Life in The Church - Pt 1

Intro

Recap how our heavenly reality ought to cause us to put off and now we look to the positive aspect

New man - New wardrobe

Who we are in Christ

What we wear in Christ

Church BEFORE marriage, parenting, work

The next couple of weeks we are going to look at what life looks inside the Church. When I say the Church I am referring to all believers but given the context, Pauls emphasis is on the conduct amongst believers inside the local church

Structure?

SHOW CHURCH

“Here”

Begins to show who is in the church

Chosen ones

one another

Bearing

Forgiving

In one body

Admonishing one another

Paul is specifically focused here on the Church

Of course this is more broadly applicable

New man being new humanity

8 designations

1st 6 are pairs that contrast one another

Greek (gentile) & Jew

Racial barrier

Jew = those in the bloodline of Abraham

Significant hostility between them

Jews would shake gentile dust off of their clothes

Jews wouldn't eat with Gentiles

Some Jewish believers in the early church encouraged other Jewish believers to eat separately from gentiles

Paul rebukes Peter for this in Gal 2

Circumcised & Uncircumcised

Seem repetitive as these seems to be referring to the same thing as Jew Gentile

Religious hinting

Not universalism

Religious symbol of the people of God

Those with the circumcision thought themselves better

TURN TO EPH 2 11-19

Wall of hostility

Wall at the temple that restricted gentiles to the outer parts of the temple

Inscriptions basically saying you’ll die if you go past this

In Acts 21, Paul is accused of taking Trophimus, a gentile, into the temple

Acts 21:27–31 “When the seven days were almost completed, the Jews from Asia, seeing him in the temple, stirred up the whole crowd and laid hands on him, crying out, “Men of Israel, help! This is the man who is teaching everyone everywhere against the people and the law and this place. Moreover, he even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.” For they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian with him in the city, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple. Then all the city was stirred up, and the people ran together. They seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple, and at once the gates were shut. And as they were seeking to kill him, word came to the tribune of the cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion.”

The two designations here that are not contrasted are the next two

These are an extrapolation of the gentile, the uncircumcised

Barbarian

These were non Greeks

Where the Jews would have classified the world as either Jew or Greek, The Greeks lumped the world into Greeks or Barbarians

Romans 1:14 “I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish.”

Mocked by the Greeks

This was a derogatory term

Onomatopoeia - “bang”

“Bar bar bar”

Paul uses this word in

1 Corinthians 14:11 “but if I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be a foreigner (barbarian) to the speaker and the speaker a foreigner to me.”

To the Greek, there was an implied cultural inferiority

Scythian

“Lowest type” of barbarian

Tribes around the black sea

Known for crudity, savageness, indecent & unruly behavior

Cruel people

Drink from the skulls of enemies

Josephus ““delighting in murder of people and little different from wild beasts”

Derogatory term

Most extreme outsiders

APPLY

Slave & Free

Another fundamental difference in this society

One Commentator (Dunn) states that up to 1/3 of those in Colossae may have been slaves

Slave was the bottom of the social and economical ladder

Paul sends Onesimus back to Philemon as a brother

Philemon 16 “no longer as a bondservant but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother—especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.”

We do have social positions today

Christ is all and in all

The social, racial, cultural, physical, economical distinctions are destroyed in the light of the gospel

Christ is all

Colossians 1:15–20 “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And 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, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.”

And he is in all

Paul’s not saying these earthy distinctions are removed (gender?), but rather, because of Christ they are no longer central. What once was pivotal has now become trivial

Although we have differences, and many times they are significant, none of them are greater than what we share, which is Christ

You are now a Christian first, everything else secondary to that reality

You are not an American who is a Christian but a christian who is American

Business owner

A mom

An “andrews”

You are no longer defined by the blood you were born with but the blood you were bought with

OBS

Christ being in all doesn't matter if he isn’t all

Both packer fans

Both mechanics

Share hobbies

Share same name

Share the same blood

In all of those we will find ways to divide

“The thing that unifies us isn't ultimately significant if it doesn't have ultimate significance”

Once we boasted in our culture and our intellect like the Greeks. But now CHRIST IS ALL. Once we gloried in our tradition and our religious rigor like the Jews, but now CHRIST IS ALL. Once we got our strokes because of our ethnic pedigree. But now CHRIST IS ALL> Once we reveled in not being like the barbarians and the shabby Scythians, but now CHRIST IS ALL. Or once we resented NOT being the cultured, not being the rigorous, not having the cultured pedigree, not having the wealth and refinement, but now CHRIST IS ALL. - Piper

Put on then (therefore), as God’s chosen ones

Double grounding

The previous reality

Our current status

God’s chosen ones (elect), holy & beloved

Gods chosen ones

We didn’t choose God first, he chose us

This is the same for Israel

Deuteronomy 7:6–7 ““For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples,”

Rom 3 “No one seeks for God”

Yet in God’s mercy he chooses a people from before the foundations of the world were laid and sends his son to purchase that people

OBJ - IF YOU HAVE TIME

Corporate Choosing

A group is not an entity in itself. It’s a collection of individuals

Does he “love” the people in this group or just the group?

You cannot love a family without loving the members in it

Foreknowledge - God sees who chooses him and back up to choose them

Foreknowledge doesn't mean that

If God looks down the corridor of time and sees you choose him, why does he need to go back and choose you?

This ought to humble us and exalt God

Holy & Beloved

Holy = set apart

Beloved = God cares for you

He didn’t choose you like some sort of algorithm but rather set his love upon you to adopt you

Ephesians 1:4–5 “even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,”

In light of that, Put On

OBS - Note the order

You don’t put on to become God’s chosen one

You don’t put on to become holy & beloved

You put on because you are chosen, holy, beloved

Last week looked at the negative aspect - Put off

Put On

Note: Also a command

Compassionate Hearts - Heartfelt compassion (Lit. “bowels of compassion”)

Genuine concern & care about other

Specifically for misfortune

“Mercy”

Romans 12:1 “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”

Live in a dog eat dog world

not my problem

survival of the fittest

Yet God says we need to have a compassion on others

Romans 12:15 “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.”

NOT MODERN DAY EMPATHY

Joe Rigney

“enter into & share another's emotional experience”

empathy is elevated to a supreme virtue now

“If I feel your pain, I must affirm your conclusions”

“To question your feelings is to harm you”

Emotional blackmail:

“If you don’t agree with me, you don’t care about me”

Kindness

Not to be mistaken with “niceness”

Nice=

Always affirming

Never confront

Never take a stand

Never do anything that would make someone upset

“Nice is being a social chameleon that has tried to christianize the sin of fear of man”

Kindness is different

Goodness, Generous, helpful, servant attitude

You can be kind and say some very difficult things

Humility

Others as more significant

Philippians 2:3 “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.”

MAYBE ALL OF PHIL 2 1-11

Flies in the face of our culture

The world says think of your self as more significant and most important

“Self care” “Self love”

Is our mental health better or worse than it was 20 years ago?

Self care isn't the solution but it very well may be the problem

Used in negative sense in Col 2 18 & Col 2 23

False humility that people will use for their own exultation

Hypocrites that pray so that their seen & disfigure their faces when they fast so others see them

Christian has no room to boast

Meekness

Gentleness, courtesy, consideration, again humility

“the quality of not being overly impressed by a sense of one’s self-importance” - BDAG

Paul says he was “meek” to the Corinthian Church in 2 cor 10:1

Yet was quite direct and seemingly harsh

Meekness is not cowardice

Meekness is not pacifism

Jesus says he was meek Matt 5:5 (also says he was humble there)

Patience

One of my favorite attributes of God

What tests your patience?

What is patience?

Perseverance or endurance during difficulty

Outward patience vs Inward

Someone can smile and not explode but they are impatient in their heart

1 Thessalonians 5:14 “And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.”

Be patient with each other

Someones not growing as fast as I want them to - Patient

This person needs to get it together - Patient

Bearing with one another

(Related to patience, showing how patience is acted out)

Endure, to tolerate, put up with

This isn’t sin per se

Contrast with forgive

This is preferences, not priority. Annoyances & troubles

Forgive sins, bear with preferences

Apply

Worship

difference of opinion on secondary issues

Service order

Times of worship

Color of carpet

Clothing

Tattoos

Spiritual maturity levels

Personalities

Talk too much

interrupt

Dont talk at all

Overshare

Tone issues

Overlooked

Forgotten commitments

emotionally needy

Leadership imperfection

We absorb those

And if one has a complaint (find fault) against another, forgiving each other

Forgiveness

Unlike bearing with, we have now gone from preferences and annoyances to sin.

When do I confront?

Is this annoying or is this sin?

Command - When there is sin against you, the bible commands you to confront that brother or sister

Matthew 18:15 ““If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.”

And if you sin against a brother or sister, the bible commands them to confront you!

OBS - Forgiveness is a transaction

“I forgave them in my heart”

“GO TELL YOUR BROTHER”

Each other - There will be blame and sin on both sides

As hard as it may be to forgive, you need to understand your forgiveness of others is grounded in Gods forgiveness

AS

How?

Colossians 2:13–15 “And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.”

You’re forgiveness toward another will never be greater than God’s forgiveness toward you

Your forgiveness toward another will never be greater than God’s forgiveness toward them

Free gift, never to be held against them again

Doesn't mean you forget

A healthy church is not one with no conflict but one that is saturated with forgiveness and reconciliation

Above (Over) all, love

Love

Highest of virtues

Jesus sums up all of the commands into this. Love

Love of God

Love of neighbor

How the world will know were Christians

John 13:35 “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.””

Binds everything together in perfect harmony (unity)

The aim of all of it is unity in the church

Not uniformity

Clothing over the other clothing

Belt that holds the others up

1 Corinthians 13:1–3 “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.”

Divorced from love, these virtues are vanity, but in love, these virtues become unity

So let us be a people, from every walk of life, who put on compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, & patience, bearing with and forgiving one another all in love as christ has done for us