Heritage Reformed Baptist Mission
COLOSSIANS
A small letter with a large meaning
Sermon 4
The Mystery of the Gospel
Colossians 1:21-29
In our text for this sermon, we will see five things which the ministry of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ does. (1) It results in reconciliation to God for those who believe. (2) It involves suffering of some nature on the part of those who preach it. (3) It reveals a mystery which was hidden in past ages. (4) It involves hard work and zealous desire to see the salvation of souls. (5) It can only be pursued in the mighty power of God.
Specifically among the “all things” to be reconciled to God by the Lord Jesus Christ were the believers of the church in Colosse. Before being reconciled, they were “alienated” from God. They were His “enemies.” It is plainly declared in Romans 8:7, “ . . . the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” That is the condition of every human being from the moment of physical birth until he or she is born again and trusts Christ for the forgiveness of sin. Then, and only then, does anyone become the friend of God. However, though Scripture makes no explicit statement of the state of infants and little children who have not reached an age of understanding about sin and the Gospel, we must believe God applies His grace to such if they die during that time.
The source of alienation from and enmity toward God, and of “wicked works” is the “mind,” the inmost being of an unregenerated sinner. Therein lies the rebellion which characterizes all who fight against God, worship the creation rather than the Creator and blaspheme His name, and find their pleasure in the things of the world according to the dictates of the flesh. This was the Colossian Christians’ condition when they were “without Christ . . . and without God in the world.” (Ephesians 2:12) “Yet”, in spite of their sin and enmity they were “now” reconciled to God, not by their own doing, but by the sacrifice God made of His Son. They were God’s enemies no longer. Rather, through the death of Christ, they were made His friends, “holy . . . in His sight.” That, beloved reader, is the result of God’s act of reconciliation in the life of the most wicked of sinners.
The proof and the assurance of salvation is continuing to believe the Gospel; i.e., continued, uninterrupted trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Writes the Apostle John in 1 John 5:13, “These things I have written unto you who believe on the name of the Son of God; that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God.” That is but a more full way of writing as Paul wrote in Romans 1:17, “For therein (the Gospel of Christ) is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, the just shall live by faith.” Someone has said, “Faith that saves is faith that behaves,” which is exactly what the Apostle James writes in James2:26, “. . . faith without works is dead . . .”
Continuing to believe the Gospel is being “grounded and settled,” not wavering, but staying firm on the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not being “moved away” from the “hope of the Gospel” (eternal life - Titus 1:1-3) by listening to and being influenced by teachings contrary to the Gospel. The Colossian Christians had heard that Gospel, as had all the then known world. “The truth as it is in Jesus” had been preached to them in all its fullness. His deity, His work of redemption and reconciliation had been explained to them. Any teaching that detracted from His Person or added to His work was false and needed to be rejected out-of-hand.
God had ordained Paul as a preacher of the Gospel. He preached faithfully from the very beginning of his conversion. Now, in a Roman prison for doing what God ordained him to do, he was rejoicing in his” sufferings” and filling “up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in (his) flesh for His body’s sake, which is the church.” He considered his sufferings to be on behalf of all the church, including the Colossians. Does that mean he believed there was something lacking in Christ’s afflictions? Certainly not! He was told (Acts 9:16) how much he would suffer for the Lord’s “name’s sake.” His Roman-prison experience was not the first time he suffered for preaching the Gospel and it would not be the last. There were still sufferings for him to undergo. He was not yet filled with them.
There is also a sense in which Paul’s sufferings as well as those of every other believer are counted as the sufferings of Christ. We know Christ is persecuted when any of His brethren are persecuted (see Acts 9:4-5; 22:7-8; 26:14-15). Just so, though Christ’s sufferings as the Redeemer were finished on the cross, His sufferings in His people continue until the consummation of the age. Therefore, each believer has a specific amount of suffering to undergo for the sake of His body, the church.
Paul was “made”, i.e., caused to be, “a minister” of the Gospel. It was not his choice. God, in His sovereignty, arranged for the preaching of the Gospel to include Saul of Tarsus one of those to do the preaching as a steward in God’s house. All who are called of God to preach the Word are likewise stewards. As the Apostle to the Gentiles (Romans 11:13), Paul considered his ministry as “given” for the Colossian church even though he had never seen them. It was his purpose to minister to every Gentile church in order to fully preach the Gospel (Romans 15:19) and thus “fulfill the Word of God.”
The Gospel was a “mystery” hidden from ages and from generations.” Not until after Christ’s ascension was it made fully known. God’s plan for preaching the Gospel of salvation to the whole world, not just Jews, was hidden, especially to the Gentiles, but also to His people Israel. Even now, it is only manifest to the saints of God for the natural man cannot know the things of God because “they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Corinthians 2:14) Thus, the Gospel is still hidden “to the lost” whose minds are blinded by Satan. (2 Corinthians 4:3-4)
God sovereignly willed that He would “make known” to His people (saints) “what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles,” not just Jews. The riches of the Gospel - redemption, regeneration, reconciliation, forgiveness, sanctification, glorification, eternal life, heaven, etc., - are riches beyond all comparison. The mystery of Gospel is “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Jesus told His disciples on the night of His betrayal that He would send the Holy Spirit, who was then with them, but would be “in them.” That was initially fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost. It was fulfilled for the first time in Gentiles when Peter preached the Gospel in the house of Cornelius, a Roman Centurion (Acts 10). It has been fulfilled every time the Gospel has been preached and believed from that day until this. Every one who has believed, everyone who now believes and everyone who will believe has “the hope of glory,” which is eternal life in heaven with the Lord. It is not an uncertain human hope, but an absolutely certain hope that will take place. (See Romans 8:18, 24-25)
“Christ crucified” (1 Corinthians 1:23) is the subject of the Gospel and must be, as He was with Paul, the subject of all Christian preaching, whether in proclaiming Him for salvation or for sanctification. He is the whole counsel of God.
Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation. He is to be preached to “every man” with a warning there is no other way to be saved from sin and receive eternal life. God alone knows who will heed that warning and believe the message.
Paul not only preached the Gospel, he also taught “every man”. The whole counsel of God must be taught. The Lord’s instructions are to make disciples, baptize them and teach them all He has commanded. (Matthew 28:18-20) That is the only way “every man” will grow to spiritual maturity “in Christ Jesus.” Paul’s use of “every man” seems to imply he preached to all with the hope and desire that all to whom he preached would be saved. Every preacher of the Gospel should have that same hope and desire. God alone knows those whom He has chosen from before the foundation of the world. The preacher’s responsibility is to “preach the Word, instant in season and out of season.” (2 Timothy 4:2)
The ministry of the Word of God is “labor”, hard work. It is not for those who are looking for a bed of ease. It is having a great zeal to obtain something. In Paul’s case, it was that the “elect” could “obtain” salvation. (2 Timothy 2:10) This can only be accomplished in the mighty power of God. That power is present in every believer through the indwelling Holy Spirit, not only to preach the Gospel, but to live a godly, consistent, growing Christian life.
Reconciled-to-God is the present state of everyone who trusts the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Not everyone who is reconciled is appointed and called by God to be a preacher of the Word. But everyone who is reconciled is a minister/servant of God and does preach the Word by “living soberly, righteously and godly in this present world.” (Titus 2:11-13)