COLOSSIANS 1: 24-29
THE HOPE OF GLORY
[2 Corinthians 11:23-29]
By the Cross of Christ Christians have been made acceptable to God. Someone said that the idea of redemption in a world of sin and tragedy constitutes the noblest concept ever to enter the mind of God or the awareness of a human being. Thank God for His plan of redemption.
God had a purpose when He designed and created the world. God had a purpose when He designed and created you. Do you know the purpose for which God designed you?
A TRUCK DRIVER was hauling a load of 500 penguins to the zoo. Unfortunately, his truck broke down. He eventually waved down another truck and offered the driver $500 to take the penguins to the zoo.
The next day the first truck driver got his truck fixed and drove into town and couldn’t believe his eyes! Just ahead of him he saw the second truck driver crossing the road with the 500 penguins waddling single file behind him. He jumped out of his truck, ran up to the guy and said, “What’s going on? I gave you $500 to take these penguins to the zoo!”
To which the man responded, “I did take them to the zoo. But I had enough money left over so now we’re going to the movies.” [Brian Bill. Sermon Central. Colossians 1: 24-29]
That guy didn’t fully understand what he was supposed to be doing. Likewise, many believers today are fuzzy about their purpose for living. What is your reason for living? Are you a little fuzzy about why you’re here?
For many Christianity is just not working for them. That may be the reason so many Christians have so little real impact on others, on their world. They live without a clear purpose. God designed and created you for a purpose; His purpose.
This passage teaches us three strategic statements that will help us discover how we can fulfill the purpose of our redemption in Christ Jesus.
I. SUFFER WITH PURPOSE, 24.
II. SERVE WITH PURPOSE, 25-27.
III. STRIVE WITH PURPOSE, 28-29.
Now that we have been taught the extent of God’s mercy in God’s mighty work of reconciliation on the cross one can choose to rejoice in his sufferings. It a privilege to suffer for the name of Christ as we see in verse 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.
Christ’s suffering alone procures salvation (1 Peter 1:11; 5:1; Heb. 2:9). But it is a believer’s privilege to suffer for Christ (2 Tim. 3:11; 1 Peter 3:13-14; 5:9; Heb. 10:32). The word “affliction” (thlipsis) [never used in the NT of Christ’s death [Walvoord, John; Zuck, Roy; The Bible Knowledge Commentary. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1983, S. 675] means “distress,” “pressure,” or “trouble” (with which Paul was so familiar; 2 Cor. 11:23-29). [Ordinarily it refers to trials in life, not the pains of death.] For the sake of Christ’s church Paul willingly suffered (Phil. 1:29). Christ suffered to accomplish salvation. We suffer to spread salvation. Christ suffered to free us from our sin so that we might not only share in His salvation, but share His salvation.
[Christ continues to suffer when Christians suffer for Him. He asked Saul (later called Paul) on the Damascus Road in Acts 9:4, “Why do you persecute Me?” Since the church is Christ’s body, He is affected when it is affected.]
Why is suffering for Christ a cause for joy? The New Testament suggests at least five reasons.
First, suffering is part of discipleship. Suffering brings believers closer to Christ. Paul wrote, “That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings” (Philippians 3:10). Suffering in the cause of Christ yields the fruit of better understanding of what Jesus went through in His suffering. [MacArthur, John. MacArthur NT Com. Colossians & Philimon, Moody: Chicago.1992. Pp 77-75]
Precious people, God will allow suffering in your life so that you can relate to Him in a deeper way than you ever would otherwise. But if you become bitter in it, you miss the opportunity for “the fellowship of His suffering.”
You can say, “Lord, when I lost the promotion because I was a Christian, I felt a tiny bit of what You must have felt when they said, ‘We will not have this man rule over us. Away with Him.”’
You can say, “Lord, when my girlfriend broke my heart, I could relate in a small way to how You must feel when people You love turn their back on You time and time again.”
You can be a friend of God in a deeper way if you embrace suffering for the sake of His Church or body.
Second, suffering produces assurance in our hearts. Jesus said in John 15:20, “The servant is not greater than his master. If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. Paul warned Timothy, “Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim. 3:12). If you’re not suffering, it evidently means you’re not living godly. It could even mean you’re not a Christian. So when you suffer say, “Thank You, Lord! This suffering affirms that I’m one of Yours, that I’m becoming more like You!”
Peter tells suffering Christians, “If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you” (1 Pet. 4:14). Suffering causes believers to sense the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives, which gives assurance of salvation.
Third, suffering promises rewards in heaven. “If indeed we suffer with [Christ] in order 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” (Rom. 8:17–18). “For momentary, light affliction is creating in us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:17).
I promise you, when you get to heaven, you won’t say, “I suffered through cancer without murmuring. I accepted it as a way to bring You glory, Father. But now that I’m in heaven, I see it wasn’t worth it.”
No! When you get to heaven, you’re going to say, “Why did I made such a big deal about my suffering on earth. But it was nothing compared to what it prepared me for! Even though I murmured, cried, and maybe even cursed, You loved me enough to allow suffering in my life. Thank You, Lord.” [1 Peter 4:13: “But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.”]
Fourth, suffering results in the salvation of others. Church history is filled with accounts of those who came to Christ after watching other Christians endure suffering.
Why does God allow suffering? Because it gives us the opportunity to show a skeptical world the reality of faith. When the child is taken to heaven unexpectedly; when the doctor says, “It’s malignant,” when the boss says, “You’re through”—people expect us to fall down dead. But we have the chance to shake it off and embrace the suffering. And if you make that choice, cynics change their minds about Christians because they see the reality of your faith.
Fifth, suffering silences Satan. He wants suffering to harm us, but God brings good out of it. Job 1:20–22 states, “Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshiped, And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD. In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.”
Job lost everything—his health, family, and wealth. Satan took everything but his wife—and even she said, “Curse God and die.” But Job wouldn’t, and Satan was defeated once again. [Courson, Jon: Jon Courson's Application Commentary. Nashville, TN : Thomas Nelson, 2003, S. 1308]
[Suffering changes believers and produces hope within us. (Rom. 5:2-5) Suffering produces greater faith and accelerates character development. Romans 5:3-4: “Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.”
I heard about an interesting Scientific experiment that was done a while back at Duke University. A group of behavioral Scientists put some Wharf Rats in a tank of water, and observed them to see how long they would survive before drowning. The average time was 17 minutes. Then, they repeated the experiment, but this time they "rescued" the rats just before the point of drowning, dried them off and returned them to their cages.... fed them, and let them play for a few days, and repeated the drowning experiment. This time, the average survival time for these rats increased from 17 minutes to 36 hours! The scientists explained that phenomenon by pointing out that the second time around, the rats had HOPE. They believed that they could survive this, because they had done so before. One scientist said, "They were able to survive because they had been SAVED". -- Heard on Chuck Smith’s radio broadcast, "The Word for Today". We usually say, "As long as there is life, there is hope." The Duke experiment proved, "As long as there is hope, there is life." -- Bruster & Dale Every time that you make it over some obstacle in your life, it gives you hope that empowers you to make it over the next obstacle that comes along. When you are faced with a situation that threatens to steal your hope, look back. Look back at all those other times that you thought there was no hope. You made it through those. God is still the same as He has ever been, and His power is still available to you. You can make it over.]
How far are you willing to go in suffering for the gospel? Most of us frankly would be better off if we faced some persecution. That leads to the second purpose statement.
II. SERVING WITH A PURPOSE, 25-27.
Paul never lost the sense of wonder that God would call him to the ministry, and he never tired of talking about it. In verse 25 we have a look at the divine character of the ministry. “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,
Paul did not volunteer to become a minister of Jesus Christ; he was appointed one by the Lord Himself. He was ordained by God to be a servant of the precious truth of the Word of God (1:9; 2:9).
Though each of us is to serve God and His Church according to our calling and gifts, Paul was entrusted with a special task. The task and goal of Paul’s ministry to believers or the church was to present the “Word of God in its fullness.” Paul was a servant and his calling was to fully make known the Word of God. I too recognize that my responsibility is to preach the Word of God in its fullness. That means that I won’t shrink away from communicating the Bible, even when it’s not popular. Someone has said that a pastor’s job is to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable. That sounds like something with which the apostle Paul would agree. That’s why we preach about heaven and hell, that’s why we proclaim that Jesus is the only way to a relationship with God, and that’s why we are unashamedly committed to the sanctification of believers. FBC stands on the Bible and is committed to presenting the Word of God in its fullness.
I continue to be amazed at how God would allow me to experience salvation through Christ. I certainly don’t deserve it, and neither do you. When we contemplate the magnitude of this truth, we will engage our time, our talents, and our treasures and serve accordingly.
One of my favorite things as a pastor is to watch believers get fired up to serve in areas that are a match for who God created them to be. If you don’t understand where you need to be serving Christ, I encourage you to sign-up for a mentoring class. Andy understands that he is serving the commission that God has given him.
Verse 26 begins disclosing the mystery of the ages, [which is Christ in us, the hope of glory]. “[that is,] the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints,”
By “mystery” he meant something once concealed but then revealed. The church was unknown in the Old Testament because it had been kept hidden for ages and generations. In fact it was only after Christ that it was “disclosed to the saints.” Since the church resulted from His death on the cross, it could not possibly have been in existence in the Old Testament. [Walvoord, 675]
So what was a mystery has now been made known to us. The question of how God was going to deal with sin, how God was going to bring people from every tribe, nation and tongue into His kingdom – that was a big mystery for those who were around before Jesus. But that has now been disclosed to the saints – Christians in other words – and the answer is wonderfully simple – 2:2 “the mystery of God, namely Christ”.
The grace of God so outrageous. By normal human reasoning, it doesn’t make any sense. Look at verse 27; “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.
This amazing gospel is now revealed among the Gentiles, whereas previously God’s special revelation was to the Jews (Rom. 2:17; 3:1-2; 9:4). Now those “who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ” (Eph. 2:13). Those “without hope and without God” (Eph. 2:12) have been given a glorious hope.
The inner content of this mystery and hope is “Christ in you.” The presence of Christ in an individual’s life constitutes our hope of glory and for glory. Believers are indwelt by Christ, and therefore have “the glorious riches” (“the riches of the glory”). We are “in Christ” (2 Cor. 5:17; Eph. 1:4), and Christ is in us (Rom. 8:10; 2 Cor. 13:5).
The indwelling Christ is our hope of glory. He is the shekianah of God. Christ is our glory and hope both now (1 Tim. 1:1) and at the consummation of the ages (Rom. 8:18).
It is hope because we have not yet received our full inheritance. Because of Christ, believers look forward to sharing His glory (Col. 3:4; Rom. 5:2; 8:18, 30; 2 Cor. 4:17; Gal. 5:5; 1 Peter 5:10; also Rom. 8:24). One life to live which will soon be past; only what’s done for Christ will last.
[See Ogilve. P 54ff]
Are you serving according to your calling? If not, you don’t know what you’re missing! You are missing out on the riches of His glory. As we serve, we encounter a third purpose, striving to mature other believers.
III. STRIVE WITH PURPOSE, 28-29.
Verse 28 instructs us to move people to Christian maturity. “We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ.”
Notice that the word “everyone” or every man is repeated twice, which shows that every single believer is capable of Christian maturity. This central task is linked to a threefold emphasis.
The first is “proclaim Him.” All we do is to be Christ centered. What ever we do as a church needs to be centered around Christ. Christ must be the center of every event, each meeting, and each discussion or conversation.
The second emphasis is on “admonishing.” Admonishing (nouthetountes, “counseling”) carries with it the idea of warning, or helping to set someone’s mind into proper order. Paul didn’t hold back when he thought someone needed to be warned about what they were doing or about what they believed. We need to be willing to admonish one another in a spirit of love, as well as receive warning and correction when we need it.
The third emphasis is on “teaching,” (didaskontes, “instructing”) which refers to the clear communication of the Word of God. Instruction in creed and conduct is critical to Christian growth. Jesus left us the responsibility in Matthew 28:20 to teach disciples to obey everything He commanded. We need to look for opportunities to teach and we need to make sure we’re taking advantage of learning opportunities.
An effective presentation of the gospel always includes both warning and teaching. The warning is that without Christ, people are lost and headed to the agony of hell. The teaching is that salvation is available only by grace through faith in Christ.
The goal of proclaiming Christ through admonishment and teaching is so that we can “present everyone perfect (teleion, “mature”; James 1:4) in Christ.” Paul desperately wanted everyone to become complete in Christ. The word perfect means “full grown, or spiritually mature.” Believers are not to remain spiritual babies (1 Cor. 3:1-2) but in becoming spiritually mature (Heb. 5:11-14). Paul prayed and worked for complete sanctification of believers (1 Thes. 5:23). Paul preached the “fullness” of the gospel so that believers could have the fullness of life Jesus promised (John 10:10).
Our job as a church is not just to admonish, or even to teach. We do those things in order to create spiritually mature Christ-followers. We should all be in the process of growth, of becoming more like Jesus every day. Our focus is not on numerical growth, but on spiritual growth. We don’t want to just build buildings; we want to build believers. We’re all about transformation, not just information.
If we’re serious about moving people to maturity then we can’t be passive or lazy. Instead, we must… Energetically Work Wholeheartedly. Look at verse 29. “For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.“
When Paul says, “To this end I labor,” he’s referring to proclaiming Christ and presenting believers. “To this end” he expended all his God-given strength. He labors and struggles in this task. Developing maturity in believers took great labor (kopiō) or wearisome toil (Mt. 11:28; 1 Cor. 15:10, 58; Gal. 4:11; 1 Thes. 1:3) and even struggling.
The word “struggle”(agōnizomenos; from αγων contest. Col. 2:1; 4:12 or agonizing like an athlete in an arena 1 Cor. 9:25; 1 Tim. 6:12). comes from the root word in Greek translated “agony.” The power for this struggle came from Christ (Phil. 4:13).
Both words were used of athletes competing in the arena, or of a laborer working to the point of exhaustion. Paul used this same word at the end of his life as he reflected on how he had lived in 2 Timothy 4:7: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
We’re called to lay ourselves out, to become spiritually fatigued in order to move people toward full devotion to Christ. I’m humbled by the many people who minister here at FBC with that kind of determination. If you’re tired and wiped out as you reach out to others, you’re in the company of the apostle Paul
Notice that Paul doesn’t just work in his own strength; He instead relies on the power of Christ as he struggles “with all His energy, (ενεργειαν from which our word energy comes) which so powerfully works in me.” There’s a play on words in the Greek text here. We might translate it this way: “Striving according to His energy which powerfully energizes within me.” Paul surrendered his availability to God’s ability. Will you? God’s power is given us to accomplish the purpose for which He has designed us.
CONCLUSION
Have you been ministering for God and not allowing God to minister through you? Invite Christ to live His life in you and through you; to love through you, forgive through you, suffer through you; reveal His Word in and through you. The Christian is the dwelling place of God, the riverbed of the glorious flowing streams of the Living Word.
Since Christ in us He will provide us with His supernatural strength and explosive energy as we labor to propel people to maturity. [Do you see the cooperation and combined effort between Christ and us? The work of salvation is “all of Christ and none of me” but in order to live out my purpose it must be “all of Christ and all of me.”] This is another mystery that God would choose to use you and me, in spite of our weaknesses, in order to help people become mature in Christ.
Friends, don’t hold back. Let’s not become spiritually lethargic or lukewarm. Let’s burn bright and take it up a notch as we labor and lean on Christ for His strength. Let Christ speak, love and work through you.
If you feel a bit aimless, or even bored in your life, then reenlist for active duty in God’s army. It’s much better to do battle together than to battle each other, and it’s much better to understand your purpose to than to go on a walk with a bunch of penguins
I. Afflictions in Christ, 24. [Personal Suffering]
II. The Mystery of Christ, 25-27. [Proclamation of the Mystery]
III. Complete in Christ, 28-29. [Perfect in Christ]
