Colossians 1:24-29 Sermon by Kyle Schwahn | Sermon Analysis


I have begun practicing what I call sermon analysis in an attempt to become a better preacher. Here's my method:
  • find a sermon by a good preacher
  • before listening study the text they're preaching on
  • decide what the main point (telos) of the passage is
  • decide what the other points are
  • write up an outline of how you would preach the sermon
  • listen to the sermon
  • take notes of their telos and outline
  • take note of how they work their way through the text
    • what was their intro?
    • what's their telos?
    • did they have the same main points?
    • how did they teach those points from the text?
  • learn like crazy from someone who has been preaching much longer than you
  • get better at writing your own sermons
Below are the notes from my first attempt at this. I can't wait to do it again, I learned a lot! It is an analysis of this sermon preached by my local pastor Kyle Schwahn of Indian Trail Church as a guest preacher at Redemption Spokane.

My Attempt before Listening to the Sermon:

Title: Mature in Christ
Telos: Paul toils that God works in him to make known the Gospel, that he may present everyone mature in Christ

My Outline:

  1. rejoice in sufferings
    1. how? because it is:
  2. to make the word of God fully known
  3. that we may present everyone mature in Christ

Walking Through the Sermon

- brief explanation of setting and history leading up to this verse to catch them up
- rejoice in suffering
- explain filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of the body the church
- became a minister according to the stewardship from God
- explain stewardship of God
- "given to me for you to make the word of God fully known" explain
- mystery hidden for ages now revealed to his saints
- God chose to make known among the gentiles the riches of the glory of this mystery
- which is Christ in you
- the hope of glory
- Him we proclaim, warning and teaching everyone w/ all wisdom
- THAT WE MAY present everyone mature in Christ
- example here maybe
- for THIS (mature in Christ) I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me
- Does it surprise you that Paul doesn't say that we may present "everyone as saved" or "everyone as reached with the Gospel?"
- Paul toils and struggles with ALL HIS ENERGY that God powerfully works in him to make known the riches of the glory of the mystery of Christ in you that he may present everyone MATURE IN CHRIST


Notes from Kyle's Sermon:

- Telos - maybe something like: "We proclaim him to grow each other into maturity in Christ."
- INTRODUCTION - starts with a personal story / illustration
- Jenny "you mean you drive with the front wheels?
- scales fell from her eyes and she understood something she'd never understood before and it utterly changed how she approached driving
- two front wheel moments in my pastoral life
- God gave me something from his word that I thought, how did I never see this? How did I never understand this? How can you go through Christianity not understanding some of these things?
- Those two moments collide in vs. 28
- "that we may present everyone mature in Christ"

1. What We Proclaim

- what is proclaimed?
- him (Jesus) we proclaim
- not just for salvation but also for every ounce of sanctification after that (mature in Christ)
- walks through Colossians chapters 1 & 2 listing everything about Jesus, pointing out what and who Jesus is, every example
- quickly walks you through the NT showing what and who Jesus is
- shares that not only the NT but the whole bible is about Jesus (teaches biblical theology)
- quickly walks through entire bible from genesis on with examples of who Jesus is
- quotes John Flavel about the riches of Jesus
- That was the first big "Front Wheel Moment"
- understood we trusted in him for salvation, but I had no idea that THIS is who we proclaim

2. Why We Proclaim It

- that we may present everyone mature in Christ
- explains "maturity" shares how King James renders it "perfect"
- not flawlessness but fullness, built up into Christ
- explains goal of life, ministry to others, glorifying of God - that's what maturity is about
- reads vs 28 taking out parenthetical statement to help them see the logic in the verse
- we PROCLAIM Christ so people might be MATURE in Christ
- we proclaim Christ so people may GROW in Christ
- people usually proclaim Christ only for salvation
- example of two keys, one to get into his old truck, another to operate it
- Christians see the Christian life as two keys
- Jesus gets us in, after that we need other keys to operate the Christian life
- these other things are how we think we'll grow but they're devoid of the gospel
- Paul is saying you need the gospel because you're Christians
- it's how you mature
- quotes later scripture about "walk in him rooted in him,"
- beholding Jesus we're being transformed
- takes them to Col. 3 to show them how beholding Christ changes you with sanctification
- put to death sin by looking to the glory of Jesus and what he's done for you
- tells them though this may be common for them to hear it is sadly not common in many churches
- turn from sin and look to Jesus, not their own works
- references lots of other scriptures too back up his teaching about who Jesus is and what it means for us
- does it quickly siting the verse address but then just quoting the snippet that is helpful for his teaching, these aren't verses he put on the screen, like drive by verses
- we want our brothers and sisters to have fullness of joy

3. How We Proclaim it

- "him WE proclaim"
- growing up into maturity
- teaches on how the WE is the body
- pastors equip the saints
- "how can I get involved in ministry at church?"
- have someone over, pray for them, go do coffee and pray for someone
- pastors prepare and equip the saints to do the work of ministry
- WE proclaim him - not only the pastor's job but everyone's task
- zooms out to see a wider context of Christian's life together
- Jesus "a new commandment... love one another"
- most of the rest of the NT is writing saying, here's how you live that out (loving one another)
- gives examples of how you love one another and care for each other
- asks as a test what the people were thinking as they came to church that morning
- "I hope the music is good, I hope the sermon is good..."
- I hope I... I hope I... I hope I...
- We should be coming saying I want more of Christ because Christ is what I have to give out all week
- you may be blessed by the sermon, but you're blessed to be a blessing
- take in so you can funnel out
- treasure Christ so you can give it to one another, giving the glory of Jesus by which you will be transformed
- that's how maturity grows up in a people, in a church and that is Paul's vision: HIM we proclaim
- We proclaim that we might present everyone mature in Christ
- Come saying I want to see his glory so I can give away his glory because I love these brothers and sisters and God has called me to them
- HIM we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that WE may present everyone mature in Christ
- that's what the church is and that's what the church ought to be about

Takeaways

I was blown away by how well Kyle laid out the text, illustrated it, and used other scriptures to make Paul's points clear in the sermon text. I started this because I was curious how much of a sermon most pastors spend explaining the text and how much of it they add illustrations and applications. Kyle does a great job doing all of these things as he's moving through the text instead of in large chunks, while at the same time having a really clear simple outline that's easy to follow. I need to grow in this. My sermons are a bit of a fire hose. I have a clear simple outline, but within each of my main simple points I go on rabbit trails and teach on things that might not be germane to the immediate text. I can't wait to write another sermon with the goal of sticking closely to the main text and letting my simple clear outline stay on top instead of getting muddied in the waters below by all of the extra stuff I throw at my audience like a fireman using a fire hose. Less is more, and less allows the preacher to go deeper. Kyle did that well in this one. I think I will really struggle to not explain the whole text as I preach through it. Kyle didn't hit much on Paul's comments about suffering and to good effect. He let the body of his sermon serve his main points. He also had pretty equal chunks devoted to each of his points. I seem to sit on my first point for a really long time and then hit the rest of the points with much less content in my sermons. I can grow a lot in that. I learned a lot from this. I can't wait to do another one!

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