Sermon Tone Analysis

Paul gave continual thanks to God in his prayers.

It was natural that when Paul prayed for the church at Colossae, the prayer burst into an overflow of thankfulness and praise.

This thankfulness was because their lives demonstrated that God was at work in them and in the church.

The Gospel was bearing fruit in and through their lives.

When Paul heard of their growing faith in Christ Jesus and their love ... for all the saints and their hope of heaven he became thankful.

When committed followers of Christ see God using a person they are thankful.

In this message we will see what made Paul thankful and thus learn how we too can expresses thanksgiving for God’s fruit in the lives of others.

May we also allow God to use us so that we can be a cause of thanksgiving.

For it is God who is at work in us to build us up in faith, love, and hope.

As we look at verses 3-8 keep in mind that this passage is one long sentence in the Greek held together by the subject of thanksgiving.

Paul is overwhelmed with thankfulness- he’s thankful for the Colossians, he’s thankful for the gospel, and he’s thankful for Epaphras.

I. THANKFUL FOR THE COLOSSIANS, 1:3.

After the greeting a prayer of thanksgiving is offered for the readers beginning in verse 3.

“We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you (NAS),

Thanksgiving needs to be part of every prayer we pray.

Notice that Paul says that he “always” gives thanks.

This was his practice and habit.

Although Paul had never visited Colosse, what he heard about the believers there caused his heart to rejoice and to respond by praying for God’s continual blessing to be upon them.

I encourage you to do the same thing.

When you hear something good about someone, pray for him or her.

My tendency is to pray for people who are hurting or backsliding.

While that is needed, we also must pray for people who are serving God because the Enemy will inevitably launch an attack against them in order to destroy their witness and tear down their testimony.

Be like Paul.

When you hear or see someone doing well, thank the Lord for him and intercede on his behalf.

In the first three verses, Paul is already laying the groundwork for the major teaching of Colossians: The Supremacy of Christ.

In verse 2, he uses the phrase, “in Christ.”

Here in verse 3, he refers to “Our Lord Jesus Christ.”

This triple name expresses the divinity, humanity, and messianic office of the Savior.

The title “Lord” refers to His deity.

He is God and Lord of all.

The name “Jesus” speaks of His incarnation.

He was born into the human race and walked on this earth.

“Christ” reminds us that He came as the sacrifice for our sins as the promised Messiah.

Also notice the simple word -possessive pronoun- “our.”

What they all have in common, the mutual bond they share is that Jesus Christ is their Lord.

All the saved claim the same Lord as Lord of their life.

II.

THANKFUL FOR THEIR SALVATION, 4.

Verses 4-8 express reasons for thanksgiving.

Notice as we move through the passage Paul’s thanksgiving triad: for their faith, their love, and their hope.

[These three virtues are linked together in other passages also (; ; ; )].

“since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints;”

[“We”-Paul, Timothy, Silus, Luke, Demas, Onesimus, Aristachus, John Mark, Justus () in their prayer meeting times.

United group prayer is powerful before the Father.]

Their salvation is referred to as “your faith in Jesus Christ.”

They are commended and prayed for because they had put their trust and confidence “in Christ Jesus.”

It’s amazing to me that the testimony of their faith reached all the way to Paul in a Roman prison.

I wonder if people in my own neighborhood would commend me for my faith?

This word “in” is interesting.

If we look at we find eis, or into which is a preposition of motion, “whoever believes in-into Him-Jesus” In verse 4 it is en, a preposition of sphere [locative] or rest, “their faith is anchored or operates in Jesus Christ” It is a Christ-centered faith.

Paul is thankful that they are in Jesus or have a Christ centered faith.

The church at Colosse was characterized by three qualities—their faith, their love, and their hope.

It is my personal persuasion that these are the three marks of any solid church.

The first mark of a mature fellowship is faith.

The author of Hebrews tells us that without faith, it is impossible to please God.

Therefore, the church that gathers together without believing God is going to work will not experience renewal, revival, or blessing.

The second mark of a strong church is love, for it is love that identifies us as Jesus’ disciples ().

Love is the fruit of faith and the proof of genuine faith (; ; ).

Faith in Christ leads to love.

Because of what Jesus had done in their lives, they were able to express love to “all” the saints.

Paul uses the article “the” in front of love to make it more definitive, more concrete.

Love is not an abstract principle or even a gushy feeling.

This love is agape, which has sacrifice as its key character and is displayed in actions.

Love is a transforming act because it is really faith in motion.

As says, “…the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”

This church was full of love.

True faith produces love.

Genuine faith in Christ exhibits itself in unconditional love for the imperfect followers of Christ.

It will be easy to love believers in heaven because they won’t have a capacity for sin.

It’s much more difficult to love fellow Christians now because they still sin, just like we do.

Love is the greatest characteristic and the greatest commandment of the Christian faith.

Are you exhibiting it in your life today?

III Thankful for THEIR SURE HOPE OF HEAVEN, 5a.

We find hope, the last of the great triad, in the first part of verse 5.

“because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, (of which you previously heard in the Word of Truth, the Gospel.)”

“because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, (of which you previously heard in the Word of Truth, the Gospel.)”

[Why have faith in Christ if there is no hope for a glorious future?

Why love others if it doesn’t matter in the end?

Hope makes all the difference because we have a confident expectation that everything God says in His Word is true today, or will come true in the future.

Hope is stored up for us like a treasure.]

Heaven was real to these faithful believers.

They knew this world was not their home.

They longed for and lived for heaven.

They thus were laying up their treasures in heaven not on earth.

The hope of people today is that they hope they will win the lottery, or they hope it will not rain.

Many people have no hope.

Without it, we end up without any anchor for our life.

There’s nothing worse than seeing someone grieve because they have no hope.

Christian hope is not mere well-wishing.

It was an assured faith, demonstrated by the words “hope” and “laid up” like a treasure.

The NT word “hope” signifies the assurance of the thing hoped for.

It is a fervent yearning, a confident expectation and assurance that God’s promises will be realized.

This hope of glory is so assured because of the hope we have already received (, ; ) when we received the Spirit of Hope.

“Laid up” translates in Greek indicates savings deposits.

[In it is translated “appointed”.

See ].

It could also mean stored up or reserved.

The reference is to the glorious reward, that is the future heavenly blessing of the people of God [Curtis Vaughan.

The Expositor’s Bible Com.

Vol 11.