HIM WE PROCLAIM (Colossian 1:24-29)

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "HIM WE PROCLAIM (Colossian 1:24-29)"

Griffin Stewart
5 years ago
Views:

1 HIM WE PROCLAIM (Colossian 1:24-29) INTRODUCTION A truck driver was hauling a load of 500 penguins to the zoo. Unfortunately, his truck broke down. He eventually waved down another truck and offered the driver $500 to take the penguins to the zoo. The next day the first truck driver got his truck fixed and drove into town and couldn t believe his eyes! Just ahead of him he saw the second truck driver crossing the road with the 500 penguins waddling single file behind him. He jumped out of his truck, ran up to the guy and said, What s going on? I gave you $500 to take these penguins to the zoo! To which the man responded, I did take them to the zoo. But I had enough money left over so now we re going to the movies. That guy didn t fully understand what he was supposed to be doing. He seem to have gotten sidetracked from the main purpose of his calling. We get like that at times, maybe all the time. It is easy to get sidetracked from our purpose as Christians. What is our main purpose in ministry? Verses gives the answer. Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. (29) To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily. This verse was one which I early on memorized. It tells me the end, that is the purpose for which I was called into ministry to proclaim CHRIST by warning and teaching everything we know about Him that everyone will be moved to maturity. This is a simple and single-minded focus in my life s ministry. But I need to continually be reminded of this or I will become sidetracked from my main purpose in ministry. Let s look at how Paul sees his main ministry of proclaiming Christ to all in terms of three things: suffering for Him, stewardship from Him, and the strength of Him. SUFFERING FOR HIM First, let s look at what Paul says. He says that proclaiming Christ is a ministry of SUFFERING. Verse 24: February 25, 2018 Corntassel CP Church Page 1

2 {24} I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church, Paul is suffering and it is clear that the sufferings in view are physical. They are sufferings "in my flesh" he says. Just think he had endured persecution, imprisonment. He's been beaten. There's pain in his limbs. He has the scars to show for it. We don t view our ministry of proclaiming Christ as suffering, probably because we don t suffer much. But the Bible says that He who desires live godly in Christ Jesus, will suffer persecution. (II Tim. 3:12) Now notice for whom Paul is suffering. Twice he says that it is for the Church. I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church. Paul suffers for the sake of Christ s body, that is, the Church. It is his love to the people of God that drives him be single-minded about warning and teaching every man about Christ that he may bring them up to full maturity. Most of us try to get rid of suffering when it comes our way. When we re in pain, we want to relieve it. Paul was different. Before Paul s conversion, he inflicted suffering on believers. And now he s suffering for them. From the very moment of his conversion, in Acts 9:16, Paul was told that difficulty was going to be part of his discipleship when Jesus said: I will show him how much he must suffer for my name. How much are you willing to suffer for the Gospel? How much for the church? Notice also the phrase in the middle of verse 24. He says "In my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions." That's a challenging phrase, isn't it? Of course, Paul doesn't mean that Jesus' suffering for the Church at the cross was somehow deficient. Here's what I think he means. The world hates the Church. The world is not done afflicting sorry, the world hates Christ. It's not done afflicting Him. There are more afflictions for Jesus that the world has yet to mete out. Rod was telling us Wednesday about some people were saying about Jesus 2 nd coming. Let him come back and we will kill him again. But since the word cannot get at Christ personally, what is left over in the afflictions of Christ now fall to His representatives and spokesmen, to His CHURCH. So, Paul says, that the hatred of the world, the enmity that exists between Christ and the world is now turned towards him and the sufferings he endures is the suffering that is the response, the visceral response of a world living in rebellion to the claims of King Jesus. Every dart, every wound, every fist that afflicted Paul, he knows really has Jesus' name on it. It's all meant for Him but it lands on Paul. There's physical February 25, 2018 Corntassel CP Church Page 2

3 suffering here. Sometimes there's a cost, a very real cost, a physical cost for those who are single-minded in proclaiming Christ as the one way of salvation.. John Piper writes that Christ s cross was for propitiation; ours is for propagation. Christ suffered to accomplish salvation. We suffer to SPREAD salvation. How far are you willing to go in suffering for the gospel? How committed are you to proclaim Christ as the only Way to God, if you know that you will suffer for it? STEWARDSHIP FROM HIM Next Paul says that his ministry is a STEWARDSHIP. Verses {25} of which [church] I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, {26} the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. {27} To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. The word minister is translated servant in other Bible translations. As Paul likes to do, he refers to himself as a servant. Since Jesus was supreme in His life, Paul was fully devoted to follow Him wholeheartedly. God had given him a commission or a stewardship. The word for stewardship would have immediately conjured up images of a great house in which the servant, the minister, was entrusted with the wise management of the household s resources. He was to ensure there was food and provision for the family. Paul saw himself as God s servant or steward in God s big house. The purpose of a steward was to dispense the master s PROVISIONS to the household. Just as a well-trusted servant would manage his master s estate, so Paul was entrusted with a special task. What was the provision Paul was to administer? It was the Word of God. It was the word of God or as the NIV puts it to present to you the word of God in its fullness..paul s task was to make known the Gospel to the Gentiles. He calls this the mystery among the Gentiles. The mystery is what God s had planned from the beginning. That plan was to bring all people, Jew and Gentile, into one Body, the Body of Christ, that all people everywhere would have equal access to the riches of February 25, 2018 Corntassel CP Church Page 3

4 God s grace and that Jews and Gentiles would have equal access into the Presence of God by the Spirit of God. The mystery Paul proclaimed was Christ in you (GENTILES), the hope of glory. Christ is in both Jew and Gentile equally. The Gentiles now have the same hope of glory. This hope is Jesus. Jesus is to be all mankind s hope and Jesus is the world s only hope. This is the stewardship that God has given to each of us. Each one of us is to do our part in getting this message out to the world. We must see our ministry as a stewardship if we are to be single-minded about our purpose of proclaiming Christ in His fullness. STRENGTH OF HIM Now Paul reveals his strength for this ministry. Verses 28-29: (28) Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. (29) To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily. Paul s goal was more than just making the Gospel known; he wanted to bring every believer up to their full maturity in Christ. This idea of presenting every man perfect mean maturity, is not to a point of sinlessness, but it is a point of spiritual maturity. Paul shifts to using we in this verse to let them know that he, and Timothy, and Epaphras were proclaiming the good news together. That each one had the same goal in mind. This task of spiritual maturity takes everyone s effort, it takes the entire church. How was Paul to carry out this goal of moving people to maturity in Christ? First is by focusing on Christ. We are to be Christ-centered in our message and methods. It is helping people grow in Christ and learning all about Christ that moves us to mature spirituality. Paul uses two words, warning and teaching. The first word is warning or admonishing. It carries with it the idea of helping people to see the consequences of not growing to maturity in Christ. Also it has the idea of exhorting to keep at it. The book of Hebrews is a good book to hear how to warn people about not striving for maturity.. It continues to warn and exhort God s people to press on, and continue to the end. In one place he writes: February 25, 2018 Corntassel CP Church Page 4

5 Hebrews 10:35-36 NIV So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. (36) You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. The second emphasis is on teaching, which refers to instruction what God wants us to believe and how God wants us to live. In Matthew 28:20 Jesus tells us to teach disciples to obey everything He commanded. We need to take every opportunity to teach all we know about Christ. We need to focus on teaching in our Sunday School classes. We need to focus on teaching in our homes and small group gatherings. We need to focus on teaching in the worship service. We need to teach all that we know about Christ to one another that we may grow to maturity. The goal of proclaiming Christ through admonishment and teaching is so that we can present everyone perfect in Christ. We don t want to just build buildings; we want to build believers. We re not just about passing along information, we are all about transformation of lives. How can we do this? Where can we get the wherewithal to remain faithful in our calling? Especially in the light of suffering? Especially in the light of having a serious stewardship? It is by the power of God working in us. Paul ends this chapter by saying To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me. He labors and struggles in this task. To labor means to grow weary through hard toil. The word struggle comes from the root word in Greek translated agony. Both words were used of athletes competing in the arena, or of a laborer working to the point of exhaustion. Paul used this same word at the end of his life as he reflected on how he had lived in 2 Timothy 4:7: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. What kept Paul at his task was God s energy at work in him. This is what will keep us at our task God s energy working in us. We are not alone in fulfilling our calling. God is with us and He is in us. His energy works powerfully in us like DYNAMITE. Christ has the dynamite power of grace to bear you up and to carry you along and to keep you to the end. CONCLUSION God has given us a great purpose in life. God has given us a great purpose as a church. His purpose for us is to receive Christ and to proclaim Christ in all His fullness. His purpose for us is to suffer for the Gospel, to suffer for His Body, the February 25, 2018 Corntassel CP Church Page 5

6 church. His purpose for us is to make known the Gospel to the world. His purpose for us is to move people to maturity in the Gospel. Christ is among us and Christ is in us. Since Christ is in us, the hope of glory, He will provide us with His supernatural strength and explosive energy as we labor to fulfill God s purposes for us. If you feel a bit aimless, or even bored in your life, then reenlist for active duty in God s army. It s much better to do battle together than to battle each other, and it s much better to understand your purpose to than to go on a walk with a bunch of penguins. Amen? Amen! February 25, 2018 Corntassel CP Church Page 6

CAPITAL BIBLE CHURCH July 7, Colossians Series: Journey to Spiritual Maturity. How to Have My Own Ministry. Colossians 1:24 29

CAPITAL BIBLE CHURCH July 7, Colossians Series: Journey to Spiritual Maturity. How to Have My Own Ministry. Colossians 1:24 29 CAPITAL BIBLE CHURCH July 7, 2013 SERMON NOTES PASTOR BILL HAKEN Colossians Series: Journey to Spiritual Maturity How to Have My Own Ministry Colossians 1:24 29 Before you ask me the question, Why should