Colossians 1:28-29 | A Labour of Love

Hello - Catechism -

Q- Since we are redeemed by grace alone, through faith alone, where does this faith come from? A- from the holy SPirit

Recap Section and Read text

Alright, this morning we are going to linger a little longer on part of the text we were in last week.

So turn with me to Col chapter 1 and we will be looking at verses 28-29 in a moment.

These come in a section where paul has exalted God for the revealed mystery that is the hope of glory for all people in Christ Jesus. It finishes with these two verses:

Colossians 1:28–29 (ESV)

28 Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 29 For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

Intro - A Labour of Love.

it seems a normal pattern of human existence, atleast in a culture that is relatively comfortable and therefore we have a degree of free time and expendable income - to find activities that we love - even though they often require some form of hard work and sacrifice and they provide little return on investment.

Some people:

Create things, whether it be artwork or quilts or music

restore cars

volunteer time to run community groups or sporting teams

Researching and documenting family genealogy

many of us, raise children

All of which require some form and degree of hard work and sacrifice and they provide little return on investment.

Many of these activities might be rightly called hobbies, although most might be more appropriatly titled Labours of Love.

Activities that the balance sheet would frown upon but that we neverless give time, money, and effort to - driven (not by gain), but love.

In these two verses Paul the apostle of Jesus Christ, summarises his ministry, in prolcaiming Christ,

he describes it as toil, a struggling, a labour

But also, he describes it as for ‘everyone’ - ‘each man’ (GR)

Paul is describing a life that is given to the arduous, sacrificial task of proclaiming Christ, teaching and living to help others mature in Him.

Its a labour, that is driven by love. For God and for others. —-

A life that we are all called to as followers of Jesus

Following Jesus is a life that is oriented towards helping others

Matthew 4:19 “And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”” The call to follow Jesus is a call to reorient your life away from yourself adn to live towards other for the glory of GOD

this is the cross shaped life. The life that is exemplified by Jesus: - He loved the lowly and outcast - he sought out the lost and hopeless. - he moved towards those who were sick and suffering, not away from them - he gave time to the hated, to the religious, to the children. - In his life he was consistently compelled by love to move towards others with grace and truth. - and in his death, he sacrificed himself to save others. Luke 19:10 “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.””

This is what Paul gave his life to, toil, and struggle for others.. A life that he describes in Philippians 2:17 like this “Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.” Its a constant pouring out, but a joyful one. There is no return on investment, it’s a labour of love.

The call to FOLLOW Jesus, is a call to join him (Imitating Paul) - in his Labour of Love. To follow him in living a life that sacrifices self, that lays down personal dreams and desires and instead takes up the cross and follows him. that uses all of our lives and the relationships we have for the grand purpose of discipling others, helping them follow Jesus for the glory of the KING.

[Transition]

Now, what is this labour of love, what does it involve for all of us? how can we learn to live this other oriented life?

Well Paul says it is proclaiming Jesus, warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom, with the end goal of presenting everyone, mature in Christ.

Let’s start with the goal in mind.

Goal: Presenting Everyone Mature in Christ

This is the goal of a life that joins in with Christ’s labour of love and is oriented towards others. It is presenting others mature in Christ.

Discipling others happens in the present but it has an eye on the future.

It should be akin to the parent who looks at the 2 year old, and desires that they grow up to be a strong, capabable faithful godly man or woman, and therefore disciples and instructs them accordingly.

In this case the goal of discipleship is that others would be ready to faithfully receive Christ when he returns, or they die to go and be with Him.

That we would help others be prepared for that ultimate reality.

This is no small thing…

I think we can sometimes conflate ‘mentoring’ and ‘discipleship’

Mentoring helps someone get better at something

Discipleship prepares people to enjoy Jesus for Eternity. To face the throne of the king of kings as a throne of grace not of judgement.

What is maturity in Christ?

Colossians 1:21–23 (ESV)

21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

Maturity in Christ is a faith that has roots that go deeper than your branches go high. So you can weather the storms and the heatwaves of life stable and steadfast. holding fast to Jesus the author and finisher of your faith.

Look at this, discipling others isnt about helping people do extravagantly extraordinary things, its doing what we can to help them live faithfully ordinary lives.

When maturity is the goal, it means Discipling others is a long term journey. The Labour of love is a life-long labour. Because Maturing takes time.

It happens over years. We sow into people now, and the fruit is more often than not, reaped later.

> Story of the guy who shows up to Hands&Feet.

at the end of last year, on a thursday afternoon when we open the church to give free grocery hampers to people in our community, there was a guy who came in to check things out.

when i saw him, i recognised him from somewhere but couldnt place him.

anyway he comes straight over to me and goes ‘Joel!’ and we get chatting. He proceeds to remind me of how we know each other, as apparently I had first introduced him to Jesus, and shared the gospel with him.

After which he fell back into a drug addiction, ended up on the street, in jail for a period, but throughout which, some seed of faith, and the Lord keeping him led him to both faith and sobriety.

and he goes hey look at this, and he shows me my old Bible.

Now, I recall most of what happened when i met this guy 10ish years ago… and I promise what I did was nothing special, or even good, except maybe giving him a Bible.

Yet God used it, and that seed of faith sown was reaped later, as he is thriving in a church just around the corner now.

Helping others follow Jesus is a life-long committment, so we ought to do spiritual good to others now, trusting that God will use it.

This is our call - to help others follow Jesus, in our freindships, our families, with our spouses and children and with brothers and sisters in Christ (partnering together).

Using all that we have, and the relationships around us to deliberately disciple others.

—-

This may sounds like a rather ordinary Christian thing to say, it is radical though, becuase it calls us to live opposite to our sinful nature.

And though it may sound like an ordinary Christian thing to say, I am not sure it is consistently and ordinary Christian thing to do. To intentionally live oriented towards living for the benefit of others.

Reasons we don’t live other oriented lives:

Pride Pride causes us to think of ourselves too much. Both our sinful nature and worldly temptations work together to convince us to make our own comfort and entertainment the priority in our lives. In doing so, you elevate self-gratification to the point where it becomes a household god you are unwilling to lay aside so you can take up your cross and follow Jesus. Pride, on the other side of the coin also causes us to assume that it is up to us to help others, and so we conclude things like - “I can’t do that,’ or ‘i have nothing to offer. Look how paul says he - toils and struggles ‘with all HIS energy that HE powerfully works within me.

All pauls striving and labour, is only fruitful becuase of Christ’s energy that sustains him and his Power that works through him.

2. Fear of Man

When we fear what others think of us more than we fear God, we become less concerned with helping others in obedience to Jesus, and more concerned with saving face. More concerned with maintainng the facade of what we would have others think of us.

let me give you 2 examples. 1 men tend towards and 1 women.

a) Fear of Man makes men unwilling to confess sins and failings.

I can’t share that… or we wouldnt want others to know that about us… so we hide it. And in doing so, we do spiritual harm to ourselves, and we miss out on the grace of God that may be conveyed through his forgiveness of a sinner like you.

You never know how going ‘hey man, I am really struggling with this, can you pray with me and walk with me through it,’ may actually help them, as well as you.

Brothers, the baseline of discipling others isnt, a life that is entirely free of sin, it is sinners saved by grace helping others follow Jesus.

b) Fear of Man makes women Unwilling to Confess your sins and failings.

It seems, that you ladies can have a tendency to have a lack of awareness of the egregiousness of your own sin, justifying it in comparison to the stuff that others do.

Among other things, what this does is it means you can become unwilling to give yourself to others, unless the circumstances are perfect, and entirely controllable. Or in other words, you are unwilling to reveal any shortcomings or imperfections.

I see this story playing out:

between girlfreinds that are happy to talk about someone else’s struggles but not thier own.

I see it in the wearing of masks that say all is well and in control even when your falling apart, and,

it seems to be present in an unwillingness to open your hearts or homes unless they display all the ideals of womanhood and/or motherhood. Unless you have all your ducks in a row. Ladies, if thats you, it is time to take the idol of self promotion off the mantle and burn at the altar of grace. You were saved by grace alone, whilst you were dead in your sin and defined by uncleanness and imperfection. Don’t try and live now as if you earnt it and need to maintain an image of holiness for people who didnt save, who don’t offer eternal rewards and instead could benefit from your openness. No we welcome, love and disciple others, as imperfect people saved by grace. If you are so blessed to have one, you live in a home for people not a museum for visitors. If are single you have hands and a heart and time that, by the grace of God can be used to bless!

3. Crippled by and Ideal

‘I can’t do it like them.’ and so we disqualify ourselves from doing anything at all.

Whats one action you could take towards living an other oriented life for the glory of Jesus, helping others follow him? How can you use what God has already placed in front of you, do deliberatly disciple others?

4. Apathy & Laziness

Which is ultimately a selfish unwillingness to pay the price of imitating Jesus by helping others.

It is toil and labour. It will cost you quiet nights and another netflix series. It will cost you money and meals. It will cost you emotionally and at times it may leave you feeling like an empty vessel that is still being poured out.

But freind, that is the only path Jesus walked, and it is the path he is inviting you down.

and though it is toil it is also full of joy, and it leads to everlasting joy! To eternal reward.

And what greater reward, than enjoying Christ our saviour forever, alongside those whom we had the privilege of helping follow Jesus. And we can see how God used our fickle and failing attempts to help to prepare them for that existence.

Grace for sinners, His grace is enough to cover our sin, and enough to transform us!

Do you know why these 4 things come to mind? Becuase they are present in me.

Means: Proclaiming Christ

Him we proclaim

True discipling of others is helping others follow Jesus. To be discipled by him and his word.

Even in the Christian world it has become common fair for people to be discipled into a:

legalistic faith (where the summary of your faith is the list of things that you do… Bible reading, prayer, attendence)

or a moralistic life (neighbour: I want my children to grow up with the same morals)

an experiential belief - reliant upon services that entertain and sermons that tickle the ears and flutter the heart. In doing so people have been discipled into thinking that anything less than this is dead Christianity.

But the proclaimation of God’s redemption of humanity doesnt consist exclusively of a law to be upheld or virtues to live by or experiences to obtain. No, no… it comes in the form of a King to be worshipped.

A saviour to trusted.

Him we proclaim.

We preach Christ Crucified in the place of sinners, and risen from the grave victories.

Carols this year…

I don’t have time to do anything different

and there is no other gospel.

Discipling others

As you disciple others, you don’t need to have answers to all thier questions, you don’t need to have life experiences that speak to thier situation, you dont have to have any specific wisdom for what they are going through… though certainly they can all be of help… What you have to have is Jesus and his word.

pointing people to him…

Warning

Of destruction for those who are in Adam. the need of a saviour.

Warning of false teachings that are captivating and enslaving.

SIn and sinners deserving of desctruction

Teaching

the glories of God in Christ, the saviour and forgiver of their sins.