Well, good morning, everyone. Are we doing okay? Yeah, great to see you this morning.
Thank you so much to Fiona and band and everyone who's contributed to our service thus far.
Maybe you want to grab your Bibles and turn back to those verses that Kat read for us in Colossians chapter 1.
And God has so much to teach us this morning through his word.
I've been so blessed just to study this passage this week.
And it's my prayer that God, by his spirit, would speak to us and challenge our own hearts
as we come to hear what he has to say to us this morning.
So with that thought in our minds, let's turn to the Lord and let's pray
and ask that he would help us this morning.
In Psalm 119, the psalmist writes this.
Your statutes are wonderful, therefore I obey them.
The unfolding of your words, it gives light.
It gives understanding to the simple.
And so, Heavenly Father, we would want to make it our prayer this morning at the outset of our time together
that that would be our experience, that we would know how wonderful your word to us is.
And Father, would we leave here this morning with a greater picture of your son, Jesus Christ.
We can only do that if your spirit comes and helps us.
And so we pray that he would come now and be with us.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Amen.
Well, to get us thinking this afternoon, here's a quiz question for you.
What do Charles Dickens, Woody Allen, Muhammad Ali and Prince Charles have in common?
Anybody? Anybody?
So just when you... Anybody?
They're all the four.
Okay, no, not that one.
Just when you thought Prince Charles couldn't get any cooler,
all four of them were or are registered amateur magicians.
Did you know that?
Registered amateur magicians.
And what do they say about a good magician?
Never reveals his or her secrets.
Ironically, I went on Google this week and I asked Google who the first person was to coin that phrase
and it would appear that it is a mystery.
Well, with those verses in Colossians in our minds, turn there,
what we're going to see is that there is a mystery that's right at the heart of these verses.
Now, you'll see Paul mention it three times, verse 26 and 27 of chapter 1 and verse 2 of chapter 2.
There's a mystery right at the heart of these verses.
But here's the difference.
Unlike our magician friends, when Paul talks about a mystery,
he's not talking about something that will be forever kept from us,
something that only a certain level of person will be allowed into.
He's talking about something that has been once kept hidden
and has now been disclosed for the world to see.
You see, in English, a mystery, and I looked this up, the Collins English Dictionary,
a mystery is something that is difficult or impossible to understand.
That's what a mystery is, is we understand it.
So you think about the secret recipe to Coke.
It's a mystery.
You think about what goes on in Area 51 out in the desert in Nevada.
That is a mystery, despite what Independence Day the film would teach us.
It's a mystery.
Remember, as a child being fascinated, anyone else do this,
by the mystery machine in Scooby-Doo.
Do you remember that?
The mystery machine in Scooby-Doo.
The van that somehow had everything that the gang would ever need in it
for any given occasion and any given challenge,
but no one quite knew how it all fitted in that tiny little machine.
It was a mystery.
But in Greek, you see, a mystery is something quite different.
The Greek word mysterion, which you can see how we got our word mystery,
is a secret that was once kept hidden and now has been revealed to the world.
Something that was once hidden, now it's out there for everyone to see.
So this is a lot more like the Apple XS launch in September that's just gone.
Okay?
Plans that were once hidden from public view,
plans that only a certain amount of people were being let into,
but now they've gone public.
Now it's on show for the world to see,
and it's on show for the world to see so that they can get in on this.
There's a mystery that's right at the heart of these verses today.
Now it would appear that Paul has chosen his word quite deliberately there,
because what's most likely going on in the background to these verses
is that these false teachers,
remember we saw them in our first couple of sermons,
they claim to have access to some kind of spiritual secret knowledge,
they claim to be in on a mystery that the rest of you ordinary Christians in Colossae
that you're not in on, you're missing out.
And Paul says that's nonsense,
because God's put his mysteries on show for the world to see.
And what he wants them to see in these verses, Paul,
is that this mystery is the reason for his ministry.
This mystery is the reason why he does what he does.
If you look at it there, this is why he endures suffering.
Do you see it?
He rejoices in it.
Not that he enjoys hardship,
but he rejoices in the why he's going through what he's going through,
and the what it means,
and that he's in chains.
The only reason he's in chains is because he's proclaiming Christ,
and because he's proclaiming Christ,
more and more people are coming to know Christ,
and so he says,
I rejoice in what I'm going through.
And boy, did Paul suffer for proclaiming Christ.
Shipwreck, imprisonment, abandonment, beatings,
all because he proclaimed Jesus Christ.
Just look how he presses it home in these verses here,
filling up in the afflictions of Christ.
That's what he says.
Do you see it?
Not that there's anything lacking in what Jesus has done on the cross.
Let's be very clear about what he's not saying there.
It's most likely, I think, a reference to the truth,
that if Jesus has given his life for his people,
if that's what he's done for his church,
then why would the servant of God expect anything less for his or her life?
This is the reason why he toils.
This is the reason he struggles with all the energy that God gives him.
It's the reason why he prays.
It's the reason why he gets up in the morning.
It's the reason why he speaks.
It's the reason why he lives.
Because this mystery is so life-transformingly good
that it's become the very reason that Paul does what he does.
And that's probably the point, to stop and to ask you
to consider why you do what you do in life.
Why do you do what you do in life?
You know, as I see it, if the events of the last few weeks have taught us anything,
it's that life is vapor.
Life is here today and it is gone tomorrow.
It is short.
It's not true that death is the great taboo subject of our generation.
Oh, sure, we try and cover up in language,
but there's something of the sobering reality of it
that we're faced with every time it happens,
that we are here today and gone tomorrow.
That life really is like a game of Monopoly,
if you remember playing that when you were young.
I don't know, maybe you still play it.
You can own all the hotels on the board,
or you can own one little house on Old Kent Road.
But at the end of the day,
all those pieces are going to go back in the box.
And we're all the same.
Now, we were down at Burrow Muir SU Group on Wednesday
and we were looking at the parable of the rich young fool
as we find it in Luke chapter 12.
And we were looking at it together
and somebody piped up at my table and said,
come on, Jesus, that's a very morbid thought.
And somebody on the other side of the table pipes up and says,
yeah, but isn't that reality?
Reality.
Love it when somebody else does a lesson for you.
It's great, isn't it?
But isn't that reality so true?
Friends, why do you do what you do in life?
Why do you do it?
What's going on?
Here's my favorite news story from this week.
Anybody see this guy in the news?
Pumpkin Man, as I like to call him.
Did you see him this week?
He sailed down the river Ouse
in a giant pumpkin that he'd hollowed out.
Do you know why he did it?
Because he wanted the Guinness World Record
and how this mind works, I don't understand, right?
How he looked at the Guinness World Records
and thought there's a record there to be had, right?
He looks at the Guinness World Records
and he thinks there's not somebody in there
who's got a record for the largest pumpkin boat.
Friends, why do you do what you do in life?
Surely a big reason why Paul tells
these Colossian Christians what he's doing
is not just so that they'll understand
what's going on in his mind.
Surely he wants them to see
that this mystery, if you get it,
if you see Jesus Christ here,
then this is the only thing that's worth living for.
This is the only thing that's going to endure.
This is the only thing that gives you purpose
in life and meaning.
And so simply as we try and wrestle
with what Paul is saying here,
I've got two questions for us this morning.
Two questions I want us all to think about.
Okay, two questions.
Here's the first one.
Have you grasped the heart of the mystery?
Come with me to verse 26.
Paul writes this.
The mystery that has been kept hidden
for ages and generations,
but is now disclosed to the Lord's people.
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.
C.S. Lewis once said of the Bible,
I have been reading poems, romances,
vision, literature, legends and myths
my whole life.
I know what they are like.
And I know that none of them are like the Bible.
See, Lewis recognized that there is no story
quite like the story that the Bible tells.
It's why if you look closely,
and we can talk about this afterwards if you want,
you'll find that many of the most loved stories
that we love as a people,
they actually have echoes of the Bible story in them.
God created the world.
He created it good.
He created Adam and Eve,
the very first few beings in his image,
beautifully and wonderfully made.
And it was very good.
The creatures were living in harmony with their creator,
but Adam and Eve,
they rebelled against God.
They sinned against him.
And sin entered the human equation.
I remember being young,
growing up in Sunday school,
I remember,
somebody explaining to sin to me as,
sorry God,
I'm in charge,
no to your rules.
Sorry God,
I'm in charge,
no to your rules.
Sin entered the human equation.
Adam and Eve sinned,
it separated them from God.
Separated them from God.
And their sin,
if you like,
didn't just cause upward chaos.
Their sin caused inward chaos.
I mean,
if you read Genesis,
Genesis 3,
4,
the Bible begins to use words
that it never used before,
like shame,
and fear,
and guilt.
As if to show us that sin has broken
their very core beings.
It's broken it.
And it's caused outward chaos as well.
The relationships with one another,
the relationships between human beings
are broken.
And since then,
sin has affected and infected
the entire human race.
Friends,
I've been a Christian for about 16,
going on 17,
18 years,
something like that.
One of the reasons I became a Christian
is because the Bible,
when I read it,
began to make too much sense.
Too much sense.
That what this was telling me,
and of course,
that's what you'd expect
from the Creator's Word,
isn't it?
Something of what this was telling me
was resonating with what I was seeing
in here,
and what I was seeing out there.
I remember studying Macbeth at school.
If you grew up in Scotland,
that was kind of what we always did.
And there's that scene,
isn't there,
where Lady Macbeth,
after she's committed murder,
she's sleepwalking through the castle.
What she's doing is she's
rubbing her hands together.
Do you remember that scene?
She's rubbing her hands together,
trying to get that spot,
trying to get that stain out of her hands.
And she just can't do it.
She keeps on rubbing.
She cannot get the stain out.
That's what the Bible is saying
about sin.
It's done in our lives.
That's a problem.
Do you see it summed up
in that world that Paul
brought out last week
in verse 21?
In our natural state,
we are alienated from God.
All of us,
alienated from God.
But,
God's plan,
gloriously,
was to make a way
to reconcile us
to himself.
You see,
God's mystery,
and this is where we begin
to get into the mystery,
is not an if.
It's a how.
How is God
going to achieve that?
Because he certainly
can't do it
through mankind's efforts.
Well,
the Bible's a wonderful story
about how he chose
a people
through whom he would
accomplish it.
He raised up servants.
He raised up prophets.
He raised up kings
who spoke about
how God was going
to do this in part.
God's plan to win
for himself
a worshipping people,
not just of Jews
who are privileged
to the works of God,
but of Gentiles,
that is,
non-Jewish people.
That's us.
They were strangers
from the promises of God
and about how God
was going to take
this people
and not just watch
over them,
but dwell with them.
Live with them.
And by consequence,
make the impossible,
make the two
become one.
See,
the mystery of the Old Testament
is how is God
going to do that?
And remember,
these Colossian Christians,
Paul's writing here
something like
only 30 years or so
after Jesus has died,
has risen,
and has ascended
into heaven.
Paul says this mystery
is one that is not
hidden anymore.
It is out in the open
for all to see.
How has God done it?
Do you see in the verses?
Christ.
One word.
Christ.
He is the center
of this mystery.
He is the one
through whom God
is going to reconcile
all things in heaven
and on earth
to himself.
He is the one
who has come
to reconcile
sinful people
to God,
to cleanse us,
to make us whole,
to forgive us.
Friends,
I wonder if you need
to remember
the forgiveness
that is offered
through the blood
of Jesus Christ
this morning.
Isn't it wonderful
that our sins are many,
but his mercy is more?
that my sins are abounding,
but his grace
super abounds?
And Christ is going
to present us to God
wholly in his sight.
The heart of this mystery,
friends,
is that you and I
can know God.
The lyrics of that song
we'll sing later on.
Your blood has washed
away my sin,
Jesus,
thank you.
The Father's wrath,
that's his anger
against my sin,
completely satisfied,
Jesus,
thank you.
once your enemy,
now seated at your table,
Jesus,
thank you.
Thank you.
And as if that were
not mind-blowing enough,
see what he says next
at the end of verse 27.
And this is where
all those hours
doing prepositions
at school
will come
and pay dividends.
Remember doing prepositions
in French class
at school?
Here's the only thing
I remember in French
class, right?
Le chien est sous le tableau.
Yeah?
Dog is under the table.
Prepositions really matter.
Here is where
those finally pay off.
Where is Christ?
Do you see?
He's not over you.
He's not beside you.
He's not behind you.
He's not under you.
Where is he?
He's in you.
Do you see it?
God in Christ
and through his spirit
lives,
dwells,
occupies
the hearts
of his people.
The same Christ,
and I think this is
where the flow
of the letter goes
who Paul has described
for them
at verses 15 to 20.
That Christ,
the Christ who blew
our minds,
the Christ who's bigger
than we think he is.
He lives in us.
Now.
Today.
Here.
Now.
What a glorious foretaste
you see of what
will one day
we will know in full
when we stand in glory.
Verse 28.
Paul gives himself
to what?
To telling others
this whole mystery
about Christ.
This whole mystery.
Friends,
let me ask you,
how are you doing today
at proclaiming,
at telling others
about Jesus Christ?
Big challenge,
isn't it,
when we see something
like this?
The man who's made
it his mission
to tell others
about Jesus Christ.
Because it's only
through faith in him
that we can know God.
What a privilege.
It's hard,
is that everybody
would hear about
and put their faith
in Jesus Christ
and go on to what?
Do you see?
Maturity.
Nourished on the
truths of the faith.
This is what he wants
for these believers.
Growing in their love
for the Lord.
Delighting him
with every word and deed.
That's the goal
for every Christian.
Maturity.
That we would grow.
And I've had the privilege
over the past few weeks
of being involved
in two Thanksgiving services
for the lives
of dear sisters
here at the church.
And let me just tell you
what a joy
and privilege that was.
See,
to research the lives
of two seasoned saints
who I only knew
for a couple of years
was tremendously thrilling.
And I read about
their lives
and man,
had they gone through
some stuff
that I had no idea about.
Losing husbands,
caring for children,
dealing with physical pain
in their own bodies
to the extent
I'm reading this
thinking I have hardly
lived through
anything in my life.
But what struck me
most about both of them,
I'm talking about
Elma and Margo,
dear sisters here,
both of them,
was their unwavering
love for the Lord,
their service of his people,
and the focus
on the future.
As I was at the graveside
with the family on Monday,
someone,
as he reflected
on Margo's life,
read the words
of Psalm 112.
Surely the righteous
will never be shaken.
They will remember forever.
They will be remembered forever.
They will have no fear
of bad news.
Their hearts are steadfast,
trusting in the Lord.
Friends,
that is Christian maturity.
It's not about age.
It's not about the number
of rings that are on the tree.
It's not about the things
that you've lived through.
Christian maturity
is about being about
being fully persuaded
that throughout every storm,
throughout every trial,
throughout every tear,
pain,
and question
that God is good.
And he's good for his word.
We can trust him.
And it's why I'm so grateful
for a wide church family.
And it's why I'd encourage
those in a younger generation,
trying not to look at
anyone on here,
to get to know
the older generation.
Because you will learn
so much about
what a life of Christian
maturity looks like.
And it's why I'd encourage
the older generation
to get to know
the younger generation
because you have
so much wisdom.
Experiences that you can
pass on to help others
in that battle for maturity.
Isn't it not incredible
that God in his almighty wisdom
has given us each other
to walk this Christian life with?
That we can minister
to one another, friends,
because his spirit lives in us.
Verse 29,
For this I struggle and toil
with all the energy
that God so powerfully
works in me.
Do you see?
He loves doing this.
It's a privilege.
God has called them
to this role
and God will give them
the power to carry out
this role
to present these
Colossian Christians
mature in Christ.
I wonder,
you're here today
and you would describe
yourself inwardly,
maybe not outwardly,
but as a maturing Christian.
Are you growing
by God's grace?
Friends,
have you grasped
the heart of the mystery?
Have you grasped
the heart of the mystery?
And here's the second question
that's a lot shorter, okay?
Second question.
Has this mystery
grasped your heart?
Verse 1 of chapter 2,
why does Paul struggle
for those at Colossae
and those Christians
nine miles down the road
in Laodicea
who clearly they have
got a relationship with?
Why does Paul work so hard
for these Christians
who he has never
just seen his own words?
He'd never met them
face to face.
Because he loves them,
that's why he loves them.
Now he's not conjured
that up by himself.
Something of God's heart
for his people
is in Paul.
Paul's kingdom heart
for brothers and sisters
the world over
really shines through
in this little section,
doesn't it?
He just loves them.
He loves them.
As brothers and sisters
in Christ,
he loves them.
So I'd encourage you
to get stuck
into that prayer card.
Come to the prayer meeting
on Wednesday night
and get stuck
into that prayer card.
It's a wonderful chance
to pray for brothers
and sisters around the world
who we will never meet
face to face.
Now I've been praying
for the last couple of months.
I don't know about
some of you guys in here,
but I've been praying
for that lady in Pakistan.
All over the news this week,
hasn't it?
I've been praying
for Asia Bibi
facing the death penalty
in Pakistan
because she stood tall
for Jesus Christ.
And boy,
did my soul rejoice
the other day
when the news came out
that the Supreme Court
in Pakistan
had found her not guilty.
Joyous occasion,
wasn't it?
Just felt that joy
inside of my soul
for her
because I've been praying
for her.
She's my sister in Christ.
It's incredible.
And the news
in the last few days
that she's still greatly
in need of her prayers
and so are all the Christians
that live in Pakistan.
Paul loves these Christians.
He loves them
who he's never met
face to face.
He's got a kingdom heart
and he labors
for three things.
Do you see?
First,
that they'd be encouraged
in heart.
Encouraged in heart.
Remember,
the heart in this culture
is not so much
about emotions
as it is in ours.
It's about the very core
of a person,
the thing that drives them,
their will.
In other words,
the heart is not just
about how one feels,
it's about how one thinks
and acts and wills.
Paul works that
these people
would be strengthened
in the deepest part
of their inner being.
Friends,
oh that that would be
why we come to church
on a Sunday.
To encourage
one another
deep in our souls
and hearts.
Secondly,
they would be
knit together in love.
It's a wonderful metaphor,
isn't it?
Picturing their unity
in Christ.
Knit together.
Remember when our first
little girl was born,
Chloe,
the first thing
they put on them,
don't they,
in the hostels,
is they put on
a wee knitted hat.
A wee knitted hat.
Remember thinking,
looking at it thinking,
that looks flimsy.
And then I took it off
and I tried to pull it.
Boy,
is that not flimsy.
Because it's been
knit together really well.
It holds,
it keeps the heat in.
That's what Paul's
picturing here,
isn't it?
Knit together.
You're not going to
come apart.
Knit together.
I remember singing
in church when I was young,
bind us together,
Lord,
bind us together
with cords
that cannot be broken.
Bind us together,
Lord,
bind us together,
bind us together
in love.
That's his heart,
isn't it,
for this church.
Was the false teaching
in the background here,
was it putting the unity
of this church
in jeopardy,
perhaps?
Or could it just be
that the devil
would love to disrupt
the unity
of any gathering
of believers?
Paul strives,
he works hard,
he prays,
he gives it his all
for the unity
of the church.
And it's a great challenge
to think about,
isn't it?
And I asked myself
this week in my own heart
whether I am doing
the same.
I can so often
get lazy,
can't we,
with our words
and with our thoughts,
we can get careless
with our moods
and our actions.
So much so,
the little loose threads
begin to emerge
in terms of our relationships
with one another.
Let's be on our guard
against that.
Don Carson,
New Testament commentator,
writes this,
we will see profound
spiritual renovation
if by God's grace
we make it our commitment
not to put anyone down
except on our prayer list.
Paul labors
that they would be
knit together in love
and thirdly,
that they would get
to know Christ better.
To get a greater appreciation
of what he's done,
to get a greater grasp
of their identity in him,
to get a bigger picture
of God's cosmic purposes
that he's working out
through Christ
and to understand
the enormity,
the grandeur
of what is ahead of them.
Notice the words he uses there,
riches, wisdom,
knowledge, treasure,
as if to say,
guys,
get your head around
how good this is.
If you remember,
and this is just
the stage of life
we're at
and the things
that we watch on TV,
do you remember
Abu's face in Aladdin
when he sees
the cave of wonders?
That's what he's
picturing here,
isn't it?
Just so good.
He wants our souls
to be so satisfied
with Christ.
He wants them
to be convinced
beyond any shadow
of a doubt
that Christ is everything
that they will ever need.
And so don't be deluded.
Do you see the warning?
Don't be deluded
by those who would
seek to derail you
in your pursuit
of Jesus Christ
by claiming
in plausible arguments.
Do you see that?
Plausible?
That there's something
beyond Christ
to see and experience
and know.
People trying to convince you
that somehow
you are missing out.
What does he say?
Remain firm.
Maintain your good order.
Stay rooted
in Christ.
Friends,
as we close,
a good magician
may never reveal
their secrets.
But God's mystery
is not something
that's hidden
and it's not something
that's difficult
to understand.
In fact,
it's out in the open
for all to see.
Jesus Christ.
Here is the mystery
that explains my ministry,
says Paul.
Here is the reason
why Paul does
what he does.
Let me take you back
as we close
to Pumpkin Man.
I was trying to picture him
this week
sitting in his armchair
with his
Guinness World Record
in his hand.
He's slurping
some pumpkin soup
and he's tucking
into some pumpkin pie
and he's sloshing
it all down
with a pumpkin spice latte.
And he's looking
at his pumpkin.
Give it a week, friends.
That pumpkin,
his life's best achievement,
will be rotting,
decomposing
in front of his eyes
and like it was
this week at our street,
he will simply take it
and put it on the curb.
Friends,
why do you do
what you do in life?
Contrast Pumpkin Man
with the words
of Christian Missionary
C.T. Studd
and with this we close,
who wrote a prayer
for his life
and it went like this.
Give me, Father,
a purpose deep.
In joy or sorrow
thy word to keep,
faithful and true
whatever the strife
pleasing thee
in my daily life.
Only one life
till soon be passed.
Only what's done
for Christ
will last.
Friends,
have you grasped
the heart of the mystery?
And has the mystery
grasped your heart?
Let's pray together.
Heavenly Father,
we would thank you
so much for today.
Thank you,
dear Father,
that you are a God
who speaks.
and we pray
that your spirit
would be working
amongst us
even now
as we reflect
on what your word
has challenged us
with this morning.
Father,
we know our own hearts,
we know our own proneness
to wander
and so it's our prayer
that you would bind us
to yourself,
that you would teach us
wonderful things
from your word,
that you would help us
grant something more
of the all-surpassing
premise of Jesus
better than anything else
that this world
could offer us
and that you would help us
have our eyes fixed on him.
Father,
thank you so much
that you love us.
Thank you that your spirit
lives in us
and we pray that you
would help us now
as we continue on
in this service.
In Jesus' name,
Amen.