Introduction to Colossians - Colossians 1:1-2

The other night as we were traveling down to New Jersey, I bought a cup of coffee at Starbucks.  I don’t frequent Starbucks so I don’t have any idea how long they’ve been doing this, but I noticed this little blurb on the side of the cup.  At the top is says, “The Way I See It #292”.  So I guess there are at least 292 of these little paragraphs that Starbucks has seen fit to print on their coffee cups.  I have no idea what the other 291 are like.  Maybe they have quotes from great theologians or from Jesus and the Apostles.  I just don’t know.

Quote #292 caught my eye because of its opening phrase: “The way we get to live forever is . . . ”  That sounds like a religious statement.  It sounds like theology.  So I kept reading:

“The way we get to live forever is through memories stored in the hearts and souls of those whose lives we touch.  That’s our soul print.  It’s our comfort, our emotional nourishment at the end of the day and the end of a life.  How wonderful that they are called up at will and savored randomly.  It seems to me we should spend our lives in a conscious state of creating these meaningful moments that live on.  Memories matter.”  -- Leeza Gibbons, Television and Radio Personality

Then at the bottom of the cup it says, “This is the author’s opinion, not necessarily that of Starbucks.”

Now, there isn’t enough information here to come to any hard conclusions about what Leeza Gibbons believes regarding eternal life.  We don’t have the full context of her thoughts, so it may be that all she intended to say is that memories are really nice and we should be nice in order to have nice memories of each other for years to come.  Maybe we shouldn’t take everything she said literally.  But someone thought what she said was sufficiently profound to justify printing it on thousands of Starbucks coffee cups for their customers to read.  Thousands of customers.  And no doubt, more than a few of those customers are thinking, “Hey, now that’s really cool!  The way we live forever is in the memories of others.”

But what if the memories of others are less than complimentary?  Personally, I have not-so-fond memories of a number of people, memories that I would prefer to have never acquired in the first place.  But the point is, there’s bound to be someone somewhere who will read that and think, “I will live forever in the hearts and souls of those whose lives I’ve touched.”  And we’ve heard as much on a fairly regular basis from other people speaking at funerals regarding their deceased loved ones.  

Maybe we can chalk this up to poetic license and just say Leeza was trying to wax eloquent.  Maybe.  But this is how really bad theology gets started.  Some people think that about the Reformation.  “Some kook put his ideas on paper and nailed them to the church door in Wittenburg, and we’ve been going downhill ever since!”

Let me give you another, much worse example of what I’m talking about.  Here are the words to a song that some of you in this crowd will recognize, and you could probably sing it if I were to give you the tune:

Imagine there's no Heaven    Imagine there's no countries        You may say that I'm a dreamer
It's easy if you try                  It isn't hard to do                          But I'm not the only one
No hell below us                   Nothing to kill or die for               I hope someday you'll join us
Above us only sky                And no religion too                       And the world will be as one
Imagine all the people           Imagine all the people
Living for today                    Living life in peace

Now I could go on incessantly about the very bad theology which is presented to us all the time from every possible source, all the way from coffee cups to MTV.  But we need to understand that these are the means by which most people form their theology.  Their ideas about God, and their understanding of the world are formed by the things they hear and read.  Everyone believes the things they believe based in part on the things other people say, whether or not it is true.  

Your thinking is being influenced, for better or for worse, by listening to sermons here in this room every week.  That’s a sober point to ponder!  To the degree that I share my fallen, faulty, misguided, poorly-informed opinions with you, then to that same degree you are being influenced badly, and hopefully temporarily.  If you know that what I’m saying is faulty and misguided, I need to know and I need you to tell me.

But this is the Word of God.  Since this is the word of God, since it is without error, since it is inspired by the Spirit of God, and since it has been preserved for us by God for our good, then to the degree that I share with you what God has said, to that same degree you are being influenced for good, not just by me but by God Himself.  This book is given to us by God as the primary means of informing His people in how they ought to think and live.  This is God’s Theology Book.  It certainly speaks to the issues of Heaven and Hell, and living forever.  But also, since this is God’s Word to us, then it is not a record of His opinion.  God does not have an opinion.  About anything.  

This is our primary defensive weapon against error, “the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.”  The message it contains is also the means by which unbelievers are converted.  The preaching and teaching of the truth, the gospel of Christ, is the tool God has chosen by which He draw sinners to Himself.  This book is absolutely essential to our lives as Christians.  It provides us with a standard by which we can measure other beliefs, philosophies, and theologies.  This is the text from which we glean sound doctrine.  This book contains the words of eternal life.

The book of Colossians is about the effects of bad theology on God’s people when they listen to men rather than God.  It is a letter of instruction regarding what to believe, and what not to believe as a Christian.  That is true of every book of the Bible, but this one was written for the specific purpose of addressing particular false teachings that were coming into the church of Colossae.  Some of those teachings were from the pagan Gentile culture.  Others were coming from the Jewish community.  But the apostle addresses these errors in this little letter, and we continue to reap the benefits of his writings 2000 years later.  He might as well have been writing to the church in Pine Grove Mills because the heresies that plagued the Colossians plague Christians everywhere, in every age, to some degree.

Colossians is one of several books referred to as the Prison Epistles of Paul.  It is commonly understood that he wrote this book from Rome during his imprisonment there.  Paul made three missionary journeys among the Gentiles throughout the Roman provinces of Galatia, Asia Minor, Macedonia and Achaia.  You can see those areas in your maps in the back of your Bibles.  However, Paul’s fourth missionary journey was made in chains under Roman guard as he was taken to Rome for trial as a Roman citizen.  From Rome, he wrote the books of Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon.  

According to 2:1, Paul had never seen the Christians to whom he was writing: “For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face...”   But his friend and fellow worker, Epaphras, had brought news to Paul in Rome of the existence of this body of believers in the little town of Colossae.

The town of Colossae was one of three small cities mentioned in this book.  The other two are Laodicea and Hierapolis and they were approximtely 10 miles from each other.  Colossae existed during the days of the Old Testament book of Esther, and roughly 200 years before Christ, Antiochus the Great transported two thousand Jewish families from Mesopotamia and Babylon into this area where the three cities were situated.   So, long before the gospel was taken to Colossae, there were many Jews living there in the midst of a completely pagan Gentile society.  “Paganism of almost every then-known variety thrived in this region.  Accordingly, the basic evil with which the young church was confronted was the danger of relapse into paganism with its gross immorality.”

So when Paul and his friends were notified regarding what God had done in Colossae, Paul writes in verses 3 & 4 of chapter 1, “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints.”  

He goes on to say in verses 7 and 8 that they had learned the truth, the Gospel, “from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant.  He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf 8 and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.”

So Paul was not personally acquainted with the church at Colossae.  But he was made aware of them and their troubles through Epaphras.  This friend of Paul’s is only mentioned three times in the New Testament, twice in Colossians and once in the book of Philemon.  In chapter 4, verse 12 Paul writes, “Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you.…”  Epaphras was from Colossae and he may have even been the person who founded the church there.  And according to 1:9, Paul and his fellow workers who are with him in Rome have been praying for the Colossian church “from the day we heard.”  

Look with me at chapter 1, verses 1 and 2:
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, 2 To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

Now turn to chapter 4.  He begins the letter in chapter 1 with greetings from himself and Timothy.  Here in chapter 4 he closes the letter by listing several other people who are with him: v7 - Tychicus, v9 - Onesimus, v10 Aristarchus and Mark, v11 - Jesus, called Justus, v12 - Epaphras, v14 - Luke and Demas.  These are fellow believers that the people of the Colossian church may or may not have known personally.  But it tells us, among other things, that Paul was not alone in Rome.  There were fellow Christians with him who tended to his needs as a prisoner, and who worked alongside him for the sake of the Gospel and the church.  Tychicus and Onesimus are given the task of carrying this letter back home to Colossae and reporting to them everything that has taken place in Rome with Paul.

Finally, as he writes the last verse with his own hand instead of through his secretary, Paul asks his brethren in Colossae to, “Remember my chains.”  Then his farewell statement, “Grace be with you.”  So he closes the letter with the companion bookend to the one he opened with in chapter 1, verse 2: “Grace to you and peace from God our Father.”  It is always appropriate to pray for the grace of God toward His people.  What greater thing could we pray for for each other as we make our melancholy pilgrimage through this fallen, sinful world?

That’s some of the background and a bit of preview into the book of Colossians.  It is as releveant to us today as it was to the original recipients because the fundamental problems which Christians of all ages face never change.  The perpetual enemy of the church is false teaching and bad theology which always lead to sinful living and eventually, if not kept in check, to apostasy.  The church ceases to be Christian because over time it compromises with the world and substitutes the truth of God for lies.  We face that threat every day.  Until the Lord Jesus returns, we will be at odds with doctrinal error.

However, there are many within Christianity who feel that precise doctrine is not important.  What is more important is unity, harmony, cooperation, and love for the brethren.  Evangelism should be our primary focus, and we can figure out the doctrinal details during membership classes.  If that is the case, then at least half of the New Testament is entirely unnecessary because it is intentionally doctrinal.  Secondly, which “gospel” do we preach if doctrine is not important?  Do we preach and teach the gospel that says everyone is going to heaven?  Is that true?  The Universalists think so.  

Do we teach the gospel that says we should accept Jesus as our Savior, but His Lordship is optional?  Do we not need to be concerned with obeying Christ, but only be concerned with escaping Hell?

Should we teach that Jesus saves people initially, but we maintain our salvation by our good works?  There are many people who call themselves Christians who believe that.  But since doctrine is really secondary to sharing the gospel, we don’t need to be concerned about sound doctrine??

Listen to what a very good friend of mine wrote over 50 years ago:
“What is the Gospel?  Is the Gospel a message of glad tidings from heaven to make God-defying rebels at ease in their wickedness?  Is it given for the purpose of assuring the pleasure-crazy young people that, providing they only "believe," there is nothing for them to fear in the future?  One would certainly think so, from the way in which the Gospel is presented--or rather perverted, by most of today's 'evangelists'!  And the more so, when we look at the lives of their 'converts'!  Surely those with any degree of spiritual discernment, must perceive that to assure such 'converts' that God loves them and His Son died for them, and that a full pardon for all their sins (past, present and future) can be obtained by simply 'accepting Christ as their personal Savior'--is but a casting of pearls before swine!  Because the churches are so largely filled with these 'converts', explains why they are so unspiritual and worldly.”

If we do not understand sound doctrine about the Person and work of the Lord Jesus in particular, we will not preach and teach a biblical gospel message.  You can’t “just share the gospel” without an understanding of the doctrinal underpinnings of justification and redemption.  If we do not have an understanding of the spiritual problem to which Jesus is the answer, and if we don’t understand how He solved that spiritual problem, and to what degree He solved it, then how can we “just share the gospel”?  Which gospel?  

The Colossians had heard the gospel, they had embraced the word of truth, they had exercised faith in the Lord Jesus.  But others were coming in and introducing other teachings that brought their salvation in Christ into question.  They were being led astray by the philosophies and doctrines of men.  So I ask you, what has changed?  The battle still rages against the truth of the gospel, and men everywhere seek to tear it down.  Some of those who do the most damage do it in the name of Christ.

But notice with me the introductory verses of Colossians, in chapter 1.

1 “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, 2 To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.”

Paul and Timothy, two of the most prominent men in all of Christian history, pen this brief letter of encouragement to fellow Christians whom they have never met.  They write from Rome, with Paul in chains.  And he writes to encourage them in the fight.  He says, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father.”  He calls them saints and brethren.  Most of them, probably the vast majority of them, are Gentiles.  Or at least they were until they became brothers and sisters in Christ.  Now they are a new entity, a new people, a new family with God as their Father.

We need to be very careful in how we treat those within the body of Christ with whom we have differences of opinion.  As long as our faith is in Jesus Christ alone and we are brothers and sisters because of this common salvation, it is right and good for us to encourage one another by praying for God’s grace and peace for each other.  Grace is the power we need to live, and peace is the confidence in God we need to survive here in this foreign land.  In a world filled with trouble on every side and enemies of the truth in every quarter, what do the sheep need more than grace to live well and peace to persevere in patient trust?

But God’s grace is always sufficient, and His peace is such that we cannot understand how we could be at peace in the midst of so much hostility.  Our peace in Christ truly does defy understanding.  It is a wonderful thing.  So, as we pray, let’s follow the example of Scripture by praying for God’s grace and peace for one another.  

20 Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant,  21 equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. 25 Grace be with all of you.  Amen.  (Hebrews 13:20-21, 25; ESV)


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The evangelistic monstrosity of the day!

(Arthur Pink, "Present Day Evangelism")

    Alas, alas, God's way of salvation is almost entirely unknown today, the nature of Christ's salvation is almost universally misunderstood, and the terms of His salvation misrepresented on every hand.  The "Gospel" which is now being proclaimed is, in nine cases out of every ten--but a perversion of the Truth!  Tens of thousands, assured they are bound for heaven--are now hastening to hell as fast as time can take them!

    It is the bounden duty of every Christian, to have no dealings with the evangelistic monstrosity of the day, to withhold all moral and financial support of the same, to attend none of their meetings, to circulate none of their tracts.  Those preachers who tell sinners that they may be saved without forsaking their idols, without repenting, without surrendering to the Lordship of Christ--are as erroneous and dangerous as others who insist that salvation is by works, and that heaven must be earned by our own efforts!