Through Him and for Him | Week 2

The book of Acts tells a story about a zealous Jew named Saul. One day he was on his way to Damascus to arrest and prosecute those “belonging to the Way,” people who claimed Jesus of Nazareth was the promised Messiah who had died for their sins and rose again from the dead. As Saul was on his way, Luke records that he was met by the risen Lord Jesus and was miraculously converted from an opposer of Jesus to a believer in Jesus. But the story does not end there…Saul, who would eventually be better known as Paul, was not only converted to Christ but was also commissioned by Christ. Soon after he met Jesus on the road to Damascus, the Lord appeared to a man named Ananias and told him that Saul would be a “chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles.” This is what we see happening throughout the rest of the book of Acts: Paul and his ministry companions traveling all around the known-world proclaiming the good news of Jesus and calling all people to believe in Him and be saved. Many Gentiles responded to the gospel, and churches were planted from Antioch to Rome and everywhere in between.One of those places, where people responded to the gospel and began to be the church in their region, was Colossae. Colossae was a city in the region of Phrygia. In Acts, we learn that devout Jews from this region were in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit fell upon the disciples and Peter preached the gospel to a diverse crowd of listeners. We are told that each person heard the message in their native tongue and thousands respondedto the gospel with repentance and baptism. We are also told that Paul visited and ministered in the region of Phrygia during his missionary journeys, but it seems unlikely that Paul ever visited Colossae in person.So, how did the gospel get to Colossae? It could be that some believed in Jesus as the gospel was shared with them by those who heard it in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost. There were also those who heard the gospel from one of their own, Paul’s fellow minister, Epaphras, who likely heard it from Paul himself and then took it back to Colossae and preached it to his community.