A Portrait of Faithful Ministry

What does a truly faithful minister look like? In Colossians 1:24–29, the Apostle Paul pulls back the curtain on his own ministry — and what we find is not a polished platform personality but a man who suffers willingly, proclaims without holding back, and labors relentlessly toward one goal: presenting every person complete in Christ. This sermon from Colossians 1:24–29 examines what faithful gospel ministry demands, what it costs, and what it produces — and what it means for every Christian sitting under it.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Well, out of all the characters in the Bible outside of Jesus, I would have to say for me personally, as a husband, a father, and a pastor, two of my favorites are the Apostle Paul and Peter. Peter, probably, probably because I can most identify with his foolishness and brokenness as a sinner and pride, but Paul, because I appreciate Paul's philosophy of ministry. I appreciate his role as an apostle to the Gentiles. Paul helps us answer questions like what does a faithful minister actually look like? Not what he says, but what drives him, what is his heart motivations that shapes his ministry, his understanding of his ministry and the proclamation of God's word. Paul often in his writing to encourage other churches pulls back the curtain and helps us see what is driving his understanding of what Jesus has called him to do. We see him in suffering and chains and imprisonment. We see him straining with everything he has to seek the spiritual good of another local congregation, and especially in our situation, the book of Colossians, a church that he has never even met. But he helps us understand what is a faithful minister's job description. He helps us see a portrait of a man so gripped by the mission that nothing, not prison, not the fear of death, not opposition, could ever stop him from what he was convinced Jesus called him to do. What I want us to see this morning in Colossians 1, 24 through 29 is this a faithful minister suffers willingly, proclaims God's word fully, and labors on God's behalf relentlessly, because his only aim is to present the saints complete in Christ. In these short couple of verses, we will see what a faithful minister endures, what a faithful minister declares, and what a faithful minister pursues. When you look at verses 24 through 29, there's kind of like this logical flow of thought in which Paul talks about his suffering, his aim in declaring the full counsel of God, and how he pursues that task. Now, Paul has already declared that Christ alone is sufficient to reconcile us to God. We saw that in verses 20 through 23. But now he turns to some degree to his own ministry, the cost of his ministry, what he's been asked to carry in his ministry, and what his ministry aims to produce in those he ministers to. So as we look at verses 24 through 29, this morning, I want to hold up a portrait of what does a faithful minister of Christ look like? And what is a faithful minister of Christ's aim in their ministry. So we've been walking through chapter by chapter, verse by verse in Colossians. This morning, we're gonna focus on verses 24 through 29. But let's start here in verse 24. Paul says, 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. Friends, when was the last time you talked like that? When you went through a rough season of suffering, said, Now I rejoice in my sufferings because it's going to cause spiritual good for others. I know I don't often talk like that. Paul's joy, though, is not anchored in favorable circumstances. I think that goes without saying, right? We we most of you know Paul wrote this letter from a Roman prison. That is not favorable circumstances, is it? Yet his joy is not anchored in his earthly circumstances, it's anchored in his identity in Christ. So we see this in many of Paul's writings. So in Philemon, he identifies himself as a prisoner of Christ. He doesn't say I'm a prisoner of Rome. He's like, no, I'm a prisoner of Christ. There's a reason why he phrased it that way, friends. He's acknowledging God's sovereignty. He's saying, Yeah, Rome locked me up, but Jesus placed me here. I am a prisoner of Christ. I am proclaiming Jesus' message. That is what led me to be in prison, but I identify as a prisoner of Christ Jesus. But we also see some of Paul's theology of suffering and how he understood God's sovereignty in his suffering in Philippians 1 29. He says, For it has been granted to you on Christ's behalf, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him. According to Paul, suffering on Christ's behalf is a gift. Now let's just be honest right now this morning. That is a very hard reality to receive. To suffer on behalf of Christ is a gift is a gift, for it has been, listen to this word choice, granted to you on Christ's behalf, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him. Or in Philippians 3 10, Paul again says of himself, my goal is to know him, meaning Jesus, and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death. Paul fundamentally understood suffering to be an instrument under a sovereign God's hands for the good of his people. Turn over to Acts chapter 20 real quick. I want you to see this for yourselves. Acts chapter 20, one of my favorite chapters just on pastoral ministry in general. Acts chapter 20. Keep in mind Paul spent about three years in Ephesus ministering to these elders that he personally got to know and do life with and train for ministry. And now he is departing from these dear brothers who look up to him as a mentor, and he knows he's about to experience severe suffering and persecution. And here's his parting words to them, verses 17 through 24. Now from Miletus, he sent to Ephesus and summoned the elders of the church. When they came to him, he said to them, You know from the first day I set foot in Asia how I was with you the whole time, serving the Lord with all humility, with tears, and during the trials that came to me through the plots of the Jews, you know that I did not avoid proclaiming to you anything that was profitable, or from teaching you publicly and from house to house. I testified to both Jews and Greeks about repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus. And now I am on my way to Jerusalem, compelled by the Holy Spirit, not knowing what I will encounter there, except that in every town the Holy Spirit warns me that chains and afflictions are waiting for me. Listen to this, friends, but I consider my life of no value to myself. My purpose is to finish my course and the ministry I receive from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of God's grace. That's how faithful ministers of Christ speak. He knows affliction, the Holy Spirit has warned him, has assured him, Paul, suffering is coming. When you go, expect to be persecuted. And by the power of God indwelling this brother, his response is, but I consider my life of no value to myself. My purpose is to finish my course and the ministry I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of God's grace. I love that. Humility is the soil of God-centered joy. I say this often, but friends, joy and happiness are two different things, okay? When the Bible talks about joy, I think sometimes we modern people think of happiness. Happiness is subjective, it's an emotion. Emotions are not bad, but you can't make yourself happy. But you are commanded to be joyful. And joy is built in the soil of humility. Why do I say that? Because Paul understood fundamentally, by his understanding of the gospel, his own testimony, he knew that he deserved nothing. He understood, I deserve nothing. I don't deserve to have a fruitful ministry in Jerusalem without persecution. I don't deserve to plant churches and see people one to Christ. I don't deserve to be an apostle who gets to speak God's word that becomes inspired scripture. I deserve the eternal wrath of God poured out on me. Therefore, he understood everything outside of God's wrath was infinite grace and mercy, which is why he can say that his life is not that important because he's here just to fulfill his mission to proclaim the gospel of God's grace. Joy is built in the soil of humility. But notice Paul's words, both in Acts 20, but also in verse uh 24. He says, I'm sorry, in verse 25, he says, I have become its servant. And in Acts 20, he used the language of he received his ministry. This is important. But before I get to that, he he's making it clear, hey, I didn't, I didn't earn my ministry. This isn't something that I signed up for myself. He he didn't earn this commission. He he was stopped in Acts 9. Keep this in mind. This is like one of the craziest testimonies of scripture. Paul is actively on his way to stop the gospel from spreading. And Jesus, the author of the gospel, intervened and saved him and said, You're going to be one of its main proponents. So Paul did not choose the ministry. Paul did not say, I want to be an apostle when I grow up. Paul was a religious leader oppressing the Christian church to stop the gospel of God's grace from spreading. And Jesus radically intervened supernaturally and called him to saving faith first, and then called him into the ministry as an apostle. That's important. He didn't earn this commission. If anything, he gave Jesus a resume to give Jesus every reason not to choose Paul. And instead, Jesus said, You will serve my church. When God's grace is your framework, suffering doesn't break you, it just refines you. Pressure makes diamonds, fire refines gold. He suffers, though. Listen to the language. He understood that his pain wasn't primarily about him. His pain wasn't primarily about him. He says in verse 24, now I rejoice. Now listen to the language. I rejoice in my sufferings. So what's happening personally to him? But then he pivots right after that. I rejoice in my sufferings for you. And I am completing in my flesh, inward again, what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for his body, that is the church. Now, how do you get to a place in which you are suffering severely and you understand that suffering to be for the spiritual good of someone else? Now, I'm not saying that's all suffering. Let me be clear. All of our suffering isn't always for the spiritual good of others, though there are some secondary elements of that. But in Paul's case, he understood what I am enduring right now is for the spiritual good of these churches I'm seeking to minister to. We got to ask ourselves, how often is our joy as Christians circumstantial? How often is our joy in Christ determined on our external circumstances? So as long as my circumstances are good, then I have joy in the Lord. Well, then I would say that's not joy, that's just happiness. Because joy is like a God-centered contentment that can still, you can still be joyful no matter what circumstance you find yourself in. That's exactly what Paul says in Philippians. He's, you know, he he found, hey, I can have little, I can have a lot. Listen, I learned I'm straight no matter what, because I belong to Jesus. That is true joy, where our joy doesn't waver because of our circumstances. So ask yourself, this is a hard question because we don't truly know. Would your joy in Christ survive if you were locked up and persecuted for the faith today? Would your joy remain if you lived in Iran and you were persecuted right now for being a Christ follower and a member of this church? Would it be sustained in affliction or would it cave and waver? Now we don't know. Because until you find yourself in a situation like that, you'll never truly know where your faith is. It's like sometimes people ask me questions like, Cam, if you were in this situation, what would you do? And I tried to just say, you know what? I would hope by the power of the Spirit within me, I would do whatever the Lord requires. But if left to myself, I know exactly what I will do. But he uses, if you look down at verse 24, this is a passage that often perplexes some people. It has caused some misunderstandings when he uses this phrase, what is lacking in Christ's afflictions? Let's just read the whole 24. He says, 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. That passage has caused much confusion, with some thinking it's saying that, well, did Jesus not complete something during his earthly ministry? Was his death on the cross, was it not fully sufficient in some regards? One, well, let's just use the Catholic Church as an example. I'm just going to quote the catechism of the Catholic Church and how they define purgatory, because this is one of the passages they use to make a biblical defense for purgatory. This is how they define it. I'm reading their own literature. Purgatory is a final purification for those who die in God's grace and friendship, but are still imperfectly purified. This state ensures purgatory the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven. It is distinct from the punishment of hell, representing a purifying fire or transformative encounter with Christ's love, rather than a place of eternal damnation. Now that's academic language to a degree, but friends, that is, I just read heresy. What they are teaching is that Jesus' death on the cross did not finish the job. That for some, when you die, God still kind of loves you, but you got to go to a holding place called purgatory where then you can accumulate enough righteousness so that you can then finally enter the joy of heaven. Or another way to just modernize modernize that is they would say that people can actually have a second chance for salvation after they die. Friends, that is a different gospel. I mean, there's just no other way to put that. That is a different gospel. And it minimizes the beauty of what Jesus actually did accomplish on the cross. Last time I checked, when Jesus hung on the cross, he said, it is finished, not it has begun. It is finished. So what does Paul mean when he says what is lacking in Christ's afflictions? There's been much debate. There's a lot of back and forth. I personally think it's not all that complex. Here's what I believe Paul is saying. He is not saying Christ's death on the cross was insufficient. We know that can't be the case because he just said the exact opposite three verses ago in verses 20 through 23, where he says, and through him, Jesus to reconcile everything to himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross. Then he talks about you were once alienated and hostile in your minds, past tense, verse 22, but now he has reconciled you. That's past tense, meaning it's done. You have been reconciled if you are in Christ. So he can't be saying that Jesus' death was insufficient. I believe the simple point is this there is a full measure of suffering that the church must walk through in this age before Christ returns. Christ is now risen and exalted. He's at the right hand of the Father, therefore, he is no longer on earth. His earthly ministry has been complete. So he no longer suffers in his body physically on earth. That has been completed, but his body, the church, still does. The church has grown throughout the nations through the arm of persecution. So Paul is saying that he is gladly filling up his own portion of that appointed suffering on behalf of the churches that he was sent to, not as of like some weird spiritual atoning suffering. No, he's just saying this is a ministerial suffering. The body of Christ suffers, shares in the sufferings of Christ, as Paul says in Philippians. He's saying that is what we are doing on this side of heaven. So when you see your brothers and sisters throughout the nations who live in countries that oppose Christianity and they're facing real persecution, they they are fulfilling exactly what Paul is describing here. Now, by the grace of God and through common grace, we are extremely blessed here in America. So we gotta be careful. Like sometimes we think, you know, if you have a coworker who mistreats you and says unkind things to you because they know you're a Christian, that is not persecution. That's just someone being unkind to you. Persecution is the fear of worshiping in a building like this because the government might come through the doors and arrest you and take your livelihood from you. Our brothers and sisters across the nations, that is their reality on a weekly basis. We're uniquely blessed to not even remotely know what that is like. Not to say we don't suffer here in the West, we certainly do, but Paul is saying we share as the bride of Christ, the body of Christ, we share in his sufferings. Jesus said, if they hated me, they will hate you too. That is what I believe Paul is alluding to. But from Paul's perspective on suffering, we move to his understanding of the charge that he as a minister of the gospel has been given and who exactly gave it to him. If you look at verse 25, we'll see that a faithful minister proclaims fully what he was given freely. In verse 25, Paul goes on, I have become its servant according to God's commission that was given to me for you to make the word of God fully known. I have become a servant of it. Brothers and sisters, ministry is received, not seized. Paul is very clear in his understanding that he became a servant of the gospel in the Lord's church. This wasn't something he sees for himself. Paul did not volunteer for this ministry. As I said, Christ stopped him on the Damascus Road and commissioned him into the ministry. And I just love how God works. I mean, it's just like you look at Moses, for example, when God calls him, and Moses is like, yo, I can't, I'm not a great orator. I don't know if you got the right guy. And God's like, bro, who made the mouth? Like, come on, who are you talking to right now? If I called you, I can equip you to do all that I'm calling you to do. Paul, if you go read, go read Acts 9. Paul did not have an interaction with Jesus and said, Well, Jesus, like, I don't know if I got the education for this. This isn't necessarily what I what I was interested in. It's like Jesus shows up, saves him, and calls him into the ministry, and Paul goes. That's how the Lord works. But even the message Paul proclaims is not his own. The message that Paul proclaims did not originate with him, or the message that any minister of Christ and his church proclaims is never their own. It is a message that is received and entrusted to them. He says this wonderfully in 2 Corinthians 5, 18 through 19, when he says, Paul says everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us. Twice in just those verses, he says, The message has been entrusted to the minister, therefore you tell the people what has been entrusted to you. It's not your message. You don't get to create it. You simply transmit what has been entrusted to you. And his commission is what? To make the word of God fully known. Which means every faithful pastor, every faithful minister of God's word does not curate scripture, they proclaim the full counsel of God. There's a joke against us pastors sometimes when it comes to preaching of uh a preacher might have a great sermon, they just need a verse to go with it, which is showing the reverse order here. Just because someone has been Called providentially by the Lord to pastor in a local church doesn't mean God says, hey, I think you have really good wisdom and a good word for my people, so I'm gonna call you into the ministry. It's like, no, no, no, no. I'm calling you to tell them what I tell them. You tell them what I've revealed through special revelation in my word. So faithful ministry does not curate scripture, it proclaims the full counsel of God. If, as Paul said, that the ministry itself has been entrusted or given, and the message itself has been entrusted and given, then every minister of Christ is simply a steward. Paul understood himself as a steward. We answer to the one who sent us, not to what the crowd prefers. We live in a day and age where it is very tempting to quote unquote build large churches by let's just preach on the stuff that everybody wants to hear. Let's avoid all the hard topics because that might step on people's toes. Paul says he wants to make the word of God fully known. Friends, if you talk like that, that means you're not omitting anything, are you? You are seeking to help God's people know God's word. And the steward answers to the one who sent him. Every faithful minister understands that I have a performance review one day with the senior pastor of every church in the world, and that's Jesus Christ. And God has some very strong words for those who stepped into the role of a minister and misrepresented God and his word and misled his people. And we can go Old and New Testament, but in Jeremiah 23, uh God goes on this rant against false shepherds. And in verses 21 and 22, he says, This of false prophets, I did not send out these prophets, yet they ran. I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied. If they had really stood in my counsel, they would have enabled my people to hear my words and would have turned them from their evil ways and their evil deeds. It's very interesting. Because verse 22, he says, if they had really stood in my counsel, if I really sent them to go proclaim my word, then they would have enabled my people to hear my words and would have turned from their evil ways and their evil deeds, which implies that the prophet, who's a true prophet, would have said the hard things to call people to repentance to turn from their sin, not to just say the things that affirms everybody and makes them think there is no sin to be concerned about. The implication here is that any faithful minister, any faithful pastor or pastors over you, if you're a church member, are answerable to God for what he preaches and how they shepherd. No question about it. A pastor of a local church is not a hired speaker. A hired speaker is performing a task. They're not committed to the flock. They have no commitment to shepherd the flock. They're there to deliver a spiritualized TED talk and move on. But a pastor is never a hired speaker who provides a service. He is a commissioned messenger who serves under the headship of the Lord Jesus Christ, who purchased the church with his own blood, and he seeks to faithfully proclaim the full counsel of God as revealed in his word to God's people to help them flourish in their walk with Jesus, which means a pastor of any local church has no authority whatsoever to suppress, soften, or reshape the word of God that has been entrusted to him. Whether it's the public proclamation of the word in a setting like this or through the private sharing of the word in a small counseling context, discipling context, whatever it may be, the aim is to do what Paul said in verse 25, to make the word of God fully known. That is the aim. So, as a church member, do you think of your pastors as a steward of a message that isn't his? Because that the answer to that question will shape how you sit in those seats and listen to a sermon every Sunday morning. Do you think of your pastors as a steward of a message that isn't his? And how does that shape how you receive the preaching of God's word? This might sound a little strange, but I think a true shepherd who is seeking to just faithfully proclaim what the Bible says, as long as he is in alignment with what scripture says, he is in one way speaking the very oracles of God. Not that the pastor or the preacher is God, I'm not saying that, or that his words are on par with God's words, but no, if he is seeking to simply say, friends, look down at the text, here's what it says, here's what it means by what it says, then he is preaching to you the very words of God, which those words are authoritative, not the guy standing up here. So if the minister of God is a steward, what exactly is he stewarding? Paul describes the content of that stewardship in verses 26 through 28, and it's doctrine in the abstract. Look down at verse 26. He goes on. Well, let's start at verse 25. I have become its servant according to God's commission that was given to me for you, to make the word of God 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 this 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. Look at verse 25, real quick again. I love this language. I have become its servant according to God's commission that was given to me. Every faithful minister, every under-shepherd in Christ's church is a servant of the gospel and a servant of Christ's church. That is the fundamental identity. We are servants of Christ and his gospel. But now Paul gets into the content of what a faithful minister proclaims. The mystery that is now revealed. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Paul is saying what was hidden for ages is now openly declared to everyone, Gentiles included. Now, when he says mystery, it's not like y'all couldn't have figured this out, because if you, you know, we have the whole Bible now, but if you go back, it was always there. If you go to Genesis all the way through Revelation, you see God has always had a plan to redeem a plethora of people from all different tribes and nations into one group called his church. But it wasn't fully realized until the advent of Christ coming to earth. So what was hidden for ages is now plainly, openly declared to everyone, Gentiles included. And this mystery is not just some abstract doctrine according to Paul. He's saying, and it's a person, Jesus Christ, which is why he broke out in verses 15 through 20, just bragging on Jesus. It all culminates in him, he's saying. That mystery is that Jesus is the Son of God who came to reconcile sinners back to the Father through his death, burial, and resurrection. And because Christ is in you, your glory is guaranteed. It's not something to just hope for, it's something that is secured because of what Christ did on the cross. Which means, and Paul would agree, the minister's task, a faithful minister in the church, his primary task is never to improve you. It's never to help you have your best life now. The minister's task is to present you mature in Christ Jesus. In Colossians 2, Paul says that all treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in one person, and that is the person of Christ himself. In Romans 16, he says the mystery kept for ages now is disclosed to all nations. Now, I want to spend most of our time on verses 28 to 29 and look at the method and aim of the faithful minister, which is this admonishing and teaching every person. Verses 28 and 29 might be my top three passages and just helping me understand what am I supposed to do, Lord, as a pastor in your church. Look at verse 28. 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. So he he describes two things. Number one, admonishing, which is to correct, to correct evil, to correct error, to correct sin. That is what a faithful minister does. They admonish. That doesn't mean as a jerk, it doesn't mean walking around with a Bible smacking people upside the head. Why are you doing that? Why are you believing that? Admonishing is a loving form of correction to steer people away from error and evil and to keep them in track and walking in a manner worthy of the gospel. This is the work that most don't volunteer for, but are called to. But secondly, Paul says teaching, teaching the whole counsel of God, which means nothing is skipped, nothing is softened. If you drop either of these, admonishing or teaching, well, then you don't have a ministry, you have half of one. So a faithful minister doesn't only admonish, well, then you're if if a faithful minister only admonishes, well then his people will be concerned, like, bro, do you even love me? Like, do you care for me or are you like a hammer just looking for a nail? Just constantly, like, think about that. And this isn't just for ministers, I'm talking about just as a disciple of Christ, as a church member as well. If most of your interactions with another saint is always correcting them, I'm not saying there's not a place for correction, there certainly is, but if most of your conversations are correcting and admonishing, something's wrong. Or if you're only teaching but never admonishing, something is also wrong. We are to do both, admonish and teach the whole counsel of God. And with that teaching, we teach what God reveals. Nothing more, nothing less. The beauty and the burden of pastoral ministry is teaching and admonishing and shepherding. We often summarize pastoral ministry as pastors are called to lead, feed, know, and protect the sheep. That is what a pastor is to do. And let me just give a quick note here. For all these things Paul is bringing up just in these few passages, this is why I see God's wisdom in the beauty of a plurality of pastors in the life of a local church. This is a lot for any one man to do. If you personally know a pastor somewhere who is shepherding a congregation by himself, he doesn't have a plurality of pastors serving alongside him, you should pray for that brother. Lord, sustain that brother's energy, guard his pride, and raise up godly men who can serve alongside him to faithfully shepherd, teach, and admonish that congregation. This is a hard task for one individual to do, which is why I appreciate God's wisdom in saying, no, the normative pattern in the life of a local church is a plurality of biblically qualified men who lead, feed, protect, and know the sheep. And I appreciate that God in his word gives us pastors our job descriptions. It's not something we create on our own. And one of my favorites is 1 Peter 5, 2 through 3. You should write this one down. 1 Peter 5, 2 through 3. If you want to know how you can pray for your elders here, here's one passage that's a good one to go to. Peter says, Shepherd God's flock among you, not overseeing out of compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you, not out of greed for money, but eagerly, not lording it over those entrusted to you. There's that entrusting language again, but being examples to the flock. I love that language. Shepherd God's flock among you. He doesn't say shepherd Greensboro. He doesn't shepherd Guilford County, shepherd the flock among you, but don't do it out of compulsion. Don't abuse your authority and manipulate. Don't do it for greed or money or fame. Don't lord your authority over them because they've been entrusted to you by Jesus, but be examples to the flock among you. Brothers and sisters, according to God's inspired word, every pastor is a shepherd. Every pastor is a shepherd. There is no such thing as a pastor who does not shepherd his people. That should be an oxymoron. It is sad I even have to say that, but it's it's unfortunate. Your average pastor, if they have the privilege to go to seminary, it's probably going to take one class on how to actually shepherd people. I have talked with pastors who I love, who are dear friends, who are like-minded churches, who tell me, Cameron, I have a couple, their marriage is falling apart, I am not equipped to help them. Would you help me? And I'm happy to help, but I also tell them, brother, you are mandated to help them. You are their shepherd. Now I know what they mean. I don't, I don't have training and counseling and all these things. It's like you don't need to be some specialist Navy SEAL counselor to help shepherd the congregation that God has entrusted to you. Every elder is a shepherd. And an elder's flock that has been entrusted to them is never a platform, a resource, or a means to another end. The ministry is people work. The people are the work of the ministry, not well, my church exists so that I can do other really cool stuff that I want to do. And so we just need to build this church up so I can do the other cool stuff. No, you will stand before Jesus to give an account for how you shepherd the flock entrusted to you purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ. Which is why here at Redeemer, we will always be very careful and slow and strategic about who we train and recommend to be appointed as elders in the life of this church. Because we take what the Bible says very seriously. We want shepherds who understand what a shepherd is. What does it mean to lead, feed, protect, and know the sheep? Not make someone an elder just because, well, they were faithful in this or this or that or they've been a member for X amount of years. Those are good things, but not primary reasons to ever appoint someone as an elder. It's very easy to appoint someone into church leadership. It's very hard to remove that person if they prove to be disqualified or divisive. Paul takes these things very seriously. Church family, God has given you men who will give an account for your souls one day. This is awkward, like as a pastor, to preach some of this stuff because it's like I'm talking about myself. But according to Paul, elders are a gift to a body. I am a gift to you. Thank you. You can amen. That was a test. According to the scriptures, God in his wisdom said, I am gonna create this institution called the church. And in that structure, I am gonna bless my people with elders and deacons and evangelists and all these things to help them finish well, to help them enjoy the fullness of my love that I have for them. So if you agree with me, friends, that uh elder, deacons, all these structures God created are for your good, my question to you is are you fully availing yourself of all the gifts that God has supplied to you? Are you availing yourself of your pastors? And let me just press in on that, what I mean by that. If you are, then I would challenge you, do not carry things alone without inviting your elders to carry them with you. I I strongly dislike apologetic church members. When people reach out to me and they say, Hey, I I know you're busy. Or hey, I I know you got a lot on your plate. You are my ministry. As a pastor, my joy is to help present you mature in Christ. You are never a burden to any pastor. You should not be a burden. You should avail yourselves of all the gifts that God has entrusted to your care for your health as a Christian. Invite your elders to help you walk with Jesus. Avail yourselves of the gift of God's grace and the means by which God desires to minister to you through various channels in the context of the local church. It is our joy and privilege to help everyone in this church make it to heaven, so to speak. But with that being said, you should also submit to your elders. Oh, there's a cuss word today. You should submit to your elders. Not because we're perfect. Talk to my wife, she'll make that clear, but because God put them in your life to shepherd your soul zealously to the glory of God. Hebrews 13, 17 says, Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls. Now, there with a room this size, I'm sure many of you have been in maybe some church settings where you know maybe those in leadership have done some harm or have caused doubt in your heart of the institution of the local church, the role and authority of a pastor. And so I understand that. That is a real thing. This is why you have these passages as well, as we read in 1 Peter 5, 2 through 3, where elders have biblical mandates in which they are accountable to Christ and how they shepherd lead, protect, and know their congregations, because as they do those things according to God's design, they build trust in the hearts of their people and make it easier for them to delightfully submit to and follow their elders' leadership because they understand that that is a flawed man, but that is a flawed man trying to look like Jesus. And his aim is to help me do the same. So ask yourself, are you actually letting your elders shepherd you or just sitting under their preaching and leadership, but not seeking to actively follow their leadership? Or kind of like that Instagram reel that was making the waves a long time ago where women were making these jokes about, you know, I want a man to like lead me, but don't tell me what to do. Church members can be like that. None of not, of course, no one in here, but those other churches where it's like, yeah, we want pastors to care for our soul, to teach us and all that, but like, but don't ever disagree with me. Don't ever admonish me from scripture, just like do the good stuff. No, we don't want that. But ask yourself, are you availing yourself of the pastoral care God has provided for you in this church? Don't let your elders be the last resort when things hit the fan and you're like, okay, we've tried everything and nothing's working. So let's let's go talk to Zane and Cam now. No, avail yourselves of all the means of God's grace he has for you. Now, let me just say a word of encouragement here. If you happen to be a regular attender who is not actively pursuing membership in this church or another gospel preaching church, I'm not talking about those who've actively pursued a membership class, you're you're moving forward towards membership. If you're a regular attender who is not actively pursuing membership, I would just ask you, who are your shepherds? All that I'm just describing, all these rich benefits that God has supplied, who is that for you? This isn't a scheme to get people to join Redeemer. We'd be happy to help you find any healthy gospel preaching church. But if you're detached from a local church, who are your shepherds? Who can you avail yourself of, of these means of grace that God has for you? Who are the men who are commanded to shepherd you and to present you mature in Christ? Because if you're not a member of a local church, a local pastor has no biblical mandate to care for your soul. I love everyone who worships at this church. So please don't hear anything I'm not saying. I love everyone who comes here, but I will stand before Jesus and give an account for the members of Redeemer Church, not everybody who walks through these doors, which is why we want to pull people in and say, join the family so you receive all the rich benefits that God has for those who are a part of his church. The method of ministry that Paul articulates here is admonishment and teaching. But Paul names a singular target, a singular aim, and that is a minister, a faithful minister who labors towards one goal, and that goal is to present everyone mature in Christ. If you look down at verses 28 through 29. 28 through 29, Paul says, 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. This should be the aim of every faithful minister to present everyone under their charge mature in Christ. And notice Paul's work. Choice. He says every person. He actually says it three times in one verse, which means there is no tiered discipleship levels where it's like, well, we're going to focus on like the really good saints who really get it. And we'll get to these other ones, you know, who knows when? They're stragglers. No, no, no. The goal is to present everyone, the new Christian who just came to faith in Christ, the person who's been walking with Christ longer than their pastor's been alive. We are striving to present every person mature in Christ, which means no one in the church is ever a lost cost. They're not someone who gets a pass. The goal is we got to help all of these saints grow into the image of their savior. He also makes it clear, or it's implied, that maturity in Christ is not self-defined. Like we don't individually decide, like, okay, I've I think I've I've reached, I've reached the epoch here. I'm mature in Christ. No, this is a collective community-family task. And that that barameter, so to speak, is defined by God's word. But he says, presenting people complete before Christ is the end. I love, I love Paul's joy in the ministry in 1 Thessalonians 2, 19 through 20. 1 Thessalonians 2, 19 to 20, Paul says, For who is our hope, our joy or crown of boasting in the presence of the Lord, Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and joy. Every faithful minister should have joy in the ministry. I'm going to read that again. This is Paul speaking about the people he and his uh gospel partners who they're ministering to. He says, For who is our hope, our joy, or crown of boasting in the presence of our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and joy. There are many pastors who should leave the ministry because they don't have that kind of joy. They constantly view their congregation as a burden. Oh my gosh, this is happening. There's this conflict. This person's doing this. Don't get me wrong, that's just church. We are all broken individuals. People are doing dumb stuff all the time. They need help. They need counsel. A pastor's repeating himself, saying the same stuff over and over again. And then the tempt time, it finally clicks. This is ministry. But I where I find my joy, and I've used this verse so many times from Corinthians, it is a privilege to labor to present others mature in Christ. And when the Holy Spirit does a redemptive work in his people's hearts and the light bulb clicks and they find joy in Christ, that's where I find my joy. Where I'm just like, I'm a cheerleader. Like, you get it? You get it now? Praise God. Amen. That is the joy. That's what Paul is saying. He's like, what am I gonna do when I when Jesus finally comes and I stand before him and I get to boast in? What am I gonna boast in? In you. I'm gonna boast in the people that I have been serving. You are our glory and our joy. And notice the energy behind Paul's labors in verse 29. It's not his strength, it's not his education, it is God working in him. Paul strains with everything he has, but the energy driving him is not his own. It is Christ working in him. Christ working in him. Friends, ask yourself this question. Is Christ actually being formed in you? Or are you content with knowledge about Jesus? Is Christ actually being formed in you? As our sister prayed earlier, are you being a doer of the word or a hearer only? Now let me make my pitch here for the beauty of the gathered body, what we're doing right now. The gathered church is the irreplaceable place for the arena of the type of ministry Paul is talking about in these verses. You cannot, quote unquote, go to church online. You cannot stream the corporate gathering. You cannot stream the means of God's grace. The admonishment, the teaching we talked about, the Lord's Supper, the accountability, these things are embodied in a family. This is why the scriptures make clear that the Sunday gathering is not optional. It is where primarily formation happens. Praise God for small groups, praise God for Bible studies, praise God for all these other things, but they are not ordained in Scripture. What we're doing this morning is the Sunday gathering is not optional. Let me illustrate like this: think about a piece of coal pulled out of a fire. It's gonna start cooling down, isn't it? It's gonna start going cold. It doesn't choose to go cold, it just does. That's what the gathered church is like. It is like that coal being taken out. As it's taken away from the other coals, it's gonna start cooling off. But if it's placed back into the fold of the other coals, it's gonna heat up again and stay warm. To me, that is the beauty of the local church. The we as people, we're the coals around each other. This is why I love congregational singing. That's why I love everything we do on a Sunday gathering because it's all centered around the gospel and God's word for the edification of the saints. We are better together than we are apart. But if you separate yourself from the coals, so to speak, you will go cold on purpose. This is why the regular gathering of the church is vital for your formation. This is why being a covenant member of a local church is vital for your spiritual formation. Every element of Paul's ministry, the suffering, the stewardship, the proclamation of God's word, the striving, all of this points away from Paul and entirely to Christ and his power. Now, in conclusion, if you go back to verses 20 to 23, we're reminded that you were past tense reconciled, you were presented holy, you were declared blameless. That's all past tense. That work is finished. But now, if we look at verse 28, we see that the goal of everything Paul does is to present Christians complete in Christ. The same word, the same aim, the gospel that started a work in you, Christian, is the very thing he is straining to bring to completion. Now, please don't hear this sermon or these verses and think, well, that's primarily for ministers of the gospel. No, this is for every disciple of Christ Jesus. Colossians 1, 28 to 29 can be a mission statement for every disciple of what are you seeking to accomplish as a parent? What are you seeking to accomplish as a husband or a wife, as a single person, whatever it is, you are seeking to proclaim Christ and present everyone mature in him and to labor for that, striving with the strength that Jesus powerfully works in you. Imagine if every church member was committed just to those two verses. The Christ who reconciled you is now being formed in you. Ministry, faithful ministry, is costly, but it's worth it. Don't waste what God has entrusted to you. Every person in this room, if you are in Christ, you have been entrusted with the ministry of reconciliation. You have been entrusted with various gifts that you are to steward for the spiritual edification of others. For those who haven't pursued Christ yet as your Savior and Lord, everything I'm describing to you is held out as an offer of God's grace to you. If only you will do what the rest of us who are in Christ have done, which is recognize you need this type of savior we've been learning about. Repent of your sins and trust in Christ Jesus, and you too will be brought reconciled through the body, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and be born again as an adopted son or daughter of the King. For those I mentioned earlier who have yet to pursue church membership, I am not trying to step on toes and be unkind. I'm trying to tell you the most loving thing I can tell you this morning, and that is why on earth would you not avail yourself of all of God's goodness toward you? Why would you voluntarily choose to miss out on things that God has ordained in Scripture for the spiritual health of you and all those around you? For those of you who are members of this church and following Jesus, keep availing yourself of all the things God has entrusted to you for your spiritual good and for the good of those to your left and to your right. Let's pray.