Tag Archives: Colossians

Payette River Vineyard, Sermons, Theology Thoughts

Colossians: Changing Our Relationships Patterns

Parents-FIGHTPublic reading: Colossians 3:16-4:3

An audio recording of this teaching can be found here.

Intro
  • I spend a lot of time in prayer and research about this passage
  • The sad history is that this passage has been use and abuse in some very cruel ways over the years
  • People have used the verses as a weapon
    • Hurting wives and women
    • Children
  • They were used before and during the Civil War as justification of slavery
    • You cannot simply replace the slaves/master language with employee/employer
    • Slavery was real then and now
  • If you are going to read the parts about husbands and wives, fathers and children as a divine rule for family life
    • Then you have to say that slavery is a divine rule
    • To be consist in your reading of the Scriptures
  • As you can imagine, this can cause problems as we, hopefully, all recognize that slavery is not something Jesus or God wants or designed
    • It is a product of our pride, greed and evil
  • So there must be another way to read these verses
    • A way that stay true to the Scripture
    • And true to the heart of God as reviled in and through Jesus
  • When reading the Bible, I believe there are three very, very important lens that we must look through
  • Jesus
  • Jesus is God relived to us
  • So when we have problems understanding what the Scriptures are saying, we look to the life, ministry and character of Jesus
  • If our interruption of Scriptures does not match that of the life and character of Jesus, we MUST rethink that passage!
  • The Trajectory of the Scriptures
  • What has God been doing throughout history?
  • What has been His focus?
  • What is the overarching theme of the Scriptures?
  • The Context of the Scriptures
  • St. Paul did not write Colossians in isolation; as such, we must ask ourselves what was happening in the Roman Empire during this time
The Passage at Hand
  • I’m going to re-read this passage in the Kingdom New Testament

Let the King’s word dwell richly among you, as you teach and exhort one another in all wisdom, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God with grateful hearts. And whatever you do, in word or action, do everything in the name of the Master, Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the father.

Now a word for wives: you should be subject to your husbands. This is appropriate in the Lord. And for husbands: you should treat your wives with love, and not be bitter with them. And for children: obey your parents in everything; this pleases the Lord. And for fathers: don’t provoke your children to anger; otherwise they might lose heart.

A word, too, for slaves: obey your earthly masters in everything. Don’t do it simply out of show, to curry favor with human beings, but wholeheartedly, because you fear the Master. Whatever you do, give it your very best, as if you were working for the Master and not for human beings. After all, you know that you’re going to receive the true inheritance from the Master as your reward! It is the Master, the King, that you are serving. Anyone who does wrong will be paid back for wrongdoing, and there will be no favorites.

And a word for master: do what is just and fair for your slaves. Remember that you too have a Master – in heaven.

Devote yourselves to prayer; keep alert in it, with thanksgiving. While you’re about it, pray for us, too, that God will open in front of us a door for the word, so that we may speak of the mystery of the King – which is why I’m here in chains.

Continue reading Colossians: Changing Our Relationships Patterns →
Payette River Vineyard, Sermons

Colossians: Shadows

Sweet sunset 6Public Reading: Colossians 2:16-3:17

Author note: While teaching from this passage I felt led to go off my notes so the actual sermon is very, very different than these notes.

Sermon Notes
•    Paul is continuing on with the theme that he introduced a few verses beforehand
•    We are to walk after Jesus

o    Not to get caught up in human wisdom or philosophies

•    Jesus disarmed all the rulers and authorities of the world, spiritual and physical

o    Let us embrace Him
o    Let us walk forward, knowing that we died with Him though baptism
o    We are new creations – the beginning of something totally different

•    It may sound fanciful

o    A pipe dream
o    But it is a reality

•    The moment we stop believing and living that Jesus changed us, at that moment, we lose

o    We have too – if we really, really, believe Jesus
o    If we really, really believe the scriptures
o    We have too life as if we have been changed

•    We have to allow Jesus to change us

o    We have to give up the things of old
o    And embrace the new

•    This can be hard

o    It can be scary

•    The devil that we know can seem better than the devil we don’t know
•    We might have tried to change before – to embrace the newness of Jesus – only to get shot down

o    We might have gotten hurt by circumstances
o    We might have gotten hurt by people who didn’t allow us to walk forward

•    I understand this…

o    However, I’m not the one telling you to walk forward
o    Paul and Jesus is

And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses. –Col 2:13

•    And once you know that you have been set free

o    Once you know that things are different

•    Well, once you have not rooted deep down in your heart and life
•    Then you can move forward without fear of judgment and ridicule

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Payette River Vineyard, Sermons, Theology Thoughts

Colossians: Alive in Christ

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berries and leavesPublic Reading: Colossians 2:6-15

An audio file of sermon can be found on the PRV website.

Background Review

  • Before we jump into today’s passage, we need to remember the context for the passage
  • It is easy to simply read a passage within the Scriptures
    • There are great things there
    • A lot of times they can stand alone
    • Yet each verse is built upon another
    • They are also built upon the history of who wrote them, to who they were written too, etc.
    • Colossians, if we recall, was written by Paul and Timothy
      • Paul penned the book, but Timothy was there with him as seen by verse 1:1
      • They are writing to a church group they have never met
        • But has heard about
        • One of their friends started the church
        • Outline so far
          • 1:1-14 – Paul and Timothy telling the church what they had heard about them
            • Offer their prayers
            • The passage underscores how we are to rejoice with what God is going around the world
  • 1:15-23 – this was a great poetic piece outline the supremacy of Christ
    • Paul and Timothy are stating the basics
    • Reminding us that the basics are really where it is!
  • 1:24-2:5 – In fact, Paul goes go after this poetic piece to tell the church that it all about Jesus
    • Suffering on behalf of the church
    • Suffering to see the message of Jesus spread throughout the world
    • This brings us right up to our passage for the week

Alive in Christ

6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

  • As the saying goes, if you see the word “therefore”, ask yourself what is it “there for”
  • Therefore, because it is in Jesus that “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” are hidden (vs 3)
    • Continue to live in him, rooted and build up on him
    • The EVS and the Kingdom NT ways to “walk in him” or “continue your journey in him”
    • Following Jesus is not a Sunday morning thing
      • It is not a rules, a do this or don’t do this thing
      • It is a heart change
      • It is a way of life
      • A way of living
      • This is why Paul goes on in vs 12  saying that we were buried with Jesus and raised with Him again
      • We are new creatures!
        • We are no longer the same person we once were
        • Yes, we have the same memories
        • Our heart is different
        • Our motivations are different
        • Yet a lot of times we don’t live that way
        • We allow the philosophy – the teachings of this world to govern our lives
          • This is why Paul says

8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

  • There is a battle going on right now for your mind
    • You may be a child of God
    • You may be ‘saved’ and will go to heaven
    • But are you going to be effective for God’s Kingdom right now in 2014
    • A lot of us have bought into the empty philosophy of the stories around us
    • We come up with different reasons why we are still breathing
      • We say that we are here to be good parents, grand-parents
      • We have to help our kids
      • We are here to work and have a good life
        • Everything is going to burn in the end, so why don’t enjoy live now?
        • You can’t take anything with you, so let’s have some fun now?
        • Oh, I believe in Jesus, I go to church…. I’m a child of the Lord
        • But are you changing the world?
          • Are you actively asking Jesus what he is doing around you?
          • Are you actively pursuing His mission to bring His Kingdom into this area?
          • This is more than forcing everyone to go to church?
            • This is more than having guilt that you didn’t do xyz?
            • I’m taking about the journey of joining Jesus, you know, the guy who Paul talks about in vs 9 and 10?

9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.

Payette River Vineyard, Sermons, Theology Thoughts

Colossians: Suffering and Mystery

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Cross on wallPassage: Colossians 1:24-2:5

Audio file of sermon can be found at the PRV website.

Sermon

  • There are two themes or concepts within this passage
    • Suffering for the sake of others
    • God’s Mystery

Suffering

  • The first point is Paul’s suffering
    • He is a servant of the church
    • His suffering is to their benefit

The Kingdom NT Right now I’m having a celebration – a celebration of my sufferings, which are for your benefit! And I’m steadily completing, in my own flesh, what is presently lacking in the king’s afflictions on behalf of his body, which is the church. I became the church’s servant, according to the terms laid down by God when he gave me my commission on your behalf, the commission to fulfill God’s word. –Colossians 1:24-25

The Messsage:  I want you to know how glad I am that it’s me sitting here in this jail and not you. There’s a lot of suffering to be entered into in this world—the kind of suffering Christ takes on. I welcome the chance to take my share in the church’s part of that suffering. When I became a servant in this church, I experienced this suffering as a sheer gift, God’s way of helping me serve you, laying out the whole truth. –Colossians 1:24-25

  • St. Paul’s conversion
    • Commissioned to “carry my (God’s) name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”
    • Acts 9:15b
    • Yes, St. Paul’s commission is not for everyone… I understand that
    • But each of us has a commission from Jesus to preach the Gospel and to love others as ourselves
    • This means that there will be times when we will have to celebrate, as Paul did, our sufferings on behalf of the church
      • Meaning, that there are times when we must set aside our own passions and dreams
      • Set aside our wants
      • For that which benefits and blesses the whole body
      • This is called humility

For by the grace given to me I say to every one of you not to think more highly of yourself than you ought to think, but to think with sober discernment, as God has distributed to each of you a measure of faith. For just as in one body we have many members, and not all the members serve the same function, so we who are many are one body in Christ, and individually we are members who belong to one another. –Romans 12:3-5

Payette River Vineyard, Sermons

Colossians: The Preeminence of Christ

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preeeminence of christSermon Series Intro

  • Last week we started a study on the book of Colossians
  • We looked at how Paul did not start the church there
    • Instead he rejoiced to hear that someone else took the message there
    • Starting new churches and spreading the gospel is not just for superstars, but for all believers
    • Today we are looking at the preeminence of Jesus

Public Reading: Colossians 1:15-23

An audio recording of this sermon can be found here.

A Hymn

  • Some Bible’s indent these verses
  • They are poetic – as in it is thought that Paul is quoting an early hymn or creed of Jesus followers
  • Others think that the hymn came into being through Paul
  • Either way, verses 15 through 20 provided us with an amazing look at who Jesus is
    • As well as the nature of God Himself

The Image

He is the image of the invisible God,  

  • Jesus is the “image” of God
  • Jesus said in John 14
    • Verse 7

“If you had known me, you would have known my Father also”

  • Verse 9b-11

“Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.”

  • To take this seriously, is to read the entire Bible through the lens of Jesus
  • Jesus is God; if you want to know God, know and follow Jesus
    • You want to know how God would act, look at Jesus
    • You want to know what God said, look at Jesus

Continue reading Colossians: The Preeminence of Christ →

Payette River Vineyard, Sermons

Colossians: Introduction

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colossians_2

Sermon notes for PRV’s new study through Colossians. Audio file can be found here.

Introduction

  • Today (originally taught on January 5, 2014) we are starting a new series
  • Working through the book of Colossians
  • This book has popped up several times over the past month or so,
  • Looks to be in line where God is taken us

Theme

  • The theme, or overall message, of the book is
    • “Christ is Lord over all creation, including the invisible realm. He has secured redemption for his people, enabling them to participate with him in his death, resurrection, and fullness.”
    • Colossians is one of the most Jesus centered books of Paul’s
    • Focused on teaching the believers at Colossae that Jesus is the King and ruler of every area of their lives
    • Paul was also encouraging them to participate with Jesus
      • Embracing the good news that we have died with Jesus and been resurrected into a new life through Him
      • Now we can join with Jesus in changing the world for His sake
      • This, to me, fits with us in our journey with  Jesus
      • It is easy to forget that we are new beings through the power of Jesus’  blood
        • When we  bowed our knees to Jesus and gave our lives to  Him, the old stuff of the past was wiped away
        •  We are now new
        • With a new mind, heart, passion and mission
        • With a new year upon us, we need to stand  strong in this reality
        • We also need to embrace the part in Jesus’ mission that each of us have
        • We were not saved – set free from the evil one’s chains simply to live a good life
        • We were called – are called – to work with Jesus in changing the world
          • Setting things right
          • Crying with people, rejoicing with others
          •  Telling folks about the good news of God’s active and dynamic rule and reign.

Public Reading

  • Colossians 1:1-14

Continue reading Colossians: Introduction →