0:00 Welcome once again to Words of Life. We have been studying through the Bible. We started in Genesis and now we have finished Philippians. We are going to Colossians today. Colossians, we can say, is like a twin 0:24 epistle to Ephesians. There's a lot of similarity between the two. And we can say they are complementary to each other. Like two legs we stand on. 0:47 The difference is this. In Ephesians, the emphasis is that we are in Christ. We studied Ephesians, we saw how in Christ comes many times. In Colossians, the emphasis is Christ in 1:12 us. Read that in Colossians 1:27, Christ in you is the hope of glory. These two truths are 1:31 both necessary for us to live the Christian life. God placed us in Christ. So, we died, buried, rose again, and ascended with him. The other truth is that Christ lives in 1:54 us. And so, greater is he who is in us than everything in the world and everyone in the world. So we don't have any fear. And 2:11 because Christ is in us, we can fulfill God's plan for us just like Jesus fulfilled when he was on earth. Colossians also was written from a 2:28 prison. Just like Ephesians. Now, in Colossians 2:9, we read about the fullness of God 2:44 in was seen in Christ in bodily form. So when Jesus walked on the earth in the body, there the fullness of God was seen there. There are two extremes of teaching in 3:09 religions concerning the human body. We find in many religions one extreme is where the human body is considered as evil. And so they teach asceticism, yoga, 3:32 control of all your bodily desires. They even teach that sexual relation between husband and wife is bad and wrong. Because everything in the body is evil, 3:55 all desires. So we must overcome the desire for food, sleep, everything. That is one extreme. The other extreme is where 4:13 people say that we can indulge all these desires of the body. In many religions and in false Christianity, also. Where indulging the body's appetites 4:35 in some religions, there are temple prostitutes to help people to indulge their bodily lusts in the name of religion. And then also there are in Christianity, 4:55 there's a lot of teaching on prosperity and comfort, so that indulging the body is considered to be the mark of God's blessing. But Jesus came and revealed something 5:13 else. But when God created the body, there's nothing wrong with the body. It's from the heart that sin pollutes the body. Jesus came with a body just like ours, 5:30 and there was no trace of sin in him. To prove that you can have a human body and never sin. And have no sin at all. One day in eternity, we will still have 5:48 a human body and there'll be no sin. And the opposite example is Satan. Full of sin even though he doesn't have a body. So these two examples, Jesus who had a 6:05 body and no sin and Satan who has no body and full of sin teaches one thing that sin is not originating in the human body. So we must not have any extreme 6:25 teachings in this area. We certainly need to deny ourselves anything that will lead to sin. But the desires God has placed in our body can be enjoyed in legitimate ways. This is one of the truths that 6:49 Colossians is trying to emphasize. In chapter one he speaks about the preeminence of Christ. First of all he begins with a Thanksgiving to God just like he does in 7:06 most of his letters. Paul had a very good habit of giving thanks for people. Even the carnal Corinthians he found 7:24 something in them to be thankful for. When we have the eyes of God we will see something good even in people who got many other things wrong. And we will be able to appreciate those 7:45 good things. And that's what we see an example in the Holy Spirit inspired Epistles of Paul. So he says in verse three of chapter one, "We give thanks to God always praying for you." 8:07 Paul did not plant the church in Colossae. It was probably planted verse seven by Epaphras, a fellow bondservant, and a servant of Christ. You know, it's possible that when Paul 8:28 was in Ephesus for three years, Epaphras may have gone out from there with encouragement from Paul and planted this church in Colossae. And he gives thanks to these to God because of the faith of these Colossians verse four and the love which they have 8:47 for all people. And because fruit is continuously increasing verse six in their life in that church. And his prayer for them in Colossians 9:08 1:9, is that they may be filled with the knowledge of God's will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. One translation of that verse reads like this. He says, "I'm praying that you will look 9:28 at everything from God's viewpoint." That is the meaning of filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. That means you look at all people and 9:47 all circumstances on earth from God's viewpoint. Now you know that if you get up into a plane, things on earth look very small. Huge skyscrapers look like small toy 10:07 buildings. Cars look like toy cars. But when we are down on earth, these things look so big. So, many things that look big when we look at it from earth's level becomes 10:26 smaller and smaller the higher we go up. Spiritually also this is true. Many things that we think are so important. When we move up to God's viewpoint, they 10:44 are not so important. Money for example is considered a very very important thing on earth. The more you have of it the more people think you're a lucky person. But when you get up to God's viewpoint 11:09 uh you discover that money is needed on earth, but it's not so important. It's important only up to the level of our need. In fact, too much of it can be harmful. It leads many people away from God. 11:32 Causes a lot of fights between people. And like the Bible says, the love of money is the root of all evil. And from this earthly standpoint, the opposite sex looks very important and very attractive. When we get up to God's viewpoint, 11:55 despise the opposite sex, but they're not so important like all the cinemas teach. I'm just taking giving two examples. Many things change their value when we 12:13 look at them from God's viewpoint. Many things that we worry about so much don't look very big at all from God's viewpoint. You don't worry about a little ant bite. 12:36 No. And many things which look such big problems on earth are only like an ant bite when looked at from God's viewpoint. So the solution to have a spiritually minded walk is to look at things from God's 12:54 viewpoint. And when we can look at things from God's viewpoint, then verse 10, we can walk in a manner worthy of the Lord to please Him in all respects and bear fruit in every good work. For this, we need to be strengthened 13:20 verse 11 with all power according to His glorious might. But the point is this, we cannot walk in a way pleasing to the Lord if we first don't understand if we first don't know how to look at things from God's viewpoint. 13:39 You will keep on displeasing the Lord. If you don't first allow the Holy Spirit to change your view of things on this earth. circumstances people We must look at them all from God's 13:58 viewpoint. Though we have to give honor to those who are in authority on this earth. presidents and rulers But yet, we don't devalue a beggar because in God's eyes the beggar is as 14:15 important as the president. We don't devalue any human being. See, even many Christians, they give more value to somebody who is rich and big in the world. And they despise poor uneducated people. 14:42 Shall I tell you why? They have not learned to look at people from God's viewpoint. I have very rarely in my life seen even Christian workers who would treat poor people and rich people alike. All my life I have sought to treat rich 15:07 people and poor people alike in the church. Because I have seen them from God's eyes. And all the tension and anxiety from our life also disappears when we think look at things from God's view. You cannot be partial to somebody if you 15:31 look at people from God's viewpoint. So this is a very important secret of the Christian life. Now further down in Colossians chapter 1 we read we don't have time to look at 15:48 all the verses. But see verse 15. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation for by him all things were created in heavens and on earth visible and invisible etc. Now just look at this. 16:16 This This is one of the strongest statements in the New Testament of the deity of Christ that Christ is God. See what it says here in verse 16. All things were created by him. 16:41 Who is that? It's God. In the beginning it says God created heaven and earth Genesis 1:1. And here it says all things were created by him. You You put this with Genesis 1:1 it's the clearest statement that Jesus Christ is 16:58 God. This is how we refute the teachings of people like the Jehovah's Witnesses who teach that Jesus Christ is not God. And it says here all things were created 17:17 for him. All things were created for him. Everything in the universe is created for God. In Romans 11 the last verse it says from him through him to him are all things. So this is the same thing that is God. 17:37 This is for Christ. And emphasize again. He is verse 17 before all things. He was before everything existed. Everything is held together only 17:57 in him verse 17. And it's repeated earlier in verse 16 by him all things in heaven and in earth visible and invisible thrones and dominions are all created by him. So 18:19 we must understand the phrase in verse 15 the firstborn of all creation in the light of these verses. In English it gives you a wrong understanding. As if he was born. 18:39 That's not the meaning. It means he was before all creation. It's an expression firstborn means before everything else. Just like a firstborn son is before all the other sons. So here the emphasis here is before all 19:02 creation. And that is made clear in verse 16 and 17. And why is he called the image of the invisible God? And why is he called the image of the invisible God? Because God cannot be seen by anybody. 19:23 But when Jesus came in in a human body, see what God was like. And now verse 18, he has become the head of the body, the church. And he is called here the firstborn from the dead. See, the firstborn is used in this way. 19:50 Jesus as a when he came on earth, he is called the only begotten Son of God. But after his resurrection, he is called the firstborn of all 20:09 creation. And the firstborn in the church. Because now God has got many other sons. We are his sons. Nobody in the Old Testament could be a son of God. That's why when Jesus came to earth, he 20:27 was called the only begotten. And now because there are many sons of God, he's called the firstborn. And we read here 20:47 he needed this fleshly body verse 22 because otherwise he could not die for our sins. Paul uses an expression here. Verse 24, he says, "I want to fill up what is lacking in Christ's 21:04 afflictions." What does that mean? When Jesus died on the cross, he said it is finished. There's nothing more to be done for Christ's sufferings. What is he saying? I've still got to fill up what is lacking. God's will is that we take up the cross 21:28 and follow Jesus in the same way that he walked. We overcome sin like he overcame. We are tempted like he was tempted. In that area, we have a long way to go. Take a glass. 21:51 Jesus was tempted in all points, overcame everything, and the glass was full, and he said it's finished. Now, we are following him. As we are tempted more and more and more and more and overcome, the glass slowly gets full. 22:11 Calling is to follow Jesus' footsteps. Paul says I've still got to fill up some more. For the sake of his body. Because in the New Testament, we have a ministry through suffering. And then he goes on to say 22:30 about the purpose of all preaching in verse 28. The purpose of all preaching is that we may present every man, verse 28, perfect in Christ. Now, there's one sense in which we are already accepted in Christ the moment we 22:49 are born again. But we have from there we have to press on to perfection as it says in Hebrews 6. And so Paul says in verse 28, I'm teaching and preaching and preaching with all wisdom to present people 23:08 perfect. The goal of all preaching is to present people perfect in Christ. Every preacher should make this his goal in his life. Every person in your congregation must 23:30 become perfect in Christ. And if you are a pastor or a shepherd of God's people, you must know the condition of everybody in your church. To see whether they're pressing on to this perfection. Paul laboring, striving according to 23:52 God's power that works in me." And he says, "I want you to know, chapter two, verse one, the struggle I have in this area on your behalf. The worst struggle I have for the church in Laodicea who have not personally seen 24:06 me. Paul was an apostle. He prayed even for those churches which he had not planted. He knew of a church in Colossae, Laodicea planted by others. Colossae and Laodicea and others planted the churches. They have never seen him. He had never 24:24 seen them. He had heard about them. And he prayed with a burden that they will become perfect in Christ. So, a true of God, whether a pastor or teacher or prophet, burden must be to present everybody 24:48 perfect in Christ. His only burden burden must be to present everybody perfect in Christ. He must not be satisfied that they have just accepted Christ and then they're going to heaven. We find very few servants of God like 25:11 this today. That's why we see the pathetic condition of Christians. We must have this type of burden. If you are to serve the Lord. If you are a servant of the Lord, may God help you to have that. If you are ordinary brother caring for 25:33 even one or two others, let this be your desire. God bless you. Welcome once again to Words of Life. In our study through the Bible, we have 25:50 now come to Colossians chapter 2. We look today at Colossians chapter 2 and verse 1. We see here how Paul says he had a great burden for the 26:08 saints in Colossae and Laodicea. And his burden is that their hearts may be knit together in love and uh grow in Christ. Notice in Paul's prayer for these 26:32 saints, whether it's Ephesians or Philippians or Colossians or any of these people. You never find him praying that any of them will get bigger houses or better vehicles or chariots or any such thing like people pray today. 26:54 For the love of That they'll get better jobs. These things are all needed, but that's not what he was praying for. What does he pray for? They'll learn and understanding of God's will. 27:13 They'll have no God's mysteries. Growing likeness to Christ. Be fruitful in God's They'll be filled with the Holy Spirit. They'll have revelation on God's purposes. You look through here and see whether he ever prays for any material things for 27:32 them. Is it because these were all millionaires that he didn't have to pray for such things? No, he says he in Corinthians that most of those whom God called were poor and foolish people. Is it wrong emphasis we see in 27:55 Christendom today? And that's why we have a bunch of Christians today who may be rich, but who are thoroughly defeated by sin. Most of them they divorce and fight with each other. What is the use of that? 28:14 If you have all these material things and such miserable family lives and defeated personal life. Defeated life and defeated personal life. I've seen preachers get up in on television screens and say, "Well, I got angry today." 28:36 They should be ashamed of themselves. What are they getting up and preaching on television if they are still haven't got victory over their anger? Then they can only teach other people how to get angry. To get overcome anger is like a 28:54 kindergarten lesson. And if you have not overcome that, what are you going to teach other people? What can a kindergarten student teach others? We need to come back to the Christianity of the apostles. He prays that they'll have a true 29:13 knowledge of God's mystery. verse two The two mysteries, great mysteries spoken of in scripture. One is that Christ came in the flesh and lived a holy life. The other is that Christ and the church are one. And all of the Christ and the 29:31 church are one body in Christ. And all in the church are one body in Christ. And that people who are completely dissimilar from each other in church like Jews and Gentiles can become one in Christ. These are the mysteries. 29:50 And he says that's what we need to know. So that we can also live a holy life and walk as Jesus walked. And so that we can build a church which may not be big but which where everybody loves one another. So we need to come back to the teaching 30:08 of the apostles if we want to be delivered from the deception of today's preaching. Verse six it says as you received Christ so walk in him. How did you receive Christ? You received 30:26 it by faith not by works. Did we do any works in order for Christ to come into our lives? We just opened our heart in faith. And he says here walk all your life in that way. How must we walk? 30:46 In faith. And then it goes on in chapter 7. Rooted and built up in him, uh we must overflow with gratitude. You know, that's a characteristic also 31:08 we find in very few Christians. An overflowing attitude of thankfulness to God. No complaints. I find so many believers full of complaints. God hasn't done this for me. God hasn't 31:27 answered that prayer. This brother is treating me like that. That devil is troubling me over there. You know why? Because they're pursuing this materialistic gospel. If they started praying for the things like Paul prayed for, they would be 31:45 overflowing with gratitude. Then we will be thankful immensely to God for what he's done for us and thankful for our fellow believers. And then he goes on to say in chapter 2 verse 8, 32:04 "Don't let anyone deceive you through philosophy and empty deception according to the tradition of men." A very needed exhortation today because there's a lot of psychology being preached by many Christian preachers. Making people feel nice. 32:29 You are very important. You are very God you are very valuable in God's eyes. It's true. I believe it. If we are sons and daughters of God, we are most valuable people on Earth. But because of that, what should we do? 32:48 Because of that, we should get rid of all sin from our life. But that's not what they teach. Because you're so important, God wants you to get a better house or a better car. That's not what the Bible teaches. Because you're so important in God's 33:05 eyes, you should be completely free from sin in your life. Think of it from a from a human standpoint. What's the use having big car, big house if you got 10 serious sicknesses in your body? You can't enjoy anything. 33:29 What's the use of having all these things if you got 10 sins in your life? If you got anger, lust, bitterness, jealously, non-forgiving attitude, pride, selfishness, you still have all these things in your life. Lose your temper at your husband and 33:48 wife. But you got a big house. A bigger car. Are you happy with that? Then you have not seen that sin is a million times worse than sickness. What is the use having all these material things if you got AIDS and 34:07 leprosy and cancer? So, we need to be delivered from this psychology type of gospel. Where we are made to feel good. Here about be careful about those who 34:30 make take you captive through such philosophy. These are all the elementary principles of this world. But, what we should preach is that in Christ is the fullness of deity in bodily form. And we 34:53 have been crucified with Christ, which is called here in verse 11 like a circumcision. Old Testament circumcision was a picture of our being crucified with Christ today. Just like the physical flesh was cut off 35:15 in the Old Testament. The flesh from which sin comes forth in our body, that is cut off through the cross. And in baptism, we are testifying to that, verse 12. And then he goes on to say two things that Jesus did on the cross. First of 35:34 all, verse 14, he canceled out the entire certificate of debt, which is against us. The our whole debt of sin was canceled. Supposing you were in debt to a 35:54 100 million rupees, and you don't know how you'll ever pay even 1% of that in your lifetime. Some rich man goes and pays that debt 36:11 and shows you the certificate and tears it up and says, "You're free." That is exactly what Jesus did on the cross. We owed God so many millions of rupees. 36:35 Paid that debt. What makes our relationship with God bold and we have confidence. Another thing was he defeated Satan on the cross. Verse 15, he took away all of Satan's 36:54 armor. Satan has got a lot of armor. weapons With which he fights God's people. All of those weapons were taken away. So Satan is today like a terrorist whose 37:14 weapons and bombs have all been taken away from him. You're not afraid of him anymore. We are afraid of a terrorist when he's got a gun and a grenade and bombs with him. But now if you got the weapons and he's 37:36 got nothing, why are you afraid? Satan has not been killed. But his weapons have been taken away, it says. And we have to see that. Now when he got them, that is why we are never afraid of Satan. He cannot touch us or our family or our 37:55 property or anything. This is so important. These two things, verse 14 and 15, that Jesus did on the cross. In chapter 2, verse 16 onwards, he speaks about people who are legalists. Those who are particular about keeping 38:20 the Sabbath day and says, "Don't let anyone judge you with these type of teachings." You can't eat this and you can't drink that. You must keep this festival day. 38:38 You must celebrate this day. You must keep the Sabbath day. And there are many, many rules that many Christians make. This is all these things in the Old Testament were only a shadow. It was a shadow of Christ. 38:58 It's like when a man stands in the sun, his shadow is the exact shape of his body. The shadow is not the person. I mean, if your wife is standing in the sun, you don't embrace the shadow, you embrace your wife. You don't look at the shadow, you look 39:21 at your wife. We can use another example. It's a photograph. We can say the Old Testament is like a photograph of Christ. All those things, those festivals and sacrifices and tabernacle and everything. But now we have Christ himself. 39:46 When your wife is in front of you, why do you need her photograph to look at? If you're away from your wife, then of course you can have a photograph. And so in the Old Testament, they didn't have Christ, they needed a photograph. 40:05 People understand that. You see why the Old Testament is put away. Why do I put away the photograph? It's not because it's not a real picture of my wife, but it's because my wife herself is there now. Because Christ has come that the law has 40:26 been put away. But if you don't have Christ, you need the law. So, if you hold fast to the head, you won't need all these laws. If you hold on to all these things, then you'll be cheated of your prize, verse 18. You end up worshipping God's messengers 40:51 like it says in verse 18. That applies to God's servants today. There are many people who worship God's preachers. They follow them as God's God's almost. And most preachers like it. 41:13 It's all evil. And it says here, If you've died with Christ, verse 20 to all these things, why are you living according to these rules? You know all the taste, don't touch, verse 21. This is all these things have an 41:33 appearance of wisdom, verse 23, but it will never make you holy. This sort of self-discipline and all looks nice in the eyes of people. You know, you dress in a particular way. 41:52 You show your holiness by your dress. You despise other people who dress slightly differently. I believe that particularly women should be dressed modestly. They don't tempt men unnecessarily. But there are so many different styles 42:14 of dressing and we are not here to judge other people. But there are many people who say, "Don't do this. Don't wear this. Don't touch that." And they put people into bondage. Finish with their opinions. 42:32 We have died with Christ to the world. Live before God and seek to please him in everything. Chapter 3, verse 1. We are raised up with Christ to set our mind on the things that are above. Verse 2. 42:51 And again, it's speaking about this heavenly viewpoint of earthly things. And so he says, "Consider all your earthly members as dead." Verse 5. And because you have died to all these 43:11 things, put them off. I mean, just like uh sometimes you have an injury on your hand. And then, as it heals, a scab forms over that. And then that falls off. 43:31 That was once your skin, but now it has become dead. And you don't hang on to that saying, "Oh, once upon a time it was my skin." You're glad to get rid of it because there's a new skin there underneath. It's something like that. You have died 43:54 with Christ. So all these other things, put them away now. Like anger, wrath, anger, wrath, malice, slander, abuse. Put them all away. And now you've got this new skin. Put on this new man. 44:13 In this new man There's no difference whether you're verse 11, whether you're a Greek or a Jew or barbarian or Scythian or anything. Man or woman All are equally valuable in Christ. If you're a child of God, you'll accept 44:37 all these people as equally valuable in Christ. Therefore you must have a certain attitude towards all the people in the church. Compassion verse 12, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience. Forgiving others verse 13. 45:02 If somebody has done something wrong to you and you got a complaint look how the Lord forgave you verse 13, forgive like that. And put love upon you. In all your actions. Then he gives a very important rule. 45:23 Verse 15. He says let the peace of Christ rule or be a referee in your heart in all situations. The referee blows a whistle in a football match when something goes wrong. He's saying there's a foul here, you got 45:48 to set it right, bring the ball here. So here he's saying when you lose peace in your heart when you're agitated about something. Anything. It's like a referee blowing a whistle in 46:06 your heart. Something is wrong. There's a foul here. Stop everything. Set that matter right and then proceed. We must always live with peace in our heart. So many times we find the referees 46:27 blowing the whistle we lost our peace and we continue doing so many things. So let's take heed to heed to the whistle in future. Then from chapter 3 verse 16 46:45 right up to chapter 4 verse 1 he says about how we must live in the home. And just like in Ephesians wives and husbands were chapter 3 verse 18 onwards children and parents verse 20 and 21 47:07 slaves and masters the rest of the chapter. But with one big difference. In the Ephesians in Ephesians we read these things following after the exhortation to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 5:18 it says be filled with 47:26 the Holy Spirit. Being filled with the Spirit live like this in the home. Here it says in verse 16 be filled with the word of God and live like this in your home. There it says be filled with the Holy 47:45 Spirit and you sing and songs to each other. Here it is the word of God which fills you and as a result of which you sing songs and praise. The word of God fills you and as a Compare this with Ephesians. 48:05 And see how there is the emphasis on the Holy Spirit, here the emphasis on God's word. These are the two essentials to live the Christian life. Fullness of the Holy Spirit and the word of Christ. If you devalue any one of them, we 48:24 cannot grow spiritually. A lot of Christians devalue one of these. Go astray. In chapter 4 we read about 48:42 devoting ourselves to prayer, verse two. Being very careful in our speech, verse six, so that we never say anything without grace. Always speak with grace. In chapter 4, verse 12, we read about 49:03 Epaphras, who is always praying for you. What is he praying? Again, you see, he's not praying that they should have better houses and get promotion in their jobs and things like that. These apostles did not pray for the 49:26 foolish type of things today's preachers pray for. You won't find a single prayer like that in the New Testament. He prays that they may stand perfect and fully assured in the will of God. Christians are being deceived today 49:46 because they don't know God's word. better. And we notice another thing here. That Epaphras also prayed with a deep burden for the church in Laodicea. Paul prayed for the church in Laodicea. 50:07 He wrote a letter to the church in Laodicea. And he says that in verse 16, "I have sent a letter to the church in Laodicea. I want you after you read this letter, send it on to Laodicea. And get the letter which I sent to 50:28 Laodicea, you read that also." Now, unfortunately, that letter to Laodicea is not found. But it must have been a very good letter. Obviously, they didn't listen to it. That's why you see in Revelation chapter 50:47 3, the church in Laodicea become such a pathetic church. We see in chapter 4, verse 14, Demas was once a co-worker with Paul. A few years later, he's a backslider in 51:03 2 Timothy 4, he's gone off on the world. A co-worker of Paul can become a backslider. And one last thing, "Say to Archippus, verse 17, take heed to the ministry which you received in the Lord that you fulfill it." That's a word to you. 51:26 God has a ministry for you. Small or big. It's maybe a small ministry or a big ministry. Make sure you fulfill it. Don't worry about other people. Fulfill your ministry. 51:44 God bless you.
