May I begin with a personal question. How old are you? In a few weeks I will be 39! I became a Christian when I was in the lower sixth form at school in June of 1973. Humanly speaking I was aged 16 when I was born again. A long time ago! I sometimes wonder have I changed much since then? Have I grown?
I began a sermon like this just before I left teaching and went to London Bible College. That was 29 years ago! But I wonder, have I really grown as a Christian over all those years? Do I know God any better? Am I any more like Jesus?
You see, Christians are meant to grow. We aren’t meant to stand still in our discipleship or our holiness or our prayer life or our witnessing. God wants us to grow! To move on with Christ.
At least that is what the apostle Paul teaches in his letter to the Colossians. He is writing to Christians, to the holy and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae.
We will see Paul has two reasons for writing. He wants the Colossian Christians to stand firm in their faith and not to be sidetracked by errors. But even more important, he wants them not to just stand still in their faith in some kind of dead orthodoxy, but to move on with Christ and grow as Christians, as individual believers and as a church.
The heart of his message in in Colossians 1:28-29.
28 We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. 29 To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.
Perfect in Christ. The word teleios can mean either perfect or mature. Good News Bible and the Revised Standard Version talk about presenting everyone “mature in Christ”. The New Living Translation puts it like this.
We want to present them to God, perfect in their relationship to Christ.
That is our destiny as Christians. That is our goal. That is what we should be aiming at. To become, “Perfect in Christ,” “Mature in Christ.”
That is my aim – I hope it is yours. And that is why I have called this series Christian Maturity. It’s all about becoming “mature in Christ.”
I’ve been a Christian 39 years. Some folks here have been following Jesus twice as long! None of us have arrived! None of us are yet mature – but we should all be on the way!
WHERE DO WE START? (verses 3-8)
3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints— 5 the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel 6 that has come to you. All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth. 7 You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, 8 and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.
Paul starts by thanking God for the Colossian Christians and the difference God has made in their lives through the gospel. And we all start with the gospel. The good news about the life and death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The good news which reconciles us to God. The good news about how God forgives our sins and gives us new life, eternal life, life in all its fullness.
Colossians 113 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
God begins to change us when we hear the gospel and understand God’s grace, God’s free gift of pretty amazing grace which brings us eternal life. And that gospel impacts on our lives in at least three ways.
The hope that is stored up for you in heaven (verse 6) – not just pious optimism but the happy certainty that one day we will share God’s glory in heaven.
Faith in Jesus Christ (verse 4) – the channel by which all God’s grace comes to us. Not just intellectual assent but truly putting our trust in Jesus. Martin Luther said, “Faith is a living daring confidence in God’s grace.” Daring indeed because if our hope is false, if our trust is misplaced, then we lose everything! Here is a test of how much faith we have. How much would you stand to lose if the gospel turned out not to be true? If we don’t LIVE it, we don’t BELIEVE it!
Faith and hope lead us on to Love for all the saints (verse 4) a supernatural love in the Spirit (verse 8). God’s kind of love which just never runs out, never gives up.
Hope. Faith. Love. These three things are not the sum total of the Christian life. But they are the fundamentals of the Christian life, the basics for every Christian. If you have not experienced these basics of hope and faith and love yet, then while I go on to talk about Christian maturity you might like to ask yourself – why not? Today might even turn out to be YOUR Christian birthday!
So we start with the gospel and the basics of hope, faith and love. What next? Paul explains
WHAT DO WE NEED? (verse 9)
9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.
The vital ingredient in Christian maturity, not only in Colossians but in all of Paul’s letters, is this: “Knowing God’s will.”
We find it again in Colossians 412 Epaphras … is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.
Discovering God’s will is not an intellectual process but a spiritual one. Verse 9 again:
asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.
God’s will is not something we can work out for ourselves. We need spiritual wisdom and understanding. We need God to reveal his plans and purposes to us! And there are two levels to God’s will. Overarching the entire universe there is God’s ultimate purpose, God’s cosmic masterplan.
Ephesians 1 9 And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10 to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.
God has an ultimate plan for the whole of Creation. We should never get so bogged down in our own small corners that we lose sight of God’s cosmic masterplan – to bring all things in heaven and earth together under one head, even Christ.
But at the other end of the scale, God also cares about the tiniest details of all of our lives. God has specific purposes for each one of us. We each have an appointed place in God’s cosmic masterplan.
Romans 12 . 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
God wants each one of us to find out the part he wants us to play in the jigsaw of his purposes for the whole universe. Some Christians seem to just drift through life and work and home and family and church with no sense of direction or purpose. People who can’t see the target usually miss it. We all need to ask God to fill US with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. As somebody said, “To know God’s will is man’s greatest treasure. To do God’s will is man’s greatest privilege.”
If you are looking for God’s pspecific will and purpose for your life – ASK HIM! But we can start with the same general clues Paul gives to the Colossians because they apply to all Christians.
WHERE DO WE GO NEXT? (verses 10-14)
10 And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
We need to know God’s will so that we may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way:
Isn’t that what we would all long to do if we could? Please God in everything we do? Live a life worthy of Him? And Paul spells out four ways we can do this.
bearing fruit in every good work,
ACTIVITIES: We aren’t saved BY good works but we are saved FOR good works. Founder of Methodism John Wesley said this. “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.” Mature in Christ – are you growing in your Christian service?
growing in the knowledge of God,
RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD: Knowing God’s word the Bible, praying, appreciating God’s love. How much better do you know God now than you did last year, or five years ago, or when you first believed?
11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience,
CHARACTER: depending on God’s glorious might and not our own feeble efforts. Christian maturity doesn’t come overnight. It comes through great endurance and patience, or it never comes at all. New Christians may be excused impatience, or lack of perseverance. Those of us who have been Christians for longer have less excuse. Christian maturity – are you growing in Christian character?
joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.
JOY AND THANKFULNESS! These are often the characteristics of new and young Christians. Sometimes we think, “They will grow out of it. Wait until they have faced the problems I have.” In fact, joy and thankfulness are marks of MATURITY in our Christian faith. We should pray we will all grow INTO it!
Christian maturity in activities, in our relationship with God, in character, in joy and thanksgiving – all parts of living a life worthy of the Lord and of pleasing Him in every way.
Paul prayed these things for the Colossians. Let us pray them for ourselves and for each other. And as if we needed any more incentive to stay firm in our faith and to move on in Christ, Paul reminds us of everything God has done for us in Christ! From Colossians 1verse 12,
giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
God has done all this for us. The least we can do is resolve to move on with Christ and make every effort, by God’s grace, to become Mature in Christ.
