A message on sharing what Jesus can do
“2 Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. 3 And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. 4 Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. 5 Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. ”
Marcy wants everyone to have what she has. She wants her coworkers at the dentist’s office to have what she has. She wants her sister-in-law to have what she has. She wants her friend from college to have what she has. So, what does Marcy have?
Sometimes in our bitterness we want others to have our troubles so they’ll know just a bit of what it’s like. Sometimes in our frustration we want others to have our responsibilities, just for a day, so they’ll see life from our side. Marcy wants everyone to have what she has not out of bitterness, not out of frustration but out of love. Marcy has fullness in Jesus, and she wants others to have that too.
We’re almost at the end of our time in Colossians, which is all about being full in Christ in all of life. That’s what Marcy wants for others. Is that what you want for others? People who are full in Christ want that fullness with others; that’s the claim of this sermon: people who are full in Christ want that fullness with others.
We will study this in three points. First: prayer. Second: prayer and share. Third: sharing Christ. First, in verse 2, we see prayer. Second, in verses 3-4, we see prayer and share. Third, in verses 5-6, we see sharing Christ.
First: prayer. Paul has been teaching us about the household. We thought about husbands and wives. We thought about parents and children. We thought about work. Paul’s next words on prayer were for everyone. Husbands were to pray. Wives were to pray. Children were to pray. Parents were to pray. Slaves were to pray. Masters were to pray. Verse 2 was for each of them and it’s for each of us, “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.”
Prayer matters. It’s at the beginning of the letter; “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you.” It’s at the end of the letter, “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.” It’s at the beginning and the end because it matters. When I visited my grandmother in the nursing home she would say, “it’s so good to see you” when I came into her room and she would say, “it’s so good to see you,” before I left. She began and ended with that because she wanted to impress on me that it was good to see me. Paul begins and ends this letter with prayer because he wanted to impress its importance upon the church.
Does my life display the importance of prayer? I hope it does more and more. I want prayer to typify me. I want it to typify us as a church. God obviously does, which is why we have verse 2, “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.”
Now, you know what it means to be devoted. You might devote yourself to being the best athlete you can be. You might devote yourself to reading all The Chronicles of Narnia books. The message here is to take that devotion and apply it prayer.
You would be wise to do so because you’re in danger. That’s the logic behind the word “watchful.” “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful.” This probably comes from Jesus’ words to his disciples in Gethsemane, “watch and pray lest you fall into temptation.” Jesus knew how very threatening the night on which he was betrayed was. His disciples didn’t and so he told them, “Watch and pray.” Many in that church in Colossae didn’t see how very threatening their surrounding culture was. Paul did and so he told them, “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful.” You live in spiritually dangerous culture that regularly shipwrecks souls. “Watch and pray.” “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful.”
You would be wise to pray because you’re in danger. You would also be wise to pray because you’ve got all you need in Christ. That’s the thankful in “devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.” Yes, there is great danger in the world but greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world, so be thankful. Yes, the world, your flesh, and the devil are trying to rip you away from Jesus but what you have in Jesus is far better than anything the world, the flesh, and the devil can offer you, and you’ve got Jesus so be thankful. You might want to put that in your phone’s calendar as a reminder for tomorrow morning. 7:15 - “pray “help me Jesus. I so easily fall for nonsense and wander away from you.” 7:20, “pray, thank you Jesus because what I have in you is more than enough.” “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.” You can do that. That’s prayer. Now we see how that’s related to sharing Jesus. If Marcy is going to share the fullness Christ offers with empty people, she is going to need to pray. That’s our second point: prayer and share.
Paul expected these Colossian Christians, most of whom recently came out of paganism, to pray. He asked them to pray for him; verse 3, “pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ.” Paul was asking them to pray so that others could know the fullness they had. Does Christ fill your life? Do you want others to have this fullness?
Those who are full of Christ want that fullness for others. Prayer is central to this filling. Charles Spurgeon was called the prince of preachers. The Lord used his ministry to fill empty souls with Christ. One day a group of young ministers visited his church. Spurgeon showed them all around the beautiful sanctuary. Spurgeon then asked if they wanted to see the boiler room. They didn’t have any interest in seeing this grimy room that powered the church, but Spurgeon insisted. He took them down to the basement and opened a door. Inside was a meeting room with over 100 people in prayer for others to know God through the work of that church. “This,” Spurgeon said, “is my boiler room.” That’s what Spurgeon thought powered the church. When he was asked about the secret of God’s work through his preaching, Spurgeon always said, “my people pray for me.”
Let’s think about our church. We are hopefully full in Jesus. We hopefully want others to have that same fullness. Do we have a boiler room? Who do we have that prays for people to come to Jesus through the work of this church? Who puts verse 3 in action, “pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ”? Could it be you? Would you commit to that? That’s why verse 3 is in the Bible.
Paul asked the Colossians to pray for gospel ministry. What’s fascinating about that is that it was the gospel ministry that landed Paul in prison. You can see that in verse 3, “pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ for which I am in chains.” Paul was in prison because the Jews raised a riot whenever he preached Jesus. They thought it was blasphemy. They were more frustrated by that than Muslims are by snarky cartoons about the prophet Muhammad. Sharing the gospel can get you in trouble. True spiritual warfare always has an element of danger that playing church never brings. Paul knew that and yet he asked for prayer that he might do more, “pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains.” That puts any of our discomfort with evangelism in perspective.
So, how did Paul keep going? That’s what we’ve been studying throughout this whole letter. He was full of Christ. This letter is designed to fill people with Christ so that they want Christ rather than traditionalism, so they want Christ to be honored in their work, so they want Christ to be the center of their lives just as he is the center of everything. It’s aimed at producing people who can say with Fernando Ortega, “with all my heart, I love you sovereign Lord. Tomorrow let me love you even more.” Only fullness in Christ and wanting more of Christ will keep men and women pushing forward for Christ in the middle of pushback. Remember Paul’s chains as you seek to see Christ formed in others in this church and community.
Paul wanted to do more of the very action that got him in trouble, and he wanted to do it because the message deserved to be shared. That’s why Marcy wants to share fullness in Christ. She doesn’t want to share Christ because she merely thinks she ought to do it. She wants to share Christ because she thinks he’s worth sharing. Paul thought that Christ was worth sharing. Do we think that what we have in Christ is worth sharing? If not, why not? Church has largely become a tradition that people are in because they grew up that way. That won’t grip anyone else. That won’t grip us. That’s always the question—does Christ grip you?
If so, you get Marcy’s desire. You get Paul’s desire to share him. You get verse 4, “Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.” Paul thought the message was worth sharing, but he knew how very hard it was to share Christ well and so he asked for prayer. He asked for prayer that he might do Jesus justice. “Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.”
Perhaps you had that sense after you finished teaching Sunday school this year—“did I do justice to Jesus?” That’s what Marcy wants to do. She wants to do justice to Jesus with her co-workers, her sister-in-law, and her friend from college. William Burns got that. He prayed, “Oh! Spirit of Jesus, my Savior, lead me, a poor, ignorant, and self-conceited sinner, to the experience of this great mystery of grace, that I may know how I ought to declare your glorious gospel to perishing fellow-sinners!”
Paul asked for prayer because he wanted to share Jesus—prayer and share. Both are necessary. Hudson Taylor saw that. He saw that many Christians were content to play church. They busied themselves with tasks because they were supposed to do them but there was no prayer. He thought prayer was essential to any real work for Jesus. He said, “I have seen many men work without praying, though I have never seen any good come out of it; but I have never seen a man pray without working.”
Who do we think is really doing the work of this church? The work that we can do by our own power for Jesus isn’t anywhere near enough. “I have seen many men work without praying, though I have never seen any good come out of it.” Are we hesitant to pray as we work in this church? If so, why? Is it because we don’t think God will do anything? Is it because we think it’s really us who does the work? Is it because we think it’s just as waste of time—a way to just be spiritual when there’s real work to be done? No one who genuinely prays for God to work does it as an excuse to get out of work. “I have never seen a man pray without working.”
So now let’s think about working. Let’s think about sharing the work of Christ. That’s our final point: share. We’ve got time for four lessons from verses 5-6, “Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”
First, if you want to share the gospel, live the gospel. “Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders.” If you are going to share Jesus, ask for help to live like Jesus. If you want to share the gospel, ask for help to live the gospel. As Keith Green put it, “I want to take your word and shine it all around, but first help me just to live it, Lord.”
You want to share this gospel message about self-giving love with your coworkers? Make sure that you are trying to benefit these people rather than use them. You want to share a message about holiness with your friend from college? Keep putting sin to death in your own life and recognize that your friend isn’t a worse sinners than you. We don’t want to deny with our lives the message that we’re trying to share with our lips.
Sometimes we do that. Each of us, at times, inadvertently does more harm than good to the cause of the gospel. That’s because we Christians are always walking ambassadors for Christ whether we are mindful of it in that moment are not. Now we can talk about how the church might be shooting herself in the foot today, but it’s nothing new. Calvin was concerned about it in the sixteenth century. He talked about his fears that unbelievers are “driven from bad to worse through our imprudence and their minds are wounded so that they hold religion more and more in abhorrence.” We don’t want to do that. The call, then, is to be wise in the way we act toward outsiders.
So first if you want to share the gospel, live the gospel. Second, be interested in your faith and show why it’s interesting. That’s verse 6, “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” Salt was a seasoning. It gave flavor. Do you think Christianity is flavorful? Do you think Christ is fascinating? Do you think your soul is interesting? What about the soul of this person with whom you want to share the gospel?
The best way to be interesting is to talk honestly. Talk honestly about why you follow Jesus. Honesty is interesting. When you bring yourself to the table of a conversation, people pay attention. What do you love about Jesus? Share that. That’s interesting. Trying to tell others what you think they want to hear isn’t interesting.
I quote GK Chesterton a lot because I think he’s interesting. His conversations were full of grace, seasoned with salt. Listen to some of it. Listen to his connection between Christianity and Beauty and the Beast. “There is the great lesson of Beauty and the Beast that a thing must be loved before it is lovable.” Listen to his response to a newspaper that asked for responses about what was wrong with the world. He wrote in, “Dear Sir: regarding your article “What’s Wrong with the World?” I am. Yours truly, Chesterton.” That’s interesting. Trying to tell unbelievers what you think they want to hear will not be interesting to them. Be honest. Be honest about yourself and about Jesus.
Third, treat this other person as an individual; that’s the end of verse 6, “so that you may know how to answer everyone.” Different people are different. No parent treats each of their children in the same way. Why would we think that all Christians are the same? Why would we think that unbelievers are all the same? Treat this other person as an individual. Maybe they’ve never given much thought to their soul, or maybe spiritual questions haunt them. Maybe if you thought about God the way they thought about God, you wouldn’t believe in Him either. Get to know them. That’s just loving whether they get to know Jesus or not.
Fourth and finally, recognize that you’ve got many opportunities; verse 5, “make the most of every opportunity.” God will keep giving us opportunities. As you’ve been listening to this point, you’ve probably thought of mistakes you’ve made. I have. If you try anything worth doing, you are going to make mistakes, but remember that not trying is, by definition, a mistake. We’ll certainly make mistakes, but there will always be more opportunities.
Scarcity is never really a problem for a church that is focused on Jesus because the human heart isn’t going to suddenly find fullness anywhere other than Jesus. People will always need him. That means there will always be opportunities to offer him. You might have one before you right now at the dentist’s office where you work, or with your sister-in-law, or with your friend from college. You might know someone who is empty who could be full of Christ.
“There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of each man,” as Pascal put it, “which cannot be satisfied by any created thing but only by God the Creator, made know through Jesus Christ.” That’s true of you and of everyone you’ve ever met or will meet. Do you want to see that void filled? Do you, like Marcy, want others to have what you have? Amen.