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Holding Fast to the Head – Part 1
2w ago00:44:47Tap to summarize
Colossians 2:16-23 – 16 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. 18 Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, 19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.  20 If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— 21 “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” 22 (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? 23 These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. Introduction Do you ever feel like your faith in Jesus is missing something?  Are there times when the abundant life Jesus offers feels somewhat less than abundant?  Have you ever had a stretch that you would describe as anything other than being filled with the love of Christ and the fullness of God?  Can you remember a time in which God’s Word made promises of joy and satisfaction that seemed dubious or elusive? Of course you have.  We all have.  That’s the nature of this life.  We cannot escape experiences of incompleteness because in God’s plan of redemption we won’t be completely complete until Jesus’ return.  That’s not to say we cannot know true fellowship with God or genuine growth in holiness or real and increasing joy in Jesus.  But it is to say that we cannot know the full measure of the satisfaction that will be ours in the new heavens and earth while we are still living in the old heavens and earth.   The real question, then, is not whether we’ll experience loneliness or despondency or emptiness.  The real question is what we will do when we do.  For non-Christians, there are all kinds of answers, spanning the entire spectrums of wisdom and folly as well as good and evil.   But the point of our passage isn’t about what those outside the church do when they feel some measure of incompleteness.  It is about what those inside the church do.  It is meant to be a mirror for all of us, revealing to us what we are holding fast to when our lives aren’t as they ought to be.   And so, Grace Church, before I share with you the big idea, and before I pray, let me invite you to pray silently, asking the Spirit of God to help you see where you are holding fast to Jesus and where you are holding fast to something else; where you are living by faith in the promises of God in times of emptiness and where you are living according to some form of self-made religion.  And I invite you to pray, asking the Spirit to help you see freshly and fully the uniquely sufficiency of Jesus to bring fullness. The big idea of this passage is that if you try to add anything to Jesus, take away anything from Jesus, or look to anything but Jesus for salvation or satisfaction (legalism, mysticism, asceticism, or anything else), you will not get Jesus, salvation, or satisfaction.  The main takeaway is to do a careful inventory of what you are holding fast to and put off all that is not Jesus.   Mere Christianity The Colossian Christians were facing then, many of the same things that the Wyoming Christians face today.  They were weary and confused as they tried to sort out what to believe and what not to believe about Jesus and His will for their lives.  There were false teachers among them who were offering all manner of alternative to the truth of Jesus.   In our passage for this morning, we find the clearest explanation of the content of the false teaching in the entire letter.  Paul’s aim in sharing it was to reveal its devastating emptiness and contrast it with the fullness that is in Christ alone.  He knew the Colossians needed to decide between holding fast to Jesus or the things offered by the false teachers and he wanted to help them see their choice for what it was.   That’s my aim for you all this morning as well.  And to that end, I mean to share with you in plainest terms what Jesus offers and the first of the three alternatives offered by the false teachers in Colossae.  My prayer is that you will see each in appropriate contrast.   Let’s begin, then by considering what Paul has already said concerning the justification of Jesus, the sanctification of Jesus, and the person of Jesus before considering the legalism of heretics.   The Justification of Jesus Regarding the justification of Jesus, Paul was clear concerning why we need to be justified in the first place.  We were all “once alienated and hostile in mind” (1:21), “doing evil deeds” (1:21), and “dead in [our] trespasses and the uncircumcision of [our] flesh” (2:13).  In other words, we were ruined in our sin and powerless to do anything about it on our own.  And much of the emptiness we feel is tied to this reality that is common to all mankind.   But then Paul was equally clear on what Jesus did for us.  He effectively “[made] peace by the blood of his cross” (1:20), “reconciled [us to God] in his body of flesh by His death” (1:21), “set aside [our record of debt], [by] nailing it to the cross” (2:14), canceled “the record of debt that stood against us” (2:14), and on our behalf He “disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them” (2:16).  Once and for all, Jesus did those things on behalf of hopeless, lonely, and lost sinners like us.  How do hopeless, lonely, lost sinners gain access to that saving work of Jesus?  Is it by working hard enough or doing enough good things to please God?  Is it by eliminating enough bad things from our lives to make up for our sins?  Is it by creating our own religion?  NO!!!  Paul explained that it is by hearing “the Word of truth, the gospel” (1:5), by having “heard and understood the grace of God in truth” (1:7), by placing our “faith in Christ Jesus” (1:4), and all that “through faith in the powerful working of God” (2:12).  In other words, it is by the grace of God alone, through faith in Christ alone, that we are justified, declared righteous in God’s sight. But what does it mean to be justified?  It means, Paul wrote, being “delivered…from the domain of darkness and transferred…to the kingdom of His beloved Son” (1:13), receiving “redemption [and] the forgiveness of sins” (1:14), indeed, being “forgiven…[of] all our trespasses” (2:13), being “filled in [Jesus]” (2:10), being “circumcised with a circumcision made without hands” (2:11), “buried with Him in baptism” (1:12), “raised with Him” in newness of life (2:12), “made alive together with [Jesus]” (2:13), and, as we see in our passage for this morning, effectively dying “to the elemental spirits of the world” (2:20).   That’s the gracious work of God, to ensure the promise of God, to justify sinners in Christ.  Again, ask the Spirit to help you marvel at these marvelous truths.   The Sanctification of Jesus But, as awesome as that is, that’s just the beginning of the gospel, the good news, of Jesus.  It gets even bigger and better than all of that.  It’s not merely a promise of justification based on the righteousness of Jesus.  It is also a promise to work true and complete righteousness in all of us. So, how do we get the sanctifying grace of Jesus?  Is justification ours by grace, through faith, but sanctification ours by our own means?  That’s what the false teachers were saying to the Colossians.  Were they right?  No, the grace that justifies also sanctifies.  The faith that first unites us to Christ, keeps us united to Him and His transforming power.    We will “toil” and “struggle” for our spiritual growth, but we will do so “with all His energy that He powerfully works within” us (1:29).  Ultimately, then, sanctification is ours as we “Continue in the faith, stable and steadfast” (1:23), as we refuse, in the Spirit’s power, to shift “from the hope of the gospel that [we] heard” (1:23). But what does it mean to be sanctified?  What has God actually promised to work in us as we trust in Him?  He is, Paul declared, making us incrementally and increasingly “holy and blameless and above reproach” (1:22).  He is filling us with ever-growing “love in the Spirit (1:8) …for all the saints” (1:4) and causing our “hearts [to be] …encouraged, … [and] knit together in love” (2:2).  He is filling us with “hope laid up…in heaven” (1:5).  He is caus...
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Deliverance
3w ago00:40:09Tap to summarize
Philippians 1:18b-26 – 18b Yes, and I will rejoice, 19 for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, 20 as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. 21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. 23 I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. 24 But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. 25 Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, 26 so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again. Introduction Do you ever get annoyed when people ask those “Would you rather_____” questions? They go something like this. Would you rather always have to sing instead of speak, or dance everywhere you go? Would you rather have no taste buds, or no sense of smell? Would you rather live an extraordinary but short life, or a long but ordinary life? One recent and particularly odious example at work provoked a surprising amount of passionate argument among my coworkers – Would you rather get beat up in front of your girl or run away from a fight in front of your girl?  In this passage, Paul takes his turn at a Would you rather question: Would you rather live or die?  Wait a minute, Paul. That’s too easy! I don’t think you understand the unwritten law of Would you rather questions – They need to be tough to answer. They produce pain either because both options are desirable or because both are awful. Answering should be hard. A good question should be like, Would you rather have to walk a thousand miles, or reach your hand in an adder’s den to grab the car keys? On the surface, Paul’s question seems a lot more like, Would you rather have coffee, or not have coffee? But, as we’ll see, Paul is able to turn seemingly obvious reasoning on its head.  Philippians Background: Paul the Exemplar and the Upside down Philippians Before we get there, let me refresh your memory of this letter’s background. Since December 2023, this is my fourth sermon from Philippians. I last preached to you from Paul’s letter about 9 months ago. I also surveyed Philippians in Berea about 6 months ago. That said, I’ve previously provided a lot of background of the church and the circumstances that occasioned Paul’s letter. So this morning, I’ll give it just 200 words. Luke dedicated the whole of Acts chapter 16 to narrating the establishment of the Philippian church. He notes that Philippi was “a leading city of Macedonia”, a province to which Paul arrived in AD 50 after seeing a vision of a Macedonian man beckoning for help. Paul went, and thus, the Philippian church was born when he preached the gospel to some women gathered by the river to pray. Written some 10 years later, this letter reflects a warm ministry partnership.  Philippi was a Roman “colony”. This means her citizens enjoyed special legal privileges like those in Rome. Acts 16 shows how deeply this identity ran, since opposition to Paul centered on threats to Roman customs. They were accused of advocating customs “not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice” (Acts 16:21). This civic pride highlights the clash of allegiances the Philippians felt and orients us to Paul’s exhortation in Philippians 1:27 to “behave as citizens worthy of the gospel of Christ”, which occasioned the letter.  Why does that matter this morning? An awareness of this background helps us because it’s the occasion for Paul’s frequent presentation in the letter of his faith, his reasoning, his affections, and his motives. He talks them through these to give them an example of gospel-worthy thinking, feeling, and behavior to imitate in their trials. We saw his example in the opening 11 verses, where he reflected on the past – framing not only their gospel partnership, but also, counterintuitively, his imprisonment and legal defense as grace. We saw his example again in verses 12 through (the beginning of) verse 18, where he considered the present – namely, the contribution of his imprisonment to the advance of Christ’s interests. And in our passage this morning, Paul will conclude his missionary report by reasoning aloud, so to speak, about his future. Next time, we’ll consider Paul’s exhortation to the Philippians to imitate his example. But for this morning, we’ll focus on Paul’s exemplary role modeling. Here he applies his chief hope for Christ to be honored in his body to the hypothetical question of whether it is better to live or to die. The big idea of this passage is that Christ should be the great desire of every Christian. Thus, the main takeaway is to let the desire to see Christ exalted rule our hearts and direct our response to every trial. Deliverance? (vs. 18-20) Verse 18 In the first half of his ministry report, Paul shared his present joy that, even if it is at his own expense, Christ is getting glory. Verse 18 begins, “What then, only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice”. He is speaking there of his current circumstances. In the latter half of the verse, however, Paul turns to consider the future. “Yes, and I will rejoice” (v. 18b). He is rejoicing now over what he expects to come, namely, deliverance. Verse 19 “For I know that through your prayers and with the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance”. Deliverance, or salvation, in simplest terms, means that God will come through on Paul’s behalf. Reading v. 19 in isolation, one might naturally assume he means getting out of prison and escaping a death sentence. However, that conclusion becomes much harder to maintain when we continue on to verse 20.  Before we do I’d like to consider the phrase, ‘[This] will turn out for my deliverance’.  The Septuagint is the Greek OT translation that was Paul’s “Bible”. It was read routinely during the time of Jesus and apostles like Paul and of course it was the only translation most Greek-speakers could read. Here, Paul’s Greek is apparently identical to that of Job 13:16 in the Septuagint. It looks like Paul is quoting from Job. It serves to cue his readers in on his perspective.  He views his circumstances through the prototypical lens of Job’s story.  Most of you are familiar with that story. But if not, let me summarize briefly. In the book of Job, Satan is allowed to wreak calamity on Job’s property, his servants, and his children. This destruction comes upon Job, not because egregious sin warranted it, but because of God’s sovereign purposes, which ultimately included greater blessings for Job in a new life yet to come. But Job could not have known any of the secret purposes of God. Therefore, he feels unjustly wronged because he assumes that since bad things happen to bad people, this shouldn’t have happened to him. Meanwhile, his friends labor for 30 chapters to convince him that he’s being punished because he has sinned, if unconsciously, and if he would only repent and admit it, God would relent. Job is compelled to appeal to God, to argue his case with his Maker and vindicate himself.   Let me read to you from Job chapter 13 (vs 3, 14-18) to get the context of Paul’s quote: 3 “But I desire to speak to the Almighty and to argue my case with God… 14 Why do I put myself in jeopardy and take my life in my hands?15 Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him; I will surely defend my ways to his face.16 Indeed, this will turn out for my deliverance, for no godless person would dare come before him!17 Listen carefully to what I say; let my words ring in your ears.18 Now that I have prepared my case, I know I will be vindicated.” As do all righteous persons in this age, Paul has detractors. We saw this formerly in vs. 15 and 17. These take gleeful, vindictive joy in the apparent embarrassment and shame of his chains, eager to see him humbled and fallen that they might rise in power and esteem. Harboring envy and rivalry, and to further their pride and selfish ambition, they frame Paul’s chains as evidence of God’s judgment. But Paul is eager for both God and himself to be vindicated. Like Job, Paul is banking on a righteous God. As Job says in 13:16, ‘this will turn out for my deliverance, for no godless person would dare come before him’. That is, I have the confidence to come before God because I know I’m innocent, He’s on my side, and He can be trusted. ‘He will surely slay me, I have no hope’, Job says, fully expecting to be slain in the presence of a holy God, yet expecting both ‘deliverance’ and to &#...
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Captivated by Christ
4w ago00:46:11Tap to summarize
Colossians 2:8-15 –8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. 11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him. Introduction Welcome back to Colossians. Two weeks ago, we considered 2:8-10 and the consequences of ideas.  Paul warned the Colossian believers about the bad consequences of the bad ideas they were being confronted with.  He also reiterated the alternative; the good consequences of the good ideas of the gospel of Jesus Christ.   In short, Paul explained that their choice really was binary.  Either they would be taken captive by the ideas of the world (philosophy, empty deceit, human tradition, elemental spirits of the world) or captivated by Christ.  His point is that a right understanding of Christ makes the choice as easy as it gets.  Jesus and nothing is infinitely better than everything without Jesus.  Living according to Jesus is eternal life, while living according to anything else is eternal death.   This morning, we’re going to pick up where we left off.  That is, we’re going to look more closely at who Jesus is and what He’s done for those who receive Him in faith.  As we do, you’ll see the big idea: With even the most child-like understanding of the gospel, the choice between living according to Christ and according to anything else is entirely obvious.  The main takeaway is to learn and rehearse the gospel continually.  Captivated by Christ – Who He Is To be captivated by something is to have it fill you with wonder and delight to the point that you feel enchanted by it.  Have you ever been captivated by something like that?  For whatever reason, God seems to cause me to be especially captivated by (I’m not really sure what to call it) certain landscapes (Glacier NP, the Canadian Rockies, the views of the North Shore of Superior from the SHT, the Utah NPs, etc.).  They give me a sense of God’s presence (and my smallness) that I don’t really experience anywhere else.  They really are captivating for me. In some ways, that idea is at the heart of this passage for Paul.  He knows that the Colossians will be captivated by something.  For every reason, he urges them to be captivated by Christ.   Remember, then, the question the Colossians were continually confronted with is the same question that continually confronts all of us: Will we be taken captive by the ideas of this world or will we be captivated by Christ?   This sermon is meant to help you see the simple fact that nothing compares with Jesus.  At best, every alternative to Christ is a disordering of something which enables it to provide immediate, but temporary and tiny pleasure; pleasure of the sort that ultimately ends in far greater and lasting discouragement and difficulty.   I was recently reading a book that enumerated and documented some of this in alarming detail.  The author wrote, There is plenty of statistical support for the contention that people [who look to the empty and deceptive philosophies of the world] are unhappy. Levels of self-declared depression and clinically diagnosed depressive symptoms have skyrocketed in recent years…  I wish I were merely talking about more adults confessing to being sad, but we are seeing an increase in depressed dispositions leading to an increase in behavior of desperation. The overall suicide rate increased a shocking 30 percent in the first twenty years of this new century. Roughly 5 percent of American adults have reported serious thoughts of suicide. We know that alcohol and drug abuse has skyrocketed, and, in fact, deaths from alcohol abuse have risen precipitously, even for those over the age of sixty-five. Nearly one million people have died from drug overdoses in America since the year 2000, with a 30 percent increase in the number annually in recent years, and a 256 percent increase over that twenty-year period.  The escalation in the rate of growth of opioid deaths began just after the 2008 financial crisis. Separate from those who tragically die from drug and alcohol-related causes, a stunning fifteen million Americans regularly abuse alcohol…  The tragedy of lives consumed by drug and alcohol abuse is worsened only by deaths rooted in drug and alcohol abuse.  The use of antidepressants has doubled over the last twenty years, with a 35 percent increase in the last six years alone.  It is estimated that thirty-seven million American adults regularly take an antidepressant medication (albeit at varying degrees of severity and dosage). We are talking about 15–20 percent of American adults needing medication for problems related to depression and anxiety. I do not mean to say that becoming a Christian immediately eliminates all of these things or that mature Christians never deal with them.   But I do mean to say that many of them are the direct result, the consequences, of being taken “captive to philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world.”  I do mean to say that while the philosophers of this age promise much with all their offers of liberation and satisfaction apart from Christ, they simply cannot ultimately deliver anything but the kind of sadness and emptiness (ultimately death) described by the author I quoted.   I do mean to say that Paul was not thinking mainly in the abstract when he wrote of the alternatives to Christ.  He knew that whenever we calibrate our minds or hearts to anything other than Jesus, our lives will reflect that in every manner of real-world pathology.   And I do mean to say that many of them will change dramatically when we begin to live “according to Christ.”   I do mean to say that living by faith in Jesus, and Him alone, only and always ultimately leads to fullness of eternal life and joy.   Jesus spoke directly to this in Matthew 13(:44-45), “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. 45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, 46 who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.” Grace, the rest of this passage and sermon are meant to help you see the simple fact that nothing compares with Jesus; to help you see that He is the greatest treasure and nothing else comes close; to help you see that to really understand who Jesus is and what He’s done for those who trust in Him, is to be shocked that we ever looked anywhere else.   So, the million-dollar question is why would anyone believe that Jesus is the greatest treasure?  Or, how is Jesus the greatest treasure?  Or, what has He done that is so superior to all the alternative philosophies and traditions? Paul answers those questions decisively, emphatically, and poetically by describing two aspects of who Jesus is and a handful of things He’s done for those who trust in Him.   Seeing Jesus for who He is and trusting in Him for what He’s done is a gift from God.  We don’t deserve it.  If we receive it, it is by grace alone.  Therefore, as we make our way through Paul’s description of Jesus’ nature and work, my encouragement is to continually ask the Spirit to help you be as amazed by these things as they warrant.  Ask the Spirit to help you to see them for what they are and how they compare to everything else.  Ask the Spirit to shape your mind and heart, and cause you to live according to the truth and glory of these things above all else.   With that, consider with me the two aspects of Jesus’ nature that Paul highlights. Whole Fullness of Deity (9) In v.9, we read, “…in [Jesus] the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily… That, of course, is a truly staggering statement.  In some ways ...
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Justified by Faith
Jun 700:30:43Tap to summarize
Romans 5:1-5 –1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Introduction Its baseball season.  I loved playing baseball.  Do you know what we did on gameday?  We took batting practice.  The infielders took ground balls and turned double plays.  The outfielders would take fly balls, and practice throws to 2nd, 3rd and home.  We never ever started a game without doing these things first.  Why was that?  After all, we practiced on days when we didn’t have games!  Why was it necessary to take batting practice before a game?  Because some foundational things must be done well if we are going to play the game well.  And so, we rehearse the same thing again and again.  Several years ago, I took Shelli’s nephew to a Brewers game.  We got there early.  Guess what professional players were doing before the game?  Batting practice, fielding ground balls, and catching fly balls in the outfield. I say this to you this morning because for the Christian, there are some foundational truths that we must practice again and again.  It’s not enough to hear and believe a foundational truth when we first become a believer.  There are foundational truths that we must rehearse and understand and apply to our real-life situations each new day.  The “game” of life is infinitely more important than the game of baseball, and so we must practice, practice, practice. And one of those foundational truths that we must “practice” or rehearse, is the doctrine of justification.   The focus of today’s sermon will be on how our lives are impacted and changed by being justified by faith.  We are not justified by works, but by faith.  We will talk about that more in a minute.  But first, to fully understand the significance of being justified by faith, we must first rehearse what it means to be justified. What is Justification? Wayne Grudem defines justification like this: “Justification is an instantaneous legal act of God in which He thinks of our sins as forgiven and Christ’s righteousness as belonging to us and declares us to be righteous in His sight” (Systematic Theology, p. 723). In other words, God declares, once and for all, that our sins are forgiven (past, present and future sins), and that we are counted as righteous. All of this is because of Jesus, who took our sin, and gave us His righteousness. When we are justified, it’s not that we no longer sin, and that we are now innately righteous. Rather, when we are justified, God, from His heavenly courtroom as a just judge, declares that we are no longer liable for our sins, and declares the righteousness of Jesus to be considered as our very own. Christ’s righteousness has been imputed to us, or it has been credited to our account. When God sees us, He sees the righteousness of Christ. God has the authority to justify, and it is His act or declaration. Justification is an act of God. It’s a gracious act of God. It’s an undeserved gift from God. But we receive it by faith. What Does It Mean To Be Justified by Faith? Romans 5:1 begins by saying: 1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith… In chapters 3 and 4 of Romans the Apostle Paul makes it clear that no one will be justified by obeying the Law, because no one (other than Jesus Christ Himself) has ever obeyed the Law perfectly. We all fall short. We all sin. That is why Romans 3:10 says “There is no one righteous, not even one…”. And so, Romans 3:20–26 says this: 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. The Law exposes our sin before a Holy God. 21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— (since we won’t be righteous by keeping the Law—news of God revealing His righteousness apart from the Law is really good news—but what is it? Here it is…) 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. We will never be declared righteous because have kept the Law perfectly. Never! We will be declared righteous by God’s grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. What Jesus did in His death for us satisfied the wrath of God for our sin—and we receive this by faith, not works. When we are justified by faith we are forgiven and declared righteous by trusting in the person and work of Jesus Christ alone. We are justified by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. That is the exact opposite of us being justified by our keeping of the Law or our works. Chapter 4 establishes that even Abraham was justified by faith.  Romans 4:3 says:  3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”  Before we talk about some of the blessings of being justified by faith, I want you to listen to an important word by Wayne Grudem: “Scripture never says that we are justified because of the inherent goodness of our faith, as if our faith has merit before God.  It never allows us to think that our faith in itself earns favor with God.  Rather, Scripture says that we are justified by means of our faith, understanding faith to be the instrument through which justification is given to us, but not at all an activity that earns us merit or favor with God.  Rather, we are justified solely because of the merits of Christ’s work” (Systematic Theology, p. 730). We are justified to the praise of God’s glory alone! Now… When We Are Justified by Faith… We have received a rich gift from God. And within that gift, there are many other gifts. Not only are we declared forgiven and righteous in God’s sight, verses 1-5 mentions at least 4 other blessings that come from being justified by faith. One is that… We Have Peace With God (v. 1b) “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”  The fact of the matter is this:  Sin separated us from God.  We were alienated from God.  Without hope.  Without life.   Because of our sin, we stood condemned before God.  We were enemies of God.  We were hostile towards God.     But Jesus Christ changed everything.  Ephesians 2:14 says Jesus is our peace.  Jesus gave us peace with God.  This peace is a state of reconciliation with God.  In Jesus we are restored to a right relationship with God.  Through Jesus, we are brought back to God.  We are at peace with God.  This is a real objective peace.  We have this because we were justified by faith.  It’s not a subjective feeling that comes and goes.  This is an objective fact.  We are no longer under condemnation of God; instead, we are restored to God and at peace with Him.  We have this peace with God whether we feel it or not—because it is a result of being justified by faith.  Its objective and never changing. Now, there is also a subjective peace OF God that we can also experience. As Philippians 4:6-7 teaches us: 6 do not be anxious about anything, (sometimes that is what we feel or experience) but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. This is a subjective peace that comforts us when we face troubles. At times we may feel more anxious, and at other times, we may feel or experience the peace OF God that guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. This sense of well-being and quiet is the peace OF God—it’s a subjective experience. Romans 5:1 is talking about Peace WITH God—it is a never changing objective reality because we are justified by faith. But secondly… We Now Stand in God’s Favor (v. 2a) 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into th...
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The Consequences of Ideas
May 3100:41:53Tap to summarize
Colossians 2:8-10 –8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. Introduction What’s the worst idea you’ve ever heard?  My early-mid teenage years were pretty much defined by bad ideas.  Sticking a bobby pin into a plug and then the plug into an outlet was one of the more innocent and innocuous ones.  On the other end of both spectrums was some really, really bad ideas I had while driving a car.   On a more global scale, humanism, materialism, and all the various aspects of secularism are among the worst ideas mankind has ever conceived.  The extent of the devastation caused by them (both temporally and eternally) cannot be measured.   Our passage for this morning is largely about bad ideas and their consequences.  But Paul’s point is not to merely wallow in how bad the Colossians’ world was, but to help them see the stark contrast between those things and the best idea of all time and its consequences.  And that so that they might continue to walk in Jesus.   Stated another way, whereas our passage for last week, 2:6-7, gets to the heart of the solution to the Colossians’ problems (remember the simple truths of the gospel and then seek to become increasingly rooted, built up, established, and abounding in thanksgiving), our passage for this morning, 2:8-10, gets to the heart of the problems themselves (they were at risk of being taken captive by bad ideas and led astray from Christ). The big idea of this sermon is that all ideas have consequences.  What we believe determines how we act.  False beliefs take us captive.  True beliefs, which are always rooted in Jesus, set us free.  The main takeaway is to see that no one takes us captive with false beliefs and to seek the freedom that is found only in the Truth of Christ.   The Ideas Once again, Paul’s letter to the Colossians is one part warning concerning the imminent danger they faced, and one part encouragement concerning God’s protection and deliverance that was theirs in Christ.   In that is a critical reminder that the news of salvation in Jesus is only good when it’s shared in contrast with the bad news of death through sin.  When we share the gospel with the world, it is as important that we tell them what they must be saved from as it is to tell them what they are saved through and to.  A gospel without the sovereign holiness of God and the death-producing sin of mankind, is no gospel.  We must warn before we woo.   But Paul is not mainly speaking of evangelistic efforts or to non-Christians here.  He is mainly speaking to a group of people who profess faith in Jesus, but are in danger of being led astray from the truths of the gospel by false teachers and their bad ideas.  And within that, he writes to them of the bad ideas, their consequences, and the manner in which the Colossians ought to respond.   In a bit of reverse order (from Paul’s in v.8), let’s consider the bad ideas first.  Paul explicitly names four: (1) philosophy and (2) empty deceit, according to (3) human tradition, according to the (4) elemental spirits of the world.  These are more categories containing bad ideas, than bad ideas themselves, but they serve as important place holders for what’s to come in the letter.   Philosophy The first bad-idea category is “philosophy”.  It’s important to note that the term itself isn’t negative.  It simply means “love of wisdom”.  There is good philosophy, of course; philosophy rooted in genuine wisdom.  But there is also bad philosophy; philosophy rooted in the godless ideas of the world.   There is, perhaps, no clearer example of the contrast between these two kinds of “wisdom” that what we find in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians.  Throughout the end of chapter one and into the beginning of chapter two, he writes of “destroying the wisdom of the wise,” God making “foolish the wisdom of the world,” and the inability to “know God through wisdom”.  But he also writes of “Christ crucified” as the “the wisdom of God” and his burden to “impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God,” which is the power of God to save.   In other words, and once again, in the Bible, the word “philosophy” is used in both positive and negative senses.  In that way, the issue isn’t that the Colossians were at risk of “loving wisdom”.  The issue that Paul wants to Colossians to consider is the nature and content of the “wisdom” being presented to them.   Empty Deceit That leads to the second “idea” named by Paul, which is actually just a clarification of the first idea.  It answers for us the nature and content question of the philosophy Paul wrote about in v.8.  What kind of philosophy was being presented to the Colossian Christians?  “Empty deceit” philosophy; the first kind of philosophy I highlighted from 1 Corinthians 1-2; the philosophy of the world, the kind God destroys, the kind God makes foolish, the kind through which God cannot be known, the kind that promises much, but delivers little.   Grace, have you ever considered how much empty deceit there is out there?  Have you ever considered how often you are bombarded with it?  Have you ever really tried to slow down and examine your own thinking to find elements of it? It’s probably easy for most of us to name the empty deceits “out there”.  The world is so confused when it comes to issues of sex and gender, wisdom and folly, good and evil, life and death, love and hate, marriage and family, government and religion, ethics and morals, God’s nature and commands, and a whole host of other things.   The world around us promises that we can work through those things however we want and find true satisfaction in whatever we come up with, but for the most part, we know that’s empty deceit, right? While I don’t think the Church is as good on those things as we think we are, we are, for the most part, better at recognizing them for what they are than those outside of the Church.   However, there’s plenty of empty deceit inside the Church as well.  As Jerry Bridges has pointed out, we often function according the empty and deceiving philosophy that treats ungodliness, anxiety, discontentment, unthankfulness, pride, selfishness, lack of self-control, impatience, irritability, anger, judgmentalism, envy, and gossip as “respectable sins.”   In similar fashion, over the years, we’ve regularly been grieved as elders at how common it is for otherwise godly families to follow the empty and deceiving philosophies that kids’ sports/extracurricular activities ought to dominate family life, that skirting the edges of community with God’s people is an OK way to live, that worshiping as the gathered church on the Lord’s day is anything other than the pinnacle of the week in God’s design, that coming in and out of covenant membership in a local church is treated as a small thing, that husbands so easily abdicate and wives so easily complain, that non-evangelism is normal, and that God’s Word is minimized as the ultimate standard for significant aspects of our lives.  Grace, if you are to receive Paul’s words as God intends, you will prayerfully examine every aspect of the ideas and philosophies that drive your life, seeking and destroying those that are ultimately composed of empty deceit; that is, those that promise joy or comfort or acceptance, but can only deliver the opposite.     In just a bit, we’ll see what’s at stake for those who live according to these kinds of ideas, but first, let’s look at the final two “ideas” and the fact that they describe the source of the empty-deceit philosophies being put before the Colossians.  They are human traditions and the elemental spirits of the world. Human Tradition Human tradition means exactly what you probably think it means.  It is the thing that Jesus rebuked the religious leaders of His day for. 6 And [Jesus] said to [the Pharisees and scribes], “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; 7 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ 8 You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” 9 And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!” (Mark 7:7-9). Jesus said this in relation to...
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Walk in Jesus as You Received Jesus
May 2400:49:46Tap to summarize
Colossians 2:6-7 –6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. Introduction Church, try to recall a time in which you found it particularly difficult to follow Jesus.  Perhaps it was hard because you just didn’t know what to do (what it meant to follow Jesus in your circumstances).  Or, perhaps it was hard because although you knew what to do, you just didn’t want to do it.  Or, perhaps it was hard because although you knew what to do and even wanted to do it, the consequences for doing so were steep.   When you found yourself in that place of difficulty, what was the most helpful counsel you received?  Was there anything that you read or heard or remembered that truly helped you navigate your circumstances with biblical, Spirit-empowered hope and confidence (even if it was still hard)?   What do you do (and how do you know) when following Jesus makes life hard?  If that’s not a question you’ve ever had to deal with (or even regularly have to deal with), that’s a problem, but one for another day.  But for those of you who do find themselves asking that question consistently (maybe presently), I hope you’ll lean way in this morning for Paul offers a great deal of help.  Indeed, answering that question is largely the point of this entire letter, but it is especially the point of this particular passage.   Above all (that is, throughout Colossians), Paul argues: You remember that Jesus is over all and in all (that He is supreme, preeminent).  First and most, you settle on the fact that no matter what you are going through, Jesus is with you in it and sovereign over it.   More specifically though, according to Colossians 1:6-7, you remember when you first trusted in Jesus and then, in light of that, you continue to walk in Him.  That is, you remember your faith initially as a means of living out your faith continually.   The big idea of this sermon is that faithfully walking the Christian life (always, and especially in times of hardship and confusion) is directly connected to beginning the Christian life with a simple acceptance of the simple gospel.  The main takeaway is to consider all aspects of our lives through the simplifying lens of Jesus as King and Savior and then to live it out in truth, faith, and thanksgiving.  As You Received Him (6) The small church in Colossae, consisting primarily of newer Christians, was in a tough spot.  As we’ve seen, and will see again next week in greater detail, their difficulties were largely the result of a constant bombardment of “plausible arguments” and “philosophy” and ‘empty deceit” and “human tradition”.   It’s probably not too hard to imagine, is it Grace?  These baby Christians trusted in Jesus and consequently had their whole lives turned upside down.  Everything was new and little was clear.  They didn’t even have the completed Bible yet.  Even without opposition, it was a tall task to even know what to do, let alone do it.   But with bad actors, teaching bad ideas, it was inevitably harder still.  It was harder because some of what they were hearing was “plausible”.  It was wrong, but it sounded like it might not be.  How do you sort through it all?   It was also harder because some of what they were hearing was appealing.  It was wrong and they knew it, but it was easier (kind of like the doctrine of annihilationism—no hell sounds a lot easier than hell).  How do you keep choosing that which is right, but harder, when life is continually hard and easier options are continually put in front of you? Gerri and I are seeing that in a group of our son’s friends.  Many of them either just came to faith in Jesus or just came to understand it in a life-changing way.  And that, right into the deep end of life.  They’re trying to discern God’s will for their areas of study, graduation, dating, marriage, career, etc.  They’re getting all kinds of advice from all kinds of people with all kinds of motives and it can be hard to know what to make of and do with it all.  They have friends and even parents giving them “plausible” advice for living their best life.  It’s often rooted in real life experience and a genuine desire to help them avoid some of the mistakes they made themselves.  The advice they’re getting generally flows out of truly (even if misguided) benevolent motives.   At the same time, friends and family often mock or take offense if their counsel is rejected.    These young people know that life is 10,000x better in Christ, but also significantly harder than just going with the cultural flow.   So what are the Colossians and our son’s friends supposed to do and how do they know?  Again, that’s largely the point of these two verses—which are right at the heart of the letter.  The first part of Paul’s answer, found in v.6, was to consider how they received Jesus.   6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him… How did they receive Jesus?  The same way anyone and everyone receives Jesus: They trusted in Him (1:4) with child-like faith.  Not everything was clear, but there was a sweet clarity in simply believing that Jesus alone is Christ and Lord—that He alone could forgive them of their sins and that He alone was worthy of submitting to entirely as the highest authority in their lives.   And there was a sweetness to the confirming grace of God that came with it.  God immediately produced in them love for one another (1:4), hope for eternal life (1:5), and significant spiritual fruit 1:6).   In other words, to come to faith in Jesus is to settle on the purist, most basic elements of the faith.  It is to accept mere Christianity—Jesus as Lord and risen Savior.   So, what does that have to do with baby Christians discerning the will of God in the midst of lots of clamoring voices making all kinds of claims? It means, Grace, we never move past the basics of the gospel.  If any aspect of our walk with Jesus is honoring to Jesus, it’s because it flows out of the good news that King Jesus was crucified and risen for sinners.  In that way, every aspect of the Christian life flows out of the things we believed when we first trusted in Jesus.  There is more to learn, but it’s never disconnected from the things we believed when we initially experienced new birth in Jesus.   The longer you are a Christian, the more life you will experience.  And the more life you experience, the more complicated things can become.  Like the Colossians, you’ll inevitably encounter lots of questions and competing ideas.  The simple fact that God loved the world in such a way that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life, won’t answer all of those questions, but it most certainly will orient you for them all.  It won’t sort through every plausible idea for you, but it will immediately eliminate many and illuminate all.   For instance, when confronted with the question of who you should marry and the many voices speaking into it, remembering the gospel doesn’t give you her name, but the reality that Jesus is the Christ means that she needs to be a Christian and someone who loves as Jesus loves.  The gospel doesn’t give you his name, but the reality that Jesus is King means that he must be someone who loves His rule.   Likewise, when confronted with the question of how to respond to the bully at school, the gospel isn’t a play-by-play instruction manual, but it is a reminder that Jesus loved us when we were still His enemies.   When confronted with the question of how to respond to someone who is wrestling through gender issues, the gospel doesn’t tell you everything you need to know, but it is helpfully orienting to remember that we are who King Jesus says we are, that we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and that the only hope for any of us is Jesus crucified and raised.     The first part of Paul’s answer for the Colossians, our son’s friend group, and every Christian who is having a hard time discerning God’s will for their life (especially when life is hard for being the kind of person who tries to discern God’s will for your life), is to remember that faithfully walking the Christian life is always directly connected to the beginning the Christian life.  It always begins with the conviction that everything flows out of the reality that Jesus is King and Christ.   Oh to be properly amazed, humbled, and oriented by the basic truths of the gospel throughout all our lives. So walk in Him (7) Again, the small church in Colossae, consisting primarily of newer Christians, was in a tough spot due to a constant bombardment of the “plausible arguments” and “empty deceit” of “human tradition” and “philosop...
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Sustained by God’s Grace
May 1700:35:04Tap to summarize
I Corinthians 1:4-9 –4 I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, 5 that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge— 6 even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— 7 so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 8 who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Introduction I grew up in a home with a dad who had a lot of stamina to finish a project.  My dad and I would often work on cars.  Far too often we were making repairs that were not going as well as we had hoped.  When I was younger I would be along side of dad watching—as I got older I would begin to help—but I soon found out that I would grow weary and quit, but my dad would keep on working until the job was done.  My dad was amazingly patient and persistent.  I always had full confidence that the car we were working on would get fixed no matter how difficult it was.  My dad was one of those guys who if he didn’t have the right tool—he would fabricate one to work perfectly.  Dad would persistently stay with a repair until it was done. In a much greater way, our text for this morning tells us how God persistently stays with us to finish the work that He started!  And here is why this truth is so important. Have you ever battled sin or trials and wondered if you were going to be able to make it to the end? Have you ever felt weak, as if you may not have what it takes to make it and to remain strong to the end? Have you ever faced discouragement to the point where doubt dominated your thinking? I hope that at some point in your life you have felt weak and incapable of going on to the end!  You might be thinking—Darrel, that is not the encouragement I was looking for this morning—but let me explain.  Paul, in II Corinthians 12:9 records the words of the Lord Jesus when He said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness”.  Paul continues:  That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.  For when I am weak, then I am strong”.  You see, hardships remind us that we need God’s grace!  Why do we need hardships?  Because we are so prone to be self-sufficient and to think that we can make it on our own! Paul is writing to the church of Corinth, a church that was loaded with problems.  But what is at the heart of their problems?  Commentator Gordon Fee helps us understand one significant root of their problems when he states “The Corinthians are genuinely gifted, but as the letter reveals, they are self-satisfied and creature-oriented, boasting in mere human beings.” (NICNT, p. 36).  Fee also states that  “their problem lies not in their gifts, but in their attitude toward these gifts”(NICNT, p. 36).  It was their inordinate attention on self and others—rather than God—that caused many problems within the church.  Paul writes to them in I Corinthians to help redirect their focus. Today we will focus upon verses 4 through 9.  In typical fashion for Paul, he expresses thanksgiving to God for the Corinthians.  But if you have read through the letter to the church in Corinth, you know all the problems they had, and you might appropriately ask—what do the Corinthians have for which can be thankful?  Well, what the Corinthians have, we have also been given—and because of that we too should be very thankful to God!  But for what is Paul is thankful?  Three things.  First… I. Give thanks to God for what He has done (v. 4-7) In verse 4, Paul says “I always thank God for you because…” and then he gives us three reasons why he is thankful. The first reason is this… A. God has given you grace in Christ Jesus. Here “charis” is the Greek word for grace, and it refers to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel of Jesus is God’s grace to His people. The Father sent His Son, Jesus, to this earth, and ultimately to the Cross to purchase our redemption. Through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the penalty for our sin was paid in full. Today, if we are the recipients of God’s unmerited grace by faith, we are counted as righteous before God. We have peace with God. If you are “in Christ” by grace through faith, then there is absolutely no condemnation upon your life. Not now. Not ever again! God’s grace that is given to us in the Gospel of Jesus Christ sets us free from sin and death. That also means that the power of sin was broken. Born-again believers are no longer slaves to sin. We don’t have to keep sinning. We are set free from sin to live in obedience to Jesus Christ. This grace given to us in Jesus Christ also includes the gift of the Holy Spirit, who gives us power to live our lives for God’s glory and others good. We don’t have to keep on living proud, self-sufficient, and self-serving lives. We can, because of the grace given to us in Christ, begin to find our greatest joy in loving God! And, because we are no longer held captive to sin, and because we have experienced God’s great love in Jesus, we can begin to love others in right ways. We can place ourselves at the loving service of others for their good and for God’s glory! Because the grace given to us in Christ Jesus, the penalty for our sin is paid in full, and the power of sin in our lives is broken. But that’s not all! God’s grace given to us in the Gospel gives us great hope for eternity. We are given a great hope that when we leave this earth, we will spend eternity with Jesus Christ without the presence of sin. Because of God’s grace given to us in Christ Jesus, the penalty of sin is paid in full, the power of the sin is broken, and we have a Gospel-infused hope that one day we’ll be entirely removed from the presence of sin, and we’ll see Jesus face to face. For what is Paul thankful?  It is not what the Corinthians have accomplished.  Rather it’s what God has accomplished in the lives of the believers through the Gospel of His grace.  As Leon Morris states, “Mere human achievement means little to Paul”.  Morris continues, “Paul doesn’t thank them for qualities such as faith, hope, and love (as in I Thess 1:2-3), but for what God’s grace has in fact done in them”. You see, Paul is beginning to redirect their focus from man to God.  Imagine for a moment if I was standing next to the Mona Lisa in Paris, France (a picture I actually had the privilege of seeing on a business trip).  Pretend that I stood next to the enclosed case and talked with tourists as they came by—and as I talked with them, I talked with them as if I had been the one who had painted the Mona Lisa.  What would happen to me there?  I would get booted out quickly because everyone knows that Leonardo DaVinci painted the Mona Lisa in 1506.  It would be absurd for me to try to take credit for something a famous artist had done centuries before.    So to, it is wrong for us to take credit for something that God has freely done in our lives—the Corinthians were squabbling about following Paul, and following Apollos—they were fascinated with all of what man can do, but Paul keeps reminding them all the way through the letter that we are just clay vessels—their focus was on man, and it should have been on God—so Paul is at work to redirect their focus—from man to God But let us continue, for what else is Paul thankful to God?  Here it is… B. God has enriched you in Christ Jesus. Paul is thankful to God for how they have been enriched in every way. The idea here is that the Corinthians have been “made rich” or “richly furnished” in every way. But then he gives two specific ways in which they have been made rich: 1. In All Speech: This is kind of funny because one of the Corinthians problems was an inflated view of their speech. Yet, Paul begins by saying he is thankful to God for the way He has made them rich in ALL speech. As we will see later, Paul did not place a high value on rhetorical eloquence. Paul didn’t proclaim the Gospel in lofty words of wisdom. Instead, Paul’s preaching of the Gospel was made effective by the power of the Holy Spirit. Neither did Paul place a great value on the act of speaking in tongues if it wasn’t done in love, or the good of others. In fact, Paul said that if you speak in tongues without love its like an obnoxious clanging noise. Silence would be better than that. In chapter 14 Paul puts a huge emphasis upon speech that builds up the church. Paul was big on the body of Christ being edified. Paul would address their abuse of speech, but here in the beginning of the letter, Paul gives thanks to God for how their lives have been enriched in all Speech. This probably includes edifying speech they had received from him, and it would have certainly included edifying speech they have been able to give to one another in the church. The bottom line is this: Paul is thankful to God f...
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Struggling for Sinners
May 1000:36:13Tap to summarize
Colossians 2:1-5 –1 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, 2 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 4 I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. 5 For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ. Introduction In our passage for this morning, Paul continues to describe how hard he worked to bring the Word of God to bear in the lives of others.  He did so because he loved them and because he believed with all he had that God’s Word is so precious and powerful and transformative that sharing it with the world is worth every ounce of energy he had.   He also did so because he knew that where God’s Word is taught in truth and received in faith, there is the treasure of encouragement, love, assurance, joy, and unity.  Conversely, he did so because he also knew that wherever competing claims have taken hold, there is the misery of discouragement, division, doubt, corrosion, ignorance, and death.     The big idea of the sermon is that hard work for the things of God is a feature, not a flaw of a godly life.  Predictably, the main takeaway is to learn to understand and love God and His Word such that we’re compelled to work hard at living it out for the sake of the world.   Moms, this isn’t anything like an ordinary Mother’s Day message, but I think you’ll find a good deal of clarity and hope for the hard work of your mothering in this passage and message. Paul Greatly Struggled on Behalf of Others (1) I wonder, what is the hardest you’ve ever worked?  Have you ever felt like you were truly at the end of yourself on a physical level; like you worked so hard, you were on the verge of collapse?   Similarly, what’s the longest you’ve worked the hardest for?  Have you ever worked really hard for days, months, or years for something? And probably most importantly, what kinds of things have you determined are worth working your hardest for?  What have you found to be valuable enough to work at with significant sacrifice and to the point of exhaustion? For the most part, our current cultural mindset seems to be that the main things worth working hard at are avoiding hard work and worldliness.  But that’s a different sermon for a different day.  My point here is to draw your attention to the Apostle Paul’s hard work, and especially what he worked hard for.   Previously, we saw that Paul toiled and struggled to bring the gospel to everyone (1:29).  In our passage, he picks up where he left off.  You may remember that the Greek word translated “toil” indicates working to near exhaustion.  And if you remember that, you probably also remember that the Greek word for “struggle” is even more severe still.  To struggle in that sense is to work past exhaustion to the point of agony.   Consider then Paul’s new modifier, “For I want you to know how great a struggle I have…”. He worked past the point of exhaustion, past the point of agony, to the point of great/excruciating agony. As I mentioned last week, that included ~10,000 miles of foot and water travel, preaching, teaching, debating, counseling, negotiating, rebuking, disciplining, encouraging, writing, tentmaking (he was bi-vocational), and all without a home base, without much sleep, often without food and water, with constant persecution and regular imprisonments, and all of that continually for ~30 years.   We know from this letter (beginning right at the beginning and all the way to the end) that his primary work for others was prayer.  His great struggle took the form of nearly constant prayer for his readers.   Twice already, Paul has made it clear that God strengthened him for that work, but that wasn’t apart from Paul’s great struggle. We’ll come back to who and what it was that Paul greatly struggled for in a bit, but for now, two things… First, not everything is worth working this hard for, but there most certainly are things that are.  We all need to have a category for things worth working towards until we have nothing left.  As long as we live in this fallen, broken, cursed, and largely disordered world, and as long as we live under the dominion mandate, the Great Commandment, and the Great Commission, there will be things we need to pour ourselves out for (“as a drink offering” (Philippians 2:17)), both physically and spiritually.   In this world, God’s design is leisure for work, not work for leisure.  The rhythm of creation is 6 days of labor and one day of rest.  And while we aim at “bearing [good, gospel, God-prescribed] fruit in every good work,” the expectation is inefficiency, difficulty, and injustice, no matter our work (Genesis 3:17-19).  In other words, most of us would do well to do a bit of recalibrating concerning our understanding of the role of hard work in the life of a Christian.  It is a feature, not a flaw of a godly life. Moms, on this Mother’s Day, you know this better than most.  Good mothering is among the hardest work there is.  There are few things more demanding, more constant, and with more at stake.  But know this as well, there are few things more worthy of your best efforts and hardest work.  If you are working hard as a mom, according to God’s design, you are working hard at one of the most important and significant tasks available to mankind.  Do not let the world or your own inner voice tell you otherwise.   That leads to the second thing I want you to notice from the beginning of v.1.  For Paul, greatly struggling toward his God-given charge was both success and reward.  This will become clearer as we make our way through the passage and letter, but a well-lived life works hard at the things of God and rejoices in the certainty of God’s pleasure in us as we do.   As you all know, moms, your best efforts and hardest work can often feel like two steps forward and three steps back.  And that can feel like failure.  But the results are up to God, not you.  You cannot save or sanctify your kids no matter how many prayers you pray, passages you read over them, verses you have them memorize, or how consistently you disciple and discipline them.   Again, moms, learn from Paul that your task and your success is faithfulness in giving to your kids that which God has called you to.  Work hard at those things (repent of not doing so if need be and rest in the forgiveness that is already yours in Christ).  But as you do so, in the strength God provides, rest and rejoice in the knowledge that you do so in God’s pleasure.    What’s true of motherhood is true of every aspect of a godly life. Our job and success, Grace, is working hard to live lives of faithfulness to God’s design, not to produce a particular result.  Like Paul, work hard—really hard—for the gospel-good of others.  And then rest well—really well—in the mighty hand and sweet pleasure of God in Christ.   Paul Wanted Them to Know How Great his Struggle Was for Them (1) Paul greatly struggled on behalf of a group of people, and he wanted them to know it. I find that fascinating and not a little counter-intuitive. “For I want you to know how great a struggle I have…”. The first thought that comes to my mind when I read that is Matthew 6:1-4. “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.  2 Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. Jesus told his followers to do good for others “in secret.”  But in our passage, Paul was announcing his good work.  He even went beyond simply telling his readers that he was struggling for them.  He also told them how great the struggle was.  Why was that and why is it not a violation of Jesus’ charge?   Simply and encouragingly, Jesus’ prohibition was not against talking about our good works.  It was about doing so for self-glory; for the...
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The Heart and Marks of a Well-Stewarded Ministry
May 300:43:01Tap to summarize
Colossians 1:24-29 –24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, 25 of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, 26 the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. 27 To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 29 For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me. Introduction Last Sunday, for missions week, I preached a high-level overview of this passage.  My main aim was to help you see the kind of perspective Paul had that enabled him to rejoice in his missionary sufferings.  His answer, in simplest terms and consistent with the theme of missions week, is that while the sufferings he suffered were significant, they were far lesser than the greater good of bringing the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world.   In other words, Paul was able to rejoice in his sufferings because although the cost was high, the reward was far greater.  The loss of worldly comfort was a price worth paying for the gain of living in the will of God and love for His people.  It was better, he reasoned, to die to the pleasures of the world than to live apart from the eternal pleasure of God and the saints.   In that way, much of what I pointed out last week focused on how the claims of this passage support that glorious reality in relation to missions and how they relate to a well-stewarded missions ministry.   For the next couple of weeks, then, we are going to circle back through the passage in order to consider more closely and practically what it means for the ministry to which we’ve been called.  Last week, the focus was on doing that internationally.  This morning we’re going to consider the heart and marks of a well-stewarded local ministry.  To be even more specific, I’m going to make the case that this passage is a charge to all of us (to all Christians) to make it our life’s chief ambition to bring the glorious riches of the gospel to bear on everyone we meet.  That’s the big idea and the main takeaway.   Follow My Example Without getting too deep into the weeds, before getting into the meat of this sermon, it’s important for me to acknowledge/remind you of a few things concerning the context of this passage.   I’m arguing that we apply this passage to our local ministry, but Paul had never met the Colossians. I’m arguing that we apply this passage to our local ministry, but Paul was hundreds of miles away from the Colossians when he wrote this letter. I’m arguing that we apply this passage to our local ministry, but Paul functioned mainly as an on-the-move missionary. I’m arguing that we apply this passage to our local ministry, but Paul’s ministry was as an apostle. I’m arguing that we apply this passage to our local ministry, but Paul’s ministry was directly, audibly, visibly, and explicitly given to him by Jesus. The question, then, is: How do I get from there to here?  Am I being faithful to this passage in claiming that it is a charge for us to heed and example to follow, both in missions (last week) and local ministry (this week)? I think I am being faithful to the text for two main reasons: (1) Paul’s command in 1 Corinthians 11 and (2) His words in v.28. Paul’s Command (1 Corinthians 11:1) In 1 Corinthians 11:1, Paul commands his readers to “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.”  The NIV translates it like this, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.”  Paul meant his readers (which includes us) to look to his life and do what he did, love what he loved, and say what he said, because he did, loved, and said what Jesus did, loved, and said.   He was not, of course, calling everyone to imitate him as an imprisoned, apostolic, missionary.  Nor was he calling people to perfectly follow his perfect example of the perfect example of Jesus.  But he was claiming that by God’s grace, his life was a good example of godliness for others to follow.   In my estimation, following the Paul’s example boils down to living continually out of three main convictions, no matter our context: (1) Treasuring Jesus above all, (2) Expressing that through whole-life, glad-hearted, Spirit-empowered obedience to God, and (3) Doing so especially by proclaiming and applying the gospel everywhere and among everyone, no matter the earthly cost.   In that way, although this paragraph in Colossians was written from prison, to a church he’d never been to, it flowed out of the same convictions that led him to spend 2+ years investing in churches in Tarsus, Ephesus, Rome, Corinth, and a few other cities as well.   For us to obey 1 Corinthians 11:1 in light of this paragraph, then, ultimately means learning to live out of the same core convictions that Paul was living out when he wrote it (which is a local ministry for most of us). Paul’s Friends (1:28) The second reason I think this passage is rightly applied to our local ministry is found in v.28.  Throughout most of our passage (vs.24-27, 29), Paul described his ministry in first person terms (I/me).  But in v.28 he switched to the third person (we).  “Him [Jesus] we proclaim…that we may present everyone mature in Christ.”   Timothy, Epaphras, Tychicus, Onesimus, Aristarchus, Mark, Justus, Luke, Demas, and Nympha are all explicitly mentioned in this letter as significant ministry partners (part of the “we” of v.29).  Each of those individuals played different ministry roles for the sake of the Church.  Paul charged Timothy, for instance, to follow the example he set in this paragraph as a pastor of a local church (in Ephesus).  More to the point, what was missions work for Paul, was at the same time, local church ministry for Epaphras (who was from Colossae).   Therefore, just as those who were with Paul shared his convictions and followed his example in whatever context God put them in, so too should we. Grace, may we all treasure Jesus above all, express that through whole-life, glad-hearted, Spirit-empowered obedience to God, and do so especially by proclaiming and applying the gospel everywhere and among everyone, no matter the earthly cost. The Heart of a Well-Stewarded Ministry Let’s say I’ve convinced you of the need to pursue those convictions, and apply them according to Paul’s example (which I’ve prayed all week would be the case). What, specifically, does that mean? At the heart of the example Paul set is a commitment to stewarding his God-given ministry well.  Don’t miss that.  I think the culture of Grace Church is such that we all eagerly nod our heads when told of our need to treasure Jesus above all.  But what does that look like lived-out?  Certainly, it has a good deal to do with our appetites, affections, longings (which Paul talks about elsewhere).  But it also has a good deal to do with the way we live our lives.  It makes little sense to say we treasure Jesus apart from living that out in concrete ways.   Paul’s point in v.25 is that the primary way he did so was by being a good steward of the ministry entrusted to him, “…I became a minister [of the Church] according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you…” In other words, I think the center of Colossians 1:24-29 is an example of what it means to treasure Jesus in our daily lives; namely, by being good stewards of the ministry entrusted to us by God.  My main charge, then, is to do just that, Grace—treasure Jesus by giving your whole life to being a good steward of your God-given ministry. Key Terms If we’re going to follow his example, then, we need to begin with clarity on the two main terms of this clause—minister and steward.   The term “minister” is an important one for Paul and an often misunderstood one for us.  It is the same word used for “Deacon” when we speak of the office of deacon (1 Timothy 3:8-13).  The literal translation is “servant”.  God made Paul a minister of the Church in that He made him a servant of the Church.  Paul’s main charge was not to get from the Church, but to give to it.  O, that we might all come to think and act like that.  We’re so programed to think of the church as existing to serve us (which, of course, it does in some ways) instead of the other way around.  Indeed, it is far more blessed to give (to serve, to minister) than to receive.  Grace, how are you guilty of thinking of the church mainly as your servant? The other key term, “steward,” is an unusual one.  I can’t think of the last time I heard it outside of the Bib...
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Death to That Which Is Lesser – Life to That Which Is Greater
Apr 2600:42:49Tap to summarize
Colossians 1:24-2:2 –24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, 25 of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, 26 the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. 27 To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 29 For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me. 2 1 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, 2 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ… Introduction Welcome to the start of missions week.  I’m exceedingly thankful for the culture-shaping effect it has had on our church over the years.  One of the most tangible ways I’ve seen that play out is in the fact that missions is normal at Grace.  No one wonders whether or not missions ought to be a part of our church-life.  We all know and love the reality that as long as there are people around the world who have not heard the good news of Jesus, who have not yet tasted and seen that He alone can satisfy our souls, we must go to them or support those who have. But if we’re being honest, we’ll admit that missions is a scary and costly and intimidating.  With that in mind, Kyle introduced me to the theme of missions week this year with the following thoughts… “How many of us fall short in our sending and our going because we see it too much as a loss of something? A loss of money, loss of time, loss of comfort, a loss of fulfillment, or a loss of safety and security? Yes, missions is loss, but it is a loss of that which is lesser, and a gain of that which is greater. Greater joy. Greater purpose. Greater satisfaction” (Kyle Puelston). Grace, I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that all of life is one choice after another between lesser or greater.  Likewise, I don’t think it’s misleading to say that sanctification is God’s work of giving us increasing appetite for all things greater.   Our main problem is that sin has made it so that we often can’t tell the greater from the lesser and even when we can, we often don’t prefer it, and even when we do, we are often unwilling to pay the cost to get it.   And here’s the key for us to grasp this morning: As long as that’s the case, missions will never find its proper place in our own lives or in the life of our church.   Missions week this year is a call to die to that which is lesser in order that we might live for that which is greater.  It’s a plea to ask the Lord to help us increasingly die to all the sinful and even “fine” things in our life, that we might come alive to the greatest things—to Jesus and all that He has commanded.   Through Paul’s example, we are given a crystal-clear picture of what that looks like. The big ideas of this sermon are that God commands missions, missions is hard, and we’ll never do the hard work of missions if we aren’t convinced that it is greater.  The main takeaway is that we’d work hard to learn, love, and live the greater, no matter the cost (that we’d read our Bibles, pray for the Spirit’s transforming power, and spur one another on in missions). Missions In Paul’s Life Again, there are three components to the big idea of this sermon: (1) God commands missions, (2) Missions is hard, and (3) We’ll never do the hard work of missions if we aren’t convinced that it is greater.  Paul most certainly understood and believed and lived in light of those biblical truths.  To help you see that, and then apply it, consider with me six high-level observations from our passage. Paul Rejoiced in His Suffering as a Missionary (1:24) Almost from the moment of his conversion, Paul spent his entire life serving as a missionary.  That is, he gave himself to traveling around the known world, telling everyone he could about the good news of God’s grace in Jesus Christ.  He did so across every geographical, cultural, linguistic, political and, economic boundary there was at that time.   In the course of nearly 30 years of missions work, Paul traveled across two continents, somewhere in the vicinity of 10,000 miles, personally sharing the gospel with hundreds, if not thousands of people.   And in that time, he suffered much.  He suffered to the point that it’s probably nearly impossible for most of us to imagine it, his perseverance in it, or even his lack of complaining about it.   But more than merely making it through and keeping his complaints to himself, Paul explicitly tells us (in v.24), “Now I rejoice in my sufferings…”  He did the hard work, kept doing the hard work for three decades, and saw his hardships not as a flaw of his ministry, but as a feature, as opportunities to rejoice.   That ought to cause two questions to spring immediately to mind: (1) What suffering, and (2) Why rejoice in it? What suffering?  It’d be a significant understatement to simply say, “a lot.”  By the time Paul wrote his letter to the Colossians and claimed to be rejoicing in his suffering (you can read about a good deal of it in 2 Corinthians 11:23-2), he’d already been beaten, lashed, stoned, shipwrecked, sleepless, homeless, famished, and betrayed.    Most immediately, in the context of this letter, Paul was suffering imprisonment, in “chains” (4:18), for declaring “the mystery of Christ” (4:3).  And all of those things, multiple times (including shipwrecked). Again, needless to say, that level and length of suffering goes far beyond what any of us can even imagine.   If that’s the nature of his suffering, how/why in the world would he rejoice in it?  You do know that sounds a bit crazy, right?   Paul seems to be living out what James commanded: “Count it all joy…when you meet trials of various kinds.”  I’ve always found that to be the most counterintuitive passage in the whole Bible.  (I know there are others that should seem more that way, but they just don’t.)   On the surface, trials and joy seem to me to be the definition of opposite ends of the spectrum.  Nearly every part of my rational brain is convinced that to move away from one is to move toward the other; that they cannot coexist. The theme of missions week, the opening words of our passage, and Paul’s entire Christian life, are a direct assault on that line of thinking.  But again, why?  How?   The short version is that in all of these things, Paul told his readers that he was willingly dying to his old self and life, to his old desires and motivations, to his old priorities and privileges, and to his old thinking and reasoning.  And he told them that he was doing so for the sake of living for something much, much (incalculably) greater.  Everything he once held dear and built his life upon, had become to him as rubbish compared to the opportunity to know Jesus, obey Jesus, and proclaim the good news of Jesus to the world.   The remaining six observations are the meat on that bone.  They are the alternate calculus which reckons suffering as joy instead of ruin.  They are the greater that makes it worth dying to all lesser.  They are the things that an above the sun exchange rate values above all earthly comfort.  They are the answer to the question of how a man or woman of God can rejoice in their trials of obedience. Paul Rejoiced in His Suffering for the Sake of the Church (1:24) The second observation, and the first explanation for Paul’s rejoicing in his suffering, is found in the very next clause in v.24, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake…” [that is, according to the end of the verse,] …for the sake of [Jesus’] body, that is, the church…” (also, “for you” according to v.25). In other words, Paul knew that the suffering he endured for telling people about Jesus was for the benefit of all God’s people.  It was a benefit for those who had not yet heard the gospel in that they might hear, believe, and be saved.  And it was a benefit for those already trusting in Jesus in that, as we’ll see from 1:28 on, it resulted in their spiritual maturity.   In his second letter to the church at Corinth (2 Corinthians 4:8-11), he says it like this… We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our bodi...
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Sermons – Grace Evangelical Free Church // Wyoming, MN

All episodes

Holding Fast to the Head – Part 1

Deliverance

Captivated by Christ

Justified by Faith

The Consequences of Ideas

Walk in Jesus as You Received Jesus

Sustained by God’s Grace

Struggling for Sinners

The Heart and Marks of a Well-Stewarded Ministry

Death to That Which Is Lesser – Life to That Which Is Greater