Again, this is Colossians 1, starting verse 24, and we'll finish in chapter 2, verse 5. Listen now to God's holy, inerrant, and inspired word. 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. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this 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. For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, that 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, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ. Let's go before the Lord in prayer before we proceed. Almighty God, we come before you. Lord, we are reliant upon you. I pray that you would open our hearts, open our minds to receive the word from your scripture. Father, I pray that you would get myself, the sinner, out of the way and that only your word, only your truth would go forth from this pulpit. Father, I pray that you would convict us where we need to be convicted. Encourage us where we need to be encouraged. Reveal more of yourself to us each and every day that we might live for you more. Father, we pray all these things through the name of your son. Amen. I once heard a story of this wealthy business owner. His company had grown to a massive extent. By all intents and purposes was a very rich man. They were building a brand new building in the big downtown center of a major city, so he was going to see how the construction was going of his new building. As he was getting the tour, the architects were taking him around. He was seeing all the construction that was happening. Some cement bags started falling off from some scaffolding above him. A construction worker nearby saw what was happening, rushed over, and pushed the business owner out of the way, and the cement bags fell on him. It broke his back in several places. His ribs were all but powder at that point. Thankfully, he was still able to walk, but he was, for the rest of his life, disabled from that. As a response to that, though, that business owner was so overcome with gratitude for what that construction worker had done that he provided for him and his family financially. He gave them a nice new house and a better neighborhood. He paid for all of his children to go to college. He became close friends with that construction worker and his family, and they grew a close bond. And any time he needed anything, the businessman was always willing and wanting to bless him for what he had done for him. That it was out of response to what that constructor had done, saved his life most likely, much less from extreme pain and being disabled. That that business owner was gracious enough to give of his plenty to help that man who had saved him. And in a similar way here, we see Paul expressing how believers are to respond to the gospel. that as the body of Christ having salvation given to us, as I was actually, the last time I was here, preached in the section before this in Colossians. And Paul proclaims the preeminence of Christ, what he has done for us in our lives, how he's redeemed us, and now he's talking about how we are to respond to that. That if Christ much more has not only given us new life now, but new life eternal, how are we as the body of Christ to respond? And Paul here explains that we, part of our response is to be in service to God, in service to Christ, and in service to the Church. And that's what I want us to see here today, that if you believe in Christ, if you have received salvation from Him, part of your response to that salvation should be in service to His Church. Now, Paul here explains how one should serve the Church through his own life experience, as being a minister of the Gospel. But we have to realize that So some of these things might be particularly true for him as a minister. They're true for all who are part of Christ's body, the church. In Ephesians 4, Paul describes believers as one body, as Christ being the head of this one body. And yes, we all have different parts and different functions, but we all serve Christ the head. We all serve our Lord and Savior. So today I want us to look at three ways that Paul says we should be in service to the church. First, we need to see that we should be suffering for the church. Second, we need to see that we should be proclaiming Christ for the church. And third, we need to see that we should be loving the church. So first, let us look at how we should be suffering the church in our first two verses, 24 and 25. Paul begins and says, now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake. And that's a very unusual statement, an unusual way to look at sufferings. Paul says he rejoices in them. And this is not in the sense that Paul enjoys pain. He does not enjoy the suffering merely for the sake of suffering. That right now, Paul is currently imprisoned. If you look at chapter 4, verse 10, he names this man Aristarchus, and he calls him his fellow prisoner. That when Paul is writing this letter to the Colossians, he is currently in prison. likely facing beatings and definitely malnourishment and not being taken care of. And yet in that, he is rejoicing in those sufferings, rejoicing those sufferings for the sake of Christ. He's doing it for those he loves, for Christ, but also for the Colossians, for the fellow churches that he is planting, that he is writing to, that he is ministering to. Now, it's easy for us to sacrifice and suffer for those we love. But the question we must ask ourselves then is whether or not we include the church, the church body, our brothers and sisters in Christ as those in whom we love. Are we willing to suffer for them as well, even the ones we might not get along with well all the time? That Paul is here rejoicing in his suffering because he loves the church. He loves the people of God who he has been united with. And he rejoices in his sufferings because he knows His sufferings are for the benefit of the church, for the fruitfulness of his fellow believers. That if Paul was not willing to preach, not willing to proclaim Christ, then these Colossians would not know about this gospel of Christ. It is because of that preaching and teaching that he is imprisoned. It is because of that that these Colossians have come to God, have come to faith in Christ. that in his letter to the Galatians, in chapter 6, verse 2, Paul says, we are to bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. As believers, it is our responsibility to bear each other's burdens, to suffer together with one another. And it's to suffer with the whole body of Christ, not just our favorite few, the ones that our personalities mesh, the ones that we get along well with, but the entire body of Christ. That is who we have been united to. So he begins and says he's rejoicing and he's glad that he gets to suffer for the sake of Christ and for those he loves, the church. But then he goes on, he says, and in my flesh I'm filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions, the sake of his body, that is, the church. And here Paul gives the motivation of why he is rejoicing, why he is willing to suffer for the church. And it's this strange phrasing that he uses here that doesn't doesn't exactly translate well from the Greek, so if you look at different versions, there'll be variations to it here. But it almost seems to say that Paul is filling up Christ's suffering where Christ's suffering was lacking. That Christ started something, and now Paul is finishing it, now he's completing it. And that's similar to the Catholic idea of purgatory, that yes, Christ suffered and paid for most of your sins, but you're still going to have to pay and suffer for some of them. But that's not what Paul is saying. That is not what scripture teaches. Even right before in this section, verse 21 and 22, Paul makes it clear. He says, you were once alienated and hostile mind doing evil deeds, but now he has reconciled you in his body of flesh by his death in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him. Christ's sufferings, Christ's sacrifice on the cross is complete. There's nothing else that needs to be accomplished for us to be saved, that we can right now, by his suffering, be presented holy and blameless and above reproach before God. So that Paul is not saying that he is finishing Christ's work. No, Christ's work is finished. It's not a shortfall in the sufferings of Christ. But rather, Paul is saying he is called to suffer alongside of Christ, to suffer with him. And this is just what Jesus had said would happen and must happen. You can listen or you can turn with me and read along to John chapter 15, where Jesus describes this very scenario to his disciples. In John 15, beginning at verse 18, this is Jesus speaking to his 12 disciples. He says, if the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. Jesus makes it crystal clear. He says, because I am being persecuted, because I am suffering and dying to save you, if you truly are one of my disciples, if you truly believe in me and have faith in me, you will suffer as well. You will suffer this persecution. The servant is not greater than the master. We must suffer alongside of Christ for the sake of his church. And this is all culminating into the reason why Paul could so boldly rejoice in his sufferings. Because he knew his sufferings were evidence that he was a follower of Christ, if he was suffering for Christ's sake, and he knew his sufferings were being used to build up and to edify the body of Christ, his fellow believers. And we should take comfort from this in our own sufferings for Christ. that if we are derided for being believers, that if we are mocked, if we are accused for being believers, we should rejoice in those sufferings. We should be emboldened by stories we hear of brothers and sisters in faraway countries, when they are persecuted and maybe even killed for their faith. We hear how Christ has changed them, has impacted them to stand so firmly, that it should embolden us to be more bold in our own faith. though we don't face the same kind of persecution. Other believers' sufferings should embolden us to be more faithful for our common Savior, who is Christ. This suffering and joy should be the sake of everyone here in this room, but also for the body of Christ worldwide, that you can be a witness to others, but also a witness and encouragement to brothers and sisters far and wide. Now, our suffering and sacrifice is all going to look very different. Your suffering and sacrifice for your fellow believers could be something as merely as giving of your time. Rather than enjoying your sacred Saturdays, your leisure time, you could spend that day helping out a fellow church member with some needs that they might have. Suffering could be a financial suffering, that if you are blessed more than others, you can give of those to those who are in need, to give a financial gift to those who are in a tight spot, who had some unexpected circumstances. But one thing I want us to especially take away, one way that we all need to suffer with one another, is to come alongside and bear each other's burdens of those who are grieving. As brothers and sisters in Christ, we are called to weep with each other and to rejoice with each other. We are called to be with each other in all times of life. We don't like suffering through our own grieving, much less bearing the burdens of suffering with the grieving of others. But that is what we are called to. as brothers and sisters in Christ. As one body in Christ, we are called to suffer together. And Paul rejoices in it. He rejoices in the suffering, that his service to the church is a suffering for the church. But not only do we need to be willing to suffer for the church, but must also be willing to proclaim Christ for the good of his church. That's our second point here that I want us to look at. proclaiming Christ for the church in verses 25 through 29. Paul goes on and says suffering for the sake of 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. So we see that Paul He was not only willing to suffer, but willing to persevere, willing to preach Christ to the lost and to those who are already churched. Paul says he was appointed a steward of the church to make known the word of God, this mystery of God. But what is this mystery he's talking about here? Namely, it is the good news of Christ, the story of the gospel, of what Jesus has done for us. He calls it a mystery because throughout the Old Testament, even before the nation of Israel was founded, there were signs pointing towards Christ. There were signs pointing towards this Redeemer who would come, this Messiah who would come. It was hidden and veiled, it was pointed to, there were shadows of it, but now it has been revealed in full. All those sacrifices, the entire Old Testament points forward to Christ's sacrifice. And this is a glorious mystery. And for those who do not believe, it is still a mystery. And they will mock it, and they will accuse it. As Paul writes elsewhere, he says, we preach Christ crucified, which is a stumbling block to the Jews and a folly to the Gentiles. But for those who believe, it is no longer a mystery, because Christ has made it clear to your hearts through the power of the Holy Spirit, that through his preaching and through his word, he's revealed to you his gospel truth. of his redemption that he has offered. And rather than being a folly to us, rather than being something we are ashamed of, it should be on our tongue constantly. We should ever be discussing and proclaiming what Christ has done for us. I think we've all either done this or noticed this happen in our lives when someone becomes a parent for the first time. All that they can talk about is their new baby. They're constantly talking about and showing pictures of them, telling them what they're learning new, how they're growing, all these different ways. And yet, do we talk about Christ that much? If we're so in love with our children, so in love with those that mean so much to us, how much more so should we be in love with Christ? How much more so should we be proclaiming the one who has given us new life? the one who has saved us from our sins and from an eternal death. That is who we need to be proclaiming each and every day. That when was the last time you shared the gospel with someone? When was the last time you proclaimed him to some stranger that you had never met before? There are many reasons we're fearful to evangelize, many reasons we're fearful to proclaim Christ. But I think one thing that Paul touches on here is we're fearful to do it because we know if they come to believe, we'll have to suffer with them. We will now have to bear their burdens with them. They will be joined to this body of Christ, but we become responsible for them in the sense that we are to care for them and to be loving towards them. That we have enough issues in our lives. If more people came into the body of Christ, there'd be more people that we would have to bear their burdens alongside of. So we should be proclaiming Christ always to those around us who do not know him, but also we should be proclaiming it to those who already do know him, to the church. And that's exactly what Paul is doing here. Look again at verse 28. He says, him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ. That right here, the particular subject that Paul has in mind here is the Colossians. He's taking time to write this letter to them. He's taking time to speak to them these truths they have already heard because he knows they need to hear it again. It needs to be proclaimed to them again and again. That one way he wants them to grow, to be mature, is to be reminded of these truths, to be reminded of this wisdom to teach them over and over. During my college years, I was heavily involved in the campus ministry, RUF, and got on the leadership team there. I was heavily involved in serving and helping. And when we had incoming freshmen, people who had been with us for a while, and they wanted to join the leadership team, we had a requirement that they had to go through an interview process with just two or three other members of those who were already on the leadership team. And our UF leader gave us some questions to work through, and we'd bring our own questions just to get to know them better, assess their spiritual life. But one question that we were required to ask all of them was to ask them to explain the gospel to us. Just briefly, in a few minutes, explain the gospel to us. And that became the most telling question of them all. That you could hear these great testimonies, you could hear how Christ had been working in their lives, and yet there were so many that couldn't clearly explain the gospel. They might have portions of it okay, but they would leave large portions of it, many questions unanswered and large portions unexplained. And it became convicting to me as doing those interviews, you know, how would I explain the gospel well? If someone approached me and asked me, would I be able to explain it well and clearly to them? And yes, we need to know the story of Christ's redemption on the cross, but there's much more to the gospel of our sin. We need to see our sin, our need for our Savior in the first place. We should certainly know the story well enough to be able to explain it to others, but it is also the story that we need to be reminding each other of each and every day. We need to be discussing it each and every day with our fellow believers. How do we spend our time in fellowship with one another, even on Sundays? Do we spend time reflecting on the word spoken, the word preached, what we've been reading, how we've been growing in our devotions? Or do we spend time talking about the world news, talking about current events, talking about funny things that happened in our lives, whatever it might be, everything apart from Christ's gospel? That's what needs to be on our lips first and foremost. And that's what Paul is working towards here and praying here towards. And he wants to proclaim Christ, to warn, to teach everyone so that they might become mature in Christ. And as Paul mentions previously in this section, the ultimate maturity in Christ is putting Christ first in your life. That is He our first priority over all things. Is he the first thing we desire to discuss and proclaim with people, or would we rather share some gossip or some life update that we have? That if Christ is first in our life, why is he not first in our conversations? We need to be mature enough to know Christ and to explain the gospel clearly, not only to unbelievers, but to those who already profess faith, to remind each other of these truths of the gospel. I think it's very convicting that Paul places such an emphasis on this proclamation of the gospel. And yet, I think he also gives some comfort. If you look at verse 29, he says, for this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me. Paul says, I'm laboring to do all these things. I'm laboring to preach and proclaim to everyone, teaching with all wisdom. And yet, how is he able to do that? It is not his own strength. It is not his own ability. He writes in verse 29 that it is with his energy, that is Christ's energy, who powerfully works within me. It's because of Christ that he is able to proclaim his Savior, because of the work of the Holy Spirit. You might not have years of experience as a believer, you might not have read many theological books, you might not have studied much, but God can and will use you for his purposes. that all believers must be bold enough to proclaim him, to proclaim him to encourage our brothers and sisters in Christ with his word. That he will use, yes, even our feeble, weak, frail bodies, he will use such a worm as I to spread his good news. And that's how we need to be serving the church, is by proclaiming Christ, to build the church, to bring more into this body of Christ, but also to build up those who are in the church, to build up and encourage those who have already professed faith. So you first need to be suffering for the church. Secondly, proclaiming Christ for the church. And thirdly, Paul shows us in the last five verses that we need to be loving to the church. We must love those who are in the church. Starting in chapter two, let's look at verses one and two. Paul says, for I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you, and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not seen me face to face, that 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. Paul has exemplified how to proclaim Christ, and now he describes what it means to love those who are in the body of Christ. He begins this last section and declares how great he is striving for it. He has a great struggle, a great contention, wrestling with trying to proclaim this good news, not only to the Colossians, but to those at Laodicea, to many others who he has not even met. And the church at Colossae is not one that Paul was well acquainted with. I'm not even sure if he ever actually even visited before he wrote this letter. He had connections and he had people that helped plant that church, but he personally does not know many people in the church and yet he is laboring for them. He is struggling for them and he is suffering for them. And he describes his desire for them to be as one that are knit together in love. That his concern is not that they are doing okay, that their jobs are going well, that their families are doing fine. His first and foremost concern is spiritual. He wants their hearts to be knit together in love. There, he wants them to be joined as various pieces of cloth, having been sewed together for a single purpose, to praise the head of the body of the church, which is Christ. But his great concern for them is spiritual. He wants them to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ. His concern is that they would grow, that they would become this mature in Christ to know the gospel, to know that they have been redeemed, to know the love that Christ has for them. Matthew Henry was commenting on this passage and he says, the prosperity of the soul is the best prosperity and what we should be most concerned about, not only for ourselves, but for others. And that's exactly what Paul is doing here. He is concerned for the prosperity of the soul of the Colossians. Prosperity of the soul, not only for himself and others, but all those who proclaim Christ. That is what is important, how we need to be loving each other. To be concerned, yes, for our physical welfare, for things going on in our lives, but first and foremost, for each other's spiritual state. How is your walk with the Lord doing? Needs to be questions that we are asking one another. So there's this concern for the spiritual state, but how do you grow in that? Paul tells us in verse three, he says, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. In Christ is hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. It is in him that all that exists. There's nothing we should desire to know about God that Christ has not already revealed to us. Christ is the truth that we need to remind each other of, need to proclaim to each other. It is pointing each other back to His promises, to His sacrifices made on the cross, to His promises that we must suffer with Him, but His promises of comfort, that He'll never leave nor forsake us. That is what we need to be growing in with each other, what we need to be encouraging each other in. Sometimes it is a hard truth. Sometimes it requires calling out a brother or sister in their sin. Sometimes it is a comforting truth. reminding each other of Christ's unfailing love. And sometimes it is a truth that is not always easy to hear, but we need it. But these are truths that we need more than just Sunday, more than just from the pulpit. We need it each and every day from our brothers and sisters in Christ. And this is a way to build each other up, to love each other, but it's also a way to protect one another. Look down at verse four. Paul says, I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments, that there are many false ideas and beliefs in the world that are contrary to the Bible or distort biblical doctrine. And one way that we love our brothers and sisters in Christ is reminding them of truth, pointing them back to the true subscripture so that when they are confronted with these false ideas, they can identify it as false. They can say, no, I know that's not right. That is not scriptural. We need to be reminding each other of those truths. And then finally, Paul ends in verse five with a verse that I think is especially appropriate for our times. He says, for though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ. Paul is prevented from going to the Colossians because he is in prison. that we are prevented from having extended fellowship with one another now because of this virus that has swept across our country. Yet Paul says he is still with them in spirit. At the beginning of Colossians, in the first four verses, he is saying that he is eagerly praying for the Colossians each and every day. He's praying for them, he's taking his time to write this letter to them, and he's taking time to speak these truths to them. He is concerned about them and loving them, even when he can't be in fellowship with them. And that's what we must be doing, that we must always be in prayer for one another. Even when we can't gather together, we must take those prayer requests that are sent out. We must read over them, pray over them, attend prayer meetings. We can call each other, check up on each other. And above all, we need to make the most of the time that we do have together, such as these times on Sundays. Though we are distanced, though we might have masks on our faces, we still get to enjoy fellowship with the body of Christ. that we need to be concerned for each other's spiritual health, especially in these times of isolation and times of being distant from one another. Above now, we need to come around each other and to love each other in that way. And this is all, again, as a response to what we've already been given. going back from the opening illustration, that that businessman was by no means obligated to take care of that construction worker and his family. It was a response of what he did for him that he was glad to pay for a new house, glad to pay for his children to go to college, glad to provide for him for his entire life. It should be our joy to serve the church. It should be our joy to suffer for the church, for Christ's sake, to bear the burdens of one another, should be our joy to proclaim Christ to all those around us and to our brothers and sisters in Christ. It should be our joy to take time to love one another, to be concerned about each other's spiritual state, and to proclaim Christ anew in our lives each and every day. That is how Paul served the church, yes as a minister, but also he is just as much a part of the body of Christ as we are. that we are all a part of this body of Christ and all must be striving to serve the church who we have been so graciously united to. Amen. Let's pray. Almighty God, we come before you humbled that you have saved such wretches as us. Lord, I pray that it would be a response of worship and praise of ours. It would be a joy of ours to serve you and your church. that we would be willing to suffer for each other, willing to go out of our way for each other, willing to take time to pray for one another. Father, help us to not see caring and loving one another as burdensome, but help it to be a joyous response in our lives. That you have given us new life, you've given us eternal life. Father, help us to live for your body. Help us to live for your body, the church, that we might build up and encourage one another in your name. Lord, I pray all these things in your son's matchless and holy name. Amen.