What Does Biblical Christianity Look Like? - Colossians 1:1-5

We live in a community that is very cosmopolitan.  The word literally means “a citizen of the world.“  A cosmopolitan person is not restricted by the ideas and convictions of the people he lives with.  He is able to broaden his mental scope and embrace many ideas that are not native to him.

There is a high level of ethnic diversity in the State College area.  Students from all over the world live here.  Bill Bubb can testify to that fact.  There are many nationalities represented in the one apartment building where he lives.  And that is probably the case in every apartment complex in State College.  

There are also many different religions represented.  That is apparent from the list of student religious organizations on campus.  We have everything from Wiccans to Southern Baptists meeting in our midst here in Centre County.  We are a diverse group of people with widely different religious convictions, and we are encouraged by many in our community to be more cosmopolitan in our thinking.

But even within Christianity there is great diversity.  If my memory serves me correctly, there are over 250 different Christian denominations in the United States.  Our denominational label here at Grace Fellowship is Baptist (Southern Baptist to be even more precise) because we closely align ourselves to certain biblical Baptist distinctives which have been held for at least 150 years.  There are other Baptist documents with which we largely agree that date back to the 1640s.  Some other labels used to describe Christian groups in this country are Presbyterian, Lutheran, Methodist, and many more.  We also use terms like Reformed, Arminian, Charismatic, Dispensational, Evangelical, and Catholic.  These are all terms we use to refer to various branches of thought within the very broad scope of what is called Christianity.  What makes it even more confusing is that all of these groups have significant differences of opinion on theological issues from each other.  Some, we believe, do not have a legitimate claim to the label “Christian” at all.

So, if you were asked by a non-Christian Penn State student from Viet Nam or Mozambique to describe Christianity in America, what would you say?  Where would you start?  Maybe the best thing you could do is hand him a book on church history and wish him well.  Would you say Christians in America believe the Bible?  Would you say Christians here are followers of Jesus Christ?  Would you explain the gospel to him?  

Christianity in America is a complicated creature.  So in order to answer the question, we have to appeal to our authority, our primary source of information for what we believe.  We don’t answer the question, “What is Christianity” by taking a poll or asking Geraldo Rivera to investigate.  We look to the Word of God for the answer, and Colossians chapter 1 gives us that answer.  But we need to be sure to ask the right question.  We are not concerned with what American Christianity is.  That is nearly impossible to define.  Rather, we need to ask the question, “What is Christianity?”  Or, “What is a Christian?”

Turn with me to Colossians 1 and let’s read together:

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.

3 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, 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, 6 which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, 7 just as you learned it 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.

9 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. 11 May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Colossians 1:1-14, ESV).

In verse 1 Paul speaks of his apostleship by the will of God.  An apostle is one who speaks authoritatively for another, an ambassador or a messenger, or an envoy.  In Hebrews 3:1, Jesus Himself is referred to as “the apostle and high priest of our confession.” (ESV). Jesus was an apostle of God.  In a similar fashion, Paul was an apostle of the Lord Jesus, and he was so because God made him such.

When Paul includes that little phrase by the will of God, he is stating that he has not taken this authority upon himself.  He is not a self-appointed spokesman for Christ.  God appointed him to this task.  It will take us some time, but we need to understand this issue, and understand why it is an issue, in order to understand the context of Paul’s entire ministry.  No doubt he was one of the most loved people within the early church, and one of the most hated by the enemies of the early church.

I need you to turn with me to the book of Acts, chapter 22.  I wish I could read all of chapter 21 with you, but I’ll try to give you the edited version.  In chapter 21, Paul has returned to Jerusalem from his third trip into the Gentile world where he had preached the gospel of the Lord Jesus.  He shared the message of salvation with the Gentiles, and many believed.  But everywhere he went, there were Jews who opposed him and who spread rumors about him back in Jerusalem.  When Paul arrives in Jerusalem, he goes to the church and tells the apostles and the other believers there about the things God has done.  Then they tell Paul in verses 20 & 21 of chapter 21 what has been happening in Jerusalem while he was gone:

“And they said to him, "You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed. They are all zealous for the law, and they have been told about you that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or walk according to our customs.” (Acts 21:20-21, ESV)

Paul is being accused of preaching apostasy, encouraging Jews to defect from the faith.  That is the rumor that has spread about him throughout Jerusalem.  After Paul has been in Jerusalem for seven days, he goes to the Temple to worship.  Some of the Jews from Asia who have been spreading the rumors see him there.  In verse 27 we read,

the Jews from Asia, seeing him in the temple, stirred up the whole crowd and laid hands on him, 28 crying out, "Men of Israel, help! This is the man who is teaching everyone everywhere against the people and the law and this place. Moreover, he even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place." [or so they thought] 30 Then all the city was stirred up, and the people ran together. They seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple, and at once the gates were shut. 31 And as they were seeking to kill him, word came to the tribune of the cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion.

That is how we arrive at chapter 22.  Paul had returned to Jerusalem, Jews from Asia where Paul had been ministering were also there, they had spread rumors about him, and because of the rumors the people of Jerusalem, including some of those who had believed the Gospel, were ready to kill him.  The rumors said that Paul was encouraging Jews who lived among the Gentiles to forsake Judaism.  But many of the Jews in Jerusalem who were now Christians, were still very zealous for Moses and the Law.  Paul was, in their mistaken estimation, a traitor to his people and his country.  Thankfully, a Roman tribune came to Paul’s rescue and stopped the people from beating him to death.  Paul then asked for permission to address the crowd, and chapter 22 is what he said to those who nearly killed him:

1 “Brothers and fathers, hear the defense that I now make before you.”

2 And when they heard that he was addressing them in the Hebrew language, they became even more quiet. And he said:

3 “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day. 4 I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women, 5 as the high priest and the whole council of elders can bear me witness. From them I received letters to the brothers, and I journeyed toward Damascus to take those also who were there and bring them in bonds to Jerusalem to be punished.

6 “As I was on my way and drew near to Damascus, about noon a great light from heaven suddenly shone around me. 7 And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ 8 And I answered, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And he said to me, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.’ 9 Now those who were with me saw the light but did not understand the voice of the one who was speaking to me. 10 And I said, ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ And the Lord said to me, ‘Rise, and go into Damascus, and there you will be told all that is appointed for you to do.’ 11 And since I could not see because of the brightness of that light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me, and came into Damascus.

12 “And one Ananias, a devout man according to the law, well spoken of by all the Jews who lived there, 13 came to me, and standing by me said to me, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight.’ And at that very hour I received my sight and saw him. 14 And he said, ‘The God of our fathers appointed you to know his will, to see the Righteous One and to hear a voice from his mouth; 15 for you will be a witness for him to everyone of what you have seen and heard. 16 And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.’

17 “When I had returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance 18 and saw him saying to me, ‘Make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me.’ 19 And I said, ‘Lord, they themselves know that in one synagogue after another I imprisoned and beat those who believed in you. 20 And when the blood of Stephen your witness was being shed, I myself was standing by and approving and watching over the garments of those who killed him.’ 21 And he said to me, ‘Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’”

22 Up to this word they listened to him. Then they raised their voices and said, “Away with such a fellow from the earth! For he should not be allowed to live.” (Acts 22:1-22, ESV)

I want you to be careful to notice some very important details in this text.  Paul gives the account of his own conversion to this crowd of Jewish Christians who want to kill him because they are zealous for Moses and the Law.  Paul tells them, his own brethren both physically and spiritually, how he was going to Damascus to arrest Christians.  He tells them of his vision, of how the Lord Jesus spoke to him, and how he was struck blind.  He tells them how he believed the gospel and was baptized as a follower of the Lord Jesus.  He tells them of his journey back to Jerusalem after his conversion experience and how Jesus appeared to him as he was praying in the temple.  

This Jewish Christian "mob" listens quietly and without interrupting him.  They have no problem with him being Jewish or a Christian (or both).  They do not take issue with him regarding anything he has said to this point.  They have listened to his conversion experience and that he is a follower of Jesus Christ.  But when he says that the resurrected Jesus told him in a vision to take the gospel to the Gentiles, “Then they raised their voices and said, “Away with such a fellow from the earth!  For he should not be allowed to live.”

The apostle to the Gentiles should not be allowed to live.  Do you realize how amazing it is that we are Christians?  The early church consisted of all Jews mostly in Jerusalem.  There were no Gentile Christians in the very early years, and we see here that those Jewish Christians understood Jesus to be their promised Messiah, not ours.  They did not want to include non-Jews, they weren’t concerned with evangelizing us pagans.  They disliked the idea so much that they nearly murdered Paul for preaching the gospel to people like us.  Why?  Because they could not bring themselves to believe that God loved anyone outside the borders of Israel, or anyone who was not an ethnic Jew, or a proselyte to Judaism.  They were convinced that God was their God exclusively, and the Messiah of the Jews was not to be shared with the nations.  Even though they believed Jesus was the promised Savior, they were still living in an Old Testament mentality.  They had no concept of “God so loved the world.”

Now, we read in Colossians 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.

As 21st century non-Jewish Christians, we read those words and think little of it.  At the most, we may think something like, “What a nice introduction.  That Paul was a really sweet man.”  That misses the point entirely.  He does not introduce himself and give them this greeting just to be nice, or because this was normal letter writing protocol.  Here is what he is saying:

“I am the apostle Paul, a messenger of Jesus Christ, appointed to this office by God Himself.  Timothy, our half Jewish, half Greek brother is here, also [i.e. not unlike the “half-breed” Samaritans whom the Jews hated].  I am writing to my Gentile brothers and sisters in Christ.  God is your Father as well as mine.  Grace and peace to you.”

That is a profound introduction.  But how does this address the question which we are seeking to answer, “What is Christianity?  What is a Christian?  What does a Christian look like?”  First of all, in this brief introductory text we see that Christianity has no basis in race or ethnicity or nationality whatsoever.  There is no such thing as the Gentile brand of Christianity, or the Jewish flavor of Christianity.  There is no such thing as American Christianity.  There are Americans who are Christians.  But there is no American Christianity, as opposed to Canadian Christianity or Russian Christianity or Jewish Christianity.  The Christian faith transcends race and culture and ethnic and national distinctions.  Christianity is for the nations, and consists of believers from every race.  That is a radical departure from everything the Jews held dear in the first century.  And it is still a problem for Jews today.

We saw in Acts 22 that the main concern of those early Jewish Christians in Jerusalem was the preservation of their Judaism.  They were fine with being Christians as long as their Jewish roots were not abandoned, and as long as they could maintain their status as the exclusive people of God.  They were zealous for the Law of Moses.  They were not concerned for the salvation of non-Jews.  They were concerned for the preservation of Israel.  Paul appeared to threaten that, and for his supposed treachery, they were willing to kill him and actually plotted to do so.  That is why he winds up writing the letter to the Colossians from Rome, in chains.   

This may seem like a lot of baggage that I’m bringing to our study of Colossians.  But it is necessary for us to understand these background facts if we’re going to understand the book as a whole.  It is necessary for us to understand the 1st century Jew/Gentile conflict AMONG CHRISTIANS if we’re going to understand the New Testament church.  This is a large part of the reason why we read the command in the New Testament to love one another 21 times.  This is why the Lord Jesus said to the disciples in John 13:35, “They will know you are my disciples if  you love one another.”  

I’d also like to make one other important point, and this is probably as good a place to introduce it as any.  Do you notice to whom Paul is writing in these introductory verses?  “To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae.”  Paul writes this letter to Christians.  Do you know how many books in the New Testament were written specifically to believers?  All but three.  Matthew, Mark, and John appear to have been written for the sake of evangelism, with Matthew and Mark to a predominately Jewish readership, and John was presumably written as a testimony to a Gentile audience.  The book of Hebrews was written to both believing and unbelieving Jews.  The rest of the New Testament was written specifically to Christians, either to individual believers such as Timothy, and Philemon, or to entire churches or groups of churches as in the book of Galatians.

In other words, the New Testament is primarily for Christians, not for unbelievers.  It was written for the saved, not so much for the unsaved.  It is not primarily an evangelistic book.  It is primarily a book of doctrine and instruction for the Church.  Therefore, we can safely conclude that our primary task as believers in the Lord Jesus is not evangelism.  God has not called us to the sharing of our faith with the world as the first priority of the church.  The first priority is to teach His people submission and obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ.  We are to teach one another to walk as He walked.  One very important part of that walk is evangelism.  

Much of Paul's writing addresses the specific issue of unity within a body of believers that consists of former Jews and former Gentiles.  That struggle of believers dwelling together in peace is the backdrop against which most of the New Testament is written.  When we read the New Testament, if we do not understand that ongoing Jew/Gentile conflict in the background, we will not rightly understand much of what Paul  wrote.  What Paul is constantly trying to teach is there is no such thing as a Jewish Christian or a Gentile Christian.  We are Christians.  That is the new creation God has made.  That is what he means in 2 Corinthians 5:17 when he says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

I am convinced that the vast majority of Christians today know virtually nothing of this huge battle Paul fought throughout his entire ministry.  It also explains why there are so few Christians from Jewish extraction today.  It is because ethnicity often trumps the gospel.  It was, and is today, more important that the Jew be Jewish than that he compromise his Jewishness with what he perceives to be Gentile beliefs. And they are not the only ones guilty of this.  They are just the most prominent ones presented to us in the Scriptures.  

So, when Paul, the former Pharisee, opens this letter by calling these Gentiles in Colossae his own brethren, and stating that God is their Father and his, that is a remarkable statement. It is a statement that might have provoked the Jewish believers in Jerusalem to kill him.  It is also evidence of the miracle God performed in Paul’s life as well as in the lives of the people he is addressing.

So we come back to our opening question, “What does Christianity look like?”  And a closely related question is, “Why are there so many denominations?”  The beginnings of denominationalism are seen in the life of Paul, and among the Christians in Jerusalem.  There were Jewish believers in Jerusalem who were zealous for Moses and the Law.  They were quite intolerant of the Gentiles and of Paul.  But they were still Christians.

Today we have Christians like myself who are zealous for the sovereignty of God.  Other Christians are zealous for spiritual gifts.  Still others are zealous for maintaining a proper form of baptism.  Some are zealous for social justice.  Some feel called to champion the doctrine of free will.  Still others think evangelism is what Christianity is all about.  But these are all variations, some good and some not so good, on the common theme of the Gospel.  At least we hope so. But that common theme is Christianity, the biblical gospel of Jesus Christ and the people who believe it.  

We’ll look at that again next week.