Episode 304 - Holy and Faithful

Colossians 1:1-5 are covered in today's episode.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

And welcome back to another episode of Two Brothers One Bible Podcast. That's right. You're listening to us because we're talking. Oh. I've profound. Isn't that great? Yeah, they're listening because that's what podcasts do. You listen.

SPEAKER_01 0:16

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 0:17

Now though, when we get really famous and huge and you know, an incredible worldwide following. Right. We'll probably have video cameras in here and actually video us talking. Wow. Because people actually watch that. Yeah. They watch people talking. Isn't that odd? It is. Yeah. Yeah. But I I've watched them. I mean, you know, I'm guilty of that thing.

SPEAKER_01 0:39

Okay. I'm guilty of that. But uh we're not there yet. People are not clamoring to say it. We want to see what these guys look like.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

No, they're not clamoring for that. Okay. But uh anyway, they are clamoring for this podcast because we've got almost 10,000 downloads. There you go. So there you go. That says something. All right. Well, uh, I'm Robert Twakefield. I'm Peter Searson. And welcome to the show. We're glad to have you here in Colossians. Our last episode, we had the introduction uh to Colossians, and today we're actually going to get into some text. Yeah. So we're going to start with chapter one because you always like to start at the beginning. Uh yeah. That's just the way you are. I know. We're going to do uh verses one through eight. All right. So go right in here.

SPEAKER_01 1:22

Here we go. Colossians chapter one, verses one through eight in the NIV translation. Read as follows Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother, to God's holy people in Colossae, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ. Grace and peace to you from God our Father. We always thank God, the Lord of our the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God's people, the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven, and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel that has come to you. In the same way the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God's grace. You learned it from Ephraus, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.

SPEAKER_00 2:35

Paul never pulls any punches, does he?

SPEAKER_01 2:37

No, he does not.

SPEAKER_00 2:38

He just starts off Paul.

SPEAKER_01 2:40

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 2:42

You know, enough said. He could have just ended the letter right there. Paul, but he's uh an apostle by God's will.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 2:50

Now we noticed that also in our study of Ephesians. He talked about that. Why do you think that's so important for him to identify himself this way?

SPEAKER_01 2:59

Well, I mean, we we get from the other letters and from Acts where you know people were following Peter or they're following Apollos and they're following Paul. So he he struggles, I think, in his own mind of not being similar to Peter. I mean, Peter was with Jesus for that whole ministry, and so how can he be like Peter or James? And and so he's trying to find his place. And so I'm sure there's people that said right to his face, who do you think you are? Exactly. And this is who he thought he was. He feels he's an apostle, which is means he's was sent out, which also indicates that at that time where he was an eyewitness of Jesus, which was the case in the road to Damascus. So he wasn't part of the ministry of Jesus. Uh he wasn't a disciple during that time. So he sees there's a distance, but it's what he says next, he says, this is the will of God. Right. He said, This wasn't of my own choosing, this is one anything I desired. This wasn't something I fabricated because this was my goal. This was polar opposite of who he thought he was and what he was on earth to do. Right. He always felt there was God's will in his life. Right. Very determined in that, but it wasn't this.

SPEAKER_00 4:22

No, he had no idea that it was going to be this. And I think that's a great point, Peter, because I think that he wants to emphasize that he is not a self-appointed apostle. Right. Uh he is a God-appointed apostle. Yes. And uh that changes everything. Yeah, it does. It really does. Uh so I think that's that's one thing. And then he talks about to the Colossians, he's going to be talking about, you know, the influences that that he had. But he says here that if Christ called me, then the message that I am going to deliver you is trustworthy. Yes. And so I think that's the reason why he starts off this letter, Paul an apostle by God's will.

SPEAKER_01 5:05

Yeah. I mean, that really, you know, if we're going to allow someone to speak into our life, the question is, on what authority? Who are you? Right. Why, why should I listen to you? Why should I heed your words? And so that's what he's starting out here in in verse one is who he is. But it's really interesting that he tags Timothy into that.

SPEAKER_00 5:30

I thought so too. Yeah, he just tags him right in there. And it's it's fascinating when we read Acts, we see where Timothy is, you know, how his he's with Paul a lot. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, I I I enjoy that that he uh wrote about Timothy.

SPEAKER_01 5:45

Well, in other letters, he refers to Timothy as a son. Yep. And here he says, brother. And here's here's my thinking on this. So we we know Colossians was written around 62. Uh we know Paul died either in 64 or as late as 67. So he's incarcerated, he's in Rome, he knows he's facing trial, he knows he's probably going to have death.

SPEAKER_00 6:15

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 6:16

So I think in his mind, in this cell, as he's writing this letter, and he's looking to the next generation. He's passing the baton. There you go. And so I think he wants to give Timothy some credibility. Timothy is pastoring in Ephesus at that great church, which is not too far away from Colossae. And so, and and we think Colossae probably had roots from the church in Ephesus. And so I think what he's trying to do is elevate the position of Timothy. Oh, I never thought they would listen to his authority. Right. That's a great point. They're kind of like co-writers in this.

SPEAKER_00 6:57

Right. But it's really uh interesting that he doesn't say Timothy is an apostle. Right. Because that his call was different. Yeah. And so he didn't actually see uh you know, Jesus on the road to Damascus. Right. So it's just an interesting thing that he called him his brother. And I like the way that you put it that it gave him authority because he was going to need it after Paul left.

SPEAKER_01 7:18

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 7:19

Somebody was gonna have to lead the church. So we get to verse two and it says in verse two, it says uh to God's holy people in Colossae, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ. I love the fact that he said holy and faithful.

SPEAKER_01 7:34

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 7:34

Because I I feel like they're two different things.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

Yes, they are.

SPEAKER_00 7:37

And so what are they?

SPEAKER_01 7:39

Yeah. Well, holiness is is really what transpires when we surrender our life to Christ. We're we're made holy, we're sanctified because of of the act of Jesus on the cross. Faithfulness is up to us. Right.

SPEAKER_00 7:55

It's are you looking at my notes? No, sir. Because that's what this guy says. He said Paul calls them holy because they're set apart, and he calls them faithful because they're steadfast.

SPEAKER_01 8:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:08

And he does this before he addresses any concerns. Yes. So it it's like when uh you're you are meeting someone and you want to impress them, and you you say you found some background on, oh, I understand you went to college at such and such. How did that go? You know, right. He is he is complimenting them on their holiness and their steadfastness before he starts because now you can get their attention. Yeah. Um did you ever read the um Dale Carnegie book, How to Win Friends and Influence People?

SPEAKER_01 8:40

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 8:40

He does that, he did that all the time. Yes, he did. And he he would say in that book, he said, you know, you find something about that person, you ask them questions, and they will go around and say, He is the nicest guy. Yeah. Because he wanted to know about me. He wanted to know about me. Yep. Yeah, that that was it. But here he talks about holiness set apart, and he's a uh speaks to their identity and not their performance.

SPEAKER_01 9:02

You know, this was in a message that one of our younger guys did a few weeks ago. Hank Davis preached on our identity in Christ. And he he was targeting the phrase that we often use, I'm a sinner saved by grace. And the point of the message was is which in that statement do you focus on? What's your identity? Is it I'm a sinner or am I saved by grace? Oh, yeah. And so Paul is saying, this is who you are. You're holy people. And you need to be faithful because you're holy people. Right. Look at what Jesus has done for you to make you holy, to make you sanctified, to give you salvation. Live like it.

SPEAKER_00 9:40

Yeah. Yeah, live like it. No, this guy said this. He's essentially saying, uh, you live in a chaotic world, but your starting point is grace, and your atmosphere is peace. That's the grace and peace that we're going to talk about here. So uh grace is God's favor. This is the next part of the verse, by the way. And peace is the wholeness that full uh flows from grace. Yeah. So I I just think these two pillars of Christian life are very important that he's addressing here.

SPEAKER_01 10:04

And there are two greetings. Grace was the greeting in the Greek world, and peace is the greeting in the Jewish world. And so he he brings both of those degrees. He brings them both in there.

SPEAKER_00 10:14

All right. Anything else on verse two? No. Okay, verse three. And it says, uh, let's see. Oh, we always thank God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ when we pray for you. Now listen.

SPEAKER_01 10:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:30

This is this is the powerful part of prayer. It is. You know, we thank, always thank God the Father of the Lord Jesus when we pray for you. Well, how many times have you had people tell you that I I prayed for you today? Not as often as I would like. So if you're listening to this right now, if you would go up to Peter and say, I prayed for you today.

SPEAKER_01 10:51

Well, I mean, but honestly, can can we be overcovered with prayer? Is there too much prayer? Can we do we ever say, I just stop praying.

SPEAKER_00 11:01

I just I can't take anymore. The blessings are too much. Would you please stop?

SPEAKER_01 11:06

Yeah, I mean, we we're just always need, you know, of prayer. It's like living in the desert and needing lotion to to hydrate. I mean, it's I mean, we're in a world that sucks us dry. Yeah. And we need the hydration of prayer just covering us.

SPEAKER_00 11:22

That is beautiful. And the thing is, when people do say that they pray for you, what what a great feeling to know that you uh your name was taken to the throne of God that we did in our Hebrew series. Yeah. Just walk right in there and say, Listen, I am praying for Brother Peter today. That to me is such a satisfying thing. And for him to start off this uh epistle that way, that's got to get their attention.

SPEAKER_01 11:52

Yeah. Well, and he says not just that, I thank God for you. He said, I always he he presses this in several of his letters about this continuous attitude of prayer. And so, you know, basically saying anytime I think of you, I I'm thankful for you. Right. And so and anytime I think of you, I'm praying for you. Right. And and so, you know, the question I wrote next to this verse is how do we view prayer? If we really saw what prayer was capable of, we would have the same mindset that Paul does. And prayer is this powerful thing. So last night, what what yesterday morning, I woke up with a with a church member on my mind. And so I just started praying for him. Didn't know what was going on, didn't didn't didn't really need a reason. I was just, I need to pray for this guy. Last night in a conversation with someone at church, they said, Well, let me tell you what's going on in this guy's life. And so one of his dear friends called him uh early in the morning, about the time I started praying, and and found out that his wife giving birth to their next child, both the baby and the wife passed away, and he was calling his friend to share this grief.

SPEAKER_00 13:14

Oh, that's awful.

SPEAKER_01 13:16

And so the Lord called me to pray for a brother in Christ who needed needed prayer support for a difficult time in his friend's life. Isn't that amazing? That's the power of prayer. Absolutely. And I could have just said, ah, he's fine. Right. I'll I'll do that later. All it was asking of me is to direct my my focus and attention on a brother and say, Lord, take care of whatever his needs are. And so that's what Paul's saying is the importance of prayer is we just need to just intercede for each other.

SPEAKER_00 13:53

Right. And and it's it's amazing that you you mentioned that uh the the word always. You know, he never he had never been here. No, he didn't know any of these people by name. No. And well, I'm assuming that I don't know that.

SPEAKER_01 14:07

Well, we we do because you know, we saw in Ephesians the hazy ends, he's talking about these people. Right. You know, give the greetings to this one and say, you know, there you go. There you go. He doesn't do that in the book to Colossians, and so he he was a Dale Carnegie supporter, so he's he drops these names because those relationships are important. So with the absence of that in Colossae and the absence of him being recorded in Acts of being in Colossae is the evidence we have that he probably wasn't there.

SPEAKER_00 14:44

He probably wasn't there, so he's thanking God for them. And then verse four, uh, he goes uh into the reason why he's thinking because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God's people. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Now that's that's quite a report that he's gotten from the Church of Colossae. Yes, it is. Because I would love it if, you know, if new song, let's just use it, let's just make it a modern day, that somebody said, you know, I've heard of your love and I've heard of your faithfulness. Yep. And and so that's why we're praying for you. Yeah. That that would be a great compliment that we may be doing something right. Yeah. Yeah. I would agree. Yeah. So I just think that's uh he says all God's people. Yeah. Uh even the ones that are difficult to deal with, but he mentions all of them.

SPEAKER_01 15:34

Yeah. And it took me back to what Paul said in Ephesians chapter two when he talked about unity. You know, there's there's no separation. He said the same thing in Romans. There's no Greek and Jew, there's no male or female, there's no slave or free. We we're constantly part of our humanity is I'm better than you. You're you're less than me, I'm more important than you. You're, you know, and we're putting up all these divisions. And Paul says, look, if we're in Christ, we need to love everybody just as equally. Right. No matter how we feel about them, what we think, or what they did in our past, or you know, it we we just need to love. There you go.

SPEAKER_00 16:11

And he said, These people are doing it well. That's so good. And then then it takes us to verse 5. The faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in true in the true message of the gospel. So that's that's really kind of a long run-on sentence. Paul's never done that before. Oh, Jesus now. But so he's talking about the faith and the love that spring from the hope. And so those are the three pillars of that he talks about in 1 Corinthians, faith, hope, and love. Yes. And here he is, he's bringing these three things up to them right here in Colossians.

SPEAKER_01 16:49

Yeah, those are really key words that he's doing. But, you know, I like what he says about stored up for you in heaven. Right. You know, which takes me back to what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount is, you know, where your heart is, that your treasures are also. Correct. And so, you know, I'm thinking according to what Paul is saying here and what Jesus said in his Sermon on the Mount, there's this understanding that as we live our Christian life, that there's going to be these treasures. Right. And so we're going to open up this room or this box or something, and and so there's either going to be stuff there or or there's not. Uh, I don't know. There's a new TV show out, it's in the second series called Extraction. Have you seen it? I have not. Okay. So the basically the premise is they're they're out in the the woods trying to survive one person and they have two family members in this headquarters, and and they have to do different things, and they can send them supplies, and there's it's it's bad. So they do a drone, drops a box, and maybe they have something, maybe they don't. Okay. And so they open the box and there's nothing in it, and they're just devastated. They were hoping for a blanket or for firewood or for something and it's it's empty. Right. And and and how they react to that empty box. I don't want to get to heaven and open my box. Right. And it's empty. And it's empty. Yeah. And you see all these other people saying, man, look at these great treasures. And and we have to remember it's not treasures we're going to earn for ourselves because it's a pat on the back, it's an attaboy. Right. Because in Revelation 4, it makes it very clear that we're going to take all these crowns, all these jewels, all these things, all these rewards, all these treasures, and we're going to lay them at the feet of Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 18:32

Lay them at the feet of Jesus. That's what we're going to do. It was all for you, my Lord. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:36

Because you are supreme. You're the ultimate. You're the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Right. And anything I did that enhanced your glory was worth it all.

SPEAKER_00 18:45

Oh, that's right. And it's since we got to verse 5. It's this guy said this your present behavior is shaped by your future certainty. I love that. I thought that was pretty good. Very good. Yeah. So we didn't get all the way to verse 8. No, but we had a good time getting. All right. So thanks so much for listening to Two Brothers One Bible Podcast. I'm Robert Twait. I'm Peter Steerson. And we will pick up in verse 6 in our next podcast. All right. If we only do six through eight, I'll just I'll just freak out. Thanks so much for listening and God bless.