We have finished the book of Philippians and that will we be
moving into Colossians in our studies on Wednesday evenings.
This is another book that was written by the Apostle Paul.
and, This was written in about 8061 28064 while Paul was in
prison in Rome and he wrote this letter along with Ephesians
Philemon and Philippians all at the same time.
The church at colossae, the city of colossally sits about 90
miles west of Ephesus, which is in modern-day turkey.
Today, it's located on the light, it was located on the
like, ash River and city has not been excavated today.
In fact, if you look at maps of where colossi is, there's just a
mound, there's nothing there and it's pretty amazing to it to
think about that. Because being as such an old
Play some there's a book in the Bible about it has not been
excavated like some of the larger cities in that era.
There's a few things that Paul deals with, in this book of
Colossians, he writes us directly to the members of the
church there in colossi. Some of those things that he
dealt with teaching the Colossians about was worshipping
of angelic beings. You know, there was a there's a
local Legend back in those days that the Colossians believe that
the Archangel Michael actually saved them from some of the
floods that happened in that lycus river near the city.
So being that they felt that way.
They worship, their tend to worship Angelic beings, in that
time, in that City, there was also a false teachers that that
the Paul warned them about, they taught that not all knowledge is
necessary to Salvation is found in the gospels.
That's what the false teachers were teaching.
In Colossians, they taught that as humans could have higher
Thinking by meditation, to know everything there was to know
about God. Human philosophy was also
thought up to make them more more mature Christians, but
Paul, refutes that in the second chapter of Colossians and verse
state where he says we are complete in Christ The false
teachers also denied the Divinity of Christ, James Orton
kind of sums. These these thoughts up of what
Paul was teaching about, he called it.
This is the basic basic false teachings of gnosticism.
Basically, gnosticism is thinking that that are human
knowledge. Will gain us a better
understanding of God and that is a false Doctrine.
Everything that we have to know about God is in the Bible's in
the scriptures here that we can read.
Gnosticism is defined as a love of or Devotion to knowledge.
It's an age-old problem that has been dealt with even since the
beginning of time. You know, Eve was tempted by
this in the Garden of Eating, you know, Satan told her, you
will have knowledge of everything if you eat of this
fruit, by more knowledge of knowing of everything.
Major problem. It's also a major problem with
those who teach theology today. You know, theology is the study
of God's nature and there's some of those who obsess over, trying
to figure out God's nature by our by their own human mind in
understanding, we can never study enough to understand God's
full knowledge or nature, why he does the things he does or why.
He has given us why he has given us the Bible the way he's giving
it to us. We'll never know exactly why all
we know is what's in the scriptures You know, if we're
not careful, we can, if we tried to study God's nature to the
fullest extent that some people try to, and theology teaching,
you know, we can be categorized right with the Colossians as
well. So we need to be careful with
that. All we need to know what is
written in the scriptures. We either Believe It Or we don't
So that's kind of a little bit of a background of the city or
the church and colossi. So, we'll start getting into our
study here. We're going to be dealing with
the first nine verses of Colossians, and the first
question that has been prepared forced is, what does the word
Apostle mean? And who was Timothy?
And before we get into that, I want to read the first nine
verses of Colossians. It says there 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 in colossi grace
to you and peace from God, our Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ. We give thanks to the God and
father of our Lord. Jesus Christ.
Praying. Always for you since we heard of
your faith in Christ Jesus and your, and your love.
And for all the saints because of the Hope, which is laid up
for Are you in heaven of which you heard before in word of the
truth of the Gospel, which has come to you as it is also in all
the world and is bringing forth fruit as it is among you, since
the day, you heard and knew the grace of God in truth as you
also learn from the pathless, our dear fellow servant who is a
faithful minister of Christ on your behalf who is also declared
to us your love in the spirit for this.
Reason we also since the day, we heard it, do not cease to pray
for you. And to ask that you may be
filled with the knowledge of his will and all wisdom and
spiritual understanding. so going back to verse 1, our
question is, what does the word Apostle mean and who is Timothy
The word Apostle here. Is a noun.
An apostle is a messenger or one sent on a mission.
With specific orders sent by God, or sent by Jesus.
In a broader sense and Apostle is is the name identified with
other Christian teachers as well.
Through the Bible will see like an even Barnabas was called an
apostle in Acts 14 and 14. Paul was not one of the original
Twelve but he was also referred to as an apostle.
In 2nd Corinthians, 11 and 5. It says for I consider that I am
not at all inferior to the most eminent Apostles and he was
talking about the first Twelve, Apostles Paul compared himself
equal to them but Paul, you know, Paul was sent by Jesus as
well. You know, on the road adjustment
Damascus and also in Hebrews 3 and verse 1.
It says therefore, holy Brethren partakers of the Heavenly
calling. Consider the Apostle and high
priest of our confession Christ. Jesus who was faithful, To him
who appointed him and Moses also was faithful in all his house.
So an apostle is one who is appointed to go on a mission to
send a message with specific orders by either Jesus or God
himself. We are not apostles today, there
are no apostles today because we have not been directly given
first-hand information or divinely inspired from God or
Jesus. That is the difference.
Apostles, only occurred occurred during the Biblical times of
Jesus. When the last Apostle John died,
that was the end of the Apostle age, those who claim to be
Apostles. Now have abused the title in a
way that God and Jesus had never intended it to be used.
So Paul that is the definition of apostle and that's why Paul
calls himself an apostle as well.
Timothy course, we know who we're all familiar with who
Timothy is. You know, the book of Timothy
were familiar worth. This is the same Timothy that
Paul wrote the book to Paul met Timothy on his second missionary
journey, Timothy work and travel with Paul on some of the
missionary Journeys that he went on, and it's believed that
Timothy was with Paul in Rome while this letter was written to
the church. You colossi as well.
Timothy was a faithful member and evangelist at Ephesus and he
was the son of a Jewish mother and a Greek father.
That brings us to our second question.
Which is who were the Saints and who were the faithful, are they
different people? And what do the words, Grace,
and peace mean, and this deals with verse 2 and it says there
to the Saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in
colossi grace to you and peace from God, our Father and the
Lord Jesus Christ. So we'll Define what Saints is
Saints. Here is the Greek word.
Hagios and that means to be set apart by God to be holy or
sacred and faithful. Here is the the Greek word piss
toys, which means trustworthy faithful and believing those are
definitions from Strong's in the Old Testament, you know, the
Jewish Nation felt like they were set apart from God as well.
They felt like they were saying it's because they were set
apart. They were chosen by God in the
New Testament. Writings you authors considered
all Choose to be Saints. So we have since we have obeyed,
the gospel of Christ, We Are All Saints.
You know, there's large religious organizations to that,
do not see it that way. They see it as a specific few
number of men that are too big to be called Saints because they
considered those people to be more holy than everybody else.
You know, that that is not found in the Bible anywhere.
So that is a false teaching as well.
The Saints and the faithful are the same people here.
Those who have chosen to follow Christ or which were set apart
and they were faithful members of the church at colossae.
See, Paul certainly could have given the church here in
Bakersfield. I think the same description.
You know, we are all Saints because we were set apart by
God. We have chosen to follow God.
And we're faithful members by the life that we live by by how
we how we live a Godly life every day.
So I think that's great encouragement.
What do the words Grace and peace.
Mean grace means to be partakers of the Divine favor, the source.
Once every blessing is derived, this word indicates a general
favor, that the early Christians had and a general favor that we
have from the Divine Source. The same word is used in.
Luke chapter 1 verse 30 where it says fear not Mary thou Hast
found favour with God. Also in Luke 22 verse 40, it
says and the child grew and the grace of God.
God, the favor of God was upon him.
Also, Luke 1 verse 52 and Jesus increased in favor Grace with
God. And man, also in Acts 2:47
having favor Grace with all the people also an axe for 33 it
says in and great grace favor was upon them all.
So we have a favor with God. It is a Grace that we have the
word piece here. This is a word that is is
meaning to spiritual peace that we have when we are saved by the
blood of Jesus. We have a piece in our heart,
that surpasses all other things, a piece and knowing that we are
saved people. When we follow Christ, we are
content with the state that we are in, no matter how bad it may
be, or how bad it may seem. We have a Use that.
Our soul is in good favor with God and Jesus.
Paul was giving the Christians here at colossi the confidence.
That the piece of having Hope Of Heaven was with him.
That brings us to our next question here.
Question. Number 3, which deals with
verses 3 through 6 and it says there, we give thanks to the God
and father of our Lord. Jesus Christ.
Praying. Always for you, since we heard
of your faith in Christ Jesus, and you have your love for all
the saints because of the Hope, which is laid up for you in
heaven of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the
Gospel which is come to you, as it has also been all the world
and is bringing forth fruit as it.
Is also among you since the day, you heard it and knew the grace
of God in truth. So, the question here is, why
did Paul pray with Thanksgiving for the church at colossae?
Well, there's there's multiple reasons here and it kind of
lists them here in these in these few verses.
Paul heard of their faithfulness through other means you know
Paul himself along with timidly Timothy had most likely never
been to colossi from what some of the scholars say and some of
the verbiage that's in the chapters here.
So Paul heard from a third-party, their faithfulness
there in colossi. So Paul was thankful for that.
The church in colossae was not established by Paul.
So he was thankful that the gospel was spreading and that
they were faithful Christians where he had not even been.
Also the love they had for all the saints in verse 4.
This is a direct commandment from Jesus in John 13 and 35.
It says by this all will know that you are my disciples.
If you have love for one another and we are commanded to love.
So that was another reason why Paul was praying Thanksgiving.
So, because of the hope that they had, that is laid up in
heaven, worst, five. This is, of course, a speaking
about the end goal that we all have.
This is why we are Christians. The hope that we have laid up in
heaven, that's what motivates us.
That's what should provoke us to spread the gospel and to try to
take it to everybody that we can.
This hope that is spoke of is. Produced it produces the love
that they had for the Saints. You know, they had a hope for
heaven, and they love the brothers and sisters and, and
they encouraged each other to get to the end goal of Heaven.
so you know I was thinking about this and you know what are we if
we do not have love for one for another If we don't have love
for another do we are we are we living a Christian Life?
You know, if we do not have one for another regardless of what,
who that one another is, we do not have the full faith of Jesus
God and their promise to us in heaven.
So we need to be careful on who we, you know, we think we can
love this person more than the other person or show favor to
this person or the other person because they tend to be more
likeable. We need to be extremely careful
about that. We are to love everybody.
D. That is what Jesus taught us.
And also, Another reason why he was thankful is because the
gospel was producing fruit in Colossians which what verse six
refers to. So those are, those are why he
was so thankful and giving prayers of thanks to the church
and colossi. From what, from, what Paul hears
from the pathless, which we'll get to the papers reported to
Paul the things that we're going on in colossi.
Paul was thankful that the church in colossae was
benefiting from the gospel of Christ.
But, you know, as we continue in this study in the next few weeks
will also find that there was problems in colossi as well that
Paul had to deal with. We touched on a few of those
earlier kind of in our introduction, that brings us to
question number 4, who was epaphras, which deal with versus
An 8 it says there as you also learn from the patras our dear
fellow servant who is a faithful minister of Christ on your
behalf who also declared to us your love in the spirit.
Epaphras here is also mentioned in a couple other verses in the
New Testament is mentioned here in verse 7.
And he's also mentioned in Colossians 4 verse 12, where it
says epaphras, who is one of you a bond servant of Christ greets.
You always laboring fervently for you and prayers that you may
stand, perfect, and complete and all the will of God also in
Philemon 23, epaphras my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus.
Greets you. So from these just few verses we
can find out that epaphras was was quite possibly a member of
the Church of colossi. And he was also with Paul
traveled from colossi to Paul to Paul in Rome when he was in
prison and was with Paul there at the same time he was also
imprisoned with Paul at the same time.
So another thing you know epaphras Top the members and
colossi, the gospel, you know, teaching helps, one to learn,
you know, tell just saying the gospel.
Telling that some of there is somebody called Jesus but not
teaching is not is not teaching simple as that.
So, Patrick was there and he taught the people and the
members in colossi, and they grew in faith.
That takes us to our next question, which is question 5
deals with verse number 9. Number 69 says for this reason,
we also since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for
you. And to ask that you may be
filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual
understanding. And the question is, how is one
filled with the knowledge of God's Will?
And what is meant by the phrase in all wisdom and spiritual
understanding? You know, there's this is just
so simple for us to understand, we are filled with the
knowledge. By simply reading God's word,
and praying about it and meditating on it and studying
it. And that is only found By
reading the biblical scriptures. That's the only way we can
really understand and know more about what God's will is for us.
The verse here says that Paul Timothy and epaphras were
praying for the congregation colossi that they may gain
further. Knowledge of God's Will and
Ephesians 3 verses 3 and 4. It says how that by Revelation
he made known to me. The mystery as I have briefly
written already by which when you read, you may understand my
knowledge in the mystery of Christ.
I don't think you can get any clearer than that.
So, Paul, and the other apostles were divinely inspired by God to
teach and write about all the things that God wants us to know
about him and about Jesus and how to follow him and how to get
to heaven, all those things are here for us to read those things
were inspired to the apostles and to the writers of the Old
and New Testament. So by today, I'm back, then
that's how those people knew about it.
They were inspired by God. That's how they were growing in
knowledge of Christ. That is the apostles and those
who wrote the Bible and, and they pass that on or taught the
other members. Other Christians, in that first
century by that Reason by that means.
Now, B, now today, the only way we can do that is by reading
God's word. That's the only way that we can
read how to gain a knowledge of God and his will in all wisdom
and spiritual understanding This simply means that when we read
and pray about the scriptures, we can rightly divide them,
understand the spiritual implications of them and apply
them wisely or with wisdom practically in our life.
So we have a wisdom that we can gain from the Bible.
Not just spiritual things but there are practical living
things that we all run into today that we can learn from
from God's word and we can learn the spiritual things.
And when we run into conflicts between friends or at home or
find herself in Temptation, we can go to the god work, God's
word and understand the spiritual implications and apply
those to our lives and work out the problems that we might have.
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