New Life Church
Colossians 3:12-17
If you and I were building the perfect church what would it look like? Would it carry the name Baptist or would that even matter?
Would it be involved in missions? Would it be debt free?
Would it have a dynamic Children or youth program? Would it only sing hymns or choruses? Would the preacher be old, young, look like Mel Gibson or Pee-wee Herman? Would that perfect church be KJV only? What would the most important traits of that body of Christ be?
This is what the apostle Paul writes about here in our text. The characteristics of the new life in Christ. If Jesus is first and foremost in our lives then these are the traits we will have. They will be so evident that the lost world will see we have been touched by Jesus and changed forever.
If the church is filled with changed people then the church will change its community and impact the world for Jesus Christ. We know this because that is exactly what the first Christians did.
The tense and voice of the Greek Word for put on therefore is imperative. That means a command. As Christians you and I are not advised to be kind, loving, patient and humble we are commanded to be that way.
And if we live that way then the church can really be a body of Christ because will speak and behave just like Jesus. Remember the principle from lat week. We are to put off the traits of v.8-9 and put on these traits listed in our text today.
Just think what a church could do for the kingdom if it was filled with people who changed their fleshly garments and were clothed with heavenly garments?
Notice with me what this church looks like.
I. We Work Together (v.12-15)
The Bible says here as the “elect” those chosen and called out by God behave this way and then in v.15 we, the called, are to be one body working together.
If we are then the body of Christ then we are to have Christ-like attitudes and Paul list them here.
A. Christ-like Attitudes (v.12-13)
1. Tender Mercies—an attitude of the heart that is tender and compassionate toward others. It is a constant attitude that makes you and I easy to deal with.
2. kindness—According to Eph. 2:7 & Titus 3:4 we have been saved because of God’s kindness toward us. We thenought to be kind toward others.
3. Humility—the person who is humble thinks of others first and not of themselves.
4. Meekness—-Remember meekness is not weakness. The word picture in the Greek is taming a wild horse. The word means power under control.
5. longsuffering, bearing with, forgiving—these go together. They mean to be patient with others to holdup another person like bear one another’s burdens and to forgive an offender.
It is not enough to just not retaliate we have to genuinely forgive someone just like Christ forgave us. He loved us while we were yet sinners the Bible says and we are to love help and forgive just like Jesus.
Just think if these attitudes really were our attitudes today. What difference would that kind of church make in it’s community?
However, how many churches, Christians and communities have been hurt by churches who didn’t possess these Christ-like attitudes?
In 1990, the USA was involved in what was known as the Persian Gulf War. Troops took on the Iraqi forces out in the desert of Kuwait. In those two months, January and February, the USA won an outstanding victory, and had relatively few casualties. One of the interesting things about that war was that the majority of our troops weren’t injured or killed by the enemy. They were the victims of what is called “friendly fire,” from artillery. Friendly fire is where you are hit by ammunition by your own troops. In other words, it’s where your own soldiers become your worst enemy. You can’t prepare for it, and you never see it coming.
Right now in the church today, our biggest enemies aren’t from outside, they’re from within. The weapons that are used aren’t machine guns and missiles. It’s our own words and attitudes. Fellow church members, soldiers in the Lord’s Army, are seriously wounded because the results of friendly fire. Nonbelievers avoid some of our churches because they know they’ll be landing in the middle of a war zone. How many of our church folk become victims of friendly fire? How many times have you been a victim of friendly fire? More important, how many times have you attacked a fellow brother or sister with friendly fire?
B. Christ-like Actions (v.14-15) Here the Bible lists what holds the attitudes together.
1. Love—when the love of Christ Jesus rules our hearts all these attitudes are prevalent. When the Church loves Jesus it will love others.
2. Peace—We are not called to be peace keepers we are called to be Peace makers. The Bible says “Let your feet be shod with the Gospel of peace.”
Voting on deacons in a few weeks, a deacon should be a peace-maker not a quarreler you and I are called to unity in the body of Christ.
Alex Haley, the author of "Roots," had an unusual picture hanging on his office wall. It was a picture of a turtle on top of a fence post. When asked, "Why is that there?"
Alex Haley answered, "Every time I write something significant, every time I read my words & think that they are wonderful, & begin to feel proud of myself, I look at the turtle on top of the fence post & remember that he didn’t get there on his own. He had help." That is the basis of thankfulness - to remember that we got here with the help of God, & that He is the provider of every blessing we have. SOURCE: Melvin Newland, Minister, Central Christian Church, Brownsville, TX.
We need each other and only as a church works together will it be blessed by God.
II. We Worship Together (v.16)
Here we see that the Word of God should inhabit the hearts of God’s children. God’s Word should be obeyed and we obey by being a united church family.
In order to do this we have to see how God views worship. Worship is not just what we do on Sunday worship is an attitude we have individually Monday-Saturday and then corporately on Sunday.
Tony Evans says, “If you limit worship to where you are, the minute you leave that place of worship you will leave your attitude of worship behind like a crumpled-up church bulletin.”
Notice what worship is: It is letting the Word of God invade and transform our hearts so that we can walk wisely in life. Worship is the letting the Word dwell richly (abundantly) the teaching of the Word of God should admonish us. That means to encourage, correct and convict us. That’s all part of worship!
Worship is also: Psalms means songs from the psalms. That’s what the Psalms are and many of our choruses today are right from the Psalms. Hymns means songs of praise written by believers but not from the Psalms. Any hymn or chorus that cause us to praise God is a Hymn. Spiritual songs refers to the melody of the heart of the believer.
The point is that music is a heart of praise to the one who is worthy to be praised. It shouldn’t be a debate in our churches it should be a declaration that I’m only here today to worship you.
Worship is obeying and living the written Word and praising the Living Lord. Worship is a time to celebrate what God has done for us.
III. We Witness Together (v.17)
Whatever the church or Christian does we do for the Lord Jesus. The church portrays the love of Jesus to the lost world.
A young couple, very much in love, were getting married in church. However, Sue the wife was very nervous about the big occasion and so the pastor chose one verse that he felt would be a great encouragement to them. The verse was 1 Jn 4:18 which says: “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear” ( Jn 4:18) Rather unwisely, the pastor asked the best man to read it out and to say that the pastor had felt that this was a very apt verse for Sue and that he would be preaching on it later in the service. However the best man was not a regular churchgoer. And so he did not know the difference between John’s Gospel and the first letter of John. So he introduced his reading by saying that the vicar felt was a very apt verse for Sue. But he read John 4:18, which says “You have five husbands and the one that you now have is not your husband.”
The church isn’t here to just come together on Sunday and Wednesday we are called not to impact the church, but to impact the world. It’s like a huddle in a football game. 80,000 people don’t pay $45.00 a ticket to watch the Gators huddle. What if you went to a Gator game and for 3 hours you watched 11 men stand in a circle and talk? That’s not what you pay for!! 80,000 people pay for a ticket to see what difference the huddle makes. What they want to know is, having called the play in secret, does it work in public? The challenge for the church is not what we do when we call our Sunday morning huddle, but what we do when we break our huddle and head to our Monday morning assignment. When Satan lines up against us, what difference does it make that we are Christians?
We are called to live out these characteristics throughout our week at work and at school. That’s the church that will impact its community. And people will want that New Life that church believes in.
Conclusion: On April 28, 1999, just eight days after the Columbine shooting, shock rock singer Marilyn Manson was scheduled to perform a concert in Iowa City, Iowa. And since Manson’s music was prominent in the lives of Columbine killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, there was a lot of emotion surrounding his concert. Mark Forstrom, a local Youth Minister in the area wrote about what happened. He wrote, "The police, the media, and the community began to prepare for angry protests and ugly brawling between Christians and Marilyn Manson supporters."
Suddenly, something totally unexpected happened. Emerging thru the vehicle of e-mail, another local movement suddenly sprang to life— that the only way to truly change our moral climate is to soften hard hearts. (The hearts of Manson fans have been hardened by their perception that Christians are mean-spirited, hateful, and judgmental.) Thus, the idea was birthed to unravel that stereotype by encouraging Christians to show the pure LOVE of Christ to these fans in tangible ways. Concert day finally arrived, and tension filled the community.
The media geared up for an ugly battle between Manson fans and the Christian opposition. Instead, what they observed here was an amazing testament to the power of and love of Christ! Scores of Christians from churches all over Linn County and as far away as Des Moines (2 hours away) converged on the sidewalks outside the Five Seasons Center, to do two POSITIVE things: pray, and to show unmistakable love. It was a sight to behold. ~ Groups conducted "prayer walks" around the arena. ~ People prayed in huddles on the sidewalk. ~ Churches around the city held special prayer meetings. As for showing LOVE to the fans, ~ One church purchased 100 pizzas, which were freely given away to the fans in line and bystanders. ~ Cookies and over 1,200 cans of soda were purchased or donated and distributed.
~ Someone made turkey & cheese sandwiches and gave them away.
~ One pastor asked Manson fans who passed by how he could pray for them--about 20 shared specific things & were prayed for on the spot. ~ After the concert, about $200 in cash (collected mostly by a local youth group) was given out to pay for parking in the parking ramp. The Christians involved said, "We’re Christians and we’d like to show you God’s love by paying for your parking tonight."
The immediate results of this love in action were phenomenal: ~ People continually asked, "Why are you doing this?" and then listened to the answer. ~ Two "live" radio reporters (one inside the stadium and one outside) discussed--on the air--how preferable it was to be outside with the generous Christians. ~ At least 3 people gave their lives to Christ through the loving care of the Christians. ~ At least one other fan that we know of chose not to go to the concert, ending up in church the following Sunday.
~ After getting the pizza, one kid commented, "Wow, Marilyn Manson never gave me anything!"
~ A Marilyn Manson web-site, reporting on our Christian response admitted, "so maybe those Christians aren’t half bad!" As for the concert itself, we saw God work a miracle there as well. After only an hour, Manson abruptly ended the concert early. He suddenly flew into a rage: he threw his microphone to the ground, and stormed off the stage, never to return!
So to summarize the totality of Marilyn Manson’s visit to Cedar Rapids, we might say this: many fans came to the concert convinced that Christians were irritating and that Marilyn Manson was impressive and many left the concert feeling that Marilyn Manson was irritating and that Christians were impressive! Think of how much closer to the kingdom thousands of kids might be as a result of this unforeseen outreach event.
So I ask you what kind of church do you want to be a part of? Does it model the church listed here in God’s Word?
Why not join a church like that and be part of it?
Do you model these characteristics listed here in our text?
If not why not ask God to give you a heart like His?
PRAY
