Col No.12 The Preacher's Aim and Aid

Now we come to our final study from this opening chapter of the remarkable epistle which Paul wrote to the church at Colossae. It was not my intention some months ago to preach so long on this opening chapter but one prays that the direction may have come from the Holy Spirit and I'm asking you again to have your Bibles open and if you haven't got the New Testament with you then it's written out these two verses that we're looking at on the bulletin which was handed to you by the stewards as you came into the sanctuary. Let me read those final verses.

Whom we preach warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus where unto I also labor striving according to his working which worketh in me mightily. You will recall that last week we were looking at the previous two verses in which the Apostle uses a remarkable way of describing the gospel. He refers to it as a mystery.

Now I said to you that that's surprising. You have heard of the gospel called the good news and the word of reconciliation and it comes somewhat as a shock to hear the Apostle using the word mystery to describe it and yet as I tried to show you from the Old Testament there are antecedents of this. There is a hint of this.

None of the prophets clearly saw the way that God would redeem the world but they believed that such redemption would be possible and this great secret which is latent in the Old Testament it's declared in all its fullness and in all its majesty in the Lord Jesus and on biblical grounds alone the Apostle has the right to employ such terminology. But again you may recall that another reason why he uses this technical term mystery is because at Colossae and various other Greek centers where a church had been established there were those who were coming along claiming to have a superior revelation to the ordinary Christian. They were the modern precursors of the of the cults that we get in the in the 20th century.

People claiming an additional revelation, a greater enlightenment. They had been brought into a mystery which was superior to other ordinary Christians. So Paul in a daring fashion he takes this technical word mystery and he says if you want to know what the mystery is it's none other than the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ.

Verse 27 this mystery among the Gentiles is Christ in you the hope of glory. Well I mentioned these things so that it will be a springboard in our understanding to go straight on to the 28th and the 29th verses. And here you will find the Apostle coming back to an autobiographical reference.

He's speaking more personally. He did this in the 24th and the 23rd verses you recall. And then he engaged in this little deflection in his teaching.

He was telling us a little bit more about our understanding of the gospel. Not a deflection in the sense that it wasn't basic to his own argument but it moved away from his personal revelation of the way that he understood and applied himself to his ministry. But he comes back to this and he gives us in these two verses what I have called the preacher's aims and the preacher's aid.

The preacher's aims and the preacher's aid. And I had in mind simply to list those four or five aims that are there within the 28th and the first part of the 29th verse and then go on to show you a couple of aids that also are present. But I feel strangely moved this morning instead of using that outline rather just to take you right through these two verses.

That's why I particularly ask you to have the verses that are written out on the bulletin in front of you. Those who perhaps haven't got the authorized version of the scriptures. And I want by the aid of the Spirit of God to show you very clearly as we go through this particular statement that the Apostle makes just what is the aim and what are the aids available not only to preachers but to all Christians who have been entrusted with the gospel and therefore have part in this vital ministry of communication.

So let's start off at the beginning of verse 28 where the Apostle leads with this comment. Whom we preach. He's speaking about his message.

But notice he doesn't say what we preach. He says whom we preach. He's back again to what he's been saying in the 27th verse.

Christ in you the hope of glory. This is who we are preaching. It's not just a principle but a person.

Not just a message but a man. That's what we are aiming as preachers to bring to men and women who will listen. And my friend the point is inescapable that the Christian gospel is bound around one man.

You can't preach the ethics of the New Testament without preaching the Christ of the New Testament. The gospel is not what the Lord alone said. The gospel is also basic to who the Lord was.

So the Apostle here says that it's the aim of every creature and he uses the plural we. Whom we preach. It's the aim of every preacher.

Epaphroditus the pastor of the church at Colossae. Timothy the one whose name is used in the first verse in the opening greeting. Paul himself.

The rest of the apostolic college. All who feel a desire to communicate the gospel. We preach Jesus Christ.

That's the aim of the gospel ambassador. And notice he says whom we preach. He doesn't say whom we have come to discuss.

To deliberate on. We do not go to Colossae or to Rome or Thessalonica to offer a few suggestions about the gospel. No.

That is far beyond the Apostles thinking. We have come to tell out. We have come to declare.

The actual Greek is we have come to proclaim. You see this is the reason why the BBC often gives me if I can use the expression the willies. When it comes across with its religious broadcasts and you get the Abbot from somewhere or another and the philosopher from some particular university and a lecturer in ethics all having a little discussion about certain things which we are told are relevant to the Christian faith.

And this goes out under the heading of preaching the gospel. It's got nothing to do with preaching the gospel at all. The gospel is not something to be deliberated on.

It's not something to be discussed in a cozy half-hour chat and relayed to the nation. The gospel is the dogmatic declaration that Jesus Christ is Lord. That men and women are sinners and that apart from the work of Jesus on the cross there is no hope of redemption for mankind.

So you'd never have got the Apostle Paul on one of these programs if that I am sure. And we continue what he has to say as he makes very clear what is the aim of the ambassador of the gospel of Jesus. We preach the Savior and we preach in in such a fashion that we warn every man.

Warning. The idea here is of cautioning. One thinks of the friendly policeman who comes along and tells you that if you do leave your car standing on a double yellow line then you will very quickly be brought in front of the magistrates.

Cautioning. Warning. But of a much more serious nature is the gospel admonition declared.

It's speaking about the problem that men and women are in without the word of reconciliation. Without an understanding of this great mystery. These things as the Apostle are not messages.

It's not information that you can put on one side and ignore. One day you will have to stand in front of a holy God and if you stand in front of Him as a sinner then you are in a very terrible situation indeed. So says the Apostle.

We know the terror of the law of the Lord and we go around Asia Minor warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom. We declare the unsearchable riches of Jesus in such a fashion that we warn that a person who does not respond to the gospel of Jesus does not do so at his or her own peril. So it's a ministry of admonition as well as a declaration of the central fact that Jesus died on the cross to save.

And notice that the aim of the preacher is to evoke the attention of every person. Three times you get that one expression in verse 28. Warning every man.

Teaching every man that we may present every man perfecting Christ Jesus. I'll tell you something. Sometimes from this pulpit or at least from those who will come into this pulpit or here or into this church and hear what is proclaimed the criticism is made that the tabernacle stands for the free offer of the gospel.

Now I have made no secret of the fact that I believe that a great deal of the systematic theology of John Calvin was of great benefit to the Christian Church. John Calvin was a man who particularly highlighted the whole idea of the doctrine of election and the re are some people who've gone far beyond John Calvin and they have said that you're not to preach the gospel to everybody you're only to preach the gospel to the elect. Well my difficulty is this.

Spotting who the elect are when they come into the church so I can enlighten them with the gospel. And it seems to me and I'm rather encouraged by the thought that Paul the man from Tarsus ordained by God as a missionary extraordinary had the same difficulty. And so wherever he went around the Roman Empire he warned every man.

He endeavored to teach every man. He wanted to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. Here is scriptural warrant for the universal declaration of the message that Jesus saved and that in and through him alone can salvation come to those who will confess his lordship and accept his work of salvation.

So this is another aim of the Apostle. He wants to warn every man and not only warn him he wants to teach every man. Not only to bring to him the fact of Jesus dying on the cross as being the way in which salvation is attainable on confession of faith but to teach him the whole doctrines of grace.

The Apostle Paul you see though he's an evangelist he's also an educator. I think today that perhaps we make too subtle a distinction between the work of an evangelist and that of a teacher. I know that there is a difference in emphasis but the evangelist must always merge to teaching in his ministry.

That's the reason why the Apostle Paul spent three years in Ephesus teaching men and women each day the glorious truths of the gospel and the various aspects of theological teaching as are contained in our New Testament and as are latent in the Old Testament. This is why here on a Sunday morning we've been working our way through this this chapter. I trust it's not been tortuous to you.

I trust that it's been stimulating to you. I trust that it's whetted your appetite for more grasp of the truth of God so that you are enabled to give an answer to those who question you concerning the the Christian faith. I'm always delighted particularly when young men and young women but particularly young men get interested in the Bible and the study of the Word of God.

I'm always concerned if they opt for other aspects of Christian work and service and leave on one side the necessity of coming to the Bible and immersing their mind and soaking their intellect and warming their hearts in the things of God. There is nothing more vital my young friend let me tell you than this, than coming to this book and being taught in the truths of Scripture, going to someone who perhaps can help you to get a fuller and deeper grasp of the revelation of God so that you in turn can commit it to other people. There is nothing that is more fundamental and more necessary for young people and older people too, for young people to be educated in the things of God.

That's why we're having our Bible studies in Deuteronomy and I wonder how many of you are aware of what is contained within Deuteronomy. That's why we had our study on Thursday last on the whole aspect of covenant. I wonder if you know how vital the whole subject of covenant is to salvation theology as taught in the New Testament.

You don't know? I tell you that there are people in the sects who spend hours and hours and hours in this book but alas they're not brought to the truth because alongside this book they've got their own so-called holy books through which they pour this teaching. But sometimes as a result of their diligence and their wrong application of this word they're more instructed in the particular tenets of their sect than what most evangelical Christians are. The majority of young people alas that I come across today I think would be very very hard pressed to give scriptures that would underpin the position that we take on the doctrine of the Trinity, the doctrine of the pre-existence of the Lord Jesus, the whole aspect of redemption.

And I say that this very ignorance underlines the necessity to be taught in the scriptures, to come to the Word of God and to allow the Word of God to soak into your mind and into your very personality. Well here's the Apostle and he says that this is not only my objective, it's a burden that Epaphroditus shares, it's a burden that Timothy shares, we all share it. Warning every man of the judgment of God, teaching every believer in all wisdom, bringing him to an understanding of the full truth of redemption.

So that what Paul? So that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. That's something that really warms my heart. The Apostle you see has this concern, he wants men and women who love Jesus to be mature.

He wants people who confess that Jesus is their Savior, no longer to be children in the faith but to be adults. This whole word perfect has to do with the finished product, understanding the gospel of the Lord Jesus, living a life that is exemplary. So that when that day comes and you stand before the throne of judgment, you will give your own life as an example of someone who's mature in Christ Jesus.

Now all of us who belong to the Savior are called to pass on the gospel to other people and what's our concern for these other people? Well that we might help them. We don't want them to be children. This little boy that's just been born in the Payne family, they're praising God for this youngster right now.

But they don't always want him to be on milk. They don't always want him to be pleased with a rattle. They don't always want to be moving him around in a pram.

They want him to grow to maturity, to move on from milk to more solid things, to grow physically. And this is what the Apostle Paul has in mind. So on other occasions, for instance, when he's writing to the Corinthians, he says, in your understanding I want you to be men.

I don't want you just to be on the milk of the gospel. That itself is important but you need to move on to the meat of the Word. This whole idea of growing in grace and in the knowledge of God is basic to New Testament teaching.

But how many spiritual dwarfs we have with us in the 20th century. It's always sad to see a person who's stunted in growth, an embarrassment to them. But what a great embarrassment it is to the Church of the Redeemed when there are those who've responded to the message of reconciliation and yet they remain as dwarfs.

They never come to the full stature of the measure that there is in Jesus, to which Paul alludes in Ephesians chapter 3. They remain down there at infantile level. No, says Paul, my aim is this. The aim of my colleagues is this.

And this is the reason why we preach so positively and teach so carefully that on that day when we stand before the judgment seat of God, we may present our spiritual children mature in Jesus. Sunday school teacher, youth leader who happened to be in the congregation this morning, isn't that a lovely mandate for you? Isn't that a tremendous ambition? To take these young men that God has given you, these young girls, and to teach them so carefully and to be with them for many a long hour, to win their confidence and to build into them Christian principles so that the day will come when you stand before the throne of grace and you present your spiritual children before God as those who are mature in Jesus Christ. I wish I had words to present this to you from Scripture as clearly as I believe it should be proclaimed.

I wish I could infuse a passion into every one of you, born not by eloquence on my part, but born by the power of the Holy Spirit, to be engaged in this ministry of preparing men and women for maturity in Christ Jesus and in the very process becoming mature ourselves. There is no room for spiritual dwarfs in the evangelical community in the 20th century. We want rather to see the process of people moving from the nursery into the middle school and onto the secondary school and through, as it were, to college and university in the school of Christ.

I'm not using those terms in the realm purely of intellect. Intellectual snobbery, theological acumen in and of itself does not impress me and it's not what Paul is about. But he has a concern, and we have a concern in this church, that men and women may be mature, presented perfect in Jesus.

Whereunto, says the Apostle, I labour. These are my aims and this is the aid that I use, my own physical energy. Whereunto, I also labour.

He's getting very personal now. Notice he switched pronouns. He's moved from the we to the I. He's not just thinking in terms of his colleagues.

He's rather bringing himself to bear upon his sentiments. And he's saying, yes, this is what causes me to go around Turkey and Macedonia and on into Italy, I and if I can to Spain, because I want to present as many people as possible mature in Jesus Christ. Whereunto, I also labour.

And that word labour is an interesting one. Do you remember in the Gospels the idea of the Lord Jesus of rather the disciples of the the Savior on the Sea of Galilee and the wind had come and the elements therefore were contrary and they were very very tired indeed. And the comment is made that they were weary in labour.

They were toiling all night and they were weary as they were putting the oar in and trying to beat the elements, keeping the the boat upright and moving towards some safer sanctuary. Well, this is the Apostle, the idea that he has. I'm like an oarsman and the wind is contrary and the waves are high and I find that sometimes I'm reduced of all energy and yet I continue to labour.

I battle on, believing that my ministry is so vital that anyone who comes along and whispers the word retirement in my ear cannot make an impression or impact upon me. I labour to present men perfect in Christ, striving according to his working. The idea there is that the Apostle Paul is contending.

Contending against what? Contending against all the pressures that come over against him as an ambassador of the Lord Jesus. And pressures there were. You read what he has to say in 2nd Corinthians.

He says, who is weak and I am not weak? Who is pressed down beyond measure and I'm not pressed down and beyond measure? The Apostle knows what it is to spend and be spent for the Lord Jesus Christ and he has to strive and contend against temptations to to give up. Ah, but look, the Apostle says that not only as an aid to achieving his aims is his own desire and wishes, but also, blessed be God, I strive according to his working which worketh in me mightily. What's the Apostle here saying? Well, he's going back to the whole idea of the body of Christ.

He's spoken before of this great secret, Christ in me, the hope of glory. Now, how am I, this man from Tarsus, how am I going to continue as an ambassador with all these tremendous pressures against me? I will continue, says the Apostle, because there is that that works in me mightily. The Lord Jesus Christ is placed within me, the blessed Holy Spirit.

I labor and he labors. I'm willing and sometimes I'm bereft of all energy, but the Spirit of God comes along and he renews me daily in the inner man with the might that I require. Striving according to his working, the Greek there is the word which gives us the English energy, and according to the energy of the Holy Spirit, that energy which works in me mightily, so I lay before the Lord.

You got the picture from Isaiah of the man who's who's weary and well-doing. He spent himself and yet when he waits upon the Lord, he finds that his strength is renewed. He's run and he's run so fast and for such a long, long distance that he's no more strength left, and yet when he waits before the Lord, he finds that there's a renewal of strength so that he can mount up with wings as eagles.

He can run and not be weary. He can walk and not faint. So the Apostle tells us that sometimes he thinks of himself in terms of a marathon, and he's done one course of the track and another course.

He's running, he's running, and his energy is being used up, and he's striving, he's stretching every nerve, every muscle is poised with the intent of achieving the position of being first across the line, and when energy is completely dissipated and it seems as though he must flag and fail in his aim, the Spirit of God comes upon him. Blessed union, blessed enabling to achieve the purposes of the Lord, wherefore I also labor, striving according to his working which worketh in me mightily. These are my aims, says the Apostle.

I want to preach Jesus. I want to warn men and women that unless they respond to the gospel of redeeming grace, then they're doomed to eternal condemnation. I want to teach young men and women in the faith and make them mature in the Lord Jesus, so I can present them perfect before the Heavenly Father on the day of judgment.

And to that end, I fall back upon my own enabling, but that's inadequate. I sometimes find that I'm bereft of strength and I can't continue, but then I realize I'm not on my own. The whole teaching of the church, of a living organism, of Jesus being the head and me being part of the body, comes in.

The very pulsations of the Holy Spirit, the energies of the Spirit to which Paul refers in Corinthians, they quicken my body. And I move on and on and on, and I light a torch for the gospel here and a torch for the gospel there. That Spirit works in me mightily.

I'm like some Samson. My strength is not stunted by anyone lopping off the locks of my hair. I go into the temple of Dagon and I put my arms around the pillows and I do a superb demolition job amongst the pagan communities.

And out they come from the imprisonment, from the captivity of superstition, into the great wisdom that is in Jesus Christ. I introduce them to the gospel. I watch over them as a father watches over his baby.

And I see them grow into boyhood and on to become youths and then on to full maturity. And I reserve for myself the inestimable privilege of presenting these men and women perfect before God on the day of judgment. My friend, do you get that picture? I tell you, if the whole of us in this church could get the picture of working for God and presenting men and women perfect on the day of judgment, it would galvanize us in our evangelistic activities.

It would mean that we would be prostrated far more often before the throne of grace in prayer. It would mean that any party dissension, any schism, any faction that might ever suggest itself within the church would immediately be scotched as we realize that the first priority as a community of God's people in the center of this town is to take the message of Jesus and to proclaim it and to use every fiber of our being in so doing and realize that as we work, so the blessed Spirit of God works in us mightily to the demolition of Satan's strongholds and the release of those who are imprisoned by superstition and heresy so they too can come to the wisdom that there is in the gospel of Jesus. These were Paul's aims.

These were Paul's aids. And blessed be God, they have not changed down the centuries and they remain as ours in the 1970s. Amen.

Father, the words are so easily sung, but when may we know the reality of them. May we know this Holy Ghost galvanizing of every person in this sanctuary so that we labor and find that God by His Spirit labors in us even more mightily, enabling us to achieve our objective of proclaiming the glorious gospel, warning every man, teaching every man, and bringing ultimately men and women into your kingdom and presenting them one day before you, perfect, mature in Christ. And may that maturity be experienced by each one of us here for Jesus' sake.

Amen.