Thanks for the Object of Faith (Colossians 1:9-17)

For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. (Colossians 1:9-17)

Prayer and desire for the Colossians (vv. 9-12)

Prayer – the Christian’s privilege

Heavenly Father – picture of God’s “openness”

“Take it to the Lord in prayer”

• Internal – be filled (something to be done to them)
  • They must be in the place to receive
  • Filled – no room for anything else
  • Knowledge of His will
    • In all wisdom (Sophia)
      • Knowledge of first principles
  • Spiritual understanding (Sunesis)
    • Critical knowledge
    • Ability to apply first principles to any given situation
  • Understand great truths of Christianity and apply them to the mundane daily tasks of life
  • Master of theology can be a failure in life
  • What does Christianity mean in the business of living from day to day?
  • Knowledge, wisdom, understanding
    • These are instrumental in Christians growth
    • They are foundational to “walking worthy”
      • Hosea 4:6
      • 2 Timothy 3:16-17
  • In a biblical way, you can never know too much
  • If knowledge is “just facts,” it puffs up; godly knowledge changes you
• External – walk worthy
  • Walk – consistency
  • Worthiness – determined by walk
  • Described by four participles
  • Being fruitful
    • In works
      • Every
      • Good
  • Practical praying
  • We don’t pray to withdraw from life
  • We pray to make it through life
  • We must pray more than before we go through life
  • We must pray as we go through life
  • Increasing in knowledge
    • Of God
    • As we bear more fruit
    • Becoming more like Christ
    • Strengthened
      • With might
        • Many times it’s not knowledge but might that we need.
        • We know what to do, we lack might
  • According to power
    • Some say knowledge is power
    • But it could be a curse
    • Through prayer, we can have knowledge and power
  • Unto patience and longsuffering, hupomone and makrothumia
    • Often have same meaning, but have distinction when listed together
    • Patience = hupomone
      • Not just sitting down and bearing things
      • Ability in bearing things to turn them to the glory of God
      • Conquering patience
      • No circumstance can defeat, no event can vanquish
      • Ability to deal triumphantly with anything life brings us
      • Longsuffering = makrothumia
        • Patience with people
        • People are:
          • Unpleasant
          • Malicious
          • Cruel
          • Unteachable
          • Foolish
          • Unlovely
          • Longsuffering is:
            • Not bitter
            • Not despairing
            • Not irritated
            • Still loving
            • The spirit that never loses patience with, belief in, hope for men
  • With joyfulness
    • Through circumstances
    • Christian joy is not diminished by events or people
    • Giving thanks
      • Unto the Father
• The walking is second nature because of the knowledge
  • Ask someone “How do you do that?”
    • How do you make that? Boy, I don’t know. I’ll have to think about that. I’ve been doing it so long that I don’t even give it a thought. Let me think, What do I put in there? How much? How….It’s, you know, I just do it.” You think, “Oh, that’s a big help”
    • How do you walk? It’s all second nature.

The Father’s work (vv. 12-13)

Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:

• Qualified us
  • We are not rendered fit by any goodness of ourselves
  • We are rendered fit (completed already)
    • We have complied with God’s conditions
      • Repentance
      • Faith
  • For participation in the inheritance
    • God people received the inheritance
    • All the rest of the world lay in darkness
• Delivered us (no one but the Father could)
  • Darkness (natural condition – Luke 1:79; Acts 26:18; Romans 13:12; 1 Peter 2:9; 1John 2:8) – this is an illustration also!
    • Sin
    • Error
    • Misery and Death
• Translated us (from one country to another)
  • Israel —> Assyria
  • Judah —> Babylon
  • Complete transfer
  • Now subjects of the kingdom of Christ
    • Different laws
    • Different community
    • Not yet in the kingdom of God’s glory, but in Christ’s kingdom
    • Now living under new conditions!
      • No change in person’s life ever compares to this translation
        • Darkness, light
        • Slavery, freedom – redemption
        • Condemnation, forgiveness
        • Satan’s power, God’s power
          • Human conquerors move defeated foe from life of freedom to life of restriction
          • God moves us from life of restriction to life of freedom

The Son (vv. 14-17)

In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

The Bible (Christian faith) is an inexhaustible resource of truth.  Whatever heresies may be devised, the truth is in the Scriptures to combat them.  While we may think we have learned all that the Bible can teach us, all we need is some “new” falsehood to arrive for us to find more truth in the Scripture.

We begin to see the Son – of God, not of the Gnostics

• The creating God, not an ignorant and hostile emanation from God
• The unique Son, not just one of series of spiritual beings
  • Fullness dwell in him
  • Godhead bodily
  • The image of God
• The Savior in a flesh and blood body
• The only way to salvation
  • Not an intellectual journey through emanations and secret passwords
  • Salvation is redemption, forgiveness/not attainments
  • Salvation is for every man, not just the mentally able
• In Him we have redemption
  • Spiritual redemption through the blood of Christ
    • Remember the heresy that is being countered
    • Blood is a repulsive aspect of humanity
• In Him we see God
  • He is the image (eikon) – no idolatry (representation and manifestation merge to show us what God is like)
    • Wisdom (Proverbs 2, 8 )
      • Co-eternal
      • In other Jewish writings, wisdom is the eikon of the goodness of God
      • All your lives you’ve sought out wisdom, here He is
  • Logos
    • The word, reason of God
    • Logos had created the world
    • Logos was everything to everything
    • Philo said Logos was the eikon of God
    • Paul said, Jesus Christ is the eikon of God
  • Image – Genesis 1:26-27
    • Eikon of God – what God is like
    • Eikon of God – what God’s creation was to be like!
    • Prefect manifestation of God and Man
    • Hypostatic union – fully God and fully man
  • Portrait
    • Used in familial correspondence
    • Used in legal documents
      • Enough that no mistake of identity could be made
  • Vs. 19 gives even fuller meaning
  • Firstborn rarely has chronological meaning
    • Title of honor – Exodus 4:22
    • Title for messiah – Psalm 89:27
    • By Him…
      • All things created – no Evolution
        • Heavenly, earthly, seen and unseen
        • Angels, thrones, dominions – he must be before them if he created them
        • The creator was not an inferior emanation
        • The Creator is the Son himself
  • He is before all – no Humanism
    • The goal and end of creation
    • It is His
    • It is to give Him glory
    • All the world is here to worship the Son
  • All things consist (cohere) – no Deism
    • All laws are an expression of His mind
      • No law of Gravity
      • No scientific laws
      • Only the Person, Jesus Christ, sustaining His creation
      • Christ holds the moon in place
      • Christ touches the earth and it erupts
      • Christ scratches the earth and it quakes
      • Christ holds our bodies together
  • Christ is the creator, the sustainer, and the object of all creation