Campus Life magazine was one of those great magazines for Christian students that I really enjoyed when I was in High School. It’s no longer being published, which is too bad, because it had a lot of helpful articles for students along with some good humor. There was a column in it called “Strange World,” in which several years ago they described a unique device the Federal Aviation Administration used for testing the strength of airplane windshields: a chicken launcher.
Yep, it's a special type of gun that fires a dead chicken at, ahem, breakneck speed at a plane's windshield.
If the windshield doesn't crack during impact, then it'll survive a real collision with a bird during flight – something that apparently happens quite often.
Well, the British heard about this fowl contraption and decided to test it themselves – on a speedy new locomotive. They borrowed the FAA's chicken launcher, loaded up, and fired.
The results were, umm, quite smashing.
The ballistic chicken shattered the windshield, broke the engineer's chair and embedded itself in the back wall of the engine cab.
The British were stunned, and asked the FAA to check to see if they'd done everything correctly.
The FAA responded by saying: “Next time try using a THAWED chicken.” (“Strange World,” Campus Life, Vol. 55, no. 4; www.PreachingToday.com)
That story reminds me of what some people do attempting to better themselves. They try all kinds of contraptions and gimmicks, systems and seminars, and wonder why they’re still a mess.
So what really works to make us better people? What really works to help us grow and mature into all that God created us to be? What really works to help us become full and complete persons?
Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Colossians 1, Colossians 1, where the Bible addresses a group of people who were struggling with the same question. Some teachers had come into their church promising perfection through secret knowledge and rites, but it only made things worse for them. So God directed the Apostle Paul to give them His secret to real growth and maturity.
Colossians 1:24 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. (NIV)
Paul struggled and suffered to bring to the church God’s secret, and therein lies part of the answer. If we’re going to grow and mature into all that God created us to be, then we must listen to the pain that sometimes comes into our lives.
It’s not that Christ’s suffering on the cross was incomplete, that Paul somehow had to make up for it. No! The sacrificial sufferings of Christ are over, but His body, the church, still experiences pain and affliction. We experience literally the pressures that come in life. That’s because God is building something magnificent in us.
C. S. Lewis, in his book Mere Christianity, says, “Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what he is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised.
“But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is he up to? The explanation is that he is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards.
“You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage, but He is building up a palace. He intends to come and live in it himself.” (C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity; www.PreachingToday.com)
God is at work in us, making us into beautiful people, palaces fit for His dwelling, but sometimes that process involves a little pain. So listen to the pain, especially as it drives you closer to Christ.
Then listen to God’s Word, which is all about Christ. Paul says…
Colossians 1:25 I have become [the church’s] 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. (NIV)
God has a secret (a mystery), which was once hidden, but is now revealed to everyone who believes in His Son, Jew and Gentile alike. The false teachers in Colossae also had their “secrets,” but those were only for a select few, the inner circle. God’s secret, on the other hand, is for everyone who believes in Jesus. It is not limited to just an inner circle, the spiritually elite. It is for every believer. And that secret is very simple, yet profound: “Christ in you, the hope of glory!”
Before Jesus came, we Gentiles had to become Jewish converts in order to get in on God’s blessings. Now, through Christ, we have direct access to the glory and riches of God’s grace. And that’s the secret, my friends. The secret is Jesus! He is the key to everything, and He is what the Bible is all about.
From its earliest pages, we are in search of a Savior, “the seed of the woman,” who will bruise the serpent’s head and deal the fatal blow to the arch enemy of our souls. When Cain, the first baby, is born, we think, “Is he the one?” But he turns out to be a murderer. When Noah comes along, he builds an ark to save his family, but ends up drunk in his tent. Even the great King David, who deals the fatal blow to many of Israel’s enemies, even he is unable to conquer his own passions. He commits adultery with Bathsheba and kills her husband to cover up his sin.
There is no Savior until we get to the Gospels where we are finally introduced to Jesus. He is God’s own Son, born of a virgin, living a sinless life, and dying on a cross to save us from our sins. Only, he doesn’t stay dead. He comes out of the grave alive as a demonstration that he had conquered sin and death, and that he has dealt the fatal blow to Satan himself.
The rest of the New Testament then goes on to describe the profound implications of what Jesus did for us. He is God’s secret, now fully revealed to anyone who would put their faith in Him. That’s why Paul labors so much to get the word out. He says…
Colossians 1:28-29 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. (NIV)
Using all the power God gives Him, Paul preaches Christ. The false teachers in Paul’s day prided themselves on their great spiritual attainments. They preached a philosophical system; Paul preached a person. They preached ritual and tradition; Paul proclaimed Christ. They preached a list of rules and regulations; Paul just talked about Jesus!
He is God’s secret for us living the lives He created us to live.
The Stradivarius is perhaps the greatest violin ever made, but no modern violinmaker has been able to replicate the work of its maker, Stradivari. It’s a real mystery to violin makers today. They know that the violins of Stradivari's time were treated with a varnish made from the resinous material of any of a number of possible plants, but they don't know what method Stradivari used to cook the resin (or for how long he cooked it). They know its translucent sheen gave the violins a robust whiskey color and enhanced the wood's ability to echo sound so clearly.
Violin makers can measure a Stradivarius’ varying lengths (a little more than 14 inches), depths (about an inch and a quarter), and width. They can make a violin with the exact specs of a Stradivarius, but no one has been able to make an instrument that sounds like a Stradivarius with its extraordinary tonal quality.
Stephanie Chase, a violin maker who has studied the essence of the Stradivarius says, “Because the perfection of a Stradivarius has never been matched by another maker past or present, it makes you think we must be missing something… I've begun to believe,” she says, that “there must be a higher concept, some overriding principle that he abided by that we just have not been able to understand.” (Kostya Kennedy, “First String,” Attaché, September 1999, p.53; www.PreachingToday.com)
That’s the way it is with a lot of people today, even some so-called “experts,” who write books and do seminars. They are trying to replicate an extraordinary life, like that of Christ, but they are always missing something.
You see, the secret to living an extraordinary life is not in what WE do; it’s in Christ and what HE has already done for us on the cross. All that remains for us to do is trust Him with our lives. All we have to do is get close to Him and stay close to Him. Let your pain and let God’s Word itself bring you to Christ.
JUST FOLLOW HIM.
Then you will find yourself complete in Him. Then you can grow towards full maturity, becoming more and more like Christ. Follow Christ, then you can…
BECOME FINISHED in your hope.
I.e., you can accomplish all you hope to be in Christ. That’s the reason why Paul labors so hard to preach Christ. He says, we do it, verse 28, “So that we may present everyone perfect in Christ.”
That word, “perfect,” literally speaks of something or someone that has reached the end; that is, they have grown to full maturity. They have completely arrived at their fullest potential.
The false teachers in Paul’s day used the word to describe their followers who were no longer novices. They had been fully instructed in the secrets of their religion, so now they were mature and complete in their system.
The only problem is they were nowhere near glory. They were nowhere near the likeness of Christ. Oh, they might have fancied themselves better or more spiritual than others, but they all fell far short of the goal of the glorious character of Christ.
No religious system, no secret ritual, no self-help program, no matter how imaginative or clever it is, can make us like Christ. Either we quit in despair of ever achieving such perfection, or we redefine sin and deceive ourselves into thinking we have arrived.
Well, that does us absolutely no good. We cannot save ourselves, so our only hope of glory is Christ!
At a Promise Keeper’s Conference several years ago, Gordon McDonald talked about his days when he ran track in prep school. At the beginning of his first year, his coach invited him home for dinner one night. After the meal, the coach pulled out a notebook displaying Gordon McDonald’s name on the front cover. The coach immediately turned to the back page, which bore the heading “June 1957” – three and a half years away.
“Gordon,” he said. “These are the races I'm going to schedule you to run almost four years from now. Here are the times you will achieve.”
Gordon looked at those times and thought, “Impossible!” They were light years away from where he was at that moment as a runner.
Then the coach began turning back the pages of that book, page by page, showing the 42 months he had scheduled for workouts. They were the graduated, accelerated plans for Gordon’s increasing skill on the track as the months and years would go by. His coach had a sense of direction and development when it came to Gordon’s athletic growth. (Gordon MacDonald, from a message delivered at the Promise Keepers’ Go the Distance Conference, 8-11-2000; www.PreachingToday.com)
That’s the way it is with our life-coach, Jesus Christ. He has a sense of direction and development when it comes to our own spiritual progress. He has the plan to get us to that place in our own growth that we think is impossible right now. In fact, His goal is to make us like Himself.
All we need to do is listen to Him. All we need to do is follow His directions, stick with His plan and that will eventually happen. Just trust your Coach, Jesus, and you WILL begin to progress towards the extraordinary life He designed for you to live.
You see, Jesus is our only hope of glory! So follow Him and start your journey towards fulfilling His hopes and dreams for you. Follow Jesus and accomplish all you hope to be in Christ. Follow Christ and become finished in your hope. More than that, follow Christ and…
BECOME FORTIFIED IN YOUR LOVE.
Be encouraged to come together with a strong devotion to each another. Let your closeness to Christ strengthen the bond you have with other believers in this church. Look at what Paul says…
Colossians 2:1-3 I want you to know how much I am struggling for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me personally. My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
You see, when we discover the rich treasures we have in Christ, our hearts are encouraged to come together in love. The Greek word “united” in verse 2 means “to knit together,” or “to coalesce” (Strongs). And that’s what getting to know Christ does for us. It brings us together. It knits us together. It causes us to coalesce together in the kind of love that can never tear us apart.
Arthur Burns was a Jewish economist of great influence in Washington DC during the tenure of several Presidents. On one occasion he was once to pray at a gathering of evangelical politicians. His hosts were stunned when he prayed, “Lord, I pray that Jews would come to know Jesus Christ. And I pray that Buddhists would come to know Jesus Christ. And I pray that Muslims would come to know Jesus Christ.” And then, most stunning of all: “And Lord, I pray that Christians would come to know Jesus Christ.” (Mark Buchanan, "Singing in the Chains," Christianity Today, February 2008, p. 33; www.PreacingToday.com)
You see, more than anybody else, we as Christian believers need to get to know Christ in all His fullness, because only in Him are stored all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge; i.e. only in Him do we find the skill to love one another as He loved us.
When Heather King, an NPR commentator and recovering alcoholic, came to faith in Christ and became a part of a church, she says her first impulse was to think, “My God, I don't want to get sober with THESE nutcases!.” She said, “Nothing shatters our egos like worshipping with people we did not hand-pick… The humiliation of discovering that we are thrown in with extremely unpromising people! – people who are broken, misguided, wishy-washy, out for themselves. People who are … us.
“But we don't come to church to be with people who are like us,” King says, “in the way we want them to be. We come because we have staked our souls on the fact that Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and the church is the best place, the only place, to be while we all struggle to figure out what that means. We come because we'd be hard pressed to say which is the bigger of the two scandals of God: that he loves us – or that he loves everyone else.” (Adapted from Heather King, “The Better Church,” Shirt of Flame blog, 10-23-11; www.PreachingToday.com)
You see, it is our relationship with Christ that brings us together. And the closer we draw to Him, the closer we come to the other misfits in the church.
We certainly want our unbelieving friends to know Christ, but we as believers need to get to know Him more than anyone else, because that’s the only way we can become all that He has designed us to be. It’s the only way we can realize our hope of becoming like Him, and it’s the only way we can learn to get along with each other.
Follow Christ and become finished in your hope. Follow Christ and become fortified in your love. And finally, follow Christ and…
BECOME FIRM IN YOUR FAITH.
Become steadfast in the truth of the Gospel. Get close to Christ and you will not fall prey to a lie, even if it is presented with persuasive, good-sounding words.
Colossians 2:4-5 I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments. For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit and delight to see how orderly you are and how firm your faith in Christ is. (NIV)
The words “orderly” and “firm” are military terms. They describe an army that is solidly united against the enemy. Well, that’s what knowing Christ does for us. It solidly unites us together as a church so we can withstand the lies of the devil and storm the gates of hell.
After a relaxing, week-long summer vacation in Florida with their 10-year-old son, Robert and Angela Barry of Grove City, Ohio, left for the airport to return home to Ohio. Just before they left, a young girl staying at the Barry's hotel showed up at their room and gave their son a teddy bear as a gift. As they went through security at Orlando International Airport, the teddy bear went through the x-ray machine like the rest of their luggage, only it didn’t make it through. A Transportation Security Administration worker noticed the outline of a gun inside the bear. Security workers opened it up and found a loaded .22 caliber handgun stuffed inside.
The Miami Herald later reported that the gun had been reported stolen in 1996 in California. Robert Johnson, a TSA spokesman in Washington, D.C., said the incident “underscores the need to screen everyone and everything no matter how innocent the people or their belongings may appear.” (Associated Press, 7-17-03; www.PreachingToday.com)
False teaching is like that. It may look warm and cuddly on the outside, but inside it is loaded with deadly ammunition. That’s why we need Christ. We need to screen everything through Him, so we don’t fall for outward appearances and “fine-sounding arguments.”
Jesus is the key to us becoming all that God designed us to be. Jesus is God’s secret for us becoming full and complete persons.
So follow Him! Follow Him and become finished in your hope. Follow Him and become fortified in your love. Follow Him and become firm in your faith. Discover in Christ, and only in Christ, everything you need to realize your hope, to grow in your love, and to become strong in your faith.
Some time ago, Ruth Bell Graham saw a sign on a strip of highway that she said she would like to have copied on her gravestone. It said, “End of construction. Thank you for your patience.” (Ruth Bell Graham, A Hearing Heart; www.PreachingToday.com)
Someday we’re coming to the “end of construction.” Oh, what a day that will be when my Jesus I shall see. The Bible says, “In that day we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is” (1 John 3:2). Until then, let’s patiently follow Christ and let’s be patient with each other until He finishes His work in everyone one of us.
