Presenting Everyone Mature in Christ (Part 3 of 4)

Music playing in the background The Bible.

But why do they do it? What is the desired outcome? Today on Truth for Life, Alistair Beggs says the answer is found in the apostle Paul's letter to the Colossians. He's titled today's message, Presenting Everyone Mature in Christ. Well, can I invite you to turn again to Colossians chapter 1, and to verses 28 and 29? I should probably acknowledge something, and that is that there is a great danger in doing what I've done. That is, just taking two verses out of a letter like this and essentially using them in order to make sure that we drive home at least the point of these verses.

I would suggest to you that I wouldn't necessarily do it with such freedom in a different context. I would feel that it would be important to set it far more within the wider framework of what's going on in the background of Colossae, so that the things that we've focused on in a kind of microscopic way will then be understood better as a result of bringing the camera back further with a far wider lens. We spent the whole time on this question of what is it that we do, and the answer that we discovered is very straightforward, along with the apostles' hymn we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone, and we need all of the wisdom of God to do it. So, what is it that we're doing? Here we go.

We've said that. Now, why are we doing this? What is our goal?

Here, then, is our aim or our goal. Hymn we proclaim, that we may present, that we may… That is a purpose clause. So Paul is making it perfectly clear that the teaching and the proclamation and the presentation of Christ are not ends in themselves, so that our goal in setting forward the Scriptures is the holiness and the unreserved obedience to God of every believer, starting with the believer who's teaching the Bible. Paul's readers are already in Christ. They have heard, and they have understood the gospel.

And the work of sanctification has already begun in them. And what we're discovering here is that it is the privilege of the undershepherds of the Lord Jesus to be part of their progress to maturity. Now, this comes across most memorably, I think, when Paul writes to the Ephesians and when he says, Here are the gifts of the ascended Christ that he has poured out upon the church. And he has given, along with that, shepherds and teachers.

And then you remember how important that role is. Let me just quote it from verse 12 for a part. To equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God—now, here—to mature manhood, to maturity, him we proclaim, presenting everyone mature, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves, carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and in deceitful schemes, and so on.

The fact that these letters were probably written within the time frame explains to us why it would be that many of the same thoughts would be in Paul's mind as he writes. So, this, you will notice, is the goal for all, not just for some. We are warning everyone, we are teaching everyone, we are seeking to present everyone.

Now, we shouldn't just overlook that too quickly. The everyone is there by way of emphasis. Says Dick Lucas, it is evidently intended to rule out any idea of a church within a church. And if you know the Colossian issue, then you realize that that was one of the great temptations. It rules out the kind of false exclusiveness, which is represented in the kind of elitist mentality which can so quickly become prevalent within a church. And it happens in all kinds of ways.

I'm not going to deviate from course and illustrate it from my own history here. But the way it creeps into the churches, you will find that somebody decides that the way in which prayer is happening is not really the proper way to pray. So we're going to have to have another kind of prayer—the real prayer, because they read a book by Mr. Reynolds, and he knows all about it. Or we're not really experiencing God as we should be experiencing God. And the elders are clearly not experiencing God, and Mr. Reynolds has also written a book on the true nature of the experiencing of God, and so we've taken it upon ourselves to have a class not for the run-of-the-mill church but for the crack troops of the church who really want to experience God.

All right? And it is a subtle thing. And what Paul is saying here is, this progress of discipleship, of knowing more of Christ, of going on to maturity, is not special knowledge for a favored few. It is that which is for everyone. It is in direct contrast to the idea of some kind of exclusivity. And what he is really saying to these people is something quite wonderful.

He is going to reinforce for them all that is theirs in Christ. I thought about this, because years ago, when I saw my first American football game, it was in bushy in heart, for sure, between some group and the United States Air Force. And I can't remember who it was, but just the one team was giving the other team an unbelievable pounding, just destroying them. It goes up, what, seven points a time, doesn't it? Seven, fourteen, twenty-one. After that, I get stuck. But they had the cheerleaders, and the cheerleaders with those pom-poms were saying—they kept saying, You can do it. You can do it. You can. You can.

The problem was they couldn't. But in this case, Paul is actually saying, You can do it. You can do it. You can. You can.

Why? Because of all that is yours in Christ. And so what he establishes as a pattern here, which falls to us in pastoral ministry, is the privilege and responsibility of motivating believers to grow. To grow. Oh, you say, but wait a minute. Doesn't 1 Corinthians 3 make it perfectly clear that while one plants and another waters, that only God makes things grow? Yes. That's why we are reminding ourselves that our responsibility is not to make them grow but it is to motivate them to grow.

So how does this take place? Well, in actual fact, the answer is in the previous phrase—"him we proclaim"—so that we could have started, actually, with the goal and asked ourselves the question, If the goal is the maturity of every believer, how will we achieve that goal? And then we would go back to the beginning of it, and we would say, Well, clearly, the answer is, in making the Word of God fully known, thereby presenting Jesus, so as to make the people of God fully mature. Now, this matter, of course, is of such crucial importance that we daren't get it wrong. Motivating people to grow I don't think is necessarily easy. And when we get frustrated by the apparent immaturity of some who are under our care, the temptation is that we default to whatever our personality is. So if it is the sort of the personality of the constant exhorter, you know, Come on! And then next Sunday, Come on! The people are like, Why is he saying that?

It doesn't do anything at all. Now, some of you have green fingers, and I don't. But this past autumn, I thought it would be nice to make a contribution, since my wife is so painstaking in her commitment to beauty in all matters horticulture. So I got ahold of nine hundred daffodil bulbs. Nine hundred!

And one of those things that you stand on, which has you put the bulb in and then you do that. Which seemed like a great idea, for about the first eleven. But there were nine hundred of them! And I did it!

I did it! And then it was November, and then it was December, and then it was January. And I would get up in the morning, I'd look, I'd say, I wonder if they're anywhere. I said, Maybe I should dig down, see how they're doing.

It's not a good idea. And then eventually, a few weeks ago, one, maybe two. But I planted nine hundred! Even my wife was saying, Are you sure you planted those nine hundred? So I decided, I'll go out, and I heard about the horse whisperer. And so I said, I could be the daffodil whisperer. So I said, Come on! Nothing! So I just started shouting at them, Grow, you miserable bulbs!

Grow! You're making me look like a fool! Then I said to myself, I know where that song came from.

That wasn't a war protest song. That was the frustration of a weekend gardener. Where have all the flowers gone?

Long time passing! Where have they gone? Now, you get the point perfectly, don't you? You look out in your congregation. You've been here for a year. You think they should be spiritual giants. Now you've been here for five, for ten.

If you looked at yourself, you realize you're not doing that well either. But nevertheless, the temptation is to say, Grow! So what it becomes is actually a chronicle of despair. And the more our apparent frustration emerges, the more dispirited those under our care become. Now, in our previous address, we saw that in proclaiming Christ it involved both negative as well as positive, right? So that it did involve admonishing and warning. To give warning is an expression of Christian realism. It is to deal with things as they really are.

We saw that. And some of us have to be careful that our desire for the privilege of warning does not suddenly morph itself in to a bad tendency of forever rebuking our flock about their failures and continually telling them what they ought to be and ought to do. And most of us, I think, would agree that we see our own sins most clearly in other people. And we can subtly, somehow or another, vicariously bypass the work of the Spirit of God convicting our own hearts by simply projecting onto those under our care the need for that which is the need in our own hearts—to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Charles Warr, who was one time the minister in St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh, tells how his ministry was, quote, "...helped beyond words," when he was at another church in the west of Scotland in St. Paul's Greenock.

Any of you who are in the American Navy will know where Greenock is. One day, and I quote, Mr. Arthur Caird looked in to see me. This is Pastor Warr speaking now. He looked in to see me. He was always perfectly groomed and, as everyone said of him, just as nice as he looked. After some desultory conversation, he ran his hand over his silver hair, turned on me his kindly eyes that always had a twinkle in them, and delivered himself of some encouraging and heartwarming words about my first year of ministry at St. Paul. Then he paused, and after a short sentence went on, Yes, everything in the garden's lovely. Or nearly lovely. I waited, now a little anxious. Arthur Caird rose and came over to me and laid a fatherly hand on my shoulder. My boy, he said, the garden's still waiting for the blossoming of one flower, without which the garden of no minister can be perfect.

Another pause. I know we're not everything we ought to be. And no doubt we need a lot of scolding. But we'd all be a great deal better than we are, if only you would try sometimes, instead of lecturing us, to show us that you love us. Charles Warr records, These words were a turning point in my ministry. Now, I confess to you, brothers, that it's very hard for me to give you that quote. It's hard to read it without regret.

Failures in this respect. Even now, I know I need to be better. Even now, I want to be better.

Yesterday's dead and gone, and tomorrow's out of sight. This is it. Actually, I want to be like Claudio Ranieri. Hands up, all those who know who Claudio Ranieri is. One intelligent person? Two? Three? Any on this side?

A four and a five? Wonderful. Oh, the hands are going up everywhere.

It's like a full-blown Billy Graham crusade here right now. Fantastic. Claudio Ranieri was the man who led Leicester City to the championship of the English Premier League two seasons ago.

The odds of Leicester City winning were 5,000 to 1. It was a truly remarkable thing, probably never to be repeated in that kind of way. And I watched him always, and I was intrigued by him. His demeanor—I wanted to meet him so desperately. I wanted to say, Oh, I like you.

I wish I could be like you. And then I read this article by one of the journalists, and the journalist said, Here is Claudio Ranieri. Passion without volume. Enthusiasm without bluster. Coziness without overbearance. Kindness without familiarity. Wonderful characteristics. He used to say, when they lost, he said, It's football.

It's football. Similar to Paul. You say, Well, Claudio, I suppose, but Paul in 1 Corinthians 4, I don't write these things to make you ashamed but to admonish you as my beloved children. See, the best way for us to motivate our flock to grow is simply by reminding them of all the things that are theirs in Christ. That's why in verse 27, which we've largely ignored, he is pointing out what a wonder it is that the Gentiles—which is this great mystery hidden from before, to which he refers in Ephesians 2—that the Gentiles, that out of these two, God has made one new man. And the Gentiles have become beneficiaries of the riches of glory, which, he says, is Christ in you. Christ in you. I've said to you, I'm helped always by songs, and as I thought about that, a song from, I think, the sixties came to mind. It wasn't a great lyric. But I was singing it to myself as I reflected, I am a new creation, no more in condemnation.

Here in the grace of God I stand. Now, our people need to know that, because they come in. We preach every week to men and women's lives who are largely marked by quiet desperation.

No matter what the superficial smiles and cheers are, no matter all the ups that are present in the group, the fact is, if we have opportunity just to pare back the onion just a little bit, we discover that. And so, what does it mean, then, to motivate them in this way? Well, it's ultimately, now, the work of the Spirit of God through the Word of God through the servant of God. And as the Word of God is proclaimed—verse 25 again—I became a minister according to the stewardship from God.

He gave it to me to do what? To present my own opinions. No, to let people know how funny I am, how bright I am. No, to make the Word of God fully known. And as the Word of God is made fully known, then the Spirit of God is at work. Is at work like a sculptor on our lives, chipping away at us so as to conform us to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, within our congregation, we say, Well, what in the world is God doing with us?

In a phrase, he is making you like your elder brother. He is making you like the Lord Jesus. And he is using his Word to achieve that end. And so, when he comes to chip things away, it is not to harm, but it is in order to fashion us. Though, as he predestined, he also called to be conformed to the image of his Son. That's his purpose from all of eternity. Says Paul in 2 Corinthians 3, we are being transformed into his image, says John in 1 John 3, and when we see him, we will be like him. So he not only sculpts us, but he also molds us, applying the truth of God's Word to the varied circumstances of our lives. And of course, we know that no matter how well we know our congregation, we could never know the details of their lives. How could we ever make application? People ask all the time, Well, how are you going to apply this?

Well, we seek to apply it as best we can. But isn't the mystery when people come to us and say, you know, I heard this or I heard that? And you find yourself saying, I don't think I ever said that. How did they hear that? Well, the great mystery of the work of the Spirit bringing home the Word of God. You're listening to Truth for Life. Today's message from Alistair Begg is called Presenting Everyone, Mature in Christ. And you could probably tell from today's presentation, Alistair was speaking to a gathering of pastors and church leaders. We deliberately chose to share this message along with the entire series called The Pastors Study, because whether you're engaged in church leadership or not, local churches are strengthened when all of us take these verses from Colossians seriously. There's another reason we chose to share The Pastors Study series.

It's because October is Pastor Appreciation Month. And with that in mind, we have highlighted a book that Alistair has co-written with his mentor and friend, the late Derek Prime. The book is called On Being a Pastor. It's a comprehensive book on leading a local church family.

It's rich with practical wisdom from two seasoned shepherds. If you'd like to buy a copy for your pastor, go to truthforlife.org slash store. This series called The Pastors Study is in perfect alignment with our mission at Truth for Life, which is to teach the Bible with clarity and relevance in part so that local churches are strengthened. And if you're able to make a donation to support the work of Truth for Life right now, we'd like to offer a wonderful documentary as a thank-you gift. It's a DVD called Puritan, All of Life to the Glory of God. You've often heard Alistair quoting people like Thomas Watson or John Owen, John Bunyan, in his sermons.

Maybe you've wondered, who are these people? Well, this new documentary provides the perfect introduction to the Puritans, and it demonstrates their unshakable devotion to the truth of God's Word. To give a donation and request a copy of the DVD, call 888-588-7884, or give a donation through our mobile app or by going to our website truthforlife.org. This is actually a set of two DVDs. One contains the main documentary, and then there are special features on the other disc as well. There's also a link provided with the DVD set if you'd prefer to stream the documentary. I'm Bob Lapine. Tomorrow, Alistair concludes our series, The Pastor's Study, with additional instruction on what it means to present everyone mature in Christ. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.