A Church That Looks Like Jesus

After four Sundays asking what growing up looks like in each of us, Paul tells us what it looks like in a whole church. From a Roman prison cell, in two verses near the end of Colossians 1, he gives us the job description: "We proclaim him, warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ. I labor for this, striving with his strength that works powerfully in me." Six verbs, three movements — the work of a church that looks like Jesus, the aim of that work, and the cost of doing it. A church grows into him the same way a child grows into a parent: slowly, in close company, by formation. Sermon 5 in our May series, Maturity in the Body.