Sermon Cloud

Col 4:2-18

Welcome- Sarah

Reading: Psalm 104- Call to worship Song

When community works well- what does it do? How about when it’s working not so well?

Today we wrap up Colossians. What have we seen so far? Good- and after last week on Husbands and Wives, slaves and masters, after a few weeks on the person and supremacy of Christ, I’m happy that today is relatively light. We’ll wrap up Colossians, we’ll take communion, we’ll spend some time thinking, praying… But we start in Col 4.

VS 2

What do you think Paul is talking about when he says “devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind?” Alert for what?

Maybe some of what He means is be alert for Jesus coming back- that’s kind of a popular thought on this- but I don’t know… I think maybe it’s this: “Spend a lot of time praying” he says. “Devote yourself.” And then… be alert. Alert for what? Maybe for what God is doing or saying in your life. Maybe for how He’s working in what you are praying about, struggling through…

• Exercise (play “The Light” from The Album Leaf)

Here’s what I want you to do- take the paper you have there, grab a pen or pencil and spend some time thinking and writing. Consider- what have been the main threads in your life recently. If you had to put words on it, to summarize it- what’s been the theme recently? And where has God been in that? Spend a few minutes practicing watchfulness: Where has God been, what has He been doing. You might need to actually ask Him if it hasn’t been obvious. And then, after you’ve reviewed your life recently, looked hard for and tried to see the threads of God, the handprint of God on your recent experience… say thank you. Thank you for the good parts, for the hard parts, for the tragic and the wonderful parts. Just say thank you for the presence of God in your life. We’ll do that, then we’ll get back to Colossians.

• Song- thankfulness

Paul gives us a rhythm to fall into- a pattern. Prayer, watching, thanking God. (x2) Asking God to act, seeing what He actually does, and saying thank you… But maybe some of that “alertness” he talks about also has something to do with what comes next…

VS 3-4

There’s a bit of humor in the Greek here- it’s literally, “Pray that God will open a door”… an understandable prayer for someone in prison.

There are two ways to take the phrase, “That is why I am here in chains.” Can you think of a couple of options for understanding “That is why”?

Option 1: I am in chains because I preached the Gospel.

Option 2: I am in chains because God wants me to preach the Gospel- in this time and place.

Without going too far down the road of the relationship of suffering to God’s will and what He causes and what He allows and all that, let me say this. God excels at redeeming messes. Whether they are messes of our own doing or someone else’s, God excels at bringing good out of that. He does it with you and me and the good He brings out of our sin, out of our rebellion or even others’ sin against us and He can even do it with personal tragedy such as Paul was suffering.

I know that at the time, at the moment of suffering, that’s not a real helpful thing to say to someone- so if you find yourself in the middle of it all right at this very moment- all I want to say to you is “I’m sorry.” We try to make sense as best we can…

But maybe part of that making sense process is deciding before we hit the rough spots, before life gets sucky, that the next time it begins to spin out of control, one thing I will try my best to do is to remember- to remember in the midst of the spin to open my eyes, to look around and to maybe see what God could possibly do to bring good out of the situation, and begin praying, not just for the end of hard times, but for the redemption of hard times. That some good would come.

In this case specifically- Paul wants out of his imprisonment for preaching the Gospel, more opportunities… to preach the Gospel. To tell people the good news that God Himself has come to rescue and renew all of creation through the work of Jesus Christ on our behalf. He asked the Colossians to pray for him, that he would have those opportunities- and he says to them,

VS 5-6

I think this is a major theme of what he’s been saying to the Colossians- in every aspect of our lives- our friendships, marriages, our relationship to family, our employment, whatever… live wisely. Know that if you are a follower of Jesus, you represent something bigger than yourself. So live a winsome, attractive and authentic life. Let me ask you all- what does that look like? What does a life that holds up under the scrutiny of people wondering about God, about Jesus look like?

How about the conversation piece? What does that look (or sound) like?

And it works not just on an individual basis… but a community one as well.

Stanley Hauerwas said it this way: "The work of Jesus was not a new set of ideals or principles for reforming or even revolutionizing society, but the establishment of a new community, a people that embodied forgiveness, sharing and self-sacrificing love in its rituals and discipline. In that sense, the visible church is not to be the bearer of Christ's message, but to be the message."

See- what we do here in this community matters. Either we embody the message of Jesus, the Good News of reconciliation with God and each other… or we don’t.

Let me tread lightly here… There are those who think- hey- who needs church- I’ve got Jesus. And the answer to the question of “who needs church is”…the world. The world needs church. The world needs to see community, needs to see reconciliation lived out. People taking care of each other, the poor, the sick, and doing it together in the name of Jesus. This is why we say over and over- the church, this church, is not here for us, we’re here for it and it’s here for the world. Communities like this are meant to be a living embodiment of the message of Jesus. 

Church at its worst is a mess that damages people and brings hurt and pain. Church at its best is a mess that brings hurt and pain, and then makes it right. Community hurts- you can’t live in community without getting your toes stepped on. But the world needs to see what difference Jesus makes in situations like that.

A lot of us have spent significant time questioning: Why church? Why do what we do? Why gather, why expend all the effort it takes to connect to all these people, to come and be taught and worship together, and invest in people and relationships… I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again- the church is God’s plan A and there is no plan B. The Good News about Jesus isn’t just communicated individually, person to person- whole communities living it out are vital to that message being seen as real and relevant. Our church community serving at an AIDS Hospice- even doing something like holding a dance down there as we did awhile ago, communicates something about Jesus and about the kingdom of God.He says…

VS 7

Paul sent this letter to this small church in Colossae with two people- Tychichus is the first. He sent Tychichus not only with this letter, but with a lot of news about how he was doing that he didn’t write down here, for one reason or another.

VS 8-9

I love how he goes out of his way to describe Onesimus- the slave who stole from his master, escaped to Rome where Paul was imprisoned- met Paul, became a follower of Jesus, and was sent back to Colossians carrying this letter. “A faithful and beloved brother.” As we saw last week, Paul asked Philemon, his owner to forgive him, to charge him, Paul, for anything owed, and to treat Onesimus like the brother he now was. A lot of people wonder why the short little book of Philemon is in the Bible. Can you all think of any reason why it might included?

Yes- its an amazing story- a beautiful picture of the work of Jesus on our behalf- The story of Onesimus and Paul’s words to Philemon picture what Jesus does for us. He pays the debt we can’t. He brings us forgiveness and reconciliation. And He puts us into family- He shows us who our brothers and sisters are.

VS 9

“One of your own people.” Onesimus had left Colossae as a runaway slave- and it would be hard to think of someone lower on the social scale than a slave, except maybe a runaway slave. But while he left a slave, because He met Jesus, he returned a brother- a member of the community. And because of how Philemon and the other followers of Jesus had lived their lives- Onesimus knew that in returning, he wasn’t putting himself in danger. Because the church community was the place where men and women, slaves and free, Jews and Gentiles all sat at the same table.

This table- the communion table where we remember what Christ has done for us, what He said to us, how He has changed us…

This is the table where we set aside all distinctions and come as complete equals- all of us people who have sinned, people in need of Jesus.

So if that’s you- then this table is for you. If you can look at your life and see what’s been wrong, and if you accept what Jesus did on your behalf, and God’s forgiveness that flows from that, then this table is for you.

And as a picture of that, we’ll serve each other this morning.

• Communion/ 3 songs focusing on Christ, Community

Let’s wrap up Colossians-

VS 10

What’s beautiful about this is that Mark had at one point deserted Paul and so been the cause of a huge argument between Paul and his friend Barnabas. When they were getting ready to visit all the churches they had helped start, Barnabas wanted to take Mark and Paul resisted, because of Mark’s earlier desertion. The argument got so heated Paul and Barnabas went their separate ways. Amazing that now Paul is sending and commending Mark…

VS 11

I love that they had to give this guy a nickname, you know… because after awhile it got kind of awkward to ask Jesus to pass the salt, or ask someone “have you seen Jesus?” and watch them try to work out which Jesus you meant… So they just called him Justus.

VS 12-13

Epaphras was the Colossian who had most likely started the church there… And even though he was separated from them, he prayed for them constantly. In fact- the word Paul uses here- “prays hard” is the same word for “wrestle.” Epaphras wrestled for these people he loved and had pastored…

VS 14

Luke was the author of the 3rd Gospel, called, uh… Luke. He also wrote the book of Acts detailing the history of the early church.

VS 15

Nympha, the unfortunately named woman who had a church that met in her house…

VS 16-17

Archippus was probably the person who had been appointed to pastor the community in Epaphras’ absence- the church in Colossae met in his house… it seems as though he was a bit unwilling to fill that role.

VS 18- What do you think Paul meant by these phrases?

“Remember my chains” could have a couple different meanings. One of remembering him in prayer… but another, not exactly a warning, but a sobering thought. Paul has laid out much in this letter that is subversive and would have been viewed as dangerous by the Roman authorities… and that’s where we live today as well. People who take seriously the claims of Jesus are good members of society who contribute greatly to the good of the city in which God has placed them… but their allegiance is always somewhere else. And when government begins to force the issue as it often does, with followers of Jesus it always loses. We serve a different king, and different kingdom. We love, worship, and follow Jesus.

Let’s pray and I’ll ask you all what you think…

Blessing-