We got six verses left to finish out Colossians chapter 1. and give you three verses tonight and then three verses, Lord willing, next Wednesday to wrap up this chapter. Now, Paul has begun the introduction. Paul has introduced himself. Paul has explained and focused on the preeminence and the need to give Christ the focus, especially for these people. I'm not gonna try to rehearse everything that's going on in this time frame tonight when it comes to the book of Colossians. I've gone over it a couple of different times, but ultimately in Paul's attempt and desire to help a people he's never met, but they are the church at Colossae and they are a byproduct of the ministry that he had because of the influence that Paul had on Epaphras who was the man that God used to reach people in this city and see this church started by the need of the fact that there were now Bible-believing and Christ-professing individuals. There were Christians who needed a gathering place and so Epaphras, through his efforts with the gospel, has now seen this church started and he has been fighting a struggle against people coming in to what has been established and trying to spoil it with errant doctrine. So Paul is writing this letter trying to help them understand they don't need to add to or remove from what they have received concerning Christ. So we've already seen through most of chapter 1 where he introduces himself, his desires for them, his love for them, his encouragement of their pastor Epaphras, the one who has led them faithfully, the one who has helped them tremendously, and he has uplifted him, not as giving him honor and glory, but uplifting him as a man of God whom they can continue to trust. He has been faithful in that ministry. And Paul has gone in, we saw in verse number 14 to verse number 20, Paul began to put a major focus on the preeminence of Christ and how he is the one who is God, who provides salvation, who created all things, who is in control, the one who is the head of the church, who contains all fullness. He's the one who reconciles, not your works, not anything else, but he is the one who reconciles the sinner to a holy God. And after that, we saw last week, In verse 21 to 23, where he then doubles down and gives more explanation into the idea and the understanding of being reconciled. And we focused on his presentation of reconciliation and how in verse 21, he presented the power of reconciliation. Those that were enemies and alienated yet now, You've been reconciled from what you were to what you are now. It is by the power of Christ. unto reconciliation. And so, he saw the power of reconciliation. In verse number 22, he presented the purpose of reconciliation, presenting you holy and unblameable and unreprovable. And I'm not going to re-preach all that, but those three aspects of the purpose of reconciliation. Then, also the product of reconciliation, that because we have been reconciled, because we have been brought back into fellowship with the God whom sin separated us from, we have now through Christ been, through Christ, by the way, and Christ alone is his message, have been reconciled back and put back in fellowship, the product of that reconciliation should be to continue in the faith, faithful with the gospel, grounded and settled By the way, later on, there's a lot of teaching and encouragement about growing in grace. and that we are not to be settling with the idea of, well, I'm saved, I'm good now, but the grounded and settled has nothing to do with being content to a fault, all right? Contentment, whenever it goes to the negative, becomes complacency. and we cannot become complacent in what we have received. The reconciliation to a holy God should drive each and every child of God to continue in the faith, be grounded and settled, which means we have to grow and we have to let our roots in the faith grow deep. We have to practice that which we have learned. And by the way, as you begin to share your faith, you also then have to practice what you preach. And that's not just for preachers. But to be grounded and settled and ultimately be not moved away. And that moved away is dealing with moved away from the hope of the gospel. And we mentioned last time, again, not trying to get into all of it, but we did mention last time the biggest focus on that is not what some people try to make it out of. They try to make out that he is teaching a way in which we can lose salvation. Because you choose to leave it and you can walk away from God and you can choose to walk away from your salvation. That's not what he's teaching here. What he's teaching here is what's happening in that church. They're being taught to move away from their focus of what they have already learned, and that is the preeminence of Christ. That is salvation through Christ. It is Christ and Christ alone. Christ is enough. Christ is all that's needed for salvation. Christ is all that is, in him dwells all fullness. He contains everything that a child of God needs to walk in this life. and be the light that we are called to be for the cause of the gospel. He, Christ, contains all we need to accomplish the task we've been given to do. And it has nothing to do, and again, I don't wanna beat a dead horse, but it has nothing to do with the idea of setting aside the fact that there are things we should be following. So don't think that I'm teaching or saying that Paul is introducing, as long as you name the name of Christ, as long as you have Christ, you don't have to worry about anything else. Just Christ, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, just call Jesus. Everybody needs a little Jesus. Right? Y'all, I'm not even gonna go into that. Y'all know exactly what I'm talking about. There are people on social media, there's one guy that went, he went off on that little Jesus thing, and boy did he hit the nail on the head. It was good. He's like, you know, you don't need a little Jesus, you need all of Jesus, that's what you need. And so that, it was good. But as a whole, What he's presenting here is not them being moved away as though you leave your salvation and you walk away from Christ. What he's teaching here, he's trying to get these folks at the Church of Colossae, he's trying to get this church, this body of believers to understand when someone is trying to move you away from the message of the gospel to the message of works, Don't be moved from your faith. When they're trying to give you a new message to share with people, don't be moved from the faith in Christ and the gospel. When they're trying to give you, as we've been told by one particular group, you know, it's a new revelation of Jesus Christ, a new gospel of Jesus. No, there is no new revelation. There's no new gospel. It's the same gospel. It's the same story, the same death, burial, resurrection of Jesus Christ. It's all there is, and it's all that's needed. And so he's telling them, be not moved away. Don't listen to these jokers who are trying to teach you to teach other doctrines instead of the gospel. Christ is all in all. So Paul then, and the last little bit here, next Wednesday has a very juicy verse to use, and I'm gonna stay away from it tonight. I don't wanna hit it tonight because we could probably spend an entire night just on one verse. But verse number 24 to verse number 29, ultimately Paul ends what we would say in the breaking down of chapters, okay, it's all one letter, but we would say in the breaking down of this chapter, the chapter one ending, Paul ends this section with an explanation of his ministry. Who's Paul? For those who might not have known in the church who Paul was, because they'd never met him, Paul takes what he's already shared and then He basically explains why it is he personally is writing this letter. Why it is that he is so stuck on teaching Christ and Christ alone. Why he's so determined to get this message to them. What is it about Paul that makes him so special? Well, Paul doesn't think himself special, but Paul does present that there is a ministry that he has been given. There is a job he has been given by God, and he is doing his best to fulfill his responsibility before Christ. And so in verse number 24 to verse number 29 is Paul's close out of this chapter, ultimately, but this section of the letter as explaining his ministry as a whole. And so in this, I just want to show you three things in verse number 24, 25, and 26 for tonight. In verse number 24, Let me read all three of these verses and then I'll break down what we see in here. So he says, who now, and of course he just talked about in verse number 23, that ye continue in the faith, grounded and settled, be not moved away from the hope of the gospel which ye have heard and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven. And he ends in that area, whereof I, Paul, am made a minister. Now he continues into verse number 24 from that thought. I, Paul, have been made a minister. Verse number 24, who now rejoice in my sufferings for you and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church. Whereof I am made a minister. Second time he says that in a very short period. I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you to fulfill the word of God. Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations but now is made manifest to his saints. And so in these three verses, I want to present to you three things that we find Paul laying out, and we see in other passages as well that kind of helps us understand some of this. But ultimately, the first thing would be, if you're taking notes, the first thing under this area would be his type of ministry. What kind of ministry did Paul have? Well, when you look at his ministry as a whole, he was a preacher. He has made a minister of the gospel, okay? He is a preacher. That's kind of a no-brainer. We figured that one out by now. But Paul had, I believe, at least, there's more, but there's at least three evident aspects to who he was as a preacher. The first is he was a suffering preacher. We see that in this verse. He lets them know. He writes from prison more often than not. He suffers afflictions, and bonds, and beatings, and you name it, Paul has gone through it. And here he says, he tells them, whereof I, Paul, am made a minister, who now, me, who, I'm the who, I now rejoice in my sufferings for you. Well, here's the thing. Paul's saying, the sufferings I have for you, these people never met Paul. Paul's never met them. It's not like he's in the jail at Colossae, and it's there because he went there and preached a revival and got thrown in jail. So how is he saying that the sufferings he's enduring, and he rejoices in his sufferings for them, how is he saying that these sufferings are for them? Well, what he's saying, and ultimately as a whole, he's pointing out that he is a minister of the gospel. They are a product of the gospel. Therefore, his sufferings in the ways in which he has ministered and performed that which God has given him to do, and by the way, the Lord said that he would show Paul what great things he would suffer for his name's sake. He said, Paul, you're gonna suffer. But Paul, in his suffering for Christ, was suffering as a minister of the gospel, suffering for the gospel's sake, for Christ's sake, which these people are a direct product of Paul's efforts and Paul's sufferings and the things he has endured faithfully. They are, by the way, in a roundabout, kind of like the way we support missionaries. We support, we do not contact every single person these missionaries contact on a daily basis. You and I almost never get to meet the fruit that is born because of their ministry. But if you and I are willing to give sacrificially through the sacrifice of our gift, there's fruit that abounds. And they are a product of our willingness to set aside wants in order to accomplish a more greater need. And through that, they become, to a degree, the souls reached, and saved, and ministered to, and then grow in faith, and then themselves, at times, get called to the ministry, and then they go out, and then they reach people, and those people grow, and sometimes those individuals get called to the ministry, and they go out, and they reach more. Next thing you know, you've got first, and second, and third generation fruit. because of faithfulness. And what Paul is saying here, and what he's pointing out is, he rejoices in his sufferings. He's like, all that I've had to endure, all that I'm going through. And by the way, I would say, since Epiphras knows Paul, Epiphras was directly influenced by Paul, more than likely at one point even trained by Paul in some way. He had multiple young men that he worked with. In some way, Epiphras was affected by the ministry and the faithfulness of Paul as a minister of the gospel. And Epiphras, being fruit of Paul's ministry, now reaching others, and there's fruit from Epiphras' ministry that goes all the way back to benefit of what Paul was faithful with. And here's Paul, now watch. Since Epiphras knows Paul, I guarantee you the people at Colossae had heard about Paul. They probably heard several stories about what Epiphras might have known. Now again, this is all circumstantial on my part. It's all what I would say I believe happened because it's fairly evident that there is a communication between Paul and Epiphras. There's a reason why Epiphras went to where he went. He's found Paul and talked to Paul about what was going on. And there was a bond there, there was a connection there. And so what you have is Epiphras, I guarantee you, had for you. Now, is Paul looking for people to give him accolades or say, oh, poor Paul? No, he's just letting them know. If you were to feel sorry for me, don't feel sorry for me. I rejoice in the fact that I get to suffer for the cause of Christ. That's a very tough shoe to put on and wear, to rejoice over the sufferings. Quickly though, let me give you this. Not only is he a suffering preacher, but he was a passionate preacher. We know that much. Paul was very passionate. Sometimes his passion got a little out of hand. He's very passionate about quitters. He got into an argument, very heated argument with Barnabas over John Mark. Why? Because he was passionate about the ministry not being filled with quitters. about not wasting time when it's so precious on people who are never gonna follow through. Now, Paul was a little overzealous with it, and by the way, just keep in mind, when you look at Paul's life honestly, Paul himself had a bit of a pride problem. At times, Paul let his pride get in the way of common sense and right actions and friendships. He never would have broken fellowship with Barnabas if he had not allowed pride to get in the way. Well, how do you know it's his pride? Well, just go back to Proverbs. Proverbs tells us, by pride cometh contention. What was the issue between Paul and Barnabas? Contention. There was pride there. Paul went back to Jerusalem because he was stubborn. Three times, God sent warnings to him not to go back. And he said that he must go back. He was constrained in his spirit. And by the way, it wasn't the spirit of God, it was his own spirit. He was stubborn. Ends up being taken and being sent to Rome, had full plans of going to Spain, never went to Spain, why? Because he went to Jerusalem when God told him three times, don't go. And even when he got there, the first thing they told him is, Paul, get out of here, and he stayed. Now, if God can use somebody who's prideful and stubborn like Paul, he can use you and me. Again, we often look at Paul as though he was a saint. Well, he was a saint by salvation, but he wasn't perfect. He was a great minister of the gospel, but he wasn't perfect. Every single one of the apostles had their problems. They were human and dealt with the battle of the flesh just like you and I. He was a preacher who suffered. He was a passionate preacher. We'll find in verse number 28, not gonna get there tonight, but in verse number 28, you see some of that passion come out as he presents the way in which he gets the gospel and the way he uses and preaches the gospel. We'll get there later. But he's a passionate preacher, and he's also a servant preacher. In 2 Corinthians 4-5, Paul said to the church at Corinth, for we preach not ourselves, but ourselves your servants for the gospel's sake. We preach not us, but we are your servants for the sake of the gospel. Paul was a servant preacher. By the way, if he wasn't a servant preacher, he would never have endured and never have stayed and never had dealt with the kind of people he constantly ran into. He had more pig-headed, stubborn individuals argue with him over the gospel. And yet Paul, in a servant leadership way, presented truth with compassion. Again, he had his times, he had his moments where it wasn't so compassionate. But Paul, for the most part, is a good evidence of a servant preacher. So he's a suffering preacher, a passionate preacher, and a servant preacher. That's the type of ministry he had. And then in verse number 25, he does present again his call to the ministry. He says, whereof I am made a minister. He's made a minister. He didn't necessarily choose to be one. He was made a minister. He said, according to the dispensation of God. The dispensation there is simply dealing with the specific plan of God. Paul was on one track of life. and God removed him from that track and stuck him on another. Dispensation ultimately just means it is a set period of time and purpose. The Bible is full of dispensations. And no, I'm not a hyper-Calvinist or hyper-dispensationalist, okay? But the Bible is full of dispensations when you look at it from the standpoint of dispensations of time. There are segments of time all throughout the Bible. There are divisions of time throughout the Bible. You can find that in the United Kingdom of Israel and the separated, divided kingdom timeframes of Israel. You find it in the timeframe before the flood. You find it in the timeframe after the flood. There's so many different sections of time. Those are technically considered, and again, I'm not preaching on dispensations. One day maybe I will. They are dispensations of time. Different things happen, different focuses, but I will say this, I do not believe, I do not believe different salvations. There's only been one, there's only been one lamb slain before the foundation of the world. And so that's another message for another time. But I do believe in dispensations, just not in different salvational dispensations. His call to ministry, there are two things to note. I'm going to move quick, be done with this. In verse number 25, where he talks about the dispensation of God, which is given to me for you to fulfill the word of God. So he talks about his call and the purpose of his call ultimately, which we'll get to that here in just one second to close out. His call is one that he was given. Two key points to pull from this, and we're gonna move on. First thing to understand about the call with Paul, or who was Saul, and God changed his name, okay? The apostle Paul, two things to consider concerning his call to ministry. Number one, he did not appoint himself. Paul did not decide, you know what, I don't like any of these other guys and what they're preaching. I'm gonna go ahead and make myself a minister. I'm gonna ordain myself and call myself to the ministry. Now may I say there's a lot of people today that do that. I don't like what so-and-so preaches, I don't like what so-and-so, I don't like what so-and-so, I'm gonna go ahead and just be myself a preacher. I'm gonna call myself a preacher. By the way, you're finding that a lot too when it comes to women preachers. Okay. They don't need anybody to back them. They've called themselves. By the way, then they blame God for it. God made me one. No, you called yourself one because it doesn't follow biblical principles. You can't blame God for breaking the Bible and the rules that God has laid out. But that was free. We're gonna move on, all right. So he did not appoint himself a minister. He didn't look and say, I'm more qualified than everybody else around here. I'm no longer gonna listen to anyone else who preaches because I know better than everybody else, so I'm gonna be the next preacher. He didn't do that. And he did not as a whole, though he did make mistakes, one thing you do not find, Paul does not abuse the position. Matter of fact, most of the time, Paul found himself in prison. He had no chance to abuse it. But as a whole, Paul did not abuse the position, though again, don't get me wrong, we know he made some mistakes along the way. We know he wasn't perfect in all that he did. Paul had several things that he regretted later on in life and later on in his ministry. Several ways in which he might have handled some things that weren't the wisest way to handle some things. However, Paul never took the position as a minister for a way in which he could build a kingdom unto himself. Matter of fact, he never stayed anywhere long enough to build a kingdom unto himself. Paul was always seeking to go where the gospel had never gotten. To tell people who had never heard and possibly were completely contrary to the idea of being told about someone who died for them, was buried and rose again. Matter of fact, every time Paul went to a new city, where was the first place that Paul would find to go? The synagogues. If they did not have a synagogue, he would find wherever it is, the largest gathering of Jewish individuals would come together. And he would first go and try to reach the stubborn, ingrained Jewish people. who are ingrained with their idea of the works of the law. And he tried to preach to them Jesus Christ, him crucified, buried, risen, and coming again. Everywhere Paul went, he did not go to build unto himself a people. He went to take the gospel to someone who's not heard. And when something did get established and when it did build he would stay present to help make sure it was solidified and had some qualified young men that were not novices but had been trained and were ready. Maybe they traveled with him. Maybe there's somebody that came in afterwards, and they vetted them, and they tried them, and they found them to be true, and found them to be right, and found them to be according to the purpose of the gospel, and Paul would eventually release that which he had worked to establish and secure, he would release so he could go find another place where no one was gathered. where no one knew about the gospel, where no one understood who this Jesus was. He wanted to go find another place that was nothing but a black hole with no truth, just dark. And he would leave that which had been built in the hands of faithful men. See, Paul was not, he did not call himself to the ministry, and Paul did not seek to abuse the position. of a minister. And lastly, I give you this. His key responsibility, he presents in verse number 26. He says, even the mystery. So he talks about how he was given this call by the dispensation, according to the dispensation, the purpose, the setting aside of this time of his life from God. This is his purpose. to fulfill the word of God. What word is he to fulfill? Well, he describes it. Even the mystery, which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints. We find Paul mention the gospel as the mystery several times. And in this, I'm gonna take you to one area, another letter that he wrote, Ephesians. If you'll go just a couple pages back, you'll find Ephesians chapter three. Paul presents, hey, my key responsibility as a minister, what I was called to do, I'm responsible with the word of God. I'm responsible with the mystery that was hid before, but now is shown to the saints. And that mystery is the proclaiming of the gospel. He said, my responsibility is to proclaim the gospel. My responsibility is to preach the gospel. If you think that I'm like a broken record because all I talk about is the gospel, it's because that's what I was given to talk about. There's nothing else worth talking about. It is the gospel. It is Christ. It is him crucified. It is him buried. Him risen again and Him coming again one day for those who place their faith and trust in Him. It is the gospel, the gospel, the gospel. It's all God gave me to do. He gave me to preach the gospel, gave me to spread the gospel, gave me to go out in the dark areas of the world and shed the light of the gospel. That is my call and that's really where I stick. Stick with it. Why is it that he says, stick with Christ? Because it's all he's ever done since he met Him on the road. Stuck with Christ. You say, I didn't need anything else. No one needs anything else. This same gospel has been preached throughout the entire world. This same gospel is the same way that all have come to Christ. There is no need of a change. It still works. It's still the same. And it still brings the salvation and forgiveness that a lost man needs. And so he says, my responsibility is proclaiming the gospel. And my specific ministry, he lays out, is to the Gentiles. Does Paul reach the Jews? Yes. He always goes first to the Jew, but he was told to go to the Gentile. Preach the gospel to the Gentile. In Ephesians 3, let me read verse 1 through 8. See if you don't hear some similarities to what Paul said there in Colossians. Verse number 1 of Ephesians 3, For this cause I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ, for you Gentiles, if ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you, word, How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery, as I wrote afore in few words, whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ. which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit." Again, the Spirit of God gave utterance. Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. And verse number six, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body. By the way, now you go back to him saying that his sufferings were for them. Who are the Colossians? They are Gentile believers. His sufferings were ordained of God for the purpose of reaching the Gentiles. And so he said, I rejoice in my sufferings for you. They were Gentiles. He said, everything I endure, I endure because God appointed it unto me so that I might get the gospel to people just like you. And he said, the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body. Now he's describing the mystery. What is the mystery? The fact that it's not just the Jews. Yes, it is Christ. It is the gospel revealed to us through what Christ has done. It's knowing how salvation would come about in God's plan. That is the mystery, but that's only part of the mystery. The full understanding of the mystery is that God would include everyone. He's saying, my job is to explain the mystery that the Gentiles could be fellow heirs. The outcasts, the outsiders, and the Jews would find a way to be one. Part of the body of Christ, no matter what your background. That in Christ, receive salvation through what he has done, be reconciled to God. And now through salvation and that reconciliation, the Jew and the Gentile are family. The mystery from the Old Testament now revealed through Christ in the New Testament. And he said, and be partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel. There it is, full ministry. Gentiles being made fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel. All of it together is the entirety of the mystery that Paul was given to preach. Whereof, he said in verse number seven, whereof I was made a minister according to the gift of the grace of God. He doesn't call being a minister a burden. He doesn't call it, you know, suffering. He calls it a gift. God gave me the gift that I might be called to preach for his name. He says, talking about the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power. Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. Paul, to those at Ephesus, was saying the same thing as what he was saying to those at Colossae. I have been called. I have been given a responsibility. All that I suffer, I suffer with rejoicing for your sake because I was called. God gave me a gift. an opportunity to serve by preaching the only message that matters, that once was a mystery and could not be understood and now today has been revealed and God has shown his apostles, God has shown me exactly what this mystery is and has given me the responsibility to get that mystery, that truth of the gospel to the Gentiles as well as the Jew, that all might have the opportunity of forgiveness and all be part of the same body of Christ. So Paul as a whole, and again, there's still three more verses. Verse number 27, I believe. Yeah, verse number 27's a fun one. I'm gonna leave it alone, not going there. tonight, talking about the riches of His glory. We'll get there, Lord willing, next Wednesday. But Paul, once again, over and again, you just, you go back and forth. You look at what the letter to, why was it that Paul, I think it was in the letter to Galatia, he mentioned how that he wrote other letters and that they were to share their letter and that they were to read the letters from the other churches. Why did Paul do that? Because he mentioned so many of the same things to each one, but in each one, there were little extra nuggets here and there that when you read them all together, You see a full picture of the burden and the importance of the gospel and the importance of Christ in a life and the importance of following in fellowship with the Lord on a daily basis. It is the entire purpose of the church. When you read all of it, you get every one of the nuggets. Little gold nuggets to chew on for a little bit. But Paul himself encouraging the people of Colossae that What he endures and what he's facing, he has been given a gift. And the very thing he is promoting that they not forsake is the only thing God gave him to preach as important for Jew and Gentile alike. It's like, why would we walk away? Why would we add to what God has not given us to add to? Why would we take away from it? Why would we set it aside? It's all we were given and it's all we need in Christ. Let us pray and we'll wrap it up.