Colossians 1:1-14 continued...

LIFE Relationship with other Christians.

GROW US

"for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints” ()

________ for all the saints (v4).

Genuine Christian faith is ever active in works of love (read ).

In speaking of “all the saints” Paul means those fellow Christian with whom the Colossians have relationships:

Members of churches in the Lycus valley and other Christian who might be traveling through the city.

This word love is agape. This is the word used to describe the self-sacrifice of Christ.

This is the definitive expression of this love and what it’s supposed to be

and actually look like, between us.

This would be us having an active concern for one another among the fellowship of God’s people.

This would look like a network of mutual support and encouragement as Christians moved among the different towns in Asia Minor.

When Chuck Colson was serving his prison sentence after the Watergate scandal, his newfound faith was severely tested.

His wife did not understand the “born again” business,

his son was picked up on drug charges, and

Colson himself was in despair.

But God met him in his misery.

A group of Christians in Washington, including three Senators, were praying for him.

One senator discovered an old law that allowed an innocent man to serve a prison term for another, and he volunteered to serve the remainder of Colson’s term.

Colson turned him down, but he had experienced “love … for all the saints,” and

Charles Colson was again refreshed in the reality of his faith.

It is a beautiful thing when you see in the Church love for all the saints—

not just for some,

not just for the lovable,

but all.

This is what made the early church so amazing and so enticing to the ancient world.

Barbarian, Scythian, slave and free, male and female, Jew and Greek, learned and ignorant joined hands and sat down at one table.

They knew themselves to be all one in Christ Jesus.

There never had been anything like it.

The Christians were merely living out their love for all the saints.

So tonight we ask the Lord to grow our love for one another.

Hughes, R. K. (1989). Colossians and Philemon: the supremacy of Christ (pp. 17–18). Westchester, IL: Crossway Books.

_____________ worthy (v10)

"so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God,” ()

Lord here is none other than Jesus. This really underlines the degree to which Christian conduct was informed and directed by the way of life of Jesus.

They took His own manner of life and said, walk in a way that is worthy of calling yourself a follower of Christ.

Do you think that might be a wonderful petition to pray for tonight?

For yourself and for everyone in the church?

Appreciate God’s ______________(v6).

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 [understood or comprehended] God’s grace.” ()

Here’s another tactic that Paul uses to counter the false teaching is to highlight the reality of the Colossian Christians’ past experience with the gospel.

Not only has it exerted transforming power among them, but it has been doing so since the day that they heard it and began to understand God’s grace.

Since being saved we are coming to more and more of a realization of this wonderful and sweet grace.

We begin to apprehend more of God’s outreaching generosity, outreaching grace as transforming power.

“truly appreciate God’s grace” in v6 is reinforcing v5 about us hearing about “this hope in the word of truth, the gospel”

Their encounter with the gospel was an opening of their eyes and lives to reality.

The reality as to what actually is God’s purpose for mankind.

What is the purpose for God allowing you to understand and comprehend His grace?

This understanding for God’s purpose for mankind becomes the touchstone for our on going discipleship.

Paul’s summary of this gospel message with the word “grace” reveals just how central this concept is to Paul’s understanding of the gospel.

It’s worth noting what God is doing here to us tonight, as readers of His Word.

He is seeking to ground us spiritually by appealing both to the truth of the gospel and to its life-changing power.

The gospel is authenticated not by its truth only nor by its power in people’s lives only but by both working in tandem.

Pray that God would grow us in that understanding!

Knowing God’s ____________ (v9).

9 "For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,” ()

Knowledge of God will comes through growth in wisdom and spiritual understanding.

By God’s grace, the more

wisdom that God’s gives you and the more

spiritual understanding that God gives to you,

you’re going to know what God’s will is.

These two virtues are essential to the godly leader

(Moses [; ];

Solomon [; , , ]; the

“shoot from the stump of Jesse” []) and

are given to those who fear the Lord (; , , ; ; ; ; )

The combination thus suggests the ability to discern the truth and to make good decisions based on that truth.

Of course, as the Old Testament contexts make clear, this truth comes only from God, a claim that

Paul elaborates in a christological way in 2:3:

in Christ (and in Christ alone) are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

“spiritual” is getting at this same point: the Spirit is the source of the wisdom and understanding that

the Colossians require as they negotiate their way through the maze of first-century worldview options.

MISSION Relationships with the world.

SEND US

Growing & bearing _________ all over the world (v6)6 "that has come to you. It is bearing fruit and growing all over the world...” ()

There’s a celebration of Christ’s global and universal rule (1:15-20)

Paul also has a desire to “present everyone mature in Christ.” (1:28).

The point is that the gospel is exerting its power widely, in many different places, and,

by doing so, attests to its power and substance.

The widespread experience of the gospel is testimony to its truthfulness

over against the claims of the false teachers, who are propagating a local heresy.

We really need to note this.

There is a dynamic, living character attributed to the gospel (see ).

A fruit tree without fruit and growth would no longer be a fruit tree, so a gospel that bore no fruit would cease to be a gospel.

In v6 it simply denotes the success of the gospel in winning more and more to belief and in the hope offered in Christ Jesus.

This word “growing” is such a wonderful word.

God giving growth. "I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.” ()

Knowledge of God. "so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God,” ()

Righteousness "Now the one who provides seed for the sower and bread for food will also provide and multiply your seed and increase the harvest of your righteousness.” ()

Faith "We are not boasting beyond measure about other people’s labors. On the contrary, we have the hope that as your faith increases, our area of ministry will be greatly enlarged,” ()

Or as the gospel it self growing like a plant.

32 "It’s the smallest of all the seeds, but when grown, it’s taller than the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the sky come and nest in its branches.”” ()

8 "Still other seed fell on good ground and it grew up, producing fruit that increased thirty, sixty, and a hundred times.”” ()

Spreading throughout the whole world..."So the word of God spread, the disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly in number, and a large group of priests became obedient to the faith.” () "But the word of God flourished and multiplied.” () "In this way the word of the Lord flourished and prevailed.” ()

So the gospel grows us

into salvation,

knowledge of God,

right living,

trusting more in the Lord and

spreads and flourishes everywhere it goes, to the glory of God.

Wow, consider the success of the gospel, 3-4 decades after the death and resurrection of Jesus,

there were innumerable towns around the Mediterranean small groups met in the name of Christ Jesus, drawn together by the gospel and for the gospel (; ; ).