Sermon Tone Analysis

Why are you here?

Why are you here?

I don’t know if you’ve ever thought consciously about that.

Many Christians or people who identify themselves as people of faith know that they’re “supposed” to attend church, but if you were to press in and ask why, many find it difficult to articulate the purpose of attending a local church or identify what activities a local church is should do.

We live in a world that is full of high-profile individuals “deconstructing” their faith, and it is leading many other to use that same language to describe their process of walking through seasons of doubt and uncertainty as they move further and further away from biblical truth.

At heart level every person who deconstructs to the point of all-out apostacy do so because they lack a genuine conversion to Christ in the first place.

But I also believe that one of the reasons that individuals end up leaving the church is that they find a disconnect with what the church is supposed to do and be with the individuals who make up their local church.

Local churches can lose their way and find themselves mired in internal conflicts, or become a church that exists to enrich the leadership without caring for the flock, or become focused on feel-good messages that don’t ground people in sound theology, or lose touch with the Gospel they are obligated to proclaim.

or a myriad of other possible pitfalls.

When churches lose sight of their purpose before God, it is of no surprise that individuals will eventually leave because they were never grounded in truth.

It’s tragic that many will leave churches who have lost their way, but not only that they will leave Christianity all together.

I hope and pray that they will never be true of Pillar Fellowship.

I pray God’s protection upon myself as the pastor, upon the other future pastors and elders of Pillar Fellowship, that as long as this local church exists, Pillar will hold true to its name: a Pillar and support of the truth of God’s Word.

And so, before we return to finish our study of Philippians next week, I thought to take advantage of the fact that this is the first Sunday of the new year to remind us all, myself included, of why we are here, what the church at large is supposed to be about, and how we hope God will bless the efforts of Pillar Fellowship as we move forward into the year 2022.

We are going to look at Colossians 1 focusing on verses 24-29.

In this text there are several things about church ministry that I want us to notice as we come to our final conclusion: Church ministry is about Christ.

Paul shares his own personal experience and his own commission from God, but notice that his entire ministry is about the church.

He works to benefit the church, to strengthen the church, and to deepen the church.

Paul’s entire life is about the church.

There is much to be gleaned from Paul’s ministry, and we it should’t be difficult to see the connections between Paul’s calling and our responsibility.

The same things that motivated and drove Paul, the same things he was obligated to perform as a minister, we are all called to the same things.

I have five headings for us to consider today, all of them declaring to us what the church is supposed to be about.

Why are we here, even today?

Church ministry is about worship, its about the word, its about the Gospel, its about discipleship, and ultimately, its all about Christ.

Biblical Church Ministry is About Worship

There is much about this context we don’t have time to examine today, but I want to give a brief overview simply because Paul’s conclusions at the end of chapter flow directly out of what he writes earlier.

It’s all connected together and we must not miss that.

If we were to start at the beginning of the chapter we would see Paul’s words about what God has done in their lives through the Gospel of Christ, in that it is bearing fruit and increasing.

We would see how his prayer for the church includes his desire that give thanks to the father who has qualified them to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light.

We would see the incredible majesty of Christ as Paul points to him as the creator, and sustainer of the world, the head of the church, and the preeminent one who has reconciled the world to himself.

As a result, Paul is able to rejoice, even though he suffers greatly.

He rejoices!

God is at work! the Gospel is changing lives!

This alone evokes a worshipful response in Paul.

He rejoices, even if he has to suffer for the very Gospel that is changed lives.

The phrase “filling up what is lacking Christ’s afflictions” has tripped up many readers.

It doesn’t mean that Christ’s death was someone insufficient, but rather that Paul understood that God was sovereign over his suffering that he was willing to endure what God had put in front of him for the sake of the Church.

When God saved Paul, he said to annanias these words in the book of Acts:

So Paul knew that he was predetermined to suffer for Christ, but that didn’t stop him from worshiping because he knew the benefit that it would being to the church.

We spent some time on this concept when we were in Philippians 1 earlier this year, how Paul’s suffering and even being in prison at the time of his writing has actually led to a furtherance of the Gospel, and in that he rejoices!

We worships God because he see God at work.

But notice how he describes the message that he was commissioned to preach:

Paul says his mission is to proclaim the word of God and the content of that message is the riches of the glory of the mystery of Christ.

The language that Paul uses is worshipful language.

The riches, of the glory, of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of Glory.

Paul looks at what Christ has accomplished, about the truth of the gospel and he is blown away by it!

The riches of the glory!

The wealth, the abundance of the glory of God as it is on display in Christ.

A few moments ago we sang Come behold the wondrous mystery.

Come behold the wondrous mystery

Christ the Lord upon the tree

In the stead of ruined sinners

Hangs the Lamb in victory

See the price of our redemption

See the Father’s plan unfold

Bringing many sons to glory

Grace unmeasured, love untold

Come behold the wondrous mystery

Slain by death the God of life

But no grave could e’er restrain Him

Praise the Lord; He is alive!

What a foretaste of deliverance

How unwavering our hope

Christ in power resurrected

As we will be when he comes

Brothers and Sister, we have a great and awesome God who has given to us an immeasurably great blessing of knowing Jesus Christ.

The reason we sing the songs of praise that we do is to aid our worship of the one who has show to us the riches of the glory of his kindness to us.

Church Ministry is about worship because Christ is worthy to be worshiped.

He is worthy of Praise.

He is worthy of our adoration.

We must not make the mistake of turning the purpose of the church on its head and make the focus be upon ourselves, but rather must recognize that we, as the church, are to be a people of worship of the triune God for what he has done.

Second,

Biblical Church Ministry is About the Word

Notice the phrase that Paul uses in vs 25:

Paul’s aim and desire to proclaim the word of God!

He wasn’t there to entertain!

He wasn’t there make people feel good.

Churches that take that approach may see short-term success, but they ultimately aren’t given the people what they so desperately need: the word of God!

God has spoken!

He has revealed himself!

He has given us 66 books that all have relevance to you and to me today!

At it’s core every church out to have this at its core function, answering the questions what has God said??

Because if we become reliant on the words of man, and not on the words of God, it isn’t going to get us anywhere.

God’s word contains the words of life.

God’s word has power to change our hearts.

God’s word challenges us, confronts us, encourages us, edifies us.

Nothing else can do that.

Church Ministry is about the Word

Third,

Biblical Church Ministry Is About the Gospel

Paul has declared that his ministry is about proclaiming the word of God, and part of that message is the very message of the Gospel itself.

He talks about the mystery that was hidden from past generations but is now revealed to his saints: Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Even though Paul doesn’t use the word Gospel here, it is clear that this is a reference to the Gospel.

The word Gospel literally means Good News.

Paul explains what the Gospel is in detail in other texts:

Our necessary response to the Gospel is given in Rom 10:9

and the results of the Gospel are given in to many texts to cites, but here in our text in Colossians is one such result: Christ comes to dwell within the believer, giving him the hope of glory.

Paul’s ministry, and ours, is about proclaiming the Gospel.

We see him do this in two ways:

Proclaim the Gospel—Inwardly