Lessons from Tom Bowers - this page contains lessons for the current month and last month
click here to go to archive pages with previous lessons
February 19
: Rooted in Thankfulness
- Colossians 2:1-7
click
here for this lesson in PDF format
Our Colossians study for this week will focus on this text:
Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
The last three words above have especially caught my attention, and I’ve thought a lot about that. For example, what if this were true ?
Scary! I’d probably be broke and shelter-less and starving in a very few days. Of course, that’s not from the Bible. Here’s what is in the Bible. Ungratefulness is a sin (2 Timothy 3:2), but God is very merciful and full of grace—almost unreasonably so. Read these words spoken by Jesus about the Father:
“He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked” (Luke 6:35).
From that we see that ungratefulness is the same as being wicked (Ouch), and we see that when God tell us to make a habit of treating others better that they deserve, he practices what he preaches. The Father really expects the old saying, “Like father, like son” to apply to his sons and daughters.
There is a lot we can explore in class about thankfulness (for example, when Paul wrote to the Colossians under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he said abounding in thankfulness, an escalation from the sort of thankfulness a lot of us practice.)
One thing I want to be sure we examine Sunday morning is this question: Who hates gratitude? Who can’t stand to be around thankfulness to God? It is the Whisperer, the tempter, the one who wants you always worried, struggling, anxious, and fearful.
There’s some very practical strategy to be drawn from that, and I don’t think you need me to flesh it out, you can readily work it out for yourself. But it’s so important that we’ll take time as a class group to drill down several layers below the surface in this whole matter of abounding in thankfulness.
February 12
: "Double, double, toil and trouble"
- Colossians 1:24 - 2:3
—Shakespeare’s Macbeth
click here for
this lesson in PDF format
That familiar line from Shakespeare’s play is spoken by witches reciting an incantation intended to stir up double toil and trouble for Macbeth. It’s kind of the same thing Satan and his fallen angels have in mind for you (I’ll bet there are times you feel they are succeeding).
Struggle more, try harder, work longer, endure suffering—doesn’t that sound like your life some days (maybe some years)?
This Sunday’s study from Colossians 1:24 – 2:3 will be almost entirely about suffering, struggle, and toil. Sounds uplifting, doesn’t it? But if you personally know a little too much about those subjects in your present or past experience, this lesson will be uplifting.
To start, we will look at something mysterious and amazing about Jesus and His suffering. Tullian Tchividjian, in the book Jesus+Nothing=Everything, reminds us eleventeen different ways that when we are facing more burden than we can handle in life, whether physically, emotionally, or spiritually, the first solution is to look to Jesus. Yet you and I are often so pressed down and practical minded about the issues we face that we neglect the one thing that helps the most. So let’s look at Jesus. Paul wrote to the Colossians:
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church.
Wait, what? We are to fill up what is lacking in Christ’s affliction? What could possibly be lacking in Christ’s affliction? And we are supposed to somehow finish it? I’ve been digging into this verse for weeks, knowing we would soon get to it, and I have a completely different perspective on it today than I did before. There’s been a lot taught from this verse through the decades about suffering, mostly about how Christians must rejoice in suffering, and about how we need to grit our teeth and be happy about having to rejoice in suffering.
But I don’t see Paul saying that, not in this text. What he does say, when you peel back the layers, is really quite remarkable. We’ll start peeling layers very early in Sunday’s session.
Paul also talks in this passage about toil and struggle, and I’ve been studying that for weeks as well. Toil and struggle are inescapable this side of heaven, but Paul (and Tullian in our book) point us to a key about toil and struggle that we’re usually too busy to even notice, much less rely on. Let’s try to uncover that on Sunday. I’ll see you at 9:15.
Tom
February
5 : Get your "Wow!" stirred up - Colossians
1:19 (and 20-29)
click
here for this lesson in PDF format
We’ve examined some powerful stuff recently in the first chapter of Colossians, and last Sunday we dug into a part of the chapter that includes Colossians 1:19, a rather short verse:
• For in him [Christ] all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell (ESV)
or
• For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in Christ (NIV)
or
• For it was the good pleasure of the Father that in him should all the fullness dwell (NASB).
Earlier this week I happened across a comment that the great 19th century preacher Charles Spurgeon made about Colossians 1:19 — “The text is a great deep, we cannot explore it; but we may voyage over its surface joyously, the Holy Spirit giving us a favorable wind.”
After reading Spurgeon’s remark about a great deep, I went back to the verse and began studying it again, and I believe the Holy Spirit gave me “a favorable wind.” I am enthralled by what I’ve seen; there is so much more richness than I ever noticed before. Take a look at this unusual paraphrase (including verse 20) by Eugene Peterson in The Message.
So spacious is he [Christ], so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross.
The description of Christ we glimpse in this great deep is beyond measure. When we start looking, there’s much here to get our “Wow!” stirred up and our hearts longing for more. I don’t know how things are going for you deep down inside in recent days, but speaking for myself, I needed that stirring-up this week. This passage focuses on the exaltedness of Christ and also has—once I paid attention—so much right-now value for me, in my life today.
Need some “Wow!” in your inner life right now? We’ll start (at 9:15) on Sunday morning in verse 19 and continue forward from there.
January
29 : Glorious, Real, Awesome, and Personal - Colossians
1:15-25
click
here for this lesson in PDF format
I’m not very good at algebra, but if
Jesus + Nothing = Everything
then
Jesus = Everything.
Of course, we know that Jesus is not literally everything, because you are not Jesus, and you are someone -- you are an individual being who matters to Jesus. Algebra can give us a great book title, but Jesus is more than algebra can explain.
Although equations (and great book titles) don’t express the whole picture, what the Apostle Paul wrote about Jesus is even more far-reaching.
I don’t think it’s possible to find more glorious and all-encompassing language than the words Paul wrote to the Colossians about the place of Jesus in our universe. And because Paul wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the description is not merely Paul’s view, but is an astounding portrait revealed to us by God.
Paul begins the description:
He is the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15).
OK, now the algebra gets harder. Even the Drs. Reiter, two math geniuses in our class, can’t solve this one. Through the Apostle Paul, the Holy Spirit highlights an inexplicable mystery by telling us that Jesus is the image of the invisible God. Notice that the text does not say “the image of the invisible Father.” We must always be careful not to equate the word “God” solely with the Father, as though Jesus and the Holy Spirit are assistant Gods. God is one, and God is also a Trinity of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit -- three in one and one in three. Paul says Jesus is the image of God.
Inexplicable as it may be, for a God Chaser that does not make it any less real or less important to think about. If God is the omnipotent creator, omnipresent and omni-everything, eternal, sovereign over everything that exist, if God is all in all, and Jesus is the very image of the invisible God, that all takes us right back to the book title, the equation Tullian uses.
Here’s more about Jesus:
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him [or by means of him; or in him] all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
And why does all this matter to you?
Because it is Jesus who provides your redemption, the forgiveness of sin, and it is Jesus who plans to present you blameless and above reproach before the Father (there’s the Trinity again). Jesus is the most central factor in your future, the only difference-maker who ultimately matters for you.
There’s much more wonder and mystery in this. We’ll try to scratch the surface of it all in class on Sunday -- even the surface is glorious and real and awesome and personal in a way that surpasses any topic imaginable.
January
22 : The Key to Enduring and Persevering
- Colossians
click
here for this lesson in PDF format
Take a minute to think about enduring and persevering. What are one or two things in your life right now that you really must endure (whether you are enduring well or not)? Or what is a difficult responsibility or challenge in your life through which you really need to persevere (whether you are persevering at it rather well right now or not)?
I’m asking you to identify your answer before class on Sunday. Please think about it and name it out loud to yourself. Having something specific in mind, real to your own situation, will help you gain the most benefit from our study this week.
On Sunday we will continue our digging in the first chapter of Colossians, a chapter full of rich spiritual insight. And unless you don’t have your copy of the book yet, we’ll assume you have read Chapters 1 - 4 of Jesus + Nothing = Everything, by Tullian Tchividjian.
Here is a “tweet” from Tullian, sent out last week to 29,500 people. If you were in class this past Sunday morning, you probably wrote this one down. It's worth assessing and absorbing (and for me, absorbing means repetition). Think—or think again—about this:
One reason we struggle in our efforts to obey is because we obsess more over our performance for Jesus than we do over Jesus’ performance for us.
January 22 : Last Full Sentence on Page 51
We've asked everyone who has their copy of the book Jesus+Nothing=Everything to read the first four chapters by this Sunday. If you just received your copy last Sunday, you have a little catching up to do, but that shouldn't be too hard because these are easy-to-read and thought-stimulating chapters.
Please remember that I asked each of you to begin every reading session during the first couple of weeks by pondering the last full sentence on page 51 (the sentence begins with the word "Progress ..."). Whenever you pick up the book to read, please go to that sentence first for a minute. It's a startling, powerful, and key insight about God (and about you) that is worth taking time to fully digest.
January
8 : The Gospel for people who already believe the Gospel - Colossians
click
here for this lesson in PDF format
NEW
SERIES BEGINS JANUARY 8
We’re all familiar with the Gospel of salvation—it is based on what Jesus Christ did, it is received by faith, and we can do nothing to earn it. But after salvation, we often find ourselves attempting to live the Christian life by a non-Gospel standard. We may not articulate this theologically, but it comes out in the way we live. We adopt personal performance goals we consider necessary to qualify for God’s blessing, we strive to become worthy of His continued love, and we measure our value by what we accomplish (or fall short of accomplishing) for God. All this leads to a constant sense of underachievement and failure in living the Christian life. But the Gospel utterly frees us from this bondage, and the goal of our new study will be to marinate our hearts and minds in the real-life power of the Gospel for today, for everyday Christian living.
Our series, which begins this week, will be from Paul’s amazing letter to the Colossians. As preparation for our Bible study each week, participants will read selections from the new book Jesus + Nothing = Everything, by Tullian Tchividjian (the book is provided, $5 donations welcome). See you Sunday!
This page contains lessons for the current month and last month
click here to go to archive pages with previous lessons
