You Were, He Has, and He Will

Colossians 1:19–20 “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.”

And now, because this is who Jesus is, what does this mean for you?

Colossians 1:21–23 “21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.”

Last Sunday I asked you, if you could sum up the message of the Bible in just one word, what would it be

I told you what I think of when I read the Bible

I think that the best word that describes the message of the Bible is

“Reconciliation”

It is the story of God creating man and woman to be in fellowship with Him

But then that relationship being broken by the sin of Adam and Eve

And God putting a plan into action to restore (reconcile) that relationship

These verses that we just read express clearly what happens when a person is reconciled to God

Another picture of being reconciled to God is moving from death to life, from darkness to light

They express clearly what we once were and what we are now

We often hear this in testimonies

We testify here on Sunday morning, and we often hear this

I used to be this way

But this is something that God has been teaching me

This is how I have changed

And I think that is wonderful that we testify like this, because we all need to be reminded of how God has changed us

But in these verses, this is not the Colossians testifying

Rather, it is Paul reminding them of where they came from and what God is doing in their lives

He has reconciled

There are a number of different words in the Bible used to describe what the work of Jesus accomplished for us

Adoption

Chosen

Reconciliation is a word that Paul uses in a number of different places

This word is reconciled can be rendered in various ways

to restore friendly relations between one or more people

to settle a quarrel

to show to be compatible

to make one account consistent with another especially by allowing for transactions begun but not yet completed

This word keeps showing up in Paul’s writings—clearly there is a point that he wants to get across by it

The Colossians, and we, have to understand why it is that reconciliation is so important

Why do we need to be reconciled?

we need to be reconciled because, as it says here,

we were alienated

I don’t know if you all know what it is like to feel alienated

Immigration is a hot topic in this election year as it has been the last number of elections

There are a lot of people in this country who were not born here. Some came here illegally, some through legal channels

But whether they are here legally or illegally, they share a similar characteristic of being “aliens”

For some of us with more vivid imaginations that might bring strange pictures to mind of little green men with antennas

There is probably a better word for it. It simply means someone who is isolated, excluded, estranged

Someone who is apart from their home country or culture

Feeling like a piece of them is missing

the other day I was in urgent care, and the waiting room was full of people speaking Arabic and other middle eastern languages

And I wondered what their stories were. What brought them to Coralville, Iowa? Do they have family here? A community? Do they feel alienated?

This thing of being an alien is a feeling that I am very familiar with, at least maybe on some level

I recall when I was in 7th grade, our family moved from Canada to Delaware for a year

I went to the “HUGE” school of GMS

And even though I knew kids there, I was an alien

I was in a world that, growing up in the back woods of Canada, was totally foreign to me

I recall going to Moody Bible Institute at the age of 26.

The first time I had spent extensive time “outside” of the Mennonite world. In a big city, at a “big” school (for me, anyway)

It was so foreign to me. I felt like I didn’t belong

Moving with my family to Portugal

Knew nothing of the country

Virtually nothing of the language

No family, no church,

Feeling like we were far from home

Even coming to this community

Even though there was a girl that I loved

I felt like an alien, or a stranger

I didn’t know anything about farming, or deer hunting, or trucking

In all of these instances, even though, yes, maybe there is some adventure involved

There was always this feeling of being out of place, far from home. Longing to belong and know that I’m fully accepted as a member of the community

Have you ever had that feeling of being alienated

Do you know what I’m talking about?

It says here that you were once alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds

Paul is writing to a certain church here, but I believe that this is all of humanity outside of Christ

Alienated—From God, From His People, From His blessings

From God

I don’t think I can say this enough

The place that we were meant to be is in close relationship with God our Creator

But sin but a gulf in that relationship

Adam and Eve decided to do things their own way and they stepped out away from a close relationship with God

They were driven from His presence in the Garden

And they became alienated from Him—isolated

From His people

This was something that the Colossian people were keenly aware of

They were not Jews. They were not naturally a part of God’s chosen people

They were alienated from the people of God

That is our condition as well.

God created us to be in fellowship with each other

being alienated from God means that we are also alienated from the people of God—His church

Apart from Christ you can

Sit in church

Sing the songs

Pray the prayer

Give your money

But His desire is for something more.

He desires us to be part of the family of God

But you aren’t truly a part of the family of God unless you have been reconciled to God through faith in Jesus Christ

Strange—many Christians have such issues with the church

They think that people in church are such hypocrites, and they can’t stand this and that about the church, and so they just go off and do their own thing

They think, he it’s just me and God. me and Jesus. That’s all that matters,

Or they gather around them just a small group of people who think just like them

They think, Jesus is pretty cool, but I just can’t stand His people

We see that even in this community.

Can you imagine if I went up to my best friend and said, hey buddy, I really like you, but I just can’t stand your wife

Of course I wouldn’t do that. But so many people do that with the bride of Christ, the church

And I want to say, “You cannot be reconciled to Christ and not be reconciled to God’s people”

Being reconciled with Christ means that you are reconciled with His people

If you say you love Jesus, then you love His Church as well

We have this immense privilege and blessing of being part of God’s people, holy and set apart for His service

but apart from Christ, we are alienated from that community of Believers

From His blessings

Paul already talked about an inheritance that we get to share in

This was our condition apart from Christ—that we were not able to share in His blessings

We were alienated, like a child who has left his father’s household and has been cut out of the will

And the father says, “I don’t know where my son is. I have a blessing, an inheritance for him, but I don’t know where he is

And you don’t receive the blessing because you have been alienated from you family

And the condition of those who are alienated from all that God offers is that the have a hostile mind

He has reconciled you (vs 22)

Who has reconciled us?

Did we just decide that, hey, we want in on all the blessings that God has

And we like being in fellowship with God and we decided we were going to come waltzing back in through the door

And say, “Hi, I’m home!”

No, we didn’t have that option

It was Jesus who did what we needed but couldn’t do ourselves. He has reconciled us

How?

in His body of flesh by His death.

Last week we talked about some of the false teaching that was coming into the early church

And one of these things we talked about was how the Gnostics taught that Jesus wasn’t actually human

He was a phantom, a spirit, they said

But do you see how Paul is directly opposing these teachings?

He says, “Jesus has reconciled us to the Father in His body of flesh by His death.

He had a physical body

And He died

These are two things that are crucial to understanding the Gospel

Because of man’s sin, there was a punishment that had to happen

And that punishment was death

But there was a problem:

The punishment, or the sacrifice, for the sin of mankind had to be borne by a human, by a man

But that man had to be perfect, without sin, without blemish or spot

But who do you know that fits that description

No one!

And so God did the only thing possible

He sent Jesus, the perfect man. Fully human, fully God (a complete mystery to us) and

IN HIS BODY OF FLESH, by His death on the cross, He reconciled us to God

Jesus did it with His flesh

Not the flesh of bulls and goats and sacrificial animals, but with His own flesh

He made a way now and forever for us to be reconciled to God

Well, why did He do that? Why did God even bother with us? Well, it was because of His great love, yes

But here Paul says, this is why you were reconciled and brought near to God

To present us holy, blameless, above reproach before God

Holy

Blameless

Above reproach

this has been God’s plan from the beginning, that His people would be holy

Exodus 19:5–6 “5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; 6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.””

This was God’s plan for His people. He brought them out of slavery in Egypt and He said

Now you are my treasured possession among all people

You are going to be a kingdom of priests

You are going to be a people who is set apart for my purpose

I have in my possession my guitar.

It’s a special guitar to me.

It’s the first one that I ever bought with my own money

And since I bought it, I have learned that it is a lot more valuable than I knew when I bought it

This guitar, to me, isn’t just any old guitar

I try to take care of it. I don’t beat it up. I’m careful about letting others use it

God’s purpose and plan was to have a nation of people who would be like that. Unique and set apart

Holy

And the people of Israel, were that nation. But they had trouble with that

They often did not act like they were

But His ultimate plan was that all peoples of the earth would be given an opportunity to be His chosen people

To be a special, people, set apart for His purpose

And that plan was fulfilled in Jesus Christ

God’s purpose for you and me is that we are to be holy, a special people, a chosen nation

Blameless—means without defect

Above reproach

Do you know that through faith in Jesus, these are words that describe you?

Holy, blameless, above reproach?

Reproach—means that someone disapproves of you

Some of us have this lingering feeling about God

We know in our heads that He loves us

But we just have this nagging feeling that He somehow disapproves of us

Being honest with you. I struggle with this all the time

That God somehow disapproves of me, that I am living under His reproach

Especially when I start to look around and see how others are such good Christians

Maybe others can identify with these kind of feelings

But do you feel the power of these words?

Holy

Blameless

Above Reproach

He’s not up there blaming you for messing things up in your life and in His world, and in His plan

He’s not up there just waiting for you to mess up again, looking at you disapprovingly

No! With your faith in what Christ has done, He now sees you through the perfection of Christ

Just as Jesus is God’s Son, holy and beloved, you are in Him and you take part in what Jesus has done

God sees you though the perfection of Christ

Jesus is Holy, blameless, above reproach

And so are you!

This is your condition now! This is why you have been reconciled to God through Jesus

And your condition will continue to be so.

You will continue in this relationship of peace between you and God IF

And here Paul includes a condition, maybe you could look at it as a bit of a warning

If you continue in the faith

Paul is describing here, a relationship of peace that exists between God and mankind based on what Jesus has done to bring reconciliation

If you and I have an argument or a falling out

And our relationship is broken

But then something happens to bring us back together again, and there is peace between us

That peace is only good if I continue to invest in our relationship

If we are brought back together and then I refuse to talk to you, shake your hand, be in the same space as you

Would that reconciliation that we experienced be any good any more?

This reconciliation and peace between us and God continues IF we continue in the faith

Look, God will always be faithful

It’s us that seems to have the problem

And this really gets convicting

Because as humans, we have such a tendency to take the grace of God for granted

And that was the tendency of the Children of Israel as well

They thought, “Hey, we are the chosen people of God. We live in Jerusalem. We have the temple. Things are cool”

And meanwhile, they were ignoring the things that God values

Justice

Mercy

Faithfulness, love

I’m reading in Jeremiah right now and this kind of attitude is something that God sternly rebukes them for

In chapter 7, Jeremiah was told to go stand in the gate of the temple and says this:

Read Jeremiah 7:3–11 “3 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. 4 Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’ 5 “For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, 6 if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, 7 then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever. 8 “Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. 9 Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, 10 and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—only to go on doing all these abominations? 11 Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it declares the LORD.

And God goes on to tell them to amend their ways and to go back to being faithful because otherwise, there would be no peace between Him and them

God knows this is how we can be. How in danger we are of taking this attitude

That Hey, Jesus saved me way back when and He loves me no matter what, and I do go to church at least most of the time and I do other good things here and there to show that I think God is cool

But meanwhile, our daily lives of faithfulness and discipleship are not at all what God would want from someone who has been reconciled to Him

Our lives become sloppy

Our faith becomes shaky

We ignore the warning signs that the Holy Spirit gives us

We grow uncaring and apathetic

This relationship of reconciliation and peace that Paul describes here is conditional

It’s conditional upon us continuing in the faith

Look how this is described

Stable

Steadfast

Not shifting from the hope of the Gospel that you heard

These words “stable” and “steadfast” bring up the picture of a foundation on a rock

Not shifting

This picture should bring to mind a parable that Jesus told

If you hear my words and do them, you will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock

And the winds and rains came and beat against that house, and it did not fall because it had its foundation on a rock

As opposed to those who hear His words but don’t do them. They are like the guy who built his house on the sand. The winds and rains came and the sand washed out from under the house and it fell

Folks, this world needs Believers who are stable and steadfast

But we are living in a world that is anything BUT that! We are reactionary and volatile, argumentative

We think that in order to be faithful to Christ, we have to “react” against stuff

Lady at Costco.

I was wearing my t-shirt that says “Jesus for the World, the world for Jesus”

She said, “Iowa City needs a message like that! They are all a bunch of heathens”

And I thought, Are you surprised?

We were told on social media that we had to react and get outraged at the Olympic opening ceremonies

But I was thinking, “Are we surprised? France has been a humanistic society for decades!”

Christians should be the least “fazed” people on this planet

It doesn’t mean that these things don’t bother us.

But what is it that bothers us? Is it that people are far from Christ, or is it that people who are far from Christ do unChristlike things?

You didn’t see Paul railing about the evils of the Roman empire, and believe me, you think we are wicked!

There was plenty that he could have gotten outraged about

But instead, he encourages the Colossians to

Continue in the faith

Be stable

Be Steadfast

Don’t shift from the hope of the Gospel

We are going to be celebrating communion next Sunday, Lord willing

And what a great passage this has been to challenge me, (and us, I pray) to begin examining our hearts and lives

Communion is a celebration and a remembrance of what Jesus has done to reconcile us to our Father

By His death

And it is a challenge for us to consider our own lives

Are we being faithful?

Are we being stable and steadfast,

ARe we shifting from the hope of the gospel that we have heard

And this is my message for us and it’s my message for the church in America

Vote if you must

But don’t react. Don’t be outraged about the evil that you see. That’s not the attitude for us as followers of Jesus

No

Just continue being faithful, stable, and steadfast

And don’t shift from the hope of the Gospel

This is what it looks like to live a life of reconciliation with God