Introduction
There is a main point or theme to every book of the Bible. It is important that we identify that main point. It is basic to understanding what the author is saying. If you have been reading Colossians over this past month, I am sure you have seen the theme of Colossians clearly. Paul writes the book of Colossians to show us our sufficiency in Christ. That is his main point.
Understanding and remembering our sufficiency in Christ is vital to each of our lives. There is nothing better that we can do with our time than meditate on, thank God for, and trust in our sufficiency in Christ. And it should be that there is nothing more enjoyable for us to do. What is better than dwelling on what we have in Christ?
Just as we find it easy to dwell on the benefits of earthly possessions – a new car, a new job, a dishwasher, etc., so it should be easy to dwell on the benefits package of being in Christ. You may be disappointed with your benefits package at work, but you will never be disappointed with your benefits package that comes with your life in Christ. If you are in Christ you are rich!
Homer and Collyer Langley were the 2 sons of a very well respected doctor in New York. Their father had accumulated so much wealth that when he died his sons had no financial need to work. In fact, they could live quite comfortably.
They didn’t live at all as you might expect. They chose a lifestyle that is difficult to even fathom. They boarded up their house and padlocked the doors. All of the utilities were shut off. No one was seen going into the house and no one was seen coming out. They lived in total seclusion. No one even new them. Although their father had been quite well known, almost no one had even heard of his two sons.
One day in 1947, the police received an anonymous telephone call saying that someone in the house had died. The police entered the house through a second story window being unable to enter through the front door. Sadly, they found Homer Langley’s lifeless body on a bed upstairs. He was clutching the February 22, 1920 issue of the Jewish Morning Journal. It is strange that he had such an old journal, but even more strange is that he had been completely blind for years.
The sad and strange discoveries did not end there. The brothers apparently collected everything. They had auto parts, boxes, musical instruments, newspapers, rags, appliances, and host of other things. A team of excavators was brought in. The team worked for 3 weeks hauling away rubbish before they discovered Langley’s corpse, which was about 6 feet away from where they found Homer’s body. He had been killed by a homemade booby trap created to protect their possessions from thieves.
No one ever found out for sure why the brothers had worked so hard to collect their 140 tons of ‘things.’ One friend of the family said he thought he remembered Langley saying that he was collecting newspapers so that his brother could catch up on his reading if he got his sight back (I borrowed this illustration from John MacArthur, Our Sufficiency in Christ, pp.37-38).
We hear the story and think that it is strange and sad. Yet, we sometimes as Christians live our lives in such a way that is strange and sad. While we are rich in Christ, we live off the scraps of the world. While we already have everything we need, we still keep searching for something more.
How could we forget the riches we have in Christ? Why would we choose to live as spiritual paupers?
Perhaps it is because we forget what we have. Perhaps it is because wrong teaching sways us.
“No. We couldn’t be swayed! How could we forget what we have?!” Well, the Colossians were tempted to doubt Christ’s sufficiency. If they can be tempted, so can we.
All of us can be tempted to think to ourselves, “There must be something more.”
It is serious enough that Paul writes a whole letter just to argue the point.
What can we do to learn and to remember the sufficiency of Christ? Where do we start? Where do we start in learning the sufficiency of Christ? Where does Paul start? He gives thanks to God for the Gospel.
Giving thanks to God should be a regular part of the Christian life.
Are you a thankful person? Let me ask that same question another way, how much time do you spend in prayer thanking God for things?When you do thank Him, what do you thank Him for?
Your pattern of thankfulness is an indicator of how humble your heart is. A prideful heart seeks the glory for this accomplished. A prideful heart is never concerned about giving the credit to God.
Your pattern of thankfulness is an indicator of what you value. We know this to be true. We hear someone say, “I do so much work around here, and no one bothers to thank me. I guess I should just stop doing it.”
We should worship God by giving Him credit for what He does. This is why we thank Him for our food. We may have purchased the food items at the store, but we still know that He gave it to us.
We should thank God most of all for the Gospel. That is His greatest demonstration of love, His greatest demonstration of power, and His greatest demonstration of wisdom. It is the greatest gift any man could ever possess.
How often do you thank God for the Gospel? Shouldn’t we all answer, “constantly?”
Well, Paul is going to help us to thank God for the Gospel. Remember why He is expounding on this though. This is where you start in learning the sufficiency of Christ.
We all need to learn and remind ourselves of the sufficiency of Christ. We all need to start by giving thanks for God’s greatest gift to us – the Gospel.
We will look at Paul’s thanksgiving to God for the Gospel so that we will be equipped to honor God with an appropriate response to His greatest gift to us – the Gospel, the Gospel of an all-sufficient Christ!
So, you say, “I need to be thankful for the Gospel. What does that mean?” To be thankful for the Gospel, you must…
1. Constantly take notice of the Gospel blessings in your life and in the lives of others (vv.4-5).
Paul thanked God for what he had noticed in the Colossians. He heard about these things and then constantly took notice of them when he prayed for them.
What are these Gospel blessings?
Your faith in Christ.
Paul intends to remind them of the all-important Gospel blessings. He begins with their faith in Christ.
It is important to understand what Paul means by faith since there is much counterfeit faith around.
Faith is to be persuaded that something is true and to trust in it. It is more than merely intellectual assent or intellectual agreement. Two necessary elements of saving faith are repentance and obedience.
Saving faith is a repentant faith.
Saving faith is an obedient faith. Good works are the mandatory result, the necessary result of saving faith. A man’s obedience will not reach perfection this side of heaven, however, perfection will certainly be his direction.
Saving faith is a gift from God. That is why Paul gives thanks to God when he sees a man believe. Ephesians 2.8-9 say it is a gift from God.
Ephesians 2:8-9
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Philippians 1.29 also says the same thing to the Philippians.
Philippians 1:29
For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake
Some may worry whether or not their faith was pure when they first believed in Christ. Maybe I wasn’t completely, 100% sincere. Of course you didn’t have a 100% pure faith. No one does. The truth is, if you had any genuine saving faith at all, that means that God was already at work in you. When God begins a work, He never quits.
Philippians 1:6
For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.
Paul intends to remind the Colossians and us that true faith is something that we should thank God for.
Take notice of this gospel blessing!
Your love for all the saints.
Paul also tells us to take notice of our love for the saints. If you have true love for your brother or sister, take notice of God’s work in your life.
1 John 4:7
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
1 John 4:12-13
No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.
Epaphrus told Paul of the Colossians love in the Spirit. It was a love that the Spirit produced.
Paul says that their love is ‘for all the saints.’ That word, ‘all,’ is significant. They loved all the saints. They didn’t pick and choose the saints that were the most appealing to them. They didn’t just love the Christians that had the same personalities or interests. They loved all the saints.
You might say, “How in the world could I love everyone? How could I be attracted to everyone?” It is important to understand that true love is not a mere emotion. Love is sacrificial giving to meet genuine needs of others.
Loving ALL the saints is a mark of true love. True love is selfless. It is not conditioned upon what you will get in return.
Has the Spirit produced His fruit in your life? Do you have a love for all the saints? Take notice of His work in your life. Notice that it is His work.
The Colossians may have paused for a second after hearing the words of the false teachers. “You Colossians, I am not saying that Christ is bad. I am not saying that there is much benefit. I am just saying that there is more.”
Paul is helping the Colossians to see all that they have been given so that they should respond, “What!? Are you kidding? Do you know what I have been given? And, you want me to look for more? Get out of here!”
If we all took notice of what God has given us, we would respond that way.
Imagine a guy who has been blind all of his life. He goes from doctor to doctor looking for help. Finally, he comes to one that does an amazing work and the guy has sight for the first time. You can imagine his gratitude – jumping for joy, hugging the doctor, vigorously shaking his hand. But then, you see him a year later. He has lost his gratitude. He says to you, “this earth is just not what I thought it would be. And, my eyes hurt sometimes…like, like when I look at the sun for a really long time.” What would your response be? You would probably grab the guy, shake him up, and remind him of what he has been given. “Look man, you were blind, but now you see!!”
Paul understands these great gospel blessings. He takes notice of them. So should we.
There is a another gospel blessing.
Your future home with Christ.
Some of you thought I was going to say ‘hope.’ That is the word Paul uses. Read verse 4. He says you have this faith and this love because you have this hope. He is not referring to the action of ‘hoping’ here. He is using the word as an objective truth. You have a hope which is reserved for you. There is something that you are looking forward to. It is not imaginary. It is not pretend. It is true. It is in heaven. You will get it one day.
Without doubt, this objective hope in heaven causes them to actively hope. We hope because we have a hope.
This hope centers on Christ. Colossians 1.27 calls Christ, “the hope of glory.” Peter tells us about our inheritance that is reserved for us in heaven.
1 Peter 1:3-5
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
God has given a home in heaven with Christ that is secure.
Because you have a home with Christ in heaven reserved for you, it changes the way you live right now. It causes you to have faith and love. How is that?
The world wants to buy now and pay later. They want to receive the think now and pay later. The Christian, having a real hope, is willing to pay now and receive later. He is willing to make sacrifices now, because he know what he gets later.
Romans 8:18
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
Take notice of what God has given you.
Remember to do this constantly. But, to be truly thankful, you must do more that just take notice. You must…
2. Attribute these Gospel blessings to God’s powerful Gospel (vv 5b-6).
Take a peak down at verse 7 for just a second. Paul is speaking of the gospel. He says you learned it from Epaphrus. He affirms the ministry of Epaphrus. He says, “I love Epaphrus. He is my teammate. We are both servants. Epaphrus serves Christ faithfully. I can’t go everywhere, so Epaphrus took the gospel to you.”
He affirms the ministry and the message of Epaphrus. He says that the Colossians learned the Gospel from him. However, Paul is careful to attribute the Gospel blessings to God’s powerful Gospel.
You must do the same.
How do I do that?
Understand what the Gospel is.
The Gospel a message. That’s what Paul means by “word of truth.” It is a message of truth that can be heard (v.5), it can be learned (v.7), and it can be understood (v.6). Paul also indicates that it is a message about the grace of God.
Other passages of Scripture complete the picture for us. The Gospel is a message about God.
Romans 1:1
Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,
The Gospel tells us who God is. God is our Creator. He is our rightful Owner. He is holy. He is sinless. Because He is holy He demands our holiness, or sinlessness. He is always just. He hates sin. He is always faithful to punish sin. God is loving and gracious. God is personal. He is knowable.
The Gospel is a message about man. Man is sinful. He rebels against God’s rightful ownership. He does not seek God on His own (Romans 3.10-12). He has a bad heart.
Ephesians 2:3
[apart from salvation we] lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
Every man, apart from salvation, is deserving of eternal death since the wages of sin is death (Romans 6.23).
The Gospel is a message about Christ. Paul says it well in 2 Corinthians 5.21.
2 Corinthians 5:21
He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Christ is sinless God. He was treated as sinful man and experienced death in place of sinful men. We know His work on the cross satisfied the wrath of the Father against sin because Christ was raised from the dead. Christ conquered death and sin for all who would trust Him. Christ did this so that we might be treated as though we had never sinned.
The Gospel is a message that calls men to repent. Man must turn from his sin to God in humility and dependence with the intention of living to please his Creator and Master. When a man does this, the Gospel is to him a message of hope.
To Attribute these Gospel blessings to God’s powerful Gospel, you must understand what the gospel is and…
Understand how powerful it is.
*It is powerful to shake the entire world.
He reminds the Colossians, this amazing Gospel dramatically changes your life, but the lives of people all over the world. This is not small thing. This is massive. It is a message for people of every race, of every walk of life, of every culture.
*It is powerful to reproduce fruit.
When the gospel takes root in a man’s heart it bears fruit and increases. It did it in the lives of the Colossians and in the lives of everyone else that has ever received the Gospel.
Paul uses the middle voice of bearing fruit meaning that it is the Gospel in and of itself that bears fruit. The Gospel is powerful. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is enough. It can get the job done. We don’t need anything more.
“Colossians, be more than satisfied with this gospel! Be amazed and impressed.”
As the Gospel produces fruit in people all over the world, that fruit includes new converts. The work of the Gospel in our lives will cause us to share that same Gospel with others.
The Gospel is powerful to reproduce fruit.
Conclusion
So, Paul thanks God for the Gospel. He constantly takes notice of Gospel blessings in the lives of the Colossians, and He attributes those incredible blessings to an incredible Gospel.
He teaches the Colossians and us that the first step to learning our sufficiency in Christ is giving thanks to God for the Gospel.
Are you thankful for the Gospel? Do you actually thank God for the Gospel? Do you constantly take notice of the faith, love, and hope that He has given you? Do you attribute those gifts to the power of God’s gospel? If you haven’t been doing that, take time today to do it.
