Colossians - Part 2 — Paris Reidhead

The Structure of Colossians and the Doctrinal Section

For you that are making outline notes, I'd like to suggest that five divisions to the epistle to the Colossians that I see, others the four or some six, but Roman numeral one in my outline is Introduction, Colossians 1, verses 1 through 14.

And there are two sections to that, A, Apostolic Greeting, verses 1 to 8, and B, A Prayer for the Church, verses 9 through 14. Today we come to the second section, the doctrinal section, verses 12, chapter 1, verses 12 through 29.

And if we can, we'll go into the polemical section beginning with the second chapter. But beginning now with rather verse 15, I have a typing error here, verse 15, verse through 29. But it's difficult to begin after a colon, so let us go back to the beginning of the prayer, that you might walk worthy of the Lord, and that's verse 10, unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might according to His glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness, giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in life, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son, in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins, His Son Christ, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature.

For by Him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created by Him and for Him, and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.

Prayer for Insight into Paul's Teaching

Let us pray. Father, we thank Thee for this portion of Thy Word. We ask that our eyes may be opened to see that which Thy servant Paul intended to convey by the inspiration of Thy Spirit to the church at Colossae, and then that we may see how this applies and relates to our day and our time and our lives.

May the application be not only for a few moments of insight here in this class, but as our doorbells ring and people begin to present to us other points of view and other philosophies, perhaps we ask Thee, our Father, Thou wilt be able to give us the insight to see how it relates to this ancient heresy that the Apostle had recognized and was countering here in this epistle.

So minister to us that we in turn may be able to minister to others, and for all that Thou dost do, we'll give Thee thanks. In Jesus' name, Amen. The Gospel had come to Colossae under the ministry of Epaphras.

The Rise of Gnostic and Ascetic Heresy at Colossae

Epaphras has now gone to Rome to meet with Paul and to discuss with Paul a heresy which has come into the church by a group of intellectual, renegade, theologically renegade Jewish people that were in this dispersion as it were, living in Colossae or Laodicea, which was about six miles away, or Hierapolis, which was about 12 to 13 miles away.

And in this little community in the Lysis River, these three churches, all of them had been founded by Epaphras, and now they are being assaulted by this heresy, apparently, as I say, from Jews who had taken the ritual of the Old Testament of the Pharisees and combined it with the philosophy of Plato, which in these nearly 350 years, since it had been promulgated by Plato and then later in the school of Plato by Aristotle and others, now it's come down to the place where it is a rather coherent, complete system, not yet given a name.

A name it will acquire in another hundred years is Gnosticism, but right now it is just teachings and ideas. All the structure of Gnosticism is there, but it hasn't been so designated as a movement at this time.

But here in Colossae is where we see this first push of this heresy. And in its essence it's this, that all matter is bad. Everything physical is bad. That only spirit is good. That basically, as it is taken by these erstwhile Jewish intellectuals, when God made man, he made him spirit.

And then when man sinned, God created man. And then when man sinned, he created the physical world in which to put man, giving man a physical body, which is the prison of the spirit. And of course, this is a total contradiction, isn't it, to what the scripture says?

Because it tells us that when God made the world in those first days of creation, he looked at what he had made and he said it is good. And then when he made man with all of his urges and drives and propensities and appetites, he looked at man and he said it is very good.

That's forgotten by these heretics. And so their teaching is that the body is bad, all matter is bad, and that matter is under the control of Satan, and that Satan has a myriad of angels that administer this physical creation for him, and that though the sacrifice of Christ, admit the Jewish heretics, was effective for past sins, in no wise could Christ, who was a spirit, be able to do anything about the physical world, which was under the control of Satan.

Now you see where the heresy comes in from the platonic thinking as it's moving on down. So that this whole world of the physical has to have a new type of ascetic discipline. They have to submit to circumcision.

They have to submit to festivals. They have to submit to dietary regulations and control. They can't eat this and they can't drink that. And the rule is touch not that and taste not this and handle not the other, because matter is bad.

And that's assaulting the church. And so they are being instructed by the heretics that there are certain angels that they have to pray to, to act as intermediaries between them and the ruler of the God of this world, because the sacrifice of Christ was not sufficient.

Now that was what was being taught. So the apostle is handling that heresy. And look what we read in the thirteenth verse, who has delivered us from the power of darkness. Well we know that when the Lord Jesus spoke he said of Lucifer that he was the God of this world.

No question about that. There isn't any argument on that score. But he's delivered us from the power of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.

Christ as the Answer to Heretical Teaching

Now he is proceeding to say that Christ is the head of the church and Christ is the answer to all of those heretical insinuations or teachings of the group that were there. So in the fifteenth verse and from fifteen to seventeen we find that the theme is the glory of Christ the Lord.

First in verse fifteen, in Christ God becomes visible, who is the image of the invisible God. God has now clothed himself with human flesh. He has taken upon himself human body, a body like unto ours in all points similar, save without one difference, yet without sin.

And so the apostle Paul has made it clear that in Christ God has become visible. He is God incarnate. He is very God of very God, which again is an answer to one segment of this calumny that matter is bad.

But if it were bad, why would God clothe himself with human flesh? Then the second verse sixteen, in Christ nature becomes intelligible, for by him were all things created. He created. It wasn't created for any other reason than to please the Father that it so should be created.

All things were made by him. Things that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, they were all made by him. Now you understand that this is striking right at the root of that heresy of Gnosticism, that matter is bad and that it was the result of some second thought when there had to be a prison made for spirit.

Now in Christ all of nature becomes intelligible. It was all made by him and it was made for him and the reason and the purpose was that it might be to the glory and the praise of God. And this means not only the material universe, but the thrones.

Christ as Creator of the Unseen Powers

Now we're coming to Lucifer. He was made, he was created by God, an angel with superior intelligence and ability and power and beauty that he might serve as the prime minister over the other created beings.

And he was made by God. Thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. So that whole hierarchy of unseen beings were made by God, were created by him. Indeed they sinned. And indeed we are told they were cast out of heaven.

And indeed they are told, we are told that they have become, that Satan said Lucifer said he'd put his throne above the throne of the most high. But initially God made them and God made them for a purpose.

So it is established that all of nature, everything that is, was created by him and all created for him. Then in the seventeenth verse we are told that in Christ all things are held together. He is before all things and by him all things consist.

Christ Sustains the Created Universe

Now I seldom make any effort to mix science with teaching of the word because I've spent a lot of time working with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship through the years and university people. And I've had my ears pinned back royally on occasion because I usurped, I said when you teach the word splendid but when you get into physics you lose your credibility.

When you get into science. Still it's an awfully, awfully strong temptation. So I usually qualify for it by saying I'm an expert on scientific matters because I regularly read the Reader's Digest. And that ought to qualify me and it also ought to categorize me.

So that you know that if I use an illustration I'm doing it very gently. But I remember one article that I think I partially comprehended at least in minor areas that said that matter was made up of energy.

And that all matter was made up of energy. And the different forms of matter were simply the different configurations, constellations if you please, of those various particles of energy. And that their relative distance between the particles might be similar to what we see in our own constellation, where we live, where we are related to other planets.

But they're there. All matter is made up of energy. And then it went ahead to explain that this is why Einstein's theory or formula energy equals mass times the speed of light squared had relevance. And that there was tremendous power in the atom.

And when it would dissolve or separate it there was vast explosions. Well I don't know what I'm talking about other than to say this, that if those little particles of energy stay in uniform relationship until next Sunday, so that when you come in next Sunday this piano has not exploded it's because the Lord Jesus Christ held it together for another week.

That's what I'm trying to say. By him all things are held together. They consist. He made it out of energy and he holds it together. That's what I'm trying to say. So I'm not asking you to either approve or disapprove of my minuscule knowledge of physics.

I want you to understand the grand theological truth that long before there was ever an Einstein he said by him all things are held together. Now that's high science. Because when they try to tell us that the universe was created by the great bang theory I don't object.

I'm just saying that when they came together he put them together and he holds them together because by him were all things made. If he wanted to use a great bang or a little bang it was up to him. I don't care about that.

The scripture says that he is before all things and by him all things are held together. I like that. That gives me a lot more insurance than if it was just a great bang. It might unbang sometime if that's all there is.

But to think that there's someone who has infinite wisdom and infinite love and infinite power who holds it together. I'm not going to worry about this piano exploding over the next seven days. It'll be here when you come back.

Because he'll hold it together. But it also explains why Peter was so confident when he said that the time would come when all these things would be dissolved with a fervent heat. I don't think he had any idea how fervent that heat could be.

If the Lord says unbe it will be fervent. It will be fervent. But until he says unbe it's going to stay together because he's holding it together. That's the teaching. He made it and he holds it together.

And it's not going to relax and fly apart until he's through with it. Oh I love that. I can get a lot of consolation out of that. That's better to me than going to sleep with my insurance policies under my pillow.

I just like that. I like it. Then the next thing. The immediate purpose for his saying all of this in these previous two verses was to annihilate the error which placed the limit on the work of Christ.

You see doesn't this just take the blow the boundaries away. He made all things and he controls all things. And don't you try to tell us that there's a limit to what he accomplished by his death. The only limit is what he had in his mind and heart and purpose.

And then he's also countering this attack on material things which these Judaizing heretics said were evil. But now we're told they were created by him and for him. Now in verses 18 to 20 we see that second section in this doctrinal section.

Christ the Head of the Church

Christ the head of the church. In verse 18. And he is the head of the body the church. Who is the beginning the firstborn from the dead. Christ is in a living spiritual relationship only to the church.

To the church. To the church. And only those which are in members. Now when we speak of the church in this context are we talking about the organization. Not particularly. Because we realize that often in the organization you will have a variety of bases on which people affiliate.

So we're talking about that which is his church. The one to which the individuals have been born into his family made partakers of his life. It may include all the members of any given church. And again it may not.

But it does include everyone who's passed from death to life and been born in his spirit. And we're speaking of it as the church in the singular in which all of the redeemed of all the ages are a part and of which Christ is the head.

So he's in living spiritual relationship with this body which is the church. Now he is also the beginning the firstborn from the dead. You see he is before all things were made. He is by him all things were made.

So now the firstborn of all creation becomes the firstborn from the dead. He has come into time. He's been clothed with human body and personality. He's identified himself with his people. He has died their death.

He has been buried and he's been raised again from the dead. And he is the firstborn of the dead. Just as he was the creator of all things now, he is the firstborn from the dead. Why? So that around himself as the living center, he gathers this new humanity and forms this new body, his church.

He's the firstborn from the dead and now all that are born again who had been dead in sins are united to him. And he's in this living spiritual relationship only with his church but to his church. And in verse 19, for it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell.

All the fullness pleased to dwell in Christ. All the fullness? What's that mean? All the fullness of the Godhead bodily. This is the fullness as well as the fact that there is no domain left in the universe in which the absolute supremacy of Christ is not affected.

Because all fullness dwells in him, he is in charge of everything everywhere. All authority in heaven and earth is given unto me. In him dwells all fullness. Now the Colossian heretics imagined such a domain into which Christ and his work did not reach.

They had postulated that there was areas in which Christ was not in control, not effective, that had to be dealt with by circumcision, by festivals, by feastings, by fasting, by... Go back again to the period of the church 200 and 300 and 400 years after Christ when you have the flagellantes carrying the whips as I told you last week, getting a crowd of people talking about how horrendous the flesh is and then to show their abnegation of the flesh, taking these whips and lashing, throwing the flesh from their backs.

Abnegation of the flesh, denigration of the flesh. This is what was being taught to the church at Colossae. You've got to abuse, you've got to hurt and injure and bring the body under in that sense. This is what they're teaching at Colossae and he's being told, they're being told now that this system that they were, that they've invented whereby a Christian could protect themselves from this area that Christ's death was not effective is nonsense.

There isn't such a place because the death of Christ is effective. He controls the universe and since he's the firstborn from the dead and has all power and in him dwells all fullness, don't ever talk about some area that he's not adequate for.

Reconciliation Through the Blood of Christ

Then in verse 20, and having made peace through the blood of his cross by him to reconcile all things unto himself, by him I say whether they be things in earth or things in heaven, there is absolutely no area in the universe that the death of Christ is not effectual.

This is what we're being told. Now we come to the third section of this doctrinal section of Colossians, verses 21 to 23, wherein the Colossians are reminded of what Christ has done for them and you is the way it begins in verse 21.

Oh how marvelous it is that God loved us when he knew the worst about us and he's the only one who has. If most of our friends knew about us what we know about us, they wouldn't be our friends any longer.

But on the other hand, if you knew about them what they know about themselves, you wouldn't want to be their friends either. So it's the two-way street. But how marvelous it is that God loved us when he knew the worst about us.

And you know, there's nothing we'll ever find out about ourselves that'll make God change his mind about loving us. Isn't that comforting? If he knew the worst of us, we, you know, sometimes think of ourselves like onions.

We take off one layer and say, oh isn't that bright and sunshiny and white and shine? Oh it's lovely. Except like an onion, it turns yellow after a while. We pile this another layer under that. But God could see right through all the layers.

And he loved us when he knew the absolute worst about us. And there's nothing you'll ever discover about you that he didn't know. And nothing you'll ever discover about you that'll make God change his about loving you.

Oh I'm so glad to know that. That's so comforting to me. And he says, and you who were sometimes alienated, you were aliens, foreigners, and enemies in your mind. Isn't it wonderful to know that God is never the enemy of the sinner, but is always the other way around?

The sinner is the enemy of God, for the carnal mind is enmity toward God. Didn't say that God had enmity toward the carnal mind. The carnal mind is enmity toward God. You were enemies to each other and to God by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled.

He recognizes their past. They need to recognize. They were alienated through efforts of an alien power. They were enemies in regard to the mind. And the whole moral bent of their minds and their deeds also were wicked works.

But in verse 22, in the reconciliation is in the body of his flesh through death. In the body of his flesh through death to present you holy, unblameable, unreprovable in his sight. When you were enemies, when you had wicked works, when you were aliens, to present you, you aliens, you enemies, he died to present you holy and blemishless and unreproved before him.

Holy means separate under God, opposite to alienation. Blemishlessness, of course, means without spot and unreprovable. No one can accuse you in any way. Now, it's put in such a strong way because the apostle wants to refute the heretics who claimed that such a state could only be attained by adhering to their own childish system of sacrificing, fasting, feasting, asceticism, all this ritual that they were there, don't eat this, dietary control, all of this adding to the work of Christ.

And he's saying, look, that's nonsense. Sheer nonsense. It's not on that basis at all. It's on the basis of the finished work of Christ. Martious condition. If you continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which you have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven, whereof I, Paul, have been made an minister.

Remaining Steadfast in the Finished Work of Christ

Colossians were troubled by these errors. Would they resist? Are they going to continue in the faith that rests on the finished work of Christ? Or are they going to be drawn into remembering this day instead of that day?

This baptism, baptism for the dead, this sacrifice, don't eat on this and don't do that. Are they going to continue in the faith, simply trusting in the finished work of Christ? Or are they going to start adding all these other things that are going to be thrust at them by those who have a philosophy that says matter is bad and that Christ's work didn't deal with that?

So, would they hold to the great gospel facts about the person and the work and the extent of the work of Christ? Or would they listen to those who come in and try to deceive them? Paul's if, voice is no doubt, it's not the if I think you're going to do it.

This if expects them to remain steadfast. But the if bids them to examine themselves. Are you listening to solid people that come to your front door and push literature on you? Have you begun to think maybe when your sister-in-law comes and says, you know, we found this wonder, what do you think the if?

Is it going to get to you? That's the if. Examine yourself. Are you going to be moved away from the faith and the finished work of Christ into some of these other things which are so pleasing to the flesh?

Look, why do you think the flagellantes did this? Oh, it nourished their egos. Satisfied that desire for conspicuousness. We are the people. So, well, at any rate, this is what the answer is. This is what the question is.

Will the Colossians let a few local eras separate them from this worldwide gospel? Now we look for just briefly to the next section, section four. Colossians are reminded of Paul's ministry, verses 24 to 29.

Paul's Suffering and Ministry for the Church

First, who now rejoiced in my sufferings for you. Paul's suffering as a minister-slave of Christ. These afflictions born because of Christ or by Christ's command, they're not imposed by Christ. Nor do these afflictions that Paul is experiencing resemble those of Christ.

Nor are these afflictions supplementing those of Christ. Just as Christ was afflicted by whom? By the God of this world. Read the Psalms and see who it is that's attacking the Son of God. Why, if you please, were there three hours of darkness?

Well, could it be because the prince of darkness surrounded the cross where God now has become vulnerable because he's taken upon himself your sin? What's happening there in those hours of darkness? It's the God of this world that's saying to this one with whom he contested back there long ago when our Lord Jesus said, I saw Lucifer fall as lightning from heaven.

We could go in at length into that. We shan't. Other than to say that the afflictions which Christ, which Paul endures, is the residue in the heart, if he has a heart, residue in the God of this world, in his hatred for Christ.

And because Paul is the minister-slave of Christ, he's being afflicted with a hatred that the God of this world has for Christ. That's what the affliction is. Not to add to the finished work of Christ.

No wise to supplement his work, but rather the affliction which Christ endured, now his church endures and shares with him. But he shares with his church. In Isaiah 63 verse 9, in all their afflictions, he was afflicted.

So when the hatred of the God of this world turned on Paul or turns on you, you can understand that the Lord Jesus may not extract you from it right away. He didn't certainly from Paul. But he was with him in it.

He didn't keep the three children out of the fiery furnace, but he was there with them. And sometimes people would like to think that if you love the Lord, you're never going to have a bee buzz around your ear.

But that's not the way I read it. That's not the way, I don't think that's the way it is in the Scripture. I find some people today who are talking about it as though since Christ does control all things, you'll come to him, you're never going to have any problems anymore.

But I didn't see it that way. If I understood, one of the clearest promises in the Word of God is, they that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. You know, when you start to sing that little chorus, every promise in the book is mine, every chapter, every verse, every line.

You better remember that. They that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. That is a promise. So when you sense it coming, don't feel you're deserted. Just say, well, like I heard one man, when he fell into the buzz saw and his leg got cut off, he had a great sense of predestination.

When he came to, his first words were, hmm, I'm certainly glad to get that over with. Well, I'm not sure that that's not the attitude to take at all. And many times the afflictions that we have, we deserve because we brought them on ourselves.

Now, I don't know how much he wants to get associated with that. Our social clumsiness and ineptitude and so on many times are the occasions for it. So let's not excuse our boorish behavior as sufferings for Christ.

Perhaps it would be well for us to distinguish between things that differ. But there is a certain kind of suffering that the apostle is experiencing, which is the wrath of the God of this world poured out on the children of God.

And in that is the Lord Jesus. So in verse 24, we are told how the apostle filled up what is lacking up, which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh. This is not again a part of the vicarious suffering of Christ, who said it is finished, but leftover hatred of the world toward Christ.

Saul of Tarsus heard Christ say when Saul was on his way to persecute the church up in Damascus, why persecutest thou the church's sufferings or blows struck at Christ? And the only way they can get to him is through his body.

The Mystery of Christ in the Gentiles

Now, the apostle then identifies in verse 25 that his ministry is for the benefit of the Gentiles, that he has a special mission to the Gentiles, that meant his offices connected him with the entire church.

His special service is to fulfill the word of God, that is to give the word of God its fullest measure, to give it in its fullest measure to the Gentiles. And what is this special message? It's the mystery, that which has been withheld, now revealed.

What? That the Gentiles are on identically the same basis as the Jewish believers are. And so here in Colossae is this high revelation, Christ in you, the hope of glory. Now, do you see, why do you need to go to angels?

Why do you need intermediaries? If Christ is in you, what need you for all this nonsense, these festivals, asceticism? Christ in you, that's the message freely given to the Gentiles, that Christ is going to indwell them with his own presence.

Presence. And in verse 28, his special message to the Gentiles, warning them, warning them, what? Well, look, if Christ is in you, should his presence make a difference? Look, if you were in your home tonight, tomorrow as a guest, would his presence make a difference?

The one, the blind man who said, Lord, I would receive my sight, the hungry, Lord, we haven't enough food to feed them. Lord, what are we going to do about this storm? That same Jesus were to come into your home as a guest tonight.

Do you think it would make a difference in your home? Wouldn't it? I do. Now, what he is doing is warning us that for Christ to live in you and for you not to have faith is going to bring consequences.

So you're going to be responsible when you stand before the judgment seat of Christ for all that you did that was bad. Of course, you know that. And you're going to be responsible for all that you could have done if you'd have let Christ be Christ in you.

So he's warning every man. He's teaching them that it's Christ in you, the hope of glory. But he's warning every man and he's teaching every man. Why? That he might present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.

So in the Ephesian letter, he says, Christ dwells in our hearts through faith. Faith. What's faith? Well, faith is the ability to see the difference that Christ will make in your life if you'll let him.

If he's in you, don't you think he should make a difference? Well, I think so. And that's what he's saying. He said to teach the Gentiles that Christ is in them. He's warning them that this is no little matter.

And he's instructing them that he may present every man fully mature and perfect in Christ Jesus. Because he doesn't want to preside over a playpen filled with spiritual babes and sort of pull that playpen behind him to heaven.

When he gets there, he goes, well, they're born again, but they're all just 70-year-old infants. They haven't grown up at all. Fighting, scrapping, fussing, can't walk, can't eat, can't work. Don't you feel badly if that were the case with all the children born into the homes of these families?

That they were just going on, still remaining with five, six-year-old mentality and ability? No, no. He wants to present every man full grown, up to stature, up to measure. That's what perfect means, mature in Christ Jesus.

And to a special effort, where unto I also labor, toiling, which is straining, agonizing, because he doesn't want to tow this playpen filled with babes into the presence of the Lord. He wants to see them all grow up into Christ.

Straining, he's toiling, laboring. Energy is working through him and energizing him to the same end, because God is just as concerned. You see, God's purpose is to make us like his Son. That's why in Romans Paul could say, we know all things work together for good to them who love the Lord, to them who are called according to his purpose.

Why? Because what's his purpose? For whom he did foreknow, he did predestinate to what? To be conformed to the image of his Son. God's purpose is not to make us famous, or wealthy, or powerful, or influential, or successful.

God's purpose is to make us in the image of his Son. Now, if in doing that, he can do these other things that we're responsible to use the gifts God gives us to the glory of God, the blessing of his church, fine.

But his purpose is to conform us to the image of his Son. So we got to understand then what Paul is doing. What's what he's saying to the church? Well, I was hoping I'd get through this whole next section, but I'll not be able to do it.

Prayer for Perseverance in Christ

I'll not even touch it. But I can lead us in prayer. Father, we're so delighted that we have this record of thy servant from a prison cell, a monarchy in prison in Rome, who wrote to the church of Colossae, dealing squarely with the problem, and then giving us this magnificent testimony as to why we could refute the heresy because of who Christ is, and what he's done, and what his purpose is for us.

We know that we're only subject to the heresies when we're failing to live in all that the Lord Jesus purchased for us. And so, Father, if we find our minds being assaulted, help us to realize that it's sort of like the garden, that the bugs only attack the plants that are undernourished and are not healthy.

And might it be, Lord, that we too should so be nourished in the things of Christ, that these heresies that would assault us will find no place in us, and that the Lord Jesus, the lamb that was slain, will in us see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied.

We ask our Father for thy blessing upon every home. Each of us have loved ones that have been assaulted by some of these teachings, right out of Plato, right out of history, coming in with new disguises and new garb.

But the same old heresy that thy servant refuted in the Holy Spirit armed us to fend off. Help us to be of service to them and to ourselves. And we'll give thee all the praise in Jesus' name. Amen.