all right so let's introduce Colossians the author of Colossians is Paul the Apostle once again his name is on the from line of the letter uh the text represents I think Pauline concerns and theology there are modern Scholars just as with Ephesians that argue that Colossians is a forgery but I think there's ample evidence uh for Pauline authorship you can read more about that in your textbook and in your notes um Colossians like Ephesians and the other prison Epistles is different and I think that because the different circumstances these are that he's never uh writing to people in a place that he's never been he's concerned about them I think there's a number of reasons the more established church situation all these things we've talked about that I think explain why Colossians does feel and sound different from some of the earlier Pauline letters uh dayt and provenance Colossians along with Philippians and Ephesians and phiman was written while Paul was in prison uh maybe in cesaria but most likely in Rome I'm giving it the same date that I've given the other prison Epistles around 60 5960 somewhere in there is fine um and written while Paul was in prison the first Roman imprisonment in Rome I'm going through this quickly because it's just a repeat of what I said for Ephesians and what I said for Philippians the the real issue with the Colossians is the purpose that's where you want to pay close attention now if you look you'll notice your textbook has kind of a little cheat sheet on the beginning of each of for the beginning of each book and the per for the purpose of Colossians it's very common to hear people say well Colossians is written about false teaching true but there's more to it than that and I want you to think through this with me carefully for just a minute all right so here's the story behind Colossians so a church had been planted churches had been planted in the city of colassi which is kind of there in the middle of um on the western side of turkey Asia Minor uh churches had been planted there but they had been planted there by lay missionaries so these this is a place that Paul has not been uh these laay missionaries almost certainly came from Ephesus in fact Paul names one of them a guy Nam named apais now don't confuse apais with apodus apodus Philippians apais Colossians and Paul's heard great things about the church um but he's never been there to teach them himself he's worried about them now Paul knows that there are many cultural voices in the place a place like colassi that are contrary to the gospel Greek philosophy gnosticism Jewish mysticism the mystery cults aestheticism M all of those things are the voices that the Colossians are going to hear every single day trying to persuade them that the gospel is not true that this other worldview better explains the world and what Paul is doing is he's writing this letter to them to help them be grounded in their faith and sort of filter out and know how to think about all of these other voices so that they can live a life that's worthy of the Gospel now let me explain some of these terms that I use okay so first of all I mentioned Greek philosophy um platonism is very common uh the the the Greek sort of from Plato forward understanding of the world a particular view of the physical world a particular view of the spiritual World very important in fact a a particular brand of Greek philosophy that had uh rooted its way into the roots its way into the church is gnosticism and gnosticism that's with silent G on the beginning you read about it in your textbook early on I think um gnosticism had as its core view this idea that the physical world is bad um but the world of spirit is good and so the way you become more spiritual is either by ignoring the physical um or by suffering in the physical and that leads to aestheticism which we'll talk about in just a second um and so for example uh there are there are early there are early Christian heresies this is way after Colossians is written but there are early Christian heresies that believe that Jesus didn't really have a human body he only appeared to have a human body in fact we call them the the Dos because the Greek word Doo means to seem or to appear and you say well that's weird why would they think that well if you believe the physical world is bad if the physical world is where the Locust of sin is then God cannot become physical without becoming evil and so these these are all the ideas that are floating around Jewish mysticism not not just the Jewish uh cultural practices but the Jewish mysticism the worship of Angels the talk about spirits the mystery Cults were all over places like colassi these Cults that say you know we you've got your religion and that's good but we've got the ultimate secret and if you'll pay the fee if you'll learn the secret handshake get the decoder ring you know you can advance in the levels until you know the true true Secret of the universe uh asceticism also very common in ancient Greek culture this idea that um the way to becoming more spiritual is by making the body suffer the way to control the bodily urges is by making the body suffer uh and so if you think about those some of those early Christian monks which again way after Colossians those early Christian monks that were wearing burlap and eating bugs and living out you know celibacy no sex no uh relationship you know living outside and some of them even went and lived in hermitages alone and the idea is if you can cut your body off from anything that it finds pleasurable you will be more spiritual and so all of these ideas are floating around in colassi and Paul is writing to the Colossians because he wants them to be able to navigate those Waters well and to be able to um because Paul couldn't be there to teach them himself he wants them to be self theologizing if that makes sense now this is this is going to become important uh for two reasons all right right the the first reason why this structure is important is because what Paul does is he shows us a model for how to do this for ourselves if you just look at Colossians and you think to yourself well this letter is not for me right when I walk out of my door I am not bombarded by Greek Philosophy by aestheticism by gnosticism by Jewish mysticism by mystery Cults those things don't exist but you are bombarded by secularism and by materialism and by the sort of the sensualism of our culture and the sexual reol you're about bed by all of those things instead that does not mean that Colossians is of no value to you because what Paul does in Colossians is he creates a model for how Christians ought to think christianly about their culture and so what we're going to see in Colossians is that model played out for us and I'll explain that model in just a minute but the short version is he tells us everything we need he reminds us everything we need to know about Christ everything that the gospel tells us about Jesus and then shows us how to apply apply that to whatever the idea is that's clamoring for our attention now this is important for a second reason because it gives explanation to the idea that Colossians is written about false teaching you've read Galatians um and so you know what it looks like when Paul is hammering away at false teaching in the church Colossians does not look like that and that is because Colossians is not about false teachers it's about bad ideas and so for example there's no indication that the false teachers were in the church in colassi uh that people were being deceived that they Departed the gospel and Paul's trying to Corral them in and Hammer some sins into them like he is in Galatians no what's going on in Colossians is he's writing to people that he's never been able to teach himself uh because he wants them to be able to think christianly about all these non-Christian voices that are in their culture that are clamoring for their attention and that also makes it especially useful to us because that's our experience when we walk out of our doors that we are when we turn on our televisions when we you know double click on the internet browser we are constantly bombarded by Voices that are telling us something contrary to the gospel and Paul says it's a dangerous world if you're stupid it's a dangerous world theologically if you're stupid and so he wants to tell you how to not to be stupid how to think theologically about all the ideas in the world that are around us so what Paul does then Colossians as he focuses on teaching again he could not be with them to respond to every question every problem every challenge the churches there would need to learn to do that for themselves in Colossians Paul teaches them very deep theological truths about Christ and then shows them how to apply those truths to the questions of their day excuse me Colossians roughly follows that same model Doctrine first then practical application um and and we'll see some of those things but mostly for us colossian stands as a model for how to apply the truths of the Gospel to the questions and ideas of our day even though the ideas of their day are not the ideas of our day and it is very much a Doctrine first by the way those of you who are interested in Ministry or in doing Ministry there's something very key you should pay attention to here we as ministers wish we we want to be able to it would be nice if all the people in my Sunday school class and all the people I go to church with it would be nice if I could sit with them on the couch every time they turn the television on and whenever an idea came on the television that was contrary to the gospel I would say don't believe that don't believe that you can believe that that's true don't believe that but I can't do that I can't be in all of those places in the same way that Paul because he was in jail couldn't be in colassi and so what so my job then becomes is I can't be the filter for them I can't sit on the couch and say listen to that don't listen to that what I have to do is I have to teach them I have to teach them the truth of the Gospel I have to teach them the truth about Jesus and I have to model for them how to filter all of the ideas that are coming at them through the gospel and that's what Paul does in Colossians now I'm going to give you a very simple outline it's there's four chapters in Colossians I'm going to give you a bullet for each out uh for each chapter in chapter one you get the introduction in Paul's history with the Colossians and then an extended discourse on the supremacy of Christ this is where Paul lays out the doctrine of Jesus for them in Chapter 2 Paul deals with several examples of issues facing the Colossians voices in their culture that are that are yelling for their attention Greek philosophy Jewish practices mysticism aestheticism and so on that's the doctrinal portion then in chapter three the Practical portion he talks about Christian Living in light of the Gospel if Jesus really is who we said he is in chapter one how do you live how do you live that out and then in chapter four uh you get he wraps up that discussion you get his conclusion his parting admonition we'll see some of those and then his final greeting and that's Colossians