The Ninth Sunday after Pentecost
July 17, 2016
Colossians 1:21-28
Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation—if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the Gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant. Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness—the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me. (NIV1984)
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
For most of the years I was growing up my Grandfather and his brother, Uncle Joe, were like real life “Grumpy Old Men.” Since Uncle Joe lived in the upstairs apartment of my grandparents’ home he was there pretty much every time we came to visit. Whether it was at the kitchen table, out on the front porch, or even in the fishing boat up at the cabin I was privy to many conversations that took place between Grandpa and Uncle Joe. One of their “favorite” topics centered on the subject of cars. Grandpa always and only drove a Chevy. Uncle Joe always and only drove a Ford. Grandpa was not shy in letting Uncle Joe know why a Chevy was far superior to a Ford, and well, let’s just say that Uncle Joe was never known for being shy either.
When it comes to the subject of cars the debate over which one is “better,” the debate over which one is the “best,” the debate over which one you ought to drive is quite varied and extremely personal. Not so when it comes to the subject of our Savior. You may recall that when Jesus’ disciples asked Him about the signs which would precede the end of the world one of the things Jesus told them was, “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many” (Matthew 24:4, 5). At the very same time Jesus made it very clear that He is this world’s only Savior from sin. You may recall Jesus’ words in John 14:6, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
While we are not exactly sure if any of the false teachers who had infiltrated the church at Colosse were trying to convince God’s people that Jesus was not the Savior or at least not the only Savior, there is no doubt that these false teachers were criticizing the importance that men such as Epaphras and Paul were placing on Jesus Christ. Therefore as Paul continues his letter to his brothers and sisters in Colosse he helps them and us understand this important truth: When Guarding Against False Teaching— Always Emphasize the Supremacy of Christ! As we study this text we will see three things. First of all, we will see how the supremacy of Christ is revealed in the fact that He is the one who has changed our status with God. Second, we will see how the supremacy of Christ is brought out in the glorious “mystery” of “Christ in you.” Finally, we will see how the supremacy of Christ is brought out in the fact that He is the One who makes us “perfect.”
One of the false teachings that has been around for a very long time is that we human beings are born “innocent.” This false teaching claims that we come into this world “morally neutral” and then our environment and/or our upbringing and/or our own personal choices determine whether we grow up to be a “good” person or a “bad” person. Scripture adamantly disagrees! Think about it. Why did God destroy the ancient world by means of a world-wide flood? Because “The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time” (Genesis 6:5). Why does death permeate every single aspect of our life, our world, our existence? Because God not only warned Adam and Eve “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die” (Genesis 2:16, 17), but God also decreed, “For the wages of sin = death”(Romans 6:23). Why do so many people dismiss, disrespect or disdain the one true God, the Triune God of the Bible? Because “the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so” (Romans 8:7). While our children do indeed “look innocent” when we hold them in our arms for the very first time, it does not take long for every parent to learn that the sinful nature which they inherited from their parents has now been handed down to their child.
Our natural status before God is one of enmity and hostility. Our natural default setting runs from dismissing the Almighty as being “irrelevant” to our life to distaining the Almighty for taking all the “fun” out of life by telling us, “No! Thou shalt not….” Now there is the false teaching which says that if you follow the teachings of the idol called Buddha you can reach a state of “enlightenment.” There is the false teaching which says that if you submit to the will of the idol called Allah you might be able pass the three tests which Allah will use to determine whether or not you are allowed into heaven. There is the false teaching which says that if you follow this prescribed course of penance you can make up for the sins that you have committed against God. But what is the truth? Paul proclaims the truth to us when he says in our text, “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your mind because of your evil behavior.” That’s our natural status before God! That’s the default setting with which we were born! But listen to how Paul continues, “But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel.”
Our faith, my friends, the true Christian faith, the faith that was first created in our hearts and is now strengthened and nourished through the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, our faith assures us that our status before God has been changed. It has been changed as a result of the incarnation, as a result of the true Son of God coming into this world as the true Son of Man. Through faith in the perfect life, the innocent death and the physical resurrection of Jesus the Christ our status in God’s eyes has been changed from being “alienated from God” to being “without blemish and free from accusation.” Through faith in the perfect life, the innocent death and the victorious resurrection of Jesus the Christ our status in God’s eyes has been changed from being “enemies in our minds because of our evil behavior” to being “holy in his sight.” This change in status, a change which is nothing short of miraculous, is only possible when we believe and trust in the supremacy of Jesus Christ. Take the supremacy of Christ out of this equation, replace Jesus with anyone or anything else and you have nothing left but your original status: “alienated from God and… enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.” That’s why it is so important for us to believe, to trust and to always emphasize the supremacy of Christ.
The fact that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is supreme over Allah and Budda, over money and fame as well as every other idol to which people foolishly bow down, the fact that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has changed our status before the one and only living God is a truth that has a powerful impact on our lives! Sometimes we look around at other people even our fellow Christians and see how “successful” they are— they have talents and abilities, money and possessions, brains and beauty and brawn— and we think that we just don’t compare to them. Sometimes we might look at someone else even a fellow Christian and wonder why they can’t do this or why they won’t do that and we look down on them for not being more like us. Either one of those scenarios could easily lead us to forget that through faith in Him (Pointing to the cross) all Christians have the exact same glorious status in the eyes of our Savior-God. None of us is any “better” than anyone else. None of us is of any less value to Him. (Pointing to the cross) The status that we have because of the supremacy of the Lord’s Christ is indeed supreme!
This glorious change in our status is then reflected in the “mystery” that Paul refers to here in our text. When talking about the privilege he had been given, the privilege of proclaiming the supremacy of Jesus Christ, Paul says, “I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness— the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
A “mystery” is something that we would not know, something that we could not understand unless it was revealed to us. For “ages,” Paul says, for “generations” the Lord God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was viewed by God’s people as the awesome God who descended on Mt. Sinai in fire and clouds and smoke, as the majestic God whose glory dwelt between the cherubim on the Ark of the Covenant in the Most Holy Place in the Temple in Jerusalem, as the Almighty God who controlled the rise and fall of both nations and empires. While all of that is most certainly true, Paul was given the privilege of “making known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
“Christ in you.” Think about what those three words mean for you, my friends. The “mystery” of “Christ in you” gives us an even greater insight into Jesus’ words in John 14:23, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” As Christians the “mystery” of “Christ in you” gives us an even greater motivation to make sure that when people watch the way we live our life they are able to see Jesus. As Christians the “mystery” of “Christ in you” gives us even greater motivation to make sure that when people listen to the way we talk, when people listen to the things we talk about they are able to hear Jesus. Personally, I can’t help but wonder if the “mystery” of “Christ in you” doesn’t give us an even greater insight into Jesus’ promise, “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” And as Paul brings out here in our text, the “mystery” of “Christ in you” gives us “hope”! It gives us “the hope of glory”! When so many false teachers emphasize that you have to do this and this and this and then maybe God will let you come into His glorious presence, the “mystery” that has been revealed to us in the Bible, the “mystery” that we understand purely by the grace and power of God is the “mystery” of “Christ in you, the hope— the expectation— of glory” in the eternal Kingdom of Heaven.
That leaves me with just one more point to bring out. Actually, it is more of a transition from this week’s sermon to next week’s sermon. Look at the closing verse of our text, verse 28. Paul writes, “We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ.” Next week we will see that guarding against false teaching by emphasizing the supremacy of Christ will automatically lead us to guard against false teaching by emphasizing the centrality of Christ— the centrality of Christ in everything we believe, the centrality of Christ in everything God has done for us. Next week we’ll see that by emphasizing the centrality of Christ then we are “perfect in Christ.”
I will have to admit that I miss those conversations between my Grandpa and Uncle Joe. At the same time, I will have to admit that I’m not sure I would want to hear how my Grandpa would react if he knew that there is a Ford in my garage. Thankfully when it comes to the subject of cars we can agree to disagree as to which one is the “best.” Thankfully when it comes to the subject of our Savior there is no need to even have a discussion much less a debate. Our Jesus reigns supreme!
My prayer this morning is that whenever we come into contact with a false teacher, whenever we are confronted by a false teaching we will guard against them by making sure that we always emphasize the supremacy of Christ.
To God be the glory!
Amen