Resources For "Enough" From Each Harderwyk Preacher
I. New For This Week
BibleProject Overview of Colossians - CLICK HERE for their helpful online video.
An Early Copy of the Book of Colossians - CLICK HERE to learn some about "P46" - a papyrus copy of Paul's epistles from about one century after Paul would have first written it. Note: No dating can be exact, and there is often debate about just when a book of the Bible was written, and then again over the age of any given manuscript that we possess, so none of this can be exact. CLICK HERE for some actual photographs of P46 and the page where Colossians actually begins! Also of note: Half of P46 is housed at the University of Michigan library. Unfortunately for this sermon series, Colossians is in the half housed at the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin, Ireland.
Celebration Sermon Outline - CLICK HERE for this Sunday's Sermon Outline.
II. From The Commentaries On This Passage
From The Gospel Transformation Study Bible Notes on 1:1-14 - For it is the gospel itself that causes fruit to be borne in the lives of God’s people (v. 6). We do not “graduate” from the gospel of grace; rather, we move more deeply into it over time, as we continue to see how profoundly sinful we are, yet how much more profoundly gracious God is.
From NT Wright in "Paul For Everyone: The Prison Letters" on Colossians 1:1-8
"The main thing Paul wants to say can be summed up quite simply in terms of the gardening illustration, which he himself uses in verse 6. He is delighted to hear that the wonderful new plant of the gospel has been planted in Colossae, and that it’s bearing fruit and growing, as indeed it is doing in the rest of the world. Since Paul himself is responsible for bringing the plant to this part of the world, he wants them to know that he’s thanking God that it’s taking root with them, and he wants to tell them how to nurture it and help it to bear more fruit.
The fruit, in fact, has already begun to appear, and it’s interesting to see that this is what Paul focuses on when he tells them how he heard about the new church coming into being. He doesn’t say that he’s heard about their new learning and wisdom; he does of course want them to grow in understanding and wisdom, but that’s not the tell-tale first sign of life. He doesn’t say that he’s heard about their new-found holiness and obedience to a strict new moral code; he does indeed want them to live a new sort of life, but that will come in due time. He puts his finger instead on the key thing, the fruit that appears quietly but surely within a genuine Christian community soon after it’s been planted. Epaphras, he says (a man from Colossae who has come back to Paul in Ephesus) has told us about ‘your love in the spirit’ (verse 8). That’s the sign.
This love doesn’t simply mean that they all (as we might say) have good feelings about each other. They may or they may not. What matters is that the behaviour which marks out so much of the world—lust, anger, lies and so on, which split up familes and communities—is being replaced by kindness, gentleness, forgiveness, and an acceptance of one another as members of the same family, even where there were major differences of race, background and culture. This, as far as Paul is concerned, is the true sign of God at work, and he is thrilled and grateful to hear about it."
III. Ongoing Resources
1) Spiritual Formation Resources Page - CLICK HERE - This is still a work in progress, but be a part as we look to build.
2) Scotty Smith’s Heavenward Daily Prayers - CLICK HERE - to see the daily prayer blog of Scotty Smith. You will see an option to have them delivered to your email inbox each day as well.
3) Simple Lectio Divina Overview - CLICK HERE - for a simple introduction of the spiritual practice of a more personal way of experience the Word through contemplation and reflection.
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