The Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
July 10, 2016
Colossians 1:1-14
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Think of someone who means the world to you, someone for whom you would do absolutely anything without even giving it a second thought. Picture their face in your mind— whether it’s your spouse or your child, your parent, your grandchild or your friend. Now imagine that someone is doing something that will most definitely harm them— not physically, but harm them nonetheless. Perhaps it is a teacher or a professor who is filling their mind with things that you know are wrong. Perhaps it is a co-worker who is teaching them how to manipulate other people at work in order to make themselves look better in the eyes of the boss. Perhaps it is a friend who is leading them down a path that will eventually do them great harm. What do you do? And, by the way, you live at a time when the only thing that tweets is a bird, when posting something on someone’s wall still requires a tack, and when the only email anyone has ever heard of involves a man riding on a pony. You live way too far to go visit them. That pretty much leaves you with just one option— write them a letter.
That is the situation in which the apostle Paul found himself. That is the situation which resulted in the letter which you and I call the Book of Colossians. False teachers had infiltrated the church at Colosse and were harming God’s people— not physically, but harming them nonetheless. These false teachers were trying to fill the minds of God’s people with the false teaching that denied the all-sufficiency of Christ and His saving work; the false teaching which said that if you want to be a “real” Christian, if you want to be a “good” Christian then you have to follow at least some of the Old Testament ceremonies; the false teaching which said that if you want knowledge that goes far deeper than the simple message Paul was proclaiming, if you want wisdom that soars higher than the dusty, old, traditional wisdom recorded in the Scriptures then you need to turn to the angels and worship them.
Paul heard about what was going on in the church at Colosse from his friend and co-worker, Epaphras. Epaphras had turned to Paul for guidance and for help. Of course, Paul wanted to help. Paul needed to help. The Christians at Colosse were Paul’s beloved brothers and sisters in the faith! But Paul was under house arrest in Rome— some 1,000 miles away from Colosse. What could Paul do? Under the inspiration of God the Holy Spirit Paul wrote this letter— the book of the Bible we call Colossians.
Over the course of the next few weeks we are going to study four different sections of this letter— all under the general theme of: When Guarding Against False Teaching…. In each of these four sections we will focus on just one central truth, a truth which we are to emphasize as we guard against false teachings today. The first truth we need to emphasize, the truth which is brought out very clearly in Colossians 1:1-14 is this: When Guarding Against False Teaching— Always Emphasize the Power of the Gospel! There are three things we want to see this morning. First let’s see that the Gospel has the power to change a person’s heart. Then let’s see that Gospel has the power to change a person’s life. Finally, let’s see that Gospel has the power to change a person’s eternity.
Since the false teachers in Colosse were peddling a knowledge which they claimed was deeper than Paul’s simple message, since the false teachers in Colosse were touting a wisdom that supposedly soared higher than the sacred Scriptures, Paul begins his letter to the Christians in Colosse by reminding them— and by reminding us— that he is “an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.” Paul was not some self-proclaimed traveling preacher who went from town to town and from village to village telling people what they wanted to hear and sharing with them his own personal opinions. Paul was not some self-proclaimed preacher traveling around from town to town and village to village gladly collecting offerings from as many people as he could. Paul was “sent out” (which is the literal meaning of the world “apostle”) by Jesus Christ Himself. By the “will of God” Paul was “sent out” to proclaim the “will of God” in all of its power and in all of its purity. Therefore, the words which Paul has written to the Colossians need to be heard and read, they need to be believed and taken to heart for what they are— the holy inspired words of the living Christ Himself! When we know that truth, my friends, then we will know that one of the first things we need to remember when we are guarding against false teaching is that we always need to emphasize the power of the Gospel! Why? Because only the Gospel of Jesus Christ has the power to change a person’s heart! Only the Gospel of Jesus Christ has the power to change a person from the inside out!
What does this mean? It means that the Gospel has the power to remove the cynicism from a person’s heart and replace it with faith. It means that the Gospel has the power to quench the hatred and the animosity that once ruled our hearts and fill it with love. It means that the Gospel has the power to fill our hearts to overflowing by giving us hope— the hope that comes from knowing that no matter how difficult or how easy our life is here on this earth, the life that we can expect to receive and enjoy in heaven goes far beyond anything we can imagine, far beyond anything we could ever deserve. The fact that the Gospel has the power to change a person’s heart, the fact that the Gospel has the power to change a person from the inside out means that the Gospel will be doing what only the Gospel can be doing everywhere it is faithfully proclaimed— whether here in northern California or all across the world.
Could your heart use a little bit of help, my friends? Could your heart use a little more faith, a little more love, a little more hope? Then examine how often you are allowing your heart to come into contact with the power of the Gospel. How often are you here in God’s house? How often are you in God’s Word? How often do you receive God’s holy Supper? If we are not maintaining regular contact with the message of the Gospel as it comes to us through God’s holy Word and God’s holy Sacrament, it should not surprise us when our heart becomes frail or frightful. If we are not maintaining regular contact with the Gospel as it comes to us through God’s holy Word and God’s holy Sacrament, it should not surprise us when false teachings start to find a home in our own heart. So let the Gospel do what only the Gospel has the power to do— change your heart!
Once the power of the Gospel has changed our heart it is only natural that this inner change of heart will be open and visible in the way that we live our life. What does this mean? It means that the Gospel has the power to motivate us to do “good works,” to bear the “fruits of faith” that our heavenly Father fully expects to see in our life. Like the Good Samaritan (our Gospel reading for today, Luke 10:25-37) we will help other people— because the Gospel (Pointing to the cross) reminds us of how much Jesus helped us! We will use our gifts, talents and abilities in service to our Lord— because the Gospel (Pointing to the cross) reveals to us what God’s own Son was willing to do in order to serve us. It also means that the Gospel has the power to motivate us to “grow” in our knowledge of God— who He is, what He has done for us and what He has revealed to us here in His Word. It means that the Gospel has the power to strengthen us when we are weak, to give us endurance when we are in danger of giving up and to give us patience when our plans and our timetable don’t line up with God’s plans and with God’s timetable. It means that the Gospel has the power to fill our lives with joy— joy that leads us to openly give thanks to our heavenly Father each and every day!
Could your life use a little bit of help, my friends? Could your life be filled with a few more “fruits of faith,” a little more “growth” in your knowledge of God, a little more strength and endurance and patience and joy and thanksgiving? Then examine how often you are allowing the power of the Gospel to motivate and guide your day-to-day life. If we are not allowing the Gospel to be the motivating force in our life then we should not be surprised when the ever-changing prevailing winds of society influence and direct the way that we live our life. Only the power of the Gospel has the ability to change our lives so that our outward actions line up with the gift of saving faith which the good Lord has created in our hearts.
That leaves just one more truth to look at this morning. When we are guarding against false teaching by emphasizing the power of the Gospel then we will always have the confidence that comes from knowing that the Gospel alone has the power to change a person’s eternity. By nature we were all blindly following Satan— swallowing all of his lies hook, line and sinker; gladly heeding his advice to live our life however we wanted to live it. Following Satan, however always leads to only one eternity— suffering forever in the fires of hell.
The Gospel had the power to change our eternity! By changing our hearts and filling them with faith and love and hope, by changing our lives and motivating us to bear the fruits of faith, to grow in our knowledge of God, to have endurance and patience and joyfully give thanks to God, the Gospel has the power to guarantee that we will “share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light,” to guarantee that we have been “rescued from the dominion of darkness and brought into the kingdom of the Son he loves,” to guarantee that we have “redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” Only the Gospel has that kind of power, my friends. Therefore, I urge you to maintain regular contact with the power of the Gospel so that no false teachers, so that no false teachings, so that not even Satan himself can rob you of the glorious eternity that God’s Son won for you on the cross of Calvary’s hill.
As I was working on our sermon for today I could not help but connect the dots between these inspired words of our Savior-God and the tragic events we have seen unfolding on the news the past few days. No matter where one stands on the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, to deliberately target the police for death is not only inexcusable and unacceptable, but it is also irrational and counterproductive. How can assassinating police officers help any “cause” in any way whatsoever? If only there were a way to get rid of the anger and the hatred that seems to fill the hearts of some people. If only there were a way to change how people choose to react to events that anger them. Ah, but there is a way, isn’t there my friends! In fact, there is only one way— faithfully sharing with people the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! No one who knows the love of God— the love that led God the Father to send His only Son into this world as our true Brother, the love that led God the Son to live a perfect life for us and the suffer and die as our Substitute to pay the penalty of our sins, the love that leads God the Holy Spirit to create and sustain saving faith in our hearts through His holy Word and His holy Sacraments— no one who knows the love of God will allow their heart to be filled with so much hate that they are willing to do the kinds of things we have seen unfolding on the news. No one. You have the “cure” for what is ailing our society. You have the “antidote” for the poison which that venomous snake Satan continues to inject into the hearts and souls and lives of people right down to this very day. It is— the Gospel of Jesus Christ! (Pointing to the cross)
My prayer then this morning, my friends, is that whether you are guarding against false teachings or whether you are striving to have a positive impact on the world in which we live that you will always remember to emphasize the power of the Gospel. Only the Gospel has the power to change a person’s heart. Only the Gospel has the power to change a person’s life. Only the Gospel has the power to change a person’s eternity. Listen to how the apostle Paul emphasizes the power of the Gospel in Colossians 1:1-14,
“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the holy and faithful brothers in Christ at Colosse: Grace and peace to you from God our Father. We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints— the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel that has come to you. All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth. You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.
For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
Always emphasize the power of the Gospel!
To God be the glory!
Amen