From Paul, With Love (2025)

SERMON OUTLINE:

(a). The City.

(b). The Church.

(c). The Crisis.

(d). The Content.

(d1) A saving faith (vs 4a, 6b)

(d2) A shared love (vs 4&8)

(d3) A sure hope (vs 5)

SERMON BODY:

Reading: Colossians chapter 1 verses 1-14

• The first email was sent by Ray Tomlinson, in 1971,

• He is the one to thank or blame for what is,

• An indispensable tool in our digital lives.

• Today, there are 3.9 billion email accounts (and counting).

• That's about half the world's population.

• With Gmail being by far the biggest and most popular email provider in the world,

• A typical email contains 434 words.

• The average person checks their email 15 times a day!

• TRANSITION: 200 years ago,

• People communicated in written form – a letter.

• Not quite paper and envelope (that would come along later).

• But they wrote via a Codex.

• A Codex or parchment was like paper,

• And this replaced having to write on expensive scrolls.

• Put simply, a Codex was a letter or several letters sown into a book.

Ill:

• Talking about letters,

• Reminds me of the old joke of a soldier on assignment abroad,

• He wrote to his girlfriend every day.

• When he eventually returned home on leave,

• He discovered that she had run away with the postman!

BACKGROUND TO THE LETTER:

• This letter was probably written around A.D. 62,

• While the apostle Paul was in prison in Rome.

• (Acts chapters 27-28).

(a). The city:

• Colosse was a city in Asia Minor,

• Which is modern day Turkey.

• It might surprise you to know that the name of the city, ‘Colossae,’

• Only appears once in the Bible (here in chapter 1 verse 2).

• Colosse was one of a trio of cities:

• Hierapolis and Laodicea being the other two.

• They both get a name check in chapter 4 verse 13,

• These cities rested at the foot of Mount Cadmus.

• These three cities were almost in view of each other.

Ill:

• This area used to be a meeting point of East and West

• At one time an important trade route passed through there:

• But when the road system changed.

• Colosse’s trade business declined.

• By the apostle Paul’s day, this one time a wealthy and populous city.

• Had been reduced to an insignificant market town.

• Today, we know of its location but there is nothing to see there.

• Because the site has never been excavated.

(b). The Church:

• We know from what the apostle Paul writes in chapter 2 verse 1,

• That had never visited Colosse.

• Quote: “…for all who have not met me personally.”

• But Paul did spend three years working 100 miles away in Ephesus.

• Ephesus was a magnet city,

• Acts chapter 19 verse 10 tells us that.

• People from all over Asia visited that city.

• People from all over the area (including Colosse).

• Visited Ephesus and some encountered the apostle Paul,

• The apostle Paul was a missionary, he was out to convert people,

• And many heard the gospel, got converted,

• Then they returned home and shared the message with their friends and family.

• That is what happened to a man named ‘Epaphras,’

• He gets a name check in verse 7,

• In this letter the apostle Paul reminds the Church that this Church,

• Verse 7: "…learned it (the faith/gospel) from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant".

• Epaphras was a citizen of Colosse, who went to Ephesus,

• And when he returned back home, he shared the gospel with his relatives and friends.

• And as a result, people were converted, and a church was planted.

• The church at Colosse was probably about five years old,

• When it received this letter from Paul.

(c). The crisis:

Ill:

• A man with three sons won £1 billion on the lottery.

• Since he now had more money than he knew what to do with,

• He offered to buy his sons anything they wanted.

• He stressed money was no object.

• His first son said he had always wanted a Jaguar car,

• So, his father bought him seven Jaguar cars in seven different colours,

• So, he would have a different one to drive every day of the week.

• His second son wanted a motorcycle.

• So, the father went out and bought him 30 new motorcycles,

• So, he would have a different bike to ride every day of the month.

• His youngest was only 8, and he said he wanted a Mickey Mouse outfit.

• So, his father went out and bought him, Southampton Football Club!