Our Call.

If you have a copy of God’s Word open it up Col 1. I have titled the message Our Call.

Every one of us has been called to something.

Some are called to be teachers. Some are called to be mechanics. Some are called to be mothers. Some are called to be fathers. Some are called to military service.

We use the word "calling" all the time.

But have you ever stopped to ask,

"What has God actually called every Christian to?"

If someone became a Christian today and asked you, "Now what? What has God called me to do?" how would you answer?

Paul answers part of that question in our text.

He doesn't describe a comfortable life.

He describes a life that proclaims Christ, pursues maturity, perseveres through suffering, and depends completely on the strength of God.

Colossians 1:24–29 “24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, 25 of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, 26 the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. 27 To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 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.”

As we come to these closing verses of chapter one, Paul moves from talking about the supremacy of Christ to talking about the ministry Christ has given him.

In these verses we don't just learn about Paul's calling.

We learn about ours.

My main idea is this.. God calls His people to faithfully proclaim Christ, pursue maturity, and persevere by His strength—even through suffering.

Several points for you to think about the first is this..

Our call calls for suffering.

Imagine the perspective of Paul, he just got though talking about the preeminence of Christ how he is over all things above all things, and now he gets to the perspective of his call.

And the ministry he has to the church, and starts by saying, I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake.

Suffering has advanced the gospel, Started with Jesus we see it with others, and we seen in Pauls life. Paul understood something that most of us spend our lives trying to avoid—God often uses suffering to accomplish His greatest work.

John Newton, the author of Amazing Grace, once wrote,

"God appoints his ministers to be sorely exercised, both from without and within; that they may sympathize with their flock, and know in their own hearts the deceitfulness of sin, the infirmities of the flesh, and the way in which the Lord supports and bears all who trust in Him."

Newton understood what Paul understood. God doesn't waste the suffering of His servants. He uses it to shape them into shepherds who can comfort, strengthen, and faithfully lead His people.

One commentator put it this way:

"God's servants benefit, and everyone benefits. For Paul, this is cause for rejoicing."

That is exactly Paul's perspective. He doesn't complain about suffering; he rejoices in it because he knows God is using it for the good of the church.

From the moment of his conversion, Paul was called to suffer for the name of Christ (Acts 9:16). He never viewed those sufferings as adding anything to Christ's finished work on the cross. Christ's atoning sacrifice was complete, perfect, and sufficient. Rather, Paul saw his afflictions as the continuing witness of Christ's gospel through his own life. As he carried the message of Christ to the nations, he also carried the scars of Christ.

His suffering strengthened the churches. It encouraged believers to remain faithful under persecution. It demonstrated that the gospel was worth suffering for. Every beating, every imprisonment, every rejection, every hardship declared that Christ was worth more than comfort, safety, or even life itself.

And those sufferings were not small.

Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 11 that he endured imprisonments, countless beatings, five times receiving thirty-nine lashes, three beatings with rods, one stoning, three shipwrecks, constant dangers from rivers, robbers, his own countrymen, Gentiles, the wilderness, the sea, and false brothers. Then, as if the physical suffering were not enough, he says that every day he carried "the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches."

Why could a man endure all of that?

Because Paul believed that if his suffering meant the church would be strengthened and Christ would be magnified, then it was worth every scar..

Now there is a second part of this verse that often causes people to pause. Paul says,

"And in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church."

This is one of the most debated verses in the New Testament. Entire books have been written trying to explain these few words.

But before we ask what Paul means, we need to ask what he cannot mean.

Paul cannot be saying that Christ's death on the cross was somehow incomplete.

He has already spent this entire letter exalting the sufficiency of Christ. Earlier in chapter one he declared that we have redemption and forgiveness through Christ's blood. He has already told us that Christ has reconciled us to God through His death. In chapter two he will say that our debt has been completely canceled at the cross. Throughout all of Paul's letters, the message is the same—Jesus paid it all. Nothing Capital NOTHING can be added to His atoning work.

As Douglas Moo points out, the word Paul uses here is not the normal word for Christ's atoning sufferings but a word referring to afflictions or tribulations. Paul is not talking about the cross; he is talking about the suffering that accompanies the advance of Christ's kingdom in a hostile world.

So what is Paul saying?

He is saying that Christ continues to be opposed in this world, and because believers are united to Christ, His people share in those afflictions as the gospel advances.

Paul knew this personally.

Before he was converted, Jesus met him on the Damascus Road and asked,

"Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?" (Acts 9:4)

Notice Jesus didn't say, "Why are you persecuting My people?" He said, "Why are you persecuting Me?"

Christ so closely identifies with His church that when His people suffer, He says, "I suffer."

Then only a few verses later the Lord said of Paul,

"I will show him how much he must suffer for My name." (Acts 9:16)

The persecutor became the persecuted.

The man who once inflicted suffering upon Christ's church would now carry the scars of Christ himself.

As one commentator writes,

"A close identification develops between Christ and the church through suffering."

That's exactly what Paul is describing here.

Missionary Dr. Helen Roseveare experienced this reality during the Congo rebellion. After enduring brutal imprisonment and torture, she reached a point where she wondered if God had abandoned her. Then the Lord impressed something upon her heart that she never forgot:

"Twenty years ago you asked Me for the privilege of being a missionary, the privilege of being identified with Me. These are not your sufferings; they are My sufferings."

She later said that those words filled her with an overwhelming sense of privilege because she realized she was sharing in the sufferings of her Savior.

That is what Paul is talking about.

He is not completing Christ's redemption.

He is participating in Christ's mission.

His scars do not save anyone.

His scars proclaim the One who does.

His suffering did not purchase the church.

His suffering strengthened the church.

His afflictions encouraged believers to remain faithful.

His endurance showed that Christ is worth suffering for.

As Moo explains, Paul's suffering was the inevitable accompaniment of his God-given commission to proclaim Christ. The suffering itself was not redemptive, but it was deeply beneficial to the church because it advanced the gospel and displayed the worth of Christ.

So when Paul says he is "filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions," he is not saying Christ's sacrifice lacked anything.

He is saying there are still sufferings to be endured until Christ's gospel reaches the nations, and as an apostle, God had called him to bear a unique share of those afflictions for the good of Christ's body, the church.

That is why Paul could rejoice.

He knew every scar pointed people to a sufficient Savior., and could proclaim the mystery of the gospel.

Our Call is to proclaim the mystery.

I love the language here in verses 25-27. Especially the part of his call is a stewardship from God. He bore the responsibility of this great call from God to proclaim Christ.

Simular verses to this that speak of this are just as powerful, listened to how he felt about this great call.

Ephesians 3:7–9 “7 Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace, which was given me by the working of his power. 8 To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9 and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things,”

2 Corinthians 5:18–20 “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.”

The mystery is the gospel which was not revealed to the world until the coming of Christ, and the great thing about this though it was hidden now it has been made known to the whole world, and that was such a big deal. Listen to this commentator.. From the ancient Jewish perspective, this seemed impossible because of the mutual disdain that Gentiles and especially Jews had for one another. It was a mystery indeed!

Bishop John Green of Sydney tells about working with a group of boys, some of aboriginal blood and some of English descent, and how the racial tensions were such that they would not sit peaceably with each other on the bus.

One day when things were out of hand, he stopped the bus, ordered them all out, and told them they were no longer black and white but green. He lined them up in alternate order and made each one say, "I'm green" as he got back on the bus.

They drove along quietly "integrated," until he heard a voice from the back of the bus say, "OK, light green on one side and dark green on the other!"

The ancient Jews and Gentiles were like that, but with distinctly less humor, and their animosities went far beyond skin. The prophesied reconciliation of Jews and Gentiles was truly a mystery. Then Christ came, and the middle wall was broken down, and Jews and Gentiles became together a new man establishing shalom, peace (Ephesians 2:13-18).

... the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. (Ephesians 3:4-6)

Jews and Gentiles all sat down at one table and counted themselves one in Christ. It was a miracle! This had come about only because of "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (v. 27b). The indwelling of the Lord Jesus Christ is what made the miracle possible.

This happened in Colossae, and it can happen today. One of the greatest glories of the gospel is that it brings people who are different from each other together.

What is so great about the mystery of the gospel is it changes them, in fact Pauls goal as a minister was not just that they hear the mystery, but that the mystery would change them..See..

Our call is to maturity.

Paul didn’t just want people to hear the message he wanted people to be changed by it.

And his call for maturity was not just hey go follow Jesus, he warned and he taught everyone will what all wisdom.

There are many warnings in the scriptures are there not? The warnings are there to warn us. So that we would not make the mistakes of those in the past. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:11–12 “11 Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. 12 Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.”

The things in scripture are not just there for us to be like I am glad I wasn’t at the fall, I am glad I was not in the wilderness, I am glad I was not David, not judas, not peter, they are there to show us our sinfulness, and warn us.

We ought to take warnings with great seriousness because warnings address spiritual dangers, false teachings, empty philosophies, and even as here in the case of the church of Colosse different teachings that distort the gospel.

Now all teachings are not warnings. We clearly saw last week Paul just proclaim how great God is, and we see teachings in scripture that teach us how to live, but to be mature in Christ you need to be both warned, and taught.

Notice Paul says he did this "with all wisdom."

This isn't worldly wisdom or human cleverness. Paul's wisdom flowed from Christ Himself. In fact, just a few verses later Paul says that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ (Colossians 2:2–3). Everything Paul taught was rooted in the wisdom of Christ and God's revealed plan of redemption. He wasn't offering self-help or philosophy; he was proclaiming divine truth.

And notice something else Paul repeats.

Three different times he says "everyone."

Warning everyone.

Teaching everyone.

Presenting everyone mature in Christ.

Paul didn't have one message for mature believers and another gospel for everyone else. He didn't pick favorites or focus only on the influential people in the church. His burden was for every believer to grow into spiritual maturity because every believer belongs to Christ. ( This is why I as a preacher of God’s word just work through the text and let the text work through us so that we get a level of maturity through the scriptures not just want I want to preach that sounds good. The goal of me preaching is so that you and I would become more mature.

And that's the goal of his ministry and my ministry.

Not simply decisions.

Not simply attendance.

Not simply knowledge.

But maturity.

Paul says the goal is to present everyone mature in Christ.

That lines up perfectly with what he tells us in Ephesians 4. Christ gave pastors and teachers to equip the saints, build up the body, and bring believers to spiritual maturity. The aim isn't that we simply know more Bible facts. The aim is that we become more like Christ—stable in doctrine, discerning in truth, and growing in obedience.

That's what faithful ministry seeks to produce.

And Paul did this with such a struggle, to be mature it aint going to be easy.

In fact..

Our call depends on Christ's strength.

Our call is a hard call. Pauls call was a hard call. In fact it says for this I toil, The word toil looking it up in the greek means working oneself in such a way that its like you have just taken a beating. Paul put everything into serving the Lord in fact the greek word here for toil is where we get the English word agony.

But notice he did it with the Lords strength.

He tells the church of thessalonica this..

1 Thessalonians 2:9 “9 For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.”

Paul was serious about the Lords work.

I love these words that I read on Thursday morning at 12:45 am as I was preparing for this sermon they say.. It is often said, "When all is said and done, there is more said than done."

It ought not to be that way! Luther worked so hard that many days, according to his biographers, he fell into bed. Moody's bedtime prayer on one occasion, as he rolled his bulk into bed, was, "Lord, I'm tired! Amen." John Wesley rode sixty to seventy miles many days of his life and preached an average of three sermons a day, whether he was riding or not. Alexander Maclaren would get to his office when the workmen went to work so he could hear their boots outside and would put on workmen's boots to remind him why he was in his study. G. Campbell Morgan kept a newspaper clipping for twenty years entitled "Sheer Hard Work" and said:

What is true of the minister is true of every man who bears the name of Christ. We have not begun to touch the great business of salvation when we have sung, "Rescue the perishing, care for the dying." We have not entered into the business of evangelizing the city or the world until we have put our own lives into the business, our own immediate physical endeavor, inspired by spiritual devotion.

Paul's ministerial drive is a model for us all. We will never have an authentic, apostolic ministry unless we are willing to work to the point of exhaustion.

and I would add we will never be mature unless we work hard and let him work powerfully in us. Paul says in Philippians 2:12 “12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,”

R. C. Sproul is right: the ministry of the gospel is a glorious thing. But we do not have to be an apostle or a reformer or a preacher to do it. Some years ago a woman in Africa became a Christian. Being filled with gratitude, she decided to do something for Christ. She was blind, uneducated, and seventy years of age. She came to her missionary with her French Bible and asked her to underline John 3:16 in red ink. Mystified, the missionary watched her as she took her Bible and sat in front of a boys' school in the afternoon. When school dismissed, she would call a boy or two and ask them if they knew French. When they proudly responded that they did, she would say, "Please read the passage underlined in red." When they did, she would ask, "Do you know what this means?" And she would tell them about Christ. The missionary says that over the years twenty-four young men became

The Christian life is not merely a call to believe in Christ—it is a call to become like Christ, proclaim Christ, and, when necessary, suffer for Christ through His power.

"Paul's life teaches us that the goal of Christianity isn't comfort; it's Christ. God's call is not an easy call, but it is a glorious one because Christ is sufficient for every part of it."

And in our hearts we have to ask if you treasure Christ enough that you would gladly suffer, faithfully proclaim Him, and pursue maturity because He is worth it?

"Paul wasn't motivated by guilt. He wasn't driven by applause. He wasn't seeking comfort. He had seen Christ. He had been changed by Christ and when Christ becomes your treasure, things like suffering, and sacrifice no longer feels like loss—it becomes worship."

So practically this text applies to us in a few ways.

If you are not following Christ, repent today and believe the gospel.

That is where everything starts with being born again, and believing.

which leans into my next application..

If you are a believer, ask yourself: Am I growing toward maturity, or have I settled for spiritual comfort?

I want to tell you this church you never arrive you never get to a place where you say I am mature enough in Christ, Christian growth never stops happening.

But my fear for myself and you is a coasting mental mindset that says im good. Im good. I get what the scripture says but I am good I dont want to work that hard to change, I dont want to submit to God in this area in my life, Spiritual comfort should not exist in your life.

Wake up ask yourself how can I grow today, How can I kill my flesh, what warnings has God graciously given me that I need to take serious, how can I grow, and how can i get out of the spiritual comfort I am in, to be more like Jesus.

Which ties into the next point..

Who has God placed in your life that needs to hear the mystery of the gospel this week?

who is it.. Only you know.. Finally.

Learn how to suffer as a Christian.

One of the greatest marks of spiritual maturity is not learning how to avoid suffering, but learning how to suffer well. Peter doesn't tell believers if fiery trials come—he says when they come. Don't be surprised by them. Don't become bitter because of them. Don't assume God has abandoned you in them.

Throughout Scripture we see that God has purposes for the suffering of His people. Sometimes He uses suffering to make us more dependent on Him (2 Corinthians 1:8–9). Sometimes He uses it to shape our character into the likeness of Christ (Romans 5:3–5). Sometimes He allows it so we can share in Christ's sufferings and better minister to others who suffer (Philippians 3:10; 2 Corinthians 1:3–4).

Our culture says suffering means something is wrong. The prosperity gospel says suffering means your faith is lacking. But the Bible says suffering is often one of God's greatest tools for sanctifying His children.

So when suffering comes, don't waste it. Ask, "Lord, what are You teaching me? How are You making me more like Christ? How can You use this for Your glory?" Learn to suffer as a Christian, trusting that God is accomplishing eternal purposes even when you cannot yet see them.

Trust the strength of God.

Suffer faithfully.

Proclaim boldly.

Grow continually.

Imagine someone climbing a steep mountain. Every step becomes harder. Their legs burn. Their lungs ache. Eventually they stop and wonder if the climb is worth it.

Then they reach the summit.

Suddenly, every painful step looks different because of what they now see.

Paul had already seen the summit.

He had seen the risen Christ.

He knew where this journey ended.

That's why he could rejoice in suffering.

That's why he could spend his life proclaiming Christ.

That's why he labored until he was exhausted.

He knew that Christ was worth it.

But here's the good news.

The call of the gospel is not first, "Work harder."

The call of the gospel is, "Come to Christ."

Jesus didn't say, "Clean yourself up."

He didn't say, "Become mature first."

He said,

"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

The same Christ who died for sinners now calls sinners to Himself.

The same Christ who gives forgiveness also gives strength.

The same Christ who saves us is the Christ who matures us.

You cannot live Paul's calling until you first receive Paul's Savior.

If you've never repented of your sins and trusted in Jesus Christ, today is the day. Turn from your sin. Believe in the One who died in your place and rose again. He will forgive you, give you new life, and place His Spirit within you.

And if you belong to Him already, remember your calling.

Proclaim Christ.

Pursue maturity.

Do not fear suffering.

And when your strength runs out, remember Paul's final words:

"For this I toil, struggling with all His energy that He powerfully works within me."

It has never been about your strength.

It has always been about His.

Amen.