The Mystery of Christ

Colossians 2:1–15 “1 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, 2 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 4 I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. 5 For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ.

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The Mystery of Christ

How many of you all like a good mystery?

I’d have to confess that I do love a good book that kind of keeps you guessing to the end

My dad wasn’t really fond of the Hardy Boys, so we didn’t have those books in our house when I was growing up, although I did read them at my friend’s home whenever I got the chance

We did, however, have Sherlock Holmes mysteries, and what a thrill it was to take on a new mystery with Sherlock and his always-a-few-steps-behind-friend, Dr. Watson

The Hound of the Baskervilles

The Red-Headed League

The Adventure of the Speckled Band

You’d go through all these twists and turns, thinking it’s this guy, or that lady, but it turns out to be someone that you didn’t expect.

You know, I’m beginning to think that Paul likes a good mystery too.

There are a number of places in his writings where he talks about a “mystery”

In fact, in chapter 1, he mentioned a mystery twice

There’s nothing like a good mystery

Today in this passage, Paul mentions God’s mystery

In fact, Paul does this in a number of other places in his letters.

He talks about a mystery. Maybe Paul would have loved a good Sherlock Holmes story too

which is Christ

Mystery--

Something not obvious to the understanding

Something that is only known to a select few

That second part of the definition is something that should ring a few bells because:

Remember when we talked about the false teaching that was coming into the church

One of the things that the Gnostics claimed was that they had secret knowledge

Something that only was revealed to them.

And they could let you in on it, or they didn’t have to if they didn’t want to. it was up to them

And now, here comes Paul and tells these Believers, that there is indeed a secret knowledge.

There are things that are hidden or mysterious

But here’s the important thing.

This not the kind of mystery that the Gnostics talked about

This is not mysterious knowledge that is kept by

Preachers

other religious leaders

It’s not even a mystery that we can discover by putting together all the clues

It is, in fact, God’s mystery.

But it’s one that He has chosen to make known to us, or have revealed to us

You know, to many people, maybe even many Christians, God has always been mysterious, His face hidden, His will unknowable, undiscoverable

And many folks feel like they just have to figure life out by themselves

In our last study of Colossians, Paul was clear that he was struggling, actually suffering joyfully for the church at Colossae.

Paul is so sold out to Jesus and has such love for the people of God that nothing is too great a price

And he is willing to go through whatever is needed for their sake

We saw that last time

And now he continues talking about this

Remember, our chapter breaks were not originally part of Paul’s letter

He didn’t sit down and think, “Ok, now chapter 2”

No, he just continued right on writing as the Holy Spirit gave him direction

And so chapter 1 flows right into chapter 2

In chapter 1, he says, I am suffering and struggling for you

And in chapter 2, he says, I want you to know that I am struggling for you because there is actually a benefit to you AND to the church at Laodicea

And for the other Believers who had never met him

Encouragement of heart

It is an encouraging thing to know that when you are struggling there are those who are struggling right along side of you

I don’t know if you can identify with this or not, but I hate to be a bother

It seems to go against my grain to be a bother and to ask other people for help.

If it’s something that I can do myself, I often just go ahead and do it

And if it is something that I perceive is TOO hard for me, I often don’t reach out and ask for help, because I don’t want other people to be inconvenienced on my behalf

I suspect that I’m not completely alone in this

We as a people are sort of like that, I think. Especially those of us who grew up in this Conservative community

We do have a tremendous community, and we do help each other a lot

But I wonder if it is hard for us to reach out and ask for help sometimes

I know that I have not always asked for help because I don’t want to inconvenience others

But when people come along side of you to help you serve in the work of the Lord, and you know that it is also a sacrifice for them, it is such an encouragement

When you know that they are doing it out of love for you and for the LORD, it warms your heart, and encourages your heart.

I think of all the ways that you guys serve here at Fairview

When we had the missions conference here, and people jumped in and made things happen

When we had Pastor’s conference here, and you all jumped in and made that happen

The International Student hayride.

These things aren’t easy. They are hard work, they can be a struggle

But to know that you all are willing to do that is such an encouragement to me

Being knit together in love

this is quite a picture

My girls are really good at crocheting things

I sit and watch them, their needles flying around through this yarn

You start out with a ball of yarn, all neatly wrapped up, but not really remarkable, and pretty useless

And if you would take the paper off that yarn, it wouldn’t take much for it all to unravel.

But they take their crochet hooks and start with one loop, and

And the yarn gets pulled in and out and through each other and it begins to take shape, and it forms something interesting and beautiful, and (sometimes) useful

And that shape doesn’t come apart, especially after it is finished and the last knot is tied

Maybe just a slight picture of what Paul is talking about here

Our hearts knit together in love

Taking us all, who individually might be somewhat unremarkable, and not really able to do that much

And, of course, this love that he is talking about is not

a warm, fuzzy feeling toward each other

It’s not even us being agreed on everything

But, in love, the love that comes through Jesus, our hearts are knit together and as a church, we become something beautiful, something useful, something that God can use for His glory and purpose

The purpose of having our hearts encouraged, and our hearts knit together in love is...

To reach ALL the riches of full assurance of understanding of God’s mystery, which is Christ

Here is the wonderful thing about the Gospel

It is that God, the mysterious God, the God hidden behind His glory, terrifying, unapproachable, has been revealed to all mankind through Jesus Christ

In the book of Exodus, God delivered His people from bondage in Egypt and brought them into the wilderness to the foot of Mt. Sinai,

After being in bondage for over 400 years, the Hebrews had lost touch with God. They didn’t know who He was

But it was at Mt. Sinai that God introduced Himself to them again

And the way that He introduced Himself was as a God to be feared and reverenced and served and loved

And in many ways He remained mysterious

He comes down on Mt. Sinai and there are flashes of lightening, peals of thunder, the sounds of trumpets, clouds.

The people are in terror. Who is up there? What is up there?

When Moses says to God, “I want to see you. Show yourself to me!”, God says, “You can’t look on me and live. Hide in that cave. I will pass in front of it and cover it with my hand. You will only be able to see my back”

I wonder what that was like!

Moses comes down from the mountain, and his face was so radiant with the glory of God that he had to cover his face because the people could not bear to look at him

God gave his law to the people.

But still He remained mysterious. His glory was unapproachable

He only spoke to them through men and women that HE selected: the prophet

God was real. He was powerful. His love was perfect, His justice was perfect. He was to be feared

But He was mysterious.

It seemed like He was only known by a select few people

Could He truly be known by people like you and me? Did He truly care about His people?

Would He allow average people like us to be in His presence?

He’s so mysterious!

And this is the way that a lot of people still look at God

he is there, yes. He is real, yes

I think He is loving

But what is He really like?

But can I truly know Him

Does He truly care about folks like you and me?

Can average, every day kind of people like you and me come into His presence?

I hope you know today that the answer is “YES”

the wonderful thing about God is that He desires to be known by all people

Even in the OT, even though God chose to remain mysterious, He spoke of a day when that veil would be lifted

Jeremiah 31:33–34 “33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.””

Did you hear that? God says that there would be coming a day when everyone would know HIm from the least to the greatest.

No longer would He be a mystery to the average person. A mystery known only by the elite few

No longer would we have to go the priest or the preacher or the prophet to know God

But everyone would know Him

Isaiah 40:5 “5 And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.””

And how did that happen? Well, though Jesus Christ.

It says in our passage today that Christ is the revelation of the mystery of God

The clouds that covered God on Mt. Sinai have rolled back, and God has revealed His mystery to all mankind

Read Hebrews 12:18-24 if you have time

God has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ

And then in verse 3 it says this: in whom (that is, Jesus Christ) are hidden ALL the treasures of wisdom and knowledge

Not some of God’s treasures of wisdom and knowledge

ALL

This goes back to chapter 1 where Paul says that Jesus is the “image, the exact representation of the invisible God”

He reveals to us who God is

Experiencing the mystery of God

What we have been talking about here might still seem a bit unattainable

And we might be thinking, “Ok, yeah, I know what you are saying. I know that the Bible says that Jesus is the revelation of God to us. But it all still seems kind of lofty and unattainable

How do we bring this “down to earth” and make it understandable

And that’s a good question

To answer this, I would go back to verse 2

In this verse, Paul says that his desire is that our hearts would be encouraged and that we would be knit together in love

Well, why? Why should we be encouraged and knit together in love?

Because it’s then that God’s mystery begins to be revealed to us

Let me read that whole verse to you and we can see how Paul’s logic flows here: Colossians 2:2 “2 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ,”

There is a logical flow here: When our hearts are encouraged and when we are knit together in love, that is when God’s mystery, Jesus Christ begins to be revealed to us in a new and deeper way.

In other words, it is the unity of the Believers, the love between believers that is the earthly expression of the revelation of the mystery of God

We sing a song, “I serve a Risen Savior....you ask me how I know he lives. He lives within my heart”.

Well, there’s something to that maybe.

but how do we together begin to discover the mystery of God

How do we together discover the wisdom and knowledge of Christ?

I would say, again, that the answer is in verse 2. It’s when our hearts are being knit together in love

This is when we start to experience the fullness of who Christ is

Because it was in His great love for us that God sent Jesus to this world

It was in His great love for His father that Jesus was perfectly knit together with God and it was in His great love for us that Jesus was willing to give up His life for us

And when our hearts are being knit together in love, it is a practical, visible demonstration of the mystery of God made known in Jesus Christ

In Christ are the answers

And then Paul reveals his heart to them and tells them the reason that he wants them to know these things

Colossians 2:4 “4 I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments.”

Paul says, “I don’t want you to be “deluded” with “plausible arguments

Delude—deceived

Plausible—something that seems reasonable.

How do we know what is true or not

Someone has said, the hardest challenge for us is not discerning right from wrong, it is discerning between right and what is almost right!

Where Satan, the deceiver, seems to be the most effective is when he comes as an angel of light

He presents things to us that are desirable

He presents things to us that we really want to be true

He presents things that seem like they could be true.

And our tendency as Believers is to point to those outside of the church, those who are far away from Jesus, those whose lives seem to be a mess, and say, “Man, what a pity. Look at the lies that they are believing. Look at how they have been deceived”

And that’s true. Many people who are far from Christ do believe that they are on the correct path.

But we should not lose sight of the fact that Paul is writing to Believers in Christ, followers of Jesus

And it’s to THEM that he says, “I don’t want you to be mislead”

Because Paul was well-aware of something that we should not lose sight of: “Even we, even Believers in Jesus, are not above being deceived and mislead”.

There are so many teachings that creep into church that sound like they could be true

They have an element of truth to them

Paul is writing to the Colossians and the Laodiceans. But, by the power of the Holy Spirit, he is writing these things for us as well

We, here at Fairview are not immune to being led astray by things that seem right but are deceptive

There are teachings running rampant through the American church that are deceptive, and because of our access to things through the internet and other forms of media, we need to be aware of these things

There are some who say that God is Love

I agree with that, don’t you?

But the conclusions that they draw from this are deceptive

Conclusions like:

It could not have been God’s will for Jesus to be put to death

God wouldn’t judge anyone for their sin

There are multiple ways to God. So if a person never hears about Jesus, that’s sad, but OK. Because in the end, there are other ways to God

And people hear these things and say, “Huh, ya. God is love so it must be true what you are saying”

There are some who say that it is God’s desire to bless us

I agree with that, don’t you

But the conclusions that they draw from this, I believe are deceptive

If you are faithful, God will bless you with material wealth. You will be rich

If you are faithful, you will never be sick. God’s will is that you never suffer physically

If you are faithful, he will advance your reputation and career

And there are millions of Christians around the world who have been led into believing these things, because they sound “plausible”.

Paul says, “I say all this so that you aren’t deceived”

What has he said? What is he referring to?

Well, he has just spent the lion’s share of chapter 1 uplifting and exalting Jesus Christ

Paul’s strategy for coming against deception is to uplift and reveal the person and work of Jesus Christ

Because why?

Because in 2:3, it’s in Christ that are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge!

You may look at everything around you, all the teaching that you might hear, and you wonder, “How do I know what is true? How do I know how I’m supposed to live?”

Well, I would echo Paul’s words here: Look at Jesus!

If you watch someone on YouTube making an argument for something that is new to you, and it sounds like it could be true, I would challenge you to consider how much time does this person spend talking about Jesus?

People have asked me at times, “Why don’t you preach more topically?” (select topics and talk about them)

I don’t have anything against those who do

But I will tell you my heart. My heart is to open the Word of God, read it in context, and press in for us to know Jesus through the pages of Scripture

And as we learn to know Him better, and His glory increases in our hearts, then the topics we are concerned about should become clearer

The truth of topics and issues should take their rightful place in our lives.

and that is under the Lordship of Jesus Christ

So, do you like a good mystery? God has revealed His mystery to us in Jesus Christ!