Col No.13 Pauls struggle

to read this hymn of praise ourselves and let it express our own feelings towards our great god and father let's read together all the verses down to the 14th and inclusive not read this alternately but read it all together psalm 116 so join me please in the reading i love the lord because he hath heard my voice and my supplications because he hath inclined his ear unto me therefore will i call upon him as long as i live the sorrows of death compassed me and the pains of hell got hold upon me i found trouble and sorrow then called i upon the name of the lord oh lord i beseech thee deliver my soul gracious is the lord and righteous yea our god is merciful the lord preserveth the simple i was brought low and he helped me return unto thy rest oh my soul for the lord hath dealt bountifully with thee for thou hast delivered my soul from death mine eyes from tears and my feet from falling i will walk before the lord in the land of the living i believe therefore have i spoken i was greatly afflicted i said in my haste all men are liars what shall i render unto the lord for all his benefits toward me i will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the lord i will pay my vows unto the lord now in the presence of all his people colossians 2 for i would that he knew what great conflict i have for you and for them at laodicea and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh that their hearts might be comforted being knit together in love and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgement of the mystery of god and of the father and of christ in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge in this i say lest any man should beguile you with enticing words for though i be absent in the flesh yet am i with you in the spirit joying and beholding your order and the steadfastness of your faith in christ now i would be grateful if you'd have your bibles open at colossians and the second chapter and we return to our sunday morning meditations from this book and it is my intention to go a little further than is indicated in our bulletin and for us to look down to the fifth verse inclusive of the second chapter you will recall that the apostle paul has been and it's somewhat unusual for him engaging in a personal reflection and declaring one or two matters that affect him as an ambassador of the lord in the 25th verse for instance of the previous chapter he personalizes the whole thing and refers to himself as i am made a minister according to the dispensation of god and he goes on to tell us a little bit about that ministry and its implications to the extent that i was able last time to lead you on a meditation on the preacher's aim and the preacher's aid from the final two verses of the first chapter well this note of autobiography it continues on into the second chapter and in these opening verses these first five as you read them through you become more and more impressed that the apostle has a great conflict that is burning in his soul that conflict is perhaps best defined best translated in the new international version of the bible as his struggle that's the word that he uses in the opening verse of the second chapter i would that ye knew what great struggle i have for you and for them at laodicea and what i want to do this morning god helping me is to show you some aspects of that struggle on the part of the apostle paul i want to show you how this struggle came from his pastoral heart a struggle which emerged from the heart of paul i want to show you the particular matters that this struggle embraced as are referred to in the second verse and then i want to show you the particular person who is central to this struggle even the lord jesus christ and paul's concern to make his readers aware of all that they have and all that can be discovered in the lord jesus as is worked out in the third verse but let's come first of all then to this thought of the great struggle of the apostle paul and let's just place our attention upon the heart from which this struggle proceeded paul was a man who often would take upon himself the responsibilities spiritually of people that he had led to the lord he would agonize in prayer of that we are fully aware from other epistles and here in colossians in the ninth verse of the first chapter he has said for this cause we also since the day we heard it do not cease to pray for you and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding and here in this first verse referring to the struggle that is continuing to ensue in his life he repeats in this second chapter that he is in great conflict for the christians in colossi and laodicea he is spiritually sensitive to their needs he wants to pray for them he can do none other than pray it's a severe agony that would be a reasonable translation of the original here a severe agony that he has for these particular folks you know you and i sometimes say to people doing art well we'll pray for you or we are praying for you and sometimes alas and god forbid us that's a piece of evangelical exaggeration the intentions were good they were honorable but the working out well that's where the defect occurred we said we would pray but we weren't so sensitive when we got back home we forgot about our brother or our sisters particular predicament but that charge could not be laid at the apostle paul's door he says i have a great struggle and that struggle it proceeds it emerges from my heart and it concerns you christians at colossi and you believers in laodicea and now as i say the this is not new to paul you read the letter that he writes to the romans when he's referring to his own people he says god is my witness i could wish myself a curse from christ that they might be saved so dear to me is the salvation of men and women that i'm brought into a very agony as i bring them before the lord in my prayers and yet you know as far as the colossians and the laodiceans were concerned there was no real reason for paul to pray for them why do i say that well look at the latter part of the first verse and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh the implication when you read this letter is that the apostle paul himself had not been to colossi he hadn't been to laodicea the colossians were glad because they had a very good pastor by the name of epaphras who is referred to in the 12th verse of the of the last chapter a pastor who likewise strives in prayer but the apostle paul could have said well those laodiceans those colossians they're outside the orbit of my pastoral ministry therefore why should i be praying for them and yet he does not only praise he struggles for them he's in a conflict he's concerned for their spiritual well-being when you say it's easy for him he's a preacher he's got his own little office his own little study and it's all private and so on it's not like me i'm a teacher i'm a school pupil i've got my own business it's not easy for me to spend time in prayer before god on behalf of those that i know let alone those that i don't know but let's just uh open this myth that the apostle paul had some sort of salubrious environment in which he could engage in the ministry of intercession he wasn't at the hilton in rome when he wrote this letter he was in jail the jails in those days were nothing like they are nothing like the prisons in the united kingdom and here he is in the custody of some roman soldier perhaps his hands are manacled certainly he's restricted i sometimes try and picture the apostle paul as he's there in the cell and he's praying and i wonder what the sergeant at arms is thinking as he's looking on at this man he seems sees maybe the change in his face as paul alights on something that creates anxiety the struggle for the colossians these laodiceans that they desperately need my prayers particularly the latter they're neither hot nor cold not easy to pray with someone else alongside you is it presumably even more difficult when you're in jail bishop moore makes reference to a journey that he once took from jerusalem to to joppa by rail and in the carriage was a devout muslim the carriage was quite full the hour came for prayer what did the muslim do he got down on his knees he adopted the posture of intercession and despite the untoward circumstances for the next half hour says moore he was repeating the name of allah and bringing his prayers to his god some of us perhaps could learn as i had to gather in bangladesh from the muslims what are the disciplines of prayer to which we are called paul could have been excused praying for the colossians praying for the laodiceans his circumstances were untoward physically speaking he was in a condition that would not have encouraged intercession at all and yet he prays and you and me what's the what's the application there well not only that we can engage in prayer in whatever situation we find ourselves but we have a responsibility to those that we've never known you know my secretary pushes out month by month or bi-monthly accounts from bangladesh and from nepal written by ever and sheila respectively concerning their work and often they talk about names of people that you don't know and you may see say even if you glance through the prayer letter well why should i engage in intercession for them i really can't go into their environment and feel for them but they are brother and sister in the lord jesus and as the apostle puts down the example here in the first verse of this chapter so we are to take it up and there is to be a struggle in our own hearts for those who are in perilous times who need physically and spiritually our support in the area of finance and intercession so then this was the pastoral heart from which the struggle emerged paul so concerned for the colossians that at time he says in the fifth verse he almost conceived of himself as being there with them though i be absent in the flesh yet am i with you in the spirit joying and beholding your order and the steadfastness of your faith in christ all that verse is sometimes used out of context it's an evangelical excuse for not attending services you know i wasn't with you in the flesh oh but i was there in the spirit well we prefer bodies attached to spirits when you're coming into the tabernacle it's uh it's much more encouraging but here was a situation a genuine occasion when such an expression could be used here is paul in his cell and yet spiritually he's miles away he's with those colossians he's with those laodiceans and he's struggling before god in prayer that there may be order that there may be steadfastness in their faith in christ for paul more than any man knows the nature of the conflict that the colossians and laodiceans are engaged in endeavoring to live for jesus in a hostile and a pagan world but what about the particular matters which the struggle embraces well dig into the second verse and they're listed there they're tabulated there's at least four you might even be able to discover five he prays for strong hearts that their hearts might be comforted by heart in the bible is not meant the just the emotional seat or the seat of our emotions in our personality it's more than that is implied it's the it's equivalent to the inner man it's the total personality the soul that which makes you distinctively you and makes me distinctively me it's for that that paul is praying that your personalities might not just be comforted that's too weak a word might rather be strengthened he wants christians strong of heart being able to withstand the pressures of a hostile environment and so by name he thinks of those that he has heard of in colossi and in laodicea and he brings them to the lord and he says strengthen that brother and strengthen that sister and the challenge is for you and for me to do the same the matters which concern the apostle the strength of heart unity of love look at the second clause being knit together in love you know there's something about love that is a strengthening feature you take the shingle on worthing beach but you could take the shingle on worthing beach we'd much rather have sand but when the ebb and the flow of the tide have occurred then the shingle is moved around and sometimes the local authorities have to bring their bulldozers just to straighten things out a little bit but if you compact those pebbles if you compact that shingle or the sand into one boulder then all the ferocity of the atlantic waves that beat upon that boulder will not move it one inch or centimeter so it is in the christian community with hearts of strength with unity of love then they become as as determined and as invulnerable as the roman soldiers who sometimes would put their shields up in front of them and the men in the center of the rectangle would put their shields above their head and that moving military rectangle would go nearer and nearer the city that was being stormed and all the arrows that rained down on them from the inhabitants of the city and all the lit torches that were thrown on them could not in any way devastate their power nor their potential so it is when christians are knit together in the unity of love and the apostle underlines this time and time again he wants the colossians together he wants the laodiceans together he knows that if they're splintered he knows that if they've broken apart then their witness shall be weak so he prays not only for hearts of strength but for the unity of love he also prays as you discover if you move along the text for a fullness of assurance a fullness of assurance he doesn't want these people speculating with the philosophers coming and tossing their ideas into the cauldron of debate saying well you know this is what i think and this is what i feel the usual bbc program he doesn't want that sort of thing at all he doesn't want the verily verily i say unto you of jesus to be diminished to well perhaps or maybe or i speculate there's a full assurance in this salvation that paul has been preaching and epaphras brought to the colossians and perhaps to the laodiceans he wants these people to be fully convinced of the truths of the gospel so that they can say i know in whom i have believed and i'm persuaded that he is able to keep that which i have committed unto him against that day full assurance and i believe that this is so necessary today that men and women in our fellowship should have strong hearts hearts of strength the unity of love a fullness of assurance and the comprehension of the secret look at the last part of verse two to the acknowledgement of the mystery of god and of the father and of christ comprehending what secret well the very secret that paul has made reference to in the 26th verse of the previous chapter even the mystery which has been hid from ages and from generations but now is made manifest to his saints that mystery defined in the 27th verse as christ in you the hope of glory ah says the apostle i want you christians in colossi to come to a greater grasp of the secret of all that god has done for you you know in one sense you could say as christian people that if you have an understanding of john chapter 3 and verse 16 then the whole of the christian gospel you has grasped and yet in in one sense you can never fully comprehend what's in that particular verse the more you swim in it the more you dive down into it so the greater are the fathoms that are still available for your descent and says the apostle you've got some insight into the mystery of god of what he has done to to you and for you through the lord jesus and his death on the cross but i want you to grasp on this and to hold it more tightly and to come to an even greater comprehension i want the very things of god to be so impressed upon your mind that you are able to withstand any opposition that comes whether it be the temptations of the devil in your own spirit or heretical teachers who come along or the pressures of a godless society so you see these are the particular matters which concern the apostle and make him struggle before god he wants these colossians he wants these laodiceans i by extension he wants people in worthing tabernacle to have hearts of strength to know unity of love to have fullness of assurance to have complete comprehension of the mystery of what god the father has done in and through jesus for the salvation of the world and then says the apostle paul he makes reference to the person of christ around which the struggle ensues the person of christ who is this christ well he is the one in whom verse three are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge now what is the complaint of the apostle well he's not concerned about jesus in the gospel he praises god for this but his measure of concern is in verse four that there are those who are in colossi at this moment and in laodicea who might induce the christians to defect from the faith and to follow heretical teaching this i say lest any man should beguile you with enticing words you see there were those and i've had to make reference to them before who were called gnostics a sort of first century jehovah's witness and they came along claiming a superior understanding of the gospel they had their own terminology and incidentally the very terms that they use the apostle selects in verse three and crams them together in that one statement and christianizes them they used to speak about things which were hidden they spoke about treasures they spoke about wisdom and knowledge they go around and they would say you know there's there's a particular group of people of which we are members and they have a greater understanding a greater revelation of of god than these ordinary christian people have why don't you join us why don't you throw your lot in with us and the security of the church in colossi and laodicea was being threatened by these people who were claiming to have a greater wisdom better riches superior knowledge than the christian community that have been pastored under epaphroditus so says the apostle part of my struggle is this it focuses around the person of the lord jesus christ in him in him alone our head all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge there is no nothing more to be known about god than what has been revealed through jesus christ jesus contains all the gold blocks of heaven in himself and the wealth of jesus is coined into the riches of the church as his teaching is placed in doctrinal state statements and creedal forms and for you christians at colossi to defect to default from this and also you in laodicea because of these uh these teachings of these heretics who are coming around and endeavoring to influence you well the thought of it it causes me anguish of soul it causes me great concern so the apostle writes not only about the agony that he feels towards the christians that bear the name of this epistle he speaks also of those particular matters which if they are realized in the christian community will make these people strong indeed and then he refers to the lord jesus christ and he says that in him and his revelation alone are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge and yet paul makes the reference to the word hidden but not in the same context as the gnostics he says that the gospel is hidden you remember in corinthians to those who won't believe it's not a question of some who are intellectually more able than others indeed the lord jesus and the whole of scripture tells us that the thing that hides the gospel is not a man's intellectual acumen or his lack of it but it's his belief or his unbelief so when the gospel is placarded in front of people they either respond or they don't respond the very revelation either exposes the truth of god or conversely it conceals the truth of god there's nothing amiss with the revelation the thing that is a matter the thing that needs to be looked into is the response of the people so says the apostle here is jesus and he's a veritable personification of all the riches that there are in heaven in modern parlance here is the lord jesus representing more value than all the gold that there is at fort knox and this gold is available it's hidden in one sense to those who are blinded by faithlessness but it's available to those who will come and put their trust in the lord jesus who will say yes lord i trust you for my salvation yes lord i believe that you have come to to enrich those who are poor to make princes out of paupers now the apostle writing to these christians says all this you have in jesus the wealth of the gospel the treasures of wisdom the riches of full assurance don't throw it away before god i intercede in prayer night and day that you might remain true to the calling that you might be ambassadors of god though the climate is difficult spiritually in colossi and laodicea i think that the colossian christians were twice blessed they had the apostle paul to struggle in prayer for them they had their own pastor epaphroditus who also according to the verse to which allusion was made in the fourth chapter wrestled in anguish for their spiritual well-being and my friend what i'm pleading for this morning is this on the part of mature christians a greater entry into the ministry of intercession for those who desperately need our prayers one of the great memories of this year for me so far has been that day of prayer and fasting in the tabernacle and particularly the evening session when some 60 or 70 people in our lounge were melted by the presence of god in an atmosphere that certainly was not emotionally contrived and before god were bringing young men and young women colleagues and schoolmates and asking for their spiritual well-being we need more of that more of that holy agony that the apostle had towards the colossians and the laodiceans people that he'd never met and what's more we need to pray god that there shall be within our fellowship those fourfold characteristics to which the second verse enumerate which the second verse alluded there must be that that strength of heart that unity of love that fullness of assurance that grasping of the mystery so that when the heretics come around be their moments or jw's or other dear people who have defected from the orthodox gospel of jesus christ we shall not be beguiled we shall not be induced to follow them but with authority in our voice we shall be able to open the scripture and say here my friend this is the true gospel this is the true doctrine paul was agonizing before god for spiritual sensitivity and for maturity on the part of members of these churches and we still need that same agony of prayer for exactly the same things in our fellowship amen father we thank you for the example of one who struggled for others in your service for an indication of what he struggled about and what the issue of it all focused in do we ask that we likewise may be called to agonize for others and in our fellowship here where may we have a maturity that shall be of help to those who need to know a clear presentation of the gospel so help us as we prepare now to come around this table for jesus sake amen