Sharing New Life Series

Sharing New Life

Series: Jesus ...Changes Everything (Colossians)

Brad Bailey – June18, 2023

Intro –

Today… we are concluding our series drawing from the Biblical Book of Colossians.

We will engage just a few verses from the final chapter of this book.

But to appreciate the big picture…let me remind us of how this letter began.

Colossians 1:1-2, 6 (NLT)

This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Timothy. 2 We are writing to God’s holy people in the city of Colosse, who are faithful brothers and sisters in Christ.

May God our Father give you grace and peace.

…6 This same Good News that came to you is going out all over the world. It is bearing fruit everywhere by changing lives, just as it changed your lives from the day you first heard and understood the truth about God’s wonderful grace.

With these words... Paul introduces himself... an apostle of Christ Jesus.’

Paul has been called to go spread the news of the risen Christ.

He is an apostle of Christ...the one who proved more powerful than all the false powers of this world… more than hate and violence and more than the self righteous can ever provide.

It’s hard not to see how God had so uniquely reached out to take a hold of Paul… for unlike the other disciples of Jesus… Roman citizen…and a rising star among the religious leaders.

Paul was the one God chose to send into the wider world... particularly the Roman ruled world that had come to rule over a vast portion of the known world. Rome had extended it’s reign into Asia... it what is now modern day Turkey...and the major city of Ephesus was now it’s major center.

Paul had gone to Ephesus...where he had mentored a man named Epaphras (Ep-af-RAS)...who had gone to Colossae and shared about Christ...and from which this local gathering of lives had begun.

Here’s a fun unplanned personal connection… …I got to visit Ephesus.

(Family trip… stayed over a couple days in Turkey… and spent a day touring the old city… highly excavated.)

I promise only a few quick pics…

1. A walk down what was the central shopping street

2. The restored front of the old library

3. A statue of the pagan goddess …Diana. During New Testament times, Ephesus was famous throughout the known world for its magnificent temple built in honor of the pagan Roman goddess Diana… known to the Ephesians as Artemis

4. Here is the great Theater of Ephesus, which was the largest public arena in the city. the semicircular Roman theater held 25,000 seats and was one of the largest in the ancient world.

We read about it in the New Testament. In the Biblical Book of Acts… a silversmith creates a riot against Paul. He tells his fellow creators of idols … “Men, YOU well know that from this business we have our prosperity. Also, YOU behold and hear how not only in Eph´e·sus but in nearly all the [district of] Asia this Paul has persuaded a considerable crowd and turned them to another opinion, saying that

the ones that are made by hands are not gods. … this occupation of ours will come into disrepute.” (Acts 19”25-27)

Paul – spoke the freedom of Christ into those who feared they must appease the false gods of this world.

And Paul …was a citizen of the Roman empire…he knew of the type of power… and the way of peace. The famous pax Romana… which refers to the peace of Rome… was the great peace that the empire offered… a peace that would provide for those who would serve the emperor and the empire. Those too weak were left to die…and those deemed a threat by way of any other loyalty…would be made an example of. It was a peace based solely on accepting that the state… the powers that rule… are supreme…and your value and rights are only given my them.

Paul – spoke the freedom of Christ into those for whom the powers of this world declared held their value and worth.

And Paul was a member of the Pharisees…the ruling religious leaders…he knew that the very laws of God… apart from God… only leave us guilty…condemned.

He is not the apostle of a new religion...but of that which fulfilled what no religion can settle.

Paul – spoke the freedom of Christ into those who feared they would fail at the religious laws or moral laws.

The powers that reign in this world… cannot provide the ultimate peace…and grace…that we need.

Greets them with a blessing of grace and peace. (vs.2 - ‘May God our Father give you grace and peace.’) These are precisely what neither Rome nor the religious establishment had brought to the lives they ruled.