This recording is from Christ Kingdom Church in Avalon Park, Orlando. Visit us online at ChristKingdom.org for our calendar, driving directions, and more audio recordings. Baptisms are cool, aren't they? I mean, God loves our kids more than we do. And that's got a special meaning for me. It's just having a five-month-old little boy. But I don't know about you guys, but recently I've been, I've just been thinking a lot, and I'm fascinated with the US air flight, 1459, that glided down into the Hudson River. And it's sort of an especially remarkable story, considering the tragic news out of Buffalo just two or three days ago of a plane that full of people who weren't as fortunate. But I don't know if you caught the flight recording, sort of the black box recording for that flight. I think it was released a week or a week and a half ago, and it was just really, for me, just a powerful thing to listen to that. I've listened to it several times, and I think part of it may be that most of the time we listen to those black box recordings, things haven't turned out so well. But thinking back on it this time, you've got Sully, the pilot, Sully Solenberger, who did such an amazing job to bring the plane down the way it did. But he's talking to the air traffic controller, and they're doing all they can to get that flight to safety. And it's sort of much like Paul in this letter to the Colossians that we've been studying. They've got sort of a fledgling faith, and he's trying to usher them in the right direction, usher them towards safety in their faith. But this conversation between Sully and the air traffic controller there, you can tell that they're sort of a little panic. They're sort of an emergency type situation, and the air traffic controller first says, you know, come back to LaGuardia. He starts clearing the air around the LaGuardia airport, and then Sully says, no, can't do it. So he says, well, isn't Teterborough Airport off to the right? Why don't we go there? And at first, Sully says, okay, yeah, yeah, we'll go there. And the air traffic controller starts, he contacts Teterborough. They start clearing the airspace there so they can come down there. And then the last words that you finally hear Sully hear are, can't make it, we're going to be in the Hudson. And then it's just radio silence. And so, in the radio silence of your heart this morning, what is God going to say? What is God going to say through Paul to the Colossians, and ultimately to us? We all know what happened to Flight 1459. Miraculously, it glided down under that water, everyone survived the crash. I mean, a major airplane crash, and everyone survives. And sort of, I don't know, I see connections here with the Colossians. The takeoff was going fine, right? The plane shot off the runway, they got full power. You know, the Colossian Church, Paul's praising me saying, you know what? I'm really encouraged by the faith and the love that I see in you guys for each other. And as Scott shared last week, Paul's, you know, he's telling me to rev the engines and keep going full bore at, you know, in the, basking in the glory of the majestic King Jesus. But he's also saying, as Scott mentioned, and as Paul's going to get into, there are flocks of birds in the air. There are dangerous people in teaching dangerous things. You know, the ways of the world are not the ways of God. And there's a danger that birds will get in your engines of faith and the plane will come down. Because the Christian pilgrimage is wrought with enemies and pitfalls, isn't it? Well, in the Orlando Sentinel, I think a few days after the election, and it was after the miracle on the Hudson, there was a cartoon, and it was Air Force One with, you know, President Obama written on it, and it was taking off. And then out in front of these flocks of birds, I think it said, economy, Iraq, bailout, unemployment. And so you get the idea, you know, they're birds in the air for our country, and they're birds in the air for your faith, right? They're challenges to the Christian life. And so what's going to happen in the radio silence of your heart this morning? At the end of this passage that we're going to look at, Paul says, don't be deceived. Later on in this letter, in the next few weeks, you'll hear him say things like, continue in faith. Bear one another's burdens. Don't submit to the rules of this world. He's saying, steer around the birds. There's a danger that your souls can be wrecked, so steer around the birds that are in the air. So let me read the text in full here. It's the end of chapter one in Colossians. We're going to go versus 124 through 25. Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, which is the church. I've become it servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God, and its fullness, the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. 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. We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ, to this end I labor struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me. I want you to know how much I'm struggling for you and for those that allow to say a, and for all who have not met me personally. My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine sounding arguments. For though I am absent with you in body, I am present with you in spirit and delight to see how orderly you are and how firm your faith in Christ is. Well, the first point that I want us to see from this passage is that Paul encourages the Colossians to rejoice in the afflictions. Paul, like the air traffic controller, like Sully, he cares about the safety, the well-being of this church. He didn't plant the church, but someone who minister with him a pafferous plant in the church. And so in a sense as an extension of Paul's ministry and he cares deeply about them, he has a pastoral concern for the church at Colossae. And as a commissioned apostle of God, one who preaches the gospel, he is responsible for them in some ways. And so he writes, I rejoice in what was suffered for you and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions for the sake of the body which is the church. And then two, one, I want you to know how much I am struggling for you and for those that allow to say it for all who have not met me personally. Paul celebrates the fact that Christ has made such deep sacrifices for these people. And not only that, he's saying, you know what? I'm struggling for you. I'm suffering for you. Later on in the letter he says, I remember my chains. I'm in chains for proclaiming this mystery of Christ. For your sake and so the gospel will spread to all the nations. And now this is sort of a tricky little phrase he uses here. And you may be asking yourself, what in the world does that mean? I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions. I can tell you what it doesn't mean. That what Christ did on the cross is not sufficient for your sin. What he did is sufficient to make atonement for sins of the whole world of people who would come to faith in him. When Jesus said it is finished, he was serious. And so it's not about atonement, but it's about ministry. You see because the kingdom of God comes as people suffer for the king. The kingdom of God comes as people suffer for the cross. Look at when Paul's conversion back when he was still Saul, the Lord came to him on the road and said, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? So there's a real sense in which when believers are being persecuted, he was just a Jewish leader then. And he didn't know Jesus and he was persecuting those who did. And so now Paul's life is just completely changed. And so there's a sense in which when believers suffer, then Jesus suffers too. The kingdom comes as people lay down their lives for the sake of the gospel. As you take up your cross, that's Jesus suffering with you. So I ask you this morning, would you consider yourself one who desires to share in the sufferings of Christ as Paul writes to the Philippians about the same time you write this letter to Colosse? Would you consider yourself one of those people? How many of you guys have heard of Dietrich Bonhoffer? Dietrich Bonhoffer was a theologian and academic he lived in Germany in the 30s and 40s as Hitler was coming to power and the national socialist party was rising. Bonhoffer got a sense early on that Hitler was no good. That something was fishy and he began to speak out against the Nazi party. And eventually he sort of had to leave the country, left the country several times because he was wanted by the Gestapo. And eventually it got so bad that friends got him out of Germany and brought him here to the United States. But his heart was a burdened for the people back home in Germany. And he wrote, he said this, he said, I shall have no right to participate in the reconstruction of Christian life in Germany after the war if I do not share in the trials of this time with my people. If I don't share in the trials of this time with my people. So Bonhoffer knowing the danger went back to Germany and he started this underground seminary where he's training pastors to go out and tell people the truth about God in the midst of all the lies that were being spread in that society. And eventually the Gestapo called out with Dietrich Bonhoffer and he was put in a prison camp and a concentration camp in Flossenberg. And he spent just over two years there ministering to the people, those who were sick, those who were ill, those who were abused, everyone there was suffering and he was their pastor. Well just a few days before the concentration camp at Flossenberg was liberated by the Allied forces, orders were sent. And Dietrich Bonhoffer was walked to the gallows and he was hung. He was hung for speaking out against the Nazis, he was hung for his faith. And so why am I telling you about Dietrich Bonhoffer, why is Paul saying things like remember my chains is because the afflictions of Christ, of Paul, of the martyrs should humble us. We should be grateful and eventually sort of like the two looks at the cross, Joe was mentioning the first look you're humbled because you know the wrath you should have suffered. And then the second look you rejoice because you're not suffering that. Well I wonder what that day would have been like for those in the concentration camp who Bonhoffer administered to, for the man who Bonhoffer had brought a cool cup of water. I wonder if mixed with the tears of grief and the tears of sorrow there weren't maybe some tears of joy. You know because I mean what if, what if those stories about this guy Jesus that Pastor Bonhoffer told, what if they're really true. I mean he was willing to lay down his life Dietrich was for us, for what he believed. So I wonder if that could really be true. And so I wonder today if the accuser, if the busyness of this life, if everything going on in your world has sort of distracted you from the sacrifice is made for you, the truth that Jesus death really was for you. That you're worth it. Do you believe that you're a child of the king? Paul says the story about Jesus is true. Paul was persecuting the church and now he's saying I'm being persecuted for the church. He says remember my chains, remember the blood of the martyrs, remember the afflictions of Christ. That was all for you. That was all for you.
Was passage not only encourages us to remember and rejoice in the afflictions but also to behold the mystery versus 25 through 27. Paul says I have become the church's servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God and its fullness, the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations but is now disclosed to the saints. 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. Paul uses the word mystery three times in these 10 verses and he does that intentionally because in the original language for the Colossians that word would have a special significance to it and it would be associated with pagan rituals and some of the deceivers and false philosophies that Scott was teaching about last week because somebody was saying you know what? To have this mystery, to have this knowledge of God you've got to pay this fee to us and then we'll tell you what it is. Or you have to go through these rituals, you have to celebrate these ceremonies and then you'll have the knowledge of God but Paul says no, no. God has made known to everyone the fullness of his love and his sacrifice and the body and flesh of his son. The revelation full right there you don't have to pay anything it's free. You don't have to do anything special it's free. And one of the reasons that the reason that Paul says this had been hidden for generations is that really I mean if you look at the Old Testament throughout most of redemptive history most of the people included in Israel the people of God are Jewish. Okay yet there are some Gentiles, there were some outside of the Jewish people like Rahab who helped the spies and servants of faithful Jewish followers of God but for the most part it was Jews and when Jesus comes he blows down the gates of that. Everything is opened up to the whole nation every nation and tribe to Gentiles to Jews to everyone so Paul says behold this mystery it's free and everyone is invited to the party. Verse 2 2 says the mystery of God namely Christ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge if if you're a believer the spirit of Jesus has entered into you and there's nothing anyone can ever do to take that away from you. You can never be snatched away from his care and that's spiritual that's mysterious it's powerful and it's really it's a great assurance and comfort to us isn't it as believers. Verse 1 17 from last week says that Christ holds all things together he holds your faith your soul your spirit he holds that together and he's not letting you go if your faith is in him. Well one way I was thinking about that this week is sort of thinking about the idea of American citizenship I don't know if you guys know this but it's it's really pretty hard to lose your American citizenship to be kicked out of the country. You pretty much have to like post pictures of yourself with shooting guns with Osama bin Laden on Facebook or something to get kicked out of the country. You have to declare war against the US and as far as it is to get kicked out of the US it's impossible for you to lose citizenship in the kingdom of heaven. It's like one of my seminary professors said Richard Pratt he said that that we're the lucky ones you know it's sort of like we you know most of you here if you're not of Jewish descent you're you're of Gentiles and so this ministry that began you know at the time of Jesus I mean the spread all over the world you know we're Gentiles we're the ones he's talking about here that we're the lucky ones. We would be worshipping toad stools or fire or Tim Tebow or something if if God hadn't broken into the story and saved us. It would be if it's sort of like if if God I mean if the United States government were to say you know what we're not going to build that wall between the US and Mexico. We're just bring the board of patrol off you know do something else guys anybody who gets here you can be a citizen if you can make it to American soil you can be a citizen how about that. I mean it's like this that says and we think gosh that's crazy right I mean that would be insane if that had been Barack Obama's platform I don't think he'd be president right. Well that's that's the crazy that's what's why that's part of what this mystery here that Paul's talking about I mean this is the doors of the kingdom are are opened wide open for people like you and me and the Colossians to walk through. People of all nations and tribes and and we often take that for granted. Laurie my wife painted this just amazing picture that's on Thomas's wall it's it's of a it's of this big powerful lion and sort of snuggled in the midsection of the lion is this little lamb. And what's in inscribed below it is a verse from Psalm 4 and you alone O Lord or something like I will I will lie down and sleep at night for you alone O Lord will keep me safe. And gosh I mean that that's the picture of. And in scripture Jesus is called alternatively the good shepherd and the lion of Judah and and he's both of those I mean we're we're his sheet and he is the lion who protects us. If your faith is in him you're a little lamb and you can nestle up to your savior and in this painting nobody's messing with that lamb. The lion has got it covered and that's that's the assurance that's the comfort you have when Jesus is your Lord. He says he says about you she's mine a little lamb is mine and I will protect her so not only would is Paul encouraging us to rejoice in the afflictions and behold the mystery. But these first two points should really cause us to reevaluate our treasure and the course of these 10 verses not only does Paul use the word mystery three times but he uses words that refer to wealth or money three times he uses riches twice and treasures once. He talks about the riches of this mystery which is Christ and you the riches of complete understanding and treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden in Christ so he's he's just talked about the afflictions that have been suffered for you. He's talked about the mystery of Christ who is in you and he's pressing us to consider the question you know what and in light of those two things what what is your greatest treasure. What is it what is on your throne is that your retirement account your car your friends you put them on the throne above you care more what they think and what God thinks is it your kids or your spouse even. I mean think about like this would you would you if it came down to it would you trade your faith in Jesus for any treasure in the world for any amount of money ten billion dollars. Would you trade your faith in Christ now that's that's the most valuable treasure in the universe if your answer is no. I don't how many guys have seen the movie of brother were art though. I think it was nominated for the Academy Award maybe not but anyway there's a character in that movie named Tommy Johnson and the three main characters they've escaped from prison and George Clooney and John turturo and then I'm not sure who plays the character Delmar but they're sort of on the run they've stolen a car and they put this crossroads out in the middle of nowhere out in the middle of nowhere and they pick up this man named Tommy Johnson and they get to talk in and they ask him what you know why are you where are that crossroads in the middle of nowhere and he says well I had to meet the devil there last night to sell my soul and so Everett the George Clooney the main character gets a kick out of this because he's cynical about all things spiritual and he says oh Tommy what a devil give you for your soul and Tommy says he tell me how to play this guitar real good. And Delmar the sort of the country bumpkin one is in the back these right next to me says oh son for that your soldier ever last in soul and Tommy says well I wasn't using it and so I don't know I just wonder I mean that came to me because it's like gosh I had to ask myself the question has the busyness of this life as everything I'm doing and even if it's the Christian activities and this and that and get there and get the kids there and has all that sort of taken over and pushed the real treasure out your lot I mean are you using your soul am I using my soul you know some of the some of the bad teaching some of the deceptions that Paul talks about and this letter goes on to talk about more in depth sound a lot like some of the things that get us in trouble and they sound a lot like self righteousness to me you know there were rabble risers trying to convince the church in Colossae you know if you do this if you only do this if you practice this if you celebrate this if you if you abstain from eating and drinking this that you know then you'll have a real relationship with God then you'll earn God's favor you know maybe today you say to yourself maybe you're beating yourself up today coming to church thinking gosh you know what if only I read my Bible for an hour every day if only I if only I prayed for all my friends and call them and ask them how they're doing if only I gave all my money to the poor share the gospel with 20 people this week you know in the and those are good things but if you're saying this if you're saying that yourself going gosh if then if I done those things then God would love me then God would have favor on me then then that's that's not what it's all about you know maybe you said if I if I don't look at pornography this week if I don't drink if I don't yell at my kids then I'll feel good about myself and I'll know God loves me that's not the way it is thank God that's not the way it is because God's love doesn't change if you've received Christ if Christ is in you the mystery that Paul's talking about here then when God sets you he sees Jesus and he smiles at you now that's a treasure for those of you who are here and and you're not believers don't don't you wish that were true I mean don't you wish that wouldn't that be sweet if there was a God who who should submit to who you could come to a God who says you know what you don't have to feel guilty anymore you don't have to be ashamed you don't have to live in fear because we all do to some extent only well the beginning of the sermon I ask you to think about what birds might be flying around in the air of your heart in the air of your life well you know what birds are headed my your plane be headed towards and I said Paul's telling us to steer around those birds and there's there's a sense in which that's true Paul's calling us to walk in the ways of the Lord he's calling us to obey but at the same time the reality is you've already hit those birds you've hit them time and time again you yelled at you yelled at your wife this week you went back to an addiction for the thousandth time this week you you don't suffer you you like living in comfort and excess and luxury you know what I relate to that I you know I've hit birds so many times that it's you know sometimes I just feel like gosh it's broken and this is not right and I feel like the plane's going down but the beauty is that we don't have to do all the steering the reality is when we hit birds the birds that's around us Jesus is there to take the helm and unlike unlike solely who you know maybe one time in a hundred the conditions are perfect he uses all his skills and brings that plane down every time we hit birds Jesus glides that plane down into the river of God's grace and we're okay we're okay now some people might say well then why why should I even obey if you know if when I hit birds Jesus is going to glide that plane out it's better to fly isn't it it's better to so it's better to feel the breeze through your hair it's better to get where you're going it's better to walk in the ways of the Lord the word of the Lord is like honey like honey from the comb following him that that will lead to your greatest pleasure it's you'll be in the end okay if you crash if if Jesus glides you down the water but you know what that water is frigid and you'll get sick and you'll have to fill out a lot of paperwork but Jesus will still love you and that's that's the real treasure of Christ and you that's the real mystery so think about that when you come and when you eat and when you spiritually partake of that mystery of Christ in you I'm in