Video Transcript: The Real Deal (Colossians 1:3-8)

I'm going to continue in our sermon series on the book of Colossians. Last week, we heard the entire book and then looked at the first couple of verses, Paul's opening greeting in more detail. We'll hear those verses again and then move on into our passage for today. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God and Timothy, our brother, to the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae. Grace to you and peace from God our Father. We always thank God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ when we pray for you, since we've heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in Heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of truth, the gospel which has come to you as indeed in the whole world, it is bearing fruit and growing as it also does among you since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth. Just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, and has made known to us your love in the spirit. This ends the reading of God's word, and God always blesses His Word to those who listen.

Sometimes you just need to hear it. You just need to hear that you're okay. That you're not messed up that you don't need to take some brand new drastic step or go for some new innovation that's being peddled. You just need to hear that you're okay. And you need to hear that you're okay from somebody who knows what they're talking about. And somehow when they tell you that you're okay, you're more okay than you were before they said it. Because you just needed that word to let you know that you're okay. And Paul says that to the Colossian Christians in these opening words. He says it a bit later when he says how he rejoices to hear how they're standing firm in the Lord and of their good order. He wants them to know that basically, they are okay because there have been some, some people who are bringing a different message than the one they originally heard. And for some people, especially who are newer in the faith or perhaps a little less mature that can shake them up and make them wonder, well, is this for real?

And so in these verses, Paul talks about the real deal. The first thing he says is you saints in Colossae. You are the real deal. And I'll tell you why I know that and he speaks of their faith and their hope and their love. And he says those three things are evidence, proof that they are the real deal in Christ Jesus. The second thing he says is you heard this message and this message that brought about this faith, hope and love, this message is the real deal. And he wants to them to know that too, so they don't get in any big hurry to fall for some other message. There was somebody who was trying to spread a message in Colossae, we read about later. He was talking about the dreams he was having and the visions and the desire to worship angels and be real tough on your body, because this really develops you spiritually in a wonderful way and so on and so forth. And Paul says No, the message you heard was the real deal. He wants them to know, not just that they're the real deal, and the message that they heard is the real deal, but the person who planted their church, Epaphras, their minister, is the real deal. They had confidence in him when he first came because God used him powerfully in their lives. And Paul says, Yeah, I wasn't there personally, but he's part of my team. He's part of Christ team, and your minister is the real deal. And in all of that, he's thanking God for it, because it all happened through God and that assures them that the God they trust in, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is the real deal. 

And so basically, the overall message of this passage is I thank God for you. I am delighted to hear what I'm hearing about you, and you are the real deal. So keep on keeping on. He may have a few other things to help them along further and correct them, but he wants them to know that he's already confident of their standing with God. And so sometimes you just need to hear that. They needed to hear that. You may need to hear that. You're okay. You believe the Lord Jesus Christ. You have a love for the saints. You're looking forward to heaven and these are signs that whatever else may be shaky, whatever else may be difficult in your life, your spiritual life is there, and it's for real.

First thing I want to focus on is the fact that these Colossians and anyone who shares these characteristics is the real deal. A person who is genuinely alive spiritually. We've heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Those are the three marks of spiritual life that Paul identifies. It's kind of like taking the vital signs of somebody. If you want to know whether somebody is alive, it helps of course, walking around and smiling and so on. But if you go to a doctor, they'll find out whether you're sick or whether you're at death's door and they check your pulse, which tells them how your heart is doing. They'll listen to your chest and see if the lungs are clear. They'll check up on a few other things. And those give a pretty good assessment of how your health is doing overall. And there are spiritual ways of testing and then if those signs come out, okay, then you may say, well, there may still be this or that the sniffles or you know, whatever that needs attending to, but basically, you're in good health. Here, your faith in Christ Jesus, love for all the saints and hope laid up for you in heaven are signs that you're okay. 

Your faith in Christ Jesus. Now, this is a major test. We hear these days about people of different faiths. And there is such a thing I guess you could call it of people of different faiths. But the followers of non Christian faiths aren't counting on the real Savior. They don't know the real God. They don't have real life. If you say this in public, you will be accused of being arrogant. But faith in Christ Jesus, not just faith or faith in faith or faith in whatever works for you. But faith in Christ Jesus as Messiah is faith that saves. And so people who believe in another religion entirely that does not accept Jesus Christ aren't spiritually alive, and whatever spiritual sense they have, that appeals to them and makes them think they're alive is a dream. I know that a lot of people in the last few weeks have seen the movie Inception. How do you know whether you're awake or dreaming? Is this real? I mean, that's one of the questions that that film, is it a dream within a dream, within a dream? In Colossians, this person who is presenting new teaching is talking about dreams.

Well, Paul says I am more interested in facts. And I want you to know that I have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and I know that with your faith in Christ Jesus, you're not just dreaming, you are trusting in the real Savior. And just as people of non Christian religions, could have faith in the wrong thing, so some church goers can who may profess themselves to be Christians. If you're putting your faith in this or that ritual to make it right with God or in your own deeds and works and actions, in performance or in spiritual disciplines, I've preached about various spiritual disciplines and practices, if you think those are going to save you, if those things become an end in themselves, they're fatal. The only value is whether it's turning your attention to Christ Jesus and to spending time with him and growing closer to Him. If they don't do that they're a waste of time or even worse. 

The Colossian heresy included an emphasis on asceticism which is a big word for real, harsh spiritual disciplines and severity of the body. That won't save you. Any experience with a spirit being that isn't Jesus Christ is not a saving spiritual experience. So it's not just whether you have faith. It's what your faith is in and it's way better to have weak faith and a strong Savior than have strong faith in anything else. When we were traveling back from vacation, and stopped at my sister's house, I saw maybe five or 10 minutes of a TV show, one of the shows where they tried different stuff. They were going to see whether duct tape will keep a boat afloat. So they took a boat made a big hole in it, and then covered it with duct tape. And took the boat out. It worked, for half hour or so. And then you know, this stuff started peel off and ooh comes the water and pretty quick, the TV camera shows the guy sitting in water with the boat down. Duct tape is good for some things. It's really not good for voyage across the ocean. And if you want to cross the ocean of this life, and at the end of the ocean of eternity, I advise against duct tape. A lot of folks can spend their time trying to duct tape up their lives just patch this up or that up with something superficial. The real deal that will truly float your boat as they say is Jesus Christ. He will repair the holes and the damage in your life and bring you safely and Paul says to these people, you are the real deal. And I know it because your faith is in Christ Jesus. You're alive in Christ because you have a real trust and a real belief in the only one who can save. 

Another vital sign that tells them they're alive and that they're spiritually healthy is the love that they have for all the saints. And this is very frequent in the Bible where scripture says that one of the signs of being spiritually alive is love for others and especially for fellow believers. And one of the signs of being spiritually dead is not having such love. If you don't love your brother whom you have seen, how can you love God, whom you haven't seen? The Bible puts it in those terms. More positively, Jesus said by this all people will know you're my disciples. If you have love for one another. It's a sign of being a disciple of Jesus. It's a sign, to put in other words of being born again. Love one another earnestly from a pure heart since you've been born again. It's a sign that you passed from death to life. We know that we passed out of death into life because we love the brothers. Now it's not just a gooey liberal thing to say Christians should love each other. And that's one of the major signs of Christianity. That's simply a fact taught by Jesus Christ, a reality produced by the Holy Spirit. Where when we love to be with fellow Christians, and we love our fellow believers in particular, and we're not just devoted to whoever happens to rub us the right way or whatever our own favorite little clique happens to be. But when we love all saints, not just those who happen to match our particular interests, or agree with our opinions all the time or like to do like to do. But it's a love that embraces all the saints in a local body as well as in this context loving saints that are outside your church. Paul's heard that these people love each other in their own congregation. They also love him and they pray for other congregations. And so the love that they have for all saints is a major sign that they are spiritually alive and healthy, that they're okay that they're the real deal in Christ Jesus.

One of my favorite little stories on this whole subject comes from the Ministry of Charles Spurgeon. Some of you have heard it before. A lady came to Spurgeon for advice and just kind of to ask him a question. She had a question that she had about heaven. And she said, I don't know if I can enjoy heaven. If that beauty that I can't stand, is also there. And Mr. Spurgeon’s answer was, Madam, you have nothing to fear you won't be there. Well then, either she needs to repent and get right with God or get saved in the first place. That was Spurgeon’s message. If you think you're gonna be unhappy in heaven because a fellow believer that you're ticked off that it's gonna be there. Then you either have backslidden into a love that's not there or you haven't been converted at all. Because grudges are not consistent. Jesus says, If you don't forgive one another, your heavenly Father won't forgive your sins. He put that bluntly. And that's just one side of this larger question. Do you love the brothers. And if you love the brothers, as Paul had heard the Colossians, were loving each other. That was a great sign that they belong to the Lord. That they were the real deal. 

Now, notice here he says, it's because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. The reason they have this faith and this love is because there's a hope laid out for them in heaven. Now obviously the word hope is being used here just a little bit differently than the way we often use hope. We often think of hope as kind of an inner feeling. And it's a feeling that's pretty unsure. It's a feeling in your heart that you want things to turn out a certain way. That's what I hope that this will happen. But what you really mean is I don't know if it's going to happen. And this how I happen to feel. In this text, the hope is not in your heart, actually. First of all, it's a hope laid up for you in heaven. It is what you're promised. It's what you're counting on and expecting. It's a hope laid up for you in heaven. Of course, that does something in your heart. You hope for that. But when the Bible talks about the hope that's in your heart, it is a certainty, a confident expectation of what God has laid up for you in heaven. That's based on Jesus Himself. 

Jesus said, In my Father's house are many rooms and I'm going there to prepare a place for you. I've prepared a place for you. There's a hope laid up for you in heaven. The apostle Peter said, praise be to God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He has given us new birth and a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade, kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that's ready to be revealed in the last times. Peter says you've got this new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. So it's Jesus’ resurrection and the fact that there are mansions in heaven and he's prepared for you and he's got a spot for you in those mansions. That's what hope is. Hope is not saying. Oh, Eeny meeny, miny, moe, I hope that there's a nice afterlife possibly. It's the knowledge of what's already laid up. And then the confidence in your heart. And when you have that, Paul says it's not just one of the three things that you have. But this is something that the gospel revealed to you and because of that, it inspires your faith and your hope. 

How does hope, this hope laid up in heaven, strengthen faith?  We will take Abraham for example. Abraham is famous for leaving his home and going to a land, he knew not where. How did he do that? The Bible says he did it by faith, because he was looking to a city with foundations whose architect and builder is God. It was the hope laid up for him. The city with foundations that gave him faith. How did he sacrifice, offer up his son Isaac? At the last minute, of course, he didn't have to kill Isaac, but how could he even be willing to offer him up when God requested or commanded him to? The Bible says he reasoned that he would receive him back from the dead. He had the hope, the certainty that resurrection is real. And if God wanted him to offer Isaac, he would give him back again because he promised to bless all nations through Isaac’s seed. So he reasoned in this hope of resurrection? Now, in that case, the resurrection didn't have to happen, because God gave it back even before he was slain. But the principle is he had faith because of the hope that God is the giver of life.

With Moses. It motivates not just faith in Christ, but also love. Moses, it says, chose to suffer with the people of God. A big part of that was because he loved them as his own people. You see, later on, he asked the Lord, for even to block him out, rather than to wipe out Israel. He had a tremendous love for the people of God. And one of the reasons among others that he had such love for the people of God, Moses did was because of this hope of the future. The Bible says he chose to suffer with the people of God rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Because he saw God and he was looking forward to the reward. He knew the hope. 

Jesus himself. The Bible says that Jesus went to the cross endured, its suffering, despised it shame because he was looking forward to the joy set before him. In other words, the hope laid out for him beyond all that suffering. So when you know that there is a heavenly reward, it changes the way you live on Earth. You've got to live like a selfish pig as if this is all there is. So you don't have to. But you're more likely to. How many middle aged men bail out on their wives because they think they still deserve a shot at happiness. If they knew that there is an eternity of happiness awaiting them, they’d say, what's another decade? You know, I want to make another decade the best I can. I want to improve this marriage, but I don't have to pretend that I've only got a decade or two decades left to get a little fun. Instead you say, Man, my marriage is meant to reflect the relationship between Christ and His Church and get me ready for that great and glorious love feast in heaven. And so I'm gonna live that way. You are able to love because of the hope laid up for you in Heaven. You're able to continue to have faith because of that. 

And so one of the vital signs of good health is that you have this hope laid out for you in Heaven and you're focusing on it and you're focusing on it a lot. Later on in Colossians, he says, Seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things that are on the earth. And so it's a sign of good health, when you're not just thinking of what's going to happen tomorrow or next week, or how to make yourself happy in the next year or two. But when you have that hope of heaven, and your heart is set on that heavenly inheritance. It's a sign of spiritual sickness or even of deadness to just have your mind set on now. The Bible calls that worldliness. Worldliness can include this or that behavior that is imitating the world and some of those things need to be identified and shunned. Yeah, that's a worldly thing to do. But the main thing of worldliness, the very heart of worldliness, is just to be focused on this world, period. And not this or that worldly practice, although that's part of it, but to have this world as your only possession and inheritance. these people have the hope laid up for them in heaven and it's a sign that they're real Christians. 

So these are vital signs, faith in Christ Jesus, love for all the saints, hope laid up for you in heaven, if you want to test your own spiritual health. These are three central, most vital tests and if they come out positive, then you can say yes, I'm okay. And I can rejoice in what God is doing in me. It's also by the by what to value in a church? What do you look for in a church? You know, there's a lot of things to look for or wish for or  want and when people are scouting for a church, they have their own list perhaps. I don't think this is bad list. If you find a church where faith in Christ Jesus, not this or that self help program only, or this or that activity only, but again and again and again, you are pointed to Jesus. You hear of Jesus, you rejoice in Jesus, you exalt Jesus. When Jesus is the focus of that church and not the pastor, not this or that activity that they're doing but Jesus and Jesus and more Jesus, then you have found a church. A church that calls you to faith in Jesus and builds up your faith in Christ Jesus. That's what you need. In a church and don't don't think Yeah, well, all churches do that and then fast forward. What you really need to look for now if you've got that covered, that's pretty big. Okay. 

Second, love for all the saints. It's a temptation in church life, to have just one more activity after another after another kind of keep people busy and involved. That's, I mean, you can talk about it that way. You got to keep people involved and the way you keep them involved is to give them one more thing to do. Get involved with each other, get close to each other. Love one another. If there are activities or programs that help with that, or give an opportunity to do that, great. But the point is to love one another, to know each other more intimately, to be able to encourage each other's hearts. That's what to look for in a church. And once you're in a church is what to build up in your own involvement in that church to love others and to love them well. 

And the third thing to look forward to value and build up in the church is this hope of heaven. Not just a flurry of things to improve this or that. It's good to have things that also help you live for the Lord now and to strengthen your walk, with him now. But if your motto is your best life now, it better not be okay. There's a word for those whose best life is now and that is lost. Now, that phrase is the title an extremely popular book and maybe there are good things to find the best life you could have now. There may be a good spin on that word. But the reason it appeals to a lot of people is that a lot of people nowadays don't want to hear much about eternity. They want to improve the marriage a little bit. Make sure the kid turns out okay. Make sure the bank accounts are in half decent shape, deal with any dysfunctions they might have. But overall make life here and now kind of manageable and enjoyable.

You better look for in your own life and in church life, the hope of heaven presented often and frequently and set your mind on things that are above because that's the sign of health. Paul writes very similarly to the Thessalonians. There, he uses the word election, that the choosing of God. He thanks God that God chose them. How does he know that? He wasn't there in eternity when God wrote names in the book of life and he writes I see his name, his name, his name. I got glad God chose you. He knows God chose them because he sees faith and hope and love in them. And so he knows that because those things are there, it tells you something about something God did way back in eternity. He said his love on these people He decided to change them and they've been changed. So they've been chosen. 

And in connection with that, he says, we know this, that he chosen you because our gospel came to you not only in word but in power in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. And so there's faith, hope and love and just the impact that the word has. Now that sequence or train of logic in his letter to the Thessalonians is also followed in the letter that he writes here. He talks about faith and hope and love and the fact that these saints are the real deal by what's happening in their life. But then he turns to the message that they heard. And he says, I can tell you the real deal because you took that message to heart. It didn't just come to you as words, but you understood it and believed it. Of this you've heard before this faith, hope and love in the word of truth, the gospel which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing as it also does among you since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth. 

Let's unpack that paragraph a little bit about this message. That is the real deal. The first phrase Paul uses to describe it is the word of the truth. Well, if you need anything to think about in the kind of age that we live in, it is this description of the message of Jesus Christ. The word of the truth. There are many religious scholars who say God cannot be expressed in words. Well, he can be if he chooses to. Not fully and there are things we may never know of God, but he can express himself in the Word. We live in a time where many of the big brains are what we now call postmodern. They don't believe that any one truth applies to everybody. There is no such thing as the truth. Yes, there is. The word of the truth. Not just one among many choices on the religious smorgasbord, but the truth. And not just an impression that happens to trip your trigger. But the word, a set of statements or propositions that put into language, how things really are. The word of the truth is a vital dimension of the gospel. It's not just the course of the word of the truth. 

The next phrase Paul uses is the gospel. The word gospel is euangelion, good announcement. Good news, glad tidings. And this is a wonderful phrase to describe the message that they received. It was the word of the truth, but it was also the good news. And that good news made hearts glad and that good news was a power. I'm not ashamed of the gospel says Paul, for it's the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. In another place Paul speaks of the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God. What a phrase that word gospel is. Again, if you move quickly through this passage, okay, let's get to the greeting and get to what Paul really says you can miss out an awful lot because Paul is really saying quite a bit in his greeting, just the different phrases he uses to describe the message that the Colossians had heard.  

The next phrase he uses which has come to you. God didn't just have a gospel kind of to dangle. In Romans chapter 10, Paul says, now don't say in your heart, who's gonna go up into heaven as though you had to bring Christ down. Or who's gonna go down into the depths of the earth as though you had to get Jesus out of the grave? You don't have to go into the heights of the heavens or into the depths of the earth. The word comes to you, and the word is really near you, and it's in your mouth and it's in your heart. Because if you confess with your mouth, that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart, that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. That's the gospel that comes to you. You don't have to chase it. It finds you and it found you. And he says to the Colossians, the word of the truth the gospel has come to you, but not just to you. It's going out into the whole world. This was one of the things Paul gloried in, and he gloried in his time because God's new revelation in the resurrection of Jesus and in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit was that no longer was he going to confine his activity, his saving activity, mainly the people of Israel. He was going to do now what He had promised all along. Make Israel a blessing to all nations, and draw people from every tribe and language and people and nation into fellowship with Him. 

And so, Paul, was the first apostle to the Gentiles, for whom that was the main calling was to reach Gentile people. He witnessed to Jews, but he was an apostle to many people of other nations. And one of the marks that this message is the real deal is it's not just for this group, or that group or people happen to have this without preference. It's not something that happens to work for me. This is something that's going out into the whole world and it's bearing fruit and growing. It's not just a local activity of us, who happened to be gathered in this building today. It's been going on in, in many kinds of buildings, whether magnificent cathedrals or little huts or open air meetings or gatherings beside a river or wherever they're meeting, but it's going out in the whole world. And not just among Americans or people of European descent. That's been one of the accusations against the gospel in more recent years. It's a white man's religion. Or it's a European religion and missions is just theological imperialism. Well, why don't you tell that to the hundreds of millions of Asians who believe in Jesus Christ. You know, try telling that to the hundreds of millions of Africans who have found salvation in Jesus Christ, that it's a white man's religion? You know, of course, it didn't start out as a European religion in the first place. Anyway, we could go back in history and demonstrate all that. But we live in a time again, when this phrase is just a magnificent one. Indeed, in the whole world. It's going out everywhere. That's one more proof and it's the real deal. It's not just one little group or this or that person or a trend or a habit. It's something that's going out in the whole world, and it's bearing fruit and growing, as it also does among you. 

What's the test of seed? Sometimes you just plain get bad seed or you get the practical joke of. I remember the guy who gave his mom what he said were magic seeds and told her to plant them and nothing happened with them. They turned out to be the tips of Turkey beaks. You know those things didn't do much because they were bad seeds. They weren't growing. They weren't bearing fruit because they were dead. But this gospel bears fruit and grows. It keeps spreading and reaching people in more and more nations. God promises that people from every people group will someday hear the gospel and only then will the end come. In the meantime, it's bearing fruit and growing and it's just spreading out toward the whole world. And this needs to be seen about it. You heard it and understood it. 

Now you say, that's not that big a deal. Yes, it is. Because in the realm of religion a good many people think that what really matters is the vibe that you get, or the feeling that stirs you and why we should deny our humanity. There is an important place for feeling and passion and love and, and all of that. But in the reception of the gospel, there is a hearing. It's not just watching the film, or getting the memo. It's hearing and understanding. There is no substitute for hearing the word. Faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ, says the Scripture. You hear it, you understand it, that's how it changes your life. It doesn't bypass your brain, it transforms your mind. And it's the grace of God in truth. What a fantastic phrase that is. The grace of God in truth. 

The Bible speaks of Jesus as full of grace and truth. And so the message of Jesus is the grace of God in truth. It’s in truth, its objective, it's not just an inner subjective feeling. It is a reality and objective reality. At the same time, it's a free gift of love. Sometimes we set truth against love, but the two belong together. And this is the grace of God in truth. And so that's that's a major test of whether a message is the real deal. Is it gracious? Is it extending the the free gift of God and speaking off of His love? Is it downplaying love then that's a bad sign. Is it presenting truth and urging you to understand it and helping you to think put on your thinking cap and see what God is saying and take it to heart or just trying to bypass all out and kind of working into a mood and then hope the mood lasts until the next time you get together? That's not the message. That's the real deal. 

So, you have the saints are the real deal because of their faith, hope and love. The message they heard is the real deal because it's the word of the truth. It's the gospel. It's all those other things we've been saying and now Paul moves on and tells them your minister is the real deal. Epaphras was one of them. He was a guy from Colossae and one of the things that builds confidence, it's not the whole. That you should trust in Christ and in the message not just in the messenger. But it does help if you can have some confidence in the messenger. Because, if Epaphras turned out to be a wimp or a phony, then the message they received from him, their confidence in it might be shaken or if they tend to underestimate him. Paul wants to make sure that they know Epaphras, their minister is the real deal. Just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, and has made known to us your love in the spirit. 

First thing about him is he's our beloved fellow servant. Paul loves this guy, and he's a fellow slave. They're working on the same team. They both answered to the same Master Jesus Christ and their fellow servants. Now, sometimes we can even just skip past all those greetings and all those names Paul mentions and who he happen to be working with and say, ah, that doesn't apply to us today. It's important realize that Paul was not just the Lone Ranger. Wherever he went, he was accompanied by people and he had teams and he had people that he sent out who worked on his behalf. Now, one of my professors admissions, Dr. Paul Hubert grew up in India was one of the great scholars of missions in the world. And one of the articles he wrote was about the difference between banyan trees and banana trees. Now a banyan tree can get to be huge. A banyan tree can sometimes cover there are banyan trees that cover an acre of ground and they are very, very large and impressive trees. And Dr. Hubert says there are some people whose style of leadership is somewhat like a banyan tree. It gets to be huge. It's just amazing what they can pull off and in that style of leadership, it still seems though that they need to be the driving force behind it all. They need to be the ones who call the shots and maintain, control over it all. And when they're gone, they're basically irreplaceable. Because, they ran the whole show, and so he can have a leadership style that is huge and impressive, like a banyan tree. But as Dr. Hubert points out, nothing grows under a banyan tree. They create something huge, but they don't share the leadership. They don't reproduce in the other leaders.

Now, Paul had a different style of leadership. But it was a little more like the banana tree. Paul would plant the church and get it going and head out and start a different one. He leaves his teammates behind. Sometimes he'd send teammates out. Epaphras evangelized in three different cities that Paul never visited. But Paul had confidence in him. He shared leadership with him and had him do it on his behalf. A banana tree is way smaller than a banyan and it's way less impressive. They do however, produce some excellent fruit and they are really good at reproducing themselves yet. They really just keep spending off of banana trees and they aren't that eager to take up the whole acre themselves. And so Paul was the kind of leader, Epaphras too, who want to produce fruit and they wanted to reproduce other leaders and not just have this huge empire that they themselves control. Now, there's different gifts. Some people are going to have huge churches and huge ministry. Size isn't the issue. Style is the issue. Do you equip others and release them? Or do you need to be controlling and dominating the thing and thus make yourself irreplaceable? Nobody can step into your shoes because you're the whole deal. Now Paul says Epaphras is our beloved fellow servant. We're all part of the same team. And by this point, the Colossians must have other leaders because Epaphras isn't there. Paul's not there. But they've been well established and they can go on and spin off some other banana trees. 

Another thing he says about him that's wonderful thing to say about any pastor or church planter or missionary, he's a faithful minister of Christ. As you read these phrases you have to ask what do I look for in an elder or in a minister? You know, we may have a list of what talents we wish they had or what personality traits we wish they had. Faithful minister of Christ covers quite a bit. They’re on Jesus agenda, not their own. They want to help you walk with Christ and help you to become a disciple of Jesus Christ. Epaphras is working on your behalf. He wasn't just trying to enrich Epaphras or line Epaphras’ pockets or do him made him feel good. He was doing it on your behalf. I should mention on this phrase that there is an alternate in some New Testament manuscripts, and it's on our behalf. So Paul, if that were the phrasing, Paul saying he's working under my authority, and he's, I authorize what he's doing, and I approve of it. So that that may be an element. That's certainly the case in already calling him a beloved fellow servant. Anyway, he's the real deal because he's working as part of the team of the apostle, but he's also working for their well being. 

And he's made known to us your love in the spirit. Now, this again, is one of those phrases that we could say, well, I guess that means they had love in the spirit that's good and true enough. They loved each other. They were in the Holy Spirit. And that's a glorious thing to be said about any church. It is one of the vital signs of life. But notice that Paul heard it from Epaphras. That's another aspect of that, that I can learn as a leader. One things I appreciated about pastor Henry also, the ability to notice what's good in somebody else and point it out and talk about it. Sometimes it's easy to identify what you don't like. Some of us may have a better eye for what's amiss. Epaphras had an eye for what was good in them. He noticed that love and he told other people about that love. And that was another sign of his genuineness. And what a wonderful minister, he was in the Lord. 

It goes on later in the epistle to say a little more about him. At the end of the epistle to Philemon, which was sent out at the same time as this letter, it says just one more item of information. Paul says Epaphras was one of you, a servant, and I’ll unpack as we get to late in the letter. Now, I’ll mention it here. You can see what kind of ministry is his, he's a servant of Christ Jesus. He greets you. He's always struggling for you, on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in the will of all the will of God. For I bear him witness that he has worked hard for you and for those at Laodicea and in Hierapolis, where he planted other churches. So, he's a praying man who's struggling and praying and, interceding with God for them, and he works hard for them. 

Oh, and by the way, there's a reason he can't come back to you and talk to himself. Paul sends Tychicus and the runaway slave Onesimus to carry these letters. Why doesn't he send Epaphras back? Well, Epaphras is locked up. He's imprisoned with Paul. This week you read in the Bible reading plan, in the end of the book of Acts where they go through the shipwreck, they’re sailing. They finally make it to Rome and Paul is confined there. But while he's confined, he's still spreading the word of God. That's probably the imprisonment from which he wrote the letter to the Colossians as well as to Philemon and Ephesians. And Epaphras was there in prison at the time of the writing of this letter. 

So again, if you wonder somebody's the real deal, if they're willing to spend time in prison for the sake of the gospel, that might be a one more sign that this was a guy worth listening to. So Paul says all of this, I mentioned Epaphras was good at pointing out what he saw God doing in the Colossians. You might have noticed that Paul was pretty good at pointing out what he saw was good in Epaphras. And that's something that we can learn from. Maybe Paul caught it from Barnabas originally. Remember, Mr. Encouragement, when Paul was kind of off back in his own town not doing a whole lot that we know of in terms of ministry, Barnabas was ministering in Antioch and the thing was getting too big for him. So he went and got Paul to come and teach with him and encouraged Paul enormously and Paul became an encourager of other gifted people in the Lord and Paul's team Epaphras became an encourager, and so on. It kind of started a chain reaction. 

And the final thing is that your God is the real deal. Most letters that we have from archaeologists and from people writing at that time, start with a certain kind of greeting. And Paul starts with very similar greeting. And they say some nice things to the person and then thanked the gods for them. Okay, well, it's nice to thank the gods, I guess, you know, if you try to be nice. But Paul is quite careful about what God he thanks. He thanks the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's not just thanking this or that God. He's thanking the God who is the real deal. And notice that he's thanking this God. What does that say? If you're thanking God for something, or thanking anybody for something, you're thanking them because they're responsible for it. So why does Paul thank God for their faith and their hope and their love? Well, because their faith and their hope and our love comes from God. It wasn't something they worked up or they managed to pull off. God did it in them and so he thanks God for that. 

This message, was it just something that preacher really did a good job with? Or that they did a great job of thinking through and understanding. No, Paul, thanks God, for what happened with that message because it was the grace of God, in truth. It was the word of the truth. And God was the one who gave it God was the one who revealed it. God was the one who sent it. And so you thank God for the Word of God for the message of the gospel. Epaphras didn't wake up one day and think, you know, missionaries nice thing, and some people need the gospel. Epaphras was saved by God and called by God and commissioned by God and Paul to give thanks that their founder was God's servant directed by God, that he was a minister of Christ energized by Jesus. You thank God. You don't just thank Epaphras. You thank God because God did it. 

And so, in this opening greeting, Paul says, You are the real deal. The message you heard is the real deal. Your minister is the real deal, but God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, he's not just the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, which was kind of a going title for him in the Old Testament, a wonderful title as far as it went. But now the best title for him is God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And you thank him, because he's the one responsible. He worked these things and he brought them about. And whenever God the riches of the gospel, and the blessings of the Lord come into our life, we got to know who gets the ultimate credit. And as we do that, it will strengthen us again, in our own faith in the Lord. The book of Colossians, Paul says, we thank God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, always praying for you.

And in then the rest of the epistle, a total of seven times in a very short letter, he tells them about that they need to be giving thanks to the Father. They need to be abounding in thanksgiving. They need to be thankful. Sing songs and hymns and spiritual songs. You know, the Ayatollah can say that music, all music is bad. Because I don't think people smile or not either. But anyway, the Bible has a very very different view of music and music is there, in part to just have a heart full of thankfulness and it kind of pours itself out in music. Um, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God the Father through him. Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful and that’s spiritual warfare. But while you're being steadfast and being watchful and getting ready to fire back at the enemy and defend yourself from him, be thankful. Thankful in all circumstances, as Paul puts it in another letter. When you're the real deal, and when you've heard the real message from a real messenger of God and you belong to the real, the true living God, then pour out your heart in real thanks for such a Savior. 

Let's pray together. Lord, we thank you for your word, for the riches revealed in the word of the truth, the gospel. We thank you for our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for the work of faith and hope and love that you have worked in so many and that you've made evident here also among your people. Thank you, Lord, for these brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus for the signs of genuineness in their faith, and I pray that you will help them to continue to abound in faith in Christ Jesus. In love for one another and for all the saints and to look forward gladly and with joy to the home you've prepared for us to hope laid up for us in heaven. Lord, help us to continue to grow in these things in faith and in hope and in love. We pray that you will help the message to continue to sound forth in this church and all around the world and pray that the gospel may bear fruit and grow all around the world again today as it's proclaimed. Lord help me and Jim and others who are called to be messengers of the gospel here to be faithful as Epaphras was and we pray to your mercy and your protection and your empowerment for fellow servants, beloved fellow servants bringing the word around the world again today. Lord, make the mighty in your service. We praise you God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of all compassion, the God of all mercy, for the revelation of Your grace and truth. Help us to live in it, to rejoice in it, to be thankful always for it through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.