Redeemed and Reconciled

 Read Colossians 1

I am going to tell you a whole bunch of things that you already know.  Don’t check out mentally or just go home.  Instead, remember that God takes all things and works them for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose.

Yes, that’s from Paul’s letter to the Romans, but keep it bouncing around in your mind while we begin this new study of the Colossians.

Paul again was writing from Rome in some sort of imprisonment.  He likely wrote this letter before he wrote to the churches in Ephesus and Philippi.  His letter to the Galatians was penned more than a decade earlier.

Why are Paul’s letters in this order?  They are organized by length in most of your Bibles.  You can get Bibles that put the books Chronologically if you want them that way, but for the purposes of our study of these four books, the letter to the Colossians was probably written a little before the one to Philippi and about the same time as the one to Ephesus.

Do you remember on which missionary journey it was that Paul went to establish the church in Colossae?  Yes, it’s a trick question.  Paul did not establish this church.  It was a missionary effort of the church in Ephesus.

Epaphras was likely the main church planter.  Understand that this was a church that Paul did not start, that he had not visited, and that was something of a second-generation body of believers.  Those who believed the gospel that Paul had shared with them shared with others in another town and they came to believe.

The church was growing beyond the impact of these first apostles, in this case Paul. The church in Rome was also such a church but we look to Paul’s counsel to these believers in Asia Minor—hard core pagan country—at this time.

Paul acknowledged early in this letter that the gospel was moving well beyond the places that Paul had touched.

Paul addresses these Colossian believers as holy and faithful brothers in Christ.  He greeted them with grace and peace. This is a warm letter to beloved followers of Christ Jesus, most of whom Paul has never met.

Paul tells these believers that he continues to pray for them.  Those in ministry continued to pray for them.  They prayed that this body of believers receive knowledge, wisdom, and understanding so that they may live a life worth of the calling that they have received. OK, that’s the way Paul put it to the Ephesians.

Here Paul says so that they (also we) might live a life worthy of the Lord and pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work.

Paul doesn’t stop there.  He adds that they (we) might grow in the knowledge of God, be strengthened in his power, so that you will have great endurance and patience and joyfully give thanks to the Father in heaven who qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints.

Consider that qualified means that God did it all.  Jesus paid it all.  All to him I owe.  We are saved by grace through faith so that none of us can boast that we did anything to earn our salvation.  God himself qualified us for salvation.

We are not only saved from sin and death; we are part of the Kingdom of God.  That’s our home. By now, you should see some strong connections among the letters to Ephesus, Philippi, and now Colossae.

We know Christ is the one and only Son of the one true God.  He is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.  He is the first born of all creation.  He is the head of the church.

At the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and this will be to the glory of God.

But Jesus is also the image of the invisible God. He makes visible to us that which is not visible to us—holy God.

Jesus told his disciples that because they had seen him, they had seen the Father. 

Where is all of this leading?  It’s bringing us to an understanding that Jesus didn’t die on the cross just to save humankind.  His sacrifice was to reconcile all things to himself—to the image of the invisible God.

He reconciled all things to himself—the head of the church, the one who is at the right hand of the Father, and the only one who ever fulfilled the law and was qualified to take away our sin and make us right with God once and for all.

But not just us.  Not just on earth.  Not just Hebrews who had professed Jesus as Lord. The blood of Jesus reconciled every vile and rebellious thing to himself. 

Think to our human nature—our sinful human nature if you will.  When we are at odds with someone, our first nature is to be right.  Being right is more desirable than being reconciled.  That’s why we don’t see much reconciliation in this world. It is not our nature.

But it is God’s nature.  We were at odds with God, enemies if you will.  God was right and there was no argument.  We deserved wrath.  We deserved condemnation.  God chose to redeem us and he desired that the entire creation be reconciled to him.

We deserved wrath.  We received redemption and reconciliation.  OBTW—we didn’t earn any of it.

We may not see this reconciliation yet, but the work is done.

It’s hard to understand everything reconciled to him when we have tornadoes and earthquakes and drought. That doesn’t seem like reconciliation.

It’s hard to visualize all things reconciled to him when people do not value life from inception to old age. You would think that all would value life.

It’s hard to conceptualize that all things are reconciled to him while this sinful human nature wants to regain a place of prominence in our lives. Will the good work that he began in us not be complete?

But we must realize and embrace that the work on the cross was a work for redemption and reconciliation.  It is finished!

One day, all will see it.  Today, we must embrace it and live according to the law of love.

We must know that at one time we too were enemies of God.  Until we professed Jesus as Lord, we were God’s enemies.

We were sinners and we were saved by grace but we are redeemed and reconciled to God in the blood of Jesus.

We were:

·       Sinners

·       Saved by grace

We are:

·       Redeemed

·       Reconciled to God

·       A new creature

Do you remember Paul’s paradox—already done but not yet?  We are made perfect by God but we are still living as a work in progress.  God’s work to make us right is done.  We are still working on living up to that right standing.

It is the same thing with his reconciliation.  We—the whole creation—is reconciled through the work on the cross.  We are living out our lives in anticipation of its full manifestation but make no mistake, the work is done.

You might be thinking, Tom just preached a whole bunch of stuff that I already knew. You will get no argument from me on that point. In fact, I told you in advance that I was going to do that and I’m glad this was not the first time that you heard most of this.

For the moment, while all of these things are being refreshed in your mind, consider that God was pleased to have his fulness dwell in his Son.  The fulness of God the Father was manifested in Jesus the Son. 

In Christ we have all that we need. He and the Spirit act in total accord with the Father but we seek to live a Christ centered life. The term Christology is frequently used with this letter.

A basic definition would be the study of Christ, but it’s more of the centrality of Christ in everything.  The fullness of God was within him.

John’s gospel tells us that it was this way at the creation.  Now understand it was and is this way for redemption and reconciliation.

We understand that we are saved from sin and from death but do we understand that we are no longer enemies of God, not by what we have done but that through Christ we are reconciled to God.

It’s not like, you are saved but you are still scum.  We are redeemed.  We are reconciled.  Through Christ and in Christ we are made to live in right relationship with God.

The will of God has been accomplished on the cross.  The creation has been redeemed and reconciled.  Our response is to live as redeemed men and women in a new creation.

We have not yet seen the new heaven and new earth  but we are a new creation qualified to live in God’s Kingdom.

Eye has not seen and ear has not heard what the Lord God has in store for us, but it is in store for us as God planned all along. The work is done.  Our inheritance is set. We are a new creature and a new heaven and new earth await us.

The world looks like a complete mess but God has reconciled everything to him.  Live out your salvation knowing that there is harmony and accord in store for you.

We have a glimpse, a taste, a deposit of what is in store for us.  Let that be enough for us to live a life of love in response to the grace and peace that has been bestowed upon us by almighty God through the person of Christ Jesus.

Consider all of the turmoil and hurt and pain and hatred and contempt and rebellion and apathy that you have known in this world, not to mention the bad hair days. Consider the wars and carnage and devastation that you have seen wrought upon this world.

Consider the proliferation of lying and deceit and falsehood seeking to overcome the truth.

The world deserves the wrath of God but God desires redemption and reconciliation. The work required for these things has all been done by God himself.  He has made you a new creature.  Will you trust him that he has made a new creation for you to dwell in?

Trust him in the turmoil.

Trust him with rebellion all around you.

Trust him even when the world hates you for it.

Trust him.  Through Christ Jesus all things have been reconciled to God. Show God that you trust him.

Live as the new creature he made you to be.

Live a life of love in response to salvation and redemption that you know in the blood of Jesus.

Live with joy in your heart.

Live with peace that only God can give.

Live knowing that God has reconciled all things to himself.  The day will come when we will see this for ourselves.

Today, we see as through a glass darkly, but one day we shall see fully. Yes, I took that phrase from Paul writing about love to a church in the middle of turmoil in desperate need of reconciliation. It fits here as well.

Today, we are called to live as a new creature in a new creation  trusting God through Christ that we will see everything reconciled to him one day.

We will see what Christ has already accomplished.

Amen.

The Image of the invisible God

 Read Colossians 1

We discussed before who might be with Paul at this time.  From this letter, we see that Timothy is with him as he writes to the church in Colossae.  He isn’t there the entire time as Paul later writes two letters to Timothy, but Paul often uses the term we in his letters.

This time it includes Timothy.  It might have also included others who came to Christ on his journey to Rome.  There may have been some come to Jesus moments that went along with the shipwreck on that trip.  We might have meant part of Caesar’s guard that had come to Christ.  It could have been others who came to see Paul and carried letters and messages to him and for him.

Perhaps there were those from the church in Rome who spent time with him.  He had written this church about 5 years earlier.  We sometimes refer to that letter as the Gospel According to Paul.

In any case, Paul was imprisoned in Rome and continued to minister to those around him in person and to those elsewhere by messenger and letter.

In the case of the letter to the Colossians, Paul had never been to this church.  He did not start it.  It grew up out of the outreach of the church in Ephesus. The gospel was on the move even though many of the original apostles had been exiled, put to death, or soon would be executed for their faith.

Commentaries tell us that this letter has more Christology than the other New Testament writings.  What’s that mean?  It talks more about the central and governing nature of Christ to our relationship with God and each other.

For now, let’s think about one of those Christ-centered themes.

He is the image of the invisible God.

How can we see the image of something or someone who is invisible? 

We are told that God is Spirit; yet Jesus came in the flesh.   Jesus said that if you have seen him, then you have seen the Father.  He told his disciples this before he went to the cross.

After the resurrection, he told Thomas, you believe because you see.  Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.

Jesus made an analogy with the wind and the Spirit when Nicodemus came to see him.  You can’t see the wind, but you know it’s there.

We understand what follows in this chapter.  Jesus is supreme.  He is over all things.  He was there at the beginning.  The fullness of the Father dwells in the Son.  He was the first born from the dead. Through him, all things are reconciled. Through him we are redeemed.

We get those concepts.  We embrace that theology.  But how do we see what is invisible?  We were not there two millennia ago. We have not seen, yet we believe.

But how do we see the image of the invisible God?

We are told that God is love. Jesus—God in the flesh—is the ultimate manifestation of that love.

But how do we see this invisible God?  By obeying his command to love one another. 

Paul is writing to a church that did not see Jesus or did not hear the gospel from one of the original apostles.  He could have been writing to us.

We are told in Hebrews to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus the author and finisher of our faith. We can see Jesus no more than we can see the invisible God in which we trust, so what are we seeing?

It’s love.  It’s love for God and love for one another.  It’s God’s love manifest for us in the blood of Jesus. 

If you want to see God, see Jesus, or see the Spirit, you must respond to the grace that you know in love. 

Love for those you call friends and love for those who might just be your enemies.

Love for those most like you and for those least like you.

Love for those who grew up in the church and for those who rebelled against God and the church.

Christ died for all.  If you want to see Christ who is the image of the invisible God, you must have eyes to see a creation that Christ reconciled to himself.  Our carnal eyes cannot see this.  Our human nature continues to judge, but if we will take on a Christ nature, we will have eyes to see.

Want to see God?

Want to see Jesus?

Respond to God’s mercy and grace in love and you will see that which cannot be seen by carnal eyes.

Respond to God’s mercy and grace by living a life of love and you will have eyes to see the image of the invisible God.

Amen.

You better THINK

 Read Philippians 4

 

Rejoice in the Lord always. Rejoice in the Lord.  If Paul thinks he should say it twice, who am I to argue.

Don’t be anxious.  Don’t worry about anything.

Be thankful.

Present everything to God in prayer and petition.

OK, I get it.  Thanksgiving, prayer, joy, and not being anxious, I get it, but how do I keep my mind from wandering? How do I focus on the right things?

I used to counsel inmates who had drug problems and sometimes they would be close to getting out—their release date, not a well-thought-out escape plan.

I would begin with open-ended questions.  What are you going to do?

It was a well-rehearsed response.  I won’t use drugs or alcohol. I’m staying away from bad influences. I may have to move to someplace new.  I will get a job. I will take care of my kids.

These, of course, were all the right answers, but mostly worthless answers.  I had follow-up questions.

Where will you live?  Parents? Half-way house? A clean and sober friend? What about your wife and kids?

What jobs are available where you want to go?  Back in those days, you actually had to look for a job as opposed to now when nobody wants to work and jobs are everywhere.

Drugs or alcohol were a big part of your life, what will replace them?

At this point, I have become the mean guy.  I’m asking questions that have been avoided for years.  Welcome to the club.  I will do the same this morning.

Consider Paul’s words.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.  Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Those are some good words—downright poetic, don’t you think—but do they have any value for us?  Of course, they do, they are from the Bible, right?

Whether they have value for us depends on how we put them into practice.  Will we make them fit into what we are already doing, or will we use them as a model and a filter for our decisions?

Is this the right choice?  In the light of all truth, will it honor God?  Will it bring glory to God or is it just what I want?

Am I just satisfying my own ego and desires?

What are these words—noble, pure, admirable, excellent, praiseworthy?

Paul gives us familiar words to frame our response to grace, what he called working out your salvation.

Is it noble to cuss out someone?  Usually not.

Are my motives pure when I am only considering my anger about a situation?  Probably not.

Hold on.  I’ve got this next one.  I do a lot of things that are considered admirable. Admirable by whom?  By the world or by God?

Many of you are thinking, those inmates were right.  He is the mean guy.  Why does he ask us to think so much?  I’ll go with my gut, even though it may really be my ego and anger or even my fear that I am calling intuition.

I’ve got this next one—whatever is excellent.  I don’t do anything half-hearted, half-way, half-whatever.

Oh no, here comes the follow-up.  Does that include forgiveness?  Does that include loving your enemies? Does that include helping someone carry their load even if we don’t like that someone?

I know.  I’m just the mean guy. Actually, I’m just asking you to read what Paul wrote with special attention to the main verb—think.

What about praiseworthy?  You have already figured this one out.  Praiseworthy in God’s eyes or in man’s eyes?  It can be both.  Some things that we choose to do can be both.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.  Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Paul’s counsel here is to think on these things.  These are your mental boundaries.  This is your paradigm—your navigational framework. Think within that framework.

You still need to do the thinking. I don’t mean just memorizing the verse.  Think!  I might decide to do my Aretha Franklin special now.

Paul noted that he had given both counsel and an example.  Now it was the church in Philippi’s turn to work these out—to work out their salvation with a general framework and a filter for their decisions.

So, his counsel is both guidance and post-decision filter with a very demanding verb--think. If you have even studied ethics, you find that you have ethical guidance but you also apply an ethical filter on the back end to validate or invalidate what you thought was ethical.  In the case of Paul’s counsel, we use his words as a filter to see if we are applying good thinking.

For God did not give us a spirit of fear but of power, love, and a sound mind.

Paul challenges us to work out our salvation using our sound minds.  If it’s the most important thing we will do—remember our discussion about fear and trembling—then it’s worth using our sound minds and even investing the time to think.

Yes, just call me the mean guy, asking you to think in a world given to emotional responses labeled as thinking and blinded to the red herrings and nonsequiturs that roam so freely in modern discourse.

When you are hating on me in your hearts and minds, remember, Paul is the one challenging you to think.  I agree with him, but you might just have to contend with two mean guys.

So, when you are having lunch this week or taking a break from working in the heat and someone asks you what was the sermon about, you can say that you were challenged to take the counsel of the Bible and think.  You are challenged to think.

Amen.

Don't Worry. Be Joyful!

 Read Philippians 4

As we come to the last part of this letter, we see that Paul loves this church and they love him.  They sent him a gift and he has been provisioned for his time in Rome.

We see Paul encouraging these believers to follow the model of Christ—who gave up all to die for our sins.  This is the model that Paul seeks to follow and he encourages this church to do the same.

Paul told this church body that as they contend with those who are preaching Jesus Plus, use his example to stop them in their tracks.  If they want a measuring contest, Paul can give them one, but everything on Paul’s resume that the Jesus Plus group would count as something important, Paul counts for loss as far as right standing with God. 

Paul had the better religious resume, but he counted it for nothing as far as right-standing with God goes.

Only the blood of Jesus gets you to right standing with God.  There is a lifelong discourse and course of practice in discipleship that follows, but only by grace through faith are we saved. 

There is one more thing of note about the church in Philippi.  Two women of some standing in the congregation were arguing and evidently, it was disruptive enough that the church in Philippi thought Paul should know about it.

We don’t get to see the session minutes from the church in Philippi, but we see how Paul addressed the matter.

He didn’t say, send me sworn statements.

He didn’t say, send me the preliminary inquiry conducted into the matter.

He didn’t even ask for the CSI report.

He wrote that he asked each of these women to reconcile with each other, without regard to the matter itself.

 

This had to be tough for these ladies to swallow, for when you are on a quest to be right, it is hard to know the right path to follow.

Thus, Paul asked the body of believers to assist in the matter.  What matter? Was it the color of the carpet or the frequency of serving the Lord’s Supper? Was it how we baptize or the color of the dishwashers in the kitchen?  We don’t know.

We don’t know, but Paul thought that reconciliation with each other and with the body was worth addressing. He appealed to both women—ladies who had been a part of the church-building effort while Paul was in Philippi—to be of one mind in the Lord.

What’s that mean?  Set aside individual egos and agendas and seek the will of God.  Start by saying, “It’s not all about me.”

Consider the previous counsel to regard others more highly than ourselves.

Paul was saying, we have bigger fish to fry.  We are on a mission from God.  Whatever it is that is getting in the way of running your race of faith, deal with it, and get back in your race.

Time is of the essence. You have purposeful things to do.  How can you press on towards the goal when you are at odds with each other?

Next come words that applied to these women, to the church at Phillip, to the church at large, and very much to the church as we near the end of the age.

Rejoice in the Lord always!

Paul didn’t say rejoice in your paycheck.

He didn’t say rejoice in your extra federal holiday.

He didn’t say rejoice in the fact that gas is twice as high in California.

He said to rejoice in the Lord.  The Greek word for rejoice is χαίρω (chairó).  Essentially, it means glad for grace.  The Greek words for rejoice, joy, and grace are what we call cognates.  They all have the same etymological connections.

They all proceed from the favor of the Lord.

When Paul speaks of rejoicing, it’s more than if you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands.  It is the joy that proceeds from living in the favor of the Lord.

There are many commentaries and essays about joy and happiness, but they proceed from our modern linguistics.   They are worthy of some thought, but seek the roots of rejoicing.  They come from the favor of God.

Our joy is not in our wealth or in our circumstances or in what’s for lunch.  Our joy is in the Lord; therefore, we should rejoice in the Lord. We can be happy with our circumstances or with our lunch but our joy in life comes from living in the favor of God.

Imagine if you will, that your joy is in your paycheck.  Imagine that your joy is in your good looks.  Imagine that your joy is in your new outfit or your new car or your new job.

You don’t have to imagine.  Look all around you as people think they have found happiness in their new relationship, even though they just broke up two days ago, or if you check the Facebook page of high school kids, they went from losing the life-long love of their life to finding a new one in two hours.

Look around you at people who think they found happiness in their fancy new car and then get their fancy new insurance bill and fancy new OMG surprise at the pump, not to mention that first ding on the driver’s side door.

Look around you at people so excited about how much money they make only to find out that now they crave something more.

We all experience these sorts of things but we don’t all bank on these things bringing us joy in the world.  Our joy is in the Lord.

Does that mean we never have one moment of sorrow?  No, the psalmist recognizes that we are still human, but in that humanity, we seek the divine joy of the Lord.

Sorrow may last for the night but joy comes in the morning.

 

But even so, sometimes we worry.  We worry mostly about things that are beyond our control.  We worry instead of praying.  We worry and get nothing good in return.

Paul notes what God has noted in so many messages to us—don’t worry.  Worry cannot add one hour to your life.  Worry doesn’t put a roof over your head or food on the dining room table.

Worry only works against you.  Don’t do it.  Listen to Paul’s words.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Don’t worry.  Don’t be anxious.  Don’t fret over anything. 

Yes, you are late on your rent payments.  The price of gas has gone up.  Groceries have gone up. I don’t know what my test results will say. I live in tornado alley. The murder hornets are on their way, and this time they are stopping and asking for directions.

 Worry won’t help.  What do we do, then?

Pray.  In everything by prayer and petition.  We do what the hymn says.  We take it to the Lord in prayer.

We bring every situation and circumstance to the Lord.  We come first with a spirit of gratefulness and thanksgiving, for we know that our joy is in the Lord.  Our salvation is in the Lord. God loves us with an everlasting love.

While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  Thank you, Lord. 

Before we offer up the things that trouble us, we offer our thanks for the things that have been done for us.  God himself took away our sin and make us right with him.  Thank you, Lord.  Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! If we consider all that God has done for us, we will be thankful, even when our human nature tells us to worry.

Now that we have come in this spirit of thankfulness, here’s some other stuff that I am struggling with.  Yes, that includes ending a sentence with a preposition.

Give it all to God and be thankful that you have such a loving and understanding God to give it to.  Be thankful that our God is faithful and just to forgive. 

Come to him with thanksgiving and praise and then confidently ask him for what you need.  Guess what?  He already knows.  He is answering your prayers before you know what to pray.

How will God respond?

He will give you peace that you can’t understand.  He will give you peace even though he might not give you what you asked for in your prayer.

His peace will guard your hearts and minds. The joy that we know in the Lord is a close friend with the peace that we have in the Lord.

The promise is not that you will figure out all of the answers to all of your troubles, but that you may enjoy the Lord’s peace even when you can’t find one answer to one of your problems.

There is a meme going around that I see a lot on veteran’s sites.  Stay away from those sites unless you have served.  You will find the humor of those who have spent time under fire to be a little off-center to be polite.  I fit right in.

There is also a lot of encouragement on those sites for we still lose 22 veterans a day to suicide.  The meme that I speak of reminds us that we have survived 100% of our worst days.  Hang in there for one more.

Paul reminds us that our joy is in the Lord and our peace is in the Lord.  Jesus said that we would have trouble in the world, but to take courage for he has overcome the world.

We cannot be anchored to our trials and troubles.  They are part of our journey.  Our trust in the Lord through these trials and tribulations is what defines our character.

Jesus told us that his yoke is easy and his burden is light We were never meant to carry the loads that some of us carry.  Give these troubles to the Lord and receive his peace.  It is a peace that goes beyond what we can understand but a peace that guards us at the core.  It guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Our joy is in the Lord.

Our peace is in the Lord.

Troubles belong to the world and Jesus has overcome the world.

Bobby McFerrin took a crack at this.

Here's a little song I wrote

You might want to sing it note for note

Don't worry, be happy

In every life we have some trouble

When you worry you make it double

Don't worry, be happy

Don't worry, be happy now

There’s more, but I won’t sing it all.

The landlord say your rent is late

He may have to litigate

Don't worry, be happy

This is one of those tunes for which it is easy to make up your own lyrics. I will spare you mine and just remind you of Paul’s counsel.

Be anxious for nothing.

Live in the joy of the Lord.

Receive the peace of the Lord.

Respond in love as your live out your salvation.

Now it’s on to the Colossians.

Amen.

Testimonies not Resumes

 Read Philippians 3

Why are there so many unhappy and angry people in the world today?  That’s simple.  They grew up with the wrong music.  They were not here for the sixties and seventies.

Why are so many people walking around in Walmart in pajamas or down the street with their rear ends hanging out?  Once again, that’s an easy answer.  They didn’t grow up with bellbottoms and white shoes.  How could they possibly have any fashion sense?

There is a Bruce Springsteen song called Glory Days.  It’s about meeting an old friend by chance and having a few drinks in a bar.  The topic of their conversation was times gone past—glory days.

In fact I think I'm going down to the well tonight

And I'm gonna drink till I get my fill

And I hope when I get old I don't sit around thinking about it

But I probably will

Yeah, just sitting back trying to recapture

A little of the glory yeah

Well time slips away and leaves you with nothing, mister, but

Boring stories of

Glory days, well they'll pass you by

Glory days, in the wink of a young girl's eye

Glory days, glory days

Yes, note today’s date on your calendars, phones, or Bibles.  Tom worked Bruce Springsteen into the sermon.  Remember, that this song was from his days as the Boss, before he was woke and wanted guys to be able to use the women’s restroom.

I have a friend that I went to High School with long ago.  We meet up about once a year for one reason or another, but somehow one baseball game comes up every time.

It was the second round of the baseball playoffs.  We were playing Weatherford, who would go on to win State.  I was up first in the second inning.  I hit a line drive into the outfield.  There was no outfield fence.  As I was coming into third, my coach signaled for me to stop.

I came into third standing and turned to see where the ball was.  It was just getting to the relay man in the outfield. Why did he hold me at third?  I will never know but that’s where I ended the inning as the pitcher struck out the next 3 batters.

The game remained scoreless until the last inning.  Weatherford had gotten a runner to second base with two outs.  The next batter hit what appeared to be a routine fly ball to centerfield.  I was in left field and started running to back up the centerfielder—who was a vacuum cleaner on defense—except on that day on that fly ball.

He was a deer in the headlights.  He lost the ball.  I changed direction and ran straight for the ball. I was running as hard as I could and thought I might have a play on the ball. I stretched out as far as I could but was a couple feet short.  I slid across the grass for a ways and when I could look back, I saw that the center fielder had caught the ball on the bounce.

The crowd noise told me everything else.  We lost one to nothing to the team that won state that year.

Anytime that I get together with my friend—whether it’s to talk insurance, at a funeral, or at the alumni banquet, we are required by some universal law to relive that game.

Paul is still contending with the Judaizers—those who want to add conditions to the salvation that came through Christ Jesus.  Circumcision, obedience to the law, and observing feasts of the Lord were among the top contenders.

We have been here before.  There is nothing wrong with circumcision.  It was very important to those whose bloodline went back to Abraham.

Obeying the directives of the Lord is good.  Observing the feasts of the Lord is good, but none of these are a condition of salvation.

Paul put it this way to the church in Philippi, and to us. When they tell you that salvation in Christ alone isn’t enough, give them the example of my life.

If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more:  circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.

Paul noted that he checked every block.  He didn’t miss anything and he was at the top of his class. He could look back and sing Glory Days. But what were all of these achievements and accolades worth? What did all of these glory days add up to?

But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.

The word that is translated here as garbage is skubalon.  The King James Version calls it dung.  In these parts, we call it manure. 

Paul tells us that all of the things that those who are vested in their resumes have, he has also, but values them as worthless so far as right standing with God goes.

Only in the blood of Jesus are we made right with God.  Paul counted all these things as having no value with regard to his standing with God.  He did not disown these things.

He was still a Jew.  He was still circumcised.  He still observed many aspects of the law, including some feasts. He knew his Hebrew lineage.

He was still a Pharisee.  None of these gave him a better status with God, but he would use these things to advance the gospel.

When a Pharisee came to town, he would have access to the synagogue or even the temple in Jerusalem.  Paul used his resume when it advanced the gospel, but he knew that whatever religious standing he might have that would impress men, meant nothing to God.

It was faith in Christ and faith alone that brought Paul to the same right standing he wanted for the believers in Philippi.  While the church in Philippi seemed to be doing well, it appeared that they too had to contend with those preaching Jesus Plus.

Just a side note, there was one more thing on Paul’s Curriculum Vitae that he put to use to advance the gospel.  It was his Roman citizenship.  That surely added nothing to his standing with God, but got him out of some beatings and out of prison and eventually to Rome itself.  Yes, the Roman government funded Paul’s fourth missionary journey.

Paul is calling believers—including us—not to put confidence in the things the world says are important to our relationship with God.

An elder or a pastor or a teacher is more about service than status.  Titles and positions and degrees are valuable only when attached to a testimony about how you used them to bring glory to God.

Paul challenges us to lean forward into our discipleship.  As we work out—live out—our salvation let’s press on towards the goal of bringing glory to God.

Paul has this interesting theme that we see on occasion.  God made me right with him, but I’m not there yet.

God did everything required to put me in right standing with him, but I am still working on living up to that right standing.

God already sees the masterpiece that he made us to be, but we get to live through this whole work-in-progress business.

What are we to do?  Lean forward.  Press on. Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus and the things of God.  That means we stop looking back.

We can sing Glory Days every once in a while, but our future, our hope, our destination lies in the Lord, Jesus Christ, and we lean into it when we move his way.

Our salvation is by grace through faith.  It’s all from God, but our response—our discipleship—compels us to press on and become the person that God already made us to be.

We press on towards the goal.  We lean into becoming the masterpiece that God has already made us to be.

People may see your resume, but God sees the heart.  If our hearts are listening to the Spirit that lives within us, we are pressing on towards lives that bring glory to God.

Let us live up to what we have already attained.

Amen.

 

Don't go native--Press On

 Read Philippians 3

In 1991, I was sent to Iraq and Kuwait as part of a United Nations mission that permitted most of the Coalition Forces to return home.  There were 20 American officers assigned to this mission.  Of those, 5 were Marine officers.  I was the senior officer.

As I went from Headquarters Marine Corps to the Pentagon and to Fort Meyer in the days preceding my flight to Southwest Asia, I received much support but little advice.  There was one piece of counsel that I did receive and remembered.  It was simple.

Don’t go native.

What did that mean?  Remember who you are.  You are not only an American but a Marine officer as well.  We have standards and it doesn’t matter that you are the senior officer for hundreds of miles around, you do what you know the Corps requires.

My citizenship was in the United States of America.  I was the example of an American officer, and a Marine officer.  I might have been a pain in the neck on occasion, ok, on multiple occasions.

Paul tells us:

Don’t go native.

This world is not your home.  Don’t adopt its customs and ways.  Don’t put stock in what the world says is important.  There is nothing wrong with having a few degrees hanging in your office.  There is nothing wrong with the door to your office reading: BOSS.

There is nothing wrong with being labeled an expert in your field.  There is nothing wrong with winning the spelling bee, though I have seen your text messages and I don’t think any of you had to deal with that accolade.

All of those things are just fine but they don’t define or compose or makeup who we are.  We are God’s handiwork and our part is to be a testimony for him. 

Our very lives are to be lived so we are his light and his love and a testimony to what God has done for us.  That also happens to be our commission.

We are the church, but who is the church.  What is the church?

The church is made up of those whom God has called out of the world, whom he set apart for himself, and whom he has now sent into the world as his emissaries and messengers and witnesses—as his disciples.

The world is where we serve.  It is not our home.

Our citizenship is in heaven.  The world is our mission field.

Yes, you have a house here.  You call it a home because you want it to be like the real home that God has prepared for you, but the dwelling that you live in now is only temporary.

You are a citizen of heaven.  Your citizenship is in God’s kingdom.  We belong to God and are sent into this world, but we don’t go native.

The tendency is for people—including Christians—to want to blend in with the world, with everyone around them.  Some want to stand out to attract attention for themselves and hopefully gain the world’s approval, but most just want to blend in, to go with the flow.

Paul reminds us that blending in with the world is going native.  We belong to God and our home is in his kingdom.

Sometimes, this whole work-in-progress thing gets us off course, but we must not forget that God already sees the masterpiece that he made us to be.

We must not forget we belong to God, so listen to Paul’s words as we close.

But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

It is time to start believing that we are the masterpiece that God made us to be.  We press on and work on being what God has already made us to be and trust him to finish that good work.

Amen.