Make A Bold Declaration (Col. 4:2-18)

Ryan Strother

Colossians • Sermon • Submitted 7 years ago

Colossians 4:2–18

Prayer

Evangelism

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Intro

I want to encourage you to make a bold declaration about salvation in Christ by the way you pray, speak, and walk.

And before we get into any specifics there, I want you to see how your ministry is not to be a lone ranger ministry. Paul concludes his letter with basic salutation-type remarks. He mentions 11 specific people or groups.

It’s easy to think of the Apostle Paul as this hero of the faith, but we have to remember that he wasn’t out there on his own.

Paul always had companions on his missionary journeys and he often mentions other fellow believers who either have encouraged him, or have some specific role that they are carrying out in ministry. We should recognize some of the names on this list but there are also some new ones, like Nympha, a woman who was a church leader by opening her home for a church to meet.

Let me just say if you want to make a bold declaration of your faith for Jesus Christ; if you want to have an impact for the kingdom of God; you cannot do that by yourself. You need the church! You need the accountability of God's family! We are in this ministry together.

We find some final instructions here on how we should pray, speak, and walk. Let's now look at each of these as we encourage one another to make a bold declaration of our faith.

PRAY

Paul begins by telling the Colossian believers to continue in prayer. And then in that same short sentence, he packs three powerful points of how we should pray.

First, he says to continue steadfastly in prayer. "Continue steadfastly" means to be devoted to. The Greek language there refers to persevering in some activity or cause to the point of devotion. We should be devoted to prayer.

On this point, I think there will be many believers who say they are not satisfied with their "prayer life". Maybe it's because we are communicating with an infinite God and all of our effort always seems to fall short of the glory could hold, but I think many of us do not pray as we would like, nor do we pray as we should.

If we want to make a bold declaration of the gospel of Christ and see people come to know Jesus, we must be praying to that end!

While I haven’t arrived when it comes to prayer, let me mention a couple practical ways that have helped me become more devoted to prayer:

Set a time. It will help and starting out to set a time and keep it. Let your calendar guard your time for prayer. Develop the habit of routine, and that may morph into greater commitment.

Use a guide. Pastor Jim gave so many good guides for helping us pray whenever we held our season of prayer meetings at the beginning of this year. You can find those on our churches app in the prayer section. One of the things that has been most helpful for me is to carry a small, thin notebook in my back pocket that allows me to jot down prayer request as I think of them or when someone tells me. I write it down so I don't forget. And then I leave room to go back and write answers to specific prayer requests. That is a nice reminder and encouragement that God answers prayer.

So let's be devoted to prayer. And then Paul’s 2nd instruction regarding prayer is to be watchful.

This is a word that means constant readiness; being on the alert. It's actually the same root word that Jesus used in the garden of Gethsemane with his disciples. In , Jesus told his disciples to "remain here and watch with me."

Prayer helps us to stay alert to the attacks of Satan. Prayer ought to be an activity in our lives that keeps us daily aware of the spiritual warfare around us.

One commentator wrote, “The Colossians were to pray with mental alertness. Presumably, this meant that they were to know the circumstances of life, particularly those which affected the spread of the gospel. Informed prayer is likely to be more purposeful, personal, and powerful.” (Richard R. Melick, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, vol. 32, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1991), 321–322.)

But too often we don't see prayer as a watchful practice; we only see it as a wishful practice. We’ll go to God when we need something, but not interceding for the transformation of lives and for the chains of bondage broken!

We are to be devoted to prayer, and we are to be watchful in prayer, and finally, Paul’s 3rd instruction regarding prayer is to pray with thanksgiving. Thankfulness is the proper environment of prayer. And keep in mind that Paul is in prison while he’s writing this. Circumstances shouldn’t affect our prayer. You might think that he does not have anything to be thankful for. But being devoted to prayer means that we will be able to see past the difficulties and understand that God is still at work.

He does not have anything to be thankful for. But being devoted to prayer means that we will be able to see past the difficulties and understand that God is still at work.

So we need to be devoted to prayer, being watchful in prayer, and pray with Thanksgiving. We need to make a bold declaration of the gospel of Christ, and we will find power in that as we pray.

Transition: Let’s make a bold declaration by the way that we pray. Next, let’s make a bold declaration by the way that we speak.

Speak

There is a lot of instruction about speaking or declaring in this passage. Paul asked that the Colossian believers would pray for him that God would open a door for him to be able to declare the mystery of Christ. It's interesting that Paul would ask for an open door while he is in prison!

Pray for him that God would open a door for him to be able to declare the mystery of Christ. It's interesting that Paul would ask for an open door while he is in prison!

There are doors almost every day in our lives that are wide open and we just simply need to be bold and speak up. But then there might be some other situations, like Paul's situation, where the ability to speak up seems either very difficult or nearly impossible.

be bold and speak up. But then there might be some other situations, like Paul's situation, where the ability to speak up seems either very difficult or nearly impossible.

Maybe there are some people who you've been trying to share the gospel with for years and they just don't seem to listen. Or there are people who won't even let you bring up the topic. Sometimes it's a family member who seems to be very stubborn toward the Lord.

In order to make a bold declaration for the gospel, we need to pray for that open door. And keep praying! It may take months or years, but keep praying for that.

Then Paul tells us that we are to declare the mystery of Christ. The subject of our declaration is clear – the open door is for the Word and the mystery of Christ. Paul quickly defined the “mystery of Christ” as “Christ in you” (1:27), but let’s look at (ESV)

4 When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 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. 6 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.

The mystery that had been hidden for ages was revealed through Jesus Christ. And we need to proclaim to all people that all people can be made one in Christ. All people can be reconciled to God. Declare that!

Then Paul asked them to pray for him to speak clearly. This message is too important for us to muddy up! You need to know what Jesus has done on the cross and in His resurrection. You need to speak with clear words. And words are important!

There is the quote often attributed to St. Francis of Assisi (which is uncertain) of “Preach the gospel at all times. If necessary, use words.” Certainly our lifestyle is important (which we will talk about soon), but if you don’t use words, no one will ever come to know Jesus.

“So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” (, ESV)

“How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?” (, ESV)

We must speak clearly. And finally, v.6 gives us 2 important instructions with speaking, which will get at the heart of almost any communication issue you’ve had: we must speak graciously, and seasoned with salt. This is speaking of the tone and the content. When our tongue gets us in trouble, it’s usually because of what we’ve said or how we’ve said it. Did you know the Bible talks about that?

The tone we should use when speaking is one of grace. We ought to speak as people who live in a state of grace. Christians should understand grace better than anybody else because of Jesus’ sacrifice for us. Our words should reflect that. Our tone should reflect that.

The content is reflected in Paul’s use of the expression seasoned with salt. There are a lot of suggestions of what this metaphor means. Some say it’s representing wisdom, making what you say more interesting and not bland; some say that speaking the truth can hurt, like salt in a wound, and that’s how the gospel can be. Most likely, this metaphor is rooted in the way in which we walk toward outsiders (v.5). The idea of seasoning someone with your words is to keep in the wisdom with which we should approach someone and use the content of what we say help lead them to Jesus.

Transition: So we are to make a bold declaration by the way we pray, and speak, now let’s talk about making a bold declaration by the way we walk.

Walk

This is a quick point. V.5 tells us how we should walk, or act, toward outsiders. “Outsiders” would refer to those outside of the faith. These are going to be people who don’t know Jesus, and so we need to walk in wisdom. Remember that these two verses are the last words of instructions before giving the final greetings to the people.

The last thing Paul wanted these believers to know was how to relate to people outside of the faith. Not to disassociate with them or forget about them. But walk wisely. And walk with the intentionality of making the best use of time. PRIORITIES!!