In this session, we turn from the stories of the early church to the story of your church and of other churches in our own time. To give biblical guidance, we turn to the opening words of Paul's epistle to the church at Colossae, one of the seven churches in Asia Minor that also received one of John's "seven letters" in Revelation.

Paul first describes this congregation:

• It is a congregation full of "faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven" (v. 5). In other words, hope is the driving force of the gospel. It has the power to give people a vision for the future in which God will make all things new. It is this beautiful hope, beyond the tyranny of sin and death in this world, that makes people willing to put their lives on the line.

• "The gospel is bearing fruit . . . among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God's grace" (v. 6). If hope gives us the vision of God's kingdom, then it is God's grace that captures our hearts. When we truly understand God's grace, we can not help telling others about this extravagant love that forgives our sins and accepts us as God's children.

-Then Paul prays for them:

• That they be filled with "the knowledge of [God's] will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives" (v. 9). The Holy Spirit is the one who empowers the church, giving people the knowledge of God's will for their lives.

• That they "may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God" (v. 10). Note the two things Paul asks for in "leading a life worthy of the Lord": knowledge and bearing the fruit of good work. Understanding and right living, knowledge and fruit-bearing, always go together. There cannot be good works without knowledge of the Scriptures, and there can't be knowledge that doesn't work itself out in changed lives.

• That they "may have great endurance and patience" (v. 11). The life of the Christian community, its growth and maturity, doesn't happen overnight. It's a long haul; a slow and painstaking process. And there's always the opposition Satan brings from within and without. Hang in there!

Finally Paul gives one of the most powerful and empowering statements of the gospel we find in the Bible. "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" (v. 13-14). We have been rescued from the kingdom of darkness, from the stranglehold of death and sin. We have been brought into the kingdom of the Son, into the family of the triune God, where there is forgiveness and mercy and where the future is bright with the sure hope of God's final victory.

A church built on that foundation will truly be a missional community, participating in God's mission to bring the world into "the kingdom of the Son he loves." |