Ferocious Faith and Unfading Hope

Brad strelau

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Colossians 1:3–14 NLT

3 We always pray for you, and we give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 4 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. 6 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. 7 You learned about the Good News from Epaphras, our beloved co-worker. He is Christ’s faithful servant, and he is helping us on your behalf. 8 He has told us about the love for others that the Holy Spirit has given you. 9 So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. 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. 11 We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy, 12 always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light. 13 For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, 14 who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.

Prayer---

Vincent Donovan was a missionary in Tanzania bible translator working to translate the bible into the language of the Maasai in Africa.

tells of a conversation with a Masai elder about how the word for “faith” was to be translated into his language. The elder explained that the word chosen was unsatisfactory because it meant “to agree to.”

It was a very western idea of faith. And that faith was more less like a white hunter and more like an African lion.

He said that it was similar to a white hunter shooting an animal with his gun from a great distance. Only his eyes and his fingers took part in the act. We should find another word. He said...

For a man really to believe is like a lion going after its prey. (pic) His nose and eyes and ears pick up the prey. His legs give him the speed to catch it. All the power of his body is involved in the terrible death leap and single blow to the neck with the front paw, the blow that actually kills. And as the animal goes down the lion envelops it in his front legs, pulls it to himself, and makes it part of himself. This is the way the lion kills. This is what faith is.

Wow! Quite colourful!

An all engulfing taking on of the faith. getting it in our sites, chasing it, working at it, and then fully consuming it and allowing it to satisfy our hunger and be what actually sustains us!!

This kind of faith can only come from the hope that is in us the hope of Glory. All the blessings caught up in the person of Christ, which are ours because we are his.

All based on hope!

I. Our Hope is the FOUNDATION of Great Faith and Great Love(vv3-5)

Which means that if you find your hope lacking or drifting , you will find your faith and your love strained.

Faith is not mustered up, love is not mustered up.

In the picture given us by the gospel, our faith and love are natural outcroppings of our hope in Christ.

Martin Luther King Jr. dream was a divine dream bases on hope of a future where there would be equality! And it was based on something bigger than what he could accomplish.

Mother Teresa’s humility was a divine humility based on the hope of a coming justice that she hoped in and for, whether she saw it come to fruition or not.

William Wilberforce’s fight to end slavery was a divine calling based on hope and a desire to see the eternal reality become an earthly one.

Our dreams are far too small if they are based on what we will accomplish, and how we will be recognized. They are much grander if we let our dreams play out in the hope of Christ, and the coming of and full realization of our hope in him.

Our faith will be stronger, but so will our love for each other. Because the love of the Gospel is a covenantal love that calls us to eternal union, because as James writes we cannot say we love God and then curse those made in his image!!

James 3:9 ESV

9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.

We cannot claim to be one with Christ, and in union with him, and then refuse to love those who also find themselves united with him.

We will be known as his disciples, his followers because of our love for one another, because love is the very action that bought us and that continues to sustain us.

That hope does not come from trying really hard, or from feeling it, it comes from hope.

The truly hopeless cannot truly love.

Love free flows out of hope.

The reason you and I are here is testimony to the fact our hope unites us. There are people here who in any other circumstance you would not be in the same room.

We are diverse by age, ethnicity, economically, and we find our union in our hope, caught up in Christ, not where else do we find that kind of community.

We are a room full of Oscar and Felix- two opposites, different ways of living their lives. We are an entire community bound together in spite of our differences in make up.

II. Our Hope has a SOURCE (vv. 5b-6)

We just walked out of Christmas a time where joy and love and hope are lifted up as ideals, with many missing the point that each of these have a source, and if we chase them without a source we find ourselves trying to get our hands on a rainbow!!

II. This Hope has a source (vv. 5b-6)

Paul says this..

Col. 1

Colossians 1:5–6 NLT

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. 6 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.

III.

the source of hope is the gospel

(vv.13-14)

Colossians 1:13–14 NLT

13 For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, 14 who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.

Paul calls this “the truth”

Truth brings hope!

A lack of truth brings hopelessness!

It is not a coincidence that in an age that claims there is no absolute truth, we are the most hopeless we’ve ever felt.

right side of history (Herod the Great and all his accomplishments)

important to remind them of this truth, because here they are in this small town,

The city of Colossae was not as large as its neighbours.

Laodicia and Hieropolis. You can still find their ruins today that boast obviously prosperous cities at one time. If you look for Colossae today you will find a mound. So no church can find its hope solely in its own strength but in the strength and hope of the gospel!

The local church needs to see itself as a part of the larger work of God or it will lose faith and love.

Paul wanted to make it clear that the fruit of the gospel does not come from what is pulled off locally but on the work of the Gospel all over the world.

AND that this hope is not about a feeling or about wishful thinking it is based on a historical fact; the ongoing work of God with his creation and the fullest manifestation of God in Christ (who is the image of the invisible God” (His life, death, and resurrection).

And history has shown us that to reject Christ is to be on the wrong side of History. And Scripture would say that to continue to not align with Christ is to be on the wrong side of the future.

How do we find hope in what seem like hopeless times?

What has been your default?

When prospects at work have seemed hopeless and like they will not change, are you able to hold to faith and live in love?

It is hope in the gospel that will give you the ability to do this!

See “truth of the gospel” which is being safely kept in heaven for us, is the safeguard against hopelessness, leading to faithlessness and lovelessness.

Truth

The Gospel is Truth!

how dare you Paul!!

The audacity of a truth claim!!

We don’t do that anymore!

American sociologist Robert Wuthnow explains out current state this way...

Spirituality is no longer true or good because it meets absolute standards of truth or goodness, but because it helps me get along. I am the judge of its worth. If it helps me find a vacant parking place, I know I am on the right track. If it leads me into the wilderness calling me to face dangers I would rather not deal with at all, then it is a form of spirituality I am unlikely to choose.

Paul says truth is set in stone.

Jesus makes it clear that truth has a source… praying for his disciples and the future church, you an I…he says..

John 17:17 ESV

17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

Eternal and unmoved. By its nature that is what truth means.. “reserved” saved for you and I. Untouchable.

Wade Clark Roof...

...people do not approach truth objectively but want to know what it can do for them and how it can do it more efficiently. A consumerist mentality allows each person to choose his or her particular brand of truth just as he or she might choose a certain make of automobile or toothpaste, according to preferences and perceived needs. Each person then acts in accord with the chosen standards.

We must remember that Paul’s context was no less pluralistic and relativistic than ours. The problems we face in our culture are similar to the problems faced by the Christian Colossians. multiple gods, ideologies, social pressures to submit to. The popular cultural values ran counter to their faith commitments; and, in addition, outsiders subjected their faith to demeaning criticism.

The only way to safeguard ourselves is to ave a faith that is unwilling to settle for an acquaintance with the Gospel. A loose association with Jesus does not give us hope.

When Paul speaks of faith it is the difference between saying I agree and saying I am all in and I bet my life on it!!

Great Blondin Niagara Falls -

1859 tightrope walker had crowd oohing and awing as he walked across the falls on a tightrope. on stilts, blindfolded, once he stopped halfway across and cooked an omlette!

One day while impressing everyone, Blondin came walking across from America to the Canadian side pushing a wheelbarrow. Everyone was cheering. He said to the crowd in gladiator like moment “Are you not entertained?”

“Who believes that I can push a person in the wheelbarrow across to the American side?”

“We all believe you can do that? You are the great Blondin!! Of course you can!!!”

“Really? You believe in me?”

Of course we believe!!!!”

“OK? Who wants to get in the wheelbarrow?”

Silence

Now some used the excuse for their lack of faith in the fact that he would be taking them to America, but..”

Faith is not a simple belief or agreement. It is a full-hearted throwing of oneself at Jesus

As the Masai explained faith is....

He said that it was similar to a white hunter shooting an animal with his gun from a great distance. Only his eyes and his fingers took part in the act. We should find another word. He said...

“pulls it to himself, and makes it part of himself. This is the way the lion kills. This is the way a man believes. This is what faith is.”

For a man really to believe is like a lion going after its prey. His nose and eyes and ears pick up the prey. His legs give him the speed to catch it. All the power of his body is involved in the terrible death leap and single blow to the neck with the front paw, the blow that actually kills. And as the animal goes down the lion envelops it in his arms (Africans refer to the front legs of an animal as its arms), pulls it to himself, and makes it part of himself. This is the way the lion kills. This is the way a man believes. This is what faith is.

Our hope has a source and our hope increases, and our faith and love increases as we make that hope our own. By being familiar with it, taking it in and allowing it to animate our lives.

III. Our Hope is ALIVE (v. 6)

The gospel cannot be contained

Colossians 1:7 ESV

7 just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf

And the gospel is not limited.

right side of history (Herod the Great and all his accomplishments)

important to remind them of this truth, because here they are in this small town,

The city of Colossi was not as large as its neighbours. Although it was once (its name tells us it once thought very highly of itself, Colossi coming from the same name as Colossus or Colosseum - meaning large and awe-inspiring

Laodocia and Hieropolis. You can still find their ruins today that boast obviously prosperous cities at one time. If you look for Colossi today you will find a mound. So no church can find its hope solely in its own strength but in the strength and hope of the gospel!

The local church needs to see itself as a part of the larger work of God or it will lose faith and love.

Paul wanted to make it clear that the fruit of the gospel does not come from what is pulled off locally but on the work of the Gospel all over the world.

Our faith and love are, and must be, fuelled by hope in the Gospel.

KUDZU

This is ....kudzu

a short plant that was introduced to the Southern States from Asia in the late 19th century as a ground cover.

Introduced from Asia in the late 19th century as a garden novelty, but not widely planted until the 1930s, kudzu is now America’s most infamous weed. Read more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/true-story-kudzu-vine-ate-south-180956325/#xjxvQcXf5KDTUivX.99 Give the gift of Smithsonian magazine for only $12! http://bit.ly/1cGUiGv Follow us: @SmithsonianMag on Twitter

It is now known as the vine that ate the south.

Pic#2

Pic#3 (swallowing a small village in China)

Pic#4 many were happy that Kudzu finally put a stop to Barney the Purple Dinosaur.

Kudzu on its own seems small and insignificant.

But over time it takes over, spreading its scent (like grapes), feeding the animals, and, as they found out in the south....it is unstoppable!!!

A slow unstoppable fruitfulness.

Paul is making it clear to Colossi, that this hope is fruitful. Colossi you may feel like your church is small and significant, and at times even as I am in prison, I might wonder if it is worth the trouble, is this going somewhere, remember that our hope built on Jesus, and what he has begun and promised he will do.

Colossi God is being faithful not only to you but to the known world.

And it is all leading to an inheritance.

What has been your default?

When prospects at work have seemed hopeless and like they will not change, are you able to hold to faith and live in love?

It is hope in the gospel that will give you the ability to do this!

See “truth of the gospel” which is being safely kept in heaven for us, is the safeguard against hopelessness, leading to faithlessness and lovelessness.

important to remind them of this truth, because here they are in this small town, wondering what the future might hold for them in light of the Roman Empire, the ongoing persecution of the Church at the time.

The second section of the thanksgiving consists of Paul’s intercession for the Colossians (1:9–14).

- increase in “bearing fruit” and “growing” (1:10; cf. 1:6) and in “the knowledge of [God’s] will” (1:9; cf. 1:10, “of God”; see 1:6, of “God’s grace”).

Here Paul gives thanks for three developments in their spiritual life:

(1) He is thankful for their faithful acceptance of the gospel, which has spilled over into their love for others.19

-This love is a force within that seeks release by giving itself to others, not a vacuum that selfishly craves to be filled by what others can give to us.

(2) The second feature for which Paul gives thanks is the universal impact of the gospel as it sprouts up everywhere on earth, including Colosse.

ground-cover? small but taking over. And helping stop erosion

"the vine that ate the South."

IV. Our Hope is Unfading (vv.11-14)

Colossians 1:11–14 NLT

11 We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy, 12 always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light. 13 For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, 14 who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.

Colossians 1:13–14 ESV

13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

and we are reminded that this inheritance is held, kept, protected, reserved for us in heaven (v.5)

Not like a car reservation that can be messed up. A reservation, and inheritance NOT MADE IN YOUR NAME!!

Some of you have maybe been invited somewhere and simple told to mention someones name to get in or to get a discount!

This is part of what it means to be united with Christ, to have our faith in Christ. Paul is saying you have a future inheritance, based on your union with Christ.

It’s like the scene in Waynes World where they have received VP passes to go backstage and they are waking where no one is worthy to go without the pass. And as they walkthrough the back hallways of the colossium, with great pride, and confidence they show their passes to everyone. Pointing out we have every with to be here.

Their right to be there has nothing to do with them. It is the permission and the authority of their pass.

The inheritance that awaits you and I, being help safely for us in heaven is sure. Our eternal life, our relationship with Christ is all set, and what is important to note as we hold up our pass is that our name is not on it!!! Jesus name is on it!!

And history has shown us that to reject Christ is to be on the wrong side of History. And Scripture would say that to continue to not align with Christ is to be on the wrong side of the future.

words like endurance, patience, inheritance…they all point forward.

PAUSE

And history has shown us that to reject Christ is to be on the wrong side of History. And Scripture would say that to continue to not align with Christ is to be on the wrong side of the future.

That the history of the world, space and time has no choice but to go in the direction that God has ordained and proclaimed at the cross of Christ.

Many kingdoms have come and gone. Many making great boast in Jesus day, people like Herod and Caesar making great claims and building amazing buildings and structure so that the world will know about them.

learning poetry and short stories....

what he called himself

Ozymandias

a well-known poem (1818) by Percey B. Shelley. It describes a broken statue of a legendary king of ancient times, lying forgotten in the desert, with these words carved on its base:

“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”

Shelley was writing of the statue of Ramses II of Egypt. A statue that looks now looks like this......

When one looks around to take in the mighty works of Ramses (and any other kind from the time…this is what they see. ruins and sand.

“Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

Shelley paints a beautiful picture of the kingdoms of the world.

To Colossae Paul is saying, you may belong to a small town, in a small congregation. But you hope in something that surpasses all that.

If you belong to Christ you are on the right side of history.

Doesn’t matter how small or insignificant you may feel.

How persecuted you may feel.

Persecution has been there since the beginning of the church, and we are still going strong.

Oh man, to travel to this gathering in Colossae 2000 years ago and say listen guys I know that it seems like this is just some small movement, but you need to know it has some staying power!!

One day it is going to be impossible to look at a map of the world and not notice the influence of Christ!

You can’t look at a map – San Francisco, San Jose, Sacramento – without being reminded of Jesus.

Jesus influence continues despite those who oppose him and those who attempt to follow him.

Where before the church was there a movement to include everyone regardless of race, gender, etc.?

A.D. = Anno domini = the year of our Lord

In the ancient world, it was common for children who were weak, malformed or the wrong gender to be killed.

But that began to change when Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me.”

He and his followers taught everyone – men and women, slave and free.

92% of colleges started in the U.S. before the Civil War were started by the church.

Mechanical Clocks, eye glasses and campaign were all invented by monks.

In the ancient world nobody associated love with Bail or Zeus.

esus shaped politics, leaders are held to a higher authority.In the ancient world nobody associated love with Bail or Zeus. Jesus brought a new way of thinking about God and love.The discoverer of the role of forgiveness in the realm of human affairs was Jesus of Nazareth.Martin Luther’s dream was not a secular dream it was a divine dream.The reason we must marvel at [Jesus] is because his work is not done!

Jesus brought a new way of thinking about God and love.

The discoverer of the role of forgiveness in the realm of human affairs was Jesus of Nazareth.

Martin Luther’s Dream, Mother Teressa humility, William Wilberforce’s compassion, these were not secular movements they were expressions of love that come from a faith based on a hope that the world cannot destroy, which “is reserved for you in heaven”

The boasts of ancient kings and emperors are in the dust!!

As one writer states...

Today we give our children names like Peter, Paul and Mary and we give our dogs names like Cesar and Nero.

If you belong to Christ you are on the right side of history.

Paul gives thanks that the church is growing and is sustained by something more than itself. (faith and love based on hope).

And that this hope is a sustaining hope, a hope that has formed the outlook of Paul, the church in Colossi and all those who find themselves united to Christ.

Amnd it conintues to be the hope that transforms lives, families, churches, communities and civilizations.

The kind that fuels a ferocious faith that chases and embraces and devours, and internalizes the gospel, so that our hope is within us, and animates us, to good works, and living faith, and active love.

The gospel can only bear fruit successfully when people faithfully proclaim it and when others respond with understanding and obedience.

The Gospel is Truth!

how dare you Paul!!

The audacity of a truth claim!!

We don’t do that anymore!

ground-cover? small but taking over. And helping stop erosion

"the vine that ate the South."

______________________________________________________

Paul says truth is set in stone. Eternal and unmoved. “reserved” saved for you and I. Untouchable.

We must remember that Paul’s context was no less pluralistic and relativistic than ours. The problems we face in our culture are similar to the problems faced by the Colossians. The popular cultural values ran counter to their faith commitments; and, in addition, outsiders subjected their faith to demeaning criticism.

Faith is not a simple belief or agreement. It is a full-hearted throwing of oneself at Jesus

J. Donovan tells of a conversation with a Masai elder about how the word for “faith” was to be translated into his language. The elder contended that the word chosen was unsatisfactory because it meant “to agree to.”

He said that it was similar to a white hunter shooting an animal with his gun from a great distance. Only his eyes and his fingers took part in the act. We should find another word. He said...

He said

______________________________________________________

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