Thankfulness for fellow believers p1.
Thankfulness for fellow believers (1:1-8)
I. Saints
II. Give Thanks
A. “3 We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,” Colossians 1:3 (NKJV)
This phrase and similar phrases are common in Paul’s letters. It is an interesting concept that gets passed by as we typically read through the salutation or introduction to get to the “good stuff.” However, when we do this we miss out on a great lesson and opportunity to grow more in Christ and help others.
There are two things I want us to look at from this verse this evening: 1) Giving Thanks and 2) Praying for each other.
1) Paul and Timothy are giving thanks for these believers in Colossi. Notice that they are giving thanks to God for them. Paul first and foremost attributes there salvation and growth to God. They are thanking God for who, these believers are in Christ. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 1:4 (NKJV) “4 I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus,” Again we see that familiar concept, but this reveals a little more to us about what and why Paul is doing what he is doing.
Paul is thanking God for the grace that has been poured out and is being manifested in their lives. So many times it is easy to point out the things that are going wrong in people’s lives. I am guilty of this. We can see the opposite of what Paul is doing here in Romans 1:29-30 (NKJV) “29 being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, 30 backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,”
Notice how they talk and how essentially it is equated with pride. When we are talking bad about others we trying to make ourselves look better, we are tearing others down and building ourselves up. Paul and Timothy have the right focus they are thanking God for these people. They are thanking God that God who is working in them will keep on working until they are complete (Phil. 1:6). So one challenge for us tonight, this week and for our lives is to first thank God for people whom He has saved and point out how we see God at work in someone’s life.
2) The other thing that Paul and Timothy are always doing is praying for these believers. God is so good that He shares this prayer with us and when we get to verses 9-14 we will examine Paul’s prayer a little more and see how we pray more specifically for our brothers and sisters in Christ.
B. "since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints; because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel," (Colossians 1:4-5, NKJV)
There are two reasons that Paul and Timothy don’t stop praying for these believers in Colossi: 1) because of their faith in Christ Jesus. 2) The love they have for their fellow saints.
1) Faith in Christ Jesus. This is such a beautiful statement when you examine everything that it means. Our faith in Christ is something that probably each one of us in this room take for granted on a daily basis for our own lives. So how much more do we take it for granted in the lives of those around us? Faith in Christ Jesus unites us in the family of God we are brothers and sister in Christ.
Christ is the uniting factor for those who have placed their faith in Him. You are united in the fact that Jesus Christ 2000 years ago was beaten, bruised, spit on, mocked and crucified on a cross and killed because of your sins and my sins. Because of what you and I are Jesus Christ blood was poured out in our place so that we would not have to suffer the wrath of God. Three days after He was buried he rose again conquering sin and death for us! And now we have the privilege of placing our faith in Christ and what He did. You and I can be brothers and sisters in Christ. When was the last time that you thanked God for your salvation, thought about Christ paying the ultimate price on the cross bearing the full wrath of God that you deserved and then thinking about the person next to you tonight, or someone in this room that you aren’t to fond of and thanked God for saving them from eternal Hell? I want to challenge you this week to tell someone that you are thankful for their faith in Christ and then take a moment to prayer with them and thank God. It could be your parent, sister, friend, grandpa whoever you know has a relationship with Christ!
2) The Colossian church apparently understood to a degree, the importance of love for one another. Remember that Paul is writing this letter from Prison and Epahras came all the way to Rome to talk to Paul about this church. Paul never visited Colossi so the only way he would have known this about them is that it was a characteristic of this church! When we understand the great love God has for each of us and His willingness to take on the likeness of sinful flesh and die a horrific death and pay the penalty for our sin, if He loved us when we were enemies to Him. Thinking about the great love that He had for you should spill over into love that you have for others. "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”" (John 13:34-35, NKJV) True love kills selfish pride. We talked last week about being a disciple of Christ. We talked about denying ourselves, taking up our crosses and following Christ. Christ gave us the greatest picture of love ever.
· That does not mean we are to feel the same emotional attachment toward everyone. True biblical love is so much more than an emotion; it is sacrificial service to others because they have need. We show godly love to someone when we sacrifice ourselves to meet that person’s needs.[1]
It seems that these their faith and their love that Paul and Timothy were thankful for stemmed from Hope! “because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel” you have faith in Christ and love for one another! The hope that they have affected the way they lived. They had their hope in the right place.
What does hope mean? a looking forward to in confident expectation. The idea of Biblical hope or Christian hope is drastically different than hope that the world offers. Let’s think about a couple of things real quick. Hope is generally positive in nature, right?! I am not sure that I have ever heard someone say “I hope I slam my finger in a door!” “Gee Whiz I hope I flunk this test tomorrow!” Typically we say I am afraid that this is going to happen… So hope and fear contrast one another. Ok so we know hope is positive but depending upon what are hope is in will reveal how much confidence we have in hope… “I hope I get an iPod touch for my birthday… hint hint!” Now when I sit down and examine that hope and look at my bank account I don’t have a lot of confidence in that hope. That kind of hope is not going to change the way I live, I am not going to run out and buy headphones for it, and a charger and car adapter and ihome to use it in my office.
For Christians our hope is life changing. Our hope is in God! Our Hope is in His word! Our Hope is Christ! Our lack of hope a lot of times stems from our lack of trust and understanding of who God really is. Turn with me to Numbers 23:19 “God is not a man, that HE should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent, Has He said, and will not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?”
Think with me for a moment about this… If I truly have life changing Biblical hope how should I live differently according to these promises:
· Salvation/ Eternal life: "in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began," (Titus 1:2, NKJV)
· Forgiveness of sins: "“Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool." (Isaiah 1:18, NKJV)
· Knowing God is with us: "Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we may boldly say: “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?”" (Hebrews 13:5-6, NKJV)
There are so many more that we could talk about. Hope in the world and the world system promotes selfishness, pride and vanity. There hope in the gospel caused them to live out there salvation. We will get into this in later weeks Paul reminds them of this later in this letter turn over to (Colossians 3:1-3, NKJV) " If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God." Real hope distinguishes our lives from the world!
III. Fruitfulness
A. "which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth; as you also learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf," (Colossians 1:6-7, NKJV)
Since they day they had heard the truth of the gospel and the grace of God had been poured out in their lives they were bearing fruit. Johnathan Edwards and old school puritan preacher painted this picture about God and His grace and longsuffering.
· "Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead, and to tend downwards with great weight and pressure towards hell; and if God should let you go, you would immediatley sin and swiftly descend and plunge into the bottomless gulf; and your healthy constitution, and your own care and prudence, and best contrivance, and all your righteousness, would have no more influence to uphold you and keep you out of hell, than a spider's web would have to stop a falling rock."
Think about this often the only thing that separates you from Hell is the grace of God. And when you meditate on that you cannot help but out of gratitude serve God and bear fruit for Him. The truth of the Gospel produces Faith, Hope and Love in us as believers. So I challenge you if you know Christ as your personal savior to live like it, by reflecting on God’s grace in your own life and encouraging other Christians instead of tearing them down behind their back.
Tonight if you don’t know absolutely sure that you would go to Heaven if you passed away I want to encourage you to come talk to me about it. Do not leave here tonight without HOPE!
Let’s pray!!!!
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[1]John MacArthur, Colossians (Chicago: Moody Press, 1996, c1992), 16.