Minister of The Mystery
Summary
Is Jesus enough? It's an old question, and Elder Jonathan Cobb argues it's the same one every generation has to answer for itself. Continuing Grace Bible Church's summer series through Colossians, Jonathan picks up at Colossians 1:28 through 2:5 — after Paul's thanksgiving and prayer, the Christ hymn celebrating Jesus as supreme over all creation, and the reconciliation of sinners to God through the cross. From there, Jonathan zeroes in on two things: Paul's purposeful pain, and Paul's personal plea. The backdrop, as he reminds the congregation, is a culture full of noise insisting Jesus isn't quite enough — that there's some spiritual life hack waiting elsewhere. Sound familiar? As Jonathan notes, things really haven't changed much.
The first point centers on Paul's declaration in Colossians 1:28-29: "Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me." Jonathan highlights the threefold repetition of "everyone" — no one is disqualified from knowing Christ and growing to maturity in Him. The word translated "warning" or "admonishing," he explains, carries the idea of bringing something back into alignment — like a chiropractor setting bones right, or a friend adjusting your binoculars so you can finally see clearly. Teaching can only be truly received once the mind is set right. Jonathan offers a tender personal illustration here: his wife admonishing him at three in the morning when anxiety had convinced him he couldn't preach — reminding him whose message it was, and to get out of the way.
To explain why Paul was willing to suffer for strangers he'd never met, Jonathan turns to 2 Corinthians 4, where Paul describes the treasure of the gospel carried in jars of clay. Using an image from a commentary he'd read, Jonathan describes our sufferings as a billboard of Christ in us: afflicted but not crushed, perplexed but not driven to despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed. The resurrection power of Christ is what Paul is tapping into when he toils — and without the resurrection, Jonathan makes clear, there is no hope of glory. He also reads from 2 Corinthians 5, where Paul describes the groaning of life in this earthly tent, longing to be "swallowed up by life." That's the hope that fuels the toiling.
The second point is Paul's personal plea in Colossians 2:1-5. Jonathan wants the congregation to hear this not as a distant academic exercise, but as a heartfelt letter from a man who loves deeply. Paul writes that he struggles greatly for the Colossians, the Laodiceans, and everyone he's never met face to face — that their hearts would be encouraged, knit together in love, and brought to the full riches of understanding of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Encouragement, Jonathan explains, is putting into someone an increase of hope, courage, and confidence — and a motivation to act on what they believe.
The image of being knit together in love leads Jonathan into one of the sermon's most personal moments. The gospel, he says, is the thread that holds relationships together — able to stretch under pressure without breaking. He presses the congregation toward small groups, not as a programmatic box to check, but as the place where people are genuinely woven together by the gospel into something beautiful. It's uncomfortable at first, he admits, but it's in those spaces of shared struggle, prayer, and tears that the billboard of one another's faith becomes visible and deeply encouraging.
Jonathan closes with a story about a rancher friend who suffered a major stroke and, somewhere in the hospital, was led by grace to read Scripture with new clarity. His family, though they've suffered greatly, testify that they're happier and more knit together now than before — because everything is Christ. Jonathan ties this back to Paul's warning in Colossians 2:4 not to be deluded by plausible arguments, noting the same word shows up in James 1:22, where James warns against being hearers only, deceiving yourselves. The plausible arguments are everywhere now — in our pockets, on our screens — but the answer hasn't changed. It's the same old lie Satan whispered to Eve: is He really enough? The answer, proclaimed through every page of this letter and every song sung that morning, is yes. He is enough.
If you're wrestling with that same question — whether Christ is really sufficient for what you're carrying — we'd love for you to hear more of the "Jesus Over Everything" series and see what that looks like lived out in what we believe. You're always welcome to join us on a Sunday and hear it in person, and you can find every message in this series on our sermon archive.
