The Fruit of the Gospel

Listen Online:

Watch Online:

Transcript:

I’ve had several conversations in the last couple weeks that have involved people’s children or grandchildren, whether it’s mine or the other person’s. You know, Charla and I will talk about our kids and things that they’re progressing in, areas where they’re doing better than they have in the past. Kids, if you’re watching, see, it’s not all just negative. We talk about good things you do also.

I’ve had conversations with people here about their kids or their grandkids, you know. Oh, he’s just, he’s really doing well in school, or, you know, she’s exhibiting a lot of maturity. And we enjoy having those conversations.

We enjoy telling those stories. Some of you in this room, your parents or grandparents are talking about you in good ways and you need to know that. We enjoy being able to talk about those things.

We especially enjoy when it’s spiritual growth we can point to and say, you know, this person is growing closer to the Lord. I can see it. I can see over time how they’re progressing, how they’re growing in this area, how they’re growing in faith, growing in all these things.

We rejoice over those things, especially in our own children, in our own grandchildren. Paul rejoiced over seeing those things in the churches that he wrote to. Now, especially those that he had had a hand in leading them to Christ and starting the church and discipling them.

But even in groups of believers that he just heard about, he rejoiced over the spiritual growth that he could point to and say, this is where the Lord has brought you. This is what the Lord’s done. And tonight we’re going to look at one example of this in the book of Colossians.

I’m not sure why my Bible is open to Job. But we’re going to look at the book of Colossians tonight. Maybe I’m supposed to talk about suffering and didn’t realize it.

We’re going to look at the book of Colossians. Over the next several Sunday nights, my plan is, unless the Holy Spirit changes it, is to talk to you about things from the book of Colossians. Because as I spent some time in prayer last year, that sounds so long ago, doesn’t it?

Spent some time in prayer last year about where to go next. There were several things that I felt led to talk to you about on Sunday nights, and I realized a lot of them intersect in the book of Colossians. And so we’re going to talk about some of these things, and we’re going to start in chapter 1 tonight.

If you would stand with me as we read together. Colossians chapter 1, we’re going to be in verses 1 through 8 tonight. The introduction, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God and Timothy, our brother, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colossae.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, 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, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of 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 anew the grace of God in truth, as you also learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, who also declared to us your love in the Spirit. And you may be seated. If memory serves, in English, that whole thing, all those eight verses are one sentence.

In Greek, it is also one long, long sentence. I’m not sure why back in the old days they used to write that way. I know that this was written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but I don’t know why their sentences were so long.

What that means is there’s a lot there to unpack, and it would be really difficult to hit on every detail of everything that he covers because he covers so much ground. Tonight, just for the sake of time, I want to focus in on one area of what he’s discussing, and that’s the spiritual growth of the people at Colossae. Because Paul wrote this to them, Paul wrote this letter to the church there, and introduces it after he gets through the introductions, I, Paul, and Timothy with me to the church at Colossae, we wish these things for you.

He moves into the very first thing, is telling them about the prayers that he prays to God behalf for their spiritual growth and thanking God for the spiritual growth that they are already exhibiting. He was thanking God for the spiritual growth taking place among the Christians at Colossae. And we need to know that he had not met this church in person.

This is not one of the churches that Paul started. This was not, as far as I can tell, an area that he had even been to at this point. He does talk about wanting to visit them.

But this is a church that he only knew of by This is a church that he knew of through Epaphras. Through Epaphras who had worked among them, led some of them to Christ. Epaphras who’s mentioned there in verses 7 and 8. And as Paul has spent time with Epaphras, he has heard the stories from Epaphras about what God is doing at the church at Colossae.

And it was on the basis of that that Paul was so overwhelmed by what God was doing in their midst that he had to write to them, to these people that he didn’t know. Maybe there was somebody at the church that he knew. But he hadn’t been to this church.

He hadn’t discipled them. But he had some knowledge of them through other people, possibly through other correspondents. And yet, just by reputation, he was so overwhelmed at what God was doing in their midst that he had to write them and tell them about it.

Their reputation had spread and it had caught his attention. And that’s the way this works. When the gospel changes someone’s life, it’s bound to attract some attention.

That’s what the gospel is supposed to do. It shouldn’t surprise us when somebody comes to Christ and their life is transformed. And yet when we see it, it’s so miraculous, so remarkable, that it does surprise us a lot of times.

I hope we never get to a point where we lose our awe at the change that He makes in us. And you’ve probably seen this in your own life, that you are not what you used to be before Christ. and have probably seen it in the lives of others. You know, I say this all the time.

I came to Christ as a young child. Not only that, but a young child who had a strong fear, but a healthy fear of my parents, and didn’t get into much trouble. So I can’t really say, this is where I was before Christ, and look at the radical transformation.

What I can say is I can look and see where I would be without Christ, and where I am in contrast. I can still see changes in my life over time as a result of what He’s done. You know what? It’s an amazing thing when we see it in ourselves, when we see it in other people, what only He can do.

Because I’m telling you, there are all kinds of strategies that people use, 12-step programs and self-help books and behavior modification, and they’re looking for change. They’re looking to do better. We’re in the time of New Year’s resolutions, if we haven’t already passed that yet.

Did any of you make resolutions? No? That’s good because we don’t keep them anyway, do we?

This is the time of year when we lie to ourselves and say, I’m going to do better. You know, the only thing that we can resolve to do this or that, we can try programs. The only thing that produces lasting change in our lives is the gospel. And when Jesus Christ does in our lives what only Jesus Christ can do, it is bound to attract some attention.

That’s why we’re so fascinated by the stories of people who’ve had these remarkable turnarounds in their lives. I know a man who, I didn’t even believe it when I first heard it, because I met him years into his Christian walk, but found out he was one of the most violent and notorious drug dealers in Oklahoma City back before Christ. And now he’s a very mild-mannered man. He makes me look like a raving lunatic.

He’s that laid back and that soft-spoken and serving on staff at a church as one of the pastoral staff. That didn’t come about. That change in his life, in his personality, down to the core of who he is, it didn’t come about because he resolved to do better.

It didn’t come about because he tried harder. People don’t look at that and say, wow, because they’re amazed at what he accomplished. They look at it and say, wow, because the power of the gospel transformed him.

And it gets people’s attention. And Paul’s attention was attracted when he heard about what Jesus had done among these people. And so he writes to them, he recognizes the growth that’s taking place, the change that’s taking place in them, because he’s heard about it.

And I think part of this is written, I think it’s written in part to glorify God. I think it’s written in part to cheerlead them a little bit and urge them on to keep going and continue. You can do this.

And we all need that from time to time, right? Somebody to come alongside us and say, keep going. You’re doing great.

keep going. And so he writes to them about the growth that he’s already seeing there, and they were growing primarily in three areas. And as I list these off to you, you’re going to think, gee, I’ve heard of that somewhere else before.

Paul wrote about it elsewhere. They were growing in faith and hope and love. He outlines all three of them.

Because those are some of the things that are going to be produced in us when the gospel does what the gospel does. He says in verse 4, Well, in verse 3, he says, we have not stopped praying for you. Verse 4, since we heard of your faith in Jesus Christ. See, they had a trust in Jesus Christ that grew and grew.

We think of faith a lot of times just in the context of salvation. I had faith that He was going to save me. But our faith in Jesus Christ should not stop with just the belief in Him as our Savior.

That’s not the extent of our faith. Our faith should continue growing as we get to know Him better and come to trust Him in a deeper and deeper way. I’ve quoted this so many times that I can’t remember who said it, so I’ll just take credit for it.

If we can trust Him with our salvation, we can trust Him with our situation. And I find that that principle gets challenged more and more in my life as I grow in faith. It seems like the need to trust Him becomes deeper and deeper because we’re handing over greater and greater burdens to Him.

And sometimes we get in those situations as believers where we think, I don’t know, I don’t know that I can let go of it. I don’t think we’d ever say out loud, I don’t know that I can trust God with this, but we just don’t know that we can let go and let Him handle this. And that’s where we have to stop and think about all that He’s done for us before.

Wait a minute, I trusted Him with my salvation. What’s harder than saving a sinner like me? And think about all the things that He’s done on your walk with Him.

All the smaller places where we’ve put our trust in Him, And He’s come through for us. Even if coming through for us didn’t look like we expected it to, He’s come through for us and He’s taken care of us. And we see He’s done it in this little area and He’s done it in this slightly bigger area when I had to step out in faith and stretch that trust a little bit more and put that trust in Him and step out on faith.

And then here it got a little bigger, it got a little more unsteady, but I had to step out a little further and put faith in Him. And we’ve gone on and on through our walk. And He’s always taken care of us.

We have to come to the realization kind of like the Israelites should have, that He didn’t lead us out here into the middle of the wilderness by faith just to let us die. He didn’t take care of us through all of these storms and all these obstacles just to abandon us now. And we should get to a point where as Christians, when we’ve been walking with Him for a few years, our faith should have grown from where it was even at that moment of conversion where we trusted Him for salvation.

We should have come to a point where we can trust Him with our situation, whatever it is. And we should grow in that faith. He said, I’ve not stopped praying for you heard about your faith in Jesus Christ. Their faith in Christ was not a one-time event, and ours shouldn’t be either.

He said, and of your love for all the saints, their love for the saints, that one of the things that he took notice of that they were growing in, it wasn’t just something they said, it was something they did. And as believers in Jesus Christ, our capacity to love others, to love one another, for starters, ought to be continually growing. The Bible does teach that we as Christians are supposed to love everyone.

But the New Testament really emphasizes loving one another. I don’t think that means because people outside the church are less valuable, or you have to believe all the same things I do in order for me to love you. I think the reason for that is that if we can’t love our brothers and sisters in Christ, how can we convincingly tell the world that we love them?

And how can we reflect the love of Jesus Christ when we don’t love each other? And I’m not telling you that tonight because I think you’re all struggling with that. You’re all seated in one section.

And I know that may not mean much to you, but I’ve been in churches where there were the Northern and the Southern Baptists. And I don’t mean different denominations. I mean the Northern and the Southern Baptists, they sat on the opposite sides of the aisle and the two did not cross.

And coming into the church knew you better be careful which side you sat on. And I used to switch back and forth every Sunday just to mess with them. If we can’t love each other, how can we convincingly tell the world that we love them?

How can we convincingly, how can we demonstrate to the world that we were loved by Jesus Christ and that He loves them as well when we say He loves us and loves through us and we can’t love each other? So the emphasis in the New Testament on loving one another within the church is not because those are the only people we’re supposed to love, but because these are the training wheels. This is the Sunday School 101.

You’ve got to get it figured out here and love each other first. Because if we can’t love each other when we’re basically nice people and we’re in agreement on some pretty important things, how are we going to convincingly love the world when they’re not always nice people and there may not be a whole lot of things we have in common? He said their love for one another at the church in Colossae. Their love for one another in that church.

Their love for all the saints. See, they were serving their fellow Christians even outside of their church. They were supporting them.

They were encouraging them. They were praying for them. They were demonstrating their love to one another and to the churches around them so much that it caught Paul’s notice.

And he commended them for their love. And folks, that is something that he has to do in us. That is something that the gospel accomplishes in us, that God uses the gospel to change our hearts and increase our capacity to love.

and I know that because it’s not always natural. Has there ever been anybody in church who got on your nerves? Do not point. Do not mouth things.

I have been there. I have told Charla, oh, that person really gets on my last nerve. Don’t worry, it hadn’t been recently.

Oh, that person really gets on my last nerve. And you know, I’ve told you before, you can’t like everybody. Sometimes certain personalities just rub each other the wrong way.

And I pride myself on being able to get along with most people, but still, sometimes people just rub you the wrong way. I don’t know how I’m supposed to deal with this person, but I’m their pastor, so I’ve got to figure it out. And I had to pray a few times.

Lord, help me to love this person the way you love them. And I noticed, gradually, God began to soften my heart toward that person. And I know it had to be God because it was not in my nature.

My nature was, even as laid back as I typically am, to get in that person’s face and say, if you ever talk to me again like that, especially in a business meeting, we’re going to step outside. But I didn’t do that. I went to God about it, and He changed my heart.

He gave me a greater capacity. I was not capable of loving that person where they were. He had to do it, but He increased that capacity to love.

And as we grow in Christ, our capacity to love others should grow as He grows it in us. And then He says in verse 5, because of the hope that is laid up for you in heaven. You see, they were confident, and they were growing in their confidence that He was going to live up to His promises, that He was going to follow through with those promises.

The way we use the word hope nowadays has become such an empty, almost vain word. I hope. And we say that all the time about things that we have no assurance about, have no reason even to expect.

How many months have we been saying, I hope this virus goes away soon? Do we really expect to wake up tomorrow and poof, it’s gone? I told y’all months ago, I thought it was going to be gone the day after the election.

That didn’t happen. I say, I hope I win the lottery. By the way, the reason I have no actual assurance of that is I’ve never bought a lottery ticket, but I’d love to be walking down the street out here and find the winning one just blowing down the street.

I hope that happens. I’ll share it with you. I hope it happens, but I don’t think it’s going to.

We use the word hope that way. When the Bible uses the word hope, it is a certainty. We have hope.

Hope is not something we feel. It’s something we have. It is a confidence that you can rest your full weight in.

When they said we have hope, that means they had the assurance. They had absolute confidence that God was going to do what God had promised because he always had. And it takes us a while as Christians to grow into that hope as well.

It takes us a while to get to a point where that hope is strong enough to weather some of the greater storms. It’s kind of like faith. It starts out small, but it’s a muscle. And as it gets worked, that hope, that confidence in God’s faithfulness continues to grow.

And these things that he was commending them on, I don’t believe for a second that these are the only three areas where they were growing spiritually, but it’s three of the most prominent ones that he picks out in this chapter, in this passage. And their growth in all of these things was the fruit of the gospel. As he lists all these things, he says in verse 5 that it’s a result of the truth of the gospel that they had heard, which has come to you, verse 6, as it has also in all the world and is bringing forth fruit.

It is the result of them being changed through the message of salvation in Jesus Christ. And we think of the gospel as being something that changes our eternity when we trust Christ for the first time. But the gospel doesn’t just change our eternity in that one instant. The gospel also changes our lives on an ongoing basis.

See, Jesus Christ didn’t save us just so we could go to heaven. Jesus Christ saved us so that He could transform us into what God intended us to be. And we cannot, as we read this passage, I realize again that we cannot be changed without Jesus.

But with Jesus, we cannot be unchanged. There’s going to be some change. You should see some change because it’s what the Gospel does.

You should see some growth in your life because it’s what the Gospel does. Now, it doesn’t mean that everything’s instantaneous. For me, it’s been a process.

And I still realize all the time when I hear the things I think and I realize how I feel that there’s still a long way to go. but it’s been a process. And sometimes the progress has been rapid.

Sometimes it’s felt like we’re barely just chugging along, but there’s been growth. Sometimes you see it instantaneously. I had a friend who talked about before coming to Christ, he had the filthiest mouth of anybody he ever met.

And he trusted Christ as his Savior. And he asked God’s forgiveness and he said, I got up and those words never came back. Praise God for that.

That’s not necessarily everybody’s story. I’ve met people three or four years in who are still battling with that language or whatever it is. But we’re going to see some evidence, some change in us.

And the gospel was bearing fruit in these people’s lives and it had been doing it ever since they had discovered it. Ever since they had come to Christ. It began right then. See, God saves you in that instant.

You trust Christ as your Savior. And He begins the process of change. It may be something small and subtle.

It may be something cataclysmic like Paul on the road to Damascus. But there’s going to be some change. And it’s going to continue.

Because that’s what the gospel does. Spiritual growth is a natural result of the gospel as the Spirit works in us. And when I say it’s natural, I don’t mean that it’s a natural process.

I don’t mean that it’s something we can happen into. That it’s natural for us. What I mean is it’s, you know, one thing leads inexorably to another.

You can’t escape it. If I jump off the building, the natural result is I’m going to get hurt. We understand this.

Natural results of things. The natural result of the gospel is spiritual growth. It’s something God does in us.

It’s something that His Spirit is at work doing, but it’s something we can encourage. It’s something we can pursue. Otherwise, Paul probably wouldn’t have written this to cheer them on.

Don’t think just because it’s the work of God and He’s responsible for all of it that we can just sit back and we can run the other direction and expect him to continue making changes in us. No, no, we can encourage this. We’re supposed to pursue this.

We’re supposed to chase after it. And more importantly, it’s because it’s the work of God, we can pray for it. And that’s what he was doing in verse 3.

He was praying for it. He was praying to see it happen in their lives. We can pray for it, not only in ourselves, but I think the great example of this passage is Paul was praying for in other people.

Wouldn’t you love to have other people praying for your relationship with God, for your walk with God, for you to grow stronger, for you to grow closer to Him, for you to be more like Jesus? Wouldn’t you love to have people lifting you up for that to happen? Start doing it for each other, because that’s what we’re supposed to do.

You should have that, as we should be praying that for one another, and we should be giving thanks to God for the growth that we see in ourselves and that we see in others. How encouraging would it be to hear, you know, I’ve noticed, God, I can see the difference. I can see what God’s doing in your life.

You know what? You’re different than you used to be. I think we want to hear that.

I think we want to see that. We need to pay attention to ourselves and our spiritual growth, but also what God’s doing in the lives of our brothers and sisters. And when we see that spiritual growth, we need to be like Paul and we need to celebrate it.

Because as a church, we become the things we celebrate. If we celebrate spiritual growth and people becoming disciples, then that’s where we’re going to head. And I think he’s given us a great example.

We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you. It was something they did as a habit. It wasn’t a one-time thing.

Hey, thank God for what’s happening with you. He said, we’re praying always for you, and we’re praying for you because, and as we see this happening, we’re rejoicing with you over what God’s doing in your midst. Folks, to those tonight who are believers, let me encourage you to start praying for yourselves, for this spiritual growth, but pray also for one another. Pray that God’s Spirit would work in us to change us, to make us who He wants us to be, to make us reflect who Jesus Christ is.

Ask Him to show us how to encourage one another, how to cheer each other on as we pursue what He’s doing in us and what He wants to do in us. And if there are any within the sound of my night, either here in person or watching online, who’ve never trusted Christ as their Savior. This spiritual growth is not a way to get right with God.

It’s the result of getting right with God. That spiritual growth can only happen when we start with trusting Jesus Christ as our Savior, when we acknowledge that we’ve sinned and it’s separated us from God, and that we can’t get back into a relationship, into fellowship with Him on our own. There’s nothing we can do to make ourselves acceptable to God.

And instead we trust in Jesus who died on the cross to pay for our sins in full and rose again to prove it. And we ask God’s forgiveness because of what Jesus has done for us rather than anything we earn or deserve. And then he begins to change us.

I think so many people in our world are trying to get this backwards, trying to change themselves so God will accept them. When what we really need is to be accepted by God through Jesus Christ so then he changes us.

Powered by atecplugins.com