Pastor Pat Edwards 1/14/2007
Grace Baptist Church in Bountiful, Utah

Most of us are familiar with letters from home, letters from a parent or grandparent that are both encouraging and admonishing. Maybe some of you received that kind of letter when you were at camp or in the service or away at college or after leaving home for the first time. They were filled with expressions of love and longing and also worry and warnings. "We’re so proud of you, wear a coat when you go out, make sure you eat your vegetables. We told all the neighbors about your award, after dark be aware of strangers and check your car before getting into it. Friends who offer you drugs or try to get you drunk aren’t really friends. Go to church and say your prayers, we know you’ll do what’s right."

I don’t remember ever getting that kind of letter - probably because I never went to camp, wasn’t in the service, went to college in my home town and got married one month after I graduated from college. But as I prepared this week’s sermon I realized that in fact I have received a number of those kinds of letters, not from my ma or grandma but from my grandpa.

If you think you never got one either today I’m going to show you that you have. You’ve gotten some from your grandpa too, Grandpa Paul. In this case you need to add a whole string of greats before grandpa. I call him grandpa because most likely Paul was the spiritual father of Epaphras and Epaphras most likely was the spiritual father of the believers living in Colosse so that makes Paul their spiritual grandpa. And those believers became spiritual parents to believers who became spiritual parents to those who became spiritual parents and so on and so on until one of their descendants became a spiritual parent to some of us.

And the letter is written to us even though it’s 2000 years old because Grandpa Paul tells his Colossian grandchildren to pass the letter on to their brothers and sisters when they’re done reading it, After this letter has been read to you, see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans and that you in turn read the letter from Laodicea.4.16 It also doesn’t matter how old the letter is if the advice and sentiments are still true. Most of us like reading a letter that a relative wrote many, many years ago.

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the holy and faithful brothers in Christ at Colosse: Grace and peace to you from God our Father. We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints-the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel that has come to you. All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God's grace in all its truth. You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, and who also told us of your love in the Spirit. For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. 1.1-9

In this first part of the letter Paul reminds them that they first heard the good news from Epaphras. This probably happened while Paul was in Ephesus. In Acts 19 we are told, 8Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God. 9But some of them became obstinate; they refused to believe and publicly maligned the Way. So Paul left them. He took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. 10This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord. Apparently while he was starting the church in Ephesus Paul sent preachers to all the cities and towns of the province which included Colosse.

And what makes this letter even more special is that Paul is a prisoner in Rome when he writes it. Only at the very end of the letter does he request they remember he’s in chains. Probably all of us have a relative or friend who is a grumbler-we hate to get their letters or phone calls because we know it’s going to be a series of complaints, it’s going to be all about them and little or no interest will be shown in how our lives are going. But Paul isn’t like that; he opens his letter with praise and appreciation and hope for his grandkids. Those kinds of letters from home are really good news that please and delight us.

But as I said in the earlier letters from people who love us often include worry and warnings; worry we won’t take care of ourselves and warnings to not get involved in situations or with people who will cause us harm. So a little later in the letter we get those words of worry and warning. As I read these verses I can hear my mother’s voice. "Now you listen to me... Once you were alienated from God... But now he has reconciled you...to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation - if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel.1.21-23 I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments.2.4 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy...2.8 do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day... Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize.2.16-18 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry...you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language... Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.3.5-10

The Christians in Colosse are being deceived, lies are being taught that will rob them of their liberty and enslave them to a whole bunch of outdated or man-made rules. The source of the teaching is probably Jewish tradition and practice combined with pagan beliefs. An example is the record of a Jewish woman who was both an honorary leader of the local synagogue and a priestess of the imperial cult. Jewish teaching warned that "Phrygian wine and baths had separated the ten tribes from their fellow Jews." So Paul writes to express his personal concern, to warn them against going back to the old ways and to stop the false teaching infiltrating the church.

When we read his letter carefully and think about it we soon realize we face the same kinds of issues in the church today. All of us "were alienated from God and were enemies in (our) minds because of (our) evil behavior. We are constantly confronted with philosophies that "depend on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ." People "judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day." The world is still divided into only two categories of religion, the many that teach what we do is all important and the one that teaches that what God does is all important. It boils down to that simple distinction; life with the Lord ultimately depends on us or on him.

Thursday night we were reading the Clipper and Chris saw the obituary for Andrea, a young woman our youngest daughter had grown up with. She was a twin and I had been the girls’ soccer coach when they were all in elementary school. I can still picture their faces and the excitement of playing on those fall Saturday mornings. Nothing was said about the cause of death so we went online and typed in her name. What came up shocked us. She and her ex-husband were the couple last weekend who poured gasoline into their SUV, climbed in and ignited it. The news accounts related a long history of drug problems and the immediate prospect of prison for her. So she and her ex decided life wasn’t worth living even though they left behind a four-year old daughter.

I ask myself what were the lies that got her involved in drugs and robbed her of hope? What were the judgments of others, the rules and regulations that caused her to believe she was beyond help and beyond redemption, that God couldn’t or wouldn’t love her and forgive her - that sitting in an exploding vehicle burning to death was preferable to every other option?

I don’t know how many letters she got from home. I don’t know how often she heard words of warning or words of encouragement but I know there is always grace and always hope. We can’t blow it so bad that Jesus isn’t there for us or his grace isn’t sufficient to free us. That’s the good news Grandpa Paul shares with us. Listen to part of his letter. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.1.13-14 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.2.13-14

I hope and pray all of us sitting here this morning are experiencing the good news of God’s love and forgiveness. I think many of us could have met with Andrea and told her it’s never too late and things are never so bad that life is not worth living. Collectively we have probably committed almost every sin possible yet we are here today, forgiven and cleansed, knowing God’s love and living new lives of goodness and blessing. As we begin this sermon series on Colossians I pray that we will remember what we are reading and studying is simply a letter from home, a letter that warns us of the evil in life that would rob us of all of life’s goodness but most importantly one that tells us we are loved and cherished and the Lord can’t wait until we’re all together at home.