ILLUSTRATION
A mother went to wake up her son.
She said, "Son, it is time to wake up. It is Monday morning to go to school."
The son did not want to get up and did not want to go. The mother insisted that he get up.
He said, "I do not want to go to school."
She asked, "Why don’t you want to go to school?"
He said, "Ah, the teacher and the kids don’t like me. Nobody likes me."
She said, "Son you have to go to school."
He asked, "Well, why do I have to go to school?"
She said, "No. 1. You have to be there at 8.30 and it is already 7.30. If you do not get up now, you are going to be late. No.2. You are the Principal."
Sometimes we forget who we are and we have to be reminded. Who we are should impact what we do.
READ Colossians 1:1-14 & 21-23
There were noted scientists, great leaders in biology and sociology, chemistry, linguistics, philosophy and genetics joined together to come up with this definition of what it means to be human. They had their arguments. Some said, "We are rationale beings. That is what sets us apart." Others said that we have this linguistic language symbolic system we use for communication that is what separates us.
I think one of the most interesting points was suggested by Francis Collins. He said that there is actually little difference genetically between us and a chimpanzee. In fact 96% of our genetic code is the same. I do not know for some of us it seems to be more than 96%, I am not sure. May be we cannot come up with a scientific definition of what it means to be human, because science cannot really explain to us the meaning of beauty, the meaning of love, and some of the most deeply profound facts of what it means to be human. These are inaccessible to Science. You cannot do a research project on love. Maybe you can study what the brain does when somebody feels they are in love. That is not exactly what I am talking about. So what does it mean to be human? Who are we?
I like to suggest a beginning point would be -- to exist is to relate. In other words we are defined by the relationships that we have and how we function within those relationships. No human being stands alone. An old poet said, "No man is an island." We all need each other. We are defined by those people and things that we relate and by which we identify ourselves.
Paul deals with the issue of who we are quite extensively in the first chapter of Colossians by giving an identity, a definition of who we are. Although it refers to the Colossian church, it includes all of us as followers of Jesus Christ.
Paul had so much to say about it and I confess that I tried to get this material into a 3 point message, but I could not get it into 3 or 5 or even a 7 point message. It just does not fit. There is too much material. Paul is not speaking in categories instead what it means to be in Christ is a panoply of ideas and relationships.
Verse 2: To the holy ones and faithful brethren in Christ who are at Colossae.
One he says is we are holy and faithful brothers in Christ. I could spend the whole morning spending talking about holy, faithful and brothers and even in Christ. Before we finish, Paul is going to say what we used to be in the past that we were not holy, not faithful, not brothers and not in Christ.
1. What does it mean to be holy?
To be holy means to be set apart, to be separate, and if you will, to be different. We should be different from the world. The world has corruption, violence , hatred, division, strife, but being holy means to be different. The standard answer for what holy means is that you are set apart for God’s service.
If a vessel is holy, it has been set apart for temple use. In the NT, we are the temple of God, and we must be holy, because He is dwelling in us. We have to be a holy dwelling place for Him, set apart for His glory, for His filling and for His use. This implies a lot of things that we are not to be used for. We do not take a holy vessel and use it as a garbage can. So we should not be putting garbage into our minds and our hearts. We ought to be clean vessels for God’s use.
2. What does it mean to be faithful?
Faith is related to the Hebrew word that we all know -- AMEN. When you say amen, you are saying, "Truly or that’s true, or so be it." You are also saying by implication "That is a faithful saying!"
So Jesus would say, "Truly, truly I say to you..." He said, "Amen, amen..I say to you." A person who is faithful is a person who is true, who is reliable, and is stable.
Verses 3-6
He goes on, through the Gospel, this church in Colossae is bearing fruit and is growing.
Jesus says, "If you abide in Me and My word abides in You, you shall bear much fruit. Without Me you cannot do anything." But the Bible also says, "I can do all things through Chris t, Who strengthens me." Jesus says those that bear fruit, God prunes. And if you do not bear fruit, He is going to keep pruning until He cuts you off and you are thrown into fire. A part of definition of what it means to be in Christ is that you bear fruit. If you are not bearing fruit, you are not in Christ.
What does it mean to bear fruit? I like to suggest a couple of things.
* We have the fruit of the Spirit in Gal.5:22. If you lack these, you are not in Christ. By the way I am not recommending that we should become "fruit inspectors," looking at our neighbor and saying.."Hmm..I do not think that person is bearing fruit." If you are wanting to inspect fruit, look in the mirror, evaluate yourself.
* John 12:24 -- unless the corn of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it cannot bear fruit.
* In the Kingdom of God, we are like the dirt, and if we grow up properly, we will bear fruit 30, 60 and a 100 fold.
* Jesus is a seed, and what kind of fruit did He bear? Us! Yes. If we are in Christ, and if we bearing fruit, we should have the fruit of the Spirit and also the fruit of reproducing. If you are mature in Christ, you should be leading others to Christ.
Verse 7
Growing, Learning, Understanding God’s grace in all its truth. We as God’s people should always
be learning and growing in our understanding. We have to be in the Word to accomplish that.
Verse 10
That you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please Him in everyway.
Do you feel that you are living a life that is worthy of Jesus Christ? The price that He paid to give you life? Are you there yet? If you are on the journey that is good. Our lives should always be moving in the direction of being worthy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Verse 10 - Bearing fruit in every good work.
What does ALL mean? All means all and that’s all all means. So believers should be busy doing good work. Paul knew what he was called to do.
The Greek letters always began from who it was. So Paul wrote, "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God." You should be able to say your vocation, like -- Jain, a teacher by the will of God...or Rajeev, a musician by the will of God...or Jack, a businessman by the will of God...whatever it is that you are doing, you should be certain that it is God’s will.
I am confident that God has called me to a couple of things. God has called me to be a teacher. I do not have any question about that. I am confident that God has called me to be a musician. It was placed upon me and I did not have a choice about it. He pushed me into that direction. I was obedient, but it was His calling. So I can say, Ken, a musician or a Bible teacher by the will of God. Are you confident what God has called you to do and to be right now?
Verse 10 - Growing in the knowledge of God.
Who is God? Who is Jesus to you?
Verse 11- And being strengthened by all power.
In Christ we have all power.
Verse 11 - With great endurance and patience.
Endurance -- you have to keep at it, when you feel like giving up.
Patience means bearing up under a load. King James says long suffering. That is actually a literal translation from Greek to English.
So in I Cor. 13, Paul says that love suffers long and is kind. I have tried putting my name there and it does not work. Ken suffers long and is kind? But love suffers long. I do not like endurance or the long suffering part. But if I am really in Christ, that is what I am called to -- He will give the strength. You will feel like it is not worth it, giving up but He will strengthen you to bear under that load and to endure. To keep at it.
Verse 11 - Joyfully giving thanks.
Most of us don’t feel joyful about the process when God is teaching us patience and endurance. But He will strengthen us so that when we are suffering long and learning to be enduring, we will also have the joy of the Lord, which is our strength.
Verse. 12 - giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.
In Thessalonians, Paul says to be thankful always and in Philippians to rejoice in the Lord always.
"Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God which passes all understanding shall guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." -- Phil 4.
Verse 13 and 14 - For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
So we are rescued from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His Son, why? Jesus is the light of the world. He also says we are the light of the world.
There is holiness and faithfulness in our lives, because we have redemption, forgiveness of sins.
Verse 21-22 - And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, 22 yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.
Once we were alienated from God. We were God’s enemies. Now we are reconciled by Christ. In our sight we should not look good. We do not need to be holy in our sight.
Someone sang a song and said, "You have to love yourself to love other people." My observation is, usually you do not love other people until you stop being impressed by yourself. We actually need to humble ourselves to love other people. God will teach us that kind of appreciation. Jesus did not say, "Love your neighbor so you can love yourself." He said, "Love your neighbor as you love yourself." You get up in the morning, brush your teeth, have breakfast, exercise, whatever it is you do, what are you doing? You are taking care of yourself because you love yourself.
A girl once said, "I hate myself. I am so ugly."
Tony Campolo said about that, "If you hate yourself, you’d be happy that you are ugly." It is not the kind of self love that God is encouraging. Instead we ought to love God and be honest ourselves, and the way He looks at us is that we are lovely and we are holy. Through redemption, we can see His perspective.
Verse 23 - If indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard.
ILLUSTRATION:
In 1948, at an Armistice Celebration, (Armistice was the declaration of peace at the end of World War I) it was declared on November 11 at 11.00 am. So 11, 11 at 11. They did that symbolically because they felt that they were at the eleventh hour. They actually felt if the war continued, the whole world would be destroyed by it. Over 20 million people were killed in World War I. It was the bloodiest, most destructive war in history up until that time. So they declared an Armistice. Even till today some celebrate that.
Omar Bradley, one of the Generals in World War II went to World War I and he remembered it as a young man. He served in the army in the US, became a General. He actually led one of the largest armies in history during World War II. He spoke at an Armistice Day in Boston, Massachusetts in 1948. He said,
"With the monstrous weapons man already has, humanity is in danger of being trapped in this world by its moral adolescents. Our knowledge of science has clearly outstripped our capacity to control it. We have many men of science; too few men of God. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount. Man is stumbling blindly through a spiritual darkness while toying with the precarious secrets of life and death. The world has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living.
This is our twentieth century’s claim to distinction and to progress."
In the middle of 20th century, he makes this commentary and I think that history has borne his testimony to be true. After he made this speech, we had the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the whole group of other wars in the world. We do not know how to make peace.
If we are going to move into the twenty first century in confidence, if we want to give hope to our children and next generation, it must come through our commitment to our being in Christ and seeing character developed in ourselves, so that His light can shine in this very dark world.
Over the men’s breakfast we had a little discussion. Actually it turned into a complaining session, about corruption, conditions and the circumstances around this country. Even complaining about what appears to be a genetic defect among people in the Indian subcontinent. The problem is that all human beings have 99.9 % the same genes, and only 0.001 % that is different. We are all the same. So the solution is not in bringing in some foreigner. But the solution is found in Christ Jesus, and in His church being an accurate reflection of His glory, grace and His truth.
