A Man on Mission
Notes
Transcript
What is your mission? What has God called you to do? Has he called you to marriage? Has He called you raise a family? Has He called you to serve Him and His church? Has He called you to all the above? What is your mission? What is your purpose? Are you drawn with magnetic appeal to a specific calling within your overall duty to glorify God and enjoy Him fully? What is your mission?
God called William Carey to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to India in 1793. God gave him a specific mission in which he dedicated the rest of his life.
William Carey spent 41 years in India without a furlough. His mission counted some 700 converts. He had been used by God to radically impact that nation where he laid an impressive foundation of Bible translations, education, and social reform.
He is known as the "father of modern missions” and its because of the work he had done and the lifestyle he had lived. He was a man on a mission and the complete definition of a missionary.
His teaching, translations, writings and publications, his educational establishments and influence in social reform are said to have “marked the turning point of Indian culture from a downward to an upward trend.”
This is the impact of one man who is all-in with the mission of God. It is said that most of the Christian influence in India can be traced back to William Carey. He was a man with a mission from God.
Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God.
William Carey
Like William Carey, the Apostle Paul expected great things from God. We continue our journey through his letter to the Colossians and find the Apostle Paul was also, a Man on a Mission. He was called by God and set apart for the work of bringing the gospel to the gentiles. Paul knew his mission and was powered by a passionate zeal for the work that God saved him for and the people he saved him to serve, the gentiles.
Here in our letter Paul is writing to gentiles who had come under the influence of false teaching and were being exposed to heresy. After hearing this dire news Paul responds with this letter of which he opens with two important prayers. The first was the gospel prayer which Paul thanked God for the saving faith of the Colossians and their response to the gospel. The second prayer was the prayer of power that focused on the infinitely powerful Christ. The prayer was so influential that it was a literal song about Christ and all His glory.
After praying Paul gets to the heart of this letter and addresses his own ministry. We will his pastor’s heart pour through in a genuine love he has for the Colossians. He is A Man on Mission.
Today we will learn from Paul’s personal ministry so that we can learn to live on mission too. We will learn what it means to have a purpose-filled life and how to live for Him.
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.
1 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face,
2 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ,
3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Pray with Me!
We will observe that Paul was a man on a mission, and that mission from God consumed everything he did. There was extraordinary power in his ministry and we will learn well from him this morning.
The Suffering of the Mission (v24)
The Stewardship of the Mission (v25)
The Secret of the Mission (v26-27)
The Source of the Mission (v28)
The Struggle of the Mission (V29-2:1)
The Strength of the Mission (2:2-3)
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,
The Suffering of the Mission (v24)
I rejoice in my suffering. This is such a baffling statement to the human mind and can only find its fulfillment in the life of a follower of Christ. These two words don’t belong together, rejoicing and suffering. They are contradictory and there is this great paradox. Yet, the heart of Paul the pastor pours out immediately. He says, it is a great privilege to suffer for you, it is a joy to suffer for you, it is the reason I rejoice. This is the heart of a true pastor, one who follows after the pattern of Christ, who was pierced for our transgressions as the suffering servant. Paul too suffers and knows that suffering is part of his mission.
Here Paul in his maturity and wisdom links together two percieved opposites and makes them no longer enemies but friends. Suffering and Joy, how can this be? When you suffer for the cause of Christ you are suffering for the glory of God and that is joyous, that is worthy of celebrating, that is worthy of singing and here he says rejoice. All while he is imprisoned in Rome for sharing the gospel message and declaring that salvation was also for the gentiles. Paul is on a mission and understands that suffering is part of it, of which he truly rejoices in it.
Why? Because he knows it’s for the sake of the church. This is not suffering for sufferings sake, but for the purpose of God glorifying himself in the church. When Christians suffer well God is glorified? How? Because unbelievers don’t suffer well. When there is wrongdoing and injustice the world demands action toward justice, and rightly so. However, when Christians are on mission, it doesn’t matter what your circumstance because you know where you stand in Christ. And if your mission calls you to suffer, suffer well because it is to God’s glory and anything that is to the glory of God is worthy of rejoicing. Rejoice in the mission of suffering.
Paul continues and speaks of:
The Stewardship of the Mission (v25)
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,
Paul was given a specific responsibility, and the Bible calls that responsibility a stewardship. This stewardship came through commission by God. His stewardship came through the calling of Christ.
25 I became its servant according to God’s commission that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known,
We see in Galatians 1:1 that Paul was commissioned, “not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ.”
This commissioning is a great responsibility placed upon Paul and I love the power of this word because we find that the mission of Paul is that he is co-laboring with Christ, He is working for Christ and with Christ?
The same is to be said of us. We too are commissioned by God, we are given a ministry and a mission. We are not to just sit around and enjoy the pleasures of the world, no we are to be co laborers with Christ. That’s why the command of the great commission is so important. We are given our mission to go and make disciples. We don’t want to be what is missing, we don’t want to be the omission of the great commission, rather we want to live on mission like Paul and other faithful men and women who know what their stewardship is.
Paul even gives us the details of the stewardship. “To make the Word of God fully known.” Isn’t that a great mission statement. What is your purpose? “To make the Word of God fully known.” These one-liners are so powerful, because they are loaded with meaning. When you know God and want to give Him the glory, you will live on mission “to make the Word of God fully known” just like Paul?
What is your mission?
Next, Paul tells us:
The Secret of the Mission (v26-27)
26 the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints.
Paul is not only commissioned, he is given a secret that changes the history of the world, that is the mystery of Jesus Christ and His church. The mystery is that Christ came not just for the rescue of His chosen, the Jewish people, but to rescue the people of the world. Everyone who was not Jewish is considered gentile and the mystery was revealed to Paul. This was not some secret knowledge just for Paul, rather it was not revealed until the right time, it remained mysterious until the full revelation of God was given.
God chose to reveal this mystery and commission Paul with telling the world, and that’s exactly what Paul did. He took four missionary journey’s establishing churches everywhere he went. He preached the gospel and was on mission to let the gentile world know that there is a God who loves them, who will save them, who will redeem them and be in relationship with them and His name is Jesus, and His people belong to His church.
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.
Here is the secret… scholars tell us “that God has chosen to include the Gentiles in the blessings of salvation (see Eph. 3:1–6)...Jesus Christ is the secret. He opens the door to everyone. The unprecedented secret is that all are included. The unprecedented truth is that Jesus Christ lives in all who trust him. Not only does he live in us; he is our hope of glory” [1]
How could Paul rejoice in his suffering? It’s because he was carrying the message of God that salvation is for everyone who believes. It’s no longer just for the Jewish people. This is legendary news, the greatest news ever and what makes the gospel so riveting! The secret is out and the mystery unfolds before us that everyone can experience the riches of the glory of the mystery.
And the tremendous reality of the mystery for all believers is this amazing truth…which is Christ in you, the hope of glory (2x).
Here is the secret of Paul’s Mission. Christ dwells within you. The Holy Spirit takes up permanent residence with all who believe in Christ, both Jewish and gentile. This is absolutely mind blowing.
Has anyone ever told you… I need you to sit down because I’m going to share some secret information with you and it’s going to totally shock you. This is what Paul is saying. He says, I know that heresy is pushing in around you. I know that you live in a culture that hates God. I know you live in a time of wickedness and depression. I know that there is a lot of busyness of life going on. But listen to the mystery that is going to hold it all together.
…which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. This is tremendous! This is amazing. Why? Because He who is in you is greater then He who is in the world. God is in every believer.
19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,
20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
When you understand this profound truth you can live on mission for God, you can go all out for God. You can say whatever it takes Lord I’ll do, Here I am Lord, send me (Isa 6:8). Because..
22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
This is the secret behind the mission and this is the reason why we take the gospel to our families, our neighborhoods, and to the ends of the earth. There is a God and it’s not you, but He wants to be in a relationship with everyone, for He desires all to come to repentance and none to perish (2 Pet 3:9). A message like that is worth rejoicing in and we should be moved with passion and excitement to take this news from our God and King to the world.
So do you? Do you share this remarkable mystery with others? Are you on mission to share the gospel? Are you on mission to win souls for Christ? Are you grieved for a lost and dying world? You should be. You should be moved to action. You should be on mission. All you have to do is start telling people about what God has done and continues to do in your life. Share your joy and your hope? Why? Because unbelievers have neither of those and they will be overwhelmed by the gifts you carry because of His great love for you. Share the mystery, be on your own mission.
The Source of the Mission (v28)
28 Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.
What is the source of our mission? It’s Jesus Christ. Him we proclaim. The word proclaim means to make a public announcement. It means to make a public declaration of a completed truth or happening. It is like reporting the news, giving the facts, and speaking the truth in love.
The source of our mission is Jesus Christ. It is Him we tell everyone about. This proclamation is two-fold. There is a negative aspect, the warning, and a positive aspect, the teaching. The source of the mission is Jesus Christ and people must understand His holiness. We must admonish and warn people about sin and the consequences of sin, this is the negative aspect.
The positive aspect is teaching. We want to teach everyone about Him, whom we proclaim. We want to teach people to know Christ and make Him known. We want to fulfill the great commissions commands “to go and make disciples” by teaching the truths of Christ. This is all done for the purpose of the mission, “that we may present everyone mature in Christ.”
This is the mission for every parent, to present your children mature in Christ.
This is the mission for every disciple-maker, to present your disciples mature in Christ.
This is the mission for every pastor, to present your church mature in Christ.
When you know the source of the Mission, Jesus Christ, you will be on mission for Jesus Christ. However, we must understand
The Struggle of the Mission (V29-2:1)
29 For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me. 1 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face,
When we live on mission it will be a struggle. It will be a battle. There will be moments when you feel like giving up. However, you are empowered by God Himself as a believer. The mission He gives you is also energized by His power.
Philippians, Colossians & Philemon Paul’s Mission and Concern / 1:24–2:5
This verse vividly portrays the necessity of cooperation and combined effort between believers and Christ. The will of Christ and the will of the person must work together. The work of salvation is “all of Christ and none of me.” The daily practice of servanthood is “all of Christ and all of me.” Paul says, I labor, struggling, meaning that he was putting all the effort of his mind and body into the task.
[2]
We do this for a purpose. We do this for our mission “to present everyone mature in Christ.”
Here Paul speaks and if we can borrow from a modern saying. “The struggle is real.” We struggle to live the Christian life, we struggle in our relationships, we struggle to share the gospel, we struggle to make disciples. The struggle is real, but it is so worth it. Why? Because it’s for Him, it’s for His glory, it’s for His people, and it’s for His kingdom. In the struggle there is found...
The Strength of the Mission (2:2-3)
2 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
This is what it’s all about. When we live on mission we will see people come to Christ and that is empowering.
The first person God used me to lead to the Lord was my cousin. When I first became a Christian I shared the gospel with him…and it did not go well. It ended with me telling him I loved him, but he was going to hell. That is not a very popular message and his response was very pointed words and he did not speak to me for a couple years.
When we spoke again I had been a believer for a few years and I was starting to understand the mercy and grace of God more and his heart was different, he was broken and God was preparing him. We invited him to come live with us as he was going through a difficult time with his wife. So he moved from Nashville to Pittsburgh and we were able to see what happens when people live on mission.
Jen and I felt that this one soul was our personal mission and we poured our lives into him. It was late night conversations and sacrificial giving of time. After being with us for about a month and sharing with him all that God had done in our lives, he was ready to listen to the truth of the gospel. I remember sharing Christ with him and his eyes fill up with tears as he asked God to forgive him. That was a powerful moment in my life. I was able to watch God save a many by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone.
That is our mission. There is great strength in that mission. It empowers us, it drives us, it moves and motivates us. It’s His power in us that He uses through us to accomplish His work. That is an amazing reality, that God can use us so...
2 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ,
When we are on mission we can encourage others. Paul is encouraging the believers in Colossae. He has prayed for them and continues to pray for them, he wanted them to know more of the greatness of Christ and now he wants to encourage them. There is the strength in the mission. We can encourage one another and build each other up. Paul is doing this to keep them from falling to false doctrine and heresy, and we should be doing the same thing.
We should constantly be encouraging one another, building each other up, part of our mission is to edify our brothers and sisters in Christ. That’s why fellowship and discipleship are such critical pieces of a healthy church. It’s not enough to come to Sunday morning service. Yes, come and worship during the worship hour, but also come and worship through fellowship, come and worship through Bibles studies. Come and worship through discipleship.
We were created for relationship, we were created for meaningful and purpose-filled lives with one another, where we encourage each other. That happens through spending time with one another, in life-on-life. When we engage in fellowship and discipleship as a church, something truly extraordinary happens. We are knit together in love.
Our Christian lives are a woven tapestry of God’s amazing grace and the display of his masterful work in the church, where we are all knit together in love. This is such a beautiful word picture. Each of our lives are woven together and the love of Christ is the scarlet chord that knits us all together. Christian relationship is truly beautiful.
Christian relationship is part of the mission, and we see the purpose further defined in the rest of the verse, “to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ”
The mission is for each of us to have a complete and full understanding of the perfect Christ. When we are knit together in love we will be the hands and feet of Christ and carry each others burdens, build each other up, love one another, encourage one another, teach and admonish one another, hold one another accountable and push one another to live holy lives pleasing and acceptable to the Lord.
That’s what we are called to do as Christians. Doesn’t that sound remarkable? Isn’t that reason to rejoice?
When we understand the mission we will be strengthened.
When we know our purpose we will be able to endure and persevere.
When we know who Christ is personally and intimately can see right through the counterfeit of false teaching and heresy.
When all these elements come together we too will live on mission for Christ.
What is your mission?
No matter what your mission for God is personally it will brought to fruition by knowing the treasure of Christ. Verse 3 continues...
2 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
All the treasure of wisdom and knowledge are found in Christ. This is a powerful statement. This is a clear declaration to those who may be inclined to heresy or false teaching.
Paul is saying, you don’t need anything else. You just need Christ.
You don’t need angel worship.
You don’t need secret knowledge.
You don’t need legalism.
You don’t need another gospel.
All you need is Christ. Christ is more than enough.
The strength of the mission is found in Christ and in the united love of believers. Notice, that the Scripture says that in order to “reach all the riches of full assurance and treasures of Christ” it is in the united love of the believers. When we band together we will know the glorious riches of the mystery of Christ. We need one another to know the full richness of the vast treasure of God. We cannot do this on our own, we are not created for isolation, we are created for relationship, first with God, then with others.
When we live on mission we will do it within the community of the church. When the collective voice of God’s people is all I need is Christ, then together we can show the world that we are truly His by the love that unites us.
35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
When we live on mission we will treasure Christ and love one another.
What is your mission? To treasure Christ and love one another.
How can we be missional as a church?
Know your mission-How does love one another come to life for you?What is your personal mission?
Are you on mission to mentor young married couples?
Are you on mission to minister to children?
Are you on mission to build young men and women in the faith?
Are you on mission for discipleship?
I want to challenge all of us to find our mission, both personally and collectively. I want you to be in prayer this week and ask God to show you your mission. I want you to beg God to give you a fire for His people, and a compassionate love for the lost. We are not looking to created a holy huddle to keep the world out, no we are looking to encourage one another, edify one another, love another, and be sent out on mission to impact this community.
I agree with William Carey.
We should expect great things from God. However, we can’t be complacent, we can’t just wait around, we can’t sit in the comfort of this life, we must Attempt great things for God.
When we live on mission, we will find a greater purpose for our lives and for the church. Where we love God. Love People. and Make Disciples.
Let’s live on mission for Christ together.
Pray with Me!
Mission of
Commit to:
Study the Word
Prayer
Fellowship
Discipleship
[1] Max Anders, Galatians-Colossians, vol. 8, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999), 285.
[2] Bruce B. Barton and Philip Wesley Comfort, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, Life Application Bible Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1995), 181.