We get to proclaim hope to a world that doesn't have hope.
What an honor, right?
People are hungry for hope.
They're hungry for truth.
And you get to be somebody that proclaims that to them,
that gives somebody who doesn't have hope, hope.
As we continue our study of the book of Colossians,
we're using Colossians 3.17 as our guiding verse.
So Colossians 3.17 talks about whatever you do
in word or deed, do everything in the name
of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father
through him.
And the passage we're gonna read today
is about the Apostle Paul, who wrote this letter,
and about his ministry to Jesus's church,
to the church of Christ.
Definition of ministry.
So he's talking about his ministry.
So I was curious, what is the definition of ministry?
So I Googled it.
The Google definition of ministry is the work
or vocation of a minister of religion.
I was a little disappointed with this definition
because they used the word minister to define ministry,
which isn't super helpful.
So you look at who does ministry, right?
And if you asked me that question years ago,
who does ministry?
I would have looked to people who work in a church, right?
Vocational ministry, people in full-time ministry
is a phrase we often use.
Working for a church, working for a nonprofit,
something like that.
And I've not always been a pastor.
It was never a goal or a dream of mine to be a pastor.
It wasn't even on my radar.
My dream job was to be an eighth grade history teacher
and wrestling coach.
And I got to do that for a while.
I got to do that for four years.
I also got to be a part of the Air Force for a while.
And so I had a background doing all of that.
And during my time in the Air Force
or during my time teaching,
if you would have asked me the definition of ministry,
I probably would have said, you know, people who minister,
be people who are working at a church.
I would have used that Google definition.
And I didn't necessarily view,
I didn't view what I did in the Air Force
or what I did teaching as ministry.
I didn't view it in that way.
I would not have said I was doing ministry.
I would have said, well, the people doing ministry
are pastors or those at nonprofits.
That's what would have been my definition.
And now that I work at a church
and I'm in full-time ministry and I'm a pastor on staff,
I would be in that camp, right?
According to this Google definition.
So in today's passage, Paul is going to talk
about his ministry and what that looked like.
And this is exciting for me
because I love talking about Paul.
He's my favorite missionary
and he really exemplified full-time ministry.
So let's look at this passage together.
We're gonna be in Colossians, the end of chapter one,
and we'll dip into chapter two a little bit.
So chapter one, verse 24, Paul writes,
"'Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake,
"'and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking
"'in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body,
"'that is the church, of which I became a minister
"'according to the stewardship from God
"'that was given to me for you
"'to make the word of God fully known.
"'The mystery hidden for ages and generations,
"'but now revealed to his saints, did them.
"'God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles
"'are the riches of the glory of his mystery,
"'which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
"'Him we proclaim, warning everyone
"'and teaching everyone with all wisdom
"'that we may present everyone mature in Christ.
"'For this I toil, struggling with all his energy
"'that he powerfully works within me.'
"'Chapter two, for I want you to know
"'how great a struggle I have for you,
"'and for those in Lausodea,
"'and for all who have not seen me face to face,
"'for their hearts may be encouraged,
"'being knit together in love,
"'to reach all the riches of full assurance
"'of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery,
"'which is Christ, in whom are hidden
"'all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
"'I say this in order that no one may delude you
"'with plausible arguments, for though I am absent in body,
"'I am with you in spirit,
"'rejoicing to see your good order
"'in the firmness of your faith in Christ.'"
So this passage is about Paul, his ministry,
his suffering, his struggle,
and Paul's life involved suffering for the gospel.
If you remember back to Paul's story,
he was the one causing Christians,
causing Jesus' followers to suffer,
killing them, persecuting them.
He was causing the suffering of people who followed Christ.
Then Jesus met him on the road to Damascus,
and Jesus told Ananias that Paul would be
his chosen instrument to spread the gospel,
but Jesus also told Ananias that Paul will,
he said, I will show him what it means
to suffer for my name.
So Paul suffered for the sake of the gospel.
Case in point, he wrote Colossians from a prison cell,
right, and so if you look back at verse 24,
starting with this passage that we read,
Paul says, I rejoice in my sufferings.
He said, I rejoice in my sufferings.
What a weird thing to say, right?
How often do we talk that way?
Do we say, I'm rejoicing in my suffering?
Paul used that language in his letters a lot, right?
And I think it's because he knew,
hey, Jesus said this is gonna happen.
I'm walking in accordance with what Jesus said and so I can rejoice in my suffering
But but it's a weird a weird thing to say in Philippians 4
He said the same thing rejoice in the Lord always right and he says for your sake
so he's joyful in his suffering because he sees the impact of
His ministry says I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake and so he can be joyful in his suffering because he knows that his
Ministry is bearing fruit. He knows that his ministry is having an impact and that brings him joy
Even though he found himself in an unfortunate situation in prison
He also references the afflictions of Christ in this verse and what's interesting that the word affliction in this passage
When you read that you would probably most associate that with with Jesus's suffering on the cross
But but that reference is probably actually talking about Jesus's suffering while ministry doing ministry and the affliction
He faced while doing ministry not necessarily the affliction
He faced on the cross and so Paul's saying that Jesus suffered while doing ministry
And so he can too and Jesus fills him up while he's suffering
Doing ministry and then in verse 25 Paul talks about why he became a minister and why he is doing
ministry and I love this in verse
25 he says to make the Word of God fully
Known to make the Word of God fully known and that passage reminded me of a verse from Habakkuk 2 14
Where the prophet says for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the seas
And that's prophetic. That's a prophetic verse
and so Paul
Viewed his ministry is trying to do that right to make the knowledge of the glory of God fill the earth, right?
Paul wants to do he wants to make the Word of God fully known and that's what he's doing as his ministry
and so that got me thinking right if pastors and those in full-time ministry or
Vocational ministry are the only ones doing ministry doing that verse making the Word of God fully known
Is that prophetic verse from Habakkuk ever actually going to happen, right?
Are we ever going to see the knowledge of the glory of God fill the earth if the only people trying to do that are
Those in full-time vocational ministry. I don't know
I don't think so, right and the reason that's not the case is because pastors are not the only ones doing
Vocational full-time ministry and they shouldn't be right every believer in Jesus Christ is a minister and should be doing
Full-time ministry because what is ministry? Actually, I think it's this verse
Colossians 2 25 to make the Word of God fully known. That's ministry
That's doing ministry and you can do that in a lot of different ways, right?
So my definition would not be the Google definition
It would be this Colossians 2 25 ministry is making the Word of God fully known to make the Word of God fully known
Further the gospel to further God's kingdom to light up the darkness. That's
Ministry and guess what you can do all of those things wherever you are school work wherever you are
Whatever you do right back to Colossians 3 17, whatever you do do it for the glory of God and do ministry for him
So now that that has been established and we are all in full-time ministry and you've just been ordained
let's look at four things from this passage that we should be doing as
Ministers of Jesus and the first one is proclaim. So if you look back at verse 28, he says him we proclaim
Warning and teaching him we proclaim proclaim Jesus to this world
Whatever you are doing do it from a pulpit whether you're doing it from a pulpit whether you're doing it to a camera
Whether you're doing it in a school cafeteria
At lunch or a school's car soccer practice or your work wherever you are
Make the Word of God fully known and proclaim hope verse 27 talks about the hope of glory, right?
We get to proclaim hope to a world that doesn't have hope what an honor, right? People are hungry for hope
They're hungry for truth and you get to be somebody that
Proclaims that to them that gives somebody who doesn't have hope hope that's a cool thing. That's a good thing to do
Right, so proclaiming hope also warning and teaching warning people. Hey, Jesus is coming back
Will you be ready?
Teaching the Great Commission says make disciples. Jesus said mate last thing
He said on earth was make disciples go and make disciples disciple means
student pupil right so in order to have
Students you've got to be teaching them. So making disciples isn't gathering up followers
It's teaching people right teaching people so warning and teaching and he says with all wisdom and in discernment comes
From the Holy Spirit and so I want to pause here and say don't try and do ministry without
The help of the Holy Spirit verse 29. He said with all his energy that he powerfully works within me, right?
So Paul saying I'm not doing this by myself, but I'm not doing ministry. I'm not suffering for the gospel by myself
It's with his energy because he's powerfully working within me. So partner with the Holy Spirit as you do ministry
So what number one is proclaim number two is encourage right verse 2 to he said that their hearts may be
encouraged be an
encourager to
Everyone, believers and unbelievers,
and doing ministry, we're not just ministering
to the unbeliever, right?
Doing ministry is also to the believer,
the people in our circle, those we go to church with.
Be a minister to everyone in your life,
not just those that need to hear the hope of Jesus
for the first time, but those that need to be reminded
of it, right?
Be an encourager, loving each other,
spurring each other on, encouraging other,
building up each other's faith.
So number two is encourage.
Number three is watch out.
And if you look at verse four again,
he gives a warning here,
because the Colossian church, the church in Colossia
was dealing a lot with false gospels that were out there,
Gnosticism, mysticism, like different beliefs
that were out there at the time.
And so he gives a warning here.
He says, watch out for plausible arguments.
Don't be deluded by them, right?
So as a minister, you're gonna put yourself out there.
You're gonna hear lots of things.
You're gonna hear plausible arguments,
things that make sense.
Watch out for false teachers.
Watch out for false prophets.
Watch out for things that aren't true.
Watch out for the lies and confusion
from the enemy of this world.
And so how do we do that, right?
Well, that brings us to our fourth and final point.
And the fourth one is stand firm.
If you look at two five again,
he says, for though I'm absent in body,
yet I'm with you in spirit,
rejoicing to see you in good order,
that the firmness of your faith in Christ,
the firmness of your faith.
So as you minister to this world,
as you strive to make the word of God fully known,
you have to stand firm in your faith in Christ.
And if you don't, you'll crumble.
And so as a minister of the world,
don't forget to go to the well, right?
To refresh and strengthen your faith.
You can't pour out if you're empty, right?
If there's nothing to pour out.
So make sure you have something to stand firm in,
refreshing your faith, spending time with the Father,
spending time in his word,
spending time in worship and prayer with the Lord,
being around mentors,
people that are gonna speak life into you
so that when you go to minister to the world,
you're ready to do that and you're full.
And so that's my charge.
Welcome to full-time ministry.
As believers in Christ,
we should all be engaging in full-time ministry like Paul did
and it'll look different for all of us
because we're all involved in different circles.
And that's what's great
about the body of Christ doing ministry.
We're all in different areas of our town, of our city,
of our state, of our country, of this world.
We're all over the place, right?
And so if we all have an impact where God has us,
then we'll see this happen.
We'll see the word of God made fully known.
And that's the goal and that's what ministry is.
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