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Now, let's dive into today's teaching from Pastor Skiff Heitzig. It pleased the Father. Watch this term that in him All the fullness. Should dwell. That word Fullness.
was a buzzword used by the Gnostics. That group that was developing into not these heretics from Colossians is one of their favorite words, fullness. The Greek word is pleioroma. And what they said is the fullness of God, the plearoma of God. Has been distributed through many emanations that went out from God.
Paul knew that. And so he's saying that in Jesus Christ, it pleased the Father that in Jesus all. the play Roma, the fullness should dwell in him.
Now, I'm going to cheat a little bit and take you to chapter 2, or we're going to be next week, but just let's Skip ahead. Look at chapter 2, verse 8. You see where he's coming from. Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy. An empty deceit, According to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.
In Him that is Christ. In him dwells all the fullness of God. bodily or the Godhead bodily, the go God in bodily form. And you are complete in him. who is the head of all principality and power.
This is a slap. the Gnostics. This was a way of confronting the Gnostics. That in Jesus Christ, in him alone, is all the fullness of God. Back to burst.
20 of chapter 1. And by him, by Jesus, to reconcile all things to himself, by him, whether things on earth. or things in heaven Having made peace. Through the blood of his cross. And you.
Who were once alienated and Enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now he has. Reconciled. How in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and blameless. and irreproachable. in his sight.
God reconciled us to Him. The word reconciled means He changed. hostility into friendship. We were enemies of God. We were at enmity with God.
He changed the relationship. of hostility into friendship and acceptance. The idea of being reconciled is to remove. The barrier that stands in the way of acceptance and unity. And thus, by removing the obstacle.
The enemies become friends. The hostile ones accept each other, love each other. Yeah. In right relationship with each other. It is a word that is used in 1 Corinthians chapter 7 to speak of a woman.
being restored in relationship to her husband. It's also a word used, I believe, in Matthew five of a brother. being re of a man being restored to his his brother.
So it's an idea of in relationships, what would change? hostile ones into Friends In the Greek language, the word reconciled also carries with it a financial element. That is There is a financial transaction that takes place whereby two parties are reconciled. We sort of use the idea of reconciliation in financial ways as well. We say we need to reconcile the checkbook.
Right? We have to balance and check. We've got to make sure that the statement I get in the mail matches what I put down. If you even do that anymore, that is old school, I recognize it. Or if you do little books on your computer, you reconcile their statement with your statement.
And when they match up, we say they're reconciled.
So there is a financial element. All of that to say this. In God's economy, there must be some transaction that takes place. For God and us to be reconciled. And the transaction that takes place is through the blood of his cross.
It's what he did on the cross that became the transactional element whereby these two parties. At hostility and odds with each other, can now be reconciled. It's a beautiful, beautiful word that he uses here.
So we're reconciled in the body of his flesh, verse 22, through death, to present you holy, blameless, irreproachable in his sight. Mm-hmm. Verse 23: If indeed you continue in the faith. Grounded and steadfast. And they are not moved away from the hope of the gospel.
Which you heard, which was preached. To every creature under heaven of which I, Paul, became a minister. When you read that, you go now, wait a minute. He just said that He reconciled us, and the transaction was at the cross. We couldn't do it ourselves.
He did it for us, it's all through that one single act. Why does he now say, if indeed you continue in the faith? Is he contradicting himself? Or is he adding to the work that was done on the cross? Are you saying you have to add to it?
What he is saying is he's just practical. Paul is saying If it's a reality that you've been reconciled. To God Real faith. We'll show that it's real faith by having real results. The real results are your continuing.
in your walk with him. If you have a real faith, it will really continue in real time. Throughout your life. That becomes the gauge. As to whether or not you have real faith.
You want to know if a person has real faith? James says, look at his works. Look at what he produces. These things are not contrary to one another. One.
Authenticates the other.
So Real faith leads to real results. The real results are: you continue in the faith, you're grounded and steadfast, and you are not moved away from. The hope of the gospel. It's all by Grace. And the proof that you've experienced the grace of God is your life is transformed.
Yet, however, these truths together should give us a little bit of pause. You know, because a lot of people say, you know, I prayed years ago. I went to church and I made that little prayer and accepted Christ. And now I'm just kind of doing what I want. Remember, Jesus said, not everybody who says, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven.
Many will come to me in that day and say, Lord, look, we've done this and we've done that. And Jesus will say, Depart from me. I never knew you.
So they're resting on their laurels of something that happened in their past that isn't continuing into the present.
So This is simply a gauge that he is giving us if you indeed continue in the faith. Grounded steadfast or not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which you heard. which is preached into all the world To every creature under heaven, of which Paul, I Paul, became a minister. Verse 24.
Now Rejoice. In my sufferings. Stop there. I'm always amazed when I read Paul and his relationship to suffering. You know, Paul endured suffering, but When he writes about the suffering he endured, and keep in mind, he is.
In jail. has been beaten up on several occasions. Nearly lost his life on a few different occasions, but he says of suffering, I rejoice in it. And not only that, but we're told in the New Testament that we should rejoice in it. We should rejoice that God loves us enough.
To not leave us the way we are. But to use suffering. to continue to transform us.
So, Paul, when he speaks of suffering and affliction, 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. When Paul the Apostle who was known as Saul of Tarsus. When He was knocked off his horse and Jesus revealed himself. to him on the Damascus Road.
He went into the city of Damascus, unable to see, and a guy named Ananias, remember, was sent to him. And he said. Hananias, I want you to go. Lay your hands on Saul of Tarsus. That he might receive his sight.
For I have called him to be my witness. To the Gentiles, to represent me before the Gentiles, before the kings, and before the children of Israel. For I will show him what great things he will suffer for my sake That was The new believer's counselor to the new believer as soon as the new believer comes to faith. Can you imagine if we took people who came forward, gave their lives to Christ in the back room, and we said, congratulations, you're in for a life of suffering. Yeah.
You're going to heaven. You're going to be with Jesus forever. But in the meantime, you have a lot of suffering to go through on the way.
Okay. probably wouldn't hit it off very well with New Believers, d'you think? That's what Ananias had to tell Saul of Tarsus, Paul the Apostle, when he began. Show him, tell him. I'm going to show him what great things he would suffer for my sake.
So he here, in prison, says, I now rejoice in. My sufferings for you and What does he mean by this? Fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the affliction of Christ for the sake of his body, which is the church.
Well He is not implying that there's anything lacking. In the cross. He's not saying that Jesus suffered and it was a good start, but now we have to sort of finish. What he started. He's not saying that at all.
That would contradict everything he has said so far, and continues to say in the book. It would be right in line with what the Gnostics were saying.
So he is not saying that. In fact, the word he uses here for affliction. Philipsis in the Greek Was never a word used in the New Testament to describe the sufferings and the afflictions of Christ. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Everyday friends like you help connect people around the world to the life-changing truth of God's Word through clear, verse-by-verse Bible teaching.
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Now let's return to today's teaching. What he is saying is this. He already said Jesus is the head. of the body, the church. And now he says, I fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the affliction of Christ for the sake of his body, which is the church.
In a battle, sometimes people aim for the head. But instead they hit the body. You and I get attacked. The body of Christ gets attacked. What people are really aiming at is the head.
The reason you and I get persecuted The reason you and I are hated is because people hate Christ. They hate God. And these Christ haters and God haters attack you and say bad things about you. They're aiming for the head. But they're missing and hitting the body.
But know this. When they hit whatever part of the body you are, The head feels it. If you hit your thumb with a hammer, You don't just hurt in your thumb. You heard everywhere. The pain radiates from the thumb up through the arm, explodes in your brain.
Am I right? When Saul of Tarsus was Going after the Christians in Damascus, Jesus basically said to him, You're hitting the body, but the head is feeling it. Because he said Saul So Why are you persecuting? Me. Jesus said, I feel what you are doing to them.
The head feels what you are doing to the body. But what Paul is saying is, Jesus suffered for our sins once, it's done, it's complete, you can't add anything to it. But we're the body of Christ. Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. His physical body is at the right hand of the throne of God.
We are the spiritual body of Christ. The body of Christ still feels it. And so what Paul is saying is, now it's my turn.
Now it's my turn to suffer. I'm part of the body. The world is still attacking Christ. I'm part of the body. It's my turn to suffer.
Which would imply also it's now our turn to suffer. And do you know this? The early church, the early Christians considered it a privilege to suffer. For the name of Christ, You read the story of Fox's book of martyrs and how many of them were killed publicly, and how they gave praise and glory to God that they were counted worthy to suffer for his name. Remember in the book of Acts chapter 5 when they Threatened the early church and roughed them up a bit, and they left the council, praising God that they were accounted worthy to suffer shame for his name.
They considered it a privilege. Sweetball said, I rejoice. It's a privilege. in my suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is lacking. In the affliction of Christ for the sake of his body, which is the church.
They aim for the head. But they hit the body. It's my turn to suffer. It's a badge of honor, of which, verse 25, I became a minister, a servant. According to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you.
To fulfill the word of God. Watch this. The mystery. which has been hidden from ages and from generations. but now has been revealed to his saints.
In a few different places in the New Testament, Paul speaks of the mystery, the mystery of Christ. And we read the word mystery in our modern times, and we get the idea of something creepy and eerie. And you know, that's a murder mystery. The idea of mystery in the Bible, vastly different. It doesn't mean Halloween.
Musterion is something that had been kept concealed But is now revealed. That's all it means. It was concealed at one time, it is now revealed. Concealed in the Old Testament, kept hidden, not revealed in the Old Testament, but now in the New Testament. That which was A mystery veiled Has now been Revealed.
Good. What is it exactly that he's talking about that is revealed? He says this. The mystery which has been hidden from ages and generations, but now has been revealed. To the saints.
To them, God will. 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.
Now he's writing to Gentiles. Right? Non-Jews. And so he says. The glory of this mystery among The Gentiles.
Okay. The mystery, that which was concealed in the Old Testament, was not the idea that Gentiles would. Be saved or come to faith. Come to believe in the God of Israel, that was always God's plan. In fact, God said, I want to use you, my people, the Jews, the Israeli nation.
To be a light to the Gentiles. to bring them to the faith. That that you share.
So the mystery was not that They would have saving faith. The mystery is that God would remove the barrier between Jew and Gentile, and they would both be together in the same body, having the same status before God. It's called the church. If a Jew wants to get saved, They can't just say, well, I'm part of the Jewish nation because I'm Jewish, I'm saved. No, you're not.
That's a false doctrine known as dual covenant theology. A Jew has to get saved the same way A pagan Gentile has to get saved. Faith in Jesus Christ alone. Yeah. When a Jew or a Gentile comes to faith, God places us both in the same body.
Sharing the same status and same privilege, not nationally, because God has a plan for the Jews. as he has a plan for the Gentile nations. But Spiritually, we're all in the same body.
So Keep your finger here. Go back a couple of books to the book of Ephesians. Where Paul fleshes out this idea of mystery. And we have just enough time as we end this chapter to read this Ephesians. Chapter three You got it?
Okay, verse one: for this reason. I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ, for you Gentiles, if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given to me for you. How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery, as I wrote before in a few words, by which. You read or by which, when you read, excuse me, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ. Which in other ages Was not made known to the sons of men.
As it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets. Here it is, here it is, that the Gentiles Should be Fellow heirs of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ through the gospel, of which I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of his power. Jews and non-Jews in the church are on equal footing. In the temple. In Jerusalem, there were different courts.
Do you remember what the outer court was called? Court of the Gentiles. Do you remember that there was a wall that separated the court of the Gentiles with the court of the Jews, Jewish men, Jewish women, that had a sign that says you get past this point, you're responsible for your own ensuing death? You cross this line, you die. Because you're a Gentile, not a Jew.
And that's why, in the previous chapter of Ephesians, chapter 2, it says, He has removed the middle wall of partition that separated us. Back in the Nineteen 40s. and the 1950s. In Alabama, in Montgomery, Alabama, there was a bus. Rule.
And the bus rule is a rule of segregation. Blacks Could sit in the back of the bus. White folks could sit in the front of the bus. Until 1956, then the law of integration was passed, where if you're black, you can sit in the front of the bus. And if you're white and you get on the bus and there's no room in the front, you go to the back of the bus.
So it didn't matter what color you are, you can have any seat on the bus. In Judaism, Gentiles sat on the back of the bus. In Christ, There's no seating arrangement. We're all one in Christ. And the mystery is that Jew and Gentile will have equal footing in this wonderful plan called.
The church. That's the mystery. It's no longer a mystery. It's now been revealed. Christ in you, he said.
The Hope of Glory at the end of chapter One of Colossians, verse 28, Him we preach. Warning every man And teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man. Perfect. Complete. In Christ Jesus.
To this end, I also labor, striving, or, yeah, to this end, I also labor. striving together. to his working which works in me Mightily. Thanks for joining us today on Connect with Skiff Heitzig.
Now, here's how to pre-order an exciting resource from Pastor Skip that's coming next month. The Bible is one unified story of God's love and redemption, but sometimes it can be difficult to see how all the pieces fit together. In Soaring Above It All, Pastor Skip Heitzig takes you on a one-year devotional journey through the entire Bible, highlighting the key people, events, themes, and truths of Scripture in a way that's approachable, encouraging, and easy to follow. Pre-order your copy of Soaring Above It All today, wherever you buy books. Before we go, remember, your generosity helps share God's word with people around the world through clear, verse-by-verse Bible teaching.
And this month, when you give $50 or more, we'll send you Expound Colossians as our thanks. In this five-message study, Pastor Skip explores one of the Bible's clearest pictures of the supremacy of Jesus Christ and shows how being rooted in Him changes the way you live every day. Give today at connectwithsgift.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888. See you next time on Connect with Skiff Heitzig. Making connections.
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