Kaleo San Diego Church

INTRODUCTION

Why is forgiveness of any value to you?

Why would you want to have eternal life?

Why should any of us sitting here this morning want to live forever?

These questions are critical and need to be answered because it may be that we can want forgiveness, we may want eternal life so that we can live forever for reasons that prove we don’t have either of them.

If you want forgiveness from our sin because you’re gripped with feelings of guilt, what you want is relief.If you believe that God forgives you so that so you will have some relief, you may have some psychological lifting of a burden you’re carrying but not necessarily salvation.

If you only want forgiveness of the emotional good it gives you, you won’t have God’s forgiveness, you’ll have your own forgiveness.God doesn’t give forgiveness to those who use it only to get His gifts and not Himself.The goal of the gospel is not relief from guilt.

You may want to be healed from a sickness or get a job or find a spouse.You hear preachers telling you that God can help you get these things, but first your sins need to be forgiven.Someone tells you that Christ died for your sins so that you can be forgiven, and if you believe this, your sins will disappear.So you believe it in order to remove the obstacle to health and job and spouse.But health a job and a spouse is not the goal of the Gospel.

It matters what you are hoping for when you want forgiveness and when you speak about the good news.It matters why you want it.If you want your sins to be forgiven so that you can savor creation, then the Creator is not honored and you are not saved.Forgiveness is precious for one reason: it enables you to enjoy fellowship with God.If you don’t want it for that reason, you won’t have it at all.God will not be used as currency for the purchase of idols.

Why do you want eternal life?What good is there in having a life forever?

Some of you think it’s because hell is a place you don’t want to go.Hell is painful and you don’t want that pain.Another might say it’s because there will be no sadness there.Another might say it’s because your loved ones are there and you don’t want to be without them.

Many of us assume heaven and eternal life are simply extensions of what we enjoy in this life, but better.If you like food and sex, in heaven it will be better.If you like golf, in heaven it will be better.If you like big houses, in heaven there will be mansions.If you like to be with family in friends, in heaven it will be better.

In all of these desires one thing is missing: God!

God is the goal of the Gospel.

The good news of the Gospel is God, because God is our greatest good.

The right motive for wanting eternal life is given in John 17:3: “This is eternal life, that they may know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”

If we think that good news is good for any other reason, if we want what the gospel brings- forgiveness and eternal life for any other motivation than it brings us joy in God, then we won’t have either.

We are kidding ourselves if we use the glorious gospel of Christ to get what we love more than Christ Himself.The “good news” will not prove good to anyone if God is not the chief good.

Listen to how Jonathan Edwards puts it in a sermon to his people.

The redeemed have all their objective good in God.God Himself is their great good which they are brought to the possession and enjoyment of by redemption.He is the highest good, and the sum of all that good which Christ purchased.God is the inheritance of the saints; he is the portion of their souls.God is their wealth and treasure, their food, their life, their dwelling place, their ornament and diadem, and their everlasting honor and glory.They have none in heaven but God; he is the great good which the redeemed are received to at death, and which they are to rise to at the end of the world.The Lord God, he is the light of the heavenly Jerusalem; and is the “river of the water of life” that runs, and the tree of life that grows, “in the midst of the paradise of God.”The glorious excellencies and beauty of God will be what will forever entertain the minds of the saints, and the love of God will be their everlasting feast.The redeemed will indeed enjoy other things; they will enjoy the angels, and will enjoy one another: but that which they shall enjoy in the angels, or each other, or in anything else whatsoever, that will yield them delight and happiness, will what will be seen of God in them.

So as we come to the Gospel truth, think of how we view what the gospel brings to us as a fruit of God being our greatest God, the goal of the Gospel.

Colossians 1:3-8

Verse 3- We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,

So often our prayers are for someone’s needs or someone’s sin.How often are our prayers to God one of thanks for that person?What does a person look like for you to come to God in prayer and say “God, thank you for them?”What type of life would a person live in order for that to be said about them every time you pray while thinking about them?

Most times the pastor is so frustrated with those that attend his church that he spends all his time asking God to change them and rarely spends time simply thanking God for them.

Drew and I can say with all sincerity that we genuinely thank God for you.You are so dear to us, so close to our hearts, so much a part of our prayers and thoughts.When we come to God, we don’t simply pray prayers of fixing you.Often time when I pray, I thank God for you.I see how Paul’s heart is enlarged for those in Colossae as Epaphras brings him word about the lives of those brothers and sisters in this tiny church.

But who is it that Paul gives thanks and credit to?Is it Epaphras? Is it Paul himself?Is it the individuals in Colossae?No, Paul gives thanks to the only fountain of grace, God!

This isn’t some simple opening nicety.His opening to his letter is different from those in this day who would give thanks to their many gods.Paul begins even his opening remarks with a very clear statement about God the Father, who is the Father of Jesus the King.

True worship never congratulates people for their great deeds but to the God who works through them.It is a single devotion to God, from whom and to whom our salvation is directed.

Paul is setting the scene for what he wants to communicate to this church about those who are twisting the gospel.Instead of doing this in a way of point/counter-point, Paul shows who we’re to thank, and how we’re to thank Him by setting the example.

We should see this as a letter to deal with our current theological mess as we have men like T.D. Jakes, Benny Hinn and a host of other heretics telling us that we are either god’s ourselves, or that God isn’t a triune God.You’ll see in this passage that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are all mentioned in these few verses.

This also demonstrates Christ’s royalty by declaring Him to be the Son of the Father, and then calls Him kurious which means master, and then calls Him Christ which means annointed, Messiah, King.

Verse 4a- since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus

The Gospel is received by faith.

Paul was thankful for the Colossians faith in Jesus.Unlike those that put faith in themselves or in some mystical or magical experience, Paul was happy they had a root faith in Christ.

This is not some Kierkegaardian leap of faith.Soren Kierkegaard, the great Danish thinker, believed that there was no rational reason to believe in religion, but he thought it was important to have a religious belief, even a Christian one.So he said that we have to take a leap of faith without any reasons or facts.This leap of faith will be mans way out of despair and give him a sense of permanence.

But the word Paul uses is pistis (faith), which means to be persuaded that something is true and to trust in it.It is much, much more than intellectual assent because it involves living in obedience to the thing or person you trust in.

Our faith is grounded in historical evidence of something that has happened and can be verified historically.We trust in who Christ is and what He has accomplished for us because there is truth to the claim of who He is and what He did.It isn’t something hanging out there that we have to leap to in order to grasp it.

Yet we realize the clear teaching that God is the one who supplies faith and who maintains it.God gives faith and we can then see reality in truth through the eyes of our mind and heart.

Christ is who we trust and obey.He is what each of us should desire more than anything this world has to offer.

We place our trust in many things in this life.Even those who deny they have faith, have faith that they are right.The assume what they believe is true and act according to their belief system.

The good news of God in the gospel is only received by faith.It is receive by a trust in Christ Himself, not in a religion, not in a theological system, but in a person, the person is no less that God’s Son, King Jesus.

Verse 4b- and the love which you have for all the saints;

The Gospel results in love for one another.

True faith doesn’t exist in a vacuum but will eventually result in a changed life.One of the greatest tests of our faith is our love for each other.Listen to how the Apostle John emphasizes this truth:

1 John 2:9-11 The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now.10 The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him.11 But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

1 John 3:10 By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.

1 John 3:14-15 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death.15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

1 John 4:20 If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.

A true child of God will be so transformed by the God of the gospel they will love fellow believers.Faith in Christ purges us of our selfish affinity and gives us a new attraction to the people of God.

Our love for our brothers and sisters is a reflection of His love for us.

John 13:34-35 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.35 "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."

The gospel changes us and we are characterized by two things; faith and love.We are saved by faith; we are saved to love.The conviction of our mind changes our heart to love.

Verse 5- because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel

The gospel rests in hope.

Hope is the third common characteristic of Paul’s great triad.

This gospel is true, it is God’s declaration of who He is and what He’s done, and how He reigns.The gospel gives hope, and this hope results in trust in Christ and love for one another.

The word for hope means an expectation or confidence of what’s to come.This is the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, but realized even now.

What we hope for in the future causes us to experience the fruit of the gospel today.

What is lacking in our culture is hope.What is lacking in the life of someone that seeks to end their own is hope.The great encouragement from God’s word is that there is hope for you and for me because God is seated upon a throne and has promised us a future that is glorious.This future reaches its climax when we meet Him face to face.

1 John 3:1-3 See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.3 And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

Verse 6a- which has come to you, just as in all the world

The gospel is made public to all the world.

This good news of God’s breaking in and defeating sin, Satan, and death, this good news of God as our good, this good news of who and what God has done and is doing, is for the entire world to hear.

Our motivation for evangelism is the glory of God, so that God will be worshipped by all people throughout the world.

Verse 6b- also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing, even as it has been doing in you also since the day you heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth;

The gospel reproduces fruit.

The fruit of the gospel is individual and universal.It’s active not passive.The gospel changes the face of the world.Could it be said of our day, as we are called, that the gospel is increasing in our live and in our time?

Spiritual growth in our own lives will lead to converts being won to Christ.That was the pattern of the early church.The living Gospel is the power that transforms lives.It’s influence should spread.

This caused the most powerful empire in the history of the world, Rome, to come crashing to its knees.  Based on a grass-roots movement a group of godly Christians planted churches and were moved by the spirit of God to show forth God’s glory in power, in all of life.  Christ was indeed supreme and sufficient not only in fact, but also in the practice of their lives.

In 313 Ad and Christianity became institutionalized.  No longer is the church about the centrality of Jesus being all in all of every issue, every need, every ounce of worship.  Jesus became the figurehead of an institution instead of the head of a body of loving brothers and sisters.  The New Testament believers were more concerned about being with, focusing on, glorifying, contemplating His supremacy, loving and being loved by Jesus than they were in self-help, quick fix, passive and self-serving religious interests.  The power of God moved through them and the church grew as He reigned in their life and ruled in their hearts.

Verses 7-8- just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow bond-servant, who is a faithful servant of Christ on our behalf, 8 and he also informed us of your love in the Spirit.

The gospel is reported by people.

When we look at biblical characters in Scripture, we often miss the ones that are mentioned the least.  So it is with our dear brother Epaphras who planted the church in Colossae after hearing the Gospel in Ephesus. 

He is mentioned only three times in all of the New Testament and though he is not mentioned as a great theologian, a dynamic speaker, attractive or well dressed, powerful, well schooled, well learned, or well known, Paul sees in this humble teacher and preacher of this young and small church plant, a man with qualities that will shake most theologians at the core of their inflated view of themselves.

• Epaphras taught the Gospel to the Colossians
• Epaphras was a slave of Jesus the King
• Epaphras was a faithful servant
• Epaphras was always laboring for those in the church of Colossae

Colossians 1:7 just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow bond-servant, who is a faithful servant of Christ on our behalf,

This is a man that was from Colossae, perhaps he grew up and lived his whole life in this once prominent but now insignificant town.  What marks him first is that he is a slave of Jesus his King, He is faithful in His service to Christ, which means he is working with Paul on his behalf for the sake of the Gospel.

How many of you men would like to be called a beloved, slave, and faithful servant of your King by the Apostle Paul?

Colossians 4:12 Epaphras, who is one of your number, a bondslave of Jesus Christ, sends you his greetings, always laboring earnestly for you in his prayers, that you may stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God.

Again he is called a slave of Jesus Christ.  In his service to Christ he is compelled to labor earnestly (which means to fight and contend) for his family in Jesus.  He prays for their stance in Christ.  What is this stance he prays for?  Is it that they would stop sinning?  That they would stop gossiping?  How large is Epaphras prayers that he labors and fights for so intensely and constantly?  That his fellow brothers and sisters would stand perfect and have full assurance before their King in all the will of God!  What a prayer!  This is no rookie prayer. 

He’s not praying for the non-believers to be saved, he’s praying for those that already follow Jesus Christ, that they would be so impassioned in their affections for Christ, so consumed in the fire of the Spirit of the living God that praying for others is unnecessary because if they stand perfected in full assurance in all of God’s will, living as men and women who have met the King of all, their hearts will have no choice but to compel them to the lost in their time.

Philemon 1:23 Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, greets you,

How faithful was Epaphras?  How about doing prison time with Paul at Rome? 

Can you imagine seeing the supremacy and sufficiency of Christ as so important that you would travel 1200-1300 miles on foot and ship to get to Rome so that he could seek that counsel of Paul on how to best deal with those who were attacking Jesus name and glory?  Can you imagine the view of Jesus that Epaphras must have had?

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