Colossians - Introduction

Colossians  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  33:17
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Background:
Supremacy and Sufficiency of Christ
Colossians 1:1–2 NIV
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To God’s holy people in Colossae, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ: Grace and peace to you from God our Father.
Paul - apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God
Colossians -
God’s Holy People
Faithful
Grace & Peace to you.
He opens with how he prays and thanks God for them.
His prayer is centered on the True Gospel and its effects on them.
Today’s message is titled, “What are we known for?”
e.g. people who don’t know you ask someone, what are they like?
e.g. funerals
How do you want to be remembered? What are you known for now?
As we read, remember that Paul had never been to Colossae. He only knew two people there: Epaphras and Philemon, and when writing this letter, Epaphras was visiting with Paul in Rome.
So he was writing to people who were personally unknown to him. Yet, he had heard about them. They were known to him and others not from that area.
Why?
What were they known for?
Think of that while we read the passage, and then we will dig into it a little deeper.
Colossians 1:3–8 NIV
We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people— the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace. You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.
Colossians 1:3 NIV
We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,
Thank God Because God is the One who draws and saves
Prays to God, not to angels/powers/authorities
Jesus taught us to pray to the Father, and in John 14, and John 16 taught his disciples that they were to ask the Father, who would give them what they ask.
Father of the Lord Jesus Christ - truth to refute the error of gnosticism
Colossians 1:4 NIV
because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people—

Faith in Christ Jesus

What is faith? You just gotta believe!?!
Object of faith is what is important.
Misplaced faith
‘en’ with locative - Faith anchored in Christ
Colossians 1:4 NIV
because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people—

Love for God’s People

John 13:35 NIV
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
John 15:12–13 NIV
My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
1 John 3:16–18 NIV
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.
1 John 4:8 NIV
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
1 John 4:19–21 NIV
We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.
Colossians 1:5 NIV
the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel

Hope

stored up in heaven for you
1 Peter 1:3–4 NIV
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you,
1 John 3:19–23 NIV
This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.

Faith, Hope & Love

Romans 5.2-5
Romans 5:2–5 NIV
through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
1 Corinthians 13:13 NIV
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
1 Thessalonians 1:3 NIV
We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Thessalonians 5:8 NIV
But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.
Colossians 1:5 NIV
the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel

you have already heard in the true gospel

Colossians 1:6 NIV
that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace.

Bearing Fruit

John 15:4–13 NIV
Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
John 15:16–17 NIV
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.
Galatians 5:22–23 NIV
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Growing

Ephesians 4:15–16 NIV
Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
2 Thessalonians 1:3 NIV
We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing.
How does growth happen...
1 Peter 2:1–3 NIV
Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.
2 Peter 3:18 NIV
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.
2 Corinthians 3:18 NIV
And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
Opposite of growing in Him...
Hebrews 12:15 NIV
See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.
John 15:6 NIV
If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.

Heard & Understood

Romans 10:17 NIV
Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.
Colossians 1:7–8 NIV
You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.

Application

Primary: The True Gospel of Jesus Christ bears the fruit of faith, love and hope

no need to attain
no need for intermediaries

Secondary: What are you known for?

Colossians 1:4 NIV
because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people—
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