Bearing Fruit and Growing (Colossians 1.1-13)

Introduction

We give thanks to God for his blessing on this church which has endured for many years. Our prayer is that it may continue, and indeed accelerate, as we journey together into the future he has for us.

Whenever a friend of mine visits another church, I always ask, “How did you find it?” And what I mean by that question is not “what was the building like?”, or “what do they wear?”, or “how many people were present?”, or “which songs did they sing?” or “did you find out about their finances?” 

What I’m interested in is what I call the “spiritual temperature” of church. In other words, did the people seem to be on fire for God or apathetic? Did you find them outward-looking and welcoming or a bit cliquey? Was the Bible teaching sound and life-giving or dull and lacking conviction? Was their worship vibrant and energising or lethargic and tiresome? Was the atmosphere there full of faith and the Holy Spirit or a bit worldly and dreary? 

Our reading today, from Colossians 1, is all about those kinds of issues. It’s about the personality of the church in Colossae and the impact it was having beyond its four walls. 

Colossae, like Stockton on Tees, was a meeting place of many different worldviews and beliefs. There was a great plurality of different ideas that were all tolerated as long as they didn’t result in civil disorder. Our secular society works in much the same way today. You can believe what you want as long as it doesn’t offend or limit the rights of someone else.

Hearing About What God Is Doing

And for the church in that town, the Apostle Paul’s prayer was surely what he would pray for the church in this one; (v10) that we would live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way.

As far as we know, Paul never visited Colossae. The nearest he got to it was when he started a church in Ephesus, about 100 miles away, but he knew about it because one of his converts in Ephesus, called Epaphras, later took the gospel to his home town of Colossae. He took the essential DNA of the church in Ephesus and put it somewhere else. Hold on to that thought, I’m going to come back to it. 

But notice this; Paul never went anywhere near this church and yet he can say in v4, “We have heard of your faith... and your love.” 

In fact, three times in this short passage Paul says; “We’ve heard all about you.” So it was a church with influence. There is something about the work of God there that became news. It was heard about and talked about hundreds of miles away. What was it about that little church that caused ripples throughout the wider region? 

Growth and Fruitfulness

In v6 you get the answer; “The gospel is bearing fruit and growing… among you.” 

Paul repeats that in v10. He prays, “that you may please the Lord in every way, bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God.”

One of the unmissable hallmarks of an individual or a church where God is at work is that there is growth and fruitfulness. God wants you and me to be growing and bearing fruit in such a way that people get to hear about it. 

Let me ask you bluntly and directly; do you think you are growing? Is your faith deepening? Is your heart for God getting bigger? Do you have a healthy appetite for God’s presence? Are you forgiving as the Lord forgave you? Are you further on in God than you were this time last year? Are you asking God for more faith, deeper joy, greater love, and increased generosity...?

Growth and fruitfulness are unmistakable evidence of spiritual health. Spiritual stagnation and unproductiveness are signs that something is wrong and needs sorting out.

So what’s the secret of spiritual growth and fruitfulness? Well, the Bible says here that before you can ever make an impression on your community, the gospel has to make its mark on you.

Here’s how it all works in a nutshell; first, God does a work in your heart and you change – and you then enrich the life of your local church making it stronger and more healthy - and only then, when the whole church is alive and vibrant, is there an impact on the wider community. But it starts with each individual growing and bearing fruit.

If you look closer at verses 6 to 9 you can see that they reveal a sequence. 

In v6 it says “you heard the word of the gospel.” In other words, somebody articulated the good news about Jesus and your ears tuned in. It appealed to you enough to listen up and take an interest. That’s vital.

But hearing the gospel is not enough. I mean, I have heard about pulsars, quasars, phantom energy, black holes and dark matter. I have heard that they exist out in space and are fundamental to the structure of the universe. But that doesn’t mean I understand what they are. 

But a bit further in v6 it says about the gospel, “You truly understood it.” That is to say the message of the gospel rang true and made sense to you. Your eyes were opened to the truth about the gravity of sin and the sweetness of salvation and you said, “Ah yes, I see that now.” 

But understanding the gospel is not sufficient either. I understand how planes fly; it’s basic aerodynamics; thrust must be greater than drag, and lift must be greater than weight. I can understand that perfectly well, but I have never learned to actually fly a plane. 

So in v7 Paul goes beyond just hearing and understanding. He says, “You learned it.” He’s talking about life-related biblical training so that theory becomes personal experience.

That’s where these believers were. They had first heard, then understood, and finally really learned or grasped the gospel of God’s grace. 

Where do you think you are on that scale? The truth about you and God’s plan for your life – are you at stage 1 (have you just heard it?) Or do you think you have progressed to stage 2 yet (do you really understand it?) Or have you made it to stage 3 now (have you properly learned and grasped it so it is an integral part of who you are?) 

This is so important. It’s why we work really hard on biblical preaching and encourage everyone to be in a Life Group. Our aim is that everyone here has heard, understood and learned the gospel so we are all growing and bearing fruit.

There are four different ways in which I see us growing and bearing fruit, and I want to end by saying a few words on each.

1) REACh

We have made a start in growing the building here. We are very blessed to have the facility we have, and I thank God for the vision of generations before me. But the truth is that parts of our building fit what God was calling the church to be in the 1950’s and 60’s. This is 2018. And we should not ask those who will come after us to fit in with what God was doing decades ago.

If we do not change, we will find ourselves perfectly equipped for a world that no longer exists. So we have to find a way of honouring the heritage of the past, without ever being controlled by it. 

Jesus said that new wine needs new wineskins. He didn’t advise us, he commanded us in the great commission, to make disciples and preach the gospel to all creation, not become curators of a religious museum. So REACh will continue and we will not rest until we’ve finished the job.

2) Discipleship for Everyone

But even with the best church building on earth, if we are not all growing in our discipleship, we are failing as a church. Discipleship means a lifelong programme of learning to live more like Jesus did. It's our job to train people to be more like Jesus in his character, to think more like Jesus in his priorities and to minister more like Jesus in his anointed power. 

From June onwards, we are going to be intentionally focusing on this. Because we know that there is a great temptation to sit comfortably, get some popcorn and just enjoy the show. That is not the church Jesus is building.

Jesus modelled to all his followers how to preach good news to the poor, how to heal the sick, how to drive out demons and how to feed the 5,000. Then he said, “Right, now it’s your turn. You do it. And when you’ve done that, tell someone else how to do it.” That is what we’re about.

3) Equipping Leaders

Because the 10.30am congregation has grown in size over the last few years, All Saints’ has increased in complexity. There are more people to get to know, to keep up with, to look after, and to involve.

Logistically, it takes longer to administer Communion and serve coffee; queues are longer meaning servers get home later... The parking challenge, already tricky two years ago, is now even more so. On so many levels, we simply cannot operate like we did before.

This means we have involve more people in decision making, train more people and give them responsibility. For example, because the pastoral caseload has grown so much, Peter is now co-leading the pastoral team with Karen and he is training to take funerals too, releasing me for other things.

The leadership of Connect is now shared between 6 different people. We have identified new Life Group leaders. I have invited new faces into the service leading and preaching teams. We aim to double the size of the prayer ministry team.

4) Planting Out

Finally, I mentioned Epaphras earlier, the man who first took the gospel from Ephesus to Colossae and established a new church there. This is the way the early church grew. Churches sent out leaders with teams who began to grow and bear fruit where they went.

All Saints’ has gospel-shaped DNA which multiplies wherever it goes. When the Alan and Nicky went to Central Stockton with a few others ten years ago, a church facing closure came alive.

When Sylvia went out five years ago there were virtually no children or young people and only very formal services where she went. Now there is lots of youthfulness and a growing congregation.

When Stuart and Nichola went to Sunderland two years ago, they had a congregation of 6; 4 of whom were them. Now they’re getting over 60, people are coming to faith, and God is growing his church on that tough estate.

What we have here, what God has so graciously done among us, is too precious to keep to ourselves. And whenever we give it away, God pours even more back in. Jesus said, “Give, and it will be given to you – with an added bonus and a blessing.”

When Paul comes as curate here in July, his focus will be to gather a team of hopefully about 30 people to go with him and his family from here and do the same again about three years from now. The church he will go on to is not viable in its present form and is facing closure. But we believe God has a new day for that community.

I want to ask you to pray, perhaps especially if you live nearer to there than here, and ask God if he might perhaps be calling you to join that new plant team. It won’t be to keep doing with more people what has led to decline there for decades. It will be new wine in a new wineskin. People are going to meet Jesus, come to faith, be filled with the Holy Spirit, be added to the church and it will grow and bear fruit.

Ending

I think we are entering one of the most exciting chapters in All Saints’ life. The best is yet to come! It is an honour to be called by God to lead this church and serve you all.

Let’s stand to pray…

Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 22 April 2018