We come to our third of the series in Colossians going through the letter to the church in Colossae. Paul has in Chapter 1, he's given his greeting, he's given a word of thanksgiving which is his normal practice and the normal practice of writing a letter in New Testament times. The thanksgiving includes a prayer that Paul has for the Colossians that they might be filled with the knowledge of God's will. in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. What a thing to be prayed for as a church, that they might be filled with all the knowledge of God's will in spiritual wisdom and understanding, bearing fruit and to be strengthened for their life of faith ahead. And then last week John brought to us Paul's declaration of Christ, his pre-eminence, his supremacy in all things, his work of creation, redemption and reconciliation. Christ is the subject and the centre, the core of this letter of Paul's. And then this morning we've heard from verse 24 through to chapter 2 verse 5. Now some would see a shift here and think that this is a different section that Paul's begun. He's sort of set the framework and now he's moving on, but quite the contrary. Having declared the person and work of Christ, Paul now goes on to elaborate everything that Christ has done for him and what that means for him in his life. Verse 24 begins with the word now. Because of what Christ has done and because of who Christ is to me and what he has done for me, now I rejoice even in my sufferings, he says. This is not a new section, this is a continuation of what he has already said. And he goes on to say how he is struggling and suffering even for the church of the Colossians. He hasn't even met them yet, but he is struggling for them. Such is his love for Christ and his body for the church. and he wants them to know the fullness of Christ. He wants them to come to maturity in Christ, to be filled with wisdom and understanding, not just so that they are clever, but as we see at the end of our passage this morning, so that they might not be deluded or deceived by worldly wisdom, by false teachers. They need everything Christ has for them to guard against false teaching, to guard against the struggles of this world and the things of the world that come to us and want to draw us away from Christ. Before we get into the passage properly we need to have a look at this first verse, verse 24. I would like to thank Grant in his absence for giving me what is probably the most discussed verse in the whole letter to the Colossians. I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, the church. Have you ever tried to write a message to someone and it has been completely misunderstood? You knew what you meant, but they read it and it meant something completely different to them. Text messages and emails are shocking for that, aren't they? People don't know the context. They don't know the sentiment that goes with what you are writing. And as the writer of what you want to say, you know exactly what it means. It makes sense to you, but those words to someone else without the background, without the context, without the sentiment, understand it in a completely different way. There is a whole new interpretation. I think it was Arthur who shared with us some church newsletter bloopers at the church camp. Things like, for those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a nursery downstairs. Makes perfect sense one way, makes absolute foolishness the other, doesn't it? But it could be understood both ways. Tonight's sermon, What is Hell? Come early and listen to our choir practice. Or a sign outside the church, you know the big billboards to attract people and a little bible verse on them. Don't let worries kill you, let the church help. Verse 24 of Colossians here has been a subject of many perhaps not so light hearted misunderstandings in the past. Not so light hearted at all. What is it that Paul means when he says, I rejoice in my sufferings for you. To most people that's a bit weird anyway, isn't it? To rejoice in our sufferings. All our world wants to do is get away from suffering and be laid back in our comfort, in pleasure. But then he goes on and says, I'm filling up in my flesh what is lacking in Christ's afflictions. Did Paul sort of write that not knowing that it could have been understood in a different way? I don't think so. We'll find out why in a moment. But there are lots of different views about this verse. Some, including the Roman Catholics, find here a text supporting the idea that Paul's suffering together with all the apostles actually supplement the suffering of Christ. Then all the believers and what they go through are built on that and there is this whole treasury of merit that comes with suffering. Back in the days of Luther, this is what got Luther so fired up, you could actually pay off your sufferings with indulgences. Others believe that there is a fixed amount of suffering for the church in this age. There is a fixed amount. Paul, knowing that, was more than happy to take on even more than his own fair share so that others wouldn't receive their suffering that was due to them. He would take more than his fair share. Honourable as that might sound, there's little evidence of it in the scriptures. What we know this statement does not mean, Paul cannot mean, is that there is something lacking in Christ's atoning sacrifice, his sufferings towards redemption, salvation, reconciliation. Paul has already dealt with that just in the previous section in this letter, let alone the rest of his letters. He has told us that through Christ all things have been reconciled to God. Paul declares that God has through Christ delivered us from the domain of darkness. and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son. That's happened, that's taken place, there is nothing lacking there. In Christ we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins and later he says that all the rulers and authorities have been disarmed, that our sins have been forgiven and the record of debt against us has been cancelled. So there is nothing lacking in Christ's atoning sufferings. Nothing that we can supplement, nothing we need to try to supplement. In fact, just so that Paul wasn't put up on the internet as one of those newsletter bloopers, he used a different word here for the word afflictions. He used the Greek word phlipsis, which is never used for Christ's redemptive sufferings in the New Testament. He didn't want it to be misunderstood that way, so we mustn't. To Paul, this made perfect sense. What does it mean? Well, we know elsewhere, Romans 5 and elsewhere in the scriptures, Paul speaks of rejoicing in suffering, which doesn't seem to make sense, first of all, to many, but as we'll come to see, it makes perfect sense to Paul. Not because he was some sort of masochist or religious stoic, but because the very source and his motivation and his goal took priority in his life and ministry, which is Christ. Paul was single-minded in everything he did. He wanted to serve Christ who had served him and to do that he would suffer, not only for the sake of Christ but for Christ's body, the church. So he would rejoice because he knew that even in his sufferings the gospel would be advanced and furthered amongst the nations. What's lacking in Christ's afflictions? Well, as we said, nothing in regards to salvation. That is finished. Christ himself declared that. But Christ also said that his disciples would suffer, that they would be persecuted and he also said that he would be with them until the end of the ages. As the Kingdom of God draws near and as we are in this overlapping period of Christ's first coming and his second, the Kingdom of God draws opposition from the Kingdom of Darkness and as members of Christ's own body, his church, the people of Christ share in his sufferings. We would all know something of those sufferings, wouldn't we? Whether they are the external pressures and persecutions of the world, we don't receive a lot of that here in this nation, but it's starting, if it hasn't already in your life, it does in many others. But perhaps those struggles and sufferings are just the internal moral struggles that we face with the battle of flesh and spirit within us. We would all be able to say yes to experiencing that struggle, wouldn't we? What's lacking? Well, it's only lacking in the sense that there will come a time when all that suffering and all that persecution and all those afflictions will come to an end. And up until that time, those sufferings are just filling up, as Paul says, filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions. Until the time when there will be no more crying, no more pain, no more mourning. This verse shouldn't actually cause that much trouble really. The scriptures are full of times where Christ's people share with his sufferings. Romans 8 speaks of us as God's children, heirs of God, provided we suffer with him, with Christ, in order that we might also be glorified with him. Our suffering has a goal, the hope of glory, hope that doesn't disappoint. In Philippians, Paul speaks of counting everything as loss. He puts everything on the dung heap, Everything he could attribute to glory he puts on the dung heap and even his sufferings he says are not worth comparing. He wants to share in the sufferings of Christ and become like him in his death that he might attain the resurrection from the dead. Paul views his sufferings in the right way because he actually sees something to come that is far greater. So often when we are stuck in our struggles, we have very short term vision, don't we? Paul has long term vision, eternal vision through Christ. In Corinthians he talks about sharing abundantly in Christ's sufferings so that through Christ we might share abundantly in comfort also. There is a man back in Acts who was told to go get Paul after he had been confronted by the Lord. Ananias is told to go out and find Saul of Tarsus. Ananias is a bit reluctant. Isn't he the guy that is persecuting and putting all these Christians in prison and having them executed? And God says, no go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles, before kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him, says the Lord, how much he must suffer for the sake of my name." Paul knows that part of his ministry will be great suffering. But he doesn't face that reluctantly. He rejoices in it because he serves Christ and he serves Christ's Body, the Church. Anything he will do for the sake of the Church. From our first reading we heard how much he had suffered 5 times with 39 lashes, beaten with rods, stones, shipwrecked, robbers, enemies, sleepless nights, hunger, cold, exposure and then just to top it all off, he says, apart from other things, if that wasn't enough, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Here is a man who says, don't be anxious about anything. but he struggles in his mind and in his heart and in his conscience that the word of God might be fully known and happily goes through suffering, not happily masochistically, but happily suffers for the church anything that they might come to know Christ and the riches of glory and wisdom that are in him. Have you ever thought that we benefit from the sufferings of Paul? ever given thanks to God for the apostles and all that they did. Just in very simple terms, the most basic level, if Paul wasn't put in prison, we wouldn't have this letter to run a series on. The letter to the Colossians. God's ways are not our ways, but they are good ways. I actually reckon this is the secret to Paul's contentment. He's learned the secret of being content in any and every situation. How? Why? Because everything he does is not for himself, it's for Christ. Everything he does is for Christ and therefore if he sees what he's going through, whether it be rich or poor, hungry or with lots, he's content, provided the Gospel is being furthered in the nations. Paul wasn't a Stoic. He says here he was a servant, a minister according to the stewardship from God. A willing and faithful servant of Christ for the church. All he did, everything we read about of Paul was not for him. It wasn't even about him. Those days were gone. It's no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. For this I toil and struggle. Have a look at the end of chapter 1. For this reason I toil and struggle with all, not my energy, but all Christ's energy that he powerfully works within me." Paul's life is no longer his own, it's Christ's and he lives for Christ and for the Church. As God's servant he knew that his suffering meant growth in the body of Christ and so he has much joy and fills up what's necessary for the Church. So as we look at the rest of this passage now, hopefully with some explanation of that first verse making sense to us, as we look at the rest of this passage, what was Paul doing at this particular time with all his suffering, his struggling and toiling? He mentions it a number of times, doesn't he? Verse 24 talking about the sufferings, and the 29, I toil and I struggle. And chapter 2 verse 1, I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you. Not for sympathy. He wants them to know something else. Have a look at verse 25. A minister of Christ in the church, according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you. What was he doing? To make the word of God fully known. He was proclaiming Christ. Nothing among you except Christ and him crucified. Why does he do that? Just because he is sent? Well yes, but what is his purpose in doing it? Verse 28, Him, Christ we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ. That's Paul's goal. He hasn't even met these people, but he wants to give them in one sense a stamp of apostleship and present them mature in Christ, to encourage them in the faith they have. They've already received Christ as Lord, he's about to say in chapter 2 verse 6. So now go on and walk in a worthy manner. He wants to affirm them in that. He wants them to be presented mature in Christ. In chapter 2 verse 2, that their hearts may be encouraged. that they might be knit together in love, that they might reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery. Full assurance in Christ, no doubts, no wavering, full assurance in Christ. And finally chapter 2 verse 4, he's making the word of God fully known in order that no one might delude them with plausible or reasonable arguments. He's protecting them from the false teachings of the day. We'll hear more of them next week. But just to say for now, as a small, young Christian community, young in faith, without having had an apostle around them to ground them in the apostles' teaching at this point, they're a reasonably vulnerable group, aren't they? It would only take the slightest twist of truth a small wedge of division, some difference of opinion, some minor point of division to slowly but subtly, destructively undo what has begun in them as a fellowship. They have already received Christ Jesus as Lord and Paul urges them to walk in a worthy manner, not in any other way, but with Christ Jesus as Lord. To continue to walk in Him, to live their lives in Him, Paul knows the only way they can do that is to have the Word of God fully known amongst them and to have Christ amongst them, Christ in you, the hope of glory, to have that within them. To give them that long term eternal perspective, not just the perspective of the current circumstances. Hope of glory lifts our eyes, doesn't it? Beyond the horizon, beyond the immediate day. Now they were a young Christian fellowship that Paul is writing to and he actually wants this letter to go out beyond just the Colossian church. But those matters that he is addressing are not all that different for us today, are they? Despite being a fellowship here for a number of years, maybe decades for some of us, it would only take a slight twist of truth, a small difference of opinion to test the genuineness of our faith and our fellowship Just as Paul wants for the Colossians here, don't our hearts need to be encouraged? Do we need to be knit together and united in love? In days where there's some unknowns about the future for us here, property, pastor, is there ever a sense of doubt or questioning, maybe even an undercurrent of angst or unrest about what's going on? for some perhaps, maybe not for all, but don't we need again to be encouraged and to receive all the riches of full assurance in Christ? Full assurance, not in our circumstances, but in Christ. I don't know about you, but I need all of that every day. Not just when life seems a little bit unsure. Life becomes unsure when I don't know that. This is not the fix-it solution. This is the grounding for life. This is what we live in and live out of. School term's about to start. We've got to start setting desks up again. How are you going getting the kids ready? for tomorrow? Feel like it's all a bit too much? Do you ever feel like life is just falling apart around you or you're falling apart, coming to pieces? That life is just too much? Or perhaps you look around you, it's not you personally but it might be your family, it might be friends, it could be the church across the nation, it could be the world. What is it we need in order to get ourselves together? We only have to go to a local bookshop, not even Curom, but Curom is pretty good as well. And there's books and books of self-help and programs to fix it all up. A bit of structure, a bit of organisation, tidy up the loose ends and we'll get on with the next day and we'll be okay. Or maybe just a good holiday. We need some peace and quiet, take a rest and then we'll come back and we'll have a better perspective online. Perhaps a new gadget just to keep up with the Joneses and distract us for the time being. Sometimes life seems to throw more questions at us than answers. And an unknown future, having to make big decisions, can give us a fair sense of unrest, can't it? What is it we need in all that? Friends, we need Christ. Nothing else, nothing more, and nothing less. I feel like it's falling apart. We heard last week that in Christ all things are held together. All things held together in Christ. So just as you have received him, go on walking in him." I don't know about you, but the moment I lose sight of Christ and all that God is doing in the church and in the world today, it's then that I am so easily deluded, so easily deceived by the world, by my own flesh, by the devil. So easily taken captive once again by the very things that Christ set me free from. loose side of Christ and all those things start to attack us again. Friends, Paul says here, and I know that we have Christ in you, the hope of glory. Not as some possession, some resource to use when we need Him and just put Him on the bookshelf when we think we are doing okay. We have all the riches of the glory and all the riches of the mystery of God. Christ in you, the hope of glory. He has come to us and He remains with us. Pray that each of us and as a fellowship we might never lose our hope of glory. That we might lift our eyes to the hills and not look for help anywhere else but to Christ. I'm not talking about dreams and long term plans and visions but our hope of glory The long-term vision that God has for us all in Christ. The hope that God has prepared for us in the age to come. Paul says nothing is worth comparing to that. Nothing. That great inheritance that has been guaranteed to us and sealed with the gift of the Spirit. The hope of the time when there will be no more tears, no more pain, no more crying. but instead there will just be joy and unadulterated worship and praise. We want that now, don't we? Christ put eternity in our hearts, but we are also told to wait patiently, eagerly expecting all that to come. In His graciousness, sometimes we get a wonderful glimpse of it in this world, don't we? And it just gives us a new start, really, to know that God has wonders prepared for us, for His Church. The minute we lose our hope of glory, then we lose sight of Christ and all that He's doing. And though He remains with us and amongst us, we actually start to look elsewhere for purpose, for provision, for our encouragement and our unity, which is exactly what Paul is warning against here. You know that one that you received in the Gospel, the one I just mentioned was pre-eminent and supreme in all things? He is yours and you are his. I know at least one person, whilst they are thankful for some rain, has been praying that the drought might continue. Praying that this nation might be brought to its knees to cry out for mercy to God. I can see the point behind that. But what about declaring to this nation that there is a God who is compassionate, there is a God who is merciful, a God who is loving, a God that does all things for the sake of his holy name and bringing his people together. Even if that means withholding rain, even if it means supplying it abundantly, He reads through Ezekiel and God does so much of that sort of thing, brings troubles, brings blessings, brings troubles, brings blessings, so that his name might be glorified. Wouldn't it be wonderful for someone to stand up in Parliament and say, we might have water restrictions, we might have a desal plant, but there is a God who is merciful and compassionate, a God who loves us, A God who has not just a plan for today and tomorrow to make sure we don't run out, but an eternal plan for us in Christ, where there is a river of life that just keeps flowing. A God who sent his Son to reconcile us to himself, that we might have peace. That we might be presented holy and blameless before God so that we don't need to fear judgement. A God who gave us his very self, Christ in you, the hope of glory. Now either way, whether we pray for rain or for continuing drought, we must not lose that hope of glory, mustn't ever. Nor must we become complacent as we wait for it. Waiting is not a complacent, laid-back task. We are to wait patiently and eagerly, and in one place Paul says, the speed is coming. Which I think means, get on with the task at hand. If you're waiting for something, what's the best way to make that time go quickly? It's to get busy. Get busy doing what Christ is doing, bringing all things together and making his word fully known. We must not become complacent, which I think is one of the deepest, most subtle diseases around our nation at the moment. I don't think it's a disease, I think it's sin. We are a nation breeding complacency. young people, young adults, most of them so laid back they're almost falling over. Baby boomers as they hit retirement in the coming years, if not already, just waiting to be free of responsibility, put their feet up, grab their caravan and travel around the country. Now there's nothing wrong with that, but if we're complacent in what we do, whatever we do, it's a very dangerous place to be. because in our complacency we will be deluded if we haven't been already. In our complacency we will be so easily deceived in our lack of fervour. Have a look at Paul here, he is far from complacent. Everything he does is fervent, energetic, eager, even rejoicing in his sufferings, not complacent in them, rejoicing. Christ doesn't want his church, his people to become complacent. He wants them to be presented mature, holy and blameless and rich in assurance, rich in understanding and knowledge. That doesn't happen when you just sit back and let the world pass by. In the book of the Revelation, the first few chapters, Christ is walking amongst the churches. These are people who have received Christ as Lord. just as the church in Colossians have. To some he knows their deeds and their work and their perseverance, but for the church in Ephesus they have lost their first love. They have become complacent in their love. For others he knows their afflictions and their struggles, their poverty and suffering, but some have listened to and taken up false teaching. They have become complacent in their discernment. Others he knows their love and their faith and their service and their vigour to do more, yet amongst them some have been led astray and fallen into temptation, sexual temptation, greed, idolatry, self-preservation, fulfilment and gratification have become their priority. They have become complacent in their godly living and in their self-control. And then the last one is a letter written to the church in Laodicea which is about a stone's throw from the church of the Colossians. And this letter to the Colossians is also to be given to the church in Laodicea. He mentions them two or three times in this letter. John has already alluded to what Christ says as he walks amongst the church of Laodicea. They are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold. No conviction, no fire in their bellies. They are complacent and Christ is about to spit them out. They think they are rich and prosperous, that they don't need anything, not even Christ perhaps. The dictionary meaning for complacency, self-satisfying. They could sum up the church in Laodicea, think they are rich, they have all they need. It could sum up our nation today, couldn't it? Perhaps it could sum up some of our attitudes. This church in Laodicea are deluded. They think they are rich and don't need anything. But Jesus looks at them and says, you are pitiful, poor and wretched. You are blind and naked. But Jesus doesn't spit them out. Not yet. He counsels them. He loves them. He offers them exactly what they need, riches beyond any worldly possession which is what Paul is talking about in Colossians. Refined gold and white garments to cover their shame and nakedness, healing salve for their blind eyes, rebuke and discipline to the ones he loves and the invitation and opportunity to repent. They think they need nothing. They are self-satisfied. But they are so wrong. They need Christ. Friends, we are never to be so confident that we don't think we need Christ. Church in Laodicea and Colossians, Paul is thankful for their faith. And yet in Revelation, Jesus is about to spit them out. And so Christ stands at the door, not to listen in, not to have a peep and see what they're up to. He stands at the door and he knocks. He takes the first step. He actually takes all the steps. He doesn't just knock. He speaks to them. If anyone hears my voice, All they need to do is open the door and he will come in and he will have fellowship with us and grant to us a place with him on his throne. But we won't open the door if we don't think we need anything, will we? If we are self-satisfied without Christ. Satisfied and deluded maybe by the world and by so-called wisdom. Friends, we need all the riches of full assurance and understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery. We need Christ. He who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. There's no room for complacency in the body of Christ. Not for Paul, not for Jesus, not for the Colossians and not for us. Plausible arguments, worldly reason bombard us at every point, in the church and outside. Not only from the world, through media and philosophy, but also those internal struggles. And that other word that's always there, accusing, deceiving, deluding, the accuser. And of ourselves we can't argue. with any of those things. The fruit in the garden was good to look at. It was good for wisdom and it was good for food. It was very attractive. But we need the Word of God to see through it, which is why Paul struggles and suffers and toils so much to make the Word of God fully known. Contemporary advertising is no different, is it? It claims to be something that it's not. It's good for us, makes us wise, makes us popular, fulfills us. All of that sows seeds of doubt in us about the sufficiency of Christ, which is why we need full assurance in Him. The wonderful news is that Christ has come, hasn't He? If the door has been opened, he has entered in. He has given you a new heart, a new spirit. He has given you himself, Christ in you and he has given you great hope, hope of glory. We have been given all of that in Christ Jesus, but so have the church in Colossae, so have the church at Laodicea. They have become lukewarm and complacent. The thing about hope, even if we know it doesn't disappoint, is that it anticipates something to come. There is a waiting to take place, isn't there? Friends, don't be complacent as we wait eagerly, patiently, for Christ to come again. We need Christ for our full assurance. We need his cross for the forgiveness of our sins and we need his ongoing presence amongst us, together with the Father and the Spirit, for our daily walk of faith in this world and to keep our consciences clean. And so as we finish it would be good to pray with the same words that Paul has for the Colossians, that we might know the word of God fully and be presented mature in Christ, that we might not be deluded by worldly reason. Let's do that right now. Heavenly Father, what suffering Christ has endured for us. Father, for that we are grateful. Not just for the suffering, but for all that it brings to us. Christ himself, our hope of glory. Father, we pray in these days that we might fully know your word, that our hearts may be encouraged. that you might draw us and knit us together in love. Father where there is worry or doubt, where there is unrest or angst, Father grant to us that full assurance of Christ. Full assurance Lord. Father, grant to us wisdom and understanding of your word and of your will, that we might not be swayed by the worldly reason and the plausible arguments of this day, nor of the accuser, nor of false teachers. Father, we need Christ, and you have given us Him. in your love and in your mercy. And so Father, as Paul goes on in this next section, just as we receive Christ Jesus as Lord, may we walk in a worthy manner, continuing to walk in Christ by your Spirit. In his name we pray. Amen.