Father, we come before you confessing that we forget the gospel very quickly.
We forget about you. It's so easy to forget.
Father, even when we're in worship, it's easy just to be thinking about what we have to do at work or a bill or something else.
Father, it's so easy for us to have amnesia.
And we ask, Father, that the Holy Spirit would come with gentle and deep power upon us
to bring afresh to us the wonder and the glory and the power of the gospel,
what Jesus has done for us in a sinless life, sin-bearing death, mighty resurrection.
Father, pour out the Holy Spirit upon us that we might know Jesus more and be known by him more
and that we might long, Father, to be with you and the Holy Spirit and the Son forever.
And this we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.
Amen. Please be seated.
When the lockdown happened, several people sent me emails wondering how on earth I was going to have any sermon illustrations
given that I couldn't go to coffee shops anymore.
And I have to confess, sometimes it was a little bit of a challenge for me
given that I was sort of locked out of a whole range of conversations,
especially in the early days of the lockdown.
So this week I had a conversation in a coffee shop.
There's a fellow that I've had quite a few friendly conversations with.
He's a wonderful, wonderful fellow.
The type of person, very secular, very successful in his professional career, now retired.
And he'd be the sort of guy that if you lived in a condo, you'd hope he lived above you or below you.
He'd always be quiet and he'd never complain.
If he was your neighbor, he'd always help you with whatever task.
Yeah, just the type of guy you'd love to have as your neighbor.
Well read, very, very thoughtful.
We've had some very interesting talks.
And I hadn't seen him.
He goes to Florida for the winter and I just hadn't seen him in this particular coffee shop until now.
And we had about a 10-minute conversation just the other day.
And the conversation turned to his just concern and puzzlement of what was going on in Canada, United States,
with the craziness, not just the lockdown, but the riots in the states and lots of just craziness going on.
And he shocked me by saying something to me that I wasn't expecting.
This is a secular fellow, secular Jew.
And he shocked me by saying, you know, George, the reason Canada and the United States isn't getting so much trouble
is because people have stopped going to church.
What?
You, a secular person, saying to me that the reason there's so many problems in our society
is because people have stopped going to church?
Like, okay, if you think I'm good at witnessing, I'm terrible at witnessing.
Like, this should have been one of those big doors you walk through, share the gospel.
I didn't know what to say.
Like, it was like the last thing in the world I expected him to say to me.
And he talked about it for a couple of minutes, and then the conversation kept moving.
But he said, you know, he said it's in church that, you know, schools are no longer able to really teach morality.
This is him saying this to me.
This isn't me.
Oh, just him.
They can't really teach morality.
The media definitely can't.
Hollywood definitely can't.
People get this basic moral teaching and learning how to live with people who are different than them in church.
And they don't go to church anymore.
They don't take their kids to church.
And that's part of the reason we have so much trouble.
So, I mean, one of the nice things about developing friendships is, and you can pray about this,
and I'll have some other time where I can talk to him about this,
because I wasn't really able to follow up very well in that particular conversation.
But I'm working on my sermon.
In fact, he'd interrupted me on working on my sermon.
And I'm thinking about Colossians and what I have to preach.
And it's one of those things, and I'll find out in heaven that one of you were praying for me,
because I realized about two years earlier in a coffee shop,
I had a very, very different conversation about the Christian faith and its effect on morality.
In that conversation, I finally had this remarkable opportunity to share with this person what it is that Christians believe,
that the Christian faith is not about advice.
It's not about moral advice.
It's a very different conversation.
It's not about moral advice.
It's not about how you live.
It's not about rules.
It's news.
And the person said, well, what's the news?
I said, well, the news is that Jesus has come from God,
and that by his sinless life, I'm giving you a short version of it,
his sinless life and his death upon the cross,
he's provided the means whereby you can be reconciled to God.
What Jesus did for you on the cross,
there was a context to this question with the person I was talking to.
The wonderful thing about it is that every wrong thing that you have ever done in your life
and ever will do in your life is dealt with by Jesus when he dies upon the cross,
like everything, from the moment you're able to make your first moral decision and you choose wrongly
to what is even for your future, and this was a young person,
and if you live 60 more years,
every single thing in the past, present, and future that you've ever done
is covered by what Jesus did for you and for me and for every person in the cross.
And when you put your faith and trust in him, you receive that.
Everything forgiven.
And this person's response to me, they looked at me for a second,
they said, that's terrible news.
Because if that's true,
why on earth would you or any other Christian ever try to do good again for the rest of your life?
So you see, two conversations.
Our problems are because people have stopped going to church.
I tell a person it's not about moral advice or moral striving or moral living,
it's about the gospel.
Why on earth would anybody do something good if that's true?
The text that we're going to look at today actually talks about both issues
in a very, very powerful and instructive way.
So if you turn in your Bibles to Colossians chapter 1,
Colossians chapter 1,
this is the first week of a sermon series on the book of Colossians.
We're going to go through it from cover to cover or from beginning to end.
And we're looking at verses 1 to 14 today.
And now, a bit of a time moment here.
I do this occasionally.
Grammar nerd moment.
Okay?
And we know who are the grammar...
I mean, I don't know who all the grammar nerds are,
but you know if you're a grammar nerd.
So for the rest of you, just pause.
But for those of us who are grammar nerds,
at the original language, you have the first two verses,
which are two sentences.
And then verses 3 to 8 are one sentence in the original language.
And verses 9 to 14 is another single sentence in the original language.
And at the beginning of the second sentence,
you can see that the two sentences are linked.
Okay?
It's one of the things that no editor would ever allow Paul to do this today.
He would be told to rewrite and make smaller sentences.
But he writes this long, long sentence,
and then another long sentence.
And what it means is, because of the way the sentences build,
is that to understand what he's talking about,
in a sense, throughout most of 1 to 14,
you have to understand what he says at the end of the second sentence.
So that's what we're going to do.
We're going to first look at the end of the second sentence.
And I think I asked Andrew to put on the screen verses 13 and 14.
This is why it's good to have your own Bibles,
because it doesn't always perfectly match up.
I'm going to begin with the last little bit of verse 12,
and then verses 13 and 14.
And then I'll explain what's going on here,
and we'll get into it.
So here's how it works.
So I'll just start reading in verse 12,
and then you'll see what's going to be on the screen.
Giving thanks to the Father.
Now here's where it really begins.
Who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light?
Verse 13.
He has delivered us from the domain of darkness
and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,
in whom we have redemption and the forgiveness of sins.
Now you'll notice in the language that God qualifies us,
that God delivers us, that God transfers us,
that God redeems us, that God gives us forgiveness.
And it's even stronger in the original language,
because in the original language there's a text,
a tense called the divine passive,
which makes it very clear to those reading it in the original language
that it's something God does.
So here we see these powerful sets of images,
that God qualifies us for something,
God delivers us, he transfers us,
he redeems us, and he forgives us.
That God, what we're seeing is that the triune God,
by his grace, accomplishes something marvelous for you
that you can never accomplish for yourself.
The triune God, by his grace,
accomplishes something marvelous for you
that you can never accomplish for yourself.
Now, I don't know how many of us have Jewish friends or acquaintances.
One of the things about Jewish people in Canada,
this isn't a put-down or anything, it's just an obvious,
I mean, virtually no Christian reads the New Testament in Greek,
and virtually no Jews that you meet today
reads what they would call the Torah or the Tanakh,
and we call the Old Testament.
They don't read it in Hebrew, they don't know it in Hebrew.
They would know whatever stories they know,
or texts they know, or even the Ten Commandments,
they'd know them in English.
And a similar type of thing happened,
was going on at the time that this letter was written,
in the early 60s.
There would have been in this congregation and in this region
a lot of Jewish people,
but most of the Jewish people probably didn't know any Hebrew.
And when they read their Bible, their Tanakh, their Torah,
they would have read a Greek version of it.
And when the pagans who had become Christians in Colossae,
when they read, they went to a church service like this
and opened the Bible,
they would read like from Isaiah or Exodus or whatever,
but it would always be from a Greek version.
They would hear everything in Greek,
and they spoke Greek.
And now the interesting thing in this text is
that let's say when the person was reading this letter
to the whole congregation,
he said,
just before I read this letter from Paul,
I want you to know something really cool.
And he'd get out maybe his version of the book of Exodus,
and he'd read this text out of Exodus
about how God takes the people of Israel
out of the slavery and bondage in Egypt
and brings them into the promised land.
And then he says,
oh, and there's something else that's really, really cool.
And he says,
I'll go to the book of Isaiah.
And then he reads these different parts
because one of the things about Isaiah
is Isaiah takes the same language of the book of Exodus,
and he talks about it
and uses it to talk about this time in the future
when God is going to do this remarkable thing,
not just for the Jewish people,
but for all people,
where he's going to deliver them
out of some type of bondage
into something like a promised land.
But it's a spiritual,
it's a new Exodus
and a new promised land in the future.
And so maybe the person reading,
just before he reads Paul's letters,
he says,
I want to do this really cool thing, okay?
I don't know if they use words like cool,
but let's say they did.
And they read these two things,
and then he reads these verses,
and they'd go,
oh, it's the same language.
He's using the same words
that when Paul is talking about qualifying
and delivering
and the share of your inheritance
and even the word light,
and when he's using the word forgiveness
and redemption,
it's all language from the book of Exodus
and the book of Isaiah.
And so what it means is that
they would all understand
that this isn't just something,
this isn't just something
which we would call spiritual or fanciful,
like have a good story
to inspire you,
to give you some hope,
that Paul is communicating
that this is what you've understood,
that God does something real for you,
that in the sinless life of Jesus
and his teaching and his miracles,
and then in his death upon the cross,
which you have to understand
is done in your place
and in your stead as a sacrifice,
and that when Jesus does this
and dies for you
and you put your faith and trust in him,
God does something objective
and real for you.
He takes you from the domain
or the dominion
or the realm
or the country of darkness,
and he does,
just like he did with Israel
when Israel couldn't get out of Egypt themselves,
and God does this remarkable series of miracles
to literally bring them out of slavery
and bondage into the promised land,
so God has done something to you.
He's literally bringing you out of dominion
and domain of darkness
and bringing you into a completely different land.
All the things that Isaiah had prophesied
were going to happen in the future,
that's what just happened in Jesus,
and that's what you've entered into
when you put your faith and trust in him,
and it's real.
It's not just an imaginary thing.
It's real.
You've actually moved.
You live, in a sense,
into a new realm,
in a new kingdom,
in a new place,
and that's all seen there in the language.
It's something real,
not imaginary.
Now, some of you might have
a whole range of questions
around something like that
because it's a pretty remarkable
series of statements.
I mean, the first one of the statements is,
well, one moment, George.
You might say that,
but their butts are still in Colossi.
And you might say,
that's true about us, George,
but your butt's in Ottawa.
And the other thing is,
George, don't you think it's a little bit
harsh to describe this world
as a domain of darkness,
a dominion of darkness?
Don't you think that's a little bit harsh?
Those are great questions.
So here's the first thing.
And one of the things
about doing a sermon series is,
I'm going to talk about this
a little bit more next week.
I'm not going to give you
any type of proof for this,
but I'm going to give you
an illustration
to help you understand
the point of the imagery
and to see why they say the imagery
so that you at least have
an understanding
of why it's reasonable to say this
from within the point of view
of the Bible,
which I would say
and Paul would say
is a way to truly
and really understand the world.
It's not just my lens,
it's the proper lens.
It's actually,
that's why early on
I kept saying truth,
the gospel of truth,
entering in truth.
And Paul means
that this conforms
with the real world.
That's the claim.
I don't know how many of you
know people
who've suffered with Alzheimer's
or some other type of dementia.
There's lots of different types
of dementia.
I know that at least
some of us have.
I first really came face to face
with it in the early 90s.
That's a long time ago
when a wonderful,
wonderful,
wonderful lady
who was unbelievably kind
to us as a family
and my wife and myself
and in fact,
we've actually gave her name
to one of our daughters
as a middle name
and we didn't want to believe,
didn't know much
about dementia or Alzheimer's
and as she started
to enter into it,
we didn't want to believe it.
But at a certain point in time
when a person enters
into Alzheimer's
and dementia,
you can,
it's a reasonable type of way
to understand
or think about it
that they in some ways
enter into darkness.
And by that I mean
they don't know you anymore.
Like they don't know you.
They learn in the early stages
of Alzheimer's
to act like they know you
but it's just an act
because they actually
don't know you.
I hope I don't disappoint
some of you
who are still hoping
to have as long
as you possibly can
that relationship
with the person.
But a time will come
when they'll think,
I mean if it was,
let's say,
my mom or dad
and it means not
but they might think
I was the brother
or the husband
or somebody else
who's their father
or who knows what.
And you can see
that in a sense
it's a way to understand
what happens to them
as they enter into darkness
where they don't understand
the real world,
they're not really living
in the real world,
they couldn't survive
in the real world
because once you have
that type of Alzheimer's
or dementia
you're completely
and utterly dependent
upon others caring for you
or you would die.
And it's a type of darkness.
You see,
the message of the Bible
is this,
that in the real world,
the real world,
in the real world,
and I know I'm going to get
pushed back about this
but I'm going to say it,
in the real world
we know that everything
can't possibly happen
by chance.
Like if I was to tell you
that the Ottawa Little Theatre
was a result of one day
there was a whole pile
of industrial waste
and a whole pile
of construction materials
that were just parked there
and there was an explosion
and when the explosion
was all over
and the dust cleared,
lo and behold,
the Ottawa Little Theatre
is just the way it looks today
with this paint
and the electricity turned on
like nobody would believe you.
If I was to say
that this was just
where they stored
a whole pile of things
and there are windstorms
and after like 30 years
of windstorms,
this is what resulted,
nobody would believe you.
But the fact of the matter is,
is that the ecosystem
of the earth
is vastly more complicated
than the Ottawa Little Theatre.
Your body
is vastly more complicated
than the Ottawa Little Theatre.
And if you were to talk
to somebody
like James
or you were to talk
to somebody like Jeremiah,
they could even tell you
that the cell,
one little cell in your body
is vastly more complicated.
The Ottawa Little Theatre
is simple compared to one cell
and they would blow you away.
And so, in a sense,
what the Bible says,
and this is the great argument
of Romans,
is that everybody,
if they're really honest,
knows that there can't be
that the thing
which is most basic
is a what
and that human beings
and love
and knowledge
and insight
and all of this
and all of the order
is just a result
of blind chance
that nobody really
believes that.
That on one level,
when we're really pushed,
we have to understand
that this had to have been
created by a who.
And in fact,
more than a who
because it's beyond this,
but only the gospel
really communicates,
but only the gospel
has this one God
and three persons,
three persons,
one God,
the Father,
the Son,
and the Holy Spirit
and an eternity of love
and in a sense
of revealing
and community
and it's out of the Father,
the Son,
and the Holy Spirit,
three persons,
one God,
that all things
have been created
and even though
evil has entered,
not because of God,
but evil enters
and is disarming
and caused breakdown
in relationships
and brings death
and brings our propensity
to still do bad things
and to be selfish,
that the fact of the matter
is is that God
has created all things,
he sustains all things,
he's present
and he's powerful
and active
and it's hard not even
to look at any type of face
or experience any love
and not realize
that there must be a love
that has made all things,
that designed all things
and to live in complete
and utter denial of that
is just like a person
with Alzheimer's.
It's to be in the realm
of darkness.
Imagine for a moment
it's me
in 40 years,
30 years
and I have Alzheimer's
and I can't recognize
my wife,
I can't recognize
my children,
I can't recognize
my grandchildren anymore
but by then,
by the grace of God,
there's a cure
for Alzheimer's
and it's a very,
very quick acting cure.
They put a needle
in your body
and they inject it
and within five minutes
it's gone
and can you just imagine,
can you imagine
what it would be like
to have a camera
on that scene
that I'm just
the blank,
blankness of dementia
and this medicine
comes in
and five minutes later
I've been looking
at all these faces
in the room,
my wife,
my kids,
my grandkids,
their spouses,
not any recognition
and all of a sudden
I go,
Louise,
Tosh,
Jesse,
there'd be tears,
right?
There'd be tears
and there'd be laughter.
I was in darkness.
I was in the domain
of darkness.
I was under the rule
of darkness
and I've entered
into light
and that's what
the Bible says
is accomplished
by Jesus
and just as no
Alzheimer's patient
or dementia patient
can cure themselves
when they are in
Alzheimer's and dementia
but whatever,
if there is ever
a cure for that,
it will come from
those who don't have it.
So it is
that we cannot fix
our darkness
ourselves
and are dependent
upon salvation
from outside,
from God.
And God the Father
through the Son
and the power
of the Holy Spirit
through Jesus'
sinless life
and sin-bearing death
and God
brings that message
home to your heart.
He pierces your darkness.
2 Corinthians 4
verses 1-6
and He moves you
into this new domain
and you can see
the reasonableness
of the imagery.
You have to watch
the time.
Well,
Jesus' sinless life
and sin-bearing death
is offered by grace
and when we receive it,
God transfers you.
Now,
okay, George,
what about this whole thing
about,
you know,
you're still in Ottawa
and
and why would you do,
is it just all future
and how does that still
give you any type
of incentive
to do any good acts?
Well,
this is where
the rest of the text
will help us.
So if you take your Bibles,
so hopefully they're open,
now you go back
to the beginning of the text
and let's read it
and we'll see how Paul
approaches these particular
types of issues.
Verse 1,
so now we know the end
and it's the end
is in a sense
influencing everything
that Paul says
leading up to it.
It's the end
in a sense
that illuminates
the rest of the text
and here's how it goes.
Verse 1,
Paul,
an apostle of Christ Jesus
by the will of God
and Timothy,
our brother,
to the saints
and faithful brothers
and sisters in Christ
at Colossus,
I grace to you
and peace from God
our Father.
By the way,
one of the indirect ways
I'll just share with you now
of the proof
of what I've just said
is who's writing
this letter
and the remarkable
transformative word
that he's referring
to a whole pile of pagans
and calling them
his brothers and sisters.
The person who writes
this particular text,
his name is Paul,
used to be called Saul
and history shows,
and by the way,
Bart Ehrman
and even most of
the staunchest
biblical skeptics
don't deny,
in fact,
they would say
that it's historically certain
that there was
an historical man
by the name of Paul
and that he,
in fact,
was a violent
persecutor
of the Christian faith
and that his entire life
was transformed
and that he would tell you,
Bart Ehrman,
most biblical scholars,
even the most skeptical
and agnostic,
would say that,
in fact,
that transformation
would come,
if you ask Paul,
because he said
that he saw Jesus
after Jesus had died
and risen from the dead.
And that's what
completely and utterly
transformed
the entire direction
of his life.
And here he introduces
himself as Paul,
an apostle of Christ Jesus
by the will of God
and Timothy,
our brother,
to the saints
and faithful brothers
and sisters in Christ
at Colossi,
grace to you
and peace from God,
our Father.
And the word saint,
by the way,
just means an ordinary person
who's received
the gospel
and now God
has taken them
as his own.
That's all it means.
A saint is one
who belongs to God
for his purposes.
Not weighing our merits,
that's all a saint is.
It's not a special person.
It doesn't even mean
you're very good at living.
It means that God
now owns you
and you're starting
to learn to know
what it means to live
owned by the triune God.
And then the first
big long sentence,
I'll read it
all eight
and then we'll just pause
and camp there a little bit
with the time we have left.
We always thank God,
verse three,
we always thank God.
Here's Paul giving a report
about how we praise for them.
We always thank God,
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
when we pray for you,
since we heard of your faith
in Christ Jesus
and of the love
that you have
for all the saints
because of the hope
laid up for you in heaven.
See, there's that
faith, hope, and love.
It's one of, I think,
either eight or nine times
in the New Testament
that those words
are used together
in some manner.
And I'm going to return to it.
I'll read it again.
When we heard
of your faith
in Christ Jesus
and of the love
that you have
for all the saints
because of the hope,
the reason you have love
is because of the hope
laid up for you in heaven.
Of this you have heard before
in the word of the truth,
the gospel,
which has come to you
as indeed
in the whole world
that is bearing fruit
and increasing,
as it also does among you,
since the day you heard it
and understood
the grace of God
in truth,
just as you learned it
from Epaphras,
our fellow servant.
He is a faithful minister
of Christ on your behalf
and has made known to us
your love
in the Holy Spirit.
And we'll just sort of
pause there
for a moment.
And here's the big idea
in the text.
The gospel shapes us
for a hope.
The gospel shapes you
for a hope-drawn life
that transforms.
The sermon series
is called
The Means of Grace.
I almost called
the sermon series
A Hope-Driven Life.
You know,
maybe people would
mistake it
with Rick Warren's book
and I'd sell
20 million copies
and we'll buy
a church building.
I don't know.
No.
Anyway,
but that's what
we're seeing in here
is the importance
of a hope-driven life.
You see,
the fact of the matter
is that often
when we think
of morality,
we think of
in terms of moral rules.
You understand moral rules
and you try to follow them.
And obviously,
that's an important
part of morality.
But in fact,
a far more important
morality is being
drawn by something.
You should read,
if you haven't read it,
Viktor Frankl's book.
Oh, sorry.
I should have written it down.
What's that?
Yeah,
Man's Search for Meaning.
And one of the things
which is so wonderful
about this is
he talks about
who survived the Holocaust
and those who survived
the Holocaust
were those who had
some type of hope,
some type of meaning.
And meaning
and hope
can draw you
into a whole way
of living.
And that's,
in a sense,
the big idea.
The gospel shapes you
and the gospel shapes me
for a hope-drawn,
a hope-driven life
that transforms you.
See,
go ahead and look again
at that verse.
It's verses 4 and 5.
Since we heard
of your faith in Christ,
so you put your faith
in Christ Jesus.
And when you put your faith
in Christ Jesus,
what happens?
You understand
that God does something
that you cannot do
for yourself,
that he transfers you
from the domain,
the dominion,
the kingdom of darkness,
and he transfers you
into the kingdom of light,
into the kingdom
of his beloved Son,
and to have an inheritance
in that,
to be redeemed,
to be forgiven,
because he has brought you
out of slavery,
he has brought you
out of darkness,
he has transferred you
to another life.
And so you put your faith
and trust in Jesus
and that's what happens.
And now that you have
that hope
that's secure,
since we heard
of your faith
in Christ Jesus
and of the love
that you have
for all the saints
because
of the hope
laid up for you,
in heaven,
is that that hope
draws you
into a life of love.
You enter
the Christian life
by faith in Jesus
with empty hands.
Nothing in my hands
I bring.
All I can do
is ask that you will do
what I cannot do myself.
And God the Father
says to you,
George,
I'm so glad you asked.
I have longed for you
to hear the gospel
and to say yes.
Welcome.
Your sins are forgiven
in Jesus.
The Holy Spirit
indwells you.
Your final destiny
is not death
and is not darkness.
Your final destiny
is to be in the kingdom
of my beloved son
and to share the inheritance
of the saints in light.
And knowing that
that is my final destiny,
it draws you
into a life
of love.
Not just for brothers
and sisters,
but for the world.
Some of you might say,
well,
a hope in heaven?
Like a hope in heaven?
And all that stuff
about all forgiven?
Well,
here's the first
of the thing
is that you have
to understand
that the Bible
when it says heaven
doesn't mean
Canadian heaven.
You see,
for most Canadians,
when they talk about heaven
after death,
what do they say?
And you're a guest here.
I don't,
you know what?
I guess I do want
to unsettle you.
I shouldn't say
I don't want to.
I do.
I want to put a peb,
I want to put a little
tiny rock in your shoe
to irritate you.
Please forgive me,
but that's what I want to do.
Because the average Canadian
says,
well,
we go to a better place
when we die.
We go to a spiritual place.
They'll say that their mom
now looks down on them.
Their mom lives
in their heart.
Their mom lives
in the waves
and the trees
and the beauty
of the mountains
that their mom
or their dad,
that they dwell in.
And that type of wispy,
unspiritual,
ethereal,
sorry,
a big word,
insubstantial life
won't motivate you
to do a blessed thing.
And to be honest,
as Woody Allen said,
I don't want to live
in somebody's heart
when I die.
I don't want to die.
I want to keep living
in my condo.
Like,
I'm giving it
slightly different words.
Like,
that will motivate nothing.
But that's not what
the text is saying.
That's not what heaven is.
What is,
what's it talking about?
It's saying,
you know,
it sort of said
in a bit of a shadow form
in Genesis 3,
but you get this bit
of an image
of what it was like
in Genesis 3,
even as it's revealing
that the tragic fall
of the human race,
that what was like
before the fall
is that day by day,
God walked with Adam
and Eve
in the garden
in the cool of the day.
They had spent the day
tending
and making paradise
even more paradise
as they tended the garden.
And at the cool of the day,
in the breeze
of the Holy Spirit,
they walked with God
and with each other
naked and unashamed.
What is heaven?
Heaven isn't some wispy
and insubstantial place.
It is the promise
that the time will come
when in the new heaven
and the new earth,
you and I,
naked and unashamed,
will walk with each other
after tending paradise
and will walk with Jesus
under the gaze
of the Father
as the Holy Spirit
blows and moves
the hair on our heads,
the branches on the trees.
And we will be home.
And we will be safe
and we will be secure
and we will be adventuresome.
We will laugh.
We will dance.
We will tell stories
and we will build.
And we will walk on water.
And that's the hope
that's secure.
Being with the Father
and the Son
and the Holy Spirit
and with each other,
naked and unashamed,
at home,
knowing.
And that is your end
in Christ.
And there will be people
from Africa
and people from China
and people from Korea
and people from Singapore
and people from North America
and people from Wales
and people from the Arctic.
And we will be every color
under the rainbow
and we will be one
and we will be at home
and we will be at peace.
And that is the hope.
And you see,
this language of hope
and the transformation
it makes
for you to take risks,
to do hard things,
because the fact of the matter is,
as we all know,
to love
requires doing
hard things.
Anybody who thinks
that to love
never involves
doing hard things
doesn't know
what it means
to love.
because to love
you need to endure.
To love
you need to have patience.
To love
it means
that you have to learn
how to forgive.
To love
means you have to learn
how to say sorry.
To love
means you need to realize
that you need to repent
because you've done
something wrong.
To love
means that you have
to humble yourself
and put yourself out
and sacrifice yourself.
It means doing
hard things.
It means
learning to forgive.
it means pursuing
reconciliation.
You can't love
without taking risks
and doing
hard things.
And if
you think
your status in life
as a good person
depends upon
you being right
and you being good,
it is devastating
to realize
that you have been
a jerk.
And you can use
some other foul language.
But if you understand
that my place
before God
does not depend
upon my performance
but that in fact
my destiny
is secure
and that means
I can look and say
well you know what?
I was wrong.
You know what?
I need to say I'm sorry.
You know what?
I haven't forgiven them
and I need to learn.
You know what?
I need to go that extra mile.
You know what?
I need to die to myself.
But you see
if you hear this message
of the gospel
and you say to yourself
you see this is what
the gospel does
and this is why
hope in all matters.
It's going to reveal
whether you think
you've tricked God
or whether you've
actually really
received the gospel.
You see because if
and this is what
my friend didn't get
if you hear this news
and you go
everything forgiven?
Whoa!
Can I ever be a jerk now?
Like you watch out folks.
I don't have to worry.
I can cheat.
I can lie.
I can be greedy.
I can be obnoxious.
Why?
Listen.
Jesus has forgiven
all my sins
and I'm going to heaven.
This is the best deal
in the world.
I get to sin
which I love
and God gets to forgive me
because he loves?
Woo!
What a great religion.
Why can't more people
choose it?
But you know what?
If that's what you think
you've done
you can never trick God.
Only a fool thinks
they can trick God.
But if you understand
that what Jesus
is offering you
isn't a license
to do as many evil things
as you want
and selfish things
you want for the rest
of your life
and be scot-free
that what you really
understand
is that God
is offering you
to be reconciled
to himself
and has done
everything that needs
to be done
and you can do
none of that.
He does it all
and is given to you
as a gift
and nobody ever
fully understands
that perfectly.
We have amnesia
we forget it
we slip back
into old ways
that's why we need
to gather together
that's why we need
to have Christian friendships
that's why we need
to have discipleship
that's why we need
to have small groups
where we can be reminded
during the week
that God still
is on his throne
that Jesus loves me
that my destiny
is the new heaven
and the new earth
and we need things
like small groups
we need
we need Christian friends
we need
to spend time in prayer
and we need to gather
on Sunday morning
because we forget
because we have amnesia
but if you hear the gospel
and you start to realize
what this means
the burden of performance
the burden
of the fact
that there's wrong
that I've done
that I can never repay
that there's failure
to do good
that I can never repay
that it's all been dealt with
and that Jesus
does this all for me
that he has
taken my doom
upon him
and that he has offered me
his destiny
and rather than thinking
I've tricked God
I've got him
you go
free at last
thank God almighty
I'm free at last
see that's why
to really understand
the gospel
begins to give you
a hope that transforms
how you do your life
not a license
to do wrong
but a hope
that begins
to transform
how you do your life
just want to say
two things very quickly
I know I have a problem
with time
you know one of the things
that's really interesting
cool about this text
one of the things
we're going to talk about
I think it's the second
to last Sunday
is we're going to talk
about the problem
of slavery
okay
why don't you try
to remember this
who's Epaphras
well nobody knows
that
here's the answer
Epaphras is a nickname
what is his real name
his
Epaphras is his nickname
his full name
is Epaphroditus
what does that mean
in honor of Aphrodite
the fellow
who planted
the church
was a man
who before
he met Jesus
he was named
in honor
of the goddess
Aphrodite
you want to know
something else
which is really
really really cool
that in most cases
in the ancient world
if you came across
a man named
Epaphraditus
you know what he was
a slave
the gospel
transforms
a slave
into a free man
who plants
churches
and shares
the gospel
and changes him
from being a man
dedicated to the goddess
Aphrodite
to the brother
and sister
of you and me
the share
and the bearer
of the gospel
keep that in mind
when we come to the topic
of slavery
in the text
look at the last sentence
verse 9
and so from the day
we heard
we have not ceased
to pray for you
asking that you may be
filled with the knowledge
of his will
in all spiritual wisdom
and spiritual wisdom
here means
not like
woo
spiritual stuff
it means wisdom
that comes from
the Holy Spirit
that's what it means
in the original language
and understanding
so as to walk
in a manner
worthy of the Lord
see here's the thing
the Bible constantly
teaches us
that we live
in the already
not yet
that when we're
redeemed by Jesus
our destiny
is secure
our hope
is secure
our end
is secure
but Jesus
doesn't just sort of
take us
as soon as we give
our lives to Jesus
and then he
it's like the rapture
and he instantly
takes us to heaven
we still have to live
this life
and that means
on one hand
the already
is true
the final word
about me
is true
but it's not yet
it's not yet
I still need to learn
how to love better
I need to learn
how to forgive better
I have to learn
to take risks better
I have to learn
how to dwell
in the truth better
I have to learn
how to dwell
in compassion
better
and justice
better
and kindness
and mercy better
I still have to learn
those things
drawn
by my end
being secure
and that's why
this word walk
is there
walk
means as I go
through my day
as I go from here
to chatting with you
after the service
to stopping off
at a coffee shop
to buy a coffee
on my way home
to spending time
with my family
to exercising
to reading
to having supper
that's walk
it's how you do
your life
verse 10
so as to walk
in a manner
worthy of the Lord
fully pleasing to him
and over the next few weeks
we'll talk about
how to walk
in a manner
drawn by the hope
of the gospel
what does that mean
it means
it will bear fruit
in every good work
and it means
will increase
in the knowledge
of God
and that not only means
knowledge about God
but actually knowing God
and being known by him
it's personal knowledge
and then verse 11
that you'll be strengthened
with all power
according to his glorious might
for all endurance
and patience with joy
because that's what we need
if we want to live
lives of love
isn't it
we have to be
we have to be able
to endure
and we don't want
to do white knuckling
with a sour grumpy face
always saying
got to
we want to move
to the point
where we say
get to
I get to love
I get to take risks
I get to share the gospel
not got to
get to
then verse 12
giving thanks to the father
like that's part of what it means
to be strengthened
to walk
by this hope
is to become more
living a life
out of thankfulness
to the father
who has qualified you
to share
in the inheritance
of the saints
and light
he has delivered 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
praise God
I'd like you all
to stand please
Andrew
could you put
the general
thanksgiving up
that would be
really helpful
thank you
and
if you haven't
given your life
to Jesus
there's no better
time than now
to just say
father
thank you
for Jesus
I understand
that
it's hard for me
to completely
understand darkness
but I get it
I get that
you need to do
something
that I can't
do for myself
and you know
whatever goodness
you've done
in your life
he doesn't take it
away and say
that hasn't been good
it gets
ennobled
it gets empowered
it gets strengthened
it gets more
it just
you brought
you get into the light
fully
and there's no time
now that's better
than now
to give your life
to Jesus
and probably
every week
this ancient prayer
this call to worship
I'm writing my blogs
about it
this in many ways
perfectly expresses
lots of what I've
tried to say today
in a very compact
message
and every week
in my sermon
we're going to end
with this general
thanksgiving
because it perfectly
expresses so much
of what the Christian
life is like
in light
of the Colossians
so would you pray
call out to God
with me
in the words
of this prayer
Almighty God
Father of all mercies
we then
unworthy servants
do give you
most humble
and hearty thanks
for all your goodness
and loving kindness
to us
and to all people
we bless thee
for your creation
preservation
and all the blessings
of this life
but above all
for thine inestimable love
in the redemption
of the world
by our Lord Jesus Christ
for the means of grace
and for the hope
of glory
and we beseech you
give us that due sense
of all your mercies
that our hearts
may be
unfeignedly thankful
and that we show forth
your praise
not only with our lips
but in our lives
by giving up ourselves
to your service
and by walking before you
in holiness
and righteousness
all our days
through Jesus Christ
our Lord
to whom with you
and the Holy Spirit
be all honor
and glory
world without end
Amen
sorry that's not
what my blogs run
sounds
that was in one of my blogs
not the one I've run
let's just pray
one more time
Father pour out
the Holy Spirit
upon us
you know how quickly
we forget
the hope of glory
we ask that you
deliver us
from amnesia
and that we would
remember this
and we ask Father
that you would guide us
into small groups
and spiritual friendships
and other such things
so that throughout the week
we have other ways
to be reminded
of who Jesus is
and what he accomplished
for us on the cross
and how to then live
in a hope filled
transformative way
that is worthy of you
and is good for others
and this we ask
in the name of Jesus
your son
and our savior
and all God's people said
Amen
I