Tag: the church

The Meaning of the Mystery

Colossians 1-4

Wow – today we have the whole book of Colossians to read and digest.   After Ephesians  Colossians is the next doctrinal and correction teaching which we have in our Bibles.  The message of the kingdom is proclaimed all through the Old Testament and the blessing to the Gentile nations is included in that message.  However, the fulness of the teaching of the mystery of the church of the body of Christ is hinted at in Romans 16:25, talked about in 1 Corinthians 2 and especially in 15:50-58, explained at length in Ephesians 3, and now the glory of the mystery proclaimed in Colossians 1:26-27.  What is this mystery and why is it so important to the church that Paul would put so much emphasis on it?

The book of Colossians is one of the ones written by Paul while in prison at Rome.  It follows Ephesians in the pattern where the first half of the book is doctrinal teaching and the second half of the book is a practical section correcting and teaching us how to live out this amazing Christ in us.  Read these 4 short chapters with this main distinction in mind.

Colossians 1:15-18(NKJV)  He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.

The meaning of the mystery is that it is the sacred secret of God’s purpose which has been revealed to those that have the ears to hear and eyes to see.  Christ died for our sin and to give us a newness of life which we now can receive.  This brings us as children into the family of God, members of His own household.  The body of Christ is a spiritually bonded people who all have the DNA of holy spirit to bring us together.  Whether Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female we all become one in Christ.  All tribalism is swallowed up by the coming of the one body of Christ with him as the head.  It is Christ in each one of us which then unites us together.  Amazing what God has done for us!!

The message of the kingdom changes on the day of Pentecost when the new covenant is instituted with believers in Christ. The time period between the passion of Christ and his glorious kingdom on earth was not revealed in the OT Bible.  That is why the apostles ask him before Jesus ascends whether the kingdom is going to be restored that day.  Jesus answers them that the timing of all these events are in the Father’s hands.  The mystery revealed by Paul and Peter later on is that the time of the church of the body of Christ is now and is alive in Christ.

Colossians 1:24-28 I(NKJV) now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church, 25 of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, 26 the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. 27 To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 3:6-7(NLT) And this is God’s plan: Both Gentiles and Jews who believe the Good News share equally in the riches inherited by God’s children. Both are part of the same body, and both enjoy the promise of blessings because they belong to Christ Jesus. 7 By God’s grace and mighty power, I have been given the privilege of serving him by spreading this Good News.

How does the mystery revealed intersect with our preaching and teaching of the kingdom message?

Colossians 2:6-10(NLT)  And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. 7 Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness. 8 Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ. 9 For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. 10 So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.

Chapters 3 and 4 are the practical application teaching us about the doctrine taught in chapters 1-2.

How do the message themes compare between chapters 1-2 to chapters 3-4? 

Colossians 3:12-15(NLT) Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. 13 Make allowance for each other’s faults and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. 14 Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful.

What is our motivation for doing the good works God calls us to do?

Colossians 4:2-6(NLT) Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart. 3 Pray for us, too, that God will give us many opportunities to speak about his mysterious plan concerning Christ. That is why I am here in chains. 4 Pray that I will proclaim this message as clearly as I should. 5 Live wisely among those who are not believers, and make the most of every opportunity. 6 Let your conversation be gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response for everyone.

How do we develop our willingness and ability to give a Godly answer to every person we talk to about Christ?

I pray for you as did Paul centuries ago that you will live out this wonderful mystery of Christ as part of the body of Christ, his church.  Remember who you are this day!

Love in Christ Tom Siderius

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What is Your Act?

Acts 1

April 19

The first few verses of chapter one constitutes an introduction to the book of Acts, giving us the key to the book. Here we have revealed the essential strategy by which Jesus Christ proposes to change the world, a strategy which is the secret of the character of the church when it is operating as it was intended to operate. I strongly suspect that most Christians suffer from a terrible inferiority complex when we confront the world around us. We have bought the idea of many around that the church is quite irrelevant, an archaic group that is irrelevant today. That view is false. The church is the most important body in the world today because whatever happens in the world happens because of something that is, or is not, happening in the church.

Now, in his first statement here, Luke gives us the great strategy by which the Lord works among mankind. He says, “In my former book…I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach… ” The Gospel of Luke is the record of the Son of God. Jesus, the man, came to begin something, to do and to teach, and the record of that beginning is in the Gospels. But this second book is the continuation of what Jesus began to do. In a very real sense, Acts is not the acts of believers, but the continuing acts of Jesus. It is an account of what Jesus continues to do and to teach. In the Gospels he did it in his physical body of flesh. In the book of Acts he is doing it through the bodies of men and women who are followers of him and endowed by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Whenever God wants to get a message across to men, he does not simply send someone to announce it; his final way of driving it home is to express the message in flesh and blood. He takes a life and aims it in a certain direction and, by the manifestation of his own life through the blood and flesh of a human being, he makes clear what he has to say. That is the strategy of the book of Acts. It is the record of followers of Christ endowed in the Holy Spirit; men and women,  owned by him, and thus manifesting his life. That is the secret of authentic Christianity. Anytime you find a Christianity that is not doing that, it is false Christianity. No matter how much it may adapt the garb and language of Christianity, if it is not the activity of human beings possessed and indwelt by the life of Jesus Christ it is not authentic Christianity. That is the true power of the church, as we shall see in this book.

The book of Acts therefore is an unfinished book. It is not finished but is still being written. The book abruptly closes with an account of Paul in the city of Rome, living in his own hired house. It just ends there as though you might turn over the next page and begin the next adventure. What is your act?

-Andy Cisneros

Questions for Reflection and Discussion

  1. What is your act?
  2. How would you rate yourself as a follower of Christ? What role does the Holy Spirit have in your life?
  3. Looking at Acts 1 what do you find the disciples of Jesus doing? What is their mission? What is their hope? Is this an appealing group to be a part of? Explain.
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Who is the Son of Man?

Matthew 16

January 16

Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”

They told Jesus that some people believed He was John the Baptist, some Elijah, Jeremiah or one of the prophets. At that time there was a lot of speculation and incorrect information about who Jesus was.

But Jesus cuts through all those wrong assumptions of his identity to ask the disciples a couple of important questions. Questions that they personally needed to answer with what they knew to be true of Jesus. Questions we need to ask ourselves. “But what about you? Who do you say I am?”

Peter answered “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.”

Peter was certain. His understanding of Jesus had been established beyond doubt. Christ then provides Peter with His new identity. He blesses him, confirms that his beliefs are from God, and gives him a new name. Who wouldn’t want to be named the Rock? Jesus established his church. Jesus also gives them authority to carry out spiritual work. They were to continue Jesus’ work of making disciples, baptizing, and teaching them to obey everything Jesus commanded. Opening up the Kingdom for generations of followers of Jesus Christ.  

So with all this in their grasp, what could possibly lead the disciples to later desert and turn away from Jesus (Matt. 26:31, 56)? An angry mob armed with swords and clubs. We are often faced with a similar dilemma. It may not be an angry mob, but when we stand for Jesus Christ we may face rejection. We may face trials and temptations and we need to hold on to the truth of who Jesus Christ is. We need to remember who we are because of our relationship with Christ.  It is easy to speak boldly about the truth of Jesus when we are not in dire circumstances, but we need to learn from the disciples’ situation. No matter what circumstances this life throws in our way, we are representatives of Jesus Christ. As we are promised in verse 27, when Jesus returns He will reward each person according to what they have done. You can be at peace knowing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

-Rebecca Dauksas

Questions for Reflection and Discussion

  1. If Jesus were to give you a new name that represented what you do for the church now what might it be? What would you like your new name from Jesus to be if it were based upon what you could and would do for the church? What steps do you need to take to earn that name? How will you continue the work of Jesus?
  2. Jesus says, “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” (vs 11). And in Matthew 13:33 he said, “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.” What is the purpose of yeast? What are some examples of negative yeast in your life? What are some examples of positive yeast?
  3. How would you describe who Jesus is? Who do you know who needs to know who Jesus is? How can you share what you know?
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In the Flesh

2nd Epistle of John

2 John 7

The elect lady and her children, 2 John 1

This short epistle is written to “the elect lady and her children”. Most commentators believe “the elect lady” refers metaphorically to a congregation or church as whole, and “her children” are individual members within the church. Being a “child of God” was a consistent theme of 1 John (see 1 John). The children of God make up a family of those who believe the human Jesus is the Christ, and they are to love one another as brothers and sisters (1 John 5:1). In the last verse of 1 John 2 the author sends “the elect lady” greetings from “the children of your elect sister, i.e., from the believers of another congregation with children (see more comments about the “elect lady” in the REV Bible commentary).

The coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh, 2 John 7

The verse that particularly jumps out at us in this epistle is verse 7:

“For many deceivers have gone out into the world, men who will not acknowledge the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh; such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist.”

We believe that “the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh” means that the Messiah has come, and that he is the real human being, Jesus.

When John was writing there was already a teaching, today called Docetism, which claimed that Jesus wasn’t a real human being but only “seemed” or “appeared” to be a human. “Docetic” is from a Greek word meaning “an apparition, a phantom” and therefore Jesus only “seemed” to be human. According to this theory Jesus couldn’t be “flesh”, a real human, since the world and flesh are corrupt the “spiritual Christ” couldn’t be directly involved in it.

Traditional Christianity is not entirely docetic but tends toward Docetism since it claims that Jesus only “took on flesh”. If Jesus only “took on flesh” then he is not a real human being, not a real human person. Unfortunately, traditional Christian belief by definition denies that Jesus the Messiah is a real human person. Because, if Jesus is an eternally pre-existent God-person, he can’t be a real human-person, because then he would be two persons (a god-person and a human-person). So traditional Christianity beginning in the centuries after Jesus was on earth began to say that Jesus was a god-person who only “took on flesh”. But a pre-existent god-person who only “took on flesh” is not really a human person. He only “seemed” to be a human person.

John tells us differently. He emphasizes that Jesus is a real human person.

“Jesus” is the name of the child born in Bethlehem, not the name of a pre-existent deity. This Jesus is the Messiah (Christ) who has “come in the flesh”. “Christ, Messiah” is never a title for God himself in the Scriptures. It is a title for the “Anointed” one chosen by God.

Jesus didn’t just seem to have flesh (Docetism), and didn’t just seem to be a human person (Traditional Christianity).

Jesus the Messiah has real human flesh (now raised from the dead, glorified, immortal).

Jesus the Messiah is a real human person, not a god-person just dressed up in human flesh.

See our comments on 1 John 2:22 and 1 John 4:2 earlier this week for more description of what John did NOT say when he said that “Jesus Christ has come in the flesh.”

“Don’t receive him into the house”, 2 John 10

2 John 10 is a verse that can easily be taken out of context and abused. “If any one comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into the house or give him any greeting.” A person can make up any false doctrine, and then say if someone doesn’t agree with it, “don’t receive him into the house”.  This is what Traditional Christianity has done. Traditional Christianity, denying that Jesus is a real human person, made up a false doctrine in the centuries after Jesus, claiming: “Jesus is pre-existent eternal God who took on flesh”. Then once that false doctrine was established, Traditional Christianity said: “Don’t let anyone who doesn’t agree with this doctrine into the house”. See our comments to 1 John 2:19 (this past Sunday) about many anti-christs who have come into the world.

God, and God’s Son, 2 John 3

The beautiful greeting that the author sends God’s children is also a fitting departure blessing.

“Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father’s Son, in truth and love.”  There is only One God, the Father. Jesus the Messiah (Christ) is God’s Son, and we as God’s children are Jesus’ brothers and sisters.

 

Bill & Stephanie Schlegel