PT-2 "The Spirit of the Ministry" (Col. 1:24a)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/11/2017 10:14 PM

My Worship Time                                                          Focus:   PT-2 “The Spirit of the Ministry”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Colossians 1:24a

            Message of the verses:  “Now I rejoice”

            We are talking about the spirit of the ministry which is rejoicing and have determined that joy is something that happens within a person and does not determine upon happiness or circumstances.

            John MacArthur writes “Joy is generated by humility.  People lose their joy when they become self-centered, thinking they deserve better circumstances or treatment than they are getting.  That was never a problem for Paul.  Like all of God’s great servants, he was conscious of his unworthiness.  Imprisoned in Rome, while other preachers got the glory, he wrote, ‘Christ is proclaimed; and in this I rejoice, yes, and I will rejoice’ (Phil. 1:18).  Facing the possibility of martyrdom, he wrote, ‘Even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all’ (Phil. 2:17).”  So we get the point of how Paul had always felt unworthy of being called by the Lord for ministry, and so what ever happened to him along the way he had the inward joy which caused him to serve the Lord no matter what he was going through, as John MacArthur stated “Joy is generated by humility” and Paul became a very humble man after the Lord saved him and called him to his ministry.

            Not only was this true of Paul, but also of the early church as well.  John MacArthur quotes a second-century apologist named Aristides who wrote to the Roman emperor Antonius Pius a description of Christians that said “if any righteous person from among them passed from this world the Christians would rejoice and give thanks to God.  When a child was born to Christian parents, they would praise God.  If it died in infancy, according to Aristides, the parents thanked God even more because the child would be one who had passed through the world without encountering sin.” 

            MacArthur concludes “Circumstances, people, and worry are the thieves that are eager to steal the joy of the ministry.  Humility, devotion to Christ, and trust in God protect the joy that is Christ’s legacy to every Christian (cf. John 1 5:11; 17:13).”

            John 15:11 “11 “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.”

            John 17:13 “13 “But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves.”

            I find this very easy to understand, but very difficult to obtain this in my life, praying that God will cause me to have joy in my ministry and in my life.  2/11/2017 10:30 PM

The Spirit of Ministry (Col. 1:24a)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/10/2017 10:08 PM

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus: The Spirit of Ministry

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Colossians 1:24a

            Message of the verse:  “Now I rejoice”

            Now as I listened to the sermon that pertains to this section of Colossians I remember that John MacArthur was talking about the meaning of the word “joy” and also the attitude that Paul had when he was ministering throughout the time he was on earth, and also I remember the message of how at times many people who are in the ministry today do not minister in a joyful way.  I certainly remember being in a church for 32 years and the last Pastor we had five years before we finally left fit that category.  It was like it was a great burden for him to be a minister of the gospel; not so with the apostle Paul.  Now the word “joy” does not necessitate being happy, but realizing that God is in control at all times so therefore we can trust Him to do what He deems best.  Look at these verses from the book of Hebrews:  “1 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2  fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God (Heb. 12:1-2).”  Now the “therefore” goes back to the previous chapter which is the “faith” chapter as the writer speaks of those he had just written about who demonstrated great faith.  I believe that the sin that the author is speaking of is a lack of faith and then in verse two he writes about the joy that Christ had going to the cross.  This may seem a bit strange, but Jesus knew that He had come to earth to do the will of His Father which was to go to the cross to pay for the sins of the world, and after that was complete He would then return to heaven sitting down at the right hand of God and this brought joy to Him.  Now when you go to the book of 2 Corinthians and chapter eleven we read about all of the troubles that Paul had while ministering for the Lord.  We can also look at the book of Acts which tells of Paul’s visit to Philippi and how he and Silas were unjustly beaten and put into prison where they were put into stocks and what they did while there was sing praises to the Lord in song and witness the gospel message to those in prison.  Hard to think of this kind of thing bringing joy to their hearts, but it certainly did.  John MacArthur writes “Christian joy is internal.  Paul was sometimes discouraged by his circumstances, but he maintained his joy.  He described himself as ‘afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed (2 Cor. 4:8-9).  He knew ‘great sorrow and unceasing grief’ (Rom. 9:2) over the plight of unbelieving Israel.  Whatever Paul’s circumstances, he never lost his deep-seated confidence that God was in control.” 

            In our next SD we will continue to look at joy and how it effects ministry.  2/10/2017 10:27 PM

PT-2 "The Source of the Ministry" (Col. 1:23c, 25a)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/9/2017 11:17 PM

My Worship Time                                                        Focus:  PT-2 “The Source of the Ministry”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Colossians 1:23c, 25a

            Message of the verses:  “the gospel…of which I, Paul, was made a minister…Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit.”

            I think that the Colossian church had a great benefit from having Paul a minister for them which was according to the stewardship from God as we have seen given to Paul when He saved Paul on the road to Damascus as seen in the ninth chapter of Acts and also when Paul gave his testimony as seen in Acts 26.  I can also say that we today benefit greatly from Paul’s ministry and apostleship that was also given to Him by God, for we have the benefit of reading not only this letter he wrote, but many other letters that he wrote to different churches from which we can gleam many truths to help us live the Christian life in a way that is pleasing to the Lord.

            The Bible, especially the New Testament shows us that all Christians have been called to serve God in one capacity or another.  We can read of different Spiritual gifts that are given to believers, and although I don’t want to at this time get into this subject I do want to say that every believer has at least one Spiritual gift, one that is not what we call sign gifts that were given to the early church in order to help it get established.  The gifts are listed in Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4, and 1 Peter 4.  These gifts given to believers are to benefit everyone who is in the local church that they attend in order to help it function in a way that pleases the Lord.

            John MacArthur writes “Stewardship translates oikonomia, a compound word made up of oikos (‘house’) and nemo (‘manage’).  It means to manage a household as a steward of someone else’s possessions.  The steward had oversight of the other servants and handled the business and financial affairs of the household.  That freed the owner to travel and pursue other interests.  Being a steward was thus a position of great trust and responsibility in the ancient world.”

            Now there have been some church leaders unlike Paul who sought glory for himself.  Paul wanted to be regarded in the following way as seen in 1 Cor. 4:1-2 “1 Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. 2 In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy.”  Paul desired to fulfill the task that the Lord had given him to fulfill “16 For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel. 17 For if I do this voluntarily, I have a reward; but if against my will, I have a stewardship entrusted to me (1 Cor. 9:16-17).”  John MacArthur writes of this passage “There is no stronger passage to show Paul’s firm sense of the divine call in his life than 1 Corinthians 9:16-17.”  Paul had to preach the gospel as he was compelled to do so for he even states “Woe is me if I do not preach the gospel.”

            It would be nice if all of those called to preach the gospel have this great desire, and I feel very fortunate that the Pastor where I attend church feels this great compassion to preach the gospel.

            Believers today are not to be like those in Corinth who used their spiritual gifts to benefit themselves, and I suppose that this is true in many churches today, but it surely should not be true as we are to use our gifts to minister to others so as we have looked at the source of ministry we need to realize that it comes from the Lord and we are to minister to others just as Paul did.  Next we will look at “The Spirit of the Ministry” as seen in Col. 1:24a.

2/9/2017 11:42 PM  

           

PT-1 "The Source of the MInistry" (Col. 1:23c, 25a)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/8/2017 10:39 PM

My Worship Time                                                        Focus:  PT-1“The Source of the Ministry”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                Reference:  Colossians 1:23c, 25a

            Message of the verses:  “the gospel….of which I, Paul, was made a minister…Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit.”

            We have to go back for a moment to see how Paul closed out verse 23 “the gospel” which described the content of the Colossian’s faith, which is the saving truth which Paul was made a minister of.  Now in verse 25 Paul repeats the thought as he once more stated that he was made a minister of the gospel.  We looked at that word “minister” in our last SD showing that it is a really simple word from the Greek language but this was given to Paul by the Lord as we also looked from his testimony in Acts 26:16.  Simple words can bring very important items as they don’t have to be words that are hard to understand to be effective and “minister” fits into this category.

            Paul did not plan to be a minister of the gospel; in fact Paul’s plans were to be one of the top Pharisees in the Jewish religion, a religion that did not end up the way that God began it as seen in the Old Testament.  Paul was probably about the same age as Jesus Christ was and as Jesus stated that once He was raised from the dead that His enemies could not attack Him anymore and so they would attack those who believed in Him and Paul was one of those enemies when he was called Saul, and that was what Paul was planning on doing, killing those who named the name of Jesus for at that time he hated Jesus.  That all changed when God blinded Him and the Lord spoke to Him asking him why he was persecuting Me [Jesus].  You see to persecute the followers of Jesus was to persecute Him, and that is not a good thing as Paul found out.  The song “once I was blind, but now I see” fits into what happened to Paul as He was blinded by Jesus, but then had his eyes opened so that he could see the truth of the gospel, the gospel that Jesus made him a minister of.  Now as we look at this very brief history of Paul we can figure out that Paul did not volunteer to become a minister of Jesus Christ, but was appointed by the Lord Jesus Christ to do this and once saved Paul put his heart and soul into ministering for the Lord.

            Paul knew that what he was doing before Christ saved him was wrong, that his salvation like all people who are saved is a miracle from the Lord Jesus Christ through the effectual calling of the Holy Spirit and he let people know this.  When we are saved we have a testimony and when we share that testimony with others sometimes the Lord will use that testimony in the lives of others to convict them of their sin and save them, so just like Paul did we should be ready to share what the Lord has done for us. 

            God gave Paul the ministry to the Gentiles and Paul was joyous in sharing with the Gentiles about how Christ had changed his life, even joyous when he was being persecuted, which happened on many occasions. 

            We will continue looking at this subject in our next SD, but in the meantime I pray that all who are believers who read this SD will think about and praise the Lord for the miracle of their salvation and take some time to get your testimony in order and pray that the Lord will use this in your life to tell others about Jesus Christ.  Several years ago I had the opportunity to write my testimony down for a class I was taking and I will share this with those who read this SD at this time.

My Testimony

            Please allow me to tell you how my relationship with God began.  When I was a young boy I went to a church that taught us that before we reached our 12^th birthday if we died we would go straight to heaven.  At the age of ten I went fishing with some of my friends, who were mostly older than I was, and so in order to impress them I began to swear, swear a lot.  It was the beginning of a habit that I would never be able to stop on my own.

            Another thing that happened to me when I was young was that my mother taught us how she heard that the world was going to end.  She told us that winter was going to turn into summer and then summer would turn into winter and then the world would burn up.  To a young boy this was very frightening to me.

            We fast forward to the summer of 1966 when on the fifth of July I was inducted into the Army.  This frightened me because there was a war going on and I surely did not want to die in a war at the age of 19.  I made a deal with God that if He would get me out of the Army that I would stop swearing, for I knew this was wrong.  There was a medical problem that I had before I went into the army, but they sent me anyway.  I had never had this problem before, so after being in the Army for three days I was told that I would be going back home.  I had to keep my deal with the Lord so for three weeks I stopped my swearing, but then it was back to “normal.”  After going back to my job they checked me for the medical condition and it was gone, never to return again.

            In late 1972 I went to visit a friend in Florida.  It was a last minute decision, so I had to stop over in Atlanta.  While in the Atlanta airport a young couple began to speak to me about what the Bible really had to say about the end of the world.  This was very interesting to me, and it relieved my fears a bit, but did not stop the habit of swearing.

            In January of 1974 I went back to visit my friend in Florida, and I must confess that my motives were not good in going there.  My friend gave me a series of cassette tapes by a man named Hal Lindsey that were about what the Bible said about how the world was going to end.  I listened to one each day and it was if they were speaking right to me.  At the end of each message Lindsey told his audience how they could have a relationship with the Lord.  I followed what he said and the first thing that I noticed was that I had no desire to swear, but I did have a desire to read the Bible.  The thing that I tried to do on my own was taken away from me never to return again.  My fears about how the world was going to end were also gone, because I understood how it was going to happen.

            In 1979 our son was born with a hole in his heart along with a bad heart valve.  In May of 1980 at the age of 18 months the surgeons actually cut his heart into and inserted a patch in it and put another patch near the valve.  It was the longest day of my life to that point, but because of my relationship with the Lord there was calmness.  My son and his wife now have three children.  My question to you is if you died today would you be 100% sure of going to heaven?

“I was listening to a sermon by John MacArthur this afternoon from Acts chapter one, and in that message he quoted a poem that his grand-father had pasted in his Bible.  The poem has some similar things in it that we have seen from MacArthur’s note on Isaiah 43:21.  “"When I stand at the judgment seat of Christ and He shows me His plan for me; The plan of my life, as it might have been, and I see how I blocked Him here and checked Him there and would not yield my will. Will there be grief in my Savior's eyes, grief though He loves me still? He would have me rich, but I stand there poor, stripped of all but His grace while memory runs like a haunted thing down a path I can't retrace. Then my desolate heart will well nigh break with tears I cannot shed. I'll cover my face with my empty hands, I'll bow my uncrowned head"...then this prayer..."Oh, Lord of the years that are left to me, I give them to Thy hand. Take me, break me, and mold me to the pattern that Thou hast planned.’”

   

 

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

PT-2 "The Evidence of Reconciliation" (Col. 1:23)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/6/2017 11:07 PM

My Worship Time                                               Focus:  PT-2 “The Evidence of Reconciliation”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Colossians 1:23

            Message of the verses:  “23 if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.”

            We have been talking about perhaps the most important aspect of reconciliation, and that is to make sure that people have received reconciliation.  Let us look at John 6:66 “As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore.”  Now the story behind this verse has to do with something that Jesus was talking about earlier in that chapter, and in my Spiritual Diary from this section I go into more detail as to what Jesus was talking about.  He was telling His listeners “54 “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”  Now they were looking at the physical meaning of this talk Jesus was saying and not looking at the Spiritual meaning which happened many times, but the point is that many of His followers could not understand this and so they walked away from following Jesus.  This kind of thing still happens today as people who here something from the Word of God and can’t understand it walk away, but this just shows that they never were truly born again and never were reconciled with God, no evidence.

            John MacArthur writes “Perhaps no passage stresses the vital importance of reconciliation more than 2 Corinthians 5:17-21:

            ‘17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 18 Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.’”

 John MacArthur writes five truths that these verses have to say about reconciliation.

1.      “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

2.      “It appeases God’s wrath: “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.’”

3.      “It comes through Christ:  ‘all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.”

4.      “It is available to all who believe:  “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.”

5.      “Every believer has been given the ministry of proclaiming the message of reconciliation:  God ‘gave us the ministry of reconciliation’ and ‘He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”

God is the One who sends His people out into the world as ambassadors into a fallen, lost world, bearing unbelievably good news.  Think about this believers, think of the awesome responsibility that we have through the power of the Spirit of God to tell others about Christ.

2/6/2017 11:28 PM

PT-1 "Evidence of Reconciliation" (Col. 1:23)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/4/2017 7:25 PM

My Worship Time                                                 Focus:  PT-1 “The Evidence of Reconciliation”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Colossians 1:23

            Message of the verse:  “23 if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.”

            I have to say that there are some verses in the Word of God that exhort you to make sure that you are a true believer in Jesus Christ.  “5 Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you-unless indeed you fail the test? (2 Cor. 13:5).  Now if a person fails that test they will one day here the Lord Jesus Christ say to them “22 "Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 "And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness (Matt. 7:23-23)!” 

            Now we have been talking about reconciliation and we have to understand that reconciliation is exactly what we have been stating it is, and probably much more could have been said, but I believe what we said is true.  At any rate this does a non-believer no good and so Paul is telling the Colossians that in order to prove that they have been reconciled to God they need to “continue in the faith and this faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel.”  He is saying that if you do these things then this will show that you are a true believer in Jesus Christ.

            John MacArthur writes “Of all the marks of a genuine Christian presented in Scripture, none is more significant than the one Paul mentions here.  People give evidence of being truly reconciled when they ‘continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast.’  The Bible repeatedly testifies that those who are truly reconciled will continue in faith.  In the parable of the soils, Jesus described those represented by the rock soil as ‘those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no firm root; they believe for a while, and in time of temptation fall away’’ (Luke 8:13).  By falling away they gave evidence that they were never truly saved.  In John 8:31, ‘Jesus therefore was saying to those Jews who have believed Him, ‘If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine.’’  Speaking of apostates, the apostle John writes in 1 John 2:19, ‘They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, in order that it might be shown that they are not of us.’”

2/4/2017 7:41 PM