the hall of Tyrannus and what's the result everybody in Asia here's the word of God so Lucas go back to the map real quick will you so there's a map right you see the circle Colossae right there straight to the left part of the word is cut off on the left side of that circle you see Ephesus that's where he's at on the far west side of quote-unquote Asia and he stays there for over two years preaching boldly and the result is all of that area in Brown all those people hear the word of God now does that mean every single person no it's Luke's way of saying look Paul camped out right here in his ministry had such an impact that the gospel spread all the way through this whole province and here's one of the ways that that happened flip back to Colossians look at chapter one verse seven you just need to know Paul did not start the church in Colossae he was in Ephesus but there was a guy named a Paphras when you piece it all together you realize a Paphras went to Ephesus would not be uncommon for a businessman in Colossae to go to Ephesus he heard Paul preach and then he went back to his hometown and look at Colossians 1-7 it says you learned it you learned what the grace of God you learned about the grace of God from a Paphras our beloved fellow servant he is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf and he is made known to us your love in the spirit so the idea is there's this guy a Paphras who lives in Colossae he hears Paul preach in Ephesus and then as he's going back and forth he's preaching the gospel and starting the church in Colossae and then he's going back to Ephesus for business or travel or whatever and he's talking to Paul saying hey the church is going great people are believing people are being added and he's giving Paul these reports so a Paphras is the guy who started this church as just one side note tell you one of the men in Colossae one of the members of the church was a guy named Philemon you ever heard of Philemon nowhere in the Bible do you read specifically that he lived in Colossae but look at this look at Colossians 4 9 he's given some greetings at the end of this book and Paul mentions a guy named Onissimus and he says Onissimus is our faithful and beloved a brother and he is one of you he's from Colossae Onissimus is from Colossae you say I thought we're talking about Philemon who's Onissimus Onissimus was a slave that was owned by a guy named Philemon and they lived in Colossae and Onissimus ran away from Philemon and potentially that's where he ran into Paul was while Paul was in Ephesus and so he's saying here that this guy he's from your hometown you know who he is he's a believer he's part of us and so you can you can connect Philemon to the city of Colossae in that way one thing we know about the church there just a few details is that they met in homes okay you remember in in Ephesus he's preaching in the synagogue then the Hall of Taranis but in Colossae smaller community they're meeting in homes so look at Colossians 4 16 he says when this letter has been read to you have it read also in the church of the layout of scenes and see that you read the letter from Laodicea I'm sorry back up to verse 15 give my greetings to the brothers at Laodicea and to Nympha and the church in her house so we know in Laodicea the church is meeting in a home in that way and then you read the same thing in Philemon flip over to Philemon just a few pages to the right and you know Philemon lived in Colossae and he says Philemon verse 2 he talks about Afia our sister archapace our fellow fellow soldier and the church in your house Philemon had a group of people a church that meant in his home so that's what they're doing for church they're meeting in homes and I jumped ahead of myself and I read Colossians 4 16 it is interesting to note that Paul wrote a letter to the church in Laodicea we don't have it we have no idea what he wrote in that letter but we do know that he told the church in Colossae just right down the road hey you should read that letter I sent to them and you should give them the one that I sent to you you guys should read them and then switch so just an interesting fact there here's an outline of the book it's pretty pretty simple to lay out short introduction a section that talks about the supremacy of Christ some of the most amazing things about Jesus written in the New Testament written in that section the description of Paul's ministry that sounds like a boring section but it's really interesting then he talks about the danger of heresy that's sort of the reason that he wrote this letter in the first place then he explains what the Christian life ought to look like and then he wraps it up there at the end so we could spend a lot of time trying to break those sections down even further but instead this is not a really a long book we just give you a few big ideas and we'll read some chunks out of Colossians and we'll wrap it up first of all I want you to see theology in Colossians okay theology in Colossians and there's two basic ideas I want you to see the first one is this Colossians is God-centered as opposed to being man-centered okay you live in a time in a place where people are very me-centered self-centered and you can see that when you go to a bookstore and you see the self-section it's large and many volumes there because we're very concerned about the self and Colossians gives you a contrast it's a very God-centered book also you could contrast this with in Colossae they were tempted to be gods-centered little g gods-centered or spirits-centered or whatever pulse wanting these people to be God-centered and you see that in a couple of prayers right here at the beginning so look at Colossians 1 after he gives a few hello this is who I am I'm writing to you this is how he begins the book in verse 3 we always thank God the father of our Lord Jesus Christ when we pray for you right out of the gate he's praying and he's praying specifically to God the father of our Lord Jesus Christ we pray for you since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints how did Paul hear about that as far as we know he never went there well a paphras right he's going back and forth and he's telling him because of the hope that is laid up for you in heaven of this you have heard before in the word of the truth the gospel which has come to you as indeed in the whole world that is bearing fruit in growing in the whole world that makes you think of Luke 19 right the word of God spreads all the way through Asia while Paul's preaching their in Ephesus it's spreading all over the world it's bearing fruit and it's growing as it does so among you since the day you heard and understood the grace of God in truth you learned it from a paphras our beloved fellow servant he's a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf he's made known to us your love in the spirit so he starts off praying thanking God for them and then look at verse 9 here's a second prayer from the day that we heard about how great you are doing we have not ceased to pray for you asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord that's the inspiration verse for the hymn we sang just a minute ago fully pleasing to him bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God sometimes people talk to me and they say I don't know what to pray for people I don't know how to pray for people that's how you do it you don't say weird vague meaningless things like God please bless them God please please make them happy you say just if you don't know what to say you just read this and you say I am praying that you would be filled with the knowledge of God's will I'm praying that you would have spiritual wisdom and understanding I'm praying that you would walk in a manner worthy of the Lord I'm praying that you would be fully pleasing to God I'm praying that you would bear fruit in every good work and I'm praying that you would increase in the knowledge of God that's what you pray for people may you be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for all endurance and patience with joy giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints and light he's delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved son in whom we have redemption the forgiveness of sins here's why I think those prayers are interesting he starts off saying a paphras has told us how great things are going but what's his response to that not to pat them on the back but to say I thank God for how great things are going in your church it has nothing to do with you I'm thinking God for that he's focused on God and then he comes back around and he says we do want you know we have not stopped praying for you and we're not necessarily praying for all the sick folks we're not necessarily praying for all the problems and all those things we care about those things here's what we're really praying that you would have spiritual wisdom that you would walk in a manner worthy of your relationship with God and that you would know God fully in in a big big powerful way we want you to know him so he's very God-centered right out of the gate in any moves in a second direction that's very important Colossians not only God-centered but it's also Christ-centered and that's a really important important point for us today because we live in a country where most people most not all most people are pretty comfortable talking about God in general just he's up there but when you start talking about Jesus that's where people get uncomfortable that's where you start drawing lines in the sand and you can't have one truly without the other and so he moves from being God-centered to being very Christ-centered and look what he says beginning in verse 15 he's talking about the beloved son from verse 13 the one in whom we have redemption in the forgiveness of sins that son verse 15 he is the image of the invisible God think about that if you're these people who live in Colossae and you believe in invisible spirits right all these guys you can't see but they all have their statues everywhere so you can get a glimpse of them and Paul says look it's different with this faith it's not like these other guys if you want to know what God looks like you look at Jesus that's what he looks like he's the image of the invisible God he's the firstborn of all creation we hear the word firstborn and we think oh so he was the first thing that God made that's not what that means at all it means he's the supreme one over everything that has been made he's the pre-eminent one he's the most important in verse 16 explains it by him by Jesus all things were created sometimes we teach our kids a little question who made you God made me is that true yeah it's also true to say who made you Jesus made me that's what it says right there he made everything things in heaven and things on earth visible and invisible whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities all things were created through him and for him all those words thrones dominions rulers authorities in Paul's day they were words used to describe spiritual beings spiritual forces what we would call demonic spirits and Paul says look all these spirits that you're so concerned about Jesus made them he created them why are you messing around with them when you can know the one who made him silly verse 17 he's before all things and in him all things hold together that's an amazing verse in Jesus because of Jesus all things that means all things all things hold together and don't come flying apart crashing apart exploding sucking in whatever because of Jesus they all hold together in him verse 18 he's the head of the church head of the body the church and he's the beginning the firstborn from the dead that in everything he might be pre-eminent you can draw a circle around that word pre-eminent and draw a line down to firstborn in verse 15 those two words mean the same thing verse 19 in him the fullness of God was pleased to dwell again you're talking to people who have grown up thinking this little God this little God this little God this little God this little God Paul says no no no no there is only one God and in Jesus the fullness of God was in him he really was God in human flesh and through Jesus to reconcile to himself all things whether on heaven or in earth making peace by the blood of his cross so some amazing things he says about Christ and again you understand in the context he's saying to these people I want you to be God focused the one true God I want you to be focused on him not yourselves not these spirits focused on God I also want you to be focused on Christ it's not enough to just have a vague idea of God it's got to be centered and focused on Christ and that's certainly applicable to our day and age so here's how you apply this theological foundation that Paul lays out or this is how Paul applies it okay theology applied in Colossians three thoughts number one good theology results in a consuming passion for missions that doesn't necessarily mean that everyone in this room should be like the Apostle Paul and travel around and start churches but that most certainly means that when you really get the theological foundation in Colossians if you're not then moved to be serious about participating in missions somehow certainly praying but at least giving and or going both of those things are needed for missions right giving and going one's not more important than the other we've got to have both if you're not serious about it you really didn't get the theology that he started with you may be able to answer the questions correctly but it didn't get down in your bones all the way if you really get it it moves you to be committed to missions and so look what he says in chapter 1 verse 24 I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake and in my flesh I'm filling up what is lacking in Christ afflictions for the sake of his body that is the church does that strike you as an odd phrase that he says there is something lacking in Christ afflictions if you said that in church today like if I said that in the interview with the search team here when I was coming to be the pastor they'd say you're a heretic go away there's nothing lacking in what Christ did on the cross but Paul says there is something lacking it's not power it's not its ability to save said people don't know about it they haven't heard right that's Romans 10 how they gonna believe if they don't hear how they gonna hear unless somebody preaches how they gonna preach unless you send them they got to go because we believe these things about God because we believe these things about Jesus we're willing to fill up what is lacking in Christ afflictions meaning to take the gospel to those who have never heard it so he rejoices that through his sufferings he can do that he talks about jump down let's see what verse 12 to look at verse 27 to to them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of the mystery which is Christ in you the hope of glory verse 28 him that's Christ we proclaim warning everyone teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ you ought to underline that verse 28 where he says we may present everyone mature in Christ and you ought to get it through your head that when we do missions at our homes in the city of Odessa in the United States or in Kenya that's the goal to present people mature in Christ we're not in the business of quote-unquote saving souls and getting people to repeat a goofy prayer and shaking their hand and saying congratulations you're going to heaven someday we'll see you later that was not Paul's ministry Paul says my aim in what your aim ought to be is to present people mature in their faith that's how he defined his mission and this is not easy he says in verse 29 I've got a toil I've got a struggle good news I'm toiling and struggling with God's energy that he works within me flip over to chapter 4 look what he says about about missions in chapter 4 verse 2 continue steadfastly in prayer be watchful in it with thanksgiving at the same time pray for us that God may open to us a door for the word to declare the mystery of Christ on account of which I'm in prison that I may make it clear which is how I ought to speak number one pray for us that God gives us opportunity to share the word number 2 pray for us that when God opens that door we would be clear not funny not brilliant not entertaining if you teach a Sunday school class children or grown-ups or anywhere in between your goal is not to be funny your goal is not to be entertaining your goal is not for them to think how smart you are your goal is to be clear I want to be clear about this gospel so he says pray that we have this open door and pray that we can make it clear he says walk in wisdom towards outsiders making the best use of the time make the best use of the time you have how do you do that let your speech be gracious seasoned with salt so that you may know how you ought to answer each person watch your mouth make the best use of the time because God's going to open a door for you and when he opens it you need to walk through it and be ready to share the hope that you have in Jesus Christ so good theology results in a passion for missions second trusting anyone or anything but Jesus is pure folly you can look in chapter 2 starting in verse 8 for the sake of time we're not going to read it because we're almost running out of time here but you can go back and read Colossians 2 8 to 23 we'll just hit some of the highlights here moving real quick verse 8 don't let people take you captive by philosophy and empty deceit or human tradition or the elemental spirits of the world don't go back to those stupid gods and goddesses you used to chase after don't go back to that stuff jump down and look at verse 15 it says Jesus disarmed the rulers in the authorities and he put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him he's talking about verse 14 the cross at the cross Jesus disarmed all his spiritual enemies and then verse 16 down to 19 he says look remember all that asceticism stuff controlling your body and hurting your body quit worrying about food and drink and festivals and new moons and sabbaths quit worrying about asceticism verse 18 stop worshiping angels quit worrying about visions and spiritual experiences verse 19 whole fast to the head who's the head you flip back over to chapter one verse 18 Jesus is the head of the body of the church whole fast to him not all this other stuff verse 20 with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world when you came to faith in Jesus all that other stuff you were dead to that stuff quit submitting to all these regulations don't handle don't taste don't touch verse 23 is the kicker all of these things these old God you used to worship all these rules all this stuff it has the appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh they have the appearance of wisdom that talk show hosts may make it sound really good it has no value for you it is foolish for you to chase after that stuff when you can hold fast to the head of the body that is Jesus Christ last idea is this and this is sort of a summary of a big section salvation results in sanctification forgiveness thankfulness and worship and I just picked four words out you could you could put a lot more in there but this is this is if you're looking at the outline this is the section where he's talking about the Christian life if you really know Jesus Christ this is what your life ought to look like and it starts in chapter 3 verse 1 he says if chapter 3 verse 1 if you have been raised with Christ seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God set your minds on things that are above not on things that are on earth you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God when Christ who is your life appears you also will appear with him in glory and he talks about sanctification and what sanctification looks like in your life verse 5 you're putting to death the earthly things in you you've got to fight them that's not something you just lay back and wait for God to take care of you've got to kill it the sin in your life the sin in your heart the sin that comes out of your mouth you got to fight it and kill it put it to death and then verse 12 you have to put on what sort of things compassionate hearts kindness humility meekness patience bearing one and with one another if one has a complaint against each against another forgiving each other is the Lord has forgiven you your salvation God has forgiven you ought to result in you being a forgiving person if you absolutely refuse to forgive other people it's a telltale sign that you have not truly experienced forgiveness from God in Christ regardless of what kind of Bible questions you can answer really doesn't matter you can impress me with all your Bible facts and Bible drill skills and all sorts of theological answers and ideas if you just say I will not forgive that person it's a sign that you have not been forgiven yourself period salvation leads to forgiveness not just of you but towards other people talks about thankfulness verse 15 and then verse 16 let the word of Christ dwell in you richly teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom singing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God whatever you do and word or deed do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God the Father through him so just a few ideas from this section about what the Christian life ought to look like so here's what we're gonna do we're gonna end with prayer and we're just gonna pray for our church and because of time this will be the last thing that we do tonight and here's what I would like you to do go to Colossians 1 and I want you to just look over verse 3 all the way to 14 I want you to look at some of the things that Paul prayed for this church about this church and I want you to pray them for our church the things that Paul asked God to do for them and in them I want you to ask God to do for us and in us and so I'm gonna give you a couple of minutes to pray on your own and then I'll close us up and we'll be finished. 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