Please join me in turning to Paul's letter to the church at Colossae, the book of your copy of God's Word that we call Colossians.
As we continue together our study last week looking at the first two verses, the salutation, as well as some of the background, the occasion for the writing of this letter.
It's of interesting note, not in any strange supernatural way, but I was listening to that album this morning as I was kind of doing my last note preparation and praying for the preaching this morning.
Evan Thomas way. Very good stuff.
And we continue Colossians chapter 3 and I'll read to you through verse 8.
We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.
Of this you have heard before in the word of truth, the gospel, which has come to you as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing as it also does among you.
Since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant.
He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf and is to make known to us your love in the spirit.
As we turn our minds and our hearts toward God's holy writ, let me remind you that this is God's word to us.
It was written for his glory and our good.
We would all do well to listen to it in order to believe its promises and obey its commands.
Now, as Paul begins to write this letter, we know that he's writing it to correct some type of heresy that was going on.
And we talked at length about that last week, not knowing exactly what the heresy was,
but being able to see some elements of some common heresy that was going on in the day.
Paul wastes no time at all getting to the very meat of his letter to the Colossian believers.
And he begins, as he rightly should, with the gospel.
Notice the last half of verse 5.
The word of the truth.
The gospel.
This is the good news of Jesus Christ.
The very foundation from which all other truth is built.
And so we should rightly understand the gospel as well as the outcomes of said good news.
A wonderful historical summary of the gospel is found in 1 Corinthians 15 verses 1 through 4.
Where Paul says,
Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preach to you,
which you received and which you stand, and by which you are being saved,
if you hold fast to the word I preach to you, unless you believed in vain or didn't believe at all.
Verse 3,
For I have delivered to you as of first importance what I also received,
that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures.
That He was buried.
That He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.
Which Paul repeats twice, which is to say that God had preordained and planned this thing to come to pass.
That Jesus, the one they called the Christ, was in fact God's Son.
And therefore, the work that was accomplished has veracity.
It has meaning.
It actually took its full effect in the world.
The good news of Jesus Christ is that He came and died for the complete forgiveness of sins.
And then He rose from the dead so that those who believe in Him will live forever.
We cannot have good news without bad.
And the bad news is that all of humanity has inherited the guilt of Adam.
And we are guilty ourselves of living in direct opposition to the ways of God.
Do not take your sin lightly as little and frivolous.
Everything that you have done that has transgressed the law of God has said to Him,
I hate you.
You are my enemy.
I know what's best for me.
I am king.
It is of great offense to a holy God.
God cannot tolerate your sin.
And therefore, you are separated from Him.
And you are cast away from Him forever if you die without the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ came to save sinners of whom I am foremost.
And He rose from the dead that we may have believed in Him and have life in Him.
The word gospel in Greek, euangelion, from which we get the word evangelize.
It's really just a technical term in Greek for good news.
It was originally used as a term in relationship to battles.
In some records of the past, there would be occasions when a certain city would fight against another city.
It was very common in Greece for the country to be divided up into these city-states.
And each city-state would maintain its own army.
And occasionally they would go to battle.
There would be these great battles.
And everyone in the city would wait to hear the news of what had happened on the battlefield.
The armies would ride out and they would go to battle.
And everyone in the city would wait with this eager anticipation to find out who it was they were going to pay homage to at the end of this battle.
No Twitter. No Instagram. There was no way for this to be updated except by messengers.
And men would be sent back to the city.
Runners would be sent back to the city to declare what had happened.
This was this euangelion, the proclaimers of good news.
This person would come running from the battlefield declaring,
We have won.
This is that word. Gospel.
That we're talking about.
The good news. The good news of victory over our enemy.
The news of victory over sin.
This is the reference Paul makes when he speaks of the gospel preached in Romans 10.15.
When he quotes from Isaiah 52.7, he says,
How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news.
He's saying those runners who come and declare victory over sin.
And to fully appreciate that citation from Romans 10.15, let me read to you Isaiah 52.7.
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news.
Who publishes peace.
Who brings good news of happiness.
Who publishes salvation.
Who says to Zion,
Your God reigns.
This is the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And this is the way in which Paul begins his letter to the Colossian believers.
So let's notice together five things about the gospel.
Number one.
The gospel gives reason for thanksgiving.
Verse 3.
Paul writes,
We assume that this is Paul and Timothy as the salutation notes for us.
We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you.
We give proper thanksgiving.
We give thanks to the proper source of who you are in Christ.
If my wife, Samantha, she hates it when I call her that, Sam, but for you guests, I want you to know,
my wife's name is Samantha, gave me a present for my birthday.
It wouldn't be proper for me to thank one of my sons for the gift.
Wouldn't be proper, would it?
Caden, thank you so much for this wonderful gift.
If Sam gave me the gift, it's proper for me to thank Sam for the gift.
However, when one of my sons gives me a gift for my birthday, it's proper, after thanking them, to thank my wife,
who is the real source of said gift.
The one who did all the hard work to actually load up boys and take them to a store and keep them from destroying things.
It's proper for us to ascribe thanksgiving to the proper source, which is what Paul does here.
We always thank God, the Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, when we pray for you.
God was and is the source of the church.
He was and is the source of the church.
This is further driven in the last half of verse 6 of Colossians 1.
Since the day you heard it, being the gospel, and understood the grace of God in truth.
This gift given to us by God.
The grace of God in truth.
The gospel of Jesus Christ.
Paul writes in Ephesians 2, verses 8 and 9,
For by grace you have been saved through faith.
And this is not your own doing.
It is the gift of God.
Not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
And verse 9 is so very important for us to understand what Paul is trying to explain in verse 8.
For by grace you have been saved through faith.
And this is not your own doing.
Many people want to say that Paul is referring to the grace given there.
I would argue that he's referring to the faith.
Because he goes on to say it's not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
It is fully of God.
Our salvation is monergistic.
God himself acts upon us.
You can rearrange these things to say that we're saved by grace through the gift of God,
which is faith, and not as a result of our works.
It's highly debated in churches these days.
By men that I think are worth listening to.
But let me say to you,
that the changing of our hearts happens before we place faith in Jesus Christ.
That regeneration precedes faith in Christ.
That God works in us a new heart so that we can believe.
And then we are justified by that faith.
All of this being a work of grace in our lives.
Regeneration, faith, justification, sanctification, glorification.
Regeneration precedes faith.
Happens in a moment.
I don't really want to parse it all out.
It doesn't really matter.
Right?
But we are incapable.
We cannot do good things.
We cannot be righteous.
And faith would certainly be included in that category unless we are changed.
So it's fully of God.
Regeneration precedes faith.
We must give Him much praise for the salvation of the Colossian church and for our own.
All of the glory.
All of the honor is ascribed to Him.
It all belongs to Him and the praise of His name.
So that's number one.
The Gospel gives reason for thanksgiving.
To the proper place.
To God the Father.
Secondly, the Gospel is believed by faith.
First part of verse 4.
Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus.
And what Paul is talking about here is a saving faith.
Not just a mental assent to something.
Not just believing and saying with your mind,
Yeah, that makes sense.
Jesus is the Son of God and came and died for our sins.
But a saving faith.
A faith that is preceded by regeneration.
A faith that has as its object the person and work of Jesus Christ.
There are many people of faith these days.
Saving faith is faith that has as its object the person and work of Jesus Christ.
Charles Spurgeon tells a story about two men in a boat who are being swept towards a waterfall
and their certain death.
And at the same time, one is thrown a rope from shore by a group of men working to save him.
And the other sees a log floating by.
And one jumps onto the log.
The other takes hold of the rope.
And the point of the story is that the object must be the correct object in order to save us.
The man jumping onto the log did himself no service.
He just got really wet before he went over the waterfall.
The man who held the rope was saved because the object was right and it was proper.
Charles Spurgeon again, and I'm going to throw a little addition to this quote in for you for free
because it's very good.
He said,
So an encouragement to you to read Puritans, the old dead guys.
As of them, he says, the old writers tell you, right?
So the Puritans say that faith is made up of three things.
First, knowledge.
Then, assent.
And then what they call affiance or the laying hold of the knowledge to which we give assent
and making it our own by trusting in it.
So first, we must know something.
The gospel must be preached to us.
We must understand the state of our sin, separation from God, the need of a Savior.
We must understand that Jesus Christ is that Savior.
We must have some knowledge of double imputation.
That He takes away our sin and that He gives to us His righteousness.
That that is what is required before God.
We must have some knowledge of that.
And then we must have some belief that it's true.
But more than that, we must trust in it.
We must take it up into ourselves.
We must say, this is a truth that belongs to me.
That I am saved by this great truth.
So knowledge and belief and trust.
How do you know if you have a saving faith?
This is a question that we must ask as American Christians, particularly those who live and likely grew up in the Southeast.
Because we live in a place where so many, and I will use my quote unquote fingers, Christian leaders peddle cheap grace.
They would have you many places this morning.
And this is tragic and saddening.
Many places this morning, they would say to somebody, if you doubt that you were a Christian,
let me draw your mind back to the day in which you made a decision.
The day in which you walked an aisle.
Remember the card you filled out.
Flip to the front of your copy of God's Word.
Remember where you wrote down the date.
Some activity on your part that saved you from the wrath to come.
And certainly, many people have been saved by such activity.
There was, I shouldn't say by activity.
They were saved in the midst of such activity.
That God worked in that and used it to save them.
But it is not the surety of your salvation.
You've heard me say before, the fact that you have a birth date and you know the date
does not prove to you that you're alive.
You know that you're alive because you experience life.
You know that you're alive and breathing and that you're working out activity.
And the same is true of the Christian.
Our work must reflect the fact that we are saved.
Our work does not earn us salvation.
We're not found righteous because of the things that we do,
but we will live in righteousness because of who we are.
It's a great monergistic work of God on our behalf.
Now our sanctification, the continuing perfection of us being synergistic,
we have a part to play in it.
An activity to be carried out.
The great marker of Christian maturity is obedience.
I know people who have been Christians for decades
who don't show the maturity that some young believers do
because those young believers are obedient with what they know.
So many of us are so top heavy.
We know so much and do so little with it.
The great marker of Christian maturity is obedience.
However, obedience is the marker of any truly regenerative individual's life.
And there are some who call this lordship theology,
although those who believe this to be true would never call it that,
and they condemn it as heresy.
They think it is a works-based theology.
And beloved, hear me.
I never want to cast into doubt your salvation unless it's necessary that I do so.
I don't want you to come in here every Sunday and wonder leaving.
Am I truly saved?
Is my life progressing in holiness the way it ought to be?
I just don't know.
I want you to have surety.
I want you to hold tight to it.
I want you to join with me even though I still sin,
to be able to stand up under the condemnation,
knowing that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ.
I want you to experience the seal of the Spirit on your life,
where you can with confidence go before God,
knowing that you are clothed in Christ's righteousness.
But I also do not want you to be led astray.
I tend to be a half-glass-empty kind of guy,
and I really don't like that about myself,
and I try not to be.
I don't want to believe what I'm about to say,
but I think that most of the people sitting in churches in the southeast this morning
think they're Christians,
and they are not.
I think that they are tares,
and they're going to be weeded out and thrown into the fire one day
because of this cheap grace idea
that simply there's some assent given,
some word spoken,
and now you're a Christian.
Rather than seeing that our lives must be progressing in holiness
to see that we're saved.
Test yourself.
Examine to make sure you're in the faith.
1 John 5, 1-3.
John says,
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God,
and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of Him.
Okay, so conveniently, many people stop there.
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God.
But let me tell you that the belief is not simply some mental cognition to the facts,
but rather a belief that changes who you are.
It's that kind of belief.
It's a trusted belief.
It's a thing that so defines who you are that you live differently.
The last half of that verse 1 says,
And everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of Him.
Verse 2,
By this we know that we love the children of God,
when we love God and obey His commandments.
For this is the love of God,
that we keep His commandments,
and His commandments are not burdensome.
This is the proof of what we have said has happened in our lives,
that we begin to live as we should.
Not perfectly.
Don't hear me saying that.
I still am in need of grace.
Praise God,
I can trust in the completed work of Jesus Christ on my behalf.
W.E. Vine, in his book,
The Expositional Dictionary of New Testament Words,
wrote,
There is no evidence in your life
that you have a saving faith.
Let me plead with you this morning to repent and believe.
Put down your pride.
I do not care how long you've said you're a Christian
and you're suddenly realizing that you're not.
Repent and believe.
Your eternal soul is at stake here.
Do not let the cheap grace peddlers lead you astray.
The Gospel comes by faith,
by saving faith.
Thirdly,
we see this in the first part of verse 5,
the Gospel gives hope
because of the promise of heaven.
The text reads,
Because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.
The hope of heaven causes us to live for the eternal
and not to be caught up in the trivial nature of the temporal.
Just in case you're trying to write that down,
I'll say it one more time.
The hope of heaven causes us to live for the eternal
and to not be caught up in the trivial nature of the temporal.
It fuels the daily dying that is necessary to follow our risen Lord.
Remember Mark chapter 8,
as we just finished studying through Mark.
If we want to be a disciple of Jesus Christ,
we're going to have to take up our cross and follow Him.
We're going to have to die to the things that we want,
our self-direction,
in order to follow Him.
And the hope of heaven is the great charge we need for that.
That we know that one day we will eternally live with Him forever.
We're living for the eternal, not for the temporal.
There's a great example of that in Hebrews chapter 11.
I invite you to turn there with me to verse 24.
Hebrews 11 verse 24.
Okay, I'm going to rock.
You'll get there.
Ready?
Verse 24.
By faith, Moses, when he was grown up,
refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
You remember the story Moses put into a basket,
found by Pharaoh's daughter,
adopted as a son.
Verse 25.
Choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God
than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.
The writer of Hebrews giving his commentary
on what's going on with Moses.
Instead, going and being part of the Jewish people
rather than living in the highest place of luxury,
having everything that his flesh could have possibly desired.
The commentary of the writer of Hebrews says
the fleeting pleasures of sin.
Certainly pleasurable, but passing.
Verse 26.
He considered, and I love this,
he considered the reproach of Christ.
The reproach of Christ.
Not that he knew who Jesus was,
but this writer of Hebrews sees that
all of the suffering of all God's people
was part of the world's condemnation
and rejection of the Savior.
He considered the reproach of Christ
greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt,
for he was looking to the reward.
The eternal reward.
Not to the temporal, but to the eternal.
Verse 27.
By faith he left Egypt,
not being afraid of the anger of the king,
for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.
Rather than worshiping the king of Egypt,
Pharaoh, he worshiped God.
God.
Jim Elliot is cited in Elizabeth Elliot's
shadow of the Almighty as saying,
he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep
to gain what he cannot lose.
Beloved, so many of us
who claim the name of Christ
live for the temporal.
We get so wrapped up into the day-to-day
fleeting pleasure of sin.
The Gospel gives us hope
because of the promise of heaven.
It changes the way in which we live.
Fourthly, last part of verse 4,
the Gospel produces love.
The Gospel produces love.
The text reads,
the love that you have for all the saints
is one of the things that Paul is thanking God for.
Why is he thanking God for it?
Because it's a supernatural love.
Notice verse 8.
That Epaphras has made known to us
your love in the Spirit.
One of the fruits of the Spirit being love
has been produced in them
because of the work of God
on their behalf.
And we see here in our text today
the triad of Christian virtues.
Faith, hope, and love.
1 Corinthians 13.
So now, faith, hope, and love
abide these three,
but at the greatest of these
is love.
You see that also in 1 Thessalonians 1.3
and 1 Thessalonians 5.8.
The great virtue of Christian love.
Let me connect for you
that Christian love
produces Christian unity.
They're thanking God
for the love that they have
for one another.
This week,
if you're part of a community outreach group,
you studied the beginning
of Philippians 2.
You draw your attention
to verses 2 and 3.
Paul says,
Complete my joy
by being of the same mind,
having the same love,
being in full accord
and of one mind.
Do nothing from selfish ambition
or conceit,
but in humility,
count others
more significant than yourselves.
This is the definition of love.
That you seek the good of others
before your own good.
John 17.
I'll get you to turn there with me.
John 17.
I'll begin reading in verse 20.
This is part of
Jesus' prayer
that has become known
as the High Priestly Prayer.
I want you to note
four verses of it.
John 17,
verses 20-23.
And he prays,
I do not ask for these only,
he's talking about the apostles,
but also for those
who will believe in me
through their word.
Now, us.
This is his prayer
for all of us.
Those of us who claim
to follow Christ.
Verse 21,
that they may all be one.
Just as you,
Father,
are in me
and I in you,
they also may be in us.
So that the world may believe
that you have sent me.
The glory that you have given me,
I have given to them.
That they may be one
even as we are one.
I in them
and you in me.
That they may become
perfectly one.
So that the world may know
that you sent me
and love them
even as you loved me.
Notice the repetition
that's going on there.
Verse 21,
that they may be one.
Verse 22,
they may be one.
Verse 23,
that they may become
perfectly one.
Jesus prays that we
will be unified.
Why?
So that the world will know
that Jesus is the Christ
and that we are loved
by God
through Him.
Note again,
the repetition.
Verse 21,
so that the world may believe
that you have sent me.
In verse 23,
so that the world may know
that you sent me
and love them
even as you loved me.
It's meant to be a display
of the way in which
God loves us
by the way we love
one another.
Jesus said in John 13, 35,
by this,
all people will know
that you are my disciples
if you have love
for one another.
This is the way
that the world is supposed
to look at us
and say,
what a peculiar people
set apart for God.
Look at the way
they love each other.
Not by signs
or big fancy buildings
or programs
or kitschy t-shirts
or cool websites.
Neat Facebook posts.
By our love
for one another.
This is the defining
characteristic
of Christians together
and how the world
looks at us
and knows we belong
to God.
John writes
in 1 John 4, 7 and 8,
Beloved,
let us love one another
for love is from God
and whoever loves
has been born of God
and knows God.
Anyone who does not love
does not know God
because God is love.
How do we love one another?
Paul writes in Galatians 6, 2,
bear one another's burdens
and so fulfill
the law of Christ.
He's talking about
this commandment
that Jesus has given
that we should love
one another.
That we bear
one another's burdens.
And beloved,
I will tell you
that in most churches,
including our own,
there are many,
many people
who work
to bear the burdens
of others.
But that number
is far too few.
And those people
are so very burdened
by everybody else's burdens.
That they often flame out
very quick.
They get consumed.
They have to take
massive breaks
in order to be replenished
so that they can get back
and bear burdens
once again.
There are single individuals
bearing the burdens
of many.
But the beautiful picture
is that if we're all
bearing one another's burdens,
the load gets incredibly light.
That we pick up the pieces
of one another
and function as a body together
that way.
That means
that you have
a part to play.
Whether you're part
of this church
or another
and you're just a guest
here today.
That you have a part
to play.
You have a ministry
in the church.
The church growth gurus
say that it's incredibly
important to plug someone in
to give them a job
within the first six months
of them coming
to a church.
Right?
You can't know
somebody's character
in six months.
That's insanity.
But this is what
so many are doing
so that people feel
that they belong
rather than saying to them
you have a ministry.
You have a ministry.
It's to one another.
This means that it's not okay
just to show up
on a Sunday morning.
You can't just walk in
at 1025,
1035,
sit down
and when we're done
get up and walk
right back out.
I know
that sometimes
that's what has to happen
on a Sunday.
I know the amount
of time it takes
to invest
in people
and to get to know people
you have to do the work.
You have to.
You have to find times
and opportunities
to get with
the people of God
so that you can
display
love.
It's of vital importance
in your service
to the church
and I guarantee you
that as you do so
your burdens
will be bore
as well.
You will also be
loved.
It's a work.
It is hard.
It has been so many years
since I ever went
and fellowshiped
with a new group
of people.
I can remember
faintly,
it's a dim light
in my mind
how strange
and awkward it is
to walk into a group
of people
that you don't know.
I know it's hard.
Do the work.
Put in the time.
Show up to the things
that we're doing.
We have meetings
that are almost exclusively
for the opportunity
to be able to love
each other
in this way.
So what are some
practical ways
you can bear
another's burdens?
Just a few
that popped in my mind.
Help a brother move.
Moving out
at the end of the semester.
Pick up a couple of boxes.
Be available for a sister
at any hour of the night
or stay up late
in prayer
for someone.
Show up to help
with a project
on the property
here.
minister alongside
someone.
Service that somebody
is doing in the community.
Join them in that work.
Partner with them in it.
Give up your
free time
for the sake
of the kingdom.
College students,
let me speak directly
to you for a moment.
I know that you feel
busy.
That's a real feeling
that you're having.
I don't want to totally
negate the feeling
that you're having.
I know.
It is finals week.
This is maybe
the only week
you really have an excuse.
I know that the burden
of it is laid
on your shoulders
and you feel so busy.
Start getting into
healthy church habits
now.
Serving others.
Giving of your time
because you only
get busier.
I don't really
even know
the word
free time.
Like what
what is this thing
free time?
Invest in the kingdom.
Invest in eternal things.
And listen,
I'm not saying
that you can't
have hobbies
and that it's not
good and healthy
to unplug
from things sometimes
and just have
some fun.
Sam and I
are taking a vacation
this summer.
We're planning
on taking the boys
on our first
canoe camping trip.
This is a good thing.
Good for our family
to be together.
Good for me
to be far,
far away
from a cell phone
signal.
This has value.
But I can tell you
this,
that at the end
of my life
I'm not going
to look back
on my life
and wish
that I had
done more
whitewater paddling
or rock climbing
or played more
golf.
I would never
do that.
Or played more
video games.
I think that most
of us are going
to look back
on our lives
and say,
look at the time
that I wasted.
I flittered it away
on nothing
rather than investing
in my future.
You have so much
that you can give
to one another.
How can you know
someone's burdens?
Ask.
Everybody's hurting
in some way
at some time.
Ask.
And be willing
to hear the answer.
Ask somebody
how they're doing
and actually mean it.
When somebody says,
I'm not doing that well,
say,
tell me about it.
I wasn't just being cordial.
I really want to know.
How are you doing?
And how can I help
you bear up
when things aren't going
that well
in your life?
This all means
that relationships
in the church matter.
That the church
was meant to be relational.
It's about people
and not programs.
Programs don't matter
at all
if they're not helping
people be drawn together
in love
for one another.
They're pointless.
The relationships
matter.
We do community
outreach groups
as a way to develop
and to build
those things.
I've been visiting
around those groups
and I will tell you
there are so many
good, healthy things
happening
in what we're calling
our COGS.
Fantastic things
that are happening
but there's so much
more even still.
In so many ways still
they're program
and not people driven.
We need to be bonded
together.
We need to be,
as I love Kyle Webb
says so often,
a faith family.
Connected that way
because we're connected
by the blood
of Jesus Christ.
The world should see
the gospel
in the way
that we love each other.
If we have a hope
that produces love
then people should see it
and they should want
to understand it.
Peter exhorts
in 1 Peter 3.15
to always be prepared
to make a defense
to anyone who asks you
for a reason
for the hope
that is in you.
His suggestion here
is that if you are living
as believers ought to live,
people are going to ask you
about the hope
that you have.
What is this thing
that has made you
so different
and changed you?
And he's suggesting
that you have an answer
for that.
That you be ready
to give an answer
to such a question.
How many of us
are being asked
that question?
Many of us struggle
in evangelism
because we are peddling
a product
that really hasn't worked
for us.
There's not all
that much different
about who we are.
There's a chance
there's nothing different
about who you are.
We need to throw ourselves
into Christian love
for one another.
This will overflow
in our evangelistic efforts.
Look,
briefly,
I'm going to read this
to you fast.
The early church,
Acts 2,
42-47,
and they devoted themselves
to the apostles' teaching
and the fellowship,
to the breaking of bread
and the prayers,
and awe came upon every soul
and many wonders
and signs were being done
through the apostles.
And all who believed
were together
and had all things in common.
And they were selling
their possessions
and belongings
and distributing the proceeds
to all as any had need.
And day by day,
attending the temple together
and breaking bread
in their homes,
they received their food
with glad and generous hearts,
praising God
and having favor
with all the people.
Here they are doing
all this activity together.
This is early church.
Everything they're doing
is about being together
and doing things together.
Right?
Loving each other
the way believers
ought to love each other.
And then it's finished off.
Verse 47,
the Lord added to their number
day by day
those who were being saved.
It was being put on display
so that people were attracted to it
or repelled by it.
That'll happen as well.
But many, many
were attracted to it.
If you're not living
in a relationship
with the church,
begin.
Repent.
Believe.
It's time to start.
If you are,
just keep it up.
Keep plugging away at it.
I know that it's not easy.
The toughest thing
about Christianity
are Christians.
We're people.
We're a mess.
Right?
In great need of grace.
Even though we've been
delivered from sin,
our flesh still exists.
There's a battle going on
within all of us.
Praise God
that the victory
has been completed
and the good news
has conquered.
We need one another
to work out
our sanctification.
So that was number four.
Number five.
I'm almost done.
Number five.
Notice in the first part
of verse six.
The gospel has
and is
completing its task.
Paul says,
this gospel truth
which has come to you
as indeed in the whole world
it is bearing fruit
and increasing.
Paul is referring to
the known world,
the beyond,
the Jewish population,
the whole world
is what he's referring to
here.
It's bearing fruit.
It's increasing.
It's doing the thing
that it's set out
to accomplish.
God is ultimately
the source
of the power
in the gospel.
And he is accomplishing
his will
and his purpose.
Jesus says in Matthew 16, 18,
I will build my church
and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it.
The gospel makes advance
in the world.
We don't hold back hell.
Hell shudders
in front of the gospel.
The gospel is going to overwhelm
and knock down
hell
and its dominion.
I will build my church
and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it.
The gospel has and is
completing its task.
But the gospel has and is
completing its task
through the work
of faithful ministers.
God uses us
as his means
to accomplish
his ends.
Verse 7 and 8.
Just as you learned it
from Epaphras,
our beloved fellow servant.
He is a faithful minister
of Christ
on your behalf
and has made known to us
your love
in the Spirit.
The gospel has and is
completing its task
through the work
of faithful ministers.
If you were here last week,
you've heard this.
If you weren't,
Paul did not begin
the church in Colossae.
It was started by
a man named Epaphras
who likely had traveled
to Ephesus
some 120 miles to the west,
had heard the gospel,
became a believer,
and as a disciple
of Jesus Christ should,
he went back
and began to preach
the gospel
and establish disciples
which led to a church,
a gathering of God's people.
people.
Earlier I referenced
the words of Paul
in Romans 15
where he says,
citing Isaiah 52.7,
how beautiful are the feet
of those who preach
the good news.
Just before this,
he writes in Romans 10.14
and the beginning of verse 15,
hear the rest of that.
How then will they call on Him
in whom they have not believed?
And how are they to believe
in Him of whom
they have never heard?
And how are they to hear
without someone preaching?
And how are they to preach
unless they are sent?
And then he says,
how beautiful are the feet
of those who preach
the good news.
There's a real practicality
to the way in which
people come to saving faith
in Jesus Christ.
They must hear
the gospel of Jesus Christ
preached.
There are stories
all over the world right now
about people having visions
of Jesus and coming to faith
in Jesus Christ.
Don't believe it for a minute.
Maybe some of those things
are happening
and leading those individuals
to ask questions
of those who can preach
the gospel to them.
But the way that the gospel
of Jesus Christ
comes to the minds
and hearts of individuals
is through the preaching
of His Word.
God is raising up an army
for that very purpose.
Beloved, that is the purpose
of our church
and the purpose
of every individual in it.
The primary way
in which we glorify God
is by the making
of disciples.
This includes so much
about our Christian living.
But this is the drive
and the point.
Believers in Jesus Christ
bring about,
work toward,
strive for faith
in other people.
Ultimately and finally,
this is all a work of God.
While we recognize,
along with Paul and Timothy,
that God was the ultimate source
of the Colossian church,
we must also recognize
that He graciously involved
Epaphras in that process.
Not because God is somehow
incapable apart from us.
That God can't accomplish
exactly what God
sets out to accomplish.
He did not need Epaphras,
but He loved him.
And because He loved him,
He included him
in the great work
of the gospel advancement
in the world.
The same is true of us.
He doesn't need you,
but He wants you.
He wants to bless you
by involving you
in His kingdom advancement.
We get to experience
who God is
as we go about the work
of making disciples.
You want to know why
many of you are not growing
in your faith?
It's because you're not
actively working out
the things God
has told you to do.
You're not actually seeing Him.
You're not beholding Him
as He works in the world.
I would strongly suggest
that you do so.
It will bless you
beyond measure
to see that God
changes people.
It will encourage you
that He can still
change you.
You sometimes feel
trapped in your sin.
It could be because
you're not seeing God
as work in other individuals.
Paul later in his letter
to the Colossians
speaks of making the gospel
fully known to the Gentiles.
And then he says
in chapter 1, verse 29,
For this I toil.
For this I labor.
I work hard.
Struggling with all
His energy
that He powerfully
works within me.
The great promise
of Matthew 28, 18-20
which is known
as the Great Commission.
Jesus came and said to them,
All authority in heaven
and on earth
has been given to Me.
Go therefore
and make disciples
of all nations,
baptizing them
in the name of the Father
and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe
all that I have commanded you.
And behold,
I am with you always
to the end of the age.
Note
that the command
to make disciples
is incapped
by a statement of power
and by a promise.
Jesus says,
All authority
that doesn't exclude anything.
All authority
in heaven and on earth
has been given to Me.
I have a people
that I have redeemed
for myself.
My completed work
on the cross
has been accomplished.
There is a people
that I am seeking
in the world.
So,
go find them.
I have all authority.
It's all been given to me.
All dominion belongs to me.
And there's a purpose
I'm going to work out
in the life
of your church
and in you
as an individual.
So go
and make disciples.
and in the promise
that He will be with us
to the end of the age.
Beloved,
we have nothing
to fear
in advancing
the good news
of the Gospel
of Jesus Christ.
As God is for us,
who can be
against us?
And so,
in summary,
I just remind you
once again,
the Gospel gives
reason for thanksgiving.
The Gospel is believed
by saving faith.
The Gospel gives hope
because of the promise
of heaven.
The Gospel produces love.
And the Gospel has
and is completing its task
through the work
of faithful ministers.
Let's pray together.