Living in the Fullness of Christ: A Transformative Community

The Colossians, we know, were facing temptations in various forms just like us really today. They were facing some temptations that were to do with focusing so much on earthly things. They were focused on on what to what not to eat or what to avoid or towards legalism towards making man-made rules their focus. But they also had a different sort of temptation was which was more about escaping earthly things, getting visions and mystical experiences of of heavenly scenes. But what both of these things had in common was the temptation to to go away from Christ to to not understand that fullness of spiritual maturity is found only in Jesus Christ. [00:01:07]

He showed us that Christ was not just the center of salvation but the center of all things. The one through whom all things were made. the ruler of creation and the ruler of recreation. The one who sustains all things and the one who is the end of all things. The universe is heading towards Christ. It's been created for him. And what's more, the Colossians through their faith in him have been united to him. that though they were dead in their sins, just like all of us were before we came to faith in Jesus Christ, they have been made alive. [00:02:22]

And this is the reality of being in Christ. It completely changes the Colossians and it completely changes us. And Paul's outlined that. It changes their character and the way they behave, but it also changes how they relate to one another. And we saw that last week, didn't we? As John unpacked so helpfully for us, how Christ has reshaped the household. He's reshaped how husbands relate to their wives and wives to their husbands and children to their parents and and and so on. [00:03:31]

A community in Christ is a prayerful community, a witnessing community, and an encouraging community. [00:04:25]

What does it mean to be watchful in prayer? Your version might also say to be alert, which I think is a great word for unpacking a little bit of what it means. Well, first of all, we should recognize that this word watchful actually comes up a lot in the New Testament. To be watchful, not just in prayer, but in our Christian lives as a whole, is is a very common call. In fact, I was reading an article this week that said, "Watchfulness may be the most neglected spiritual discipline in scripture." But what does it actually mean? [00:07:49]

Firstly, there's an element of being watchful that has to do with temptation. being watchful over our lives, our susceptibility to place other things ahead of Christ, to drift and to walk in indifference. Again, think of Jesus in the garden with his disciples in Matthew 26 because he uses this same combination of watch and pray. You know, he goes away, he tells his disciples to pray, and he comes back and they're fallen asleep. And then Jesus replies to them in Matthew 26:41 and says this, "Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." [00:08:28]

Well, because to not pray is the greatest expression of our self-dependence, right? To not pray is to believe that we don't need God's help in our lives. To to not think that we are susceptible to to sin and and temptation. And when that seeps into our life, when prayerlessness and alertness seeps in, we can walk easily into temptation. You know, perhaps the biggest issue or problem with our prayer lives, with my prayer life, is that we succumb to this lie of our culture that we are in control of our lives, that we can manage our own lives. [00:09:31]

But another aspect of watch watchfulness in prayer and this is where the word alert I think really carries this meaning is to think through that are we really engaged in our prayer life? Are we really intentional with it? Are we prioritizing it in our week? Now, today I I mentioned at the start was going to be practical. So, I want to give you two very tangible examples from my own life because this is something that I am definitely struggling with myself and working thing working through. So, two practical examples of what this might look like in our lives. [00:10:36]

But what it does mean is that prayer is a constant conversation, a constant awareness of our need to pray in all circumstances. But here's the thing, and this might hit close to home for some of you, because it does for me. I'll give you the the tangible on the ground experience. Let's go. Let's say you go into a cafe by yourself and you order a coffee and they say to you, "That'll just be a few minutes." So you go wait to the side. What do you do next? This is what I do. I pull out my phone and I start looking at random stuff, right? [00:13:14]

But for me, it's the little moments. It's the little moments I have throughout the day to be alert, to pray, to be watchful over what's actually going on, alert to what's happening around me. But instead of having that opportunity, I go on my phone. And if you don't believe me, here's the challenge this week. Put that into practice. As you wait for your coffee or as you wait for your kids to come at school, drop off or pick up uh drop uh pickup, don't go on your phone. Be alert. Be intentional. Pray. [00:14:27]

And so the final aspect of what it means to be alert in prayer is to make supplication for all the saints. In other words, to be aware of how we can be praying for one another in this church community. I don't know about you, but it's so easy for our prayer lives to slip into this mode of just praying for ourselves and our own family. I think this goes handinhand with not being alert and intentional. We all need prayer and we all need to pray for one another. How can you be more aware of praying for your brothers and sisters in Christ? [00:15:31]

Now, why is thanksgiving so important to a prayer life that is steadfast? Well, because of all that Colossians has been talking about, right? The Christian life is to be infused with thankfulness because of the wonder of what has taken place through Christ. the wonder of who he is, the glorious hope that we have in his salvation to us, that we have died with Christ, we're hidden with him, and when he returns, we will return with him. We will appear with him. Our whole life is wrapped up in Christ. [00:16:40]

Now, this is not to say that we don't have many things to be thankful for in our life but to say that the foundation of a thankful prayer life is first and foremost being attuned to the wonder of the gospel in our lives. That we are adopted children. that God is your father which means you can come to him in a place of security as the spirit enables us to cry out abba father that's the context of prayer children loved by god saved by him and if we get that before our eyes we can be thankful regardless of how messy and how difficult our circumstances are which they often are thankfulness more than anything else is what makes us be steadfast in prayer because prayer becomes a delight rather than the thing we just have to do. [00:18:20]

So Paul now turns his attention and asks the Colossians to pray for him and his fellow workers in the gospel. Now did you notice what he prays for? He prays that a door may be opened. And you might think that the door he should pray that would be open would be his prison doors. Right? He's in prison. But he does not pray that. He prays that a door may be opened for the gospel. I think Paul here is practicing what he's just told the Colossians, right? That Paul is so alert to Christ's work in his life. So alert to what God is doing in the world that when he has an opportunity to ask for prayer, he doesn't ask for a change in his circumstances. [00:19:52]

And so what we see here is that Paul moves quite naturally from asking the Colossians to pray for their involvement in sharing the gospel with those who don't know him to the Colossians own involvement in witnessing to others outside the church. And notice what he says here. Firstly, he tells them to walk in wisdom towards outsiders. Now I think Paul is again going to give us two helpful descriptions of what walking in wisdom looks like. But he's already given that in just using the word wisdom. Again, this is another repeated word in Colossians. [00:25:28]

I think this clearly speaks into an attitude that we have when we're in the world that we are a people who are in Christ who are operating in the world. It speaks into having an attitude where we're looking for opportunities to engage. And this involves a certain level of alertness as well, doesn't it? And so the question for us to wrestle with is this us? Are we as a community alert to take opportunities to share Christ or to engage with those who don't know Christ? But here's the thing. I think it's so easy as Christians to kind of segment our lives, isn't it? [00:27:19]

As soon as we head into our workplace or into our unis or into our schools, we switch into a different consciousness where we just blend into society, right? We just start living exactly how everyone else lives. We use the same language everyone else uses. We forget everything we heard on Sunday. We forget what we did at Bible study. Whatever it is, it's like we switch into a different consciousness. And the fruit of this is that we don't look for opportunities. We don't think about how we're being perceived. [00:28:50]

So Paul here talks about the way in which we speak. When we do get those opportunities actually to share the message, which don't come all the time, he's emphasizing the type of speech we should have. He's emphasizing a graciousness in our speech because we're very aware of the grace that has been given to us in Christ. But what does it mean to be seasoned with salt? Now, it's obviously a very debated term because of the various ways salt can be used, but it seems most likely that he's talking about salt adding flavor, but also preserving things. [00:31:20]

You see, I don't think that's what it means to have salty answers. I think as Christians we actually need to spend more time on the offensive. And what I mean by that is not to be more aggressive or to be offensive. What I mean by that is to remember the context of Colossians where Paul has highlighted the spiritual fullness that is found in Jesus Christ to recognize that we actually have the best news in the world about a savior who ultimately meets the deepest desires of those in the world. We offer people a richness in Christ that everyone desires, but sometimes we're so much on the defensive that we actually never listen to what people are saying to us. [00:33:42]

But secondly, I want you to notice in these verses that the Christian community is defined by encouragement and by coming alongside one another. You know, Paul wrote this letter, but look how everyone in this passage is looking out for others. Paul speaks about being comforted and encouraged by others. He sends people to the Colossians to comfort and encourage them. He tells the Colossians to to go and read the letter from Leodysa, the Le and then to read their letter. The whole closing section here is about Christians coming alongside one another for the sake of building one another up. [00:38:48]

And Paul is willing to go to prison to stand firm in that truth. And so the Colossians need to remember his chains. And we need to remember Paul's chains as well to remember that this is the gospel that we are defending. This is the gospel that is beautiful to us that that in Christ Jesus there is fullness. And then he says, "Grace be with you." And grace has infused this letter, has it not? Grace has been in this letter from start to finish as we saw the fullness of who Christ is and the fullness of who he is to us in our salvation. [00:40:47]