I.     Alright, let’s go on reading COL 1:24-27

A.  In V 24 Paul is talking about Christ suffering for us, but he is also talking about our suffering for Him, which is the body of Christ.

1.    There will be persecutions, but there is also a work that has to be done.

2.    You will not lose your reward. Even if you give a cup of cold water to someone in thirst, you will not lose your reward.

3.    What Paul is saying in this verse is that Christ is still suffering.

a)    However, His suffering is not done to Him personally.

b)    We are the ones that suffer persecution and we are His body.

B.  The definition of the phrase “Fill Up” that I liked, came from the Strong’s Concordance.

1.    The Strong’s said that this phrase is referring to the sufferings that Christ went through is not the end of suffering, but Paul said that this suffering that is to come would be his desire to come upon him and not the rest of the body.

C.Verse 25

1.    The KJV uses the word “dispensation,” he is literally saying, “it is by God management or administration.”

2.    Of course, Paul was God’s ordained servant, sent to minister the Word of God.

3.    Now the KJV says, “to fulfil”  d  the word of God;

a)    In the Bible that I was using to prepare this message, said the words “TO FULFIL” would be better translated “FULLY or FULNESS.”

b)    In other words, Paul is saying that he was given the word of God to preach its fullness to you.

4.    Paul here is also dealing with some of the error which came from the Gnostics.

a)    Again, the Gnostics said that knowledge was supreme and they had all the knowledge needed.

b)    Paul is saying not so, I have been sent by God to preach the fullness to you.

D.Verse 26

1.  Part of what Paul was sent to do was to preach “THE MYSTERY.”

2.    What is the mystery? It is only found in Christ.

a)    By “mystery,” he meant something once concealed but then revealed.

3.    This contrasted with the Colossian heretics’ notion that a mystery was a secret teaching known only to an exclusive group and unknown to the masses.

a)     The church was unknown in the Old Testament because it had been kept hidden for ages and generations.

4.    Paul says at the end of Verse 26, “but now is made manifest to his saints:”

E.  What is the mystery?

1.    Some have said that it is the CHURCH, and the church being the body of Christ.

a)    And of course this is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ through His death, burial, resurrection and ascension.

b)    This could not have been possible in the Old Testament.

F.   This mystery was not that there was something new coming. They saw that in the Old Testament.

1.    It wasn’t about the coming Messiah. They knew about that.

2.    It wasn’t about salvation coming to the Jews. It wasn’t even about salvation coming to the Gentiles. They could read that in the Old Testament.

3.    The mystery was not that Gentiles would be saved but how they could be “fellow-heirs” (Eph. 3:1-6), on the same level with Jews, with no middle wall of partition between them (Eph. 2:12-14 ). In the Old Testament Gentiles who believed and became a part of Judaism were still considered lower than Jews. This special union in which there “is neither Jew nor Greek” ( i.e. , Gentile, Gal. 3:28 ) was nonexistent before Christ died and ascended and all believers have been baptize into one body, the body of Christ.

II. Col 1:27-29

A.  This is the mystery which was once hid, but now has been revealed.

1.    Part of that mystery is that Christ is in you.

B.  Verse 28, Paul says, this is who we preach about, the Lord Jesus Christ, “warning every man, and teaching every man.”

1.    He’s warning every man what will happen if they don’t receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior and live for Him.

2.    Now, paul said that he warned and taught in “ALL WISDOM.”

a)    This is the Greek word “sophia” which literally means “the fullness of wisdom.”

b)    Many times this is in reference to the Wisdom of God.

3.    Next in verse 28 he uses the word “PERFECT”, the Greek actually says, “complete” or “Having reached its end.”

a)    And that is on;y found in the Lord Jesus Christ.  

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d to fulfil...: or, fully to preach the word

i.e. id est , that is