Sowing and Reaping

Among the Apostle Paul’s last
words on earth, in his final epistle to Timothy, he employs
a very enigmatic metaphor. He tells Timothy that the hard-working
farmer ought to be the first to receive his share of the crops.
Now, if we were to isolate that verse out of its context, we
might come away thinking that Paul is giving Timothy some agricultural
instruction, perhaps a how-to on gardening. He’s not. It’s a metaphor. And the context
shows, as I hope to show you, the greater backdrop of 2 Timothy is effectively Paul’s ministry
handoff. Paul knows that his days on earth
are drawing to a close. Paul knows that he will soon
face martyrdom at the hands of the Roman Emperor Nero. And so
this letter, 2 Timothy, is effectively Paul’s last will and testament. For purposes, it will become
clear Would God’s people please turn to 2 Timothy and chapter
1. We’ll get to Colossians eventually
this morning, but I want to start here. Paul desires to do everything
in his power to provide a seamless transition so that the ministry
to Christ’s church not suffer in any way. He knows that Timothy
is an important player in this transfer of responsibility. In the opening verses, if you
glance at them, verses three through five, Paul remembers,
thereby reminding Timothy of his calling to ministry. In verses
six and seven, Paul passionately reminds his son in the faith
to kindle afresh the gift of God, the gifts and callings that
were entrusted to him by God. In verses eight through 12, he
urges this young pastor not to be ashamed either of the testimony
of the Lord or of himself, the Lord’s prisoner. In verses 13
and 14, he calls his fellow worker in the gospel to faithfulness,
to retain the standard of sound words, that is, sound doctrine,
and to guard the treasure of the gospel that had been entrusted
to him. He closes chapter 1 by noting
examples of failure and examples of faithfulness
in ministry. So that as the apostle opens
chapter two, his address of Timothy remains clear and direct. Be
strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus and entrust these
things to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
The gospel ministry is always one of passing along this calling
to others. And finally, we come to the context
of our words. Remember the words? The very verse that prompted
our excursion into 2 Timothy, the hardworking farmer ought
to be the first to receive his share of the crops. The immediate
context for those words is found in verse 3 through 7. Would you
follow along as I read? Suffer hardship with me as a
good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier in active service
entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life so that he may
please the one who enlisted him as a soldier. Also, if anyone
competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes
according to the rules. The hardworking farmer ought
to be the first to receive his share of the crops. Consider
what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. Paul isn’t giving a lesson here
on agricultural practices. And he knew that these statements
were somewhat mysterious to young Timothy. And so he pleads for
Timothy to pay close attention, to meditate on these things,
and to derive Paul’s purposed instruction. Paul here is instructing
his ministry replacement. Timothy. And he actually uses
not one but three metaphors here. That of a soldier, that of an
athlete, and that of a farmer. In the first, that of the soldier,
he reminds Timothy that the Christian ministry is not fun and games. It’s not a hobby. Timothy is
placed on a battlefield in the midst of a spiritual warfare. In the second illustration, that
of the athlete, Paul reminds Timothy that just as a well-disciplined
competitor does not cut corners, either in their training or in
the contest itself, so also must a servant of Christ. Then in
his third metaphor, the hardworking farmer, Paul effectively tells
Timothy to keep his eye on the harvest. Just as in farming,
the ministry is hard, toilsome work, and if we were to focus
only on that aspect of farming, we would likely quit. Paul says,
look to the harvest. Look to the crops. the hardworking
farmer ought to be the first to receive his share of the crops. And his message to Timothy in
that is that the gospel ministry with which he has been entrusted
will surely bear fruit. There will be crop. There will
be a harvest. And I say all of that to you
to tell you that this is effectively what Paul says here at the end
of Colossians chapter one. Would the Lord’s people now turn
to that book and chapter, Colossians chapter one. In verses 29 through chapter
two, verse three, Paul concludes his short but very significant
discussion of the Christian ministry. And this morning we’ll start
back in verse 24 and take this section in its entirety, but
Paul wants to assure his readers there in Colossae that there
will surely be a harvest. Chapter 1, verse 24, and we’ll
course down through 2-3. 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 past ages and generations, but now has
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 for I also 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 at 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 assurance 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. Now, it’s important for me to
remind you again. I’ve said this before in various
contexts. It’s important for me to remind
you that verses and chapter divisions are not inspired. They’re very
helpful tools. Can you imagine recommending
a verse to somebody, but not knowing how to reference that
particular verse? Colossians 2, verse 1, for instance. They’re very helpful tools, but
they were not part of the original text as it was given. And it wasn’t until 1546 that
a man named Stephanas produced a Greek text, the Greek text
of the New Testament that included chapter and verse divisions. We can be thankful that he did.
It allows us to pinpoint a reference in the Bible. But one of the
criticisms of Stephanas’ addition to the text of Scripture was
that, as one put it, it seemed as if he marked the divisions
while journeying on a horseback, and that some of the awkward
divisions arose from the jogging of the horse that bumped his
pen in the wrong places. We have one of those right here.
Because the chapter division that occurs here after verse
29 is very unfortunate. The paragraph clearly continues
down to chapter 2, verse 3. As I said a minute ago, Paul
is wrapping up this section on the Christian ministry, which
began in verse 24, and due to the lengthy nature of the sentence,
one of the longest in all the Bible, we broke it up into three
sections, remember? The first was the glad anguish
of ministry in verse 24, and then the divine bestowal of ministry
in verses 25 through 27, and then finally the efficient method
of ministry, verses 28 all the way through to three. And we
began this last portion of the discussion last Lord’s Day in
a consideration of verse 28, historically our church’s theme
verse, From the very beginning, 25 years ago, this Colossians
128 has been our church verse, if you will. And even though
it is but a single verse, we saw that it is a rich and power-packed
verse. It presents the excellent features
of the message of the ministry. In a single verse, It told us
of the subject of our proclamation. We know that we’re called to
proclaim, but what? We proclaim Him, that is, Christ. It also told us of the method
of our proclamation, that of admonition and teaching. Those
go hand in hand. Every individual is to be admonished
from the scriptures, encouraged from the scriptures, counseled
from the scriptures, and taught from the scriptures. And then
thirdly, it told us of the purpose of our proclamation. Why do we
proclaim? Why do we admonish? Why do we
teach? In order to present every believer
complete in Christ. What a beautiful verse. and it’s
here in verse 29, still drawing out this lengthy sentence that
Paul turns, lastly, to what I would suggest is the expectation of
ministry. And the expectation is that there
will be a harvest. There will be a harvest. It’s
important to keep that hopeful promise at the forefront of any
and all ministry efforts. There will be a harvest. And
so I’ve entitled the section, Sowing and Reaping. How dreadful would it be to go
out and labor over your garden and to plant seeds with no hope
of ever tasting a thing from the soil, sowing and reaping
a fruitful harvest in the service of Christ. That’s our consideration
this morning. And so if we could, to begin,
I want to go back to verse 29. The first element of this fruitful
harvest in the service of Christ is, number one, the effort expended
in the ministry of the gospel. The effort expended in the ministry
of the gospel. Look at verse 29. For this purpose, I also labor, striving according
to his power, which mightily works within me.” Paul, again,
ties this section to the previous verse by saying, as translated
here in the New American, for this purpose. That translation
is satisfactory, it gets the thought across, but literally
Paul says here, in which also. It makes you work to understand
what Paul is referencing there. And he’s referring to the last
line of verse 28. The last line of verse 28 says,
so that we may present every man complete in Christ for this
purpose also I labor. Here’s Paul’s line of thinking.
It’s his earnest desire to present every person complete in Christ,
and in order to do so, he must work at it. He must labor. Farming is hard, exacting work. Long before there is a harvest,
there is work. Paul here speaks to the means
of accomplishing this goal of having a harvest. In other words,
he labors hard in proclaiming Jesus Christ, and he does so
by admonishing and teaching. And this word for laborer has
the sense of working to the point of exhaustion, bone-wearying
toil. To paraphrase it, I wear myself
out in the preaching of God’s word. What a beautiful thought. In order to make it clear about
the exhausting nature of ministry, Paul elaborates on the statement
with one very descriptive word. Would you glance at the text?
For this purpose also I labor, striving. Striving in the cause
of ministry. Now this word is more graphic
still than the previous. Listen to it in the Greek. Agonizomai. You heard it there, didn’t you?
It’s the word from where we get our English words, plural. Agony or agonizing. It was originally
used of those who competed in the Roman games, and it spoke
of painful and exhausting training and competition. I remember as
a baseball coach, the goal was to make practice so hard that
games seemed easy. But for an athlete in the Roman
games, The contest itself may well have been harder even than
the practice. Ministry involves this kind of
agonizing effort, Paul says. Ministry was no hobby for Paul. It was no casual pastime. Rather, it was an intense and
draining struggle, both mentally and physically.
Think of it, Paul was almost always going. Preaching, contending
for the faith, refuting those in error, dodging those who were
persecuting him, praying over and instructing his churches,
either in person or by emissary or by letter. Paul was always
on the go. His whole life was given to the
gospel ministry. And how could it be otherwise?
When at once we consider that it was his solemn responsibility
to carry the incredible message of the gospel far and wide, of
course he would spend himself in that noble effort. And yet,
watch this. When it’s all said and done,
Paul actually takes no credit or glory to himself at all. He
says that this agonizing labor was made possible only by God’s
grace. He says it this way at the end
of verse 29, that his striving was according to his, that is
God’s power, which mightily works within me. It wasn’t his own
strength by which Paul labored so strenuously. Had it been of
his own strength and vigor and vitality, he would have quickly
burned out. This was supernatural effort.
But according to God’s power, Paul was able to easily and victoriously
exceed his own human capabilities. That’s ministry. Paul strings
together a fascinating group of words here, bear with me,
in the Greek, Energeia, energeo, and dunamis. I know. Just bear
with me. The first word, energeia, speaks
of force or energy, energy that is to be expended. The second
word, energeo, is a verb, and it pictures the expending of
that energy. It’s inaction now. And that third word, dunamis,
power, tells of the capability of that expended energy. What
will it accomplish? Want to hear something really
amazing? Paul uses these same three words in Ephesians 1. That’s
not the amazing part. The amazing thing is the idea
that Paul communicates there. Would you turn, just flip back
a couple of pages to Ephesians 1? I want to show you this in
context. Again, our three words are found
there as well in this incredible passage. Scroll down to verse
18, if you would. I pray that the eyes of your
heart may be enlightened so that you will know what is the hope
of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance
in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power. Dunamis, our word. His power
toward us who believe. These are in accordance with
the working energia of the strength of His might, which He brought
about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated
Him at His right hand in the heavenly places. The amazing
thing about this, we have this same picture of God’s incredible,
operative, supernatural power seen in the resurrection of the
Lord Jesus Christ. This was miraculous power, supernatural
power that Paul was using in his ministry. At
the end of it all, I mean, let’s be honest, at the end of it all,
it’s Christ’s power, not his own. It’s Christ’s power, not
our own. No matter what it is, we do unto
the Lord. This is a recurring theme in
Paul’s writings. Listen carefully as you flip back to
Colossians 1. To the Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians
1-5, Paul reminded those believers that the gospel did not come
to them in word only. Remember this? But also in power
and in the Holy Spirit. It was supernatural. The Colossians
heard the gospel and supernaturally they were transformed. Supernatural
power attended Paul’s ministry. 1 Corinthians 15 10. Paul revealed
the secret to his ability to persevere in the ministry. He
said it this way, by the grace of God I am what I am and his
grace toward me did not prove vain but I labored even more
than all of them yet not I but the grace of God with me. It was God coursing through the
Apostle Paul as a willing conduit. And here they are once again,
toilsome labor, the sustaining grace of God. You probably even
thought of this verse as soon as I took up this line of discussion. Philippians 2, right? Philippians
2, 12, so then my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not
as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, Work
out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God
who is at work within you, both to will and to work for His good
pleasure. It’s not an either-or proposition. It’s a both-and. It’s not either
grace or our effort. It’s our effort by His grace.
It’s both. No wonder Paul could declare
with all confidence at the end of that epistle to the Philippians,
I can do all things through him who strengthens me. And we know
that from the parable of the vine and the branches that outside
of Christ, we can really accomplish nothing at all. No human motivator
can do it. No amount of training, no matter
how excellent the training is, no passionate pep talk will work. No emotional mental focusing
will be adequate. Only God, by His sustaining and
enabling grace, would fully enable Paul or any person in God’s service
to carry out such a divine mission. As Paul humbly assured the believers
in Corinth, 2 Corinthians 3, 5, not that we are adequate to
consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is
from God. There’s a second feature that
we see in the fruitful harvest and the service of Christ, not
only the effort expended in the ministry of the gospel, but secondly,
the recipients enriched by the ministry of the gospel. Who benefited
from this anyway? And we see it in verse one. For I want you to know how great
a struggle I have on your behalf and for those who are at Laodicea
and for all those who have not personally seen my face. Now,
I have to tell you, on the face of it, when I first looked at
it, Point two seems superfluous, irrelevant to us. And I say that
because Paul’s comments are focused upon Colossae, Laodicea, and
anywhere else that Paul had not personally visited. It’s true,
but Paul there is speaking to the current context. But there
are indeed truths and principles to be gleaned from this verse,
even for us in the 21st century here in Colorado. Paul starts here in verse one
by saying, I want you to know how great a struggle I have on
your behalf. And I want you to note that word
struggle. The word is the noun form of
the word that we just saw, striving, in verse 29. Paul said there
he was striving according to God’s power. Here, as I said,
he uses the noun form of that word, agon, agony, translated
here in the NAS as struggle. So here in verse 1, Paul is really
just elaborating on that statement of verse 29. He has already expressed
to his readers that he is striving in the cause of the gospel, and
here he tells them why. I want you to know how great
a struggle I have on your behalf. Paul uses this little lead-in
phrase, I want you to know, to press the urgency of what he’s
saying. This is something that he does
often in his epistles. He doesn’t want the people of
his churches to be unaware or uninformed. He wants them to
know. And by saying this, I want you
to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf. Paul isn’t
looking for sympathy. He isn’t blaming the Colossians
for all that he’s enduring. Then why say it? Why tell them
about his struggles on their behalf? Paul wanted an informed and aware
church. He wanted to involve them in
his ministry. The last thing that Paul wanted
was the typical church missionary relationship. A monthly check
in exchange for a newsletter that likely will not be read
by anybody. Let’s just be honest. Years ago
when I first started looking at the whole philosophy of missions
in the church, I landed on this verse. Jesus said it this way.
Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. We should
know about our missionaries. We should care about them. And
Paul wanted his churches involved in his ministry, not just an
occasional check. Paul desired that his churches
be with him in heart first and foremost. He wanted them to know
his labors on their behalf. And what were Paul’s struggles? They were many, probably too
many for an exhaustive list. But they would include these,
persecution, the care and concern for his many churches, the care
and concern for his too few fellow workers in the gospel, multiple
imprisonments, the constant need to battle against the dangerous
encroachment of heresy in his churches. Here’s one passage that issues
a list of both good and bad challenges that Paul faced. 2 Corinthians
6, beginning in verse 4, and in everything, commending ourselves
as servants of God in much endurance, in afflictions, in hardships,
in distresses, in beatings, in imprisonments, in tumults, in
labors, in sleeplessness, in hunger, in purity, in knowledge,
in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in genuine love,
in the word of truth, in the power of God, by the weapons
of righteousness, for the right hand and the left, by glory and
dishonor, by evil report and good report, regarded as deceivers
yet true, as unknown yet well-known, as dying yet behold we live,
as punished yet not put to death, as sorrowful but always rejoicing,
as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing
all things.” What a beautiful picture of ministry. Paul summarized
that in four words in the next chapter, 2 Corinthians 7, conflicts
without, fears within. That’s the apostle Paul. There
was a raging war outside of the church, and there were burdensome
concerns within his own heart. As much as anything, Paul wanted
them to know about his struggles as an example for them to do
likewise. He didn’t want them to be surprised
and therefore discouraged when they encountered similar challenges
in their own ministries. It also showed his readers the
depth of his love for them that he would be willing to endure
such trials on their behalf. So Paul, he wanted them to know
about his struggles. And now let’s return to the idea
of who it was for whom he was enduring these things. There are three groups of people
mentioned. The first we’ve seen when Paul says, on your behalf,
he’s without doubt speaking of the Colossian church, the believers
there. Second, he mentions Laodicea. Laodicea, we learned at the outset
of our study of this epistle, was a much larger city, about
10 miles down the valley from the mountain town of Colossae.
And just across the river from Laodicea was her sister city,
Hierapolis. No doubt there was a church there
as well. The city of Hierapolis is surely
one of the cities in Paul’s mind when he mentions, refers to all
those who have not personally seen my face. All these three
cities then, and then some, Paul says were ultimately benefactors,
recipients who were enriched by the gospel ministry, his gospel
ministry. Let’s be honest, you and I are
not likely to ever traverse the globe as Paul did, nor are we
going to, like Paul did, write letters that will become part
of the canon of Scripture. You want to see me afterwards
if you think you want to add to that. But be assured, everything
we do in the cause of Christ for ministry will go beyond our
immediate influence. Do you realize that? Whoever
you influence will, in time, influence others. Our ministry
efforts will impact others. Paul had never even visited these
three cities, and yet not only had the gospel gone forth, it
had flourished there, and it would not stop in any of these
three cities either. Such is the nature of ministry,
isn’t it? that the people whom we have the privilege of impacting
will in turn influence others. That’s the nature of the gospel.
Once the gospel leaves our mouth, it creates its own family tree. Isn’t that an amazing thought?
So that our influence will go on and on and on. Paul had never
even been to the region of these cities and yet he could say with
divine authority that he had impacted them for good. We have a ministry, and I say
we because I do consider it a ministry of our church, It’s the Ministry
of Sermon Audio, and it costs us about $50 a month. And every
year at the annual meeting, I try to share some of the statistics.
Mind-boggling to me. We have people that listen regularly
to our messages, not only across the United States, but across
the world. The gospel has wings, right? and it flies wherever it will.
And we may never know the extent of the effect of our particular
ministries, those with whom we share a book, attract, have a
time of prayer, but assuredly the gospel does and will spread. Others will be influenced. There’s a third and final expectation
of the gospel ministry. sowing and reaping, a fruitful
harvest in the service of Christ, not only the effort expended
in the ministry of the gospel, the recipients enriched by the
ministry of the gospel, but the benefits established through
the ministry of the gospel. And believe me, this series of
words was about as deep as it gets in Paul’s epistles. Pick
up in verse two, if you would. where Paul begins with the reason
that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in
love and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full
assurance 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. I mean, that is a mouthful. And
I suppose the first question that I would address here is
how many benefits are received through the ministry of the gospel?
And I would make the argument based on the grammar of these
verses, verses two and three, that there is one benefit. And
it’s this, verse two, that our hearts may be encouraged. That, and that only, is the benefit,
as I see it. But it’s a rich and multifaceted
benefit, as I believe Paul shows here. Let’s look at the benefit
itself, where Paul says that, by means of the gospel, our hearts
may be encouraged. The heart, according to scripture,
was far more than the center of just feelings, like we have
it. It was the orientation place
of the intellect. It was the orientation place
of our affections, our understanding, our will, our volition. And so
to encourage the heart was to encourage the whole person. This
word encouraged is an awesome word. I don’t use that word often,
but it is an awesome word. It’s the Greek word parakaleo.
literally to call along to one side, to call for, to appeal,
to admonish, to exhort, to cheer, to encourage, to comfort. And
you already know the noun form of this word, paraclete. The paraclete is the comforter.
It’s the Holy Spirit. He is the called alongside one. The verb here, parakaleo, is
very malleable, as I just pointed out. It can be translated exhort,
urge, conciliate, encourage, implore, comfort, and more. Context determines which nuance
is appropriate for each situation. The very first thing communicated
at the acceptance of the gospel is encouragement, comfort. The
comfort of forgiveness of sin. The comfort of receiving God’s
mercy. The comfort of having peace with
God. But the believer will continue
to enjoy comfort, divine comfort, throughout his or her life. And
that secondary measure of comfort is what Paul is referring to
here. Ongoing comfort. Day-by-day comfort. It’s the
ministry of sustained assurance. And it’s built upon several additional
graces. I told you that this one blessing
was multifaceted. The first of these is the grace
of Christian fellowship. the grace of Christian fellowship.
Paul says it this way in the second line of verse two, having
been knit together in love. Isn’t that amazing? Beautiful
description. The tapestry of people that have
been blended together, first loved by God, then they love
God, and in turn, they develop love for one another. And here
Paul tells us the means contributing to our encouragement is Christian
fellowship. The word translated here in the
NAS, knit together, it’s translated elsewhere as held together. Another paraphrase used an even
more graphic illustration. welded together. And I’m told
by those who are skilled in that craft that a weld becomes stronger
than even the material itself. Believers in Christ have been
placed into a union with one another, a bond of brotherly
love. And in this troubled world, Christians
are sure to face trials and distress. The great encouragement is availed
through the fellowship with their fellow believers. There’s a second
grace that nourishes Christian comfort. It’s the grace of assurance
that comes from spiritual knowledge. The grace of assurance that comes
from spiritual knowledge. And it’s there in that third
line of verse two. Would you glance there? that
we are attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance
of understanding. A lot of words. This is the confidence that we
have when we know and hold to the truth. Not just theories,
not just ideas, It is, as one pastor called it, the full wealth
of conviction which spiritual insight brings. The more we study
the Word, the more we grasp it as truth, the more confident
we become. This is why we read our Bibles.
This is why we listen to sermons. This is why we attend to Bible
study. We are in the process of attaining
spiritual truth. The writer of Hebrews urges this
same exact thing in 611. We desire that each one of you
show the same diligence. Why? So as to realize the full
assurance of hope until the end. By knowledge of the scriptures,
we develop the confident ability to discern what is false from
what is true. The ability to determine what
is right from what is wrong, what is from God and what is
not. Well, this all leads to a third
grace, and we see it introduced in the fourth line. The last
line of verse two elaborated upon in verse three, glance there
if you would, where Paul says, resulting in a true knowledge
of God’s mystery. That is Christ himself in whom
are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. We could
refer to this as the grace of unending discovery. We’ve already
been introduced to this idea of the mystery back in verse
27, where Paul definitively identified it as Christ in you, the hope
of glory, remember? He’s not saying anything different
here. There he told us that of God’s revelation of something
previously unknown, a mystery, that Jesus Christ has now come
to dwell in hearts by faith, even Gentile hearts. The mystery
is still Christ. In verse 27, it was the remarkable
revelation of Christ’s indwelling. Here, it’s Christ’s embodiment
of wisdom. Jesus isn’t just wise, he is
wisdom itself. And here in verse 2 and 3, Paul
is still speaking of what was previously a mystery, Christ
himself. And that in him there is an infinite
wealth of discovery to be enjoyed by God’s children. We hear of Jesus Christ now,
and we place our faith in him as Savior, but for the remainder
of our earthly life, extending into all eternity, we will continue
to discover new treasures of wisdom and knowledge in Christ. We don’t know the exact nature
of the challenging heresies that the first century churches were
facing, Colossi, Laodicea, Hierapolis. But we do know that they were
being harassed and pressured to adopt a Jesus plus model. Jesus plus the worship of angels. Jesus plus some secret insight. Jesus plus dietary restrictions. Jesus plus mystical experiences. Paul says unequivocally, if we
have found and come to faith in Jesus Christ, we need nothing
else. And Christ alone is the true
knowledge of God’s mystery. In Jesus, our Savior, we can,
by a childlike and yet diligent inquiry into the scriptures,
search and discover all the hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge. May I admonish, encourage, comfort
God’s people with this. Look to Christ. Look to Christ
for comfort. Look to Christ for wisdom. Look
to Christ for purpose. Look to Christ for forgiveness.
Look to Christ for understanding. Look to Christ for direction.
Look to Christ for encouragement. Look to Christ for mercy. Look
to Christ, for example, look to Christ for knowledge. Look
to Christ for grace. If we’ve come to Christ in faith
for salvation, we need not look anywhere else. In Jesus Christ
are all the treasures. of wisdom and knowledge. Would
you humble yourself before him?