WWUTT 058 No Prejudice (Colossians 1:24-29)

The Apostle Paul said to the Colossians that in Christ there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, scythian, slave, free, but Christ is all and in all.

We are a chosen race, a holy people who have been called out for his own possession, and that means that in Christ there should be no racism when we understand the text.

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Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. Yesterday, I read from 1 Peter 1 -9 about how we are a chosen race and a holy nation, and this in light of what we've been reading in Colossians 1, where in verse 21,

Paul says, you were once alienated. And then in verse 22, we've been reconciled in Christ.

I came across an article from John Piper. It's entitled, 10 Reasons to Revel in Being Chosen.

And reason number six is this, being a chosen race is the end of racism among Christians.

Let me read it to you. It is a wonder, Piper says, that in God's choosing a people for himself, he nullified the self -exalting effects of all races and ethnicities.

The chosen race is not white or black or Asian or any other natural grouping.

The chosen race are people who are born again to a living hope.

Their new identifying DNA is from the Holy Spirit. Race and ethnicity are not unimportant in our common cultural life, but they are not what unites us to God or to each other in Christ.

We are a new creation, a new humanity. Peter even says a new race, a chosen race, a race taken from all races.

God chose us freely without respect to race to be in this new race.

Then he sent his son to purchase us from all the ethnic groups of the world. You were slain and by your blood, you ransom people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.

Revelation 5, 9. In this way, he nullified all racism for he bound together every race and every ethnicity into one new family with one glorious father.

And he did this in eternity when he chose to make a people from every race into one new race.

Revel in your freedom from racism. And if you can't, then come learn who you are.

Learn what it means to be a chosen race. We've been studying in the book of Colossians yesterday, reading

Colossians 1, 21 through 23. Today, we come to verse 24 to the end of the chapter.

Before we open up the text, why don't we come to the Lord in prayer? Our wonderful heavenly father, we thank you for calling us out of darkness and into your marvelous light.

And I pray that we continue to understand what it means to be a chosen people. There should be nothing that separates us, nothing physical, no land or country that we are from, no language that we speak.

None of these things should separate us for we are all unified by the gospel of Jesus Christ, calling out from this people, a new people to be his own.

And so Lord, I pray we understand what that means to celebrate one another and encourage one another according to the hope that we all share in Christ Jesus and help us to take the message of the gospel to others without prejudice.

There's no people selecting these people. I want to be in the new race, so on and so forth, because we don't see people that way all made in the image of God.

You showed your gospel without prejudice. So let us share that gospel without prejudice ourselves, continue to work this reality in our hearts and in our minds so that we do all things to the glory and honor of our great

God who saves us. In the name of Jesus, we pray, amen. Colossians chapter one, starting in verse 24.

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake and in my flesh, I am filling up what is lacking in Christ 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 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 there in verse 24, Paul says, I rejoice in my sufferings. That is something that we have talked about in this program in the past in Romans chapter five is where we read that we are to rejoice in suffering for suffering produces endurance.

Endurance produces character and character produces hope. And this hope that we have does not disappoint us because it is the hope of Christ Jesus that has been poured into our hearts by the

Holy spirit. When we suffer in this world, we rejoice in those things because we know that God is using it for his glory.

As we read later on in Romans, Romans eight 29, we are being shaped in the image of Christ.

So the things that we endure in this world, the internal and the external struggles that we go through, both of these things are being used for his glory to make us more holy, more of that, that holy people in that chosen race, shaping us in the image of Christ.

There's this constant pruning and grafting going on when it comes to producing fruit.

That's something that we've talked about before, producing fruit in Christ.

Paul said in Colossians 1 10, we need to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.

So in this process of bearing fruit, there's this pruning and grafting going on where let me give you an example of this.

This is something that I shared in church this past Sunday. In fact, there may be a person that gets on my nerves more than another person does.

You know what I'm talking about? There's just those people that get on your nerves more than other people do.

Why is that? I don't know. I really don't know the mysteries of that. Why some people just tend to get on your nerves more than other people do.

I have a brother who he just kind of has this personality. He seems to be able to get along with everybody. It's almost like no one gets on his nerves.

I don't know how he manages that. I don't know why God gifted him with that and not me.

But nonetheless, there are just those people, some that will get on your nerves more than others.

I need more grace. I need to extend more grace to them than I probably need to extend to a person that doesn't annoy me as much.

When I feel that way about another person, when they get on my nerves like that and I think the thoughts that I do about them,

I feel evil. I don't like that. I don't like that feeling at all. I come to the

Lord and I repent and I say, God, please give me a mind that is more caring of this individual and give me a resistance, a resilience, not a resistance, but a resilience to be able to extend to them the love and the grace that they truly deserve.

And it's in this process of coming to the Lord and seeking repentance that he's pruning off the bad branches from the tree and he's grafting in good branches that grow and produce fruit.

And then there will be some other stems that come off of that. And later on, they'll need to be grafted off or pruned off and then new branches grafted in.

And this is the process that we go through in this process that is called sanctification of growing in holiness and being made more in the image of Christ.

And this is something that we are going to go through our entire lives. Our vertical relationship with God is sealed.

Now we're gonna grow in that relationship also, but our salvation is sealed by the

Holy Spirit. It says that in Ephesians 1 .13, that the Holy Spirit seals us.

Jesus says in John 10, that no one will snatch them out of my hand. So the justification that we've received in Christ Jesus is firm.

It is sealed. It is held firm. Nothing is going to change that. So that's the vertical relationship with God sealed in the

Holy Spirit. The horizontal relationships that we have with one another, the things that we're gonna be growing in and producing fruit in as we continue to endure in this life.

So in our internal struggles and our external struggles, we are producing fruit and we are being made more in the image of Christ.

And we rejoice in those struggles because we know that God is using it for his glory. It is producing something and it is filling us up with a greater hope in the things that are promised for us in Christ Jesus.

So Paul here in Colossians 1 .24 saying that I rejoice in my sufferings. His sufferings a little bit different because he's suffering for the gospel.

He's being persecuted for the gospel. But I still think that the sufferings that he's talking about there are sufferings in all manner, in all forms.

See, when we struggle in the flesh, we are sharing the sufferings of Christ. When we're spreading the gospel and we get ridiculed for it, we're sharing in something that Christ endured.

Okay, not only was he persecuted to the point of death, but he was ridiculed. I mean, he had members of his own family that turned their backs on him.

His brothers, his half brothers, James and Jude, two examples of those siblings who would later write books in the

New Testament. But they did not believe that he was the Christ until after he was resurrected and appeared to them.

We read that in 1 Corinthians 15. So it wasn't until then that they became believers.

But during Jesus's earthly ministry, they were not on his side. Jesus had members of his own family turn their backs on him.

I've experienced that. I know what that's like. I've had people in my church, people that I've bent myself over backwards for, that to this day,

I would still call them Christians, but they turn their backs on me. And it hurts. It's terrible.

It is not a great feeling. But I know that when I am holding fast to the principles that I have in Christ Jesus that are given to me in scripture, and I am experiencing ridicule or persecution because I hold on to those beliefs, it is producing something in me.

It's still making me more in the image of Christ. But I know that I can rejoice in these things because I am sharing in something that Christ went through.

And so that's something that's also making me more like Christ, that I endure something that Christ endured. 2

Timothy 3 .12 tells us that all who desire to live a life of godliness in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

All right, that's not just, that's not just saying those who go out and declare the gospel will be persecuted.

We're talking about all those who desire to live a godly life in Christ, a godly life according to Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

The fact that you have principles and values that are rooted in your Christianity is going to bring about ridicule.

Okay, you're a Christian, you hate abortion. There are people in this world who will ridicule you for that.

You are a Christian who sees the commands in scripture that a man should be a pastor and a woman should not.

Okay, just having that worldview will get you ridiculed by people in this world. The fact that there are certain things that you're going to abstain from and you're not going to hang out with certain people who do certain things, they'll ridicule you because of that.

All who desire to live a life of godliness in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Ridicule is a form of persecution.

Okay, now there are people who endure greater persecutions than this who are beaten because of their faith.

You may be called to that and you may not. But what we have is this promise that all who desire to live a life of godliness in Christ will be persecuted.

And so understand that when we go through those things, we should be able to rejoice in those circumstances because we know we're sharing in Christ's sufferings and we know that it is producing something in us great for God's glory.

So continue to endure even though it's terrible and it hurts sometimes when people ridicule you and turn their backs on you.

People that you've extended yourself for in ways that you don't extend for other people.

And yet those very people that you put yourself out there for will turn their backs on you or stab you in the back.

It's terrible, but keep at it. And in those moments when we struggle, when we feel the most burdened by what we are enduring for Christ, turn it over to God.

In all circumstances, turn those things over to the Lord and rely upon him for your strength.

The apostle Paul wrote this, 2 Corinthians 1, 8 through 10. For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction that we experienced in Asia.

Now we're talking about serious persecution here, being beaten, imprisoned, near death.

For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.

Verse nine, Paul says, indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death, but that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead.

He delivered us from such a deadly peril and he will deliver us on him.

We have set our hope that he will deliver us again. God is our deliverer.

He will deliver us from these trials. The things that we suffer through in this life should make us long all the more for heaven and for glory when we know that...

I'm coming back to what Paul said here in Colossians chapter one, that through Christ, God is reconciling to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

So we know there is gonna be a time when there will be no more crying, no more tears, no more pain, no more suffering in this way when

Jesus ushers in his peaceful kingdom. The sufferings that we are going through now in this life cannot compare to the glory that awaits us in Christ Jesus if we endure.

So endure and rejoice in Christ that you suffer for his sake in his name. So Paul says,

Colossians 124, I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake and in my flesh

I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions. Okay, so when Paul says that he's suffering and filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions, he's not saying that what

Christ endured on the cross was incomplete. Jesus says it is finished and so therefore the work was finished.

When we are in Christ Jesus, we are completely justified, but we have not yet been fully sanctified.

Okay, that vertical relationship with God through Christ Jesus, secure. We've not yet been fully sanctified, which is the horizontal stuff that we're going through right now in this life on this earth as we continue in the

Christian life. So Hebrews 10, 14 says, by a single offering he is perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

We are completely justified. We're not yet fully sanctified. So that's the process that we're going through now.

So what Paul is talking about when he says that I'm filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions, he's not saying that that what

Christ endured on the cross was insufficient. That work was done. Rather, what had not yet been done was the spread of the gospel.

Jesus said to his disciples, you will do greater things than what I have done.

And what he was saying to them is that you will go to the furthest reaches of the globe, taking the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Jesus and his disciples just focused on that little area around Galilee. Okay, that small little part of the

Middle East during Jesus's ministry. But after Jesus died and was resurrected and he gave his disciples the great commission, he was commissioning them to go to all parts of the world, taking the gospel of Jesus Christ to the

Gentiles, to all of the far reaches of the globe. That's the part that had not yet come about.

And so as Paul is being persecuted for taking the gospel, he is filling up what was lacking in Christ's afflictions, which was that spread of the gospel.

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.

So Paul enduring these persecutions for the sake of the church, we read in Ephesians chapter two, that it is on the backs of the apostles that Christ established his church with he himself as the cornerstone, the apostles being the foundation of the church.

So Paul says of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you.

So here we come back to this concept again of being chosen by God. And Paul says in Galatians 1 .15,

that he was chosen for this work before he was even born. We have been predestined for salvation in Christ Jesus as it says in Ephesians one, four and five.

I'm gonna start in verse three, Ephesians 1 .3, blessed be the God and father of our

Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him.

In love, he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved.

So we come back to where we started at the beginning of this lesson, that we are a chosen race.

We are a holy nation, a priesthood, a people who has been called out for his own possession.

And Paul's saying here in Colossians 1 .25, that he became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me.

God gave him this stewardship. The word that is there for stewardship is oikonomos.

It means administrator. So Paul views himself as a divinely commissioned administrator of the gospel of Christ.

He is responsible for making the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for all ages and generations, but now revealed to his saints.

We're gonna talk about that mystery in tomorrow's episode. So tomorrow's lesson is gonna talk a little bit more about that.

But we have been chosen for this calling in Christ. And it is the church that God has chosen to be the instruments to spread his gospel.

We read that in 1 Timothy 3, how the church is a pillar and a buttress of the truth.

So we hold up the truth as like a billboard, okay? And we are a buttress of the truth.

We are also a defense. We defend the truth from those that mean to try to make it into something that it is not.

We continue to preach the gospel and preach the word soundly, knowing the gospel in context, correcting false teaching, and yet making sure the true words of Christ are being spoken to all nations.

So God has commissioned all of us as his disciples to go into all nations, teaching all that he has commanded, baptizing in the name of the

Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And we know by the promise that God gave in the great commission, Matthew 28 verses 19 and 20, that he is with us to the very end of the age.

So know that we have been chosen in Christ. And because of that calling, there is no prejudice.

There is no people that we withhold preaching the gospel to. We are supposed to go into all nations with the gospel.

So let us do that. Crossing all borders, speaking all tongues, going to people of any skin color, of any ethnic background.

We are sharing the gospel with all because that chosen race is not defined by the color of our skin, the height of our body, the color of our eyes, the language that we speak, or any of these other things.

It is defined by Jesus Christ and his blood only, amen. Our great and sovereign

God, we thank you for this word and we pray that you continue to disciple us by it, growing us in these things, training us by them.

Lord, if there is any sinful or prejudice way in us, convict us of sin, show us our sinfulness so that we might repent of it and be made more in the image of Christ, pruning off the branches that need to be taken off, grafting in good branches so that we might produce fruit for the glory of God and the advancement of your kingdom.

And it is in the name of Jesus that we pray, amen. Jesus never said anything condemning homosexuality, so that must mean it's okay, right?

Well, based on that argument, you could also say Jesus never condoned it either, so that must mean it's wrong. There's actually a lot of things

Jesus didn't say, but on the subject of marriage, he said everything he needed to say in Matthew 19. It's there he reiterates

God's design for marriage. Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female and said, therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother, hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

So they're no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let man not separate.

And there you go. In three sentences, Jesus has just given the definition of marriage, which he created by the way.

And anything contrary to that definition is sin, including adultery, divorce, polygamy, pedophilia, and homosexuality.

A few verses later, he says that those who are not capable of keeping with this design for marriage should not get married. And he addresses sexual sins in other places like Matthew 15, 19, where he says that all sexual immorality is evil.

Something else worth noting here, whatever is written in red letters is no more important than what appears in the Bible in black and white.

After all, 2 Timothy 3, 16 describes all scripture as being from God. And in John 16, 12 through 13,

Jesus said to his disciples, more teaching was coming through the Holy Spirit, who is God, just as Christ is.

So passages such as Romans 1, 1 Corinthians 6, and 1 Timothy 1, which condemn homosexuality as sin are also the words of Christ.

The Old Testament, the gospels, and the epistles are all God's word. It's imperative to receive the Bible this way when we understand the text.

Now, I did not have a question that went with that video today, but if you want to submit a question about any of our videos or something you've heard in the broadcast, send it to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

But I did want to add to the video, the voice of Dr. Votie Bauckham. He's talked on this subject before as well.

So here is Dr. Votie. It's a little bit of a sermon jam. So you got a music beat going on underneath him here.

It is very, very common for people to say, especially for example, in relation to all of the recent, you know, hoopla over same sex marriage and so on and so forth.

If you've had a discussion with someone about this issue, you have run into people who have said, yes, but Jesus never said anything about homosexuality.

Dear friend, Jesus is a member of the Godhead. Jesus has existed eternally in perfect union with the father and the spirit, which means when rocks of fire and brimstone were coming down on Sodom and Gomorrah, he was not absent, nor was he in disagreement.

He is a member of the Godhead. Perfect union. Perfect agreement. No disagreement whatsoever.

Jesus is a member of the Godhead. He's a member of the Trinity. And as such, you can't divorce him from the

God on the left side of the book because he is the God on the left side of the book. Here's the other problem.

Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount talks about pornea. He talks about sexual impurity, which is a reference to the pornea code in Leviticus 18, which clearly upholds the idea that homosexuality is sinful.

And if that's not what he's doing, we've got a huge problem because Leviticus 18 also talks about incest and, you know, we get some bestiality in there and some other stuff in there.

So if our new Christian ethic is, only if Jesus talked about it specifically, then homosexuality is the least of our problems.

But Jesus did address the issue of homosexuality because he addressed the issue of sexual impurity.

Thank you, Dr. Voti. Now, as we've been talking about, that in Christ, there is no racial discrimination.

Understand that same -sex eroticism is not a race. They are not a people group. They are sinners who need to hear the gospel.

And in that respect, we should not discriminate from anyone who needs to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ.

It must be taken to all people. In 1 Corinthians 6, 9, 10, and 11, do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

And such were some of you, but you were washed. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the

Lord Jesus Christ and by the spirit of our God. Sitting among us in this chosen race in Christ should be those who are able to say,

I once was that, but in Christ, I have been washed. Join us again tomorrow as we grow together in the study of God's word when we understand the text.