The Cross Marks the Minister, Part 1 | Christ, His Cross, His Church

Colossians 1:24-29

 For my final session, I’d like you to turn to Colossians 1 and verse 24. Colossians 1, verse 24 and following. We’re going to see how we can identify a true minister of the gospel. How to discern the marks of the cross on a gospel minister. The message of Christ and him crucified is the power of God. It is the wisdom of God. And that power of God is real. It changes a person from the inside out.

 Anyone in Christ is a new creation, right? The wisdom of God is effectual. It instructs the mind. It feeds new affections, new desires, because there’s a new nature, and that new nature needs food, and that food is the word of God. It’s the message of the cross, the word of the cross. And that wisdom feeds those new affections, feeds those new desires, informs the will, and sets the life in an entirely new direction.

 So can you see the evidence of the power of God and the wisdom of God in a church, in its people, and most notably in its ministers? I’m not talking about what the world can see and know, things that the world can discern. We’re not really concerned with what the world, how the world judges us.

 The natural man does not accept the things of the spirit of God. First Corinthians 2:14, “But they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they’re spiritually discerned.” So, we understand when the world doesn’t get us. “The reason why the world does not know us,” 1 John 3:1, “is that the world did not know him.” So, if they got him wrong, well, then they’re going to get us wrong, too.

 So, when I’m talking about the ability to see, and detect the evidences of the power of God, and the wisdom of God in a church, and its people, and its ministers, I’m talking about spiritual people; being able to see and detect. Spiritual people, being able to discern true Christians. And they are to look for the marks of the cross in a church, in its people, and in its ministers because the cross leaves distinct marks on a people.

Used to be that you could tell good from bad by looking at a church’s doctrinal statement. But today, using copy and paste, really bad churches post decent doctrinal statements on their websites, but they don’t practice those doctrinal statements. They don’t live consistently with what the doctrine that they post on their websites proclaims. Just because a pastor moves consecutively through texts, it doesn’t mean that he has derived his points from the exegetical study of the text, or that he is governed by sound hermeneutical principles, or that he has followed the context and he is serving the author of scriptures points rather than making his own points.

 So when you look for a church, you’ve got to check the doctrinal statement. Yeah, that’s a start. You got to, you got to, find an expository ministry. True expository preaching drives the listener to the verdict that’s called for by the text and demands repentance and change. You got to find true gospel preaching, as Don taught us to look for last night. It’s a good doctrine, yeah, clear, biblical, penetrating preaching; that’s a must.

 As they say, soft preaching makes hard hearts, and hard preaching makes soft hearts. So we’re going to assume doctrinal theological, fidelity are prerequisites when looking for a sound church, sound minister’s gospel. Same thing goes for expository preaching. But are there other marks we should look for? Are there other things we should look for in a church? In its people? In its ministers?

Well, let’s look at the text, Colossians 1, and find out, starting in verse 24. Paul says this, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the Church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations, but now revealed to his saints.

“To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. To this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

“For I want you to know how great a struggle I have had for you, and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of” of, “full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

“I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ. Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the truth, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.”

 So much to see there. Obviously, so many truths that are worth emphasizing, and, clearly, we’re not going to be able to get to engage the text, as thoroughly as we might like to, in the conference format like this. But I do hope to draw out, from Paul’s example, a few ways that the cross marks the true minister of Christ. And my hope, my prayer is that you will be able to discern good ministers from bad ones. That you will be able to identify faithful shepherds and differentiate them from unfaithful ones.

 I’m praying that God will give you clarity, He’ll give you discernment, so that, you can put yourself, your family, your loved ones, your friends, people near and far; that you’ll be able to guide them to a shepherding ministry that is consistent with the word of the Cross; where it’s ministers bear the marks of the cross, in their life and ministry.

 And even more than that, beyond that, I, I, hope that you will pattern yourself and your ministry, your own ministry, after good ministers of the cross. That you will imitate them, just as they imitate Paul, who himself had imitated Christ, 1 Corinthians 11:1.

 So I’ve got five of these, five ways that the cross marks the minister. Here’s mark number one, mark number one: Suffering joyfully. Suffering joyfully. Look at verse 24, again. “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I’m filling up what’s lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is the church.”

 So, there it is, the first mark, suffering joyfully. Which means, we need to start by asking, does this minister that I’m observing, does he suffer at all or does he seem to have a pretty easy life as a pastor? Does he seem to get along with everybody? Does everyone say good things about him? Seems that the top qualification for many churches, that they have, for their pastor, is that he’s a nice guy, he’s non-offensive, he gets along with everyone; he’s winsome, handsome, well dressed, drives a good car, lives in a nice house in suburbia.

 But Jesus said, “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you,” Luke 6:26, “for so their fathers did the false prophets.” According to Jesus, if your church is all about hiring a nice guy to be the pastor, one who never has a conflict, one who never engages conflict, well, woe to him and woe to you. That is not a faithful qualification for a true minister of the gospel.

A good faithful minister, obviously is, he’s going to be kind, gentle, patient with all, that’s part of it. But because he preaches the truth, it’s going to get him in hot water with people who don’t love the truth. The more he looks like Christ, the more it’s going to get him crucified.

 A good faithful minister is known by the kind of friends he keeps, but also, and maybe even more clearly, it’s by the kinds of enemies who oppose him. I agree with the saying, A man who has no enemies has no honor. Why would a good minister of the gospel have enemies? Jesus says in John 15:18 and following, he said, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.

 “If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you’re not of the world, and I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me,’ guarantee it, ‘they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they’ll also keep yours.’”

 Paul lived that out, and because he stood firm, because he spoke clearly, because he spoke boldly about Christ and his cross, because he didn’t shy away from pressing the claims of Christ and the implications of the cross to people’s consciences, pushing them, pressing them, calling them to change, to think differently, to live differently, to live according to different priorities, well, he endured all kinds of suffering. He was misrepresented. He was slandered. He was maligned. He was mocked. Beyond the words, he was actually physically beaten. He was jailed, a number of times. He was stoned. He was imprisoned. Eventually he was beheaded. Before you can tell if a minister has suffered joyfully, you got to ask, has he’s suffered at all? Is there any suffering in his life because of his ministry?

Paul uses two different words here for suffering, pathema and thlipsis. Two words that really differentiate between two kinds of suffering. In the first, pathema is more subjective and internal. The second thlipsis is more objective and external; as like affliction, persecution. Paul experienced both of those. As per his resume in 2 Corinthians 11:23 and following, he summarizes quite an extensive list of objective suffering, external forms of physical affliction. He calls them labors, and imprisonments, and countless beatings.

Often, he was near death. “Five times I received forty lashes less one, three times beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times, shipwrecked; a night and day, adrift at sea on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, robbers, danger from my own people, danger from the Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers.”

 As I sit in my air-conditioned office and type up my sermon, I’m like, none of this is happening to me. It doesn’t matter how bad my day is, when I see that resume, I think am a true minister of the gospel. He says in toil and hardship through many a sleepless night. Okay, now there I’ve been. In hunger and in thirst, often without food, cold and exposure. That’s his record of external affliction, thlipsis.

And in verse 28 he turns to a more subjective internal form of suffering, which, and this does weigh heavily on the heart of every true pastor, he says, apart from the other things, apart from all that other stuff, that’s like, that he counts as less. There is the daily pressure on me, of my anxiety, for all the churches. Who is weak and I am not weak. Who is made to fall and I’m not indignant.

Every minister, especially as you go through cases of discipline in the church, you see people straying, erring, sinning. You’re not hard hearted toward that. Your heart is soft, and it hurts, and you plead in prayer, for people to repent, to come right. You don’t want to see them wander off into sin. Who’s weak? And I’m not weak. Who’s weak in this church? And I don’t feel it.

 As Paul writes this letter to the Colossian church, he’s, he’s, responding, in this letter to a report that came from Epaphras. Epaphras was a preeminent, exemplary minister of the gospel. He’d planted the Colossian church and probably the other churches there in the Lycos Valley, about 100 miles to the east of Ephesus. He’s one of its preeminent ministers, dear man.

Epaphras sought out Paul and Paul’s in prison, as he writes this letter in Rome. And he came to talk to Paul, tell him about the doctoral errors that had been infiltrating the Colossian church and how those errors had upset the stability of the Christians there. It made them feel disqualified in the faith. The people who were purveyors and proponents of this false teaching, we’re trying to sever the connection of true believers to Christ, the head; trying to sever the connection between Christ with his church, his body.

 And so, as Paul sits in prison in Rome, as he literally is suffering for the sake of Christ, this thlipsis, he’s, his deeper concern is really for this Colossian church. These believers, this pathema, this, is, internal sense of trouble and turmoil, a sense of anxiety that it brings to his soul. And so, the result and the evidence of the fact that he is suffering joyfully is this Colossian letter. That’s what comes out of him.

He is a pastor shepherding a flock. How can a minister suffer all these things joyfully? I mean endure. Grit your teeth and bear it. Bear down. Just get through the trouble. But how can he do that with a smile on his face, a smile on his heart? It’s because he knows why he suffers. Back in verse 24, “I rejoice in my sufferings.” Why? “For your sake.”

 He knows for whom he is suffering. It’s for your sake. And in my flesh, I’m filling up what’s lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, the church. Now that brings joy to his heart. Paul suffers joyfully, because he knows he suffers for the sake of actual Christians; flesh and blood people, names, faces. He’s not seen them at this point. He will see them later. Later, after he’s released from his Roman imprisonment, but at this point he doesn’t. He only knows them through the report of Epaphras, and yet he loves them.

 He writes this in chapter 2 verse 1. “I want you to know how great a struggle I’ve had for you,” the Colossian believers, “and for those at Laodicea, and for all who’ve not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged,” etcetera, etcetera. There is good evidence, Paul made it to the churches of Lycus Valley, Colossian, Colossi, Laodicea, Hierapolos after he was released from that first Roman imprisonment.

 And so he was able to go see the people he’d been praying for, see the people he wrote, see the people that he ministered to, even though he had not seen their face. They were very much on his heart, as Colossians 4:7 through 18 shows. He sent Tychicus to them so, “that you may know how we are, that he may encourage your hearts.”

Paul loved them. He’s a remarkable, remarkable servant of Jesus Christ, an imitator of our Lord. Paul suffers joyfully. because he knows for whom he suffers, that he suffers for the sake of these actual Christians, people who are dear to Christ, dear to him, dear to Epaphras. He also suffers joyfully because he knows he suffers for the sake of Christ. He suffers for the sake of the one who suffered and died for him.

 His testimony about that is in Galatians 2:20. “I’ve been crucified with Christ. It’s no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. In the life that I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, who gave himself for me.” If He gave himself for me, how can I withhold myself giving myself for him? I love him. I love my Lord. I love my Savior

 He died on the cross for me. He bore the shame, and the disgrace, and the indignity, and the pain, and the suffering, that I really should have endured. He bore it for me. He absorbed the full vent of the wrath of God. For every single sin I committed, sins that I’m not even aware of. Paul says, me the chief of sinners. Christ died for me. How can I not give myself for him? How can I not suffer for the sake of Christ? And when I suffer, I look to Christ.

 I say, I didn’t die on the cross for anybody. Paul suffers joyfully, third because he knows he suffers for the sake of Christ Church. He suffers for the sake of the elect people for whom Christ died. A church to which Paul himself belongs by God’s grace. A church that he has joined to. Paul is so pleased to love the church, that Christ loves, to give himself up for the people, that Christ also gave himself up for, that he died for.

 These thoughts, suffering for the sake of Christians. Suffering for the sake of Christ. Suffering for the sake of Christ Church. They come together, all come together beautifully. In Paul’s autobiographical letter, most autobiographical epistle in 2 Corinthians.

 2 Corinthians 4:8 and following says this, “We’re afflicted in every way but not crushed; We’re perplexed but not driven to despair; We’re persecute but not forsaken; We’re struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about the body of the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.”

 The more death puts its arms around me, and squeezes me, and pressures me, and crushes me, the more this treasure of the gospel shines forth and effects all of you. That’s what he’s saying, and for that he rejoices. So first mark of the cross on the minister is suffering joyfully. Look for that in pastors. Look for that in ministers. Look for that in church members. If you’re not finding that, you got to ask some hard questions.

 The second mark, mark number two, is stewarding faithfully, stewarding faithfully. Again, just getting an overview here. Can’t get into all the details as we’d like to, but serving, stewarding, faithfully is mark number two. Starting again, verse 24, we’ll read through verse 27. “I am filling up what’s lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is the Church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

In verse 25, Paul refers to himself as a minister, which is actually the word here. The word used is deacon. Diakonos means servant, and then Paul specifies what kind of a servant that he is, when he refers to the stewardship from God. The word oikonomia joins the word house, oikos, with the word law, namas. So house law, law of the house, or the orderly management of a household, the orderly management of an estate.

 That’s the kind of servant that he is. Paul, being an apostle, very different from our ministries, but still, that’s how he views himself. He views it as a tremendous privilege. He defines himself; his identity is completely in the one whom he serves. That ought to be true for every single one of us to be a slave, a doulos of Jesus Christ. Our identity is not our own. Slaves don’t have their own identity. They’re identified by who they are owned by. I’m grateful to be owned by Christ. He is my identity.

Paul says something similar in 1 Corinthians 4:1. “This is how one should regard us as servants of Christ and as stewards of the mysteries of God.” And for Paul, this is no low estate, this is no menial position in God’s household. To be a servant of Christ, a minister of Christ, it’s a high and holy honor. And Paul never quite got over that. Paul has received a stewardship, a great responsibility to manage a divine household, to manage divine resources, managing gospel wealth, overseeing the affairs of the church of Christ. He’s administrating the truth with wisdom, with faithfulness, with patience and gentleness of love, all by the fruit of the Spirit at work in his life, in his ministry.

 The chief requirement for those who are chosen to serve Christ, for those who are chosen to steward the treasures, the wealth, the resources of God’s household. 1 Corinthians 4:2, “Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found,” What? “Faithful.” Right.

 Trustworthy, that’s Paul. Faithful, dependable, totally reliable, utterly trustworthy. The word of God. The gospel of Jesus Christ. The message of the cross. Like a seed, the Word comes with its own power. Plant the seed in the right soil. That seed is going to germinate, grow, grow to maturity, and then produce fruit. That is a high and holy honor. What a privilege. And he is trustworthy to continue scattering that seed, and watering that seed, and nurturing it, and ministering to those young plants as they grow. Making sure they’re protected. And then cultivating that plant as it grows, so it bears more and more fruit.

 He is an instrument in the hands of God, the vine dresser. Steward understands what he’s stewarding. He understands this great privilege that he has, and he never gets over it. He’s stewarding the word of God, verse 25. He’s steward, the stewarding a mystery, a mystery that once was hidden for ages and generations now has been unpacked, unfolded, verse 26.

 He’s stewarding, “the riches of the glory of this mystery.” Verse 27, which he describes plainly as, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” That is a profound mystery and I wish we had the time to unpack it. But the way that Paul demonstrated faithfulness in stewarding this mystery, in expositing the great riches of the glory of the mystery, everything we’ve been unpacking in this conference.

 He called people to discipleship. He preached the good news of divine justification. He was intentional about knowing no other message except Jesus Christ and him crucified. He saw his job as taking spiritual truths taught to him with spiritual words, taught directly by the Spirit, joined to him by the Spirit, and then joining them again to spiritual people, men and women, who are truly born again. What a privilege, what an honor.

According to our previous point, even when stewarding the mystery of Christ faithfully, preaching the cross of Christ faithfully, clearly, boldly, even when that brought suffering, Paul kept on going. He continued stewarding the truth, preaching the cross, and doing the suffering joyfully. He modeled what he had commanded Timothy to do, namely “preach the Word, whether in season or out of season, to reprove, rebuke, exhort with complete patience and teaching.” He knows what he told Timothy, 2 Timothy, 3:12, “All who desire to live,” godly, “a godly life in Christ Jesus.” Oh yeah, they will be persecuted. Bank on it. He did it anyway. Joyfully. We understand who it is who gave us this stewardship. It is a stewardship from God.

 We understand who benefits from the faithful execution of a stewardship. It’s God’s saints. It’s Christians. People whom God has chosen from before the foundation of the world to inherit these privileges, to be set apart, sanctified in Christ, to be recipients of the Spirit’s ministry of regeneration, to give them a new nature to, to, join them to the family of God with God his Father, Christ as their head. All Kingdom citizens living on enduring eternally. So man, we seek to be faithful. That’s a mark of a true minister of the cross.