MARKS OF CHRIST-SHAPED MATURITY COLOSSIANS 4:2-18 Beatle George Harrison once said that the "first really decent guitar" that he owned was the Gretsch Duo Jet. The electric guitar, manufactured by Gretsch Guitars, was known for its trebly tone. In the early 1960s, Harrison bought the guitar for about $200 at the time. Early in 2011, Gretsch Guitars announced that the company would manufacture a limited run of 60 exact replicas of George Harrison's Duo Jet guitar as a tribute model. Master craftsman Stephen Stern recreated the guitar precisely, replicating the nicks and dings of a half-century's use, even using a CAT scan to determine the semi-hollow guitar's bodychambering style. The suggested retail price for the tribute Duo Jet is $20,000. It s an expensive guitar because it replicates a valuable original so closely. In the same way, you and I find our highest value in becoming Christ-shaped becoming an amazing replica of Someone whose worth is infinite: Jesus Christ. Well, today, we come to the end of this series of messages on Paul s letter to a group of new Christians living in Colossae. It s been all about how to live a Christ-shaped life. Paul s told us that we live, quite literally, in a Christ-shaped universe. If that s the shape of ultimate reality and it is then the lives of each of Christ s followers need to become increasingly Christ-shaped. Every part of life: Christ-shaped. Every relationship in life: Christ-shaped. Every behavior and attitude in life: Christ-shaped. As Paul closes his comments, he provides a remarkable portrait of spiritual maturity. I don t know if that was his conscious intent, but the Holy Spirit certainly worked it out that way. Let s read the final verses of Colossians just now. I d like you to reflect with me on at least three marks of Christ-shaped maturity that stand out to me in these final verses of Colossians. First of all, if you re Christ-shaped, you are DEDICATED TO PRAYER. Did you hear and see that in v. 2-4 (NIV)? Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. Nothing provides greater evidence of your day in and day out dependence on God than a robust prayer life. Nothing! Paul himself was the best example of this truth. Paul outworked anyone in this room. But, more importantly, Paul out prayed anyone in this room. He himself was devoted to prayer. Well, what does a dedicated prayer life look like? It s a persevering and faithful prayer life. The Bible says, Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere. (Eph 6:18 NLT) In another place, the Bible says, Don t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. (Phil 4:6 NLT) Jesus even told parables about prayer. One parable is 1
prefaced by this comment, One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up. (Luke 18:1 NLT) The Bible even says in one place, Never stop praying. (1 Th 5:17 NLT) How is that even possible? The Greek word there for never stopping was also used of someone with a nagging cough. You ve been around a person like that, haven t you? Every few second, cough. Never stop praying doesn t mean spending the whole day with your eyes shut and hands folded talking to God. It does mean you can pray at frequent intervals throughout the day about every conceivable situation and circumstance. In one area of Africa where Christianity began to spread, converts were zealous about daily prayer. They would find their own spot within the wild thickets and pour their hearts out to God. After some time the spots became well-worn, and paths were created. Soon, one's prayer life was made public. If someone began to neglect his or her prayer life, it would soon be noticed by others. Believers would then gently and lovingly remind those who were neglecting prayer by saying, "The grass grows on your path." Persevering and faithful prayer it s a mark of Christ-shaped maturity. What does a dedicated prayer life look like? It s a watchful and thankful prayer life. Prayer can become dull and boring. The opposite of boring prayers are alert prayers. That s what the word watchful means there in v. 2. It means alertness. One reason your prayers might be dull is because they re too self-centered. Have you ever found your prayers starting to sound kind of whiney and selfabsorbed? Dear Lord, please help poor little old me. I ve got it so tough. Please make everything easier for me immediately. I ve got so many problems, Lord. Take them all away right now this very moment for Jesus sake. Amen. The opposite of self-centered prayer is thankful prayer. With Thanksgiving coming up this week, it s important to remember that thankfulness, in and of itself, is a mark of Christ-shaped maturity. There are all kinds of references to thankfulness throughout this letter. We always pray for you, and we give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. May you be filled with joy, always thanking the Father. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness. And always be thankful And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father. (Col 1:3, 1:12-13, 2:7, 3:15, 3:17 NLT) Anyone seeing a trend here? But in our passage today, thankfulness is tied to prayer: Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. (Col 4:2 NIV) Mature, Christshaped prayer is full of gratitude and praise even in the midst of very stretching, emotionally hard or dry times in life. Remember that Paul was in prison here when he s talking about being thankful in prayer. He practiced what he preached. Alert, thankful prayer it s a mark of Christ-shaped maturity. What else does a dedicated prayer life look like? It s a focused and purposeful prayer life. Your prayers can become too general. It s kind of like the little girl 2
who was kneeling beside her bed saying her prayers one night. Her mother was surprised to hear her daughter reciting the alphabet! ABCD. She asked, Honey, why are you reciting the alphabet when you pray? The little girl answered, Mommy, I m so tired tonight that I can t even figure out the words I want to say. I though I d just say the alphabet and let God put the words together! What a charming attitude in a child! But, sometimes adult prayers can have about as much thought and effort put into them! When that happens, it s not so charming or cute. We get a picture of focused and purposeful prayer in these verses. First, Paul asks the Colossians to pray for him in prison. But he doesn t ask them to pray that God will get him out of prison. Instead, he wants them to pray that God will open doors of ministry for him while he s in prison. Then, secondly, there s the example of Epaphras. Epaphras is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured. (Col 4:12 NIV) Epaphras was very focused and purposeful about praying for the church in Colossae as well as in the neighboring towns of Laodicea and Hierapolis. What can you learn from that? Don t pray, Dear Lord, bless all the missionaries all over the world. It s better to choose two or three specific missionaries and pray for them regularly. Don t pray, Dear Lord, help all the sick people in our church to get better. It s better to focus on two or three sick folk and pray for them until they get better. Don t pray, Dear Lord, help all the unsaved people in the world to find Jesus as Savior. It s better to let the Holy Spirit impress upon you two or three specific people that don t follow Jesus and start praying for them until they do. Focused, purposeful prayer it s a mark of Christ-shaped maturity. Christ-shaped maturity looks like a dedication to prayer. Now, here s a second mark of Christ-shaped maturity. If you re Christ-shaped, you have a DESIRE TO WITNESS. Now, witnessing is simply reaching out to others for the purpose of impacting them with the good news about Jesus in some way. Paul was all about mission, outreach and reaching people with the good news about Jesus. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. (Col 4:3-4 NIV) Growing up in a Pentecostal church, it was all about spiritual gifts. Do you speak in tongues? That was the mark of spiritual maturity. All of my ministry has been in Evangelical churches where it s all about knowing the Bible and spiritual fruit. Those are often the marks of spiritual maturity. But, now I m wondering if the real mark of biblical spiritual maturity is this one. When you re Christ-shaped, you increasingly want to see more people come to know Jesus as Savior and Lord and become Christ-shaped. And if there s no desire, no passion, no hunger for that in your life, something is seriously wrong! 3
When Craig Groeschel was a new believer years ago, he always wore a tiny cross pin on his shirts. Because they were an inexpensive way to witness, he d purchase a dozen or so at a time. Every time someone commented on Craig s little cross pin, he'd give it to them as a gift. Once in a 7-11 convenience store, the female clerk complimented him on his cross pin. He offered it to her. For several moments she tried to refuse, but she finally and reluctantly accepted the gift. Years went by, and Craig had almost forgotten about the 7-11 woman. After church one week, a woman stopped him in the lobby of his church to thank him. Trembling as she spoke, she explained, "You probably don't remember me, but years ago you gave me this." She reached into her purse and pulled out a small cross pin. "When you offered me this cross, my life couldn't have been any worse. I didn't feel worthy of such a generous gift. But God showed me that he still loved me. My life is different today because of what you did for me." Witness expresses itself in many ways. When you re Christ-shaped, you increasingly recognize that the reputation of the Christian faith is tied to the personal conduct of Christians. That s precisely why Paul says, Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders. (Col 4:5 NIV) People watch you to see if you do your work well, if you study hard, if you pay your bills, if you keep your promises, if you treat them and others with honesty, integrity, respect and dignity, if you have a joyful, thankful and loving spirit. Like it or not, your personal conduct has a direct impact on the reputation of the Christian faith. And some people decide if the Christian faith is real or not by what they observe in the Christians they happen to know. One morning a young man boarded a bus for work. The night before he had given a Bible teaching at a special meeting at his church. He paid the bus fair and got his change back. He counted it and found that the bus driver had given him a quarter too much. At first he thought, The bus is too crowded to get back to the driver and the bus company will never miss it anyway. But, instead, he made his way to the front of the bus and told the driver, You gave me too much change. The driver said, Yeah, I gave it to you on purpose. Last night I heard you preach. No, that doesn t mean you must live a life of absolute perfection in order to witness for Jesus. True Christians fail. Real Christians sin. Genuine Christians blow it. But what will impact people is to see what you do when you fail. Do you blame others? Do you excuse what you did or rationalize it away? Or do you own it, admit it and ask forgiveness for it? Do you make it right as best you can? Most non-followers of Jesus don t expect followers of Jesus to be perfect. They do expect you to have integrity. They want to see what difference the living Lord Jesus Christ makes in your life and mine. When you re Christ-shaped, you increasingly learn how to make the most of every witnessing opportunity. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. (Col 4:5 NIV) Most of the time, you don t 4
have to go out and create opportunities. God is actually pretty good at creating opportunities for you. My problem has been recognizing the divine opportunities God provides me to witness to others and take full advantage of them. Sadly, I haven t made the most of every opportunity that God has given me either to share the message about Jesus with someone else or to show the love of Jesus to someone else. Specific divine opportunities never come again. Spiritual maturity is all about learning to spot opportunities as they come to us. When you re Christ-shaped, you increasingly appreciate the power of words in witnessing to others. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. (Col 4:6 NIV) Now, when we say someone s language is salty we usually mean that it s a bit profane. That s not what Paul meant here! In Paul s day, salt was used to preserve food and give it flavor. What Paul means here is a growing ability to use words that are full of grace, full of good-natured humor, full of joy, full of encouragement and full of wisdom. The way you use words ought to draw people to you and to Jesus. Christ-shaped maturity looks like a desire to witness. There s one more mark of Christ-shaped maturity here in these verses to which I want to draw your attention. If you re Christ-shaped, you are DEVOTED TO OTHERS. What does that mean? This isn t about an unhealthy dependence upon others or an unwillingness to be responsible for your own life. It s not about mooching off of other people. It s not about making other people responsible for your happiness. It s not expecting others to solve your problems. A mature follower of Jesus chooses to need other followers of Jesus in healthy, positive ways that get expressed through things like devotion, loyalty, caring, love and deep friendship. You know who s a great example of this mark of Christ-shaped maturity? Paul! It s easy to get the impression that Paul was just this incredibly committed, sharply intellectual kind of person who wrote all this deep, spiritual stuff, but who was kind of cold and hard to know at a personal level. He s often depicted as someone who disliked women and whose personality was so strong and dominating that it was hard to be his friend. Nothing could be further from the truth! To be sure, Paul probably had one of the top five intellects of all time and he did possess a kind of stubborn, iron-willed personality. But what many people don t realize and what the biblical record reveals - is that Paul was actually a genius at friendship! In the book of Acts more than 100 different people are associated with Paul. In the last chapter of his letter to the Roman Christians, Paul named 26 different friends alone in that church and he hadn t even been to Rome yet when he wrote that letter! Here in Colossians he names ten people who were close to him in some way. The more Paul matured in Christ, the more he became devoted to others in healthy, positive ways. 5
Let s meet just a few of Paul s friends! There s Tychicus. Tychicus will tell you all the news about me. He is a dear brother, a faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord. I am sending him to you for the express purpose that you may know about our circumstances and that he may encourage your hearts. (Col 4:7-8 NIV) Apparently Tychicus stuck with Paul when the going got rough. He was a faithful, dependable brother in Christ who had a servant s heart. Paul was sending Tychicus to Colossae as kind of a personal envoy or representative. There s Onesimus. He is coming with Onesimus, our faithful and dear brother, who is one of you. They will tell you everything that is happening here. (Col 4:9 NIV) What a story! Onesimus was from Colossae - a runaway slave from a Christian man named Philemon. Somehow Onesimus had found Paul and given his life to Jesus. Now Paul was sending him back home. You can read more about that marvelous story in the little New Testament letter called Philemon. Paul mentions others briefly here: Aristarchus, Justus, Luke (who wrote the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts), Archippus, Demas and a woman named Nympha. Another notable friend mentioned here is Epaphras. Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured. I vouch for him that he is working hard for you and for those at Laodicea and Hierapolis. (Col 1:12-13 NIV) Some scholars think Epaphras was the one who started the church in Colossae. He apparently had a vision to establish other churches in communities near to Colossae. Epaphras was a prayer warrior he wrestled in prayer, struggled in prayer and worked hard in prayer. These people and Paul were devoted to each other. For me the most interesting reference is to Mark because it points to a wonderful reconciliation. My fellow prisoner Aristarchus sends you his greetings, as does Mark, the cousin of Barnabas. (You have received instructions about him; if he comes to you, welcome him.) (Col 4:10 NIV) Some 10-15 years earlier, Paul s companions on his first missionary journey were Barnabas and Barnabas young cousin, John Mark. Along the way, however, Mark deserted Paul and Barnabas and returned home. Why? Fear? Discouragement? Tensions between Mark and Paul? We aren t told why. In any case, when Paul got ready to set out on a second missionary trip, Barnabas wanted to take Mark along again and give him a second chance. Paul said, No way! It caused a serious rift between Paul and Barnabas and they went their separate ways in terms of ministry. We aren t told how Paul and Mark were reconciled, but here in Colossians it s apparent that they were working and ministering again together. And that relationship endured and continued to get stronger. Years after this letter to the Colossians, when Paul was an old man writing to his protégé, Timothy, he says, Bring Mark with you when you come, for he will be helpful to me in my ministry. (2 Tim 4:11 NLT) Christ-shaped maturity is always open to reconciliation, because you understand the eternal value of every follower of Jesus. You just can t throw people away. Christ-shaped maturity looks like a devotion to others. 6
In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell tells the strange story of Christopher Langan, a genius with a staggering IQ of 195. For some perspective, Einstein's IQ was 150. During high school, Langan could ace any foreign language test by skimming the textbook 2-3 minutes before the exam. He got a perfect score on his SAT, even though at one point he fell asleep. But Langan failed to use his exceptional gifts and ended up working on a horse farm in rural Missouri. According to Gladwell, Langan never had a community to help him capitalize on his gifts. Gladwell summarizes the story of Langan in one sentence: "[Langan] had to make his way alone, and no one not rock stars, not professional athletes, not software billionaires, and not even geniuses ever makes it alone." God never intended you to be a Lone Ranger follower of Jesus. His desire is that you become a highly involved and integrated member of His Body the Church. You can never become Christ-shaped without the community of the church to help you identify your gifts, develop your gifts and use your gifts. The marks of Christ-shaped maturity what are they? A growing dedication to prayer, a growing desire to witness and a growing devotion to others. 7