The Greatest SErmon

Over the course of my Christian
life, I have occasionally been alarmed at some of the things
I heard proclaimed from God’s pulpits. And I say alarmed because pastors
have been given a divine mandate to preach the word. But often, those that are tasked with that
responsibility spend little time doing so. I recall some years
ago visiting a church while on vacation, and it was supposed
to be a solid church. It had come very highly recommended.
When we arrived, the people were friendly. The sanctuary was beautiful
and comfortable. Music was good. And the pastor
then stood up to preach. And for the next hour, we were
I almost said treated, we were subjected to a history lesson
on one of the great reformers. This reformer was indeed a man
that I highly regarded. But even as I heard his life
being reviewed that Sunday, I wondered what he would have thought about
what was taking place. the living and active, sharper
than any two-edged sword word of God, had effectively been
set aside, replaced by a church history lesson. As I’ve said, I’ve been alarmed
many times since then, disappointed at what I either personally heard
or what I heard about some church doing. It’s not as if God hasn’t
provided the necessary material he’s given us his word. It’s not as if God hasn’t made
it clear what his message is and should be. He has provided in the message
of the gospel. We return to chapter one of Colossians
again, if you Would please turn again to that chapter, Colossians
chapter one. We are wending and navigating
our way through this incredible chapter. Of late, we have been
listening to Paul as he articulates the various characteristics of
the Lord’s work. Magnificent features of the Christian
ministry, as we’ve titled it. In great detail, Paul is describing
the various aspects of the ministry of the Word. His short but powerful
discourse began in verse 25, and it continues all the way
down through verse 3 of chapter 2. We’ll get there, Lord willing. From the outset, I’ve suggested
that there are these three subheadings for this main topic of the Christian
ministry. There is, in verse 24, the glad
anguish of ministry. It’s not a contradiction that
we can be joyful even in the midst of our trials, as Paul
was, There is the divine bestowal of ministry, a section that we
spent no little time on, verses 25 through 27. This is the portion
that we wrapped up last Lord’s Day. And then finally, the efficient
method of ministry, verses 28 all the way through to three. As we close out point two, the
divine bestowal of ministry, we note that those features,
as true as they were for Paul’s ministry, are no less true for
our own day. Those features and principles
are timeless. The glad anguish of ministry,
the divine bestowal of ministry, and the efficient method of ministry.
They’re timeless. And in the divine bestowal of
ministry, we were reminded that the service of God’s kingdom
is initiated by a divine commissioning. God sends his workers, God gifts
them, God trains them, God sends them, and then God opens doors
of opportunity for such service. It’s a divine commissioning.
Paul pointed out that he was called into the Lord’s service,
and it still is the case that God himself calls and appoints
his servants to their respective posts. And this is granted in
measure, as we saw, because every believer has gifts given to them
by Christ for use in his church. The second magnificent feature
that we considered about the Christian ministry is that it
is imparted by divine revelation. Paul had a divinely given mission
to fully carry out the preaching of the word of God. Paul’s mission
was to carry forth the message of the gospel to the fullest
possible extent, to the ends of the earth. And then last week,
We wrapped up that section by considering the third magnificent
feature of the Christian ministry, that it is instituted by divine
intention. God willed it to be so. We didn’t figure out God’s plan
of redemption. God chose to reveal it, and he
did so in time. And the most amazing aspect of
that little point that what was a mystery is God’s
revelation of the heart of the gospel, Christ in you, the hope
of glory, that Christ indwells his believers in a very real
way. Well, given that this is a revelation
that is so grand, we are not surprised to see Paul in his
eagerness elaborate about the Lord Jesus Christ and he does
so beginning in verse 8. I have refrained from doing so
for the last several weeks but this morning I’d like to start
in verse 24 and we’ll course all the way through this section
to chapter 2 verse 3. Would God’s people just follow
along? Now I rejoice in my sufferings
for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of his
body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in
Christ’s afflictions. Of this church I was made a minister
according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your
benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the
word of God, That is, the mystery which has been hidden from the
past ages and generations, but now has been manifested to his
saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches
of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is
Christ in you, the hope of glory. We proclaim him. admonishing
every man, and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that
we may present every man complete in Christ. For this purpose,
I also labor, striving according to his power, which mightily
works within me. For I want you to know how great
a struggle I have on your behalf, and for those who are at Laodicea,
and for all those who have not personally seen my face. that
their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in
love, attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance
of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery,
that is, Christ himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge. And so with this, we are brought
to the third and final subsection of the Christian ministry, not
only the glad anguish of ministry and the divine bestowal of ministry,
but now the efficient method of ministry. And the method of
ministry we already know is verbal proclamation, a verbal proclamation
of the gospel. But what exactly is the message
of that proclamation? And that’s what Paul wants to
revert to and focus in on. What do we proclaim? And so I’ve suggested to you
by title that there is such a thing as the greatest sermon. Sometimes,
I’ve said this before, Howard Hendricks used to call the greeting
at the back door the glorification of the worm, because people have
a tendency to put all the emphasis on the pastor, the preacher,
and not on the Word of God. All we can do is muddy it up. If we let the Word of God speak,
The Word of God will carry the day. And so the greatest sermon
is something that we ought to all articulate. It isn’t something
that only pastors preach. The greatest sermon is about
Christ, as we will see. The first thing that I’ll tell
you about this particular verse, verse 28, that we’ll look at
this morning, this verse has been our church’s theme verse
from our very inception. We saw this verse more than 25
years ago as expressing the heart of the church’s ministry, and
we still do. And so I wanna begin this morning
by looking at the greatest sermon. the excellent features of the
message of ministry. The excellent features of the
message of ministry. And the first feature that we
note is the subject of our proclamation. Would you just glance down at
verse 28 once again? We proclaim him admonishing every
man and teaching every man with all wisdom so that we may present
every man complete in Christ. Incredible verse. We proclaim
Him. And at the risk of being over-simplistic,
I do need to call attention to that first word, we. Last Lord’s
Day, we were treated to a very helpful encouragement in the
Psalms, you might recall. It was that phrase, but as for
me. And it basically accentuated
whatever the rest of the world is doing as for me. We basically have the same thing
captured here by that little word, we. By that word, Paul
is contrasting the ministry that he and his team were conducting
with the worthless drivel that the false teachers were fomenting. they will do, they still do what
they will do, but we, on the other hand, we proclaim Him. We know by now that not only
the Apostle Paul, not only the Apostle Paul and his fellow workers
of the day, Not only those who are formally called into the
Christian ministry, but really every believer is tasked with
proclaiming the good news that God has revealed to the world.
That news, that message may not have come directly to us. It is true that after 2,000 years,
we are pretty far downstream. But we too, as believers in the
Lord Jesus Christ, are given the responsibility of declaring,
proclaiming God’s message to those who do not know Him. whether
it’s informally in a conversation, whether it’s by means of formal
evangelism, whatever it is, letters, cards, tracts, books, we are
tasked with the responsibility of proclaiming Christ. And now
if you would glance down again at verse 25 and the last line. I know I’m reverting here, don’t
panic. The last line of verse 25, you’ll note that you may
recall that our translators there supplied a word. The preaching. Two words. And they did that
in order to make clear what Paul was saying there. Well, here
in verse 28, Paul isn’t vague at all. He leaves nothing uncertain. He says that we proclaim him. And the word that Paul uses here,
translated as proclaim, both in the New American Standard
and the ESV, the word is proclaim. That’s how they translate it.
The King James, however, both the original King James and the
New King James translate it with the word preach. That’s not inaccurate. The word can be translated that
way. There are several words, actually,
that could be translated as to preach or preaching. But our
word here in this verse, verse 28, just means to declare or
to announce or to herald a message. It has specific reference to
a public proclamation. But what exactly is the message? We know that we’re called to
proclaim. Each one of us is tasked with proclaiming Christ. But
what is the message? We already know the answer to
the question that is obviously generated by that sentence. Him
can only refer to Jesus Christ. We don’t have to guess about
that reference. It’s grammatically supported
in this passage in a very tangible way. May I show you? You see,
in the original, that is in the Greek, it doesn’t say, we proclaim him. In fact, it’s not
even a sentence in the original. It’s a clause built on a pronoun. Literally, it reads, and if I’ve
lost you, here you come. Literally, it reads, whom we
proclaim. In this lengthy sentence, begun
all the way back in verse 25, remember, 61 words in the Greek,
translated with 88 English words in the New American. But we would
be justified in tacking on these additional 20 Greek words. And if you’re tallying things
up, that would be an additional 23 words in the New American,
and that brings our already lengthy sentence to 81 Greek words and
a whopping 111 English. One sentence. I always have to
chuckle when I drop in one of Paul’s passages into a Word document. Suffice it to say that Bill Gates
doesn’t care much for Paul’s grammar. or punctuation. So Paul literally says here,
whom we proclaim. And that subordinate clause points
definitively to someone and it demands that we determine to
whom the writer is referring. And to this, all we have to do
is look back at the previous verse. that amazing portion of
scripture which Paul revealed the mystery, remember? Let’s
call it the former mystery. I think that’s better. The former
mystery is Christ in you, the hope of glory. And this is the
one, this is the person to whom Paul refers back here in verse
28. It’s no other than the Lord Jesus
Christ. For Paul, there was no greater
subject to preach than Christ. when he boldly marched into Thessalonica. Among the first words out of
his mouth were, this Jesus, whom I am proclaiming to you is the
Christ. He is the Messiah. There’s nothing
else to preach. And why wouldn’t he preach Christ? Because as Peter so succinctly
declared it in Acts 4.12, there is salvation in no one else. other than Christ, for there
is no other name under heaven other than Christ by which we
must be saved. Listen to the way one of my heroes
of the faith, John Eady, articulated it. This Christ, so glorious
in person and perfect in work, the incarnate God, the bleeding
peacemaker, the imperial governor of the universe, it is He, none
else, and none beside Him that we preach. Christ is the one
and undivided object of proclamation. And if he be the hope of glory,
no wonder that they rejoice to proclaim him wide and far and
on every possible occasion. Jesus Christ is the only hope
of salvation. Christ is the supreme subject. Every other topic is trivial
and worthless. Listen to this. After all that
Paul has already said, he hardly needed to articulate the powerful
truth that Jesus Christ is the message. Listen to this. He is the one, back in verse
six, in whom our faith resides. He is the one, verse 15, who
is the image of God, the firstborn of creation. He is the one, verse
16, by whom, through whom, and for whom all things were created. He is the one, verse 17, who
is before all things and in whom all things hold together. He
is the one who is the head of the body, the church. He is the
one who has first place in everything. He is the one in whom all the
fullness of deity dwells. Verse 19, He is the one through
whom all things are being reconciled to the Father. He is the one
who is in you the hope of glory. How could we preach anything
else? Jesus Christ is the grand subject of the believer’s proclamation. And my only curiosity is why
do we spend so much time talking about things other than Christ,
especially to people who do not know the Savior? We’re not called to wrangle over
our opinions about things that do not matter. We’re not called
to tell amusing and entertaining stories. We’re not called to
testify as experts on worldly wisdom. We’re not to offer up
the fleeting comfort of human poetry. We should not traffic
in exchanging intriguing anecdotes. Our God-given responsibility
is to tell people about Jesus Christ and the salvation that
is available only through him. We’re a funny people. No sooner
do we find out what we are supposed to do, we always want to know
how. We immediately begin to think
of technique. And that’s exactly what Paul
moves to provide here in the next phrases. The how, the method
involved in our proclamation. And so Paul says first, He gives
us first the subject of our proclamation. It’s none other than the Lord
Jesus Christ. And then he gives us the method
of our proclamation. Would you glance at the verse
again? We proclaim him admonishing every man and teaching every
man with all wisdom. Paul, as you just heard, uses
two primary words here, admonishing and teaching. And this lays out
the technique, if you will, of proclamation. How do we go about
it? Simple. Both for Paul and his team, as
well as for us. These two words are related and
they should be considered as a team. But let’s learn about
them individually first. The word translated as admonish
here is just such a cool word. Nutheteo. And it’s more than possible that
some of you are at least familiar with that word. It’s a compound
word comprised of nous, the mind, and tithami, to place, to place
into the mind. And so placing into the mind
could be translated as warning, or placing into the mind a caution,
or placing into the mind some admonition, It’s a very flexible
word that can be used to warn the wayward or to rebuke the
lazy or even to come alongside and comfort the discouraged.
We place into the mind words, tidbits, passages of scripture. Now sometime back in the 80s,
and yes, I remember it, J. Adams wrote a book, Competent
to Counsel. Some of you may have interacted
with that book. And the title of that book was
essentially built off of this word, nithitao. You see, Adams
took a popular translation of Romans 15, 14, which says, you
are all competent to counsel. And his argument was that as
believers, Not as super-trained counselors that spent years in
seminary training toward that end, but as the average believer,
a Christian who walks with the Lord, they are competent to counsel. That’s his argument. His argument
was that as believers indwelt by God’s Spirit, skilled in God’s
Word, we ought to be competent to counsel one another through
life’s problems. Here’s how he said it. New thetic
activity, placing into the mind God’s Word, is a work in which
all of God’s people may participate. Did you know that? Did you know
that you are a God-trained counselor? If you have the Spirit of God
and the Word of God, you can be used in the people of God’s
lives. Newthetic activity is a work
in which all of God’s people may participate. It particularly
characterizes the work of the ministry. And I’ve already told
you, you’re in the ministry. We shouldn’t need a trained psychologist
to navigate our spiritual challenges in this life. We have our fellow
believers who have access to God’s word and God’s spirit. Well, from that, that little
book, Competent to Counsel, developed a significant ministry, a ministry
movement of the church called New Thetic counseling, to place
into the mind portions of God’s word in order to encourage or
admonish or correct. All that to say this word, New
Thetao, speaks of warning, exhorting, admonition. Well, one Puritan
called the prescribed diet for a diseased soul. We all have
the disease. We’re all less than perfect,
and we all have need of correction and encouragement from God’s
Word. That’s where our brothers and sisters in Christ come in.
One godly pastor described admonition this way, encouraging counsel
in view of sin and coming punishment. If you see a person headed for
disaster, the most loving thing that you can do is come alongside
them and practice nutheteo, placing into the mind of your dear brother
and friend. It’s a word that only Paul uses
in the New Testament. Fascinating little detail. It’s
quoted of him once in Acts 20, and then a half a dozen other
times he personally uses it. Allow me to give you the flavor
of Paul’s use. In Acts 20, 2031, Luke here quotes Paul, and Paul
tells the Ephesian elders there, I did not cease to admonish,
place into your mind each one of you with tears. And so there’s
a gentleness to this counsel. It’s not heavy-handed. It’s not
harsh. It’s not overbearing. The verse
I mentioned a moment ago from which J. Adams drew his argument
for new thetic counseling, Romans 15, 14. Listen to this. You yourselves
are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able
to admonish one another. You’re competent to counsel.
Writing his first letter to the Corinthians, He tells them that
he was writing to admonish them as his beloved children. There’s
that gentleness aspect again. In our letter to the Colossians,
letter we’re currently studying, Paul uses the word twice. We
looked at one already in 128, but he uses it again in 316. Encouraging the believers there
to admonish one another. He uses the word three times
in his letters to the Thessalonians. In the first letter to them,
it’s translated there as instruction. We need to do that from time
to time with our fellow believers, don’t we? We need to come alongside,
either formally or informally, and instruct them in the ways
of God, in the things of God. In 514 of 1 Thessalonians, he
urges them to admonish the unruly, those that get off track, those
that get out of line. We need to admonish them, lead
with them, place into the mind biblical principles that pull
them back onto the path of righteousness. Well, in his second letter regarding
the wayward believer, he urges them not to regard him as an
enemy. There’s that gentleness. again,
but to admonish him as a brother. Brother, what you’re doing is
sinful. Anytime I butt up against this
idea of confronting a brother, I always share Richard Baxter. I’ve never even had to write
this down and set my mind to memorizing this quote. He just
said it this way. Pretend not to love them if you
hate not their sin and seek not their salvation. Sin takes people
to hell. The most loving thing that we
can do for our brother is to come alongside and to point out
from the Word of God, what you’re doing is sin. You need to turn
from this, brother. So this word speaks of a tender
but firm caution, such as believers provide their fellow believers
all the time. And this, Paul says, is how we
are to proclaim the good news of Christ. Our message has eternal
ramifications. So all the more our proclamation
should be at the same time both urgent and gentle So that’s the
word admonition, the second word, much more familiar to us. It’s
the simple word, teaching. Now this word is used almost
100 times in the New Testament, and let’s go through each one
of them, should we? I’m kidding. used almost a hundred
times in the New Testament, and it just refers to the less passionate,
more formal instruction of believers, most of which is just reminders,
just constantly reminding of one another of the truths of
God’s Word. Teaching just refers to imparting truth to others
who are in need of such instruction. And both of these words, admonition
and teaching, Paul says, are to be done in wisdom. And we
don’t do it the same way every time. We don’t approach every
person the same way. And this suggests carefully assessing
each opportunity, each individual, to determine what might be the
best possible approach. What is the course that is most
likely going to produce the desired result? Do I open up and climb
down this individual’s throat? Do I sit down, come alongside
him as a brother, and plead with him gently? What approach do
we take? What kind of tact is needed for
this situation? What precautions must be taken?
When Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, Paul laid out a plan for this
kind of effort, wise effort. In 514, he told them to admonish
the unruly. Sometimes people just need to
be sternly corrected. Admonish the unruly, encourage
the fainthearted. Sometimes people just need to
be picked up a little bit, encouraged. Admonish the unruly, encourage
the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone. That’s
wisdom. It takes wisdom to know how to
navigate that. We can’t treat every unique person
and every varied situation in exactly the same way. And so
much wisdom is needed to evaluate the best approach. Now listen
to this. When you put both of those words
together, basically you have a recipe for the Christian ministry.
It can be distilled down that simply. Admonishing and teaching. Because admonition corresponds
with a call to repentance, doesn’t it? And teaching corresponds
with building up one another in the faith. Admonition is the
initial communication, teaching follows. Admonition stirs the
soul to repentance, teaching grounds the new believer in the
truths of God’s word, repentance and faith. That’s the Christian
ministry. It doesn’t get much simpler than
that. Both are necessary elements of the Christian life. And the
interesting thing about Paul is that at almost any point in
his recorded life, he’s doing either one or the other. Repentance,
calling people to repentance by admonition, or instructing
believers in the faith, teaching. He’s doing one or the other. Paul provides us a third feature
in this greatest sermon that we ever would preach. The third
excellent feature of the message of ministry, not only the subject
of our proclamation, Christ, the method of our proclamation,
admonishing and teaching, but third, the purpose of our proclamation. And if you keep this in the back
of your mind, this will serve as rocket fuel to your effort
in proclaiming Christ. If you look at the verse once
again, we proclaim him admonishing every man and teaching every
man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete
in Christ. That’s the goal. You may have
noticed a recurring phrase in this verse. It’s those words,
every man. It occurs three times in rapid
succession. Admonishing every man, teaching
every man, so that we may present every man. And it isn’t a male,
female thing here. Every single believer is what
is in Paul’s mind. The word occurs three times and
the third occurs in this last line and that is what connects
this final line with the previous two. Admonishing every man, teaching
every man so that we may present every man. Those portions of
the sentence belong together. The repetition here is for emphasis. And the reason that Paul admonished
every man and taught every man is that he hoped to do his part
in making ready every man for presentation before God. What
an incredibly difficult calling. Throughout history, mankind,
unfortunately, has sought to impose exclusivity with regards
to God’s salvation. That it’s for this, but not that
people. It’s for this, but not that color
or nationality. It’s for those of this background,
but not that background. It’s for this, but not that language.
It’s for those of this social strata, but not those of that
one. It’s for those of this particular
adherence, but not those adherence. The gospel. The good news of
Christ’s salvation was not intended for any one particular people. Paul told the Colossians at the
outset of this letter that the gospel, verse six, remember,
was bearing fruit and increasing in all the world. And it still
is. It was that saving message that
Paul expanded upon in verse 20, an expression of God’s desire
to reconcile all things to himself, every tribe and tongue and people
and nation. See, the message of redemption
in Christ was indeed for every man. Well, the third use of this
phrase Here at the end of verse 28, it expresses the purpose
of the proclamation of Christ. Why do we do this? If you will,
this final line gives us the why of our message. Paul says that there is a reason
we want to proclaim Christ, to carefully admonish and thoroughly
teach others. And the reason is that we desire
nothing more than to present them complete in Christ. This word presenting, we’ve seen
it before. We saw it in verse 22. And there it says that he,
that is Christ, has reconciled you in order to present you before
him holy and blameless beyond reproach. Christ is doing the
work of presenting. And the word refers to the same
thing here as it did there, a presentation before God as judge, a reminder that we will all stand
before the judgment seat of God. And the readiness of each and
every believer is Paul’s concern here. He wants everybody to be
as thoroughly prepared as they can be. Sometimes this presentation
is attributed to God, 2 Corinthians 4.14. He who raised the Lord
Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and will present us with
you. And it pictures God as readying
each and every believer in order to stand them before him one
day whole and complete, mature in Christ. Sometimes this presentation
is attributed to the son, as we saw earlier in Colossians. Also Ephesians 5.27, listen to
this, that he, Jesus Christ, might present to himself the
church in all her glory. What a beautiful image. Christ
dresses and readies his bride. He does her hair and makeup and
jewelry and all of those things. He readies his bride to present
before himself. What an incredible image. But
everyone is working towards the same goal. God is doing it, Christ
is doing it, and Paul says that we too are doing it. To present
every believer complete in Christ, The word here for completeness
is often translated perfect. Can’t you wait to be perfect?
Can’t you wives wait to your husbands are perfect? This isn’t in any way referring
to moral perfection that could somehow be achieved here on earth. It just speaks of maturity in
Christ. seasoned, taught, experienced,
fully grown. It’s the correction that is urged
by the admonition and the application of the teaching that Paul speaks
of that ultimately leads to the completion in Christ. So this
is essentially the same admonition that Paul gives to the believers
in Corinth, 1 Corinthians 14 20. Brethren, do not be children
in your thinking. Don’t run around acting like
a bunch of schoolyard kids. Yet be in evil, be infants. Don’t even picture a child who’s
not even able to articulate the gross sins that are possible. Do not be children in your thinking,
but in your thinking be mature, perfect, complete, as James 1.14
has it, perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. Well, we tend to think of ministry
as assigned to only a select few, don’t we? Scripture makes
it clear. that in various measure, we are
all called to proclaim Christ. We are all called to admonish
one another, and in various degrees, we are all called to teach one
another. In a very real way, we are to
be involved in the maturation process of our fellow believers,
all of us. In closing, I’d like you to turn
to Ephesians chapter 4. And I want you to listen to Paul’s
exhortation there in Ephesians 4. Once you get to Ephesians
4, just back one book, two books. In Ephesians 4, Paul is calling
the believers there to maturity in Christ. Remember, Colossians
is the parallel epistle to Ephesians. We’re not surprised to see this
same admonition. But in much more detail here,
scroll down to verse 14, if you would. As a result, we are no
longer to be children tossed here and there by waves carried
about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness
and deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love,
we are to grow up in all aspects into him who is the head, even
Christ, from whom the whole body being fitted and held together
by that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working
of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the
building up of itself in love. I just want to point out something
there. Paul says, there in verse 16, the whole body causes the
growth of the body. Every individual believer contributes
to the Christ-likeness of the individual believers. That’s
the purpose of our proclamation. That’s why we admonish our brothers. That’s why we teach them. that
we too want to be able to say that we have done everything
in our power to present every person complete in Christ. What a great sermon. That’s the
greatest sermon because it’s a sermon about Christ. Let’s
humble ourselves before him.