Fullness (8): Colossians 4:2-18: Fullness
and Finishing Well
- Rev Norman Cameron
In this letter we have followed the
theme of the fullness of God dwelling in his Son Jesus Christ, and when we
trust in this same Jesus we find that God by His Spirit imparts something of
that fullness to us. His Spirit indwells us and begins the process of reversing
what happened in Genesis 3 and our fallenness and sinfulness is turned around
so that we begin to live the life that God intends for us as human beings. We
will not reach perfection, we will still struggle with sin, and we will
continue to be members of imperfect churches but with God’s influence within us
we will mature and grow and change, and if we are not changing then there is
either something wrong with the gospel or something wrong with us. But I have
seen sufficient people change to know that the gospel has power not just to
save but to sanctify and make people more holy – if there is a problem I think
it lies with us.
On
Wednesday evening we looked briefly at our aim as a church. It is to lead people
to faith in Jesus Christ and then to the fullness of Jesus Christ. This is why
we are here. I have a concern that people will end their days well, that they
will finish life here loving Jesus more than at the beginning. This was also
the Apostle Paul’s concern, for he had a pastor’s heart, and at the end of this
letter he wants to encourage the church at Colossae to finish well, to keep
going and growing into maturity.
A PRESSURISED WORLD
My concern is heightened by the days
that we live in because as I see it there are increasingly going to be
casualties. Life is lived at such a frenetic pace today with increased
expectations – we are meant to be good at our jobs, meet our employer’s
expectations, meet our family’s expectations of what it is to be a fabulous
mum, a great dad and so on. We are under increasing financial stress with
prices of houses going up, utility bills going up; we are travelling further to
work, our children travelling further to university and college; we work hard
and we play hard and then we collapse exhausted on a Sunday, if even then, and
then the whole thing starts again. On top of this you have the expectations of
God and church – what does it mean to be a Christian and juggle all these
expectations, how can we get the work, church, home life balance right?
For
some people it is all too much and they crash and burn in a nervous breakdown
or worryingly and more increasingly they opt out completely in suicide. Welcome
to modern western life.
In
all of this we need to get our priorities right and get a sense of what is
really important and seek to live our lives accordingly. Home life is
important, work life is important, health is important, paying the bills is
important, education is important - but
surely as followers of Jesus Christ we declare that God is most important – in
fact he is the reason we are alive at all is it not? So we must make sure in
all that we are living through that our priorities flow from Him.
You
see Jesus was aware that the world and the pressures of the world could be
overwhelming. He was aware that they could be all consuming, but as far as he
was concerned this did not let you off the hook. The bottom line was and is
that Jesus is Lord. Is that Lordship and that relationship impacting all the
other things in your life; or is Jesus just one of the many plates that are
spinning in your life and actually if any of the plates are going to drop
increasingly the one that will drop is your relationship with him because he
does not scream at you like the other priorities. They are more immediate, more
pressing, more urgent – seemingly. But remember that when Jesus talked about
the seed of faith and fruitfulness and faithfulness he talked about some gospel
seed falling amongst thorns. “Still
others, like seed sown among thorns hear the word; but the worries of this
life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and
choke the word, making it unfruitful.”( Mark 4:19)
Is
that a description of you at the moment, is that where you are. You feel like
the gospel seed in you is in danger of being smothered by the thorns and cares
and worries of this world. Many of us feel this, but if we are to reach our
full potential in Christ, if we are to continue to know the fullness of God in
us and in our church we dare not let the world choke us.
And
Paul would have a similar concern to day. Church is about coming out of the
world to go back into the world and make a Christian difference. How can we do
this? How can we stop being one of the many casualties in churches today?
Well
this is where I find Colossians 4 helpful for as I read through this I see some
things that help me stay on track with God, some things that help me get a
proper perspective, some things that Paul says that encourages me to keep
going, to stay vital, to finish the race, to finish strongly loving and serving
Jesus more than at the beginning. I see five things here to encourage us
to answer the question how can I finish well, how to keep our edge as
christians.
FINISHING WELL
1. Praying. (v.2) Paul
encourages the Colossian believers to pray. This ought to be a mainstay of a
believer’s life. If we say we have a relationship with the Lord then we nourish
and nurture that relationship through prayer. Just as in any relationship we
need to get into the place where we are comfortable in God’s company, can talk
to him and be sensitive to when he communicates with us. He communicates mainly
through his word but he can also by his Spirit communicate impressions, lead
and guide us. How is our prayer life. Are we engaged with God, are we in touch,
is it real prayer or a muttering of ritual phrases.
Prayer
keeps us close and vital with God, when we are growing cold towards God prayer
is one of the first things to go. Note that Paul uses some interesting words
around this word prayer – he uses the word “devote”. To devote means more than
a hurried few minutes early morning or late at night. Devotion means engaging
in it throughout the day, keeping the channel of prayer open and alive. It
means persistence. He uses the words watchful and thankful. There is to be an
alertness about our prayers as if our lives depended upon it, and in a sense they do. And throughout all our
praying it is good to have an attitude of thanksgiving. Thanksgiving keeps you
fresh and helps you to avoid becoming jaded and cynical in your Christian life.
If you want to keep vital and
not fall away then keep your prayer life in good repair.
2. Proclaiming. (v.3)
Paul was in the business of
proclaiming Christ, he had the heart of an evangelist. Now we are not Paul and
many of us do not have the gift of evangelism but Jesus calls us to be some
form of an evangelist. The great commission applies to all who say they are
christian – go into all the world and make disciples. Our lives are meant to be
a life of witness, we need to intentionally look for opportunities to share our
faith in our families, in our work places, at our places of leisure.
Paul
cared about people going to a lost eternity and it gave him an edge and too
many of us have the lost the edge and urgency. People all around us are lost
and confused and heading to a godless eternity. We cannot save them but God can
and he chooses to work through us using our personality, our placement, our
relationships. Are you cooling off in your faith? Maybe it is because you have
lost this concern for people – you do not see them as Jesus sees them – or
maybe it is because of fear. We want to be thought well of by others and we
know that proclaiming Jesus especially today can upset people. It upset people
in Paul’s day. He was in chains.
Friday
morning I turned on the radio and the news headline was “The army considering whether to withdraw Prince Harry from Afghanistan
as it may not be safe”. Now that
the news has leaked that Harry is serving there they think the Taliban will
target that area more. But surely danger comes with being a soldier. It comes
with the territory. He is a soldier for goodness sake, the words safe and
soldier do not go together. But the word safe and follower of Christ are not
meant to go together either and we have completely forgotten that Jesus said in
Matthew 10:22 “All men will hate you
because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved”. You sign
up to be a christian – you are going to be shot at, it comes with the
territory. (Or see John 15:18-20)
Proclaiming will keep you close to
God but it will also lead to trouble.
3. Engaging. (v.4-6). Paul
engaged with the culture and the world of his day and he wanted the Colossian believers
to spread the gospel, to be as clear as possible on what the gospel was and he
advises them to be wise in how they act with people, making the most of every
opportunity, speak with grace and have a good answer for everyone. Now there is
a lot in this and it is a sermon in itself but essentially what Paul is saying
is know your Bible, know your culture and then engage the two.
I
was speaking to a pastor of a growing church in Co Down who was telling me
about some of the older men in the church who get together with the retired
pastor of the church and once a month they get the papers and look through them
and talk about the world events and try and bring a Christian perspective on
them. Now that is super and we need more of it. We live in a hostile world to
Christianity and we need to spend more time knowing our Bibles, knowing the
culture and being prepared to answer the many issues we are faced with today.
The whole
realm of apologetics needs to be more front and centre in our churches. If we
keep on top of these things and the challenge they bring it keeps us alive,
fresh, engaged. We are on the front line and that is where we should be.
Historically churches and Christians have taken three options regarding the
world – hiding from it (disappearing into monasteries or ghettoes – favourite
text “come out from among them and be ye separate”, surrendering to it in
licence and liberalism and standing for nothing and falling for everything, or
thirdly engaging – the incarnational model of Jesus going into the world to
change it. That is the way of Christ, but it is a hard and painful road but a
satisfying road.
So
if we want to stay vital and keep strong to the end we need praying,
proclaiming and engaging. But there is a fourth thing you will need to help
keep you from falling away and that is …
4. Friendship (v.7-16)
I love reading the final chapters of
Paul’s letters because they get quite personal and they speak about the friends
who help him in ministry, his co-workers, his co-sufferers. Those who help keep
him going, praying for and with him, having a laugh, shedding tears. If you are
going to stay strong in the faith you need good godly friends. This of course
is where church comes in. God never wanted us to be lone ranger Christians. We
are part of a body and a body keeps us warm and close and faithful through the
hard times.
Church
is a vital part of keeping alive spiritually and you can always tell people who
are beginning to flag for they start to miss at church. Like a faulty engine
they start to miss. Are we looking out for each other? Is there someone who
used to sit in your pew or before or behind you and that have not been there
for a while. Why?
I
love the old story of the minister who was visiting a person who had started to
miss from church. They exchanged a few pleasantries as they sat in front of the
fire for it was winter time. Then the minister got out of his seat went over to
the fire and with the tongs took a coal out of the fire and set it on the
hearth. And they sat wordlessly and just watched that coal. Of course the
single, isolated coal cooled down and turned grey. The parishioner looked at
the minister and said “Thanks Rev. I get your point. I will see you on Sunday.”
In
this passage Paul lists at least ten names of fellows Christian who prayed and
worked with him – encouragers, leaders, church planters, prayers who wrestled
in prayer, people who could be honest with him, hard workers, fellow soldiers.
Surround yourself with these sort of people so that when the tough times come
they will help you – you may not have the energy to pray, but they will; you
may hardly be able to keep life together but they will hold you and help get
you through. We are here for each other. Keep connected to the body, the
church, it helps you to finish well.
Notice
one of the names in that list, the name of Demas (“Our dear friend Luke and
Demas send greetings.” v.14) Demas was a good friend to Paul but in 2 Timothy,
Paul’s last letter that we have written about 6 years later we read (in 2 Tim.4:9)
“Timothy do your best to come to me
quickly for Demas, who loved this world has deserted me…” Jesus said “Still others, like seed sown among thorns hear the word; but the
worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things
come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.”( Mark 4:19)
Even
someone who rubbed shoulders with Paul could fall away, the lure of the world
so strong. We all have the potential to be a Demas, be careful - “if you think you are standing firm, be careful
that you don’t fall (1 Cor.10:12) Be attentive to the corporate gatherings
of church, surround yourself with good, godly, friends.
5. Accomplishing (v.17) Paul encourages Archippus in v.17 to
“complete the work you have received in
the Lord”.
If we are to finish well it helps us to know that God has us here for a
purpose, we are unique and we are placed here in this generation to do what God
wants us to do. Jesus said “My food is to
do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. (Jn.4:34); “I have
brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do” (John
17:4).
Paul preaching in Acts 13:36 said “For when David had served God’s purpose in
his own generation, he fell asleep and he was buried with his fathers.”
You
are unique, there will never be another you and you are here to serve the
purposes of God in this generation. Do not give up or give out until you have
done all that God wants you to do. Someone said “Do not die until you have
discovered your destiny”.
Keep going
to the end, it will be worth it. Don’t just live well but die well loving and
serving Jesus more than when you began the race and then you can say with Paul- I have finished the race, I have fought the
fight, I have kept the faith and now there is in store for me the crown of
righteousness…
May
the fullness of God so fill us that we finish well, and to God be the
glory.