Lent
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
prepare about the ultimate sacrafice of Christ by preparing your heart and mind to reflect and die to ourselves
what is lent and what is this Ash wednesday thing we have on our calendar- On the Christian calendar, Lent is perhaps the least understood and least observed of all the seasons or traditions.
Lent is a 40-day period of reflection and preparation for Easter
why do we celebrate it - We make a massive celebration of Christmas—as we should!—
but we actually aren’t commanded to remember his birth in Scripture.
Christ does, however, command us to remember his death until he returns.
Isn’t that surprising since we don’t really know what it means
Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of this 40 day time of preparation and remembrance
The Ashes remind us that things aren’t how they are supposed to be
That we live in a world where we will all return to dust and we need a scandalous hope that it doesn’t get the last word
Jesus doesn’t command us to remember in a negative way
It is a remember as in hold fast, don’t lose sight of what I have done and what I am doing in the face of a world that isn’t how its supposed to be
We are Never the Same When We Know How the Story Ends
We are Never the Same When We Know How the Story Ends
So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Therefore, put to death what belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, God’s wrath is coming upon the disobedient, and you once walked in these things when you were living in them. But now, put away all the following: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and filthy language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self. You are being renewed in knowledge according to the image of your Creator. In Christ there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all.
Here is what Paul is challenging us to identify and answer- What is your heart functionally trusting? What does it actually trust? What does it really rely on?
Here is question we need to ask: “Has something besides Jesus Christ taken title to my heart’s functional trust, its functional preoccupation, loyalty, service, and delight?”
Tim Keller says - In order to grow, the job of the Christian is to identify what those idols are and to pull them out. You’re looking at yourself and you’re saying, “Why am I so angry? Why am I so worried? Why am I so depressed?” Then you say, “Let me analyze this. What is actually driving me? What goals do I feel like I must have?”
And here is where he starts
So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Set your mind set your heart on things above…because it changes everything
We hear this and we can have a negative view of it
We hear about people who are so heavenly minded they are no earthly good…ever heard that
That is not what Paul is saying
That is not the christian life
For Lent it means it begins back in chapter 2
Colossians 2:20
20 If you died with Christ to the elements of this world, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world?
If the Gospel has really got ahold of you
If you have really realized that on the cross what you deserve was paid for
If you realize that old you is dead
You should be in the kind of awe that makes you unshakable in the face of the human experience
We are not so heavenly minded we are no earthly good
We are so in awe of the epic of his saving we know how the story ends…we know because of the cross our regret, anxiety, fear of being alone, funerals, and loss don’t get the last word
We live as people who know how the story ends…and just how scandalous it is that Jesus finished that story for us
We are people who have seen the end of the epic and can never see life the same again
It has been a while since i referenced Lord of the Rings so we are due
What is the story
Normal and unseen people who never leave their home town are cast into the epic of saving the world
They go on a journey no one could imagine back where they are from
They see Orcs and wizards men and kingdoms and wars and trees that are alive
They see evil defeated
Then they return home to a place unaware of the epic that has unfolded
One of the characters is in love with the Barmaid Rosie
He is too afraid to ask her to dance or ask her out
But what happens
He sees the epic
And it changes everything
He is never the same
He returns home and has a boldness and asks her to dance and marry him
That is the christian life
We are people who have seen the epic and are never the same in the face of fear and regret and anxiety and loss
WIth that as the how he says Therefore in verse 5…
It means because you know how the story ends
Because you have been saved by the unimaginable saving of God through Jesus
Live like you have seen the epic play out
Live like Sam unafraid in the everyday
Lent Means Remember how the story ends and live an epic Gospel life because of it
That is what the list of old self things means in Colossians 3:5-8
Therefore, put to death what belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, God’s wrath is coming upon the disobedient, and you once walked in these things when you were living in them. But now, put away all the following: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and filthy language from your mouth.
This is real life
What are you trusting in as the way to what you long for when you are tempted to go against God’s good design for sex and sexuality and lust?
What are you trusting to make you whole in the face of Greed versus generosity
What kingdom are you upset is being disrupted when you are angry or talk about people behind there back because it is easier to complain and negative bond then it is to pray for someone
Back to the challenge of this chapter - What is your heart functionally trusting?
Are you trusting in someone to complete you or has the cross already done it so you are changed
Are you trusting in yourself to maybe if I am a good enough person I can balance out my mistakes and regrets
Lent means remember this question in your everyday
Lent means that step one to the Gospel is to grieve over the fact that we have all ran to other functional saviors then the God who made us and loves us
that is what the ashes are for like we said
We remember and grieve the situation we all have caused that necessitated the unimaginable suffering of the Cross to save us
We remember our sin and what it cost
that is why it was so imperative for Jesus to command us to remember His death until He comes to make everything sad come untrue
because as John Calvin says the human heart is an idol factory
Calvin's quote describes the human heart as a factory that constantly produces idols, or false gods, that people worship instead of God.
We are constantly in a war for what we will look to as our functional savior in the day to day of life
We all worship
The question is what or who do you trust in as your savior
We are commanded to Remember his death for us because when we force ourselves to remember the epic we are changed when the bullets of life start flying
Lent means fight the war of your heart to Remember Ephesians 2:4-8
But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace! He also raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might display the immeasurable riches of his grace through his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—
Remember through our grieving what our sin cost Him
and Remember through the cross and his suffering that for those who are his everything sad will come untrue for those who have repented and believed
Lent is the command to remember our daily need for Christs work for us and THE Nature of Christs work for us
Remember Your Identity In Christ
Remember Your Identity In Christ
Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive. Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. And let the peace of Christ, to which you were also called in one body, rule your hearts. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Lent points us in a direction that we normally wouldn’t go
We get so used to our normal pattern of sin
We get comfortable with it
It is our default to not remember
We all have spiritual amnesia
That is why we are daily called through Lent to remember we have a new way to deal with our old defaults in the face of our particular sin
Lent means to daily remember who we are now
It means to remember that when we grieve our sin rightly and remember the suffering that saved us we are not left without a roadmap to be whole again
Paul Trip calls this the Now-ism of the gospel
We have to remember the Gospel in the trenches of everyday life
It was the suffering we remember so that we remember it was that suffering that guarntees you the inexhaustable riches that come from being His
We have to remember who we are now
That is what lent begins for us
Paul Trip again says “how do you enter in to a full sense of your need and a glorious celebration of what Jesus has done? By remembering what you were and what you are now because of the cross
You aren’t who you were
That is scandalous if you are honest with your self
Lent doesn’t mean we stay in a self defeating grief
It means remember who you are now because of the cross
And that changes everything Paul is saying
Paul says “Christ is all in all”
Christ is all means, simply, that Christ is all that matters
Lent reminds us of the end of the epic
We remember we are not our past we are new
When we remember that in the trenches of everyday we confront our patterns of sin and begin to see wins
Not all the time we get glimpses of what it looks like
Verse 14 - We put on love
The Message of Colossians and Philemon a. Above All … Put on Love (Verse 14)
True Christian love does not seek its own
Despite how progressive churches want to define christian love it does not mean we simply affirm and recognize self destruction in the name of love
It means because of what we remember at Lent I can not seek my own fleshly desires but serve others because I am following the one who gave up heaven to suffer for us
Verse 15 Let the Peace of Christ Rule
The Message of Colossians and Philemon b. Let the Peace of Christ Rule (Verse 15)
It is inconceivable that those who share this new identity and the benefits of that great peace-making work of the cross (1:20) should live with any hatred or contempt for each other in their hearts
When we remember the cross we know the world we long for is coming
A place where everything is how its supposed to be
The word he uses for Peace means wholeness and flourishing ..it means how things are supposed to be
The hebrew word is shalom
Sin is a vandalizer of shalom
We should hate sin and what it has done
But we are commanded to remember that because of the cross sin and funerals don’t get the last word
When we see the end of the epic we know it is coming and we get to be part of that epic by seeing it invade earth in our everyday
That is why Jesus says in Matthew 5:9
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called sons of God.
Those who remember they were once far off but are now called sons and daughters of God have a new identity
We are now people activley using our lives to wipe the vandalism off of God’s world as participants with His mission to reach, teach, and restore all that is lost
Verse 16 Let the Word of Christ Dwell In You
The Message of Colossians and Philemon c. Let the Word of Christ Dwell in You (Verse 16)
Paul takes every opportunity to stress the centrality and sufficiency of Christ
that is what Lent causes us to remember when we run to our old patterns
No one is more influential in your life then you are
That internal dialogue shows the story and words you are believing that you are giving your life too to be whole and happy
What is the information you are giving yourself that is captivating your heart?
Who is the most influential and behavior driving voice in your life?
Lent makes us confront our own internal dialogue
Paul is saying what you long for is found in the way Jesus has told us to be not in modern lie of self autonomy
Lent makes us remember what was done to make the Gospel a heart rehabilitation program
That makes us praise when we remember that
That is why Paul specifically tells us to remember
Christian Standard Bible Chapter 3
through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.
they are to be
The Message of Colossians and Philemon c. Let the Word of Christ Dwell in You (Verse 16)
a celebration of God’s mighty acts in Christ
Want to live an epic life for Christ?
Remember the Gospel everyday
Cherish it above everything
Because it changes everything
Verse 17 Do Everything In The Name of the Lord Jesus
What does that mean?
How do we do things in the name of Jesus?
Well this is really cool because if you look at what he has said leading up to this we can see a complete picture being painted by Paul
Put on love, Let the wholeness of Christ be in you, let the word of Christ be in you more then your own voice- Those are all internal inward things
Now he is saying “Ok if you remember the Gospel and let it change your heart then how you live externally will change”
This is what is amazing about true Christianity
Jesus is not simply about depositing new information to your mind so you try hard to avoid the no no’s without a heart in awe of Him
When we remember the Gospel we are changed from the heart
Our drives change our wholeness changes our security and purpose changes
I no longer have to live like i did
I am no longer afraid to give my life to the Gospel
And when we fall and we all will we remember
We grieve our sin, but we remember the Gospel that saves us and the Son who came to stand in our place so when the Father looks at us he doesn’t see our sin He sees the Perfection of the Son
That is the purpose of Lent
To remember that cycle of grieving our sin, remembering what it Cost God, and worshiping with our hearts and lives because of the scandalous Gospel that saves sinners like me
lets Pray
