Col 4:5-9
First Pray –
Have someone pray for
us to be ready to hear God’s Word.
Then Story –
People in more Liberal or Emergent churches prefer what’s
called Narrative Theology (think stories with a moral point like Aesop’s
Fables) over learning what they would call stale, old doctrines. So, to
start us off I’m gonna tell you the beginning of 1 of my favorite stories and
we’ll come back to it later when we’re done looking at Colossians 4 together,
okay?
Once upon a time, long
ago, far from here, there once was a wealth man named Phil. And Phil was so
well off that he could afford both a large home and slaves. Now Phil had
one slave that he thought so little of that he merely called him – Useful. Just
think about the life Useful must have lived. “Useful, take out my trash.
Useful, wash my car. Useful, make my dinner.” On your worst day at home (or
work) you probably wouldn’t want to trade places with the slave Useful. But one
day Useful finally got fed up and Useful stole some of Phil’s money and (he ran
away to the nation’s capitol, where he thought he could blend in with other
people like him, where people wouldn’t care what he used to be, or where he had
came from, or what he had done, where he could just forget the past and start
over. Now that’s what Useful wanted, but God had other plans for him…
So we’ll come back to that story later.
Nichole will you read Colossians 4:2-9 for us
If you remember Colossians 3:2 said this, “Set you mind on
things that are above, not on things that are on Earth.” Now, there are 2
primary ways that will focus your mind on things that are above. The first is
prayer, which Doug covered last week and the second is John-the-Baptist-ing (If
you’re unfamiliar with that term it’s basically the verb form of John the Baptist).
Both in Scripture and in Theology John is really important for 1 main reason:
it’s not immersion, it’s not his preaching style, and it’s not his hygiene or
his diet. John first and foremost pointed other people to Christ. Let’s look at
just a couple of passages from John (1:25-34 & 3:28- 36). And really think
about what has stopped you from speaking out about Christ to unbelievers?
I tend to imagine worst case scenarios so I seem to think
that I’m gonna run into an Atheist debater like Christopher Hitchens and loose
an argument, or run into an Evolutionary biologist and not remember the
difference between Micro and Macro Evolution or run into theoretical physicist
Steven Hawking and have to argue against String theory, 1-way time travel and
the Multiverse. When really all we’re called to do is to point other sinners to
their need for a Savior. Anyone have thoughts or questions on that?
Paul asks that we pray that a door of opportunity be opened
for us to proclaim Salvation by Grace through Faith to outsiders (Paul’s term
for unbelievers). Also we are called to live out our lives in such a way as to
not hurt the creditability of our faith and witness.
Can you think of any examples where sin has ruined the
witness of a supposed Christian preacher?
A couple that I
remember would be, if your familiar with Paul and Jan Crouch founders of the
TBN network on cable, then you may also be aware that his granddaughter and his
family and their attorneys are in a court case regarding the misuse of $50
million dollars in church funds. When speaking of his own granddaughter, Paul
Crouch lumped her into the few people who would dare to question or stand up
against TBN, he then threatened her life on TV and then turned right around
asked for donations or “seed money” for his ministry, to quote Paul Crouch, “God
help anyone who would try to get in the way of TBN…I have attended the funerals
of at least 2 people who tried.” Then seconds later, “Anyone have a need? Plant
a seed. Get to a phone.”
Or if you’ve ever
heard of the Florida Outpouring which is referring to claimed miracles of the
Holy Spirit that happened while Canadian charismatic Todd Bentley preached the
Lakeland Revivals down in Florida several years ago, it came out later that the
whole time Todd was preaching that people needed to have faith that they would
receive miracles, healings and a special anointing of God just like he had, he
was at the same time committing adultery with his own church intern – Jessa.
All I’m saying is that you need to be careful; the world is always going to
judge a self-proclaimed believer harsher than they would themselves.
Now back to Colossians, I thought it was interesting that
Paul uses 2 particular words to describe how we should talk to unbelievers. The
first is gracious – which most people would take as meaning nice, polite or
friendly but can also refer to content as in speaking of Grace with
unbelievers. The other is salt – and Jesus uses salt in Matthew 5 as a
description for the disciples on how their message and ministry acts as a moral
preservative. There are probably several political issues that you can think of
in which the religious conservatives are the only ones trying to keep our
society back from the edge of absolute Moral abandon. The anything goes
mentality.
Then into Philemon
The next couple of people that Paul introduces us to are
Tychicus & Onesimus.
Tychicus was a gentile convert to Christianity, he was one
of the Gentile representatives at the Jerusalem Council in Acts 20, and he was
a trusted companion of Paul’s and he personally delivered the NT books of
Ephesians, Colossians and Philemon. Tychicus’ traveling companion to Colossae
was Onesimus.
And here’s where our intro story ties back in, the book of
Philemon is a great tale of forgiveness, Christian fellowship and the
sovereignty of God in which a wealthy, Christian slave-owner who hosted the
Colossae church in his own house, once had a slaved named Onesimus (or Useful
in Greek) who had stolen some money from Philemon and ran away to Rome where in
the sovereignty of God he happened to meet Paul. Now it also happened that Paul
was the means that God used to convert Philemon to Christianity back in
Ephesus, so after awhile-in Rome Onesimus was also converted and became
extremely useful to Paul while imprisoned. You have to remember that being a
run-away slave in the Roman Empire was a capitol offense and Onesimus could
have been rightly or justly murdered for his crime yet Paul writes to Philemon
to act out the Gospel. Paul says in Philemon verse 11, he who was once
“Useless” to you has now become “Useful” (or Onesimus) to us both. Paul asks
Philemon to not only to forgive Onesimus’ sin but also to accept him as a
fellow brother in the faith.
Something else to remember about Onesimus’ story is that
Church History (mainly Ignatius of Antioch) says that this same run-away slave
grows up to become the next Bishop over the churches around Ephesus after
Timothy (from 1 & 2). Onesimus who once was considered not even a human
being by the Roman government by a piece of Philemon’s property like a couch or
a coffee mug, Onesimus who’s crime legally deserved death, who ran from Turkey
to Rome to get away from Philemon just to have God convert him and send him
right back, this Useful companion to Paul not only becomes a member of his
slave-masters church but becomes the Bishop of Ephesus, which remember is where
his master was once converted through Paul’s Gospel preaching.
Application-
Now we know that Scripture says Salvation is a gift of God
and not by our works so we know we’re not going to hear God say to us you Earned
your Salvation but if would be nice to hear you were Useful to me and Useful to
the spread of the Gospel. Remember the world is changed, lives are changed,
slaves are set free, and slave-masters hearts are softened in kindness and
forgiveness…but only when the Gospel is boldly proclaimed to sinners who often
have no idea that they even need a Savior.
Confession-
It would be easy for
me to sit back and exhort you to do evangelism when I’m scarred to do it myself
but because Colossians makes it so clear that my ultimate needs (acceptance,
love, family) are already mine “in Christ” that frees me from being so scared
of being humiliated and enables me to point others toward Christ. So you will actually
see me confront my biggest fear in the next month here at church.
End with another prayer -
Sovereign Lord, we
come to petition you to grant us the ability to honor and worship you with our
lives. And gift us with both the opportunity and the courage to point sinners
to their need for a Savior, may it be often be that Grace in Christ be found on
our lips when we are speaking to both fellow believers and outsiders. We praise
you, Father. Amen.
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