Grace Community Church, Arlington, TX

The book of Colossians is a short but powerful New Testament letter written by the apostle Paul while he was imprisoned (around AD 60–62). It was addressed to the church in Colossae, a small city in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey), a congregation Paul likely had not visited personally.

The central message of Colossians is the supremacy and sufficiency of Jesus Christ. Paul writes to confront false teachings that were diminishing Christ—mixing legalism, mysticism, and human philosophy with the gospel. In response, Paul presents one of the clearest pictures in Scripture of who Jesus is: fully God, Creator, Sustainer, Head of the church, and Redeemer (Colossians 1:15–20).

Now, everyone in the city of Colossae did not have the same world view.Many were believers and many were atheists.

There are two main competing world views in Colossae and in America today: Christian and Secularism/Atheism

In our culture…in public school, children are being taught over and over the secularist or atheistic world view. Now, in order to really believe in this world view, there are several things that you have to believe. You have to believe…

Now, we believe that the Christian world view is the only correct and true world view for many reasons, but for the sake of simplicity and time, let me tell you the main reason.

You may die for what you believe to be true and be wrong. That is what many radical Muslims are doing today. But that is not what these first century Christians did. They didn’t die for what they only believed to be true. They died for preaching about what they saw. They were witnesses to the resurrected Christ. Act 4:18-20

Christ resurrection proves that He is who He said He was, God in the flesh. As God, everything that He says must be true since God cannot lie. What does He say? Matt 5:17-18 Jesus says of the Old Testament that it is the unstoppable, unbreakable, authoritative Word of God. That means that everything that it affirms is true.

But Jesus doesn’t stop there. He promises the writing of the New Testament. John 14:26 and John 16:12-14

So, Jesus, the only one who has risen from the dead, proving that He is who He said He is, God come in the flesh, and God cannot lie; He says that the OT is the Word of God, and He promised that the New Testament would be the Word of God.

Our world view, the way in which we see reality, the glasses which will look through, is a Christian World View. We believe that the Bible teaches the truth about reality and about God and about mankind. Why? Because Jesus says so.

(With that in mind…) Every human being who has ever lived has asked the Four Basic Questions: Who am I? Why am I here? What is wrong with the world? (Because something is obviously wrong.) And How can what is wrong be made right?

Let’s answer these questions first from the perspective of Secularism/Atheism, and then I want to answer those questions from the book of Colossians.

1. Who am I? (Answer...) You are an accident. You are a result of random evolutionary processes. You are the result of time and chance and matter. You are simply a combination of chemical reactions.

2. Why am I here? You are here to consume and enjoy. You are here to eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you die. That is why you are here. That is the only thing that matters. Your comfort and pleasure are all that matters.

Can you see how abortion is simply a result of the world view of Secularists taking hold of our culture and the cultures of the world?

3. What is wrong with the world? People are either insufficiently educated or insufficiently governed. People either don’t know enough or they’re not watched enough or controlled enough.

4. How can what is wrong be made right? The Secularists say…More education. More government. That is the only answer they can come up with.

Let’s see how the Christian World View responds to these same questions. Let’s see how the book of Colossians answers those questions. Who am I? Why am I Here?

Col 1:16 You were made by Christ. And you were made for Christ. That is who you are and why you are here. You were made by Christ to glorify Christ.

What’s wrong with the world? Col 1:19-21 What’s wrong with the world? In a word... “People!” People who are hostile in mind and engaged in evil deeds.

People were created in the image of God, crowned with glory and majesty, created to give glory to Jesus Christ, and instead, they are hostile toward the one by whom and for whom they were created. That is what is wrong with the world. The problem is the spiritual condition of people.

4. How can what is wrong be made right? Col 1:22-23 One way and only one way... By the substitutional atoning death of Christ. There is no other means. There is no other way. Act 4:12 2 Cor 5:21

Now, let’s compare these two world views in their outcome, how they work themselves out in real life. Secularism/Atheism leaves you empty and hopeless. It leaves you worthless.It leaves you to pursue you own satisfaction… and you will never find it. But in Christianity, you are precious, your were purchased, and you now have purpose.

Let us therefore embrace this truth and proclaim it, passionately, confidently and relentlessly, because, after all, that is why we are here!!