The Glory of Christ (pt 1): Heavenly Hope

Now can we turn together in our Bibles to Paul's letter to the Colossians.

And we're going to spend the next few weeks working through Colossians 1.

Thinking about some of the wonderful images that we find to help us to see the glory of Jesus there.

So this evening we're going to read and concentrate on the first eight verses.

Especially from verse 3, Paul's Thanksgiving section.

So Colossians 1 from the beginning.

From God our Father.

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.

Amen.

So this evening we're going to concentrate on verse 5 and the wonderful picture of hope that we have there.

Jesus Christ, our heavenly hope.

I guess it's been apparent to us that the notion of hope is something that's important.

Not just personally but on the world stage.

Colossians 1 and this good news of hope is something that connects with our hearts and our longings.

And we've just been, I'm sure, all sort of catching up with what's been happening at COP26.

And people have been sort of swinging between a sense that there is a hope, though it is fragile.

But perhaps others feeling that there is a sense of hopelessness.

People experiencing a new sense of eco-anxiety.

People being questioned on the streets of Glasgow.

And no doubt you could replicate it elsewhere.

What world are our kids going to enjoy?

What world is going to be left behind for our grandkids?

There's that wanting of hope but sense of growing hopelessness.

We see it too in the world stage.

It's the other thing that's been capturing the news.

The migrant crises.

You know, we are used to seeing those desperate attempts to cross the water to find a better life in southern Europe.

But now we're seeing people trying to get through Belarus into Poland and beyond.

We're seeing it in South America.

And we understand that there are those who will risk everything and pay everything for even just the slight chance of the hope of a better future for them and for their children.

But of course, it's not just something in the headlines.

It's something deep in our hearts.

We all have hopes and dreams, no doubt, for the present and for the future.

Those dreams often serve to motivate and energize.

But sometimes when hopes are dashed, we can find despair growing.

Hope is important.

And Christianity then presents us with good news.

When Barack Obama wrote his biography, he wrote of the audacity of hope.

And that big dream of better race relations.

Well, the gospel of Jesus Christ gives us a far more audacious hope.

A mind-blowingly epic hope of glory.

It's central to the gospel and crucial to our hope, as we'll see today, is the coming of Jesus and his personal work.

And the eternal hope that is wrapped up in what he came to do.

And so perhaps as we think about this theme of hope, and we find ourselves at the school gates or in a coffee shop, or we're talking to colleagues,

and perhaps this is a talking point for us.

Hope streams longings for the future.

Perhaps opportunities for us to weave the hope of our Creator and Redeemer into those conversations.

But let's take a look with Paul to see how hope fits into the gospel message.

So let's read again verse 5, or verse 4 as well.

Because we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, 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.

It's by way of background.

Paul is writing to this church in Colossae, and it becomes clear in his thanksgiving, verse 7 and 8,

they've heard the message of the gospel of grace through Epaphras, and they have believed.

And so Paul wants to encourage them to keep on in their faith in the Lord Jesus.

But he's also very aware, and if you read the letter, and please do read the letter,

you find lurking in the shadows there are false teachers.

That seem to be suggesting perhaps that all we have is now,

and so Paul will deliberately draw attention to future hope.

But certainly these false teachers saying, yes, you need Jesus,

but you also need this special knowledge that we and only we can provide.

Yes, you need Jesus, but have you heard of these other ceremonies that you need?

And so what Paul does to answer that is to focus on Jesus as supreme, unique, and all we need for salvation.

And so that kind of underpins the letter.

The section that we have just read is Paul's thanksgiving.

You notice in verse 3, he's thankful to the Father for the church and for God's work in the lives of his people,

and especially the reality that they have believed the gospel, the true message.

And then central to this thanksgiving section is verse 5, and it's this hope that Paul speaks of.

This hope which is a heavenly hope.

It's stored up for them in heaven.

It's a hope found in the true message of the gospel.

So you put those three things together.

There's the hope, there's the hope stored up in heaven.

It's hope found in the gospel.

We realize that for Paul, their hope is rooted in the Lord Jesus himself.

Jesus is the hope of the church.

So what does Paul say about the gospel?

How does the gospel connect to hope?

Well, first of all, and I suppose fundamentally,

to remember that when Paul uses the word gospel, that word gospel means good news.

And that word was borrowed from language of the day.

So if you were in the Roman Empire at the time of Paul's writing,

you might hear a message of gospel good news.

If the Caesar had won a great victory in battle,

if the Roman Empire had conquered another land,

or you might hear gospel being announced because a son had been born to the emperor.

Gospel in the Roman Empire, in other words, was centered on Caesar.

And so what the Christians do is really radical and significant

because they make good news, not all about Caesar, but all about Jesus.

Good news because Jesus is Lord.

There is good news because King Jesus has been born.

He has come.

There is good news because of the victory of Jesus at the cross and the resurrection.

So to say the gospel is good news.

It is challenging the culture of the day to consider who really is Lord.

And the point is that from the beginning, the church understands where does hope lie?

Hope lies in Jesus, who he is.

It's the Son of God.

What he's come to do, bring salvation.

So gospel is good news.

Gospel is also truth.

Verse 5, they have heard the true message of the gospel.

It's important for us to recognize that the gospel is a body of teaching.

The gospel is revelation from God.

In other words, it's not human speculation,

not something created by Paul and the disciples and the apostles.

It's not morality or ethics.

The gospel is not, here's some steps for how to live.

It's about God's salvation.

And it's revealed by God himself in this word, the gospel.

For Paul, our author here, gospel and truth can be interchangeable.

You can see that in the book of Romans, for example.

You go to Romans chapter 2, verse 8.

Romans 2:8

There are people who are being challenged because they are rejecting God's truth.

But then in chapter 10 and verse 16, people are being challenged because they're rejecting God's good news.

Truth and good news.

Truth and gospel interchangeable.

And I think this matters when it comes to talking about our faith with others.

Because it's rooted in truth, this isn't, here's my feelings about God versus your feelings about God.

Our hope and confidence isn't built on our warm feelings.

It's built on a body of truth.

God has engaged our mind.

God has sent revelation.

And so we can have confidence because we have objective truth, not just something subjective.

But then it's important to recognize, as Paul tells us in verse 6, the gospel is also about God's grace.

See there at the end of verse 6, having said the gospel is bearing fruit and growing,

just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God's grace.

To understand the gospel is to have a firm grip on this reality.

That we are not saved by our own merit.

We are saved by God's grace.

We are saved because of God's commitment to us in Jesus Christ.

We are saved because God has freely chosen to make a free and merciful offer to us,

to forgive us and give us eternal life in Christ Jesus.

So the gospel is about God's grace.

So good news and hope then come together for Paul because the gospel is rooted in the work of God.

Here's the basis for confidence, not in ourselves, but in what God has done through Jesus.

It's the Father's eternal plan that leads to the sending of Jesus.

Our hope is in Jesus, the Son's willing obedience and in the work of the Spirit in opening our eyes

and doing that work of conversion in our hearts.

Paul speaks of the power of the gospel a little later on.

If you have your Bibles, look at verse 21 to 23.

As he comes to look at the power of the gospel and the importance of hope within that,

he talks about them being alienated from God and previously being enemies,

but now reconciled by Christ's physical body through death.

Through faith in Jesus, we will be presented wholly in his sight.

But then look at verse 23.

If you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel.

So we need to hold on to this hope, this certainty presented to us in the gospel.

The gospel is confident expectation, not wish fulfillment.

It's rooted in Christ, that greater things are still to come.

That what God has begun to do, he will complete.

And that explains why, when we come back to verse 5,

there is a future focus to the hope that Paul speaks about.

So let's think about that, Jesus and future hope.

But perhaps, before we get there, boys and girls, we can switch our brains on.

So have a little think how many famous trios you can think of, or things that come in threes.

I was having a little think earlier.

I could think of the three musketeers, the three little pigs, the oldie locks and the three bears.

But I bet you have more.

You can think about that.

Well, for Paul, there is a trio that keeps coming again and again.

We heard it in 1 Thessalonians, as we began.

And we find it here, too.

It's the trio of faith and hope and love.

Perhaps when we hear those, we think of 1 Corinthians 13.

We think of a wedding service, perhaps.

Now, these three remain, faith, hope and love.

And the greatest of these is love.

It seems like for Paul, this trio represents the basic description of the true Christian.

A true Christian is someone who has faith and hope in God's work in Christ Jesus,

and who has love for God and love for the church.

This trio, faith, hope and love, serve as evidence,

pointed to the reality of God's work in a person's heart.

So let's have a little think about these as they are presented here.

Faith, love and hope, because the order is changed.

And we'll see why.

So what is faith, first of all?

Well, we need to recognize that faith itself is a grace from God.

It's a gift.

We need to understand that to see, to hear, to believe Jesus is good news,

to believe that we have a need of salvation,

that we have a sin problem that only Jesus can fix,

that's not natural to us.

That's a supernatural work.

It's a gift of faith.

Paul makes clear that faith, verse 4, is in Christ Jesus.

As a family, we've been trying to learn the New City Catechism.

A very helpful device.

It comes in song, which is even more helpful.

And one of the questions is, what is faith?

And what is faith in Jesus Christ?

I have to say it in the way that the song goes.

And it's receiving and resting on him alone for salvation,

as he is offered to us in the gospel.

It's receiving the gift of Jesus Christ,

and resting and trusting in that gift,

as we hear it in the true message of the gospel.

That's faith.

It's rooted in the Lord Jesus for salvation.

But we can say more than that, too.

Faith is about life under the lordship of King Jesus.

United to Jesus by faith,

we now live under his rule in glad obedience.

Our citizenship has changed.

We're in a new kingdom,

no longer the kingdom of darkness,

and we're in the kingdom of light.

And just as in any kingdom,

the ruler sets rules to live by,

the Bible then becomes our rule of faith

for how to live under the lordship of King Jesus.

So faith is both in Jesus and under his rule.

Now, what about love?

What does Paul say about love here?

How do we see this love in action?

Look at verse 4.

Paul is thankful because we've heard of your faith in Christ Jesus

and of the love you have for all God's people.

So this love has a particular direction.

Now that a person belongs to Jesus,

brought into the family of God,

there is a new love for our brothers and sisters in Christ.

One of the things the gospel does

is it creates this new community,

this new family,

which is utterly unique.

Paul points to its uniqueness in chapter 3,

verse 11,

when he says,

here there is no Gentile or Jew,

circumcised or uncircumcised,

barbarian, Scythian,

slave or free,

but Christ is all and is in all.

So every barrier that would normally be there in a society or a culture,

every dividing line of race,

of language,

of ethnicity and culture

are broken down in the gospel

or should be broken down in the gospel

because we're all one in Jesus Christ.

But what Paul is saying here,

the evidence of our love for God

is love for his people,

love for his church.

John,

the apostle,

wrote something along the same lines

in his first letter,

chapter 4.

He said to them effectively,

we can't say we love the God

who is invisible

if we don't love our brothers and sisters

who are right there in front of us.

We can't claim to love the God.

We can't see if we don't love

those in God's family that we do see.

So Paul says to love Jesus

is to love his church

and he's thankful that that's in evidence

in their lives,

in that active way,

a costly way,

serving,

encouraging,

sacrificing,

helping one another.

But I think what's interesting from Paul

is that while we're used to

probably hearing faith and hope and love,

here we have faith and love and hope.

Now, what is hope

and why does that come

as the third of the trio?

Look with me at verse 5.

We find the reason why.

He says that our faith and our love

spring from the hope

stored up for you in heaven

and about which you have already heard

in the true message of the gospel.

So hope is the foundation

of the other two,

or to use another image,

hope is the root

and faith and love

are the fruit that grows.

And here we discover that this hope

that encourages our faith

and encourages our love

is future-focused.

It is stored up for us.

We are still awaiting

the full realization of it

and there's that sense of expectation

that comes with hope.

I can't speak for every child here,

but any given day,

if I ask our children

how many days till Christmas,

they'll know in a heartbeat.

Expectation.

Hope.

The day's coming.

Hope is future-focused so often

and so it is

in the gospel.

And that's something really powerful.

Alexander the Pope

had the proverb that said,

hope springs eternal

in the human breast.

But as we look around our world

just now

and as we see that people

kind of despair about the future,

we see a loss of hope

among so many.

The statistics on addictions

bears that out.

The rise of anxieties

bears that out.

The sense of hollowness

that people are beginning to feel

bears that out.

And it's a reminder to us

as the church

that we for ourselves,

we need to hold on to gospel hope

to recognize

all we have is not now,

so much is still to come.

And it gives us good news

to present to a world

that is desperately in need

of a hope that is solid

and eternal.

When Paul speaks of future hope

in other letters,

he points in different directions.

So in 1 Thessalonians 5,

he emphasizes the reality

of future salvation.

Jesus has begun

the work of salvation.

He has begun building his kingdom,

but that work is not completed

until the day he returns.

And his people are with him

forever in the new heavens

and the new earth.

That's salvation complete.

And that's still waiting

in the future.

1 Corinthians 15.

Hope for the future there

is of bodily resurrection.

That as Christians,

we believe that the moment

a believer dies,

their soul goes to glory,

to be with the Lord.

But it awaits the return of Jesus

and resurrection,

perfect resurrected bodies.

Titus chapter 2.

Titus 2 · chapter mention

There the anticipation

for the future

is of the glory of Jesus

being fully revealed.

Now we see through a mirror

just dimly.

But there's going to be a day

when we see perfectly.

There's going to be a day

when we see Jesus

face to face.

When we know

and are known fully.

And that's a wonderful hope.

But all the time,

when Paul is writing

about present hope,

or he's writing

about future hope,

he's talking to us

about Jesus.

Jesus and Jesus alone

is our hope.

I wonder as we read

verse 5

and we heard

the hope stored up

for you in heaven,

I wonder if it made

any of us think

of Jesus teaching

where he said,

don't store up

for yourself treasures

on earth

where moth and rust

destroy and thieves

break in and steal,

but store up

for yourselves

treasure in heaven

for where your treasure is

there your heart

will be also.

You get that sense

that Paul is echoing that.

And for Paul,

what's the treasure

in heaven?

The treasure in heaven

is Jesus.

Nothing less than

Jesus, our Lord

and Savior.

And so Paul is thankful

that this future hope

is motivating their faith

and their love.

How does heavenly hope help?

Help us today,

help us tomorrow.

Dick Lucas,

who was a Bible teacher

down in London,

he said that it leads

to a proper balance

between experience

and expectancy.

So that sense of

having faith in Jesus now,

getting to know Jesus now,

is preparation for eternity

with him.

So there's experience now,

but there's expectancy

that grows

as we come to see

how good he is.

Loving our fellow Christians now,

committing to one another

in a local church,

provides for us

an imperfect,

and it is an imperfect mirror

of life in the new heavens

and the new earth.

We'll be with our brothers

and sisters for all eternity.

See?

And remember that good news,

that heaven,

to use Jonathan Edwards'

wonderful phrase,

heaven is a world of love.

One of the challenges

I guess we have

as brothers and sisters

in Christ

is our own sin

and the sin of others,

so we can find

that we let one another down,

we speak and act

in ways that are unhelpful

and unkind,

but then

that will be a thing

of the past.

Then there'll be nobody

we are in a rush

to avoid

or to pass by,

then we will be so glad

to share fellowship

with one another

and with our Lord Jesus.

And so what we experience now

creates that sense

of expectation

for the future.

On Friday,

we were round at Friends

having a meal together,

and the high point

of the meal

was the dessert.

It was a gingerbread trifle

with a blackberry sauce,

some creme anglaise,

some double creams

and blackberries

on the top.

Right?

It was as good as it said.

Getting the taste

of the sauce

before the main course

was even on the table,

what did that do

as we were getting things ready?

It created a sense

of anticipation

of this wonderful flavor,

this wonderful dessert

that was still to come.

And what the Bible

is wanting us

to understand

that all that we know

of the goodness of God,

the love of God,

the mercy

and the kindness of God,

the wonder of the Lord Jesus

is just a taste.

It's just a drop

in the ocean

of what is coming to us

for all eternity.

And so we need

that sense of future hope

to give us that help.

Probably when life

gets difficult,

when life is full

of struggles

to remember

and to hold on.

That's not all

that we discover

about hope

from Paul here.

We also see

Jesus brings

global hope.

This is in verse 6.

He talks about

the true message

of the gospel

that's 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.

Now this is

something that we really

need to focus on

as Christians

and something that

runs

counter to

culture.

it's the question

what is the greatest

hope

that anyone

could be offered

today?

What is the one

thing

that regardless

of the age of a person,

the culture of a person,

the place of the globe

where they find themselves

with the greatest hope

that they could be offered?

Biblically,

the answer we give

is that

the great hope

is that someone

can wake up

a sinner

far from God

dead in

their sins

heading for

a lost

eternity

but they can go

to bed

a child of God

they can go

to bed

with eternal hope

knowing sins

are forgiven

made alive

in Christ

through hearing

and believing

the gospel.

That's the greatest

hope

as a church

that's all we've got

in that sense

but it's all we need.

And that hope

we can offer

not because of

our

wonderful

personalities

that will draw

people

to faith in Jesus

because we have it

not because of

our ability

to argue

or convince

someone into the kingdom

the hope

rests in the gospel

and the gospel

being powerful.

The gospel

is a message

and it's a message

that's living

and powerful

or to use

Paul's phrase

it's a gospel

that bears fruit

and grows

bearing fruit

and growing

throughout the world.

Again I think

here we have

from Paul

another echo

of Jesus

the parable

of the sower

and the seeds

and the seed

that fell

on the good soil

and that seed

grew

and produced

a crop

that seed

the good news

of Jesus

that good news

of salvation

by grace

alone

produces a crop

when the church

expands

when mission

happens

when people

submit to Jesus

as Lord

and Paul

gives thanks

because he sees

that this

future hope

of eternity

with Jesus

that's so central

to the gospel

is being believed

not just in Colossae

but all around

the world

and it's this

same hope

that should drive us

in mission

too

when we really

believe

that the gospel

is powerful

that the gospel

is the greatest

need for men

and women

and boys

and girls

today

we begin

to understand

just how much

mission matters

I think it's

as we understood

to apply this

to our local

context

I think it's

as we

grasp this

that we will

really support

our mission

partners

both prayerfully

and financially

as we think

about becoming

a mother church

to Gala Shields

I think it's

as we

understand

that it's

the gospel

that people

in Gala Shields

need

that we'll

commit to

Craig and Amy

and the team

that will be

formed there

I think as we

believe in the

power of the gospel

it's what will

cause us to

pray for

local mission

for international

mission

it will cause us

to give

and it will

lead some

of us

to go

perhaps just

to go to

the other

side of the

office

to begin

a conversation

to establish

a relationship

with the hope

of sharing

Jesus

but perhaps

it will lead

us to go

to the other

side of the

world

to give our

lives

for the

mission

of Jesus

to see

his kingdom

come and his

will being

done

in our life

and in the

lives of

others

as we

understand

that people

need

the hope

of the

gospel

the world

needs

the hope

of the

gospel

for now

and eternity

so as Paul

begins his

letter to

the Colossians

he begins

by reminding

them and by

reminding us

of how important

hope is

Jesus

and Jesus

as our

great hope

perhaps

you saw

in the news

this week

the church

in Glasgow

they put up

a sign

outside

its church

building

that basically

said I think

it was that

the world's

greatest need

is for

churches to

preach Christ

crucified

not claim

it change

perhaps provocative

perhaps we

might question

the wisdom

and say

well perhaps

we could have

shown solidarity

with the

emphasis on

stewardship

and such

things

but we need

to understand

that the

point

holds

what the

world needs

far more

than

any

significant

climate change

is to hear

the good news

of the Lord

Jesus

and to

believe

if the

world is

at one

minute to

midnight

as Boris

Johnson

borrowed that

phrase

we need

to

recognize

the eternal

urgency

of people

hearing the

gospel message

for the

world to

hear

the truth

of eternal

hope

that's found

in the

Lord Jesus

that's why

the world

still needs

the church

because the

church has

the gospel

it's why

our friends

and our

neighbors

they need

our faith

and our

love

and our

hope

that it

might point

them

to Jesus

to move

a little bit

forward

to Colossians

Colossians 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2

and verse

13

here is our

hope

here is the

hope of the

gospel

when you were

dead

in your sins

and in the

uncircumcision

of your

flesh

God

made you

alive

with Christ

he forgave

us all

our sins

having

cancelled

the charge

of our

legal

indebtedness

which stood

against us

and condemned

us

he has

taken it

away

nailing it

to the

cross

dead in

our sins

that God

made us

alive with

Christ

by forgiving

our sins

that's

that's our

great hope

it's our

great need

and it's

the great

need

of our

world

let's pray

in that

light

our

father

in heaven

we are

so

thankful

and humbled

this evening

as we

consider

the hope

that is

held out

to us

in the

gospel

that hope

that you

have sent

your

son

the Lord

Jesus

to become

one of us

to die

in our

place

the

just

for the

unjust

to bring

us to

God

we thank

you

that by

faith

in Jesus

we can

know

that our

sins

are forgiven

that we

are no

longer

alienated

from you

no longer

strangers

or enemies

but brought

into your

family

given the

hope

of

eternity

Lord we

thank you

that you

have given

to us

in Jesus

a hope

that is

solid

and secure

that is

stored up

for us

in heaven

thank you

for the

promise

that Jesus

who is

in heaven

now

as Lord

of the

church

caring for

the church

praying for

the church

that same

Jesus

will return

and he

will make

all things

new

and he

will

take his

people

to live

with him

forever

in the new

heavens

and the new

earth

and perfect

resurrected

bodies

where sin

and death

are no

more

Lord

to a

world

that is

looking

and longing

for hope

as we

understand

how crucial

hope

is

to life

and to

motivation

and to

perseverance

and may

you give

us both

wisdom

and boldness

and love

and urgency

to share

the good

news of

the Lord

Jesus

with

others

we pray

that we

would be

a people

of faith

and of

love

that would

spring

from that

great hope

and all

to your

praise

and glory

and in

the name

of your

son Jesus

we pray

amen

now we'll

close our

time

this evening

singing the

hymn

Isaac

what's

hymn

when I

survey

the wondrous

cross

and let's

stand

to sing

together

we

roll

ío

together