Our text this morning is from Colossians chapter 1.
I'll give you a chance to get there.
Do you know one of the things that happens in our worship
service and worship planning is that there's actually some
thought in how all of these things tie together.
So I just want to review where we've been so far this morning.
We started this morning with a reading from Isaiah 42.
Did you notice it? It talked about the servant of
God who was coming who was going to do a wonderful thing for
Israel and then God says, but that's far too small, a thing.
I am going to have you be a servant to the nation's a light
to the Gentiles and you're going to do it.
Gently kindly, you're not going to hammer the nation's you're
going to gently call out. The Nations and lift them up,
what a beautiful passage and then we sing Hosanna.
Now Hosanna, it is a strange word, you know, it means help.
We tend to make it being praised, but it means help.
And you all saying, over and over hell, Hosanna, help.
And it's that picture of Jesus coming into Jerusalem, the
Messiah coming in and he's riding on a donkey.
He's not coming as a triumphant conqueror on a horse, who's
going to overwhelm this city, instead he Becomes one ready to
hear a people who cry help and you all did not.
You didn't know it this morning but you've done it.
We're connecting the dots and then we sang, the song, Reckless
Love. That that speaks of God loving
us before we were even born that he saw us.
And he comes for us and it while we were singing that song I was
reminded of Eugene Peterson and that he had a secret in Ministry
and his secret and Ministry was that on every occasion, that he
preached and spoke, he said, the secret of the sermon was this,
God is coming for you. He loves you.
So we sang of God's Reckless, love that he's coming for us and
then we read from John 17. Thank you.
We read the prayer of Jesus and we heard again a prayer that
Echoes through eternity of Jesus saying oh I so enjoy the love of
our communion. And I can't wait for it to be
shared with Humanity, you and me, and I in them, huh.
Did anybody get excited in that moment when you heard that
prayer of Jesus? And Jesus was not only talking
about the disciples who were with him, but he was praying for
the disciples who would come because these disciples would
share the message and guess who they were going to share it
with. Jews and Gentiles, the nations
were connecting, the dots. Did you know that our worship
Services were woven together this way?
You just thought this was something happening up here, but
but there are dots being laid down and they need to be
connected in worship and then we sang that song.
Oh, How He Loves? Thank you.
Nana. Wow, where's Nana?
There's that. How he loves and and we reminded
again of how God loves us and I thought of how that song was
written that that song was written in response to grief and
loss, a tragic loss of a young person who was killed in an
accident and the writer of this song says my only lament and
comfort was there. Oh How He Loves Us?
Oh, how God loves us? because this suffering, I felt
he feels too. How He Loves Us.
And then we prayed a response. To love.
We prayed a response to the love of God.
Where we said I'll give me a clean hand.
Give me a pure heart. Help me.
See the way you see and we talked about o God of Jacob.
Now I get excited Every Time We Sing About God of Jacob because
Jacob was a scoundrel. He was a cheater.
He was a Deceiver. and yet, we sing that song with with such
abandon But we're like Jacob. So we have to pray.
God, help us cast down. Our Idols, Give Us Clean Hands.
Now did you go on that? Journey through worship?
Anybody. You're like, oh my goodness,
that's all new. So there's a thoughtfulness and
a weaving in worship that happens.
There was great intention in the planning of worship and then
sometimes, God just doesn't it's there for us.
There's a feast laid out for us. If only will take it up and eat,
So our passage in Colossians pulls some of this all together.
This is from Colossians chapter 1 beginning in verse 24 and will
read into chapter 2 as well. Now, I rejoice in what I am
suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh.
What is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions for the
sake of his body, which is the church.
I have become its servant by the commission.
God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness.
The mystery that it's been kept hidden for ages and generations,
but is now disclosed to the law. Lord's people to them.
God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles, the Glorious
Riches of this mystery which is Christ in.
You the hope of glory he is the one we Proclaim admonishing and
teaching everyone with all wisdom.
So that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ to this
end I strenuously Sleek contend with all the energy Christ.
So powerfully Works in me chapter 2, I want you to know
how hard I am contending for you.
And for those at laodicea and for all who have not met me
personally, my goal is that they may be encouraged and heart and
United in love so that they may have the full Riches of complete
understanding in order that they may not.
A know, the mystery of God, namely Christ in whom are hidden
all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
I tell you this so that no one may deceive.
You by fine sounding Arguments for though, I am absent from you
and body. I am present with you in spirit
and Delight to see how disciplined you are and how firm
your faith in Christ is Do you remember the first movie you
saw? In a movie theater.
The first movie I saw in a movie theater that I remember is one.
I went to see with my father, when I was 13 years old.
It was 1981 seems like a long time ago, right?
And the movie was Chariots of Fire.
Dot, dot dot. Anybody seen the movie?
There's an amazing scene in the movie Chariots of Fire about
Eric little. And the whole movie is about
Eric little who became a missionary to China and who was
also a runner who won races in the 1924 Olympics.
Now there was this amazing scene in the movie that some people
thought. Oh, surely, that was a made-up
scene. But it was a true event in his
life where he was running in a qualifying meet between Ireland,
Scotland and England. And in that qualifying meet, he
ran in three races. but in the 440, which was a longer race,
any runners in here, One, two. Only three runners, three of us
who like to run. I don't know if this is going to
work, but I'll try, you'll get it.
So in the film, he starts the 440 and there's this massive
them running to get on the interior Lane so that they can
run and they're bunched together.
And his feet, get tangled with another Runner, and he smacks
the ground really hard. And the pack is getting away.
And Eric little is laying on the ground.
Wondering, what should I do? What's happened to me?
What should I do? And there's enough.
Vishal yelling at him, get up and run, get up and run!
So he gets up and he runs the pack is about 20 yards ahead of
him and getting away quickly. And Eric little had this strange
way of running. He didn't have a usual Runners
form. But he was fast and he threw
back his head. And once he reached full stride,
he sort of running like this flailing away.
And one would imagine how could anyone be fast the way he runs?
But 20 yards, became 10 yards, 10 yards, became five yards, and
right at the Finish Line. He lunges forward with his chest
and he wins. He immediately falls to the
ground again, the medical staff have to carry him away.
The newspapers riding about this event, said the circumstances in
which little won the race, made it a performance.
Bordering on the miraculous Veterans of running whose
memories take them back, 35 years and in some cases longer
in the history of Athletics, were unanimous in the opinion
that Littles. When in the quarter mile was the
greatest Track Performance they had See.
Now, I remember watching that race as a 13 year old kid and my
heart just beating inside of me. And I said, inside of myself, I
want to run like that. I want to run like that as well.
I want to be in a great contest like that.
And so I started running. And I must say, I never became
that fast. But Iran.
I got in the contest. the danger for many of us is that we live
our life and our Christian Life, as spectators We watch.
We watch. And we never get in the race.
We never get in the battle. We never get in the fight.
And in the Christian Life, Paul insist In this passage, we read
that he is in the fight, he is in the struggle.
You may not have noticed it but in he uses the phrase several
times at the beginning of chapter 2 he says I want you to
know how hard I am contending for you I want you to know how
hard I am contending for you. Other translations that you
might read say, I want you to know I desire for you to know
about my great struggle. I want you to know about the
fight, I'm in the great contest. I'm in and the the actual word
that's there in the Greek is agon agon sounds familiar.
What does it sound like agon? Agony, it's where we get it.
It's the route. I God for Agony, a great
struggle, a great contest. In the secular Greek world, that
word would have been used of a fight between two people.
And Paul is using that very word to speak of the spiritual
exercise. That was not only one in prayer,
but one in physical presence to say this is the fight I'm in
It's the greatest struggle in the world.
It's the greatest contest in the world.
The contest for making Christ known and seeing his people
become like him. The struggle to make Christ
known. And seeing his people become
like him. This is the great contest of the
world. Are you a spectator?
Or are you a participant? We began the text with Paul
saying I rejoice in my sufferings.
He's going on to say I rejoice in my Agony.
I rejoice in this contest and this was no Idle Word.
Paul was in prison. When he wrote this, he saying I
rejoice in my sufferings. Now most of us, we don't rejoice
in our sufferings when we've been knocked down by a bug.
We don't say, I'm so glad Glad, I've got the flu.
We don't, we're like to have ready to get out of that.
And so, but the sufferings Paul speaks of here, are those that
have become intentional engagement.
They're the product of intentional engagement in the
mission of God and he says, I rejoice in that, in fact we can
understand why he's able to rejoice in that.
Because Jesus says, in The Sermon on the Mount blessed, are
you when people persecute you because of me or say things that
are true because of righteousness in your life
because of me, Blessed. Happy happy.
It's hard for us to imagine in our current setting because most
of us, spend an enormous amount of time avoiding such suffering.
We'd rather be a spectator. Than a participant.
We are adverse. To the prospect of suffering.
I am too. I don't blame this.
I am too. But Paul goes on to say, the
source for this is actually his Union with Christ.
This all text conveys a sense of mystery about Union with Christ
Christ in you the hope of glory. But first Paul says I'm
rejoicing in my union with Christ and he uses a strange
phrase. I don't know if any of you
caught it and wonder do, what is that?
In verse 24 of chapter 1. He says that now, I rejoice and
What I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh.
What is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions for the
sake of his body, which is the church, What in the world is
that I fill up in my own body, what is still lacking?
What is lacking? In the afflictions of Christ.
What was was Paul? Just one who, who love to
suffer? That's so weird.
Right? So that's one of our options
that Paul loved suffering, that he was a masochist.
Not a good option. Another option available to us
is that will, maybe Paul had a theology that said that the
sufferings of Jesus weren't enough to accomplish the
Salvation, And so that now he needed to be a participant to
suffer as well, so that salvation could happen.
He was like a stand-in Messiah. I offer that to you because it
is a stream of thought, within Christianity.
That's been a little strange. But that actually doesn't make
sense because the rest of Paul's testimony about scripture is
that the salvation has been accomplished, that it is already
done that once and for all Christ suffered for all it is
finished. Jesus himself said that.
So that option doesn't work for us.
Another option is an eschatological option.
The eschatological option is that we need to suffer just like
Paul suffered so that we can hurry up and get the return of
Jesus. Here, the more we suffer now the
quicker, Jesus will come back. You've heard that option.
There's some strange thoughts in Christian thinking, at times,
that has said, The more Christians suffer, the quicker,
Jesus will come back. But that's not actually.
A quote of you, and that doesn't seem to make sense either.
That is, somehow God's got this account that God himself, is a
masochist, looking to see how much the body of Christ has
suffered. And, and then when it's finally
there, he'll do something. So, we have a dilemma.
What is this? What does this mean?
What is lacking? It's a really interesting phrase
that Paul uses in other letters as an idiom for being present.
Physically being there physically on another occasion,
Paul uses the very similar phrase and tends to use it as an
idiom for a groups, absence but being represented by another,
for example, in the letter to Corinthians, Has.
He tells them that stephanus, fortune us and a keas.
Have a have arrived from those who sent them and says they have
supplied to me what was lacking It wasn't the money, it was The
Fellowship. They've supplied, what was
lacking physical presence on another occasion?
Paul uses this phrase to say, that Philip plans that
epaphroditus risked his life making up.
What was lacking in your service to me?
That by being present with him, epaphroditus came to serve him.
And epaphroditus happened to get sick on that Journey.
But his presence made up for what was lacking and to, it
seems like Paul's actually using that phrase.
Remember, we talked about how the church makes visible.
The invisible Christ, And so, Paul is saying, Jesus is
actually suffering for the church and in his Union with
Jesus, he has become a participant in the sufferings of
Jesus for the church. that with the spirit of God, Paul writes
in Romans 8, the spirit groans with us That in fact, God him
stealth is still in company with us as we suffer.
And Paul says, I'm getting a taste of that.
You know, Paul's Union with Christ is so apparent here that
he says, you know, I don't even strive in my work by myself.
He says, I strive in my work with all of the energy of Christ
working in me, did you get that in verse 29?
He says, I strive I contend with the energy of Christ that work.
So powerfully inside of me. So he's like, I'm in this fight,
but is not just my own power aren't being sustained by the
power of God, you know, Paul in his sense of Union, with Christ,
here is so strong that he says that in prayer, when he prays
for the people of colossi, he's with them in spirit.
Even though he's not really there.
Now this this is a mysterious sense, right?
He's not there physically but he says when we pray in Christ's we
are present to others. Now, that'll push your prayer
life. That'll push your sense of the
bottle, does it matter today. If I pray for the church in Iran
and I can't be there, join the battle.
Does it matter today? When you contend in prayer for
someone who's struggling with their faith, be present to them.
And to God In Prayer, it matters.
It's part of the battle. When Paul says I contend with
you he's reaching into this mysterious realm of what
Christian life is about. It is life in the body but it is
also life in the spirit. The second thing we see about
Paul's battle this contending is that he did it because he was
determined to fulfill his commission notice in verse 25.
He says, I have become its servant by the commission.
God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness.
Paul had this enormous sense that his life was not his own
and that he had actually received from God, a commission,
the phrase he's using here is that of one who is overseeing an
estate, usually the overseers of an estate in the Roman world.
Were those who were beholdin to the estate owners.
Alder by indenture indenture that they had become a servant
or a slave to this person. But they had elevated themselves
just in showing some responsibility and accepting
responsibility and now they were overseeing, the estate.
And so Paul says I've received a commission, but he he sees it
one of humility. And privilege.
But deep responsibility. This is what moved him to become
a participant with the church and not a persecutor of the
church. Paul doesn't seem to be one who
could just stand on the sidelines and be a spectator.
Maybe he was a spectator to Stephens death. but then he
became a participant and the persecution of the church fully
and God says, hey, I see you. I'm going to transform your
heart and desire, and I'm going to give you a new commission and
your new Commission. Will take you to the Gentiles.
Paul himself could not have imagined such an assignment, but
it was that very assignment preaching, the gospel to the
Gentiles that had created so much persecution for him.
I think most of us. Are Gentiles.
And we are the beneficiaries today of Paul's participation.
His refusal to just be a spectator.
Paul understands that his suffering and struggle increases
on every occasion where he says, I must fulfill this commission.
I'll preach the word to Gentiles.
I will cross a boundary to share the message of Jesus.
I will insist that others become like Jesus that they become
mature. Notice, he doesn't think his
commission is done, when he just says the word.
The commission is complete. As people become like, Jesus,
discipleship isn't finished because you announce the gospel
to somebody. The commission is being
completed and fulfilled when others are becoming like Jesus,
notice what he says in verse 28, he is the one we Proclaim
admonishing and teaching everything with all wisdom.
So that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ to this
end. I strenuously contend with all
the energy Christ. So powerfully Works in me.
He didn't think it was done when he just announced the word.
It wasn't done until people were becoming like Jesus mature.
Are you a spectator? Or a participant in the mission
of Jesus and his church. Yo, Paul was concerned for their
struggle to also be participants.
He's writing this letter in part because he's aware of the
challenges, their face that the powers that be are trying to
persuade them and seduce them and just press them to neglect
this mission. And so he says into chapter 4
verse 4. He says, I tell you I'm doing
this. So no one may deceive.
You by fine sounding arguments. He was aware.
That their discouragement because of the pressure they
were facing. Could create drift their
discouragement that they might find that their their life is
always playing. Catch up to this Grand Vision of
being like Jesus. Their finances are difficult.
That their social settings are fraught.
He was aware. He was aware.
And so he's concerned that they might give up the struggle as
well. Do you know when Eric little won
the Olympics? There were lots of people who
wanted him to just keep running and prepare for the next
Olympics. But he announced that he was
going to leave the running. And attend to the Great
Commission that Jesus had given him.
But he was going to go to China and to share his life and the
gospel there. Do you know he was very cautious
about his approach for sharing the gospel there in China?
It's one of the things he said that had to be thought of a
great and long time, he says, how can I go to a country in
which so many great philosophies, and inventions had
come? How can I go to a country that
had such depth in its culture? And share the gospel there.
He called The Gospel, the great message, he said this great
message and this calling is so great.
That it is worthwhile trying to add to what those great
philosophers had already given to China.
What we have to give to China? Is the love of God in their
hearts. It's very easy at times for us
to want to look back and come with the frame of our impulse to
decolonize. and to say that somehow evangelism itself is
suspect, But this is the great message.
And it requires careful study. Not just of this message, but
also of the people whom God would call you. when Paul went
to Athens, he didn't just barge into that City, he sat and he
studied and he listened until he understood something of an
opening where he could add the great message to what they had.
So that the love of God might reside in their hearts Christ.
In you the hope of glory So when you see Vancouver, you must
think of Vancouver Christ in you the hope of glory.
And when you sit and sociology 101, you should look around and
think Christ in you the hope of glory.
And when you sit across from the students that you're teaching
Christ in you the hope of glory. And when you operate on the
heart of a person and you see their heart beating in their
chest Christ in, you the hope of glory, oh, God, help me repair
This Heart. Are you a spectator?
Where are you a participant? That's pretty.
Heavenly Father, there's a great challenge for us today in the
living of our faith. that we might just become Spectators
rather than participants And so, we pray that as you look upon us
today, you would find Faith among us.
We are reminded you. You Lord.
Jesus asked the question yourself when the son of man
returns. Will he find faith on Earth?
O. Lord, may you find faith in us
today. Maybe we contend with all the
energy that you provide to see that this faith deepens and
grows inside of us and that we become like you That we become
fully mature in you father. Every one of us has a part to
play. In this great battle.
We don't need to manufacture enemies or treat ourselves as
great victims. We don't need to fight for our
rights. Instead, we need to persist in
pursuing you and building our life on you.
So that in the Overflow, we share the Life of Christ with
others. Lord, we thank you for the
testimony and the example of the Apostle Paul.
He wasn't riding with arrogance. What was riding with humility
and great, hope that the people in colossae, many of whom he had
never met Would truly be your light in that Valley?
and so I pray today that here among us, we would truly be the
great light that you want us to be in this city.
And on this campus.