Colossians Part 2

Wisdom and understanding, since the day that I heard of you, I have not ceased to pray for you, so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord to please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with power according to His glorious might. For He, nope, for the attaining of all steadfastness and peace joyously giving thanks to the Father who has, and there’s a Father reference, qualified you and me, that’s plural, to share in the inheritance of the saints, church. For He delivered us, the church, plus Paul, from the dominion of darkness and transferred us, the church in Colossae, and Paul, to the kingdom of His beloved Son. In Christ we have redemption; we, the church in Colossae and Paul, have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. That’s as far as I read yesterday.

Christ is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, and by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, where the thrones are dominions or authorities. All these have been created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church. Is that plural or singular? Okay, and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself might come to have first place in everything.

For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Christ to reconcile all things, having made peace through the blood of His cross through Christ, and the next two words are not in Greek. Which things are on earth and in the heavens? And although you, yeah, but it’s past tense, so it was the church before it was the church. Although you, heathen gentile Colossian Puerto Ricans, were formerly alienated and hostile, hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled who? You, in that room, the church in Colossae, in His flesh, both through death in order to present, and boy, this is powerful, folks, you before Him holy and blameless, beyond reproach, and that’s a plural, if indeed you continue in the faith; is that you, the individual, or is that corporate? Now don’t just placate me. I want to know what you feel about that. This is important. Well, it’s conditional, it’s conditional if you continue in the faith. Is that plural? Is that singular? I’m sorry. It could go either way. Saints, it’s plural, and that makes it strange. That makes it, well, that opens whole new worlds to us.

If you continue in the faith firmly established and not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you have heard, that’s from Epaphroditus, which was proclaimed in all creation, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister. Now, I rejoice in my suffering. I’m going to stop right here because I have a lot to say about these passages.

Can someone volunteer to spend the afternoon counting this? And I don’t want to. I came up with a zero other than individual references. Other people have come up with as high as three, four, or five. I’m wide open to three, four, or five. Is there someone who could sit down and do this this afternoon, who will do this for me? You sure you will? You won’t let us down. I think these others are all correct. In fact, I believe I remember someone coming up with 123 references to the church.

The Father 26, the Son 83, and Paul 16. Does that have any, does that give you any indication of anything? What are the two dominant numbers here? Christ and the church. Now, aren’t you surprised who comes in third? The Father. By the way, I don’t mind telling you this, Paul is a very self-centric person. Do you understand what I mean by that? I don’t mean self-centered. He has a strong personal reference about him. Do you realize that? My wife does not have a strong personal reference to herself. She really doesn’t. What about me? Why don’t you go ahead and confess it? Yes. A strong sense. The daughter of Theodore Roosevelt, Teddy Roosevelt, President of the United States, she said, “It didn’t matter where he went; he was the bride at every wedding. He was the corpse at every funeral.” You know, some other people in this room like that. Are you going to volunteer some names? Who? Robert. Okay, Robert, you’re right. Robert, where are you?

Audience Member: I’m the corpse of every funeral. (laughter)

Anybody else? Can you think of someone else? Darlene, absolutely, no question about it, extrovert. Is there someone else? Someone not here perhaps? Okay.

Paul is constantly presenting himself, seeking to have the brothers and sisters understand the example that is his life; he does it again and again and again. In Galatians, the first two chapters, he dominates with references to himself; in Romans, almost nothing is mentioned except at the very beginning and the very end. 1st and 2nd Corinthians and 1st Thessalonians, he’s almost the whole three books. Everything is a presentation of this: what I said among you, what I did among you, what I have taught you, and here is my example of what I have done under similar circumstances.

There’s a difference between being egotistical and striving to present the Christian life and using your own life as an example. Okay, I will look for your report on individuals. Give us individuals by name; use the American standard. You even tell us what their names are, and brother, there probably are three or four references in all this. If one says, “You stop your sinning,” that’s probably individual. I wish I could remember some of the past tallies on this. Well, one, I’ve only asked for it once before.

Audience Member: Is it possible that a reference could be singular and plural?