Let us turn to God's Word again. Turning to Colossians chapter
4. Colossians chapter 4 reading
verses 2, 3 and 4. Continue in prayer and watch
in the same with thanksgiving with all praying also for us
that God would open unto us a door of utterance to speak the mystery
of Christ for which I am also in bonds that I may make it manifest
as I ought to speak. In Colossians chapter 4 verses
2, 3 and 4 on Thursday evening we were considering more particularly
those words in the second verse as we met together for the purpose
of prayer and there in the verse the apostle speaks of the necessity
of prayer we are to continue in it he says and we're to watch
in it and we're to be thankful also in our prayers And as we
sought to say something then on that occasion of the importance
of prayer, we remarked on the significance of the context in
which we find this particular exhortation, because in the previous
verses the Apostle Paul has been speaking of the relative duties
that we have throughout our lives, from verse 18 in chapter 3. He speaks of these different
relationships, the husband and the wife, the children and the
fathers, the servants, or as it was really in those days,
the bond slaves and the masters. And immediately after speaking
of these different relationships and the duties that are associated
with them, we see the need for prayer. None is able to fulfill
his or her role in life independent of God. Isn't that the truth
that stands forth so plainly when we think of that context?
If we would be dutiful if we would be those who are fulfilling
our particular roles in life we can only do it as those who
are enabled by God himself and so we have to commit all to him
in our prayers we need to come and to acknowledge the fact that
we need his constant aid, his help, his enabling Well, this
morning I want us to move on to see what Paul says in the
following two verses, verses 3 and 4. He says, "...with all
praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of
utterance to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also
in bondage, that I may make it manifest as I ought to speak."
Surely here we see quite clearly that The minister also is very
much dependent upon God. In fact, those who would exercise
the ministry of the Word are dependent upon the people. Paul
says, with all, literally with it, as you are continuing in
prayer, as you are watching in prayer at the same time, simultaneously,
you see. be praying for me. He desires that they should remember
him. He is not independent of God,
he is not independent of the church at Colossa, nor was he
independent of any of the churches. So, he desired the prayers of
the saints. Again, at the end of Ephesians
we have the same truth set forth. Having spoken of that Christian
armour, that God himself provides for his children that they might
be good soldiers of Jesus Christ, he speaks of prayer. Verse 18
in Ephesians 6 he says, praying always with all prayer and supplication
in the spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication
for all saints. In other words, pray one for
another and for man. that utterance may be given unto
me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery
of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds, that
therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak." He felt his
need in that the saints at Ephesus, like those at Colossae, should
be praying for him. And that's the subject that I
want us to take up this morning with the Lord's help, prayer
for the ministry and why it is so necessary as we have it set
before us here in these words in Colossians, Colossians 4 and
verses 3 and 4. And first of all we see the necessity
of prayer because of the description that the apostle gives to that
work that he was engaged in. He speaks of the mystery, the
mystery of Christ, praying for us that God would open unto us
a door of utterance to speak. To speak what? to speak the mystery
of Christ. Now what is a mystery here? We
have this word several times, we have it used of course in
that chapter that we read, Ephesians chapter 3, and there again in
the verses we just referred to in Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 19, the mystery of the gospel, he calls it there.
Here he speaks of it as the mystery of Christ. What is this mystery? It's the reference to a thing
that God must reveal. It is that which man could never
know or understand by the use of his natural mind. It's that that only God can ever
make known to a man. It's a divine mystery. Now, what
is it that we see here with regards to this mystery of the Lord Jesus
Christ? Well, I want to mention six things
briefly with regards to the mystery of Christ. First of all, there
is, of course, the mystery of the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. The first and the greatest of
all the mysteries that are revealed to us in the Bible is the mystery
of God. We can only know God as God is
pleased to reveal himself. Because to us, our poor finite
minds, God is altogether beyond our understanding. How can we
begin to to conceive of the glories that belong unto God, he is so
different to us. Although man was made in his
image and created after his likeness, even when man was in a state
of innocence, he was not as God. Though made in the image of God,
God is the creator, man is but the creature. And man, of course,
now is a fallen creature, a sinful creature. And his mind, because
of sin, is so darkened. How can we ever know God? Here is the first of mysteries.
And in the Bible we see how great that mystery is. Because God
is one. In Deuteronomy 6, here O Israel,
the Lord our God is one Lord. And yet, As we read through the
Old Testament, the New Testament, we see that God is three Persons. There are three Persons in the
Godhead. The Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. And yet the three Persons are
not three Gods. One God. And yet three Persons
in one God. Isaac Watts says, where reason
pales with all her powers, there faith prevails and love adores. That is the first of mysteries,
the doctrine of the Triniton. But then there is another great
mystery when we think of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Without controversy, Paul says,
great is the mystery of godliness. That is the mystery of religion,
the mystery of real religion. Great is the mystery. God, he
says, was manifest in the flesh. God became a man. And when we think of the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ, he is one person. He is one person. He is not two. He is one. And yet in that one person there
are two distinct separate natures. He is God and he is also man. And we just sang it of course.
And we need to Consider what we sing when we come to show
forth the praises of God. We sang it there in that third
verse of hymn 23. This wondrous man of whom we
tell is true almighty God. He is the God-man. Two natures,
but one person. And in everything that he does
here upon the earth, he is always God-man. In all his actions he
is God and he is man, at one and the same time. In the words
of the great Athanasian Creed, the Church confesses who, although
he be God and man, yet he is not two, but one Christ. There is the mystery then, the
mystery of Christ, that Paul desires him to pray for him with
regards to that God would open unto us a door of utterance to
speak the mystery of Christ, the mystery of the person of
the Lord Jesus Christ. But then there is this mystery
is there not, when we think of this person, there is the mystery
of his deity, how he is God. Look at what Paul says at verse
9 in the second chapter concerning Christ, in him, dwelleth all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily. In Him dwells all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. And then the guy in that same
chapter, the end of verse two, when he speaks of the conflict he has, for them, for
the Church of Colossae and the Church of the Laodiceans, and
for the many who have never seen His face. And here it is, you
see verse 2 in chapter 2, that their hearts might be comforted,
being knit together in love and unto all riches of the full assurance
of understanding to the acknowledgement of the mystery, the mystery of
God and of the Father and of Christ. Now there is some reference
here to the Triniton but there is also this mystery you see
with regards to the Lord Jesus Christ who is God. He is God
and even whilst he was here upon the earth ministering in that
state of humiliation as a man and knowing all of the sinless infirmities of our humanity,
a real man as we sang, yet even then we see how he is revealed
to be God. We see it in the miracles of
course that he performs and amongst those miracles in the second
chapter of Mark we read of him healing the man who was sick
of the palsy when he when his friends carry this paralyzed
man to where Christ is, there's a great crowd there in the house
and they go up on the flat roof and they let Christ down into
the midst where the Lord Jesus Christ is. And when Jesus saw
their face, we're told in Mark chapter 2, he says to the sick
of the palsy, son, thy sins be forgiven. And now this was an
offence to the scribes. What do the scribes say? Why
does this man speak blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God? Only God can forgive sins. And
yet the Lord Jesus Christ pronounces forgiveness for this man. And
in it of course he is demonstrating his deity. Wherever is it easier
to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee, or
to say, Arise, take up thy bed, and walk, but that ye may know
that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins? He
saith, To the sick of the palsy I say
unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into
thine house, and immediately ye are out. And what do the multitudes
do? They are amazed, they glorify
God and say we never saw it on this fashion. Here we see his
deities. He has power to heal the sick.
But as God he also has authority to forgive sin. He is God. Even during those days of his
humiliation whilst upon the earth as a man. Oh, the deity of the
Lord Jesus Christ, what a mystery in that. And what a mystery also
when we think of his human nature. His human nature, it was a real
human nature. Our God, you see, contracted
to a span, incomprehensibly made man. All in Hebrews chapter 5
speaks of it. who in the days of his flesh,
when he had offered up prayer and supplication, with strong
crying and tears unto God, and was heard in that he feared,
though he were a son, though he were the eternal son of God,
yet learned the obedience by the things that he suffered. How could he learn? Does he not,
as God, know all things? And yet, in the days of his flesh,
in all his weakness, or that life of dependence. Christ lives
the life of faith. He offers up prayer and supplication
with strong crying and tears. He knew what prayers were. How
He agonizes there in the garden of Gethsemane. How He lives a
life of dependence upon His Father in heaven. And we see the reality
of that human nature on occasion. He is there at the grave of his
friend Lazarus and what does he do? He weeps. He knows human
emotion. He knows what it is to feel sadness
and sorrow in his heart. It's a remarkable thing what
we read there in John chapter 11. He weeps at the grave of
Lazarus and yet he rises Lazarus from the dead. He is God, he
is manless. But those tears were no crocodile
tears, they were real tears. He felt real sorrow in his heart. He knows human emotion. He knows
our sinless weaknesses. He was without sin, true. But
remember how in John chapter 4 at the well of Syca, Jesus
was wearied with his journey. And he sat down at the well in
order to rest. He knows our sinless weaknesses. His was a real human nature. In 2 Corinthians 13, Paul declares
he was crucified through weakness. What is that weakness? It's the
human nature. He experienced death. It was
a real death that he died. He has gone before his people,
you see. And in that sense, as he not
prepared the way for them, that they in turn might die in the
Lord. He died because he was a real
man. All the mystery, not only of
the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, but the mystery of his humanity,
the mystery of his life. What a life he lived! The only man that lived a life that was
completely sinless, holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sin,
says Paul, made higher than the heavens. Yes, Adam and Eve, they
were created as sinless beings, that those Adam and Eve's sins
they transgressed there in the garden of Eden in the very paradise
of God. They were disobedient and sin
entered into the world and all descended from them partake of
their sinful nature. But here is the one man who has
lived a life upon the earth that is completely without any sin. Oh what a mystery there is in
that. My meat, he says, is to do the
will of Him that sent me and to finish His work. I do always
those things that please Him, says the Lord Jesus Christ. I must be about my Father's business. I must work the works of Him
that sent me. Whilst it is dark, the night
cometh when no man can work. He is always then walking in
the ways of obedience to his father's commandments. He is
determined to accomplish all that work that he had undertaken
in the whole economy of Christ. All that great covenant, some
theologians refer to it as the covenant of redemption, that
covenant between the persons in the garden. when He, who is
God's eternal Son and equal to the Father, so willingly became
God's servant and God's elect, and was pleased in the fullness
of the time to come into this world and to execute the work
that the Father had given Him to do. And He fulfilled all righteousness. For we accomplish such a glorious
righteousness wherewith of course he clothes his people, his active
obedience in living, but then also the great mystery, the mystery
of his dying. This is also part of that mystery
that Paul is speaking of. Praying also for us, he says
that God would open unto us a door of utterance to speak the mystery
of Christ, that I may make it manifest as I ought to speak. All the mystery of his death
upon the cross. He's not only obedient in living,
he's also obedient to God in dying. This is the end to which
he was born. Being found in fashion as a man,
we're told he became obedient unto death, even the death of
the cross. And that mystery that we witness as he cries,
feeling so derelict in his soul, my God, my God, he says, why? As thou forsaken man. Remember what we said, that here
upon the earth through all the days of his humiliation, he is
never anything less than God. He is always one with the Father
and with the Holy Spirit. God is one, and God is undivided,
and God is indivisible. And here is a mystery. When he
cries out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Oh, there is a great mystery
in his birth. when the Holy Ghost comes upon
the Virgin Mary and the power of the Highest overshadows her
and the Holy Thing that is conceived in her womb is called the Son
of God. There is a mystery in the Incarnation,
a miracle, that the Virgin should be with child, but that that
child should be nothing less than the eternal Son of God.
But there is also a mystery in his dying. And we cannot explain
it. Or Paul desires prayer that he
might have a door of utterance, that he might make it manifest.
But who can speak of these things? Who can really explain these
things? What a great mystery there is
in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. He hath made Him to be
sin for us, says the Apostle. He hath made Him to be sin for
us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. How was He made sin? Well, not
practically. He was without sin. He was made
sin by solemn transfer. All the sins of His people, you
see, were imputed to. They will reckon to his account
he's made sin for them, that he might bear that punishment
that was their just desert, that he might die as their substitute
in their room and in their stead. Oh, what a great mystery we serve
in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. The mystery of his person. the mystery of his deity, the
mystery of his humanity, the mystery of his life, the mystery
of his death, and then in the sixth place says the mystery
of the gospel is there not. We read here of the mystery of
Christ, that God would open unto us a door of utterance to speak
the mystery of Christ, but it's the same mystery that's spoken
of there in verse 19 of Ephesians 6, that utterance may be given
unto me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery
of the gospel. They're one and the same thing,
the mystery. Now what are we to understand
by that mystery of the gospel? Part of it, of course, is the
calling of the Gentiles. That's what Paul speaks of in
the chapter that we read in Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 3. Here is Paul, you see, the prisoner
of Jesus Christ, he says, for you Gentiles, he's writing to
a Gentile church. If ye have heard of the dispensation
of the grace of God which is given me to you, O that by revelation
he make known unto me the mystery, as I wrote afore in few words,
whereby when ye read ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of
Christ." Now what is this mystery of Christ that was revealed unto
Paul? Well he tells us. Verse 5 there,
which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as
it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the
Spirit, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same
body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the Gospel. There's the calling of the Gentiles.
And this is revealed, you see now, in the New Testament. Whereas
in the Old Testament God says that he shall you only if I know
of all the families of the earth. How fivered was that nation that
God should grant to them all of those ordinances of his grace
throughout the Old Testament, all those Levitical laws. all
those peculiar favours, he showeth his word unto Jacob, his statutes,
and his judgments unto Israel, he hath not dealt so with any
nation. As for his judgments, they have
not known them. Praise ye the Lord. Oh, there
were certain proselytes, converts from the Gentile nations to the
true religion of Israel in the Old Testament. But by and large,
The Gentiles knew nothing of the goodness of God and the grace
of God. But here is the great mystery, you see, since the coming
of Christ. That this Gospel is to be preached
first at Jerusalem, and then to Judea, then to Samaria, then
to the ends of the earth. The calling of the Gentiles. And this was the very reason,
of course, why Paul was in prison. He wants a door of utterance,
he says, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also
in bonds. Why was he there in bonds in
Rome? Because of the offence that his
ministry was to the Jews. How they despised him. How they
despised him? Because they said he had taken
certain Grecians or Gentiles into the temple of the Lord. He tells Agrippa in Acts chapter
26 verse 19 Whereupon, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient
unto the heavenly vision. The heavenly vision was that
he was to be a preacher to the Gentiles, but showed first unto
them of Damascus and of Jerusalem and throughout all the coast
of Judea and then to the Gentiles that they should repent and turn
to God and do works meet for repentance for these causes.
The Jews caught me in the temple and went about to kill me. It
was because he was faithful to the heavenly vision, he was faithful
to his call to be the great apostle to the Gentiles. Here is the
reason then why he is in bondage. His calling of the Gentiles is
each part of that mystery. But ultimately the mystery of
the Gospel surely is this. It is Christ in the hearts of
sinners. That's the great mystery. Not
only that the Gentiles should be hearing this Gospel, but that
they should be favoured and blessed and converted unto the sound
of it. Again, in chapter 1 you see verse
26, he says, Even the mystery which hath been heard from ages
and from generations, that now is made manifest to his saints,
to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory
of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you. the hope
of glory. It's not just hearing the gospel,
it's receiving the gospel, it's the gospel coming into the heart
of a man, it's the gospel taking hold of the soul of a man. Didn't Paul himself know that
blessed experience? As he says in the opening chapter
of Galatians, when he pleased God who separated me from my
mother's womb and called me by his grace to reveal his Son in
me. Oh, that inward revelation. The
Kingdom of God, says Christ, is within you. That is the necessary
thing, is it not, friends, that the Gospel must take hold of
our very souls. We don't just hear these things
with our physical ears. We want to receive these things
into our heart. That is the mystery, and where
these things are received is Christ in a man. It's Christ
taking hold of a man. This is the great wonder, is
it not? The mystery of Christ. For which I am also in bonds,
he says, that I may make it manifest as I ought to speak. Not only the mystery of Christ,
but the manifestation of Christ. Let us more briefly consider
this manifestation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Spoken of in verse
4, but it's part of what he desires the Colossians to be praying
for. That he might have this door
of utterance, not only to speak the mystery of Christ, but to
make it manifest. Now, consider the figure that
he uses here. He speaks of a door. That God would open unto us a
door. Now, again this figure is used
in other parts of Scripture. Paul uses it and uses it really
in reference to God making a way in Providence. He says in 1 Corinthians 10 And
verse 9, a great door and effectual is opened unto me. A great door and effectual, an
opportunity, an opening. Again in 2 Corinthians chapter
2 and verse 12, when I came to Troas to preach Christ's Gospel
and a door was opened unto me of the Lord. The door was opened unto him, and the Lord was the one who
did it, made this way for him at Troas, that there he might
preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we read of
it. In the historic account that
we have in the Acts, in chapter 20, in part he speaks of those
who had gone before him and verse 5 he said they tarried for us
at Troas and we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened
bread and came unto them to trow us in five days, where we abode
seven days. And upon the first day of the
week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul
preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow, and continued
his speech until midnight." There's not only the opening of an opportunity,
there's an opening of a door of utterance. He preaches, and
a very long sermon he preaches. And that young man, you remember,
falls out of the window, and Paul has to go and raise him
again to life. But there was that opening, that
opportunity that was afforded him at Troas to preach the Gospel. God is the one who makes a way
for the Gospel, is he not? Who opens doors. And we have
that remarkable account in the Acts again about the Gospel came
into Europe, how the continent of Europe was so favoured by
God in his sovereign providence, when Paul would have continued
preaching in Asia Minor. But they are forbidden. Forbidden
of the Holy Ghost, he said. verse 6 of Acts 16, When they
had gone throughout Phrygia, and the region of Galatia, and
were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia, after
they had come to Mysia, they were saved to go into Bithynia,
but the Spirit suffered them not. And they, passing by Mysia,
came down to Troas, and the vision appeared to Paul in the night,
There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed unto him, saying,
Come over unto Macedonia, and help us. And after he had seen
the vision, immediately we endeavoured to go into Macedonia, assuredly
gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto
them. The Macedonian call. And Macedonia,
of course, northern Greece, it's the gospel coming out of Asia
into Europe. and it's all under the sovereign
hand of God and there's a remarkable sermon of the Puritan John Owen
on that very passage in which he speaks of God's sovereignty
with regards to where the gospel is preached not only God's sovereignty
in the application of it and the effectual call of God but
wherever the gospel goes you see It is in accordance with
the sovereign goodwill and pleasure of God. They understood, you
see, how that it was God himself who would call them to go and
preach the gospel there in Macedonia. And the call came, you see, when
they were at Troas. So can we not understand those
words that we've referred to in 2 Corinthians chapter 2? verse
12, when I came to Troas to preach Christ's gospel and a door was
opened unto me of the Lord. That is also a reference to the
Macedonian call. The Lord opens the door. The
Lord makes a way in Providence. But here of course, Paul is speaking
more particularly of himself as a minister, as a preacher.
He wants a door of utterance. That's what he says. He desires
a door of utterance and to what end? To make manifest the mystery
of Christ as I ought to speak, he says. To make it manifest. To make it visible. That's the
force of the words. To make it clear. And Paul was
one who was a plain speaker and a faithful speaker and he spoke
very directly that was the mark of his ministry was it not when
he calls to himself those elders from the church at Ephesus in
Acts chapter 20 he reminds them of the ministry
that he'd exercised verse 20 there he says, I kept back nothing
that was profitable unto you but have showed you and have
taught you publicly and from house to house testifying both
to the Jews and also to the Greeks repentance toward God and faith
toward our Lord Jesus Christ I take you to record this day
that I am pure from the blood of all men I have not shunned
to declare unto you all the counsel of God and he was faithful you
see and he spoke oftentimes things that were not palatable to me,
things that men didn't want to hear. He speaks faithfully of
sin as he speaks of salvation. He is a true minister. But these
things are not natural. He needs the prayer of the saint
if he's going to remain a true minister of Christ. My speech
and my preaching, he says to the Corinthians, was not with
enticing words of man's wisdom. He doesn't want that. He doesn't
want to follow the way of the rhetoricians of his day who went
to their rhetorical schools and learned how to speak and how
to Persuade people? He didn't want any of that. Not
enticing words of man's wisdom, but demonstration of the spirit
and of power. And this is why he desires prayers. That the word that he speaks
might not only be a faithful word, but also an effectual word. I like the remark, the comments
of the greatly former Calvin here. referring to the particular
figure, Ador, of utterance. Calvin says, It is not one wit
easier to preach than to break through Ador barred and bolted. It is not one wit easier to preach
than to break through Ador barred and bolted. It is no easy thing
then for a man to be a faithful servant of Christ and to speak
that mystery of the Lord Jesus Christ, that gospel of the grace
of Christ. There is a reference here then
to the mouth of Paul, the door of utterance. But I close on
this. How about the hearts of the hearers? With regards to Paul's preaching
in Philippi in Acts chapter 16, do we not read concerning Lydia,
in whose heart the Lord opened, like the opening of a door, in
whose heart the Lord opened that she attended unto the things
that were spoken by Paul and Scythe. How we come under the
sound of God's Word and often our hearts alas are so hard and
so closed. And what can we be saved with
our hard hearts, our unfeeling hearts? We need that God the
Holy Ghost would come and open our hearts just as He came and
opened the heart of that dear woman Lydia. And she attended,
she attended to the things spoken by the apostles. Oh friends,
might it please God then to open our hearts to His truth, to receive
this blessed mystery of the Gospel, Christ in you, the hope of glory. Here is Paul's prayer then. He
desires that they pray, they pray for themselves, they need
to be continuing in prayer, watching in prayer, being thankful in
prayer. if they are going to live their lives as becomes those
who are the professed people of God. But he needs their prayers
also, with all, praying also for us, that God would open unto
us a door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ for which
I am also in bonds that I may make it manifest as I ought to
speak. the Lord bless to us His word. Amen.