Claiming our Riches in Christ: The Book of Colossians
02/09/2003 - Time for a Heart Check
February is American Heart Month and February 14, Valentine's Day, is Congenital Heart Disease Awareness Day. Did you realize that? I didn't, but in reading about that this week I was reminded again that the number one killer in America is heart disease.
In 2000, the latest year of published statistics, cardio vascular disease was responsible for almost 40% of all the deaths that occurred in the United States, that's 1 out of every 2.5 fatalities. Nearly 2,600 Americans die every day of heart disease, that's an average of about one every 33 seconds, more lives than the next five diseases combined. And most of them, believe it or not, are female, 54% in 2000.
The risk of falling victim to heart disease increases with smoking and high cholesterol, in activity and carrying extra weight, all the indicators that my father had when he suffered a heart attack at the age of 52.
The symptoms include pressure and discomfort in the chest and other areas of the upper body, arms, neck, jaw, shortness of breath, cold sweat, nausea and lightheadedness. And if you ever feel any of those things don't mess around. The American Heart Association recommends that you call 911 within the first five minutes to increase your chances of survival.
They also recommend ways to prevent heart disease through a healthy diet and ongoing exercise and regular physical exams. It's important to get your heart checked on a regular basis.
There's nothing more important to our overall physical health than the condition of our heart. And the same can said for our spiritual health. There is nothing more important to our overall spiritual health than the condition of our heart.
And so today as we continue our series in Colossians called Claiming Our Riches in Christ we're going to take time for a heart check. We're all going to get up on treadmill, hook ourselves up to the monitor and take a look at the condition of our hearts, because that's what the apostle Paul reveals to us in this next section of the letter. He shows us his heart. He lets us see what makes him tick and what caused him to be one of the greatest ministers to people the world has ever known.
So we're going to take a serious look at what it takes to really minister to people. And remember that's what we all are, ministers, servants of God and each other. God didn't save us to be churchgoers. He saved us to be ministers.
Up until now Paul has been praying and praising God for this new church in Colosse that Epaphras told him about. He's been describing the great riches that we have in knowing Jesus Christ as our Savior and laying the foundation for our lives as believers. He's told us who we are "in Christ." We have a share in God's inheritance. We are citizens of a new kingdom. We have been redeemed from spiritual bondage. We are rich and secure in Christ.
Then last week he exalted Jesus Christ and gave us seven reasons why Christ deserves to be number one in our lives. He is the image of the invisible God. The firstborn over all creation. The creator of the world. The sustainer of the world. The head of his church. The firstborn among the dead. The sustainer of all things.
Paul has been laying a strong foundation for our beliefs because he knows that our beliefs shape our values and our values drive our behavior. And now in this next section he'll show us the impact these core beliefs had on his life and ministry.
If you have a Bible meet me at Colossians 1:24-2:5. In my Bible this section is titled "Paul's Labor for the Church." And in these eleven verses we're going to use five probing questions to take a spiritual EKG that will help us all do a heart check. These questions aren't original with me they come from Tom Holladay's material on Colossians that I have found extremely helpful.
Look at Colossians 1:24, Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church.
The first question is, what's your attitude toward suffering? In this passage Paul says, I rejoice in what I've suffered for you. Can you imagine ever saying that about the suffering in your life? I rejoice over it? What's going on inside Paul's heart that would give him joy in suffering?
To answer that it helps to go back to the day of Paul's conversion to Christ on the road to Damascus. On that day the Lord said to Paul through a man named Ananias in Acts 9:15-16, Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.
How would you like to be told that on the first day that you became a Christ follower? Not a very good sales technique! But from the very beginning of his Christian life Paul knew he was destined for pain.
Jesus says we can all expect some degree of suffering in our lives if we're going to follow him and serve people. We won't be able to totally avoid it. That's what he said to his disciples in John 15:18-21, If the world hates you, keep in mind it hated me first ... if they persecuted me they will persecute you also ... They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me.
It's impossible to follow Jesus and not suffer to some degree because we just don't fit in this world. It's not our home. Paul put it this way in 2 Timothy 3:12, Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
We're not masochists, we don't look for suffering, we don't choose to suffer, but when we do suffer we all have a choice. We can choose to grow bitter or we can grow better. We can even get to the point where we rejoice in our suffering. Why? Because it's part of our identification with Jesus Christ. It's part of becoming more like him.
Paul says, I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions. This is the toughest verse in book of Colossians. What he means here is not that Christ's death on the cross was somehow lacking in anyway. His suffering was completely sufficient to pay for our sins. Which is why Jesus could say from the cross, "Tetelestai. It is finished. Paid in full."
The afflictions of Christ that Paul was filling up are the afflictions that come with serving people. Paul is talking about the suffering that Christ went through while he was alive serving others. He got tired. He got hungry. He got drained physically, spiritually and emotionally. He stayed up late. Got up early. He was hassled, used and misunderstood. He was betrayed, denied and rejected. At times he received very little thanks and appreciation for what he did for others. Those are the afflictions that Paul was filling up.
Jesus' ministry on earth was only for three years. Now we, as the body of Christ, are doing his ministry for him. And so the stuff that came at him while he was here is now coming at us. So don't be surprised from time to time if your ministry to others leaves you feeling tired and drained, hassled and used, misunderstood and betrayed, denied and rejected. But it's in those times that we develop a closeness with Jesus that can't be developed any other way. He will never leave us or forsake us. And that's what we rejoice over. Suffering is not a penalty, but the privilege of sharing in Christ's work. What's your attitude toward suffering?
I love what Oswald Chambers says, "To choose to suffer means that there is something wrong. To choose God's will even if it means suffering is a different thing. No healthy saint ever chooses suffering. He chooses God's will as Jesus did whether it means suffering or not."
The second heart check question is, what's your reason for serving? Look at verse 25,I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness.
Paul served Christ and his church because he had a commission from God. That commission is what kept him going when serving got hard and went unappreciated and when people took advantage of him and criticized him and didn't respond to his efforts.
What's your reason for serving other people? What keeps you going when you feel unappreciated and taken advantage of, used and criticized? Every parent in this room can relate to those feelings along with anyone who's serious about serving Christ. The desire to be recognized, the longing to be praised, the need to please people, the need to be needed, the attempt to alleviate some kind of guilt are all motives that will fail us when things get tough.
This Saturday five of us from Valley View will be going Culiacan, Mexico, to serve migrate Indian workers. And a few weeks ago we met for an orientation and talked about the trip and what was going to happen and what we'd be doing and all the things that we needed to bring. And at the end I said, "The most important thing you can bring is not a sleeping bag and a flashlight, but a heart to serve Jesus. To do whatever it takes, whatever is asked and to do it with joy not because your serving me, or the Indians, or the Culiacan Project or Dave and Gerry Gutierrez, but because your serving Christ. We've been commissioned by him for this trip."
And that's the attitude that enables us to endure when serving gets tough, the attitude that we've been commissioned by God to serve as a pastor or as a small group leader or a Young Life leader or an Elder or a Development Team member, in the children's ministry, on the worship team, on the setup team, in some kind of compassion or counseling ministry, in a Bible study at school or at work, as a parent or a friend to someone in need, you name it, it's a commission from God. That's what gets us through.
Now Paul, no doubt, had a specific call on his life and that was to reveal a mystery. Look at verse 26,the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. 27 To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
The Greek word "mystery" means something that was once hidden but has now been brought to light. Paul was given the special commission from God to unwrap a beautiful package that contained a gift that had never been seen before. And the gift was the glorious truth of Christ in you, the hope of glory.
The Old Testament promised Israel a Messiah, a Christ, but it said nothing about Christ living inside people, Jews as well as Gentiles. The Jews hated the Gentiles and called them dogs, not as in pets, but as in wild, unclean scavengers that roamed the city streets. The truth that one day Jew and Gentile alike would become one in Christ, equal members of the body of Christ, indwelled by Jesus Christ himself was a mystery that Paul had the privilege to reveal. But not everyone was thrilled to hear it. Gentiles were because it elevated their lowly position. But many Jews struggled with it, so much so that Paul got beat up for up, stoned for it, whipped for it, imprisoned for it and eventually killed for proclaiming the mystery.
What's your reason for serving? Only a sense of a commission from God will enable us to endure the afflictions that often come with service.
The third heart check question comes from verse 28, We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ.
The question is, how big is your vision? Paul had a big vision for God, because he had a big God. Two words in this verse sum up the size of his vision and they are "everyone" and "perfect." You can't get any bigger than "everyone" or better than "perfect." Paul didn't want to reach just one person during his lifetime. He wanted to reach everybody. And he didn't just want to lead them to Christ. He wanted to help them become perfect. That word "perfect" doesn't mean sinless, nobody will ever become sinless in this life, instead it means mature. He wanted to help everybody he could become mature in Jesus Christ or what we call around here a fully devoted follower of Christ.
And he used three tools to accomplish his vision, proclaiming, admonishing and teaching. The word proclaim means to "tell openly." Admonish means "to warn gently." To teach means "to show clearly." Tell openly, warn gently, show clearly the message of Christ. Those are the tools God gave Paul to accomplish his vision. But they aren't just the tools for apostles or pastors or preachers. Those are the tools for all of us. In our homes, with our families, God wants us to tell openly, warn gently, show clearly the message of Christ. In our jobs, in our schools, among our friends God wants us to tell openly, warn gently and show clearly the truth about Christ.
It's so easy to have our vision shrink or disappear all together. The stuff of life has a way of stealing our vision. Do you have a vision of what God wants to do in your life, in your marriage, in your kids, in your ministry to others? Some of us are afraid to have a vision, especially a big vision, because we don't want to be disappointed if it doesn't happen or put too much pressure on ourselves to pull it off. I know that's how I feel often. But that's because my focus is wrong. I'm looking too much at myself and not enough at Christ. To have a big vision we need to have a big God. And telling openly, warning gently and showing clearly the message of Christ keeps God big in our lives and the vision alive.
I love what evangelist D. L. Moody, a man who had a big vision for God, once said, "The world has yet to see what God can do with and for and through and in a man who is fully and wholly yielded to him. With God's help, I will be that man."
The fourth question in our heart check comes from verse 29, To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.
The question is, what's your source of strength? If we really have a heart for ministry and a big vision to go with it, where does the energy come from to accomplish it?
Notice what Paul doesn't say. He doesn't say, To this end I labor, struggling with all MY energy, which so powerfully works in me. That's the way I feel sometimes. Like I'm struggling with all my energy. And usually that's when I'm trying to accomplish more than God wants me to accomplish. That's when I get so focused on my agenda and checking things off my "to do" list that I leave God totally out of it. That's struggling in my own energy and it leads to frustration and disappointment and burnout.
But when I slow down I actually accomplish more of what's on his agenda. That's the great paradox of finding our strength in him. When I take time to pray and ask God for the filling of the Holy Spirit, when I get quiet and reflect a bit on what the day might hold or spend some time in the Word of God to get my perspective, or pop in a worship CD while I'm driving, or in my office studying, I'm conscious of his energy at work in me.
That's what Jesus meant when he said in John 15:5, I am the vine you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit. Apart from me you can do nothing.
We'll all have a spiritual heart attack if we're trying to serve Christ and others in our own strength without allowing God time to energize us. Someone once said, "When I work, I work. But when I pray, God works." Paul prayed a lot for these people. That's how he struggled for them.
Look at 2:1-5,I want you to know how much I am struggling for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me personally. 2 My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 4 I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine sounding arguments. 5 For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit and delight to see how orderly you are and how firm your faith in Christ is.
The final question is, what's your desire for people? What do you really want to see God do in your kids, in your friends, in your church, in you? Paul's desire, Paul's purpose was that they may be encouraged in heart, that is encouraged in their faith, and united in love , that they'd get along with each other and care for each other so that they would fully claim their riches in Christ.
The Gnostics were teaching that the treasures of wisdom and knowledge were hidden in them and that the Colossians needed Christ plus their teaching. And Paul says, "No! Don't be deceived by fine sounding arguments. Christ alone is enough."
Paul wanted to be there to protect them from that false teaching, but he couldn't. So he struggled for them in prayer. The word struggle literally means "to agonize." And often that's the only way we can minister to other people when we're not physically present or when they don't want to hear our counsel or when we can't do anything else to help them. We agonize in prayer for them so that they will be encouraged in heart and united in love and find their full riches in Christ alone. We don't need more education or another "how to" book to read or some kind of mystical experience or more rules to keep or certain spiritual gifts. We just need more of Christ. Spend your life getting to know him in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
So that's our heart check this morning. That's our spiritual EKG. That's what made Paul tick and what can keep us going in our service for God. Take one or two of those questions and let God refresh your heart and give you strength for the struggle to serve him.