Jesus is All You Need for a Fruitful Life

So, this morning we are starting our first sermon series, studying the book of Colossians. And while we might not do every sermon series this way, most of the time our default as a church will be walking verse-by-verse through full books or large sections of books from the Bible.

Why do we do it this way? For a couple reasons. To start with, I love the Bible. But, because I’m human and still struggle with sin and self-centeredness, I might not like all the parts of the Bible. When we study it verse-by-verse, we don’t have the opportunity to skip over the parts we’re uncomfortable with or confused on to just focus on the things we more easily agree with or enjoy.

We believe 2 Timothy 3:16-17 that “16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” So, we want to study all of God’s Word, be challenged by it, encouraged by it, and shaped by it.

But, secondly, I also think it makes practical sense to study the Bible this way if we want to properly understand it. I could tell you that I was a women’s basketball player in college at Tulane, and that would actually be a true statement. But, without more context, you might be very confused and misunderstand what I mean by it.

You need the broader story about how I was trying to walk onto the men’s team and they didn’t have a roster spot for me my freshmen year, so they encouraged  me to join a practice team scrimmaging against the ladies to stay in shape and then join the men’t team my sophomore year. But, I had to register as a NCAA athlete in order to do that, and because of an error with they signed me up, I was officially a women’s athlete for the school.

See? Context matters.

It matters in life, and it matters when we study the Bible. You might really like this one verse in the book of Philippians, for example, but when you take the time to read it in the context of the entire letter, you find out that it doesn’t mean what you thought it meant.

When we teach and study whole books and sections of books in the Bible, we find ourselves learning the full story, which helps us better understand each specific passage and it’s place in the big picture of God’s grand story of creation, fall, redemption, and restoration.

So, over the next 15 weeks, we are going to be in the book of Colossians both with the sermon on Sundays as well as during discussion in our Community Groups… (explain Community Groups unless that happened during announcements)

And as we dive into this book together, I  think it’s helpful with just this first week, that we kinda do this sermon in two parts because I’d like to spend a brief amount time here in the beginning sharing some of the background behind Colossians before we take the rest of our time looking at the first 8 verses.

When the apostle Paul wrote Colossians—which we see his name at the beginning of verse 1— we know a few things. First, Timothy was with him. Timothy was someone Paul mentored as a young leader, and we have a couple letters toward the back of your Bible written to him. A man named Epaphras was also with them.

And based on verses 7 and 8 in the first chapter that we just read, it seems that Epaphras was the one who planted the church in Colossae (much like I’ve been what we call the “church planter” starting Restoration Community Church, Epaphras was responsible for seeing this church get started). That’s who they “learned” the gospel from like verse 7 mentions.

But, according to Colossians 2:1, Paul never actually visited Colossae. That means he probably met Epaphras during his 3-year stay in the much larger, neighboring city of Ephesus. Paul likely leads Epaphras to Jesus there, Epaphras goes back to his hometown, shares the gospel, and the church in Colossae is born.

By the time Paul writes this letter, Epaphras has been traveling with Paul and Timothy on a missionary journey, and they find themselves arrested and in prison, most likely in Rome around 60-61 AD (the same time and place when he wrote the book of Philemon).

Paul wrote Colossians in response to hearing Epaphras share how the church in Colossae was struggling with how to view the various beliefs and ideologies from other religions and worldviews that were so prevalent in their city. False teaching had started to creep into the church.

A little background about the city: for a long time, there was a major highway that went through Colossae connecting trade from Ephesus to Tardis. Eventually, that road was moved out of the city to the neighboring town of Laodicea, which led to a decline in cultural importance for Colossae, but the road’s earlier presence meant the city was full of a diverse population with multiple backgrounds as travelers regularly came through and even settled there.

That’s probably why this book of the Bible seems pretty exclusively written to a Gentile audience (so non-Jews). There’s no quotes from the Old Testament and no references to the Mosaic law.

But with so many other cultures colliding in one place, the Colossian church was struggling to understand what it actually looked like to believe in and follow Jesus. They had started to mix and match religious ideas and philosophies into more of a buffet of religious beliefs for the church.

And that’s probably where you and I can start to identify with this letter. If we asked 100 people living on the Northshore who claim to be a Christian what it means to follow Jesus, you might get 100 different variations of an answer. We have so much information available to us and so many opinions on all that information that it’s easy pick and choose the things we like to kinda build our own, personal religious system.

Maybe you’ve done that in your past and talk about having a “private” faith, and you haven’t participated much in a local church in a while. If that’s the case, I want you to know that I’m glad you’re here, and I hope Restoration can be a warm and loving church family for you.

So, how does Paul address this concern of the mixing of religious beliefs and practices, both for the early church in Colossae and for us today? How should we think about the competing worldviews and values in our culture as we try to understand who God is, what he’s done for us, and how we should live for him?

Paul’s going to speak to that that from a variety of angles throughout the letter, but in these first 8 verses he’s just trying to make one point clear, and it’s our main point for this morning: Jesus is all we need for a fruitful life.

I want to look at four ways Paul highlights how Jesus provides for our lives in these verses, but I don’t want to just assume we’re all on the same page here either. When I say “Jesus is all we need for a fruitful life,” it’s entirely fair if you’re sitting there asking, “Why?” Especially if you don’t consider yourself a Christian, you might still very much enjoy your life right now. So why do you need Jesus to live a fruitful life?

I think there’s at least 3 reasons why we can count on Jesus to provide for our lives in a way that nothing else can. First, he transcends cultures. You can count on Jesus to provide for your life because following him throughout history has never been dependent on your time, place, background, or status. The late Tim Keller, in his book Making Sense of God, wrote about the how global faith in Jesus is compared to other religions.

"One of the unique things about Christianity is that it is the only truly worldwide religion. Over 90% of Muslims live in a band from Southeast Asia to the Middle East and Northern Africa. Over 95% of all Hindus are in India and immediate environs. Some 88% of Buddhists are in East Asia. However, about 25% of Christians live in Europe, 25% and Central and South America, 22% in Africa, 15% (and growing fast) in Asia, and 12% in North America.” —Tim Keller, Making Sense of God

Part of the reason Jesus is able to provide for a fruitful life in any context throughout the world is because he doesn’t change. Hebrews 13:8 says, “8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” And because he doesn’t change, you can depend on him.

ILLUSTRATION: One of the reasons why I’m thankful that we’re finally launching our weekly Sunday worship services is the opportunity to start to build some rhythms both personally and as a church.

Over the course of this year, our church started meeting as a core team, first for Bible study in our home on Monday nights, then for some prayer and planning meetings in a church building a couple blocks from here called Newell Chapel on Sunday nights, then here at the theatre for a summer Bible study on Wednesday nights before spending the month of August back at Newell Chapel for our Questioning Christianity classes on Sunday nights…

If you were looking for us on a given week and showed up somewhere and no one else was there, I’m sorry. We don’t want the slogan, “We’re a great church, if you can find us.” I’m very thankful now that we know, each Sunday, you can join us for worship at 10am here at the theatre, and then on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, or Thursdays, you can join one of our Community Groups meeting in homes across the Northshore at 6pm.

Rhythms help us stabilize. Consistency helps us grow because its dependable. The God of the Bible is not someone who you have to worry whether his opinion of you or his plan for you or his character toward you will change from one day to the next. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and in our world where everything else around us, including our own desires, seem to be constantly changing, an unchanging Jesus is a stable foundation that can lead to a fruitful life.

But then third, we can trust that following Jesus is able to lead us to a fruitful life in ways that other things in our life can’t because he doesn’t need us. God doesn’t need us, and that’s a great thing for us. Other things like our jobs or our families or our wealth might give us a lot of happiness, but they also largely depend on us to maintain them. We don’t have to maintain God, and he hasn’t drawn near to us because he needs us—he’s drawn near to us simply because he loves us and he wants us. A God that lovingly pursues his people and does not change is a God that can be a steady foundation for a fruitful life.

In these first 8 verses, Paul draws out four specific types of fruit from following Jesus: purpose, community, hope, and transformation. Let’s take a couple minutes to look at each of these in our passage this morning.

First, following Jesus provides a foundation for purpose in your life. Read with me again verse 1 through the beginning of verse 4:

Colossians 1:1–4 ESV

¹ Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

² To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

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

I mentioned before that Paul had never visited the church in Colossae. So, why write to them? Why is he praying regularly for them and thankful for them? As far as we know, the church in Colossae hasn’t done anything that has directly benefitted Paul, and yet he cares for them and wants to serve them. Why?

Paul gives us the reason right in the first verse of his letter: “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.” Paul had a purpose bigger than himself because he was called by God’s will and not his own. His love for the Colossian Christians didn’t come from how they were useful to him; it came from how God was using him and how God had called him.

ILLUSTRATION: If you’re unfamiliar with Paul’s story, he didn’t start out as this incredible church planter and defender of the Christian faith. He was actually a persecutor of the church, believing Jesus wasn’t the Son of God. And that’s who he was up until the point that he met the resurrected Jesus on his way to Damascus to imprison more Christians. You can read about that story in Acts 9.

After his conversion, Paul didn’t just find a new belief system, he found a new purpose. He was no longer persecuting people for their faith in Jesus; he was leading people to faith in Jesus, even becoming one of the apostles leading the early church.

Paul’s experience of God so re-oriented his direction in life that he went from throwing Christians in prison to now writing these Christians in Colossae while he was in prison for sharing his faith.

When we only live for the purpose of ourselves, we’ll find ourselves lonely. When we try to live exclusively for the purpose of others, we’ll find ourselves exhausted (because we can’t be consistent enough or perform well enough to be someone else’s savior).

Only when we live for Jesus will we have the freedom to serve others without the burden of saving others. Only when we live for Jesus will we be secure enough in our identity to not feel the pressure to make a name for ourselves because we’re resting in the name God has given us as his children and co-heirs with Christ. Following Jesus provides us with a deep sense of purpose that provides meaning and direction to every area of our life.

But he doesn’t just give you a new purpose; he also provides you with a community. Let’s look again at verse 4:

Colossians 1:4 ESV

⁴ since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints,

Earlier, in verse 2, Paul calls the Colossian Christians brothers and sisters in Christ. Even though he’s never met them, he considers them family. Now, in verse 4, he points out the Colossians’ love for all the saints. That’s bigger than just their local church. That’s bigger than just the other Christians that they know.

And this kind of bond among other Christians is meant to be foundational to how we do church. In John 13:35 Jesus says, “35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.””

ILLUSTRATION: We find ourselves in a unique position this morning. We’re a local church gathering together for a worship service, but because we are just starting, many of us don’t know each other. Some of you only know about Restoration Community Church because you saw an ad on social media. And yet, here we are. How does community grow and develop out of a bunch of people from various backgrounds just coming together?

It makes me think of my groomsmen at our wedding. Personality wise, interest wise, we’re not that similar. I’d love to have more close friends that actually enjoyed watching sports with me. And yet, these guys are the closest friends in my life, and I’m so incredibly thankful for them. How did that happen?

Whether it’s a group of groomsmen or a group of people doing church in a theatre with a disco ball, the answer is the same: Deep love and community grows out of a common love for Jesus. We might not have anything else in common. But in as much as that one thing is true and foundational in our lives, we’ll find we can relate easier to people that share that one part of our identity so much better than those who might have 50 other things in common with us.

ILLUSTRATION: That’s why you hear stories of men and women who serve in the military and see active combat form a deep bond that continues throughout the rest of their lives. When something affects us deeply and we share it with others, it ties us to them in a profound way.

And that leads us to the third fruit that flows out of following Jesus. It’s the common foundation that fosters this kind of community and love. Following Jesus brings hope to our lives. Look with me at verse 4 moving into verse 5.

Colossians 1:4–5 ESV

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,

That word “because” at the start of verse 5 is so important. Look at it. In verse 4, Paul gives us two important attributes of Christians: faith in Christ and love for all the saints. But where does that ongoing faith to live for Christ and that love for other Christians come from? It doesn’t come from our effort.

It comes from our hope. The hope laid up for you in heaven. The promise of one day being united with Jesus for all eternity. The promise of being made fully righteous. It’s there and waiting for you, and the assurance of what God has promised his people is what fuels their ability to live by faith and walk in love for others now.

If you keep reading through the end of verse 5, we don’t just see the result of our hope, we see the source of it—the reason we have it—its that last word in the verse: the gospel. The good news that though we rebel against God and want to be the king of our own lives, God loved us and sent his Son Jesus to pay the penalty of our sin on the cross, taking on what we deserve, so we can experience what he deserves as the righteous Son of God. Not by what we can accomplish but by repentance and faith in what Jesus has accomplished for us.

ILLUSTRATION: My groomsmen—we didn’t have much in common, but we have Jesus, and that has created the deepest friendship and love for one another. This group of people gathered for the Launch Sunday of Restoration Community Church. Maybe several of us do have things in common. Maybe some guys here would enjoy watching Pelicans games with me. If so, let me know!

But we don’t need to build the community of this church primarily around our interests or around splitting up all our ministries by different generations or stages of life. We want the community of our church to be built on a common hope in Jesus. It’s him that makes us family, not our interests or our behaviors.

That crosses age boundaries, life stage boundaries, economic boundaries, bringing us all together around a purpose and for a community that’s bigger than ourselves. So, we can, by God’s grace, be like the Colossians in verse 4, known for our love, not just for one another, but for all the Christians in churches throughout Mandeville, and Covington, and St. Tammany, and Louisiana, and to the ends of the earth.

But Paul doesn’t end there. One more fruit and one more question and then we’ll be done. Let’s look at the end of verse 5 moving onto verse 6.

Colossians 1:5–6 ESV

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,

The good news of Jesus gives us purpose, provides us with community, sustains us with hope, and leads us into transformation. You see Paul’s words in verse 6 that the gospel is bearing fruit and increasing throughout the world. It’s not static globally, and it’s not meant to be static personally. The gospel changes people, and as you rest in the work of Jesus rather than depending on yourself, the gospel will increasingly change you to be more like Christ as well.

That’s one of our core values here at Restoration that we call Gospel Application: Because Jesus gave all of himself to justify us before God, we desire to see all of ourselves increasingly shaped by his work in our life rather than depending on our own ability. From how we preach, to the songs we sing, to the discussions in our Community Groups, to the classes we offer, our goal is to see how the gospel of Jesus can be applied to every area of life.

Paul makes that point so clear even in the way he talks about the gospel in verse 5. You see the word “gospel, ” which literally means “good news” or “joyful news” at the end of the verse? Paul gives us two synonyms in front of it to expand it’s meaning: “the word of the truth, the gospel”.

Those are all meant to build on each other. The “word” is something intentionally given to you. The “truth” is something reliable for you. And the “gospel” is something that’s good and joyful news for you. Jesus is all you need for a fruitful life.

If the false teaching that was happening in Colossae was telling Christians to look beyond just the gospel for spiritual direction and fulfillment, Paul reminds them of the power of the gospel in verse 6. The gospel has come to them just like it has come to people in other cities. And the gospel is transforming them just like it is with people in other cities.

Talking about what God was doing in other places was meant to be encouraging to the Colossians just like thinking about the work God is doing in other churches should be encouraging for us here at Restoration.

And we don’t have to look far. Our church is part of a new network of churches across multiple denominations that we get serve alongside right here in St. Tammany Parish called the Northshore Gospel Network. Faith Presbyterian, First Baptist Covington, Celebration, SweetWater, Bridge, and there’s plenty of other churches I could mention. If we’re not a good fit for you and your family, I promise I can help connect you with another church that loves Jesus as we’re all working together for his glory and the good of the Northshore.

As we close out this morning, Paul ends this section of his introductory comments in verses 7-8 pointing to his friend in ministry, Epaphras, and how he first taught them about Jesus. I find it really interesting, though, that he distinguishes the Colossians learning about the gospel in verse 7 from the gospel “coming to [them]” in verse 6. Why mention it both ways? What’s the difference between learning the gospel and the gospel coming to you?

Well, for starters, the Greek preposition εἰς that is translated as “to” in verse 6 also means “into”: “the gospel, which has come into you”. Learning about Jesus is not the same as being changed by Jesus. The transformation Paul says that’s taking place in Christians around the world in the rest of that verse is happening because the gospel has come into them. It’s not just intellectual (though that certainly matters); it’s spiritual. It’s not just if you know about Jesus; do you have Jesus?

And that’s the question I want to leave us with this morning as we prepare for our time of response. Has the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, come into you, or do you just simply know about him? You might wonder, “How would I know?” The gospel is as simple as it is complex, and no matter where you’re at today you can know Jesus through repenting or turning from your sin and placing your faith in his work for you rather than trusting in yourself.

But one way to start examining whether the gospel has truly come into you is to look at the fruit that Paul lays out for us in these verses. Is your life marked by a purpose that’s bigger than yourself? Do you love the family of God and desire community with his church? Do you look to an eternity united with Jesus as a joyful hope that fuels your faith and love for others? Are you seeing yourself slowly but surely transformed to be more and more like Jesus as you follow him?

These things aren’t measures to tell you how close to God you are. They are fruit that may currently be small but will increase throughout your life as you continue to follow him and he continues to work in you.

Let’s pray.