Sermon Cloud

This morning we are in the book of Colossians- we’ve been moving through this letter that Paul, a former persecuter of the church turned follower of Jesus wrote to a small group of Christians in a greek town called Colossae. He wrote this  from prison- he’s been jailed for telling others about Christ- and what does he do? He writes the Colossians this letter about… Christ! About how Christ is what they need and all they need to be in relationship with God.

Jesus, God in human flesh, come to rescue and renew us thru what He did for us on the cross, by dying and by the resurrection.

And today- we get to some of the details, the ways our lives change when we live life in the way of Jesus.

And we get to talk a little bit about… sex. So let me ask, before we into the passage… How has Church, in your experience if you grew up going to church, handled the topics like sex? Anyone seen it handled well?

Cool- hopefully this community can handle those kinds of discussions well. I think when we have talked about sex and issues surrounding it, like on our forum, we’ve done okay…

So, let’s jump into Colossians 3- In what we looked at last week, Paul told them- it’s not Jesus + anything that connects us to God- it’s just Jesus. It’s not Jesus plus spooky cool secret knowledge like the Gnostics offer, it’s not Jesus plus piousness and self-deprivation like the aesetics offer, and it’s not Jesus plus keeping rules like the legalists… Jesus is God stepped into our world, the visible image of the invisible God, Paul says- so if you want God, be in relationship with Jesus.

He’s told them- you are living new lives not because of all these things that people might pull you towards, but because of the death, the burial and the resurrection of Christ. When you identify with Jesus, you identify with what He did- in other words, that death, burial and resurrection applies to you as well- we die to an old way of living. We come alive to a new one. And we picture that in baptism- in the water an old person, coming out of it a new one.

And now Paul is going to tease out a bit more of the implications of this…

He says in Vs 1…

VS 1

This is the reality. When we start out on this path of life in the way of Jesus, when we personally identify with His death, burial and resurrection, we’ve then we have, in some sense, already been “raised to new life.” There’s a contrast between the old life, the kind of life that’s lived before Christ and the kind of life that’s lived after being in relationship with Christ. So even if you’ve started off with Christ at an early age and been saved from a life of sin and degradation at age 5, this language still applies to you- even if you never yourself had an “old life” to leave behind, there are still categories of things that fit an “old life” way and categories of things that fit a “new life” way. He says,

VS 2

What do you think he means by this? Think about clouds and harps and halos?

This translation has “Think about.” Some translations say “Set your minds” or “set your hearts”- literally, it’s “seek.” In any case- the picture here is an act of the will- an intentionality to focus on certain things to the exclusion of certain other things. Why?

VS 3-4

Because we’ve died to that old life, come alive to a new one- a new one centered on Christ, based on life in the way of Christ, dependent on Christ.

Before we move through the rest of this passage, let’s stop, let’s pray, let’s focus on Christ for a minute…

• Song 

Paul has been clear up to this point: You are accepted by God because of what Jesus did on your behalf and your trust in, your faith in Him. We are not accepted because we obey God. But, we obey God because we are accepted.

Part of the process of beginning and continuing relationship with God, part of the process of becoming the people God intended us to be in this world, part of the process of joining God in putting this world back together and healing it from the evil that we have caused is asking ourselves a number of questions… We come to God and we ask: How does He desire us to posture ourselves in relationship to Him? How does God desire that we posture ourselves in relationship to others? In relationship to our environment, both physical- this planet, and mental/emotional/spiritual, our society and its values?  And in relationship to our past, our present and our future?

This is what Paul is laying out here- look to your future and live like it- leave the old way of life behind. He starts telling us what that looks like… He says in VS 5, “So”- So, then… Because this is true- because you are raised to a new life- because you’ve made this statement of commitment to a new life and to leaving the old behind, then leave the old behind. In fact- don’t have anything to do with these things.

VS5

Ahh, thanks Paul… see, he couldn’t start with something easy. He jumps right into it. Sex.

One of the most difficult parts of the Gospel- the Good News that God Himself has come to rescue and renew all of creation through the work of Jesus Christ on our behalf, is that rescue and renewal involves… change. And some of the areas of change that are the hardest for us are in those areas of sex, of money, of power… all the things we get so fixated on in our society. And you know what? I recognize that when we talk about big picture stuff like God, like Jesus and becoming a follower of Jesus- that’s challenging enough if you are sitting here not quite convinced, skeptical, with questions, or just kind of investigating. I know you wonder about why we have to be so exclusivistic and why can’t we just say “Jesus is good for us, Buddah’s good for you, Allah’s good for them, we’re all good.” I know how strange talk about everyone needing Jesus sounds in Portland Oregon, at this time, in this place. So believe me when I say that if you are here, and not quite tracking with that idea, I understand. It’s tough.

But even tougher- when we start talking about some of the changes that being a Christ follower brings into your life, in areas like sex, like money, like power. Sometimes what life in the way of Jesus means in those areas seems very foreign…

 (As an aside to this community- with sex, we should avoid both the general society's idolization of sex and Christian society's fear of sex. We should strive, while doing our best to be clear about what God’s designs for sexuality, to exhibit love rather than hostility or fear toward those whose sexual life-patterns are different.)

He says- you- you people who have signed on with Jesus, have nothing to do with “sexual immorality.” The word here is “porneia” from whence we get “pornography.” So that’s a word for all of you who have computers. It was a catch all word in Greek- Anything that was outside the bounds sexually of what God had designed for humans- which Jesus defined for us in Mark 10 when he said “But ‘God made them male and female’  from the beginning of creation. ‘This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.’” Porneia, in the minds of those he was writing to, was sex outside of the marriage relationship that God designed and Jesus described. And Paul says- that’s an old life kind of thing- not a new life one.

Now, in terms of our community, let me say this. I made a decision awhile ago that the way I would try to steer this community when it came to things like this was like so- two people come to evergreen, start to work their way into this community, but they are not Christ followers, the last thing I’m going to talk to them about is their sex life. I want to talk about Jesus. Where are you at in relationship to God? To me that’s the question- not- are you living together, are you having sex?

But when someone signs on as a Christ follower- and says- I want to live this life of following Jesus, then we as a community need to help each other tease out all the implications of that- and one of those areas that eventually gets covered, and thanks Paul for bringing it up, is our sexual ethic. How we conduct ourselves sexually in relationship to others and even in our own minds. He says- avoid sexual immorality, which is sex outside of marriage. Avoid impurity, which is a word rendered “perversion” in some places- and lust- being carried away by your urges- letting your desires control you. And “evil desires”- literally “illicit cravings” or wanting what you can’t and shouldn’t have.

I’d be stupid to believe that we are all on the same page here… I know some of you, even some of you who are Christians are in different places with what you believe about sex. But here’s what I want to say about it- our sexual ethic needs to be informed by God, by what He says as the designer of sex. It’s not enough for us to say “my conscience doesn’t bother me” because often, our consciences can lead us to some pretty hurtful places. Following your bliss is great, but sometimes, your bliss is treacherous and self-defeating.

And sexual lessons are some of the most difficult to learn… This is an area where we tend to repeat and repeat and repeat the same mistakes over and over again. So I love that in order to give us plenty of opportunity to reflect, he’s got four separate words to basically say- keep the belt buckled until the fasten seat belt sign has been turned off by the Captain.  Then you can go crazy. J

He says don’t be greedy, because that’s idolatry. How so?

He says

VS 6

This is the kind of stuff that God is going to judge- When God judges murder, and genocide and rape, greed and materialism don’t get off scot free just because they seem like less of a big deal to us. And neither do cheating on your wife or your husband, or even cheating on your husband or wife-to-be. He says:

VS 7-8

He says “Get rid of”, literally- put off, as in take off like old, worn out clothes that no longer even fit you. Make a conscious decision to leave these things behind.

VS 9

If you have stripped off, left behind the old way of life, then why would you do the things that belong to that old way of life? Instead-

VS 10

If you are following Christ, you have started off on a new way of living, so live that way, Paul says. Be renewed as you get to know God, as your character more and more reflects, as your actions more and more reflect His character, His heart, His desires for us and this world.

VS 11 (I’ll read the verse, and we should just go right into the song)

·      Song

Life in the way of Jesus is a lot more than simply leaving some things behind- it’s an active pursuit of good, of right in our lives… And so Paul says:

VS 12

And here he says it explicitly: God loves you. And since God loves you, then be merciful, kind, humble, etc. Not- to gain God’s love, do these things. But because He loves you, because you have this relationship with Him, live the way He designed us to live. Live the way that heals instead of hurts- heals us and heals others. With mercy. With patience. With kindness. He says:

VS 13

This is life in the way of Jesus. This is what Christian community should look like- a group of people who make allowance for each other’s faults, not excusing them but not being offended at every little thing. Forgiving. And more than just tolerating and forgiving each other… He says-

VS 14

Toleration without love is simply patronizing someone. So Paul says, above it all, clothe yourself in Love. I like this language of “clothe yourself in.” Literally, in the Greek, it’s “clothe yourself in.” Put on mercy, and kindness and humility and gentleness and patience and love.

I like the language because we let ourselves off the hook too easily. “I’m just not a patient person.” Okay- put on patience. “I’m just not very gentle- it’s not in my character.” Fine. If it’s not internal, then put it on… Like a coat. Make the decision to show patience, even when you don’t feel patient, to act humbly, even when you don’t feel humble, to show love even when you don’t feel it.

And I love this-

VS 15

It’s hard to live in community- hard not to step on each others’ toes. It will happen- Paul says- let this be your default setting- love, patience, peace.

Do you have a problem with someone in the community? Then resolve it. You are called to live in peace. Has someone hurt you or offended you? Forgive them. You are called to live in peace. If you belong to Christ, if you belong to the community of people who follow Him, then you are called to live in peace. And to be thankful. I love that he just kind of tags that on. Be thankful. And,

VS 16

Let Jesus and the good news about Him be at the center of everything you do- and as a community, help one another work out what that looks like, what that means in each individual situation. That’s community- pointing each other towards God, helping each other figure it out. That can only happen if we’re willing to talk and if we’re willing to listen. Willing to tell people what’s happening in our lives, willing to listen to what others say. And willing to depend on God to give us wisdom to point each other in the right direction.

Let’s do what Paul tells us to do here- to sing songs to God, the God who gives us new life, with thankful hearts. We’ll do that, and I’ll come back and wrap us up and ask you what you think…