The Issue of Facebook

31st January, 2010
Written By Rev. Law Hui Seng
Posted By Teresa Han

Colossians 1:24-29
Main Idea: To use facebook to to witness for Jesus.
Objectives: a. To challenge the congregation to be like apostle, a servant of God, to present the word of God in its fullness. b. To challenge the congregation to use facebook to witness for Jesus.

A. Introduction- How much effort have you put in to help to initiate people around you or people who are in your network into the kingdom of God? To come to know Jesus, be saved and become his disciples. We have learnt from the Purpose Driven Life and of course the bible, this is our mission on earth.
- The question now is how instrumental are we in making that happen. Have you been working hard to achieve the mission here on earth?
- You have so many people in your network, but have ever witnessed to them using John 3:16, your testimonies? Nowadays, you can reach out to people so easily in your network. Especially, with the latest technology of internet, website, email, friendster, facebook, etc, you can reach countless number of people. But, how much have you put in?
- Let us see how apostle Paul had worked so hard for Christ and His body, the church, in his days. Apostle had died so long ago, but his writings continues to impact the world to do missions and disciple. I am greatly impacted by him and I pray that all of us will do the same.

B. See how apostle Paul had worked so hard for Christ and His body, the church.
- Apostle Paul wrote the letter to the Colossians in order to correct the wrong teachings of heresy which was commonly taught at his time. The heresy was gnosticism at its early stage. Basically, gnosticism believes spirit is entirely good and matter is entirely evil.
- So, to accomplish the goal of correcting the early believers from believing in gnosticism, he exalts Christ throughout the letter. In doing so, he told us how much effort he put in for Christ. Now, let us take a close look at the those verses in the passage today. Of course there other passages in this letter and other letters written by him that showed how hard he worked for Jesus.
- In verse 24, he said that he rejoiced that he could suffer for the Colossians as he was jailed because of the gospel where he preached the good news of Christ’s salvation. As a result many come to be saved in Christ and formed Christ’s body, the church.
- In verse 25, we are told that he was willing to pay the price as he was called by God, commissioned by God to present God’s word in its fullness, in its completion to the Colossians. In verse 26, we see that he paid the price of suffering to reveal the mystery of God in salvation which was not just for few individuals who are privileged to know but it is for the saints whom God called. And to these saints, like you and me, he said in verse 27, we are entrusted tell the Gentiles the glorious riches of the mystery in Christ, the salvation in Christ. So he said, “To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorius riches of mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Apostle Paul regarded himself and the Colossians as saints whom God had chosen to disclose the mystery of salvation in Christ. Therefore, he desired very much to make known the mystery of salvation to the Gentiles. Do you have that desire and excitement like apostle Paul? I pray that you do.
- Now, in order to make known Christ salvation for the Gentiles, Paul said in verse 28, “We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ.” To achieve his purpose of making Christ’s salvation known, he said we have to use all wisdom. The wisdom is referring to ways and means, ideas or anything that can help people to come to know Christ and become a matured disciple. His challenge to the Colossians is to present everyone perfect, matured as a disciple in Christ. So, you need to ask yourself today, with all the resources you have, how can you proclaim, admonish and teach people with all wisdom to present them as matured in Christ. How do you do this inside and outside the church?
- With this, apostle Paul went on to say in verse 29, “To this end I labour, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.” You see how he worked hard to achieve the end of bringing Christ salvation to the Gentiles. He said, he laboured, he struggled with the God given divine help, the energy coming from God to preach the gospel. In other words, he used all the God given resources to achieve God’s desire for him, that is the preaching of gospel that resulted in maturity in Christ.

C. Applications
- After knowing how hard apostle Paul had laboured to present everyone perfect, matured in Christ, how do you respond to him?
- Will you also come along and become God’s servants to present the word of God in Christ salvation in its fullness to the people around you and in your network? Will you pay the price like Paul to do it? Will you sacrifice like him?
- Secondly, will you use your God given wisdom to present everyone perfect, matured in Christ? One application today based on this passage of scripture is to really tap on the present modern technology like your blogs, email facilities, friendster, facebook, etc to witness for Jesus and present Christ so that through your testimonies, people in your network come to know Jesus and become his disciples.
- Especially, facebook is so widely used nowadays, I believe it is a God given wisdom for us to tap into so that we can use it for witness purpose. Lots of people have abused it and waste a lot of time in using it as entertainment. We must use it from a different angle and perspective, to make our life count for Jesus even in the facebook. How? By giving testimonies of how you come to know Jesus and how you live as a disciple of Jesus.

D. Conclusion.
- Facebook must be a means that we can capitlaize to introduce Christ to our network of friends. Will you take up the challenge?