In our overview of Colossians, we examined how the Colossian church and the church today share a similar problem: the tendency to introduce into the church other philosophies and religious ideas as level with and part of the Christian faith. In this first passage of the book, we can see that Paul is laying a foundation to defend ourselves from unbiblical teaching and ideas. As we look at Colossians 1:1-14, let me ask you, are you grounded in the gospel? Are you convinced of its truths, and growing in application? Paul begins the letter of Colossians by reminding the church of the truth they had already heard and responded to. Paul wanted the people to know that they didn’t need a new spiritual experience, or a new teaching, they needed only to grow in the truth they already had. Through Paul’s greeting, thanksgiving for the church, and prayer, we learn that the gospel has sufficient power to change lives.
There are two points regarding the sufficiency of the gospel:
I. Proofs of power 1:1-8
II. Prayer for power 1:9-14
Let’s start with the proofs of the power of the gospel to change lives. From verses 1-8 I’d like to pick out three.
1. One proof of the power of the gospel is seen in Paul’s life. Paul had unwavering passion for Christ.
This week in our study we looked at Paul’s conversion experience. Before Christ, Paul was a zealous man, but for all the wrong things. Acts 9 describes him “breathing threats and murder” against believers, and he was an enemy of Christ. All of that changed the day he met Christ on the road to Damascus. From the book of Acts and Paul’s letters we see evidence of a man who had become relentless in his pursuit of Christ and the advance of the gospel.
The first few verses of this book reveal some clues to the fuel that fed Paul’s passion. First, Paul never got over God’s grace. In 1:2, Paul writes, “Grace and peace to you from God our Father. In 4:18 Paul ends with “grace be with you.” This letter starts and ends with grace, as many of his letters do! Paul knew who he had been without Christ, knew that God had saved him by grace, not by works (though he had been zealous for God), and he never ceased to be amazed by God’s grace to him. Second, from verse 1, we can see that Paul was engaged in the work of the gospel. He was not saved and then caught up in other pursuits. He was an apostle for Christ and lived for the gospel! Paul was also in God’s will for his service. He was an “apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.” This was what God had appointed him to do—carry the message of grace as an apostle to the Gentiles. Finally, Paul’s passion was fueled by his willingness to count the cost. He submitted to whatever circumstances in which the work of the gospel would place him. We know he wrote this letter from prison, joyfully, passionately concerned about a church he’d never visited. Difficult circumstances didn’t deter Paul from his passion for the gospel, but seemed to strengthen it as he meditated on, depended on, and trusted on God through them. It reminds me of how we are strengthened by weight-lifting. Paul used his trials as “weights” to strengthen his dependence on God.
2. A second proof of the power of the gospel is unity.
In verses 1-2 Paul mentions “Timothy our brother” and the “saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae.” God is referred to as “our Father.” You get the sense that this was a family letter! Consider also the workers mentioned in these first 8 verses. Paul was a Jew, Timothy had a Jewish mother and a Greek father. Epaphras is a shortened form of the name Epaphroditus, taken from Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love. This would indicate that Epaphras had either a Greek or at least pagan background. These fellow servants of the gospel would otherwise have nothing to do with each other. However, the gospel unites people of every background, culture, economic status…this is what Paul was referring to later when he wrote “Here there is not Greek or Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.” (3:11)
3. A third proof of the power of the gospel to change lives is its universal appeal.
The gospel is a gift that is fitted to all people, at all times, in all places. The fact that the gospel was bearing fruit in the lives of the Colossians as well as in “the whole world” (verse 6) indicated this was a universal message. It is the only seed that can be planted anywhere in the world and bear fruit. False teaching may take root for a time in a particular culture, place, or era, but the gospel bears lasting fruit wherever it is taken. What kind of fruit does the gospel produce? From verse 4-5, it is faith, love, and hope.
As we look at some proofs of the gospel from these verses, take a look at your own life. Is there evidence that the power of the gospel has changed your life? How has a passion for Christ changed the course of your life? How has the gospel united you with brothers and sisters with whom you may not have otherwise had anything in common? How have you grown in faith in Christ, love for others, and hope for God’s promises to be fulfilled in Jesus’ coming? If you see proof of these things, you have responded to the gospel, and that is all the salvation you will ever need.
II. Prayer for power (9-14)
Let’s turn our attention now to Paul’s powerful prayer for the Colossian church. If we have the power of the gospel giving evidence to God’s work in our lives, how do we appropriate this power as we continue to grow and walk in Him through our daily lives? This question reminds me of a story of a missionary who was given a car that would only start when it was pushed. He devised a plan where each day he would go to a nearby school, ask that a few of the children be dismissed from class, and have them help him push the car down a hill so it could start. Then he would use the car for his work, letting it idle whenever he had to leave it and turning it off when he was done for the day. This is how he used the car until a few years later, another missionary was assigned to his post. The veteran missionary proudly explained his clever plan for starting his car to the new recruit. Then the new missionary went to the car, popped the hood, and fiddled with a loose wire, got into the driver’s seat, turned the ignition, and the car started. Think of all the trouble that could have been saved for both himself and others if only the first missionary knew how to tap into the power the car had available to start!
We, too, need to learn how to apply the power of the gospel to our lives. This comes through prayer. Paul prayed for 2 things for the Colossian church. First, he prayed for knowledge of God’s will. This goes beyond intellect to a knowledge given by the Holy Spirit as we study and apply scripture to our lives. Paul prays specifically that this knowledge would be “in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.” Wisdom is a major theme in Colossians, because the false teachers were spreading an early form of “Gnosticism,” which gets its root from the word “gnosis” for knowledge. They taught that there was a secret knowledge available to a select group of people. Paul, however, prayed for epignosis, a kind of “super knowledge” of God’s divine plan and purpose through history. (Henry Ironside describes this as God’s redemptive plan revealed throughout the scriptures, of which I am a part just as a drop of water is a part of the ocean. It does not render us insignificant in any way, just a part of something that is so vast we can hardly begin to comprehend it. No wonder we are in need of super knowledge!!)
The second thing Paul prays for is power (verse 11). He asks that they may be strengthened with “all power, according to his glorious might.” It is God’s divine power Paul is asking for, the same power that raised Christ from the dead. This is the power of God that is at work in me, making me victorious through temptations and trials and even bringing great joy. What a prayer to be praying for ourselves and other believers! What difference will it make in your life and the lives of others if you pray and meditate on the fact that God’s knowledge and power is at your disposal to enable you and others through the hard things in life?
Paul finishes his prayer with thanksgiving in verses 13-14. Notice the past tense in each of these verbs. The things he thanks God for are eternally settled: delivered, transferred, we have redemption and forgiveness of sins. Paul prayed with certainty knowing God had already accomplished salvation for His people and would see it through to the end. The power of the gospel does not depend on our self-effort, but on God’s power already at work to accomplish His purpose and plan for our lives and the lives of every believer.
These final words state the gospel. For those who have received it, God has delivered, or rescued, us from the darkness of the domain of sin, which blinded us to the knowledge of God and the way our sin had separated us from a relationship with Him. When we trusted in salvation provided by Jesus’ death for that sin on the cross (our redemption payment), God transferred us to the kingdom of His Son, and we experienced God’s forgiveness. These are settled facts for the believer. I hope they are settled facts for you, and that you can see proof of its work in your life, as well as pray with certainty that God will finish the work He has begun in you.
The truth of the gospel is amazing! We don’t need another, different spiritual experience, more rules, or a new teaching. All we need has already been provided by God in Christ. We need only learn to use what we have, through prayer and the power of God. If we do these things, we will surely “walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him.”
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