Paul’s Identity

What this episode covers

Blank Outline Filled In Outline Colossians 1:24-29 Scroll to 30:00 for beginning of sermon Colossians 1:24-29 Just kind of piggybacking on Alex’s testimony, for those of you that have been maybe praying for a loved one that hasn’t come to know Christ yet and praying for a long time, maybe they’re an agnostic or an atheist, what an encouragement that after 30 years of being agnostic, Alex came to know Christ. So don’t stop praying. Don’t stop encouraging your loved ones and praying for them. All right. Hey, we’ve been looking at the book of Colossians. So, we’re going to spend about 35 minutes here looking at Colossians chapter one. Just kind of brief review to get context, get us thinking about this letter that Paul wrote. So, where’s Paul? Paul’s in Rome. Paul’s under house arrest. He’s awaiting trial. He doesn’t know if he’s going to live or die. And while he’s waiting trial, a fellow makes a 1,300-mile journey to visit Paul. And that had to take him, obviously, several months back in the first century. His name was Epaphras. Epaphras was the pastor of a church at Colossae. And the church was going through some challenging times. There were some false teachers there that were teaching false truth about who Jesus is and false truth about how to get to heaven. And Epaphras was so concerned about that. He makes a 1,300-mile journey and shares that with the apostle Paul. And what does Paul do? Paul’s never been to Colossae, but he writes a letter to correct doctrinal error and to encourage the Colossian church to keep following Jesus. And so, it’s called the Letter or the Book of Colossians. It’s one of four letters that Paul wrote in prison there under house arrest called the Prison Epistles, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and then Philemon was the other one that he had written. So, we’re going to look at verses 24 through 29, and we’re going to think about Paul’s identity, some insight into the apostle Paul that Paul shares with the Colossian church. Because remember, they’ve never met him, and now they’re getting a letter from somebody in prison. That might raise a few, like, caution lights. I’ve shared with many of you that for the past 35 years, I’ve had a pen pal that’s been in the Michigan prison system. His name’s Steve. He writes frequently, came to know the Lord after he got a life sentence in prison. He considers community Bible church his church home. He’s never been here, but he considers you all his church family. He’s 71 years old. He’ll die in prison. He quarterly sends a check to our church from his meager income that he gets. But when you get a letter from somebody in prison, it raises some questions, and listen to what Dr. Warren Wiersbe in his commentary writes just as introduction. If you received a letter from a man, you had never met, a man who was a prisoner, accused of being a troublemaker, how would you respond? The Colossian believers faced that exact problem. They knew that Paul had been instrumental in leading their pastor, Epaphras, to faith in Christ. They also knew that Epaphras had gone to Rome to consult with Paul and had not returned. The church members had received Paul’s letter brought to them by Tychicus and Onesimus. And so, Paul takes some time to tell them a little bit about himself and his background, his credentials. Or as my friend Ron Hutchcraft says, after he has gone through some very difficult times in his life, he says, I’ll share my credentials. Sometimes we go through hard stuff, and God brings us through that. Paul’s Identity And then we have the ability to share with others what God has done. So that’s a little bit about the background. So, Paul’s talking about his identity. Now, if I were to ask you, tell me a little bit about yourself, you might begin to share with me some of your relationships. You might say, well, I’m a husband, I’m a wife, I’m a father, I’m a mother, I’m a grandfather, grandmother, aunt, uncle. Yo

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