· Web viewWhen Lord Baden-Powel formed the Scout movement he was responding to a national need...

161120The Evangelical Free Church, Warrensburg, MO --- Mel Johnson – 20 Nov 16

You are a minister of God’s Word and Grace. Attend to it!

Be Strong and PreparedColossians 1:11-20

(Luke 23:33-43 Scoffing at the Crucifixion)

Change happens… To deny change, to desire all to remain as it is, would be to stagnate and rot in place. However, there are changes that need not be, and some that must not be.

Life is a continual experience of sometimes subtle and sometimes extreme change. How are we to know what to accept and flow with, and what to challenge and to battle?

Three things are necessary: to know our own view of the world; to evaluate and strengthen that view, if it is valid; and to be aware of the influence of the changing world around us on that view.

We are to be strong in our faith, and prepared to meet the challenges that will come; physical, mental, emotional and spiritual.

Colossians 1 (MSG)1 1-2 I, Paul, have been sent on special assignment by Christ as part of God’s master plan. Together with my friend Timothy, I greet the Christians and stalwart followers of Christ who live in Colosse. May everything good from God our Father be yours!

Working in His Orchard

3-5 Our prayers for you are always spilling over into thanksgivings. We can’t quit thanking God our Father and Jesus our Messiah for you! We keep getting reports on your steady faith in Christ, our Jesus, and the love you continuously extend to all Christians. The lines of purpose in your lives never grow slack, tightly tied as they are to your future in heaven, kept taut by hope.

5-8 The Message is as true among you today as when you first heard it. It doesn’t diminish or weaken over time. It’s the same all over the world. The Message bears fruit and gets larger and stronger, just as it has in you. From the very first day you heard and recognized the truth of what

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God is doing, you’ve been hungry for more. It’s as vigorous in you now as when you learned it from our friend and close associate Epaphras. He is one reliable worker for Christ! I could always depend on him. He’s the one who told us how thoroughly love had been worked into your lives by the Spirit.

9-12 Be assured that from the first day we heard of you, we haven’t stopped praying for you, asking God to give you wise minds and spirits attuned to his will, and so acquire a thorough understanding of the ways in which God works. We pray that you’ll live well for the Master, making him proud of you as you work hard in his orchard. As you learn more and more how God works, you will learn how to do your work. We pray that you’ll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul—not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that he has for us.

13-14 God rescued us from dead-end alleys and dark dungeons. He’s set us up in the kingdom of the Son he loves so much, the Son who got us out of the pit we were in, got rid of the sins we were doomed to keep repeating.

Christ Holds It All Together

15-18 We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body.

18-20 He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he’s there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross.

21-23 You yourselves are a case study of what he does. At one time you all had your backs turned to God, thinking rebellious thoughts of him, giving him trouble every chance you got. But now, by giving himself completely at the Cross, actually dying for you, Christ brought you over to God’s side and put your lives together, whole and holy in his presence. You don’t walk away from a gift like that! You stay grounded and steady in that bond of trust, constantly tuned in to the Message, careful not to be distracted or diverted. There is no other Message—just this one. Every creature under heaven gets this same Message. I, Paul, am a messenger of this Message.

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Be strong and be prepared.

You may recognize the motto of the Boy Scouts: Be Prepared.

When Lord Baden-Powel formed the Scout movement he was responding to a national need for men who could be prepared for the possibility of war. He had seen the lack of skill and awareness among men in the Boer War in South Africa; and the wasteful loss of men who simply did not pay attention to their surroundings, who could not think beyond their next step.

A scout in warfare is one who knows how a place or person should look, and notices changes from the norm. In today’s warfare, the scout is trained to spot improvised explosive devices along a route of travel, or the presence of vehicles where they should not be, or the look of a person on a mission.

The Boy Scouts of the past were held to an Oath of commitment and a set of character identifiers.

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These are characteristics we all would do well to maintain.

Commitment and Character – Both are necessary in building strength and being prepared to face the challenges of life. Spiritual preparedness has eternal value not only for us personally, but for every person we might encounter along the way.

Can you recognize when a person is far from God? … Not if you don’t know what it’s like to be near to God.

The letters of Paul to the scattered churches of the Empire were God’s method of building and encouraging nearness to God. Each communication included encouragement, instruction, and warnings. A battle was and is being waged against powers that oppose the will and righteousness of God. The church at Colossae was under fire. A movement that would become known as Gnosticism was influencing the young believers, generating a separation of the people with a gap between the pride of knowledge and doubts of faith.

So, Paul writes:

Colossians 1:1-20 (ESV)

Greeting

1 Paul, an apostle (one sent, w/authority; one assigned a duty as personal representative) … an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, --- and Timothy our brother,

2 To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae:

Paul reminded them that they were saints, holy, dedicated and set apart for the works of God. He reminded them that they were to take on the character of God. He also reminded them that they were his brothers, having the same Father, and that they were joined together, truly connected as part of the body of Christ.

2 To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

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Grace denotes the favor of God. The word is used of things that produce well-being. It is the essence of God’s saving activity in Christ.

Peace is more than the absence of conflict. It characterizes wholeness, soundness in all aspects of life (economy, relationships, wisdom and knowledge; being content and able to receive).

Colossae was on the ancient trade route of the empires. It had been a crossroads of commerce and a place of influence, but a change in the road resulted in the decline of the city’s influence. Colossae had become little more than a market town in the Roman Empire.

Paul had probably travelled through Colossae at some point, but he did not have a personal acquaintance with the people. His knowledge of the church came through Epaphras, who had apparently founded the church at Colossae and who had a reputation of being a giant of prayer. It is said that Epaphras “in prayer knew how to lay all before the Lord, and laboring in secret, made the saints to be perfect and complete in their standing through his kneeling.”

The letter to the church at Colossae, as with the letter to the Ephesians, was to confront the growing influence of heretical teachers in the church who claimed to have knowledge through mystical experience.

These teachers claimed to be Christians, but they taught a system of philosophy that demeaned Christ. They considered themselves to be an enlightened elite, empowered to know the “mysteries” of God.

In chapter 2 Paul writes, “ 8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.”

There is a taste of the occult here, speaking of the elemental spirits. These heretical teachers presented a combination of Judaism and paganism wearing the mask of Christianity. Rather than the redemption granted by the Christ, there was a dependence on the mediation of supernatural powers that needed to be placated and worshipped.

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Christ was relegated to a minor place. In 1898, Commentator Handley Moule wrote of this gnostic philosophy, “It was a doctrine of God and of salvation that cast a cloud over the glory of Jesus Christ.”

The Gnostics believed that the body is evil. They believed God could not have created the world because a holy God could not have contact with material things. So, they imagined “a lesser power, a chain of intermediate beings, each having a little less of deity. At the end of the chain there must be an emanation possessing enough of deity to make a world but removed enough from God that His creative activities could not compromise the perfect purity of God.” So, the gnostic teachers denied both the humanity of Jesus and the deity of Jesus.

And there is a pull back to adherence to the Law and rituals. They granted Christ a place, but not a supreme place. With all their devotion to law and ritual they had failed to attain true knowledge.

The threat to the church was very real. The purpose of this letter was to emphasize the absolute supremacy and sole sufficiency of Jesus Christ.

29 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

Paul offers his prayer for the church:

I. Thanksgiving and Prayer

3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, 6 which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it 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, 7 just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf 8 and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.

The form of Paul’s prayer is determined by the condition of the church. “We thank God…”; ** since we have heard of your faith and the love you have for all the saints, because of the hope stored up for you in heaven (NIV)”. Colossae was a church that was fruitful and growing along with the church in other parts of the world.

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9 And so (for this reason), 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 understanding, 10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;

This was to be a knowledge that grasps, and penetrates into the person.

Paul was glad for what had happened, and encouraging what should happen. The church should be prepared and strengthened.

11 being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; (This empowerment is not determined by our need, but by His supply; His glorious might, or “the might of His glory”.) 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Paul comes to the core of the matter: The Preeminence of Christ (15-20)

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

Paul presents a full-length portrait of Christ:

He is God’s Son – 1:14 He is the Object of Christian faith – 1:4 He is the Image of God – 1:15 He is the Lord of Creation – 1:15 He is the Head of the Church – 1:18 He is the Reconciler of the Universe – 1:20 He is the indwelling Fullness of the Godhead – 2:9 Under Him, every power and authority in the universe is subjected – 2:10 He is the Essence of the Mystery of God!

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In this letter of Paul to the church at Colossae we see the dedication of believers to the works of God, the power of prayer, the danger of heretical influence in reducing the preeminence of Christ. We see the need to be strong in our faith, to know what and whom to believe, and the necessary preparedness to do battle, even the battle of lovingly presenting the truth we know and hold dear.

The danger is real, and it manifests itself in small ways. The most destructive is the lack of respect for the Son of God. It may seem rude to say, but we so easily yield to trading the substance of Christ for our own benefit … much like the Roman soldiers who mocked Jesus and divided His clothing in a game of chance.

Luke 23:33-43 (ESV)33 And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him and the criminals, --- one on his right and one on his left.

34 And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. “And they cast lots to divide his garments. 35 And the people stood by, watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!”

36 The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine 37 and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!”

38 There was also an inscription over him, “This is the King of the Jews.”

39 One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” 40 But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

43 And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

The people stood by watching; some scoffed and ridiculed the only One who understood their need; the One who offered satisfaction of their need. The soldiers and the people saw only a disgraced human hung by nails to a piece of wood, waiting for Him to die. And Satan watched and sneered with them.

But He’s alive! Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Challenge the lie………. Be Strong! Be Prepared!

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