A Siren's Song

Good evening, well we finished the study titled “A New Community.” Now I would like to take you through a study in the Book of Colossians. As I am preaching through Colossians I am finding that this little book exciting as Paul deals with false teachers, false religions and bad philosophies. Paul is well known for his introductions in his letters to the different churches. So tonight lets look at verses 1-2 of Colossians, chapter 1.

Col 1:1-2

1:1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, 2 To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colosse: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Colosse was a considerable city of Phrygia, and probably not far from Laodicea and Hierapolis; we find these mentioned together, 4:13. It is now buried in ruins, and the memory of it chiefly preserved in this epistle. This epistle was written from a prison cell in the year A.D. 60, a man who wore both the mantle of an apostle and the shackles of a prisoner wrote a letter to a group of believers he had never met. Paul was not idle in his confinement, and the Word of God was not bound. The church planted at Colosse was not by Paul's ministry, but by the ministry of Epaphras or Epaphroditus, an evangelist, one whom Paul delegated to preach the gospel among the Gentiles.

The seductive allure of the counterfeit has confounded men throughout the ages. Homer in his mythological tale The Odyssey personifies the perils of deception in the story of the Sirens – mythological half-women, half bird creatures who lived on an island in the Mediterranean Sea. Their beautiful, melodious songs were so enchanting that passing sailors strayed from their charted course and crashed their ships on the rocky shoreline. The short-lived appeal of the Sirens' songs quickly gave way to the horrible reality of a painful death as the creatures came down from the rocks and devoured the flesh of the shipwrecked sailors.

Two men overcame the powerful enticement of the Sirens but in very different ways. Ulysses, was fascinated with the prospect of hearing the beautiful songs with his own ears. He had his men plug their ears with beeswax and then had himself lashed to the ship's mast. As the ship sailed past the Sirens' island, the sailors were unaffected by the sweet-sounding songs. And Ulysses was physically restrained from acting on the desires that stirred within him.

The second man to overcome the Sirens' songs was Orpheus, a musician of legendary renown. When the Argonauts sailed into the treacherous waters surrounding the deadly isle, Orpheus began to play and sing. The exquisite beauty of Orpheus's music was so genuine and compelling that it the Sirens no longer held any appeal for the crew.

False teaching is much like the Sirens. It is purposely made to sound sweet. It is enticing, alluring, deceptive, and terribly dangerous. Heresy or false teachings were running rampant in Colosse undermining and attacking the identity and sufficiency of Christ Jesus.

So let's begin at the beginning, with the heresy.

1. The Heresy

What exactly is a heresy? Merriam-Webster define it as such

a :  adherence to a religious opinion contrary to church dogma.

b :  denial of a revealed truth by a baptized member of the Roman Catholic Church

c :  an opinion or doctrine contrary to church dogma. 

Now what is this dogma? Dogma is a doctrine or body of doctrines concerning faith or morals formally stated and authoritatively proclaimed by a church. 

What exactly was the heresy that was being taught? Studies of Colossians show that the heresy was syncretistic, that is it was a combination of different forms of beliefs or practices. It fused Jewish legalism, Greek philosophic speculation, and Oriental mysticism into a heretical form of Christianity.

It taught that God was good, but matter was evil. Because Jesus was born on earth, He was one of the higher ways to get to heaven, but He was not the only way. The angles were also worshipped as higher beings. Those who practiced this form of Christianity denied the humanity of Christ, and the deity of Jesus. They also denied the sufficiency of Christ Jesus for salvation. They embraced Jewish law, focusing on circumcision and the dietary laws as part of salvation. They also insisted that you must keep the Jewish holidays as part of ones salvation. They added works, and took away grace.

The sad part of this is that the members of the church in Colosse were more like Ulysses crew when it came to the heresy. They plugged their ears and went on about their business when they should have been more like Orpheus and the other Argonauts. They should have been captivated by the sweet sounds of truth rather than the siren song of heresy. Which crew are you like? Do you turn a blind eye or a deft ear to the sweet sound of truth?

Or are you listening to the sweet sound of Christ Jesus? "If anyone hears My sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day. (John 12:47-48)

Roots was one of the most talked-about book in the 1970s. Millions read and millions more saw this epic story covering more than 200 years and six generations of the family of the author, Alex Haley. It centers initially in Kunta Kinte, Haley’s great-great-great-great-great grandfather, as the first chapter describes the tribal customs concerning birth, and especially the signal event of naming a child on the eighth day.

The description is poignant: Omoro (the father) then walked out before all the assembled people of the village. Moving to his wife’s side, he lifted up the infant and as all watched, whispered three times into his son’s ear the name he had chosen for him. It was the first time the name had ever been spoken as the child’s name, for Omoro’s people felt that each human being should be the first to know who he was.

And, as if trying to place the truth of the child’s identity in proper dimension, chapter one of Roots closes with the father taking his infant son out into the night, lifting him face-up to the heavens and proclaiming: “Behold—the only thing greater than yourself.” It was a great celebration of identity, a ritual to recall that a person might always know who he or she is.

Nothing is more important than to know who we are or whose we are. In Colossians, Paul addressed the question of identity. He had to do this because it seems that the Church in Colosse was guilty of falling into the trap of counterfeit Christianity. Paul recounted the Good News of the gospel as the touchstone for our always remembering who we are and whose we are. Paul wrote to the Colossians the truth of the gospel so that they would not be the victims of sweet sounding false teachings.

2. Naming Who We are (vs. 1-2)

As in all his letters, Paul identifies himself in his greeting: “an apostle of Christ Jesus” (v. 1). By this designation Paul does not seek to glorify himself, but Christ Jesus. Paul is not interested in personal ambition any more. He left that behind when he left the life of a Pharisee.

Paul's identity is in the commission he had received. The risen Christ Jesus had appeared to him and called him. His orders had come “not from men nor through men” (Gal. 1:1), but from the Lord Himself, who had commissioned Paul to speak and act in His name.

Paul knew himself to be Christ Jesus' ambassador (2 Cor. 5:20). Paul did not expect people to just “take his word for this.” He was always ready to offer proof of his claim—“I have become foolish; you yourselves compelled me. Actually I should have been commended by you, for in no respect was I inferior to the most eminent apostles, even though I am a nobody. The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance, by signs and wonders and miracles.” (2 Cor. 12:11-12).

Healings, conversions, the establishment of churches, these signs made it clear that the power of God was working in and through Paul. Paul's letter is written to a group of believers in Colosse. Paul gives them a threefold identification.

First Paul calls them holy. This means the Colossian believers, were set apart by and for God. It is the same with you today if you are a Christ follower you are set apart from the world by and for God.

Next, Paul refers to the Colossian believers as faithful. As he does later in this letter, Paul commends the Colossians for their steadfast commitment to the gospel. Just as those brothers and sister of Colosse you are call to be faithful, to be steadfast in your commitment to the gospel.

Finally, Paul says the Colossians are brothers. They are one spiritual family despite different backgrounds, race, or any other purely human considerations. All who accept Christ Jesus as Lord and Saviour are the sons and daughters of God, and as such brothers and sisters in Christ. A believer in London or in Capetown, or in Mexico City, or in Moscow is every bit a brother or sister in Christ as the person sitting next to you here in First Baptist Church, Felt. 

 

Paul’s burning awareness of his being especially called as an apostle did not make him class-conscious. In fact, Paul's bold affirmation of the gospel shattered the boundaries and barriers of class and position. There is tenderness, intimacy, warmth, and the sense of belonging and family in his reference to Timothy, “our brother,” and his address: “To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colosse” (v. 2). 

 

“Brethren” is Paul’s favorite designation for his fellow Christians; he uses this designation in all his letters. That is the way Paul thought of the church—as a family. How about you, how do you think of the people who you worship with? Do you say, “they are those folks I go to church with.” Or is it, “they are my church family and it is so good to meet with them.”

Conclusion: The church needs to remember who she is—a family. In a family, the well-being of every member is important, and members of the family should be willing to sacrifice themselves on behalf of other members.

The church is a special kind of family. It is a fellowship of “saints.” As an adjective the word means “dedicated” or, a bit stronger word, “consecrated.” Those to whom Paul wrote were saints not because they were distinguished from others by their moral and spiritual qualities, but because they had received and responded to a divine calling, they were set apart by and for God through the saving grace of Christ Jesus.

That is our identity as Christians: We are saints because we belong to Christ Jesus. We have been called and we are to be faithful to that call. Whether lay or clergy, ordained or not, deacons or elders, pastor or priest, we are brothers and sisters, members of the family of God.

Can you say that you are a members of this special family today? Why not become a part of God's family this morning? Go from being a creation of God to a Child of God right now.