Paul’s ministry to the church, Colossians 1:24-29

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the famous English preacher of the late 1800’s, said, and I quote; “It is the duty of Christian preachers to expose error even when it was held by saintly believers.” I agree with that statement. Error comes in many forms, and the most deceitful means is when it comes from the lips of people who you think you can trust.  Spurgeon went on to say that he wouldn't preach error if the whole world should be converted by it. 

That may be a shocking statement, but what he was trying to say was that he would never preach error, no matter what appeared to be the consequences of doctrine that individuals might apparently be pleased with. One of the signs of the end times, the age of apostasy, is that as Paul told Timothy in 2Tim. 4:3-4 “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but [wanting] to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires,  and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.”

Unfortunately, that’s one of the problems with the church at large today.  We have swallowed a little error here, and a little half truth there, and we haven’t realized that we have drifted far away from the truth of the gospel.  I believe it is a problem in society in America as well.  We are like the proverbial frog in a pot of warm water, which at the beginning he is able to jump out of the pot, but he finds the temperature is actually to his liking.  The stove though gradually heats up the pot, the frog goes from complacency to comatose until the water begins to boil, and before the poor frog realizes what is happening he is cooked.

That kind of complacency is what Paul is writing to the Colossians about.  They have found the waters of false doctrine to be quite comfortable.  They like the false teachers that have found their way into the church.  Someone has said they were proposing a new doctrine which we might call Gnostic Judaism.  I’m not going to take the time to try to explain it.  But suffice it to say that it sounded very spiritual.  It sounded like it was based on the scriptures, at least the Old Testament scriptures.  They didn’t really have a New Testament yet and so they studied the Old and whatever few epistles from the apostles that might have found their way to them.  But more importantly the false teaching appealed to their tastes.  It tickled their ears, so to speak. 

And we have a lot of churches today in America that are offering something similar. They are offering a gospel that appeals to secularism.  They are offering a social gospel.  They are offering a prosperity gospel. They are offering a gospel that promises you don’t need to be sick, or suffer, or do without anything you want.  It sounds so good.  The temperature of the water is quite comfortable, and they don’t care that they are becoming comatose. 

Paul’s gospel is not like that.  He wouldn’t have passed muster by the pastor search committee.  He didn’t look very much like the polished and preening prosperity and word of faith type of preacher that we see at the local mega church or on television.  

Let me tell you something just so you get an inside picture of what’s going on in the church at large today. You know when my son was in college studying to be a graphic designer, he took an internship with a local mega church in San Diego.  They had a corporate office in some office park that he worked in, but they had several satellite churches throughout the city.  And one day I showed up there to see him at work, and they ended up giving me a tour of the corporate office.  

We saw the graphic design studio, the film studio with green screen which could be outfitted with the background of the appropriate church, and all kinds of things that went into producing the services for all these campus’s. But then they showed me a room which they called the sermon writing room.  I was naturally interested in that, so I asked how it worked.  And I was told that the sermon writing team met there and came up with the sermons that the pastors then practiced speaking and then performed in front of the green screen and then presented in their church on Sunday.  I was stunned, to say the least, to discover that the pastor did not write his own sermon, nor was he even a part of the sermon writing team.  And then when I left the building, I happened to meet one of the pastors who was coming in to perform his sermon.  He was tanned, trim, bleached white teeth, and a great smile.  It felt like I had just met a movie star or something.

All across this country today, in pulpits in so called evangelical churches, pastors are preaching a canned, packaged, committee written message complete with graphics and Bible verses and touching illustrations that they purchased from one of those type of sermon mills. And like all false doctrines, there is just enough good stuff in there to make what’s not true seem like it’s not all that important. Someone told me the other day that God can use canned sermons too. Well, that may be true, but my response to that is that God used an ass to rebuke the prophet Balaam, but that shouldn’t mean we want one in our pulpit.  

This is not a 21st century phenomenum. In the first few years of the church, this false gospel was already making dangerous inroads.  Paul warned the Galatian church, Gal 1:6-8 “I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel;  which is [really] not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.  But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!”

This false, feel good gospel was not what Paul was preaching, however. The gospel that Paul was preaching is not something designed to make you feel special, or to make all your problems go away, or to help you become your best self now. Notice what Paul says concerning the gospel so far. He says we were enemies of God, and the only way to be reconciled to God is through the death of Jesus Christ. It takes the death of Christ to reconcile you to God, to make things right between you and God, Jesus had to die on the cross, a terrible, torturous, violent death, to atone for your sin.

We were naturally enemies of God, engaged in evil deeds, but He rescued us from the dominion of Satan, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.  And regarding His Son he has much to say, not the least of which is that “He Himself will come to have first place in everything.”  Christ is to have first place in our lives.  That’s what it means in Romans 10:9 which said, “If you confess Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.” To confess Jesus is Lord means that He has first place in our lives. He is on the throne of our hearts. We no longer live for ourselves, but we live for God.

2Cor. 5:15 says, “and [Christ] died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.”  I wonder if we were examined on that point as proof that we were indeed born again, would there be enough evidence to convict us?  Do we no longer live for ourselves, but live for Christ?

Paul goes on to say concerning the gospel of salvation that it produces a new life. 2Cor. 5:17 “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, [he is] a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”  We are a new creature, a new creation, no longer consumed with the ways of this world, or with the things of this world, but fixing our eyes on Jesus as we walk in newness of life in Christ. 

Back in Colossians, Paul speaks further of this transformation in us, in vs 21: “And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, [engaged] in evil deeds,  yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach-- if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.”

The goal of our reconciliation is that we walk in holiness, that we live in a way that is blameless, beyond reproach. Now what does he mean, if we continue in the faith? Notice it says continuing in THE faith, not continuing in faith.  There was a popular preacher of an earlier generation who was a prosperity and word of faith preacher before it became quite as mainstream as it is today.  His name was Norman Vincent Peale.  You may have heard of his book which was a best seller;  “The Power of Positive Thinking.”  Mr. Peale made the common mistake of confusing positive thinking with faith.  I suppose you can have faith in carnal things.  I practice faith every time I get in an airplane.  

But that is not Biblical faith. I might convince myself to have faith that God will protect me if I put my face mask over my eyes instead of my mouth and walk across Route 1 out front of this building.  But no matter how much I believe it, or want to believe it, that does not mean that I won’t get run over by a truck.

Biblical faith is believing in the promises of God which are written down in the word of God, so that as Peter said, we have a faith more sure.  2Peter 1:19-21 “[So] we have the prophetic word [made] more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.  But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is [a matter] of one's own interpretation,  for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.”

Ok, then, so the gospel is the word of God, and faith is trust in the promises of God which are given to us by the Holy Spirit in the scriptures.  This is the faith that Paul is preaching in Colossians, which he delineates in vs 5 saying, “the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel.” And since the day which they believed by faith this gospel, Paul in the beginning of this epistle said he prayed that they would bear fruit, being filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that they will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might,]for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience.”  That’s the evidence of their faith, the fruit of their faith, their walk in the faith.

Now why would they need all this strength, and power, and steadfastness and patience to walk in the faith? Well, the answer is revealed in vs 24, because of the sufferings which they would experience because of their faith.  Vs.24, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions.”  What is he talking about here?  Is Paul saying that part of the Christian experience is suffering, and afflictions?  Yes, that’s exactly what he is saying.  I thought everything was supposed to be better when you become a Christian.  I thought we get to live our best life now, and also get heaven when we die. I thought God promised to make all things work out for good.

What Paul is talking about is, his identification with the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ.  

"Filling up that which is lacking of the sufferings of Christ," he means that his sufferings, on behalf of the church of Jesus Christ, represents an identification with the risen Lord who has suffered for the church.  Paul’s suffering though is not for their atonement but as a minister for their spiritual edification. 

Contrary to the teachings of Norman Vincent Peale and others of his ilk, suffering is a necessary part of the Christian experience. If the church is the body of Christ, then we should expect suffering as we are a part of that body. In fact, Romans tells us that suffering leads to the glory which is the inheritance of our salvation.   Rom 8:17 “and if [we are] children, [then] heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with [Him] so that we may also be glorified with [Him.]” 

There are a lot of ways which we can suffer for our faith as the church.  Because of our faith we can suffer rejection from family, we can suffer the loss of friendships, we can suffer by losing a job, or by losing some sort of favor at work which results in less pay or the loss of a promotion.  The list of ways we can suffer could go on and on.  But I will tell you something I believe very strongly.  We have not yet suffered like we are soon going to suffer, and I believe it will be at the hands of our government. I believe that the ways in which government restricted churches during the pandemic was just a trial run of things to come.  If things continue as they appear to be headed, the day will soon come when we will no longer be able to proclaim the truth of God’s word without fear of reprisal.  The truth will be branded as hate speech.  We will be forced to either condone what the Bible tells us is sin, or we will find ourselves being censored and even shut down. 

But it’s also true that many churches are trying to prove to the world that they are actually inclusive, loving people and so they avoid talking about sin, they avoid talking about damnation, they avoid saying anything that might not be perceived as politically correct.  But the Bible says you cannot love the world and be Christ’s disciple.  1John 2:15 says,  “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” And so if you call out the world and tell them the truth of the gospel, that they are sinners, and without God, and as such will be eternally separated from God in hell unless they repent, then you can expect to suffer affliction.  So perhaps another evidence of our salvation is to examine the degree to which you are suffering.  Now don’t misunderstand me, you can suffer because you’re a jerk too. I’m not advocating that.  But I am saying that it is likely that you will suffer for the sake of the gospel if in fact you are actually living in service to the Lord. In 2Ti 2:3 Paul says, “Suffer hardship with [me,] as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.”

Now Paul goes on to explain how this service works. Col 1:25-27 “Of [this church] I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the [preaching of] the word of God,  [that is,] the mystery which has been hidden from the [past] ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints,  to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

Now in verse 23, it says that Paul is a minister of the gospel. In verse 25, he says that he is a minister of the church. Both of these are true.  A minister is a servant. That's what the term diakonos, the term used here means- the same word from which we get the term deacon. 

Paul is a servant of the word, and he's a servant of the church because you can never really be a good servant of the church of Jesus Christ if you're not a servant of the word. The blessing of the Holy Spirit can only come through the word of God. The things that God blesses are the things that are in obedience to the word of God. If a person is unable to verify his Christian experience by the teaching of the word of God, you can say it is a dubious Christian experience. Christian experience must be founded in the word of God. The word of God is our standard, and Paul is a servant of the word, and by that he is able to minister to the church.

Notice what Paul says the preaching of the word does - it it reveals the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but now has been manifested to His saints (that is the true believers, the church).   What is this mystery?  A mystery is something that can not be known unless it is revealed.  So the Holy Spirit has revealed through the word of God something that is now clear.  

And though I have read a lot of explanations of possible meanings of the mystery, I think that I will stick with what Paul is saying the mystery is.  He says, “what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, WHICH is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”  The mystery is simply this; Christ in you, the hope of glory.  He is referring to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit who is given to us at the moment of salvation.  Jesus said in the upper room that it was expedient that He should leave His disciples, so that He could send them a Helper, the Spirit of Truth.  

In Romans 8:9 notice how Paul uses Spirit of God and Spirit of Christ interchangeably. He says, “However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.”  So the Spirit of Christ is in us as the result of our salvation.  But at the same time He is also a foretaste, or a deposit of the good things to come.  Paul says “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

The hope of glory speaks to the future. Christ in us now as the Spirit will be made complete and glorious when we see Him face to face at the consummation. Our future inheritance is the hope of glory.  And so as we said earlier, we suffer with Him now but we are promised glory later.  Remember Romans 8:17 which we quoted earlier?  “and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with [Him] so that we may also be glorified with [Him.]”  We are now saved, we now have the Spirit as a pledge, as a deposit of what will be fully realized when we are raised to glory at the resurrection.

The hope of glory is speaking of something in the future.  Now is not glory.  Now we suffer with Him.  We live as aliens in a foreign land.  We sometimes suffer hardships.  We don’t have everything that we might want to have.  In this world we serve the Lord, not ourselves.  We no longer live for ourselves, but for Him.  And we look forward to that day when all things will be made new, and we shall be glorified.

You know, I have to say that I am very disappointed with the election if it goes as it is being reported in the news.  I am afraid of the world that my kids and their kids will have to live in.  I am afraid that America is on the brink of destruction. Some Christians have offered consolation by saying that God is still on the throne.  And yes He is.  God is on the throne of heaven and earth is His footstool.  But America has rejected God’s rule.  America said a long time ago that God will not rule over us.  God was on the throne in heaven when He allowed Hitler to take control of Germany.  God was on the throne when Russia and China became communist and killed and imprisoned millions of Christians. 

Listen, Romans 1 tells us that there comes a day in the course of human events when God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do the things which were not proper. God gives a people over to their desires, even if that desire is the means of their destruction. God gave Israel a king because they asked for a king.  And their kings led them to destruction, to the destruction of the temple, to become exiled in Babylon.  And yet, God is still on His throne and He will still accomplish His purpose on earth.  But God’s purpose  is to destroy the heavens and the earth and remake all things new.  God’s purpose is not to make this world a better place, but to ransom a people from this world and take them out of this world.  And then His judgement will rightly fall upon this world and it will be destroyed. 2Peter 3:13 “But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.” Peter said this world will be destroyed by fire. 

Now that’s God’s purpose and that is the hope of glory. That we that are saved, though we may suffer in this life, we will at the end of the age be raised to glory with Christ.  All things will become new.  Where righteousness dwells eternally.  A day with no night, no death, no sin, no sorrow.  That is the hope that Paul is preaching. That’s the hope of the gospel. Yet on the other hand I am sad because I want to have the liberty and freedom that was once America preserved for my kids and grandkids.  But even if God should chose to grant that request, the end is still coming, and things will go from bad to worse, and it will culminate in destruction of this earth.  I would like to delay it for the sake of the few years my children will live on this earth. But, at the same time, I must say, even so, come quickly Lord Jesus.

Well, Paul concludes this section concerning his ministry to the church by saying in vs28 “We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ.  For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.”  

The purpose of Paul’s preaching is not just to lead someone to Christ, but to make them complete in Christ.  He is talking about the spiritual maturity of the believer.  And, guess what? spiritual maturity is tied to suffering.  James 1:2-4 says, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,  knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.  And let endurance have [its] perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”  

Listen, God teaches us more by walking through the fire than He does by walking on the mountaintop. The testing of our faith produces strength and steadfastness through the word of God.  As we endure suffering, as we endure afflictions, as we live as aliens and sojourners in this world, we do so by faith in the word of God, trusting in His promises, trusting in His presence in us.  And we come out of those trials as if tested by fire, refined as gold, complete in Christ.

Paul knows that the secret of his success is not in the power of positive thinking, but it’s in the inner presence of the Holy Spirit who works mightily in him.  And that same power is available to us.  We walk by the Spirit and not by the flesh.  We walk in the wisdom of the word and not according to the wisdom of this world.  And through His word, and growing in the knowledge of Christ, we are being conformed to His image, and being made complete in Christ.  That is the goal of the gospel.  To make us like Christ, so that we might have Christ in us, that we might live like Christ in the world, and that we might one day be glorified with Christ.  I pray that is your goal as well. 

The Ministry of Reconciliation, Colossians 1:19-23

Twice in this passage we see a form of the word reconcile.  Reconcile, or reconciled, is one of those Christian words that we hear so often in the church in regards to salvation and yet perhaps we really aren’t exactly sure what it means.  However, it’s a word that you may have also heard outside of the church. It’s used for instance, in divorce proceedings.  There usually is some sort of effort to reconcile both parties, the husband and wife.  And what that means is that they come to an agreement, they make up, they resolve their differences that had driven them apart, so that they can come back together.

In fact that is how it is used in 1Cor. 7:11 which says,  “(but if she does leave, she must remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband should not divorce his wife.”

But it also has a financial meaning, which is often used in relation to balancing your checkbook.  To reconcile, means to make one account consistent to another.  The bank sends out your statement, and you take your checkbook and compare it in light of the bank statement (which is always the correct one, of course). And so you make whatever corrections are necessary to make your check book correlate to the bank.

Now both of those variations on the meaning of reconcile should help us to get a grasp on it’s theological implications.  To be reconciled to God speaks of a man being made right with God, his account with God being corrected in light of what God’s justice requires.

When Paul speaks though to the Colossians about reconciliation with God, notice that he first shows us the standard of righteousness which is in Christ Jesus.  In vs 19, Paul says that in Christ all the fullness of deity dwells.  He has just given in the preceding verses a liturgy of Christology, all the attributes of Christ which make up HIs deity.  And so he says in 19 that in Christ is all the fullness of deity.  So Christ is the righteous standard of God in every respect.  And if we are going to be made right with God, then Christ is the standard by which we are reconciled.  He is the statement, so to speak, that we balance our checkbook against.

And so Paul says that God is pleased in vs 20, that “through Him (that is Christ) to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross.”  God reconciles all things to Himself through Christ.  So not only is Christ God, as we saw in vs 15-19, but He is able to save. And we see that Christ is able to save in vs20-23. He is able to reconcile men to God.

Salvation, or being saved, is another of those Christian words that we use very often, but perhaps not always understood. Because when the Bible speaks of salvation, there are at least 6 terms that are often used  to speak of salvation. I want to review them with you for a moment.  Five terms used in salvation; and the first one is justification.  In justification the sinner stands before God as a guilty sinner and is declared righteous.  Abraham was justified by faith, and so are we.

The second term used to describe salvation is redemption. In redemption, the sinner stands before God as a captive slave and is granted freedom by a ransom, or a payment.  That’s redemption.  The third term that is used to describe our salvation is forgiveness. In forgiveness, the sinner stands before God as a debtor, and the debt, having been paid, is forgiven, wiped clean. 

Fourth is the term we are looking at today; reconciliation. In reconciliation, the sinner stands before God as an enemy and through peace offering of Christ becomes a friend of God. Fifthly, is the term adoption,  which also describes our salvation. In adoption the sinner stands before God as a stranger and is made His child.That’s adoption. And sixth, regeneration.  That which was dead has been given new life. So to summarize our salvation; We stood before God as the guilty sinner, and He declared us righteous. We stood before God as a captive slave, and He granted us freedom. We stood before God as a debtor, and He forgave us. We stood before God as an enemy, and He made us a friend. We stood before God as a stranger, and He called us His child.  We stood before God as dead in our sins, and we were given newness of life.

Now all of those speak of different aspects of our salvation, but today we are going to focus on reconciliation because that’s what Paul is addressing in this passage. And there are four aspects of reconciliation that Paul gives us here in these verses. The four aspects of reconciliation are the plan of reconciliation, the means of reconciliation, the aim of reconciliation, and the evidence of reconciliation. 

First, let’s consider the plan of reconciliation. Vs 20 “and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, [I say,] whether things on earth or things in heaven.”

Now the key phrase there is “through Him to reconcile all things to himself.” So God reconciles all things to Himself through Christ.  All things can be taken to mean all of creation. And there is a sense in which as a result of Christ’s atonement all of creation will be restored to rightness with God.  All of creation is under the curse of sin. We live in a fallen world.  But the apex  of creation is man. When man sinned all of creation bore the curse of that sin.  And in like manner, when man is reconciled to God through Jesus Christ then the rest of creation will be reconciled as well. As Romans 8:19 says, “For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.”  And then in vs 21 it explains, “that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.  For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.”

All of creation is waiting for the reconciliation of God with man. Sin corrupted the universe. It destroyed the peace between one creature and the other, between all creatures and God. But the plan of God is that through Christ, the universe is going to be reconciled. It’s going to be restored to a right relationship to God. So that as Peter says in 2 Peter 3:13 “But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.”

Now when Paul says that all things will be reconciled that does not mean that everyone will be saved, and  that even fallen angels will be restored.  But what it means is that sin will be done away with, those who have chosen to live in sin will be sentenced to eternal punishment banished forever from the presence of God, and those angels who have fallen will be cast into the Lake of Fire, no longer to tempt or deceive or bind men.  But it also means that those creatures, and every creature on earth and in heaven will bow the knee, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.  And sin and death will be done away with, and only righteousness will dwell in the new heavens and new earth.

In vs21 he specifies who is reconciled; “And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.”  The Bible makes it clear that in our natural, sinful state we were enemies of God.  It says in Rom. 8:7 that we were hostile, that means to be at war with God.   It says “because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able [to do so,]”

And James uses a variation on that term, hostile, to designate the world as an enemy of God. James 4:4  You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” But through reconciliation, Paul says, you who were enemies of God have been made the friends of God.  God made peace through our Lord Jesus Christ by His death on the cross.

Eph. 2:12 says, “remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace.”  This was the plan of God from before creation, to create a people for Himself, who are like Him, for fellowship and communion with Him, and who will enjoy Him forever.

So that is the plan of reconciliation.  Now that brings us to the means of reconciliation.  Paul says how it was accomplished in vs 20; “And having made peace through the blood of His cross.” How did Christ reconcile man to God, who were His enemies, and make peace? He made peace between God and man through the blood of His cross.  He is speaking of a peace offering, a sacrifice. Now when the scripture speaks of the blood it is not referencing some sort of mystical power in the actual blood of Jesus Christ. We should not view the actual blood of Christ in some superstitious manner.  But what Paul means when he speaks of the blood of Christ or the blood of the cross is simply the death of Jesus Christ. Blood refers to the violent manner in which someone or something dies, not in some power of the actual element.

We see the parallel between the blood of the cross and and death for instance, in Rom 5:10 which says, “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”  So we were reconciled through the death of Christ.  Not by some mystical element of the blood, but blood being representative of the sacrificial death of Christ.

In verse 22; it says it another way, “In the body of His flesh through death.” The death of the substitute Lamb of God was the way that God dealt with our sin, so that we might be reconciled to Him. The justice of God had to account for sin, and we had to pay the debt of sin, the penalty for sin.  But Christ offered Himself as a substitute for us, and by dying on the cross he satisfied that debt.

So the means of reconciliation was to offer Christ as as sacrifice and a substitute for our sin, so that our sins are forgiven, and we receive the righteousness of Jesus Christ.  By the death of Christ we are made right with God.

Then Paul addresses the goal, or the aim of our reconciliation. And we find the goal of our reconciliation in the second part of vs 22, “yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.” In order to have complete reconciliation with God, there are three areas in which God has to make right.  We must be holy, blameless and beyond reproach.

To some extent these might look like synonyms.  But perhaps there are some aspects of each that have a particular meaning which might be instructive for us.  Holy refers to our relationship with God.  Blameless has to do with ourselves.  And beyond reproach refers to our relationship with others.  There has to be a holiness between us and God. There has to be a faultlessness within our own selves. And we have to be above reproach in our relationship to others.

Now when we are justified by faith in what Jesus accomplished for us on the cross, then we are made holy, blameless and beyond reproach.  But Paul adds an important little phrase, “before Him.”  In other words, we are holy, blameless and above reproach in HIs sight.  He sees us in Christ.  God sees the righteousness of Christ in us.  It’s what we sang about this morning in the hymn the Solid Rock.  “Dressed in His righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne.”

An important verse in this regard is found in 2 Cor. 5:21.  We will be looking at this verse this coming Wednesday night in our Bible study in 2 Corinthians.  But it fits so well into what we are talking about this morning.  It says, “(God) made (Jesus), who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”  In salvation, God transfers our sin upon Jesus, and transfers Christ’s righteousness to us.  So that when God looks at us, He sees Christ’s righteousness.  He sees us as Christ is; holy, blameless, and above reproach.  That’s why Paul can say in Romans 8: 1 that now there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.  

Now that phrase “In Him” also indicates our position before God.  In practice we may not always be holy in all we do, or blameless, or above reproach.  But positionally, we are in Christ.  And so God sees us as dressed in Christ’s righteousness.

Paul says in Ephesians 5 that we are  the bride of Christ, which will be presented without spot and without blemish.  And on that day, when the bridegroom appears, when sin will be done away with, when all things become new, when creation is reborn without corruption,  when we will be given a new, glorified sinless body, then we will become in practice what we are now in position.  Holy, blameless, and without reproach.

Now let’s look at the last point, which is the evidence of our reconciliation. Vs.23, “if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.”

Notice that Paul says if you continue.  That’s the first evidence of someone who has been reconciled to God.  If you continue in the faith.  If you continue to walk by faith and not by sight. If you continue in the faith firmly established.  That means you haven’t deserted the faith.  You haven’t believed some higher level of intellectualism which denies the truth of the gospel.  Steadfast, means to tie your ship firmly to the anchor  so that you are not tossed here and there by every wind of doctrine.  This was really the danger in the church at Colossae.  It was in danger of being shipwrecked by false doctrines that denied the deity of Jesus Christ. 

In Luke 8:13, is the parable of the sower.  And as Jesus explains the parable, He says ““Those on the rocky soil are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no firm root; they believe for a while, and in time of temptation fall away.”  What does to fall away indicate?  It means they were never saved. True Christians will continue. In John 8:30 it says, “Many believed on His name. But Jesus said, ‘If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of mine.’” The evidence of  a true Christian is he continues in the faith.

Listen to 1 John 2:19, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us. But they went out from us, that it might be made manifest that they all are not of us.” And then in verse 24, “As for you, let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. This is the promise which He Himself made to us: eternal life.” Who gets eternal life? Those who continue.  And one more, John 6:66. “As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore.” True Christians continue.

And notice what they are to continue in; “not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.” The gospel is the message of Christ, the gospel of salvation. The gospel which Paul was preaching. They were to continue in the faith and hope of the gospel.  That is what we are preaching.  In 1Cor. 1:21 it says, “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” There is a lack of gospel preaching today in the modern church.  People don’t want to hear about sin, about salvation, about sanctification. So the modern pastor teaches about relationships, about finances, about receiving material blessings.  But God’s message is the message of Christ crucified.  It’s the message of the cross, the gospel of reconciliation.

Now, in closing, I would like for you to look at a summary of the gospel of reconciliation which is found in 2 Cor. 5.  This passage which we are “coincidentally” studying right now in our Wednesday night Bible study parallels and summarizes this gospel of reconciliation for us.  It’s like a series of bullet points, and I will not expound on them at this time, but just set them out as principles of the gospel of reconciliation. 

Number one, it transforms men. Verse 17, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” The gospel transforms people into a new creation.

Number two; it appeases God’s wrath. Verse 21, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” Christ bore our sins, so God could give us righteousness. It satisfies the wrath of God.

Number three; it comes through Christ.  Verse 18, “Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”

Fourth, it is our ministry.  End of vs 18, “He gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” And the end of vs 19, “He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”  This is our ministry.  To tell the world that Christ has died to reconcile us to God, that we might become the children of God, and inherit eternal life in Christ. 

Vs. 20, “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”  From time to time I hear Christians ask what kind of ministry opportunity can I get involved in at your church?  I want to participate in some sort of ministry.  And usually they are thinking of something along the lines of a homeless ministry, or a children’s ministry, or maybe a music ministry.  But God has already given us a ministry.  That being the ministry of reconciliation, where we act as ambassadors for God, representing Christ to a world that is at enmity with God, and giving them the word of reconciliation; that God has sent Jesus to die as our sacrifice and substitute so that we might be made right with God and receive the righteousness of God.  Our ministry is to go to the lost, the unsaved, those that have not yet trusted Jesus Christ by faith and believed in the work that He did on the cross to pay my penalty, so that we might be given the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

That is our ministry.  That is our responsibility.  I pray that you accept that position of ambassador of the kingdom of God, and carry out that office, pleading with those that are at enmity with God to accept the peace of Christ, so that they might be reconciled to God.

The prayer for the church, Colossians 1:3-12

In preaching through Romans and now beginning the epistle to the Colossians, I have somehow stumbled upon a series of sorts that has come out of my usual verse by verse exposition.  This series doesn’t have a title, but it has to do with the life of the church.  Perhaps this emphasis was brought to my mind as a result of the pandemic, and the ensuing restrictions that were placed upon the church.  It made me examine why we go to church, the reason for the church, and whether or not church was essential.  It seemed at the time that government had deemed the church inessential, whereas I believed that the church was essential to life as a Christian.  Church is not an addendum, it is not entertainment, it is not merely a social gathering.  But I believe that scripture teaches that the church is Christ’s body on earth, in other words, the church is the physical manifestation of Christ on earth, and as such the physical assembly of this body is absolutely essential.

Now I don’t want you to take my word for it.  Ephesians 5:23 says,  “For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself [being] the Savior of the body.”  As you can see, the church and Christ’s body are synonymous.  And then another one, found in the book we are now studying, which verse we looked at last week, Col. 1:18 “He (that is Christ) is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.” Again the church and the body of Christ are synonymous, and furthermore, it says that He will have first place in everything. You might rephrase that to say that the church, Christ’s body is to be the number one priority in every situation.  I wish I could say that proved to be true in our experience.  But I’m afraid that for most 21st century Christians, the church is not their number one priority. However, the confession that Jesus is Lord means that He is to have preeminence in all things.

So anyway, in spite of being an expositional preacher, I have managed to preach a series of messages on the church which have come from our exposition of Romans and Colossians.  This series began with the worship of the church, then the essentiality of the church, then the love of the church, the edification of the church, the  model for the church, the fruit of the church, and the saints of the church. That finished up Romans, and as we began Colossians I skipped a few verses so that we might continue our series with Christ, the Head of the Church.  Now this week, I will probably conclude this series with what I will call the Prayer for the Church.

Paul begins this epistle, after a short introduction, with a prayer for the church at Colossians. And I will suggest to you that his prayer for the church, should become a model for the  prayer of the church.  We might learn to pray by studying Paul’s prayer, so that we might pray more effectively.

The scriptures make much of prayer.  Jesus made much of prayer. The One who would seem to need prayer the least, prayed the most.  Jesus spent many an entire night in prayer on a lonely mountain top. His last night on earth He spent praying for the disciples in the Upper Room, and then praying in the Garden of Gethsemane with the disciples before He was arrested.  And you will remember that Jesus implored the disciples to pray with Him, to keep watch for just an hour, and yet they fell asleep.

Isn’t it amazing that Jesus desired the disciples to pray with Him?  At this point they weren’t exactly spiritual giants. And yet Jesus wanted them to pray.  But Jesus wanted them to pray not only for Him, but for their own sake.  Notice He said to them in Matt. 26:41 "Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” I can assure you that a life that is prayerful, is a holy life. It is one in which temptation rarely overtakes you.  It produces a life that is focused on the Lord.  It produces a victorious life.

Now in scripture we are encouraged to pray for the church, for one another, and for ourselves.  In Ephesians Paul indicates that prayer is an essential weapon of the church. After listing the spiritual armor needed for spiritual warfare, he says in Eph. 6:18-20, “With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints,  and [pray] on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in [proclaiming] it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.”  Prayer is direct communication with God.  And we are to pray at all times, for all the saints, that is the church, and for those who minister to us in preaching the word of God.

There are many such encouragements to pray found in scripture, but another one that I want to mention is found in Philippians 4:6 “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” Over my lifetime I have probably quoted this verse literally thousands of times in prayer to God.  A great strategy of prayer is to speak back the promises of scripture to God.

Philippians 4:6 has a lot of important points that can be made concerning prayer and the peace of God which is given in response to our prayer.   But what I would like to draw your attention to is two components of prayer which are laid out in that verse.  And the two components of prayer are supplication, which also can be translated as petition, and thanksgiving, which may also be translated as praise. Petition and thanksgiving.

Now I point that out because that is the same method that Paul employs here in his prayer for the church.  He begins his prayer with thanksgiving, praising God for certain things that are true concerning the Colossians.  Then he moves on to petitions on behalf of the Colossian church, and then he sums it all up with another burst of thanksgiving at the end of his prayer.

Notice first of all that Paul mentions that he prays always for the church at Colassae. Perseverance is essential to prayer.  In the verse from Ephesians 6 that I read  a moment ago the apostle exhorts us that “With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit.”  I think how we pray is secondary to how often we pray.  The frequency of prayer is important.  Persevering in prayer is important.  Staying in an attitude of prayer.  Prayer should be strategic.  Daniel prayed three times a day, everyday.  And look at the life he lived and how God blessed him, even to the point of this political exile being made an advisor to kings. 

Jesus taught a parable in Luke 18:1 “to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart.”  In that parable He equated prayer with a woman who came constantly before the king, so that he was afraid that she would wear him out if he did not grant her request. And in 1Thess. 5:17 we are told to “pray without ceasing.” So, it’s important that we pray frequently, which Paul says he does for the church.

Secondly, notice that Paul begins with thanksgiving to God for the faith that was found among the Colossian church.  Thanksgiving, as I pointed out earlier, is an important ingredient of our prayers.  Paul told Timothy in 1Tim. 2:1-2 “First of all, then, I urge that entreaties [and] prayers, petitions [and] thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.”

But notice Paul gives thanks to God for their faith.  Faith is an individual decision.  But it is also a gift from God.  Ephesians 2:8 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, [it is] the gift of God.”  So we pray that God would grant to a person the gift of faith.  That their eyes might be opened so that they will believe the truth.  I think salvation can be correlated to giving sight to a blind person.  God has to open a person’s heart to believe in order for them to receive Christ by faith.  And so faith is something we can thank God for, in the case of the church, but it’s also something we should ask God for, in the case of an unbeliever. 

Notice also that faith is not simply believing in the existence of God, nor believing in the existence of Jesus.  But it is faith in the work of Christ.  Paul says he is “praying always for you,

since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints;

because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel.”  Paul says their faith came as the result of hearing the word of truth, the gospel.  

He says in Rom 10:17 “So faith [comes] from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”  The word of Christ is the truth of the gospel.  And the truth of the gospel is that God sent His Son Jesus the Messiah to earth to die for our sins.  Recognizing you are a sinner, that you are in need of a Savior, that you are in need of forgiveness, and repenting of your sin, believing that Jesus died in your place to pay the penalty of your sin, and that He rose from the dead and ascended to the Father in heaven- that is the gospel.  Faith in Christ’s gospel is saving faith. The Bible says that even the devils believe in God, but they are not saved.  Saving faith is believing much more than simply that God exists, and it starts with repentance of your sin. 

So thanksgiving is being thankful for the gift of salvation.  Then Paul adds to that thankfulness for the fruit of the gospel as it is being sown throughout the world.  He says at the end of vs 5, “the gospel which has come to you, just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing, even as it has been doing in you also since the day you heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth.”

Jesus gave a parable about the sower who went out to sow and some fell on good ground, some found on stoney ground, some fell beside the road and so forth. I’m sure you all are familiar with the parable. But the point I want to emphasize is when Jesus explained the parable He made it clear that the seed the sower was spreading was the word of God. And the seed which fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it and who brings forth fruit. 

That’s why Paul continues in his thanksgiving for Epaphras, who had ministered the word to the Colossians and had brought back the good news to Paul of the bearing of fruit that was occurring in the church there. It would seem that Paul had never been to Colossae, but Epaphras was likely the minister to the church, and his faithfulness to proclaim the word resulted in the fruit that was evident in the lives of the Colossians. We are to sow the seed, but it is God that gives the increase.

And in vs 8 Paul tells us what  the fruit of the church is,  saying, “and he also informed us of your love in the Spirit.”  In Galatians 5:22 Paul identifies the primary fruit of the Spirit is love. And in 1Cor. 13:13 he says concerning spiritual gifts; “But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.” It’s interesting to note that in this prayer, Paul is thankful for their faith, in vs 4, their hope in vs 5, and their love in vs 6.  Love is the fruit of their salvation. Love for God and love for one another. Love is not just some sort of sentimental expression, but speaking the truth in love.  Love is being concerned about another person’s benefit.  And the greatest benefit that anyone could receive is to be saved, to be delivered from darkness and transferred to the church of Christ.  Telling someone that they are a sinner, that there is forgiveness by faith in Christ’s gospel, and telling them the truth even if it hurts your relationship is really acting in love. Love is not concealing the truth because you’re afraid of offending them.  Love is speaking the truth to a lost and dying world.

So Paul begins his prayer for the Colossians with thanksgiving.  Not simply because it is some formula, a way to somehow butter God up with praise so then you can ask Him for what you really want.  But because thankfulness shapes your perspective.  Thanksgiving for what God has done gives us confidence that God cares, and that God can and will help us, because He has so graciously helped us in the past. Thanksgiving releases an intercession which is formed out of blessing and not out of crisis.  It’s a certainty that there will be times of crisis, but our prayer life should not be founded on a response to crisis, but out of a response to blessing.  And when we realize our blessings, we should be inspired to offer up even more prayers and petitions to God from whom all blessings come.

“For this reason” then, Paul says in vs 9, he offers up specific petitions on behalf of the Colossians. Because of his thankfulness for God’s blessings of faith, hope and love in the life of the Colossians, he is spurred to ask God to specifically fill them “with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy.” 

Paul prays specifically, so let’s look specifically at what he is petitioning God for.  First, that God would fill the church with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Spiritual understanding is discernment. I believe that is a spiritual gift that is too often undervalued in the church.  Spiritual discernment is the gift to be able to rightly divide the word of truth, to be able to discern false teaching, and determine false spirits. Lord knows there is a great need for that today.  And in Colossae, they also had a need to discern the false teaching that was gaining a foothold in their church doctrine.  I’m not going to go all into it today, but there was some sort of teaching which promised a deeper level of Christianity, which actually wasn’t the true gospel at all.  Some level of teaching which promised a deeper experience which was not based on sound doctrine.

But Paul knows that true knowledge of the will of God comes from wisdom and the discernment which is given by the Holy Spirit, and that does not lead to some “deeper experience” that the false teachers were teaching, but it results (as he says in vs 10) “in a walk worthy of the Lord, being pleasing to Him, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.”  True knowledge produces a holy walk.  Christian doctrine is not just head knowledge, but it’s applied in day to day life.  It results in a different walk, a different life.

Paul details this walk as being pleasing to the Lord.  We talked about that last week.  If you love the Lord, you will seek to please Him, to serve Him, to be found pleasing to Him. Furthermore, a true walk results in being fruitful in every good work.  Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”  Our walk is to do the works of Christ, to love one another, to serve the Lord in sowing the seed of the gospel. 

And finally this walk of faith involves growing in the knowledge of God. How do we do that?  We study His word.  We come to the true knowledge of God through HIs word. That is the only way we can truly know God is through His word.  His word is the only barometer of truth that we have.  Even if you had an experience in which you believed God directly spoke to you, you would still have to judge the truth of it by God’s word. To do anything less is to leave yourself open to being deceived.  

To know Christ is to love Him. We grow in our love for the Lord through reading His word, by meditating on Him. And as we know more of Him, we love Him more, and if we love Him more, we will keep His commandments, ie, do the things that are pleasing to Him.

Paul continues his prayer, petitioning God that specifically they would be “strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience.” Notice Paul prays that they would be strengthened by the power of God in order to be steadfast.  What does steadfast mean?  It means faithful, loyal, without wavering.  It carries the idea of standing fast in the storms and trials of life.  

In Ephesians 4:14-15 Paul speaks of stedfastness, saying, “As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming;  but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all [aspects] into Him who is the head, [even] Christ.”  The Colossians were in danger of being tossed about by a new wind of doctrine, and as such were in danger of spiritual shipwreck.  Paul’s prayer was that God would strengthen them so that they would be found to be stedfast, immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. (1 Cor. 15:58)

And that they would be strengthened to attain patience. Patience means endurance, perseverance, longsuffering.  Steadfastness and patience are basically synonyms, but with perhaps a different emphasis.  Patience has more a sense of endurance.  James speaks of trials producing endurance.  James 1:2-4 “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,  knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.  And let endurance have [its] perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

It’s interesting that Paul links joy with patience as well here in vs 11.  But also notice that though the idea of trials is indicated in his prayer, Paul doesn’t ask God to take them out of the trial, but to give them endurance and steadfastness as they go through the trial.  Because as James indicates, the trial is God’s means of refining us, of strengthening us, and giving us confidence in God.  So many times our prayers in crisis mode is “Lord deliver me.  Get me out of this!” But Paul prays “Lord, be with them as they go through trials, and give them steadfastness and endurance so that they come out of it perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Finally, Paul concludes His prayer for the church with a final round of thanksgiving.  Vs 12, “joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.”  I believe that Paul here is giving thanks for the suffering that they were called to endure.  The inheritance that God qualified them to share in is not just the glory of heaven, but the sufferings on earth.  This is the biggest challenge yet to our prayer life.  To joyously give thanks to God for our sufferings. 

But I would remind you of the attitude of Peter and John who when they were arrested and scourged and thrown in prison, went away rejoicing that they had been counted worthy to suffer for the Lord’s sake.  Why would you have that perspective?  

Well, the answer may be found in Romans 8:16-18 “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,  and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with [Him] so that we may also be glorified with [Him.]  For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

We can rejoice because we have been counted worthy to share in the sufferings of Christ. Even our trials can be the source of blessing.  And as Paul makes it clear in Romans, if we suffer with Him here, we shall be glorified with Him there.  And the glory that we shall enjoy there, cannot be compared to the suffering that we share in here.  As we saw last Wednesday in our Bible study in 2 Cor. 4:17-18 “For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison,  while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

The key to enduring with patience the trials that are set before us is to pray at all times, pray without ceasing, giving thanks in all things with all prayer and supplication.  Phl 4:6-7  “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”  Amen.