Maturity

Sermon on Colossians 1:24-2:5

Title:

Theme:  The goal of ministry is Christ-like maturity.

Goal: to encourage believers to develop in their maturity.

Need:  Christians stagnate instead of steadily mature in their faith.

Outline:

Introduction:  the location in the book of Colossians.

            Greeting:

            Thanksgiving:

            Prayer Report

            His ministry

Introduction:  the situation is Gnosticism and false teaching:  People saying, you have to be given a certain super special revelation so you can obtain true understanding of Christ.

Paul is knows that the lack of depth in the true understanding of the faith may cause the believers to be swayed by false teachings about Christ and the way to come to know him.

We might experience the same thing:  The accusation of today’s generation is that we are incapable of going deep and contemplating faith and life in a sophisticated and educated way.

The way that Paul sees to go against this is to encourage the Christians in Colosse to understand the bigness of God in a deep and thorough way.

The main point is that Paul’s ministry and the goal of all ministry is to present perfect people before Jesus Christ.

How do we see that? Vs 24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 2:1 etc.

1. We see the struggle that Paul goes through in his ministry.  Suffer for the Church.  Commissioned for ministry to the church.  And struggling for the church.
1. Paul lays this all before them so that they understand that he was faithful in his work for them. 
2. The Christians need to understand the depth of the commitment he shows to them.
2. Paul is working his tail off to fulfill his goal.

What is the goal of his ministry?

1.       Verses 28-29.  The goal is the perfection of his believers.

a.       Any one feel like saying, yeah, Good luck with that one Paul. Even Jesus says, who is good except the Father. 

b.      Perfection really is beyond our grasp isn’t it?

                                                                          i.      No:  Perfection = teleion.  The greek mindset of that word would be what we usually think of with the word would be completely without defect.

                                                                        ii.      But Paul seems to be using older usuage of the word here.  In the Hebrew OT framework, teleion meant, complete to the fullest extent.

                                                                      iii.      Mature:  That’s what we seek to be. Not perfect, but developed to the fullest extent. 

What is Christian Maturity?

1.  Colossians 2:2-  it is knowing Jesus Christ. 
2. Colossians 2:6- it is being in Christ.  Being rooted in him.  Being organically grafted into the vine of Christ.  Maturity is that deep relationship with Christ.
3. We get that relationship by not having a malformed picture of Christ.
1. Not a false picture.

                                                              i.      JI Packer a theologian around today says today we are pygmy Christians because we have a pygmy God. 

1. Not pygmy Christ.  Having a pygmy God and a pygmy Christ leads us to be  pygmy Christians
2. Paul wants us to have a clear picture of Christ so that we aren’t swayed by crafty arguments. 

How do we become Mature Christians?

1. We have a grown up, filled out, full understanding of who Jesus Christ is. #. Paul teaches us who Christ in the initial biggest sense in verses 15-13.  Jesus is the greatest, the supreme being, the master of all!

Oh, grow up.  Okay.  The goal of ministry is to bring people from a surface understanding of Christ to new depths.  The goal of our discipleship is to be deeply rooted in solid understanding of Christ.