An Intro to Paul (Col. 1:24-29)

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An Intro to Paul (Col. 1:24-29)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and Bethel Friends on Sunday, August 11, 2024

I wish to talk about the apostle Paul. We will introduce Paul today. Paul was introduced at Stephen’s stoning and could have been in a better light.

Acts 8:1:

 Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death.

Verse 3:

But Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house, and dragging off men and women, he would put them in prison.

Now, in Acts chapter 9, Paul becomes a Christian. By the way, Saul is Paul, and Paul is Saul. He is called Saul before his conversion. He now commits his life to the Lord. We will look at that in a few weeks. Today, I wish to look at Paul’s philosophy of ministry (A philosophy is a way of thinking), which can be found in Colossians 1:24-29.

Let’s read that passage:

Colossians 1:24–29 (ESV)

24 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, 25 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, 26 the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. 27 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. 28 Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 29 For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

As we discuss this passage, I want you to notice Paul’s passion for Jesus-centered, Gospel-driven ministry and his humility.

Now, what is the take-home today? I want to teach you about the apostle Paul. But what do you take home? God has placed all of us in a position of ministry. We are all in places where we can serve the Lord. These are not full-time paid positions. The follower of Christ is to serve the Lord everywhere and always. We are on the clock 24/7. Today, I am not teaching you about Paul’s life, I am teaching you about Paul’s philosophy of ministry. A philosophy is a way of thinking. This is Paul’s way of thinking about ministry.

So, your take-home application: I ask that we all compare and contrast our philosophy or thinking about ministry with the Apostle Paul’s. Maybe we will be encouraged because things line up. Maybe we will need encouragement because we are putting too much on ourselves and not trusting God. Maybe you will need to refocus. Remember, when I say ministry today, I am talking about the connections in life that God has placed you in for His purposes.

  1. First, some things about Paul’s background.
    1. This comes from R.C. Sproul’s commentary on Acts:
    2. Much of Acts is a profile of this man, Paul—of his life, his ministry, his suffering, and his faithfulness to his Master. When we first meet him here in Acts, however, we do not meet the greatest pastor, the greatest missionary, the greatest evangelist, or the greatest man. We meet the early church’s public enemy number one. We meet a man filled with hostility and hatred toward Christ and Christ’s church, a man whose consuming passion was to eradicate Christianity from the face of the earth.[1]
    3. Paul was born, according to tradition, in the same year that Jesus was born. He was born in Asia Minor, in the city of Tarsus; hence he was called Saul of Tarsus, Paul being the name he used in Gentile circles. His father was a Roman citizen and a well-respected merchant. The fact that he was a Roman citizen indicates that he likely had done something significant. Because Saul’s father was a Roman citizen, Saul was born a free man, and he inherited that citizenship from his father. Tarsus was at the extreme southeastern tip of Asia Minor, close to Antioch, just a little bit north of Jerusalem. Tarsus was on the trade routes, where all merchandise moved from Europe and Asia south through the Middle East, down into Africa, and back. In antiquity Tarsus was one of the wealthiest cities of that region. Tarsus had the largest university in the world at that time, bigger than the universities in Athens and Alexandria. Tarsus was a cosmopolitan city, a city in which merchants, scholars, intellectuals, and travelers from all over the world mingled.[2]
    4. The young Saul grew up in that environment. Initially he followed a commonplace tradition of the time, which was learning a trade through apprenticeship. One of the most lucrative trades in that day and region was tentmaking. As a young lad, Saul learned the trade of making tents, which served him well throughout his life.
    5. At the age of thirteen, because of the prowess and brilliance that he had already displayed, he was sent away from Tarsus to Jerusalem to go to seminary, as it were, to study under the tutorship of the leading theologian in the world of that time, Gamaliel. (We were introduced to Gamaliel in Acts 5.) Saul studied under Gamaliel for seven years and received the equivalent of two PhDs in theology. It has been said that by the age of twenty-one Saul of Tarsus was the most educated Jew in Palestine. He had mastered the Old Testament and all the rabbinic interpretations of it, and his star had risen in meteoric fashion.[3]
  2. Notice Verse 25: The source of the ministry is God.
    1. Paul says that he was made a minister. Paul did not choose to be a minister. God gives ministry gifts out. You can read about these gifts in 1 Cor. 12 and Romans 12. We are in ministry for God’s Kingdom. I better be in ministry for God’s Kingdom.
    2. Notice Paul writes stewardship: This is still in verse 25. God gives us stewardship of a ministry that He calls us to. Do you know what that word means? It means “House ruler.” If you are a Christian, you are also house rulers, stewards of ministries that God has given you.

Before we move on, I want to emphasize again that in addition to learning about Paul, I hope that your take-home assignment is to analyze what and how your philosophy of ministry compares to Paul’s.

  • Notice in Verse 24: The spirit of the ministry is joy.
    1. This is a tough one. This is tough because Paul is writing this from a prison. This is one of the letters called “The Prison Epistles.” Paul writes about joy in persecution.
    2. There are currently Christians in jail all over the world because of persecution.

Paul found joy from the Lord, even in suffering, do we? I wonder if I can? If the source of ministry is the Lord, He is the one responsible for the ministry, I serve Him, and He is responsible for the fruit. I am called by God to serve Him as a pastor, but we are all called to serve the Lord in various ways.

  • In verse 25, the scope of ministry is that he might fully carry out the Word of God.
    1. We will see in a minute that this goes together with preaching. But notice that in Paul’s philosophy of ministry we see that he uses the word, “fully.” This is complete.
    2. What is our thinking about what God is calling us to do, how does it compare to Paul’s thinking here?
  • Verse 28: The style of the ministry is preaching.
    1. Paul will proclaim the Gospel. This is like a herald crying it out.
    2. We must proclaim the Gospel as Paul did.
  • Verse 28: Sum of the ministry, what are we after? What’s the goal? “So that we may present every man complete in Christ.”
    1. Paul’s goal was completion
    2. His goal was that everyone he served would be complete in Christ.
  • Verse 29: The strength of the ministry. Who can do this? Who can fulfill all this?
    1. Verse 29 tells us the strength of it. “For this purpose also I labor striving.”
    2. Paul would work diligently.
    3. We see this idea reflected in the rest of the New Testament.
    4. By the way, this is Olympic language. The language here is comparable to an athlete striving for a crown. It is the language of a runner laboring toward the end.

Some of you know that I run. I enjoy running, I really do. There are days in the summer, especially late in the evening, when I can run faster. But when it is hot, I struggle. Then, I long for winter. But then, in the winter, there are times when the wind is so strong and so cold that I struggle. On a January morning last year, I went out running just before 6 am. I opened my garage and realized it was snowing. Further, there was an inch of snow on the ground. I started running and realized the snow was picking up in intensity. The wind was strong. The temperature was dropping. I was wearing shorts because it was about 20 degrees, but by the end of the run, it was 14 degrees. I recall running on 224 towards 680, and the wind and the snow were beating at my face. It was difficult. I had to push through. Maybe that is the joy of running distance. It is a labor of enjoyment, though I cannot explain it.

In so much a greater manner, we labor the Christian life for a greater prize in the end.

This was Paul’s philosophy of ministry. We should aim to minister in similar ways.

This is Paul’s philosophy of ministry; we are all called to serve the Lord in the church, in the family, and everywhere. Where does your philosophy of ministry need to change?

Pray

[1] R. C. Sproul, Acts, St. Andrew’s Expositional Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2010), 138.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

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