Glorious Service Pt2

The Christian ministry is not
for self-starters merely. It isn’t for those that are simply
ambitious. It cannot be laid hold of like
so many other jobs or careers. In the service of Christ and
his kingdom, there must be a divine call. There must be a divine
appointment, a divine commissioning. We’ve been reminded of this truth
again in Colossians 1, and this is where we find ourselves once
again. Would God’s people turn there,
Paul’s letter to the Colossians and to chapter 1. Paul has transitioned
into a new subject, a new section that began in verse 24 His subject is now an articulation
of the nature of the Christian ministry. And what more natural
subject to follow his declaration of the nature and work of Christ,
verses 15 through 23, than to follow with a presentation of
the Christian ministry. Paul has moved from the work
that Jesus accomplished, the redemption of our sin, and our
reconciliation to God, and he’s transitioned into the preaching
of that good news, beginning in verse 24. Paul’s intentions
are clear here. He desires to inform his readers
about the grand subject of the Christian ministry, the proclamation
of the good news that Jesus the Redeemer has paid sinners penalty
by his death on the cross. He is communicating truths and
principles that guide not only his own ministry, but the Christian
ministry itself. And this subject of Christ’s
ministry carries all the way down to chapter 2, verse 3. For our purposes, well, let’s
read it all. We’ll read all the way down to
2, 3. Let’s pick it up in verse 24 of chapter 1. 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. 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. 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. For I want you to know how great
a struggle I have on your behalf, and for those who are in Laodicea,
and for all those who have not personally seen my face. that
their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in
love and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full
knowledge of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s
mystery, that is, Christ himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge. As we learn from verse 24, which opened our lesson into
the Christian ministry, suffering the sufferings of Christ, or
as Paul says, filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions,
that is to be our lot in the service of Christ. It comes with
it. It is the sobering truth we called the glad anguish of
ministry, that a life of persecution and difficulty awaits those who
name the name of Christ, especially those in Christ’s service. I characterized it there as sustained
torment. Ministry and suffering, Paul
shows, go hand in hand. And yet, even in the midst of
such a hateful and painful reaction by the world, There is, there
can be, there should be, there ought to be joy, even in the
midst of those things. Paul said it just so bluntly,
I rejoice in my sufferings. Not necessarily for the sufferings
that he endured, but in them, in the midst of them. And all
of this sustained torment, which would be impossible to bear without
God’s grace, is made bearable by remembering that we bear these
burdens for the sake of our fellow believers, as an example to them
of our steadfastness in Christ. as Paul said it, his sufferings
were on behalf of Christ’s body, the church. And this sustained
torment is also the more tolerable because we remember that we are
but collateral damage when we endure these sufferings. It’s
our Lord Jesus Christ that they hate. There are very much Christ’s
afflictions, we just have the privilege of bearing a small
portion of the hatred that Christ endured. The Christian life,
the Christian ministry, is not a life of ease. It is attended
with a certain measure of suffering, the sustained torment of the
world. Last Lord’s Day, we began to
consider Paul’s second subsection here in his treatment of the
Christian ministry, verses 25 through 27. And we discovered
that these verses are one very long, very detailed sentence. It’s made up of 61 Greek words
translated, at least in the New American Standard, by 88 English
words. There’s an old adage some of
you have heard, how do you eat an elephant? The answer, one
bite at a time. And so we dove right into our
study of this extended sentence last Lord’s Day. And we’ll take
another portion of it this morning. We assigned the overarching title
for this section as glorious service. The title came as kind
of a welcome relief to the previous one, glad anguish. There is difficulty
even suffering in ministry. There is also joy, as we saw. But here, the great apostle seeks
to provide us three magnificent features of the Christian ministry.
It’s not all pain and suffering. Here, Paul begins to tell his
readers what a glorious calling the service of Christ is, even
with its attendant sufferings. As we began last Sunday, we learned,
first of all, that the service of God is initiated by divine
commissioning. God starts the work. God is the
one that serves the individuals to his service. Regarding his
own call to service, Paul said it this way in verse 25, of this
church, I was made a minister. God assigned Paul to this office. Quite literally, God called Paul
into his service. And this is true for anyone who
is genuinely engaged in Christian ministry. the blessed privilege
that was imparted or bestowed by God himself by way of a divine
commissioning. Paul had yielded to God’s call
to serve Christ’s church, and it was not a glorious or glamorous
job offering. Paul was called as a servant.
And he proceeded to tell us that this was no ordinary calling.
As we saw in the second line of verse 25, Paul’s ministry
was a stewardship. It was not something that he
owned, but rather something that was entrusted to him. But it
was also an assignment for which he would one day give an account,
and that to God himself. This is true of anyone in Christian
ministry. As every Christian has been granted
spiritual gifts, every single one of us, for the service of
Christ’s people in Christ’s church, everyone will, therefore, give
an accounting of their use of such gifts. But because the Christian ministry
is a trust of such great value. It’s the gospel itself. And because
the institution, Christ’s church, is the most precious institution
to God on the face of the earth, and because the church is comprised
of God’s children, God’s people, then it only stands to reason
that those entrusted with such things will be more severely
scrutinized and judged when they do give an account of their respective
ministries. We can think immediately of the
parable of the talents, can’t we? One was entrusted with 10 coins,
another five, and the last with only one. People have gifts of
varying measures. Some have lots of gifts. They
run circles around everybody else in their giftedness. But
if you remember, the master came and did an accounting of those,
of the 10, of the five, and of the one. And it’s the faithfulness
in the exercise of those gifts that really matters most to God. We will. given account. One day, we saw that Paul mentioned
one additional element regarding his divine commission, that it
wasn’t for his own personal gain. His ministry was for the benefit
of the Colossian believers themselves. Paul was blessed to receive this
calling from God, but the ministry was bestowed on him for the benefit
of others, namely the Colossians. That is still and always the
case with the Christian ministry. Appointment to Christian service
is always for the sake, for the benefit of God’s people, not
the servant, not the minister. Well, we have two additional
points to consider in this subsection, verses 25 through 27. And the
second magnificent feature of the Christian ministry is that
it is imparted by divine revelation. That is quite a statement. This is Paul’s focus beginning
at the end of verse 25 and through verse 26. And this is our focus
this morning. And then, Lord willing, we’ll
take up the third magnificent feature of the Christian ministry
next Lord’s Day. That one is that the service
of God is instituted by divine intention. It’s God’s idea. It’s
God’s desire. That’s Paul’s point in verse
27. The Christian ministry is initiated by a divine commissioning. It’s imparted by divine revelation,
and it’s instituted by divine intention. But this morning,
let’s focus our attention on the second feature, that the
service of God’s kingdom is imparted by divine revelation. We find
it right there at the end of verse 25. The service of God’s
kingdom in the Christian ministry is not an ordinary undertaking. It’s an endeavor in which God
himself is deeply, intimately involved. Further, though, the
message of God’s kingdom is not some homespun, feel-good, incidental,
meaningless string of words. The Christian ministry is centered
upon and most chiefly about a divine, that is, a God-given message. Service of God’s kingdom is imparted
by divine revelation. And it’s here, right at the end
of the last line of verse 25, that Paul transitions into this
second magnificent feature. What does the minister, what
does the servant do? What is he to be about? But you
glance down at the fourth line of verse 25. where Paul just
says it so simply, so that I might fully carry out the preaching
of the Word of God. Paul has already told us of his
position, he’s a minister, a servant, and that he has told us already
about the nature of his position, it’s a stewardship, and he tells
us here about the specific mission that he is to fulfill. Simply
put, he is to carry out the Word of God. The first thing that
Paul tells us here in this clause is his purpose, it’s his assignment,
his marching orders, if you will. He was, as the New American Standard
has it, to fully carry out or to carry forth the Word of God. It’s a very plain statement built
off One Greek word, pleirao, which means to fulfill, to fulfill
the Word of God. And that’s the simple statement
made in the last line. But what exactly does that mean?
What does Paul mean to fully carry out the Word of God? And
in order to really understand Paul’s point here, we need to
first consider what he means by the Word of God. Is he referring
to the Bible there? Sometimes that phrase is used
that could almost indicate that it’s talking about the scriptures
at the time, the Old Testament scriptures. Is he talking about
the Word of God in that sense? Is he referring to some particular
message from God? Like that of the prophets of
old, kind of a, thus saith the Lord. Well, to begin with, it
should be immediately clear here that the Word of God is not a
message about God so much as it is a message from God. It’s
the Word of God in that sense. It is the God-given Word, if
you will. And it refers specifically to
a message that God himself desires to communicate to the world. Interestingly enough, Paul employs
this phrase many times in his writings. And most of those additional
uses, we could almost replace the phrase, the word of God,
with the phrase, the message of the gospel, or simply the
gospel. Let me illustrate this. In 2
Corinthians 2, Paul is defending his ministry there, and he criticizes
the false teachers who only seemed to be in it for the money. 2
Corinthians 2.17, we are not like many, peddling the word
of God, but as from sincerity as from God, we speak in Christ
in the sight of God. You could easily insert there
the gospel, we are not like many, peddling the gospel. In the same
epistle, two chapters later, Paul is speaking about his own
ministry. 2 Corinthians 4, 2, we have renounced
the things hidden because of shame, not walking in craftiness
or adulterating the word of God, but by the manifestation of truth,
commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight
of God. We could easily insert there
the gospel, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the gospel. How about this one? 1 Thessalonians 2, verse 13. For this reason, we also constantly
thank God that when you received the word of God, which you heard
from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what
it really is, the word of God, which performs its work in you
who believe. Or we could say, we thank God
that you received the gospel from us. I think you get my point. In many places, the phrase the
gospel is a near euphemism for the word of God. The two phrases
are almost interchangeable. But before we draw any hard and
fast conclusions here, we should return to the passage, because
there is much there to assist us in coming to an understanding
of what Paul means there by the Word of God. Paul’s vagueness
in using that phrase, the Word of God, appears to be intentional. It’s so that Paul himself can
expand upon it in verse 26. Would you just glance down there
at verse 26? And the New American Standard
goes so far as to supply two little helpful words. in italics,
that is. In other words, that is to say,
he’s elucidating on what he’s already said about the Word of
God. And Paul proceeds to make two very helpful explanatory
statements that make it clear what Paul is referring to here
by the Word of God. We find both of those statements
in verse 26, and both of these statements are parallel to the
phrase, the Word of God. Paul himself is explaining here
what he means by that phrase. And he first of all says that
the Word of God is equivalent to the mystery which has been
hidden from past ages and generations. The Word of God, he says, is
a mystery. Or was. And we have to be careful
here what we do with this word mystery. It certainly does not
point to some creepy story, or even a not-so-creepy whodunit,
some fictional crime story. By mystery here, he’s referring
to something that has been, for a season, even a lengthy season,
concealed. This word of God Whatever it
is, is a truth that was for a time unknown, but now is known. It was unknown and therefore
a mystery. It is that aspect of the word
that Paul is highlighting. Paul tells us a couple of things
about this mystery. First of all, it was hidden,
but secondly, it has now been manifested, revealed. Those are
the two characteristics of a biblical mystery, something hidden now
manifest. And when he says hidden, he refers
to the fact here that there were specific details pertaining to
God’s plan of redemption that were completely unknown and undiscoverable
even among God’s angels. Nobody knew but God. Peter tells
that there were elements of the gospel into which angels longed
to look. Paul, writing in 1625 of Romans,
says that, to him who is able to establish you according to
my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the
revelation of the mystery, which has been kept secret for long
ages past. Paul alludes there to this idea
of a mystery. Elements of the gospel that were
just obscured, hidden, unknown. There were aspects of God’s plan
of redemption that were just hidden. And they were hidden
for a long time, from past ages and past generations. Paul here
uses a very creative way of referring to time here. Past ages considers
vast portions of time, centuries and eras and eons and periods
and epochs. Generations, on the other hand,
considers the smaller successive portions that comprise the ages. A generation is considered to
be 20 to 30 years. And the point the poll’s making
here is that from the dawn of time, ever since Adam and Eve
were unceremoniously marched out of the garden, one generation
after the other, through all the successive ages, did not grasp, could not see
the fantastic truths about God’s plan of redemption. They were
obscured. They were completely shrouded in secret. And if God
wants something secret, we can’t discover it. There’s another
important aspect of this word ministry. Not only is it hidden,
But it is not a matter that can be discovered by human means.
Science, philosophy, deductive reasoning, a divine mystery must
be revealed by God. A spiritual mystery is a secret
that God himself has to uncover. He is the one that has to let
us in on the secret. And so the second aspect of this
mystery is that it is now revealed, or as translated here in the
New American Standard, manifest. God himself had ordained the
lengthy duration of the hiddenness of the details of the gospel.
And it is not as if he suddenly changed his mind But in the fullness
of time, he willed that his plan of redemption in its completeness
would be revealed. And largely that was in Christ. And again, it was not humanity
in our great intelligence that figured out this plan of redemption
by God. It was not our extensive scientific
minds and methods, nor did we sleuth out this mystery. God in his sovereign mercy revealed
it in time, in his own time and for his own purposes and glory.
He sent forth his son into the world and in Jesus Christ, God
revealed the previously hidden details of his plan of redemption. A miraculous incarnation. A stupendous and perfect life. A suffering savior. The Jews
had, they didn’t know what to do with that. The idea of an
Isaiah 53 kind of figure. A sinless and yet condemned and
ultimately crucified savior. That was what Paul calls in 1
Corinthians 1 foolishness to the world. This is the manifestation of
what was considered up to that point a mystery. You see, once
it’s revealed, it’s no longer a mystery. Paul uses this word
mystery a lot in his writings. Of the 28 times it’s used in
the New Testament, 21 are by Paul. Just listen. Well, too much. Turn, if you would, to 1 Corinthians. I was gonna just read it, but
there’s too much there for you to grasp. So 1 Corinthians 2,
and scroll down to verse six. Listen to how Paul speaks of
the mystery here. Verse 6, Yet we do speak wisdom
among those who are mature, a wisdom, however, not of this age, nor
of the rulers of this age who are passing away. But we speak God’s wisdom in
a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before
the ages to our glory, the wisdom which none of the rulers of this
age has understood. For if they understood, they
would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But just as it
is written, things which the eye has not seen or the ear has
not heard and which have not entered the heart of man, all
that God has prepared for those who love him. So he refers to
this gospel as a mystery that is now revealed. In chapter 4
verse 1, you can turn there, but I’ll be gone by the time
you get there. Let a man regard us in this manner as servants
of Christ, as stewards of the mysteries of God. That’s what
Paul was entrusted with. He was entrusted with the answers
to these deep mysteries. You also have Paul using this
in Ephesians 5.32 and 6.19, but I would have you turn to a more
lengthy treatment of this, Ephesians chapter 3. In this parallel epistle, Ephesians,
to which we’ve already looked for both illustration and explanation
for what Paul is saying here in Colossians, Paul gives a lengthy
description of the word mystery here. And there’s no other way
to take it but to go to verse one and we’ll start and get a
running start at this idea. For this reason I, Paul, the
prisoner of Christ Jesus, for the sake of you Gentiles, and
that is key, if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God’s
grace which was given to me for you. He uses some of the same
language that he uses in our current epistle, the epistle
to Colossians. that by revelation another idea
there was made known to me the mystery as i wrote before in
brief so he’s talking about the same things the mystery that
was hidden now revealed go to verse four And, by referring
to this, when you read, you can understand my insight into the
mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known
to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by His holy
apostles and prophets in the Spirit.” What was it? What is
the detail? What is the big mystery? To be
specific, verse six, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and
fellow members of the body and fellow partakers of the promise
in Christ Jesus. Through the gospel of which I
was made a minister according to the gift of grace, which was
given to me according to the working of God’s power. He basically
says, look, in past generations, nobody knew that the Gentiles
were going to be let in as the people of God. Look at verse
eight, to me, the very least of all saints. This grace was
given to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ,
and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery
which for ages has been hidden in God. who created all things
in order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known
through the church to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly
places. Paul says, look, I was entrusted
with the truths that unlock this mystery. And now back, if you
would, to Colossians chapter one. The bottom line here is
what once was a mystery is now revealed. And part of the reason
that Paul emphasizes these two aspects, that a mystery was hidden
and now revealed, is to stir the Colossian believers to a
joyful acknowledgement of the great privilege in being among
those to whom these things were now revealed. And that has to
stir our own hearts. Jesus himself made the same appeal
to his disciples in Luke 10. Turning to his disciples, 10.23,
Jesus said, blessed are the eyes which see the things that you
see. For I say to you that many prophets and kings wish to see
the things that you see and did not see them. And to hear the
things which you hear and did not hear them. If you have come
to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, do you realize
that you see and know and enjoy a truth that most of the world
does not? What an inestimable blessing
and privilege is ours, we who live in a day when God’s plan
of redemption has been fully revealed. There is no more to
be learned about the gospel. There is no more to be learned
about God’s plan of redemption. And so Paul here is speaking
of the Word of God, a mystery which has been hidden, now has
been manifested. We now have Paul’s full description
of the subject. The Word of God. As one faithful
man of God succinctly put it, it all refers to, get this, the
divine purpose of salvation in Christ. We get it. That’s what
he means by the word of God. Paul is speaking of the gospel
in its wide embrace of the Gentiles, which touches you and I. They
too have been incorporated into God’s wonderful plan of redemption,
This was not a feature of God’s plan of salvation that had been
previously and clearly understood. And so, it’s the gospel message
that Paul is referring to here, the good news for all types of
sinners, young and old, women and men, Jews and Gentiles, everyone. For Paul, the Word of God was
the glorious message of salvation by faith in Christ’s work of
redemption. And so the phrase, the Word of
God, functions as a synonym for the gospel. So now, Now that
we understand the Word of God as the gospel, the good news
of salvation from sin, we can begin to understand what Paul
means when he says that his duty was to fulfill the Word of God. And that still sounds somewhat
flavorless to our ears. And so our translators seek to
clarify what Paul intends here. The ESV adds a couple of words.
To make the Word of God fully known, The New American Standard
adds, to carry out the preaching of the Word of God. And if you’ll
notice, the words the preaching of are in italics, supplied for
our benefit. Paul understood his orders as
filling up, or as the NAS has it, to fully carry out the Word
of God. The verb here speaks only of
a completed mission. effectively carried out. By God’s grace only, Paul had
faithfully carried out the dissemination of the gospel, preaching to any
and all who had ears to hear. Paul knew that his charge was
no less than proclaiming the message of the gospel to any
and all for whom it was intended. Now, purely for clarity, as I
said, then NAS adds the preaching here so that I might fully carry
out the preaching of the Word of God. Those words are not in
the original text. That’s why they’re in italics.
There were, in fact, several different Greek words available
to Paul. If he had wanted to make it that
explicit, he could have said it. But Paul doesn’t use those
terms. The Greek text just says to fill
or to fulfill the word of God. But that word preaching provides
some good and I think helpful clarity. It is a proclamation
of the gospel that Paul, with which Paul was faithful. Almost
anything else leaves it vague here as to what Paul even means.
To complete the word of God? To fulfill the word of God? To
present the Word of God in its fullness? All of those translations
are less clear, and I think the ESV comes next closest to capturing
Paul’s intent to make the Word of God fully known. The proclamation
of the gospel, that was Paul’s great task. To take it as far
and wide as possible. One of the key features of the
gospel is that it was for everyone. Every tribe and tongue and people
and nation. But that feature was moot. If
the gospel were not extended to these great varieties of people
by those who knew it, it was Paul’s ministry. It was his solemn
charge before God to declare this long-hidden mystery. And
Paul wanted nothing more than to fulfill His calling and the
preaching, the proclamation of the gospel of Christ to fully
carry out the word of God, to max it out, as we might say. This, remember, was Paul’s stewardship,
for which he would one day give an account before God. How zealous,
how urgent Paul was to fulfill that great responsibility. Paul carried out the preaching
of the gospel. He set it forth as the one great
hope for sinners. He offered it without price,
regardless of age, race, or gender. Instead of limiting the gospel’s
impact, he magnified it. He proclaimed the gospel of Christ
as the revealed truth that it was in its fullness, so that
any and all might behold and receive the Christ of the gospel. But God’s plan of redemption
was not only revealed to Paul. Would you look down at the final
words of verse 26? The word of God, the hidden mystery,
which has now been manifested, has been gloriously revealed
to, get this, his saints. I don’t know how many times I’ve
said this, probably every time I come across the word, we need
to take this word back from Roman Catholics. Because they mistreat
and misapply this word. The word saints does not refer
to some uniquely special, do-good individual or someone who lived
a life as a miracle worker or some great martyr. The word refers
literally to the holy ones, those who have been set aside by God
for a holy purpose. They have been set aside, sanctified,
saved, and set apart for a holy use, for God’s use. In other
words, every true child of God is a saint in the biblical sense
of that word. They don’t have to wait to arrive
at some degree of perfection in order to achieve sainthood.
It’s not the church, even the Roman Catholic church that makes
saints. It’s God and God only. And so listen to this, if you’re
a Christian, it’s only because God in his infinite mercy has
revealed to you the fullness of the gospel. And that by faith
in Christ, your sins are forgiven. You are reconciled to God. You are already one of the saints
of God. And as such, as one of God’s saints, his gospel,
the word of God has been made known to you just as surely as
it was revealed, made manifest to the apostle Paul. Do you realize
that? And you have the same responsibility.
God’s plan of redemption is no longer hidden. It’s no longer
a mystery. That message, as wonderful and
precious as it is, unless it’s preached, and you don’t have
to have a pulpit to preach it, unless it’s proclaimed, unless
it’s shared, even though it’s no longer a mystery, remains
no more than a mystery to those who’ve never heard it. It’s no better than the mystery
of old. The gospel wasn’t meant to be received and vaulted away
within our own hearts, kept only to ourselves. The gospel was
meant to be shared. The world needs to know. The
world needs to hear that it is no longer a mystery, that the
word of God, the gospel, has been revealed, and it’s been
revealed. in our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. What a thrill, what a privilege
we have, not only to be let in on the secret, but have the privilege,
indeed the responsibility, to go and to take that word and
to make it known. Would the saints of God humble
themselves before their Savior?