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Lessons

These are lessons that I’ve taught.

Colossians Part 11 – Stop

Sep 5

Posted by Bo in Colossians

Colossians 3:5-11

Here is the Word .doc for the following lesson. Colossians Study 11

Stop

Tonight we are going straight into the minefield of moral instruction. I’m calling it a minefield because of the danger present as we walk through these verses. Last session we talked about the perils of launching into a diatribe of commands apart from the bigger concept of the letter. Paul has not written a self-help letter of ethical do’s and don’ts. First and foremost the epistle to the Colossians has been about Christ, Christ and more Christ. He’s grand, glorious, sufficient, saving, sovereign, sustainer and Lord. All of Paul’s commands launch from the platform of this knowledge. But make no mistake, those who have experienced the new birth are commanded by their master to forsake sin and represent Him. And oftentimes that means we will hear the scripture tell us to “stop it”, when we confront our sin.


Bob Newhart’s fictional Dr Switzer serves up some needful advice to his patient covering a whole realm of ills. No probing of the subconscious is necessary, just “stop it”. There are more times than we would like to admit when we would all do well to follow that simple prescription. But I think there is a sort of strange reaction that we Christians have to commands sometimes. And it’s not as simple and overt as “I’m just not gonna do it”. It shows up in more subtle and “spiritual” ways.
• I’m praying that God takes the desire away
• I’m still working through that with the Lord
• That’s what 1 John 1:9 is for
I have mine and you have yours. It’s how we, who the scriptures have declared, “dead to sin…and alive to righteousness” deal with our repeated failures in the face of our justified position in Christ. Sometimes we vocalize our excuses, but oftentimes these go unspoken because the sins they accompany are hidden and so there is no one to vocalize them to. We make bargains with ourselves and God, essentially becoming our own defense attorney either accusing or excusing ourselves. And as they say, “a man who acts as his own attorney has a fool for a client”. I am a woefully wretched person and growing closer to God over these past 24 years has only confirmed that opinion of myself. In the weeks and months after I was born again on June 16th 1986, the list of my sinful behaviors couldn’t fill a notecard, so I thought. Now I’d need a notebook.

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Colossians Part 10 – Undead

Aug 22

Posted by Bo in Colossians

Colossians 3:1-4

Here is the Word .doc for the following lesson. Colossians Study 10

Undead

Chapter 3 read apart from chapters one and two is incredibly dangerous.  I say dangerous because someone may hear Paul’s commands in this chapter and seek to boot-strap their way to becoming more like Christ.  Of course this is the American way isn’t it?  Rugged individualism, self made men and entrepreneurship?  This is how we live the American dream.  We see something we want and we work for it until it’s ours.  Those who go this route inevitably find the road blocked, sometimes after a week, sometimes a month or a year later.  The really determined ones will continue this work of self sanctification for their entire lives never coming to an understanding of true joy in Christ or worse, covering over the fact that they’ve never experienced the new birth at all and their self will has been their substitute.  Seeking righteousness apart from the empowering work of Christ is a dead end road.  Consider the commands coming up in the next several verses.

  • Keep seeking the things above
  • Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.
  • Put to death what is earthly in you (sexual sins)
  • Put them away (sins of the tongue)
  • Do not lie
  • Put off the old self
  • Put on compassionate hearts
  • Bear with one another, forgive one another
  • Put on love
  • Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts
  • Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly
  • Do everything in the name of Jesus

It is no accident that each of the NT epistles follows the pattern of the indicative leading to the imperative.  Put another way, we are told a lot about Christ that serves as the foundation for us living for Christ.

Coming out of an oppressive legalist system can cause a pendulum swing that can be easy to ride over into antinomianism where one rejects all “law” or instruction in their life.  Both legalism and lawlessness are an affront to Christ.  Nor are we searching for a middle ground between two entirely man centered systems.  Living a life that in Paul’s words is “worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God” is entirely different and difficult and satisfying and agonizing.

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Colossians Part 9 – Bullies

Aug 13

Posted by Bo in Colossians

Colossians 2:16-23

Here is the Word .doc for the following lesson. Colossians Study 9

Bullies

As we approach the half way point of this epistle it should not come as any surprise what Paul’s focus and preeminent point of instruction has been, Christ Is Supreme!  Far and above any other secondary topics, if we fail to more fully grasp the utter supremacy of Jesus Christ in this letter we have missed it.  And I mean missed it badly.  Thus far, Paul has presented Christ as:

  • The beloved Son of the Father. – 1:13
  • The redeemer.  – 1:14
  • The visible image of the invisible God. – 1:15
  • The Head over all creation. – 1:15
  • The creator of all things. – 1:16
  • The sustainer of all things. – 1:17
  • The Head of the Church. – 1:18
  • The preeminent one. –1:18
  • The fulness of God. – 1:19
  • The peacemaker. – 1:20
  • The reconciler. – 1:22
  • The one who presents us holy and blameless. – 1:22
  • The Hope of Glory. – 1:27
  • The mystery of God. – 2:2
  • The possessor of all wisdom and knowledge. – 2:3
  • The fulness of deity. – 2:9
  • The head of all rule and authority. – 2:10
  • The circumciser of the heart. – 2:11
  • The resurrected one. – 2:12-13
  • The sin canceller. – 2:14
  • The triumphant one. – 2:15

It is upon these truths that Paul directs his readers to live lives worthy of The Lord Jesus Christ.  Their calling was a high one.  The God of all the seen and unseen universe had reached down and plucked them out of the deadness of their sin and given them life in His Beloved Son.  They had been set apart from the world around them to live distinct lives that would resound the glory of This King.

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Colossians Part 8 – Mastery

Aug 5

Posted by Bo in Colossians

Colossians 2:8-15

Here is the Word .doc for the following lesson. Colossians Study 8

Mastery

Thus far in the epistle, Paul has made only feigned references to the insidious nature of the heresies facing his readers.  Let’s consider a few of them.

“asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. ” (Colossians 1:9, NIV)

“He is the image of the invisible God… all things were created by him and for him. ” (Colossians 1:15–16, NIV)

“For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, ” (Colossians 1:19, NIV)

“God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness— the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. ” (Colossians 1:25–26, NIV)

“My purpose … that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. ” (Colossians 2:2–3, NIV)

Each of these verses, singularly and as a whole build a big and beautiful picture of an all powerful and sufficient Saviour and Lord.  And if the letter ended here, the Colossians would’ve been as blessed to receive it as we are to read it now.  All that has been written thus far can stand on its own as the greatest and fullest descriptions of the supremacy of Christ in all of scripture.  But there is more.  And the more we read, the more we are given to understand that Paul’s choice of words are quite intentional with respect to the troubles that are being faced by his first century readers.  The great truths that they have been instructed in are going to make an equally great difference as to how they react to their present difficulties.  That which he has said so far, about the person and work of Christ, are going to have very practical repercussions as they face their trouble.  Speaking of practical.

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Colossians Part 7 – Walk

Aug 1

Posted by Bo in Colossians

Colossians 2:1-7

Here is the Word .doc for the following lesson. Colossians Study 7

Walk

As we begin to step into the second chapter of this epistle to the Colossian believers, it would be a good idea to look back at where we’ve come.  Sometimes in our diligence to thoroughly study a book of scripture, we end up losing the theme of it at the expense of its parts.  It’s easy to find meaning in a verse or two that place it in conflict with the book in which it is found.  This is why it’s important, when it’s possible, to read through the book you are studying in its entirety, repeatedly.  It helps keep us from compartmentalizing the pieces and missing the forest for the trees.  What has taken us 6 hours to cover in study would take us 3 minutes to read.   And it is in those broad sweeps that we are able to return our eyes to the whole of a book.  Which in the case of Colossians is the Supremacy of Christ.

To be sure, the entirety of scripture can be said to be all about Christ.  But we do understand that themematically, different portions of the Bible have varying focuses.  And Paul’s letter to Colossae would have to be considered one of the most, if not the most, Christ-centered book in the Bible.  Consider what he has said thus far.

He opens his letter by greeting the “saints in Christ at Colossae”.  Then proceeds to gush forth thanksgiving to God upon hearing that they have come to “faith in Christ Jesus”.  And that the message of the good news of Christ that they heard and believed is also going out to the rest of the world.  Paul then turns from thanksgiving to prayer as he asks that God would fill them with wisdom in order that they live worthily of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Praising God that He has transferred them from a life of darkness to the Kingdom of His beloved Son.  What follows next is one of the most comprehensive, superlative laden, all encompassing descriptions of the power and majesty of Jesus Christ found anywhere in the text of scripture.  In fact it is vv.15-20 that makes up what I would consider to be the theme of Paul’s letter.

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