Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Friendship is important, right?

From my childhood, I can vividly remember agonizing over making sure that I had people to sit with in the cafeteria at school.

At the time, I couldn’t think of anything more embarrassing or humiliating than having to sit by myself for the entirety of the lunch period.

I thought about all the movies, all the TV shows, and I never wanted to be seen as that one kid who eats lunch in the bathroom so that nobody would see him sitting by himself.

Ironically, my sophomore year in high school, my fears became reality, and I became that one kid eating lunch in the bathroom, because I didn’t know anybody during my first few months at the new school I had transferred to on the other side of town.

Fundamentally, we’re all afraid of being alone, are we not?

It’s something that we can all empathize and sympathize with on a human level.

And, there’s a lot of different ways people respond to this natural desire for companionship.

Some people try to fill the void by dating as much as they can.

Others surround themselves with dogs, cats, and various pets.

Still, others might rush at a sorority or fraternity.

The list goes on and on.

And, Christians aren’t exempt from this aspect of the human condition either.

But, the difference is this: Christians always have friendship in the body of Christ.

Let me say that again: Christians always have friendship in the body of Christ.

And this friendship isn’t just friendship: it’s family.

We find brothers.

We find sisters.

We find mothers.

We find fathers.

Grew up an only child?

No worries.

You’ve got brothers and sisters who love you dearly in the church.

Grew up without a dad?

Not a problem.

Older men in the church provide godly leadership and godly counsel to you.

Grew up without your mom?

You guessed it - older women in the church body bring you into their home life and family life.

This mutual love and care and service is only found in the church of Christ.

But it’s hard work to find them, isn’t it?

More often than not, no matter how close we get with people, it’s rare to find people who are exactly on the same page as us.

And that limits our friendships.

But what drives all of this, though?

How is this even possible?

It almost sounds too good to be true.

And it is too good to be true… if you and I were the ones running the show.

But, in , Paul

But we’re not.

God is.

And His power is what fuels true friendship, true family.

We’re connected with our physical family because we share the same blood.

We’re connected with our spiritual family even more because we share Christ’s blood.

The apostle Paul knew this reality very well, and in his letter to the church in Colossae, he appealed to this spiritual connection to introduce himself to a group of people he had never even met.

In , Paul shows that true fellowship is found in the family of God and is made possible by the power of God.

Turn there in your Bibles and read with me.

1Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

2To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

WHO

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Now, look at the beginning of verse 1 for a moment.

“Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God...”

Here, we get introduced to the apostle Paul, who’s known for his special ministry to the Gentiles, the people groups outside of the Jews.

Last time, we saw his love for the lost, his care for Christians in the church, and his desire for all believers to live like Christ.

As an apostle, he was a special messenger handpicked by Jesus Himself to preach the gospel all across the Roman Empire.

He also wrote 13 letters in the New Testament, including this one.

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Look at the second half of verse 1. “and Timothy, our brother...”

Timothy is Paul’s protege and right-hand man.

Timothy was half-Jewish and half-Greek, and accompanied Paul for a large part of Paul’s missionary journeys.

Timothy ended up pastoring at many of the churches Paul planted, including Ephesus and Corinth.

WHAT

What is this letter even about, anyway?

A few weeks back, we looked at the content of this epistle, which is best described as one of encouragement and instruction about Christ and Christlikeness.

WHEN

We know that the letter was written sometime between 60-62 AD, because Paul wrote it alongside Philemon and Ephesians while he was on house arrest in Rome.

WHERE

Colossae was about 1300 miles away from Rome, and Paul sent Tychicus and Onesimus to carry the letter from Rome to Colossae once he had written it.

WHY

Paul had sent two guys to deliver this letter some 1300 miles away, on foot, for two reasons: 1) to encourage the Colossians for their growing faith, and 2) to combat false teaching that was starting to look like a threat to that growing faith.

Here in the first two verses of the chapter, we come across Paul’s first words to this church.

The scene would’ve went something like this: The Colossians would’ve been huddled together in the house of Philemon, where they met, listening to every word as their senior pastor read what the famed apostle Paul had to say to their little congregation.

Now, it’s important to know that Paul had never met the Colossians before.

He has no idea who they are, and vice versa!

The only information he has is what has been given to him by the planter of the church, Epaphras, who we looked at last time.

The only info they have is that Paul is one of the apostles, and therefore has the utmost authority in the church at large.