Okay, I invite you this morning to begin with to turn in your Bibles to the book of Colossians chapter 1. So we want to continue our verse-by-verse study through this great epistle. And I hope and trust by the grace of God we'll get through the end of chapter 1 this morning. But we want to continue this morning on the same subject that we addressed last Sunday in Colossians, the dynamic difference in this dispensation of grace that we live in, of Jesus Christ in us, the hope of glory. What is Christianity really all about? Well, it's not about buildings. It's not about holidays. It's not about A code of ethics. It's not about a system of do's and don'ts. It's not about decorations like crosses and such. It is about the person of Jesus Christ. And Christ, we have by faith, and we believe he's real. And he not only came to this earth incarnate 2,000 years ago to die and pay for our sins and rise again, but he ascended to heaven. And it's not as though he's distant and far away. He indwells each and every believer so that we can say, for me to live is Christ. And one day we'll go home to be with him in glory. So in the meantime, the Christian life is nothing less than Christ in you from day to day, in the hope of glory. I like what one saint of the past, who was the co-founder of Dallas Seminary with Lou Spirit Schaefer about a hundred years ago, he wrote this, not in his book, Christianity is Christ, which was another book he wrote, great title by the way, But he wrote this in his commentary on Colossians. He said, the theme of Christianity is not a theory, not an institution, not a book, not a set of rules, not simply a code of morals, nor a system of philosophy, and not even a statement of truth or principle. No, Christianity is a living person with whom all these things are connected and from whom they proceed. And so there is a place for ethics and what we believe and so forth. But they all flow from a person and a relationship with him, namely Jesus Christ. And Paul recognized that, the great apostle of grace, and that's why he wrote in one of the key verses on the Christian life, Galatians 2.20, that I literally have been, past tense, crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. You see, the Christian life is a paradox. We as walking, talking Christians are ones who have died already. And we've risen because we've been identified with Christ in his death and resurrection. We are a living paradox. Paul says, yet not I, it's not I who live really, it's Jesus Christ pulsating through me. Christ lives in me. In the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. You see, the basis for this walk with the Lord Jesus Christ was his death for the Apostle Paul. It should be the basis of our walk as well. The means, the instrumental means is through faith from day to day as we rely or depend upon the Lord step by step in a walk of faith. And the motivation is his love for us and that love was demonstrated by him giving of himself for us. dying. So does this picture your Christian life? Is it Christ in you? That's what the Lord wants. And it's not just a matter of the Holy Spirit indwelling us. As Scripture teaches, He is in us. The Father is in us as well. All three members of the Trinity dwell within the believer. So we live with Christ in us. And as we do, We partake of the life of Christ practically. That means that his thoughts become our thoughts. That means that his strength is our strength. That means that his life becomes our life, practically. Like Colossians 3, 4 says, when Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall you also appear in glory with him. And that's what we're going to see this morning in Colossians 1 and the first few verses of chapter 2. Now I had you turn to Colossians 1. Let's read together 124 through the end of the chapter and then chapter 2 verses 1 through 3. Paul writes, I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of his body which is the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to his saints. To them, God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. To this end I also labor, striving according to his working which works in me mightily. For I want you to know what a great conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." What we see in this passage is that Christ makes all the difference in our lives and ministry. When it comes to our suffering, Christ is in us and goes through our suffering with us, and that transforms our suffering. Same is true with our stewardship that we have from the Lord. When Christ is in it, it elevates our understanding of what we're doing here and why we're accountable as stewards and what this is all about, this Christian life. When it comes to our speech from day to day, it should all be about Christ as we spill what we're filled with. And when it comes even to our striving in life, we know that it's Christ who enables and empowers us not to live a life of strife, but in our striving to fulfill His will and minister to the Lord and to one another. And so this is the pattern that we see throughout this passage here. It's all about Christ in us. And we've seen already in verse 24, The emphasis there was on suffering. Paul writes that he suffered for these Colossian believers, and he had the mind of Christ in his suffering. He wanted to give of himself for their sake. And that's why he could even rejoice in his sufferings and count it all joy when he fell into diverse trials and testings. And we know that Christ was with him in his sufferings, just like he's with us as well. He learned that from the moment of his conversion on the Damascus Road when he said, who are you, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. And at that point, Paul thought he had been just persecuting Christians on the earth. But it was Christ, ultimately, who he was persecuting. And that shows the connection between our living Lord and us as a body. That Christ is intimately involved in the details and is concerned about every detail of our lives. Now Paul was suffering at the time that he wrote Colossians as he was under house arrest and he was chained, says later in this epistle, chapter four. And so he was suffering for their sakes. It wasn't about Paul, it was about them. And so he had a loving, sacrificial, gracious mindset in his sufferings. And he knew his sufferings had value therefore. So Christ in our sufferings. We see in verses 25 through 27, Christ is in our stewardship. Just by way of review again, what are these verses all about? Paul writes that he became a minister according to the stewardship from God. And we saw that this stewardship that he was given was a responsibility towards the Lord. The Greek word is oikonomia. And we saw last time that this word oikonomia literally means a house rule, oikos house, namas rule. And under each home, as you drive down the street, each house has its own administration. Different rules for different houses for different people. Separate economies, so to speak. By the way, oikonomia is where we get our word economy. The Latin word for oikonomia is dispensatio, from which we get dispensations. And what is a dispensation? In terms of God's understanding, it's a stewardship from God to man, to certain people at certain times with certain responsibilities. Just like you would have a steward of someone else's property who would have to give an account for how they administrated that property. And so we saw last time that in the scriptures there are seven dispensations described. All the way back to Adam and Eve in the garden as they were under innocence for a period of time until they sinned. Then there was conscience. Then there was human government. Then there was promise. Then there was Israel under the law from Mount Sinai to Calvary. And at Calvary we know God said the law has ended. My son has fulfilled it. That's why the temple veil was ripped from top to bottom when Christ died. And Christ instituted a new dispensation, the dispensation of grace. We have a stewardship now of grace. And it wasn't just Paul who had this stewardship or this dispensation, the whole church has it. We will all give an account for the grace of God that's been lavished upon us and how we responded to that. So this is for the church today. And then we know there's a thousand-year kingdom coming, and that's a separate dispensation. And there are three primary dispensations that are given the most amount of press or coverage within the Bible of all the dispensations, law, grace, and kingdom. But why this is relevant for our Christian life today is this. This directly impacts how we live. You see, some people think dispensational truth is all about prophecy charts. It's a prophetic issue. Now, I think it's a deeply Christian life issue when you understand it. Because we're not under law, we are under an economy of grace. A whole framework of thinking. A whole new perspective. An economy of living. A whole new house rule, so to speak. One of grace. That's why we're not under the Ten Commandments. Though as one seeks to walk with the Lord and fulfills the will of God and the Word of God as a New Testament, Grace Age believer, they end up fulfilling, the righteousness of the law becomes fulfilled in our life, practically. We're not out murdering. We're not out stealing and so forth. We're honoring our parents and things like that because it is Christ in us. And the grace of God is producing this. In fact, it far exceeds what the law could accomplish for an Old Testament saint. One truth that we saw as well under grace, as this pertains to this mystery that we're about to read in Colossians 1, is that the Lord took Jews and Gentiles and put them together in the body of Christ. And what broke down that wall of separation was Jesus Christ's work on the cross as he became the peace treaty between Jews and Gentiles. That's why today when you see in the Middle East, for example in Israel, though it's rare to see a saved Jew in Israel and a saved Arab, Both Christians, they have fellowship together. While they're Jewish and Muslim relatives, fellow citizens are at war with one another. An Arab Christian and an Israeli Christian or Jewish Christian can get together in fellowship and worship within the same congregation. right there in a land ripped apart by war. Why? Because the middle wall of partition has been broken down and they both come to Christ and they recognize they have something far greater in the Lord Jesus Christ, Christ in both of them. And that's why Jesus Christ is really the peace treaty for the entire world. when it comes to peace with God, but also peace with one another. In fact, what you see in those churches in the Middle East, even today, where there are, though they're rare, there are Arab Christians and Jewish Christians worshiping together. That is a little preview in this grace age of what the grace of God can do, but also of what's coming when Jesus Christ comes back. And so this is his plan in this dispensation of grace. He's turning from working primarily with the Jews, though he has a plan for them and he hasn't set aside his plan forever. They're basically on the sidelines. They've been benched. And he's working with the church made up of Jew and Gentile. But his plan for Israel will still be fulfilled when Christ comes back. Of course, we see the stage setting for that going on now. But in Colossians 1, he goes on to speak not only of this stewardship or dispensation from God that was given to him for these Gentile Colossians to fulfill the word of God, but this is also mystery truth. Verse 26, the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to his saints. Now when you see the word mystery, what comes to your mind? Ooh, something spooky. You know, like when you were a kid, and someone said, I've got a secret. Well, right away, your ears started buzzing, right? And right away, you were thinking, oh, I wonder what that is. Let's talk to that person. And you know, the Gnostics and Colossians were big into mystery. But here's how they looked at mystery, that they had The inside scoop, the corner on the market on certain things that were mysteries, and you had to come to them, go through their rites of initiation, and then they would reveal certain things to you, but you couldn't disclose it to the outside world. You had to be part of the club to get in on this knowledge. Kind of like the Freemasons, you know? What goes on to become a 33rd level Mason? Ooh, don't give away our rites and rituals. It's all secretive. That's basically the ancient mystery religions today, repackaged. And this was the thinking in Colossae when Paul wrote this. So he comes along and he uses a word that they used Except he explains it from God's point of view as something far better than what the world and religion had to offer. Because the mystery of God, yes it's true it was hidden in the mind of God, only God knew it as far as the church program in the past. But now it's been revealed because of Christ. But it's not secret knowledge that you've got to come to our church and when we leave this service no one else can know about it. So you've got to become one of us to find out about it. Now the difference was that the Christians were to tell the world about this. God wanted everyone in on the mystery. The secret wasn't to be so secret. We are to share the gospel with everyone and tell the world about what he's doing now through the church and what his wonderful grace plan is. And so a mystery, according to the New Testament, really wasn't something that no one could know or was privy to just a few. The word mystery consistently means throughout the New Testament, a previously hidden and unrevealed truth that is now revealed and made known. It's very important to understand this, that church age truth that we are enjoying now in this age of grace was nowhere revealed in the Old Testament. You won't read about it. It was hidden. The Old Testament prophets didn't know about it. You won't find it in some obscure verse in Isaiah as you're reading one day in your devotions. Oh, look, there's a reference to the church. No, it was hidden. It was like this church down in the valley between the mountain peaks of Christ's first coming and his second coming. You see, the Old Testament prophets could see the great events related to Christ, but they had no clue about this. But now it's been revealed, and now the Lord wants this known. And that's why it goes on in verse 27 to say, to them, the Gentiles, God wanted this to be made known. And particularly, what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles? When you get Christ, you become rich, spiritually speaking. Rich for eternity, though you may die penniless here on earth. The Lord wants to take every spiritual pauper who's dead in Adam and spiritually poor, without strength, and make them a prince in Christ with all the riches of Jesus Christ for all eternity. That is amazing. And what are the riches of the glory of this mystery? Christ in us as believers. The hope of glory. Hope speaks of the future usually, a certain expectation of what's coming. And so if you've got Christ in you now, that's a guarantee that you are going to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ and glorified one day. No matter what happens in this world, no matter whether you go bankrupt, die of cancer, your family breaks apart, no matter if World War III breaks out, you're going to be glorified because Christ is in you today. That's what this is saying. That is a wonderful prospect because I'll tell you, without hope, you can't go on in this world that is nasty. It's not just difficult. Frankly, the more I live in this world, I see it is a nasty place to be. The politics, everything. It just wears people down. But it should be drawing you closer and closer to Jesus Christ in the process to refine in your thinking and your affections what this world and life is really all about. It's all moving in the direction of Jesus Christ. And so we should be thinking in these terms as a believer that presently he is in me and he will be for eternity, but he is my hope of glory as well. He is in you. You know, the Christian life is really a relationship, therefore, with a person who's not on some distant planet like Pluto. He's right here on this earth and he's inside of me today. And last time I shared a story about a boy at an auction. I'm not going to repeat that story, but if you recall, the one who bought the portrait of the son, who was the heir of the estate, but the boy dies, like his parents had died. So a painting was made before the boy died. And the dad thought so much about his son, he had a portrait made. And everybody came to this auction to get in on the rest of the estate and the riches of this man who had passed away. And the first item up for auction was that of the painting of the boy that the dad so much loved. And nobody bid on it except for the lady who took care of that boy, one of the household servants. And she paid the money to purchase that painting. She didn't have much. But once she purchased it, the auctioneer stopped the auction and he said, take the note off the back of the painting. So she opens this envelope and it's a statement from the man who died and passed on his estate. He said to the one who thinks so much of my son highly enough to buy this painting, I give my entire estate. And that's in essence what we have with Christ. If you think highly enough of Christ to put your faith in Him as your Savior, and you become saved for eternity, you have a treasure then that comes with that. A treasure inside of you, and that treasure is Jesus Christ. When you get Christ, you get all the riches that come from God. And we don't see this with the physical eye, we see it by faith according to what the Word of God reveals. One day you will see it by sight. Now, how do you get Christ in you? Well, first of all, you've got to become united to Christ. And the Bible says that at a moment in time when we are baptized by the Holy Spirit, not by water, we get placed into union with His Son, Jesus Christ. Paul writes of this in the letter to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 12, 12 and 13. For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. He is the head. We are the members of that body. We're connected to him. But how did that happen? Verse 13, For by one spirit we were all baptized. And the word baptized means to place into or immerse so as to become identified with. Like if I took this clicker here, put it inside, immersed it in my Bible, and closed my Bible, that clicker is identified now with my Bible. It's so closely associated. That's what the Spirit of God has done for everyone who believes in Jesus Christ. Whether they're a Jew or a Gentile, whether they're slave or free, male or female, young or old, we're all. put into Christ through faith in Him. That's why 1 Corinthians 15 goes on to say, verse 22, something related to what it said in chapter 12. For as in Adam, all die. That's our starting point in this world. We're born into Adam, dead in trespasses and sins. But once we become in Christ, we're alive. We have new life. Even so, in Christ shall all be made alive. And how do you become in Christ? You believe the gospel, that he died for your sins and rose again, and that he guarantees you eternal life through faith in him alone. When you believe in Christ alone and his finished work for you, you are placed by the Spirit of God into union with Jesus Christ. That's how you get in Christ. That's how Christ gets in you. So let me ask you this morning, have you put your trust in Christ? Have you seen that I'm a sinner born dead in trespasses and sins? That God and His justice must judge sin and yet He also loves me, the Bible says, John 3.16. And what I love about the cross is that it is the perfect intersection between His justice or wrath for sin that he has to judge, he can't turn a blind eye to it, and his love. And it wasn't as though there was this head-on collision and catastrophe at Calvary. Rather, it was a beautiful intersection where these two things harmoniously came together. But what most people do when they recognize, I'm a sinner, God is holy, I fall short, they think, well, I better get busy. and clean up my act and get on with it spiritually, you know, reform my life, and do good works so that one day I can tip the scales so that my good will outweigh my bad and God will accept me therefore on that basis. The only problem is the Bible never says that our good works pay for our sins. In fact, the wages of sin is death, not good works, Romans 6.23 says. And so that's why he had to send his own son. He did this out of love to the cross to die as a sacrifice for us on our behalf and thereby satisfy his justice or wrath that was justly due to us for our sin, but poured out on a substitute. So the penalty was paid and he raised his son from the dead to show that the work had fully been done to pay for our sins. And that's why God provided this salvation totally by grace, not by our works. God is a gracious God. He loves us and he gives us what we don't deserve, namely heaven, to those of us who deserve the opposite, namely hell, which is all of us. So let me ask you this morning, are you satisfied with what Christ did at Calvary? Was it enough for you? Do you put your trust in that? I mean, if God is satisfied with that work, why are you still working to obtain something that's impossible for you to achieve? Namely, salvation by works. The way that we receive of his salvation by grace is simply by coming to Jesus Christ. John 6.35, he who comes to me shall never hunger and he who believes in me shall never thirst. John 6.37, and the one who comes to me I will by no means cast out." Getting a relationship with Jesus Christ for eternity and being eternally saved is not a matter of coming to church, though you're here today. It's not a matter of coming to a priest. It's not a matter of coming to any other person. It's a matter of coming to Christ and Him alone and seeing that satisfaction was made through Him and putting your trust in Him alone. And when you do that, the Spirit of God transfers you from being in Adam, where there were sins and trespasses, being a child of wrath and death, to being now in Christ, where there's redemption, righteousness, adoption as a son, reconciliation and eternal life. And all these things are wrapped up with being in Christ. Now, I want you to see this morning the connection between these riches that we have in Christ, and the phrase in Christ, this positional truth. Let's look at a few verses. 2 Corinthians 5.17. Therefore, if anyone is where? At Duluth Bible Church. No. You could sit in one of these chairs for the rest of your life, never move, you know, put your arm on a chair, The spiders will come and they will put a cobweb between your hand and your armpit and you could just deteriorate right there in your chair so that by some point we see a skeleton sitting there. You could be in this church the rest of your life and not be in Christ. You see the difference? It's not about coming to church. You need to put your trust in Him. And the Spirit of God will unite you to Christ. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, all things have become new. That's the key phrase right there. Two verses later, it says, that is, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself. You see, even though Jesus Christ made reconciliation and forgiveness available to all, because Christ died for all, Reconciliation and forgiveness has not been applied to all until they believe in Christ and become in Him. Because it's only in that sphere of Christ as God looks that He sees satisfaction with His Son, and therefore He gives forgiveness. The rest of the world is still dead in Adam, and God sees them still dead in their trespasses and sins. Ephesians 2, 1 through 3 says, So the key phrase is in Christ, Ephesians 2.13. But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Romans 3.24, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Where do you get redemption? In Christ Jesus. Ephesians 1.7, where do you get forgiveness of sins and redemption? In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace. Here's another one from Colossians. Verse 13, in reference to the son of his love, Jesus Christ, in whom we have redemption, through his blood the forgiveness of sins. And then 1 Corinthians 1 verse 30 says this, but of him you are in Christ Jesus, God put you there when you believed, you didn't put yourself in Christ, he did the work, who became for us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption. These are part of the treasure chest of the riches of Jesus Christ that we have. That Colossians 1.27 says are the riches of the glory of this mystery, Christ in you, in this dispensation of grace. Ephesians 3.8 described these as the unsearchable riches of Christ, literally unfathomable because they cannot be measured if you are out on the sea. and you put down the measuring rope, you would never get to the bottom of what you have in Christ. You say, well, that's too good to be true. It's in the Bible. It's Ephesians 3.8. Do you believe it? In fact, not only do you believe it today, Do you believe it from day to day? Do you believe it throughout your day? Do you think this way? This should permeate our thinking. This should motivate us to trust in Christ so that when situations in life come along where you say, Lord, I just don't know if I can trust you here. I'm getting anxious. This need is so great in this particular area. Are you going to get me through this? Paul said in Philippians 4, I've learned whatever state I am in therewith to be content. I've been abased and I've abounded. You know, I've had nothing at times and times I've had plenty. But whatever state I am in, I've learned to be content because I can trust Jesus Christ through it all. And that's why he concludes in that context, Philippians 4, 19, that my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus. This is the all-sufficient Christ, dear saints, when it comes to our Christian life. So that we live by faith, Colossians 2 goes on to say, not by imitation. Are we spiritual mimes? I read in the Gospels what Jesus did. Now I just try to imitate what he did. You remember these little bracelets that were popular, I don't know, about 20 years ago? He's probably still around. I think you can still buy him on Amazon or wherever. You know, the purpose of this little bracelet, WWJD, was to remind you, what would Jesus do? So as you're going through your day, just take a glance at your wrist instead of your wristwatch. What would Jesus do? Oh yeah, he would do this or that. Is there some value in that? Sure. Put in the context of a graced perspective. that the epistles go on to describe. But this became a really popular trend in Christianity. In fact, you could buy many different colors of WWJD. You could even have a rainbow WWJD bracelet. That was politically correct today. You could even wear a bunch of these all at the same time and maybe as you wore your whole, you know, from your wrist to your elbow was covered, you'd have more power in your Christian life. You are super spiritual if you had more than one bracelet. You know, my wife bought me a gift a few years ago. She's normally like spot on with gifts. She's really thoughtful and she knows me well. But this one totally backfired. You know what she bought me? A Fitbit. And I had a fit. For a little bit. You know why I didn't like that fit bit? Because I thought, great. One more thing to slap on my wrist to remind me of all the things I'm not getting done and don't do well enough. Just another yoke of bondage. Thank you, dear. It was a great thought, but... So you know what Jesus would have done? So you slap on that Fitbit spiritually and look at that WWG bracelet. What would Jesus do? I'll tell you what Jesus would have done. He would have kept the law. Are you under law? He kept the Sabbath. Are you required to keep the seven-day Sabbath? He kept feast days according to the Jewish calendar. Are you supposed to do that? No. Some say we are today, actually, but that's not true biblically. They don't understand that we're not under law, we're under grace. You know what else Jesus would have done? He would have sent out the disciples two by two to go only to the house of Israel and not to the Gentiles, Matthew 10. Unless he got to Matthew 28 and he changed things because in comes the dispensation of grace. Go to the whole world now, guys. He would have told the disciples for the three and a half years he ministered with them in his earthly ministry to Israel. He would have told them go and preach the gospel of the kingdom. Did they go around preaching that Christ died for their sins was buried and rose again? No, that hadn't happened yet. And so WWJD really doesn't apply. This is very different from Colossians 3, 1 through 4, where it says we've died, risen, ascended, we're seated with Christ, we're coming again with Christ, and Christ is our life. That's how we should think. We have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ by faith in Him from day to day in light of our union with Him and all the spiritual blessings in Him that we can enjoy from day to day. So this is our stewardship from the Lord under grace, verse 25 to 27. But as we go on in this passage, we see in verse 28 that there's a dynamic difference when Christ is in our speech as well. What does it say in verse 28? Him we preach. And the word preach here is katangelo. It's just a normal term for announce or proclaim. It's not The gospel per se, though I think this is broad enough to include the gospel, but it's more than the gospel. This is also church-age truth that we share with one another, Christian life truths, and that Christ is sufficient for us in our Christian life as well. Him we preach. And so we see here that Christ dwelling in us should lead to Christ-centered preaching. The person of Jesus Christ. Again, not a church, including this one. We don't go out and tell the world about Duluth Bible Church, though if you want to do that, that's fine. It's not like you can't say anything about it. But that's not really what we're called to do. We don't go out and preach a set of do's and don'ts, rules and regulations, not politics, not social agendas, not a social gospel. We preach a person, Jesus Christ. I like what Warren Wiersbe said in his book, The Dynamics of Preaching. He said, I suggest that preaching Christ means proclaiming the word of God in such a way that Jesus Christ is clearly presented in all the fullness of his person and greatness of his work. He is glorified as the eternal Son of God, Creator, Savior of the world, Lord of history and head of the church. He is magnified as the heart of every Christian doctrine and the motivation for every Christian duty. Notice how doctrine and duty get transformed if Christ is in them. When Christ is preached, the Holy Spirit can use the message to enable God's people to respond to Christ with greater love, faith, obedience. and to draw unbelievers to faith in Christ for salvation. That's why as we think of preaching Christ, here's just a random sampling of various things about Jesus Christ in the New Testament. This is like just brainstorming to come up with a bunch of things here, and it's not even a complete list. Jesus Christ is the means of propitiation, Romans 3.25. He's the ground of justification. He's the reason for reconciliation with God Himself and one another. He's the focus of our worship together with the Lord's Supper. Who do we remember at that time? Him. We commune, we have in common with one another something about Him. The basis of our redemption is Jesus Christ. He is our redemption. He's the basis of our forgiveness of sins. He's the means of Jew and Gentile unity as we've already seen. He's the basis of access to God, Hebrews 10, 19. He's the ground of our sanctification. He's the example of separation from false religion, Hebrews 13. As he was crucified outside the gate or the city, he calls others to come out of false religion too that's bankrupt. He's the basis of the everlasting covenant, Hebrews 13, 20. He's the means of practical sanctification, 1 John 1, 7. He's the focus of the gospel of salvation, the power of God unto salvation. He's the supreme example of being a servant, Philippians 2. You want to look at being a servant? See the mind of Christ, Philippians 2. Husbands, you want to learn to love your wives? Think of Jesus Christ, Ephesians 5, 25. He's the one who destroyed Satan's hold on mankind through the power of death, Hebrews 2. He's the one who broke our slave relationship to the sin nature, Romans 6. He's the one through whom we died to the world, Galatians 6.14. He's the example of encouragement towards one another, to love one another, Ephesians 5.1 and 2. He's the basis of hope and comfort regarding the rapture, 1 Thessalonians 4. He's the reason that we're gonna escape the tribulation and the wrath to come. 1 Thessalonians 1.10 and 5.9 and 10. He's the basis of our eternal security. He's the grounds of our access to God and prayer, Hebrews 4. He's the basis for living a life zealous of good works. He's the one who redeemed us to become a peculiar people, Titus 2. He's the greatest motivator to want to live for God, 2 Corinthians 5.14. And this is just a short sample. You see, this is the riches that we have in Christ and how this should impact our thinking and why we preach Him. Him we preach. But notice in Colossians 128, how that phrase, Him we preach, is qualified by these participial phrases that come afterwards, warning and teaching. We preach Him and as we do, we're warning. and teaching. So what is the twofold description of this preaching and why are both essential? Well, the twofold description is, first of all, warning. The reason I emphasize this is not only because it's right in the passage, but there is a mindset today in churches that says, oh, just be positive all the time. Don't say anything that might convict, challenge, you know, Someone might need to actually repent of something in their thinking, including sin in their life. Don't bring that up. In fact, just the word sin is kind of... And whatever you do, don't talk about hell. Yeah, hell. Let's keep that one quiet under the table. Did Jesus warn about sin and hell? Yeah, that's why he came as the Savior. He didn't want people to go to hell. He loved them, died for them. And he wanted to save people from the penalty and power and effects of sin. And he warned. So did the Apostle Paul who wrote Colossians here. Paul wasn't just saying in Colossians 1.28, you know, something theoretical that he never practiced himself. Luke tells us in Acts 20 verse 31 that Paul, when he came to the Ephesian elders and was never going to see them again, they had this great prayer meeting and exhortation there on the beach together. It says in that passage, Paul says to these elders, therefore watch and remember that for three years in Ephesus, I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears. Warning was part of his teaching. And you've heard a lot about sugar these days, you know. It's almost like sugar is equated with sin. It's evil. Don't let it in your body. The inflammatory effect will kill you. Well, maybe true if you consume, you know, what does the average American consume, like 20 pounds a year of sugar or something like that? Maybe more, I don't know. Maybe it is physically killing us. But biblical preaching should not be sugar-coated because it's dangerous to the soul, too, is the whole idea. Now, what does it say in 2 Timothy 4 verse 2? Paul wrote to Timothy, knowing that Paul was going to die. He urged him as a preacher to carry the baton and the torch. He says, preach the word, Timothy. And when you preach Christ, you preach the Word of God. They go hand in hand. In fact, how do you know about Christ if not from the Word? Preach the Word. Be instant in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, and exhort. Kind of sounds like warning to me. With all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when people won't want that or endure it. And I'll tell you, that time arrived a long time ago. It's here today, but it came a long time ago. So what goes with warning? This passage in Colossians 1.28 says, warning every man and teaching every man. Just like Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 4.2, as you preach the word, you're going to want to include doctrine or systematic instruction. That's the word didosco that's used in Colossians and other passages. Actually, the verb form and noun form go together. but it refers to systematic instruction. That's what we do at Duluth Bible Church, right? Are we here to entertain? You know, there's a lot more entertaining pastors out there than me. We're not here to amuse either. Frankly, there's a lot funnier guys out there than me too. I'll admit that. Our preaching here isn't therapeutic in the sense that, you know, we just pass along psychology and You know, nice soft sayings to soothe you all the time. It's not about narcissistic preaching, which is very popular in our humanistic age today. No, it is Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, wisdom that comes from God that is embodied in Jesus Christ. That, here's the purpose or end of it all, so that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. And so Christ in our preaching has as its goal to present every believer mature in Christ Jesus. That word perfect shouldn't scare you. It's not in reference to sinless perfection. I mean, the Lord isn't calling us to be set up for failure here. He knows it's impossible to ever have sinless perfection this side of heaven. That word means maturity, being full grown. And growth requires birth first. At a point in time, one is born again. That's regeneration. But spiritual growth into Christ's likeness occurs over a Christian lifetime. As we practically and progressively are sanctified or set apart from sin, more and more transformed into the image and likeness of Jesus Christ. And the Lord wants us to grow up in Christ. So are you growing up in him or merely growing old? You know, hopefully you're not that skeleton on the chair with a cobweb, you know, year after year. This is going to take time. You can't grow in Christ instantly overnight. But hopefully you have a desire to grow and you're in that direction. It takes truth. You need the Word of God to respond to by faith. And so we teach the Word of God here. It takes teachers gifted by God for this very purpose. As Paul said, he had done this for the church in his day. It'll take trials in your life. Tests to see are you applying what you know And so as to trust, and that's the last ingredient here. Hebrews 4 says we need that too. The five T's as you've heard before here over the years. And so Christ in our speaking is all about this. But also we see in this passage Christ in our striving. In verse 29 through chapter 2 verse 3. What does it go on to say in verse 29? To this end of being presented before God as mature in Christ. To that end, he says, I also labor. Kapiao is the Greek word. It's where we get copious from. That person took copious notes. Their pencil was on fire on that page. They were taking notes so fast. Striving, according to his working, which works in me mightily. And the word for striving there is agonizamai. And you don't have to be a Greek scholar to see what word in English we get from that, agonize. That word in Greek was used for contending in the arena or the Colosseum. It was used for contending in the ancient Olympic games. And so you get the idea that it's not just passivity he's talking about here. So for Paul, the goal of presenting every believer mature in Christ involved a ministry of labor and striving, this passage says. That's why it's not uncommon to hear some saints say, yeah, I'm involved in the work of the ministry and physically I'm really exhausted. And there's times you need physical rest, no doubt about it. There is such a thing as physical burnout. But never, hopefully, to the point in your thinking where you say, I'm tired of the work of ministry and I want to be done with it. No, you should have a love for the saints and a love for the whole stewardship of ministry from the Lord. As you realize from day to day, I'm not sufficient. He is all my sufficiency. I'm just walking in active dependence upon Him, letting Him energize me in the process. And that's why verse 29 says that to what we're called to do, God always provides sufficient enablement. I love the balance in verse 29. To this end, I'm copious and agonizing. But it's all according to his working. And the Greek word is Energeia, which works. And now here's the verb form Energeo. And again, you don't have to be a Greek scholar here. You just got to see this. Energy is where we get you know from our energized from the noun and the verb there Which works in me mightily and the word mightily is? Dunamis and of course you know what word we get from that no I'm not saying the word dunamis literally means dynamite that would be anachronistic when was dynamite created 1800 or so But there's a reason why dynamite was called what it was based on the greek word it speaks of might or power and And Paul says, I labor this way, not in my strength, but in his. You see, when God calls us to the Christian life, it is to do his will, not ours, his way, not ours, through his means, not ours, to his glory, not ours. You know, we could paraphrase verse 29 here by saying this, To this end I also labor, striving according to his energy, which energizes me internally and dynamically. That is the idea here, with great power. You see, you have the power within you that raised Jesus Christ from the dead, Ephesians 1 says. Do you believe that from day to day? That is living with Christ in you. in your thinking. And so as we think of his striving, this also means having Christ in us as believers, practically means we can minister according to his working, which is the very means God provides for this dynamic difference of the Christian life. You've heard it said many times before that God's calling is God's enablement. God knows that we're weak. He knows that we're without strength. He knows that for the believer, our mission is to glorify Jesus Christ, but we are totally unable to do that in inadequate 2 Corinthians 3.5. So what he does in terms of this mission to glorify Jesus Christ is he takes the Holy Spirit of God, puts him inside of us, and we know that he is totally adequate to fulfill this. For it's not by might and not by power, but by my spirit, Zechariah 4, 6 says. God's solution is to place the Spirit of God permanently inside every believer to fill and enable you and Jesus Christ is in you as well. So God has solved your power problem, dear believer. The question is, are you yielded to that and trusting of the Lord for that, depending on him for that? Colossians 2.1 goes on describing this striving. Paul writes, for I want you to know what a great conflict agona here is the noun form of the same word that was used in verse 29 in the verb form. So striving is found in verse 29 and Chapter 2 verse 1 here. What great conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea, a nearby city, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh. So this passage is still about striving, positively striving. Paul's great conflict or striving for these believers showed what? His care for all the churches. He cared about them, just as Christ cares about us as a church. You know, the church in Laodicea was a neighboring city to Colossae, as was the church at Hierapolis, the three churches in the Lycus Valley that was there. And Paul praised for them. In fact, that's one way in which he is striving for them. It's expressed by him writing this letter, first of all. He took the care enough to write a letter to minister to their spiritual need, knowing that there was false teaching and influences around them. He warned them of that. He taught them about the sufficiency and supremacy of Christ to build them up and fortify them in order that they be presented mature in Christ, because there was a spiritual battle going on. He also prayed for them diligently. We read this already in chapter 1, verse 3 and verse 9. We have an example of this as well. He writes at the end of the epistle that, oh, by the way, the guy who's with me in my chains here, Epaphras, or Epaphras, he is laboring for you in prayer, he writes. Striving is the same Greek word, actually. And you know, it can at times be work to pray for someone, right? You got to put down every other distraction, consciously think and focus on various people to pray for. And that's why even on a Wednesday night, we have a prayer list, a regular prayer list to pray regularly as Paul prayed diligently and regularly for the Colossians. Even for people he had not seen face to face, never met them. A lot of these churches and things we pray for on our prayer list each week, you don't even know some of these people. You may never meet them except in heaven. We should still pray for them though. That is a ministry the Spirit of God wants us involved in. He also cared enough to send Tychicus and Onesimus to these Colossians, he writes at the end of the epistle. So he was laboring and ministering to that end for them. And to the end, that they would spiritually be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all the riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, the Father and of Christ. And I'll tell you what, I got more to say on this passage, so I don't want to save it for next time. We did get through chapter one though, right? Praise the Lord. This is a rich section here in chapter two, and I want to just save this for next time. But I trust you can see from this that if you've got Christ in you, you have a treasure. You are rich. And I hope that that impacts your walk with Jesus Christ this week. Let's pray. Father, thank you for these truths that we've seen today in your word. Wonderful and rich truths, may they just be truly transforming now in our walk and for our church here at Duluth Bible Church. Thank you that the Christian life is a high calling, but it's also provided for you all by your grace, and Christ is sufficient. May He be glorified in all this, we pray. Amen.