Complete in Him

Complete in Him

“Complete in Him”
(Colossians 1:1-2Open in Logos Bible Software (if available); overview)
Series: The All-Satisfying Christ (Colossians)

Rev. Todd A. Linn, PhD

Henderson’s First Baptist Church, Henderson

I invite you to take your Bibles and join me this morning to the passage that was read for us earlier in Book of Colossians.

We’re beginning a new series this morning—verse by verse—through this letter Paul wrote to the church at Colosse. That’s what we do here, we preach verse-by-verse through Books of the Bible, believing this to be the best way to read, study, and honor the Word of God.

So, Colossians, just 4 chapters, 95 verses. What’s the book about? In a word: Jesus Christ. We’re going to be talking about Jesus Christ, who He is, what He has done, and how our knowing Him affects who we are and what we do. So, who is Jesus and what has He done—and how our knowing Him affects who we are and what we do.

To have Jesus Christ is to have everything. In this letter the Apostle Paul shows how the preeminence of Christ—that is, Christ’s superiority, supremacy, greatness—the preeminence of Christ is both a fact and the key to experiencing true life. Lasting peace, joy, purpose, and meaning are found exclusively in Him. In a word, Christians are “complete in Him (Colossians 2:10Open in Logos Bible Software (if available)).”

And this is one of those key passages, Colossians 2:9-10Open in Logos Bible Software (if available):

9 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;
10 And you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.

So the series is entitled, “The All-Satisfying Christ” because the Christian finds his or her completeness in Him, in Jesus Christ, the preeminent One!”

• Before we proceed any further, let’s ask God’s blessing upon our study of His Word.

All right, let’s do some background of this letter. Before we can understand how God’s Word applies today, we have to ask, “What did it mean when it was originally written?” And for that we need to get into a little time machine and travel back a couple thousand years to Colosse, okay? All in favor of time travel?

Let’s talk first about the place of Colosse, the place known as Colosse.

I. Consider the Place of Colosse

Where in the world—literally!—where in the world is Colosse? If you’ve got maps in the back of your Bible, you can find Colosse, but we’ve also got a graphic here on the wall for you (Pic 1). So here’s Colosse in an area that was then called Phrygia, and greater Asia Minor; an area today modern Turkey; west central Turkey.

Colosse is located on the Lycus River. It’s represented here by a red dot. It’s really close to Laodicea which is why we reading the concluding words of Colossians, chapter 4 where Paul closes his letter, he says, “Hey, read this letter to the church of Laodicea, too (Colossians 4:16Open in Logos Bible Software (if available)).” Most of you know Laodicea as “the lukewarm church” in the Book of Revelation.

In fact, here’s another map (Pic 2) that backs away a little further from Colosse so you can see the proximity of Colosse to the 7 churches mentioned by John in the opening chapters of the Book of Revelation. See Colosse there among the churches of Laodicea, Philadelphia, and Sardis, and so on.

So what does Colosse look like today? If we took a tour today of Colosse how much of the great city would we see? Is there a great acropolis like in Athens, or a colosseum like in Rome? Well, if you if you Google image search “Colosse Today,” here’s one of the first pictures you’ll see (Pic 3). Yeah, not that great, right?! Colosse today.

Unlike other biblical sites, Colosse has not been excavated. That mound there is called a tell, in archeological terms, a tell is where you dig to uncover the ruins. The city of Colosse was destroyed by earthquake in the years shortly after Paul wrote this letter. He wrote the letter in about the year 60, the year AD 60. And there was an earthquake that occurred closely after that time.

But when Paul wrote the letter, Colosse was already becoming rather insignificant in influence, and I’ll tell you why.

Do you know about Route 66? The song, “I get my kicks on Route 66?” It was made popular by Nat King Cole, Chuck Berry, and others. Written in the 1940s—music appreciation 101 here—the song Route 66; the song talks about the highway Route 66, going through 8 states from Chicago to Los Angeles. Route 66 was completed in the 1920s and it was the way to motor west and thousands of people drove along Route 66 making there way anywhere from Chicago to LA. By the way, the working title of the animated movie “Cars” (2006) was “Route 66.”

Anyway, there were all these great stops on Route 66, lots of popular motels, diners, and other business, and so on. But with the coming of the Interstate in the 70s and 80s, Route 66 was eventually removed from the US Highway System in 1985. So a lot of these businesses along Route 66 closed down or dwindled to insignificance.

What happened to those businesses when the roadway was redirected is the same kind of thing that happened to the city of Colosse. Colosse had once been this great city of commerce on the trade route from Ephesus to the Euphrates River and then the Romans changed the road system so that Colosse was less visited and other cities like Laodicea and Hierapolis became more important.

So that’s just a little bit about the place of Colosse. Let’s talk for a moment now about the people of Colosse.

II. Consider the People of Colosse

And first we have to talk about the person who wrote to the people and that is the Apostle Paul; first word in the entire letter, very first word, chapter 1, verse 1: “Paul.”

I’ve always liked the way people wrote their letters 2,000 years ago. They identified the writer of the letter at the very beginning. They didn’t do, “Dear John, how are you? I am fine,” and unless there’s a return address on the envelope, you’re like, “Who is this letter from?” and then you look at the end, “Yours sincerely, Tom.” Just right up front: “Paul.”

Who is the Apostle Paul? You remember from the Book of Acts that Paul was originally a very antagonistic unbelieving Jewish Pharisee named Saul. And God got hold of his heart—the same way he got hold of many of your hearts—and changed Saul through the power of the Gospel. And Saul became Paul, this “church planting machine,” planting over a dozen churches in his lifetime.

Our Southern Baptist denomination continues this legacy of church planting. And allow me to say in passing that I support the leadership of our International Mission Board as they consider how best to fulfill the Great Commission. Pray for the president of the International Mission Board—David Platt—pray for David as he continues to lead and make tough decisions that will further the great cause of church planting in places where churches are desperately needed. Great leaders are not always popular, but always necessary.

So Paul would plant churches and then he would later write letters to these churches to encourage them in the faith.

The Bible doesn’t say who planted this church, the church in Colosse, but Paul is writing to the church from prison in Rome. He was imprisoned for his faith and he is writing to the church from prison. That’s especially clear in the way Paul concludes the letter. Part of the last words in chapter 4, he says, “Remember my chains.” He’s in a Roman prison.

Colossians is one of four epistles known as the “Prison Epistles,” because they were written when Paul was in prison. These four prison epistles are: Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. So Paul is writing this letter to the church at Colosse in about the year 60; AD 60. And we learn later in chapter 4 that two guys, Tychicus and Onesimus, carry the letter from Rome to Colosse.
People always want to know what Paul looked like and the Bible nowhere describes him so we really don’t know for sure. Although there is an interesting physical description of the Apostle Paul that dates to the latter part of the second century. It’s found in a book called, Acts of Paul and Thecla. This is book is not in the Bible, so it’s not to be considered totally trustworthy and it’s certainly not inspired in the sense of God-breathed. But in this book, there’s this brief description of Paul. He’s described as, “A man small in size, bald-headed (that was a good place for an amen!), bandy-legged (or bowlegged), well-built, with eyebrows meeting, rather long-nosed, full of grace. For sometimes he seemed like a man, and sometimes he had the countenance of an angel (ANF, vol. 8, p. 487).”

So nobody really knows what Paul looked like, but that’s a popular description. Here’s the way many Roman Catholics picture Paul, this icon (Pic 4).

Not particularly flattering, of course he wouldn’t have had that ring around his head! Here’s another picture, one I like better from the early 17th century (Pic 5). So here he is, writing his letter to the Colossians.

Now, we have no record in the Scriptures that Paul ever visited Colosse. So how did the Gospel get to Colosse? Well, remember that Colosse is close to Ephesus; only about 120 miles East of Ephesus. And Paul had been to Ephesus. In fact, Paul was at Ephesus, according to Acts 19, Paul was in Ephesus for a total of 3 years, perhaps the longest time spent in any one city.

Acts 19 says that Paul spent 3 months teaching in the synagogue and then spent 2 years teaching in the lecture hall of Tyrannus, he taught every day for 2 years in this Ephesian school. So Acts 19:10Open in Logos Bible Software (if available) concludes the section by saying, “And this continued for two years, so that all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.”

That’s a bit of an overstatement, “all who dwelt in Asia,” but the point is that the Gospel was taught with such consistency that those who sat under Paul’s teaching would go to the surrounding areas and share what they learned—so that the Gospel reached out to every geographical location in what is now west central Turkey.

There were people there in that school in Ephesus, people like Epaphras who we’ll read about later in verse 7, Epaphras who seems to be the evangelist who heard the Good News in Ephesus and then took it to Colosse and neighboring Laodicea.

So when you evangelize, when you share the Gospel, or when you teach—Sunday school teachers, listen! You may feel like you’re not getting anywhere with your weekly teaching of the Bible. But be encouraged! People are listening. Those little boys and girls, those teenagers, those adult men and women, some of them are listening. Some of them are like Epaphras and will take what you teach and live it out for the glory of God. Be encouraged, teachers.

The people of Colosse. I like the way they are described in the opening verses:

1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God (Paul knew it was God’s will that he serve Him), and Timothy our brother,
2 To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colosse:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Note that phrase in verse 2. Paul writes, “To the saints and faithful brethren,”—here it comes—“in Christ who are in Colosse.” The Colossians believers are described as, “in Christ,” and then “in Colosse.”

So Paul describes their identity before he writes of their geography. They are “in Christ,” that’s their identity. And they are living “in Colosse,” that’s their geography.

Our position in Christ—who we are—is far more important than the place—where we are. This morning we who believe are “in Christ,” and we are also “in Henderson.” But our position is more important than the place.

In the weeks ahead we’ll be reading more about the Christian’s position in Christ, his or her blessed union with Jesus.

This takes us to the third consideration. We’re considering the place of Colossians, the people of Colossians, thirdly, let’s:

III. Consider the Purpose of Colossians

We boarded a time machine earlier. Now let’s board an airplane and climb to an altitude of about 30,000 feet to sort of look down upon the Book of Colossians and gain a better overall perspective on these four chapters.

If you’ve ever found a letter in a box in your attic, maybe a letter written years earlier by a great grandmother or grandfather, you can read the letter and usually figure out what was going on in that person’s life at the time they wrote the letter—what the situation was, the occasion for writing—and so on.

And the same is true when you read through a letter like this letter to the church at Colosse. You read and discover that Paul is addressing a concern. He is at pains to teach on the preeminence of Christ. And given the heretical teachings that were in their earliest stages in the 1st Century, we may reason that Paul is combatting these false teachings.

I won’t go in to a lot of detail this morning on those teachings, but for now suffice to say that Paul is addressing some popular, yet strange teachings of Judaism and another strange teaching that eventually became known as Gnosticism. I’m not even going to try to spell that right now! Just know that Paul is addressing these two heresies in the first two chapters.

There are two verses in chapter 1 that really give a nice summary of the structure of Paul’s letter. If you look down at the verses we’ll be studying in the coming weeks, you will see this. Let me invite you to look at chapter 1 and verses 9 and 10.

Paul says:
9, “For this reason we also, since the day we heard it (their embracing the Gospel and their love in the Spirit), do not cease to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
10 “that you may walk worthy of the Lord, full pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; etc.

So here is this simple two-part outline of the letter (and we have this on the wall for you). This outline also appears in J. Sidlow Baxter’s, Explore the Book. It’s very helpful:

**Two-Part Outline of the Letter:
(From Chapter 1, verses 9-10)

DOCTRINAL—“That You May Be Filled” (Chapters 1-2)

PRACTICAL—“That You May Walk Worthily” (Chapters 3-4)

Note this: theology always precedes living. Paul gives theology before telling us how to live out that theology. In Christianity, doctrine precedes duty. It’s just like Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, six chapters there; the first three chapters are doctrine, the next three chapters are duty. Doctrinal then practical.

The practical stuff makes sense only when it is built upon the doctrinal stuff. Christianity is not true because it works; Christianity works because it is true.

So, in the DOCTRINAL section, Paul teaches that “all the fullness of God is in Christ” and, “all the fullness of Christ is for us.”

This truth is described in the verses we mentioned earlier, Colossians 2:9-10Open in Logos Bible Software (if available):

9 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;
10 And you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.

So in chapters 1 and 2 we’ll be studying the fullness of Christ and what that means, all of this rich teaching on the preeminence of Christ, the greatness of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Then, in chapters 3 and 4, the PRACTICAL section, how we are to live out our lives. How one lives is based upon what one believes. Stated another way: What we believe determines how we live.

Theology matters!

Notice the past, present, and future tenses in the opening verses of chapter 3, where Paul reminds the Christians of their union with Christ:

1 If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.
2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.
3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Chris in God.
4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

Then Paul writes about living out our faith in Christ. He uses this great imagery in chapter 3 of “putting off” and “putting on,” like old clothing, Christians put off the old dirty clothes of the way we used to live—putting off the old behavior of things in verse 8 like anger, wrath, and malice—and then putting on new behavior like the things of verse 12, tender mercies, kindness, humility and so on.

Paul talks about the Christian home in verses 18 and following, how husbands and wives relate to one another biblically, and children relate to their parents, and employees relate to their employers.

And he writes about Christian graces in chapter 4 and how we are to behave around lost people. This is all the practical living that flows from doctrinal teaching.

So who Jesus Christ is, who He is and what He has done, affects who we are and what we do.

I love that statement back in verse 4 of chapter 3 where Paul describes Jesus Christ as, “our life.” He says, “When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.”

When we understand that real life, true life, is a life found in Christ, the All-Satisfying Lord of everything, then we will know true living. And we’ll be ready to meet Him either at death or when He returns.

Don’t you think those college students at the community college in Oregon knew something of this? Those who died apparently because of their faith in Jesus Christ? Witnesses say the gunman singled out Christians. He had them stand and asked which of them were Christians. And several of those brave souls identified themselves as followers of Christ. And he mercilessly shot and killed them.

How can one be so ready to face death? Well listen: To have Jesus Christ is to have everything. To have Jesus is life, true life. “When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.”

• Stand for prayer.

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