Gospel Greeting
Colossians 1.1-2
Introduction
There was a New York Times article a while back that told the story of a world-renown chef in New York City who brought a group interns in to his restaurant to train them to make the best food in the world, but there was one catch, for 6 months the interns could only eat food he prepared. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, it didn’t matter, they would not be allowed to put any food in their mouth unless he had prepared it. When the 6 months ended the Times asked the interns how they enjoyed their training. The interns said it was great, but there was one problem, the chef’s food ruined them for everything else. Never mind McDonalds or a PB&J at home, they couldn’t enjoy food at nice restaurants because they had exclusively tasted the best.
This is exactly what is happening in the book of Colossians. The entire Bible is about Christ, but you’d be hard pressed to find a book of the Bible more explicitly Christ-saturated than the book of Colossians. And this little letter written to this little church in the first century is like this world-renown chef in New York. Paul wrote this letter to give this church Christ. Colossians is explicitly and overtly Christ exalting. And the intention is for us to acquire the taste for Jesus Christ so that when the world tries to offer us less than Christ, we’re ruined for it. When the world tries to offer us different worldviews, they just don’t taste right because we’ve tasted of Christ.
This morning we begin our study through the book of Colossians together. We read from the greeting and we will also consider the background of the book. And our prayer for Christ Community Church as we study Colossians is that we would acquire such a taste for Christ that we would be ruined for everything else.
The Background of Colossians
So let’s begin with the background of the book of Colossians. There was a man from a small town who travelled to a bigger city for business. This man was spiritual but he was not a Christian. While he was on this business trip he heard the gospel preached by a famous preacher and God saved him. He went home and shared the gospel with his wife and kids and God saved them.
He shared the gospel with his family and friends. Some of them believed and some didn’t. There was no church in this small town so this small group of Christians started a church in this man’s home. They would do what Christians have done for 2,000 years; they would do what we are doing this morning. They would sing together, pray together, someone would preach from the Bible and they would take Eucharist together.
This man’s name was Epaphras. The big city he visited for business was Ephesus. The famous preacher who preached the gospel to him was the Apostle Paul. And the church he started was the church at Colossae. We don’t know if it happened exactly like that but something similar probably happened.
And the book of Colossians is Paul’s letter to instruct and encourage the church at Colossae. The first word in Greek and the ESV translation of Colossians is Paul. Paul is the author of this letter. And it’s important for us to remember that this is a specific letter written by a specific man to a specific church in the first century. The Apostle Paul wrote this letter to the small church at Colossae.
Some scholars debate whether Paul wrote it in the mid 50s or early 60s AD. Either way, it doesn’t really matter. It was written in the mid 1st century. Paul didn’t plant this church and hadn’t visited them yet. But Colossians 1.7 clues us in that Epaphras brought the gospel from Paul to them. At the time of writing Epaphras came to visit Paul in prison and Paul was sending this letter back with him to be read to the church.
Paul wrote not only to encourage this small church but also because heresy had begun to creep in to their community. Scholars debate whether the heresy was Orthodox Judaism or a syncretism of Judaism and pagan spirituality, either way it was not the gospel. We’ll look more closely at the false teaching when we get into chapter 2 of Colossians, but for now we note that this is why Epaphras came to consult with Paul and this is what Paul is writing against.
But it’s interesting that he doesn’t mention the specific teaching or any specific false teachers. He addresses certain aspects of the heretical theology, but doesn’t call it out by name. Doug Moo says, “the best defense is a good offense, and that is Paul’s strategy here.” Like the world-renown chef in New York City, Paul serves them Christ in all of his glory with the goal that when they acquire a taste for Christ and his gospel, they will be ruined for other false teaching.
We noted earlier that the book of Colossians is one of the most explicitly Christological books in the Bible. Jesus and his gospel are mentioned 37 times in this short book, and that doesn’t include the pronouns that refer to Christ like he or him. Like a banker who studies genuine bills so intently that they can immediately identify a counterfeit, Paul wants this church to know Christ so intently that they can immediately identify a counterfeit. Like the New York City interns, they were so accustomed to the best food that they are ruined for anything less, Colossians stuffs us full of the very best – which is Christ – so that we’re ruined for anything less.
And while Colossians is a particular letter written by a particular man, Paul, to a particular church at a particular point in history, we do not believe that’s all that it is. Paul was the human author, but there is also the divine author, the Holy Spirit. And the small church at Colossae was the original recipient but the Spirit wrote it for the entire church for all time. And so we don’t merely analyze this epistle as an historical document, but it is for us Scripture. It is the Word of God, which is living and active and sharper than a two-edged sword (Heb 4.12).
The Holy Spirit is the one divine author of every book in the Bible and he wrote them all to tell one story. And while Colossians may be the most explicitly Christological book in the canon, every book of the Bible is about the gospel of Christ. As the Jesus Storybook Bible says, “every story whispers his name.” This is the background for the book of Colossians.
The Greeting of Colossians
So now we consider the greeting for the letter in verses 1-2. In our culture we have a customary way of communicating through e-mail, or dare I say if you’re old school, when you hand write a letter. If you’re writing to someone with whom you’re close, but it’s more formal you begin with “dear so-and-so.” If it’s a less formal e-mal or text you might say, “hey, so-and-so.” If it’s someone you’re not close with you may just write their name or even, “to whom it may concern.” And then you’ll end the e-mail or letter with your name; “sincerely, so-and-so,” or “love, so-and-so.”
Paul’s greeting here to the Colossian church is customary for the first century: he identifies the author and the recipients. Paul and Timothy are writing, which probably means that Timothy is serving as an amanuensis for Paul. More than likely Paul is verbally dictating the contents of the letter as Timothy writes. And the recipients of this letter are the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae (vs. 2).
Another noticeable difference between Paul’s greeting and most of our greetings is that Paul’s greeting is packed with gospel theology. Verse 1 informs us that Paul is an apostle of Christ Jesus. This title has redemptive historical significance. The apostles were a specific group of men who were commissioned by Christ himself. On the road to Damascus the ascended Christ Jesus commissioned Paul himself to do the work of an apostle (Acts 9).
The apostles were a unique group of men commissioned to start and lead the New Covenant church from the time period between the ascension of Christ and the completion of the canon. With the death of the Apostle John came the end of the apostolic office. There have not been any apostles since. There are no apostles today. It was a unique redemptive historical office with a unique redemptive historical calling and gifting to sustain the early New Covenant community until the New Testament had been completed.
This apostle, Paul is writing by the will of God. This also speaks to the unique redemptive historical nature of Paul’s work. When Paul wrote the letter to the Colossians it was under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. That means the Spirit moved through Paul’s intellect and experience to draft this document, which is the inspired inerrant Word of God. This doesn’t mean that God inspired everything Paul ever wrote or said, but when he wrote the letters we have (Romans – Philemon), these documents are the inspired inerrant Word of God. No one writes or speaks with that authority today; whether they call themselves an apostle or not. The pope does not speak the inerrant Word of God; no Protestant pastor speaks the inerrant Word of God; no Christian speaks the inerrant Word of God, unless they are reading from the Scripture.
And Paul refers to the Colossian church as the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae. Paul is not writing to two different groups – (1) the saints and (2) the faithful brothers in Christ – but he is writing to one group: the church is both the saints and the faithful brothers. Paul is using a literary device called Hebrew parallelism where he names the group and then describes the same group with a different descriptor. The church is both the saints and the faithful brothers in Christ.
All Christians are saints. Every Christian who has ever lived is a saint. The word saint is the Greek word ἁγίοις, which means, “holy one, or set apart by God; those who are being sanctified.” That describes every Christian who has been justified by faith alone. The Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches have wrongly created a category of “saint” that refers only to special Christians who can dispense grace after they have died. That is unbiblical. Dispensationalism has created a special category of “saint” for the Old Testament or people during the tribulation. That is also unbiblical. Every believer from Adam until now is a saint.
This church is made up of saints who are also faithful brothers in Christ. The gospel is the good news that God is holy and he created humanity in his image. The very first man rebelled against God and fell in sin. Because of sin the world is broken and death spread to all people because all sinned (Rom 5.12). But while we were still sinners the eternal second person of the Holy Trinity, the Son of God, was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.
His name is Jesus of Nazareth and he lived a truly human life yet without sin (Heb 4.15). He died on the cross bearing God’s wrath for the sins of his people. He was buried and on the third day he rose again from the dead. His resurrection is the guarantee for his people that our sins have been forgiven and we will resurrect too. This Jesus ascended to God’s right hand where he sits as the prophet, priest, and king of his church. And he will return one day physically and visibly to raise the dead, judge the world, and make all things new.
If you repent of your sins and trust in the person and work of Christ alone you will be saved. Your sins will be forgiven and you will be resurrected on the last day to live forever with Christ in the new creation. You now have the knowledge of the gospel. You must ascent that these things are true and you must place your trust in Jesus alone. Agree with God that you are a sinner and call out to Christ to forgive you of your sins. Submit to the reality that you can never be righteous enough on your own and believe that Jesus lived righteously in your place and paid your debt on the cross and that he defeated sin and death through his resurrection.
If you do that, then you are in Christ. Like Noah in the ark, like Israel under the blood of the lamb during the Passover, we are ἐν Χριστῷ, in Christ. This is the most frequent label used for believers in the New Testament. The word Christian is used only three times in the New Testament to describe believers. The phrase “in Christ” or some variation of it is used over 200 times in Paul alone.
And Paul calls us brothers in Christ. He uses family language when he speaks of the church. In Christ God the Father adopts us all and we are all filled with the Holy Spirit. The church is the family of God. Every week we dine together with our Father and our elder brother by the power of the Spirit at the Lord’s Supper.
Some of you come from a great family like I do. Some of you don’t. Some of you come from faithless families, or abusive families, broken or loveless homes. I’m sorry for that. But the good news is that regardless of your biological family you have a spiritual family that is more real. The water, bread, and wine are thicker than blood. We are a family here at Christ Community Church. We are there for each other. We rejoice with each other and we weep with each other. We rebuke each other in sin and we encourage each other in suffering. This is home.
Paul ends his greeting by saying Grace to you and peace from God our Father. The only way to find grace and peace in this life is to be in Christ. If you are in Christ then God is your Father. If you are in Christ you have been saved by grace alone through faith (Eph 2.8). If you are in Christ then you have been justified by faith and you have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom 5.1).
The peace that we have with God is lived out through the peace we have with each other in the church. Though we may come from different religious, ethnic, political, or socioeconomic backgrounds, we have peace with one another because we all have peace with God. We are the Kingdom of God even as we travail through this world.
Christ Community Church is an embassy of heaven. Though we live and work in this world we are citizens of Jesus’ Kingdom. He is our King and we are his siblings and servants. Are you looking for peace? Accept the grace of God in Christ, be baptized, and join a gospel-preaching church. That is where you will experience the peace of God through the means of grace and through the community of faith.
Conclusion
The book of Colossians is like that world-renown chef in New York City. Colossians gorges us on the glory of Christ, so much so that we’re ruined for everything else the world has to offer. Every other religion, every other worldview, every idol that tries to captivate our hearts can’t satisfy like Jesus can. Even now as we come to the Eucharist we taste of Christ and it is our weekly reminder that nothing else can satisfy. Jesus is the one who forgives our sins. Jesus is the one who brings us grace and peace. May we be so conditioned to the beauty of Jesus Christ that we are absolutely ruined for everything else.