Colossians 1:24-2:2 –
24 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, 25 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, 26 the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. 27 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. 28 Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 29 For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.
2 1 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, 2 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…
Introduction
Welcome to the start of missions week. I’m exceedingly thankful for the culture-shaping effect it has had on our church over the years. One of the most tangible ways I’ve seen that play out is in the fact that missions is normal at Grace. No one wonders whether or not missions ought to be a part of our church-life. We all know and love the reality that as long as there are people around the world who have not heard the good news of Jesus, who have not yet tasted and seen that He alone can satisfy our souls, we must go to them or support those who have.
But if we’re being honest, we’ll admit that missions is a scary and costly and intimidating. With that in mind, Kyle introduced me to the theme of missions week this year with the following thoughts…
“How many of us fall short in our sending and our going because we see it too much as a loss of something? A loss of money, loss of time, loss of comfort, a loss of fulfillment, or a loss of safety and security? Yes, missions is loss, but it is a loss of that which is lesser, and a gain of that which is greater. Greater joy. Greater purpose. Greater satisfaction” (Kyle Puelston).
Grace, I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that all of life is one choice after another between lesser or greater. Likewise, I don’t think it’s misleading to say that sanctification is God’s work of giving us increasing appetite for all things greater.
Our main problem is that sin has made it so that we often can’t tell the greater from the lesser and even when we can, we often don’t prefer it, and even when we do, we are often unwilling to pay the cost to get it.
And here’s the key for us to grasp this morning: As long as that’s the case, missions will never find its proper place in our own lives or in the life of our church.
Missions week this year is a call to die to that which is lesser in order that we might live for that which is greater. It’s a plea to ask the Lord to help us increasingly die to all the sinful and even “fine” things in our life, that we might come alive to the greatest things—to Jesus and all that He has commanded.
Through Paul’s example, we are given a crystal-clear picture of what that looks like.
The big ideas of this sermon are that God commands missions, missions is hard, and we’ll never do the hard work of missions if we aren’t convinced that it is greater. The main takeaway is that we’d work hard to learn, love, and live the greater, no matter the cost (that we’d read our Bibles, pray for the Spirit’s transforming power, and spur one another on in missions).
Missions In Paul’s Life
Again, there are three components to the big idea of this sermon: (1) God commands missions, (2) Missions is hard, and (3) We’ll never do the hard work of missions if we aren’t convinced that it is greater. Paul most certainly understood and believed and lived in light of those biblical truths. To help you see that, and then apply it, consider with me six high-level observations from our passage.
Paul Rejoiced in His Suffering as a Missionary (1:24)
Almost from the moment of his conversion, Paul spent his entire life serving as a missionary. That is, he gave himself to traveling around the known world, telling everyone he could about the good news of God’s grace in Jesus Christ. He did so across every geographical, cultural, linguistic, political and, economic boundary there was at that time.
In the course of nearly 30 years of missions work, Paul traveled across two continents, somewhere in the vicinity of 10,000 miles, personally sharing the gospel with hundreds, if not thousands of people.
And in that time, he suffered much. He suffered to the point that it’s probably nearly impossible for most of us to imagine it, his perseverance in it, or even his lack of complaining about it.
But more than merely making it through and keeping his complaints to himself, Paul explicitly tells us (in v.24), “Now I rejoice in my sufferings…” He did the hard work, kept doing the hard work for three decades, and saw his hardships not as a flaw of his ministry, but as a feature, as opportunities to rejoice.
That ought to cause two questions to spring immediately to mind: (1) What suffering, and (2) Why rejoice in it?
What suffering? It’d be a significant understatement to simply say, “a lot.” By the time Paul wrote his letter to the Colossians and claimed to be rejoicing in his suffering (you can read about a good deal of it in 2 Corinthians 11:23-2), he’d already been beaten, lashed, stoned, shipwrecked, sleepless, homeless, famished, and betrayed.
Most immediately, in the context of this letter, Paul was suffering imprisonment, in “chains” (4:18), for declaring “the mystery of Christ” (4:3). And all of those things, multiple times (including shipwrecked).
Again, needless to say, that level and length of suffering goes far beyond what any of us can even imagine.
If that’s the nature of his suffering, how/why in the world would he rejoice in it? You do know that sounds a bit crazy, right?
Paul seems to be living out what James commanded: “Count it all joy…when you meet trials of various kinds.” I’ve always found that to be the most counterintuitive passage in the whole Bible. (I know there are others that should seem more that way, but they just don’t.) On the surface, trials and joy seem to me to be the definition of opposite ends of the spectrum. Nearly every part of my rational brain is convinced that to move away from one is to move toward the other; that they cannot coexist.
The theme of missions week, the opening words of our passage, and Paul’s entire Christian life, are a direct assault on that line of thinking. But again, why? How?
The short version is that in all of these things, Paul told his readers that he was willingly dying to his old self and life, to his old desires and motivations, to his old priorities and privileges, and to his old thinking and reasoning. And he told them that he was doing so for the sake of living for something much, much (incalculably) greater. Everything he once held dear and built his life upon, had become to him as rubbish compared to the opportunity to know Jesus, obey Jesus, and proclaim the good news of Jesus to the world.
The remaining six observations are the meat on that bone. They are the alternate calculus which reckons suffering as joy instead of ruin. They are the greater that makes it worth dying to all lesser. They are the things that an above the sun exchange rate values above all earthly comfort. They are the answer to the question of how a man or woman of God can rejoice in their trials of obedience.
Paul Rejoiced in His Suffering for the Sake of the Church (1:24)
The second observation, and the first explanation for Paul’s rejoicing in his suffering, is found in the very next clause in v.24, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake…” [that is, according to the end of the verse,] …for the sake of [Jesus’] body, that is, the church…” (also, “for you” according to v.25).
In other words, Paul knew that the suffering he endured for telling people about Jesus was for the benefit of all God’s people. It was a benefit for those who had not yet heard the gospel in that they might hear, believe, and be saved. And it was a benefit for those already trusting in Jesus in that, as we’ll see from 1:28 on, it resulted in their spiritual maturity.
In his second letter to the church at Corinth (2 Corinthians 4:8-11), he says it like this…
We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our bodies. 11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So death is at work in us, but life in you.
It’s one thing to suffer for doing something good. There is real motivation in simply doing what is right regardless of the cost. But when the Spirit is in us, it’s something different (something much greater) when we know that it is to the significant benefit of others, and especially to the people of God. The suffering is still hard, but there’s join in paying its price for the sake of others.
It’s hard to stay up all night with a sick kid, but there’s real joy in seeing the peace it brings them.
It can be hard to sit with someone who’s been through a great loss, but the Spirit turns that into real joy when it results in helping to bear their burdens.
And it’s hard to take the gospel to the ends of the earth (to pay the price of missions), but there’s real joy in doing so for the sake of the salvation and sanctification of the world!
There is loss and death in all of these things, but in Christ, it is not death to die. It is life and gain!
Paul Rejoiced in His Suffering According to the Example of Jesus (1:24)
The next observation and reason for Paul’s rejoicing is even more powerful still. One more time, look at 1:24.
24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions…
I remember reading this for the first time and thinking it sounded like Paul was claiming that Jesus’ suffering was not sufficient or that he needed to add to what Jesus had done. Most emphatically, that’s not what Paul meant.
He was simply testifying to the truthfulness of Jesus’ own teaching,
Matthew 10:16-22Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. 17 Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, 18 and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles… 21 Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, 22 and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake.
Jesus promised His followers that there would be more suffering to come after His death and resurrection. Paul willingly took on as much on as his obedience required.
But more than that, more than merely following Jesus’ example in faithfully enduring mistreatment, he followed the example of Jesus who, “for the joy that was before Him endured the cross” (Hebrews 12:2).
It’s one thing to suffer for doing good. It’s something different to do so according to Jesus’ example and consistent with His promise. That’s the kind of suffering, worth suffering. That’s the kind the Spirit allows God’s people to rejoice in. That’s the kind of comfort worth dying to, to gain that kind of life and joy.
With each of these, we must ask ourselves, is that how I see things? Is that the standard by which I measure my life? Do I think and feel and live according to the value-standards of God’s economy or the world’s?
Paul Rejoiced in His Suffering Because it Was According to God’s Commissioning (1:25)
Fourth, Paul was willing to suffer as a missionary because his missionary work was given to him directly from God. You can read the story in Acts 9, but in our passage, we find this neat summary, “I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you” (1:25).
In that way, Paul didn’t have to wonder what he was meant to give his life to. In that way, he didn’t have to figure out whether his suffering was right or wrong. In that way, he didn’t have to calculate what was lesser and what was greater. God directed him in all those ways.
Grace, it’s one thing to suffer for doing good. It’s something different to do so according to God’s clear commissioning. Accepting that commissioning cost Paul dearly, but it paid 10,000x what it cost. And that 10,000x gain is what caused Paul to rejoice in the 1x loss. The math is different when God’s Word is your standard and God’s glory in the good of the nations is your goal.
Paul Rejoiced in His Suffering Because it Was to “Make the Word of God Fully Known” (1:26-2:2)
The fifth thing I want you all to see is found in the middle of 1:25. There we find the content of Paul’s commission. We find the answer to the question, “What, specifically, was Paul’s God-given ministry?”
Essentially, it was to “make the Word of God fully known” (1:25). Not partially known. Not mostly known. Not nearly entirely known. Fully known! He was to hold none of it back. He was to share everything, everyone needed for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3).
I find it particularly remarkable that much of our passage for this morning describes the content of the Word of God Paul was to minister to the world; the content of the message he was to suffer for sharing and to rejoice in his suffering. The clearer we are on these things (on the heart of the gospel), the easier it is to see why Paul rejoiced in the suffering that resulted from sharing them.
- A long-hidden “mystery,” a “mystery hidden for ages and generation” (1:26). The first and central aspect of the content of the Word he was to deliver was that it was an age-old mystery. Much of the content had not been available to the world until that time in history.
If you’re at all familiar with The Count of Monte Cristo, you know that a key aspect of the story is a staggering treasure that had been hidden for 300 years. What a joy it was for Abbe Faria to tell Edmond of its location. How much moreso was it Paul’s joy to be entrusted with the privilidged of revealing the mystery of a far greater treasure?! - To the Gentiles (1:27). One of the more remarkable aspects of the mystery Paul was given to reveal is that it was a message for the Gentiles, the non-Jews. It was not only for the children of Abraham, but for the rest of the world too. This would have been mysterious indeed to Israel. The missions work Paul was eager to suffer for, was to go into the entire world, to every man, woman, and child, from every tribe, tongue, and nation.
- The riches of the glory (1:27). Not only was Paul’s message a mystery in that it was for the Gentiles, but also in the magnitude of its glory. He marveled, “how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery?!” This was no trivial message Paul was overjoyed to share even at great cost. It was the greatest message of all time. It was limitless in its glory. It was a treasure worth more than all the riches of the earth. It was so great that sharing it is worth every loss.
- Christ in you, the hope of glory (1:27). Paul’s missionary work was to deliver a message. That message had been a mystery for many generations, it was for the Gentiles, and it was full of glory. But what exactly was the content of the message?
Simply and above all, Paul’s missionary message was: “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” It was a message of God’s loving provision of the righteousness He required, through His only Son. It was a message of immediate reconciliation with God and the certain hope of unlimited, eternal, future glory. It was a message of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone! What a message! - Warning everyone (1:28). The good news was that through faith in Jesus, there is eternal riches of glory in Jesus. But proclaiming Christ was not only an offer of eternal reward, it was also a warning of eternal damnation. The offer of good news was for everyone, but so was the warning. For, to continue to reject Jesus was to remain alienated, hostile, and evil (1:21). It was to remain God’s enemy and under His wrath.
Grace, as I know most of you know, the good news of the gospel is only good news of salvation for those who first accept the bad news of condemnation. Paul was delighted to suffer temporarily to share the good news that the world need not suffer forever. - Teaching everyone (1:27). The content of Paul’s God-commissioned missionary message was mystery, for an unexpected audience, filled with riches of glory, was ultimately about Christ in you, contained a warning of damnation, and promised new life through Christ. But Paul’s message was not merely “trust in Jesus and then wait around until glory.”
His message included “teaching everyone with all wisdom” to obey all that Jesus had commanded. Paul taught how to be initially reconciled to God through Jesus and the eternal life that comes with it, but he also taught on what it means to live for Jesus in this life; especially how to rejoice in suffering for preaching, warning and teaching about Jesus.
All that leads directly to the final aspect of the content of Paul’s message, it’s aim for those who believe. - With the aim of presenting everyone mature in Christ (1:28). This parallels Jesus’ work of presenting us holy and blameless and above reproach. Paul described this maturing as being “encouraged,” “knit together in love,” and as reaching “all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery” (2:1).
Paul rejoiced in the suffering that came from working toward the spiritual maturity of everyone who received the gospel in faith; toward making a people who eagerly died to every lesser thing in order to live to every greater thing.
Again, it’s one thing to suffer for doing the good work of missions, but it’s something different to do so knowing what a gift it is to all who hear and believe; to know the glory of the message and mission; to know the world-wide scope of the mission; to know how high the stakes are for those who do not hear and believe; to know the One from whom, and to whom, and for whom, and about whom the message was given—Jesus Christ. There is joy in suffering for the sake of delivering a message of that kind.
Think about it in the most basic terms, Grace. Imagine someone you love having contracted a terminal disease. Imagine also that you have the cure. What wouldn’t you be willing to gladly endure to get it to them? You’d be glad to have to walk 100 miles with it. You’d be happy for the chance to fight off bandits. It’d be your joy to get fired from your job. You’d rejoice at the loss of all lesser things in order to bring the far greater thing of life to the one you love. This is that x10,000 yet again. The news is that good!
Paul’s Rejoiced in His Suffering Because it Was Done in God’s Power (1:29-2:1)
If all of that were not enough, there’s one more remarkable aspect of Paul’s rejoicing-in-suffering missionary work. He was able to rejoice in sharing it, despite the cost, because of the miraculous way in which God strengthened him to do it.
Paul suffered not only in the way of persecution, he also suffered in the way of hard, hard labor. On a simple, under-the-sun, level, his missionary work was a continual and great physical struggle. All those miles. All that hunger. All that sun beating down on him. All those sleepless nights. All those conversations. All that planning.
At the beginning of chapter 2, he said it like this, “For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you…”
But it wasn’t the hard nature of the task itself that caused Paul to rejoice. It was the fact that God gave him the strength he needed for it. Emphatically, it was not in his own strength that he endured or rejoiced. No one is strong enough to do what Paul did, much less maintain a spirit of rejoicing in it.
Rather, he said, “29 I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.”
That is an echo of what he said back in v.11, asking God to empower the Colossians just as God had empowered him, “being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy.”
It’s one thing to suffer for doing good, just because you know it’s good, but it’s something altogether different to do so while feeling the power of God coursing through your mind and muscles. It’s easy to die to the lesser good of growing stronger yourself when it results in coming alive to the omnipotent strength of God! That is the source of much joy.
That brings us all the way back to the questions: Why rejoice in his suffering? Because as hard as the suffering was, it came with things immeasurably greater: The good of the Church, the chance to follow Jesus’ example, the privilege of living out the commissioning given to him by God, and the opportunity to share a message of rescue and redemption, a message of uncovered mystery, riches, glory, hope, and maturity in Jesus!
In other words, Paul rejoiced in his suffering because he knew without a doubt that all of his suffering and more was a loss that paled in comparison to all that he gained through it. Paul’s life and teaching help us to see that any amount of temporary suffering that comes from sharing the gospel with the world (from faithful missionary work), is entirely nothing in comparison to the eternal gain that comes with it.
Missions in the Life of the Church Today
It’s certainly interesting to see Paul’s perspective on missions and the role it played in his life, but where does all of that leave us? What implications does it have for us today?
In answer, and to close, I want to come back to where we began. The big ideas of this sermon are that God commands missions, missions is hard, and we’ll never do the hard work of missions if we aren’t convinced that it is greater.
God Commands Missions
God commands missions. This might sound like it goes without saying. And as I said earlier, I’m overwhelmingly thankful for the work of the missions team over the years to make it seem that way. But we need to say it: God still commands missions for all followers of Jesus.
Matthew 28:18-20 Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Disciples make disciples of all nations. That’s missions.
Missions Is Hard
Missions is hard. This too probably seems like it goes without saying, but it must be said. If it weren’t, there’d certainly be a lot more missionaries.
The hardships come in many forms, from outright physical suffering, to the emotional toll it takes to leave behind family, friends, and comfort, to the spiritual warfare the demons are sure to make on you.
As you heard Marty share in Berea, it can mean constant shifting of your home, separation from your kids, continual adaptation of strategy, loneliness, doubt, years of apparent fruitfulness, feeling disconnected, pressure to quit, pressure to leave, fear of being kicked out, pressure to keep supporters informed and onboard, etc.
To engage in missions is to suffer loss, even great loss, even death. It is hard.
We’ll Never Do the Hard Work of Missions if We Aren’t Convinced that it Is Greater
Finally, then, we’ll never do the hard work of missions in a manner pleasing to God if we aren’t convinced that it is, indeed greater, far, far, far, far, far greater; that the loss we suffer for it (no matter how great the loss really is) is so much less than the gain we get (and give) as to make it appear trivial in comparison.
And it is, Grace. For all the same reasons it was for Paul, I promise it is for you and me too.
We die to our comfort and selfishness (lesser) so that we might live for the joy of the salvation and sanctification of others when we go or send in missions (greater).
We die to our independence (lesser) that we might live for the joy of the glory of God when we do missions consistently with the example of Jesus (greater).
We die to our self-made thrones and illusions of self-governance (lesser) so we might live for the joy of doing missions according to the commissioning given to us by Jesus (greater).
We die to our worldly agenda (lesser) that we might live for the joy of making the Word of God fully known in missions; when we give ourselves to revealing the long-hidden mystery, of glorious riches, of God’s plan to save the whole world, of Christ in all who receive Him in faith, of the warning of eternal damnation, of teaching all that Jesus has commanded, and of the certain and complete maturity of all the saints (greater).
And we die to our pride (lesser) so that we might live for the joy of doing all things in the power of God (greater).
These things happen as the Spirit is pleased to bless our making use of the ordinary means of grace. Read your Bibles to see all these greater things for yourself. Pray for the Spirit’s revealing and transforming work. And spur one another in in putting to death all lesser things, and in living to all greater things.
Take part in all we offer for missions week. Be glad to skip some lesser thing for this greater thing. Talk to someone on the missions team about how you can participate more fully in missions through Grace. Reach out to our missionaries and ask them to share one way you can pray for them and practically support them. Give generously to the $4,000 the Smiths still need to head back to the Middle East. Identify the lesser things in your life that are keeping you from engaging missions as you ought and find help to turn from them.
“How many of us fall short in our sending and our going because we see it too much as a loss of something? A loss of money, loss of time, loss of comfort, a loss of fulfillment, or a loss of safety and security? Yes, missions is loss, but it is a loss of that which is lesser, and a gain of that which is greater. Greater joy. Greater purpose. Greater satisfaction” (Kyle Puelston).
Grace, in Christ, in all ways, and especially missions, may we die to that which is lesser that we might live eternally to that which is greater?!