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Hi, this is Pastor Tom Holliday and I want to welcome you to our study of the
book of Colossians in Daily Drive Time Devotions. This is day one in chapter one
of our study of this incredible book that's about your life in Christ and
Christ's life in you. Today we're going to take a look sort of as an
introduction at verses one and two of the book of Colossians chapter one and as
we open up to this book and these verses, let me begin by talking a little bit
about the religious scene of that day.

In a sense, when you think about our day today and what we're going through when
it comes to many different religions having a lot of different opinions about
God and Jesus and everything else, the Colossians were facing much of that. Now
today we have a name for all these systems that are from different places being
put together and somebody's own idea of spirituality emerging out of it. We call
that New Age.

That's sort of my knowledge of what I think God is and trying to put that into
my own life by myself without any real truth from God to rely on. In the day of
the Colossians, in the time of the New Testament, they had a name for these
kinds of truths being put together in a knowledge system that was dependent on
the person and not on God. They didn't call it New Age in that day.

They called it Gnosticism. And we'll learn more and more about this belief,
Gnosticism, as we study through the book of Colossians. But at the beginning, I
just want to remind you that because Paul was addressing this false teaching
with the real truth of how God could work in our lives, Colossians answers
questions that are very familiar even today, questions like do heavenly bodies
have any influence over our lives?

Does a horoscope really work? Is there any relationship between diet and
spiritual living? Does God speak to us immediately in our minds or only through
His Word, the Bible?

Do the Eastern religions of today have anything to offer us as believers, as
those who are trying to study the Bible? Can we believe in a good God in an evil
world? If God is all loving, how do you explain evil?

If God is all powerful, why didn't He just take away all sin? If you've ever
asked any of these questions, if Christ died for our sin, why is there still sin
in the world? Is Jesus only one way among many ways?

If you've ever asked any questions like this, they're answered in the book of
Colossians because they're not new questions. We've always had the same
questions when it comes to spiritual truth. A very simple outline of the book of
Colossians as we begin this study today, chapter one is about doctrine, chapter
two is about danger, and chapter three and four are about our duty as believers
in Christ.

Chapter one is about Christ's preeminence being declared. Chapter two is about
Christ's preeminence being defended. And chapters three and four are about
Christ's preeminence being demonstrated.

As we start this book of Colossians, this study, it's interesting to notice that
there's a lot of similarities between Ephesians and Colossians, a lot of similar
truths and similar values are declared in these two letters. There is one
essential difference though, Ephesians is about the body of which Christ is the
head. That's the focus on the church and showing that Christ is the head of the
church.

In Colossians, the focus of Colossians is on Christ, who is the head of the
body. Same truths, but the focus on Christ in Colossians is very, very powerful.
So with all that in mind, let me read for you Colossians chapter one, verses one
and two.

"Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
to the holy and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae, grace and peace to you
from God our Father. " Paul begins with his name, Paul, that's how he began a
letter in that day. Now Paul is writing, this is one of the prison letters of
this apostle, he was writing from a prison, most scholars believe while he was a
prisoner in Rome.

It's amazing how God used those times when Paul was put into prison, when I'm
sure he felt that his life was on the shelf, when he felt that he wasn't able to
accomplish anything for Christ, but he decided to do what he could. And one of
the things he could do was write letters. And in only the grace of God and the
power of God, the letters that he wrote were inspired by the Holy Spirit, and
those letters are what we still read today, they're the most enduring ministry
of the apostle Paul.

He decided to keep serving even when it didn't feel like he had a place to
serve, and look at how God used that, maybe that's an encouragement to you.
Paul, an apostle of Christ by the will of God, and Timothy, Timothy is a partner
of ministry with the apostle Paul, in fact he's named 24 times in the New
Testament because of his partnership in ministry with the apostle Paul. He's
co-named with Paul in six of the openings of Paul's letters, so they very much
were partners in what was being written and in doing ministry together.

And there's an encouragement here for each of us. Do I have a ministry partner,
or am I somehow trying to do it all by myself? Just me and Jesus, and we're
going to serve the world and make a difference in the world.

That's not the way that God intends us, to serve him. He wants all of us to
serve with others. Paul and Timothy wrote to a place called Colossae.

Now what is Colossae? This city was one of three cities located about a hundred
miles inland from Ephesus. The Colossian church that Paul was writing to here
was probably about five years old when Paul wrote this letter.

It had been established and planted, and five years later Paul was writing this
letter. Colossae was situated on the Lycus River, about 12 miles inland from
Laodicea. In fact, near Colossae were these two other cities, Laodicea and
Heropolis.

And Paul writes and says to these believers in Christ, "You are in Christ and in
Colossae. " The words to the saints who are in Christ and in Colossae are very
powerful here. They're sort of set aside along one another in the original
Greek.

The vivid contrast is this idea that there are readers who are saints of God.
They are called out ones by God. That's the idea of saints.

It means I am called out to be the person that God wants me to be in this world.
But I'm also in a part of this world. They also lived in Colossae.

Now let me tell you about Colossae. Colossae was a small, insignificant town
that was overshadowed by those two other cities. Laodicea and Heropolis, they
were rich neighbors, larger cities.

They were also cities that people would look to and go to for things that were
important happening in that region were happening. But Colossae was this smaller
place. It also happened to be a town that was filled with paganism and idolatry.

And Paul writes to them and says, "In that place," maybe overlooked by the
world, "In that place," maybe even a place that is filled with wrong things,
evil things from this world, "In that place, you're to be in Christ. In that
place, you're to make a difference. In that place, God wants to use you.

" And that's true of your life too. I don't know where God has you working right
now. I don't know where God has you living right now.

But I know that whenever we live in this world, there are some things that we
look around and see the evil. There are places where we look around and we feel
our sense of insignificance. But God wants to use you there.

God wants to use you there. Every Christian lives with this dynamic of these two
being placed side by side with each other. We're both in Colossae and we are in
Christ.

And Paul writes and talks to them as holy ones. The holy and faithful brothers.
This idea of holy, the saintliness, means separated unto God.

Claimed by God might be a better way to say that in modern terminology.
Christians are holy because we are separated unto God. That's an incredibly
powerful truth.

That's one not to let go of. We are holy because we belong to God. That's where
it starts.

Why is God's name holy? Because it's His name. It belongs to God.

Why do we call the Bible the holy Bible? Because it's God's book. It belongs to
God.

Why do we call Israel the holy land? Because it's God's land. He set it apart
for the people of Israel.

So it belongs to God. So when we talk about holy as attributed to us as
believers, it begins with not so much how you act, but with who you are. You
belong to God.

And then you act based on that reality. It doesn't mean you don't act
differently. But remember, it doesn't start with our actions.

It starts with who you are and who you belong to. You are separated unto God.
And then you live that out.

And Paul writes to these people in Colossae, holy, separated unto God. And he
has some things to say to them about truth. We talked at the beginning of this
study today about Gnosticism.

This Colossian heresy, one that was particularly powerful in this church, it
involved Gnosticism, false thinking about themselves and how prideful they could
be in their own thinking. It involved Jewish ceremonialism, the idea of false
works, that if I do enough good things, maybe God will love me. It involved,
we're going to find in chapter two, angel worship.

So it involved also false worship, not worshiping the true God, but worshiping
the angels that God had created. And it also involved a form of asceticism,
saying if I deny myself, then maybe that will show how Christian I really am.
False sacrifice.

So false thinking, false works, false worship, false sacrifice. Gnosticism,
Jewish ceremonialism, angel worship, asceticism, that was in the mix in this
church. And Paul was writing to say, Christ is above all of that.

Christ sets aside all these false ways of thinking to show you the real truth
about who God is. Ray Stedman said this about Colossians, "A seething volcano of
false teaching had begun to erupt and engulf these people, threatening to
destroy the simplicity of the faith that produced such beauty and liberty in
their lives. " And so Paul writes to say, don't let that happen.

Don't let that be stolen from you. And as we begin this study, I want to pray
together that God will use his truth in just that way in our lives to show the
beauty and the freedom of what only Christ can do. Would you pray with me?

Lord Jesus, thank you for the beauty that you can only bring into our lives, the
beauty of a changed life. And thank you for the freedom that only you can bring
about in our hearts, freedom from sin and guilt, and freedom to live the life
that you've given us to live. Lord, I pray that as we study this book together,
you'd show us how we can live worthy and holy and loving and grateful lives
before you.

We pray this, Jesus, in your name, amen. Well join us tomorrow. We're going to
be talking about how we can live a life that is worthy and pleasing to God.