Sermon from 4th June 2006
Paul’s Prayer!
One of our Lay Readers, Trevor Tayleur, continues our study of Paul's letter to the people of Colosse - based on the reading from Colossians 1:9-14
There’s a story about a small town that had historically been "dry," but then a local businessman decided to build a pub. A group of Christians from a local church were concerned and planned an all-night prayer meeting to ask God to intervene. It just so happened that shortly after the meeting lightning struck the pub and it burned to the ground. The owner of the pub sued the church, claiming that the prayers of the congregation were responsible, but the church hired a lawyer to argue in court that they were not responsible. The judge, after his initial review of the case, stated that "no matter how this case comes out, one thing is clear. The pub owner believes in prayer and the Christians do not."
Paul the apostle clearly believed in prayer, and today’s sermon is about how Paul prayed for the Christians in Colosse. But before we get on to Paul’s prayer, I think a brief recap of where we are will be helpful. This is the second sermon in our series on Colossians, Cameron preaching the first one two weeks ago before the half-term break. Colosse was a town in the Roman province of Asia Minor, and if it still existed it would now be in Turkey. Paul had never visited Colosse but had spent three years in Ephesus, about 100 miles to the west. The man who had brought the Gospel to Colosse was Epaphras, one of Paul’s colleagues, and he is mentioned by name in verse 7.
Now years later Epaphras visited Paul in prison in Rome, and had brought him good news of the progress of the Colossian church. The church had its problems, but at the same time, as we heard from Cameron two weeks ago, it had grown in faith, hope and love. Meanwhile, ever since Paul had heard about them, he had been praying for them. And the question that I am going to look at today is, “What did he pray for?” It is very interesting to examine people’s prayers, because when you know what they are praying for, you know what they are wanting. So when Paul prays for the Colossians, he is also saying what he wants for them. And it’s important for us to know what he wanted for the church in Colosse. In this series we’re still picking up on the values of the mission-shaped church, and if we look at his prayer we will get a good idea of what a mission-shaped church should look like. So, let’s now take a closer look at Paul’s prayer.
Firstly, he prays in verse 9 that God might fill them with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. He prays that they might have knowledge, wisdom and understanding. It’s striking that in his prayer he begins with the mind. At times parts of the church have shown signs of anti-intellectualism, but Paul is saying here is that the mind is important. And of course he’s right. If we go wrong in our thinking, we are bound to go wrong in our living. One of the mission shaped values (the fourth to be precise) is Making disciples, and that involves not only reaching out to those outside the church, but also deepening our own discipleship, our own commitment to Jesus. Becoming mature disciples of Jesus involves many things, but one of them is developing our knowledge and understanding of the Christian faith.
And you will see that in verse 9 Paul isn’t merely praying that the Colossians will have some vague knowledge of God; he’s praying very specifically that they will have knowledge of God’s will. Now as he is praying for them to know God’s will, it must be possible to find out what God’s will is. I doubt if Paul was praying for the impossible. And I suspect that many of us long to know the will of God, so how do we find it? In answering this question it’s important to distinguish between the general will of God and his particular will. God’s general will is his broad, overall will for his people. It’s no different for you as it is for me, or for anyone else. It’s the general will of God that we may grow in grace, that we may become more and more like Jesus, that we might be salt and light in the community: this is the general will of God for all of us. How do we come to know the general will of God? Primarily from the Bible. In studying the Bible we can seek to understand God‘s general will for his people.
In contrast his particular will is different for everybody – different for you from what it is for me, and different from other people. God’s particular will is our life work, what God is calling us to do with our life. It also covers whether we get married, and if so, who we marry. The particular will of God concerns how we spend our money, our time and other details of our lives. Occasionally, when we come to make a decision, we may find the answer directly in the Bible. For example, if you’re considering committing adultery or robbing a bank, you don’t have to look beyond the 10 Commandments to realise that that is not God’s particular will for you. But usually decisions aren’t that clear-cut. We may find principles to guide us, but we won’t find God’s particular will for us revealed in the Bible. We have to seek it, pray, look for advice from others in the church family, and use our minds. And of course, it’s very appropriate to remember at Pentecost that we also have the Holy Spirit to guide us.
And it’s not only individuals who need to seek the particular will of God. It is something that we as a church need to do, and in fact are doing. A couple of weeks ago these were handed out: SHOW SHEET. This sheet summarises what took place at our Listening Day a couple of months ago, and we are still listening, seeking to discern God’s will for us in this our Year of Growing Out. If you haven’t picked up one of the sheets, please do so and watch out for further opportunities to join in the listening process.
And this brings us to the second thing that Paul prays for in verse 10; “And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way…” There’s no point in praying to have knowledge of God’s will if we don’t go on to do it once we know what it is; our knowledge of God’s will needs to be reflected in the way we live. A Christian lifestyle is one that is worthy of Jesus and that is pleasing to him. When two people come to know each other very well, a husband and wife, or two very close friends, they don’t want to let the other party down and they also know instinctively what would please the other and what wouldn’t. And so it is with Jesus. As our discipleship deepens, we know more and more what is pleasing to Jesus and what isn’t. The second half of verse 10 gives an idea of the sort of life that is worthy of Jesus and pleasing to him: it is a life that bears fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God. Paul doesn’t separate knowledge from action. Knowing God and action should go hand in hand. Is that true for us in Herne Hill? Does our belief in Jesus stimulate us into doing good works? And in our good works are we bearing fruit by being transformational, which happens to be the third mission-shaped value!? The good works we do are to have a purpose. Our calling is to transform our communities for God, to strive for justice, to speak out against injustice and to encourage people to find peaceful and just solutions to problems.
And thirdly Paul prays in verse 11 that they may be strengthened with all power so that they may have great endurance and patience. It is very natural that this should come next because the standards that Paul is outlining are very high, and we certainly can’t attain them by our own unaided efforts. No, they are hopelessly unattainable by us in our own strength. But they are not beyond the power of God, they are not beyond the strength that God supplies through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit moved with power at Pentecost; and the same power is available to us today. We should not underestimate the power of God. And Paul prays that God’s power will lead to endurance and patience. It’s interesting that Paul is praying for power in the context of endurance and patience. Particularly at Pentecost it’s tempting to see God’s power resulting in spectacular events, but here Paul is praying for endurance and patience; endurance and patience may not sound spectacular, but they are vital to a Christian’s life. The Greek word used for endurance means the ability to go through difficult circumstances and to come out the other side; the Greek word for patience means patience with difficult people! God’s power can help us deal with difficult circumstances and with difficult people.
And the fourth thing he prays for, in verse 12, is that they might give thanks to the Father. Now we human beings often seem to suffer from chronic ingratitude. Dostoevsky once defined a human being as an ungrateful biped! But five times in this epistle we are urged to be grateful, and in chapter 2 verse 7 he prays that we may be overflowing with thankfulness. Gratitude is a key sign of a true Christian life, because if we truly realise what God has done for us, then gratitude must surely follow. In verses 12-13 Paul urges us to give thanks to the Father because he has qualified us to share in the kingdom of light, and has brought us into kingdom of the Son he loves. All three verbs that Paul uses in these verses, qualified, rescued and brought are in the past tense. We in the present are to thank God, to keep being grateful to him, for what he has done in the past.
And in verses 12 and 13 Paul says that God has indeed done great things for us. He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light; he has brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves. In the ancient world, when one empire defeated another, it was the custom to take the population of the defeated country and transfer them lock, stock and barrel to the victor’s land. This is what happened to the people of Israel following the fall of Jerusalem. Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king, transported many of the Israelites to Babylon, into exile. And so Paul says that God has transferred us as Christians to his own kingdom. But unlike what happened to the Israelites, this isn’t an exile: it’s a rescue or, as verse 14, redemption. God has transferred us from darkness to light, from slavery to our fears and sins to freedom in Christ, from condemnation to forgiveness. Through Jesus’ death on the Cross, we are freed from the grip of evil and we are able to become citizens of the Kingdom of God. God in his triumphant love has transferred us from the realm of sin and darkness into his Kingdom of forgiveness.
A mission-shaped church will be one that wants to find out what God’s will for it is. Genuinely seeking God’s will is an essential part of being a disciple. And once a mission-shaped church has found out what God’s will is, it will want to get on with doing it. It will want to bring God’s transforming love to the local community and to the wider world. To be able to do this it will be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, and it will be continually grateful to God for what he has done through Jesus. To what extent is that a description of us?
Let us pray:
Father, We pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit, so that we may know your will for us as we seek to listen to your voice. We pray that the Spirit will empower us to bring your transforming love to our local community, and encourage us to thank you for all you have done for us through Jesus.
One of our Lay Readers, Trevor Tayleur, continues our study of Paul's letter to the people of Colosse - based on the reading from Colossians 1:9-14
There’s a story about a small town that had historically been "dry," but then a local businessman decided to build a pub. A group of Christians from a local church were concerned and planned an all-night prayer meeting to ask God to intervene. It just so happened that shortly after the meeting lightning struck the pub and it burned to the ground. The owner of the pub sued the church, claiming that the prayers of the congregation were responsible, but the church hired a lawyer to argue in court that they were not responsible. The judge, after his initial review of the case, stated that "no matter how this case comes out, one thing is clear. The pub owner believes in prayer and the Christians do not."
Paul the apostle clearly believed in prayer, and today’s sermon is about how Paul prayed for the Christians in Colosse. But before we get on to Paul’s prayer, I think a brief recap of where we are will be helpful. This is the second sermon in our series on Colossians, Cameron preaching the first one two weeks ago before the half-term break. Colosse was a town in the Roman province of Asia Minor, and if it still existed it would now be in Turkey. Paul had never visited Colosse but had spent three years in Ephesus, about 100 miles to the west. The man who had brought the Gospel to Colosse was Epaphras, one of Paul’s colleagues, and he is mentioned by name in verse 7.
Now years later Epaphras visited Paul in prison in Rome, and had brought him good news of the progress of the Colossian church. The church had its problems, but at the same time, as we heard from Cameron two weeks ago, it had grown in faith, hope and love. Meanwhile, ever since Paul had heard about them, he had been praying for them. And the question that I am going to look at today is, “What did he pray for?” It is very interesting to examine people’s prayers, because when you know what they are praying for, you know what they are wanting. So when Paul prays for the Colossians, he is also saying what he wants for them. And it’s important for us to know what he wanted for the church in Colosse. In this series we’re still picking up on the values of the mission-shaped church, and if we look at his prayer we will get a good idea of what a mission-shaped church should look like. So, let’s now take a closer look at Paul’s prayer.
Firstly, he prays in verse 9 that God might fill them with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. He prays that they might have knowledge, wisdom and understanding. It’s striking that in his prayer he begins with the mind. At times parts of the church have shown signs of anti-intellectualism, but Paul is saying here is that the mind is important. And of course he’s right. If we go wrong in our thinking, we are bound to go wrong in our living. One of the mission shaped values (the fourth to be precise) is Making disciples, and that involves not only reaching out to those outside the church, but also deepening our own discipleship, our own commitment to Jesus. Becoming mature disciples of Jesus involves many things, but one of them is developing our knowledge and understanding of the Christian faith.
And you will see that in verse 9 Paul isn’t merely praying that the Colossians will have some vague knowledge of God; he’s praying very specifically that they will have knowledge of God’s will. Now as he is praying for them to know God’s will, it must be possible to find out what God’s will is. I doubt if Paul was praying for the impossible. And I suspect that many of us long to know the will of God, so how do we find it? In answering this question it’s important to distinguish between the general will of God and his particular will. God’s general will is his broad, overall will for his people. It’s no different for you as it is for me, or for anyone else. It’s the general will of God that we may grow in grace, that we may become more and more like Jesus, that we might be salt and light in the community: this is the general will of God for all of us. How do we come to know the general will of God? Primarily from the Bible. In studying the Bible we can seek to understand God‘s general will for his people.
In contrast his particular will is different for everybody – different for you from what it is for me, and different from other people. God’s particular will is our life work, what God is calling us to do with our life. It also covers whether we get married, and if so, who we marry. The particular will of God concerns how we spend our money, our time and other details of our lives. Occasionally, when we come to make a decision, we may find the answer directly in the Bible. For example, if you’re considering committing adultery or robbing a bank, you don’t have to look beyond the 10 Commandments to realise that that is not God’s particular will for you. But usually decisions aren’t that clear-cut. We may find principles to guide us, but we won’t find God’s particular will for us revealed in the Bible. We have to seek it, pray, look for advice from others in the church family, and use our minds. And of course, it’s very appropriate to remember at Pentecost that we also have the Holy Spirit to guide us.
And it’s not only individuals who need to seek the particular will of God. It is something that we as a church need to do, and in fact are doing. A couple of weeks ago these were handed out: SHOW SHEET. This sheet summarises what took place at our Listening Day a couple of months ago, and we are still listening, seeking to discern God’s will for us in this our Year of Growing Out. If you haven’t picked up one of the sheets, please do so and watch out for further opportunities to join in the listening process.
And this brings us to the second thing that Paul prays for in verse 10; “And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way…” There’s no point in praying to have knowledge of God’s will if we don’t go on to do it once we know what it is; our knowledge of God’s will needs to be reflected in the way we live. A Christian lifestyle is one that is worthy of Jesus and that is pleasing to him. When two people come to know each other very well, a husband and wife, or two very close friends, they don’t want to let the other party down and they also know instinctively what would please the other and what wouldn’t. And so it is with Jesus. As our discipleship deepens, we know more and more what is pleasing to Jesus and what isn’t. The second half of verse 10 gives an idea of the sort of life that is worthy of Jesus and pleasing to him: it is a life that bears fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God. Paul doesn’t separate knowledge from action. Knowing God and action should go hand in hand. Is that true for us in Herne Hill? Does our belief in Jesus stimulate us into doing good works? And in our good works are we bearing fruit by being transformational, which happens to be the third mission-shaped value!? The good works we do are to have a purpose. Our calling is to transform our communities for God, to strive for justice, to speak out against injustice and to encourage people to find peaceful and just solutions to problems.
And thirdly Paul prays in verse 11 that they may be strengthened with all power so that they may have great endurance and patience. It is very natural that this should come next because the standards that Paul is outlining are very high, and we certainly can’t attain them by our own unaided efforts. No, they are hopelessly unattainable by us in our own strength. But they are not beyond the power of God, they are not beyond the strength that God supplies through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit moved with power at Pentecost; and the same power is available to us today. We should not underestimate the power of God. And Paul prays that God’s power will lead to endurance and patience. It’s interesting that Paul is praying for power in the context of endurance and patience. Particularly at Pentecost it’s tempting to see God’s power resulting in spectacular events, but here Paul is praying for endurance and patience; endurance and patience may not sound spectacular, but they are vital to a Christian’s life. The Greek word used for endurance means the ability to go through difficult circumstances and to come out the other side; the Greek word for patience means patience with difficult people! God’s power can help us deal with difficult circumstances and with difficult people.
And the fourth thing he prays for, in verse 12, is that they might give thanks to the Father. Now we human beings often seem to suffer from chronic ingratitude. Dostoevsky once defined a human being as an ungrateful biped! But five times in this epistle we are urged to be grateful, and in chapter 2 verse 7 he prays that we may be overflowing with thankfulness. Gratitude is a key sign of a true Christian life, because if we truly realise what God has done for us, then gratitude must surely follow. In verses 12-13 Paul urges us to give thanks to the Father because he has qualified us to share in the kingdom of light, and has brought us into kingdom of the Son he loves. All three verbs that Paul uses in these verses, qualified, rescued and brought are in the past tense. We in the present are to thank God, to keep being grateful to him, for what he has done in the past.
And in verses 12 and 13 Paul says that God has indeed done great things for us. He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light; he has brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves. In the ancient world, when one empire defeated another, it was the custom to take the population of the defeated country and transfer them lock, stock and barrel to the victor’s land. This is what happened to the people of Israel following the fall of Jerusalem. Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king, transported many of the Israelites to Babylon, into exile. And so Paul says that God has transferred us as Christians to his own kingdom. But unlike what happened to the Israelites, this isn’t an exile: it’s a rescue or, as verse 14, redemption. God has transferred us from darkness to light, from slavery to our fears and sins to freedom in Christ, from condemnation to forgiveness. Through Jesus’ death on the Cross, we are freed from the grip of evil and we are able to become citizens of the Kingdom of God. God in his triumphant love has transferred us from the realm of sin and darkness into his Kingdom of forgiveness.
A mission-shaped church will be one that wants to find out what God’s will for it is. Genuinely seeking God’s will is an essential part of being a disciple. And once a mission-shaped church has found out what God’s will is, it will want to get on with doing it. It will want to bring God’s transforming love to the local community and to the wider world. To be able to do this it will be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, and it will be continually grateful to God for what he has done through Jesus. To what extent is that a description of us?
Let us pray:
Father, We pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit, so that we may know your will for us as we seek to listen to your voice. We pray that the Spirit will empower us to bring your transforming love to our local community, and encourage us to thank you for all you have done for us through Jesus.
posted by Parish Administrator at 12:57 pm
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