We Proclaim Him: The Substance of Discipleship
Colossians 1:28–29
© Mike Riccardi
Introduction
Well, I know that this week we have all been preoccupied with the fallout of these devastating fires that have ravaged our communities. Let me just add my words to Tom’s: that my heart breaks for all those who have been affected. Dear families in our church have lost their earthly homes, and so many of their earthly possessions. And we say to you that we love you; the resources of this church are available to you; and, praise God, for the “living hope” that all believers have, “through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
The Lord has afflicted us, this week. But with that affliction He promises extra measures of His own consolation. It’s been well-said that, whether Christ comes to His children with a crown, or a rod, He comes with Himself (Rutherford). And so we welcome even the bitterest providences, because they bring fresh views of Christ—communion with our Shepherd and Savior, who is the King of Love, and the consolation of our soul.
And times like this make us pause, and reflect upon our weakness, our smallness, our transitoriness—how truly frail we are, at the mercy of our God’s sovereignty in all things. It makes us think about the true meaning of life, what we’re doing here, and what the purpose for everything is—especially if everything that we know could burn up in an evening. It causes us to ask—about everything our lives—why we do what we’re doing, and does it really matter, if it can all go up in flames in a moment? Even: why do we come to church? Surely, we come to be comforted by brothers and sisters, who will speak to us of eternity, and the consolation of Christ, and heaven. But what is church for? Why do we do this every Sunday—even on Sundays when there hasn’t been some tragedy out of which we need to be comforted? What is life in Christ about?
Well, as the resurrected Lord Jesus stood atop the mountain in Galilee, He gave His eleven disciples their marching orders for following Him in this world. Matthew 28, verses 18 to 20: Jesus said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” In these verses, the church receives her Great Commission. This is what Christ has left His people on earth to accomplish. This is the task for which our Lord has sent us into the world. And at the very heart of this Great Commission is the command to make disciples of all the nations. Discipleship is the mission of the church.
And if there was anyone apart from the Lord Jesus Himself whose life embodied the most passionate commitment to discipleship, it was the Apostle Paul. His faithful devotion and commitment to the ministry that the Lord had entrusted to Him is unparalleled. And I say that because Paul suffered immensely for the sake of carrying out the commission the Lord gave Him. He was well-acquainted with affliction that comes as a result of ministry. In 2 Corinthians 6, verses 4 and 5, Paul lists what characterizes his ministry, and says, “In everything, commending ourselves as servants of God, in much endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses, in beatings, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, [and] in hunger.”
Discipleship takes work! The ministry of presenting every one complete in Christ is always going to be attended with the suffering inflicted by a world hostile to Christ and His Gospel, and inflicted by a church that still struggles with the presence of remaining sin in the flesh.
But what drove Paul to endure all of this affliction? What animated him, that he would give so much of his time, and effort, and strength—that he would lay down his very life, so that his whole existence would be devoted to the church, even unto afflictions, hardships, and imprisonments? What was the great purpose for all of these labors?
Well, we find that Paul answers that very question in Colossians chapter 1, the text that will be the subject of our study for this and the next three Sunday mornings. In Colossians 1:29, Paul writes, “For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.” For what purpose? Back up to verse 28: “We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.”
This is Paul’s philosophy of ministry. This is what his life is about. This is his purpose. This is the animating principlebehind all his endurance in ministry even in the midst of the sorest and most burdensome afflictions. He wants to see every Christian made complete in Christ—every Christian brought to perfect maturity and complete conformity to Christlikeness. Discipleship is what animated him!
And you say, “Sure, Mike. Paul was an inspiring guy. But I’m not an apostle. I’m not a missionary. I’m not a pastor or an elder. I’m just a member of my church, raising my kids, and trying to be faithful to Jesus.” But you see, what it means to be faithful to Jesus, what it means to be a member of your church, is to be called into ministry to one another, and to the unbelieving world around you. In 1 Peter 2:9, the Apostle Peter says of Christ’s people that we are “a royal priesthood”—a kingdom of priests. And what do priests do? They intercede to God on behalf of His people, and they minister blessings to God’s people on behalf of God Himself. If you belong to the Church, you are a royal priest, ministering the blessings of God’s salvation through sacrificially serving your brothers and sisters in the body of Christ, and proclaiming the Gospel of those blessings to the lost, who stand in need of the Savior. You are all called to ministry!
And therefore, your philosophy of ministry—your understanding of what ministry is and how it is to be accomplished—ought to be the same as Paul’s philosophy of ministry. And there is perhaps no other text where Paul so explicitly identifies his philosophy of ministry than in these two pregnant and power-packed verses at the end of Colossians chapter 1.
These verses show us that Paul’s philosophy of ministry revolves around discipleship—around the goal of presenting every Christian complete in Christ. In them, we find five elements of Christian discipleship—five elements of Christian discipleship that will equip us to faithfully engage in the work of the Lord’s Great Commission to make disciples of all the nations. And we’ll work through those five elements of discipleship over the next four Sundays.
I. The Scheme of Discipleship (v. 28c–29a)
The first element of discipleship that we find in this text is one I’ve already introduced a bit. And that is, number one, the scheme of discipleship—or the purpose. We see this in the last part of verse 28 into the first part of verse 29. Look with me again: “We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. For this purpose also I labor . . . .” “So that”; “for this purpose.” Presenting every man complete in Christ was the driving purpose in all of Paul’s ministerial labors.
But what exactly does it mean to be “complete in Christ”? Is there something incomplete about our salvation? Aren’t we complete in Christ the moment we’re united to Him by faith? Don’t we lay hold of every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ the moment we are in Christ (Eph 1:3)? Well, yes. The very moment that we are united to Christ by faith, everything that is His becomes rightfully ours. Paul says that in 1 Corinthians 1:30: “By His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption.” The moment we are placed into Christ Jesus, all of those blessings become ours by divine right.
But we come to actually possess those blessings in different ways. When we turn from sin and trust in Christ, He becomes our righteousness in justification. Immediately upon conversion, God declares that the perfect obedience of Jesus is imputed to our account, and so we possess His perfect and complete righteousness, to which nothing can be added. But the way Christ becomes our sanctification is a bit different. We are not perfectly or completely sanctified at conversion. God has ordained that our sanctification be a process. Second Corinthians 3:18 says we’re being transformed into the image of Christ “from one degree of glory to another.” We make progress over time. That process will culminate in perfect sanctification, but only when we see Christ face to face (cf. 1 John 3:2). And so it’s in that sense that we are “incomplete.” We are not yet perfect.
Back in Colossians 1:22, Paul speaks of the reconciliation Christ accomplished on the cross, but he also speaks of the ultimate end of that reconciliation. He says, “He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order topresent you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.” You see, Christ has not saved us so He could leave us in the state that we were in when He saved us. He has justified us so that He can sanctify us and eventually glorify us in His presence. And the purpose for which the Lord has reconciled His people is the very same purpose for which the Lord’s servants labor in ministry: that all Christ’s people would be presented before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach—that every man would be presented complete in Christ.
You say, “That’s a lofty goal! Perfection? Sounds impossible.” Well, yes. This goal of complete sanctification is never attained in this life. But it is most certainly pursued in this life. Paul says that very thing of his own fight for holiness in Philippians 3:12. He says, “Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect” (same word as in Colossians 1:28). Paul says, “I’ve not yet reached completion in Christ!” And if there was ever anyone we could expect to be the kind of “complete” that you can be before glorification, it’d be the Apostle Paul. But he says, “I haven’tobtained that.” “But I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.” And then he repeats himself: “Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” This was all-consuming in Paul’s life. He knew he would never be perfected before he went to heaven. But that thought didn’t at all hinder him from the most aggressive pursuit of completeness in Christ. Paul wanted more than anything “to become conformed to the image of” Christ, he called it, in Romans 8:29. Or, as he said in 2 Corinthians 3:18, “being transformed into the same image” as “the glory of the Lord.” Paul relentlessly pursued this increasing transformation into the likeness of Jesus.
And not only does he press after it in his own life, he aches for it in the lives of Christ’s people. He tells the Ephesians that this is why Christ has given them the gifts of the Spirit. Ephesians 4:12: “For the equipping of the saints for the work of [ministry], to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man,”—there’s that word teleios again—to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.” In Galatians 4:19, he says, “I am in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.”
Do you see how this consumed him? Paul wasn’t content to get “decisions for Christ” and move on to his next evangelistic campaign! He wasn’t satisfied with making mere converts. The passion of his life was to see those who had been brought to faith in Christ strengthened in their faith in Christ, to see them brought to maturity, to see them grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, 2 Peter 3:18. This wasn’t, “Ok, you believed. You’re in. I’m on to the next project.” No, his heart pulsed for the sanctification and complete maturity of Christ’s Bride. He wasn’t satisfied with entry-level maturity.
And friends, we must ask ourselves as well: Does your heart beat with Paul’s heart? Do you long for your own sanctification, and for the sanctification of the church? Do you know anything of “the anguish of childbirth” because you long to see Christ fully formed in your own soul, and in the souls of your brothers and sisters? Do you know that daily pressure of intense concern, 2 Corinthians 11:28, that feels the pain of spiritual weakness in the body of Christ as your own weakness, as if it was your responsibility? Paul says: that’s what the entire Christian life is about.
Even in just the next few sentences in Colossians, starting in chapter 2 verse 1, Paul says, “For I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf! Until you attain to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, Christ Himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” That’s what Paul wants for his people. And that’s what your elders want for you. We don’t want you satisfied with entry-level understanding; we want you plumbing the depths of the mystery of God, digging deep into Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge! And by God’s grace, we have a great struggle on your behalf until you attain to all the wealth of knowledge—all the treasures of wisdom—that are in Christ, because that is where true joy and lasting satisfaction are found.
Do you know anything of that great struggle, first for yourselves, but also for your brothers and sisters? Do you devote your time to investing in the Bride of Christ in this place, to training her, to equipping her, to strengthening her to battle temptation, to put off sin and to press on in practical righteousness? If so, you will have a passion for discipleship. Not just for coming to Grace Church, but for being a part of Grace Church; for living life alongside one another; for helping one other follow Jesus better; helping each other become more faithful followers of Christ, committed to obeying all that He has commanded us. That’s discipleship.
And it’s precisely what Jesus has called us to as His people, as servants of His Church. “For this purpose we labor and strive, so that we may present every man complete in Christ.”
II. The Substance of Discipleship (v. 28a)
So how does Paul do that? We’ve seen that the scheme of discipleship is the sanctification and maturity of the church—to present every man perfect in Christ. And we’ve seen how that mission has totally consumed Paul’s life and ministry. But how did Paul go about pursuing this great passion of his life?
We find the answer in verse 28, bringing us to the second element of Christian discipleship that we find in this text. We’ve seen first, the scheme, and now we come, number two, to the substance of discipleship. Look with me again at verse 28: “We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ.” What do we do so that we may present every man complete in Christ? We proclaim Him! We preach Christ!
There is a seemingly infinite number of responsibilities in the ministry of the church. There is the Sunday gathering; the administration of the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper; the corporate worship of God’s people praising Him in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. There’s the faithful, consecutive expository preaching of the Scriptures, so that the Lord of the Church might be heard in His church through the preaching of His Word. There’s the ministry of prayer, as we serve one another by bringing each other’s needs before the Lord. There’s the ministry of counseling one another, sharpening one another. There’s Sunday school and Bible study and Children’s ministry and youth groups. There’s evangelism and outreach. There’s giving to meet the needs of those afflicted by tragedies. And that’s just scratching the surface. The responsibilities of the church are seemingly endless. But amidst all of those, Paul boils down the essenceof his ministry to this one thing: and it is, “We proclaim Him!”
And we shouldn’t be surprised by this. When Paul wanted to summarize the essence of the Gospel he preached, he encapsulated it by saying in 1 Corinthians 1:23, “We preach Christ crucified.” In Philippians chapter 1, he speaks of rival preachers in Rome who aim to cause him distress in his imprisonment. And his response in Philippians 1:18 is: “What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in this I rejoice.” The very bottom and foundation of his joy is in the proclamation of Christ! Friends, in all the activity of our ministry—in allour efforts to present every man complete in Christ—the very sum and substance of that ministry of discipleship is: “We proclaim Him.”
People do a lot of things to horrifically complicate discipleship. There’s got to be a certain small group, and a certain number of meetings per week, a certain Christian classic or contemporary best-seller you’re reading, and a certain number of accountability questions asked and answered. All those things have their place. But when Paul sums up the entirety of his multi-faceted ministry of laboring for the sanctification of the saints so that he can present every one of them perfect in Christ, the sine qua non, the irreducible minimum, the thing you must retain though you lose everythingelse is: “We proclaim Him!” The very substance of Christian discipleship is: “We preach Christ!”
Do you recognize what an astoundingly radical statement that is? to say that the way this supernatural sanctification process works—the way that the hearts of sinners are supernaturally transformed so that they hate sin more and love righteousness more—the way you help someone become a more faithful follower of Jesus, ever-increasingly conformed into His image—is to proclaim Christ to them? That the mere proclamation of the person and work of Jesus to someone actually makes them more holy? How glorious must our Lord be if the proclamation of His person and work changes the hearts of sinful men and women!
You say, “How does that work?” It’s 2 Corinthians 3:18: Beholding the glory of the Lord, we are transformed into that same image of glory. The spiritual sight of Christ by the eyes of faith so satisfies the soul, that it quenches our thirst for happiness! It satisfies our natural hunger for pleasure! And so we don’t need to seek satisfaction in sinful pleasures. We have all the glory we can stand in the sight of Christ by faith! And so it becomes a delight to forsake sin and to obey all that God commands us! Christ Himself is the superior pleasure!
And so the question is: Where is the transforming glory of the person and work of Christ displayed? Where do I go to see Him, en route to being presented perfect? Answer: To the Scriptures. To the inspired, infallible, inerrant Word wherein God has revealed His Son to us, wherein the beauty and glory of His person and work are proclaimed to us. The sanctifying glory of the Living Word, Jesus, is mediated through sanctifying power of the written Word, the Scriptures.
And so Paul says, “The heart and soul of my ministry—the means by which I aim to accomplish this great purpose of my ministry, to present every man perfect in Christ—the very substance of discipleship is “We proclaim Him.” At the very heart of all the discipleship that takes place in our church—whether discipleship from the pulpit, or discipleship in the Bible study, or discipleship in the one-on-one counseling session, or discipleship in a conversation at the fishing hole or at the coffee shop or in the kitchen—the heart of all discipleship is the proclamation of Christ to one another. Because it’s as we proclaim the person and work of Christ from the Scriptures that His glory is revealed to believers, and it’s as we behold the glory of the Lord with the eyes of faith that we are transformed, sanctified, built up, matured, into that same image of Christlikeness.
What do you talk about with one another? You spend time with one another, but what do you spend time talking about? Friends, proclaim Christ to one another. It would be a profitable use of your time—with your dinner guest, with your friend you’re catching up with after a while—to just celebrate the character of Christ and the work He’s accomplished on our behalf. “What have you been studying recently? What aspect of the Lord’s character has He been making plain to you? What attribute is anchoring your soul? What truth are you treasuring? What promise are you finding sweet, lately?” Encourage me! Show me my Savior! That’s discipleship! Our conversations should be riddled with the proclamation of Christ to one another!
And so in the time that we have left this morning, I just want to celebrate the glories of the person and work of Christ with you, giving examples of the kinds of topics that ought to occupy your conversation as you engage in discipleship.
We proclaim Him who is God the Son, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, eternal God of very God. In John 1:14, we learn that the Word became flesh. But in the beginning, verse 1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” From before the beginning of time, the Word was. The Word was existing. Jesus did not come into existence at His incarnation. No, He was in the beginning with God, verse 2. He was with God, which shows that He was distinct from God the Father; if you’re with someone you are not that someone. But not only was the Word with God—that is, with God the Father—the Word was God Himself. This Christ is the eternally begotten Son, the One who from all eternity was fully subsisting in the divine nature. He is the image of the invisible God, Colossians 1:15—the very radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, Hebrews 1:3. And so He is the possessor of all the attributes and prerogatives of God. All of the fullness of Godhood dwells in Him no less than in the Father or the Holy Spirit.
We proclaim Him who is the Creator of all things. Colossians 1:16: “For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him.” And He is the Sustainer of all creation. Colossians 1:17: “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” Hebrews 1:3: “He upholds all things by the word of His power.” As its Creator, He is therefore the owner of all creation. In Job 41:11, the Triune God says, “Who has given to Me that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is Mine.”
We proclaim Him who is the eternally glorious One. Christ speaks in John 17:5 of “the glory which [He] had with [the Father] before the world was.” First Corinthians 2:8 calls Him “the Lord of glory.” John 12:41 tells us that it was this Son whom Isaiah saw “sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple,” and to whom the angels sang, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory.”
We proclaim Him who, though being rich, yet for your sake became poor—who, though He was eternally existing in the nature and essence and glory of God, nullified Himself by taking on a human nature in His incarnation—withoutshedding His divine nature. The uncreated Creator assumed a created human nature, and was born of a woman. The Sustainer of the universe was Himself being sustained in the womb of Mary. The infinite God was united to finite humanity. The eternal stepped into time.
The One who fills all space—whom the highest heaven cannot contain—was contained in the single space of Mary’s womb, and then the cattle’s trough, and then Calvary’s cross, and then Joseph’s grave. The immutable One—so perfect that He could never change for the better and so righteous that He could never change for the worse—is said to have “kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.” The omniscient One—the one in whom is hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge—increased in wisdom, Luke 2:52, and learned obedience through suffering, Hebrews 5:8. The omnipotent One, who commanded the winds and the waves with a word (Luke 8:25), grew weary from a day’s journey (John 4:6). The eternal God who neither slumbers nor sleeps (Ps 121:4) slept in a boat on the sea (Luke 8:23).
The eternal majesty of God, wedded to the frailty and indignity of humanity! Two natures, the Creed says, “without confusion, without change, without division, without separation; the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring in…one and the same Son, and only begotten, God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ.” We proclaim Him who is Himself the miracle of all miracles!
And we proclaim Him who as a man showed us what perfect humanity looks like. And He was marked preeminently by compassion. “Let the children come to Me; do not hinder them” (Mark 10:14). He takes a child in His arms and says, “Whoever receives one child like this in My name receives Me” (Mark 9:37). The young girl lies dead in a house of weeping and wailing mourners. And Jesus says, “Why are you weeping? She’s just asleep.” And taking her tenderly by the hand, He says in a voice that must have been ever so gentle, “Little girl, I say to you, get up” (Mark 5:41). And He gives that sweet girl back to her family. The leper—who knows he’s an outcast, who knows that the Law mandates his isolation—begs Jesus, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean” (Luke 5:12). “You can end my shame! You can purify my uncleanness, if You’re willing!” And without a moment’s hesitation, Jesus stretches out His hand and touches the untouchable, and says, “I am willing; be cleansed.”
And we proclaim Him who is not only the God-Man, but the Mediator between God and Man—God become Man in order to fulfill the law man broke, and to pay the penalty of man’s sin. Romans 5:19: “For as through the disobedienceof the one [Adam] the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One [Christ] the many will be made righteous.” Matthew 3:15: Jesus says He has come “to fulfill all righteousness” on behalf of sinners. He came to live the life that you and I were commanded to live, but which we failed to live. His perfect record of human obedience is then imputed to us through faith, and becomes the ground upon which the Holy God can declare guilty sinners righteous.
But we also needed the penalty for our sins to be paid. And so the One who could say, “I am the truth,” John 14:6, was slandered, accused of bearing false witness, and betrayed by His friends. The One who clothes the grass of the field and lilies of the valley was stripped bare. The One who healed the sick with a touch has His back torn open by the scourges of sinful men. The brow that should have borne the crown of heaven was pierced by thorns. The One who upheld the universe is collapsed under the weight of His own crossbar. The beautiful one, “like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.” The worshiped became the despised. The Master became the slave. The eternally blesséd One became the man of sorrows. The Author of life died. The fountain of all divine blessings became a curse. The fierce wrath of God breaks over the head of the beloved Son. Christ bears the sins of His people as our Substitute, and is forsaken by His Father. “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us . . . in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.”
And we proclaim Him who not only perished under the wrath of God for our sin, but who was raised from the dead on the third day in victory, eternally triumphant over sin and death! And we proclaim Him who ascended to the right hand of the Father in glory, and is now seated at His right hand! As we’ve sung: “Look, ye saints! The sight is glorious: / See the Man of Sorrows now; / From the fight returned victorious, / Every knee to Him shall bow!” He is at the Father’s right hand, “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come,” where He ever lives to make intercession for His people before the Father, able “to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him.” One who still shares our human nature sits on the throne of heaven! Our Elder Brother is the King of the universe!
We proclaim Him who is coming quickly, who in a short time will return from Heaven to gather His church to Himself, to unleash judgment on a wicked and rebellious world, to set up His kingdom upon the earth in which He will rule the world in righteousness, to cast all the enemies of righteousness into the eternal lake of fire, and to finally re-create the world into a New Heaven and a New Earth, where He will dwell forever with His redeemed and purified Bride in glory, love, and joy! Dear friends, this is the Christ we preach. We proclaim Him.
Conclusioni
He is the substance of the Christian ministry of discipleship, the ministry whose purpose and goal is to present every Christian complete in Him. No matter what you do for discipleship—however it may be that you go about achieving that goal of presenting every man perfect in the body of Christ—it all must boil down to the proclamation of the glorious person and work of Christ one to another.
Listen to all that glorious doctrine of His person and work! How pleasant and enjoyable and delightful it is to have our minds preoccupied with such a glorious Person as Jesus Christ! What subject is more enjoyable to speak about than Him? What topic is more worthy of your attention than He is? What theme is more satisfying, or more fruitful, than the One fairer than the fairest of ten thousand? the One in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge? in whose presence is fullness of joy, in whose right hand are pleasures forevermore? Proclaim this Jesus to one another, friends. Display Christ to one another by speaking of Him and celebrating Him together. Let Him be the marrow and substance of your life together in the church.
But before you can proclaim Him, you must trust in Him. Before you can disciple others, you must be a disciple yourself. You must “come after” and “follow” Jesus in saving faith. If you’re here this morning and you don’t know this glorious Christ that we proclaim—if He is not your Master and Lord, if you are not His disciple, if you have no saving interest in the work of salvation that the eternal God became Man to accomplish—dear friend, turn from your sins and come to Him today. He stands ready to receive all who lay hold of Him through faith alone. No work needed! No work accepted! Just come, admit your failure and your need, and receive Him with the empty hand of faith.
Jesus said in Luke 9:23, “If anyone wishes to come after Me”—that is, if anyone wishes to come to Me for salvation and be My disciple—“he must deny himself,”—lay aside your own righteousness, lay aside your own preferences and comforts—“and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.” Dear sinner, lay down your claims to being lord of your own life. That’s the surest way to lose your life. But lay your life down at the foot of Christ’s cross, and follow Him in a life of repentant faith, a life of obedience to God and of service to His people. And in losing your life you will find that you’ve saved it, because you will gain Him. And then you can proclaim Him.