With the continued spread of Covid-19, concerns are being raised about the mental health of many who have lost their job, experience loneliness, or have a sense of helplessness – especially young adults. That is the generation that will experience the impact of the pandemic on their lives, not just now, but for years to come.

How can we help people, especially the young, find purpose and hope?

In Colossians 1:27 Paul the Apostle summarizes the essence of God’s gospel: Christ in you, the hope of glory. In the preceding two verses and the subsequent two verses he explains how people come to learn this. Speaking of his own ministry, he says that he was called by God to be a minister to serve God’s people and the wider world by making the word of God fully known.

Effective ministry. God’s plan to reveal himself to the world was not through miracles, but through words – spoken and written. Paul saw that it was his task to communicate God’s self-revelation fully and faithfully. This is important. It tells us that we don’t achieve a deeper insight into the Christian faith by having some mystical experience of Christ. The challenge of effective ministry is to equip people of all ages with an understanding of God’s Word so that they are drawn into a true and vital relationship with God through the Lord Jesus Christ.

An effective ministry on Sundays will help God’s people to read the Bible for themselves. Good preaching will enable God’s people to see from where and how preachers have drawn their teaching. As Paul says, the first task of ministry is to make the Word of God known.

Message of ministry. And so Paul speaks of the content of his ministry. For millennia God had kept the essentials of his plans wrapped in confidentiality. But now, Paul tells us, God has chosen to declare himself. His message is for God’s ancient people, the Jewish people, as well as, surprisingly, the non-Jewish world. Paul’s passion was to draw people to the heart of the gospel: Christ in you, the hope of glory.

There is an amazing simplicity to this. It is the kind of marketing line advertisers dream about creating. It can be summarised in just two phrases: Christ in you, and the hope of glory. On the one hand it is about a present experience, Christ in you; on the other hand, it speaks about a future reality: the hope of glory.

For many people Christianity is little more than a moral rule-book they must struggle to observe, or a creed they must mindlessly recite. Christianity for them is legalistic and dull. However, Paul wants us to understand that at the center of Christianity is a relationship. Christianity is about having Christ in our lives through his Spirit.

Many feel cut off from God— sometimes by feelings of failure or unworthiness, by feelings of ignorance or unbelief, or by their life situations. The great news is that if you are looking for God you don’t have to despair. Something has happened that has made it possible for us to experience supernatural reality in our lives – Christ in you.

And with a present experience of the indwelling of the Spirit of Christ, we also have the hope of glory. The presence of Christ in our lives now is only half the story. It is only a foretaste of something far greater that God has in store for the future. Christianity is not just a present experience but a future hope. Glory is waiting for us, Paul says. The good things that we have tasted of Christ living in us now are but a tiny glimpse of our future experience when we live openly in the presence God. The best is yet to be.

It is important to think this through. There are times when we feel disappointed with the way life treats us. In fact you may be disillusioned with Christianity because of life’s experiences: you had thought that becoming a Christian would solve all your problems. You may have thought that whatever was on your heart, you could put it to God, and await for him to act.

But becoming a Christian does not mean this. Our bodies are still subject to sickness, and jobs are still subject to redundancy. What the gospel message offers us in terms of life here and now is not transformed outward circumstances, but transformed inner spiritual resources – Christ in you.

Outwardly our bodies are wasting away, Paul writes elsewhere. Inwardly we are being renewed, day by day. Yes, the Bible speaks of a better world where there is no pain and frustration, or loneliness and grief. But we need to understand that this is a future world that we perceive by faith, not by sight.

However, the hope of glory is not some vague, wistful, ‘maybe it will happen, maybe it won’t, kind of hope’. It is a sure, confident hope, guaranteed by Jesus’ own resurrection from the dead.

How then can we help the many around us – especially the young generation – who feel they have no hope? We need to care for them and pray for them. We need to look for practical ways our local church can support them. For school-aged children and teens, perhaps through an after-school mentoring program which also has Christian education component. We need to pray that we, together with our churches will be proactive in bringing God’s good news to a troubled generation, so that they too may know, Christ in you, the hope of glory.

A prayer. Lord Christ, eternal Word and Light of the Father’s glory: send your light and your truth so that we may both know and proclaim your word of life, to the glory of God the Father; for you now live and reign, God for all eternity. Amen.

God’s people will sometimes have doubts about their faith, for there is much in life that threatens to undermine our confidence in a God who is good. How can a good God allow the continuing spread of the novel coronavirus, not least amongst the poor?

The only sort of faith that is immune to the silent question, ‘How can a good God allow these things’ is a blind faith, a faith that closes its mind to reality. Real faith has to confront the evil and suffering in the world.

Paul the Apostle in his Letter to the Colossians, speaks of humanity being estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds. For many centuries the western world recognized the existence of God, but in recent decades it has arbitrarily dismissed him together with the notions of heaven and hell, good and evil.

Indeed, back in 2011 Jarvis Cocker in an interview with Decca Aitkenhead commented: “I think basically becoming famous has taken the place of going to heaven in modern society, hasn’t it? That’s the place where your dreams will come true. It’s an act of faith now; they think that’s going to sort things out.”

That said, there are some who define themselves as atheist but who say that only Christianity could have changed society from the brutalities of the Roman Empire to a culture where life has been respected. William Wilberforce, for example, because of his Christian faith, was a leader in the movement that legislated against slavery in Britain in 1833.

But I have to say that the step of faith that says God does not exist, not only ignores the evidence and experience of history it does not provide the solution to the ills of the world. A solution that is outside human invention is needed, because as history shows, no human solution has provided or can provide a just and lasting peace.

Let’s think about this. God could have written the universe off as a fiasco. He could have scrapped it and gone back to the drawing board. If the world was going to go this wrong why did he make it in the first place? That would have been an admission of defeat on God’s part. It would have meant that in some measure he couldn’t allow evil because he knew he couldn’t beat it.

The Bible tells us that from the very beginning of time, God was determined to defeat it. He decided on a much more costly strategy. He wouldn’t abandon this evil and ungrateful world that had rejected him. Rather, he would rescue it. Paul tells us here that when Jesus died on the cross he laid the foundation for a just and lasting peace.

Think of it this way. Suppose there is someone very close to you— a wife or husband, a brother or sister or parent – who profoundly hurts you. They trample over your feelings, ignore you, and have no respect for you. In spite of all your kindness they reject you. But now you see them in deep trouble. If you don’t step in to help them, it will be the end for them. What do you do? You could tell them to go to hell.

But supposing when you consult your feelings, you find within your heart a love that wants to see them restored to your family. What do you do then? You have to find the resources within yourself to absorb all the pain, the injury, and the anger, that boils up within you at the very sight of them, so that you can stretch out your hand and help them.

What we see happening on the cross of Jesus Christ is God, finding a way whereby he can absorb within himself the pain, the injury and the anger, that is rightly within him, when he looks at people like you and me who have hurt him and sinned against him.

And, Paul tells us, we know he succeeded, for the growing community of God’s people is the evidence of this. Because of Jesus’ sacrificial death these people have been reconciled with God and have peace with him. They now stand in his sight holy and unstained before him. John Newton who wrote Amazing Grace could say: I once was lost, but now am found…

Furthermore, the reconciliation Jesus has achieved has implications far beyond men and women. It will embrace the whole of the cosmos. From the time of the events recorded in Genesis 3, the universe has been under judgement. Romans 8:20f tells us that the creation was subjected to futility.

Because of Jesus’ death a day will come when God’s people will experience the joy of standing in the presence of Jesus Christ in all his glory. Indeed, we will find our true place in his creation as the new heaven and the new earth of truth and justice, perfection and peace are revealed.

So, when we have times of doubt, it’s useful to ask ourselves afresh whether any information has come to light showing that Jesus’ death and resurrection didn’t actually happen. For if Jesus did die and was raised to life we have the assurance that he is true, and that his promises will one day be perfectly fulfilled. Jesus Christ has provided the solution for a troubled world.

The big question we all need to ask is whether we will turn to him, freely acknowledging him as our Lord and Savior. Furthermore, will we admit that he alone has the authority to present repentant fallen men and women before a holy God, without blemish, freed from all accusation?

In the current crises of Covid-19 and the cultural challenges in the West, is there anywhere can we turn for hope?

We may feel inclined to echo the words of Jean Paul Sartre, the French Existentialist who said, ‘That God does not exist I cannot deny; that my whole being cries out for God, I cannot forget’.

The encouraging news is that historical evidence and human experience point to a solution to Sartre’s crie de coeur. The answer centers on the question, ‘Who is Jesus of Nazareth?’

In Colossians 1:15 Paul the Apostle writes:  Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God,…

We can deny the existence of God, or we can attempt to make images of God, but both are human imaginings that deface the glory of God. I say that even the denial of God’s existence is human imagining, because all around us, especially what are called the laws of nature, point to the existence of a powerful intelligence that created the universe.

For example, against those who say that miracles are inconsistent with the laws of nature, Professor John Lennox, emeritus professor of mathematics at Oxford University comments: ‘From a theistic perspective, the laws of nature predict what is bound to happen if God does not intervene… God’s people understand that the laws of nature are the observable regularities that God the creator has built into the universe.

‘However, such laws don’t prevent God from intervening if he chooses. When he does, we are able to identify the irregularity and speak of it as a miracle’. Jesus’ resurrection, for example, is not the result of a natural mechanism. Rather, as the New Testament says, it happened because God intervened, using his awesome, supernatural power.

The Supremacy of Jesus. To return to Paul’s words, Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God,…

John’s Gospel makes the same point. In the opening lines we read: In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. And in verse 14: And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John makes the connection between the image of God and God in terms of a Father and Son relationship – a relationship that always has existed and always will exist. This is critical, for it tells us that God lives, and acts as a Father, the perfect father. Relationship is the heart-beat of God’s existence.

In Colossians 1 Paul goes on to say: for in the Son all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities …  Paul is telling us that the Son existed before anything else in creation. Logically, he himself was not created. He always existed and always will exist.  Putting these ideas together, we understand that in Jesus, the Son of God, we see God. And because he is also truly human, we see what we were meant to be.

This helps us to understand ourselves and what we are designed for. We are rational because God is rational. We are moral, because God is moral. We have the capacity for relationship because God has always existed in relationship.

We begin to see why Christianity can’t allow itself to be put on the same level as any other religion. Nobody else who has walked this earth could ever be described in terms of such unequivocal divinity as Jesus. He alone is supreme.

Furthermore, we read: By him all things were created,… As the creating agent, Jesus put it all together. And the words, ‘all things were created by him and for him’ tell us that Jesus is also the sustainer of the universe.

When we plumb the depths of the universe, we will find not so much a mathematical equation or a scientific formula, but divinity. Jesus is the logic, the intelligence, the wisdom, who gives the universe its rationality.

This in turn helps us to make sense of our lives in the present and in the future. We see that we’re not just part of a meaningless journey going nowhere. There is a purpose, a goal for us: relationship with God and with one another.

The Source of True Peace. In verse 19 Paul continues: For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.

Too often our world reveals the tragic results of its brokenness: hatred and greed, evil and injustice, suffering and death. Indeed, history shows us only too plainly that we don’t have the resources within us to rescue ourselves from the evil and injustices we have created. None of us is good enough or powerful enough to bring about the kind of peace we long for.

The amazing story of the Bible is that from the very beginning of time, God was not going to reject this evil and ungrateful world, but instead chose to rescue it. Paul is telling us here that when Jesus died God laid the foundation for a just and lasting peace. Through the blood that Jesus shed, God reconciled to himself all things.

One day God is going to make a new heaven and a new earth, where Jesus will reign in truth and goodness, justice and peace forever. But more of this next week.

In the meantime, we need to consider afresh our own understanding of Jesus Christ and our relationship with him. Do we daily turn to him asking for his forgiveness? Furthermore, what are we doing to introduce others to him? Are you even planning to forward this ‘Word’ to start a conversation?

In these troubled times what guidance does the Bible give us on the subject of prayer?

Let’s consider Paul the Apostle’s prayer for God’s people in Colossae. He was writing when Rome’s power was supreme. It was an age preoccupied with entertainment, and plagued by alcoholism and gambling. It was sexually permissive. And slavery with all its abuses was rampant. What we often forget is that the gospel of Jesus Christ triumphed for good in that    world without resorting to arms.

Knowing God. Paul’s prayer of thanks to God, with which he begins, gives way to petition in verse 9. He asks God that the Colossian believers may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,…

As part of his thanks, Paul had just expressed his excitement that God’s good news was growing throughout the world. Yet as he now prays for God’s people, he prays for their growth in spiritual maturity. Why? Would this assist gospel growth in the world? Let me repeat his request: That you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding…

The word spiritual refers to the Holy Spirit. In thanking God for the believers in Colossae, Paul linked the gospel truth and the work of the Spirit. Now, as his prayer continues, he prays that the Spirit will bring Christians into a rich, personal knowledge of God. This knowing God is not filled out through human reasoning or emotions. Rather, it is because he has revealed himself through his Son and by the Holy Spirit.

Spiritual wisdom begins when the Spirit awakens our minds to God in all his power and glory. We also need the Spirit to open our minds to teach us God’s purposes so that we can live wisely in a fallen, fragmented world.

As we come to understand God, we will see that his ways stand in stark contrast to the self-serving human philosophies and lust for power that we see throughout history, such as gave rise to totalitarian extremes last century and the death of countless millions.

But Paul’s prayer is not for a dry religious intellectualism, unrelated to life. His prayer continues: So that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God.

Growing in God and lifestyle. There is a significant link between our growth in knowing God and our lifestyle. We are not simply to adopt the values and lifestyle of the culture – and this may include the church culture – in which we find ourselves. Rather, we are to lead lives worthy of the Lord.

And notice, we will want to live whole-heartedly for the Lord, fully pleasing him. As we come to know God better, we will understand that he made us in his image to experience the full the joys of a trusting relationship with him. From the depths of our hearts we will want to honor him in every part of life.

Furthermore, Paul prays that, with this understanding of God, our lives will bear fruit in every good work. A friend once told me that he begins each day with the prayer: ‘Lord, what good things have you prepared for me to do today?’

Growing in the knowledge of God… We are growing organisms – not robots that have come off the end of the gospel assembly line. As we grow in our understanding and experience of living with God, he will enable us to discern his purposes in the complexities of life. How important it is that we adopt a diet of regular Bible reading and are involved in a church that faithfully teaches the Bible.

Now you may be thinking, ‘This is wonderful, but how can I do it?’ Paul anticipates our question and continues: May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience and with joy,…

He prays that God will equip us with the mentality that tackles the tough issues of life and the stamina to persevere. He asks that we will have the resolution and the determination to stay in the marathon of Godly living. Paul well knows that it is one thing to start, but another to finish.

So he prays that God’s people will have the capacity to survive stressful times with wisdom, overcome insult with composure, and most of all, know that God can be trusted to be working out his all-wise and all-good purposes even when the unexpected occurs.

Joyfully giving thanks to the Father… Not to thank God is to fail to understand the magnitude and depth of his love when he brought us from the rule of darkness to the kingdom of his beloved Son.

God has brought his people from darkness and into the kingdom of the most powerful, righteous and kindest of all kings – Jesus Christ, his Son, our Lord. Surely our only true response must be one of joy and gratitude. We will want to sing!

Indeed, as we grow in the riches of God’s love and as we walk in his ways, God will use our increasingly evident new lifestyle to draw others to the good news under which we now live.

Let’s always pray for growth as we walk joyfully with the Lord.

‘How can we help our broken and divided postmodern world find hope and peace?’

In his Letter to God’s People in Colossae, Paul the Apostle writes of the hope that has awakened their faith in Christ Jesus and their love for one another. He reminds them that this hope is found in God’s good news which is itself gounded on the truth.

What is more, Paul observes that not only were God’s people in Colossae growing in their faith, love and hope, but God’s good news was bearing fruit and growing in the whole world.

These words are very encouraging for us today.

Let’s consider the flow of Paul’s thought: He begins by thanking God, the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ for their faith in Christ Jesus and the love they have for all the saints,… because of the hope laid up for them in heaven (1:3-5). There is a causal link between hope and faith and love. Hope is not the consequence of faith and love. Rather, hope has awakened them.

This is so important. The hope that God’s people have is the motivation for their faith and love.

Let’s consider this. In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul writes of the reality and the significance of Jesus’ physical resurrection from the dead. He points out there that if Jesus did not rise from the dead, our own future resurrection from the dead is negated. Our professed faith would be meaningless and the associated Christian morality a joke. As he says in 1 Corinthians 15:32, if the dead do not rise, we may as well ‘eat and drink, for tomorrow we die’.

But the hope of which Paul speaks in Colossians 1:6 is not simply optimism.

Certain hope. In verses 5b – 6 Paul writes: Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing – as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, …

It’s important to notice the emphasis Paul puts on the word truth. The gospel, he says is literally, the word of the truth. He could have left out any reference to the words the truth, but he doesn’t. He wants to stress that the essence of the Christian message is true.

Reflecting on this, we can see that God’s good news is beyond human invention and imagination. No one of us would have invented a God who was prepared to forgive a self-preoccupied and faithless world by such a costly and humiliating death as occurred at Calvary.

The gospel is also true, historically. Paul implies that that the accounts of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ are no invention. The records are true and trustworthy, supported by eyewitnesses.

Furthermore, the gospel is true experientially. By this I mean that when people put their trust in Jesus Christ who is at the center of the gospel, they discover that their faith is not a hoax.

Response? It is so important we are assured that our own faith and our love for one another as God’s people are grounded in the hope that is laid up for us in heaven. We need to ask ourselves, “Is my faith, love and hope in response to God’s good news?” Paul assures us it is the truth and nothing but the truth.

Indeed, we need to pray that God’s Spirit will awaken within us, as he did in the Colossian Christians, an ever-deepening love for the Lord Jesus Christ, and for his people across social, cultural, and racial divides.

In the 2nd century, God’s people in the Roman world were under great suspicion. Tertullian, one of the church leaders at the time, responded by contrasting Christians with the Roman society: ‘Look, they say, ‘How they (the Christians) love one another; and how they are ready to die for each other’ (for they themselves are readier to kill each other).’

 Furthermore, it’s worth praying for opportunities to talk with others about the inconsistencies and unworkable nature of the diversity that postmodernism is imposing on the western world.

Robert Letham, for example, observes that ‘the world of postmodernism is entirely arbitrary. If the emotions trump reason, we have no rational grounds for anything… Postmodernism cannot stand the test of everyday life’, he says. ‘It does not work, and will not work. It fails the test of Ludwig Wittgenstein, who insisted that language and philosophy must have “cash value” in terms of the real world in which we go about our business from day to day. To do that, we assume that there is an objective world and act accordingly. If there is not, life could not go on’ (Letham, The Holy Trinity, pp.452f).

Because God’s good news is based on the initiative, action and promises of the living God, we can be assured that his word and work will continue in today’s world. God’s passion is to rescue the lost. But we too, have a part to play: the testimony of our faith, the example of our love – which includes forgiving those whom we believe have wronged us – and the reality of the hope we have, will all bear witness to the Lord Jesus Christ. But, above all, we need to pray that God in his mercy will send his Spirit into the world, opening blind eyes to the truth of the hope, the joy, and the peace that God holds out to us.

Back in 2004 Robert Letham in The Holy Trinity commented on the impact of postmodernism on society: ‘In terms of instability and diversity, he said, ‘the postmodern world of constant flux is seeing insecurity, breakdown, and the rise of various forms of terrorism… As diversity rules, subgroups are divided against each other… A cult of the victim develops, and responsibility declines. This is a recipe for social breakdown, instability, and the unravelling of any cohesion that once existed’, he said (p.453).

In our troubled world, how important it is that we bring back into our own lives and into our conversations, the reality of the God who is not only there, but who is a God of love.

Let me touch on some key words in Paul the Apostle’s prayer of thanksgiving for the church in Colossae. In Colossians 1:3 we read: In our prayers for you we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,…

These days the idea of God has been largely dismissed from the public arena. This is why on the rare occasions of conversation about Jesus of Nazareth, the focus is more on his teaching and exemplary life.

Now it is true to say that if the world practised what Jesus taught – in his parable of the Good Samaritan, for example – the world would be a far happier place. But as humanity has never followed the moral advice of philosophers such as Plato or Aristotle, why would it follow the advice of Jesus of Nazareth?

However, when we look past the view that Jesus was just another great teacher, we find there is something very different about him.

And that is what Paul the Apostle says when, in thanking God for the Colossian church, he directs his thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The sentence construction tells us that Jesus Christ is just as much God as God the Father.

Let’s think about this: The essential nature of a perfect father is to love and give life. Paul’s understanding is that God the Father delights to love and give life. From eternity God the Father has given life to a Son.

Think for a moment of a water fountain. Its essential nature is to pour out water.

Paul’s words are consistent with what we read in the opening line of John’s Gospel: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And in Jeremiah 2:13, the Lord says of himself that he is the ‘spring of living water’. From eternity, before the creation of the universe, God the Father was loving and begetting his Son. God did not become a father at some point.

In the same way that a fountain is not a fountain if it does not pour out water, so God the Father would not be who he is, unless he was giving life to his Son. God the Father and God the Son are distinct persons, but they are inseparable from one another. They always love one another, and they always work together in perfect harmony.

This is so important, for it tells us that Paul is giving thanks to the God whose existence is not simply as a powerful intelligence behind the observable universe. Paul’s prayer is personal – to God, the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul also tells us the faith of the Colossians in Christ Jesus was personal. Furthermore, their faith expressed itself in their love and care for one another. The Colossian church was a place where there was genuine community. People accepted one another, treated one another as equals across the social divide. Their love for one another led to compassion and practical care for those in need.

Significantly, Paul goes on to tell us that the faith and love the Colossians enjoyed, was inspired by a third Person of the Godhead – the Holy Spirit. In verse 8 he writes that Epaphras had told him of the Colossians’ love in the Spirit.

In John 14 we learn that Jesus had promised his disciples on the eve of his arrest that he would send the Holy Spirit – to comfort and equip them. And in John 16:8 we learn that the Holy Spirit would also convict the world of sin and righteousness and judgment:…

An important part of the Spirit’s work is to convict our consciences of our failure to honor and love Jesus as Lord. One day God will ask us all: ‘What did you do with my Son?’

How is it that someone who has lived a life of indifference or even hostility towards God can suddenly be aware of their sin and their need for personal salvation? It is the Spirit of God at work.

In his prayer of thanksgiving to God for the Colossian Church, Paul alerts us to the reality of the One God who exists in Three Persons.

Our broken world needs to hear afresh the good news of this Triune God, whose very nature is to love and to give new life. If we grieve for our world, we need to pray that God will act with compassion and send his Spirit to open blind eyes, turning hearts back to Jesus Christ as Lord.

Let me conclude with the last verse of the Getty Hymn, ‘Holy Spirit Living Breath of God’:

‘Holy Spirit, from creation’s birth, giving life to all that God has made.

Show your power once again on earth, cause your church to hunger for your ways.

Let the fragrance of our prayers arise, Lead us on the road of sacrifice,

That in unity the face of Christ, May be clear for all the world to see.’