Well, thank you for being here this evening. We are in Colossians chapter 1, looking at verses 24 through 29 tonight. This follows the great Christological hymn about Jesus Christ, about being supreme over creation, then being supreme over the new creation, which is the church. Because of his work of the cross which led us into talking about Jesus Christ in the in the the having supremacy because the cross is he he became flesh and then as flesh then he suffered and he did God's will and he provided what we have today and Now, what is coming after this is Paul is going to be called now, he's going to explain, he's going to talk about his ministry, that Paul now has a ministry of proclaiming this. And we left off last week talking about how the work of the cross and Jesus' work was contrary to the world. The world system is going this way, away from God. Jesus came in to fulfill God's will. He came in with a physical body and just simply doing God's will was going to result in suffering. because you're going against the system. I mean, it's kind of simple. The world's going this way. I want to go this way. You're going to have to suffer. We're not cooperating. And so Jesus had to suffer. Well, now, to do the work of salvation with suffering, well, now Paul is going to be the one bringing this message of salvation that Jesus has done this glorious, great work. It's just like he began the first creation in the Garden of Eden, say, you know, creating Genesis 1. He then on the cross began the second creation, and with His resurrection was the first one from the dead. And then after Him comes the resurrection of the saints. And when the saints, the sons of God, are revealed, all creation will follow them into this new creation, Romans chapter 8. Well, now Paul's going to announce this. He's going to proclaim this message. And by proclaiming it, guess what Paul's going to have to do? He's proclaiming a message that's contrary to the world system while he's in the world, in the flesh, and he's been called by God to proclaim this great message of deliverance. But because it's a great message of deliverance, it's great news in the kingdom of God, it's contrary to this world of death and decay. He's going to have to suffer. It's going to be hard work. But the good news is God has not left him alone. God is going to empower him to do this work. But nonetheless, if he's going to be in his ministry doing what he's been called to do it's going to be difficult it's going to be suffering uh... it's going to be and here's what's interesting an extension of what christ has done because jesus christ is a resurrected man in heaven But yet the work, it's gonna be called the household of God here in these verses. We'll call it, refer it quickly to the church, this age, the church, what God is doing, drawing people out, the ecclesia, those that are called out of the world into this new creation. Not everyone is going to leave the old creation. They're the ones that are gonna stay. The called out ones are going to join in this new creation. They're gonna be the church, the household of God. And in this household, Paul is a servant to this household. He's going to proclaim the message so that they hear it and they receive it. Then he's going to exhort them, you know, rebuke them when you're wrong. No, you're looking back at the world. You've got to go this way. And then he's going to teach them. It's going to be a threefold ministry that he's going to do But what is very interesting in these verses is two, it's going to use the word fulfill or fill up and then use the word complete. Paul is going to say, and we read it last week just as an introductory statement, he says, I am filling up in my flesh what is lacking in regards to Christ's affliction. Whoa! What did you just say? Nothing is lacking in regard to Christ's affliction. No, not as far as Christ's work. Jesus came to die on the cross, to pay the price of redemption, to bring about reconciliation, to begin the new creation, to be the firstborn from the dead and lead others into this new creation. But guess what He didn't do? uh... he never proclaim the message of the resurrection he did his disciples but he sent them out in the world says go uh... you've got a job to do and paul is now fulfilling in his flesh what is still lacking in regard to christ of late it's been done but now it's paul's turn to follow and he's going to he's gonna say he's in his word complete he says i'm going to uh... yeah fulfill bring about the fullness And he says, I'll bring about the fullness of the word of God, which, again, is unique for Paul. In one sense, all of us are going to follow Christ. We're going to follow Paul. And when we proclaim the message, when we live the Christian life in this fallen world and we proclaim the great news of salvation through Jesus Christ to the fallen world, we're going to suffer because we're leading everybody this way. We're leading them away from the direction of the decaying world order. And so we're going to, in our flesh, we're also going to suffer. But what is unique about Paul is he's going to bring about the fullness of the Word of God. So if you look on the page one, I'm going to read through some verses that we read last week to set the stage. But point one When we go back and read verses 19, 20 up through 24, what we see is the cosmic Christ. I wrote the cosmic Christ because of the idea of not just the physical Christ, but the Creator of the whole universe, the second member of the Trinity. the word in the beginning was the word and the word was outside of time outside of matter outside of creation and he spoke and it came into being this christ is going to then become flesh in his creation and he is going to suffer he's going to have a physical body he's going to be the firstborn from the dead and call those out he says i will build my church i will build my called out ones i'll call them out in from the old creation into this new creation by his resurrection. And of course, it's all about Christ. Well, in these verses here, we're going to see Paul doing exactly the same thing. This is Christ was suffering in a physical body for the church, serving his role as the Christ. Paul now, in these verses, is going to suffer in his physical body, serving the church, serving the called out ones, the ones that Christ called out. Paul now is their servant, their diakonos. and that it is Paul's ministry. And so what you see right there, point one underneath point one, is three connecting words that Paul uses, but are also used to lead an associated thought concerning each of these terms, is servant, struggling, and faith. And Paul is now a servant, he's struggling, and working on faith for the Colossians. So it's gonna go from Christ, Now Paul's doing the work that Christ has assigned him to, and it's going to be handing these things over to the Colossians. And so point A, Paul is a servant of light for the Colossians. He is struggling for the Colossians, and the Colossians' faith is orderly and firm in Christ because Paul is a suffering servant for Christ, which again just continues on in that direction. And so we'll look at those verses here in just a moment. I'm going to go to, those are in the English Standard Version, I'm going to go to chapter 1, oh, let's say verse 21, and we're going to, for the first time in probably three months, skip verse 15, 16, because we're talking about, you know, he's the head of the body of the church, ruler over all creation. But that's having been discussed Christ both as creator of the universe and in a sense the creator of the church or the new creation. Now in verse 21 he says, Paul writes, Once you, talking to the individual Colossians, you were alienated from God and were enemies in your mind because of your evil behavior. Both their mind and their behavior were going this direction with the world, death and decay, and they are enemies to God just by their very nature, which then produced their very thought, their philosophies, their worldview, and their actions. They were enemies of God, but now He has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in His sight, without blemish, and free from accusation." And we spent quite a bit of time last week talking about that. You were enemies, but reconciliation means peace has been brought about. You are no longer an enemy. You've been reconciled. You are now in right standing with God because of Christ. Again, not because the Colossians suddenly started following all the Christian rules. They are reconciled to God through Christ because Christ suffered in his physical body for them. They've now been called out and they've accepted Christ's work and now they are reconciled to God in right standing. But also we talked about one of those next words uh... without blemish and free from accusation free from accusation means in a judicial system following legal proceedings correctly there's no no one can bring charges against them there there's nothing left it's not like do you remember when it's like now you can go there there's there's nothing here christ has paid for on the cross their their blameless they're completely blemish free. And they are standing before God, and that's what Paul says, they've been presented to God, they're standing in His presence in a perfect right standing. Okay, if, then he goes on and says if, and again we talked about that condition, that first class condition, if, which means if, and you will. It's not a quote, if we don't know you better not sin again otherwise you're going to lose all your salvation. If and you will continue in your faith established and firm not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you have heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven and of which I, Paul, have become a servant." So now he switches from Christ and how great Christ is and the great message that they've heard and now he says, and now I become the messenger of this message that you've heard. And so now he says, I, Paul, have become a servant. Now verse 24 to the end of the chapter, we'll look at these verses tonight. Now, I rejoice in what was suffered for you And that what was suffered in the past, Christ's work on the cross. I rejoice Christ suffered for you and now you are in right standing with God. You've received that message. And I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regards to Christ's affliction. Well, you're standing in the presence of God blameless. What could be lacking in regards to Christ's affliction? Well, what did Christ not do? He didn't bring about the fullness of the Word of God, which He is intending to do through His apostles, Peter, James, the writer of Hebrews, and of course, Paul. You can throw Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in there if you want to. What is still lacking regards to Christ's affliction for the sake of his body, which is the church So there's the church needs something now. I'll be careful as I I mean, we're not on thin ice but we're in a territory where we're Everybody focuses on Christ and indeed Christ is the cornerstone. Christ is the Redeemer. Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Christ earned reconciliation and redemption for us. But then what's taking place all the way through the New Testament? I mean, what are we doing here? Well, we're proclaiming this message, but there's There's so much more being explained. Have you ever done that? You've read the Gospels. People say, well, I've read the New Testament. Here's what Jesus said. Yeah, but have you read Romans and Colossians and Ephesians? Because they're not just telling the same stories again or telling parables about Jesus. They're teaching things like Jesus never said that. Jesus never said anything like some of these things. Now, it's not contradictory, but it is, and you're going to have to hear this correctly and make a decision on how you're going to hear this, it's an extension, it's a furtherance of the revelation, and that's all coming up here. And Paul now is going to explain to the church What this means, it can simply be said, Jesus died on the cross for your sins, trust Christ, and you can go to heaven when you die. Okay, well, I'm a Christian, now what do we do? And now we just have sermons on how to make friends and how to be a kind person and how to tolerate people. It's like, wait, wait, wait, what about Ephesians and Romans and Thessalonians and Galatians and all these other things? Well, that's what this is about now, as Paul's saying. He's serving the body of Christ, which is the church. And then he says in verse 25, I have become its servant, the church's servant, by the commission God gave me. This is the NIV. By the commission God gave me, I've become the servant of this church. They've accepted, they've been called out, and now I'm the servant of the church. In what way? He's bringing them potluck, and visiting them in the hospital, and when they've got trouble in their life, they come for him for counseling. Well, okay, that's not what he says. You can do that if you want to. You should visit the sick. You should give to the poor. You should give people counsel if they're having questions in life. But Paul says, I become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness. Well, we've already got the old test. We've already got the gospels. Paul says, no, I've been commissioned in the household. I'm a servant in the household. Now we go back to, and we're going to repeat all this as we go through the notes. You go back to the ideal of 1st Timothy when he talks about the households and there's the the husband or the father, there's the mother, and then there was the children and those associated with it. But there are also servants within the household. And when we talk about household, you're talking about that whole embodied, that whole group of people. Joseph, for example, was a servant in Potiphar's household. And Paul is a servant in God's household, which is the church. And what's he there to do? Is he there to, you know, wash the dirty clothes or cook the food or vacuum? What's he there to do? He's there in the church as in God's household in his family to present to them the Word of God in its fullness. In other words, he is now going to be teaching them things that they'd never seen before. And now we're not talking about some goofy prophet like, you know, Joseph Smith or some heretic running around having visions and dreams. We're talking about someone that Jesus Christ has put in position and says, I'm going to give to you information for you to teach them and reveal more of the mystery. Now, the word mystery is going to come up again in Paul's writings here. We'll talk about it just in passing. We're living in history at this point. Before us, you can go way back to the Garden of Eden and you're going to have the flood of Noah and that generation. Then eventually you've got Abraham and then Jacob's sons and then there are Egyptian slaves. And then they come and they set up the kingdom and then there's David and the Old Testament and the prophets and Babylonian captivity. And then they come back, and they're looking for their Messiah, trying to figure out what to do. And then their Messiah comes, and it's not what they thought. He ends up getting killed, and then he's resurrected, and no one saw that coming. And then we begin the church. And now we're living way down here in 2024. And all these things have happened. So we look back go. Ah, it's so clear. We understand these things But we we can and should appreciate those verses like in isaiah about the suffering servant They weren't sure who the suffering servant was. We're like How can you miss it? It's jesus. He died on the cross. He's the suffering servant. He paid for the sins. It's like well go back to 700 bc and Who's the suffering servant? Even, be careful, even sometimes the prophets didn't know what they were talking about. They didn't fully understand the ramifications of the word of God that was given to them. Even Peter says the prophets looked into the scriptures that they wrote, trying to figure out the time and place of the Christ, and they were told, it's not for you to know. Just write it down. It's for another people. Just write it down, record it, and giving the impression the prophets were like, i don't understand this we know clearly daniel an angel is talking to daniel telling him what's gonna happen here's this day and here's this beast and then there's gonna be this happen and then this will take that and then this is why i've got some questions well of course you do but go your way uh... it's not for you know just write it down just these things will happen in their time but there's like question i don't understand this and the angel answer was go your way daniel it's for the time of the year Daniel's recording the Word of God, but it's like, and he uses the word, a secret, or it's going to be in the English, the Greek, mysterious, but it's Aramaic, it's Rez, I've got it in the notes there, but it means it was hidden. The answer is Daniel, it's sealed up. You cannot understand it. But the angel is talking confidently. Peter is going to write later on, as we're going to see. Peter is going to write later on that these things were revealed, and now even angels long to look into them. In the Old Testament, the prophets would record things. They would understand them. But some things were still kind of shady. They didn't hear them clearly. Sometimes angels could explain to them to a certain level. And then the prophets, they're missing information. I don't understand it. Well, some of those things began to be fulfilled. But when Jesus came, as he act fulfilled these things, he would say it was being fulfilled here. I'm fulfilling this here. They're like putting it together. Then the Holy Spirit comes and takes it to a whole nother dimension. But there's even some things where we're standing. We can look back and now we have the advantage of the New Testament, the advantage of Jesus, the Messiah teaching. We can say, Daniel, I know you've got a question about that, but Look at Generation Word Bible Teaching Ministry online and Galen can explain it to you, Daniel. Oh, wow, he's such a great Bible, because I'm just teaching the new revelation. It's not like I've got insight. I'm just teaching the new revelation. Because when I turn and look this way into the future, I'm going to show you a list of mysteries in the Bible. There's some things that are written, mysteries that are yet to take place. Even Daniel's still looking ahead. Now I'm looking, yeah, I don't understand that either. And now end time teachers, and I myself have taught and tried to explain it, sometimes end time teachers act like, ah, I've got this nailed down. I know what this mystery means. And maybe you do, but maybe you don't. There's a chance that you don't understand this. You just got a lot of diagrams and charts and are explaining to people, they're writing down notes, but it's like, You can't fully understand it because that mystery has not yet been revealed. Paul is talking about He's a servant to the church to bring about the fullness of the Word of God. So this church now in 62 AD, yeah, this is when it would be, Colossians being written from Rome along with Ephesians and the letter of Philemon, is being told, hey, listen, I can explain this to you. In fact, he says, this is the reason I'm in the church. Christ has commissioned Paul to explain to the church the mysteries, the fullness of the Word of God. So that now you can understand, have confidence in your salvation and begin to grow in an understanding that previously was not available. Now that's not saying any of these people, I mean go back and look at what did Adam understand about well, Moses and the Law of Moses and the King David and the Lion of David and the Babylonian captivity and Christ dying on the cross. What did Adam understand? It's like, I mean, the guy knew what he knew and had experience with God, but there's so many things coming. How about Noah? Noah understood what God revealed to him and understood the past, But he didn't necessarily understand that just in a few generations, one of his great, great, great, great grandsons would be called to become the nation of Israel. It's like, did he understand the Abrahamic covenant? He may have had some kind of hint that God was going to do something great, something big. Did Abraham understand Moses and the law of Moses? I mean, it's like, So, same thing here, Paul is now telling the, he is now on the other side, where Paul is now taking everybody to another level. Okay. To give to you the word of God in its fullness, here it is, verse 26, I'm reading the NIV. The word of God in its fullness, the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints, the holy ones, those who are blameless before God, the called out ones, you now can understand it because Paul has been given it and he's explaining it to the churches and he's writing it down. To them, the saints, God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles. Now that's a huge line right there. Among the Gentiles, the glorious riches of the mystery Or of this mystery, what mystery? Which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Now rushing ahead, what is this, the mystery? What is this mystery that he's talking about? And again, there's all these things, you know, you can dance around and talk about them and try and explain them. But the mystery, which is Christ in you, and this you is the Gentiles, which is the hope of glory. Now here's the mystery. In the Old Testament, now again, this is one way of understanding the mystery that Paul's bringing to the Gentiles. You can see he's specifically talking to Gentiles. And it is a mystery. It's something that was hidden in generations and ages before. It's like no one fully understood this. They could have talked about it. They may have been open to ideas, but they didn't understand it. And the ideal here is Christ is in you. Now, how is that different? In the Old Testament, Christ the second member of the Trinity, the glory of God, the Sheikahina, we would call it, was with the Jews, was with Israel, it dwelt in the wilderness or he dwelt with them in the wilderness he took up residence in the tabernacle and eventually in the temple he eventually leaves the temple and let them go to babylon captivity he shows up and talks to ezekiel in babylon with the two wheels a chariot on the wheels within the wheels in the chair all around but that was with israel and israel was told by god tells abraham all nations will be blessed through you." The Hebrews, the Jews, all nations will be blessed through the Jews. Well now, what's the mystery? The mystery is the Jews were to bring about, they were separated as a nation because they had one main purpose. They were going to be the seed that produced the Messiah, Jesus. And now that Jesus has come, been in the flesh, lived his life, been crucified, meaning he paid for the sins of the world as was prophesied, was resurrected, seated in glory, now Christ is in you. Which means what? Well, you're not looking to the Jews for blessing. You're not looking for waiting. That's another whole story. What's the future of the Jews? I mean, the Jews have been set aside. We'll talk briefly about that. Later on it appears they're going to have their eyes open. There's going to be a national revival to Jesus Christ, not to some Old Testament ritual, but to Christ. So that's another issue. But they're bypassing this, that right now you don't need to go to the tabernacle or the temple. Christ is in you Gentiles. He is revealed directly. You don't need a prophet. You don't need a priest. You don't need the Jews. You don't need the Old Testament. Now the Old Testament is the Word of God. We're not saying something bad about the text of Scripture. But you don't need that for your how do I find God because that was all fulfilled in Christ and in you you have christ in you and that is the mystery which is revelation for you don't have to go to the jews and go through all their training and rituals to get close to god or to find the messiah he has used the jews the jews were used to produce the messiah once the messiah came died was resurrected he was the first one from the dead out of the dead and after him all are going to follow him and so he is coming directly to you. The whole new household of God is the Ecclesia, the called out ones, the ones called out of the fallen world into this new creation, into the born again creation, which is not just you being born again. You've been, you're an example of the whole system that is being born again. The whole earth is going to be recreated, born again into the kingdom of God. And there you go. So this is the mystery that he's telling them. It goes on. Okay. To bring about the fullness of the word of God, the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations but is now disclosed to the saints to them god has chosen to make known among the gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery what is it which is christ in you the hope of glory we proclaim him christ admonishing and teaching everyone others three levels of ministry right there we proclaim him admonishing That would be exhorting, correcting, and teaching everyone. We proclaim him to everyone. We correct and admonish and exhort everyone. No, it's not that way. It's this way. And then when they get there, we teach everyone with the idea here To them a good glorious. Okay proclaiming teaching. Okay admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom Why why is Paul doing this so that we may? present everyone perfect teleos complete in Christ. His ministry is to take that revelation, proclaim it to the Gentiles, and as they accept it, okay, and then they're gonna have questions, they're gonna drift back to their worldview, and exhort them, admonish them, it's like, correct them, no, yes, and then as they're moving, to teach them to the place that they grow in their understanding, and finally, in their Christian faith, be able to present them mature, the idea there, mature to Christ. The idea here is they can't just get, well, born again, they've accepted Christ, great. Well, you're perfect, you're blameless. but you need to mature. And so he's going to proclaim, great, you've accepted Christ, you're now blameless. But you're drifting away from Christ because you don't really understand the mystery. You're falling back into some religious system, or you're accommodating the fallen culture. You're living like a dead person, a person caught in sin. It's like, no, no, no, live this way, and then teach them so they grow in their faith. And so when they're finally in the end presented, Paul's goal is that he's presenting mature believers, or in this case, to the Colossians, mature believers. I will say this, just in passing, Paul has never been to Colossae. He was in Ephesus for three years, and someone apparently, Epaphrates, has gone over and started the church of Colossae. They're meeting in houses. Philemon's got a church in his house, for example. But Paul himself has never been to the city of Colossae. But what has been there has been Paul's revelation, Paul's teaching, and the church's functioning there in Colibri, which is, again, an interesting thing. He's not talking to people that he's seen face to face. He's talking to people that have simply heard his revelation, and he's writing them a letter of encouragement, exhortation. We proclaim Him and admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all His energy, which so powerfully works in me." So right here, to this end I labor, So Paul says, I labor, I struggle to get this done. Which goes back to the idea of suffering. He's struggling, he's striving to get this done. But notice what's beside, that's what he's doing. But notice there's like four divine aspects of this. To this end I labor and struggle with all his, Christ, energy, which is so powerfully works in me. So Christ, energy, powerful, and Ergon, or work. Those are all divine elements that are coming together. As Paul is struggling and striving to do this, he says, don't worry about me. I'm struggling and striving, but it's not Paul the man struggling. He is struggling and striving, but he's not limited to just human effort, because Christ is with him, his power, his energy, his work is all coming through Paul. There you've got your spiritual gift. If you want to see a miracle in the New Testament, that is the miracle, a mere man struggling and doing impossible things, how can he do this? Because Christ is working through him. It's Christ's energy. It's Christ's power. It's Christ's work. And Paul just keeps doing it. It's like every step he takes, it's like Christ just manifesting, like we said yesterday, leading him in triumphal procession. It's like no matter where he goes, it doesn't matter if I'm poor or rich. It doesn't matter if I know exactly what I'm doing or if I don't. He says, I'm proclaiming Christ. It's the message. It's the power of God. And Christ is just advancing me. He's leading me in triumphal procession. Well, Paul, it looks like you're in prison. And if I read the story right, you get your head cut off. Yeah, it was a great life. It was a powerful, dynamic life because Christ was working in me. You got executed on a road outside the city of Rome and buried by a widow and forgotten. Yeah, but I was doing what Christ, so it's like, because he's going to combine in here, in these words, he's going to combine the word suffering with rejoicing because The warning, if I were to just make a meme about it, the Christian, and again this is not going to be meme worthy because it's going to be too long, the Christian living a successful Christian life should be suffering because of the direction they're going, the message about Christ they're presenting, but because they're suffering, they realize, I'm going the right direction. When you're going, and everybody on the interstate's going, when I used to go to work, I used to work at a Dallas center in the middle school. So I would get up every morning, and everybody's coming down the interstate, coming to town. And I'd get up, and I'd just buzz out of town, go away from traffic. I'm on the other side of the road going with the sun at my back. Everyone else is driving into the sun with all the other traffic, and I'm going the other way. Well then, at the end of the day, it was just reversed. I'd come home from work, everybody's driving into the sun, going home out of the city, and I'm coming back into the city with the sun at my back. So again, not a good illustration. It doesn't mean they were right and I was wrong, but I was going the right direction. But the idea is that's kind of what the picture I see is Paul is going this way and the whole world is coming against him. And again, my illustration falls completely apart because I wasn't suffering. I was just jamming out the music as I'm driving down the road. But the whole world is coming this way and he's going this way and he's suffering. But it's like he knows the fact that he's going against traffic I'm going the right way. And in the end, everything's going to be fine. He's going to win. He's being led in victorious proclamation. All right. Here we go. Page one of the notes. And now we're going to say all the same things again. And you can see some more words and some more details of this. And if you think you heard me say that, you go, that doesn't make sense. Well, here's some, maybe some clear it up a little bit or some ammunition to use to support your own ideas or thoughts. Chapter 1, verse 24, Paul says, Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you. See, he's suffering for the Colossians. He's suffering because he's bringing them the message. and I fill up in my flesh as a man in a body like Christ was in a body and he had flesh and took that flesh to the cross and paid for the sins of the world. Now Paul's got a body and he fills up in his flesh what is still lacking in regards to Christ's affliction. What Christ couldn't, again be careful, what Christ couldn't do on the cross Paul says, he's left me to do this part. In my flesh, I'm going to do the part that Christ couldn't do. What couldn't he do? He couldn't explain what happened historically because he was doing it. But I'm doing it now in my turn in the flesh. And again, the applications we all are adding to Christ's affliction, Christ has paid for the sins of the world, but he's got us here to do some kind of a job. And Paul's doing it for the sake of his body, which is the church. Point two right there, now means point C, there's three different views, but means now refers most likely to now at this current place in history, in this eschatological, on this side of the cross, now I'm in play. It doesn't necessarily mean now in 62 AD. And notice right there, I rejoice in what I am suffering. I'm suffering and I rejoice in what I'm suffering. Now again, he's not suffering because he made bad decisions. He's not suffering because he's got a drug addiction. He's not suffering because he shot a nail through his hand with a nail gun framing a house. That's another whole type of suffering. He's suffering because he's proclaiming the good news. He's proclaiming something positive in a negative world. So his suffering is directly related to Christ. You've got to be careful. I've got to be careful. It's like, well, I'm suffering for Christ. No, you're suffering because you made stupid decisions. Well, I'm suffering for Christ. No, you're suffering because you overspent your budget. You didn't have any money and you bought it and now you're in debt. Well, I'm suffering for Christ. No, you're suffering because you didn't listen to Dave Ramsey. Okay, different levels of suffering, if you want to say. But Paul is suffering And he's like, if I'm suffering because I'm too far financially in debt, well, I rejoice. I'm in debt. I'm never going to get out of debt. Wait, wait, wait. No, you have a problem. Paul is suffering and rejoice because the very fact he's suffering means I'm going the right direction. Speaking a word of truth and life to a dying world. And so keep that in mind. Was that point for rejoice? And that's used many times in scripture. Page 2, joy combined with suffering are often seen together. You can see it in 2 Corinthians 6. He talks about ministry, sorrowful, yet always rejoicing, poor, yet making many rich, having nothing, yet possessing everything. How does that make sense? Well, you're poor in the world, but you're rich in the kingdom of God. You're suffering, but you've got great things coming. Philippians 1, 18-19, you can see similar things. The word suffering, very quickly, it means suffering, affliction, misfortune. It was used in the Greek tragedies when they had Greek tragedies that were written. It was one of the first words of the Greek tragedy, identifying that the man that you're hearing about or the person you're hearing about in the story is going to have some misfortune that they're going to have to accept and deal with throughout this Greek tragedy. And that's what Paul picks up that word. uh romans 8 18 paul writes i consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us again notice that in us not the glory we're going to get to stand and see oh it'd be so much better when you get to heaven and you can stand and see the glory but no no that glory just like the suffering is in you and you feel the suffering and the burden you will feel the glory in you it's going to be not y'all look look do you see that oh there's some more glory there it's like the glory will be part of your existence it says right here i consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us you've got to wrap your mind around that somehow to be able to suffer in this age and yet rejoice If you don't understand that, you're just going to see the suffering. If you're just your natural, typical, secular humanist, you suffer. It's like, I can't see any hope. It's like, that's where the revelation of the scripture is. It's like, wait, something bigger is happening here. Something bigger than my life is taking place. Philippians 3.10, this is a crazy verse, but you can understand it with this idea. Paul says, I want to know Christ, yes, to know the power of His resurrection, and then the participation in His suffering, becoming like Him in His death. So what he's talking about, I want to know the power of his resurrection, become a born again believer. And now that I'm a born again believer in a body of flesh in the world, I want to experience part of that suffering. I want to do my part of proclaiming the good news, the truth to a confused world, a deceived world, and becoming like him in his death. So that's the idea there. I want to know the power of his resurrection and not just, ah, I get to go to heaven. But while I'm here to participate in his suffering which again you don't preach this in church Why would you got a church of two three thousand people? Why would you preach this? I mean you're gonna cut it down to 20 people I mean no one's gonna come back to hear more about this. So I mean this is this is again. I'll read it again Paul says, I want to know Christ. Yes, the power of his resurrection. He's born again, he's in the church. And then now that I'm here, I want to participate in that suffering, going back out into the dying, deceived world and telling them the truth that they're going to reject and probably kill me for. But that's my job. And I rejoice that I'm suffering because I'm doing what I was called to do. Instead of, well, I don't want any difficulties in life, I just want to skate through life, avoid any kind of conflict, and then go to heaven and stand before the throne of God. Well, that's probably not going to be a front row seat there around when you're looking at the glory, which of course you're not looking at the glories in you. Anyway, there's more verses, one, two, three points right there. The suffering was part of being an apostle. Paul made it very clear. Yeah, if he's an apostle, the suffering comes along with it. Okay, and then point six. I fill up is only here in the New Testament. I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regards to Christ's affliction. It means right here to fill up, to complete. You might as well say I complete what is lacking in regards to Christ's affliction. And what is lacking in regards to Christ's affliction is the revealing of the mystery of what just what just happened on the cross you know the disciples you go back to the story the disciples were like running hiding it's like he came out of the grave they're like no he didn't i won't believe until i see it it's like no one it's like it was even jesus telling them i'm going to go to the cross i'll be back in three days it wasn't just a mystery it was like i don't even know what you're talking about what's he talking about I don't know. He's only going to go on vacation. He does need a break. I don't know. I don't know what he's talking about. And then they kill him. It's like, oh my gosh, they're going to kill us too. And they're all hiding. And he had to come back. And then you can just see the beginning of the revelation. It took him how long did it take them to understand it to enough to where they could explain it? Well, I tell you what. Paul had to explain it to some of them. It took Paul, he had to persecute the Christians, and then he had to get saved and come back, and he's explaining, Peter even says, some of the things Paul writes are hard to understand. It's like, Paul's got a hand, I was there with Jesus, Peter would say. But Paul, when he explains it, it's hard to understand, because he's talking about things, he's revealing things that, it's like algebra three, you know? Okay. The word, where am I at here? Okay, we've got a new verse. Page 3, chapter 1, verse 25. I've got four verses to go and 18 minutes to do it. I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness. Now, I have become its servant, you can see right there I've got it in a box, the word diakonos, it means minister or deacon, it refers to a table server. He is a table server and, oh notice right there, I've got it underlined and in a circle. According to the administration, there's your word, oikonomia. Oikonomia is translated in the English Standard, I have become its servant by the commission God gave me. Or just reading this straight from the Greek, a minister, a diakonos, kata te which means a minister according to the administration or according to the household of God. I am a servant. This is the household of God, which we know is the church. It's the people that have been called out to the new kingdom or the new creation. Paul says, I'm now a servant. I'm a table waiter here in this new dispensation, this new commission, this new household. of God having been given me towards you and here it is in the dotted box the word to complete or Play play Rocio play Rocio his his role. He is a deacon a servant in this household of God Which may is made up of the called-out ones those have been called out of the fallen creation into the new age the new creation What is what is his role right there? I'm here to complete, look right there, complete the Word of God. I'm here to complete the Word of God." Well, anybody that walks in and tells you, well, I'm here to complete the Word of God, it's like, just keep right on walking. It's like, I'm not listening to you because we've been given the understanding that we have the complete, Christ's work is complete on the cross. We have the full text of Scripture. But here comes Paul, my role in this new age is to bring about the completion of the Word of God. In other words, the Old Testament is good. The Gospels are good, but now I'm going to explain to you how it all fits together. It's called the Epistles here. And so that's shocking. Point one, commission is oikonomia, which means household, as a household servant. I'm going to read Ephesians 3, 1 through 7 right there. I've got it in the notes. Because Ephesians 3, 1 through 7 is a parallel verse. So you can hear the same thing being said again, and both Ephesians and Colossians were written by Paul in Rome while he's under house arrest in his rented apartment, and then sent back to Asia Minor together. One stopped in Ephesus, and one kept on going to Colossae with the letter of Philemon. So these were written, okay, that's the end of Ephesians, let's start a book to Colossae. So they were written, you know, they were on the same afternoon. I don't know, but it was the same time, okay. Paul says, for this reason, talking to the Ephesians, I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles, assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace which was given to me for you, stewardship is that role of a household servant for you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation as I've written briefly. Now this is chapter three of Ephesians. So that means he's already referred to it earlier in chapter one or two. When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ. Now the word mystery is coming up right here. It means something that's always been true, but has been hidden. Like the things that Daniel wrote were always true, but their understanding was hidden. The things about the Messiah that Isaiah wrote were always true, But they were still debating it even in the time of Christ and even today. It's hidden. It's true. And so he says, which are made known by the revelation given to me as I have written briefly. When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ. Which again, Christ dying on the cross, what was that all about? Well, it's a mystery. It was very important, but you're not fully understanding it. Let Paul explain what just took place on the cross. which I've written briefly. When you read this then you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. So he's putting himself in that list of holy apostles and prophets along with others like Peter and James we could say. This mystery, what mystery? This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, partakers of the promise of Christ Jesus through the gospel. The Jews were trying to get it through the law, but the law was simply pointing them towards the Messiah was going to come. The law was given to the Jews. It had legal regulations. It had moral regulations. It had religious regulations. But the whole purpose of the law, one, two, three purposes, we say legal, we can say moral, and then you're going to have religious, the ritual, maybe ritual is better. These are all parts of the law, but all of this was to keep them from being a nation. keep them as a nation that was different than the pagans. They're not Egyptians. They're not Babylonians. They're not Philistines. These guys have this legal code. Some of it was similar to the Gentiles. They have this moral code. Some of it was similar to the Gentiles. And they had these rituals. Some of it was similar to the Gentiles, but their rituals were directed towards Yahweh. So they had God's legal system, God's moral code and these rituals and they were not supposed to pick up ideas from the Egyptians or the Philistines. They had to be a separate nation. Why? Well because if they would be a separate nation then they would get to go to heaven. It wasn't even about that. You don't do this. No one is saved by the law, Paul writes. In fact, if you try to follow the law, you're just going to be cursed because as soon as you say, well, my salvation is based on the law. Well, guess what? You failed on it. You're cursed because you break one. You lose the whole thing. So no one is justified by observing the law. But by observing the law, you become aware that you've got sin. What was the purpose of this nation? The purpose of the nation was to bring about, I'll just write, Jesus, the Messiah, who would pay for the sins of the world. This right here, Jesus says, I did not come to abolish the law. but to fulfill it. Then you go, fulfill it? What does that mean to fulfill it? Well, that means that Jesus did all those legal codes. He went through his whole life, 33 years, and never missed a legal code. Jesus went through his whole life and never missed a moral code. Jesus went through his whole life and never missed a ritual code. And so by doing it, it's like, okay, check, we've got one man has done this perfectly. All men can go to heaven now. That's never been the point of it. Because if you follow the rituals, there are some rituals Jesus is like, I don't think that's what you're supposed to do. That's why they killed him. There's no way you're supposed to do it. The purpose of this was to produce a nation that was separate so that God could bring about the seed of the woman, the Messiah, who then would go to the cross. So by Jesus being born in the body, being a man in the flesh, he did what? He fulfilled the purpose of the law. He didn't abolish it. He says, this was all written so that I could come. I came. I'm here. So what do we do with the law? It served its purpose. Thank you. What we check off is law. Check. Well, now that doesn't mean you can sin. If you look at it, well, what about the moral, okay, morality, sin, that's not, this was the Mosaic law was produce a nation that would produce the Messiah who would die for the sins of the world. Okay, Jesus says, well, I fulfilled that. It was, the law was waiting for me, and now I'm here. Well, we want to keep following the law. Why? The whole purpose was for me to come. Now, you still have to be moral. There are still moral things. You still have to follow laws as far as speed limits, taxation, you can't kill people. The Gentiles have the same standards. This was to produce Jesus. Okay, okay, okay. Here we go. Okay, fullness. Paul's bringing about the fullness of the Word of God. And he can share that the word pleo means to make full, to make complete, to fill up. I've got these things written down. It's used several times, many times, I didn't write them all down, in Matthew 1, Matthew 2, Matthew 3, in fulfillment of prophecy, the virgin birth, all this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken. Herod killing the babies in Bethlehem, then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, Jesus' baptism, but Jesus answered, let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all rights as then he consented." And then Jesus says in Matthew 517, do not think that I've come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. They were written that I was coming and I have come and so the law is fulfilled. If it's fulfilled You want the promise or you want the gift? Well, we just want to have, it's our birthday coming, we just want to continue to have a promise of a birthday gift. Well, I am the gift. We'd rather just have the promise. It would make no sense. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot will pass from the law until it all is accomplished. So he was saying, I have accomplished the purpose of the law by me being here in the flesh. Okay, chapter 126. The mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord's people. Very important line. It's been hidden for ages and generations. And when it says ages and generations, that just doesn't mean the dumb believers or the dumb people in previous generations, but all the smart people knew it. That means all the ages and generations before. That means Daniel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, It was hidden from them. They could write their prophecies. They could talk about it. They maybe were a higher level understanding. But there are some things, there's a ceiling. We don't understand this. Daniel to the angel, I don't understand this. The mystery that has been kept hidden, notice that, kept hidden. I mean, they couldn't even work their way through it. Einstein couldn't even make a formula to figure it out. It's like, no, you can't go here. New Testament example, Paul says, I was taken into the third heaven, and I saw things that man is not permitted to say. And I've talked about it before. That doesn't mean, oh, I saw it, and God says, shh, don't let anybody know. He's, I saw things, and it's like Daniel looking at the prophecies that Gabriel's telling. It's like, what's the outcome of all this? How does this even make any sense? And Gabriel says, ah, go your way, Daniel. Just wait for the time of the end. You'll die and be resurrected, and then it'll all kind of pass. It's not for you to know. I don't understand. Well, Paul was taken to heaven, and he saw something himself. Paul's revealing revelation, but he was taken to the third heaven, and he saw, and he goes, I saw things that, I don't know what it was, but it's like, it was, yeah, I saw it. And that's, it's hidden, it's kept hidden. And so all these things were kept hidden until Paul, And now Paul is revealed. Now, the thing is, we can explain it. I can talk about it here because, one, it's been revealed. It's in written form. We've received the Holy Spirit and God wants, well, it says right here, but is now disclosed to the Lord's people. This is not for seminary students. This is not for those that are interested. If you're interested in the quilt club, that's over here. If you're interested in the sewing club, it's over here. If you're into the men's fishing group, it's over here. Or if you're really into theology and Paul's mysteries, you could go over here and join this group. That's the problem with the church. This quilt club is not the church. This sewing club is not the church. Or the cooking club, the fishing club, the men's group, that's not the church. Where's the church? We're teaching Paul's mysteries right here. This is the church. Fishing is for anybody. Quilts are for anybody. But the mysteries are for the church. So where's the church dropping the ball? Well, the very fact that, this is confusing. Yeah, right. It's the mysteries hidden that even Jeremiah didn't understand that Paul was given that he wrote down so that you can know they're given to you. And if you understand this, that's the power of your spiritual growth. That's your power of your spiritual dynamo. If you don't know these things, if you don't comprehend these things, if you don't spend time wrestling with these things, you're going to be like, well, I don't know. There's not much difference between the church and the world. I'm just going to go back over here. Now, you are blameless. You are separated. You are seated with Christ in heavenly places. I don't know. It's just the same. It's like, it is not the same. If you were like Christ, this world would not say, ah, we're all the same. It would be causing you suffering because you're so different. You don't fit in the group. The mystery that's been kept hidden for ages and generations. Here we go. Turn the page and we're down to three minutes. I've got, and we'll have to pick this up next week. I've got on page four in the dotted little box the word mystery. That is the word mysterion. and i've got that point to paul uses the word mystery and you're going to see it at the bottom of the page inverse one twenty seven to them god has chosen make no one among the gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. So we've got mystery two times, and Paul's saying, I know the mystery. The mystery has been revealed to me, and my purpose is to make sure you understand it. And he's gonna use, eventually he's gonna use three terms, to proclaim it, to admonish it, and to teach it to the saints, because it's yours to know. And you cannot, this is bottom line Bible teaching. You cannot expect to live the fullness of a Christian life if you have not let the mystery that Paul is revealing be proclaimed to you and accepted, be admonished to you and be corrected by it because you're not right, you're thinking like the world. It's gonna have to come in and say, you're wrong and correct, okay, yeah, I'm wrong, I'll go this way, and then continue to teach you for a greater, and now you've got a chance of becoming mature. and being presented mature at the judgment seat of Christ. If you don't let anybody teach you, if you don't let the word of God correct you, well, I've lived a long, I've seen some things, there's some Christians that I know that aren't living these things. Yeah, okay, keep making excuses and come over here. Well, I've heard the message that Jesus died for my sins and I believe that because then I get to go to heaven. Okay, now we're gonna begin to teach you the mystery of what that means. It's like, well, you know, I'm not really interested in all that theology stuff. I just want to have a good life here and then have heaven there. So do you have like some kind of like place for my kids to get involved and something where I can like have some girlfriends or guy friends? It's like, okay, you've missed the whole point. This is not a social, if you join this group and do it right, You will suffer in this age. We're not really into suffering. There's a big mega church down the road there, and they've got a carnival and a water slide, and they've got all this. It's like, that's what our kid's like. Okay, so you're really not interested in Christ. Oh, I want to go to heaven. Oh, right. I want to go to heaven. Everybody wants to go to heaven. But you're going to have to grow in this. Now, again, I'm not saying your salvation is based on understanding the mysteries, but it's a very, very shallow understanding of Christianity if you say, I'm just going to be a Christian without really knowing the Bible. The Bible is hard to understand. Well, yeah, but God has provided you apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, and it's, it's, it's what language do you speak? What language? Well, here, here's one in English. Okay. English standard version. What do you want it on tape? How do you want it presented to you? Okay. I'm preaching now. And I didn't get to the part that I wanted to, or there's a lot of parts I didn't get to because there's eight pages and I'm on page four. I'll leave it off with this, the word mystery. We've got to pick this up next week with the word mystery. The mysteries referred to as hidden truths that were written but not fully revealed. I think we've established that. The Qumran community that went out by the Dead Sea. I'm trying to see if I've got a picture here somewhere of the Dead Sea Scrolls. But anyway, they were out there by the Dead Sea. They used the same concept of the mysteries to communicate the unexplained truth in the Old Testament while they were waiting for the future day of its revelation. So the Qumran community, which was a group of Jews that broke away from the temple because they thought the temple system was corrupt in Jesus' day, between Jesus and the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD, between 1348 and 70 AD, The Qumran community had left and just abandoned the whole system. And they went out there to say, there's something bigger happening here. Now, they could have accepted Christ, but apparently they missed Christ. They didn't understand it. But they knew the old test was talking about mysteries that were going to eventually be fulfilled. So Paul's using it exactly the way the Qumran community used it. There's point C. The Aramaic term secret, Raz, L-A-Z, is the same word used by Daniel. It means the same thing. And point D, Paul used the word mystery 21 times. And any time Paul uses words such as reveal, make known or manifest, he is most likely talking about the mysteries that have been revealed to him. He says that you might have revealed, that you might make known or that you might know, or it may be manifest to you. He is talking about the things that were written about but no one understood until God revealed, until Jesus fulfilled it, God revealed it to Paul and he's explaining it. And the good news, the exciting thing about this is it's automatic. It's like it's like a puppy growing up. It's like how do you just be a puppy? You're going to grow up it just be a Christian because a Christian with the Holy Spirit around the Word of God if someone Explains this to you. It's gonna start to grow in your understanding. It's it's natural It's spiritually natural for the Christian to latch on to these things And and again, you've got the Holy Spirit All right, I'll quit with that. We'll pick this up next week. Because if you look on page five, there are the whole list of mysteries listed in the New Testament. The incarnation was a mystery, the divine indwelling, the church union with Jews and the Gentiles, Israel's blindness, the rapture, the mystery of iniquity. Now, those right there, A through F, are all Paul's mysteries. But the mystery of iniquity in 2 Thessalonians, my friends, That's still, that's future. I don't know if we know, we can talk about it, but we do not have a historical reference to the mystery of iniquity. The mystery of the kingdom, Jesus, I've got those all listed right there, talking about the new age. And then H revelations mystery of the seven stars and seven candle stands and finally revelation 17 5 Mystery of Babylon the great here it is and on her forehead was written the name of mystery Babylon the great mother of prostitutes and the of the earth abominations You understand that? No, right, because that's a mystery that has not yet been revealed. There's mysteries. We've got some mysteries that have been revealed. The prophets didn't understand them, but Paul has revealed them. But there's other mysteries. It's like, what's that? It's like, well, I'll act like when I'm teaching Bible class, I'll talk about it. But it's like, at the end, it's like, I don't really know. No one really knows. I'll pray, and we're done. Father, we thank you for the chance to look into your word. We thank you for revealing the text of scripture to us. We ask that we would embrace it and allow it to change our lives, change our worldviews, and to become more like Jesus Christ, to prepare ourselves for the kingdom of God, but also to proclaim the message to others at this time in history that we may partake of the things that Jesus Christ is doing at this time in history, that we would be part of the body of Christ. In his name we pray. Amen. Thank you for your time.