Please open your Bibles this morning to the letter of Paul to the Colossians. Letter of Paul to the Colossians, chapter 1. It's been fully three months since we last considered this letter together, so I feel a little obligation to ramp us up a little bit about what we've covered thus far because Paul's putting a cap on the first part of his letter. This letter that he wrote to a church he'd never visited. A church he had come to know by their minister, Epaphras, who'd come to visit him in Rome. Through whom he knew of their faith in Christ Jesus and their love for the saints. But he'd also come to know that among them were those who were denying the sufficiency of the gospel. The sufficiency of Christ. And they were saying that perseverance in life and the attainment of glory on the last day was dependent not only on the work of Jesus Christ, but also on your work in obedience to the law in some expressions as they were promoting them. And in response to this confusion between the gospel and the law, Paul's letter clearly distinguishes between the two and sets them in proper relation. And so from his opening words through our text this morning, Paul has given us nothing but good news. Nothing but the gospel. Nothing but who Christ is, what he's done, and what he's promised to do. And its impact for us as people. And then in chapter 2, verse 6, he transitions into the law and begins to direct us in our obedience to Christ out of gratitude for the gospel. And so this morning we take up our reading at verse 21 to remember that Christ's sufficiency is not some abstract or impersonal theory, but rather it's rather concrete and a personal reality. Christ's sufficiency is for us, both to save us and to sustain us in the glory. When we persevere in the faith, that is remaining where God has established us, anchored to the hope held out in the gospel. And Paul introduces himself in our text as a servant of the gospel. That's verse 23, which then opens up into our text, verses 24 through chapter 2, verse 5, where he expands on the nature and the significance of his service to the gospel, to the church, to its relation to the glory of the gospel. So hear now the word of God from Colossians chapter 1, taking up in verse 21. Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. 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 if you continue in the faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven and of which I, Paul, have become a servant. And now our text for this morning. Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's affliction for the sake of his body, which is the church. I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you 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. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. We proclaim him, 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. I want you to know how much I am struggling for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me personally. My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments. For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit and delight to see how orderly you are and how firm your faith in Christ is. Here ends the reading of God's Word. In our text, Paul focuses on his labor for the church. Reminding the saints that the glory of the gospel advances through apostolic ministry. Speaking of himself and of his experience, Paul reveals that as an apostle, he was commissioned and empowered by God to proclaim Christ. Paul was not born a servant of the gospel. In his letter to the Philippians, he described himself before his conversion as a Hebrew of Hebrews. In regard to the law, a Pharisee. As for zeal, persecuting the church. And as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. Paul loved the law and despised the gospel. He persecuted the church. And he denied that Jesus is the Christ. Paul, who was then called Saul, knew Jesus had died. And he wanted to rub out his church. But on the way to Damascus, the Lord revealed to him that he was very much alive. And it was with him that Paul had to do. And it was then that our resurrected Lord made Paul his servant. A servant of Christ. A servant of the gospel. A servant of the body of Christ, the church. I had become a servant by the commission God gave me, Paul says in verse 25. Paul, the apostle, had become a steward, an overseer, a manager, a protector of the household of God, including the church at Colossae. According to chapter 2, verse 5, Paul was absent from them in body. He was in Rome. He was in chains. But he was present with them in spirit. He's not telling them that his thoughts and prayers were with them from afar, like we might say that today. He was communicating with the authority of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit through this letter. He had come to them, to labor for them, to serve them as the body of Christ. And he'd come not only to them, but also through them, to the church more broadly, to those in Laodicea, and all who had not met him personally, referring to that whole region where the church was being established among the Gentiles. And of course, we have his letter today, and so he ministers to us as well. Paul let the Colossians know that his service to the church was demanding and difficult, and how he was empowered by God to fulfill it. In verse 29, he says, I labor, I exert myself, I struggle with all his energy which so powerfully works within me. Paul knew that in his own strength he was not able to serve Christ or to serve his church. The Lord had revealed to him his weakness through what Paul referred to as a thorn in his flesh, a circumstance that we don't know or understand, but we know that it tormented him. And in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, the Lord refused to take it away, saying, My grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weakness. And so by grace, Paul had learned to say, That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, I am strong. And it comes as no surprise then that Paul tells the Colossians in verse 24, I rejoice in what was suffered for you. I rejoice in what is demanded of me. Empowered by God, Paul labored for the Colossians even though he had never met them and he suffered for them. He didn't let go and let God. He exerted himself like an athlete all the time confident that God was at work in him to will and to do that which he was called to do. And for what was Paul commissioned and empowered? To proclaim Christ. In a nutshell, to proclaim Christ. And according to verse 28, he says, We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom. Now, Paul was the only man called to be an apostle to the Gentiles. A unique and irreplaceable commission. But when it came to the proclamation of Christ, that did not belong to him alone. Now, we will consider the substance of this proclamation in our second point this morning, but for now, we should note that Paul shifts from speaking about himself to speaking about we. We proclaim Christ. Of whom is he speaking? Well, we can be certain that he includes all the apostles, all those who were commissioned and empowered to do what he was doing, proclaiming the gospel of Christ. But beyond them, he includes all ministers who inherit and faithfully proclaim this gospel, who proclaim the apostolic witness, beginning with his fellow servants who were with him in Rome, Timothy, with whom we're very familiar, but also Epaphras, who had come. He called him a fellow servant of the gospel. But beginning with them and down through the generations, generation after generation, who have inherited the gospel and proclaimed it faithfully, continuing through the ages to men like Reverends Rorda and Howerzile and Camminga and Vos. This is the apostolic ministry, the ministry of the word. And when it comes to us through ordained servants of Christ, this apostolic proclamation comes with Christ's authority. And it comes with admonitions, warnings. Warnings against temptations to stray in what we believe and in how we live. That we would believe what God has told us. We would live according to his will. And it includes teaching, conveying and explaining what's been revealed in his word. and apostolic ministers of every age and in every place are to proclaim the gospel to everyone. And this is what we confess in our confessional statement of the Canons of Dort. The 11th graders are going through that this year. This should sound familiar to you. There we say that the promise of the gospel, together with the command to repent and believe, ought to be declared and published to all nations and to all persons promiscuously and without distinction to whom God out of his good pleasure sends the gospel. This gospel is to be proclaimed freely and offered to everyone. For only God knows who will hear and believe. And it comes with the authority of Christ. Paul was commissioned for these things, but he was commissioned for even more. As we read in verse 24, he says, I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, which is the church. I found that a difficult verse on face value. So how are we to understand it? Well, this much is clear right off the bat, that the labor Paul exerted and the sufferings he endured were for the benefit of the church. Of that, there's no dispute. But what is not immediately clear is this. What was lacking with regard to Christ's afflictions for Paul to fill up in his flesh? What was lacking that Paul could provide? Well, we can say with certainty that he's not saying that Christ's redemptive work is lacking in any way, that it's insufficient in any way. For all that he has said up to this point has been the constant drumbeat of the sufficiency of Christ in who he is and what he's done. So he cannot mean that Paul is doing something that Christ did not do, that Christ was unable to complete. Nothing is lacking in the work of Christ. It is finished, he said, on the cross. So Paul's suffering contributed nothing to the work of Christ. So what I believe Paul is saying is this, is that Jesus Christ has ascended to the right hand of God the Father and while his enemies can no longer oppose him and persecute him directly because he is physically absent, they continue to oppose and persecute him indirectly by attacking his body, which is the church. Just as Paul had done before his conversion. He was a persecutor of the church and when Christ confronted him on the road to Damascus, what did he say? He said, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? well as a member of the body of Christ and especially in his role as an apostle Paul suffered he suffered persecution that was aimed at Christ and he did so for the good of the church and it's in this way that he experienced his share in the filling up of the afflictions of Christ afflictions that will continue until Christ returns in glory afflictions in which every saint Every one of you who believe in Jesus Christ will share to some degree afflictions that Paul says are not worth comparing with the glories that will be revealed in us when Christ returns. So we've seen that Paul was commissioned and empowered by God as an apostle to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to the nations. And we've seen that ministers of the Word, even today, continue to be commissioned and empowered by God to proclaim that same gospel. But what about the rest of you? Are you without purpose and power in this life? Absolutely not. Every one of us who trust in Christ alone for salvation has been commissioned and empowered to fulfill our calling as Christians, first and foremost. In Heidelberg Catechism, Question and Answer 32, we confess that as a Christian, I am anointed. That's shorthand for I'm commissioned and empowered. I'm anointed to confess his name, to present myself to him as a living sacrifice of thanks, and to strive with a good conscience against sin and the devil in this life, and afterward to reign with Christ over all creation. Everyone who trusts in Christ has been given that commission and has been empowered to that end. And each of us has also been given at least one gift with which you are commissioned and empowered to serve the church in a particular way. Some more prominent than others. Some that have titles and some that don't. Some that are seen and some that are invisible. but all that are important. And you have also been commissioned and empowered for the suffering you will experience on the way. You too will contribute to filling up the afflictions of Christ. As Paul indicates in Philippians chapter 1, verse 29, it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on Him, but to suffer for Him. The Apostle Peter says the same in 1 Peter chapter 4. He says, Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering as though something strange were happening to you, but rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ so that you may be overjoyed when His glory is revealed. To this too you have been commissioned and are empowered to do. In our second point this morning, we turn our attention to the substance of the gospel proclamation. The glory of the gospel that is advanced through apostolic ministry makes known the mystery of God. The mystery of God. In verse 25, we read this. Paul writes, I have become the church's servant by the commission God gave me to present to you 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. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Here Paul identifies the word of God in its fullness as the mystery that used to be hidden, but now is made known to the saints. And then in chapter 2, verse 2, he identifies the mystery of God as Christ. So when we put this all together, what is Paul saying here? He's saying that in the Old Testament there were many witnesses to Christ. Prophets, priests, and kings all revealed something about who he would be and what he would do. And the law anticipated Christ, for he alone would be the one who would come to obey it and to fulfill it. and you remember how on the road to Emmaus Jesus admonished two disciples for not believing the witness of the Old Testament they didn't understand they didn't believe that the Lord that God in the flesh would suffer and die and he said did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory and beginning with Moses and all the prophets he explained to them what was said in all the scriptures concerning himself in the Old Testament we have indications that which was hidden there in the Old Testament is now disclosed to the saints openly expressed to the saints through the witness of the apostles men who were commissioned and empowered to proclaim all that Christ said and did it was for this task that they were called Jesus Christ is the final revelation of the word of God He is the last word. And the eyewitness testimony of the apostles concerning him is that last word in our New Testament. That is what the New Testament is. It's their eyewitness testimony of this final revelation of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. So you see, the mystery of God has been revealed. Not in a timetable of events, but in a person. And it's the gospel that reveals this person to us, Jesus Christ. Promising forgiveness of sins and everlasting righteousness and eternal life with God. So if you deny yourself and all your efforts to get right with God, to get it together, to make him take notice, to slide into heaven. If you get rid of all that and you trust Christ alone for your salvation through faith, You are joined to Christ. You are joined to the mystery. His death that satisfied the wrath of God against your sin becomes your death to sin. And his life of perfect obedience to the will of God becomes your life of obedience and righteousness. And in that union with Christ, Paul highlights a two-way relationship. And he goes on to say that through faith not only are you in Christ as a member of his body, but also that Christ is in you by his spirit. This union is vital in living and enduring. According to chapter 1, verse 27, the glorious riches of this mystery is Christ in you, the hope of glory. This hope is not a wish that maybe someday, somehow, some way you might be glorified to live with God forever. To be resurrected body and soul and to be free from sin and corruption forever. It might happen. I hope it does. That's not what it means. This hope is the certain expectation grounded on the promise of God in which he cannot lie that nothing can keep you from it. Understand the difference. This hope is anchored securely in Christ. It cannot but be fulfilled. And that's Paul's point in Romans chapter 8, beginning in verse 11. He says, if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who lives in you. It's certain. The power that raised Christ is the power that will raise you if the spirit of Christ is living in you, which he does. through faith. And then in chapter 2, verse 3, he writes, In Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. If you are in Christ, then you need not go anywhere else for wisdom or knowledge. It's all found in Him. Christ is the mystery of God. He's not just a clue. He's not a key to something else. He is the mystery of God. He is the Word of God in its fullness. He is the repository of all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Everything we might ask about God and His purposes can and must be answered with reference to Him, to Jesus Christ. So the Colossians had no need for what the false teachers were peddling. And neither do we. We can meet with God only in Jesus Christ. We can see Him face to face. He is the Word of God in His fullness. He is revealed to us in the Scriptures and that is where we go. The repository of all wisdom and knowledge. Riches. So we've considered the glory of the Gospel, how it's advanced through apostolic ministry, how it makes known the mystery of God, and all that is left for us to ask is the question, why? For what purpose? For what purpose does apostolic ministry make known the mystery of God? Why does God give it to us in this way? Why has it come to us? For what purpose was Paul laboring? For what purpose did Paul suffer? Well, Paul mentions three purposes that demonstrate it is the glory of the gospel that sustains the saints. It's through these purposes we see what God is doing with the gospel. He's sustaining his saints. Paul's primary purpose is found in chapter 2, verse 2. My purpose is that they, that is the saints, may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely Christ. Each saint is to be encouraged in heart. Encouraged to the core. With the deep-rooted assurance that's created in us by the Spirit through the Gospel. And the community of saints is to be a communion of saints. United in love. Members serving one another. Sharing the love that they've experienced through the Gospel with one another. and each saint is to know Christ more and more who he is what he's done what he's promised to do not only for others but for me too that's the primary purpose of the gospel assurance of salvation communion of the saints and a growing knowledge and conviction that all that Christ is and all that Christ has done he's done for me as well as for all the saints. And this primary purpose spills over into a secondary one in verse 4. It says, So that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments. And here Paul has put his finger on the pressing need in the Colossian church. And I believe a pressing need for us today. When saints are tempted to follow after false teachings that deny the sufficiency of Christ, that offer something other or offer something more to his work. Our defense is not found in becoming experts in that false teaching so that we might avoid it. Our defense is established in our offense. This is what I mean. It's to the degree to which we as saints are grounded in the gospel, encouraged in heart, to the degree that we are united together within a community of saints who are likewise grounded in the gospel and to the degree we are measuring every argument, even those that sound good, against the full richness of complete understanding revealed in Christ and found in His Word. To the degree we do these things, to the degrees we know the fulfillment of our primary purpose is the degree to which we will stand against these false teachers. It's the degree to which we will not be deceived. We have to act and practice like those who are trained to find counterfeit currency. They don't spend their time studying the counterfeits to try to find every variation, every nuance that people are trying to do to deceive. No, they study the real thing. They study the real currency. And they know it so well that anything else that comes across their path, they recognize immediately as a counterfeit. That's our way of being defended. That's the best way to be defended is to be grounded in the gospel, in the community of saints that's grounded in the gospel, pursuing the knowledge of Christ that's revealed in his word and measuring everything by this final revelation. That's how we are defended against deception. Now the greater purpose of all apostolic ministry is found then finally in verse 28 and 29 of chapter 1. I'm reversing the order so it reads better. Paul writes, To this end I labor that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. And how are we to understand this purpose? Well, we know already from what Paul has said in this letter, we know from our experience in the scriptures that perfection will only come on the last day when we'll be absolutely perfect. So when we see the word perfect here, we must not think that being happening in this life. So Paul's got a sense of perfection here. He wants to talk about his goal within the communion of saints in this life as we are waiting for glory. So the translation perfect in Christ might be too strong and suggest to some that they have achieved perfection this side of glory, which will not be the case. And so the English Standard Version translates it mature in Christ, trying to avoid that extreme, and that may be too weak because some of us are tempted to see ourselves as mature as we compare ourselves to others. So you see, the greater purpose of apostolic ministry is not about achieving a status, a status of perfection or a status of maturity. Our status is given to us by God. We're justified by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone. We have right standing with God because God has made it so. And in the end, we'll be glorified in Him. God will make it so. For the greater purpose of apostolic ministry, this side of glory, the purpose of the preachers that come here to preach the Word of God to you, is to help you, to help us sustain an attitude that will carry us along the way in our sanctification. An attitude, like we speak of a ship, a course, a bearing, a direction, a perspective that we have as we move along the way. And that attitude is that we would be oriented to God, trusting in Christ in every circumstance of life, whether comfortable or difficult. That's the attitude for which apostolic ministry seeks to sustain the saints. That you would be oriented to God, trusting in Christ no matter your circumstance. And we have a lifetime to work on that. And the gospel is given to us to sustain us in it. So when we consider all these purposes, it should be clear that it is only the gospel that can sustain us for them. When we try to achieve them by keeping the law, by doing more, By being better, we distance ourselves from the sustaining power of the Gospel. We're resting in ourselves. And over time, we will either despair of our failures, because they will be many, or we will grow proud in our imagined successes as we measure ourselves by our own standard, rather than the Word of God. So people of God, day by day, let us cling to the glory of the Gospel. That gospel we have heard. That gospel we have believed. That we would continue to believe it day by day. Claim it day by day. Live it day by day. This gospel we have received and believed through apostolic ministry. This gospel which reveals to us the Lord Jesus Christ in whom we trust. This gospel which will sustain us on the way as we wait for glory. Let's pray. indeed Father you have revealed to us in your word everything that we need for faith and life and we thank you Father that you have given us the law which shows us our sin and our misery which shows us the perfection that you demand to enjoy your presence and we thank you for the gift of faith that we might recognize our sin and our misery that we would turn and look for another who can lift from us the burden that we cannot bear and give us the life and the righteousness that we need. And we thank you that you've revealed to us Jesus Christ. The mystery of God who has been revealed. The Word of God in its fullness who has come in the flesh to live and to die and to be raised among us. We thank you, Father, that you give us the gospel so that we may know and continue to know and to be fed and to continue to be fed. Be reminded of our commission and the power that you give us in the gospel to pursue it. Pray, Father, that as your people we would be grounded well in the gospel. We would preach it to ourselves day by day. We might live in the power that it alone can give. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, we pray. Amen.