The work of Jesus Christ

chapter 1 beginning in verse 19, it's where we left off last week. We're going to read through verse 29.

Scripture says, For it pleased the Father that in him all the fullness should dwell and by him to reconcile all things to himself, by him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of his cross.

And you who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and blameless and above reproach in his sight.

Verse 23, the apostle Paul adds this, If indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which

I, Paul, became a minister. I now rejoice in my sufferings for you and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ for the sake of his body, which is the church, of which

I became a minister according to the stewardship from God, which was given me for you to fulfill the word of God, the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to his saints.

To them, God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the

Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.

To this end, I also labor, striving according to his working, which works in me mightily.

Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, as we come this morning,

I thank you. And I praise you for your glory, for your majesty. I thank you,

God, that you are high and you are holy, that you are lifted up, that you are exalted above all.

I thank you that in this time that we have today, we have the privilege to look into your word concerning who you are, concerning your person, concerning your work, and concerning this morning, the eternal nature of the gospel.

As we look at this passage of scripture, help us, God, today to see you in your word.

Help us today that we might be hearers, not hearers only, but doers of the word, that we may take what we hear today, dear

God, and apply it to our lives, and that we might use it for one purpose and for one end, and that is to bring glory and to bring honor to your blessed and to your holy name above all.

Convict the lost, encourage the saints through your word today, we ask, for it's in Jesus' name, amen.

This morning, I'm thankful Rebecca was telling us,

Hannah didn't tell us, but her mom told us, thankfully, and in the presence of Hannah, that ma 'am in their

Sunday school class has given her students in that class notebooks, so that when

Johnny's got his paper ready, so that when in the church service, that they are going to be able to take notes as part of their assignment for class, so that they can get some points, earn some rewards.

But listen, I want to say this to you young people, the teacher's not being mean to you, she's trying to help you.

This is very important, it would do good for adults and children alike to know what you hear when you come to church on Sunday, so that you can take it out and share the gospel with the world.

So to make this easy this morning, as we have been trying to do a little bit, a little bit as time goes on, the theme of the message this morning is the person and the work of Jesus Christ and the eternal nature of the gospel.

The person and work of Jesus Christ and the eternal nature of the gospel. So last week, when we looked at verses 15 through 18,

Paul in his address to the church at Colossae really truly focused in that short passage of scripture that we looked at last week was on the person of Christ, who

Jesus is. He said he's the image of the invisible God, he's the firstborn over all creation, by him all things were created in heaven and on earth that are visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things, the apostle

Paul writes, were created through him and for him. So maybe something to take away from that concerning the person of Christ is to know that everything that was created was created for Christ and it was created through Christ.

He goes on there and says that he, Jesus Christ, is before all things and in him all things consist and then

Paul goes a step further and says that Jesus, he is the head of the body, the church.

That word church, remember, is ecclesia, meaning the called out assembly of the saints and you'll see these terms used together and in connection with each other.

When you see church, you'll see saints referred to because the two go together.

So Paul, in lifting up and magnifying Christ, speaks about how Christ should have the preeminence, again, remembering what the issue was at Colossae.

They were mediating their worship through angels. They were setting angels in the place of God. Angels were created beings, created for the purpose, answering it a little bit ahead of time, created for the purpose of serving the purpose of God in the world.

That's what the angels were created for. The angels worship God day and night.

They set a good example for us. However, angels do not have the nature that we have as human beings.

Angels are not inherently sinful as we are as human beings. So it's important to remember that.

Angels do not deserve the worship that God in him alone deserves.

So Paul here, as we pick up in verse 19, we begin to see the word of Jesus Christ.

We saw the person in verses 15 through 19. And here in verse 19, we see the work of Jesus Christ, what

Christ came to do. What did Christ come to do? He tells us in the gospels,

Jesus said, I'm come to seek and to save that which was lost.

You can't save yourself. You can't help yourself. You're only in sin.

You are left helpless. But Christ came to save.

So Paul says, it pleased the Father. It's important when we consider and we think about how salvation was brought about, how salvation was accomplished, that we do not look through it through the lens of popular ideas or popular thought, but that we look at salvation through the scripture itself.

The Bible says, it pleased the Father, God the Father, that in him, in Christ, all the fullness should dwell.

Because remember, he is the image of the invisible God. And the

Bible goes on to say in verse 20 here, and by him to reconcile all things to himself.

This is important because reconciliation means to put an end to the war.

Number one principle, number one truth from the word of God that you should take away from this passage, from this text of scripture is this, man stands in need of reconciliation to God.

In short, in layman's terms, it means that everybody is born crossways with God and you remain able to get yourself out of it.

And you're only underneath the wrath of almighty God, outside of the saving grace of the

Lord Jesus Christ. You're at war with God. You are an enemy of God.

If you are not saved, you are an enemy of God. That's what the

Bible teaches us. Now we'll see a parallel verse here, if you want to be ready to turn there in Ephesians chapter two, we'll look there here in a moment once we read a little further here, but you'll see the very same thing stated in just a little bit different way.

And again, it's important to remember the issues of each church, the false teaching that came about in each church was maybe unique to that church, but the remedy, the answer to the problem of the false teaching was always the same.

It was Jesus Christ and him crucified. We must not deviate nor stray to the right hand or to the left away from the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Paul said to the Roman believers, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation.

Paul says here though, in Colossians, he says by him to reconcile all things to himself.

And then he says it again by him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of his cross.

It's been written in a commentary for a set purpose. He disputes against those who imagine that the angels were pacificators through whom access to God might be opened up, making peace through the blood of his cross.

He speaks of the father that he has been made propitious to his creatures.

This is an old commentary, by the way, he has been made propitious to his creatures by the blood of Christ.

Now he calls it the blood of the cross in as much as it was the pledge and price of the making up of our peace with God because it was poured out upon the cross.

The only remedy for the sin of man is the blood of Jesus Christ.

The old song says, what can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

The blood still has the power to save. It is effectual to those who

Christ calls, Christ saves. I think about a story an old preacher told about when he was a young man in seminary,

I guess, in the seminary that he was at, they kind of had a demerit system because, listen, just because you go to seminary don't mean you're a good person.

You still get in trouble. Listen, if there's anybody in here who has ever been a teenager or a post teenager and been to college, you can't tell me that you probably have not either been strongly tempted or fell into sin because it is your nature.

You'll get in trouble. Rules are necessary to keep us within bounds. But this old preacher told the story about how at this seminary, how at school him and his buddies went to, there was a group of them that liked to get in trouble together, quote unquote, not necessarily true meanness, but a mischief, if you want to put it that way, and there was a demerit system so that when you got to a certain amount of demerit, you would get kicked out of the school.

So it came to pass that him and his buddies had gotten close to the end of the line, so to speak, and they were all in class one day and the professor got up and began to mock and began to ridicule the blood of Jesus Christ at a seminary.

And as that teacher began to mock and ridicule the blood of Christ, him and his buddies got righteous indignation welled up in them and they decided they were going to get up and storm out of class, that they weren't going to listen to that stuff.

Well, getting up and leaving class will cause you to get demerits. So they were sent a message that they were going to have to go stand before the board of this school to determine their, quote unquote, destiny at the school, whether they would stay or whether they would have to go.

And of course, they were frightened to death. What are our parents going to say? You know, my dad or my mom is going to kill me, whatever that runs through their minds.

But the day that the appointment was set for them to meet before the board that day, they set out in the waiting room.

Hello. They set out in the waiting room. They sat there waiting to hear the final judgment on their behaviors and to see what would come to pass.

And as they waited, the more nervous and scared they got, the more they prayed, the more fervent they became in their prayer toward the

Lord. Lord, help us. Lord, save us. You know, and so on and so forth, as that will cause us to a lot of times natural fear.

And the time came for them to go into the boardroom. They got into the boardroom.

And what you know, when they got into the boardroom, as they tell the story, they had to sit and wait some more because there was one, the head of the director of the board they were waiting on to come into the boardroom.

So they sat there nervous, scared, anticipating, wondering what was going to happen, what was going to go on.

And before long, they heard the door open and they heard the clickety clack of a cane walking through.

And it was a little old lady who was the head of the board of directors there at that school. And as that little old lady made her way up, she sat at the head of the table and she looked down at these young men and she said, well, boys, what are you all here for?

One of them spoke up, he said, well, Professor so -and -so started badmouthing the blood of Jesus and he started degrading the blood of Christ and the power of the blood of Christ.

And the man looked at that little old lady and he said, we couldn't stand it anymore. We had to get up and walk out of that classroom.

He didn't know if they were going to be dismissed from that moment forward or whether they was going to be able to stay.

That little old lady paused for just a minute or two. And that preacher said the tears began to stream down her face and because they had stated specifically and clearly, that teacher said that there was no power in the blood of Christ.

And that little old lady said, well, I want you all and everybody here to know something today.

There is still power in the blood of Christ. And she began to quote the words, there is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins.

And when sinners plunge beneath that flood, they lose all their guilty stains.

And she looked at them boys and clapped down that gavel on the table. And she said, case dismissed, you boys go on and don't get no more trouble after this.

He said, that fellow said him and his buddies walked out of that room that day. They got outside and they was rejoicing and they was shouting.

And they said, hallelujah, saved by the blood twice. There is power in the blood of Jesus Christ.

The apostle Paul writes clearly that through his blood, we have the forgiveness of our sins and without the shedding of that blood, without the work, the reconciling work of Christ's death on the cross, we have no hope.

So he tells about the work of Christ here in that verse.

Again, let's turn over to the book of Ephesians now to see the parallel passage that kind of testifies and witnesses to the truth about what we read there in Ephesians chapter 2.

Paul reminds the people, and here's something of note for you, if you're taking notes,

I want you to know this, it's important for us to know who Paul's audience was at Colossae.

Paul's audience at Colossae was largely a Gentile audience.

Largely the church was made up of Gentile believers. And so when I say

Gentile believers in understanding to interpret properly this passage, it's important for us to know this and it's important for you to understand this that the

Gentiles were basically considered to be outside of the grace of God.

The promises had come to the Jewish people and anyone who wasn't Jewish was considered to be basically a dog and outside the grace of God.

But God, in his great mercy and in his great love, opened the door of faith to Gentile believers, those who weren't

Jewish by descent. He opened the door of faith to them. Why is this important? Because every one of us today, if you're saved, you are a

Gentile believer. This is important for us today. So in Ephesians, Paul says in chapter 2 verse 11, therefore, remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision made in the flesh by hands, he's referring to how the

Jews referred to the Gentiles, that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise.

And he says you were having no hope and you were without God in the world.

But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were afar off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

Amen. It's the same truth right here. Now, listen, he goes on there in this same text, in this same book of Ephesians in verse 14, and he says, for he, speaking of Christ, he himself is our peace.

Peace is what is necessary. Peace is what is made in reconciliation. Remember, we are enemies of God by nature.

No one is born good. No one is born seeking God. No one is born searching for God.

We're all sinners in need of saving grace.

He himself is our peace, comma, who has made both one and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in his flesh, the enmity that is the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in himself one new man from the two, thus making peace and that he might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross.

So this reference here, as it is just exactly the same in Colossians, he's speaking of the differences of the people,

Jew and Gentile. When we read of all being under sin, as the book of Romans teaches us, it's a reference when you read that, it's a reference when you read all, it's a reference to both

Jew and to Gentile. It's all kinds of people. Who did

Christ come to save? All kinds of people. Jew, whether they were born under the promise or whether they were

Gentile, born outside of the grace of God, the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ is effectual unto all those that will call upon his name.

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

He goes on here. So remember and understanding here, this, the importance, the context that he's speaking about, that he made, he made both

Jew and Gentile. He brought them in unity in one body. That is the body of Jesus Christ through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity and he came and he preached peace to you, the

Gentile is who he's referring to, he came and preached peace to you who were a far off and those who were near.

We need not try to over spiritualize the text of scripture. If we'll just look at the context itself, it is amazing and beautiful.

He came and preached peace to you who are far off and to those who are near for through him, we both

Jew and Gentile have access by one spirit that to the father.

Jesus Christ, a simple, a simple phraseology, if you want to have it concerning salvation is this,

God, the father thought it, Jesus Christ brought it and the

Holy spirit wrought it. And if you want to put a parentheses there by wrought, it means applied it for unless you are born again by the spirit of God, you cannot be saved, but when you are born again, you will be saved and know it.

You cannot be saved and walk out the door and say, what just happened there? Did I get saved? Friends, let me tell you something.

When Lazarus, Jesus called Lazarus from the fourth from the grave, you think Lazarus walked out of the grave and said, am

I alive now? No. You think the blind man who

Jesus gave his sight? Well, I can tell you, I don't want to, we don't even have to speculate on that. What he thought, am

I still blind? No. His testimony was this. All I know is that once I was blind, but now

I see and it was Jesus. Who did the work. So through him, we both have access by one spirit to the father.

Let's jump back over to Colossians. Now that I wanted us to go to that as a parallel verse, two or three minutes by the mouth of two or three witnesses, let every word be established there.

And so in verse 21, back in Colossians chapter one, in verse 21, we see the, uh, again, the, the work of Jesus Christ.

And you, Paul says who were once alienated. That's the same terminology he used and we're enemies in your mind by wicked works, he's reminding the people at Colossi that before they came to saving faith in Jesus Christ, and which is by the way, through the hearing of the gospel, he said, he said, you were alienated.

And you were enemies in your mind at by wicked works. Yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and blameless and above reproach in his sight.

You hear us speak a lot about the importance of knowing doctrine. This is the doctrine of justification by faith.

This was one of the chief and the primary doctrines on which through which the reformation was founded.

That justification does not come by works or deeds of righteousness, but it comes by Jesus Christ alone.

It is not something we earn. It is not something we work up. It is a gift of God for by grace.

Are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, less any man should boast.

So it's very important. But Paul says here that he's presented you holy and blameless.

Some may say, and I've heard preachers ask this, what will you say when you stand before the

Lord on judgment day? Friends, the only thing that will be of any value or any worth, or if, if there was ever anything necessary for us to say, it would be simply this.

I trust in Jesus. I believe in Jesus Christ, the only begotten son of God, full of grace and truth, who lived a sinless life on my behalf, because I was not able to do that, who died a vicarious death on the cross, which

I was not able to do. He took on himself the wrath of almighty

God, suffering for the sins of those whom he would save, and he was buried and he rose again the third day.

When we stand before God, it will be because of what Jesus Christ did.

And that work forever shall stand. That doctrine of justification is very, very important.

And for us not to assume that we have any holiness of ourselves, it's easy to get carried away with that.

And when we, if you get carried away, and this is why the importance of, of preaching and focusing on the doctrines laid out in the scriptures are so important to us, because if we do not focus on these, we'll get carried away by every wind of doctrine that comes around.

We'll get focused on ourselves and on our deeds and begin to depend upon what we've done.

Remember Paul to the Philippian church where he brought, he listed, he listed out all the things that he was necessarily in the faith.

And then after he listed all those things about being born in the right family, doing the right things, doing this and doing that, he said,

I counted all but rubbish. I counted all but loss.

And he said, as a matter of fact, I forget about every good thing that I've ever done. And I look unto

Jesus because he is the aim and he is the goal.

So justification by faith, understanding holiness does not come from within us. Holiness comes from God in the person of Jesus Christ.

And then Paul says in verse 23, if you continue in the faith, now it's very important that we make a clear distinction here.

Paul is not saying if you believe on Christ and you stop believing on Christ that you lose your salvation.

Paul is not stating that. Paul is stating the clear principle that he has taught throughout all of the epistles that good works will be evidenced as a demonstration of true saving faith.

Someone may say, well, I remember when so -and -so was a little boy, they went up to the altar and they got saved.

And then 30 and 40 years passed and they never demonstrated any kind of outward repentance unto the

Lord. But their funeral time come. Everybody points back to that day when they was a little child and they came and cried and prayed at the altar as their salvation.

Friends, that is not salvation. Salvation will be demonstrated in a lifelong pattern of obedience to a holy

God. Not that you'll ever be perfect, for we are not perfect because we're in the flesh and we do wrestle and we do struggle and we do stumble and we do fall many times, but we shall never ultimately and finally fall away from the faith.

That's what the scriptures teach, that we persevere in the faith. So Paul says this, if indeed you continue in the faith, and remember,

Paul may somewhat at times be very sarcastic, if you indeed continue in the faith grounded and steadfast and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven.

Let me, I want to stop right here on this section and make a point here. That's very, very important for us to understand.

Now, Paul, he's not, he's not going to lie, but this statement, it's important to understand that this figure of speech that he uses is, is a literary term called hyperbole.

It's an exaggeration. Fishermen do this. Bill, when was the last time you went fishing?

Huh? Yesterday. Did you catch any fish? One of them was this big.

I caught every fish that was in the lake that day. Right? You, if you, let's say you do catch 10 or 20 fish and you might say,

I caught every fish in the lake. Now, is that true? No. Paul, Paul and Paul's frame of reference, it's important for us to understand this.

Paul's frame of reference in their frame of reference at this time, he wasn't talking about people in Tennessee. Tennessee wasn't around then.

He was talking basically about the area of Rome because Rome was growing every day.

Rome was Rome's power and influence was increasing every day, but his aim and his goal was in the light of that natural spreading of Rome as a reference to the world, that every opportunity and every chance that he got, he preached the gospel to every person possible.

That's important to remember that. He said of which I, Paul became a minister. So now we, now, now let's switch to the last part, the eternal nature of the gospel.

So we see the, the person and the work of Jesus Christ. And here in verse 24 through 29, we see the eternal nature of the gospel.

And when I, when I use that term, it's very, I use it intentionally because the gospel didn't just come about.

The gospel wasn't the next best thing. The gospel wasn't the next big thing.

The gospel was not one of those as seen on TV things. The gospel has been in the eternal mind of the father for all of eternity from the foundation of the world.

One, one writer puts it that way. So Paul said, I now rejoice in my sufferings for you and fill up in my flesh.

What is lacking in the afflictions of Christ for the sake of his body. Now, different commentators will, will express this or explain this a little bit differently.

And it may be very easy to, if you don't really put a lot of concern or thought into that, that Paul saying,

I'm making up what Christ didn't suffer for. Paul is not saying that Paul is saying that what he suffers, he deserves because what

Christ did was enough. But Paul says he explains the purpose in why he suffers.

He says for the sake of the body, of his body, Christ's body, which is the church, the ecclesia, the called out assembly of saints of which

Paul said, I became a minister according to the stewardship from God, which was given to me for you to fulfill the word of God, the mystery, which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to his saints.

Now here's the thing. This is, it's not speaking like a Scooby -Doo mystery. This is speaking of a truth that has been eternally true and God, we see it in the old

Testament. We see the mystery of godliness. We see the mystery of the gospel.

We see the mystery of Jesus Christ, who God does not reveal in the old

Testament, but in the new Testament he reveals. And the apostle Paul is stating here that what

God has done in his wisdom, in his majesty and in his grace has revealed that which has been hidden for years and years and years, and he has chose to reveal it to his saints, to those whom he has called.

The apostles in one place in the gospels, it was actually right behind where our Sunday school lesson was this morning.

In Luke chapter 10, if you want to, if you would turn there for just a moment, Luke chapter 10,

Jesus had sent out the 70 to go and to preach the gospel.

And in Luke chapter 10, verse 17, we'll read through 24,

Luke chapter 10, verse 17 through 24. Then the 70 returned with joy saying,

Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name. And he said to them, I saw Satan fall from lightning from heaven, his eternal nature.

Behold, I give you authority to trample on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.

In that hour, Jesus rejoiced in the spirit and said,

I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and the prudent.

How can a man be saved? According to John's gospel, Jesus said, no man can come unto me except the father which has sent me draws him.

Jesus said, I thank you that you have hidden these things from the wise and the prudent and revealed them to babes.

Even so, father, for so it seemed good in your sight. Remember what we read in Colossians, it pleased the father.

Even so, father, it seemed good in your sight. All things have been delivered to me by my father. And no one knows who the son is except the father and who the father is except the son and the one to whom the son wills to reveal him.

Then he turned to his disciples and said privately, blessed are the eyes which see the things that you see.

For I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see what you see and have not seen it and to hear what you hear.

And they have not heard it. Back over to Colossians last two verses and we'll close.

Remember, Paul says the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to his saints, to them in reference to saints, to them.

God will to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the

Gentiles. Be great. He's saying to the Gentiles, be grateful for what you have and do not look to anything else.

Be thankful for what God has done to them.

God will to make known the riches of his glory among the Gentiles, which is, which is, which is

Christ in you. The mystery of God revealed is his saving work in those who the

Jews considered to be an unsavable people, the saving work of Jesus Christ.

And he says this, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Verse 28, him we preach, Jesus we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.

The eternal nature of the gospel has never changed.

Its purpose has never changed. It is always and shall always be to proclaim the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the sins of mankind.

And so he says this to this end, I also labor, striving according to his working.

So Paul, in bringing this portion of the letter to a close before he goes on to the next, his next thought there, he says this, to this end

I labor, striving, that means working diligently, striving according to his working.

Paul says, and he encourages the Colossian believers to understand and to know this, that it is not our working in the flesh that makes the difference.

It is God's working in our spirit that makes the difference and that causes us to be able to continually serve the

Lord. For he said his working, which works in me mightily.

And the last reference there would be back over in the letter to the

Philippians where the apostle Paul said, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is him who works in us both to do his good will and his pleasure.

Are you saved today? Have you been born again? Are you a new creature in Christ?

Do you seek the things of the flesh, the things of the world, or are you seeking for the glory of God?

If you are seeking for the glory of God, you can rest in this fact that you are saved because outside of God's grace, you will not seek him.

You will not look for him. And by the way, you will never find him. You will never find hope, peace, love, joy outside of Jesus Christ.