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Foundations: Colossians 1
Believers often search for purpose in pain, grappling with trials that seem to threaten faith and identity. Colossians 1 shows that suffering is where Christ’s greatness shows and encourages believers to be proof of Jesus in all situations rather than running away.
Chris Yeager invites us into Paul’s world in chains, where a Roman prison becomes God’s pulpit and human suffering is transformed into holy testimony. His message links the struggles of the Colossian church to ours. It challenges easy spiritual solutions and invites us to live a life where Christ is not just there, but the most important in everything—creation, problems, and daily life.
Scriptures Referenced
Colossians 1:1-29 (ESV), Philippians 2:5-11 (ESV), 2 Corinthians 10:10; Esther 4:14
Key Insights
- Suffering as God’s Workshop: How Paul’s endurance under persecution forms the crucible for true Christlikeness.
- The Christ Hymn’s Countercultural Claim: Why Colossians 1 allows no rivals or partial allegiances—Christ is either all or nothing.
- Obedience over Identity: The invitation to let our lives be marked by obedience to Christ’s supremacy, not defined by circumstance or status.
https://springhousemidweek.captivate.fm/episode/foundations-colossians-1
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Transcript
All right, thank you so much. It is a pleasure
Speaker:to be with the family of God, that is for sure. Um, let's see
Speaker:here. Slides.
Speaker:There we go.
Speaker:Aim it there. Okay. If I'm doing this, it's not at
Speaker:you. All right. So
Speaker:tonight, uh, For Such a Time as This: Paul's
Speaker:Suffering, Christ's Supremacy, and the
Speaker:Church's Call to Embrace Both. And I am not used
Speaker:to this. So if I keep doing that, that's me
Speaker:getting used to the mic. Paul's journey to Rome
Speaker:was not the missionary journey he had planned,
Speaker:but it is the one God had prepared. Instead of
Speaker:traveling freely across the empire, Paul now
Speaker:sits under house arrest, chained to a Roman
Speaker:guard. He is cut off from the churches in body,
Speaker:but not in spirit. And it is here in confinement
Speaker:that Epaphras arrives with news of a young
Speaker:church in Colossae, a church Paul has never met,
Speaker:but one deeply in need of direction, clarity,
Speaker:and truth. By this point, Paul has
Speaker:years of experience writing letters to the churches. He
Speaker:rarely wrote them with his own hand. His eyesight
Speaker:was poor, and he often signed only the final greeting himself,
Speaker:Noting in one letter how large the letters were. Anybody at that
Speaker:point in their life? Right, real big so you can read it.
Speaker:So now in this Roman house, Paul speaks while a scribe writes.
Speaker:He is addressing a church he does not know personally, relying only on the
Speaker:report Epaphras has given him. He must give them the
Speaker:foundational truths they can build on, anchors strong enough
Speaker:to hold them through the storms that will come. The
Speaker:persecutions under Nero have not yet begun. The
Speaker:earthquake that will devastate their region is still unknown to them.
Speaker:Paul cannot see any of this, but the God who
Speaker:inspires every word he speaks can. And so
Speaker:in chains, in confinement, in a moment he never planned but God
Speaker:perfectly prepared, Paul begins dictating a letter,
Speaker:a letter that will lift Christ so high
Speaker:that every fear, every false teaching, and every future trial
Speaker:will be dwarfed by his supremacy.
Speaker:And this is what Paul spoke to the scribe.
Speaker:Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
Speaker:to the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae.
Speaker:Grace to you and peace from God our Father.
Speaker:We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we
Speaker:pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and
Speaker:of the love that you have for all the saints because of the hope laid
Speaker:up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the
Speaker:word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as
Speaker:indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing,
Speaker:as it also does among you since the day you heard it and understood
Speaker:the grace of God in truth. Just as you learned it from
Speaker:Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant. He is a
Speaker:faithful minister of Christ on your behalf and has made known to us
Speaker:your love in the Spirit. And so from the day we
Speaker:heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you
Speaker:may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual
Speaker:wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord,
Speaker:fully pleasing to him, Bearing fruit in every good work and
Speaker:increasing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power
Speaker:according to his glorious might for all endurance and patience with joy,
Speaker:giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the
Speaker:inheritance of the saints in light. He has
Speaker:delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom
Speaker:of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness
Speaker:of sins. He is the image of the
Speaker:invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
Speaker:For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible
Speaker:and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or
Speaker:authorities— all things were created through him and for him.
Speaker:And he is before all things; in him all things hold
Speaker:together. And he is the head of the body, the church,
Speaker:He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in
Speaker:everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the
Speaker:fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to
Speaker:himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace
Speaker:by the blood of his cross.
Speaker:I'm off, aren't I?
Speaker:And you who were once alienated and hostile in mind,
Speaker:doing evil deeds, He has now reconciled in his body of flesh
Speaker:by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless
Speaker:and above reproach before him, if indeed you
Speaker:continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the
Speaker:hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation
Speaker:under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.
Speaker:Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I
Speaker:am filling up what is lacking in Christ's Afflictions for the sake
Speaker:of his body, that is, the church, of which I became a minister
Speaker:according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you,
Speaker:to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages
Speaker:and generations, but now revealed to his saints.
Speaker:To them God chose to make known how great among
Speaker:the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, Which
Speaker:is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we
Speaker:proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom,
Speaker:that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil,
Speaker:struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within
Speaker:me. Ah.
Speaker:So Paul's life
Speaker:and how a prison became God's pulpit.
Speaker:There's a line in the book of Esther
Speaker:that has echoed through the generations, for such a time as this.
Speaker:Mordecai speaks it to Esther, but it could just as easily be
Speaker:spoken over the Apostle Paul. He was a Jewish man
Speaker:who was also a Roman citizen. This was very rare in those
Speaker:days, but it allowed him some privileges that were
Speaker:critical to his missionary journeys and actually resulted
Speaker:in his imprisonment in Rome and eventual execution.
Speaker:He was a student of Gamaliel, the leading teacher of the law for the Pharisees
Speaker:in his day, grounding him in the theology and the history of Israel.
Speaker:and eventually how Christ fulfilled the promises of God and the requirements of the
Speaker:law. His missionary journeys brought him both joy and
Speaker:suffering as he raised churches and met violent antagonism
Speaker:along the way. He was probably in his mid-20s
Speaker:to early 30s when Christ confronted him on the road to Damascus.
Speaker:Anybody around? You don't have to say exact ages, but
Speaker:mid-20s, early 30s?
Speaker:Prayer. Where's the youngsters in the house? Come on.
Speaker:But he was likely—
Speaker:he was likely in his 50s
Speaker:when he wrote the letter to the Colossians.
Speaker:This is 20-odd years of preaching,
Speaker:planting churches, discipling believers, enduring opposition, and watching
Speaker:Christ transform lives. In this time, flogged
Speaker:5 times, beaten with rods 3 times, stoned and left for
Speaker:dead, fleeing from assassination attempts, shipwrecked
Speaker:3 times, bitten by a viper on Malta. That's
Speaker:a fun story. And surrounded by enemies all the
Speaker:time. Rode hard and put away wet.
Speaker:Anybody? I think
Speaker:sometimes we see pictures of Paul and we picture this guy standing
Speaker:tall and with the robe and the big hair and the
Speaker:beard. This was Paul.
Speaker:When you've been whipped and beaten with sticks that
Speaker:many times, your body is— Broken.
Speaker:Devastated. Absolutely devastated.
Speaker:It is interesting, it is interesting to note that there is no
Speaker:record of Paul ever being healed after
Speaker:any of these events.
Speaker:Let that sink in for a moment. There is no
Speaker:record anywhere in Acts, in any testimony of
Speaker:Paul, that he was ever healed after any of these events.
Speaker:He carried in his body the evidence of a life poured out for Christ.
Speaker:He even says in 2 Corinthians 10:10 that people looked at him and
Speaker:said, his bodily presence is weak.
Speaker:Now he sits in the house arrest, chained for the gospel he has helped spread
Speaker:across the Roman Empire. A man who traveled often,
Speaker:fellowshipped daily, loved his friends and brethren deeply, must now
Speaker:spend most of his time alone.
Speaker:It was during this imprisonment that Epaphras brought news of the church in
Speaker:Colossae, prompting Paul to write a letter to the congregation, and at
Speaker:the same time, a personal letter to Philemon regarding
Speaker:Onesimus, the slave.
Speaker:God, on the road to Damascus, had shown Paul all that he must suffer.
Speaker:When he encountered Christ,
Speaker:Somehow he transferred into Paul's mind all that
Speaker:he would have to suffer for the gospel.
Speaker:I am not sure Paul knew how perfectly it would shape him
Speaker:to be the pen in God's hands that wrote the letter to the
Speaker:Colossians.
Speaker:Paul's prison was a pastoral office.
Speaker:His confinement did not silence him, it clarified him.
Speaker:The man who could no longer travel freely produced some of the most
Speaker:exalted Christology in Scripture in his prison epistles.
Speaker:Paul often dealt with specific issues within the church that he was writing
Speaker:to, especially those that he had planted,
Speaker:having already taught the foundational theology they were ignoring or
Speaker:questioning. That's often what his letters are
Speaker:doing, correcting errors or
Speaker:answering their questions of more specificity. This makes letters
Speaker:like Colossians stand out because it is about the foundational
Speaker:theology and the broader threats to the church.
Speaker:There is strong historical evidence that Paul wrote Colossians,
Speaker:Philemon, and Ephesians at the same time as they were
Speaker:carried by the same man, Tychicus to each of those
Speaker:churches and, and people.
Speaker:Colossians and Philemon are directly connected to Onesimus. Onesimus
Speaker:was a slave. He had escaped and ran to
Speaker:Rome to Paul for some reason, um,
Speaker:and wanted to be free, wanted to not be a slave anymore.
Speaker:And read Philemon sometime, very interesting
Speaker:letter. He's basically saying you need to return as brothers in
Speaker:Christ, Philemon and Onesimus, and work out this
Speaker:relationship. He doesn't say— tell Philemon to set him free. He
Speaker:doesn't tell Onesimus that it's okay to run away.
Speaker:He basically says, you have to learn how to live in this situation
Speaker:as Christian brothers. Let that one
Speaker:sink in. Yikes.
Speaker:These letters share themes of reconciliation, unity,
Speaker:and Christ's lordship, all shaped in Paul's imprisonment and his
Speaker:inability to have discussions about these themes in person.
Speaker:And Philippians is widely believed to be Paul's final prison epistle.
Speaker:It contains one of my favorite passages, Philippians
Speaker:2:5-11, which pairs beautifully with the
Speaker:Christ hymn in Colossians that we just read. Together, they
Speaker:show how Paul's theology has become fully integrated. Christ's humility and
Speaker:Christ's supremacy are not opposites. They are one
Speaker:revelation about Jesus Christ.
Speaker:Everything that happened to Paul that eventually saw him imprisoned was an
Speaker:answer to the prayers of many. They were not praying for him
Speaker:to suffer or to be imprisoned, but they were praying for understanding and
Speaker:clarity and honesty. And the only way Paul could deliver that
Speaker:clarity was through all that he experienced as he walked with God,
Speaker:the God who was shaping him along the way. The only way
Speaker:Paul was prepared to write this letter to Colossians
Speaker:was everything that had happened before.
Speaker:Hmm. So now that we have seen what happened to Paul in writing this
Speaker:letter, we can see our purpose is
Speaker:also someone else's prayer.
Speaker:After Paul gives his greeting, he immediately transitions to prayer,
Speaker:first in thanksgiving and then for the Colossians to experience
Speaker:the fullness of following Christ. Paul is not
Speaker:praying for them to avoid the same trials and tribulations he has
Speaker:experienced. He's not saying, I wish you—
Speaker:I hope you don't have to go through what I went through. He's basically
Speaker:saying, you're going to go through what I went
Speaker:through, and here's how you deal with it. Excuse me.
Speaker:He is praying for them to persevere through
Speaker:everything with the knowledge of who God is and as
Speaker:members of Christ's kingdom. Paul's prayer for the
Speaker:Colossians is ultimately for the benefit of those
Speaker:not yet in their number. His intercession is
Speaker:shaping a people who will become a witness to
Speaker:others, including those who have not yet seen his
Speaker:faith. From Colossians 2:1. Paul's prayer in
:9-14 is not about removing the
:Colossians from a bad situation. It is for their
:transformation So that their lives become a
:testimony of Christ's supremacy to the wider world
:in whatever situation they're in. We often submit
:prayer requests for a change in circumstances, and
:there may be times when this is appropriate, but it
:is always appropriate to pray that we would be
:shaped and molded by God in every circumstance So
:that we better reflect his Son, Jesus Christ.
:There is someone who needs to hear your story, see
:our joy in suffering, and encounter Christ through the way we endure.
:Maybe our first instinct in meeting trials and
:tribulations should be to pray for God to shape, equip, and
:encourage us to see it through instead of asking for a way out.
:Paul's prayer sets the stage for what is often called by scholars the Christ hymn.
:It is the theological anchor for the entire letter.
:The supremacy of Christ is the truth on which all other truths and
:promises are built.
:In Philippians chapter 2,
:We read, have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ
:Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did
:not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied
:himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness
:of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself
:by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
:Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above
:every name, so that at the
:name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the
:earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
:to the glory of God the Father. Verse 2,
:did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.
:Wow. He had it. He was,
:and he let it go. How many
:stories have we read, movies have we seen, TV shows that we've seen where people
:could not let go of the power, the position, or
:the talent or whatever that they had? They couldn't let it go. And even when
:they lost it, they were still defined by the loss of it. not
:what else they had. And here is Jesus,
:who is defined by his obedience, not his identity. He's
:defined in this passage by his obedience to his
:Father, not that he's equal with him.
:I think sometimes we like to identify ourselves as Christians by
:the Jesus stickers, the bumper stickers, the shirts, Well, what
:about our obedience being the thing that defines us?
:We look back on the passage in Colossians and see some parallels.
:Verses 15 through 20, he is the image of the invisible God, the
:firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were
:created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible,
:whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, All things
:were created through him and for him. And
:he is before all things, and in him all things
:hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is
:the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he
:might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was
:pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself
:all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the
:blood of his cross.
:Philippians 2 asks, who is Christ in relation— or
:what is the character of Christ? And Colossians 1 asks, who is Christ in
:relation to creation and the cosmos?
:Philippians, Christ empties himself. Colossians, Christ
:fills all things. His
:humility, obedience, and servanthood are exemplified in
:Philippians. His position as Creator, Sustainer, and
:Reconciler, and Lord are exemplified in Colossians.
:Philippians shows Christ's heart, and Colossians shows Christ's throne.
:The one who stoops lowest in Philippians 2 is the one who reigns
:highest in Colossians 1. This paradox is
:the foundation of Christian hope, majesty expressed through
:humility.
:But the Christ hymn in Colossians does more than that.
:It also declares the promises of the Torah fulfilled and
:also contends against the cultural issues at play in Colossae.
:The hymn is saturated with Old Testament themes, the image of God, the wisdom at
:creation, reconciliation that we see again and
:again in the stories of the Old Testament. Christ is the fulfillment
:of Israel's Scriptures, the perfect image humanity
:failed to be. He is the second Adam that actually did the
:job right, the wisdom through whom creation exists,
:and the Redeemer who restores all things.
:Yeah. Okay. Paul's logic is simple.
:If Christ created all things, if Christ sustains all things, if Christ
:reconciles all things, then no rival system can
:improve on him. The
:supremacy of Christ banishes the idea of Christianity being one of
:many ways to God. It abolishes the
:possibility of Christ being part of your life.
:He must have the whole or he is being treated as second place in
:something. This puts us at
:odds with the world and the moral and spiritual buffet it
:likes to offer its residents. And the world is
:a glutton. Pick what you like and leave the rest for
:others. There's plenty to go around.
:Paul's hymn denies this attitude to those who would be saved and
:sanctified. It is Christ is all or
:Christ is nothing to us. But we
:still have to live in that broken, painful, and sinful buffet.
:You cannot be good in this world for the sake of God and
:not suffer.
:But our suffering is God's workshop.
:Paul's description of his suffering is not a brag,
:but a testimony about how God, how God shaped him to
:be better A reflection of the supremacy of Christ.
:When he speaks about himself filling up what is lacking in Christ's
:afflictions for the sake of his body, that is the church, he is not
:saying Christ's sacrifice on the cross was not enough to save everyone.
:Paul is talking about the self-sacrifice that all Christians are asked to
:participate in for the sake of the church and its testimony to the
:lost. Paul is saying that he is suffering so that Christ
:might be known. And he is encouraging the
:Colossians that they're going to have to do the same.
:And that encourages us that we're going to have to do the same.
:His suffering becomes the crucible where Christ's character is formed in
:him, the same Christ who humbled himself and
:reconciled all things through the cross.
:Paul's imprisonment becomes the place where his theology crystallizes.
:Creation, redemption, resurrection, reconciliation, and lordship
:converge on Christ.
:Yeah.
:So we can either be shaped by our suffering
:or shaped by God in the midst of our suffering.
:I'll say that again. We can either be shaped by
:our suffering or shaped by God in the midst of
:our suffering. And those both look very
:different from one another.
:Suffering is not merely endured.
:It is used. It becomes the workshop
:where God forms Christ's image in us so that our lives declare
:his supremacy. And harkens back
:to the prayer he wrote at the beginning of this chapter
:where Paul prays for the church in Colossae.
:It's been 25 years since September 11th.
:On that day, I was, at the time, a pastor with the
:Salvation Army, and we
:watched, along with everyone else, in horror at what was
:transpiring in New York and Pentagon and in
:Pennsylvania. And
:within the week after it happened, the
:Salvation Army was calling officers from
:around the United States to come to New York and
:New Jersey to alleviate the pressure that the
:officers there were feeling under the weight
:of that. And so in October, a team of us from
:California went out and we manned the rest
:tents that were around the outside area of the,
:what was then called Ground Zero, where they
:were doing the recovery of that horrible,
:horrible situation. The first day we were
:there, they gave us a tour, and we got onto the
:subway several blocks away from there, and it
:was typical New York— horns blaring and
:traffic all over the place, the noise of the
:city. And then when we got off at Chambers
:Street and walked outside, It was the exact
:opposite. It was quiet. There was a solemnness
:in that place, and they took us around to the
:different areas that Salvation Army was
:serving and introduced us and told us what the
:different responsibilities there were, and
:as we were walking back out of that location,
:there was a place that seemed to be
:undisturbed. There were barricades around
:it, and it was kind of being left alone. And we
:asked, what's this? And he said, well, there
:was a walkway from one of the towers over to the
:other side of the street, an elevated walkway.
:And when they were clearing debris, there was one piece of this
:structure that was left behind.
:from the towers collapsing, and it was 2 steel girders
:in the shape of a cross.
:He is supreme.
:Even in that place, Christ was elevated.
:That was where people went to pray each morning.
:That's where they held Mass. In the midst of
:death and destruction, Christ was elevated.
:Our bad days cannot be an excuse for
:Christ to be muted in our lives.
:How someone else treats us Can't determine
:Christ being supreme in our life.
:Someone wronging us cannot decide
:the place that Christ has in our life.
:Because Christ is supreme over creation, he is also
:supreme over our circumstances. Therefore,
:our prisons become his pulpits, our suffering
:becomes his workshop, and our lives become his testimony.
:And since Christ is supreme over every— your circumstances,
:he will use them to shape you into his image.
:with patient loving care. This is why Paul, after all
:that he had been through, can say, him we proclaim, warning
:everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we
:may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I
:toil, struggling with all his energy that he
:powerfully works within me. Amen.
:That was more of a race than a marathon. My first time, so
:thank you.
:I don't know if we want to have the worship team come up and close
:with a song. And
:we're good? Okay. Okay. All
:right, let's pray.
:Lord, we thank you so much for, um, the
:truth of your scripture that, uh,
:penetrates deep into our hearts and in between
:bone and marrow. Lord, it separates the truth from the lies.
:And tonight, Lord, we want you to be elevated in our lives.
:Amen. For you to be the supreme, not just in one
:part, but in every part.
:Lord, that when we're alone or with others, when
:we're having our worst day or our best day, we become
:unchangeable. We become unmovable
:because we become defined by you. Lord, help us
:each and every day seek the supremacy of Christ in all things.
:Lord, I pray that your blessing would go with
:everyone here, Lord, that you would watch over and
:protect them, but also that you would walk them through
:each and every trial and tribulation, each pain and
:suffering that they go through, so that they can be shaped into the image of
:your Son, Jesus Christ. In his name we pray. Amen. Amen.
