Fullness (1): What to Pray for Each Other
- Rev Norman Cameron
Today
I want to begin a new morning series to take us through the winter months. We
will be exploring the marvellous little letter from Paul to the church at
BACKGROUND
The
letter was probably written by Paul about AD 60 while he was in prison in
Scholars
have spent much ink exploring and commenting on what they think the heresies
were but we cannot be sure. We need to read between the lines but as we do that
it appears the false teaching was around two main errors. One error was from a
Jewish influence which said that it was not sufficient just to say that you
believed in Jesus you needed some good Jewish practices as well such as
circumcision, observing feast days, dietary laws and other OT regulations.
The
other error was a form of Gnosticism which suggested that there was a higher
knowledge, a deeper mystery and wisdom that believers needed to attain to truly
get close to God.
In
short both errors sought to add extras to faith in Jesus Christ as necessary
for salvation and Christian maturity. Paul wrote to stress that Christ is all-supreme
and all-sufficient, all the riches and resources that we need are found in him
to live life here in a God honouring way. A theme verse for the letter could be
ch.2:10a which says “you have been given
fullness in Christ”.
That
word fullness is the word I have
chosen to sum up this series from Colossians. This letter bears witness to the
finality, the fullness, the adequacy, the all-sufficiency of Jesus Christ for
our lives. What I mean is that faith in Jesus needs to be the bedrock of our
living, the foundation of decision making, the ultimate purpose of our lives
and the test by which we count the significance of what we do.
The
Colossian church was bombarded by teaching that said that Jesus was not enough
to live a satisfied, God pleasing and significant life. Our world today can
give us the same messages though perhaps in a more subtle way.
For
example Christians today live in a western culture that scoffs and belittles
Christian faith. Our culture is post-modern, materialist and spiritualist. The post-modernist
culture particularly attacks christians for making absolute truth claims and
claiming the uniqueness of Jesus. The materialist culture subtly
preaches the message that you will not be truly happy and satisfied unless you
surround yourself with more and more things. The spiritualist culture
says that you need different spiritualities to fully understand God.
Increasingly we have seen an interest in spirituality and New Age. In our
celebrity age celebrities have influence and interest in spirituality so far as
it suits them. We see that Madonna has her Kabbalah, Tom Cruise and John
Travolta follow Scientology, George Lucas of Star Wars fame describes himself
as a Buddhist Methodist! Spirituality is in – “may the force be with you!” These
philosophies are not coherent, they are contradictory and confused and again
this is a mark of our society. No wonder so many of our young people are
confused and lost.
But
when we live in such a culture we find that the drip, drip, drip of secularism,
spiritualism and anti-christian comment has an impact on believers today just
as it would have had on the Colossians. They, and we, may find that doubts
creep in, uncertainty and even anxiety can become common and with that comes a
lack of joy and a lack of satisfaction. We can begin to look to other things
and other philosophies to bring us that elusive experience of happiness and
total well being. Paul would say to us that rather than look elsewhere we need
to look deeper into Christ, he is the beginning and end of all things, he is
sent from God and is God, and he is the one who forgives us and sets us free to
enjoy life as it was meant to be enjoyed.
Fullness
is available in him. And so part of
the purpose of looking at Colossians is to help us have a restored confidence in
Jesus Christ as the source of our salvation and the root of the knowledge of
God and of ourselves. In Christ we truly have, as Paul says in 1:27, “the
hope of glory”. He is supreme, sufficient and efficient for life here and
hereafter. Having security and assurance can make all the difference to how we
go through life. Many today live in a state of anxiety, nervousness and
confusion. Many Christians may outwardly attend church and make the right
noises but deep down there is anxiety, worry, nervousness, with no real deep
understanding of God and his ways and their relationship with Jesus is at best
flimsy rather than solid. I hope that as we look at this letter we will have a
more robust faith and a more real relationship with God through his Spirit. In
Christ we can have fullness, this is God’s will for us.
So
after that introduction I want us to see in v.3-14 how we should support each
other while we live in a post-modern, materialist and spiritualist culture.
What do we need to do to encourage each other towards the fullness that God
wants us to experience? Well Paul’s thoughts on this can be divided into two – be
thankful and be prayerful. Be thankful with Paul for three things
and pray for four things.
BE THANKFUL
The
default setting for the Christian ought to be one of thankfulness. If we are
going to attain fullness in Christ I am convinced that having a spirit
of thankfulness is key. Paul you remember was in prison, he was
incarcerated, deprived of freedom, unjustly held and yet instead of gripes
there is gratitude, instead of self – pity and self-centredness he is self-less
and prayerful for others, instead of having a bad attitude towards God he is
thankful and encouraging of others.
We
take this for granted – it is what we expect from Paul but this is something
that we need to learn if we are to mature as christians and as people. This
attitude form Paul does not just come through in this letter but from others - (Eph.1:16 “I
have not stopped giving thanks for you”; Philipp.1:3 “I thank my God every time I remember you”; Philemon 1:4 “I always thank my God as I remember you…”).
Paul had a thankful spirit. Is this our basics setting as Christians –
thankfulness.
He
was thankful for three things -
1.
Thankful for their faith
He
gives God the credit for their faith and their love for the saints (v.4). Note
that it is faith in Jesus, not a vague belief in God which many claim to have
but a personal faith in a person. It is not just an intellectual nod to a creed
or a set of statements but faith in a person. This faith outworks itself in a
real, tangible love for their fellow Christians. Their faith has integrity and
authenticity, it makes a difference to how they live and behave. Although Paul
is separated from them by many miles he has heard of their love, he has heard
examples from Epaphras (v.8) of how their faith is displayed.
Note
also that it is a faith that is not only in a person but it is based on hope.
We are used to this triad of faith, hope and love in the New Testament
writings. In v.5 the faith and love spring from “the hope that is stored up for you in heaven.” The christian’s hope
is a sure and certain hope, not a hope all things will work out kind of hope.
This sure and certain hope has hands and feet and heart. It again makes a
difference to how people live on earth. Rather than being so heavenly minded
they are of no earthly use their hope filled heavenly mindedness informs and
inspires their earthly living.
2.
Thankful for gospel bearing fruit world wide.v.6
We
have a gospel which every day is producing fruit in the world now as then.
Every day thousands of people are being born again. God’s Spirit is moving and
changing lives. The gospel is universal and effective – it is changing Chinese,
Africans, British, Romanian, Brazilians, North Americans, Iraqi and Australian.
It is a worldwide faith and we like Paul need to be thankful that God is
continuing to move. Let’s have a world vision. God is saving in the ones and
twos but this is adding up to a great harvest.
3.
Thankful for Epaphras (v.7-8)
Paul
had a generous spirit. He himself had not been responsible for the planting of
this church, like many of the others, but he is just as thankful for this
church and for Epaphras. Here we do not find a spirit of jealousy or
one-upmanship but a spirit of sharing the work, of thankfulness for blessing
coming from the labours of a “fellow servant” and “faithful minister”. Are
those of us who are in leadership genuinely thankful for how God uses others
and blesses others to bring in converts and build churches or are we jealous
and jaundiced against them!
BE PRAYERFUL
In
the last section from v.9-14 Paul reminds the church that he often prays for
them. Here we will get a good model for what we should pray for each other.
At
a general level Paul’s methods and habits of prayer are worth noting and following. a)
He prayed regularly (9a) and so should we; b) he prayed prayers that were
saturated with praise and thanksgiving (v.3,12) (as we have seen) and so should
we; and c) he prayed specific prayers for others (v.9-11) – especially for their
spiritual development, and so should we. Paul prayed preventative prayers – he
prayed for people when things were going well. We so often just earnestly begin
to pray for people when the wheels have come off. CS Lewis once wrote to one of his praying
friends – “I specially need your prayers
because I am (like the pilgrim in Bunyan) travelling across a plain called
Ease. Everything without and many things within are marvellously well at
present”.
Can
I especially emphasise that as we look at Paul’s prayers as they are recorded
in his letters although he is concerned about people’s all round health,
physically and spiritually, his prayers major on the spiritual and on people
understanding their position in Christ, what God has done for them and how they
can go deeper in understanding of God’s will. As we come to look in a little
more detail as what we should be praying for each other let’s especially take
note of how Paul prays and use this as a model for our prayer lives for each
other.
In
v.9-14 we could say he prays for four specific areas for the Colossian
Christian.
1.
Increased knowledge (v.9)
“we have not stopped praying
for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all
spiritual wisdom and knowledge”. (also 10b “growing in the knowledge of God”)
Someone has said faith rests not on ignorance but on
knowledge. One of the best things that we can pray for each other is that we
will grow in knowledge of God and of God’s will. It is not an easy thing to
know the mind of God but if we are born again we should have a hunger to know
God and how he thinks. The scriptures are the main way in which we discover how
God thinks so we need to feed ourselves on them. We need to have a desire to
read, study, meditate upon these words and as our spirit interacts with God’s
Spirit these words are not dead letters but a living word that is dynamic and
applies to our situations today.
It is great to see the expectancy and the
inquisitiveness of the new Christian to understand more about God, but after
twenty or thirty years of being a Christina do we still have that desire to
grow in understanding of God, are we mature students? For knowledge leads to
wisdom – if we are lazy students we will be hazy students about doctrine, God’s
will, God’s mind. As the writer of Hebrews wrote by now many of you should be
teachers of the word, living on the meat but actually you are still on the
milk, the basics. Let’s pray for an increased desire in this congregation to
understand God’s word, his will, his ways. Understanding fuels holiness and
creates a virtuous cycle of going deeper into God, his purposes and his
fullness.
2. Pray for fruit bearing
Out of this increased knowledge comes increased
pleasure in God and of God in us.
“that you may live a life
worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way, bearing fruit in every good
work…” (v.10)
We
need to pray for each other that we will be more and more fruitful in good
works and in bringing pleasure to God. As someone has said believing the right
things (credenda) should lead to
doing the right things (agenda).
The
hands and feet follow the mind and heart. Change the mind, change the
behaviour. The test of real faith is whether it makes a real difference in how
we live and how we behave towards others. In our world we have so much
information but little transformation. There is a low information action ratio.
(LIAR) We need to pray that the information we learn will result in action, in
changed lives.
3.
Pray that God will strengthen us.
v.11
“being strengthened with all power
according to his glorious might..”
We need help to
do this as we cannot do it in our own strength. Ask God to help us to overcome
the strong forces of the human nature which drag us down. When a plane takes
off the power, upthrust and force of the engines has to be stronger than the
down thrust of gravity. The pull of sin is strong – to rise above it we need
the power of the Spirit in our lives. Pray for his power, it is the only power
strong enough to overcome sin and satan’s power.
4. Joyful Thankfulness
(v.12-14)
Again Paul ends
as he began in a spirit of joyful thankfulness. Let’s pray for each other that
God will give us a spirit of thankfulness – especially being thankful that we
have been rescued from darkness and have been brought into the kingdom of the
Son whom he loves; being thankful for our redemption and the forgiveness we
enjoy. Changing lordships means changing kingdoms. “God’s domain is filled with light, and its charter is love” David
Garland. Sin cripples but God’s grace in Christ frees.
Are you thankful
for these things – maybe we need to be re-acquainted with the danger and the
darkness that we have been saved from. Is their a passion there that is evident
even in how we sing of our salvation, or are we apathetic, blasé and a bit
jaded? I say again – is a spirit of thankfulness your default setting as a
christian. This is basic and foundational to achieving fullness.
In Eugene
O’Neill’s play called Lazarus Laughed O’Neill has a guest recalling the scene
after Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.
”And then Lazarus knelt and kissed Jesus
feet and both of them smiled and Jesus blessed him and called him “my brother”
and went away; and Lazarus, looking after him, began to laugh softly like a man
in love with God”.
We too are risen
from the dead. Are we leaving today laughing and in love with God? Let’s pray
thus for each other.