Hope Church LV Sermons
Introduction to Colossians
Some are time for many families means time for vacation. I don't know about you, but I love vacation. I think I could do it full time to be honest with you. I think it's just a career path that I could choose. I love vacation. My family knows how much I love vacation when it's time to go on vacation. I get in the vacation zone, and by that, here's what I mean. When it's the morning to leave for vacation, it's not time to do some stuff in the middle around. No, no, no, no. Six AM, the car is loaded, and we're pulling out of the driveway, whether you end the car or not, right? If you want to go on vacation, you know where you're supposed to be at six o'clock, because we are rolling, because we're not going to waste one minute of vacation. I love vacation. It's just something exciting about loading up the car and everybody piling in and pulling out of the driveway and heading out on that journey, because you know that over the course of however long it's going to be the next few days, a week, two weeks, whatever it is for you, there's going to be some laughs, and if you're vacation is like everybody else's, there'll be some tears, right? I mean, some things don't always go just like you plan on vacation. There's going to be some memories that will be made. There's going to be some lessons that are going to be learned. There're going to be some highs and there're going to be some lows, but all of that is part of the journey, and it's all part of what you remember and what you celebrate from the trip. Well this weekend begins summer here in Las Vegas. Those are now out, everybody is shifting gears and getting into vacation mindset, and so as a family of faith as we begin the summer together, we also are setting out on a journey. This weekend we are beginning a journey together as a family of faith through the New Testament book of Colossians, and not just for the next couple of weeks, but for probably about the next 12 months. We will be walking together, verse by verse, through this wonderful New Testament letter. If you've been attending hope for the last several weekends, we just completed a series called the life of a Jesus follower, but now we're getting back into a book study, and that's really more the routine of what we do here at Hope. We like to study straight through books of the Bible, and as we began this weekend to experience this journey together, we know going into this study, the book of Colossians, that they're going to be some moments of laughter, and they're going to be some moments of tears. There'll be some highs and lows, some of you over the next 12 months as we're on this journey together. You don't know it yet, but in the next 12 months of your life, some of you will experience some of the greatest moments of your life. Some of you will walk through some of the darkest valleys of your life. We're going to have some memories that we make together as a family of faith. I remember back over the 11-year journey that is now this church family, this September, will turn 11 years old, and it's interesting to me as I think back to some of those memorable moments in the life of our fellowship, a lot of them for me are connected to books of the Bible that we were studying through when God did those things in the life of our church. We're going to have some memories made, we're going to see some lessons that we're going to learn as we study through this book together. Over the next 12 months as we're on this journey, some of you are going to experience God in a radical way. Some of you through the study of Colossians are going to have some of those aha moments, those moments when truth about God that maybe you'd heard before is going to come alive to you and forever your journey with Christ is going to be tied to the book of Colossians because some of the things that God's going to teach you and some of the ways that God's going to change your life, for some of you we're going to finish this book and you're going to say, "Man, that's my favorite book in the Bible," because God is going to do so many things on this journey as we study together for some. Some are going to come to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior as we walk on this journey in the book of Colossians. Think about it, there are going to be some people in heaven some day telling their story of salvation and their story of salvation is going to be linked to our journey together as a family of faith through this little New Testament book of Colossians. Some of you are going to invite a family member or a friend that you've been praying for for a very long time and they're going to come visit one weekend as we're on this journey through the book of Colossians and God's going to do something in their life and draw them to himself and radically change them forever and the book of Colossians is forever going to be a special place in God's Word to them because it's going to be that place where God first made himself known. Some of you, God's going to put your marriage back together as we walk through the book of Colossians. You're going to experience revival and refreshment and intimacy in your marriage that you thought wasn't possible anymore as we walk through the book of Colossians. As we walk through this journey together, we're expecting God to deepen our walk with him as a family of faith. So as this weekend we prepare to take this journey together. I want to ask you to do four things. Here's the first one. I want you to pray. I want you to pray every week that as we gather together, God would speak to us through the riches of His Word. I don't want to see a show of hands but I want you to answer this question in your heart. How much time this week did you spend praying for this moment right now? You see, it's important that as we come together as a family of faith, we come together prepared. We come together with a spirit of expectancy waiting on God to speak into our lives. And part of that, listen, every week as pastors, when we're going to stand and preach and teach your Word every week, we spend between 15 and 25 hours a week in prayer, praying over, studying the Word of God, asking God to speak to us so that when we stand before you, that it's not just our words but it's literally God speaking through us as His vessel. But it's not just important that the man standing behind this desk pray, listen, it's important that you pray, that you seek the face of God during the week and you pray for those in your small group, that God would speak into their lives, that you pray for those in our fellowship and that you pray for this moment every week when we sit together under the Word of God, waiting for God to speak into our lives, I'm going to ask you to pray. Secondly, I'm going to ask you to, in your personal devotional time, over the next 12 months, spend a little bit of time in the book of Colossians. I'm not saying for 12 months, you've got to read the book of Colossians, but maybe over the next 12 months, a couple of those months, in your personal devotional time, you just dig in the book of Colossians and ask God to speak into your life. A third thing I'm going to ask you to do is make the weekend service a priority in your life. Now I know for many of us over the summer months into the early fall, we're going to take vacation, we expect you to, you need to do that with your family. But even when you're away, we put every message that we teach your hope on our website, hope church online, it's all free, it's video and audio formats, either one, your preference. So I encourage you, when you're not able to be here with us collectively in a weekend, keep up with the journey online, go and listen to the message and ask God to speak into your life. And then another way to make this a priority is to write down things as God speaks them into your heart. Pastor Travis, this week shared this statistic with me. We forget 95% of everything we hear within 72 hours. You know what that means, right? If you don't write something down this weekend, by Wednesday, it's gone. We forget 95% of everything we hear in 72 hours. Now, if God speaks something into your life, let me encourage you to do something. Write it down, take some notes so that you can meditate and think on what God is saying to you. And the last thing I would encourage you to do is to, in your small group, and hope we encourage every person to be connected in a small group, I'm going to ask you that over the next 12 months in your small group, in some way incorporate Colossians into your small group. Now, that may mean that your small group studies through the book of Colossians. If you choose to do that, great, you don't have to, but if you choose to do that, it would be wonderful. Another thing you can do is just add a discussion element in your small group where when your small group gets together, maybe before you begin your lesson, just a question, "Hey, what's God teaching you through the book of Colossians as we're walking through it together as a family of faith?" So that we as a church family literally dig into this journey together for God to do a radical work of transformation in our lives. So with that, I want you to take your Bible, open it to the New Testament letter of Colossians. If you don't know where it is, it's in that little collection where Paul wrote Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. If you have trouble remembering those books in order, the way I was taught to remember them is kind of cheesy, but it works. General electric power company, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. Now, I know it's cheesy, but let me tell you what, you'll never get them out of order again, right? Colossians, Ephesians, Philippians, and then the book of Colossians. Colossians chapter one, we're going to start in verse one, and we're just going to read the two introductory verses this morning. And I want to this morning answer a few key questions about the book of Colossians and then give you one big takeaway principle for today, Colossians one verses one and two. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God and Timothy our brother to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are at Colossae, grace to you, and peace from God, our Father. Let me begin because we're going to be studying this book together for such a length of time. I want to answer some key questions about Colossians. The first thing that we know about Colossians is we know who wrote the book. It begins by telling us that this is a letter from Paul himself. Paul is the author of this letter. He wrote it himself, and it's a long, it's a part of a long list of books that Paul wrote in the New Testament. Paul wrote 14 of the New Testament books, over 50% of the New Testament was written by one author, the apostle Paul, he wrote this book. Well, the second thing we know about it is who do you write it to? Well he tells us that he wrote it to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ at Colossae. Here's what that means. Paul wrote this letter under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God to the church in the city of Colossae. Where did this church come from? This was a church that was in this city there during, this letter was written approximately around 60 AD. So where did this church in Colossae in 60 AD come from? Well, the Bible tells us if you study the book of Acts and read in Colossians, you know where this church came from. On Paul's third missionary journey, around AD 53, Paul set out from the city of Antioch and he went on a missionary journey, and one of the stops on his third missionary journey was a city called Ephesus. Ephesus is the city where we get the letter of Ephesians in the Bible. Paul, while he was in the city of Ephesus, stayed longer in Ephesus than he did in any other city to which he ever traveled. Paul spent two whole years in the city of Ephesus, and Ephesus became for Paul somewhat of a center of his ministry action during that two years. And the Bible tells us in the book of Acts that during his two-year stay in Ephesus all of Asia heard the gospel, meaning while Paul was in Ephesus, it became a center for the expansion of the gospel throughout all of the region of Asia. Well, a city that was included in that region was about a hundred miles to the east of Ephesus, and it was the city known as Colossae. And the Bible tells us that Paul sent a man named Epaphras, we're going to read about him next weekend, Paul sent Epaphras from Ephesus out as a missionary, and Epaphras went to Colossae and he preached the gospel, and the Bible says the Colossians learned of the gospel through the ministry of Epaphras. This church was born there in Colossae, and now we're reading a letter that about five years after this church began, Paul is now writing back to them with the instruction that we're going to read. Now, the Bible in this opening phrase tells us a couple of things that we know about this church. Number one, we know about their position in Christ. Paul says that he's writing to the saints, who were the saints? Well, they were not a football team, all right? That's not who they were. It was not the football team there in Colossae, that's not who the saints were. Many people have a mistaken idea that saints or sainthood is a select group of Christians that live an exemplary life, they demonstrate many good miraculous deeds, and then after their death, they are given the title of saint. But you need to understand that the New Testament never uses the word saint in that way. As a matter of fact, saint is one of Paul's favorite terms in the Bible to refer to living Christians. He uses it 42 different times in the New Testament to describe believers in Jesus Christ. So here I want you to understand the shocking reality this morning. If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you are a saint. I want you to look around you this morning. There's a lot of saints up in here, right? You're a saint. Let me show you some other English words and phrases that we use to translate the Greek word that we get the word saint from. I want to put them up on the screen and I want you to read them out loud with me. You ready? Holy, perfect, without blemish, pure, blameless, clean. Here's what that means. You and I are holy. We are perfect. You say, "Pastor, I don't think you know me quite well enough yet. I appreciate what you're saying about me this morning, preacher, but perfect, really, there's no way that I am a saint." Well, here's what you need to understand. Paul is not referring here to the way they were living their lives. Paul was referring to their standing before God. Let me show it to you in the Bible. Second Corinthians chapter 5 verse 21. Listen what it says. He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf. This is important. So that we might become the righteousness, say the next two words out loud, of God. Come on now, listen, Jesus took all of my sin on himself on the cross. All of my sin past, present and future. If you think about it, when he died, all of your sin and my sin was in the future. He took all of our sin past, present and future on himself and the Bible says he became sin for us and then through faith in Christ where there's a great exchange that takes place. He takes all of my sin and the Bible says, "I get what? The righteousness, what? Of God." Listen, not just my best righteousness, not just man's righteousness restored, but the very righteousness of God. Here's what that means. When God looks at me and when God looks at you, he sees you as righteous as God himself. Not because I deserve that. Not because I live that way. That is why the songwriter called it amazing grades. You see, God gave me what I could not be left to myself and declared me to be right with him and here's what that means. After you've been in heaven for 10,000 years, you won't be any more righteous before God than you are right now sitting in this seat. You know why? Because your righteousness is not based on your performance, your righteousness is based on your position in Christ. We know about their position. They were saints. But then we know something about their lifestyle in Colossae, to the saints and faithful brethren. You see, who they were in Christ began to be lived out in their lives on a day in and day out basis. You see, I'm not becoming any more holy positionally. But as I grow in Christ, here's what happens, who I am in Christ. Christ begins to work that out in my life practically so that each day of my life as I grow in Jesus, who I am positionally begins to be more reflected in who I am practically. Here's what that means. I may not be all the person that I'm supposed to be, but thank God I'm not all the person I used to be. I am in a process where God is working out in my life practically what is true about me positionally. And one of the greatest things that you are going to learn through the book of Colossians is who you are in Christ. Listen, it is important that you understand your identity. You are not trying to live wholly to earn a right standing before God. You and I are living wholly out of the standing of who we are in Christ. And when we understand our identity now in Christ, it changes the way we see ourselves and it changes the way we live our lives. You see the reality of the Christian life is that who we are in Christ overflows in our everyday life. Now that's who Paul wrote it to, but we also know why he wrote it. Epaphras came to Paul and began to tell Paul that false teachers had come into Colossae. And false teachers had begun to attack two things. You know what they were, who Christ is and who I am because of who he is. They began to attack the very deity and humanity of Jesus. And then they began to attack the security of the believer that was established because of who Jesus was and he is. And so Paul writes this letter to combat the false teaching that was coming into Colossae. And I want to show you two verses in the book of Colossians that are really the central theme of the entire book. It's Colossians chapter 2 verses 9 and 10. If you were going to shrink the whole letter down to two phrases, here it is, for in him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form. What a statement about the person and work of Jesus Christ in him, all the fullness of deity. Paul said, "Everything that God is, Jesus is in the flesh." But then look what he said. And in him, you have been, oh I can't wait until we get there to study it, past perfect tense. I can't wait to unpack that. In you, in him, you have been made. Say the last word out loud, complete, lacking nothing. As you break down the book of Colossians, the whole book is broken down by the outline of those two verses. Chapters 1 and 2 deal with the first statement, "For in him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form." In chapters 1 and 2, Paul lays down for us what is arguably the greatest doctrinal treatise on the person and work of Christ found anywhere in the New Testament. I cannot wait to get there. In Colossians chapter 1 verse 13 through verse 23, those 10 verses, we're going to unpack a seven week series called the incomparable Christ. And we're going to take seven weekends and we are going to look in great detail at the person and work of Jesus Christ, all that he is and all that he accomplished for you and me and we are going to understand about the glory and the magnificence of Jesus. William Barkley says about those verses, "No greater claims were ever made for Christ and no greater claims can ever be made." We're going to unpack that together as a family of faith and dig deep into who Jesus is and what he's done. But then in chapter 3, Paul changes gears. Look at chapter 3 verse 1. He says, "Therefore," now I've told you before, anytime you see the word "therefore," it's an important word in the Bible because here's what it means. It means based on everything I've just said, now I want to draw this conclusion. What is Paul done? In chapters 1 and 2, he lays this doctrinal treatise down about the person and work of Jesus Christ. He describes his glory, he reveals to us all that God is in the person of Jesus. And then in chapter 3, Paul says, "Based on all that Jesus is," if you've been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on the earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ and God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory. Then he says, "Therefore, consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, and purity, passion, evil, desire, and grief," he begins to describe how who he is changes who we are. And in chapters 3 and 4, we see the practical application of who Jesus is, fleshed out in our lives. And as you end chapter 3 and go into chapter 4, he gets real personal and he starts talking about what it looks like between husbands and wives and parents and children and masters and slaves. He takes these principles of who Jesus is and applies them to the very personal and practical areas of our lives. So we are in for a journey through the book of Colossians. Now that's a lot of foundation, all right? So what I want to do in just a couple of minutes that we have remaining, I want to give you one big truth that's a takeaway for today. And I'm going to give it to you in a couple of parts. Here's the first part. God uses all kinds of people. The first two verses of the book of Colossians, three people or groups of people are mentioned. He begins with the word Paul. John MacArthur says of Paul that Paul was the most influential, I'm sorry, important and influential person in history since our Lord Jesus Christ. His personality was the remarkable combination of a brilliant mind and indomitable will and a tender heart. Nobody liked Paul. As we read the book of Acts and the New Testament, we get a complete picture of who Paul was. The Bible tells us that Paul was a Hebrew of the Hebrews. What does that mean? It's a phrase that describes and stresses the purity of his Jewishness. He was a Hebrew son of a Hebrew mother and a Hebrew father. He was a Hebrew of the Hebrews. And not only that, he had reached the pinnacle of Hebrew society. The Bible says of him that he was a Pharisee. Now when we hear the word Pharisee, we think of the bad guys, because they're the ones that came against Jesus and the gospels. So we think the Pharisees were the bad guys, but you've got to understand in Jewish culture the Pharisees were the pinnacle of society. Every mom and dad would love for their child to grow up and become a Pharisee. They were the most respected, the most honored, the most looked up to of all the people in Hebrew society. So Paul not only was a Hebrew of the Hebrews, he'd reached the pinnacle of Jewish society and was one of the most respected men in his culture. The Bible also tells us that he was educated under a man named Gamaliel. Now you may or may not know who Gamaliel was, but Gamaliel was one of seven rabbis in Jewish history that was given the highest title possible. He is arguably the most respected teacher of the law in Jewish history other than Moses himself. Paul not only was a Hebrew of the Hebrews, and not only was he one of the most respected men in Jewish society, but he was educated as well as you could possibly be educated in the culture that he existed in. And if all that wasn't enough, he was also a Roman citizen by birth. Now to be a Hebrew of the Hebrews and a Pharisee and educated to Paul's degree, but also be born as a Roman citizen in the day when Roman citizens through the Roman Empire were the top of the pecking order in the world society. Paul had everything going for him. Well that wasn't enough. Paul had probably the most dynamic personal testimony story of anybody who's ever lived. I mean you want to talk about a guy that would have got invited to every conference to tell his story. Man Paul would have got invited to him all. I mean Paul was a murderer of Christians. The Bible tells us that he was trying to stamp out the Christian faith and that he was personally present when they murdered the first Christian Stephen in Acts chapter 8. Paul was there holding the robes as a young man of the men that were throwing the stones to kill Stephen. Paul was doing everything he could to persecute the name of Jesus and then he got on a donkey and rode the Damascus one afternoon. And Jesus appeared to him out of heaven with a bright shining light and knocked him off his horse and blinded him, sent him into the next town and brought him to a man named Ananias who healed him and taught him the way of Jesus and the Bible says the scales were removed from his, I mean you're talking about a radical transformation. He went from persecuting the church to being the single person God used more than anybody else to expand the kingdom of God to the known world. So all that's not sufficient enough he, oh by the way, wrote 53% of the New Testament. If we're not careful, we can hear a name like Paul and think God can only use the most skilled, gifted, educated, influential, powerful, articulate people in society. But then he says, and Timothy, at best, at best Timothy was a note taker for the book of Colossians. At best scholars believe Timothy wrote down what Paul told him to say, told him to write now. Many scholars argue that Timothy did even that because the very last verse of the book of Colossians, Paul says I'm writing this greeting with my own hand. So either Paul took the pen and finished it himself or Timothy's just mentioned here as an associate of Paul. Timothy did not have the cultural background that Paul did. The Bible tells us about Timothy in the book of Acts that he was a cultural outcast. His mother was a Jewish woman who had believed in Jesus and his father was a Greek who didn't believe in Jesus at all. Half Jewish, half Greek, meaning that neither society would have accepted Timothy. He would have been an outcast in both worlds. His name is mentioned twenty-four times in the New Testament, twelve of the twenty-four times his name is mentioned it is preceded by the word and. Here's the hero. Oh yeah, and Timothy. Several of the times he's not even second in the list. Sometimes he's third, sometimes he's fourth and Timothy. Paul tells us in the book of 1 Timothy that his constitution was delicate and he was frequently sick. Paul also tells us in the book of 2 Timothy that he was often afraid. There were times when Timothy was afraid to take a stand for Christ. There were times when Timothy was afraid to say he even knew the apostle Paul. How do you know that? Well listen to the words Paul wrote to him. You've heard him before. God has not given us a spirit of timidity but of power and love and discipline. Listen what it goes on to say. Therefore, Timothy do not be ashamed of the testimony of the Lord or of me, his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel. There were times when Timothy got scared, he got afraid. He didn't want to take a stand. His testimony had no wow factor, it had no bling. Listen to Paul's description of it in 2 Timothy 1. He says, "For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, Timothy, which first dwelt in your grandmother Louis and your mother Eunice, and I'm sure that it is in you as well." Timothy had no Damascus road. He just had a godly mother and a godly grandmother that just poured the truth of Jesus in him. He grew up in that environment of knowing Christ and yet we find Timothy's name right here at the beginning of this letter. Aren't you thankful for Anne Timothy? You see, you don't have to be a Paul. You may be a Timothy. But then he mentions a third group of people. He just says, "And to the saints." In Colossae, they were both Jews and Greeks. So when he uses this word, he's referring to Greeks and Jews. Some would have been doctors, some teachers, some carpenters, some farmers, some students, some just children, some moms, some dads, but they were all saints. Another implication of the word saint means to be set apart for God's own pleasure. Here's what that means. God brought them into relationship with himself, every one of them, and set them apart by his own pleasure to use them for his glory. Some like Paul, some like Timothy, some and other ways of life. But to use every one of them, that's why later in Colossians chapter 3, Paul says, "Whatever you do, in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father." One of the things I love the most about our church, one of the things I love telling the story of the most is I travel around the country and around the world about our church family here at Hope is our incredible diversity. When you look around Hope, Hope looks like what heaven's going to look like. And that's a good thing. Amen? We're multicultural, we're multi-generational. I mean, as you look around our fellowship, there's every shape, every size, every color, every background, and yet God desires to use every single one of us for his glory. Let me give you a life application. God has a plan for you. God uses all kinds of people. Here's the second part of the statement. God uses all kinds of people in all kinds of ways. God uses all kinds of people. Paul and Apostle. And Apostle was one who'd been commissioned and sent out on a mission. Paul was God's ambassador to the Gentiles. Paul's role in the kingdom was one of prominence and great influence, but not because there was anything special about Paul. The letter opens by Paul saying Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ. Listen, by the will of God. Paul said, there's not one thing special about me. There's not one thing important about me. Paul said, my role in the kingdom is what it is, solely by the sovereign grace of God. But then he says, "Timothy, our brother." Barkley says, "Timothy was not described as the preacher, the teacher, the theologian, the administrator, just as the brother." Listen, Timothy's role was largely one of serving Paul. But don't miss this. Listen, look at me. Paul could not have been Paul if Timothy had not been Timothy. You see, God uses all kinds of people in all kinds of ways. That's why when we get to heaven, it's going to be fun to watch Jesus give out the rewards because there's going to be a lot of people whose names are never on the cover of a book or a conference brochure who are the Timothy's and the saints of this world who have been used by God in unbelievable ways. We don't know their names down here, but listen to them, we're going to know them up there. Because the issue is not are you a Paul or are you a Timothy? The issue is what he called the saints. Are you faithful? Are you faithful to God's plan and God's purpose for you? Here's another life application. God has a plan for you that is unique to the way he made you. The most frustrating thing in the world Timothy could have done is try to be Paul. The most frustrating thing in the world Paul could have done is try to be Timothy. God didn't call you to be somebody else. God didn't call you to serve like somebody else. God didn't call you to have somebody else's gifts. God made you to be you and listen, he wants to be you full of Jesus. He wants to manifest his life and his love through you in a way that he can't do through anybody else. Listen, here's what that means. There's some plans that God's got for you that there's no way I can do what God has in store for you. There's no way anybody else can do what God has in store for you. God made you to be you and he wants to fulfill his plan and purpose through your life. Let me finish the statement. God uses all kinds of people in all kinds of ways to accomplish his purpose. What's his purpose? He closes those first two verses with this little phrase. Grace to you and peace from God our Father. God is at work in this world. We talked about it last week and God's at work in this world bringing people into relationship with himself. There are not two better words in the Bible to describe our relationship with God and grace and peace. Everything we have and everything we are in Christ we have and are on the basis of grace and peace describes what we now enjoy because of who we are in Christ. Because you are in Christ tonight when you lay down your head on your pillow you can know what it is to be at peace with God. God uses all kinds of people in all kinds of ways to accomplish his purpose and with that we pull out of the driveway to begin our journey through the Book of Colossians. [BLANK_AUDIO]