I can't believe people are having a go at me for being a Christian!

Ever felt like that? I guess most of us who are Christians have at some point. It's an issue that Peter addresses in his first letter, a letter that has a lot to say to suffering Christians. Here's an extended paraphrase of what he says in 1 Peter 4:12-19 when we're going through the mill for standing for Christ.

Don’t be surprised at suffering for simply being a Christian and for trying to live as a Christian – it’s a test of your faith, a fiery one at times, and tests of faith are sent by God. It’s not strange that it should happen – actually, in God’s will, it’s normal!

Let’s be clear. We’re not advocating masochism here, we don’t go looking for pain and insults as though it was something pleasurable. But in one sense your inevitable suffering as a Christian is something to rejoice about – it’s an evidence of your union with Christ, you’re suffering in the same way as the one who suffered for you. Not only is it an evidence of your saving union with him, it also brings you in to a more deeply felt union with him as he offers you his empathetic sympathy and grace in your sufferings.

Having said all that, being joined to Christ in his suffering is not an end in itself – it’s what lies beyond the suffering that is important. Suffering led to glory for Jesus, a glory that will one day be revealed to everyone, and a glory that you will share in precisely because you’re united to him, as shown by your present trials.

So, next time you’re insulted, wound up, dismissed, called a bigot, laughed at for the name of Christ and for being a Christian, count it a blessing. Why? Because it wouldn’t happen if the Spirit of glory and of God wasn’t resting upon you.

Let me just sound a word of caution here though. If you’re suffering it’s always worth checking why. If it’s actually because you harbour hatred in your heart towards an individual or a group of people, a hatred that is expressing itself in your words and actions so those people lash out against you, then there’s no honour in that, no glory as an outcome. The same goes for suffering as a result of taking what isn’t yours, suffering as a result of interfering in matters that are frankly none of your business, in fact suffering as a result of any evil doing of any sort. You shouldn’t be suffering for any of those reasons, or thinking that that such suffering will lead to glory, because as a Christian you shouldn’t be doing any of those things!

Right, back to the main point. If you find yourself going through the mill, not because of any sin you commit but because of your commitment to Christ, then don’t be ashamed, it’s not something to beat yourself up about. Instead, glorify God in the name of Jesus, he’s your mediator who suffered for you, and is now glorified in heaven at God’s right hand – and you have the privilege of following in his footsteps.

It’s God’s will for everyone, including Christians, to go through the pain of suffering. In fact there’s a sense in which it could be said that your present suffering is a sign of being under God’s judgement (we live in a sin sick world after all that is under God’s curse). But in your case, the case of the Church, of Christians, it is a refining, restorative judgement that ultimately transforms you in to the likeness of Christ.

And consider this, if the suffering you’re going through now seems tough, imagine what it will be like for those who end up suffering God’s righteously angry and retributive judgement? As the old Proverb says; “If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and sinner?”

So then, let me round this up. You are going to suffer for being a follower of Jesus – but remember, that is actually God’s will. So entrust your life, your very soul to him, as the one who is in control of it all. He’s your Creator – your first birth was ultimately down to him, as well of course as your “new creation” second birth that brought you into his family – and he will remain utterly faithful to you through every trial. So keep doing the right things, the good things, the Christlike things for all the above reasons.

1 Peter and responding to ungodly authorities

This post is basically the transcript of a sermon I preached recently at Ingleton Evangelical Church on the subject of how we respond as Christians when those in authority over us (eg the government) try and make us conform to what we know to be wrong. Something I believe we need to think through more carefully in our current climate in this country. It starts off with Peter's instruction to slaves as regards their masters, but pretty quickly moves on to applying it to our situation today. Fell free to let me know what you think.

Should we expect to suffer for being Christians? When we do suffer simply for being Christians, and for seeking to live righteously, has something gone wrong? Has God somehow lost control of the situation when his people, either individually, or en masse, suffer? Because surely if we’re living to please him, he’ll show his approval by giving us a pain free life, won’t he?

These sorts of questions were doubtless in the minds of the Christians that Peter wrote to in his first letter. These were people who had trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, who now called the all powerful God of this universe their heavenly Father. But they were finding that this didn’t mean that life was always straight forward. They hadn’t suddenly been transported, upon faith in Jesus, to a world, to a life, where there was no sorrow, no suffering. In fact, they were finding that being a faithful follower of Jesus could lead to complications in this life. Not everybody around them liked their honesty, their refusal to play a part in breaking the law, their determination not to lie or be deceitful, their morality. Being a Christian, living by Christian principles, could bring you in to conflict with people, including people in positions of authority over you.

One group of Christians for whom this was particularly true was slaves. Many of our English translations speak of servants in v18, but that can be slightly misleading. When we think of a servant we think of someone who has chosen to be a servant. They’re not owned by the person they serve, so what they have is a job. A job they can in theory at least leave if they want to, if they feel they are being badly treated. But the people Peter addresses at the start of v18 couldn’t just up and leave their masters if they didn’t like them. That’s because these people were what were called bondservants in Greek, in other words their masters owned them, they were slaves. Some of these slaves would have had good and gentle masters as Peter describes them in v18. Living by Christian principles wouldn’t have brought those slaves into that much conflict with their masters. But other Christian slaves had masters who were far from good and gentle – they were unjust. They would have treated their slaves harshly, at times in inhumane ways. They would have asked their slaves to do things, to be party to things that as Christians those slaves knew they just could not do. But they couldn’t just leave their masters, so when they opted to obey God rather than their master, to do good rather than evil, they did it knowing that a beating would be coming their way. For these people, becoming Christians had virtually guaranteed them sorrow and suffering. They must have had some faith mustn’t they!!

What words did Peter have for these slaves who had trusted in Jesus Christ? What truths did he have to tell them as they suffered for their faith?

What he had for them was words that were realistic, there are no false promises here of total freedom from suffering in this life, quite the opposite actually, but these are words that when we think through them fully, and prayerfully, though demanding, are full of rich encouragement. Words that, yes call us to suffer, but also point us to the sovereignty and justice of God. Words that point us to the Saviour, the man of sorrows who endured great suffering for us. Words that point us to his protection, he is the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls, our souls are utterly secure for all eternity. 

We’ll have three points from these verses this evening;

1    1) Patiently enduring unjust suffering is a commendable thing in God’s sight (18 – 20)

A theme that runs through 2:13 – 3:6 is that of submission, subjecting ourselves to authority.

In verse 18 Peter opens up by saying, “Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect.” Now as we’ve said, that’s easy enough to do with a good and gentle master, but what about with an unjust and harsh one. Well, Peter tells these Christian slaves, you must have a submissive spirit even towards a bad master. In the same way as in the previous verses Peter commanded Christians to submit to the ruling authorities, to honour them regardless of whether we think they’re good or not, he here tells slaves to submit to their masters even if they are unjust. He’s not of course telling them to obey their masters if they command them to do something evil, but he is saying subject yourselves to them.

Same applies to us with employers today. Even though our employers, if we have employers, don’t literally own us, they are in authority over us. Say you work in admin, and your boss is obviously not a good guy, in fact he, or she, is obviously a nasty piece of work. That doesn’t give you permission to refuse to type up a letter if they bark an order at you to do it. We’re to submit, and do it – unless of course the contents of the letter are evil, and then refusal to type would be defensible, but otherwise we must do it. We’re to submit to bad authority figures, so long as they are not telling us to do bad things.

In verse 19 the emphasis shifts slightly. Peter encourages his readers who have bad masters, by saying,

“it’s a gracious thing, a commendable thing, when mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly.”

The situation in mind here is different to obeying an order that isn’t evil, even though it’s given by an evil master. The situation in v19 is one where a Christian slave in some way has to defy his master, because he is mindful that what his master is asking him to do is contrary to God’s will. That leads to suffering for the Christian slave as the master punishes him for his disobedience. Peter encourages those who find themselves in such a situation by saying that it is a gracious thing to endure that sorrow and suffering. And the idea here is that it’s a gracious thing when it’s endured with patience. That principle would apply not only to a Christian slave patiently suffering under an unjust master for obeying God, but also to any believer who is persecuted and made to suffer because of their faith and obedience to God.

Peter elaborates further in v20. He says, “For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure?” In other words there’s nothing particularly commendable about accepting your punishment when you deserve it. “But” Peter goes on to say, “if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God.” In other words, it is credit to you, when you don’t lash out against someone in authority over you who treats you badly. Even when in God’s sight you’ve done nothing wrong.

Now none of us are slaves, but I’m sure many of us can think of times when because of our Christian principles we’ve ended up with a rough deal from employers. We can definitely think of high profile cases where other Christians have ended up with a rough deal because obeying God has put them on the wrong side of the law of the land. That seems to happen increasingly.

How are we typically to respond, as Christians, to such situations?

According to what Peter says here, the gracious thing in the sight of God is to endure it with patience. Now, none of this is to say that there isn’t a place for speaking out against abuse in the workplace – or anywhere else for that matter – that of course is often very necessary. But, we mustn’t miss what Peter is emphasising here, what God’s word is emphasising. When, as Christians, we suffer for obeying God and not men, an indispensible element in how we deal with that suffering is that we show patient endurance.

It’s often been said that Christianity thrives, when Christians out suffer their enemies. In other words, the way a Christian handles unjust suffering should be so different from how the world handles such things, that it wins to people to Christ. What should shine through is our graciousness, patience, endurance under such suffering. Now that is far from easy, it is hard, but it is what we are called to, and may increasingly find ourselves having to do in this country.

I was at a Christian men’s conference in Manchester last weekend and one of the speakers was a man called Justin Mote, some of you know the name. He was talking about changing attitudes towards Christianity in this country. Attitudes in society around us, and how that effects the attitude of employers, the attitude of government, and following on from that, the attitude of the law. Two generations ago wider society’s attitude towards Christianity was generally positive. Christianity was a good thing, and many people went to church. People sought to live by Christian principles and morals, the law of the land upheld these principles. One generation ago the attitude had changed somewhat. Christianity was still considered good for those who wished to pursue it. Fewer people actually practiced Christianity though, even in a nominal sense.

Christian morals and principles were still present, but following them was now optional. The law was beginning to reflect this change in attitude. Now, things have changed again. The attitude towards Christianity is increasingly negative, in fact many consider Christianity not to be good, but evil. Wider society has not only rejected Christian morality for itself, but very often condemns Christians who insist on practicing Christian morality themselves. The law increasingly reflects this and restricts the practicing of Christian belief and morality.

I think his assessment of the situation is right. And that means of course, that as Christians we are increasingly likely to suffer for obeying God and not men. So the question arises, what are the biblical principles that guide how we respond to such suffering? What do you think Peter would say?

What I say at this point might initially sound somewhat controversial, but please hear me out. I don’t think Peter would call us, first and foremost, to take our employers and government to the courts to try and overturn their treatment of us. I don’t think he would call us first and foremost to shout loudly, to try and gain publicity, and lobby our employers and government to try and make them change the law.

That’s not to say there’s no place for that, but I genuinely don’t think he’d say that it was anywhere near the first priority in responding to such suffering, that he would suggest it would be the thing that would actually make a difference. Why? Because it isn’t anywhere in his list of suggestions here is it.

It might seem like the natural response, to say take them to court, appeal to law, but he doesn’t. To a people suffering for their faith he says, “endure it, patiently, graciously.”

Now I really don’t think this was because Peter thought slavery was O.K. and didn’t care if it continued. Slavery brings unjust suffering. But over time, the wisdom of this approach to dealing with it was seen. The patient suffering of Christians led to the incredible growth of the church in the Roman Empire. Unbelievers saw how Christians responded to injustice, with patient, gracious endurance, and they were drawn to the gospel, drawn to Jesus and many were saved themselves. Eventually so many were won to Christ, that Christians were a majority and eventually, as a result slavery was outlawed, that injustice was removed. As Christianity became mainstream, the law was aligned to Christian values. But that came about through suffering, graciously, patiently endured suffering of unjust persecution.

I wonder if that’s a lesson that the church in the west, the church in the UK, is going to have to learn again. We haven’t had to learn it, not really, for at least a few hundred years. But as far as I can tell, the Bible teaches us that if we want to see our land won again for Christ, then it won’t actually happen primarily through us as a minority group trying to lobby our none-Christian law makers, and none-Christian legal system. Instead, the Bible teaches us that we have to be ready to suffer. To suffer injustices, and to suffer them well – with endurance, with patience, with grace. We have to be ready to adorn the gospel message of Christ’s suffering, with suffering of our own, so that people will believe the gospel and turn to Christ. Don’t you think, given the verses we have in front of us, that that’s what Peter would call us to first and foremost.

Perhaps as Christians in this country, because of our recent history, we tend to feel a sense of entitlement. A sense that we are entitled to laws that back up our beliefs, a sense that we are entitled to practice our faith free from persecution of any kind. But we’re not entitled to freedom from persecution are we, not even from the government – not in God’s book.

Now there’s nothing wrong with desiring laws that we know are what’s best for all society, laws in accordance with God word. And it’s definitely not wrong to ask for and argue for such laws. It’s also not wrong to desire freedom from persecution, to pray for freedom from persecution, even to write to politicians to graciously ask them to uphold that freedom, but we mustn’t think we’re entitled to that freedom. In the Bible we’re promised persecution. I think we do sometimes have a sense of entitlement though, and it can blind us to thinking through carefully, and prayerfully, how we suffer when injustices come our way.

I do find myself asking, where are the voices telling us how to suffer well? How to suffer patiently, with endurance, with grace so that we might point people to the gospel, to Christ?

As the world observes us, watches to see how we cope with, and respond to injustices committed against us, what do they hear and see from us? Do they see people who suffer well, or people who shout a lot about the injustices that we suffer? I do sometimes wonder what they see!!

Peter teaches us here that patiently enduring unjust suffering is a commendable thing in God’s sight.

That’s a lot to ask though isn’t it?! Why would he teach us that this is the way to respond to injustices?

Our second much shorter point comes from verses 21-23

2    2) Christ patiently endured unjust suffering as our example

Peter opens verse 21 by saying, “For to this you have been called.” In other words we are called to do what he has just outlined in v20 – to do good and suffer for it with patient endurance.

But why?

He tells us v21, “because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.” We are called as Christians to follow the pattern of life that Christ followed, and in his life on earth Christ suffered.

He suffered injustices that go way beyond anything we could ever suffer. In fact, his suffering was exclusively for doing good, as Peter says at the start of v22, he committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.

When Peter uses the word “example” in v21 it was a word used of children who traced over the letters of the alphabet in order to learn to write their letters correctly. You wanted to follow as exactly as possible the outline of what you were trying to copy. As Christians we’re to be all about copying Christ. Following his lead, planting our steps exactly where his have been. And he walked through unjust suffering. He walked through a trial of trumped up charges, he suffered the ultimate injustice at the hands of men, as he was condemned to death for crimes that he had not committed. He only ever did what was right in God’s sight, and yet he was crucified.

How did he walk through all this, v23? “When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.”

There’s our example. Like Christ, we don’t try and strike back, instead we patiently endure.

Notice that Jesus was able to do this because he trusted his Father. He knew that any wrongs now, any injustices committed against him now, would one day be judged by his Father. 

When we suffer an injustice due to our faith, the temptation is to think, this must be put right now - "I need justice now." It’s not wrong to desire justice. But we must remind ourselves at such times that God will provide justice one day. One day all rights will be put wrong. We can trust him with that absolutely.

And in the meantime that will help us to patiently endure suffering in the present. We look to Christ as our example in this says Peter, and we draw our strength from him, in order to respond like him.

Peter has almost reached the end of this section on suffering, and as he thinks of Christ’s suffering, he can’t help but say one more thing about that suffering. Something about Christ’s suffering that was unique, that sets it apart actually from ours.

3    3) Christ also suffered as our Substitute and Shepherd (v24 – 25)

There was something unique about Christ’s sufferings wasn’t there.

When we suffer, we’re not paying the ultimate penalty for anyone else’s sin. We’re not taking upon ourselves God’s eternal wrath so that someone else doesn’t have to. Only Jesus has ever suffered in that way. “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree”, v24. He paid the price of our sin for us. We can follow his example in patiently and graciously enduring unjust suffering, but we can’t eternally save anyone by paying for their sin through our suffering. Only Christ does that. He carries our sins on the cross.

But then Peter gives us a reason why he did that.

He says it was so “that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.” What does that mean? Well it means that the purpose of Christ’s death, his carrying of our sins on the cross, was not only to make forgiveness possible for those who put their faith in him, it was also to empower those who put their faith in him to live to righteousness.

One of the commentators says this about v24. “The verse begins with the basis upon which believers are forgiven: Christ’s sin bearing death. Peter then emphasises the purpose of his death: it is so that believers will live a new kind of life”, an increasingly righteous life.

The ability to live in the way Peter has just outlined – graciously enduring unjust suffering, would be impossible, utterly impossible, without faith in the crucified Christ. But, Christ has died for us, carried our sin to the cross, so that we might be able, by his Spirit’s power, to increasingly live like him.

The Christian life is genuinely demanding. Forgive those who hurt you. Patiently endure unjust suffering. But whatever God asks of us, through Christ, he graciously provides the spiritual resources to obey. So we must learn to lean on him, because we have to lean on him, in order to live like him.

Conclusion

Let’s bring this message to a conclusion.

Peter draws this section to together with some words of real comfort and encouragement for hard pressed Christians. He ends v24 by saying, “by his wounds (that Jesus’ wounds) you have been healed.”

No matter how much of a physical beating Christians may take, Christ’s wounds have healed their sin sick hearts. And no amount of suffering can change that. They’ve been healed by Christ’s wounds.

Then in verse 25, he says, “For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”

Without Christ, any person is in a far greater place of danger than with Christ. Even if being with Christ brings unjust sufferings. Without him we’re straying like lost sheep and on our way to a lost eternity. But with him we have a Shepherd and Overseer of our souls. Our souls are completely safe from lasting harm. As the great Shepherd psalm, Psalm 23 says,

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me, your rod and your staff they comfort me.”

We have an all seeing, all knowing, all powerful, loving, Shepherd and Overseer, Protector and Keeper of our souls. Whatever we face, and who knows what God may call us to face, to endure, our souls are always safe. We’re in our Shepherd’s care, and that is our greatest comfort.

Orange Carnations, or Red Roses? What pleases the one you love? Colossians.

Let me tell you a story about buying flowers for my wife – it is Valentine’s Day after all!

Not long after Lou and I first got together I remember that I bought her some flowers on one occasion.

It may even have been the first time I bought her flowers. The flowers were orange carnations. I bought her them out of a real desire to please her.  Girls, so I’d been told, quite like flowers. And she was, she told me, genuinely pleased when I presented them to her. Delighted even.

Since that occasion, maybe four years ago or so, I’ve spent a fair bit of time with Lou. I’ve got to her know her better. I’ve studied her. I've tried to learn what she likes and doesn’t like. I've asked her what she likes and doesn’t like. All so that I can please her. I’m still learning, but here’s one thing I’ve grasped; I would never give her orange carnations now! She doesn’t really like the colour orange. She doesn’t really like carnations. She wouldn’t be that impressed now if I got her a bunch of orange carnations. Red roses, oh yes, but not orange carnations. In order to increasingly please my wife, and show that I love her, I need to learn what pleases her. What does it say if I never bother to find out what she likes, and then give her those things?

It’s no different with God. If we claim to love him, then we’ll  find out what delights him – so that we can do it, so that we can walk worthy of him and please him.

Here’s the point I’m getting at: Knowledge of God (doctrine) and showing love for God (by living for his pleasure in a manner worthy of him) they go hand in hand.

Paul talks about this in Colossians 1:9-10. He wants Christians learn about God in order to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, in a way that pleases God.

It's an incredible privilege to be a Christian. To have been loved by God, called by the grace of God, saved because Jesus died for you. What a tremendous privilege to be in the position of being a child of God. And as such loved and privileged people, God calls us to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord.

Now Paul isn’t teaching here that we are to earn God’s love, to earn the privilege of being God’s children, that our hope of heaven depends on our worthiness. No, God has already loved and privileged us in Christ with the certain hope of heaven, he has made us his – therefore, we should love him and live in a way that shows that love. Because we already have been loved by the Lord and belong to the Lord, we should walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, pleasing him. As Paul goes on to say, we should be bearing fruit (for God) in every good work v10.

Here’s the link between the first thing Paul calls Christians to in v9 (knowledge), and the second in v10 (walking worthy, pleasing him). Paul prays for the Colossians to grow in the knowledge of God’s will, so that they will do what pleases God. The whole point of finding out what God wants, is so that we can then do what God wants. We’re called to learn about God, in order to please God.

I think it’s fair to say that doctrine, (that is, learning about God from his Word) can get a bad name among some Christians. “It’s not what you know as a Christian that matters, it’s what you do as a Christian.” There is of course some truth in that. A head full of knowledge about God that doesn't result in a life full of good works is worse than pointless.

But that doesn't mean that doctrine (learning about God) doesn't matter. Learning about God equips us to please God, to show our love for him.  So if we really do love God we’ll take learning about God seriously for the precise reason that it helps us to live for his pleasure.

I love Lou, so I won’t be giving her orange carnations today. Red roses is what she likes.

Do you love God? Then find out more about him and live out what you've discovered. He’ll be pleased, delighted in fact!

What does God want me to do with my life? - Colossians

Once a month on a Sunday night Lou and I run a group for older teens and young adults called, “Rooted”. A couple of weeks ago they asked us if we could discuss what God’s will is a for an individual’s life. They don’t do easy questions! So we discussed what sort of life God calls all Christians to. And actually it isn't that complicated when you get down to it. Paul talks about God’s call on the life of every Christian in Colossians 1, and it starts with growing in the knowledge of Him.

So what are we called to do with our lives now, as saints, as  believers, as Christians? It should be the question of any person who has become a Christian – what am I to do with my life now? How am I to live as a follower of Jesus? What is God’s call on my life?

Paul’s prayer for the Colossian Christians in verses 9 – 11 gives us some very good pointers as to what we’re supposed to be doing. It’s not an exhaustive list, it doesn't say everything that could be said. It’s fairly general in the answers it gives us, it’s not going to directly tell us whether you individually are called to be a doctor, a factory worker, a housewife, a missionary or something entirely different.  But it is going to tell us three things that as Christians, we are called to do.

Paul’s prayer in these verses contains three things (today we’ll look at just the first) that he wants to see happening in the lives of all Christians. They are things that they are called to work on, though ultimately they are gifts from God. To borrow the language Paul uses in his letter to the Philippians, these are three ways in which we are to work out our salvation because God by his Spirit is working in us to bring these things about.

What are these things then that Paul prays for in the lives of the Colossian believers, how are they called to live?

The first thing that Paul prays that God would give them, and that he calls them to, is an increase in the knowledge of God.

“⁹And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding”.

This is a basic call on the life of every Christian – by the help of God’s Spirit, we’re to seek to grow in, and to be filled with the knowledge of God and his will – so that we will be wise and understanding.

But how does that happen?

Well ultimately it’s a work of God’s Spirit. He’s the one who fills us with the knowledge of God’s will.

But how does he do that? Does he just dump all this information about God into our heads in one big dollop, so that without any effort on our part our heads are suddenly filled up with a Wikipedia like knowledge of God’s will that we can access at a moment’s notice? Sometimes I wish that was the way it worked, but it’s not! It’s not how the Spirit does it.

What the Holy Spirit does, is prompt us to prayerfully study God’s Word, the Word that he has inspired, the Bible where God’s will is revealed.  Now that should happen in private as we prayerfully read our Bibles day by day, and perhaps some good Christian books alongside. And it should also happen together, as we prayerfully listen to God’s word being taught, as we discuss it one to one, or in larger groups, thinking about what it means and how it applies to us. When we ask him, and rely upon him, the Holy Spirit through these means helps us to increasingly know and understand God’s word, and to apply it in ways that demonstrate spiritual wisdom.

So then, are you, by the Spirit’s help, listening to the call to grow in the knowledge of God? Are you getting in to the Word, really digging deep, asking the Spirit to help you become wise and understanding? It’s a vital part of God’s call upon your life and mine.

Colossians - Faith, Love, and Hope

Having spent three blog posts looking at the first two verses of Colossians it’s time to speed up a bit as we get in to the letter proper. The next four posts are based on a sermon looking at 1:3 – 14. I entitled this sermon, “What is a Christian?”

What is a Christian? Part 1 – The Characteristics of a Christian

Verse 3 of Colossians 1 begins with Paul in prayer, thankful prayer.

Paul has heard from a Christian called Epaphras that the church in Colossae was displaying certain, God given, that’s why he thanks God for them, characteristics. So what were the characteristics, the hallmarks of true, real, genuine Christians that Paul had heard about and was so thankful for?

Verses 4 and 5 tell us – faith, love, hope. He’s heard about their faith, he’s heard about their love, he’s heard about their hope.  It’s this familiar triad of things that Paul often talks about when he describes Christians, you find him speaking of these things as being characteristic of Christians so often, they have faith, they have love, and they have hope.

But of course, it’s not enough to simply and only say that they have faith, love and hope. Faith is always in something, love is always for something, hope is always fixed on something. Without defining what those “somethings” are, faith, love and hope are pretty meaningless.

So what are the objects of these Christians’ faith, love, and hope? Because it really matters what their faith is in, their love is for, and their hope is fixed on, just as it matters what your faith is in, your love is for, and your hope is fixed on!

For example, we don’t read here that Paul is thanking God for the Colossians faith in Buddha, love for the animals, and hope of one day paying off the mortgage. Or their faith in money, love of good food, and hope in an early retirement.

No, Paul has specific objects in mind when it comes to the Christian’s faith, love and hope. What are they?

Faith in Christ Jesus.

Love for all the saints.

Hope laid up in heaven.

These are the key characteristics of any true Christian, characteristics that when we see them in someone else we should rejoice, and thank and praise God for giving a person, or a group of people, these saving characteristics.

First of all faith in Christ. Faith in him as the only one who saves us, the only one who keeps us, the only one who is our Lord and master. We’ll come back to that later!

Secondly, love for all the saints (saints remember is another name for Christians). I want to dwell on this one for a while – Christians love all the saints.

There should be no such thing as a lone Christian – the Colossian Christians loved all the saints. There should be no such thing as a Christian who isn’t interested in the lives of their brothers and sisters in Christ – the Colossian Christians loved all the saints. There should be no such thing as a Christian who doesn’t want to practically show acts of love and kindness to their fellow Christians – the Colossian Christians loved all the saints. There should be no such thing as a Christian who has decided to only show love to Christians who are like them in terms of age and temperament and background and abilities – the Colossian Christians loved all the saints.

It’s always wonderful to see a church where its members love and cherish and care for one another. Where they also love Christians from outside their own church, where there’s a generosity of Spirit towards those not directly within their own fellowship.

I thank God for every indication of that Spirit given love here, and there are lovely indications of that amongst us here. Yet there will be people, there are people, in this church who feel themselves out on the edge – unloved. Can I encourage us all to look out for those people, find ways to speak loving words to them, and ways to back up those words with genuine acts of love and kindness.  It’s so important – a characteristic of Christians is that they love all the saints.

Some other Christians don’t seem easy to love – I know! But always remember as a Christian yourself, that Jesus loves you, loves you enough to have died for you, and next to him you’re a very unloveable mess!  If you’ve realised that about yourself, that you’re an unloveable mess, greatly loved by Jesus, it will help you to show that Christian characteristic of loving others.

Let me move on to the third characteristic though – hope. It’s a characteristic that is often forgotten, or neglected, but that Paul presents here as the basis of our faith in Christ and love for the saints.

What is the Christian’s hope v5 to be fixed on? It’s to be fixed on what is laid up for you in heaven.  Your hope is to be fixed on your future inheritance, which is eternal life face to face with Jesus, enjoying him forever in a new heavens and a new earth.

Notice how Paul speaks of our hope of heaven being the thing that spurs on our faith in Christ and love for the saints in verses 3 – 5;

“³We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, ⁴since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, ⁵because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.”

The hope of eternity in heaven with God, in his new perfect world, is what drives these Colossians’ faith in Christ, he’s the only one who can get them there, and it drives their love for all the saints, the very people that they will spend eternity with in God’s presence, who like them have been saved by the precious blood of Christ.

What is the good news of the gospel? The certain hope of eternal life spent with and praising God, alongside countless others who have been saved by Jesus. It’s characteristic of any Christian that they are captivated by this great hope of heaven, and that it results in faith in Christ, and love for all the saints.

In part 2 we’ll look at the call of Christians in verses 9 – 11.

Colossians - Grace and Peace

Last post on Colossians 1:1-2.

What is the letter to the Colossians about?

The answer to that question could be long – it will be long in that we’ll spend the next few weeks thinking about the answer. But it can be summarised in what Paul says at the end of his greeting in verse 2;

“Grace to you and peace from God our Father.”

The summary that these words give us is that God offers us grace and peace. In fact that could be a summary not just of Paul’s letter to the Colossians, but of the whole Bible.

What is grace?

Grace is the unearned, unmerited, undeserved favour and love of God lavishly poured out upon his people. Grace is God giving us the complete opposite of what we deserve, which is his judgement, his anger, his punishment for the way we have all lived lives of rebellion against him. That’s what we deserve, but what God the Father offers us in his Son Jesus Christ, is grace.

And it’s an offer of grace that can bring us peace. Peace with God, through Christ, and peace with one another, in Christ.

That’s the message of Colossians – that’s the message of the Bible. Despite our rebellion against him, which has ruined both the world we live in, and our own individual lives, God the Father graciously offers us peace through his Son, Christ Jesus.

We’ll learn much more about the peace that God graciously gives in Christ as we read through this letter over the next few weeks, but let me finish by quoting a couple of verses that demonstrate these core truths in this letter, and that point us to the cross where God graciously makes peace possible. Colossians 1:19 – 20 – the gracious peace that God gives through Jesus;

“For in Jesus Christ 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.”

This letter, like the rest of the Bible, is about God making peace through the sacrifice of his Son on the cross, where his blood was shed for the saints.

It’s an awesome and wonderful message, and I hope it will grip us and thrill us all over the next few weeks in Colossians.

Unlikely Stats

I'm one of those people that find stats fascinating (I know, I'm a geek) so I find the blogger stats breakdown fascinating. I could stare at it for hours. I don't get huge numbers of hits, just a small amount really, and yet the variation of countries they've come from is quite amazing. One thing the blogger stats tell you is the number of hits you've had from each country. The UK in first, and the US in second makes sense - I live in the UK, and Americans (of whom I know a few) use the internet a fair bit. France comes in third - again no great shock there,  my in-laws are French (bonjour à la famille Souillot!). Fifth place belongs to India - I think population size may have something to do with that. But in fourth place, sandwiched between France and India, is (tension inducing drumroll) ........ Mongolia!

Great to have Mongolian visitors to the blog, but I can't help being curious about how you found your way here?!

Colossians - Saints in the Sticks

Last time’s post was looking to answer the question, “Who is the letter to the Colossians from?” This time I want to think about the people who received the letter.

         Who is the letter to the Colossians to?

The first part of the answer is easy – to some people in Colossae.

Where was Colossae then?

Well it was in the west of what we now call Turkey, what the Romans called Asia. It had previously been quite an important place, but by New Testament times it was dwarfed in importance by its two neighbours, Laodicea and Hierapolis. Colossae was a bit of a backwater in actual fact. It was not a particularly wealthy or influential place, and it was somewhere Paul had apparently never been, although he hoped to visit eventually. So it was like most places – unimportant to most people.

But evidently it wasn’t unimportant to God. In God’s plan and purpose the gospel had reached apparently insignificant Colossae. Chapter 1:7 suggests that it was a man called Epaphras who had taken the gospel there, and taught it to people in that town.

Isn’t it great that God is interested in “unimportant” places, and that he raises up people who are willing to take the gospel to “unimportant” places! Isn’t it encouraging that there’s a letter in the Bible written to the church in Colossae.

You won’t find Colossae on a modern map. In fact you wouldn’t even find Colossae on a 1900 year old map. History tells us that it was pretty much wiped out by an earthquake that must have taken place within just a few years of Paul writing this letter to the church there.

But even though Colossae didn’t matter much to the wider world, even though it wouldn’t even exist in just a few short years, God had put a church there. God inspired Paul to write to the church there.

God is interested in the backwaters. Ingleton, and the villages round about here are our home, but they’re in the sticks as far as most people are concerned. Just like many other places are too. But they matter to God, their people matter to God, just as much as people living in the headline grabbing cities matter. And because they matter to God, they should matter to us as his people. Nowhere is irrelevant and unimportant in God’s eyes.

So Paul has written his letter to some people in the backwater town of Colossae. But what else do we know about who he has written to?

They’re saints verse 2. What is a saint?

The understanding that most people have of what a saint is has ended up far removed from the truth as it’s found in the Bible. If you were to ask most people what the definition of a saint is, what do you think they’d say? An amazingly good person. A wonderfully kind and self giving person.

Well that’s not actually the biblical definition of a saint. It’s not surprising that most people think it is – but it isn’t.

The idea of a saint being an especially good person, a super Christian, is largely down to what the Roman Catholic Church has taught over the years. Every now and again they’ll take an example of some dead person from the past that they consider to have been a particularly outstanding Christian, and the Pope will announce them to be a saint.

It’s nonsense, because according to the Bible, every Christian, dead or living, is a saint. The fact that an individual is a saint is not based on how good they are. It’s based on what God has done for them. If you’re a Christian this morning, then as far as the Bible is concerned you’re a saint.

Let’s just think a little bit more about this word saint. What does it really mean?

Well the word “saint” is part of the same word group in the Bible as the word “sanctify”. That might not be very enlightening to be told that so let me try to explain a little further.

To sanctify means to take something or someone, to cleanse it, so that it can be declared to be holy, and then to set it apart as God’s special possession, for God’s special use.

So in the Old Testament for example, you would have sanctified items, as well as people. In other words inanimate objects that would be ceremonially cleansed, often using animal blood, or oil, or water. Having gone through this cleansing they were then declared to be holy, and set apart as God’s possession for God’s use. This had to be done with anything that would be used in God’s temple. It would even be done with a shovel for example that was used in the temple. It had to be sanctified.

When you get to the NT, the saints are those people who have been sanctified. They have been washed and cleansed in the blood, not of animals, but of the Lord Jesus Christ. They have been declared to be holy in God’s sight, clothed in the righteousness of Christ. They have been set apart as God’s special possession, his special people, who belong to him. And they have been set apart to serve him, to glorify him, for his use in his kingdom.

As Paul addresses the saints in Colossae, this is who he is speaking of. Those who are the cleansed, holy, set apart people of God who have been sanctified in order to serve him and glorify him with their whole being and their whole life. That is a saint – someone that God has qualified to be his cleansed, holy, set apart servant. It is a way of describing any and every true Christian. To speak of the saints in Colossae, as Paul does here, is to speak of the church in Colossae.

How can you recognise a saint?

Well that’s the second part of Paul’s description of the church at Colossae – they will be faithful in Christ Jesus.

Firstly, that means that their faith will be in Christ for their salvation. They will trust in Christ and Christ alone to make them a saint, to qualify them to be one of God’s people, one of God’s servants.

Secondly, they will also be faithful to Christ. Because they have been set apart in Christ, as God’s special possession, for God’s use, they will faithfully follow Christ, they will faithfully serve God. They’ll make mistakes of course, but they will seek to be what they now are – a saint, a servant of God. And if a person is not giving their life to serve the God to whom they now supposedly belong, if they’re speaking and behaving as if, “my life belongs to me not God”, then they’re probably not a saint at all.

Saints want to faithfully be what they are – cleansed, holy, set apart servants of Jesus.

Is that you? Is that your desire?

If it isn’t, then you still need to ask Jesus to save you and turn your life around so that you faithfully want to follow him and serve him. You’re not yet a saint!

Colossians - Rooted and Built up in Christ (An Introduction)

Preachers have different ways of doing their sermon preparation. Mine involves writing a full manuscript for every sermon I deliver. Normally these manuscripts then find themselves consigned to the filing cabinet (or in my case the filing plastic bag!) and never see the light of day again. That seems to be a bit of a shame, so I’ve decided to start a blog series where I basically post my sermon manuscripts online. I won’t put up whole sermons at once, as most of them are over 3000 words long. Instead I’ll divide them up in to three or four separate posts that will appear over the course of a week.

I’m going to begin with a series I’ve just finished preaching through at Ingleton Evangelical Church on Paul’s letter to the Colossians. It's a fantastic book, all about being rooted and built up in Christ. The sermons are very lightly edited from the originals in order to make them fit the context of a blog, but the substance of them hasn’t been changed at all. I hope they prove helpful to you, and glorifying to God.

Who is the letter to the Colossians from?

In one sense I’ve already answered that question above, Paul writes this letter. But who was Paul, and why does it matter who he was, and that he wrote this epistle?

We need a bit of background about Paul.

First of all, he wasn’t always called Paul. The name he was given by his parents as a small child was actually Saul. Saul was a Jewish name and Saul, as he then was, was brought up as a Jew.

He came from a town called Tarsus, which was not actually in Judea but in Cilesia, a part of modern day Turkey. But Tarsus would have had a Jewish community, which Paul’s family would have been part of.

Saul grew up to be a gifted teacher of Judaism as at some point early in life he moved to Jerusalem to study at the feet of Gamaliel, a great teacher of the law within 1^st century Judaism.

The 1^st century of course was also the time when Christianity was in its infancy. But despite being in its infancy, it was a taking a strong hold in Jerusalem, and increasingly in the Roman Empire around. This was not pleasing to the religious elite within Judaism who saw Christianity as a blasphemous distortion of their religion, so they sought to stamp it out. One of the leaders within the Jewish attempt to crush the fledgling Christian church, was Saul.

In Acts 7 you can read about the first Christian martyred for his faith in Jesus, a man called Stephen. Saul was there, looking on approvingly as Stephen was stoned to death. More than that, the beginning of Acts 8 identifies Saul as a ring leader of the persecution of the first Christians. He is detailed there as being a man who ravaged the church, entering people’s homes and dragging men and women off to prison.

Saul was a very intelligent young man, but he was also an extremely nasty piece of work. The last sort of person, you would think, who would write a letter like the one we’re looking at now. As a young man the only letters that he was interested in were ones that authorised him to imprison and murder Christians.

But then Saul had the original “Damascus Road Experience”.

He was on his way to Damascus, with letters from the Jewish religious authorities, authorising him to breath threats and murder against Christians in that city, when he met someone. Or rather someone met him. It was Jesus Christ, appearing in person to Saul, in a blinding vision, asking him why he was persecuting him. At that point Saul had no answer. For three days following that encounter with Christ he couldn’t see, he couldn’t eat, he couldn’t drink. But he had been changed.

From that day on Saul did not persecute Jesus, or his people, any more. Instead, he became a follower of Jesus, just like those he previously persecuted.

How God can turn lives around. Never give up praying for, and witnessing to, even the people who are most antagonistic and violently opposed towards Jesus. He can turn them round in a moment.

In time Saul came to be known as Paul. He was known as Paul by the time he wrote his letter to the church in Colossae.

But the fact that Paul was a man whose life Jesus had turned upside down isn’t all that there is to say about him. It isn’t all that Paul says about himself at the start of this letter.

Who is writing this letter? Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ.

Immediately after Paul’s blinding vision of Jesus on the road to Damascus a man called Ananias, a Christian, takes him in to his home. He’s only willing to do so because the Lord appears to him too in Acts 9 and reassures him that it’s OK, Paul isn’t going to rip his head off or anything – he’s a changed man. In fact what the Lord tells Ananias is this in Acts 9:15;

“Paul is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.”

In other words Paul was going to become Jesus’ mouthpiece. Someone specially set aside by God to be a foundation stone in the early church. A teacher carrying Jesus’ own authority as he spoke about the gospel, the way of knowing peace with God through Jesus, and about what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ in every aspect of life. An apostle in other words. And the fact that Paul was an apostle is significant when we come to read this 2000 year old letter. 

If Paul had been just anybody, or even just any normal Christian writing independently, then there would be no reason to treat what he says here as having any authority over the people he wrote to, or over us. If he hadn’t been an apostle, or writing under the direction of an apostle, then we could just take what’s written here as being his opinion, and not something we actually have to treat as the word of God.

The apostles, including Paul, were part of the foundation of the New Covenant church. Christ Jesus himself was the chief cornerstone, but the apostles, to whom Jesus gave his authority, were also part of that foundation – the church is built on their Jesus authorised teaching.

Whenever Paul wrote to a church that didn’t personally know him (and 2:1 suggests he hadn’t actually met the church in Colossae), or to a church that did know him but was in danger of abandoning what he had taught them, he made sure to introduce himself as an apostle. It was a shorthand way of saying;

“What I’m going to write to you in this letter, I’m not saying on my own authority, but on Jesus’ authority. This is stuff that you need to know as a Christian, and it’s stuff that if you reject it, then it’s the same as rejecting what Jesus says.”

Now that might sound rather proud and arrogant on Paul’s part, so just to make sure that people understand, he adds that he’s an apostle of Christ Jesus, “by the will of God”.

In other words Paul didn’t wake up one day and decide to be an apostle. He didn’t authorise himself to tell everyone that he was speaking on Jesus behalf so everyone better sit up and listen. Not at all, God had decided to make Paul Jesus’ mouthpiece. Left to his own devices Paul was trying to destroy the church of Jesus Christ, it was God who had turned his life around and who had also appointed him an apostle.

Now the fact that Paul was an apostle of Jesus had implications for the church in Colossae as they read this letter, and it has the same implications for us reading it too. Whatever Paul is going to go on to say, we can’t just dismiss it as his opinion.

What Paul says in this letter, in all his letters, is what Jesus says, what God says – and so we have to respond to it as such. It has authority over us.

So there’s the answer to our first question – Who is writing the letter to the Colossians?

“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God.”

We need to listen up to what he says; we need to act on what he says.