Grace Fellowship    4/19/09    What Does the Church Look Like?        Colossians 1:24 - 2:5

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We want to continue our study today in Colossians so turn with me to the book of Ezra.  I want to begin by asking you all a simple question.  Contrary to what you might think, this is not a trick question.  It is a simple, straightforward question anyone in this room should be able to answer with ease.  It is a question that comes directly from the Scriptures in the book of Acts, chapter 16, verse 30.  The question is, “What must I do to be saved?”

Your answer to that question is crucial.  There is no way for me to communicate to you the importance of answering that simple question correctly, precisely, and from the heart.  The question assumes you know there is something from which you must be saved.  But I need to ask you all, You do realize you need to be saved from something, don’t you?  You do understand there is a serious danger from which you need to be delivered?  It is the peril in which we all find ourselves as sinners that causes the original question to be all-important.  That is why the Philippian jailer worded he did: “What MUST I do to be saved?”

Asking that question here in this room, in this place, in this country, in this century, is quite different from asking that question in the Middle East in the first century when it was originally asked of the Apostle Paul.  When I ask you that question, “What must I do to be saved?” at least several of you will reply with the answer Paul gave in the very next verse, Acts 16:31 - “"Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household."  You know the biblical answer to the biblical question because you’ve been exposed to the Bible.  You have grown up in America and have been exposed to Christianity and the gospel, and you know that salvation is dependent upon what one believes.  That belief must be in the Person and work of Jesus Christ.  

But during the first century in the Middle East, in Israel, and throughout the Roman Empire, that question was met with many different answers.  The answers you would hear depended upon whether you were Jewish, a Gentile, or a Christian.  If a Gentile in the first century were asked what a person must do to be saved, his answer would be dependent upon where he lived and which gods he worshipped.  His answer would be based upon the idea of earning the pleasure of the gods, and somehow appeasing their wrath, whoever they were.

If a first century Jew were asked the same question, he would say something surprisingly similar to the Gentile’s answer.  According to the Jews, salvation was based upon being Jewish and keeping the Law of Moses.  Being obedient to the Law and being a righteous person earned the favor of the true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  The main difference between the Jewish answer and the Gentile answer is that a Gentile could not be saved apart from becoming Jewish.  Not a pleasant thought, particularly among the males.

But if a first century Christian were asked the question, What must I do to be saved?, he would say  salvation is a gracious gift from the One true God (the God of Israel and of all the earth) that cannot be earned.  It is a gift granted to us through faith in the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ who was crucified and rose from the dead.  The first century Christian would also make the point that salvation was not dependent upon keeping the Law of Moses or being Jewish.  It was a salvation granted to whoever believed the Gospel message, regardless of nationality, ethnicity, gender, or social status.  Jews and Germans, Samaritans and Cretans, men and women, slaves and free men, all people regardless of any outward distinction, would be saved from the wrath of God through faith in Jesus Christ.  And that was the beauty of Christianity in the first century.

It had not always been that way.  In fact, the message that God did not discriminate against non-Jews in salvation was completely intolerable for the vast majority of the people of Israel at the time of the New Testament.  We as American Christians, who are the descendants of people from all over the world, take the message of the gospel for granted.  It VERY SELDOM enters the mind of an American Christian that there was a time when non-Jews like ourselves had no gospel message.

If you look through the Old Testament, you will look in vain for a Jewish missionary to non-Jews, with only one notorious exception: Jonah.  God, for all practical purposes, forced Jonah to go to Nineveh, to the Assyrians, and tell them that unless they repented God would kill them all in 40 days.  The entire nation repented.  The effects of that national revival among those Gentiles lasted one generation.  Then it was back to business as usual.  And Jonah wasn’t happy about the success of his national gospel crusade to his enemies.  He gave them the message to repent, and when they did, he hated it.  Some missionary.

That is the only real turning of a large number of Gentiles in the Old Testament to embrace the God of Israel that I know of.  There were other non-Jewish individuals who became proselytes, who went through the ritual of circumcision which God commanded of Abraham.  So some rare Gentile individuals became Jewish and embraced Israel’s God.  But they were relatively few.  The Jews just weren’t concerned about inviting the nations to become Jewish and worship the true God.  

Part of the reason why very few Gentiles converted to Judaism was because of the attitude of Israel towards all non-Jews, particularly after the Babylonian Captivity.  As you read through the Old Testament you see that for centuries, Israel copied the pagan religious practices of the Gentile nations around them.  They forsook Jehovah and worshipped the Gentile gods, committing unbelievable wickedness, ignoring their own God who had brought them out of Egypt and into the Promised Land.

Consequently God punished them, just like He promised He would, for their unfaithfulness to Him.  The worst part of God’s punishment of Old Testament Israel was the invasion of the Chaldeans, the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, and the deportation of a very small group of survivors to Babylon.  Seventy years of captivity in Babylon cured Israel of wanting to be like the Gentiles.  

I want you to turn with me to the Old Testament book of Ezra.  Ezra was one of the leaders of the captives out of Babylon after their 70 years there.  He came with them back to what was left of Jerusalem, in order to rebuild the city and re-establish the people of Israel there.  All of this historical background has a direct bearing on what we see in Colossians from the pen of the Apostle Paul, even though these two books, Ezra and Colossians, are separated by 450 years.  So look with me at Ezra, chapter 9.

1 After these things [re-establishing worship in the Temple] had been done, the officials approached me and said, “The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands with their abominations, from the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. 2 For they have taken some of their daughters to be wives for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy race has mixed itself with the peoples of the lands. And in this faithlessness the hand of the officials and chief men has been foremost.” 3 As soon as I heard this, I tore my garment and my cloak and pulled hair from my head and beard and sat appalled. 4 Then all who trembled at the words of the God of Israel, because of the faithlessness of the returned exiles, gathered around me while I sat appalled until the evening sacrifice. 5 And at the evening sacrifice I rose from my fasting, with my garment and my cloak torn, and fell upon my knees and spread out my hands to the Lord my God, 6 saying:

“O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift my face to you, my God, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens. 7 From the days of our fathers to this day we have been in great guilt. And for our iniquities we, our kings, and our priests have been given into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plundering, and to utter shame, as it is today. 8 But now for a brief moment favor has been shown by the Lord our God, to leave us a remnant and to give us a secure hold within his holy place, that our God may brighten our eyes and grant us a little reviving in our slavery. 9 For we are slaves. Yet our God has not forsaken us in our slavery, but has extended to us his steadfast love before the kings of Persia, to grant us some reviving to set up the house of our God, to repair its ruins, and to give us protection in Judea and Jerusalem.

10 “And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken your commandments, 11 which you commanded by your servants the prophets, saying, ‘The land that you are entering, to take possession of it, is a land impure with the impurity of the peoples of the lands, with their abominations that have filled it from end to end with their uncleanness. 12 Therefore do not give your daughters to their sons, neither take their daughters for your sons, and never seek their peace or prosperity, that you may be strong and eat the good of the land and leave it for an inheritance to your children forever.’ 13 And after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great guilt, seeing that you, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserved and have given us such a remnant as this, 14 shall we break your commandments again and intermarry with the peoples who practice these abominations? Would you not be angry with us until you consumed us, so that there should be no remnant, nor any to escape? 15 O Lord the God of Israel, you are just, for we are left a remnant that has escaped, as it is today. Behold, we are before you in our guilt, for none can stand before you because of this.”

 The Jews who returned to Jerusalem after their deportation to Babylon and their exile there for 70 years, when they began to intermarry with Gentiles, were in danger of provoking the wrath of God upon them all over again!  But successive generations of Jews failed to really understand the nature of the sin that had led to their near total destruction.  God was not angry with Israel because the Jews intermarried with Gentiles, per se.  He was angry because the Gentiles led the Jews into false religions and idolatry.  The foreigners led Israel into theological error.  They did not worship Jehovah God.  That was the problem.  It was not a problem of race.  But it was a sin for Jews to worship Gentile gods.  Keep in mind that Ezra is one of the newest books of the Old Testament written 450 years prior to the New Testament.

Since none of the Gentiles worshipped the true God, then the Gentiles were off limits when it came time to look for a wife.  That attitude evolved into a general mistrust of and hatred for all things non-Jewish.  So when we get to the New Testament period, we find the Jews under the oppressive regime of the Roman Empire, and their disgust for all things Gentile has never been greater.  They aren’t looking to evangelize the Gentiles.  They are looking for a descendant of David to become their new King and lead them in the destruction of their enemies.  They are working hard to avoid the sins of the past and remain separate from everything that isn’t Jewish.

Now, with that as background, look at Colossians 1.  The Apostle Paul has been speaking to these non-Jewish Christians about salvation, or in other words, what a person must do to be saved.  He is talking to people who have believed in Messiah, whose faith is in Him and all He has done.  Then he says this:

24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, 25 of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, 26 the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. 27 To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ [Messiah] in you, the hope of glory. 28 Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 29 For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me. (Colossians 1:24-29, ESV)

 

That is a problem.  The Jews don’t like that.  As far as they are concerned, Paul is fraternizing with the enemy, the Gentiles.  He is trying to mix Jews and Gentiles together, and that is something they want to avoid at all costs!  Paul is a traitor, a heretic, a false teacher, public enemy #1 in Israel.  That is exactly why his life is in constant danger.  But I want you to see something remarkable in the book of Isaiah.

Isaiah was written to the Jews.  He wrote about the future downfall of Judah to the Babylonians.  He referred to Judah as Sodom and Gomorrah.  He says, “If the Lord of hosts had not left us a few survivors, we should have been like Sodom, and become like Gomorrah.”  In other words, extinct.  But in chapter 49, Isaiah speaks of the coming Messiah, the Christ, the Lord Jesus.  God is speaking through His prophet Isaiah and says,

"It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth." (Isaiah 49:6, ESV)

This is one of many clear statements in the Old Testament of the nature of the work of the coming Messiah.  Not only will He be the Savior of His people Israel, He will also be a light for the salvation of the nations, the Gentiles.  God’s salvation is not going to be limited to the Jews, but He is going to extend it beyond the borders of Israel so that it extends to the end of the earth.

Do you recall the passage we often hear at Christmas from Isaiah?

1 But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. 2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined. (Isaiah 9:1-2, ESV)

THAT is the mystery Paul speaks of in Colossians.  THAT is the truth that the Jews never seemed to be able to grasp.  They were afraid of the Gentiles.  They hated the Gentiles.  They didn’t want to have anything to do with non-Jews.  But God did.  HE sent the Messiah to be the Savior of the nations!  And He was going to take that good news to them primarily through the Apostle Paul.  Turn to Acts 9.

1 But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 3 Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 And falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” 5 And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. 6 But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” 7 The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. 8 Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. 9 And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

10 Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” 11 And the Lord said to him, “Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying, 12 and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” 13 But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. 14 And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.” 15 But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. 16 For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.”

And suffer he did.  But to the Colossians he says, "Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake."  What Paul is doing, even in the midst of much suffering, is seeing the fulfilling of God’s promises to the nations, to the Gentiles.  He is seeing God move among the nations to bring many people to Himself.  Jesus referred to this in John 10:14-16.

14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.

That was the real life experience of Paul, the bringing in of the other sheep.  Not goats. SHEEP.  The other sheep for whom Jesus died who were not of the Jewish fold.  Paul’s sufferings for the sake of the Gospel was also for the sake of these other Gentile sheep whom Christ came to save.  So this is why we read that both Jesus and Paul spoke of one flock, one shepherd, one church, one Holy Spirit, one salvation, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. (Ephesians 4:5-6).

The Jews just did not get it.  They still don’t get it.  They still to this day believe we are the outsiders, and they alone are the elect of God.  But we see in Scripture that Abraham was promised by God to be the father of MANY nations.  All who have the faith of Abraham are Abraham’s offspring, not just the Jews.  God has, in Christ, opened wide the door of salvation so that whoever believes in the Lord Jesus, regardless of race, shall be saved.

We take this for granted.  We have understood this to be the case for so long that it never enters our minds that there was a time, prior to the coming of the Lord Jesus, when Gentiles like us had no access to God.  For two or three thousand years, God worked among the Jews virtually exclusively, to the near total neglect, as far as we can tell from Scripture, of the entire Gentile world.

So when Paul begins to take the message of salvation from the world of the Jews into the world of the Gentiles, it is a day of great rejoicing on one hand, and a day of great suffering for Paul on the other.  But he rejoices in his suffering for the Gentiles.  They are coming to the Lord Jesus through the preaching of the Gospel, and that is cause for great joy for Paul.  It should also cause us to rejoice.

The Gospel to the Gentiles is what Paul calls in Colossians 1:26, the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints.  It was a mystery to the Jews.  He talks about this same mystery in 1 Corinthians 2, Ephesians 3, Romans 2, Romans 3, Romans 4, Romans 9, 10, 11, & 15, Galatians 3, throughout the book of Acts, and elsewhere.  But it is a mystery that has been revealed to you and me for many years.  The Gospel being preached to Gentiles is such old good news that we don’t even recognize it as such today.  

We think almost nothing of the fact that we as non-Jews have ready access to salvation by grace, through faith in the Lord Jesus.  There was a time when we didn’t.  Paul said to the Ephesians that they should remember the days in the not so distant past when they were separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.  But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. (Ephesians 2:12-13)

What should you and I think of these things?  Had we been alive two thousand years ago, if any one of us had been asked, “What must a person do to be saved?”, we would have said, “Make sacrifices to the gods!  All of them!  As many sacrifices as you can afford!  Then hope for the best.”  And we would have died in our sins, every one of us, because as Gentiles living in that day, we would have been strangers and aliens to salvation, having no hope and without God.  What a mercy it is that we live on this side of the cross!  What great grace God has extended toward us!  What a wonder that we understand this spiritual mystery which was hidden from multitudes for millenia!  We know Christ!  He is indeed the Savior of the world.