Alright, so you should have gotten a sheet from me. So there isn't going to be a sheet for you every single week, but the weeks that, obviously I'm going to give it to you, you'll have that, you have it for today. Every week I'm going to give you some input on hermeneutic principles.

So as we're studying it, we're going to go over certain hermeneutical principles on how you ought to study the Bible, instead of giving it to you all at once, we're going to review it as we're going. So to start, do I need to stand aside a little bit? Alright, so first thing, when we're studying the Bible, again, as I mentioned before, the goal of this study is to get you to learn how to do inductive Bible study, not to simply come here and take notes.

So interpreting a passage in harmony with its context, we talked about that last week, the context. If you take it out of the context, that's where bad doctrines come from. So a lot of times, if you've ever had a discussion with a Jehovah's Witness about heaven, about salvation, about the identity of Christ, they'll spit Bible verses at you, and if you don't know the context, it sounds very biblical.

But once you actually go to the text that they're quoting, you're going to see it has nothing to do with what the author intended. So that's where bad doctrine comes from. So you have to understand the context. So interpret a passage in harmony with the context. There's a logical connection from one section of the scripture to the next, just like if you're reading any letter, you wouldn't start in the middle, you wouldn't start at the end, you would read it consecutively.

So you must try to find the overall purpose of the book in order to determine the meaning of the particular words or passages in the book. So one of the first things I ask you to do is to know the four chapters. I'm assuming 100% of you did that before you came.

I'm assuming that. You have to understand what he says in the whole letter in order for us to go back into verses three to eight, and where does this fit in into his larger letter. So you don't want to just go in there and then interpret a particular verse or a word outside of the larger context of what he's trying to say.

You understand? So that's why I asked you, like we outlined chapter one, to take some time to outline chapter two, three, and four. So if you haven't done that, I want to encourage you as a homework to go back this week and outline the text. I'm going to give you the general outline for the sake of time, but that's not enough.

You need to know the outline. You can't just take an outline that I give you and say, "Oh, that's what it says." It's a world of difference in the way that you're going to understand the text if you already know what he is saying instead of just regurgitating what I'm saying.

So each word must be understood within the context of the verse. So if you interpret love, servant, grace, outside of the context of what Paul meant and what he meant within the context of that letter and that verse, again, that's where misinterpretation comes in. Each verse must be understood within the context of the paragraph.

So you need to know the word in the context of the verse, the verse in the context of the paragraph, paragraph in the context of the chapter. So verses three to eight that we're looking at, Paul is giving thanks in his introduction, and then he's talking about prayer. Where does this fit in, into the larger context?

And then each chapter must be understood within the context of the book, this letter. So what is Paul's main point in Colossians? Don't look at your Bibles, but based upon what you've read and the outline that you give, if you were to give like one sentence statement of why Paul wrote this letter, what is the main thrust of this letter, what would you say?

Please yell it out if you have an opinion on that. Okay. Yes. Okay. So the centrality of Christ to the Christian faith. So if you have anything similar to that, that's probably, if you've read through it and outlined it, that's probably the essential theme that is connecting all these thoughts together.

Okay? So the centrality of Christ. So if you want to learn about Christology, the identity of Christ, what he did in redemption, where he stands before the Father, where does he stand in context of creation, all of that is in Colossians. So Colossians is heavy in Christology. What's another book that's really heavy in Christology?

Galatians, Hebrews. Hebrews is another book that's very heavy in Christology. So Colossians in Paul's epistles is probably the heaviest in Christology. And again, each book must be understood within the context of the whole Bible. In redemptive history. So where does this fit into redemptive history? So Paul's epistles are very easy to figure out where it fits in because he straight up tells you, this is the gospel, this is why Christ came.

But there are some other letters that you might read, like those of you who are memorizing James. It's not as clear, so you have to ask that larger question. Where does James fit in into the context of the larger redemptive history? Or he's just rebuking people. He's just talking about rich and poor.

But where does that fit in into the context of the gospel ministry? So that question has to be answered before you go and interpret what he's saying in the details. So that's why it's important for us to do a larger study of the book before you jump into each verse.

So Paul's main thing is about Christology, but why does he emphasize Christology to the Colossians? What was happening in Colossians? Now you didn't read the commentaries, I'm just assuming you didn't, but why do you think, if you remember the outline of the letter, why does he feel the need to stress Christology to the Colossians?

I mentioned this earlier, last week. There's two different issues that he deals with, and you see it in the letters. And when we get there, we'll point it out. There is an element of semi-Gnostics, who are, again, they're messing around with Jesus' identity. Remember we talked about that? First John deals with the Gnostics, who are saying that the flesh and the spirit is separate.

So Christ didn't come in the flesh, and what you do in the flesh doesn't matter. So there's an element of that that he's trying to correct by teaching who Jesus is. And then there's another element, the Judaizers. He talks about how these elementary things have passed away, that it no longer applies to us because Christ fulfilled it.

So he's dealing with both problems, the problem that dominated the Gentile world, and then the problem that dominated the Jewish world. So he deals with both of them, right? But the way he deals with it is by going back and teaching about who Jesus is and what he's done.

So that's the overarching theme of Colossians. Can somebody tell me how Colossians is divided? Just overarching, large, not just three verses and five verses, and hopefully you did that as well. Just for the sake of time, what is the large divide in the book of Colossians? Where does that happen?

Anybody? We have four chapters. What happens in chapter three? So that's the larger picture. Hopefully you heard that. We have four chapters. First two chapters mainly deal with Christology. Who is Jesus, what did he do, and how did that affect us? If you get to chapter three, what does the first verse, first line of chapter three begin with?

"Therefore." In fact, he'll mention it a couple times in the beginning of chapter three. So he's taking all the things that he's taught about Christ, and so therefore this is how you ought to live. So that's the big divide in Colossians. You have doctrine versus practice. In fact, large chunks of the New Testament letters are all divided that way.

This is who he is, this is what he's done, therefore you need to do this. Ephesians chapter one, two, three. Adoption, election, his love, therefore live up to the calling that you've received. And so Paul, before he gets to this is what you ought to do, he talks about why you ought to do it.

So that's the large division in the book of Colossians. He's dealing with these two specific problems, but the way he deals with it is teaching Christ and then motivation to do what is right. So obviously the next couple months we're going to be in the first two chapters, and so it's going to be heavy in Christology.

Now a lot of these things may be new to you, for a lot of you who have been a Christian for a while, none of these terms are going to be new. But what I really want to encourage you is that sometimes the things that you think you know are the areas that you are the most blind in.

Because you just assume, because you hear these terms so often, if you haven't taken the time to ask questions and dig, you probably only have like first grade level understanding of that. And so the purpose of this inductive study is for you to go deeper. What did Paul mean by bond servant?

Why does he open the letter this way in every letter? Why does he address him this way but not the other person that way? All of these things will help you to go deeper into what he means. So we already went through, so the two words or phrases that are the most repeated in the book of Colossians, anybody have an idea?

Jesus Christ, right? Next time you go through Colossians, just highlight every time it says Jesus or Christ, or Jesus Christ, or Christ, right? And it's peppered all throughout the book of Colossians. Or he, him, right, referring to Jesus, right, is also highlighted every year. So if you combine it together, the most common phrase that you will see all throughout, maybe like 20 to, anywhere from 20 to 30 times, it's mentioned where Jesus Christ, him, he, he did this, he is our redemption, over and over again.

So just by highlighting these repeated words, you can automatically tell that that's what Colossians is for. That's the main thrust of this letter, just by seeing the repetition. To give you a quick background of this letter, I'm not going to go too deep into this, but what is Colossians called?

What kind of epistle is this? Yes, but within the epistles, there's a specific title given to four epistles. Prison epistle. Now why is it prison epistle? Because he wrote it to prisoners? Remember at the end of the Book of Acts, Apostle Paul, remember we were studying at the very end, tail end of the Book of Acts, how he prayed to come to Rome and be able to be a witness and remember he ends up in Rome and he spends a couple of years there and he gets freedom, people come and go.

And so during that period is when he writes this, one of the letters. So the four prison epistles is Philippians, Ephesians, Colossians, and what's the other one? Philemon, right? They're called the prison epistles because he writes it most likely when he was imprisoned in Rome. So he wasn't done because he was in prison.

In fact, God gave him all the freedom that he needed during this period and he writes these four epistles. One of the questions that you guys asked was what's the background behind this? If you look at Ephesians chapter 4, 12, okay, go to Ephesians chapter 4, 12. Epaphras is mentioned here, right, as a bond servant, fellow faithful worker of Jesus Christ.

But in chapter 4, 12, what does it say about Epaphras? Just yell it out if you're there. Say it. Chapter 4, 12, what does it say about Epaphras? I got the wrong verse? What did I say? Oh, you know what I meant. You guys actually went to Ephesians? We're studying Colossians, all right?

Listen to what I mean. Colossians 4, 12. What does it say? Epaphras is one of you, right? So Epaphras was from Colossae and so he was the carrier of the letter. So Paul probably heard from Epaphras what was going on in Colossae. So what he says in the beginning, he probably heard from Epaphras and from other people and so he decides to write this letter.

And he hears great things that are happening but he's also concerned about the false teaching that's coming into this young church. So Paul, concerned over that, knowing that Epaphras is one of his fellow workers, he writes this letter and Epaphras takes it over there. So that's the background behind this story.

So the hermeneutical principle that I want you to remember, again, context, context, context, but this is the one that I want you to remember for today. Scripture must interpret scripture. So when you are interpreting something, if that passage contradicts something else in the scripture, you're probably interpreting it wrong.

You have to understand that we're not studying Paul's letters and Peter's letters as if they are separate. There's only one true author, the Holy Spirit. We're not talking to non-Christians trying to debate the authorship of the Bible. We're assuming that we all agree that the author is the Holy Spirit.

So if the author is the Holy Spirit, the author is not going to say something that's going to contradict himself later on. So the one principle I want you to pay attention to is whatever insight that you have, if that contradicts something else that is written in other parts of scripture, you have to go back and look to make sure that you're not interpreting it wrong.

Does that make sense? And that's why typically when you're doing Bible study, if you have time, you always cross-reference. So if there's something being said, does he say the same thing somewhere else? Is that same teaching somewhere else? That's why, like those of you, again, studying the book of James, right, or memorizing the book of James, it says, "Faith without deeds is dead.

I will show you my faith by my deeds." And one is saved not simply by faith, but by works. So you've memorized that passage. It's like, well, James is saying that you're saved by works. And then Paul is saying in other parts that he says. So this seems to be contradicting.

So is this contradicting or are we not understanding what he is saying? So I'm giving you an example of when you interpret scripture, you have to allow scripture to interpret scripture. It's clear. I mean, you can ask Pastor Peter about the details, but James is not saying salvation is by works.

He's saying, "I will show you my faith by my works." So faith can be evidenced, is something that you can see by how somebody applies what he has. But if you say you have faith and there is no application of that, your faith is dead. It's no different than demons.

So he's not saying anything different than what Paul is saying. He's just emphasizing this is what true faith looks like, right? So that's an example of how scripture has to interpret scripture. You can't just take scripture and say, it seems to say something. So Paul and James contradicts each other.

And that's bad interpretation, right? So scripture must interpret scripture. All right, now I want to get you. So if you get to your, the handout, there's a section that I just kind of put the verses there. So if you are comfortable writing notes on your Bible, I encourage you to do that.

But you know, one thing I found out is through years of jotting notes on my Bible, six, seven years later, I look at my notes and it's just complete nonsense. It's not nonsense, but these are things that I wouldn't need to see five years later. It was exciting at that time, but later on.

So I've reserved making permanent notes on my Bible on things that I know that six, seven years later, I'm going to look at it and say, oh, that's helpful. Okay. But I see some of your Bibles and it's like red mark, yellow mark, green mark everywhere. And it has no purpose.

It's just very colorful. So you were excited. You were doing quiet time one day and you're just like, yes, this is so good. And then years later you were like, you completely forgot why you highlighted it. Right. So if you're one of those people that are comfortable writing through in your Bible, you're welcome to do that.

But I gave you this because I want you to take notes. I want you to look at the way we're looking at these things. So you've already done the interpretation, hopefully. Right. My point, the job that I'm going to do is just to kind of highlight and to show you some insights that I saw and it may supplement what you guys talked about, but it's not meant to replace it or for you to come and just listen to me.

Okay. So let's begin. So I look at this passage, Paul says, we give thanks. Okay. Again, some of the things that I'm going to highlight to you may not be significant, but you notice where he says we, a lot of his letter, he says I. But Colossians and Thessalonians, he says we, where there's an emphasis on his ministry versus just him as an apostle.

Right. Later on, he does talk about his particular ministry as an apostle, but at least in the beginning of it, he says we. He gives thanks to God and then he says he prays always for them. Okay. The first thing that I asked myself is I know that this is a typical opening of a letter, but does Paul actually mean this?

Right. Obviously the question, the answer has to be yes. This is the Holy Spirit. It's like he's not making this up. Right. And you see that oftentimes like he's, this is a church that he's never met. He hears about it and he says, I'm praying for you. And obviously Paul's sitting in prison, but consider all the letters that he wrote, consider all the people that he was with and then he just take time to actually pray for them and to be genuinely be thankful.

Right. The thought that I had was I think there is a disconnect. Like sometimes we get excited about what's happening in our church and then you hear what's happening down the street and we almost feel disconnected. Right. Like what we know mentally that we're all in the kingdom, we're all servants of Christ, but the way that we oftentimes function is like this is the kingdom.

Right. And we don't, we don't often rejoice over what's happening in God's larger kingdom with other children. And the reason why I believe Paul is able to say this because he is so committed to the spreading of the gospel. And like he says in Philippians chapter one, some, some preach Christ out of envy, some preach out of rivalry, some preach Christ out of, you know, good motivation, but whatever it is that Christ is being preached and therefore I give thanks and rejoice.

Right. And so it was because Paul is that committed to spreading of the gospel. He wasn't committed ultimately in spreading his ministry, right? His brand, but at the spreading of the gospel. And that's something that obviously I think pastors struggle with that more than lay people because we're so committed to building up of bringing community church and where I'm committed to because we're more committed.

We have a tendency to get excited, to get kind of tunnel vision about Berean, but not about the larger kingdom. Right. So Paul, he says this quite a bit in all of his letters. I give thanks. And the other thing that I want to highlight is he begins by thanking God.

Right. He doesn't say, hey, I heard great things about you. You guys are doing a great job. Keep up, keep up the good job. I heard your leaders are exemplary. Right. He doesn't jump into that. He recognizes all that is happening in Colossians is because of what God is doing.

And he gives credit to God in every one of these letters, even in the Corinthians. Before he breaks into all of his rebukes, he begins by saying, I'm so thankful for you because of what God is doing. Because it's evidence that God's grace is upon you. And part of the reason why all this problem is because God is working in you.

So he's not talking to non-Christians. He's talking to Christians. So he recognizes God's work, even in the context of frustration. Right. If you notice here, he begins the father, the son. And where's the Holy Spirit? In the spirit. Right. So as he gives thanks, he gives credit to the Trinitarian God that he worships.

It doesn't say that triune God, the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit. And oftentimes you'll see that same reference. It may not be back to back. But he realizes that ultimately, father is the initiator. Jesus Christ is the mediator. And the agent that causes people to do this is what?

The Holy Spirit. Right. So even in this short text, you can see Paul recognizing the Holy Spirit's work in Colossae. He says, "Since we heard of your," and this is probably, if you studied this passage, you probably saw this already. "Faith," and what? "Love and hope." Do you see this anywhere else?

All over. You see that triune virtue of Christianity. Right. Faith, love, hope. Faith, hope, love, hope. Right. And out of these three, which is the greatest? Love. So Paul says he's recognizing God's work in them since he heard of their faith in Christ. It's not just faith in faith.

Faith specifically in the doctrine of Christ, which is what he's going to be talking about. Right. So when he says faith in Christ, that kind of sets the tone for what he's going to say the rest of Colossians. You get it? So remember I told you why it's important for us to have the bigger picture?

Because we already know he mentions Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, him, him, him, he, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Right. So his whole thrust of the letter is to teach Christ. He begins the letter by saying, "God is doing great work in you," and he already sees the Trinitarian work in them, and then he begins by faith in Christ.

And he's going to solidify this in this letter. What does this faith in Christ look like? In doctrine and in practice. So that kind of sets the tone. Love, which you have for all the saints. Right. So this isn't just any kind of love. When he says love, he's not just talking about love for the people who are lovable, certain people who you're close to.

He's saying to all the saints. This is agape love, covenant love, Christ love. This is uniquely Christian. Right. This is not the kind of love that the world practices. Uniquely Christian love. And hope what? Laid in heaven. Not hope that if you work hard, your job is going to get better, your relationship is going to get better, but the hope he's talking about is eternal.

Right. Because of his faith, that is evidenced by love, motivated by hope. Right. But if you notice here, he begins by saying this faith is evidenced by love, and then he also ends this section by saying what? Your love in the spirit. So it's sandwiched between, right? You notice that?

He begins by saying your faith in Christ, love for all the saints, hope in heaven, right, in the things to come. And then he also says it twice at the end. He also informed us of your love in the spirit. So this section, verses 3 to 8, is a description of God's work in Colossae.

So all of these things are not new. Right. If you study any other part of the Bible, you probably have heard this many times before. Right. So it emphasizes for us that this is the backbone of Christianity that Paul's talking about. He's talking about God's work in them, the Trinitarian work, and the way that the fruit that he sees from that is faith in Christ, which is evidenced by love for all the saints, motivated by hope in eternity.

And that pretty much sums up Christian life. Right. So the first two chapters, he's going to be talking about Christ, his identity, the second person of the Trinity, and then this chapter 3 and 4, he's going to be talking about the application of faith, love, and hope. You get the outline?

Okay. So this is the introduction. So oftentimes when you're studying the epistles, you'll see an outline of what he's about to say in the very beginning. You'll see glimpses of that. And it points to what he's about to say. Another thing he talks about, he says, "Which you previously heard of the word of truth, the gospel." So what is bearing fruit?

Not their strategy, not their intelligence. What does he say? The gospel. Yes, thank you. The gospel itself is bearing fruit. Are they working hard? Yes. Are there people sacrificing and risking their lives? Yes. But the emphasis in Paul is God's working through what? The gospel itself. And so look what he says about the gospel.

"Which has come to you, just as in all the world, as it is also constantly bearing fruit." I want you to look at these words. It's bearing fruit. It is increasing, right? Since the day that you heard it and then you understood it, just as you learned it. You see how the gospel, the way he mentions the fruit of the gospel, isn't like you heard it, you believed it, and then you're done.

He describes it in the context of justification and sanctification. Because he says, "It came to you, it is bearing fruit, and it is increasing." You weren't just justified and you're done, but the gospel is continuing to bear fruit. And then you heard it and then you understood it. A lot of people hear the gospel, but then your understanding of the gospel is shallow.

And because of your understanding of the gospel is shallow, it's very elementary. Your spiritual life reflects that. "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so." That's great. That's a backbone of Christianity, but a lot of Christians, that's where they stay. So they don't see the glory of the gospel.

They don't see the depth of the gospel. They don't see how much effort went in. They don't see the sacrifice. They don't see the result. And so they kind of like, "God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son. For by grace we have been saved." So we have all these elementary things and verses that we regurgitate and we think we know, but we know very superficially.

And so if you look at the way he describes the gospel, it's ongoing. It's bearing fruit. It is increasing. It came to your understanding just as you learned it from Epaphras. You didn't just hear it, they learned it. And that's what we're doing. We're trying to learn the gospel we know, but deeper.

And how do all these things connect? Alright, so everything that I said here, this is not coming from commentary. If you take time to invest in studying the word of God, you don't need to go to seminary. And that's one of the most valuable things that I learned early on in doing the inductive Bible study.

All the years that I took theology classes and doing Greek papers and all this stuff, the first time the Bible really opened up to me was I was doing inductive Bible studies, just like this, in First Thessalonians. And I remember I was cramming, because Bible study was coming up and I wasn't done.

So I went into the library at Biola and I spent four hours just going through the passage, just asking questions, getting observations, and asking questions, getting observations. And then by the time I went through about two or three passages like that, I started gaining insight on my own. And I started getting excited.

And then afterwards, I went to read the commentaries just to compare. And what I realized was that everything that the insight I got, it was in the commentary. So it just kind of confirms, like, okay, this isn't heresy, it's in here. But the biggest thing that I learned was that the commentators were not giving me any other insight that I couldn't get on my own.

The only difference was they spent a lot of time in the verse. So most of the insights from the commentary wasn't because they knew Greek. It wasn't because they had this, like, lofty theology and had education. It's just they spent a lot of time digging through that text. And so they were giving insights that I was getting on my own, right?

So this is why I want you to go through inductive Bible study, because I want you to be able to look at these verses and take time to ask good questions so that you can come up with these insights. And eventually, you'll see that you become a student of the Word of God, not just hearers, but you become a student of the Word of God, learning how to ask questions and gain insight.

And if you do that enough, Sunday messages, Bible studies, just a supplement for you. This should not be your main diet, right? Your main sustenance should be something that you're able to cook and read and study on your own. And then you come and you hear a proclamation, and it kind of reinforces what you're doing, right?

Instead of being dependent on it, it reinforces you. And then your spiritual life will benefit tremendously if your God is more of a supplement for me than the main diet. So have you guys take some time for the discussion time? Again, like I said, it's going to probably take about three to four weeks for us to get into the habit of doing this.

So if you did come prepared this week, good. If not, hopefully as we're going along, you get in the habit of jumping into the text yourself so that when you come, you have something to contribute, and then you'll get more out of it, okay? So here's the discussion question.

When was the last time you really rejoiced over someone else's salvation or spreading of the gospel in places you are not personally involved in? Or do you only rejoice if it's a family friend or personal friend, right? Do you really rejoice over God's kingdom, what God is doing, okay?

What is it that you look forward to when you think of eternity? What are you eager to leave behind and what are you eager to gain in heaven? And how often do you think about this and how does that affect the way you live your life, the way you practice love?

And third, in what way do you see yourself actively engaged in bearing fruit in accordance to the gospel? The gospel itself is bearing fruit, but what part do you play in the gospel bearing fruit in your life? What tangible things are you hoping to accomplish in next week, month, or year?

So after you discuss this, I don't want you to take too much time, but at the very end, at the bottom of the sheet, like we have questions for the next passage, verse 9 through 12, okay, which Pastor Mark is going to lead because I'm going to be in India.

And so if you guys can take, just at the very end, we don't want you to take like 15 minutes talking about this, just to get the group started. At that tail end, after you've prayed and you've finished, take about five minutes to look over that passage and then collectively see if you can come up with some questions.

Not observations, that's for next week. Come up with some questions for your group to wrestle with, and then when you come back next week, you'll try to answer that question in your small group, okay? All right. That's your homework, yeah. Instead of me giving you the questions, I want you to get in the habit in your small groups of asking the questions yourself, instead of me looking at it and giving you the questions.

Yes, for next week. All I want you guys to do for the next passage is to just get started. Like take five minutes at the end of your discussion, looking at this verse and say, what are five, six questions that you can see from that text, just to get your group started.

Does that make sense? Yes. Yes. So, you ask your own questions. I could ask it for you, but part of the inductive Bible study is for you to come up with questions, okay? That's part of you study. So let me pray for us and then I'll get you into your small groups.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the study of your word. And I know, Father God, that many of us in here may have never studied your word in this way. So we pray, especially Father God, through this study, you give us wisdom and insight. Help us, Lord, not to be afraid to tackle the word and thinking that only pastors and leaders, Lord God, can gain insight.

And I pray that all of us would truly be Bereans who will search the word to see if what they are hearing on Sunday, Bible study, in sermons, Lord God, even on the radio, that we will be able to discern ourselves, Lord God, with your living word. And so we ask for your blessing over our discussion.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen.