In Conclusion

English Standard Version Chapter 4

2 Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. 3 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— 4 that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.

5 Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. 6 Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

Final Greetings

7 Tychicus will tell you all about my activities. He is a beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord. 8 I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your hearts, 9 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.

10 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), 11 and Jesus who is called Justus. 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. 12 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. 13 For I bear him witness that he has worked hard for you and for those in Laodicea and in Hierapolis. 14 Luke the beloved physician greets you, as does Demas. 15 Give my greetings to the brothers at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house. 16 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. 17 And say to Archippus, “See that you fulfill the ministry that you have received in the Lord.”

18 I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you.

Paul is winding up his letter to the Colossian church

Remember, he is being held as a prisoner in Rome

And he at least suspects that he probably doesn’t have long to live

If you knew that you were living your last days, and you wanted to express your final wishes to your loved ones, what would you say?

My dad wasn’t able to do this with me, but I imagine that if you knew that you only have a short time to live, and you were writing to your loved ones

I imagine that the words that you write would be from your heart.

You would go deep and express the things that you truly desire for your loved ones

It would be an intensely personal moment, I would think

I think that is what we are reading here

Paul is saying, “I don’t have long left, church at Colossae. But I love you, and in light of the Glory of Jesus, here is my desire for you.”

There are four statements in this passage that I want to focus on

And I want you to know that these reflect my desire for you all as well

Continue steadfastly in prayer vs 2

Walk in wisdom toward the outsiders vs 5

Let your speech be gracious vs. 6

see that you fulfill the ministry that you have received in the LORD vs. 17

Now, each of these statements are probably sermons in themselves, but I’ll just touch on them this morning

Continue steadfastly in prayer

Continue--Be devoted to

Steadfast--firm and unwavering

In Luke 18, Jesus told a parable to his disciples in order to teach them that they should always pray and not lose heart

The story of a judge who neither feared God nor respected man

He was proud and arrogant

and there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, “Give me justice against my adversary!”

And she was so persistent that this judge got to the point that he said, “If I don’t do something, this widow is going to drive me crazy!”

And so, Jesus said, even though he didn’t fear God, nor respect man, because this widow was so persistent, he gave her justice

There are probably different thoughts that this little story brings to mind, but the point is very simple: Keep praying

even when God seems silent, keep praying

even when you feel discouraged, keep praying

Jesus knew that, for us, praying can be difficult

He told this parable to teach us that we should pray and NOT lose heart!

Be persistent in prayer

Even when it seems like God isn’t moving

Even when you’ve been praying for a long time, keep praying

Continue in prayer.

What does that look like?

Does that mean that you are constantly walking around with your head bowed and lips moving?

I don’t think so

But what it does mean is Don’t waver and doubt!

Because it’s the wavering and doubting that causes us to stop praying isn’t it?

Often, we come to God with something urgent on our minds, and we are eager to bring it to God

But then it seems like He doesn’t respond right away

And we start to get tired, and feel a bit shaky, and then we start to doubt and think that maybe He doesn’t care quite as much as we thought He did

And pretty soon we stop praying

At least, that has been my story

But we are encouraged here to be steadfast in prayer

Make sure that your house is being built on the rock

Why can Paul confidently encourage his readers like this?

Because he has just spent his entire letter confirming to them the supremacy and the power of God

The One who has qualified us to share in an everlasting inheritance

The One who has transferred us from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of His Son, Jesus

The One who has redeemed us and forgiven us

He has introduced us to Christ who has all authority, all power

Who is the very image or representation of the invisible God

The One who created all things and who holds together all things

The One who is the Head of His Body, the Church

The One in whom the fullness of God dwells

The One who has reconciled us to God through His sacrifice on the cross

Paul has spent the entire letter talking about the supremacy of Christ

And that is why he can confidently encourage us to “continue steadfastly in prayer”

And furthermore, we are to be watchful in prayer

Alertness as we pray

Jesus in the garden: “Watch and pray lest you fall into temptation!”

There is a spiritual battle being waged

When you enter into prayer, you enter into a particular active phase of the battle

God has chosen to act through the prayers of His people and there is an enemy who is not eager to see God’s will being accomplished

And so, when you enter steadfastly into prayer, be watchful!

Be alert for the arrows of doubt, discouragement, or temptation

Be alert, and don’t be surprised when these arrows start zinging in at you

And be thankful!

When I think of Paul and his prayers, I think of him being a thankful person

he starts out this letter to the Colossians by saying, “I thank God when I pray for you because I have heard about your faith in Christ Jesus”

What are your prayers like? Are they prayers of thanksgiving?

Walk in wisdom toward outsider

Act wisely toward those who are not a regular part of the group

There is a lot to think about here when we talk about how we act toward “strangers”, or “visitors”, or those who are not regularly a part of our lives

We can think about it in terms of our church family

We can think about this in terms of our country

When it comes to foreigners within our country, I’ve had to think that we as Believers live in a very different time than times when the Scriptures were written

God was very clear with His people that they were to welcome the foreigners

They were to be gracious and loving and care for those who came to them from a distance

Now, they weren’t supposed to intermarry with them or adopt their religious practices

But still, they were to welcome them and care for them

And when God led His people into the Promised Land, he didn’t tell them to set up borders and passport checkpoints. people didn’t have to get visas in order to enter the land

People could come and go. And if they came in peace, or they were in need, they were to be taken care of by God’s people

Today, it’s complicated, isn’t it?

Now we have borders, and security, and laws and visas and

And we are like, “I know that I’m supposed to take care of those who are in need, but...we’ve got laws!”

And whether people are here to simply live in peace, or they are here to make trouble, if they are here “illegally”, we find ourselves in a quandry.

What do we do?

Folks, i’m not here with a lot of good answers this morning

But I just want to call attention to the fact that Paul encourages us to “Walk in wisdom”

This takes a lot of wisdom for us, doesn’t it?

And how do we walk in wisdom? Well,we ask God for it! God, how do we walk wisely toward with outsiders in this time of laws and political tensions and rhetoric?

And don’t be surprised if God directs you to act or do something different than what your political party says you should do

Remember, these are man made laws. And mostly, they are laws that work.

But, what would the Giver of Wisdom say about how we should walk with outsiders?

Something to think about

Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt

What an interesting picture this is. I am to let my speech be gracious, seasoned with salt. Always!

Gracious--courteous, kind and pleasant, showing divine grace

As parents we probably ask our children, after something has been said, “now was that kind? Did that need to be said?”

We know that kids need that reminder. But apparenlty adults do as well, because this letter was written to adults

It’s a reminder that we as adults need. Let our speech always be kind and courteous and pleasant. whether we are talking to each other, or about others

May our speech be kind and courteous and pleasant

I find it interesting that this reminder comes right on the heels of the admonition to walk in wisdom toward outsiders

Because sometimes out speech about outsiders doesn’t really fit the bill of being kind and courteous and pleasant

For, example, there is a term that I’ve heard out and about regarding certain religions: Towel heads

I gotta be honest with you, when I hear that, it always makes me wince. Can we not use terms like that? Can we be very wise and kind and courteous about the terms that we use about people?

The council I would give is that, if I wouldn’t call someone a towel head to their face, it might not be the kind thing to do it in private either

seasoned with salt I like this picture. Not only is our speech supposed to be kind and gracious, but also seasoned with salt

You know, I love rice. I’ll eat it by itself or with other things. (I don’t care for rice pudding, but I do like rice)

But there is nothing worse, I think, than rice without salt. Just plain old unflavored, unseasoned rice

But you sprinkle some salt on it, and suddenly this rice comes to life. It’s good! It can be eaten. It serves its purpose. Something that tasted lifeless before, now has life to it

Jesus told His followers in Matt. 5, “you are the salt of the earth. you are the light of the world”

You are difference makers. You carry light and life into your world it outside of Jesus is so devoid of life

But you know, it’s possible for something to have too much salt. And when something is too salty, you spit it out of your mouth

It’s possible for something to have too much light, and then you get blinded by it

And I think that sometimes Believers try to be too salty. Too bright. Too forceful. They try to bring too much salt and light

They try to change people’s opinions and change situations by being forceful

And in doing so, they bring a bad taste to people’s mouths.

they blind people’s eyes.

But when I think about light, I think about a warm glow that is inviting.

When I think about salt, I think about just the right amount of salt that makes food pleasant

Your speech is one way that this happens.

Our speech should be inviting, and pleasant

Our words should bring life to a situation, life to other people.

Our words should be gracious and pleasant to listen to.

Let your words be seasoned with salt

Say to Archippus “See that you fulfill the ministry that you have received in the LORD”

Here’s my final question and challenge for all of us as we wrap up the Book of Colossians

Have you received a ministry from the LORD?

If so, do you know what that ministry is?

Sometimes we might struggle with knowing each moment or every day what we should be doing, or what the right response is to certain situations

But we should never be in doubt about the purpose or the ministry that the LORD has given to us

2 Corinthians 5:17–21 “17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Remember, we talked about this in chapter 3 of Colossians

We have been raised with Christ, and given a new life

And in that light, God has given us a ministry

18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

My ministry, your ministry, is to see to it that men and women all over the world are reconciled to God through Jesus

Is this a ministry that you are working to fulfill?

I know that life is busy, isn’t it? I’ve felt that very keenly--it just seems like there is hardly time in the day to get done everything that I need to get done

And how often do we think about that God has actually given each one of us a ministry that is supposed to take priority in our lives

This ministry, I believe, should be what everything else in our lives falls under

It is to make disciples

it is to point people toward Jesus and help them to be reconciled with Him

As we close this letter to the Colossians, what have you learned?

Have you learned to know Jesus better?

My prayer is that we all have caught a new glimpse of His glory and

And that we can truly say “Christ Alone”