Filling up the Afflictions of Christ
Colossians 1:24–27
© Mike Riccardi
Introduction
Well, we return to our series in Paul’s letter to the Colossians. So please turn with me in your Bibles to Colossians chapter 1. Each Sunday evening that we’ve gathered around the Word of God as recorded in Paul’s letter to the Colossians, I have reminded you that the central burden of this entire letter is the supremacy and sufficiency of Jesus Christ. And that has been his burden in this letter, because the truths of Christ’s supremacy and sufficiency were being attacked and undermined by false teachers, seeking to woo the Colossians away from the message of the true Gospel that they had heard from Epaphras.
These false teachers came peddling a mix of Jewish ceremonialism and pagan mysticism, and the upshot was: simple faith in Jesus alone was not enough to deliver the fullness of genuine spirituality. “Sure, you need to believe in Jesus, but you also need to observe the dietary laws, and feast days, and sabbaths of the Mosaic Covenant! Sure, Christ helps for spirituality, but the true power for spiritual growth and fullness comes from harnessing the power of angelic forces through mystical visions!”
They also attacked Christ’s supremacy. They taught that He was merely one of many “emanations” from the ultimate source of divinity—a divine spirit-being, sure; but not the one, true and living God. They also denied His true humanity—and in this way they attacked His supremacy as the God-Man. Because their pagan philosophy regarded matter as inherently evil, it could never be that a divine figure like Christ could truly take on material flesh.
All of this heretical teaching concerning the person and work of Christ was threatening this precious congregation in Colossae. And it made it necessary for Paul to write to protect them by setting forth the truth about the supremacy and sufficiency of the Lord Jesus. He begins, in verses 3 to 8, by thanking God for His grace in the Colossians’ lives, subtly reminding those precious believers that their lives were indeed transformed by the message Epaphras proclaimed to them, by the Christ he preached. And so they were to pay these late-coming interlopers no mind.
Then he prays for them in verses 9 to 12, and subtly directs them to the truth that the fullness of knowledge and spiritual wisdom and understanding—all the resources needed to please God and walk in a manner worthy of Him—all of it is bound up in Christ alone. And then, in verses 12 to 14, he speaks of how all the riches of God’s grace come to us in Christ alone. By the redemption accomplished by His blood, we receive the forgiveness of sins. By faith in Him, we are transferred from the domain of darkness, and are delivered unto the kingdom of God’s own beloved Son, the Lord Jesus.
And then, in one of the most beautiful paragraphs in all the New Testament, verses 15 to 20, Paul pens a hymn of praise to the supremacy of Jesus in and above all things. In verses 15 to 17, Paul celebrates Christ’s supremacy over the present creation: He is God Himself, the eternal Creator and Sustainer of everything that exists, and the one for whom everything exists. In verses 18 to 20, Paul celebrates Christ’s supremacy over the new creation: He is the head of the church, the author and founder of the new, resurrected humanity, who has come to have first place in everything. He is God incarnate, the only atonement for sinners, who is returning to rescue His people, to destroy all wickedness, and to restore the universe to a state of peace.
Then, in verses 21 to 23, Paul applies these transcendent, cosmic, universal truths to the Colossians in particular. He tells them of how this cosmic reconciliation accomplished once for all on the cross has reconciled them to the Holy God of heaven, whose enemies they had become because of their sin. And he exhorts them to stand firm, to continue in the faith, to not be moved away from the hope of this Gospel by which they will stand in the presence of God on the last day, “holy and blameless and beyond reproach.”
And at this point, it’s as if Paul anticipates an objection the Colossians might raise. He mentions at the end of verse 23 that he was made a minister, or a servant, of this Gospel. And it’s as if the mention of the ministry immediately brings to mind the sufferings a minister of the Gospel is bound to experience. A servant, after all, must expect to be treated like a servant, and thus to be attended with manifold difficulties.
We’re familiar with the passages. Paul says in 2 Timothy 3:12 that “all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” In Philippians 1:29 he says it has been granted to you “not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake.” Acts 14:22: “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.” The Lord Himself tells us, in John 15:20: If they persecuted Me, they’ll persecute you.
And so Paul imagines the Colossians objecting to him: “Paul, we appreciate all this talk about how supreme Jesus is and how wonderful reconciliation is. And don’t get us wrong; it’s inspiring stuff. But you’re calling us to steadfastness and perseverance in this Gospel alongside you, but look where it’s gotten you! You’re writing to us from a jail cell in Rome! If we continue in this message, what’s to say we don’t find ourselves in there with you? Or worse!” And Paul says, “Oh, friends: Don’t be ashamed of my chains! Don’t be fearful of laying your lives down in service of this Gospel, because, I’ll tell you: my suffering for the Gospel’s sake is to me a source of boundless and bottomless joy!” Verse 24: “Now I rejoice in my sufferings.”
And this, of course, was the banner that hung over all of Paul’s ministry. Afflictions that we can barely stand to think about! And an unshakable, indomitable joy that we would give just about anything to experience! The title of Paul’s biography could well have been: Joyful, Enduring Ministry in the midst of Affliction. In 2 Corinthians 1:5, Paul says, “For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ.” In 2 Corinthians 7:4, Paul says, “I am overflowing with joy in all our affliction.”
And, as you well know, this wasn’t unique to Paul. The rest of the Apostles both preached and lived out the same thing. In Acts chapter 5, Peter and the Apostles are taken into custody and beaten for their testimony to Jesus. And Acts 5:41 says, “They went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name.” Nearly thirty years later, the Apostle Peter would write in his First Epistle, “To the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing.” And we all remember the opening of the letter written by the Apostle James, James 1:2: “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials.”
Both by apostolic example and by apostolic precept, we are called, as followers of the Christ who suffered, both to endure affliction for the Gospel’s sake and to do so with joy. One commentator put it well when he said, “It is not enough merely to bear the cross, it must be done without reluctance of spirit, or inward repining; nay it ought to be made our joy and glory when we suffer indignities for the sake of the Gospel, and of our sacred ministry” (Davenant, 271). And I love what John MacArthur said about this. He wrote, “As challenging and demanding as it is, ministry was never intended to be an arduous and unbearable burden. Paul’s attitude of joy should be the spirit of ministry for every Christian” (73). The fifth-century church father, Prosper of Aquitaine, said, “That is a bad solider who follows his General sorrowing.” And that’s true. Christ is so worthy a General to be following, and His cause is so noble a battle in which to be engaged, that for any of us, his soldiers, to be following Him through the afflictions of battle without the joy that Paul speaks of in this passage is a sacrilege.
But where does the strength for joy amidst a suffering ministry come from? How can Paul rejoice in his sufferings? That’s what he takes up in Colossians 1:24–27. At the end of verse 23, he mentions that he “was made a minister” of this glorious Gospel of reconciliation, and starting in verse 24, and continuing really all the way down to chapter 2 verse 5, he turns to discuss the ministry the Lord has bestowed upon him, along with the sufferings and afflictions and struggles that characterize that ministry, and why those difficulties are not a cause for his despondency or despair, but why they are a cause for his rejoicing. And of course, by this he hopes to stir the Colossians up—and to stir us up—for the joyful endurance of the same kind of afflictions that await all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus. Let’s read our text for this evening. Colossians 1, verses 24 to 27: “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. 25Of this churchI 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, 26that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, 27to 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.”
And what we have in these four verses are at least three reasons the faithful servant of the Gospel can rejoice, even in the midst of suffering.
I. The Benefit of Christ’s Church (vv. 24a–b, 25b)
And that first reason is that such suffering is for the benefit of Christ’s church. And we find that idea mentioned several times in verses 24 and 25. Paul says, “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. Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit.” So, you hear that repeated emphasis: for your sake; on behalf of His body, the church; for your benefit.
And it’s interesting that Paul can speak so personally to the Colossians this way, because, remember, Paul was not the founder of this church, like he was in Corinth and Ephesus. Chapter 1 verse 7 says that they learned the Gospel from Epaphras, and chapter 2 verse 1 says that he had never even met the Colossians in person. And yet, he says, his sufferings are for their sake. Why? Because they were not just members of the called-out-ones gathering in Colossae. But they were members of Christ’s body, the universal church—what Hebrews 12:23 calls “the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven”—all those who are united to Christ by faith in Him. And because Paul has been commissioned as an Apostle of Christ, his ministry is for the benefit of every believer in Jesus.
But how specifically are Paul’s sufferings for the sake of, and on behalf of, and for the benefit of the universal church? Well, certainly not that he suffered in their place for their sins, as Christ alone did, who is the only substitutionary sacrifice that redeems sinners and reconciles God to man. But that his sufferings would cause the Gospel to be preached to more and more people, that more sinners would be converted and added to the number of Christ’s church, and that those who were already believers would see the lengths he was willing to go to—how glorious the Gospel is, and Christ Himself is, that they are worth suffering for—and that they would be strengthened in their faith to endure whatever trials would come their way as they held fast to Christ amidst a crooked and perverse generation (Phil 2:15).
And we see that played out vividly in the opening chapter of Philippians. Turn with me, if you would, to Philippians chapter 1. Paul writes the letter of the Philippians during the same Roman imprisonment as he writes Colossians. And he says in Philippians 1:18 that despite his sufferings, he is rejoicing. And in verses 12 to 14, he begins to tell them why. He says, “Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel, so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to everyone else.”
The praetorian guard was a company of 9,000 elite soldiers that were particularly tasked to protect the Roman Emperor and his interests. And history tells us that prisoners under the praetorian guard would be bound by the wrist to one of these elite Roman soldiers by an 18-inch-long chain twenty-four hours of the day. And we’re told that the soldiers took shifts of six hours at a time, which means that for nearly two years, Paul had come into contact with four different imperial soldiers each day for six hours at a time. And as he spoke with them, and testified to the Christ for whom he was in chains, and as they observed his character, these soldiers began to repent and believe, so much so that Paul could close his letter to the Philippians, chapter 4 verse 22, by saying: “All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar’s household.” Paul sufferings were the means by which he was converting the emperor’s imperial guard one by one!
But then he says, “and that most of the brethren, trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear.” Paul’s suffering for the Gospel has emboldened other believers in Rome to go on proclaiming the Gospel without fear of the consequences. His courage was contagious! Paul’s chains had freed his fellow Christians to preach fearlessly, which means they were going to enter into the joy of the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings, as Paul calls it Philippians 3:10. These believers were going to enjoy greater communion with Jesus, as they themselves yielded to suffering for the same cause of righteousness that their Savior suffered for. And that was going to grow them, and mature them, and conform them more into Christ’s likeness.
If Paul could magnify the worth and glory and loveliness of Christ by showing his people that knowing Him—even and especially in the fellowship of His sufferings—is worth losing comforts, and freedom, and maybe even life itself; if He could show them Christ is so satisfying that He is worth losing all things for; then they would behold the glory of Jesus in Paul’s sufferings, and thereby be sanctified more into His image, and strengthened to endure their own trials until the end. And so Paul says in 2 Timothy 2:10, “For this reason I endure all things for the sake of [the elect], so that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory.”
Later on in Philippians—chapter 2 verse 17— “But 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.” It’s as if he says, “Oh, my dear brethren: if the Lord has decreed that my life be poured out as the drink offering that seals and sanctifies the sacrificial offering of your lives in Christ, so that you become an acceptable sacrifice unto God, O, I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake! My life could not be better spent than in the cause of your holiness, which abounds to the glory of God!” In the language of 2 Corinthians 12:15, “I will most gladly spend and be expended for your souls.” “I will give of my time, I will give of my energy, I will give of my resources, I will lay down my very life for the sake of your salvation and your maturity in Christ!”
Paul can rejoice in his sufferings, because he suffers them for the benefit of Christ’s church. And oh, dear people, how we ought to rejoice in such sufferings as well. How ready we ought to be to lay down our lives for the benefit of Christ’s church. Perhaps not in such romantic ways as going to prison, or dying a martyr’s death. But in the living martyrdom of crucifying your comforts and preferences, of sacrificing your time and resources, to see Christ formed in your brothers and sisters.
If it means that you can strengthen your brothers’ hands in the battle against sin, if you can weaken one another’s affections for the things of this world, if you can see them grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ, and if you can know that they’ll be safeguarded from heretical teachings that would otherwise shipwreck their souls, oh, brothers and sisters: you can give away your Saturdays. You can have difficult and uncomfortable conversations. You can open up your homes. You can even give sacrificially. I will most gladly spend and be expended for your souls.” Anything for the benefit of Christ’s church, that He might have what He is worthy of in us.
II. The Fellowship of Christ’s Sufferings (v. 24b)
Well, there’s a second reason that Paul rejoices in the afflictions that the ministry brings him. He not only rejoices in the benefit of Christ’s church, but also, number two, because of the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings. Verse 24 again: “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.”
Now, what in the world does that mean? “Filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions”? That sounds almost heretical! What can we say was lacking in the sufferings of Christ? And how could any mere human—even if he is the Apostle Paul—say that he could fill up something that Christ lacked?
Well, we can be sure that Paul is not saying that there was anything insufficient in the redemptive sufferings of Christ which secured the salvation of His elect. That has been Paul’s entire argument up to this point in his letter: that the person of Christ is supreme over all and the work of Christ is sufficient in every way for salvation from sin. When Peter quotes Isaiah 53:5 in 1 Peter 2:24, he says, “By His wounds you were healed.” Hebrews 9:12 says Jesus “obtained eternal redemption” by His death on the cross. Hebrews 10:12: “But He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God. … By one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.” The Savior cries in victory from His very cross, John 19:30: “It is finished.”
There is nothing deficient in the sufferings of Christ to effect our redemption. He drank the cup of the Father’s wrath down to its very dregs. He received the full exercise of the wrath of God in His own person, and extinguished that mighty flame. The Father spared no blow from His beloved Son during those three terrible hours. All the bitterness of hell was swallowed up into His holy soul. Not one stroke of the law was left unfulfilled. All justice was satisfied by those rich wounds of our Champion of a Savior.
So, what does Paul mean, “filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions”? Well, there are two other places in Paul’s letters where he uses a form of this word, antanapleróo, “to fill up,” along with the word for “what is lacking,” husterema. And both are in contexts in which messengers have been sent to Paul to minister to him on behalf of the churches that sent them. In 1 Corinthians 16:17, Paul says, “I rejoice over the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus, because they have supplied [anapleróo] what was lacking [husterema] on your part. For they have refreshed my spirit and yours. Therefore acknowledge such men.” The Corinthians wanted to minister to Paul, to visit him and refresh his spirit with their fellowship, but distance and circumstances have made it impossible for all of them to be together in person. Similarly, in Philippians 2:30, Paul urges the Philippian church to honor men like Epaphroditus, who “risk[ed] his life to complete [anapleróo] what was deficient [husterema] in your service to me.” Again: Paul and the Philippians are hindered from seeing one another in person due to Paul’s house arrest in Rome. The Philippians long to minister to Paul’s needs, especially in a time of trial and suffering, but the whole church can’t make the 800-mile journey to do it.
In both cases, what was lacking on the Corinthians’ and Philippians’ part was that in-person expression of love and fellowship to Paul. And so the Corinthians send Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus, and the Philippians send Epaphroditus, to make the journey that the rest of the brethren cannot make themselves, and they represent the churches’ love to Paul in person. The messengers in a sense carry in themselves the love and affection of the brethren, and embody that to Paul in their stead.
Well, in the same way, the only thing that could be said to be lacking in the afflictions of Christ is that in-person expression of love—that personal presentation of Christ’s sufferings to each person to whom the Gospel comes. Christ is in heaven! His sufferings are complete! The slander, and the betrayal, and the arrest, and the scourging, and the thorns, and the nails, and the turmoil of soul as He’s forsaken by His Father and bears the sin of the world: none of that is visible anymore. He has risen! He has ascended into heaven! He has sat down at the right hand of the Father in glory! And all His sufferings are past!
But those very substitutionary sufferings that have won our salvation—they are the very substance of the Gospel. They are to be proclaimed to all nations throughout the world. But they lack that personal presentation. Those hearing the Gospel can’t physically see the depths to which the love of Christ has gone to rescue them. And so what Christ has done is He has sent His disciples to embody His sufferings to the world in our suffering for the Gospel’s sake. John Piper says, “The suffering love of Christ for sinners is seen in the suffering love of his people for sinners.” Is that not astounding? that we can show people how much Christ has loved them by displaying to them His afflictions in our afflictions? “Jesus couldn’t be here to show you the wounds in His wrists, and the scars on His back, so He sent me.”
In that sense, then, because of the union that exists between Christ and His people, the afflictions of the members of Christ’s body are the afflictions of Christ. When the Risen Savior confronts Saul the persecutor on the Damascus Road in Acts 9, what does He say to him? “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” Saul was persecuting Christians. Yet such is the union between the Head and the body, that the sufferings of the body are the sufferings of the Head. And so Paul can say in 2 Corinthians 1:5 that “the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance.” And in 2 Corinthians 4:10, where Paul says, we are “always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.” In other words, “When I am afflicted, perplexed, persecuted, and struck down in the course of my ministry—when I suffer for the cause of the Gospel—I bear in my body and display to the world the very sufferings of Christ Himself!” Galatians 6:17: “I bear on my body the brand-marks of Jesus.”
You see, there is a fellowship—a communion, a unique bond of intimacy—that Paul shares with His Lord and Master because of this common suffering. In Philippians 3:10 he calls it “the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.” You read that and say, “Why don’t you say that you want to know Him in the fellowship of His conquering victories, Paul?” And there are two answers to that. One is: Because in the fellowship of His sufferings you know more of the Man of Sorrows than when things are easy. Jesus knows what it’s like to suffer for righteousness’ sake, and so He is sure to minister comfort to those who suffer for the sake of His name. He meets you in the hospital room, or in the jail cell, differently than on the mountaintop. And that is a fellowship that false teachers, like the ones threatening the Colossians, know nothing about. Because when persecution comes, the phonies cut bait and run.
But there’s a second answer to, “Why does Paul say he wants to know Christ in the fellowship of His sufferings” and not “in the fellowship of His victories?” And that that’s the second half of 2 Corinthians 4:10: we’re “always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.” When the world sees Christians’ suffering, at the same time as they see the dying of Jesus, they also see the resurrection life by which Jesus conquered the grave. Only a living Christ can sustain the hearts of weary servants who lay their lives down and give their lives away for the benefit of Christ’s church!
You see? The glory of the love of God in Christ is not most fully displayed when Christ’s people are healthy, wealthy, successful, and have it all together. The manifestation of the life of Jesus happens at exactly the same time as the carrying around of His dying, when we embody His sufferings in our suffering. When we are willing to suffer the loss of all things and call it gain because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ, we display Him to the world as more surpassingly valuable, and more satisfying, than all those things we have lost.
And so Paul says, “I rejoice! I rejoice to give my life away! I am ready not only to be bound, but even to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus, because in my afflictions, I present the sufferings of Christ to the world in a way that He no longer can. And in doing so, I enter into a fellowship with Christ in His sufferings that is so sweet—where I don’t know where I end and He begins—that I can’t put it into words!”
And Grace Church: I promise you: you want that kind of power. You want that resurrection life pulsing through your spiritual veins. You want to know Christ. You want to be used by Him to fill up what is lacking in His afflictions, to be so identified with Him that in some sense it’s proper to call your sufferings His sufferings, and His sufferings your sufferings! And if you have to give your life away to get that, you’re in! Take up your cross, and follow your Savior. Be a suffering servant of the Suffering Servant, and bear patiently those afflictions that the Lord orders for you, that you might strengthen and serve His church.
III. The Character of Christ’s Stewardship (vv. 25–27)
Well, we’ve seen that Paul can rejoice in His afflictions because they result in the benefit of Christ’s church, and also because of the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings that he enjoys on the path of affliction. A third reason that Paul rejoices in His sufferings lies, number three, in the character of Christ’s stewardship. The benefit of Christ’s church, the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings, and the character of Christ’s stewardship. And we find that in verses 25 to 27: “Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit.” And we’ll stop there for now.
Paul says he can rejoice in his sufferings on behalf of Christ’s body because he was made a minister of the church by being granted a stewardship from God. What is a minister? The word is diakonos, from which we get our English term “deacon.” But its most basic meaning is “servant”—the one who waits on tables. In fact, that’s how it’s defined in Acts 6: the widows of the early church “were being overlooked in the daily serving [diakonía] of food,” and the Apostles say, “It is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve [diakonéo] tables.” In Luke 12:37, Jesus says the alert slave, waiting for his master’s coming, will wait on his master and his guests when they come. And “wait on” translates diakonéo: to minister, to serve.
The minister is a waiter, a servant, even a slave! There is a connotation of lowliness associated with this term. I know it’s been co-opted to sound like a title of honor and dignity: “I am the minister of this church.” Or worse: “The Right Honorable Reverend.” No, “minister” is a title of labor, and duty, not honor and dignity. “Not that we lord it over your faith,” 2 Corinthians 1:24, “but are workers with you for your joy.” Ministers are not masters. And so Paul says, “I rejoice in my sufferings because I expect to be treated like a minister, like a servant, like one who exists to meet the needs of others.”
And then he calls it a stewardship. Oikonomia—from oikos, “house,” and nemo, “to manage.” The steward was the manager of a household on behalf of the head of the house. The church is called the household of faith (Galatians 6:10), or the household of God (1 Timothy 3:15). God is the head of this family—the master of the house—and Hebrews 3:6 says Christ was faithful as a Son over His house. And ministers are stewards in that house, to faithfully manage the resources of their master’s house so that all in the household receive their daily necessities. Stewards are not lords. They are managers of someone else’s treasure. Their supreme responsibility is to be faithful to their master! And if faithfulness requires the endurance of affliction, the faithful steward rejoices to be able to serve his master honorably, even amidst difficulty.
Pastor John put it this way. He said, “Paul could rejoice despite his imprisonment because he always viewed himself as a prisoner of Jesus Christ, not the Roman Empire” (74). He went on, “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” (74). And so Paul can rejoice in his sufferings because of the character of Christ’s stewardship: it’s one of lowliness and service.
And then, this initial mention of his stewardship launches Paul into a digression on the Christian ministry. And he goes on to make some precious comments about the nature of the ministry—the ministry that we are all called to as faithful followers of Christ Jesus, ministers in the household of faith. We’ve already seen the foundational nature of the ministry: that it’s one of lowliness and service. But there are at least four other aspects of the Christian ministry that he identifies in these verses.
First, the giver of the ministry is God. “Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from Godbestowed on me.” Paul did not unlawfully seize his stewardship of Christian ministry. He did not usurp the office of apostleship. He was sovereignly appointed for this by Christ Himself. This is a theme in Paul’s letters, because he’s so sensitive to the charge that he’s self-appointed. First Timothy 1:12: Christ put me into service. First Timothy 2:7: “I was appointed a preacher and an apostle…as a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.” Romans 15:15–16: “Grace…was given me from God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles.” In Acts 26, he narrates his conversion to King Agrippa, and says Jesus said to him, “For this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness.”
No faithful servant of God simply decides to enter into the Christian ministry. He must be certain that the call of the Lord Jesus is upon his life, and that he must either yield his life to the service into which the Lord has called him, or else he is disobedient. And that call of the Lord of the church is discerned by and mediated through the oversight of the elders and pastors that He has already called into His service. And so the point is that no legitimate Christian ministry is pushed into by self-appointed gurus. It is bestowed by the Lord Himself. And in this age, where there are no more Damascus Road visions, the Lord bestows the ministry through the mediation of the leadership of local churches.
Second, the beneficiaries of the ministry are the people of God. Verse 25 again: “bestowed on me for your benefit.” Paul was a minister of the Gospel for the benefit of the Colossians in particular, and the Gentiles in general. He also makes this a theme of in his writings—that while Peter, for example, had been entrusted with the Gospel to the circumcised, Galatians 2:7, Paul had been “entrusted with the Gospel to the uncircumcised.” In Romans 1:5 he says he “received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name’s sake.” And so Paul is telling the Colossians that, though he hasn’t yet met them face to face, he is their Apostle, sent by Christ Himself for their benefit—for the well-being and profit of their souls. And so ministry is, as we discussed under our first point this evening, not for the notoriety or outward success of the minister, but for the benefit of Christ’s church.
Then, third, consider the purpose of the ministry. Last part of verse 25: “so that,” literally, “that I might fulfill the word of God.” But not in the sense that he would fulfill a prophecy, but that he might fill up the Word of God, or fully preach the Word of God everywhere the Lord has for Him. The NAS translates it, “so that I might fully carry out the preachingof the word of God.” That’s a bit of a smoothing out of the original, but I think it captures the sense. This was always on Paul’s mind. In Romans 15:18–19, he speaks of his ministry to the Gentiles and says, “so that from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.” Same construction: he fulfills the Gospel by preaching it in its fullness to everyone the Lord brings him to.
In Acts 20:24, he says his sole purpose is “that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God.” And sandwiched around that concept of completing his ministry is verse 20: “I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable.” And verse 27: “I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God,” even though this service came, verse 19, “with all humility and with tears and with trials which came upon [him] through the plots of the Jews.” The purpose of the ministry is that the Word of God would be faithfully preached in its fullness to everyone to whom the Lord sends us or brings into our path. And so if suffering attends that, fine. “I don’t consider my life of any account as dear to myself”—if only I can fulfill the preaching of the Word of God; if only I can ensure that the Lord of the church is heard in His church.
And finally, not only the giver, the beneficiaries, and the purpose, but consider also the message of the ministry—namely, what Paul calls, “the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, 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.”
And there is such richness in these two verses. Paul speaks of “the mystery” often in his letters; you see it in Romans 16:25–26, and especially in Ephesians 3 verses 3 to 9. A biblical mystery is not something that is entirely unknowable or some sort of esoteric truth available only to the elite. It’s exactly what Paul says it is here: it is a truth that has been hidden but has now been revealed—unknown in the time of the Old Testament but now revealed through the coming of Messiah and the inauguration of the New Covenant.
And Paul speaks of several mysteries in the New Testament. Romans 11:25–29 speaks of the mystery of the partial hardening of Israel in unbelief, as well as their ultimate salvation and restoration at the end of the age. First Corinthians 15:51 speaks of the mystery of the rapture of the church before the great tribulation. Ephesians 3:3–9 speaks of the mystery of the Gentiles being fellow heirs of the covenant promises in one body, right alongside the Jews. The Old Testament predicted the salvation of the Gentiles, but they would have assumed that meant becoming proselyte converts to Judaism. A mystery of the Gospel is that unclean Gentiles may be saved as Gentiles—without having to become Jews—through faith alone in the Messiah. Second Thessalonians 2:7 speaks of “the mystery of lawlessness,” which refers to the ministry of the Antichrist at the end of the age.
But then there are several times when the “mystery” of the Gospel refers to Christ Himself. In 1 Timothy 3:16, Paul speaks of “the mystery of godliness” as a summary of Christ’s ministry: “He who was revealed in the flesh, was vindicated in the Spirit [by the resurrection], seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.” In Ephesians 1:9–10, Paul speaks of “the mystery of [God’s] will” as “the summing up of all things in Christ”—so that He will come to have first place in heaven and earth! In Colossians 2:2, Paul calls God’s mystery “Christ Himself.”
And here in verse 27, Paul speaks of “the riches of the glory of this mystery, … which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Of all the mysteries, the richest and most glorious is the God-Man Himself—eternal God the Son, holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners—coming to dwell in the hearts of sinful men and women. He is rich in that all the divine perfections dwell in Him; in that all the promises of God are Yes in Him (2 Cor 1:20); in that every blessing in the heavenly places is in Him (Eph 1:3). And He is glorious in that all the beauty of divine holiness, wisdom, justice, and grace find full expression in the Gospel of His cross. And that Christ—in all His richness and in all His glory—takes up residence in the polluted caverns of our sick and rebellious hearts! because before He does, He purifies our sick and rebellious hearts by the power of His atoning blood!
O saints: we who were once unclean, separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, are now brought so near that God Himself dwells in us! Now made the very temple of the living God! That truth is the very substance of all our happiness in this life—that such a union to so glorious a person has become the ground of our communion with that very glorious person, so that “the unsearchable riches of Christ” are ours to look into, and spy out, and feast our souls upon as we journey through this foreign land to our home with Him.
“But will we get there? Can we be sure we’ll arrive at home, especially with all these afflictions that meet us on our path of service to Him?” Oh, yes. Because “Christ in you” is the very “hope of glory”! If He dwells in you—the One who said, “I will never leave you; I will never forsake you”—you can be sure that the Father will receive you into glory with all the eagerness and joy with which He receives His own beloved Son. “If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you” (Rom 8:9–11).
Dear brothers and sisters: Is that a Gospel worth suffering for? Is that a Savior you can rejoice in—even in the midst of afflictions? Yes and Amen. Well then, let’s get to it. Let’s roll up our sleeves and really be the church to one another. Let us lay our lives down in service to the saints, because Christ is worthy.
And to the unbeliever, can you listen to the proclamation of so worthy a Christ—a Christ worthy losing all things for, a Christ worth losing money and fame and notoriety and ease and comfort for—and be unmoved? Can you be unmoved to go after Him, and ask, “What is this all about? that there is a people gathered on Sunday night after Thanksgiving, to sing to this Savior who they say has forgiven them of all their transgressions? through nothing at all that they do! Not by the suffering that He calls them to endure, but by His own suffering, which woos them to suffer after His example!”
Dear unbeliever, you remain dead in your trespasses and sins. Nothing redemptive exists about your sufferings. You’re simply receiving the natural end of life in a fallen world and the just dessert of your sins. In fact, you’re not even receiving that yet. The worst is coming, in a place of unimaginable torment, forever and ever, in hell. And yet this Christ has come to rescue you from that very deserved punishment, by bearing that punishment in Himself—as we talked about two weeks ago, to reconcile God to man.
So I would call you, I would urge you, I would plead with you. Don’t leave your seat tonight before doing business with Him, before begging him to receive you for Christ’s sake, before telling Him that you believe that what that Son of God did on that cross in bearing the fullness of the wrath of the Father— that he did it for you. And that you believe it. And that he is the ground of all your hope and righteousness and confidence before the bar of God’s justice. And He will receive you. You’ll be saved. And you’ll be given the strength to suffer for Him and make His name glorious