29.08.07
Colossians (2): The Growing Gospel - Colossians 1:3-8
The other evening, as I was driving back from Inverness, I had to take a detour through Elgin – and it struck me as I was driving through Morayshire how green and fertile the land was. Morayshire and Aberdeenshire are known as the breadbasket of Scotland since most of the crops we eat come from there. Every spare bit of land has crops planted – the whole land is beautifully fertile – everywhere you look, everything is growing. The land is designed to grow. Growth is one of the signs of life. The person who stops growing dies. The Christian who stops growing in his or her faith dies spiritually. And so, churches should be filled with growing Christians – just as Morayshire is literally growing, so the mark of the church should be that of growing Christians. Remember what Peter says in 2 Peter 4:18 – “Grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” We must grow as Christians. But in what directions does Christian growth take place – how do we grow as Christians, and what will that growth look like? Paul gives us the answers in Colossians 1:3-8 – he proposes three directions for growth: growth in thanks (vs. 3), growth in truth (vs. 4-6) and growth in teaching (vs. 7-8)
[A] Thanks (vs. 3)
Paul most often begins his letters with a note of thanksgiving – he prays and give thanks to God for the Christians to whom he is writing. Here he says, “We give thanks to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, making prayers always concerning you.” Whenever Paul prayed for the Colossian Christians, he gave thanks for them. Later on in the sermon, we’ll go through the reasons he gives thanks for them, but I just want to notice here the very fact that despite all the problems the Christians at Colossae had – all the various headaches they were causing their leaders – he still gives thanks for them. Some of them were being confused and deceived by false teachers, but Paul still gives thanks to God for them. Some of them were adopting ‘holier than thou’ attitudes to others, but Paul still gives thanks for them. What a mindset change this would be for us, if we would give thanks for each other and for the congregation here!
See what a difference thanksgiving can make – it can change your whole life. When I was first converted someone helped me by saying that when I pray I should follow the ACTS pattern – ACTS stands for Adoration. Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication. So in other words, thanksgiving should be part of every prayer you make. After all, God gives us so much – in vs. 2 we saw last week that the entire gospel could be summed in these words ‘grace and peace’ – the state of being at peace with God and the way by which God works to make peace with us, Just a few moments thought would furnish a million reasons for thanksgiving. And perhaps that is something we don’t do enough – perhaps before we pray we should think for a moment of some of the reasons for which we should give thanks. And perhaps when we are praying for someone – rather than just ‘diving in’ and asking God for things for them, we should think of things about them we can give thanks to God for – things that He is doing in them which are good. Remember then to thank God.
Also here, just a brief note that Paul does not thank the Colossians for their growth in grace – he thanks the Lord. And this teaches us something very important – our conversion to the Lord Jesus Christ is a work of God – we give God thanks when we hear of someone coming to know the Lord Jesus Christ and we say, “God has been at work in that person” Only God can save someone. But Paul here is not thanking God for their conversions – He is thanking God for their growth – showing us that Christian growth is also a work of God – someone is growing in their faith and we should say, “God has been at work in that person” – because only God can keep someone growing as a Christian. Christian growth is as much a work of God as Christian conversion is –and we must give thanks for both. We give thanks to God when we see a Christian being upheld through difficulties by Him; we give thanks to God when we see a Christian speaking to others about the Lord Jesus – in short, we give thanks. And maybe we should pray for God to make us more thankful.
[B] Truth (vs. 4-6)
What are those things Paul and Timothy are giving thanks to God for? When they hear about the Christians in Colossae, they give thanks – what for? Two things:
1. The Power of the Gospel - We serve and Almighty God who made the world and holds it in motion from second to second. The might of nations is as a fly compared to His great power – and yet He has chosen to show His power in and through the Gospel – the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ. It is the Gospel which is the most powerful weapon of God. And Paul says four things about this weapon:
a. True – twice in this passage he talks about truth – in vs. 5 – “the truth of the Gospel” and vs. 6 “the grace of God in truth”. The Gospel is ultimate truth and that is one aspect which makes it so powerful. There is no lie, there is no deceit – God is pulling no punches – He is telling us the truth about Himself and about ourselves. And yes that hurts, but it’s the absolute truth. If you speak to some of your friends about the Gospel, they will say to you, “Well, that’s true for you, but something else is true for me”. But you see, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me.” There is one truth and one reality – and that is the Jesus of the Gospel. Fires are raging through Greece at the moment, and how do you think it would be if one Greek told another Greek about the fire, and how important it is to get to safety, but even while the flames are burning behind his back, the other Greek said, “Well, you believe there is a fire, and that’s great for you. I’m happy that you’re happy. But I believe in something different.” Have confidence – you aren’t living out a fantasy – you are in the place of truth.
b. Universal – if you remember from last week, we saw that one of the things the false teachers in Colossae taught was that salvation and true knowledge was only for a select few and that others need not apply. Only the noblemen and professors qualify for salvation. But that’s not what Paul says about the Gospel – He says in vs. 6 that “it has been presented to you just as also in all the world it is bearing fruit and growing.” The Gospel is for all men and women – wherever they are from and whoever they are. Whatever social class, whatever colour or language or nationality – whatever level of intelligence or otherwise – the Gospel is for you and for all men. One of the great things about being interested in missionary work is that you get to hear the stories of how God is working in all different kinds of people – people in Africa, South America, Asia and Europe – rich people and poor people – fine people and criminals. And that’s the power of the Gospel – it is the one truly universal faith.
c. Growing – the Christian faith is not a static thing – it develops and grows. The Gospel also grows within you, like a seed, germinating, growing, flowering and producing fruit. It is not an inert, lifeless add-on – but as you go on longer in the Christian faith, the Gospel takes more and more of a hold of you. You can’t go back to the way it was – listen to what Paul says in vs. 6 “all over the world it is bearing fruit and growing.” When you were a child, there were very few Christians in China – now there are, according to some estimates, 60 million. The same can be said of many different nations. You can’t keep the Gospel down – it is like trying to stand in the waters of the sea and telling the tide not to come in – it is like trying to get a cloud not to rain or trying to get the wind not to blow. That is why the Gospel is so very powerful – because it is a living thing.
d. Gracious – the power of the Gospel ultimately lies in the grace of God – as Paul says in vs. 6 “since the day you heard and came to know the grace of God in truth.” The Gospel is the grace of God in truth. It is our loving, sovereign Father giving us something we do not deserve. Because of who we are and what we’ve done, we don’t deserve such goodness from God – but He sent His One and Only Son to die for us on the Cross to give us the Gospel. It is not a message of deserve – it is message of pure grace. And that is why it is so powerful, because it really doesn’t depend upon what we do or don’t do – but it depends on the grace of the ever living, ever loving God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2. The Fruit of the Gospel – as I have already said, the Gospel is like a growing seed within us – but when we believe it, what fruit does it produce in us and through us. What will it look like to truly believe the Gospel and to grow in our faith?
a. Faith – Paul talks about ‘your faith in Christ Jesus.’ So what is faith? It is the surrender of yourself – it is when you put Jesus Christ on the throne of your heart and not yourself – when you say, ‘Christ Jesus knows what is best for me and from now on I am going to trust and follow Him.’ It is like putting a sign on your heart saying, ‘under new management’. Again, remember the situation in Colossae, with the false teachers talking about a series of intermediaries between earth and heaven – spirit beings, each one of which is worthy of their worship and praise. But Paul dashes the idea on the rocks – for there to be faith, it must be faith in Christ Jesus alone – not in Jesus + a host of other angels, not in Jesus + Mary, not in Jesus + our sinful passions – rather faith in Jesus and in Jesus alone. Only He is able to save us; only He is able to forgive us; only He is able to purify us and only He is worthy of our faith and trust. So faith is surrendering yourself to Jesus. And when you see faith in another – faith in the midst of darkness and persecution, then that is an occasion for great thanksgiving, for it is a sure sign that the Gospel has taken firm root and is growing within them.
b. Love – Paul talks of ‘their love to all the saints’. The word for love here is the word ‘agape’, which is normally reserved only for the way in which God loves us. It speaks of a self-sacrificing love, which puts others before ourselves. Not a love which loves because there is something we want, or we can get out of the other person – not the kind of love with which we love others who are like us – but a love which loves others self-sacrificially. And since it is a love which isn’t natural to us, when we see it in someone else, or in ourselves, we give great thanks because it is a sure sign that God is working within us. God is making us like Himself – His Spirit is dwelling within us. Again, remember the situation in Colossae, where you had elitism among the nobles and aristocrats – they talked about a secret knowledge which only they had – and the rest of the people were plebeians – not worthy of their love or attention. But by contrast Paul is talking about loving all the saints – not just the loveable ones, not just the easy ones, not just the friendly ones, not just the clean ones, not just the intelligent and rich ones, but all the saints. And when you see such love within yourself or another Christian, it is a matter for great thanksgiving to God for its shows that the Gospel has taken firm root and is growing within them.
c. Hope – Paul talks about ‘the hope laid up for you in the heavens’. Hope here is the hope of eternal life – not a gamble or the kind of hope a person has when they put a lottery ticket on, but a sure and certain hope of things to come. Isn’t it an amazing thing to know that our future is assured – a future of beauty and glory with the Lord Jesus in heaven! All the false teachers in Colossae talked about when they talked about the heavens were strange spirit beings – but by contrast Paul here is talking about the burning hope every Christian has, confirmed by promise and the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, that each one who trusts in Jesus has a future in heaven with Him. And because we have that certain hope, it changes the way we think about today – you know the expression, ‘you only live once’ and how it is used as an excuse to go out there and enjoy yourself, well its not really true – the Bible tells us that we will live forever – either in heaven or in hell. Isn’t it an amazing thing when, as I did last week, you visit the deathbed of a dying Christian only to find someone full of hope and optimism, not because they think they are going to get any better, but because they know that beyond death lies an amazing future! It makes life worth the living when you have an inextinguishable hope for the future. Now when you see that hope within another Christian it is a sure sign that the Gospel has taken firm root and is growing within them.
So faith, hope and love are the three fruit of the Gospel working within you. But I want to ask you a question – according to this passage in Colossian 1, what is it that will make us more faithful, more loving and more hopeful – or in other words, if you want to be more loving to others, faithful to Christ and hopeful for the future, what do you need to do? Now the standard answer to that question has been – work harder, try harder, do more, be more obedient. The problem is that the harder we try and the more we work, the more we fail and the farther short we fall, leading to despair and giving up. I’m not saying we shouldn’t try and shouldn’t work hard, but if that is all we are doing, then we are in for a rude awakening as we come to an awareness of just how truly weak we are and how little ability we have to put even the smallest thing into practice in our Christian lives. It’s like having a car and knowing where you want to go, but having no petrol in the tank.
But if you look carefully at this passage in Colossians 1, the shockingly counter-cultural answer comes out – the production of the fruit of the Gospel does not primarily come through something we do, but something we believe. Tell me, were we saved by doing something, or by believing something? The answer is, of course, that we were saved by believing the Gospel – the Good News about Jesus Christ and how on Calvary He has taken all our sins away and given us His perfect obedience in return. We were saved by believing that for ourselves and surrendering ourselves to Him. Now, here’s the next question – if we were saved by believing the Gospel, how will we grow as Christians? Will it be in any other way than by believing the Gospel? No – most certainly not.
If you are saved by believing the Gospel, surely you also grow as a Christian by believing the Gospel. Remember what we said about the power of the Gospel earlier on – we’ll we’re taking it a stage further here because what we are saying is that the more you believe the Gospel, that Jesus has done it all, the more sanctified you become. Growth in the Christian life is not about ticking boxes, but about believing the Gospel more. You grow in your Christian life by believing the Gospel more. It is this belief and faith which will produce the fruit of faith, love and hope within you – that and nothing else. And so the greatest need of all of us, Christian or non-Christian is to believe the Gospel. The Gospel is the answer to every pastoral problem in the Christian ministry – it is the answer to everything. Now someone (I know of someone who already did) will accuse me of being an antinomian – that is that I am against laws. Well, if they want to accuse me of that, they’re not really accusing me, but Paul – because he writes these things. But even if they do accuse me, I’m in good company, because that’s what his contemporaries accused Paul of, and Luther of. In fact, I would go as far as to say that unless you are accused of being an antinomian, you aren’t really preaching the Gospel at all. So, if you want to produce these fruit in your Christian life, don’t do it by being determined to do it, but do it by believing the Gospel that Jesus has taken all your sins away and that you are a new person in Him, and then do it.
[C] Teaching (vs. 7-8)
I want to close by pointing to how we gain access to the Gospel – in other words, by what means do we ‘get’ the Gospel. Do we pay for it, do we work for it – no – before we turn to vs. 7-8 look at vs. 5 – all these wonderful things – faith, hope and love are there “which you have heard in the word of truth of the Gospel.” The Gospel is transmitted through speaking and hearing. That is how we become Christians in the first place – we hear the Gospel. That is why we believe preaching is central in the life of the Church – because it is through oral transmission that the Gospel is passed and through the ear that the seed is planted in hearts and minds. And how did the Colossians hear? In vs. 7 we read of them learning from Epaphras – one of Paul’s fellow workers, a faithful servant of Christ. Epaphras is faithful because he is preaching the Gospel – for any preacher this must be a solemn thought – it is through his preaching and by the very act of preaching and by his commitment to the preached word, that he shows himself faithful or otherwise to the Gospel.
But not only is someone saved through hearing the Gospel and responding to it in faith – how does a Christian grow and the Gospel flourish within them? Is it not also through the preached Gospel! As a person hears and understands more, their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ grows and bears fruit within them. Vive la Preaching! If you want to grow in your faith, make the preached word central in your discipleship because it is as this Word is preached that you are converted and confirmed in your faith – you are saved and grow. Be where the Gospel is preached – be in Church to hear the Gospel and grow in your faith.
But if you aren’t a Christian tonight, take Paul’s advice – listen to the Gospel as it is preached, but don’t just listen, really hear it and then actively surrender yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ. Make him the King of your heart – for only by trusting in Him, and not through your own hard work, will you be able to produce faith, hope and love – the fruit of the Gospel. May God bless this preached Word to each of us and may it be used to help us to grow in our faith. AMEN