Two Brothers, One Bible
Two Brothers, One Bible
Episode 310 - Treasure in Christ
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And welcome back to Two Brothers One Bible Podcast. We are so glad you're listening. We are just so glad. Are you glad? I'm glad. Are you very glad? I'm so glad.
SPEAKER_01Well, it's it's we just started.
SPEAKER_00I'll I'll build up to very much. Okay, we'll check at the end of today's episode to see if you're very glad. Okay. And uh, but we're glad that well, I'm very glad that you're listening. Peter, well, he's on the fence right now. He's so glad. I'm glad. Oh, good. I'm just not very glad. Okay. Boy, what a weird way to start the show. I see. Well, thank you again for listening, and we're done for the day. I hope you enjoyed the podcast. Oh my goodness. Well, I'm Robert Dwakefield. I'm Peter Searson. And we're Two Brothers One Bible Podcast. We have moved on to chapter two and collagen's. Man. Wow. That chapter one was just it was an incredible how many verses, how many episodes we got out of that one chapter.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, it's just you just can't, if you're gonna do it right, you just cannot go through it and just you know, just half hit highlights of it. No, that's not our way. No. And so we're uh we're going to be uh very realistic in our approach today. And we're going to do um, let's see, chapter two, and we're going to do uh verses one through five. Yep. So Peter, if you can.
SPEAKER_01All right, I do. All right, so here we go. I want you to know how hard I am contending for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me personally. My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine sounding arguments. For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit, and delight to see how disciplined you are and how firm your faith is in Christ.
SPEAKER_00Alright, so that is the word of the Lord. And right there in verse one, he uses the same Greek word as he used at the end of uh chapter one. Yes, he did. Uh the agasiomai. You know, if you're a Greek scholar and would please text the show and tell me how to say these words. That would be great. But it's really the root word is agonized. I oh, is that the root word? Okay. So that's where we get our word agonized. And this guy wrote this, he says it's like to struggle like an athlete. Yeah. Uh or to fight like a soldier or with intense uh labor and effort. And Paul, what he says, uh Paul's saying, You may not see me, but I'm sweating for your spiritual health. Okay. I like that. Yeah. I I like that. So talk about that verse one. I want you to know how hard I am contending for you.
SPEAKER_01Well, when I looked at that word agonize, the struggling, the conflicts, I I had to ask the question, you know, what what are the difficulties of ministry? You know, I you you hear the joke uh all the time as as a pastor, well, you only work one day a week and you only do the morning. So it's like, how hard can it be? But I think in reality, we all know that ministry is not an easy position. It's not something, you know, as Paul says, no one should seek it. So uh, but you know, burnout is common. If you look at how many ministers leave ministry, not just leave a church, but they go do something else. Yeah, absolutely. Dealing with tox toxic members, you know, there's always going to be someone who's contrary and and difficult to work with. Financial strain. We know that pastors are not the most well-paid people. Uh the the amount of education most pastors has is you know for a lawyer or a doctor. Right. And yet the pay is is not, yeah. Uh balancing the workload between you know, church and and the church needs and family, uh, you know, because you put in uh you know an eight-hour day, and then when is everyone else available is when they get off work. And so when do you have committee meetings? When when does someone have to be visiting the hospital? And so, you know, it's a 24-hour job, and then there's a lot of lack of support, there's a lot of loneliness. Who who's the pastor's pastor? Right. You know, and so you know, you look at the the weight, the burden uh that people have when they're called to full-time ministry. This is what Paul's talking about. This is the contending, this is the struggle, this is the agony. But as he says repeatedly, he's admitting there's a struggle, but he's not lamenting it.
SPEAKER_00No, he's not complaining about it. Uh, you know, it this pastoral leadership is what what this really is. And this is at it, this is what it is at its purest, if you get right down to it. It's it's the unseen labor for people who may never fully understand the cost. Exactly. And that's what that guy wrote. Yeah, that guy wrote that. Uh then we go into verse two. My goal is that you may be encouraged in heart and united in love so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely Christ. That's that's a mouthful. Yeah. Well, talk about the uh the encouragement part, because I love that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I like, you know, he he puts it really simple. He because he has to remind himself what's my goal? What am I aiming for? Because if you don't know what you're aiming for, there's a good chance you're gonna miss it. So so he says, I I want them to be encouraged, I don't want them to be anxious, I want them to see feel comforted, I want them to be comforted in their heart, I want them to have that insurance in their heart, but I also want them to be united or knitted together under the umbrella of love. Right. You know, and what a great description of a church is that man, we're we're all comforted, we all we all know where we stand, going back to those things about being firm in our faith and knowing who we are and being grounded, but to to be united, you know, and that doesn't mean we're we're cloned, it doesn't mean we all agree, but yet we agree on the fundamentals. And so he said we're united. And then when when he wraps up to talking about the full riches of complete understanding, oh man, you know, not partial, full, full understanding.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, he could have just like like you've said in other podcasts, he could have left out full and it would have been just as uh ex you know, just as good.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, the riches of complete understanding, yeah, but he didn't. No, no, and and that's his prayer for us. You know, I think when he was praying for the church at Colossae, and he mentions in in verse one, he's praying also for the church in Laidosia, another church he hadn't been to, but it was just twenty two miles away, and so he's praying for that church as well that's probably going to be reading this letter, right? Since they're in proximity, and he wants them to have that full richness of complete understanding, not a partial understanding again, but complete complete, yeah.
SPEAKER_00He he talks uh, you know, this this unity thing. This this guy wrote this, which I thought was good. Uh unity uh often leads to clarity because a divided church becomes a confused church. I like that. And he also says a loving church becomes a discerning church.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_00So if you've got this unity, it's gonna lead to a lot of clarity, it's gonna clear up a lot of problems before they even arise.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Uh because that's what that unity is. Here's an illustration uh that I read. Uh a choir can only sing in harmony when they're listening to each other. Yeah. If everyone sings their own tune, the music collapses. And Paul wants the Colossians tuned to the same pitch, which is love. I like that. And so they can hear the truth clearly.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you know, the thing about relationship, uh Cheryl and I this summer will be married 47 years. Oh, congratulations. Yeah, thanks. Um But you know, you've got forty-seven years of of of history. Right. And so this this unity is you you kind of grade things on a curve because you know, there's always gonna be uh a misstep, there's gonna be a poor performance, there's gonna be things forgotten, there's gonna be things unsavory said, there's there's gonna be so what do you do with that? Well, you could blow up and erupt and say, I'm getting a divorce. But because of the longevity of the relationship, you say, That's not characteristic of who that person is. That's not who I know. Right. And so you treat it with love, like you said.
SPEAKER_00And and you you treat it completely differently, yes. Uh with people that you love like that. Yes. Yeah, you give them a really long piece of rope.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So if you translate that to church life, there's gonna be people where, you know, in in a heated moment there's gonna be something said, or someone that you were counting on didn't show up, or no one came when you had surgery, and you go, you know, they don't care. Well, again, if you've got a loving environment, you lean more towards love than than taking it personally.
SPEAKER_00Exactly right. All right, so that's so good. So on to uh verse the second half of verse two. Um let me just read that. My goal is that you may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so they may have the com fullness, full riches of complete understanding in order that they may understand the mystery of God. He's talking about this mystery of God again. Yes. And, you know, again, he talked about it in in chapter one what that mystery was, and he says it again here. Yeah Christ. You know, for him to repeat that really must be a huge theme that's going on in this church right now, and they they must be struggling with that. What do you think?
SPEAKER_01You know, I think I think, you know, this this is around I I think around 65 when he's writing this. So he he's been in the ministry a bit for a while. He's you know it to me it it takes me back to what you said in the Hebrews when when I talked about Machedek and said it was Jesus.
SPEAKER_00That was fantastic. Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_01So for Paul, yeah, he read about Machessedek, yeah, and then he figured out it was Jesus. Yeah. So he's just going mind-blown. Right. And so you think about all the places from Genesis to Malachi, and he went, Oh, there's Jesus.
SPEAKER_00There's Jesus again.
SPEAKER_01There's Jesus in Genesis, there's Jesus in Exodus, there's Jesus in every single book. I never saw Jesus.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah. Never saw the person.
SPEAKER_01No, and that's why he says, boy, it was such a mystery, namely Christ.
SPEAKER_00Right. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01I miss Jesus in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00And how often do we do that? How often do we miss Jesus in in our daily uh activities or whatever that we're doing? We miss Jesus because we're not focused on him. We're not looking. No, we're not. Oh, that's so good. Um, so the reason I think this matters, and we're talking about this, why he keep brings it up again, is that these false teachers in Colossi were just they were offering some kind of higher knowledge, is what I read.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Uh or deeper secrets. Yeah. Uh or special insight. And and Paul's telling him, no, you all you need to know is Christ. That's it. And and that's a lesson for us.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, Colossi is in Turkey, you know, if we're going to look at the map today. Uh, but the the Greek influence, which is very, you know, more philosophy driven, uh, permeated. I mean, so uh there was a lot of people that were trying to take worldly ideas and overlay them onto what Christianity is. Right. And so he is saying, look, everything you need is in Christ.
SPEAKER_00Everything you need is in Christ. That's exactly right. You don't need any kind of spiritual upgrade. It's it's kind of like someone searching the whole house looking for their glasses.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And they're on top of their head.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00Just just look for just Jesus on top of your head. Yeah. That's all you need. That's really have you ever done that? Have you ever looked for glasses and they were on top of your head?
SPEAKER_01Uh similar things. Uh I was talking to Hank on my cell phone and getting ready to go. Yeah. And I I couldn't go because I couldn't find my cell phone. But you were on the phone with Hank. Yeah, well, okay. You know, I was slow. Yeah. I did catch up. Oh, okay. Well, good. But it's like it's like, oh, well, no one I can't find my cell phone. I'm talking.
SPEAKER_00I'm on the cell phone. Yeah. Oh my goodness. Verse uh four, let's move on. I tell you this so that no one may be s deceive you by fine-sounding arguments. Boy, does that sound it's just as prevalent today as it was in his day. Fine-sounding arguments. Yeah. There are people out there that uh well, you know, if you use the prosperity gospel, for example, you know, uh, that if you believe in Jesus, you're gonna be rich. Yeah. You know, and and they're they're preaching that. You can want you turn on your TV and you can see that happening. Yeah. So I I think again, it's just a a matter of getting back to Jesus, is what I think.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you know, and I the Holy Spirit gives us the gift of discernment, which says, you know, I I think that's you know, sounds good, or I don't think that sounds good. Right. You know, and so I think every Christian should be able to hit this little b pause button and say, I I'm not sure about that. Right. I don't know if that's biblical. You know, one of the things we we print a note-taking sheet, and I want to make sure everyone has every scripture verse I use in my message so that if they're not sure what it was, they can go back and look it up. Right. You know, I I I want my message to be scrutinized. And I I try to say this is what the Bible says, and then if I have a Peter opinion, this I think this is what I think. Right. Because I don't wanna I don't want to state my thoughts, my opinions, you know, they're different than what I think this is what the Bible says. Right. And so, you know, and and I like that he says fine-sounding arguments. So he says, you know, even if it's a great presentation, it's a PowerPoint, and you know, slides, and boy, it's really slick. Being slick doesn't make it right. No, it's it's just so true. It's slick. That's all it does. Yeah. And so there's a lot of things, especially like you say, with the prosperity gospel, it it tickles our ears. Oh, I like that. That sounds good. You know, I'm gonna drive a new car and I'm gonna have a bigger house, and I'm not gonna worry about my debt, and I'm never gonna have a health problem. It's like, oh, I want that. Sign me up for that. Sure. That's not what scripture says. Again, he talks about suffering. You know, right. He talks about the afflictions that Christ went through. And so who do we think we are that we're gonna be blessed beyond measure because he just God's got all these riches and he just wants to pour them out on us.
SPEAKER_00Just pour them out on us for nothing. You know, these this uh these fine-sounding arguments uh makes me think of the scams that happen in our today's. Oh boy, yeah. You know, it it's just so sad that that people get caught up in that. And you know, everybody it's so easy.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00It's so easy to get caught up in that because y you can get a uh an email, for example, that's got the exact logo. Yeah, it's got it's got the wording that sounds correct, um, it's in a very polite tone. I mean, it looks legit. Yeah. And you know, it's it's almost believable. And when you look at it real close, if you click that button, yeah, you're going to uh some foreign website that could take every dime you have. Um so I think that's what Paul's talking about here. He's talking about these fine-sounding arguments, they're they're very close to being scamming. Right. If you want to get it to today's vernacular, yes. Because it's it's intent to take you away from the original logo or whatever. Yeah, you are exactly right. So there you go. So verse five says, For though I am absent from you in the body, I am present with you in spirit. Now I love that this what he's written right here. Yeah. I love the thing that the fact that he has never met these people and he's praying for these people because he gets excited about it, and he says, Uh, though I'm absent from you in the body, I am present with you in the spirit.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you know, it there's nothing better than face to face, just just being with people. But especially today, I mean, we've got some advantages Paul never had. Exactly. You know, with social media and cell phones and all that, we can stay connected and not have to be physically in the room with each other. And so, but Paul makes a great point. We can we can literally fall on our knees and pray for missionaries we don't even know halfway around the world. Right. We've never met them, we don't know what their issue is today, but God does. Exactly. And so that's what Paul's talking about in verse five is we can be so connected with brothers and sisters in Christ that we've never met and empower them because the of the connection we have through the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00Oh, that's so good. And then he goes on to say there that he delights in how disciplined they are and how firm their faith is in Christ. Um you think about that discipline, you think of a uh a military, that's not like a military term, it's an orderly formation. Yeah. Um, so it's it's it's very, very solid. And so, you know, I just think this, I think it's just fantastic that he's excited about how disciplined they are and how firm in the faith that they are in Jesus. Right. Because that's what it's gonna take to beat these scammers.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you know, Paul he does the carrot and the stick. So, you know, he did the stick earlier, it's like, you know, you're listening to some false teachers and and you're being deceived, but I feel like you're disciplined and you're firm in the faith, and you're gonna you're gonna find your way through this.
SPEAKER_00Right. And so he gives them both. He does. I like the carrot and the stick there. That's exactly what it's like. Yeah. Oh my goodness. Well, that's gonna wrap up uh this first five verses uh of Ephesians chapter two. Colossians. What did I say? You said Ephesians. Oh, well. I had to correct you there. I'm glad you did because we're not in Ephesians. We've done Ephesians. We have done Ephesians. And if you have not listened to that series, it's really good. Yeah. They're prior episodes. We're in Colossians. We are? Okay, so I'm glad you corrected me. Thank you so much for listening. I'm Robert Twakefield. I'm Peter Searson. And we uh hope that you enjoyed today's episode, and God bless you.