Well, this morning we are going to begin our summer preaching series through the book of Colossians, as Ray said, as we've made note the last couple of weeks. And I'm going to begin our study in a little bit different way this morning. Over the last few years, We've come to appreciate a series of videos from a ministry called The Bible Project. These videos are brief introductions to each book of the Bible, and they really do a good job of just taking the whole book of the Bible and putting the parts together and explaining how one part flows into the next, the main emphasis of the book, I think that the Bible project did a really good job with the book of Colossians So we're gonna begin this morning by watching a video. It's about nine minutes long, but pay close attention to it follow track through and I think you'll really gain a good understanding of the overall message and Content of the book of Colossians this morning about looking at that video. So let's watch that video here Paul's letter to the Colossians. It was written during one of Paul the Apostle's many imprisonments for announcing Jesus as the risen Lord. And the letters addressed to a group of people that Paul had never met, who made up a church community that he didn't start. This church in Colossae was started by a co-worker of Paul's named Epaphras, who was actually from that city. And Epaphus had recently visited Paul in prison and he updated him on how well the Colossians were doing overall. But he also mentioned some of the cultural pressures tempting them to turn away from Jesus. And so Paul wrote this letter to encourage the Colossians to address the issues that Epaphus had raised and then to challenge them to a greater devotion to Jesus. The letter's design and flow of thought are pretty easy to follow. The opening movement focuses on Jesus as the exalted Messiah. Paul then goes on to show how his suffering in prison is for the exalted Jesus, and then he addresses the pressures tempting the Colossians to turn away from Jesus. After this, he explores the new way of life that Jesus' resurrection opened up for them. So the letter opens with two prayers. Paul first thanks God that he learned from Epaphras that the Colossians have been totally faithful to Jesus, showing love for God and their neighbors, all because of the hope they have in the new creation that Jesus has in store. And so he moves on to pray that they would grow in their wisdom and understanding about Jesus. And then Paul has placed a poem here to help the Colossians and us do exactly that. It's the centerpiece of chapter 1, a poem all about the crucified and exalted Messiah. It has two parallel stanzas and it's crammed with language and imagery from the books of Genesis and Exodus, from the Psalms and the Proverbs. The first stanza explores how Jesus is the true image of God. In him, the full character and purpose of God is embodied in a human. He's the firstborn, an Old Testament phrase about Jesus' royal status over all creation. He shares in the very identity of the one true creator God. And by him, all reality, all powers and authorities, spiritual and human, have been created. It's in Jesus the Messiah that we discover the very author and king of creation. And so in the second stanza, we discover he's also the one bringing about a new creation. He's the head of a new body, which refers to Jesus' people, who are the new humanity, of which his own resurrection existence is a prototype. In him, God's glorious temple presence dwells and so it's through Jesus' death and resurrection that God has reconciled himself to humanity, to all spiritual powers, to all of creation. It's a remarkable poem and Paul will keep referring back to it as he goes on in the letter. So he first shows how the truth of this poem transforms his own experience of suffering in prison. He is being punished for announcing to the Greek and the Roman world that Jesus is the resurrected Lord and King of all. So his suffering, he thinks, is not a sign of defeat. It is actually his way of participating in Jesus' own suffering done as an act of love. And so his hardships are actually a cause for joy. He's imprisoned for the surprising news that Israel's resurrected Messiah is creating a new multi-ethnic family. And more, just as the divine glory dwelt in Jesus, so Jesus dwells in and among his international family. Or as Paul says, the Messiah is in you all, the hope of glory. Paul then addresses the cultural pressures that are tempting the Colossians to turn away from Jesus. They were confronted by a combination of mystical polytheism along with a pressure to observe the laws of the Torah. So all these new Christians, they had grown up worshiping the various Greek and Roman gods who govern different arenas of human life. And many simply included Jesus as one more deity that they could worship. There was also great pressure from the Jewish Christian community for these non-Jews to complete their commitment to the Messiah by following all of the laws found in the Torah. Specifically, he mentions eating a kosher diet, observing sacred days, and circumcision. It's very similar to the problem he addressed in the letter to the Galatians. For Paul, to give in to either of these temptations is compromise. It's a failure to grasp who Jesus really is and what he did on their behalf. The Colossians used to live in fear of spiritual powers and elemental spirits, as Paul calls them. But Jesus triumphed over these through his death and resurrection. He freed the Colossians from any obligation to them. In the same way, Jesus fulfilled on our behalf all of the laws of the Torah. which never had the power to transform the selfish human heart anyway. And so what Jesus did in his life and death and resurrection, it lacks nothing. It doesn't need to be supplemented by following the laws. He is the reality to which all of the laws of the Torah were pointing anyway. Instead of the laws, followers of Jesus have the power of his resurrection to change them, which is what he goes on to explore. Following Jesus means joining his new humanity because their lives have now been joined to the risen Jesus's life. And this is why Paul challenges the Colossians to set their minds on things above where the Messiah is seated or rules at God's right hand. Now Paul doesn't mean here, think about how you'll one day leave earth and go to heaven. Rather, the heavens are the transcendent place from which Jesus rules now over all of creation. And from there, he will one day return here to transform all things. Or, as Paul says, when the Messiah who is your life is revealed, you too will be revealed with him in glory. So Paul challenges them to live in the present as the kinds of new humans they will one day become. He uses the image of their old humanity characterized by distorted sexuality and destructive speech. For Christians, that humanity died with Jesus and has been replaced by his own new humanity, which is characterized by mercy and generosity, by forgiveness and love. And this humanity, it transcends the ethnic and social boundary lines of our world to create, in Paul's words, a people where there is no one Greek or Jewish, circumcised or uncircumcised, slave or free, but the Messiah is all and is in all people. Paul then gets really practical and he shows the Colossians what this new humanity might look like in a first century Roman household, which was a highly authoritarian institution where the male patriarch held the power of life and death over his wife and children and slaves. Not so in a Christian household. Here, the risen Jesus is the true Lord. And so, in the Lord, the wife allows her husband to become responsible for her. And the husband is subject to Jesus by loving his wife and placing her well-being above his own. In a home where Jesus is Lord, children are not objects but are called to maturity and to respect. And parents are to raise their children with patience and understanding. Christians who are slaves are to honor their human masters precisely because they're not the real master. Jesus is. And Christians who have slaves are to understand that this slave is not their property, but rather a fellow member of Jesus's body to be honored and embraced in love. Paul's walking a very fine line here. He is reshaping the most basic Roman institution around Jesus who rules by his self-giving love. And so while he doesn't abolish the household structure outright, the exalted Messiah demands that it be transformed almost beyond the point of recognition for any Roman living in Colossae. You can see this most clearly in the letter's conclusion. After a request for prayer, Paul applies these instructions about Christian slaves and masters. And we discover that Tychicus is the one carrying and reading this letter to the Colossians. And he's accompanied by a certain Onesimus who was a former slave to a Colossian Christian named Philemon. And we discover from another letter addressed to Philemon that Onesimus had escaped from his master. It was a crime worthy of imprisonment. But Paul asks the whole church to greet Onesimus as a faithful and beloved brother in the Lord. And then in the letter to Philemon, Paul says that he should receive Onesimus no longer as a slave, but as a brother. Talk about ending the letter with a punch. So in the letter to the Colossians, Paul is inviting us to see that no part of human existence remains untouched by the loving and liberating rule of the risen Jesus. Our suffering, our temptation to compromise, our moral character, the power dynamics in our homes, all of it must be re-examined and transformed. We are invited to live in the present as if the new creation really arrived when Jesus rose from the dead. And that's what the letter to the Colossians is all about. If you want to watch that video again or any of them, you can go to YouTube and just Google the Bible Project or go to thebibleproject.com. Well, my time this morning, I want to make a few introductory remarks or comments on the book of Colossians, and then we're going to cover chapter one, verses one through eight. So let's look to the Lord and ask for his blessing on our time this morning. Heavenly Father, we again are thankful to you for your word, Lord, even as we have Listen to verses one through eight and then have watched this overview of the book of Colossians. We are made aware that this is not just an ancient writing given to a people a long time ago, but that it is a word that was written for us in our day as well. Lord, we thank you so much for your mercies to us. Thank you for saving us. Thank you for calling us out of darkness. Thank you for your great power that has done that. Thank you that we are part of the kingdom of your dear son, the Lord Jesus. So help us, Lord, as members of that kingdom to live as kingdom citizens. Lord, encourage us this morning in your word. The Lord Jesus, he is the preeminent one. He is over all. And Lord, I pray that you would help us that we would submit to him in all areas of our life. Lord, may even this time this morning in the first verses of Colossians, as we look at Paul's prayer for the church, Lord, be an encouragement to us. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Well, I want to begin by emphasizing a couple of things regarding the background of the Church in Colossae. You can kind of follow along in your bulletin if you want to with the main points here. Now, it was noted in the video introduction, the Church in Colossae was not founded by the Apostle Paul, but it was the result of Paul's long ministry. It was actually the result of Paul's ministry in the city of Ephesus, where he labored for a number of years, for a couple of years. In Acts 19.10, we're given kind of a brief overall description of the result of this ministry in Ephesus. In Acts 19.10, we read this, that is Paul's teaching in Ephesus continued for two years so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. And of course, Colossae was one of the cities in Asia. So the word of God that Paul was teaching and preaching in Ephesus went out throughout all of Asia, reaching even Colossae, but not reaching Colossae because Paul went there, but reaching Colossae because God used the teaching of Paul for the conversion of someone else by the name of Epaphras. And so there was a man by the name of Epaphras who came and under the ministry of Paul probably was converted and then Epaphras took the gospel to the city of Colossae and through his ministry a church was established, a church was planted, a church was established. And we see this in the opening of Paul's letter. In verse 7, he reminds the church about where it is that they heard the gospel. In verse 7, he says, just as you learned the gospel from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant. So it was from Epaphras that the church, that the believers in Colossae came to know the Lord Jesus. Well, we learned something more about Epaphras in the closing words of this epistle. We learn that Epaphras was highly esteemed by Paul because of his labors for the Lord and his love for the gospel and his love for the church in Colossae. So in verses 12 and 13 of chapter four, Paul, as he begins to close the letter, says, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God. For I bear him witness that he has worked hard for you and for those in Laodicea and Hierapolis. So Paul's testimony of Epaphras came about, not secondhand, but Paul's testimony about Epaphras came about because Paul had personally met Epaphras as the video showed us that Epaphras was with Paul in prison at one point, and it was actually in prison that Epaphras shared with the Apostle Paul the things that were going on in Colossae. And as Epaphras was with Paul, they shared together times of the word of God, times in praying for the church at Colossae, and Paul was able to understand something of the heart of Epaphras. Well, that leads us to the next important point, the purpose for this letter. Why did Paul write this letter to the church at Colossae? And again, I want to expand a little bit about what was conveyed in our opening video introduction. You know, in some of the letters that Paul wrote, it's pretty evident why Paul wrote. For instance, the letter to the church at Galatia, very clear that Paul wrote to the church in Galatia because they were in danger of listening to a false gospel that really was no gospel at all. And he warns them about this false gospel that was being preached. And his tone is pretty severe in the Book of Galatians. You can look at some other books, and he writes, and it's evident he's writing because he wants to be an encouragement. Perhaps they're going through suffering, times of difficulty, and so on. But it's evident what the book is all about. But as we read Colossians, we do understand that Paul warns the Colossi believers not to be taken in by certain false teachers that apparently were among them in the church, or at least part of their sphere that they were with. But what isn't so clear is the exact nature of this false teacher. We're not told the exact details of the nature of these false teachings that was there. I was helped in some of my study from a couple of commentaries in particular that made the case that it's difficult for us to interpret Colossians if we simply tried to identify one main error that was there that Paul was dealing with. In fact, it isn't just one main error. There are actually a number of errors, a number of pressures, as the video said, that were influencing the believers in Colossae that they were in danger of listening to. So there's a number of things and what is clear though about all of these false teachings is that all of these false teachings were challenging the preeminence and challenging the sufficiency of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so Paul warns the Colossian believers not to listen to any kind of teaching that is driving them away from their faith and confidence and trust in Christ, in Christ alone. So we have in this letter really a two-pronged approach of Paul, and we see this over and over again in the letter. On the one hand, Paul warns against various false teachings, and he's going to be doing that again throughout the letter. But then secondly, As an antidote to this, this letter is filled with teaching that exalts the person and work of Christ. So his teaching about the person and work of Christ and the exalting of Christ is his antidote to the false teaching that was taking place in Colossae. And we'll see this again throughout the study, and in fact, we see this in what are recognized as the key verses in the Book of Colossians, chapter 2, verses 6 through 8, where Paul writes, therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, just as you were taught abounding in thanksgiving. That's the antidote. And then the warning, see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human traditions, according to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to Christ. Well, as I said earlier, we don't necessarily know all of the details of the false teachings, of the pressures that we're coming to, and though we get a fairly good idea of some of them by the things that Paul wrote, by the warnings that he gives. And this is going to be opened up for us in the months ahead during the summer. But I want to just at least mention to you at least five of them, five of these false teachings that I think were a part of and being influential in the church at Colossae. And I'm not gonna expand on them, I'm just gonna give them to you, five in number, and give you a verse for each one. So we'll just go fairly quickly. First of all, some of the false teachers said that the Colossian believers needed to advance in a higher knowledge than what they had been taught by Epaphras. It's true that Paul will encourage, even in the prayer next week, that we should increase and pray that the Colossian believers would increase in wisdom and increase in knowledge. We'll see that, but the problem was that these false teachers were coming in and telling them that there was some kind of knowledge and some sort of wisdom that was outside of, that was apart from Christ. So we see in Colossians 2.8 that Paul says, see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit. Well, secondly, some of the false teachers claimed to have a superior and unique insight into spiritual beings, whether angels or powers of evil. Spiritual beings were a huge part of the culture in Colossae. And so some of these false teachers saying they had this inroad into an insight into these spiritual beings, whether they be the evil beings or whether they be angels and so on. And there's this preoccupation and emphasis about the spiritual world. That's the reason that Paul so much emphasizes the preeminence of Christ. And so we see this in Colossians 115. He, Christ, is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through him and for him. Christ is exalted, he says. All of these spiritual beings, whether they're evil beings or angels, they're all made by Jesus. You can't go any higher than worshiping the Lord Jesus. Well, a third, some false teachers were claiming insight into deliverance from the evil forces of darkness. They promised the Colossian believers, if you follow me, or if you follow us and you follow our teaching, you'll experience a greater freedom and a greater protection from those evil forces that are around you. But again, Paul emphasizes, Christ himself has delivered us from Satan's power. And Christ himself is the one that through him we triumph over. sin and over evil beings. And Colossians 2.15 says, he, that is God, disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him, in Jesus. So again, we see Paul both warning and Paul giving the antidote here. Well, let me give you just two more areas of concern that Paul addresses in Colossians. Fourth, there were some false teachers, probably from the Jewish camp, who were insisting that Christians needed to follow the rules and regulations of the Old Covenant. And Colossians 2, 16 and 17, Paul says, therefore, let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food or drink, or with regard to festival, or a new moon, or a Sabbath. Paul argues against this kind of legalism, said that's not true spirituality. Just outward conformance or outward doing things or outward partaking of the old covenant law, that's not true spirituality. In fact, that doesn't even give you the power that you need. In the fifth place, lastly, it seems that there were some false teachers advocating for some tenets of an early form of Gnosticism. They were teaching the necessity of asceticism, insisting on a life of self-denial as the way to achieve a higher spiritual life. And Paul warns them, said, listen, don't submit to these regulations. In verses 21 and 22 of Colossians 2, Paul says, these are the things that they're telling them. These false teachers are saying, do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, referring to things that all perish as they are used according to human precepts. But Paul warns, In verse 23 of chapter 2, these have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. And this is an important passage of scripture that we'll cover more fully when we get to it. Well, with the many different false teachings that were present in the Colossian church, there was one thing that was alike about them all. They all fail to recognize that the only true source of spiritual life and power is in the Lord Jesus. They all undermine the preeminence and the sufficiency of Christ for salvation and for living the Christian life. So that's what we're gonna be covering. We're gonna see that as we go through the book of Colossians. Well, the rest of our time this morning, I want us to look at the first eight verses of Colossians chapter one, where we're going to see Paul's thanksgiving for the church in Colossae. Paul begins this letter with a familiar greeting, where he identifies himself as the author, and then he identifies the church in Colossae as the recipients of the letter. The content is very similar to the greeting of most of Paul's letters, verses one and two of chapter one, Paul writes, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God and Timothy, our brother, to the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae, grace to you and peace from God our Father. Well, let me just note several things here. First of all, Paul identifies himself as an apostle. And this is important because Paul is going to be warning about false teaching that was there and trying to influence the believers in Colossae. And some of this false teaching involves this higher form of knowledge or this higher form of understanding of things. And what Paul is immediately doing when he comes to them is saying, I'm not combating this false teaching. with my own wisdom, with my own understanding as if it's myself. I'm coming as an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. So when I come to you and I give you these warnings and I give you this teaching about Christ, you need to listen to it, not because of anything in myself, but you need to listen to it because I'm a representative, I'm coming in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he wants those that read this epistle to clearly understand this. In verse two, Paul right away sets the tone for the letter. You know, anytime you read a letter, and as I mentioned, the letter to Galatians, there's a tone, an overall tone that's in the letter. The tone in Galatians is a tone of severity. Well, the tone that we have in this letter is interesting to see because in this simple statement right away in verse two, Paul conveys some hopefully encouraging and helpful truths. He right away reminds the Colossian believers of something he's actually going to speak about a number of times. By calling them saints, he reminds them that they've been called out of this world by, as we're gonna see later, by God's power, they've been called out of this world and are now united to the Lord Jesus Christ. They are saints, they are called out ones for the purpose of serving the Lord Jesus Christ. And they're called out to live lives for the glory of Christ. And then Paul right away seeks to encourage them that from what he has heard, for what he knows about them from Epaphras, that he believes that they are living as those that have been called out once, that they're actually living as faithful saints. And Paul's encouraged by this, and Paul wants them to be encouraged by this. He calls them faithful brothers. He wants to encourage them at the very beginning of this letter that he believes from everything that he's heard that they are true believers. They are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. They are saved. They are the children of God. We'll look at this just again in a minute. But then in verse three, Paul gives his customary greeting that is full of meaning when he says, grace and peace from God our father. And this customary greeting, Paul reminds them as reminds us that our being saints, being called out ones is because of God's grace, not because of anything in us. And especially when you think about the believers in a city like Colossae, a pagan city, why were they chosen to hear the word, to hear the gospel of Christ? did God and His sovereignty take and send someone to them to preach the gospel? Well, as they thought about this, hopefully as we think about this and we realize it is God's grace, isn't it? It's God's grace for any of us that hear the gospel. Why have we heard the gospel when so many others have not heard the gospel? Why are we sitting here this morning? to worship God when so many others are not. It's God's grace. And God's grace in the Lord Jesus Christ and bringing us salvation because of his power brings us then to peace with God. So we have grace and we have peace. Because we have experienced the grace of God, we are at peace with God. God is at peace with us. He's gonna talk about that a little bit later about being alien, being alienated, but now at peace with God. So we are at peace with God. God is at peace with us. So Paul wants to encourage them. in these things right at the very beginning, that they are brothers, that they are faithful brothers, that they're living for Christ. Well, after the opening of his letter, we once again see an often used pattern of Paul. After the opening of his letters, Paul often begins by expressing two things. Many times, he first of all tells the people that he's writing to what it is that he's been praying to God for them about. And then the second thing that he does is he actually will then I'm sorry the first he talks about how his Thanksgiving for the church for the people for what God's done and then he talks About though his praying for them and we're gonna look at the first of those this morning Where the first thing that Paul does is he thanks God for the church at Colossae and for what God has done for them So these these are the two things we're gonna look at first in his expression of thanks thankfulness to God Paul reassures the Colossians that he's convinced that they are true Christians and I already mentioned that before but Paul is actually gonna make this even more clear and In Colossians 1, 3 through 4a, we read, we always thank God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus. And so like many of the letters, Paul, first of all, expresses thanks to God for what God has done in saving a people for himself, in this case, in the city of Colossae, and establishing a church for himself in the city of Colossae. As Paul sat in prison, and he thought about the various places that the gospel had gone, it was such an encouragement and such a joy for him when he thought about the city of Colossae and he remembered what God had been so gracious to do that even through his ministry in Ephesus that God was pleased to save someone and then to send someone, in this case Epaphras, to a city like Colossae and then through his preaching through Epaphras' preaching to bring many people to himself. What an encouragement, what a joy this was for Paul as he sat in prison and thought about the church in Colossae. And let me note something here. You know, Paul was never one to be jealous for his own prestige or his own glory. Although he wasn't directly involved in the proclamation of the gospel in Colossae, his joy for the salvation of those believers in Colossae was just as great as if he had been the one actually preaching the gospel to them. We saw the same thing with the heart of Paul in the book of Philippians. Remember whenever the gospel was being preached? And even though it was being done by some out of selfish ambition and some to cause Paul harm, he was so thankful and rejoiced that the gospel was being preached. And so Paul here, any time the gospel was preached, Paul's heart was filled with thanksgiving and Paul's heart was filled with joy. He wasn't out to get credit for himself that I can check off another church that I Founder that I was instrumental in and becoming a church of people being say that wasn't Paul Paul was thankful to God for what God had and whoever that he did this through and I hope we have the same kind of joy I hope that our hearts are filled with thanksgiving to God for the gospel when it's preached where when it's faithfully preached wherever it's preached and whoever preaches it that our hearts are filled with thanksgiving for that and especially when we hear people that are coming to know the Lord Jesus and But there's another important truth we see here. Paul wasn't just thankful for the many who made a profession of faith in Christ and who considered themselves to be Christians. This is important. He wasn't just thankful because he heard that these Individuals in a church in Colossae had made a profession of faith verbally with their mouth. Paul was thankful that these believers both made a profession of faith in Christ and then evidenced fruit in their lives, that they gave credible testimony that their professions were real. And so Paul says, we always give thanks since we heard of your faith in Christ, Jesus, and then he continues in the rest of verse four through verse six, And he says, and of the love you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you as indeed in the whole world, it is bearing fruit and increasing as it also does among you since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth. And so we see here that Paul's confidence in the salvation of the Colossians was grounded in their profession of their faith in Christ, first of all, but then because they gave spiritual evidence of true conversion. Paul mentions first the evidence of love. He says, true faith in Christ will always be accompanied by love for other brothers and sisters in Christ. This is one of the evidences of being a true Christian. And that's why Paul mentions it here. Matter of fact, this isn't the only place. Whenever Paul gives thanksgiving for the individual churches, he always, it seems like, mentions the fruit of love as being an evidence of those that have been truly saved by the Lord Jesus. You know, in 1 John 3.14, John wrote, we know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. It's pretty clear. This is one of the truths, one of the evidences that these believers in Colossae really were born again because of the love that Epaphras had shared with Paul, the love that they had for Christ and the love that they had for others. You know, the love spoken about in 1 John 3.14, it doesn't exclude emotion, but it isn't primarily emotion. The love that's spoken about is a love of action. You know, we sometimes focus these actions on maybe giving or helping people in need. And certainly, if we love the people of God, we're going to help them. We're going to try to meet their needs. But the primary way, I think, that we know if we love other brothers and sisters is by our desire to be with them and share in their lives. It's by our thinking about other brothers and sisters, thinking about the church, thinking about those that are part brothers and sisters with us in the church. If we don't think about each other any time other than Sunday morning, if that's the only time we think about each other, if that's the only time that we have any interest in getting together with other brothers and sisters in Christ, then we need to ask and question whether we really are No matter what our profession is, whether we really are the redeemed of God, because God says, if you are redeemed, if you're one of mine, if I have done a work of grace in you, you will love the brothers. And again, that love doesn't just happen when you come in on Sunday morning and then you leave and you don't think about the church again until next Sunday. If it's not a part and parcel of your very existence, Monday through Saturday, then you need to question, you need to ask God, why don't I have a love for other brothers and sisters? And help me to know whether or not it's an indicator that maybe I really am not a child of God. And I know that's maybe hard to hear, but that's what God says. Well, Paul's encouraged because a path was shared with him, the love of the Colossian believers for Christ and the church. But he also shared with Paul that there was other fruit. It wasn't just the fruit of love that was there. There was other fruit that was evident in the lives of the believers in Colossae. In John 15, Jesus says, by this my father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. So again, we have a faith in the Lord Jesus, but there's evidences in our life, and one of the evidences is that there's fruit. And so because Paul hears of the fruit that accompanied the profession of faith in the Colossian believers, Paul is confident of their true salvation. And Paul writes at the beginning of this letter, assuring them as much as he can know by the words of Epaphras, as much as he can know from what Epaphras shares about their lives and their hearts, that he is confident that they are true believers. So why does Paul do this? Let me pause for a second here. As I thought about this, it seems to me that Paul is already addressing one of the problems that we're facing of the Colossian believers. Because the false teaching that was influencing the church at Colossae emphasized the need for something that was in addition to Christ. They spoke of some sort of higher life, some sort of higher spiritual experience of some kind. And with this, with this emphasis, and with this constant telling the Colossian believers they needed something more than what they've already gotten. They need something more than what they have in Christ. They need something more than the simple gospel that Epaphras gave to them. By emphasizing that, Some of the Colossian believers, I think, would begin to question if they really were believers. If I haven't had this experience, if I don't have this higher knowledge, if I am not a part of this group of people that have this higher spiritual life, then maybe I'm not a true believer at all. And so what Paul does right away is he seeks to give them assurance that from what Epaphras told them, they really are true believers. This is very practical on Paul's part. In effect, Paul tells them, turn a deaf ear to all of those teachers that are telling you you need something more, that you need something in addition to Christ, something in addition to what Epaphras has told you about. Paul emphasizes one more thing in verse 5 that is important in the context of the letter. Paul tells them that this faith and love is accompanied by, and actually flows out of, a hope that is laid up for them in heaven. Paul specifically says for them, as he's heard from Epaphras, that they have this hope that is laid up for them in heaven, and this hope that is laid up for them in heaven is actually the thing that they draw upon that encourages them and helps them in their Christian life. So Paul is reminding them that though there is a present reality to their salvation, there is also a future reality to their salvation. And again, this is important to these believers. And it's important to us also. Some of the false teachers were telling these Colossian believers, again, that they should be experiencing some reality, some spiritual reality, then and there, that was bordering on an experience of perfection that will only be ours in heaven. You know, all true Christians desire holiness. All true Christians desire to be freed from sin. And because all true Christians desire this, it makes it easy for us to listen to a false teaching that tells us that we can get that with some sort of a shortcut. It's easy because as Christians, we do desire holiness and we do desire to be free from sin. Whenever we hear this higher life that's available and this false teaching about so-called Holy Spirit experiences, they become attracted to us because it actually is promising us something that we actually long for in our hearts anyway. But the promise is, or the problem is, that they bypassed the true teaching of scripture, that holiness is a lifelong effort. That perfect holiness will only be ours in heaven. And we've got to realize that, we have to understand that. So as the Colossian believers were hearing all of this false teaching, they wanted holiness, they wanted a better experience in Christ. And yet, they had to come to understand, yes, you will get that, but it's not actually going to be yours in fulfillment until heaven. Philippians 3.12, Paul says, not that I've already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus had made me his own. You know, Satan tempts us all the time to doubt whether we're the children of God because we still sin. Does he ever whisper that in your ear? Because we fail so many times. Because we are so far from the perfection that we desire, that we want in our life. And when we sin, and especially when we struggle with what are sometimes called besetting sins over and over again, Satan whispers to us, you can't be a child of God because you can't gain victory, or because you continue to stumble, because you're not this perfect Christian yet you desire to be. And so Paul encourages these believers to press on, to not listen to the false teaching about an unrealistic, excuse me, unbiblical Christian life. And I think Paul's point is that the real encouragement comes from the very fact that we do hope. The encouragement comes from the very fact that we do long to be freed from sin, because unbelievers don't long for that. Unbelievers don't long for being free from the sin that is part of our life. Paul speaks of this in Romans 8, 28. In these verses, Paul is talking about creation, one day being set free from the effects of sin and corruption, and then he says, in Romans 8, 23 and 24. And not only the creation, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the spirit grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this we hope, for in this hope we are saved. And again, let me just pause. Dear child of God, are you sometimes discouraged because you're not yet perfect? Does Satan whisper to you that you can't be a child of God because you fall short of the holiness you desire? Well, be encouraged. Your faith in Christ that is accompanied by your groaning and desire to be rid of sin is a work of the Spirit in us. Well, in the rest of verse six and in verse seven, Paul expresses thanksgiving for something else that is closely related to the first cause of thanksgiving, and that's our second point, which is gonna be much shorter. In Paul's expression of thanksgiving or thanksfulness to God, Paul reassures the Colossians that they have indeed heard the true gospel. Colossians 1, 7, and 8, since the day you heard it, the gospel, and understood the grace of God in truth, just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf and has made known to us your love in the spirit Back in verse five, Paul noted that the faith of the Colossian believers came about through hearing the word of truth of the gospel. It's unlikely that any of the believers in Colossae, or at least many of the believers in Colossae, had ever heard the Apostle Paul in person. They'd never heard Paul preach, and for many of them, most of them probably, the gospel that they heard came from Epaphras. In verses seven and eight, Paul wants the Colossian believers to be assured that the gospel that they heard from Epaphras was the true and the complete gospel. And once again, we need to understand what Paul says in the light of the overall context of his letter. Dick Lucas in his commentary on Colossians says this, it seems likely that some teachers had cast doubts on the completeness of the Christian message as delivered to the Colossians by Epaphras. Since the young church had never yet seen or heard the great apostle in person, it would be easy for these new and enthusiastic critics to drive a wedge between Paul and his fellow servant. The impression could be given that there was considerably more in Paul's gospel than Epaphras had yet reported. So the Colossians would be bewildered, wondering whether or not what they had heard was an adequate account of the apostolic message." And so Paul does two things here, because undoubtedly the false teacher who's saying, yeah, but who's this Epaphras guy who's coming and tells you that he's bringing this message, this gospel from Paul? You know, the great apostle Paul, there's a lot more that he's got. There's a lot more depth there than Epaphras is sharing with you. And we're going to give you what that depth is. We're going to tell you about this higher learning and higher knowledge. And you don't have to listen to Epaphras, listen to us. Because if Paul was here, he'd be telling you the same thing. All kinds of things like this. And so Paul, first of all, warns the believers not to listen to the false claims of those who had denigrated the gospel that they had heard and believed. Paul says, don't listen to these false teachers. They're going to lead you away from Christ. He says, don't listen to their claims that you need a better version of the gospel or something added to the gospel. The gospel you heard was true. The gospel you heard was the gospel of grace, the gospel of power, the gospel that exalts the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to that gospel, the gospel that you heard from Epaphras. And so secondly, Paul makes clear what a great blessing it was for them to have a faithful ministry of the gospel in Epaphras. So he tells them, listen to Epaphras. He is a faithful shepherd. to your soul, some of your versions say minister, it's actually a servant, says that Epaphras is your servant, just like I am your servant, and we're the servants of Christ. And Epaphras doesn't come giving you his own message, giving you his own words, he comes as a faithful, obedient servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the message that he's given to you is the same message that I would have given to you had I been there. Epaphras is your servant, he is serving you, and he has the truth, he has the gospel. and he wants to encourage them to continue listening to Epaphras. I can just imagine how encouraging this was for Epaphras, whenever Tychicus brings this letter and they are encouraged to listen to Epaphras, their faithful servant. Some of those perhaps that had been tempted and listened to some of the false teachers were hopefully convicted and were again assured of this faithful pastor minister that they have in the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, in closing, let me just close with two applications. First of all, pray for God to give understanding of this book of Colossians to your pastors as they study and as they prepare to preach throughout this summer from this letter. Pray for us. Pray that God would give us understanding not just of the letter and the details of it, but how this letter applies to us and our lives and our hearts as a church, as individuals, so we'll know how to be faithful shepherds like Epaphras was, and that we'll be able to take this word of God and faithfully preach it. Pray for the message of the book in your own hearts and lives. Read the book of Colossians. I encourage you, read the book of Colossians over and over again as you come, and put some effort into it. Try to figure out what does this section have to do with the next section, and how do they tie together, and what are the arguments, and why does Paul say what he does, and what are the encouragements, what are the challenges, what is here for me, how do the false teachings that were in Colossians day have to do with false teaching in our day, and I would tell you they're very relevant because the same false teachings are around us, and we're tempted to listen to the same. So pray that we would exalt the Lord Jesus, that we would see in Christ in this book the sufficiency and preeminence of Christ. Again, this is a message that's needed for our own day. If we can once grasp, take hold of, be firmly convicted in the preeminence and the sufficiency of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is the ground of our assurance. It's the ground of our peace. It's the ground of our hope. It's the ground of everything that we have, the preeminence and sufficiency of Christ. Well, second, maybe this morning, just in some of the things I've said, did you maybe come to understand that you don't know Christ personally? Maybe you've been wrestling, is the simple gospel that's preached here in this pulpit week after week, is it just too simple? You've been waiting for something higher, something deeper, something different. Maybe for the first time, the Lord is working in your heart and saying, you know, it is just Christ. You know, the things I've been looking for aren't there. All I need is Christ. All I need is to go to him. Maybe in your own life, you've come to see, you know, maybe the fruit isn't there. The fruit that God says will be there if you're a true child of God. And so you may have made a profession, but there's very little fruit in your life. Maybe this morning you're convicted that because there's so little fruit that the Spirit has shown you, you know, I've never really trusted in Christ. I've really never had that saving experience in Christ. Well, I would encourage you this morning, implore you this morning, you don't need higher experiences, you need the experience of coming by faith and repentance to the Lord Jesus. And if you have that kind of a heart, I encourage you this morning, simple gospel is come, come to Christ, trust in him, he will save you. And I would plead with this this morning in the words of the old hymn writer. I love this hymn. Come you sinners, poor and needy, weak and wounded, sick and poor and sore. Jesus ready stands to save you, full of pity, love and power. Come you weary, heavy laden, lost and ruined by the fall. If you tarry till you're better, you will never come at all. Let not conscience make you linger, nor of fitness fondly dream. All the fitness God requires is to feel your need of Him. Let's pray.