"Hope in Action"

made with Proclaim

Dan Newburg

First Baptist Church of Devine

Feeding the Fire • Sermon • Submitted a year ago • Presented a year ago • 41:30

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Engage

I have a confession to make. I’m not proud of it, but this past winter I got taken for a ride.

I’m usually pretty discerning. I don’t fall to those text messages and emails that tell me my Amazon password needs to be reset. But every once in a while, some things are just done well enough that you can’t help but buy in. What took me for a ride was a video I came across on YouTube. The caption under the video said, “Coming in 2023” and by all appearances, it looked like a trailer for a movie that was going to be released this year. And boy did I believe it. To be fair, I think any kid of the 80s or 90s like me would’ve been taken by the trailer just because of the nostalgia…it was a trailer for Back to the Future IV. I mean it had Marty McFly putting on some Ray Ban sunglasses, it had the DeLorean burning out while going 88mph. There was just one problem with it all…After I looked around, I found that it’s not really happening. It wasn’t a trailer from a production company, it was a fan-made trailer…‌

It made me realize that there are some things from the past that we so want to relive but they will never come to be, you know, like the Cowboys winning the Super Bowl or a gallon of gas costing less than a buck. And there are other things that resurrect trends from yesteryear if you just wait long enough. Take fashion for an example… Like you, I’ve noticed that things like Polaroid cameras and bell bottom jeans are back in fashion.

Tension

As we begin to shift to this morning’s text, can I say simply that the Apostle Paul discovered that genuinely following Jesus Christ in his day wasn’t fashionable? In fact, as it turns out, as Paul writes this letter to this tiny church, he knew quite personally how unfashionable following Christ was. Today, when writers of popular books set out to write their next best-seller, they seek out places for inspiration. Some do their writing from mountainside cabins with a roaring fireplace or alongside the serene views of a bubbling brook in the cool of spring. Because of the unfashionableness of following Christ, Paul’s inspiration were the five times he received thirty-nine lashings, the three times he was beaten with rods, the time others threw stones at him, the three times he faced shipwreck. His inspiration came from the fact that he couldn’t trust people he knew any more than people he didn’t know. Everyone was looking for a chance to rob him or turn him in. And none of this mentions how many sleepless nights he faced, how many times he hungered or thirsted, or how many times he was arrested and locked up. Why? All because following Jesus wasn’t trendy.

So with that brief context, we would be wise to recall that in our study last week, the text opened with a seeming contradiction raised by Paul. He said, Colossians 1:24 “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake.” (x2) The seeming contradiction is the tension of suffering and rejoicing. I’ll tell you, I read that once and it didn’t sink in much. I read it ten times and discovered that it’s like a nail that you try to hammer into a board that you just can’t get started…it’s got that little dimple in the board but every time you swing the hammer, the nail falls on its side or springs away, never actually penetrating the wood. Colossians 1:24 “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake.” Paul has never met most of the people that he’s writing this to, so let’s add this wrinkle… Suffering for the sake of people you’ve never met? Rejoicing in the suffering of lashings, beatings, hunger, thirst, and imprisonment?

Where did Paul draw his joy from? What propelled him? And where might you and I look to in order to rejoice with Paul when we face suffering or struggles? And most importantly, what benefit is there in suffering and struggle?

Truth

Encouraging the Saints

Of course, to begin to answer these questions, it will require a big step for some of us. The first step is to even assess how we reveal the adversity in our lives at all.

One way is to pretend like nothing rocks your boat. I think many of us try to pretend to be Neo from the Matrix. Have you ever seen the movie? It’s based on this idea that the world the characters are experiencing as they live their every day lives it is not actually real but is just a virtual reality. The main character, Neo, played by Keanu Reeves, reaches a place of maturation as a messiah-like character known as “The One” that he can anticipate what’s going to come before it happens and has such control over the virtual reality that he’s seemingly invincible. I mean, he’s doing jiu-jitsu and his perfectly styled hair isn’t moving. Neo’s perfectly in control.

And it’s this idea that we have our lives perfectly together and under control that I think prevails for some of us. We have this inner desire to portray to the world that we’re a Neo in the Matrix or a Wonder Woman or whoever it is in our minds that never seems to struggle.

Or I suppose the other side of that coin might be the person who isn’t pretending like their boat never rocks, but you’d never catch them out at sea because their outlook is so pessimistic. Too many storms have battered them or their proverbial boat has more leaks than they can manage. They’re neither Neo nor Wonder Woman but their life might be summed up as somebody who believes that they can’t earn playing time on a team like “The Bad News Bears.” That person who life has chewed up and spit out so many times that there’s no fight left in them.

And yet neither of these are how Paul describes himself. He says in Colossians 2:1 “For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face.” The reason Paul has been suffering for the sake of the Colossians and others that he’s never met is that he’s been working for a long time so that they might come to know where hope is found and the difference it should make in their lives. The ESV says “how great a struggle” and the NIV says “struggling” and the sense behind the force of this struggle is that Paul’s been in a fight as a person in ministry. He’s been in a boxing match. And yet, he is neither the unrealistic person like a Neo nor a pessimistic person. He has a deep sense that he’s furthest from any idea of being the heavy weight champion of the world. In fact, the judges scoring his fight have him losing more rounds that he’s won. He’s far from any sense of being Neo…things aren’t perfectly in control, but rather the enemy’s landed some real punches. He’s bloodied. He’s bruised. But unlike the other persona, Paul’s still in a boat at sea, he’s still in the fight. Paul’s no sooner going to throw in the towel than have anyone believe that following Jesus Christ is a breeze. He’s genuinely sharing the challenge of following Jesus and hanging in the fight, so to say, for a reason.

“Well,” says someone… “That’s truly noble. Paul is making an effort to live authentically in front of others.” Yet another person says with skepticism, “That’s true, but what’s his motivation? I’ve seen enough preachers talk out of one side of their mouth about their weariness from spiritual battle and then ask for me to buy them a truck in the same conversation.” Notice with me that Paul puts any ill suspicions about his motivation to bed when he explains the purpose for his struggle. Colossians 2:2a “that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding...”

What’s he saying his motivation is? It’s this… It’s to encourage the church, all the people redeemed by Christ, all the people delivered from the realm of death to the realm of life, to grow in the proper understanding of the gospel. The proper understanding of the gospel is what this business of the “riches of full assurance of understanding” is about. Let me unpack this for a moment.

It’s a regular habit for us to say when someone professes faith in Christ that they have been saved, like it’s a done deal. And just to make sure every one is tracking with me, when the Word of God talks about being saved, what God means is humans receiving mercy in being spared from the punishment of their sin, which is the wrath of God. It is the wrath of God that is coming the way of every person who rejects Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. And when we say that we have been saved, there’s actually an underlying future-ness to it. That salvation ultimately comes to us when we stand before God himself in judgement and the verdict read aloud in our criminal court case declares us just rather than guilty.

For those who are in Christ, for those who for by grace have been saved through faith and have received the free gift of God, we speak of salvation as a very present condition even though it is really a future hope. How is that, you wonder? Is it presumptuous to expect salvation so confidently? Not at all. At least not when we’re talking about Jesus, the King of all and the signee of the New Covenant. Jesus Christ, God himself, has staked his own name, his own reputation, on making good on his salvation and because Jesus Christ is faithful and trustworthy in every way, those of us who are in Christ, because all our hope and trust rests in Christ, we who are in Christ can reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding.

Think of it like this… When we try earn trust with someone, we flex on all our accomplishments, right? We talk about our education or all our positive experiences. Why? We’re selling ourselves, aren’t we? Paul’s not doing that. He’s not even trying to sell Jesus to people on those terms either. He’s not saying things like, “You really ought to check out this guy named Jesus. He’s super dope. Yeah, you can find him on Instagram and TikTok at @sonofgod.” Paul’s not telling them to believe what he’s saying because he’s planted a ton of now successful churches and trained a bunch of pastors. He’s also not saying that he gave this Jesus guy a try but bailed because things got tough and Jesus wasn’t there for him.

He’s saying, and I think this is a word for you and me today, “You know, following Jesus has never been easy, but he never promised that it would be. And I know you feel that pressure that comes from a sense of losing all the time, too. I know what it means to feel like I’m losing. But we have to avoid going the way of pretending to be something we’re not as much as we need to avoid going the way of just giving up on everything. We’ve got to hang in there, encouraging one another in spirit, because in reality, not a one of us is hanging in so much as it’s Jesus who is hanging on to us. Jesus has brought us into his body, he’s brought us into his covenant, into his promise, into him and because we each bear the name of Jesus, we can encourage and uplift and edify one another in love because we don’t measure each other by our wins and losses, but by his grace.”

I may not know all that you’re facing, friend, but if you are in Christ, quit faking it and stop giving up. Be real. Stay in the fight. Show up. Christ has redeemed you for such a time as this and each of us sticking together encourages our hearts and teaches to us the full understanding of the mystery of the gospel at the same time.

But what does the full or complete understanding mean?

Mystery of the Gospel

Well, Paul tells us towards the end of Colossians 2:2-3 that he’s struggled, he’s fought, for so many he has never even met, so that they might receive the full understanding found in “the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

So, Paul’s doing all this struggling, going through all this suffering, so that you and I might discover all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge that are hidden in Jesus Christ.

Of course, I bet because I said treasure, you perked up a bit. “Treasure, you say? Tell me more.” Discovering treasure means getting rich quick. There’s a lot of people who wouldn’t mind that. About a decade ago there was a hospital cafeteria worker over in England who discovered a huge stash of Roman coins. He was walking in a field in England with his metal detector when the thing started going off. He dug down a bit and he found a large pot that held 52,000 bronze and silver coins that at the time was valued at $5 million. No small chunk of change, right? I’ve never seen $5 million myself.

But here’s the thing, $5 million is nothing compared to the vast riches of what Paul and others like him who are held captive by Jesus Christ struggle to share. Friend, those of us who are held captive in Christ are not on a quest to seek silver or gold, but we are searching to mine the depths of Christ’s beauty for the precious gems of insight about the gospel itself so that we might know Jesus Christ, the Savior and King.

You should be hearing both a comfort and a challenge, by the way. Here’s the comfort: we don’t need to look for wisdom or knowledge outside of what we as followers of Jesus Christ already possess. We possess everything that truly matters because Christ has given himself to us and we can search him exclusively. We don’t need to look beyond the Bible to find insights into Christ’s beauty and magnificence. And yet, it should be equally challenging because we’ve got a long way to go if we’re to explore and make our own the rich inheritance we’ve entered into. Jesus Christ is himself the mystery of God, he’s not a clue or a key that to the mystery, but Jesus is everything we might want to ask about God, and God’s purposes can and must be answered in the crucified and risen Jesus Christ.

So a practical word on this…the hidden treasure of knowing the Lord is found in the Bible. The psalmist said, Psalm 119:162 “I rejoice at your word like one who strikes rich.” If we read the Word of God hurriedly or carelessly, we will miss its deep insights. These truths must be sought earnestly with all the attention of someone seeking hidden treasure. Start digging into the treasures stored in Scripture.

Faithfulness in the Church

Now you young people and those who are otherwise new to the faith, I’ve told you all this in the spirit of what Paul is telling this church of people who had recently come to faith in Christ in Colossians 2:4-5: so that you don’t get carried away by people who sound right but are deadly wrong. You’re going to encounter people who belittle you by saying that faith is a crutch. “Don’t you know how precious time is? Why would you waste Sundays going to church? Why would you take personal time and resources to volunteer or take that trip?” You’re also going to hear voices tell you things like if there’s even a real God, what he wants for you to be…is happy. So many different ways these enticing people who say things that sound so good are really trying to rob you of the most precious treasure there is. What treasure is that?

This is the treasure that every person within an earshot of my voice needs and can freely receive: to know Jesus Christ as Savior and King. Yet, sadly, so few do. I’ve told this group before that within a 15 minute drive in any direction from this church, there are 21,000 people and most of them do not know the depth of riches that is the treasure of knowing Jesus Christ as Savior and King. You wonder, “How do they not know? How are they living?” Our literal neighbors are living like God really isn’t real and like this Jesus character dying and resurrecting is just a story like the Tale of Peter Rabbit. They’re living with the idea that to believe that God exists and to have faith in God classifies you and me as certifiably crazy!

And that’s why we have to stay in the fight! That’s why we have to be real! That’s a reason for suffering and struggle in gospel ministry because in it, we bear witness to Christ. How do you think Paul would respond to the suggestion of the modern person saying that faith means mental illness? Paul would say that living life apart from surrender to Jesus Christ is the definition of crazy. Jesus Christ is himself the mystery of God, and in the crucified and risen Jesus Christ is every bit of God in the flesh.

That crucified and risen Christ who is summarized in Colossians 1:15-20 as “is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation,” who is God himself in human form, through whom God “has worked to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.”

If we are in Christ, we have to remain faithful to this Christ, this Emmanuel who is God with us, knowing that because he suffered, when we follow him we will suffer too, yet the mystery of it all, is that the fruit of our faithfulness in suffering is more faithfulness. Not so much that we grow in faithfulness in response to our own suffering for the gospel, but because that suffering has encouraged others to remain faithful. And when God in his grace permits us those glimmers of seeing others faithfulness to Christ, all the suffering and sacrifice is replaced by joy. It encourages me when I can look into the eyes of a senior saint and see joy because they can see faithfulness to Christ in me.

Application

My friends, stay true to the mystery of the gospel, mine the depths of God’s treasure and find the immeasurable and infinite wealth that is Jesus Christ.

You wanna know what this calls us to seek to apply? To be incarnational. “Hey, that’s a big word that I’ve heard used about Jesus.” Yup. And if we are in Christ, we are a member of his body, and we are the presence of Christ in this world. That’s who we are, the embodiment of Jesus. The Jesus who demonstrated radical grace as he revealed the Father to the world. The Jesus who is the glory of God. We reveal the very real, the very literal, the very loving, the very graceful, the very merciful, the very wrathful, the very righteous Prophet, Priest and King Jesus.

No one can sustain suffering and struggle that comes in following the Jesus way unless they have personally met Jesus Christ, by the way. Paul had met him, you can read all about it in Acts 9. But nothing I’ve talked about is anything that you can take into action unless you have been drawn to the very real and the absolutely returned from the dead Jesus Christ described in Colossians 1. And when you have, out of the abundance of the wealth of the treasure that God has given to you in Jesus Christ, you can be with people in a Christlike way. That’s our aim today, to live our lives for the sake of others so that they might see and know Jesus Christ.

Inspiration

Last week we baptized a new brother into membership in this church. At the end of our service, you’ll see a replay of his testimony and his baptism, and without any desire to take a shred of glory away from Jesus in his work to save our brother, I want you to also take note of what he has to say about an influential friend of his. I don’t know all the story, but I imagine it’s a friendship that required some loving persistence, some struggle, to make known the mystery and treasure of God.

Imagine for a moment what it means to walk with, pray with, eat with others in their ups and downs until they finally see God’s mystery, which is Jesus Christ. Imagine the encouragement and love that comes from witnessing Jesus Christ call another in to his covenant.

Action

And so, I want you to ask yourself if you’re genuinely walking with others, showing them who Christ is in you.

For some of you, that’ll mean getting back in the fight. Jesus Christ didn’t go to the cross and Jesus Christ didn’t defeat the power of sin and death so you would live a hobbit’s life. You are the light of the world! Let it shine forth to reveal the glory of God! Live your life for the sake of others so that they might see and know Jesus Christ.

And for others of you, it is my prayer that the Spirit of God reveal to you who Jesus Christ is and the humility of God in Christ to build a bridge for you so that you might enter into relationship with him. There are so many other nice sounding, good people who would try to dismiss what I’m about to say as crazy. As just a fairy tale. But God is real, my friend. God is active in this world, working in both the big things and the small things. He’s present here today. His name is Jesus. Jesus was called crazy in his day. And because the idea of God adding humanity to himself sounded absolutely crazy, Jesus suffered terribly and was rejected. He died because of it.

He died...for you…so that you might have life everlasting…he died, but yet, he is alive. He died and arose to life three days later, and in his resurrection, every dark power, every demon of hell, and death itself have been dealt a death blow. Jesus Christ has made peace by the blood of his cross. You can enter into the peace of Jesus Christ because in the grace of God, Jesus did everything needed to offer that peace to you.

And I’m going to ask you to do something absolutely crazy by the world’s standards. I’m going to ask you if you believe this. I will tell you, I do. The world can call me crazy, they can spit on me, they can take away my home, they can try to take away everything that means anything to me, but I’m going to tell you I believe this. I believe this because I know the King who is above all and his name is Jesus. He is the surest person I know and friend, if you’re listening to me today, he wants you to know him.