Welcome to Providence. Great to have you guys with us this morning worshiping. As the kids are gathering in the back, we're going to continue our series in the book of Colossians, Christ in Us, the Hope of Glory. We are starting in chapter 2, so we've made our way all the way through the first chapter and we're now beginning the second chapter of this book. So if you want to turn with me there— if you're a guest and you don't have a Bible with you this morning, we'll actually have the text up on the screen so you can follow along there. But if you do have your own Bible, it's always best to hold that in your hands and read the word right in front of you. So I encourage you to do that. But turn with me now to Colossians 2 starting in verse 1.
Hear God's holy and authoritative word. 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, 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— Christ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. 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 Jesus.
God's Holy Word, may He write its truth upon our hearts. Would you bow your heads with me? Lord, we consider it the highest privilege to gather as Your people under the teaching of Your Word. Lord, it is a high privilege because you promise us that in the preaching of your word, you address your people, not because of the skill of the preacher, because of the cleverness of illustrations, but because you have revealed yourself in the scriptures. Because in those scriptures, you address our hearts. You stir up longings for holy things. You help us to see ourselves clearly, that we can put to death those things that are contrary to your word. Lord, you instill in us a desire for home. And so, Lord, we ask that you do all of that right now as your word is preached. Let your Spirit be present, active, and working in our midst. In the name of Jesus, amen.
Well, I want to start with a question this morning. And it's pretty simple. It's just the question: Have you ever struggled for something? Now when you say struggled for something, you kind of think of a difficulty. That's not the way I think of struggling right now. Have you ever set a goal in mind and struggled and toiled and worked incredibly hard and diligently over a long period of time towards that goal. Some people think in their lives of times when they've struggled towards a degree, right? They work themselves through a course of study because they have a career in mind at the end of it. Maybe some of the guys in the room can relate to a struggle in remodeling, right? You maybe buy a house and it's a fixer-upper and you get in that house and you know there's going to be all this work you have to do and so there's this long plan laid out in front of you and there's toiling and striving and long efforts that take seemingly days and weeks and months. You struggle towards the end of having that house put together and ready the way you envisioned it in your mind.
I can think of a few years back, Hannah, my wife, deciding she was going to run a marathon. And so there was this whole training schedule whereby she had to struggle every week towards this goal of running the marathon. And the toil got more difficult and more difficult and more difficult as it got closer and closer to the race. Her Saturdays were consumed with 12-mile runs and 14-mile runs and 16-mile runs, all the way up to a 20-mile run in preparation to run the full 26 miles. That's actually related to the word struggle in our text. That word struggle can actually refer to a competition that requires the full expenditure of your energy. It's a struggle. It's a race. That when you get done, you're completely depleted.
All those struggles though are sort of struggles on our own behalf, right? Working towards a degree, working towards completing a marathon. Have you ever struggled completely on behalf of someone else? Ever known someone to do that? I think of, you know, Maybe William Wilberforce, right? That man in Great Britain centuries ago who struggled and toiled for decades to end the slave trade. The one that came to mind as I was preparing the sermon this morning was Adoniram Judson. That first North American missionary. He went out to Burma and he labored there. He struggled for 38 years. In his struggle to bring the Gospel to the Burmese people, he translated the Bible into the language of Burmese. He actually had 7 of his 13 children die while he was in the field. 2 of his wives died. His first 3 children all died before they reached the age of 2. He was imprisoned for preaching the gospel. It took him 8 years before he saw his first convert. Adoniram Judson is the definition of struggle. He's the definition and an example of struggling on behalf of someone else. Because it's easy, right, to struggle for a degree that's going to benefit you. It's easy to struggle for the marathon when you're going to finish it and they're going to place the medallion around your neck and you get to put the little 26.2 bumper sticker on your van and kind of show off to everyone in the supermarket parking lot. Marathoner, right? I kind of want to get one for our van just so when I drive to the supermarket, people think I ran a marathon. Until I get out of the car, that is. Adoniram Judson is an example of a selfless struggle though. And that's what we're seeing this morning when we're reading this letter to the Colossians. Here is Paul saying last week that he was toiling on their behalf. Now he says he's struggling for the Colossians. Not just the Colossians, but the Christians in Laodicea, all the Christians in the Lycus Valley and these surrounding towns around Colossae. What's inspiring is that he acknowledges His struggle is on behalf of people, he says in this text, that he's never met. He says, 'I long to see you face to face. I've never even met some of you and yet I struggle for you.' All while he's imprisoned in Rome. That's where he writes this letter from. So how does Paul struggle? It doesn't actually say in our text this morning explicitly what that struggle looks like. One of the things I was researching in this sermon is just kind of that wondering, what does he mean when he says he struggles for them? Well, every single commentator that I read agrees that the way he struggles, the way he toils, the way he agonizes— this word actually is where we get our word agonize from, agony— the way he agonizes for them is for their growth in the gospel as he prays for them. Look at Colossians 4:12. We'll see the context more clearly. He says this of his coworker, Epaphras, Epaphras, who's the one who planted the church in Colossae, who is one of you, he says, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you. And here's what he says about Epaphras. He is always struggling on your behalf in his prayers that you might stand mature, fully assured in all the will of God.
6 · Defines intercessory prayer as agonizing labor before God for the spiritual well-being and maturity of others, embodied by Paul and his ministry team
It's a powerful image, isn't it? Paul and Epaphras, his entire ministry team, we'll see in chapter 4, absent from the Colossians in body, yet wrestling, struggling, toiling for their good before the Lord. Literally agonizing over their spiritual well-being. Crying out to God again and again for the sake of their maturity. It's really the very definition of intercessory prayer. It's what intercession looks like—scarring your knees for the sake of God's people.
7 · Applies Paul's example by calling the congregation to examine their own intercessory prayer lives, offering concrete instruction on how to respond to prayer requests from the church community
And it's meant, I think, to inspire our prayers. There's a lot of truth we're going to try and cover in today's text, but we would be remiss if we didn't pause to acknowledge there's a noble calling jumping out to us subtly in those opening verses. It's the calling to intercede for one another, to pray, to agonize, to struggle, to grapple before the Lord in prayer for each other. It's what the church does. It prays. Prays that the Gospel would advance. Prays that people would be strengthened. Prays for people close at hand here in this local context, in your care groups. Praise with big, great vision like Paul for people you've never seen face to face. Praise for the Wilsons in China. Like Paul, we should pray for brothers and sisters consistently. It's a call that Paul gives us through his example. And I think it's an exhortation subtly in the text to examine our lives. Ask yourself, do I agonize? Do I struggle in prayer for my fellow believers? Is there a restless toiling before God for the sake of the church? When you get the email from the church saying they need prayer, when someone in care group shares and says, I need prayer for this, How consistently do you take that prayer request, write it down so you don't forget it, and go home and put it in front of you, slip it in your Bible so that you can regularly remember to struggle for them in prayer?
8 · Steps outside the exposition to acknowledge personal conviction and identify with the congregation's struggle to live up to Paul's example, establishing pastoral empathy
Now, this isn't a guilt-laden pleading here. I'm sitting with you under the conviction of God's word. As I was preparing this, I took a step back and examined my own life. And while I pray for this church, I felt the conviction, I don't know that I can say I struggle in the way Paul describes it here. But I want to pray like Paul. I recognize the gap between what he describes and my own life and I want to narrow it.
9 · Illustrates the selflessness of Paul's intercessory labor by describing the difficulty of his circumstances in a Roman prison and the overwhelming pastoral burden he carried, yet he still prioritized prayer for churches he did not plant
And then you think of Paul. You think of his context, right? They're sitting in a Roman prison. It's not like Leavenworth. There's not all these regulations and rules for how to ethically and humanely treat prisoners. This is a Roman prison. Of all the times to have an excuse to be just myopically, totally self-centered and introspective, it's probably when you're sitting in prison suffering for the sake of the Gospel, right? Of all the times to feel like, you know what? It's time for a little me time. It's time for my prayers to be a little more self-centered. I'm going to struggle with God on my behalf right now. It's when you're sitting in jail. We could excuse Paul. And yet here he is toiling, agonizing, beating back his own flesh when it says cynically, those prayers will do no good. Fighting with his own weakness when he's tired or faint or hungry to still get down and pray. Struggling with his schedule. How often did Paul— this is Paul, right? He describes in one letter he's got responsibility for all the churches. He feels a burden for all the churches. How much does he feel like there's just too much to do? I've got to write a letter to this church. There's heresy I hear about cropping up in this church. There's a pastoral concern in that church. I've got to manage my coworkers. I've got to send out some of these coworkers over here. There's just list upon list upon thing after thing. All of these churches. These churches Paul planted. And then here's Colossae, this church he didn't even plant. So easy for it to slip off the list. And yet he finds time to toil for them before the Lord.
10 · Issues a brief charge to the congregation to follow Paul's example by becoming a church that struggles in intercessory prayer for the maturity and praise of Christ
It's an awesome example for us as a church. I want us to toil. I want to toil. I want us to be a church that struggles and agonizes in prayer. So let us pray like Paul did, that the church of Christ would be mature in Christ for the praise of Christ.
11 · Transitions from application about intercessory prayer to exposition of the specific content of Paul's intercession
Now having said that, what's the goal of Paul's intercession? What is he praying for that the Colossians would receive? Why is he toiling?
12 · Expounds the first goal of Paul's prayer: that the Colossians would be encouraged (fortified, strengthened) in the face of false teaching, a word that means more than emotional comfort
Well, first we see this morning Paul prays that the Colossians, the Laodiceans, everyone, all these Christians in the Lycus Valley, that they would be encouraged and entwined. A little alliteration there for you this morning. That they would be encouraged and entwined. Look again at v. 1. 'For I want you to know,' Paul says, 'how great a struggle I have for you.' V. 2, 'that your hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love.' Now, I went back and forth on this whether to make it one point or two points. The Greek is complex. Different translations sort of break it down differently. But in the end, I think these two ideas are really closely related. I think that's why Paul discusses them in the way he does. So we're going to make it one point. Paul agonizes in prayer for the Colossians for this purpose. First of all, that they would be encouraged and entwined. Now when he talks about encouragement, it's not like the cheerleader rah-rah sort of encouragement. It's a strong word. It means more than even just comfort. And that's not to downplay comfort. Like we all know times when we need comfort. The wonder of experiencing the God of all comfort. But what Paul's talking about here is something stronger. To be encouraged the way Paul's talking about is to be fortified. It's to be strengthened. And especially in light of the false teaching that's creeping into the Colossian church, that's starting in the community, he's praying that they would be rooted. It's encouragement that they would remain steadfast in the truth of the Gospel.
13 · Expounds the second goal of Paul's prayer: that the Colossians would be knit together in love, using organic imagery of ligaments and sinew to describe a spiritually and relationally interwoven community that can stand firm against external and internal pressures
And this encouragement happens, Paul says, as they are entwined together as a community. Paul knows how difficult it can be to battle against deception. It's hard enough when the culture around you is assaulting you with false worldviews, when it's putting pressure against you in the marketplace to turn aside from the faith, when family members who don't understand the faith that you've come to for these Colossian believers are trying to pull you back into your former beliefs, right? But it's even more difficult when there's pressures from within the community. It's doubly difficult. So to be encouraged, to be strengthened in heart, is to stand firm in all these kinds of circumstances. And Paul says it requires that our hearts be knit together. I love the way the ESV puts it. I want you to be encouraged. I want your hearts to be knit together, to be tethered. That's Paul's vision, that it would be a community tethered together, interwoven relationally and spiritually, so they can stand firm in the storms of life. It's a vision of unity and love. The NIV says Paul prays specifically they would be united in love. It's a compelling image. Now, later in Colossians, he refers with the same language to this in 3:14. And above all these, he says, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. You hear the language again, right? The language of love and being bound together in harmony. The image of the two passages is really organic. It's the imagery of ligaments and sinew, of bone and muscle being connected and then working in harmony. It's of a healthy body. The imagery of Psalm 139, right? 139, 'I knit you together.' That's what Paul's envisioning. Christ has knit you together.
14 · Clarifies that love is not a pragmatic tool to achieve unity, but the very atmosphere in which unity naturally flourishes—when love is the ethos of the community, unity is inevitable
But it's not the idea of love as a means by which unity is achieved. Love as a means to an end. It's the idea of a community of brotherly love where love is just the ethos. It's the sphere in which unity happens. You see the difference? Love isn't a means to an end. We don't love in order to get something. It's something Paul prays would be hardwired into the DNA of the Colossian community. He prays this because he knows if love is there, if love is their heartbeat, if love is the ethos of who they are, unity is going to naturally flourish in that environment. Unity is going to naturally come from— you don't have to try and stir it up. If there's really love there, unity will happen. So to go back to the vocabulary Paul uses, if love exists, they will naturally be knit together. Their hearts will be intertwined. Which will ensure they are encouraged, steadfast in the faith. It's a prayer, as one translation puts it, that they'd be knit together by strong ties of love.
15 · Explains Paul's use of the word 'heart' as referring to the core of a person's will, intellect, and affections, not merely emotions, and ties this to the vision of individual fortification leading to communal health
And remember what Paul means by heart. He uses the word heart differently than we would, right? You listen to a pop song, a romantic ballad talking about the heart today, They're talking about emotional stuff. Well, in Paul's day, in Paul's vocabulary, the heart is the core of a person. It's the core of your will and your intellect and your affections. It's the core of your inner being. When he speaks of being encouraged from the heart, he's imagining the Colossians being fortified from their innermost person. Now think of that encouragement. In light of the immediate context. Their individual hearts are being fortified, and those individual hearts are being interwoven and knit together into the fabric of the community. It's a picture of love and unity and health and steadfastness. It's Paul's prayer that they would be a community of maturity.
16 · Signals a structural shift to the next link in Paul's chain of intercession, moving from encouragement and unity to the full assurance of understanding
But that's just the tip of the iceberg. Paul has a chain of things he's interceding for them to lay hold of. His goal isn't just encouragement. It's not just for loving unity. It's that these fruits would produce something even beyond that. You could really look at it as it's like this prayer is going on. There's like this chain of intercession going on. He's building the prayer list. He's building up what he's envisioning he's praying for. So he's praying they would be encouraged. He's praying that they would be intertwined, right? He's praying there would be unity and love. Second, Paul prays that there would be the full assurance of understanding.
17 · Introduces the second major goal of Paul's intercession—that they would reach the riches of full assurance of understanding—acknowledging the reality of doubt in the Christian life
Colossians 2 says, '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. Now, this probably isn't something most of us are quick to admit to, but we can all experience moments and sometimes prolonged periods of doubt in our Christian faith, right? Times when we just struggle and grapple with a doctrine. Maybe struggling with the assurance of your salvation. Maybe even struggling with: is God real?
18 · Illustrates the reality of doubt using Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, describing the memorable scene where Christian and Hopeful are imprisoned in Doubting Castle and tortured by the giant Despair, a scene that resonates because believers experience similar spiritual assaults
There's a reason I think one of the most memorable scenes in Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress is the scene where Christian and Hopeful— remember they're on the King's Highway? So they're on the King's Highway, they're going to the Celestial City, and they go, there's another path that looks easier, and so they take the other path and they go off the King's Highway. And to kind of cut to the chase, they end up imprisoned in Doubting Castle. Now, it's an allegory, right? So everything is filled with double meaning. Obviously, the main character's name is Christian because he's a Christian. His companion is Hopeful because he's hopeful, right? Doubting Castle is Doubting Castle because it's this place where Christian and Hopeful end up and they are just filled and beset with doubts. It's a fortress that's owned and ruled by a giant named Despair. And his wife is named Timidity and Fear. Now, in the course of the allegory, Christian and Hopeful end up imprisoned in the dungeon, in the dungeon of Doubting Castle, and they begin to be tortured by the giant Despair. He beats them. He verbally assaults them. At one point, he even says, your best option now is just to kill yourselves. He thinks he's beaten them to such a point the giant Despair does, that he essentially tells them, 'I'm going back upstairs. When I come down in the morning, I expect to see you dead.' And the way Bunyan describes it is it's not like this robust, 'Onward!' Christian. It's not like Christian and Hopeful are in the, 'Oh, we can do it!' No, he describes them as just pitiful. Literally at the brink. The doubts are real. The despair is aching. They are clinging to their faith. It's memorable because we can relate to periods where we've been locked in dungeons of Doubting Castle.
19 · Expounds the promise of full assurance, clarifying that it is not exhaustive knowledge or immunity from all doubt, but a sufficient degree of certainty about foundational truths that sustains hope despite Satan's attacks
But Colossians 2 is a very helpful word in these circumstances. It's not a promise that there will never be doubts or uncertainties in the Christian life. In fact, that's exactly what Satan labors to do, right? He schemes. He sends out flaming darts to pierce us, to cause doubt, to induce despair, to bring along the cloud of depression that just won't seem to leave. But Paul prays confidently. That God can and God will provide a powerful counter. He prays that the Colossians, that we would know the riches of full assurance of understanding. Now that's a mouthful. And every translation I went to translated it differently trying to grapple with the way Paul is stringing together the vocabulary. But it gives us a pretty textured image. Full assurance is not this idea that you're going to have exhaustive knowledge. It's not that you're never going to have a moment of questioning. It's not that you're never going to have a moment of vulnerability to Satan's attack. But it is a promise that full assurance is available. That there's a degree of certainty about the foundational truths of the faith that will sustain us, that will ground our hope until Christ returns. It's in part recognizing none of us infinitely knows all there is to know about an infinite God. We're finite creatures. There's only so much we know. There's only so much of this book that we're able to understand and then appropriate to our lives. And because of that, We're susceptible to doubt. But Paul gives us the promise that there's the possibility of full assurance.
20 · Clarifies that full assurance is not a mystical or emotional state, but is grounded in understanding and knowledge—assurance comes from being rooted in truth, not transcendental experience
However, notice how assurance is described. It's not a mystical thing. He references right after, right, the mystery of knowledge. Paul's assurance isn't mystical. Instead, it's made up of understanding. Of knowing something. You could loosely translate the verse as saying the full assurance that comes from understanding, or the complete understanding that comes from knowledge. So Paul's saying here, so it's not some Eastern mystical transcendental state that induces full assurance. Full assurance doesn't come when you have all the incense burning and all the lights are turned low. The confidence comes, Paul shows us, from being rooted in truth.
21 · Returns to the Pilgrim's Progress illustration to show how Christian escapes Doubting Castle using the key of Promise, demonstrating that assurance comes from remembering and trusting God's promises stored in the heart
And it's the very thing Bunyan describes in his account of Christian's escape from Doubting Castle. Do you remember how the scene concludes? They're sitting there in Doubting Castle, they're about to die, and they begin praying. There's this sort of picture of Paul and Silas, right? In the Philippian jail. Bunyan says, and it was as they were praying that Christian, amazed at his forgetfulness, suddenly blurted out, what a fool I am! Here I am lying in this stinking dungeon when I could be walking around freely. I have a key in my bosom, in a pocket at his chest, called Promise, that will, I believe, open any lock in Doubting Castle. In the allegory, what he's saying is, 'I've always had in possession all the promises of God.' In a key in his heart, the promises of God's Word stored up in his heart. So he doesn't have to cave in to be captive to despair. When Christian trusted in God and His promises, when he turned his mind to God's truth, his despair and his doubts are alleviated. That, I think, is what Paul's point is here. Assurance, full assurance is the product of knowledge. The deeper our knowledge of God's promises, the more we keep those promises close to our hearts, the more tangible our full assurance of salvation. So then, we defeat doubt by immersing ourselves in God's Word, by asking God to sow in our hearts the riches of full assurance that come through the Spirit's illuminating work.
22 · Signals the climax of Paul's chain of intercession, transitioning from full assurance to the ultimate treasure that assurance reveals: the personal knowledge of Christ Jesus
That's not the end of Paul's chain of intercession. He wants them to have full assurance. The full assurance of understanding and the mystery of knowledge. But then he goes on finally to describe exactly what that is. The climax of his intercession is this: The riches of full assurance is not raw knowledge, But it's the treasure of personally knowing Christ Jesus. Paul prays that they would treasure Christ.
23 · Expounds the climax of Paul's intercession: the knowledge of God's mystery is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, clarifying that the true riches are not material but relational—knowing Christ and partaking of His glory
He says he wants them to reach the full assurance of understanding the knowledge of God's mystery which is Christ. And then he says this: Christ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. Now the language of riches is something that Paul loves to use. Riches that we receive from God. But it's not prosperity gospel garbage. The treasure isn't going to be a new Beamer with a big bow— I guess that would be a Lexus— sitting in your driveway. That's not the treasure. The treasure is not a thick bank account. Ephesians 1:7, Paul calls it the riches of God's grace. In Romans 2:4, he says the riches of His God's kindness. In Romans 9:23, he says the riches of God's glory. And all those gain clarity here in Colossians. God's grace and His kindness and His glory, it's a vast treasure because it brings us into being partakers of that glory. Namely, Colossians shows us it's a treasure because it brings us near to Christ. As we saw last week, it's Christ in us, the hope of glory. It's God bringing us in, throwing open the treasure vault to us, and giving us what is most valuable. God's good pleasure is to give us Himself, Christ Jesus, and all His grace and kindness so that we can enjoy the limitless prize of God for all eternity.
24 · Clarifies the meaning of 'hidden' treasures in Christ—not concealed but deposited—and explains the false teaching in Colossae that claimed Jesus was insufficient, a threat in a pluralistic culture similar to our own
When Paul says the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ, he's not saying it's concealed from view. He's not saying he went out in the backyard and buried Christ in the ground and you've got to go around and find Him and dig Him up. That's not the imagery. It's him saying it's been deposited. The treasure's been stored up in Christ. Now there's all this false teaching going around Colossae that they need more than Christ. That sure, Jesus has some good things to say. Christianity's got some things that make sense. But there's more truth out there they need to appropriate. If they really want to have assurance after they die, they've got to check off more spiritual boxes than just Jesus. Jesus isn't quite enough. And it's a real understandable threat in a pluralistic culture like ancient Rome. Pluralistic cultures are— you go into the city of Colossae and it's not just going to be one church, right, of one religion. There's going to be multiple temples to multiple gods, all sorts of worldviews and traditions. In a lot of ways, ancient Rome is a lot like our own culture. And in Colossae, people are chipping away at the church's confidence, chipping away at their assurance that Christianity, that Paul's gospel, has the exclusive corner on truth. Paul combats this by pointing out that complete understanding That full assurance is a treasure tapped into only and exclusively through the knowledge of Christ.
25 · Distinguishes between factual doctrinal knowledge and the deeply personal knowledge of Christ Paul has in mind, and explains the relationship between knowledge (knowing true things) and wisdom (living rightly in light of those truths)
And it's not a factual knowledge. It's not a strictly doctrinal knowledge. It's a deeply personal knowledge. It's about the preeminent God-Man, Jesus, described in Colossians 1. It's about knowing Him and experiencing Him, discovering that He is the only place where the treasures of wisdom and knowledge reside. That's what the phrase is hitting on for us. Now, in Scripture, knowledge often refers to a set of facts and statements of truth, to know true things, to know right things. That's what knowledge is. Wisdom is living rightly in light of those truths. Wisdom is art and skill at putting facts and truth into action towards the right end. That's why Paul couples them here. It's not just enough that you know the right things. It's not just that you can give a credible profession of who Jesus is. It's not enough that you go to the right church on Sunday, right? It's not enough that you've got the right version of the Bible. Whatever you might think it might be, It's more than just raw knowledge and raw facts and raw truth. It's knowing all of that and then living in light of it. Living wisely.
26 · Expounds Paul's explicit concern in verse 4: the false teachers in Colossae offer plausible arguments, not obviously foolish ones, recognizing the real intellectual threat the church faces
Here's Paul's point. He makes his concern explicit in verse 4. 'I say this in order that no one may delude you.' That no one may delude you with plausible arguments. It's a recognition. We would be completely off the mark if we sat here and just pretended like, you know, in Colossae, all the other religions, like all the other teachers, they were just total dolts. They would kind of proffer these ideas and they would teach in the public square, but it was just, it was so bad. The points were horrible. They weren't good speakers. They were terrible at rhetoric. They weren't persuasive. They didn't have big followings. It was just so obvious that it wasn't true. That's not the case. Plausible arguments, Paul says.
27 · Applies Paul's warning about plausible arguments by addressing parents directly, urging them not to send their children into the world unprepared to encounter intelligent, compelling objections to Christianity
Parents, put it this way. You do your children no service if you send them out into the world with this idea that Christianity is obviously true and everything else is obviously false. That when you encounter falsehood out in the world, it's just gonna hit you in the face. That professor at college, he is stupid. It is obvious he is unintelligent. I don't know how he stumbled into that PhD from Harvard, but he is an idiot. No, the guy has a PhD from Harvard because he's probably a lot smarter than your kid is. No offense. Right? The people writing these best-selling books attacking Christianity, they're not fools. We don't do ourselves, we don't do our children any good if we try and paint the picture that they're just totally foolish and the arguments are really easy. In fact, the only way we can really do that is if we only paint straw man arguments of what they believe. You know what a straw man argument is? You set up sort of a false argument of what somebody believes so that it's easy to knock it over. It's not actually presenting that other person's claims as they would present them. Not actually interacting with those things. Because when you do that, you don't prepare anyone to actually go out into the world and then get punched in the nose and realize, oh wait, this atheistic professor is actually very intelligent. He's actually gregarious. He's actually kind. He's not this evil monster with horrible teeth and stinky breath who kind of glares at Christians. He's a compassionate guy. He volunteers at a soup kitchen too.
28 · Acknowledges the seductive power of plausible arguments while affirming that God knows the threat doubt poses, and that Paul writes to fortify the church in a pluralistic culture remarkably similar to our own
The arguments Paul says are plausible. They can tempt us to believe them. And yet Paul says in the very next verse, it's his prayerful expectation that he will one day see them standing firm in the faith. He knows how seductively the false teachers can sound. He's writing letters to churches all over the place that are getting sucked into this stuff. You write letters to the church in Corinth, cosmopolitan, educated Corinth. There's got to be some smart people in the church at Corinth. He knows. And yet he also knows that God knows. God knows how persuasive they sound. He knows the whisperings. Is Christ really the only source of salvation? Is the Bible really the only source of God's inspired revelation? Is all of the Bible really true? The questions can gnaw at us. They can chip away at our confidence. Which this passage recognizes can erode our assurance. Doubt can creep in. And so Paul writes this to a church in the midst of a pluralistic culture, knowing they're facing false teachers around them in the culture and even within their own church. If you had to pick out of the history of the world a culture most like ours, in terms of worldviews just thrown in and mixed up, it'd probably be ancient Greece and ancient Rome. Like, it's just this mixture of ideas and religions. There's always a gap you're bridging in the text, things you have to kind of explain to a modern audience. But there's some things that hit close to home. And this is one of those places in Paul's letters where it actually relates really closely to where we are. Paul knows. Paul's writing what he's writing because God knows.
29 · Issues a direct exhortation to rest assured in the sufficiency of Christ, declaring that no other treasure outside of Christ will satisfy and that Christ alone defines truth, righteousness, love, and justice
We need the full assurance, and so we need to be encouraged, solidified, fortified in the truth. And so God promises us through the inspired pen of Paul this morning. God says, Rest assured, there's no other treasure outside of Christ that will satisfy your soul. There's no other focal point of truth outside of the Word incarnate and its infallible testimony in the Word in Scripture. It's the Bible. Know in the core of your being that Jesus Christ defines what is true, that Christ defines what is right, that Christ defines what is love. That Christ Himself is just, that Christ is ultimate, that Jesus Christ was crucified, raised, and is now reigning, that that Christ is completely and entirely sufficient for all that you need. Rest assured that Jesus Christ is enough.
30 · Concludes with a lengthy devotional quotation from Horatius Bonar celebrating Christ as the sole resting place for the vexed soul, then synthesizes the sermon's argument: Paul's agonizing prayer is that the church would be encouraged, knit together, filled with full assurance, and above all, that they would treasure Christ as the satisfaction for which their souls were created
I conclude with this quote by Horatius Bonar. The one true goal, the one true goal or resting place where doubt and weariness, the strings of a pricking conscience and the longing of an unsatisfied soul would all be quieted, is Christ himself. Not the church, but Christ. Not doctrine, but Christ. Not forms, but Christ. Not ceremonies, but Christ. Christ, the God-Man giving His life for ours, sealing the everlasting covenant and making peace for us through the blood of His cross. Christ, the divine storehouse of all light and truth in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Christ, the infinite vessel filled with the Holy Spirit the Enlightener, the Teacher, the Comforter, so that all of His fullness we have received and grace upon grace. This, this alone is the vexed soul's refuge, its rock to build on, its home to abide in till the great tempter be bound and every conflict ended in victory. It's Paul's struggle, his toiling, agonizing prayer that we would be encouraged, that we would be knit together, tethered in love, that we would have the full assurance of understanding. And to have all of those things, it's his prayer, toil, and struggle that we would see and know and believe in and savor Jesus Christ as the great treasure God offers, the treasure your soul was created to find satisfaction in?
31 · Closes the sermon by inviting the congregation into a posture of prayer
Would you bow your heads?