April 6, 2025

Disclaimer: This transcript was automatically computer generated and may contain errors.

Take a copy of God’s Word and open with me to Colossians 1.

Colossians 1, and then also ask for offer.

I’m not sure I ever have.

I’m gonna get you to turn to two other places and kind of have a bookmark or your hand there.

It’s a clip there.

Acts chapter 9, Revelation 6.

So three places.

Acts 9, Colossians 1, Revelation 6.

We’re looking at a few verses of those in just a moment quickly, so I wanted you to be prepared.

We’re continuing our sermon series through the Book of Colossians, and we find ourselves at a shift here in how Paul is writing to the church.

Up to this point, it’s been a pretty standard epistle, as we have in the New Testament.

There was reading while talking about the thankfulness he had from them, the encouragement he got in hearing about their faith, and how they were walking with the Lord together as a church, and talking about praying for them, and we saw lessons about being a prayer and different things.

In the past two weeks, we’ve been looking at this stark contrast between who we are and who Christ is.

We got this beautiful picture of Christ in earlier chapter one.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of creation.

All things hold together.

And then last week we kind of saw a picture of ourselves, simple, separated from God, needy, hopeless and helpless without him.

And then today, right off of that, Paul shifts his language into more first person, talking about himself, talking about the ministry that he has, the stewardship that he feels like he’s been given by God to, not necessarily just this church in Coliseum, when we started this study, Paul didn’t actually plant this church.

He’s not been there yet.

He’s not met these people.

He’s riding based on what he’s heard, but he still sees himself as having the ministry to them and to the church at large, because he was an apostle, not just at one church.

He wasn’t a pastor at one church.

He was planning churches, ministering churches, helping churches.

And so it turns almost into narrative talking about his life.

I want you to see how this begins in verse 24, Colossians 1, 24 and the beginning of 25.

Paul says, Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s affliction.

For the sake of his body, that is, the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship of God, that was given to me for you.

So you see that Paul has a very clear understanding and weight of what God has called him to do, which is minister to the churches.

He says, this is the stewardship that I’ve gotten from God for you.

And that stewardship is brought about through suffering.

Paul is suffering.

He’s in prison as he’s writing this.

We know that he’s in prison over and over again, that he has shipwrecks and attempted to be stoned at times.

And Paul is dealing with all of this suffering, but he knows, he says he rejoices in it because he knows it’s for the sake of the church.

And I, from time to time, get on these tangents, whether it’s here in personal conversations with you, about the importance of the local church, the importance of being involved in a church.

And that’s not just because I’m a preacher, that’s what I’m supposed to say, but because I believe that’s what the Bible tells us, right?

And that’s what we see here.

Paul’s saying, I rejoice in my sufferings and all these things I’m going through because it’s for the sake of the church, it’s for the sake of God’s people.

It’s not just for the sake of individual Christians along the way, but the body together.

So Paul is laying out for us his understanding of his own ministry.

There’s this phrase here that gets some uncertainty, and it gets people’s attention, maybe even piqued your interest when you read it, or when I read it here a moment ago, Paul says, in my flesh, I’m filling up what is lacking in Christ’s affliction.

And while that’s not the main point, or doesn’t change the meaning of the rest of this passage, if you’re gonna look at it, it is one of those things that I think people will go, what does that mean?

What does it mean that he’s filling up what is lacking in Christ’s affliction?

Is there something, did Jesus not do enough?

Did Jesus not do it all?

So I want to just quickly say what I believe Paul’s trying to tell us there about his affliction.

So our mind isn’t just kind of stuck there, or can’t really pay attention to the rest.

We’re like, what does this mean about filling up what’s lacking in Christ’s affliction?

One thing we can know for certain is that Paul is not saying that there’s something deficient about Jesus’ suffering.

Sometimes some people kind of read it that way.

There was something lacking in what Christ did.

Christ suffered for us.

Is it lacking somehow?

Well, we know that that’s not what Paul means, because he says contradictory statements in this book and in the rest of his epistles.

We know that Paul understands the fullness and the sufficiency of Jesus’ sacrifice for us.

Here’s what I believe Paul is teaching us.

This is why I got you in Acts 9 and Revelation 6.

You see, when Paul was called in Acts 9, when he’s saved, they are in Acts 9.

You get my verses here.

Starting in verse 13.

So what happens is Paul is saved, he’s blinded, and then God tells someone to go.

He tells Anais to go and to meet Saul and to minister to him.

And that’s when Saul is going to get his vision back.

And here’s what picked up with me in verse 13.

But Anais asked the Lord, I’ve heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem.

And here he has the authority of the chief priests to bind all those who call on your name.

So Anais is understandably concerned, right?

I’m supposed to go talk to this guy who’s going to be killing the Christians?

Verse 15, but the Lord said to him, go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine, to carry my name before the Gentiles, and the kings, and the children of Israel.

I noticed this in 16th, for I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.

See, from the very beginning, Paul knew his ministry was going to be one of suffering.

That was made very clear to him right at his conversion.

God was showing him, he was going to be an instrument used to bring people to himself.

The tool that God was going to use was his suffering.

Now, if you go to Revelation chapter 6, Revelation chapter 6, we see this scene that kind of maybe haunts us a little bit or concerns us a little bit, but it’s how God has chosen to work.

Revelation chapter 6, starting in verse 9.

It says, When he opened the fifth seal, I saw how he had altered the souls of those who had been slain for the work of God and for the witness stand on.

They cried out with a loud voice, O sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?

And they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.

Now, here’s the connection we’ll make for us in Acts 9 and Revelation 6.

Suffering is the plan that God uses for his people to bring people to himself.

Because our faith is best shown under the pressure of suffering.

Maylee came across this quote the other day.

She showed it to me.

I thought it was very fitting.

It was something like, anytime I ask someone about when they’ve grown the most in Christ, I never hear about good times.

When you ask somebody, when did you grow the most in the Lord?

The overwhelming majority of the time, the likely answer you’re going to get is when they were going through some suffering, some trial, some sorrow.

And that’s the thing that God uses to draw people to himself.

So I think what Paul, so that’s Colossians 1, what Paul is trying to say here, and I’m filling up in my suffering what’s lacking, isn’t that somehow Christ’s suffering was deficient, but rather there is an appointed amount of suffering for God’s people.

We see that in Revelation 6, right?

How much longer those who have been slain, how much longer until we’re avenged?

Hey, rest a little longer, wait until the full number of those who are going to be killed like you’re killed.

When we reach that number, then I will avenge you.

There’s a certain amount of suffering that God has for his people that we might be his witnesses to the world around us.

And Paul is saying, I’m just doing my part to fill up that number, right?

We got to get to this quota, if you will.

And in my life, I understand that my suffering is nothing more, nothing less than me fulfilling what’s left to go, what’s lacking in that amount of suffering.

I believe that’s the proper perspective that we as God’s people are called to have in the midst of sorrow and suffering and sadness and chaos in this fallen world, because we can be witnesses to a world that when they face sorrow, suffering, and chaos, they run away from God, they question God.

That’s what Paul is saying he’s doing.

So bringing this back to Colossians 1, I know I kind of went on a rabbit trail, but I wanted to make sure we were clear about what he was saying, about what was lacking in Christ’s suffering.

So as we bring it back to Colossians 1, we recognize Paul is saying, God has taught me to minister to the church through my suffering.

So in the midst of my suffering, as I’m filling up what’s lacking here, I’m rejoicing in that because it’s for your benefit.

And from here, Paul is going to start to list the benefits that the church experiences through his suffering.

I’ve called these, our sermon title this morning is Paul’s Priorities for the Church, because I believe what we see here is the top priorities that Paul is saying, these are the most important things for the Church in the midst of suffering and sorrow, in the midst of my suffering as I’m ministering to you.

These are the most important things.

These are the top priorities that you ought to understand.

And by extension, that means these are the top priorities that we ought to understand.

These are the things that we might ought to highlight as of top importance for us as God’s people in His Church.

And I believe there are five of those priorities.

So you’ve got the note page, you’ve got the blanks there on that.

I also want to mention to our kids, I’m going to mention this in the beginning, first Sunday of the month, so there are new sermon booklets for you.

If you didn’t get one, sorry, we’re trying to get them out before the service is a little chaotic.

You get excused absence today, pay on your notes.

Just get one from Mr.

Julian, and you can start filling those up.

The mailbox is out from Marches, so put those in there and get you a little truth.

All right, there’s a little promo for the kids sermon notebook.

So there are five priorities I think Paul has for the church that we also ought to have here in Colossians 1 and 2.

Number one is this, Paul prioritized knowing the Word of God.

Paul prioritized knowing, that is that the church would know the Word of God.

So let’s pick up where we left off in verse 25.

Remember he says, I became a minister of the gospel, the stewardship of God that was given to me for you.

And then look what he says here in the rest of this verse in verse 26.

He says, to make the Word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations, but now reveal to his saints.

See, Paul says, I’m suffering for your sake that you might know the Word of God.

You might know this mystery that’s been revealed.

Now, what is called mystery?

That’s language he loves to use.

And typically, 99.9% of the time, they’ve got 100% of the time that Paul uses that language of mystery.

What he’s talking about is the progressive revelation of God in scripture.

You see, God didn’t just dump on the Adonim, all the knowledge about himself that he wanted us to know that we have today.

God slowly, over time, revealed himself through the prophet, through the patriarchs, through the law, through the prophets.

And in Hebrews 1, tell us, in these latter days, he’s revealed himself to us in his son.

So God, over time, slowly unfolds the plan, more and more and more, until it was the right time when Jesus came and fulfilled all those promises of God.

And so what Paul is saying here, remember, they don’t have the New Testament written yet.

He’s saying, my desire for you is that you would fully know the mystery of God, the revelation that God has brought about, the full plan that he has now fully shown us in Jesus.

And we now have the benefit of having that full revelation of God that he’s given us.

We know that his word is truth.

John 17, 17 says, sanctify us by the word, or sanctify us with the truth.

Your word is true.

And then John 8, 32, Jesus says, you’ll know the truth and the truth will set you free.

So we need to know the truth to be set free.

It’s important that we know the word of God and we know that that truth that sets us free is His word.

From John 17.

And so church, it is of the utmost importance, we’ll talk at the end about kind of why Paul says it is, but it is the utmost importance that we know His word.

We don’t take somebody else’s word for it.

We don’t just go, well, I remember hearing something about that way back in the day, but that we ourselves know God’s word.

Paul is suffering for the sake that this church and that the church might know the word of God.

Number two, Paul prioritizes knowing the Gospel.

So we kind of start big picture.

It’s important that we know the word.

We know the word of God.

We understand how God has revealed Himself to us over time, that mystery that God revealed through the ages.

That’s important, but then you narrow that focus in.

You go, now it is important to know kind of that big picture, but it’s really important to know narrowly what it is that Jesus has done for us.

Look at verse 27.

So just as a reminder, verse 26, this, this, the word of God that was hidden for ages has now been revealed to the saints.

That’s us, right?

We’re saints, priests in the kingdom of God.

Now, so let’s talk about us in verse 27.

It says, to them, that is to the saints, 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.

See, God has chosen to us, his people, to make known the greatness of his riches, to the Gentiles.

That’s us too, right?

Those who are outside of the people of Israel, outside of the Jews, that’s us Gentiles.

God has made known the glory of his mystery, and he clearly defines that for us.

You don’t want there to be any mistake.

That mystery is Christ in you.

There’s something unique and special that you can have all the head knowledge about the Word of God that you want and not be saved.

You can memorize every book of the Bible, start to finish, and not be saved.

You not only need to know the Word of the election, but you need to know the Gospel in a real, experiential type of way.

You need to know that Christ is in you.

The hope of glory is in you.

And notice that we have Paul rejoicing in his suffering, and then down here, he talks about having hope.

So for a man is in prison, who’s going through a lot for the sake of the Gospel, and will ultimately be martyred for the sake of the Gospel, according to church history, he’s rejoicing, and he understands that Christ in him, Christ in us, brings hope.

And so it’s a priority that we know the Gospel, that we know what it means, and how Christ indwells us.

And that only comes through repentance and faith.

We have a promise from God’s Word, that if we would turn from our sins, we would repent of our sins, and put our trust in him, and him alone to save us, that he will come and live inside of us, that he will live through us, that we wouldn’t have to try to live on our own strength, because we not only cannot save ourselves, but we can’t sanctify ourselves.

Not only can we not make ourselves justify before God, but we can’t make ourselves holy before God.

We saw that last week or the week before, about how he would present for himself, us, holy and blameless and spotless.

He’s the one that would do that work in us, and that only comes with Christ in us, the hope of glory.

So it’s imperative that we know the gospel, that we know the truth of what Jesus has done for us.

Number three, not only did Paul prioritize knowing the word of God, not only did Paul prioritize knowing the gospel, Paul prioritized Christian maturity.

Paul prioritized not just that we would know the word of God, that we would know God in a saving way through the gospel, but that we would know God so well as we walked that we would grow into maturity.

The Christian life isn’t a one time flag that you plant in the ground in the past and say, I’m saved, I’m good to go because this thing happened, and never, don’t, I’m just whatever doesn’t matter.

No, Christian maturity is significant for Paul and it ought to be for us.

Now we’re going to look at verse 28 of chapter one.

I’m going to jump down to verse two of chapter two.

Verse 28 of chapter one.

Can we proclaim, that is Jesus, can we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ?

I’ll jump down to the end of verse two.

Starting with to reach.

It says, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

I say this in order that no one may delude you with possible arguments, for though I am absolute body, yet I am human spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ.

You see, Paul has said to them, I’m working and striving and toiling so that everyone, that every one of you may be matured in Christ, that you might reach maturity in Christ.

Or you might grow in other places in the Testament.

We see the imagery of a baby.

You know, a baby eats only milk early on in its life.

Then over time, moves to solid food and more heartier meals.

Because as our bodies grow, we need more different types of things to be strong and to sustain ourselves.

You could probably give on lesser food, but you wouldn’t be very strong.

You would be very healthy.

And the same is true in our Christian life.

We can be anemic in our feeding off of the Word of God.

We can be anemic in our Christian walk, where we’ve been Christians for 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years, where we’re still walking like a one-year-old in our faith.

That’s not what Paul wants for this church.

That’s not what we ought to be prioritizing.

Paul prioritizes growing the faith family up into Christian maturity.

He describes it as reaching full assurance.

That is having such assurance in what God has done in His Word that you are certain about your eternal destiny.

It talks about as understanding the mystery of Christ.

It’s similar to what he talked about earlier.

It’s having a knowledge of God and what Jesus has done for you.

Maturity also here is described as not being deluded with possible arguments.

And this is why I said we’re going to kind of hit this again later.

This is why it’s so important to know the Word of God, because you can turn on any random TV channel or radio station or be walking and hear somebody preaching on the street.

And they can be saying anything, right?

There’s no standards or practices, right?

There’s no quality control checking those messages.

They’re just being blared out.

And if we don’t know the truth, it’ll be easy to be deluded by plausible arguments, right?

About things that, yeah, that sounds good on the ear.

That could be true.

Yeah, that doesn’t sound crazy.

But the truth is, this word is true, like we saw in John 17, 17.

And so we have to know the word.

That we, as we grow up into maturity, we would not be tossed to and throw and deceived by every cunning argument, by every smooth talker and thinker.

We’ve got to be able to be prepared in ourselves so Paul is saying it is a priority that in his suffering, he is doing it so that the church might grow up in their faith and be…

Paul prioritized encouragement.

Paul prioritized encouragement.

Look again, chapter 1 verses 29 through chapter 2 verse 2.

29 of chapter 1 through verse 2 of chapter 2.

Paul again is going to make it clear that this is what he’s striving for.

He says, For this I am toil, struggling with all this energy that he powerfully works within me.

For I want you to know how great of a struggle I have for you and for those that they ought to see it.

And for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged.

So again, Paul gives this little kind of in the middle, he reiterates that he’s striving for them.

He’s toiling for them, not only them, but those that we ought to see it, and all those who have not yet met him.

So Paul is saying, it’s not just about you.

It’s not just about the churches that I’ve been in, but that all of God’s people, I’m working hard, I’m striving, I’m prioritizing that all of God’s people might be encouraged.

Brothers and sisters, we need that encouragement.

Man, I think you’re a person that needs it.

In a world full of suffering, in a world full of sin, in a world full of sins, of bad news everywhere you turn and everywhere you look, what we need is brothers and sisters that will come alongside you.

And I’m not lying to you, right?

I’m not just low smoke at you or just try to flatter you, but that will genuinely encourage you in the Lord.

Just this week, two brothers from our church sent me encouraging text messages.

And it’s just a reminder to strive on in the faith, to strive on in the work of the Lord, to just press on in what he is doing, and not only in my life, but in our lives as a body.

And we all need those people in our lives.

We all need brothers and sisters in our lives that can not only step in and speak hard truths to you when you mess up, right?

And can correct you when you’re being boneheaded or when you are saying something that’s not true, that can come in with love, correct you gently, but we also not only can, and that’s not beating each other down, we’re doing it in love in a Christian way, but that can come alongside and encourage and lift you up.

And Paul recognizes the need of the church of encouragement.

That’s important for us as well.

In number five, Paul prioritizes unity.

Paul prioritizes that churches need to be unified.

Look here in verse two of chapter two, right after he says that their hearts may be encouraged, he says this, being knit together in love, being knit together in love.

Your translation might say be unified in love.

It’s so important that the family of God, the people of God be unified together.

That doesn’t mean we agree on everything.

That doesn’t mean we like all the same stuff.

That doesn’t mean everything goes great.

But that does mean that we stand firm together with one another, arm in arm, locked in together for the mission of God, for the kingdom of God, because we’re all members of the same kingdom.

After chapter 12, verse 25 says, that kingdom divided against itself cannot stand.

Jesus had been casting out demons, and they accused him of being the devil.

They said, you are casting out demons in the name of the devil, in the name of evil.

Are you some type of demon?

And Jesus rightfully and clearly points out to them, that’s silly, right?

If I was a demon, if I was the devil, why would I call demons out of people?

Why would I be able to put them in people?

And he kind of makes that argument to them.

The kingdom divided against itself can’t stand.

I’m not coming in the name of the devil.

I’m coming to defeat the devil.

And just as true as that is for demons and the devil, it’s true for God’s kingdom.

God’s kingdom divided against itself.

We’ll not stand.

A church divided against itself will not stand.

It won’t make it.

We have to be a church unified together, and this is so important because in John 13, verse 35, Jesus tells us this, John 13, 35, by this, all people will know that you are my disciples, and you have love for one another.

Love for one another.

If we are unified, and notice that’s what he said, that’s what Paul said in Colossians 1.

He said, knit together in love, not just knit together arbitrarily, not knit together because we have to be, right?

Because the preacher told me we had to be unified, so that’s why I’m not.

No, knit together in love because Jesus says that’s how the world will know who we are.

We love one another despite our differences.

We love one another despite suffering and sorrow.

That gives us an opportunity to share that gospel, to share that…

Brothers and sisters, Paul is telling the church in Coliseum, all the churches in that area at night time, I’m suffering.

I’m rejoicing in my suffering because I know that through my suffering, you’re growing in your knowledge of the Word, of the Gospel.

You are growing to maturity, you’re encouraging one another and you’re unified.

And if that’s the outcome of that, then I’m willing to take suffering.

If that’s what’s being produced, then I will continue to fill up what’s lacking in the suffering of the saints of God.

So I want to ask you, are you prioritizing those things in the same way in which Christ, or in the same way in which Paul did Christ commands us to?

Are you willing to put yourself out?

Are you willing to suffer a little bit here, to lack something there?

Are you willing to deal with something that’s not great in your life if it means that others might grow, that you might grow as well?

I would encourage you to prioritize these things.

I would encourage us as a faith family to prioritize these things together, like the Apostle Paul did.

And in doing so, I believe we will see God work in Selma.

If we want to see Selma reach for the Gospel, this is how we do it.

We know the Word, we know the Gospel, we grow in our faith, we encourage one another, and we are unified.

And we will do that, and if all the Gospel, Pete, Bridget, Believing Church of Selma will do that, we will reach Selma for the Gospel.

In a moment, we are going to stand and we are going to sing a song of response.

And if you are not prioritizing those things in your life, I want to encourage you to do that.

If you are not prioritizing these things, I want to ask you to make a fresh commitment today to the Lord, to value those things.

But if you would like to come and talk with me, I would like to talk to you about salvation or church membership.

If you want me to pray with you or for you or something you about the church know and be praying about, please come and let me know that’s what this time of response is for.

So let’s stand together as we pray.

Lord, we are thankful for having work in our lives.

We pray now that your Spirit would speak to us through this time of response, that you would speak through your word, that we might prioritize these things together.

In Jesus’ name we pray.

Amen.