PT-1 "Introduction to Colossians"

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/7/2016 5:08 PM

My Worship Time                                                             Focus:  PT-1 Introduction to Colossians

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Colossians

            As we begin to look at the book of Colossians we will take a number of Spiritual Diaries to introduce the book and also introduce the outline that we will be following.  I would like to look at what Warren Wiersbe has to say about Colossians and then I want to look at what John MacArthur has to say about Colossians, as we will be following his outline and I will be looking at his commentary to help us better understand what is in this letter written by the Apostle Paul.

            I have been wanting to study this book for a little over two years, but in late 2014 the Lord made it clear to me that I should study the book of Revelation once more and then after that I began to study the book of John which I am now working on in the mornings, and so after completing the entire Old Testament I decided to begin to finally look at Colossians during my evening Bible study.

            As we begin to look at this book we will see that it has a lot to do with what is going on in our world today, as we will go into more detail of this as we continue in our different introductions to Colossians.  Some of the very things that were going on in the church at Colossae are going on in our churches today.

            I have to say that some of the things that we will be looking at in these introductions may be repeated, but I really don’t see a problem with that as most people, including myself, have no problem with seeing things more than once as that helps us better remember what we are learning.

            Dr. Wiersbe writes the following about the city of Colossae:  “Colossae was one of three cities located about 100 miles from Ephesus.  The other two cities were Laodicea and Hierapolis (Col. 4:13, 16).  This area was a meeting pint of East and West because an important trade route passed through there.  At one time, all three cities were growing and prosperous, but gradually Colossae slipped into a second-rate position.  It became what we would call a small town.  Yet the church there was important enough to merit the attention of the Apostle Paul.

            As we look at the reason that Paul wrote to the church in Colossae we will find out that there were many different religions there including Judaism and one of the problems that people have when they are saved when older is that there are many memories that are ingrained into one’s life that have a strong hole on new believers.  I am thankful that I was saved when I was close to being 27 years old, but living 27 years in the world system causes me to have many memories of worldly things that still haunt me to this day.  I am thankful that my children were saved when they were very young along with their children.  My youngest grandson was saved when he was almost five years old and it has made a great difference in his young life.

            Paul did not directly start this church, but since he was at Ephesus for a considerable length of time the word of God went throughout that region resulting in many churches being started through his ministry while at Ephesus, and I believe that this is how the Colossian church began.  Let’s look at Acts 19:10 to help us out in understanding how this church began:  “This took place for two years, so that all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.”          

I remember someone’s sermon that I listened to a very long time ago who was talking about the different letters that Paul wrote that are found in the New Testament saying that one of the things that Paul did as he wrote to churches that he had never been to before writing to them was at the end of the letters he would mention many names of people that he knew and that the members of the church knew so that they would confer that Paul wrote the letter.  Romans and Colossians are two of these churches that come to my mind.

Paul was in prison when he wrote this letter and several other letters including Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon, and then he was in prison again when he wrote 2 Timothy, so these are what are called prison epistles.

It is my plans to look at the book of Philemon after we finish this letter.

Dr. Wiersbe writes “Philemon had a church meeting in his home (Phile. 2).  It is likely that Apphia and Archippus, mentioned in this verse, were respectively the wife and son of Philemon, and that Archippus was the pastor of the church (Col. 4:17).”

This is a good lesson for us to learn as many churches begin even today in homes, beginning as a Bible study and then growing to the extent of needing to have a building to move into and thus the Lord begins another New Testament church.  A pastor or elder is not necessary to begin the church and will not really be needed until the church grows large enough to be able to support one.

We will conclude this SD, and the portion about “The Church” with this quote from Dr. Wiersbe:  “The Colossian assembly was predominantly Gentile in its membership.  The sins that Paul named (Col. 1:25-29) were commonly associated with the Gentiles, and his statement about the mystery applied more to the Gentiles than to the Jews (Col. 1:25-29).  The church was probably about five years old when Paul wrote this letter.”

In our next introductory SD to Colossians we will talk about the “Crisis.”

12/7/2016 5:57 PM