Scripture Reading: Colossians 1:25–29
the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily.
Amen. Let us pray.
Opening Prayer
Our Father, we praise You for Your Holy Scripture. We thank You that You've not left us as orphans. You've given us the Spirit. You've given us Your Word.
We pray even now, Lord God, that this would be a profitable study, that You would convince us, rebuke us, and correct us and instruct us in all righteousness and thoroughly furnish us unto every good work. Lord God, we thank You that You have given us the Old and the New Testaments, and we pray that You would help us to be men and women of Your Book, men and women committed to seeking Your will and to seeking to be filled with all the knowledge of that will. in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. We thank You for this book of Colossians and for the example of Paul the Apostle. And Lord God, we just pray even now that You would continue to instruct us from this chapter, edify Your people, strengthen each one of us, God, and cause us to go forth from this place to do Your will.
And we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Introduction
Well, this morning we focus primarily on the suffering of the Apostle Paul. And then we'll pick up here in verses 25 to 27, the stewardship of the Apostle, when Paul uses that word mystery. We might be inclined to think that what is in the background is the Greco-Roman usage of mystery as it pertained to mystery religion. But rather, mystery is used in the New Testament simply to refer to a truth about God and His plan of salvation that at one time was hidden but now has been revealed.
That's all that a mystery is. If anything, the background is in Daniel 2, where the vision given to Nebuchadnezzar is spoken of as a secret, and then the secret is revealed through Daniel as he interprets that vision. And then we'll notice the preaching of the Apostle, verses 28 and 29. This will go along with what we studied on Wednesday night.
In Acts 18, we learned of a man by the name of Apollos, and he is described there as being a faithful minister of the Gospel. And one of the things that we noted was that it is important for us as men and women in the church to pray that God would raise up such faithful ministers. Because the Lord has ordained the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe. And as Paul argues in Romans 10, how shall they hear without a preacher?
How shall they preach unless they are sent? And we ought to know that the church is the breeding ground, if you will, for gospel ministers. Paul tells Timothy in 2 Timothy 2 that he is to identify faithful men and that he is to entrust to faithful men sound doctrine so that they may be able in turn to teach others also. And I used to think that what we have here in Colossians 1, 28 and 29 is a description of gospel ministry.
But it really isn't. It is a description of Paul's gospel ministry. There's no one that I know, and I certainly, as much as I don't suffer like Paul, as we noted this morning, I don't labor like Paul. He is a good model.
He is a good example. He is one to follow. But he was given fully to this work, setting a high standard, one that we ought to seek and strive after. But we do need to realize that this was a brother that was uniquely set apart for the glory of God.
But again, he does serve as a good example and one that we ought to be like in these issues. Well,
The Stewardship of the Apostle
notice first of all the stewardship of the Apostle. We notice this morning he uses the word minister. I love that about Paul. He's not the magistrate.
He's not the one throwing his weight around. He sees himself as a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is a servant of the Gospel. He is a servant of the Church.
He imbibes servant leadership. He truly follows Christ in this particular area. He is not a lord. He is not a tyrant.
He does not lord things over the consciences. In fact, in 2 Corinthians, he says, but rather, we are workers with you for your joy. That is the role of a faithful minister. To be a worker with you for your joy.
Not to be a tyrant. Not to be a lord. Not to be a dictator. Paul was installed into this office or given this stewardship by none else than God Himself.
We see that in verse 25, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God, which was given to me for you. In Galatians 1.15, Paul likens himself to Jeremiah. He doesn't say, I'm like Jeremiah, but there is a parallel passage. Jeremiah was separated from the womb to the prophetic ministry.
Paul says that of himself in Galatians 1.15, it pleased God to separate me from my mother's womb. He was a prepared servant. He was a God-ordained servant. That's not to say he wasn't a child of wrath, that he wasn't a sinner, that he wasn't a rebel.
But God had His sights on him from the very beginning. God decreed, obviously, that he would use this Apostle Paul. He didn't install himself into office. He didn't make himself an apostle.
In fact, he certainly highlights that in Galatians 1. He is called to be an apostle. not according to man, but by the will of God. It was the Lord Christ who came to him on the road to Damascus and who gave him this stewardship. And the very language that he uses here, it's a stewardship.
He doesn't rule it. He doesn't own it. He is not over it, but rather he is a steward. The same language that he uses in 1 Timothy 3.
He says, if a man does not know how to rule his own house, How will he be able to steward in the house of God? How will he take care of the house of God? He shifts from ruling the family to being a servant steward in the house of the Lord. And certainly that is consistent with his own ministry.
Paul's Ministry Fulfills God's Word
Notice that this is in fulfillment of God's Word. Verse 25, he says, to fulfill the Word of God. A lot of commentators seem to imply that the fulfilling of God's Word was Paul's preaching of it. But I think it goes a little deeper than that.
Paul fulfilled the Word of God. You say, of course, we all fulfill the Word of God. We all do God's will. We all do what God has determined that we are to do.
But Paul, in a unique way, God had from the beginning said that He was going to call Gentiles unto Himself. But He used Paul in that particular capacity. He used Paul in a way that He doesn't use me to fulfill the written Word in terms of God's decree to engage in His redemptive plan on earth. Paul sees this in Acts 13, when he's preaching in Pisidian Antioch.
And he makes that statement. Since you judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, we will turn to the Gentiles. He then says, four, and then he applies a text from Isaiah that has its primary application in the person of Christ as being a light unto the Gentiles. But he says that that was true of him and Barnabas.
In Galatians 2.7, he says that it is uniquely been given to him as to be the apostle to the uncircumcised. So, Paul is part of God's plan. Paul is uniquely connected to this mystery. As I mentioned before, in fact, Paul says this in Galatians 3, that the gospel was preached beforehand to Abraham.
Genesis 17, because in him all the nations of the earth would be blessed. Gentile inclusion. But the particulars, the timing, the instrumentality, all of that had not been revealed or had not been fully made known until Christ came. And so Paul expounds that particular mystery.
And he goes on to highlight in verse 26, notice, the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations but now has been revealed to His saints." Again, it's a truth about God and His plan of salvation that at one time was hidden, but that now had been revealed. Turn to Romans 16, verse 25, just to see this word used so we're not confused about its interpretation. Romans 16, verse 25. Now 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 kept secret since the world began, but now made manifest, and by the prophetic scriptures made known to all nations, according to the commandment of the everlasting God for obedience to the faith, to God alone wise be glory through Jesus Christ forever.
He uses it in a similar fashion in 1 Corinthians 2, 7-10. He uses it in a parallel usage or parallel passage to this is in Ephesians 3, verses 1-10, where he highlights those realities. That he is a steward. That he has been given this administration.
That he has been given this stewardship in order to preach to the Gentiles the fact that they are included alongside of ethnic Israel in God's redemptive plan. And then
The Content of the Mystery
notice the content of the mystery in Colossians 1.27, To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Beautiful statement there. It is God's sovereign plan. God in His free grace discloses these truths.
Remember in Matthew 16, our brother alluded to it this morning, when Peter makes that confession, that lofty confession of faith, when he says, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus doesn't pat him on the back and say, you're wiser, smarter, and better than your contemporaries. No, he said, blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father in heaven. He has made this known unto you.
And it's the same idea here. To them God willed. It's God's grace. It's God's sovereign pleasure.
It's God's freedom. It's God's design. It is what God has purposed. He has willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery.
To love Paul, the riches of the glory of this mystery. I mean, he couldn't make it sound any better. The riches of the glory of this mystery, that is a beautiful statement. The very fact is that it's characterized by God's glory.
It is revealed to Gentiles and concerns Gentiles very specifically, specifically with reference to their inclusion in the covenant blessings. That's what Paul is highlighting here. And it is characterized by the indwelling Christ in the lives of His people. Josh asked me the other day, do you think that Christianity is a religion or a relationship?
That's a big buzzword in the church today. It's not a religion. It's a relationship. It is a religion.
We have buildings. We have hymn books. We have structure. We have liturgy.
We have all those things. It fits the definition of a religion. It's also a relationship. Not an either-or, it's a both-and.
We have Christ indwelling us. Now Christ, as we just sang in Psalm 110, is locally present at the right hand of His Father. Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies your footstool. So Christ is locally present there.
But He indwells His people by His Spirit. He takes up residence in our hearts, so much so that the Apostle can say, Christ in you, the hope of glory. This is not an isolated statement in the New Testament. In Romans 8, verse 10, we read, And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. 2 Corinthians 13.5, one of the few passages in the New Testament where a Christian is called to introspection. where Christian is called to self-examination.
And in 2 Corinthians 13, verse 5, it says, Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you, unless indeed you are disqualified? In Ephesians chapter 3, verse 17, part of Paul's prayer.
After he has essentially said what he has said here in Colossae, he then prays for the Ephesians. Actually, he develops it a bit more in this parallel passage in Ephesians 3. But when he goes to prayer, one of the petitions in verse 17 is that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. That you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height, to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." That's our possession.
That's what we have. We have Christ in us.
Gentiles Brought Near by Christ's Blood
Go back to Ephesians 2 for just a moment. Ephesians chapter 2. Notice in verse 11, Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh, this is us, who are called uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision made in the flesh by hands, that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off, have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
Consider this. We, as Gentiles, sinners and rebels against our thrice holy God, are described this way. We were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. Not just in an ethnic sense.
Not like we were just looking at this wonderful nation of Israel. But he's speaking about spiritual truths. We were outside the covenant. We're outside of the people of God.
We were outside the camp in the worst possible way. Strangers from the covenants of promise. That blessed promise that God made to Abraham. That he would have a land.
That he would have an inheritance. That he would have all of these blessings. And He administrated that covenant, or that promise through various covenants. We were strangers to those things.
Again, on the outside, sort of looking in. He goes on to say, having no hope. See, that's the genuine condition of those outside the New Covenant community. They have no hope.
I wonder if we think about sinners in that way. That they have no hope. I mean, there's obviously hope in the Gospel in terms of they ought to hear, believe, and be saved. But in their current state, in their rebellion against God, in their rejection of the Lord, of the covenant, they have no hope.
They may have everything to the contrary. They may have what looks to be a very full life, full of blessing, full of material provision, full of benefit. They're hopeless. They're without hope.
And then he goes on to say, and without God, in the world. That is our condition apart from Jesus Christ. But through the reconciliation of God through the blood of His Son, we can now sing, Jesus, I do now receive Him. More than all in Him I find.
He hath granted me forgiveness. I am His and He is mine. You see, that's what God is in Christ doing. He is reconciling the world to Himself.
And when we have trusted in the Lord Jesus, it is as if He has taken up residence in our lives. Paul says, the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and who gave Himself for me. We have the closest possible relationship that we could ever even begin to imagine. We are closer to Christ as Christians than we are to one another.
We are closer to Christ as Christians than we are to husband or wife. We are closer to Christ than I believe we've even begun to imagine in terms of what it means practically. This is what Paul is saying. This is the mystery, that you Gentiles who once were afar off, who were strangers to the covenants of promise, who were alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, who had no hope, who had no God, you have now been brought nigh through the blood of Christ.
You have been cleansed, you have been reconciled, you have been washed, you have been purified, and now Christ is in you, the very hope of glory. What a glorious thing! that is ours as we consider this particular chapter.
The Preaching of the Apostle
Notice, secondly, the preaching of the Apostle Paul. The preaching. He moves from his suffering to his stewardship to his proclamation. And he says four things with reference to his preaching.
The Object: Christ Preached
First, the object of his preaching. Christ. Does that surprise you? Him we preach.
It doesn't surprise me. Him we preach. Paul was not a moralist. Paul was not a humanist.
Paul was not a motivational speaker. Paul was about declaring Jesus Christ in his person and in his work. In 1 Corinthians 1, at verse 18, he says, For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent." And then he goes on to say, where is the wise?
Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.
For Jews request a sign and Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified. To the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness. But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than man. So it ought not to surprise us that here in Colossians 1, after speaking of the stewardship of this mystery, revealing the very essence of it, which is Christ in us, the hope of glory, he then moves on to his proclamation and he says, Him we preach. That's what Christian preaching is all about, Christ. Christ is the center.
Christ in His cross. Christ in His glory. Christ in His salvation. Christ in His majesty.
Christ in His person. As Paul has already described Him in verse 15, He is the image of the invisible God. He is the incarnate God. Christ in His person as the One who made all things.
As the One who governs. In Him, all things consist according to verse 17. Christ in His work. He is the one who shed His blood so that we would have the remission of sins.
Him we preach. That ought not to surprise any Christian. John Eady comments, this Christ, so glorious in person and perfect in work, the incarnate God, the bleeding peacemaker, the imperial governor of the universe, it is He None else, and none besides Him, whom we preach." Traced through the book of Acts, that's what you find Paul doing. He comes into a city, he finds the synagogue, he opens up his Bible, and he reasons, he demonstrates, and he persuades from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ.
Edy goes on to say, Christ is the one Deliverer. conferring pardon by His blood, purity by His Spirit, and perfection by His pledge and presence, securing defense by His power, comfort by His sympathy, and the hope of glory by His residence in the believing heart. Him we preach.
The Manner: Warning and Teaching in Wisdom
He goes on to speak of the manner in which He preaches. Notice in verse 28, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom. There is a warning element. Some of the older commentators made a division here and some follow it.
They say this warning pertains to unbelievers and the teaching pertains to believers. I disagree. I think warning and teaching are fitting for both believers and unbelievers. There are times, brethren, when we as Christians need to be warned.
There are times when we need to be corrected. We need to be reproved. We need to know something of the terror of God. We need to know something of His majesty and His power.
And here this idea of warning means to correct, to warn, to guide. He goes on to say there is a teaching element. Teaching was necessary in the church in Colossae. Some had come in and tried to teach something differently.
And Paul is highlighting the necessity for genuine Christian teaching. But not only warning and teaching, but there must be wisdom. There must be wisdom. Remember back in verse 9 of chapter 1.
People need wisdom in order to use the knowledge of God's will in their lives. Doesn't that make sense? We saw it illustrated in the life of Solomon. David exhorted him to study the law of God.
This is the way that you will protect your kingdom. Study, give your mind, give your heart fully to know the law of God. Get rid of your enemies. That's the second means by which to protect his kingdom.
And then later on in the narrative, when God comes to Solomon and asks him what does he want, Solomon requests wisdom. So he has the law of God, but he prays for wisdom so that he'll know how to put it into practice. And it's the same thing here with Christian preaching. It's not enough just to warn and to teach, but there must be wisdom in order to carry out effective Gospel preaching.
The preacher needs wisdom to know how to teach and admonish the people. That's absolutely crucial. You remember to pray for your pastors. Pray that not only would they warn and teach, but that they would have wisdom.
That they would do it righteously. That they would carry out their task in accordance with the Word of God. They wouldn't just come and lay a bunch of information in your lap and not try and connect some dots and make some practical applications and give you some encouragements and some helps so that you can put that into practice. But not only a warning element, a teaching element, and the wisdom necessary, there's a universal scope.
What's conspicuous in Paul's language in these two verses? Every man, every man, every man. Paul predated the combat warriors who say, leave no man behind. Paul didn't want the church to be separated into cliques.
It doesn't mean that friends can't, you know, cling to one another and you have some friends. Jesus in the midst of twelve had three that were extra special to him, that went with him in various places. There is a genuine biblical doctrine of bosom friendship, close friends. But he's talking about an elitism.
You know, this group over here, they really use their noggins and they're really excelling. Behind all of this may have been something of the Colossian heresy. You follow our instruction, you'll be a bit better off than the rest of these slobs. You listen to what we're saying and you subscribe to angelic worship, you'll be one of the initiates.
You'll be one of the few above the rest. So, if Paul's motto predated the combat warriors, these Colossian heretics predated the U.S. Marine Corps, the few, the proud, the Marines. They would come into a church and grab a select few of initiates.
Paul says, no. We teach every man, we warn every man with the goal of presenting every man complete in Christ. We don't want to leave anybody behind. We want everybody to mature.
We want everybody to use their heads and their hearts. We want everybody to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Bruce says there are no heights in Christian attainment which are not within the reach of all by the power of heavenly grace. There's no heights of Christian attainment that are beyond the reach of Christians.
You may not be down with all the theological jargon, but you certainly can read your Bible and know what that jargon means. You don't have to know hypostatic union to know that there is one person of Christ with two natures, divine and human. You don't need to know the specific label to understand the truth that it's labeling. There's not initiates.
There's not an elitism. There's not a few of the proud within the church. Everybody growing together into maturation. Everybody growing together unto a well-equipped Christ-like man.
The Goal: Presenting Every Man Complete
He goes on to speak of the goal of his preaching. We've already touched on it. Notice in verse 28, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. Perfect here doesn't mean sinless.
You might look at that and say, was Charles Wesley right? Is there a second work of grace? Or not Charles, John. Are we able to get perfection?
Is Finney right? Can we become Christian perfectionists? No, the word means to be complete. It means wholehearted. means devotedness.
But I think what is in view here is the final judgment. Just like verse 22, "...in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and blameless and above reproach in his sight." Well, Paul says there is an eschatological element to Christian preaching. Yes, the Scriptures help you right now. You should leave here tonight, love your wives more, love your husbands more, be more obedient to your parents, or be a better worker tomorrow.
Christianity, the Scriptures, proclamation, truth, has application to the life that now is. But Paul here is highlighting the application for the life that is to come. when He presents every man on that day of judgment. He uses that language in 2 Corinthians 11. He wants to present the Corinthian church as a chaste virgin unto Christ.
He wants to be able to say, I have carried out the task that you have given to me. I want to make sure no one's left behind, there's no stragglers, no one's stuck out in the middle of nowhere, but we're going to grab them and we're going to bring them and we're going to present them unto Christ on that day. So, we've seen the object, the manner, the goal, and then
The Labor: Striving in God's Power
fourthly and finally, the labor involved in His preaching. It was labor-intensive. To this end, I also labor. This means to toil to the point of weariness.
It means to work hard. It's used of normal, everyday, secular, in-the-world labor. Paul uses it with reference to Christian ministry. To this end I also labor.
The other night I read a quote from Gordon Keddy commenting on the fervent spirit of Apollos. Here's what he said about Apollos being fervent in his spirit. He did not give quiet talks. He was enthusiastic and animated in his speaking.
He broke some sweat in the pulpit precisely because he was fervent in his commitment to the message he proclaimed. It is one of the scandals of the modern church and a symptom of its powerlessness that a passion for Christ and the Gospel is so conspicuously absent from so many of its pulpits. Fervent preaching is never comfortable to those who sit under it, but those who treasure God's truth and value their own souls will love to be disturbed by such ministry and will bless the Lord for the privilege. The point is that Christian ministry, if it is conducted properly, will be a labor.
If anyone desires the office of overseer, it is a good work that he desires. It is not simply a time to relax and sit back and play golf and drink tea or whatever the common report may be. Paul says, to this end I also labor. He goes on to say it was conducted with striving.
Striving, he says. It's a strong word, where we get the word agonize. He strives in his labor for the churches. Don't we have a beautiful, well-rounded picture of a genuinely godly man?
So, I'm saying, this is not descriptive of the ministry as a whole. This is not descriptive of the ministry as a whole. This is descriptive of Paul's ministry. And in terms of its example, it is prescriptive.
It is a prescription how the ministry ought to be carried out. But on this side of Paul, I think maybe Whitefield, Maybe Spurgeon and a few others, well, Luther and Calvin, the reformers, those guys, they could probably, or we could say this of them, to this end I also labor, striving, agonizing. Gordon Clark comments, the verb agonizing does not connote the sufferings of persecution. The striving here has nothing to do with him being in jail.
It has nothing to do with those rods or those whips or those stones or those perils that we read of this morning. He says, the striving here does not connote the sufferings of persecution, but very definitely the striving of an athlete to win a contest. He's strained, now get this, to preach and teach. That's what he's talking about.
He says he's strained to preach and teach and many faithful pastors and missionaries have some appreciation of the difficulties involved. He's strained to preach and teach. How can I better, more purposefully, more graciously, more fervently, more earnestly, more deliberately preach Him? That's what made Paul strive.
But notice, he didn't strive in his own strength. See, the ministry for Paul wasn't about technique. It wasn't about manipulation. Though the labor was his, the energy, the power came from God.
He wasn't just a great orator. In fact, he says he wasn't. Paul tells us that. He wasn't a great orator.
But he did speak with the demonstration of the Spirit and the power. Though he toiled, though he labored, though he strove, strived, the power was God's. Striving, notice, according to his working which works in me mightily. He says in 1 Corinthians 15, 10, But by the grace of God I am what I am.
The labor was Paul's, the energy or the power was God's. John Edie said, learning, industry, and genius are of little avail without piety and spiritual support. He highlights 2 Corinthians 3, 5, and 6 where Paul says, our sufficiency is of God. You see, he works, he toils, he strives, but he knows that it's God who is energizing him.
It is God who is driving. It is God who is moving. It is God who is displaying that power. Again, usefulness in Christian ministry is not a matter of technique.
It is not an ability to manipulate crowds or the skill of a polished performer, but faithful labor which is dependent upon God. In every avenue, in every scope, in every part, in every parcel. That's Paul's preaching. So we round out this section.
We've seen his suffering, his stewardship, and his proclamation. He does set an example for each one of us as a sufferer. We already looked at that in detail this morning. He is a model as well for preachers.
If the church today could recover something of that work ethic, if the church today could pray that we would have men, not just skilled in technique, but mighty in the Scriptures and dependent upon God, fervent in spirit, preaching Christ in His person and in His work. It's one of the beautiful things, talking to that brother from the church or from the group in Kitimat. For those who don't know, there's a group in Kitimat, about 15 people. that want, they're coming into reform doctrine. They made a contact with ARBCA and they said, you know, how can we get a church planted here?
And so the man in charge of ARBCA, Gordon Taylor, sent an email to myself, to Don Lindblad and to Tom Lyon, because we're sort of in that region. And so I made contact with this man and spoke with him for two hours. It was glorious. You know what he said?
I mean, he said a lot of things in two hours. He can say quite a bit. He said, just keep preaching the gospel. That's been his appreciation of Reformed theology.
It's Christ. He said, I was saved early. I don't doubt that. He says, but I was brought up in churches and it wasn't until I started reading these other things, I started weeping.
I started getting excited. I started getting thrilled about these things. And he said, you know, just take it from me, a guy in the pew. I can encourage you.
He said, just keep preaching the gospel. Amen. That's a good encouragement. Because that's Pauline.
Him. We. Preach. Preaching Christ in his person and work, wisely warning and teaching every man in order to present them to Christ, working and striving according to God's power to accomplish the task of ministry.
Application: Responsibility of the Hearer
There is, I think, responsibility in this passage as well for the hearers. If this is the scope of the preaching, or if this is what Paul is supposed to do, then we as people are to give ear to this. In other words, when Christ is preached, we ought to listen. When Christ is preached, we ought to be When Christ is preached, we ought to pay every bit of attention we can muster.
There is responsibility. It's not just the preacher who's to grab everybody and try to present them on that day of Christ. There is responsibility for us as well. We're hanging out over here and not following the plan.
You know, we need to change, man. We need to get on board. We need to be there. We need to be like in that account in Nehemiah chapter 8.
I love it. They find the law. They're going to engage in covenant renewal. It says that the people gathered together and their ears were to the book.
They gathered as one man. One man. It was a whole assembly of Israel. They gathered as one man.
And their ears were to the book. I can see it in my mind's eye. All these people's ears like this. radar dish, finding its spot. The ears are there.
That's the way we need to be in the New Covenant community when it comes to this Bible, when it comes to the Scriptures, when it comes to the Gospel. Well, let us pray and ask the Lord to help us to know something of a genuine Pauline Christianity.
Closing Prayer
Father, we thank you for your Word. And we know that Paul is just a man, but a very useful man in your kingdom. We know ultimately our example, our great, great pattern is the Lord Jesus Christ. But Paul says elsewhere we are to imitate him as he imitates Christ.
And God help us. Help us in suffering. Help us in stewardship. Help us in proclamation to be these kinds of things, Lord God.
We pray for the church at large. We pray for our church. that you would continue to work in our midst, continue to work in churches to raise up men who have this focus, who have this mindset with reference to Christian ministry. We ask, Lord God, that you would go with each one of us now, that you would protect us and watch over us and bring us together on the Lord's day to worship you. Be with us, Lord, in the various circumstances in our lives. not only the knowledge of Your will, but grant us that wisdom and spiritual understanding so we can apply the Scriptures.
We ask through Christ our Lord. Amen.