Colossians - Chapter 1 Review

OK, so like I said, we're going to do a review of Chapter one, which is a daunting task to put it mildly. So actually, I'm going to continue to use a colleague's outline. So the first part of the outline covers the first two verses. And we're going to look at that. We have some questions about that.

The second verse is on the church, the body of the believers of Colossae. Then actually it starts into a section on prayer. And basically prayer is two parts. One is a thanksgiving, and that's three through eight. And the second one is a petition on Paul's part for the believers of Colossae.

Then, starting in verse 15, this is just a tremendous section, 15-18, talks about the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, and there are just so many incredible statements about our Savior. McCauley divides it up into relationship to the Father, relationship to creation, and relationship to the Church. So we have questions on that. And then the last part We kind of went through a good part of this, well the very bottom part last week, is the work of Christ, and it goes into chapter 2, the description of that work, its application, and then its propagation. We talked about the ministry to the church, the word, and then the individuals.

So the approach I decided to take here is that I'd like to read through a portion, and this division I apologize, after looking at it I probably could have divided it. So I just took a clump of verses. Sometimes I put together two weeks. So I thought as we read through this set of verses, and then have you ever, I don't know, different time periods, in saying scripture there's one approach that's kind of cool is you just look at that and you write down questions.

This question, that question. So I'm going to We dove into this word by word and statement by statement. I'm just going to ask a question, and the questions should be able to be answered from the verse. So I'd like you guys to participate. You can look at the verse and answer the question. Sometimes it's just a restatement of something in the verse. So I'm hoping this generates more questions. And actually, if there's a question I don't have on here that you'd like to ask, Go ahead and ask it. Hopefully the Lord willing I'll be able to answer it or we can certainly defer it and I'll look into it more.

Could someone read these first five verses for us? 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 at Colossae. Grace to you and peace from God, our Father. We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Great, thanks Tom. Okay, so the first question is, how does Paul describe himself? He's the Apostle. Okay, good. Anything else? How did he get his Apostleship? Didn't elect himself. He didn't elect himself. This wasn't an elected position. He didn't get the body of believers at Colossae. Actually, Paul didn't ever physically go to Colossae. If you read carefully, he never actually got there. So, how was Paul made an apostle? Just by verse 1. God's will. Right. Absolutely. That's what it says.

And also kind of taxed on at the end, Timothy our brother. Timothy was with him, a fellow brother in the faith. And he's a brother in the faith, not a fiscal brother. So I thought as we went through this, this is a chance to hopefully get through all the verses. It's kind of a bird's eye view of the whole chapter. Because we were down in the weeds, so to speak. So now we're going to hopefully fly over this and get some other insight possibly. How does Paul describe the saints at Colossae in verse 2? Faithful.

Okay, great. How does he address them? He address them as Sam and Joe and Bro? What does he address them as? Saints. Okay, cool. And that's the way, when my brother Vern was here, he would, in most of his emails, he would address you as saint, which is absolutely right. To people, maybe haven't looked at scripture too well, they think, well that seems rather, you know, you're a saint? Well, I thought the saints were these people, the statues down at the church here or someplace, you know? No, every believer is a saint, which is pretty cool, a set-apart one.

What else does he tell us about the Colossae saints? Okay, good, okay. Is there a particular, I spent some time on this, is there a particular little phrase that that is noteworthy of the believers at Colossae and us as well? They're faithful. Keep going to the right.

We're in Christ. What does it mean to be in Christ? Co-crucified, co-buried, you know the rest. Is there a simpler, if you had to give a synonym of in Christ. Could you use some other words? In union, maybe. Excellent, excellent. You're the star. In union with Christ. She's related to me. I know. But you guys know that, right? Come on, come on. And actually, what's cool is, we get to chapter two, we're going to go into hyperdrive with in Christ. It's just going to be, I know, after about verse three or so, we're just going to be flooded with information about what it means to be in Christ.

And that actually is one of the most descriptive words about a believer. Actually, Macaulay says, if you had to describe, if you saw another believer in the street, in Christ is the most descriptive term of that other believer, and yourself. being in Christ. And I don't think that's kind of missed. That's certainly missed by many, many groups of believers.

But it's just in union with Christ, in this living relationship with our Savior. Boy, that's just so important and so important to trust in that, to rely upon that, that we're in Christ. Well, okay, okay, we can walk in the spirit, right? We can walk in the flesh, right? You're in Christ or you're not in Christ. Well, okay, let's dig a little deeper. How about this?

We're going to get into position and condition, right? One of the favorite buzzwords around Holly Hills. So, in this context, is he talking about their condition or their position? Position. Excellent. You guys get more stars. We're going to run out of stars here pretty soon. So this is a statement about their position, right? I kind of went over into the condition a little bit, but our condition is to reflect our position, certainly.

So that's the first two questions. We're at Colossae. So their physical location, they're saints, they're faithful brethren, and they're in this living union with Christ, and they're physically on this earth at Colossae. And we could say that we're physically here at Holly Hills.

What two things has Paul heard about the Saints at Colossae? These questions I just try to track through the verse, so don't look too far afield, just keep going to the right or down the page. So what two things has Paul heard about the Saints at Colossae? So once again, he's hearing about what's happening at Colossae, if you will.

He's hearing about their faith. Excellent. We're down to verse 4. Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and the love which you have for all the saints. If someone had to describe something they heard about you as a believer, that's pretty special. Your faith in our Savior, And that's one of the things that we see throughout scripture about the love we have. Our love is expressed first of all for our fellow believers. That's the first and most important part of where it's expressed for.

They get lots of scripts. What's that? They get lots of scripts. Yes, they do. They do. Tom? about having heard of was their assured expectation of who they are in Christ. So there he is ready to hand that out later on. Where does your hope reside? I don't think this is intended to be a trick question. So just reading verse 5. If you had to tell an unbeliever about hope, what would you say about, how would you expand the word hope from scripture? What would you say about it? Is it, well I got 50-50 chance? It's a sure thing. Absolutely right. And to some people that would be, once again, you're a saint and you have an assured hope.

You're pretty, you know, in fact actually if I understand the, is it the One is in Pennsylvania, Vani. Amish. If you look, I've gone to some of their bookstores. Vani is from Pennsylvania. We go back there sometimes. Actually, I think your relatives are there. But you go in their bookstores, you start reading them.

They think that's too presumptuous. They think that's way too presumptuous to say that you're a saint and that you have assured hope in heaven. And we don't have a relationship with Christ. I know, and that's why it's pretty sad. Yeah, it's all about the community.

So you start reading through the literature and you think, wow, boy. And actually we had a chance, we had a short little mini-trip in Waco, Texas and we came across this group, what was their name, Bonnie? Oh the Anabaptists. They had a real lovely little restaurant and they make all this stuff and it's just fantastic.

But their beliefs are kind of community again and not so much in the city. Well, you know what's interesting? Well, actually, he pointed out that it was the most insignificant church. But isn't he addressing them because of agnosticism, kind of? Yes, and actually, I haven't spent a lot of time, I know actually you'll be happy to hear Andrew's going to hang with us, he's coming back next week. And he sent me, we're never going to go through these questions, but anyway, which is fine.

He sends me this thing. We are getting ready for chapter 2. He sends me this 3 page thing on in Christ. 110 statements about being in Christ, in Him, through Him, with Him. I don't think he'll get through all 110. Anyway, I really appreciate Andrew coming down and joining us.

I'm kind of getting off the track here. So what was my train of thought here? Yes, exactly. So they were insignificant. But the reason the letter was written was because of the narcissism that was creeping in and Paul wanted to make sure And he was depending upon, we're going to see, he was depending upon a gentleman we're going to see named here very shortly. To actually, he was like a circuit writer and he was bringing the good news to this group of people. Sure. No, no, no, that's fine. That's actually what this is supposed to be about. I mean, not so much. Okay. Okay. Okay.

And if we don't pray, well, God says, well, I'm sorry, nobody asked to help this guy, so I'm not going to help him. Nobody asked for help. So, you know, how does that work praying? Do we convince God? I hear this, we have this discussion weekly, daily or weekly. I'm not sure, I'll tell you what I, if you have some other things to share I'd be happy to hear them. Obviously we're not going to, I think it's error if we're going to convince God.

But he does ask us to pray, so he asks us to pray. And Paul's going to pray, right? In a few statements, he's going to pray. And prayer has different, you know, there's prayer of thanksgiving. There's prayer that I want something, right? So as Mike would say, we're always praying that, Lord, fix my deal.

To be in the colloquial, fix my deal. I got this problem, fix it. That's what you're there for, aren't you? To fix it. Go ahead. Well, I think of Christ's prayer in John 17. Did you think the Father didn't already know this thing? Indeed. Yeah, but look at the communion they had to give. Right.

And so, I don't think anything that happens in our lives is a surprise to the Lord. It's not a surprise. Maybe a surprise to us, but it's not a surprise to Him. So we're trusting that whatever the course of our life, that we're trusting in Him, in our relationship with Him. You know, good things happen. We don't have much problem with that.

We pray. Thank you, Lord. When the difficult times come, that's the tough part, you think. Well, Lord, what did I do wrong? Go ahead. I think part of the reason of prayer is to change us. I like that. That's good. I know that it works for me. Well, that's great. That's great. He and I had quite a talk this week. I was mad. This morning I was very just grateful. You know, he changed my heart. That's great.

I think as much about that as anything else. I think it's to show our sense of dependence on him. I think a lot of it's just coming to him and it's also our, you know, he communicates to us through the word. And sometimes prayer is just our way of fellowship back, you know, talking. I mean, he knows our thoughts before we say them. related back to him, fellowship, communion with him.

But Pat has this annoying question, what if I didn't pray? Would it work? Would it be? But God, he does ask us to pray. So since he's asked us to pray, I think that's if the God... It's good to have reason. What's that? It's good to have reason. Actually, it's for our benefit. In the praying, we may be changed. Go ahead, I'm sorry. No, I was just going to say what is the motivation when you're praying?

Exactly. I think you remember I was praying for another one of my aunts who had very intensive heart surgery, and all her whole family was praying for was that God wouldn't let her die. And they were really fervent and public about it, and Holly and I were like, what's going to happen to them if she did die? Would it be this terrible thing, you know? And you kind of watch it from afar. I think they would all have been devastated and mad or whatever with the Lord, because that was their only way of thinking.

I don't know. And it seems like, just an observation, that many people may be stumbled in their faith by God not answering their prayer. Because they've been poorly taught or not understanding, they think, well, God is supposed to be answering my prayer. And actually... They don't have the power to sway Him.

It's crazy. Right, exactly. We have some relatives that are in the charismatic domain. They have this tower of prayer thing. So the idea is you get as many believers as you possibly can, and if you get a big enough force of believers, God's going to have to take care of it. That can't be. That can't be. That can't be true. If that's true, then...

Just in response to this, as far as God changing your heart, I'm thinking, if Paul needed his heart to be changed, and one thing that pops up is maybe that God wants us to have compassion for what's around us. So if we don't have to worry about what's around us, then we don't have any compassion. He said, God's going to take care of everything, so I don't have to have compassion.

Exactly. That's a good point. I like that. I think it changes their perspectives. It does. Yeah, when you start praying for somebody, you start actually being sensitive to what's going on. Forgetting about what you're dealing with. Right. This is great. That's one of the manifestations of the work of the Holy Spirit in us. He produces that love. That's great. That's great. Okay. Fantastic. Fantastic. Okay. According to this passage, what's another name for the gospel from this passage? The truth. Or maybe the word of the truth. So we're going to look at the next set of verses. Next we're going to look at some prayers here.

Could someone read this piece of the book? Which has come to you, just as in all the world also, it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing, even as it has been doing in you also since the day you heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth, just as you learned from Epaphas, our beloved fellow bondservant, who is a faithful servant of Christ on our behalf. And he also informed us of your love in the Spirit. Okay, so the first question is, he actually kind of, unfortunately with the The break I have here, so what do you think, the first part of six says, which has come to you, so what has come to you? You have to kind of go back, look in your Bible, what's that?

Good, okay, excellent. Okay, so what is constantly bearing fruit and increasing? We're on a roll here, come on guys. What is the grace of God in truth? Isn't that awesome? It is. So the first three are all the same answer. It's the gospel as well. So I thought it was interesting. You come back and you look at this again, kind of a fresh look, and you think, oh, that's interesting. That's the gospel in all those cases. That's pretty cool.

OK, so who's Epaphras? What do we know about Epaphras? We don't know a lot. And I'll tell you what I have. Andrew shared some stuff about Epaphras, I think, and maybe Bob did. I may have mentioned a few things. So what do we know about Epaphras? He's mentioned right here. So what does it say about Epaphras from verse 7 here?

A faithful minister of Christ. If you look at that, Paul's writing here, and he's saying, Epaphras, our beloved bondservant, who is a faithful servant of Christ, on our behalf, on Paul's behalf. He's Paul's man, if you will. He's the person that's bringing the good news, to the believers at Colossae.

And actually from what I can gather, some have called him a circuit rider. He went to the three towns. What were the two of the towns that were close here? One by this river. I think Andrew went through that picture. He had this river and he had a couple of other places.

Remember those towns? This is a geography class too. I think basically it's Hierapolis and Laodicea. You're right. So there's this valley. I think it's the Lycus River Valley. And around this river, different sides of the river, you've got three towns. You've got Colossi, you've got Hierapolis and Laodicea. And they are going to be mentioned, at least Laodicea is going to be mentioned later on. Heropolis is mentioned in other places, I think. Laodicea will be mentioned in John's final message.

In Revelation, yes. Remember, Epaphras is his man who is a circuit rider going around spreading the gospel and reporting back to Paul, if you will. What did Epaphras inform Paul of? from this verse. Another cool thing, another testimony of these believers of your love in the spirit. That's pretty cool.

9-12 Could somebody read that? Maybe some different person? For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all power according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience, graciously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in life. Cool. Great. Thank you. OK. So there's a lot in this section. OK. So the first question is, what is Paul praying for in verse 9? And let's see here. Can we figure this out? Okay? Okay? Filled with the knowledge of His will. Okay? So here's the case.

Paul's in a unique position. He's praying for things. And that's a prayer that you, maybe you wouldn't state it that way, but you might pray for a brother or sister that they might, you know, understand from scripture, you wouldn't maybe say it that way. So Paul is praying for these body believers that they would be filled with the knowledge of his will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding. What purpose does Paul give for his prayer in 10a? He wants them to be acting a certain way.

Right, exactly, exactly. So actually I want to take just a slight diversion here just for a second. This brings up this really cool phrase, and so that, remember, when you guys, I think I've tried to share this and other people have too, whenever you see a so that That would be like a little beacon going off. Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. Purpose, purpose, purpose, purpose.

So that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. Paul has used this phrase, walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, in other places. I forgot who actually taught this one. I could figure it out, but I didn't take the time. There are three other verses. briefly look at. Let's look at Ephesians, and it's to do with this worthy walk.

Ephesians 4.1. Could someone read that?

Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in the manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called. Okay, so how would you say, so he's Paul's again, he's imploring to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. So what's his focus here in this verse? His focus here was so that you walk in a manner to please Him in all respects. And he goes on with this long list of things that will please Him. So in this verse, what's the focus in this verse?

4.1. Isn't it basically, you will walk in a manner worthy It's basically, you've been called, you know, walk in a manner worthy of that. It's just like, walk in your position. Walk in a manner worthy of what you've been called. Okay, so that's the second occurrence. And I wasn't, I spent a lot of time with this. The second one is Philippians. I think it's Philippians.

Philippians 1.27.

Then conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel. Okay, great. So the first part, conduct yourself in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Okay. And then the last one is in 1 Thessalonians, You would walk worthy of God who has called you unto his kingdom and glory. Okay, great. So there's the three other places besides this one. We talk about this worthy walk. Okay, so now he's going to list a bunch of items.

So the question is how do these items in 10b relate to the knowledge of God. So let's just look at this for a second. So it says, So that ye may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please him in all respects. Then starting after the comma it says, Bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience, I'll just stop there for right now.

So he has this list. So I'm not sure I actually have a super... So what do you think? Do you see the connectivity? To please him in all respects. So he's basically saying that as you walk with him worthily, it's going to come out, your life is going to be benefited, but you're going to increase increasing the knowledge of God, strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, attaining to all steadfastness, it's going to have an effect. And you might think that as we walk with the Lord, in fellowship with Him, that's going to be the biggest opportunity for growth spiritually, right? Go ahead Gail. Yeah, I was thinking, going back to what you pointed out, the so that, it looks like the things following the so that draw out of what precedes the so that. If we don't have the spiritual wisdom and the knowledge of His will, which we find in the Word, we're not going to walk for it.

Exactly, exactly. That's excellent. Excellent. No, that's good. Very good. You have to know his word to know how to walk worthy. And it looks like it's a process. It's not just a one point one. Everything happens once. Blingo. It's not Pentecost. It's a bit more than that.

It's an extended teaching period, an extended learning period, an extended application period. How about the wonderful verse, where to grow in grace and the knowledge of him. So that's a lifelong process. And that's why we come and look at His word and study His word. Would you say then that it isn't the good work that is pleasing, it's the whole thing in growing in the knowledge of grace that is pleasing to Him? I think so. I think you're right. But I think Gail is right. I didn't actually make that connection initially.

His prayer is that they may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And the only place you're going to get that wisdom and understanding is from the Word. Know the place you're going to get that. And then the purpose of that, to sow that with a blinking light, will produce in you a walk that is worthy of the Lord. And then that worthy walk looks like bearing fruit. It looks like increasing the knowledge. It looks like strengthening with all power. It looks like according to His glorious might, the attaining of all steadfastness and patience. So that worthy walk, that walking in Him is going to produce, just like the fruits of the Spirit, they are produced as you walk with the Lord.

And as I shared a couple of weeks ago, back in Galatians 2.20, you look at the love chapter, and you put in there, Love is this, but Christ's love is this. Christ's love is to be our love. And it has all those characteristics. Patience is down toward the end. Patience is... Then you can be patient, right? Patience is...

Alright, that's great. That's great. Okay. Fantastic. Anything else? Go ahead, Roy. It might be helpful to contrast this with what particular Roshan believers had grown up with. The agnostic environment. Because the diverse ends are involved. of the saint in light. It's only when the light of God, him revealing himself, is I believe what that refers to. What a contrast that is, because in the pagan mind, God existed in everything, but in God revealing himself, he is greater And the pagan mind had the idea that everything exists by chance. Whereas when Paul presented it, he presented that God is distinct from everything he's made. And it is interesting to me that Colossi is in the environment of Laodicea. No, I'm sorry. In the neighborhood. In the neighborhood of Thyatira. And that's mentioned over in Acts 14, where in Lystra is there. I don't know how to say this, but Paul didn't give the gospel of his death, burial and resurrection to those folks. somebody and then elevated them to being a god. And he said we are not gods.

And what did he present? He presented that God has created everything. Because their mindset was God is in everything. And so they needed to have a faith that is a change of mind about God, who He is and what He has done. Their idea was we sacrifice to the gods so that we'll get rain. His idea presented to them was that he loves you and he gives you rain so that you can eat. And they stoned him. The result of that, not an acceptance, but they were stoned and they went out.

But the message got out that God loves them. And somehow the work of the follow-on ministry in chapter 17, etc. shows that in that area he presented as Mars Hill. The same message. It wasn't Christ dying on the cross, but it was the God whom you ignorantly worship has created everything. They needed to, in their faith of his work on the cross, have a foundation that he is outside of their time.

What a concept that is. That's the light. I'm saying too much. No, it's good. Actually my last question is, what has the Father done for believers in verse 12? He has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the Saints in Light. He has made it possible. Am I qualified? Am I qualified for this job? We are qualified because we are believers in Him. That sharing of the inheritance of the Saints in Light is pretty amazing. Okay, let's see if we can get one more. Okay, and this is the really cool section. Okay, does someone want to read this part?

For he rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible. Whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through Him and for Him.

So here we're going to start off and transition into the attributes of Christ. But the first part, Just from the verse, I mean, so we were rescued from what and transferred to what? From darkness to the kingdom? Right. From the domain of darkness and transferred to the kingdom of his beloved son.

So is that really like ownership of us? Not really. That's not what I'm trying to say. Well... Like if I'm in a domain. Affiliate. Yeah. Well, every person outside of Christ is in the domain of, you know, Satan's domain, right? And that's the domain of darkness. And so it says that we've been transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son. What is that, a repeat? Say again? That's a repeat of the creation message. Okay, okay.

This is the foundation that Paul used with the unbelieving Gentiles. He did not go to them with the law or the good news right away. He went to them with creation and on their level elevated God much higher. That's what this is saying, isn't it? He's the image of the invisible God, first born of all creation. Did they bind him? All things were created? Remember how you went into that? Yes, right. We went through all the prepositions, yeah. But did they end him? All things were created. He exists and we exist in him. So it's we exist in his existence. I think I understand where you're going with that. Is that what you're saying? I don't know. I don't know. I'm not sure. I'm sorry.

But that the preposition in there. Right. Right. All things are created. Yes. And right. It is. Yeah. Right. And by means of. Right. Location. Right. In the sphere. Right. All of the thoughts of God are higher. I'm going to connect the dots with this. I think at this point I wasn't, you know, I probably was the flyover version. Go ahead. Yeah, that first verse there makes me think of dead unto sin and alive unto God. Right, right.

Another way of saying the same thing. from darkness to light. And then basically, what things do we have in him? In him you have redemption. And basically, what we find is that redemption and the forgiveness of sins are somewhat the same idea, basically. It's like you stated redemption, well redemption is the forgiveness of sins. And at this point, we kind of jump into the the attributes of who Christ is. So I was trying to just generate some thoughts here. What does the invisible God look like? That's an oxymoron. He says he's invisible. I was going to ask, what does he look like?

Well, we know Jesus has long brown hair, so he must have long brown hair. Well, you can say it a bunch of different ways, but one thing I like, of the Godhead, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, the only visible aspect of that is our Savior. He's the only one that The other ones are invisible. So he's the visible manifestation of God. So I think that's kind of what it's saying. He Christ is the image of the invisible God. So God looks like Christ. And whether he has long brown hair. That's a European look.

I've heard people say that they want to have him. In fact, I actually had this little cool children's book they had. They had all the characters kind of, it was from Scandinavia, they had all the characters kind of a darker skin. And he probably, you know, if you look at the culture, he probably didn't have long wavy brown hair. He probably had dark skin. What does the firstborn of all creation mean? Here's where you see errors. Some people will take that and say, oh, well, he was created. Christ is created.

Is there a better way? Is there a more informative way to say that? And if you trace it through, in fact, actually we can look at a verse for that. I'm not sure we have time. Somebody have a thought about firstborn? I think in this case you can look at the word and the idea is made first in rank. Yes, go ahead.

When people say that he's created, it takes me back to the verse that says all things that were I know. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to answer that. Our brains can't come up with that. Actually, right in here, for by him, the next verse we're going to see, for by him all things were created, both in heavens and on the earth. So the question comes up, you're right, he comes as A baby. The God-man. How does that happen? I don't know.

Scripture tells us that he is fully God and fully man. There are two truths that our mind kind of, maybe, we have a problem with that. But he's fully God and fully man. And then we see him acting. Actually, I think it was J. Vernon McGee actually was pointing out that We see him acting as fully God and acting as fully man sometimes.

Like in the garden, right? He wept. And he basically said, can this cup be removed? He didn't say that as God, but he said that as a man. So he's fully God and fully man. I'm not sure I'm answering your question. And how he created himself? We'll have to ask him to get there. How did he do that?

Yeah, a physical body. I call it the realms of creation. For by him all things were created both in the heavens and the earth, visible, invisible, thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created by him. And the last one, how and why were all things created? The very last phrase there, it says, through him and for him. So he created his physical manifestation here on the earth, and it was for him.

This whole section, to point out to the Colossians, this is so totally different, so totally in contrast to what they had. They had degrees of... I know Macaulay was explaining it, how God was perfectly holy, but as you got farther away from God, you got less and less Sin kind of could enter, so you went down. So Christ was somewhere down the lane. They had Christ down, they didn't have Christ as God. Could I interject here? Sure. The Gnosticism believes that there's degrees of deity. Yeah, okay, that's what I was saying. The scriptures, the biblical perspective is that God is not in essence an entity that He is separate from us. He created us. That's a biblical perspective.

And if you look at all pagan religions, every single one, there's the lie of Satan to Eve. If you eat of the tree, you will become like God. In other words, you will step up the ladder of the Greeks and become like gods. There's a family of gods in existence. But that's the pagan mind.

Does that help? That's excellent. That's good. Very good. So this is in total contrast, totally in contrast to that. And also it shows the personal, the last phrase here, the personal element of this, they were created through him and for him. I mean the personal element, I'm just going to create this stuff go do your thing. No, it was for him.

God is personally interested in his creation, personally interested in us. And that kind of goes back to the prayer thing. So if God is personally interested in us, and we pray, and what we prayed for didn't happen, we know that he's for us. If God be for us, who can be against us? But it's not hard. It's hard when a particular thing you're praying for is something that is very dear to you, especially if it's loved ones or whatever. It's very, very difficult.

And I kind of have taken comfort in the fact that Christ suffered as his humanist in the garden. He suffered as man suffered. And Paul suffered. Paul does one passage where he says he despaired of his life. That sounds pretty tough times. He didn't want to live anymore. In Christ? So anyway, God is for us. We'll stop here. Can someone read this?

He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the Church, and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him. and through him to reconcile all things to himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross through him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven. OK. It's really getting late. So what does it mean, he's before all things? And actually, somebody actually answered this, I think, earlier, talked about this a little bit.

He's the creator of everything. And then things are held together by him. He's the head of the church, the body of Christ. And then we see the, what does it mean to be the firstborn from the dead? He was the first to be resurrected from the dead, first of a new race of men.

This is interesting, the fullness to dwell in Him. Fullness seems to be a totality of God. Another thing against the Gnostic, He is fully God. The fullness dwells in Him. And it was by the blood of His cross. Yes, go ahead. The thought of that fullness glows in him. If we take that literally, fullness is things, right?

I mean it's the essence of each item. In him exists every item. So he is greater than he created things. They all dwell within his realm. within who he is. It's by his breath that we exist and have our being. Just the opposite of how the pagan perspective is, that behind everything is a chance of existence. And if one god gets greater than another god, then we've got to worship that god. And there's no security there. Whereas with God, everything exists in him. by His will, by His choice, by His cause. There is no cause greater than Him.

Right. That's great. That's great. So maybe there's a, you know, if you leave it for the student to finish out. There's only two more sets of questions and so maybe we better call it quits here. It's 10 o'clock. Okay. All right. We thank you, Father. Thank you so much for this day, Lord. Thank you for the lessons we have, Father. We thank you for your word. Thank you for the wonderful description of the Savior and just who he is and what he's accomplished. Thank you that we can depend upon this and trust in you. In Christ's name, Amen.