Introduction
There was a man approaching middle age whose life was very comfortable and he felt an emptiness inside, a longing for something more. So he decided to join a monastery.
The Abbot told him that the road ahead was going to be very difficult. He would have to give up all his earthly possessions, all comforts, pray all day and remain totally silent. He was only allowed to say two words every five years.
Five years go by and the Pope comes to visit. “How’s it going?” he says and the man replies, “Bed hard.” So the Pope says, “Terribly sorry, we didn’t know. I’ll ask the Abbot to find you a mattrass from the charity shop.”
Five years later the Pope comes back again. “How are you my son, is everything OK now?” The man replies, “Food cold.” So the Pope says, “Ah, I do apologise, I’ll see to it personally that your porridge is at least lukewarm in future.”
Five more years pass by and the Pope comes back a third time. “Is everything well now?” The man says, “I quit.” So the Pope says, “Well of course you quit, I’m not surprised. You’ve been here 15 years and all you’ve done is complain!”
It may surprise you to hear this, but suffering and hardship and struggle are actually standard components of the Christian life.
Jesus promised his disciples they would have big trouble in this world. But he also promised that nothing and no one would take away their joy and that that his joy would be in them, and that this joy would be full.
And these two things, relentless opposition and invincible joy, are not contradictory.
Last week, Michael preached on the first part of Colossians 1 which outlines in stunning and sparkling clarity the reign and command and authority and sovereignty of Christ over all things.
It is one of the mountain peaks of the New Testament and the view it gives us of Christ’s supremacy is simply breathtaking.
But the verses immediately following, which we will look at today, bring us down with a bump.
Here’s what it says.
Now I [underline this word] rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness – the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles [that is all the nations of the world] the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
He is the one we proclaim,
admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present
everyone fully mature in Christ. To this end I strenuously contend with
all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.
I want you to know how hard I am contending for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me personally. My goal 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, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments. For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit and [note this word after all his talk of suffering, affliction and sweaty hard work] delight to see how disciplined you are and how firm your faith in Christ is.
Prayer…
Afflictions Are Included
The great 20th Century preacher Martyn Lloyd-Jones once said, “There is no grosser or greater misrepresentation of the Christian message than that which depicts it as offering a life of ease with no battle and struggle at all... sooner or later every believer discovers that the Christian life is a battleground, not a playground.”
Smith Wigglesworth, the illiterate plumber from Bradford who became an apostolic leader with extraordinary faith, and a ministry of amazing signs and wonders, including reportedly raising 14 people from the dead, put it this way: “Great faith comes only from great fights, great testimonies from great tests, and great triumphs only from great trials.”
He had a remarkable way with words for someone who couldn’t read or write.
I’m a bit of a grumbler at times. I confess that I like a good moan. I know, to my shame, that if I spent as much time praying as I do grumbling, before long there would be nothing left to grumble about. I know that, but still I do it. But complaining and griping are not appropriate responses to trials and troubles for Christians.
In fact, the Bible says, “Do everything without grumbling or arguing” because when you do so “you will [stand out and] shine among [your warped and crooked generation] like stars in the sky.
It’s saying there that people notice your positivity under pressure.
Evgenia Ginsburg was one of them; she was an atheist Jewish academic and for 18 years she was detained in a Siberian gulag.
In her autobiography Journey into the Whirlwind, she recalls a time when she had to work as a tree logger. One bitterly cold day (it was -10°C) she remembers a group of Christians requesting not to work but to spend the day in prayer because it was Easter Sunday.
They said to the soviet prison guards, “We will do overtime and complete today’s work tomorrow. Can we pray today?” Their request was refused, and they were prodded with rifle buts back into the forest to continue their work.
But when they got there, they quietly put down their axes and sat down together to pray. When they were seen doing this, they were beaten up and dragged out onto a frozen lake, made to take their shoes and socks off, and stand on the ice barefoot.
And Evgenia Ginsburg, this atheist intellectual, was deeply moved and affected by what she witnessed. She marvelled at how these believers stood there barefoot but dignified on the ice, heads bowed in prayer.
After a while, all the other prisoners begged the guards through tears to stop this cruelty because it went on for hours and they genuinely wondered if anyone could survive it.
But then Ginzburg reflected on the remarkable fact that nobody, not one, who had stood for so long on that ice became sick.
None complained. They counted themselves blessed to be able to celebrate Christ’s resurrection together. It’s a memory that never left her.
That’s an extreme case, but as we’re going to see this morning, the normal, appropriate Christian response to hardship and adversity, wherever we live, whoever we are, is joy and delight, not complaining and grumbling.
As we move from chapter 1 into chapter 2 of Colossians, in just a few verses, Paul mentions suffering, afflictions, strenuously contending and hard struggle.
But the passage begins with Paul saying he rejoices because of it and it ends with him talking about his delight in spite of it.
We’ll delve into all that in a minute, but first we need to get to grips with probably the hardest thing to understand in the whole letter. Maybe it jarred a bit for you when I read it just now.
It’s in v24 where Paul says, “I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church.”
What on earth is that about? How can there be anything lacking in Christ’s afflictions?
Jesus’ death, his unique giving of himself on the cross, made a full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice, offering and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world” as the Anglican Book of Common Prayer puts it.
How can there possibly be anything still lacking? What does this even mean?
The answer is that Christ’s suffering for sin on the cross is indeed complete. He himself said from the cross, “It is finished.”
Hebrews 10 explains that Christ’s death is once for all. It is all over. It is complete and all-sufficient to cleanse us thoroughly and comprehensively from every foul stain of sin and perfect us forever.
So Paul is not talking about Christ’s redemptive sufferings then, he’s talking about Christ’s ongoing afflictions now. Did you know that Christ still suffers today?
One of the things I found remarkable when witnessing our four children being born is that the extreme physical pain Kathie endured seemed to completely vanish as soon as the baby was in her arms.
It actually made me a little bit suspicious that she had suffered any pain at all. Wait a minute… What if she was just putting it on? Like a footballer rolling around, feigning injury to deceive the referee into awarding a penalty...
All I can say is I very much regret sharing that theory with Kathie before hastily retracting every word!
But here’s the thing; though the labour pains are now over and forgotten as soon as the baby is born, the glorious new era of dirty nappies, colic, sore nipples, endless crying, sleepless nights, projectile vomiting and all the rest was just beginning!
Likewise, Christ’s once-for-all suffering is over. Through it we are born again through faith. Oh, happy day, when Jesus washed my sins away!
But whenever the church is attacked and afflicted, Christ is too.
That’s why when Saul was converted on the Damascus Road Jesus said, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” Saul was actually persecuting Christians, but whenever anyone does that, Jesus says, “it’s not you they’re rejecting, it’s me.”
I wonder if you’ve ever thought of it that way before?
So what it’s saying here in v24 is this; Christ still suffers affliction now whenever his church is rejected and attacked (as Jesus said it would be). And Paul says, “I’m happy to share in these afflictions because they actually make the church stronger, not weaker.
Like in Acts 5 when the apostles are given a beating for preaching Christ, having been ordered not to, and they come out rejoicing for being counted worthy of suffering disgrace for his name.
James makes a similar point. “Consider it pure joy, [not drudgery, not misery, not misfortune] my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.”
All I could say was, “My sweet darling Anna, it won’t always feel like this.” And, though she couldn’t understand, I knew that chicken pox was actually a blessing to be thankful for, because all the while it was giving her immunity.
Marks of True Leaders
I read a news report this month about a pastor in Missouri who had to apologise to his congregation after throwing a tantrum and insulting them from his pulpit. He was upset because they had not honoured him with a luxury watch.
By contrast, if we were to examine the Apostle Paul’s body, on the evidence of 2 Corinthians 10, we’d see traces on his wrists and ankles from iron shackles, we’d find marks from severe floggings, we’d uncover a back that had been subjected to 39 lashes on 5 separate occasions, (that’s 195 scars), we’d find bruises from being beaten with sticks, evidence of stoning and a face that cannot mask a life of frequent sleepless nights, constant danger and daily pressures.
No wonder, at his conversion, God said, “This man is my chosen instrument… I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”
Yes, but why did Paul say, “I rejoice in my sufferings”? Was it some kind of weird, ascetic masochism?
In the Middle Ages people used to wear shirts of rough animal hair to irritate the skin. At the time of the plague, bizarrely, people used to whip themselves as an expression of piety.
People subjected themselves to the pointless misery of climbing stairs on their knees in the hope of making themselves worthy.
This is not that. It's not about joining a monastery and only being able to say two words every five years.
Paul tells us in this passage why he was so willing to work hard, sweat blood, pour out his life, and share in Christ’s afflictions. It was his passion, under God, to work with all his might to build mature, solid, strong and resilient churches.
Have confidence in leaders who are conscious of God’s call on them to pour out their lives to shepherd God’s people and build up the church. Avoid those who always seem to gravitate to a life of comfort and ease.
Paul never tired of labouring to make the church healthier and stronger. That’s the benchmark for church leadership.
In v25 he talks about the commission God gave him to present the word of God in its fullness.
It wasn’t a career move he just decided on one day; “I know; I’ll go into the ministry to add a little bit more religion to people’s lives.” No, God called him and appointed him.
In v28 he talks about proclaiming, admonishing [that means warning] and teaching everyone with all wisdom, with the aim of presenting everyone fully mature in Christ.
And we need admonishments by the way. Practically everything you buy seems to carry some kind of warning and some are a bit silly. For example:
Sainsbury’s peanuts: ‘Warning – Contains nuts’. Nytol Night Time Sleep-Aid: ‘Warning – May cause drowsiness’. On a household DIY drill: ‘Not intended for use as dentist drill.’
Aren’t you glad they told you that? But because so many warnings seem ridiculous to us, we sometimes feel like ignoring all of them.
Like a survivor flagging down cars on a foggy day that are heading towards an accident, the Bible often warns us of dangers because is more loving to tell us the truth even if we don’t want to listen.
Good leaders are not afraid to tell you what you don’t want to hear even if it makes them unpopular.
In v2-3 Paul talks about his goal to see a church encouraged in heart and united in love, with understanding, knowing Christ, where treasures of wisdom and knowledge are found.
The church is God’s Plan A for blessing and bringing salvation to the world. There isn’t a Plan B.
When a church is doing well, when lost people are getting saved, and broken people are being healed, and lonely and excluded people are finding community and God is in the midst of it, it’s a thing of unparalleled beauty.
That’s why it was Paul’s ambition to give everything he had to see his churches flourish.
And he says in v4 that a church which is robust and discipled and well-taught and stable won’t get taken in by fine sounding arguments, smooth talk, which might sound nice enough, they might even be set to a pretty tune, but bad teaching will only make the church sick before eventually killing it.
Fine-sounding arguments; there are new ones in every generation. The very first was in the Garden of Eden when Eve was asked, “Did God really say?”
There are plenty of 21st Century ones; and you can get into big trouble for opposing some of them. It’s my right to choose. Love is love. My identity is who I say I am, not who everyone can see I am. All religions have the same God, they perceive him in different ways. There are many more.
Tragically, boarded up churches up and down the land are the legacy of fine-sounding arguments replacing God’s word in the pulpit as well as the pews.
But Paul says, “No, I want you to know Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”
Ending
As I end, I want to say that I’m conscious that I’ve spoken about levels of suffering today that are way beyond what we are likely to have to go through here.
It reminds me a bit of what the former Bishop of Durham Tom Wright once observed. “Wherever Saint Paul went, there was a riot” he said. “Wherever I go, they serve me tea.”
We do not suffer like our brothers and sisters in North Korea or Nigeria do. But I do want to say that we are all called to be courageous and steadfast and immoveable from the gospel in whatever circumstances God puts us in.
Remember, our afflictions are absolutely not in contradiction to Christ’s supremacy over all things. He is sovereign. He does and will work everything together for good for you if you love God, and are called according to his purpose.
Do you need to tighten your grip on that truth today?
Remember, by cheerfully bearing hardship, instead of grumbling and complaining about our lot, we bring glory to God and stand out like stars in the night sky.
Do you need to receive more grace today and a new anointing of joy for when life gets really hard?
And remember, the local church is the hope of the world. It was Paul’s goal to pour out his life for a flourishing church and he did it joyfully. He said he strenuously contended for it with all the energy Christ so powerfully worked in him.
Do you need to renew your commitment to God’s great Plan A for the salvation of the world today? Do you need some of that same power at work in you?
Let’s stand to pray…
Sermon preached at King's Church Darlington, 25 September 2022
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