God's Gospel Growth

Introduction

Shark Bay Australia, does that sound like a place that you’d like to go and visit? Shark Bay? Located on the Western coast of Australia, Shark Bay is home to the world’s largest plant. Now, I know that some of you probably like those little succulent plants that fit in a tiny pot and sit in your kitchen or office space, but this plant dwarfs anything we can even imagine. This one, single plant is the size of 20,000 football fields. Or 3 times the size of Manhattan… or 77 square miles! That’s huge! This one plant stretches over 110 miles end to end and according to scientists is extremely resilient as it faces a wide range of conditions that would prove too difficult for most plants to survive… Thousands of years ago, a single seed began to grow into what has now become miles and miles of sea weed.

In the book of Acts, if you recall from a couple of weeks ago, we saw how the early church started with 120 people and quickly grew to over 3,000 simply through the preaching of the Gospel in Acts 2. Many people in our world, and especially in our community, want to see growth not only in their life but in their organization… churches are no different. If you could choose between a dying church or a thriving church, we would all likely choose a thriving one! But how does this happen? What brings about growth? The Word of God. The Gospel message of Jesus Christ. Why do we prioritize God’s Word whenever we gather as a church? Because we all need God’s Word because the Word of God does the Work of God and we never outgrow our need for the Gospel.

This morning as we continue our study through Colossians, we come to Colossians 1:3-8 and we’re going to see the growth that the Gospel brings both inside and outside the walls of the church. We’ll see that the Gospel not only provides us with salvation the day that we are saved, but that it provides us with hope each day of our lives and how that hope shines like a bright light in our world. Let’s read from God’s Word together

Colossians 1:3–8 CSB

3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints 5 because of the hope reserved for you in heaven. You have already heard about this hope in the word of truth, the gospel 6 that has come to you. It is bearing fruit and growing all over the world, just as it has among you since the day you heard it and came to truly appreciate God’s grace. 7 You learned this from Epaphras, our dearly loved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, 8 and he has told us about your love in the Spirit.

This is Paul’s prayer for this church - that they would keep on growing, keep on reaching their community, keep on loving one another. Church, isn’t this what we are called to do as well? To have faith in Jesus, love one another, and be people of hope in a hopeless world. Let’s ask God to help us to this end today

The Gospel Leads to Encouragement Within the Church (3-5a)

Stress in our world seems to be at an all-time high, regardless of where you find yourself at. Leaders feel stress to make important decisions due to the turbulent times that we’ve been living in in a post-COVID world. Employees feel stressed to perform and fulfill duties that might not have been assigned to them whenever they were originally hired on. Students feel stressed as there are not only school obligations and commitments, but pressures placed by social media, sports, extra circulars, and what are you left with? A world that is mentally, financially, and emotionally stressed out! In this crazy world where inflation and desperation dominate the headlines, what do we need? We need hope. We need encouragement. We need something positive that isn’t just a fleeting feeling but a genuine change in our lives.

2,000 years ago, these Christians in the Colossian church faced some of the same problems of discouragement, despair, doubt, and they were being taught that Jesus Christ was not enough to provide them with what they needed. Into this context, what does Paul share with this confused and hurting church? He prays for them… not just a one off prayer like whenever someone tells you something that is wrong and you feel obligated to say, “I’ll pray for you.” Look at what Paul says, “We always thank God… when we pray for you.” Luke 11 told us a few weeks ago that we start with praising God for who He is and what He has done - this is how Paul prays for this church. He thanks God for these believers - that he has never met… why? Because of their Gospel Growth that we see in the verses that come.

Have you ever met someone who knew you whenever you were a kid but you barely know or remember them? As a kid growing up at FBC Springfield, I remember this happening often as I was adopted and the church had a celebration time for my family and I was only a few months old… for years, even in recent years, I’ve heard people say, “I remember when you were this big, you’ve grown so much” and while that’s great to hear, I genuinely have no clue who the person is. Contrast that with someone who has known you, not just known about you or seen you, but they know your story… they know where you’ve been. They know what you’ve gone through. And they’ve seen the change that Jesus Christ has made in your life and they come to you and say “Man, I remember when you used to do this or that… you’ve grown in your faith so much!” Jesus changes those whom Jesus saves, church. This is what the Gospel does, it changes us, and it should lead us to thank God for His work in our lives as believers.

As John Newton once said, “I’m not who I ought to be… I’m not who I hope to be… But by the grace of God, I’m not who I used to be!” I pray that this is your story! Because this is what the Gospel is all about - we used to be dead in sins, walking in darkness, and without hope… but because of Jesus, we are alive, saved, and people of great hope! Look in the text at what exactly Paul celebrates whenever he prays for these people - this is the report that he has heard from Epaphras about these people starting in verse 4

Faith, Love, and Hope.

We see these 3 specific words show up several times in the New Testament in reference to those who are saved or, in Christ. All of these 3 qualities are things that we can’t conjure up within ourselves. You can present the Gospel to someone a million times and you can tell them that they just need to have faith, but left to ourselves we’ll remain lost. You can talk about love with a hundred different people and you’ll get a hundred different answers for what exactly love is. We all know what it is like to have our hope and trust in something or someone be broken. Faith, Love, and Hope are not simply human qualities that if we try really hard, we can give these things to ourselves, no, they are qualities given to us by God.

Why do we have faith in Christ Jesus? Because of what God has done for us!

Why do we love all the saints? Because of God’s great love for us!

Why do we have hope in heaven? Because of God’s work in our place!

Consider how the Gospel brings about encouragement in this church starting with faith. We all know people who are faithful and who have lots of faith in something. Let’s test this out - whenever you arrived here at South Gate in the sanctuary, you talked with people, probably shook some hands, grabbed a bulletin, and eventually you sat down! Why did you sit where you sat? Some of you are thinking that you sat there because that is YOUR SEAT! But why did you sit down? Some of you are thinking that you did because the countdown timer was nearing zero and you didn’t want to be the only person still standing. But really, why did you sit down in the seat? Because you placed your faith in that chair to hold your weight up so that you didn’t go crashing down to the floor. You placed your faith in that chair… and the chair was faithful to do its job - your faith was well placed! But sometimes chairs break. Sometimes people don’t show up like they say they will. Sometimes systems fail us. So many think that if they are just faithful enough or have enough faith then the result will be exactly what they want… into this reality, DA Carson once shared this timely reminder

“It is not the intensity of our faith but the object of our faith that saves.”

Have you ever thought that you were absolutely right about something, but come to find out, you were wrong? Kind of like the spelling of Chick-Fil-A… many people think that it used to be spelled Chic-Fil-A (without the K) and there are very passionate people on social media who are intense about proving how right they are about this “Mandela Effect” but in actuality they’re wrong. Likewise, we know people who are passionate, intense, and sincere about their belief in another religion or doctrine. The first question we must ask is what is our faith placed in - not how much faith do we have in the first place. Small faith placed in a BIG God is infinitely better than BIG faith placed in a false god. Many people in our world have lots of faith but it’s misplaced faith. Because of the Gospel, we are a people who have faith in Christ Jesus and this faith impacts everything that we do as Christians, including what comes next, our love for the saints. Think of some of the barriers that we put up when it comes to loving other people - we don’t have the same background, we think differently, we go to different schools and cheer for different teams, we vote differently, we smell differently, we like different things… therefore, we are tempted to build up walls instead of bridges around one another.

What made the early church stand out was not its power, influence, buildings, programs, lights, chairs, committees, or budgets. What made the early church stand out in a divided world was the fact that you had people of all backgrounds coming together and belonging to the same body

Colossians 3:11 CSB

11 In Christ there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all.

What united these people? These Jews and Greeks, those circumcised and those uncircumcised, the masters and the slaves? It wasn’t the fact that they were in the Lycus Valley - they had lived in the same region for centuries. It wasn’t the fact that they were apart of the Roman Empire - they had been in the Roman Empire for decades. What brought them together was the Gospel of Jesus Christ - this upside down community held together by faith, love, and hope as people from all backgrounds came together to worship Jesus and encourage one another along the way. Church, Paul rejoiced because this church loved one another - what about us at South Gate Baptist Church? What about you as an individual? Part of being saved is loving others, especially those in your church. You will never find a person that God does not love… and for that reason, the body of Christ must be marked by love, especially for one another! A church that loves one another is a church that understands the love they have first received from Christ and desires to share that love with their brothers and sisters in Christ

Colossians 3:14 CSB

14 Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.

The final way that we encourage one another within the church is with our hope. Remember that this church is facing false teaching and persecution not only from outside the church, but from those within. Why would these people have faith in Jesus during difficult times and love one another despite the challenges that brings? Because of their hope regarding the future.

Over the last 4 years since 2020, we’ve seen many people lose hope. We see this with the big things and small things alike - I’ve scrolled social media many times reading post after post about how people think that things are hopeless in our world due to what’s going on in the world of politics or in the local school or in the community or because of a sickness or a situation. It’s as if we’ve all found ourselves stuck in mud that’s up to our neck the last few years and we’re stuck and people are responding to this situation differently. Those who are living for this world alone are stressing out over everything. I’m not saying that things in our world should not concern us or that we shouldn’t make plans and have discussions based on what is happening in our context, but even in a crazy world, friends, we must be people of seemingly otherworldly hope! Regardless of what November brings, or what 2025 brings, or what my health looks like, or what happens in the future in this community, church, I have an immovable hope because it’s in the person and work of Jesus Christ!

AW Tozer - “A frightened world needs a fearless church.” Because of the hope we have in Jesus and because of our reservation awaiting us in heaven, we can and must be fearless in this frightened world. The basis for our hope is that of 1 Peter 1:3-5

1 Peter 1:3–5 CSB

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead 4 and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. 5 You are being guarded by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

What does the Gospel do? It gives us hope because it reminds us that our Savior is alive! Not only is He alive, but He is guarding us. He has a reservation for us. He has saved us and He will sustain us, so whatever happens in this world, we have a living hope. An eternal hope. An otherworldly hope. And this hope provides us with faith in the midst of problems and love in the midst of disagreements.

Because of the Gospel, a true Christian will be one who has faith in Christ, loves the saints, and has hope in spite of difficult circumstances. Because of the Gospel, a true Church will be one made up of born again believers who love one another and who praise Jesus at all times! This is our purpose and our priority at South Gate today and in the days to come - to be people of hope as we love one another and praise Jesus regardless of our circumstances!

The Gospel Leads us to Evangelize Outside Our Church (5b-8)

How many of you have ever taken what is called a spiritual gifts test? I have one that we’ll be using in the days to come that is 119 questions long, but one of the best tests I’ve personally taken as it helps to match your gifting with your personal passion to find an area of service where those things meet in the local church. Some people have the gift of evangelism… have you ever met someone with that gift? You could be at church or on a mission trip or in downtown Springfield, and this person is going to go out of their way to have intentional Gospel conversations and tell people about Jesus Christ and God works powerfully through this person. I’ve met a handful of people like this before who genuinely have the gift of evangelism… but even if you don’t have the gift, you are saved to evangelize! We are all called to share the Gospel. Aren’t you thankful that someone, for many it’s years ago, took the time to share the Gospel with you? It doesn’t matter if you grow up in church or if you had never stepped foot in a church at all, we look back and it’s such a blessing to see how God used someone to plant that initial Gospel seed in our lives!

For the church here in Colossae, this person was Epaphras - we see this in verse 7 as he is the person who taught this church the Gospel. We don’t know much about Epaphras other than that he was an associate with Paul who planted churches and corresponded with Paul.

Colossians 4:12–13 CSB

12 Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, sends you greetings. He is always wrestling for you in his prayers, so that you can stand mature and fully assured in everything God wills. 13 For I testify about him that he works hard for you, for those in Laodicea, and for those in Hierapolis.

This man is kind of like the traveling church planter and minister to these 3 churches in the Lycus Valley. Evangelizing the lost. Planting seeds. Making disciples. Raising up elders and leaders within each of these 3 churches. Praying for their growth. Reporting to Paul what God is doing. This man was used mightily by God… yet, his name appears 3 times in Colossians and Philemon combined. Some think that this is the same person mentioned in Philippians 2 called Epaphroditus, but we don’t know that for sure. Friends, never be ashamed or afraid of being forgotten after doing what Christ calls you to do. You’ll hear the best 6 words one day, “Well Done, Good and Faithful Servant.”

Adoniram Judson arrived in Burma in 1812, and died in 1850. In his 38 years in the country, he was imprisoned, tortured, chained, lost family members and battled depression… yet his faith in the Lord sustained him and he continued to share the Gospel that had saved his life to natives in the country. By the time he passed away, there were between 12-25 Christians depending on the source you read. 38 years, 12-25 disciples. Praise God for this fruit, but can you imagine the years and suffering endured thinking that you aren’t seeing the fruit? That’s tough to imagine, much less to live through! Fast forward over 150 years later and in Burma, there are over 600,000 thousand believers and every single one of them views Adoniram Judson as their spiritual father who loved their ancestors enough to travel half a world away and proclaim the Gospel… but Judson never saw the fruit. He never saw a church form in the country. He never saw the rapid growth. What did he do? He proclaimed the Gospel. He planted seeds. He prayed for a harvest.

South Gate Baptist Church, this is what the Gospel calls on us to do as well. We must be a people who proclaim the Gospel. We must be a people who intentionally plant seeds. We must consistently pray for the lost in our families, neighborhoods, schools, and work places to come to know Christ. This church had received the Gospel from Epaphras and desired for others to respond to the Gospel as well. God’s Word does God’s Work and the message that our world needs today is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If you have been saved by the Gospel, you should desire for others to be saved as well - and this is our call in Acts 1:8

Acts 1:8 CSB

8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Think about that word witness for just a minute. If being a Chiefs fan was outlawed and people were asked “Hey, does this person cheer for the forbidden Chiefs?” Based on the witness of your life, would you be found guilty? Some of you are up a creek without a paddle right now because you’re wearing a Chiefs jersey or you posted on Facebook that you’re a Chiefs fan and you’d be in trouble based on the evidence available. What about being a witness for Jesus Christ? If you were put on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to bring about a “guilty” verdict?

The Colossian believers “came to truly appreciate God’s grace” - have you? Have you come to the realization that you were dead in sins, walking in darkness, and without hope and while you were still lost, God sent His Son into this world on a rescue mission to seek you and save you? If your answer is yes, that you have in fact come to appreciate God’s grace, what evidence do you have to support that claim? The Gospel is said to be bearing fruit and growing all over the world - now Paul is a little hyperbolic here because we know that there are areas of the world that still have not heard the Gospel, but throughout the Roman World in 62 AD, the Gospel was rapidly expanding and growing! If the Gospel produces fruit and is growing throughout the world, the Gospel must also produce fruit and grow in our lives… What evidence do we have that the Gospel has saved us? We can answer it like this: The same Gospel that Saved me, must also Change me. How have you been changed by the Gospel?

I’m not asking you for your Sunday School checklist - did you bring your Bible? Star. Did you memorize your weekly verse? Star. Did you do your devotion and prayers? Star. I’m not asking for those things, although those spiritual disciplines are good for us - I’m asking you this, South Gate, has the hope of the Gospel, the reality that you are a new creation with an eternal reservation for you in heaven, changed how you live, think, and talk here on earth? It must. There must be a boldness in us as Christians to share the truth of the Gospel with a world that is equally confused as it is hostile to the Gospel. If we believe that we all are separated from God because of our sins, how much do we have to hate someone to not tell them that the only way to be saved is by grace through faith in Christ? We must have a boldness to evangelize people outside the walls of this church, as well as inside these walls, because we never outgrow our need for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We have to remember this wonderful, New Testament truth:

The Kingdom is growing. The Gospel is advancing. The gates of hell cannot stop the church of Jesus Christ… and if the gates of hell can’t, neither can the powers of man.

Romans 8:31 We have a role to play in this process, friends. The same Gospel that came to Colossae had come to other cities all around the world… and is changing and transforming lives. Why do we proclaim the Gospel? Because the Gospel alone has the power to change and transform lives today!

Romans 8:31 CSB

31 What, then, are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?

The Gospel doesn’t just “punch your ticket” to heaven, it changes your life on earth! How does the Gospel change our life? It reminds us of who we were, who we now are in Christ, and who we one day will be because of Christ. We use the word “save” often in church, but we can think of salvation in 3 tenses: Past, Present, and Future. We have been saved from our sin by Jesus (justified), we are being saved from our sin by Jesus (sanctification), we will be saved from our sin by Jesus (glorification). I have been saved from the penalty of sin. I am being saved from the power of sin. I will be saved from the presence of sin! This is the hope of the Gospel, and we grow in this hope as we progress in our Christian walk. Some people don’t like growth, but it’s the picture painted by the New Testament. Not everything that grows is godly, but godly things do grow!

How have you growth spiritually over the last month? Year? Do you see sin as less appealing? Do you see yourself doing things that you previously would not have desired to do? Are you having Gospel conversations with those that God has providentially placed around you? Yes, we come to Jesus as we are, but Jesus Christ loves you and I too much to leave us as we were. He changes us and part of that means that we grow to become more like Him. This was a church that was growing spiritually and this must be the case for South Gate Baptist Church today - we’re always being discipled, either by the Word or by the world and we don’t drift towards the Word… we drift away from it. As born again believers, we must actively participate in our sanctification process by growing spiritually to become more like Jesus Christ. How can we do this?

How Can I Grow Spiritually?

Study Scripture

Don Whitney asks this question, “If your growth in godliness were measured by the quality of your Bible intake, what would be the result?” I’ve read that quote many times, but came across it again a few weeks ago and that’s incredibly convicting. The best weapon at our disposal to combat darkness and an enemy that wants to keep us quiet is God’s Word. One of the best ways to grow to become more like Christ is to better understand WHO Christ is and who He calls you and I to be and we find that in His Word. 12 minutes a day and you can read your Bible cover to cover in 1 calendar year and your life will not be the same if you seek to apply what you read.

Spiritual Disciplines

If you were going to get ready for a marathon, you’re not going to wake up on the day of the race having never trained, and expect to finish, much less win, the race! You discipline yourself, you change what you eat, you change your schedule, and you train for months and months to prepare yourself. It’s the same way in our spiritual lives as we discipline ourselves not in a bad way, but in a positive way to grow more healthy and more in line with God’s Word. We change things and cut out things that don’t need to be in our lives, and prioritize things that God’s Word tells us to prioritize. We grow to be more like Jesus through these disciplines like reading our Bible, spending time in prayer, coming to church, and…

Share Gospel

This is like practicing what we preach, if Scripture says that we are supposed to share the Gospel, then in order to grow spiritually, we can’t just acknowledge that this is what the Bible says and someone else will actually do what it says! Faith without works is dead - in order to grow, we must be bold for Jesus and that means sharing the truth of Scripture in love with a lost and dying world because we have the answer that alone provides faith, love, and hope!

Submit to Holy Spirit

Our world hates authority because we think that whenever we have to submit, we are losing something. We are losing freedom. We are losing ourselves. Can I tell you something incredible, there is freedom unlike anything this world has to offer that is freely available simply by submitting to God. That sounds backwards, doesn’t it? But it’s true! There is life, hope, peace, joy, and salvation found by trusting fully in God’s plan and submitting to the Holy Spirit today and each day of our lives as He guides us and protects us and leads us

This is a growing church and it is growing because of the Gospel. The Gospel produces fruit. The Word of God does the Work of God in the People of God all for the Glory of God. If you are here this morning and you have yet to respond to the Gospel, don’t put that off any longer - come to Jesus and experience the hope that only He can provide! For those who are saved, how is the hope of heaven helping you grow in your walk with the Lord? Let’s join in God’s plan of sharing the Gospel to our neighbors and the nations! Never discount the power of a single Gospel seed.