Sermon Tone Analysis

*Text*: Colossians 2:1-7

*Title*: Paul’s Concern for the Church

*Theme of the book of Colossians: *Jesus Christ:  The preeminent and all-sufficient Savior* \\ Theme of Text:  *Don’t be deceived by false teachers, Christ should be the center of your life!

*Proposition: *Make Christ the center of your life!

 

*Introduction*

Have you ever heard of the Divinci Code?

(The book written by Dan Brown) There is also a movie based on the book the Divinci Code.

Some of you may have read the book or seen the movie.

Dan brown says that Jesus was marred to Mary Magdalene, had children, became the royal bloodline in France, and that Jesus was just a man that was voted as God.

* *

Paul had a burden for the church.

In Colossians 1:24-29, we noticed Paul’s burden for the church, his method for ministry in the church, and the central theme of his ministry to the church: Christ.

In this text, Colossians 2:1-7, Paul states his specific desires for the churches in the Lycus Valley.

Paul was concerned for the church since false teachers were attacking it.

Even though Paul had not seen many of the people in the churches in Laodicea and Colossae, he wanted them to be founded in solid teachings about Christ.

In this passage, Paul presents Christ as the central theme in the Christian’s life.

Just as Christ is the center of the church, so Christ should be the center of your life!

Make Christ the center of your life!

In verse one, Paul writes the “conflict” or “struggle” that he has on behalf of the churches of the Lycus Valley.

Paul is talking about the intense concern and prayers for these churches.

He has written a letter to them, he has prayed for them, he has discussed them with Epaphras, and he is extremely concerned about he false teachers attacking the church.

Therefore, because of his burden for them, Paul wants these churches to be encouraged and united in Christ.

He wants to make sure that Christ is the center of the believers life.

*I.

**Be Encouraged and United for Christ*

Paul wanted the believers at these churches to be encouraged in heart and united in love so that they could stand for Christ in times of adversity.

*a.

**Hearts Encouraged by Christ*

Paul wanted the people at these churches to be encouraged so they can continue serving Christ and so they can withstand the attacks of the false teachers.

The encouragement is has the idea of being strengthened to stand for Christ.

We know that the Holy Spirit strengthens and comforts the believer (Eph.

3:16-19), but Christ also has a part in strengthening the believer.

(2 Thess.

2:16-17; 1 Peter 5:10) Paul was concerned that the believers were going to be fooled by false teachings.

Therefore, their hearts needed to be strengthened so they could withstand these attacks.

He is talking about their hearts being strengthened; in the Bible, it is common for the word Heart to mean “the inner life of a person, the center of his personality, understood as the source of the will, emotion, thoughts and affections.”

–O’Brien, WBC.

p. 93.

 

/2 Thessalonians 2:16-17/ Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace, 17 comfort and strengthen your hearts in every good work and word.

/Illustration~/Application:/ You must have your heart strengthened by Christ.

A person that has problems with their heart, such as a heart attack sufferer, must exercise to strengthen their heart.

They begin a cardiovascular workout program that is supposed to help them have a stronger, healthier hearth.

Just like that person strengthens their physical heart, so you as a believer must strengthen your spiritual heart.

Christ can strengthen your heart, so that you can stand for Him.

This will require you exercising and building up your knowledge and understanding in the Word of Christ.

*b.

**Unity in love through Christ*

The believers of these churches were to be knit together or united in love.

(Col 3:14) The unifying theme of the believers love for each other is Christ, for believers have been unified in Christ.

(Rom 6:5; Gal.

3:28) Because of Christ’s love for man and especially his chosen children, believers can be unified in love.

Love is the essential key to having unity in the church.

(Eph 4:1-3; 1 Thess 3:12; Phil 2:1-3) Latter in Colossians 3:14, Paul writes, “Beyond all these things /put on /love, which is the perfect bond of unity.”

He is saying that love is what unites.

Throughout the New Testament, love linked with unity.

The only way that Christians can have unity is through love!

This is not a worldly love or lust that unbelievers show, but a humble, self-sacrificing love towards each other.

Only through Christ can we have that love!

In fact, unifying love is what sets Christians apart from the rest of the world!

Christ said in John 17:21 that unity is what makes unsaved people know that Christ loved us and that we love Christ.

Certainly this prayer of Jesus was answered in the unity of the Body:

I do not ask in behalf of [My disciples] alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me.

And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given to them; that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know that Thou didst send Me, and didst love them, even as Thou didst love Me. (John 17:20–23)

The late Francis Schaeffer called the unity of the church “the final apologetic” to the watching world (/The Mark of the Christian/ [Downers Grove, Ill.: intervarsity, 1970], p.

15).

He went on to write,

In John 13 the point was that, if an individual Christian does not show love toward other true Christians, the world has a right to judge that he is not a Christian.

Here [in John 17:21] Jesus is stating something else which is much more cutting, much more profound: We cannot expect the world to believe that the Father sent the Son, that Jesus’ claims are true, and that Christianity is true, unless the world sees some reality of the oneness of true Christians.

Now that is frightening.

Should we not feel some emotion at this point?

(/The Mark of the Christian/, p. 15) John MacArthur, /Colossians/

 

/Illustration: /Humility is a key to the believer’s love for each other, for Christ himself humbled himself because he loved us.

He loved us so much that he humbled himself from the position of God the Son in heaven to come here to earth as a man and die for you and for me (Phil 2:1-8).

The apostle John knew that Christ loved us because he died for us.

In1 John 3:16, John wrote, “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”

John had seen the self-sacrificing, humble love of Christ.

That same self-sacrificing, humble love is what will unite us together as believers.

/Application: /Love is not having a nice thought or feeling for someone, nor is it doing something for a person so that they will help you later.

Love does not think about what it will get in return.

The love that should describe you and I is a humble, self-sacrificing love that does not /ever/ expect anything in return.

This is the love that unifies believer, unifies a church, and that unifies an unbeliever with Christ!

Have you been jealous, envious, hateful, bitter, angry, gossiping?

All of these things keep us from loving God properly.

Col 3:8 Put off...Col 3:12 Put on...especially love!

*II.

**Grow in Understanding, Knowledge, and Wisdom of Christ*

Paul wanted these believers of the Lycus Valley to continue growing in their understanding, knowledge, and wisdom of Christ.

He knew that the false teachers would deceive a Christian that was not established in God’s Word.

*a.

**Assurance of a Correct Understanding of Christ*

It is vital that Christians gain a clear understanding of God’s Word.

Paul wanted the believers to have all the riches and wealth from understanding Christ.

This wealth is not referring to physical riches, but to spiritual riches that are in Christ.

Those without Christ do not have the ability to understand the things of the Spirit of God; and therefore cannot have these riches.

(1 Cor.

2:14) Believers must have full assurance or a complete knowledge and trust in what they have been taught about Christ.

(Col.

1:9; Eph.

1:17-19) Understanding refers knowing Christ and His Word, and applying to every day life.

/Illustration:/ A fool touches fire because he has no understanding.

/Application: /Many people have sat in church for years and have heard about Christ, but they do not have an understanding because they have not applied those things they have learned to their life.

True understanding is not head knowledge, but it is the application of knowledge.