The question of Jesus Christ's place within the Christian faith, particularly in response to the theological challenges faced by the church in Colossae, where emphasis on angels, festivals, and regulations diminished Christ's unique significance. It argues that understanding God's will requires centering on Jesus Christ, as demonstrated by Paul's ministry and the early church's struggles. The core lesson is that true spiritual understanding comes from grasping God's perspective, which always places Christ at its heart, rather than getting lost in human philosophies or regulations. The message concludes by urging listeners to seek God's point of view, especially in difficult circumstances, recognizing that Christ is central to God's plan.
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It was a very beautiful sunny day. There were probably up seventy-five or a hundred people gathered around an open grave, and we were putting to rest the earthly remains of my brother Bill. He died at forty years of age, and he left his wife thirty-one years of age and five little children from eleven years and down. Someone had already led us in prayer, and someone had read from the Scriptures a very short comment was made, and then one last prayer, and we just stood there in a moment of silence. And then a friend came up, and he said to me, Jim, can we sing a verse of how great thou art?
And I said, You certainly can. And he began, and we all joined in. And this was the verse you sang this morning. When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation, And take me home what joy shall fill my heart. Then I shall bow in humble adoration, and there proclaim, My God, how great thou art. And I thought to myself that day as we sang that hymn, in the presence of death, not with arrogance, but with absolute confidence, we sang our faith in God, for only God can help us in that moment of death and bring us safely into His home forever and ever.
Now it's always good to come back to the park. There is a sense it's almost like coming home. We've been with you so many times. And even some of our friends sometimes say, why don't you stay at the park, Jim? Well, we have three families and seven grandchildren, and they all live in the Vancouver, Canada area. And we would have a family revolution if we sought to do that. But it is good to come back and visit you and also to hear the good news of what God has done in these weeks of ministry, the good attendance, and the excellent ministry. During our morning sessions, I would like to take you back into the Likus Valley, right in the center of the old province of Asia, and look at a local church and the problem this church was facing.
And then during the evening sessions, I would like to speak to you on the subject of the vision of God and the voice of God. I will go to Isaiah chapter six. for those meditations. You may remember that in the New Testament, Paul was the great man who took the Word of God, the Gospel, around the eastern end of the Mediterranean. Now, he's not the only one who was involved in Christian service. We just wish we knew more about what Matthew did and what Mark did and others of the disciples. But we do, in God's sovereign will, know a great deal about Paul.
And this was the man who shook the very foundations of the Roman Empire when he took the good news of salvation into all these distinct cultures. Now, if you follow him on one occasion with a few companions, he's walking northward on the eastern side of the province of Asia. The province of Asia today would represent the Republic of Turkey. And as he went northward, he turned westward, and he realized this is one of the most important provinces in the Roman Empire. And I can just imagine in Paul his thinking, his mind, his emotions, he would say to his companions, This would be a tremendous mission field to take the gospel into the province of Asia.
And I don't think I'm stretching the imagination when I can see Paul with his friends praying about this and even making preparations. This would be one of the greatest stages in his ministry. But before they really turn to go west into that province through the back door, The Spirit of God said to this man, No, you're not to do that. Now, there are a lot of lessons that come out of that prohibition. What Paul wanted to do was something that was good and right. After all, the Great Commission was very clear, go into all the world, that included the province of Asia, and preach the gospel to every creature that would take in all the inhabitants of that great province.
But even when you want to do something that is good and consistent with the will of God, you always need God's guidance. There's a lesson there for all of us, and the lesson that we learn is it was a right and a good thing, but God said, no, I don't want you to do that. I don't sense in Paul any sense of rebellion, any resistance. They just kept walking northward. God has shut that door. We don't know the circumstances. They went on northward. And then they came to Bithynia, not far from Bithynia, another great and important part of the empire, right on the border of the Black Sea.
And Paul and his companions again, that's where we should go. We'll pray about this and work towards it. For the second time, the Spirit of God said, No, you are not to do that. Again, there's no resistance, no rebellion. Instead, he turned westward, now on the northern side of Asia, and made his way to Troas. And that's where he received from God that very important message. A man in Macedonia was calling out to Paul, and he was saying, Come and help us. Now, Luke says immediately. Now, I don't know if that means that he jumped out of bed at that moment and called his friends.
or whether he patiently waited till the morning, but the first thing he did was to share this with his colleagues. Now there was no doubt where God wanted him to go. And they went to Philippi, the most important city in that area, and there was blessing. You all know the story. Lydia was converted. A little church was formed in her home. She compelled Paul and his companions to make her home their home. And that's where the work began. But then, of course, came the problems. And though it's difficult for us to understand all that this involved, Paul was badly treated. So was Silas.
They were whipped. Now, Luke says, they laid many stripes on them. To me, that indicates they beat them with a vengeance. And the usual procedure was, you stripped a man. And then you whipped him, and there he lost all of his dignity. His body was bruised now in an open wound, and then you were thrown in jail. So you have Paul, and he's in jail. Again, you remember the story. There's an earthquake, and then the leaders of the community literally begged these men, would you please leave us? Now, he left the church, but he had to go on himself with Silas, and they went to Thessalonica.
There was blessing there, and then there was persecution. His life was threatened. He had to leave that city, and he went down to Berea. The same thing happened in Berea, and his friends took him down to the beach, and they said to Paul, we think you ought to go on to Athens. And so Paul looks back, blessing in Philippi, blessing in Thessalonica and Berea, And now he makes his way down to Athens. Athens was the cultural capital of the world two thousand years ago. And into that city, Paul went, I think he was somewhat troubled.
He saw all the superstition, all the temples, heard the philosophies. But he stands on a street corner and he speaks about Jesus Christ. And when he mentioned the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, he did so just at a moment when some philosophers were walking by and they stopped right there. They'd heard many stories. They'd never heard the story of a man who died by crucifixion who came to life three days later. And they said to this man, Paul, you better come with us. They took him into that very important council in Athens. Now, I don't know too much about the stature of Paul.
Many people believe he was a short man. There's no doubt about it he would be a disfigured man. He had suffered a great deal. He'd been stoned and shipwrecked and so on. He would not be a handsome man. And here is Paul in front of this great and important council, and he stands there, and he speaks about the Lord Jesus. And again, when he comes to his death and the resurrection, which would all be implied in what is written about that incident, they stood up and they laughed at him. Now that wounded Paul, that hurt him deeply. It is my personal opinion that that hurt him more than the whipping in Philippi and the threats against his life in Thessalonica and Berea, that they would laugh at God's message.
No one threatened him. No one told him he had to leave the city. No one threw a stone at him. Here is this man, and he looks around. He senses the laughter, the ridicule, and of his own volition. He just walked out of the city. And he made his way to Corinth. Now, Corinth was a wicked city. It was a port city. And it's interesting that Paul shares with us how he felt when he arrived in Corinth. Now, I often think of Paul, and I know I err, sometimes I almost make him a superhuman being. He was an ordinary human being with the passions and the feelings that we all have.
He'd been physically threatened and beaten, and he was emotionally upset with what happened in Athens. And he writes to his friends in Corinth later on, and he says to them, I was with you in fear and much trembling and weakness. Now I never really think of Paul in that way, feeling weak and trembling and afraid, but he had been through so many experiences, now he's face to face with a wicked city. When he walked into that city, he would hear things. He did not want to hear.
And he would see things he did not want to see. Perversity, especially in the sexual sense, was just rampant in that city. And Paul would be very discouraged as he looked at all of this. But one of the wonderful things about this man is he stood up and he began to preach again about the Lord Jesus. And in that environment, he met two choice friends. Someone told me once we often talk about the role of the woman and the role of the man. We ought to talk more about the role of the couple. And this is one of the great couples of the New Testament, Priscilla and Aquila.
I'm not sure just how they meant. We believe they are Christians, and Paul was the same type of work Paul did, so did Aquila. So these men, because of their work, probably joined together, and as they worked, they talked, and I'm sure Paul shared his visions with them, and they would share their visions with Paul. The outcome was that together, the three of them, excuse me, they decided they would go to Ephesus in Asia. Now this time, not through the back door, but they would come through the front door.
That is, they would sail to the port city of Ephesus, and then they would walk up the marble avenue right into the city, right into the heart of Asia, the capital city. Now, when Paul and his friends arrived there, Paul had to go on. He went down to Jerusalem for a short time. He came right back. The three of them and others joined them. they spent probably less than three years in that city. But I think you have one of the most dramatic statements in the New Testament about those years of service. For it is written that everyone in Asia, both Jew and Greek, heard the word of the Lord Jesus.
Now that doesn't mean they all became Christians. But it does mean there was a powerful witness for God in the capital city of Asia, in the city called Ephesus. Now, how did it go? Well, Paul preached in some of the synagogues and on street corners, and finally a man who had a school, opened a school, Tyranus, and he let Paul come in and his companions, and that became the center where they preached the gospel of the Lord Jesus. Now, just as we used to say, all roads led to Rome, I'm sure in Asia, all roads led to Ephesus. Now I'm using my imagination, but I think I'm on quite certain ground.
There was a man who lived down in the Likus Valley. He lived in the city of Colossi, and his name was Epaphras. Now, like many others, he would make his frequent trips up to Ephesus. It's about a hundred miles, maybe to buy supplies for his business or for some other reason. And we would presume that on one of those trips, He went to that school and he heard Paul speak about the gospel and about the Lord Jesus. And that man made a commitment to the Lord Jesus. As the old preachers used to say, he was soundly converted.
There was a radical change in his life. And Epaphras, not Paul, Epaphras became the pioneer missionary in the Likus Valley. Paul says when he writes to the Colossians, you are one of them. He also refers to the fact that he was doing this pastoral work not only in Colossi, but in Areopolis and Laodicea, the three cities in the Likus Valley. Here's a local man who heard the good news, went back to his own territory, and spread the good news and possibly founded those three churches. Now, the important thing is, Paul did achieve his objective.
He went into Asia. But if he'd gone in through the back door, he would have gone through the Likus Valley. And I'm sure he would have stopped there and preached the good news. But God had other plans. Epaphras would be the man. God took Paul in a very roundabout way and finally brought him in through the front door, into Ephesus, where he remained for that short period in his ministry. Other men like Epaphras and women were those who shared the message throughout that great province. Now, from that initial evangelization to the point where we're going to go this morning, probably five to six years have passed.
Paul is now a prisoner, possibly in Rome. Epaphras is in the Likus Valley, and he's doing a pastoral ministry in the churches there. He's helping them with teaching. He's helping them by example. He's helping them in practical issues. This is the man who God raised up to be a real servant of God in the Likus Valley. In that area, there is a problem. Now, the problem is not clearly defined in the New Testament. You have to come at it through different little things that are said and then put them all together.
But there definitely is a problem. And I would like you this morning to go with me to Colossians chapter one. And we're going to notice just a little about what Paul did to resolve this problem. While you're looking for the portion, let me give you some hints as to what the problem was. I'm going to mention once again, we don't really know all the details. but we know enough to have a general idea of what was wrong. And I think probably the basic issue is, where does Jesus fit into the Christian faith?
Now that may seem a strange question to raise in an audience like this this morning. But this was a real issue in Colossi two thousand years ago, and possibly in the churches in Laodicea and Heriopolis. And I think today in the world in which we live, in the Christian world in the broader sense, and in the secular world, this is a very real issue. How does Jesus fit into the Christian faith? The reason that this was an issue in the church You read in this letter, Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he is not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind.
Now that's not much of a help, but it's very clear that there was a great deal of interest in angels. even to the point of worshiping angels. That would mean that the dignity of the Lord Jesus was being lost among a multitude of angels. Instead of being unique, He's now one among many. They are worshiping angels. Then you also read in another portion, Let no one judge you in food or in drink. Why do you subject yourselves to regulations? Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle, which all concern things which perish with the using.
You'd almost think there's a little bit of Jewish influence there. That might have been part of the problem. Great emphasis on certain things that you eat and what you can touch and what you cannot touch. Then there's one other thing that is said, let no one judge you regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbath, which are a shadow of things to come. That certainly sounds very Jewish. Now you've got religious festivals, new moons and Sabbaths. This may be the idea. I think some scholars are united in this. If you want to get to God, If you want to have a personal relationship with God and you want to enter His presence someday, then you must appease the angels that stand between you and God.
How do you do that? You do that by certain festivals. You do that by certain diets. you have a whole list of regulations and one by one you appease the angels and you open the way and little by little you get nearer and nearer to God. Now this was a real problem that Epaphras had to face. What do you do with people who are talking like that? After all, the Bible does mention angels in the Old Testament, which would be the Bible they had at that time. and they would know all about the regulations that came out of the Old Testament and about festivals and diets.
But this man, Epaphras, is thinking with all the emphasis on these things, the dignity and the glory of the Lord Jesus has been lessened more and more. He's no longer outstanding and unique. He appears to be one among many. Well, in our generation today, these are the questions that I'm listening to in my readings questions like this about the Lord Jesus was he just a great teacher secondly was he a messianic imposter now again I speak gently many in the Jewish community would take that attitude he was an imposter then there are those who come to it rather gently and they say, was he someone who was sadly misunderstood?
Then I think more cruelly, there are those who maintain today with great vigor that the Lord Jesus was manipulated by others, especially after His death. And they'll tell you, when you read the Gospels, you're not reading the real story of the Lord Jesus. What you're reading are the ideas of the apostles. They manipulated his memory and they changed it and they led you into this type of ecclesiastical and theological Christ. But that Christ is not related to the real Jesus. Then you're going to find in our newspapers, and maybe you read them as I do, you're going to find in the newspapers there's a great deal today about the Lord Jesus.
Take Time magazine, which is a news magazine, that Christmas, this past Christmas had a major article on Jesus. A lot of Christians were deeply disturbed by the article. I've read in the Times of London more than once long articles about Jesus. And again, in the secular world, they're raising all of these questions. Well, our situation today is not that different from the situation two thousand years ago in Colossae in the Likus Valley. And the portion that we're going to look at this morning is the portion that's going to teach us how Paul began to deal with this issue.
As I leave all of these thoughts about the controversy about the Lord Jesus, I found it very remarkable that in one of these articles that came out a few years ago in Time magazine, the cover said, Jesus, plain and simple. Again, the author was telling us you'll never meet the real Jesus in the Bible. You'll only meet if you go back beyond the Bible and find the real, simple, and plain Jesus. Well, there's a Jewish scholar who lives in your state of Florida, down in Tampa, And his name is Jacob Neusner. He's a very learned man. He has edited and translated and written over five hundred books.
He is not a Christian, but he is a man in dialogue with Christians in a respectful and friendly way. And when he read about this controversy to try and find the plain and simple Jesus, this is what Neusner said. that to find the plain and simple Jesus is either the greatest scholarly hoax since the pilt-down man or the utter bankruptcy of New Testament studies. Then he added, I hope it's the former. It's a hoax and not the bankruptcy of New Testament studies. Well, I've had to deal with people like this that have faced this problem in the Dominican Republic.
I had a lady come up after service once weeping and telling me, I have a neighbor. And the neighbor has told me with great detail that Jesus is a God. He is not the God. And she came and asked for help. She didn't know, but you probably know, and I know that that goes right back to Arius in the third and fourth century. A very learned man in Alexandria in Egypt. And this man once said, the word once was not. Well, if that's true, then the word had a beginning. And one of the most popular religious movements in our day is based on that concept, that the word had a beginning.
So it's not just history, going back to the valley called Likus, It's not just remembering a controversy in a church a long time ago. We're really dealing with issues that surround us in the world in which we live today. Now take verse nine in Colossians chapter one. We're going to go through this portion during the morning sessions of this week. You read these words from Paul. 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, God's will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.
Now, Paul never met the Colossians. He never went down to Colossae. He knew Epaphras because Epaphras came up through Ephesus. So he doesn't know these friends. They're not personal friends. But he does know some things about these friends. The first one is mentioned farther up in the chapter, verse four. He refers to your faith in Christ. Now he's not touching the problem, but by using that phrase, he's simply reminding them, when you made your commitment, when you were converted, when your life was radically changed, it had nothing to do with angels or diets or festivals.
You put your faith, your confidence in Christ." He's reminding them of their spiritual roots. Then He also adds in verse four, your love for all the saints, which is a very beautiful evidence of genuine faith. Your heart is open to all those who love the Lord Jesus. And then verse five, He refers to that hope which is laid up for them in heaven. And that means that what you have now is the beginning of a journey that takes you into that eternal glory in the presence of the Lord Jesus.
So he knows all that about them. Now he's going to say to them, there's one thing I want you to have. You may not have it right now. But I want you to be filled with the knowledge of God's will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Verse nine. Now that's Bible language. I'm not sure how you understand that. May I suggest this morning that those of you in pastoral work realize that there are many problems today in marriage. And marriages break up and they also break our hearts. When this happens, sometimes you just wish and pray that the man for a moment would stand in the place of the wife and understand things from her point of view, or that the wife would stand in the man's place just for a moment and understand things from his point of view.
But so many people live today as if the world revolves around each one individually, and always of most importance. Well, now Paul is telling the friends here, I want you to know that God has a point of view. Now, he's not touching the problem. He's just saying, I want you to be filled with an understanding of God's will. God has a point of view. Later, he's going to deal with the issue. But he's reminding them, it's not that important what you think or what someone else thinks or what someone else writes. The most important thing is God has a point of view.
He's basically asking them, do you understand that? Have you picked up God's point of view? I know that sometimes in our own lives we get so involved with our own issues, the issues of our own church and our own family and we're surrounded by problems it doesn't matter what the problem is in this case it's a Christological problem but it doesn't matter what the problem is God has a point of view and we should always begin by doing our best to understand God's point of view so it's a prayer I want you to understand that to be filled with the knowledge of God's will And when that happens, then you're going to have the right point of view.
I think that's the meaning of the last phrase where you read, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. There's probably only two options. It either means there's a spiritual elite, and the spiritual elite is filled with all wisdom and spiritual understanding, and they can understand the will of God. I personally find that very difficult to accept. Paul never identifies himself with a spiritual elite. Then what does it mean? It means that when you understand God's point of view, then you have the point of view that is filled with all wisdom and spiritual understanding.
You've got the right point of view. Now he's working up towards the issue of who the Lord Jesus is. but he's coming at it very gently and he's really putting down a very solid foundation. In the same letter, pardon me, in the letter to the Ephesians, Paul makes a very beautiful statement and he says, Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Let me just pause for a moment this morning. we're all here today with our own lives and our own problems whatever problem you may have right now the question would be in a practical sense do you understand God's point of view about that problem well it is possible Paul would not pray in vain and he says I'm praying for you and I want you to be filled with the knowledge of God's will now when God's will is brought into focus right in the center.
You'll always find the Lord Jesus. He's never outside. He does not belong to some distant place. He's the very heart of God's will. Let me give you one or two quick illustrations. All things were created in Him. All things were created by Him. And all things were created for Him. The whole created order was brought into existence because of the Lord Jesus. Or go back before the created order. You were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world.
Whenever God acts, He acts within that sphere where His Son is going to be glorified and recognized as to who He is. And so when you understand God's will, you're not going to get lost in a lot of philosophies or a lot of way out ideas. God's will will bring you face to face with the Lord Jesus. It's always important to have God's point of view. Now, as I close this morning, I would like to just add one other thing. We're slow sometimes to understand God's point of view. I'm speaking for myself. I'm speaking, I think, for some of my friends here.
The disciples were slow to understand God's will. Let me give you an illustration. The Lord Jesus has taken them up to Caesarea Philippine. There he spoke about himself as the Messiah. Peter made the great confession, You are the Christ. Then the Lord Jesus began immediately a new series of teaching. The Son of Man must suffer many things, be rejected, be killed, and be raised again the third day. And you read in Mark's gospel, he taught this openly.
No stories. One, two, three, four. The disciples could not accept that. Peter took him aside and rebuked him. And then you have six days of silence. G. Campbell Morgan referred to those six days as the six days of silence. There was no communication between the Lord Jesus and the disciples. They did not understand each other. The disciples would not accept that the Messiah of God should suffer and die. That was an intolerable thought. I think the Transfiguration is one of those gracious things that the Lord Jesus did to try and help the disciples.
He took the three of them up into a high mountain, and then he was transfigured before them. I think what he's telling them is, if you're worried about the glory, if you're upset about suffering, I want you to know the glory is sure, and he was transfigured. Peter never forgot about it. In his old age, he writes a letter, and he refers to the magnificent glory. He saw that glory. Even the Transfiguration didn't change those men. At the Transfiguration, the Father speaks from the heavens. And He says to these men, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
Now listen to Him. Listen to Him. And what was it the Lord Jesus was saying to them? The Son of Man must suffer many things, be rejected, be killed, and be raised again the third day. I don't think those men even then accepted it. It wasn't until after the resurrection, terrified and frightened, and the Lord Jesus appeared to them. Then they began to understand God's point of view. So I think all of us this morning, and I speak gently, in our own lives, we have to pause now and then and really ask ourselves, do we understand God's point of view?
Peter really believed he had God's point of view. The Messiah would come to reign. He would be a great victor. He would throw out the Romans and set up the kingdom of God and restore the ancient glory of Israel. That was Peter's point of view. God had another point of view. The Messiah would suffer first of all, and he would bring us into God's family, and then the day of glory would come later on. So as they found it difficult to accept God's point of view, as we move into this week during the morning sessions, talking about the Lord Jesus and who he really is, may God give to all of us an understanding of his point of view, because that's the point of view that really counts.
And you go back to the Transfiguration. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Now let's take our hymn book and just conclude our service with a verse or two of hymn number twenty. Hymn number twenty. Fairest Lord Jesus, ruler of all nature, O thou of God and man the Son, thee will I cherish, thee will I honor, thou my soul's glory, joy, and crown. Hymn number twenty. And we'll stand and sing the last two verses only, verses three and four. To the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever.