Colossians: Realistic Expectations... or... How Not to Be Shocked

Rejoicing and suffering seem to not fit together: but Paul experienced both, as he emphatically expressed to the Colossians, as he took on the inevitable but glorious persecution all Christians must face.

John 15:18-25
Colossians 1:24-29,1:19-20,2:9-10
2 Timothy 3:12,2:8-10
Matthew 10:21-22,5:11-12
Acts 9:4-5
2 Corinthians 4:8-11,1:3-7
Philippians 3:10
1 Peter 4:12-14
Romans 8:16-18,12:21
1 Peter 3:13-14
Mark 8:36

As, therefore, Christ has suffered once in his own person, so he suffers daily in His members, and in this way there are filled up those sufferings which the Father hath appointed for his body by his decree. John Calvin John Calvin's Commentaries On St. Paul's Epistles To The Philippians

The oftener we are mowed down by you, the more in number we grow; the blood of Christians is seed. Tertullian Apology 50.13

God hath called you to Christ's side, and the wind is now in Christ's face in this land; and seeing ye are with him, ye cannot expect the lee-side or the sunny side of the brae. Samuel Rutherford The Letters of Samuel Rutherford 1600-1661

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. Jim Elliot The Journals of Jim Elliot

Sermon discussion topics for parents to use with their children:

• Why is it assumed Christians will suffer persecution?
• What is Union with Christ and how does that fit into this topic?
• Why is it important to have realistic expectations about this suffering?
• How does rejoicing fit with suffering in this text?

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Colossians: Why Me, Lord?

Why would anyone seek to reconcile with an enemy who hates them and wishes them harm? Why me, Lord? Paul is explaining to the Colossians God's amazing offer.

Colossians 1:19-22
Romans 5:9-10,8:7,8:31-32
2 Corinthians 5:18-21

This is the most wonderful scene that the universe will ever witness; a beseeching God, an imploring Savior, standing at the door of the sinner’s heart with eternal salvation in His hand, knocking for entrance and begging to be let in; the insulted Omnipotent Creator of the universe, beseeching a worm, whom an exercise of His will could sink in a moment to hell, and His justice be glorified in the act, to accept His pardoning mercy, and waiting year after year, in all longsuffering, for the sinner’s reconsideration of his obstinate refusals. Be astonished, O heaven, at God’s unutterable mercy, and be horribly afraid, O earth, at man’s indescribable wickedness. Here is the climax of God’s divine love, and man’s desperate depravity. John Angell James An Earnest Ministry

Sermon discussion topics for parents to use with their children:

• How are people enemies of God?
• Why is it amazing that God even wants to be reconciled to us?
• What is so amazing about How God reconciled us to Himself?
• Why is it amazing that God pleads with us to be reconciled to Him?
• How beloved and safe are those who are reconciled?

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Colossians: Strange Bedfellows

Suffering and joy make for strange bedfellows... how does this relationship work? Paul put them together in his prayer for the Colossians.

2 Corinthians 11:16-12:10
Colossians 1:9-12
Matthew 5:11-12
James 1:12-13
Romans 5:3-4
Hebrews 12:2
1 Peter 4:13-14
2 Corinthians 6:10
1 Thessalonians 1:6-7
Romans 8:18
Acts 5:40-41,16:25,13:50-52
Hebrews 10:32-34
Habakkuk 3:17-19

But Paul lays a harder duty on us even in promising a great gift to us, when he puts before us an ideal of joy mingling with patience and longsuffering. The command would be an impossible one if there were not the assurance that we should be 'strengthened with all might.' We plainly need an infusion of diviner strength than our own, if that strange marriage of joy and sorrow should take place, and they should at once occupy our hearts. Yet if His strength be ours we shall be strong to submit and acquiesce, strong to look deep enough to see His will as the foundation of all and as ever busy for our good, strong to hope, strong to discern the love at work, strong to trust the Father even when He chastens. And all this will make it possible to have the paradox practically realized in our own experience, 'As sorrowful yet always rejoicing.' One has seen potassium burning underwater. Our joy may burn under waves of sorrow. Let us bring our weakness to Jesus Christ and grasp Him as did the sinking Peter. He will breathe His own grace into us, and speak to our feeble and perchance sorrowful hearts, as He had done long before Paul's words to the Colossians, 'My grace is sufficient for thee, and my strength is made perfect in weakness.' Alexander Maclaren Expositions of Holy Scripture

Sermon discussion topics for parents to use with their children:

• Who are the strange bedfellows?
• Why do they seem so strange?
• What future realities should our joy be based on?
• What present realities?
• What practical impact should this have on our lives both now and in the future?

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

The Gospel in the Old Testament: The Suffering Servant

In this conclusion to discovering The Gospel in the Old Testament we see that Jesus is the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53. Why would such a glorious person to come for me? What wonder is this gospel!"

1 Peter 2:18-25
Acts 8:26-35
Isaiah 52:13-53:12
John 5:39,12:37-38,12:41
Romans 4:25
2 Corinthians 4:16

You have as much of God as you desire. If you have no more, it is because you do not desire any more. The Christian people of today, many of whom are so empty of God, are in a very tragic sense, 'full,' because they have as much as they can take in. If you bring a tiny cup, and do not much care whether anything pours into it or not, you will get it filled, but you might have had a gallon vessel filled if you had chosen to bring it. Of course there are other conditions too. We have to use the life that is given us. We have to see that we do not quench it by sin, which drives the dove of God from a man’s heart. But the great truth is that if I open the door of my heart by faith, Christ will come in, in His Spirit. If I take away the blinds the light will shine into the chamber. If I lift the sluice the water will pour in to drive my mill. If I deepen the channels, more of the water of life can flow into them, and the deeper I make them the fuller they will be.

And let us remember that, if we are full of faith, we shall be full of the Holy Spirit, and therefore full of wisdom, full of grace and power, full of goodness, full of joy, whatever our circumstances. And when death comes, though it may be in some cruel form, we shall be able to look up and see the opened heavens and the welcoming Christ. Alexander MacLaren Alexander MacLaren's Expositions of Holy Scripture

Sermon discussion topics for parents to use with their children:

• Who is the Suffering Servant?
• What stands out for you from the poetic Isaiah 53, about Jesus, His sufferings, and what He has done for us?
• Why is it a wonder that:
  1. Such a glorious person was needed to fix the problem?
  2. We would need such a substitute?
  3. Our sin would fall on such a glorious person?
  4. That He would do this for you?

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

The Gospel in the Old Testament: Photograph of the Cross

The Old Testament's Psalm 22 is quoted by Jesus on the cross, and is a powerful photograph of the sufferings Jesus willingly underwent for us. This should produce a dramatic effect upon us.

Matthew 27:15-54
Psalm 22:1-19

"Thou:" I can understand why traitorous Judas and timid Peter should be gone, but thou, my God, my faithful friend, how canst thou leave me? This is worst of all, yea, worse than all put together. Hell itself has for its fiercest flame the separation of the soul from God.

...he could only utter moanings and groanings as men do in severe sicknesses, like the roarings of a wounded animal. To what extremity of grief was our Master driven? What strong crying and tears were those which made him too hoarse for speech! What must have been his anguish to find his own beloved and trusted Father standing afar off, and neither granting help nor apparently hearing prayer! This was good cause to make him "roar."

But I am a worm, and no man. This verse is a miracle in language. How could the Lord of glory be brought to such abasement as to be not only lower than the angels, but even lower than men. What a contrast between "I AM" and "I am a worm"! yet such a double nature was found in the person of our Lord Jesus when bleeding upon the tree. He felt himself to be comparable to a helpless, powerless, down trodden worm, passive while crushed, and unnoticed and despised by those who trod upon him. He selects the weakest of creatures, which is all flesh; and becomes, when trodden upon, writhing, quivering flesh, utterly devoid of any might except strength to suffer. This was a true likeness of himself when his body and soul had become a mass of misery - the very essence of agony - in the dying pangs of crucifixion.

Turning from his enemies, our Lord describes his own personal condition in language which should bring the tears into every loving eye. I am poured out like water. He was utterly spent, like water poured upon the earth; his heart failed him, and had no more firmness in it than running water, and his whole being was made a sacrifice, like a libation poured out before the Lord. He had long been a fountain of tears; in Gethsemane his heart welled over in sweat, and on the cross he gushed forth with blood; he poured out his strength and spirit, so that he was reduced to the most feeble and exhausted state.

Thou hast brought me into the dust of death; so tormented in every single part as to feel dissolved into separate atoms, and each atom full of misery; the full price of our redemption was paid, and no part of the Surety's body or soul escaped its share of agony. The words may set forth Jesus as having wrestled with Death until he rolled into the dust with his antagonist. Behold the humiliation of the Son of God! The Lord of Glory stoops to the dust of death.

Charles Spurgeon The Treasury of David, Psalm 22

Sermon discussion topics for parents to use with their children:

• Why can Psalm 22 be called a photograph of the cross?
• What hit you as you listened to Jesus' sufferings described?
• How did the illustration of the man who went to prison for what his dog did fit into the sermon?
• Why should this all have a dramatic impact upon us that is
  1. Pervasive?
  2. Always?
  3. Forever?

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

A Prayer of God's Peace, God's Work

This simple prayer reveals a lot about God and our relationship with Him.

Hebrews 13,2:3,3:12,4:7,6:1,12:24
Philippians 4:7,3:12
Acts 11:36,4:28
Romans 5:1
John 10:11
Titus 2:13
Jeremiah 13:31
Ephesians 2:10

Yes, blood is always a ghastly and a terrible thing. It is so, I suppose, because we recognize in it the destruction of life. Is it not so, also, - though we may not be able to define the emotion, - because we are compelled, in our consciences, to admit the effect of sin, and we are staggered as we see what our sin has done. All through the great school of the Jewish law, blood was constantly used to instruct the Israelite in the guilt of sin, and in the greatness of the atonement necessary for putting it away. Charles Spurgeon The Blood of the Testament

This is an "everlasting one"; it commenced from everlasting, as appears from the everlasting love of God, which is the rise and foundation of it; from the counsels of God of old, which issued in it; from Christ's being set up from everlasting, as the Mediator of it; from the promises of it which were made before the world began; and from the spiritual blessings of grace in it, which were given to God's elect in Christ before the foundation of it: moreover, it will endure for ever; nor will it be succeeded by any other covenant: and the blood of Christ may be called the blood of it, because the shedding of it is a principal article in it; by it the covenant is ratified and confirmed; and all the blessings of it come through it, as redemption, peace, pardon, justification, and even admission into heaven itself; and Christ, through it, was brought again from the dead, because by it he fulfilled his covenant engagements, satisfied divine justice, and abolished sin, yea, death itself. John Gill John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Sermon discussion topics for parents to use with their children:

• Why does the author offer this prayer?
• How do we obtain God's peace?
• How powerful is God?
• Why was it necessary for the shedding of blood?
• Why is God considered a covenantal God?
• What heart aches have you experienced that drew you closer to God?
• How may God be working in you through your difficulties to fit you perfectly together to do His will?

Matt Courtney
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Mark: He Gave... I Give... A Guided Response

In this summary to the crucifixion we have been studying in Mark, Jesus gave Himself for our sins... when the reality of this grips a person the response is "I give myself to You".

Mark 15:21-47
Galatians 1:3-5,2:20
Titus 2:11-14
2 Corinthians 5:14-15

Sermon discussion topics for parents to use with their children:

• What does this present evil age mean?
• What is all involved in the biblical expression He gave Himself for us?
• What should our response to this be?
• Give examples of how this works out in a person's life after someone does something sacrificial for them.
• What are some of the outcomes the Bible says should happen when we grasp the significance of Him giving Himself for our sins?

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Mark: Suffering, Yet Concerned for Others

Mark tells us that Jesus revealed so much about the character of God by His concern for others during the very hours of His suffering and death.

Mark 15:20-32
Luke 23:26-43,23:47
Philippians 2:6-8
Matthew 26:53,27:44
John 19:25-27
Revelation 2:17

His own racking agony of body did not make Him forget others. The first of His seven sayings on the cross was a prayer for the souls of His murderers. J.C. Ryle

Let us see in our Lord's intersession for those who crucified Him, one more proof of Christ's infinite love to sinners. The Lord Jesus is indeed most pitiful, most compassionate, most gracious. None are too wicked for Him to care for. None are too far gone in sin for His almighty heart to take interest about their souls. He wept over unbelieving Jerusalem. He heard the prayer of the dying thief. He stopped under the tree to call the tax-collector Zaccheus. He came down from heaven to turn the heart of the persecutor Saul. He found time to pray for His murderers even on the cross. Love like this is a love that passes knowledge. The vilest of sinners have no cause to be afraid of applying to a Savior like this. If we want warrant and encouragement to repent and believe, the passage before us surely supplies enough. J.C. Ryle

One thief was saved that no sinner might despair, but only one, that no sinner might presume. J.C. Ryle

Sermon discussion topics for parents to use with their children:

• What examples does the Bible give of Jesus' concern for others while He was dying?
• Do we tend to be like this?
• Why not?
• hat do His actions tell us about the character of God?
• Why should this encourage us to come to Him?
• Why should we not delay even though the dying thief came at His final hours of life?

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Mark: Barabbas and Us

As we continue in our study of Mark, it is shocking and thrilling to come to the realization: "I am Barabbas"!

Mark 15:1-15,11:1-14:11
Acts 2:36-41
Isaiah 53:7-8

Sermon discussion topics for parents to use with their children:

• How did Jesus suffer during this scene?
• What impact does that have on you?
• Why can we say "I am Barabbas!"?
• How does his experience highlight our experience of Christ's love and sacrifice?
• How can I nurture joy, awe and thankfulness everyday based on my Barabbas like experience of Christ?
• How should this affect how I serve the cause of Christ in the world?

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Mark: Condemned For Me

The Son of God condemned to death... an innocent man executed... and how this should deeply impact us at multiple levels. Mark exposes this chilling and emotional scene.

Mark 15:1-15
John 18:28-19:6
Matthew 27:19
Acts 7:55-56
Romans 8:31-32

Sermon discussion topics for parents to use with their children:

• Why should we be shocked at a passage like this given Jesus' dignity as the Son of God?
• Why should He be more deeply endeared to us as we meditate on these scenes?
• How should this impact our relationship with God and our view of who we are?

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Mark: The Suffering Savior

Jesus suffered for us in so many ways even before the actual cross, as Mark describes this final week our hearts are moved at the love of such a willing and determined Savior.

Mark 14:43-72
Philippians 2:3-11
Galatians 2:20

Sermon discussion topics for parents to use with their children:

• In what ways did Jesus suffer in the passage today?
• Why are these events made more dramatic because of who He is as the Son of God?
• How does knowing about Jesus' suffering for us supposed to impact our lives?
• How does it affect how we approach Him now with these problems in our lives?

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

The Gospel of the Meantime - From Suffering to Glory

How should we spend the meantime -- the time between the present age and the age to come; between the resurrection of Christ and His second coming; between the suffering and the glory? Paul describes this as a time of eagerly waiting, patiently hoping, and praying.

Romans 8:15-27,5:1-2,8:1,8:11
Matthew 5:11
Psalm 130:5
Titus 2:13
2 Corinthians 4:17

Sermon discussion questions for parents to use with their children:

• Why does creation groan?
• Why are many Christian's concept of salvation too small?
• Why do Christians groan? (3 reasons)
• How do we explain the Spirit groaning?
• How are we to wait?
• How are we to live in this present age, as we wait for salvation to be completed?
• What is the source of our hope in this age of suffering?

Scott Graubard
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Bring It On... I'm Ready (A New Year's Meditation)

How can a Christian look out upon this or any year with great confidence? By the rich promises and presence of God!

Psalm 44
Romans 8:26-39

Sermon discussion questions for parents to use with their children:

• Why does this passage help us look to the New Year?
• How do all things work together for good?
• Why is it important that God is for us?
• What train are we on?
• How does God even work trials and suffering for good?

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Mark: Get Off the Fence

In this passage from Mark, Jesus is forcing the disciples off the fence and at the same time revealing some amazing things about His amazing love and willingness to sacrifice for us.

Matthew 4:8-10
Mark 8:27-38,6:14
Philippians 2:8
2 Corinthians 5:21

Sermon discussion questions for parents to use with their children:

• Why did Jesus ask the questions He asked in this text?
• Why were His words so shocking to the disciples?
• What was on Peters mind when he rebuked Jesus?
• What was on Jesus' mind when He rebuked Peter?
• Why was what Jesus did for us so great?
• Are we off the fence?

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

1 Peter: Living as a Christian in a Hostile World

We all dread persecution and suffering... it hurts, discourages and frustrates. Yet the Bible tells us to rejoice and to feel blessed?! How can we do this? Peter gives us solid reasons to help us do this very counter-intuitive thing.

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Ezekiel 9
Malachi 3:1-5
1 Peter 4:12-19,3:9,4:7,1:6-7,4:3-4
2 Timothy 3:12
James 1:2-4
John 15:18-19
Colossians 1:24
Luke 12:8-9
Romans 8:17-18
Acts 5:41
Matthew 5:11-12

Sermon discussion questions for parents to use with their children:

• How can someone rejoice during suffering?
• What are the reasons given in this passage to do this?
• How should we, as Christian, view the increasing hostility to believers in this country?
• What should our attitude be?

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

1 Peter: Persecution and Sanctification

All Christians suffer some kind of persecution. Peter has been describing how we are to handle that experience. In this text he has an interesting application: how does suffering persecution help us overcome sin??

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1 Peter 4:1-6,5:1,3:14-17,2:20-21,3:9,2:23
2 Timothy 3:12
Acts 5:41

Sermon discussion questions for parents to use with their children:

• What is the mindset we are to arm ourselves with?
• What affect does such an arming have on the person in terms of their relationship with sin?
• Did people party in Peter's day like today?
• What is the draw?
• What is the danger?
• How did suffering persecution help them resist that draw?

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

1 Peter: Godly Suffering in the Midst of Injustice

How do you feel when you are treated unjustly? How do you then respond? How does God want us to respond? The answer is surprising and hard... but the reasons that Peter give are a glorious look at Jesus.

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1 Peter 2:18-25
2 Corinthians 5:21
Isaiah 53:7
1 Corinthians 4:12-13
Matthew 5:44
Romans 12:20-21

Sermon discussion questions for parents to use with their children:

• How do we feel when we are treated unjustly?
• How does God want us to respond?
• Why is this so hard?
• What reasons does Peter give to help us to respond correctly?
• Why is Jesus our great helper in this area?

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

1 Peter: Locked on to Hope

What would you say to some folks who were under trials, perhaps homeless, lost all their possessions and even exiled to a strange land? Peter told them to lock on to Hope.

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1 Peter 1:1-13
Romans 8:24-25,12:2
1 Kings 18:46
Luke 12:35
Ephesians 4:23
Philippians 3:19
Colossians 3:1-2

Sermon discussion questions for parents to use with their children:

• How did Peter seek to encourage the hurting believers?
• Why is hope so important?
• What does gird up the loins of your mind mean?
• How practically do we do this?
• Why is it so important to win the battle for the mind?

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

1 Peter: Faith, Love, and Joy Unspeakable

Do you love Jesus? Do you and I really love Jesus? Why do you love Jesus when you haven't even seen Him? Peter says the Christian loves an unseen Jesus because he or she does see Him by faith and that leads to what he calls an unspeakable joy.

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John 21:15-17
1 Peter 1:1-9,2:7
1 Corinthians 16:22
Hebrews 11:1
2 Corinthians 4:18

Am I the soul to whom the Lord has revealed the infinite excellence of Jesus Christ, and yet shall I think such a little affliction to be so grievous to me? Jeremiah Burroughs

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

1 Peter: Elect Immigrants

Peter calls the believers Elect Immigrants!!! What a way to describe Christians. It refers to the fact that God has made us Special and Different. We will explore how God has done this and why it is so meaningful as we begin this study of 1 Peter.

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1 Peter 1:1-2,1:6,1:20,2:11-12,4:12,4:17,4:19
Matthew 7:23
Jeremiah 1:5
Galatians 4:9
2 Timothy 2:19,1:9
Romans 8:29-30
1 Corinthians 6:11
2 Thessalonians 2:13
Exodus 24:7-8

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA