I would like to please, this afternoon, to turn with me to the new covenant, Brit Chadasha. And today I would like to at least begin with an introduction and somewhat take the letter that the Apostle Paul, that Shaul, wrote to the Colossians. In the book of Colossians, the letter to the Colossians, often times we don't hear messages on the teaching that the Apostle Paul taught and ministered and wrote to the believers at Colossae. And I'd like you to turn to the first chapter, Colossians chapter 1, and I would like to read the first 12 verses at this time. Colossians chapter 1, the first 12 verses of this chapter. I begin from verse 1.

Paul, an apostle of Yeshua the Messiah, by the will of God, and Timothy our brother. To the saints and faithful brethren in Messiah, which are at Colossae, grace be unto you, and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus the Messiah, praying always for you. For the hope of your faith in the Messiah, Yeshua, and of the love which ye have to all the saints. For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which is common to you, as it is in all the world, and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth.

As ye also learn of Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is for you a faithful minister of Messiah, who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit. For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. That ye might walk worthy of the Lord, and to all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God. Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, and to all patience, and longsuffering, with joyfulness, giving thanks unto the Father, which has made us meet, to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.

That's the reading for this particular session. Now, beloved brothers and sisters, listen for a moment by way of introduction. Most of the time, we like to read passages that has to do with the prophetic messages concerning the future events that are going to come. And this is very important also, to be aware of the program that God had, number one, for the nation of Israel, number two, for the assembly, the church, number three, for the world. But we also have to understand that while it is important to understand the prophetic passages concerning the future of Israel, it is also important for us to understand some of the letters that the apostle Paul was writing to believers.

How do the saints gather together? How do the believers, Jew and Gentiles, united in the Messiah, how do they meet together? How is the function? What kind of behavior are they to have? What kind of teaching should they receive? How should they walk in their life? Are they connected with each other or not? How do they have a hope here on earth or in heaven? What are the purposes of God for the believers in Yeshua the Messiah in this present day? That's why we have the letters. In our classes we study Romans, chapter one we just began, and in other time we studied the book of Revelation, and so on.

But you know from the book of Romans, all the way Romans and first and second Corinthians, and Galatians, and Ephesians, and Philippians, and Colossians, and first and second Thessalonians. All those letters were written by the apostles and other letters to believers like you and I. And those believers such as you and I need to be instructed, need to be conformed to the image of the Son of God and with understanding and maturity in their spiritual life. Not mixing things, but growing in love as it is in Yeshua, Jesus, the Lord, our Messiah. Now, there is always a problem in every letter that Apostle Paul is writing, there is an issue to discuss.

One of the problems that existed here in Colossae is that there was a danger to the believers who were not too old in their faith. There was a danger to be misinformed about the things of the person of the Lord Jesus. And you know, it doesn't take too long that all kind of things are creeping into the Church of Jesus the Messiah. And it's nothing new, it's an old story that has already been 2,000 years since the birth of the Messiah. Every believer in their generation needs to adjust, to align themselves with the truth of the Scriptures, because the Scriptures will never change. But, every generation, a new group of people coming, with new group of teaching, that one has to be aware and be careful of it.

Let me just show you. Go to chapter 2 for a moment, and notice the verse there in verse 8. One of the dangers that have existed in Colossae was the danger of philosophy and tradition of men to come inside and set aside the Word of God. Notice what Paul is saying in verse 8 of Colossae is saying to them in verse 8 of Colossae 2: that will spoil you through philosophy, vain deceit, after the traditions of men, after the rudiments of this world, and not after the Messiah. You tell me that it is something new, what we are reading now in every generation, even in our time. You can listen everywhere, and you can hear people with their human ideas, human philosophy, vain deceit, traditions of men, rudiments of this world, to direct the mind of the believer after those things, and not after the Messiah.

That's a problem that existed already 2,000 years ago. And you know what people do? I'll tell you what they do. They take the same old philosophy out of somewhere, they dig it out of the ground again, take the dust out, bring it to the forefront, giving it a different name, and selling it to the people of God. And of course, the people of God, oftentimes very galloping, very slow, like you and I, slow in understanding, slow in submissiveness to the Word of God. We take those things, and we have an inclination to start to wonder, what is it? Where do we stand? We belong to the Lord.

What is the future? What is God teaching us? Can we stand on the basis of the Word of God? Can we trust the Word of God? What shall we believe? And the believers, the people of God, especially the newborn ones, or the young believers, they do not know what to do. And they do not focus on the Messiah, but focus on philosophy, vain deceit, traditions of men, and the rudiments of this world. Now, Paul had never been in Colossae. Never. In fact, you read the book of Acts, in the historical settings of the missionary journey of the Apostle Paul of Shaul, you never find Paul ever arriving to Colossae.

He had never seen them. He had never visited their place. In fact, in fact, beloved, when the Apostle Paul is writing at about 60 A.D. this letter to the Colossians, he was in jail, in prison, in Rome. And it is amazing that he is in jail in Rome at about 60 A.D., writing to a group of believers. I don't think there have been 200, 300, 500,000 people in a meeting room there. They may have been a small group of believers. I do not know how many. We don't know. But there were believers who have accepted the Messiah, but they were in danger of scattering around with all kinds of ideas.

Because there is always these people who are coming around and teaching some new truth. Everybody seemed to have got some new revelation. And they come across the people of God sowing those seeds. And the people of God say, "Well, I don't know what I'm going to do now." Is it true? Did he say, "Is it true?" Or she said something, and the other one says something. "What should I do?" "Where should I go?" Instead of coming back to the Word of God and settled in the beauty of the person of the Lord Jesus the Messiah. And so, this is a local church, a local assembly at Colossae, that have been part of the body of Messiah, the global body of Messiah, have been in danger of falling into all kinds of false doctrine, false teaching.

Because some false teachers have crept unaware, began to teach all these things. And let me just add, by way of introduction, that Colossae was about, someone says, a hundred miles away from Ephesus. And there was a group of three particular cities that have been connected together, Colossae, Laodicea, and Heropolis, who have been exposed to the message of the Gospel. But it is interesting, beloved, listen. It was not through an apostle or some great teacher. It was through an ordinary believers who have been faithful to the Word of God. Do you know what? Let me just say that. Don't you ever, ever think that your spiritual growth depends only upon a teacher or an evangelist or a pastor, supposedly?

If your spiritual growth only depends upon that, then you're in a poor shape. Then, if that person is not there, you cannot walk with the Lord anymore because, wow, this teacher is not there, therefore I cannot move in my spiritual life. No, beloved brothers and sisters, here is a local assembly who was born through simply faithful, ordinary brothers that have heard the message from one place, have gone to their own city, shared it with their co-workers, co-family, friends, and all these kind of people that connected with them, or not some people. Share with them the message of the Messiah and that the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, came from heaven to die on a tree for them to forgive their sin.

Share this with others that people got saved. They got saved. They got saved. You know what that tells us? It tells us of the responsibility that we have in where and how and with whom we rub shoulders. That we have the responsibility to be faithful, to share the word of God in sincerity and in truth. Not to wait for brother so-and-so, not to wait for some kind of a spiritual leader. In fact, the apostle Paul never have been there. The apostle Paul never visited them, but he heard about them. And he heard about the danger that they have been under, and he just simply writes them a letter of love and of an encouragement to have them set their hearts on the person of the Lord Yeshua, the Messiah.

Now, I want you to go for a moment to the book of Acts, before we're going to go through this letter. Go please to the book of Acts, chapter 19, and you see how things came about. The Colossians have been even blessed to receive the truth of the message of the Messiahship, of the Lordship, of the person of the Messiah, and the message of the gospel. In chapter 19 and 20, the apostle Paul finds himself in Ephesus. The apostle Paul finds himself in Ephesus, and you know what we read in verse 8, Acts 19:8? And he, notice the apostle Paul, Shaul, he went into the synagogue and he spake boldly for the space of three months.

You know what Shaul did, what Paul did all the time? He was the apostle to the uncircumcised, to the Gentiles. But whenever he has got to preach the gospel in any city, the first thing he does, he goes to the Jew. The principle of Romans 1:16: I am not ashamed of the gospel of the Messiah, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew first and also to the Gentiles, to the Greek. For therein the righteousness of God reveal unto men from faith unto faith. The principle of the fact that he himself taught in Romans 1:16 that whenever he goes to preach the gospel in any city, number one, he go to the Jewish people, to the synagogue.

And so we find him in verse 8, he went to the synagogue, and there for three months, for the space of three months, he disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God. He is in emphasis, he is going to the synagogue, he is sharing with his brethren according to the flesh, concerning the coming kingdom of God that was promised to the people of Israel, but also proclaiming to them that Yeshua, Jesus, was the Messiah, like you have done it in Thessalonians. But then notice verse 9 and 10: And when divers have hardened, and believe not, some did not believe, but speck evil of the way, this is the way those that follow Yeshua, that follow Jesus before the multitude, he departed from them, and he separated the disciples, disputing daily in the school of one Tyranus.

Verse 10: And this continued by the space of two years, So that all which dwell in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks. Now you see what happened? Paul, going to Ephesus, first thing he does, he goes to the synagogue, present before his brethren according to the flesh, the Hebrews, the Jewish people about the Messiah, when they did not all receive, some have. Then he moved from there, and he's going to the Gentiles. And as we have here in this verse 10, that by the space of two years, can you imagine? Two years at Ephesus! It must be more than two years, because he was already three months in the synagogue.

But for the space of two years, so that all which dwell in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, the Messiah. Both Jews and non-Jews, and Gentiles, and Greeks. So can you imagine? Now, sometimes you and I get bored to come to the meeting. Oh, I got to go to the meeting again. Oh, I got to go to the Bible study again. It's hard for me, you see. I have life to live. I have family. I have job. I have no time. Two years, beloved, he sat at Ephesus in one place. And every day, he taught for hours, those who wanted to learn. Now, I would have loved to be there.

I would have loved to sit there, to have the Apostle Paul, Shaul, presenting the message of the word of God. Remember, of course, at that time, he didn't have the book of Colossians. He didn't have any other books. He took the Old Testament scriptures. And he began to expound and to teach and to teach every time. I would have loved to sit there and soak the word of God into my own soul. And just hear a little bit more about the promises of God, about the promises concerning the Lord Yeshua, the Messiah, about the love of God and the grace of God. I would have loved to be sitting there and learning what he had to say, that apostle.

Well, those who sit there and learn. Do you think they only sit there and they say, I'm not going to share it with others? In fact, you remember what we read in verse 10? It says in verse 10, So that all which were in Asia heard the word of God. How did they hear the word of God? Paul did not go to every place in Asia. How do you think they heard the word of God? Well, they heard it in a meeting. And then they went out. They went to their homes. They went to their cities. They went to other locations. They just perhaps moved to this area for a certain while and they had to move on.

And they spread the news. And they said, ah, let me tell you. Oh, the gods of the nations. It's not the true and living God. Here is the word of God. The scripture teaching us about some person by the name of Yeshua, Jesus, the son of God who came from heaven to die for our sins and give us forgiveness of sins. The whole Asia have been exposed to the message, not through only the apostles, but through ordinary believers just like you and I. And faithful believers have been the ones that have shared the message with the believers, the people in Colossae. In fact, one of these people was a man that we have here in our chapter back to Colossians 1.

One of these people were a person by the name of Apaphras. Apaphras. He is mentioned in Colossians 1 verse 7. As ye also learn of Apaphras. He is mentioned in Colossians 4 and verse 12. He is also mentioned in a book of Philemon in verse 23. Apparently, two individuals were really an impact upon the people at Colossae to bring about, to be vessels in bringing about or establishing by the grace of God, in the power of the Spirit of God, an assembly, a congregation, a church, a local church in the city of Colossae. Apaphras was one of them and Philemon was another one of them. He actually had in his own home a local assembly that have gathered together in his own home.

Now remember, beloved, listen. Let me just quickly, because we're going to go to those verses right now. Paul was in jail. There was a man by the name of Onesimus who was a slave of Philemon. You read it in the little letter, Philemon. Onesimus was a slave who ran away from his master. When he ran away from his master, he ran all the way to Rome. When he got to Rome, guess what's happened? He met Paul. In Rome, Paul presented the message of the Gospel to Onesimus, the slave, the running away slave. This running away slave gloriously got saved. He accepted the Lord Jesus as his Lord and Savior.

And now the apostle, Paul, sending him back to his master, Philemon, with a letter. And in this letter, he's sending him back to his master because now he's got saved. His life has changed. He's no longer going to run away from his master. He's going back to his master with that letter from the apostle Paul. And he gives this letter to his master Philemon. In the letter, Paul is appealing to Philemon to accept Onesimus as not only a slave and his own slave, but as a brother in Christ, in the Messiah. Now, when this slave came back from Paul, then a person like Apaphras went back to Paul and in Rome and willingly, he remained in Rome with Paul, with Shaul, to be a servant, to serve Paul.

And served the Lord Jesus, the Messiah, by serving and helping Paul with all the needs that he had while he was bound in Rome. And in the meantime, when he's coming to Paul, he told Paul all the problems that existed in Colossae. And perhaps, let's say we have this little group here. And perhaps the Lord used a certain brother and a certain family to establish a little congregation, a little assembly. And perhaps some things have been creeping in that are not from the Lord. That are not based on the Word of God. And so perhaps one of us will go to this particular brother that the Lord have used and said, Brother, you remember years ago when you were in our midst, there was sound teaching.

The Word of God was presented. The brothers and sisters understood the Word of God. But look what happened now. We have much concern about the condition that exists in this local assembly. And though that brother would write a letter to the brother and says, "Listen, what's happening? What's going on?" And seek to establish them back in the truth of the Word of God. And that's what Paul does here. This particular letter. And so I want to cover some of the verses today. I gave you this introduction here, just that you will get the grasp of what's going on here. By the way, there was the danger of philosophy, human philosophy, and Gnosticism have been creeping in into that particular local assembly.

Agnosticism is a person who doesn't know. But Gnosticism is people who know. They know a lot of things about everything. Or at least they think they know. I know! Gnosticism! And that means that we know everything, and yet we divert ourselves from the Word of God. And you know what? Today, in this present day in which we live in, we are not far from that kind of a condition. Where people say, "Well, we know everything." And they divert themselves from the things of the Word of God. People come and tell you, "Well, I know why this has happened to you, because you did this." "Well, I know what's going to happen to you in a certain day, somebody's going to come and tell you." People tell you, in the whole, sorry to say, the Christian, Christendom, the whole professing Christendom, there's all kind of things that are going on that are mind-boggling.

And you ask yourself the question, "Where is it found in the Word of God?" And you see, it is not found in the Word of God. You know what it does? It shakes the believers, and it causes them to be scattering all around, not walking anymore in the way that they should do, not balance anymore, sway from right to left, from left to right, not established in the truth of the Word of God, not holding up the head sheep of the Messiah, not recognizing that they are complete in Him. Nothing needed to be added. You don't need to be extra something else. In the Messiah, you are everything.

You are complete in the Messiah. That is exactly what Paul is teaching the brothers and sisters in Colossae in this letter. Four chapters we have here in this letter. We are just going to touch in the first few verses today, just by way of introduction. So first of all, the first two verses, verses 1 and 2, we see the salutation of the Apostle Paul. Remember, he didn't see them. He only heard about them. And so he is writing to them, and notice what he called them. He says, "Paul, an apostle of Yeshua the Messiah, by the will of God and Timothy our brother, to the saints and faithful brethren in Messiah, in Christ, which are at Colossae, grace be unto you, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus the Messiah." And notice what he does.

The Apostle Paul is a very wise man. He wanted to encourage the believers. He was also sound man. He was divinely inspired when he had given us this letter. And so notice what he is saying to them. He is saying, "I am an apostle of Jesus Christ." Authority. In apostleship, you have an authority that you don't have in each and every believer. Why? Because there were only 13 apostles. 12 plus Paul, Shaul, Paul. And nobody ever could claim beyond that, "Oh, I am an apostle." I told you in one of our classes, at one time I was invited years ago to an apostolic church. And lo and behold, the doors were opened, and here come the apostles, everybody standing up, and apostles so-and-so coming into the meeting room.

I was amazed. How can anybody claim to be an apostle? How can anybody dare to claim to have seen the Lord? You know, the only ones that are qualified to be called shlichim, apostles, in the sense of that word. When it's, of course, we are all apostles and sent one. We are all sent one. But I'm thinking about the first century apostles. The requirement, in accordance with the book of Acts, they want to see the resurrected Messiah. And it's very dangerous to claim those things. We never find in the Bible anybody else called an apostle in that sense of first century believers. Paul could claim.

And apostles also received a specific gift, various gifts that others have not received. Why? Because they were an immediate servants of the Lord Jesus, the Messiah. They have seen him. The twelve apostles walked with him, and lived with him, and saw him after resurrection. The apostle Paul had seen the resurrected Messiah, the ascended Messiah, in Acts chapter 9, when he had received his sight. And you remember when he says, "What will thou have me to do, Lord?" Well, he says, "I am an apostle, not by my own will. I did not make myself an apostle." Notice in verse 1, "By the will of God." God made him an apostle.

He didn't kind of claim to be an apostle. It is by the will of God. It is God who, according to his desire and will, have chosen Shaul, have chosen actually, you read in Galatians 1 and verse 1, that it was not of man, it is of God, that even from his mother's womb he had been elected. So Paul tells them, "Listen, I am in jail there in Rome. I have never seen you. But I am writing to you this letter to help you to be established in the truth of the word of God. I am an apostle, not by the will of man, but by the will of God." It is really nice to know that because you know how we have an inclination to elevate ourselves, to place ourselves in a higher position.

Here's the apostle Paul, he doesn't have any axe to grind and he just simply want to say what God has called him to do and he simply want to present it before the believers at Colossae. And he tells them, "I am an apostle by the will of God." And you notice he put himself together with another man by the name of Timothy. A Jewish young man by the name of Timothy. This is interesting. He doesn't say that this better than Timothy. He is writing a letter coming from both of them. Here's this great apostle. Here's this ordinary Timothy. walking together, writing this letter together. He doesn't think of himself higher.

You know, it is so beautiful to see an older brother and a younger brother even with sisters, an older sister teaching the younger sisters the things of God, being an example to them. Here's an older brother, Paul, a younger brother, Timothy, walking together. Oh, it's so lovely. Think of Moses and Joshua. How wonderful it has been. Here's the great man, the prophet of God, the law giver, and here is this Joshua, together. You know, we need, those of us who are younger, need so much the older brothers to teach us, to help us to be established. Same, I'm speaking for the sisters, for the older sisters.

You know what an impact you can be on a younger lady if you are an example, humble believer and broken before the Lord, really serving the Lord, an example to a younger lady. What a wonderful truth it is. What a wonderful example it is. Here is Paul and Timothy. Well, now he's writing, in verse 2, he said, "To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at court." You notice that, three things. First of all, he called them saints. You know what? A saint is every believer in Jesus, the Messiah. He or she are saints. Sometimes they don't behave like saints. But they are saints.

They are set apart. They are called by God. The believers have been called by God to be set apart unto the Lord. All believers are saints. All believers are saints. All believers are saints. But you notice they were not only saints, but they were faithful saints. You know what? It's so difficult to find faithful individuals. You know, to be faithful means that it's going to cost you. If you don't come when it's only sunshine, when it's rain, I'm not there. It's not like when I want and when I feel like. It is a commitment to the Lord. It is required from a servant in the book of Corinthian that he may be found faithful.

Faithful. That's amazing. To be faithful. Faithful to the Lord. Faithful to the believers. To be faithful. To be faithful. You know what? To be faithful, you're not going to be liked all the time. You're not going to be promoted all the time. But you're going to be receiving the approval of the Lord Jesus, of the Father from heaven. Here is saints. Faithful. And you notice what? He called them faithful brethren in Messiah. They were brothers and sisters. He didn't think about himself higher than them. Oh yeah, he had a gift. He had a place that God had called him, that the Messiah Yeshua called him to function in.

He had a sphere of service that God had placed him. But he called them brethren. He didn't get a church name tag, then give him a tag to the church. Who knows all the names that we have today? This church name, and this church name, and this church name. Where do you find it in the Bible? In the Bible we are brethren. And I don't mean even capital B brethren. It's simply believers in Yeshua the Messiah who gather here in Toronto. No name product. That's what it simply is. But there are localities in Colossal, like our localities in Toronto. But that doesn't give us all the title, all these titles that people often like to have.

This is this kind of church, and this is this kind of church, and this is this kind. Well, they are brethren. They were simply believers. Sometimes the believers are united in harmony. Sometimes they are divided. They are part. They are saints. They are part of the family of God. So he's writing them to the saints, and faithful brethren in Messiah, brothers and sisters in Messiah, which are at Colossae. Then he says, "Grace be unto you, and peace from God our Father, and our Lord Jesus the Messiah." "Grace and peace be unto you." You know, those two things that they needed, like you and I need today, desperately.

"Grace, chesed, peace, shalom." "Chesed v'Shalom, chen v'Shalom." That's what we need every day of our life, the grace of our Lord Jesus the Messiah. We need the peace, not only the peace with God, we have it already when we became believers, but the peace of God, which passes all understanding. And so he's writing to them in the salutation, just to say, that's how he opened the letter. You know, when you and I write the letter today, we write, "Dear brother so-and-so, dear friends..." and at the end of the letter, we put Gideon Levi down. But here it's the opposite. He began the letter, by writing his name.

Paul, Shaul, Paul, an apostle of Yeshua the Messiah, by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the saints and faithful brethren which are in Messiah in Christ, which are at Colossal, grace be unto you, and peace from God our Father and from our Lord Yeshua the Messiah." Notice the grace and the peace coming from the Father through the Son, or the Father and the Son. Abba and Ben, the Father and the Son. So the salutation is so precious to see that he began with an encouragement to them. They are saints, they are faithful, and they are faithful brothers and sisters in Messiah. In the next verses of this chapter, Colossians 1, verses 3 to 8, in the next verses, verses 3 to 8, Paul give thanks to God for the Colossians.

Let me ask you a question. When you pray in your weekly prayers or your daily prayer at home, do you give thanks to God for the believers, even here in our meetings? What are your thoughts about your brothers and sisters? Or do you probably think not so nice things about them? How is your attitude? What do you think? What do you tell God about your brothers and sisters? You know here, Paul, remember, he is in jail. They are free. He is in Rome. They are in Colossi. It was probably easy for him to say, oh, give out. Why should I be here and they are there?

Oh God, you know, oh boy, these people that I, because I went and I shared the message of the gospel. No, he doesn't. He says, thank God for them. Notice what he says. Verse 3, first of all, he prays for them always. In verse 3, he said, we give thanks. Remember, he's writing with Timothy. We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Yeshua, the Messiah, praying always for you. You know, it's so beautiful to see that he's always, always praying. When you read the epistles that Paul wrote, how many times he's saying, always pray. Pray without ceasing. He's always praying and he's always praying for the Colossians.

You know what? If, I don't know, perhaps he had the kind of a memory and a kind of devotedness and commitment for the people that he loved and the people who got saved, that he's praying for them always. always, always praying for them. And he gives thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Yeshua, the Messiah. He thanked God for them. Now, he didn't perhaps agree with some of what went on there and the neglect of holding up the headship of the Messiah and all the philosophy and the vain deceit and traditions of men and the rudiment of this world that was impacting them there.

But he thanked God for the believers at Colossi. You know, brothers and sisters, we need to give thanks to God for each other. We need to thank God that he gave us the privilege of meeting together and gathering here together, whether we are two or three or two or three hundreds. We have to thank God for the believers. And now notice how beautiful in verses four and five, he heard of three things that he mentioned about the believers at Colossi. Listen, verses four and five. Since we heard of your faith in Messiah Yeshua and of the love which he have to all the saints. And verse five.

Because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof he heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel. You notice those famous three words. Hope. Faith. Love. Now, let me just mention something. I heard the message on this passage and I read a little bit on this passage. And you know, beloved, it is so precious in a world in which we live in today when everything around us looks so hopeless. Everything around us is so discouraging. when there's all kind of things on television, on the radio, on the computer, on the internet, everything around us, on the promotions all over, everything to discourage the believers in Jesus the Messiah.

When a person becomes a believer in Jesus the Messiah, there is a hope beyond this world. You see, when a person who is hopeless, when a person who is without the Messiah, without Christ, dead in trespasses and sin, what happens when the message of the Gospel is being proclaimed to that person? All of a sudden, there is a change. There is a hope. There is something to cling to, something that is worthwhile to hold on to. What would you do without the Lord Jesus? What would we do today? In every business you have, in every pleasure you are going to have, what will we do without the hope of being in the presence of God and our sins are forgiven?

What would we have? Nothing! And here comes God and tells you and me, He says, I love you. Yes, I know you have sinned against me, but I love you. I know everything looks so hopeless and you seem like to be defeated, but I love you. I am going to give you something that no one could give you. I am going to give you the darling of my bosom, the Lord Jesus, my beloved Son. So when you will accept Him, you will have a hope beyond the grave. You have a hope for eternity. That's what the Gospel does. The message of the Gospel gives us hope.

Give us hope beyond what's going on here in this world, especially when you only hear about human philosophy, vain traditions of men, all kind of rudiments of this world, man's view and opinion. And you say, what's there is beyond that? What's there is? What is that going to give me? And even if you glean and you got something out of it, it's only temporary. It does not last. And here comes the message of the Gospel which gives us hope. And so Paul is saying to them, those three words, he says, listen, since we heard of your faith in Jesus Christ the love which you have to all the saints because the hope which is laid up for you in heaven.

Do you know that before we can communicate faith and love, we first have the hope as the foundation of everything. everything is the hope that God gives the believer, the person who believes in the Lord Jesus, then other things flow out of it. You know that hope changes us? You know when you have a hope, not something you say, oh, I hope it's going to happen. No. It's not something that you hope it's going to happen. It is the hope of the glory of God. This is a living hope. That is a sure hope. It's not a hope so. You know, I hope it's going to be a nice day tomorrow.

No. It is a sure hope that based on the message of the Gospel. The hope of the believer. It's not I hope I'm going to go to heaven. I know I'm going to heaven. I know I'm going to be with my Messiah in glory and my sins are forgiven. This is a living, sure hope which made a difference in the life of the believer. Then, you notice what he says in verse 4, since we heard this hope change the behavior of the believers at Colossae. What did he hear about? Of their faith in Jesus the Messiah and of the love which they have had to all the saints.

You see, when they got saved, by believing in the Messiah, but here is not so much faith unto salvation, but faithfulness in their lifestyle. Not only faith for their one-time eternal salvation, but faith for daily life. Faith and faithfulness to follow the Messiah. And that made a change in their life. Then they began to love also all the saints. And you know, it's so nice when somebody far away hear about the behavior of the people of God. You don't have to go and say, "You see me? Look at me. Look how faithful I am. Look how loving I am." You know what? If you're going to do that, it's only the words of your mouth.

But if you let your hope in the person of the Lord, they change your life, and all of a sudden our conduct change. We are behavior changes. We begin in the power of the Spirit of God to be faithful unto the Lord and loving towards the people of God. You don't have to ask anybody, "Look at me. I'm faithful. Look at me. I'm loving." No. It's going to be evident to one and the other and the other so much that they heard the Apostle telling them that we have heard that. They haven't been in Colossae. They have never seen them. They haven't seen them. But the hearing about their practices made that letter written by the Apostle Paul towards them.

And so those triunity, we can call them, trinity of words. Hope, faith, and love is oftentimes mentioned by the Apostle. If you just turn to the book of Corinthians, go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 13 and verse 13. 1 Corinthians 13. 13, it says this, "And now abideth or remaineth faith, hope, love." These three. And, but the greatest of these is love. You know why Paul says, "Remaineth faith, hope, and love." You know why? Because of this, simply this. Faith, one day will not be anymore. Faith will become sight when we're going to see the Lord. Hope, one day we are going to be in the presence of the Lord and all the hope of the believer, hope will be actually, even though it is present, but it's also going to be in the future.

It's going to happen. But you know what's going to be in heaven remaining only? Love. The love of God. The love of the Father. The love of the Lord Yeshua. The love of the believers. The greatest of this is love because it remains forever and ever and ever and ever. That's what Paul is saying to the believers. He says, "Listen, we have heard of your faith in the Messiah Yeshua and of your love towards the brethren for the hope that is laid up for you in heaven." He mentioned that in 1 Corinthians. Now turn to the right to 1 Thessalonians 1. And in verse 3. Here he is writing to the Thessalonians, another local assembly, a local church, local congregation.

And he's writing to them and he's saying to them in verse 3 of 1 Thessalonians 1, "Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, your labor of love, and the patience of hope in our Lord Jesus the Messiah." Same thing. Work of faith. You know what is work of faith? Being faithful is a work of faith. When a person says, "I believe," but he or she do not only say, "I believe," they are faithfully carrying this through in a practical way. The work of faith, the labor of love. Beloved, you know what? Do you think it's easy to love the brothers and sisters without a labor in it? It's not easy.

Not only saying, "I love you." Well, it's nice you say, "I love you," but do you really love? To love is expensive. It costs to love. Husband, love your wives. As the Messiah loved the assembly, the church, and gave himself. For her. It's expensive. For God so loved the world. What did he do? He didn't say just, "I love the world," but he gave his only begotten son. God said to Israel, "I have loved you with an everlasting love." Unconditioned. Expensive love of God towards Israel. In the prophet Jeremiah we read that. And so, beloved, this is what Paul is saying. By the way, in the book of Hebrews in chapter 6, that in your notes also those three words are mentioned in verses 9 to 12, really is faith and hope and love.

This trinity, these triune words together which are connected with each other. But it is on a basis of the hope of the believer that his faithfulness and his love is being presented, enacted in his and her life. And so, in verses 4 and 5, Paul is hearing, he's telling them that he heard of the hope and the faith and the love of the Colossians. By the way, in verse 5 he says that whereof he heard, how do you think they received this hope, faith and love? It's when they heard the word of the Gospel. It says in verse 5, The hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof he heard before in the word of the truth of the Gospel.

No Gospel. No hope. No hope. See, the only hope the people of the world will have is in the Gospel. Believe me, on a basis of the word of God, no religion of men, no traditions of human race, no philosophy, no nothing will give a hope such as this. Only the message of the Gospel. And the message of the Gospel is, as we know it, that God loved so much this world that gave the Messiah to die for sinners, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Now quickly, in verse 6, he continued and he told them the truth of the Gospel produced fruit in their life.

You know that the Gospel produced fruit. It says here in verse 5, it says at the end, The Gospel, which is come unto you in verse 6, as it is in all the world, and bringeth forth fruit, as it does also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth. You see, the truth of the Gospel gotta make a change in the life of a person, and have to produce fruit. It has to make a change, to bring fruit. Fruit for God. Fruit, that which rises, that which gives pleasure to God, and a blessing to the people of God.

So they have heard the message, apply it to themselves, and began to bring fruit. And you know, it brought fruit in all the world, as it says here, which is come unto you as it is in all the world. You know, the message of the Gospel has been preached in all the world. Today, when missionaries are going to present the Gospel today, they tell the people in the world that God loved them, and Yeshua died for them. And people receive the word, and they bring fruit to God in their life. They get saved, they become children of God, part of the family of God, and there is fruit in their lives.

There is fruit in their lives. And we have to ask ourselves the question, "Lord, is there any fruit in my life, or there is only the works of the flesh?" And then notice in verse 7 and 8, he is speaking about Apaphras the servant. In verse 7 he says, "As ye learn also of Apaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is for you a faithful minister or servant of the Messiah, who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit." You see, apparently, this meant by the name of Apaphras. I wonder if there is any Apaphras here in our midst. Apaphras, a simple brother, a simple sister, that had been faithful.

You see, Apaphras cared for the Colossians believers. He didn't care for his own ego. He didn't try to have gain for himself. He came all the way from Colossae. And came all the way to Rome. And he became, as it says here in verse 7, a dear fellow servant with Paul and Timothy. He says, "Who is for you a faithful servant of Christ, of Messiah." You know, we need people such as this today. We need Apaphras in every local assembly, in every local congregation. We need those ordinary brothers and sisters who are for the believers. Who are there to be a blessing. Who are there to serve.

Who are there to minister. Who are there to, in every area. In every area, beloved brothers and sisters. And when there are problems, they are not spreading it around and cutting everybody down. But he would go to Paul. And he would say, "Paul, I want to tell you, there are many beautiful things that are happening at Colossae. But I am concerned about some of the influences that are going on there. There are things that are being taught that are not found in the Word. Paul, there is philosophy being taught there. There is all kinds of things creeping in. Paul, I want you to pray for this.

Give me some guidance. How can I help my brothers and my sisters in the Lord Jesus, the Messiah?" And so here is this servant, by the name of Apaphras, who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit. You see, he didn't only say the bad things that happened there. But he also said to Paul, "Paul, you know, these brethren, you know, they love the Lord. The Spirit of God influenced them really to love the things of God. There is a change, but there is also a danger, Paul. You see some guidance and help. How can I minister and serve my brothers and sisters to benefit them spiritually in their life as a local assembly?" Now you can see how much can be said about this.

This is just by way of introduction, just the first eight verses. And I think I'm going to leave it at this point right now because of time. But oh, how precious it is. Brothers and sisters, let me tell you, when you are discouraged, come to such an epistle like that and read it. And then forget a little bit about all this philosophy of man. Forget about all this religious activity of man and all these rudiments of this world. And get your affection set on the person of the Lord Jesus, the Messiah. He is sufficient to satisfy our hearts. He is sufficient to encourage each and every one of us.

Can we say amen to that? Amen.