Hope Church LV Sermons
The Gospel | The Mystery & The Mission
I want to begin today with a moment of transparency. And I want to share something about my life that I'm not necessarily proud of, but it's true nonetheless. So here's my confession. I have a seriously intense obsession with watching mystery and crime dramas on television. And it's bad. Everything from CSI to criminal minds to law and order to the mentalist, sometimes I'll even reach back and watch an episode of Matlock, all those shows. Now, before you judge me, all right, by a show of hands, does anyone else in the room struggle like I struggle? A couple people, Hallelujah, I'm not the only one. I did some research this week to try to make myself feel better. And I found out some pretty interesting information. Did you know that on average in America, the average American watches 4 hours and 35 minutes of television every single day? That's the average 20% of the day is spent watching television. But what was fascinating was not just how much we watch, but what we watch. I came across a research group called the Nielsen group, and they're a global leader in measurements and information. Here's what they report that of the top 10 most popular shows in the fall of 2012 that are being broadcast on prime time, top 10, 50% of the top 10 shows this fall fall in the category of mystery and crime dramas. So you see, I'm not different, I'm normal, and the same is true for everybody who raised your hand. There is something in our culture that is attracted to mystery. There's something in our culture that is attracted to the unknown. This was also seen in 2006 when a book was released called The Secret. It was packaged as a book of mystery, as a self-help book that a lot of people latched onto. Now, the teachings in this book are ridiculous, they're no good. It poses a way of life in which you can't improve by looking inside yourself, and we all know that that's wrong. But to date, this book has 21 million copies in print. It's been translated into 44 different languages. It has grossed over $300 million in sales and spent 146 consecutive weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. I say all that to say that our culture has an attraction, for whatever reason, to mystery secrecy in the unknown. And today as we dive back in with our study through the book of Colossians, the Apostle Paul is going to teach us about an aspect of the gospel that every person in the room needs to understand. This weekend we're going to examine the mystery of the gospel. If you are visiting with us as a church family, we are studying verse by verse through the New Testament book of Colossians. And this weekend we are kicking off a four-part series within that study called the gospel, the mystery, and the mission. And we're going to spend four weeks unpacking this teaching from the Apostle Paul here in Colossians chapter 1. So if you have a Bible, turn with me to the book of Colossians. And in just a moment, I'm going to start reading in chapter 1, verse 24, and read through verse 27. If you don't have a Bible, we're going to put this up on the screen, or you can follow along with us on the You version app. Thus far in our study, we've unpacked verses 1 through 23 of Colossians chapter 1. And here's most recently what Paul's been teaching us. We've been learning about the supremacy, the preeminence of Jesus. In this text, Paul has just walked through a litany of descriptions of who Christ is. And he started to teach us about who we are as believers because of who Christ is. So let's start reading in Colossians 1, starting in verse 24. Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake. And 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, 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, that is the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to his saints. And then verse 27, "To whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." Now it's going to take us two weekends to unpack these few verses. And because there are several foundational things we need to understand to really get the full scope of this passage, we're going to approach these verses a little differently. But I assure you, after next weekend, we're all going to have a clear understanding of the principles that are communicated in verses 24, 25, 26, and 27. And for this weekend, I want us to wrestle with one big question. And my hope is when we finish this service in a few moments that all of us will be able to answer this one question, as well as understand how the answer to this question impacts all of us on a personal level. So here's the big question for this weekend, what is the mystery of the gospel? What is the mystery of the gospel? That's not really a phrase that we say very often. That's not really a question that we wrestle with. But in this text, specifically in verses 26 and 27, Paul is going to speak toward this mystery of the gospel. In both of those verses, he uses this word mystery. Now it's very important to understand that the way our culture, the way criminal minds defines mystery, and the way mystery is defined here in Colossians chapter 1 are drastically different. Our culture defines mystery as something that is secret, as something that only a few people can figure out. That's the way our culture speaks to mystery. But here in this text, when Paul brings up the word mystery, he's speaking of something that has been revealed by God, something that is not a secret, something that is not hidden. A couple of words that we could use instead of mystery would be the words revelation to be revealed or publication to make public. That's the picture here. So let me give you a statement that really summarizes what the mystery of the gospel is. Here was the unbelievable information that Paul was trying to communicate with the church in Colossae. God desires for all nations to be redeemed through a love relationship with Jesus. That's the mystery. Our big question is, what is the mystery of the gospel? That's the mystery of the gospel. The God of heaven desires for all nations to be redeemed through a love relationship with Jesus. Now, you're probably thinking, "Pastor, I hate to bust your bubble, but it's not really a secret." I mean, we hear something like that every weekend at this church. We read about that in the New Testament and you're right, but we must think this weekend about the audience Paul was writing to. You see, for the audience, Paul was writing to, this was a mind-blowing reality. You see, there were numerous obstacles in this culture that hindered them from really understanding and having clarity about this mystery called the gospel. One of the obstacles was a cultural obstacle. You see, in the first century, there were only two types of people. There were Jews and there were Gentiles. And there were some serious racial and social issues between the Jews and the Gentiles. The Jews saw themselves as God's people as being superior to everyone else. That was the mentality of a Jew in this context. The Gentiles were just the opposite. They saw themselves as the outcasts. They saw themselves as people who were missing out on God's richest life and blessing. Now, both groups had heard a day was coming, prophecy that a day was coming when they would be made into one people, into one church, but nobody knew when and nobody knew how. They believed that God's love was only for the Jews. So you can imagine for them to hear this reality that God desires for all nations to be saved, all nations to be redeemed through relationship with Jesus. That was a major, major message. Another obstacle that they faced in really having clarity about the mystery of the gospel was a spiritual obstacle through false teaching. You see, there were numerous religions, numerous world religions in this day. And here's what they taught. They taught that the way you get to God is through obtaining enough knowledge. They taught that peace with God was a mystery and was only revealed to certain people who had been enlightened with the truth. They taught if you just gain enough knowledge, God will accept you. But they never clarified what that knowledge was or how much of it you needed. They taught false teaching. And Paul is very specific here in choosing to use the word mystery because that's exactly how the false teachers communicated their teaching about God. But here's what Paul says. In the face of those world religions, the mystery is not hidden. The mystery has been revealed. Extremely significant. The songer summarizes it this way. He says the Messiah was not just sent to the people of Israel. He came for all men. God's love and mercy did not belong exclusively to the Jews. The salvation offered to the Jews was the same as that extended to the Gentiles. There were numerous things that were hindering these people from understanding the true heart and the true love of God. And Paul steps out in this text and says listen, you don't have to worry about these racial or social issues. You don't have to worry about these spiritual issues. The answer to what you're looking for and the answers to what you're struggling with is the gospel of Jesus and it has been once and for all made clear, made public. The gospel has been revealed. Now this was happening in the first century and today we live in 2012. But I want you to recognize tonight that even though it's so many years later, we still have a lot of racial issues in our country and world. We still have numerous social issues and obviously we have numerous spiritual issues. But the answer that Paul gave to the church at Colossae is the same answer that we must embrace today. The answer to those issues is the gospel. The only way that racial barriers fall apart and social barriers fall apart is when we recognize that the ground is level at the cross and we're all the same. The only way that spiritual issues go away and this false teaching is pushed to the side is when the gospel is declared and announced in an absolute clear way according to the scriptures. The answer is the gospel. So to really clarify that and unpack two of these verses in this text, I want to share with you tonight three clarifying principles about the gospel that hopefully will make this mystery even more clear than it already is as we navigate through this passage. So here is the first principle out of this text. The gospel is revealed through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The gospel is revealed, it's made public in its clearest form through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. When you hear the word gospel, what immediately pops into your mind? Depending on your background or your story, you may have a different definition of gospel than even the person sitting beside you. But just so we're all on the same page, gospel literally means good news. So when we ask you, have you embraced the gospel, we're asking you, have you embraced the good news? When we ask you, have you been sharing the gospel, we're asking you, have you been sharing the good news? Well, what's the good news according to the Bible? Here's the good news. In the person of Jesus Christ, God Himself came to atone for sin and provide eternal life. That's the good news, that's the good news of the Scriptures, that God didn't just send somebody to figure it out. No, through the person of Christ, God Himself came to earth to atone and pay for sin and to provide eternal life for all of humanity. In verse 26, here's what Paul says. He says, "The mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations." As I looked over those verses this week, I asked myself the question, why did Paul choose to clarify that? Why would Paul choose specifically in verse 26 to point out that this mystery at one point had been hidden from past ages and generations? Well, once again, we must understand these believers were living in a context where false teaching was telling them that the way to peace with God was a path of self discovery and that if you could gain enough knowledge, have enough information that somehow you could work your way up to a right relationship with God. And Paul clarifies in verse 26 and said this, "Listen, this mystery was hidden and the only way it was revealed was because of God." It wasn't that people worked for years and years to figure it out. It wasn't that a person was smart enough or sharp enough or talented enough. So at the point in time, God sent His Son and because of God, this mystery of the gospel was revealed not because of human effort. We do not have the intellectual capacity to wrap our minds around the glory and the grace of God. It must be revealed to us. And in its clearest form, the gospel was revealed through the person of Jesus. The new American commentary says it this way. The gospel is not a system, hierarchy or set of regulations. It is the person and work of Jesus, which is indeed the message. When it comes to the gospel, everything rises and falls on Jesus. One of the enemy's greatest tricks is to get us to over-complicate this message and to teach things and focus on things that really don't matter. If you want to understand the gospel, look at Jesus. His life was a perfect life. His death was a substitutionary death. His resurrection gave Him all authority in heaven and on earth and under the earth. And we sit here today, being given an invitation from our heavenly Father to embrace the work and life of Jesus by faith and through that to walk in a relationship with the God who made us. That's the gospel. That's what was revealed through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. The Apostle Paul not only wrote Colossians, another book that he wrote is the book of Galatians. And here's what he says in Galatians chapter 6. He says, "May it never be that I would boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world." He says, "If I have any joy or any confidence or any reason to brag, it's because of Christ, not because of me." One of the great indicators that really reveals if a person understands the gospel, if a person is a mature disciple or a mature believer, it's seen by what they give credit to. You see, over time, one of the enemy's most subtle strategies is to get us to think that we have something to do with God's activity in us and through us. It's very, very subtle, but those of us who walk with God the closest recognize just how little we have to do with God's activity in us and through us. So just to be clear, this weekend, I want to share with you exactly what we deserve the credit for. What you and I deserve all the glory for, you ready? This is what you and I deserve all the glory, honor, and praise for, an eternity separated from God in the condition of spiritual death. That's what we earned. That's what no one can take away from us. We deserve all the credit for an eternity separated from God because of sin and spiritual death. Listen, anything beyond that, all the glory, honor, and praise goes to Jesus. Anything. It's nothing we earned. It's not because we're that good. It's not because we're that sharp. Our best got us spiritual death and an eternity separated from God, but God in His grace chose to love us even when we did not love Him back and through faith offers us life out of the pit and turning us to a place where we can be spiritually alive, not just for today, but for eternity. I'll remind you what the scripture says. It says Christ in you, not Christ and you. It's a very important distinction. You see, the gospel is not Christ plus us. It's not Christ and us. It's His very life inside of us. That's the mystery. That's the mind-blowing message that God does not just give us instructions and tell us to figure it out, but He sends His very life through His Spirit to dwell in us and press Himself out of us as we walk with Him by faith. As you think about this reality and really the word that we're talking about here, the defining characteristic of people who understand this, here's the word, humility. Understanding who He is and understanding who we are. Listen to this statement, God doesn't need you and me to do His work. We are simply servants, invited to serve by His kindness, not because of our cleverness. The reason that Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection was so extreme is because our sin was so dark and we were in such a bad place. So the invitation of the gospel is not an invitation to come and try harder or to figure out what the Christian life looks like. The invitation of Jesus is an invitation to completely surrender. It's an invitation to say, "Lord, I tried my best and it earned me nothing but an eternity separated from you. Lord, I lay my life before you and I invite you to invade me and press your very life out through me." That's the invitation of the gospel. Let me ask you a question. Are you trying to figure out the Christian life instead of letting Christ live His life through you? We naturally have a performance mentality. We think that we have to work in order to earn something. It's true in our relationship with God, but understand this tonight. God's love for you does not go up and down based off your performance. God loves you unconditionally. The other way that we're naturally tempted to perform is in our relationship with other people. We're really good at faking it even when things are not going so well. We easily do that and we develop this form of Christianity that is really, if we're honest, us trying to look spiritual when we know in our hearts it's not what God intended and we're hesitant to go before our Heavenly Father and say, "Lord, would You forgive me for performing? I surrender." Max Lickato said this. He says, "We applauseaholics have done it all. Drop names sung loudly, dressed up to look classy, dressed down to look cool. Lorded authors, we've never read, spouted Greek, we've never studied. For the life of me, I believe Satan trains battalions of demons to whisper one question in our ears. What are people thinking of you?" Jesus knew this. That's why He was so clear in the Gospels to say, "When you come to me, I'm asking you to come and to die, that I might press my very life out through you." Jesus does not just want a better version of us. He wanted to reveal to us through His death, burial, and resurrection that we can't but that He can. Here's a second clarifying principle about the Gospel. The Gospel changes lives. The Gospel message is not just inspirational literature or a special story. The Gospel is a life-changing message. In verse 27, Paul goes on to say this, "But has now been manifested to His saints." He's saying this message, "It's been made known to who? He did not say people. He did not say Jews. He did not say Gentiles. He said, "It's been manifested to the saints." It's important to recognize because it shows us that those who have embraced the Gospel are different. They're not the same. When we embrace by face the finished work and life of Jesus, we become saints of the Almighty God. We're not the same anymore. The Gospel is a life-changing message. One of the comments that unfortunately I hear quite a bit as I counsel and just talk with different people, they'll share with me about how they're hurting. They're walking through a major crisis or something's going on. And often I'll just ask, "Well, tell me about your faith. Have you ever come to a place where you've put your faith in Jesus Christ?" And often I'll hear a statement like this, "Well, pastor, I tried Christianity, but it didn't work for me." And in those moments, I get really, honestly, I get frustrated. Because when someone says that, what that means is either someone taught them an incorrect understanding of the Gospel or they have interpreted an incorrect Gospel. Because you see, when we talk about Christianity, it's not just getting some behaviors right. It's not just earning a new to-do list. When we talk about Christianity, according to the Bible, we are talking about a life-altering relationship with Jesus Christ, not religion, not do's and don'ts, not a set of rules. It's a relationship in which you and I, by faith, get to walk with the God of heaven. Jesus is not looking to improve us. Jesus is looking to invade us and to press His life out through us as you and I embrace the Gospel. I want to put a number up on the screen, and the number is 1,918. That's roughly the amount of people who we're going to be in one of our services today. Did you know this information was just released? There is a country in the Middle East, a country that we actually train some of the pastors who've escaped from this country because in this country it's illegal to be a Christian. This is the number of believers who right now are in prison in this specific Middle Eastern country and they're being tortured and required to do forced labor because they profess a relationship with God. Now, why would they do that? Why would they experience prison and torture and all of these awful things? Well, it's not because they had a behavioral change called religion. No, it's because they had a meaningful encounter with Jesus and it radically changed their life. That's the only reason that that makes sense. That's the only reason that you would count prison worth it is if your life had been radically changed. Zaidi Greer said this, "Being able to articulate the Gospel with accuracy is one thing. Having its truth captivate your soul is quite another. My fear is that there are people who attend our services every weekend and you can get your head around. The facts about the Gospel, but here's my question tonight, have you had a life altering encounter with the living Son of God that has changed your life? Because the Gospel of the Bible is a life-changing message." Here's a third and final statement that I hope really clarifies the Gospel. It's this. The Gospel is for the whole world. The Gospel was revealed through Christ. The Gospel is a life-changing message. And lastly, this Gospel, it's for the whole world. Verse 27, Paul says this, "To whom God wheeled to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles." Now we've already unpacked one of the reasons the Gospel going to the Gentiles was significant. It proved that God loved the whole world not just a specific group, but there's another side that makes this extremely significant. If you and I in the first century were to look at the whole globe and decide who is the least likely person for God to choose to be a messenger to take the Gospel to the Gentiles, there's one name that would rise to the surface very, very quickly. The most unlikely person to be a messenger of the Gospel to the Gentiles and to the rest of the world was absolutely the Apostle Paul. He was a Pharisee. He persecuted Christians. He was a Jew of Jews. He was a Hebrew of Hebrews. He was the least likely person for God to use, but he came to Christ. And God said, "Paul, here's your mission. Take my message to people who've never heard about it before." That was Paul. Now, I know what you think when you hear a story like that, Travis, that's Paul. Well, at that point in his ministry, he wasn't the Apostle Paul like we know him now. He was a new believer who'd been converted from dark, dark religion into a relationship with Jesus. I think there's a myth that floats around in Christian circles in which we elevate some people in the Christian faith and think others can't make a difference. Here's the myth that we believe oftentimes. We believe this. God does incredible things through incredible people because they are incredible people. Sometimes we think that. We sit in our seats every week and think, "I can come to church and I can be a part of this, but could God really use me?" We believe this myth, but here's the truth that I hope any time you think your life cannot make a difference. You will pray this truth and ask God to make it real in your heart. Here's the reality. God does incredible things through very ordinary people because they're available. Remember the night at my home church in Cleveland, Tennessee that I walked forward during the invitation at the end of the service and I told my pastor, "I think God is calling me into vocational ministry." I believe he's placed a call on my life and he's affirmed it through the Scriptures. He's affirmed it through his spirit. He's affirmed it through the counsel in my life and I'm ready to tell my church family that God's calling me to be a pastor. I didn't have all the answers at that point, but I knew God was calling me and after the service, people were coming by and shaking my hand and hugging me and saying, "Hey, Travis, we're really proud of you. We're going to be praying for you." Then one of the associate pastors came and he put his arm around me and he said something and I've never forgotten it and I want you to hear it tonight. He said this. He said, "Travis, your ability is not nearly as important as your availability." That was extremely freeing for me. It was freeing for me to realize that even though I don't really bring a whole lot to the table, that wasn't what God was looking for. He was looking for me just to be available and through that to use me in his work and his activity. Let me ask you something. When's the last time you just confessed either out loud or in your heart before God? God, I'm available. If you want to use me in Las Vegas, if you want to use me in another part of the country or another part of the world, Lord, I just want you to know that I'm available. You see, the apostle Paul wasn't incredible. He was just available and he understood what we must understand and that is it isn't what we are. It's what Jesus is. It isn't what we can do. It's what he can do through us and it isn't what we want. It's what he wants. After the apostle Paul had embraced the gospel, he understood this mystery that God loves the whole world and wants to redeem the whole world through relationship with Jesus. Guess what? He could not be the same anymore. He could not have this life altering encounter with Jesus and just go back to business as usual. Something changed in him. The same message that had radically changed his life, he was compelled to go and to share with people who'd never heard it before. And in that life as a principle, I want all of us to recognize tonight. Here's the principle. A true understanding of the gospel produces a passion for the mission. When you and I really get our heads around and our hearts around this radical mystery of the gospel, guess what it creates in us? A passion for the mission. A passion that the same gospel that changed us, we can now go and reveal to a lost and dying world. So here's what that means. That means that every weekend when we stand before you, our goal is not to guilt you into serving or giving or going or praying. That's not what we're going for. Here's what we want to see happen. We want to see our church understand the gospel. Here's why, because a true understanding of the gospel naturally creates a passion for the mission. That's the truth. Last weekend when we shared with you about us adopting the wadi people, the unreached people group in the Arabian Peninsula, we got numerous responses last weekend. Some people would come up and they would give me a high five and say, "Pastor, that is unbelievable news. You tell me what I need to do and you consider it done." That was some of the response we got last weekend. But there were other people and here was their response. "Pastor, that's great. Let me know how that goes." What an ugly, what an rude, but it was very lackadaisical. Let me ask you something. What's the difference in those two responses? What makes the difference from someone being so excited about taking the gospel to an unreached people group and another person saying, "You know what? Let me know." Here's what makes the difference. An understanding of the gospel. Understanding that God loves the world and I want to challenge you, it's easy to come in a room like this and agree that the gospel was revealed through Jesus and that the gospel is a life-changing gospel and that the gospel's for the whole world. It's easy to be in a room like this and agree with it but walk out of here and live a life that does not reflect it. If we really believe that the gospel changes lives and that the gospel is for the whole world, we will reorder our lives in order to make the gospel a priority. I wrote this in my notes. The love and mercy of God are not the property of any one people or any one nation. The gospel's not just for America. We don't own it. We've been entrusted with it but we've been entrusted with it that we might go and share it with the world. So here's a personal challenge for you and then we're going to move to a time of response. I want to challenge you tonight to take an honest look at your heart and ask the question. Am I simply talking about the gospel and its power? Or am I letting it be reflected by the way that I live my life every day? What is the mystery of the gospel? It's that God desires all nations to be redeemed through a relationship with Jesus. And as we embrace that personally, our lives are changed. And as our lives are changed, we are compelled not to just hold on to it personally but to live it out and declare it to the people in the world who don't know that mystery. [BLANK_AUDIO]