The Sanctifying Presence of Christ

As I was studying for my assigned passage, it seemed fitting that to begin this section, Paul speaks much about his ministry. He speaks about:

where he received his ministry from,

John 3:16 KJV 1900

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Colossians 1:28 KJV 1900

Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:

his spirit in the ministry

he speaks of afflictions in the ministry

he speaks of the breadth of the ministry

he speaks of the mode or the style of his ministry

he speaks of the goal of the ministry

he speaks of the power that it takes to do the work of the ministry.

This, of course, jumped out at me as being very applicable to us today at a pastors’ fellowship. The majority of us here today have, by the Grace of God, been placed into pastoral ministry in one form or another. Some of us, perhaps, have planted churches. Others have picked up where a previous pastor left off. Some of us are serving alongside or under another man. Some of us have been in the ministry for a smaller portion of our lives, and some of you have been in ministry for much longer than I have even been alive!

To that point, in the message I want to give today, my goal is not to give you 5 steps for an effective ministry, or 6 ways to experience miraculous church growth, or how to transform a struggling church, or how to start an effective soul-winning ministry, or how to plan and execute the perfect potluck dinner.

In fact, although I am speaking mainly to ordained minsters here this afternoon, the goal of my message is not to be specifically and only for pastors.

As you can see, the title of my message is “The Sanctifying Presence of Christ.” As Steve showed us, Colossians is really a book about how Christ is enough. And as we will see as the afternoon goes on, Colossians tells us how Christ is enough for everything. This includes Christ being the sufficiency that we need in our ministry. And that is true whether you are a senior pastor or a Sunday-School teacher. It is true whether you are a layperson or a church leader. Every believer has a role to play in Christian service, for we are all called to give our lives to Christ without exception and without equivocation.

Recall what Paul said in the book of Ephesians?

Ephesians 4:11–16 KJV 1900

And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

Without parking here for too long, and without jumping ahead in the message, from that passage, what would you say is the goal of ministry that Paul had in mind?

It is Christian Growth - growth of the body of Christ, Growth of the Church. And growth, not just in general ways or general maturity, but growth into Christ-likeness.

Today as Pastors, youth pastors, deacons, teachers, disciplers, church members, we should see that it is given to us by God to take our part in the effort toward the growth of the believers; and this passage today encourages us that although this task is difficult, it is not impossible. Because it comes, not from our skill or winsome spirit, but it comes from Christ’s sanctifying presence. His presence in our personal lives, his presence in our ministries, his presence in our churches.

May Christ be at the heart of our preaching, warning, and teaching of every man; for Christ-centered growth only comes from Christ-Centered ministry.

1. The Content of Our Ministry - 1:24-29

Well lets get back into Colossians and start reading where Steve left off.

In verse 23, Paul reminds of us the position that Christ entrused him with, and that was to be a minister of the Gospel. Paul cherished his position as a minster of the Gospel.

1 Corinthians 9:16 KJV 1900

For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!

1

To begin here is a reality check for me, and maybe for all of us who have been called into the ministry. Is this our attitude? Can we say with Paul, Woe unto me if i preach not the gospel?

He preached it out of necessity, but he preached with joy!

Verse 24

In his service to Christ, Paul carried with him this theme of consistent rejoicing. He rejoiced in the Gospel, he rejoiced in the ministry, he rejoiced in the growth of believers, he even rejoiced, as we read here, in sufferings!

Paul, of course, suffered incredibly for the name of Christ. In fact, i have no doubt that without the Grace and Calling of Christ, most of us would give up if we suffered a tenth of what Paul went through.

Paul’s joy in suffering for the church reminds us that Christian joy is independent of circumstances. There is reason that Peter describes Christian joy as being unspeakable. Christian joy is unspeakable not simple because of its magnitude and intensity, but it is unspeakable because it is unexplainable!

Even as Paul was writing, he was suffering in prison for the Gospel’s sake, yet he pursued his calling with joy.

And he spoke of it in an interesting way. He speaks of it as “filling up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ.” Another way of saying this would be he is “filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.”

of course, this verse has been taken and dragged through the theological mud to support things such as the doctrine of purgatory. It has been used to try to prove the insufficiency of Christ’s sacrifice, which flies directly in the face of not just the scriptures in general, but even of the very context of this letter!

It is important to note that the word “afflictions” here is never used in scripture to describe Christ’s sacrificial atonement. What Paul is referring to here is not Christ’s death, but Christ’s persecution. Paul is not saying that he is completing Christ’s unfinished work of redemption, but rather that he is receiving the persecution that is intended for Christ, and he is doing it for the sake of His body.

John 15:20 KJV 1900

Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.

We must not forget that any suffering we encounter on the road of serving Christ is not because of our work or our greatness, but it is because of the work of Christ, and it is for his name.

Verse 25

Paul said he was suffering Christ’s afflictions for the sake of the church, of which he was made a minster. A critical thing to remember is that though Paul travelled many places and had his hand in many churches, he never got beyond the fact that he was a servant of the church. Even with Paul’s incredible influence and greatness, he never saw himself as greater than Christ’s Body, but rather as part of it and a servant of it.

He was a servant of the flock and a servant of the Word - his ministry was from God, to the church, and to make the Word of God known.

And he was a servant because of the dispensation, or the giving out, of God. He saw his ministry to the church as a gift from God. Do we?

Verse 26

Part of making the Word of God known, or fulfilling the Word of God, was preaching truths that were a great mystery to the saints of the Old Covenant. Things that, as verse 26 says, had been hidden from whole ages and generations, but now is made clear to all the saints!

This mystery includes things like,

the incarnation of God

the local church

the unity of the Jew and Gentile under the gospel of Christ

God’s plan for his people in the end times

But mostly, and most gloriously, Paul refers to this great mystery in verse 27 as being ‘Christ in you, the hope of glory”

The Old Testament predicted the coming of Christ, but the idea that he would dwell in each believer was an unseen mystery, and a great one at that!

The church is described as

2 Corinthians 6:16 KJV 1900

And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Pause there and think of that truth, yes it is great that we have local bodies to gather with and worship with, yes it is wonderful that Jew and Gentile have been made one in the Gospel, yes it is wonderful that God has given a plan for his church in the age to come, but how marvelous is it that the God of the Universe dwells in us?

This indwelling of Christ is our hope of glory! It is our hope in life and death, it is our hope in joy and in sadness. it is our hope in trouble and in ease. it is our hope in poverty and success. It is our hope both now and forever, and it is our hope as servants of Christ! And this is what we preach.

Verse 28

Here paul really gets into the crux of what his minsitry was all about, and this is what ours should be about as well.

Paul’s ministry model was to preach to, warn, and teach every man with the goal of their growth in Christ! Yes, Paul wanted to see converts, yes, he wanted to see churches grow numerically, yes, he wanted to have great ministry success, but his goal, his aim, his desire was to see those whom he ministered to as complete, mature, in Christ Jesus.

29- He laboured in this goal, he strived toward this goal - it was warfare for Paul, because his desire was to see people grow, to see them come to maturity. The goal of the minstry is the maturity of the saints.

Do we share in this goal? Or do we serve for lesser goals? There are many lesser goals. A large building is a lesser goal. Good offerings are a lesser goal. A comfortable life is a much lesser goal. Having many converts but few making it to maturity is a lesser goal.

The goal of Christ-likeness for believers is lofty, yes, and it is a difficult one to strive for, but we do it in Christ’s power!

And how do we strive for that goal?

2 Timothy 3:16–17 KJV 1900

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

Will any reach perfection on earth? Absolutely not, but every believer will attain it one day.

1 John 3:2 KJV 1900

Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

Christ’s goal for His church is for them to be like Him. What goal could we possibly have that is greater than Christ’s?

So we preach, we warn, we teach every man the word of God, because that is the only method that Christ has given us for the growth of the Saints. May the content of our ministry be the Truth of scripture, and may the goal of our ministry be Christ’s goal - the growth of believers.

2. The Concern of Our Ministry - 2:1-7

The Gospel is the content of our ministry, with the goal of the maturity of the Saints. And Paul modeled that for us very well. And although it should not me our aim to simply emulate people who have been successful, there is one element of Paul’s spirit that is so critical for us to hone in on.

Let me take a quick poll. What are some things that you folks think are the most important qualities that a minister of the Gospel should have?

Now, all of those things you mentioned are absolutely important, most of them are gifts that come from God without which we could not serve him appropriately. But there is one that Paul exemplifies in this next paragraph that we often forget, and that is love for the church.

I often tell our teenagers that much of growth in the Christian life is learning to hate what God hates and love what God loves. Of course, God loves holiness and hates sin, and God loves people while hating unrighteousness, but the most intimate form of God’s love that we see in scripture is His love for his people. We see that in the Old Testament, when God repeatedly drew his people back to him even though they kept crawling into the adultery of idolatry. We see that pictured so beautifully in the book of Hosea, where His people are pictured as a wife in prostitution, and God is pictured as a husband who loves his bride enough to buy her back. And then we see that pictured most fully in the New Testament, where we read of a savior who loved the church and gave himself for it.

Men, if we are to love what God loves, then we must hone and foster a love and devotion to serving the church. In fact, we would probably be lying if we said we love God without loving his church.

Listen to Paul’s Words in these first few verses.

Verse 1-2

He speaks of his desire for the church as a conflict.

this is a deep struggle, a wrestling of the spirit and of the mind.

not doubt, Paul experienced sleepless nights.

The struggle was for the church at Colossae, but also for other believers who have never seen him face to face.

Paul’s love for the church did not just extend to those who he knew personally, but he experienced a love for all believers. His desire for all believers was the same, whether he knew them or not.

His struggle was aimed primarily toward their spiritual life, not their physical life.

His struggle was aimed primarily toward their spiritual life, not their physical life.

that their hearts would be comforted

He desired that they have the peace of God ruling their hearts.

that they would be knit together by love

The love he had for them cause him to desire that they share that same love for one another.

does it trouble our hearts when the believers do not dwell together in love? Or are we satisfied when people just generally behave themselves?

He desired that they have the wealth that comes from full assurance in the Gospel.

He desired that they have

without that assurance, believers cannot enjoy all the blessings that are theirs in Christ.

As John MacArthur put it, “no one can look forward with hope to the blessings of heaven who doubts whether he is going there.”

2 Peter 1:10 KJV 1900

Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:

As believers we should seek to make our calling and election sure. As we walk by faith in God and His Word, we are assured day-by-day that we are his children.

As Pastors, we must be sure we are feeding the flock the truth of God’s Word so that they have the spiritual ammunition they need to fight the temptation of doubt. People cannot walk in the Word if they do not know the word, and it is unlikely that people will know the word unless they first hear it from those whom God has called to teach the Word.

And teaching the word is, ultimately, pointing them back to Christ!

Verse 3

If we ever have question about where we should get our sermon content, what avenues we should travel down to derive interesting thoughts and ideas, what we should focus on in our ministry, we should look no further than Christ! For in him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

We must first have the our belief in Christ and who he is settled in our hearts, but then our Goal should be that all our congregants, all those we minister to, all those who we seek to evangelize and disciple have their belief in Christ and who he is settled also.

It is very possible that we can have peoples hearts settled on holy living, church attendance, faithful christian service, and even prayer and scripture reading, without having their hearts settled on Christ.

How can this be? Well, have you never had someone completely miss the point of something you say? A blight that happens over and over again is that people listen to preaching, attend church, read the scripture and see the point as being religion but miss the point as being Christ and Christ alone.

Verse 4

This becomes all the more important when we remember that there are many among us, many in our towns and cities, many on television, many on podcasts, many on the shelves of Christian bookstores who seek to charm christ-followers into missing the point of Christianity.

Verse 5

And when Paul saw believers thriving in their faith, growing in their walk, living in faithfulness, that fueled his love and joy over them.

Vv. 6-7

So with our love for the church and our goal being that they grow in Christ, what should be our discipleship strategy? Well, it looks different in every church and in every context, but one thing we should all have in common is pointing people to walk by faith in Christ. We love the message of justification by faith, may we not miss the message of sanctification by faith.

So the content of our ministry is the Gospel of Christ with the goal of Christ-likenes,

the concern of our ministry is Love of the Body of Christ with the goal of seeing them walk by faith in Christ,

and lastly we see into the future - beyond the reach of our words and our influence, into

3. The Culmination of Our Ministry - 2:8-15

The work of the ministry is difficult, but it depends on the power of God. This is true both now, and for eternity.

As Pau begins verse 8, this is part of that “warning” he was speaking of in chapter 1. And it is an intense warning!

Paul is warning against those whom he was writing to being carried off as spoils of war. Not a physical war, but a war that is waged in the mind. The enemy is the deceiver, and the weaponry is a religious message that is anything more or less than Jesus Plus Nothing. Part of the colossian heresy was the intermingling of religious asceticism and tradition with Christianity. It included a gnostic idea that only a certain few were fortunate enough to have the full religious experience which included a managary of spiritual mysticism, religious rites and rituals, and worship of angels and heavenly bodies. These were not just distractions in Paul’s mind, but rather those who fell prey to these deceptions were proven to have not been following Christ.

One thing we must be sure to make clear is that Christianity does not leave any room for eclectic religion. One cannot take Christ and then also place their religious experience or philosophy on the same plane.

As preachers of the Gospel, our enemy is any message or idea that is “not according to Christ.”

Verse 10

This is where we find the culmination of our ministry, this is where we find the culmination of our walk of faith, this is where we find the culmination of our lives as believers. That work of the ministry that we strive for? That love for the church that keeps us awake at night? This is where we find our rest.

We are complete in Him, the church is Complete in Him, every believer is complete in Him.

If our Goal is to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus, let us praise God that they find that perfection in Christ Jesus, and not in our effort!

This fights against the temptation to try to “jump start” our ministry or give it a “boost” with something that comes from a source other than Christ. Once we realize that every philosophy and idea apart from Christ is deficient, then we may rest firmly in our Completion in Him.

Of course, though, we know this. Knowledge is not everything, but what we do with that knowledge. Will we allow our failures in minstry, our perceived lack of success, those mondays when we feel like giving up, that bad phone call, that family who left, that member who fell into sin, that discouragement or discontentment, will we let these things shape our view of our ministry? Or will we let the fact that our entire ministry, from beginning, to right now, to its end, is contingent upon Chris’s Faithfulness guide our thinking?

Men, Ladies, we must first rest in our completion in Christ before we can lead others and point others to their completion in Christ.

In Verses 11-12, Paul gives examples of two religious rituals that in their physical state only are pictures, but spiritually, they show us the miriacle of grace that is present in every believer.

Circumcision was the sign of the Old Covenant, it pictured separation from sin in the most intimate of ways. It showed that Israel was God’s possession. Mostly, though, it showed that man was born sinful and needed cleansing.

The circumcision Paul is referring to here, of course, is not physical, but spiritual - it is the “circumcision made without hands.” This is the circumcision of the heart that comes from God alone, whereby he cleanses us of our sin and removes the filth of the old man.

Likewise, just as Paul referred to spiritual circumcision, it seems clear that his reference to baptism is also spiritual. Water baptism is a picture of our death, burial, and resurrection with Christ. It is a picture also of our washing from our sin. But more significant the sign is the thing it signifies. Of course, water baptism does nothing to remove our sin, but as we are baptized into Christ, God does actually wash us from our sin. we do actually die with Christ, and we are actually raised spiritually!

These are pictures of things that men could never do. Spiritual cleansing, washing of our sins, raising from death to life. No man can will this for himself, and no pastor can will this for his people - these are works of the Grace of God!

This greatest spiritual work, although God gives us a part in seeing it done, cannot be completed by us. If we rest in our strength and ability to raise men from the dead and make them holy, we will find our efforts futile and vain. However, if we see ourselves simply as servents of the one who raises the dead and makes men holy, and we seek to work toward his goal and cause, we will find our efforts to be joyous no matter the outcome, for we serve at his pleasure.

Vv. 14-15

So be comforted, pastor, be comforted, church member, be comforted, deacon, teacher, servant, for the one who you serve is the one who has already won the victory. The one who is our Lord is Lord of all.

The Culmination of our ministry is not the accumulation of our works, but it is the completion of Christ’s Work! In Him, it is finished, and in Him, we are complete!

May Christ be at the heart of our preaching, warning, and teaching of every man; for Christ-centered growth only comes from Christ-Centered ministry.