Well, we want to give our attention this morning to Paul's closing words in his letter to the Colossians. Colossians chapter 4, beginning at verse 7. You'll find it after Galatians, Ephesians, and Philippians, and you'll find it before Thessalonians. And if you want to use the page number in the pew, it's 1,254, 1,254 in the pew. Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and before Thessalonians. And you'll see there in the ESV that this section is entitled, Final Greetings. And I have to admit that as I read through this several times, it seemed a bit like reading a first century version of Facebook. I don't want to degrade scripture, but stay with me. Before the internet, before telephones, before texting, email, etc., etc., Paul was part of a social network, believe it or not. A network not merely of friends, but of saints and faithful brothers in the Lord. And in these verses, these verses are like his final post on his Facebook page that he dictated as a letter to be handed to Tychicus to be taken to Colossae to be read. This is his final installment. He's going to sign off. And from Colossae, it's going to be shared with brothers in Laodicea. And it has likewise been shared with saints everywhere and in every age, even to us. It's been shared with us over these last few years in our gatherings for public worship. It was Paul's intent. In this letter, as we've considered it these many months, Paul has encouraged us with gospel postings. Postings that reveal the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. And he has urged us on with law postings to walk in Christ, abounding in thanksgiving and in a manner that's worthy of the Lord, it's pleasing to him in every way. He's talked to us in both ways. And now, in his final post, he steps back. He doesn't really say too much directly at us, but he gives us a look into the life that he's living in prison. And he introduces us to some of the flesh and blood members of his social network. It's an incredibly diverse group. It includes members of different ethnicities, social standing, financial means, legal rights, location and gender, as well as different attitudes, aptitudes and spiritual gifts. It's not a very big group, but it's very diverse. And even though they're so diverse, they've all been brought into the social network we know as the communion of saints. I hope this changes forever your reading of the Apostles' Creed until you know what the communion of saints is about. It's the gathering of God's people together in Christ. That's the social network to which we belong as Christians, united as one holy Catholic Church through true faith in Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit, by means of the gospel, created faith in them, just as He does in each and every one, just as He does and has in you, that we can claim Christ and receive all His benefits, which includes communion with Him, fellowship with Him, and with each other in Him. And so we turn our attention now to the perfect and abiding Word of God from Colossians chapter 4, beginning in verse 7 to the end of the letter. And here we will see the communion of saints, encouraged through messengers, exemplified or demonstrated for us in prison, and extending universally. Hear now the Word of God, Colossians chapter 4, beginning at verse 7. Tychicus will tell you all about my activities. He's a beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord. I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are, and that he may encourage your hearts. And with him, Onesimus, our faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. They will tell you of everything that has taken place here. Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, greets you. And Mark, the cousin of Barnabas, concerning whom you have received instructions, if he comes to you, welcome him. and Jesus, who is called Justice. These are the only men of the circumcision among my fellow workers for the kingdom of God, and they have been a comfort to me. Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God. For I bear witness, for I bear him witness that he has worked hard for you and for those in Laodicea and in Heropolis. Luke, the beloved physician, greet you as does Demas. Give my greetings to the brothers in Laodicea and to Nympha and the church in her house. And when this letter has been read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans and see that you also read the letter from Laodicea. And say to Archippus, see that you fulfill the ministry that you have received in the Lord. I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you. Well, we begin in verses 7 through 9 by taking note of how the communion of saints is encouraged through messengers. The Colossian church was without their pastor. He'd gone on sabbatical of sorts. He'd gone to Rome and he was visiting with Paul. He wanted to learn how to defend the church and how to respond to the false teachers that had set up shop in Colossae. So he was not on site. He was in Rome with Paul. And Paul had given him answers. This whole letter is an answer to his troubles. And it's finally finished. And it's ready to go. But for some reason, Epaphras isn't going back to Colossae. We don't know if or when he goes back. And Paul, of course, is not free to go. He's in prison. And he reminds the Colossians of that at the end here. Twice in this last chapter, he reminds him in chapter 4, verse 3, that he's in prison on account of the gospel because of his preaching. And in verse 18, he gives a simple admonition. He says, remember my chains. And we have to ask, why does he say that? What's the point? It's not because they didn't know. Their pastor was there with him. And it's not because he was begging for their pity. He'd already told them at the beginning of the letter that he rejoiced in his sufferings for the cause of Christ. So why does he say it? Because Paul wants to leave them with the clear message that as they remember his chains, that they will remember why he's wearing chains. See, Paul is not only their brother and our brother in the Lord Jesus Christ, he was also an ambassador of the Lord Jesus Christ, an apostle, the apostle to the Gentiles. And his chains testify to his faithfulness and his perseverance in his calling to preach the gospel everywhere, To the Jews first and then to the Greek. In military images, you would consider his medals here. That's what he looked at his chains as and he wanted the people in Colossae to remember. Remember my chains. Remember not who I am, but what I am. And the word I'm going to send to you in this letter, I'm signing off right now with my hand. This comes to you as an apostle of Jesus Christ. Remember my chains. And they needed to remember this because Paul himself was bound in chains. but the word of God he proclaimed was not. And if Paul could not bring that word of God to them himself, he would send it to them, and he did. Not by Epaphras, but by a fellow by the name of Tychicus. My Greek needs work. Tychicus is an interesting fellow. If you read through the scriptures, Paul sent him on several missions for him. You could call him an ambassador for the ambassador. He came with authority. He, like Epaphras, was a fellow servant, a fellow minister, faithful minister in the Lord Jesus Christ. He came as a minister of the gospel. He was sent for the purpose of carrying this letter. But Paul didn't send him alone. He sent with him a fellow by the name of Onesimus, who's one of you, Paul says. I'm sending this guy home. He should be dancing in the streets. Well, we know better. The last time Onesimus was in town, he had run out of town. He's a runaway slave. And they didn't expect to ever see him back again, at least not alive. And here he was going to come into town with a minister of the gospel, identified by Paul himself as a faithful and beloved brother in the Lord. How could that be? And of course, that's exactly the point. Onesimus is coming back a different man, a redeemed man, a changed man, who now belongs to the body of Christ when before he did not. And together, these two, these two men were sent back to speak to the people in Colossae. They were sent back to tell of everything that had taken place with Paul in prison. One a free man, one a slave. One a long-time saint, one a new believer. One a preacher of the word. One a hearer of the word. And though different in nearly every respect, Paul sent them to the church in Colossae for a single purpose, to speak as one voice, if you will, to encourage the saints, to encourage their hearts. The communion of saints was encouraged through these messengers. Messengers who spoke of what they knew of the gospel and of the power of the gospel to change sinners like them. Different, but neither one a lower sinner. Neither one a more exalted saint. Equals in Christ Jesus, but coming with different functions, different roles in the church there. Together, they were living proof of what Paul has been teaching throughout this entire letter. They are walking billboards, Especially of chapter 3, verse 11, when Paul writes there, he says, Here, in the church, the communion of saints, there is not slave or free, but Christ is all and in all. Together, they would come and speak. Together, they would come and encourage. Together, they would come and work as peacemakers. The public reconciliation of Onesimus, the runaway slave with his master, Philemon. If you know your Bibles, you know there's a letter a few pages back that Paul wrote to Philemon, getting him ready for this. There was going to be a reconciliation. It was going to be public. And in this public demonstration of peacemaking, they were going to teach the people of God by example how to confess sins, not just to God in the closet, but to one another. And how to grant forgiveness one to another, even as the Lord has forgiven them. Powerful encouragement through these messengers. And so the communion of saints at Colossae was encouraged through these messengers who spoke and who lived the gospel of Jesus Christ. And people of God, by faith, we are members of this same communion. And we need this same encouragement. As it was given to the Colossians, it is given to us also through messengers. We're not left to ourselves to find this encouragement. Some are sent to us as faithful ministers. Faithful ministers in the Lord who proclaim from God's Word all that we need to know about how to be saved through faith in Christ and how to live as His people. And at the heart of their preaching, whether it's telling us how to live or whether it's telling us what Christ has done, is the gospel of Christ who alone is sufficient to save us and who alone is sufficient to make us holy. And we rejoice today that we have seen, at least on our grounds, the new preacher of the gospel who's been called here. And we'll take up this position very soon and we praise God for sending him, this messenger. But many arise among us. They just like organic flowers. They grow among us like these seven this morning. They were born into this congregation. They were baptized into the church of Jesus Christ in this congregation. And here today they have been raised up among us, messengers. And so that no matter our differences, our common faith in the only Savior, Jesus Christ, is what binds us together as faithful and beloved brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ and in this communion Christ is working in us to encourage one another. Sometimes with the word of God that we have read and we have learned and that we know and that we trust and we are able to speak it to one another. Praise God. But much of the time it's living in a way that shows and it tells the transforming power of the gospel. I'm not the man I used to be. Praise God. And we encourage one another. Now Onesimus' fall and restoration was public. There was no doing this in private. He was a runaway slave. He was a fugitive from the law. Everyone knew what the story was and his restoration was public. And our instinct is to cringe at that. But the story of the Bible, it was encouragement to the saints to see one who had fallen to be not only reconciled, but to be restored. Paul in Philemon tells Philemon to receive him back not only as a slave, but more than a slave, as his brother in Christ. How often do we keep our stories hidden? How often do we keep to ourselves the work of God in our lives? Sinners, saved by grace. I submit to you that when we do, whether from shame or whether from pride, We keep from the communion of saints the encouragement our stories are intended to give. We have to admit we like to be and appear more perfect than we are. We're sinners. We pray every Sunday. We confess our sins. This is not just an exercise in words. We're really sinners. Our children in particular need to know that we're not perfect parents. They need to see that when we fall, we own our fall. We run to Christ. We're restored again by his grace. And what encouragement that is. Something to think about. Well, we've seen that the communion of saints is encouraged through messengers. And in verses 10 through 14, Paul gives us insight into the communion of saints as it is exemplified, modeled for us, shown to us in prison. The communion of saints is a universal reality. And we can think of it in the abstract. And Paul wants us to think of it in the concrete. He shows us his network. This is our network, at least our starting point. And Paul wants us to see how things are in Rome so we can understand how things are in the body of Christ here and what we can take away from that about the communion of the saints. Well, Paul's in prison because he's chained there. He's gone. He's going and waiting for his trial. But the rest of the people with him there are there by choice. What love! Jesus commended those who visited those who were in prison. These men visited Paul in prison and stayed with Paul in prison. That in itself, we could stop there. That's a testimony to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Who amongst us would do that? Not by nature, only by grace. And in them we see examples of what is true in the communion of saints. They were naturally diverse. They'd been brought together through faith in Christ and supernaturally united in a way that they functioned and lived and worked and encouraged one another in a way they could not have on their own. And Paul begins in verses 10 and 11 by introducing us to the only man of the circumcision among his fellow workers for the kingdom of God. That's a long way of saying of all the Jews he preached the gospel to, there were only three that believed it and joined him in gospel ministry for the long haul. Paul always preached to the Jews first and they routinely, for the most part, rejected him and his gospel. But some, by the grace of God, joined him. And he introduces us to them. First is Aristarchus, Mark, the cousin of Barnabas, and Jesus, who's called Justice. And he says, these are all a comfort to me. They're my brethren, and they're with me. Let's look at these three men for just a moment. We know nothing more about Jesus, who's called Justice, than what Paul says here. But that's not nothing. Justice is a Jew who was converted by the gospel of Christ, and he was a faithful laborer with Paul for the cause of the kingdom of Christ. That's a huge thing, but that's all we know. If Paul hadn't told us, we would never know the man. Aristarchus believed the gospel through Paul's ministry, and he became a lifelong or a long-time companion. We find him several places in the book of Acts. We find him in Ephesus in the riots with Paul, in the middle of the riot. He's right there with him. We find him on the ship that carries Paul to prison. He's been with Paul through some rough places. He's a Jew like Paul, but apart from their Jewishness, they have nothing in common. Paul's from Turkey. Aristarchus from Eastern Europe. Culturally, nothing alike. Religiously, Jewish. But through faith in Jesus Christ, they're brothers. They're joined together to Christ. They're joined together to each other. And all that is past. Leaving what's behind, they press on together toward what's before. And then there's Mark, the cousin of Barnabas. Some of you school children know the story of Mark. Mark was, we find him in his own gospel at different places. He's hanging around with the disciples of Jesus. He's witnessed the work of Christ in the flesh. And in Acts chapter 12, we see him on the road with the converted Saul and Barnabas. And they're on their mission field and they're on their way. And within three chapters, he becomes the wedge that divides the whole team. He went AWOL for a while and Paul got mad. And he turned him away. And we don't hear from Mark until Paul's letter to the Colossians. And all of a sudden, here he is. He's with Paul. He's one of his three fellow workers in which he finds great comfort. We don't know the details, but we can know this, that it's the communion in Christ that brought them together. It's their faith in Christ that was able to have them be reconciled. It's the restoration of Christ that allowed him to be restored, not only as a faithful helper, But we know from the rest of Scripture that Mark was an active worker with Paul and with Peter. And, of course, we have the Gospel of Mark that bears his name. Three Jews. And in the next verses, verses 12 to 14, Paul introduces us to three Gentiles. Now, before the Gospel of Jesus Christ, you would not find these men in the same room, at the same time, doing the same thing. Enemies, opposed. And here we have Paul's six closest associates that are with him in prison, Three Jews, three Gentiles, all together for the sake of the gospel. And he mentions Epaphras, Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas. We don't know much about Demas, but we do know something, and that's from Paul's second letter to Timothy, that toward the end of Paul's ministry, Demas fell in love with the world, Paul says, and he deserted. He went away. Like Mark, he went away. Now, it may be that one day he was restored to the communion of saints, And it may be that he was never restored because he really never belonged. He never really believed. We don't know the end of his story. We know more about Epaphras from the first part of our letter. We spent a lot of time learning about his role as pastor there. But here Paul wants us to focus on one thing. He says, I want to bear witness to how hard he works for you. Not just you and Colossae, but to Laodicea and Heropolis. These are surrounding cities. He works hard for you and he works hard in prayer. He's earnest. He strives, he's struggling, and the object of his prayer, what he's asking of God on their behalf is that they would be mature and fully assured in all the will of God that they would trust what they had been taught, they would trust this letter when it came to them, that they would stand against the opposing false teachers and they would be mature. So his prayers were very much in line with Paul's letter. And some have wondered who influenced whom more, Whether Paul influenced Epaphras or Epaphras influenced Paul, it doesn't matter. That's part of the nature of the body of Christ, the communion of saints. We encourage and we form one another. And last, we have Luke, the beloved physician. The author of the gospel that bears his name. The author of Acts. Much of which records his travels with Paul. At the end of Paul's days, at the close of his ministry, he writes in his second letter to Timothy that it was Luke alone who stayed with him. Demas deserted. The rest were on the mission field. Luke stayed with him. He's a friend who stuck closer than a brother. A Jew and a Gentile. Like Jonathan and David. They'd endured a lot together. And just as nothing can separate us from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus our Lord, nothing seemed to separate them. They were brothers in Christ through thick and thin for time and eternity. And in their relationship, we get a glimpse. A glimpse of the truth that for the communion of saints, baptismal water joined to faith is thicker than blood. That goes against our nature, but you need to know that it's true. Baptismal water joined to faith is thicker than blood and is stronger than any bond that we can forge with anyone else or anything else. Because of our continuous sinfulness, we push against that. We don't like that. We don't want to be as close to our brothers in Christ as we are to our brothers in the flesh, our fathers in the flesh, our mothers in the flesh. The reality is greater than we know. And this gives us a glimpse of what Christ has accomplished for the communion of saints. We are bound together in a bond that's eternal. Your bonds of your families here will end when you die. Marriages will be no more. Father, son, mother, daughter, no more. We all will be relating to God in Christ. And our bond there is eternal. We need to know that. And so we step back from this gathering of six, three Jews, three Gentiles, and we ask, what does this show us about the body of Christ as a whole, as the communion of saints? How does it exemplify the reality that we are invited to live and to know that we're living? Well, first is that the communion of saints is comprised of sinners. Even in Paul's inner circle, we read these stories. There's no one perfect here. Paul himself called himself the chief of sinners. And he told all of us in Romans that there's no one righteous, no, not one. Being joined to the communion of saints does not make you sinless in yourself. Number two, the communion of saints is comprised of sinners who are saved. Saved by grace alone. God's goodness, alone, through faith, alone, in Christ, alone. It's not what we've done, not what we might do, that joins us in this communion. It's what Christ has done, and that's given to us through faith. In Heidelberg Catechism, we ask this question, question 55, it says, what do you understand by the communion of saints? We say, we confess that we believe in the Holy Spirit, We believe a holy Catholic church, the communion of saints, almost every week. Do we know what we mean? We confess there that in part that believers all in one, one in all as members of this community, the church, the invisible church, the one holy Catholic church, that members of this community share in Christ and in all his treasures and gifts. That's the communion is found in him. Apart from Christ, there is no communion. There is no bonding. There is no social network. Third, each and every saint works for the benefit of the church in his own way. We saw six men identified here, each one doing something different. Some we don't even know what they were doing. Epaphras is praying. Demas, we don't know. Justice, we know he's faithful. Everyone's doing what God has called them to do and equipped them to do to the glory of God and the benefit of the church. You need to know, people of God, there are as many ways to serve the communion of saints as there are saints. You don't need a survey to tell you what it is. You don't need to examine yourself in a quiet room to find out what it might be. The church is before you. Behold it and consider it. And what might I do to help this person or that person? What might I do to support this ministry or that ministry? What interests me? What have I got some aptitude to do? That's all. Just do it. Not to steal Nike. Just do it. Don't wait for the perfect prescription. It is never going to come. We confess this also in question answer 55, that in the communion of saints, each member should consider it his duty to use his gifts readily and cheerfully for the service and the enrichment of the other members. And in our little picture here in prison, we see that some gifts are more prominent and easy to see than others. Some are almost invisible. Being around the church every day, I get to see some of the invisible ones. God's saints are at work. Some enrich the body for a season, for a moment. Some enrich the body beyond a lifetime. Some have not yet been realized. Don't panic. Don't panic. And others need the catalyst of another saint to actually get it going in you. You need the encouragement of someone else or the opportunity of someone else to actually find it. Want it. Look for it. Try it. And know that God will steer you into that place where you belong in His body, in the communion of saints. For if the communion of saints is joined to Christ through faith, that's the only way you're joined to one another and you're joined to Him. And those who are joined to Him, hear this now, not only must, but can overcome differences and disruptions. We see this in the example of Mark. He was away. We don't know how it all came together, but it came together. And we know this is true when we remember that the Son of God, Jesus Christ Himself, overcame every difference. And the ultimate disruption between God and man, he overcame it all to have us reconciled to God and in God to one another. He did that to save sinners like me and sinners like you. And when we compare this great divide that Christ has already overcome and reconciled through the cross, everything else, honestly, people, is peanuts. molehills that look like Everest. You need to know. This is the truth. In the communion of saints, because you're joined to Christ by the power of His Spirit, you have the desire, it's there, and the ability to overcome those differences and restore those disruptions. For those who are trusting in Christ alone for salvation and who are empowered by the Holy Spirit, There is no such thing as an irreconcilable difference. That doesn't mean you won't play with it in your sin and I won't play with it in my sin, but for Christians, there is no such thing as an irreconcilable difference. We need to know that so we can charge it. It's a molehill, folks. It's a molehill. Go for it. And fifthly, the communion of saints is concerned with the saints everywhere, not just here at home. We see this in Paul's picture in prison. Of all these six men doing their individual work in the body of Christ in the way they're gifted, they're all concerned about one thing. They all want to send their greetings to the church down the road. That's not just a hi, how are you. It's not just a poke on Facebook. It's not just a wave across the parking lot. It's a greeting that conveys affection and love and the awareness that there are saints there to whom you're joined in Christ. You belong to them. They belong to you. And it's about the other. It's about out of here. We're equipped for that. Paul's companions wanted the Colossians to know that when this letter was read to them in their church and it was preached from their pulpit, that they were counted as brethren in Christ now and forever. And even though they were separated by miles and different circumstances, they were beloved. They were remembered, and at least for one, they were sorely missed. It reminds us, people of God, that we need to lift our eyes to the horizon from time to time. We need to lift our nose from the grindstone. It's easy for us in the flesh to become parochial about who we're interested in, whether as a congregation or particularly in strong families. It's easy. It's automatic. But it's not necessary. We're not bound to be that way. We have the power to look out. We have the power to look up. We have the ability and the freedom to look for the saint. That's a part of the communion of saints and bring them in and love them. Well, thus far we've seen how the communion of saints is encouraged through messengers, how it's exemplified for us in prison gives us pictures that we can apply to our circumstances. And Paul closes this letter in verses 15 through 18 suggesting how the communion of saints is to be extending universally. Now in our day and age, when I say universal, we think outer space and I'm not talking about that. Universally in the sense of across the globe and down through time as long as the Lord tarries. Paul was bound in chains and he could no longer spread the gospel personally. He couldn't go city to city anymore. His days as a traveling itinerant missionary were passed. And he was given to see that if the communion of saints was going to extend beyond his personal experience thus far, the gospel would need to spread around the world and continue over time until the Lord comes in glory without his personal direct involvement. For your business owners, He had to learn how to multiply himself. He had to learn to duplicate his efforts in others. And so that's what Paul does. He gets the ball rolling by his sending of greetings to Colossia. You know, you do this on Facebook. You are a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend. That's what he does. He tells the Colossians, I'm greeting you, but I want you to send this greeting on to Laodicea, to the church there, to Nympha, and the church that meets in her house, to your brothers who are there. Send my greeting on. click that forward button and make it go. You see, by the providence of God, Paul had been in prison and his hand was forced, literally, to put on paper what he had been proclaiming with his mouth. I've got to believe, as a man, that frustrated him. But hindsight's 20-20, and we see what that did for the church. Paul's letters were, This one was sent to Colossae and he told them directly, I want you to send that on to Laodicea. And I want you to receive the letter from Laodicea. I want these letters to be passed around and we know the history of the church. That's exactly what was done. These letters showed up everywhere. And in time, they became recognized as that which God had provided for his church. The canon, this book, is what it resulted in. Paul's letters, Peter's letters, James, the four gospels, John's letters. That's how this got started. And Paul didn't send these letters to the church and say, now I want you to make a hundred copies so everyone can go home and read this by yourself. I want you to read this in the church. I want you to explain it, unpack it, apply it. I want you to preach it in the church. That's where the means of grace are. That's where the Holy Spirit promises to work in His people, to create faith. And to strengthen our faith. Do it in the church and then pass it to another church. And when Paul says, see that you also read the letter from Laodicea. I was hoping to just skip this point, but you might be wondering, where is that in my Bible? You'll not find it there by its name. It's either the letter to the Ephesians, in my opinion, that was sent from Ephesus to Laodicea to Colossae, or it's a letter that the Lord decided not to keep in his canon for our ears today. But it doesn't matter. Paul's point is I want you to duplicate my efforts. I want you to spread this gospel from church to church. I want you to read it and preach it and pass it on. And because the Lord had tarried, Paul was praying Maranatha a lot. He wanted the Lord to come back and the Lord is still not returned. We don't understand his timing. But Paul came to realize that he was going to die and the Lord may not return. So then what? So he also started the practice of what we call apostolic succession. and that's the training and ordaining of new ministers for the next generation to hand them this scripture, to have them guard this scripture, to preach this scripture and to hand it on to the next generation. It's been going on ever since. We know Timothy. We're familiar with Timothy. We're familiar with Titus, but we're probably not familiar with Archippus. Archippus, verse 17. Paul says to them, Now say to Archippus, see that you fulfill the ministry that you have received in the Lord. That's all we knew. We wouldn't know what that stood for. But he says the same thing almost verbatim to Timothy. In 2 Timothy 4, verse 5, he says to Timothy, Always be sober-minded. Endure suffering. Do the work of an evangelist. Fulfill your ministry. And we know from Timothy that his ministry was to receive the Word of God, learn it, guard it, pass it on. And it's come to us today. So we've seen in these verses which are full of names and indirect references and kind of a glimpse through the window into prison. Paul had a lot to say to the churches about the communion of saints. Messengers are sent to us for our encouragement. There's much that we can learn from these verses about how we live together, how we are as the communion of saints in Christ Jesus. And we learn from these verses that the trajectory was set, a trajectory that's still followed today, that's come down to us, to this pulpit today, of the inspired word of God being handed down faithfully and being proclaimed faithfully, generation by generation, to be received by a new generation. Because Christ is equipping his church to live together and to be together and to endure together until Christ comes for us in glory. And having covered much ground in this very brief letter, Paul closes his final words to the Colossians and knowing that his final words to the church of every age that would receive this, just a simple and profound benediction. It really is, sums it up, the grace be with you. And as the people of God, the community of the saints, that grace is for you. Receive it by faith. It's yours in Christ. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you that you have set down your revealed word for us through the prophets and the apostles. We thank you for this letter, this letter from Paul to the church in Colossae, which was passed on to the church in Laodicea, which was passed on to who knows where and has come down to us, that we might be reminded and instructed as to the sufficiency of Jesus Christ, our Lord, our Savior, who not only saves us from our sin, but who is sufficient for our sanctification, making us holy, and revealing to us your will for our lives in your law, how we are to live as your people, that we live pleasing lives to you. And remind us that in Christ we have been joined to something grander and bigger and eternal, the communion of saints, wherein we find our life and we express our life and we encourage one another in this life to your glory and to the benefit of the church of Jesus Christ. Lord, we pray that you would strengthen the church. That you would make us mindful not to be apathetic. Make us mindful to know that we have something to give. Even if it's never seen by another human being. And only by you. Encourage us, Father, to pursue the interests of the communion of saints. That we might be led outside of ourselves. And embraced in this life that you have given to us in Christ Jesus. It's in his name that we pray. Amen.