Knowing Christ Part 1 “ The Elements of Grace”

Colossians 1:3-14

Good morning church, We are continuing our series on Knowing Christ part 1. We just walked through the book of Philippians and I don’t know about you but I had a joyous time and now we are moving to the book of Colossians. Colossians is about what it means to follow Jesus. I know what you’re thinking, the gospels are about following Jesus, but now it’s different for the disciples and us. At the end of the gospel accounts, the disciples watched as Jesus ascended to heaven. After three years of following his footsteps, what are they to do now? and what about us? How do we follow Jesus today? That’s what we learn here in Colossians so as we walk through the text, we will also stop to focus on the core principles and key life habits, necessary to follow Jesus now. Before He left, Jesus gave the disciples the great commission. Go and make disciples of all nations. Remember, disciple, means follower so the first disciples were called to make more disciples and they did. The Book of Acts tells their amazing stories as they reach their world with the gospel. I wish we could say that everything has been great since then, but it hasn’t the Christian church has done tremendous good in the world, but we’ve also done some real harm and it started way back then when corruption, greed, and hypocrisy got in early. but there was also good compassion, hope and grace so if we’re going to do this, let’s get it right let’s live it. That’s what Colossians is all about living it.

I know I just said Colossians is about following Jesus exactly that’s how you live it. See I could say to live it you should stop doing bad things and start doing good but that’s working from the outside in and it’s a recipe for hypocrisy. Jesus changes us from the inside out. How does that work? Let’s go to the Bible to find out after the Book of Acts, the Bible has a series of personal letters written by Jesus's apostles with instructions on what it means to be a Christian that’s what this part of the Bible is all about the apostles. Wrote these letters to the church back then to give them instructions on how to follow Jesus, why, because we don’t have Jesus walking around in front of you, it teaches you how to get it right, so here’s what happened, Jesus sent out the apostles and they reached others and made disciples in every town, where they made disciples they started a church each church started well, but each one also had its problems when the apostles moved on to new towns they would often write letters back to the churches to encourage them and many times to correct false teachers who crept into the church earl. So some of the letters were written to help believers know the truth from lies and walk in truth. Today we begin the letter to the Colossians. It was written by the apostle Paul to the Christians in the city of Colossi they were brand new believers, so it’s perfect for us.

The letter begins with a friendly greeting from Paul in verse one Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother to the Saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossi. so this is just the two and from the top of the letter from Paul to the Colossians hence the weird name of the book but it’s not a book it’s a letter and it’s not a weird name. It’s a personal name and that’s how we should read it personally. Don’t Read the Bible like it’s an encyclopedia.

Almost the entire New Testament is personal letters and you’ll get a lot more out of it if you read it like it’s personally to you so that’s how I’ll read this letter and this letter like almost every Bible letter begins with Grace. Grace and peace to you from God our father. The word grace was a common greeting, but it’s also a foundational truth. Grace is a gift we don’t earn, we don’t deserve it, but God just loves us. Because he loves us, Living our our faith begins with “understanding the elements of Grace.”

That means elements are the basic building blocks or essential parts that combine to form a larger structure or system.

Verse 3 We always pray for you, and we give thanks to God the father of our Lord Jesus Christ. For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all of God’s people, 5 which come from your confident hope of what God has reserved for you in heaven. You have had this expectation ever since you first heard the truth of the Good News. So Paul starts by giving thanks, not thanks to the church, but thanks to God for the church. I really believe that the highest compliment is simply I thank God for you ( Turn to your neighbor and say “ I thank God for You”) and Paul thanks God for the faith and the love that he’s heard about in the church. Paul had never been to the church in Colossi, but he heard about it from his friend Epaphras, the man who started the church and what he heard was beautiful, a thriving and healthy church, full of faith and love that were driven by eternal hope and centered on Jesus.

Verse 6, Paul says This same Good News that came to you is going out all over the world. It is bearing fruit everywhere by changing lives, just as it changed your lives from the day you first heard and understood the truth about God’s wonderful grace.

Point 1 Understanding His Grace

This is point number one to following Jesus, is “Understand His Grace” We should understand that God saved us because he loves us, not because we earned it. We can’t earn it, because we don’t deserve it. Jesus paid the full price and we can’t add to it in Paul’s letter to Ephesians 2:8-9. He put it this way For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. There is incredible peace and real freedom in the simple truth “We are saved by grace” not by works means that we don’t earn salvation trying to earn salvation, leads to boasting arrogance and judgementalism. just like the hypocrites Understanding grace breeds humility. You don’t have to go looking for it, it comes to you. We still do good works, but we do them with the same grace that God gave us back in verse six Paul calls it bearing fruit, It’s a natural outgrowth due to the change from within.

What’s happening inside how does that change happen and where does the understanding come from?

Verse 8, Paul says that this new love happening among the believers is love given by the Spirit and then in verse 9 Paul says we pray that God would fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives

Point 2- The Work of the Holy Spirit

The next key element is the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is God, the third part of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The spirit works within us gives us love and compassion, helps us with conviction and strength to resist evil, and guides us with knowledge and wisdom for life. The work of the spirit in us gets us to our final point

Verse 10 Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.

Point 3: Our elements of Grace produces a life worthy of the Lord

A life that bears fruit and does good works, not earning his love, but simply living worthy of the amazing love, he already showed us. Grace takes the focus off of our work and puts it on His worthiness

The apostle Paul summed it this way for us in Philippians. When we our focused on our human work, the emphasis is on what we can do to earn favor, achieve righteousness, or secure a place in God's kingdom. This can lead to self-reliance, pride, or despair when one fails to measure up. we sabotage others who are doing things, we doubt any mission and wait to see it all fail.

But when we shift our focus on Jesus' Worthiness:, Grace redirects this focus from our imperfect efforts to Jesus' perfect worthiness. It acknowledges that Jesus, through His sinless life, sacrificial death, and resurrection, has accomplished everything necessary for our salvation.

So verse 10 says when we grow in the knowledge of God, it starts by Knowing the elements of God’s. when you take all 3 of them together Colossians 1:1-10 is saying

“When you understand His grace, and are thankful to Be filled with the Holy Spirit. which gives us all we need in order to produce a life worthy of the Lord.

I leave you with this, Christ is Number One so live like it”