Colossians 1:21-29

Chad Myhre

Colossians • Sermon • Submitted 4 years ago

Colossians 1:21–29

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Verse by verse study through Colossians

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Colossians 1:21–23 ESV

21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

Last week we looked at vss 15-20… which stand out, uniquely, as being poetic verse. Scholars believed this to be a hymn, or part of a hymn that the church sang, as a confession of Jesus.

It is a bold confession, for it makes Jesus one with Yahweh, and an integral part of creation.

Not only does Jesus stand out as a leader in His day, but we find out in this passage, that Jesus created leadership.. for He made…both visible, and invisible… thrones, dominions, rulers and authorities. This, as we’ll see, is a proclamation of authority and preeminence.

By singing this confession, they declared how unique and special they were, as the church. They were not just some random second rate, Jewish cult. They were in fact… THE BODY OF CHRIST, with a promise of resurrection and reconciliation.

This was often Paul’s way of combating the threat of bad ideas. If people began to think wrongly about their religion… Paul reminded them, to think rightly about Jesus.

Since this passage is kind of like, an early version of a creed… we talked about creeds last week… - Why where they written, and why did the church recite them. Ultimately, they either recited them to affirm a truth, or to combat a lie.

This was a reminder to us… that as a Christians… we need to have a creedal practice, of speaking the Gospel into our lives on a routine basis. We need to learn the discipline of being affected by the Gospel, in a real way… and to believe in it rightly, so that our lives are affected by it.

If you missed last week’s message, I encourage you to find it on YouTube and check it out. I personally believe, that in that message, I addressed some of the most important things I have ever addressed, as it pertains to our Christian lives.

Today, we exit from the words of the hymn, and Paul uses the promise of reconciliation from verse 20… as a launching point for the following verse.

Colossians 1:21–22 ESV

Now, in just a second, we are going to look at a couple passages in Ephesians to give us a little more perspective on this.

Ephesians and Colossians were both written to the same region, and both addressed many of the same topics. - It’s quite possible, due to the general nature of Ephesians, that this letter was distributed to many of the churches in Asia minor.

Many of these churches faced the same problems, and specifically, Ephesus and Colosse were given similar messages by Paul.

Vs. 21-22 are of no exception.

Paul speaks of this alienation in two places in Ephesians.

Ephesians 4:18 ESV

18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.

Who is Paul talking about in Eph 4? He’s talking about Gentiles… not Gentiles by simple nationality, but Gentiles by common behavior and belief.

How did the common Gentile live and believe? They walked in the futility of their minds… they were darkened in their understanding… they were alienated…

--- WHY? - because their hard hearts created ignorance… their ignorance caused them to be calloused… and because of this… Eph 4 goes on to say… they gave themselves over to sensuality, greed and impurity.

Most of the recipients of Ephesians and Colossians were Gentiles, by nationality… - And before Christ came into their lives… they were alienated from God.

We see a little more context of this alienation in Eph 2

Ephesians 2:12 ESV

12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

Not only was their alienation from God… but here we see something interesting..

They were alienated from the commonwealth (that is… the citizenry)… of Israel and strangers to the covenants.

This is a reminder of the supernatural separation of the nations at Babel. According to Deut. 32… the nations were separated according to the number of the sons of God… but Yahweh took Jacob as His inheritance…

The debauchery and idolatry of those nations, along with the explanation of Ps. 82, where the wicked sons of gods were judged for their rebellion… tells us… that the Gentile nations… - specifically… all the other nations of the world… were under the dominion of different powers and principalities, that were in rebellion against Yahweh.…

But Israel… was God’s chosen inheritance.

What we see in the Gospel… is the invitation, for all of those who lived under the dominion of other gods… other religions… who served idols… - To depart from their bondage, and come out from the tyranny of those powers and principalities… - and be part of God’s Kingdom.

Before Jesus invited Gentiles into the family of His Kingdom… they were alienated… they were hostile… they were enemies…

But now, God has invited them all in. And this was Paul’s mission… to go to a people who served other gods… and let them know… that the one true God… the very God.. that we saw in previous verses… Who made those other thrones and dominions… has made a way for all humans, to come and be redeemed unto Him.

Who served under Yahweh before?

the commonwealth of Israel (Eph 2:12)

Who served under Yahweh before?

those who knew the covenants of promise. (again… Eph 2:12)

So Paul is inviting the Gentile world, to come and be… in a sense… a part of what Israel is… that is, God’s chosen inheritance.

Not to replace Israel… for they still have a specific defined role as a nation, in God’s prophetic plan… - This replacement doctrine is strong amongst many reformed believers..

Not to be completely separate from Israel. - This is a common view amongst many evangelical, dispensational believers..

And also… not to become Israel. -This is the common view amongst those who are in what’s called, the Hebraic Movement…

I’ve never been able to nail down the doctrine of the Church and Israel with such clarity… Like many things in the Bible, it provides enough evidence for us to make a conclusion with the help of human logic and a good share of supposition...

But the relationship between the church and Israel, concerning replacement, separation and inclusion… are not that clear to me…

Here’s what I see… Concerning the church and Israel…

There is a joining to… an overlapping… or as Paul said in Rom 11:17… a grafting in of the wild olive branch, to the olive tree that is Israel… and yet, as the hymn of Col. 1 made clear, they are still unique… they are the body to which X is the head… they are the church.

Back in Col. 1… vs. 22 says we are now reconciled in the body of flesh by His death…

When you see that word ‘reconciled’… you need to insert the word ‘back’ to it. In our English versions, the ‘back’ is silent. - But this literally means, we are reconciled back..

Indicating to us… that God has always been our rightful Lord… but we were separated from Him… lost, out there, like a pop can on the side of the road…

But He has reconciled us back… or, bought us back unto His possession.

How? - Through the death of His flesh… - reminding us of the cross, and the atonement..

For what purpose? So that we can be presented.. by Jesus, to Yahweh… as being holy and blameless and above reproach.

In vs. 20… we learned that things are not right in creation… - But God is going to reconcile His creation… He’s going to ‘make it right’… He’s going to ‘restore its order”… - How? By the blood of His cross.

Vs. 22 shows us, how we can be part of that.

God wants to restore the order of His creation… It starts, by spiritually re-ordering humans into a right relationship with Him.

Colossians 1:23 ESV

23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

What will you find, as evidence, in the life of a person.. formerly alienated and hostile… but now reconciled to God?

You will find a person who:

continues in their faith.

If it’s real when you are young, it will still be real as you get older…

Earlier this week I listened to a podcast about doubt.

Doubt is a natural thing… it is a common human struggle. If we are honest, most of us would say, at times, we have a reoccurring, nagging presence of doubt.

Doubt, can be one of two things..

It can be an opportunity for faith. - How many times did these characters in our Bibles step out and do things which were contrary to doubt… and they saw God’s miraculous hand revealed in their lives?

How long has it been, since you have experienced God?… When was the last time your doubt provided an unexplainable void, that God miraculously surprised you with?

Doubt, is natural… but it gives opportunity for faith.

Doubt can be our excuse to no longer ‘continue in the faith’.

Doubt is like something that wants to be fed. It wants to be satisfied.

Usually, when people go through a crisis of doubt… and they begin to struggle with their faith… - there is almost always another factor in play.

Walking with God, can be a stressful thing… it can create pressure… it can cause anxiety… -Why? Because we have decided, somewhere along the way… to engage in something that He clearly calls sin… to do, what verse 21 might categorically call ‘evil deeds’

So, we embrace something we shouldn’t embrace...

…a practice… a relationship… a concept… an ideal… a philosophy...

And now, since we are a Christian… and we are determined to embrace this contrary thing… we have to find a way to reconcile the two.

We might find some like-minded people who tell us it’s ok… -But what do we do about the Bible… or our church… or our parents… or our friends? They are at conflict with us… because we have decided to embrace something that is at conflict with God.

So… faith becomes a conflict. Faith becomes stressful… - It’s not working… So, we begin to doubt.

And here’s a cold hard truth… if you feed doubt more than you feed faith… Doubt will be satisfied.

Maybe you’ve read the stories of those who ‘deconstructed their faith’… they were believers… but they walked away from it… Rhett and Link, Michael Gungor, Joshua Harris…

In every story… you will find a person who struggled… because they fed doubt more than faith....

Sometimes we see people walk away, and we are surprised… because, they were always there with us, in the church… they grew up with us, in Youth Group… they went to camp… they went on the mission trip…

They grew up in the Christian church culture… but… when the ideas, philosophies, compromises, and concepts of the world began to take root in their lives… - they quickly, starved their faith. It was like… - there was no battle in it at all.

I think, sometimes… when we grow up around it… it’s easy to drift on through with everyone else… and not ever, really, have the real internal crisis of need for Jesus… that truly drives a person to repent and surrender their life.

It’s easy to recite a prayer when we are kid… but sometimes… it’s just something we do, in the church culture… - But that crisis… that conviction… that experience, where we realize we are absolutely devastated apart from Jesus… never really happened.

You snuck past it…

And you went to college...

Or, you entered into a relationship with an unbeliever...

The unbeliever input in your life, became much greater than the believer input.

And you started thinking things, and doing things that were in contradiction with what the church people said… and what a plain reading of the Bible declared..

And it caused some internal guilt and stress..

Which sparked doubt..

And doubt had very little competition.

Some people don’t… continue in their faith.

The next thing we see in vs. 23...

that you would be.. stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel.

Remember what I said last week. There is great value in speaking the Gospel into your life… every day…

Just going through Paul’s explanation in 1 Cor 15.1

This is the thing, in which we stand...

This is the things, by which we are being saved...

This is the thing, we are called to hold fast to…

Reflecting upon the fact that Jesus died for our sins… and all that that means to us… and the place where that puts us, mentally and spiritually… - this fact should align us with humility and defeat pride..

Reflecting upon His death and resurrection… and the promise that the resurrection is to us…

Reflecting upon the many witnesses to the resurrection, and how it changed them… how it ultimately changed the world..

Reflecting upon the fact, that these things happened, ‘according to the scriptures’… and being reminded, in the Gospel, of the vital importance of God’s word in our life.

I know I said all these things about the Gospel last week… but the challenge was… to speak this into your life daily.. and it’s been 7 days… so I think a repeat is appropriate.

Verse 23, not only tells us we won’t shift from the Gospel… but we won’t shift from the hope of the Gospel..

Again, quite honestly… if your hope is not in the work of victory that Jesus won for you on the cross… then your hope will be in something that falls short of His victory.

We all hope in something…

Paul teaches us in Romans 5… to set our hope in the glory of God… and explains how a person who grows in the sufferings of life, to develop endurance and character… will HAVE THIS KIND OF HOPE… BECAUSE THIS IS THE KIND OF HOPE THAT DOES NOT DISsAPOINT.

Having a hope… that Jesus is glorified… that Jesus is victorious… that Jesus conquered death and he grave… - is to have a hope in the Gospel.

And against this kind of hope… no doubt will survive.

Paul adds to the depth of this Gospel, yet again to the Colossians… He has already told them that it is working powerfully in the world… now he tells them… that this Gospel… has been proclaimed in all creation...

And in hindsight… looking back through the teachings, the narratives, the prophecies… the wisdom writings… - We see it all, in hindsight.

… It was a mystery… hidden with purpose, but revealed when the time was right… and we see now, how it has been proclaimed… all the way back to the passage we studied on Wednesday night.. in Genesis 3.

Paul even mentions this unique point in vs 26 of today’s passage… which we will read in a moment.

Colossians 1:24–25 ESV

24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, 25 of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known,

This is a complicated passage… because Paul says something that makes us ask and uncomfortable question...

Did Christ’s afflictions lack something?

Wasn’t His suffering and His death enough? - Absolutely, it was enough. He conquered sin and death and perfectly fulfilled the mission of redeeming mankind.

But, He has left a work for us to do. Paul recognized… that Jesus gave them everything they needed… but He has a ministry, to teach, to guide, to disciple… And for Paul… much of that work was fulfilled in the midst of much suffering..

And Paul was not shy to speak of it..

This could also speak of a recognition, that the work… the complete work of Christ, is not yet complete. There are apocalyptic things yet to be fulfilled in the future…

and passages like Revelation 6:9-11 and Ezra 4:33-43 that there have been, and still will be… great persecutions upon the believers of this world.

Paul also knew, that his role as an Apostle would include suffering… it was prophesied of him… and even declared by him..

one particular passage speaks of this in I Cor

1 Corinthians 4:9 ESV

9 For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men.

This verse pairs well with what Paul says in vs. 25… - the suffering, is part of his ministry… It’s a ministry that was given to him as an apostle… to be exhibited.. - with the ultimate goal, of making the word of God fully known.

Colossians 1:26–29 ESV

26 the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. 27 To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 29 For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

We’ve already spoken at length about the message in vs. 26...

Vs. 27… - We see the privilege that these Gentiles...

These people… who were once alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds.. - have had the great privilege of having THIS GOSPEL declared to them…

It’s all about Christ… and what Christ does, in and through the believer…

He is the object of our hope… and as vs. 27 finishes with… He is the hope of glory… the same focus of hope that Paul lays out in Romans 5…

So here’s how Paul concludes this.

This is my job.

I, along with my team… - I have the job to proclaim Jesus… and I invite you into that work… - even though, it might accompany some suffering…

And what is the goal? - To present everyone mature in Christ.

We start with those who are alienated from God… with those who are enemies of God… and those whose lies are focused on doing evil deeds..

And through suffering… and through proclamation… we do are part… with the hopes that some will stand holy and blameless before God… and continue, in a faith that is real… w/o shifting… embracing with hope… the gospel…

To this… Paul toils… to present everyone mature in Christ.

Close…

As we close… I want to encourage you… to consider the things in your life, that might have come in conflict with the teaching today..

maybe it’s doubt...

maybe you’ve been in church forever, but never really fully surrendered your life to Jesus..

maybe you have struggled to continue in the faith..

maybe your faith has lacked stability..

maybe you are trying to place your hope in worthless things… like government, insurance, money, jobs, relationships, activities, alcohol… but not in the hope of the gospel..

If so, take some time as we close, to pray and reflect on what the Lord might be showing you… and determine what you might need to do, to change.

end.