Praying Pint

 

We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ.

–Colossians 1:28

How do we share Christ with a world in need of hope? Paul said in Colossians 1:28, “We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom.” The word “admonishing” in this verse means to warn people. Let’s face it: there are negative aspects to the gospel message. We’ve all sinned. We all deserve judgment. And hell awaits those who reject or neglect Jesus Christ. If we’re going to share the gospel message, we have to talk about those things. We have to warn people about what awaits them if they die without Christ. But we also get to share the hope that awaits everyone who trusts in Him.

Notice with whom we are to share this message: “We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ” (v. 28; emphasis mine). There’s a reason Paul repeated the phrase “every man.” Remember, the Colossians were being invaded by false religions, including Gnosticism. The Gnostics claimed to have a secret revelation about God that was available to only a few super-spiritual people. But Paul said no—true revelation from God is for every person.

You might say, “What about predestination? Doesn’t the Bible teach that God elects people for salvation?” Yes, that’s true. But it is also true that every individual has a responsibility to accept Christ as Savior. And you and I have a responsibility to share the gospel with every person.

Rowland Hill, a Calvinist pastor in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, believed strongly in the sovereignty of God. But he was criticized by his fellow Calvinists for not preaching only to those people whom God had predestined to be saved. Reverend Hill responded, “I don’t know them, or I would preach to them. Have the goodness to mark them with a bit of chalk, and then I’ll talk to them!” It’s our responsibility to preach the gospel to everyone.

What is the goal of sharing the gospel? Verse 28 says, “So that we may present every man complete in Christ.” Our goal is not just to save people from hell but also to help them learn to follow Christ in every part of their lives. Jesus did not commission us to go and make converts; He said, “Go . . . and make disciples” (Matthew 28:19). Our mission is to present every person complete in Christ.

 

Titus 2:14    who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.

For people who lived during the time of Jesus, the cross was not a cute piece of jewelry or a decoration to hang in their home. Rather, it was a barbaric instrument of torture and execution.

The cross was intended to not just bring agony and death, but to do so in such an obscene, traumatic, humiliating, and public fashion that everybody knew the punishment they would receive should they disobey Rome. No one, and I mean no one, wanted to end up on a cross.

As I consider the cross of Jesus Christ, I’m often tempted to ask: Why would Jesus submit to being rejected, beaten, ridiculed, and crucified on my behalf?

This question often leads me to Paul’s letter to Titus. In Titus 2:14, Paul writes of Jesus: “… who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.”

This short passage encompasses incredible truths about Christ’s great sacrifice on our behalf.

First, we see that Jesus died because of His deep love for us. He showed the depths of this love when He “… gave Himself for us” (2:14a). It wasn’t Pilate, the religious leaders, or even the Romans who ultimately took His life. No, Jesus voluntarily laid down His own life on our behalf. 1 John 3:16a says, “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us.”

Second, we see that Jesus died so that He could redeem us. Redemption means to buy back at a price. The term has been used in relation to the slave market, when a slave would be redeemed out of bondage and set free. And since we were slaves to sin and under sin’s control (see John 8:34, for instance), Jesus died in order to purchase our true and lasting freedom.

Why did He have to give His life? Because that was the price. Leviticus 17:11 states, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.” The only way for Christ to purchase us was to die for us and shed His own blood.

Finally, we see that Jesus died so that He could purify us. This means that we are in a process of being made holy and set apart for God as we draw ever closer to Him. He died so that we could be freed from the power of the bondage of sin. Now we are His!

Jesus went to the cross because of His deep love for us, in order that He may redeem and purify us for His good works. He took away our sins and placed them on Himself, and in return He gave us His righteousness and salvation. This is how we can be assured of eternity in heaven, not because of anything we’ve done, but because of what Jesus did for us.

At the cross, Jesus offered you the gift of eternal life. If you have not yet accepted that gift and surrendered to Him as your Savior, I encourage you to do that today.

 

 

 

This mystery . . . is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

–Colossians 1:27

As Christians, we have been charged with sharing the gospel, which is a message of hope—a message Paul described as a “mystery” (Colossians 1:26). In verse 27, Paul revealed this mystery: “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” I have to admit, this seems a little anticlimactic. This is the message we’re going to suffer for? Where’s the teaching about sin, salvation, the second coming, judgment, and heaven? Other passages in the Bible talk about those things, but the result of the gospel is this: Christ living in you is the hope of glory. That is the sum total of the gospel.

I want to focus on two words in this verse. First, the word “hope.” In the Bible, hope is not wishful thinking; it’s an assurance, a conviction, that something is going to happen. Second, the word “glory.” This is translated from the Greek word doxa, and it refers to the radiance, splendor, and everlastingness of God.

Here is our message: Jesus Christ living in you gives you the assurance that one day you will share in the splendor, radiance, and everlastingness of God.

To understand what a great message of hope that is, we need to contrast the everlastingness of God with the finiteness of man. No passage in the Bible does so better than Psalm 90, which was written by Moses. He began, “Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were born or You gave birth to the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God” (vv. 1–2). God is eternal. But Moses continued, “You turn man back into dust and say, ‘Return, O children of men’” (v. 3). Compared to the eternality of God, you and I are nothing but dust.

Some years ago, one of my relatives died and was cremated. As we scattered the ashes, I thought, Eighty-five years of happiness, sorrow, trials, hard work, relationships—and it’s all reduced to a bag of dust. That’s a sobering thought, isn’t it?

But here is the result of the gospel: if you know Christ as your Savior, then the same splendor, radiance, and everlasting quality of Almighty God is now part of your life as well. That’s the message we are to share. This life has meaning and purpose—and, more importantly, there is hope beyond the grave. Christ living in us is our assurance that we will share in God’s everlastingness.

 

 

 

Romans 14:1-23.

Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. ² One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. ³ The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. ⁴ Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.

⁵ One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. ⁶ Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. ⁷ For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone. ⁸ If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. ⁹ For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.

¹⁰ You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister^[a]? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. ¹¹ It is written:

¹² So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.

¹³ Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. ¹⁴ I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean. ¹⁵ If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died. ¹⁶ Therefore do not let what you know is good be spoken of as evil. ¹⁷ For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, ¹⁸ because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval.

¹⁹ Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. ²⁰ Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. ²¹ It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall.

²² So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. ²³ But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.^[c]

 

Therefore do not be like [the unbelievers]. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.
Matthew 6:8

You observe your child working diligently to put together a wooden puzzle—with growing frustration. But you don’t say anything. Finally, she turns to you and asks for help. You take the opportunity to remind her of your love for her and your willingness to help her with anything she might need. Then, together, you both complete her puzzle.

People often ask, “If God already knows what we need, why do we have to pray and ask Him?” First, Jesus revealed the truth about God’s knowledge of our needs to warn His followers about going on and on in prayer—thinking we have to impress God with our many words (Matthew 6:7). Instead, He gave them a short prayer to pray as an illustration (Matthew 6:9-13). As that prayer indicates, Jesus wants us to come to God as “Our Father”—like a child who asks her father for help. God knows our needs but wants to enjoy our relationship of trust in Him, trust that is built through the conversation we call prayer.

Right now, God knows your every need. He is waiting for you to come and talk to Him.

Pray as you can; God knows what you mean.

 

These were the families of the sons of Noah, according to their generations, in their nations; and from these the nations were divided on the earth after the flood. (Genesis 10:32)

Genesis 10 gathers together the names of the descendants of Noah, from whom came all the nations of the earth. It’s a remarkable chapter, and some scholars call it “The Table of Nations” – that’s “table” like a chart, not something you sit at. The great archaeologist William F. Albright often did not take the Bible literally, but of Genesis 10 he wrote: “The tenth chapter of Genesis…stands absolutely alone in ancient literature, without a remote parallel, even among the Greeks, where we find the closest approach to a distribution of peoples in genealogical framework.… The Table of Nations remains an astonishing accurate document.”

There is value in looking at each name and working to understand which people group came forth from that ancestor, but there is also value in simply drawing out three significant ideas from Genesis 1.

The Unity of the Human Race. Genesis 10 tells us that all humanity came from Noah and his family, and the book of Genesis also explains we have a common origin in Adam and Eve. As the apostle Paul explained to the philosophers on Mars Hill, God has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth (Acts 17:26). We truly are collectively of “one blood,” and while there are some differences between generations and races and ethnic groups, what they have in common is far greater than their differences. We are all made in the image of God.

The Generosity of God. Genesis 10 makes us consider just how wide all creation is, and how there are billions of people on the earth today, even more in the past, and should Jesus tarry, there will be many more in the future. Yet the love of God is broad enough to include all humanity. Remember that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son (John 3:16), and that in some way God shows His love to all humanity, and the blessings of sun and rain are just one example of this (Matthew 5:45). Since God is this generous with all humanity, we can rest with even greater confidence in His generous love to His people, those who trust in, rely on, and cling to the person and work of Jesus Christ.

The Reason for a Missionary Heart. God divided and spread-out humanity, but not for the purpose of taking people away from His good news and salvation in Jesus Christ, who is the Savior of the World (John 4:42). Rather, Jesus gave His disciples specific instructions before He ascended to heaven: go and make disciples of all the nations, teaching them to observe all that Jesus has commanded His disciples (Matthew 28:18-20). We must have the missionary heart to reach the world as Jesus commanded.

 

 

Of this church I was made a minister . . . 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.

–Colossians 1:25–26

Somebody has said that a person can live forty days without food, four days without water, and four minutes without air, but he can last only a few seconds without hope.

We all need hope. And when you boil down the gospel to its very essence, it is a message of hope—the hope that there’s meaning and purpose to this life and that something awaits us beyond the grave. You and I have been charged with sharing this message of hope with a hopeless world.

In Colossians 1, we read that every Christian has been called by God for ministry. The reason God left us here on this earth is not to build our kingdom but to build His kingdom. Our ministry is to share God’s message of hope. In verse 26, Paul described this message as “the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints.”

When we use the term mystery, we think about something eerie and spooky. But in the Bible, a mystery is a truth hidden in the heart of God that He chooses to reveal in His time. Deuteronomy 29:29 says, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God.” Some of those secret things, or mysteries, will not be revealed until we get to heaven. When somebody asks you, “Why does God do this?” or “Why did God allow that?” it is perfectly acceptable to say, “I don’t know. You’ll have to ask Him about it.” Some things are above our pay grade!