WWUTT 057 Now Reconciled (Colossians 1:21-23)

We cannot boast among other believers of having done greater work than they have done and therefore have received greater favor from God Likewise, we can't even go among the lost, those who do not have saving faith yet, and say to them that we've done something better than they have done

Because we once were just like them, and that reminder should cause us to want to take the gospel to them all the more when we understand the text

You're listening to When We Understand The Text, an online Bible ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty

Find videos and more at our website www .wutt .com Now here's our host,

Pastor Gabe Hughes Thank you, Becky. My voice is doing a little bit better today, as maybe you are able to tell

If you listened to yesterday's program and now you're listening to today's, you might be going, Okay, Gabe sounds a little bit better.

Yeah, I'm on the upswing here. My worst days are definitely behind me My youngest daughter, who turns a year old on Wednesday, tomorrow, wow, where has the time gone?

Anyway, she's had it the worst of all of us in the family. She's got stuff coming out of every orifice in her face That might be

TMI, but anyway, so pray for her health, that she does better And time for her one -year birthday

Yesterday we were looking at Colossians 1, verses 21 -23

And we're going to come back to that text again today If you're going to open up your Bible and join with me there If you're listening to me read to you the scriptures,

I still want to encourage you, at some point in your day Come back to the Bible and open up the text and look at it for yourself

We are studying the book of Colossians so that we might know Christ as preeminent

Above all things That word preeminent is a word that Paul uses in this letter, but none of his other letters

It's the Greek word proto -euon, it's from that word that we get the prefix proto - from Which means first, one of a kind, top, above everything else

And that's the way that Paul uses that word here to describe Christ He is number one We are fully satisfied in our

Savior and we need nothing else but Christ And continue to understand these things as we come to this word

So let's go to the Lord in prayer and then we'll open up our text for today Our wonderful Father, our great

God, who loves us and provides for us And calls us Your own, so much so that You have given us

Your word We pray that You would also give us Your spirit that we might understand Your word

We know that the natural man cannot understand spiritual things So if we are going to discern that which was given to us by the

Spirit of God Writing through Your prophets and apostles We need the Spirit of God in order to understand it

So give us Your spirit and help us to be able to take the things that we're going to read today

And apply them to our lives It's more than just studying theology here But it should be changing everything about us

The ways that we interact with one another The ways that we share the Gospel The ways that we praise our

God And we want to become better worshippers of God As we commit ourselves to this study

So please give us Your spirit that we may understand The treasures of wisdom and knowledge bound up in Christ And we pray this in His name

Amen Colossians chapter 1 starting in verse 21 And you who were once alienated and hostile in mind

Doing evil deeds He, God, our Lord Christ has now reconciled

In His body of flesh by His death In order to present you as 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 So what we looked at yesterday

We really didn't get much farther than Colossians 1 .21 You who were once alienated and hostile in mind

Doing evil deeds That describes every single one of us Before we were set free in Christ Before we were transformed by the

Spirit Before we went from lost to found Before we went from a slave to sin to set free in Christ We were all alienated, hostile in mind

Doing evil deeds When we were alienated As we're described as alienated We were separated from God And we were separated from one another

Not just God's people We were separated from every other person as well

Sin does not just separate us from God And separate us from His people Although it does do that It also separates us from one another

It is not possible for a person to sin as an island You can't sin in such a way that does not affect anyone else

And we hear that in our culture today Well, I can do whatever I want to do And I'm not hurting anybody else with this

Yes, you are You are hurting yourself And you are hurting others All sin is selfish

It is self -glorifying It is placing ourselves in the place of God Or, in a sense, saying to God You don't have enough for me to feel completely satisfied

I need this thing in order to find my satisfaction When as Paul is directing the

Colossians here To know that in Christ we have our full satisfaction He is preeminent above all things

And we need nothing else But when we sin We are claiming that we need something that God cannot give

Or that we can do something for ourselves That God cannot provide for us It is exalting ourselves to the place of God So it alienates us from God From his people

And from one another As we read yesterday in Titus 3 .3 That before Christ's mercy appeared in our lives

We were hated by others And hating one another The lost are not a unified group

It's not the lost over here And they're all unified And the found And those who are believers in Christ And have faith in Christ They're all unified over here

Those who are lost are separated even from one another So what happens to a person who does not ever repent

And they die They face the judgment of God And they are confined to hell Then the fact that they were dead in their spirit

They were spiritually dead when they were alive And separated from one another While they were physically alive

Now that they have been consigned to hell They are separated from one another for all eternity

And from God for all eternity So that physical reality has become a spiritual reality

I hope this is making sense to you here Because there's not a big party going on down in hell

There's not people getting together and just sinning for all eternity There is no interaction happening there whatsoever

So that which was present in the unbeliever When they were alive on this earth

Has now become the spiritual reality for all eternity Those who are lost are not unified

They're hostile toward one another They're separated from one another And so it was the mercy of Christ that came in And made us his people

Where we were previously not a people Now we are God's people And that's given to us in 1

Peter 2 Starting in verse 9 But you are a chosen race A royal priesthood

A holy nation A people for his own possession That you may proclaim the excellencies

Of him who called you out of darkness Into his marvelous light

Once you were not a people But now you are God's people Once you had not received mercy

But now you have received mercy So it is because of the mercy of God That we are now the people of God One of the things that this should encourage you toward even

Is why church attendance is so important We are meant to be together

With the body of Christ We are meant to be with the saints Glorifying God because previously

Before we came to Christ We were isolated from God From his people and from one another

But now being reconciled in Christ In his body of flesh by his death

Which we go on to read in Colossians 1 .22 We have been reconciled to God And to his people and so we should behave

As the people of God Being together with the saints Desiring to get together as the church

Praising God Singing psalms and hymns And spiritual songs with thankfulness

In our hearts to God Teaching and admonishing one another In all wisdom These are instructions that are going to come up later on In Colossians chapter 3

So once we were not a people Now we're God's people We are a holy nation No one worships as an island

We were meant to worship together As a nation of people

The people of God Now one of the things that we need to be reminded of I mentioned yesterday as we were looking at Colossians 1 .21

Paul is presenting the gospel To the Colossians And then reminding them of who they once were

Before they came to Christ You who were once alienated And hostile in mind doing evil deeds

He is now reconciled in his body of flesh By his death One of the important things of being reminded

As to who we once were Is understanding That it was by no work

That transformed us No work that we did That changed us from that place of being alienated

Hostile in mind and evil No work that we did changed us from that Into being a holy people

It was the work of God that did that Not any work that we did Ephesians 2 .8 -9 It is by grace you have been saved through faith

And this is not your own doing It is the gift of God Not of works

So that no one may boast I think sometimes we look at that passage And we think that not of works so no one may boast

So that we can't boast among one another And say well my works are better than your works And so therefore

God Has more favor upon me It's not only that we can't boast among one another We can't even boast among the lost

As to how much better we are Than them We can't go to the lost and say You're still lost

You're still following the prince of the power of the air Who is described also in Ephesians chapter 2 You're still enslaved

To your passions beyond your control Which we read in Titus chapter 3 Me, I've made the right decision

And so I'm much better than you are I have a spiritual mind You have a natural mind So I'm smarter than you

Nobody can do that Even among the lost We cannot boast and lord ourselves among those

Who have not yet Heard the gospel Or responded to the gospel

And believed with faith in Jesus Christ Because all of us were once this

All of us were once Alienated Hostile in mind doing evil deeds

And it was the mercy of God that changed us We were saved according to his mercy

Not by any work of our own And so we have an obligation to go out With the gospel and preach it to the lost

And be faithful to those words And we don't Save anybody

It is the work of God that saves Our faithfulness needs to be to the scriptures Knowing what they say

And preaching them accurately So that a person has an opportunity to hear it The work of the spirit in their lives

Changes and transforms them And they become a follower of Christ Because of the gospel

Not because anything that we did There was a guy that came up to me after church one time And he showed me his bible

And he had these tabs in the top of his bible He said you see all these tabs These are people that I saved this week

He was really put off when I Responded to him and said you didn't save anybody And he was really upset

By that but I had to get him To understand and I don't really think That he agreed with me on this point but I tried to get him to understand you need to be

Faithful to the scriptures And preach the scriptures accurately It is God that does the

Saving work all that we Can do is remain faithful to what he has given us And knowing that he is using us

As it says in As Paul said to Timothy That the church is a pillar and a buttress of the truth

That's in first Timothy chapter three So he is using the church as his Instruments to proclaim his gospel

So we need to be faithful to the gospel But it is not us who saves Anybody it is the work of God That saves a person

We just need to be faithful to the calling that God Has placed upon each and every one of us So it is

By faith that we are Justified we read in Romans 10 17 a verse

I quoted to you Yesterday that faith comes From hearing and hearing through the word of Christ We did not even come to saving faith

In Christ until somebody Had preached to us the gospel As a faithful instrument of God To preach his gospel they shared that message

With us we heard it the spirit of God upon us caused us To receive it and repent from our

Sin and then we have become followers of Christ So we were once alienated Hostile in mind doing evil deeds

And it is because of the work of God that we have been reconciled In his body of flesh

By his death in Order to present you Holy and blameless and above Reproach before Him now these words that are being

Used here it's Old Testament language It is the language that has been Used to describe how a

Sacrifice needed to be blemish Less when it was brought to the priest And and that Sacrifice was spilled on the blood was

Spilled on the altar to Pay for sins So that language that was

Used to describe those sacrifices in the Old Testament is now being used to describe the sacrifice Of Christ and how

Jesus fulfilled these Things by what he did Christ has reconciled

In his body of flesh by his Death he's reconciled us Remember what we talked about related

To reconciliation to be reconciled Means to accept that which was not Previously desired before We came to Christ we did not desire

God and he did not desire us in That state remember we were hostile in mind Okay and it says in Romans 8 7 that we were hostile toward God So when we were in Our sin and doing those evil deeds we didn't

Even desire God we were not even seeking After God no one seeks for God as it says in Romans 3

And so and God Of course did not desire us in that state because We were enemies of God as described in Romans 5 it was

Christ that Transformed us and it was his all His holiness his righteousness That was imputed to us so now

When God looks at us when God the Father Looks at us he sees not our sin But his son and now

God desires us because of what the son Has done and we desire God because of the transformation that Has occurred in the spirit in our lives

So because of the work of Christ On the cross we have been Reconciled in his body of flesh

By his death fulfilling The sacrificial system that Was shown to us as a precursor

To Christ in the Old Testament okay In his body of flesh by his death In order to present you

Holy and blameless And above reproach before him Above reproach was also

A language that was Used to talk about those Sacrifices that were being made on The altar of God So in Christ we've been presented holy and Blameless and above reproach

Before him very similar to a Passage that we read in Jude 1 24 Now to him who is able to keep you from Stumbling and to present you

Blameless before the presence Of his glory with great joy when we Talked about this reading through Philippians I mentioned that it is

God Who saves us and it is God who keeps Us saved it is the work of God That is doing that sanctification

In our lives as well And we see furthermore the fulfillment of these Old Testament passages in Hebrews 10 10

Where it says by the will of God We have been sanctified Through the offering

Of the body of Jesus Christ Once for all So this Old Testament language being

Fulfilled in the sacrifice of Christ by his Body of flesh in his death

He is presenting us holy and Blameless and above reproach before him Paul goes on Verse 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 okay Paul is not Doubting the salvation

Of the Colossians nor is he Saying to them but you better hold fast to it Because you could potentially lose it

All right that's not what he's saying there Jesus said to his disciples in Matthew chapter 10 and in chapter

And in chapter 24 it is those who Endure to the end who Will be saved so Paul is saying here that he

Knows that in the Holy Spirit They have been sealed Ephesians 1 13 Where it talks about us being sealed

By the Spirit for the day Of glory if you continue In the faith stable and Steadfast not

Shifting from the hope of the gospel that you Heard you will be saved And knowing that the

Spirit is upon Them and has sealed them For that day Paul is not

Doubting the salvation of the Colossians He is confident that they will remain Steadfast in the faith

Not shifting from the hope of the Gospel that they heard which has been proclaimed In all creation under heaven

And of which I Paul became a Minister now this is not necessarily meaning That the gospel has

Been spoken in all of The reaches of the earth but really Among all of the known people

In the Roman Empire Paul who is in Rome he's under House arrest in Rome But this letter would have preceded

Philippians so Paul would have written the letter to the Colossians before he wrote his letter to the Philippians Even though in canon

Colossians Comes after Philippians In the timeline order Paul Wrote Colossians before he

Wrote Philippians but anyway so he's under House arrest Epaphras from Colossae And another thing about Epaphras I didn't mention this early on when

We did our introduction to Colossians But Epaphras came from Colossae To bring a word to Paul about some things that were

Going on in Colossae Epaphroditus brought an Offering to Paul from the

Philippians the names Epaphroditus and Epaphras Are actually the same name

Epaphras is a nickname Of Epaphroditus essentially so I appreciate

That that name is used instead of Epaphroditus because otherwise that would get really confusing We would be left thinking okay so the

Epaphroditus mentioned in Philippians is the same Epaphroditus in Colossians no it's two different Guys from two different areas but Epaphras has come to Paul Epaphras has come from Colossae To Rome Talking to Paul about some of the things that have been going on In Colossae and then

Paul is writing back To the Colossians to instruct them In these things because of the Testimony of Epaphras about The gospel that was received in Colossae Paul Knows that they are solid

Christians Having displayed faith hope and love The essential Christian virtues And so he is addressing them as Christians so when he says

In verse 21 that you were Once alienated and hostile in mind Doing evil deeds he is saying to them

I know that You were once this because we all were once this Before we came to Christ No one can boast no one can pop their collars

No one can thump their chest and say that I'm better than you Are but rather knowing that we Once were this and then we were

Transformed by the gospel that should encourage us All the more to take the gospel out to the Lost so that they also might be saved

From their alienation Their hostility Their evil deeds that they were doing

Apart from Christ so Paul encourages Them in that way and knowing that they Have been sealed for the day of glory

In Christ his statement in verse 23 Is not doubting their salvation or warning Them that they could lose their salvation

Knowing that they have been sealed In Christ by the hope of the gospel That you heard which has been proclaimed in all creation

Under heaven in which I Paul became A minister so Paul is saying I know That I've been saved by the gospel so I have become a minister of the gospel

And here I am in Rome the capital City of the world so that all The gospel can go out under All creation

Throughout all creation under heaven But this also being an encouragement To the Colossians that the same would be

True among them as well Wherever you are planted wherever You attend church

Your church has a responsibility as An outpost of the kingdom of God to Spread the gospel in the community where you

Have been planted so Do so take the gospel Knowing that not that you're

Smarter than everybody else because it Wasn't by your work that you were saved it was The work of God so because of God's mercy

Upon you show mercy to Others by delivering to them the gospel Of Jesus Christ visit with People in your church and come up with ways

That you can go out with the gospel more And more and make sure that it is Heard you need to have a stable system in Your church of people praying for one another and Encouraging one another because as you

Go out with the gospel in the world you are gonna Get beat up You need that constant system of support

That is encouraging you and Lifting you up in The name of Jesus so that we

Would be encouraged all the more to preach The gospel to the lost And see the lost get saved by The work of God our

Heavenly Father As we come to a conclusion here on What it is that we have read today Continue to grow us

In our knowledge of these things we Submit ourselves to you our Lord and our Savior thank you

For your patience with us not Leaving us alienated and Hostile in our thinking but delivering us

From evil into your Glorious kingdom forever keep Us steadfast until the end and We pray this in Jesus name amen

On the night that he Was arrested Jesus and his disciples were in The garden of Gethsemane when Judas showed up With a crowd armed with swords and clubs

Peter wanted to defend Jesus so he drew A sword and lopped off the ear of the servant Of the high priest Jesus said to Peter Put your sword back to its place for All who take the sword will perish

By the sword now often these words Are used to mean that if you devote yourself to weapons And violence eventually violence is going to come back

On you but that's not actually what Jesus was saying he wasn't being Philosophical he was paraphrasing the words of Genesis 9 6 where the

Lord said Whoever sheds the blood of man by man Shall his blood be shed for God Made man in his own image

Deuteronomy 19 expounds on this edict Saying that such punishment must only be carried Out by those to whom authority is given

Specifically the judges and men of High office the context here Is capital punishment when

Jesus said whoever lives by the sword dies By the sword he was telling Peter that if he had Killed the servant Peter would have been executed

For murder and it would have been within The God -given authority of the government To carry that out Romans 13

Says whoever resists the authorities Resists what God has appointed in Verse 4 it says if you do wrong be

Afraid for he does not bear the sword in Vain for he is the servant of God An avenger who carries out

God's Wrath on the wrongdoer Peter learned his lesson as he wrote in 1 Peter 4 That if we are to suffer for the name of Christ It shouldn't be as a murderer or an evil

Doer he wrote that we must be subject For the Lord's sake to every human Institution for this is the will of God when we understand the text

Mark from Virginia writes In and says dear what in John 18 when Jesus is arrested

Peter draws his sword And cuts off Malchus's ear Jesus tells him to put his sword

In his sheath and says shall I not Drink the cup that the father has given Me but in Matthew 26

After Peter draws his sword Jesus Tells him to put it away and says For all who take the sword

Will perish by the sword Why the two different statements Well appreciate your question mark

When you look at question mark Sorry anyway When you look at the two accounts

In Matthew and in John You'll actually see that they line up rather well When Jesus was praying

In Gethsemane according to Matthew's Account in Matthew 26 Jesus was praying and he said

My father if it be possible Let this cup pass from me Nevertheless not as I Will but as you will and the cup

That Jesus is referring to Is the cup of God's wrath Because we know that when Jesus went to the cross

And died God poured his wrath Out on Christ there on the cross So that Jesus would

Absorb God's wrath that he would become The propitiation for our sins Satisfying the wrath of God and Therefore all who are in Christ do not

Have to experience the wrath Of God we have been We've been paid for the price has been paid

For us all who are in Christ And this is you know Isaiah 53 Verse 10 where it says that it was pleasing

To the Lord to crush him so this is the Wrath of God being referred to By the cup in both

Matthew 26 And in John chapter 18 so then when

Jesus is arrested And Peter draws his sword of course He's he's trying to show his loyalty

To Christ in the way that he knows how he's really Just entertaining his own flesh he's not Following the words that Christ had

Told him so he pulls his sword Out and he thinks he's going to go to death with Christ but Jesus says to him

Put your sword back in its place for all who take The sword will perish by the sword Do not think

Or do you think that I cannot appeal to my father And he will at once send me more than Twelve legions of angels

But how then should the scriptures Be fulfilled that it must Be so so in both accounts

In Matthew and in John It's the cup of Wrath is referred to and the

Fulfillment of the scriptures Matthew And John may just recall them a little Bit different or maybe

John Is singling out words in a Different way than Matthew does like Maybe Jesus did in fact say the

Same thing to Peter in both Matthew's account and John's account but it's just that Matthew and John are singling out different words

They don't contradict one another And in fact are both saying The same thing when you're seeing the full

Narrative in scope so I Hope that makes sense to you mark and I hope that That was the answer that you were looking for Lord as we come to your

Scriptures I pray that you show us What it is that we are Supposed to see what it is

That we're supposed to know according to your Spirit help us to understand the scriptures Rightly and study these things

In context thank you for Giving us your word so that We might know the mind of God And the promises that have been given to us in Christ Jesus our

Lord in whose name we pray Amen Thank you for listening to when we understand the text

Pastor Gabe is the author of the book 40 of the most popular bible verses And what they really mean available

In paperback or for your kindle He's also authored a bible study Through the book of 1st Corinthians Both books can be found at our website at www .tt