Jesus is a Greater Story

Humans are storied creatures. We live out of story, most of the time unaware.

Illustr: why is a racist racist? Because they are evil? Racism is certainly evil, but that alone doesn’t account for racism. Story. Sometimes it may be bc of a negative interaction which forms a negative story in our mind about another race in general. I imagine that much of the time it is an inherited story where another race is either seen as somehow lesser than our own - an idea that came out of European in the 19th century - or bc we see other races as a threat - like the wackadoodles in NE Ark who are building a settlement for whites only so they can protect white culture - whatever that is.

Story drives us. It is the internal operating system as work in our lives that determines why we behave the way we do, why we react poorly to certain stimuli, and so on.

Examples:

Someone who grows up in a broken home, where a parent was perhaps married multiple times, may adopt a story that says marriage is risky and it’s better to just keep relationships casual. Love em and leave em so you don’t get hurt or disappointed.

Someone who was excessively teased or bullied as a child over their weight or appearance may adopt a story that says they are worthless or unlovable - and then from that story they treat themselves that way and allow others to do so as well. This can also be true for those who are beautiful but was only loved for their beauty...

Living in our modern culture, it’s easy to adopt the story that money and possessions are what life is about, and that getting rich and having nice things will bring you happiness and fulfillment. And so this story drives us to make money, hoard wealth, be stingy with others - and essentially become a miserable person.

I imagine if and when the story comes out regarding the young many who murdered the two hikers at Devil’s Den a few days ago, there will be some story that drove him to that violent action.

Our internal stories determine how we see ourselves, how we see others, how we respond to crises, and so on.

Here’s a sobering truth: Many of the stories we believe are lies. And if not lies, at least incomplete.

They’ve been twisted and deformed so that we don’t see clearly. They lead us astray. I’ll say most - but I think it’s really all - of our self-destructive tendencies come out of the stories we tell ourselves.

What happens when our most basic operating system is faulty? That how we view the world, ourselves, and others - is skewed? Nothing else works they way it’s supposed to.

But what if there was a way to rebuild our operating system? What if we could begin to tell ourselves a different story, one that is truer?

I’ve mentioned this before, but there are really only two stories. There is the secular story. That’s the story the world is telling us about love, relationships, money, sex, community, identity, and so many other things. The problem is that the secular story has become twisted and false in many ways. I’ve already given examples of how those broken stories affect us.

But there is another story - a sacred story. It’s a story we can learn about in the Bible, but it’s a story that is most clearly experienced in Jesus. And what if all the good things you want in life - including love, acceptance, community, and identity - you will find as you begin to align your story with his.

I’ll say it clearly: Jesus wants you to have a good life. Just maybe not by modern American standards. But in all the ways that really count, Jesus envisions a life for you filled with greatness. Not fame, but greater capacity to love others and yourself, greater ability to have power over money instead of letting it have power over you, greater purpose that what a job could ever offer you. He sees a greater identity for you than you would ever claim for yourself.

Could that become your vision as well?

We begin a new series today going through the apostle Paul’s letter to the Colossians. The theme of the whole letter is Jesus is greater. This morning I want to show how Jesus offers a greater story for your life.

Pray.

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A little background about Colossians might be helpful. This is a letter to the church in a specific town - Colossae - located in what is now SW Turkey. It had once been a prominent town bc of it’s location on a trade route, but a new interstate was built that bypassed it so it was in decline. But bc of its past, it was a cultural melting pot - local Phrygians, Greeks, and a sizeable Jewish population. This diversity led to a highly syncretistic religious environment where different beliefs and practices were often blended together. It was a religious buffet where you could take a little of this or that.

And this syncretism was threatening the church. These new Christians were faced with a story where they needed to add other things to Jesus in order to be complete. The core problem addressed by Paul in this letter is that all these different elements undermined the supremacy and sufficiency of Jesus. If you also need something else, then Jesus wasn’t really enough. That’s why it’s fair to say that the whole theme of Colossians is “Jesus is greater”.

Specifically, Jesus offers a greater story. It’s greater bc:

Jesus’ story gives you a new identity.

Colossians 1:1–2 “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the saints and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ in Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.”

I was going to skip the intro until I saw something essential to the message. Notice who Paul addresses his letter to.

Saints.

That word is misused in our culture. We think of saints as people who have either been given “sainthood” by the church - St. Francis or St. Teresa - OR as people who are just a little better than the rest of us. My mother/grandmother was a saint.

But that’s not what it means. Saint is connected to the same word where we get sanctified. It describes something that is set apart and dedicated to the Lord. A saint is not someone who walks 6 inches above the ground. Saints still blow it sometimes. But they are people who has responded to the story of Jesus in faith and God has declared them to now be saints - set apart and holy to him.

If you have responded in faith to the message of Jesus, you are a saint. That means you have been hand-chosen by God himself.

Objection 1: “Kevin, you don’t know what I’ve done.” Based on what I know about life in the ANE, I can pretty much guarantee you that you’ve not done anything worse than what the people at Colossae had done. To be named a saint means that your past no longer holds any power over you.

Objection 2: “Kevin, it says ‘to the saints and faithful’. I don’t feel very faithful to God. I can think of a hundred ways I’ve probably let him down.” Join the club. But let me encourage you: you’re here. In spite of how your pastor may offend you, how someone at church has hurt your feelings, in spite of where you looked on Saturday evening to find comfort or pleasure - you showed up. You keep showing up because you know Jesus offers you the only life worth living. You ARE faithful - and still growing.

Jesus is a greater story because it gives you a new identity. One that is free from condemnation over your past AND your present. The very fact that you still wrestle with the past and present is evidence of the new identity that is now alive inside you, one that you want to live up to. In Christ you are a faithful saint. Jesus offers you a greater story with a new identity.

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He goes on to say that

Jesus’ story creates authentic transformation.

Colossians 1:3–8 “In our prayers for you we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. You have heard of this hope before in the word of the truth, the gospel that has come to you. Just as it is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world, so it has been bearing fruit among yourselves from the day you heard it and truly comprehended the grace of God. This you learned from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, and he has made known to us your love in the Spirit.”

Let me describe what this congregation might have looked like.

People who used to worship the idols of Rome, which often included perverse sexual acts and sacrifices.

Other people who practiced the occult and the mystery religions prevalent in the area.

You had men who culturally had god-like power over the people in their household - wives, children, slaves - who likely resorted to abuse and intimidation.

You have wealthy people who owned and exploited slaves.

You had women who would bound to masters that used them or farmed them out sexually.

I could go on, but you get the idea of the kind of people that likely made up this congregation.

But that was their past. Now they have heard the good news of Jesus. They’ve surrendered their life to him as King. They have begun to live as if the coming kingdom was already here. Paul now describes them as people who are filled with faith in Jesus, love one another, people who have their hope set on heaven, people grounded in the truth, people who are growing and bearing fruit, people who are filled with the Spirit evidenced by their love.

That’s quite a change.

This is what the story of Jesus does. As we begin live into his greater story, our lives are slowly transformed from the inside out. Our attitudes begin to change about God and others. We find over time that our desires are different. The things we used to thing were most important aren’t any longer. We find ourselves slowly becoming more loving people.

I know you may look at yourself and still see that you have a long way to go. I do too. But I want you to take a minute to turn around and look at where you came from. If you’ve giving your life to Jesus, I bet money that you are not the same person you used to be. Jesus gives you a greater story that creates authentic transformation.

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Then he says this

Jesus’ story offers a pleasing life.

Colossians 1:9–12 “For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God. May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light.”

Paul says that living in the greater story of Jesus makes our life more pleasing in two way.

One, it makes our life pleasing to God. The transformation that Jesus’ story brings internally becomes expressed externally. We become people who’s lives are filled with the fruit of good works. We become participants in God’s mission to the world, not out of obligation or duty, but out of a response of love.

If you have surrendered to Jesus, God is pleased with you. The Bible and the Holy Spirit work together as a megaphone declaring God loves you. And he doesn’t only love you - he likes you! You are pleasing to the Lord.

But Jesus’ story makes for a life that is pleasing to us. Through faith in Jesus we become people who can be filled with a true knowledge of God and his love. We can grow in spiritual wisdom. We become strong with the strength of the Spirit. We have a new capacity, not only to enjoy life more, but to endure the hard times in life.

Christians who live out Jesus’ story find that they have all the things the world clamors for - peace, joy, contentment, love. As we enfold our lives and our story into Jesus’ greater story, we discover that we’ve found the secret we’ve been looking for to a pleasing life.

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Finally,

Jesus’ story rescues and redeems you.

Colossians 1:13–14 “He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

Paul uses two important words to describe what Jesus’ story has ultimately done for us. I think of us understand what it means to be rescued. We’re trapped in a cave and someone comes and leads us out. We’re surrounded by flood waters and someone comes and airlifts us to safety. We get being rescued from something.

Redeemed though is not a word we use often outside of church. It means to be released from a debt or to be freed from bondage. The gospel - the story of Jesus - tells us that he has rescued and redeemed us.

Paul has in mind the story of the Exodus, when Israel was slaves in Egypt. God led them out and opened the sea for them to pass through. And when the sea came back together, they were truly free. The power of darkness - Egypt - could never have power over them again.

Jesus is a new exodus. By his death and resurrection, he has defeated the powers of darkness that keep us in bondage. He has transferred us from their power and enslavement into the kingdom of Jesus where we live free of any consequence for our past, free of any power over us now.

As Paul closes this part of his letter, he is reminding the Colossians - and you - of what the greater story of Jesus does:

It gives you a new identity.

It creates authentic transformation.

It offers a more pleasing life.

It rescues you from the power of sin and shame.

Jesus is greater.

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It would be wrong of me if I didn’t ask if you’ve ever made the choice to give your life to Jesus. To allow his story to become your story. It’s as simply as saying ‘Yes’ to Jesus.

Yes to his love for you.

Yes to his forgiveness for your sins.

Yes to a new life and a new story.

It is simple; but it is life altering. That’s why Jesus often tells people to count the cost. If you give your life to him, he will change you. He will demand things of you. He will make you discontented with any life but they one he gives you.

But he does it all so that he can give you the life you didn’t realize you always wanted. If you are ready to surrender your life to Jesus, to begin that journey with baptism, please see me after the service or drop a connect card in the box as you leave and I’ll reach out to you.

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If you are already a Christian, how can you begin living more into the story of Jesus? How do you reprogram your inner operating system? It’s one thing to want this kind of life Jesus’ story offers; it’s another to know how to get there.

At the risk of sounding cliche, I only know of one way to get Jesus’ greater story into your life so that you begin living from that sacred story instead of the secular story.

You will have to ingest the Bible. Specifically, the gospels. You will need to make an intentional plan to make space in your schedule every day - or as often as possible - to plunge yourself into the story of Jesus.

I know - you don’t like to read! But there are so many ways to get the Bible into your life even if reading is difficult for you you don’t enjoy it. BTW - just bc you don’t enjoy something doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it. Wink.

To help you get started, I’ve got - you guessed it - a QR code that will take you to a 90 day reading plan of the YouVersion app that was created by the people at The Bible Project. I’ve also got the link on the back table. Each gospel has an explainer video to help you get a view of the whole book, and then very bite sized readings. If reading is difficult, most of the Bible translations in YouVersion have an audio option where someone cool will read it for you. That’s not a bad way to do it even it you enjoy reading, bc the Bible was actually written to an audience that would have heard it, not read it.

If you want to get your life saturated with Jesus’ greater story, this is one of the easiest ways to do it.

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Communion

Invite ministry team down

God may be showing some of you this morning how you have been living out of false stories about yourself, about others, our about God himself. As we prepare to take Communion together, we also want to minister to you and pray with you about these competing stories that are dominating your life and thinking. As you come forward for Communion, either before or after, I invite you to allow these people to pray for you this morning.

Have them stand… Invite the worship team forward

Explain how we do Communion and who is welcome

This morning let’s recite together the future song we will sing to Jesus from the book of Revelation:

Revelation 5:9–10 NIV

“You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.”

Each week we rehearse your greater story demonstrated in Communion - the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus…

Thank him that our stories can become new...

Through the blood of the cross he has washed our sins away. Through his victorious resurrection he has guaranteed us eternal life. Through his ascension and the outpouring of the Spirit he has made us one with you.

We remember Him who for us and for our salvation, on the night that he was betrayed...

Come Holy Spirit and overshadow these elements. Let them be for us your body and blood so that we can participate in your redemptive work for us. May we find mercy, healing and salvation through the finished work of the cross. Amen.