Praying for Open Eyes

The following sermon was actually preached in two parts.  For convenience I've united them here.

PRAYING FOR OPEN EYES

Colossians 1:9-12

Textual Introduction: The text summarizes Paul's prayer for the Colossian church. He was not the founder of the church, nor had he ever visited it. He might have been excused if he had left it to others to be concerned about its spiritual welfare. He didn't.

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Introduction:   An estimated 95% of Americans say they prayed following the terrorist attacks on 9/11 2001. When you consider that only 90% of us confess to believe in God, we can only guess about who that other five percent believed they were talking to.

It’s good to pray in a crisis but Paul has something to say about praying

He did not write, "The moment I heard you were threatened by heresy, I began praying for you. The Colossians had been on Paul's prayer list for a long time. He did not begin praying for them because of some crisis.

Paul had heard good things about the Colossian church—a church he had never visited. He heard of how the gospel was making a change in the lives of those in the congregation and in the community. Hearing such a glowing report might cause some of us to think, 'Well, there's a church which certainly doesn't need my prayers. Not Paul.

What Paul had heard about the Colossian church had prompted him to pray for them, not because he saw a deficit in its life but because he saw the potential of the congregation. He prayed because he wanted to see that potential fulfilled. He prayed because he knew any church with such potential would be a prime target for spiritual assault.

So, when word came regarding a possible doctrinal threat to the church, when Paul learned that some in the congregation were facing a crisis of confidence, he didn't even have to change the focus of his prayers. He was already praying for what they would most need if they were to regain their spiritual equilibrium.

Do you always know how to pray?  I don’t.   Paul's prayer for the Colossians is a great model for our prayers.

Through prayer we can discern what God is doing in the world and in us so we might better cooperate with Him in a spirit of confidence.

I

WE NEED TO PRAY FOR OPEN EYES

SO WE MAY SEE THE PURPOSES OF GOD.

V. 9

Paul had been praying for the Colossians to know God's will. He began his letter by reminding his readers that he was an apostle by the will of God." Since he had discovered his place in what God was doing, he wanted the Christians at Colossae to discover their place in what God was doing.

We need to understand some things about this request. To begin with, this knowledge doesn't come through the teachings of others, it comes from God. Others, like

Paul and Epaphras, can try to articulate it, but we only really grasp it when God's opens our spiritual eyes.

With this knowledge of God's will comes what Paul calls wisdom and understanding".  This is more than knowledge about God, it is knowledge of a spiritual nature, knowledge which leads to what the Amplified Version renders as a 'comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God."

Often when we pray to know God's will we are praying to discover what God wants us to do in our narrow world—should I go to this college, marry that person, buy this car— and this kind of praying is proper in the life of the disciple. But we also need to pray for insight to see the bigger picture.

What will that bigger picture show us? Paul doesn't answer at this point but as the letter continues it becomes clear that Christ is at the center of what God is doing in the world. Consider what Paul says in verse 20: God purposed through [Christ] to reconcile the universe to Himself, making peace through his blood, which was shed upon the Cross— to reconcile to Himself through [Christ] ... things on earth and things in Heaven." (Beck)

Once the Colossians grasped the strategic role of Christ in what God was doing in the world, they could never fall prey to any teaching which would diminish Christ, which would reduce him to some type of angelic flunky. In the same way, some twenty centuries later, once we grasp the strategic role of Christ in what God is doing in the world we won't fall prey to any teaching which would reduce him to a mere human teacher, a clever magician, or a charismatic schizophrenic.

Instead, we will understand his place at the heart of our faith. We will understand that Christianity is Christ. We will stand amazed at God's strategy which brought us salvation, a strategy which involved a manger, a cross, and an empty tomb. We will realize that through Christ God dealt with the problem we could not solve, the problem of sin. We will realize that because of Christ's victory over death we have a hope which transcends the threat of death.

What was Paul's aim in praying for the Colossians to have this understanding of what God was doing in the world? Certainly, he wanted to rebuild their confidence. And, he wanted to give them ammunition with which they could answer the false teachers. But, he had a greater goal.

He wanted the Colossians to order their lives according to this new insight. Paul's prayer would be answered if, in light of their understanding of what God had done in Christ, the Colossians set out to adopt a lifestyle which was pleasing to God.

I believe in the old concept of orthodoxy. I believe there are ways of speaking about God, Christ, the Holy Sprit, salvation, sin, etc. which are correct, which reflect the Biblical material. And I believe there are ways of speaking about these same topics which are simply wrong.

Yet, I know that orthodoxy alone does not make an effective church.

In commenting on Paul's prayer, Arthur Patzia writes:

"One of the unfortunate distortions in some forms of Christianity is the misunderstanding of the relationship between theology and ethics, that is, between faith and action. Paul has been presenting a concept of wisdom and knowledge that has moral and practical dimensions. The readers need to be preserved from a barren orthodoxy. The faith that they heard and that transformed their lives is to manifest itself in good works .....

To do this, to live their faith out in the world around them, would require "wisdom and understanding? Paul could have written down every detail of his vision for the Christian life. He could have, to use our terminology, tried to micromanage the lives of his readers. He doesn't. Instead, he prays that each person in the church might have the God-given insight to see how they could order their lives to please God.

The God-pleasing life: that is the goal of this knowledge Paul desires the Colossians to have. He prays so they might "...may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him?

The word Paul used was not a popular one in the Greek and Roman world. The whole notion of living to please another was distasteful because it suggested a life of servility. Only a servant would live to please another.

In Paul's mind, what God did through Jesus Christ makes the desire to live a life pleasing to God the only logical response for the believer.

It would be centuries before Isaac Watts wrote his great hymn When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, but Paul would have appreciated its message: "Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.'

Each day, each Christian, young or old, faces the choice to please God or to please himself or to please herself.  While we will never, at least in this life, be totally rid of selfishness, it seems as if when we are most aware of God's purposes, most aware of what God had done for us through Jesus, the gap between what pleases God and what pleases us decreases more and more.

Now that he has underscored the need to pray for open eyes to see God's purpose, Paul then turns to another element of his prayer for the Colossians. As he does so he paints a picture of the God-pleasing life in broad strokes. At this point we are reminded that...

II

WE NEED TO PRAY FOR OPEN EYES

SO WE MAY SEE WHAT PLEASES GOD.

1.  If we would order our lives to please God, we should seek to be spiritually fruitful. Paul wants the Colossians to 'bear fruit in every good work."

But what does it mean to bear fruit? In the Bible, fruit-bearing is manifested in two spheres.

a) God is pleased when we bear fruit in our lives.

The Christian life is a life of ongoing transformation. We are being changed by Christ. This change is described as bearing fruit.

Writing to the Galatians, Paul pictures the transforming work of the Holy Spirit as creating a spiritual orchard in the life of the believer: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." (Gal. 5:22-23)

Writing to the Ephesians, Paul contrasts the effects of living in spiritual darkness and living in spiritual light, reminding his readers: 'the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth." (Eph 5:9)

And, of course, in one of his final messages before the crucifixion, Jesus reminded his disciples of the necessity of a vital relationship to him if their lives were to be fruitful.

John 15:1-4 I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. [2] He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. [3] You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. [4] Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

JN 15:5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains, in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.*

The great evidence of fruitfulness in our lives is our becoming more and more like Christ.

b) God is pleased when we bear fruit through our lives.

Fruitfulness involves more than what is happening in us. The New English Bible captures this by rendering Paul's words as "active goodness of every kind.(NEB)

We Christians are not intended to live our lives in isolation. We are intended to touch others, to make a difference in our world. Paul has already praised the Colossian church for this when he spoke of the gospel continuing to produce fruit in their community.

This would involve positive change in the community because of the Christian presence. And producing fruit in the world outside the church involves making converts to Christ. That's why the task of evangelism and witness is sometimes spoken of as sowing seed.

When we fail in this task of sowing seed and bearing fruit, we miss an opportunity to bring honor to God. In his discourse on the Vine and Branches, Jesus reminded his listeners, "This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.' (Jn 15:5)

When we fail in this task of sowing seed and bearing fruit, the church and our society suffers.

When we allow our lives to be the channels of God's grace and love to our world, we please him, and we become world-changers.

2.  If we would order our lives to please God, we will seek a greater understanding of God.   

Paul wanted the Colossians to 'grow in the knowledge of God.”

Earlier in this prayer Paul had prayed for the Colossians to know more about God's purposes and how they might align their lives to that purpose. He hasn't lost sight of that but I believe this element of the prayer also involves knowing more about God, his nature and character.

Such knowledge is important because, as Christians, they have been invited into a relationship with this God.

Such knowledge is important because the gospel they preached has its origin in the promises of this God.

Such knowledge is important because they will order their lives according to the will of this God.

Such knowledge is important because it forms the plumb line against which to measure every other religious system or philosophy.

Such knowledge is important because they will bet their spiritual future on the integrity of this God.

Where does such knowledge come from? Certainly from the Word of God, the Bible. The Bible contains God's self-revelation, presenting him as the Creator and Redeemer, the God who is involved in the lives of his people. This would be in stark contrast to any notion which depicted God as remote, indifferent to humanity. This idea would be promoted by heretics like the Gnostics of the second century and later by the Deists in the seventeenth century. Even today some cling to the notion of a God who far from us. A few years ago a popular song told us that God was "watching from a distance."

While the songwriter may have meant well, the song misses the beauty of the Biblical view of God.  It portrays God as willing to become human to invade the planet on a rescue mission.

Such a vision of God is essential if we would face the challenges of living for him in a sometimes hostile and dangerous world.

3 If we would order our lives to please God, we will pursue spiritual strength.

In his regular habit of praying for the Colossians, Paul lifted up this prayer for the church: 'May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to the Father..."

Paul knew that every church would eventually face trial and trouble. He wanted the Colossian church, when its time came, to be strong. Paul didn't pray for the church to have the strength of great numbers, a large bank account, or well-placed friends; he wanted the church to know the very strength of God. Against the might of its opponents, the infant church could not have survived had God, Himself, not given it supernatural strength.

Even when the church grew to be a dominant force in the world, it relied on its own strength to its peril.

But how did Paul expect this strength to manifest itself in the church?

a) God-given spiritual strength is manifested through endurance. Curtis Vaughn says the word translated as endurance" comes from a work which means the courage to see something through to the end. The days ahead would be troubled, tedious, and trying. The Colossian church would need the strength to keep its commitment no matter what came its way.

b) God-given spiritual strength is manifested through patience. Paul could imagine the church being tempted to strike back at those who tried to harm it. Instead, he prays for the church to have the greater strength, the strength which rejects the opportunity to retaliate.

c) God-given spiritual strength is manifested through joy. The Biblical notion of joy" is very different than our concept of happiness. Happiness is rooted in our circumstances, joy transcends circumstances. Paul Sailhamer's definition of joy reveals its capacity to produce strength in a congregation or an individual. He says, Joy is that deep settled confidence that God is in control in every area of my life."

Paul now turn to a final characteristic of a Christian who yearns to please God.

4.  If we would order our lives to please God, we will practice gratitude.

Paul wanted to know the Colossians were giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light."

Once again, our gratitude is rooted in our understanding of what God had done for us. We are thankful to God for his having made us fit to participate in the Kingdom, joining God's greatest saints in the Light of his revelation. Don't miss the point Paul is making here: All those who trust Christ are in the light, not just those who participate in some esoteric cult or sect. None of us are worthy of such a great blessing. God has "qualified" us for the Kingdom, not our own efforts.

By God's grace we are not what we were. We were once spiritually impoverished, now we share an inheritance. We were once in spiritual darkness, now we are in the light. God's actions call for us to give thanks.

Ingratitude is rude in children, in Christians it reveals either a failure to comprehend all God has done for us or spiritual presumption of gigantic proportions.

CONCLUSION

The Colossian church faced a crisis of confidence. Fortunately Paul was praying for it. He was praying for the very things necessary to restore its confidence—an understanding of what God was doing in the world and a vision of how they might order their lives in light of that vision.

I hope someone is just as faithfully praying for our church. And, for the church around the world.

The Gospel at Work

For some reason, faulty memory perhaps, I have been unable to get into my own blog.  So, I've been unable to add any new posts.  Finally, I've been able to get in.  Sorry for any inconvenience.

The Gospel at Work

Colossians 1:1-8

Textual Introduction: This morning we are beginning a study of the Letter to the Colossians. Before we begin let me touch on a couple of points. First, I see no reason to abandon the traditional view which says the letter was one of the Prison Epistles written by Paul from Rome about AD 62, give or take a year. Second, while I tend to accept the view that Paul wrote to warn the Colossians away from a newly formed heresy which would have corrupted the essence of the Christian message, I don't intend to spend much time discussing it on Sunday mornings. I may elaborate during our Sunday evening meetings but even then it won't dominate the discussion.

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If you should travel to Turkey you might wish to visit the ruins of Colossae, but let me warn you, you won't see much. Anything of interest and value has been carted off by residents of local villages. Your travel agent might book you into the five-star hotel in Denizli called the Colossae Thermal Hotel but it has nothing to do with the ancient city to which Paul wrote.

The truth is, no self-respecting first-century travel agent would have sent you to Colossae, for by the time Paul wrote his letter the city's glory days were past. It popularity had been eclipsed by its neighbors Hieropolis and Laodicea.

How can a letter written to a first-century church in a backwater town in the Lycus Valley of Asia Minor have relevance to those of us living in the early days of the twenty-first century?

To understand we have to recall that these were the formative days of Christianity. At the time Paul wrote it's unlikely there were any second- generation Christians in this little church. No one could run down to the local WaI-Mart to pick up a copy of the New Testament.

Fortunately there were trustworthy preachers and teachers who tried to present the Christian message with integrity. The Colossian church had been founded by one of these, Epaphras. Unfortunately, there were also teachers who were not so trustworthy.

Colossae was located in a hotbed of religious ideas. It was common for people there to try to add notions borrowed from other religions to their own. Even the Jews in the Lycus valley had fallen into this trap. Influenced by non-Biblical thinking, some of them developed an unhealthy fascination with angels, a problem which Paul would mention.

In the atmosphere of Colossae it was inevitable that someone would try to mingle the fundamentals of Christianity and the teachings of some of the Greek religions.

I won't go into all the details at this point, but it seems apparent the Colossian church did face some teachers whose notions ran so contrary to the gospel preached by Paul, Timothy, and Epaphras that the Christians were shaken and unnerved. Using the clues Paul gives us it's possible to detect some of the elements of this false teaching and I'll point them out as we go through the letter.

The good news is, these false teachers apparently hadn't yet been successful when Paul wrote Colossians. The bad news is, as a result of their efforts to undermine the gospel the church experienced what David Garland has called "a crisis of confidence."

What shape did this crisis of confidence take?

Their confidence in Christ had been shaken. The missionaries had presented Christ as the incarnate Son of God. They argued that he was the long-awaited "Anointed One," the Messiah, the Redeemer who had been sent from God to undo the work of sin. He was God in human flesh. He turned the apparent defeat of Good Friday into the victory of Easter morning.

Furthermore, these earliest preachers had said Jesus would be the ultimate Victor in the conflict of good and evil. They taught their converts the earliest of Christian Creeds: "Jesus is Lord." By this they confirmed his deity and right to be worshipped.

Now, for some reason, the Christians in Colossae had begun to doubt this. Some may have even begun to wonder if Jesus could deliver on his promise of salvation.

Their confidence in their salvation had been shaken. Mark this down, it is important, you will hear me say it again: If you diminish the Savior, you will inevitably diminish the salvation he brings.

At one time the Colossian Christians believed their sins had been fully and completely dealt with. Now, they began to wonder if that was so. To borrow Paul's language, they believed they were spiritually incomplete, that the old bills of sin remained unpaid.

Their confidence in the Spirit was shaken. I'm being a little daring to say that because the Holy Spirit is mentioned only once in the epistle. Still, I'm not sure how else to put it.

Some of the Colossians seem to have come to a point where they were tempted to rely upon the power of rules and taboos to produce Christian conduct rather than the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. As a result what had once been the joyous pursuit of Christlikeness had become a drudging, tedious surrender to legalism.

Now, let's get back to the question I asked at the beginning: How can a letter written to a first-century church in a backwater town in the Lycus Valley of Asia Minor have relevance to those of us living in the early days of the twenty-first century?

What Paul has to say to the Colossian church is relevant because we, too, face something of a crisis of confidence.

Allow me to draw just one comparison. We, too, have begun to doubt what we have long believed about Jesus Christ. For centuries we have joined in spirit, if not in practice, those who recited the ancient creed:

I believe in ... Jesus Christ, [God's] only Son, our Lord, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; He descended into hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God, the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

Today, every affirmation of that statement is challenged. You are bombarded regularly with reports of supposedly scientific studies which

suggest Jesus was simply an itinerant magician, or shaman, or story-teller who ran afoul of the law and was executed. One highly regarded scholar, who regularly appears on A&E and the History Channel, tells us that the story of the resurrection emerged after Jesus body, which had been buried in a shallow grave, was eaten by wild dogs.

We're told that preaching the gospel is the height of arrogance. What Paul calls "the message of truth" (vs. 5) is ridiculed by those who tell us there is no such thing as truth. Those who promote the self-contradictory, post-modernist chant "there is no absolute truth" have been so successful that many Christian young people can't bring themselves to say the gospel is absolutely true. They struggle with the idea of missions, wondering if we have any business trying to change other people's ways of belief.

What Paul writes to the Colossians will speak to us just as surely as it spoke to that little first-century congregation.

We can learn from Paul's approach to the Colossian crisis of confidence. How he does so may seem strange to us, even rude at times. H. Dermot McDonald commented on Paul's style in this letter: "There is therefore no timidity or hesitancy in his letter. There is, rather, a holy boldness, an almost stark brusqueness both in the tone and the tempo of his writing."

Paul will challenge us to be bold in a culture which treats religious beliefs like items on a smorgasbord where you may take what appeals to you and leave the rest behind.

At the same time, Paul will challenge us to be humble for he will remind us that we would not know the truth if God had not told us.

It's with that embodiment of truth called the gospel that Paul begins to rebuild the confidence of the Colossians. It's a good place for us to start as well.

When we examine what happens when the gospel is at work we will have a new sense of confidence.

We understand this when we see that...

THE GOSPEL AT WORK

MAKES A DIFFERENCE IN THE

LIVES OF THOSE WHO RECEIVE IT.

Paul, the Apostle of Christ Jesus, could have pursued the debate with elaborate argumentation and discussion. He will deal with some profound matters later in the letter but, for now, he prefers to begin with the basics.

He briefly reviews the impact of the gospel on those who believe its message. In three words he sums up what the gospel does.

First, the gospel gives birth to "faith." (1:4a) The first preachers of the gospel—the good news—rushed everywhere to tell the story of what God had done in Jesus Christ. They told of how God had provided his own Son to secure the redemption which made possible their forgiveness. They told of how Jesus had been crucified by the Romans and how he had risen on the third day. In some of the places where the gospel was first preached eyewitnesses could tell of seeing the Risen Christ. In any case, as the story of the "Christ event" was retold trust began to grow in the hearts of the listeners who opened themselves to the message.

As they heard what God had done for them—even while they were sinners, sometimes even idolaters—they began to believe that God really loved them, that their sins could be forgiven because of what Christ had done for them. That trust was such that they could say, Christ is all I need.

For some of you faith in God began to grow as you heard the stories of Jesus in a Sunday school class as a child. (That's a good argument for making sure your children are in Sunday school.) Others of you found faith as adults when you began to read the Bible or attend a church where the Bible was taught and preached. You can remember the great relief you felt as you discovered what God had done for you, that he had done what you could not do for yourself. You recall the kindling of faith in your heart, the faith which prompted you to seek baptism.

If that faith is now wavering, take a look at its original foundation. Have you forgotten the story of what God has done for you in Christ? Rediscover that story. Let your faith be reborn.

Second, the gospel gives birth to love. (1:4b) You might expect Paul to speak of our love for God, he doesn't. That's not unusual. In the New Testament love for others is often the primary evidence of love for God.

The false teachers who appear to have been trying to establish a beachhead in the Colossian church appealed to the all-too human tendency to want to seen superior to others. They would treat "ordinary" Christians (those not part of their number) as second-class citizens. The love prompted by the gospel will have none of that. It reminds us we are all sinners saved by grace.

In verse 8 Paul reminds the Colossians that such love is not generated by human effort. It is "love which is inspired by the Spirit." Most religions can muster a love for those who share that religion; the Christian gospel calls us to love both the insiders and the outsiders. The very make-up of the church is a testimony of the of this love. The Colossians had a love which was directed "towards all God's people." That means the Jewish Christians and the Gentile Christians loved each other, the Greek Christians and the Roman Christians loved each other, the Christians who were slaves and the Christians who were slave-owners loved each other. All of this resulted from the work of the gospel.

Not long ago I heard someone singing that old gospel song "Give Me That Old Time Religion." Remember how one of the verses says, "It makes me love everybody, makes me love everybody and it's good enough for me?" In a world where we are constantly reminded of racial, ethnic, and cultural hatred, maybe we would do well to recall the power of the gospel and to preach it with renewed confidence.

Third, the gospel gives birth to hope. (1:5) The city of Colossae was once a flourishing, popular resort. When Paul wrote this letter the glory-days were past. But that didn't matter because the gospel doesn't give a hope which is bound up in temporal circumstances. The Colossians had a "hope treasured up ...in heaven." That means it was safe, and secure, yet they could draw upon that account for living in the present.

Of course, that hope was linked to what Christ had done for them, particularly in the resurrection. His victory over death pointed to their victory over death. They could be confident as they faced the future because they knew Christ had made the future beyond their future secure.

Paul didn't know it at this time and neither did the Colossians but the city would be destroyed by an earthquake only a couple of years after this letter was written. Some reading this letter would lose homes and businesses. Some reading this letter would lose loved ones, some might be killed. Yet the hope they had through the message of the gospel was impervious to earthquakes, fires, famines, wars, whatever catastrophes might come their way. Their hope looked ahead to the time when the work of salvation would be finished in their lives, when they could look forward to eternity in the presence of the God who so loved them he gave his Son.

It's been said ours is an age without hope. Yet, Dave Hunt has written a book called Whatever Happened to Heaven? in which he wonders why the church has stopped preaching about the glorious future promised to believers.

We need to rediscover that part of the gospel. Our culture needs it; we need it.

Recalling how the gospel makes a difference in the lives of those who receive it is the first step in reclaiming our confidence. But we also need to recall how...

THE GOSPEL AT WORK

MAKES A DIFFERENCE

IN THE WORLD IN WHICH IT IS PREACHED.

The world was never the same after the preaching of the gospel. That's why Paul was so excited about the gospel being preached everywhere. He was excited because everywhere the gospel was preached it was "bearing fruit." On the one hand, that may mean that wherever the gospel was preached people were believing it. But I think he has something more in mind.

Certainly Paul .is celebrating thefact that thegospeI is a trans-cultural message. It wasn't a message for an elite group of people. During the next century a heresy would arise which stole some Christian  terminology. The heresy, called Gnosticism, taught that salvation was for those who possessed "special knowledge" or gnosis. Some believe the Colossians were tempted to embrace a primitive form of this teaching.  Whether they were or not, Paul wanted them to recall that the gospel was an invitation, to embrace the grace of God. As such, it had nothing to do with status or achievement

At the same time, I think. Paul had in mind the impact of the gospel on society through those' who had been changed by its message.  In verse two, he greets the Colossians as "saints in Christ at Colossae." In calling them "saints" Paul wasn't pointing to any special holiness on their part; instead 'he' was underscoring their determination to be committed to God, to be God's people.

That commitment made a difference in how they lived. McDonald speaks of this:

Every Christian has two 'homes; and he lives in both places at one and the same time. Of course he is in Christ; that makes him a Christian.  But he is at Colossae;  he has a residence in the here and, a foothold on earth. Being in Christ, the Christian, as an individual lives and moves and has his being and being at Colossae, the Christian, as a human being, dwells and works and has his living. This fact of double environment carries with it a dual responsibility. Certainly the believer will acknowledge his responsibility to Christ. He will live under the lordship of Christ. But he is also at Colossae, and as such he has obligations there. He must bother about his Colossae; as he accepts the rights of citizenship so must he accept its responsibilities. Yet he is at Colossae as one who is in Christ."

"What a rich gain for poor Colossae that they, being in Him, were in it!"

I like that statement because it tells us that people who are touched by the gospel ought to make a difference in 'the world. Not only are we changed but we should be change-agents.

Jean Sullivan caught the core of this truth when she said, "The gospel is not made to dominate the world. It's the grain of sand that upsets the world's machinery. One can't inhale its fragrance and be content to leave everything the way it."

I recall hearing an interview with a man who was a radical in the 1960s; I was particularly, intrigued by a what he said about the, frustration he and other young people felt in, that turbulent time.. He said they had decided the 'old ways weren't bringing about needed change so they would try something new. The truth is one of the oldest ways to bring about change hadn't been tried in a long time.  The gospel has proven itself again and again throughout history as the way to lasting social improvement.

William Gladstone saw the impact of spiritual awakening on Britain.  Within his lifetime slavery had ended, child-labor was reduced and hundreds of social ills were addressed—all through the work of men and women touched by the gospel.   Maybe this is what prompted, Gladstone, one of England's most famous leaders, to write:

Talk about the “question of the day.”  There is but one question and that is the gospel. It can and will correct everything needing correction. During the many, years I was in the cabinet I was brought into association with sixty master minds, and all but five of them were Christians. My only hope for the world is in bringing the 'human mind into contact with divine revelation.

Do we have that kind of confidence in the gospel? As we explore Colossians together it’s my prayer we rediscover it.

Have you experienced the change the gospel can bring?  It’s my prayer you will open your life to its message.

The Verse

Ask most Christians about the best-known verse in the Bible and they will respond with the verse on which this sermon is based.  Anyone who's attended church very long will have heard at least one sermon or one Sunday school lesson on this verse.  None of these--including this sermon--exhaust its meaning.

The Verse

John 3:16-21

For most of my adult life, whenever I’ve stayed in a hotel or motel, I look for the Gideon Bible.  It used to be you could always find one:  evidence that some dedicated Gideon had done a behind-the-scenes ministry that has touched thousands of lives.  Today, some chains won’t allow the Bibles to be placed in their rooms.  They’re afraid of offending their customers.  These same chains usually make the “adults only” channels available, since they don’t offend anyone.

It’s funny that anyone would be offended by a book that no one forces you to take out of a drawer.  The Bibles don’t cost the hotel owners anything;  the Gideon pays for them.  The guests don’t have to pay to read them.  Take a candy bar out to the room fridge and it’ll cost you $3.00 but you can read the Bible all night long and it will cost you nothing.  The Bibles contain no denominationally-biased notes—just the Bible.  Usually, but not always, it’s the King’s James Version.  Alternative versions include the New KJV and the Berkeley Version.   

There is one feature that is distinctive to these Gideon Bibles.  Most editions  have several pages dedicated to presenting a single Bible verse in several languages.  The Bible I have translates this verse into Afrikaans, Chinese, Finnish, Hindi, Icelandic, Tamil, and twenty more languages.  What verse, out of all the verses in the Bible, merits this attention?  It is the first verse of this passage, John 3:16.

With what is probably the first verse most Sunday school children learn, John begins his reflection on Jesus’ dialogue with Nicodemus. 

John’s thinking was triggered by Jesus’ final word to Nicodemus:  "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up…”  Jesus is referring to his coming crucifixion.

John had witnessed Jesus being lifted up.  He had stood at the foot of the cross and watched Jesus die.  At that time he probably asked himself, Why is this happening?

John gives a partial answer in this passage.

 God, through an act of sacrificial love, provides the opportunity for new life.

To understand this, let’s look at some of the key issues John raises in this passage.  He invites us to think about…

The World God Loves

The word John uses here is not “ge” (ghay) the word which is the root of words like geology or geography, the word referring to the physical world around us.  John uses cosmos.  Cosmos refers to the totality of humankind.  By “world” John means that every man, woman, and child.  Obviously those living in the first century didn’t know as much about the world as we know.  Still, they knew it was a vast place, populated by various tribes and peoples.  They knew something of the physical and cultural differences that exist on this planet.  No matter how much disdain some felt for the so-called “barbarians” John was including them in this picture of the world.

But we have to take this further.  John also uses cosmos refers to "society as alienated from God and under the sway of Satan." (1 John 5:19)  This world is in intentional, active rebellion against him.  It is a world shrouded in spiritual darkness.  Just how powerful that darkness is can be seen in multiplied examples of “man’s inhumanity to man.” 

Specifically we see that darkness in the Tucson shootings, in a father murdering his infant child in Columbus, in the ongoing war in the Middle East, in so many ways I could name… 

But, for John, the clearest illustration of that darkness was found in an event that took place one Spring on a hill outside Jerusalem—the crucifixion. 

With that in mind, we need to consider…

The God Who Loves

What is God's attitude toward a world in rebellion against him?  God loves this world. To anyone who grew up singing, “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world,” this hardly seems to be news.  It would have been in the first century.  Apparently no Jewish writer advanced the notion that God loved the whole world.  The idea that God’s love is broad enough to include all of humankind appears to have been a distinctly Christian idea.

This love for the world is not simple affection.  It is love which engages in sacrificial action.  In fact, the measure of God's love (agapao) is seen in his sacrifice;  He gave his only Son.  The ISV renders:  "For this is how God loved the world: He gave his unique Son so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but have eternal life." 

The world God loves is in rebellion against him, yet God did not send his Son into that world to "judge it;"  he sent his Son into the world to save it.

Verse seventeen further explains God's motivation for sending his Son.  It challenges the conception of Christianity held by many of its critics. 

Rather than seeking to populate Hell with as many people as possible, God devised and implemented the only escape plan.  Because God's character demands it, He must judge;  but he would prefer to show mercy.  Ronald Youngblood says, "Judgment is never God's last or best word to those who believe in him, because 'mercy triumphs over judgment'' (James 2:13). God's love was not limited by culture, race, or geographical boundaries.  His desire to save was extended to the entire world.  He did not simply love the lovely people of the world; he loved all the people of the world.  That love prompted an act of radical sacrifice.

Did you see The Passion of the Christ when it came out a few years ago?  If not, you couldn’t have missed the controversy it has stirred.  Many were angered by the film and critical of its producer/director Mel Gibson.  One critic reviewed the film and complained, “Where is Christ’s message of love?”  John would wonder how that critic could have possibly missed it.

Sadly, Gibson’s behavior since the film appeared has trashed his credibility but the message of the crucifixion stands.

The Bible tells us that the love of God for the world is displayed in many ways.  It may be seen in the rain and the sunshine.  The love of God is seen in the crops which allow us to feed our children.  God’s love is seen in the gift of our children—and our grandchildren.  But, for John, the clearest illustration of that love could be found in an event that took place one Spring on a hill outside Jerusalem—the crucifixion.  Yes, the same event that illustrated the world’s darkness also illustrated God’s love.

The Possibility God Offers

John wrote his Gospel to encourage people to believe in Jesus.  That was his aim.  After making his wonderful declaration about God’s love, John turns to the issues of belief and unbelief.

Because of God's sacrificial actions on its behalf, humankind has an option:  the choice between destruction and eternal life.

Men and Women may chose to continue on the path of unbelief by their refusal to commit to Jesus.  This condition involves the utter loss of well being (Vine).  This situation, which is merited, ultimately results in complete alienation from God. 

We may wonder why anyone could possibly chose that path.  John explains why: 

    Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.  [19] And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil.  [20] For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. John 3:19-20 (ESV)

While this is probably not John's intention, the statement is a kind of defense of God.  God cannot be blamed for humankind's estrangement.  He has sent the Light into the world, yet many preferred the darkness, reflecting their commitment to their sinful behavior. 

During the nineteenth century Robert Ingersol was America's best known atheist.  Ingersol traveled the country lecturing on why it was foolish to believe in God and to embrace the trappings of religion.  Ingersol was once lecturing to a large crowd in the East.  

He had just announced there was no God and, consequently, no final judgment.  At that point, a very drunk audience member got up and shouted,  "I sure hope you're right, Brother Bob, I'm countin' on it."

There are those who do not believe because they have not heard.  There are those who do not believe because they do not understand or have been misinformed.  That some might refuse to believe because they prefer the darkness seems incrediblebut human history substantiates the claim.

John tells us that those committed to sin hate the light.  They avoid the light at all costs because they do not want their deeds to be exposed for what they are.

The tense suggests this is not a reference to that person who stumbles into sinful behavior, rather this is a person who "is in the habit of doing wrong" (Williams).  Such a person avoids the light.

John finds their decision shocking.  Look again at verse 18. They have refused to believe the very Son of God.  John looked at Jesus and saw God’s grace and truth.  It must have deeply hurt John to think that there were those who refused to honor Jesus.  Yet, John knew there were those who did. 

He also knew that those who walked the path of unbelief walked a path toward judgment.  In fact, as long as they refused to believe they lived as if they had already heard the sentence read.  Merrill Tenney pictures the state of these individuals in a way which helps us see their plight.  John’s use of the term “perish” to describe their condition “…those without God are hopelessly confused in purpose, alienated from him in their affections, and futile in their efforts.  Positive belief in Christ is necessary;  all that one has to do to perish is nothing.  It is loss of all that makes life worthwhile.”

This knowledge prompted John to write his Gospel to call men and women to faith.  It ought to prompt us to take seriously the evangelism mandate.  God’s love, the love which gave his Son to die for our salvation, should lead us to join John and all who have followed his example by intentionally calling others to believe on Jesus. 

But John lets us know there is another option.

Men and Women may take the path of Belief--the acceptance of Jesus for who he is and a consequent commitment to him.  Taking this option leads to eternal life.  As John uses the term “eternal life” he is describing  a new quality of life both now and in the age to come.  It is not simply the promise of living forever, it is the promise of living with a spiritual richness which we cannot fully imagine.  The character of this life is as significant as its duration.  And John wants us to know that believers already possess this “eternal life”.  They don’t yet experience all of its wonder but they have experienced enough to have their appetites whetted for more.

It’s important to understand that the avenue to this eternal life is belief.  The word translated as believe (pisteuooneis) suggests "the complex thought of unqualified acceptance of, and exclusive dependence on," (Elwell)  It goes beyond mentally agreeing with a claim, it involves reliance upon the truth of the claim.

In terms of the Christian gospel, it means accepting Jesus for who he is—God’s Son—and relying upon him—and him alone—for our hope of eternal life.  Jesus had told Nicodemus that he must be born again—renewed through a power which comes from God in heaven.  John is reminding us that Jesus is the one who gives that life to those who believe in him.

Those who take this option of faith escape the darkness;  those who take this option do not waste their lives, they live their lives to the fullest;  those who take this option walk the path toward a future of joy and hope.

They have this joy and hope because they have a new understanding of God.  He is not a God who eagerly seeks opportunities to condemn us;  He is a God who longs to save us.   He is the God who gave his Son to make possible our salvation.  He is the God who invites us to experience that salvation by simply believing on his Son.

Conclusion

The Gideons never tried to offend anyone by placing Bibles in those hotel rooms.  They just wanted people to know about the love of God.  We want you to know about that love and once you know about it to trust God for the life he offers. 

Choosing to Believe--or Not

On Sunday, January 16, many churches celebrated Religious Liberty Sunday.  I preached the following sermon to remind the congregation of how Baptists contributed to this freedom and to point out the opportunities God has given us  through our liberty.

Choosing to Believe—or Not

Matthew 22:16-22

During our visit to London a couple summers ago, we toured the infamous Tower of London.  William the Conqueror began building the tower soon after his conquest of the island in 1066;  other kings added to the complex until it became the formidable structure it is today.  You probably know the tower was used for centuries as a prison for very special prisoners.  It was often the last home those prisoners would know.  Eighteen-year-old Lady Jane Grey, a devout Protestant who was queen of England for nine days before the Privy Council changed its mind and made Mary the queen.  Jane who had lived in the tower during her short reign was now imprisoned there and eventually beheaded there.

Many of the Tower’s prisoners wrote messages on the walls of their cells. Some simply quoted Scripture, some wrote prayers, some messages of hope.  As I thought of the many religious prisoners held there and elsewhere, I had a curious thought.  I realized that if many of those who were going to die for their faith should suddenly find the situation reversed, they would imprison those who disagreed with them.

You see, no matter how appealing the idea may seem, when the church and the state are wed the marriage is disastrous.

When Jesus answered the question posed by his opponents, he set down a principle that would eventually play a crucial role in how Christians would come to relate to the political authorities.  Unfortunately, the church suffers recurring bouts of amnesia so it often forgot that principle.  Today, I want to celebrate that principle and remind you of some of its history and its benefits.

The New Testament writers never say anything that could be taken to endorse the coercion of belief.  Preachers might be as persuasive as possible but their final word to any congregation, crowd, or individual was “Choose.”  They never imagined or expected that the state might strong-arm people into the church or check “Christian” on the birth certificates of infants born within its borders.  Yet, both became a reality.

In time this filled the church with nominal Christians.  Oh, there were always sincere, devout believers but their enthusiasm was often seen as a threat to the status quo.  In the end, the leaders of the church—even after the Reformation—became content with letting the state be their partner in the task of evangelism.

But the church’s amnesia doesn’t last forever.  In time, when things are their messiest, someone will say, “Didn’t Jesus say something about this?”

You might not immediately recognize the name of Thomas Helwys.  He was a member of a family that was rising in prominence in late sixteenth-century London.  Thomas studied law at Grey’s Inn and lived in London for a short while until he moved back to Lincolnshire and married.  It was there that he and his wife became sympathetic to the Puritan cause and eventually become part of John Smyth’s little band of dissenters.  (John Robinson, who would eventually lead the Pilgrims to Plymouth, was also part of the group.) 

As persecution of dissent increased, Smyth and Helwys led a little group of dissenters to Amsterdam where they would be somewhat safer than they would have been in England.  While in Amsterdam, Smyth and Helwys became convinced that their baptism was invalid and that only believers should receive baptism.  After careful study and reflection they produced a confession and a new expression of Christian faith.  And so, Helwys is remembered, along with John Smyth, as one of the founders of the Baptist denomination. 

Eventually, Helwys led some of these English Baptists back to England so they could spread their new faith.  For a while, the little group met at Spitalfields in east London.  This was the first Baptist church on English soil.

Thomas wrote a little book called A Short Declaration of the Mistery of Iniquity.  He sent King James I a copy, urging him to take its message to heart.  Instead, the king had him arrested.  Thomas Helwys, cousin of Sir Gervase Helwys, a lieutenant at the Tower of London, died at Newgate Prison in 1616. 

What was so significant about this little book?  Though it maintained a respectful tone, it echoed Jesus’ words about things belonging to Caesar and things belonging to God.  Consider this quote:  "If the Kings people be obedient and true subjects, obeying all humane lawes made by the King, our Lord the King can require no more: for men’s religion to God is betwixt God and themselves; the King shall not answer for it, neither may the King be judge between God and man."

Helwys had written what was almost certainly the first call for complete religious freedom.  Some earlier writers had argued for freedom for all Protestants but Helwys argued that Protestants, Catholics, Muslims, Jews—everyone, including atheists—should have freedom of conscience.  It would be well over a century and a half before any national government embraced such a vision for itself.

Only a few years after Helwys’s death, settlers would begin coming to America.  Some of them, like the Puritans and the Pilgrims, would be coming to find freedom to worship as they wished.  Of course, these same people had no intention of giving others that same freedom.  They would banish, whip, and even hang any who dared to differ too much from their beliefs.

In the 1630s, Roger Williams, at the time a minister in Plymouth, Massachusetts, would begin to call for freedom of religion and separation of church and state.  In 1536, the colony’s leaders decided to send him packing back to England.  Williams, learning of their intentions, fled, living for a while with the Wampanoags.  Eventually he founded a new community in what would become Rhode Island.  This new community became a refuge for religious dissenters of all types.  Williams became a Baptist for a few months in 1538 but it was long enough to found a church which is usually considered to be the first Baptist church in America.

By the time the new United States was founded, the notion of religious freedom was more acceptable.

·         Some, like the Baptists, argued for religious freedom on Biblical grounds. 

·         Some, like Thomas Jefferson, influenced perhaps by the Enlightenment, embraced the notion on more philosophical grounds.

·         Some, pragmatists at heart, realized that religious freedom was the only way the diverse population could be united.

Of course, even after the constitution was ratified, religious life in the United States was not what we know today.  It was the 1830s before Massachusetts stopped collecting taxes from its citizens to support the Congregational church. 

Still, the United States had set out on “the lively experiment” that placed religious views of every type on a level playing field.  At the time, you couldn’t find anything else like it in the world.  Needless to say, there is nothing like it in the Muslim world.  You can stand on the corner of High and Broad and pass out copies of the Koran, knowing that the police will protect your right.  Try to pass out copies of the New Testament on a street corner in Tehran and the police will haul you off to jail.  In fact, nothing in the Islamic worldview suggests Muslim nations will ever know the religious freedom we know.

Even in the UK, the monarch remains the head of the Church of England, though that’s largely a symbolic title.  The Prime Minister and Parliament actually appoint the bishops.  Some believe this hurts the Anglican Church because people see it as a tool of the government, a government they sometimes feel doesn’t care for them. 

Here in the US, the churches that survived were churches that tried to meet the real spiritual needs of people. 

Here in the US, church membership is a choice.  Though the system isn’t perfect, it assures that the percentage of nominal members is less than it would be in a state church.

Here in the US, you are free to support the church-related programs you wish to support.  Your taxes don’t go to support a church that doesn’t minister to you, a pastor who is indifferent to or skeptical of doctrines you hold dear, or that blindly endorses all the government says so it won’t risk its privileged status.

Today, the United States has a higher percentage of its population participating in church life than any other Western nation.   In America, there are more ordained clergy per capita than in any other nation.  (I think the same thing can be said about lawyers so you might take that with more than a little salt.)  At the same time, in America you don’t have to be ordained to lead a band of believers;  you can meet with them in homes, at coffee houses, anywhere.  The last I heard some 13% of believers attended “church” in a non-traditional setting such as a house or apartment and the number was growing.  In many nations, if you are a Christian, you may dream of the day when a brave soul will smuggle a Bible to you.  In the US, you can buy a Bible at Giant Eagle.  (Of course, shrewd marketers have also made it possible for you to buy Bibles geared to almost any group you might name:  men’s Bibles, women’s Bibles, recovery Bibles, patriot’s Bibles, and the list goes on.) 

Here in the US, your church’s growth isn’t tied to the ups and downs of the birth rate. 

In fact, here in the US, your church’s growth is to some degree linked to your commitment to and enthusiasm for your church’s ministry and message.  Historically, it has been the “enthusiasts” who have seen their churches grow.  Upstart churches like the Methodists, the Christian churches, and the Baptists spread like spilled tea across the frontier, leaving the older churches behind. 

In the early nineteenth century, Congregational churches in New York City asked for funds to sent missionaries to the western part of the state where they said there were no churches.  In truth, the area was dotted with Baptist and Methodist churches.  But the sophisticated Congregational leadership refused to recognize these congregations as real churches.  After all, oftentimes their leaders had no formal training.  The only thing they had going was converts by the droves.

A century before this, the Methodists hadn’t existed and the Baptists would have faced legal challenges to their efforts.

Religious freedom makes this possible.

I’ve never believed that there is any special reason why God should bless America.  I’ve certainly never believed that America is the only nation God has ever blessed.  But I do believe that God blessed America by leading a group of visionaries that included Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Congregationalists,  a couple Catholics, a couple Methodists, at least one  Deist and one Huguenot,  but not a Baptist in sight to endorse a Constitution that embraced a revolutionary idea that was born in the hearts of the harried English Baptists.

You and I can choose to believe the gospel or not.  We aren’t allowed to choose the consequences of unbelief but nothing allows the church to force us to believe.

You and I who have chosen to believe have been the beneficiaries of a great blessing.  We are right to meet for Bible study to talk about it, to gather to sing about it, to bow our heads to thank God for it, and to sit through sermons learning more about it.

But surely that freedom brings responsibilities and opportunities.

We have the responsibility to guard it—not only for ourselves but for others. 

Just as important, we have the opportunity to invite others to choose.  We must issue that invitation with grace, wisdom, and love.  But offer it we should because in so doing we bring honor to the one who is a Liberator in so many ways.