Albert Einstein, from what I hear, was often so focused on his scientific theories that he frequently neglected the simplest things of life, such as personal appearance (as evidenced by his hair). One time, Einstein was taking a train out of town for a speaking engagement. As he sat in his seat, engrossed in his work, the conductor stopped by to punch his ticket. Looking up in shock, Einstein realized he didn’t know what he had done with his ticket. Frantically, he began to search his coat pockets, and then his briefcase. Gently, the conductor said, “We all know who you are, Dr. Einstein. I’m sure you bought a ticket. Don’t worry about it.” But, as the conductor moved along, he looked back to see Einstein on his hands and knees searching under the seats for his ticket. The conductor walked back and said, “Dr. Einstein, please, don’t worry about it. I know who you are.” Exasperated, Einstein looked up and said, “I, too, know who I am. What I don’t know is where I’m going.”

Well, the Colossian Christians had gotten to the point that they weren’t totally sure where they were going either. They heard the gospel from an evangelist named Epaphras. They believed, repented and were baptized and were loving one another and trying to follow the Lord in their lives. But now they had been shaken up by people telling them that they’re probably not okay for various reasons: they’re still uncircumcised, they don’t eat Kosher, nor keep the Sabbath, they’re not hard enough on their bodies, and they neglect to give any attention to powerful angels who could help them (cf 2:8-23). So they’re no longer sure the simple gospel they heard is exactly right. They’re not sure where they’re going.

The purpose of the text we’re going  to study here is to reassure them of the gospel they heard.

Let’s read it, Colossians 1:24-27, “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 in you, the hope of glory.”

The first thing we have in this passage is…

Confirmation of Paul’s gospel (verses 24-25)

I think that’s the primary reason he brings up his sufferings in verse 24. It is to confirm that he is absolutely for sure that the gospel he preaches is the truth from God.

Let’s first get an idea of what Paul is talking about here when he says “my sufferings”. What does he mean “my sufferings”? Did he have a lot of stress at work? Did he have arthritis or back pain? I’m going to read to you from II Corinthians 11, beginning with verse 23, where Paul feels compelled to list the things he had to suffer for his service to Christ, the price he had to pay for his preaching ministry. He feels compelled to speak of these things, because there are false teachers in Corinth who are claiming that they are more servants of Christ than Paul, trying to get the Corinthians to let go of what they were taught by Paul and to take hold of what they teach. So Paul writes, “Are they servants of Christ? [He’s asking about the false teachers.] I speak as if insane [he feels insane boasting like this, but he feels he has to keep the Corinthians from being deceived] – I more so; in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death.” Have you ever seen a man beaten almost to death? It’s like he’s already incapable of defending himself anymore and they just continue to  brutally kick and stomp and beat on him. I’ve only seen it in movies and sometimes on the news when they show you a video clip and they warn you just before it shows, “The footage you are about to see is disturbing and may not be suitable for all audiences.” It’s heart wrenching to watch somebody beaten almost to death. Paul had been a victim of that on many different occasions, because of what he was preaching. “Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes.” Can you imagine? Stripped of his clothing, skin laid bare, hands tied to two pillars at the synagogue so he can’t defend himself and they’d just shred the flesh of his back and chest. Paul suffered that horrible Jewish torture on five separate occasions. “Three times I was beaten with rods.” Which was just as bad as the Jewish 39 lashes. It was the more customary punishment Romans would administer to criminals. “Once I was stoned.” Those stoning him were convinced he was dead afterward (Acts 14:19). “Three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep.” You know, when you’re shipwrecked back in that day, there are no motor boats or helicopters to come get you. Usually you float around on debris until you die of thirst or hypothermia or something. “I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city [People were always out for his life or to at least “teach him a lesson”.], dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; I have been in labor and hardship [Often Paul was not paid to preach. So he was laboring at a job like tent making and preaching with the rest of his time.], through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. 28 Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches. 29 Who is weak without my being weak? Who is led into sin without my intense concern?” That’s the kind of things Paul is talking about when he says “my sufferings.”

When Paul writes Colossians it’s later than II Corinthians. It’s after he’d already been through all of that and more and he had the scars covering his body from head to toe to prove it; he’s in prison in Rome when he writes Colossians.

It was the common belief in that day, that if a person suffers more than usual it’s because that person is especially sinful and God is against him. You may remember an occasion in John 9 when Jesus and His disciples came by a man who had been blind from birth. And Jesus’ disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.” He was born that way for what Jesus was about to do for him. You remember people were saying as Jesus suffered on the cross, “He trusts  in God; let God rescue Him now, if He delights in Him.” “If God is really pleased with this man God will save him from this suffering and this death.” They saw the cross as proof that God was against Him.

Well, Paul was concerned about people looking at his abundant sufferings and thinking, “God must be against Paul. It must be that Paul’s preaching is not exactly right and God is trying to shut him up with all this suffering and locking him up in prison.” You can see that Paul was concerned about that in Ephesians 3, which is a very similar passage to the one we’re going to look at in Colossians 1. In Ephesians 3, Paul explains he is absolutely confident that his message is truth from God and his ministry is exactly what God wants him doing.  And he concludes in Ephesians 3:13 saying, “Therefore I ask you not to lose heart at my tribulations on your behalf, for they are your glory.” He’s saying don’t doubt what I’ve preached to you and written to you, because I suffer like I do. Do not lose heart at my tribulations. They’re no indication that God is against me. Rather Paul says “they are your glory.” They are an honor to you. They are something that God has allowed to happen to me for your benefit.

In Colossians 1:24, I think Paul is saying the same kind of thing. He says, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings…” What an incredible statement! “I’m not discouraged by them. I’m not questioning what I preach and my relationship with God because of them. I am joyful in the midst of all my sufferings.”

Then he says my sufferings are “for your sake.” Do you see that phrase? He says, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake.” I was wondering how could Paul’s sufferings be for the sake of these Colossian Christians? Paul didn’t bring the gospel to the Colossians. Epaphras did. It appears Paul had never even visited these Colossians before (cf. 2:1); he didn’t suffer in order to preach to them. So how could he say his sufferings were for their sake, for their benefit? Well, I think in the same sense in which Paul’s sufferings are also for our sake. Do you realize that God has given us a tremendous blessing by having Paul suffer like he did, because not only does it give us an inspiring example of perseverance, but it gives us proof that Paul knew for sure his message was the word of God that saves human souls. How could being often beaten almost to death, repeatedly flogged until his flesh was in ribbons, and beaten with rods, and stoned, all the dangers and trials he faced constantly, how could all of that not persuade him to quit preaching and find another hobby? He must have known he wasn’t preaching just some religious theories or interesting concepts. It confirms that Paul was absolutely convinced his message and ministry was the will of Almighty God.

And notice the perspective he had of his sufferings in the rest of verse 24. He says, “… 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.” That last statement “filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions” is a very misunderstood statement today. There are groups that use this to teach that the suffering and death of Christ on the cross was insufficient to totally pay for our sins, and so we must add some suffering of our own to complete the atonement for our sins. It’s the kind of thinking, seems to me, behind the doctrine of purgatory, that the death of Christ only paid so much toward our sins, and so some Christians, while having the credit of Christ’s sacrifice, still may not have all their sin covered, and in the afterlife they will suffer for a while in this place called purgatory to finish paying for their sins and then they can go to heaven. But there’s no purgatory mentioned anywhere in the Bible. And I really think there’s a better way to understand Paul’s statement here.

I think Paul is simply saying that the afflictions of Christ were not over when He left this earth. The world was not done afflicting Christ when He left this world. Christ is still being afflicted when His body, the church, His people, are afflicted. Paul learned this principle in the very first words the Lord ever spoke to him. When he was still known as Saul of Tarsus and he was on his way to Damascus to arrest Christians and the bright light appeared from heaven and the voice said, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” Why are you afflicting me? Why are you causing me pain? And Paul said, “Who are You, Lord?” “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting…” Remember the judgment day scene painted in Matthew 25 where Jesus says He will say to people “what you did to one of these brothers of mine, or did not do for one of these brothers of mine, even the least of them, you did or did not do it for me.” We are His body. Something happens to us, it happens to Him. So Paul’s sufferings were also felt by Christ, but they were endured for the benefit of the rest of the body, the church.

Verse 25, Paul states what he’s confident about, “Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God” A stewardship means that you’ve been entrusted with something that belongs to another. Paul’s gospel was not something he arrived at through his own research and study, which he could be wrong about. It was not something he learned from some other man, who could be mistaken. It was entrusted to him by God. He knows he is preaching the word of God.

So what we have in verses 24-25 is confirmation of Paul’s gospel. Now, in verses 26-27 we have…

Content of Paul’s gospel (verses 26-27)

He wants the Colossians to know that what they heard from their preacher Epaphras is the same message he preaches that he received from God.

In verse 26 he says that what he received from God is “the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested [has now been revealed] to His saints“. In other words the revelation He received is a new revelation that nobody in all the past ages and generations knew before. And so his gospel is not what the Jews preach. It is not what any other religion teaches. It is not what any wise man or philosopher has ever taught. It’s a new revelation that was kept secret from the past ages and generations.

In verse 27 Paul speaks of what’s involved in this new revelation. It involves riches of the glory among the Gentiles. You know, for 2,000 years prior to Paul’s day, back to the time of Abraham, God had had a special relationship with the Abraham and his descendants through Isaac and then Jacob/Israel. God privileged the Israelites in so many ways that He didn’t privilege any other people on earth. God intervened on their behalf when they were slaves in Egypt, with the plagues and parting the Red Sea. He freed them. He let them hear His voice at Mt. Sinai and sustained them miraculously in the wilderness. God made covenants with them. And they had the Law God gave them through Moses. They had all the Scriptures. They had the temple of God. The Messiah came from them. Riches of glory were promised to the Israelites, (Deut 30:1-9; Amos 9:11-15; Is 25:6-9; Ez 34:22-31, etc.), the vanquishing of their enemies, wiping away of their tears, the end of even death, reversing the curses that came on the world because of sin, everlasting peace and prosperity and oneness with God. These riches of glory for Israel were not a secret. What was a secret was that Gentiles could be fellow heirs with the Jews, that Gentiles could be grafted into Israel (Eph 3:4-6).

The mystery Paul says is this, “Christ in you [Gentiles], the hope of glory.” In other words, it’s not just the Jews that can have the hope of glory. It’s not just Jews that get new bodies and eternal life with God in the world to come. It’s Gentiles too. The condition is “Christ in you.” The Messiah will dwell in even Gentiles, empowering, helping, guiding, motivating, shaping with their cooperation into His image. And those who have Christ in them look forward to the glory of the ultimate promises of God.

– James Williams