All right. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to Coffee and devotion. It's so good to be with you. Got my coffee here. I'm gonna make sure both people join us live on the computer. Give me one moment we're almost there. Sometimes it seems like it takes a while. Starting the, the servers are warming up
perfect. Well, good morning. Good morning. Welcome to Coffee and devotions. is where every day you and I we get together we have a little bit of coffee. We get into God's word and we grow in our love for the Lord together and this year 2022 Thanks to you. We will be getting from the book of Acts to the book of Second Thessalonians so I really appreciated all the comments and text messages and different ways in which you communicated with me yesterday that what you'd like to do is just keep going at a slow and steady pace and you get to the get to the end of second Thessalonians so I think that's very accomplishable I've planned it out on the calendar. And I think we're good to go. I think we'll be able to accomplish that. Well, let's go ahead and have some coffee. Let's pray and we'll get into God's Word. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much. For this morning. Thank you for your word. Thank you for how you're working in our hearts. Lord, we pray that as we read your Word this morning, you'd be watching over us. We pray that we would follow after you Lord, please. Would you be glorified this morning? In letting us be hold your glory. In Jesus's name, Amen. All right, so we are at Colossians chapter one Colossians chapter one. And we'll be looking at verses nine through 18 Colossians chapter one verses nine through 18. For this reason, we also since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and ask that you may be filled with a knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding that you may walk worthy of the Lord fully pleasing Him. being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power for all patients and long suffering with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible. Whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him and He is before all things and in Him all things consist and he is the head of the body. The church who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that all things that in all things he may have the preeminence. Oh, it's pretty amazing passage we need to ask ourselves a What is this about? Be what's the best verses summarize this and see what do we call it the response to these words? So a What is this about? Well, this is a continued prayer, or we talked about in verses two through eight. Sorry, yeah, two through eight about how it was his prayer of thanksgiving. Well, now he moves this prayer for them to know something. For this reason. We also since the day we heard of it do not cease to pray for you. What's the content of their prayer? What's the content of Paul in Timothy's prayer for the people that colossal him and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, while the first part of their prayer is they want the people of Colossi to know to know the wisdom of God to understand God's will to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And as their minds are renewed as they sit under the revealed will, that they might know what God requires of them and what God is doing in the world. He wants them to have wisdom spiritual understanding, that you may right. I need to make something very clear. Biblical wisdom is not just
intelligence. But it's knowing the right things. And that affects how we walk, what we do, how we live, verse 10, that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. See, if we have biblical wisdom, it translates into both holy living and holy, loving, loving God and loving others, wanting to know God more and more and walking in holiness, walking in godliness. See the wants on the walk worthy of the Lord fully pleasing Him being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. And then this last portion is increasing in the knowledge of God. He's going to take in verses 11 And then through a whole bunch of the first chapter, and he's gonna tell us about just give it just give us a little taste of what this knowledge of God looks like. Verse 11, strengthened with all might according to his glorious power for all patients, long suffering with joy, giving things to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light, he wants them to be strengthened. That's what he prays for in verse 11. He wants them to be strengthened according to what according to God's glorious power. But this glorious power, the strengthening that comes from the knowledge of God. What does it do for all patients and long suffering with joy, right that they would endure that they would be slow to anger. They would do that with joy, and that they wouldn't just do it with joy but the attitude of their hearts verse 12, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. Notice, doesn't say you who saw that we were qualified but has made us qualified. How because he redeemed us because he imputed to us his righteousness. And so as we look at this passage, we will see this beautiful prayer that Paul wants them to know God. Paul wants them to bear good fruit. Paul and Timothy want them to walk in holiness, to have patience, long suffering with joy to give thanks to God, he's qualified them for his inheritance. For He has delivered us from the power of darkness, verse 13, and convey conveyed us into the kingdom of His Son of His love. The kingdom of the Son of His love, is not a beautiful description of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. It is God who has taken us out of the dominion of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. This is my beloved Son, in who in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him. were brought into His kingdom. That's something we ought to give things for us. We talked about yesterday. And then verse 14, In whom we have redemption. So this is in Jesus, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, Jesus has liberated us from our sins. Jesus has bought us from the bondage of death and corruption in God's wrath, and has made us objects of His mercy and of His grace. He is this Jesus first 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. Did you catch that? He is the image of the invisible God, the Greek there is he is the icon
of the invisible God, the firstborn overall creation. Now there's a debate here. What is this mean the firstborn over all creation. There's two schools of thought. Let me give them to you and then you can go study it out and think for yourself. But Psalm 89 Is this royal language of the son inheriting a kingdom and being given all the rights and the privileges and all the all the things of the kingdom? And some people say this is what Jesus is being referred to as as the firstborn? Not in that he was actually, you know, created by God that's, that's an area and heresy from the early three hundreds. But what he's saying is that he has given over a kingdom as the Royal Air. The other interpretation of this is that this is speaking of Jesus at His resurrection. And that him being the firstborn is him being the firstborn of the resurrection. And then it's tied to Psalm 89 with the Royal language of receiving the kingdom. And so I'm personally in favor of the resurrection idea there. Other people say they're not so certain that's that's there. I think it is speaking about the firstborn of the resurrection. We can debate on that. That's okay. In whom we have redemption through the forgiveness through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn overall creation, For by Him. Notice how wonderful this speaks about the power of Jesus Christ and His role in creating the entire universe. For by Him all things were created, that are in heaven, and that are on earth, visible and invisible. Whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. The computer or phone you're watching this on right now, that was created by the Christ. Everything you see in its earliest material form, right? Yeah, it's that somebody might have actually molded the plastic put it together made the glass but where did the silica come from? Where did the polyurethane come from? Where did the raw materials came come from? They were made by and through Jesus Christ. Jesus is the divine Logos Jesus is the divine Word. And so when God spoke, all things were created by and through Jesus Christ, but not just by him through him. All rulers and principalities and powers, they were created by and for him, for him. Everything. Everything in creation was created, to cry out glory for Jesus Christ. And so verse 17, and He is before all things and in Him all things consist. It is why Jesus when he's talking with his own people in in, in Jerusalem, he's maybe he's not Jerusalem. I forget where he exactly is when he's in the area of Israel. They're arguing and he says, Before Abraham was I am Jesus was before all things Jesus is eternal. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was, God is without beginning, without end, before the earth was, there was Christ. Before the universe was, there is Jesus is why Jesus says He came down from heaven. Now this, this caused people to stumble during his day go read the book of John and people aren't happy about Jesus saying he came down from heaven and he's going to ascend back up into heaven. But by faith, we believe these things. And he is the head of the body, the church who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that all things that in all things he may have the preeminence. Jesus got to be first first in the church. First in our souls, first in the universe. He has preeminence. He's the head of the church. I was one of my favorite things that in our tradition in the reformed Presbyterian Church, every single time the elders have a meeting when we constitute the court in prayer.
We always open and we adjourn, we close the elder meeting. In the name of Jesus Christ, Zions, only King and head. He's the only head of the church. He's the only king of the church he's the one we listen to. He gets preeminence and everything. So we need to ask ourselves a What's this about right as Paul is praying that the people would know these things of walk in these things? What's this about? This is this prayer, but what did we underline was, I would probably underline verse nine, because that tells us that this is a prayer. And I think when he's talking about the knowledge of him in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, I think he's going to explain that in the following verses. I'm not going to underline those. But I am going to underline verse 15. Because I think that gets at a different part. Not necessarily a different part. He wants them to know something and what does he want them to know that Jesus is the exact image of the invisible God, the firstborn, overall creation. I think that's what he wants them to know. That Jesus is the icon of God. You want to know what God looks like. Look at the sun is why Philip says to Jesus show us the Father and Jesus says How long have I been? with you if you've seen me? You have seen the Father. How amazing is it? That the majestic God of the universe, who created all things seen and unseen humbled himself in the likeness of man under the law, under the curse of the law, to redeem us, what's the best verse? Or what what's uh, what's his calling us to do? To love Jesus Christ and to walk in his ways to give thanks for the redemption we have that God in the flesh Emanuelle dwelt among us, has saved us and has loved us something to rejoice about this morning. Let's pray. Father, thank you. For our Savior, Jesus Christ, Lord, we pray that to him would be all the glory for he is first he must be first. We thank you for who you are. And we thank you for sending your only begotten Son. In Jesus's name, Amen. Or MAY THE KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS watch over your soul today. May you rejoice in the redemption of Jesus Christ. And we'll see you tomorrow. Bye
Transcribed by https://otter.ai