Our Omnipotent Leader

Our Omnipotent Leader

(No. 2465)

A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, MAY 17, 1896.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, APRIL
29, 1886.

"And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, All power is given to Me in
Heaven and on earth." Matthew 28:18.

I INTEND chiefly to call your attention to this verse, but it will also
be necessary to refer to the rest of the chapter–"Go, therefore, and
teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all things that I
have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even to the end of
the world. Amen"

Our Savior was always with His disciples until the time of His death.
After His resurrection He was with them often, but not always. He came
and He went mysteriously–the doors being shut, He was suddenly there
when they least looked for him. Or He appeared to them as they walked
by the way, or while they were fishing, or when they came to the
mountain in Galilee, the appointed rendezvous. On this particular
occasion–I am not quite sure whether it was when only the eleven were
gathered together, or that more memorable occasion when He spoke to
over 500 brethren at once, which many who have well studied the passage
think is more probable–at any rate, on this occasion, the Savior made
Himself very much at home with His disciples. According to the most
proper translation of the text, "Jesus came and talked to them." There
was a holy familiarity in His communications with His disciples. He
spoke to them as a friend. He came into close contact with them in
friendliest familiarity. The glory of that time to them was that He was
there and that He spoke with them! It does not matter where it was, He
was there, and wherever He pleases to be the center of the group, there
is sure to be a memorable gathering. Brothers and Sisters, I wish that
we were always on the lookout for our Lord. I am afraid that in our
assemblies we often think and say, "So-and-So was there, and
such-and-such a minister spoke to us." But the best meeting is when
Christ is there and when He, Himself, by His Divine Spirit, speaks
familiarly to our souls!

Notice what it was about which our Lord spoke to His disciples. He was
going away from them. His bodily Presence would no longer be enjoyed by
His followers until He should so come in like manner as they were to
see Him go up into Heaven. But His last talk, or one of the last talks
He ever had with them before His ascension, was about Himself and His
work. It was a time of taking them into His secret, explaining to them
the partnership which the Father had established between Him and them,
and making them to know the fellowship with the Father and with His Son
Jesus Christ which was now to cover the whole of their lives. You see,
He begins by speaking to them about His own power–"All power is given
to Me in Heaven and on earth." We are not fit to go out to work for
Christ till we truly know Him, ourselves, and also know something of
the Divine power which He is prepared to give to us. It is well for us
to learn the lesson, ourselves, before we attempt to teach it to
others. Go not out to all nations till you have first gone into your
closet and had fellowship with the Master, Himself! You will blunder in
your errand unless you go forth fresh from His blessed Presence.

Then, what were they to do but to act for Him? "Go, therefore, and
teach all nations." They were to teach those nations only about Him! He
was to be the great Subject of all their teaching. The correct word is,
"disciple all nations." They were to disciple them, not to make them
their own disciples, but His disciples. He was to still be the Teacher,
the Rabbi, the Master–they were only to go forth to do His work, not
their own. Brothers, we must not try to form a party of which we shall
be the head. We must abhor the very thought of any such action! We must
gather the nations to Him! Otherwise, we are not His servants, we are
our own servants, or rather, our own masters. We are renegades and
disloyal if we do that. "Go, therefore, and disciple all nations," was
the command of Jesus Christ to His disciples.

And they were to baptize those who were made disciples, but it was to
be in His name, in association with that of the Father and of the Holy
Spirit. He who is not, as a Believer, baptized into the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ, is not baptized at all! The name of Christ is
inseparably linked with those who are baptized according to the
Scriptural fashion. So, you see, whether it is preaching, or whether it
is discipling, or whether it is baptizing–we must keep close to
Christ. It is all along that line we preach Him, we make disciples for
Him, we baptize in His name.

And when those who were made disciples were baptized, what was to be
done next? "Teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded
you." The shepherding of the sheep must still be in our Lord's name! We
do not found a church in any other name but His. Neither do we know any
rule or order or book of discipline but that which He has left us. He,
alone, is King in Zion, and only what He teaches is authoritative. The
explanations given by His servants we must judge by the tests He has
given to us–but the Word of the Master is to be obeyed and accepted in
its entirety. "Teaching them to observe all things that I have
commanded you." O Brothers and Sisters, there is no true work done for
Christ unless we always put Him in His right place and keep ourselves
in our right places–Himself the Omnipotent Leader and Commander of His
people–and ourselves His servants in all things, seeking even in the
smallest matters to be obedient to His revealed will!

Do not fail to notice that all this is to be done in association with
Himself–"Lo, I am with you always." "It is not enough that you preach
My Gospel, baptize in My name, teach all nations that I am the Lord and
Master of the house and bid them all obey My will–you must also always
have Me at your side. You will do nothing worth doing. You will spend
your life in failure unless you keep up perpetual communion with Me.
'Lo, I am with you always.'" This must be the case with us till this
dispensation closes and it shall only close by our being with Christ in
a still higher sense. We shall then go from His being with us to our
being with Him–from spiritual fellowship to an actual, visible,
corporeal fellowship! We shall be like He when we shall see Him as He
is. He shall stand in the latter day upon the earth! He shall reign
gloriously among His ancients and, until then, it is our privilege to
abide at His side and never venture to go forth unless we feel that He
goes with us, making our preaching and teaching in His name to be of
effect upon the hearts and consciences of men.

I have missed my purpose in this preface if I have not brought out this
line of thought–that if any of us would receive a commission for
Christian service, it must come from Christ Himself! If we would carry
out that commission, it must be in loyalty to Christ! And if we hope to
succeed in that commission, it must be in a perpetual, personal
fellowship with Christ! We must begin to work with Him and go on
working with Him, and never cease to work until He, Himself, shall come
to discharge us from the service because there is no further need of
it! Oh, that we did all our Church work in the name of the great Head
of the Church! Oh, that we did all Christ's work consciously in the
Presence and in the strength of Christ!

Still only introducing my main theme, I shall ask you for a minute or
so to consider the grand statement which our Savior made. "Jesus came
and spoke to them, saying, All power is given to Me in Heaven and on
earth."

"All power." Read it, if you like, "all authority." It is not so much
force that is meant, as moral power. Christ at this moment possesses a
royal authority–by might, it is true–but chiefly by right. His is the
power which comes of His merits, of His glorious Nature and of the gift
of the Divine Spirit who rests upon Him without measure. The word we
translate, "power," has a wider meaning than that–you find a good
instance of it in John 1:12–"As many as received Him, to them gave He
power to become the sons of God," where the word, "power," might be
rendered, "privilege," or, "right," or, "liberty," and yet be also
correctly translated, "power." Christ at this moment has all rights in
Heaven and on earth! He has all sovereignty and dominion and, of
course, He has all the might which backs up His right. But it is not
mere power in the sense offorce–it is not the dynamite power in which
earthly kings delight. It is another and a higher kind of force which
Christ has, even the Divine energy of love. He possesses at this moment
all authority in Heaven and on earth.

"All power," He says, "is given to Me." That is to say, He has it now.
You and I are not sent out to preach the Gospel in order to get power
for Christ–He has it now! We are not sent out, as we sometimes say, to
win the world for Christ–in the strictest sense, it is His now! He is
the King of Glory at this very moment! He is, even now, Lord Over All,
King of Kings and Lord of Lords! All authority is given to Him. I shall
not try to explain the particular time when it was given, but I remind
you that it has been given. That great act is accomplished! Our Lord
Jesus holds in His hand the scepter which gives Him power over all
flesh that He may give eternal life to as many as the Father has given
Him. He already has in His hand that scepter with which He shall break
the nations as with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces as a potter's
vessel! He has not to go up to His Throne–He is already enthroned. He
has not to be crowned–He is already crowned, as we have said, King of
Kings and Lord of Lords!

"All power is given to Me." This is not merely the power which Christ
possesses naturally by His Godhead, or a power which could be compassed
entirely by His Manhood, for that must necessarily be limited. But it
is a power which can be contained within that blessed complex Person,
the Christ of God. It is as the God-Man, the Mediator between God and
men, that all might is bestowed upon Him as the reward of the travail
of His soul–boundless authority–so that now He can say, "All power is
given to Me in Heaven and on earth."

All power "in Heaven" belongs to Christ. That is, all power with God.
You remember how Elijah prayed and opened Heaven by his prayers? The
Christ of God is greater than Elijah! You know how men of God have been
blessed with remarkable force and energy in their pleadings–but the
intercessions of Christ are more powerful than all the intercessions of
His people–yes, in one sense, they are the power that gives effect to
all the intercessions of all the saints! It is He who puts power into
them and into their petitions. Of course, as Christ has power with God,
He also has power over all the holy angels and all pure intelligences.
All power of every kind that has to do with heavenly things and
heavenly places is in the hand of Christ.

And Christ also has all power, "on earth." That is to say, He is Lord
over all the earth. "The sea is His and He made it: and His hands
formed the dry land." He is Master of all Providences–His hand always
holds the helm and steers the ship that carries His disciples. He is
Master of all kings and of all politics and when, at times, we tremble
for our beloved nation, there is no real need for us to do so. "The
Lord reigns; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of the isles be
glad thereof." Christ has all authority over all the sons of men and
all the forges of nature. From the stars that light up the brow of
midnight, to the deepest law that works in the heart of the earth, the
Lord Jesus Christ is Master of them all! All power, He says, is given
to Him in Heaven and on earth! This is a statement which would need a
far fuller explanation than I can give it in the time at my disposal
just now–I want, rather, to make use of it in this way.

I. First of all, let me say of this statement of our Lord–"All power
is given to Me in Heaven and on earth"–that WE GREATLY REJOICE IN IT.

I do not know that our Divine Master could have said anything to us
that would have made our hearts thrill with a sweeter delight than we
derive from these words–"All power is given to Me." Beloved, do you
not wish all power to be given to Him whom we love? I confess that
nothing makes me rejoice more than the fact that He reigns. I do not
feel any sorrow so much as the sorrow of seeing His Truth trod in the
mire and I know no joy that ever thrills my soul like that of knowing
that Jesus is still set as King upon the holy hill of Zion, that He
still reigns and that, "He must reign till He has put all enemies under
His footstool." Is there any power you would like to keep back from
Him? Is there any power you would like to invest in someone else? Is it
not the delight of your soul to think that He could say, even when He
dwelt here among men, before He had ascended to the Father, while yet
He talked as others talked with His poor disciples, "All power is given
to Me in Heaven and on earth"? Do we not feel ready to shout,
"Hallelujah! Hallelujah!" when we know that this is really the fact?

We delight also, dear Friends, to know that all power is in the hands
of Christ because we are sure that it will be rightly used. Power in
the hands of some people is dangerous, but power in the hands of Christ
is blessed. Oh, let Him have all power! Let Him do what He will with
it, for He cannot will anything but that which is right, just, true and
good. Give Him unbounded sovereignty! We want no limited monarchy when
Christ is King! No, put every crown on that dear head and let Him have
unrestricted sway, for there is none like He. He is more glorious than
all the sons of men and it is our joy to know that all power is given
to Him in Heaven and on earth!

This also furnishes us with good reasons for often going to Him. I love
to think that all power is in Him and none in me, for now I cannot stay
away from Him. I am obliged to knock at His door and if He asks me why
I come so often, I must answer, "It cannot be helped, my Lord, for all
power is with You! If I had power to provide for myself, I might try to
do so, but since, without You, I would die of hunger, I must come to
You for every meal and every snack, yes, for every breath and every
pulse." Yes, it is even so because all power is given to Christ that we
rejoice that we may always go to

Him! Will you chide a babe because it longs for its mother's breast?
How can it live without its natural nourishment? And can you chide our
feebleness because it loves to hang upon the Omnipotence of Christ?

We are glad, again, that all power is given to Him because He is so
easy of access. It is difficult for those in need to speak with kings,
but it is not difficult for them to tell their needs to the King of
Kings! It is not easy to present a petition to an earthly prince, but
it is very different with those who have requests to bring to the
Prince Immanuel–His door is always open to suppliants and His ear and
heart are always ready to listen to their supplications. Call upon Him
when you will, He will never repel you! Come to His strength whenever
you may–that strength will flow out to your weakness and make you
strong in the Lord and in the power of His might! I leave that first
thought with you–we rejoice that all power is given to Christ.

II. Secondly, WE SEE THE PRACTICAL OUTCOME OF THIS TRUTH. "All power is
given to Me in Heaven and on earth. Go, therefore."

I have met with some Brothers and Sisters who have tried to read the
Bible the wrong way upwards. They have said, "God has a purpose which
is certain to be fulfilled. Therefore we will not budge an inch. All
power is in the hands of Christ. Therefore we will sit still." But that
is not Christ's way of reading the passage! It is, "All power is given
to Me, therefore go, you, and do something." "But, Lord, what do You
want from us when You have all power? We are such poor, insignificant,
useless creatures that we shall be sure to make a muddle of anything we
attempt." "No," says the Master, "all power is given to Me, therefore
go." He puts us on the go because He has all power! I know that with
many of us there is a tendency to sit down and say, "All things are
wrong. The world gets darker and darker and everything is going to the
bad." We sit and fret together in most delightful misery and try to
cheer each other downwards into greater depths of despair! Do we not
often act thus? Alas, it is so and we feel happy to think that other
people will blend in blessed harmony of misery with us in all our
melancholies! Or if we do stir ourselves a little, we feel that there
is not much good in our service and that very little can possibly come
of it. This message of our Master seems to me to be something like the
sound of a trumpet. I have given you the strains of a dulcimer, but now
there rings out the clarion note of a trumpet! Here is the power to
enable you to "go." Therefore, "go" away from your dunghills, away from
your ashes and your dust. Shake yourselves from your melancholy! The
bugle calls, "Boot and saddle! Up and away!" The battle has begun and
every good soldier of Jesus Christ must be to the front for His Captain
and His Lord. Because all power is given to Christ, He passes on that
power to His people and sends them forth to battle and to victory!

Yet is there another note in this trumpet call. "All power is given to
Me, go, therefore"–"Go you." Who is to go out of that first band of
disciples? Is it Peter, the rash and the headstrong? Is it John, who
sometimes wishes to call fire from Heaven to destroy men? Is it Philip,
with whom the Savior has been so long and yet he has not known Him? Is
it Thomas, who must put His finger into the print of the nails or he
will not believe Him? Yet the Master says to them, "Go you; all power
is given to Me, therefore go. You are as good for My purpose as anybody
else would be. There is no power in you, I know, but then all power is
in Me, therefore go." "Go, you worm, Jacob, and thresh the mountains,
for I have made you a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth. Go
in all your weakness, for this is your might–the might that dwells in
Me! Go and teach all nations. Poor, weak, feeble, faulty, yet go
because I have all the power you can possibly need."

"Go, go," says Christ. "But, Lord, if we go to men, they will ask for
our passports." "Take them," He says, "all authority is given to Me in
Heaven and earth. You are free of Heaven and you are free of earth.
There is no place–whether it is in far-off Ethiopia, or in the deserts
of Scythia, or in the center of Rome–there is no place where you may
not go! There are your passports–'All authority is given to Me,
therefore go.'" "But, Lord, we need more than passports, we need a
commission." "Here is your commission," says the Lord–'all power is
given to Me'–and I delegate it to you. I have authority and I give you
authority. Go, therefore, because I have the authority. Go and teach
princes and kings and beggars–teach them all alike. I ordain you, I
authorize you! As many of you as know Me and have My love shed abroad
in your hearts, I commission you to go and–

'Tell to sinners round

What a dear Savior you have found.'

And if they ask how you dare to do it, tell them not that the bishop
ordained you, or that a synod licensed you, but that all power is given
to your Master in Heaven and on earth and you have come in His name!"
And nobody may say no to you.

"Moreover," says the Master, "/ send you with My power gone before you"
Observe that, for I bring it, again, to your recollection. Christ does
not say, "Go and win the power for Me on earth. Go and get power for Me
among the sons of men." No, but, "All authority and power are already
vested in Me. Therefore go. I send you to a country which is not an
alien kingdom–I send you to a country which is Mine–for all souls are
Mine. If you go to the Jews or to the Gentiles, they are Mine. If it is
to India or China that you go, you need not ask any man's leave–you
are in your own King's country, you are on your own King's errand–you
have your own King's power going before you."

I believe that, often, when missionaries go to a country, they have
rather to gather ripe fruit than to plant trees. As the Lord sent the
hornets to clear the way for the children of Israel, so does He
oftentimes send singular changes– political, social and
religious–before the heralds of the Cross to prepare the way for them!
And this is the message which sounds with clear clarion note to all the
soldiers of King Jesus, "I have all authority in Heaven and on earth,
therefore, without misgivings or questionings, go and evangelize all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit."

Thus, first, we rejoice in this grand statement of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and next, we see the practical outcome of it.

III. Thirdly, and very briefly, WE FEEL THE NEED OF IT.

Oh, Brothers and Sisters, if anybody in this place knows the power
which is in Christ to make his ministry of any use, I am sure that I
do! I scarcely ever come into this pulpit without bemoaning myself that
I should ever be called to a task for which I seem more unfit than any
other man that was ever born! Woe is me that I should have to preach a
Gospel which so overmasters me and which I feel that I am so unfit to
preach! Yet I could not give it up, for it were a far greater woe to me
not to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ! Unless the Holy Spirit
blesses the Word, we who preach the Gospel are, of all men, most
miserable, for we have attempted a task that is impossible–we have
entered upon a sphere where nothing but the supernatural will ever
avail! If the Holy Spirit does not renew the hearts of our hearers, we
cannot do it! If the Holy Spirit does not regenerate them, we cannot!
If He does not send the Truth of God home into their souls, we might as
well speak into the ear of a corpse! All that we have to do is quite
beyond our unaided power–we must have our Master with us, or we can do
nothing! We deeply feel our need of this great Truth of God–we not
merely say it, but we are driven every day, by our own deep sense of
need, to rejoice that our Lord has declared, "All power is given to Me
in Heaven and on earth," for we need all power! Every kind of power
that there is in Heaven and on earth we shall need before we can fully
discharge this ministry. Before the nations shall all be brought to
hear the Gospel of Christ, before testimony to Him shall be borne in
every land, we shall need the whole Omnipotence of God! We shall need
every forge in Heaven and earth before this is done! Thank God that
this power is all laid by ready for our use–the strength that is equal
to such a stupendous task as this is already provided!

IV. I must pass over much that I might have dwelt upon and say, in the
next place, WE BELIEVE THIS TEXT AND WE REST IN IT. "All power is given
to Me in Heaven and on earth."

We believe in this power and we rest in it. We do not seek any other
power. There is a craving, often, after great mental power–people want
"clever" men to preach the Gospel. Ah, Sirs, I fear that the Gospel has
suffered more damage from clever men than from anything else! I
question whether the devil, himself, has ever worked so much mischief
in the Church of God as clever men have done! No, we want to have such
mental vigor as God pleases to give us, but we remember that text, "Not
by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord." The world is
not going to be saved by worldly wisdom or by fine oratory–brilliant
speeches and poetic periods win not souls for Christ! The power to do
this is the power that is in Christ. And the Church of God, when she is
in her right senses, does not look for any other power. I mean that she
does not cringe before kings and princes, and cry, "Establish us, endow
us!" It is an old fiction that the royal touch can cure "the king's
evil." But it is an old fact that the king's hand brings an evil
whenever it is laid upon the Church of Christ by way of patronage. No,
kings and queens, we can do without you! If you will come to Jesus'
feet as humble suppliants, you shall be saved even as your subjects
are, but the Church of God has a Kingdom that is not of this world and
needs no help whatever from the kingdoms of this world. All power for
the extension of the Kingdom of

Christ is in Himself–His own Person sustains His own Kingdom and we
will not go to any other fountain of authority to draw the power we
need. The Church of Christ must always say to Him, "All my fresh
springs are in You."

And, dear Friends, we believe and rest in this Truth, defying every
other power. Every other power that can be conceived of may set itself
against the Kingdom of Christ, but it does not matter! No, not one
whistle of the wind, for all power is already in Christ, and that which
seems to oppose His Kingdom must be but the mere empty name of power.
There can be no real power about it, for all power is in Him–both in
Heaven and on earth!

This being so, we rest quite sure that even our infirmities will not
hinder the progress of His Kingdom. No, rather, we glory in our
infirmities, for now the power of Christ will become more conspicuous!
The less we have by which the Kingdom might be supposed to be extended,
the more clearly will it be seen that the Kingdom is extended by the
power of the King, Himself.

At the same time, all power that we have, we give to Him, because all
power is His and all power that we ever possess, we lay it under
tribute for Him. Whatever is of good, or of brightness, or of light, or
of knowledge in this world, we say, "It all belongs to Jesus." And we
set the broad arrow of our great King upon it and claim it as His.

O dear Friends, why are we ever cast down? Why do we ever begin to
question the ultimate success of the good cause? Why do we ever go home
with aching head and palpitating heart because of the evils of the day?
Courage, my Brethren, courage! The King has all power, it is impossible
to defeat Him! A standard-bearer fell, just now, I know, and across the
battlefield I see the clouds of smoke. The right wing of our army may
be shattered for a moment, but the King in the center of the host still
rides upon the white horse of victory–and He has but to will it, He
has but to speak a single word– and the enemy shall be driven away
like chaff before the wind!

V. Lastly, and here I should have liked to have had much time, but I
can only hint at what I would have said. If it is so that all authority
is given to Christ in Heaven and on earth, then WE MUST OBEY IT.

Christ says, "Go." Then, let us go at once, according to His Word, in
the track which God's own hand marks out for us! Let us go and disciple
all nations! Let us tell them that they are to learn of Christ and that
they are to be obedient to His will. Let us also baptize those who
become His disciples, as He bids us do–"baptizing them in the name of
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."

Next, let us be loyal to Him in all things and let us train up His
disciples in loyalty to Him–"teaching them to observe all things that
I have commanded you." As He has all authority, let us not intrude
another authority. Let us keep within the Master's House and seek to
know the Master's mind, to learn the Master's will, to study the
Master's Book, to receive the Master's Spirit and let these be dominant
over all other power. And all the while let us endeavor to keep in
fellowship with Him–"Lo, I am with you always." Let us never go away
from Him. Because all authority is given to Him, let us keep close by
His side. Let us be the yeomen of His guard. Let us be the servants who
unloose the laces of His shoes, who bring water for His feet and who
count ourselves highly honored to do so. "Lo, I am with you always," He
says, so let us always be with Him.

And let us always keep expecting Him to return. The last words of the
chapter suggest this thought–"even to the end of the world," or, "of
the age." You know that this age is to end with a glorious beginning of
a brighter and better age. Therefore let us keep looking for it.
Servants, you will not serve well unless you expect your Master's
return! If you say, "He delays His coming," you may begin to eat,
drink, and to be drunk, and to beat your fellow servants. Let the
expectation of your Lord's return always keep you on tiptoe, with your
lamps trimmed and your lights burning, for, perhaps this very night
there may be heard in our streets, the cry, "Behold the Bridegroom
comes! Go out to meet Him!" May we all be so ready that this cry would
be the sweetest music that our ears could ever hear! God bless you,
Beloved, for Christ's sake! Amen.

HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"–775, 340, 324.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: COLOSSIANS1.

Verses 1-2. Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and
Timothy our brother, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ
which are at Colosse: Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul begins with a salutation in which he
wishes the Colossian Christians the best of all blessings. It is the
very spirit of our holy religion to wish well to others and I am sure
that we cannot have a better wish for our dearest friends than this,
"Grace be to you, and peace." Grace will save you–peace will make you
know that you are saved. Grace is the root of every blessing–peace is
the sweet flower that makes life so sweet and so fragrant. May you have
both of these blessings "from God our Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ"! There is no peace for you apart from this blessed
combination–God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, may
you know your adoption and may you know your redemption!

3, 4. We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus.
We are not only to pray for those who have no faith, but the very fact
that men have faith should lead us to pray for them. Where there is
evidently life in the seed and it begins to sprout, let us water it
with our prayers and with our thanks, too. "We give thanks to God and
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we
heard of your faith in Christ Jesus"–

4, 5. And of the love which you have to all the saints, for the hope
which is laid up for you in Heaven, whereof you heard before in the
Word of the truth of the Gospel. "Faith"–"love"–"hope"–these are
three Divine sisters which should always go hand in hand. We must never
be satisfied unless we see in ourselves and in our fellow-Christians
these three delightful fruits of the Spirit of God! Notice the order
here–faith, love and then hope. Perhaps the Colossians were a little
deficient in this last Grace, so the Apostle prayed constantly for
them, "for the hope which is laid up for you in Heaven, whereof you
heard before in the Word of the truth of the Gospel."

6. Which is come to you, as it is in all the world, and brings forth
fruit, as it does also in you, since the day you heard of it, and knew
the Grace of God in truth. We do not know the Grace of God in truth
unless it brings forth fruit in us! We may know it with the head very
correctly, but yet we do not truly know it unless it is knowledge in
the heart, knowledge in the inner man. We do not really know it unless
it affects our lives and brings forth faith love, hope–faith, which
lifts us above the world. Love, which preserves us from selfishness.
And hope which keeps us up under all trials.

7, 8. As you also learned of Epaphras our dear fellow servant, who is
for you a faithful minister of Christ; who also declared to us your
love in the Spirit. I like to read of these godly men speaking well of
one another. Nowadays, it is thought to be a distinguishing mark of
faithfulness to be able to pick holes in the coats of our fellow
Christians. Now, we cannot help perceiving their defects and,
sometimes, it is our duty to speak of them–and to speak of them
faithfully–but let us also observe all the virtues that are to be
found in them, otherwise we may despise the work of the Holy Spirit and
rob Him of His Glory! How kindly Paul speaks of Epaphras, and how
kindly Epaphras speaks of the Church at Colosse!

9. For this cause we, also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to
pray for you, and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge
of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. If you have the
Graces of the Spirit, it is important that they should be deepened,
that they should grow through being fed with Divine nourishment. What
the water is to the plant, making it further to develop itself, that is
the knowledge of God's will to our gifts and Graces–they grow and
become fruitful through an increase in the knowledge of God.

10-14. That you might walk worthy of the Lord to all pleasing, being
fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;
strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, to all
patience and longsuffering with joy-fulness; giving thanks to the
Father, which has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of
the saints in light: who has delivered us from the power of darkness,
and has translated us into the Kingdom of His dear Son: in whom we have
redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins. Now the
Apostle is handling the string he most delights to touch! He is at home
with everything which concerns the welfare of saints, but when he
begins to talk of his Lord and Master, then it is that he seems to ride
in a chariot of fire with horses of fire–and he grows mightily
eloquent under the Inspiration of the Spirit of God! See how he talks
of the great central Truth of God of the atoning Sacrifice–"In whom we
have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins."

15-18. Who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every
creature, for by Him were all things created, that are in Heaven, and
that are in earth; visible and invisible, whether they are thrones, or
dominions, or principalities or powers: all things were created by Him,
and for Him: and He is before all things, and by Him all things
consist. And He is the Head of the body. Note how Paul harps upon that
one string, "He." See how much He dwells upon the Divine Person of the
blessed Lord Jesus Christ. He will never have done praising Him! He
keeps on heaping up epithets to magnify that blessed name and he truly
was in the Spirit of God when he did this, for it is the work of the
Spirit to glorify Jesus Christ. He makes Him great in our hearts and
then we try to make Him great by our words and by our acts.

18-22. The church: who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead;
that in all things He might have the preeminence. For it pleased the
Father that in Him should all fullness dwell; and, having made peace
through the blood of His Cross, by Him to reconcile all things to
Himself; by Him, I say, whether they are things in earth, or things in
Heaven. And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind
by wicked works, yet now has He reconciled in the body of His flesh
through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in
His sight. O, Beloved, as the sun is to be seen mirrored, not only in
the face of the great deep, but in every little drop of dew that hangs
upon each blade of grass, so is the glory of Christ to be seen, not
only in His universal Church, but in every separate individual in whom
His Spirit has worked holiness!

23. If you continue in the faith grounded and settled, and are not
moved away from the hope of the Gospel, which you have heard, and which
was preached to every creature which is under Heaven; of which I, Paul,
am made a minister. How delighted he is to have such a Gospel to
preach, such a hope to tell to the sons of men! Oh, if we had to creep
from a sick bed, or to come up from a dungeon–if we were aching in
every bone of our body and if we were depressed in soul–this ought to
be enough to make us full of gladness to overflowing, that we have such
a Christ to preach and such fullness of blessing to declare to the sons
of men!

24. I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh
what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for His body's sake,
which is the Church. As if there were so much suffering to be endured
to bring in the redeemed from the world and so much self-sacrifice to
be made in order that those whom Christ has redeemed may come to know
of that redemption and may be brought to Him. And Paul was glad to make
up that which was lacking of the afflictions of Christ in his flesh,
"for His body's sake, which is the Church"–

25. Of which I am made a minister. This is a wonderful expression,
"made a minister." The true minister is of God's making! A man-made
minister must be a poor creature, but a God-made minister will prove
his calling–"of which I am made a minister"–

25-27. According to the dispensation of God which is given to me for
you, to fulfill the Word of God; even the mystery which has been hid
from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to His saints:
to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this
mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of Glory.
"Christ in you" is Glory begun, a sure pledge and earnest of a Glory
greater than you can yet conceive! If He is in you, you have the
beginnings of Heaven! You have, in fact, the excellence and flower of
Heaven, for there is no Heaven but the Glory of Christ.

28, 29. Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in
all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:
whereunto I also labor, striving according to His working, which works
in me mightily. If God's people strive mightily, it is because God
works mightily in them! Nothing can come out of a man but what God puts
into Him. We work to will and to do when He works in us according to
His good pleasure. Oh, for more of the agonizing of the Spirit within
us, that there might be more of agonizing in our spirits for the Glory
of God!