Colossians Chapter 1
In the Epistle from Colossians. False teachers had infiltrated the Church
just as we experience today, and when there is false teaching there is
inevitably division and ill feeling. We
do not know what the trouble was in Colossae, but it was serious enough for
Paul to write and admonish them.
Paul describes Christ as the first born of all creation;
pre-eminent over all creation; the One who holds all things together; and the
head of the Church. All these statements are to emphasize the deity of Christ
and His having Supremacy over all in heaven and earth.
It is in Jesus’ position as head of the Church which I am
concentrating on this morning. Jesus is the one that
builds His church, so all His servants need to be careful to follow all He
directed. Whilst all His followers should respond to Him, there is a special
duty placed on all holding Office within the Church to lead by example.
The last words of Jesus before His ascension were to His Apostles:
‘Go
and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and
of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
AND teaching them to observe all that I have commanded. Here
in the words of our Lord is the purpose for which He founded the Church.
The church began on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came
upon the Apostles, and the first Church was founded on the teaching of the
Apostles who took the gospel around the ancient world, and that church was a
model from which we might do well to follow as the Bible states the people were
devoted to such teaching.
The Apostles taught the truth about Jesus Christ. They taught about the
way in which he fulfilled the Old Testament Scriptures in order to bring people
to salvation through His sacrificial death on the cross and His resurrection.
They also taught how salvation in Jesus Christ was to be worked out in the life
of the believer. They are not teaching something that they have made up in
their own minds, but only things which have been revealed to them by Jesus and
the Holy Spirit. Jesus had already made it clear to them that their teaching
was to be consistent with His.
What should occupy our minds is to
consider if the Church is still preaching the message of the Apostles, and is
it fit for the purpose Christ and His Apostles built it? That is a hard question to answer; in places
yes, especially the Pentecostal Churches; but in the main denominational
Churches, only to a limited extent. In order to justify that let us reflect.
Jesus gave
strict commands on spiritual, moral, ethical and social matters. Paul warned that there would be those who
would not wish to here sound doctrine and would seek false teachers who would
say what they wanted to hear and there are plenty of them in the Church today.
Never forget, the church does not belong to men (or women) it is Christ’s
church and he builds it through the teaching of the men who were His Apostles.
When we hear
their teaching on a regular basis, not only does our faith grow, but also our
ability to defend and help others to understand, especially those most closest
and dearest to us who are not yet followers of our Lord. We may not remember all we hear, but will be
inspired by the power of what has been preached. We will learn to be guided by the Scriptures
and will come to know more about God and His Son and how we
should live according to His commands.
Charles
Wesley taught that the value of a person’s life was to be measured by their
faith, so we need to get our way of life in order to justify our faith.
I am sure
that many Church members do not realize the danger our faith and Church
face. There are forces out to annihilate
Christianity from the public arena and silence biblical quotations on moral and
ethical issues.
Paul taught
it would never be an easy task for us, that opposition would be met, but said
we do not have a spirit of timidity, be strong. We should show no fear or
favour and never ever be ashamed of our faith. But that is exactly what is
happening in some of our Churches, especially in the Church of England. We are bound to preach what people need to
hear rather than what some might prefer to be taught.
If we are to
be the witnesses for Jesus, we must first be sure we have experienced His
presence, and secondly tell positively what Jesus stated and commanded. It is
not enough to say we know about Him, even the devil could say that, we must
have accepted Him as Savior and believed in all He did and commanded. We
cannot amend or put on an application which He obviously would not have
approved. Being a witness is something
that falls to all Christians to be and it doesn’t mean theological knowledge
required, or being intrusive, we can be a most effective witness by just
letting it be known we attend Church, which tends to show we are followers of
Christ. If the Church is to survive in any meaningful way it is down to the
ordinary Church members as there is now no one on the national scene with any
notable charisma.
The responsibility for teaching falls principally on the clergy,
and the Bible states a preacher is given a solemn task to preach in the name of
God and Jesus Christ, and will one day have to answer as to how faithfully we
carried out that privilege.
We have to
tell our faith is not something someone made up. There is testimony from people
alive at the time of Jesus’ life on earth, and not only from His followers but
from literary men of the time, and it has been recorded.
The Bible has
many prophecies in the Old Testament made many years earlier which most have
come true. There are so many interlinked
stories none of which have been contradicted, and not even the most
sophisticated computer could excel.
Our Gospel is
that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was
buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the
scriptures. This, which was an early
Christian confession, give us the heart of the gospel and show that the
resurrection is an integral part of the gospel. The reality can be verified by
the Scriptures and historical evidence as the empty tomb and the eye witnesses
Only
Christianity has a Cross at the center of its faith. Only Jesus suffered an
horrific death on the Cross, a death made for criminals who were made to parade
through the streets with a crown on his head beaten 39 times with a leather
belt fitted with metal studs to cut the skin, stripped of clothes and nailed
through His hands and feet on the cross, and all for the sake of paying the
penalty for the sins you and I commit.
He could have
refused to go there, but went willingly so we could be forgiven and put back in
to a relationship with God and made us fit for heaven, where we will live on
day with Him. God said this is what man
has shown and done to my Son; this is what I have done, and showed by raising
Him to life again.
Our Gospel is
that Christ died for our
sins according to the scriptures, and that he
was buried, and that he
was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. This, which was an early Christian
confession, give us the heart of the gospel and show that the resurrection is
an integral part of the gospel. The
reality can be verified by the Scriptures and historical evidence as the empty
tomb and the eye witnesses
Only
Christianity has a Cross at the center of its faith. Only Jesus suffered an
horrific death on the Cross, a death made for criminals who were made to parade
through the streets with a crown on his head beaten 39 times with a leather
belt fitted with metal studs to cut the skin, stripped of clothes and nailed
through His hands and feet on the cross, and all for the sake of paying the
penalty for the sins you and I commit.
He could have
refused to go there, but went willingly so we could be forgiven and put back in
to a relationship with God and made us fit for heaven, where we will live on
day with Him. God said this is what man
has shown and done to my Son; this is what I have done, and showed by raising
Him to life again.
Let me close with the words of John Wesley,
I want to know one thing, the way to heaven: how to land safe on that happy shore. God Himself has condescended to teach the way; for this very end He came from heaven. He hath written it down in a book! O give me that book! At any price, give me the Book of God! I have it: here is knowledge enough for me.