Colossians 1:3-8 –

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.

Introduction

As I pointed out last week, the primary reason Paul wrote this letter to the Colossians was to head off a potentially significant trial. Colossae was filled with people of every religion, philosophy, profession, and allegiance. The result was that the church there was ever-bombarded with the temptation to various forms of syncretism—adding things to Jesus for salvation or godly living. Paul knew how dangerous, even deadly that was and so he wrote them a letter to explain the problem and plead with them to accept the solution: Christ over all and in all.

The point I’m trying to make is that this was a serious letter about a very serious matter.

And the reason that’s significant in relation to this sermon is that you’d never know it by the tone of our passage. You’d never know that the purity of the gospel and the salvation of this small church was hanging in the balance by Paul’s words in vs.3-8, would you?

Why is that?

It is because there’s a unique joy (a fruit of the Spirit joy) that’s available to God’s people when we are surrounded by faithfulness.

The smallest trial can be devastating if we are walking in or among faithlessness or if we are uncertain of God’s faithfulness. I’ve felt that many times. Have you? I remember seasons of trial where the discouragement they caused was greatly amplified by my ignorance (not knowing what faithfulness meant), my sin (walking in faithlessness), the sin of others, and my doubt that God would do what He’d said (according to His promises). There are few places more devoid of joy and filled with despair than areas of hardship coupled with faithlessness.

But at the same time, the opposite is true as well. The biggest trial can be navigated with peace and joy when we’re walking in faith, among a people who are walking in faith, and certain of God’s impeccable faithfulness. I’ve experienced that as well. And that was the case for Paul in our passage.

In vs.3-8 Paul gives us a picture of a faithful God, faithful saints, his own faithful prayers, and the unique joy that comes with all of that. Those things didn’t eliminate or even minimize the seriousness of the issue before him. They didn’t erase Paul’s need to address the central (syncretistic) question or cancel his plea to the Colossians to receive his answer in faith. But they did eliminate any temptation toward desperation or despondency that might otherwise have been there for him. And, more significantly, they did replace those things with an overwhelming spirit of joyfulness and thankfulness.

To help us all learn to share in this unique joy, from these few verses, we’ll consider God’s unwavering faithfulness, the Colossians remarkable faithfulness, and Paul’s exemplary prayers of faithfulness. And as we do, I hope the big idea of this passage will become clear: Thanksgiving and joy during significant trial come from our faith in God’s faithfulness. And the main takeaway is to cultivate a growing understanding of God, His promises, and His commands, in order that we might increasingly trust and obey (live faithfully), in order that we might walk in joyful thanksgiving whatever may come.

Faithful God

Once again, the very heart of this passage and Paul’s joy revealed in it is the perfect faithfulness of God to all His promises. We see that in four distinct and awesome ways in our passage, beginning in the very first words of our passage.

God Was Faithful to Keep the Colossians Faithful

In the beginning of v.3, Paul directs his gratitude for every good thing he knows of the Colossian Christians to God. That is, in spite of all the difficulties his letter represents, he finds peace in the knowledge that God was faithful to keep the Colossian believers faithful to Himself.

³We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,⁴since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints…

It was the Colossians who were holding fast and walking in love, but it was God that Paul thanked. That’s because Paul knew that any faithfulness in the Colossian believers was the result of God’s faithfulness to them. It was God who called them into faith and it was God who sustained their faith. Therefore, He was the primary object of Paul’s thankfulness and joy. And joy rooted, not in our ever-changing circumstances, but in faith in the never-changing faithfulness of God to His the kind of unique joy that survives no matter the circumstances.

God Was Faithful as Father

A second aspect of God’s faithfulness that was at the heart of Paul’s thankfulness is more subtly revealed here. It concerns God’s faithfulness to His Fatherly nature. You may remember from v.2 that Paul commended “grace and peace” to the Colossian believers from “God our Father.”

This idea (of God as Father) is continued and expanded in our passage. This time, though, Paul notes (in v.3) that God is not only our Father, but He is “the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” as well.

There are essential differences between the way God is our Father and the way He is Jesus’ Father. For instance, while we bear the Father’s image, Jesus shares His essence. While we were adopted as His children, Jesus is His eternally begotten Son. And while there is nothing we can do to accomplish our adoption, Jesus accomplished it for us.

However, although there are differences, there are also ways in which God’s Fathering of us and Jesus is similar. The most significant of which (for this sermon), is that God is a perfectly faithful Father in every possible way, both for Jesus and for us. Paul knew that and was filled with thankfulness for that.

Grace, part of being made in the image of God is to have a kind of father hunger—a God-infused longing for someone to look to for origin, provision, protection, direction, wisdom, identity, stability, love, and affirmation. When our father hunger is met—when we have a father who is faithful to his God-given charge—it comes with a kind of stability that can weather most any storm. How many scary things that happen during the childhood of kids with faithful fathers are entirely unknown to them, having been silently born by their fathers on their behalf? How many trials born by kids without faithful fathers are entirely unknown by those with them?

And yet, God is a perfectly faithful Father in ways that the best earthly dads can’t come close to matching and the worst earthly fathers can’t come close to stealing. Living in that knowledge, as did the Apostle Paul, brings a unique joy no matter our circumstances.

God Was Faithful to Lay Up the Colossians’ Hope in Heaven

We see God’s faithfulness (and Paul’s joy in light of it) again in v.5. There, Paul acknowledged that there was hope “laid up for [the Colossian believers] in heaven.” Both the context and grammar of this clause (“laid up”) makes it clear that it was God who laid up that hope for the Colossians. They did not and could not lay it up for themselves. And as Peter points out (1 Peter 1:4-5), that hope “is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, ⁵who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for …salvation…”.

We’ll consider this more closely next week, but for now, Grace Church, rejoice in the knowledge that God is eternally faithful to keep our hope laid up for us in heaven. Paul knew that and we are right to join him in praising God for that faithfulness!

God Was Faithful to Save People throughout the Whole World

Finally, we see God’s faithfulness embedded in v.6, “the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing. That the gospel was bearing fruit and increasing among the Colossians and throughout the whole world, was ultimately because God was causing it to do so according to His promise to do so. He was faithful to His promises to make Jesus Christ a light to all nations, to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of Christ in them (1:27).

Grace, we must settle now on something Paul seemed to know so well…that every good thing in us and through us, has been, is, and ever will be the result of God’s faithfulness to His promises. We deserve not...