The Significance of the Gospel
Colossians 1:1-8
INTRODUCTION
In his book "Growing Strong in the Seasons of Life", Pastor Charles Swindoll tells a story about the 19th Century agnostic Thomas Huxley. Some of you might recognize the name Thomas Huxley as a man who promoted Darwinism and Humanism in his attacks on Christianity in Europe in the mid 1800’s. Huxley was in Dublin, Ireland and was rushing to catch a train. He climbed aboard one of Dublin’s famous horse drawn taxis and said to the driver -"Hurry, I’m almost late ... drive fast". The driver did exactly what he was told. Off they went at a furious pace. Huxley sat back in his seat and closed his eyes assured that at this quick pace they would surely get to the train station on time.
But after a few minutes passed, Thomas Huxley sensed something was very wrong. Huxley opened his eyes, glanced out the window and realized that they were going in the opposite direction of the train station. Then he began to wonder, “Did I tell the driver where I wanted to go?” Thinking that perhaps he had not given the driver complete directions, Huxley called out to him, “Do you know where you are going?” To which the driver replied, “No, your honor, I do not. But I am driving very fast!”
This humorous story illustrates the sad plight of the majority of people in today’s society. They are “driving very fast,” but they do not know where they are going. People today seem busier than they have ever been. They are constantly rushing to work, school and family activities and other engagements while they text and Twitter away to all their Facebook friends downloading pictures and videos for all to see. Nobody has time to write a letter anymore. They send emails instead. Even the personal interaction of phone calls is being replaced by the more impersonal exchange of text messages.
Even though people today are constantly communicating with one another, they feel more isolated than connected. Even though people seem busier than they have ever been before, they also feel more empty and alone than any other generation. How is it that so many people feel so aimless and so empty when they seem so busy, so connected and in such a hurry all the time? Perhaps they have a lot in common with Thomas Huxley’s taxi driver. They are driving very fast just as society has told them to do. But they are living unfulfilled lives because they really do not know where they are going; in this life or in eternity.
I believe one reason so many people are so busy and live such rushed lives is because they want to keep their minds off the fact that they really do not know where they are going. Their lives are spiritually aimless, empty and uncertain. But if they stay busy enough they are able to forget their need for a fresh sense of direction, fulfillment and significance.
This is not a new problem. It is not a problem that is unique to this time in history. It was a problem even in the first century even though they did not have the internet or cell phones. Paul addressed this problem in his letter to the Colossians. During the time when Paul founded the church in Ephesus followers of Paul started a church in the nearby community of Colossae. It quickly grew into a strong and vibrant church. But when the town of Colossae began to fall on hard economic times and lose some of its prominence, even the Christian community was affected. The growing financial insecurity of the people caused them to wonder about the sufficiency of their faith as well. But in the first eight verses of the first chapter of Colossians, Paul reminds these distracted followers of Christ of the only true source of direction, fulfillment and significance available to any of us at any time; the gospel. Let’s look at how the Apostle Paul describes “The Significance of the Gospel.”
** Read Colossians 1:1-8 **
With affirming words, Paul reminded these troubled believers where they needed to turn for the direction, fulfillment and security they sought. Their hope was not going to come from a revitalized local economy. Their hope was going to continue to come from where it had always been, in the power of the gospel. This tremendous truth which had transformed their life when they first embraced it had the power to meet their needs in the less certain present situation as well. In this prayer of Paul’s gratitude for the faith of the Colossian church, the apostle helps us understand why the gospel and only the gospel has the power to give our lives the direction, fulfillment and significance we all seek no matter what other challenges we may face. Let us recognize this morning what Paul has to say about “The Significance of the Gospel.”
TRANS: Paul, first of all, reminds his readers and us that the gospel is:
I. Universally True
EXP: In vv3-5 of our text, Paul gives thanks for the faith of the Colossian believers, the hope their faith has given them for the future and the love they share for one another because of the faith the gospel has planted in their hearts. The prominence of their community may be diminishing, the value of their financial resources may be declining, but the significance of the gospel has not been affected because the gospel is universal truth transcending everything else in this world in significance and substance.
EXP: In these verses we find Paul once again pointing out the trilogy of spiritual strength that only the power of the gospel can bring into our lives. When we recognize that we are sinners in need of a Savior and place our faith in the sacrifice of Jesus for our salvation we find hope for the future because our place in heaven has been secured. And that hope causes our love for brothers and sisters in Christ to grow giving us an increased capacity for faith leading to even more hope and more love regardless of our personal circumstances.
§ Faith describes the Christian as he is related to God. But faith is so much more than simply believing what the Bible says about who Jesus is and why He came. Faith involves not only accepting the gospel as true but also acting on what we say we believe. Having faith in Christ does, of course, mean that we are relying on the sacrifice Jesus Christ made on the cross to save us from our sins. But having faith in Christ also means we are willing to enter into a personal relationship with Jesus allowing His resurrection power to make us obedient to His teachings. Faith in Christ is demonstrated both by what we believe and what we do that reflects the image of Christ.
§ Love portrays the Christian in his relationship with others. When we love others with a Christ-like love we are willing to act in the best interests of that person without regard to how that might affect us personally. To love a person as a Christian is to seek to enable him or her to become what God would have them to be.
§ Hope focuses on the certainty we have about our future as followers of Christ. This is not the way the world speaks of hope. The world thinks of hope as an uncertain wish. A group of survivors from a plane crash washed up on an island in the South Pacific may hope they will be rescued soon. But they have no certainty that what they hope for will ever come to pass. But if one of those survivors had previously traveled through time and seen their rescue take place then their hope would be a certainty. That is how certain our hope is in Christ. Because God’s Word promises us that Jesus has prepared a place for us in heaven, we know that heaven is our future home. And this guaranteed future enables us to order our life under God in faith and to relate to those around us in love.
These three terms, faith, hope and love, summarize the entire Christian life. And they also help us to understand why the gospel is universally true. Where on planet earth is there not a need for faith, hope and love? The gospel meets universal needs in every society where it is proclaimed!
APP: There is no place on the earth where the gospel is not relevant truth. No circumstances we can dream up would ever make the gospel irrelevant. The gospel is a universal truth desperately needed by men and women around the world because it meets a universal need. Regardless of who we are, what we have or where we live, we are all sinners in need of a Savior. The gospel is universally true because it meets a universal need.
TRANS: Another truth about the gospel that reminds us of its universal significance is the fact that it is:
II. Unusually Transforming
EXP: In v6 Paul reminds the Colossian Christians just how unusually transforming the power of the gospel has been in their lives. Paul goes on to tell his readers that the gospel has had a similar impact “in all the world”. V6 goes on to speak of the transforming power of the gospel describing the gospel as “constantly bearing fruit and increasing”. Even though only a generation had passed since the death and resurrection of Jesus, Paul is telling his readers that the gospel has already become a dynamic worldwide transforming force for the glory of God. The gospel always changes the lives of those who believe in a positive and powerful way. The gospel makes the lives of the believers richer and more full. That is what redemption is all about. Only the gospel has the power to transform the allegiances of the believer from the sinful and selfish things of the world to the majestic and higher concerns of God. It is the plain fact of history and experience that the gospel has the unique power to transform individuals and even entire societies in a God-honoring way.
ILL: Paul certainly knew the gospel had this kind of power. Every time he looked in a mirror Paul was reminded of the unusually transforming power of the gospel. After all, who was the Apostle Paul before he came into contact with the gospel on the Damascus Road? He was the self-righteous Jewish Pharisee Saul who was determined to destroy as many Christians as he could! Saul was an arrogant, miserable, self-serving Jewish zealot before he came face to face with the risen Jesus and the gospel. He was a hard-hearted and driven individual who looked the other way when Stephen was illegally stoned to death. Listen to how Luke describes Saul just before his encounter with the gospel:
Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord,
went to the high priest, and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at
Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women,
he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Acts 9:1-2
Does that sound like a compassionate, caring and self-sacrificing person to you? It sure doesn’t to me! But listen to the self-sacrificing heart of Paul after being transformed by the power of the gospel:
I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience bearing me witness
in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart.
For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake
of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh. Romans 9:1-3
As a self-righteous Jew, Saul had no compassion in his heart for any follower of “the Way”. He did not pity them as misguided souls. All the self-righteous Saul wanted to do was imprison as many of them as quickly as possible. But what about the gospel-transformed Apostle Paul? Did Paul have a death wish for the Jewish zealots who gave him so much trouble as he preached the gospel? Not at all! In fact, in the passage I just read from Romans 9, Paul’s heart was so broken over their ignorance of the gospel that he was willing to be accursed, banished to hell, if that would result in the salvation of his Jewish brethren.
ILL: We should all realize the unusually transforming power of the gospel as well because we live in the most generous and compassionate nation this world has ever known, a country that was founded as a Christian nation on Christian principles. It is no accident that the United States has been so willing to sacrifice the lives of its young soldiers for the freedom of other countries without asking for anything in return. It is no accident that the United States offers more help to earthquake and Tsunami victims and feeds more of the starving people of the world than any other nation this world has known. After all, it is what Jesus would do. Regardless of what anyone might say, we were founded as a Christian nation. It is Christian principles that have made our nation a beacon of hope for the world for over 200 years.
APP: The Apostle Paul and United States of America have this in common. They are both proof that the gospel of Jesus Christ has unusually transforming power. And every place where the gospel is preached today it continues to transform individual lives and entire societies to the glory and honor of God!
TRANS: One would think a force as powerful and transforming as the gospel would be spread far and wide in the most efficient way possible. Perhaps God would write the gospel in the sky or proclaim the gospel to every person on the planet in a dream to make sure everyone heard its life-changing message. But that is not how God chose to spread the gospel message around the world. Instead, the gospel is:
III. Uniquely Transmitted
EXP: In Colossians 1:7 Paul makes reference to Epaphras who he calls “our beloved fellow bond-servant”. Most Bible scholars believe Epaphras was the founding and/or current pastor of the Church in Colossae. He was the one responsible for transmitting the gospel to the Colossians. During the time when Paul was busy transmitting the gospel to begin a church in Ephesus, Epaphras was busy doing the same thing in Colossae. And that is how the gospel continues to be uniquely transmitted, from person to person, from heart to heart as God’s Holy Spirit encourages believers to share the gospel with others near and far.
APP: God has ordained that the gospel be transmitted from person to person. That which is divinely given must be humanly passed on. Jesus Christ needs us to be the hands and feet and lips that will bring his gospel to those who have never heard it.
ILL: Next weekend we will have the opportunity to explore the wisdom of God in having the gospel uniquely transmitted from person to person. In our upcoming On Missions Celebration, next Friday we will have the opportunity to learn of the ministries of up to twenty different missionaries who have responded to the call of God to be divine transmitters of the gospel message. Then, next Saturday evening we will hear about how the gospel is transmitted to potential leaders from foreign countries by those called to minister to international students on college campuses. Then, next Sunday morning we will hear about how God called an individual to plant churches in far away Thailand. Finally, on Sunday night we will hear how God called out an individual to plant a church is nearby Oklahoma. In each case we will discover just how uniquely the gospel is transmitted to those who need to hear the message. And what God has done in the lives of the missionaries we will hear from, he also wants to do in our lives, if we will let Him do His work in us.
CONCLUSION
Fritz Kreisler (1875-1962) was a world-famous violinist who earned a fortune with his concerts and compositions. He generously gave most of it away. So, when he discovered an exquisite violin on one of his trips, he wasn’t able to buy it. Later, having raised enough money to meet the asking price, he returned to the seller, hoping to purchase the beautiful instrument. But to his great dismay, it had been sold to a collector. Kreisler made his way to the new owner’s home and offered to buy the violin. But the collector refused to sell it. He said it had become his prized possession and he would not sell it at any price. Keenly disappointed, Kreisler was about to leave when he had an idea. He asked the collector, "Could I play the instrument just once more before it is consigned to silence?" Permission was granted, and the great virtuoso filled the room with such heart-moving music that the collector’s emotions were deeply stirred. "I have no right to keep that to myself, " he exclaimed. "It’s yours, Mr. Kreisler. Take it into the world, and let people hear it."
As Christians we all have a symphony of beautiful news, good news in our personal possession. And there is a world of dieing people waiting to hear it. If we will not share the gospel to allow others we know to hear the good news of God, how will they ever hear it? God cannot call enough missionaries to share the gospel with those we all know and love. And God does not have to because he has called us all to be unique transmitters of the gospel to those we know need to hear. Sharing the gospel with others gives our lives significance and meaning like nothing else can.
So, the next time you feel like your life lacks significance, the next time you feel like you are merely going nowhere fast, remember the significance of the gospel and the meaning it can bring to your life and mine when we are faithful to share its message of hope and the joy and peace it can give to those we share the gospel message with. The significance of the gospel gives a special significance to every life it touches. If the gospel has never touched your life in a significant way, I pray you will let the gospel tough you today.
PRAYER
INVITATION
As we stand to sing our invitation hymn, if you need to respond to the significance of the gospel by opening up your heart to the Lord or by committing to be a more faithful witness for the Lord, you come right now as we begin to sing.
