Word of Salvation – Vol. 45 No.17 – May 2000

 

God's Comforters and Encouragers

 

Sermon by Rev P Smit

on Colossians 4:7-18

Scripture Readings: 2 Corinthians 1:1-11

Suggested Hymns: BoW 8a; 210; 118a; 434; 383; 525; Rej 552; 333

 

Beloved in the Lord.

If there's anywhere in this world that you should find comfort and encouragement, it should be the church.  As I talk to people in the community, so often they say, "I want to know about God, but I'm scared of the church.  They stand in judgment on me.  They speak of love but neglect to show it.”  At first, when I heard these comments, I thought people were being unnecessarily harsh on the church.  But when I heard their stories, I realised that they were right.  Rather than displaying the spirit of Christ, to preach good news to the poor, proclaiming freedom to people stuck in sin – rather than loving people unconditionally – too often the church placed conditions on their love.

But the apostle Paul in writing to these Colossians who had got confused and derailed by false teaching, showed the Spirit of Christ by seeking to encourage the church.  He had one purpose for writing this letter to them.  You'll find it in Chapter 2:2-3.  Let me read it for you:

“My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ...!”

Paul wanted them to be encouraged in heart, united in love for one another, and having a complete understanding of Jesus Christ.

The message of this letter is summed up in chapter 2:6-7.  Highlight that in your bibles.

"So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness."

Now at the end of this letter, in an honest and open and personal way, Paul demonstrates his heart for God's people.  Paul really values the church.  He values the friendship, and loves the support of God's people.  He realises that if strong bonds of love are going to grow, you need to communicate, you need to encourage, you need to comfort others and be comforted.  That means you will prioritise your life to build these sorts of relationships with God's people.  Just as Paul prioritised his life to write and encourage the church at Colossae.

I believe that our Lord is saying to us in this closing passage of Colossians that “God's comfort and encouragement comes through his grace-filled people.”  The question I want you to ask yourself is: “Am I building these strong bonds of love with God's people?  Am I encouraging others and comforting others?  Am I open to be encouraged and comforted myself?"

1.   Strong bonds of love grow through communication

I'm sure most of you know that.  If you haven't seen a friend for a long time, if you haven't communicated, you may feel distant, out of touch.  For those who are married, you know that if you don't really talk deeply with your spouse, you can end up feeling like ships in the night.  Missing each other.

So, too, in the church.  If we don't share deeply with other believers, we can end up feeling distant, removed.  The strength of our Christian love and bond for each other can diminish.  Encouragement ceases to take place.  Hearts grow cold, the flame of Christ's love dwindles in our lives.

Paul knew that if he was to encourage the church, he needed to communicate, not just the gospel truths, but something of himself.  Whether Paul was under house arrest or whether he was in jail we don't know, but because he was prevented from coming to them, he sent a dear brother Tychicus, to bring them news about him.  Paul wanted the church to know his struggles, his joys, his trials.  He got Tychicus to tell them.  Why?  So that their relationship of love might grow.

Can I ask you, who in this church knows your struggles, your hardships, your heart's desires, your joys?  Entering into the joy of deep love and Christian fellowship begins by sharing your heart with someone you trust, praying for them, and having them pray for you.  When we communicate, strong bonds of love can grow.  When we withdraw, we don't communicate, and love can't be received.

I want to challenge you to pray and ask God to cause you to open up your life and share with someone he leads you to, so that Christ's bond of love can grow.

2.  God calls us to encourage others

Remember Paul's purpose in chapter 2?  That they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, having a full understanding of Christ.  Paul sent Tychicus not just so he could get prayer support, but also to encourage their hearts in the Lord.  See verses 8-9.  He said:

“I am sending him to you for the express purpose that you may know about our circumstances and that he may encourage your hearts.  He is coming with Onesimus, our faithful and dear brother, who is one of you.  They will tell you everything that is happening here.”

Even though it was tough for Paul, even though he was a prisoner, God's power was still at work in his life.  God's grace was still sufficient for him.  God was still strengthening him, and the church at Colossae needed to hear that.  They needed encouragement, too.  Not only Tychicus was going, but Paul was sending Onesimus, too.  They were going to testify to the Colossians all that God was doing in their lives.

When you feel like a prisoner to circumstance, when hardship and difficulty take root in your life, do not doubt that God can and will use that to be a tremendous encouragement to others.  It is in the valleys of life, that God's grace helps us so greatly.

Please remember this: In your valley, God will make you an encouragement to others if you are willing.  In fact, it is in your weakness that God will use you the most.  Because it is in your weakness that His power can be made more clear to you and others around you.

The question I want to ask you is this: In your struggles are you depending on God's grace, power and strength?  And if you are, then in your struggles are you seeking to encourage someone else in the body of Christ?

You see, it all comes back to communication – sharing our lives with others in God's family.  The more we withhold, the greater our loneliness will be.  God is calling us, through the example of Christ, and of his servant Paul to encourage one another - even in our struggles.

And it is in our struggles that:

3.  God calls us to comfort one another

All of us need comfort.  You have pain in your life.  I have areas of pain in mine.  We all need God's comfort and encouragement; whether you are a prisoner like Paul, dealing with a lack of freedom and sorrow and grief that comes from that, or whether you are still trying to come to terms with an abusive parent; whether your business is running on a high, but you're working too many hours and not spending enough time with your family; or whether your work future is uncertain; wherever you are in life...  you need God's comfort.

God's comfort comes from his Word and the comforting work of the Holy Spirit who comes alongside us in our hearts and encourages us.  But God's comfort also needs to come through God's people, the church.

You know what I love about this last part of this letter?  It's that Paul is so warm and human in his love.  He sends greetings.  He said: "Aristarchus says g’day, sends his greetings.  So does Mark and Barnabas.  Jesus, who is called Justus, says g’day.  These dear brothers of mine care for you.  Some of them you know, maybe others not, but they care."

But Paul also admitted that he needed comfort from the body of Christ.  He got real honest and said in verse 11 about some dear brothers, “My fellow workers for the kingdom of God have been a real comfort to me."  Paul doesn't write in what way they were a comfort, but sometimes it's just knowing that someone is there with you.  We get a deeper sense of God's love when we feel it in the embrace of a brother or sister in Christ.

The Lord laid something on my heart this week.  It was this: That we are His hands, we are His arms to embrace, we are His lips to speak words of comfort and healing to others.

I want to ask you these questions:

• Have you acknowledged your need of comfort from the body of Christ?
• Have you opened up your heart to someone else and asked for prayer, or support?

As His church, we cannot minister to you if you haven't let us know of your need of comfort.

You know when we open up and share our hearts, then we find others often facing similar struggles and then we can truly comfort each other by prayer and turning to God's Word and just being there.  Like these few Jews near Paul, we are to bring God's comfort.

God's comfort comes in various ways.  Sometimes it's a shoulder to cry on, sometimes a listening ear, sometimes a Scripture to encourage, sometimes a prayer together.  Sometimes it's knowing that someone is wrestling in prayer for us.

Paul spoke of one such person: Epaphras.  He had come from the Colossian church as we see in chapter 1:7.  He had been with these people.  He knew their need, and even though he wasn't with them, he prayed for them.  See verses 12-13:

"Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings.  He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.  I vouch for him that he is working hard for you and for those at Laodicea and Hierapolis."

Sometimes in our churches we can lose sight of the power of prayer.  Have you ever wrestled with God in prayer?  I can probably count on one hand the times I've really wrestled with God in prayer.  Some of you might be thinking, what is that anyway?  World championship stuff, or what?

This sort of prayer is earnest, it is fervent in seeking God's answer, it is determined.  It is like Jacob who wrestled with God's angel and said, “I will not let you go until you bless me."

I reckon Epaphras got down on his knees and said, “Lord I can't be with my brothers and sisters now, but I will not let you go until you bless the Colossian church.  I want to see you make them strong in the faith.  I want your truth and grace and power to be real in their lives."

Wrestling prayer is persistent and tireless.  That sort of prayer is plain hard work.  See what Paul said in verse 13 – he is working hard for you.

Brothers and sisters, as long as we are comfortable in our faith, we won't wrestle in prayer.  Do you want to see God's church here built into a strong beacon of light in this community?  Do you want to grow in faith?  Do you want to know Christ?  Do you long to see God do immeasurably more than all we ask and imagine?  Then work hard in prayer.  Wrestle in prayer for the Lord to pour out His richest blessing on his church, that He will build this church and that the powers of hell will not stand against it.  For I can assure you that the powers of hell would love to destroy what God is doing in his church.  We need to pray for his strength and power to live for him.

If you want to comfort your brothers and sisters in Christ even when you can be with them, then pray the prayer list as mentioned in Colossians 1:9-14.

Paul wraps up this letter with greetings to people he loved.  He asked the Colossian church to share this letter with another church in Laodicea.  Then in closing he said a couple of things of great importance.  In verse 17 he said, “Tell Archippus: 'See to it that you complete the work you have received in the Lord'.”

You know that verse applies to you and me.  God wants us to complete the work he has given us.  He wants us to keep on in Christ, to continue to live in Him, strengthened in our faith, and to overflow with thankfulness.

And I believe God has a special purpose for you in his church here.  He has gifted you to encourage the church, to comfort the church, to be the hands and arms of our Lord Jesus Christ.  He has a task for you.  If you don't know it yet, then pray for Him to reveal it to you.

It may begin with loving someone else in need, being a friend.  Pray for the Lord to make you a blessing of encouragement and comfort to His people and the world.

And the second thing Paul closes with, and the most important, are his words in verse 18: “Grace be with you."  We began our Christian life by God's grace, we will live our Christian life by His Grace and we will finish it by His Grace.  That grace comes to us in Jesus Christ.

May we always continue to live in Him and the victory He won for us at the cross.

Amen.