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LIFE CHANGE GOD'S WAY : I NEED HELP AND SO DO YOUColossians 3:12-17INTRODUCTION In this third and final installment in our series, "Life Change, God's Way", we are going to consider how it is that we help each other to trust and love Christ more. While the Bible is quite clear that the transformation of a sinner into a saint is a miracle of God, yet it also insists that one of the means that God uses to perform this miracle are the relationships that Christians have with one another. That fact comes out quite clearly in our passage this morning. There is no way to be a Christian, nor to grow as a Christian without developing significant relationships with other Christians. I want you to see the logic of chapter 3. In vv. 1-4 Paul commands that Christians be fixated upon the things upon which heaven is fixated. Heaven is fixated upon Christ who sits at God's right hand and who will one day return to complete the work he began at his first coming. We are to be obsessed with Christ because he is our life and his future is our future. He is everything to us. Notice that v. 5 starts with a "therefore." Because our life is bound up with Christ we are to put to death the things that characterize our earthly nature, our former way of life, our old self. We are to live as citizens of heaven, not as citizens of earth. In v. 11 Paul tells us that all the old distinctions among humans have ceased to matter to us. Sociology is meaningless in heaven and so it is meaningless in the church, the outpost of heaven on earth, for Christ is all and in all. Now, in v. 12 there is another "therefore." This is parallel to the one in v. 5. Whereas vv. 5-10 tell us the life we are to get rid of, vv. 12-17 describe the life we are to embrace. The life we are to embrace, because Christ is everything, is a life lived in community. The new life that Christ has given to us is not an individual life but a life that is shared with others. Heaven is a community of love and the church, the outpost of heaven on earth, is to reflect that communal life that will be fully ours at the resurrection, when Jesus returns. We are going to see four things that are true of us as we live together as God’s new community because Christ is everything to us and for us. MAIN POINT Christ is everything to us and for us, therefore… I. We delight to delight one another (vv. 12-14) Paul begins his description of how we are to live by first reminding us of our privileged status. Whenever the Scriptures talk about God's choosing us it is emphasizing the freedom of God's grace. God did not choose us because of anything in us. He chose us according to his own pleasure and will, not because of who we are or because of something we did to attract his attention. He chose us contrary to what we deserve. To say we are holy is not a comment on our character or moral performance but on our status. God chose us for himself. To be holy means to be set apart for God. To use the language of the OT, "We are a people holy to the Lord our God for the Lord chose us out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession." I and every other Christian are a treasure to God. He values us and delights in us and thinks much of us. He chose us to be his treasured possession; that is what it means to be holy. Finally, we are beloved children. He feels about us the same way he feels about Jesus. He is our Father and is committed to us even more than the best human fathers are committed to the well being of their children. His love for us is not based upon how lovely we are or valuable we are or upon our performance, but upon his delight in loving us. Paul's point is that God's relationship to us is both the pattern of and the power for our love for one another. Our status with God is our pattern in that we are to choose to love other Christians not because of how much they love us but because it is our joy to love them. We realize that the people who belong to the church do so by God's choice and I have no right to reject them but am under obligation to choose them as my brothers and sisters, freely, not because of how they treat me. God has set apart all members of his church as his treasured possession, therefore I shall treasure those whom God treasures. God loves all Christians as his own children, therefore, if I love God I will love his children. Paul says this same thing more directly in Eph. 5:1, “Be imitators of God therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved you…” How God has treated me is not only the pattern for how I treat other Christians but also is the power that enables me to love others. There is nothing more astonishing in the entire universe than that God would choose me, a sinner to be his treasured possession and his beloved child. If you have truly comprehended what it means for you to be a sinner and of how right it would be for God to hate you and send you to hell, then you can begin to appreciate how overwhelming it is that God has chosen to love you in Christ. There is nothing better than this. There is no greater security than this. If you are loved by God then nothing and no one can harm you. You are free to love others because regardless of how those whom you love treat you and respond to you, you cannot be harmed. After we are reminded of who we are through Christ we are commanded to clothe ourselves with five virtues. The metaphor of putting on clothing is instructive. We put on clothes to fit the occasion. The clothes I wear when I go running are different then the clothes I wear when I go deer hunting are different than the clothes I wear to church are different than the clothes I wear to a funeral. I would never wear my running clothes to church nor would I wear my church clothes running. You can usually tell what kind of a function a person is going to by the clothes he is wearing because we all know that clothes fit the function. These “clothes” that we are to put on fit the occasion. This new life that I have been given in Christ is a life lived in the company of God’s people. Salvation is not a private enterprise but a public enterprise. I am now part of God’s people and I am going to live forever within this saved community. These clothes I am to put on are the clothes that are most appropriate for the new life I’ve been called into. Let’s consider these articles of clothing in order to understand something more of the life we’ve been called into. Compassion describes that inner emotion I feel at the misfortune and neediness of others. It is to feel the pain of another that motivates me to action to help the other. In Matthew 9 we are told that Jesus felt compassion for the people for they were like sheep without a shepherd. Then he taught them and healed their sick. Kindness is that attribute that motivates me to speak and to work to meet the needs of others. It is a thoughtful response to the needs in others. Kindness is generosity that meets the needs of others. Humility is how I view myself in relation to others. I do not view myself as better than others but rather view myself as less than others. I am obligated to serve others, others are not obligated to serve me. Others deserve my help while I do not deserve help. My sins appear to me as greater than the sins of others. Gentleness is a disposition of acceptance. I am not a person who demands my own way. A gentle person is not a self assertive person but a person who accepts the way he or she is treated by others and continues to act in kindness and compassion towards others regardless of how she is treated. Patience is the virtue that enables us to continue to be compassionate, kind, humble and gentle over the long haul. It is the virtue of the marathon runner. A patient person is able to persist in doing good even when the good is not appreciated or noticed. These articles of clothing point to the function we each perform in the body of Christ. The people with whom we are living are needy people. Whether it is in your family or in the church, the human beings you live with need your help. All five of these virtues presume need in others and are the attributes of a person who is working to meet the needs of others. All five of these words are used to describe God and Christ at other places in the Scriptures. That is why, in Romans 13:14 Paul can say, “Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ…” So when we put these “clothes” on we are taking on the very character of Christ. We are dressing up like our Father in order to go do his work. It is his work to meet the needs of his chosen, holy and beloved people and so we dress for the job. Following these five virtues are two commands. We are to bear with or endure each other and we are to forgive one another the grievances we have against one another. I love the Bible because it is so realistic. Paul tells us to expect to be offended by other Christians. What these commands tell us is that when you are saved by Christ and made a member of Christ’s body you are placed among a group of annoying and offensive people who need help. And because Paul says “each other” and “one another” we are to realize that each of us is an annoying, offensive and needy person. We don’t respond to one another’s faults and sins and irritating habits with judgment and criticism and rejection but with forbearance and forgiveness and compassion. We endure, cheerfully and without complaining about the insensitivities of others. We forgive the sins of others against us quickly and glaldy. We do this like God bears with our half-hearted devotion and like God forgives our sins. God is not sitting in heaven complaining to the angels about his annoying and offensive people. “The Lord your God is with you. He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you. He will quiet you with his love. He will rejoice over you with singing.” God rejoices over us, in spite of our annoying and sinful lives. It is our joy to bear with and forgive the failings and infractions of one another, just like God. Because we have put on humility we do not do this in a condescending, self-righteous way but as fellow sinners who are saved by grace, not by our own merit. That’s why Paul ends this section by telling us to put on love over all these other things because love is the bond of perfection. That’s what it literally says. The point is that what characterizes us is our love for one another in spite of and in the face of how unlovely we all are. It is this love that causes the church to mature, to become perfect in Christ. It is love that is both the mark of maturity and the cause of it. What is love? Love is finding joy in the joy of another. Love is being happy in another’s happiness. This is the joy of God. God loves us means that God finds his joy is making us infinitely and eternally happy in him. We love each other when our joy is to increase the joy of one another in God, no matter the cost to ourselves. The church is made up of people who are dressed for the occasion. We are dressed with the character of Christ so that we find our joy not in having people meet our needs but in our meeting the needs of others. Because Christ is all and is in all what gives us joy is being like Christ and to be like Christ is to be a person who finds joy in bringing joy to annoying, offensive people. And because I’m one of these annoying, offensive, needy people then I am also the recipient of your compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Is this how you think about the church? Not a place to find friends who like the same things as you, but a place where a collection of irritating, unpleasant, needy people gather together and by faith in Christ love each other for the purpose of helping each other grow to trust Christ more. Christ is everything to us and for us, therefore…
II. We live together in his peace with gratitude (v. 15) Paul continues by commanding us to let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts. This is not primarily a subjective state but an objective reality that has a subjective effect upon us. This peace of Christ is the peace that Christ, by his death, has gained for us with God. We were enemies of God. He hated us and we hated him. But Christ, by his death and through his Spirit has reconciled us to God. We who were once at war have now been made friends. We have peace with God. That peace with God is to be the dominant force in our hearts. Our wild hearts are to be tamed and controlled by the peace Christ has gained for us with God. Practically, what does this mean? Why do we go to war? We go to war either to get something we believe we must have to survive or to prevent our enemy from taking something from us that we must have in order to survive. Every fight you have ever had in your life is because you were trying to get something from another that you believed you must have or because you were trying to prevent someone from taking something from you that you must have. When Christ makes peace between God and us that means that now God is our ally. He is our protector and our provider. The Creator of all things is on our side. This God who is love and is full of kindness and infinitely wise has pledged himself to us. He has promised us an eternally secure future that cannot be diminished by anyone or anything. Nothing can separate us from his love towards us. To be at peace with God is to be in the most secure position imaginable. When this peace that Christ has won rules in my heart then I do not need to be at war with you. You cannot add to my security or my happiness and you cannot diminish it. This is the peace we are called to in one body. We are people who are no longer at war with one another because we are no longer at war with God, but who seek to promote the welfare of one another. We are secure and so we promote the security of one another. When Paul ends this description of the peace that we live in he adds, "and be grateful." Isn't gratitude the most obvious response to living in a community that is at peace with God and who now has God as its defender? As we've been watching the hurricanes devastate the gulf coast isn't one of our responses to be grateful that we live in Wisconsin? We are not at war with hurricanes and the devastation they bring and so we are grateful to live here in this peaceful weather and not on the gulf coast. When the world around you is at war with God and has God as its enemy and therefore is at war with one another, is it not a relief to dwell in the midst of peace and safety? We are at peace with God and with one another in contrast to the world and so we ought to be grateful. A grateful heart that finds expression in words of thanks is to be expected for we who are the recipients of the peace of Christ. Christ is everything to us and for us, therefore…
III. We lead each other to him (v. 16) The word of Christ refers to the message about Christ, that is, the gospel. The command is that we are to let this gospel message richly dwell in and among us. Our life together is to be centered on this story of salvation that Christ has accomplished for us. The wisdom of God and the power of God is revealed in how God worked through the centuries to bring his Son into the world to redeem his people and how he is now working to bring his Son back again to bring all of his promises to fulfillment—this story is to be the focus of our attention as a group. We are convinced that this word of Christ is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. It is a rich and powerful word that encompasses our whole lives and the whole history of the universe. This word of Christ is the only word that makes sense of the world we live in and of us who live in the world. There are many words, many stories that could occupy our attention, but it is this word that describes the world as created by God and fallen under the curse of sin and death and now redeemed by Christ that we are fixed upon as a community. We are on a quest to understand and believe this message and to live out all of its implications. This word about Christ is not a word that is summed up in four spiritual laws or ten truths about God. It is a complex word that describes reality as it actually is. It is a rich and full story that requires a rich and full comprehension. It is not a word learned in a moment though it changes us in a moment. This command is why we read such long portions of Scripture on Sunday mornings, why we have such intense and long sermons, why we study the catechism, why our small groups always study God’s word together, why we encourage families to read the Bible together daily, why we are going to begin a series of seminars to teach theology next spring. When this word of Christ dwells in us richly two things result. First, we teach and admonish each other in all wisdom. Paul describes his own ministry with this exact language. Turn back to Col. 1:28. Paul's passion and his work was to teach every man and to admonish every man with all wisdom that he might present every man complete or perfect in Christ. We are commanded to do with each other what Paul did as an apostle. Let me repeat that. We are commanded to do with each other what Paul did as an apostle. As the word of the gospel dwells in our midst and thus occupies more and more of our attention and affection, then we take that word and use it to teach and admonish one another for the same purpose that Paul did his ministry--that we might enable one another to become complete or perfect in Christ. Our goal in each other's lives is not to fix each other’s problems or to get each other to stop sinning or to live like we do. Our goal in one another's lives is to make the gospel come alive so that Christ becomes everything to us. What I want for you and what you should want for me is that my faith in Christ would increase, that my vision of the glory of Christ would grow. There is not a person sitting in this room who does not influence other people every day. The question isn’t if we will influence others. The question is, how will we influence others? We are to be so full of the gospel of Christ that we are continually influencing others by our words to think much of Jesus. Not with some pietistic, self-righteous lingo but with a wisdom that comes from the gospel and that fits the lives of the people with whom we live. Moms and dads are to be teaching and admonishing their children with all wisdom so that their children are complete in Christ. Brothers and sisters are to teaching and admonishing one another so they are complete in Christ. Friends are to be teaching and admonishing one another so they are complete in Christ. This is not just the work of the elders or of a paid professional. Rather, all of us, as we are applying the word of Christ to our own lives have what it takes to apply that word to the lives of those we love. Over the years I've had people with all kinds of trouble come to talk with me. If I viewed it as my responsibility to fix all their troubles I would have quit being a pastor a long time ago. My goal when people come to me with trouble is to use the occasion of their trouble to teach and admonish them in such a way that they discover the sufficiency of Christ in the midst of their trouble. This is my goal when I'm talking with those who are not in trouble also. This is not just my responsibility. There is not a Christian sitting in this room that cannot help another person to discover Christ to be their sufficiency in the midst of their trouble. Starting the week of October 24-30 we are going to begin 12 Discovery Groups that will begin a 20 week discussion of a curriculum designed to help us do exactly what v. 16 tells us to do. We are a church that aims for the word of Christ to dwell among us richly. This curriculum is aimed at teaching us how to teach one another and admonish one another with all wisdom that we may present one another complete in Christ. There is a flier in your program that lists the leaders of these groups and the times and days of the week they will meet. You have the opportunity during the next two weeks to let us know what group you would like to attend. If you don't let us know then we are going to have one of the leaders call you to invite you to join their group. There is a box in the foyer for you to place your sign up sheet in or you can mail it to the office or give it to one of those leading these groups. There is a second result of allowing the word of Christ to dwell in us richly. We are to sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with grace in our hearts to the Lord. When the word of Christ is fully occupying our attention and capturing our affections and creating our faith, then we delight to sing our praises to God. These are praises that come from his grace at work in our hearts. In other words our lips speak forth the praise that fills our hearts by his grace. We are a singing people because our hearts are full of the grace of God creating joy in Christ's salvation. Again, this is a fruit of being a people who are taken up with the doctrines of Christ as revealed in his word. Theology creates doxology. Doctrine produces delight in Christ that yields praise to God. As a culture we are not into singing. However, here is the reason that no matter how the culture feels about group singing, we, in the church ought to always embrace it. God wants us to sing with our lips the praise that we feel in our hearts due to his gracious work for us and in us. This is why I would encourage you to join in the singing, even if you don't think you have a good voice. It doesn't matter. God delights in the prayers and praise of the upright. We sing, with a variety of music, the great delight we have in the saving work of Christ. Christ is everything to us and for us, therefore…
IV. We say and do all things in and for him (v. 17) What this verse says deserves an entire sermon. To fully comprehend this verse is to discover a richness in life that will transform you. In short, every word and act of my life has eternal meaning and purpose. As a Christian I can do no uncommon act. All of life belongs to Christ and all of life matters to Christ. What does it mean to do all things, both words and deeds, in the name of the Lord Jesus? I want to give you three things that this means that will hopefully help you as you think about its implications in your life. First, to do things in the name of Jesus means that I speak and work not in order to obligate God to do good to me. I don't do anything with the idea that what I do earns God's favor or gains his blessing in my life. Jesus has fulfilled all righteousness for me and God loves me and is committed to me and is blessing me because of him, not because of me. My words and my works are the fruit of my faith in Christ, not the means by which I hope to earn God's blessing. I am no longer enslaved to the superstitions and religious myths of this world. I am blessed by God always and forever because of Christ and therefore I do not speak or act in order to get God to bless me. I speak and act as a loved son who is an heir and not as some slave who attempts to earn his masters praise. Second, all of my life is lived under the authority and Lordship of Jesus. I will not do what Jesus would forbid and I will do what Jesus commands. You cannot rob a bank in the name of Jesus or have sex with your girlfriend in the name of Jesus or yell at your children in the name of Jesus. He would not approve of these things because they violate God's law. If Jesus would not approve of it, then I won't do it. Third, all that I do and say, I do and say as a representative of Jesus. I am his ambassador. This brings a certain seriousness to all of my life as I realize that not only what I do but how I do what I do bears upon the reputation of Jesus. I am seeking to display the greatness and sufficiency of Jesus in all that I do, whether I’m cleaning toilets or caring for a sick child or preaching a sermon. This also brings joy to my life as I realize that all that I do can be done in the name of Jesus. I don't have to be a pastor or a missionary or lead a ministry in my church in order for my life to count for Christ. Most of our lives, regardless of our vocation are spent doing mundane and seemingly non-spiritual things. Yet all of this ordinariness has the potential to bring honor to Christ. I can do all lawful things in the name of Jesus. In the context of this letter this means that all of my relationships matter to Jesus. I am his representative in my relationships. The relationships I have are not simply for my benefit, so I won't be lonely on Friday night or so I can enjoy the comforts of a family. All of my relationships have a divine purpose. I am to represent Christ to all whom God brings into my life. Christ is everything to us and for us, therefore…
© Copyright
2005 John Swanson.
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