and whatever you do, in word or deed,
do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks to God the Father through him.
My name's Joey Follett.
I'm a pastor at the Road Church,
and we are gonna go through the book of Colossians together.
The book of Colossians is a powerful book
written by the Apostle Paul to the church in Colossae.
But before we start with the context of this book
in chapter one, I wanna begin in chapter three
with verse 17, Colossians 3, 17 says this.
And whatever you do, in word or deed,
do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Colossians 3, 17 is a favorite verse of mine,
and I think it can serve as the theme verse
for the entire book of Colossians.
Paul writes, whatever you do in word and in deed.
So that about covers it, right?
Everything you say and everything you do.
And we know that we're known by what we say and what we do,
words and actions.
There's not much more that we can be known by
than what we say and what we do.
And so Paul's saying, whatever you are doing,
whatever you are saying,
do it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Do it for him.
Point to Jesus with whatever you are doing.
Now, one could read that verse and think,
man, there's a lot of pressure
that's associated with that, right?
Everything I say and do, I have to do it for Jesus.
But I actually think there's a lot of freedom in this verse
because what's Paul saying is we can bring glory to God
with whatever we're doing, right?
So meaning you don't have to be a pastor
in a church to glorify God, right?
You don't have to work in a church.
You don't have to devote your life
to working for a ministry or a nonprofit.
We can work hard and glorify God as a lawyer,
as a doctor, as a teacher, as an athlete.
Whatever we're doing, wherever God's leading us,
whatever passions and gifts and talents he's given us,
we can do those things to glorify God.
Now, you can also do those jobs
and not bring glory to God, right?
You can even be a pastor in a church and not glorify God
if you're doing it for the wrong reasons.
But whatever you're doing, wherever you feel led,
wherever the Lord's leading you, do that thing,
do that job, do that career, use that talent to glorify him.
And Paul also says, don't forget to give thanks, right?
There's power in thanksgiving and gratitude,
and Paul often wrote about thanksgiving and gratitude.
So that verse, Colossians 3, 17,
is gonna guide us through this study
of the book of Colossians.
So let's dive in.
The context of Colossians, Paul wrote it.
I always start with who's the author of the book
if we're gonna look at any book,
study any book of the Bible, who's the author?
And not because we wanna bring too much emphasis
to the person who wrote it,
because I believe that God wrote the Bible.
God's the author of the Bible.
He used people.
It's his words.
It's also important to understand
the person behind the words, too,
as we look at the context.
So the book of Colossians was written by the apostle Paul,
probably around 62 AD,
while he was in prison in the city of Rome.
And he wrote this book to the Colossians,
more specifically, a group of Christians
living in the city of Colossae,
which was a small town,
and this would've been a small group of believers.
And he wrote this book to warn against false teaching
that was going on in Colossae,
but also to encourage them,
since they were dealing with social pressure,
to leave the faith.
So let's read the first couple of verses
of chapter one together.
Colossians 1, verse one says,
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God,
and Timothy, our brother,
to the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae,
grace to you and peace from God our Father.
So who was Paul, right?
If we're talking about Paul being the author
of the book of Colossians, who was Paul?
And I love talking about Paul.
He was known as the chief of the apostles.
Matthew Henry coined that term.
And what is an apostle?
Someone sent by Jesus.
And as we'll see here in a minute,
Paul was sent by Jesus.
He wrote about 13 or 14 of the books in the New Testament.
He started over a dozen churches.
Before he became an apostle,
he was born and given the name Saul
to a Jewish family in Tarsus, which was a Roman city.
He later became known as Paul.
He was trained at a top school in Jerusalem,
became a Pharisee, just like his father.
However, Paul, like many of the other Pharisees,
missed it when it came to Jesus, right?
They were largely behind his crucifixion.
And if you read the book of Acts,
it follows closely the ministry of Paul
and documents the years following Jesus Christ's death
and resurrection and ascension.
But Paul, as a Pharisee, spent most of his time
persecuting Christians, followers of Jesus.
He did not believe.
that Jesus was God. He believed that Jesus was just a man and so he he devoted his
life to going after these Jesus followers, persecuting them. In Acts chapter 7
we actually see Paul overseeing and approving the stoning of a young
Christian Jesus follower named Stephen. He's well known, Paul was well known in
the Christian community as a persecutor of Jesus followers and many of them
feared his name. So how do we go from that Paul who's persecuting, killing
Christians to the Paul who wrote Colossians in most of the New Testament?
Well that story is found in Acts chapter 9. In Acts 9 one says Saul was
breathing threats of murder against the disciples of the Lord. Breathing threats
of murder, yikes, that's really bad right? And if you continue reading in Acts 9
you'll see as he was doing that he was on his way to a city to persecute
Christians and Jesus stopped him and encountered him. He was stopped by a
light from heaven and a voice that said, Paul, Paul, why do you persecute me? So
Paul asked the voice to identify himself and Jesus answered him. Jesus says, I am
Jesus. So now Paul can no longer deny the deity of Christ, right? That was his
problem. He's like, Jesus wasn't actually God and these Christians are crazy
believing in Jesus and now a voice from heaven with a blinding light is
identifying that voice, is identifying himself as Jesus. So now Paul cannot deny
the deity of Christ. A man can't do that. If Jesus was just a man he wouldn't been
able to approach Paul in that way. So man can you imagine now the shame and grief
that must have filled up Paul in that moment, right? To realize how wrong he had
been. And so now he's left blind after this event. He had just been
encountered by Jesus. He's probably filled with shame and grief, not sure
what's gonna happen next. And Jesus gives him instructions to go find a man
named Ananias who was a Jesus follower. And in verse 10 of Acts 9 we're
introduced to Ananias. He was chosen by God to help Paul and minister to him and
he's definitely not excited about it at first when God said, hey, Paul's gonna
come and find you. Ananias is like, wait a minute, he doesn't like people like me.
But then in verse 15 to Ananias God says, Paul is his chosen instrument to
carry my name before the Gentiles and the kings and the children of Israel.
God called Paul his chosen instrument. You see, God saw something in Paul that
Paul didn't even know was there. God knew that Paul was capable of bringing the
gospel to all of these people and he knew what he could accomplish for the
gospel. And Paul didn't know that was there, but God saw it in him and said,
he's my chosen instrument. And God used a man named Ananias to help Paul realize
what he was capable of. Ananias, despite fear, is obedient to God. Ananias, because
of his faith, is able to help Paul. He helped heal him and restore his sight
using the power of the Holy Spirit. He baptized him and he taught him about the
grace of Jesus and the healing power of Jesus because Paul is unaware of these
things. And so Ananias was able to help him. That's the background of Paul. After
Paul's encounter with Jesus and time with Ananias, he immediately begins doing
the work that God had for him. Teaching, preaching, and healing. A complete 180.
Instead of going after followers of Jesus and persecuting them and killing
them, he's now going after Jesus, pursuing Jesus, and telling people about him.
Teaching, preaching, and healing. That's Paul, the man who wrote Colossians, the
chief of the Apostles, God's chosen instrument. So back to Colossians, this
letter written by Paul. Verse 3 says,
So three things right there. So in this, three things that Paul lays out.
Faith, hope, and love. These six verses is a prayer written specifically for the
believers in Colossae by Paul. He writes this letter, starts this letter by
praising and encouraging them. He said he's heard about their faith and hope
and love. You see, Paul had actually never been to the city of Colossae, but he was
friends with
the pastor there, and he had heard about, while he was in prison, his friend visited
him, and he'd heard about their faith and hope and love, and so he's encouraging
them. He said, hey, good job. Keep it up, right? I've heard
about your faith, your love, and your hope, and
those three things right there, those attributes, faith, love, and hope,
are fundamental to the life of a believer.
They're critical to the life of a believer. Faith
is critical. Hebrews 11 says, now faith is the assurance
of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen.
Faith can be a difficult thing for someone to have because it's believing
in something that maybe we don't fully understand or we can't fully
see. Hebrews 11 6, the same chapter, also says, without
faith it's impossible to please God, for whoever would draw
near to God must believe that he exists, and he rewards those who seek him.
Faith is fundamental to the life of a believer, and Paul's writing to these
believers, encouraging them, so he's saying, I've heard about your
faith. Keep it up. You gotta have faith. We can't please God. We can't
follow God. We can't seek God without faith in him. That's
fundamental. He also said he heard about their love,
right? 1 John 3 1 says, see what kind of love
the Father has given to us that we should be called children
of God, and so we are. Love is this trickle-down effect, right? God the Father
loved us so much he sent Jesus, and now that we are filled with that love, we
should love others. It trickles down from the Father through Jesus into us,
and we should be the extension of that love to whoever we interact with,
right? Believers in Christ, believers of Jesus
should be walking in love, showing love, demonstrating love,
and again, Paul saw that, heard about that in the church of Colossae, and he's saying,
keep it up. Keep loving people, right? And lastly, he
said he's heard about their hope. Hebrews 6 19 says, we have this as a sure
and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters the inner place.
Hope is critical to a believer, right? Because
of Jesus, we have hope. The world doesn't, and the author of Hebrews says, hope
anchors us, right? Hope anchors us. The winds of this world, the waves of
this world will try to rock us and push us and
move us around. When suffering comes, it'll push us
out to sea. When confusion of the world, of the enemy
comes, we'll get rocked and turned, but if we're
anchored to the hope in Jesus Christ, then we can't be
moved, right? So hope anchors us. It keeps us
going, because our hope isn't in things of this world which fade and
pass and are destroyed, but our hope is in something
eternal. Our hope is in Jesus Christ, who's alive
today. And Paul heard about the believers in Colossae, their hope,
and he's saying, keep it up, right? Keep walking with hope. Let it anchor you.
After that, he mentions the gospel, which is my favorite thing about Paul is
any letter he writes, he's quick to talk about the gospel. Why? Because he's
God's chosen instrument to spread the gospel. That was his job,
and he did it all the time, and he calls the gospel in this passage, he calls it
the truth, right? There's power in truth. There's freedom in truth. The gospel
is truth, and he also says the gospel is bearing fruit and increasing,
which is encouraging, and let me tell you today, that's still the truth.
The gospel is still bearing fruit and increasing around the world
as we speak. So let's make a full circle here.
We open with Colossians 3.17 as kind of the theme verse
for the book of Colossians, this letter written by Paul.
Paul lived this verse out. After his radical conversion, he did
everything in the name of Lord Jesus Christ,
and so can we. So whatever it is that you are doing, wherever you find yourself,
whatever job, career, hobby, whatever you're doing,
do it for him. Do it for God. Point to Jesus
for his glory and his name.