Introduction to Colossians

Order of Service

• Welcome and Announcements
• Call to Worship — Colossians 3:14-17
• Hymn — Blessed Be the Tie That Binds (#409)
• Prayer
• Catechism — Westminster Larger Catechism, Question 31
• Hymn of the Month — Not What My Hands Have Done (#435)
• Pastoral Prayer
• Scripture Reading — Colossians 1:1-2
• Sermon
• Prayer
• Hymn — Rejoice, Believer, in the Lord (#486)
• Benediction

Sermon Title: Introduction to Colossians

Scripture: Colossians 1:1-2

I. Who Is Paul? (Verse 1)

• A. Background of the letter
  1. Colossians is one of the prison epistles (Colossians, Philippians, Ephesians, Philemon), written during Paul's first Roman imprisonment, around AD 60-62.
  2. Philemon belonged to the church at Colossae. His runaway slave Onesimus became a believer, and he is mentioned again in Colossians 4.
  3. Paul did not plant the church at Colossae. Only Rome and Colossae were churches he wrote to without having planted them. This shows the intimate bond of love between believers who have never met.
  4. We should not skip the greetings of the epistles, because rich theology undergirds them.
• B. Paul's name and mission
  1. Paul is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Saul (see Acts 13). He uses it because his mission was to be a minister to the Gentiles.
  2. Paul writes "Christ Jesus," with Christ first for emphasis. This stresses Jesus' office as the Jewish Messiah, the light to the nations who shines through his sent ones.
• C. Paul is an apostle, a sent one, by the will of God
  1. It is an official, authoritative office held by those who witnessed the risen Lord.
  2. To receive or reject the Son is to receive or reject the Father (Luke 10:16).
  3. Jesus himself is the first Apostle (Hebrews 3:1). There is a "trickle-down apostleship" from the Father to the Son to the apostles to the church.
  4. Timothy is called "our brother," not an apostle, so no one today should claim the title.
  5. Paul's inclusion of Timothy is a sweet picture of ministry fellowship (compare 2 Timothy 4:11).
• D. The apostolic stamp
  1. The epistles carry the "organization stamp" of Christ, like a letter bearing the Detroit Tigers logo.
  2. J. Gresham Machen argued that faith includes receiving all the apostolic doctrine, against the liberal tendency to keep Jesus' words and discard Paul and Peter.
  3. We should read the epistles with the giddiness of a child receiving a letter.

II. Who Are the Colossians? (Verse 2a)

• A. "Saints and faithful brothers"
  1. "Saints" (hagioi) means those set apart to the Lord. "Faithful" most likely means believing.
  2. "Saints" is never used in the singular in the New Testament. It always refers to God's people as a corporate body (1 Peter 2:10).
  3. We should think of ourselves as part of a body of saints. Sainthood is not conferred by a pope but shared together in Christ.
• B. "In Christ at Colossae"
  1. Believers live in two spheres: spiritually in Christ and physically in a particular city. Lewis Johnson notes that neither pure secularism nor pure monasticism is the alternative.
  2. Paul's letters are shaped by the circumstances of the city addressed. Paul would write to "the saints in Christ at Meridian."
  3. Herman Bavinck sought to apply Reformed theology to the actual time and place God has set us in. The aim is to confront the culture, not conform to it, and to know the unique temptations and opportunities of our city.
• C. Application
  1. Do we know our neighbors, and are our homes open to others?
  2. Visitors often notice the warmth of the church family, and we want the surrounding community to feel it too.
  3. Rosaria Butterfield's The Gospel Comes with a House Key is recommended.
  4. We are saints in Christ at Meridian.

III. Who Is God? (Verse 2b)

• A. "Grace to you and peace from God our Father"
  1. Paul combines the Hebrew greeting (shalom, peace) with a play on the Greek greeting (chairein, greetings), which becomes charis, grace. William Barclay says he molded the greetings of two nations into one, as in Ephesians 2.
  2. The order matters: grace comes first and makes way for peace. Undeserved favor, through Christ's blood and imputed righteousness received by faith alone, brings reconciliation with the Father.
• B. A benedictory greeting
  1. A benediction is a good word from the Lord, not a prayer or petition. Raised hands signify a posture of passive reception by faith.
  2. Grace and peace spoken by a God-appointed authority echoes the priestly blessing of Numbers 6:24-26.
• C. The priestly blessing as the capstone of a larger story (Michael Morales)
  1. Exodus 25 gives instructions for the tabernacle, where God will dwell with his people. Exodus 40 ends on an ominous note: Moses cannot enter because the glory fills the tent.
  2. Leviticus answers how a tent of dwelling becomes a tent of meeting, through the priesthood and sacrifice. The Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16) sits at the center of the book.
  3. The result is the blessing of Numbers 6, in which God's name, grace, and peace rest on a forgiven people. The answer to the dilemma was God's own provision.
• D. Fulfillment in Christ
  1. Our High Priest Jesus has entered the true holy of holies with his own blood, and now speaks grace and peace through his apostle.
  2. After the blessing in Numbers, Israel marched into the wilderness. We likewise travel as pilgrims through the wasteland, covered by God's grace and peace received by faith.
  3. We should not skip over the greetings of the epistles but delight in and contemplate them.