Welcome to Colossae
0 comments | Posted by Steven Layson on 26 Jun 2011 in From Steve's Study ::
One of the tragedies of much modern Christianity is that the spotlight is shone everywhere but on Jesus. People are very happy to talk about global warming, church growth, women’s ministry, the homosexuality issue, family life, world poverty etc, but they’re not so keen to talk about Jesus. Paul’s letter to the Colossians addresses this very issue.
The Christian community in Colossae came into being during Paul’s Ephesian ministry (c. AD 52-55). Paul’s daily lectures in the hall of Tyrannus were so effective that it is possible for Luke to claim that “all residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks” (Acts 19:8-10).
During this period a man named Epaphras, who had come from Colossae in the Lycus Valley, came to faith in the Lord Jesus. He quickly grew to maturity (Col 4:12) and was a hard worker (Col 4:13, 1 Cor 15:10). Through his ministry the church in Colossae was founded.
While Paul never actually visited the church in Colossae he took an active interest in it through his disciple Epaphras. It’s clear reading through Colossians that Paul wrote to combat a threat to the faith of the church. It is generally thought that this threat came from a group of false teachers who were teaching a hotch-potch of all sorts of spiritual traditions. The net result of their teaching was a lack of emphasis on Christ and all that the Christian has in Him.
As a result, in Colossians we have a letter which focuses upon the supremacy of Christ more than any other part of the New Testament. In this lies the beauty of the letter! It reminds us that all of God’s fullness is displayed for us, and conveyed to us in Christ. As a result we ought to continue to live in Him (Col 2:6). Nowadays all of the spiritualities Paul attacks are still alive and well (intellectualism, legalism, mysticism and asceticism). This makes Colossians a timely book to preach on.
{An excerpt from Luke Tattersall’s introduction to Colossians at: http://perspective.org.au/sermonseries}
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