The First Letter of Peter- 2

Subtitle: The Joy of Our Salvation- part 1

1 Peter 1:5-7.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, November 23, 2025.

Last week, we walked through Peter’s introduction of the letter and, beginning in verse three, several verses that began to praise God for the salvation that He has made available to us.

Today, we will continue looking at this praising of God.

Let’s look at our passage.

Praise to God for His salvation

Verse four celebrated the inheritance “reserved in heaven for you.”  It is this “you” that verse five describes further.  You are those who are being protected by the power of God.

The preposition “by” can also be translated as “in.”  In this case, I think both are instructive.  We are not only protected by the power of God, but we are also protected in the power of God.  It is connected to Paul’s penchant to describe believers as being “in Christ.”  In Christ, we are surrounded by the power of God protecting us, like strong walls that none can break.

This is an important point because we can be discouraged by an inheritance reserved in the heavens, but no help to get there on earth. In our flesh, we can come to feel that way.  Peter is not pointing to “pie in the sky when you die.”  The same power of God that reserves it for us is also working in and around us to bring us to the day of inheriting.  God is always working in the heavens and on the earth.

This power is both external and internal because our threats are internal and external.  Thus, we can think about the way that the Holy Spirit takes up residence within us.  We can think about how the Holy Spirit fills us and empowers us to stand against the thoughts and desires of our flesh that are contrary to God’s will for us.  He protects us from those things that seek to invade our lives and separate us from Christ.  He protects us from those things that seek to disqualify us from our inheritance.

Yet, this protection is not in such a way where nothing touches us and tests us.  It is not a protection where we are unable to fall back into unbelief.  It is a protection guaranteeing that we will not be tested beyond our ability to belief God and persevere.  Our flesh may not like this kind of protection, but it is the problem not the solution.  The power of God is more than able to bring us through this world and all the tests and trials that we will face.  If we trust Him, we can know that no power on earth or in the heavens can keep us from this inheritance that He has for us and the completion of our salvation!

Peter then emphasizes that all of this is “through faith.”  We must persevere by trusting His good intentions for us.  We must also persevere by staying true to His commands and instructions to us, the Word.  Our enemy’s only successful line of attack is to weaken our faith in Christ and the Word of God.

Our flesh is quick to complain.  “God, you can’t expect me to go through this and trust You!”  However, one of the signatures of God is that He puts things in front of us that seem to be too big for us.  Yet, if we trust Him, He brings us through and makes us stronger.  A young man starting a family or a job may feel that it is too hard for him, but this is generally immaturity.  If he hangs in there and learns, he will find that he expands in ways that he didn’t know possible to do it.  The same is true of a young woman facing childbirth for the first time.  It is intimidating and fearful.  Yet, God made you for this.  Trust Him.

We often go through things that don’t feel like God is protecting us.  However, He is there working to protect your mind and heart.  He does this through the Word and by giving us insight when we pray.  He does this through the help of mature believers around us.  God is faithful even to ensure that the external attacks are not more than we can handle with Him.

He then speaks of a “salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”  The word for “time” here is not a word that focuses on chronology, numbers of days.  It is a word that can be translated as “seasons.”  Though there is chronology to seasons, the emphasis is on what happens in that time period, rather than on the time itself.  Of course, we are talking about spiritual seasons in this case.  What spiritual season are we in right now?  We are in a season of grace.  God is sending out emissaries to all the world, inviting them to join the Messiah and participate in His great salvation.

It is true that a person can speak of being saved in the present, and this is rightly done.  Our salvation can be contemplated in several ways.  First, we can speak of a person who has become a citizen of the Kingdom of God’s Son.  They are part of those who are saved in the sense that they are on the side of Messiah.  They have salvation and nothing or no one can take it away from them, as long as they continue with faith in Jesus.  Sometimes this is called legal salvation, or positional salvation.  You are in a saved state though you haven’t received it all.

Yet, we can also talk about salvation in a second sense.  Throughout this life, the Holy Spirit works within us in order to practically save us from the inroads of sin in our life.  By faith, we fight with the Holy Spirit against those things in our life that are contrary to Christ.  We also battle to replace those things with the character and righteousness of Christ.  Over time, we become more and more like Him.  This does not mean we become any more saved in a legal or positional sense.  No, we are always just as much today His child as we were when we first believed.  Yet, our life is more like Jesus.

At the Second Coming of Jesus, we will step into the fullness of this salvation as we receive our resurrected body, a heavenly, imperishable body.  All that went wrong with humanity in Genesis three will be overturned completely in the lives of those who are resurrected in Christ.  This past, present, and future sense of salvation is always true whether it is being referenced in the moment.

Peter is clearly looking ahead to that aspect of our salvation that is going to be revealed at the end of this season of grace.  He is looking ahead to the completion of our salvation of which we only have a foretaste now.  This fullness of salvation awaits us, is even now ready to be revealed.  The readiness is referring to the fact that nothing more in relation to salvation needs to happen.  It is ready for the moment that the Father sends the Son to take up the kingdoms of this world, which will occur at the closing of the Age of Grace.

Though Peter doesn’t specifically mention the Second Coming of Jesus in this verse, he foreshadows it with the mention of this salvation being revealed.  Verse seven, however, makes it explicit that this is what he is pointing us to look at.

This salvation from God should cause us to rejoice greatly as Peter mentions in verse six.  Of course, most people rejoice in their salvation on day one, but what about day 1,000? If we are not still rejoicing, then it is because we have our eyes on something other than Jesus and the salvation that he is giving to us and shall finish in us.

When a person realizes that their true inheritance is kept by God for them, it brings great joy even in the midst of hardship.  Our inheritance is not at the mercy of the things that we experience on this earth, at least not if we keep our trust in Jesus.  Peter knows that they were experiencing difficulties, just as we do.  The trials of this life are trifles in comparison to the reward ahead.  Whether circumstances, events, or people, we can trust that God is bringing us to Himself for the reward that He has reserved for us.

This is why Peter ties their rejoicing to the reality that they are facing trials and tests.  He uses the term “for a little while.”  The word doesn’t actually have time in it.  It simply is “for a little.”  The context is to supply what the little is here.  I think little time works because our reward is not only in the future, but it is an eternal reward.  This life is short in comparison.  However, it also could be a reference to the fact that the trials themselves are little in comparison to the joys ahead.

This earth can seem long when we are undergoing trials and difficulties.  Martyrdom in such cases may come as sweet release.  Still, these are hard things to face.  Often trials and difficulties are short-lived in comparison to our whole life.  How many things that were so big in your life twenty years ago no longer bother you or weigh down your mind?  Of course, this is not to minimize how these things feel.  Yes, they feel big and heavy.  Faith teaches us to see them in light of God’s eternal purpose for us, and it is good.

It is amazing how God takes our tests and trials and uses them to make something good in our life when we put our faith in Him.  Like Paul in prison writing a letter of rejoicing to the Philippians, we can become a strong bulwark of faith helping others because we have been tried and tested.

Peter uses the phrase “if necessary.”  This recognizes that not all people suffer trials at the same intensity and duration.  God even determines to relieve us of some trials that we may face if we will ask Him in prayer.  It is this unknown aspect of our trials that can be particularly testing.

Have you ever thought about how comfort itself tests us?  It cannot be referred to as suffering.  However, it begs the question of whether or not you will keep your eyes and faith upon Jesus and his salvation.

There are things that God has determined we must go through them.  Whether He actively causes them or simply allows them to be (permits them) because of the choices of others, we can know that He has a good purpose in so doing.  On top of this good purpose, His Spirit within you is working to give you all that you need to be preserved through the test and to pass it with flying colors.

I have been referring to these things as trials and tests.  It is actually one word in the passage.  This word can be translated several ways depending on the context.  What makes the difference is the intention of the one doing it.  When the devil tests us, he is attempting to disqualify us, to make us fail.  Thus, it would more appropriately be called a temptation.  Yet, God does not tempt anyone.  He does not allow these things to disqualify us.  Rather, He ensures that we who are already qualified will be strengthened and made stronger, refined and made purer through them.  Thus, we would not use the word temptation but rather test or trial.  Do you not know that the devil cannot take you out of the hands of Jesus?  Do you not know that the devil’s pounding upon you is being used by the Lord to make you more like Him?  Even now, the Lord Jesus is interceding on your behalf.  Will not the Father answer His prayer?  May the Lord strengthen our faith as we go through times in which we are tested.

In verse seven, Peter uses a phrase of our faith, “the proof of your faith.”  Some versions say proving or simply interpret it as genuine.  What he is talking about is the testing process by which something is determined to be genuine.  The process is a proving or testing of our faith.  Yet, when the process is done, the process itself becomes the proof of our faith.  Regardless of how it is translated, Peter is looking ahead to the day in which we are no longer being tested.  Our faith will have been proven, and our life on this earth will be the evidence of our faith.  Is my faith genuine or a ruse?  Is my faith only good in fair weather or is it durable through trial?

Peter is referring to a process of refining and even mentions being tried by fire.  This brings up the comparison to gold.  Your faith is more precious to God than gold.  In fact, the gold of this world is typically thought of as enduring a long time.  Yet, compared to God’s plan of an eternal inheritance for you, it is perishable.  This heaven and this earth will melt away as God creates a new heaven and a new earth. God wants your faith more than all the works that you can do for Him, and yet, He has works in mind for you to do by faith in Him.

Our faith should also be more precious to us than gold.  No amount of gold, money, etc., can purchase salvation for us.  Also, it is our faith which keeps us in Christ where the power of God is promised to preserve us.  These tests may seem to destroy and ruin, but in the end, they are only refining us for Christ.

When our faith is proven by this life and its tests to be genuine, then it will result in praise, glory, and honor.  Yes, it will result in us praising Jesus, giving him glory, and honoring him.  However, Peter is speaking of the praise, glory, and honor that we will receive in participation with him.  In this life, we give all the glory to Jesus, but the amazing thing is that, when he returns, we will have been made to be like him.  We will come with him as a host of immortals in his wake, like a bride coming with her husband.

This world will not praise your faith and give you glory.  This world often dishonors those who have faith in Christ.  Yet, God will overturn all the ridicule, shame, and dishonor heaped upon those who put their faith in His Messiah.  This is part of our inheritance.

In case there is any question, Peter adds that this will be at the revelation of Jesus Christ.  This event is mentioned again in verse thirteen.  It is also called the apocalypse of Jesus.  It simply means to unveil something that had previously been hidden.

On one hand, Jesus has already been revealed, unveiled, on this earth, and we have believed in him!  Yet, we did not see the powerful works that Jesus did, nor did we see his post-resurrection appearances.  Yet, we have put our faith in him.  Thus, Jesus himself said, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:29).  The world even now operates in disbelief of this.  Even parts of the world that give lip service to the Lordship of Jesus do not truly follow his commands as if he truly was lord.  Jesus is not ruling on this planet.  He is hidden in the heavens awaiting the day of judgment.

At the Second Coming, Jesus will be revealed in all his glory, shining like the sun, coming on the clouds of heaven, pouring out judgment on the rebellious powers of this world and of the heavens.  There will be no doubt to believer and unbeliever alike that Jesus is the glorified Lord, the Son of God’s love, the Son of Man to whom all the kingdoms of the earth belong.  And, amazingly enough, we will be at his side!

Well, we will stop here and pick this up again next week as we continue marveling at the joyous salvation that our God has reserved for us in the heavens!

Joy of Salvation audio

The Letter to the Colossian Church- 5

Subtitle: Christ's Work through Paul

Colossians 2:1-5.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, August 10, 2025.

Last week, Paul was describing how Christ was working among the Colossians.  He ended chapter one writing about how Christ was working through him to help them.  This passage continues that discussion.

Paul's struggle for them (v. 1-4)

In Colossians 1:29, Paul mentioned that he was “striving” on their behalf, but with the power of Christ working through him.  This word is used again in chapter 2 verse 1, but now as a noun.  Paul has been in a struggle for them that has the sense of intense labor.  This struggle is about establishing the believers of Colossae as complete in Christ (1:28 and 2:10).

It will be clear as we go through this letter that Paul is not just thinking about being completed in the resurrection.  He is thinking of the present reality of being complete in Christ.  We are complete in Christ right now because we have everything that we need for life and godliness in this life.  I don’t need to find a guy in Tibet who has great wisdom.  I don’t need to go to secretsoftheearth.com and pay 5 easy payments of $999.99.  We have all we need because of Jesus.  Every believer in Jesus needs to have this understanding as foundational in their life.

Yet, Paul is not just struggling for them.  He speaks of “those who are at Laodicea,” a town that was roughly 10 miles away, and “all those who have not personally seen my face.”  Paul went to many cities and personally started many churches, but the work of Christ was bigger than him.  The churches he started spread the Gospel and started churches throughout their regions.  Also, this was a very mobile time in the Roman Empire, so it was common for Christians to travel due to business. 

So, why does Paul care about these Christians that he has never met personally?  It is because of the ministry that Jesus had given to him (1:23).  He was tasked with proclaiming the hope of the Gospel among the Gentiles (1:23, 27).  He cares because Jesus cares.  Christ is the source of this care, this struggle, to help them have everything they need.

Have you ever thought that there might be someone doing spiritual battle on your behalf that you have never seen?  Perhaps you would be surprised to hear prayers prayed by your ancestors for their offspring.  Jesus himself even prayed for those who would one day believe because of the words of those he sent (John 17:20).

Don’t look at the lives of others and complain that you don’t have what you need.  Instead, look to the heart of Jesus for you and trust that He is supplying all that you need.

Paul’s overall purpose is to establish them as complete in Christ, but verse 2 gives us an immediate goal: he wants to encourage their hearts.  The word for encouragement here is a verbal form of the word used for the Holy Spirit as our Helper.  It has the sense of strengthening in the various ways that we may need, whether strengthened in mind, heart, or deed.

The Colossian believers are facing threats that could discourage them from following Jesus.  That may be through false information about Jesus, or through promising things that are false.  We will see more about this as we go forward.

Just as he speaks of them as part of a larger group (those who have not personally seen my face), so he reminds them that their encouragement is not just an individual thing.  Their hearts are being “knit together in love.”  How is this happening?  It is the work of the Holy Spirit as we go through life.  He is working to tie our separate hearts into a unity of purpose that is centered on Christ alone.

When we cooperate with the work of the Holy Spirit in knitting our hearts together in love, we are enabled to receive something that God has for us.  It can be thought of as a target or as a place into which we can come:  “to reach all the riches of the full assurance of understanding.”

The Greek grammar requires extra words to bring the sense into English.  Some versions show this by putting these extra words in italics.  The grammar points to the riches of the full assurance of understanding as a target or end result of being knit together in love.  Thus, some versions will add the word “attaining” and others “to reach.”

This phrase is similar to the riches, or wealth, talked about in 1:27.  These are spiritual riches that come from our understanding of Christ, which full assurance is a part.  When we have the proper understanding about God’s will and the Anointed One He has sent, we will then have a full assurance.  Again, notice Paul’s emphasis on the fullness we can currently have in Christ.

This phrase is somewhat general, even vague, on its own.  The next phrase will make it clearer.  Yet, it is important to recognize the role of having full assurance and full understanding of what God is doing.  If you think you are lacking something, then you will be susceptible to the charlatans who come along offering something “more.”  It is similar to the idea of shopping while you are hungry.  It isn’t wise.

It doesn’t take a long time for a believer to have full assurance of understanding.  This is not about understanding every aspect to God’s Word and reaching a certain level of training.  We need to be careful what we hunger for.

I believe the next phrase is simply restating the prior in a specific way: “to reach the knowledge of the mystery of God, which is Christ.”  The mystery of God regarding Messiah is no longer a mystery.  Generations prior to Jesus did not fully understand what God would do through Messiah.  In Jesus, we have received that full understanding.  The mystery is revealed and the curtain is pulled back.  We ought to daily praise God for this revelation.  The Apostles were faithful to record what Jesus did and revealed to them about his purpose.

Just in case a person is missing Paul’s point, verse three drives the point home.  In Jesus, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden.  This continued use of words like “fullness” and “all” is connecting us back to Christ and the Gospel about him.

We can grow tired of the “Jesus solution” that has been given to us from God.  A “new and improved Jesus” might be more alluring.  We might even have a hunger for a better solution.  Believe me, the devil is working overtime to put such solutions in front of you.  Beware!  No true knowledge can come from any source, but Jesus.  All we need has been written down for us.  We also have the same Spirit that moved upon Paul to write these words working in our hearts to receive it by faith and walk it out.

Thus, Paul says in verse four that he doesn’t want anyone to delude them through persuasive arguments.  This may come across as a general concern, but we are going to see in this chapter that Paul is aware that this is already happening in Colossae, Laodicea, and elsewhere.  People were traveling around, claiming to have something better, or a better understanding of the Gospel of Christ.

We see this still today.  These people are far more accessible due to the internet.  They can sound persuasive until someone like Paul begins to point out all the errors in their reasoning, which he will do in short order.

Paul’s joy (v. 5)

Though Paul is concerned that someone may delude them with persuasive arguments, there are things for which he is joyful.

He has not been there in person.  However, he has been in spirit.  He thinks about them, pray for them, meditates on what to say or to write to them.  Like a parent with a kid who has gone off to college, so we can carry the spiritual burden for others.  This spiritual concern has led to Paul having great concern for them, and yet also, great joy.

He rejoices in their orderliness.  Part of loving one another is doing things in a way that allows peace to reign among us.  God creates things, but then puts them in an orderly relationship with His creation.  These relationships among created things began as “very good!”  Believers are to let this new creative work of the Spirit bring an order to the chaos of the previous life of sin.

Our attitude and actions with one another should not be in ways that try to disturb or upset one another.  Their “love” for one another is not by their definition, but by Christs.  This kind of love will display itself in an orderly way.

Of course, a person can complain when they are corrected that a teacher is “disturbing” them and being disorderly.  This kind of special pleading is not being serious.  There are orderly ways to correct someone.  Of course, it will feel disruptive to them and because they are following their flesh and not the Word of God or the Spirit of God.  So, we are not talking about an orderliness that is defined by each one of us, trying to find a lowest common denominator.  Christ commands us to love one another in the way that he loved us.  He loved us enough to tell us the truth about our true condition and the only means of salvation.  He called us to repent.

We see this orderliness also mentioned in 1 Corinthians 14, where Paul describes the operation of spiritual gifts.  “All things must be done properly and in an orderly manner” (14:40).  Also, “God is not a God of confusion but of peace” (14:33).  Some try to rule out many spiritual gifts as being disorderly.  However, they often have a view that treats some of the spiritual gifts as “no longer in service.”  In their minds, they no longer exist and are out of order in any exercise of them.  This again is a special pleading that says more than the Scriptures do about spiritual gifts.

Paul also rejoices in the steadfastness of their faith in Christ.  This may be because many of them have not been deluded (v. 4), at least not yet.  Just as God is steadfast in His love towards us by sending Jesus while we were yet sinners, it is good for us to display faithfulness to one another and towards Christ.  We are following His lead.  A faith that remains strong, even when buffeted by  ill winds and false teachings, is something that should lead us to rejoice.

These are the things we need to do in following Christ and bringing joy to those whom Christ has given the ministry of encouraging our hearts.

Christ through Paul audio

The Letter to the Colossian Church- 4

Subtitle: The Work of Christ among Them

Colossians 1:21-29.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, August 3, 2025.

After he has presented a powerful picture of just who Jesus is (the Lord of Creation and the Lord of the New Creation), Paul now turns to Christ’s work among them in Colossae.

This great work, of a God who is capable of such great things, is the same One who is working in little you!  It is important for believers not to doubt that God’s greatness does not make us insignificant to Him.  It is quite the opposite.  As men become greater in their scope among others, their limited nature requires a level of leaving details to others who work for them.  God does delegate, but He doesn’t do so because He is limited.  Rather, He is in every minute detail of how our bodies are fearfully and wonderfully made, and how our spirits were made to glorify Hiim in these bodies and in this life.  Don’t doubt His working in you.

Let’s look at our passage.

The New Creation in Colossae (v. 21-23)

This New Creation is not something that is happening somewhere out there in the universe or on the earth far away.  It was happening right there in Colossae.

Jesus is also right here in Everett, Washington doing his work.  He is working in Abundant Life Christian Fellowship, the church we are at today.  He is working in your house, your life, and inside of you.

Of course, this could make us feel uncomfortable.  Yet, when we understand that our heavenly Father loves us more than we can imagine, so much that He sent His Son to pay the price for your sins, we can learn to rest in His work.  Yes, He will correct us and scrutinize us, but it will be done in love and with all the help that He supplies through the Holy Spirit, the Word of God, and other believers.

In verse 21, Paul describes their condition prior to Christ’s new creation within them.

They were alienated from God.  They had been made strangers to God, first by the rebellions of their forefathers, and second by their own thoughts and actions.  This is more than proximity.  It also has to do with our understanding of God.  We are clueless to who He is and what He is like.  We do not respond to Him like one who is in close relationship, but as one who does not know Him at all.

Not only were they alienated, they were also hostile in mind through evil deeds.  These are actually connected together, rather than seen as two separate things.  Actions begin in the heart and then process in the mind, until we do them.  Why are our minds hostile to God and His purposes?  We can blame it on  our culture, and there is a level of truth to this.  However, we all have a personal part in this rebellion, which is our own hostility towards God, acted out in sinful deeds.

What I mean is this.  You may grow up in a sinful culture that is hostile to God.  However, along the way, as that sin causes harm to you, you will question it.  You will see that something is wrong in the ways that you are being enculturated.  Yet, in many small ways, we choose paths that are not good, but sinful.  They are hostile to the way God would have you be.  It doesn’t matter that you may not know God’s ways because God is good.  Thus, we choose ways that are not good, showing that we are hostile to God even before knowing Him.  This hostility towards a God we do not know is revealed every time we justify our sinful actions to the people around us.

God knows the culture surrounding a person.  They are not His enemy because of that, but because of their own choices and actions.  This is how the Colossians were when the Gospel came to them.  The Gospel showed them that they had been far away from God and unknowing enemies against Him.  The Gospel teaches us to own up to our own sin.  We cannot repent for our fathers and mothers.  We cannot repent for our nation (or Republic, as the case may be).  But, God gives each one of us the opportunity to repent for ourself.

Christians are those who have quit hiding behind everyone else’s sin as an excuse.  We see this dynamic when we talk with someone who “doesn’t need Jesus and his religion.”  You can challenge them with this question.  “So, you are perfect and don’t need to repent of anything?”  They will often respond that it would be unfair for God to expect absolute perfection from them.  “No one is perfect!”

Yet, the underlying dynamics are not about what you think God should accept.  That is like a kid in front of a judge believing that the judge should not hold them accountable for anything they have done.  Such a delusion will not serve you well in the courtroom.  No, this is about who God is and what He is doing.

God won’t settle for imperfection.  Yet, He knows that you cannot be perfect in and of yourself.  Instead of lowering the bar, which would have Him forever dwelling with sinful beings and pretending that they are okay, He lowers Himself in such a way as to make us perfect.  The Gospel is the good news that God the Father has created a way for us to be made perfect so that we can dwell in His presence, His goodness, forever.  He is not willing that any should perish, but He will not force anyone to choose Him.

This brings us to their present condition in verse 22.  Their situation has changed.

Christ has reconciled them.  Their life was full of errors compared to the goodness of God.  They could not “fit in” with God’s purposes in their prior state.  Thus, through Jesus the Christ, God has brought them into a state of harmony, or peace, with God.

Notice that Paul emphasizes that this was done in Christ’s “fleshly body.”  There is an emphasis here that is intended to block, even to rebuke, the tendency within the Greek mindset.  They could not fathom the fullness of God dwelling in frail human flesh.  Of course, they believed Zeus could come down and bed a fair maiden.  But, the idea that a God could be killed, not just by a mortal, but as a mortal.

This is part of the source of many philosophers and teachers that continually tried to use Christian teachings as a vehicle for their own ideas.  They felt that they were making it better, but in truth, they were not.

Those who put their faith in Jesus have been reconciled to God by what he did in frail, weak, mortal flesh.  The humiliation of the devil is found in this irony.  Jesus defeated him not as an immortal, but as a weak human.  Further irony is found in the devil’s stubborn grasp on his pride while Jesus humbles himself to the lowest place.  This idea is not just contrary to the devil’s mindset.  It is contrary to the mindset that fills this world, even our hearts.

Of course, the Eternal Son is not weak and frail anymore.  However, he is still humble, waiting for the time when the Father sends Him to take up the Kingdom from the powers of this earth.

Jesus had reconciled them in order to present them: “holy, blameless and beyond reproach.”  There is a purpose in making peace between us and God. 

The idea of presenting them can also be translated as to be set or established before him.  It can be contemplated as a future thing that is after our resurrection, which is the easiest to see.  In that day, we will stand before God the Father with holiness and without blame. 

However, it can also be contemplated as already present.  To be holy is to be cleaned and set apart for God’s purposes.  This is a present reality for the believer.  The death and resurrection of Jesus has cleansed us and given us a mission for the purpose of God, both by what we are (His possession) and by what we do (His work).  In this sense, we can never be more holy.

Jesus has also removed the guilt of our sins from us so that we are blameless and beyond reproach right now.  Yes, we are often missing the mark of God’s perfect righteousness.  However, Jesus has paid the price for my sin.  This would be like the University trying to take me to court for bills that my Father in heaven has already paid.  They can protest that it wasn’t my money, but in the end, they have no case.  The price has been paid.  Their true problem is not that they were harmed, i.e., weren’t paid, but is in their own vindictiveness that cannot bear to see such a worm as me to get a break.

Thus, the devil can make every accusation against those who have been reconciled by Christ, but he has no standing and no case, at least not now.  The prime argument of Satan is that we have sinned and therefore must die.  In Christ, this argument is neutralized.

Of course, the believer ought to live in this life in such a way that there is no reason to “take us to court,” whether in the courts of men or heaven.  We ought to respond to the legal holiness and blamelessness supplied by Christ by letting the Holy Spirit teach us and enable us to live out the righteousness of Christ.

In the practical sense, we can become holier and less blameworthy.  This is a powerful part of the good news.  Our failings in this life will be fully healed in death and resurrection.

Verse 23 inserts a condition, “if.”  The “if” here recognizes that the believer must continue trusting Christ.  He must remain “in the faith.”  This is not about staying in a particular church or denomination.  Rather, we can remain in a place of perfect standing before God through our continual trust in Jesus.

Yet, believers can be “moved away” from the hope found in Jesus.  Their standing is only effective as they stay “grounded, steadfast, not moved away.”  He goes on to describe that this is the Gospel that has been preached everywhere, and is the same Gospel that Paul was made to serve.

It isn’t spoken yet, but Paul is aware of some people who are trying to disturb the Colossian Christians and draw them into a different Gospel.  There will be more on that in the next chapter.

Think about it.  The devil does not want you to keep trusting Jesus and serving him.  He will use anything in his power to coax or to bully you away from the work of Christ in you.  Yet, you have been enabled to resist him by the power of Christ that is working within you!  I am not strong enough in myself, but I can trust Christ and be strengthened by the Spirit.

Some may protest that if a believer does anything, then they are saving themselves.  They try to remove this idea that we can walk away from Christ, thus dissolving the condition in which we are reconciled to be holy and blameless before Christ.  However, this is an erroneous argument.

We are not talking about making sure your faith is strong enough to save yourself, as if our “capacity to believe” is extremely effective.  It is about responding to the grace of God that has been put before us.  There would be nothing to believe, if Jesus had not brought it close to us and put it before us.  We are only saved by His grace, but through our faith in Jesus.  Our faith didn’t make anything happen.  It was all the gift of God.  However, I still need to reach out and take hold of the gift.  The same Spirit that helps us to see the Gospel, also helps us to remain in the faith, if we are willing.

Like moving food from a plate that God has placed before us, the believer’s faith becomes a channel of God’s grace.  Were you “fed” by your own works?  Of course,  you were not.  No amount of making the motions of feeding ourselves can feed us, if God has not put a plate of food in front of us.  To protest that you are “feeding yourself” in this example, a person is focusing on the lower mechanics of the food moving to our mouth, and yet ignoring the higher mechanics of making the food possible.  It is God who has fed us and even now continues to feed us.  It is His work alone in making it possible, but His greater work is comingled with the lesser work of countless humans to help us to actually eat, including ourselves.

God’s sovereignty is not hurt by our ability to believe in Christ because this was His choice from the beginning.  It is actually His sovereignty that chooses to give us a real choice.  Those who protest against this are actually limiting the sovereignty of God to choose to do so.

As we move forward, I want to deal with what some may call an error.  Paul speaks of the Gospel “which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven…”  It comes across as an absolute statement that would include North and South America, along with every creature (really?  All the snails too?).  This protest is actually an obstinate attempt to avoid the point.  The Gospel was destined to go everywhere and be preached to all people.  By this time, the whole Roman empire had been filled with the Gospel of Jesus, and was even moving forward from their.  Paul is giving a backhanded argument about why they (we) shouldn’t move away from Jesus.  There is no other Gospel out there to find.  There is no other savior as if God has created multiple paths to salvation.  This is the way that has been preached everywhere and to everyone. 

The ministry of Christ through Paul (v. 26-29)

As Paul has mentioned his post as a minister of the Gospel, he then speaks about the way that Christ is working through him to help them.  In fact, this letter is exhibit number one to that fact.

It may seem odd that he begins by mentioning his own suffering.  Paul was currently in Rome under house-arrest.  He had endured all kinds of hostility from his fellow Jews and from hostile Gentiles.  He endured these hardships because that is what it took to take the Gospel to places like Colossae.

Why can he say that he rejoices in these sufferings?  He can say it because this is what the Lord was asking of him.  Who will pay the price to take my good news to those who are still my enemies?  Paul is pleasing his Savior and Lord, Jesus.

He can also remember the words of Jesus in Matthew 5:11-12.  “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.  Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Do you believe that God takes note of all the hardship you endure, whether to take the Gospel to people or even to live for Him?  Do you believe that He will reward you for anything you suffer on behalf of serving Him?  Paul saw that he was in good company with all the prophets and saints who had gone on before.  We all love a good story of courage under fire, but it is another thing when we are under fire.

Paul is not just identifying with Jesus and the prophets before him.  He sees himself as laboring with the Lord Himself in these things.  The Lord is not untouched with our sufferings.  He is even now suffering with us.

We can become accusatory towards God.  “It is so hard down here!  When will you come down and do something about it?”  However, it is the other way around.  God has suffered over the sin of humanity from eternity past.  Even as He laid the foundations of the earth, it was with tears.  It is only in Jesus that we begin to catch a glimpse of the suffering of God.  No matter how horrendous the suffering of Christ was, it was only an analog to the reality of God’s suffering.  The irony is that, as we accusingly shout at His indifference, He is even now suffering over our refusal to repent and trust Him, i.e., our indifference to His grand overtures of love.

The second part of verse 24 is somewhat cumbersome in English.  Paul talks about “filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.”  The word for afflictions is typically translated as tribulations or persecutions.  It is a term that has the idea of intense pressure between a rock and a hard place, and it is becoming tighter. 

Paul is not talking about the suffering that Christ did on the cross to make peace between us and God.  There is no lack in that.  Jesus once and for all died for our sins (Hebrews 7:27).  Rather, Paul is talking about the afflictions that are necessary to bring the Gospel to people and helping them to endure.  We are the “body” of Christ, and as such, we are to give ourselves to the desire of the Head of the Church, Jesus.  This was prophesied long ago that the followers of Messiah would volunteer to join him in this ministry of suffering, being afflicted, for the sake of bringing salvation to others.

Thus, Christ is pictured as still working, being afflicted, in His Church, in order to minister to the lost world-wide.  We all have a portion, a part, in this.  Some have a portion of greater affliction than others.  Paul was doing his part.

The question is now this.  Will I do my part?  We can be discouraged by thinking we are not doing any good.  Don’t do that.  Instead, lay your concerns before God in prayer.  “God, I feel like I am falling short in my service for you.  But, I ask you to fill me, empower me, enable me, and lead me to be useful for your purposes.  I recognize my inability to fathom the depths of what you are doing through me, and I ask you to strengthen my faith for what I am facing right now.”

In verse 25, Paul talks about how he was made to be a minister for their benefit and for others.  He had a stewardship, a post of management within God’s people for which he would give account one day.  He sees himself as proclaiming the full Truth of God and as fulfilling all that the Word of God said would be and tells us to do.  Some versions only bring out one side of this, but both are intended.

Paul then digresses to emphasize the Gospel further.  It had been a mystery through the ages, but now had been revealed to the saints (v. 26).  The Gospel is manifest in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, but also in the teachings he gave to his apostles. 

The Gospel mystery is all about Jesus.  How could God redeem Israel and the Gentiles, while taking them out of the hands of the devil?  The good news is that Jesus is the answer.

We might ask why it was kept a mystery.  I can see at least two reasons.  First, God values faith over a thin veneer of service.  Thus, He acts in such a way as to prove that He is trustworthy, but doesn’t reveal all that is ahead so that we can demonstrate that we do trust Him.

The second reason has to do with our enemy the devil and his evil cohorts.  1 Corinthians 2:8 says, “[God’s] wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”  This can include human rulers, but clearly references the spiritual powers that truly ruled the nations.  The salvation of humanity hinged upon the crucifixion of Jesus.  If the devil had understood this, he would have kept Jesus from being killed.  Instead, God used his desperation and pride against him in order to save us.  Satan wields the blow that loses the battle for him and wins it on our behalf.  Yes, Jesus is our champion, but he took out our enemy in a way that calls all to repentance.

Of course, after the cross, it was now God’s will that this revealed mystery be made known among the Gentiles so they could have its riches.  He doesn’t flesh this out, but uses the word “glory.”  Some of the riches are found in the glory that comes from walking the path of Jesus behind him and by his power.  Yet, there is another part of the riches, the glory we will have as we stand in glorified bodies next to our champion, Jesus!

This mystery can be summed up in the short phrase, “Christ in [us], the hope of glory!”  This is not a hope as the world hopes.  This is a hope that God has set in front of us.  He has revealed it to us, promised it for us, and even now, it is reserved for us in the heavens where no devil of hell can touch it.  I am not just struggling alone hoping to reach it someday.  The Spirit of Christ is even now inside of me, working to bring me to it.

In verse 28, Paul mentions three verbal phrases regarding what He is doing.  He is proclaiming Christ to them.  He is admonishing them, i.e., warning them of dangers.  And, he is teaching them with all wisdom that he has received from Christ.

He is doing these three things in order to “present every man complete in Christ.”  This idea of presenting them is the same that we mentioned back in verse 22.  There Christ is the one doing the presenting.  Here, Paul works alongside Christ in order to set them, to establish them, as complete in Christ.

This too can be contemplated as a present reality and a future one.  On the day of resurrection, the people of God will stand in ranks with the Lord Jesus Christ.  Paul’s goal is that they will be found there on that day.  We will all be complete, or finished, perfected on that day.

Yet, even now, we have everything we need for life and godliness.  Through Jesus, God is supplying all that we need.  In this sense, we are complete, perfect.  As long as we keep our trust in Christ, He will bring us all to that hope.  The enemy cannot stop us.  Our hope is sure.  This is a vast difference from where I was before Jesus.  I wasn’t even a trouble for the devil.

Paul then testifies that his labor was a labor that was empowered by Christ in him.  Literally he says, “according to his working in me in divine power working!”  That’s a lot of working help from Christ!  It is not our job to be strong enough.  It is our job to present ourselves to the work of Christ everyday.  We can’t conjure up divine power, but we can be present and let God’s Spirit empower us to do His work.

Of course, how that divine power manifests is up to God.  You may want God to do some spectacular thing that makes you look powerful.  The power of God was even then being demonstrated in Paul by working through him in writing letters.  It is not generally how we want it to happen, but as God determines.

So, we get up and faithfully give ourselves to the work that he has given us, but not in our own power.  Do you have kids or grandkids?  Then, get up and give yourself to them for the purposes of God.  Whatever the relationship that God has given you, serve His purposes in them.

You are the one planting the seeds.  You are the one watering those seeds that have been planted.  You are the one who may even get to harvest some of those seeds that have come to fruit.  However, never forget that it is God who gives the increase.

We are still here because there are still strongholds of the devil that need pulled down.  In fact, our faith is possible because of the faith of someone in the past that dared to pull down the devil’s stronghold in you.  This is the work of Christ, not just through Paul, but through any of us who will join Him in this mission!

Christ's work audio

The Acts of the Apostles 36

Subtitle: The Gospel Goes to Ethiopia?  Part 2

Acts 8:34-40.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on February 12, 2023.

Today we will finish up our look at the Ethiopian Eunuch.

Some days, the world just changes by the grace of God.  Of course, we might think of those changes in terms of being good or bad.  However, when I look back at my life, I find that many times it is the "bad" things that have happened in my life that did the most good for me.

The Ethiopian eunuch is going to be filled with joy because he has come to know the love of God for him.  This is the same joy that we can have.  He goes from being a man pinned down by the Law of Moses as a sinner in need of God's salvation to being a man who has found the salvation of Yahweh in Yeshua, Jesus.

This idea, that some days things just change, is true for individuals, churches, nations, republics, and even this world.  Historically large people groups have been lost from the truth of God, and then, out of the blue, things changed from a situation that had persisted for hundreds, even thousands, of years.

Let's look at our passage.

Philip preaches Jesus to the eunuch (vs. 34-36)

Philip is sitting with the eunuch in a chariot.  This clearly is not a Ben-Hur style chariot.  It is large enough for two people to be sitting, which means it had some sort of bench or seats.  I would presume that there is also a driver operating the chariot.  Thus, the scene has them traveling along the road to Gaza while reading the scroll of Isaiah, particularly chapter 53.

This sets up Philip to share the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus with him.  It says that Philip "preached Jesus" to the man.  Luke has used the verb "preached" earlier in this passage.  In verses four and five, he first mentions that the scattered believers were "preaching Jesus."  In the next verse, he says that Philip "preached Christ" to the people of Samaria. 

These phrases should really be taken synonymously.  To preach the word of God, Scripture, is to preach Jesus because all of Scripture is pointing towards our need of him.  In fact, as the living Word of God (see John 1), the Scriptures are a written down form of Jesus, just as Jesus is a human form of the Father (the perfect representation of God).  Furthermore, to preach the word is to also preach about the promised Messiah, or Christ.  Similarly to preach about God's Anointed One is to reveal that Jesus of Nazareth is that very one.

Philips ability to preach to the eunuch is really set up by his question in verse 34.  Is this passage about the author, Isaiah, or is it about someone else?

Questions are an important part of Bible study.  The eunuch is having trouble understanding the identity of whom Isaiah is writing.  This is quite understandable when you read Isaiah 53 without already knowing that it speaks of Jesus.  The passage truly is surreal.

Isaiah starts out by saying that no one believes the report of him and the prophets.  A particular servant of God would come forward who would be despised and rejected by Israel, his people.  However, the Lord would lay all the sins of the people upon him.  This servant would be chastised, bruised, and killed, but not for himself.  In fact, he doesn't object to this treatment, but faces it silently, like a lamb being led to the slaughter, like a sheep before the shearers.    His soul is actually made to be an offering for their sins, and he makes intercession for transgressors.  It then pictures all of this as the "wisdom" of the servant.  By his wisdom (i.e., not saying anything as he is executed for the sin of others), God's righteous servant will justify many because he will be bearing their iniquities.  This is all pictured as the "pleasure" of the Lord, and it also appears to be the pleasure of the Servant who is going along with it out of wisdom.

This is a perplexing passage if you do not know about Jesus.  How thankful are you that you do know about Jesus?  That didn't come about by accident.  It happened by the grace and mercy of God.  It is good to explain a passage to someone, but it is more important for them to know Jesus.  We can become so bogged down in the details of studying the Bible that we can "miss the forest for the trees."  I am not against detailed Bible study.  I am just reminding us to always keep the main thing as the main thing.

So, we are told that Philip preached Jesus to him "beginning with this Scripture."  They went on a Bible field trip.  It is probable that the eunuch had only one scroll, but it is also possible that he had more than one.  Thus, Philip uses what is available to show the eunuch what Christ has done, and what God now expects of him.

This is something that all believers need to be able to do.  Of course, you will be limited if you were saved just this morning.  However, don't be afraid of that.  You responded to something when you responded to the message of Jesus with faith.  That is quite enough to share with another person.  We do need to be people of the Word of God, but more specifically, we need to be people who can show how the Word of God points to Jesus and leads us to faith in him.

People need to know Jesus.  It is as simple as that, and it doesn't take a theologian, or someone who knows the original languages of the Bible, to do introduce people to him.  It only takes someone who know Jesus themselves.  Do you have a living relationship with Jesus.

The eunuch sees some water and asks a question.  What hinders me from being baptized?  Of course, we could back up one notch and recognize the many who hear the gospel, but do not believe.  What hinders them?  However, this was not the problem for the Ethiopian eunuch.  He believed what he was hearing about Jesus.

Philip must have said something similar to Peter's answer to the crowd in Acts chapter two.  The crowd asked what they needed to do, having killed Messiah.  Peter told them to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus, and their sins would be forgiven.  In fact, they would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit too!

Notice that spiritual life is not about exhaustive knowledge of God's Word, but is about having a believing relationship with Jesus that we are willing to publicly live out.

Regardless, at the first sight of water, this man is quick to point out that he could follow through on the Gospel imperative.  The Gospel calls us to follow Jesus as our Lord and Savior.  That relationship involves discipleship, learning the way of Christ, but one of the commands of Christ is that we be baptized in water.

We do need to be careful of treating the Bible as merely a list of things to do, things we will check off of our list.  A believing relationship made alive by the Spirit of God must be the foundation of anything we do for our Lord.  Yes, when you follow the Spirit of God, He will give you some to-do lists, but it will come as we respond to the written Word and the work of the Spirit of God.

A textual issue (vs 37)

So, the eunuch has asked a question.  What keeps me from being baptized?  The answer is given in verse 37.  There is a textual issue here.  If you are reading the KJV or a translation based on it, then you will have this verse.  If you aren't then you will probably have a footnote.  Even the NKJV, gives a footnote that says, "Acts 8:37  NU, M omit v. 37. It is found in Western texts, including the Latin tradition."

A bit of explanation.  NU is actually a reference to two different Greek texts.  "N" stands for Nestle and Aland's Testamentum Novum Graece, a Greek Bible.  "U" stands for the Greek text put out by the United Bible Society called The Greek New Testament.  Lastly, the "M" stands for the Majority Text.  In essence, all three of these editions of the Greek agree that the verse is not originally from Luke.  It is only found in Western texts and some older texts in the Latin tradition.

You will run into footnotes like this from time to time no matter which Bible you are using.  They point to the fact that we do not have the original manuscript that Luke wrote, or any other originals for the books of the Bible.  It is important to have at least a cursory understanding of this subject.

How do I know that the Bible has been faithfully transmitted through the centuries when we do not have the original documents? 

Many handwritten copies were made through the centuries in order to increase the reach of the Bible.  Of course, people memorizing portions of the bible would have also played a large part in the spread of the Gospel.  On top of this, copies that were made of papyri (a course paper) and even parchment (treated animal skin) would wear out over time and need to be replaced.  Christians in the earlier centuries were not thinking that it would be important to preserve the first copies.  Still, we do have many manuscripts that we have today that go back even to the middle of the 2nd century (100's AD).  We also have writing of sermons and books against heresy from the early bishops and Church leaders.  On top of this there are many translations into other languages such as: Latin, Syriac, Coptic, even Ethiopic, etc. 

By comparing these manuscripts, we can easily spot spelling errors (they didn't have spell check), and simple mistakes made by copyists that have been well known through the ages.  In short, we come down to a recognition that 98.3% of the Bible has no real questions about what the original was.  And then, only about 1/1000th of the text has any serious variations that are viable and affect the meaning.  However, even then, none of these variations affect any doctrine.

Acts 8:37 says some significant things that we would feel a bit strange taking out of the Bible.  However, no biblical doctrine is supported by only one verse.  We don't need Acts 8:37 to justify that a person needs to believe in Jesus with their whole heart, aka, not half-heartedly.  Second of all, the confession of the Ethiopic eunuch is very similar to Peter's confession of who Jesus is at Caesarea Philippi.  The majority of scholars believe that this verse was not part of the original, but it doesn't hurt us either way.

By the way, if you look into this further, you will find that two different 2nd century church Fathers write about this passage in a sermon style.  Between the both of them, the content of verse 37 is stated.  In other words, Luke may not have written these words, but sermons and retellings of this story by Philip may have accurately described what was said between them.  That oral tradition may just be the source of this insertion.

If you want more information on this subject of Biblical Textual Criticism, then click on this link to a video of Daniel B. Wallace,  Senior Research Professor of New Testament Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary.

The eunuch is baptized (vs 38-40)

So, what are the prerequisites of water baptism?  It is clear from the following baptism that the eunuch met those prerequisites by Philip's judgment.  Water baptism is a symbolic event that gives a picture of what is happening in our life, or shows the declaration that we are making.  We are declaring that we believe that Jesus is the Messiah and that he has paid the price for my sins, even my life.  We are confessing that we are dying (going under the water) to our old life, and coming alive to Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit.  It is a public expression of your acceptance into the Church of Jesus, but also of the inward reality.  You have come alive to the Spirit of God and are now following Jesus by faith.

In our modern age, many are so afraid of legalism that they make a false separation between intellectual faith and practical faith.  Jesus said if you love him, then you will obey his commands, and one of those commands is to be water baptized.

At this point, we are told that they go "down into the water."  Some emphasize that the going down means that he is fully immersed.  However, the word baptize already means to be fully immersed.  It not clear whether the going down into the water is simply a description of getting out of the chariot and walking out/down into the water.  The same can be said for the phrase "when they came up out of the water."  It can be at the point of coming up from being put under the water, but it can also be a reference for them walking out of the water back to the chariot.

Whether it happened at the point of coming up from being under the water, or as they walked out of the water, something amazing happened.  Philip disappears.  At least, this is what it looked like from the eunuch's perspective who "saw him no more."  One moment Philip was there and the next he was gone.

We really don't know what it was like from Philip's perspective.  Yet, we are told that the Spirit of the Lord "caught Philip away."

It is interesting that this being "caught away" is the same word that is used for the rapture in 1 Thessalonians 4:17.  Philip was snatched up, but not in a way in which the eunuch saw him flying away.  He disappeared. Verse 40 tells us that Philip was "found" in Azotus, a town that was around ten miles away.  Of course, we are not told that Philip was transported all that distance.  That's where he was found, i.e., a word that involves searching for someone.

This "rapture" is not the same as the rapture mentioned in 1 Thessalonians 4:17.  Philip is still in his mortal body.  He has not been transformed into a glorified, heavenly body.  Yet, this does give testimony to the fact that God has the power to take people up at will.  It seems to me that somethings are so strange that God has to give us examples in the Scripture so that we can accept what He promises later.  This "rapture" word is used thirteen times in the New Testament.  Most of these are literally talking about being taken up, or snatched up, like in an arrest.  Others are metaphorical, or rather, spiritual uses.  Here is a pdf of the use of this word in the New Testament.

We should notice that Philip goes about preaching in Azotus and goes north up the coast all the way to Caesarea, which is northwest of Samaria.

Let's bring this to a close by talking about the eunuch.  The text says that he "went on his way rejoicing."  Now I wouldn't blame the eunuch if he thought that Philip might have been an angel.  After his disappearance act (not a normal thing for humans to do), the eunuch would rightly wonder who this guy was.  Of course, our passage is clear that Philip is not a heavenly angel.  Yet, he is a messenger sent by God.  It doesn't matter if we receive a message from a heavenly angel or an earthly messenger.  What matters is that the message is from the God of heaven.

The eunuch goes on his way rejoicing because he now has a relationship with this God of the Israelites through the work of Jesus.  It is the work of Jesus that will encourage him when he reads further in the scroll and reaches Isaiah 56.  His worship would no longer be about all the rituals and activity that he had a duty to do, but would be a joyful following after the one who had suffered in his place.  He would forever know that God loved him.  His lot in life was not destined to be a "dry tree" who would leave no heritage in this life.  Instead, he would become an apostle of the Gospel to his own people!  He would have a spiritual heritage that would have eternal rewards.  This is the God we serve.  The God who turns eunuchs into fruitful trees!

Eunuch part 2 audio