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Sunday 08/31/25
Title: My Prayer for you
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My Prayer for you
We have been going through an extensive series since before Easter this year, though the name of the series has changed based upon what aspect we were highlighting at the time, the overall focus however has remained the same.
We have been learning about the internal and external life of believers and how the Holy Spirit empowers both.
The internal life of the believer is accomplished by the indwelling Spirit, Who leads, guides, convinces and convicts from within. It is BY the internal work of the Holy Spirit that we perform and maintain good works. Philippians 2:13 tells us that it is God Who is at work WITHIN US, “causing us to will and do after His good pleasure”.
But then we have the external work of the Spirit of God. That which is accomplished by His coming upon us as He did those in the first century beginning at Pentecost.
Now, we spent SOME time examining those incidents closely and though we do believe in the power of every believer to pray in tongues, we found that it was wrong to attribute such to the day of Pentecost. The tongues that occurred that day were for ministry and were not prayer and that is key.
It has been my observation that many make the mistake of failing to discern between the two which is a bit understandable, because Paul addresses both at the same time. The blending of the two in the same teaching is a bit confusing to a western mind. This is made all the more pronounced by the holistic way the Hebrews thought. They didn’t typically break similar things down into highly defined categories. So when Paul talks about tongues in 1 Corinthians 12, he deals with both that which was a gift used for ministry and that which is for personal use in prayer at the same time. It is only by key words peppered throughout that we are offered distinctions between the two. But they are there!
Then there is the difference between the Gift of Tongues and the special miracle we have here in Acts 2 which was not an unknown tongue to anyone but the ones speaking them. This is made clear in the Greek but is honestly a little confusing for the one who is not a studier.
We went into some detail on this a year ago in a teaching called “Tongues… Praying in or the Gift of Part 1”, which was an unfortunate title since we never had a part 2.
At any rate, what happened at Pentecost was decided NOT a manifestation of the gift of tongues. We know this due to the grammar of the Greek AND because we are told by Paul in 1 Corinthians that WITHOUT EXCEPTION the Gift of Tongues is ALWAYS accompanied by the Gift of Interpretation of Tongues so the hearer will be edified.
On the Day of Pentecost, EVERYONE heard them speaking in their own language without the need for interpretation. So this was NOT an example of one of the gifts of the Spirit, but was rather a special miracle.
We also know that all of the 120 people who were gathered in the upper room in Jerusalem were already born again. The 11 had received the New Birth when Jesus appeared to them, breathed on them and told them to receive the Holy Spirit within them! The incident on Pentecost was the Spirit coming UPON them, to empower them for ministry, even as He had upon Jesus in the river Jordan.
Prior to being baptized by John, Jesus had the Spirit of God within Him, but He had not begun His ministry nor accomplished any mighty works or miracles. It was not until AFTER the Spirit fell upon Him while being baptized with water that His external ministry began which was accompanied by signs, wonders and various miracles.
So taking this as our cue, we adopted the understanding that the Spirit within is for the work of conforming the believer to the image of Jesus Christ as branches connected to our Vine Who is Christ Jesus.
The Spirit UPON however, is an empowering of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer to be living witnesses to the person and work of Jesus Christ!
This was stated by Jesus Himself to His disciples when He told them,
“(45) And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures. (46) Then He said to them,
“Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, (47) and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. (48) And you are witnesses of these things. (49) Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.“ – Luke 24:45-49
Other attesting testimonies to this truth:
- Acts 1:8, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
- Acts 2:32, “This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses.”
- Acts 3:15, “and killed the Prince of life, Whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses.”
- Acts 5:32, “And we are His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit Whom God has given to those who obey Him.”
Of course we covered MUCH more but these I offer by way of reminder.
Since then we have explored what the scriptures teach about the fruit bearing work and power of the Holy Spirit WITHIN the believer as well as the empowering witness He makes us before the world.
Most recently we’ve been focused upon the command to maintain “good works”, having spent since the 25th of May of this year defining ‘Good Works’ and examining examples of them. [See – Outfitted for Good Works]
So while we have not in any way exhausted the topic, I think to go further might exhaust you, so we are moving on today by beginning a study of Colossians – so turn with me there if you will.
You know how I like to provide some backdrop for books and letters before we dive in so as to establish the context, purpose and audience of what we are studying. We do this to help us be responsible with the text. While MANY good things can be extracted from scripture even outside of its given context, we can only possess eyes to discern what is truly good when we know what the scriptures actually mean IN their given CONTEXT. It is only then that we can identify sound doctrine when we see it.
So today will be no different – we will begin with a brief history and background for this letter to the saints in Colossae.
It may surprise you to learn that outside of this letter, neither the city or church of Colossae are ever specifically mentioned anywhere else in scripture.
That being true we still know a fair amount about them.
This may be due to their location being so close to Laodicea – both cities of which were in the greater province of Phrygia. Today this is located in the Lycus River Valley of Turkey. The two cities are within 12 miles of each other.
Colossians could have been penned anywhere between 52-62AD. Most of the evidence however, seems to point to Paul being in prison at the time of its writing making the date most likely between 60-62AD when he was first imprisoned in Rome. That would place this letter as following his third and final missionary journey which ended in 58AD.
SEE MAP
As you can see this area has been heavily evangelized as is clear from the cities we are all familiar with. Most of these were geographically in different and neighboring regions.
- Pergamum
- Thyatira
- Sardis
- Smyrna
- Ephesus
- Miletus
- Philadelphia
- Laodicea
- Hierapolis
- Antioch
- Pisidia
- Iconium
- Lystra
To name a few!
It is interesting that people from the region of Phrygia were present when the Holy Spirit fell in Jerusalem on Pentecost and some heard the Gospel from Peter that day. So they would have returned to their home with word of the Gospel since that day believed.
Furthermore, Paul, Silas and Timothy went through the region of Phrygia before receiving the call to go to Macedonia on Paul’s 2nd missionary journey. Then later in his 3rd missionary journey Paul went back through this region.
For all of this however, by the time of the writing of this letter Paul had never physically gone to Colossae and so far as we know, he never did.
In the first chapter of this letter we see that what Paul knew of these people was by word of mouth from Epaphras (not to be confused with Epaphroditus) and not from ever having been there.
In fact it was Epaphras who initially evangelized Colossae and established the Christian church there. [See Colossians 1:7-8] That church probably met in the house of Philemon, to whom Paul wrote regarding Onesimus who was also from Colossae.
Onesimus had been the slave of Philemon but ran away only to become a follower of Jesus through Paul in Ephesus. Paul later wrote to Philemon encouraging him to receive Onesimus back, no longer as a slave but as a brother.
Epaphras later traveled to Rome to visit Paul, who was in prison. It was then that he informed Paul of the various doctrinal challenges the Colossian church was facing. It was due to this report that Paul wrote this letter to the Colossians.
The false doctrines appear to have been an eclectic blend of Greek philosophies together with Old Covenant practices which had been fulfilled or replaced in Christ under the New Covenant.
We will deal with what these were and how they challenge the work of Christ in the lives of these believers when we get there.
For now, just know that these teachings provided the Colossians with many of the entrapings of external religion which were prevalent in that day but which are all but non-existent in the Gospel.
People like to conform to their culture.
We learn from the Old Testament that the Jews always wanted to be like their pagan neighbors from having a king to participating in harvest and fertility rituals.
In like manner these believers in Colossae were being tempted away from Christ and towards influences which served to dilute and challenge His supremacy in their lives. THAT is one of the biggest lessons we will take away from our studies in this book.
- Hold on to Christ.
- Seek His Kingdom above all else.
- Do not allow rituals and sentiment to replace the intimacy of knowing Jesus our Lord and being conformed to His image.
- Allow God’s word to speak for itself. There are things which the Old Covenant required which no longer have a place under the New. Other things remain unchanged. Knowing and respecting these are part of our humility and submitting to Christ.
With all of that under our hats, lets open this redemptive letter to the saints in Colossae.
Colossians 1:1-29,
“(1) Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will, and Timothy our brother:
(2) To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ in Colossae.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father.
(3) We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, (4) for we have HEARD of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints (5) because of the hope reserved for you in heaven.”
This hope is referring to the full maturity we will realize when we finally meet Jesus face to face. This is referred to in the Greek as the epiphaneia, the parousia or the apokalúptō. I prefer epiphaneia in this case since it means the “manifestation” or “appearance” and refers to a clear showing or revelation of someone or something previously hidden.
Peter tells us,
“(3) Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, (4) to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, (5) who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” – 1 Peter 1:3-5
That last word “revealed” is the word apokalúptō which means to remove a veil or covering exposing to open view what was before hidden.
We are told by John in 1 John 3:2-3,
“(2) Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him as He is. (3) And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself just as He is pure.”
So we know what this “hope reserved for you in heaven” is talking about. It is when we finally see Jesus as He really is and no longer through a glass dimly. It is then that we will finalize our transformation into His image and be forever like Him!
This is also referred to throughout the New Testament as our great hope!
Continuing on in Colossians 1:5…
“You have already heard about this hope in the message of truth, (6) the gospel that has come to you.
It is bearing fruit and growing all over the world, just as it has among you since the day you heard it and recognized God’s grace in the truth.
(7) You learned this from Epaphras, our much loved fellow slave. He is a faithful minister of the Messiah on your behalf, (8) and he has told us about your love in the Spirit.
(9) For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We are asking that…
“you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, (10) so that you may walk worthy of the Lord,
fully pleasing to Him,
bearing fruit in EVERY GOOD WORK and growing in the knowledge of God.
(11) May you be strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for all endurance and patience, with joy (12)
giving thanks to the Father, Who has enabled you to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light.
(13) He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, (14) in Whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (15)
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation; (16) because by Him everything was created, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities–all things have been created through Him and for Him.
(17) He is before all things, and by Him all things hold together.
(18) He is also the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He might come to have first place in everything.
(19) For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, (20) and through Him to reconcile everything to Himself by making peace through the blood of His cross–whether things on earth or things in heaven.
(21) And you were once alienated and hostile in mind because of your evil actions. (22) But now He has reconciled you by His physical body through His death,
to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before Him–
(23) if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith, and are not shifted away from the hope of the gospel that you heard.”
Strategic words and ones they much needed to hear! Imagine the fear of God that would be still among the churches today if we taught and capitalized upon the “IF” statements of the gospel!
“This gospel has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and I, Paul, have become a minister of it.
(24) Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I am completing in my flesh what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for His body, that is, the church.
(25) I have become its minister, according to God’s administration that was given to me for you, to make God’s message FULLY KNOWN, (26)
the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to His saints.
(27) God wanted to make known to those among the Gentiles the glorious wealth of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
(28) We proclaim Him!
Warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ.
(29) I labor for this, striving with His strength that works powerfully in me.”
Blessings!
Tri
