You’re Living Proof that God’s Gospel Works!

8th Sunday after Pentecost, 7/10/16
Colossians 1:1-14


You’re Living Proof that God’s Gospel Works!
I. It has taken root in your heart.
II. It produces fruit in your life.


“It’s broken. See, it’s not working anymore.”

“I don’t feel any different now than I did before I began taking this medication. It’s not working.”

“What we’re doing isn’t working. The problem between the two of us still exists.”

We’re pragmatic people living in a world that seems to be traveling at the speed of light. We don’t have time for things that don’t work. We count on what we’re doing to work for us, and, if we discover that’s not happening, we make a hasty change. We try something else. And we’ll continue doing so until we find what works for us.

We want to see results. Seeing is believing.

And that approach is fine when we’re referring to a labor-saving gadget or medical advice or the dynamics of a relationship. But be careful about using that method of observation when it comes to your Christianity. My reason for that warning is that so much of your Christianity is below the soil. It’s internal. It’s a matter of faith, not sight. It’s spiritual and not physical.

Unfortunately, it’s difficult at times to shed that desire to see observable results even in our Christianity. “I’m a Christian. Why is this happening to me?” Or, “I’m a Christian. Why isn’t this happening in my life?” I’m sure you could offer countless suggestions as to what the “this” is in those questions.

So, what has your Christianity done for you lately? How about letting our God answer that for us? After all, who knows better than he does? He gives us his answer in this opening portion of Paul’s Letter to the Colossians. He declares with certainty just what his gospel—the good news about Jesus as your Savior—has done for you. You’re living proof that God’s gospel works.

Part I.

Here’s something you’ll never read in a wedding anniversary card: “From the day I married you, my life has never been worse.” Instead, what you’ll find written on one wedding anniversary card after another is something like this: “Having you as my spouse has filled my life with joy. You changed my life forever.” Without a doubt, marriage is a life-changing event and our God intends it to be filled with life-changing blessings in the lives of those who are married.

But there’s something that has made a far greater change in your life, an eternal change. Paul speaks about it with joy in these words of our text. “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 that is 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.”

Did you catch the life-changing power in your life? “The gospel that has come to you.” Now, of all the things that Paul could be thankful for, why would he single out the gospel, the good news about Jesus Christ? It had everything to do with what the Colossian Christians had begun to face and would continue to face—false teachings. From references in this letter, we know that they faced at least half a dozen soul-destroying lies of Satan. And the peddlers of these lies would make the claim that what the Christians in Colosse believed now was keeping them from realizing other great blessings in their lives. Their lives would be so much happier, secure, satisfying, fulfilling if they would simply listen and believe what these “new” doctrines were.

Paul’s defense centered in this: Look at what the gospel has already accomplished in your life. Look how it has changed you. He writes, “We have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all the saints.” If you believe there is a life after this one, there are only two ways to get there. Either you believe you earn it on your own, or God gives you eternal life because of what Jesus did for you. Jesus is the great divide. By God’s grace, the gospel has worked saving faith in Jesus in you. God has already accomplished his highest will for your life. Praise God!

Paul also speaks about “the hope that is stored up for you in heaven.” I hope you never leave this place of worship only hoping that one day you will make it to heaven. If that’s true about you, we need talk. Your God wants you to be absolutely certain that heaven is yours. Your name is written in the book of life. That’s what your Christian baptism was all about. And certainty fills us with hope. Even if this life doesn’t get better for us (and don’t expect it to), we have a far better one awaiting us, one without sorrow, pain or death. That’s the result of the gospel working in you.

That gospel has also blown apart this faulty spiritual thinking, “I get what I deserve.” You know that isn’t true when it comes to your spiritual life. Instead, God gives you what you don’t deserve. It’s called grace. Paul praised God that the Colossian Christians “understood God’s grace in all its truth.” Your God has imparted that same understanding of his grace to you. It’s not about what you do; it’s all about what Jesus has done for you. That’s God’s powerful gospel at work in you.

And the result of that grace is God’s peace which surpasses all understanding. Tell me something: what’s going right in your life? Is there any aspect that is absolutely perfect? There’s only one and it’s your relationship with your God. All is right between you and the holy God solely because of the gospel—what Jesus did for you. That peace dwells within you. That’s the power of God’s gospel.

You’re living proof that God’s gospel works. Just look what it’s done in you. It’s taken root in your heart.

I mentioned when we began that so much of your Christianity is under the soil, invisible, internal, spiritual. Your Christian faith doesn’t mean that your life will be easy and all your days filled with happiness. It doesn’t mean you’re sorrow-proof and eternally optimistic. But do you believe that Jesus is your Savior from sin? Do you believe that heaven is yours solely by faith in him? Do you believe that his holy life, his death on the cross and his resurrection make your forgiveness and eternal life certain? Then praise God because God’s gospel has done its work in you! Your God had made you what his will, plan and purpose destined you to be! You’re living proof that God’s gospel works.

Part II.

A month or two ago you likely planted a few things in the ground around your house. By now you should be seeing the fruit of your labors. Are you pleased? Is the flower blooming as you had hoped? Are the vegetables as good as you imagined they would be? Or are you disappointed?

Your God has graciously planted the gospel in your heart. It has worked saving faith in Jesus. It did the same for the Colossian Christians. And now listen to the result, “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, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.” That’s quite a theological mouthful. Let’s take a closer look at it, focusing on the phrase “bearing fruit in every good work.” Just what fruit is the gospel bearing in your life?

Here’s one: growing in the knowledge of God. As you take God’s word to heart and use his word as the lens through which you view your life, you’re growing in the knowledge of that word. You’re testing everything you see and hear and think with the truth of the word of God.

And when that’s the case, then you’re “living a life worthy of the Lord.” Notice Paul didn’t say you make yourself worthy. He said you are living in a way that is worthy of the Lord. Simply put, you’re a child of God and you use the word of God to live like a child of God. That’s what God made you so that’s how you live. Not that we’re sinless, but that we live in the forgiveness of sins and God’s love for us empowers us to live as his children.

At times that’s not so easy, particularly when hardships and tragedies arise. But once again, that’s where God’s gospel comes in. It strengthens you to bear the fruit of endurance. Muscles that don’t get used become flabby. Likewise with your faith. What are you enduring in your life right now? It’s your faith in Jesus which leads you to push through it.

As you do, that word of God bears the fruit of patience. It seems to me that the older the Christian is, the more patient he is. Some of that might be due to being worn out. But I’d like to think that most of it is due to the fact that you’ve dealt with this issue before and God worked it out in his own time and way. You trust he’ll do the same this time, so you patiently deal with it.

But even if things don’t turn out the way you had hoped, you live with this confidence, “[God the Father] 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.” You live in the kingdom of God, the holy ark of the Church, where all the blessings Christ won for you are lavished on you through God’s word and sacrament. It doesn’t get any better than this, until God calls you to bliss in heaven. You’re living proof God’s gospel works. It produces fruit in your life.

Paul paints a fairly rosy picture of our lives as God’s people. If only it were true that we always bore the fruits of faith Paul highlights—knowing God’s will and living according to it, exuding the strength of faith and patient endurance even when our lives are falling apart. But so often the opposite is true. So often we’re ashamed that we’ve dishonored the name God gave us—child of God. That’s when we need to recall that final seven words of our text. “We have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” Forgiveness is ours by faith in Jesus. He won it for us. Our record before God is clean and holy. That good news—that gospel—then empowers us to bear the fruits God is looking for in our lives. May those fruits abound in your life so that others will say of you that you are living proof that God’s gospel works! Amen.