Table of Contents
The proposition (or big idea by
Haddon Robinson) is: Any local church can grow in maturity by integrating three
spiritual essentials in their church lives.
Introduction
I. Acquiring Knowledge of God’s Will as the Cause of Growing into Maturity
II. Appropriating Worthy Living as the effect of Growing into Maturity
III. Appreciating of God’s Mercy as Motivation of Growing in Maturity
Introduction:
The apostle Paul had never met the
people to whom he wrote this wonderful letter. All that he knew about them was
what he had been told. He had been told that these people, in the ancient city
of Colossae, had heard the gospel of Jesus Christ and had believed.
Furthermore, he heard that they had grown in their faith, and that it had
resulted in a transformation of their lives. He had been told that they
professed a solid faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; and that they had a deep love
for each other, and for all who —
like themselves — had placed
their trust in Jesus.
In Colossians 1:3-8, Paul was
thankful for the Church of Colossae planted by Paul’s disciple, Epaphras. He
listed three areas why he was thankful of this church.
The church embraced the true
message of the gospel, and Paul noticed the church was growing spiritually in
three areas: growing in the three biblical virtues of faith, hope and love;
growth in fruit bearing and growth in truly understanding the grace of God.
As I study those words, I try to
put myself in the place of those Colossian believers. They were all relatively
new Christians; but just imagine what it must have meant to them to have
received such a greeting from the great apostle Paul! How it must have thrilled
them to read how he thanked God for them, and of how he praised God for all
that God was doing in them! I can't help but imagine that reading such a
greeting would have encouraged them to give thanks and praise God for those
things too!
In the next section of the letter,
which is Colossians 1:9-14. Paul changed gear from giving thanks of the church,
he started to pray for the church. We will take a look at what it was that Paul
prayed. I suggest that we also try to imagine what it would have been like to
have been one of those early Christians. Imagine what it would have been like
to read that Paul was praying these very things for you! Paul wrote to them
about his "prayer list", saying:
“9 For this
reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for
you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his
will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives,
10 so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and
please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the
knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all
power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance
and patience, 12 and giving joyful thanks to the
Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his
holy people in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has
rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the
kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we
have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” (Col. 1:9-14)
His prayer was his apostolic
expectation desiring the church growing into maturity: “So then, just as you
received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and
built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing
with thankfulness.” (Col. 2:6-7)
What kind of expectation and
outlook Paul had for the church of Colossae? His expectation and outlook were
the Church of Colossae would grow into maturity. This is also the expectation
and outlook of any young Christian community planted by the church planter in
contemporary setting. Let’s exegete the text to look for the denominators of a
church growing in maturity:
Paul prayed in verse 9 that the church could acquire the first spiritual essential which is the knowing of God’s will as the cause of growing in maturity. This cause will constitute first point of the sermon: Acquiring knowledge of God’s will as the cause of growing in maturity.
After acquiring the knowledge of His will, Paul then prayed for the second spiritual essential which is the effect of having the knowledge of God’s will. Paul prayed that they were to live a life in obedience to the will of God. It is the appropriation of worthy living, representing by four participles from verse 10b to 12. The second point of the sermon will be: Appropriating worthy living as the effect of growing in maturity.
Lastly Paul prayed for the last spiritual essential, which is the motivation of growing in maturity. It was made possible because of their appreciation of God’s mercy to deliver them from their hopelessness and helplessness. The third point of the sermon will be: Appreciating of God’s mercy as the motivation of growing in maturity.
The proposition (or big idea by Haddon Robinson):
Any local church can grow in maturity by integrating three
spiritual essentials in their church lives.
Outlines of the sermon:
I.
Acquiring Knowledge of
God’s Will as the Cause of Growing in
Maturity
II.
Appropriating Worthy Living as the effect of Growing in Maturity
III.
Appreciating God’s Mercy as Motivation of Growing in Maturity
Title of the Sermon:
I. Acquiring Knowledge of God’s Will as the
Cause of Growing into Maturity
A.
Moral will of God versus sovereign will
of God
Colossians 1:9 pleading believers to be filled with the
knowledge of his will. The knowledge of His will is referring to the moral view
of God. God’s sovereign will be God’s secret pertaining his relationship with
the universe, and God never instructs believers to seek the sovereign will
other than those already reviewed by the prophets. God only disclosed small
amount of information to the prophets in the Scripture pertaining His sovereign
will. The following chart will differentiate between God’s sovereign will and
God’s moral view:[1]
B. God’s will is knowable and provable:
God’s moral will is made known in the Scripture, and we can
test and approve His will by meditating on the Word of God: “Do not conform any
longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your
mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good,
pleasing and perfect will.” (Rom. 12:2)
God’s moral law is taught, studied and discovered through
the Bible, “teach me to do your will, for you are my God! Let your good Spirit
lead me on level ground!” (Ps. 143:13) Ephesians 5:17 further adding light to
understanding the Will of God and not to be foolish, “Therefore, do not
foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” (Eph. 5:17)
This is an example of living in God’s will: The problem for most people is that they are not willing to live God’s will in the smaller details of life. For example, many pray to marry the right person, but are they actively dating the right people? There are some who pray that God will help them get out of debt, but are they actively giving as God expects?
C.
How to acquire the full knowledge of His
Will?
Wisdom and understanding are two keys to acquire the full
knowledge of His will. These two keys can trace its roots in the book of
Proverbs and Book of Isaiah. Thus, these two tools are not originated from
Paul’s writing.
1. Spiritual wisdom
The main idea behind the Hebrew concept of wisdom is “skill.” The men who were able to construct the tabernacle according to God’s plan as revealed to Moses are called “wise,” meaning skilful (Exod. 31:3, 6; 36:1-2): “and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills” (Ex. 31:3) With the aid of the Holy Spirit, believers are skilful to discern the moral will of God, and apply it to life situation.
In order to possess wisdom, which is one of the keys to acquire the knowledge of His will, one will need the fear of the Lord, an important virtue to acquire wisdom: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” (Prov. 9:10) The fear of the Lord is an important tool to unlock the store of wisdom and understanding: “He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure.” (Isaiah 33:6)
King Solomon was a wise man, and when God appeared to him in a dream, and God said, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.” (1 King 3:5) King Solomon replied to God, “give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong.” (1 King 3:9) Solomon precisely ask God for wisdom, and God was pleased. James wrote in the book of James, “If any of you lack wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” (James 1:5)
2.
Spiritual understanding
Wisdom and understanding are somewhat synonymous, but there
may be a subtle nuance of difference. “Wisdom” refers to knowing how God’s Word
commands us to live, whereas “understanding” refers to insight, perception, or
the ability to discern between things.
Understanding enables us to put the pieces of wisdom
together in specific situations. In 2 Timothy 2:7, after using the analogies of
the solider, the athlete, and the farmer, Paul tells Timothy, “Consider what I
say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.” (2 Cor 2:7
Berean Standard Bible)
The Lord would enable Timothy to grasp mentally the truths
of those analogies and put them together so as to gain insight into how he
should conduct his ministry.
II.
Appropriating Worthy Living as the effect
of Growing into Maturity
A. Definition:
The
knowledge of God’s leads to a walk that is worthy of the Lord. The result of
all biblical knowledge should be godly conduct. And the primary motive for
godly conduct is not that we can live a happier and better life (although that
always is the result), but rather that we please and glorify the Lord.
Before we
look at the four ways Paul says that we can please the Lord, note that this is
a walk. That implies steady progress in a deliberate direction. You do not get
there by a dramatic spiritual experience or a quick fix, but rather by steady,
deliberate, day by day growth in understanding through God’s Word.
B. Meaning:
“Live a
life worthy of the Lord”, the word “worthy” in Greek is “axios G514”, which is
the adverb, with the meaning of “equal weight”. [2]
A good picture of “axios” is a set of scales
that are perfectly balanced. How is that achieved? Obviously the same weight is
on one side of the scale as on the other side of the scale. [3]
Gotquestions defines to live worthy as: “The word worthy has the idea of ‘matching up’: our actions should match our words, and our outward presentation should match our inward convictions. To ‘walk worthy’ of our calling means to live up to that calling, to live in such a way as to honor God as we complete His course of action for us.”[4]
When we imitate
Christ in our walk, our walk will be equal weight as the Lord, and so we walk
worthily to please him:
The
Scripture reminds the disciples of Jesus to follow Paul, and Paul followed
Jesus, “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.” (1 Cor. 11:1) And
in Ephesians, we are told likewise, “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved
children.” (Eph. 5:1 ESV).
Live
worthily is also seen in obeying the new commandment to love others as the Lord
love us: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have
loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are
My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35)
To live a
worthy living, we have to forgive one another as Christ forgave us: “Bearing
with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against
another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.” (Col. 3:13 NKJV)
As
believers, we are instructed to follow His steps:
“For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps.” (1 Pet. 2:21)
C. Four areas of worthy living:
1. Bear fruit in every good work
Fruit is
what God accomplishes through us as we depend on Him. As Jesus taught, “I am
the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much
fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5) As Christians, we are
saved through faith by grace (Eph. 2:8,9). The means of attaining salvation is
by faith through grace, the end of salvation is we are the new creation, and we
are created to do good work. Therefore, the gospel seed will be rooted in
Christ, the basis of our salvation. The gospel seed will grow to become a
gospel tree bearing fruit of every righteousness. The picture is illustrative
to explain the point:
2. Increase in the knowledge of God
This phrase
may mean that we are growing to know God better. Or it could mean that we are
growing by knowing God better. Either way, there is the idea that we must know
God Himself. Since God is an infinite being, to know Him is an infinite
process.
The
knowledge of God (vs. 10) is inseparably connected with the knowledge of His
will (vs. 9) and with obedience to that will (walking worthily, pleasing Him,
bearing fruit, v. 10). In John 14:21, Jesus said, “He who has My commandments
and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My
Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” If you want to
get to know Jesus better, then obey Him. He only reveals Himself to those who
obey Him.
3. Strengthened with His Power to be
Steadfast and Patient
“Strengthened”
is a present participle, indicating our need for a continual infusion of God’s
power. The strengthening of God’s power is you will produce in your
steadfastness (endurance in trials) and patience (bearing with difficult
people) when you do not experience miraculous deliverances. Therefore, the
strengthening of God’s power will be similar to the infilling of God’s Spirit
so that the fruit of the Holy Spirit will empower you to handle adverse
situations in your life.
4. Giving Joyful Thanks for His Great Salvation
Col. 1:12 says, “And giving joyful
thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his
holy people in the kingdom of light.” (Col. 1:12 NIV 2011) The description
“joyful” can go either with steadfast and patient in verse 11, “being
strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance
and patience with joy;”(Col. 1:11ESV) or with giving thanks in verse 12. I
choose to associate with verse 12 over the Colossians giving thanks to their
great salvation joyful of sharing in the inheritance of the saints in the
light. They were thankful that they no longer enslaved by kingdom of darkness,
thus they expressed their thanksgiving with joy.
III. Appreciating of God’s Mercy as Motivation of Growing in Maturity
A. Helplessness and hopelessness
Birthing Mercy
Let us examine Colossians 1:13-14
why the Colossians appreciates God’s mercy as motivation of growing in
maturity: “13 For he has rescued us from the
dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he
loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the
forgiveness of sins.” (col. 1:13-14)
The Colossians Christians were having strong understanding on the mercy of God rendered to them over two realities before their conversion: firstly, they were taken hostage by the kingdom of darkness. Secondly, they were enslaved by sin that resulted them losing with freedom. The Colossians were faced with two deplorable spiritual conditions namely helplessness and hopelessness. If there is no intervention from a more powerful force to liberate them from their conditions, the natural progress will be: They will suffer in the lake of fire for eternity.
B. How did the Colossians free from the dominion of darkness?
Paul uses the language of a higher power is required to rescue them from the dominion of the kingdom of darkness. Paul alluded a higher power was required to free from the bondage. Most likely Paul was using the example of God (higher power) rescuing the Israelites from the grip of the Pharoh (lower power). Likewise, the Colossians (lower power) could not free themselves from the kingdom of darkness, and it was God (higher power) who rescued them and transported them to the kingdom of light of His Son He loves.
The Lord spoke to Moses to tell the Israelites
of his rescuing deliverance: “I am the Lord, and I will bring you
out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being
slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and
with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as
my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am
the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the
Egyptians. I will bring you to the land which I
swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I will give it to you for a
possession; I am the Lord.” (Ex. 6:6-8
NASB)
However, Christ’s resurrection on the cross conferred to him absolute power and that power could break the grip of the kingdom of darkness and freed them and translated them into the kingdom of His son, He loves.
C. How did the Colossians free from enslaving
from power of sin?
The word
“redemption” in verse 14 is pointing to the reality freedom secured by paying
the ransom to the enemy for the release of slave. In all cases of ‘redemption’
there was a decisive and costly intervention. Somebody paid the price necessary
to free property from mortgage, animals from slaughter, and persons from
slavery, even death.
In the case of our redemption from slavery to sin and Satan, the price was the blood of Jesus Christ, “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.” (Eph. 1:7)
D. Appreciation of God’s Mercy
In view of
God’s mercy to free us from the dominion of the power of darkness, and His
redemption from the slave of sin, Christians ought to be grateful to God’s
mercy to free and redeem us. Our motivation is to live a transform life to
express our thankfulness of his mercy showered on us.
Conclusion
Paul’s
prayer for the Colossians is his expectation and outlook of a young church to
keep growing in maturity by integrating three spiritual essentials in their
church lives. Such expectation and outlook are applicable to JBBC. We pray that
we will acquire the full knowledge of God’s will as the cause for growing in
maturity; and we will respond to cause by our effect to live worthily in four
areas, and finally we should appreciate the mercy of God by rescuing us from
helplessness and hopelessness as motivation to grow in maturity.
The Lord
spoke to Moses to tell the Israelites of his rescuing deliverance: “I am the
Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will
free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched
arm and with mighty acts of judgement. I will take you as my own people, and I
will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought
you out from the yoke of the Egyptians. I will bring you to the land which I
swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I will give it to you for a
possession: I am the Lord.” (Ex. 6:6-8 NASB)
[1]
Douglas S. Huffman, How Then Should We Choose (Grand Rapid: Kregel Publication,
2009), page 16.
[2] John
F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck, The Bible Knowledge Commentary New Testament
(SP Publication, Inc., 1983), P. 671)
[3] Preceptaustin,
https://www.preceptaustin.org/colossians_110#1:10, accessed on 8.10.2024
5.08pm.
[4]
Gotquestions, https://www.gotquestions.org/walk-worthy.html, accessed on
8.10.2024 5.11pm.
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