Gnosticism, Forgiveness, Love, Unity / A Study From The Book of Colossians Chapter 3

All right, go ahead and open up to Colossians chapter 1. Colossians 1. I know Dennis left off in chapter 3. We're gonna be in chapter 3 very soon, but let's go to chapter 1 just for a quick review. We have about two months remaining for Sunday school Before the summer break, so I want to finish the book of Colossians probably two three.

Four more weeks maybe and then we have several points left in our doctrinal Study from the Morse corner Church statement of faith, so we'll finish Colossians. Try to get that done and then move on to that.

So before we pick up in chapter 3 just a quick summary of the book of Colossians. As you can see Colossians was written by well, you knew this of course, right. Who didn't know is written by Paul.

You all knew that.

Probably around the year 60 AD and the theme Generally accepted the theme of Colossians is the pre-eminence of Jesus Christ. Colossians is one of the prison epistles. What are the other prison epistles?

Who knows?

Marcus.

Ephesians Philippians Colossians and Philemon. Exactly.

So it's one of the prison epistles and we'll see when we study chapter 4 that Colossians and Philemon Were definitely written right around the same time and the others probably as well. So as I said, the theme of the book is the pre-eminence of Jesus Christ.

What does that mean? If you were to put it in your own words What would that mean? Christ is better. Larry Christ should be first. Okay, he should be first Marcus. Yeah. Okay. All right. Let's look at chapter 1 verses 15 through 18 Paul says about Christ He is the image of the invisible God the firstborn over all creation.

For by him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth. Visible and invisible whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers all things were created through him and For him and he is before all things and in him all things Consist and he is the head of the body the church.

Who is the beginning the firstborn from the dead that in all things he may have what? The pre-eminence. Okay, why should Christ have the pre-eminence well we learn this in verse 19 because it pleased the father that in him all the fullness should dwell and that's the fullness of Deity, so the fullness of deity dwells in Jesus Christ.

In other words, Jesus Christ is Divine he is God in human flesh and that verse in Chapter 1 verse 15 where it says he's the firstborn Overall creation. You remember the firstborn and the family had? Pre-eminence when the father would die.

The firstborn son would then be head of the family. So Firstborn is not Jesus being born in a moment in time that he's created. It's his rank is his position. Why was Paul writing the book of Colossians?

This is what we want to spend a few moments on. The answer is To give you a little hint the answer is on the screen. Yeah combating Gnosticism, how many of you know what Gnosticism is? Mark the other mark.

Right.

Right.

Okay, you're on the right track because Gnosis you get as you can see it spelled with a G. Gnosis means knowledge. So there's the select group that has this Secret knowledge or this hidden knowledge. What were you going to say?

Well, yes, it's they kind of worshipped.

Knowledge.

And.

As we read it we have to be careful that that's not true of us, right? I mean, it's it's great that you can recite the books of the Bible in 30 seconds or less, but just knowing that That doesn't really amount to anything.

All that does is help you find verses fast or something, right? So it's knowledge.

Has to be applied. It's it's got to be applied. Okay, so it's all about this knowledge something I've noticed today People tend to it sounds to me like some people worship Science, right? We're always hearing Science says everything if if the science says it it's as if God says it, you know, we we say okay if God says that that settles it but for the world It's well if science says it that settles it.

So that's kind of the knowledge That people worship to and we're we love science because science has done great things. But science doesn't actually say anything people say things based on conclusions that are sometimes Not always correct.

But anyways with Gnosticism It means knowledge gnosis means knowledge. How many of you have heard of the Gnostic Gospels? This was big years ago when that book came out the Da Vinci Code And then there was the movie There's the Gospel of Thomas.

That was kind of the big Gnostic Gospel so the Gnostics taught that the Old Testament God and you recognize the problem right there. They taught that the Old Testament God Did create the heavens and the earth he did create human beings, but he is not the true God.

They call him a demi-urge which basically means Being that subordinate to the true God. So they said that Jesus came as a messenger of the true God, but the Old Testament God was Well, essentially evil.

So this is the teachings of the Gnostics. So it's believed that Paul was writing to combat an early form of this and you'll even hear people today who? Call themselves Christians talking about the God of the Old Testament as Compared to the God of the New Testament as if as if they're different.

They're not different. So I would argue that Gnosticism Has kind of crept into some Church traditions and I think we're gonna see in a moment that even in our culture. There's this Gnostic idea I saw a couple hands Larry.

Did you have something a moment ago?

You know.

Conscience has science in it that con is with and science is knowledge. So that if we do something wrong.

Sin.

And we know that it's wrong. Our conscience bears witness so we're sinning with knowledge knowing that it's wrong. Okay.

Okay, Marcus a couple examples close to our church here. One is the University of Massachusetts Where so many of us work and at one time I thought wow. These people have never done a day's work in their life.

They've done nothing but gone to school Masters the doctorates taught and that's all they've ever done. It's all about information and it's about false Information. Yeah, but this Gnosticism. There's a on arrogance about it.

There's us they feel they're superior. It's like I'm sad to say every time we drive up the driveway Tolerant skepticism. Yes, right. Skepticism say oh, yeah, let those people up there. They can think anything you want.

They're just a bunch of realists fanatics and the poor and the poor guy is headed for hell. Yeah.

Yep.

Yeah, so Gnosticism say well, what does this have to do with Colossians to really understand? What Colossians is about why Paul is writing? We have to understand the purpose of why he wrote this letter in the first place.

So knowing this information should give us a little insight. So the whole reason Paul is saying that Jesus is the image of the invisible God and that he is the firstborn overall creation. The reason Paul is stressing the deity of Christ is because the Gnostics said that all material things are evil.

Therefore God could not or he certainly would not come in human flesh. So the Gnostics were denying the deity of Christ. That God would not take human form but they did say about Jesus that he was a emissary or a messenger of the true God who came to share this hidden knowledge or Gnosis with this select people who were in the know and then everybody else is kind of down here.

We're just the the peasants and we don't know any better. So that's kind of the Gnostic attitude that we are superior and We know it all. Well, yeah our government today that's what Kareem said not me, okay.

But how many of you have heard of the term spark of divinity. Well, there's been some very well-known powerful people who talk about the spark of divinity. The human beings have the spark of divinity that comes from Gnosticism.

The and also the idea of being non-binary Androgyny. There's no gender or it's fluid and you can kind of go back and forth. This is a Gnostic idea. The Gnostics believed to reach this state of divinity or to have this God consciousness.

You know, you wouldn't be male or female. So a Lot of the things being pushed in our culture right now Are very closely associated with Gnosticism. A rejection of the Old Testament. That's very common.

Non-binary select few having all the knowledge. So this is also relevant as well. The Da Vinci Code massive that was a best-seller. Everyone is reading. I was really big why because the ideas are popular.

Okay. Yeah.

And I think I know why the the gospel of Thomas did not become in scripture because he was the one that had to see to believe and It's our faith. We haven't seen him and yet we believe. So that's probably where he got ruled out.

He was probably.

Casting doubt on things. Yeah. No. Well in the gospel of Thomas was not written by Thomas. It was written in the second or third century and to make it appear legitimate They just attached a name of an apostle to it.

So it wasn't even actually written by Thomas. So Let's just wrap up this whole idea. The physical world we know is not evil when God created all things. What did he say it is it is good. It's very it is and yes, it is very good.

That's what he said about the creation. It's true. And there's always a Little bit of truth every lie. It's true that the creation is because of sin under the curse and it has been corrupted. That's true.

But what is Christ doing? Why did Christ come he came to redeem? Not only souls he came to redeem the creation.

So.

Gnosticism was declared a heresy in the early church. This is an early form of it. If anyone ever tells you a wide why don't you accept these other books the gospel of Peter the gospel of Thomas. Just know that.

This is a completely different idea of God.

And it's.

It's something that Paul was opposing here. All right, any final comments or questions on that. Peter's good. Peter is good. The gospel of Peter is not because it wasn't written by.

But.

It would be like me writing I don't know the gospel or not the gospel but.

I don't know.

But if I wrote a book about the life of George Washington, and I wrote it as like an autobiography. Entitled it, you know the life of George Washington. Well, I can't do that, but a thousand years from now if you didn't know any better.

Hey, it has his name on it. Maybe this was really written by him. So the gospel of Thomas not not legitimate. Okay, let's turn to chapter 3. So hopefully that should help us to kind of know where Paul is coming from and of course Dennis did cover most of the doctrinal points in The book of Colossians, so we're kind of picking up now where it comes down to practical Christian living.

The character of the new man that's starting in chapter 3 verse 12 and then verses 18 through 24. That's gonna get into the Christian home. We may or may not have have time for that. So look at Colossians chapter 3 verse 12.

He says therefore based on everything Paul has written about the doctrine. Therefore as the elect of God holy and beloved put on tender mercies kindness humility meekness and long-suffering so as Christians this is how we should live.

This is how we should behave put on tender mercies verse 13 bearing with one another and. And forgiving one another if anyone has a complaint against another even as Christ forgave you. So you also? Must do.

Okay, let's begin by asking a simple question chapter 3 verse 2 Paul refers he's writing and speaking to who the elect of God. I don't know about you when I was younger I vividly remember this somebody Told me that when the Bible talked about the elect or the elect of God that that's a reference to the Jews.

That's not a reference to Christians. That's a reference to the Jews. Here's the thing. That's that's true to a degree, but it's not completely accurate. So let's look up some verses just to find out Who the elect are?

Isaiah 42 let's turn there. And you know by now, what does elect mean? And chosen so the elect of God are God's Chosen or God's chosen people. I'm fairly confident if you walked into any evangelical church any Baptist Church.

If you ask a person who are the chosen who are God's chosen people? Yeah, they're gonna say the Jews are God's chosen people there's no the majority of people will say the Jews are God's chosen people and again, that's True in a sense, but who is Paul writing to the church at?

Colossians. So there's a lot of misunderstanding and I think it's helpful that we clear this up. And it should be an encouragement to you that if you believe in Christ, you are one of God's chosen people.

Isaiah 42 verse 1 Behold my servant whom I uphold My elect one in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him and he will bring forth justice to the Gentiles so you can see there's the He's distinguishing between the elect one and then there's the Gentiles.

Well, who is he talking about here? Jesus okay. All right. Now, let's go to Isaiah 45 verse 4. So that's true that Jesus is God's chosen or God's elect. So Jesus is God's elect. That's true. Look at Isaiah 45 verse 4.

For Jacob my servant's sake and Israel my elect. I have even called him my son You by your name. I have named you though. You have not known me. So not only is Jesus God's elect who else what other man is God's like Jacob Jacob is God's elect and Jacob had his name changed to Israel.

So the children of Israel can be called God's chosen people and in the Old Testament that is 100 true that in Kind of been shortened down to the Jews or God's chosen people in the Old Testament, correct?

So Jesus is God's chosen. Jacob was God's chosen his children grandchildren the children of Israel are God's chosen. Following along so far good. Okay Marcus.

This is why it was very wise of those that were trying to form a nation of Jewish people together. That they chose the name Israel.

Because.

Jacob's name was changed to Israel and If they wanted to take claim to the land they wanted to find the furthest back documents that said the land belonged to them and so.

Right to the right to the Old Testament. They went. Yeah. When the nation of Israel was constituted in 1948 there was some debate. What should we call it? Israel was one of the options and obviously that one out.

There were a few other options of what they were. Proposing that it be called. I bet you're thankful they called it Israel. Yeah.

Jim.

Verses in the Old Testament where it's Focused toward the Gentiles as well. Okay, because if you read it, it says I have even called me by their name. I have surname me. No, no has not known me. Okay, and that's.

Okay.

Go to Isaiah 65 one more verse in Isaiah.

So.

In the Old Testament the children of Israel were God's chosen.

People.

Isaiah 65 verse 9 I will bring forth Descendants from Jacob and from Judah an heir of my mountains my elect Shall inherit it and my servants shall dwell there. So it's very clear that the children of Israel in the Old Testament were God's chosen people.

But now here on the book of Colossians go back to Colossians 3 Paul is writing to the church at Colossae. Where is Colossae located? This is not it. This isn't Jerusalem. This isn't even in Israel Colossae this is a Gentile area.

So the Christians in Colossae would have been a mixture of Jew and Gentile let's just say for the sake of argument that 75 of the people in the Colossian Church were Gentiles and 25 were Jewish. Paul calls them.

What's that noise? As downstairs, okay, they got tambourines down. All right, so Paul is writing to who Christians right and he calls them God's elect. So in the New Testament in this age Christians are God's elect to me again.

That's that's an encouragement that Yes in the Old Testament. We read about God's chosen people. Amen. We still believe there's a future For the children of Israel, but right now it's believers in Christ who are God's Chosen people so because you are God's elect.

What should you do? You should live as God wants you to live. You are a follower of Christ. We we do what Christ Wants us to do. Okay, look at verse 12 again. Therefore as the elect of God holy and beloved.

So that's the encouragement to you this morning when God looks at you he sees you in Christ, he doesn't see all your faults and all your failures he sees Christ essentially go back to verses 1 and 3. 1 through 3 of chapter 3 Paul says if then you were raised with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ is.

Sitting at the right hand of God set your mind on things above not on things on the earth. For you died in your life is hidden with Christ in God. So when God looks to you, what does he see? He sees Christ.

Amen. Alright, so that's the teaching here in this chapter now, we're getting into the application. This is what should be on display in our lives. Look at verse 13 bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a complaint against another.

Even as Christ forgave you so you also must.

Do.

So let's go through some of these some of these attributes put on. Tender mercies. What does that mean. Tender mercies? Charity. Anybody else.

Just be in a forgiving.

Attitude toward all believers. Okay mercy. Yeah mercy is Loving kindness basically, so Jesus had a heart of compassion towards other people and Because that's who Jesus was and were his followers. Therefore we should have a heart of compassion Towards other people.

I think the general attitude in our Culture today is that you have a kind attitude towards others as long as they're doing what you want them to do. You're kind and you have a heart of compassion towards people as long as they agree with you.

Right. I mean that's kind of the way a lot of people are. That's not the way we should be we are called to love even our enemies. And that's a really difficult thing to do. But if the Spirit of God is within us Jesus loved his enemies when Jesus is on the cross.

What did he say? Father forgive them. They know not what they do. That's that's as Dennis would say a God thing, right? That's not something a human being would be inclined to do at all in general, especially not at that moment Larry.

I mean these are Characteristics of Christ's likeness and.

I.

Know for myself. You know, yeah, he's here. Don't ever pray for patience.

Yeah.

Yeah, you'll get tribulation. That's almost like in my life praying for compassion. Helping love My neighbors or to love other people. Sometimes you get somebody who's very hard to love. Yeah in your life and what it comes down to.

My attitude on how I respond to that person or.

People.

And It's very difficult, right.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

It's easy when again people they think like us they do what we think they should do. It's easy to love those people and be compassionate. Well, that's not what he's talking about here. It's just in general.

Yeah, and if you pray Lord help me to put on tender mercies He might bring someone into your life that makes you you know, that puts that to the test a little bit. Because here's the thing. There's somebody out there somebody.

At least with most of us that finds you or finds me hard to love but I can't imagine that. Well, it's probably true. Tony finds it hard to love my ties. But he's trying right? Yeah, okay. It's spring you're only gonna get more bright ties.

So.

Jesus had a heart of compassion towards others. We should do the same and then the next word is kindness.

Kindness.

We all know what kindness is. I don't think there's any need to Expand on that. Humility and meekness. The two are closely associated with one another. First meekness. What does it mean to be meek now?

I know if you attend Wednesday's. In the Old Testament meekness and humility. There is a place where it meant the same thing. Here there's a distinction. So meekness means what?

Yes.

Marcus yes you.

I call it controlled strength.

Controlled strength, okay. That's a good answer Stacy. Gentleness. Exactly so here. The Greek word translated humility literally means to have lowliness of mind. So we you know if you're the best at something you don't go around telling people you're the best.

Or if you think you're really good at something, you know, what is Proverbs 27 to say. Who knows that verse? Proverbs 27 to know. Let another man praise you and not your own mouth a stranger and not your own lip.

So if you're really that great someone else let them praise you but have lowliness of mind. So we we should not think highly of ourselves. We should love ourselves and self-esteem. There's all some valid points to all that but we don't want to think highly of ourselves.

Certainly not more than we should but meekness is a little different. It's it's gentleness.

Jen.

Yeah.

Yeah, if you are really kind you would do what I want. You would think the way I think you would accept Everything. Of course the people who see you know in all fairness I think they'd have to recognize this even they don't do that.

I mean nobody is accepting of everything like tolerance. Right, well, I know. Well, then you should be inclusive too. You should be inclusive of Christians and the way we.

And.

I'm not saying to do this in a confrontational way. But 99 of the time when somebody throws something at you like that, just turn it around on. They say well, do you do that? And then because usually they they don't but I mean, that's the way people are.

That's across the board. Yeah. Well, this list is can't help but be reminded of the fruit of the Spirit. And depending on your translation, you know gentleness and gentleness and kindness are different things and If you take a different translation, you'll have different but they're so similar, but the way to achieve these of course is that To put off the old self.

Put the old self to death that means you the old you before you were saved as Just plain got to die.

Right and.

With gentleness and kindness remember when we do talk to other people the goal is not to Tell them they're wrong or to prove them wrong. The goal is to win them over. Because you can say the right thing but have the wrong motivation.

Just to kind of say I'm correct and you're wrong. Well, the goal is to show them what the Word of God says and to win them over to Christ. So we need to be wise and how we.

Interact.

Yeah, all right. One more question. Sure question.

Who wrote how to win friends and influence people.

I'm supposed to know this.

Anyways, I read it nice. I found there was some really good good examples of ways to. To make conversations with people to just find out if they're friendly or not.

There you go. Who is it? Dale Carnegie. Dale, you know Carnegie. It's a good one. It's a good.

There's good ways to.

This is our conversation. That's what. Yeah.

What's that said. That book is almost as old as I am being out when I was a kid. And here those two people were talking the same time.

That book is this almost as old as I am.

All right, if you want a good read check it out. Okay. All right. So Christians should be humble if there was ever a man Who had the right in a reason to boast who was it? Christ and here he is God in human flesh having all knowledge and wisdom.

He is the only man who is ever perfect but because he was perfect he didn't boast and. Then meekness again refers to gentleness. So Jesus, I don't know if this is necessarily the same as gentleness, but I think of Jesus as being Accessible, you know the common man Could approach him and he would spend time with people that nobody even wanted anything to do with.

And this isn't necessarily their fault. But if you think of the the famous religious leaders today the famous pastors today I'm sure many of them would take time with the common man So to speak if they could but they're very much inaccessible, right?

There's no way you could ever get a meeting with some of these guys. Jesus would just go from place to place. Little kids remember one time the their children came up to him and the disciples were Irritated like get these kids out of here.

And what did Jesus do he he rebuked his disciples took the kids up into his arms and and blessed them. So Jesus was accessible. He took the time for people that couldn't do anything for him. But that wasn't what it was about.

He wanted to do something for them. So that should be Our attitude as well. Yes.

King James puts part of that verse Humbleness of mine and it just brings to mind what you're just saying about Jesus. I mean he was a king. He was God, but he didn't. He didn't walk around saying that's who I am.

He was humble in his mind. Right so that he could associate with those that were.

Jesus.

Jesus. Yeah, Jesus, even though he was God in flesh. He really was the king of Israel. That was his rightful Position. He didn't go around telling everybody. Now there are reasons for that. And of course today is Palm Sunday.

This was the day that Jesus revealed himself as as the king. Also Paul talks about forgiving one another. Just when it comes to forgiveness how many times has Christ forgiven you. 490 and then 491. Sorry pal.

Right.

Yeah, I mean, you know the answer is Higher than you can count. So if Jesus has forgiven you what is that? It's probably not that much but it might as well be. But if the Lord has forgiven us that many times Again, that should be our attitude.

We should forgive.

Forgive others and he's forgiven us even without us knowing That we have done something to offend.

And he forgives us freely. You don't have to do penance and say 50 prayers and you know walk around on your Hands and knees on broken glass all afternoon. He just freely forgives. There's still consequences to what things that we do wrong, but Jesus really forgives Larry.

Yeah.

To some degree. And it says also in Scripture that if you do not forgive I Can't remember if it's your brother or if you do not forgive then God Will not forgive you.

Right. There was an incident. I think it was last year where a police officer I know that if it was a woman she. She went into an apartment maybe and shot somebody. I forget I forget the exact details, but she shot somebody.

Who you know, it shouldn't have happened and she went to court and she was on trial and you know there's one of those white cop and a black individual and the the victim's brother. Asked the judge can I go in and hug the police officer and maybe pray with her.

I think he gave her a Bible. I Don't know what the guy's theology was, but that's about the strongest Christian witness that you're ever gonna find.

Yeah, right.

Well, as long as you brought up police work. Flashbacks are coming. Okay, but it was a good thing. And in interperson relationships, which is what we're looking for. To make friends out of people and then make them brothers in Christ or sisters in Christ.

All right police and their interaction with other people is Confrontative. It's it's a hand-to-hand combat. Sometimes it's weapons, you know, it's not not pleasant but God taught me things from Scripture.

One is in Proverbs that What is it. A soft answer.

Turneth away wrath.

And so when these guys are all wild and want to fight or insult you or whatever. Just say easy boys easy boys because you can you know, you can pick a fight. I didn't pick a fight with anyone.

Yeah, easy. Just insult them. Yeah, that's one of my favorite verses from Proverbs. A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger just how you respond. Can kind of set the course.

Yeah, yeah.

We don't even All right now Jesus we talked about love and being Christlike and tender mercies at the same time. Jesus was not one-dimensional. There were times Jesus had a righteous indignation. So there are times.

Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes 3 1 to everything. There is a season a time for every purpose under heaven. So there are those rare moments where you need to be Firm at the very least firm but 99 of the time.

Be humble be gentle 100 with being humble, but Jesus there were those moments. Paul there were those moments and If there is an incident where somebody does something to you or they say something they do something.

I always say for unity's sake if you can let it go, but please let it go. But there are times where you can't let it go and that's understandable. There are times maybe where you shouldn't even let it go.

That's when you go to the person directly and as Respectfully as you can you say here's what you said, or here's what you did and that really hurt my feelings. Or it made me feel this way. Most of the time they didn't intend to do that.

But if they did there's a process that's Matthew chapter 18. You might need a little mediation. But you know most of the time if we just follow these basic principles in Scripture We're going to resolve all of these.

Problems. Yes.

Ecclesiastes. I was thinking chief. Is there a time to kill and there is a time to kill and a time to heal of course? It's great contrast is what he's talking about right. So there is a time to kill.

Yeah, that's true. Okay verse 14. But above all these things put on love which is the bond of Perfection it's also translated the bond of unity. Okay, so love is the bond of Unity. I think I try to preach a sermon on unity at least once a year.

If not more than that, but at least once a year because love Really is the glue that binds us together. Love is what holds it together a love for God a love for one another. And I think one of the reasons why this church has had unity is because there is an emphasis on Doctrine and and we know these things.

So you don't have to wonder well. How should I handle this or what is right? And what is true? Because the the truth has been taught and reinforced that that helps us with unity and then just being Compassionate and letting things go and in thinking the best of someone.

That well, they didn't mean it that way or they're not trying to do this because when someone Does do something they shouldn't or they stop being respectful and considerate that has a ripple effect but when people Are doing the right thing?

We just have that kind of placid water and everything's calm and I'm thankful for The fact that this church is it's more or less like that. You know most most of the time so we're We're very blessed to have that here verse 15 and let the peace of God rule in your hearts to which also you were called in one body and Be thankful so he talks about the peace of God.

So speaking of sound doctrine and kind of reinforcing things who knows what I'm gonna say right now. The peace of God, how do you have the peace of God? Further there is a prerequisite for having the peace of God.

And what is that? Understanding scripture. Prayer see no one can read my mind. I'm gonna have to do another sermon on this Believing in God. Yeah, all right, these are these are all good answers. But to have the peace of God you must first have peace With God and some of you what you're saying is along the same lines.

So let's flip back to chapter 1 again just for a moment. So just a simple thing to remember a person cannot have the peace of God. Right, we talked about the peace of God that Surpasses all understanding you can't have that until you first have peace with God.