Grateful for the Gospel Colossians 1: 3 - 8

To Colossians chapter one, verses three through eight. Colossians chapter one, verses three through eight. 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 learn from Apophris, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, who also declared to us your love in the spirit. This is the word of the Lord. Let us pray.

Father, we thank you so much that we can gather today on Sunday, the Lord's Day, and also it happens to be the Independence Day, and God, just as we celebrate this country's freedom, but more importantly, we celebrate the freedom in Christ that we have from sin, and Father, we pray that the words that I speak would be clear and faithful, and God, I pray that your word would not return void but be effective in all of our lives to bear fruit.

In Jesus' name, amen. In our culture, when we think about prayer, we think of a protocol for an emergency. My daughter is sick, could you pray for her? I might lose my job, could you pray for me? After all, it is easier to fall before God's throne when there is urgency.

Now, those prayers are not wrong. We should go to God when there is emergency, and please continue to do that. However, here, Paul shows a type of prayer that we may not be familiar with. Thanksgiving, praying when things are going well, praying when there is success.

God, I thank you that my neighbor heard the gospel. God, I thank you that you're growing my son's faith. God, I thank you that you have increased my knowledge of you, and here, after Paul's introduction to the Colossians, he starts with this specific type of prayer, thanksgiving.

And the question for us this morning is, why do we give thanks to God? Which leads to my main point. We must give thanks to God because the gospel bears fruit abundantly in the world. We must give thanks to God because the gospel bears fruit abundantly in the world.

The world, of course, includes the local church. First, let us look at the first sub-point. We give thanks to God for the spiritual growth in the church. We give thanks to God for the spiritual growth in the church.

Paul starts out the body of his letter with a prayer of thanksgiving. We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Notice that he is not thanking the Colossian church,.

But God.

And the next phrase, praying always for you, tells us the manner in which Paul is praying, giving thanks to God. Now, this does not mean that Paul is constantly praying that he has no time to eat, he has no time to do his own ministry there.

However, this also does not mean Paul is merely saying a sentence on behalf of the Colossian church whenever he remembers to. The Colossian church is not just an item on the checklist that he needs to check off every morning.

No, he is setting aside a specific amount of time to pray for the well-being of the church that he has never visited, and he is praising God for his work through and in the church. This is astonishing because it is hard for us to pray for the church that we are part of, people we know, daily, and let alone a church we have never visited or never will attend.

To Paul, the gospel ministry in a foreign church, another church, is just as important as the gospel ministry that he is physically participating in. He is placing God's agenda for the world over his personal agenda.

And there is a lesson for prayer in this introductory portion of the body. For whom do we pray? First, we are used to praying for ourselves and those we love, and there is nothing wrong with that. However, we are limiting our prayer experience when we do not pray for the global church.

There are brothers and sisters in North Korea who are struggling to get a hold of one copy of the Bible, which we have stacks of, who are struggling to meet but meet because there's death threats whenever they meet.

There are pastors who have been arrested in Canada even, and they're justice, they cannot find justice in the court. We must pray for the gospel to spread despite the persecution and for God to care for their families.

After all, these brothers and sisters constantly pray for us. Whenever I meet brothers and sisters from persecuted regions of the world, such as China or even Uzbekistan, do you know what they tell me?

They say, brother, our church prays for the American churches because we know if American churches fall, that would be a huge loss for Christianity. They care about our spiritual well-being, even though they don't know us personally.

They won't meet us in person. And perhaps it is about time we as a church in America start praying for our brothers and sisters in these regions, even if we may not meet them physically in our lifetime.

But we'll meet them in heaven. After all, Paul models a beautiful prayer for us here. For specifically our church, we have a rich network of missionaries we could be praying for. On Tuesday, Victor showed me a list of missionaries on our church website that this church has been supporting for many years.

And this is a huge blessing for such a small church to have this kind of support system. And I hope we continue to do this. And now, if you go on the church website, fbcsacramento .org, and hover over to the middle tab called Ministries, and you'll find this section called Missions.

And when you click on that, you will find a long list of missionaries. And there's a brief sentence about where they are, what they're working on. And we can pray for their gospel ministry to thrive. We can thank God for their ministry.

We can thank God for sending our brothers and sisters there and pray that he may grow their faith in Christ and love for one another, just as Paul is doing. And you can choose a different one from the list each day of the week.

And you would be surprised how many different churches around the world you ended up praying for. After all, Paul teaches us that their mission for their gospel, even if we never see them, is just as important as ours.

Next, what is Paul thankful for? Verse four says, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints, Paul is aware of the spiritual growth in the Colossian church. Faith in Christ and love for all the saints.

Moreover, Paul is not thanking the church, but thanking God. Paul acknowledges that the spiritual growth of the church is possible only through God. In his Thanksgiving prayer, there is an element of praise, celebrating what God has done in the Colossian church.

Here, Paul is specifically thankful for their faith in Christ and love for one another. The first of the pair shows us the vertical relationship, which there is a development in their faith in Christ Jesus, which operates from their trust in who Christ is and what he has done for them on the cross.

But this is more than just an inward decision. Faith doesn't just stay inward and silent, but their faith in Christ is outwardly operating. The Colossian church is living day to day, faithfully under the rule of Christ.

They are living as though they serve Christ as king, not Caesar. They're living in allegiance to Christ the king, not the world. And Paul has heard of it. The second content of Thanksgiving is the horizontal relationship, the relationship among the saints.

The saints are those who are saved, those who place their trust in Christ. And this is characterized by love for one another, your love for all the saints. Notice the adjective here, all. Paul is not thankful for the church, it's church's love for a few of the saints.

No, Paul is not thankful for the church's love for some of the saints who are fun to be around. No, he is thankful for the church's love for all the saints. Love for all the saints is a special type of love that you cannot see in this world.

In fact, it is impossible for non-Christians to love as the church does. The world loves its own. The world loves when you have similarities. The world loves you when you agree with it. But the moment you go against the world, it will hate you, it will disown you, it will cancel you.

I need to not give any examples here because it's a daily reality on the news, on the internet. One day they love a celebrity, they tweet something wrong, gone. The Bible, however, has a specific type of love among the brothers and sisters in Christ.

The love among the saints is qualitatively different. First, the foundation is different. The love in the church is founded on our relationship to Christ. Christians love one another because they are in Christ.

You don't need any common hobbies or shared interests. You love one another because Christ died for you and him. You love one another because she is your blood-bought sister in Christ. And you love your Christian brother and sister because they reflect Christ as they're being sanctified.

Second, the goal is different. While the worldly love is self-focused, the Christian love is purely other-focused. In the world, the moment you stop serving the interests of the other person, you could be cut off from the community.

However, the Christian love desires God's best for others. The primary goal is not about pleasing the other person, but making sure the other saints grow closer to God. This means Christian love includes unpleasant conversations in order to pursue God's best for the other person.

How else would we practice correction and rebuke in love? Hence, Christian love is both God-centered and other-centered. According to Paul, the Colossian church was manifesting such love, and it was reported to him.

It was their spiritual growth which led Paul to burst out in thanksgiving in the beginning of his letter. Next, how does God grow the church? Which leads to my second point. The hope of the gospel grows the church.

The hope of the gospel grows the church. The reason for the faith in Christ and love for all the saints is found in verse five. 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.

What is this hope? Hope shows up twice after this, and both occurrences are found in chapter one. Verse 23 and verse 27. Verse 23 talks about how we need to continue in faith and not move from the hope of the gospel.

Verse 23, if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.

Here, the hope of the gospel has an anticipation for the future. It is something we remain in, hold steadfast in. The gospel holds the tension of here and not yet. We're saved now, we're justified now, but we longingly wait for the second coming of Jesus Christ when he will make all things right and eliminate sin completely from the world.

Verse 27 makes it clear what this hope is, rather, who this hope is. Verse 27, to them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Our hope is in a person of Jesus Christ, what he has accomplished on the cross. He conquered sin and death once and for all. He is reigning king who will vanquish his enemies and deliver his people. Although today Christ reigns sovereignly, though with opposition, when he comes, there will not be any opposition.

He will do away with them. It is precisely this hope that allows the church to grow in faith and love for one another. Christians have one common ground and that is Christ. Christians have the same expectation for the future, the second coming of Christ.

Here, in a subtle manner, Paul fights against the Colossian heresy. This hope is laid up for the church in heaven, securely guarded and guaranteed. Where did they attain this hope? Not from following rituals.

Not from chasing after hidden treasures of knowledge. No, they heard it before. Of which you heard before the word of the truth of the gospel which has come to you. They heard it from the message of the gospel.

Paul equates the word of the truth as the gospel, which is important because we do not believe in some false fairy tale hope for good vibes. We don't believe in the gospel because it sounds nice. We don't believe in the gospel because it makes us better people.

We first and foremost believe that Christ died for our sins and he is risen because it is true. It's the word of the truth. Paul is saying the gospel, the word of the truth is enough to give us hope for the future, to endure and to produce good fruits.

The hope that the gospel provides is the source of faith and love. Now let's unpack this hope. First we must consider our state before the gospel. Before the gospel we were all hopeless. Ever since the rebellion of humankind, Adam and Eve, we were all enslaved to sin in our own way, our minds, souls, bodies gravitated towards sin like a piece of metal to a magnet.

No matter how hard we tried, we had no choice but to sin. That was our nature. Have you ever been gripped by how evil your thoughts are that if people were to hear them, you wouldn't be loved anymore?

Or do you lie awake at night because of hurtful things you have said and the helpful things you didn't say, wishing you could have another chance to do it all over again? If we were honest, we can't even stand our own sinfulness.

It's so much pressure. We are ashamed to be fully known by fellow imperfect human beings. How much more frightful would it be to stand before an omniscient and holy God? The unseen eye who misses nothing.

Because God is supremely holy and good, even the smallest and most hidden sin is a capital prime. We would all be facing the wrath of God at full force. We were all destined for hell. That was our hopeless state.

We had no reason to have any hope in ourselves. However, here's the hope laid out for us in heaven that cannot be touched by sin or death. Because God loves us so much, he took on the punishment for us by sending his son, Jesus, to live the sinless life that we failed to live and to die the sinner's death that we deserve to die.

Jesus paid for our sin fully on the cross. He took our place for us on the cross and faced God's wrath for every ounce of our sin. And on the third day, he resurrected and is reigning from the right hand of the Father.

Now, if you place your faith in Jesus, not only are all your sins forgiven, but you are freed from the chain of sin and death. They have no hold on you. You inherit a new nature. You're more than just a blank slate, but you are endowed with the righteousness of Christ.

When God sees you, he sees Christ's righteousness, the beauty of Christ, the perfection of Christ. He's perfect in every way, and no longer is there a guilty verdict over you. You're transferred from the kingdom of sin and darkness into the kingdom of light, where you are children of God.

That is the gospel that this church heard, which gave them hope when they believed and produced love for each other. It's the hope of our salvation that gives you hope despite your circumstances. Hard jobs, loneliness, sickness, and death, this hope still remains, and it's secure, laid out for you in heaven.

This hope is unchangeable and untouchable, laid out for you in heaven, and we longingly wait for the full realization of the good news when the king returns. The hymn, My Hope is Built on Nothing Less, illustrates this beautifully.

Of the current hope and the future anticipation of the full realization of the gospel. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name.

On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. And then the verse four tells us the future realization. When he shall come with trumpet sound, oh may I then in him be found, dressed in his righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne.

Now the question is, what is the impact of the gospel? Which leads to my third point. The same fruit bearing gospel that came to the church bears fruit in the world. The same fruit bearing gospel that came to the church bears fruit in the world.

Now Paul emphasizes that the gospel that came to the Colossian church is in fact the same gospel that is bearing fruit in the world. He says, 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.

Contextually, the false teachers were telling them that the gospel was not sufficient. However, Paul is reminding the church that the gospel that came to them is the same gospel that is bearing fruit in the world.

The Colossian church was not hoodwinked. The Colossian church did not pick the shorter end of the stick. While other churches got the full knowledge of Christ. No, it is the same gospel that is bearing fruit in them which they learned when they learned the grace of God in truth.

This is astounding because the gospel in the first century was spreading like a wildfire. And we're used to that in California. It was bearing fruit. Gentiles, as in non-Jewish people, placed their faith in Christ.

The gospel started from Jerusalem. Different people groups started hearing about the one true God. And note the major cities that Paul wrote to in which the gospel was bearing fruit. Rome, Corinth, Ephesus, Thessalonica, Philippi, Galatia.

For the first time in human history, the only true God was being worshiped widely by Gentiles. Sure, in the OT, there were some Gentiles who were added to Israel like Ruth and Rahab. But they were the exceptions, not the norm.

Here, the gospel's expansive spread allowed for people of different tongues and tribes to worship the one true creator. Paul assures the church that the same powerful message is working in them, too. There is no need to look elsewhere.

What is the content of this powerful message? The content of the gospel is the grace of God in truth. The gospel is unique because God's grace is at its core. We're not saved because we're holy. We're not saved because we earned it through our good works.

We're saved purely by God's grace alone. God graciously sent his son to die for us on the cross so that by believing in him, we may have eternal life. This precious gift of salvation is freely given to us and it is in truth.

Paul highlighted the truth earlier. Again, by using the same term, he characterizes the gospel. He is indirectly saying anything against this message of the gospel that you've heard would be fake, a lie.

Now, contrast this to the Colossian heresy, which says you must submit yourselves to dietary restrictions because the gospel wasn't enough. You must earn hidden knowledge and wisdom. You must observe Jewish festivals and Sabbaths.

Where is grace in that? If the gospel is the grace of God in truth, then these doctrines proclaimed by the false teachers must be lies. After promoting the true teaching, Paul goes on a step further and validates the true teacher.

Look at verse seven. As you also learn from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf. We do not know much about Epaphras, but one thing we do know is that Paul trusted him because he was teaching and preaching the correct gospel.

This is a rubber seal of approval from an apostle of Jesus Christ, that the gospel that Epaphras shared was valid. Thus, Paul characterizes him as a faithful minister on your behalf, a dependable minister for the church of Colossae.

Epaphras isn't serving himself. He is not drawing attention to himself, but placing the church first. He is serving the church. Just like Paul is a fellow servant of Christ. This means pastors and teachers are under the lordship of Jesus as servants.

Pastors are not little masters, but servants. Be wary of pastors and teachers who elevate themselves as masters of the house. Beware of pastors and teachers who boast of their ministry accomplishments, ministry networking, the amount of knowledge they have.

Avoid such people who draw attention to themselves rather than Christ, our only master. There is one action that Paul tells us that Epaphras has done for him. Verse eight, who also declared to us your love in the spirit.

Epaphras is the reason why Paul has any idea of what is going on in Colossae. After all, Paul's imprisoned. He's the only one who related to Paul how the church has been spiritually growing in faith and love for one another.

Here, Paul uses in the spirit to depict the love in the church. What does in the spirit mean? The spirit is God the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. This Thanksgiving section fittingly incorporates every member of the Trinity.

We give thanks to God the Father who provides our faith in Christ Jesus and our love in the church is in the spirit. This shows that church life is only possible through the divine work of the triune God.

God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Hence, the love we have for one another is a supernatural act done by none other than God himself. The love that exists in the church cannot be fabricated by the world.

The love that exists in the church cannot be forced upon by one another. We can't just talk about it. No, the love that we have for one another, seeking God's best for one another, is provided by God himself.

Now, this does not mean we passively do nothing, but it means the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, which every believer has, allows us to participate in this loving community that cannot be found outside the church.

And Lauren and I have been very grateful even for the short time we've been here, how hospitable you all are, how welcoming. You've welcomed us into your houses. You've called us, texted us with all the information we need to know.

And I've also been interacting with some of you and I've been learning a lot about what many people have done for one another, fixing refrigerators, you know? It's hard. It takes time. But that's the love.

There's evidence for it. Now, one personal example that I have of the love in the Spirit is from my older church, former church, before we got here. And it happened when we just started attending it. That's why it is so significant in our lives, because we just got to meet these people.

And my former church is called New Hope Community Church in Illinois. So it was a small church, kind of like this. But it was so devoted to the gospel and holding on to the truth. And we just started attending this church maybe a month prior.

But I told the pastor there, Pastor James, about how there are some liberal and woke ideologies in my seminary. And even though he barely knew me, he helped me organize a discussion to speak out against the false doctrine, and specifically it was called white guilt, this belief that white people are guilty of sin of slavery because of the color of their skin.

Very heretical. Now, despite his busy schedule, he even showed up to the meeting with the dean of students, who fiercely opposed this. On the night of the discussion, over half in attendance were from the church that I barely knew.

Yet they showed up in support and prayer to stand for the truth of the gospel. I had to ask their names again, because I just met them. They took the risk of being called racists and bigots in support of a brother in Christ whom they've just met a few weeks ago.

They cared more about the gospel and their new brother in Christ that they showed up to a school that they did not attend, and it was on a weekday, and they risked their reputation. Most of them came, more of them came, actually, than the friends I have met in seminary, and those friends I have known for a couple of years, and that's the supernatural love in the spirit I've experienced in the church.

The world cannot replicate that. It is the church, and it is the Holy Spirit who allows such a love to be fruit-bearing, and because the gospel bears fruit abundantly, both here and the world, we need to thank God, our Father.

Let us pray. Father, we thank you for all the good things that are happening in the church. We thank you for solid elders. We thank you for excited people who are serving through music, who are serving through means that we do not even know, serving each other, feeding other people's cats, helping out when someone's in the hospital, visiting them, all these things we do not know, but you know, and we thank you for that fellowship.

We thank you for that love that we have for one another, and I only ask that we would grow in that, that we would grow, and that the world would take notice, and maybe they might hear the gospel, and God, I pray that your spirit would work in this church to produce more fruit.

Nothing is too hard for you, and we trust you fully, in Jesus' name, amen.