GYC 2014: At The Cross

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

Colossians: A Church at the Cross

Skip Dodson

1. The Nature of the Church

This message was presented at the GYC 2014 conference at the Cross in Phoenix, Arizona.

For other resources like this, visit us online at www.gycweb.org.

Just a couple of, well just 1 significant announcement for those of you who have friends that might want to catch some of this seminar as well.

I'm actually not going to be repeating sessions.

So if you have friends that want to catch any of those, or if you're thinking that, you know, some of this will be repeated, it actually won't be.

You know, they gave me the Book of Colossians to cover in 6 presentations.

I mean, you know, you could spend weeks on this, but, you know, so there was no way I could structure this so that we would repeat, so that, you know, you could catch other things.

So before we get started, let's just pray together, ask God's blessing on our time.

Father in heaven, we're grateful this morning for the privilege of considering this momentous book in the New Testament.

Short, only 4 chapters, but Father, pregnant with relevance for our generation today.

And Lord, I just put before you this group and the others that will be attending later today.

We ask that your spirit would speak to our hearts.

Give me the words to speak, I pray in the name of Jesus and for his sake, amen.

All right, so This is the initial presentation on the book of Colossians.

Thanks for all of you who are here with us.

Just to give you a brief overview, first of all, we'll be dealing with the church in total.

Of course, I've borrowed the organizing theme total as the GYC folks have been talking about, you know, total surrender, total sacrifice, etc.

So the church in total will be dealing with Colossians chapter 1, verses 1 through 12, and the question we'll answer in that presentation, this initial 1, is what did the New Testament church look like?

Where did the New Testament church put its focus?

And that, of course, again, will speak to us.

What should we be focusing on in our generation?

Colossians 1, 24 to 29 will deal with the question, why does the church exist?

And then, our last presentation today, this afternoon, Colossians chapter 2, what dangers did the Colossian Church face and what does that tell us today about the dangers we might be facing?

Then tomorrow we'll be dealing with the Christian experience within the Church at Colossae?

What did it look like to be a member of that church?

Colossians chapter 3, verse 1 through 4, verse 6.

And then finally, what kind of people make a difference in the church?

Colossians chapter 4 verses 7 through 18, total recall.

Paul recalls all the people that were influential in the Colossian Church and why.

You know, we often skip over, just to say a brief word about that last presentation, we often are tempted to skip over those last parts of Paul's letters where he talks about the individuals that are involved in the church, please don't do that in your Bible study.

You can learn a lot of lessons and gain a lot of insights through reading about the individual people that make up the church.

So, a blueprint we find in the book of Colossians.

This was something I, a couple of things I discovered as I was studying this book.

First of all, of course, In the book of Colossians, and you probably know this already, but Colossae and Laodicea are linked together twice in the book of Colossians.

They're linked together in chapter 2, and Paul again brings up Laodicea in chapter 4.

Since our generation of church history has been given the label of Laodicea, anything that the Bible says about Laodicea ought to be something that we take seriously, right?

And Paul mentions this, as I said, a couple of times in the Book of Colossians.

Going beyond that, you see this quotation on the screen from Ellen White's writings.

The first and second chapters of Colossians have been presented to me.

Now, well, you know when she says that, you got to take that seriously, right?

How many think we need to take that seriously?

Have this has been presented to me, she says.

The first and second chapters of Colossians have been presented to me as an expression of what our churches were.

No, in every part of the world should be.

So in Colossians you find a blueprint endorsed by the spirit of prophecy as to what our Seventh-day Adventist churches should look like in every part of the world.

That means in Africa, in Asia, in Australia, in North America, and in Europe, all the churches in the world ought to have these characteristics that we're going to describe in Colossians chapter 1 and Colossians chapter 2.

And of course, there are things to be learned for us throughout the book.

That's why I believe the GYC leadership wanted Colossians to be studied at this particular conference.

So let's get right into the book of Colossians.

I will have most of the scriptures on the screen.

I'll be relying on the King James Version predominantly.

So we'll get right into Colossians chapter 1, verse 1.

Paul begins, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God and Timotheus, our brother.

To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ, which are at Colossae, grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." I want to just make a couple of points about this initial, these initial verses.

By the way, again, how many of you think, how many of you believe what the Bible says about every word being important in the Bible?

Do you think that the Bible wastes words?

Do you think Paul wasted time saying things just to fill up pages?

So when we look at these, even the first verse of Colossians, we can find out something about the New Testament Church.

And I would like to suggest that by this phrase, and I have it underlined here and bolded, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by what means, friends?

In my classroom, when I ask my students a question, I expect that they will respond.

You know, we have a big room here, and a room for more people, by the way, but if you want to respond, that's okay.

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

It implies that Paul's apostleship was the result of God's planning and action.

In the New Testament Church, everyone, who's calling the shots?

You cannot ever get the impression that it was political processes that were moving that church.

2. The Focus of the Church

We have lots, you know, I would really prefer if some of you would come up a little bit closer.

Let's pray, though, and we'll get right into our next session.

Father in heaven, we are thankful, so thankful for the opportunity to consider Colossians over the next couple of days.

This small letter, so rich with truth, so important in our current thinking and the challenges that we're facing today as a people.

Lord, I don't have the wisdom to explicate this book.

And those who are hearing, even if they're just listening on audio verse somewhere, they don't have the wisdom to understand.

Lord, we need your Spirit to give us the understanding and teach us how to act in accordance with what we hear.

Thank you for hearing our prayer again this morning.

So last hour we considered the church in total.

We looked at general characteristics of the Colossian church.

So now we're going to shift gears and start into the doctrinal meat of Colossians.

And the title of this presentation is Total Focus, Colossians chapter 1, verses 13 through 23.

There are, in verse 13 and 14, 3 main ideas.

So I'd like to, again, let's read these 2 verses together.

Even those of you who wear glasses should be able to see the words on the screen.

Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins." So there are 3 points here.

So you have here the picture of a conqueror who is liberating a people.

Have you ever noticed how much of that motif you see in the Bible?

God portrays himself as a conquering king, coming to liberate a people who are in bondage under an unjust oppressor, and he's going to repatriate us in a different kingdom, a new location.

So notice it says, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness.

The rescue here is from an opposing power that was holding us against our will.

If you're a believer, you are not here in this world willingly, except, of course, to conduct mission work.

That's the only reason why we're still here in the world anyway, isn't it?

Because there's still mission work to do.

The minute that's over, He will come again.

So the power of darkness is holding us against our will, and it's called the power of darkness.

Now again, for those of you who weren't here in the earlier session, I'm a teacher, and when I ask class questions, I would like to have an answer.

They probably won't pick it up on the recording, right?

Why is the power of darkness called the power of darkness?

Okay, so it's the opposite of light, yeah.

What's, if we were to turn, there's no windows in this room.

If we were to turn off all the lights, take away that exit sign, take away that light there behind the panel, how would it be, and let's say we scattered all the chairs around this room in a random order, randomly, everywhere there was chairs just scattered around.

Sister, would you like to walk through this room?

You wouldn't be able to see and you would be falling over stuff, right?

And that's why Satan's power is called the power of darkness because it is cloaked in deception and secrecy.

He doesn't want you to know anything that he's doing.

In fact, he's trying to convince you that you're in a different reality than what's actually going on.

That's why it's called the power of darkness.

Because it's clothed in all kinds of lies about God.

So Jesus, it says, has delivered us from the power of darkness.

How many of you like to say amen to that today?

He's delivered us from the power of darkness.

It says he has already, according to verse 13, translated us into the kingdom of his dear son.

Friends, we are no longer citizens of this world, but of the heavenly kingdom because Jesus has sacrificed his own life, bought and paid our and signed our immigration papers with his own blood.

We are going to be repatriated somewhere else, not this sinful fallen world that we live in now.

Of course, the challenge is we still live in this world and though we are citizens of another place.

So what does that mean about our status in this world?

I want you to think again of the conquering king motif.

Is the prince of this world allied or an enemy of the kingdom of which we are now citizens.

So that means we live in what kind of territory?

3. The Purpose of the Church

Well, friends, we can, we will start, it's 2.01, so we're 1 minute past time, but I do want to start now and get things rolling.

I'm sure we'll have a few more coming in as the thing progresses.

As I was standing up there with all the rest of the seminar presenters and so on, I picked out about 5 probably that I really wanted to go to.

So the great thing is we can listen to them on AudioVerse, and I hope that all of you will avail yourselves of that resource.

What a blessing that ministry is to many people.

So let's just take a moment to pray, And I invite you to kneel if you're able.

I'm going to just stand so that I can have amplification, not so much for your sake, but for the sake of the people that are listening in later.

Dear Father, we are so grateful for the privilege that we have of studying your Word together during this convocation.

I pray that your Spirit would guide and direct us.

Lord, You know I have no wisdom to impart of myself.

Lord, the people who are listening to this, whether they're here in the hall or somewhere else listening to the recording, Father, they have no wisdom either.

None of us has anything except what we gain from you.

And so I ask you to send your Holy Spirit here in a powerful way.

Lord, take this time and use it to the benefit and edification of your people.

We ask this in Jesus name and for his sake, amen.

All right, so I have my Bible program right up here on the screen.

This is not the keynote presentation, but in order to have continuity from this morning, we need to understand where we are on the roadmap of Colossians.

We're still in the first chapter and we'll be expanding the content as we get into the last 3 sessions.

We'll do chapter 2 by itself And then most of chapter, all of chapter 3 and a little bit of chapter 4, and then a final session in chapter 4.

But to begin, let's pick up the thread where we left it last time.

We talked about Paul revealing the purpose of why Jesus came to this world.

And he does so very clearly in the book of Colossians, by the way.

He says, "...and having made peace through the blood of his cross by him to reconcile all things unto himself, by him I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven." So we talked about that a little bit, how their great controversy demonstrates for us that the plan of redemption was not solely for the sake and benefit of humanity, but for unfallen worlds all over this universe, and angels who still had questions and doubts in their minds after Lucifer's rebellion had come to fruition in heaven.

There is this element of reconciling things not only on earth but also in heaven.

I think it's a very important point and so it bears repeating.

But then also Paul continues, he says, and you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he in the body of his flesh reconciled you through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight." So the purpose of the plan of redemption was to reconcile things on earth, reconcile things in heaven, but there's a personal application, and that's what we finished off with this past hour, was the fact that us personally, we personally need to make a response to what Jesus did.

And of course, the basis of that response is accepting what he did by faith, and verse 23, he says, "...if ye continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven, whereof I, Paul, am made a minister." So we finished right there this morning.

So Paul's speaking there now of his own ministry.

And so we'll go from there, from verse 23, into our presentation, which begins with verse 24.

Let me do just 1 thing before we do that.

Again, Paul here is speaking of himself, speaking of his own ministry now.

Because he's spoken about the earth, and he's spoken about heaven and the effect that the cross of Christ has had on earth and in heaven, and now he speaks, after he addresses us personally by saying, and you, now he is going to speak about his own ministry and the effect that the cross of Christ has had on him.

So verse 24, he says, who now rejoice in my sufferings for you?

When I ask questions, I expect you to answer.

He says, who now rejoice in my sufferings for you and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church.

Okay, so notice that ministry is rooted in sacrifice.

Nobody was forcing Paul to do anything, but in fact he says, I rejoice in my sufferings for you.

What is it that can make someone rejoice in sufferings?

Now let me ask you this, How many of you have suffered anything recently?

Anybody has, has anyone been sick recently?

If you've been sick recently, you probably weren't rejoicing in being infirmed.

Some of us have aches and pains or injuries that bother us or other things.

Typically those are not occasions of rejoicing.

However, Paul speaks here of his sufferings for the sake of Christ's ministry as being something that he could rejoice in.

You know, If you search the New Testament, there is 1 thing that you will not find very much of.

In fact, I would be challenged to come up with a single example of it if you were to ask me.

And it's something that you see all over the Old Testament in the books of Exodus and Numbers and so on.

Something God's people did in the Old Testament that they don't do in the New Testament.

But there's a, there's a response that they had in the Old Testament when they were brought out of Egypt.

They had the sanctuary tabernacle going around with them.

God was doing great things for those people.

He had done great things for them already by delivering them.

And so often, every time you turn around in the book of Exodus and Numbers and so on, What do you find the people doing?

Yeah, they eat and drink and rose up to play.

I would invite you to consider something.

Look at the New Testament and show me where God's people in the New Testament murmured.

Where did they say, oh, if we could only go back to Egypt and have the leeks and the onions and the flesh pots.

That was the big thing back then in the Exodus, right?

But in the New Testament, you don't find that kind of murmuring and complaining.

I can't think of anybody in the New Testament who whines.

4. The Dangers of the Church

Well, I want to keep to our time as much as possible.

Thanks gentlemen for being here this afternoon and for the rest of you who are coming.

Let's take a moment to pray again and ask God's blessing.

So I would invite you, if it's practical for you to do so, to kneel.

I'll remain standing just for the sake of the amplification.

I think probably the recording people would like to have the prayer on the recording too.

But let's kneel together if that's practical for you.

Father in heaven, we thank you for the privilege we have again of considering yet another chapter in the book of Colossians.

Lord, as we explore chapter 2, momentous issues are present here.

We ask that your Holy Spirit will be giving us the wisdom that we need to rightly consider these things and to take the appropriate action.

So this morning we had the church in total, we had total focus, and we discovered that first the church in total was, you know, the characteristics of the church in Colossae and the New Testament church in general there in just the first 12 verses of the book.

And then the total focus of the church was Christ's person and work.

We saw that in chapter 1 verses 13 to 23.

And then total purpose was revealed in 24 through 28 of Colossians chapter 1.

And now we venture into chapter 2 and deal with total protection.

And I say this because there are many people today who are doing spiritual extreme Sports.

This is actually, this is not a, Mathias, this is not a picture of when we went to iFly San Francisco.

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Colossians: A Church at the Cross

1. The Nature of the Church

Transcript

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