Colossians 1:24-29

Colossians 1:24-29

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Sacrificial Service for Christ

24 I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church, 25 of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, 26 the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. 27 To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. 29 To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily.

The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Col 1:24–29.

• Transcript

  Hey, good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to Coffee and devotion this where every day you and I, we get together. We have a little bit of coffee, we get into God's word and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year 2022 Lord willing, we'll make it from the book of Acts to Second Thessalonians to change we made this week. Thanks so much for your input. With that we are going to wrap up Colossians chapter one this morning. Let's have some coffee break and get into God's Word. Lord, we thank you so much. For your word, for your spirit. For coffee for mornings with you for the blessing it is to have you speak to us, or we pray that as we read your Word this morning, we desperately need your Holy Spirit to teach us to enlighten our eyes and to spur us on to live these things out in Jesus name, Amen. All right, so we're at Colossians chapter one beginning of verse 24. And we'll read through verse 29. Here we go. I now rejoice in my sufferings for you. And fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ for the sake of his body, which is the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God, which was given to me for you to fulfill the Word of God. The mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations but now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of his mystery according to the Gentiles, which is Christ in you the hope of glory, him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus to this and I also labour, striving according to his working which works in me, mightily. Well, we need to ask ourselves a What's this about? Be what's the best verse to summarize this and see, what are we called to do in response to these words? So what's this about? Well, Paul, moves on now from this idea of the preeminence of Christ and the reconciliation of Christ, to how happy he is thanking God to be a minister for them, a servant for them. And what does he say this is pretty shocking. The verse the first part of verse 24. I now rejoice in my suffering for you. Paul rejoices in his suffering for the church in first year, in Colossae, he rejoices that he is able to serve them by baring the wounds in his flesh. And I fill up in my flesh, that what, what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ for the sake of his body, which is the church this is not saying that the work of Jesus wasn't finished on the cross. But what he's saying is as a gospel continues to go out all over the world, Christians are going to suffer because the Kingdom is going to continue to go out. And so as it continues to the kingdom continues to go out. Christians are going to be persecuted. And if the church is the body of Christ, then the body is going to be afflicted this what Jesus warned his disciples, if they hate me, they're going to hate you also. Right? A servant is not greater than his master. Don't be surprised when trials and tribulation persecution comes. Right? We ought to know these things are happening so that we're not like that seed that falls upon the rocky soil. We ought to be rooted in the good soil in Christ Jesus. And so Paul is saying he really is afflicted. He really is being beat. I mean, we hear in other letters that he writes about how he's been shipwrecked, how he's been whipped, how he's been stoned how he's been abandoned, he's been destitute, he's butt naked, all of these things for the city of Jesus Christ. And he says, It's my pleasure. Because I get to serve you all. Why would he take such pleasure? In this right, verse 25, of which I became a minister, a servant, a pastor, according to the stewardship from God, which was given to me, for you to fulfill the Word of God. This was what God had called them to do. This was his stewardship to be an apostle to be a minister. So it's his blessing. So he counts all things as loss, because it's really gain because it's what God has called them to do. And so he's going to fulfill the Word of God the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. Smite instead of the word mysterious on here. Could be mystery translated. It could also just be the idea of a secret. It's something that was hidden in the past. It's not something unknowable, but this is something hidden in the past. That just had a little whispers about it. Just little whispers, but now has come to full light. So he's this, he's telling them he's proclaiming to them. He's preaching to them. The mystery that was hidden from long ago. Well, I wonder what that mystery is. That's been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to the saints. It's a beautiful thing. We don't have to speculate on these things. It all sorts of esoteric mystery religions have popped up because they refuse so just read the next verse. To them, God willing to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery, according to the Gentiles, which is Christ in you? The hope of glory. The mystery is that Paul is talking to Gentiles in Colossae. And they have the hope of glory, Christ in them. They have been brought into the kingdom of God's marvelous light by the reconciliatory work of Jesus Christ. They have the hope of glory because they have Jesus Christ, the mystery that was hidden, just little seed forms and Genesis 315 and the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent and he would bruise his heel. Just a little more, just little blips on the, on the radar. You know, when God gives His covenant to Abraham, and he says in unto your seed, and that seed was Christ. And then just a little bit more in Second Samuel chapter seven, when God promises David that he's going to have a descendent who will sit on his throne forever and the little hints of this messianic promises here in their in their in their somehow, all the nations are going to come you get to the Psalms and the Prophets are singing about all the nations coming and bowing to Jesus. And now it's happening. Gentiles are coming to faith. And they are doing so the dividing wall between Jews and Gentiles. We read in Ephesians as being torn down, and it's through the person and work of Jesus Christ. Now, we Gentiles in the face have the hope of glory, wild branches, and grafted into the tree because of the work of Jesus Christ and so he says him, right the because of what Jesus has done, verse 28, him we preach him, we preach this why preach about Jesus all the time. Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. My goal as a pastor is to preach Jesus Christ, that at the Last Great Day, people might be presented spotless, blameless, without reproach, because they've had faith in Jesus Christ. When they close their eyes on this side of life. They open them to behold the glory of Jesus Christ. This is what my entire calling as a pastor as I'm so thankful that my friend Kyle, when he preached my ordination, charge was preach the glories of Jesus with clarity. This is my call as a pastor. It's the same stewardship that was entrusted to Paul as a servant of the gospel to preach the glories of Jesus Christ. This is the hope we have of glory, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus to this and I also labour striving according to his working which works in me mightily. Really works in Paul mightily. I mean, he's getting kicked out of cities, he's being persecuted, he's doing all these things, and people are coming to faith. People are believing people are turning from their sins people are are learning how to put off the old man and put on the old man. They're, they're learning about the wisdom of God and the path of holiness. They're learning to love God and they're learning to love their neighbors, both Horizont vertical relationships and horizontal relationships are being utterly changed. Because people are setting their eyes on Jesus Christ, knowing who they are in Jesus and out of their identity in Jesus Christ, their union with Jesus Christ. It's changing everything in their lives. What's the best verse of this passage? I'm going to say? Verses 27 and 28. Have you underlined something else? Feel free to let me know. See calling what are we called to do? Hold firm to that faith, which you once received, can keep your eyes fixed on Jesus Christ. Look to your savior who has reconciled you to the Father. walk in holiness, not out of the sense of duty that makes you think that you're earning your salvation, but because but because God has loved you and poured out His Spirit in you given you his son, because you've been united to Jesus, walk in holiness, walk in righteousness, do the good works which God has prepared for you that you should walk in them. You've been saved for this. Who knows? The legacy you will leave behind? Let's pray. Lord, we may we never take our eyes off Jesus Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith. Lord, we pray by the power of your Holy Spirit that you would work in us and through us that we would walk before you in holiness, that we would hate sin and we would deal honestly with our with our sinful hearts. And that as we continue to look to Jesus, your spirit would renew our minds, transform our lives, that we might love You more and more. In Jesus's name, Amen. Well, may the Lord of Glory watch over you. May you rejoice in the one who has given you salvation. And I'll see you on Monday. Bye Transcribed by https://otter.ai