Sermon Discussion Questions
READ Colossians 1:24-29
- You get the sense reading this part of Colossiansthat Paul’s Christian life was very difficult, involving a lot of suffering. If you knew that the life Christ was calling you to was going to be difficult, would you still want to live it? If so, why?
- (24b) What does Paul mean that He is “filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions”? Does this mean that the Cross was in some way lacking for us? Looking back through this first chapter can you find evidence that this is not the case?
- Paul seems to have had a unique role which involved suffering for Jesus. READ Acts 9:16. He says that the suffering he has been given is “for the sake of His body…to make the word of God fully known”? What do you think he means?
- (27) Paul talks about a “mystery” here. He doesn’t mean a hidden secret but instead an open one. “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” How can Christ be in you, and what is “the glory” to which this fact points?
- Looking back over these five verses there is a lot of struggle and suffering alongside a lot of rejoicing and glory. How could both those realities be true for Paul because of Jesus? How can they be true for you?
- Pray for someone you know who is going through a particularly tough time right now but who is hanging onto “the hope of glory.”
- Pray for yourself that even through your difficulties and your response to them in hope and joy, the name of Jesus would go greater.