Two Brothers, One Bible
Two Brothers, One Bible
Episode 308 - 10,000 Downloads!
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And welcome back to another episode of Two Brothers One Bible Podcast from New Song Baptist Church, located in Columbia, Tennessee. And Peter, welcome to the program. Well, thank you very much. You know, did you get the invitation that I sent you about being here today? I did not. You did not?
SPEAKER_00No. I just showed up.
SPEAKER_01Did you? Yeah. Well, if I told you I mailed it, would you believe it?
SPEAKER_00Well, you you're a former postmaster, so I wouldn't expect nothing less.
SPEAKER_01Well, that's true, but you know, I I'm not going to mail you an invitation to show up to talk about uh why? Well, because you may never get it. Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00Is that a slam against the post option? Not at all, Robert.
SPEAKER_01Not at all. It's just a funny, it's just uh it's just a funny way to start the show. So let's just go right ahead with the introductions, and then I have a big announcement. All right. Alright, so I'm Robert Twakefield. I'm Peter Sears. And welcome again to Two Brothers One Bible Podcast. So, uh Peter, I do have an announcement to begin the show with. Alright. And uh I want to begin the show uh with this right here. Are you ready?
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Ladies and gentlemen. Are you gonna do the fireworks now? We are so happy. I can't even do that with a straight face. Now, ladies and gentlemen, what we want to announce to you is that as of today, two brothers, one Bible podcast, now it's 10,000 downloads. Oh my goodness, and I love this song, so it's a great song. Okay. So yeah, 10,000 downloads up here.
SPEAKER_00Incredible. Uh thank you to all of our listeners for doing those downloads and listening and telling your friends though. Thanks.
SPEAKER_01That's exactly right. Well, one of the things that we would like to encourage uh our listeners, uh, there is a thing uh on your where you ever you get your podcast, it says send us fan mail. Okay. Now that's just what it says. I I didn't I didn't write that. No, I didn't do that. All right. But you can click on that and they can send us a text message. Oh. And so let me uh we want to encourage, we don't get to hear from our audience very often. That's true. And so this is an easy way for you to contact the show. It comes directly to us, it doesn't go anywhere else. Okay. And so if you want to send us a text message, just click on that, send uh send us some fan mail, yeah, and just send your message to us.
SPEAKER_00We would love to hear from you. Okay, so they could just say congratulations and ten thousand downloads.
SPEAKER_01They could say that. All right, and we would love to know where you're from if you want to tell us that. Uh we we don't know, we don't keep your we don't get your phone number or anything. No. So you're not gonna hear from us as far as that goes. So anyway, uh, we're just uh happy to have 10,000 downloads. That's a huge milestone. So uh thank you so much. So we're gonna still be in Colossians. Yeah. We're gonna continue our study of uh in the first chapter. What have you thought so far? I love Colossians. It's really good, isn't it? Yeah, it really is. It reminds me a lot of Ephesians, actually. It's very, very similar. I mean, they've got some very similar topics throughout the whole thing. Yeah, that's so good. All right, so today we're going to start, I think, in verse 20. 21. 21. We're gonna start in verse 21 and go through the end of chapter one. So go ahead, Peter.
SPEAKER_00All right, here we are, Colossians chapter one, starting in verse 21, and I'm of course in the NIV translation. Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior, but now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation. If you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel, this is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant. Now rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, which is the church. I become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness, the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord's people. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.
SPEAKER_01Alright, so that is the word of the Lord. So uh man, there's a lot here. I thought I thought we might get through. We may not get through all these. There's a lot there. There's a lot here. So let's start back there in verse 21. Yeah. Because uh there in 21, I I thought it was interesting when he said you were once alienated from God. Yeah. And you were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. You know, he is simply pointing out something that not only these uh Colossians had, but that's that's all of us. That's a description of everybody.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_01And so we we had this evil behavior, and we once were we were alienated from God. And that word alienated really stuck with me because that's that's a big, bold separation.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you know, uh again he uses two words. We saw this in Ephesians, where you know, we think, well, he could have just said one or the other, but he said both, and they mean different things. And he started out Ephesians about this, how we were separated from God. Right. And so he is telling them, reminding them of where they were before Christ. And so, you know, we know what it means to be alienated. I think everyone's experienced that where you're not the person in, right? You're out. Exactly. And that's what that means, is is you're being snubbed or shunned or not allowed into the club. But more than that, we're enemies. That's the part that really jumped out at me. Yeah. Yeah. Enemies. Yeah. We're that's that we're against God when we're enemies. Exactly. Wow. Yeah. And so when you put those two together, and then he's and you know, in case you're unclear, he puts right in there, it's it's because of your mind and your evil behaviors. Not only that you think bad things, you do bad things. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01That's that's yeah, it's it's interesting that you brought that out. It's alienated and enemies. It's um, it's not just simply breaking rules, it's breaking a relationship if you get down to it. Yeah. Because you know, if you're not gonna you're not gonna be friends with your enemies in a relationship kind of way. Right. Yeah. So that that's really strong that uh that he starts that right there. Uh verse 22, he talks uh about you know Christ reconciling us through his physical body. Now, this is this is something that I think that boy, these Christians needed to hear.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Uh because first of all, he's told them where they were, and now he's still telling them how they get back. So talk about verse 22 for a second.
SPEAKER_00Well, you know, I think a lot of Paul's writing deals with the word reconciliation because that's what's taken place. He's identified our state in 21, and then how did we get reconciled to God? Well, it was through Christ, and it was what he physically did on the cross. And and there was there was talk even at this time that that Jesus didn't really die. Right. That was one way to explain the resurrection. Well, it's easy to be resurrected from the dead if you weren't dead. And so Paul's reminding them that the truth of what Jesus did is he actually physically died on the cross, and that was required because you look at the Old Testament structure, in order for the atonement of sin, there had to be death, there had to be blood. Exactly. And so Jesus had to die. And so that's what allowed that reconciliation to happen. Wow.
SPEAKER_01And and you know, it's funny, well, not funny, but it's it's interesting to me that you know here in the early church they're they're fighting, you know, this these false doctrines. Yeah. And and that's he is really addressing that. Yes, he is. Because they there were some false doctrines in this time that I read while I was putting this together that you know said that you know Jesus did not die, just like you said. And they're they're they're putting this out there like it's gospel.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And people are buying into it.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_01And that's the scary part.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we we have a uh thing, and he's gonna draw more of this in Colossians chapter two, but as human beings we either want to pollute the gospel or we want to compromise the gospel. And and we do that by integrating things that aren't really part of the gospel.
SPEAKER_01Well, there you go.
SPEAKER_00So sometimes it's our opinion, sometimes it's how we were raised, uh, sometimes it's practices that we had prior to coming to Christ that we want to maintain, and so we justify them. And so, yeah, you know, he he's never been to the church of Colossi, but he's heard these things and it prompted him from what's taking place, I gotta put pen to paper. I've got to deal with this. And so, you know, he he's identifying this. Is probably one of the things he heard. He said, Oh no, no, we've got to clear this up that Jesus physically died, and it was through that death you became holy. Right. And and I love when he says that you were were without blemish because it goes back to that sacrificial surgery. It does, doesn't it? No.
SPEAKER_01It does. Because that that was the requirement. Yes. Uh when we've been reading through the Bible uh this year again, and when you go through Leviticus and Deuteronomy, it talks about a lamb without blemish or a ram without blemish. I mean, it's always without blemish. Yes. And that that's the key part.
SPEAKER_00Well, and what's what's so significant here is not only was Jesus without blemish, because he was sinless, right? But now because of the death of Jesus, you and I become not only holy, but without blemish. Isn't that great?
SPEAKER_01Oh my goodness. It's amazing. Is that it's just great. And and we're free from accusation. Right. Which is kind of a lawyer's courtroom's terms. Yes. Uh Jesus not only is uh paid the price for us for our uh sin problem, but now he's our advocate, he's our lawyer.
SPEAKER_00Yep, yeah. Well, and Satan's called the great accuser. Yes. And so he loves to whisper in our ear and and tell us all these untruths to to make us feel unworthy. Right. And you know, the truth is we're not worthy. I mean, there's there's nothing that ig that caused us to stand out. Exactly. But because of what Christ has done for us, we're without blemish and free of accusation.
SPEAKER_01Amen to that. So, and then he goes on in verse 23. If you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. That reminds me of the Hebrew life. Absolutely. Did you think the same thing? Absolutely. Yeah. Not to drift. Yes. Because when when I read that, I said, Oh, this is this is the drifting theme again. Right. You know, but if you hold fast to what Jesus has to say, you're not going to fall subject to this kind of thing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And I think that's what he's pointing out here.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I think we need to probably unpack that because some of these listeners may not have have heard the Hebrews. And so he is not talking about losing your salvation here in 23. But he's saying, can you imagine from the time you were first saved, if you spent 30 minutes in prayer and you spent an hour in Bible study every day faithfully, you memorized scripture, uh, you made a commitment to share your faith with three people every day, and you did that. Right. Where would you be in your Christian walk 10, 20 years? Exactly. And so he's saying, Man, if you continue in your faith, if you press, if you discipline yourself, if you do everything for the cause of Christ, where would you be? Right. And our the story is for most of us is we're not that tenacious in our faith. We're not. And so he's not saying you're in jeopardy of losing it, but just think of where you could be if you continued. How established you would be, how anchored, how grounded, uh, how firm you would be, uh, that you you know what you know and why you know it. And and so uh that's what he's he's challenging us.
SPEAKER_01Right. And and it's it's a great challenge too, uh, Peter. It really is. Uh the I love the established and firm because those two words, you know, you've got me looking at stuff like that. You know, it's two to established is one thing is that you know you've got this this background, this foundation, and then firm is you're standing on that foundation.
SPEAKER_00Exactly.
SPEAKER_01And I I just love the way he did that. And he also said, Do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. Uh he says in 23 also, this is the gospel that you heard that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and which of which I, Paul, have become a servant. So this is the this is his whole mission is to stand firm and and to encourage uh encourage believers.
SPEAKER_00Well, and you know, I'm we're going to have to talk about this time and time again. So uh and I I'm not gonna apologize for it because we've gotta see the the mental shift that Paul has. He's the Jews Jew. I mean, I I think from the time he was just three years old, right, you know, and started learning about the law and what it meant to be Jewish, and he took great pride in being a Jew, and and so he was all about having a great relationship with God, and he wanted to obtain that through the law. Right, and so I'm gonna be the best law keeper ever. And so not only am I gonna do it for myself, I'm gonna enforce and make sure all other people do that too.
SPEAKER_01Right. I'm gonna I'm gonna make sure they're doing it.
SPEAKER_00Well, now because of Christ, yeah, he says, Well, I was I was foolish. What was I thinking? And now he's an ambassador for every creature, and and we're not talking about zebras and elephants, we're we're talking about every person. And you think about being a Jew and now saying, This is for the Gentiles too. Oh, right. And I feel like I'm an ambassador to the Gentiles, and that's what I'm saying. You know, for for him to make that shift is just profound. Only God could make that kind of a change.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah. And no question about that. And to me, this is uh another great picture of what repentance looks like. Yes, he made a 180-degree turn from his Jewish Phariseeal life to spread the gospel to people that he despised when he was a Pharisee. Right. He he didn't no none of them cared for the Gentiles. Right. And look who he's out there serving. Yeah. Uh so it that that is a perfect example of what repentance uh looks like.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you know, I remember when I first preached a series in Jonah, and you know, it's only four chapters, and chapter one is about how he doesn't want to go to Nineveh. Right. And and so I made a big point in my sermon that all of us have a Nineveh. There's some place we don't want to go, there's some person we don't want to talk to. There's some people we're not gonna be so bold to say I don't think they're entitled to Jesus, but I don't want to be the one to tell them about Jesus. Right. You know, I I think they're they're they're too low, they're too hateful, or they're too corrupt, or I don't like how they they act or what they do. And so Paul, this is this is like when Jesus took the disciples through Samaria. It's like we don't belong here, these aren't our people. Right. And so that's that's when you know the work and the power of God is alive in your life when you start loving the people you felt were unlovable.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, I I haven't thought of it like that, but you're right. I mean, the when you when you think of the unlovable and the people that you don't want to be around, they're that they have just as much right to Jesus as as I do. Absolutely. And and so that's I think that's what that that 180-degree turn that Paul did really changed the lives of millions. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Uh or billions, maybe. Who knows?
SPEAKER_01Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00Uh well, included us.
SPEAKER_01I was gonna say that, including us. Yeah, yeah. So let's see, we've got uh that's through twenty-three, and then we get to twenty-four. Now I rejoice in what I'm suffering for you, and I fill up my flesh, what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, which is the church. Now, he's rejoicing in suffering. Boy, that reminds me of uh of a verse, you know, counting all joy when you meet various trials out in James. Right. So, you know, I don't know that there's much joy in suffering or or much celebrating or rejoicing when you're suffering.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you know, that's a constant theme, especially in the New Testament, about suffering, and and you you're right, in our humanity, we want to be suffering free.
SPEAKER_01We do.
SPEAKER_00But I think life equals suffering, and you know, for for Paul, he's not saying he's saying I count it all joy, like you said, yeah. And so, you know, suffering equals being a servant.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Because a servant says it's not about me. And so if I've got to do something that I don't want to do, I'm gonna do it for all joy, I'm gonna do it unto the Lord. And so he says, I fill up my flesh. And so uh he says, I got deficiencies, there's things that I'm not doing that I ought to do. And he says, you know, but when he thinks about the afflictions of Christ, all that Jesus did for him, he says, I I can't be selfish and say I don't want to suffer anymore.
SPEAKER_01Right, right. I you know, and that's just easier said than done. It really is. It's really easier said than done. I I cannot imagine me walking out of New Sound Baptist Church and said, Boy, I hope some kind of suffering happens to me today. Right, no. So I can give thanks to God about it.
SPEAKER_00No, and and you know, I don't think we should ask for it. I don't think we need to seek it out. Right. But they're gonna come anyway. Well, they are. I think the the the it's the right attitude and it's embracing it because it's for a season. Right. And and we may see it end, or it may, it may be we go to glory, you know, and and it ends that way. Exactly. But uh suffering kind of changes our priorities.
SPEAKER_01It does. It does. Well, that's gonna do it uh for today's episode of Two Brothers One Bible Podcast. We celebrated 10,000 downloads today. Two stormtrooper.
SPEAKER_00That's totally different. Yeah, different sounds.
SPEAKER_01It's a Star Wars day. That's right. Thanks so much for listening. I'm Robert Wakefield. I'm Peter Searson. And uh we hope you enjoyed this episode, and thank you for listening, and God bless you.