Colossians 1 28ff

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Sunday 13 March 2011

March

4

JesusSunday 13 March 2011

Colossians 1:28-2:7Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.



The New Testament writers were totally consumed with Christ. He was their message, their teaching, their proclamation, their very life. And everything else flowed out of intimate fellowship with him.

The Jesus Manifesto






For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face...


For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face...


Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles;


Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles;

in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.

2 Cor 11:24-28


...that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches 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.


Wherever there is true love, there must be giving, and giving to the point of sacrifice. Love is not satisfied with giving trinkets; it must give at the cost of sacrifice: it must give blood, life, all.

F B Meyer


Agape love is the greatest virtue of the Christian life. Yet that type of love was rare in pagan Greek literature. That’s because the traits agape portrays—unselfishness, self-giving, willful devotion, concern for the welfare of others —were mostly disdained in ancient Greek culture as signs of weakness.

John MacArthur


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 received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.


The reality is that Christ trumps everything. All scripture testifies of him. The Father exults him. The Spirit magnifies him. The angels worship him. The early church knew him as her passion, her message, and the unction of her life. Christ was her speciality. He was her bridegroom and head. She specialised in nothing else.

The Jesus Manifesto


Passionate for Jesus


Passionate to know Jesus


Passionately devoted to Jesus


Passionately committed to Jesus


Passionate for the Spirit of Jesus


Passionately following Jesus


“The old cross is a symbol of death. It stands for the abrupt, violent end of a human being. In Roman times, the man who took up his cross and started down the road was not coming back. He was not going out to have his life re-directed. He was going out to have it ended.”

A.W. Tozer


Revelation 2:5-6

But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

A Reminder


Revelation 2:5-6

But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.




1. What does your life

proclaim?

2. How hard do you struggle?

Have you stopped fighting?

Are you growing in Christ?

3. What do you treasure?


>17,000 books about Jesus


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"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 besides Him, whom we preach. Not simply His doctrine, but Himself; This Christ is the one and undivided object of proclamation...


“The one theme was Christ—“Him first, Him last, Him midst.” Christ, as the one deliverer, conferring pardon by His blood, purity by His Spirit, and perfection by His pledge and presence, securing defence by His power, comfort by His sympathy, and the hope of glory by His residence in the believing heart; this Christ, as the only source of such multifarious gifts, we preach, and we preach with special tenderness and anxiety.” John Eadie




G. Campbell Morgan kept a newspaper clipping for twenty years, entitled "Sheer Hard Work," and said:

What is true of the minister is true of every man who bears the name of Christ. We have not begun to touch the great business of salvation when we have sung, "Rescue the perishing, care for the dying." We have not entered into the business of evangelizing the city or the world until we have put our own lives into the business, our own immediate physical endeavor, inspired by spiritual devotion.

G. Campbell Morgan, The Westminster Pulpit, Volumes 3, 4 (Old Tappan, NJ: Revell, n.d.), p. 160.

R Kent Hughes


“... if we Christians would live our Christian lives and serve the Lord Jesus with the intensity of purpose and effort that is put forth in a football contest, what God-glorifying lives we would live."

Eerdmans Bible Encyclopedia



Spiritual maturity was the great

purpose of the apostles' ministries.

It lay at the nerve center of

apostolic, New Testament

Christianity.


Disciple-makers are not out to change people; they are out to grow them. The gardener does not try by the force of his will to make peas into roses. He merely cultivates the ground in which peas are planted, freeing them to become what God meant them to be."


"People sometimes tell me that I work too hard. But compared to Paul, I am not working hard enough. It saddens me to hear of pastors or seminary students who are looking for an easy pastorate...No one can successfully serve Jesus Christ without working hard. Lazy pastors, Christian leaders, or laymen will never fulfill the ministry the Lord has called them to. Striving...refers to competing in an athletic event. Our English word agonize is derived from it. Success in serving the Lord, like success in sports, demands maximum effort."

John MacArthur


“In such a work it is a privilege to exhaust our strength; in the performance of the duties of such an office, it is an honour to be permitted to wear out life itself.”

Barnes


Luther worked so hard that many days, according to his biographers, he fell into bed. Moody's bedtime prayer on one occasion, as he rolled his bulk into bed, was, "Lord, I'm tired! Amen." John Wesley rode sixty to seventy miles many days of his life and preached an average of three sermons a day, whether he was riding or not.

R Kent Hughes


Jesus the centre of our lives





Jesus the circumference

of our lives




of our lives




of our lives

Fill in all the space in between
