Colossians #4 Colossians 1: 21-23
Last time we
affirmed that Jesus is so much more than the savior. Jesus is creator, sustainer, the one who
holds all things together, in Him all things find their purpose when He comes
again everything will fit together as originally designed. He is the living Lord, not a phantom, not a
myth, fully God and fully human, knowable, present, empowering. This redeemer
brings with him the promise of the resurrection, from death to life, first
spiritually, then physically. Do you
know this Jesus? Do you revere this
Jesus? He is worthy of your devotion,
your fidelity, your service. Bend your
knee, surrender yourself to His rule, self-surrender is the way that allows
Jesus to exalt you that you can live your life to the full, knowing both His
peace and His power to do and to be incredibly more than you can even
imagine. Make the choice to follow Him,
to learn of Him, to be devoted to Him.
Jesus rewards all who diligently seek Him, all who desire to get in sync
with His heart, His purposes, His mission. Choose to be a citizen of His
Kingdom, to be an instrument of reconciliation, a proclaimer of His good
news.
In our 4th
exploration of the letter, Paul wrote to the congregation in Colossae we are
going to discover that everything that Jesus is you become the case study, the
living example of being set free to live your lives to the full. Paul will again proclaim the gospel and
affirm that he teaches the same gospel to everyone. Remember some situations and circumstances
are addressed in this letter that we only have the answer or correction to, so
we have to figure out what might be going on that elicited these responses from
Paul.
Regardless if you
were a good person or a bad person, a blessing to others or a curse, sin
separated you from the life God intended for you. The result of a faithless life is death, a
death that manifests in the deeds and outcomes of the life you are living
now. “For the wages of sin is death…” (Romans
6:23 (NIV), “there is a way that seems right…, but in the end, it leads to
death” (Proverbs 14:12 (NIV). Broken
promises, unrealized dreams, and desires, suffering, betrayal, pain, broken
hearts, broken people, emotional darkness, depression, anxiety, fear, discontent
within oneself, loneliness, are just some of the fruits of living in a sin-sick
world. This world was created to be a
human paradise, but sin entered the human heart and we all live in the
aftermath. Some people because of their
choices are sucked immediately into the hells of life. The arrogant others have
their sins catch up to them: “you may be sure that your sin will find you out”
(Numbers 32:23 (NLT). The scripture
attempts to wake us to our dire situation:
Romans 3:23 (NLT)
For everyone has
sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard
If you have been a
believer for a long time it may be hard to recall what your life was like
before God acknowledged your faith in Jesus. As a disciple of Jesus, you’ve
been redeemed. Paul writes:
21 You yourselves
are a case study of what he does. At one time you all had your backs turned to
God, thinking rebellious thoughts of him, giving him trouble every chance you
got. 22 But now, by giving himself completely at the Cross, actually dying for you,
Christ brought you over to God's side and put your lives together, whole and
holy in his presence. 23 You don't walk away from a gift like that! You stay
grounded and steady in that bond of trust, constantly tuned in to the Message,
careful not to be distracted or diverted. There is no other Message—just this
one. Every creature under heaven gets this same Message. I, Paul, am a
messenger of this Message.
You are God’s case
study. You represent concrete,
contextual, proof of what God accomplishes in the life of those who bend their
knee to Him. You are an advertisement
for God’s incredible power to transform a life. There are things that we are
ashamed of, our private secrets, things we’d rather forget, yet these are the
things you’ve been saved from. In
Celebrate recovery people transparently will introduce themselves as a Child of
God who is overcoming some affliction, alcohol, drugs, dependencies, eating
disorders, every kind of addiction, all the things that plague a human
soul. The lookback is to testify to the
present transformation. Your overcoming looks in hope to a continual becoming
of the person God always intended for you to be. You are the case study. Tell your story, what happened, what the
results were, how God called you out and changed you and gave you a new lease
on life.
1 Corinthian s 4:9
(MSG)
“It seems to me
that God has put us who bear his Message on stage in a theater …”
The incredible
transformation from spiritual death to spiritual life, from a death sentence to
life eternal, from chaos to order, is possible because Jesus gave Himself
completely. You were born in the kingdom
of death but have been born again in the kingdom of life because Jesus died for
you. You were alienated from God, you thought God an enemy, a killjoy if you
thought of God at all, you lived in darkness chasing down dead end ways of
living, but you found your way to
God’s side, to light and love and joy, because of what Jesus accomplished upon
the Cross. “The old has gone the new is
here” (2 Corinthians 5:17). The new you
has been made whole and holy. Jesus
created a sacrificial interchange in which His spotless sacrifice by dying as a
sin offering is somehow interchanged with you the blameworthy sinner and that atonement
is transferred to you. Now you are free
from accusation, Jesus being right with God now becomes you being right with
God. As Jesus is Holy, set apart for
God’s purposes, so now you too are made holy, God has a purpose for you, there
are things that you are to do now that you are a disciple of Jesus.
Ephesians 2:10
(MSG)
God does both the
making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the
work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had
better be doing.
What work are you
doing? You haven’t been raised from
spiritual rags to spiritual riches for your benefit. Your new status as a whole and holy empowers
you to be a blessing to others. Not only
do you grow deep, grow up and grow fruit, not only do you live your life to the
full, but you also love on others by doing the good work God has empowered you
to do. If you are not involved in giving
your life, sacrificing your life like Jesus for others, you should question
your fealty, your loyalty, your commitment to God. Put yourself to the test.
2 Corinthians 13:5
(MSG)
Test yourselves to
make sure you are solid in the faith. Don't drift along taking everything for
granted. Give yourselves regular checkups. You need firsthand evidence, not
mere hearsay, that Jesus Christ is in you. Test it out. If you fail the test,
do something about it.
Forgiven,
reconciled, put together, whole, and holy, Paul writes: “You don't walk away from a gift like that!
You stay grounded and steady in that bond of trust, constantly tuned in to the
Message, careful not to be distracted or diverted.”
There’s a warning
here. As a believer you can become
distracted from your first love, you can be diverted from doing the good works
God wants you to do. If so you walk away
from the gift God has given you in Christ.
Both the Kings James translation and the New International Version
translate Paul’s word to read “if you continue in the faith.” You can discontinue being in the faith simply
by neglect. Paul himself didn’t want to mess up and disqualify himself from the
prize.
1 Corinthians
9:26-27 (MSG)
I'm giving it
everything I've got. No sloppy living for me! I'm staying alert and in top
condition. I'm not going to get caught napping, telling everyone else all about
it, and then missing out myself.
Behind the words,
we can make an educated guess as to what some of the issues circulating in the
Colossian congregation. Though we don’t
see it so much in the English translation we can see in the Greek a heavy
emphasis on Jesus having a body (sarx
vs soma). This would be a correction to the Gnostic
idea that Jesus didn’t have a body, that He wasn’t fully God and fully human,
that He wasn’t even God. That one has to
continue in the faith is another refutation of Gnosticism that taught that all
you needed was the secret knowledge to escape corruption and enter into a whole
and holy state. Once you’re in, you’re
in, and nothing could change that. Paul
also reminds us that it is not some secret knowledge, it is Jesus' atonement
that makes salvation possible. Then we
can surmise that some accused Paul of preaching a different message to
different people to win favor. Paul
writes, no, the gospel I preach is the one I preach to everyone. This was one
of the accusations that those who taught you had to keep the law as well as
believe in Jesus to be saved that was leveled at Paul. Paul also affirms that he is a messenger sent
by Jesus himself, referring to himself as an apostle, a sent one. We know that some called into question the
authenticity of Paul’s calling.
This is what would
be wise to walk away from this teaching with:
1. God has made you a case study in His mercy,
grace, and power to transform. A case
study presents the evidence of what is true and correct. You have to allow people to see what God has
done in your life.
Matthew 5:14-16
(MSG)
You're here to be
light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be
kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. 15 If I make
you light-bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do
you? I'm putting you on a light stand. 16 Now that I've put you there on a
hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives.
By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this
generous Father in heaven.
2. Salvation through faith in Jesus is not a one
and done, it's one and started. You are expected to demonstrate your gratitude
for so great a salvation, for Jesus dying for you, by your good works of love.
Your good works of love allow you to continue in the faith.
John 15:1-4 (NIV)
Father is the
gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every
branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3
You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me,
and I will remain in you.
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