"THE HOPE WHICH IS LAID UP FOR YOU IN HEAVEN"
Pastor Carolyn Sissom \ February 2th, 2010 (6762 views)
"THE HOPE WHICH IS LAID UP FOR YOU IN HEAVEN"
Colossians 1:5
Preached by: Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Sunday, January 17, 2010
1 Col 1:4-6: “Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which you have to all the saints, for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel. Which is come to you as it is in all the world, and brings forth fruit, as it does also in you since the day you heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth.
The report from Epaphras was of the first hand knowledge on their faith, hope and love. This trilogy appears also in 1 Th. in the order of practical experience in 1 C. 13 in the order of spiritual value. Here faith in Christ Jesus, the heavenly relationship, and love to the saints, its earthly manifestation are dependent upon hope. Christ is the sphere in which this faith works rather than its object. Faith here derives its significance from our position “in Christ”. I understand the difference in Faith from being “in Christ”, and the Faith which is in the hope of some future day. I am blessed to walk in that realm and on that Faith journey. It is a conviction of who Christ is; that He is sovereign. All things that we encounter in this life can be a part of God’s plan to bring us to maturity. Thus stresses, suffering, and tribulation become the keys to a godly life. Any man, pleased that a trial is making him more like Jesus is advancing in maturity. It is a serious re-arrangement of the life that gears one to “suffering first, then the glory” which follows.
HOPE in this scripture does not imply uncertainty of feelings inside a person. This biblical hope has nothing to do with feelings. It is ‘laid up in heaven!” Biblical hope is the privilege of eternal fellowship with God. It is not to be confused with “treasure in heaven,” something which Christians must “lay up” for themselves (Mt. 6:20). While every Christian has the “hope” which is " laid up”, very few are busy “laying up” treasure.
I will use this intro to give thanks to all of you who have sent cards, flowers, gifts, visits, telephone calls, emails, and good will to our family as we made the journey this past week to lay to rest our husband, father, brother, uncle and friend, Don Sissom. Like Paul, I can say, “We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you…and the love which you have to all the saints.” Surely our family and church has experienced this outpouring of love spoken of by Paul. I can say that unequivocally I am a better person because of the Grace given me to care for my husband. Many of you have asked how I am doing. Thank you. I am “in Christ” in a special place of comfort and am comfortable. I thought the transition would be seamless as we have grieved for Don during his long illness. However, I find to my surprise that I feel much like someone decompressing after being under pressure. I didn’t know the pressure was there until I discover it is gone. I also miss Don. He was a very strong man. That strength and love covered me until the end.
As I bring this message of Faith, Hope and Love that comes from being “in Christ”, I am not speaking to you of a head knowledge, but of an experience. This message of hope came to the Colossians through a wonderful minister, faithful to Christ as well as faithful in representing the Colossians.
Who brought this message of hope to the Colossians? 1: 7-8: “You learned about this hope from Epaphras our dear fellow-servant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ. Who also declared to us your love in the Spirit. This brother along with Philemon, Archippus and Aristarchus was a Colossian. Likely a delegation of them had traveled to Ephesus during Paul’s three year stay there and was saved. The apostle is able to speak of their faithfulness and certify the teachings they brought when founding the churches at Colosse, Laodicea and Hierapolis. These cities, all within 12 miles of each other, are identified with those churches of the Revelation 1. Epaphras is thought to be the founder of all three. Paul never visited any of them personally.
Paul opened a school at Ephesus. People came from all over to visit the temple of Diane (a wonder of the world). These people were contacted and saved. Some went on to become students in Paul’s school. Upon graduating they returned to their cities with the Gospel. Colosse was 90 miles east of Ephesus. It was a hard field. The people were superstitious, weird religions abounded. Angels were worshipped, for it was believed that Michael had spared the city from a flood. Alexander the Great had earlier transported 2000 Jewish families from Mesopotamia. They brought with them a mixture of corrupted Judaism, full of holy days and traditions. Into this was stirred Theosophy, a strange teaching of reincarnation, which was supposed to provide entrance into the mysteries of the universe. Secret rites and mystical, yoga-type exercises were alleged to bring a superior knowledge of divine things. Those who had this “advanced knowledge” despised the simplicity of the gospel and thought to improve upon it by weaving in their own ideas. The result was an attack on the supremacy of Christ.
Their high-sounding words and impressive rituals had an effect on the true believers. False teachers arose and the faith of many in the church stood in danger of being diluted or destroyed. The false teachers claiming insight through their visions and exercises, taught that Jesus was a created being and not God incarnate. The true God was too holy, they said, to have contact with sinful man. As fore-runners of the Gnostics, they taught that a series of beings extended from God in a descending order of rank. Jesus since He made the actual contact with man, was the lowest of these beings. Thus His Deity was destroyed. His teachings were robbed of authority as the false teachers exalted their own notions over the Word of the Lord. I interject this into this teaching because I believe in a very subtle way this false teaching is trying to creep into the church of the 21st century. Many church leaders are setting themselves up as having the “upper hand” and in so doing throw their fellow-servants “under the bus”. When this type of ego manifests, you can be sure, it is not the Lord Jesus Christ, but men trying to usurp their own reputations over the sovereignty of the Lord Jesus.
Many Men of God have tried to throw me under the bus only to find themselves in the Lord’s woodshed. Let us use wisdom, love and walk circumspect with the Word of God giving all glory to Jesus Christ. Let us honor one another as Faithful ministers of Christ, not setting up a descending order of personalities and powers. Back to Colosse.--- Epaphras hastened to Rome. He wanted to consult with his old teacher, Paul, then in prison. But he ended up in prison himself. Fortunately he had left a key man in charge back at Ephesus, one Archippus, who was also probably one of Paul’s former students. So Paul wrote a letter. Tychicus was commissioned to return with the letter. Archippus, armed with this letter, could deliver the faithful at Colosse from the false teachings of the cultists.
The letter was written to show the absolute supremacy of Christ over everything and everyone. It argues that while the gospel came to people in simplicity, the Christ of the gospel is Himself, the Treasury of wisdom and eternal secrets. If men desire the real treasures of knowledge, they should seek them in Christ. Thus the wisdom of Paul is manifest as he meets even the cultists at the center of their own interest. It is possible that some of the false teachers at Colosse abandoned their human notions, seeking deeper and more exciting truth in Christ Himself. Usually Ephesians is represented as teaching the truth of the church as the “Body of Christ” whereas Colossians presents Him as the “head of the Church”.
I will ask you to see Him as more than Head of the church. He is the “Head of everything and everyone.” This book exalts Him above everything seen and unseen, both now and in the world to come. Our eye is to the greatness of the One to Whom we are joined. Jesus Christ and his power in our lives, not human philosophy or wisdom redeems us and saves us eternally. We do not need an intermediary and we must approach him directly.
Col. 1:9-10 “For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; That you might walk worthy of the Lord to all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God. Strengthened with all might according to His glorious power, to all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness. Giving thanks to the Father which has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. This inheritance is every promise and provision of the gospel for believers who are delivered from the power of satan. The Christian life is one of testing and trial, a program for bringing God’s sons to Glory. Christians can happily submit to this program when they see what it is doing for them. Cannot anyone endure almost anything, if he knows glorious days are ahead? Therefore as children of light, we are to understand the purposes behind our trials as well as draw on our supernatural resources for meeting them. Sadly, many who claim much light fail to live in the might of the Lord which is needed if trials are to be endured with joy. We have all witnessed pseudo Christianity which is all talk, but no walk. If we are living “in Christ”, we will not have to convince anyone of how spiritual we are. People will know it by the manifest presence of the Lord. God’s glory is manifest and revealed in many ways. It is His personality, i.e. mercy, generosity, faithfulness, faith, love, hope, patience, goodness, kindness, forgiveness, .. etc. This is the very nature we receive at salvation. Paul is asking Christians to live in the power of this new nature, and when we do, we then reveal Jesus Christ to the world around us.
We won’t need a P.R. man to promote the ministry entrusted to us. The strength of this new nature is the Holy Spirit who lives within us. Thus to sample the MIGHT of God’s Glory is to experience the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit as He helps us mature in the stresses of life. In any situation. The Christian can call on God’s Spirit and see the miracle of CHANGE. 13-14: “Who has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son; in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins.”
Our new nature is light.(Eph. 5:8). Thus we are instantly transferred from Satan’s domain (darkness) to become part of Christ’s kingdom (light). You see, little lights and big lights can exist together, but darkness cannot hold even the tiniest light. A ransom price is implied in the word redeemed. Satan thought that killing Jesus Christ would deprive us of our Savior and we would still be his. However, it was concealed from him that Jesus’ death was also the very means of our rescue. Jesus’ life of obedience was needed first in order to produce our righteous natures. Just as His death was needed to satisfy the wages of our sin. Since we receive both the “life” and the “death” of Christ, Paul argues that our salvation is the finished work of Jesus alone. No other agents could be involved as the false teachers were alleging. 15-17: “Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by Him, and for Him; And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.” Paul is heralding Jesus’ absolute supremacy with a mighty declaration of His Deity. He chose the Greek word, “icon”, for image, which means an exact reproduction. The heretics offered doctrinal schemes which saw a string of angelic lords extending between God and man. Paul declares that not only is Jesus higher than these spiritual lords, but He made them for His own purposes. Observe that the existence of such beings is not denied by Paul. Indeed a well ordered kingdom of powers does exit in the spirit-world, but none is mediator between God and man, for “there is only one Mediator”. (1 Tim. 2:5) Not only is Jesus the world’s maker, He is presently holding it together. It Is one thing to create a sun, quite another to see it maintains its daily orbit. Were Jesus to withdraw His power from the existing world, it would disappear. It is merely a manifestation of His power. This corresponds to Hebrews 1:3 where scientist should look for the real explanation of atomic power. “Who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had my Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.” 18-19: And He is the head of the body, the church; who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things He might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell; He is here declared the Life Giver and the Death Conqueror. This is a summit from which to view the glories of Christ. This verse climaxes Paul’s statements describing Jesus: (1) The exact image of God.
(2) Totally apart from anything created.
(3) Himself the Creator of all things.
(4) Eternally pre-existing.
(5) The Head of His church.
(6) The Conqueror of death
(7) The Supreme Personage of all realms. His nature is said to be the fullness of Deity, the sum-total of all that is God. 20-25: “And having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things to Himself; by Him, I say whether they be things in earth or things in heaven; and you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now has He reconciled. In the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight. If you continue in the faith grounded and settled and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which you have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I, Paul am a minister. Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of christ in my flesh for His body’s sake, which is the church. Whereof I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God. God brings us to holiness in two ways: (1) By giving us a new nature which we wear as a “robe of righteousness”, causing us to appear spotless in His sight. (instantaneous holiness)
(2) By the gradual development of our persons inside that robe as we learn to outlive this new nature. (progressive holiness)
There are four conditions to this place of being “in Christ”:
(1) Continue in the Faith.(2) Continue grounded in the Faith.
(3) Continue settled in the Faith
(4) Be not moved away from hope.
Therefore, this requires some maintenance on our part. Man’s job is to respond to Christ’s work with faith. A man must not only make sure that is faith is deposited in the right place, but also that it stays there. The past few days, I have felt like Jesus being tempted by satan. It is as if I am being offered all of the world before me and so many open doors welcoming me. However, I am grounded and settled and will not be moved away from the ministry entrusted to me by the Lord. Paul charged Archippus in 4:17: “Take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, that you fulfill it.” When Sandra and I last met with Kathie Walters, she spoke a word to Sandra that she was to keep all the “pirates” away from me. Well, we have seen plenty of pirates since September. Sandra is being faithful to her ministry and I am being faithful to mine. No other man can fulfill what you or I have been called to do. Each man must be faithful to his own calling. God, Who commissioned me to serve His church, also made me your minister in particular. It is my task to open to you the fullness of His Word. Col. 1:26-29: “Even the mystery which has been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to His saints; To whom God would make know what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory; Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus; Whereto I also labor, striving according to His working, which works in me mightily. Paul wanted disciples, not babes, so he challenged believers to grow up in Christ. Why? Maturity is needed if one is to enjoy God fully. We do not know what challenges lie before us. However, if we yield to the Lord and follow after Him, he will lead us through even the Valley of the Shadow of Death. The conditions that produce the death of the carnal soul are found on earth alone. To give, one must first be hurt. Long-suffering is a grace which comes after suffering a long time. There will be no suffering in Heaven. Rev. 21:4: And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away.”
Today when I prayed, I asked the Lord to speak to me about Don. While napping, I had a dream. I saw Don standing beside a river, he was singing:
“I heard an old, old story of how a Savior came from Glory.
How He gave His Life on CalvaryTo save a wretch like me
I heard about His groaning
Of His precious Blood atoning
Then I repented of my sinAnd won the Victory.
The hope that is laid up for us in Heaven is not only for the future, but a present reality for all that we may suffer on earth.
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries, Inc.We stream our messages weekly at www.eastgateministries.com
Bibliography: C. S. Lovett, Lovett’s Lights on Colossians, Personal Christianity, Baldwin Park, California. Conclusions and Comments are my own
