Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Colossians 1:24 | Date: January 31, 2021 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Paul’s Apostolic Ministry

It has been almost a year now of COVID. It’s been almost that long since some of our folks have been here with us. So you who are watching, who haven’t been with us for a long time, we miss you. Hi. All right. We can come to order.

Colossians chapter 1. We are actually back to Colossians now. I had originally projected that we would be through Colossians by probably not the end of January, but early into February. Now it’s looking like it might be a little longer than that. I’m sure that’s a shock to all of you. But four weeks of it were the aside on the creeds because of the high Christology of chapter 1 here. But now we’re back to Colossians chapter 1 today. I’d like to try to make it through from chapter 1 verse 24 through chapter 2 and verse 5. So would someone like to read that passage for us? 1:24 to 2:5. All right, Isaac.

“Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations, but now revealed to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all of his energy that he powerfully works within me. For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those in Laodicea, and for all who have not seen you face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ.”

All right, thank you. All right, we might title this section “Paul’s Apostolic Ministry.” Job title or job description for a minister of the gospel, something like that. In verse 23, Paul identifies himself as a minister of the gospel. Now in this section, beginning with verse 24 through verse 25, he’s concentrating on telling us what a minister of the gospel does, what he has to say, what his concerns are, his ambitions are. And that, I think, is pretty much the theme of the passage. Although within that, he takes up some massive themes on their own.

The Hardships Associated With His Ministry

So verses 24 and 25, Paul speaks of the hardships associated with his ministry. Keep in mind, Paul is writing from prison. There’s something of this passage right here that echoes what we saw a couple of years ago in Philippians, which was written around the same time. So verse 24: “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake. In my flesh, I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you to make the word of God fully known.”

All right, that is a packed statement. We’ll spend a little time here. I think, first of all, what’s most striking about verse 24 is the expression, “filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.” Now, there’s one way to read that. I wonder, what in the world are you talking about, Paul? Don’t we believe that Christ has done it all? “It is finished” and all that. Solus Christus. Now, Paul has to come along and finish what Jesus did? Is that what he’s saying? “I fill up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church.”

Oh, you be sure he’s not speaking here of any kind of deficiency in Christ’s atoning work. We do believe that Christ did the work all by himself. But Paul is using here the language of some kind of redemptive value to Paul’s own sufferings. And that is what we see here and what we see in Philippians and other places—that his sufferings, here his imprisonment, serves to the advance of the gospel in the providence of God. So in that sense, his sufferings have a redemptive value. Just as Christ died to save his people from their sins, so also now Paul and his sufferings in his ministry, it serves in the providence of God to bring men and women to faith in Christ. So in a sense then, in a broad sense, Paul’s sufferings are an extension, and they have that redemptive value.

So he says, “I rejoice in my sufferings.” There’s another odd statement that we find in Paul. We find it in Philippians as well. “I rejoice in my sufferings.” And the reason he rejoices in it is because the cause that he is advancing through his sufferings is greater than the cost of the suffering itself. And that’s Paul’s continual attitude. I’m caught up in something much bigger than myself. I’m here to advance the gospel of Christ. And he’ll talk about that more here in these verses. I’m here to make the mysteries of Christ known. And so if I’m imprisoned and through my imprisonment, God can make that advance the gospel, well, then I’m happy for that.

Another interesting thing here is he says, “I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake.” Now, what’s interesting there, I think, is that, remember, Paul had never been to Colossae. He had never met these people, but yet he says he’s suffering for their sakes. Well, I think the idea is obvious enough that their conversion was still a result of Paul’s ministry. Remember, Epaphras came to Christ evidently under Paul’s ministry and was sent out to begin this church in Colossae. And so in a sense, this is an extension of Paul’s ministry. So in a very real sense, he’s suffering for their sakes.

A Stewardship From God

All right, then verse 25: “of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you to make the word of God fully known.” All right, there’s just so much here. The church—he’s speaking of the church here, of which he became a minister in the gospel ministry, according to the stewardship from God that was given to him for you to make the word of God fully known.

So Paul describes his ministry as a stewardship from God. The idea there is that God has entrusted him. This is not far from the idea of the parables, many of the parables that Jesus spoke of the landowner, for example, leaving the servants in charge of the estate while he is away. Paul here has been entrusted with the ministry. Now, particularly, he is an apostle, and so he’s been entrusted to make this gospel known. Now again, in what sense is Paul a minister to them? Well, by means of Epaphras, and also by means of his apostolic office, he’s writing the Word of God to them now as he writes this letter. So Paul is entrusted with this. He’s fulfilling it for their sakes. And notice in verse 25, the purpose clause at the end of the verse: “to make the word of God fully known.” That’s why he’s here, to make the word of God fully known.

So he has a message from God, that is the word of God. It’s a message from God and his whole self-identity is to say: “My whole purpose in life, my reason for being, is to make that word from God known. That’s it. That’s why I’m here.” Now, by the way, there are all kinds of applications there for the self-identity of a pastor and elders in their ministry. Their first purpose is not as an organizer of activities; the first purpose is to make the Word of God known.

But notice now how he describes the Word of God, and here’s where we’ll have to take some time. He’s assigned to make known the Word of God. Notice how he describes it. He’s been made a minister, verse 25, “to make the Word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations, but now revealed to his saints. To them, God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

Okay, several things we’ve got to analyze here. First of all, the word of God—he equates that with this term, “mystery.” And that mystery, in turn, he describes as rich with glory. And he summarizes the message of that mystery as “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” All right, let’s work through it.

First of all, “mystery.” The mystery hidden for ages and generations, but now revealed to his saints. Notice the meaning of the word mystery as Paul defines it there. It’s something that was hidden and now revealed. Now in our usage, the word mystery means something difficult to figure out—mysterious in that sense. It’s tough to figure. So you get a good whodunit novel, and it’s a mystery novel, and you’re trying to figure out what it is. That’s not the way this word was used in the New Testament as something difficult to discern. The word mystery means a secret, something that was hidden. That’s what Paul says: something hidden, something that could not be known until it was revealed. So it’s not something difficult to discern, but something impossible to know apart from divine revelation. Not something puzzling, but something secret. And now that has been made known by the revelation in this message from God, the word from God.

So verse 25, the word of God fully revealed. Now, clearly you’re going to see that this focuses on God’s saving purpose as it culminates in the person and work of Christ, the arrival of the kingdom of God consistently in the New Testament. The idea of mystery has a gospel-centeredness to it. That’s what’s now been revealed in the coming of Christ and now through the apostles being made known. In broad terms, the New Testament is the revelation of this mystery that has been long kept secret.

So we might read, for example, as we’ve seen recently in Galatians in our Wednesday night study, that the gospel was preached to Abraham. In one sense, we can say that. And yet in another sense, we have to say the gospel was hidden. And so Peter can say that the prophets, the Old Testament prophets, had glimpses of what we now see. But all they had was glimpses. So the mystery centers on the person and work of Christ. It’s now fulfilled. And the apostolic task is to unfold that mystery, to reveal that, to uncover it for you, and to make it all known. And that’s the essence of the apostolic message: to make known what has now been fully revealed in the coming and the work of Jesus Christ.

Now, what’s interesting on that, if that’s the idea of mystery—something that was hidden, couldn’t be known until it’s revealed—what’s interesting about that is that on one level, they should have known it already. Isaiah 53 was there all along. Suffering Messiah in the place of his people, bearing their sin, taking their curse so that they would be justified. And there are passages like that where we see glimpses of it in the Old Testament. But the fact of the matter is, no one ever figured it out. It was hidden. Even the disciples were scandalized by the cross when it came. And so this mystery is something that was hidden, now revealed, but in a sense—I think this is important to see—the gospel was a mystery hidden in plain sight.

For example, I think an important defining passage on this is Romans chapter 16. I’d like you to look there, Romans chapter 16. Notice how Paul talks about the mystery here. Romans 16, and I’ll begin with verse 25. Are we all there? All right, Romans 16, verse 25: “Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel.” I just can’t pass it up. Notice, by the way, he’s writing to Christians who are strengthened by the gospel. The gospel is not something just for unbelievers. It’s for us to be strengthened by. That was extra. “Now to him who’s able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages, but has now been disclosed, and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith, to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ. Amen.”

All right, notice again, a mystery is something that was hidden, that had to be revealed. But notice verse 26: “It was disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations.” Prophetic writings—that’s the Old Testament. And so now it’s being revealed through what has been previously revealed. And so that’s why I say it was hidden, but it was hidden in plain sight. We look back at it after the fact, after it’s been unfolded for us. How could you miss it? But there it was, and no one had it figured out. Even Jesus’ disciples after three years, they say, were scandalized by the cross. Paul says, “That’s my role, to show you the mystery that’s been hidden.” God’s purpose in salvation, God’s purpose in establishing his kingdom—it has now come in Jesus Christ. It was prophesied long ago, no one saw it, and it’s my role to make that known to you.

Christ in You, the Hope of Glory

Now, there are two important elements here in the summary of the message. Look again at verse 27. The message is summarized back in Colossians: “To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

Two important elements here in his summary of the message. Number one, it’s “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Christ in you. That expression has to do then with a familiar theme that we’ve seen a hundred times, especially in Paul, but in other places as well in the New Testament—this idea of our identification with Christ in his saving work. We refer to this as the doctrine of union with Christ. Christ is the Redeemer. He came, He did the work that saves. He did it all by Himself, and in fact, He accomplished redemption. Everything that we need before God, Christ has accomplished. And He embodies, in a sense, the salvation that we need.

But all of that that Christ has done, and all of that that Christ is, is useless to us until we are joined to Him. Unless we are in association with Him, or to use Paul’s phrase, unless we are “in Christ,” it is of no value to us at all. But the fact is, by faith, we are in Christ and joined to Christ, united to Him. We then become the beneficiaries of all that He accomplished in salvation. Sometimes the expression—most of the time—the expression is “in Christ,” “in Him,” or “in whom,” or one of those kinds of expressions. Once in a while, we have the expression here, “Christ in you.” Us in Christ, Christ in you. And there’s a different shade of meaning, but the general idea is the same: that joined to Christ, we have all that he is, what he has accomplished for us.

By the way, if you like, you can chase this down on your own, this idea of Christ in us. You can find that also in Romans 8 and verse 10; 2 Corinthians 13 and verse 5; Galatians 2:20, very famously; Galatians 4:19 and Ephesians 3:17. But both expressions point to this same truth: that joined to Christ, we have what He has accomplished for us. His death is ours. “I’ve been crucified with Christ.” His resurrection is ours. “I was raised together with Christ.” His ascension is ours. “We have been seated with Christ in the heavenlies.” All of this is our union with Christ—in Christ or Christ in us.

Now, if it’s Christ in us, then we have a little bit more signified, and this is where we get the New Testament temple imagery. If Christ is in us, we’re going to use that language, that metaphor, then God is in us. God is with us. And if God is in us, we’re a temple. The temple imagery, because Christ is in us. Jesus expands on that in John chapter 14 to 16, where he says, “I won’t leave you alone when I leave, but I’ll send you another helper. He will come.” And then he speaks at length of how we will come and dwell with you and make our home with you. The triune God establishing residence, as it were, in the life of the believer. Romans 8 expounds on that at some length as well. The indwelling presence of God.

Now here, if it’s “Christ in you,” the point that Paul wants to press is having Christ in us, it is, he says, “the hope of glory.” The hope of glory. So here, Christ is our future hope. Now hope in the New Testament—we’ve seen this before, but it’s worth reminding again—hope in the New Testament, that language is used not quite the same way we use the word hope. “I hope it doesn’t snow too much today.” It’s kind of a wish sort of a thing. “I hope that before I die, I get to…” and then you check off your bucket list. It’s kind of a wish thing. That’s not the way the word hope is used in the New Testament. In the New Testament, the word hope has the connotations of expectation, anticipation, hoping in that sense.

And so here we have Christ in you, the hope of glory. How is Christ in you, the hope of glory? Well, because Christ himself is already seated in the heavenlies. He’s seated at the right hand of the Father. He has taken the throne and we are seated with him. Paul talks about this at length in Romans 8. Because we are joined to Christ, we’re sons. He’s the son, we’re joined to him, we’re sons. Oh wait, let’s think about that a little more. If we’re sons, he says, then heirs. No, let’s say it better than that. We’re co-heirs with Christ. So all of this glory that Christ will inherit—or has already ascended to—we will inherit as well because Christ is in us. Christ in you, the hope of glory.

So the point here in the context is that our hope is focused and anchored and tied exactly to Jesus Christ. And this is more of what Paul will press throughout the rest of the book: the idea of the sufficiency of Christ. If you have Jesus Christ, you have everything you need. How could you possibly want anything else? And here’s a glimpse of that already. With Christ in us, we have the hope of glory because of what he has accomplished.

All right, any questions on that before I move on to the next element of the mystery? Yes, Jim.

“So back to verse 24, in the past, you and I had discussions about Paul’s language. Was that considered at all controversial at the time, or do you think his audience understood exactly what ‘filling up what was lacking’ meant—that idea?”

I think it’s all on a scale. I think there were some everywhere on it. I think with them, it’s just like with us. They had to study it and learn it. As a communicator, you’re supposed to put yourself in your audience’s… Right, right. It seems like sometimes Paul—and not that he’s sacrilegious—but it seems like he either lacks precision or he’ll make a shocking statement. Yeah, he doesn’t really elaborate. And it’s kind of like, why do you do that? Well, I think the why questions are always hard. I think one of the answers, though, is that he’s a good writer. A lot of times, writers and speakers will do that. They’ll drop something along the way that later on you say, “Oh, OK, I get what he meant by that.” And I think the original writers had to do just what we do. They had to look at it and say, “Wait, what did he say? What do you mean by that?” I don’t think we should have the impression that when Colossians was read to the church at Colossae that first Sunday, everybody got it all. And so I think it’s, what did he mean by that? What’s lacking in the…? Oh, and I think once you think through it, you think it’s pretty obvious. Oh, he’s an extension of Christ’s work, and he suffered for us. And it was through Paul that the gospel was brought. And it becomes clear. I think that’s right. Yes, Joe.

“I want to read quickly Romans chapter 8, verses 9 to 11, and then a question regarding that. ‘You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if in fact the spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is alive because of righteousness. If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Jesus from the dead will also give life to your immortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you.’ I mean, this is probably very much a Christianity 101 question, but it has just befuddled me and puzzled me on some level, both from my own knowledge and also for a case of being able to defend the faith and for witnessing opportunities. Am I indwelt by Christ, or am I indwelt by his spirit?”

Yes. Yeah, okay. I understand. Pastor Greg raised this question a week or two ago with reference to the 2 Corinthians 3 passage where “the Lord is the spirit” and there’s an equation drawn. There’s more that I can get into right now, but I think the bottom line is that according to 1 Corinthians 15, at the very end of the chapter, we find Christ was raised “the life-giving spirit.” That is, through his atoning work and his successful redemptive work as mediator, Christ now has become in such possession of the spirit, through whom we are saved and indwelt and all of that, that there is some sense in which you can say, if the Spirit indwells, Christ indwells, because it is the Spirit of Christ who has come to accomplish the atoning work of Christ.

Jesus even speaks of it in John 14 to 16 as the Spirit coming through whom the three persons, Father, Son, and Spirit, come to indwell. So it’s what we find with Trinitarian theology throughout. There’s a doctrine called the “inseparable operations” of the three persons of the Godhead. All three persons are involved in everything they do. You don’t find one off on his own doing something. All three are involved in all that God does. However, there’s a doctrine of “appropriations” where there’s one in particular who’s assigned a particular part of the task in which all are involved. Those are technical terms, but it’s putting together all of this that you’re talking about that the Bible speaks about with respect to the specific ministries of the three persons of the Godhead. So the spirit is the agent through whom the work is done, but through him, Christ has come to indwell. So we need to say, yes, like Galatians 2:20, “Christ who dwells in me.” And yet we know that he indwells by means of the spirit. And that’s what Jesus said, “I won’t leave you orphans. I will come to you. I will come to you.” And yet in context, what he probably means is by means of the helper, the other helper who will come, my substitute, my vicar. So the vicar of Christ, properly speaking, is the Holy Spirit who’s come to bring the presence of the triune God to us. Does that help, or does that just confuse it? “No, it does.” All right. Pastor Greg.

“If Joe and others would like to trace this out a little further, I would commend to them the work of Dr. Richard Gaffin at Westminster Seminary. He’s written a wonderful treatise. It was actually his doctoral dissertation that he has expanded over the years called Resurrection and Redemption. And in that, he traces out from the New Testament Jesus’ resurrection was really the result of the Father granting the Spirit as a reward for Jesus’ successful ministry, to raise him from the dead and to empower Jesus then for his post-resurrection ministry of granting the spirit, which is the reward of all God’s people, the eschatological reward that was promised in the Old Testament. And God would pour out his spirit on all people, et cetera. So Jesus is the one who pours out the spirit, which literally is pouring out himself since at the resurrection forward in a functional sense, he is so identified with the work of the spirit. Dr. Gaffin traces this out.”

Actually, that, I think, is the best book on the subject, yeah. Resurrection and Redemption, Richard Gaffin. Very good. Jesus himself, in his earthly ministry, was empowered and strengthened by the Holy Spirit. In his incarnate state, yes. Pastor Boyd, did you have something? Did Greg already say it? “I was thinking back to Jim’s concern. In 2 Peter 3:16, you have Peter saying that some of the things that Paul wrote were difficult to understand.” Yeah. I think Peter has a lot of guts talking about Paul that way. Peter has some difficult things, too. But yeah, that’s a good point. Very good.

All right. We’re still in verse 27. Two important elements with regard to this mystery. First of all, it’s Christ in you, the hope of glory. And then secondly, the Gentile inclusion in this wonderful truth of Christ in you. Notice what he says: “how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

Now this idea of the Gentile inclusion was a problem in the first century. You read about it in the New Testament. It was a problem for many of those early believers. Remember, those first believers were Jewish. And in fact, the Old Testament prophets had made a big thing of the fact that Israel would be sent the Messiah. He is, first of all, Israel’s Messiah. You read about in the prophets that when Messiah comes, Israel will be strong, Israel will be a blessing to the nations, and so on. This redemption thing through the Messiah is a Jewish event. And so because of that, many of the early Jewish believers had a hard time understanding how Gentiles could be included in this also.

Some of them seem to refuse Jesus altogether to the Gentiles. You remember something like this in Acts chapters 10 and 11. Peter’s vision of the sheet, his going to Cornelius, and everybody has to have a council to talk about this together. “What’s this we hear about the spirit coming to the Gentile, to Cornelius?” “Yeah, I preached the gospel and spirit fell on him. Who was I to say? I baptized him.” “Okay. All right. Well, then, amen. The gospel goes to the Gentiles. Okay.” They’re working through this.

In the book of Galatians, the problem is a little bit different. It’s, “OK, the Gentiles can have it, but they kind of have to become Jews. They have to be circumcised. They have to follow the law, become Jews, and then they can have it.” And of course, the answer that Paul has to give them is that it’s not a Jewish thing. It’s just Jesus, in whom all of the promises are fulfilled, and who secured it all. And so whether Jew or Gentile, in Christ, we have all that he has accomplished.

Now, again, the Gentiles should have known better, or the Jewish believers should have known better on this score of the Gentiles coming in. God said right up front to Abraham, in his seed, all of the nations would be blessed. And we have echoes of that throughout the prophets, that this is not going to be restricted to Israel. But it was a problem. And when Paul was converted, he tells us in Acts chapter 22, that God called him to be a spokesman to the Gentiles. And that was his ministry.

One interesting summary of this—I’m not going to take time to expand on it, but if you’d like, mark down Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 6. Here’s a letter written to a largely Gentile congregation, and the apostle says, “the mystery is”—and here we’re talking about mystery again—”the mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs.” Shocking statement to Jews. “Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” So the mystery now has been revealed. It was God’s purpose all along to bring redemption to the world from every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue through Jesus Christ. The Gentile conversion is not plan B. It was hidden in plain sight all along that this was God’s purpose.

All right, so verses 24 to 27, Paul speaks about his divinely appointed privilege to make known this rich and glorious mystery. And so “I’m glad to suffer for it,” he says, “for your sakes and for all the Gentiles as well.”

Him We Proclaim

Now, note here, and when we get to verse 28, Paul is continually driving their attention and ours to Christ and to his all-sufficiency. Verse 28: “Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ.”

Notice his focus. “Him we proclaim.” That sounds a whole lot like 1 Corinthians 2:2: “I determined not to know anything among you but Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” It’s all I have to say is Jesus. So the summary of my message, it’s Christ. Well, we can expand on that and say Christ crucified. We can expand a little more and say, Christ crucified and risen. We can expand a little more and say, Christ crucified, risen, and ascended. We can expand further and say, “and coming,” and so on. But the whole message is Christ, and everything we need before God is Jesus. So him we proclaim. It’s not just a new religious system. It’s not just a set of regulations or a new way of thinking. It’s Jesus, and that’s it, and that’s all.

Now, of course, with Jesus comes a new way of thinking and new regulations, if you want to use that word, a new way of living. But the message is Christ, and what we have to say is bound up in him. And the goal of this all, his focus is proclaiming Christ. The goal of it is to “present everyone mature in Christ.” Now the word “present” there probably has an eschatological connotation to it. To present everyone before God in eschatological judgment. “Present them mature.” That’s our translation. Some of you have “perfect.” That was the King James translation.

I’m not sure there’s an exact equivalent to the sense of this word in English. “Mature” doesn’t quite get there. Even the NIV, I think it is “fully mature,” doesn’t quite get the sense of it, but “perfect” just might, might overstate it, I’m not sure. Although we do have that, Matthew chapter five, “be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect.” I kind of think that the sense of this word in our version translated “mature,” it’s probably better captured by the New American Standard that renders it “complete.” To render everyone complete in Christ. That captures, I think, the sense of what Paul is doing in Colossians. If you have Jesus, you’re complete. You have everything you need. That’s it. You have it all. And that, of course, in the face of the false teaching at Colossae, which was teaching just the opposite. You need something else. So my goal is to present you before God in judgment with everything that you need: Jesus. That’s it. What a wonderful thought, isn’t it? Just a great thought.

And yet I think there’s also some present implications for this as well, because he says, “I’m warning and teaching every man.” And so the idea is that of rendering everyone wholly devoted to Christ, not deviating from Christ alone, which is what he has to pick up in the next chapter—never feeling that you need something else or something more, wholly devoted to Christ alone.

So verse 29, then he states the goal again: “for this,” that is for rendering everyone complete, “I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works in me.” That is, to this task that I’ve just described, I’ve given my life, everything. This is what I’m about. “With all his energy working in me”—that’s typically the way Paul views his work. It’s an energizing, an enablement from God himself. He talked about that earlier in chapter one in his prayer. But that’s what I’m all about then, making known this mystery in order to render men and women complete with all they need when they stand before God.

Paul’s Heartfelt Ambitions

Chapter two, then, verses one to three. Paul expresses here his heartfelt ambitions for the Colossian believers. “I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those in Laodicea, and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

All right, so verse two, he says, “My desire for you Colossian believers, whom I’ve never met, is to have your hearts encouraged, to have you united in love, and to give you complete understanding of God’s mystery in Christ as it has been revealed through me.” So the best thing I can do for you, he says, is to explain Christ in all of his fullness. And that’s what I’m all about. And doing that, you will be encouraged in your hearts. You’ll be united in love because of your robust understanding of Christ and what you have in him.

Verse 3: “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” So we’re back to what he keeps pressing throughout the book: the all-sufficiency of Christ. “In whom are hidden?” Hidden not in the sense of kept secret, but hidden in the sense of a treasure, I think is the idea here. Come to know him, and you get more than you imagine. It’s all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge in him.

So if you’d like, you want to write some of these down. What do we have in Christ? Just in the book of Colossians: chapter 1 and verse 14, in him we have redemption. Verse 19, in him all the fullness of God dwells. We’ll see that in chapter 2 and verse 9 as well. Chapter two and verse 11, we’re circumcised in Christ—there’s a spiritual connotation that we have experienced in Christ. Verse 12, in him we’ve been raised up—resurrection. Chapter two, verse 15, we triumph in Christ over even demonic powers. And then you have Ephesians and other epistles: we’re blessed in Christ, we’re chosen in Christ, we’re sons in Christ, we’re heirs in Christ, and on and on it goes.

That’s Paul’s point here. In him are hidden, like a treasure, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Everything you could possibly want is in Jesus. And that’s why I just give myself to ministering the gospel of Jesus that’s been revealed, because there’s nothing more you could possibly want. Not anywhere else will you find such treasures. And so many of the commentaries that have been written on the book of Colossians over the years catch this, and they title their works something accordingly, like Christ All-Sufficient, or The All-Sufficiency of Christ. Those kinds of titles dominate many of the commentaries in Colossians. This is Paul’s point that he presses here and throughout, as we’ll see.

And his hope, then, is that once you see this, once you see that Jesus is everything you need, once you see that, you won’t possibly be tempted for any shabby substitute that comes along. This is always the answer to those who claim to have the key. “This is it. This is how you live the Christian life. This is how to be successful and happy in life. This is how whatever.” The answer is Jesus. And if they got something else, it’s something less.

I remember the first time this made just a heavy impression on me. I was a kid, and one of the cultists came to the door. I don’t know which one it was; I don’t remember. My dad answered the door. And I don’t know what was going on, but he couldn’t stand there and talk to them. And that would have been interesting of its own. They started to press it, and Dad said, “No, thank you. I’m not interested.” And of course, like they’re trained to do, they pressed it and didn’t want him to close the door. “No, thank you. I’m not interested.” Two, three times at least, Dad was very polite. They kept pressing it like they’re trained to do, and they weren’t going to let him go. And so Dad, being Dad: “Look, do you have anything to offer me that’s better than Jesus?” And they stumbled. “Well, no.” “Well then go peddle your apples somewhere else.” Well, that might’ve been a little rude, but it sure made the point and made the impression on me. What do they possibly have to offer beyond Christ? And I think that captures exactly what Paul is after in this book. You can never improve on that.

So I think in a way, verse three here of chapter two is a high point in the book. It’s a summary statement of Paul’s whole point in writing the letter. All you need is Christ for salvation, for spiritual understanding, for Christian living. All you need is Christ. You’ll never improve on that. Don’t be distracted by these other teachings that are coming in that Paul will take up in the next paragraph.

So verse four and five: “I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. For though I am absent in body, yet I’m with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ.”

Now they had problems in Colossae. They were being distracted by some false teaching. But you’ll see here the tone of Paul is quite different from what he writes when he writes to the Galatians. He’s upset when he writes to the Galatians. They’ve turned away from the gospel to another gospel. Here in Colossae, they’re holding fast to Christ but they’re being messed with. And Paul writes with much more patience with them, and he’s writing lest they be distracted and deterred and hijacked away. And Paul says, “Don’t fall for that stuff. However plausible some of those arguments may seem, it is no improvement on what you have in Jesus.”

So in brief then, in this passage that we’ve seen, the purpose of Paul’s ministry, the purpose of his letter to Colossians, is to make known in all of its fullness the mystery that is now revealed in Jesus Christ. And that great task, he said, is worth every effort. And in fulfilling that, people of God will find every satisfaction and joy. And that, then, is the ministry of a minister of Christ.

All right. We’re out of time. If you have something very quick to ask, we can do that. All right, let’s be dismissed in prayer. Pastor Greg, would you pray for us, please?

“Lord, we thank you for the wonderful content of your word and for these eight or nine verses that we have covered this morning. How blessed we are to live on this side of the mystery unfolded and by the holy prophets of the New Testament, and by the gifts that you have given to the church—pastors and teachers, such as we have enjoyed in this class time this morning. We do thank you for our great Lord and Savior and pray that we would always have the highest possible esteem for Him. We ask your forgiveness for times in which we would lower our aim and affection. We pray that you would use our services and this public means of grace to draw us ever closer and to prize ever higher of the great Savior in whose name we pray. Amen.”