Colossians 4:2-6. Gospel ambitions | David Todd | 260927 | Partnership Sunday

Partnership Sunday.

Just a question to have in mind.

If you were to ask this or think about this, what does it mean to be a Christian? What is a Christian and why? What does it mean to live as a Christian? A couple of numbers for you as we look a little bit at Colossians together this morning.

If I were to ask, how many verses are there in this letter of Colossians? I wonder if you could guess.

There are 95 verses in total.

That's the first number.

But it's interesting to note, you still have to wait until the 35th verse of the letter, almost a third of the way through, before Paul says to these Christians, here's something for you to do.

95 verses, a third of the way through the letters, the first time Paul says, there's something for you to do.

And even that reflects something about what a Christian is and what it means to be a Christian.

And you could put it like this, what God has done always comes before whatever we do.

Or you could put it another way, who we are.

Who we are as Christians will always be the thing that's meant to shape then how we live as Christians.

The heart of the message of Colossians is the same as that that's in the rest of the whole Bible.

It's this.

We've been singing about it this morning.

We've been hearing about it in recent weeks that into this world, God has sent his own dear son, the Lord Jesus, in order to save us from sin and judgment.

And he's done that by grace alone, totally and fully.

We don't do anything to merit it.

And having done that, he then adopts us into his family and gives us a secure future hope.

And the Bible would say to us, as God puts that before us, we take hold of it by faith.

God's grace has come to us as news.

Because grace comes to us as news, not primarily as here's some things you've got to do, but as news, good news.

And he says to us, take hold of this by faith, accept it.

But you'll know this if you've been a Christian for any length of time.

Grace leads to growth.