Colossians 1:29 ff

So we’ve been talking about certain needs in the church. And we took the Apostle Paul’s ministry and summed it up with:

“The Need for a minister who will tirelessly labor for the church.” [Go through the board]

And then we left off in v29 which reads: 29 "I labor for this, striving with his strength that works powerfully in me.” ()

The church needs a minister who will work and strive laboriously, depending upon Christ for energy.

Paul ends this paragraph by returning to where he began (v24): his labor on behalf of the Colossian Christians.

So here we also have a “what kind of” job description of v28. What kind of work will it take to present every man mature in Christ Jesus?

In v29 we find the word “labor” which means: to be worn out, weary, faint; to engage in hard work, to toil.

It is the picture of an athlete struggling, agonizing, and

pushing himself well beyond his capacity

in order to achieve his objective.

This is the call of God to the minister:

to labor and work just as diligently as Paul and as the most dedicated athlete.

Then he uses the word, “striving”. This is where we get the English word “energy”.

It means efficiency, and is only used of superhuman power.

In this case, it is the power of Christ.

When the minister has gone as far as he can, Christ steps in and infuses energy and power into his body,

an energy and power that works in him mightily and powerfully.

Here again we have this beautiful balance: human effort with the enabling grace of God in Christ.

All of our work is of little effect if it’s not done in the power of Christ.

13 "I am able to do all things through him who strengthens me.” ()

10 "But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.” ()

So pastoral ministry involves strenuous labor and patient suffering.

Fully dependent of God’s power through Christ to work in him.

Then in moving over to chapter two we find the second need of the church:

Which is for a people that are consistently growing in the Lord towards maturity.

1 "For I want you to know how greatly I am struggling for you, for those in Laodicea, and for all who have not seen me in person. 2 "I want their hearts to be encouraged and joined together in love, so that they may have all the riches of complete understanding and have the knowledge of God’s mystery—Christ. 3 "In him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 4 "I am saying this so that no one will deceive you with arguments that sound reasonable. 5 "For I may be absent in body, but I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see how well ordered you are and the strength of your faith in Christ. 6 "So then, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, 7 "being rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, and overflowing with gratitude.” ()

A mature church will have distinguishing marks

: A minister who struggles in prayer and concern for the church.

A minister who struggles in prayer and concern for the church.

"For I want you to know how greatly I am struggling for you, for those in Laodicea, and for all who have not seen me in person.” ()

Paul, still speaking of his own ministry, is going to dial in specifically to his particular ministry to the Colossians and for the threat of false teaching that they are facing.

So Paul labored and strived in ministry and here in v1 (of chapter 2) we see three beneficiaries of Paul’s ministry:

“you”, “those in Laodicea” and “for all who have not seen me in person.”

So we find here Paul wrestles and struggle in prayer for believer and churches all over the world. (1:9; 4:12-13)

What if we committed to praying for other local churches around us and the same was happening to us by them?

Just imagine what would happen:

the growth, the

maturity, the

ministry, the

reaching out to save souls.

This is what Paul was after, and it is the great challenge to us.

A mature people must have ministers who struggle in prayer and concern for them.

There is no other way they can mature.

A half-hearted, half-committed minister can only produce

half-hearted, half-committed people.

But in many ways Paul bore the people on his heart, even though he wasn’t with them.

He wrote 1 & 2 Corinthians from Ephesus.

And you see, even though he’s far removed from them, he still agonizes of their problems (, ,; , , ).

: Believers who possess encouragement & confidence

a. Comes from being knit together in love

b. Comes from knowing that what one believes about the mystery of God (Christ) is accurate

c. Comes from knowing that Christ is the source of all wisdom & knowledge

2 "I want their hearts to be encouraged and joined together in love, so that they may have all the riches of complete understanding and have the knowledge of God’s mystery—Christ. 3 "In him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” ()

Look at the beginning of v2, Paul strives and labors so hard so that their hearts may be encouraged!

Have you ever saw your fellow believers this way? In 1:28 Paul preaches Christ.

So he relates gospel truth to the Colossians’ relationship:

With God - that they would be mature in Christ (1:28).

With one another (2:2) - - that they would be united in love, and with themselves - that they would be encouraged in their hearts.

With one another (2:2) - that they would be united in love, and

With themselves - that they would be encouraged in their hearts.

So Paul relates gospel truths as relational and relevant to life in our broken world.

So we disciple immature believers by preaching Christ and teaching them (1:28).

We disciple marital issues by helping them to be united in love, as they are united with Christ in perfect love (2:2).

To help the depressed towards encouragement by pointing them to the One in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (2:3).

So we come to a very prominent theme in Scripture. Bringing encouragement or comfort. (Handout)

What does Paul strive, labor, and struggle to encourage or comfort? Their hearts.

Now we have to step out of our culture when we see this word “heart” because when we say things like, “I just feel in my heart that I should do such and such...”

And we tie a lot of statements like that to our emotions.

But in Scripture “heart” designates the center of the personality, the source of willing and thinking in addition to feeling.

Hence it is a new heart that God promises in order to transform His people’s basic orientation toward Himself ().

“Encouraged in heart” or “to have hearts encouraged” is therefore a way of referring to

an encouragement that touches

the deepest part of our being and

that affects every aspect of our persons.

that affects every aspect of our persons.

This is what Paul struggles (v1) for them for. To encourage their hearts.

Then he struggles for them to be united in love.

"I want their hearts to be encouraged and joined together in love...” ()

This is every minister’s heart cry before God.

“Lord, please use my ministry to Your people to encourage their hearts and to produce unity among them at the same time.”

This idea of love as a unifying force is clearly declared elsewhere in Colossians:

14 "Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.” ()

We are knit together by strong ties of love.

Love is the sphere in which our unity in Christ exists.

Look at the results or the purpose of having your hearts encouraged and being united in love:

2 "I want their hearts to be encouraged and joined together in love, so that they may have all the riches of complete understanding and have the knowledge of God’s mystery—Christ.” ()

Follow this flow from v1, “For I want you to know how much I am struggling for you and for those in Laodicea.

… I want them to be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love.

I want them to have complete confidence.…”

Remember what Paul’s prayer was in 9 "For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, 10 "so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God,” ()

Paul’s not being just repeating ideas.

He’s being emphatic to us as believers, he’s hammering home to us the truth:

That Christ, and Christ alone, is the source of every conceivable bit of spiritual knowledge worth having.

But let’s focus on this statement in 2:2, “all the riches of complete understanding”.

“complete understanding” means ‘full assurance’.

It’s the idea that a true understanding of the “knowledge of God’s mystery - Christ” brings a full wealth of assurance.

This is why it’s called “all the riches”

Simply put, the knowledge of God’s mystery is wrapped up in Christ!

This mystery, progressively revealed to believers who love one another, transcends all human comprehension (; ),

and is, therefore, also in that sense a divine and very glorious mystery: “the mystery of God, namely, Christ,”

"In him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” ()

The Colossians need not, must not, look for any source of happiness or of holiness outside of Christ.

Do false teachers boast about their wisdom and their knowledge?

Or about that of the angels?

Neither man nor angel nor any other creature has anything at all to offer

which cannot be found in incomparably superior essence and an infinite degree in Christ.

In him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden, like

the “hidden treasure” of which Jesus spoke in the parable (; cf. );

hidden, indeed, but in order to be unearthed, not in order to remain concealed.

“Treasures of wisdom and knowledge,” says Paul.

Jesus, according to his divine nature, knows all things. This knowledge, being divine, is

all-comprehensive,

direct,

simple,

unchangeable, and

eternal.

Peter paid tribute to it when he declared, when Jesus asks "...“Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” “Feed my sheep,” Jesus said.” ()

Christ’s omniscience is therefore a great comfort for the believer and,

by Christ’s revelation in Scripture,

a bank from which he draws.

But in Christ knowledge is never separated from wisdom, as it often is among men.

Now wisdom is the ability, in concrete situations, to apply knowledge to the best advantage.

It uses the most effective means to achieve the highest goal.

For example, the wisdom of Christ does what no other wisdom in the entire universe can ever accomplish...

(1) In his wisdom God reconciles the Jew with the Gentile, and both together with Himself,

performing this great miracle by means of that altogether unlikely object,

namely, the cross, which to the Jew was a stumbling-block and

to the Gentile foolishness! (; , ).

(2) In His wisdom He satisfies the demands both of His justice

which asked for the death of the sinner and

of His love which required the sinner’s salvation.

The law and the gospel embrace each other on the cross (; , , ; ; cf. ).