Colossians 1:1-23

Teacher: Rusty Kennedy
​Series: Colossians

Rusty's Notes

Crisis in Colosse

• The church in Colosse is having problems.
• Some of the believers are not getting along and are mistreating one another.
• Still worse, false teachers have come into the church and are subverting the gospel of grace.
• They are introducing a bizarre form of Jewish legalism mixed with a counterfeit spirituality.
• They are teaching the Colossians the following: In order to experience God’s “fullness,” you must observe the ceremonial laws of the OT.
• You must observe special “holy” days and eat only “clean” foods.
• You must also be circumcised.
• Union with God is evidenced by mystical visions and angelic visitations.
• What you handle, taste, and/or touch can either help or harm your union with God.
• If you handle, taste, or touch that which is “unclean,” you will lose your union with God and will never experience His fullness.
• The false teaching has also spread to the church in Laodicea.
• Epaphras, the founder of the Colossian and Laodicean churches, is troubled by this spiritual assault.
• So he sails to Rome to get advice from Paul.

 

• At the same time, Onesimus (Philemon’s slave) runs away. But he does not run away empty-handed. He steals money from Philemon! (This is a capital offense.)
• Epaphras finds Onesimus and takes him to Rome with him, believing that Paul can help him.
• Onesimus is not a Christian, but he remembers Paul to be a kind man and believes that he will help him.
• On his way to Rome to visit Paul, Epaphras (also called Epaphroditus) stops at Philippi to visit the church there.
• The church in Philippi is greatly encouraged by Epaphras, and it sends him off to Rome with a small fortune as a love offering for Paul.
• This is the fourth time the church in Philippi has helped Paul monetarily. The Philippians are deeply concerned for Paul and ask Epaphras to let them know how he is doing.

 

• Epaphras and Onesimus continue toward Rome, but Epaphras becomes deathly ill on the way.
• Yet despite his illness, Epaphras persists on to Rome for the Lord’s sake.
• Onesimus has a message sent to the church in Philippi, letting them know of Epaphras’ sickness and requesting prayer for him.
• When Epaphras arrives in Rome, he hands Paul the financial gift. He informs Paul of the love the Philippians have for him and gives him an update on their progress.
• He also tells him about the church in Colosse.
• Epaphras joyfully tells him of the love the Colossian believers have for one another.
• But he also gives Paul a full report of the problems that the churches in Colosse, Laodicea, and Philippi are having.
• He also lets him know that Archippus—the son of Philemon and Apphia—is deeply discouraged and has stopped ministering to the church in Colosse and Laodicea like he once did.
• Upon hearing all the bad news, Paul struggles in prayer for the church in Colosse as well as for the churches in Laodicea and Philippi.
• Onesimus is with Epaphras, and Paul leads him to Christ.
• Onesimus turns out to be a real servant to Paul, and Paul grows to depend on him.
• When the church in Philippi gets word of Epaphras’ sickness, they write Paul a letter inquiring about Epaphras’ health.
• Paul will now write three letters, and he will dictate them all to Timothy to scribe.
• Paul will send all three letters by the hand of Tychicus.
• He instructs Tychicus to encourage the churches and give them an update on his (Paul’s) prison situation.
• Onesimus will return to Colosse with Tychicus and a letter that Paul will write to Philemon.
• The letters Paul writes at the same time (61 AD) are Colossians, Philemon & Ephesians.

 
COLOSSIANS
GREETING

• Do the heavenly bodies have any influence over our lives? The millions of people who consult their horoscopes each day would say, “Yes!”
• At one point, in the United States, there were about 1,750 daily newspapers, and 1,220 of them carried astrological data!
• Is there any relationship between diet and spiritual living?
• Does God speak to us immediately, in our minds, or only through His Word, the Bible?
• Do the Eastern religions have something to offer the evangelical Christian?
• These are contemporary questions and issues that Paul was dealing with in 61 AD.
• It was a combination of Eastern philosophy and Jewish legalism, with elements of what Bible scholars call gnosticism (NOS-ti-cism).
• This term comes from the Greek word gnosis (KNOW-sis) which means “to know.” (An agnostic is one who does not know.)
• The gnostics were the people who were “in the know” when it came to the deep things of God.
• They were the “spiritual aristocracy” in the church.
• The emphasis in Ephesians is on the church, the body of Christ; but the emphasis in Colossians is on Christ, the Head of the body.[1]
• It is not much different today.
• They were dealing with different agendas of the times and all Paul wanted to focus on was Jesus.
• Jesus was Paul’s only agenda.
• It becomes a trust factor that the Spirit will deal with the agendas rather than ourselves.
• What we know… and believe… impacts how we behave.
• So we will continue to teach Jesus here at Leavener.

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will, and Timothy our brother:

• Paul later mentions that he is the writer of this letter but he is claiming Timothy’s spiritual authority as well here.

2 To the saints in Christ at Colossae, who are faithful brothers and sisters.

• The city is never named in the Book of Acts because Paul did not start the Colossian church, nor did he ever visit it.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father.
 
THANKSGIVING
3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints 5 because of the hope reserved for you in heaven. You have already heard about this hope in the word of truth (it can be trusted), the gospel 6 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 came to truly appreciate God’s grace.

• All over the world there is not much that is the same… shelter, food, clothing, education, etc.
• But God’s grace is the same no matter where in the world.
• Grace has been made available for the whole world!

7 You learned this from Epaphras, our dearly loved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, 8 and he has told us about your love in the Spirit.

• Faith, hope & love… the greatest of these is “love”
• When you recall that Paul wrote this letter in prison, his attitude of thanksgiving is even more wonderful.

 
PRAYER FOR SPIRITUAL GROWTH
9 For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We are asking that you may be filled (you are complete) with the knowledge of his will (to walk by the Spirit) in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, (comes from God) 10 so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: (we understand from the Spirit… then we walk) bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, so that you may have great endurance and patience, joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light.

• The moment you believed in Jesus, you were given everything you ever needed.
• You don’t have to keep updating it. You have it all right now!
• I have a smartphone… It is called a smartphone for a reason. It doesn’t make me smart.
• What if all I used it for was calling people.
• I’d be missing out on what I have been given.
• I don’t need a new phone… I just need to understand and use what I have.
• You’ve been given this powerful gift that produces all these things mentioned. You just have to use the gift.

13 He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son he loves. 14 In him we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

• Jesus didn’t rescue us from bondage to have us wander aimlessly.
• He freed us and gave us a Spirit to follow.

 
THE CENTRALITY OF CHRIST
15 He is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn (not time but rank) over all creation.
16 For everything was created by him,
in heaven and on earth,
the visible and the invisible,
whether thrones or dominions
or rulers or authorities--
all things have been created through him and for him.

•  For centuries, the Greek philosophers had taught that everything needed a primary cause, an instrumental cause, and a final cause.
• The primary cause is the plan, the instrumental cause the power, and the final cause the purpose.
• When it comes to Creation, Jesus Christ is the primary cause (He planned it), the instrumental cause (He produced it), and the final cause (He did it for His own pleasure).[2]

17 He is before all things,
and by him all things hold together.
18 He is also the head of the body, the church;
he is the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead,
so that he might come to have
first place in everything.

• The church had its origin in Him, and today it has its operation in Him.[3]

19 For God was pleased to have
all his fullness dwell in him,
20 and through him to reconcile
everything to himself,
whether things on earth or things in heaven,

• What is to be reconciled in heaven?
• Revelation 12:10 - Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say, The salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have now come, because the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been thrown down. [4]

by making peace
through his blood, shed on the cross.
21 Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds as expressed in your evil actions. 22 But now he has reconciled you by his physical body through his death,  to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before him--23 if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith and are not shifted away from the hope of the gospel that you heard. This gospel has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and I, Paul, have become a servant of it.[5]

• Quit going back to your flesh (patterns) and realize the transformation that has already occurred.
• Paull will remind them over and over what they have been taught as the Good News.
• They are constantly being told something different.

[1] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 2, p. 104). Victor Books.
[2] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 2, p. 116). Victor Books.
[3] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 2, pp. 116–117). Victor Books.
[4] Christian Standard Bible (Re 12:10). (2020). Holman Bible Publishers.
[5] Christian Standard Bible (Col 1:1–23). (2020). Holman Bible Publishers.