May 4, 2003 Colossians 2:1-5
“Struggling for strangers”
INTRODUCTION
A little boy was lost inside a busy shopping mall. He was standing in the aisle of a department store just crying and crying, "I want my mommy.. I want my mommy." People who passed by felt sorry for him and many of them gave him nickels and dimes and quarters to try to cheer him up. Finally a salesperson from the floor walked up to the distraught little boy and said, "I know where your mommy is, son." The little boy looked up with his tear drenched eyes and said, "So do I....just keep quiet, I got a good thing going here!"
Question; Have you ever been fooled by someone? Has anyone ever deceived you? Has someone ever convinced you that something was real good and that you just had to have it... and when you got it -- you found out that you had been ripped off. Maybe you bought a used car -- and were convinced that you got a winner -- but soon after you drove it off the lot it became obvious that you had bought a lemon. Or maybe you have been deceived by a person, someone who sweet talked you, convinced you that they were on the up and up -- and that they really cared about you, but when your back was turned they hurt you and took advantage of you.
A deception is something that looks good on the outside and makes many great promises, but on the inside it is empty. It is like putting our money into a vending machine and pushing a button for a bag that, judging from the appearance, looks as though it is full of nice crunchy potato chips. But when the bag comes out and we open it... we find out that it is mostly full of empty air.
Don’t you hate to be fooled -- to be deceived -- to be taken advantage of? I guess the only thing that could be worse than being fooled ourselves, is to have someone we care about, a loved one, be taken advantage of by someone.... either financially, emotionally or spiritually.
Paul felt these same concerns about the Christians in Colosse. [2:1-5] To prevent them from being fooled, he begins to admonish them, to warn them about deceivers that were all around them offering teaching and practices that promised freedom but only delivered bondage. We come to this passage today in a religious environment that is not that different from the one of Paul’s day. The potential for us being fooled by all the lies that are out there is high. We need to be aware of the danger and learn how to face it. That will be our focus for the next several weeks.
1. We face a real danger. (2:4)
President Bush had to convince the American people that there was a real danger in Saddam Hussein. My job here is to convince you that there is real danger for you.
Satan is a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.
The method that he uses is lies. Jesus called him the father of lies.
The best kind of lie is a half-truth. The Smith’s were proud of their family tradition. Their ancestors had come to America on the Mayflower. Their line had included Senators, Pastors, & Wall Street wizards. Now they decided to compile a family history, a legacy for the children. They hired a well-known author. Only one problem arose: how to handle that great-uncle George who was executed in the electric chair. But the author said not to worry, he could handle that section of history tactfully. When the book appeared, the family turned to the section on Uncle George. There, they read "George Smith occupied a chair of applied electronics at an important government institution, was attached to his position by the strongest of ties, & his death came as a real shock."
Satan used half-truths to get Eve to listen to him. He made disobeying God’s laws sound really good. He tried to do the same with Jesus (Matt. 4).
Some of you probably think that there is no way that you could be deceived. You have enough biblical knowledge or at least enough common sense to recognize lies when you hear them. I imagine that the followers of David Koresh probably thought the same thing. But he used “confusing and inflated promises of fellowship” and “manipulation through emotion and intimidation tactics” in order to get everyday American citizens to follow him. “Where did this so-called prophet lead his loyal followers? On April 19, 1993, (day fifty-one of the siege), the world watched in horror as the Branch Davidian compound burst into flames. Koresh and somewhere between seventy-five and eighty-five of his disciples died in the city-block-sized inferno.” Then there’s the people who were involved in “The 1997 mass suicide of thirty-nine Heaven’s Gate cult members - one of the worst in U.S. history. The group’s delusionary leader, just days before the mysterious self-imposed deaths, gave the final call: “Your only chance to survive is to leave with us.” Videos were recorded of members making a final statement. Then thirty-nine people put on new sneakers, packed flight bags, and poisoned themselves in the belief that a passing UFO [would] whisk them off to celestial bliss. Instead, the thirty-nine were found on their beds – dead.” - Michael G. Moriarty, The Perfect 10: The Blessings of Following God’s Commandments in a Post Modern World (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Pub. House, 1999), 190.
You say, “That’s out west. This is almost the Bible belt. Christians can’t be so easily fooled here.” The Jehovah’s Witness don’t think that. A former member of the Watchtower Society wrote the following in his book Thirty years a watchtower slave. "The watchtower leadership sensed within the midst of Christendom were millions of professing Christians who were not well grounded in the truths once delivered to the saints, and who would easily be pried loose from the churches and led into a new and revitalized watchtower organization. ... The society calculated and that rightly, that this lack of proper knowledge of God and the widespread acceptance of half truths in Christianity would yield vast masses of men and women, if the whole matter were wisely attacked, the attack sustained and the results contained, and then reused in an ever widening circle."
Paul made it very clear that he was not among those who tried to gain converts through deceptive teaching. (2 Cor. 4:2 (2 Cor 4:2 NIV) Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.) The reason that Paul could do this is because Christianity doesn’t need lies and half-truths to draw people in. The truth is real and fresh, and it is what people are seeking.
Part of the blame for Christians being so easily deceived is that I and other pastors have chosen not to teach doctrine on Sunday mornings. I guess the reason for that is that doctrine can get kind of boring. It doesn’t tickle the ears. Doctrine is the foundation of a building, and I don’t know of too many people who get excited about the foundation. They want to see the walls going up, and the windows put in and the paint applied. So in order to keep people happy, to keep them coming back, pastors give people what they need to make it through Monday morning rather than giving them what they need to successfully make it through life. The emphasis has become usability instead of durability.
In each of Paul’s books in the New Testament, there is plenty of practical, usable teaching. But in almost all of those books, at least the first half of the book is taken up by doctrine. Paul knew that good practice must be built on good doctrine – good belief.
If there is no solid foundation, then the wolf can come along and huff and puff with his fine-sounding motivational speeches, and your personal building of beliefs and practices will crumble all around you – not because the beliefs and practices were not good, but because there was no solid foundation underneath them.
2. We face the danger together. (2:1)
It is because people do not recognize the danger that they are in that they feel no compulsion to be in church on a regular basis. They view church as something that is nice to do when there is nothing else more pressing or more enjoyable going on.
My job as the shepherd of this flock of believers is to protect you from the dangers that are out there. Let me ask you something. When a wolf is trying to devour one of the sheep, which one does he set his eyes on – the one that is in the middle of the pack close to the shepherd, or the one that is straggling behind and kind of off by itself? I and your fellow sheep can’t protect you if you are not walking with the group. There is strength in numbers. (Eccl 4:9-12 NIV) Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up! Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.
Paul felt that same compulsion for the people of Colosse, Laodicea and other Christians that he had never met. They were strangers to him, but he felt such a strong attachment to them that he was willing to struggle for them. According to verses 9 and following of chapter 1, he struggled in prayer for them. Other portions of scripture tell of his physical struggles to continue the spread of the Gospel – beatings, stonings, shipwrecks and inprisonments. He went through all of this for people that he did not even know because He knew that they needed the Savior.
J. P. Moreland tells of an experience that illustrates the importance of [solid] truth [and of being willing to struggle for others to find that truth]: “One afternoon I was sharing the gospel in a student’s dorm room at the University of Vermont. The student began to espouse ethical relativism: ‘Whatever is true for you is true for you and whatever is true for me is true for me. . . . But no one should force his or her views on other people since everything is relative.’” Moreland says, “I knew that if I allowed him to get away with ethical relativism, there could be for him no such thing as real, objective sin measured against the objective moral command of God, and thus no need of a Savior. I thanked the student for his time and began to leave his room. On the way out, I picked up his small stereo and started out the door with it. ‘Hey, what are you doing?’ he shouted. . . . ‘I am leaving your room with your stereo.’ ‘You can’t do that,’ he gushed.” But Moreland said, “I happen to think it is permissible to steal stereos if it will help a person’s religious devotions, and I myself could use a stereo to listen to Christian music in my morning devotions. Now I would never try to force you to accept my moral beliefs in this regard because, as you said, everything is relative and we shouldn’t force our ideas on others. But surely you aren’t going to force on me your belief that it is wrong to steal your stereo, are you?” Moreland looked at him and continued: “You know what I think? I think that you espouse relativism in areas of your life where it’s convenient , say in sexual morality, or in areas about which you do not care, but when it comes to someone stealing your stereo or criticizing your own moral hobbyhorses, I suspect that you become a moral absolutist pretty quickly, don’t you?” The story has a happy ending, for Moreland says, “Believe it or not, the student honestly saw the inconsistency of his behavior and, a few weeks later, I was able to lead him to Jesus Christ.”...- Apologetic Reasoning and the Christian Mind
It would be easy for us as individuals or as a church to get an isolationist attitude just as many want America to have an isolationist attitude. We’re going to look out for own needs and make sure that we are protected, but why should be concerned about the rest of the world? Why should we as a church struggle to pay our bills when we could take the money that we give to missions and use it to make it easier for us? After all, we don’t know the missionaries and we certainly don’t know the people that they are working with. They’re strangers to us.
Let’s bring it closer to home. Why should I give up time, energy and resources for the people of Bridgeport and Clarksburg? Why should I struggle for them to learn how to share my faith? I don’t know them, and they’ve never really done anything for me. Here’s why. (Gal 6:2 NIV) Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
We can face the danger and we can help others to face the danger as we face it together.
3. We face the danger with God-given tools. (2:2,3)
You can successfully face the danger by staying healthy. “encouraged in heart”
You keep your heart healthy by doing two things:
Keep the bad stuff out. (Prov 4:23 NIV) Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.
Put the good stuff in.
Your heart is the focus of what you do and why you do it. It is your passion, your vision. We, as a church established a vision for ourselves for 2003 by establishing some goals and dreams. You adopted this vision as your own. When you keep this in front of you, it enables you to keep on going when obstacles and struggles come along the way. Paul talked about the importance of vision and what it can do for you in 2 Cor 4:1: Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry [we’ve got our vision right in front of us], we do not lose heart.
Keep your heart healthy.
You can successfully face the danger by sticking together. “united in love”
You can successfully face the danger by getting good information. “complete understanding”
You can successfully face the danger by following the right leader. “know…Christ”
The way that false religions get a hold of Christians is that they claim to offer something that they are not finding in Christianity right now. Paul is saying that in Christ, we have all that we will ever need and all that we could ever want. Theologian Emery Bancroft wrote, "Some years ago a Parliament of Religion was held in Chicago, in connection with the World’s Fair. At that Parliament the great ethnic faiths of the world were represented. One by one the leading men arose and spoke for Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, and Islam. Then Dr. Joseph Cook of Boston, who had been chosen to represent Christianity, arose to speak. "Here is Lady Macbeth’s hand," he said, "stained with the foul murder of Duncan. See her as she walks through the halls and corridors of her palatial home, stopping to cry, `Out (cursed) spot! Out I say! Will these hands ne’er be clean?’" Then turning to those seated on the platform, he said, `Can any of you who are so anxious to [teach] your religious systems offer any cleansing [forgiveness] for the sin and guilt of Lady Macbeth’s crime?’ An oppressive silence was maintained by them all ... Only the blood of Christ can purge the conscience from dead works to serve the living God." Other religions may make many promises. But only Jesus can give you forgiveness and release from your past.
4. We face the danger because we have something worth fighting for. (2:5)
People along the way have given this good piece of advice, “Pick your battles.” What they mean by that is that you haven’t got the energy to fight every potential battle. Decide what you are really about, what is the most important to you and what will have the greatest consequences for your life, and then fight about that.
Sometimes, you take a look at the church with all of its problems, and you begin to wonder if it really is worth fighting for. Is it worth giving your hard-earned resources to support the work of the church in general and this church in particular? It is worth teaching a Sunday School class to children who don’t seem to pay attention to you half the time anyway? Is it worth getting behind this pulpit each week after having struggled all week long to get the message just right to deliver it to 40 or 50 people? Is what we have here worth the struggle? Jesus would say yes. He even considered it worth dying for.
Paul looked at the church at Colosse, and he saw something there worth fighting for. He saw an orderly church composed of people who were strong in their faith. I think that if Paul was to look at New Life Baptist Church, he would say, “Fight for what you have. You’ve got something good here. Don’t let obstacles discourage you or tear you apart. Stick together, fill your heart and mind with the teachings of the Bible, and follow close behind Jesus. Fight to keep what you have, and fight to reach the potential that God has for you.”
INVITATION
In a few weeks, summertime will be here. What normally happens in most churches is that people start to get a little lazy with their church attendance and their giving. When you are not here, and when you do not give, the church gets weaker. It is harder for us to fight the battle, and it is easier for the enemy to attack and defeat you. My request of you this morning is this: make a personal commitment today that as your health permits, you will be present here with us to worship each and every Sunday throughout the summer months. We need you, and you need us. Secondly, I would ask that you struggle in prayer for me, and for one another. There are some big days ahead for us as a church. I need wisdom as I seek to lead us to those days, and we all need wisdom and protection as we take risks for God to get us closer to that great potential that He has for us.
Note: The introduction is from a sermon preached by Steve Malone entitled “His Word is enough; don’t be fooled” as recorded on sermoncentral.com
