Col 1:1-23

Ezekiel 47:1-12

The Fruit of the Gospel









The Colossian congregation was fairly new.

It had been planted by Pastor Epaphras (v7)

Epaphras apparently had some concerns about false teaching that had been spreading,

so he came to Paul for help.

The false philosophy which was spreading,

was a form of Jewish mysticism,

which blended traditional Jewish teaching with Greek philosophy.

Epaphras came to Paul and Timothy,

asking them to write a letter to his church to refute the false teaching.



[note authorship--"we" everywhere except where Paul refers to his own apostleship and suffering]



Lay out the structure of the passage

1:3-8 I have heard of your receiving the Gospel, hope and faith

1:9-12 so I pray that you might please God, being fruitful in good works

1:13-4 because of your Redemption, deliverance through Son

1:15-8 by Christ the Center of All

1:19-20 Reconciliation through Son

1:21-2 from wicked works so that you are blameless in his sight

1:23 therefore continue in Gospel, hope, faith



Christ IS the center. Of Creation. Of Redemption. And indeed, of this paragraph!

Paul wants us to see that Christ is to be the center of everything!



The whole book of Colossians could be summed up as setting forth

who Christ is,

what Christ has done,

who you are in Christ,

and what that means for your life.



Paul and Timothy first assure the Colossians that they give thanks for them, praying for them

"Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints;

Because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven..."



Paul talks about a hope that is laid up for you in heaven.

WHAT is this hope?

What is laid up in heaven for you?

Some might say, "my rewards"

Others might say, "eternal life"

Others might say, "peace, rest, and pure bliss"

These are all correct, but they all miss the point.

What is your reward?

What is eternal life?

What is peace, rest, and bliss?

Or perhaps I should ask, "who"?!!

Your reward is Jesus Christ.

Your eternal life is Jesus Christ.

Your peace, rest, and bliss is Jesus Christ.

Col. 3:1-4 is the center of the book of Colossians.

Everything comes together in these four verses (read)

Your hope is not merely IN Christ,

it IS Christ.



As the hymn-writer said:

My hope is built on nothing less,

than Jesus blood and righteousness

I dare not trust the sweetest frame

but wholly lean on Jesus's name,

On Christ, the solid rock I stand,

all other ground is sinking sand.



Therefore hope is the foundation of our faith and our love.



----------

But in I Cor 13, we are told,

but these three remain, faith, hope, and love,

but the greatest of these is love.

What is the relationship between faith, hope and love?

Love is surely the greatest, because it will never pass away.

Now, we walk by faith, but when Christ returns, we will walk by sight.

Now, we live by hope, but when Christ returns, our hope will be fulfilled.

Yet love will endure forever.

From another viewpoint Faith is the key,

because apart from faith no one can please God.

(Rom 5:1-5)



How does hope relate to faith and love?

Hope is not some vague wish.

We often speak as though it is.

We say, "I hope it doesn't rain today,"

when we are afraid that it might.

I once heard a preacher say that faith is not simply a matter of hope.

Plainly he was not thinking of Paul's concept of hope!



For the believer, Hope is something that is absolutely certain.

Our hope is as certain as our justification by Faith.

You can have all the love in the world,

but if it is not rooted in faith, it cannot please God.

You can have all the hope in the world,

but if your hope is in the wrong gods, it will not please God!

But here in Colossians, Paul and Timothy tell us that Hope is the foundation,

because without the Hope that is laid up in heaven,

why should we believe?

Without the promise that Christ is ours, and we are his forever,

why should we love?

As Paul puts it in I Cor. 15--if it is only for this life that we have hope in Christ,

we are the most miserable of men.

And it is this hope-in Christ-that produces fruit in us, through the word of truth--the gospel.



This is what Paul gives thanks for.

This is what he looks for in believers.

This is the fruit of the gospel:

faith in Christ Jesus

and love for all the saints,

rooted in the hope laid up in heaven-Jesus Christ.

And so when Paul heard about their faith and love,

he gave thanks to God,

and began to pray for them



Notice how Paul uses the language of fruit twice (v6 and v10)

calling forth the image of a tree

This is a familiar image in Scripture (Eden-Tree of Life,

sacred groves and trees of the pagan world as mockery of that,

Psalm 1, Ezekiel 47, Stump of Jesse, cursed fig tree,

Vine and Branches, Romans 11, Revelation 22)

The gospel is growing and bearing fruit throughout the world.



What does it mean that the gospel is growing?

You see, Paul thinks of the gospel as a living organism,

Jesus Christ, who is himself the Tree of Life,

has sown the seed of the Word in you.

You have been grafted into the Tree of Life,

and now you are a part of that indestructible Tree

that is growing and flourishing in all the world.

This means that Christ himself now lives with us.

By the power of the Holy Spirit,

Jesus Christ has united you to himself and to one another.

This it what it means that the gospel is growing.

And this is why Paul says that YOU also have grown since

"the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth."

This is not bare, empty knowledge.

This is a true and saving knowledge which is the fruit of your being united to Christ.



Let us look for a moment at these two fruits of the gospel:

One fruit of the gospel is our faith in Christ Jesus

What is faith?

1) accepting the truth of the gospel--that Christ died for sinners

2) receiving the truth of the gospel--that Christ died for me

3) resting in the truth of the gospel--that Christ's death has done it all.



WCF "the principal acts of saving faith are accepting, receving, and resting upon Christ alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life, by virtue of the covenant of grace."



Calvin, "faith is a firm and certain knowledge of God's benevolence toward us, founded upon the truth of the freely given promise in Christ, both revealed to our minds and sealed upon our hearts through the Holy Spirit."



Faith is not merely assent

Faith does not mean simply that we intellectually agree with the gospel.

Rather, faith is an inward conviction produced by the Holy Spirit

that we belong to Christ.



Faith, like hope, is not merely a wish.

When I say that I believe the gospel,

it is not merely that I think that it's probably true.

Rather, when I say that I believe the gospel,

I am saying that I will stake my whole life upon it.



The Colossian Christians were facing the challenge of another belief system,

and Paul reminds them of their basic belief

their faith in Christ Jesus.



The second fruit of the gospel is our love for all the saints

But isn't faith enough?

After all, we are justified by grace, through faith,

why does Paul place love for the saints as one of the marks of the Christian?

The simple answer is because Jesus did:

John 13:34-35

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.'

But not only that:

John 17:20-23

Christ prays that the church might be one, "that the world may believe that you sent me"



If the church does not love one another,

then the world has the right to say that Christ has not been sent from the Father.

The gospel produces love for the saints because we all have been united to Christ,

and if we are all united to Him, then we are united to one another.

And it is impossible to love Christ without loving each other.

As I John 3:14 puts it

"We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death."





This first section of Paul and Timothy's epistle could be summarized like this:

Because of your faith in Christ and your love for all the saints,

which was produced by hope and rooted in the word of truth of the gospel.



Paul rejoices in what you have learned,

he praises God for your faith and your love.

But you're not finished yet!

You must continue to grow in grace.

Your life must continue to change:

in your mind--you must still gain more wisdom and knowledge

in your walk--you must still increase in holiness and good works

in your suffering--you must still persevere patiently through trials

and in your thanksgiving-you must still remember your great redemption.



Let's walk through this prayer:

First, Paul prays "that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will

in all wisdom

and spiritual understanding" (v9)



What does it mean to know the will of God?

It doesn't mean that we know everything that God is going to do.

What part of the will of God should we know?

That part concerning us!

So the simple way of putting it is:

What does God wish us to know?

"To be filled with the knowledge of his will"

means to know what God desires for us to know and do.

This isn't very complicated.

Paul is going to spend the rest of Colossians telling you exactly what you should know!

namely:

Who is Christ?

What has Christ done for us?

Who are we in Christ?

and How does that change our lives?



But Paul give us two description of this knowledge:

Wisdom--knowing how to live in God's world

Spiritual understanding--being led by the Spirit, not by the flesh



So this is not merely head-knowledge.

As you learn doctrine--the teachings of the bible--

if it does not change the way you live,

then you haven't really learned that doctrine.

If you love the doctrines of grace,

and yet you are not becoming more gracious,

more forgiving,

more humble,

then perhaps you still lack the knowledge of God's will.



And notice this:

Paul does not pray that you may LEARN ABOUT God's will,

he prays that you may BE FILLED with the knowledge of God's will.

This is Spiritual understanding,

in other words,

it is granted by the Holy Spirit.



But the purpose of this spiritual knowledge is that you may walk worthy of the Lord (v10).

Spiritual understanding and true wisdom always have practical results.



Remember, Paul is speaking to those who are already Christians (v6).

He is speaking to the saints-to the faithful brethren. (v2)

He does not question their salvation.

He calls them to walk worthy of their calling,

because of who they are in Christ!



I remember a friend at Westminster Seminary who struggled during his first year.

He was learning a lot,

stuffing his head full of knowledge.

But he was not taking the time to allow it to penetrate his heart.

He could be pretty cocky--and sometimes downright arrogant.

He tended to use his knowledge as a weapon to knock down others.

But as time went on, you could notice a change in him.

God was humbling him,

he was now growing in spiritual understanding,

which turned his immense amount of knowledge into a blessing.

Ultimately, the path you walk along is the test of your wisdom and knowledge.

Do you walk worthy of the Lord in the path of wisdom?

Or do you walk worthy of death in the path of folly?



Indeed this is the Second thing that Paul prays for:

"That you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him,

bearing fruit in every good work

and growing in the knowledge of God (v10) --cf. v6



How do you walk worthy of the Lord?

Can you fully please him?

Would you believe that the answer is YES??!!



Now don't get me wrong.

You are all sinners,

and you will NEVER in a million years be able to please God

by anything that you do apart from his grace.

But Paul prayed that you and I would walk worthy of the Lord.

HOW?

Take a peak at verse 12.

HE qualified us.

Or as he puts it in verse 21,

HE reconciled us through Christ's death

--even while we were enemies in our minds by wicked works.

There is nothing that you can do in yourself to live a life that pleases God.

If you are trying to live a good life,

and are trusting in your own ability to save you,

you are in peril of God's wrath and curse.

But for you who trust solely in Jesus Christ,

you may walk worthy of the Lord, and you may fully please him.

It's not that you won't sin.

It's rather that when you sin, you repent.

It's not that you become perfect;

it's rather that you live your life by the grace of the one who IS perfect--even Christ.



The way you walk in a manner that pleases God,

is by bearing fruit in every good work

and by growing in the knowledge of God.

Remember verse 6?

the Gospel is bearing fruit and growing?

This is how the gospel bears fruit in YOU

--that your life shows forth the transforming grace of God

This is how the Word of God grows in YOU

--that you grow in the knowledge of God.



Do you struggle with sin?

Do you have a tendency to say harsh things to your husband or wife?

Have you gotten in the habit of lashing out at your children, or parents?

Or are you the sort that just bottles it up inside and steams?



Where is the fruit of the gospel?

Where is the knowledge of God and his grace overflowing into good works?



We all know the saying

"you only hurt the ones you love"



WHY?

Is it not that we expect too much from others?

Husbands, do you have realistic expectations for your wife?

Do you expect her to always be ready and cheerful for you when you get home from work?

Experience has probably taught you that it's not always that way.

But is there some part of you that thinks that it really should be that way?

And isn't there just a little bit of you that is sort of bothered when she's not?

Here's the problem:

You aren't exactly living up to your end of the bargain either!



Don't get upset with your spouse for their failings,

until you have successfully dealt with all of yours.



And kids,

do you expect your parents to be perfect?

You've probably learned by now that they're not.

But do you still think that they should be?

After all,

your whole life is still pretty much determined by your parents.

If they make a mistake, it can mess up your whole week!



Why do we have such a problem with truly loving those who are closest to us?

Because we are more concerned with ourselves, than with others.

We are more interested in getting things our way,

than with helping those around us.

Do you love your spouse because of what he or she provides for you?

If so, then perhaps we should find a different word than "love"

Because if you love them then you will seek to provide what they need.



The same goes for parents and children.

Bearing fruit in good works means being more concerned about your parents interests,

than in whether you get what you want.

Growing in the knowledge of God means gaining the wisdom

to be understanding and forgiving when they fail



Because we are going to fail one another.

We are going to face situations which are difficult.

Times when we DON"T WANT to love,

situations where we DON"T FEEL like forgiving.

Places where we have been sinned against,

and we just want to get back at them.



Thirdly, Paul and Timothy pray that you would be "strengthened with all might

according to his glorious power

for all patience

and longsuffering

with joy" (v11)

As we bear fruit in good works and grow in the knowledge of God,

we will face trials.

It is not easy to be a Christian.

It's easy to be an unbeliever.

I had a good conversation about temptation and self-control with an unbelieving friend,

and my friend just laughed and said:

"I don't worry about self-control, I just do it!

You Christians must have a rough life."

You see,

growing in grace is not easy.

walking worthy of the Lord can be a painful path.

But Paul promises that we are strengthened with God's own strength.

Patience and endurance will be given to all God's people as they face various trials,

and Paul even promises that this will come with joy.

NOT that we will LIKE trials,

but rather that we will be strengthened to persevere through them.



Therefore Fourthly Paul prays that we will give "thanks to the Father who has qualified us (made us able) to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light" (v12)



This is indeed a great and precious promise.

God the Father has loved us so much that he has qualified us

--made us able--to be partakers of HIS inheritance.

It doesn't say that God discovered that we were qualified;

it doesn't say that God merely foreknew that we would qualify

It says that God himself qualified us.

While we were enemies, dead in our transgressions and sins, as Eph 2 puts it,

God sent his Son to die for us,

and through him to deliver us from the power of darkness

and bring us into the inheritance of the saints in the light.

We no longer dwell in darkness.

We are heirs of the light.



And even so, in Christ we are not only qualified,

and made able to share in Christ's inheritance,

but we are also delivered from the power of darkness,

and brought into the kingdom of the Son.



Jesus Christ is called the SON of God's love.

What does this mean?

It means that Jesus is the Son of God par excellance.

He is the one who receives the full inheritance.

He is the firstborn, as Paul insists in verses 15 and 18.

We are adopted children,

and partake of Christ's inheritance.

He inherits the whole universe,

and we inherit all things in him.



And in His blood we have redemption, namely, the forgiveness of sins

Christ, the Son of God, came under the power of darkness.

Christ, the Son of God, inherited the wrath and curse of God.

Christ, the Son of God, was disqualified and disinherited by the Father.

All of this was done for us:

that in Christ,

YOU now have been set free from the power of darkness

in Christ,

YOU now have been qualified as an heir with all the saints in the light

in Christ,

YOU now have been conveyed into the kingdom of the Son,

and have received redemption through his blood,

the forgiveness of sins.



Let us learn how to pray from the Apostle Paul:







We give thanks to you O God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

that you have qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light,

that you have delivered us from the power of darkness

and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of your love,

in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.

We praise you, Our Father, for this great redemption,

which you purposed before the foundation of the world;

and for the hope that is laid up in heaven for us-our Savior Jesus Christ,

who lives and reigns at your right hand.

We praise you, O Son of God, for your great mercy,

that although you were in the form of God,

you did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped,

but humbled yourself

and took the form of a servant,

submitting even to the death of the cross for us, and for our salvation.

We praise you, O Holy Spirit, that you have come and raised us up to the heavenly places,

and seated us with Christ at the right hand of the Father.



Now we pray, O triune God,

that your gospel would continue to bring forth fruit throughout the world,

and that it would grow and flourish in our hearts.



We pray for those who have proclaimed the grace of God in truth to us,

and for those who preach your Word throughout all the world,

that you would give them boldness and power to proclaim the gospel faithfully,

As they ought.

And as your Word goes forth, may it accomplish the purpose for which you sent it,

that every knee may bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

(Pray for the salvation of the world-particularly for those areas struck with disaster: India, California)



Have mercy upon your Church, and preserve her from heresy and schism.

Grant that those who are called by your name would demonstrate that

faith in Christ Jesus and love for all the saints that is the fruit of our hope.



And grant, O faithful Father,

that we might be filled with the knowledge of your will

in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.

Grant that we might know the mind of Christ,

that we might reflect his glory and his mercy to those around us,

that the mind that was in Christ Jesus, might also dwell in us.

Like Him, may we set the interests of others ahead of our own.

May we walk worthy of the Lord, pleasing You fully,

being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.

Do not let our knowledge of You be vain and empty,

but let it produce righteousness and peace in every home;

justice and mercy in every relationship.

(Husband and wives; parents and children; work)

(Elders in the church)

Strengthen us, we pray, with all might, according to Your glorious power,

for in ourselves we are weak;

and in our flesh, there is nothing good;

but give us patience and joy in the midst of suffering:

(The sick; those approaching death; the suffering Church; thanks for peace in our land; prayer for magistrates)



[Thanks for hearing our prayers in Christ's name]