The Power...

Good evening I'm glad you could drop by. I tell you this letter to the Christians at Colosse is jam packed. Tonight's study is from verses 6-8, but you need verses 2-5 to understand the setting for those verses. Next week and for the next few weeks after that I will be posting the Christmas sermons I am using this year. I'll be putting them on my mid-week post, I pray you'll be able to drop in and take a look at them. Well now to our study.

Colossians 1:2-8

2 To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colosse: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

3 We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints; 5 because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, 6 which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth; 7 as you also learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, 8 who also declared to us your love in the Spirit.

I once read of a little boy who used to escape his bedroom after being punished. He would crawl out of his bedroom window down an old fruit tree to the ground. One day, his father told him that he was going to chop down the fruit tree, because it hadn’t borne any fruit for a number of years.

That evening, the boy and his friend bought a bushel of apples, and during the night, tied those apples on the barren branches. The next morning, the man could not believe his eyes. He said to his wife, "Honey, I just can’t believe it! That old tree hasn’t yielded any fruit for years, and now it’s covered with apples. And, the most amazing thing is that it’s a pear tree!"

The Old Testament often compares Israel with a vine or some other plant and summons them to bear fruit for God: Hos 14:5-7

5 I will be like the dew to Israel;

He will blossom like the lily,

And he will take root like the cedars of Lebanon.

6 His shoots will sprout,

And his beauty will be like the olive tree

And his fragrance like the cedars of Lebanon.

7 Those who live in his shadow

Will again raise grain,

And they will blossom like the vine.

His renown will be like the wine of Lebanon.

Paul's image of God's message bearing fruit may also go back to Christ Jesus' teaching: "Other seed fell into the good soil, and grew up, and produced a crop a hundred times as great." As He said these things, He would call out, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." (Luke 8:8).

1. The Power of the Gospel to Bear Fruit (vs. 6)

Here in verse 6 Paul affirms the power of the gospel. Think about it. At the time of this writing, Paul’s words must have seemed like a wild exaggeration. The gospel “which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth” (v. 6). The gospel bears fruit not only in the lives of individual believers but all over the world.

The church was only a tiny handful of ragtag folk, almost unnoticed in a great empire. But Paul affirmed the power of it. The seeds were being sown and the harvest would be bountiful. Paul wanted the Colossians to understand that the gospel was not just another mystery religion isolated in the Lychus Valley and Asia Minor. The Colossians were part of a grand movement of God because the message they had believed and embraced was the seed of truth that was springing up with rich fruit all over the world. It is just as true today as it was in A.D. 60. The message of God never weakens or diminishes over time or distance. It is just as powerful all over the world today as it was when Paul wrote to the Colossians.

That said I want to back-track a little. The gospel starts out local. Paul addressed the saints in Christ “at Colosse.” There is always the local setting, our own Jerusalem where the gospel is to be proclaimed and lived out. Often those around us are indifferent to our hopes, indifferent to our faith and love. We are all in a Colosse so to speak. Whether it Boise City, or Felt; or some where else in Cimarron County we are put in this particular place to spend these particular days of our lives. For God's particular purpose.

Two words describe the gospel’s power as Paul affirmed it: universal and effective. Universal—and effective! Paul constantly celebrates the effects of the gospel—bearing fruit and growing. His metaphor is that of a tree which bears fruit at the end of a season and puts forth the buds for the next. The gospel bears fruit in the conduct of believers, and subsequently, by their witness, wins others to Christ Jesus. The bearing fruit and growing cycle repeats itself over and over. The guarantee of growth is a certainty because the gospel is God’s grace and He will bring the increase.

Are you being fruitful for the Lord? If you don't have a relationship with the Lord experienced the fruits of His love and grace for yourself today?

The gospel message is not just true and good; it's also a message of grace.

2. The Power of Grace (vs. 6)

Grace means “unmerited favor or undeserved kindness.” I'm sure you have heard it said, “Mercy is when God doesn't give we what we deserve. Grace is God giving us what we don't deserve. God give us heaven when we deserve hell; He grants us forgiveness when we deserve to be forgotten; He offers us life when we deserve death. 

This is all God's grace. None of the good things we receive from God are earned. We can't clean ourselves up, get our act together, we can't do anything to earn God's grace! Salvation didn't come to the Colossians because of their attachment to a complicated series of intermediate spirit guides. Salvation didn't come because of their adherence to a set of demanding rituals. Salvation didn't come because of their adventures into the ethereal realm of religious experiences. These were the teachings and experiences that the false teachers said were necessary to be truly saved and spiritual. They are still saying the same thing only with different packaging.

Christ Jesus did not say, “I am the way, the truth, and the life and no one comes to the Father by me and by these religious practices and experiences.” No! He said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” (John 14:6). Paul echo's this thought when he writes, “But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.” (Romans 11:6) or here in verse 6 “...the grace of God in truth;”

Christ Jesus died for us, and He alone offers us life. This truth, when understood, takes root in our hearts and bears fruit. Have you experienced the grace that God offers? Or are you still trying to handle things on your own?

The power of the gospel seed is awesome, but like with any seed it needs to planted. “How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?” (Romans 10:14)

3. The Power of The Sower (vs. 7-8)

Too often we fall into the snare of thinking that the gospel has moved across the face of the earth through the zeal, passion, and commitment of superstars like Paul. Not so! Yes, there are occasional fiery beacons who light up the sky of history, Augustine, St. Francis, Luther, Wesley, Graham. But were they alone in their witness, no.

The sky of history on a whole would be sorely lacking of the luminous light of the gospel if it rested on the shoulders of these alone. The sky is lighted only because of thousands of “lesser” stars: Epaphras, Onesimus, Eunice, Aquila, O. E. and Vira Scott, Dorthey Hartley, Claude Smith, Bud and Fran Funk, Susie Funk, and so on. 

You can extend the list to include those through whom the gospel came to you and set you on the path to and in Christ Jesus. In his letters Paul mentions fourteen fellow workers, four fellow prisoners, two fellow soldiers, two fellow slaves, and one yoke-fellow. Paul knew his was not a solo ministry, nor could he provide adequate witness to win the world for Christ Jesus which was his passionate dream.

No less significant to the kingdom of God than Paul, Epaphras was an evangelist, a messenger, and a witness. This is what ministry is all about, all members – stars in their own right – being given by the Spirit gifts to minister. 

This comes from Adam Clarke's Commentary,

1^st , a proper MESSAGE;

2 ndly, a proper MESSENGER;

3 dly, the message PREACHED, proclaimed, or properly delivered by him;

4 thly, the proclamation properly HEARD and attentively considered by the people;

5 thly, the message which they have heard, conscientiously BELIEVED;

6 thly, the name of the Lord Jesus, by whom alone this salvation is provided, most fervently INVOKED; then,

7 thly, salvation, or redemption from sin and misery, and the enjoyment of peace and happiness, will be the result of such calling, believing, hearing, preaching, sending, and message sent:-and thus the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith is guarded from abuse.

The gospel seed, which bears fruit in individual believers and grows all over the world, must be planted. God's plan is for those who have received the seed of the gospel to plant a seed. This was the case with the Colossians. The gospel came to them when they learned it from Epaphras. 

The most significant day in Colosse's history was not the day that Xerxes rested in the city on his march against Greece. It wasn't the day Cyrus marched his Greek army through the city. The most significant day in the history of Colosse was the day that Epaphras came to town and planted the seed of the gospel. That day there were no banners unfurled in the wind, no trumpets blaring throughout the city. No great fanfare at all, probably most of the Colossians didn't even take notice of Epaphras when he came into town. But that was all going to change.Lives were changed and destinies were eternally altered when Epaphras faithfully started planting the gospel's seeds.

Conclusion: In his opening to the church at Colosse, Paul commends them for bearing fruit. Fruit that comes by the power of the Gospel. He reminds them of grace, grace found only in God. And then he writes of their teacher Epaphras, the one who changed their world when he planted the gospel's seeds in their lives. This is a seed that is bearing fruit still today and bearing that fruit all over the world.

There are many who would try and offer up bad fruit, or stop the spread of the seeds of the gospel altogether. But in the end they will fail, the message of God's grace will overwhelm them.