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Some people would probably say they struggle with the church and it would be a bad thing. We actually are supposed to struggle with the church, but that'd be a good thing, that we would labor to see more people come to Christ and be added to His body.
We've been studying through the book of Colossians so that we might know more about how to be fully satisfied in our Savior when we understand the text.
Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text as an online ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty, visit our website at www .wutt .com.
Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes.
Thank you, Becky. Halloween is upon us this weekend, and we got several requests over the course of the week to do a video on Halloween. Our next video was supposed to be on essential doctrines. I had actually promised that one before last weekend, but then I lost my voice.
I wasn't able to get that done. But that's okay. When we got so many requests for a Halloween video, it was like, yeah, you know, we really should do one. So we focused on doing that instead, and that essential doctrines video is still to come.
That will probably come this weekend, given that my voice is going to hold on. So anyway, the Halloween video was uploaded last night. We are going to play it at the end of this particular episode and talk about Halloween a little bit.
So stay tuned. That's coming up. If you want to find the video, go to www .wutt .com. You'll also find it on our Twitter and Facebook page. If you have any questions about any of the videos that we've done, or maybe you just have a theological question in general that you would like to have answered on this program, submit it to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.
It's Friday, so that means we're doing review. On Friday, we typically review everything that we've studied over the course of the week and do a five-point summary. I'm generally pretty jumbled and all over the place sometimes, and I talk really fast.
So Friday gives us that opportunity to summarize everything into five concise points as we look again at Colossians 1, verses 24 through 29. But before coming to that text, let's go to our Father in prayer, our wonderful God.
We thank you again for this opportunity to read your word and to be taught by this word. And we ask that we would continue to be taught by it even after we've finished this study and closed our Bibles.
We have written your words upon our mind and heart that continues to teach us even as we go throughout our day, as we continue to meditate on these things. So use this word to shape our hearts and our minds, to conform us to your image, the image of Christ, and help us to be made holy and come to a deeper appreciation of Christ as being sufficient for our every need.
And we pray and ask this in the Spirit, in the name of Jesus. Amen. Colossians 1, starting in verse 24. We'll read to the end of the chapter. No, I'm sorry. We start in verse 21. What am I thinking? We went 21 through 29 today.
So we're going to start all the way back in verse 21 and read through the chapter. And you who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he is now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him.
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.
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 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.
The mystery hidden for all ages and generations, but now revealed to his saints 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, him.
We proclaim warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ for this. I toil struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works in me. So our five point summary of this text today, point number one, we were once alienated.
That's verse 21. You who were once alienated and hostile in mind doing evil deeds. This is who we were before we came to Christ. And we looked at Titus three, starting in verse three, for we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy hated by others and hating one another.
There's that alienation aspect. Again, we were hating each other right before we came to Christ. We were not only alienated from God. We were alienated from his body and we were alienated from everybody else.
Those who are lost, those who are not following in Christ Jesus, they're not a unified body. They are selfishly pursuing their own sins, their own desires. The envy and malice that they are filled with separates them from everyone.
And if a person does not repent of that, then the spiritual reality that they are in while they inhabit this flesh will become a spiritual reality for all eternity. They will be forever separated from God and forever separated from each other.
There is no party going on in hell. There's no interaction happening there. It is people who are completely isolated from any hope of salvation and from one another. And so we have this life only to repent of these sins and find reconciliation in Christ Jesus until we do.
We are alienated before we come to Christ. We're alienated. We're alienated, hostile in mind. As it says in Romans chapter eight, those who are in the flesh are hostile against God. We are not seeking God.
It says that in Romans three, no one seeks after God. We're hostile in our thinking. We don't seek God. And worse yet, God does not desire us in that state. But it's in Christ Jesus that we have been reconciled.
And remember, the word reconciled means to accept that which was not previously desired. When we were alienated, when we were hostile in mind, when we were doing evil deeds, we did not desire God and he did not desire us in that state.
But it was when Christ Jesus stepped in, he saved us. As that passage in Titus three goes on, when the goodness and loving kindness of God, our savior appeared, he saved us, not by works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ, our savior, so that being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
So now what Christ has done for us in that reconciliation. OK, remember, reconciled means to accept that which was not previously desired. When we were in our sin, God did not desire us. We did not desire God.
But because of what Christ did for us, now we desire God because he's changed us from the inside out. And now because of that transformation, we desire God and he desires us because when he looks at us, he sees not our sinfulness, not the alienated, hostile, evil person.
He sees his son, Jesus Christ. So point number one, before Christ, we were alienated. Point number two, but now we're citizens. We were once alienated and now in Christ, we're citizens. That's not the way that I said it earlier in the week.
But that's basically the point that's being made here. By being reconciled, we have become citizens of the kingdom of God, heirs with Christ. That means we get all of the stuff that the king gets. And Paul actually does get to this point a little bit later on in Colossians chapter three, where he says, if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Set your minds on things that are above, not things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
So we have become fellow citizens with Christ. As Paul said to the Philippians, Philippians 320, our citizenship is in heaven. And from it, we await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is going to transform our lowly bodies to be like his glorious body.
Our citizenship in the kingdom of God happened the day that we got saved. It doesn't happen the day that you die and then you go to heaven. You're a citizen of that kingdom now because of the price that Christ paid for you.
Point number one, we were once alienated. But in Christ, point number two, we're now citizens. And so therefore, point number three, knowing this, we can rejoice in our suffering. Back in Colossians chapter one again, where Paul says in verse 24, I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake.
And in my flesh, I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions. Now, again, that doesn't mean that Christ's work on the cross was insufficient because he said from the cross, it is finished.
The work was done. What had not yet been done was the work that the apostles were going to do in advancing the gospel beyond that area of Israel, which is only where Jesus went with his disciples during that three years of ministry.
He said to his disciples, you will do greater works than I have done. And what he was talking about was going out further than before in preaching and advancing the gospel. And so that's the affliction that Paul is talking about.
And that's what had not yet been accomplished. So he is filling up what was lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body. That is the church of which I became a minister, according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you.
So Paul is suffering for the sake of the church. And we also need to rejoice in our suffering and where God has placed us to proclaim his gospel. Romans chapter five, beginning in verse one, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we read that in Titus three, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Through him also, we have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand citizenship, which Paul is talking about there as well. And we rejoice in hope of the glory of God rejoicing in suffering.
Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope. And hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Very similar things that we've been talking about reading in other passages. Right. So we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that the suffering that we are going through is ultimately producing something.
It is something that is eternally significant, whereas a person who does not know Christ, whatever they suffer or struggle with, it terminates on the experience. You know, there's the old saying, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
But there's no hope for the unbeliever. Their experiences are not producing anything eternally significant. Maybe they develop character. Maybe it sustains them for another day or two or maybe a year or two.
But eventually they're going to come to a point in life where those experiences that didn't kill them, but supposedly made them stronger, will not sustain them. And especially when they die, those experiences will not save them.
There's no hope in any of that. But for us who are in Christ, every experience that we go through is producing something eternally significant. And for that reason, we have hope, knowing that this isn't the end.
This isn't all there is. There is a great and glorious kingdom of God that we are looking forward to. And we know that God will deliver us into and that the sufferings of this life do not compare to the glory that awaits us in Christ Jesus.
So we rejoice in suffering, knowing that God is using our suffering to produce something great. Point number one, we were once alienated. Point number two, but now we're citizens. Point number three, we are to rejoice in suffering, knowing that this is preparing us for that eternal kingdom of God.
Point number four, you have been chosen. OK, Paul says here that God chose him, making the word of God fully known. Then in verse 26, the mystery hidden for ages and generations, but now revealed to his saints 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.
God chose you, his saints, to make his mystery fully known. What is this mystery? It is the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the plan of redemption that God had in mind from the foundation of the world that God would reconcile all things to himself on earth and in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
As we read in Colossians 1 20, this is God's sovereign plan of salvation. And he has chosen you to make it known to you and has also chosen you that you would make it known to others. We read in First Timothy chapter three, verse 15, that the church of the living God is a pillar and a buttress of the truth, meaning that the church is the instrument that God has chosen to use to make his gospel known to hold up the truth.
That's that's the pillar aspect. So to present it to the whole world and also be a defense of the truth, that's the buttress aspect, that we would defend the truth from false teachers and make sure that sound doctrine is being proclaimed and those who are being trained and built up in the body of Christ.
So we have been chosen by God, revealed to us the mystery of the gospel of Jesus Christ so that we might go and proclaim it. So when you combine point three and point four, rejoice in suffering, you have been chosen the situation that you are in right now.
God has selected you for that situation that you would suffer through it so that others might come to know Christ because of you. And I don't know your situation. I don't know how difficult your situation is that you are in the people who you are around, maybe that you work with people in your own family who might be persecuting you because you are a Christian.
Maybe you're in an environment in another part of the world listening to this broadcast and to you, I thank you for listening in. But maybe you live in a country and a situation different than the one that I live in, where you don't have the religious freedoms that are afforded to you that protect you.
And maybe you're being persecuted by your government for the faith that you have. God has chosen you for this time to suffer through it. And through that suffering, the gospel is being proclaimed. And there are people who are getting saved.
Rejoice in suffering. And you have been chosen for this time. Point number five is to help you further with this suffering and what you have been chosen for. Point number five is this struggle with all the energy of God.
Verse 28. Paul says him. We proclaim warning everyone and teaching everyone pillar and buttress of the truth with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ for this. I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works in me.
So it's not Paul's strength by which he endures. It is God that is working in him. It is the strength of God that is sustaining him. In second Corinthians chapter 12. This is a story that I have referenced many times.
Paul says in verse seven to keep me from being conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations that he had been given. He says a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me to keep me from becoming conceited.
Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in your weakness. Therefore, Paul says, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me for the sake of Christ.
Then I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for when I am weak, then I am strong because his strength comes not from himself. It comes from God again in Colossians 1 29.
I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works in me. If God has chosen you to do this work, then he will give you his strength to do that work. So call upon the Lord, ask him to give you his strength and he will do it for you.
Understand this also Christian. And we read this in Romans chapter eight, verses 31 through 34. If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
Remember, as we read in Titus three, we're heirs, correct? Who shall bring any charge against God's chosen ones? It is God who justifies who is to condemn Christ. Jesus is the one who died more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
Christ there with God interceding for us. There is nothing that we need to be afraid of. God is fighting for us. As he said to Moses in Exodus 14 14, I will fight for you. We struggle with all his energy.
God has not left us to have to endure on our own. He has given us the power of his spirit. So summarizing these points again, point number one, we were once alienated. Point number two, but now in Christ, we're citizens.
Point number three, we are to rejoice in suffering, knowing that the suffering that we're going through is producing in us something eternally significant for that eternal kingdom of which we're citizens.
Point number four, you have been chosen by God. So therefore, he will not abandon you. He will give you all his energy. So point number five, struggle with all of his energy. Our great God, we thank you again for these passages that we have read today, and I pray that they continue to build in us a heart that is seeking after you, that is rejoicing in you all the more.
God, as we come away from this text and continue to meditate on it, may we become better worshipers of God because of this. Remind us that we are fully satisfied in our Savior, Jesus Christ, who is preeminent above all things.
And we pray and ask these reminders in Jesus' name. Amen. Beware the dreaded All Hallows' Eve, or as we've come to know it, Halloween, a subject of much controversy among Christians. Some participate with costumes and trick-or-treating like anyone else.
Others try to redeem the holiday by calling it a fall festival or doing a trunk-or-treat. Some do Reformation Day parties. Since October 31st is the anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. Personally, I like that one.
Then there are those who choose to abstain entirely, shutting off the lights and locking everything down until the zombie apocalypse is over. Is there anything evil about dressing like Batman or Batgirl and going door-to-door asking for candy?
No, there's really not. However, the origins of Halloween are unmistakably pagan with things a Christian should not participate in like death and the occult. But Halloween is impossible to get away from.
Once October rolls around, it's everywhere. Parents should always teach their children what is acceptable and what's not. In our hearts, we need to revere Christ as holy and honor God in all that we do.
It's hard to deny door-to-door visitors make for a great opportunity to hand out tracts and share the gospel. As for whether or not to go trick-or-treating, the Christian is free to make that decision on their own.
But don't quarrel over opinions. One person thinks of a day one way while another thinks all days alike. Don't pass judgment on the one who abstains or on the one who eats Halloween candy. Know the origins of Halloween and study Romans 14 to help you come to an informed and biblical decision.
In the process, avoid guilting others into why they should or should not participate. Everyone is to be fully convinced in their own mind when we understand the text. So there you go. A little bit more homework than we usually require of you in our videos.
Sometimes we just straight up give you the answer. But this time, we're going to make you come to a conclusion on your own. You know, those things that are associated with Halloween that a Christian is supposed to have nothing to do with.
We have some of those things listed for us in Deuteronomy chapter 18. Under abominable practices, God says that anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord.
And because of these abominations, the Lord, your God is driving them out before you. You shall be blameless before the Lord, your God. For these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune tellers and to diviners.
But as for you, the Lord, your God has not allowed you to do this. And so you're probably hearing me list some of those things and going, yeah, I see those things associated with Halloween where we're supposed to have nothing to do with that.
But then there are others who will say, well, we can't redeem Halloween at all and make it something that glorifies God. And one of the passages that they'll use to justify that perspective is Job 14 for who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean thing.
There is not one. But I tell you, when they use the passage that way, they take it out of context for Job continues to say, since his days are determined and the number of his months is with you and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass.
Basically, the point that Job is making is that a man cannot do what God has not allowed him to do. He cannot go beyond the boundaries that God has set for him. That's that's really it doesn't have to do with changing a day and redeeming it to honor the Lord.
That's specifically what God is talking about there. Another passage that would be good to study is first Corinthians chapter eight, where Paul says this. Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that an idol has no real existence and that there is no God but one.
For although there may be many so-called gods in heaven and on earth, as indeed, there are many gods and many lords in quotations. Yet for us, there is one God, the father from whom are all things and for whom we exist and one Lord Jesus Christ through whom are all things and through whom we exist.
However, Paul says not all possess this knowledge, but some through former association with idols eat food as really offered to an idol and their conscience being weak is defiled. So here's the thing.
If in celebrating Halloween, you feel like your conscience would be defiled and you would be sinning against God, then I tell you, don't participate in it. If that's what your conscience would feel, then don't do it.
But if you are convinced that there's nothing wrong with it, that it's just a day, it just like an idol is an empty thing and it can't be anything at all. So a day is just a day. So what difference if I choose that day?
Because I know people got candy at their house so we can go knock on the door and get candy. What's wrong with that? I'm not convinced that there's anything wrong with that. If that's the way that you feel about it, then participate in Halloween if you want to.
But let's not quarrel over this and definitely do not let a brother stumble because you went trick or treating. I mean, seriously, guys, what a silly thing for brothers and sisters in Christ to be arguing over.
All right, be fully convinced in your own mind and don't cause a stumbling block. Our great God, I pray that everything that we do would be an honor and service and glory to you. Create in us clean hearts and renew right spirits within us.
And we pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
Let us grow together in God's word when we understand the text.