The Will of God Is the Only Way to Peace (Colossians 1:1-2)

Sunday June 21, 2026

Open: Fathers. God gave mankind family as a unit for identity and learning. Think of those 10 generations in Genesis leading up to Noah.

Gen 5:28-29

Lamech lived one hundred and eighty-two years, and became the father of a son. 29 Now he called his name Noah, saying, "This one will give us rest from our work and from the toil of our hands arising from the ground which the Lord has cursed."

Noah wasn’t born faithful. He was taught it and he put his faith in it.

The idea that took hold in the enlightenment (not new) was that traditions were shackling human potential, fulfillment. The solution, to them, was to remove tradition, and they discovered that one of the traditions holding them back from their dream was the strong authority of the father. Hence the sexual revolution. [Reflecting pool]

Be a strong father as unto the Lord! Be a compassionate father as unto the Lord.

Songs:

Intro: At a glance, Paul’s salutation to his letters looks similar to other non-biblical letters except when you hone in on his word choice. In particular, how his salutation is more like a prayer for fullness of life.

“By the will of God,” he is an apostle by God’s unmerited grace and the renunciation of all personal worth - not my will but yours be done.

Coming under the will of God.

1. Paul was like Judas: put himself under the authority of another.

1. 1. He came under the authority of the Sanhedrin and was sent (apostle) to arrest Christians.

1. 1. Unlike Judas, he repented when he met the Lord.

1. 1. 1. Paul: “Lord”
    2. Judas: “Rabbi”

1. Now Christ was going to send Paul: under the authority of Christ.

Rom 15:15-16

the grace that was given me from God, to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles

1Co 9:16

woe is me if I do not preach the gospel.

1. 1. The will of God is the way of God for you.

1. 1. 1. Timothy not the same: referred to as an apostle, but not the office and authority of Paul.

1. Apostle of Jesus Christ.

1. 1. Apostle means: messenger or envoy (the verb: dispatch someone for a purpose, send).

1. 1. Apostle of Jesus Christ: not a high minded position.

1. 1. 1. Sent by Christ: must be like Him.
    2. How unlike Christ was he before? [transition]

The will of Saul of Tarsus. (Saul T. Not yet the salt of the earth)

1. Self-will stronger than most.

1. A pharisee of pharisees from a line of pharisees (Act 23:6; Phi 3:5)

1. Bio: from Cilicia (map / zoom in), born a Roman citizen (significant family).

1. 1. Student of Gamaliel (School of Hillel, grandson): liberal, compassionate, not as strict as Shammai.

1. 1. 1. Gamaliel’s liberal mind opened himself to the will of God (Act 5:38-39).

1. 1. 1. Obviously Saul did not see this strategy as good enough (Gal 1:13), putting him at odds with one of the most influential voices and highest authorities in Judaism at the time. (I picture him storming out of Gamaliel’s office …)

1. Self-will
  1. Define: egocentric attitude that necessarily leads to arrogance. In the two references in the NT it is human impulse violating obedience to the divine command.

A rare word in the NT: self-willed, gives us keen insight into the idea and why it is so monstrous. Yet today it is seen as a good thing – self-expression, the authentic self, etc.

1. 1. 1. In the NT the overseer (leader, pastor) must not be self-willed while we are told that all false teachers are self-willed.

2Pe 2:10

who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority.

Daring, self-willed, they do not tremble when they revile angelic majesties

Titus 1:7

For the overseer must be above reproach as God's steward, not self-willed

1. 1. 1. 1. A clue to the monster that this attitude is, is that in the false teachers do not tremble (2Pe 2:10) when they are reviled.

1. 1. 1. In Saul of Tarsus: “It is hard for you to kick against the goads” (Act 26:14).

1. 1. 1. 1. Somehow God had been goading him. I can imagine it was his witness of Christians and how they took the suffering he heaped on them.

1. 1. 1. Modern equivalent of a lack of fear of God: the authentic self.

1. 1. 1. 1. Free of God was not enough. The world had to be free of Tradition (marriage, family, sexuality, work, merit) all of which came from God’s will (laws of DE; influence of Christianity).

1. 1. 1. 1. 1960 - today; societies have succeeded - God and His traditions are dead in every nation. (the church has gone out of the public square and may soon again be in the catacombs)

Vandalization of reflecting pool. They are kicking against God’s goads.

Breaking self-will and accepting God’s will.
1. Grace to you and peace from God our Father. [Paul’s desire in all letters, said like a prayer more so than a nice salutation]

Roman letter writing world is full of salutations that would seem similar, but this one is unique in all the world to the apostle Paul. Astounding. These two words speak volumes and Paul will fill his volumes with them.

1. 1. Grace: accepting the work of Christ.

1. 1. 1. His death, justification: can only be the work of God. It must be judicial.

1. 1. 1. 1. While we were helpless, sinners, and enemies; Christ died for the ungodly and we were reconciled to God (Rom 5:6-10).

1. 1. 1. 1. Justification is set forth in the Scripture as completely a work of God. It took place without us and for us.

1. 1. 1. Saul’s will: to be blameless as to the righteousness in the Law (Phi 3:6).

1. 1. 1. Christ’s will: reconciliation through justification: (Col 1:21-22, present you blameless; Eph 5:27).

Eph 5:25-27

Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.

1. 1. 1. Application: fully accept God’s grace and let it begin to make a child of you again (not in intellect; but in humility to be praised by God as an obedient child who follows His will)

1. 1. 1. 1. Paul’s app: Phi 3:9-10 (pleasing to Him, 2Co 5:9).

1. 1. Peace: reconciliation - same as justification but from a different view: judicial view vs. social-societal view (speaking in general of a right relationship between two parties).

In the pronouncements of Paul, reconciliation is often placed over against “enmity,” or “alienation” …

Col 1:21-22

And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, 22 yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach

… just as in the positive sense it has the meaning of peace:

Col 1:20

and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven [whole waring spirit world that modern man has erased from his memory].

1. 1. 1. To be known by God (1Co 8:3; Gal 4:9).

1. 1. 1. 1. Peace is not first a personal disposition. It is first a coming together in harmony.

1. 1. 1. Enmity removed.

1. 1. 1. God is the initiator. He makes peace (2Co 5:18).

Peace is a matter of removing what stands in the way of a right relationship to God. In this chapter (2Co 5:17-18 – old things have passed away and behold, new things have come.)

1. 1. 1. 1. Entrance into the door you have always been knocking on.

Paul knocked on this door with his Torah and his will. He hit it with everything he had. It didn’t budge an inch. Submission to God’s will is the only way, through grace and faith.

1. 1. 1. 1. Not only personal disposition. People have always tried to “feel” peace without being reconciled to God through Christ.

1. 1. 1. 1. Illustration: memories of past happinesses - they were not happiness but only things that made you long for it: music, love, friends - images portraying what we really desired, which was to become a part of the very beauty or joy.

There are countless enemies to peace all around us. Apply today and see if you are happy in your peace with God. It is not a memory of a better time, but the reality now that you put your faith in.

1. 1. 1. 1. In Christ we have entered into the beauty and joy: hence: “In Him” we have entered in and now we can follow Him.

1. 1. 1. 1. [transition] Which gets us back to the will of God.

Conclusion:

1. The will of the Father was always for you to receive peace through grace.

1. 1. Not to just sit in it like wading in a pool on a hot day, yes there are times of rest, but to also go where we are sent (apostle) and do what we are told and serve whosoever our Lord sends us to (discipling).

1. 1. The will of God has a vocation gift given by the Holy Spirit and ruled by the Head of the body.

1. Self-will; Pharisaical Christianity - seeking our way: impulse violating obedience.

1. 1. Breaking self-will: easy (learning) and hard (suffering).

1. Peace: submission of the child who has entered in: adoption - you entered in through the door you always desired (known, accepted fully, loved, praised).

1. 1. Saul: I am a great Pharisee. Paul: I am an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ by the will of God.

Saul sought to abandon his wrong and hostile disposition against God. He, and all who try, will fail. Over and against this attitude (still swirling around today) is the work of redemption, the removal of enmity, alienation, sin, the blood of Christ in restoring the perfect relationship between God and man – how could we have anything to do with that other than to accept it from God’s hand by faith?

1. 1. 2 Tim 4:7-8 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; 8 in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.

1. 1. 1. Why would anyone love His appearing? Accepted, known, loved.

1. Next time: Grace to you and peace: How? Who? And what to expect.