Dennis Faro: All right, are we on?
Dennis Faro: I don't even know.
Dennis Faro: Okay, good evening everyone.
Dennis Faro: So I feel like I've been entrusted with the task of giving someone a tour of New York City and I have about two hours to do it.
Dennis Faro: You know, we're going to somehow have to go to the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, museum of Natural History, etc.
Dennis Faro: Etc.
Dennis Faro: But we have to squeeze it all into two hours.
Dennis Faro: I don't know how that's going to work.
Dennis Faro: So tonight we're just going to move and try to get through the book of Colossians as quickly and as thoroughly as possible, but hopefully honoring the Lord as we go.
Dennis Faro: So what I'd like to do is start out and just give us a background of the book and cover a few things, and then we're going to swiftly move through an outline of the book with some takeaways and then wrap up with a few additional takeaways.
Dennis Faro: All right, so just a little background.
Dennis Faro: Of course you know it's the Epistle to the Colossians.
Dennis Faro: It's known as one of the prison epistles, along with Philippians, ephesians and Philemon, and it was written while Paul was under house arrest in Rome, most likely around 60 to 62 AD.
Dennis Faro: It was written by Paul, but also with Timothy.
Dennis Faro: Some say he was a co-author?
Dennis Faro: We're not really sure, but he was certainly with Timothy when he wrote it A little bit about the city of Colossae.
Dennis Faro: So I don't know if any of you have been to Ephesus I've had the privilege of going there.
Dennis Faro: It's right along the Aegean Sea, but if you move inland from Ephesus about 100 miles or so you have the ancient region of Phrygia.
Dennis Faro: Now it's known as Anatolia and it's in central west Turkey and that's essentially where Colossae was.
Dennis Faro: There were three cities located in the same area and they were Hierapolis and Laodicea.
Dennis Faro: So by the time of Paul the city of Colossae had actually dwindled in size and significance, so it wasn't nearly as important as it had been.
Dennis Faro: There was a large Jewish community there.
Dennis Faro: Paul had never visited Colossae, which is interesting in itself and the key founder of the church was Epaphras who, although he was from Colossae, had heard the gospel when Paul preached in Ephesus.
Dennis Faro: So the church was also the end result and the outgrowth of Paul's ministry in Ephesus.
Dennis Faro: Now one of the things that is being combated in this book is the Gnostic philosophy, but it's not the.
Dennis Faro: It was a brand of Gnostic philosophy that also had some other elements in it which we will get to.
Dennis Faro: Um, there was sort of a strain of jewish mysticism and legalism that were, uh, infused into the philosophy as well.
Dennis Faro: So the colossians were subject to a combination of these different philosophies.
Dennis Faro: Uh, it was a.
Dennis Faro: It was a philosophy that promised the adherents a spiritual fullness and union with God, and according to this philosophy, the wisdom they attained was by keeping prescribed ceremonies, which would release them from earthly concerns and connect them to heavenly concerns.
Dennis Faro: Of course, they saw that matter was evil and that flesh was evil.
Dennis Faro: They believed in keeping the Old Testament laws and in particular the dietary laws.
Dennis Faro: Of course, they saw that matter was evil and that flesh was evil.
Dennis Faro: They believed in keeping the Old Testament laws and in particular the dietary laws that, according to them, would keep the evil flesh away and would help someone attain spiritual perfection.
Dennis Faro: Circumcision was also very important as well.
Dennis Faro: They believed in angelic beings being able to influence earthly affairs, and so, in their view of things, jesus was seen as but one of many emanations from God.
Dennis Faro: So Paul would hit some of these viewpoints as we go through the book.
Dennis Faro: I think I might need a little water.
Dennis Faro: Thanks, okay, I won't stop.
Dennis Faro: So we're going to begin with a survey of chapter one.
Dennis Faro: I would entitle chapter one the supremacy of Christ in all things.
Dennis Faro: So we begin with Paul's greeting and thanksgiving in verses one through eight.
Dennis Faro: Oh, thank you.
Dennis Faro: All right, I think that's a little better, thank you.
Dennis Faro: So Paul's greeting and thanksgiving is in verses 1 through 8.
Dennis Faro: Paul greets the Colossians with Timothy, as we also made reference to.
Dennis Faro: He thanks them for their faith in Christ, their love for the saints and for the hope that was laid for them in heaven.
Dennis Faro: And so we see that three early on faith, hope and love.
Dennis Faro: This message of truth had produced fruit in them from the beginning, paul says, and was also produced in other parts of the world Most people think that means the Roman world, since obviously the gospel had not reached other parts of the planet earth, and so essentially what he was saying is that in other parts of the world there were also true believers as well.
Dennis Faro: So that same message of truth that had produced fruit in them had also produced fruit in others throughout the world.
Dennis Faro: Paul gives thanks for Epaphras, who was a faithful brother and who had informed Paul of the love with which these Colossians believers had, although Paul himself, again, had never met them.
Dennis Faro: So apparently Epaphras was the pastor of Colossae.
Dennis Faro: He wasn't there at this time because he was in prison with Rome, with Paul rather in Rome.
Dennis Faro: So and we'll see later on how that Paul sends greetings from Epaphras back to his own church.
Dennis Faro: Then in chapters in chapter 1, verses 9 through 14, we have Paul's prayer for the Colossians.
Dennis Faro: Again, these new believers were in danger of turning from the truth of the gospel to false teachers and philosophies, and this is Paul's concern.
Dennis Faro: So in his prayer he prays some specific things.
Dennis Faro: First of all, that they might be filled, they might have a knowledge of God's will.
Dennis Faro: Now what's interesting is that Paul deliberately uses words that had different meanings for the Gnostics and infuses them with Christian meanings.
Dennis Faro: So he used the words knowledge and wisdom and spiritual understanding that were already a part of religious vocabulary in Colossae, but gives them a different meaning, gives them a Christian meaning.
Dennis Faro: And Paul says he continues in his prayer he says that you might walk and he gives several examples that you might walk and bring fruit and increase in the knowledge of God, that you would have wisdom and knowledge that will result in action.
Dennis Faro: And so his prayer was not just that they would have knowledge and wisdom, but that this knowledge and wisdom and spiritual understanding would result in action.
Dennis Faro: Of course, that's a huge takeaway for us today.
Dennis Faro: He also prayed that they might be strengthened, and he prayed that the result of this strength might be the patience and joyfulness and not just putting up with circumstances, but truly addressing issues with joy and patience that can only come from Christ and that would result in thanksgiving to God, who is the one who delivered them from darkness and translated or transferred them into the kingdom of his dear son, and also an understanding that he has redeemed them with his blood and I realize I'm flying through this.
Dennis Faro: In verses 1, I'm sorry, in verses 15 through 20,.
Dennis Faro: Paul then declares that Christ is the preeminent one, and he details four ways that Christ had a relationship to creation, and some of these are fascinating.
Dennis Faro: I wish we had more time to focus on each one.
Dennis Faro: He notes that Jesus existed before creation.
Dennis Faro: Now let me just pause for a moment and say one of the issues that comes up in Gnosticism is the idea that Jesus was a created being.
Dennis Faro: It's also a philosophy that influences Jehovah Witnesses today, because a lot of what they believe really stems from the Gnostic heresy.
Dennis Faro: However, paul not only states that Jesus existed before creation, but also that he created all things.
Dennis Faro: Now here's a question If you create all things, then how can you yourself be a created being?
Dennis Faro: You can't, unless you're an uncreated created being.
Dennis Faro: Which sort of is linguistic suicide?
Dennis Faro: So he created all things, and then it says in verse 16 that all things exist for him.
Dennis Faro: Now let me just stop again and think about the fact that when we look at creation, when we consider nature, yes, we know that God created all things, but do we often think about the fact that they were created for him?
Dennis Faro: So when you look up at the sky, when you think about the beauty of nature, these are things created for Christ.
Dennis Faro: It's an incredible thought, actually.
Dennis Faro: He also goes on to say that he holds all things together the atoms, the molecules, whatever holds things together.
Dennis Faro: Christ is the one who does that.
Dennis Faro: He's the one who holds all things to, keeping them from bursting apart.
Dennis Faro: And then he goes on to say that he is the head of the church and he reconciles all things to himself.
Dennis Faro: Paul then moves on to talk about three ministries that he's clarifying for the Colossian believers, just so they know what his purpose is, in writing to them.
Dennis Faro: So he details these three ministries in verses 21 through 29.
Dennis Faro: First he talks about the ministry of reconciliation, and he mentions that, though they had been estranged, now, now, in God's grace, he had reconciled them, he had presented them holy, he had presented them without blemish and free from reproval, free from any kind of accusation, and so this was one of Paul's ministry, a ministry of reconciliation, and he assures them that they would continue.
Dennis Faro: This is the great if-then clause, but he assures them that they would continue in the faith, which would actually prove that they were saved.
Dennis Faro: Now we could get into this whole.
Dennis Faro: There's a lot of if phrases in the Bible and people use that to say, well, if could be.
Dennis Faro: A is a conditional clause and no, no, no, it's not conditional, it's actually a statement that says since, since you are in the faith, you will continue.
Dennis Faro: Besides the ministry of reconciliation, there was a ministry of suffering, and Paul rejoiced in that he could relate to the sufferings of Christ.
Dennis Faro: He rejoiced in his sufferings because it was for the Gentiles these were the people that God had called him to and it was also for the suffering for the sake of the entire church.
Dennis Faro: Paul then moves on to the ministry of preaching.
Dennis Faro: This involved warning and teaching, and it also involved laboring, as Christ himself had mightily worked through him.
Dennis Faro: And again, a moment to stop and think about the fact that when we work for the Lord, when we labor for him, that labor should be something that comes from him, as he works through us.
Dennis Faro: So we work as we labor for him, so he is giving us the energy, he is giving us what we need to work for him.
Dennis Faro: So if chapter one is on the supremacy of Christ, chapter two is on the sufficiency of Christ.
Dennis Faro: Paul moves on and warns the Colossians against false teachings that threaten the purity and sufficiency of the gospel.
Dennis Faro: We read about his pastoral concern and encouragement in verses 1 through 7.
Dennis Faro: So he prays that their hearts would be comforted.
Dennis Faro: He was concerned about these believers.
Dennis Faro: He had not met them, but he was concerned about them and he was concerned that their hearts would be knit together, united together in love.
Dennis Faro: And what an important thing that is for a church that people be united.
Dennis Faro: A lot of churches where there's good doctrine there's not always a lot of churches where people are united in love.
Dennis Faro: He also expressed concern that they be not led astray by convincing or enticing words and that they already having been rooted and built up in Christ, that they should now continue in him that they should now abound.
Dennis Faro: It was time to move forward with what they already knew.
Dennis Faro: He talks about abounding with thanksgiving, and this word connotes a river that overflows its banks, so it's sort of like an overflowing with thanksgiving, and overflowing with gratitude is the idea.
Dennis Faro: Yet he says they were not to be grounded in ritual or philosophy, but in the person and work of Christ.
Dennis Faro: So he moves on to the warning section.
Dennis Faro: First he warns against this philosophy.
Dennis Faro: Now, the philosophies they had been exposed to were just a tradition of men, and today we could look at a lot of churches, a lot of religions, where what they believe, what they hold to, what they consider their foundational principles, are just traditions of men, just made up doctrines that have no basis as coming from God at all.
Dennis Faro: We could talk a lot about that.
Dennis Faro: But he says but the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ.
Dennis Faro: This word fullness, pleroma, was a very important word that was used in this philosophy, and he contrasted it to what the Gnostics taught, namely that God was simply not just the source of all the emanations they believed in, but he was the head.
Dennis Faro: He was the head of creation.
Dennis Faro: They had this idea of a demiurge, and see if I can explain it.
Dennis Faro: It was the idea that God created a creature and that creature created another creature and from that another creature stemmed, another one, and these are all seen as a demiurge and eventually the universe was created and all these creatures were considered quote-unquote emanations.
Dennis Faro: Well, paul confronted that philosophy and taught against it.
Dennis Faro: He then warns, in verses 11 through 15, against Jewish legalism.
Dennis Faro: He said it was unnecessary.
Dennis Faro: Why?
Dennis Faro: Because you don't need circumcision with hands.
Dennis Faro: You already have been circumcised in the heart, a circumcision without hands.
Dennis Faro: So there's no need to go back to what you knew about before.
Dennis Faro: You've already been buried and raised and made alive through Christ.
Dennis Faro: He goes on in verse 14 to talk about how the list of decrees or the record of their debt that was against them had already been nailed to the cross and Jesus had already disarmed the rulers and the authorities and triumphed over them.
Dennis Faro: Then he moves on to a section where he talks about freedom from these two philosophies, from both Gnostic philosophy and Jewish legalism.
Dennis Faro: He combats the idea that one needs to be bound by restrictions against drink and against meat and celebrating of Sabbath and special days.
Dennis Faro: Why?
Dennis Faro: Because these things were the shadow, but Jesus was the substance.
Dennis Faro: Now let me tell you.
Dennis Faro: I would like to just take a small break and say that I've been exposed to a lot of Judaism, judaistic teaching, and this is exactly what is taught in their circles.
Dennis Faro: The idea is always focusing on the outer, the external, the feast day, keeping this fast, keeping that fast, refraining from this meat, keeping this diet.
Dennis Faro: And it's so similar to what Paul was talking about here, what was threatening their freedom?
Dennis Faro: Here in Colossae, he goes on to say that those who would have you worship angels and seek mystical approaches are not connected to the source of life, who is Christ.
Dennis Faro: And he says if you are dead in Christ, you should not be subjecting yourselves to these rules like don't touch, don't handle, don't taste, instead observing these things.
Dennis Faro: When people observed these things, it was really more of an example of how they lacked humility.
Dennis Faro: They might have exhibited the illusion of piety, but really, underneath all this piety was a sense of arrogance, was a sense of a lack of humility, a sense of religious superiority.
Dennis Faro: Moving on to Colossians, chapter 3, we now have the practical section.
Dennis Faro: This is something Paul does a lot, where the first chapters are doctrinal and then the last chapters are practical, and so the same happens here.
Dennis Faro: So we're going to call this living.
Dennis Faro: The new chapters are practical, and so the same happens here.
Dennis Faro: So we're going to call this living the new life in Christ.
Dennis Faro: So he begins to say that believers should set their affection because of all these things that we've talked about.
Dennis Faro: Believers should set their affection on the heavenly and not on the earthly.
Dennis Faro: Why?
Dennis Faro: Because their old life was dead.
Dennis Faro: Now their new life is hidden.
Dennis Faro: They are now separated unto Christ and they will be glorified at his appearing.
Dennis Faro: And also because of that he moves on to the next section.
Dennis Faro: Because of these things, believers should put off their old man, or the old self, if you will.
Dennis Faro: In verses 5 through 11.
Dennis Faro: The analogy is made of putting off grave clothes.
Dennis Faro: So take off these old grave clothes.
Dennis Faro: You don't want these grave clothes on you.
Dennis Faro: And what does that look like?
Dennis Faro: Well, first of all, putting to death sexual sins, he says.
Dennis Faro: Mortify or kill off sexual sins, including desires, promiscuity, impurity, covetousness.
Dennis Faro: Put off also the social sins, which would include anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy and lying.
Dennis Faro: Instead, the believers who have now been granted duties and privileges by God were not to be divided by nation.
Dennis Faro: They were not to be divided by religious distinction or class distinction.
Dennis Faro: Why?
Dennis Faro: Because Christ was all and in all.
Dennis Faro: He then goes on to say that, whereas some of these things are to be put off, there's also things that are to be put on, and he covers that in verses 12 through 17.
Dennis Faro: The believer should put on the new self.
Dennis Faro: What does the new self look like?
Dennis Faro: Well, by contrast to the old with its sinful deeds, it should be characterized by kindness, compassion, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness and, above all, love, and that is emphasized above all love.
Dennis Faro: He then says let believers have the peace of god rule in their hearts, and he covers this in the next few verses.
Dennis Faro: Believers should let the word of christ dwell in them richly, with their singing, with their thanksgiving and with instruction and warning being the evidence.
Dennis Faro: And we just sang a few minutes ago to the Lord and I believe this is something that is honoring to God when we sing to him and we're filled richly with the words of song.
Dennis Faro: They were to do all these things that he has previously named, whether word or deed, in the name of Christ.
Dennis Faro: Then he moves on to another section that's also practical.
Dennis Faro: Believers should foster Christ-centered relationships.
Dennis Faro: He covers this in verses 18 of chapter 3 through verse 1 of chapter 4.
Dennis Faro: Wives, submit to your husbands as is fitting to the Lord.
Dennis Faro: Husbands, love your wives and be not harsh or bitter against them.
Dennis Faro: Children obey your parents.
Dennis Faro: Fathers, don't provoke your children to wrath.
Dennis Faro: Slaves or servants should work wholeheartedly, not with eye service as man pleasers, but rather in a way that shows that they are pleasing the Lord, who they fear.
Dennis Faro: Masters are also to treat their slaves or their servants justly and should be reminded of the fact that they too have a master in heaven.
Dennis Faro: So this takes us to chapter 4.
Dennis Faro: And in chapter 4, we'll call this communicating the new life in Christ.
Dennis Faro: Paul moves on to say that the Colossians were to devote themselves to prayer and be watchful.
Dennis Faro: They were to pray for him.
Dennis Faro: He's saying don't forget me, I'm here in prison.
Dennis Faro: Pray for opportunities that I have to proclaim Christ in the current state I'm in.
Dennis Faro: And he said pray also that I would proclaim the gospel clearly.
Dennis Faro: And then he admonishes them to walk wisely and to speak graciously.
Dennis Faro: He says be careful how you act toward outsiders, in other words those outside the faith, non-believers and speak to others with grace, but also grace that is seasoned with salt.
Dennis Faro: Now some people interpret this to mean only speak to those with salt.
Dennis Faro: No, there's supposed to be grace and seasoned it with salt.
Dennis Faro: Salt isn't supposed to be the whole thing, and what does salt really mean?
Dennis Faro: It means impactful speech, purifying speech.
Dennis Faro: Finally, they were to honor and partner with fellow servants in Christ, and here he gives a list of those.
Dennis Faro: First, he gives a list of those who are sending greetings.
Dennis Faro: So he mentions Tychicus, also known as Tychicus to some, and Onesimus, who were sent to deliver this epistle.
Dennis Faro: And we don't know much about these guys, but Tychicus apparently is a trusted courier of Paul's that was sent to bring this Colossian letter, along with Onesimus, to the Colossian believers.
Dennis Faro: Onesimus, of course, is mentioned as being a slave that had belonged to Philemon, but who Paul now counted as a brother in Christ.
Dennis Faro: Then there's greetings from Aristarchus, john Mark and Jesus Justice.
Dennis Faro: These three were Jews.
Dennis Faro: Aristarchus was a fellow prisoner.
Dennis Faro: We know that because he identifies that way.
Dennis Faro: John Mark, of course, was used greatly by God initially, and then there was a falling away period and then he came back to work with Paul.
Dennis Faro: Jesus' justice, we don't know a lot about, but he's mentioned here.
Dennis Faro: And then Paul also extends greetings from Epaphras and from Luke and from Demas, who were Gentiles.
Dennis Faro: So three Jews, three Gentiles.
Dennis Faro: And of course we know that Epaphras had a great burden.
Dennis Faro: It says, not only for the Colossians but also for those in the two nearby cities of Hierapolis and Laodicea.
Dennis Faro: And then greetings to others were extended by Paul.
Dennis Faro: He says greet Nymphus, some versions say Nympha, so depending on how you read, that he be a man, she or she could be a woman, um, but essentially, whether it's nympha or nymphus, it was a house in nymphus's.
Dennis Faro: Uh, there was a church in nymphus house.
Dennis Faro: It's not the same as the church of of the colossians, it was a separate church.
Dennis Faro: Some believe that it was in laodicea.
Dennis Faro: And and finally, he says admonish Archippus to take heed to the ministry that he received.
Dennis Faro: Now, tradition says that he was the pastor of the church in Laodicea.
Dennis Faro: We don't know.
Dennis Faro: He was also mentioned in the book of Philemon.
Dennis Faro: And then this Paul's salutation.
Dennis Faro: So now the question is, now that you've gotten the introduction, computation.
Dennis Faro: So now the question is, now that you've gotten the introduction, what are the takeaways?
Dennis Faro: Well, there's, there's many, many takeaways, and far too many to to cover.
Dennis Faro: But what I did is I I thought of four takeaways that we could, uh, that we could grab one from each chapter to begin with, each chapter To begin with.
Dennis Faro: Let's think about the fact that Paul said that when you pray, you will please God in every way.
Dennis Faro: If you continue to pray and this is something that is practical for us Pray that, you will please God in every way.
Dennis Faro: That's a prayer for us today.
Dennis Faro: You know, don't slip into a mindset that says that God can't do anything.
Dennis Faro: You know, it's very easy to believe that God cannot answer prayer, and I know that sounds almost heretical, but this is pretty much where we're at as human beings.
Dennis Faro: I am a big believer that the littlest things can be prayed about, even something that might sound insignificant, and I've seen in my own life, thankfully, how God has answered small prayers which others might not even think to say anything about.
Dennis Faro: So that's one of the takeaways that we can grab tonight.
Dennis Faro: A second takeaway would be to not reduce the Christian life to something that is obligatory or something that just stems from religiosity.
Dennis Faro: I believe that religiosity is really just an expression of the flesh, really just an expression of the flesh.
Dennis Faro: And the more one displays a life where they're just carrying out rituals and going through the motions, that's not a symbol of the sign of the spirit, it's a sign that you're being controlled by the flesh, because there's no life in that.
Dennis Faro: It's just routine, it's just obligatory practice.
Dennis Faro: This is what it was like before we were saved, what it was like before we knew Christ, just going through the motions of obligatory behaviors and religiosity.
Dennis Faro: But another takeaway that we can grab from chapter 3 is that, with Christ's help, we can put off the old sinful deeds of the flesh and clothe ourselves instead with the virtues of the new man, especially love.
Dennis Faro: You show me a christian that's really walking with god.
Dennis Faro: I'll show you someone that may not know a ton of doctrine hopefully he knows some good doctrine.
Dennis Faro: May not be, may have a lot of flaws, but is someone who is characterized by love, someone who is characterized by faith, someone who is characterized by a simple belief in Christ.
Dennis Faro: And what he says, that's the kind of Christians I like, being around Christ and what he says, that's the kind of Christians I like being around, and I'm sure you do too.
Dennis Faro: And finally, from chapter 4, paul admonishes the Colossians to be thankful, not only devote themselves to prayer, but be thankful, and we can't overemphasize the fact that the Lord wants us to be thankful for the things that he brings into our life.
Dennis Faro: Thanksgiving is such an important part of Christianity.
Dennis Faro: I pray many times that for forgiveness, that I'm not thankful for the things, that I've even asked prayers for.
Dennis Faro: How often do we pray, god answers us and we don't even come back and thank him.
Dennis Faro: We don't even remember to say Lord, here's a prayer that I prayed.
Dennis Faro: You answered it and thank you so much for what you've done for me.
Dennis Faro: Thank you for all that you've done in every way, things that I never could have even imagined.
Dennis Faro: Well, let's close in a word of prayer.
Dennis Faro: Speaking of Thanksgiving, father, we have a hard time really encapsulating this epistle.
Dennis Faro: We think of the Colossians and how they were steadfast and how, even though they were influenced by false teaching, bad philosophy, very similar to what we experience today, yet they remained steadfast, they were encouraged, and it was a church that was used mightily.
Dennis Faro: We thank you for Paul and how he loved these people.
Dennis Faro: Didn't even know them, hadn't even seen them, and yet he exhibited a tenderness, a heartfelt concern for them.
Dennis Faro: We thank you, lord, for his example.
Dennis Faro: We pray that we would be like him and we pray that we would also realize that in Christ we are complete.
Dennis Faro: We are full in you, lord, and we don't need all these other philosophies, religious concepts, rituals, traditions that so bogged down believers and have done so for several thousand years.
Dennis Faro: We thank you for the example that is set forth for us and help us to understand these principles, and we pray all this in Jesus' name, amen.