Intro to Col. 1:24-29

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/7/2017 6:55 PM

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  Intro to Col.1:24-29

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Col. 1:24-29

            Message of the verses:  “24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions. 25 Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God, 26 that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, 27 to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. 29 For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.”

            John MacArthur entitles the chapter in his commentary dealing with these verses:  “Paul’s View of the Ministry.”  I began to listen to the sermon that he preached for these verses, but there are two sermons for this section of verses so I gather that we will be looking at some important things from the Word of God dealing with these verses.

            I want to begin this SD by looking at “Ac 26:16  ’But get up and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you.”  Paul is giving his testimony to King Agrippa in this chapter telling him how he had become a believer and in verse sixteen Paul tells him that the Lord had appointed him as a minister and this word in the Greek has the following meaning: “

1) servant

1a) an underrower, subordinate rower

1b) any one who serves with hands: a servant

1b1) in the NT of the officers and attendants of magistrates as — of the officer who executes penalties

1b2) of the attendants of a king, servants, retinue, the soldiers of a king, of the attendant of a synagogue

1b3) of any one ministering or rendering service

1c) any one who aids another in any work

1c1) an assistant

1c2) of the preacher of the gospel

Being a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ was very important to the apostle Paul and as we look through some of his letters we will see that it is a theme in them.  Paul never lost the wonder that God would call him to the ministry as we can see from his testimony from Acts 26:16.  It was towards the end of his life that Paul wrote the following to his son in the Lord, Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:12-13a “12 I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service, 13  even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor.”  We know that after Paul was saved by the Lord Jesus Christ that he pretty much jumped right into the ministry there in Damascus and we also know that he knew that he was a sinner as he never forgot the fact that he persecuted the church of Jesus Christ, and by God’s grace He saved Paul in order to be the apostle to the Gentiles.

Paul was compelled to tell others about Christ, how they can be saved and how they can grow after they are saved, as it was his passion, for he was driven to do this.

John MacArthur concludes his introduction with the following paragraph:

            “Paul often spoke of his ministry when he needed to establish his authority and credibility.  That was his aim in this passage.  Colossians was written in part as a polemic against false teachers, and it was essential for Paul to defend his authority to speak for God.  Otherwise, the false teachers would have dismissed what he wrote as merely his own opinion.  Having begun the epistle with a statement of his apostolic authority (1:1), Paul now gives a detailed look at the divine character of his ministry.  He recites eight aspects of that ministry:  the source of the ministry, the spirit of the ministry, the suffering of the ministry, the scope of the ministry, the subject of the ministry, the style of the ministry, the sum of the ministry, and the strength of the ministry.”

            We will begin looking at the subjects in our next SD on Colossians.

2/7/2017 7:24 PM