Life in Christ (5)

Contend for the Faith...

I find it interesting how somebody, like Paul, who never met the Colossian believers, cared for them, and wanted to make sure that his brothers and sisters in Christ made it. Not just by the skin of their teeth, but by a mile.

One thing about the Bible is that even though it was written between 1500 BC and the 1st century AD, it is still pertinent to our lives.

Sometimes we can read it and wonder how it’s still so applicable to our lives today.

2 Timothy 3:16–17 NIV

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Let’s look at our Scripture passage for today.

Colossians 2:1–5 NIV

I want you to know how hard I am contending for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me personally. My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments. For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit and delight to see how disciplined you are and how firm your faith in Christ is.

This morning, I’d like to start with what I find unique within Christianity. Correct me if I’m wrong,

Paul contended for people he had never met.

Contending for the Faith

The NLT puts it this way

Colossians 2:1 (NLT)

I want you to know how much I have agonized for you and for the church at Laodicea, and for many other believers who have never met me personally.

It doesn’t matter where you go in the world, when you meet other Christians, you are their brother or sister in Christ.

There’s a special connection. I’ve been many places, not quite as many as Johnny Cash, but whenever I meet somebody that is a Christian, we are one in Christ.

Paul agonized

for his fellow believers.

Paul gives a small glimpse of his agony over the church in Ephesus.

Acts 20:27–32 NIV

For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God. Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears. “Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

We too as followers of Christ need to be on guard against false teaching that sounds so good and yet it doesn’t line up with the word of God or the will of God.

I don’t think that it’s much of a stretch to say that many of the letters, the epistles were written to warn the early church not to be swayed by new teaching.

In Galatians, Paul warned about legalism. Colossians was the supremacy of Christ. 1 Corinthians, Paul warned that love was more valuable than any gift that God could give.

Each writer, whether it was Peter, Paul, John or others, laid a foundation. In each case that foundation was Christ.

1 Timothy 4:16 NLT

Keep a close watch on how you live and on your teaching. Stay true to what is right for the sake of your own salvation and the salvation of those who hear you.

Right teaching isn’t enough...

It needs to be put into practice.

We can talk about love. We can talk about forgiveness. We can talk about compassion, but there comes a time when we need to show what that means.

1 Corinthians 13:1–3 NIV

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Jesus gave a command to His disciples before He went to the cross.

John 15:12 NLT

This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you.

Why did Paul care so much...?

for people he had never met?

Two reasons.

Colossians 2:2 (NIV)

My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love...

The NLT uses the term, “Knit together”

Some people haven’t fully understood or experienced the love of God.

They want to be a Christian because they don’t want to go to Hell.

They follow the rules of the church out of fear, rather than following Jesus, because He first loved...

My prayer is that you would be encouraged, that you would be knit together by strong ties of love.

I must admit that I have never knit before. When I was a child, I tried to crochet a scarf. That one wasn’t to be worn in public.

When something is knit together properly, it doesn’t come apart easily.

Getting back to right teaching isn’t enough…It needs to be put into practice.

Memorization is the lowest level of learning, we call this

rote learning.

Some people learn better with hands on learning. It’s one thing to look at how to tear down an engine in a book, it’s completely something else to learn in a shop.

Colossians 2:2 (NIV)

My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ,

N.T. Wright says,

Colossians and Philemon: An Introduction and Commentary (ii. Paul’s Ministry to the Colossians (2:1–5))

Living in a loving and forgiving community will assist growth in understanding, and vice versa,

as truth is confirmed in practice and practice enables truth to be seen in action and so to be fully grasped.

I wonder if this is what Paul meant in

Ephesians 3:17–19 (NIV)

...And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,

may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,

and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Let’s keep building each other up by loving and encouraging each other.

Why?

Colossians 2:2–3 (NIV)

...in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ,

in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

We don’t have to go out looking for a new revelation…All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are found in Christ.

Rare Copy of Declaration of Independence Discovered at Garage Sale

As Stan Caffy and his fiancé prepared to get married, they cleaned out their respective garages and sold everything to Goodwill. Between the two of them, they sold an assortment of clothes, bicycles, tools, computer parts, and a tattered copy of the Declaration of Independence that had been hanging in Stan’s garage for 10 years.

Well, Stan’s trash turned out to be another man’s treasure.

That particular version of the Declaration of Independence was a rare copy made in 1823. A man named Michael Sparks spotted it, purchased the document for $2.48, and then later auctioned it off for $477,650. Not a bad profit.

Matthew 13:44 NIV

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.

We can search every religion around this world, but you will find that everything that you need is found in Christ.

In 2 Corinthians 4:5-7, Paul wrote

2 Corinthians 4:5–7 NIV

For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.

This treasure, this mystery is Christ in you…Christ in me, the hope of glory.

Let’s not hide this treasure, let’s not cover this light. I want to encourage you, so that we are united, knit together in love.

How will people know that we are His disciples?

By our love for each other...

Paul’s agony comes to fruition in verse 4.

Colossians 2:4 NIV

I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments.

It’s easy to say,

“Sorry I’m busy”

when two dressed up people come to the door wanting to talk current events. They offer a magazine and leave.

It’s not always so noticeable while watching a clip on youtube, or sitting in a Bible Study and somebody starts teaching a new doctrine.

Satan doesn’t want you to believe in the supremacy of Christ.

He wants you to believe that He is just a little less than God.

Maybe if He is just a little less, He can’t forgive your sins, maybe if he is just a little less, there is another way.

He really was a good moral teacher…but so was Buddha, so was Confucius, and so was Muhammad.

Acts 4:11–12 NIV

Jesus is “ ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’ Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

Beware when anybody comes and tries to diminish who Jesus Christ is .

Philippians 2:9–11 NIV

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Here we believe in one God, three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, different roles, but they are in unity.

Let’s cheer each other on...

Colossians 2:5 NIV

For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit and delight to see how disciplined you are and how firm your faith in Christ is.

Let’s pick up the fallen, but let’s not forget to rejoice with those whose lives are disciplined, they are living as they should, they are following Christ.

Strong and firm in their faith.

To close, Paul said these words to Timothy

1 Timothy 6:11–16 NLT

But you, Timothy, are a man of God; so run from all these evil things. Pursue righteousness and a godly life, along with faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness. Fight the good fight for the true faith. Hold tightly to the eternal life to which God has called you, which you have declared so well before many witnesses. And I charge you before God, who gives life to all, and before Christ Jesus, who gave a good testimony before Pontius Pilate, that you obey this command without wavering. Then no one can find fault with you from now until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. For at just the right time Christ will be revealed from heaven by the blessed and only almighty God, the King of all kings and Lord of all lords. He alone can never die, and he lives in light so brilliant that no human can approach him. No human eye has ever seen him, nor ever will. All honor and power to him forever! Amen.

Let’s pray!