Firmly Established, Col, 1:21-23
Colossians 1:21-23 · Vern Peterman · Aug 29, 2004
Ephesians & Colossians, No. 33
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4826231211798

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. Now we'll move into this book, Colossians chapter 1, verses 21 through 23. And we realize we've been going through Ephesians for a while here, so we have to ask the question, where are we? And we're right here. How about that? We're right here.

We've been studying Ephesians and Colossians since the last Sunday in December of last year. And since that time, we've studied through Colossians chapter 1, the first 20 verses, and we've studied entirely through the first and second chapters of Ephesians and Colossians. So now I'm sure you've gotten all memorized, right? There it is, right there. Pick it up quick in case you need to fill any holes there in your memory. Now, since we're moving from Ephesians to Colossians, however, I need to have you say goodbye to Ephesians for a little bit here. and move over instead into Colossians, where we're going to be working at these verses, Colossians 1, 21 through 23. Okay. So with that, I just want to ask, are we sufficiently reoriented in order that we can move into Colossians 1, 21? I just want to know. Are we reoriented sufficiently? Okay. All right. Ephesians chapter 2, 1 through 3, we studied that some weeks ago, right?

That's been a little while, but we studied it some weeks ago. At that time, we put in Colossians 121 because there were some parallels and we made note of those. And one of those, as we looked at that, was this word formerly, as it shows up in the New American Standard, or sometimes things like that are used in the King James. But nonetheless, in the Greek, this word translated formerly twice in that passage, and now in Colossians 121, is the same word. The Greek word is pate.

It has nothing to do with that chopped liver stuff. And so that was a connection. There's another connection. The word mind that we saw as we went through Ephesians 2, verse 3, is the same word that we'll be seeing here this morning in Colossians 121. So there's a connection there. So now are we sufficiently introduced between the two? Are we? I see a little chuckling, so I'm wondering. Okay, all right. Well, let's take a look here.

Here's Ephesians 4. We haven't gotten there yet, but there's another Ephesians-Colossians connection. One of the things this word mind and understanding, either the same or a related word, is that word mind in Colossians 121. So there's a connection there. and excluded and alienated. Those are the same or similar Greek words. And deeds and practice from those two passages, those are the same or similar words. So now have we got a good enough connection? Have we made a connection between those two? So now are we sufficiently oriented between that connection between Ephesians and Colossians? Does that help? Are we there? Okay. Alright.

Back in April, April 18th through the 2nd, we studied Colossians 1, 15 through 20. Remember that? You got it all memorized, of course. Now, this was what we were studying, and remember we had all these colored words because it appeared that Paul had written actually the words of a hymn there in Colossians. And so when we finished verse 20, we were right on the brink of this verse we're going to start here today. And so we studied 19 and 20, and it reads like this.

It was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross. Through Him, I say, were there things on earth or things in heaven." In this word, reconcile all things to Himself, that's the general statement, isn't it? All things to Himself.

Now, what does he do there in this next passage we're looking at in verse 22? Now he says, let's go from the general to the specific. Hey, you folks in the church in Colossae, he's reconciled you. So he goes from the general to the specific. Now he's made a connection there in the last part of the passage we were looking at before into this word that we see, reconciled, in the passage here this morning. So now are we sufficiently introduced? Are we connected there between the two passages? We got that?

Good. All right. Okay. Now let's look at this thing. All right. You have in your handout, and by the way, if you're joining us for the first time this morning, the way it works is this, this little number here in the corner, that has nothing to do with the lottery. Okay? It's the page number on your handout. So you can stay with us and track with us. And as we tell folks if they're coming here for the first time, if you see a slide and there's no page number in the corner and you want to keep that, write really fast. Either that or get your camera out, because that's not on your handout.

He says, although you were formerly alienated. So those words we want to take a look at. The you, he's talking about the believers there in Colossae, in their prior position and identity when they were unbelievers. Obviously their history has been changed to the history of Christ, but this is before they believed. This was their status. So he's describing the way they were before they were believers.

And here we see this word formerly, which we pointed out before. And the King James there has some time. And so the question is, have you been formerly introduced? We brought up this kind of question before. It's from the Greek word pate. A simple word, simple enough.

And he uses this word a number of times in the Book of Ephesians. As a matter of fact, even having gone through the first two chapters, you'll notice we've got another time where it's going to show up again. Here in Colossians 121, he's going to use it again as we go through the Book of Colossians in parallel with Ephesians. In each of these instances, and in some other letters that we find, the word pate is used as a dividing line referring to the time before coming to belief in Christ.

And just as a reminder, this has nothing to do with that choplifters stuff. This is the Greek word. Now, although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, so this has to do with unbelievers, right? You as unbelievers were formerly alienated. So we need to ask the question, are unbelievers alienated? Yes, they are. Not quite like that, though. Okay. Alienated. Here, this word is apolatreao.

We saw it in Ephesians 2.12. Here it is a perfect tense verb. And what does that mean? Remember when we brought that up before, the perfect tense is a completed past action with ongoing results into the future.

So, this alienation, were it not for God's intervention, would have continued. The perfect tense also implies a permanence lacking God's intervention. So it would have been an ongoing, continuing, permanent condition were it not for God's gracious intervention in the lives of those who believe. So he says, that was your state were it not for God's intervention in which you would have remained. You were stuck in it were it not for God's intervention.

Now, we come across this word here in Colossians 121. You see it in the bottom half there. You were formerly alienated. It's the same word used in this passage we referred to in Ephesians 4, 17 through 19. And there he gives a little bit more information about what that word alienated means. So this I say and affirm together with the Lord that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk in the futility of their mind being darkened in their understanding, excluded, same Greek word behind that, English word, excluded from the life of God.

John 10, 27 and 28 brings the point across. Here's Jesus. He is speaking with the Jewish leaders and He's getting a point across to them and He says it this way, My sheep, that is those that believe in Me and are therefore a part of My flock, My sheep hear My voice. and I know them and they follow me, and I give eternal life to them. And the Greek has a present tense there which conveys this idea.

I am constantly giving life to them. Constantly giving life to them. The point that we want to bring out of this is it is a big issue and not a small one whether the life that we're depending upon is the one we cook up He wants His life in us or His life. Our very best efforts is not what God is wanting and desiring and asking for. He wants His life in us and His life alone.

As we look at Galatians 2.20, the point comes across as well.

Paul writes and he says, I have been crucified with Christ. Crucified? Yes. I have been crucified with Christ But Christ lives in me. Reinforcing the same point, isn't he? From Paul's perspective. Jesus says, I am constantly giving them life. Paul says, the life that I live is his. It's his life. Colossians 3, 1-4 conveys the same idea. Christ our life in verse 4.

Now, this word alienated is there, now also this word hostile, the King James has it, enemies, and that's a very good translation as well. The Greek there is ekthros, okay? We were, as unbelievers, and the unbeliever now, stand in spiritual opposition to God, and this is actively hostile. Actively hostile. Actively so, and by character hostile. to God, alienated from Him.

Romans 8.7 conveys this idea, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile, same idea, ekthros, enemies toward God. There is built-in fundamental conflict by nature. That's what he's pointing to.

Galatians 5.17 says it this way, For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God, and the Holy Spirit of God against the flesh. For these two are in opposition. Antikemai, set against in fixed opposition. Not just a little bit of tussling here. Absolutely, completely, in perpetuity, in opposition to one another. Irreconcilable. So now, where's the hostility? Is it just outside?

No. The hostility is fixed in the mind. That's this word, dianoia. It's the same word for mind that we saw in Ephesians 2.3, and we pointed out before. This is the active mind. In some places, it's even translated imagination. It's the mind in gear. This is the mind in gear.

We want to take a look at the connection between this mind that is hostile and this engaged in evil deeds. By wicked works is what the King James has it. The phrase is the outward demonstration and expression of the unbeliever who is alienated from God and hostile in mind. We'll call them mental enemies. The diagram would go like this, and you have a similar one in your handout. The diagram goes like this. The hostile mind, and that mind is Deanoia, that is what the unbelieving mind is stuck in.

I had an instance one time where I had a friend who had built a go-kart, and he overlooked something. He put a transmission in it, which he thought was a real improvement, but he put it in backwards, it had one speed forward and three speeds in reverse, which was a little bit strange. You could go very fast in reverse, which is kind of an odd way to drive. But the problem is, if you wanted to go forward, there was one gear. And this is the way the mind of the unbeliever is. It's a one-speed transmission. You're going in one gear, that's it. This is the mind of the unbeliever. It is a transmission stuck. in one single gear, and that is hostile to God.

Now, what Paul is spelling out in this verse is that hostile mind, that mind set in hostility, expresses itself, and that expression of the hostile mind is in evil works. So now we have the nature of the mind, its character, its active hostility, its vain imagining, What does it think of? What does it conjure up? The basis for the actions comes from the mind that is hostile. Therefore, the evil works that come out of it are not just, oops, look what I did, but an expression of the very character of the mind.

Now, we have this little fellow here. Somebody got a picture of that. My guess is they took it with a telephoto lens. But here's this crocodile. Why do I show a crocodile up front there? First of all, notice, if you look at the details, it looks like it's in somebody's garage. Too bad for them. I wouldn't want it in mine. But the point is this.

What do you expect out of this crocodile but crocodile behavior? You don't come up to it and say, nice kitty kitty, okay? And why not? You know, looking at it, by golly, this thing is a crocodile. And you know what it does? It behaves like a crocodile.

It does exactly the sort of things that is natural for crocodiles to do. And therefore, I'm not going to go up and say, nice kitty, kitty. I'm not going to pet it because of its very nature, I expect it to behave like a crocodile. Nobody has to come up to a crocodile and say, now be a crocodile. It's the way a crocodile is. And that's the way with the hostile mind of the unbeliever. It is by nature hostile, and that hostile nature then expresses itself in evil works. It's like the crocodile analogy. It does exactly what its nature says to.

Now, so what kind of works are there? There are lots of works that fall short. We have evil works, as we see here in Colossians, also pointed out in 2 John 11. We have other dead works. We have works of the flesh. We have unfruitful works. We have ungodly works. We have works of darkness. We have works of the law.

As a matter of fact, if you look at the few places in the New Testament where it says good works, it is always God or God working through believers where that phrase is put together, good works. But this is the category evil works is how Paul describes it. Now, verse 22, yet he has now reconciled you. And by the way, the King James, they switched the verse to the end here at the end of this blue section, but the content is the same.

And this word reconciled, apokataloso, we saw this verb when we were studying Colossians 1.20 and also in Ephesians 2.16.

This is the word often translated reconciled, and so the idea comes across as this, and we see it in Romans 5.10 where reconciled and enemies comes together as well. For if while you were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of the Son, much more having been reconciled, We shall be saved by His life. So we see this word enemies again, don't we? Ekthras.

This word reconciled here is katalaso in Colossians 1.21. It's the same word with another prefix in front of it, apokatalaso.

And what it focuses on there is restoring to a peaceful relationship what was lost. The peaceful relationship between man and God was lost there in the gardens. When Adam decided that Eve had a good idea and went along with it and did exactly what the Lord had said, this is the one thing you may not do. The reconciliation has been needed ever since that time, and so this passage here brings up that point.

The word used there in Colossians 1.22 is more intensive in that it focuses on restoring the peaceful relationship, not just making friends of those who were once enemies. We've pointed out before, but just to make sure it's clear, the direction of reconciliation is not God being reconciled to us. God doesn't need to be reconciled to us.

We human beings are the ones with the problem. Right? It is us with the problem. God hasn't moved or changed in the least. It's human beings that need the reconciliation. It's also not a matter of God saying, well, I'll tell you what, you guys are over there and I'm here and we'll just meet you in the middle. We'll compromise on this thing. No, that's not it either.

Still, we have the point, God hasn't moved, God hasn't changed, God hasn't done anything to violate the relationship. It's mankind that has the problem. So that the pattern we get is us being reconciled to God, and this is consistently the way the New Testament lays it out. We are reconciled to God. That's the pattern that we see time and again in Scripture.

Colossians 1.21-22 goes on this way, yet he has now reconciled you in his fleshly body through death. Now, Paul is addressing a problem that had cropped up in Colossae. Now, if you were here with us previously, we were studying through the first chapter of Colossians. You may recall this diagram, and you have a copy of it in your handout at scale there.

There was a teaching called Gnosticism that was beginning to crop up, and the idea was this. The Gnostics taught that God was such a very good God, and all matter is evil, and matter is so evil that that good God can't possibly have created nor have any relationship with the evil world. That's what the Gnostics taught.

So as a consequence, they cooked up this idea, Their concoction was this. Let's have a series of angels to act as intermediaries between the good God and the evil world so that there's some relationship between the two. They said Jesus Christ was a creation of one of these angels at the lower end of this series of angels. Wasn't that bizarre? But that's what they cooked up. Now, why do we bring this up? What's happening is that as this teaching was being introduced there to Colossae, one of the things that they did was they said, because you've got a good God in an evil world, Jesus is too good to really be in a fleshly body. It just looks physical. See that? It just looks physical. He's too good, way too good, to be in an actual physical body. So they said he just has an appearing It's not a physical body, but not really. It just looks that way.

So now, here in this passage, he says, "...yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death." Why did he say it that way? The angels don't do the reconciling. God does. See that? It's not the intermediary angels He's the one who's doing it. He handles it.

And he negated the exact teaching of these Gnostic teachers, which is that Christ didn't really have a physical body, because he's too good for that, because matter is bad, right? Instead, he says, no, he actually literally did have a fleshly body, and it was that fleshly body in death that is your reconciliation. that was entering there in the church.

We have Gnostic teaching in our era. It hasn't disappeared. Even though you look at the picture, here's a good God and the evil world and the angels, you might think, well, that's kind of bizarre. We have that teaching now. It still crops up in our era. And there are those groups who still subscribe to portions or even major portions of that Gnostic teaching in our time.

Paul corrects the errors. He points out God does the reconciling, and the work of reconciling was done through Christ's actual physical body when Christ died on the cross. He makes it abundantly clear. And how does he attack the false teaching? He teaches the truth.

Key point. When we see false teaching, is there a place to point it out? Yes, there is. But we must not lose sight of the fact that correcting false teaching must also be done by stating what is true, not simply attacking the false teaching. That is key to look at. He will talk about the false teaching as we get into the next chapters, but he begins by teaching the truth. Very important point.

Key point. Alright, then he says, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach. This word holy we've seen before, hagios, set apart for a spiritual purpose, is what he has there. The word blameless as well crops up. The King James has unblameable there. Amomos, this was a word used to describe the unblemished lambs that were presented for sacrifice. Christ is called the lamb and he's described as amomos, without blemish. The character of the Lamb. The character of the Lamb. Finally, this word beyond reproach that King James has there, unreprovable.

Nothing found deficient when we're presented before him. Nothing to be criticized or rebuked. Nothing to be blamed for. Nothing to be reproved. the idea that we would be holy and blameless before Him. This idea keeps cropping up in the New Testament, and there's a reason why. We'll talk about it in a minute here. 1 Corinthians 1, 7 and 8, our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. Notice that the character is pointed out as, at the end, this character, at the end.

Ephesians 5.27, that we haven't gotten to yet, but we will, that he might present to himself, that is Christ, the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless. We see the same message again, don't we?

Philippians 1.10, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ. We see a similar message and the pointing to Christ coming again. In the next chapter, he says, "...so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God, above reproach." Similar message again.

2 Peter 3.14, "...be diligent to be found by him in peace, spotless and blameless." Not only Paul carries this message, but Peter as well. And finally, Jude, "...not to him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, blameless with great joy." One of the things that we need to look at with this, this is not trying to beat believers over the head with behave yourself. What it is instead, I think we need to understand this, these terms that he's using were the descriptions of a bride in those days, particularly among those with a Jewish background, that they be holy and blameless.

The reason why these descriptions at Christ's coming are so consistent throughout the New Testament is that is what Jesus Christ is looking forward to. He is looking forward to that day when He says, Ah, there's my bride. There's my bride. That's what I've wanted. And that is why Hebrews 12 would say, for the joy set before Him, He endured the cross. What joy? That day. That day. He says, that's exactly what I've been looking forward to. That is exactly what I've wanted. Precisely. Now we get into the next verse,

23. It, by volume, is about half of the passage there. But there's a word that it starts off with, at least in English, that we've got to focus on. That one. That one. That one. That one. Okay? The word, if. Oh no. I hate that word, if. I like certainty. I mean, isn't it a whole lot better to have certainty? Why an if? Why did they put an if there?

That's terrible, I think. Let's take a look at it. If indeed you continue. Oh no, that's the worst thing it could be. Depends on me, right? Oh rats. You can breathe a sigh of relief. This is a first-class condition. It's written in the Greek as assumed to be true. Assumed to be true. It's an if statement that it's assumed to be true.

It's assumed to be true of the ones of whom he writes, but he is also seeking to make a contrast because who is coming among them? There are false teachers. So he's making a splitting point here. These false teachers are coming in and teaching something else. I assume this to be true of you, but we do need to understand something here. The false teachers are heading in a different direction.

So, we can get past the if. Then he says, if you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast and not moved away. And we'll talk about what he says not moved away from in just a minute. Now, firmly established, we all like to be firmly established, right? Okay, what's he talking about here? I'm sure it's not heading to sand or the rest of your body. These are words, by the way, that he has chosen, not accidentally, he has chosen very deliberately, and here's why.

You have on your handout this map, and this is the Lycus Valley in which Colossae was located. There was Colossae, Laodicea, and Hierapolis. Those are the trio of cities. in the Lycus Valley. And Colossae is, of course, down here. Laodicea nearby on the same side of the river, if you will, and Hierapolis across the valley. This is from Colossae looking towards Laodicea and Hierapolis, a nice place, gentle terrain, but a little bit of hilly and nice curves to it. Now, there's a problem.

The Lycus Valley was described by one writer as eusistos, which means good for earthquakes. He went through there and says, this place is good for earthquakes. I imagine he experienced a few of them. The place was constantly shaking, sometimes a little bit, sometimes a little bit more. If you've lived in earthquake country, you have an idea what that's like. I have, it's kind of exciting. Turkey, which is the, country that we give to the name now for that area, has some humdinger earthquakes. Here's one where the earthquake kind of shook things apart.

Here's another one. Wow. Okay. Pretty wild time in this place. That's what they meant by eusistos. Now, get back into here. What was Paul doing? He was using terms that have to do with a building staying in place. Okay. So he was not just throwing out words and He picked words that fit something they would understand, yes, directly in their own culture. This word firmly established, grounded in the King James, temalea'o. It means to lay a foundation, either figuratively or literally. It was used by people who were building buildings.

It is also a perfect passive. Oh, I love those. Why? Because when you have a perfect passive set in place, If God doesn't change it, that's the way it's going to stay. Secondly, passive means God does it and not me. It's a completed past action with ongoing results in the future and it's accomplished by God and not ourselves. Being firmly established is not our most extreme best efforts. It is not the good old college try.

God does the firmly establishing about that. God does it. It's a done deal. firmly established. The next word that crops up there is steadfast. The King James has settled, and it comes from a word that means settled or seated. It's used for a building that is solidly built, sometimes even for a column to be set down in a pocket. Seated. And so here is this word that he used, firmly established. laying a foundation, and God does the laying, seated, as in all the parts are well-placed and solidly connected one to another, and finally he uses the negation to show the opposite of these, not moved away. Okay? Me met a canal.

And he says, this is not slipping off or shifting, which is of course an earthquake, that's the problem. and he says, not that, not that, and it's also passive. So it doesn't mean that you are shifting, but he's saying not being shifted by an outside force. See the difference? So it isn't, okay, folks, hold on here, get yourself situated, brace yourself. He's saying, no, you're having been established, you're being seated, is God's doing, and you are not going to be moved by an outside force. That's what he's talking about. Oh boy, the if isn't quite so bad as I thought it would be, huh? Right? Okay. Firmly established, steadfast, not moved away from what? What's he talking about now?

From the hope of the gospel that you have heard. We have these, the hope, the gospel, and you have heard. This hope was a certain hope, not an I hope so hope. I sure hope when I get to heaven that God will be happy with me. Not a, boy, I sure hope God grades on the curve because I think I'll be alright. Not a, boy, it sure would be nice, you know, if God would do things this way. None of that guessing. None of that empty hoping. Instead, instead, a certain hope, an absolutely positive fixed hope, that's the hope. The hope that he's talking about.

Then he talks about the gospel. Not just any good news, but the good news. The singular good news. The news that is most certainly very good news. And finally, you have heard. This is a phrase that we find that Paul used repeatedly. And it wasn't just used by Paul.

Ephesians 4.21, that we'll get to, says, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him just as the truth is in Jesus, this has to do with the Gospel message, doesn't it? In 2 Timothy, Paul is writing his last letter to Timothy, and what does he say to Timothy?

He says, retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me. So, you have heard is not rumor. You have heard is not simply You know, somebody told me this or somebody told me that. It's not what you pick up by accident. It was explicitly and deliberately taught.

2 Timothy 2.2, he continues on, "...the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also." And he says, "...which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven." Remember this picture that we showed here, this diagram. What did the Gnostics teach?

They came up with this teaching that we've got some special knowledge for you, but it's got to be told you in secret. We have to have a secret for you. And when we get this secret to you, then you'll really be in a good place spiritually, because we've got the right stuff. But you can't just go tell everybody, and we've got to put you through a special ritual, and then you can join our secret club.

What does Paul do? Instead of this, he comes along, he says, we proclaim the gospel throughout the whole world! All, everything under creation. Everywhere, everybody, anybody that will listen. Of which I, Paul, was made a minister. Paul's role is not this.

Paul's role instead, no, is he was an apostle, he had aspects of his assignment which were in common with the other apostles, but he also had things that were unique, particularly his assignment to the Gentiles. He writes to the church at Ephesus, we'll see in the next chapter when we get there, to me the very least of all saints this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, a specific assignment that he was given. He also taught a number of truths uniquely. These truths that Paul put in place there were things that we find in his epistles that are either not said or said very little of in the other New Testament letters.

Paul says, of which I, Paul, was made a minister. This word minister is diakonos, which actually means servant. So when you say minister, we need to be careful we don't think of what we think in our culture as minister. To make the point, this isn't what Paul is talking about. What did it mean for Paul to be a minister?

It meant this. It meant preaching in places wherever you can get an audience. It meant making tents at night. It meant being subject to persecution. He was even left for dead after being stoned at one point. It meant studying and writing and spending time in the Word.

As we look at this passage that Paul has laid out here, what we see, verse 23, instead of giving us uncertainty, gives us certainty. What a marvelous thing to be able to count on what the Lord has made us, who He has made us in Him. What a precious thing. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your precious Word, for your marvelous Word, for the depths of it. And even more, for the truths that it reveals about our position that we have in you.

Lord, what a glorious thing to know that you are looking towards that special moment when you'll say, ah, this is exactly the body of Christ. This is my body that I died for. This is the body that I've been looking forward to. and so greatly anticipating. Worth the price of being crucified. What a marvelous thing. In Jesus' name, Amen.