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Jonathan Ng - Bridge Church 2011/10/23
Introduction
Good morning. For those of you who do not know me, my name is Jonathan. Our pastor and his family are currently away in Kansas helping their youngest daughter relocate. So, as we’ve been doing for the past few weeks, we have the privilege of hearing from others at the Bridge speak from God’s Word. Today, it is my prayer - that you will not only hear the words that I have prepared, but that you will hear the Holy Spirit speak into your life as we study this passage.
Turn with me please to Colossians 2 and follow along as I take one more read through verses 6 through 13 - and then we’ll pray.
Paul begins this chapter by revealing his pastoral heart. He’s concerned for he wellbeing at Colossae and also in Laodicea. Then in verse 6:
6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.
9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10 and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. 11 In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
<Let’s Pray before we begin>
I want to introduce two people to you this morning - each represented with a circle that you see on the screen.
On the left is a guy named Kurt. Life hasn’t exactly turned out easy for Kurt - he ran away at 16. Kurt’s been battling with some things most people in our society would attribute as negative behaviours. He’s in quite a bit of debt. Most of his relationships have turned sour, and no matter how hard he tries, he always seems to end up battling the same old things. Lately, he’s turned to a life of crime in order to feed his drug and alcohol habit. It’s paying off - he’s able to get the fixes he needs, but life is getting exhausting and depressing.
So this is what Kurt looks like in a diagram. Notice the negative signs around the outside of the circle. People see Kurt as a person who has messed up big time.
Now on the right hand side is another person whom I’ll call Susan. If Kurt represents what we by human standards would call negative, Susan is quite the opposite. She seems to have it all together. She professes to know Jesus. She tries to cram in her devotions daily. She’s involved in her community, attends PAC meetings at her son’s school, goes to church, does the laundry, cooks, and has even taught Sunday school for the past 20 years. She is well-recognized in her community and people admire what she does. Susan even tries her best to “do” the “fruits” of the Spirit - she tries to be loving. She tries to be joyful. She tries to be patient, to be peaceful, to be patient, kind, good, faithful, and gentle, and she tries really really hard to control herself.
Now take a really good look at my two friends Kurt and Susan here. Which of these two individuals do you think is the most healthy?
Oh wait - before you answer that - one more thing - I forgot to show you what is on the inside.
KURT SUSAN:
The answer is that neither of them are. Fundamentally, they both suffer from the same problem: While their external behaviour reflects one thing, their internal state is still empty.
Susan seems to be the one who has gotten it all together. Her behaviours certainly demonstrate so, but what is driving those behaviours isn’t a healthy core inside. What is driving those behaviours is an external conformity to the people around her. She projects and derives value from what people want to see - “because it is the Christian thing to do” - rather than display the fruit (singular!) of what is actually inside. Admittedly, she’s not doing so well. While Susan looks like the perfect model Christian on the outside, Susan is hurting inside. Although she teaches Sunday School every week, she’s only been doing it because no one else will - she’s long lost the joy in it. People haven’t noticed because she’s been “faking” the joy. She attends PAC meetings because being involved in her community is what is expected of parents at her school, and after all, Christians are expected to be a vibrant part of the community right? And, she’s keeping busy just so she won’t have time to stop and think about the real problem.
Kurt is no better. He’s just chosen to react to the emptiness inside by covering it up (read: medicating it away) with drugs and alcohol. Instead of conforming his behaviour to the expectations of the community, he’s chosen to react to the shame of a broken, empty inner self by hiding it with substances and negative behaviour.
While it was obvious that Kurt’s inner health was in trouble, the reality is that Susan’s was just as bad. Susan’s condition is what Paul calls captivated through “hollow and deceptive philosophy” in Colossians 2:8.
Listen to it again --
8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces [some translate this as: basic principles] of this world rather than on Christ.
Let me explain: Paul knew this trap well and he was concerned - not only for those who did not know Jesus, but for the very people who had received Christ. Paul’s concern was that believers would be taken “captive” by vain deceit - things that appear to provide wisdom but are ultimately void or empty taking our focus off what is actually important - that of the fullness of Christ. In other words, believers were so concerned about the outside of how things looked (behaviours), that they were blind to the emptiness that was inside.
Scholars have debated as to what exactly was the “problem” that plagued the Colossian church. Some suggest that it was Jewish legalism (not unlike what Jesus was addressing with the Pharisees). Others suggest it was an invasion of Greek philosophy. Regardless, what is important is that there was a problem and Paul’s call to believers that they be vigilant.
We get a good clue as to what this was all about in verses 20 through 23:
20 Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: 21 “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? 22 These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. 23 Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.
Over the years, I’ve met quite a few people just like Kurt and Susan - and the church is not immune. At an extreme level, these people are preoccupied with their behaviour or church’s performance, rather than an awareness of the real problem -- sin. (The real problem in fact is worse than sin. It’s actually death because of sin.) They are equally more preoccupied with finding human rules to achieve behaviours that may look righteous instead of embracing the real solution -- grace, life and fullness through Jesus Christ. They add things or control human rules in order to achieve what only God can achieve (like “faking” the fruit of the Spirit through rules or expectations). They tend to be people who are people centered rather than Christ centered. And finally, they usually look very tired. Dead people generally don’t look very alive!
Harsh thing to say? Perhaps, but really it is the honest truth, and unfortunately it is not a problem limited to modern society nor the modern church. Unfortunately also, it isn’t just a problem limited to extremes like Kurt and Susan. The reality is that to varying degrees, it is a problem that plagues every one of us. Humans, and even the church has become so accustomed to a performance based culture that we are conditioned to react in this way - we are conditioned to conform rather than to be transformed. We don’t necessarily mimic positive and negative behaviours because we think it will make life worse - we do it because we think it will make life better. But all it is doing is masking the emptiness and that unhealthiness is serving to harm us.
The GOOD news: We don’t have to live like this!
Aren’t you tired of living like this? The good news is that we don’t have to live like this! Jesus came to set us free. Yes, he came to redeem us and pay the debt of our sin, and in so doing, he also set us free from a performance-based rule system. Yes, he came to die for my sin and your sin, and in so doing, he gave you life. Yes, he came to be bound to a cross, and in so doing, he set you free. In our emptiness and in our strength, we will never achieve his standard. There is no way we can fully fulfill the law, produce the fruit of the Spirit, without the person and power of Jesus.
Listen to what Jesus came to do:
John 10:10:
10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; [but] I [Jesus] have come that [you] may have life, and have it to the full.
Colossians 2:11:
11 In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, [NIV]
The NLT offers a slightly clearer explanation:
11 When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature. [NLT]
This is grace! In other words, Christ came. He took off that outer layer - that self righteousness, that vain deceit - you’ve been carrying around and he cast it aside. Then - verse 12:
12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13a When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ.
Then, Jesus addressed the real problem. He addressed your sin - the emptiness - the dead tissue, and he filled it with HIS presence, HIS fullness, and HE made YOU alive with Christ. He breathed life where life wasn’t before. Dead people are dead. No amount of make up or beautification -- though they may look great -- will make them come alive again. The only way a dead person can come alive again is if someone were to breath life into them. This is what Jesus does. He brings us up in a new creation.
He restored what God had intended all along. He restored our image to reflect His.
And in so doing, Jesus rendered the power of conformity to rules and regulations powerless.
13b He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. [NIV]
Application: Fight the right fight
Coming back to Kurt and Susan, and you and me. What Christ did applies to you and me and I want to highlight several ways it does.
1. Jesus gives life to those who do not have life.
Perhaps this morning you’re listening and you can relate to someone like Kurt or Susan. Maybe you grew up in the church, or maybe you didn’t - but what you do know is that what I talked about resonates with you. You’re tired of the performance based conformity and you are looking for rest - true rest. This is what Christianity is all about.
I’ve come to tell you this morning that Jesus provides that rest. Jesus gives life. Ask him to peel away that mask you’ve been holding onto and invite him into your heart. Tell somebody about it. Then, receive his forgiveness, and let Him transform you.
2. Be rooted in him and let him transform you. Let him grow you.
6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
Maybe this morning you already know Jesus - but maybe like Susan, Jesus is just another one of the + behaviours you’ve got sitting out on your exterior. You “do” the Jesus thing, or the “church” thing, but you’ve actually been held captive by deceptive and hollow philosophy. Performance based “self-improvement” started out as a tasty short term solution: it was something tangible, there were immediate rewards, and it frankly helped you to ignore the brokenness inside. But you’re tired. You are tired of keeping it up, and weary from keeping up an image that is not really you.
I’ve come to tell you this morning that Jesus provides that rest. Jesus gives life. Ask him to peel away that mask you’ve been holding onto and invite him to heal your brokenness. Receive the fullness and the freedom that Christ gives you... be rooted and built up in him, be strengthened in the faith, and tell somebody about it.
3. Fight the right fight: which way do your arrows point?
About ten years ago, I watched a movie called “Memento”. In the film, Leonard, the main character attempts to find the man who murdered his wife. But, we soon discover Leonard is unable to make new short term memories. So he attempts to solve this murder mystery by writing himself lots of notes, tattooing himself and taking lots of Polaroid shots. The film takes a bizarre series of turns as one story line moves forward in time chronicling his quest while the other tells the story backwards.
While the film is rather dark and graphic, one scene highlights in a rather comedic fashion the irony of the whole situation. Leonard is seen running through a trailer park with another guy in hot pursuit. He’s tired, exhausted, and what’s worse, because of his memory problems, he can’t remember why he’s running in the park. So the scene goes something like this:
Leonard: OK, so what am I doing?
::Leonard is running as he spots another character “Dodd” also running.
Leonard: Oh, I’m chasing this guy.
::Then all of a sudden Dodd shoots at Leonard.
Leonard: No, I’m being chased.
I am convinced many of us find our “Christian walk” so difficult because we are fighting the wrong fight and don’t realize it. We get caught up in the run of life and forget what we are actually fighting for. We end up fighting to change our behaviour, and those around us (including our spouses and our children) and we forget that we are not able to change them. Sure we may be able to change the behaviour that they are exhibiting, but if we were to examine why we are getting those behaviours to exhibit, we would realize that it is out of a sense of compliance not obedience.
And admittedly, this is the application I find most convicting. Here’s a tangible example from my own life. As you know, I’m the father of two young kids - and as you also know I’m also an elder in this church. Now the Bible talks about elders managing their own family well and see that his children obey him and do so in a manner worthy of full respect. That is what Paul talks about as a qualification of an elder or an overseer in 1 Timothy 3.
What do you think happens when one of my kids decides to do a little funny show in the middle of service? My performance-oriented mind thinks like this: I’m supposed to be an elder. My distorted perception of what people expect is that elders have children that always listen, are only spoken to and never heard, are … and the list goes on. Notice that none of these things actually say what the Bible says - and that is that I manage my own family well and see that my children obey me and that I do so in a manner worthy of full respect. It is a self-conscious and self-righteous trap. So, if I am feeling particularly self-conscious that day, I might be bothered by the fact that my five year old kid is, well, acting like a five year old. I might by means of external pressure (yelling, controlling) get them to comply to what I want them to do. Notice I did not say obey.
But also notice how in this entire interaction, the grace and fullness of Jesus that we are supposed to reflect is left completely of the equation? Notice also how it was not done in a manner worthy of respect?
Here’s how a grace-filled person would think. I am valued and loved not because of what I have done or who I am in the church, but because Jesus loves me - so much so that he died for me, and gave me life. Jesus loves my five year old kid too. Yes, he’s being a little bit out of line right now, but while I need to demonstrate to him that these are inappropriate places to do a funny show, shaming him and controlling his behaviour by yelling is not the way to go. Instead, I need to communicate to him that I love him and that because I love him I have certain expectations of where it is appropriate to do some things and where it isn’t. And hopefully, he will make a decision not to do the funny show out of obedience.
There’s a simple test to determine if you’re fighting the right fight. It’s called the arrow test. Which ways do your arrows point? Do they point inward in compliance or outward in obedience?
Compliance is making the outside consistent with the external forces pushing against it. If we were to draw those forces, they would be arrows pointing in.
Obedience is making the outside consistent with what God is doing on the inside. If we were to draw obedience, they would be arrows pointing from the inside out.
Only God can do the changing. If we started to see people in that light - that they are people God can change - that our marriages, our church, our society would be vastly different.
So might I encourage all of us: stop fighting to make your exterior look more like the people around you. Fight to make your exterior look consistent with your interior in Christ. As the Holy Spirit moves to transform you - reflect the glory of Christ to others.
Conclusion:
We’ve spent a lot of time talking about externals and internals, and I hope I’ve gotten across that internals are what matters. Live your life with the fullness of Christ in you. Reveal the mystery of life in Christ - that when others peel back the onion layers they see the root - a vibrant relationship with Christ Jesus. As you grow in this vibrant relationship, reflect the glory of God to others.
Hear again what Paul has to say from verses 16 through 19:
16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. 17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. 18 Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you. Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind. 19 They have lost connection with the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.
Why have I gone on and on about this? Why is it important that we, as a church, fight the right fight? Because building good community starts with believers who are committed to the right fight. With believers who derive their value and acceptance from Christ rather than their religious performance, we are able to be open and honest about ministering into each other’s lives. Christ becomes the focus of our marriages rather than each other’s flaws. Families begin to be families of grace. Our community begins to see us as people of light. We become a church that plants other churches full of grace.
Let’s pray.