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Colossians 4:2-18 - Jesus, the Saviour of the World

By Rev Charles Seet

Preached at Life BPC 8 am service, 2003-03-30

Text: Colossians 4:2-18

In the past 12 weeks we have had 12 messages in the theme, 'Do you know my Jesus?' This knowledge of Jesus that we have been talking about is not a mere head knowledge of Jesus, but heart knowledge as well. Do you really know the Lord Jesus personally in your heart? It is our hope that this whole series of messages would ultimately help each of us to have a deeper personal walk with Jesus Christ, our beloved Lord and Saviour. There should be nothing more thrilling to our soul than Jesus, our blessed Redeemer. Thus far we have already seen that He is truly the perfect Son of God and Son of Man. We have also seen that Jesus was a man of earnest Prayer, a man of great compassion and a man of humble submission to God's will. We have seen Jesus as the King of Kings, the Prince of Peace, the Lover of Sinners, the Healer of Souls and in last week's message we saw Him as the Forgiving Man.

I. The World's Greatest Need is for Salvation

Now we come to the final message in the series: Jesus, The Saviour of the World. I think that this topic is a very relevant one for our present time as we witness all the turmoil that is taking place in the world right now ' the ongoing war in Iraq, the expected backlash of terrorist attacks, the threat of war with North Korea, and the violent protests all over the world. Added to this are all the crimes, corruption, immoral lifestyle and ungodliness that are obviously increasing at an alarming rate today. These things make it abundantly clear to us that the world we live in is filled with sin.

And sin has been multiplying in this world ever since the time that the first man fell into sin. In Romans 5:12 the Bible says that 'as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.' Isaiah describes it, 'All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way.' (Isa 53:6) Even from the time a person is born, he already manifests the sinful nature. David testified in Psalm 51:5, 'Behold I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.' Since all men are born in sin, all without exception, are by nature spiritually dead. This sober truth is found in Ecclesiastes 7:20 'For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.'

Because of this, we can now see that the greatest need in the world today is not for peace, nor for more tolerance, love and understanding between the various nations, races and religions. Neither is it the removal of evil tyranical regimes. Neither is it finding a cure for infectious illnesses like the SARS outbreak that is now spreading worldwide and also affecting us in Singapore. All these things are good, but we must recognise that they can only deal with the symptoms. They do not even touch the source of all the world's problems. What the world needs most, dear friends, is salvation from SIN! Without dealing with this root cause of all evil, found in the hearts of men, any attempt to change the world will be absolutely futile.

II. Only Jesus Christ Can Save The World

There is only One who can save the world from sin, and that is Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the World. That is what the Samaritans called Him in John 4:42. They said to the woman who had introduced Jesus to them 'Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard Him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.' Jesus Himself stated that He came to this world in order to be the world's Saviour: 'And if any man hear My words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.' (John 12:47).

A. By Dying For The Sins of the World

And the way that Jesus saved the world is by making an atonement that is sufficient for the sins of the whole world. That is why John the Baptist called Him, 'the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.' (John 1:29). When Jesus was crucified, that one death that He died on the cross at Calvary was sufficient to take away the sins of the whole world. That is what the Bible says in 1 John 2:2 'And He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.' We believe of course, that Christ's death ultimately saves only the elect (i.e. those whom God has chosen from the beginning of the world). The atonement that Jesus made was efficient for the elect alone. But our focus this morning is on the fact that the atonement of Jesus was actually sufficient to save the whole world. As Charles Wesley wrote in a hymn: 'Lord, I believe were sinners more than sands upon the ocean shore, Thou hast the ransom fully paid, Thou hast a full atonement made.'

B. By Bringing the Light of Life Into the World

Besides making a sufficient atonement for the world, our Lord Jesus has also brought the Light of Life into the world. John 8:12 'Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.' As the Light of the World, Jesus gives Guidance for Holy Living. This means that He enables us to see how we may be holy in the midst of a world filled with sin.

Without Jesus, our eyes would be completely blinded by the thick darkness of sin that surrounds us. No one would then be able to find the path of holiness which leads to life. As the Light of the World, Jesus also gives Truth for Enlightened Living. In His Light we can find all the absolutes that we must live by in a world where there are no absolutes. Without Jesus, no man can be enlightened with truth for meaningful and successful living. And as the Light of the World, Jesus also reveals God fully to us, so that we can have a Relationship with God for Blessed Living. Without Jesus, no man can ever know God personally, and live a fulfilling life that is both blessed and complete.

C. By Becoming the Ultimate Ruler of The World

Jesus is not only the Saviour the world by making a sufficient atonement for the sins of the world, and by bringing the light of life into the world. He will also save the world by becoming the ultimate ruler of the world! Revelation 11:15 tells us of this glorious future event: 'The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever.' And when Jesus reigns over all the earth there will finally be righteousness, justice, peace and order in the whole world. His reign will surpass all the empires and superpowers that this world has seen. Jesus will be the perfect world ruler, succeeding where the United Nations have failed, and where all kings, presidents and prime ministers before Him have failed. Jesus alone will succeed in subduing all authority and dominion in this world under His full and absolute control!

And this worldwide reign of Christ may be inaugurated soon, when Jesus Christ returns to this world in His second coming, to claim His rightful place as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords! This is something that we can all look forward to right now as world events indicate that the time draws closer and closer to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ! And so, dearly beloved, let us all live now with a sense of eager anticipation to meet our Lord Jesus, who is the Saviour of the World. And since He is the Saviour of the world, we must not keep Him all to ourselves, or just within the four walls of our church.

III. We Must Bring The Gospel of Jesus Christ to Everyone

In all these messages we have had for the past 12 weeks we have been studying all about Jesus - His life, His attributes, His person, ministry and character. Now that we know Jesus in all of His many glorious aspects through these messages, it would not be right for us to keep this knowledge all to ourselves. The world needs Him as much as we do, and we must do our part in bringing Jesus to the world. So let us now be outward-looking, applying the words of our theme, 'Do you know my Jesus?' to everyone around us. The knowledge of Jesus is not only meant for us, it is also meant for everyone.

Let us look at some verses of Scripture - Colossians 4:6 tells us, 'Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.' 1 Peter 3:15 says 'But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:' Hebrews 2:9 'But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man.'

Perhaps we may ask: In what sense is Jesus for every man? There are some who teach that God has no concern or interest at all in anyone but the elect. But the Scriptures show us that this is not true. While it is true that none but those whom God has elected to salvation are saved, God does not take delight in seeing any sinner die, and in fact, He desires the salvation of all men (Ezekiel 33:11). This can be seen in Acts 17:30,31 'And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: Because He hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised him from the dead.'

In line with this teaching, we need to constantly affirm the free offer of Christ to all men. The Lord Jesus Christ must be freely offered to all men. As far as we are concerned, God wants us to do everything we can to sow the seed of the gospel lovingly, widely and indiscriminately. We are not to worry ourselves about whether the people we reach are elected by God or not. That is entirely God's realm alone, and really none of our concern. Our responsibility is to bring Christ to the whole world, that is, to every tribe, tongue and nation, and to every man. It is for this reason that the Lord gave His disciples the great commission, and the one in the Gospel according to Mark reads, 'Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.' (Mark 16:15).

There is no doubt that we must obey this great commission and get the gospel of Jesus Christ out to every man, woman and child. We are to lift Christ up for the whole world to see, so that all the ends of the earth may look to Him and be saved (Isaiah 45:22). Jesus Himself said in John 12:32 'And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.' But how are we to do this? What are the ways in which we can bring the Gospel of Christ to every man? >From our passage in Colossians 4 we will see at least four ways: The first is

A. Through Prayer

In vv.2-4, the apostle Paul instructs the Colossians to continue in prayer, and then he makes a specific prayer request 'Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds: That I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak.' Paul wanted them to pray that God would provide an opportunity for him to preach the gospel, and that he would make it clear so that those who hear him would understand the message.

It is interesting to observe that this is the only prayer request that Paul made in the whole epistle of Colossians, and we must remember that he was in prison at that time. And yet he did not ask for things we would have expected him to ask, like 'Pray that I will be released from this prison, or Pray that the Lord will send people to visit me so that I will not feel so lonely.' These things were secondary to Paul. The cause of Christ was much more important to him than even his own difficult circumstances!

In the same way, our prayers should also put the cause of Christ first before anything else. And like Paul, we should also pray for the gospel to go forth to everyone. This is the way to begin to look outward - we should pray that the Lord would open opportunities for us to share the gospel with someone in our place of work or study or in our neighbourhood. Once we pray that prayer, we should then be sensitive to God's leading to see the answer to our prayer. We should also pray that God would give us the ability to make the gospel clear. Now besides prayer, another thing we need to do to bring The Gospel of Jesus Christ to everyone is:

B. Through Walking in Wisdom Toward Them

Vv.5,6 says 'Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.' To walk in wisdom means to 'live wisely and carefully' (referring here to conduct). All our attempts to share the gospel of Christ with others would be useless if we are not careful in our conduct before them. People would say, 'What you do speaks more loudly than what you say.' There should be nothing in our conduct that will hinder our witness for Christ. We should rather 'Let [our] light so shine before men, that they may see [our] good works, and glorify [our] Father which is in heaven.' (Matthew 5:16).

The phrase 'redeeming the time' in v.5 of our text implies that we must have a sense of urgency in reaching out to people, and make the most of every opportunity that we have to bring them to Christ. And this must be especially so for us now, as we see more signs heralding our Lord's soon return telling us that there is not much time left to bring the lost to Christ.

V.6 continues on the theme of walking in wisdom, by telling us how we should speak to others 'with grace, seasoned with salt' Grace here means to speak kindly and pleasantly, rather than in an aggressive and argumentative manner. The use of the term salt refers to the fact that it was once used to purify and preserve food. Thus whatever we speak should be clean and wholesome, leaving a good taste, so to speak in the mouth of the hearer. The verse also tells us to 'know how we ought to answer every man.' From what we know of the early church, there was a tremendous emphasis on giving a proper and accurate answer about the faith. Every Christian ought to know the Bible well enough to give a clear, comprehensive answer concerning what they believe.

Thus far we have seen two steps we must take to bring Christ to every man: Firstly, to Pray for opportunities to reach out to others, and secondly, to be careful to live a life that attracts people to Christ and does not drive them away from Him. The rest of chapter 4 in Colossians are the concluding remarks of Paul to the church, where he writes about some personal arrangements he had made for them and conveys greetings to them and to certain people in their midst. But from this, we can draw two more steps that can help in bringing Christ to every man: The first is

C. Through Faithful Messengers

One thing that can greatly facilitate the propagation of the gospel is the use of faithful messengers who are willing to go forth and bring the message of Christ to the world. This is why Christ exhorts us to pray that the Lord of the harvest will send forth more labourers into His harvest.

In v.7 we can find a good example of one such messenger: Tychicus. He is described here as 'a beloved brother and a faithful minister and fellowservant of the Lord.' Tychicus came from the province of Asia, and accompanied Paul in part of his third missionary journey (Acts 20:4). He became the bearer of the epistle to the Colossians, and Paul stated the purpose of his visit to them in v.8. Thus Tychicus came to them as Paul's representative. He was to inform them about what was happening to Paul, collect information to bring back to Paul and also to comfort (or encourage) their hearts - which we can presume to mean that he would minister the Word of God to them.

V.9 mentions someone by the name of Onesimus who accompanied Tychicus. The full story of this person is found in the book of Philemon. He was a slave who worked for Philemon, one of the Colossian church leaders. Onesimus was not a Christian at first and ran away from his master, stealing some items from him in the process. Somehow, he came to Rome, where Paul found him and brought him to Christ. His life was changed and so Paul wanted him to return back to Philemon, and make up for the loss he had caused to him. Since Tychicus was going to Colossae, Paul sent Onesimus with him together with a letter to his master to receive him back. This letter is found in our Bibles as the epistle to Philemon.

We can imagine the kind of impact the appearance and testimony of Onesimus might have made on the Colossian Christians. Here was clear evidence of God's grace working in a sinner's life. His life was a message in itself. And this is yet another way to bring Christ to every man - by sharing one's testimony of how one's life has been changed by Christ!

As we look at the lives of Tychicus and Onesimus, we ought to pray that the Lord will provide such useful messengers in our own midst who will go to places where Christ has not been proclaimed, and bring the gospel to them. We thank God for the missionaries that God has raised up from our church, and who are serving Him now in Cambodia, Kenya, Thailand, Indonesia, Myanmar, Saipan and Malaysia. They are there because Jesus is truly the Saviour of the world!

And all of us should be concerned with missions, and be involved in praying for missions, providing support for missions and even participating in mission trips and (if God calls us) becoming long-term missionaries. Next Lord's Day I will be on a mission trip to Batam, and a group of ladies from our Adults Sunday School will be coming with me, not to enjoy a trip overseas, but to serve the Lord in Batam: They will be conducting three Sunday School classes and singing a praise item at the first anniversary service of Sagulung Baru B-P Church. I praise God for them, as this is actually the 3rd of 4th such trip that they are making to Batam. If anyone of you is interested in going on mission trips, please let us know, as there are more upcoming trips to Batam, Malaysia and also to Kenya where much help is needed.

And we should also seek to be involved in local missions, like our annual Vacation Bible School. This provides an excellent opportunity to bring Christ to children. Last year we had about of 330 children. And it took a team of 110 VBS staff to take care of the whole programme! Let us respond to this need for helpers for this evangelistic ministry. Whatever your gifts and talents may be, whatever your background, come and sign up for this worthy cause. And even if you are not able to serve in the VBS itself because of other commitments, you can still help to invite children to come for it. God can use anyone of us to do His work to do His work in local or foreign missions.

In this passage we can see a variety of backgrounds of people that God used to bring the gospel to others. We already saw that Onesimus was a runaway slave. In vv.10,11 there are three Jewish Christians mentioned - Aristarchus, Marcus and Jesus Justus. Epaphras (v.12) was the first Colossian to become a Christian through Paul, and he was zealous to go back and encourage the 3 churches he had established in the three cities of the Lycus valley (at Colossae, Hierapolis and Laodicea). V.13 mentions Luke who was a doctor from Philippi. We thank God for some doctors and dentists in our church who in the spirit of Luke, make medical trips to Batam twice a year. If you are an engineer, you can also be of help to the work of missions. One engineer in our church has sacrificed much of his valuable time in his busy schedule to make a 2-day trip to Cambodia just a few weeks ago to help our missionary, Rev David Koo in his building project.

Coming back to our text, we see Nymphas who is mentioned in v.15 as having a church in his house. And this provides us another effective means of bringing Christ to the world, by Christians who are willing to let God use their personal properties for His use. You can think of ways they can be availed for the Lord's use. You can open your house for Bible studies, or fellowship meetings, and invite your neighbours to come. If you have a car, use it to help fetch people to church on Sundays - especially those who do not have transport. If you have a computer, learn how to use it to do desktop publishing or to edit video reports on missions. One brother in our church has recently done just that, and the video he edited on Batam will be screened next Saturday during the seminar case study. Please come for this seminar to see how you can get involved in mission work in Batam.

The last person mentioned is Archippus (v.17) and he appears to be the resident pastor or fulltime worker at the Colossian church. He needed some special encouragement from Paul, perhaps because of the difficulties he faced there. When you think of our missionaries, evangelists and fulltime workers please remember that they sometimes need a word of encouragement from you, especially when they have to cope with problems on the mission field.

When I was a missionary in the Philippines one of the things I looked forward to was to receive mail from home. It was really like drinking from cool refreshing streams! Do you know that you can be a great help to the Lord's work in missions simply by writing a letter or email to a missionary? Just the thought that someone remembers him and prays for him can make a great difference in helping him overcome feelings of loneliness and homesickness. And this brings us to the fourth and final means we can use for bringing the Gospel of Christ to the world:

D. Through A Writing Ministry

V.16 is all about this. Paul's instructions was that this epistle should be read in the Colossian church and then sent over to the church in Laodicea to be read there as well. And apparently he had also sent an epistle to Laodicea, which was to be read to the Colossians. This letter no longer exists, and God chose not include it in His written Word. What we learn from this is how effective the writing ministry can be. One epistle could be circulated to many churches and wherever it was read, it would bring valuable teaching, instruction and encouragement from God's Word, as if the writer himself were present among them.

Now Paul was not the only one involved in this writing ministry. In our passage there are two other Bible writers. Can you spot them? V.10 - Marcus, was the writer of the Gospel of Mark. V.14 - Luke was the writer of the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts. What they have written has been read by thousands an even millions of people, has been translated into hundreds of languages. Their impact has reached down to us, and is still changing lives and drawing men to Christ! This shows us how powerful the written word can be. God's Word in Isaiah 55:11 says, 'So shall My word be that goeth forth out of My mouth: it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.'

Let this encourage us to keep disseminating the Word of God, whether by giving out Bibles, or distributing Gospel tracts, or good Christian literature. Or even by using the Internet or e-mail. Today you can reach hundreds or thousands of souls with just the click of a mouse!

I trust that the Lord has opened your eyes through this message that our Lord Jesus is not to be confined only to ourselves, to our worship services, our Bible study meetings, or to the four walls of our church. Jesus, the Saviour of the world is for Every Man, and it is up to you now to use all your resources to bring Him to every man, through prayer, through your Christian Conduct and personal sharing of the gospel with others, through sending and supporting God's messengers, and also through the literature ministry. Let us not delay to do these things, so that the name of Christ will be proclaimed as widely and as rapidly as possible and many more will come to know our Jesus!

Colossians 4:2-18 - Christ, The Saviour of the World

By Rev Charles Seet

Preached at Life BPC 10:30am service, 2003-12-28

Text: Colossians 4:2-18

For the past four months we have had altogether 16 Sunday service messages in the theme, 'Christ, Supreme in Our Lives?' This supremacy of Christ that we have been talking about is not merely to be known and understood. It is meant to be applied and practised by every one of us here. It is our hope that this whole series of messages would ultimately serve to make Christ supreme in your life, to the extent that every area of your life - whether your conduct or speech, attitudes and desires, goals and motivation for living - will be surrendered fully to His control. Let there be nothing more important and thrilling to your soul than Jesus Christ, our blessed Redeemer.

I. The World's Greatest Need is for Salvation

Now we come to the last Sunday message in our series. Our topic is Christ, The Saviour of the World. I think that this topic is a most relevant one for our present time as we look back at all that has taken place in the world in this past year - the SARS outbreak, the gloom in our nation's economy, the ongoing turmoil in Iraq, the ever present fear of terrorist attacks and suicide bombers. Added to these are all the immorality and ungodliness that is constantly on the rise in the world. The Episcopal Church in the US ordained a homosexual bishop and homosexuality became an issue of public debate in our own nation about four months ago. The number of AIDS cases locally has increased now to 2,034. These are just some indications to us that the world we live in is filled with sin.

And sin has actually been multiplying in this world ever since the time that the first man fell into sin. Since the Fall of Adam, everyone who is born has been born in sin, and all without exception, are by nature spiritually dead. This sober truth is found in Ecclesiastes 7:20 'For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.'

Because of this, we can now see that the greatest need of all in the world today is not for peace, nor for more tolerance, love and understanding between the various nations, races and religions, though these things may be very desirable. Neither is it the removal of weapons of mass destruction, as some might believe. Neither is it finding a cure for viral epidemics like the bird flu in Korea, mad cow disease in the US, or for SARS.

All these things are good in themselves if they can be done, but we must recognise that they can only deal with the symptoms. They do not even begin to touch the ultimate source of all the world's problems. What the world needs most, dearly beloved is salvation from SIN! Without dealing with this root cause of all evil, found in the hearts of men, any attempt to change the world will be absolutely futile, and at best stop gap measures.

II. Only Christ Can Save The World

There is only One who can provide the final answer to sin, and that is Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the World. That is what the Samaritans called Him in John 4:42. They said to the woman who had introduced Jesus to them 'Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard Him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.' The Lord Jesus Himself stated that He came to this world in order to be its Saviour: 'And if any man hear My words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.' (John 12:47). And from what was mentioned earlier about this year's world events, it is clear that what the world needs most of all is Christ. He is the only One who can save the world!

A. By Dying For The Sins of the World

And how will He do this? Not by destroying all the world's weapons. Not by multiplying enough bread and food to feed the hungry multitudes. The way that Jesus saves the world is by making an atonement that is sufficient for the sins of the whole world. That is why John the Baptist called Him, 'the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.' (John 1:29). When Christ was crucified, that one single death that He died on the cross at Calvary was fully sufficient to take away the sins of the whole world. That is what the Bible says in 1 John 2:2 'And He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.'

We believe of course, that Christ�s death ultimately saves only the elect (i.e. those whom God has chosen from the beginning of the world). The atonement that Jesus made was efficient for the elect alone, and meant particularly for them. But our focus this morning is on the fact that the atonement of Jesus was actually sufficient to save the whole world. As Charles Wesley wrote in a hymn: 'Lord, I believe were sinners more than sands upon the ocean shore, Thou hast the ransom fully paid, Thou hast a full atonement made.'

B. By Bringing the Light of Life Into the World

Besides making a sufficient atonement for the world, our Lord Jesus has done another thing to save the world: He has brought the Light of Life into the world. John 8:12 'Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.' As the Light of the World, Christ provides Guidance for Holy Living. This means that He enables us to see how we may be holy in the midst of a world filled with sin. Without Jesus, our eyes would be completely blinded by the thick darkness of sin that surrounds us. No one would then be able to find the path of holiness which leads to life.

As the Light of the World, Christ also provides Truth for Enlightened Living. In His Light we can find all the absolutes that we must live by in a world where there are no absolutes. Without Christ, no man can be enlightened with truth for meaningful and successful living. And as the Light of the World, Christ also reveals God fully to us, so that we can have a Relationship with God for Blessed Living. Without Christ, no man can ever know God personally, and live a fulfilling life that is both blessed and complete.

C. By Becoming the Ultimate Ruler of The World

Jesus is not only the Saviour the world by making a sufficient atonement for the sins of the world, and by bringing the light of life into the world. As we heard in last week's message, He will also save the world by becoming its ultimate ruler! Revelation 11:15 tells us of this glorious future event: 'The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever.' And when Jesus reigns over all the earth there will finally be righteousness, justice, peace and order in the whole world. His reign will surpass all the empires and superpowers that this world has seen. Jesus will be the perfect world ruler, succeeding where the United Nations have failed, and where all kings, presidents and prime ministers before Him have failed. Jesus alone will succeed in subduing all authority and dominion in this world under His full and absolute control - not just all human authority alone, but also spiritual powers and the powers of nature.

When will this happen? The worldwide reign of Christ may be inaugurated soon, when Jesus Christ returns to this world in His second coming, to claim His rightful place as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords! This is something that we can all look forward to right now as world events converge more and more to indicate that the time draws closer and closer to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ! And so, dearly beloved, we should all live now with a sense of eager anticipation to meet Christ, who is the Saviour of the World.

Now we come to the application of this message: Since Christ is truly the Saviour of the world, we must not keep Him all to ourselves, or just within the four walls of our church.

III. We Must Bring The Gospel of Christ to Everyone

In all these messages we have had for the past 16 weeks we have been studying all about Christ - His life, His work, His attributes, His person, ministry and character. Now that you know Christ in all of His many glorious aspects through these messages, it would not be right for you to keep all this knowledge all to yourself. There is a world out there that needs Him as much as you do, and you must do your part in bringing Jesus to the world. He is not meant just for you, He is also meant for every man.

Let us look at some verses of Scripture that brings this out - Colossians 4:6 tells us, 'Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.' 1 Peter 3:15 says 'But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:' Hebrews 2:9 'But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man.'

Perhaps we may ask: In what sense is Jesus meant for every man? There are some who teach that God has absolutely no concern or interest at all in anyone but the elect. But the Scriptures show us that this is not true. While it is true that none but those whom God has elected to salvation are finally saved, God actually does not take delight in seeing any sinner die, and in fact, He desires the salvation of all men (Ezekiel 33:11). This can be seen in Acts 17:30,31 'And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: Because He hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead.'

In line with this teaching, we need to constantly affirm the free offer of Christ to all men. The Lord Jesus Christ must be offered freely to all men. As far as we are concerned, God wants us to do everything we can to sow the seed of the gospel lovingly, widely and indiscriminately. We are not to worry ourselves about whether the people we reach out to are elected by God or not. That is entirely God's realm alone, and really none of our concern.

Our responsibility is to bring Christ to the whole world, that is, to every tribe, tongue and nation, and to every man. It was for this reason that Christ gave His disciples the great commission, and the one in the Gospel according to Mark reads, 'Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.' (Mark 16:15).

There is no doubt that we must obey this great commission and get the gospel of Christ out to every man, woman and child. Our task is to lift Christ up high for the whole world to see, so that all the ends of the earth may look to Him and be saved (Isaiah 45:22). Jesus Himself said in John 12:32 'And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.' But how are we to do this? What are the ways in which we can bring the Gospel of Christ to every man? From our passage in Colossians 4 we will see at least four ways: The first is

A. Through Prayer

In vv.2-4, the apostle Paul instructs the Colossians to continue in prayer, and then he makes a specific prayer request 'Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds: That I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak.' Paul wanted them to pray that God would provide an opportunity for him to preach the gospel, and that he would make it clear so that those who hear him would fully understand the message.

It is interesting to observe that this is the only prayer request that Paul made in the whole epistle of Colossians, and one must remember that he was in prison at that time. And yet he did not ask for things we would have expected him to ask, like 'Pray that I will be released from this prison, or Pray that the Lord will send people to visit me so that I will not feel so lonely.' These things were secondary to Paul. The cause of Christ was much more important to him than even his own difficult circumstances!

In the same way, your prayers should also put the cause of Christ first before anything else. And like Paul, you should also pray for the gospel to go forth to everyone. This is the way to begin to look outward � you should pray that the Lord would open opportunities for us to share the gospel with someone in your place of work or study or in your neighbourhood. Once we pray that prayer, you should then be sensitive to God's leading to see the answer to your prayer.

You should also pray that God would give you the ability to make the gospel clear. Now besides prayer, another thing you need to do to bring The Gospel of Jesus Christ to everyone is:

B. Through Walking in Wisdom Toward Them

Verse 5 says 'Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time.' To walk in wisdom means to 'live wisely and carefully' (referring here to conduct). All your attempts to share the gospel of Christ with others would be useless if you are not careful in your conduct before them. People would say, 'What you do speaks more loudly than what you say.' Dearly beloved, please let there be nothing in your conduct that will hinder your witness for Christ. You should rather 'Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.' (Matthew 5:16).

The phrase 'redeeming the time' in v.5 of our text implies that you must have a sense of urgency in reaching out to people, and make the most of every opportunity that you have to bring them to Christ. Time is running out for this world. This year started not too long ago and already we are coming to the end of it. As we welcome the new year this Wednesday night, let us also realize this: There is not much time left to bring the lost to Christ.

V.6 continues on the theme of walking in wisdom, by telling us how we should speak to others 'with grace, seasoned with salt' Grace here means to speak kindly and pleasantly, rather than in an aggressive and argumentative manner. The use of the term salt refers to the fact that it was once used to purify and preserve food. Thus whatever we speak should be clean and wholesome, leaving a good taste, so to speak in the mouth of the hearer. The verse also tells us to 'know how we ought to answer every man.' From what we know of the early church, there was a tremendous emphasis on giving a proper and accurate answer about the faith. Every Christian ought to know the Bible well enough to give a clear, comprehensive answer concerning what he believes. How well do you know the Bible?

Thus far we have seen two steps we must take to bring Christ to every man: Firstly, to Pray for opportunities to reach out to others, and secondly, to be careful to live a life that attracts people to Christ and does not drive them away from Him.

The rest of chapter 4 in Colossians are the concluding remarks of Paul to the church, where he writes about some personal arrangements he had made for them and conveys greetings to them and to certain people in their midst. But from this, we can draw two more steps that can help in bringing Christ to every man: The first is

C. Through Faithful Messengers

One thing that can greatly facilitate the propagation of the gospel is the use of faithful messengers who are willing to go forth and bring the message of Christ to the world. This is why Christ exhorts us to pray that the Lord of the harvest will send forth more labourers into His harvest.

In v.7 we can find a good example of one such messenger: Tychicus. He is described here as 'a beloved brother and a faithful minister and fellowservant of the Lord.' Tychicus came from the province of Asia, and accompanied Paul in part of his third missionary journey (Acts 20:4). He became the bearer of the epistle to the Colossians, and Paul stated the purpose of his visit to them in v.8. Thus Tychicus came to them as Paul's representative. He was to inform them about what was happening to Paul, collect information to bring back to Paul and also to comfort (or encourage) their hearts - which we can presume to mean that he would minister the Word of God to them.

V.9 mentions someone by the name of Onesimus who accompanied Tychicus. The full story of this person is found in the book of Philemon. He was a slave who worked for Philemon, one of the Colossian church leaders. Onesimus was not a Christian at first and ran away from his master, stealing some items from him in the process. Somehow, he came to Rome, where Paul found him and brought him to Christ. His life was changed and so Paul wanted him to return back to Philemon, and make up for the loss he had caused to him. Since Tychicus was going to Colossae, Paul sent Onesimus along with him together with a letter to his master to receive him back. This letter is found in our Bibles as the epistle to Philemon.

We can imagine the kind of impact the appearance and testimony of Onesimus might have made on the Colossian Christians. Here was clear evidence of God's powerful grace working in a sinner's life. His life was a message in itself. And this is yet another way to bring Christ to every man - by sharing one's testimony of how one�s life has been changed by Christ!

As we look at the lives of Tychicus and Onesimus, we ought to pray that the Lord will provide such useful messengers in our own midst who will go to places where Christ has not been proclaimed, and bring the gospel to them. We thank God for the missionaries that God has raised up from our church, and who are serving Him now in Cambodia, Kenya, Thailand, Indonesia, Saipan and Malaysia. They are there because Jesus is truly the Saviour of the world!

And all of us should be concerned about missions, and be involved in praying for missions, providing support for missions and even participating in mission trips. I thank God that in the last two months, there have been no less than 5 mission trips made by Lifers. The medical mission trip to Batam, the trip to Cambodia by four from our Adult Fellowship, another mission trip to Cambodia by a team of youths, the mission trip to Kenya led by Elder Tan Nee Keng, and right now, the team of 40 who are up at Kota Tinggi to conduct the very first Vacation Bible School there. God willing, there will be more mission trips next year. One to Cambodia in February, Another one to Kenya in July. Who will go and bring the Gospel? Let each of us consider how we can be messengers of God by participating and sharing a word of encouragement and testimony of how God has worked in our life. God can use anyone of us to do His work in local or foreign missions.

In our passage we can see a variety of backgrounds of people that God used to bring the gospel to others. We already saw that Onesimus was a runaway slave. In vv.10,11 there are three Jewish Christians mentioned - Aristarchus, Marcus and Jesus Justus. Epaphras (v.12) was the very first Colossian to become a Christian through Paul, and he was zealous to go back and encourage the 3 churches he had established in the three cities of the Lycus valley (at Colossae, Hierapolis and Laodicea). V.13 mentions Luke who was a doctor from Philippi. We thank God for some doctors and dentists in our church who in the spirit of Luke, make medical trips to Batam twice a year. If you are an engineer, you can also be of help to the work of missions. One engineer in our church sacrificed much of his valuable time in his busy schedule to make two trips (March and May) this year to Cambodia to help our missionary, Rev David Koo in his building project.

Coming back to our text, we see Nymphas who is mentioned in v.15 as having a church in his house. This provides us another effective means of bringing Christ to the world, by Christians who are willing to let God use their personal assets and properties for His use. You can think of ways they can be availed for the Lord's use. You can open your house for Bible studies, or fellowship meetings, and invite your neighbours to come. If you have a car, use it to help fetch people to church on Sundays - especially those who do not have transport. If you have a computer, learn how to use it to do desktop publishing or to edit video reports on missions (One brother in our church has done that).

We come now to the last person mentioned, and he is Archippus (v.17). He appears to be the resident pastor or fulltime worker at the Colossian church. He needed some special encouragement from Paul, perhaps because of the many difficulties he faced there. When you think of our missionaries, evangelists and fulltime workers please remember that they sometimes need to receive a word of encouragement from you, especially when they have to cope with difficult problems on the mission field.

Do you know that you can be a great help to the Lord's work in missions simply by writing a letter or email to a missionary? Just the thought that somebody remembers him and prays for him can make a great difference in helping him overcome feelings of loneliness and homesickness. And this brings us to the fourth and final means we can use for bringing Christ to the world:

D. Through A Writing Ministry

V.16 is all about this. Paul's instructions was that this epistle should be read in the Colossian church and then sent over to the church in Laodicea to be read there as well. And apparently he had also sent an epistle to Laodicea, which was to be read to the Colossians. This letter no longer exists, and God chose not include it in His written Word. What we learn from this is how effective the writing ministry can be. One epistle could be circulated to many churches and wherever it was read, it would bring valuable teaching, instruction and encouragement from God's Word, as if the writer himself were present among them.

Now Paul was not the only one involved in this writing ministry. In our passage there are two other Bible writers. Can you spot them? V.10 - Marcus, was the writer of the Gospel of Mark.

V.14 Luke was the writer of the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts. What they have written has been read by thousands an even millions of people, has been translated into hundreds of languages. Their impact has reached down to us, and is still changing lives and drawing men to Christ! This shows us how powerful the written word can be. God�s Word in Isaiah 55:11 says, 'So shall My word be that goeth forth out of My mouth: it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.'

Let this encourage us to keep disseminating the Word of God, whether by giving out Bibles, or distributing Gospel tracts, copies of our Church weekly, or good Christian literature. Or even by using the Internet or e-mail. Today you can reach hundreds or thousands of souls with just the click of a mouse!

I trust that the Lord has opened your eyes through this message that our Lord Jesus, the Saviour of the world, is not to be kept all to ourselves, to our worship services, our Bible study meetings, or to the four walls of our church. Christ, the Saviour of the world is for Every Man, and it is up to you now to use all your resources to bring Him to every man, through prayer, through your Christian Conduct and personal sharing of the gospel with others, through sending and supporting God's messengers, and also through the literature ministry. Let us to do these things as we come to the new year, so that the name of Christ will be continue to be proclaimed as widely and as rapidly as possible and many more will come to know our Jesus in the year 2004!

Colossians 3:22-4:1 - The Christian in His Work Environment

By Rev Charles Seet

Preached at Life BPC 1045am Svc, 2011-07-03

Text: Colossians 3:22-4:1

Most of us who are adult Singaporeans spend up to half of our time on weekdays at the place where we work. We face a very huge challenge - How to retain our Christian identity in our work place. You may be a CEO, a professional or managerial staff or an office clerk. But does the fact that you are also a Christian affect the way you work? When you leave home for work every morning, do you leave your Christian identity behind? Should you be a worker first and a Christian second, or a Christian first and a worker second? One passage that will help us to have the right perspective of our working life is Colossians 3:22-4:1. In order to understand the background that leads up to this passage we shall start our reading from v.12.

In this passage, Paul begins to give practical instructions to the Colossians by reminding them of what they are now. They are no more children of the world living under God's wrath. Because Christ has saved them, they have become the elect of God, holy and beloved! And so they must live differently from before. Their lives should now exhibit new virtues such as compassion, humility, patience, peace, gratitude and love (vv.12-15). But above all, their lives from henceforth must be focused on the Lord Jesus Christ (vv.16-17). This is in keeping with what had been taught so well in the first chapter of Colossians concerning the pre-eminence of Christ. Thus, the minds of these Colossian Christians should be filled with the Word of Christ, their hearts should be singing with grace to Christ, and all that they do should be done in the name of Christ.

In all this we are actually no different from the Colossians. Because of what we have become through Christ - the elect of God, holy and beloved - we must live lives that are different from before. Our lives should exhibit the very same virtues that are mentioned in vv.12-15, and we should be focused on Christ in our minds, in our hearts and in all that we do. Only then will we be a shining testimony that may lead others to find salvation in Christ.

Such Christ-centred living should first of all be applied to our home life. This is dealt with in vv.18-21. Christian wives, husbands, children and fathers are to be different from non-Christian wives, husbands, children and fathers. And the details of this have already been covered in our last quarter's sermons. But in the rest of the passage, we see that Christian servants and masters ought to be different from non-Christian servants and masters. This injunction is very applicable to Christians who work as employees and employers. And what we need to know is how different should we be as workers? Firstly, we should have-

I. A Different View of Our Respective Roles

You will notice that in v.22 servants are being addressed. The word 'servants' here actually refers to slaves. And the word 'masters' at the beginning of the next chapter refers to those who owned these slaves. This brings out an interesting phenomenon in the early church - that slavery continued to exist among Christians despite the fact that all of them were equal in Christ, and hence all class distinctions should be abolished. In v.11 of our text Paul had written that, 'there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.' (cf. Galatians 3:28)

Because of this, you would find Christian slaves and Christian masters worshipping together within the same church. On Sundays they would come to church and sit together to praise and worship God. They were all fellow brothers in Christ, and of equal standing before God. But when they were at home, Christian slaves accepted their subservient role to their masters. The Colossian church had one master-and-slave relationship that we know of - Philemon and Onesimus. The details are recorded in the Book of Philemon. Philemon was a prominent member of this church and a convert of the apostle Paul. Onesimus was Philemon's slave, who had stolen from Philemon and run away to Rome to avoid arrest and punishment. But somehow he met Paul in Rome and was gloriously saved through him. Onesimus then became a devoted servant to Paul. But Paul knew that he could not keep Onesimus because he belonged to Philemon, and he has to face the consequences of his crime of stealing and running away.

Roman law gave Philemon full rights to have Onesimus executed for these crimes. But Paul wrote a letter, asking him to apply Christian love and forgiveness to Onesimus, and Paul even offered to pay Philemon whatever the slave had stolen from him. Thus Onesimus returned to Colossae bearing this letter to his master, and was no longer resentful of his role as a slave because he was changed by Christ. The injunction in Colossians 3:22 for slaves to obey their masters in all things was meant for Onesimus and for other Christian slaves in Colossae.

From this, we see that the Gospel of Christ did not bring about the abolition of slavery at that time. This would come about only many centuries later. The reason for this is that slavery was very deeply entrenched in society at that time - about one-third of the population of Roman Italy were slaves! It was not something that could be eradicated overnight. But the Gospel of Christ did transform radically the way that Christians slaves and masters in the early church viewed their respective roles. Paul did not tell Christian slaves to seek freedom from slavery. Instead, he instructed them to fulfil their role well by being good and obedient slaves to their masters. Neither did Paul persuade the Christian masters to release their slaves. Instead, he instructed them to fulfil their role well by giving their slaves fair and just treatment. Now what has all this to do with us?

As Christians, we should understand that God has appointed each of us to fulfil a role in the community, whether as a doctor, accountant, bus driver, teacher, lawyer or soldier. And God has blessed us with certain capabilities that fit us for the particular role He has given. E.g. Bezaleel the son of Uri was tasked to construct all the furniture of the Tabernacle and he was gifted with artistic skills for his task (see Exodus 31:1-5). The same thing was true for other people in Scripture: Our Lord Jesus was a carpenter. Paul was a tent-maker. Luke was a doctor, and Peter, Andrew, James and John were all fishermen. Likewise each of us must see our work not merely as a job that we hold to make a living, but as a God-given role that He expects us to fulfil well.

And God may see fit to change our roles as circumstances change. E.g. Moses' role was changed from prince, to shepherd, and then to deliverer of Israel. Joseph's role was changed by God from slave to prime minister, and he fulfilled both of these roles very well. Nehemiah's role was changed from being a king's cup-bearer to being a builder of the walls of Jerusalem and he fulfilled both these roles well.

The way that you view your role in your place of work will definitely affect the way you work. You will be a better worker if you see it differently from the world. The world largely regards work as a necessary evil. It is something that everyone has to do in order to get more money for play and enjoyment. Work is undesirable and stressful, while play is very desirable and restful. Work is useful only as far as it enables man to play and indulge all his lusts and worldly desires in leisure and fun-filled activity.

But to us who are saved, work is not to be viewed as a necessary evil. It is a gift from God. We see work as something good and useful. It gives us the opportunity to learn how to be patient, responsible and diligent. Through work, we can develop initiative, creativity and social skills that will make us more useful both to God and to our fellow man. When God made man, He did not make man to play, but to work. Adam was not placed in the Garden of Eden to frolic and laze around under its shady trees. He was placed there to work! Genesis 2:15 tells us that 'the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.' Besides having a different view from the world of our respective roles, being a Christian also means that we must apply-

II. A Different Set of Principles to Apply

The world has its own set of principles when it comes to work. E.g. 'Work smart, not hard. Get everything that you can get by all means, but don't get caught.' Bosses would therefore exploit their workers to the fullest and use them to swell their company's coffers. Employees would soon learn to deceive their bosses, take sick leave when they are not sick, and use various means to get more benefits from their company.

The masters and slaves in Paul's time were doing the very same thing. From Colossians 4:1 we can infer that there were masters who did not give their slaves what was just and equal. From Col 3:22 we can infer that many slaves were not obedient to their masters in all matters, and were diligent only when their masters were watching them. And what motivation would they have to do more than that? Slaves had no freedom and no personal rights. They received no payment for all their hard work except their daily rations of food and a place to sleep. They only obeyed their masters out of fear - the fear of what their masters would do to them if they refused to obey. Earlier on we had seen the example of Onesimus - in his unsaved state, this slave stole his master's goods and ran away.

But all this had to change when slaves became Christians. According to v.22 they must now obey their earthly masters in all things. This means that there cannot be any hidden disobedience at all. They cannot just give an outward show of obedience, but it has to be an obedience from the heart. Why? Because the one they should fear now is not their earthly master who cannot see everything they do, but their heavenly Master who sees all things.

The same thing applied to earthly masters who became Christians. They had to change the way they handled their slaves. They must now treat them as fellow human beings, who are made in the image of God. They must love them and take good care of their welfare, always remembering that they have a Master in heaven who watches how well they treat their slaves.

How does this apply to Christian workers? It means that you must treat all your subordinates equally well and you must not make demands of them which are unreasonable. If you are a subordinate, it means that you must do all things honestly at work, even those things that your boss may never see or know anything about. Harry Ironside, a famous Bible teacher, used to tell his students of the maid who was asked how she knew she had really become a Christian. She replied, 'I know I'm a Christian because I sweep under the rugs now!'

Those of us who are in the working world will face situations where moral decisions have to be made. For instance, as you travel with a colleague on a business trip, she suggests that you bring along some expensive clothes that you do not intend to use on the trip. When you ask her why you should do this, she says, 'Well, in this way you can get them all dry-cleaned at the hotel and have it covered as a business expense. Isn't this smart?' Should you take up her suggestion?

Here is another situation: Your boss has just told you that he plans to retire from the company in 2 years' time and that he wants you to prepare to take over his post. But unknown to him, your own plans are to leave the company for further studies in 2 years' time, and to use the 2 years' salary from your job to pay for your studies. If you were to tell your boss what your plans are, you may find yourself out of a job very soon. So should you tell your boss now, or should you wait until the 2 years are almost up before you tell him?

In these situations, it is extremely tempting to do what everyone else would do. As many people would say, 'When in Rome, just do as the Romans do, if you know what's good for you.' There are things going on in the workplace everyday that are questionable and not entirely above board, but the common thinking is, 'Since everyone knows about it and everybody's doing it, then it must be OK.' Taking sick leave when they are not sick, taking advantage of other employees, asking a trusted colleague to clock in or clock out for them - these are all an accepted part of workplace culture. And when you are in it, it can be very hard to be different from the rest.

Some years ago a member of our Filipina service who worked as a nurse in a local hospital was posted to a department that handles abortions. She objected to the posting because she knew that having any part in the killing of unborn babies would displease God. At first she was told that she may be sacked if she rejects the posting. But later on the hospital administration decided that she was too valuable to be removed, and so she was posted to another department and was able to keep her job. The Lord will honour those who honour Him (1 Samuel 2:30).

Please remember this: We have a different set of principles from the world in doing our work - God's moral law. This applies even to enjoying the company's fringe benefits. As Christians we should never take more than what is fair for us to receive. We must therefore be careful how we use expense accounts. Expense accounts allow employees to fund business trips, to purchase necessary office equipment or to impress potential clients over dinner. But even the most responsible employees have probably taken at least a bit of liberty with their company's expense accounts, for instance, taking a limousine taxi when they could have walked a few blocks to the hotel, or ordering the most expensive food item on the menu for themselves.

The expense account is a privilege, not a right. You must use it with care to retain your employer's trust. Do not treat it as an ATM machine to finance exotic vacations for yourself, or dinners at 5-star restaurants or other personal expenses under the guise of 'business expenses.' When such abuse of company funds comes into public view, the consequences will be nothing short of scandalous.

But even if this never comes into public view, it will always come under the view of our all-seeing God. God is interested in every part of your life, and that includes all the things that you do at work. And He requires you to glorify Him even through your working life. This brings us now to another way that we are to be different from the world in our working life. We have-

III. A Different Master to Work for (v.23)

Verse 23 says, 'And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men.' The real boss that you are working for is not your human boss but the Lord Jesus. You are a servant of Christ. Many people think that in order to be a servant of Christ they have to resign from their secular job and go into fulltime ministry as a pastor or a missionary. If you think that way, you are utterly mistaken. The truth is that every type of work you do should be regarded as service to our Lord Jesus. Being a manager, accountant, postman or garbage collector is no less glorifying to God than being a pastor or full time Christian worker if you do the work in a biblical way.

So please think about this now: If you treat your work in the office as your service to Christ and regard Him as your actual boss at work, how would you carry out each day's work? Would you dare to do less than what is required of you? Would you always arrive late at the work place? Would you take sick leave if you are not sick? No, if Christ is your boss I'm sure you would want to work cheerfully and diligently without complaining. I'm sure you would want to treat your colleagues and subordinates with kindness and respect. And you would want to do all these things not to advance your own personal agenda or your career but to advance His fame and His glory. 1 Corinthians 10:31 tells us, 'Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.'

This also applies to any work that you may not like to do. You see, v.22 says that you are to 'obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God.' Does this mean I have to do a task that I really dislike? Yes, if it happens to be part of your work responsibility. But what if I end up doing it only to impress my boss? Then it becomes eyeservice which is merely putting on an act. A Christian worker is to do all that is required of him well whether or not his boss is watching him, because he does it as to the Lord Jesus, and not unto men.

But doing this consistently is very difficult. It goes against our sinful nature. We will naturally not like to do what we don't like unless we can gain something worthwhile out of it. We crave for some tangible rewards, and we really dislike doing more than what we are paid to do. We keep regarding our work as a necessary evil that we have to endure just to get the money we need for living and playing. Or we go to the other extreme of turning work into an idol - we become 'workaholics' who neglect our families and our walk with God. How can we stop ourselves from falling into all these wrong and worldly attitudes to work?

We can do it only by relying on our Master's help. Our Lord Jesus is the One who provides all the resources we need to overcome sin and to glorify Him in our work place. Please look at verse 17 of our text, which says 'And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.' Everything has to be done in the name of the Lord Jesus. This means that we give glory and honour to His name, by acknowledging that it is only by His grace and strength alone that we can do all things. The accompanying words 'giving thanks to God and the Father by Him' show that this is the intended meaning. When we recognize that all we have done is possible only by the Lord's grace, then thanksgiving for that grace becomes the most natural thing to do.

Jesus Himself has said that without Him we can do nothing (John 15:5). You can't be a good worker unless His power works in you. You can't overcome that sinful nature inside you without Him. That is why you must seek His grace at the beginning of each work-day in order to be a good worker. When you step into your office or work station every morning what is the first thing you should do? Commit the day to the Lord and ask Him for grace to go through it. What should you do at the end of the day before you leave the office? Thank Him that His grace has seen you through another day at work.

And whenever you have a bad day when all your hard work seems to be completely unrecognised and unrewarded, let this point you to another way in which you must be different from the world. You work for-

IV. A Different Kind of Reward to Hope for (v.24)

Verse 24 tells us, 'Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.' These words would really have given those first century slaves in Colossae the best motivation to obey their masters in all things and to do it heartily. Why? Because no household slave could ever hope to receive any inheritance from their master since that was reserved only for their master's sons. It was the most unthinkable and undeserved honour for a slave to be treated as an heir.

And this is the kind of reward we ought to look forward to in our working life. You see, even when we have done our work obediently for the glory of God in the roles He has given to us on earth, we are unprofitable slaves - we have only done that which was our duty to do (Luke 17:20). And yet the Lord is pleased to make us His heirs. The Lord is pleased to reward us with a heavenly inheritance. And this is far better than any monetary remuneration or bonus we can ever receive because it is totally undeserved. This inheritance is given to us out of God's marvellous grace and favour through our Lord Jesus Christ - The same grace that was manifested on the cross where Jesus died; the same grace that has delivered us out of sin and darkness to dwell in His marvellous light; the same grace that works in us after we are saved that transforms us gradually into the image of Christ; the same grace that keeps us from falling and preserves us to the end until we inherit eternal life. Isn't God's grace actually the best reward that we can ever receive?

And God's grace is also the best reward you can receive at work. It may be shown to you in very unexpected ways. He may grant you favour in the sight of your boss (as he did for Joseph in Egypt and for Daniel in Babylon). Or He may replace the management of your company with a better one so that everyone enjoys better treatment and there is peace in your work place. Or God may remove every obstacle that hinders your work so that all your efforts become fruitful. Your colleagues will say that it must be due to your luck or good fortune, but you know that it is nothing but the undeserved blessings you received from God's matchless grace.

I would like you to consider how privileged you are to be a recipient of God's grace, and how this wonderful grace should now compel you to live and work differently from the world - with a different view of your role at work, with a different set of principles to apply at work, with a different Master to work for, and with a different kind of reward to hope for. May the grace of our Lord Jesus compel us to live the way that Christians ought to live in our work environment.

Colossians 3:16 - What Are Hymns?

By Rev Charles Seet

Preached at / Published Life BPC 10.45 am service, 2005-12-18

Text: Colossians 3:16

If you were here last Sunday you would have heard a message entitled "Why Do We Sing?." We learned that God's people are actually commanded to sing. And therefore we should all be 'singing Christians' and not 'sinning Christians.' Do you know that singing occupies a prominent place in the life of the believer and of the church? It is one of the prominent features of the worship that goes on in heaven, of worship at the temple of Jerusalem, and also of our worship. We sing when we are happy and thankful to express our joy (e.g. at an anniversary). We sing when we are sad and need comfort (e.g. at a vigil or funeral service). We sing to remember great events (e.g. Christmas). We also sing whenever we have any Christian fellowship meeting or prayer meeting. In fact we have half an hour of singspiration before the Prayer meeting every week. This is why we need another message on singing beside the one that we had last week. And this morning's message will focus what we are to sing - hymns. There are so many wonderful hymns to sing with a wide range of themes covering every expression of praise and trust!

Do you know that some of the hymns we sing are hundreds of years old and have been sung by many generations of God's people? The earliest known Christian hymn is 'Shepherd of Eager Youth' This was originally sung in Greek, and was composed by Clement of Alexandria (170-220, see RHC 59). Some other hymns were originally sung in Latin. One of them is the Gloria Patri which we sing at every worship service just after the invocation. This song dates to the end of the 4th century and it has therefore been sung by God's people for over 16 hundred years! That makes it older than any country's national anthem.

In order to be singing Christians it is good for us to learn what the Bible teaches about hymn-singing, and also about how the hymns we sing have developed up to the present time.

I. What Are Hymns?

The word 'hymn' occurs only 4 times in our English Bible: For example, please turn your Bible to Matthew 26:30 'And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives.' There are two verses where the Greek word for 'singing hymns' (humneo) is translated as 'sing praises' e.g. Acts 16:25 'And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises (humneo) unto God: and the prisoners heard them.'

This shows us that hymns are basically praises that are sung. According to hymnologists, a song must have at least three elements in order to qualify as a hymn:

1. It must give praise to God (not to one's country - as in a national anthem)

2. It must be sung (It is not a poem that is read or recited in praise of God)

3. It must be sung by a congregation (unlike songs that are performed on stage by a soloist). It is interesting to note that during the Dark Ages congregational singing stopped, and all the singing for worship was done only by a small choir of monks. But the common people who attended the worship services could not understand what was sung at all because the monks sung everything in Latin! The 16th century Protestant Reformation has rightly restored congregational singing as we have it today. The invention of printing not only placed Bibles in our hands, but hymnals as well, to use for congregational singing!

II. How are Hymns Different from Psalms?

Now, hymns are a different type of song of praise from the psalms. Psalm-singing is a biblical practice, as James wrote in James 5:13 'Is any merry? let him sing psalms.' Do you know that the book of psalms was the original songbook that was used for worship by Israel? They were sung at the Temple and continue to be sung in synagogues today. In order to make the psalms easier to sing in English, the words of the psalms have been rearranged in metrical form to give a certain number of syllables per line. And these psalms that can be sung easily are compiled into a songbook called a Psalter.

And since April this year we have been using the Trinity Psalter (red book) to encourage the singing of psalms both in our worship services and in our singspiration on Tuesday night before prayer meeting. The Reformer John Calvin said that whenever we look for suitable songs of praise, 'we shall not find better songs nor more fitting for the purpose, than the Psalms of David which the Holy Spirit spoke and made through him; when we sing them, we are certain that God puts in our mouths these, as if He Himself were singing in us to exalt His glory.'

Hymns are songs of praise to God other than the psalms. Unlike psalms, the words of hymns are composed by human writers, as a result of their own personal meditation on scriptural truths.

Some people may then ask, if God has already given us the book of 150 psalms to use for our singing, why should we add hymns to our singing? Well there are several reasons why it is biblical to sing both hymns and psalms.

A. Hymns and Psalms are a medium to teach the Whole Bible

One verse that speaks of singing hymns and psalms is Colossians 3:16 'Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.' To understand what psalms, hymns and spiritual songs in this verse means, we need to look at the first part of the verse: 'Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.' This term refers to the whole Bible, and this verse exhorts us to know all of it well. This is brought out by the phrase 'in all wisdom' which implies that the whole counsel of God is meant.

Then it goes on to prescribe one way of doing this - through singing. Singing becomes one of the aids to be used in this ministry of teaching the Word of Christ to one another, and to admonish one another in the Word of Christ. Since the verse states that it is the entire Word of Christ that is communicated in singing, and not only what is written in the Book of psalms alone, then hymns and spiritual songs must logically be the medium for teaching what is found in the rest of the Bible.

B. Many Biblical Songs Are Not Psalms

The singing of songs that are not psalms has been a feature of the life of God's people even in biblical times. In last week�s message Pr Quek provided us with a list of familiar songs both in the Old Testament (15) as the New Testament (9), including The Song of Moses (Deuteronomy 32) The Song of Deborah and Barak (Judges 5); The Song of Hannah (1 Samuel 2:1-10) Mary�s Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55) The Song of Zechariah (Luke 1:67-80); and Simeon's Nunc Dimittus (Luke 2:27-32).

In addition to these, there are many portions of the New Testament which are believed to be early Christian hymns because of the poetic form in which they are written, e.g. Romans 8:31-39; Ephesians 1:3-14; Philippians 2:5-11; 1 Timothy 3:16; 2 Timothy 2:11-13. These were composed and probably sung in church services for the purpose of instruction, memorization as well as worship.

C. Hymns Convey Truths about Christ better than Psalms

There is one more reason why we should sing hymns and not only the psalms: It is that hymns convey truths about Jesus Christ better than the psalms. God's revelation is progressive. In the Old Testament the truths concerning Christ and His salvation were revealed only in types and shadows. It is only in the New Testament that the fullness of revelation was attained. Because of this, the psalms cannot reveal clearly that Jesus is God in the flesh who came to die in the place of sinners. Christ is revealed only in vague and somewhat hidden forms in the psalms, in the form of allusions, types and prophecies. E.g. Psalm 16:10 'For thou wilt not leave My soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.' For clear teaching about Christ and the truths of the Gospel we must therefore sing hymns.

There are some hymns that express the full revelation of the New Testament very well. For example, let us listen to the words of the familiar Christmas Carol, 'Hark the herald angels sing' (RHC 157, 2nd stanza) 'Christ by highest heaven adored; Christ the everlasting Lord; Late in time behold Him come, Offspring of a virgin's womb. Veiled in flesh the Godhead see, Hail th'incarnate Deity! Pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus our Immanuel'. We can see how every line comes from the New Testament scriptures and is rich with New Testament teaching about Christ!

It is because of this that hymns have sometimes proved to be an effective tool for combating false doctrine ' especially when the church was faced with false doctrines that denied the deity of Christ and the Trinity in the 4th century. One example is the hymn 'O Splendour of God's Glory Bright' (RHC 23) - Note how it emphasizes Christ's deity and equality with the Father in last stanza: 'Dawn's glory gilds the earth and skies, Let Him our perfect morn arise, The Word in God the Father one, the Father imaged in the Son.' If you look at the top left of the music, you will notice that this hymn was composed by Ambrose (347-397), the famous bishop of Milan who fought against false teaching.

D. Many Hymns Have Stood the Test of Time

Dearly beloved, all of this means that we should sing both hymns and psalms in our worship. If we limit ourselves to singing psalms alone in worship, then we would also miss out on the rich heritage of Christian hymns that has been built up through almost 2000 years of history. Many of these hymns have stood the test of time, and have been used of God to bless the devotions of generations of God's people.

It is interesting to observe that the greatest periods of spiritual renewal in Christendom have always been accompanied by an outburst of new hymns composed for God�s people to sing. For example, many of the hymns that we sing came as a result of the Protestant Reformation. John Huss, the Bohemian Reformer who was burned at the stake, wrote many hymns in the 15th century. Martin Luther (1483-1546) the German Reformer who initiated the Protestant Reformation. He wrote 37 hymns, one of which is the famous 'A Mighty Fortress' (a paraphrase of Psalm 46, RHC 46). Luther compiled a hymnbook for Protestants to use in worship, which included psalms, hymns as well as translations of many Latin hymns.

Two centuries later these hymns of the Reformation gave the inspiration to a famous Baroque composer, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) to refine and arrange them in four-part harmony both for choir as well as congregational singing. It is said that Bach made the greatest contribution of any composer to church music. (e.g. O Sacred Head RHC 188).

Spirited hymn-singing has been one of the hallmarks of the many Revivals in Church History. During the Evangelical Awakening in England and America in the 18th Century there was prolific hymn writing by godly writers like Charles Wesley, John Newton (Amazing Grace RHC307) and his friend, William Cowper (O for a Close Walk with God RHC 388), and Isaac Watts (When I Survey the Wondrous Cross RHC 551).

Another period of prolific hymn-writing was the John Sung revival in Singapore in the 1930s when souls were saved and believers were greatly revived in large numbers. Many of the choruses that were composed in that revival can be found in our hymnal (e.g. RHC 515 - How Marvelous His Love - John Sung Choruses). They bring back echoes of the spiritual vitality that characterized the revival.

III. What Hymns Should We Sing?

Now while we have seen how it is biblical to sing hymns composed by men, beside the singing of psalms of the Bible, we also need to exercise some wise discernment in our choice of hymns. Not all hymns are suitable for singing in worship. Some hymns are in fact unbiblical and also unedifying. In our choice of hymns we should sing those that have three qualities:

a. They should be faithful to the Scriptures (Colossians 3:16 'Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.')

b. They should be objective and free from introspection (1 Corinthians 14:15 'I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.' Cf. Psalm 47:7)

c. They should not be conformed to the world (Romans 12:2 'And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind')

Many new hymns composed in recent times lack these qualities. They are quite different from the old-time hymns that we sing in our worship services. The main difference is that they are becoming more and more conformed to the world's music, reflecting the same trend to compromise with the world that is also found in Christendom today. There are two parts in this trend:

Firstly, the words of many Christian songs are less faithful to scripture and less objective than before. The stress has shifted away from doctrine to emotionalism and existentialism.

Secondly, the tunes of the songs have become more like the contemporary sentimental pop music that the world loves to hear. This trend has gone even into rock music, e.g. In the 1980s a group called STRYPER - became the first Heavy Metal Christian band to break into the music industry. They set the pace for Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) until the band was disbanded in 1992.

Some years ago I was invited to speak at a Youth Worship service of another Church, and almost all the songs they sang were contemporary, reflecting the prevailing type of music that appeals to the world, and sung to the rapid accompaniment of a keyboard, bass guitar and bongo drums. I personally do not think that this should be encouraged in our worship. I believe that the music that believers use to worship God should be intrinsically different from the world's music. Someone has put it this way: 'We do not sing the world's songs with God's words because the music of the world will always overwhelm the words of the song even with the best of intentions.'

Let us remember that the primary purpose of all our hymns must be to praise and glorify God and not to entertain men. They should help us to love God more and to declare that love to others. Since our God is a God of truth, order, goodness and beauty, our music should be the same too, in order to reflect His glory well.

This brings us to the last and most important part of the message, which is on

IV. How Should We Sing Hymns?

The last part of our text in Colossians 3:16 tells us that we should sing 'with grace in your hearts to the Lord.' There are at least three things that must characterize our singing: Firstly we should sing with grace in our hearts. This means that one pre-requisite for singing hymns is that you must first be saved. If you have not experienced the grace of God that alone can saves you from sins, your singing of hymns will become a meaningless activity, and at worst, it may even be something displeasing to God! This happened to the people of Israel when they had turned away from God. God spokte to them in Amos 5:23 'Take thou away from Me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols.'

And so if there is anyone here who is still outside Christ, let me urge you not to wait anymore to receive Him as your Saviour and Lord. Only when you are saved will you be able to sing with a genuine thankful spirit, and with grace in your hearts to the Lord!

Secondly, we should sing in our hearts. Notice that it does not say singing with your mouths. It is easy to sing with our mouth, but it requires effort to sing with our heart as well. Singing hymns will be futile and meaningless if it becomes a mere outward form, done mechanically with no inward expression from our hearts. It may be possible for a person to sing a hymn most beautifully and with perfect pitch, but it will be nothing but noise to God, if his heart is not in it. Dearly beloved, when you sing hymns, please don�t get too carried away by the music. Pay close attention to the words that you sing. Think about what they mean, and let your singing be a genuine personal expression of the words. Only then will your soul be blessed with the Word of God that is found within them, and your singing will be filled with life!

Finally, we should sing to the Lord. Every hymn we sing in worship is an offering dedicated unto Him. We should not sing to be heard by the people around us, hoping that they will be impressed by our fine singing. We should not sing even to ourselves, for our own personal entertainment or enjoyment. But we should sing to the Lord, to minister to Him and to give Him the greatest pleasure that mortals like us can give.

Dearly beloved, let it be our fervent prayer that the hymns of our Sunday worship services will always be sung with grace in our hearts to the Lord. And may this morning's message on the singing of Hymns help us to appreciate the value of the old-time hymns, and sing them often with meaning and expression, and promote their use in praising the Lord.

Colossians 3:16-21 - Recipe for a Godly Home

By Rev Charles Seet

Preached at Life BPC 10.30am service, 2003-05-11

Text: Colossians 3:16-21

As today is Mother's Day I think it would appropriate for us to meditate on what the Bible says about the home. Hence, the topic for our message this morning is 'Recipe for a Godly Home.' God wants us to build godly homes for Him because our family life is important to Him. This can be seen in the way that God dealt with families in the Bible. When God called Abraham to go to the Land of Promise, he included the promise that 'in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.' (Genesis 12:3) When the Gospel of Christ was preached by Paul at Philippi, it brought not just individuals to salvation, but their families as well. This was the case with a woman named Lydia, and with the Philippian jailer (Acts 16:15,33). And when God gave instructions to His people in His Word on how they should live, He included instructions on their family life as well. All these go to show us that God has a claim upon your home. He wants you to make your home a godly home. But you need the right ingredients to do this. What are the ingredients that must be used to build a godly home?

I. Jesus Christ must be the Head of the Home

The first ingredient is found in Colossians 3:16,17 'Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.'

You will notice that Jesus is mentioned no less than 3 times in these two verses. This indicates His pre-eminence within the church. His Word must dwell in every heart; His praise should sound from everyone's lips, and His Name should be honoured by everyone's works! But this also applies to the home, since each Christian family is a subunit of the family of God which is the church. The Lord is therefore the most important member of the home. Even though He may not be visible, He must be given the greatest honour and respect by all in the home. In some Christian homes, you may find a plaque that reads, 'Christ is the Head of this House, the Unseen Guest at every meal, and the Silent Listener to every conversation.' And He must be loved more than anyone else, even more than one's spouse, one's children or one's parents. It is this common love that all family members have for God that binds them all together. It is the mainstay or backbone of the family. And if the ideal situation is achieved, where all members of the family are equally and fully committed to the Lord, then that love becomes the strongest force that can bind the family and keep it from disintegrating despite any trial or crisis.

But how can such a home be realized? It will not come about without effort. Efforts must be made to cultivate the knowledge of God and love for God in every member of the home. A godly home cannot be built and maintained without this. This is why you need to do what v.16 says, 'Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom'. The Word of God must be read, taught and studied not only in church, but even at home. And this is not only to be done individually, when each family member has his or her own quiet time with God, but also together as a family.

Unfortunately this important principle of family religion is being neglected in many Christian homes today, even in the families of our own church. Everyone is so busy, that many families today do not even sit down to have a meal together. Either they come back home at different times, or they quickly heat up a meal and plunge themselves in front of the TV, hoping to catch their meal as well as the evening news or a favourite prime time TV show. And as they watch TV there is hardly any communication with each other. And the only time when there is any kind of meaningful conversation is when father or mother sits the child down to get him to do his school homework! The typical Singaporean family does not spend time together anymore. Parents are often too busy, and when they do have time, they are too tired from a hectic working day to communicate well.

What is the result of this on Christian homes? The result is that the spiritual nurture of the children is left to be done by the Sunday School or Vacation Bible School. And if children receive all their spiritual knowledge and values from sources outside the home, rather than in the home itself, then they may tend to dissociate spiritual things from the home environment. Such dissociation is unhealthy, and will certainly not help to build a godly home. Let us therefore make time to bring the teaching of God's Word right into our own homes. How wonderful it is to have a home where family members take delight in opening the scriptures together and talking about the things of God in moments of family devotions!

Thus we have seen that the first and most important ingredient in the recipe for a godly home is that Jesus must be the head of the home, and that His Word must dwell richly within the whole family. We come now to the second ingredient, which is found in v.18:

II. The Wife Should Submit to Her Husband

v.18 'Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.' Wifely submission is not a very popular concept in the world today. Some would even consider the idea offensive, old fashioned and even unjust. But every Christian wife is commanded in the scriptures to submit to her husband. There are some today who do not think that this command, and even the biblical model for marriage should be taken seriously anymore, especially with regard to the husband's leadership role. They claim that this model for marriage was actually the outcome of the male-dominated society that existed in Bible times, and it is therefore just a cultural phenomenon. Times have now changed. Men and women are equal in all aspects.

Hence they believe that the leadership role in the family should not be restricted to the husband any more. And they say that those who keep on insisting that leadership in the home belongs to the men, are too old-fashioned and outdated. The way to settle this issue is to ask: Is the biblical role of the husband merely a temporary cultural phenomenon, or is it based on something more than that? To find the answer, let us read 1 Corinthians 11:3 'But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.' In this verse, Paul argues for the man's headship. He does it by comparing it with two other headships: the headship of Christ over man, and the headship of God the Father over Christ. These two headships will never change, because they are not cultural, but essential.

This implies that the headship of the man in the family is also not cultural but essential. It applies to marriage in every age - ancient times as well as modern times. It is the God-given order for marriage, and it is sinful to go against it. This does not mean that wives are considered to be inferior in the Bible. Before God, husbands and wives stand on the same footing, as 1 Peter 3:7 says that they are 'heirs together of the grace of life.'

Moreover, it is significant that in 1 Cor 11:3 the headship of husband over the wife should be compared with the headship of God the Father over God the Son. We know that the distinction of the roles of the three Persons within the Godhead does not in anyway diminish the deity or importance of any one of them. Therefore when wives submit to the headship of their husbands, this submision does not diminish their personal standing and importance before God.

But the questioned that we should ask is: What kind of submission is this? Does it mean that a wife must give up all her initiative and creativity? Not at all. In fact a wife can be very creative and have much initiative within her submissive role, like the 'virtuous woman' in Proverbs 31:10-31. The Christian wife is to submit lovingly and willingly to her husband, in the same way that she would submit to the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Christian wife must always recognize the fact that God has given her husband the role of leadership in the marriage, and she should never attempt to usurp this role. And the husband must not tempt his wife to usurp his role by neglecting his leadership role, leaving a leadership vacuum in the home that has to be filled. In many homes abdicating husbands are to be blamed for the disruption of the God-given order of leadership. And husbands must always exercise their leadership role not in a forceful or tyranical manner, but with love. This is the next ingredient in the recipe for a godly home that we want to consider:

III. The Husband Should Love His Wife

This ingredient is mentioned in v.19 'Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.' On their wedding day, all husbands will most gladly say 'I will' to this requirement, especially when they see their bride all dressed in a beautiful wedding gown smiling demurely at them. But when the initial excitement of the wedding is over, and the routine of living together sets in, all the faults and weaknesses of each person's character will become apparent. Then, the feelings of love may change into feelings of bitterness. It is against this that the Word of God here says to husbands, 'love your wives, and be not bitter against them.'

This love must be characterised by commitment. In Christian marriage, love means being firmly committed to one another, regardless of how one may feel about the other. Little irritations and strange habits may change the way that one feels about the other. The husband may feel irritated that his wife is not as punctual as he would like her to be, and the wife may feel irritated that her husband is not as neat and tidy as she would like him to be. I once read a story of how a couple argued on how a toilet roll should be placed on the holder - one prefers the paper to roll off in front, the other prefers the paper to roll off behind. Dearly beloved, feelings may change with time. But if there is commitment, then your love for each other would still remain strong and steadfast, despite any change of feelings.

Besides Commitment there must also be an element of Constructiveness in a husband's love doe his wife. Let those who are husbands here realize that you ought to do everything you can to be a constructive influence in the life of your wife, to build her up, being sensitive to her many needs - physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. There is one way to know that you really love your wife: When meeting her personal needs becomes as important to you as meeting your own personal needs.

When God created the first woman and brought her to Adam, the first thing that he said was, 'This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.' This is because Eve was made from Adam's rib. Every husband should think of his wife like this. She is the bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh. She has become a part of himself, and he must therefore take very good care of her. Let all of us who are husbands therefore not fail to keep this commandment that God has given to us in v.19, 'Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.' Now that we have seen the first three ingredients for a godly home we come to the last two ingredients, which deal with the relationship of parents and children.

IV. Children Should Obey Their Parents

V.20 'Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord.' This command to children is so important that God made it one of the Ten Commandments. I think we all know about the Fifth commandment which says, 'Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.' (Exodus 20:12)

In the New Testament, the importance of the fifth commandment can be seen in the obedience of Jesus to Mary and Joseph. According to Luke 2:51, Jesus as a child was subject unto His earthly parents. In the Old Testament we have the example of Isaac which is described in Genesis 22:8-9 - 'And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together. And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood' The obedience of Isaac in this instance enabled his father to obey God's instructions. Isaac was already old enough to have refused to be bound and placed on the altar. But he chose to honour his father with his obedience. He also shared his father's faith that God would provide a sacrifice. And God blessed Isaac as he grew up to inherit all the precious promises that God had made to his father.

Children who obey their parents like this will also be blessed in another way. They will grow up to understand obedience to authority, and obedience to God. They will not become rebellious, trouble-making misfits, but good law-abiding citizens. This helps them to live a life of tranquillity that would tend to prolong their life. This is why the fifth commandment is accompanied with a promise of long life.

Now, if children are left to themselves without any instruction on the fifth commandment, they will not naturally develop such obedience to their parents. They need to be taught to obey them. They need to be encouraged and at times even disciplined to submit to parental authority. And it is the responsibility of parents to do these things. This brings us now to look at the parents� role toward their children.

V. Parents Should Love and Nurture their Children

v.21 'Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.' The same command is found in Ephesians 6:4 but with something extra added to it 'And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.' Although only the fathers are addressed here, it is understood that mothers are also involved in the care and upbringing of the children. In fact mothers are usually the ones who are left to provide the children with the care and nurture they need. Many fathers are so busy with their work and so tired when they come home, that they hardly spend any quality time with their children. When the children come to them for help or just for companionship, they scold the children for bothering them. When the children make a little too much noise, they scold the children for disturbing their rest. Such treatment will only discourage their children from getting close to their fathers, and worse still, it will provoke them to anger - anger that their father does not love them or care for them.

God wants those of you here who are fathers to take your parenting role seriously. Together with your wife, you should regard your children as God�s precious gifts that are entrusted to your care. And you must do your best to love them and nurture them well, to build them up for God. One good example in the Bible of a good father is Abraham. God gave him a son in his old age that was named Isaac. Abraham loved Isaac and provided for his son's needs - even to the extent of finding a suitable wife for him. He taught Isaac all that he knew about God and His covenant with them. That's how Isaac later on knew enough to continue in the same covenant relationship with God that Abraham had enjoyed.

Imagine what would have happened if Abraham had been too busy (like many fathers today) to spend time with his son - the line of redemption would have come to an early end!

As a loving father, Abraham probably took the young boy Isaac with him whenever he went out to tend to his flocks. He would talk with him about God, and he would answer whatever questions his inquisitive son would ask him. His son would also be there with him when he worshipped God in the offering of animal sacrifices. Abraham made sure that his son knew every detail about the whole procedure - how to bind the lamb, cut it and lay it on the altar with the firewood, and then calling upon the Lord in prayer. And Isaac later knew the whole procedure so well that when they went to Mt Moriah he observed that his aged father had forgotten the most important item for the sacrifice - the lamb! And Abraham replied that God would provide one for Himself, which was actually fulfilled.

And when Isaac realized on the mount that he was the sacrificial lamb, his response revealed the very strong bond he enjoyed with his father. Although he was probably able to outrun his hundred year old Dad quite easily, he chose to submit himself to him without any struggle or resistance. As Abraham commanded him, 'Isaac my son, go up on to the altar and lie down there' Isaac willingly gave his life to his father to be used as a sacrifice to God.

That event on mount Moriah did not only reveal Abraham's obedience to God. It also revealed Abraham's success as a parent. Here was a father who, as God had said, would 'command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment' (Genesis 18:19). Abraham had successfully taught Isaac how to obey the Lord, and Isaac knew that he must obey God, even if it had to cost him his life.

Abraham had taken such great care in building up Isaac for God, loving him, teaching him, and providing for his needs, because Isaac was God's precious gift to him. And that is the way that we who are parents ought to regard our children - They are God's precious gifts to us.

Another child in the Bible who was also a precious gift from God was Samuel, the son of Hannah. While Abraham serves as a pattern for fathers in this aspect, Hannah serves as a pattern for all mothers. Like Abraham, Hannah initially had no children to build up for the Lord, but after her fervent prayers, the Lord graciously gave her a boy named Samuel. Like Abraham, Hannah was willing to give her son to the Lord. In fact she gave him the best care a mother at that time could give to her son until he was old enough to serve the Lord at the Tabernacle.

From looking at the life of Abraham and of Hannah we learn that we should not look upon children as heavy burdens that we are responsible to bear, but as precious lives have been entrusted to our care for a time. Psalm 127:3 'Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is His reward.' They are given for us to build, to mould, and to train them well. Let us build a strong bond of trust with each child we have, and carefully teach them to love the Lord.

As we conclude our message on 'Recipe for a Godly Home' let us summarise the five ingredients that we need - The first and most important ingredient we need is to have Jesus Christ as the Head of the Home. Secondly, The wife should fulfill her role of loving submission toward her Husband. Thirdly, the husband should love his wife. Fourthly, the children should obey their parents, and lastly, parents should love and nurture their children.

Now that you have found all the ingredients for a godly home, please use them well to build your own homes into godly homes. Some of you may say, 'It is not easy for me to do this. You don't know what my husband is like, or You don't know what my wife is life. You don-t know what my children are like.' Dearly beloved, the first person to change is yourself. As you change your attitude and conduct at home, and earnestly ask God to work in your family, the rest of the family members will gradually change as well. Share what you have learned today with them and encourage them to follow these principles. Don't give up hope when you face difficulties in building a godly home. And most of all, trust God to help you to overcome all the obstacles.

Colossians 3:12-16 - Building the Bond of Perfectness

By Rev Charles Seet

Preached at / Published Life BPC 10.45am service, 2006-05-28

Text: Colossians 3:12-16

For the past 2 months we have been meditating on the theme 'Building a Spiritual House.' This spiritual house actually refers to the local Church. The Scriptures uses the house as a means of portraying the function and structure of the church (e.g. 1 Peter 2:5). A house is usually made up of various components such as bricks, steel bars and wood.

However, one thing more is needed if all these components are to perform their role as building components: They must be properly joined together. Bricks need to be joined together with cement. If you were to pile bricks loosly one on top of another, without cement, all you need is one push to topple the pile. Likewise, steel bars or girders have to be properly welded together and set in concrete. Only then are they able to perform their role of providing strong support in columns and beams. Wooden planks have to be nailed together to perform their role. Without being nailed they would move out of place. Now, if you tried to build a house without doing any cementing, welding or nailing, you would probably have a flimsy structure that someone like the big bad wolf would be able to blow down without too much difficulty!

Now, the same thing will happen to the church which is a spiritual house. It consists of many individual components that called members. If these components are merely placed together without being properly bonded together, if will not take too much effort by the Devil or any stormy gale to blow the entire house down. It is only when the components of God's house are bonded well together, that the house will be able to stand firm and fulfill its purpose as a spiritual house for a long time.

This morning's message focuses on this particular aspect of building the spiritual house ' the bond that binds us to one another within the church. It is always a joy to see new bonds developing whenever Lifers have the opportunity to meet and fellowship with one another. These bonds become channels of love and care for one another. This is why we plan and organise events that will provide more opportunities for fellowship. One of them is our monthly Sunday Lunch on every 3rd Sunday of the month - I urge all of us to make it a point to stay back after the service for this and use it to bond with your fellow members in church.

There are also other bond-building opportunities besides this. Last year we had a church games day on 9 August, in which about 170 of us gathered in this sanctuary and were divided into a red team and a white team. After playing many interesting games devised by our young Lifers, the red team scored the most points and won the challenge trophy that was donated by one of our deacons. But more important than winning the challenge trophy was the bonds that were built and strengthened among Lifers. Last Christmas we also had the opportunity to build bonds in the Winter Rose Cantata where members got together regularly for practices. This year, we will be having a Church Vesper with the theme 'Affectionately Linked in Life' on 12th August, where there will be opportunities for sharing testimonies, songs, instrument ensembles and recitation of poems to edify one another. And coming up in just 2 weeks time we will be having our church camp at Tiara resort for 5 days and that will afford plenty of opportunities to build and strengthen bonds among members.

However, as helpful as such events are to build bonds among ourselves, they will not work at all if one very basic condition is not in place. And this basic condition is the willingness of all of us to build a closely-knit church. There must be a general consensus, a commitment and a common interest in all members of the church to build strong bonds with one another. It has to become a felt need for us. If this is lacking, then all the activities and programmes designed to promote closer fellowship in the church will avail very little. Attendance will always be low. All kinds of excuses will be given for not participating in them. And so the key question is: How can we all develop the willingness and desire to become a closely knit church?

For God's people, the strongest motivation to action always comes from God Himself. If we are thoroughly convinced that God wants us to be closely knit, and that this is not an option but really a command from Him that we must obey, then we will certainly make a concerted effort to become a closely-knit church. This is what we will see now as we look at our text in Colossians 3:12-16. Here, the first thing that the Lord wants us to do is to:

I. Change Our Perception of the Church (v.12)

We must regard our church as being very specially cherished by God. We see this in v.12: 'Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved' Here we notice that believers are described with three terms: the first is the term: 'elect of God' - this means that we are specially chosen and given the special privilege of being a part of the church. The second term used to describe us is the word, 'holy' - in this context it means 'set apart to God or by God.' And the third term is 'beloved' - this term denotes the special favour that God has shown to us.

B. It is an Honour to Be Part of the Church

When all these three terms are put together they speak to us of how great and wonderful it is for us to be part of this entity that is called the church of God. It is no small thing. It is actually a great privilege and honour, and therefore we must now live within this church in a manner that befits such an honour. And what is this manner of life? Verse 12 tells us that life as God's elect, holy and beloved, must be characterised by compassion (the meaning of 'bowels of mercies'), by kindness, by humbleness of mind, by meekness and by longsuffering.

B. We Have Responsibilities from Being Part of the Church

We notice that all of these five virtues have something to do with the way we relate to one another. They tell us about the responsibilities we now have as a result of being in into the body of Christ. Firstly, we should always be compassionate toward on another especially when there are brethren who are suffering or distressed, and bearing burdens that are too heavy for them to bear alone. In Galatians 6:2 we are told to bear one another's burdens. But sometimes excuses are made for not doing this. Someone might say, " I have enough burdens of my own to bear" Someone else might say, 'I would rather not be nosy to pry or meddle in the affairs of others.'

Have we sometimes used the same excuses too, when a brother in Christ we know is facing problems in life? If we allow excuses like these to keep us from helping to bear one another�s burdens then we are not showing any Christian love. Instead of love, we would be showing a self-centred, conceited attitude, thinking that our own burdens are much heavier than the burdens of others, and we need to be helped rather than to help.

This is where we can learn from the example of the apostle Paul. When he wrote these words to the Colossians, he was actually in a Roman prison. He was greatly in need of compassion from others, and yet he wrote the 'prison epistles' which are Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon.

These 4 epistles contain some of the strongest words of encouragement that ever came from the pen of Paul. And so if you feel so burdened by your personal trials, learn to be like Paul. Look around you. There may be people who may be even more burdened than you and who are feeling down or miserable within even though if you asked them, �Hi, how are you?� you would get the polite but superficial reply, 'I'm fine, how about you?' People will open up about their problems only after the conversation has gone for some length, and we must be willing to take time to talk with them.

Continuing in v.12, we see that besides being compassionate we should also be kind to one another. A thoughtful act of kindness can go a long way to develop closer fellowship. It may be remembering a person's birthday, or keeping in touch with someone who has gone overseas for work or study. Some of us are not keen on being kind to others because of the fear that we may be misunderstood or deeply hurt by them. Then you may feel tempted to withdraw from others and keep yourself at a safe distance from others. But if you do this, how can you obey the command in v.12 to put on kindness? Therefore, to be kind, you must overcome such fears and come out of your comfort zone.

There may be a risk involved whenever you are kind to others: the risk that someone will let you down, or take advantage of your kindness. Whenever you show love, you are bound to make yourself vulnerable to being hurt either by someone who coldly refuses to receive your love, or worse still by someone who abuses your love. But please remember that this will not happen very often. The majority of Christians will not let you down if you take the initiative to reach out to them with love and kindness.

The next virtue we need according to v.12, is humility of mind. A humble person always puts others before himself. (Philippians 2:3 'but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.') Humility or mind is not only about how a person sees himself. It directs us to look at others differently. It is willing to trust others. Pride often prevents individuals from trusting other people. A proud person would rather trust in himself. We must therefore be willing to trust one another. A close-knit fellowship is built on trust. When we trust one another, we can share our feelings and opinions with one another without any fear that we would be judged or taken advantage of.

We should be able to be transparent and open with fellow believers, and not have to be on guard all the time, lest something we say should be used against us. If we are not able to trust one another with our love, then something must be terribly wrong with us. All of us who are truly in Christ should be able to trust one another and have no fear at all that we will be hurt or betrayed. So let us develop this humble virtue of openness and trust in our interaction. It can go a long way to build a stronger and closer bonds among members of the church.

And besides that v.12 says that we must be meek or gentle. You see, in any church there are bound to be differences. God did not make us all exactly alike. Each member has his or her own unique personality. Some tend to be rather strong and dominating. Others tend to be quiet and uninterested. And yet others tend to be highly-strung and very easily agitated. This variety of personalities makes the fellowship interesting but it can also present problems in fellowship. People may find it hard to get along together.

But meekness is the virtue that can help us to get along well with any kind of person. Learn how to be gentle and accommodating with others. And also learn to be longsuffering or patient with others. Put up with one another's idiosyncrasies and be patient. Remember that we all have our own personal faults and failings. Sometimes we disappoint one another and even disagree with one another. And this may cause some friction. Nothing disrupts fellowship more than a quarrel between members. But how do we prevent quarrels from disrupting the fellowship?

II. Obey God's Commands Regarding One Another (v.13)

The answer is found in the next verse: by 'Forbearing one another and forgiving one another' we cannot be closely knit if we fail to do this. And in v.13 we see that we can forgive when we are reminded of the fact that Christ has forgiven us for so much greater faults and failings than what others have done to us. Here I would like to draw your attention to the words 'one another' used twice in this verse, and used also in v.16 ('admonishing one another').

Do you know that there are altogether 44 verses with 23 different commands in the scriptures that have the word 'one another' in them? If you have been following our Scripture memory verse programme this year you would have already learned to memorise 12 such verses.

Hence this year's course is known as the 'one another' principle. Now the point I want to make here is this: You can't possibly keep these commandments on your own, in isolation. They are all meant to be observed in the context of life within the body of Christ. We can't possibly observe them if we are not regularly spending time to interact with other members of our church. And this constrains us to develop closer bonds with each other within our church. For only then we would be able to obey all the 23 commands regarding one another that God has given to us in His Word.

III. Exercise Brotherly Love (v.14)

The next verse tells us more about the bond that we should develop: v.14 'And above all things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.' The word 'charity' here is the well-known word, agape, which means love. There are really many places in the Bible where we are told to exercise such brotherly love. In John 15:12 Jesus said, 'This is My commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you.' In John 13:34, He emphasises this by saying, 'a new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another as I have loved you.' And Christ went on made this the criteria for proving His true disciples. In the next verse He said, 'By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one for another.'

Our Lord has made love for one another the distinguishing feature or hallmark of all true Christians. Why did Christ not choose some other virtue to tbe the distinguishing feature of His disciples? Why not humility? Or sober-mindedness? Or peace? Or zeal? There must be something special and significant about love. John says the same thing in his first epistle. In 3:14 he says 'We know that we have passed from death unto life (why?) because we love the brethren' In 4:12 he says, 'If we love one another, God dwelleth in us and His love is perfected in us.'

The reason why love is the distinguishing feature of a true disciple or true Christian is that it is the most divine of all virtues. 1 John 4:7,8 'Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.' This divine virtue called love must therefore be evident in your life if you are truly born of God.

In v.14 of our text love is called the 'bond of perfectness.' This means that it is the connective tissue or the glue that binds us together in the fellowship in perfect harmony. At the beginning of this message I used the analogy of building a house.

I said that members in God's house that are not bonded together would be like placing bricks, steel bars and pieces of wood together without cementing, welding and nailing them. Love is the bond of perfectness that cements us, welds us and nails us together to build the spiritual house of God. And as a result of these bonds we all thrive and grow together as a spiritual house of God!

I would like to use an illustration from nature to help us to understand this a little better. If you were to go into a forest and look at the trees, you would get the impression that each tree is an individual, separate entity. But what you can't see is that beneath the ground, the trees are actually connected together through their intertwined roots. And trees can actually convey water and nutrients to one another through their roots! This is made possible by the Lord's wonderful provision of a unique fungus, called mycorrhiza. This special fungus grows on the roots of trees, and forms a network which links the roots of one tree with the roots of others. These links become little channels through which nutrients and water may pass from one tree to another. A whole forest of trees in therefore linked together like a community. If one tree has access to water and another tree has access to nutrients, and a third tree has access to sunlight, the trees can actually share these things with one another.

Love is just like that wonderful fungus, linking us by an invisible bond, as a closely-knit church. Through the bond of love, we share the blessings God has given to each of us. If someone is in need, that bond of love will supply to his need. If someone has abundance, that bond of love will bring the benefits to all the rest. In this mutual process of sharing through the bond of love, we can all bear one another's burdens, and strengthen one another. All of this is nothing less than God's plan and design for us, and it is really quite marvelous.

The early church in Jerusalem enjoyed such close-knit fellowship. Let us turn our Bibles to Acts 2:44-47 and read, 'And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, Praising God, and having favour with all the people.'

This is real church life as a spiritual house of God! A closely-knit group of believers who shared not only their time of worship together, but even their time outside of worship - going to members' homes and enjoying meals and activities together. Can we seek to emulate this in our church? Only if our attitude and perception is changed.

IV. Accomplish Common Objectives as One Body (vv.15,16)

Verse 15 gives us a good reason for doing this - because we are called in one body. This speaks of the oneness or unity that we should have in Christ. As one body in Christ we should now work together towards accomplishing common tasks and objectives. E.g. in v.16 - 'Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom' This means that the whole body is to make itself a rich treasury of God's Word. To let the word of Christ dwell in us means to let it become like a rich treasure stored up in our midst. We are to build up the biblical knowledge of each and every member in our church so that we will collectively build a rich treasury of God's Word. According to the same verse everyone can and should play a part in accomplishing this task 'teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.' All of us who are in Christ are on the road of learning and we should help one another to learn God's Word.

Application

Thus we have seen from God's Word that we will build a closely-knit church as we change our perception of the church, as we obey the Lord's commands regarding one another, as we exercise brotherly love, and as we seek to accomplish our common objectives and tasks as one body.

All these are essentials for building a closely-knit church. It is this kind of church that will provide the conducive environment for spiritual growth, and for taking care of the needs of all members. And this is what we must now be willing to do according to God's Word. Let us therefore make fellowship time with other members a priority from now on. Get to know other members of the Church. Make it a point to talk with someone you don't know in church this morning, and keep on doing it every week. If every one is willing to do this, we will see the bond of perfectness growing in our midst. May the Lord help us to make this the hallmark of our Church.

Subcategories

Gospel in Dialect

Do you face a language barrier when trying to witness for Christ to dialect-speaking relatives? Or do you need to polish up your Mandarin in order to share the Gospel with your Mandarin-speaking friends? This Gospel toolkit will help you to learn how to share the Gospel in Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien and Teochew.

There are 15 lessons covering the various topics in gospel presentation. Each lesson consists of a set of phrases, written in English, Chinese characters and Hanyu Pinyin.

To hear the proper pronunciation of the phrase, click on the respective plugin associated with each phrase. When the phrase is read for you, you should repeat it aloud. You can keep on playing back the phrase and repeating it aloud until you have mastered the phrase. Then go on to the next phrase in the lesson.

As you learn to speak new phrases, keep on reviewing the ones that you have learnt. Finally, test yourself to see if you can say the following in Mandarin / dialect aloud:

Treasury of Sermons

Genesis

Exodus

Leviticus

Numbers

Deuteronomy

Joshua

Judges

1 & 2 Chronicles

Ezra & Nehemiah

Esther

Job

Psalm

Proverbs

Ecclesiastes & Song of Solomon

Isaiah, Jeremiah & Lamentations

Ezekiel & Daniel

Minor Prophets

Matthew

Mark

Luke

John

Acts

Romans

1 & 2 Corinthians

Galatians

Ephesians

Philippians

Colossians

1 & 2 Thessalonians

1 & 2 Timothy; Titus; Philemon

Hebrews

James

1 & 2 Peter

1, 2 & 3 John; Jude

Revelation

Family

Introduction

Why a family resource page? It has been often said that the family is the most important institution in the nation. But never has this sentiment been as greatly emphasized in our history as a nation than now in recent times. Indeed, the family is the most important institution because it is the first environment to which every person is exposed; it is the primary influence of a person, especially in his early formative years. And failure of the family to influence and mould the child positively has contributed to the moral and ethical breakdown of societies. Even the expert opinions of sociologists and psychologists point to the truth of this statement. Counselors and mental health workers increasingly have to rely on Family Therapy to deal with the problems of the clients, seeing as how many adult conflicts and problems are actually conflicts and problems not resolved in youth within the family. Of course, it is not surprising to find such delinquency and immaturity in the world. And sadly, it is not surprising to find such worldliness and worldly problems in the church, as families capitulate their God-given rights. More than ever, there is need for a family resource page, where families can be encouraged and taught to raise up Godly homes and to revive the Covenant family.

And one of the main emphases of this resource page is on the subject and discipline of Family Worship. According to the Westminster Directory of Family Worship, we are told that “BESIDES the publick worship in congregations, mercifully established in this land in great purity, it is expedient and necessary that secret worship of each person alone, and private worship of families, be pressed and set up; that, with national reformation, the profession and power of godliness, both personal and domestick, be advanced.” Herein, it is suggested that national and ecclesiastical revival finds its genesis in the home. And this is biblical.

The theological foundations of family worship is in Deuteronomy 4:9,10 where believers are told to “keep thy soul diligently…[and to]…teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons when the Lord said unto me, Gather me the people together, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children.”

It is also in Deuteronomy 6:4-7 where the words which God had commanded believers should be taught diligently to their children, that they should “talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.” The chief Christian educators of our children are their parents, who have been given this sacred duty.

Psalm 78:2-7 also teaches this, especially when it says regarding the law “which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children: that the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born, who should arise and declare them to their children: that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments.”

According to Dr Joel Beeke, “Every church desires growth. Surprisingly few churches, however, seek to promote internal church growth by stressing the need to raise children in covenantal truth. Few seriously grapple with why many adolescents become nominal members with mere notional faith or abandon evangelical truth for unbiblical doctrine and modes of worship. I believe one major reason for this failure is the lack of stress upon family worship. In many churches and homes family worship is an optional thing, or at most a superficial exercise such as a brief table grace before meals. Consequently, many children grow up with no experience or impression of Christian faith and worship as a daily reality.”

“Would we see revival among our children? Let us remember that God often uses the restoration of family worship to usher in church revival. For example, the 1677 church covenant of the Puritan congregation in Dorchester, Massachusetts, included the commitment ‘to reform our families, engaging ourselves to a conscientious care to set before us and to maintain the worship of God in them; and to walk in our houses with perfect hearts in a faithful discharge of all domestic duties, educating, instructing, and charging our children and households to keep the ways of the Lord.’”

Douglas Kelly says that “Family religion, which depends not a little on the household head daily leading the family before God in worship, is one of the most powerful structures that the covenant-keeping God has given for the expansion of redemption through the generations, so that countless multitudes may be brought into communion with and worship” of God.

So may these resources help all Lifers to build up their families in the fear and admonition of the Lord; that Family Worship would not be an optional exercise but a time of day and activity well-sought after by Godly parents and children. Amen.

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