Paul's Prayers Part 4a in Colossians

INTRODUCTION:

Why am I preaching about prayer? to encourage us to pray

SHORT Comments about the search process.

1. Elders meet twice a month.

2. Steps

· Benchmarking and prayer 

        Who we are, where we are going, and what kind of man we need.

· Inviting or Identifying prospects

· Evaluation of prospects

· Candidating

4. Careful and deliberate progress, planning Nov. 30th Fireside Chat, ask your flock elder if you have questions.

5. Pray for God to prepare and guide us,

2. BOOK OVERVIEW

Today we will look at Paul’s prayer for the Colossians.

Occasion:

· Epaphroditus’ visit and report about the conditions in Colossae prompted this letter.

· Written to affirm Apostolic teachings about Christ, salvation, and the church and

· to refute the beginnings of the Gnostic heresy.

“A proper view of Christ is the antidote for heresy.”

—Walk Thru the NT by B. Wilkinson & K. Boa

Theme: 

Christ the Commander and Chief (preeminence of Christ)

Outline:  

I. Doctrine: What Christ did for us  (Supremacy of)

1-explained.

2-defended.

II. Practice: What Christ does through us  (Submission to)

3– Off with the Old (Man) and On with the New (Man)

4– Final Exhortations and Greetings

3. CONTEXT of the chapter

Chapter one has four basic parts

1.Greeting 1-2

2. Thanks and prayer 3-14

3. Preeminence of Christ  15-20

4. Paul preaching the mystery 21-29

4. OPENING SEGWAY

· It is instructive to notice what Paul prayed for in these prayers.

· Our prayers should be focused on

seeing what God is doing and cheering Him on.

· One commentator made the observation,

“It so often happens that in prayer we are really saying, “Thy will be changed,” when we ought to be saying, “Thy will be done.”  —[W. Barclay]

5. OVERVIEW

· TOPIC STATEMENT:

Realize the importance of knowing and doing.

They are a pair that go together.

· OUTLINE

The REASON for the prayer.  3-8

The REQUESTS of the prayer.  9-11

The REJOICING of the prayer.   12-14

6. READ SCRIPTURE AND PRAY  ———>

Colossians 1.3-14

3 We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints; 5 because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, ( Share Jesus W.F.) 6 which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth; 7 as you also learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, 8 who also declared to us your love in the Spirit.

9 For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that

[1. the knowing]  you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; 10 that

[2. the doing] you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy;

12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14 in whom we have redemption through His blood,  the forgiveness of sins.

I. The REASON for the prayer.  3-8

Paul was also thankful for these same characteristics in the Thessalonians.

1^st Thessalonians 1.2-3

² We give thanks to God ...³ remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ ...

“We must always take notice that He makes use of thanksgiving in place of congratulation, by which he teaches us, that in all our joys we must readily call to remembrance the goodness of God; inasmuch as every thing that is pleasant and agreeable to us is a kindness conferred by Him.” 

—John Calvin

A. Your FAITH in Christ Jesus  v.4

3 We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, ⁴ since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus

· This is not primarily the saving faith that a repentant sinner puts in Christ for his salvation.

· It primarily refers to a walking faith illustrated in Hebrews 11.  A faith in action.

B. Your LOVE for all the saints

3 We give thanks … ⁴ since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints; 

· Notice the special partnership that faith has with love.

B. The HOPE laid up for you in heaven

3 We give thanks … ⁴ since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus

 and of your love for all the saints; ⁵ because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, ...

Our salvation is a work in progress:

I was saved from the penalty of sin,

I am being saved from the power of sin, and

I look forward with hope to being saved from the presence of sin.

1 John 3.2b-3

… but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

Transitional statement:

II. The REQUESTS of the prayer.  9-11

“...C. F. D. Moule has said, that prayer makes two great requests. It asks for the discernment of God’s will and then for the power to perform that will.”  —-W. Barclay

A. that you may BE FILLED    v.9

9 For this reason we also, since the day we heard it,

do not cease to pray for you, and to ask

that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will

in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;

knowledge—

“Knowledge” is epignōsis (ἐπιγνωσις).

The word is an advance upon gnōsis (γνωσις) (knowledge) in that it denotes a larger and more thorough knowledge. It is a knowledge which grasps and penetrates into an object.

It was a favorite word of the Gnostics who used it to designate the superior knowledge which they claimed al their exclusive possession. Paul prays that all the saints might become possessors of this knowledge, indicating that it was open for all to appropriate, not a secret mystery into which only a favored few could be initiated. If the Gnostics had their superior knowledge, so did the Christian Church. “               —K. Wuest

will—Three meanings of the will of God

1. Decrees  focus on sovereignty 

1 Cor. 12.11 ...distributing [sp. gifts]… as He wills

Daniel 4.34-37 Neb. says, No one can restrain His hand

Isa 46.9-11

⁹ Remember the former things of old, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, ¹⁰ Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, 'My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure,' ¹¹ Calling a bird of prey from the east, The man who executes My counsel, from a far country. Indeed I have spoken it; I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it; I will also do it.

2. Moral Will

Heb. 13.20-21...complete in every good work to do His will…

Eph 6.6.5-6 ...doing the will of God from the heart,

1 Thess 4.3-4

³ For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; ⁴ that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, ⁵ not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God;

3. Desires

Ez. 33.11 ...I have not pleasure in the death of the wicked,

Matt. 23.37 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!

In this passage the primary meaning appears to be the second one. Paul desired that they know what God wanted them to do for Him.

wisdom—sofiva sof-ee'-ah

power of judging rightly and following the soundest course of action

understanding—suvnesiß   soon'-es-is

“the facility of the intellect or insight which discriminates between false and the true, and grasps the relations in which things stand.”  K. Wuest

spiritual 

· Lit. “wisdom and understanding spiritual” a few of the most literal trans put the word “spiritual” in front of  understanding to maintain closeness to the Grk word order, but  it should be understood as relating to both.

· They are the opposite of fleshly wisdom & understanding.

· 1 Cor 2.14a But the natural man recieveth not the things of the Spirit of God; ...

· Isaiah 11.1-2

¹ There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, And a Branch shall grow out of his roots. ² The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, The Spirit of counsel and might, The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.

· Thus, when the saints identify with Christ by faith, they begin to possess the attributes of their messianic representative, since, as Paul states in 2.3, “in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge [sophia ka gnōseōs]. —GK Beale CNTUOT

HERESY ALERT!!

This was in contrast to the developing Gnostic heresy that taught that only an elite few had “ full and spiritual” knowledge.

TRANSITIONAL STATEMENT:

The old saying goes…

“The Bible wasn’t written for reading’. It was written for doin’.”

Paul now prays that they would do what they know.

—Message ended here—