Colossians chapter one, and I
will begin reading in verse 24. Who now rejoice in my sufferings
for you and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions
of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church. whereof I am made a minister
according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for
you, to fulfill the word of God, even the mystery which hath been
hid from ages and from generations, but 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. whom we preach, warning every
man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present
every man perfect in Christ Jesus, whereunto I also labor, striving
according to his working, which worketh in me mightily. I ended my message last time
with Paul's words in verse 23. If you notice, he said, whereof,
I, Paul, am made a minister. And then if you look again in
verse 25, he repeats himself, whereof I am made a minister. Now, in looking at the remainder
of this chapter, I want to use his confession there, confessing
to having been made a minister. When the Lord taught his disciples
or gave his disciples what we call the model prayer, you remember
one petition in that prayer is thy kingdom come, thy will be
done on earth as it is in heaven. The kingdom of God is advanced
in this world through the preaching of the gospel. The kingdom of
God is advanced or spread out by ministers who are called of
God to preach the gospel, the work of ministers. And in looking
at these six verses today, I believe that we can be blessed in what
the Apostle Paul tells us here by answering this question. What kind of a minister was Paul? Two times he says, whereof I,
Paul, am made a minister. What kind of a minister was Paul? And I want to answer that in
four ways. First of all, if you notice in
verse 24, he was a minister who could rejoice in suffering. who now rejoice in my sufferings
for you." What kind of a minister was the Apostle Paul? He was
a minister who could rejoice in suffering for Christ's sake.
When he wrote this letter, he was suffering for Christ's sake.
He was a prisoner in Rome. He was in bonds. And why was
he in bonds or in chains? For preaching the gospel. He
wasn't suffering as an evildoer, he wasn't in prison as a criminal
who had broken the laws of Rome. No, he was in prison, he was
suffering, and he could rejoice in his suffering for righteousness
sake. The apostle Peter wrote this
in his first letter, but, and if you suffer, speaking to believers,
men and women like you and I here today who know Christ as our
Lord and Savior. But if you suffer for righteousness
sake, happy, happy are you, blessed are you. And we know in the first
few chapters of the book of Acts when John and Peter, they were
beaten. They were beaten. Why? because
they were preaching Jesus Christ. They were preaching the gospel
of Christ, the resurrection of Christ. And the Sanhedrin had
them beaten. But then Luke tells us that they're
in action. They left the council where they
had been beaten rejoicing, rejoicing. Having stripes laid upon their
backs, they leave the council rejoicing that they were counted
worthy to suffer for Christ's sake. Suffer shame for his name. What does Paul mean here when
he says that by him, by his suffering, that he would fill up that which
is behind of the afflictions of Christ? What does he mean
by that? Well, it doesn't mean that the
afflictions, the suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ by which
he redeemed his people was not sufficient or was not finished. That work was work that only
Christ could do, suffering in the place and in the stead of
his people. Only Christ could do that work.
He was the one ordained of God. And he told his disciples that
he must suffer. He must suffer. And he finished
that work. When he, from the cross, cried,
it is finished. Think of those three words. It
is finished. Before he had prayed and said,
Father, I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. What was that work? It was to
glorify his father on the earth. As a God man, the second man,
the second Adam, the first Adam, failed to glorify God on the
earth. He disobeyed God. But Christ
finished the work which his father gave him to do. He glorified
God by his life and by his death. And when he said it is finished,
The justice of God was satisfied. The justice of God for your sins,
for my sins, if we believe in Christ today, God's justice is
satisfied. It can ask no more. It can want
no more because Christ finished that work. You know, one of the
prophecies in the Psalms tells us that he restored that which
he took not away. He restored that which he took
not away. And a man would steal God's glory,
would rob God's glory, but he restored that which he didn't
take away, not him personally, but he restored that for his
people. And then in Hebrews chapter 10,
a verse that we are very familiar with, the scripture says, for
by one offering, One offering. Any group that calls themselves
a church that tells us that we must continue to offer the body
of Christ is a deceiving, lying antichrist. That's all you can
say. Because for about one offering,
he hath perfected forever. Forever! them that are sanctified,
them that are sanctified, set apart by God in election from
before the foundation of the, of the world by his one offering. He, he hath perfected, he satisfied
God. In Hebrews nine, the apostle
wrote once in the end of the world, where you say the world
hasn't ended yet. Well, the Jewish world ended.
The Jewish world ended when the Lord Jesus Christ died, and that
veil in the temple was split from the top to the bottom, showing
the way into the holiest of all, into the presence of God, was
now open. Once in the end of the world,
hath he appeared, who? Christ. He appeared to put away
sin. How? By the sacrifice of himself. He had to trod the winepress
of God's wrath alone. He had to do that by himself.
So Paul, when he speaks here about fulfilling the suffering,
to fill up the suffering for you, to fill up that which is
behind of the afflictions of Christ, he's not talking about
the sufferings that Christ suffered to redeem his church, but he's
talking about the sufferings that God has ordained that his
church experience in this world, the afflictions. Now you say,
well, it says of Christ. Yes. It says of Christ because
of the, of the union that exists between Christ and his people. Remember, he's speaking about
the body of Christ here, the church. He's the head and we're
all members of his body. We call that a mystical body
because it is a mystery how that we're in union with Christ by
faith, we trust in him, we lay hold upon him, we lean upon him
just like it was pictured in those Old Testament sacrifices,
when a man brought an animal to be offered as his sacrifice,
he leaned, that's what, he put his hands, but it's more than
just laying his hand, he leaned on that animal. And we lean upon
Christ by faith. And just as that man was then
in union with that animal, so we by faith are in union with
Christ. And He's in union with us by
His Spirit. His Holy Spirit comes to live
in us. You know, a good example of what
the Apostle Paul means here is what we read in Acts chapter
nine. Let's read this verse again.
Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which
is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh. for his
body's sake, which is the church. When Paul was called on the road
to Damascus, we're all familiar with that experience that he
had, Acts chapter nine. Do you remember what the Lord
in heaven, the Lord Jesus, what he said to Paul? Saul, Saul,
why persecutest thou me? Well, Christ was in heaven. Saul was persecuting believers
here upon the earth. But because believers, you and
I, are in union with him, he was persecuting Christ. And that's what the apostle Paul
means here. And it's a comfort to us to know
that the afflictions that we experience in this world for
Christ's sake are ordained of God. Now, Paul did not fill up
all the afflictions of the body of Christ. He was appointed a
certain measure. He filled up that measure. But
the afflictions of Christ that are being fulfilled is ongoing. His body today in this world
continues to suffer afflictions for Christ's sake. And as we
do, we fill up these sufferings. And they will never be completely
full until Christ comes again, until the last of His chosen
is saved, these afflictions are going to be ongoing. And as I
said, it should be a comfort to us as believers and knowing
that the afflictions that we experience in this world are
appointed us. They are appointed us by God
the Father. They don't just spring out of
the ground. No, they are appointed us. John Calvin said this, afflictions
must be cheerfully endured since they are profitable to all the
godly and promote the welfare of the whole church, now listen,
by adorning the doctrine of the gospel. When God's people suffer
affliction in this world for Christ's sake and they suffer
patiently, they're enabled by the grace of God to turn the
other cheek. When someone slaps them on this
cheek, they turn this cheek. When they're told to go a mile,
they go two miles. These afflictions that God's
people suffer in this world, they are appointed of God and
they adorn the gospel. How is a person able to do that?
How's a person able to do that? By the grace of God. By God,
the Holy Spirit, living in us, giving us that grace. So that's
the first thing I point out. What kind of a minister was Paul? He was a minister who could rejoice
in suffering because he knew that whatever he suffered, It
was appointed him of God who loved him, who had given his
son for him, and he was ready to fill that cup up that God
appointed for him. And you and I, we should feel
the same way, that the Lord should bless us, if we should be counted
worthy. to suffer for his name's sake,
like John and Peter. We're filling up that measure
that God has ordained or appointed for us. A second thing, what
kind of a minister was Paul? He was a minister that God made. Notice this in verse 25, whereof
I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God, which
is given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, even the mystery,
which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but 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. He was a minister that
God made. He wasn't a mama made minister.
He wasn't a minister made by some seminary. He was a God-made
minister. And the picture here, when he
speaks about the ministration, the dispensation, rather, of
a large house. Now, most of all of us, we live
in a regular-sized house. I know that. husband and wife,
the wife, it takes care of the house. And, you know, but we're talking about
here, these large houses, you've seen movies or TV series of large
houses, usually in England back in the day, you know, and the
things that were valuable were locked up. I mean, they had certain
things that they kept under key, lock and key. And in most of
the movies that I've seen along that line, the butler was the
main man. And you didn't just, a servant
didn't just run over there and open up a cupboard door and pull
something out like candy or sugar. I'm sure the salt wasn't locked
up. But some things were under lock and key. There was an administrator
or a steward. And that's the picture here that
Paul is giving us of God the Father and His church, His family,
that He appoints certain men to be ministers of the gospel,
to preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember in 1 Corinthians
4, He tells us it is required of a steward. That's what he's
talking about here, a minister. What's required of a steward?
To be faithful. To be faithful. It's required
of a steward that he be found faithful. You know, sometimes
people think, well, success of a minister is judged by the number
of people who make up his congregation. Listen, don't you know that there
are men of God who have been faithful to preach the gospel
to just a few of God's sheep over the years? They're faithful.
That's all that's required to faithfully preach the gospel. It's not to entertain people. It's not to make everybody like
you. That's not the dispensation that
he's committed unto us as ministers. No, it's to be faithful, to be
faithful to his book, to his word, to the truth, to his people,
to love his people, his sheep. Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou
me? Yea, Lord, thou knowest that
I love thee. Tend my sheep, feed my sheep. Yes, Paul says that he was made
a minister by God. And you know, as a minister,
we're going to answer one day for our ministration of the ministry
that he has given us. It was given to him to be a minister
and also to fulfill the word of God. Now, what does he mean
when he says that, to fulfill the word of God? Well, some have
suggested it means to fill the places where he went with the
word of God, the gospel. And you look at a map sometime,
you have several back in the back of your Bibles, most likely,
and just look at the travels of the Apostle Paul. I mean,
he went miles and miles. And everywhere he went, he went
preaching the gospel. Wherever God would direct him,
when he was directed to Macedonia, into Philippi, you remember,
he didn't know exactly where God would have him to go. You
read that in Acts chapter 16. But he knew this, wherever God
sent him, he was going to be preaching the gospel. He knew
that, wherever. Remember that in that vision,
that man from Macedonia said, come over and help us. And so
Paul said, we have said it was God's will for us to go there.
But he already knew what they were going to do when they got
there, wherever he went. He's gonna fill that place with
the word of God. He's going to preach the gospel. Now, in verse 26 and verse 27,
I want you to see this. He uses the word mystery in both
of these verses. Now, what does he mean by mystery? What is a mystery in the New
Testament? A mystery is, first of all, the
truth, but it is the truth that the natural man, a man without
the Spirit of God, cannot not apprehend or not understand. It must be spiritually revealed
unto him. As he wrote in 1 Corinthians
2 and verse 6, the natural man receiveth not the things of the
Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. The natural man, you
preach the gospel, he hears the gospel, he hears this other mystery,
and it's just foolishness. Who cares about all that stuff
anyway? You go over there and you listen to that man. Every
Sunday he gets up and he takes the same book and speaks from
the same book. Who cares about all that? Talk
to us about something that, and here's the term they like to
use, that's relevant. This is the most relevant thing
you'll ever come to, my friend. The word of God. What they're talking about is
some kind of psychology, some kind of self-help, and things
like that. No, a mystery in the New Testament
must be, it's a truth that must be revealed unto a person by
the Spirit of God. Now, the mystery in verse 26,
if you look here, even the mystery which hath been hid from ages
and from generations, but now is made manifest to the saints."
In this verse, the mystery is the gospel, the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He said, being hid, it was hidden. If you read through the Old Testament,
you see it's hidden in the types and in the shadows and the promises. It's a mystery that was hidden
from ages gone by, but now it is revealed in the saints. Paul in 1 Timothy 3 and verse
16 said, great or without controversy,
great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. And I'm always going to believe
that's the right text. God was manifest in the flesh. There's no mystery about a man.
He was manifest. There's no mystery about that,
but there is a great mystery, a marvel that God, God Almighty,
the creator of heaven and earth, that he was manifested. He walked
upon the face of his earth as a man. Great is the mystery of
godliness, the gospel. It's a mystery until it's revealed,
until God the Holy Spirit reveals it to a person if he's pleased
to do so. You see, this is one of the reasons
the gospel is hated by the natural man. A man can, he can understand
a lot of things. His mind, it can expand and he
can learn a lot of things about various sciences in this world.
And he hates to be told and to hear that to believe the gospel,
it must be revealed. It's not going to come to you
by your searching, by your intelligence. I know men, probably, as far
as a formal education is concerned, they don't have an equivalent
of a sixth grade education, but who the gospel has been revealed
to, and they preach the gospel. And it just brings out again,
it must be revealed to a person, the truth. It's a mystery until
it's revealed. And then it's not a mystery.
Then you comprehend it. You began to learn and understand
more of it. Now in verse 26, I believe the
mystery here is the gospel, but in verse 27, The mystery here
is not the gospel, but it is the truth that the Gentiles would
be fellow heirs with believers. It was revealed in the Old Testament.
It was, but not as it is now revealed. I want you to look
with me in Ephesians chapter three. Turn back just a few pages
to Ephesians chapter three. beginning with verse three. Paul, how that by revelation,
there it is, by revelation, he made known unto me the mystery. Now let's skip over that that
is in parentheses there down to verse five. Here's the mystery.
which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men. Now
look, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets
by the Spirit." Well, what is that mystery? That the Gentiles
should be fellow heirs and of the same body. And that's important
there, of the same body. These dispensationalists, you
know, they've got the Bible all cut up in various dispensations,
and some believers are part of this, and some believers are
part of that, and some believers are part of another group. No,
there's one body. There's one head, which is the
Lord Jesus Christ. And all believers are members
of this one body. But the mystery was that God
revealed to the apostles is that Gentiles, not just Jews, not
just the natural seed of Abraham, but Gentiles also are brought
into the body, are in union with Christ and partakers of the promise
in Christ by the gospel. The gospel is the mystery, I
believe, in verse 26. The inclusion of the Gentiles
in the body of Christ is a mystery in verse 27. Do you know, Peter
tells us, even the angels desire to look into this. I mean, the
angels have learned, they've learned God's purpose. Peter tells us they desire to
look into these things, and they've learned. Certainly, this mystery
is revealed. Third, what kind of a minister
was he? Well, I want to go back. I want
to turn to 1 Timothy. I don't want to leave this out.
When Paul says he was made a minister, Well, he must have been a fine
fellow, you know, raised up for the ministry. Oh, no. Look here in 1 Timothy 1, in
verse 12. And I thank Christ Jesus, our
Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful. Now, that doesn't mean that God
knew Paul would be faithful, no. God made him faithful. That's
what it means. God counted, made me, reckoned
me faithful, putting me into the ministry. Well, surely you deserved it. You merited it, Paul. Oh, no. Oh, no. Who was before? A blasphemer. That's what I was,
Paul says. God made him a minister. You
see what I'm saying? He made him a minister. He was
before a blasphemer, a persecutor, an injurious person. He did everything
he could to persecute the believers, the saints of God. But I obtained
mercy. I obtained mercy. I did it ignorantly
in unbelief. Thank God for God's mercy, right? For his mercy. Can my God his wrath forbear,
and I the chief of sinners spare? Is there still mercy with God?
God is merciful. His mercy, that one psalm, is
mercy forever. His mercy forever. All right,
just a few more minutes. What kind of a minister was he?
Number three, he was a minister who preached Christ. Look in
verse 28, back in our text, Colossians 1. What kind of a minister was he?
He was a minister who preached Christ. Verse 28, it says, whom? Whom? Now that, he didn't say
what, what we preach, but whom we preach. Just like when he
spoke about his death, he said, I know whom. I have believed. He's talking about a person,
isn't he? A person, and that person is Christ, whom we preach. We preach Christ and Him crucified. In 2 Corinthians, he said, we
preach not ourselves. He wasn't trying to gain a following
after himself. Remember, he said, to the church
at Corinth. Some say they're of Paul, some
of Apollos, some of Peter, some of Christ. Were any of these
crucified for you? No. You know, when men, believers,
follow men, it's a sign of immaturity. That's what it is. It's a sign
of immaturity. That's what the church at Corinth
was guilty of. They were immature. They didn't
realize or fail to realize that all of these men, Peter, Apollos,
and Paul, they were all preaching the same message. They were all
preaching Christ. Different personalities, yes,
different way to present the gospel maybe, but they were all
preaching Christ and Him crucified. We preach not ourselves, he said. We preach Christ Jesus the Lord. Now what does it mean to preach
Christ? Well, to answer that question
could take a long time. Let me tell you a few things
it means to preach Christ. It means to declare his person
that he is the son of God. Man, yes, absolutely man, but
the God man. It means to preach that he is
God manifest in the flesh. It means to preach that he is
the one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. You want to go to God? You're
going to go through Christ. You want to receive blessings
from God? They're going to come through
Christ. He's the one mediator between God and man. And as a
mediator, he's a prophet to reveal God to us. He's preached to reconcile
us unto God by his sacrifice, and as king, he is to rule over
us, to reign over us. To preach Christ means to preach
that he is the sum and he is the substance of the everlasting
covenant. You know, in Isaiah, God speaking
to his son said, I will preserve thee and give thee for a covenant
to the people. Give thee for a covenant to the
people. Why? Because the covenant, the
everlasting covenant, he's a psalm, he's a substance of that covenant. He's a messenger of the covenant.
He's a mediator of that covenant. He's a surety of that covenant. To preach Christ means to preach
the scriptures. Right? Because all the scriptures
speak of him, point to him. To preach Christ means to preach
that through him, through this man, is preached unto you the
forgiveness of sins. And by him, all that believe
are justified from all things from which you could not be justified
by the law of Moses. And to preach Christ is to preach
his lordship. Notice what the text here says. Whom we preach warning every
man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present
every man perfect in Christ Jesus. To preach Christ is to preach
his lordship. We're not talking about someone
who one day One day, He's going to be Lord over all, sure enough. Oh no! We're talking about someone
who is Lord today, who rules and reigns over all. Nothing is excluded from His
reign, or no one. He's Lord. Paul said, in preaching Christ,
we do it in these ways. We warn, notice the verse, we
preach Christ and we preach warning every man and teaching. Yes,
preaching is teaching, teaching is preaching, but there needs
to be some warning, some warning. We need to hear, we must receive
this gospel. We must receive Christ, believe
in him, follow him. If we don't, then we're going
to go out into eternity without any hope. We're going to go out
into everlasting perdition. Warn men. Warn men. All of us here, all of us here
in this building right now, we all think we're going to get
up in the morning. We just do, don't we? We all are convinced. You may not have another day.
I may not have another day allotted me or you, allotted you. Seek the Lord while he may be
found. Call upon him while he's near.
Warn men. And the last thing, how was he
a minister? Or what kind of minister was
he? He was a minister who labored. Notice that in that last verse.
Whereunto I also labor. He labored in reading and preaching
and traveling. His desire was to present all
believers perfect in Christ, that is, mature. That's what
I understand by that word perfect. Whereunto I also labor, striving
according to his working which worketh in me mightily. or above
that may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus, mature. When you are born, you come into
this world, you weigh about six, seven, eight, nine pounds, you're
not gonna stay there, you're gonna grow. That is, if you're
healthy, and if you have diet, and you have exercise, you're
going to grow physically. The same thing is true spiritually. When we're born of the Spirit
of God, the diet, there it is, the Word of God. As newborn babes
desire the sincere milk of the Word. But there's meat also for
those who are mature. Exercise, believe, love, manifest
patience, kindness, goodness. Just go out of your way. Just
look for some way to exercise that grace of just being kind
to someone, tenderhearted. I pray the Lord would bless this
word, all of us here this morning. We're going to sing a hymn, number 477. Now someone said
there's going to be a football game tonight.