Latest / A Chapter a Day Bible Reading / February 19 - Colossians 1

Transcript

February 19 - Colossians 1 · A Chapter a Day Bible Reading

• 0:12
  Hello friends. It's shown here.
• 0:14
  It is the 19th of February. It's Monday.
• 0:18
  It's a new week and you have chosen in the midst of whatever
• 0:22
  the heck is going on in your life to tap on playing.
• 0:26
  Say, come on Sean, squeeze into my day, Let's read the Bible
• 0:29
  together. And that's just what we're going
• 0:31
  to do. And we are in for a treat this
• 0:34
  week. This week, over the next four
• 0:36
  days, we are going to read the Book of Colossians in its
• 0:40
  entirety. And I don't think I've fully
• 0:43
  appreciated how epic Colossians is in the past, but I'm making
• 0:47
  up for it now. I love this book.
• 0:49
  This book was written by our mate Paul to the church in
• 0:53
  Colossae. Now, Paul had never even been
• 0:55
  there. You know, the way Paul worked
• 0:57
  was he went to a major centre and he trained up all of these
• 1:01
  people there around him and then sent them back to their
• 1:04
  hometowns to build churches. And he did that with a guy named
• 1:07
  Epaphras, classic name back in the day.
• 1:10
  And Epaphras built up this church in Colossae.
• 1:13
  And as that church grew, unfortunately, they started to
• 1:18
  lose their nerve. And they thought, maybe it's not
• 1:22
  just about the stuff that Paul has taught Epaphras, who's
• 1:25
  taught us about this Jesus character.
• 1:28
  Maybe we also need to include some of our Pagan superstitions
• 1:32
  and some of the other ideas and traditions from Judaism, which
• 1:37
  they thought we might just throw that in as well.
• 1:40
  And Paul refers to this as the problem in Colossae.
• 1:44
  And the thing that I like best friend.
• 1:45
  And the thing which makes this book so epic is instead of
• 1:49
  dealing with all the things that they're doing wrong, the way he
• 1:52
  goes about managing this is he says, I'm going to tell you the
• 1:57
  truth, not the heresy, not the other stuff that you're worrying
• 2:00
  about. I'm going to start with the
• 2:01
  truth and I'm going to tell you how central and sufficient
• 2:07
  Christ is to everything you need.
• 2:10
  So this book is 4 chapters examining that Jesus is the
• 2:15
  heart, and not just the heart, but everything that we need in
• 2:18
  our spiritual life. So this is a cracker.
• 2:22
  Let us begin reading through it, as today we unwrap this book and
• 2:27
  read together Colossians Chapter One.
• 2:40
  This letter is from Paul's chosen by the will of God to be
• 2:45
  an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Timothy.
• 2:49
  We are writing to God's holy people in the city of Colossae
• 2:53
  who are faithful brothers and sisters in Christ.
• 2:56
  May God our Father give you grace and peace.
• 3:00
  We always pray for you, and we give thanks to God the Father of
• 3:04
  our Lord Jesus Christ. For we have heard of your faith
• 3:07
  in Christ Jesus and your love for all of God's people, which
• 3:12
  come from your confident hope of what God has reserved for you in
• 3:16
  heaven. But you had this expectation
• 3:19
  ever since you first heard the truth of the Good News.
• 3:23
  This same good news that came to you is going out all over the
• 3:27
  world. It is bearing fruit everywhere
• 3:30
  by changing lives, just as it changed your lives from the day
• 3:34
  you first heard and understood the truth about God's wonderful
• 3:38
  grace. You learned about the good News
• 3:41
  from Epaphras, our beloved coworker.
• 3:44
  He is Christ's faithful servant and He is helping us on your
• 3:49
  behalf. He has told us about the love
• 3:52
  for others that the Holy Spirit has given you, so we have not
• 3:56
  stopped praying for you since we first heard about you.
• 3:59
  We ask God to give you complete knowledge of His will and to
• 4:04
  give you spiritual wisdom and understanding.
• 4:08
  Then the way you live will always honour and please the
• 4:10
  Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good
• 4:14
  fruit. All the while you will grow as
• 4:17
  you learn to know God better and better.
• 4:21
  We also pray that you will be strengthened with all His
• 4:24
  glorious power, so you will have all the endurance and patience
• 4:28
  you need. May you be filled with joy,
• 4:32
  always thanking the Father, He has enabled you to share in the
• 4:36
  inheritance that belongs to His people who live in the light.
• 4:40
  For He has rescued us from the Kingdom of darkness and
• 4:43
  transferred us into the Kingdom of His dear Son, who purchased
• 4:48
  our freedom and forgave our sins.
• 4:52
  Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.
• 4:57
  He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all
• 5:01
  creation. For through him God created
• 5:05
  everything in the heavenly realms and on earth.
• 5:09
  He made the things we can see and the things we can't see,
• 5:13
  such as Thrones, kingdoms, rulers and authorities in the
• 5:17
  unseen world. Everything was created through
• 5:21
  Him and for Him. He existed before anything else,
• 5:27
  and He holds all creation together.
• 5:31
  Christ is also the head of the Church, which is His body.
• 5:36
  He is the beginning supreme over all who rise from the dead.
• 5:41
  So He is first in everything. For God, in all his fullness was
• 5:47
  pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled
• 5:53
  everything to himself. He made peace with everything in
• 5:57
  heaven and on earth by means of Christ's blood on the cross.
• 6:04
  This includes you who were once far away from God.
• 6:08
  You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts
• 6:13
  and actions. Yet now He has reconciled you to
• 6:18
  himself through the death of Christ in His physical body.
• 6:23
  As a result, He has brought you into His own presence, and you
• 6:29
  are holy and blameless as you stand before Him without a
• 6:34
  single fault. But you must continue to believe
• 6:38
  this truth and stand firmly in it.
• 6:42
  Don't drift away from the assurance you received when you
• 6:45
  heard the good news. The good news has been preached
• 6:49
  all over the world, and I, Paul, have been appointed as God's
• 6:54
  servant to proclaim it. I'm glad when I suffer for you
• 7:00
  in my body, for I'm participating in the sufferings
• 7:03
  of Christ that continue for His body, The Church.
• 7:08
  God has given me the responsibility of serving His
• 7:11
  Church by proclaiming His entire message to you.
• 7:16
  This message was kept secret for centuries and generations past,
• 7:21
  but now it has been revealed to God's people.
• 7:25
  For God wanted them to know that the riches and glory of Christ
• 7:30
  after you, Gentiles too, and this is the secret Christ lives
• 7:38
  in you. This gives you assurance of
• 7:41
  sharing His glory. So we tell others about Christ,
• 7:46
  warning everyone and teaching everyone with all the wisdom God
• 7:50
  has given us. We want to present them to God,
• 7:54
  perfect in their relationship to Christ.
• 7:57
  That's why I work and struggle so hard, depending on Christ's
• 8:03
  mighty power that works within me.
• 8:18
  Our Lord, we thank you for these words, and we thank you of the
• 8:24
  confidence that Paul communicates with when he tells
• 8:27
  us and that church in Colossae that you, Jesus, you are the
• 8:33
  visible image of the invisible God.
• 8:38
  You enable us to know the Father and to know that he is a God of
• 8:43
  love and compassion, a God of presence, and a God of
• 8:49
  vulnerability, which just blows our minds.
• 8:51
  But that's who you are, Jesus. Thank you for this incredible
• 9:00
  gift of yourself and your sufficiency for every need that
• 9:06
  we have now and will ever have. We can find everything we need
• 9:13
  in you. You truly are just the most
• 9:17
  incredible God, and we praise you and we thank you.
• 9:22
  And it's in your holy name that we can pray.
• 9:25
  All of these things. I'm in.