Always Only Jesus - Part A

So what you need to know is that this town of Colossae that Paul is writing to was a mixed bag of rival philosophies and competing religious systems and some of that was working its way into the Church. Here's a new series, Always Only Jesus, showing you that Jesus is at the center of it all. Now, here's a resource that will help you better understand and follow God's will with confidence. What is God's will for your life? Skip Heitzig has biblical direction. The will of God is not some mystical, impractical, ethereal process that makes you weird. It is not a maze.

It is not a puzzle that you have to put together and figure it out. In fact, sometimes the will of God is so plain and straightforward, the Bible just tells you what the will of God is. Shed the Bible's bright light on your path ahead with Discovering God's Will, an eight-message package from Pastor Skip. You can uncover and understand what the Lord wants to show you about his will.

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That's connectwithskip.com slash offer. OK, let's turn to Colossians 1 as Skip begins today's teaching. Now, I lived through an era of American history known as the Jesus movement when we did say Maranatha to each other all the time. It was a revival like atmosphere that moved from coast to coast.

It had a very unique feature. The Jesus movement attracted lots of young people. At one time, I was a young person, believe it or not, and I was part of that whole movement that started in California on the West Coast and went across the country. Thousands upon thousands of young people were coming to know Jesus Christ.

Well, since those days of the Jesus movement, there have been documentaries that have been produced, books that have been written, dissertations for PhDs as to why the Jesus movement took place. What were the things that caused it to take place? So some have tried to explain that it was because of incredible leaders that emerged like Chuck Smith or Arthur Blessed, people like that. Others have said it was the music. We got tired of choir music and organ music, and we went to more modern expressions.

People like Larry Norman or Love Song or Phil Kagee, Paul Clark, the Maranatha bands created a lot of that. Others said, well, the reason was is that in the West Coast, there's such a laid-back atmosphere, sort of a hippie atmosphere that was permeating the culture, and so the young kids sort of gravitated toward those expressions. Still others said it was a reaction to the international problems as well as national problems.

So the Vietnam War was one of those international problems, along with a very difficult and toxic political atmosphere like Watergate in our own country. And so the ultimate countercultural expression of all of that, they say, was the Jesus movement. Well, I was there, and I'll say this.

Those may be features. They may have been contributing factors and components for the Jesus movement, but I'm here to tell you the real reason for the Jesus movement was Jesus. He was moving as land was on the move. It was something uniquely sovereignly that God was doing in our world where people were saying basically no to religion and a resounding yes to the person of Jesus. Now, not everybody liked it, and I would say the established churches did not like it.

So where I was in Orange County, California, the local paper, I believe it was, the Orange County Register, put out an article citing one of the local pastors in the area that was seeing all these young kids going to this crazy church called Godfrey Chapel. And he said in a sort of a deprecating, snidely remark, he said, well, all they have is Jesus. What a statement. All they have is Jesus.

How about this? All they need is Jesus. But not everybody thinks Jesus is enough. Some think Jesus is good to start with, but you need more than Jesus.

You need Jesus and a little more ceremony or a little more ritual or a little more structure or a little more this or that. It's interesting. When I moved from the West Coast and I moved east, that's what I called moving to Albuquerque.

I'm going back east, I told my friends. I came here and when a couple of local pastors found out that I was here to hopefully start a church, they decided they would come to my rescue. So there's a funny little story. One was a Baptist pastor who found out that we were starting this Bible study, hopefully a church, and he found out that I was not going to take a formal offering that is past the bucket. I was just going to have these crazy little boxes people can give as the Lord leads them. And he thought, it will fail if you do that.

You actually have to have a basket of something in front of them if you're going to ever get this thing going off the ground. So he advised against it, said don't do the boxes, pass the hat. And so he gave me that advice. Another pastor in town thought that I needed to be legitimate so that I should wear... He found out he started... It was a Presbyterian pastor.

I became friends with both of them. But he found out I was starting a church and he thought, oh my goodness, this poor kid starting a church, he has to be legitimate. So I need to buy him a robe.

So imagine me in a robe. What do you think? Can I pull it off? Yeah, yeah.

Not going to happen. Obviously, right? So yeah, he said, Skip, I'm going to buy you a robe. And I put my arm around him and said, look, I appreciate the gesture. But no.

But he thought, yeah, but you need that or it's really not going to work. Well, with all of that kind of anecdotal stuff, I want to get into the book of Colossians. And today we're going to take a whopping two verses of Colossians, chapter 1, verses 1 and 2.

The series is called Always Only Jesus. Now you might ask, well, why the book of Colossians? I mean, it's a document that was written 2,000 years ago. What possible relevance could it have to our culture? Well, let me tell you why. We live in an age of reason, an age where science is revered by people.

Understandably so. Ninety percent of all the scientists who have ever lived in history are alive right now. And there has been an exponential increase in scientific knowledge and discovery.

But something has happened. In the pandemic, science has been elevated to savior status. So it's like, follow the science. And what people have meant by that is follow the scientists that we like and agree with.

Have you discovered that not all scientists agree with each other? But during that whole pandemic, I noticed that the media liked to pit people of faith against people of science. So what does the Bible have to say about that? Is God outside of science or is He a part of it? Well, Colossians will give us the answer.

In chapter 1, verse 16, all things were created through Him and for Him, and by Him all things are held together. So it's the age of reason. Also, we live in an age of division.

The pandemic has divided people ideologically and politically more than I can ever remember. And in the midst of it, people are saying, Jesus is good, but it's certainly not enough. You need more than Him.

You need Jesus plus this ideology, or you need Jesus plus our political category, our political slant. Colossians chapter 2, verse 10 speaks to that. And you are complete in Him.

You're complete in Him. It's always only Jesus. So it's an age of reason. It's an age of division. Also, we live in an age of confusion, especially regarding Jesus.

Most people today think of Jesus as one of many options in the smorgasbord of religious possibilities. So you've seen this very popular bumper sticker over the last several years where they take the icons of different religious systems and they spell the word coexist. Now, you know what the message behind all that is, is, hey, you religious folks, you weird religious people, get along with each other. You're all really saying the same thing. It's all the same God, the same worship system.

Get over yourselves. Colossians has something to say about that. It says, He, Jesus, is the image or the exact representation of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation, that in all things He might have the preeminence or the supremacy.

He is number one, not one among many. So it's not only an age of reason, not only an age of division, it's an age of confusion. And I'll add something else that makes this very applicable. We live in an age of deception. You can't even talk the truth anymore. You can't even get a judge to give you a definition of what a woman is. And if you say, well, this is a woman and that's a man, no, you can't say that, because they might not identify as that, and it's gotten so crazy, we're just lying to people. It's an age of deception. With all of the banter about that comes the idea of what is the role of the family.

Do we even need the family anymore? Colossians chapter 3 will speak to that, husbands and wives and children, et cetera. So what you need to know is that this town of Colossae that Paul is writing to was a mixed bag of rival philosophies and competing religious systems, and some of that was working its way into the church. There was a constant inflow of ideas from the east and ideas from the west, and it was a perfect spot for heresy to develop. Ever heard the term heresy? Let me just tell you what a heresy is.

Heresy means an opinion or belief contrary to what is orthodox or what is commonly held, or better yet, what is true, contrary to what is true. So what I want to do today is just simply kind of introduce the book to you by looking at these first two verses in a pretty straightforward outline. Paul is writing to the church of Colossae, to the church there, and I want you to see the concern for the church, the correspondence to the church, and the character of the church, just those three aspects.

First of all, the concern for the church. Paul, verse 1, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God and Timothy, our brother, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colossae, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. So we know who wrote it. Paul wrote it. Timothy was with him.

Timothy didn't help him write it. He's just with him while Paul wrote it. Where did Paul write it from? We believe Paul wrote this letter when he was in jail, which he was in jail a lot, but he was in jail in Rome.

He spent two years in Rome incarcerated under house arrest. Acts chapter 28 says that Paul was allowed to have his own rented house and people could come to him and converse with him. So he was in jail, and he writes a letter to the church of Colossae because a report has come to Paul's ears about a condition happening in that city.

Now get this. Paul did not start the church of Colossae. I know we think, well, Paul started every church.

No, he didn't. He did not start the church in Colossae. In fact, Colossae is not mentioned in the book of Acts.

There's no record of Paul ever visiting the town at all. He only heard of the work of God in that town. So look down at verse 4. Since we heard of your faith in Christ and love for the saints. He didn't see it. He heard about it. Go down to verse 9.

For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you. And then look at chapter 2, verse 1, for I want you to know what a great conflict I have for you and for those in Laodice city, a town next door, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh. They'd never seen Paul. Paul had never seen them. He had never been with them because Paul did not start the church of Colossae, listen, directly.

Directly. Okay, so if Paul didn't start the church, then what's the next question? Who did?

Thank you for asking that question. Who did? Who started the church? Epaphras started the church. Epaphras?

Who's that guy? Well, I want to introduce him to you. You're going to get to know Epaphras over the next several weeks and months because he started the church. He started the church.

He was from Colossae. So look at verse 3 of chapter 1. Let's just look at a few verses.

We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you since we heard of your faith in Christ and your love for all the saints. So you're asking yourself, well, Paul, where did you hear that from? Because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven of which you heard before in the word of the truth and the gospel, which has come to you as it has in all the world and is bringing forth fruit as it also is among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth, as you also learned from, who? Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, who also declared to us your love in the Spirit. Now, if you don't mind, go to the last chapter of this book, chapter 4.

Again, this is the first study in our book, so I want to kind of lay this groundwork. Chapter 4, verse 12. Epaphras, who is one of you. In other words, he was a Colossian.

A bondservant of Christ greets you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God, for I bear him witness that he is a great zeal for you and those who are in Laodicea and those in Hierapolis. So how did the church start? By Epaphras. But it was an outgrowth of Paul the Apostle's ministry. I said Paul didn't start the church directly.

But listen to this. Paul the Apostle spent three years in a town called Ephesus, about 80 miles to the west of Colossae. Colossae was 80 miles inland on the Lycus River. And while Paul was in Ephesus for three years, for two of those years, he taught in the school of Tyrannus every single day, and he was so effective, Acts chapter 19 tells us, that all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks. Two of those who heard the word of the Lord Jesus were the two guys that started the church. Epaphras is one, Philemon was the other.

Ever hear of Philemon? There's a book to him in the New Testament. Epaphras started the church. Philemon had the church in his house. It's where the church, for a period of time, met. Okay, so we know who wrote it.

We know who started the church. Why did Paul write this letter to them? He'd never been there, so why does he write a letter to them?

Is it just like, hey dude, this is Paul the Apostle, just checking in, never met you, but what's up? No, Paul is writing, as you read this book, because a serious problem has developed. And it's so serious that it motivated Epaphras to take a journey from Colossae, 1,300 miles to Rome, to visit Paul, to tell him about the problem. That's motivation, because he couldn't just hop on a plane 2,000 years ago and fly to Rome. He couldn't get on a bus and go to Rome, or get in his car or motorcycle or bicycle. He had to walk to go to Rome.

1,300 miles, that's how serious it was. The response of Paul the Apostle is the book of Colossians. So what's going on in Colossae? It's what Bible commentators refer to as the Colossian heresy, the Colossian heresy, a belief system that was a mixture of both Greek philosophy, Greek mysticism, and Jewish legalism. This belief system by the second century AD became known as Gnosticism. It wasn't Gnosticism yet, but it was developing. Ever hear of the term Gnosticism, anybody? Okay, so you've heard agnostic, right? You know what that means. Agnostic means somebody who doesn't know.

It's literally what it means. I don't know. Is there a God?

I don't know. It's agnostic. Gnostic refers to somebody who knows everything. They're in the know.

I know. And so agnostic was a word that meant we're in the know. You can't know what we know, but we can help you know what we know.

But you have to go through these mystical, legalistic kind of formats to get there. True wisdom, that's what they claim. Now this belief system grew from a philosophical question. By the way, a question every human being that I've ever met has asked. And the question is, why is there such an evil world if a good God created it? How can there be such an evil world if a good God created it?

So they came up with a solution, and there were different elements in this belief system. First of all, they said, well, God is good, but all matter, the material world, is evil. Therefore, God did not create the world. Who did create the world? They said an emanation that proceeded from God created the world. So they said thousands upon thousands of emanations, angels, sub-gods, went out from God until there was an emanation so far from God, that emanation didn't even know who God was. That emanation created the material world.

Crazy, right? They believed Jesus was an emanation, albeit a good one, like a good angel. But because Jesus was a good emanation and the material world is evil, they said Jesus did not have a physical body, that if you saw somebody walking, it was a phantom that you saw. It wasn't a real material person because a good emanation would never have a material body. So they had all these crazy stories, like Jesus would walk on the sand but never leave footprints because he wasn't a real physical body.

They also had a mixture of Jewish legalism in this belief system, rigid self-denial, they pushed circumcision, they emphasized a certain diet, dietary restrictions, holy days, new moons, festivals. So Paul's answer to all that belief system is this, always only Jesus. And Paul will say Jesus Christ is God, Jesus Christ is God with a human body, and in Jesus is all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. He's all that you need.

You don't need Jesus plus anything or anyone else. So he is writing this out of concern, out of concern. Now I want to say this before we get into the second point, and I want you to really pick up on this, the church, I'm speaking generally in the church worldwide, the true church, the church is always in danger. The church is always in danger. There's never not a time when the church is not in danger. There's never a time when the church is not in danger. So in every generation, in every continent, in every place at all times, the church is facing danger. I made it pretty clear, right?

Now it's pretty easy to understand why that is. Jesus said he would build his church. Paul the apostle said the church is the pillar and ground of all truth. And if the church is that, and if the church is at the center of God's plan for humanity, then you can expect Satan to always attack it, right? If God loves something, the devil hates that.

So we like to say God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life, true, but the devil hates you and has a miserable plan for your life and a miserable plan for the church if you let him. That's Skip Heiting with the first message from his series Always Only Jesus. Find the full message as well as books, booklets, and full teaching series at connectwithskip.com. Now, here's Skip to share how you can bless people around the world with God's word through a gift to keep these teachings coming to you and others. The Bible is full of God's promises, but if you want to know them, you have to study scripture. Well, our goal is to connect friends like you with truths found in God's word.

That's why we share these Bible teachings on air and online. And through your gift today, you can help keep these messages that you love coming to you and connect more people around the world to the Bible. Here's how you can give right now. Visit connectwithskip.com slash donate to give a gift. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate or call 800-922-1888, 800-922-1888.

Thank you for your generosity. Come back tomorrow as Skip continues his message Always Only Jesus and examines what it really means for you to be in Christ. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross and cast all burdens on His word. Make a connection, connection. Connect with Skip Hyten is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.