#308 Colossians Series# 1, The Ancient City Speaks Today

#308 Colossians Series# 1, The Ancient City Speaks Today
By: Pastor Cheryl Thomas

Colossae- The Ancient City Speaks Today

How should we approach the Bible?

It is a metanarrative a “big story,” the all-encompassing theme of the whole.

And as NT Wright says, “the bible story is important because it is the divine drama told in Scripture, and it offers a story which is the story of the whole world…”

When we speak of the biblical story as a narrative it allows us to make connections between concepts and categories.

How should we interpret the Bible?

There are a few things rules for Interpreting what we are reading.

Definition, usage, context, history, logic, genre, and reliance upon holy spirit.

1) The rule of DEFINITION: What does the word mean? Any study of Scripture must begin with a study of words.
2) The rule of USAGE: It must be remembered that the Old Testament was written originally by, to and for Jews. The majority of the New Testament likewise was written in a milieu of Greco-Roman (and to a lesser extent Jewish) culture and it is important to not impose our modern usage into our interpretation.  “That was wicked”
3) The rule of CONTEXT: The meaning must be gathered from the context. Every word you read must be understood in the light of the words that come before and after it and as a part of a whole.   No verse of Scripture can be divorced from the verses around it. The bible was not written in a vacuum.

What would happen if we did not read the whole when it comes to verses like these:
Hosea 1:2 “Go marry a prostitute and have children with her.”
Amos 4:4 “Go to Bethel and sin”
Psalm 14:1 “There is no God”

PP Person— Go ahead and look at slide with pictures
Picture Karl from Venice

Interpreting a verse apart from its context is like trying to analyze a picture by looking at only a single square inch. Context is everything.

Then go back so we can finish the slide

4) The rule of HISTORICAL BACKGROUND: The interpreter must have some awareness of the life and society of the times in which the Scripture was written. The spiritual principle will be timeless but often can’t be properly appreciated without some knowledge of the background.

5) The rule of LOGIC: Interpretation is merely logical reasoning.

6) The rule of GENRE JUDGMENT: A “literal” approach to Scripture recognizes that the Bible contains a variety of literary genres, each of which has certain peculiar characteristics that must be recognized in order to interpret the text properly. 

7) The rule of dependence upon the HOLY SPIRIT: Scripture tells us that we are to rely on the Holy Spirit’s illumination to gain insights into the meaning and application of Scripture.

Read Colossian 1:1-3

Today the church faces a myriad of philosophies and ideologies; cultural relativism, universalism, Gnosticism, and syncretism just to name a few.

Cultural relativism– the idea that a person’s beliefs and activities should be understood based on that person’s own culture, rather than judged against the criteria of another.

Universalism- Universalism is a belief that “all human beings will eventually be saved after death”. Thus, even someone who died as an atheist, would eventually accept Jesus in the afterlife and become a Christian, and be allowed into heaven.

Some Universalists go so far to say that even the demons and Satan himself might repent and come back to God.

On the surface it doesn’t really seem like a bad teaching – it’s tolerant, accepting, hopeful. If God really was “good”, then of course He would let everyone into heaven, right?

Universalism Removes the Importance of Life-Why would God bother to have us live on Earth if we can just repent in the afterlife? Why would the Bible emphasize the need for faith if we could just wait, die, and then make up our minds?

Universalism makes Jesus’ Death Unnecessary

If Jesus’ death doesn’t pay for sins, and God can just forgive anyone he wants, then why would Jesus have had to die? It doesn’t make sense.

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (NIV).

Universalism makes Christians Complacent

We become ineffective at evangelism. After all, if everyone ends up in heaven eventually, why does it matter if they believe in Jesus or not?

Antinomianism- the view that Christians are released by grace from the obligation of observing the moral law. The tendency toward carelessness and a lack self-restraint, virtue, etc.

Syncretism- the combination of different forms of belief or practice” (Webster’s). The word syncretism does not appear in the KJV, but the subject of syncretism is certainly addressed (and condemned) in the Scriptures.  Addressed further in teaching

Gnosticism- addressed later in teaching

Even though the book of Colossians was written over 2000 years ago it continues to speak a relevant word for the church today in that we gain necessary insights that will helps us in a post Christian, postmodern world, inundated with “ism” that infect and affect the church. 

Today my goal is to set the back drop for this particular book of the bible.  

• The City
• Date of Epistle
• Author of Epistle
• Reason for the letter
• Outline
• Key Phrases
• Warnings
• Affirmations

The City

• Several hundred years before Paul’s day, Colosse had been a leading city in Asia Minor (present-day Turkey).
• It was located on the Lycus River and on the great east-west trade route leading from Ephesus on the Aegean Sea to the Euphrates River
• 3 Phyrgian cities important Laodecaea, Hierapolis, Colosse, now a part of the Roman empire
• The city was decimated by an earthquake in the 60s AD, and was rebuilt independent of the support of Rome. The city was later overrun by theSaracens in the 7th and 8th centuries AD, and was ultitmately destroyed by the Turks in the 12th century with the remnant of its population relocating.
• However by the first century Colosse was diminished to a second-rate market town, which had been surpassed long before in power and importance by the neighboring towns of Laodicea and Hierapolis.

Date & Demographic

• 60-63 A.D.
• Colosse was mostly a pagan city, with a strong intermingling of Jews
• (in 62 B.C., there were 11,000 Jewish freemen in the tri-city area).
• This may explain the nature of some of the problems that arose among
• the church in Colosse (problems with both pagan and Jewish origin).
• Jews had been transport to the region many years before, (some 2,000 families), they prospered, many more came… rigorous Jews lamented over what had come of these Jewish families as they were accused of leaving the rigors of the faith and ancestral land for the wine and baths of Phyrgia
• Greek- Jewish population

The Author

• Paul & Timothy– 1:1-2
• Paul probably dictated it to Timothy.
• Church Planter Epaphrus 1:7
• Colossians is one of Paul’s Prison Epistles- He had a where people could come and visit however the  house was under the Guard of Praetorian soldiers.
• Paul was granted some rather unusual liberties, nonetheless, he was still a prisoner.
• His imprisonment imposes considerable stress. Hence, in his correspondence, he refers to himself as “the prisoner of Christ” (Eph. 3:1) or “the prisoner of the Lord” (Eph. 4:1), who is an “ambassador in chains” (6:20).
• Chains were commonly viewed as an object of shame (cf. 2 Tim. 1:16). Note the multiple references to his “bonds” or to his state as a “prisoner” (Phil. 1:7, 13, 14, 17; Col. 4:18; Phile. 1, 9, 23).

Reason For The Letter

The young church had become the target of heretical attack, by what Paul referes to as  “false teachers”.

They received the grace of Christ, but found themselves in further turmoil. False teachings, mysticism, empty philosophies, legalism, and traditions where  threatening the health and wellbeing of the members and their evangelistic opportunities.

They were under siege by false teaches and prideful men seeking sensationalism and mysticism rather than Christ as Lord. Christ’s Deity was being challenged and rejected.

There was an imminent threat to church that Heresy would become epidemic

Paul appealed to them reminding the church that humans cannot achieve salvation through their own works, ideas, or accomplishments; we can’t “improve” Christianity by adding to it ideas or philosophies from other sources, no matter how well-intentioned they are;

Christianity is not syncretistic. Paul’s letter to the Colossians reminds us that there is absolute truth in Christ.

OUTLINE

Introduction (1:1–14)

• Greetings (1:1–2)
• Thanksgiving (1:3–8)
• Prayer (1:9–14)

The Supremacy of Christ (1:15–23)

Paul’s Labor for the Church (1:24—2:7)

• His Ministry for the Sake of the Church (1:24–29)- I work and struggle so hard depending on Christs mighty power that works in me
• His Concern for the Spiritual Welfare of His Readers (2:1–7)- (agonized)- what effort anxity, contention…

Freedom from Human Regulations through Life with Christ (2:8–23)

• Warning to Guard against the False Teachers (2:8–15)
• Pleas to Reject the False Teachers (2:16–19)
• An Analysis of the Heresy (2:20–23)

Rules for Holy Living (3:1—4:6)

• The Old Self and the New Self (3:1–17)
• Rules for Christian Households (3:18—4:1)
• Further Instructions (4:2–6)

Final Greetings and Benediction (4:7–18)

 Summary- The book of Colossians is an anthem and presentation of the Apostle Paul’s Christology. What Christ is and what He has done for us is enough for salvation. We need no other extra mediators, taboos or ascetics. To piece out the gospel with the bits and pieces of other ideologies does not enrich the gospel, but it corrupts the gospel.

Key Phrases

• We tell others… warning everywhere and teaching with all the wisdom of God
• Don’t drift away from the assurance you have received- 1:23
• See that no one deceive you with well-crafted arguments– 2:4
• Don’t Let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high sounding nonsense that comes from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world- 2:8
• Don’t let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink… 2:16
• Don’t let anyone condemn you by insisting on pious self-denial or the worship of angels. 2-18 

The Problem of SYNCRETISM
Perhaps the reason there no one specific name for the heresies was due to the syncretistic nature of the problem in that, it was an eclectic blend of Jewish legalism, Greek philosophic speculation, and oriental mysticism, ancient paganism combined together with a Christian element.

Paul was not dealing with the components of just one false teacher and heresy but appears to be a mish mash of heresy.  Some sort of Greek-Jewish synthesis.

All the features found in this problem at Colossae would later be refered to as proto- Gnosticism.

Espousing that Christ was insufficient and that one must go beyond Christ into the fullness of what they had to offer.

WARNINGS

Paul issues several warnings to the Colossians

WARNING AGAINST FOLLOWING EMPTY PHILOSOPHY(2:8-10)
“Be careful that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition, based on the elemental forces of the world, and not based on Christ.”

2:8 they were walking after the rudiments (stoicheia) this world,
2:20 they should be dead to rudiments of this world Stoicheia- two implied meanings-

1. Elementary Christianity when they should be moving on to maturity… which can be seen as a theme in some of the NT writings …Hebrews 6:1 Paul – “so let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don’t need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting and placing our faith in God.”

2. However when taken in context with the rest of the book, this second meaning is the most plausible. Paul is referring to elementary spirits of world, stellar spirits with heavenly bodies … ancient world believed implicitly in demonic forces and every natural force had a demonic head, seen as intermediaries to God and in another sense barriers to God and hostile to man.

Implication needed more than Jesus to get to God and defeat evil… hence Paul writing in 2:15 he disarmed spiritual rulers and authorities…

If with Christ ^tyou died to the ^uelemental spirits of the world, ^vwhy, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations

WARNING AGAINST JUDAISTIC CEREMONIALISM (2:11-17)
In Christ you have a circumcision made without hands (2:11-12)
You are made alive in Christ, and the handwriting of requirements that was against us has been taken away at the cross (2:13-15)

WARNING AGAINST ANGEL WORSHIP (2:18-19)
Don’t let anyone defraud you (become an umpire against you, defraud you of your prize) of your reward by appealing to angel worship and imagined visions of a fleshly mind (2:18)  Such people do not hold fast to Christ as the Head, and from whom true divine nourishment comes (2:19)

Another translations say, “Insisting on asceticism and the worship of angels, claiming access to a visionary realm and inflated without cause by his unspiritual[fn] mind.”

The use of ἐμβατεύω in 2:18 likely refers to entering into the heavenly sanctuaries, where they have seen such things as the worship and asceticism of angels. The verb referred to entering into visions during initiation rites for mystery cults, and religions to speak of initiates entering the inner sanctuary of the god after preliminary rites.

WARNING AGAINST ASCETICISM- the doctrine that a person can attain a high spiritual and moral state by practicing self-denial, self-mortification, and the like.

NLT – insisting on pious self denial…deep sense of ones littleness, the sense of pusillanimity (timidity and lack of determination).

“Don’t handle, Don’t taste, Don’t touch.” a heresy out to limit Christian freedom,)

Having died with Christ to the world, there is no need to submit to human ordinances (2:20-22)

While having appearances of wisdom, such practices have no value in controlling the indulgences of the flesh (2:23)

WARNING AGAINST EMBRACING JEWISH ELEMENTS
Therefore don’t let anyone judge you in regards to food, new moon ceremonies, festivals, or Sabbath days, for these rules are only a shadow of the reality… and Christ is that reality.”(2:16-17)

The false teachers in Colossae were advocating the continuance of food and drink purity laws. There were many purposes of the food purity laws, but the main reason was likely the necessity for purity in order to enter the temple for worship.^[1] They also seem to have been insisting on keeping Jewish feasts, new moons, and Sabbaths (2:16), a triadic formula in the LXX always tied up with or held at the temple.^[2]

WARNING AGAINST GNOSTICISM– a syncretistic tendency that combined certain more or less misunderstood Christian doctrines and various elements from oriental, Jewish, Greek, and other sources;

It did not deny Christ, but it did dethrone him. It gave Christ a place, but not the supreme place. This Christian façade they employed made the Colossian error all the more dangerous.

In other words, it taught that Christ was insufficient and that one must go beyond Christ into the fullness of what they had to offer.

 The following may be regarded as the chief points in the Gnostic systems: 

(1) a claim on the part of the initiated to a special knowledge of the truth; a tendency to regard knowledge as superior to faith and as the special possession of the more enlightened, for ordinary Christians did not possess this secret and higher doctrine; Spiritual elitism…The “in the know group” spiritual aristocrats…

(2) the essential separation of matter and spirit, matter being intrinsically evil and the source from which all evil has arisen;

(3) an attempt to solve the problems of creation and the origin of evil by advancing the theory of a creator of the world distinct from the deity, because if God is spirit and spirit is good a good god can’t be creator of evil… therefore an inferior being infinitely remote from the Supreme Being created the world.

(4) a denial of the true humanity of Christ; a Docetism which considered the earthly life of Christ and especially His sufferings on the cross to be unreal; that Christ’s body was not human but either an apparition or of real but celestial substance, and that therefore his sufferings were only apparent.

(5) the denial of the personality of the Supreme God, and the denial of the free will of mankind;

(6) the teaching, on the one hand, of asceticism as the means of attaining spiritual communion with God, and, on the other hand, of an indifference that led directly to license ;

(7) salvation obtained not through faith but through knowledge

(8) the knowledge they spoke of was obtained only through mystical experiences

Paul’s Affirmations

In Christ (1:2) Right off the TOP – In Him used 150 times in Pauline letters
Knowledge & Wisdom (1:9-10, 2:3)

Colosssians 1:9 -In this passage, Paul begins his attack on the Gnostic beliefs with a few subtle statements. that are easily overlooked if the context isn’t recognized.

Paul states that he and Timothy have been praying for the Colossians, asking God to fill them with knowledge, that they may be fruitful in every good work.  In verses 9 and 10, the word “knowledge” comes from the Greek word epignosin. The word is an advance upon gnosis (knowledge) in that it denotes a larger and more thorough knowledge. It is a knowledge which grasps and penetrates into an object.

2:3 I want them to understand God’s mysterious plan, which is Christ himself. In him lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

Paul prays that all the saints might become possessors of this knowledge, indicating that it was open for all to appropriate, not a secret mystery, and affirms that in him they have it all. 

• Qualified (1:13)- made sufficient and rendered fit… occurs 3 times in two verses this one and 2 Cor. 2:6 “who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”
• Rescued and Transferred (1:13-14)
• God made Visible (1:15)
• Access (1: 22)
• Reconciled to God (1:22)
• Holy & blameless & without fault (1:22)
• Deep mysteries revealed (kept secret but now revealed) (1:26-27, 2:2-3)
• Complete (2:10)
• Union (2:10)
• Fullness (2:9) 

Conclusion 

In Colossians 2:9-15. Christ is presented as the antidote.
Without Jesus as our absolute foundation, Christology runs the risk of becoming distorted undermining the being and character of God and of His salvation for man found in Christ alone.    

• There can be no neutrality toward Christ, he is God made visible.
• There can be no neutrality about His deity… the fullness of deity dwells in Christ. 
• There can be no neutrality about and what He has done for us.
• Therefore, there can be no neutrality about who we are in Him.

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