Colossians 4:2-6

Review and Thesis

We have looked at every single verse up until this point in Colossians, we have read them together and dove deeply into most, we wont read all of chapter 4 because most of it is closing statements which you can read on your own. Much of it is a restating in a clever way the things Paul has said already . . .

I want to give a quick Review/Overview of the Book and the things we have looked at and the main thesis of the book, and then we will look at our final verses and the final things God wants us to hear.

List some of the things we have focused on, this certainly isn’t everything we have talked about, but these are just some of the various things that have been MAIN POINTS in our passages and thus in our sermons

Grace for Christians that see things differently than you – As in all of Paul’s letters, he begins by . . .

How to pray and what to pray for – Not wrong to pray for circumstances to change . . .

The advance of the Gospel and its living nature

The crucial and fundamental role of gratitude in the life of the Christian

The desperate need for Christian maturity – the goal of Paul’s writing – your salvation wasn’t the end, it was the beginning

Christ’s delivering us from the domain of darkness into his new kingdom of light

The need to persevere in the faith

Christ having a HUMAN Body, a HUMAN Mind, a HUMAN heart, and a HUMAN will – therefore knowing exactly how you feel

Suffering as real and painful and a cancer in God’s world, but even still as a Gift from God

Our sufferings make Christ Present and Tangible for those around us

Since you are one with Christ, body and head, when you suffer, he suffers

Jesus as the Mystery of God revealed, the mystery solved, the loose ends tied, everything finds their YES in Jesus

Strength that we are given by being One with Jesus

My favorite outline of the gospel in scripture – Cancelled the record of debt that stood against you with its legal demands, this he set aside, nailing it to the cross, he disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, triumphing over them in Christ

The Will of God for you is your sanctification – not an easy life – that happens primarily through the Word

Bearing with difficult people (aka people) – If your church doesn’t have difficult people in it, you either aren’t involved enough or it isn’t a healthy church because people aren’t being real

Singing to one another, why we do it, how we do it, why we do it how we do it

Not primarily a personal 1 on 1 time, primarily a communal time for each other

We took a whole Sunday morning to focus on singing, the command, and the depth of what we sing

Love and Marriage

Husbands and Wives and the calls to lead sacrificially and to submit

Children and Parents, Slaves and Masters

The call for all Christians to do all things realizing they are serving Christ, and your efforts are not in vain

MAIN IDEA

We looked at those massive words from Colossians 1:15-20 - slow

THAT JESUS is the one who reconciled all things

THAT Jesus is the one you are so united to that it can be said you are ONE with him

THAT Jesus is the one with you in your pain and injustices

Since THAT Jesus is the one ruling, you can endure in your circumstances and even still rejoice in God

You are so One with THAT Christ, you have died and been raised with Christ . . . THEREFORE

Be who you Are – “You’re a Zeringue, act like it”

Sin has no power over you anymore – the leash is broken

Put to death that which is sinful, make no provision, put on Christ likeness

Since THAT Jesus has declared you His, nothing can take you out of His hand.

There is a sense in which every imperative, every command in Colossians, before you read it, you should stop and say SINCE WE HAVE THAT JESUS

Devote Yourselves to Prayer

Colossians 4:2–4 ESV

Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison— that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.

What does it mean to devote yourself to something? What is something you are devoted to?

This is the consistent teaching of the NT and Bible

Luke 18:1

Luke 18:1 ESV

And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.

1 Thessalonians 5:17 ESV

pray without ceasing,

Prayer has always been key to God and his people

All the first followers of God lived lives of Prayer

Daniel thrown in a lions den because of his insistence to pray

Jesus taught his disciples to pray, healed people with prayers, regularly went off on his own to pray, sometimes all night . . . died praying

What did the disciples do after Christ’s death?

Acts 1:14 ESV

All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.

Acts 2:42 ESV

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

All Christians are expected to have a regular, faithful, devoted, fervent prayer life.

“Prayer is awe, intimacy, struggle – yet the way to reality. There is nothing more important, or harder, or richer, or more life-altering.” Keller

“A minister may fill his pews, his communion roll, the mouths of the public, but what that minister is on his knees in secret before God Almighty, that he is and no more.” John Owen.

Admit that prayer is hard, you are not alone. But tell yourself daily, every morning, prayer is worth it.

I have said many times that being a Christian can be summed up in this way – Living in submission to God

That is what prayer is and does, it is us placing ourselves at God’s feet as the Giver, as the one who can and does answer what we ask, as the One capable. Prayer is our properly aligning ourselves in the cosmos, aligning ourselves under the God that is ruling and reigning.

In short, prayer is the ultimate way that we treat God as God, acknowledging our dependence and his independence, acknowledging our creatureliness and his CREATORness.

The truth is Everyone prays, in moments of distress, in moments of pain, in moments of hope, virtually everyone, whatever their beliefs, find themselves praying to SOMETHING, if you are an unbeliever here, and you were honest with yourself . . . because that is the position that we were made to be in, low and looking to God.

Do you believe in prayer? Do you believe you have not because you ask not, as God says? Do you believe God hears your prayers, as he said he does. Do you believe that God will give you wisdom when you ask like he says he will? Or that he will not withhold anything good from you and Wants to answer your prayers?

What if I told you, if you walked 1 mile every day for a month, at the end of the month I’d give you $10,000… closer to the Lord, more peace, more assurance, more courage, more boldness, more hope.

We don’t really think it is that important

More is happening in prayer than you or I will ever know until glory

(The word is preaching to me here as much as anyone.)

I just don’t have peace. Do you pray? I just don’t know what to do in this situation? Do you pray? I am just depressed. . . I am just unhappy . . . I am just out of control . . . I just can’t beat this sin . . . Do you pray?

You say that you’re not strong enough but that God is, you say that you are leaning on the Lord, does your prayer life back that up?

Paul beckons them to pray a couple of things in particular:

Be Thankful (Since we have THAT Jesus)

thanksgiving is a motif that is woven throughout the argument of Colossians (1:12; 2:7; 3:15, 17). A true appreciation of the believer’s status, “dead” to the world and its powers, “alive” to God in Christ with all one’s sins forgiven, and destined for glory, will inevitably produce thanksgiving.

Open Door for the Message of the Mystery (Since we have THAT Jesus)

“The emphasis falls on the dynamic, almost personal, character of the ‘word’ ”

It is the word that must be given entrance because it is the word that has the power to transform human beings. This emphasis echoes the beginning of the letter -- Colossians (1:6) and in all the world. Almost as if the Word is “living and active.” God has always acted through his Words. . . the way he created the universe was by speaking, and its still the primary way he is creating and moving in you and in the world

In identifying the content of what he proclaims as “the mystery of Christ,” Paul harks back to the description of his ministry in 1:26 . . .Christ is the mystery solved!

(Since we have THAT Jesus)

Evangelize like a Christ-Follower

Colossians 4:5–6 ESV

Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

Paul moves from asking for prayer for HIS evangelism to encouraging them to look for opportunities for the same open doors, making the best use of their time with outsiders.

Notice here he is not talking about preaching or official evangelism – Paul knows he is the one called to do that in a special way, to give formal presentations of the gospel to crowds, but here he is just talking about having conversations, where there is back and forth, questions and answers.

1. Live a life that calls up Questions

Paul seems to be assuming here that people are going to see you live and that they will have questions

The Christian life should be different enough that the response of the outsider is “Why?”

Why would you take that job when you could have taken that one?

Why would you take on that burden when you didn’t have to?

Why would you ever forgive them after what they did?

Why have you not divorced her/him yet?

Why would you get married in todays world? Or have kids? Or have more kids?

Why don’t you spend as much time or money on hobbies as we do?

Why don’t you laugh along with us at these things?

Why don’t you join in the gossip?

Why do you take going to church so seriously?

How could you miss this event, this game, this opportunity just for Church?

Why do you spend time with those people who don’t share the same interests as you, or who are generations apart?

Why don’t you let your kids _________________________?

Its also important to see that the appropriate Christian response to questions, which very often will be hostile and judgmental in nature, will communicate not just the content of the gospel, but will also be done in a CHRISTIAN loving way 1 P 3:15 makes the same point

1 Peter 3:15 ESV

but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,

As one scholar puts it, Paul envisions a church “expected to hold its own in the social setting of marketplace and meal tables and to win attention by the attractiveness of its life and speech

Millions of people have come to Christ not firstly because of a proclaimed message, but because of an unusual life of a Christian.

2. Look for opportunities for Conversations

Not to preach, but to ask questions, to honestly listen to people and not just want to sound good in response, and then to talk about why you are a Christian.

When you do have those conversations, have peace, you are sowing seeds even if you feel like it goes terribly. God isn’t up in heaven wringing his hands hoping you say the right words or have the right answers so that this person can get into heaven. God is using you, and will use even meager conversations in unbelievable ways.

God has placed you in the specific workplace, or in that specific moment, with the intention of you shining.

Conclusion

Col 1:28-29 - This was the goal in this book and this series, if you have been here with us, you have grown in maturity in Christ.

Colossians 1:28–29 ESV

Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

Grace be With You – Grace To you 1:2