Colossians - Part 1 — Paris Reidhead

Will you turn, please, to Galahad? I'm very glad you asked me, because it forced me to piss on Galahad. Let's bow in prayer. As we come to this, thy will is forgiveness in part, in our experience. Amen.

The Historical Setting of Colossae

Prison Epistle. It was written in prison. It had been the founder. He'd been the one who founded the church at seven miles further down the 15 miles away. The Meander. The reason, uh, the place is also a native line, so much so, the White Cliffs of Dover, in the light of the sun, it would hit twigs or grass, it would frost, and then this would build up, and the river would after this, and so, it was a native line.

It was, uh, tremendous. The ancient historian, he deserved its name. The only thing that carried, at one time, there'd been an earthen bridge, that this is in Asia, my control. The epistle to the Colossians, until you understand, 350 years had been teaching the Plato, and you have to do something of Plato.

Plato, Greek Philosophy, and the Rise of Gnosticism

It was necessary to write this little letter. He had an influential father, and his uncles were friends of Socrates, though he was somewhat younger, and when he described himself not as a student of Socrates, but Socrates was a friend of his family, probably when Socrates would have been visiting, but not nearly enough time.

He wanted to go into politics, and then he found that it was a rather rough heat in the kitchens, and he, of course, became a philosopher. He spent a good bit of time down in Sicily. Now, one of the significant things about Plato, he was amazed how consistently that shakes in so many of the things.

In the 19th century, and, of course, three or four hundred years before, well, I'm afraid that might have been... He just enjoyed being an inventor. Somewhat like some of our friends in the East invent all fight ball, we find these have all been dually invented, both in some inventions that others may have invented.

For instance, he doesn't tell us a great deal about his visit to Alexandria and Egypt. In fact, he never mentions it. Others mention it there, but he doesn't. However, when he comes back, he comes back with certain philosophical, confrangely like...

He never mentions the Pentateuch or Moses. He does incorporate some of the concepts into his writing. And in Egypt, of course, which was the commercial crossroads between... The teachers from India, Shintoist teachers would have been there, Buddhist teachers would have been there.

We find someone coming with ideas which we can trace to the fact that he did visit Alexandria and he visited with the dispersed... In Greece in numbers and in Asia Minor, somewhat mysticism and theosophy out of India, something of mosaics and so on.

But what he... He comes up with a philosophy which tells us something about him. For instance, in his writing, Phaedo, the argument that he presents is as follows. The philosopher's whole life has been...

Carefully to the word. Dependence on the body. The body is always interfering with the soul's activity. Wisdom and goodness... Hinder... Philosophy that... Is dualism. In its essence, dualism says that...

But we... There's no need to do it. It's just... It's just... This is enough. At this time... Considered... Essentially bad. Free himself from the confine... Second chapter in the 21st verse. You needn't turn to it.

The Church of Colossi... The speaker took... Into that group of two or three hundred young people. His texts were... He never finished it, which says that they are to perish with the using of this text in that fashion.

He didn't understand it. He thought he was just giving good warnings to the young people. But basically... Philosophy of... In place... Central part of most of the concepts of what we call Gnosticism that didn't really get into...

Acknowledged... The conflict with the Church until the second century... Time of Christ... Even before the time of Christ... All the elements of Gnosticism were in existence and fully developed. Students listening to Plato and enlarging...

And then their students enlarging further until you come to... Interesting system that is fully explained in the Gnostic writings that God made man and the universe all... Then when man sinned, God imprisoned him in a body.

And then he had to make a physical universe to accommodate... That's how a scripture says, isn't it? It's the teaching that was in the time... The New Testament Church in the 2nd and in the 3rd century...

The teaching that's there... Namely that... Demiurge... And then Demiurge... And so that gives rise to the asceticism. That gives rise... They'd sit on the top of a broken pillar... Kinds of weather...

Then the flagellantes follow... Flagellantes were these... These religious men that went around through Asia... The scourge is similar to the one that had assaulted the back of our Lord... And they'd get a throng around them and they'd whip themselves until they tore them...

Bringing the body under... These were the men... This was the philosophy that brought the monastery... This created the Essenes among the Jews and the monasteries and convents... Basic philosophy... That matter is bad and spirit is good...

Jewish Ritualism and the Colossian Heresy

See, there were a group of dispersed... On the one hand, religious observances, including circumcision, of the Jews... But they are deeply of this Grecian dualism... Christianity is planted in Colossae particularly, being the weakest community and probably having furiously fluent and intelligent and responsible people in the community, though of course...

And so... But in apparently these... Of that background had amalgamated Grecian philosophy with Jewish teaching and now they're coming to the church at Colossae and they're saying the sacrifice of Christ is not enough.

The work of Christ atoned for your sin but it has nothing to do with the world in which you live because the world in which you live is controlled by God's ancient enemy. God's spirit is controlled by Satan and the only way that you can be saved from these influences is that the victory of Christ did not conquer the ascetic rules, the ritual.

And by using intermediary angels to protect you... You can see the kind of... Now you understand why when Epaphras was so concerned about this heresy attacking this little group of believers, that he makes a special trip to Rome to talk about it.

And Paul is so concerned that he writes this letter and sends Epaphras and two others who live out of the mouth of three witnesses that can reinforce what Paul is saying. There's no little thing. Why would he be so concerned?

Well, why? Because God in His infinite knowledge had understood that in the 2nd century and in the 3rd century and thereafter Gnosticism would curse the church. An epistle was written to deal with that in its seed form.

It's gone to the present. Many young people in your community that have said the establishment is bad, wealth is bad, money is bad. I'm going off what Socrates did and what Plato did. It's the same concept.

Matter is bad. He said, well now you've got to... And you've got to placate these angels and you've got to use these intermediaries between you and God. It's going back to the same root. So it behooves us to understand some things.

The problem that was confronting the church at Colossae was given by the Holy Spirit. And that answer is applicable today. We understand the epistle. The arguments we need. But you have to understand the context of the epistle in order to understand the effect of the epistle or the application of the epistle.

To pick it up, as I've done for so many years, without... I've been blessed by verses out of the Colossians. Tremendously blessed. Getting me out of the epistle on the basis of trying to understand why it was written and the problems to which it was addressed.

And only if I do that am I going to get the full effect of the epistle. So these are the ideas. It's interesting. Paul is a back number. They continue to hear it as long as you live. Somebody's going to come up with a new idea before next Sunday.

I may not know about it. But it's... The human mind is fertile. And if the God of this world who's blinded the minds of them which believe not has sown the seed once, He's still got a packet of it left and He'll sow it somewhere else.

And somebody's going to wake up in the morning and say, I had the greatest insight. And he'll start writing about it and if he's clever enough, has enough personal charisma, he'll build a group. There will always be somebody that wants to be in when everybody else is going to be out.

That's the easiest way to build a reputation in the religious world so that somebody can pay it. And then when they come in, they're in and everybody else probably look and say, look at all you out. Get into something that they'll join you.

This has been... This has been extended through the centuries. Look to the abyss of karma so that when you meet such people, a highway there and a way, and a wayfaring man. On one side, the material and the well, civilization.

Paul's Apostolic Authority and the Colossian Church

Among a lot of our... The counsel of Jesus Christ by the will of God and Timothy, our brother, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ, we direct unto you in three verses, four words. Writing on the throne, this isn't just a family letter, this isn't having a wonderful time which you will hear.

This man is writing by the authority of God, the Holy Ghost, and also by the will of God. But then notice his humility. Authority, yes, but humility. Timotheus, our brother, of whom it was said by Paul, stir up the gypsums in you.

Timothy, who needed to be told to take heed of the ministry. Timothy, this young man, is one of Paul's schoolteachers, he believes, in this, the answering seminary of his. For this is what disciples require.

They acted and then they analyzed. They did and then they taught. And Timothy's with him until he was taught an apostle by the will of God. Then he has a neophyte with him, a young man, and Timothy. He'll seem to delight to honor those that have made a commitment to Christ and care about him.

We are with this young associate. The next, these words that he chose, is community, in verse two. Through the faith and faithful brethren of Christ. Now some of you have been here in Christ's past when I've used in some Ephesians a similar verse as an opportunity to explain what the process is when drawing a cannibal into a dristening or a savage into a saint.

And I refer you to some of those saints which are probably here. I'd like to do it, but let it be sufficient to invite the faithful in Galatia, faithful brethren, in talking about the miracle that was in his name, the great grant that someone had been born of God and he used testimonies of greater miracles in ancient stones to become throbbing, warm flesh and to take someone's dead and trust and make them a saint and a faithful brother.

And it's there and required for. But then there were a community and faithful and everyone that's in Christ has had the same work of Christ. Now then, in verse 2, another word. We ask for eternity and humility and community.

The word simplificates. All of this can be expressed in two words. Grace and peace. See, I'm to you in peace. But isn't it interesting? He never reverses the order. He never says peace and grace. You know why?

You've not experienced the grace of God. You know nothing about the truth. Grace and peace. Now, in verses 3 to 8, we have the true character of the Colossian believers as recognized by Christ and through Christ by the Apostle.

Faith, Love, and Hope as Marks of Genuine Christianity

We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for we heard of your faith in the Christ Jesus and of the love for you in heaven. There you have three verses which can underline the writing.

Let me briefly say from previous visits with you that we have to distinguish between faith, faith, faith, and faith. About them, some of this you'll remember. The first is tread faith, a mere intellectual assent to what is written.

The second is death faith, an appropriation of rituals and taboos. And the third is devil's faith, an emotional response to the possibility of hell and the probable pleasures of heaven. And the fourth is heart faith, where the heart of man believe it unto righteousness.

Faith, it seems, through the little keyhole of the door of grace back two thousand years and finds a rough Roman tibet on a rude little hill outside of a dirty Jewish city. And there is a man whose body is bruised, beaten till he's hardly recognizable as a man.

And somehow faith is what permits a modern, sophisticated, often intellectual, intelligent, least responsible citizen in the 20th century to peer through that little keyhole two thousand years through time and sit on a Jewish man who's dying under Roman sentence on a Roman instrument of death who's hardly mentioned in secular history and somehow to believe that the death of that little-known person in history as far as secular corroboration is concerned, is doing something that's going to change one's character or one's eternal destiny.

Now to ask someone to exercise that here by just an intellectual act is absurd. Luke sung it, I know not how saving faith to me he did empower, in his words, brought peace to him. But that's what faith is.

Faith is that exercise of the total being that commits oneself to this person dying that death, believing that he died for the one who's peering through that little keyhole and that somehow by committing one's life to him, not only is their eternal destiny going to be changed, but their character and their life are going to be changed.

So when we talk about faith in the Lord Jesus, you'll be certain that the apostle is not commending an intellectual offense or an appropriation of dead ritual and dogma, an emotional response. The only time for which he could give thanks would be a harsh faith that praisingly united him to the Lord Jesus Christ.

So that's involved in this word faith. And then love. You know, basically, the human heart, you've seen your own and you've read the scripture, and you know that love for all things doesn't care for height, people naturally.

Love that speaks for the greatest interest, best interest of oneself and others, and the glory of God. That's not what I was or you were by nature. So when he says love for all things, he's talking about that can't-be-counterfeited hallmark of genuineness.

Something God has done, and he's a pagan worshiper in the temples of Diana or others of the Asia Minor goddesses we've got. And he's saying something marvelous has taken place. Love which you have to all the saints, including the Jewish saints, including me, and then hope which is laid up for you in heaven whereof you've heard before the word of the truth of the gospel.

So the essentials of the Christian life are here, faith, love, and hope. And then we see next the progress of the gospel in which, which is stated, which is come unto you as it is in all the world and bringeth forth fruit and stuff also in you since the day you heard of it and knew the grace of God in truth.

The Fruitfulness of the Gospel and the Faithful Minister

Inherent fruitfulness of the gospel. Where it is proclaimed is going to bring forth fruit. Not in everybody, but in somebody. Where the gospel is lived and demonstrated and where the message is proclaimed, somebody is going to receive it.

And then the next are the special messengers and advocates that God has selected to serve with him. As you've also learned through the papyrus, our dear fellow servant who is for you a faithful minister of Christ.

How marvelous it is to realize that God has, today as before, faithful minister of Christ. And wherever you are and whatever you're doing, as you will see in the third chapter, you are to see yourself in the role of the papyrus as a faithful minister of Christ.

Now, because the word minister is served as slave, we're to view ourselves as born slaves. So this is the true character the Colossians believe in. Now, in verses 9 to 14, we have Paul's concern or true concern for the Colossian brethren.

Paul's Prayer for Wisdom and Spiritual Understanding

Because we have seen this evidence of God's supernatural grace and power, who then states a prayer. This is the fourth of the apostolic prayers and in some respects one of the most complete. So this cause we also, since today we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all reason and spiritual understanding.

Now, what is their problem? What's happening? These heretics are assaulting them and saying the work of Christ was not enough. And you have to add to it ritual, festival, abstinence, asceticism, praying to angels, because Christ's work was not enough.

So what's this prayer? That they might be filled with the knowledge of God in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. So what is he saying? That when we are assaulted by heresy and all of a sudden to some degree at some time, we have access to wisdom and understanding and full knowledge of his will.

You see, this prayer of Paul has got an echo of one who is described as our great high priest who has an unchangeable priesthood. That continuous, no longer praying for philosophy, are you left without someone to pray for you?

Ah, not so. Not so. Because if the right hand of the Father is the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our great high priest, then what is he praying for you? That you might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.

So when you're assaulted by heresy, you have that as the basis for your confidence in asking God for wisdom. In other words, the tappers went to Paul, but Paul says, you go to God as well, because he's going to give you wisdom that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will.

Walking Worthy of the Lord Through Christian Character

Verse 9, then, has Christian knowledge. Verse 10, Christian conduct. What's the result of being filled with the knowledge of his will? That we walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing. Worthy of the Lord.

Do you think they would have walked worthy of the Lord if they had gone as Gentile believers and committed the circumcision? If they'd gone into all the parasaical ritual? If they'd gone into all of the strange rituals that have been prescribed by the heresies?

Not so. Not so. Not at all. So to walk worthy of the Lord, they're to be filled with the knowledge of his will. And how interesting it is that in our day, when we have so many challenges that come to us, we have the privilege of going to our great high priest and say, give me wisdom.

Let me, I want to know for the knowledge of your will that I might walk worthy. In this situation. In this problem. In this difficulty. To walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.

What have we here? A Christian character. We are to be fruitful in every good work. We are to increase in the knowledge of God. And we are to be strengthened with all might. That's pretty good, isn't it?

That's the sort of thing I want. I need to. If you don't believe me, just ask my family. They know I need to be fruitful in every good work. That I need to increase in the knowledge of God. I need to be strengthened with all might.

According to his glorious power. Well, when nobody's watching. Character is what you are when nobody could find out. Character is what you are when you're just alone with God. And so what he's talking about is that we could be fruitful in every good work.

Not just those that are being seen, but those which nobody sees. They're part of the every, every good work. And then that we are to increase in the knowledge of God. Because the degree to which we walk in the light is that degree to which greater light is provided us.

Strengthened With Power for Patience and Joyful Endurance

And then to be strengthened with all might. Oh, there was a day in my youth, young years, when that thrilled me. To be strengthened with all might. And I must say that I was inclined to put a period there.

Because I had some very clear aspirations of what I would do if I was strengthened with all might. And I must say that I wasn't terribly excited about the rest of the verse. I could have made it much more appealing.

I could have said lots of things. You know, strengthened with all might under international fame and recognition. Oh, I could have really done some things with that. But if you take the verse, it sort of nips a lot of those things in the bud a little bit.

And you're glad that you went, came in, you came in the right door. Which was, God be merciful to me, a sinner. And save me for Jesus' sake. Because now, the possibility of being strengthened with all might is accompanied by the expression of that might.

Listen to it. Strengthened with all might is power, patience. Isn't that exciting? Patience and long-suffering with joyfulness. Isn't that really thrilling? Oh boy. Great stuff there. Well, isn't it?

What's he saying? Look, Colossians. Colossian Christians, you are being assaulted. You are being attacked. The God of this world is trying to plant the seeds of the heresy that's going to corrupt the church for centuries to come in you.

And I'm praying that God is going to strengthen you with all might according to His glorious power unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness. You're being tested. You're being tested. I don't know where or how or what, but I know it's happening because you're still breathing.

And as long as you're breathing, it's going to happen. At least you seem to be breathing. It will give a lot of evidence of it. And as long as you do, as long as you occasionally take nourishment, and you can catch yourself breathing now and then, you're in it.

And you need to be strengthened with all might according to His glorious power unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness. And you've been very long-suffering. We're going to quit in just a moment.

Christian Gratitude, Deliverance, and Redemption

In verses 12 to 14, we have Christian gratitude. Giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the faith in life. We have a faith in God's family who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath transferred us into the kingdom of His dear Son.

We have protection from our foe and in whom we have redemption through His blood even the forgiveness of sins He has provided redemption. So what is He saying to the Church of Colossians? Listen, I know you.

I know what God's done in you. I know what He wants to do. I'm grateful for everything that's happened. But God isn't through with you yet. He's got a lot more to teach you, a lot more to do in you, but don't ever forget what's already done.

You're in His family for partakers of the inheritance of the faith in life. He's delivered you from your foe who hath delivered us from the power of darkness. We don't need to go to angels to intercede for us.

And we have redemption through His blood and we don't need other sacrifices. Thank you, Father, for your Word. May it find its way into some hearts and bring encouragement and prepare us to be following through Lord's days.

Prayer for Faithfulness to God's Word

And having read this little letter it's a love letter from yourself. We have it to feed upon, to rest upon. Grant to us, Father, then we ask Thee, in Jesus' name, that we might, as the Colossian believers, be sensitive to everything that the Spirit of God would say to us through Thy Word.

In the name and for the sake of our lovely Lord, we ask it and give Thee thanks. Amen.