THE BOOK OF COLOSSIANS
(Fulfilling the purpose of Christ's suffering - October 23, 2022)
Series Big Idea: "Humanity is only complete in God the Son"
Sermon Big Idea: "Christ suffered to save us; we suffer to spread this good news"
Key Scripture (Colossians 1:24-29)
(Colossians 1:24-29)
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I am completing in my flesh what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for His body, that is, the church. 25 I have become its servant, according to God’s administration that was given to me for you, to make God’s message fully known, 26 the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to His saints. 27 God wanted to make known among the Gentiles the glorious wealth of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 We proclaim Him, warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 29 I labor for this, striving with His strength that works powerfully in me.
I want us to focus on verse 24. But to fully understand what Paul is saying in this verse we must start at verse 29 as we work our way backward.
According to verse 29, Paul states that he is working toward a certain goal. Additionally, his own energy is not the only one used in the struggle and agony of this effort. He is being transformed by the mighty power of Christ. Paul's goal, as stated in verse 28, is to give everyone he meets the chance to be "complete in Christ." And he does this by telling everyone about Christ, telling them how to live for Him, and teaching them. This is Paul's constant work, which Christ makes possible.
In verses 26 and 27, Paul makes it clearer what he says and teaches. It's called a "mystery" in verse 26 not because it's hard to understand but because it's been kept secret for a long time and is only now being shown to the saints. Then, verse 27 talks about how rich this mystery's glory is. "Christ in you [non-Jews] is the hope of glory.” What wasn't fully known in the past was that the Jewish Messiah, or Christ, would actually reach out to non-Jewish nations and live in non-Jewish people. He would live in them and give them the promise of Abraham, the hope of glory in the kingdom of God with all the saints.
Verse 25 just says that Paul's job as a steward, which is to spread God's Word, is done with this message about Christ. He works for God and is a servant of the church. His job is to take the Word of God to the nations, give them hope of glory, and call them to faith. So, he is a minister of the church because he brings together God's chosen people from all over the world and teaches and warns them so that they can be presented as whole in Christ.
Now I want us to go back and look at verse 24 again. Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I am completing in my flesh what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for His body, that is, the church. Paul says that suffering is part of this ministry of telling the world about the mystery of Christ and the hope of glory and then advising and teaching them. But what does he mean by “completing in my flesh what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for His body?"
The context we just looked at suggests that Paul's sufferings add to Christ's not by making them more valuable, but by bringing them to the people they were meant to bless. What's missing from Christ's sufferings isn't that His sufferings don't have enough worth or merit, as if these sufferings couldn't cover the sins of everyone who believes. What's missing is that people don't know how much Christ's sufferings are worth. And God wants the secret to be found out and shared with all the Gentiles. So, the afflictions are missing in the sense that they are not seen and known among the nations. They must be taken by ministers of the Word. And these ministers of the Word make up for what is missing in Christ's sufferings by giving them to others.
Christ's suffering and death for sinners were a gift of love to the world. It has everything it needs and nothing it doesn't. The only thing it doesn't have is a personal presentation by Christ himself to the nations of the world and the people at your workplace. God's answer to this lack is to call the people of Christ, like Paul, to show the world the sufferings of Christ—to carry them from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.
By doing this, we "make up for what is missing in Christ's sufferings." We finish what they were made for, which is a personal presentation to people around the world who don't know how valuable they are.
Conclusion:
In this passage, God is calling us to live for the sake of the gospel, even if it means suffering. Christ chose to suffer; it wasn't something that just happened to him. He chose it as the way to make the church and make it the best it could be. Now, he tells us to choose to go through pain. That is, he tells us to pick up our crosses and follow him down the road to Calvary. He also tells us to deny ourselves and make sacrifices so that we can show the world what Jesus went through and serve the church.
Pastor Beaver's thoughts and ideas are inspired by:
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