INTRODUCTION
Please turn in your Bibles to Colossians chapter 1. Today we are going to begin a preaching series on this book of the Bible that we will finish in November. The preaching schedule was handed out and emailed out if you need another copy of it you can get it from the table in the back of the sanctuary. I will be preaching the majority of the sermons. Pastor Simpkins will be preaching five of them and the first of which is next week. I personally am looking forward to that.
Let me take a few moments to explain why. I have learned from both my teachers and from the experience of the last 21 years that God’s people are greatly benefited from going through a book of the Bible from start to finish. There is a place for teaching on individual topics. But something unique happens when we go through a whole book together and get the bigger picture of what God has to say to us in the order that he says it in his word. We see not only what the Bible teaches but what it emphasizes and doesn’t emphasize; what is a priority and what is secondary, and how different teachings fit together and balance each other. We deal with topics we might otherwise avoid. And above all, we see how everything in Scripture ultimately points to Jesus Christ.
This letter to the Colossians points to Jesus Christ. Let me read verses 1-2 to introduce it and then give an overview of what the letter teaches us.
READ COLOSSIANS 1:1-8
PRAY
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.
This is a letter from the apostle Paul, a servant called by God to plant and care for local churches. He wrote it to a church of faithful believers – the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae. This isn’t a church that Paul planted. He only knows how they are doing through the testimony of others, particularly a man named Ephaphrus who pastors the church. And how they are doing is fairly well – there is much to be thankful for – but there is one particular threat to their faith. There are some people who are spreading false teaching, spreading what Paul calls “philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition …and not according to Christ (2:8).” We will deal with that false teaching on Sunday 16 August.
In the process of countering this false teaching, Paul lays out what is according to Christ, and how it affects all of life. For the first 1 ½ chapters, he lays out the true gospel hope, what he calls “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Then he shows how this hope of glory is the power to slay sin in our lives and to put on the character of Christ, and he tells us how it affects our every relationship – with God, with the church, with family members, employers, and with unbelievers. It is a letter that leads us to Jesus Christ and his glory and shows us how that makes a difference in all of life. And I am eager to preach this good news from Colossians.
“There’s no place like home!” This claim echoes on the pages of the finest literature. Is anybody here homesick? Is anybody here counting down the days until you’re finally home? My roommate has a spreadsheet that counts down the remaining time until he leaves by the numbers of months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, and seconds. I have a feeling that he is not the only one a little preoccupied with leaving here and being home again. I know that there are some of you that are counting down your time here until you’ll be there. Every person to one degree or another has a longing for home.
I have some good news and some bad news. I’ll begin with the bad news. You and I long for better days, especially when we’re here in the desert but even at least occasionally when we are at a place we call home. We somehow know that our world is less than it was made to be. And we hope that it will one day be set right again. In short, we yearn for the goodness that was “before the fall.” Why do we find it so difficult to accept the world as it is? Are we merely discontent, or is something more profound at work in our hearts? C.S. Lewis believed that our desire for something better is a gift, a way of reminding us of what it is we lost and what it is we hope to regain.
“Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists.
A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probably explanation is that I was made for another world.”
This is because you and I are spiritual beings having temporary physical experiences. We are not physical beings having temporary spiritual experiences. In other words we are a soul with a body not a body with a soul. Home-sickness will always resonate deeply in this life. The homesickness we experience on this earth will never be completely cured this side of glory. Our Creator never intended that we be fully at home apart from his full presence. All that is good about our present home is merely a shadow, a small foretaste of the home we were made for. The continuity between this present life and our future finds its roots in our true house. The irony is that our true home is a place we’ve never been. Each of us has an end to this present madness; at least, I do. My orders tell me that I will be home around 20Nov09. But when we get there, as long as it is on this earth, we will sooner or later discover that this is a fallen, twisted version of our God-made home. That’s why this world, as it now is, can never truly be called our home. Our sin has turned our earthly home into a shadow of its former and future self. We have moved, for the time being, east of Eden. “We have been lost and wandering since we left Eden, wandering the world, looking for home, and getting mighty dirty in the process.” The Bible consistently highlights the notion of a homeland as a good thing, so why will God’s people always experience this life more or less as strangers or exiles (Heb. 111:13-14-16)? We’re left wondering isn’t there more? Isn’t there a better place? That’s the bad news. But there’s also some very good news.
When our Lord redeems this broken world, we will at last be home. Paradise will be regained. The new heaven and the new earth will be the dream home come true. Until then, we can see it from a distance. The longing for home is in our Father’s heavenly gene pool. And it’s spelled out in his Word, the Bible. Our ancestor came from Eden. Something in us has never forgotten that.
How many of you long for a new home to call your very own? Jesus has prepared a mansion for you in heaven. Our true home is in heaven. The only way to gain title to this new home is through a personal relationship with the King of Heaven, Jesus Christ. "Heaven is a permanent residence … a place where we unpack our bags and stay forever…What a glorious thought to wake up in Heaven and realize it is home!”
C.L. Allen
I’m Going On
1. I mean to go right on until the crown is won;
I mean to fight the fight of faith till life on earth is done.
I’ll nevermore turn back, defeat I shall not know,
For God will give me victory if onward I shall go.
o Refrain:
I’m going on, I’m going on,
Unto the final triumph, I’m going on;
I’m going on, I’m going on,
Unto the final triumph, I’m going on.
2. Should opposition come, should foes obstruct my way,
Should persecution’s fires be lit, as in the ancient day—
With Jesus by my side, His peace within my soul,
No matter if the battle’s hot, I mean to win the goal.
3. I see a shining crown awaiting over there,
I see a mansion all prepared and decked with beauties rare:
Shall that which intervenes deprive me of my right?
Nay, on I’ll go until I reach that city of delight.
4. Then forward let us go, our hearts with love aflame,
Our snowy banner borne aloft, inscribed with Jesus’ name.
The hosts of evil flee, and heaven’s open gates
Invite me now to hasten where eternal glory waits.
Nurtured memories of our past (the Holy Spirit redeeming our experiences & reconciling us to our Creator by the power of the gospel) form the baseline of our present identity and the foundation of our future. At no time is this more true than when we consider Christ’s past sacrifice, our present identity in Him, and our future home in heaven.
What enables people to get through tough times full of faith in God and full of love for others? What helps people to maintain their focus and keep their priorities straight with the truth? What gives people a hope that will never fade or diminish?
Title: Heaven’s My Home
Big Idea: The Power of a Heavenly Hope is Available to You. (3x) Only a heart whose treasure is in heaven will be motivated to live like Jesus called us to. We’ll see how to get what they got as we look at what was happening in the Colossian church and why it was happening. Let’s begin with this question.
1. What strengths did they possess?
a. Well, the believers there were practicing faith and love. Paul said that We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints…
b. Now what is being described here when it says faith and love? Are we talking about beliefs and feelings here, or is it something more than that?
i. Well, it’s obvious from the context that it’s more than that. He’s not talking just about the presence of saving faith or the presence of a relational affection for other believers, though certainly those were there.
ii. No, this is talking about actions that people were taking that demonstrated faith in Christ and that demonstrated genuine biblical love for other believers.
1. Paul has “heard of [their] faith” and “heard of [their] love.”
2. They have been doing things that can be heard about.
3. They have developed a reputation of living by faith in Christ and practicing love toward one another. We know what this looks like. It’s when a person puts away paralyzing fear, worry and unbelief and obeys the Lord’s commands even when our flesh is telling us to do the exact opposite.
iii. We exercise faith in Christ Jesus when we are willing to risk the disapproval and insults of others as we follow his ways and say that he is the only way to salvation.
1. Faith in Christ looks like remaining at peace when our lawmakers tell us that we may go into another Great Depression if we don’t get $700 billion to our failing financial institutions.
2. It looks like saying no to a better paying job if it means you won’t be able to lead your family or be involved with the church.
3. It looks like trusting God when we suffer illness or loss.
4. In our former church there is a man who stands out as an example of this kind of faith. His name is Jordan. He was driving one day with his father in law in the passenger seat and his pregnant wife in the back seat. He lost control of the car, and spun around into oncoming traffic. His father in law was only slightly injured. But Jordan broke his neck, and his wife and unborn son were both killed. A while later after he got out of the hospital, with his head fitted with a neck brace and a halo screwed into his skull, he gave testimony that God is sovereign and he means even this for his good.
5. That’s living out faith in Christ Jesus. That existed among the Colossian believers.
iv. They also had love for all the saints. We know what that looks like.
1. It’s when a person overcomes selfishness and apathy and coldness toward others and moves to bless someone else, to help another person experience the grace of God in some way.
2. It’s the practical things like helping each other with remodeling projects and providing meals for new moms and families who are moving.
3. It’s praying for one another and speaking words of encouragement.
4. It’s also helping each other become untangled with sin in our lives, coming alongside one another and making observations where needed.
5. It’s giving up your vacation money to help a family that just lost their home. Love looks like this.
6. The Colossian believers had that too. They were going beyond superficial friendliness to genuine biblical love that seeks another’s good in the Lord.
c. And that’s the life we are called to as well.
i. We are to walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). Jesus said, “Believe in God. Believe also in me” (John 14:1). We are to love one another with brotherly affection (Romans 12:10). Jesus said, “This is my commandment, that you love one another” (John 15:12). We are called to exercise faith in Christ and to love one another.
ii. And the Colossians were doing that. They are an example for us. We can learn from them.
So here is the second question we need to ask this morning.
2. From where did they get it? Why did the Colossians have faith and love? What was responsible?
a. If we know the answer to that, we know how we can grow in this.
b. And there are two reasons given in the text.
i. One is an ultimate reason or what we might call the primary cause (good theological term). It’s the final answer for why faith and love existed in the church.
ii. The other reason is the immediate reason, the thing you could point to and say, “Aha, I see the connection between faith and love and this source.” We might call that the secondary cause.
c. The primary cause, the ultimate reason why faith and love existed in the church, is what we see first. Let me read verses 3-4 again and see if you catch it.
i. We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints…
ii. Did you hear it? It’s in the 4 words, we always thank God. We thank God …since we heard of your faith …and of the love that you have.
1. Paul thanks God for the faith and love that he heard about in the church.
2. Now, you don’t thank someone unless they are responsible for the thing you are pleased about.
a. If you have a delicious meal at a restaurant and you want to thank someone for it. You don’t thank the waitress for how good it tastes. You thank the cook, because the cook made it. “Tell the chef this salmon was delicious. Be sure to thank him for me.”
b. So when Paul hears about their faith and love and he thanks God for it, then we know this: God is ultimately responsible for the acts of faith and love in those people, and also in us.
i. If someone overcomes their fear of man and shares the gospel with someone, God has done it.
ii. If someone responds to tragedy with broken-hearted but confident trust in God, God has done it.
iii. If someone gives their money sacrificially for the spread of the gospel or to pay for a brother or sister to go to , God has done it. We always thank God …since we heard of your faith …and [your] love.
iii. Now why is that worth noticing? For two reasons.
1. One is to kill pride. When we grow in faith and love, we will probably receive commendation for the ways we serve, for our example, and so forth. People communicate their gratefulness. And it flatters the sinful heart to take the credit for the blessing. I know my heart is inclined that way. But this knowledge that God is ultimately bringing about the fruit of our lives protects us from boasting and reminds us to give glory to God where it belongs.
2. The second effect of knowing that God is responsible for the fruit in our lives is this. It gives us hope when we see our failures in faith and love. When we miss opportunities to step out in faith, when we ignore people instead of love them and we receive conviction, we know that our case is not hopeless. God is at work in us, producing that which is pleasing to him. That’s what Philippians 2:13 says. It is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. God is working faith and love in us. We’re not on our own in this. God is with us. And that is encouraging.
So God is the ultimate cause of faith and love in a person. But what’s the immediate reason for it?
d. What can we see, and indeed what can we pursue, that directly results in faith and love growing in our lives?
i. Well, it’s in verse 5. Let me start with verse 4 again. … since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.
1. It was because of the hope laid up for [them] in heaven.
2. They acted in faith and love because they were motivated by a heavenly hope.
a. Now what was that hope? Are we talking about a subjective feeling of hope, as in “I hope my acts of faith and love will lead to something good, even though I don’t know if they will”? Is that the kind of hope we’re talking about?
b. No. The hope laid up for [them (and us)] in heaven is the object of our hope, it’s the promises of salvation, it’s the realities of the redeemed life that is for all who trust in Christ, the inheritance that is stored up for us in heaven and that belongs to us even now.
c. The hope laid up for [ us] in heaven is the promise of forgiveness of sin and acceptance by God, not rejection because of our sins.
d. It’s the promise of God rejoicing to do us good to all eternity.
e. It’s the promise of glorified bodies that never die, life without pain or sorrow, endless joy, pleasures forevermore, enjoying the rewards given out by our Father for what he’s done through us while we have lived here.
f. It is the hope of being with Christ, because to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:6).
g. It’s to stop seeing Jesus dimly as through a dark mirror, but to see him whom we love face to face (1 Corinthians 13:12).
h. That’s the hope laid up in heaven. It’s the Christian hope, and it caused the Colossian believers to live by faith in Christ, and to show love to the saints.
ii. So here’s what that tells us. It means that the power for faith and love comes from knowing and rejoicing in our heavenly hope. (2x) The joy of our salvation, the promise of all that God has for us in Christ, is the only thing that can sustain a life of stepping out in faith and showing genuine biblical love. Without it, we just don’t have the fuel to drive the engine of faith and love. And here’s why.
1. When it comes to living by faith, we won’t have courage to venture into the unknown and do God’s will if we don’t know that everything is going to be all right even if it doesn’t turn out the way we want.
a. We might start to wonder if sacrificially serving others is really accomplishing anything when there is no outward sign of fruitfulness.
b. But we are encouraged when we remember Matthew 10:42, where Jesus said “whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward."
c. We might start to think that all our suffering in the path of faithfulness is pointless, unless we are sure of Romans 8:18 that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
d. We would soon tire of rejection by others for our witness to Christ unless we are convinced of Matthew 5:11-12 where Jesus promises, “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.”
It’s only the power of a heavenly hope that can make us go forward when the way of faith looks hard.
e. There’s an example of this in the book of Hebrews. The believers that the book was written to were in danger of drifting from the Christian faith because of the threat of persecution and other things. It was hard for them to live as open believers and there were a lot of temptations to just keep their faith under their hat. But the writer reminded them of a time when they overcame their fears and stepped out in faith and endured a hard thing.
i. Here’s what happened, from Hebrews 10:34, you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.
ii. These believers had gone to supply food and support to some who had been jailed for their faith.
iii. They knew that by doing that they would be targets for persecution themselves. But they did it anyway.
iv. And the result was that their homes were plundered. People made off with the best of their possessions – furniture or quilts or beautiful carvings. In our day it would be your home entertainment center, your favorite chair, or maybe your best dishes. But when this plundering happened, they joyfully accepted it. They didn’t grumble. They responded with faith. Why? What made the difference? They knew that they had a better possession and an abiding one. They knew they had treasures that couldn’t be taken away. They had a hope laid up in heaven.
2. That’s the power of a heavenly hope that will motivate us to live by faith in Christ. We must be convinced that everything is going to be all right, that God will take care of us and that we have treasures in heaven, if we are going to take steps of faith. And what about love? How does the heavenly hope motivate us to love others?
a. Well, knowing and rejoicing in God’s love for us makes loving other people a delight and not a burden.
i. You see, we pass on what we ourselves are enjoying and anticipating. If we enjoy hunting, it enhances our joy to have someone hunt with us.
ii. If we enjoy music, we want other people to hear the music we like and we want them to like it to.
iii. Same thing with good recipes or good books or anything else we enjoy.
iv. We say things like “Oh, you have to try this, it’s so good!”
v. Why do we do that? It’s because bringing someone else into what we’re enjoying completes our enjoyment.
vi. No one forces us to do that. We do it because we enjoy it.
b. And friends, if we are going to show Christ’s love to anyone else and bring them into it, we must delight in it ourselves.
i. If the love of God and all that he is for us isn’t our current and ongoing delight, we won’t enjoy showing it to others.
ii. It becomes a duty, and a duty gets old real fast. And it won’t end up being biblical love either, but just an attempt to appease the conscience for being unloving.
The power for faith and love comes from knowing and rejoicing in our heavenly hope
You may have heard the saying, “he’s so heavenly minded he’s no earthly good.” That’s a saying meant to communicate that if you think too much about heaven and the promises of salvation that you won’t do anything productive in loving other people or in spreading the gospel. You’ll just become detached from the reality all around us, living in a Christian dream world. But the Bible actually teaches the exact opposite. It teaches us that the only thing powerful enough to motivate a life of faith and love is heavenly-mindedness. It’s being assured of and passionate about the joy of pleasures forevermore in the presence of Christ. "The more of Heaven we cherish, the less of Earth we covet—David Brandt Berg
Now here is one implication of that truth for our lives. It means that if we lack courage to walk in faith and do the Lord’s will, if we are lacking in genuine biblical love for others, the reason for it is that we lack a heavenly hope. We’re not aware of or rejoicing in the hope laid up for us in heaven and therefore we lack faith and love. The promise of a better and abiding possession is not on our radar screen. Something else is in the way.
And I believe that is a common experience even of believers whether for short or long periods of time. I experience times where the heavenly hope is not clear to me and therefore I lack faith and love. Perhaps you can relate.
There could be different reasons why this is your experience if it is your experience.
It could be that you have been indulging yourself in the pleasures of the world and have been seeking your hope there rather than in the promise of salvation. You have traded a heavenly hope for a worldly hope. Perhaps you spend 10 minutes with God in a day, but 10 times that chatting with friends on Facebook or playing video games or watching TV or pursuing your sports or hobbies. Now, are any of those activities fundamentally wrong? I don’t think so. But when they’ve become what you most look forward to in a day, when you can’t imagine going without them, then a worldly hope has taken the place of the heavenly hope. And the result will be less walking by faith and less genuine love. That’s because self-indulgence works directly against giving ourselves to others and laying all things at the disposal of Christ our Master.
Another reason your view of the heavenly realities may have gotten blurry is because of the worries and cares of this life. This would certainly be my temptation. You’re so aware of the bills to pay, the projects you have to finish, the relationships you need to work on, the doctor appointment you have - you fill in the blank – that it’s hard to remember that there are any heavenly realities that make a difference right now. Your hope is in solving your problems and getting control over your life; getting to the point
where you can say, “There, now everything is going well.” Meanwhile you worry and fill your day with tasks. And in times like that the idea of loving others and taking steps of faith feels like an intrusion on your already busy life.
If you can relate to either of those scenarios, then there is hope for you – and for me. Because regardless of where you are today or what your tendencies are, you don’t have to remain there. The power of a heavenly hope is available to you. Knowing and rejoicing in the promise of our salvation is sufficient to bring change into our lives.
And that leads to one last question.
3. How do we get what they got? Where do we find this heavenly hope? Where do we go to learn about the promise of our salvation?
a. The answer is no surprise. We find it at the end of verse 5. …because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel,
i. The hope laid up for us in heaven, the promise of salvation, the realities of forgiveness, acceptance, blamelessness and eternal life are all found in the gospel.
ii. It is in the word of truth, in the testimony of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ in we find this heavenly hope.
iii. To grow in a life of faith in Christ and love for the saints, we must remember the gospel.
iv. We must ask the Lord to take us deeper into the glories of Calvary.
v. We must meditate on all the blessings that are promised to us through Jesus Christ and him crucified. 2 Corinthians 1:20 says that all the promises of God find their Yes in him.
1. We can have hope of blamelessness before God because Jesus lived a blameless life for us.
2. We can have hope of forgiveness, because Jesus said, “Father forgive them.”
3. We can know that we will live in resurrected, glorified bodies because Jesus rose from the grave as the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
4. We can know that we will be in the presence of our Savior and enjoy his glory forever because he prayed, “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory” (John 17:24).
The power for faith and love comes from knowing and rejoicing in our heavenly hope. And our heavenly hope is found in the word of truth, the gospel of Jesus Christ.
5. And when we do that, faith in Christ Jesus and love for all the saints will increase in our lives.
a. And that is exactly what the gospel is intended to produce in us.
b. That is the fruit that will result when we have a gospel hope.
c. And it is a fruit that will continue to be produced as we daily seek to know more fully the glories of the cross, because verse 6 says this about the gospel…
i. The gospel … is bearing fruit and growing--as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth,
ii. The gospel is not just a message for entering the Christian life and then after that it is for evangelism only. Far from it. The gospel continues to bear fruit of faith and love as we know and rejoice in the hope that it reveals.
b. So we know what we have to do. We know the key to the faith-filled, love-filled life.
i. It is to daily cultivate our awareness of and our joy in the hope laid up for us in heaven.
ii. It is to meditate regularly on the person and work of Jesus Christ, revealed in the Scriptures, and to pursue our joy in him.
iii. Daily cultivate hope in Christ through his word and prayer.
iv. And benefit from the writings of godly, gifted teachers who have been close to the cross themselves and who know how to lead us to its truths.
Only a heavenly hope has the power to replace our attachment to worldly hopes. Only a heavenly hope can free us from the worries and cares of this life. And it is more than enough.
PRAY
“We have a hope within our souls; brighter than the perfect day. God has given us His Spirit and we want the world to hear that ALL our doubts have passed away!”
