Gospel Prayers
Notes
Transcript
What an incredible blessing it is to worship with you this morning! As we are just beginning our journey through the letter to the Colossians things are going to get quite exciting over the next few weeks.
Today we will begin a two part mini-series within the letter about the patterns of prayer. This will be such an important study because prayer is like air for the Christian. It is vitally important.
It is one of those disciplines that you can’t have enough of. Prayer is our lifeline to God and is something we should all desire do more.
It is possible to move men, through God, by prayer alone. — Hudson Taylor
Prayer was a Part of Hudson Taylor’s Life
Hudson Taylor believed prayer to be a time of refreshment. His son, Howard Taylor says of his father, “For forty years the sun never rose on China a single day that God didn’t find him on his knees.” (Howard Taylor, Hudson Taylor and the China Inland Mission).
Hudson was a man of great prayer to a greater God.
Hudson Taylor has learned the importance of prayer and shares the heart and message of the Apostle Paul. Both men, although separated by millennia, would share the same message.
Prayer changes things. Prayer changes people. Prayer changes things. More like prayer changes everything.
The apostle Paul knew this and when he was writing his letter to the Colossian church that was being infiltrated with false teaching and heresy, he begins the letter the most powerful way possible. He begins his letter with the power of prayer.
Paul knew that prayer is what sets the world on fire. Even though he was under house arrest, during his first Roman imprisonment, some nearly 2,000 miles away from Colossae, he knew his prayer would reach the church with the proper intensity that would prime their hearts to receive his message.
Paul had heard from Epaphras that the gospel had taken root in the church, but that they had come under the attack of false teaching, so Paul writes to combat the heresy and provide words of caution for such destructive teaching. His remedy is the gospel of Jesus Christ and the corrective effect of understanding the supremacy of Christ.
Today we will begin a two-part study on the patterns of prayer called:
Gospel Prayers
Paul offers a prayer of thanksgiving, however this prayer is loaded with deep theology and built upon a gospel framework. So it is with gospel prayer that Paul begins his fight against the Colossian heresy.
Paul understood....It is possible to move men, through God, by prayer alone. So that’s what he intends to do. He prays for his brothers and sisters in Colossae, and he does while he reminds them of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Let’s Examine Paul’s Gospel Prayer
3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,
4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints,
5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel,
6 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,
7 just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf
8 and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.
Pray with Me!
The power of prayer has been minimized in our modern context. The church today is at a tipping point and is filled with weak church-goers that know little of the power of prayer because they will not commit to praying for the power that can only come from God.
There is this paradox within the church, where people want the passion and zeal for God, but they don’t want to invest the time to commune with God. And just like nearly everything else in our culture, people want the results without the work.
Yet, just like most things, it doesn’t come easy, there must be a continual push toward prayer and a practice of prayer. When people pray without ceasing and pursue God with all their heart, all their mind, and all their strength, they are worshipping God.
When the people of God turn to God in prayer like that God does amazing things.
Every revival that has been captured by church history started out as a prayer meeting.
There has never been a spiritual awakening in any country or locality that did not begin in united prayer. — D.A.T. Pierson
Prayer is what energizes the movements of the faithful. It is one of the core values of New Life Bible Church and today we will see gospel prayers that transform the hearts of people, prayers that can be considered powerful.
We will observe four points to our message today.
Source of the Gospel-v 3
Virtues of the Gospel -v4-5
Results of the Gospel- v 6
Sharing the Gospel - v7-8
As Paul begins His gospel prayer let’s examine the Source of the Gospel.
To understand this prayer we need to look at the structure of the passage. Paul is excited and writes one long run-on sentence. However in the middle of the sentence is the peak of the prayer, which is the point . That main point is the gospel. It’s as if Paul is singing the praises of God and the music is getting louder and louder and the crescendo hits the peak in this prayer at the gospel.
3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,
This prayer starts at the source of the gospel and the reasons to give thanks. Thanks be to God, To God Be the Glory! Amen. Yes, Paul rightly cranks the power of this prayer right at the source of all power, the all-powerful God who is worthy of thanks. This is a great way to start any prayer. Thank you Lord is a perfect intro to begin a powerful prayer.
The English translation suggests that Paul is always praying, rather the Greek shows that when he prays, he always prays for the Colossians.
Paul gets right to the source and begins this prayer by thanking God.
Next we will observe the virtues of the gospel.
4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel,
We are building up this gospel prayer by observing the virtues of the gospel. Paul is commending the believers in Colossae at the good report he had heard of them and is enthusiastically praying for them because of a triad of graces that are seen in their lives. However, we must understand this prayer in relationship to overall tone of the letter. This is a letter of not just commendation for their faith, but warning about falling into heresy.
Here, Paul and Timothy are praising God at what they are hearing about them.
Paul says here is the evidence of the grace of the gospel at work.
Faith in Jesus Christ
Love that you have for all the saints
Hope that is laid up in heaven
This important triad of graces can be seen as important virtues for the believer.
Elsewhere Paul writes
3 remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Here we see the same triad of graces. Faith, Love and Hope.
Then toward the end of the same letter, Paul uses protective language to suggest the defensive importance of grace manifest in the life of the Christian.
8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.
It’s as if these virtues are worn like clothing that all can see. There is an external result of an inward working of the gospel. Here we have the same pattern, Faith, Hope and Love. However, you may be thinking that the pattern doesn’t seem to fit with what you is in your mind. For the verse you likely recall is
13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
We see that the pattern has switched, to faith, hope and love, to emphasize the greatest virtue, love. Nonetheless, these graces are the virtues of the gospel. This is the evidence of the gospel at work in the life of a believer. These are three fundamentals of Christian character that show that the gospel has taken root. These virtues should increase in the believer.
Let’s explore the transformation that the gospel brings.
Faith in Jesus Christ
Faith begins the process. Paul is thankful for the saving faith of the believers. We are not talking about the blind leap of faith that is often portrayed in religion, but the calculated belief in the risen Lord, Jesus Christ. Faith is a strong word, it is a powerful word it means to be convinced or persuaded that something is true and trusting it with your life. Paul is powerfully praying because this faith is in Jesus Christ. The Colossians have trusted Christ as Savior. Faith is just the beginning, However the believers were living their faith out. We can see their faith in action the second virtue of the gospel.
2. Love that you have for all the saints
This is a real visible and true love for each other. This kind of love is the epitome of the command to love one another. This love can only come from those who have faith in Christ.
Philippians, Colossians & Philemon Paul’s Prayer for the Colossian Believers / 1:3–14
Their love was not some abstract, self-absorbed, intellectual “love” for God. Instead, it was real love acted out toward real people. “Faith” refers to the vertical component of the Christian life—our trust and reliance on Christ. “Love” refers to the horizontal—our relationships with other believers.
The gospel gives us the power to love those, who like ourselves, are unlovable (2x). The effect of the gospel is the virtue of true love that is produced; a love for the brethren. That’s why our time of fellowship after service is so sweet, you can see the love of Christ come alive in the interactions of people who love God and love each other. That’s why our focus is to Love God. Love People. and Make Disciples.
Christians are to be known by their love, which is none other than the love of God. We love because He first loved us and we continue to love as we grow in the grace of the gospel.
CHRISTIAN LOVE QUOTE
The virtues of faith and love are complemented by the third grace of our trio.
3. Hope that is laid up in heaven
Faith and love bubble forth from a hope that is stored up in heaven. There is a future for the Christian and it is eternal. There is more than the here and now and we are a people who are just a passing through. This is not the final stop for us as we Christians are heaven bound and look forward to all that the glorious future with Jesus Christ represents.
Just as faith is a powerful virtue, so is hope. The biblical sense of hope is not, “well I hope my team wins, or I hope I finish my schoolwork on time.” Biblical hope is a confident expectation. It is an inward attitude and an assured objective future reality.
Our hope of heaven is not because of heaven, it’s because of Christ. Heaven would not be heaven if Christ were not there. As the song suggests,
In Christ alone my hope is found He is my light, my strength, my song.
Our hope is in Christ, and the hope that Paul is praying for is a virtue of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ.
5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel,
Paul calls the gospel the word of truth. It’s the truth about Jesus Christ and we finally get to the peak of this prayer.
Yes the source of the gospel is God, Yes, faith, hope and love are virtues of the gospel. But we must ask why all this excitement?
What is the Gospel?
What is the Gospel?
To those who are children of God, it is the message you can hear over and over. It’s the sweet sound of amazing saving grace. It is the remedy to the condition of sin and it can only be described as glorious. Often people throw around the word gospel without a thorough understanding of what it so, so today we want to develop the gospel. We as Christians have one message, the gospel, so we better get this right.
The gospel is called the good news and rightly so. It comes from the Greek word εὐαγγέλιον which is the base for words like evangelize or evangelist. The word means good news as a proclamation.
The word is used in antiquity when a messenger would run to a city to announce a victory in battle. The herald would run into town with a joyful look, head held high and wearing a victory crown of laurels and the city would erupt into celebration at the hearing of the good news.
The gospel is the good news that Jesus has victory over sin and death and anyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. That is good news, the good news of victory.
Yet there is more to it. We want to add more substance to answer the question, What is the gospel?
First, the reason why it is such good news Paul tells us in
Romans 1:16-for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes,
This is the great news of victory. The power of God, which is the power behind our prayer of Paul in our text. This gospel is the same message that Jesus proclaimed.
Matthew 4:23-And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom
Jesus was telling everyone everywhere about the good news. In fact, this news is so great that Jesus tells us in
15 And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.
And to the Corinthian church Paul tells the believers there to let nothing hinder the gospel. It is a message that must continue to go out.
Elsewhere in Scripture we are told to have fellowship with the gospel, to defend the gospel and not to be ashamed of the gospel.
We also know that there is only one true gospel for there is the warning not to believe another gospel or a false gospel.
So what else can we find out about this good news of victory?
In Acts 20:24 it's called the good news of the grace of God.
In Romans 1:9 it's called the good news of His Son.
In Romans 15:16 it's called the good news of God.
In I Corinthians 9:12 it's called the good news of Christ.
In II Corinthians 4:4 it's called the glorious good news.
In Ephesians 6:15 it's called the good news of peace.
In 1 Timothy 1:11, which is my personal favorite, it’s called the glorious gospel of the blessed God.
Revelation 14:6 it's called the everlasting gospel, or the everlasting good news.
All of these references to the gospel help us to understand a little more about it, but what is the content of the gospel message?
Scripture tells us.
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
Here Paul clarifies and validates the message of the gospel.
3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
This is the gospel message.
However let’s clarify so we all understand the message that changes hearts and lives. So many times people throw around the term gospel without defining and clarifying the message of hope.
This is the gospel message.
God is a holy and righteous God and in Him is no sin at all. He hates sin and will not even look upon it, for it is in such great contrast of His glorious character.
That creates a huge problem for every person because Scripture declares for us:
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
The reality of sin needs to be acknowledged by all who approach the throne of God for salvation. A sinner must acknowledge the hopelessness of guilt before God in order for the forgiveness of sin to take place, and sinners must understand that the “wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Without this foundational truth, no gospel presentation is complete.
God is holy, man is sinful, unlike God.Holiness and sinfulness cannot be together.
This is terrible news which makes the good news of the gospel so amazing.
That God came to earth to be born of a virgin and live a sinless life as the God-man Jesus Christ. He lived the life we could never live and died the death intended for us, whereby he took the penalty of sin upon Himself at the cross and satisfied the wrath of God by dying the death we deserve. Jesus Christ paid the cost of our sin upon the cross with His own life. He was killed, he was buried and on the third day He rose again, claiming victory over sin and death displaying the approval of the father in His resurrection.
And any who trust in the risen Lord Jesus Christ will claim they are a sinner and humble themselves before Christ to proclaim Him as Lord and Savior. A person must respond to God’s free gift of grace by turning from sin to turn to Jesus Christ in repentance and faith to accept the full forgiveness that can only be found through the precious blood of Jesus Christ.
As a result of responding to the gospel the person is granted eternal life in Christ and given the Holy Spirit as a new creation, who is born again and saved by grace.
To this glorious gospel message Paul cries out Hallelujah. This gospel prayer peaks and Paul says, praise be to God that the Colossians have responded to the gospel. Praise the Lord that the Colossians know the source of the gospel. Praise God that the virtues of the gospel are evident in their life.
This letter isn’t just for the Colossians it’s for us too.
Let’s personalize this powerful prayer.
Have you responded to the gospel? Have you said I’m a sinner who needs the savior Jesus Christ as my Lord. The Colossians did. And it’s my prayer you do.
Do you know the source of the gospel? Do you know God personally and intimately? The Colossians do. And it’s my prayer you do.
Are the virtues of the gospel evident in your life? Do you live in faith, hope and love? The Colossians did. And it’s my prayer you do.
And that’s the reason why Paul was so thankful for the Colossian Church. They knew the power of the gospel personally and that’s worthy of celebration.
It's good news. Good news about what? Good news about Jesus Christ. Good news that Jesus Christ died for our sins and that He rose again that we might live. That's good news. It's the only true good news there is. And apart from it there would be no really good news.
John MacArthur
The gospel is the good news which is a victory cry of celebration. This is worth praying for. This is worth celebrating. What do you do with such good news?
You share it with the whole world, which is our third point.
3. The Result of the Gospel
6 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,
Why was the gospel advancing? It’s because people where being saved and then telling the story of their radical transformation to others. There were results of the gospel. The gospel message changes hearts and lives. Even nearly 2,000 miles away Paul was hearing of the changed lives of the people in Colossae.
Paul is giving a prayer of thanksgiving because he has heard of the result of the gospel once again. Every time we hear of someone coming to faith we should celebrate. We should jump up and down. We should share in the joy of the heavenly host.
10 Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
When there is repentance and saving faith their should be excitement and celebration. Why was the gospel advancing? Because people were sharing the results of the gospel in their lives. The fruit of repentance is clearly seen and the power of the gospel moves people.
This is why Paul is praying. The Colossians understood the gospel, they understood, “the grace of God in truth.” They understood that it is by God’s grace that anyone is saved.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Grace is a precious gift. Do you appreciate it? Do you treasure it? Do you understand the gospel power found in His amazing grace.
I remember when i truly understood the doctrines of grace for the first time. Grace leveled my self-righteousness. Grace destroyed any foothold of legalism in my life. There was nothing I could do to earn it and it was so contrary to the way my mind was wired. I remember listening to sermon after sermon on the doctrines of grace and it changed my understanding of God.
It had such a profound effect on Jen and I that we named our first daughter, Patricia Grace. Grace is an amazing, wonderful, gift from God.
The grace of God produces these results of the gospel that are seen in the lives of the Colossians,
But the results of the gospel are only seen because someone was
Sharing the Gospel (2x), which is our final point.
7 just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf 8 and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.
Epaphras shared the gospel with those in the church at Colossae. They learned the gospel from him.
I love what one writer says about the city of Colossae.
Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians & Colossians B. The Truth about the Gospel (vv. 3–8)
The most significant day in the history of Colosse was not the day Xerxes rested in the city on his march against Greece, nor was it the day Cyrus marched his Greek army through the city. No, the most significant day in the history of Colosse was the day Epaphras came to town and planted the seed of the gospel. No banners unfurled in the wind, nor did trumpets blare in the breeze; but lives were changed and destinies were eternally altered when the gospel was planted.
The gospel was planted because someone shared the gospel. Someone had the courage to have hard conversations with people. Epaphras, the servant of the Lord, shared the life changing message, and that gospel message transformed lives.
We too are called to the same thing. We are not to hide the treasure of the gospel and keep it for ourselves, we are to share the message of hope with everyone.
The gospel is not a fire insurance policy that gets people out of hell, it’s a message of hope that sets people ablaze with the glory of Christ. (2x).
When we believe the gospel we should share the gospel. Believing the gospel changes everything and is worthy of celebration. That’s why Paul is praising God in this gospel prayer. We too should praise God in our own gospel prayers.
What is the power of the gospel?
There was a missionary named Mark Zook who went to tribal people known as the Mouk who lived in Papua New Guinne and after preaching for a few days the entire village heard him teach one final time. He presented the gospel.
Here is what happened.
https://youtu.be/v_2c0YMuA1k?list=PLnIaFMJCdWKBGyQEJ7IGgbk1gOyQDav24
That’s the power of the gospel. We should all praise God, we should all be dancing and chanting like the Mouk people, we should be celebrating like the heavenly host. The Gospel of God changes everything.
Paul prays a gospel prayer for the Colossians that has resonated through our era.
Paul prays for believers to understand the source of the Gospel is God.
He prays for us to live in the virtues of the gospel and grow in faith, hope and love.
Paul prays for the results of the gospel to be evident and spreading like a wildfire across the world and that’s why Paul prays for people to share the gospel.
It is the good news of victory. That Christ’s victory over sin and death is our victory over sin and death and that any who believe in Him will find forgiveness of sins and experience eternal life.
Paul prays because he knew.
It is possible to move men, through God, by prayer alone. — Hudson Taylor
Gospel prayers change everything, and they changed Hudson Taylor’s life.
When he was eighteen-years-old Hudson Taylor wandered into his father’s library and read a gospel tract. He couldn’t shake off its message. Finally, falling to his knees, he accepted Christ as his Lord and Savior. Later, his mother, who had been away, returned home. When Hudson told her the good news, she said, “I already know. Ten days ago, the very date on which you tell me you read that tract, I spent the entire afternoon in prayer for you until the Lord assured me that my wayward son had been brought into the fold.” (Our Daily Bread, July 19, 1989).
That’s what gospel prayers do, they bring people into the fold of God.
Whether the gospel prayers of Epaphras that led the Colossians to saving faith, or the gospel prayer of Mark Zook that moved the entire Mouk people to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ we should celebrate our God and King who is worthy of all our honor and all our praise. And whether you say ee-taow, amen or it is so, we should thank our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who rescued us. The gospel, is our victory cry. May we all thank Him for all eternity.
Amen!
Pray with me!