Sunday Sermon Colossians 1:3-8 Part 4
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Introduction
Introduction
Good morning and welcome to First Community Church, where we worship God in Spirit and in Truth, one verse at a time.
We are glad that each one of you are here and we hope that you have come with expectation desiring to hear from the Lord.
The fall colors get better by the day, let us praise God for them, AMEN!
Keep in mind that we are now live-streaming, so please beware of where you are sitting and where the camera is.
Prayer
Prayer
Read Colossians 1:3-8
Read Colossians 1:3-8
Review
Review
Last week we learned about what someone who is a saint and a faithful brother or sister in Christ would looks like.
Does anyone remember what saint is?
Saints- hagios- dedicated to God, sacred, holy, worthy of God, morally pure, consecrated, set apart, blameless.
Saints are all of us that have accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior and are souled out for the cause of Jesus Christ and the Gospel
A saint is someone who is set apart for the Lord and His Kingdom
So, scripturally speaking, the saints are the body of Christ, the church, Christ followers.
We learned that the words sanctified and holy come form the same Greek root as the word commonly translated saints!
We are saints by virtue because of our relationship with Jesus Christ.
2. And then we learned about how the Colossians were also faithful followers of Christ.
Does anyone remember what a faithful follower of Jesus Christ is?
Faithful- pi-stos- adj. characterized by steadfast affection or allegiance (to someone or something). Of persons who show themselves faithful in the transaction of business, the execution of commands, or the discharge of official duties.
One who is convinced that Jesus has been raised from the dead and has accepted Him as Lord and Savior but is also:
One who is trust worthy
One who proves to be firm and reliable
3. We learned that the Colossians had a dual citizenship:
They had a physical address in Colossae
They had a spiritual address in Christ, in Heaven.
For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.
4. Then we discussed the typical greeting of Grace and Peace:
Let us remember that grace is the means of salvation church, while peace is the result!
Praise God for he unmerited favor that he gives!
Praise God that his mercies are new every morning and his compassions fail not!
We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, 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,
Let us not forget as we begin to exegete this section of scripture that this is a huge run on sentence.
In the actual Greek texts from the era when Koine Greek was used as a day-to-day language, Greek was usually written with no punctuation.
The words ran together completely, with no spacing or markup.
Accents, breathing marks, spaces, and other punctuation are added at a much later time, making texts easier to read.
Church in everyone of Paul’s letters other than Galatians, Paul gives thanks to God and thanks for the church that he writing to.
And if you think about this, it is wise that a writer would do this, rather than starting off on the negative or with confrontation or even rebuke.
Paul first affirmed the churches, then he would go for the juggler.
There is a lesson here Church!
In our relationships, I think it is important that we give positive affirmation, before dealing with difficult issues in life.
If we start off with the difficult issue at hand, the negative, we can lose our listener.
So I think it is essential to encourage like Paul, before correction or rebuke.
But let us remember, that in life, we will need to have difficult discussions with those we love and care for.
This should always be done in humility, with a gentle and peaceable spirit for the sake of restoration and healing.
Notice also here, that in almost everyone of Paul’s letters he shares that he is praying always for them.
This simply means that as the Spirit quickens Paul, he prays for them.
It does not mean that he is praying for them all day long.
Why is Paul thanking God for the Colossians?
since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints;
Because of there faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, they had love for the saints!
Church, do you see the order of operations here?
Faith in Jesus, produces love for the saints!
If we have put our faith in Jesus church, then a natural by-product of our realtionship with the Lord will be love for the saints.
Does this mean only at our church? Or the whole body of Christ?
He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now. He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
The original language conveys the idea of someone who habitually hates or is marked by a lifestyle of hate. JM
Those who profess to be Christians, yet are consumed by hate, who are characterized by hate, demonstrate by such action they have never been born again. JM
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,
Here we see Paul use the triad of Christian virtues mentioned, Paul weaves them in and out of Epistles:
Faith
Hope
Love
Pop Quiz
Who was the Pastor of the Church of Colossae?
Epaphras
Who did Epaphras hand the baton to when he left Colossae to find Paul in Rome because of the false teaching that started coming in the church?
Archippus
Whose house was the church at Colossae in?
Philemon
What two books is the book of Colossians sandwiched between?
Philippians and 1 Thessalonians
We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, 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, 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;
So we see here that Paul gives 3 reasons for thanksgiving and prayer to the Father because:
They had faith in the Lord Jesus Christ!
Because of there faith in the Lord Jesus Christ Church, they had love for the saints!
And because of there faith and love, they had hope laid up in Heaven
Why are these so important church?
It is because they mark an authentic followers of Jesus Christ.
If we have surrendered our life to Jesus, then these will not only bring us to Christ, but should be growing inside of us church.
Let’s look to see how Paul used these elsewhere:
remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of our God and Father,
And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Why is love the greatest church?
Love is greatest because God is love.
Faith church is trust that rests upon evidence and it leads to action.
Hope is having confidence in the future.
What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Faith- pistis trust (faith) n. — strong confidence in, and reliance upon Jesus; often with the object of trust understood. Assurance, reliability, commitment, and trustworthiness.
Hoped- elpizo- to hope (desire) v. — to expect and wish for something.
To expect what? Tow wish for what?
The hope of eternal life church.
The hope of Jesus soon return to name a few.
Why does Paul start off with this central theme?
That is easy church, the Colossian church had heard the gospel as we have read, in faith they believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and now they have hope and love. The hope they had before failed them.
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
This is the best definition that we have.
They could not see Jesus, but believed upon Him.
They put their faith and hope in Jesus church and everything changed for them!
And by the way, you know when you are being changed by the power of God when others are witnessing it and talking about it.
Its not when we look in the mirror and say, “Boy, I am changing!”
Paul heard of their faith, hope, and love.
Let us pray that these would be manifested in our life, in such a way, others would hear about it!
Our faith church, is only as strong as the object we place it in!
Charles Spurgeon illustrated the importance of faith’s object by telling of two men in a boat. Caught in severe rapids, they were being swept toward a waterfall. Some men on shore tried to save them by throwing them a rope. One man caught hold of it and was pulled to safety on the shore. The other, in the panic of the moment, grabbed hold of a seemingly more substantial log that was floating by. That man was carried downstream, over the rapids, and was never seen again. Faith, represented by the rope linked to the shore, connects us to Jesus Christ and safety. Good works apart from true faith, represented in the story by the log, leads only to ruin.
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, 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;
The word heard here is used twice, actually three times in these first 8 verses
Heard- akouo- to learn ⇔ hear v. — to learn or become aware of something, conceived of as hearing about it. To heed, to pay attention to, to obey church!
We get the word acoustic from this.
They heard the gospel church and it was not an intellectual assent
They heard the gospel
They received the gospel with gladness
They surrendered their lives to Jesus
Now remember, these were pagan Gentiles who were polytheistic in their worship
They worshipped many gods, but none could fill the void church.
They did not just hear the gospel with their ears, but rather their hearts.
HEART
DO YOU SEE SOMETHING IN THIS WORD?
We have an ear in the middle of our hearts.
The question is: “Are we really listening?”
The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Two: Miracles at Colossae (Colossians 1:3–8)
It is possible to hear and not believe, even though the Word of God has the power to generate faith in those who hear (Rom. 10:17). Millions of people have heard the Good News of salvation and yet not believed. But those who believe in Jesus Christ receive from God the gift of eternal life (John 3:14–18).
So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
If faith comes by hearing, and hearing comes by the Word of God, then shouldn’t we want to sit under the Word?
So, could we say more scripture equals more faith and more hearing?
So, we could also say, less scripture equals less faith and less hearing?
Amos says that in end times church, there will be a famine of the Word of God.
Take a look around, its happening!
Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.
They heard the Gospel of Grace church!
What is the gospel?
The best definition comes directly from our Bibles:
Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve.
We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, 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, 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, who also declared to us your love in the Spirit.
Epaphras taught the gospel to the Colossians church
The Colossian church heard the gospel , recieved it by faith because of the grace that was given them by God
When they made this decision to follow Jesus, they moved from the place of not having hope, to having hope in a Person who has promised us a heavenly home.
In closing, I would like to share a few points about the Gospel!
Gospel truth rests in hope church. Hope is one of the components of the great triad of Christian virtues that Paul talks about.
A result of having this hope is that we are willing to sacrifice the present on the altar of the future.
Because of the Gospel and our relationship with Jesus, our hope is not on things we cannot see.
The Gospel truth reaches the world the tex has taught us.
And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.
3. The Gospel produces disciples and fruit
The gospel bears fruit and then spreads like a blackberry bush
The Gospel is good news, not bad news.
Church, when the gospel is heard and recieved by grace through faith it produces fruit in the internal transformation of the individual, and also in the external growth of the church.
Spiritual growth of individuals will lead to new converts being won to Jesus Christ!
Spiritual growth of individuals will lead to new converts being won to Jesus Christ!
Jesus said, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.
Then the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were edified. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied.
Why? Because of the Gospel of Jesus Christ!
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
This verse right here is the thesis statement for the whole book of Romans.
If you carefully follow Paul he is always pointing to Jesus, the Gospel, and Grace.
4. The Gospel is rooted in Grace!
Grace is at the very heart of the Gospel.
For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age,
Church, If we like the Colossians have received this grace, then look what we are called to do.
There will be fruit in our lives church
Fruit in our lives
We learned here in these first 8 verses that the reason why this church existed was because Paul shared the gospel with Epaphras and Philemon.
The church at Colossae started in Philemon’s house and multiplied.
When the everlasting gospel is preached and lived out, it will reproduce church.
Churches die because the gospel is not being taught and caught and be proclaimed and lived out loud by Christ’s followers.
Have you heard the gospel and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ?
Prayer
Prayer
Announcements
Announcements
Are there any announcements?
Benediction
Benediction
Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel,
The Lord Bless you!
Your Mission Starts Now!