{"id":149,"date":"2012-04-29T20:33:36","date_gmt":"2012-04-29T19:33:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=149"},"modified":"2012-04-29T20:33:36","modified_gmt":"2012-04-29T19:33:36","slug":"moving-on-with-christ-colossians-11-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=149","title":{"rendered":"Moving on with Christ Colossians 1:1-14"},"content":{"rendered":"

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?
\nI 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?
\nYou see, Christians are meant to grow. We aren\u2019t 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.
\nAt 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.
\nWe 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.
\nThe heart of his message in in Colossians 1:28-29.
\n28 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.
\nPerfect in Christ. The word teleios can mean either perfect or mature. Good News Bible and the Revised Standard Version talk about presenting everyone \u201cmature in Christ\u201d. The New Living Translation puts it like this.
\nWe want to present them to God, perfect in their relationship to Christ.
\nThat is our destiny as Christians. That is our goal. That is what we should be aiming at. To become, \u201cPerfect in Christ,\u201d \u201cMature in Christ.\u201d
\nThat is my aim \u2013 I hope it is yours. And that is why I have called this series Christian Maturity. It\u2019s all about becoming \u201cmature in Christ.\u201d
\nI\u2019ve 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 \u2013 but we should all be on the way!<\/p>\n

WHERE DO WE START? (verses 3-8)
\n3 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\u2014 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\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n

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.
\nColossians 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.
\nGod begins to change us when we hear the gospel and understand God\u2019s grace, God\u2019s free gift of pretty amazing grace which brings us eternal life. And that gospel impacts on our lives in at least three ways.
\nThe hope that is stored up for you in heaven (verse 6) \u2013 not just pious optimism but the happy certainty that one day we will share God\u2019s glory in heaven.
\nFaith in Jesus Christ (verse 4) \u2013 the channel by which all God\u2019s grace comes to us. Not just intellectual assent but truly putting our trust in Jesus. Martin Luther said, \u201cFaith is a living daring confidence in God\u2019s grace.\u201d 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\u2019t LIVE it, we don\u2019t BELIEVE it!
\nFaith and hope lead us on to Love for all the saints (verse 4) a supernatural love in the Spirit (verse 8). God\u2019s kind of love which just never runs out, never gives up.
\nHope. 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 \u2013 why not? Today might even turn out to be YOUR Christian birthday!
\nSo we start with the gospel and the basics of hope, faith and love. What next? Paul explains<\/p>\n

WHAT DO WE NEED? (verse 9)
\n9 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.
\nThe vital ingredient in Christian maturity, not only in Colossians but in all of Paul\u2019s letters, is this: \u201cKnowing God\u2019s will.\u201d
\nWe find it again in Colossians 412 Epaphras \u2026 is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.
\nDiscovering God\u2019s will is not an intellectual process but a spiritual one. Verse 9 again:
\nasking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.
\nGod\u2019s 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\u2019s will. Overarching the entire universe there is God\u2019s ultimate purpose, God\u2019s cosmic masterplan.
\nEphesians 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\u2014to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.
\nGod 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\u2019s cosmic masterplan \u2013 to bring all things in heaven and earth together under one head, even Christ.
\nBut 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\u2019s cosmic masterplan.
\nRomans 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\u2019s will is\u2014his good, pleasing and perfect will.
\nGod 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\u2019t 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, \u201cTo know God\u2019s will is man\u2019s greatest treasure. To do God\u2019s will is man\u2019s greatest privilege.\u201d
\nIf you are looking for God\u2019s pspecific will and purpose for your life \u2013 ASK HIM! But we can start with the same general clues Paul gives to the Colossians because they apply to all Christians.<\/p>\n

WHERE DO WE GO NEXT? (verses 10-14)
\n10 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. <\/p>\n

We need to know God\u2019s will so that we may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way:
\nIsn\u2019t 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.
\nbearing fruit in every good work,
\nACTIVITIES: We aren\u2019t saved BY good works but we are saved FOR good works. Founder of Methodism John Wesley said this. \u201cDo 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.\u201d Mature in Christ \u2013 are you growing in your Christian service?
\ngrowing in the knowledge of God,
\nRELATIONSHIP WITH GOD: Knowing God\u2019s word the Bible, praying, appreciating God\u2019s love. How much better do you know God now than you did last year, or five years ago, or when you first believed?
\n 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience,
\nCHARACTER: depending on God\u2019s glorious might and not our own feeble efforts. Christian maturity doesn\u2019t 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 \u2013 are you growing in Christian character?
\njoyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.
\nJOY AND THANKFULNESS! These are often the characteristics of new and young Christians. Sometimes we think, \u201cThey will grow out of it. Wait until they have faced the problems I have.\u201d In fact, joy and thankfulness are marks of MATURITY in our Christian faith. We should pray we will all grow INTO it!
\nChristian maturity in activities, in our relationship with God, in character, in joy and thanksgiving \u2013 all parts of living a life worthy of the Lord and of pleasing Him in every way.
\nPaul 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,
\ngiving 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. <\/p>\n

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\u2019s grace, to become Mature in Christ.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

May I begin with a personal question. How old are you? In a few weeks I will be 39! I became a Christian when…<\/span><\/p>\n

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