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Big Idea: Paul delights in the hope and health of the gospel.
Fresh Mercies. Today I want to remind you of our Confidence in Christ.
I love a New Year, a fresh start. The promise of possibility The potent sense of potential… fresh mercies of the new start.
I like to anticipate the year ahead. I am not averse to New Year’s resolutions but it takes me a bit of time to develop an adjusted rhythm.
The issue is that the freshness does not last. The anticipation and determination wilts rather quickly. The drudgery of to do lists does its best to deplete the freshness
Statistics tell me that it is not all in my imagination. Statistically January 21 marks the demise of more than 80% of all New Year Resolutions.
It takes just 3 weeks before the crisp, refreshing newness evaporates in the everyday traffic of life … until the start of 2026.
We need something better than the latest App or time management system or morning routine or protocol or Bullet journal … In our passage today Paul points us to an enduring HOPE and HEALTH that is ours in Christ. Gospel HOPE and Gospel HEALTH. Paul writes this letter to a church which he didn’t plant and one he has never met. Good for us … same boat.
Paul wants his readers to remain Confident in Christ.
That come Wednesday morning his readers would still be trusting in Jesus with all their heart and soul and might and strength. That they would be delighting in their gospel hope and growing in their gospel health. Delighting in Gospel Hope and Growing in Gospel Health. Those are our two points today. Let’s take a look …
Gospel Hope (v1-8) What does it mean to delight in Gospel Hope? Delight is found when we understand God’s grace.
Read v6 … truly understood God’s grace. Since you heard the gospel and truly appreciated God’s grace.
Gospel – Good News of Jesus 14 He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross. (CSB)
Grace – underserved favour; G.R.A.C.E. That’s why Paul thanks God in v3. He is delighting in God’s saving grace which is our HOPE. Read v3-5
3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people-5 the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel
Notice the three words Faith, Love, Hope. Paul is delighting in their faith in Christ (v4) in part because that is the saving response to the gospel message; repenting and believing.
What does that look like? When you come to appreciate who Jesus is and what he offers you say, I am sorry for rejecting you. I don’t want to reject you anymore. Please forgive me. Thank you Lord that you have moved me from death to life. Then come and talk to me or Sam and we’ll rejoice with you and help you as you start out on your new life. So Paul is delighting in their faith … And he is delighting in the fruit of their new life in Christ, loving one another – even though, as we know, it is costly and hard to love one another as Christ has loved us. But it is the fruit of God’s Spirit living and working in us. Promote that.
Funeral. Reminder, at the end of life we will be remembered for our love for others.
All this is done in the context of gospel hope. Read v5
5 because of the hope reserved for you in heaven. You have already heard about this hope in the word of truth, the gospel (CSB)
Pushing on in faith and love motivated by our hope. We live in light of something more glorious to come. We push on by God’s enabling toward the finish line in expectation of the prize. That is our hope. I love that word reserved (NIV stored).
I have a ticket for the plane. And on that ticket my seat number is recorded. A flight attendant will welcome me aboard and direct me to my seat. A place reserved for me
I have a ticket to the cricket. It gets me through the gate and to my allocated seat, reserved for me.
Something set aside and kept safe for me ahead of my arrival.
My hope is reserved for me in heaven … truly saved in the cloud. Safe from hackers and thieves. As a follower of Jesus my hope expressed in the gospel as an inheritance … and eternal life, is being reserved for me, set aside for me, kept safe for me in the very presence of God, by the power of God, according to the plan and purposes of God.
Paul delight is in God’s saving love at work in his people. Paul’s experience of grace recounted to Timothy.
1 Tim 1:13-16
I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an arrogant man. But I received mercy because I acted out of ignorance in unbelief, 14 and the grace of our Lord overflowed, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 15 This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”-and I am the worst of them. 16 But I received mercy for this reason, so that in me, the worst of them, Christ Jesus might demonstrate his extraordinary patience as an example to those who would believe in him for eternal life.
As we truly understand God’s grace Christ is our confidence. He is God’s Saviour, not you. He is God’s way of dealing with our sin not you. By His work, not ours the eternity of all his followers is secure. And in the delightful words of Phil 1:6
I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (CSB)
When we appreciate the grace of God our hope and confidence is firmly fixed in Jesus.
Gospel Health (v9-14) Healthy things bear fruit and grow. This is the content of Paul’s prayer for his readers. Get a bit of a glimpse of Paul’s hard work of prayer. He hears about their situation and his response is not to rush over but to stop and pray, and keep at it.
Read v9
For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven’t stopped praying for you
We haven’t met but you are my brothers and sisters in Christ. I have heard of your situation. You are on my prayer list. This is how Paul prays. Read v9b
9 We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, t
Paul is praying to God for God to do his work in his people. WORK THROUGH THAT PART AGAIN.
Paul is Christ’s ambassador by God’s will. He speaks God’s words. Communicating the will and wisdom of God. Colossians – Reading and absorbing the rest of this letter. God speaks through his word. He communicates his will and wisdom through his word and the Word does its work in our hearts by the power and enabling of the Holy Spirit. SPECIAL REVELATION.
Us prayerfully studying the Bible, seeking God by his Spirit to open our eyes and hearts and direct our wills. TRANSFORMATION. To know God and his nature and will and how he works and what we are called to, and how we respond rightly.
I have found it very helpful to read the Bible along with devotional material and comments; to incorporate some prayers by older saints. It’s like talking to wise friends and helps to stretch my thinking.
Transformation. Read v10-11
10 so that you 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, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience,
When we read the Bible it is not us earning credit with God for a religious observance. It is us being equipped and enabled to live a life worthy of our calling and pleasing to God.
Our desire to proudly wear the jumper. Broncos… working hard not a repeat of last season. To what end? v11
11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience,
Endurance and patience God knows we will struggle with sin. Does not expect us to be able to be sinless in this life. Endurance in the struggle Patience in this life Glory is coming. Joyful, thankful of the hope we have (v12) and the status we have received (v13-14).
Conclusion.
A bloke I’ve known forever at the funeral. How you doing? Movie of a Plane Crash or a Train Wreck? That’s my life. Severe depression, wife left, not seen kids for a year, medicated all his personality out of him.
He is not what most people would call productive or effective in the world or in church. But he is a follower of Jesus. Nothing a new creation won’t fix.
In the end our hope is in God’s grace – even when we find it hard to fully appreciate it. Our gospel health is God at work in us. He knows our situation; he knows our weaknesses. He will give us what we need, when we need for endurance and patience.
Our confidence is in Christ.
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