Sermon Cloud

I want you to try to remember the best sermon you ever heard…

Now pretty much everyone should be able to have an answer, because unless this is absolutely your first time in a church gathering, you’ve heard a sermon, so even if last  week was your first time in a church gathering  and you’ve only heard one- you have a “best.” What was the best?

How about the second best? What about the third? It’s difficult to remember all that many, isn’t  it? And because it’s hard to remember many- we might be tempted to think that this exercise of coming, gathering, speaking, listening might not have a whole lot of impact on our lives. But I think we’d be wrong. 

What do you think the purpose of a sermon is? (and don’t worry- I’m not going to do a whole sermon on…uh… sermons)

Cool- Now, we try to teach dialectically here- that is with dialogue, and involvement by the whole community, but we still weekly go through this exercise of bringing ourselves to God’s Word, of listening to the Scriptures, of teaching one another, yes… but also being taught.

And I want to add a purpose to all the good ones that you guys mentioned- The purpose of this time, this discussion, a sermon is to help us as a community, all of us as individuals, believe the Gospel. That’s it- to point us more and more towards Christ Himself. If it does that, all the rest will fall into place.

Now let me explain that a bit…

I know that some people think- well, I believe the Gospel. I prayed a prayer when I was 5. I got a certificate when I was baptized… okay. I know what you are saying and I won’t argue with that. But it’s more than that. Believing the Gospel is a point in time decision, but it’s also a process. Like married love. Do I believe my wife loves me? Yes. Did I believe it on our wedding day? Yes- but I believe it now even more, four years on, for a lot of reasons, but mainly because I’ve seen her put up with me for four years and the ONLY way I can explain that is love. Will I believe it even more after 50 years? Yeah. Totally.

So, this community exercise we do on Sundays- it’s main purpose, it’s most important purpose is to help us believe the Gospel, help us believe the good news that God is rescuing us, renewing us through the work of Jesus.  

And the effect is cumulative- it builds on itself over time. Let me give you an example- What’s 4+4? How about 3x7? What’s 12 divided by 4?

How do you all know that??? If you are anything like me, you remember something of learning math, but if you can remember at all, you probably can’t remember more than a single math lesson you had while growing up. But you know math- you now do most of it by instinct, quickly, without thinking. And it would be silly to say that because you can’t remember most of the lessons in math you ever had, that teaching math doesn’t work. Because clearly, it does.

In the same way, and we’re going to talk about this a bit this morning as we work through a section of Colossians, being involved in Christian community, being taught by others as you live life alongside them, praying with others, worshiping with them, coming as a community to hear the Word of God taught and to interact with that- it all has the long-term impact of forming us spiritually. Slowly, we change. We change as we learn, as we are moved by community, influenced by others and by the Spirit of God Himself.  Those things which are so hard for as at the beginning, as we first seek to follow Jesus, over time and through practice and through hearing God’s Word as it relates to our character and the character of the Christ we are following- those things which are so hard begin to become second nature. Of course I should care about others- Jesus did and God calls me to. Of course I should serve others- Jesus did and God calls me to. Of course I should forgive, and be patient, and pursue right business ethics, right sexual ethics, right relationships- Jesus did, and God calls me to, and the reason I know that, not just intellectually but at a heart level is because over the space of years and through my involvement in the community of people following Jesus, I have begun to know, and know deeply what the life God desires for me, what the life that best benefits the world and points people to Jesus looks like. And slowly, but surely, I find myself living that life.

But in the same way learning any discipline, any way of living is first and foremost an act of surrender, an act of the will. Paul says in

VS 23

First and foremost, what Paul told people about was the Gospel. All that we do is rooted in the good news, the gospel. It all points to the news that God Himself has come to rescue and renew all of creation through the work of Christ on our behalf… And this has great impact on how we do this thing that we are doing right here and now, I think…  We’ll talk more about that in a minute. Paul says…

VS 24

“I am glad when I suffer”- it’s difficult to imagine a more nonsensical  sentence than that. “I’m glad when I suffer” seems like a something someone who is sick would say… until you dig a bit deeper.

No one could possibly make a statement like that unless they had done some deep, deep internal work. Unless they had weighed the value of their life on one side of the scale, and the spiritual health and well-being of others on the other side and decided that even if it meant imprisonment, if it meant torture (both of which Paul experienced), in order to see people connected to Jesus, it wasn’t too high a price to pay.

Paul saw that the suffering Christ went through brought forgiveness to people, brought them new life- and he saw the suffering that he faced as he tried to introduce people to Jesus as somehow being a continuation of the suffering of Jesus- that what he, Paul, was facing, brought the good news of Jesus farther and farther out into the empire all the time as more and more people came to know Jesus, came to be part of the community of Christ followers, the Church.

So with that mindset, it became a simple cost/benefit analysis and he could make a statement like, “I’m glad when I suffer for you.”  He says

VS 25-27

What do you think vs 26 means? In what way was the Gospel secret?

Paul saw his mission in life as being one thing- to point people towards Christ, no matter who they were. He knew that the idea that God would include not just Jews but Gentiles as well was something that was hard for those Jewish people to accept. But he says- now they’ve been told- God wanted them to know that Christ, the Messiah the Jewish people had hoped for and waited on for thousands of years had come not just to them, but to all people. And so Paul writing to Gentiles says- this is it- the secret that they couldn’t see and have a hard time accepting- Christ lives in you too. And because Christ is available to, comes to, wants relationship with all people, Paul says…

VS 28

A couple thoughts on the words he uses here- “warning” is kind of a serious translation. The word could be translated “counsel”, but it does have an edge, it’s strong, it’s like saying “this is seriously the way I think you should go.” I don’t like “warning” much because it sounds a bit less personal…

 “Strongly counseling and teaching everyone.” There is a place for teaching others, for being taught about God, about life in the way of Christ. Kind of an aside here- if you are new to this thing, to seeking God, to following Christ, do two things-

First, Be taught. Be a learner, a seeker, one who soaks up the knowledge of God like a sponge soaks up water. Ask questions. Read books, study. Look for the wise people around this community- seek them out, buy them coffee, ask their advice, their counsel, listen to what they have to say. Come on Sundays ready to interact, to pursue knowledge about God, and knowledge of what relationship with God can mean in your life- drink it in. Don’t wait for me to make it entertaining- you might be waiting a while. Come ready to hear from God and I think you will.

Second- be a part of teaching others- no matter where you are, you have something you can use to help someone else. The person who has taken 1 step with God has something to teach, something to share with the person who has as of yet started. 

None of us know everything. All of us should be learners. All of us should strive to teach others as well… Why?

“We want to present them to God, perfect in their relationship with Christ.”

The word he uses here for “perfect” would MUCH better be translated as “mature.” Our goal is maturity- to grow up in this thing of following Christ, to grow mature in our relationship with God. Relationship with God is not a binary thing- either on or off. Once you start down that road, once you become someone who starts on a relationship with God, there’s a process of maturity, of growth. Like any good relationship- it’s a process of growing closer and closer. And here’s the cool thing about this process in regards to spirituality-

Maturity is the work of a community- Hillary was totally right- it does take a village. We grow up into maturity in the company of others, when the community and the Spirit of God cooperate to work on us, to teach us, to correct and challenge u; in that way, we grow up.

Spiritual formation is cumulative- it happens over a lifetime as we learn to live life in the way of Jesus with others who are attempting to do the same, as we read Scripture, year after year allowing it to change us, as we are present to God and present to others.

And Paul says- that whole process of telling people about Christ, of seeing them become Christ followers, of learning to live life in the way of Christ- that’s his whole purpose in life…

VS 29

It’s not always easy though, when you start out to help others grow spiritually- so if you take that on, look at how Paul did it, and do likewise- Depending on Christ’s power, that is, staying connected to, rooted in Christ. Helping people out of a spiritual surplus that comes from relationship with Christ, not out of the spiritual deficit that comes from helping people for our own sometimes not-so-pure-motives. Real relational connection with Jesus means the strength, the ability to positively impact others, even when you feel you don’t have much to offer, and in fact, mostly when you feel you don’t have much to offer.

He says…

VS 1-

Laodicea was the larger city just down the road from Colossae, and he agonized for these people.

VS 2

Paul wanted encouragement and love for this community, but the big thing he wanted- for them to understand God’s plan, which is Christ Himself.

Let me make a couple of apologies this morning… I know I say a lot of the same things over and over. I apologize to those of you who have been around for awhile. Stick here and you’ll hear many things repeated. Why? Because the purpose of this time together is to worship God, and to help us as a community to believe the Gospel- to point us towards Christ. Because here it is- I’m simply not going to spend a lot of time preaching topical sermons on a lot of different things- 5 ways to have a great marriage, 4 ways to control lust in your life, 3 ways to potty train your kid. Actually, I wish I knew 3 ways to potty train your kid.

But I’m not going to do that. Why? Because all those things- merely symptoms- important issues, but secondary. When I’m greedy, when I’m gluttonous, when I sin, all I’m really doing is showing that I have a savior, something I’m looking to save me, but it ain’t Jesus.

There are two ways to view this book- it’s either basically about me, or basically about God, about Christ. If you take the approach that God’s word is basically about you, about making you healthy, wealthy and wise, you can get away with preaching a lot of weird stuff. And here I will offend some people and I apologize in advance… I know that every once in awhile I take little pokes at certain guys with big churches and TV ministries- and again- I apologize- I’m not saying their churches aren’t doing some good things… BUT. Something happens when you decide that the Bible is basically about you. You put tag lines on your church like “Discover the champion in you!” and you end up preaching messages on how to maintain your ideal body weight and the value of eating a healthy breakfast. And while that’s probably all good information, the only problem is that the Bible is not about you. It’s not about living your best life now, reaching your potential, or looking Tony Robbins good. It’s not about you. It’s about Christ. It’s about leaving behind all the idols, all the functional saviors and leaning fully and completely on Christ.

Have you noticed the word that Paul has repeated over and over in this verses from Colossians, what his focus has been, what it all revolves around? It’s Christ. The Bible doesn’t make sense to a lot of people, I think in part because they try to read it like some freakin’ handbook for success, and it’s not. It’s a story- the Story of God Himself come to rescue and renew us, to make all things new again, through Christ. Every book, every chapter, every verse, points in some way to Jesus. Every prophet, every hero, every person God works through provides not something so pedestrian as a model for our success, but something much, much deeper- they point to Christ. We’ll find opportunity to talk about all that other stuff at various points, but we work out of the understanding that

VS 3

When we see Christ as He is- God working definitively in human history for our salvation, a lot of things begin to fall into place. When Christ is our savior, all the functional saviors that we depend on begin to lose their hold- we realize that things we think will save us, the things we run after so hard, can’t, won’t, will never deliver what we need them to. Doesn’t matter if its sex, or success, or food or being the smartest guy in the room, or whatever- all the things we functionally depend on for our salvation- to rescue us and renew us, they all pale in comparison to Christ. And God forgive us if our preaching ever ends up actually re-enforcing people’s functional saviors, and causes them to think that success in life is what it’s all about rather than Jesus.

Break- Songs About Jesus! J

Paul’s purpose was to ground the Colossians in the knowledge of who Jesus was, who Christ is. And why?

VS 4-5

His concern was for their protection. And so he says:

VS 6

The life of a Christ follower doesn’t just happen to us… it’s something we pursue, something we sell ourselves to, give ourselves to. Becoming a Christ follower isn’t the end of the journey, it’s the first step. But you know that, I think…

So how?

VS 7

What do you all think this verse means? You tell us…

And I love the idea that the result of being rooted and grounded isn’t a successful life, a prosperous life, but a thankful life. Imagine a life overflowing with thankfulness, regardless of the circumstances. That’s “your best life now.”

VS 8

Now, Paul isn’t saying don’t read philosophers, don’t study anything but Christian thought. He’s simply saying, be careful of what you see as having the highest value, the highest place, of what takes pre-eminence in your mind. Do we look at Christ through philosophers like Sartre or Foucoult or Derrida? Or do we look at Derrida and Foucoult through the lens of Christ? I think many people have taken words like this from Scripture and used them as a justification for building an intellectual wall around themselves in the name of Jesus. And that’s not what Paul has in mind here- He’s simply, again, pointing us to what he has all through this book- the supremacy of Christ.

Christ is supreme over all creation, he tells us. It’s all His.

Christ is supreme over the community of the church- it’s His.

Christ is supreme over death- and is the first to experience resurrection. Life and death, but specifically life are his.

And in Him lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge- which is beautiful, poetic language to say that Christ is supreme over the mind, over all philosophies and ideas… Christ, the creator of man, the creator of man’s mind, is supreme over that mind- in the same way a river can’t rise higher than it’s source, so the mind of man will never be able to rise higher than its source.

And for the Colossians, who Paul feared would find themselves in the middle of a tug of war between the Gospel and some people who were trying to push them towards more Gnostic ideas, and others who wanted to force them to submit themselves to the OT law, this was a huge concept- that Christ, was supreme over philosophy, over the good arguments of those who wanted to pull them away towards something else.

VS 9-10

We’ll have to talk more about these last two verses next week- but I will say this: This is one of the strongest statements in Scripture about what we call the deity of Christ- the fact that Christ was God in human flesh, all the fullness of God in a human body. And through connection to Christ, through our union our relationship with Him, we have relationship with God. And completeness- the need for all those functional saviors fades in the light of our completeness in Christ.