Priority in Preaching Colossians 1 24-2 5
Colossians 1:24-2:5
Imagine for a moment that our church was without a pastor and as we were looking over the resumes, we came across this unique individual. Should we consider this person to pastor our church and preach to us weekly?
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ.
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Understanding that your pulpit is vacant, I’d like to be considered for the job. You see, I love to preach, even though my preaching tends to stir up quite a bit of controversy. In fact, one of my sermons caused a riot. Actually, I’ve never been able to stay in one place more than three years.
My health isn’t too good (I have what I call a “thorn in the flesh”), and to be perfectly honest, I’m not much to look at. I can assure you, however, that this doesn’t interfere with my ministry. I’m a bachelor by choice—never been married and never had any kids—but I’m surprisingly good at conducting family life seminars.
If you do a background check on me—and I’m sure you will—you’ll probably discover that I changed my name a while back, and I have been arrested a few times. But even in jail I was able to have a successful ministry. People tell me I’m quite a theologian, although I’ve never attended seminary.
I hope you aren’t looking for an administrator. I’m not too good at keeping records. And my memory’s not too good. Sometimes I forget who I’ve baptized, for instance. But I’m a hard worker, although the things I want to do, I rarely do. And the things I don’t want to do, I always end up doing. Go figure. But you know what? I’ve found that everything works out fine in the end for those who love God and are called according to his purpose. Praise be to God.
Well, let me know if you are interested. I can start next week. By the way, I wrote this with my own hand. Grace to you all,
-The Apostle Paul
Paul would not seem like a likely candidate but the truth is we was exactly what God needed to take the Word of God and preach it to the nations. Tonight, as we look at our text in Colossians 1:24, I want us to focus on the key ministries of the church – the preaching ministry. So the Big Idea: Believers must see the importance of the preaching ministry of the church. I want to draw out 5 truths about the importance of this preaching ministry.
The first truth is…
1. Preaching is God’s priority for the church vs.25
25 Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God,
Paul tells the Colossians that God has appointed him as a servant of the church and his mission from God was to “complete the word of God.” Here Paul is laying out God’s plan for the word of God to be preached to the nations and taught to the people. He is being commissioned to make preaching the word of God the priority in His ministry as a servant of the church. In the book, The Master’s Plan for the Church, states, “The church’s most important function is to proclaim the Word of God in an understandable, direct, and authoritative way.”
We see the preaching ministry of the church repeated over and over again in Paul’s writings. In Romans 15:19 Paul says, “…so that from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.” We can see that Paul’s purpose on this earth was to take the Word of God to the nations. We can see a man who without apology preached the Word of God to Jews and Gentiles, rulers and peasants. As the book of Acts concludes, Paul is under house arrest in Rome awaiting execution and yet he is still “preaching the kingdom of God and teaching concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all openness, unhindered.”
Paul’s desire for the Colossians is to “be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,” and this filling can only occur as we hear and read the Word of God and it becomes infuses with our hearts and lives.
Students you have to begin to understand the importance of the preaching of the word of God. It must become a desire of your heart to learn and glean truth from the words that you hear proclaimed. I know it is difficult to sit through sermons every week, but you must prepare your heart before hand, ready and willing to learn from the Word. Just as you prepare before a game or a test, readying yourself for what is ahead, so you must also ready yourself to listen to preaching.
To make preaching easier for you, let me suggest a few simple things. If you want truly want to learn about God’s Word from the preaching ministry, do these things:
· Prepare your heart to accept what is said(confess sin)
· Remove distractions (cell phones, friends, people**I sit up front to avoid being distracted)
· Bring a study bible (to answer questions during sermon)
· Take notes of sermon
How attentive are you in the church services to the sermon? Are you grasping what is being said? How can you become a better listener to the preaching of the word of God?
2. Preaching involves God’s proclamation of His Son vs. 26
26 that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, 27 to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Paul refers to the subject this proclamation a “mystery.” What is a mystery? In the world of Scooby Doo, a mystery was something that needed to be solved. So Scooby, Shaggy and the gang would set off to look for what? –clues. So as they pieced the clues together, they came up with a solution to the problem.
Paul speaks in similar terms when we refers to the mystery “hidden from the past ages and generations.” The past ages and generations that Paul is referring to would be the Old Testament saints and he reveals the mystery as Christ- the Messiah. The context of the mystery is that Jesus Christ the Messiah was not what the Jews expected Him to be. The mystery that eventually was revealed with the coming of Christ included the consummation of the church with Jesus as the Head. The mystery also included this church would include Gentiles and Jews together worshiping Jehovah God.
- \\ 1 Cor. 2:7-8*
but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory;
So we can see from this passage that if the Jews would have understood the mystery that Jesus was truly the awaited Messiah, then they would not have crucified Him. So although the prophets of the OT like Daniel and Isaiah spoke about the coming Messiah through divine inspiration, they did not know who the Messiah would be until God revealed that to the world.
In the world today, preaching is no different. There is no longer the mystery to the saints, but the gospel which we also call the good news, is a mystery to the world. And this mystery needs to be revealed to them. And as we sit under the preaching of the Word of God, that preaching should be proclaiming Jesus Christ. That is why I have so much problem with some of these preachers today who fail to mention Jesus Christ as Lord in their sermons. One in particular is Joel Osteen who is a great encourager of the principles of the faith but does not communicate the truths of scripture any more than a blind man can see the sunset. We must always be careful that whatever church that we attend, we are under good biblical preaching that exalts Christ and views the Bible as the complete, error free, Divinely inspired Word of God.
Are you learning more about Christ when you listen to the teaching and preaching of the Word of God?
The third truth is…
3. Preaching induces spiritual growth vs. 28, 2:2c-3
28 We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ… attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Here Paul gets specific about the preaching of God’s Word by using the two specific words, admonishing and teaching. One part of Paul’s preaching ministry was to “admonish every man” which means he was to take the word of God and “warn” every man with it. The word admonish “has to do with setting the mind of someone in proper order, correcting him or putting him right. Paul uses the term of a ministry of admonition, criticism and correction.” In 1 Thessalonians, Paul says to “admonish the unruly.” In Romans and Colossians, we are encouraged to “admonish with one another” but as we learn from Paul, we must admonish “with tears” or with gentleness and sorrow.
The second word after admonishing is teaching. It would be incomplete for people to admonish others and omit teaching them truths of Scripture that back up the admonishment. Paul wanted to teach the truths of God’s word to the nations so that is why the letters of the New Testament were written. We learned last week in project 1616 that some of the letters were written to churches that Paul had never visited so they were like New Believers classes via the mail. He was trying to teach the basic truths to young churches that need to grow spiritually.
These two words admonishing and teaching are the controversial yet necessary work of God’s Word in our lives. When we are admonished and taught the truths of God, then we will grow in our sanctification- which is the process of growing in the knowledge of God and becoming more like His Son-Jesus. Paul refers to this spiritual growth coming from preaching God’s word when he says in 2:2, “attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself.,” So the purpose of preaching is to grab hold of the wealth, not physical wealth, but spiritual blessings that we receive from understanding all that we can about Christ.
You know spiritual growth is not easy. It is similar to a caterpillar that enters into its cocoon. Inside the cocoon, the caterpillar struggles and wiggles as he grows into a butterfly. If you were watching this process, your compassion may fall upon that tiny bug and as you watch is struggle, you may want help it out a little. If you cut open the cocoon to allow the changed bug to escape, it would be too soon. The growth of the butterfly would not be complete and the insect would forever face deformity. See the struggle that the butterfly goes through within the cocoon is part of the growth process and cutting that process short would deform that beautiful butterfly.
Spiritual growth is important to our sanctification and even when the word of God is preached and it offends our conscience, it is a struggle that we must go through to grow in our faith. Sometimes when we hear the preaching of the word of God, and it offends us, we turn away and reject it. How do you handle the preaching of the word when it offends? Do you grow from it or turn away?
The fourth truth is…
4. Preaching includes God’s power vs. 29
29 For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.
This is a very powerful verse that is full of meaning. Let us look at four of the important words in this verse:
· I labor- to grow weary to the point of exhaustion.
· Striving- (agonizomai) where we get the English word “agonize”, it means to contend in an arena, to struggle
· Power- (energeo) “working, efficiency, used only of superhuman power,
· Mightily- (dunamis) “power” in the sense of natural inherent ability, like the word dynamite
What is Paul saying, as I go from place to place, working until I am exhausted, I contend or struggle in God’s superhuman power, that is a power greater than dynamite within me.
There is so much imagery here to simply say that when Paul went from place to place, he preached God’s Word dependent on God’s power to fill and strengthen him. There is something to learn here about the preaching ministry. Not all preachers are alike, but the ones worthy of the callings in their lives work hard each week to prepare a sermon for you to hear. It is a spiritual process bathed in prayer. Hours are committed to each sermon. They are not just getting their stuff together 20 minutes before the service starts. I usually spend about 5-10 hours on each sermon preparing it. Brother Jerry spends 30 hours at least a week doing the same for the 3 sermons he must preach. We do this not to impress you with funny jokes or perfectly arranged acronyms, but we labor and strive because God’s spirit is empowering us to deliver the Word effectively. And as Paul told his disciple Timothy “be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.”
This is the calling and responsibility we have. You need to know that as Paul stood up to preach, or I stand up to preach or Bro. Jerry stands up to preach, we do so with the Spirit of God within us. In understanding this concept, the audience should respond, what does God have to say to me today through His word? We should listen as God is speaking directly to us.
How do you view the preaching of God’s Word? Do you see it as a time slot in your week, or do you look to it as a chance to hear a message from God via His word?
The fifth truth is…
5. Preaching is preparation for spiritual warfare vs. 2:4-5
4 I say this so that no one will delude you with persuasive argument. 5 For even though I am absent in body, nevertheless I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good discipline and the stability of your faith in Christ.
Paul’s main concern in focusing on preaching the truth to the people of Colossians is because they were under attack. The heretics of Colossae were attacking the deity of Christ and Christ’s sufficiency to save all. Later in Colossians, Paul says, “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.”
So as Paul just taught them the very doctrine of Christ’s deity and lordship over creation and the resurrection, they were to use this as ammunition against the heretical attacks. When we come to sit and listen to the word of God proclaimed, we should consider it like a visit to the army supply store in the middle of global war. We are stockpiling up on what we need to defend ourselves and survive. It should not be viewed as a waste of time but a time of important information that we need to survive.
Paul concludes with encouragement for the stability of the Colossian faith in the midst of this spiritual battle. We are all at war right now with Satan whether we think about it or not. The sooner we realize we are at war, the sooner we can learn and grow from the preaching of His word.
Conclusion
Students my goal as a youth pastor is to equip you with the knowledge you need to face the spiritual battles in our world. I do not stand up here each week because I like to hear myself talk. I stand up here because God wants me up here teaching you His word.
I have all told you about the situation in college when I was got into a debate with my atheist friend. I did not know jack about the Bible because I had never listened in church. I had never had a consistent time with God. God’s word was not ingrained in my heart. I want you guys to grow much more than I did. I want you to “be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.” Although preaching is not the only way to learn the truths from God, it is a priority of the church.