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

Reconciled in Christ and the Call to Gospel Humility

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 are 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 Wwt .com. Now, here's a 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 listen 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 is 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 in time for her one year birthday. Yesterday we were looking at Colossians chapter 1 verses 21 through 23.

And we're gonna come back to that text again today. If you're gonna 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 you on it's from that word that we get the. 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. 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 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 gonna 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, okay. 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 ourself 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 or that 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 and Titus 3 3 that before Christ 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 in 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. There's 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 that physical reality has become a spiritual reality. I hope I hope this is making sense to you here because there's not a big party going on down in hell.

Okay, no, there's not people getting together and just sinning for all eternity. There is no interaction happening there whatsoever so that which was 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. Okay, 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 in first Peter chapter 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 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 body 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 in 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 are 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 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 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. Okay, 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.

All right, 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 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. Okay, 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 but I had to get him to understand and I don't. 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 3 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 is the work of God that saves a person.

We just need to be faithful to the calling that God is placed upon each and every one of us. So it is it is by faith that we are justified. We read in in Romans 1017 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 list 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 and 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 law 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.

Were you 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.

The Sword, the Cross, and the Authority of the State

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 gonna 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 first Peter 4 that if we are to suffer for the name of Christ It shouldn't be as a murderer or an evildoer. He wrote that we must be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution for this is the will of God.

The Cup of Wrath and the Fulfillment of Scripture

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, I appreciate your question mark when you look at question mark.

Haha. 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 gonna 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 12 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 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.

Closing Encouragement and Ministry Sign-Off

Thank you for listening to when we understand the text. Pastor Gave 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 WWTT .com. Join us again tomorrow as we grow together in the study of God's Word when we understand the text.