 like to pray. Yes, ma'am. Yeah, good morning and welcome to this session. The session has been recorded. So today we're going to study on the book of Colossians even before we could begin. Can I request it to lead us in prayer? Father, thank you for this dead lot. We come to the throne of great Lord. You have given this dead lot as what we are going to learn from your word, Lord. Each and everything which we will be learning from your word, Lord. It should not be wasted, but it should be used for the kingdom expansion, Lord, for your all glory be given to your Lord. Lord, we thank you for the teacher and all the students who will be learning from your word, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray and bless everyone. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Thank you, Sid, for leading us into prayer. And yeah, today we are going to study on one of the epistles of Paul, which he wrote to the church at Colossians. So what do we know about this letter? Any input that you would like to give before we could start? What do we know about this letter to Colossians? Aradhana, Rubin, anyone? Just feel free to share something. Yes, Brother Lubega, please go ahead. In one sentence it is a short hand of Ephesians. Yes, yes. Anyone else would like to add to what Lubega said? You can definitely refer to your notes. That's okay, but I want everyone to be active and be part in the session. Sid, what you would like to add about this letter? Anita, Subashish, anyone? Just feel free to give your input about this letter while I post the presentation, while I share the presentation. Was it a prison episode, one of the prison episodes? Yes, it was. Yes. Colossians, the supremacy of Jesus and all things and can we see Colossae where it is in the map? It is one of the map of those days. We see Colossae in Asia Minor and Paul in his missionary journey, the second missionary journey, he just passed over and he went to Ephesians and he ministered to people there. So, we will study how the gospel reached Colossians, the church in Colossae. Just give me a minute while I just present it. Okay. So, you're able to see the map. Okay. So, sorry. The prison episode generally refers to the four letters that is written by Apostle Paul. What are those? He wrote this when he was under the house arrest at Rome. So, which are those four letters that was written by Apostle Paul at prison. Yes. Brother Lubega, please go ahead. I think the letters that is Ephesians, there is also Philippians. Don't forget his Colossians and Galatia. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Brother Lubega. The first three was right. The four letters were Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and the letter to Philemon. Well, yes, the letter to Philemon was addressed to a specific individual, whereas the other three that is Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians were addressed to a specific church while Paul addressed specific needs of the first century Christians and the church there. And the message of this prison episode is still powerful and significant to every Christians who are living today. We also see, yes, as Apostle Paul being the author, this letter was written at the prison, you know, at prison when he was at the house arrest at Rome during the period of 60 to 61 AD. And some scholars say it was about 62 AD as well. So as we know, the dates are just an approximate let's look at the city of Colossae. So this city of Colossae was located 100 miles east of Ephesians. So historically, Colossae was a prosperous city and famous for its fabric dice and the ancient records once described it as a very populated city, which was prosperous and great and powerful. And it stood on the great highway between Ephesians and Euphrates. Not many generations after Paul's time. Well, it disappeared from the pages of the history. The Turks destroyed it and left it in ruins. So it is not mentioned anywhere else in the New Testament or the city of or about the city of Colossae. And it is not even mentioned in the book of Acts. So all our Bible information about the Colossian church comes only from this letter and few references from the letter to Philemon. So little is known about the town in this period other than it was nearly destroyed also by an earthquake in 8060 or 61. We see that a short time later, the date of this episode, we have a testimony of Eusebius where Titicus also mentioned about this earthquake which happened around 6080. So the city of Lodosia and Hierapolis are quickly rebuilt. So Lodosia can even be described as a rich city when the book of Revelation is written 30 years much later. We also see the Colossians never recovered from this disaster. Unfortunately, little is known about the city in the first century. Well, as we see that we also see the city of Colossians was probably the smallest and the least important city that Paul ever wrote to. So it might surprise us that Paul would turn his attention to the Christians in Colossae at a time when he had so many other concerns to address. Yet he thought the situation in Colossae was important even for the apostle's attention. We see there was a person named Epapharis who heard the Gospel when Paul was in Ephesus. As Paul thought in the lecture hall of Tyrannus at the resident of Asia, heard the word of the Lord. So we see that in Acts chapter 19 verse 10. Can I request one of you all to turn to Acts 1910? 1910. This went on for two years so that all the Jews and the Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord. Thank you. Thank you. So we see that the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord and it would not be surprising if some people from Colossae heard the Gospel at that time as well. So from these sources when we go through the Colossians chapter 1 verse 6 and 7, we see that from these sources we learn that Epapharis was responsible for bringing the Gospel to the Colossians. So verse 7 says, as you also learned from Epapharis, our dear fellow servant was a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf. So we see that the church at Colossae was founded by Epapharis. So let's look at who was this person? What was his background? In nature, who was he? So when we look at that, he was a native of this place and a zealous worker for the Lord and he was a disciple of Paul from Ephesias. Well, we also heard his name in yesterday's class when we were studying the letter to Philippians where as one of the key characters among Paul Timothy was Epapharis and his name was Epaphroditus. That is his full name and Epapharis is the short form of Epaphroditus. So his name means lovely, fascinating, charming and it also means servant who delivered a gift and yeah, a gift to Paul. That's what he addressed to in Philippians 2.25 where Paul addresses that as the Philippians church sent word and offering through Epapharis. So he addressed him as the servant who delivered a gift. Well, we also see about him Paul addresses good things about Epapharis was he was a faithful minister of Christ. He was a preacher of the gospel and he was a teacher of the foundation principles and the in Colossians chapter four we see that Paul addressing him as a man of fervent prayer, a man of passion for the local church and as we study the other letters we also see that he's been mentioned only three times in the New Testament. That's in the letter of Colossians and the letter of Philemon. So he may have been an effective evangelist in in those days at Colossae and the city of Lodossae and Hierapolis both had thriving churches in the first century. Maybe it was one of the true Epapharis. So Paul tells the church that Epapharis had reported about their faith in Christ and this encouraged Paul also and he was a man of prayer. We also see how Paul describes him in the letter saying that he wrestled in prayer and also we see that Epapharis exercised a pastoral and a teaching ministry among the Colossian believers. So as he as he learned this from Paul himself so the church at Colossae was evidently composed of mostly gentile converts with little of Jewish base. So what was the purpose of this letter? Can anyone say what was the purpose of this letter? Anyone? Sid, can you give us the purpose of this letter? Can you please repeat that? The purpose, what was the purpose of this letter? For Paul to write this letter to Colossians, what was the purpose? Ma'am it was written for the specific problems at Colossae. Like it includes Paul's most eloquent writing about Jesus Christ containing our soaring paragraphs. Okay, are there any points given as there any points given in your notes the very purpose of the letter? Ma'am like in chapter 2 and 3 it deals with the dangerous tendencies in Colossae. Paul is arguing against the ministry or about the mystery religion by firmly ascending Christ is a complete expression of mystery of God. Yes, yes thanks Sid. So please go ahead. Oh I'm sorry I had not put on my mic. I think first there was some error in teaching because as we see that Paul himself had not started the church as that man to the name is very hard for me. Something like that started that church there. There were some people now who were like saying his teachings and the teachings of others were not right. So that's why he had to travel to Rome despite the fact that our own Paul was in the hospital, I mean was in prison. He had to bother him to get some guidance from him as far as the false teachings were concerned. Thank you Pasta. Thank you. Thank you LaVigga for addressing the purpose of this letter. Yes as Paul writes this letter in order to warn against certain errors of doctrine and practices which was addressed by Epapharris when he met Paul in the prison. So there are four points. The first one was to warn them against the human philosophy and to urge them to give Christ the supreme place or the preeminence and secondly we see that to warn them against the ritualism of Judaizers. The third we see that the very purpose was to warn them against the worship of angels and mysticism. Fourth to warn them against the mysticism. That means a doctrine that through self-torture or self-denial one can discipline himself to reach a higher state, a spiritual intellectual, to reach a spiritual or an intellectual level. So these were some of the practices that was trying to creep in into the church at Colossae which was not right, not aligned with the gospel message. So Paul was trying to address certain issues and that was the main reason why he wrote this letter. So he sent this letter to them through Titicus who was accompanied by Onesimus. So Paul himself hopes to visit them later. So these are the names that we also heard in the last letter. So about Onesimus we will study in the next letter as we study about the letter to Philemon. We will study in detail who was Onesimus. Well the very theme of the letter to Colossians was the preeminence of Christ and the key verses, I have many key verses listed here. Let me present that. There are, I've listed the key verses from all four chapters because I felt though this letter is very simple and small but there's a lot of themes and key verses that we could pick from each and every chapter. So some of the key verses that I've listed from Colossians chapter one, chapter two, chapter three, chapter four, we can go through it where in chapter one we see that Jesus is the image of the invisible God and the same chapter verse 18 we see that he is the head of the church. In chapter two, ten we see that he is the head of all principality and power and verse 13 and 14 we see that he has made us alive with Christ and chapter three, nine, we see that do not light one another and it goes on to chapter four. We see that about the importance of prayer and how to continue steadfastly in prayer and in verse five to six we see that he talks about walking wisdom towards the outsiders. Yeah, as we address some of the key verses from all four chapters, we also see some of the unique features that is a phenomenon and the letter to Colossians is the most Christological Paul's letter contains the Bible's sharpest picture of Christ preeminence and in chapter two we see that it contains Bible's strongest warning against the dangers of the human philosophy and Paul addresses the other unique feature we see in this letter is the shortest, the shorter form of Paul's benediction or the characteristics of his later letters occurs for the first time here. So as we went through some of the features and the purpose of this letter, let's look at what were the specific problems that Paul was addressing in this letter. So we will see that in detail. We see that when if our friend is pet Paul, he let him know about concerns about the doctrinal error that was creeping into the church. Along with that, he also addressed that the errors revolved around two main philosophies that were circulating at that time. So what was that? They actually may have been combined into one in the teacher that comes into the church. So in either case, the erasies represented two clear streams. What are those? First one was revived Judaism. We see in chapter two from verse 11 to 17 is addressing that. Due to time, I will just paraphrase that whole what he was addressing to. Here we see that. So Paul is addressing that in him, you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands by putting up the body of the sin of the flesh, but the circumcision of Christ. So that we are buried with him in baptism, in which you also were raised with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead. And you being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he has made a life together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses. And verse 14, we see that having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross, having disarmed principalities and powers. He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. So with that, we see that there was an unusual attempt of many of the Judaizers to bring the New Testament believers back into the bondage of law by insisting them on a return to tradition of the past. So this would have caused by an inability to understand and relate to the past in light of the present revelation from God. So Paul had to address that in these verses from 11 to 7, when we see that these which are the shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ he addresses in verse 17. So these Judaizers were insisting the people on certain things. So what are the certain things that they were insisting when we went through this passage? We see that they were insisting on the circumcision on clean and unclean foods, celebrating of feast days, keeping the Old Testament Sabbath. So which were traditionally, it was very important because they were tradition focused. So they were trying to emphasize these things on the Gentile New Believer. So Paul made it very clear to them that all of those things were only shadows of the reality that would come to in Christ and the second is see that nonsense. We see that in chapter 2 verse 18 to 23. Can I request one of y'all to read Colossians chapter 2 verses 18 to 23. Do not let anyone who delights in false humanity and the worship of angels disqualify you for the price. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen as his unspiritual mind's pup, him as an idle notation. He has lost connection with the head from whom the whole body supported and held together by the靈ment's end. Sin use grow as God's cause it grows. 20. Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why as though you still be long to it? Do you submit to its rules? Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch. These are all destiny to perish, perish with use because they are based on human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom with their imposed worship, self-imposed worship, their false humanity and their harsh treatment of the body. But they lack any values in restraining sensual indulgence. Thank you. Thank Sid. So we see that some of the traits of the system that is Gnosticism. So what is Gnosticism? It was a philosophy that attempted to explain the universe, the source of evil, the concept of God and man, a pursuit of supreme being and spiritual experience. So it was a new age culture of that day that was reserved for those of the superior intellect. So it took a bit and pieces of many religious and blended them into one. For this reason, it was constantly changing to somehow be inclusive of all of the religions of the day. So some of the traits of this system was self-imposed humility, self-imposed humility. We also see other things that are listed here was austere treatment of the body and the suppression of the appetite and exaltation of the spirit world and angels, lack of knowledge of the superiority of the Lordship of Christ and a sense of superior wisdom. So Paul refers to all these heresies as supersive words, philosophy, empty deceit, appearance of wisdom but not wisdom, basic principles of the world and the doctrines of men. We see that he addressed in chapter 2 very clearly and also along with that Paul wants the Colossians not to let them self to be indulged or spoiled by these heresies. So Paul did not want them to be part of all these. We see in Colossians chapter 2 verse 4 it says, now this I say lest anyone should deceive you with pervasive words and also in verse 18 he says that let no one cheat you of your reward. So this word means to be deceived, let astray or let astray by the false reasoning. So Paul is asking us and he is warning us do not get yourself deceived. So just like the Colossians church the various problem that they had with the false teaching and the false doctrine that was trying to creep into the church we can also apply it in our time. There are a lot of false teaching and false doctrines those are you know trying to creep in through the social media through the other various channels into us but we need to we need to be focused we need to stick on to the word of God we need to see what the word of God says let the word of God be the final authority to each of us and this is what Paul says in chapter 2 verse 8 saying that beware lest anyone cheat you through the philosophy or empty deceit according to the traditions of man resolve man made be very careful. So this word means to be not to be carried out by any of these or let us be beware and not to become prey to any of these kind of false teachings. So when Paul talks about beware in verse 8 he talks about he's asking us to be constantly looking out for something or to keep a watchful eyes open for some danger that is ahead. So Paul is warning us be diligent be vigilant in certain areas when it comes to the false teaching and the false doctrines Paul also answered the various needs of the Colossians heresy as those days for which Paul answered in this letter saying that there are some heresies and how he is addressing these heresies through this letter to us let me present that slide. So these are some of the heresies are we able to see that yes. So these are some of the heresies that Paul is addressing in this letter so in chapter 1 verse 15 to 20 we see that he's addressing spirit is good matter is evil this is the heresy that has come up. So Paul addresses in chapter 115 to 20 he says that God created heaven and earth for his glory and the next point we see that one must follow ceremonies rituals and restrictions in order to be saved or perfected and in chapter 2 verse 11 and 16 in chapter 3 verse 11 we see that Paul says Paul gives an answer for all he's saying that these were only the shadows that ended when Christ came. So he is all we need to be saved and the next heresy we see here is one must deny the body and live in live strict asceticism. So for that he says in chapter 2 verse 20 to 23 he says that asceticism is not help in conquering evil thoughts and desires instead he says it leads us to pride and the next point we see here is angels must be worshiped. So in chapter 2 verse 18 we see that Paul is addressing about this he says that angels are not to be worshiped Christ alone is worthy of all our worship. The next heresy we see here is Christ could not be both human and divine. So we see that in chapter 1 verse 15 to 20 and also chapter 2 verse 2 to 3 we see that we are addressing Christ is God in the flesh Christ is God in the flesh and he is the eternal one the head of the body and also the next heresy we see here is must one must obtain secret knowledge in order to be saved or perfected this was not available to everyone. So for this Paul answers in chapter 2 verse 2 and also in 18 he says that God's secret is Christ and he has been revealed to all God's secret is Christ and he has been revealed to all and the next one is one must adhere to human wisdom tradition and philosophies we see that again in chapter 2 verse 4 he addressing that he says that now this I say lest anyone should deceive you with pervasive words and also verse 8 to 10 he's asking us to be aware be aware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit and 15 to 17 we see that you know having disarmed the principalities and powers he made a public spectacle of them triumphing over them and he also says that these are the shadows of things to come but the substance is of Christ so Paul is answering to us saying that these things can be misleading and shallow because they have human origin instead we should remember what Christ thought so that we can follow his words as an ultimate authority simple words Paul is asking us let the word of God be your final authority so the next day to see we see here is it is even better to combine aspects of several religions for that Paul answers in chapter 2 verse 10 he says and you are completing him who is the head of all principality and power so we see that Paul answering you have everything and you have Christ and he is all sufficient he is more than enough he is all sufficient for each one of us and with that we will move on to the last heresy that is listed in the letter that is there is nothing wrong with immorality chapter 3 verse sorry verse 1 to 11 we see that I just give you the summary of that Paul is stating get rid of sin and evil because you have been chosen by God to live a new life where you will be the representative of Lord Jesus you are the ambassador of Christ and you are a new being you are a new creation so Paul is asking us to get rid of sin and evil from our life because God has chosen each one of us and we are the new we have new life and we are the new creation in Christ Jesus so with that um yeah we have still time so let me go through the theme as this is a short letter I thought I'll take some time to go through the theme which is there in each chapter as it is a very interesting letter I thought I'll go through the each chapter the theme of each chapter so chapter one has the theme about the superiority of Christ and reconciliation in him so walking worthy but let me put that at the slide sorry I don't have it like yeah these are the themes chapter wise themes so Paul you know when we go through the chapter one we see that how Paul opens the letter in thanksgiving and prayer and highlights the Colossians faith in Christ Jesus and the love that they have for all the saints and in and he reconciles to himself all things making peace by the blood of Jesus and cross and also in chapter two in chapter two we see that the theme is life in Christ it talks about the grace so Paul continues with an exhortation in chapter two he says that um therefore as you received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in him verse six walk in him be rooted and built up in him and established in faith just as you were thought abounding in thanksgiving and we all we also see that in chapter two that these have indeed an appearance of the wisdom in promoting self-made religion but they are no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh and in chapter three he addresses the theme as seeking what is about putting on love of God so he's asking us to walk with God has is chosen one so if you have we see that chapter three verse one and two that if you were raised with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God set your mind on things about not on things on the earth so he's asking us to have heavenly mind we need to look at God the higher call have a heavenly mind have a Christ mind so now Paul is pleading through this letter to the Colossians to set our mind on things that are above putting on the new self he's also asking us to put to death every earthly things or every earthly desire that is trying to occupy us and replace it with what is holy and beloved in the eyes of the Lord he also gives us a godly guidelines for the household for the family where he's asking he's asking he's encouraging us wives are to submit to their husbands and husband has to the has to love their wife and not to provoke their children and he reminds us that is a one of the purpose as we serve God so the theme of chapter four is walking in steadfast wisdom and prayer so walking in wisdom should be our final greetings that Paul is addressing here so walk in wisdom we see that in verse five and six walk in wisdom toward those who are outside redeeming the time let your speech always be with grace seasoned with salt that you may know how you ought to answer each one so in this final part of the letter we see that Paul focuses on prayer and thanksgiving and he asks the Colossians to keep himself and their prayer as his ministry continues to progress and in verse five and six we see that he's addressing the wisdom and the way we are to expect it and where we are expected to speak with others so in verse seven through eight in he summarizes saying that Paul's plan for the future and the current events of that time and he mentions Titicus a beloved minister and brother and he shows and he closes with sending grace to the Colossians and ask them fervently to remember him in prayer as he is in chains so the application are the four themes that we saw today that is chapter one talks about in Christ alone chapter two talks about living in the light of God's grace and chapter three talks about walking with God has his chosen one and four talks about walking in steadfast wisdom and prayer there are some of the heresies and also we see that how Paul is asking us to put off the old man and put on the new man it's very very important so maybe our old self we're indulged in speaking lies but our new self here Paul is encouraging us when we are in Christ we no more be like the old person but here we strive hard to speak the truth we try to be honest and labor by giving and edifying our conversation being kind tender art and forgiving love goodness righteousness and filled with the holy spirit whereas the old man had the opposite traits opposite character of what the new man the new lifestyle that we try to live in we accept Jesus as a lord and savior whereas this is very important that we saw the difference between the old self and the new product I'll get back I go up to the reflection so what is it through this letter we learn that Jesus is the head of the church and he has reconciled all things to himself through his death on the cross making the believers alive to God and setting them on the path of right living as Jesus did this for each of us can we reflect on our life and question us saying that are we giving Jesus the place he deserves in our life can we ponder on this question that are we giving Jesus the place that he deserves in our life and I'll leave this time open to our class where you can share your learning your inputs based on this letter feel free to unmute and share or you can type it on the chat over to the class ma'am can I share something yes sir please go ahead ma'am I would like to read one verse Colossians chapter 2 verses 9 foreign Christ all the fullness of the deity live in the bodily form ma'am whenever I read Colossians this word is very fascinating for me because in this in in this portion Apostle Paul he's trying to present present Jesus as the center of the universe not only as an active creator but also a recipient in creation he's talking like he's want to portray he's taking human flesh Christ when Christ when Jesus Christ took human flesh he was he was an image of invisible God containing himself in full deity so like whenever I'm reading this this word is always reminding me of Jesus Christ fullness and authority amen amen thank you that's wonderful thank you said that was wonderful insight for sharing it yes how about others you would like to add share your insight learning from this letter linden liya lama anyone from the class that you would like to share add okay if there's no questions or no discussions okay we can end the session with a word of prayer who can pray linden can you pray brother lubricant would you like to pray father let's pray father we thank you for this wonderful day and session we've had Lord as we concluded the bull the episode of Colossians which was written to us by Apostle Paul Lord as we've learned and as I can see we can always put we must always put Jesus Christ first in both our personal and our corporate life Lord as in so doing by chasing away all the heresies in our lives and those who preach wrong doctrine to us so that we can be presented to Jesus Christ as a church without fault we do pray and believe that we shall come again to meet next week on Monday and choose the Lord to have more in this doctrine Lord so Lord please send us your whole spirit to remind us and guide us in everything that we do please Lord let everybody who has attended this lesson and this class Lord be blessed and have a wonderful day just as when Jesus Christ before he went in heaven he said peace be upon you so Lord we also pray that peace be upon us and the house of the pastor and everybody we believe that everything will come to pass in your due time not our the will be done but your will be done we do pray in the name of the Father the Son the Holy Spirit and everybody says amen thank you pastor thank you thank you Rebecca for your wonderful prayer thank you God bless thank you so much for joining in today's session I encourage each one to be part of the Thursday mentoring hour and also the supernatural hour on Friday okay so have a blessed week ahead God bless see y'all next week thanks thank you thank you ma'am thank you thank you said good bless thank you