Speaker 1: 0:00

So if you have your Bible or if you grab one out of the pew in front of you, you can turn to Colossians, chapter 1. So this is a letter of Paul, and he wrote this from prison to a young church that he had never before personally visited. Most of Paul's letters are written to churches that he planted that he was there and he was their pastor, but this is written from Paul to a church that he had never visited. It's a small group of believers in Colossae that's the name of the city who were still learning what it meant to live, rooted in Christ in the middle of a complicated, shifting culture Christ in the middle of a complicated, shifting culture. In a lot of ways their situation can feel similar to ours here at Redeemer. Even though, technically speaking, redeemer Church has been around since the 50s and there's three churches that emerged that have all been around in the 50s, we don't feel like a church that's been around since the 50s. At least that's not how I feel and I would encourage you don't feel that way either. So, even though that is technically true, you know, we've spent the last almost year and a half trying to root ourselves in this neighborhood, the Dakota neighborhood of Union City, not just existing here, but we want to really be embedded into the life of this community. You certainly last week saw the bell if you were here, but for those of you who were not here last week, if you didn't notice it, we have a bell tower out in the corner and I'm on a Dakota community Facebook page and it was really cool because I went on this Facebook page and our neighbor across the street posted a video of the bell tower getting put in place with the caption it's back and then, seeing this community reaction underneath, everybody seemed to be excited. When I was out there, people driving by like giving us a thumbs up or waving or excited that it's there. A bell tower doesn't make us connected to the community, but we are seeking to be present here and I think what I saw illustrated in that bell tower going up is the fact that the community that is here does have connection already without us, like there is a sense of community and though we live in a community that people are moving into, there are a lot of people whose families have been here for a long time. So there is a connection that exists here and we want to be a part of that and we're seeking to be like that. So the Colossians here in this that Paul is writing to, they are learning what it looks like to stay anchored in Christ while they live in a culture that offers a hundred competing visions of the truth. It offers different visions of what success is and what spirituality looks like.

Speaker 1: 3:10

You'll notice today on your worship guide on the front or what did we say? We're going to call these Liturgy guides Bulletin, whatever you want to call it. You'll notice on the front it says second Sunday of Easter. Right, and you're like, wait, I thought Easter was last week and it was, but there are actually seven Sundays of Easter, so this is the second Sunday of Easter. And well, what does that mean? Well, that means that we are intentionally, by drawing your attention there and by going into this series on the resurrected life, we are intentionally leaning into the fact that Easter is not just a moment that we celebrate, a one-day thing, but it is actually a season that we are, as a church, living in. So, for the seven Sundays from Resurrection Sunday up until the week before Pentecost, we're going to slow down and learn what it means to live the resurrected life and actually be shaped by the victory of Christ in our lives.

Speaker 1: 4:22

So our series is called Risen with Christ, living the Resurrected Life, and we're going to go through the book of Colossians, we're going to dive in and hopefully understand more and more what it looks like for us to live this life together. So we're going to read in just a moment and we're going to be in the first 14 verses. You probably already knew that if you looked at the thing, or it's probably on the screen right above my head. But we're going to dig into these 14 verses and we're not going to be able to cover everything, and that's okay. But what I hope that you will be able to walk away with is an understanding of what Paul, by writing to the Colossian church, is trying to set up here. He is trying to set up a way of thinking that is ultimately rooted in the gospel, and if you remember from last week, we reminded ourselves what the gospel is. The gospel is the good news that, yes, christ came, that he died and that he was raised, but that in being raised, he is proclaiming victory over sin and death and we can be in relationship with God and we can live in light of that gospel. So my hope is that we'll be able to kind of grasp that today. So let's go ahead and read together.

Speaker 1: 5:58

I encourage you to follow along in your Bible, or take a look at the screen and we're going to just read these first 14 verses Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother to the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae. Grace to you and peace from God, our Father. We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we 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. Of this you have heard before, in the word of truth, the gospel which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world. It is bearing fruit and increasing, as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant, he is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf and has made known to us your love in the spirit. And 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, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for all endurance and patience, with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of the Lord, amen. So Paul here is giving for us a, a prayer, a, a praise. It's a prayer, praise and thanksgiving for this church in Colossae.

Speaker 1: 8:22

I told you earlier he had not yet been present there. In fact he's only heard of them from Epaphras. Yet Paul is able to write to them these encouraging words because he's heard some things. But just because he's heard some good things it doesn't mean that there aren't some bad things. And almost always when Paul writes a letter there are some bad things, some problems, and that's not an exception.

Speaker 1: 8:50

And later on in the sermon we will kind of explore a little bit of what is going on in the church, or at least what we know. I mean, we don't have the full background, we have this book and we can read it and try to understand from it what's going on, but before we dig in, I want to present to you up front what I hope you take away. This is the big idea, and it's this because God has rescued and rooted you in Christ, you are called to grow, endure and bear fruit through his power, not your own. Because God has rescued and rooted you in Christ, you are called to grow, endure and bear fruit through his power and not your own. You know, we, last week, we had um palm trees on the stage, and if you notice, they're outside today and you might say, well, why didn't we keep them up here? They look nice, um, unless you didn't like them. But if you liked them, hey, why didn't we keep them in here? They look nice.

Speaker 1: 9:54

And the real reason why I'll tell you the reason why, but it's not because I wanted to ask Daniel to help me move the trees outside. This week, though, I did. The reason why they're outside is because those trees are not rooted, they are not planted, they're not in a good place. In fact, except for one of them, I got them all at Costco. In fact, except for one of them, I got them all at Costco. So for those Costco people, thank you for providing trees for us. That was helpful, but I did not rescue them from Costco.

Speaker 1: 10:36

I picked them up, but they are still in need of rescue, the trees. One of them is like eight feet tall. It's in a pot like this big. That's not enough dirt for a tree like that. Okay, and ultimately, ultimately, what has to happen with those trees ultimately is they have to be planted in the ground somewhere. Now we can probably get by for a while, putting them in a bigger pot and kind of like temporarily rooting them and trying to keep them on life support, but ultimately, those trees are doomed to die, a death that is premature, if we don't ultimately get those trees and plant them in the ground, rescue them and root them in such a way where they have life. And so this is what I am proposing to you today that you and me, as Christians, we have been rescued and rooted, and so what our life looks like now is based in that fact. Those trees, they're going to move around, they're going to be tossed to and fro. They might come back onto the stage, they might, you know, find a different spot or whatever, but until they're rooted, until they're rescued, they will not be able to grow, they won't be able to bear fruit because ultimately they are not in a healthy place. So the first thing I want you to see is we're going to look together at verses one through eight and in one through eight I want you to see that you are indeed rescued and rooted. See what happens here.

Speaker 1: 12:24

Paul starts with his kind of customary greeting. We're not going to dig all into it, but one thing that stood out to me there is he addresses them as faithful brothers. He doesn't know them from anybody, he's never been there before but he knows Epaphras and Epaphras has given him some kind of report and he is able to address them in this way. And now that he has heard of them, he says that he is always thanking God for them when they pray for them. Paul is continually, regularly, praying to God and thanking God for these people. Why? Well, because of a couple of reasons, but he lists two. The first of all is because of their love for the saints. What does that mean? I don't know, but what we do know is that somehow this body exhibits a love for the saints, a love for one another, and I would say that that is a mark of what a people or a local church rooted in Christ looks like.

Speaker 1: 13:35

You know, when something is rooted we use that word fairly often that something is, is rooted and it looks a certain way and I'll give you an example of someone, of an organization, using the word rooted that they weren't really rooted and you may or may not be aware of this, but I was an Oakland Athletics fan and I don't know what I am now, but I really like baseball. But for quite a few years they said we absolutely will not leave Oakland and they even made their team motto what was it? Does anybody know? Rooted in Oakland. Rooted in Oakland, right, like rooted, meaning hey, we're here to stay, you can't just rip us out of the ground and take us somewhere else. And you know they start going. But then you have to look at their fruit, right, you look at the fruit and before they even ended up leaving, you're like, well, they're not really playing nice with the city. Well, they're not really. You know, putting the work in, it doesn't seem like what they're doing is genuine and while they're still using the phrase rooted in Oakland, they go to. I think it was. Maybe it was Houston, but it was San Antonio. They took a trip to San Antonio and they took a trip to Las Vegas and they met with city leaders. All the while they're saying rooted in Oakland? Right, they weren't rooted in Oakland and they're not in Oakland anymore. Right now they're playing in Sacramento and they have no name on their jersey, they're just the Athletics, and so I don't know what that means, but they weren't rooted Right here.

Speaker 1: 15:24

While we're looking at these people that Paul is praying and offering his thanks for, he is thanking them because they have love for the saints. One mark of what people rooted in Christ look like is they love one another. We should look that way. We should love one another, we should care for one another, we should be in each other's lives, building each other up, challenging each other when we fail. So let's look that way. And then the next thing that he says is that they have hope laid up for them in heaven through the gospel. They have hope laid up in them through the gospel. Look with me at Colossians 5b the second half of Colossians 5, and we'll look at verses 5 and 6. Of this you have heard before in the word of truth, the gospel. Now pause there for a second. Where did they hear the gospel from? Well, they heard it from Epaphras. At least that's what we have in this text.

Speaker 1: 16:36

Epaphras is mentioned a few other times in scripture, but he seems to be from the city of Colossae and though he was not an apostolic leader, he seems to have been a trusted leader that Paul can confidently say you've heard the gospel, the word of truth from this leader. It says, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world, it is bearing fruit and increasing. So he's making this statement that's beyond just the city of Colossae. So think of Paul, and he's. Paul is on his own missionary journey. Well, he's actually in prison at this moment, but he has been on his own missionary journey and he has spread the gospel, planted gospel seeds in different cities, and then from there it's going to other cities. It's continuing to spread, and so Epaphras is here and he's like hey, this gospel, this good news, it is spreading, it is bearing fruit and increasing, but it is also doing it among you, within the body of believers.

Speaker 1: 17:45

What you could see here is that the gospel sometimes we think of the gospel, like last week. I'm going to say this pretty openly because we don't have any visitors, any first-time visitors, here this week. We last week were pretty direct with the gospel, as directed towards unbelievers, and we often take the gospel and think of it as oh, that's the message by which I got saved, that's how I came to faith, and that's true. But it is so much more than that. It is not just the gospel that is bearing fruit outward, but it is also the very gospel that is bearing fruit, that is transforming, that is changing the people that are here in this church. In Colossae, verse 7, he says, just as you learned it from Epaphras Now, I talked about this already but he is not an apostle, but it calls him a faithful minister or a faithful servant. Paul trusts Epaphras' word and his ministry.

Speaker 1: 18:57

Yet at the same time, paul in this text, in this book, is trying to help. And you'd say, well, what is Paul trying to help? And there is something referred to as the Colossian heresy and there are kind of like four different views. I don't want to get super bogged down in this, but real quickly. Basically, either they were kind of trying to follow the Jewish law too strictly, they were trying to incorporate, either that they were trying to incorporate pagan worship practices into the worship of God. They were doing both, trying to incorporate both Jewish and pagan. Or maybe it was a proto-form of another heresy called Gnosticism. Those are kind of the four views. I tend to kind of see the least value in the proto-Gnosticism, but I see value and possibility as I read through Colossians in basically the other three or the one that combines the other two, basically that the church seems to be incorporating other teachings, whether those be Jewish teachings or pagan practices, into the life and body of the church.

Speaker 1: 20:22

And so Paul is writing this book in large part to address the problems that they are facing, address the problems that they are facing. So Paul says that Epaphras made known to us, to him and Timothy, their love in the Spirit. So they're marked by love. Paul is not questioning whether or not they are believers. He starts off by calling them faithful brothers or faithful brothers and sisters. And so he is saying hey, you guys, everything I know about you tells me you are indeed gospel people and there is even evidence I can see. From looking at your love for the saints and the hope that's laid up for you in the gospel, I can see that indeed, you are rooted and rescued, you are already established in the gospel. And so these people, whose hope is laid up for them in heaven, who have heard the word of truth in the gospel and they've rooted and received that truth, that that gospel that is bearing fruit globally is also bearing fruit locally, that there's trusted leaders vouching for them. Paul is saying hey, I have confidence in you and so, therefore, I do not cease we do not cease to give thanks for you when we pray for you.

Speaker 1: 21:56

But let's go ahead and look at verses 9 through 12. And in verses 9 through 12, I want you to see that you, in light of being rescued and rooted already, you are called to grow, endure and live strong. If we take those trees and we were to plant them in the ground we have an older palm tree in the corner over there and we have some younger palm trees out here. I don't really like palm trees very much, so I don't know if I ever want to plant these trees in our ground, but hopefully we can keep them in pots for a little while. But you can see the big palm tree on the corner right and it's been there for a long time and eventually that palm tree is going to die. But the idea is this is that as you get rooted, there is expectation, like there is expectation, that these little palm trees now they're probably not the same variety, but they're going to hopefully grow bigger and, you know, one day a little palm tree becomes a big palm tree, because there are certain ways that that looks, that that growth goes out forward on. So let's go ahead and let's just look through these verses a little bit. We already read them, but I just want to look again.

Speaker 1: 23:10

So verse 9 says and 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. So he prays for them to have knowledge. Why? I'm not looking for actually spoken. I just want you to think about why. Why would Paul be praying that they would have knowledge? Hopefully you're looking at the text to answer that question, but maybe you just are thinking in your head well, why should we have knowledge? Like, as a church, we want you to have knowledge. So we asked Daniel to help us teach this class on Wednesday nights and our hope is that you acquire knowledge, that you know better the word of God and by knowing better the word of God, you would know the teachings of God.

Speaker 1: 24:03

But why?

Speaker 1: 24:05

Why is that important? Why is it important to have knowledge? Well, let me tell you why it's not important. It's not important so that you can know more than everyone else. Okay, there are people in here and I don't know how much everybody knows, but I promise you that there are big gaps in knowledge between this person, this person and this person. That's not bad. It's not bad that there is a gap in knowledge. And let me tell you this if this person is very knowledgeable this person is moderately knowledgeable and this person is very young in the faith and not very knowledgeable that does not mean that this person is a better person. This person's an okay person and this person is a terrible person. Or a good Christian and okay person and this person is a terrible person, or a good Christian and a bad Christian.

Speaker 1: 24:56

The amount of knowledge you have is not reflective of your spiritual maturity. So why, specifically here, does Paul want them to have knowledge? He's specifically praying. He says, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. So hopefully you saw verse 10 as the answer to why. So as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for all, endurance and patience with joy. That's a long kind of sentence there. There's a ton right there. But what stood out to you, put it in your head, don't say it out loud. Put it in your head. What stood out to you as we read that. So I would say this as you're still placing that in your head, I would say this.

Speaker 1: 26:14

So we started with the phrase so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. I would say that that is the answer, and then the rest is kind of descriptive of what that looks like. So knowledge is not for the sake of knowledge. Knowledge is not for the sake of knowing more stuff. Knowledge is to enable you to walk faithfully in the Lord, so that your life looks like someone whose life is rescued and rooted in the gospel of Jesus Christ and rooted in the gospel of Jesus Christ. So knowledge is supposed to have the result of enabling you to walk worthy of the Lord, if the knowledge that you are acquiring is not changing your life, that's indicative of a problem. I'm not saying stop acquiring knowledge, but I'm saying, hey, ask the question why is this knowledge not changing my life? Why is it just filling my head and not moving me to action?

Speaker 1: 27:29

Because if you're walking in a manner worthy of the Lord, that looks like a life that now it says fully pleasing to him, now obviously we could get here and we give the theological answer, the immediate response Well, fully pleasing to him doesn't mean we're perfect and, yeah, it's not saying that. What fully pleasing to him indicates here is this idea that our life is consistent, that when we sin, we acknowledge it, we repent, we put it to death. It doesn't mean we're perfect Nobody's expecting perfection but that we're living a life rooted in the gospel, meaning that we realize that when we mess up, that Jesus has covered those sins and we don't allow guilt to bog us down. Though we ought to feel something. When we sin, we ought to be like, hey, yeah, that was wrong, I don't wanna be doing that. But then we give that to God and we say please ought to be like hey, yeah, that was wrong, I don't want to be doing that, but then we give that to God and we say, please, god, help me, I don't want to do this.

Speaker 1: 28:40

What else does it look like? Well, it bears fruit. In all of our good works and all the things that we do, there is fruit being born. Now, what does fruit look like? Fruit can look very different. Fruit is not saying, oh, you have to judge someone by how many people they lead to the Lord. It's not saying you know like, oh, look on the outward evidences and what they produce. Fruit can be. It can be that like that stuff is fruit, but fruit can be the maturity that grows in you to be able to minister to others. Fruit can be the way that God has been using you and working in you and through you to serve the larger body, to love one another, to look like this church and being an active participant within it in showing that love and that fruit Verse 11, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might. So, all of these things, all of this knowledge and all of this increased fruit, what does it do? It strengthens you with all power. That sounds like, hey, you know that's a lot of power, right? All power According how, according to his glorious might, growing in knowledge, the right kind of growth in knowledge, leads to faithfulness, which leads to fruit, which leads to empowerment. And what does that empowerment do? Look at the text For all endurance and patience. With joy, I'll tell you what. That part is hard. That part is hard.

Speaker 1: 30:51

So many of our New Testament books are written to groups that are facing difficulties, groups that are facing persecution, and often a common theme, both in some of Paul's writings, but also, like in Peter's writings, also some of John's writings a common theme is this idea that, like, hey, endurance is a big deal, Right. And you might say, well, I, we don't live in the Roman culture, in the Roman world, where, where they were, they were in fear of someone taking their lives over over Christianity, over their faith, and, and so maybe we don't need endurance in the same way that they did. And I would tell you this I don't think it is any easier to live as a Christian today. Everything in our culture, around us, seems to want to speak counter to God's word, to drag us down, to get us to look inside, for our sense of right and wrong, our moral compass. Like, hey, what feels right to you? Hey, god lays out this standard, but that doesn't feel right. Go with what feels right to you. Well, what did we see in the Old Testament? What do we see in the book of Judges? A judge would come, they would correct things, things would go a little bit better for a little while and then, pretty soon, the people started doing what was right in their own eyes and they needed another judge to come and rescue them. And the pattern occurred over and over and over again.

Speaker 1: 32:31

And I would say, just because we don't have the kind of persecution that the Roman Empire perhaps afforded to the church does not mean that we do not need endurance, because we do live in a hard place, with difficult people, with a culture that is speaking counter to what Scripture would have us to believe and practice, and it's hard. So we need to endure, we need to be patient. I mean, it can be hard to be patient. You can be like, hey, why hasn't this happened yet? Why hasn't that happened yet? Patience is hard.

Speaker 1: 33:17

But to endure and be patient with joy, with joy, that's hard, that's hard. How can you have joy when you are enduring persecution and hardship and when nothing is happening when you want it to happen so you're having to be patient. How can you do all that with joy? You can do it by knowing more and more what Jesus actually did and accomplished on the cross, that when he rose victoriously from the grave he guaranteed something. And as your knowledge grows, that ought to help you, that ought to give you a consistent walk that leads to the bearing of fruit, that strengthens you and empowers you so that you know more and more that, yes, god really is at work, and so you are called to grow, endure and live strong. Verses 9 through 12. And ultimately, you are strengthened. Verses 13 through 14, by remembering Christ's work, by knowing what he did. In case that kind of wrap-up of where we jumped back to verse 9 and growing in knowledge didn't emphasize the point enough, let's look at verses 13 through 14, because I think these emphasize the point even more.

Speaker 1: 35:08

It says he has delivered us from the domain of darkness. The word domain, it makes you think of dominion, right, it makes you think of like a kingdom of sorts, like where someone has real authority in some way, authority over you, because he's delivered you from the domain of darkness. You were stuck, you were a prisoner, but you have been transferred. You haven't just been freed. It's not like you were a citizen of this nation and then you became a free citizen, like, oh, I renounced my citizenship, now I'm just a citizen of the world. No, that's not what happened. You were a part of this domain of darkness, but you were transferred from there to where? To the kingdom of his beloved son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. You see, we are already rescued. We're not striving to be rescued, we are already rescued. We've been transferred to Christ's kingdom. Therefore, we have a new citizenship, a new belonging. We've been bought at the cost of Christ's blood so that we indeed have the forgiveness of sins. So this is why knowledge helps us produce fruit, helps us live faithfully, helps us endure and be patient with joy. And be patient with joy, it's because Christ has paid for it with his own blood.

Speaker 1: 37:29

So I want to just wrap up here with this as you live out this resurrected life throughout this series, I want us to be asking a question, kind of at the end of these sermons. And this is the question what does it look like to live out the resurrected life at Redeemer Church, here with us? What does all of this do? Hopefully, you know the values, our values that we have as a church. But in the weeks that we're going to continue going through this series, I want to take some time as part of our preaching to look at different values, and my hope is that as we do that, you will know them better, and actually I want to, in a few weeks, produce a document of some kind that helps us know our values. And so these are somewhat of a work in progress, not because the values are a work in progress, but the wording. But I think that where we're starting here is what is perhaps the most central, and that is one of our core values being gospel centrality Gospel centrality.

Speaker 1: 38:47

Sometimes in churches it's become really popular to say our church is gospel-centered, our church is gospel-centered, and so maybe that's not the wording that we end up landing on. But this is what I want to say is that this is the belief that everything that we do as a body of believers flows from what Christ has already done, what he has already accomplished, what he has already bought and paid for. We're not trying to build our church or our lives or anything in our own strength. We're living out a life that has already been secured by Christ's death. So that means that as you engage at the church, as you find areas to serve, as you take the gospel with you into your places of work and your places of service and your places of hobbies, and all of that, you're not doing it as if to earn favor. You're not doing it out of a sense of guilt. You're not doing it because, oh, you know, someone really needs me to. You're doing it because Christ has done it all for you, and so why would you not give back to that? You see, the living out the resurrected life is not about doing more. It's about living as someone who already has everything that they need in Christ.

Speaker 1: 40:26

I want to wrap up by reemphasizing our big idea, and the big idea, if you recall, is this Because God has rescued and rooted you in Christ, you are called to grow, endure and bear fruit through his power, not your own. We're a young church, freshly rooted in a neighborhood, learning to live the resurrected life in a world full of competing voices. We're people who have been rescued and transferred into the kingdom of Christ, and we've been called to bear fruit, not in our strength, but in his strength. So the challenge today is this as we look at this passage as a prayer that Paul prayed. Would you pray Paul's prayer over our church? Pray that God would make us a people who grow deeper in knowledge and love, who endure with joy, who bear fruit that blesses our neighbors and glorifies our Savior. My hope is that, as we continue looking at the resurrected life in the book of Colossians, that this will lead us to a life that endures.

Speaker 1: 42:03

You know so much of living life these days leads to burnout, leads to just overwork over, just going, going, going, and we don't rest and we don't take breaks and we don't live life at the pace of humanity.

Speaker 1: 42:37

But what the gospel invites us to is a way to both endure meaning not burn out and be patient, because without both endurance and patience, burnout comes. You're like, hey, we're enduring but we're just going to keep pushing Sometimes. No, slow down, take a break. Every week we come and we gather around the table. It's a time in our service when we slow down and remember and proclaim the gospel. So I'm going to close in prayer and Daniel's going to come and lead us in the table. Take this time to slow down and to be reminded that, indeed, christ has paid it all and we have the privilege of being able to partake God. Thank you for this day. Thank you that we indeed are risen with Christ. Help us, as a church, as we seek to live the resurrected life, to understand it better. Help us to do this with endurance and patience in joy. In Jesus' name, we pray Amen.