We Give Thanks, Col, 1:1-3

We're beginning now into our fourth week of what we're calling A Tale of Two Cities, and it's a parallel study between the books of Ephesians and Colossians, written to cities that were roughly 100 miles apart and had some connections, as we'll continue to see as we go through this book.

A reason for looking at the books together is because a good percentage of these two books have verses and passages that are in common. To give you a number, 155 verses in the book of Ephesians, about half of those are similar to verses in Colossians. So there's the reason for the parallel. Differences as well, as we've pointed out.

One of the things we pointed out last week, too, is that as Paul begins each of these letters, he writes with a pattern. And one of the things that interesting to look at is what were other letters like at that time in New Testament era. This is a papyrus letter written 70 AD, you know, better than a decade later, but still fairly typical.

This particular one, this fellow, Naelist, writes to Theon, he says, His Lord and Father, very many greetings. How does Paul vary that? He writes about God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. He takes the variation on what's a cultural standard and makes it, instead of simply titles, he makes it have spiritual content. Here's another instance. Here's a young soldier, Sionis, writes home to his mother, and after the introduction he comes up with, before else I pray that you are well. This underscores the point we made last week, that the typical letter of the New Testament era, they would commonly pray for the physical health of those to whom they were writing, but here instead we see that Paul prays for their spiritual health and thanks the Lord for their spiritual health. A very important difference in spite of the similarities. As we look at this, the first phrase we want to take a look at is this one, we give thanks to God.

The key phrase here in Colossians 1.3 comes out like this.

This word, thanks, is Eucharist-ale, and it's a compound word, and it's you, which has the idea of good, and Eucharist-ale, gracing. So, put it together, it's good gracing. We give good gracing to God, is the way he puts it here. And notice, when we've highlighted it in blue, it's part of the charis family of words. Charis is the Greek word for grace. And so he sows that word in here, in the middle of we give thanks to God, we give good gracing to God.

In the Greek text, there's something that shows up there that doesn't show up in most of our English translations, and there's a definite article in front of God, so it carries the idea of the God. If you might wonder why would he do that, think about this.

In the culture of Colossae, they would have a number of gods. Colossae, as we mentioned before, has not been excavated yet. They just had meetings this last year to try to plan an excavation. So perhaps there will be some excavation reports even as we're going through the study. Nonetheless, we know of Ephesus, and that's the other kind of sister city in this study.

We know of Ephesus, they had about 50 different gods. So there wasn't any THE god. So in order for Paul to make a great distinction here between what they had known for centuries in the Pantheon, the many gods, he lays out the God, not a God, but this particular one.

He puts the focus on it. Now, the next thing is in that verb, we thank God, it carries this idea. It's an idea of repeatedly thanking God. It's given in the present tense, but it's what's called an iterative present. It isn't past and future. It's right now, I keep repeatedly thanking God. And it has the idea of we are continuing repeatedly to thank the God.

That's the first phrase, the way it comes across there. Now, we're going to see here in this verse the first of many thanksgivings. And I'm not talking about this, turkey and stuffing. Not my point. It's the first of many thanksgivings, and it's that because Colossians 1.3 is the first of seven times, if you've got the fingers, count them, okay? First of seven times that you're going to see reference to thanksgiving and gratitude. And it's always addressed to the Lord.

Remember one of the things that we brought forth several weeks ago, and it may seem shocking to us, is that in the culture of the Roman Empire, you did not, and I mean did not, it wasn't just not occasional, you did not thank somebody directly. Isn't that interesting? You didn't say thank you to another person, but it was permissible within the culture to thank God. And so that's what Paul does. And so he spells that out seven times in this letter. The references are elsewhere, given there in Colossians, all the way into the fourth chapter.

Now, a key principle of interpretation And this is one that was underscored in the book of Philippians as we went through it last year. And that is when we see an issue brought up repeatedly, there are very good odds that that is a problem with the person or the church being addressed. Example, with Philippians we saw a continued emphasis on rejoicing and joy. Let me guess, the people at Philippi had a problem with that, okay? They had a difficulty rejoicing and with joy in the circumstances we're going through.

So what's the message here? He's going to write seven times to the church at Colossae in four chapters about being thankful. What does that tell us? They had a problem with? Being thankful. He is addressing an issue, not just saying, hey, you know, I just willy-nilly, I think I'll talk about this. He is addressing something that they need to learn.

We go through the rest of the verse in the perspective that he gives thanks to God, the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is God the Father in His eternal relationship with the Son. He gives thanks to God the Father who has that relationship with the Son. He says, praying always for you. That also has an iterative present idea, the idea of repeatedly again praying, again and again and again for you.

What's the focus that he comes across with here? He says, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus. One of the things that we pick up out of this, you get the idea pretty soon as you read this letter, he hasn't actually been there himself. It's not based on personal visit. Now, he cares for these people. He's obviously caring enough to sit down and write a letter.

But he doesn't know them, it's by the work of another, and we'll soon see this is Epaphras. Epaphras, by the way, may not be too common in our culture, but it was a common name in that culture. This would be a Will or a Bill or a Susan or some common name in the culture there. Epaphras is mentioned in the first chapter here in this passage, and then again we'll see his name pop up in 4.12. His name also shows up in Paul's letter to Philemon.

Now, he says, since we heard of your faith, this word faith is from the Greek word pistis, it's the same word used throughout the New Testament, it's translated faith, but notice, and you'll see this underscored as we go through this passage, he is not saying, it's great that you people are people of faith. He's not just spelling out, have you ever heard that phrase, people of faith? as if it's somehow good to be just sort of religious.

He doesn't say that. He says, your faith, and it will spell out the characteristics of that faith because the faith is specifically in Christ. It's centered there, and he spells out in the rest of this passage what are the characteristics of the gospel. So he's not encouraging people to be religious. There is no encouragement for that. He's got a problem with just being religious.

It is a faith specifically in the person of Jesus Christ. As we go forward there, it becomes very clear that Paul was thanking the Father because of their faith in Christ Jesus. It was faith in the specific object of Christ, not just faith for the sake of faith. We show this here with a diagram. This is not a balloon. But here's the circle and the idea of the faith is entirely in Christ.

Entirely in Christ. And you know, in our culture, we get encouraged, and they have the same problem in Colossae, we get encouraged, and they did too, to put our faith in all kinds of things. Is it possible, for example, for people to put their faith in a church, in an organization? being in a building. Oh, I've got to go to church.

This is somehow coming into the building is going to do it. We like to use the illustration here, coming into the church building doesn't make you a Christian any more than going into a garage turns you into a car. Okay? It doesn't work. And so, their faith was entirely in Christ, not in church buildings, not in church organizations, not in rituals. Okay?

Faith was in Christ. all the love which you have for the saints." This is focus here. This love, which is agape love, that's the kind of love. It is an unconditional love. God was the source of it, very clearly here. And you'll see a similar reference there in Ephesians 1.5, and similar to this passage here. What's becoming clear here, and we'll see even more of it later, the Colossian believers had this agape love for believers everywhere. It was a love that didn't make them ingrown and self-focused, but caused them to look outward. Not for the source of love, not for good response to that love, but that love from the Lord, with the Lord as the source, expressed itself to others. One of the things that's important to look at is our English translations here often have, you know, the love which you have for all the saints.

But there's a Greek word there, ice. And this word ice here, I'm not talking about the stuff that's really cold and makes your fingers feel numb. Stuff you put in your drinks and whatnot. No, this is instead a love that goes into. The word ice means into.

What's the significance of that? Paul is saying you have a love that goes into all the saints. It's having impact. It is touching lives. It is real. being effective to the point of reaching to other people. It's not just, I feel warm fuzzies while I'm sitting here. But instead, it is actually having contact in the lives of others.

He says, I see that you have a love for the other believers, and it is real, it is actual, it is touching their lives, and we thank the Lord for that. We thank the Lord for that. Notice also, as you see in this passage, there's a trio of words that shows up a number of times in the New Testament. Faith, hope, and love. Not exactly in that order, but that trio of words keeps showing up. And what we see here, faith, hope, and love, is a common trio of words throughout the New Testament.

Here's an example, 1 Thessalonians 1.3. Constantly bearing in mind your work of faith, and labor of love, and steadfastness of hope, in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father. The same trio of words, see, it shows up again. 1 Corinthians 13, 13. But now faith, hope, and love abide these three, but the greatest of these is love.

And there's some other passages, and by the way, I put something you might want to make note of if you're taking notes. This here is not in your handout, but one that I've added subsequently. 2 Thessalonians there. And so you can add that. Key point, though, is he is carrying out a trio of words that he has used in a number of different places, and it's also been used by the Apostle Peter as well.

And it's interesting that these are put together. I know one of the things we used to use when we'd go out and milk the cows, and Nancy and I got to know each other milking cows, by the way, it's a little piece of personal history. We'd sit on these three-legged stools, okay? And so this is a three-legged stool of words, if you will, that Paul is using, and he uses it frequently, and Peter uses it as well, that puts the focus on three things that are essential threads woven throughout our faith in Christ. Here's something else I think to bring out. It's a historical and cultural insight that gives us a sense of understanding in the words that Paul writes.

It goes like this, the Persian rulers and then Alexander the Great and they both ruled in the area of Ephesus and Colossae and other larger areas in the eastern Mediterranean. They had this cultural pattern where the rulers in those countries and those empires would store up goods for their most faithful servants. the slaves who were faithful and did great work and were consistent in what they did. And this wasn't considered earned, but it was saying, based on the character that you have, the ruler would then take goods, and they would sometimes be valuable goods, and store them up for this faithful slave. And it was something the ruler did, it was by grace, entirely by grace, and nobody else could touch it. Isn't that something? And so then, that gives significance.

I think that Colossians 1.5 is seeming to make reference to that kind of pattern that the people had picked up out of the centuries prior to this New Testament era, where it says, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Here is this collection of goods and needed things and kind of prizes, if you will. that this ruler had laid up, only it's the Lord laying it up, and it's entirely by grace, and it's untouchable by anybody. Isn't that neat stuff? I think that's great, because Paul is making reference to something there that otherwise we'd say, okay, that's good. But this gives it depth. This gives it significance, so that people say, wow, the Lord is laying up stuff for us, and it's His doing, and it's entirely by grace, and nobody can touch it. That's marvelous. That's great stuff.

Then in verses 5 through 7, there is a set of things that Paul writes where he lays out in there the character of the gospel. And he's zeroing in, he's saying, these are neat things that the Lord has done and we're glad to see this in you. But he's starting to shift there for several verses to put a focus on this is the character of the gospel, and I want you to take a look at that, he tells them. And the first thing he spells out is, he just uses the word gospel itself, and that means good news.

Euangelion means you, as we saw before, good. And then the next one, angelos, to put the idea together, is good message. Good news is a good message. Now, think about that. It's a good message that God actually loves you and cares about you and tells you the truth.

If you think about the culture of the time, and we show up here the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, the culture of the time, they had dozens of gods, and if you really put them all on the list, hundreds of different gods to choose from. None of those gods really cared about them. If you wanted the God who was not going to be true to His Word and who lied frequently and was unfaithful, if you wanted the God to show you favor, you had to do something to earn it. That was what the people were accustomed to in the culture.

I'll do something for God and then He'll do something for me. Hopefully. Maybe. I hope so. That was the way they lived. And they were hoping that they didn't do something accidentally, get the God really ticked off at them. Here instead is a God that loved you, and before you even asked, He took the steps so that you might be saved. He took the effort before you did anything. And you said, by the way, I planned this even before you were born.

That's good news. Totally by grace. Totally by faith. Real good news. The next thing is it's a gospel of truth. The word of truth, the gospel. Why is that in sharp contrast? One of the things that we're going to see as we go through the book of Colossians, especially as we step into chapter 2, is that there was a whole raft of falsehoods being sold to these people.

Remember we brought up the point previously, there was the Silk Road over in China. It took about a year for the silk to make its way from China over to Europe. Colossae and Ephesus were on the path from the Silk Road over into Europe. And what came over besides the silk and spices was also Eastern religions. About the time of Moses was also the founding of Hinduism. And roughly the time of Daniel was also the founding of Buddhism and Zoroastrianism.

And those were coming over in bits and pieces along the Silk Road. Add to that Jewish magicians. We think of the Jews and we think of Pharisees and Sadducees and groups like that, but there were also Jewish magicians who would come in with various things and they'd like to do their Jewish hocus-pocus. And so the Colossians were getting this stuff coming at them from every direction, and the solution was just, let's pick a little of each and mix it up.

And it was just overflowing with falsehood. And so Paul didn't just come in with a blast of, boy, that stuff's false and get rid of it, What does he do? He says, this is the truth. He puts the focus on the truth first, then he's in a position to point out what's false. But you first got to know what's true. You first got to know what's true. The other thing is it's universal. Notice that he focuses on the gospel going into all the world.

One of the things we pointed out in the church history class several months back is we find evidence that the Apostles went out into the world and places farther than what you might expect. One of the evidences that has only come up in recent years, and by the way, this was pointed out not by a Christian archaeologist at all, but by one of the professors in China. They have found, and this is dating from 86 AD in the Han Dynasty, they've found tombstones with Christian Bible stories. depicted on the tombstones, and this is an example of one of them. And again, it was a communist, you know, Chinese professor that pointed this out, not a Christian.

So here, well before the end of the first century, the gospel had gotten there. Some evidence debated the gospel may have reached England or Britain by that time, certainly into northern Africa. And so even well beyond the bounds of the Roman Empire, By the end of the first century, the news had gotten there. The gospel is universal.

It's not just a gospel for a couple people and not for the rest. It isn't just a gospel for this and for that. We've got a common idea that has gotten itself sewn into our culture that it's your truth and that's fine for you, but I've got mine and we'll be fine with that. That's not the perspective here. This is a gospel is true for all the world. You may be entitled to your own opinion, but you're not entitled to your own private world.

Now, alive and fruitful, bearing fruit and increasing. The gospel is not pictured as something that is static. The gospel instead is something that bears fruit. It is active. It is not something that just sits there on the shelf. It is something intended to change lives and hearts. And I think that's one of the key things. You saw people who lived one way and were changed to live another way.

We brought out the point before it was legal throughout the Roman Empire for a father up until the point he either accepted the child or the child became of adult age for a child to be abandoned to death. at any age up to that point. Horrible in our thinking, but that was perfectly legal. Here instead, the fathers were exhorted to love their children, to care for their family, and that their family needed to be given the gospel as well. Why? You love them. Lives were being radically changed.

People were being turn from hopeless man-made gods into the hope that only comes through Jesus Christ. Finally, it was a message of grace. The gods that the people were accustomed to knew nothing of grace. If you want a favor out of the Greek and Roman gods, you've got to earn it.

Period. Here instead was a message of grace. And in truth, What happens in our culture, all too easily, churches shift and drift away from grace. And what does he say? The Gospel has this characteristic of grace, and the grace is from God Himself. God is the source of grace. Marvelous truth. Finally, it was communicated.

Isn't it amazing that the Lord chooses to use human beings to communicate the Gospel? Does the Lord have to do that? He doesn't have to, the Lord could do, as you see an example during the tribulation period. Here's a gospel angel, basically goes around and goes through the sky and people hear it.

But here, now, in this church age, the Lord has made it clear He is using human beings to communicate the gospel. He has given gifts to believers to communicate the gospel. If we look at the last couple of verses there, He says, just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow bondservant, who is a faithful servant of Christ on our behalf, he also informed us of your love in the Spirit. And here it becomes apparent again that Epaphras is the one involved here, and it's not a matter of Paul having been to the church, but still he cares about those people because they're part of the body of Christ, and so he writes to them.

So here's a key word that comes out of here. This word learned is manzano, and it's interesting, that is the root for the word materes, which means disciple. You read about the disciples, the disciples in the Gospels, and on into the Book of Acts. This is disciple. Now, disciple is not one who has just casually come to learn about the Gospel, but it is one who has come to a place of a personal knowledge of Jesus Christ by faith, and then continued on to learn.

So when he lays that out here, it's clear that because of the ministry through Epaphras here, the people in Colossae have not just become believers and then stopped learning and stopped growing. Instead, what's clear is Epaphras is having the ministry of teaching these people.

Now you're wondering, how could that happen? Think about it. In Acts 19, I think it's verse 10, It says all Asia heard the Gospel. All Asia heard the Gospel. In Acts 20, Paul is speaking to the elders at Ephesus, and he says, I gave you the whole counsel of God. For three years I taught you in Ephesus.

Well, guess what? Here's this guy, Epaphras here, he comes on the scene, and he isn't just telling these people the Gospel, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved, but he is teaching them all the things they need to know so that they are becoming true disciples, not just converts. And in doing so, what's he doing? We get the indication here that he had himself learned these things. He may well have taken advantage of the fact that, here's Paul, teaching the gospel, the whole counsel of God, for three years in Ephesus, and then come into Colossae and Laodicea and Heropolis, and taught those people as he had been taught.

One of the things to take a look at here, as we look at Colossians, especially as we get into the second chapter here, there were various false teachings that had come in. There were false teachings that had come in from the Silk Road. There were false teachings that were right there from the Greek and Roman gods. There were false teachings that had come in even from the Jews who came in instead of bringing the Old Testament, bringing in a bunch of Jewish hocus-pocus magic. And so these mixtures of various false teachings are coming at the church, the people at Colossae. When Paul is writing to them, rather than come out with just an instant blast there, he starts out by laying down what's true and what the source of truth is.

You notice that? He starts telling, here are the characteristics of the gospel. He focuses on the fact that there is truth. Twice in this passage he brings out truth. He focuses on the things that we have brought, and Epaphras has brought those from us. That's where the truth is coming from here.

He's laying the groundwork for them to spell out a caution about the things that are not true. You see that? He's laying the groundwork by first focusing on what's true, first making them very aware of what the source and character of the truth is, so that when they see falsehood, they will know it. One of the examples that we used in the elective right before this is if you went into the grocery store and you pull out your wallet and the grocery store clerk says that'll be $39.15 and you pull out a regular American 20 and you pull out a Monopoly 20, he's going to look at that and he's going to say, this one's okay, this one isn't. He knows what's true, and by knowing what's true, he knows what's false. And that's the same thing that Paul is laying the groundwork for here. He doesn't come out in the first chapter blasting what's false. Instead, he lays out carefully what is true, then broaches the subject of what is false.

So just like the grocery store clerk, it isn't a matter of just saying, well, this isn't true, but I'm not sure what is. The grocery store looks at the 120, that's the American 20, and he says, that's the real thing. And he looks at the phony one, and he says, that's false. You've got to know what's true to know what's false. And Paul's doing that right here, making sure they know what's true.

Now, one of the things that we also see here as we look at it, he comes up and he says, Epaphrist is our fellow bond servant. And it might look like a small point, but I think it's more than that. This word here, three words or two words with a hyphen between them there, in English is just one word. This is another one of those sun words. Remember, it's not sun, it's sun. And we made the point here, a little ditty if it helps, not the sun, not the moon, but the sun. It's that.

Sundulas is the prefix there. A together slave. This prefix, soon, has the idea of together, and he says, Epaphras is a together slave. Why is that important? It's interesting, here's Paul, who is an apostle, and you notice he doesn't give any title to Epaphras here, other than his characteristic here.

Paul could have come in and said, you know, I'm an apostle, I'm really above all you guys. I've got the title, I've got the qualifications, and I've really got what it takes and you guys need to listen to me." He could have said that, couldn't he? But what does he do? He says, Epaphras, who is together with me, together with us, he's a slave of Christ too. See that?

He, instead of focusing on his position and trying to put himself apart, in doing so he puts the focus on the supremacy of Christ. Epaphras and I, we're both slaves of Christ. Christ is the one who's to be exalted here. It's his supremacy that matters and not mine. It's really a very humble thing for Paul to say, but beyond that it puts the focus upon Christ himself.

Now, you have in your handout Colossians 1, 3 through 8, and what we typically do here if you're joining us here for the first time is, and this is on page 3, here is your code that it's on page 3, We typically do is we'll have an expanded and explained.

And the expanded and explained is to try to give a little more detail on the same verses and it'll have the same verse numbers and breakdown. What we did in Philippians when we were all done is we collected these for the whole book so that you would have that available. We'll do a similar thing here. But one thing that we've done is last time I didn't do an expanded and explained and so the first couple of verses is included in your handout there as well.

Beginning there on verse 3 and then continuing through verse 8, I'll leave it to you for the sake of our time here to read that on your own and follow through on it. As we look at this passage, I think key things to look at it is the Lord has communicated to us a gospel that is true.

That is not the message this world is giving. This world has given up on truth. Have you noticed that? Just given up on truth. It's got your truth and my truth as if we lived in separate worlds. The world has basically gotten to the point of being where they're suspect of anybody who claims there is such a thing as truth. It's gotten to that point. This passage makes no bones about it.

What is being communicated to us here by revelation of the Lord through God's inspired word is what exactly is true. There is truth and there is falsehood. And there is an important distinction to be made in understanding both. Key to this also is grace. We're going to find a thousand times over that the world and even many churches get to a place of not recognizing grace. Grace isn't grace unless it's amazing.

It's got to be. It's got to be. Anytime we find some tendency to draw in human effort, anytime we find some tendency to say, ah, we've got to do this so that God will, oh, problem, okay? He spells it out here. You've got this gospel and it is truth and it is also completely gracious, completely gracious. We have salvation from the Lord and we have the position that we have from the Lord entirely by grace. None of it is earned. Not now. Not ever.

So as we continue through this book, we're going to see some marvelous things. The next thing that he's going to progress on to is the supremacy of Christ. And he's going to lay that out. Why? Because he wants them to see the supremacy of Christ before he lays out what's false. what is false will be apparent by noting how far short it falls from the person of Christ.

Let's pray. Lord, thank you for the depth of your word. Thank you for the good news that it is. Thank you that there is such a thing as truth. We are not coming here just because it's our own personal truth or because we like it or It seems good to us, Lord, but you have declared it as true, the singular truth. We thank you for your marvelous gospel. And Lord, we thank you for your amazing grace. We thank you that it doesn't depend on us, that as we sang earlier, it depends upon your faithfulness and not ours. And so, Lord, we look to you now. Teach us these truths deep at heart. In Jesus' name, Amen.