Grace and Gratitude

If the Lord’s people would kindly
take up your Bibles and turn once again to Paul’s epistle
to the Colossians. We find ourselves in chapter
one. Last Lord’s Day we began our study of this little letter
by Paul, written to a church in a little town, a seemingly
insignificant church, And exactly how the church in Colossae came
to exist is somewhat of a mystery. There’s not a lot of information. Neither is there any certainty
about who planted the church. It’s quite possible that this
man named Epaphras came to Christ, possibly even during Paul’s ministry
in Ephesus. And then he eventually returned
to his hometown, bringing the gospel with him. Regardless,
there she was, the little Church of Colossae. The Church of Colossae
was a very low-profile church, insignificant and unimportant
in some people’s eyes. There are no recorded visits
by anyone to this church recorded anywhere in the Book of Acts. The only mention of this church
is this letter that Paul wrote to her. By the way, let me clear up a
mystery. If you were here last Sunday,
in our bulletin, I had listed as our passage of the day, Revelation
1, 9 through 11. Many of you turned there and
waited expectantly for an hour. I didn’t intend to preach that
passage, only to read it as an illustration. And last week,
as I came into the pulpit, you might have seen this. You may
have seen a piece of paper go fluttering off onto the floor. That piece of paper was my place
marker as a reminder to read this passage. It was designed
to illustrate the obscurity and the insignificance of the Colossian
church. So if you’re still in the book
of Revelation, here it is now, just listen if you’re not there.
We have all the time in the world. Go ahead and turn to Revelation
chapter one. Keep your finger in Colossians,
we’ll be right back. Revelation chapter one and scroll
down to verse nine. I, John, your brother and fellow
partaker of the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance which
are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the
word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the spirit
on the Lord’s day and I heard behind me a loud voice like the
sound of a trumpet saying, write in a book what you see and send
it to the seven churches, to Ephesus, and to Smyrna, and to
Pergamum, and to Thyatira, and to Sardis, and to Philadelphia,
and to Laodicea. There, does that clear it up?
Some of you may be still wondering, what does this have to do with
Colossae? My purpose in citing this verse
last week was my intention, it was to indicate the insignificance
of Colossae. You see, Colossae is right in
the middle of all of those larger city churches. And yet, there’s
no mention. The Colossian church was small
and unremarkable, back, if you would, to the book of Colossians.
She wasn’t a wealthy church in a strategic city, but of all
people, this church caught the Apostle Paul’s attention. The
widely traveled evangelist, now under house arrest in Rome, learned
about this little church, her faithfulness and the dangers
that she faced, Paul was still not obligated to this church.
He was not constrained to invest very much of his precious time
in them, and yet he did. And that’s what makes this epistle
to the Colossians such an amazing thing. It’s almost certain that
Paul had never visited this church in this town. There’s no record
of him having done so. He had not met the people of
this church face to face, he acknowledges. Paul learned about
Colossae and the church from one of its residents, a man named
Epaphras. I introduced you to him briefly
last week. Let me tell you a little bit
more about him. It’s possible that Epaphras is
short for Epaphroditus. Kind of like John and Jonathan.
And there’s a man named Epaphroditus mentioned twice in Philippians. And both of these men, Epaphrus
and Epaphroditus, seem to occupy a nearly identical role. Epaphrus, Paul calls a bond slave. Epaphroditus, he calls a bond
servant. But even though the Philippian
and the Colossian epistles were written at just about the same
time, these two men are almost certainly not one and the same. Epaphroditus was well known to
the Philippians, even beloved by them. He served as a back
and forth messenger from Philippi to Rome. where Paul was. And we see Epaphras functioning
much the same way, except he was functioning on behalf of
the Colossian church. Paul refers to Epaphras as one
of your number, that is, he was a Colossian, and he may well
have been the planter of that church. If he was saved during
Paul’s ministry in Ephesus, he might easily have headed home
to Colossae with the gospel and established a church there. Now,
none of that is definitive, but one thing is clear. Epaphras
is not the same individual as Epaphroditus that Paul refers
to there in Philippians. Nevertheless, Regardless of the
precise identity of this man, during Paul’s imprisonment in
Rome, Epaphras made the 1,000-mile journey to visit him. His purpose
must have been pressing, important. Paul himself had a very unique
arrangement. We saw this last week. God had
so ordained Paul’s imprisonment there that not only could he
freely preach and teach, but he could receive visitors as
well. We don’t know whether Epaphras knew of this arrangement and
headed there knowing that he would see Paul, or if he discovered
Paul’s relative freedom upon his arrival. He must have been
overjoyed nonetheless. Here he was, finally, face to
face with his mentor and friend, the Apostle Paul. Epaphras had
come on behalf of the Colossian church, He came bearing a report
about this amazing little church. The gospel had taken root. People
had come to Christ. A church was planted and was
now flourishing. But there were things that concerned
Epaphras as well. He came with a mixed report.
The church was sound and faithful, but the church resided in a hostile,
heathen culture. And from what we gather from
Paul’s letter, the spiritual climate of Colossae
was dismal and difficult. The little church was being battered
about by the world and its influences from every direction. The truth
of the gospel itself stood to be confused and compromised by
the heathen culture’s ideas. Epaphras didn’t quite know how
to handle such an all-out assault. And so at least part of the reason
for his visit to Paul was to secure his counsel. A personal
letter from Paul was surely the last thing that Epaphras expected
from Paul. But in addition to the freedom
that Paul enjoyed in teaching and preaching, receiving visitors,
he could also write letters. And he wrote four such letters
during his confinement. Philippians, Ephesians, Philemon,
and Colossians. Yes, Paul writes an epistle,
one of only 13 that he wrote. to the little church of Colossae.
In doing so, Paul put this church on the map. With the Paphras’
report, Paul took up the opportunity to write to the church of Colossae,
and as we read his letter, we are slowly enlightened as to
his purpose. He’s obviously writing to proclaim
the doctrine of Christ. He tells his readers that Jesus
Christ is preeminent and all-sufficient, and that for the one who has
placed his or her faith in him, they are complete, lacking no
spiritual benefit. They’ve been redeemed by the
Lord Jesus Christ and that calls them to a greater commitment.
Last week, we began with a brief examination of the opening verses
of the book, verses one and two, the greeting, and we found that
it was much more than just a greeting, but the body of the letter starts
in verse three, and that’s where we’ll begin this morning. If
you would, follow along as I read Colossians chapter one, verses
three through eight. We give thanks to God, the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you since we heard
of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for
all the saints because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. of which you previously heard
in the word of truth, the gospel, which has come to you, just as
in all the world 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. Just as you
learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow bondservant, who
is a faithful servant of Christ on our behalf, and he also informed
us of your love in the spirit. The beautiful passage of scripture
here in these six verses, Paul turns to another familiar feature
of his letters, a note of thanksgiving. in all of the epistles that Paul
directed towards churches, not individuals, but churches, with
the only exception being his letter to the Galatians. He immediately
gets into a very straightforward rebuke of the Galatians, but
all of his other letters contain these notes of thanksgiving. Paul opens his letters the same
way. Listen to how varied, though,
the thankfulness is expressed to the Romans. He thanks God
because their faith was being proclaimed throughout the whole
world, Romans 1.8. In the opening of 1 Corinthians,
Paul expresses his thankfulness to God because of the grace that
God had given them in Christ Jesus. The Corinthians did nothing
except sit back and receive an overwhelming measure of God’s
grace. And he says that they were enriched
in him in all speech and in all knowledge. Remarkable. When Paul writes again to the
Corinthians, 2nd Corinthians, he again blesses God this time,
a different way of expressing gratitude, because he is the
father of mercies and the God of all comfort. What believer
doesn’t know that? Writing to the Philippians, Paul’s
gratitude is directed toward God, but it is for the very memory
of the Philippian believers. I thank my God in all my remembrance
of you. Likewise to the Thessalonians.
He thanks God always for all of you. And in his second letter
to them, he elaborates on his reason for gratitude. It’s only
fitting, he says, because your faith is greatly enlarged and
the love you have for each one of you toward one another grows
ever greater. Very similar to his gratitude
in Colossians. So Paul routinely includes these
notes of gratitude. Sometimes they’re on behalf of
the people to whom he’s writing. Sometimes they’re directly to
the Lord for the work that the Lord is doing in these churches.
Either way, Paul expresses gratitude to God. Now in this sentence, I’d like
to point out something very interesting in this section. This section,
chapter one, verses three through eight, It’s actually one long
running sentence. And Paul’s entire statement of
gratitude here centers on one theme. It’s God’s grace and salvation. Specifically, God’s grace and
salvation of the Colossian people. Now mind you, Paul never uses
the word salvation in this entire sentence. But if we back away
and look at it, that’s what he’s talking about. In verse four,
he tells them that he had heard of their faith, their faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ. They love all the saints and
their hope is in heaven. At the end of verse 5, Paul makes
clear that this was only possible because they had heard the word
of truth, the gospel. Paul’s acknowledging the grace
of God in their salvation. This is what prompts Paul’s expression
of thanksgiving. God had done the work of salvation
in the people of this little mountain town of Colossae, Now,
there is simply too much in these six verses to tackle all this
morning, but we can get a good start. In the first half of this
one long sentence, Paul articulates three aspects of God’s grace
in salvation. Let’s begin, if we could, back
in verse three. Three aspects of the saving grace
of God, and the first one that we come to is the appreciation
of God’s grace in salvation, the appreciation of God’s grace
in salvation. We give thanks to God, the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul expresses his gratitude,
his appreciation to God by saying, we give thanks As I said earlier,
these opening statements of gratitude usually are usually the one to
whom you were writing. That was customary in Paul’s
day. So in addition to his opening
greeting, Thanksgiving too became a regular feature of Paul’s letters.
But note, observe this, Paul doesn’t congratulate or thank
the Colossians for their great spiritual accomplishments. He
thanks God. And my question to us immediately
is, do we do this? When we see God at work in others,
do we give thanks to God for what he’s doing through other
people? Frankly, I don’t believe that
this is something we do enough. to look around and to see how
God is working, first that He saved them, and then that He
has gifted them, and then that He is using them in their giftedness,
we should, as we look about and see God’s grace in the work,
in the lives of others, in their salvation, their sanctification,
their service to others, we should thank God. What a glorious thing. What a
glorious thing is to think or to hear about someone who has
been saved. He was a sinner, bound up in
sin, hopeless, helpless, doomed. And then, with a conversation,
a book, a sermon, the gospel was presented to them The Holy
Spirit moved and brought them to life, to repentance, to faith
and salvation. That’s something that we should
celebrate. That’s something for which we should give thanks.
But the most immediate question immediately comes to mind is,
who is we? Who all is included in the we?
When Paul says, we give thanks, Paul has only just mentioned
Timothy, so it certainly would include young Timothy. There
when he provided his opening greetings, he presents this letter
as originating really from the two of them, Paul and Timothy,
he says. So when he says, we give thanks,
most naturally that would include Timothy, but it would also include
in the we, Epaphras, their friend who had come on their behalf,
a thousand mile difficult journey, only to have a conversation with
Paul. In Paul’s closing words of this
letter, there are also a number of others that potentially could
be counted as endorsing this letter. Would you flip back just
briefly to chapter four, Colossians chapter four, And just scroll down to verse
7 of chapter 4. Paul mentions the soon-to-be
carrier of this letter. He was the one that was going
to carry it down to Colossae, Tychicus. And Onesimus is with
him, the runaway slave for whom Paul would advocate in his letter
to Philemon. He’s mentioned in verse 9. He
also mentions Aristarchus in verse 10, a fellow prisoner who
greets them, a fellow worker of Paul’s, John Mark. This is an amazing thing. If
you know the story of John Mark, John Mark quit the ministry and
it created quite a stir because Barnabas, his cousin, wanted
to forgive John Mark and put him back in the ministry right
away and take him with him on his next missionary journey.
Paul said, no way. There was a breach. It was such
a bad breach that he and Barnabas parted ways. And so to see John
Mark’s name here means that there’s peace. They have reconciled.
John Mark is also with Paul, which is such an encouraging
sign. There’s also a man named Jesus
Justice, verse 11. And finally, no other than Luke,
the beloved physician, verse 14, and Demas, who would eventually
abandon Paul, if not the faith altogether. For some reason,
Paul wanted the Colossians to know about these men. And that
tells us that they all certainly knew about the Colossians and
what God was doing in their midst. And so when Paul says here, we
give thanks, we can almost picture even if it was an impromptu prayer
meeting, during which Paul, in the presence of this entire crowd,
expressed his gratitude for all that God was doing in Colossae. And we must note how Paul further
delineates to whom he addresses his gratitude. Would you glance
at verse three once again? We give thanks to God, the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul makes a special point of
pointing out the fatherhood of God And his comment points up
not so much that he is our heavenly father, he is that. His point
is that he is the father of our Lord Jesus Christ. This does
not take away in the slightest the deity of Christ. Jesus himself, who often declared
his deity, also frequently acknowledged God as his father. The religious
leaders of Jesus’ day knew the significance of this statement
when Jesus would claim God as his father. It was, in fact,
that very statement that created such a stir with the Pharisees
in John chapter five, that he was calling God his own father,
making himself equal with God. This doesn’t take away from the
deity of Christ, it establishes it. By stating it this way, that
they were giving thanks to God, the Father of the Lord Jesus,
he reminds us all of God’s bounties and blessings, his mercies, his
gifts, all originate with God the Father. But they are communicated
down to us through the Lord Jesus Christ. So, for whatever good
things that we receive personally or others have received, we ought to acknowledge our generous
God for those things. Now, it’s one thing to give thanks
for blessings that we personally receive. That’s the least we
could do. It’s quite another to look around
us, to recognize God’s grace and
gifting to others, and to genuinely express our thankfulness for
those things. That’s what Paul models here.
Gratitude for the grace of God shown to others, namely the Colossians. But I said there were three aspects
discussed here. The first is the appreciation
of God’s grace and salvation. The second is the momentum of
God’s grace and salvation. For that, just glance again at
verse three in that second phrase where Paul just says, praying
always for you. The phrase comes as no surprise.
Paul had already informed us that he gives thanks to God,
so to learn here that his thanksgiving is expressed in the course of
prayer comes as expected. The general, it’s the general
word for prayer here used nearly 90 times in the New Testament. And while it would include thanksgiving,
it embraces a broad spectrum of the various ways that we speak
to God. When talking about the subject
of prayer, I always like to revert back to A-C-T-S. If you’ve heard it, sit back.
I refer to this as often as I can. And every time I do, someone,
usually some new believer, comes up and expresses delight in learning
this. If you’ve heard it, bear with
us while I share it again. A-C-T-S. It’s an acrostic that stands
for A, adoration, C, confession, T, thanksgiving, and S, supplication. Now when we speak of adoration,
we’re just referring to our acknowledgement of any of God’s attributes. His
greatness, his power, his holiness. We’re just acknowledging who
God is. Together with our response to
it, we thank you that you are all powerful and I am yielded
to your sovereign will. We respond to it whether it’s
humility or gratitude or a renewed confidence that God is in absolute
control of our world. The C, C stands for confession. Not a difficult thing to understand,
confessing or communicating with God about our sin. And I would
only remind you here that in confessing your sin, you are
never informing God of anything. He’s omniscient. He sees all
and knows all. We’re only agreeing with him
about his assessment. of our deeds, that it’s sin,
the very things for which Christ died. And we do that together
with an appeal for grace to change, grace to overcome some weakness. A-C-T, Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving, and as I said,
prayer does include an expression of gratitude to God. This should
be a significant portion of our prayer time, recognizing, acknowledging,
expressing our gratitude for all that God has done and is
doing. But again, prayer is not limited
to Thanksgiving. And then finally, supplication.
A-C-T-S. To supplicate just means to ask. And this is where we gather the
confidence, having seen who God is, and having confessed our
sin, cleared that away, thanked God for what He is doing in the
world, we are emboldened to come before Him and ask. We come before him, the only
one who can do anything about our needs and requests. We come
to him and we lay our requests before him. And these requests
are not only for our own personal needs, we bear up the requests
of others in intercessory prayer. ACTS. And even as I think of
that, the order of those things is important. I think it’s important
and right to come into God’s presence with an expression of
gratitude for who he is. And having done that, we immediately
think of ourselves in light of who he is, in light of his glory,
we are reminded of our sin and our sinfulness and our need of
forgiveness. How can we not go into a moment
of confession? And having confessed our sin,
What is more natural than to come out of that with thankfulness
and to express thankfulness not only for God’s forgiveness, but
for the Savior who died for us and for all other answered prayers.
And having expressed our gratitude, we should be emboldened. We’re
told to come to the throne of grace. We’re told to come. We’re
commanded to come. to the throne of grace and to
ask for whatever grace we need. If you think of it, that’s exactly
what we see here. With Paul. Paul had heard this
marvelous report about the Colossian Church. Paul alludes to this
at verse 4. Glance there if you would. Since
we heard of your faith. What a thrilling thing this this
was for Paul. And then in verse eight, he identifies
who it was that reported. It was Epaphras. He informed
us. And then because Paul had heard
of this magnificent work in the lives of these young believers,
he thanked God. And he was prompted to ask for
even more. You see, when you see God at
work, when you see God answer your prayers, how can you not?
exercise a little sanctified greed. We hear Paul right here in the
midst of ACTS, don’t we? At least the latter half of that
prayer plan, thanksgiving and supplication, that’s exactly
what he does. He’s only just now expressed
his gratitude, thanksgiving, and immediately he turns to supplication,
praying always for you. Paul had learned from Epaphras
of the salvation into which the Colossians had come, and that
gives him the motivation to seek more favor yet from God. We should
do likewise. When we see God at work in an
individual, we should pray for them, that God would powerfully
use them. Paul doesn’t identify at all
yet for what he prayed on behalf of the Colossian church, only
that he prayed for them, and that he was doing so constantly,
always, he says. Now, let’s be reasonable. This
doesn’t mean that Paul literally never stopped praying for the
Colossians. He would have to eat, he would
have to sleep, he would have to converse and preach, There
were many other churches for whom he needed to pray. He wasn’t
literally always praying. Likewise, when Paul tells the
Thessalonians to pray without ceasing, he wasn’t stipulating
that they drop everything, quit everything, and pray only until
Jesus returned. What he’s telling us is that
prayer on behalf of the Colossians became a regular thing. It became
a regular portion of his prayer life. He routinely bore them
up before the throne of grace. He prayed for this church in
earnest. He surely prayed for their growth
in grace, that having come to Christ, that now that they would
grow and become mature fruitful believers. He certainly must
have prayed for protection from the evil one, given the society
in which they found themselves. He would have prayed that they
might be growing in the knowledge of Christ and sanctification. He likely prayed that the gospel
might flow through them to others, that many others in their city
and region would come to know the Savior. He probably prayed
for them to flourish in their relationship with Christ. He
prayed always for the Colossian church and her people in a myriad
of ways. There’s a third observation of
this section, verses 3 through 5. Three aspects I said of the
saving grace of God, not only the appreciation of God’s grace
and salvation and the momentum of God’s grace in salvation,
but would you glance at verses four and five for the harvest
of God’s grace and salvation. Since we heard or having heard
of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for
all the saints because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Now, Paul doesn’t actually get,
as I said, to the content of his prayer until verse 9. That’s
when he really engages in prayer on behalf of the Colossians.
Until then, he speaks of the reason for his gratitude, the
reason for his thankfulness, the wonderful news that Epaphras
brought about them. Here in verses four and five,
Paul begins to detail the good report that he had received from
Epaphras. That report was important because
of the fact that Paul had never met these believers. And he tells us three things.
He acknowledges the Colossians’ faith, their love, and their
hope. more specifically, their faith
in Christ Jesus, their love for all the saints, and their hope
in heaven. For Paul, Christianity is a divine
blend of faith, love, and hope. This feature is found in several
of his epistles. In 1 Corinthians 13, A chapter
in which he devotes the entire chapter to the discussion of
love, he mentions three graces. But now faith, hope, and love
abide these three, but the greatest of these is love. There are some
gifts that will pass away, but these grace gifts of God, faith,
hope, and love endure forever, he says. Paul says it here, they
abide. They simply are. They stretch
from the present to eternity future. They’re imperishable,
eternal. And he acknowledged this work
of God in the lives of the Thessalonian believers as well. In chapter
1, verse 3 of that letter, he noted their work of faith, their
labor of love, and their steadfastness of hope. Same three graces. He
strings these three graces together again when he writes to the Galatian
church. He says, by faith we are waiting for the hope of righteousness,
noting that it was a faith working through love. Faith, hope, and
love. And these three graces, they’re
surely familiar to us in their particulars. They’re frequently
presented in the New Testament, especially in Paul’s writings.
And we see these graces cited in various combinations, pairs,
all the time. Faith and love. Paul says in
Galatians 2.20, it was faith working through love. Ephesians
1.15, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus and your love
for all the saints. That doesn’t mean that they were
hopeless. That’s what gave them hope. Paul
just doesn’t say it there. Faith and hope only. We have
that in Romans 5.2, we have obtained our introduction by faith and
we exult in hope. We are living by faith and waiting
for the hope of righteousness, he says in Galatians 5.5. Your
faith and hope are in God, he says in 1 Peter 1.21. But that
faith and that hope were not without love. Love and hope are
paired as well, Romans 5.5. Hope does not disappoint because
the love of God has been poured out within our hearts. And obviously,
that love and that hope were not without the foundational
grace of faith. To Paul, these three graces,
faith, hope, and love, are the unmistakable marks of a Christian.
And these three graces, again, were the very things that prompted
Paul’s thanksgiving and prayer. These things were proof of God
at work within them. God’s grace was at work in the
Colossians, and that’s what prompted Paul’s grateful prayer on their
behalf. I want to look at each one of
these briefly this morning. First, he says in verse 4, we
heard of your faith in Christ. We now know from whom they heard
the gospel. It was Epaphras, Epaphras was
that faithful friend that first came to them to tell them the
good news about Jesus, who died for sinners. Some people might
have needed many conversations with Epaphras, many lessons,
many conversations, many sermons, in order for them to be convinced
of the truth. Others, as soon as they heard
the good news of a Savior, It was like a bolt of lightning,
and they yielded themselves to their Lord and Savior, and they
were saved by God on the spot. But whether immediate or drawn
out in many conversations, all who believed placed their faith
in the Savior, Jesus Christ. They saw in Him the divine Savior.
They put their faith in Christ, and neither they nor all the
forces in the world could move it. That initial moment of faith
in Christ became a life of faith, trust
in God. It’s not just that their faith
rested on the Savior, it was invested in the Savior, placed
in the Savior, and it was fixed there. What an absolute thrilling
thing this must have been for Paul to hear. By this great evangelist
and pastor, the gospel was doing its work without him even being
there. We’ve been thanking God and praying
for you, Paul says, ever since we heard that you placed your
faith in Christ. For any Christian, there is arguably
no greater news than to hear of someone’s salvation, amen? In Luke 15, Jesus said that there
is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents. Can you imagine
that? There’s a joyous celebration, a party, if you will, in heaven
when one sinner repents and turns to faith in Christ. And faith is placed first here
because it is foundational to all of God’s other gifts. Without
faith in Christ, there is no love, there is no hope. Faith
is foundational. Without faith, the author of
Hebrews says, it is impossible to please him. Faith is the beginning
of a life of righteousness and peace. But for the Colossians,
this was not just a bare profession of faith on the part of the Colossians. a testimony in words only, their
salvation could be seen in what they did and how they lived.
Their lives were dramatically changed by the gospel, better
yet, by the God of the gospel. Look at Paul’s next statement
at the end of verse four. This portion of the sentence
really carries forth from the previous statement. I’ll take
it in full. We give thanks, praying, since
we heard of the love which you have for all the saints. Paul
heard about their faith, but he knew that that faith was real
because of the love that they exhibited towards one another. Not only did Paul hear about
faith, the foundation of their Christianity, he also heard that
their faith was active. It was real. It was vibrant. Their Christianity was productive.
He heard about the love that they had for all the saints.
Love is the defining mark of a Christian. The apostle John
puts it so clearly in his first letter. Would you just turn to
1 John real quickly? This is such a beautiful passage,
and I haven’t yet preached it, so we’re gonna honor God’s word
by going there. 1 John chapter four. When you
get there, scroll down to verse seven. 1 John chapter 4, where John says, Beloved, let
us love one another, for love is from God, and everyone who
loves is born of God and knows God. It’s the distinguishing
mark of a Christian. The one who does not love does
not know God, for God is love. By this, the love of God was
manifested in us that God has sent his only begotten son into
the world so that we might live through him. In this is love,
not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son
to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved
us, we ought to love one another. Back, if you would, to Colossians.
If we’re Christians, we love Christ. And if we love the Savior,
we will love our brothers and sisters in Christ. Just as God
has drawn us to himself through his son, Jesus Christ, it’s like
going through a funnel as we draw closer to God. Through Christ,
we are drawn closer to one another. In love. It’s exhibited by our
love for one another. And let’s admit, some people are hard to love.
Or at least they’re harder to love than others. Maybe that’s
an easier way to put it, that’s okay. But when we are told to love
our brother, our sister in Christ, in a very real sense, we are
to love the image of Christ in him or her. I love the illustration
that one godly exegete put forth. Imagine a broken mirror, shattered
all over the ground. And very carefully, you pick
up one of those shards and carefully glance at it. You would see your image reflected
in that glass. His point is, If our faith is
in Christ, if a person’s faith is in Christ, we are to love
our fellow believers just as they are to love us. Not because
of who we are, but because of Christ in them. Even if it is
only fatally produced in the image of Christ. Paul mentions in verse five, this third grace, not only faith
and love, but hope, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Paul basically says this, if
those things are true, if they’ve placed their faith in Christ
Jesus and a supernatural love for the saints attends that faith,
then there is a third element of the Colossian salvation. Paul
tells these believers that there is hope laid up for you in heaven. The word because ties this all
the way back again to the thanksgiving and prayer of verse 3. Hope is
such a beautiful word. It looks forward to the future
with anticipation. Most people look forward to the
future with great fear and trepidation, right? The Christian looks forward
with a settled confidence in God’s promises. Look at the way
Paul describes this future hope. He says that it is a hope laid
up for you in heaven. This word laid up, what an incredible,
fascinating word. Jesus used this word, remember
the parable of the talents? Remember the one that got one
talent? That worthless slave wrapped up the coin that his
master gave him and hid it under the rock. Same word. He laid
it up. Paul in his final epistle, 2nd
Timothy 4.8, uses the same word. The same hopeful sense that he
does here in 4.8, he says that, in the future, there is laid
up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous
judge, will award me, and not only to me, but to all who have
loved his appearing. I’m sure a lot of you have great
confidence in your bank. I don’t mean to dispel that.
You put your money there with great assurance, guaranteed after
all by the federal government, that your assets are secure.
But how much more secure is the vault in heaven, attended by
the Lord himself? Our eternal hope is there in
heaven and it is secure. It is laid up for us and it’s
as good as ours. I remember the first time that
I had this discussion with my dad. I was a little kid and my
grandmother had willed each of her grandkids a sum of not a
lot of money, mind you, It didn’t make us rich. But I can remember
having this discussion with my dad. He showed me a piece of
paper that said that I had money in there. All I could do was
see this piece of paper and not a pile of cash. He explained
that the money was there in the bank. It was mine. And in the
future, I could use it for whatever I wanted. Some of you know how
I used it. That’s the same thing that Paul’s
saying here. Our hope is in trust. It’s ours. It’s secure. And one day we will possess that
hope in full. See, there’s a sense in which
we as believers are enjoying our salvation here and now. But
there’s an even greater expectation that our salvation will one day
be realized in full. Paul says it this way to the
Romans in 1311. Urging them to love one another,
he concludes, do this, knowing the time that it is already the
hour for you to awaken from sleep, for now salvation is nearer than
when we believed. We have salvation now, but it
will be fully realized in heaven. And Paul speaks of it in the
exact same way in the opening chapter of his first epistle. He says that, for those who have
been born again, we are promised an inheritance which is imperishable
and undefiled and will not fade away. A Peter if I said Paul. Our inheritance is there, in
heaven, in a vault. And God himself is guarding it. It’s reserved for us. Jesus used
this same image in the Sermon on the Mount to speak of storing
up treasures in heaven. To these young believers in Colossae,
previously soaked through with heathenism, what a happy promise,
Paul’s thought is here. What a happy promise this must
have been for them to read hope stored up in heaven. Not only
is there unspeakable good awaiting for the believer, but it will
be bestowed by and enjoyed in the presence of our good and
loving Savior who kept it secure for us. Would you humble yourself
in his presence?