Word of Salvation – Vol. 42 No. 43 – November 1997

A Focus On A Secure Faith

A Sermon by Rev. R. Adams on Colossians 3:1-17

Scripture Readings: Colossians 3:1-17

Suggested Hymns: BoW 285; 357; 434; 435

Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Why are you here in church this morning/afternoon?  You could be down at the beach... or slurping a 'tinny' around some 'barbie'... like almost everyone else.  Do you think it's simply because you believe... while other people don't?  Well, where does your faith come from?

That's Paul's concern in this letter to the Colossian Christians.  Since he gives instructions for this letter to be read in Laodicea, too (4:16)... we could say Paul's interest is in the faith of Christians generally... including 'your faith' (1:3).  Paul has a particular perspective on faith which we could call his 'focus on a secure faith'.

1.  WE CAN BE SECURE IN OUR FAITH

Of course it depends on whether we can have such a thing as a 'secure faith'.  How can faith be secure?  The opening words of this passage, "since... you have been raised with Christ,” pick up where Paul left off back in chapter 2.  In verse 6, he says, we "received Christ Jesus as Lord..." and verse13, "you were dead in your sins...  [but] God made you alive with Christ."  Paul's point is, God gives us LIFE in Christ.  God gives us faith to believe in Jesus Christ... as our Saviour and Lord.

Paul makes it pretty clear faith isn't something you can will yourself to have.  Suppose your 'faith' should depend entirely on a your commitment to believe.  Then your faith would be very insecure.  It would depend on what happens to you.  Could you guarantee you'll still believe tomorrow?

What if someone you love very much lingers on the edge of death?  And you're praying as if your life depends on your loved one getting well.  But your prayers remain unanswered... and your loved one is called out of this life.  Wouldn't it sort of knock the stuffing out of your faith?  It would if your 'faith' was based on your commitment to believe.  Many for whom faith was nothing more than personal commitment have walked away from the church.  Some harrowing experience snuffed out their commitment.  But secure faith is not personal commitment.  Secure faith is something God gives us.

This is God who created the universe we live in.  His same unfathomable...  creative... power also raised Christ from the dead.  It goes against everything we think is normal in science or physics or in our own human experience.  We don't understand how... but God has done it.  The RISEN Jesus is living proof.  The RISEN Jesus is the ultimate reality in this world.  He knocked Paul from his horse on the Damascus road; stripped him of his confidence in a rigorous, self- disciplined life; made Paul see his former life as an 'elusive shadow' (2:17).  Paul was forced to admit it is not up to us.  God at work through Christ secures our faith in Him.

But why do YOU believe?  What makes sense of your faith?  Only God working His will in you.  God showed He could do it by raising Jesus from the dead.  Jesus' dying for anyone's sin makes sense only because God also raised Him from the dead...  and He lives.  Now the same power of God has raised to life in you what was previously dead in sin.  Only in this way could you muster up the slightest interest in Jesus as your Saviour.

Now you believe Jesus died for your sin.  We believe because God causes faith to live in us.  What's more, everyone else around us may be doing his own thing...  but God keeps you believing.  He continues to work in us... 'renewing us...' (vs10) so that "when Christ... appears... you also will appear with him in glory" (vs 4).  We WILL taste the same miracle of life as our living Saviour does now at God's right hand.  For that reason we are secure in our faith.

2.  IF WE FOCUS ON CHRIST

Can we know this secure faith God gives us?  Yes.  By setting our hearts and minds on things above where Christ is... on what Paul calls in Philippians, "true... excellent or praiseworthy things – think about these... and the God of peace will be with you" (Phil.4:8-9).  Some things in our society are excellent and praiseworthy.  For instance, some people actually extend themselves in helping others.  Some even commit themselves to honesty and integrity and justice in their homes and workplaces and in the halls of government.

But so much isn't excellent and praiseworthy.  We have to live with too many negative influences... and even those that are hostile to Christ.  In the midst of this you will need to FOCUS ON THE LIVING CHRIST... to know you are secure in your faith.

Our own lifestyles can make it difficult to FOCUS our thoughts and actions on the living Christ.  For example, if your lifestyle tends to thrust you into an environment which is largely negative... even hostile.... towards Christian understanding and values... if your lifestyle prevents you from meeting with other Christians except on one day each week... can you remain focussed on Jesus?

Popular opinion doesn't help either.  The popular wisdom in our culture constantly intrudes into our thoughts – every day.  Take the popular idea that the Bible must be wrong when science doesn't agree with it.  The so-called 'factual proofs' of evolution are taught in every public school in Australia.  Outside the schools, everyone just assumes the proofs are true.

But if the Bible should be wrong about our Creator God... then the Bible must also be wrong about the Risen Lord.  The same creative power of God is being disregarded in both cases.  Modern science and philosophy and popular wisdom just ignore the RISEN Christ.  Popular wisdom can only lead you up the 'garden path'... all over again.  It can't help much to FOCUS your thoughts and actions on Christ.

Then again, certain external things can appear to have strength to point us in the right direction.  We might think we stand secure in our faith because of what we do.  For example, we might be overly confident in our own sense of spirituality.  Or we might be investing all our effort into financial and material security.

Paul likens such confidence to clutching at shadows.  External things have no substance at all... no power whatever to keep us secure in our faith... nor to help us FOCUS ON CHRIST.

On the other hand, it is helpful to read your Bible regularly.  You need to know for yourself what God has done for you.  The same for prayer... "Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful” (Col.4:2).  In any relationship, we have to communicate sensibly with each other or the relationship will cool.

We have to communicate with Christ in the same way... read His word and talk to Him in prayer... so that faith doesn't whither and grow cold.  A lively focus on Him is the only way the LIVING CHRIST can become the centre and meaning of our lives...  in the sense that "Christ is all, and is in all" (vs.11).  If we're to know our God-given faith is secure, we have no choice... we have to be firmly focussed on Christ.

3.  AND SO LIVE GRATEFUL LIVES

What did God intend to achieve by giving us a SECURE FAITH in Jesus Christ?  Don't you think God intended you and I to recognise His work in us?  God enabling us to deny Satan and our own selfish desires.  So the whole body of believers can benefit, too.  And surely, so we can thank God for what He has done?  It's a fact of life... have we ever really appreciated anything we've received if we haven't bothered to thank whoever gave it to us?

Faith is no different.  Paul knows... he keeps coming back to this theme: "joyfully give thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share... in the kingdom of light" (1:12).  "..you received Christ Jesus...  live in him...  overflowing with thankfulness" (2:6-7).  "...do [everything] in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God...”(3:17).

In spite of some faults, our Charismatic brothers have this much right, at least.  They are very much aware of the supernatural power of God to make living believers out of dead sinners.  As a matter of course, they strive to live grateful lives.

Now we, Reformed folk, have always known only God can work salvation in us.  How much more should we, believers in the supernatural power of God, live the grateful lives He asks of us?  What stops us from living grateful lives?  Look at vs.5 and onwards... things of your earthly nature... sexual immorality... lust... evil desires... greed.  All of these amount to idolatry.  Anger, malice, slander, etc.  Look at them.  Every one of these qualities indicates a lack of real gratitude to God.  If these qualities characterise your life... you're not FOCUSSING ON CHRIST... you're focussing on yourself and on earth-bound things.

God must look down on us sometimes and say to Himself, "how silly and childish.  Why cling to earthly shadows?  I've turned the world upside down for you.  I've shown you your destiny...  to be as Christ.  The proof lives in each of you...  a miracle of new life."  Yet, a husband or a wife allows a marriage to shrivel and die.  A child refuses to obey a parent and becomes rebellious.  A father embitters a child - not by fair discipline, mind you, for even God disciplines those He loves – but by being unreasonably harsh.

People storm away from church... never to return.  All because people focus on mere things... or on themselves... on their own distorted sense of worth... on what other people think or say about them.  Did they ever THANK God for what He gave them?

How do we live THANKFUL lives?  See vs12 onwards... "as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved... clothe yourselves with compassion, [etc...] forgive one another, as the Lord forgave you... and be thankful."  Do you, in this way, THANK God for your faith?

Conclusion:

It's not surprising that Paul should remind us God has chosen us and loves us deeply... for the sake of Jesus.  We are secure in the knowledge that God has brought faith to life in us.

Yet He wants us to focus our hearts and minds on Jesus Christ, the object of our faith.  And to be firm and secure in our faith because He loves us.  God has no desire for His loved ones to miss out on what Christ has already experienced for us.  He has no desire for any of His loved ones to perish in hell.  He will work His power in us to prevent it from happening.

And we have it in our power to respond in one of two ways:

a) we can accept it ungratefully, and live as if nothing has changed for us... or...

b) we can respond by living honest, thankful lives.

Amen.