Colossians 1:1-14 – Qualified for Fruitfulness

And so we're going to be looking at just uh one passage from the letter of Colossians this morning.

And the theme is that this is our fall kickoff, and so we're going to be kickoff in two parts.

So we'll set the theme of the year this morning, and then next week we'll have our meeting where we talk about the ministry plan and things like that.

But to give you an idea, I think that the theme of our year in terms of serving God together, it's going to be this: that I think this is a time to exercise our spiritual muscles for continued fruitfulness.

That God has brought us to a place where I think we are mostly established, and so we're going.

And yet we want God to do more in and through us.

And so I think we're in a season where we might want to do some work together, to exercise, to build up our spiritual muscles so that we can be ready for what God has in the future.

And so with that in mind, let's give our attention to God's word.

And so Colossians chapter 1, we'll be reading verses 1 through 14.

Colossians 1 · chapter mention

And it can be found on page 1168.

So Colossians chapter 1, beginning in verse 1.

Colossians 1 · chapter mention

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God and Timothy, our brother, to the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Jesus Christ and in the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope that laid up for you in heaven.

Of this you have heard before in the word of truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing, as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant.

He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.

And so from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.

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

This is the word of the Lord.

Let's pray and ask for God's help as we listen.

Heavenly Father, we pray that this prayer that Paul, by your inspiration, has prayed on behalf of the Colossians, would be for us as well.

And so would you help us to hear this prayer and be ministered by it, to join this prayer and to be drawn to dependence on you through it?

And we ask that the goal of this prayer, the aim of the prayer, by your grace, would be true for us.

We ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Well, the main theme of this prayer, Paul's assurance, his confidence, is that by God's power, the gospel is bearing fruit.

And so his confidence is that by God's power, the gospel is bearing fruit, that good work is being done by God.

And so good things, good work is being done by the people.

You know, it's an experience we probably know from our lives that when you put in the time, when you put in the exercise, good things can happen.

And so for the past couple years, I've been putting in the time at F-45 down in South Norwalk, not a sponsor.

Um, but I will have you know, just this past weekend, I had my 500th class.

Hold the applause.

You probably already noticed by how yoked I've been getting.

You know, it's the idea was I wanted to be out with the community, and so I've enjoyed the gym.

And to give you a little plug for F-45, they're all about what they call as functional fitness.

Functional fitness.

And so the idea is that you exercise, you work out to improve and to maintain your health so that you can function well in normal life.

And so rather than going to the gym and standing in front of the mirror and just curling up the biceps all day long, there might be other parts of your body that might be more functional for real life.

And so you do lots of things in the gym that help you keep working and moving well for life.

You're exercising to continue as a functional human.

And the older you get, the more you realize that.

They really are.

You are holding on to the ability to do the things you love with the people you love.

And so, although there's been a variety in the 500 classes I've taken so far, basically the exercises are the same, right?

It's the basics that matter.

And so you work the heart and the lung with cardio, you strengthen the core and the muscles you need to walk and to run and to climb and all that type of stuff.

And so, as we start a new ministry year, I'm going to suggest that I think that this might be our spiritual workout plan as well.

That we might want to exercise for a functional spiritual life.

That we might be in a season where we want to be exercising our spiritual muscles so that we can be ready to respond to the opportunities that God will bring our way.

We want God to work in us and through us.

And if that's our case, if that is our prayer, then perhaps we might be wanting to do some work ourselves in a way to keep ourselves in shape, to get ready for the opportunities we have.

And so for that reason, we're looking at this section of the opening of Colossians, where Paul is so convinced that by God's power, them, the Colossians, but then also us, we can be growing in gospel fruitfulness.

And so, two headings as we go through our passage, we're really going to break it down into two parts, the two paragraphs that are set out for us there.

And so, one, you are the fruit of the gospel.

You are the fruit of the gospel.

And then, secondly, the gospel leads to then you bearing fruit.

And so, first, you are the fruit of the gospel.

His first point is really one of thanksgiving, which is fitting for how Paul writes his section here.

He begins by giving thanks.

He ends, did you notice, by giving thanks, the Colossians giving thanks.

And so hopefully, if nothing else, the sermon will cause us to give thanks, that there's so much to give thanks for.

This morning, as I'm kind of trudging to the grocery store quick to pick up some half and half, the rain is pounding, my shoes are getting soaked.

I walk in and there's my neighbor there.

He knows I'm a pastor, and so he asks me, Are you preaching this morning?

And I said, Yes, maybe a little begrudgingly.

And he said, Oh, good, there's so much to give thanks for.

And isn't that the reality?

That when we meet with God and with his people, they remind us that there is so much to give thanks for.

And so, just a note this morning, we're just gonna be kind of summarizing this section, kind of learning from the themes.

We're not really gonna be getting into the details.

And so, if you if you're a young adult in particular, go on Thursday nights and you're gonna be studying this letter in much more detail than we can this morning.

If you're not a young adult and you have questions about kind of the context or what's going on, things like that, talk to Brian or maybe some others and they can tell you.

We're gonna really just skip over all of that this morning.

But let's look down in verse 3.

After Paul's introduction, he gets to what he feels most strongly about and for the Colossians and what he wants them to share.

He wants them to understand it.

He says, We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you.

That's what you need to know, Colossians, is that we are so thankful to God for you.

And that might be something we say to each other, you know, when we see each other on a Sunday or we're encouraged by good fruit in somebody's life, we're so thankful for you.

But one of the amazing things about this letter is that Paul, as far as we know, has actually never met these Christians.

He never went to Colossae himself.

All he has done is heard about them.

And from what he has heard, what God is doing in their lives is undeniable.

He says that they are the fruit of the gospel.

Look down verse 4.

We've been praying for you since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.

Of this you have heard before in the word of truth the gospel, which has come to you, and indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing.

And so this gospel of good news, it's gone out into the whole world, and the gospel is bearing fruit.

And so, really, two ways in our first point here that Paul sees them, and then by extension us as the fruit of the gospel.

And so they heard the gospel, and that led to faith, hope, and love.

And then they knew the gospel, and that led to faithful and loving mission.

And so, first they heard the gospel, and that led to faith, hope, and love.

You know, sometimes it's helpful to kind of desensationalize the Bible stories we read.

And so, for instance, it's helpful to remember that most of the Bible does not have kind of active, obvious miracles going on.

Those things are rare even in the Bible.

Most of the Bible doesn't have God speaking audibly to people.

Those things are rare.

And these Christians in Colossae, we should remember that they're really just ordinary people, just like you and me.

They never met Paul, and in fact, they had never met Jesus face to face.

I wonder if you feel like this sometimes that you think the early Christians they must have had it so much easier, so much better off because they met Jesus face to face, but that's not actually the reality.

Very few people decided to follow Jesus because they met him face to face.

No, instead, they, like us, met Jesus by hearing.

And Paul says, so they heard the good news of God's grace.

And mostly they just heard it from ordinary Christians who passed along the message.

In this case, they heard it from Epaphras, who we'll talk about in a little bit.

We actually don't know very much about him at all.

We don't know about his training, his qualifications.

We know he has a Greek name, and so he was a Greek probably.

But beyond that, we have no idea.

In fact, Peter Green, he wrote evangelism in the early church, and he makes the point that most of the evangelism early church happened just as ordinary Christians went about their lives day to day.

Most of it happened just as they traveled from place to place.

And so it seems to be in this case.

Somehow the gospel ended up in Colossae, ended up through a paphris he shared with others, and Paul he says he heard about it, and he is overwhelmed with thankfulness to God that he has done it again.

That this method of meeting Jesus is life-changing.

And so he says, you are the clear evidence that God is still doing amazing things.

Why?

Verse 4?

Because you have faith in Christ Jesus.

Because you have love for all these saints.

Why?

Because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.

They had heard about it in the word of truth, the gospel.

You see, they are the fruit of the gospel because they had heard the true message of the gospel.

And that was the way it was for everyone, he says in verse 6.

This has been going on through all throughout the world, that the whole world is hearing the gospel and the gospel itself is bearing fruit.

And so, just a note as we get started here.

You know, as we plan for ministry, hopefully we'll have a sanctified eagerness for God to do more.

But let's not miss the miracle.

Let's not miss the miracle that we are in the same boat as all these Christians since the time of Jesus throughout the whole world, that we have received God's grace by hearing.

It's a reminder that the gospel is an announcement of a historical reality.

And so remember the word itself, it just means life-changing good news.

Most often it was used in the situation where maybe an army would send news of a victory in battle.

And so imagine you're a walled city and your army has gone out to meet the enemy and defend you, and if they have won a victory, they would send a message back, and that would be gospel.

Good news, life-changing good news, actually.

Especially compared to the alternative message you get back.

That you're about to get conquered.

You're about to be sold into slavery, you're about to be killed.

See, it's life-changing good news because the enemy has been defeated.

But remember, what is announced in the good news of the gospel?

The enemy has been defeated, but the enemy is not you.

The enemy does not need to be you.

And so look down at the end of our passage where Paul he kind of summarizes the gospel for us in verse 13 and 14.

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

And so here is the good news.

Someone, something, has been defeated.

It is this domain of the darkness, the domain of the devil, the world ruled by sin and evil and brokenness and death.

So that has been defeated.

But here's the good news some, you have been transferred, been rescued.

And Paul, he highlights these two big words: redemption, returned value.

So you've been restored to value, you are valuable to God, and forgiveness, you have been released of debt.

You've been forgiven.

This is why the gospel, it's eminently practical for everyone who believes it.

That we are right to think that it would be and is good news that God's enemies are defeated.

But the good news God desires is for enemies to be transferred, to be rescued.

This is why the second way that you, we, are fruit of the gospel, is that as you come to know the gospel, then, that leads to faithful and loving mission.

If you look down in our section in verse 3 through 7, we kind of have a sandwich going on that in the middle, verse 6, the fruitful gospel is bearing fruit.

You are the evidence.

The whole world is the evidence.

But look at the beginning, verse 3 through 4, the fruit of the gospel is faith, love in the Colossians.

At the end, verse 7, did you notice what's going on?

Well, you had the faith and the love of Epaphras, the minister.

You see, for the Colossians, their faith and love are the fruit of the gospel, but also the fruit of them being caught up in faithful and loving ministry with Epaphras.

And so the first among them who had first heard and understood, who then shared with them.

And from what we can come to tell, Epaphras, he must have been sent by the Colossian church to go meet Paul.

At some point we find out he was in prison with Paul as well.

You see, this is how the gospel works that you are the fruit of the gospel, as you respond with faith, hope, and love.

But that faithful and loving ministry then gets mission as the fruit.

Why?

Because once you know the good news, you know what God is all about.

And so you, you, we, are the fruit of the gospel.

You existing as a Christian, we existing ahead of church, that is enough to be thankful for.

That is enough for Paul to say, I always give thanks to God for that.

But because of that, we are on mission.

You see, we're not just content for us to know the grace of God.

We want others to know as well.

And you notice how you do the mission?

Well, Papharos, he was the faithful minister.

What is that?

He's trusting God in it.

God, your gospel will bear fruit.

I know it.

I know just as you saved me, I know you want to save other people.

I will be faithful to that message.

Hope.

Optimism.

Optimism for God's great saving power.

You know, there's a continual battle going on in a world all around us, the kind of the cup half full or half empty, the pessimists or the optimists, and I can't give you any clear direction from God in terms of how your career might go, how your family might go exactly, how our nation might go.

All sorts of arguments can be made whether you should be positive or negative.

But here's where the optimism is clear.

That God has done everything required to give his great saving power to all those who would hear and believe.

We have great optimism for the church.

You have great optimism for your Christian life.

Here is the one place where you should be filled with hope.

And how does that then get expressed and experienced?

Well, love.

Love for each other, yes, that's what Paul saw in the Colossians, but then also love for all those who God will save, even those not among us yet.

And I've talked about this in the past, but Paul in 2 Timothy says he is willing to suffer all things for the sake of the elect.

What he's saying is that he's willing to suffer for the sake of those who are not yet Christians but will be.

It's part of the DNA of being a church and especially being a church plant that we make decisions and we we build our life together not just for ourselves, but we do it for all those who God would bring in.

And so we make choices not just based on our preferences and what we like, but we make choices based on how other people could come and joy us, suffering for them, even though they're not here.

So us being on mission is the fruit of the gospel.

It's the work among us for which we should give thanks.

And so I hope each and every ministry years we come again to think what would God do in and through us.

Let's remember what God has done.

You are the fruit of the gospel.

You believing is a miracle.

But God doesn't stop there.

Point two.

The gospel then leads to you bearing fruit.

The gospel leads to you bearing fruit.

See, still the gospel.

Still grace.

And so someone has said that grace is the way in and grace is the way forward.

Grace is the way in, and grace is the way forward.

And so, in a way, although each year we might pray and ask God what our ministry plan should be for the coming year, actually our basic ministry foundation is always the same.

It is always the gospel, it is always knowing and believing and trusting the gospel.

We never grow above that or beyond that.

And so look down with the transition from verses 3 to 8 to then verse 9.

And so, even just by reputation, by this verbal report, Paul is so convinced by the reality of the saving faith among the Colossians that that is his first part of the prayer.

Always thanking God for them.

Always thanking God for them.

And this is part of their reason for assurance.

Paul wants to assure them, and so go to young adults and hear more about why.

But Paul wants to assure them, and one of my pastor friends, he says, this giving thanks is a great reason for assurance.

You don't thank someone for something unless you're very sure.

And so you can imagine the situation where I want to take a nice golf holiday with my boys, and I go up to Rebecca and I say, Thank you so much for letting me golf this weekend.

I better be very confident that she would like to let me golf this weekend.

So it is here for Paul.

He's going before the God of the universe.

Such confidence that God is working in them.

See, it doesn't happen on its own.

Paul is so convinced he always thanks God, and this is what we should do wherever we see faith in the Lord Jesus.

When people hear and understand and learn the gospel, something good is happening.

It doesn't happen on its own.

It's a great sign of a spiritual act of God, a rescue from the ongoing dominion of darkness.

But then starting in verse 9, notice this same assurance, I think, just applied in a different way, Paul continues to pray.

This time not giving thanks for what God has done, but instead praying for what God will do through the gospel.

Verse 9.

And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you.

And so, two ways again for the gospel to bear fruit.

One, the gospel is bearing fruit in you as you grow to walk worthy of the Lord.

Look down verse nine and ten.

And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.

So notice that there is both a passive and an active participant in this growing fruitful.

And so, in a way, we are passive.

And so Paul prays that we may be filled.

The assumption is that God is going to do that by his spirit.

That's what he means by spiritual wisdom.

Okay, it's not just wisdom for kind of what we might think of as spiritual things.

No, no, it's spirit-driven wisdom.

It's understanding our place in the world by the reality and the knowledge of God by his spirit.

And so spiritual wisdom is for work and for family and for enjoyment, and yes, for church as well.

And so we're passive, Paul prays, that we would be filled with this, and yet we're active, that we would walk then, walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work.

You see the point?

That as you grow to know God through the gospel, gaining wisdom and understanding.

And so, wisdom it's the skill in the art of living.

Wisdom is being able to live well.

So as you grow to know God through the gospel.

You will grow, kind of sounds like exercise, right?

And what happens?

Notice the very practical and grounded experience of the fruitful Christian.

We could discuss other parts of the Bible that might talk about these things, but notice that this growth is not the sensational ways we might want or desire.

And so the growth here is not in tongues or miracles or static experiences.

Notice what the growth is: be ready for every good work.

To increase in knowing God.

You are the fruit of the gospel, but also the gospel will be bearing fruit in you.

The worthy things God has prepared will be the things that fit with faith, hope, and love.

And so we want to grow in the gospel, wisdom and understanding, so that then we can walk worthy.

It is about you, but about you being made pleasing and worthy of the Lord.

Perhaps you did some reflection and remembering and remembering this weekend about September 11th.

As I did that, I kind of heard this storyline over and over again.

As you remember, the firefighters and police officers and medics who rushed into danger.

They all went to danger.

They interviewed one of the fire chiefs who survived and made it down, and they asked him, Did anyone turn back?

Did anyone not go in?

And he said no.

And as they interviewed people who made it out and they asked them, What is the reason you went?

The most consistent reason, the answer that came up over and over again is that I'm a firefighter and this is our city.

Extraordinary.

That the reasoning was not primarily about being a good person nor about being courageous, but the reason was about the position.

This is who I am, this is my role, and so this is what I do.

Extraordinary.

So it is in the Christian life that as we grow in our fruitfulness, we identify less as the person we've always been.

It's really not about you.

Less about the person you see inside.

Dangerous work to just look inside.

And more about the person God is making us.

Why?

Because He has transferred us into the kingdom of His Son.

He has made us pleasing to Him, prepared good works in advance, Paul tells us elsewhere.

And so what will we want to do?

I want to walk worthy of that.

So the gospel grows fruit in us as we know him and we gain wisdom to know what to do, so that then we can walk.

Active life.

Secondly, the gospel bears fruit in you as you're able to continue walking with endurance, patience, and joy.

Look down at verse 11.

Paul's praying that you, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy.

Notice here's another very realistic and practical description of the triumphant Christian life.

And what a three-pack of experiences here.

Endurance.

That's what you need.

You need to make it.

Another idea from our exercising analogy.

You need to have the strength to endure.

Patience.

Wait, why would you need patience?

Well, it sounds like there are going to be situations and even people who require patience from you.

You know, it's true that it's easy to love lovable people.

It's rewarding to serve those who will value our service or serve us in return.

In fact, that is kind of the common grace reality that God has maintained in the world.

That actually there are good reasons to be good.

There's only one reason to be godly.

And so, what about these situations when patience is required?

Where the person isn't so lovable, where the service is not so rewarding.

And remember your fruitfulness, it's all by grace of the gospel again.

And so notice how it's happening again.

It's an active and a passive.

And so the active, you are enduring with patience.

You are enduring.

That is the fruit of God in your life.

What is the passive?

Well, you are being strengthened.

And notice you've got to look at this.

Look down, you are being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might.

You are being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might.

It's as if, we're going to be a little theologically dangerous here.

It's as if God is channeling all his power through you.

And so maybe the best analogy is remember that scene from Aladdin with the genie?

Phenomenal cosmic power.

Ittty bitty living space.

In a way, that's what Paul is saying here.

That God does and has demonstrated phenomenal cosmic power, creation, salvation.

Think of what he did at the Exodus, resurrection, defeating, death.

And now he's working all of that through and in you, through and in us.

And you know, he needs to do it.

He needs to do it.

You know, what a miraculous thing for a Christian or for a church to endure with patience and joy.

You know, part of the benefits of us sharing our testimonies together, and we're going to do that more in the coming years, part of our ministry plan, is that we get to hear the variety of God's work in and among us.

And, you know, sometimes it's wonderful to hear, all the time, all the time it's wonderful to hear the miracle of new life, someone becoming a Christian.

But you know what just as miraculous is the person who stays a Christian, who endures with patience and with joy.

Whether the hard times of health and things like that, or even the repentant times of on my own, I would have gone away.

See, that's why the third combo gets in there.

That the experience of growing and even being more than conquerors in the midst of suffering and trouble, that experience is joy.

Once again, if you use the kind of exercise analogy, it's the runner's high that I have never known.

But some of you might.

Some of you might know that if you run enough at some point, something happens.

So it is with exercise.

That if as you get stronger, even though it's hard, you know good things are happening.

As you're able to perform, you're grateful to God for how he's made you and what you can do.

And so as they start to come to an end here, you know, we are planning and expecting big things for our church and for you.

Fruitfulness.

You know, God is going to gather together a great multitude of evidence of the fruitfulness of the gospel.

That's what he's going to do.

He has planned for a great revival, a great welcoming in of nations and peoples and languages through his son.

He is going to do that.

And you are already fruit of that.

And do we think he's done?

And if not, let's plan and prepare as if he has more to do.

You know, God is also going to work all his power and might so that you and I can be worthy to walk with him in endurance and faith.

And so we are working to plan a church and to grow individual Christians that endure.

You know, both of those things are in mind, and it might seem boring, but it is an effort that is worth all of God's cosmic power.

And so it will require love and patient endurance with each other.

That we will imagine and believe that God's work in and through us to grow us to be worthy of his name will take time, and yet he can do it.

We will believe and work as a church that we are not just doing this for us, but for all those God who will call.

And so one of the great stories of my church planning uh coach is he's you know 30 years down the road in ministry.

And I was talking about, you know, the insecurity of a church plan, and you know, sometimes you just feel like we're surviving.

He's you don't want to survive.

You want to last.

And so I was like, right, we want to plan 10, 15 years.

He says, 15 years, 50 years.

That's what we want God to do.

We want God to establish a church that will last not just for us, but even for generations to come.

We're gonna end with this note.

It's the note of being qualified.

You know, one of the friends I've met at the gym, he's making a career change right now, so he's becoming a CRNA, which is a certified, registered nurse, a nephysist.

Okay.

What's interesting is that he's already a nurse.

And so he already did the school, he already did the practicum, he already passed the boards, and now he's going back to school to do additional practicals to get additional certification.

And really, as he told me about it, this was one of the things that he said that really struck me.

He says, I hope it's all worthwhile.

I hope it's all worthwhile.

And isn't that often our experience?

Making big life decisions and commitments, doing our best, but ultimately, I hope it works out.

I hope it works out.

Well, the good news of the gospel is that there is one change you can make, one career path that you can join, that is 100% guaranteed.

Joining Jesus in his church.

Look down.

Verse 12.

Giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints and light.

If you are a Christian, you are qualified.

As we join together in even a small and unimpressive church, we have God's glorious power and might working in and through us.

We are qualified for the task.

It's not a given how it might go.

It's not a given how your life might go, but what is a given is that at the end of the day, all those who put their faith in the Lord Jesus, gather together as his church, will be ushered into a new kingdom of light and life with him.

So remember what we pray in the Lord's Prayer.

Your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.

And so our prayer together is that if God has qualified us to make that prayer, would He qualify us to do the work?

I think that'll be our prayer together for this new ministry year.

Let's start today.

Join me as we pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your glorious might that you've displayed at creation.

We thank you for the way that you have been patient to endure with joy creation since Adam and the fall, and now you have begun to make all things new through the Lord Jesus.

Well, we thank you for the powerful work of the gospel that it came to each of us individually in a way that we could hear and then believe, and we thank you for the glorious power of your might that it has changed our lives step by step.

And so we ask that you would continue, you would do abundantly more than we could ask or imagine.

In and through us, through the power of Jesus' name, we ask.

Amen.