Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

We are going to dive right into the text of Colossians.

We have 95 verses to cover (don’t worry, not all today) in the next few weeks as the Lord gives us.

Thanks for allowing me to lay the foundation last week.

It is important to do that so that we can get a feel for the Colossian situation before we can apply it to ours.

The title of our message today is, “The Supremacy Declared: The Supremacy of the Gospel, Part 1.”

The title of our series is “The Born Supremacy: Restoring His Rule in Our Lives.”

My prayer is that during and after this series we will have a deep head-heart-hands understanding of the supremacy of Jesus Christ.

That’s the theme of this book: The total supremacy and complete sufficiency for Jesus Christ.

The bigger view we have of the Lord Jesus, the better perspective we will have of life and the purpose of it.

I believe most of our problems stem from the fact that we have a small view of Christ and a big view of ourselves.

We don’t pray like John the Baptist, “He must increase and I must decrease” (John 3:30).

May that change as we meet Christ in this book!

*Prayer*

Who has ever been to a victory parade?

I have never been to one, but whenever I watch a sports parade on tv, I can’t believe the number of people that show up rooting for their teams in their city.

It is an exciting time and if you are lucky, you can get a good shot of your favorite players.

(Show slides).

There is a sense of supremacy about it.

Our team is number one!

We have the trophy to prove it.

We are talked about all over the world.

There is no team like our team.

Victory parades are not anything new.

Do you know in biblical times, there would be battles.

And

everybody in the city would be waiting to hear news from the battlefield.

There wasn’t any tv or internet, obviously, but they did have messengers.

After a great battle, everyone just waited around when all of a sudden there on the horizon, the messenger would appear, returning to the city from the battlefield.

“He would come flying into the city and usually by his appearance it would become very, very obvious what the news was.

If his face was shining, if his spear was decked with a laurel wreath, if his head had a wreath on it and he was swinging a palm branch then joy would automatically fill the city and he would cry out We had won.

And the word that is used to describe that is euangelion, the good news, the news of victory.

And that is indeed the gospel.

It is the news of victory.”

(John Macarthur)

Today we are going to look at the supremacy of the gospel.

There is nothing like the gospel of Jesus Christ in the world.

Nothing else has solved the problem of sin and death and no one is like Jesus in his life, death and resurrection.

We are going to find out what is so supreme about the gospel, but did you know it is a word found 97x in the New Testament and most of the references have to do with our responsibility to the gospel:

1.       Proclaim it like Jesus did (Matt.

4:23; Mark 16:15)

2.       Defend it like Paul (Phil.

1:17)

3.       Labor~/Work at it (Phil.

1:27)

4.       Enjoy the fellowship of it (Phil.

1:5)

5.       Suffer for it (2 Tim.

1:8)

6.       Don’t be ashamed of it (Rom.

1:16)

7.       Don’t hinder it (1 Cor.

9:12)

8.       We are divinely empowered to proclaim it (1 Thess.

1:5)

It is the message of the Bible!

 

*I.

**Introduction (Col.

1:1-2)*

We will go fairly quickly through the first two verses, which is a typical Pauline introduction.

Actually all letters in that day pretty much followed the same pattern, though Paul Christianizes it as well as modifies it for the congregation that will receive the letter.

Such introductions had a function similar to that of business cards in today’s professional world.

Business cards make introductions and help to establish relationships with potential clients.

The pattern is author, recipients and greeting.

a)   /Author/: Paul.

His Jewish name is Saul, but Jews in Greek-speaking areas often took Greek names that sounded close to their Hebrew names.

Remember Paul had never been to Colossae (2:1).

This is why he says, “we heard” about it (1:4).

A man by the name of Epaphras had been converted through Paul’s ministry in Ephesus and had brought the gospel back to Colossae (1:4, 7-9).

Epaphras went to Rome, where Paul was in prison, to get help when false teachers had infiltrated the congregation.

He starts off with the title, “apostle of Christ Jesus.”

Quick survey of Paul:

1.       Jewish, but also had Roman citizenship

2.       Formerly a Pharisee (Phil.

3:5)

3.       Persecutor of the church—watched Stephen die

4.       After a miraculous conversion on the road to Damascus, he became a tireless missionary, powerful preacher of the gospel and writer of over 50% of the NT and still influences the world today for Jesus Christ.

5.       We may imagine Paul as this tall well-built powerful long-haired preacher.

But actually there is description of how Paul actually looked:

A description of Paul’s personal appearance has come down to us from a very early book called /The Acts of Paul and Thecla/, which dates back to about A. D. 200.

It is so unflattering that it may well be true.

It describes Paul as “a man of little stature, thin-haired upon the head, crooked in the legs, of good state of body, with eyebrows meeting, and with nose somewhat hooked, full of grace, for sometimes he appeared like a man and sometimes he had the face of an angel.”

A little, balding, bandy-legged man, with a hooked nose and shaggy eyebrows—it is not a very impressive picture, and it may well be that the Corinthians made great play with it.

[1]

By calling himself as an apostle, he is calling attention to his authority.

An apostle is literally, “one who is sent on a mission.”

While He was ministering on earth, Jesus had many /disciples /(“learners”), and from these He selected 12 /Apostles /(Mark 3:13–19).

To write a letter as an apostle is equivalent to saying that the author of the letter is God Himself.

If you and I read letters which come from the IRS or the government, surely we should pay careful attention to a letter which originated from God.

Paul is saying that he is an official representative of Jesus Christ.

Apostles today?

Acts 1: 20-25 sets forth the qualification for an office.

1) Chosen by Jesus during earthly ministry 2) eyewitness of the Resurrection.

3) and he did possess special miraculous powers given to authenticate apostles

(2 Cor.

12:12; cf.

Heb.

2:3-4).[2]

We don’t have the office of the apostle today, but we are all apostles in the sense that we are sent on a mission.

Jesus said “Go” not “Sit.”

Not called to keep score and watch the game, but to get out on the field and play.

But Paul is careful to say that he is apostle “by the will of God.”

He had attained his high office neither through */aspiration/ *(see Acts 9:11), nor through */usurpation/* — that was not like Paul! —, nor yet through */nomination/* by other men (Gal.

1:1, 16, 17), but by *divine* */preparation/* (Gal.

1:15, 16), having been set apart and qualified by the activity of God’s sovereign will (I Cor.

1:1; II Cor.

1:1; Gal.

1:1; Eph.

1:1; II Tim.

1:1; cf.

Rom.