In Christ

Let me invite you to turn in your Bibles to Colossians chapter 1 this morning, as we begin a new sermon series that will take us all the way through Easter, a sermon series on the book of Colossians. So we're going to begin this morning by reading Colossians chapter 1 versus 1 and 2. Here now God's holy, true, and life-giving word, Colossians chapter 1 versus 1 and 2. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God and Timothy our brother to the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae, grace to you and peace from God our Father. This is the word of the Lord, let's pray together. Father, we thank you so much that you have given us this time to be gathered in your presence and to hear from you through your word and spirit. We pray that you'll bless our time now, that you would open our eyes to the glory of the Lord Jesus, that you would shape our loves, that we might love him more and believe more deeply in his unfathomable love for us. Father, we ask that you would bless this whole sermon series, that as we study the book of Colossians together over the next many weeks that you would glorify yourself and bless our time that it might shape us and equip us and excite us to continue the mission that you've given to us, the mission to make disciples of our neighbors and of the nations and we pray these things in Jesus' name and for his sake, amen. There's a pretty big difference between when you are tied to something and when you are not, when you are free. When I was a kid my cousin Todd had a massive dog named Bruno and Bruno was this gigantic sort of lab mix, maybe lab elephant, I'm not sure what he was, but big, big dog and one time we were camping and what Todd would do at night camping in Minnesota in the summer, he would just tie up the dog Bruno with a rope to a tree overnight and that was again it was the summer, it wasn't polar vortex season so he was happy to sleep outside. And one morning when we woke up or before Todd woke up actually Bruno was sitting next to the tree to which he was tied and this little dog, little dog about the size of a shoe box comes running into our campsite and so Bruno gets up and he barks and he barks and then he takes off running to chase this dog only to again be yanked back by his rope and he stood there just barking and snarling and barking and trying to get to this little dog but he couldn't because he was tied up and so we chased away the little dog and went about our day. The next morning I was up before Todd and that little dog came wandering into the campsite once again but this time he went and he sat about six inches beyond the limit of Bruno's rope so Bruno takes off running and he's barking and once again he's yanked back and he stands there snarling and that little dog I'm not kidding he sat there and smiled so we chased away the little dog and life went on. Now the third morning that little dog came in one more time went right to his little perch and Bruno gets up again starts running and bark and the difference was that morning Todd had been up early and he had unleashed old Bruno. Let's go ahead and keep it PG they played together the remainder of the morning we'll leave it like that but in that moment Bruno knew the difference very clear between when you are tied to something and therefore held back and when you are free to do whatever it is he wanted to do to the little smiling dog and you know when you think about this see what we're starting a sermon series in the book of Colossians it's such a phenomenal little book and a big part of why the Apostle Paul wrote this book is because the people in Colosse in many ways had been chained up there were some confusing things lurking some teaching that wasn't right about Christ and it was holding them back it was chaining them to a tree as it were and so the Apostle Paul writes this letter to unclick the leash so that they can run free so that they can continue to grow in their faith and in their understanding of the glory and the grace that we have in Christ and so it is a very special book for them at the time and it's very special book for us now because we too can get confused about who Christ is and what it really means for us to be in Christ and so for the next many weeks we're going to walk through the book of Colossians and let the Apostle Paul take the leash off that we can fully enjoy the freedom that we're meant to have in Christ that's our focus for this morning as well as for this series that right teaching about Christ right teaching and thinking I should say about Christ maximizes the freedom we're meant to enjoy right teaching and thinking about Christ maximizes the freedom that we are meant to enjoy and so we'll spend this morning looking at three things I want to talk about the recipients of the letter and help us understand how we can connect with them a little bit then we'll talk about the reason for the letter flesh that out just a bit more and then third the rest of the letter we'll kind of get a little preview or roadmap of where we're going in the series so the recipients the reason and the rest of the letter let's talk about the recipients who were they and take a look again at verse one and two and notice that Paul is writing to the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colosse. Now what some of you may already know that Colossians was written in about the year 62 AD is written by the Apostle Paul while he was in prison and he was writing it to the people in the church at Colosse because they needed some clarification they needed direction and instruction on their understanding of Christ and one of the things that's very interesting about the people of Colossians as we'll see as we move through the letter is they were in the beginning when the church was planted they had a very flourishing faith and we see that Paul will talk about how he's heard about their faith in Christ and their love for one another and their hope for the future but then we'll also see that Paul is acknowledging that they're confused about some things they don't understand things rightly they're listening to people who are teaching false things about Jesus and they're applying those things and so you really what you have in the recipients is you have some people who at the beginning of their relationship with the Lord they had this vibrant flourishing faith but then it wasn't long before there was maybe more floundering more of a struggle some real questions about what it is they really believed yet Paul doesn't say to those who used to believe he actually says to use saints that amazing and what does he mean when he says saints he means that he's saying to you who in Colosse who have been set apart by God okay the word saint I know in the Roman Catholic church it means some person who's acquired some level of holiness or different things and that's not the way the Apostle Paul uses it now he's addressing people who are holy to God they've been set apart by God not because of something they did but because of something God has done so even though these Colossians are wrong on some things some big things about Christ he's still saying you have been set apart by God and then he also calls them faithful brothers and that word can be translated as brothers and sisters to it it really refers to siblings and so he calls them faithful and in that what he's saying is he he knows that they have been given by God the gift of faith he knows that they have faith and so what you have in Colosse then is these people who've been set apart by God they've been given the gift of faith yet they also have some things wrong in their Christology or in their theology but Paul addresses them as people who are set apart people who have been given faith because he knows that we're not saved by our theology we're saved by Christ right we're not saved by the amount of faith we have we're saved by the object of our faith the Lord Jesus and so he's he's setting things up so that they're beginning with the understanding that he knows they're set apart and they're special and that's really important we need to understand that because it's it's really easy for us sometimes to recognize somebody who's maybe struggling in their faith and maybe has some things that need to be corrected and it's so easy to jump down somebody's throat as opposed to beginning with a gracious approach of saying hey you know what you're set apart by God you've been given the gift of faith let's talk about these things you know think about it like this you know the you know the flume or the log ride you know that one it's you kind of ride on a boat around that you go up a ramp and then you kind of you're in a little boat for a while and then you go down the big hill at the end and there's the plunge you know I'm talking about and here's what here's what's interesting and eternally frustrating about the flume ride it always seems that the people who don't want to get wet get soaked and the people who do want to get wet get like four water droplets on one quadrant of their sleeve and I don't get this because I'm always you know whether I'm a whimper or not I'm always the person who wants to be dry and I'll even ask the ride attendant like where do I got to sit to stay dry and they're always like I don't know and they I think they do know I repent of that but anyway the it has its uncanny ability to always get the people wet who don't want to be wet and it gets the people who want to get wet leaves them dry or the other way around but the point is that when we get off the ride and some of the people are soaking and some of the people are barely wet at all everybody was still on that ride and we wouldn't look at somebody who wasn't very wet and said you are not on the ride and in that same way Paul is looking at some people who have some wrong things in their mind about who Christ is but he says you are set apart by God and you have been given the gift of faith now let's talk it's amazing and we should follow his lead I mean think about this we have a ministry that is reaching many college students and if there's ever a time in life where there's a lot of questions and there's a lot of doubts and there's a lot of sort of interaction with all these ideas and we want to be a church where if somebody in college or of any age says look I'm really struggling with this one thing or I don't know if I'm right on this one thing that they are embraced with love we want them to experience grace in that moment oh you who are set apart you who have been given the gift of faith you've got some questions great let's open God's word let's find the answers together what a sweet thing it would be our church was known for grace towards those who maybe don't have everything just right just yet let's talk about the reason then see again the reason matters why Paul was writing this letter we know the recipients are people who had some things they were they were wrong on and they're going to be corrected for their own growth in grace here is the reason the reason is where where was these problems coming from the problems were coming from pressure from the culture to conform to the culture that's what the Colossians were experiencing they were experiencing some experiencing some pressure to conform to the culture and not to follow through on what they've been taught about Christ and about the gospel and pressure to conform to the world is often the culprit of struggling in our faith it's also the reason that we need we need concrete authoritative trustworthy teaching we need that to help us push back on the pressure and so that we're not constantly wondering what is actually true and that's a large part of what is happening here see in the Colossian church in that culture I should say in which the church existed there were a few pretty dominant influences there was the influence of Judaism and there was the influence of Greek philosophy and those cultures were pressing in on the Colossian Christians and basically constantly challenging the supremacy of Christ as if Jesus is not the only one we need to deal with that there's other things we must deal with to be saved as well as they were challenging the sufficiency of Christ as if Christ is not enough and that there are things we must do ourselves and we'll talk about those challenges as we move through the letter but what we need to recognize is why why's Paul writing this letter well a paphress he's mentioned in the book we'll see him he's the one who likely planted the church okay he was probably taught directly by Paul and then went and planted the church in Colossian and then what happened as far as we can tell from the scriptures and from history is a paphress realizes that there's these confusing things being taught and there's some wrong understanding of who Jesus is and so he goes to Paul who was in prison in Rome and he tells them he tells Paul what's going on so that Paul can provide some firepower some support to help him make things right now some historians believe that if paphress knew the risks in going to Paul the risk of him being thrown into jail with Paul and some historians think he actually probably was thrown in jail because it was ticacus who brought the letter to the Colossians not a paphress it's amazing but nonetheless you know a paphress is seeing that there's some confusing things he's having a little trouble getting it all worked out helping people understand what's true pushing back on these pressures he goes to Paul at maybe the risk of his imprisonment and he gets the information and it's sent back with ticacus and what Paul's doing here is he's saying here is a trustworthy authoritative source here's what's true and the way he does this is in the very beginning he announces himself as an apostle notice that in verse 1 Paul and apostle and what he means when he uses word apostle is he was one of the few people selected by Jesus taught by Jesus to have authority to communicate this truth and notice how he says that he's an apostle not by his own choice but by the will of God and so he knows that God has authorized him to give true infallible trust for the authoritative teaching and so he does and so that the people in Colossi can know what's really true about Christ and what it really means for us to be in Christ but you know many people even many Christians wrestle with that question of you know can I actually believe that the Bible is God's word right they had to believe that Paul was an apostle if they were going to believe that what he wrote was God's word and we asked that question sometimes how can we be sure and one thing that the Bible teaches us is that to believe that the scriptures are true is ultimately done through the work of the Holy Spirit but humanly speaking sometimes we don't realize there really are incredible reasons for us to believe that the Bible is God's word to know that it is trustworthy and it is authoritative and we can put our full faith in its truth and so I want to walk through briefly some reasons that we can trust that the Bible is God's word and I'm borrowing from a guy named Ken Erisman who says if you're struggling to believe the Bible is God's word you have to remember that it's fun to stay at the okay the first service was so louder than you and there's less people there but that's awkward to say in church anyway why I'm seeing a meaning think about this here's a little taste you take this further on your own study you will be amazed okay four reasons the why stands for yesterday's prophecies the Bible as far as ancient texts goes has more prophecies predictions that came true than any other ancient text ever known to man in fact the number of prophecies that were made and then came true over hundreds or even thousands of years the the number of prophecies that came true it is so great that the odds that those prophecies would happen by chance are the same odds of a tornado going through a junkyard and assembling a fully functioning 747 I mean just think about Isaiah 53 alone written 700 years before Jesus came to live and to die on our behalf and to rise again for our justification so that through faith we could be forgiven Isaiah 53 alone Isaiah predicted that the Messiah would be rejected the New Testament tells us Jesus was rejected he predicted the Messiah would be silent before his accusers just like Jesus was silent before his accusers he predicted the crucifixion he predicted the Messiah would be born in a rich man's tomb he predicted the resurrection it's amazing not to mention all the prophecies about world empires in Daniel that you can see have come true not to mention even in the New Testament there are predictions that came true in Matthew 24 verse 2 Jesus predicted the temple would be destroyed and then in 70 AD to everybody's shock the temple was destroyed so so one of the reasons we can believe that the Bible is God's word is the prophecies that have come true are just amazing the M stands for manuscript evidence okay manuscript evidence the amount of manuscripts the amount of copies of the New Testament documents that we have is absolutely amazing think about it like this there are seven manuscripts that we have attributed to Plato seven okay there are 5800 manuscripts of the New Testament which gives us unbelievable amounts to look at to see what was said to see the truth therein it's absolutely amazing plus the manuscripts written by many ancient writers were not actually written down at the same time of things happening but often hundreds of years later but the New Testament texts were written many of some some of which probably written within 10 20 years of what actually transpired so it is quite phenomenal in fact AT Robinson who's a critical scholar by the way critical like he's looking for a reason not to accept this he says this quote the wealth of manuscripts and above all the narrow interval of time between the writing and the earliest extent copies make it the Bible by far the best attested text of any ancient writing in the world say manuscript evidence third the C stands for Christ's view of scripture Christ made very clear that he believed the Old Testament was true and authoritative one example would be John 1035 where he says the scriptures cannot be broken he also pre-approved the New Testament what oh yeah in John 1426 he tells the apostles but the helper the Holy Spirit whom the father will send in my name he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you and in so doing he was saying there's gonna be a time when you guys write this down and it's gonna be right the Holy Spirit will ensure that and so Jesus view Christ's view of scripture is that the Old Testament trustworthy the New Testament trustworthy and then fourth archaeological findings real quick on that no other ancient text has as many archaeological findings as the Bible places people they know King David was real they know where he lived they've found coins from Gath where Goliath was from I mean there's just it's endless so so if you want to have a stronger feel on the trustworthiness of the scriptures then YMCA look at yesterday's prophecies and how they've come true look at the the manuscript evidence look at Christ's view scripture look at the archaeological findings because then what you have then what you have is it helps you to believe it helps you to hold true that the Bible is God's word that it is trustworthy and then what you have that you have the truth with which you can avoid falling prey to things that are not true you know I don't know if you've ever seen a counterfeit bill I don't think that I have but I'm assuming that counterfeit bills right now by banks are discovered probably through computers maybe but I know that counterfeit bills in the old days were spotted because the bank tellers were not taught by looking at the counterfeits but rather by staring at the real thing and knowing that real thing inside and outside and backwards and forwards and up and down and left and right and the more they knew the real thing the easier it was for them to say nope that's a counterfeit and that's what the Apostle Paul is doing here he's saying here's the real thing don't fall pressure to these cultural things see God wants to rescue us from the confusion that can come in okay he wants to rescue us by giving us something we can take to the bank all right let's talk about the rest then okay we have the recipients and we have the reason what about the rest the rest of this letter and notice that Paul talks about his greeting is is a greeting of grace to you and peace and from God our Father notice that you can tell he's he's wanting something for them and one of the key things is he's going to want for them and for us is for them to have a deepening and widening understanding of what it means to be in Christ look again at verse two he says to the saints set apart faithful those who have faith in Christ Paul's entire theology of the gospel is wrapped up in those words in Christ he wants desperately for the Colossians and God wants for us now today to really understand who Christ is and then what it means that we are in Christ if we have faith and so the rest of Colossians is really helping us understand exactly what Christ has done and exactly what it means to be in Christ and what Paul is actually doing is telling us who we are he's telling us to remember who we are because you don't know who you are until you know who you are in Christ now I know what day it is and I'm not going to talk about the Super Bowl but I am going to talk about the World Series in 2016 the World Series was taking place and you may remember and if you don't I'm going to remind you that it was game seven of the World Series in 2016 and the Chicago Cubs were playing against the Cleveland Indians and it was pretty intense it was in the seventh inning of the seventh game and the Cubs were ahead six to three okay and so in hopes that the Cubs would be able to hold on to their lead and win the first World Series in 108 years they brought in their relief pitcher a roll this Chapman now a roll this Chapman is a phenomenal pitcher 105 mile an hour fastball just think about that now a roll this Chapman comes in and hopes are high that the Cubs are going to break the curse if you're not familiar with the Cubs they believed that the reason they haven't won a World Series in 108 years is because of a curse okay they thought there's just something preventing them from winning and so hopes were high that finally they would win the World Series breaking the curse but then the Indians get a double and then a two run homer and now it's tied at six in the seventh or actually at that point a little later and so when they when the Indians tie the game here's what happens to all the Cubs and their fans the curse they get all upset and they're thinking here's where the wheels come off it's the curse I knew it we're I knew we couldn't do it and they were so upset and they were just devastated and then in the Providence of God and I mean that it rained it began to rain and so the grounds crews rolling out the covering and now the Cubs their managers their fans everybody's got to wait for this rain to pass so they can finish the tenth inning and see who's going to win the World Series and it was during the rain that Cubs Wright Field or Jason Hayward decided to remind the Cubs who they were he got everybody together and he started remembering their identity he reminded them that they had the best regular season in all of baseball that year he reminded them that they'd already won two different rounds of playoffs he reminded them that they had come back from a three games to one deficit to force game seven he reminded them of who they were and then the rain lifted the teams took the field and invigorated and inspired by fresh dose of truth the Cubs rallied got two runs at the top of the tenth and won the 2016 World Series now the Cubs could have accepted inevitable defeat but instead they charged ahead fueled by the truth of who they were and they won they needed to be reminded of who they were you know one of the most amazing things one of the most gracious thing God does to us through his word is tell us who we are remind us who we are so that we can charge ahead in the freedom that we have in Christ he reminds us who we are in Christ we receive grace from God in Christ that is through our faith in Christ alone not anything we do in Christ we receive grace from God first Corinthians 1 in Christ we are forgiven Ephesians 1,7 in Christ we are justified as declared righteous Romans 3 in Christ we are not condemned that's Romans 8, 1 in Christ we have eternal life Romans 6, 23 in Christ we have freedom Romans 8 verse 2 in Christ we are a new creation first Corinthians 5 in Christ we are sanctified first Corinthians 1 in Christ we have our minds renewed Philippians 2 in Christ we are united to all other believers Galatians 3 you and I need to be reminded by the God of the universe who we are not on our own but who we are in Christ and we're gonna spend the next 10 or 11 weeks letting Paul tell us who Christ is and who we are in Christ let's pray Father in a world that's always trying to tell us who we are stop our ears except to be able to hear the true truth of who we are in Christ of what we have through faith alone in Christ alone clear up confusion give us a rich Christology that our love for Christ would explode and grow and that our ability to communicate the good news of the gospel to those who are our neighbors and people among the nations will advance all for your glory and we pray in Christ's name amen