WWUTT 042 Introduction to Colossians (Colossians 1:1-8)

The Apostle Paul wrote to the Colossians to make Christ preeminent, meaning that he is top.

He is above all else. There is nothing else to gain. We are fully satisfied in our

Savior. And we want to study this letter to the Colossians so that we might know Jesus is enough when we understand the text.

Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text as an online ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty, visit our website at www .utt

.com. Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes. Hey, we're back. Thank you so much for letting me have that time off.

It really wasn't time off. I was recording that entire time. But it gave me an opportunity to stay on top of these episodes a little bit better.

So thank you for giving me the opportunity to do that. We got some great emails in the meantime. Even got a couple of emails from some folks who had just discovered the program and said,

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So appreciate you so much subscribing to this program and listening to it daily. We are going to jump into a study in the book of Colossians.

We finished up our Philippian series. We did a mini series in the parable of the sower.

I had my one topical episode covering failed end times prophecies. But when it comes down to it, what

I enjoy the most is studying an entire book of the Bible at a time. So we're going to jump into a study of Colossians and today looking at Colossians chapter one verses one through eight.

If you want to turn in your Bibles and join with me there. Now if you're driving in your car doing something that you can't read along with me,

I will read it to you. But I still want to challenge you later on at some point, open up your Bible and read what it is that we discussed today.

In fact, I want to challenge you further. When we did a study of Colossians as a church,

I challenged the congregation to read through the entire book at least once a week, all four chapters,

Colossians one, two, three and four at least once a week. It helps to keep these things in context. Also you're reading ahead.

So when we get to that section, we start talking about it. We expose the text. You're going, Oh, this makes so much sense to me now.

I remember getting that from a few members of my congregation who would say, you know, I've read ahead.

I've read these things in advance and then we get to it and it's, and it's opening it up to me in amazing ways.

And so I want to challenge you to do that very thing at some point today, if you can read all four chapters of Colossians and keep these things in context as we go through this book together.

It is a wonderful book. Paul wrote to the Colossians, and in fact, here's an interesting stat about this.

I've read this from several scholars, so I'm not just coming up with this off the top of my head. It is the most

Christ centric book of the New Testament. The ways that Christ is spoken about here and elevated is incredible.

In fact, we have a word that comes up in Colossians that is not used anywhere else in the New Testament, and it's the word preeminent shows up in Colossians one 18.

But it simply means that Christ is top. He is above all else and we have nothing else to gain.

But Christ, we want to do a study of the book of Colossians so that we might learn that Jesus is enough.

We learn more about what it means to make Christ preeminent in our lives. So let's do that together as we embark on this study of Colossians.

Thank you so much for subscribing and joining me through this study. Before we get into the text, let's go to the

Lord in prayer. Our wonderful heavenly Father, we thank you again for another opportunity to read and study your word and get to know more about God and who you are, what you have called us to in Christ Jesus.

We would not know these things if it was not for your word. What a delight it is to hold it in our hands, to feast upon it with our eyes, hear it with our ears.

Fill us up with these things, God, and keep us meditating on it, not turning to the left or to the right, but steadfast and straight ahead on the path that is illuminated to us by the word of God.

And we thank you again for this opportunity. Guide us according to your spirit and we pray this in Jesus name.

Amen. Colossians chapter one, verses one through eight, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God and Timothy, our brother to the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae, grace to you and peace from God, our father.

We always thank God, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ. When we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints because of the hope laid up for you in heaven of this, you have heard before in the word of truth, the gospel, which has come to you as indeed in the whole world, it is bearing fruit and increasing as it also does among you.

Since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant, he is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf and has made known to us your love in the spirit.

Paul's letter to the Colossians, one of the prison epistles while he wrote under house arrest in Rome, yep, the same house arrest that he was under when he wrote to the

Philippians. However, even though Colossians comes after Philippians in Canon, Paul actually wrote

Colossians first. He wrote the letters to the Ephesians, Colossians and his letter to Philemon at about the same time.

In fact, it was those three letters that were being delivered by Tychicus and Onesimus all at once.

Here's another interesting fact about Colossians. I've heard several scholars say this, so this isn't just something that I'm coming up with, but Colossians is the most

Christ -centric epistle in the New Testament. The way that Paul talks about Jesus in this letter is incredible.

The wording that he uses, the worship that he gives to God through this letter as he is writing to the

Colossians, the ways that he talks about Christ. We have in this letter the word preeminent used, and it's the only letter that Paul uses that word in Colossians 1, verse 18.

We'll talk about that some more as we get deeper into the letter. Because Paul uses some wording in this letter that we don't find in his other letters, it has caused some skeptics to question whether or not

Paul actually wrote this. I think that's a very unfair assessment, however, because all things considered, we have a small body of work from the

Apostle Paul. Now it's true that we have more of Paul's work than any other writer in the New Testament, but it's still a small body of work, only 13 letters.

That's not much when you compare it to somebody like Charles Spurgeon, right? We have a whole library of stuff from Charles Spurgeon.

I went and got to tour the Spurgeon Library at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City.

I got the chance to see that last month before it even opened. But all the things, all the collections that they have of Spurgeon, his library is not everything that he wrote.

It's all of the books that he possessed. But still, we have a large body of Spurgeon's work compared to somebody like the

Apostle Paul. It's just 13 letters. So it's really unfair to say of Paul that we know exactly the way that he would word something based on just that small body of work.

So even though he uses words in Colossians that may not be used in any of his other letters, that in no way means that we should question whether or not the

Apostle Paul wrote this letter. We don't question that he wrote to the Ephesians and Philemon, which were letters being delivered at the same time that Colossians was being delivered.

So we should not question Paul's authorship of Colossians either. One of the reasons why

Paul uses different wording here is because he's writing to a

With most of his letters, he's writing to somebody that he knows or to a church that he planted.

But there are only two letters that Paul wrote to a group of people that he didn't know. And that's his letter to the

Romans. He had not yet been to Rome at the time that he wrote to the Romans and his letter to the

Colossians. Paul did not plant the church in Colossae. So how did the Colossian church come about?

Well, we read here in this introduction that the Colossians learned the gospel from Epaphras.

Just as you learned it, the grace of God in truth, you learned about the grace of God and the gospel from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant.

So where did Epaphras get it from? Epaphras could have been converted to Christ through another apostle.

Or here's the likelihood. This all started at Pentecost. We read in Acts 2 that the disciples were filled with the

Holy Spirit and they went into Jerusalem during Pentecost. And Pentecost was a festival that was celebrated by the

Jews, commemorating God giving the law to his people. That's what they're celebrating at Pentecost, that God gave the law to his people.

So you had at the dispersion, Jews that were spread out throughout the Roman empire.

And so at Pentecost, they come back to Jerusalem to celebrate this festival.

So they're coming from all reaches of the empire, speaking multiple languages. So when the apostles were filled with the

Holy Spirit, they went into Jerusalem and shared the gospel in everyone's own language. Everyone understood the gospel being spoken in their own language.

It was so unusual to them that they thought that the apostles were drunk. Peter said, it's not late enough in the day for us to be drunk.

So then he shares the gospel. He talks about the fulfillment of scripture and how Jesus Christ was the one that fulfilled all of these things.

All of the scriptures that Peter shared, everybody would have known those passages. And he said, this

Jesus, this man who fulfilled all of these scriptures was delivered up to be crucified by the hands of lawless men.

And all of the people who heard this gospel, many of them were convicted by it. And they said, brothers, what should we do?

And Peter said, believe, repent, be baptized in the name of the

Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. And there were added to that number 3000 souls that day.

That was basically the beginning of the church at Pentecost. So then what happened after that is all of the

Jews who had received the gospel went back to their homes. Some of those Jews in Rome.

So they went back to Rome and planted a church. And then there were Gentiles that were converted by those

Christians, by those Jews that had been converted to Christianity, converted some Gentiles to Christianity. So then you had

Jews and Gentiles worshiping together in that church. OK, so Kalash, the church in Colossi was likely another one of those churches that was planted much the same way.

Maybe a papyrus was one who was converted at Pentecost, or maybe he heard it from somebody else who was converted at Pentecost.

And then he went back to Colossi, shared the gospel. There were people who were converted and a church was planted.

We know that a papyrus was the church planner because the way that Paul talks about him here is that he was the one that delivered the gospel to the

Colossians. He's also the one who has come to visit Paul in Rome and has talked about some of the things that have been going on in Colossi.

Now, what we know from what we'll read later on in the letter is that there was a false teacher that had come into Colossi, or there was a false teaching in Colossi that was beginning to threaten the church from the outside.

So this wasn't a false teaching that came from within the church that had happened in Corinth. It had happened to the

Galatians, but not to the Colossians. The false teaching didn't come from within the church. It was coming from the outside. Somebody from outside the church was threatening this church with a false teaching.

Now it could be a couple of different things. One possible thing is that it was a false teacher who had this philosophy that came in and he said,

Hey, it's okay that you believe in Jesus, but you also need to believe this. I have the philosophy.

This is the philosophy that you need to know. And if you know this philosophy, then you can unlock the secrets of the universe.

And this is what prompted Paul to write in Colossians chapter two, that in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

So you don't need this philosophy in order to understand the secrets of the universe.

It's in Christ that we can understand and know all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

We also can assume that there was a form of Jewish mysticism that may have been threatening the

Colossian church. It could have been both things, a false teacher preaching some false philosophy, and it could have also been this

Jewish mysticism that was attempting to woo the Colossians to this false teaching. We know that because Paul uses some

Jewish language a little bit later on in the letter. And again, we'll, we'll get to these things later on port. And so Paul wrote to the

Colossians to not necessarily confront this false teaching, although he does, we do see confrontations against that teaching again, that comes later in the letter.

But the first thing he does is he wants to set Christ as preeminent.

He wants to make sure the Colossians understand that Jesus is top and we need nothing else but Christ.

We should be fully satisfied in our savior. Listen to what Paul says in Colossians chapter one, verses 15 through 20,

Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation for by him, all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him.

And he still talking about Christ. He is before all things and in him, all things hold together.

He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent for in him, in Christ, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

I read that section for my church this past Sunday as well. And I said, verses 19 and 20, that's the 10 second gospel right there.

Okay. For in him, in Christ, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

When I've had somebody ask me, what is your definition of the gospel? Give me a definition of the gospel.

Oftentimes, what I'm quoting to them when I give them my definition is Colossians chapter one, verses 19 and 20.

It is through Christ, through the person and work of Jesus Christ, that God is working to reconcile to himself all things, making peace by the blood of his cross.

We'll talk about these things further when we get a little bit more into the letter. But you hear some of that language there, how

Paul just is awed by Christ and the ways that he elevates

Christ above all things. He wants the Colossians to know that as well, that they would know

Christ as preeminent before Paul gets into anything else, confronting false teaching, talking about ways that we should be living as Christians, okay, giving greetings in the saints, which he'll do toward the end of the letter.

Before he gets into any of that, he wants the Colossians to know first that they are to be completely satisfied in their savior.

And beyond Christ, there's nothing. We have everything that we need in Christ Jesus.

He wants the Colossians to know that Christ is preeminent and he wants them to make

Christ preeminent above all things. So if we know Christ is that way first, if that is our bedrock, if that is our foundation of our faith, we know

Christ is preeminent. Above him there's nothing else and we need nothing else. If we know that about our faith, then it's that much easier to be able to snuff out false teaching before it can take a foothold in our lives.

When somebody comes with a false teaching, a false philosophy, when worldliness is attempting to bombard us all week long, it is that much more difficult for any false teaching to find root in our hearts when we have set

Christ above all things. When we know Christ as preeminent, we're able to guard ourselves against all of that false teaching.

So that's why Paul sets this up from the beginning of elevating

Christ in this way. So the Colossians would know that first. And again, this is his first opportunity ministering to the

Colossians. He's never been to Colossae before. He doesn't know the Colossians. And so since this is the first time that he's had the opportunity as the

Apostle Paul to share with the Colossians and preach to them, though he's doing it in the form of a letter, the first thing he wants to set out to do for them is give them the gospel.

Here it is. Here's Christ. Here is what he is in the universe, in the scheme of all things, in the plan of redemptive history.

Here's Christ. God is working through the person and work of Jesus Christ to reconcile, to bring all things to himself and peace.

Any peace that we have, the peace that Christ's kingdom is going to be established upon is through the cross.

The cross is the pivotal point in all of human and cosmic history.

And so Paul is setting these things before the Colossians in his first opportunity to be able to minister to this group of people that he has never met before.

Epaphras, having come to Paul with this report, Timothy is with Paul, obviously, because we see that Paul identifies himself at the very beginning as an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God and Timothy, our brother.

And the way that Paul introduces himself, too, is very personal with the Colossians. He wants them to know that I'm doing this for you,

I am here for you, and you are every bit as much a part of this spread of the gospel as the work that we're doing here in the capital city of the world, in Rome.

And so Paul addresses them with loving and tender care and kindness with this opportunity that he has to minister to this group of people for the first time.

It is a delight to read this letter. I love Paul's letter to the Colossians. And I want you to join me as we continue to read this together.

We're going to come back to this section of scripture again tomorrow and read more about it so that we might know that Jesus is enough.

Ultimately, as we read this together, what do we want to get out of this letter? We want to know and understand that Jesus is enough.

And beyond him, there's nothing else. We need nothing else but Christ. We are fully satisfied in our

Savior when we know that he is enough. Our Lord Jesus, we thank you for imparting upon Paul to write these words so that we might know what it means to make

Christ preeminent. An interesting word, maybe not be an everyday word that we use, but we want to know what it means to know

Christ as being above all things. Make him number one in our lives.

We need nothing else. We're fully satisfied in our Savior. Lord, help us to be fully satisfied in you.

What does it mean that God is working through the person and work of Jesus Christ to reconcile to himself all things?

Show us this as well as we come to your word. Keep us faithful in these things. Keep us steadfast.

Keep us always looking toward you so that we might be fully satisfied in our Savior. And we pray this in the name of Jesus, our

Savior, Amen. In Revelation 3 20,

Jesus says, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door,

I will come in and eat with him and he with me. Jesus is such a polite guest, isn't he? He stands at the door of our hearts if we just open up and let him in.

At least that's the picture we paint with that verse, but that's not the context. Jesus is addressing the church at Laodicea to whom he gives another famous verse.

I know your works. You're neither cold nor hot. So because you're lukewarm, I will spit you out of my mouth. And he rebukes them for their complacent faith.

Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. That's verse 19. Right before he says,

I stand at the door and knock. This is not the picture of a guest looking for someone to welcome him into their heart.

Jesus Christ is the master of the house. And when the master comes back, because remember, this is the book of Revelation.

We're talking about the return of Christ here. When he comes back, he expects to find alert and working servants, not lazy, complacent freeloaders acting like they own the place.

Such persons will be thrown out into the darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. In Matthew 24, Jesus says,

Be ready, for the Son of Man will return in an hour you do not expect. Who then is the faithful and wise servant whom his master has sent over his household to give them their food at the proper time?

Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. And when he comes, it will be as a conquering king, and we will sit with him and all of the faithful at the wedding feast of the

Lamb. That's a much more glorious picture than that of a passive Jesus knocking on the door of our hearts when we understand the text.

Our question today kind of has to do with that video, but it actually comes from something that was mentioned during our mini series in the parable of the sower.

This comes from Rose in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. I've used a question from her on the program before, but she was the first person to write to our brand new email address.

We've got a new email, when we understand the text at gmail .com. And Rose was the first person to submit a question through that email.

So I told her that I would use a question from her on the program again. She said, Dear Pastor Gabe, you referenced something in today's podcast on the parable of the sower.

You were referencing Revelation 320 and the misinterpretation so many people make about this text.

My question is sort of about that, but not about it being misused. I was wondering about the door spoken of just after 320 in Revelation 4 .1.

Is it the same door that's being referenced? Thank you for any help that you can give me with the question.

Well, thank you for your question, Rose. So let's go to the text and we'll read it so we can see the whole context here.

Revelation 3 .20 is the verse where Jesus says, well, let's go back to verse 19 because it's so good.

Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him and he with me.

The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne as I also conquered and sat down with my father on his throne.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. And now in chapter four, after this,

I looked and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which

I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, come up here and I will show you what must take place after this.

At once I was in the spirit and behold, a throne stood in heaven with one seated on the throne and he who sat there had the appearance of Jasper and Carnelian and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald.

Okay, so we'll stop there. But basically we have Jesus using a door metaphorically in Revelation chapter three, verse 20.

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him and he with me.

A few verses later, chapter four, verse one, we have a door being referenced again. After this, I looked and behold a door standing open in heaven and the first voice which

I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, come up here and I will show you what must take place after this.

So this would appear to be a good scripture interpreting scripture occasion.

But the metaphorical door in Revelation three 20 is not the same door being mentioned in chapter four, verse one.

The illustration in three 20 is Jesus speaking of an occasion where the servant knows the master is returning and responds in obedience as Jesus is addressing the church in Laodicea.

They have not been obedient. And so he's calling them to repentance. So Jesus is talking about a servant with whom he has a personal fellowship and if they hear and obey, he will come in and eat with them and he with me.

This is just as Jesus previously said, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me.

John 10 27. So then when you're looking at chapter four, verse one, the occasion of a door in heaven being open for John is not the same.

I believe by using the term door, John is also speaking comparatively, but heaven is being open to John to see what no eye has seen nor ear has heard.

He refers to this opening as a door. Note that it's not the door and he hears a voice that's like a trumpet, but it's not actually a trumpet.

These are merely words that John is using because he has no other earthly means to describe what it is that he's observing.

So it's not the same kind of a door. It's a door being used in two different ways.

But I like your thinking, Rose, you're trying to see these things in context. Let's close in prayer.

Lord, I thank you for this word and I thank you for giving us a discerning spirit that we might know and understand what it is that you mean to communicate to us by this word.

Help us to be discerning in your spirit and we pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you for listening to When We Understand the

Text. Pastor Gabe is the author of the book, 40 of the Most Popular Bible Verses and What They Really Mean, available in paperback or for your

Kindle. He's also authored a Bible study through the book of First Corinthians. Both books can be found at our website at www .utt

.com. Join us again tomorrow as we grow together in the study of God's word when we understand the text.