Deuteronomy 30:9-14 Psalm 25:1-9 Colossians 1:1-14 Luke 10:25-37
Summary: The apostle Paul always gives thanks in his prayers and so thanksgiving needs to be a major part of our prayers. Jesus did it, and so did Paul, and look at their ministries, and the word “thanks” used here comes from the Greek word “Eucharist”.
This sermon was delivered to the congregation in St Oswald’s in Maybole, Ayrshire, Scotland on the 15th July 2013: by Gordon McCulloch (A Scottish Episcopal Church in the Dioceses of Glasgow and Dumfries).
Please join me in my prayer. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit let these words bring you, and all mothers’, honour this day. Amen.
Our New Testament reading this morning comes from the 1st chapter of Pauls letter of Paul to the Colossian: verses 1-14 “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the saints and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ in Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father. In our prayers for you we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for we have 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.
You have heard of this hope before in the word of the truth, the gospel that has come to you. Just as it is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world, so it has been bearing fruit among yourselves from the day you heard it and truly comprehended the grace of God.
This you learned from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, and he has made known to us your love in the Spirit.
For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God's will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God.
May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light.
He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins”.
1. Introduction:
Today’s gospel reading is the very familiar story of the Good Samaritan, and to preach something new would be very difficult. However in light of the excellent meeting with the bishop recently, the New Testament reading from Colossians seems much more relevant and topical. There is also a strong parallel with this church which I would like you to home in on; and acknowledge your success.
Let us begin with Colossians verse 2, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father. In our prayers for you, we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love that you have for all the saints”.
Notice that the apostle Paul always gives thanks in his prayers and here he thanks the church at Colossus, because their lives have demonstrated that God is alive and at work in them.
You must see a sort of parallel with this church today, look where we have come from in the last few years and now we are talking growth; and that without a rector.
Why, because we have allowed God to work through us; but we must learn, like Paul, to be thankful, and express this thanks to God for being fruitful in our lives, and the lives of others; … building up our faith through love and hope, in an ever increasing circle of health.
2. Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving therefore needs to be a major part of every prayer. Jesus did it, and so did Paul and Interestingly, the word “thanks” used here comes from the Greek word that is translated, “Eucharist,” the exact same Eucharist we use as reference to our Lord’s Supper; so basically our Communion is a time of thankfulness for what Jesus achieved for us on the Cross. Amen.
Now Paul never visited Colossus yet what he heard about the believers there caused his heart to rejoice: and so should we, when we hear something good about someone; that is to pray for them.
Not only should we pray for those who are genuinely hurting or struggling; we should pray especially for those who are showing true success in serving God, as our prayers are needed to sustain them.
Now when I say success, I don’t mean a massive ministry, I am talking about someone who is battling and winning some ground back from the enemy, no matter how small; because the Enemy will inevitably launch a counter attack against them to destroy their witness. Our prayers are needed.
3. In Christ
In these three verses of Colossians, Paul is already laying the groundwork for the major teachings of Colossians which is the “Supremacy of Christ”. In verse 3, Paul writes “Our Lord Jesus Christ”; a triple name expressing his divinity, humanity, and messianic office.
The title “Lord” refers to His deity. He is God and Lord of all. The name “Jesus” speaks of His incarnation; that he was born into the human race and walked on this earth. And the word “Christ” reminds us that He came as the perfect sacrifice for our sins, the promised Messiah.
4. Three virtues Intro
Moving onto verses 4 and 5, we see reasons for Paul’s thanksgiving. This is heavy going, so please bear with me. “For we have 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”.
Notice Paul’s thanksgiving triad here: for their faith, for their love, and their hope. These are three virtues that are linked together in Romans, Corinthians and Thessalonians; so we will look at them separately; (ok, and briefly).
5. Faith
The first is faith, and Paul is saying that by faith alone in Jesus, was their salvation is secured, and he commends them greatly for this. What we have here is Christ centred faith; the first mark of a mature fellowship, as the author of Hebrews tells us “without faith, it is impossible to please God”.
The great commentator Matthew Henry once said, “Faith opens the door of the soul to receive Christ; and faith admits him, and faith then allows the Lord Jesus Christ to become master of that house”.
6. Love
The second mark of a strong church is love, for it is love that identifies us as disciples of Jesus. John 13:35 says that by LOVE “all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one to another.” … And to join these two up, Galatians 5:6 says “faith works through love.
Faith in Christ leads to love, the love of God, and all things holy. Love is a transforming act because love is really faith in motion. Galatians 5:6 continues “…the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself, through love.”
True faith produces love, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ exhibits itself as unconditional love for others.
Now think about this, it would be easy to love believers in heaven because they do not have a capacity for sin; but it is more difficult to love fellow Christians because they are still tempted and they lapse into sin; regretfully.
But it is harder still, neigh impossible, to love those who don’t even acknowledge that they are doing anything wrong, let alone admit sin, unless they are caught in the act.
Love is the greatest Christian character, and therefore a treasure to behold. That is why it is the greatest commandment of the Christian faith is to love God and to love others. To me, it is by far the most difficult, as when we are challenged, love is usually the first virtue to get thrown out the window; yet we all know that if we can keep that love, we secure the victory.
7. Hope
And so we move onto hope. Faith is based on the past, love works in the present and hope looks to the future? Hope sees God’s Glory in the spirit; faith makes that substance real in ourselves, and love empowers us to pass that glory on to others.
Hope makes all the difference because it gives us confidence for the future; it gives us the expectation that everything God says in His Word is true, or will be true. Heaven was so real to those faithful believers in Colossus; for they knew this world was not their home, and so they aimed for a higher life in heaven.
The hope of most people today is that they will win the lottery. That is the extent of their hope, and that is what we would be like if we did not have the Lord to worship; the hope of Glory. Romans 5:2 says “By whom also we have access by faith into this grace, wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God”.
Proverbs 29:18 says, “Without hope, the people perish”. …. There’s nothing worse than seeing someone grieve because they have no hope, and I am sure we have all been there. I firmly believe that a church, a family, or an individual who is focused on faith, love, and hope will be stable, solid, and sure, Amen.
8. The Gospel
Now … to move on, where did these Colossians receive this faith, love, and hope? From the Word of Truth, the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Verses 5, “You have heard of this hope before in the word of the truth, the gospel that has come to you”.
The Gospel is the truth of God, and the last part of verse 5 helps us see that hope is based solidly upon the “Word of Truth. The Word of Truth and the Gospel are therefore the same thing. The gospel simply means “good news” or more accurately “the spreading of good news”.
We believe through faith, that there is no other truth to bring eternal salvation, and therefore we must hear and share this gospel throughout the world.
This is why Paul is rejoicing; the gospel is being taught in Colossus; and this is proof that is beginning to spread “all over the known world”, and that is exactly what we a called to do today, “to spread the gospel”; and to go and preach the Gospel to others; … not wee nice bible stories, but the true Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9. Life and growth
The true Gospel produces life and growth; nice wee bible stories only make us feel better. Look at verse 5 & 6: “You have heard of this hope before in the word of truth, the gospel that has come to you. Just as it is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world, so it has been bearing fruit among your from the day you heard it”.
The gospel was alive, and growing, and more importantly, bearing fruit. When the gospel is heard and believed, lives are changed and changed radically.
Romans 1:16, says “the gospel is the power of God”. The Greek word for “power” here is the word “dunamis,” the same word which from dynamite was derived. The gospel message is dynamite; as it can break through the hardest of hearts, and shame the most sinful.
The Gospel also encourages the fruit of the Spirit to grow and ripen and so Christians who are growing will bear fruit. It will probably be painful but that is the process; and Paul here was thankful for the healthy fruit being produced in this Colossian church.
10. The grace and truth of God.
The Gospel brings the grace and truth of God, and the last part of verse 6 states that they “truly comprehended the grace of God”.
This means they accepted and understood the gospel; and by doing so they were accepted by God through grace; and not by their own deeds. Salvation and sanctification are by grace through faith alone; meaning that we can never received them by our own good works.
We do not need to jump through hoops or follow some set of man-made regulations; we can only receive salvation by faith and by faith alone. We receive what we do not deserve, as we are never good enough, and we never will.
… It is only when we recognise that we are so bad, and that we deserve absolute nothing, that Grace can kicks in, and we can receive because of who Christ is. Only God can save us, and he does it because he loves us, and not because we deserve it.
Of all the worlds religions, only Christianity offers salvation for nothing. You just simply believe and receive, or as they say, doubt and go without. Pious works earns us nothing, but faith through grace, earns us everything.
There is so much in these verses and so heavy going that I have had to cut this sermon short at verse 6 instead of going on to verse 14, but the introduction to the book of Colossians is so powerful as it introduces us to God’s trilogy of virtue; faith, love, and hope.
Faith rests on the past work of Christ; love works in the present; and hope anticipates the future.
That is exactly what the church of the Living God should be: a body of believers known for their great faith, their outward manifestation of love for others, and hope towards a future.
I hope you can see now, the parallel where this church is following the Church at Colossus; we haven’t arrived, but we are on our way. We are concerned with our Christian growth; … we do our utmost to allow the love of God to be evident in our lives; and we use what we have to reach out to others.
And with that, we have a hope for the future: a future with Christ as our goal; a future where we are bearing his fruit; … and a future in his kingdom.
Amen.
Let us pray.
Father, we thank you for Jesus, and for what he achieved on the cross. We thank you that he took away all our sins, and we can approach you and call you Abba Father just like him.
We thank you that you listen to us, and you answer us; not because we deserve it, but because Jesus earned us a place in your heart.
Father help us to understand you more. Let our faith be increased, as it can be difficult living in a world without faith; a world of selfishness, material and greed.
Father help us to focus and love you more, so that we can receive that love from you, love we can pass on to others; and Father help us discern who you would like us to pass this love on too.
And finally Father, we ask for your hope, hope for the future, as the world does get us down. Let us know that you are in charge, that you have a plan, and that we are part of your plan, under your protection.
Father we ask in Jesus name, Amen.
PS. I would like to give thanks to Dennis Davidson for his help and inspiration in preparing this sermon; and I hope this sermon meets his approval.
