Colossians 1:24-27 - I am Doing This for Jesus

Saying, Dear Sandra, could you come tomorrow and clean up Jesus' apartment?

He's coming back on Sunday, and there's still a lot to do.

Or maybe you hear an announcement in the radio.

Job search.

Servant wanted for the household of Jesus.

Part-time or full-time tasks from A to Z, sufficient pay, bonus payout at the end of your life.

Or maybe a letter from Apostle John.

Daniel, we need your car to drive a sister from Jesus.

It's about 500 miles one way, and please fill up the gas tank.

What would your answer be?

Do you want to serve Jesus?

I'm very convinced that most of you would move a lot if Jesus just lived in New York today.

But he hasn't been on earth for a long time.

Were those your thoughts when you just listened to these examples?

I want to show you this morning from God's word that such thoughts are deceiving us.

The question that arises for us today is can we, you and I, actually still serve Jesus today, wherever we are?

As Micah said, I bring you many greetings from Lighthouse Church in Berlin, from the European Bible Training Center.

We are serving Christ there, you are serving Christ here, and we this morning want to see what it actually means to serve Christ.

Let me pray before we look into the text for today.

Lord, we thank you so much for the work you are doing.

You said you will build your church.

And we want to praise you for the fellowship we have through your work on the cross, through the Holy Spirit, and the unchangeable word that is the same in all times, in all cultures, in all languages.

And we want to pray that you might speak this morning through your word and through the power of your Holy Spirit into our lives.

Amen.

Can we still serve Jesus today?

I would like you to remember today that even in serving Christ, He is exalted by making four attitudes of service a goal in your life.

Four attitudes of service a goal in your life.

I would like to show you this morning that you can serve the one true living Jesus here and now.

And my goal is that these familiar words, I am doing this for Jesus, these familiar words take on a more practical meaning for you.

I am doing this for Jesus.

This phrase we usually use or hear when we want to talk about our motives in serving, our motives in ministry, or we want to express that all glory belongs to Christ if we had maybe success in ministry.

This meaning is certainly true and important, but it is more than that.

It is more specific than that.

These so loving words, I'm doing this for Jesus, they have a far-reaching implication for your life.

So I would like you this morning to recognize how Paul specifically knew his role in ministry, and that you might pay attention to Paul's example and pattern to spur on the Colossians by his example.

You will experience how the power of God strengthens you.

Observe how brothers and sisters become more like Christ and marvel how people come to faith because you are doing this for Jesus.

Christ, He has preeminence, He is exalted.

To him belongs all the glory.

He is the cause and the goal in every single ministry he gave towards each one of you.

That is what Paul is talking about in Colossians 1.

Now, we will see in the text in Colossians 1 four attitudes of a faithful servant of Christ.

First, we will see the faithful servant of Christ rejoices in the midst of suffering.

Second, we will see the faithful servant of Christ perseveres in affliction.

And third, the faithful servant of Christ knows his responsibility for the people.

And lastly, the faithful servant of Christ serves the church.

The context in Colossians one is that Paul has to remind the Colossians of Christ's preeminence.

The Colossians were in danger to add something to Christ.

So the message of the whole book of Colossians is Christ plus nothing.

And he's doing that in the first verses in Colossians 1, 15 to 17 to show and showing that Christ is preeminent in creation.

Then in verses 18 to 20, he's preeminent in the church.

And then in Colossians 1 21 and 23, his preeminence in reconciliation.

So let's read first Colossians 1 21 to 23 to get into the context of our preaching text from verse 24.

Colossians 1 21 to 23, we read.

This gospel has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and I, Paul, have become a servant of it.

This is his introduction in verses twenty-one to twenty-three.

Paul having addressed the majesty of Jesus and his greatness in creation in the church and in reconciliation, he now comes to Jesus' majesty and glory in his own ministry.

Jesus' majesty and power, Jesus' divinity is evident in Paul's ministry, in his life.

It is from the greater scope to his personal life, from creation to church to reconciliation to Paul.

Christ is preeminent.

That is, he is, Christ is the motivation, the source, the power and goal of everything he's doing.

That is his transition here.

Now you can see in verse 23 that this gospel has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven.

Paul is making this statement to show the Colossians that those things they heard, Christ plus something you need, those are heresies that were just in their area.

But the one true gospel is preached in all creation, the same true gospel everywhere.

That is a huge contrast he wants to make here.

False teaching in their region, the true gospel everywhere.

And Christ and Paul is a minister of this gospel.

So now let's see how he explains his ministry, and we can see then the four attitudes of a faithful minister for Christ.

Let's look into Colossians 1 24.

We read through 29.

Colossians 1 24.

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I am completing in my flesh what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for his body, that is the church.

I have become its servant according to God's administration that was given to me for you, to make God's message fully known.

The mystery hidden for ages and generations, but now revealed to his saints.

God wanted to make known among the Gentiles the glorious wealth of his mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

We proclaim him, warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

I labor for this, striving with his strength that works powerfully in me.

The first attitude we want to look at is that the faithful servant of Christ rejoices in the midst of suffering.

Look into verse twenty four in Colossians one.

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you.

When have you connected joy and suffering the last time as Paul's doing it here?

Suffering usually, our response is no thank you.

But he is rejoicing and in suffering.

He brings them together.

Two things we can learn here how we might rejoice in suffering.

First is we have to expect suffering.

Our emotions and our reactions to the circumstances in our lives very often depend on our expectations.

Whatever we expect has a huge part to it, how we actually react.

So we have to expect suffering that we might then answer in joy.

Look into the text, he says it, these are my sufferings.

My sufferings.

I don't give them away.

You can take them.

These are my sufferings, they are his.

Once he was stoned by his enemies, three times he was shipwrecked.

He has spent the night and the day in the open sea, faced dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own people, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the open country, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brothers, labor, hardship, many sleepless nights, hunger, thirst, often without food, cold, and lacking clothing.

Those were his sufferings.

And then in verse 29 and 2 Corinthians 11, not to mention other things, there is a daily pressure on me, my care for all the churches.

He expected suffering.

And because of that, he could rejoice.

He could then write, Now I rejoice in my sufferings.

He's not saying that the Colossians or you and I have to suffer these sufferings, but those were his.

And in all this suffering, he kept the attitude of joy.

The text says, Now I rejoice.

This is a present active.

It is a lasting joy, not a moment, not a joy that you have when I take a picture and you smile for that moment.

That's not what he's talking about.

He's talking about an attitude in life.

He rejoices in his sufferings.

No matter what faithfulness meant, he rejoiced.

In Philippians two, seventeen to eighteen, he says, But even if I am poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your face, I am glad and rejoice with you all.

In the same way you should also be glad and rejoice with me.

The reason why Paul could rejoice is that he expected suffering, and he knew that it was from God.

It was God's plan.

And not only in God's plan, but he also knew it was for your sake.

In Colossians 1:24, so the verse before he says, For his body, he is lacking in Christ's afflictions for uh he's completing in my flesh what is lacking in Christ's affliction, for his body that is the church.

Colossians 1:24

So he knew why he is suffering.

The reason of it was the church, were people, lives, souls.

And he's writing all of that while sitting in prison in Rome.

He had already completed his three missionary journeys.

He probably had around three or four years left to live.

Whatever I read to you from Second Corinthians was passed in this moment when he wrote Colossians.

And Paul never knew personally the church of Colossae.

He just knew their church planter.

But still he says, These are afflictions I take for you.

Because he knew that all of this is not only for the local church, but for the universal church.

That was his calling, and he knew it.

He's writing to in other epistles the same aspect that he is suffering for them.

We read this, we read this already in Philippians 2.

We can read this in Ephesians 3.

Therefore, I pray that you will not lose heart because of my afflictions for your sake, which are an honor to you.

All of this, in all of this, he had an attitude of joy in suffering, because he expected suffering, and he knew that his joy, as we read in Philippians and other texts, is grounded in Christ, and here he comes from Colossians 1, showing that Christ is preeminent in everything, he's also preeminent in his life, and that results in joy.

How about us?

Should we expect suffering?

Do you have an Acts 9 prophecy about your life?

He must suffer a lot in my name?

Well, not so directly, but still, scripture is full with.

The truth that the one who believes in Christ will suffer.

So let us expect suffering and make joy an attitude in our lives as a faithful servant of Christ.

Let's look at our second attitude.

The faithful servant of Christ perseveres.

The faithful servant of Christ perseveres.

Again in verse twenty four.

Let's read the whole verse again.

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I am completing in my flesh what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for his body, that is the church.

I am completing in my flesh.

Paul not only shows us an attitude that is characterized by joy, but he also gets the job done.

He perseveres, whatever the cost might be.

He says, I am completing.

I am completing.

Other translations say, I am fulfilling.

He's persistent, he continually is working until his task is finished.

If it takes suffering, it takes suffering.

But I will do what I'm called to do.

He uses the words of filling up the lack, of filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions.

What is missing or lacking in Christ's afflictions?

Well, first of all, we can say what it does not mean.

It does not mean that someone needed to needed to be added to the cross of Christ to finish the work of redemption.

That's not what it means.

He just pointed out in verses 21 to 23 that Christ is preeminent over all reconciliation.

His work is enough, his work is finished.

And then afterwards, in chapter 2, verse 13 to 15, we read, And when you were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive with him and forgave us all our trespasses.

He erased the certificate of debt with its obligations that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it out of the way by nailing it to the cross.

Paul is not talking about his afflictions or suffering adding anything to the reconciliation, finished work of Christ at the cross.

He didn't see any lack of Christ's work at the cross.

The best view I think is that based on our mystical union with Christ, we share with Christ everything.

In God's plan, the people of Christ would be subject to a certain degree of afflictions that were all part of God's plan of redemption.

The lack had to do with a certain amount of persecution that still remained in God's plan.

Remember what Paul said in Galatians 2, verse 20.

Galatians 2:20

The known verse, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.

The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

That is our union with Christ.

No longer I live, but Christ lives in me.

And we see that Paul was not afraid from these sufferings or of these sufferings.

He knew it was his part to fill up whatever lacked, in the sense of persevering and doing his job to the end.

And for him, it meant to suffer for the universal church.

Paul was a representative of Christ Christ as you and I are too.

For him, the work of redemption had been accomplished on the cross, and he could add nothing to this achievement.

This word that Paul uses here for afflictions is never used to describe Christ's suffering on the cross.

Paul, he had actively participated in making Christ suffer in the person of his followers in Judea.

He persecuted the church.

And when Christ stopped him on the road, he said to him, Acts 9 4, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

But from now on, he would suffer for Christ's sake or for the sake of the body, his church.

The apostle considered it a privilege to suffer for the one he once hated.

The apostle considered it a privilege to suffer for the one he once hated.

How about us?

Did you hate Christ?

In Colossians 1 21, we just read, once you were alienated and hostile in your minds because of your evil actions, you have hated Christ, or if you're not in Christ, you're still hating him by your actions and by your mind, by your hostile mind, it says in verse 21.

You hated Christ too.

Do you consider it a joy to suffer now for the one you once hated?

If you're here and you're not a believer, then this description is still true about you.

But forgiveness is available today.

The Bible is clear that being a Christian includes suffering, but it is nothing compared to eternal hell.

And those sufferings on earth, as we read a lot about it in First Peter, is nothing compared to the joy in heaven.

So Paul knows there are sufferings that are connected because he's one with Christ and with the ministry we have on this earth.

How is he fulfilling what is lacking?

Look, let's look into the text.

This fulfilling is not a spiritual fulfilling, a mystical fulfilling, nothing symbolic fulfilling.

He says, I'm fulfilling in my flesh.

Brothers and sisters, this actually hurts.

He fills with his own flesh.

When he goes out and labors, he's getting tired.

Wingige, he goes out and labors.

At some places he is beaten.

In Galatians 6, 17, he says, From now on, let no one cause me trouble, because I bear on my body scarce for the cause of Jesus.

In the name of the body, his church.

Not just a single church, as we saw, but the whole universal church is the sense that Paul is writing this here.

So the idea is that God has a plan and purpose for Paul, and that Paul knew that a certain amount of suffering would be part of this calling he had, so that he could fulfill the task.

And the text then goes on that he describes his task.

We all know that we take suffering in for a higher goal.

A becoming mother knows that pain will be part of giving birth to the baby.

Or if you go further in training for your job, you know it will cost you time, money, energy.

So, in what sense are we all suffering for Christ and rejoice in it?

We can count it in, and it is not bad to count it in because we know that the gain is a lot higher.

That is why the mother gives birth, and that is why someone goes to further training, because he knows the end will be better than the suffering it takes.

That is Paul's attitude in mind, even with all the huge sufferings we saw in 2 Corinthians, he had to take in.

Paul had commissioned from God to take the gospel out into the whole world.

That was his commission.

He knew that it would bear fruit, and he also knew that it included sufferings.

But those sufferings in Romans 8 18, he says, is he is convinced that the suffering of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us.

His attitude in suffering, he was not ready to give up.

He pressed on, whatever it took, so it was an attitude of perseverance.

We first saw that the attitude of a faithful servant of Christ is an attitude of joy in suffering, and now we saw it is an attitude of perseverance in afflictions, just as Jesus told us to in John 15, 18 to 20.

If the world hates you, understand that it hated me before it hated you.

If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own.

However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you.

Remember that the word I spoke to you, a slave 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.

And so many more verses we could add to it.

That we also have to be ready to suffer and take in afflictions.

I am doing this for Jesus.

What do you mean by these words?

The meaning just extended.

It should mean that you rejoice in suffering.

It should mean that you persevere in afflictions.

He knows his responsibility.

He knows his responsibility.

In Colossians 1 23, he said, I, Paul, have become a servant of it.

And then at the end in verse 24, I am a servant for his body that is the church.

And in verse 25, I have become its servant according to God's administration that was given to me for you.

Paul knew first that he is a servant of the church.

He was made a servant by God.

God chose him for this task.

In First Timothy 1 11, he says, according to the gospel of the glory of the blessed God, which has been entrusted to me, and therefore I sank him who gave me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, that he considered me faithful and appointed me to the ministry.

Paul oftentimes describes himself as a servant, Greek diaconos.

But it's not always the elder and deacon diaconos, it's just a minister.

He twice makes this claim, as I read in verse 23 and 25.

It can be the designated office in the church, but it can be used in the general sense how it is used here.

He sees himself as a servant, a minister.

And the emphasis is whom he serves.

Did you mention whom he serves?

He makes it so clear: a servant of the church.

In verse 23, of it, the church, in verse at the end of 24, afflictions for his body, that is the church.

I have become its servant.

Paul was focused on the people in the church, those that Christ gathered in churches.

He was made a minister to the church.

That is his focus.

He did everything to seek the spiritual welfare of the church.

And we can see that in the later verses that we don't look at today, that he is proclaiming in verse 28 Christ, warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

I labor for this, striving with his strength that works powerfully in me.

He knows his responsibility.

A faithful servant of Christ knows his responsibility.

A servant of the church.

Then we see in the text he knows he was a steward.

In verse twenty five, it says, I have become a servant according to God's administration that was given to me.

Each one of us is a steward.

Each one of us has an administration.

Or in the language of Ephesians 2 10, each one of us has to do works that God prepared before us.

That is your administration.

That is, or what is your responsibility?

A faithful servant of God knows his responsibility and wants to fulfill it.

Paul knew his.

But you also have a special ministry.

Do you know it?

Do you fulfill it?

Do you know it and do you fulfill it with joy in suffering?

And with perseverance in afflictions.

No matter what the cost.

You know what you should do, and you are doing it with perseverance and with joy.

Our sister in the church who's ninety years old, with cancer and pain, every Sunday sits in the rows.

How can she apply what we just read and looked at?

How can she stay, say for me to live is Christ?

Is there anything she still can do?

Is there any administration that she could fulfill with joy and perseverance?

Yes.

And will it include afflictions and suffering?

Yes.

So we can break it down to each one of you.

We know we are not the Apostle Paul, but the principles apply to you and me the same.

And then we do and can say, I'm doing this for Jesus.

Let's briefly look at the false attitude of the service, faithful servant of Christ.

The false attitude is the faithful servant of Christ serves the church.

It's almost too obvious.

We saw it in all the other three points.

I just want to make a single point out of it so we realize the importance.

Sometimes we would tend to say, I'm doing this for Christ, and it has nothing to do with the church.

That is impossible in Paul's thinking.

Wherever he suffers, wherever he has afflictions, he knows how to connect the dots, so it is actually for the benefit of the church.

And that is true for our 90 year old sister.

She can still pray, even by just coming to the service.

She is an encouragement to the whole church.

Connected to the church.

So we can add the church in all three attitudes we also already saw.

First, the faithful servant of Christ rejoices in the midst of suffering for the church.

Second, the faithful servant of Christ perseveres in afflictions for the church.

And third, the faithful servant of Christ knows his responsibility for the people in the church.

That is Paul's mind here.

And by that, he encourages the Colossians that can't do anything for him right now, practically speaking.

But he says, Dear Colossians, Christ is preeminent in my sufferings, in my service, in whatever I have to do.

And by that you are encouraged and you are spurred on to do the same.

That is why he puts himself in this passage in Colossians 1, not to boast about himself, but to boast about Christ and the grace that is working in him.

Paul's hope in Christ was so real, so sure that he could rejoice in these sufferings.

He served to the uttermost because he knew his battle price, because he knew that all earthly things pass away and only the heavenly things remain.

He invested everything in these values.

Christ is exalted in creation, in the church, in salvation, in reconciliation, and in each one's lives.

He is enough.

Don't add anything, but know who Christ is and rejoice in him.

Everything for Paul resolves around Christ.

He is his goal, his motivation, his example, his forerunner, his power and his strengths for every ministry to his body, namely his church.

So we saw the ninety-year old lady, how she could connect it.

How about the CEO?

Can he say in his day-to-day work, Monday to Friday or Saturday, I am doing this for Jesus?

Yes, he can.

He has to know his responsibility, what is his task in these five, six days a week.

And if he knows it, he will live by the huge principle to love God and to love his neighbor and many others.

If he will do that, it will imply sufferings.

Because this world is not acting about among these principles, and he will be can rejoice in these sufferings, and he can persevere in any affliction, and he can focus on the people, each one that he is in contact with.

So wherever you are, it applies to our lives.

And I want you to remember today that Christ is exalted in your life by making these four attitudes and ministries a goal of your life.

He rejoices in the midst of suffering, perseveres in affliction, knows his responsibility, and serves the church.

When you think about the sermon in the next days, I hope that you first pray and seek counsel with brothers and sisters about where you can be a blessing to the church.

Maybe to the local church here, maybe to the universal church.

Second, I would like you to think about your ministry capacities and approach a ministry leader or the elders to maybe do more, to maybe do less.

Just think about the administration, whatever the tasks are, the works that God prepared for you.

And remember the reward will be great.

It's okay if it hurts a little bit.

And certainly, if you're living according to those principles, stay faithful.

When you think about the sermon, stay faithful, Christ is able to sustain you in the midst of these afflictions that are coming, in the midst of the sufferings.

Rejoice and persevere and live according to these characteristics and don't be hesitant to set an example for others.

You needed an example, others need an example.

Take the next one to your side and disciple him in these attitudes of a faithful Christian minister.

The result will be that your gifts, your experience, your prayers, your hard labor will eventually lead to the edification of the whole church.

With clarity in your calling, your motivation and your joy, the perseverance and willingness to suffer will increase and become a blessing to many people.

All this with the focus on the church and our Lord Jesus Christ, so that we all might say, I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.

And that we remember Christ's last words in the Great Commission, I am with you always till the end of the earth.

Let me close in prayer.

Lord Jesus, we want to thank you for your reconciliation of us to our great God.

We are so thankful for the word we have, the Holy Spirit that opened us the eyes for people like Paul who went before us and are showing us a great example of a faithful minister, a faithful Christian life.

My prayer is, Lord, that each one of us might more precisely think about and pray about our tasks and ministries and abilities.

This summer is such a great time to consider and that we might be willing and expect suffering.

Be joyful in everything and persevere until the job is done that you have for each one of us.

Amen.