A Friend of a Friend – What You Heard

Posted on June 15, 2016June 9, 2016 by chgruver

So we started looking at Colossians and this week we are looking at Colossians 1:3-8. Last time we looked at how Paul is thankful to God because of what he has heard regarding this young church. Today we will look at what Paul states they have heard that is the basis for their faith. Colossians 1:5, “You have already heard about this hope in the message of truth, the gospel that has come to you.” Paul had just gotten finished telling them that he had heard of their faith and love which resulted from their hope. He now goes to tell them where they got their hope from and the reason it is reliable.

The Promise To Come

Paul is reminding them that their hope, this assurance of a promise to come, is contained within the message they have already received. It is not found in some secret revelation, or through some mystic experience. It is also not obtained through some strict adherence to a set of rules. Paul boldly states that to understand the hope that is reserved for them in heaven all they need to do is to look at the message they received through faith. The Colossian church has all these people coming in trying to say that receiving the Gospel is a good start but to truly be a Christian they need to follow a certain set of rules, or obtain some secret knowledge that hasn’t been revealed to them. Right here at the start Paul reminds them that the Gospel is all they need, it is the source of their hope.

The Truth Is The Truth

There is a reason that Paul refers to the Gospel as the message of truth, that is because no matter what the popular opinion is the truth will always be the truth. Paul was telling the Colossian church that no matter how popular the false teachings are, how appealing they may be, or how easy it would be to just go with the flow, the Gospel is the truth and only message that leads to salvation. In our own lives when we encounter various teachings we should always test them against Scripture to see whether they are false teachings or sound teaching. Paul is stating that no matter who is teaching or what the message is it should line up with the Gospel, anything else will draw you away from Christ.

So Paul is telling the Colossian church that they came to a saving faith in Christ through the message of the Gospel that they had received. This message was the truth and there is no hidden knowledge or mystical experience that is further required to obtain salvation, nor is there any special set of rules that they must perfectly follow. We need to remember the same thing, our faith is not about anything other than our relationship with Christ. If we are told that in order to be saved we need to do anything that takes our focus off of Christ we should steer clear of it; as our faith should have us constantly seeking Him, not some hidden knowledge or special experience, and not some set of rules.

A Friend of a Friend – What We Have Heard

Posted on June 13, 2016June 9, 2016 by chgruver

In looking at the book of Colossians, after Paul gives his customary greeting he goes into praising God about what he has learned regarding this young church. He starts off in Colossians 1:3-8 with saying, “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints because of the hope reserved for you in heaven. You have already heard about this hope in the message of truth, the gospel that has come to you. It is bearing fruit and growing all over the world, just as it has among you since the day you heard it and recognized God’s grace in the truth. You learned this from Epaphras, our dearly loved fellow slave. He is a faithful servant of the Messiah on your behalf, and he has told us about your love in the Spirit.” You see as I mentioned last week this church was not one that Paul had directly founded, his relationship would be similar to developing a close friendship after being introduced through a mutual friendship.

Fruit of Discipleship

The first thing to take notice of is Paul states that he is thankful to God when he is praying for the Colossian church. Why is that you may ask? Well it shows Paul understands what it means to be a true disciple, to truly be growing in one’s faith. Paul may not have started the church in Colossae but it was started most likely due to his ministry. Paul understood that while not every believer may be an evangelist, it is the duty of all believers to spread the Gospel. So hearing about how some who came to faith after hearing the Gospel through him have led others to faith, which eventually led to the founding of other churches in other cities and villages, Paul cannot help but to be thankful that they get it. Paul is thankful not only because of the church and it being founded, but that the believers realize it is not just the job of the pastor, elders, or even a missionary to spread the Gospel; but that it is the job of all believers. Paul is thankful that seeing his three years in Ephesus did not just result in one church being founded but many churches through the region being founded through the fruit of discipleship.

Why We Heard

Paul goes on to tell the church what he has been told about them, “for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints because of the hope reserved for you in heaven.” In 1 Corinthians 13:13 Paul mentions three characteristics of a Christian that will never disappear, those three characteristics he has heard of being found in the Colossian church, faith, hope, and love. The first thing Paul mentions that he heard about them was their faith in Christ. This was the common ground that they held and is one that all believers share, we may have different views regarding doctrine, but we all agree on the major issues. Paul isn’t saying that they just heard about Christ or have incorporated aspects of the Christian faith into their belief system, but that they have whole heartedly left their old ways behind and are placing their sole focus on God.

The next thing Paul expresses thankfulness regarding the Colossian church is their love, which is a progression from their faith. You see one of the evidences of our faith is our love for others, which it is through this love that we are compelled to do good works. This is counter to what false teachers were telling the Colossian church, they were claiming that obedience to rules, obtaining a secret knowledge, or having special experiences were the evidence. The love the Colossian church was not just shown to those that they agreed with, it was to all the saints. This meant that even if their beliefs were slightly different on minor issues, those that do not affect one’s salvation, they still showed them love as fellow believers in Christ. There are too many examples of Christian brothers fighting over small issues rather than being in fellowship due to their common beliefs.

Paul then goes on to state his thankfulness due to their hope. Today we have cheapened the definition of many words such as love and faith; but what the Bible refers to as hope and how we view hope today are completely different. We see hope as often wishful thinking, “I hope I get a new car,” or “I hope I can make my rent this month.” Hope in the Bible is something more concrete than that, it is a looking forward to the assured promises that will be fulfilled. The Colossian church loved their fellow believer because of their hope in the life to come. They realized that even if they have different opinions on certain things they will all be together in heaven with God and that is all that matters.

Welcome to Colossae – The Problem

Posted on June 10, 2016June 1, 2016 by chgruver

Last time we ended by talking about the unity of the believer and how it was because of this brotherhood that Paul felt it necessary to address the issues he heard the Colossian church was facing. So what were the issues he addressed, why was the letter to the Colossian church written? The issue that the Colossian church was facing was a mixture between Eastern philosophy and Jewish legalism.

Eastern Philosophy

The first part of the issue came from a concept that eventually became known as Gnosticism, this concept was that there was a special wisdom and knowledge that would only be achieved through spiritual perfection; and once one achieved this wisdom they were released from the earthly and material things. It came out of the philosophical question of “why is there evil in the world if creation was made by a holy God?” This question led to the belief among eastern philosophers that matter was evil and as such God could not come in direct contact with evil matter. They also held a belief that angelic beings ruled the heavenly bodies and influenced the affairs on earth.

Jewish Legalism

Eastern philosophy was not the only issue that the church faced as Jewish legalism was also thrown into the mix. The concept of circumcision was believed to be helpful in one’s spiritual development as well as following the Old Testament Law, especially the dietary laws. This provided rigid rules and regulations that defined what was evil and what was good. The combination of these two led to the view that since material world was evil, a way was needed to control one’s human nature to pursue perfection. This resulted in either a strict legalistic view with rigid discipline or the view that since matter is evil all things are permissible; the Colossians more than likely drifted towards the more legalistic end of the spectrum.

The Issue

With the combining of beliefs that were found in the area the foundation of the Christian faith was being undermined. They attacked the person and work of Jesus Christ. They made a belief structure that had something for everybody by taking bits and pieces of Jewish legalism, Oriental philosophy, pagan astrology, mysticism, asceticism, and even Christianity. This is an issue that is even seen today. With the concept that it doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you are sincere, or the mixing in of eastern/new age philosophies and practices with the Christian faith. They took the view that “God is far away, matter is evil, and demonic forces are constantly threatening us;” where the Christian faith is that God is near us, God made all things good, and Christ has delivered His people from the powers of darkness. It was a heresy that tried to change people from the outside in, where spiritual growth happens from the inside out.

Table Talk – Episode 49 – Small Groups

Posted on June 9, 2016June 9, 2016 by chgruver

June 3, 2016: This week we took a look at the importance of being in a small group.

Table Talk is a weekly gathering of men in the Pinellas Park area from different denominations and backgrounds. We meet every Friday morning from around 6:30-8:00 at the Egg Platter restaurant. It is located at 6767 US Highway 19 North in Pinellas Park. If you happen to be in the area feel free to come out and join us for a time of fellowship and Bible study.

Welcome to Colossae -The Church

Posted on June 8, 2016June 1, 2016 by chgruver

Last time we started our look at the book of Colossians by talking briefly about the author and the city of Colossae itself. Today I want to focus more on the intended audience of the letter by looking at the church in Colossae. Again looking at the first two verses in Colossians we read, “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will, and Timothy our brother: To the saints in Christ at Colossae, who are faithful brothers. Grace to you and peace from God our Father.”

The Church Itself

The first thing is to take a little background look at the Colossian church itself. This was a church that would have never been mentioned in the Net Testament if this letter was never written. That is because this was a church that Paul did not start nor even visit, instead Paul heard of their faith. This was a church that had more than likely started due to Paul’s ministry in Ephesus, in which the Gospel went out through all of Asia from there. It was probably in Ephesus that Epaphras and Philemon came to faith in Christ. These were two ordinary guys which God used to start ministries and churches in the three cities of Colossae, Laodecia, and Hierapolis. As with the city itself the church was predominately Gentile with a diverse background which probably led to some of the issues Paul deals with in the letter. Now in looking at Paul’s greeting we also see three things about the church that he reminds them of.

Saints

The first thing Paul tells the Colossian church is that they are saints, or that they are holy. This is a familiar address Paul uses in his letters to the churches, Galatians and 1 & 2 Thessalonians are the exception. The concept of a saint in Paul’s day was not how we view a saint today. Today when we think of a saint we think of a dead person that the Catholic church has granted the status of sainthood to after meeting a certain set of criteria. To Paul a saint was someone set aside for God’s purpose, or in other words a believer. You see it is not anything they did that made them saints, but it is all what God did; as it was through Christ that God made them, and makes us, holy.

Faithful

The next thing Paul states about the church is that they were faithful. You have to remember this was a church that started through hearing from others that more than likely brought the Gospel to Colossae after hearing it while in Ephesus, yet they held fast to their faith. In fact Paul later expresses praise in hearing about their faith. This was a young church started by regular ordinary people, no apostles, missionaries, or pastors started it, and when they faced an issue Epaphras probably told the church that they should seek advice from Paul on the issue. Rather than stray they sought out godly counsel to help correct wrong teachings that were trying to creep their way in.

Brothers

Finally Paul called the church in Colossae brothers. This demonstrates the unity that is shared among believers, we are all part of a family and as such work together. This sense of unity shows that we are not supposed to go at it alone, instead we should be willing to help each other out in times of need. I have often heard with some branches of the military the concept of “no man left behind,” as Christians we should have a similar concept that we should not allow each other to fall. We should encourage and life each other up, pray for each other, and when one of us falls we should be willing to help bring them back to Christ. The unity of the believer, the brotherhood of faith, means we should be willing to help and protect each other from falling into the grasp of the enemy. Paul exhibits this concept in that he doesn’t leave the Colossian church to their own devices, which he had no direct ties to the church to warrant his involvement, but because they were fellow believers that was the only reason needed for Paul to step in to address the issues that they were facing. So what were these issues? Well we will look at that next time.

Welcome to Colossae – The City

Posted on June 6, 2016June 1, 2016 by chgruver

This week after taking about a month’s break we are going to start looking at the book of Colossians. The thing is before we start to dig into the book we should do a little bit of background on the book. This way as we start to look at what Paul has written we can understand why Paul says what he did which in turn helps us apply the truths to our lives today. The letter to the Colossians starts out like this, “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will, and Timothy our brother: To the saints in Christ at Colossae, who are faithful brothers. Grace to you and peace from God our Father (Colossians 1:1-2).” So in setting up the background we see two clear things, the author and the audience.

The Author

The first thing to notice is that it is Paul who wrote the letter. This is considered to be one of his prison letters, and was more than likely written while he was a prisoner in Rome. This letter along with the ones to the Ephesians, Philippians, and Philemon were written among the same time frame, with the letters to the Colossians and Philemon mentioning many of the same people and carried by the same messenger. This letter is unique in that it is one of the few letters Paul wrote to a church he had not started or even visited, but he still felt the need to write them to encourage them as well as to correct false teachings.

The Audience

We also see that this letter was written to the church in Colossae, which we will look at the church closer next time; but it does help to understand some about the city as it will help us to understand both the church and Paul’s reason for writing to them. The city of Colossae was one of three cities located in what was considered Asia Minor in the Lycus River Valley. While it was a prominent city when the Greeks ruled the area, by Paul’s time it became more of a small town, with a main road between Ephesus and the east running through the area. This probably helped lead to the diversity that would have been seen in both the city and the church. This also meant that it was a prime area for all kinds of philosophies and religions to mingle and essentially breed to form new sets of beliefs.

Does this landscape sound familiar? At least to me it sounds much like the religious landscape of many post-Christian nations, America included. There are those that look at the different philosophies and religions and take those teachings and practices that they find enjoyable and apply them to their life. They create their own hybrid religion that is appealing to them and may outwardly sound good; but in reality it is nothing but empty promises that lead people away from Christ. So now that we have seen what the city of Colossae looks like next time we will look deeper at the church that was located there.