seated. Well, good morning, church. Our sermon text today is Colossians chapter 3, verse 17,
through chapter 4, verse 1. That's page 984 in the Pew Bible. Let's go ahead and turn there together.
As James mentioned, this morning is something of a special Sunday because we have three people
getting baptized. Now, baptism in the New Testament is the means of publicly professing
faith in Jesus Christ. It's an outward sign that through trusting in Jesus, we've been
cleansed of our sin, we've been raised to new life in Him, and we've been made a part of His body,
His church, and the world. And part of what baptism is meant to do, part of the reason why Jesus gave
us baptism is as a way of speaking assurance to our hearts. Baptism is a word of assurance from God that
His promises of grace in the gospel are as real and as certain to us as this wet water that washes over
us. It's a beautiful thing. And in a little bit, Gary and Daniel and Chuck are going to come up,
and they're going to do just that. They're going to profess their faith in Christ and get baptized
as a sign of all that Christ has done for them. You'll notice in the order of service that Sam
Stevens was also scheduled to get baptized today, but his dad, Jeff, couldn't make it. He's actually
caring for a family member in the hospital this morning. So have no fear, we will reschedule Sam's
baptism soon, which means that if you would like to get baptized, there's a date going to be coming up
where that can take place. So if you've placed your trust in Christ and you haven't been baptized yet,
come talk to me after the service. We'd love to talk about next steps. So baptism is a sign of our
new life in Christ. And if you've been here at Trinity the last few weeks, you know that we've
been walking through Colossians chapter 3, which is all about living out this new life that we have
through faith in Christ. And what our text today is going to show us actually is that there is no
sphere of life that is off limits from the lordship of Jesus and from this new life that we have in
Christ. In fact, we're going to see that living out this radical new creation life starts at home.
So why don't we pray together and then I'll read Colossians starting in chapter 3, verse 17. Let's pray.
Our God, we do thank you for the glorious hope that we've just sung about in Christ that one day he will
return and we will be able to say it is well with our soul because you have forgiven all of our sins
and you've given us a living hope through your Holy Spirit. Father, now as we come to your word,
we pray that you would grant us your Holy Spirit that we might understand it or that our hearts would
be receptive to what your Spirit is saying to us that we might see the goodness and the glory of what
it means to live out this new life in Christ together. We pray for your help in this in Jesus' name. Amen.
All right, picking up Colossians chapter 3, verse 17.
And whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God
the Father through him. Wives, submit to your husbands as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your
wives and do not be harsh with them. Children, obey your parents in everything for this pleases the
Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your children lest they become discouraged. Bondservants, obey in
everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye service as people pleasers,
but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and
not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward.
You are serving the Lord Christ. For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done,
and there is no partiality. Masters, treat your bondservants justly and fairly,
knowing that you also have a master in heaven.
Well, in one of his parables, Jesus once described the kingdom of God like a mustard seed.
A mustard seed, Jesus said in this parable, is one of the smallest of all the seeds,
and yet a man took that seed and planted it in a field, and that small seed took root and grew
and became a tree, larger than all the other garden plants, big enough for the birds of the air to come
and make nests in its branches and to find safety in its shade.
In other words, what Jesus is saying here is that the world-changing reign of God and the gospel
often starts with something simple, something small, something seemingly insignificant.
But from that small start, it has the power to grow and to change things forever,
and to even bring blessing to the world.
In verse 17, where we started our reading, Paul hits the climax of his description of the new life,
the new humanity that we've become in Christ.
And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus.
That is a sweeping, awe-inspiring statement, isn't it?
It makes you want to just go win the world for Christ, right?
And cure cancer and end poverty and plant churches for the sake of his name,
to dream big dreams for Jesus' sake.
And that's a good desire.
But surprisingly, Paul's first application of this radical new life
is in a much more mundane, everyday, seemingly insignificant sphere of our home,
of our household relationships.
It's as if Paul is saying if the new life in Christ is going to mean anything at all,
it has to impact our real relationships.
The transformation that happens through the gospel of grace has to start like a seed
in the mundane, everyday relationships right at home.
Then isn't it true that those relationships closest to us are often the most difficult?
Do you remember the part in To Kill a Mockingbird when Scout is talking to Miss Maudie about her father Atticus
and she says,
Atticus don't ever do anything to Jem and me in the house that he don't do in the yard.
In other words, she's saying that her father's character is the same in private as it is in public.
What he does in the yard for everyone to see is the same as in the house where no one can see.
But how many of us could say that that's always true in our own case for our own selves?
Our family members often see the worst side of us, don't they?
But if the gospel can make a difference there,
if it can change our relationships at home,
then the seed will really take root,
become a tree,
and maybe even start to turn the world upside down.
So this passage is showing us what it looks like
to live the new life in Christ in our most everyday relationships,
which are also our most challenging relationships,
our relationships with our family,
with our household.
Now in order to do justice to this text with the short time that we have before we go to baptism,
I want to start with kind of a wide angle view of the passage,
and then I want to zoom into the particulars,
and then I want to come back out again to see the whole.
So first, let's take a wide angle lens.
What do we learn taking this passage as a whole?
Now for starters,
a typical Greco-Roman household in the first century was a bit broader than ours today.
You'd have a husband and wife and children,
but often extended family too,
and of course you'd have a number of household servants to keep everything running.
Remember, this was in the age before modern technology.
No one had a dishwasher or a washer and dryer in the first century,
so it took quite a staff to run a big household.
And that's why Paul's instructions here include not just husbands and wives and parents and children,
but also servants and masters as well.
It was all seen as part of the household.
And Paul wasn't the only writer in his day to give directions on what household relationships should look like.
There were Greek and Roman and Jewish writers who offered their own version of what an ideal household should be,
or at least they would give advice on how the father ought to run them.
But when you compare Paul in the New Testament with those texts of the broader culture,
you start to see just how radical, just how countercultural Paul in the New Testament was.
Paul isn't simply cutting and pasting the cultural conventions of his day.
No, the radical preeminence of Christ that we've been studying in Colossians,
the liberating power of the gospel is at work, even here in the household codes.
For example, consider the status of the more societally vulnerable members of the family.
Wives, children, servants.
In many household codes of the day, these family members are clearly seen as inferior,
and often they weren't even addressed directly at all.
They weren't even worth talking to.
But for Paul in the New Testament, they are human beings made in God's image,
addressed as those with dignity and responsibility.
After all, Paul's directions to the household, as we've said,
comes in the context of the rest of chapter 3.
Do you remember verse 11 of chapter 3?
Here, there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised,
barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but Christ is all and in all.
All.
Or consider Paul's teaching about our equal status as members of Christ from Galatians 3,
verses 27 and 28.
For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
There is neither Jew nor Greek.
There is neither slave nor free.
There is not male and female.
For you are all one in Christ Jesus.
This is the soil out of which all of our Christian relationships grow.
Our oneness and our equal dignity and worth in Christ.
So, wives, children, servants, they aren't inferior.
They aren't just tools to be used.
They are God's image bearers and Christ's own fellow heirs of the kingdom.
But consider, too, how Paul addresses the more powerful or privileged person
in each of these three pairs of relationships.
Consider how he addresses the husband, the father, the parent, and the master.
You know, many household codes of the day would have granted the head of the household,
the paterfamilias, complete, unquestioned authority in the home.
Patria potestas, paternal power, to do as he wished.
But, notice how Paul has something very, very different to say.
To those in positions of power and authority, husbands, parents, masters,
he commands love and gentleness and justice.
This is what real Christ-like leadership looks like.
They are to use positions of authority not to advance their own desires,
but to promote the flourishing and renewal of God's image in others.
They're ultimately to seek the good of the other rather than their own,
even if and when it is costly.
Now, before we zoom in and look at how this gets fleshed out
in these three very different pairs of relationships,
let's pause on these two broad observations that we've just seen.
First, we see that to be under authority does not steal or diminish one's dignity or worth.
Second, to be in authority means to be responsible,
to act in love, understanding, and justice towards those under your care
that they might truly flourish.
And if that was countercultural in Paul's day, it certainly still is today, is it not?
On the one hand, too often we link dignity and worth
to social status, position, or privilege.
But that is just not so.
Our dignity comes from being made in God's image
and being redeemed and loved by Christ.
And you know, that actually frees us to come under authority when appropriate
without any threat to our identity, without any diminishment to our worth.
On the other hand, too often we think that being in authority
means that we get to call the shots and everyone else has to obey.
That others have to bend their wills around our needs and our desires.
But this is not the biblical picture of how authority is meant to be held.
It is meant to be sacrificially exercised for the other's good.
And this is why abuses of authority are so heinous and so wrong.
You see, the New Testament condemns self-seeking uses of authority.
Those kind of uses of authority that would exploit or take advantage of others
for our own gain, our own pleasure.
And it is very right to speak out against such abuses of authority.
What real authority looks like is not others bending their wills around our needs,
but being in a position to sacrificially bend our wills around their needs,
especially those who are vulnerable.
So that's the broad view.
Now, let's take a close-up.
Let's zoom in.
First, Paul addresses husbands and wives.
Wives, submit to your husbands as is fitting in the Lord.
This is verse 18.
Verse 19,
And husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.
So here we have a picture of submission and love.
In other words, our new life in Christ changes the marriage relationship
from one of adversarial coexistence to deferential loving friendship.
Now, of course, it is a massive understatement to say
that the language of submission is not very popular today.
Right?
I mean, submission is probably like one of five words that we just utterly despise as a culture.
Can we just say that?
Let's admit that.
Okay, good.
All right.
We're all being honest.
But you know, when the New Testament tells wives to submit to their husbands,
it does not mean that wives are simply to always say,
yes, dear, and then be a doormat to get walked all over.
Neither seen nor heard.
This is not in any way what the Bible means by submission.
Think of Adam and Eve in the garden.
I think that will give us a better picture of submission in marriage.
Adam had a mission to fulfill.
But it became clear very quickly that he could not do it on his own.
Eve was created as his strong ally with strengths and gifts to help Adam fulfill their God-given mission.
And so submission means becoming your husband's first and best ally in pursuit of your God-given mission.
But it isn't one-sided.
Husbands are meant to love their wives, which was an unheard-of command in the first century.
No husband was told to love their wife in a household code.
And yet here comes Paul crashing through.
And love here means putting down our rights for the sake of the other,
finding one's joy, as it were, in the joy of your spouse.
And so you see there's a reciprocity that begins to emerge in a Christ-centered marriage like a dance.
Yes, the husband takes the lead.
He sets the pace.
But his aim is the flourishing and the good of his wife in love.
And the wife following his lead in the dance brings all her strengths to bear
to help him pursue his God-given purpose as well.
And lest you think that is just me, a 21st century pastor,
kind of reading this in the most positive way possible.
Listen to John Chrysostom in the 5th century who is commenting on this passage.
He sees the exact same thing.
He says,
So husbands and wives, how is your dance?
In what ways, wives, do you need to reaffirm to your husband your glad and strong support of what God has called him to?
That you are beside him in the battle every step of the way,
your sword drawn, ready to fight at his side.
And in what ways, husbands, do you need to reaffirm to your wife that you take delight in her?
That you find your highest earthly joy in seeing her flourish?
That you would gladly spend and be spent for her sake.
How's your dance, friends?
Let's go on to the second relationship between fathers or parents and children.
Paul says,
Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.
Fathers, do not provoke your children lest they become discouraged.
Our new life in Christ changes the parent-child relationship from one of a frustrated battle of wills
to one of trusting obedience and soul-stirring encouragement.
Children are to obey their parents in everything,
not questioning or doubting or second-guessing everything they say.
Now, of course, Paul is assuming that the parents here are godly parents,
that they aren't asking the child to do anything that would be disobedient to God.
In all cases, in any relationship, we must obey God rather than men,
as Acts 5.29 says.
That goes, in other words, without saying in all of these commands that Paul gives.
Also, Paul is here talking about children who are still dependent
and living under their parents' care and protection.
He's talking about household here.
When it comes to adult children,
of course, they should still honor their parents in everything,
but the call isn't to necessarily obey them in the exact same ways that you would
if you were still living under their care and under their home as a child.
But here at home, Paul's pretty clear, children should obey.
And they should do so because it pleases the Lord.
Now, let me speak directly to the kids and teenagers for a second.
Guys, imagine if you had someone in your life
who loved you more than you could imagine,
who had your best interests at heart,
and who was much, much wiser in life than you.
I mean, wouldn't that be perfect?
Wouldn't you want to listen to that person
and maybe even do what they said?
I mean, if Tom Brady showed up at your football practice
and was like, okay, here's how you throw a pass,
you would not be like, ugh, Tom Brady's so controlling.
Why won't he let me live my life?
Of course not.
You'd be like, okay, Tom, show me again.
Am I getting it right?
Man, it's so great to have you here.
You're so wise.
You just care for me.
It's awesome.
Now, look, I know you don't think your parents are Tom Brady.
I get it.
But they're a lot wiser than you think.
And your life will go so much better
if you listen to them and, yes, obey them.
But here's the thing, ultimately.
This is why you should do it.
Not because it pleases your parents
and not because it will make your life go better,
though it will,
but ultimately because it pleases the Lord.
The sovereign God who made you
and loves you and left heaven
to come to earth to rescue you
actually finds joy
when you honor and obey your parents.
Do it not because your parents are cool.
They're probably not.
Do it because it pleases the Lord.
And parents,
don't be afraid
to require obedience of your kids.
You're helping them please the Lord.
Now, parents, you have a part to play in this as well.
It's possible, as Paul says in this passage,
to discourage your kids,
which the word kind of means
to suck the spirit right out of them.
When we're overly harsh or demanding,
when we refuse to accept them
and praise them for who they are,
or what's worse,
when we compare them negatively to other kids,
why can't you be more like your brother?
When we don't tune in to their desires and gifts
and instead try to relive our lives through them,
all of that in many other ways
is a form of provoking them.
And Paul's very insightful here.
He says,
it will shut them down.
Now, I know that a lot of parents
feel pretty much perpetual guilt
because we feel like we're messing up
constantly with our kids.
And let me just say this morning
that the grace of Christ
covers even your parenting mess-ups.
And God hasn't made a mistake
in giving you as the parent to your kids.
God knows what he's doing.
And rather than beating yourself up,
think of a way you can encourage your kids this week.
Pick something they've worked hard at,
even if they haven't done a great job.
Pick something they've worked hard at
or that you appreciate about them
and tell them how proud you are of them
and how much you're thankful for them.
Now, look, they might respond with a,
yeah, sure, whatever, Dad.
Whatever, Mom.
But it will mean more than you think.
It will be the seed that gets sown.
Well, let's move on to the third relationship,
servants and masters.
Now, we won't be able to spend a lot of time here.
And there are some good applications
that we can make to our own modern workplaces,
the relationship between employers and employees.
But rather than kind of go into all that,
maybe that's something you can talk about
over lunch or later this week.
I want to say a quick word about a question
that comes up in relation to this passage
and others like it in the New Testament.
And that question is,
is Paul approving of slavery here?
He's talking to slaves and masters.
Is he okay with it?
Well, the short answer to that question is no.
But let me unpack that with three points.
First, in this passage,
and others like it in the New Testament,
Paul is giving practical advice
on how to live within the existing social conditions
of the day,
not commenting directly on the rightness
or wrongness of slavery itself.
In other words, he's saying,
look, here's where you find yourself.
Here's how to live in that situation.
He's not saying,
here's what I think of slavery.
So it's wrong to think that Paul's description
of how to live under a certain fallen human system
equals an approval of the system itself.
The Bible has a lot to say
about how to bear up under persecution,
but it's not very positive
or approving of persecution of Christians.
Second,
when we hear the word slavery today,
we can't help but think
of 18th and 19th century
race-based chattel slavery.
And when we look at the New Testament,
when we look at Paul's writings,
we find that he explicitly condemns
at least two of the main features
of that evil institution.
First, the New Testament is very clear
that racism in all forms is wrong.
Both in creation and in redemption,
the Bible teaches us
that people of all racial and ethnic backgrounds
are equal.
And in fact,
the vision of heaven
that we have in Revelation
is of people of every tribe
and tongue and nation
united around the throne of God
and praise on equal terms.
So racism is clearly condemned
by Paul in the rest of the New Testament.
And in 1 Timothy 1, verse 10,
Paul explicitly condemns
what he calls enslavers,
who are people
who would take someone captive
in order to sell them into slavery.
Which is what so much
of our 17th, 18th, 19th century
institution of slavery
was based on.
And Paul in the rest of the Bible
comes right out and says,
that is utterly, utterly wrong.
So Paul would have flatly condemned
what we think of as slavery today.
Third point.
Slavery in Paul's day
had a much broader meaning
than it does today.
For example,
in the first century,
slaves could own property.
Many could earn enough money
to purchase their own freedom.
Some were given positions
of relative honor
in the families that they served.
However,
even with that being the case,
what Paul and the other apostles
taught in the gospel
eventually led
to the dismantling
and the abolishment
of all forms of slavery.
Just consider the passage here
in Colossians for a second.
What is the underlying message
of Paul's advice
to servants and masters?
It's that they ultimately
all have one master in heaven,
the Lord Jesus.
Ultimately,
they serve the same master
and must both answer to him.
And their heavenly Lord Jesus
demands,
in chapter 4, verse 1,
that earthly masters
treat their servants
with justice
and equity
to view them
with equal dignity
and respect
not just as God's
image bearers
in creation
but also as fellow heirs
of the kingdom of God
in redemption.
Now, friends,
how on earth
could one
continue to treat
a fellow image bearer
and co-heir
of the kingdom of God
justly
and fairly
while still owning them
as a slave?
As the implications
of the gospel
were unpacked,
as the seed
took root
and grew,
slavery would have
to fall.
So the gospel
planted the seeds
that eventually
brought the system down.
Let's conclude
by zooming out
once again.
Throughout the passage,
there's a constant refrain,
isn't there?
Seven times
in this short passage,
Paul speaks
of the Lord.
Husbands and wives,
do what's fitting
in the Lord.
Parents and children,
do what's pleasing
to the Lord.
Servants should work
ultimately for the Lord
and not for men.
And earthly masters
should remember
that they too
have a master,
the Lord Jesus in heaven
and there's no
partiality with him.
What reframes
and reorients
all of our relationships,
even and especially
our household relationships,
is our relationship
to the Lord Jesus.
Jesus.
After all,
don't these commands
require that we lay down
our selfishness
and serve the people
before us?
Where does the power
come from to do that?
Paul's been whispering it
and saying it
the whole time
from our relationship
with the Lord Jesus.
It's because the Lord Jesus
willingly submitted himself
to the Father's will for us
that wives can willingly
submit to their husbands
in Christ.
It's because the Lord Jesus
loved us
and gave himself for us
that husbands can love
and lay down their lives
for their wives.
It's because the Lord Jesus
obeyed his heavenly Father
perfectly on our behalf
that we can seek to please him
by obeying our earthly parents.
It's because the Lord Jesus
is so gentle
and caring with us,
never breaking the bruised reed,
never quenching
the smoldering wick,
that we can be gentle
and understanding
with our children.
It's because the Lord Jesus
humbled himself
and took on the form
of a servant
dying on the cross for us
that even when we find ourselves
in situations of injustice,
we can still be faithful
under it
and serve the Lord Jesus.
It's because the Lord
has liberated us
from our sins
and freed us
from guilt and condemnation,
set us free
that we can treat others
with justice and fairness
even to the point
of setting them free
at great cost to ourselves.
And so the whole
of the Christian life,
even down to our most basic
relationships in the home,
are meant to flow out
of who Christ is
and what he's done.
And that means
knowing Christ
and being in him
transfigures
and transforms
even our most mundane
relationships
and makes them windows
and displays
of his glorious grace.
Do you know what that's like?
More importantly,
have you experienced
his grace for yourself?
Perhaps this morning
as you've been walking
through this text,
God's been moving
on your heart
and perhaps you've been
considering how far short
you fall
of what real
God-honoring relationships
are supposed to look like.
Perhaps you realize
that the ones
you're closest to
are the ones
you've hurt the most.
And when that starts
to sink in,
you start to wonder,
could God ever forgive me?
And is it possible
to have this new life?
Well, friends,
hear the good news
of the gospel.
That in Christ,
there is full
and free forgiveness.
And you,
who were dead
in trespasses,
Paul says in Colossians,
God made alive
together with him
having forgiven us
all our trespasses
by canceling
the record of debt
that stood against us
with its legal demands.
This,
he set aside,
nailing it
to the cross.
All of your wrongs,
all of your failures,
all the ways
in which you've hurt
those closest to you,
Christ has taken,
nailed to his own cross,
and borne away
so that you can have
his righteousness
and forgiveness
and freedom
and new life.
That is true
for all who place
their faith in Christ.
And that invitation
stands open
for you today
to place your trust
in him
and to receive
his forgiveness
and new life.
And as we celebrate
baptism this morning,
it's right for us
who've been baptized
to remember
our baptism,
to remember
what it signifies
and what it means
that we've died
and risen with Christ,
that the old is gone,
that the new has come,
and in remembering
that to be hopeful.
Perhaps you're discouraged
this morning
at how your household
relationships have been,
Christian.
Perhaps you don't see
much of Christ
in them at the moment.
But don't despair.
What small,
mustard seed-like act
can you take today,
take this week,
in the power
of the Holy Spirit
to begin sowing
toward Christ-like
relationships?
You have put off
the old self.
You have put on
the new.
You are a new creation
in Christ.
Live into that
this week.
Perhaps the first step
is to seek forgiveness
from the family member
that you've been failing
to relate to
in the way Paul
shows us here.
Perhaps it's to finally
grant forgiveness
to that family member
and to begin again
in the grace of Christ.
And as the parable
of Jesus reminds us,
we must never
underestimate
these small acts
of submission,
of love,
of patience,
of kindness,
of obedience.
These are the things
that grow.
That grow like mustard seeds
until our homes
and all of our relationships
become like mighty trees
with branches spreading out,
offering shade
and shelter
in our weary world.
Imagine if our households
could radiate
with the grace of Christ
like this passage
talks about.
Surely our neighbors
would be intrigued
and attracted
to what they see,
wouldn't they?
Surely the church
would be strengthened
and blessed
by the overflow of grace.
Surely Christ would be honored
as we do it all
in his name.
But it doesn't just
end at home.
It keeps going.
The call for us
in our baptism
and our discipleship
of Christ
and our life together
as a church
is to take this grace
into all of our relationships,
into every corner of life,
to keep going
until you find
that whatever you do
in word or deed,
you do everything
in the name
of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks
to God the Father
through him
and then all of life
becomes a display
of his glorious grace.
Let's pray.
Father, we confess
this morning
that many parts
of this passage
strike us as hard.
Lord, just as it was
a countercultural word
in Paul's day,
so it is for ours.
Would you help us, Lord,
to have hearts
that are shaped
and humbled
and empowered
by your Holy Spirit
to see the goodness
in these words,
to know that we can
trust you?
Lord, how could we
not trust you
having sent your own son
to die for us?
How can you not
have our best in mind?
Help us to see
the goodness
in these words, God,
and help us
by your Spirit
to lay aside
the selfishness
and the old ways
that would want us
to continue to live
for ourselves
and help us
to put on the new self
to live lives
of love and peace
and thanksgiving
with those
who are closest to us?
And Father,
as we celebrate
baptism this morning,
we pray
that this joyous occasion
would speak assurance
to the hearts
of Chuck
and Daniel
and Gary
and Lord,
to all of us
this morning.
We pray this,
Father,
in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Well, friends,
let's do just that.
Let me invite
Charles and Daniel
and Gary
to come on up.
Come on up, guys.
So Gary and Daniel
are going to share
their testimony.
Chuck's testimony
is in the bulletin.
You can see it there.
He shares there
that he grew up