The Gospel Truth is Reported by People (Col. 1:7-8)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/24/2016 6:51 PM

My Worship Time                                                Focus:  The Gospel Truth is Reported by People

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Colossians 1:7-8

            Message of the verses:  “7 just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow bond-servant, who is a faithful servant of Christ on our behalf, 8 and he also informed us of your love in the Spirit.”

            Before we get started looking at today’s verses I wanted to say that since tomorrow is Christmas day that I will be posting on both of my blogs a paper I wrote about Christmas a few years ago.

            We realize that salvation is solely by the grace of God; however He uses humans to tell the story of the gospel so that the Holy Spirit can convict them of their sins and cause them to accept the good news of the gospel.  We have been over this ground before that everyone who has been born is born into sin because of the sin of Adam which is passed on by the father, and Paul writes in the third chapter of Romans the following to show us that it really takes a miracle from God for anyone to come to know Him.  “10 As it is written: "There is none righteous, no, not one; 11 There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. 12 They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one." 13 “Their throat is an open tomb; With their tongues they have practiced deceit"; "The poison of asps is under their lips"; 14 “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness." 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 Destruction and misery are in their ways; 17  And the way of peace they have not known." 18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes’ (Romans 3:10-18).”  Scholars call this the depravity of man, meaning that we are not as bad as we can be, but we are as bad off as we can be.

            Getting back to the truth that God uses people to tell others about Christ and that gospel we can see this in Acts 1:8 “but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.’”  We see part of this also in Matthew and call it the great commission.  “For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe (1 Cor. 1:21).”  I have heard of people who are reading the Bible and pray to receive Christ without anyone telling them about that need and they were genuinely saved, which shows that it is the Word of God that the Spirit uses to convict them of sin and their need of salvation.  In my case the people who told me about the gospel were not even believers as time showed me, but again it was the Word of God used by the Spirit of God that was used to tell me the truth and convict me of sin and salvation.

            Now there is one more verse that we need to look at that shows us this truth of people telling people how to be saved and that comes from Romans 10:14 “How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?”  Paul goes on to quote from Isaiah in the next verse “How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, "HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET OF THOSE WHO BRING GOOD NEWS OF GOOD THINGS!"”

            Now as we go on looking at these two verses we see the name Epaphras, and we learned that he was the one who was visiting Paul while in prison, the one who first gave the good news to the Colossians, and the one who is telling Paul the problems that were developing in this church. Now I want to note something that we have been learning in our study of the 15^th chapter of John’s gospel about the word “bond-servant.”  The Greek word is doulos and Paul uses this word many times in his writing to the different church and people he writes to and the word means “slave” in the Greek and only slave.  Paul is connecting Epaphras’ with his ministry as he was Paul’s representative at Colossae and the one who backed up his authority and also the authority of Jesus Christ which Paul had because of his apostleship.

            John MacArthur concludes this first chapter, and last main point from this first chapter of his commentary on Colossians with the following paragraph.  “God gives us the wonderful privilege and sobering responsibility of being His agents in proclaiming the gospel of His grace.  May we be faithful to share with others the gospel that has meant so much to us.”

12/24/2016 7:20 PM