What do you treasure? – And how do you know that is what you actually treasure?
Every year around Father’s Day, these “About Dad” sheets start showing up – Maybe some of you got one in past couple weeks – All these fill in blank questions for children to answer about their dads – It’s supposed to be this sweet, sentimental exercise to show dads what their kids love about them
A few years ago, my oldest son brought one home and I picked it up, prepared myself to receive all my wonderful, encouraging dad accolades – And then I get to this line – Dad’s favorite thing to do – And scribbled on the line next to that statement was a single word: chores – Dad’s favorite thing to do is: chores
Now, that might sound funny to you – But it actually was not funny to me because I knew context – And what I realized in moment was that my son was actually answering a much bigger and much more serious question about me – You see, real question: What does your dad really treasure? – And real response: Getting stuff done
Of all things he could have put in that blank about my favorite thing to do – Talking about Jesus – Reading his Bible – Singing – Praying – Serving mom – Playing with me – Helping others – Of all things he could have put in that blank, this is first thing that popped into his mind: chores – Getting stuff done – That’s what dad really treasures
And I realized, in that moment, that what I was most consistently communicating, demonstrating, and celebrating in front of my son was importance of getting stuff done – “Unload dishwasher – Clean your room – Put your shoes away – Do it this way, not that way – Hurry up – I can’t play right now I have things to do – I can’t put you in bed tonight I have this work thing I need to do – You remembered to put your plate in sink, good job – You didn’t put your socks away, bad job
What I consistently communicated, demonstrated, and celebrated was coming together in my son’s mind and forming this message: What dad really treasures is getting stuff done – And I had to stop and ask myself: Is that really what I want to be remembered for? – Is that really worth treasuring?
If your child or your spouse or your co-worker filled in that blank for you, what would it say? – If a guest simply came to our church and observed for a few weeks and then filled in that blank about River Community Church, what would it say? –
What do we consistently communicate, demonstrate, and celebrate?
Last week we finished looking at 2 Timothy and this morning we are starting into Paul’s Letter to the Colossians – We will spend July and August working our way through Colossians – And phrase we want to keep our eyes fixed on as we work our way through this book is this: “Treasuring Jesus”
God’s intent in providentially sending this letter to Colossians 2,000 years ago was that they would treasure Jesus – God’s intent in providentially putting it before us over next few months is that we would treasure Jesus
And I think first way He wants to nudge us treasure Jesus is by seeing example of others – Because opening eight verses of Colossians are about three different men and a small, ancient church, all of whom treasure Jesus – And we know they treasure Jesus because they Communicate, Demonstrate, and Celebrate the Gospel – Those are going to be our three points this morning – As people who Treasure Jesus, we want to: Communicate Jesus – Demonstrate Jesus – Celebrate Jesus
Let’s read Colossians 1:1-8
Before we dig into this too much, let’s put some important contextual pieces together – As we often see in NT letters, this letter begins with a greeting – And greeting gives us some important contextual information
First, greeting identifies author – Apostle Paul wrote this letter – And Paul’s protégé Timothy, who we’ve become familiar with over past few months, was a co-sender
Greeting also identifies audience – Letter was written to church in Colossae – “To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae” – Colossae was an ancient town located in modern-day Turkey[1] – We know very little about Colossae, except that it was a relatively obscure town that was heavily damaged, possibly even destroyed, by an earthquake in AD 61 – So, based on that information, we assume Paul wrote this letter before AD 61
Beyond those basic details we gather from introduction, we know from Colossians 4:18 that Paul was in prison, probably in Rome, when he wrote this letter – And we know from Colossians 2:1 that Paul had never been to Colossae at time writing – He had never been with Colossians face-to-face – So, Paul hadn’t been one to do preaching and church planting in Colossae
That work had been done by a different man – A man named Epaphras, who is mentioned in verse 7 – Epaphras, a faithful minister of Christ, had presumably been first personally to fruitfully proclaim Gospel and make disciples in Colossae
And, after church had been born, Epaphras had sent a report and a request to Apostle Paul – He sent a report about blossoming faith of church at Colossae – And also a request for guidance on some issues this new church was facing – Paul, upon receiving this report and request, sent a letter to church in response
So this whole thing started because Epaphras treasured Jesus – And he treasured Jesus so much that he wanted to tell other people about Jesus – And that just happens naturally – We talk about what we treasure
Our four-year old’s top value currently is independence – He really wants to be able to do things without our help – So, one of his favorite phrases is “Daddy no help” – He’ll put his shirt on by himself and or unload silverware by himself and then kind of stick out his chest and say “Daddy no help” – He treasures independence, so he talks about independence
Epaphras treasured Jesus, so he talked about Jesus – And this brings us to our first point – Epaphras Communicated Jesus with people of Colossae – He treasured Jesus Christ so he Communicated Gospel of Jesus Christ – Now, what is the Gospel? – Word we throw around a lot, but what is it?
Paul gives us some pretty good clues here – He says that he thanks God because the Colossians have put their faith in Christ Jesus – He references hope that is laid up for Colossians in heaven – He explicitly refers to Gospel as “the word of the truth” and “the grace of God in truth”
The Gospel, simply put, is this: the Triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – We see all three mentioned here – Invites us to be restored to perfect fellowship with Himself
Way back at beginning of time, God made us in His image so that we would know Him, love Him, and reflect Him in His world – But we rebelled against God’s good design for our lives – We sinned – And our sin had consequences deep and wide – We were banished from God’s holy presence, cursed to live a life of toil on face of earth, and given over to physical death, spiritual death, and eternal punishment apart from God in hell –And all of this we deserve as a just consequence for our treasonous crime against God
But God is not only just, He is also merciful – And, in His mercy, God made a way for justice to be served and for us to be saved – And that just mercy was to send His Son, Jesus Christ, to bear consequences of our sin and death on cross, to defeat them through His resurrection on third day, and then to offer us opportunity to experience Jesus’s victory and righteousness over sin and death by faith in His resurrected Son
So that now, if we confess our need for a Savior, turn away from a life of selfishness and self-righteousness and, instead, trust in Jesus to restore us to relationship with our Heavenly Father, we can begin to know power of a restored life on this earth by power of Holy Spirit – And we can have a sure hope of living in blessed presence of God for all eternity in heaven
That’s the Gospel – The word of the truth – The grace of God in truth – The message that Epaphras communicated to people of Colossae because he Treasured Jesus – And message we are called to communicate to our neighbors as we Treasure Jesus
Communicating Jesus is not work of super spiritual people or specially commissioned evangelists – It’s work of of all Christians – Epaphras was just a mortal man empowered by an immortal God – Paul describes Epaphras as “our beloved fellow servant” (v. 7
Throughout NT, Paul consistently refers to himself as a “servant” of God (Rom. 1:1, Gal. 1:10, Phil. 1:1, Tit. 1:1) – Greek word doulos – Can also be translated “slave” – And that word can make us bristle because of dark history of slavery in America – But, whether you want to say servant or slave, meaning is clear: someone who is bound to do will of his master
Paul felt bound to live in such a way as to please God, not men (Gal. 1:10) – And Epaphras apparently shared this perspective because Paul calls him a “fellow servant” or a “co-slave”
And then Paul immediately describes him using another term – He calls Epaphras “…a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf…” – And when you hear that word minister, I don’t want you to imagine a stuffy guy like me who stands up here and preaches to gathered assembly – Word is diakonos – It can be used to refer to office of deacon in church, but it is most often used to refer to normal people who work at serving other normal people
So, no matter how you cut it, Epaphras is a mere servant – But what’s more insightful is not noting that Epaphras is a servant, but noting who he serves and how he serves – Paul calls Epaphras a servant “of Christ…on your behalf” – Notice that Epaphras is not first a servant of Colossians – He is first a servant of Christ on behalf of Colossians
I don’t know about you, but I can be tempted to get that backward at times – What is happening beneath the surface when I find myself in position to communicate Gospel with neighbor / friend / family member? – Why am I all of the sudden overcome with fear or anxiety about how they will respond or what they will think of me? – Could it be that, beneath the surface, I have come to believe that I am first here to serve my neighbor and only secondly to serve Christ?
People who truly Treasure Jesus – Who are first servants of Jesus – Will Communicate Jesus to people around them according to gifts, opportunities, and personalities God has given them
I was talking with a young man from our church this week who made it his goal to share the Gospel 200 times this summer – He regularly goes to mall or downtown and shares Gospel with people – Or shares with people while he’s shopping at Wal-Mart
I was challenged by his boldness – Then I told him that it’s been a while since I’ve shared the Gospel with a stranger, but that I have ongoing relationships with non-believers, that I’ve shared with them but they’ve been unresponsive, and now I’m trying to figure out how to continue to have conversations with them moving forward – And he admitted that he’s not great at building and sustaining ongoing relationships with non-believers or following up with them
Here’s thing: I’m not him – He’s not me – We have different strategies – I can learn something from him – He can learn something from me – But, at end of day, we are Communicating Jesus because we Treasure Jesus – And that’s what’s truly important – Communicating Jesus according to gifts, opportunities, and personalities God has given us
People who truly Treasure Jesus will Communicate Jesus – And they will also Demonstrate Jesus – Epaphras communicated Jesus and, by grace of God, some in Colossae believed it and local church was born – And that church quickly began to Demonstrate Jesus in their community
Gospel begins bearing fruit in their life together – Paul lists three specific Gospel fruit in verses 4-5 – They should sound familiar to you because they frequently appear together in NT – They are faith, hope, and love
1 Corinthians 13 comes to mind – Section on love, where Paul concludes by saying, “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” – So, in 1 Corinthians 13, Paul gives love place of priority – But notice that here in Colossians, he gives hope place of priority – Look again at what he says:
“3 We always thank God…when we pray for you…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.”
So, grammatically, Paul is putting hope at foundation – He’s saying that, for this growing church at Colossae, “hope” is functioning as source of “faith” and “love”[2]
How does that work? – What does that look like? – How might “hope” lead to increased “faith” and increased “love”? – Let me give you an example from history
In 165 AD an epidemic of an unknown disease, possibly smallpox, swept through Roman Empire – Over course of next 15 years, 25-33% of entire population of Roman Empire died – During this time most Romans, who were pagans, either fled to places of solitude in the countryside if they had means to do so – Or they simply forced those who became sick to certain streets and certain parts of city to die alone
But Christians in Rome responded differently – Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria, described actions of Christians in this way:
Most of our brethren showed love and loyalty in not sparing themselves while helping one another, tending to the sick with no thought of danger and gladly departing this life with them after becoming infected with their disease…They would also take up the bodies of the saints, close their eyes, shut their mouths, and carry them on their shoulders. They would embrace them, wash and dress them in burial cloths, and soon receive the same services themselves.[3]
This became pattern of early church – They Demonstrated Jesus by laying down their own lives as a sacrifice to care for outcasts who had been condemned to death – And it was a key factor in spread of Christianity in Roman Empire because pagans were drawn to such sacrificial love
By end of 4th century, Christianity had become predominant religion in Rome – Emperor Julian didn’t like it – So, he tried to re-establish paganism as state religion – Seeing effectiveness of Christians in winning people to Christ through acts of mercy, Julian ordered pagan priests to also do acts of mercy – But program failed miserably because pagan priests refused to do it – They could not muster a speck of faith or a scrap of love because they did not have a smidgeon of hope for heaven[4]
There is a hope laid up for us in heaven – We are mere strangers in this world – Our home is an eternal heaven where our Father prepares a place for us – A place free from evil and pain and suffering and longing – A place where we will live with him forever – And whatever glimpse of salvation and freedom and life we might experience on this earth is just a shadow to what awaits us in glory – For us, to live is Christ, to die is gain
How can we demonstrate Jesus with courageous faith in this life? – Because we have sure hope in the next one – How can we demonstrate Jesus by sacrificial love in this life? – Because we have hope in the next one
C.S. Lewis famously said, “If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next.” – God has given a sure and steadfast hope in heaven – And that hope for tomorrow frees us to live with faith and love today
We have seen how Epaphras Communicated the Gospel – Colossians Demonstrated the Gospel – And now let’s look at how Paul and Timothy Celebrated the Gospel
Look at verse 3 – Paul writes, “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you…”
Now let me ask you this: What have your prayers looked like recently? – When you talk with God, what do you talk to Him about? – Do you ask Him to help you with difficult situations in your life? – Do you ask Him for wisdom for tough decisions you need to make? – Do you ask Him for endurance for trials you face? – God wants you to talk to Him about all those things – He wants you to ask Him – But it’s easy for us to get to a place where we are always asking – Always asking and rarely thanking
But Paul and Timothy were determined to be always thanking – To be giving thanks in all circumstances (1 Thess. 5:18) – And, specifically, to be thanking God for His redemptive work in Christ Jesus
Last Thursday night I sat in a room of stinky youth boys at Super Summer and one of the boys stood up to tell others that he had decided to follow Jesus that night – And room erupted with cheers – With way those boys cheered, you would have thought Chiefs had just won another Super Bowl – So let me tell you something – Those boys still have a lot to learn about life – But they know this: the Gospel is worth celebrating
I want to be kind of person who is always thanking God – Who treasures Jesus and celebrates Jesus as Kingdom of God pushes back forces of darkness – But if we want to become kind of person who celebrates the Gospel, we are going to have to kill something – We are going to have to kill comparison
Several years ago I was at a meeting of Christian Challenge staff across Kansas/Nebraska – Jenni’s dad, Jon Sapp, was leading meeting – He broke us up into groups and we sat around tables and our first assignment was to simply thank God for work He had been doing
And you would think that would be really encouraging – And I’m sure it was for most people – But it wasn’t for me – Do you know why? – Because my mind kept getting caught in comparison – “That director is doing a better job than me” – “I wish we did that at our campus” – “I wish I was gifted at this or that”
Do you see how broken that is? – Do you see how comparison kills celebration? – “Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice…” (Jas. 3:16) – We miss out on all these opportunities to Celebrate Jesus because we get caught in trap of our pride, our insecurity, and our complaining
Imagine this – Apostle Paul was greatest church planter in history – He’d been used by God to do amazing, unbelievable, miraculous things – He’d seen person after person come to Christ – He’d seen church after church be planted – He’d been on front lines of what would become greatest movement world has ever seen – But now he was stuck in a prison cell in Rome – No more amazing miracles – No more watching people move from death to life right before his eyes – No more seeing churches planted – Just a lot of time stuck in one place hearing reports about how this grand movement of God is marching right along without him, leaving him in wake
And I don’t know how Apostle Paul felt as all this was happening – But I do know what he chose to do, because he tells us – He chose to set himself aside and Celebrate Jesus – To give thanks always for marvelous work of God in Christ that depends on no mortal man – When we truly treasure Jesus we will thank Him often – We will set ourselves aside and celebrate him
We’re back to our initial question – What do you treasure? – What is it that you consistently communicate, demonstrate, and celebrate? – Is it Jesus? – Or is it something else?
In a few minutes, we are going to communicate, demonstrate, and celebrate Jesus together by taking Lord’s Supper – Lord’s Supper is one of two ongoing ordinances given to church as a way of continually communicating, demonstrating, and celebrating Jesus
We communicate Jesus by looking back to His own words at Last Supper, where He explained how His body would be broken and His blood shed for our salvation – In taking bread and juice, we communicate to one another and to world that we are His, saved by His sacrifice and bound to His will
But, more than simply communicate, we demonstrate that reality by taking real bread and grinding it with our real teeth – We take real juice and put it to our real lips – We demonstrate how Jesus’s real body was broken and poured out so that we might receive real, eternal life and real, spiritual nourishment in His name
And, when we take Lord’s Supper, we celebrate – We don’t simply look back to what Jesus has done – We also look forward to what He will do – We anticipate Day that He will return to judge living and dead and to establish New Heavens and New Earth, where we will dwell with Him forever – Our communal meal this morning anticipates a future communal meal that we will share, the banquet of heaven in the presence of the Lord
It is a celebration, but it is right for us to approach it soberly, with reflection – It is right for us to search our hearts for ways our actions may not align with what we are about to communicate, demonstrate, and celebrate – We want, as best we can, our lives to reflect the reality that we communicate, demonstrate, and celebrate through Lord’s Supper
Take some time to search your heart – If God reveals to you areas where you need to bring your actions and attitudes into conformity with His will, ask for forgiveness, know that He forgives you in Christ Jesus, and commit to getting back on track – Prepare your heart to receive Lord’s Supper
[1] David E. Garland, Colossians and Philemon, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1998), 17.
[2] David W. Pao, Colossians and Philemon, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2012), 52.
[3] Quoted from: Severance, Diana, “Christian Mercy in a Time of Plague” in Credo Magazine Online, published April 13, 2020, accessed June 22, 2026, https://credomag.com/2020/04/christian-mercy-in-a-time-of-plague/
[4] Ibid.