We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people — the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world — just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace. You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, and who also told us of your love in the Spirit. (Colossians 1:3-8, NIV)
I’ve been in ministry for 72 years. I started in full-time ministry aged only 18. That’s quite unique. I have a huge experience that I want to bring to you and to encourage you with.
Paul begins his letter to the Colossians, “Paul, an Apostle by the Will of God”… We think of the 12 Apostles who were with Our Lord during His earthly ministry – and among them Judas who fell – so that, after the Lord ascended into Heaven, the remaining 11 selected another to replace Judas: ‘Let another take his place’. And yet to me it seems that it was Paul who in fact fulfilled that position. The Lord chose him. Although Peter was the first evangelist on the Day of Pentecost, to me Paul was the most significant evangelist of this early Apostolic Age – his letters to those early churches are still read to this day and form the largest part of the New Testament! Let this be an encouragement to those of us today who follow in the footsteps of the Lord, but like Paul, have not had that personal relationship with the Lord in His flesh, but have had a personal encounter with Him, as Paul did on that Damascus Road. Like Paul, most of us have been converted, changed, through an encounter with the Lord.
So Paul continues to the church in Col 1:3ff, “We give thanks to God the Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ for you since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love to all the saints.” Paul is writing to an already active church. The Church began on the Day of Pentecost and the word, which in Greek is ‘ecclesia’, reflects a group who are ‘called out’ to assemble together, to deliberate and to govern – this is the origin of the word Church. And the origin of today’s housegroup movement is here, where so many of the early churches were housegroups, meeting in homes, not in designated consecrated buildings – that came later, and grew out of the need to have larger meeting places. But the main point here is, the faith and the love of the Colossians was so great, it was ‘noised abroad’, talked about, and the news reached Paul himself.
Yes, Paul had heard of their faith and love for (caused by, sustained by) the ‘HOPE WHICH IS LAID UP FOR YOU IN HEAVEN’! V5. Paul is dealing with a persecuted church – the early Church was persecuted – but, in Paul’s eyes, the most important thing is their FUTURE HOPE IN HEAVEN.
I want to remind you that, whatever we are going through today, our hope is not down here, OUR HOPE IS IN HEAVEN. We’re not expected to be wealthy down here, we’re not expected to be living necessarily in comfort. Yes, I thank God, I do have enough money to pay the bills, I do live in some comfort, having my own home. But my real home and your real home is the FUTURE. I feel that somehow the Church has lost sight of the key element of our faith. OUR HOPE IS IN HEAVEN – NOT HERE! I want to say to Christians in Ukraine, in Russia, in China, or wherever you may be, under persecution or in lack, OUR HOPE IS NOT HERE – OUR HOPE IS IN HEAVEN.
Paul is showing the Colossians so clearly in verses 5-10, “This HOPE, preached in the Gospel of truth – despite the trouble and persecution – brings forth fruit in all the world, and in you, since the day you heard it and knew the Grace of God in truth.” The Gospel preached to the first generation Church was preached to a Church which would suffer persecution and death – and here Paul continues to the Colossians, verses 7-10, “You learned this Gospel from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, a faithful minister of Christ – and he has told me of your love in the Spirit and, from the day we heard of this, we have not ceased to pray for you, and desire that you be filled with the knowledge of God’s Will in wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you might walk worthy of the Lord, pleasing Him, being fruitful in good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.”
Paul is saying, whatever the circumstances, however hard, walk worthy of the Lord in order to please, not yourself, not the pastor, but that you might please the Lord, and that you might be fruitful in what you do! We all know what fruitful means! I’ve had fruit trees in my garden that don’t bear fruit. What do you do? You cut them down! It’s so important that there is fruit in our lives, some evidence of our Christian faith. Imagine if the whole Church understood this message! Not just fruitful, Paul says, but increasing in the knowledge of God.