The Hope of Glory

Hey, hey, good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This is 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. It's a 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, pray 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. Lord, 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 are at Colossians chapter one, beginning at 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 end I also labor, striving according to his working, which works in me mightily.
Well, we need to ask ourselves, A, what's this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, 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? It's pretty shocking.
The first part of verse 24, I now rejoice in my suffering for you. Paul rejoices in his suffering for the church in Phrygia, in Colossae. He rejoices that he is able to serve them by bearing the wounds in his flesh. And I fill up in my flesh that 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 the 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 is 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. 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 been naked, all of these things for the sake 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 him 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 him 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.
This might, instead of the word mysterion here, could be mystery translated. It could also just be the idea of a secret, right? Something that was hidden in the past. It's not something unknowable, but this is something hidden in the past that just had little whispers about it. Just little whispers, but now has come to full light. So he's telling to them, he's proclaiming to them, he's preaching to them the mystery that was hidden from long ago. Oh, 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. All sorts of esoteric mystery religions have popped up because they refuse to just read the next verse.
To them God willed 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 in Genesis 3.15, and the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent and he would bruise his heel. Just little blips on the radar. You know, when God gives his covenant to Abraham and he says, and unto your seed, and that seed was Christ. And then just a little bit more in 2 Samuel chapter 7, when God promises David that he's going to have a descendant who will sit on his throne forever. And just little hints of these messianic promises here and there and there and there.
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 Jew and Gentiles, we read in Ephesians, is being torn down, and it's through the person and work of Jesus Christ. Now, we, Gentiles in the faith, have the hope of glory, wild branches engrafted into the tree because of the work of Jesus Christ.
And so he says, Him, right? This is because of what Jesus has done. Verse 28, Him we preach. Him we preach. This is why I 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 that 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 is. 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 end, I also labor, 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 learning how to put off the old man, to put on the old man. 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 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 gonna say verses 27 and 28.
Maybe you want to underline something else. Feel free to let me know. Seek calling. What are we called to do? Hold firm to that faith which you once received. 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'll leave behind?
Let's pray. Lord, 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, that we would deal honestly 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. 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.
Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith and your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue. Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.