Sermon from 23rd July 2006
FINAL INSTRUCTIONS
This is our Vicar, Cameron Barker's, sermon from last Sunday 23rd July which concludes our study of Paul's letter to the Colossians:
“There are two things to do about the Gospel – believe it & behave it”. Two months ago I began this series by quoting those words of Susanna Wesley, the mother of Charles & John. I said that they were the best possible headline summary of this letter we’d be studying until the summer. And now that we’ve got to the end of our Colossian series I see no reason to change my mind. “There are two things to do about the Gospel – believe it and behave it”. And this letter has shown us how to do both better: how to believe more surely & how to behave more faithfully as Christians. In that first sermon I also quoted Tom Wright, the Bishop of Durham. He suggested that this letter is like a flower that gradually unfolds to reveal the full extent of its beauty and depth. Again, I think that’s exactly what we have seen as we’ve studied Paul’s letter to this young church. And I have to say that by ending the series as I began it I’m only copying Paul’s own example – from this letter! If the words we’ve heard sound familiar that’s because Paul has come full circle. Apart from the personal greetings that follow this passage, these are the final things Paul wanted to impress on his readers. And, as we’ll see, they are pretty much the same things as he wanted to impress on them at the start! Mind you, Paul has taken his readers on quite a journey between the parallel beginning and ending. He began with that great opening passage of prayer and thanks to which we’ll return later. Then he went straight into one of the best explanations in the whole NT of who Christ is & what he’s done for all people. Paul rightly set the person & work of Christ in the widest possible – & mind-blowing – context. The picture that we used to help us imagine ourselves in comparison to Christ was of us as ants in the largest building we could envisage. And yet we heard how this Christ died on the cross, so people as insignificant as us could be reconciled to God! That cosmic, eternal truth is God’s big secret – which has now been made known to all people. Adrian spoke about this secret, & Paul’s own role in making it known as widely as possible. Then Paul came to the meat of his letter to these young believers. But, as we saw, he had first had to lay out these foundations of the Christian faith, to remind the Colossians of what they believed and why. This wasn’t a church that Paul had founded, or taught, directly himself. It had been planted by Epaphras, a man from this area who had come to faith through Paul’s preaching in nearby Ephesus. But now people were raising questions about how solid the Colossians’ basis for belief was. Paul didn’t ever tackle those issues head-on in his letter. Instead he wrote to the Colossians in the most positive fashion imaginable. Again and again Paul stressed what they’d been taught, & why it was trustworthy and true. And because it was trustworthy and true he also emphasised how they were to behave in the light of it. You see, Paul also knew that there are only two things to do about the gospel – to believe it & behave it. So, having reminded the Colossians of what they believed and why, he went on to how they were to behave because of what they believed. The first area of the Colossians’ behaviour to be impacted was about what they believed. They – and we, of course! – weren’t to allow anyone or anything to distract them from what they knew to be true. Christ was – and is – the ultimate reality. He was – and is – all. He was – and is – in charge of all things, because he’s the one for and through whom all was made. ‘You don’t need a telescope a micro-scope, or a horoscope to realise the fullness of Christ’, remember! So even though other philosophies may sound attractive, we must put them in the context of Christ to see how genuine they are. Christ is the head, & the reference point – and here’s the proof: no matter what others claim, Christ alone is the one who can help us to live God’s way. Living God’s way was the subject of the next 2 sermons in our series. They both had the title, ‘New life, new lifestyle’. Paul said that since we have been freely given this new life in Christ, we must now live his new lifestyle. So he first tackled the whole area of our human desires. The image he used for that was of clothes. Paul’s instruction to these young believers was to take off their old clothes, & to put on the new set that Christ provides. The applications list – to negative feelings, to speech & to sexual conduct – was typically Paul. It was ‘just’ illustrative of some of the areas that came readily to mind. It wasn’t, and isn’t, meant to be the complete set. Rather, these are the sorts of issues that most Christians need to work on. Paul’s intention was to give the Colossians – and us – the basic principles that we can apply when needed. And the same is also true of the positive advice that Paul had for the Colossians, and for us. For every negative emotion or behaviour that Christians must put off, there’s a positive God-given quality that we’re to develop instead. But again we saw how these are just examples of what we can do, rather than everything we have to. We were also reminded that both parts of this process are only possible with Christ’s help. But Paul assures us that Christ is more than willing to help us to become more like him. And, in fact, he has already given us his help – in one another! Last week we studied two other main areas where we are to live out the new life in Christ: at home and at work. We saw how Paul was, in fact – contrary to popular belief – a social revolutionary in his approach to family life. He said that in Christ women, children & even slaves have rights, not just responsibilities. Paul made men see that in Christ they were answerable for their actions towards their wife, children & slaves. In the context of his time this was truly staggering. But for Paul the context of Christ was what counted. And the context of Christ is that he is the boss, of everyone and everything. So Christians are to work for Christ, at work and at home. Paul’s bottom line is that we are accountable to Christ for what we do with his new life. This whole adventurous & ever-deepening journey through Colossians has now brought us in a full circle. Paul began by assuring the Colossians of his prayers for them, which were marked by thanksgiving. Now, as he ended, Paul urged them to pray too. Their prayers were, like his, to be constant – and constantly marked with thanksgiving. Paul had reminded the Colossians of plenty of the reasons that they could give thanks. All of them – Jew & Gentile, slave and free, men and women, adults and children – had been freely given new life in Christ. Insignificant as they were, Christ the maker & ruler of the universe had died for them. They knew God’s secret, and now had true life in him! Of course the reality of Christ had to transform their life in the present. They were to behave the gospel as well as to believe it. But they were to long and pray for others to be transformed by God’s secret too. So, Paul didn’t just ask the Colossians to pray & give thanks for themselves. He urged them to pray for him, just as he prayed for them. As we’ve been reminded, Paul was in prison when he wrote this letter. But what’s amazing is that Paul didn’t ask the Colossians to pray for his release. Instead he asked them to pray that he would do more of what got him into prison originally! Paul asked them to pray for opportunities for him to preach about Christ – and that he would take them with the best of his God-given abilities. More than ‘just’ ask them to pray for his work for Christ, Paul asked the Colossians to join in with it! He didn’t want them to rush to him in Rome, though – but rather to do God’s work where they were. Paul told them to be wise in how they acted towards those who didn’t believe in Christ. Paul wanted the Colossians to see their contact with non-Christians for what it was – as a great opportunity to share the good news about Jesus. They were to make the most of those opportunities – which is also great advice for us in our year of growing outwards. How, though? How can we make the most of our contact with non-Christians? Part of the answer to that is in Paul’s final words to the Colossians – and there’s much we can learn from the rest of his letter too. But let’s focus on what we’ve heard today, and think about what being wise might mean. I’m reminded of the words of Francis of Assisi (I think): ‘Go and preach the gospel; and, if you have to, use words’. The reality is that the only Bible that most non-Christians will read is the lives of Christians. If we act in a way that’s inconsistent with our declared faith people will notice, and question the reality of what we say we believe. Paul had one last, & very specific, piece of advice for the Colossians. It was about how they spoke to non-Christians. Their conversation was always to be pleasant & interesting – literally ‘salted’ in Greek. In other words, the Colossians weren’t to parrot ‘right’ answers, using words that nobody else does. Instead they – and we, of course! – were to listen to what people had to say, and respond to it genuinely and honestly. Paul assumed that if Christians do live out Christ’s new life then others will want to know what it’s all about – and we must be ready to tell them!In this area of their life – as in all the others he’d written to them about – Paul wanted the Colossians to grow to the maturity that Christ expects from his followers. It was the sort of maturity that Paul modelled himself – in his praying, in his thanksgiving, in his behaviour, in his speech & in his letter-writing. For Paul it really was all about Christ: being reconciled to God through him, being changed into his likeness, living every area of life for him, and then sharing with everyone else the good news of what God has done.Paul was passionate about the person and work of Christ. It had transformed his own life, & he longed for that to be so for others. He longed for it to be ever more true of the Colossians, & for them to help it to be true for others also. So Paul ended as he began, with this encouragement to pray, give thanks & live the gospel of Christ. Paul wanted the Colossians to believe the gospel. He helped them do so better in his letter. But he also wanted them to behave, or live it. He helped them to do that more fully by what he wrote too. Finally he reminded them of God’s call to share Christ’s good news with all. Our call today is the same: to believe, behave & share. Let’s pray we’ll now do so better…….
This is our Vicar, Cameron Barker's, sermon from last Sunday 23rd July which concludes our study of Paul's letter to the Colossians:
“There are two things to do about the Gospel – believe it & behave it”. Two months ago I began this series by quoting those words of Susanna Wesley, the mother of Charles & John. I said that they were the best possible headline summary of this letter we’d be studying until the summer. And now that we’ve got to the end of our Colossian series I see no reason to change my mind. “There are two things to do about the Gospel – believe it and behave it”. And this letter has shown us how to do both better: how to believe more surely & how to behave more faithfully as Christians. In that first sermon I also quoted Tom Wright, the Bishop of Durham. He suggested that this letter is like a flower that gradually unfolds to reveal the full extent of its beauty and depth. Again, I think that’s exactly what we have seen as we’ve studied Paul’s letter to this young church. And I have to say that by ending the series as I began it I’m only copying Paul’s own example – from this letter! If the words we’ve heard sound familiar that’s because Paul has come full circle. Apart from the personal greetings that follow this passage, these are the final things Paul wanted to impress on his readers. And, as we’ll see, they are pretty much the same things as he wanted to impress on them at the start! Mind you, Paul has taken his readers on quite a journey between the parallel beginning and ending. He began with that great opening passage of prayer and thanks to which we’ll return later. Then he went straight into one of the best explanations in the whole NT of who Christ is & what he’s done for all people. Paul rightly set the person & work of Christ in the widest possible – & mind-blowing – context. The picture that we used to help us imagine ourselves in comparison to Christ was of us as ants in the largest building we could envisage. And yet we heard how this Christ died on the cross, so people as insignificant as us could be reconciled to God! That cosmic, eternal truth is God’s big secret – which has now been made known to all people. Adrian spoke about this secret, & Paul’s own role in making it known as widely as possible. Then Paul came to the meat of his letter to these young believers. But, as we saw, he had first had to lay out these foundations of the Christian faith, to remind the Colossians of what they believed and why. This wasn’t a church that Paul had founded, or taught, directly himself. It had been planted by Epaphras, a man from this area who had come to faith through Paul’s preaching in nearby Ephesus. But now people were raising questions about how solid the Colossians’ basis for belief was. Paul didn’t ever tackle those issues head-on in his letter. Instead he wrote to the Colossians in the most positive fashion imaginable. Again and again Paul stressed what they’d been taught, & why it was trustworthy and true. And because it was trustworthy and true he also emphasised how they were to behave in the light of it. You see, Paul also knew that there are only two things to do about the gospel – to believe it & behave it. So, having reminded the Colossians of what they believed and why, he went on to how they were to behave because of what they believed. The first area of the Colossians’ behaviour to be impacted was about what they believed. They – and we, of course! – weren’t to allow anyone or anything to distract them from what they knew to be true. Christ was – and is – the ultimate reality. He was – and is – all. He was – and is – in charge of all things, because he’s the one for and through whom all was made. ‘You don’t need a telescope a micro-scope, or a horoscope to realise the fullness of Christ’, remember! So even though other philosophies may sound attractive, we must put them in the context of Christ to see how genuine they are. Christ is the head, & the reference point – and here’s the proof: no matter what others claim, Christ alone is the one who can help us to live God’s way. Living God’s way was the subject of the next 2 sermons in our series. They both had the title, ‘New life, new lifestyle’. Paul said that since we have been freely given this new life in Christ, we must now live his new lifestyle. So he first tackled the whole area of our human desires. The image he used for that was of clothes. Paul’s instruction to these young believers was to take off their old clothes, & to put on the new set that Christ provides. The applications list – to negative feelings, to speech & to sexual conduct – was typically Paul. It was ‘just’ illustrative of some of the areas that came readily to mind. It wasn’t, and isn’t, meant to be the complete set. Rather, these are the sorts of issues that most Christians need to work on. Paul’s intention was to give the Colossians – and us – the basic principles that we can apply when needed. And the same is also true of the positive advice that Paul had for the Colossians, and for us. For every negative emotion or behaviour that Christians must put off, there’s a positive God-given quality that we’re to develop instead. But again we saw how these are just examples of what we can do, rather than everything we have to. We were also reminded that both parts of this process are only possible with Christ’s help. But Paul assures us that Christ is more than willing to help us to become more like him. And, in fact, he has already given us his help – in one another! Last week we studied two other main areas where we are to live out the new life in Christ: at home and at work. We saw how Paul was, in fact – contrary to popular belief – a social revolutionary in his approach to family life. He said that in Christ women, children & even slaves have rights, not just responsibilities. Paul made men see that in Christ they were answerable for their actions towards their wife, children & slaves. In the context of his time this was truly staggering. But for Paul the context of Christ was what counted. And the context of Christ is that he is the boss, of everyone and everything. So Christians are to work for Christ, at work and at home. Paul’s bottom line is that we are accountable to Christ for what we do with his new life. This whole adventurous & ever-deepening journey through Colossians has now brought us in a full circle. Paul began by assuring the Colossians of his prayers for them, which were marked by thanksgiving. Now, as he ended, Paul urged them to pray too. Their prayers were, like his, to be constant – and constantly marked with thanksgiving. Paul had reminded the Colossians of plenty of the reasons that they could give thanks. All of them – Jew & Gentile, slave and free, men and women, adults and children – had been freely given new life in Christ. Insignificant as they were, Christ the maker & ruler of the universe had died for them. They knew God’s secret, and now had true life in him! Of course the reality of Christ had to transform their life in the present. They were to behave the gospel as well as to believe it. But they were to long and pray for others to be transformed by God’s secret too. So, Paul didn’t just ask the Colossians to pray & give thanks for themselves. He urged them to pray for him, just as he prayed for them. As we’ve been reminded, Paul was in prison when he wrote this letter. But what’s amazing is that Paul didn’t ask the Colossians to pray for his release. Instead he asked them to pray that he would do more of what got him into prison originally! Paul asked them to pray for opportunities for him to preach about Christ – and that he would take them with the best of his God-given abilities. More than ‘just’ ask them to pray for his work for Christ, Paul asked the Colossians to join in with it! He didn’t want them to rush to him in Rome, though – but rather to do God’s work where they were. Paul told them to be wise in how they acted towards those who didn’t believe in Christ. Paul wanted the Colossians to see their contact with non-Christians for what it was – as a great opportunity to share the good news about Jesus. They were to make the most of those opportunities – which is also great advice for us in our year of growing outwards. How, though? How can we make the most of our contact with non-Christians? Part of the answer to that is in Paul’s final words to the Colossians – and there’s much we can learn from the rest of his letter too. But let’s focus on what we’ve heard today, and think about what being wise might mean. I’m reminded of the words of Francis of Assisi (I think): ‘Go and preach the gospel; and, if you have to, use words’. The reality is that the only Bible that most non-Christians will read is the lives of Christians. If we act in a way that’s inconsistent with our declared faith people will notice, and question the reality of what we say we believe. Paul had one last, & very specific, piece of advice for the Colossians. It was about how they spoke to non-Christians. Their conversation was always to be pleasant & interesting – literally ‘salted’ in Greek. In other words, the Colossians weren’t to parrot ‘right’ answers, using words that nobody else does. Instead they – and we, of course! – were to listen to what people had to say, and respond to it genuinely and honestly. Paul assumed that if Christians do live out Christ’s new life then others will want to know what it’s all about – and we must be ready to tell them!In this area of their life – as in all the others he’d written to them about – Paul wanted the Colossians to grow to the maturity that Christ expects from his followers. It was the sort of maturity that Paul modelled himself – in his praying, in his thanksgiving, in his behaviour, in his speech & in his letter-writing. For Paul it really was all about Christ: being reconciled to God through him, being changed into his likeness, living every area of life for him, and then sharing with everyone else the good news of what God has done.Paul was passionate about the person and work of Christ. It had transformed his own life, & he longed for that to be so for others. He longed for it to be ever more true of the Colossians, & for them to help it to be true for others also. So Paul ended as he began, with this encouragement to pray, give thanks & live the gospel of Christ. Paul wanted the Colossians to believe the gospel. He helped them do so better in his letter. But he also wanted them to behave, or live it. He helped them to do that more fully by what he wrote too. Finally he reminded them of God’s call to share Christ’s good news with all. Our call today is the same: to believe, behave & share. Let’s pray we’ll now do so better…….
posted by Parish Administrator at 1:19 pm
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