Two Brothers, One Bible
Two Brothers, One Bible
Episode 309 - The Energy of Christ
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So that that last episode was really exciting, wasn't it? That was so great. It was uh it was a celebration of 10,000 downloads. Yeah. You had fireworks, and then you went immediately into stormtrooper mode. Yeah. That that is quite that is quite a jump. Yeah, well, only I could do that. And you did a very good job of it. I was I was convinced the stormtroopers were here.
SPEAKER_01It was so threatening. It was very threatening.
SPEAKER_00You should hear my lightsaber.
SPEAKER_01I can't wait to hear that.
SPEAKER_00Uh welcome to Two Brothers One Bible Podcast. I'm Robert Twakefield. And we are continuing our study of Colossians, and we had a bold, bold goal to do 10 verses, and I think we did three.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, well.
SPEAKER_00It's okay. It works out that way.
SPEAKER_01I would not expect anything like that.
SPEAKER_00No, we neither. Whenever you hear us say we're gonna do 12 verses, just know that that's the goal. It's not gonna happen. It's not gonna happen. All right. Well, we're gonna start here in chapter one. We're gonna start, let's go back and hit 24 again. Okay. And then go through 29.
SPEAKER_01All right, sounds good to me. All right, so here we are, Colossians chapter 1, starting in verse 24, and going to the end of the chapter. Now rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. I 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 Lord's people. 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. He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.
SPEAKER_00All right. So that is the word of the Lord, and right there in verse 24, you know, he is he's rejoicing in his sufferings. We talked a little bit about that in the last podcast, but but not because it benefits him, but because it benefits the church. Yeah. What what a noble thing. Yeah. I I'm impressed with Paul that that he was rejoicing in his suffering because he was in prison when he wrote this. Right. And so it's benefiting the church, and that's where he finds his joy.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you know, I like that he ties the words suffering and the afflictions of Jesus together. So we we need to be mindful. You know, who do we think we are? You know, let's let's just be honest. Yeah, sure. So when we get bad things happening, we we tend to go, why me? Right. And and so really the question is why not you?
SPEAKER_00Well, yeah.
SPEAKER_01You know, I don't think anybody when when they get an incredible blessing, they go, why me? That's true. You know, they go, thank you, thank you, thank you. That's right. And so if Jesus in his life had to suffer for the for the good of the gospel, for the good of the church, then then who do we think we are that if we have to go a path of suffering? Right. That and so Paul says, look, if this is what I have to do, and if it enhances the work of the Holy Spirit and it blesses the church, then then I'm fine with it.
SPEAKER_00Then I'm all good with it. And you know, that's such a great attitude. That is such a fabulous attitude. And the thing that that strikes me about it too, Peter, is the fact that uh and we talked about this a little bit in the last podcast, so we don't go out seeking suffering. No. Um but when we when we frame suffering in in a way that that glorifies God and not worries so much about ourselves, right? It really takes some of the sting out of it, don't you think? Sure. Where I said, well boy, this is fun. Thank you, Jesus, for that. Right. But you know, when you go back and you look at the that valley you were in and you think about Psalm 23, right, that he's walking with you in the even in the valley of the shadow of death, and knowing that Jesus is there with you the entire time, that really changes your perspective on what the suffering is. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you know, and you if you look at suffering for for what it is, suffering is what brings us to our knees the most. Right. You know, when life's going great, we we tend to pray less, we we pray to study less in the word, we we you know, we life's good. Right. But when there's you know adversity facing us, whatever that is, uh, we crowd to God a whole lot more. I think so too.
SPEAKER_00And I think that's one of the reasons we have suffering. Yeah, is that that we can re-establish and reconnect with God. So uh verse 24, um it's talking about he rejoices not because suffering feels good, because it produces good. Yes. That's what this commentator said. And then uh there was a Greek insight here. Okay, a Greek word uh Philippi. Wow. Well, I don't know, which means pressure crushing affliction. Paul isn't talking about a minor inconvenience, he's talking about real cost. Gotcha. Okay, so that's what that word is. So um anyway, so verse 25, we see that Paul is becoming a servant uh of the church by God's uh own commission, if you will. Yeah. Yeah. And so let me read that verse. I didn't have that in front of me. So verse 25 says, Um, I have become its service by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness. Now, that in its fullness. Yeah. You know, it's complete. Yep. You know, and again, I think he's going back and he's addressing these false doctrines that are coming or creeping in to the Colossian church. Yeah. Because he's he's showing that you don't need nothing but Jesus. Uh Amen. That's all you need. Amen. And you just need to know know how that that works. Yeah. And then let's talk about the 26. Okay. Uh the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but now is declose, disclosed to the Lord's people. Now, this mystery is not some kind of uh, you know, spooky thing. It's not something that's mysterious. Right. Um, it's just been revealed. I think that's the difference.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, well, you know, we we've talked about this before, so we'll talk about it again. But but Paul, you know, he was was a Jew. He goes in Second Corinthians, he goes through that whole list of you know, all the who he was, tribe of Benjamin and Jew Jew and who he studied under. Right. And so, you know, prior to Jesus, everything for Paul was the law, it was the old testament. And so he tried to navigate, you know, for for all of us, we're trying to find that relationship with God. And for him, it was the law. That's what gave him a path to God, that's what gave him righteousness, that's what gave him salvation. And so, in everything he searched in the Old Testament, every prophet, every Mosaic law, he he never saw Jesus. Never did. No, and so, and that's why when Jesus came up, he said, This is this is against everything I've studied. It's wrong, it's gotta go. It's gonna hurt Judaism. And so then when he had this encounter on the Damascus Road and he got to see who Jesus was, it was like, man, it was a mystery to me. It was hidden. I didn't see it. But now it's like, how could I not see it? And that's that's what he's talking about here. That's why he says mystery and hidden so many times.
SPEAKER_00Right. And you know, this this guy wrote this about the uh present the word of God in its fullness, what it what it what it could look like. Uh he said there was no shortcuts, there's no half-truths, there was no selective teaching, and there's no watering it down. Yeah. Um, Paul's job was to deliver the whole message, not just the parts that people like. Yeah. Oh. I wrote down the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I like that too. I like that a lot better, actually. All right. So we get to uh we get all the way to verse 26, and it's amazing what it says because it says the mystery that has been kept hidden for the ages and generations, but is now disclosed. Oh, did we just do that one? Mm-hmm. Okay, so we're doing 27 rather. Yeah. Uh 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. Oh, goodness. You know, he's he's not not only saying, okay, the we've had we've had God in our lives the entire time, but now he's revealing it to the Gentiles. Yeah. And because of that, you get the whole picture just like we do. Yeah. Wow. What do you think about that?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, well, you know, we're gonna find out more in chapter two. That there's a strong Jewish population here in Colossae who have become Christians, and so you got Gentiles becoming Christians, and so he's wanting the whole congregation to know right that God has chosen these Gentiles to be a part of this glorious mystery, and that you know, when he ends this, it it's Jesus in us. That's what gives us hope, and and the accessibility to Jesus is for everyone.
SPEAKER_00Right. Uh, this guy wrote this. He said, Christ in you means that God is not distant. Yeah. Uh that he is not external, yeah. He's internal. Isn't that so crazy? That's so good. He also wrote this God is not uh assessed through rituals. He wrote that. And then he also said that God dwells within his people. Yeah. And you know, I just think that's just fabulous. I just love the whole Holy Spirit living inside of us. Because I I th I the way it's one of my favorite verses, as you will know. And and it just excites me to no end to know that I have inside of me the spirit of the Father.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00The the creator of the cosmos. He he just spoke it into existence. And he's his spirit is living inside of me. Robert Wakefield, that's crazy. It is crazy. Oh, you didn't have to agree like that. Yeah, okay. No, I don't know what you're saying. But you're you're right. It's just it's an amazing yeah.
SPEAKER_01You know, for for me, uh you know, I I I think you always you get a sense of the creator in his creation. For me, it's the canopy of the stars. Right. And so the stars, when you look up and you see all these stars, I go, it it it shows me who how big God is. Right. And then in that same breath, it tells me how small I am. And yet this big God loves me. And it's like it doesn't make any sense at all.
SPEAKER_00Not at all. And and it's just uh to me, just the fact that we've got that Holy Spirit living in us to help us to see how big that God really is. It's just fascinating. It really is. All right, so we get all the way to verse 28, and he is the one we proclaim admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. All right, so talk about verse 28 for a second.
SPEAKER_01You know, uh uh there's there's just key words in this this verse, so he is the one. All right. Okay, and I I think we should capitalize one there. I do too. He's the one, and then you know, he he says all wisdom, not not some wisdom, not a little bit smart, it's all wisdom. Right. And then present everyone fully. I mean it's so the words he's using is just so inclusive. And then, you know, the goal is that that when it's all said and done for those people God has allowed in their life, that they can be represent represented to God as fully mature in Christ.
SPEAKER_00Is that amazing? It really is. It is so good, and and I just love the fact that he says the glorious riches of this miss uh no, wait a minute, I'm gonna I jump to the wrong one. Um the uh teaching everyone with all wisdom so that we may present everyone fully mature. And when I think of that fully mature, I think of uh, you know, I I have grandchildren, you have grandchildren. It's fun watching them growing up. Yeah. And it's it's fun to watch them experience things for the very first time. And just to think that's part all part of their maturing process. And when we stand before the Father, he is at He is praying that they will be fully mature in Christ. Right. Wow. Yeah. It's a difference being fully mature as you know, as you know, people, right? But it's something else to be fully mature in Christ.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you can't help but to physically mature. Exactly. That's going to happen. Right. But whether you're going to mature as a person or mature spiritually, that's up to what we do. Right. It really is. But I like what he says in verse 28 about how this is going to be accomplished. It's through two things. One, teaching. We understand that. We need to know more. Right. But it's also admonishing. Yeah, that one just jumped off the page. It's kind of like suffering. We don't like to be admonished. No, we do. Nobody really likes you could do better. Yeah. Correction. Yeah, we don't care for that. We don't really like that. No, we don't want to be called out. We don't want anybody to, you know, throw a flag. Yeah, we we don't really care for that. But how are we gonna know? Yeah, that's true. And and you know, I don't think everyone appreciated Paul saying, look, you got to do better. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And nobody wants to hear that. No. No, no, none of us do.
SPEAKER_01But you know, if we're going to really love people and if we really want them to grow in Christ, there's gonna be times that that we're gonna have to be invited to step up and say, You need to do better. Right. And and how do you do that? I don't know. We don't do it well. We don't in in in America, other other places the world do better. But the the problem in America is we we don't we don't handle criticism well. And there's too many churches. So if if someone, some church, some pastor admonishes you here, I'll just go somewhere.
SPEAKER_00I'll just go somewhere else. I'll go down the street here.
SPEAKER_01And I think as a result, we have very immature Christians because it one, they don't want to remain under teaching consistently, and then if they get admonished, they're gonna go somewhere else. Right. And so if if we really want to be in strong in Christ, we need to submit ourselves under the authority of someone that we respect who who's a person like Paul. Now I'm not saying there's a lot of Paul's out there, right? But we need to be careful who we are influenced by. And if you're under the teaching of someone that you respect and you think they're they're striving to instruct properly and they're going to admonish you, I think you say thank you, Lord, for putting them in my life.
SPEAKER_00Right. And you know, we we need to accept people like that in our lives because let's face it, we're we're not getting we're not getting through this thing by ourselves. No. You know, it it's it's great to have someone who can, you know, tell you in a loving way that listen, that well, that's not quite the way you should do things.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you know, when he says mature in Christ, uh let's let's clear this up. We're we're never going to get to the place we're gonna be like Jesus here on earth. No. There's there's justification, which is when we're saved, there's sanctification, the process of becoming more like Jesus, and then glorification, which happens when we get to heaven. Right. So that happens ultimately then when we're in the presence of the Lord. But I heard someone say, I don't know who said it, but their goal in life was for there to just be a minor change in who they were to be like Jesus. Oh, yeah. You know, and and some are going to arrive, you know, as a as a fixer-upper, you know, because they haven't worked on it. They haven't done what what Paul said earlier is, you know, to to you know, make sure that you're staying in the faith. And so we need to be as as close as we humanly possible can be to be like Jesus.
SPEAKER_00To be like Jesus. That's that's great, Peter. That is so good. And I think with verse 29, he really ends this chapter to listen to what he says. To this end, I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me. Yeah. It's it's kind of a it's it's kind of a paradox in a way, if you think about it. He thinks he's saying that he works, yeah, uh, Christ empowers, Paul struggles, and Christ energizes. There you go. I like that. That's good. That's and that's exactly what he's doing. And that's what he says there in that last verse of this chapter. To this end, I strenuously contend. Uh I thought I had strenuously. Oh, I do. Okay. Strenuously is agasomino. Wow. Yeah. Do you hear that? Oh, it's just amazing. And thank you for bringing the uh Greek Bible in here, by the way. That was very but it's where we get our word uh agonize. Yeah. And uh and it's uh it means um it simply means to strive intensely, is what you put that word song.
SPEAKER_01You could also get the word wrestling. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, wrestling, okay. So and and then, you know, again, he says he could just say wrestle or agonize, but he says contend. Yeah. Which makes you think about you're you have an opponent, you're fighting. Yeah. And it's it's an intense battle. And so he's doing this, and he says, like you said, he could do this physically on his own as far as he could, but it's the energy of Christ that's working powerfully in him. It's it's not Paul doing it, no, but it's Paul realizing his weakness, crying out for the strength of God. You know, it goes back to whatever his thorn in the flesh was. Right. God said, I'm gonna keep you humble and and let that thorn stay, but I want you to see in your weakness I'm strong.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_01And so we we need to take that model that Paul has as well.
SPEAKER_00The energy in Christ. Yeah. Uh that's powerful. Yes, it is. Yeah. Did you catch the little powerful? Yeah. Yeah. I didn't know if you'd catch that or not.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you're so punny.
SPEAKER_00Well, then we did it. We've got through chapter one, and it was uh about 12 podcasts to get through this much.
SPEAKER_01Oh no.
SPEAKER_00Thank you so much for listening to Two Brothers One Bible Podcast. I'm Robert Wakefield. I'm Peter Sears. And thanks so much for listening. We're going to tackle chapter two. Ooh. Ooh. Yeah. Okay. That'll be fun. Yeah. Our next podcast. Thanks so much for listening and God bless.