Lesson #04

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Colossians

September 21, 2015

Lesson #01

January 20, 2010

Lesson #02

January 20, 2010

RETURN TO LIST OF LESSONS

COLOSSIANS 1:20-29
Lesson #04
THE MYSTERIES AND WORK OF JESUS CHRIST

• Memory verse: Col 1:22
• In our previous lesson we learned about the supremacy of the person of Jesus Christ. However it is not sufficient to know who Christ is, we also must know what Christ did for us, to take advantage of all He provided for us. Therefore Paul continues in chapter one of Colossians to tell us what Christ did for us.
• Read Col 1:19-23
  • What do we learn about the work of Jesus Christ? (20-22)
    • =1= He made peace:

 

• “And, having made peace through the blood of his cross…”

 

(20)
• The word, “peace” means = to bind together.
  • Therefore, it is not knowledge that gets us to God; it is the blood of Jesus Christ that He shed on Calvary. Through Jesus’ blood, we are bound together with God.
• =2= He reconciled:

 

• “…to reconcile all things unto himself…”

 

(20)
• It is the blood of Jesus and His death on the cross that reconciles everything to God. (20)

 

• “And you, that that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind…”

 

(21)
• The word “alienated” means = foreign or strange. We get the English word alien from this Greek word.
  • It is usually a surprise for the believer to discover that he was the enemy of God before he gave his heart and life to Jesus Christ. Usually people will say that they did not hate God or do anything in their lives to fight against God. (Rom 1:30)
    • The word “enemy” is a strong word for someone that simply ignores God, but this is how God sees the non-believer.
    • Read Rom 3:10-18
• Through Jesus Christ, all the barriers that separate us from God are removed by the blood and death of Jesus Christ. (21) We are no longer enemies separated from God. We are now reconciled.
• =3= He makes us holy:

 

• “…through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight.”

 

(22)
• Jesus Christ presents us to God as holy, without spot, without blemish, and without guilt. We do not carry the marks of sin. He carries those marks in His side, in His hands, and in His feet for all of eternity.
  • As we have already seen in our lessons in Colossians, our debts are marked “paid in full” because God’s perfect justice is satisfied with Jesus’ sacrifice.
• One of the basic concepts of Gnosticism was that all matter, all this physical world and everything in it is evil, and that everything spiritual is good. Therefore, because of this great separation, nothing good could ever be material. This is the reason they say that the physical body of Jesus Christ could not have been God in the flesh; neither could the physical blood of Jesus Christ have gained anything in the spiritual world.
  • Because of this Gnostic concept, the phrase “through his blood” is removed from verse 14 in many of the new versions of the Bible.
  • Because of this great misunderstanding by the Gnostics about the person and the work of Jesus Christ, Paul gives us great detail about these characteristics of Jesus Christ.
    • How do Gnostics that use the Bible today, understand these scriptures in Colossians?
      • =1= They use the new versions of the Bible that eliminate key words and phrases and many times the full title “The Lord Jesus Christ”. (1:2-3)
        • One branch of the Gnostic sect, that is called “Docetics”, said that Jesus was not really human but only appeared to be human like a ghost. They said that when He walked in the sand, he did not leave footprints. Therefore Paul mentions Jesus’ body of flesh in verse 22.
      • =2= They avoid reading specific chapters of the Bible like Colossians 1 and Genesis 2 y etc.

 

• “…in his sight…”

 

means = to look down into with a searching and penetrating gaze.

 

• =

 

4= He makes the believer stable in Jesus Christ.

 

• “If we continue in the faith grounded and settled…”

 

(23)
• The word “grounded” refers to the believer’s stability that he has in Jesus Christ at the moment that he is born again.
• The word “if” means “since”. Therefore, since or because we continue in the faith, we become more and more firm and settled in our faith.
• Read Col 1:24-29 The Deity of Christ: The Church is Christ’s Mystery
  • What enabled Paul to rejoice in suffering?
    • Paul knew the reason and the nature of his suffering. He saw it as a part of God’s plan and purpose for his life.

 

• “…and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake…”

 

(24)
• This is a difficult scripture.
  • It does not mean that Christ’s suffering was not enough and so Paul had to finish Christ’s work.
  • Therefore, it means that God has established a predetermined limit to sufferings through which the church will pass.
    • Paul says that the more he suffers to use up that predetermined amount, the less other Christians will have to suffer. He desires that the suffering be put on him instead of on other Christians in the church.

 

• “…I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God…”

 

(25)
• The word, “minister” means = servant.
• The word, “dispensation” consists of two Greek words. One means = house, and the other word means = law. Therefore, the word. “Dispensation” means = law of the house.
  • The word, dispensation, refers to the laws or principles by which a household or a family is governed.
    • Paul operated his ministry according God’s principles that conform to the current age of grace.

 

• “Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints.”

 

(26)
• In the ages of time, God has revealed certain aspects of the principles and laws that govern His kingdom. Some aspects like redemption, God began to reveal very early in the Old Testament (the book of Exodus.) However, there are other aspects of God’s plan that He did not reveal in the Old Testament.
  • These are the things that the Bible calls “mysteries”.
  • The word, “mystery”, means = something previously hidden and now being revealed. Therefore, these are important concepts that God wants to reveal to man but has delayed their revelation until this age of grace in which we now live. We do not see them revealed in the Old Testament. We may find a hint in the Old Testament, but the full revelation is not explained until the New Testament.
  • Paul mentions these mysteries because the Gnostics believed that only those people that pursued knowledge would be given some special secret knowledge that was only available to an elite group of people. However the mysteries in the Bible are available to all believers (the saints) in Jesus Christ.
    • There are eleven New Testament “mysteries”:

NEW TESTAMENT MYSTERIES EXPLAINED

#	The Mystery	Explanation	Scripture
1	The Mystery of the Kingdom of God	The existence of an unseen Spiritual Kingdom	Mat 13:11 Mar 4:11 Luk 8:10
THE ENEMY KINGDOM AT WORK
2	The Mystery of Israel’s Blindness	The rejection of Jesus Christ at His First Coming has caused a spiritual blindness to come over the Jews temporarily	Rom 11:25
3	The Mystery of Iniquity (Sin)	The nature and eternal consequence of sin in the human experience.	2The 2:7 Mat 13:33
4	Mystery Babylon	The coming world false religion controlled by Satan through the Antichrist during the Tribulation Period of seven years.	Rev 17:5,7
THE CHURCH
5	The Mystery of the Rapture of the Church	The eminent and sudden disappearance of the New Testament church.	1Cor 15:51-52 1The 4:13-18
6	The Mystery of the Church as One Body	The nature of the church that includes Jews and Gentiles, slaves and freemen, men and women that have received Jesus Christ.	Eph 3:1-11 Eph 6:19 Gal 4:3
7	The Mystery of the Church as the Bride of Christ	The relationship between Christ and his church that parallels a husband and wife relationship.	Eph 5:28-32
8	The Mystery of the Seven Stars in Christ’s Right Hand	Jesus Christ control, guides, and protects pastors of His church.	Rev 1:7
CHRIST AND HIS WORK
9	Mystery of Christ Living in Us	The new birth relationship that occurs when a person receives Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior when Christ comes to live in the human heart.	Gal 2:20 Col 1:26-27
10	The Mystery of Christ, the Fullness of the Godhead Bodily	Jesus Christ is fully man and fully God to possess all the characteristics of the other members of the Holy Trinity.	Col 2:2,9 1Cor 2:7
11	The Mystery of God-likeness Restored to Man Through Christ	Christ’s sacrifice on the cross restores to man all that Adam lost as a result of the original sin.	1Tim 3:16

 

• “To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

 

(27)
• The specific mystery to which Paul refers in this chapter of Colossians is Mystery Number #9, Christ Living in Us.
• The awesome concept of this mystery is that the supreme deity of Jesus Christ that Paul just described in the first part of this chapter comes to live inside the sinful new believer.
• Notice that Paul characterizes this mystery of Christ in us as riches of glory.
  • Christ’s spiritual riches become the inheritance of the believer the moment the believer is born again.
    • Read Eph 1:10-12 (Eph 1:18)
    • The spiritual riches are that we share in the very character of God in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge have been stored for us.
• Therefore the pursuit of the Christian life is to discover these riches.
  • According to Paul, what constitutes good preaching? (28)
    • Warning of false doctrines, sin, and judgment.
    • Teaching God’s wisdom in the Word of God.
  • The purpose is to train the believer to equip him and make him perfect.
    • How can the believer be “perfect” when he still sins from time to time?
      • The Biblical meaning of the word, “perfect” is = mature and complete.

• Paul’s labor:

 

• “…according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.”

 

(29)
• The words, “his working” mean = energized.
  • This Greek word is never used in reference to man’s working, but it is always used in reference to God’s working. Therefore, it always refers to supernatural power and energy.
    • Paul labored using God’s power and not his own.
    • Paul labored to bring the riches of Christ to others and so should the believer.

HOMEWORK
Colossians 2:1-10
This is a self-study. Please do not send homework answers to the teacher forcorrecttion.

• Application for Col 1:20-29
  • Read the following scriptures:
    • 1Cor 13:13
    • Heb 6:19
    • Heb 11:1
    • Rom 8:24-25
    • Eph 1:18
    • 1Pet 1:13
  • How does a Biblical perspective of “hope” make a difference in your personal life to help you deal with personal problems?

• Preparation for Col 2:1-10
  • Read Col 2:1-10
    • From where does true wisdom come and how do we get it? (Jam 1:2-8)

• According to Col 2:1-7, what is Paul’s desire for God’s people?
• Memory verses: Col 2:9-10