Spiritual Apathy

Introduction:

Where are we going to today? The focus of today’s message is on spiritual apathy. Our primary text is going to be Colossians 1.

I encourage you to find it. It is between Philippians and 1 Thessalonians in the New Testament.

One the greatest threats to Christianity is spiritual apathy.

Spiritual apathy is a dullness or an indifference to knowing God, being with God, and having communion with God.

Spiritual apathy can happen in any season you find yourself in:

Kids in the house

No kids in the house

In busyness

In boredom

Young or old

Physically fit or not

Spiritual apathy is a epidemic within the western church.

The message of cultural Christianity is that God is merely good to us. The message of biblical Christianity is that God is good for us. The message of cultural Christianity is that we should seek God’s goods. The message of biblical Christianity is that we should seek God’s goodness. The message of cultural Christianity is that we should seek God so that he might provide for us. The message of biblical Christianity is that God is our provision. The message of cultural Christianity is that we should seek God in order to get things. The message of biblical Christianity is that we should seek God to get the highest thing - namely himself.”

J.T. English, Deep Discipleship

Competing Visions:

Cultural Christianity would have you believe that if it sounds good (morally), looks good (ethically), and may even feel good (spiritually) - that it is inherently Christian.

What is cultural Christianity? It identifies as Christian but is superficial, requires little to no change, and is primarily consumer oriented. Cultural Christianity has always had one fatal downside: it produces cultural Christians. This too has been born out in our Western societies. Whenever the church has been in a privileged position, it has produced people who consider themselves Christians by virtue of birth or heritage. In place of a vital union with Christ, such individuals view the faith as little more than a system of morals within socially acceptable parameters.

However, cultural Christianity is a odds with biblical Christianity. Cultural Christianity is what forming the majority of people today but we have great hope and opportunity to be formed intentionally by the Power of God.

Our problems of spiritual coldness and apathy in the churches would quickly disappear if Christian believers generally would confess their great need for rediscovering the loveliness of Jesus Christ, their Saviour.

A. W. Tozer

Prayer

(Me)

Pig pen story.

(We)

Has that ever happened to you? It was easier to cut corners, because there was little care. Maybe where you start something, only to end up not caring about it shortly after you start it.

This can be true of our New Years resolutions

Diets

Work out routines

Bible reading

Not eating out

The Tension:

Apathy isn’t always a bad thing. There are lots of things we don’t care about that we don’t need to care about. I don’t care how a plane is made and what engine is in it. I just want it to fly and get me to another location safely with my snacks and ginger-ale in hand.

But spiritual apathy is different.

Spiritual apathy happens when we lack the desire to be with Jesus.

Here are a few reasons for our apathy:

Familiarity

Familiarity is a powerful force. It can drive us to intimacy or apathy. Just as a married couple must strive to rekindle their affection, so believers must strive to recapture their awe of God. To sit before Him in silence. To worship without an agenda. To taste His goodness and drink of His presence again and again.

Though our feelings for (God) come and go, his love for us does not. It is not wearied by our sins, or our indifference; and, therefore, it is quite relentless in its determination that we shall be cured of those sins, at whatever cost to us, at whatever cost to him.

C. S. Lewis

Boredom

If you can’t muster up any interest in what your pastor says, or your spouse says, or your child, friend, boss, or coworker says, it’s worth getting curious about your boredom.

Proverbs 15:19 NLT

A lazy person’s way is blocked with briers,

but the path of the upright is an open highway.

Mediocrity

Where has mediocrity crept into your life? Are you satisfied with a cursory five minutes in God’s Word so you can get the check mark done on your Bible app? Do you pursue purity with mediocre conviction? When it comes to serving, giving, loving, or leading, are you the person who does the bare minimum?

Disconnection

With the dawn of the digital age, disconnection is a real danger for all of us. Carey Nieuwhof writes,

“We live in a world where you can have five hundred friends and still feel isolated and abandoned. Solitude is a gift from God. Isolation is not—it’s a tool of the Enemy. As a culture, the more connected we’ve become, the more isolated we’ve grown. This is our strange twenty-first-century paradox: we’re connected to more people than ever before and we’ve never felt more alone.”

Carey Nieuwhof

Passivity

We don’t take action, even when we know we need to.

“Some Christians need encouragement to think before they act. Others need encouragement to act after they think.” - Kevin DeYoung

Spiritual apathy for a local pastor is a real threat too. We are no exception and truly may even be in a greater place of vulnerability when it comes to the threat of apathy because things can easily become rote, routine, and mundane.

Let’s jump into Colossians 1:

Context around the book of Colossians:

Paul wrote to the Colossians because false teachers were disturbing the church.

Colosse was an important commercial center on one of the main Roman roads in its region, so the city would have been exposed to ideas from many religions and philosophies.

Like many false teachings, the “Colossian heresy” was probably a mixture of various attitudes and ideas that were in the air at the time.

We cannot identify these false teachers or the details of their particular teaching, but we can see some characteristics:

(1) The false teachers were apparently insisting on the observance of Sabbath and new moon festivals (2:16), which suggests some Jewish input in their viewpoint;

(2) they were preoccupied with following various rules, particularly pertaining to the body (asceticism); and

(3) their emphasis on spiritual beings was typical of many religious movements of the period.

The basic problem is clear: The teaching did not regard Christ as the center and origin of all religious experience. Any teaching or philosophy that fails to do so is not the Good News.

Modern day heresies. Comes from State of Theology research done Life Way, published by Christianity Today.

1. Jesus isn’t the only way to God.

More than half—56 percent—of evangelical respondents affirmed that “God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism and Islam,” up from 42 percent in 2020.

2. Jesus was created by God.

A surprising 73 percent agreed with the statement that “Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God.”

3. Jesus is not God.

Given the above beliefs on Jesus as a created being, it’s not too surprising that 43 percent affirmed that “Jesus was a great teacher, but he was not God,” which is another form of Arian heresy.

4. The Holy Spirit is not a personal being.

Speaking of the Trinity, 60 percent of the evangelical survey respondents had some confusion about its third member, believing that “The Holy Spirit is a force but is not a personal being.”

5. Humans aren’t sinful by nature.

Interestingly, 57 percent also agreed to the statement that “Everyone sins a little, but most people are good by nature.”

Spiritual apathy happened in the Colossian church. They were, by all measurements, a relatively healthy church. Paul begins his letter by expressing his gratitude for them.

Colossians 1:3–8 (NIV)

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people—the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace. You learned it from Epaphras (e-pra-fras), our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.

Paul encourages them to continue to grow in spiritual fruit:

Colossians 1:9–12 (NIV)

For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.

Then Paul reminds them of the basic truths of the Gospel:

Colossians 1:13–14 (NIV)

For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

But then Paul turns his attention to the person and work of Christ. Paul does this because the Colossian church was growing apathetic toward Christ. They were not apathetic about the ministry or church, but they were growing more interested in spiritual myths, than in Jesus.

In the Colossian church there were people who were growing in their interest in spiritual things like

Angels

Demons

Spiritual powers

There was another group of people that was interested in visible dominions, politics, rulers.

These people were elevating these visible and invisible created realities to the level of Christ. That is why Paul reminds them of who Jesus is - the image of the invisible God - and what he has done - created all things, visible and invisible. This is exactly what Paul says to a church that is apathetic toward Christ but is still spiritually hungry:

Colossians 1:15–23 (NIV)

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation—if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

Paul is trying to remind the Colossian church that everything is about Jesus. It is entirely possible for a church to have a nice building, a healthy budget, thriving family ministry, dynamic student ministry, and great missions, and still be in danger of failing in its primary mission of making disciples/apprentices of Jesus.

Paul is correcting their apathy toward Christ by reminding them of Christ’s preeminence. He is gently reminding the local church that if we are known for anything other than the preeminence of Christ in all things, then we have failed.

We are living in a cultural moment where apostasy from Christ is a real threat. It’s entirely possible, and maybe even likely, that many people who once professed Christ will walk away from him. Apostasy is a real danger to the church, but apathy is equally dangerous. This produces a Christianity that elevates visible and invisible realities above the life of discipleship.

Jesus and politics

Jesus and business

Jesus and sports

Jesus and fitness

Jesus and finances

Jesus and spiritual warfare

Jesus and coffee

Jesus and community

Jesus and other forms of spirituality

Anytime we elevate created things - visible or invisible - we aren’t elevating them to Christ; we are bringing Christ down to them. Christ is supreme over all…

It is important to be intentional with your spiritual formation. I have shared this before but it deserves some reminding for all of us.

You must be mindful that you are being formed at all times. Intentionally or unintentionally.

We are being formed:

Spiritual formation isn’t a Christian thing; it’s a human thing

- We are all being formed

- We are all being shaped by or being discipled

What are we being formed into?

Unintentional Discipleship

Stories we live by

Scripts we have been told about ourselves

Evolution

Habits

Daily and weekly habits – we become what are habits are.

Habits shape your loves and longings.

Relationships

You become like your group of friends

This can be a good thing or bad thing

Environment

Culture / City

Outdoor life

Over time through Experiences

How do we counter this kind of discipleship?

1. Myth = All you need to do is know the Bible.

a. Protestant reformation – Preaching of the word and the sacraments

b. Knowing something is not the same as doing it. Doing it still not the same as wanting it.

c. We can’t think our way to Jesus.

d. Information transfers alone doesn’t always yield transformation. It might happen.

2. Myth = You don’t need to do anything. It’s all God.

a. “Let go and let God” is bad theology.

Sanctification is not mystical passivity, as our use of the slogan ‘let go and let God’ has too often implied, but it is active moral effort energized by prayerful and expectant faith.

J. I. Packer

b. Without him we can’t, without us He won’t. We have to partner with God. He has a part and so do we.

Intentional Spiritual Formation

Teaching

It gets into your head and will uproot things that are not true.

Matthew 5 - Sermon on the Mount

Church on Sunday

Reading a good book

Doctrine (studying your beliefs)

Theology

Bible teaching

“Spiritual formation in the Christian tradition is a process of increasingly being possessed and permeated by the character traits of Jesus as we walk in the easy yoke of discipleship with Jesus our teacher.”

Dallas Willard

Practice

Galatians 6:7–10 NLT “Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith.”

This is how we need to approach our life of apprenticeship to Jesus. Its not that you can’t live a life free of worry, lust, or anxiety. Its that you can’t, yet. But over time you will grow in your capacity as an apprentice of Jesus to overcome.

The spiritual disciplines / practices get into

Our core,

Our limbic system,

Into our hearts and begin to transform us.

It changes our longings and affections.

Community

1 John 1:7 NLT “But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.”

We can’t follow Jesus alone. Jesus didn’t have a disciple…he had disciples.

Becoming like Jesus is not a program. It is a way of life.

You can’t Amazon prime this.

You can’t overnight this kind of development.

It’s like a tree that takes time to grow.

Holy Spirit

Galatians 5:25 NLT “Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.”

This is the baseline for all that we do.

This must become the dominate part of our lives. That we keep in step with the Holy Spirit in all things that we do.

Over time through the Hard Knocks of Life:

James 1:2–3 NLT “Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.”

It’s the moments that we want to run from, are the moments that will grow us the most.

Conclusion:

Colossians 1:15 (NIV)

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

Never lose your awe of who Christ is, what he had done, what he is doing, and what he promises to do in the future. He is the image of the invisible God; he is the Creator of all things; he is the Alpha and the Omega; he sustains all things. He is the head of the church; he is the resurrection and the life; he is God almighty.

Discipleship is learning about Christ’s supremacy over all things. It is truly companionship with Jesus through all of life.

A scheme of the devil is certainly to get people to renounce their faith in Christ, but another scheme of the devil is for people simple to grow bored with Christ. Satan will do anything he can to get you to take your eyes off Christ. Satan knows that we don’t have to renounce Jesus to cease being useful in God’s kingdom; we just have to grow bored towards Jesus.

Prayer