Colossians: Christ IN You, Not Christ AND You

This fall we are studying our way through the book of Colossians.

We're asking the question: how do we live and grow with Jesus?

So we're going to reread the passage Katie read for us and kind of break it apart and study it.

Colossians 1, 24 through 26.

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you to make the word of God fully known.

The mystery, hidden for ages and generations, but now revealed to a saints.

First point is that our sufferings display Jesus' worth to the world.

Verse 24 can be a little confusing, but it kind of sounds like something's lacking with Jesus, like Jesus is not enough.

But it simply means that anytime you suffer, so say you make a godly decision that costs you thousands of dollars.

Or say what you treasure, or how you forgive someone, or how you love just that awful uncle or cousin, or maybe even your child, I don't know.

But any of that, like, or even how you're belittled because of your faith in Jesus, or perhaps in you know, in even in some parts of the world, how you're hurt for your love of Jesus.

All of that suffering, when we suffer like that, it displays how valuable he is.

That's what verse 24 is saying.

Now let's focus on verse 27.

To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery.

So what's the mystery?

Which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

In the Old Testament, God was always talking about how he was going to redeem his people, the plan to redeem his people.

And Paul is writing now here in this New Testament, he's saying, hey, that mystery that's throughout the Old Testament, that mystery, it's here, it's solved, is Jesus.

Verse 27b, the mystery is Christ in you, hope of glory.

That word glory, that's a rich word.

It means intense beauty or weight.

So something weighty enough, beautiful enough to hold you.

It's enough to be able to hold something else.

Something so rich, intense, and beautiful, it has the capacity to hold something else.

So this gave me, uh this sent me on a trail of thoughts of like anchors, like the idea of an anchor.

An anchor holds something else.

So I started to look at different pictures of boats this week.

You know, just it gave me permission to look at boats basically.

And so here's the first picture of a boat.

This is the Hell's Bay Flats boat.

Uh, this you fish off of this in flats, he's probably fishing for bone fish.

And if you were on this boat and you needed an anchor, either you'd use that pole and just shove it down in there, or you'd use a mushroom anchor.

Now, here's a Malibu Wake Surf boat right here.

Uh, anybody?

Yeah, I mean that's sweet, isn't it?

Now, if you're on that boat and you need to go into a little cove and anchor, you might use a box anchor.

Here's a box anchor, you might use an anchor that looks like that.

Now, last boat, let's really yuppie it up.

Okay, let's let's really let's really yuppie it up here.

This is a Hinkley picnic boat.

So just next time you're cruising the shores of New England with Martha Stewart and you're just cruising along in the Hinckley, uh having a picnic, you know, like we do, you might use a plow anchor.

Here's a picture of a plowing.

So which boat do you want?

Well, the answer, of course, is you want your parents to own the boat.

That's always the answer.

Just you use it.

But if you ask any boater, uh, you better use the right anchor.

Or you can be adrift.

The feeling of floating through life without connecting to anything meaningful, like you're just busy, you're doing a lot of stuff, and it matters, but you're not really connected to something meaningful.

And it's because our hearts were not made for just any anchor.

Our hearts need only the most vital, worthy source to stabilize it, to hold it.

The one thing that can hold the other.

See, you were built by your creator, and you were built for your creator.

Christ in you, hope of glory.

Now the world says that your anchor can be something else.

It can be something that you can gather or something you can obtain or you can achieve it.

If only, you know, if only I go from the canoe to the wake surfboat, then I'll be.

Or if only I get the Hinckley, you know, then I'll be.

If only I get the next job, the next salary, the next person, the next car, the next dress size, you know, like only then could I be okay or be enough.

And all of that is just so tiring, isn't it?

Because all of it changes, it wears out, and it can be taken away from you.

So, what truly has the capacity, the beauty, to hold you, to stabilize and sustain your heart?

And Paul says, Christ in you.

Years ago, I led a service project to paint a house for an in-need elderly lady.

And we showed up, myself and about 30 college kids show up to this house.

And a truck shows up.

The truck was the guy who kind of ran the ministry, and like we're the manpower.

He shows up with paint and paint brushes and all sorts.

We start painting this old has like 57 layers of paint.

We're put another one on.

Let's just put another one.

I'm on the back of the house in the section that I've been assigned to paint, it has a whole bunch of rotten wood.

And I I just can't, I can't handle it.

I can't handle painting rotten wood.

Like all my perfectionism is coming out.

This is wrong.

This isn't what we should be doing.

And I go up to the guy, I'm like, hey man, like, there's all this rotten wood by the way.

And he's and he just very calmly says, just paint over it.

It's better than what she has now.

And he was right.

I just can't handle it.

I'm like, well, we've got to find somebody else to paint the section because I am freaking out.

My anxiety is way too.

The sloppy painting is enough.

I'm barely handling that.

I can't do it, I can't paint it.

Somebody else, so somebody else painted that section.

I can't paint over the rotten wood.

And yet, this is actually what I do all the time.

It's what we all do all the time.

We just keep painting over rotten wood.

Every time we use the stuff or the behaviors or the people around us or for people's approval to try to feel held, sustained, stabilized.

Hope of glory.

It's all external modifications, it's paint on top of rotten wood.

And we have bigger problems than like a paint job.

That's why Jesus says our problems are in our heart.

And that's why the verse is not Christ and you, it's Christ in you.

To grow whole, first salvation in Christ, forgiveness of sins, eternal life, righteousness is through Jesus.

And then even that process to grow whole and mature, that's all about the in you life.

Verses 28 and 29.

Him we proclaim, him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

Point number two is this we mature as we understand Jesus' worth and love for our imperfect hearts.

Paul says the goal for us is maturity, but that demand, hey, be mature, be mature, be grown up, be whole.

That demand on its own is not enough.

It's just crushing on its own.

Because we have no fuel for it.

It's just a demand.

But Paul shows us something here in verse 28.

He gives us a foundation and a fuel, like a pathway for maturity.

Look how verse 28 breaks out.

Him we proclaim, so we're proclaiming and marveling at Jesus, warning everyone, so there's a correcting nature to our faith walk.

What is untrue?

What is unhealthy?

Teaching everyone with all wisdom, so we're receiving what is right and good and true and noble, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

And where did all that start?

The process begins with the foundation in the fuel is Him we proclaim.

We proclaim and marvel at Jesus.

And that's point number three.

Christian faith is Christ in you, not Christ and you.

Christ and you is Christian moralism.

As we've learned before, moralism says our standing with God and value as a person is based on what we do.

Now we have to be reminded of this all the time because we keep defaulting back to this.

Our human nature pulls us back to, well, you obey as to be loved.

You perform as to be valued, you pretend so you can be accepted.

And gospel faith is quite different.

Our standing with God in value as a person is based on what God says about us in Jesus.

You are loved, so therefore obey.

You are already accepted, already valued in Jesus.

So you can begin to heal from all the ways that you just perform and pretend, trying to suck approval out of everyone else.

Fifteen years ago, as a Christian and a minister, I'd had a lot of quiet times at this point in my life.

I'd been through seminary, I knew the Christian to-do list.

And I was exhausted by the list.

Because while I understood Jesus got me in the party, I thought I had to dance really hard and really well to keep that smile on God's face.

Because my faith was a Christ and you faith.

I needed to have this distinguishment between the two.

Christian moralism is a toxic faith.

It says Jesus plus my work equals everything.

Gospel faith says Jesus plus nothing equals everything.

It was interesting that this distinction, it didn't make me lazier.

Because that's what you would think, right?

You would think, well, oh my gosh, if you told a group of people, like a church this, you're gonna end up with a whole bunch of lazy, like you will never get anybody to do anything.

Well, some of you don't do anything, that's true.

What's interesting is I didn't become lazier.

I became freer.

There was just more marveling at Jesus.

And I still had all my spiritual practices and stuff like that.

But all that was coming out of the place of being fully loved, fully known, fully forgiven, fully righteous.

It was a growth in grace.

It wasn't a growth for grace.

And that's why we started this church.

So that we would say this every week and remind ourselves.

Theologian B.B.

Warfield said this about it.

We do not obtain the benefits of Christ apart from, but only in and with his person.

And that when we have him, we have all.

About a year ago, Christy upped our Tupperware game.

We went to the Pyrex.

Anybody got the Py Rex?

I don't know if that's how you say it.

That's how the redneck say it.

Pyrex.

I'm not the cook in our family.

I don't cook.

I don't prep.

But I clean up.

I'm the cleanup guy.

I like to put on 90s country, and I can just clean up the whole kitchen.

I get out the Pyrex and I get the cheese quesadillas and I put them in there and I close it up.

So we have Py Rex.

Now, this isn't a perfect illustration, mind you.

I just grabbed a couple things in the kitchen on the way out the door.

But let's just say this is you.

And you're gonna fill yourself with something.

Something's gonna go in you to try to stabilize you and hold you.

And let's just say this is Jesus.

It's not a great illustration.

It's like, what do you use?

Like, you know what I'm saying?

Like, I don't know if it's like overflowing spaghetti or something.

I don't know.

Paul says, Christ in you.

And this is a this is like a permanent, like a permanent seal.

Christ in you, hope of glory.

He is in us.

And because he is in us, we are secure.

He is enough to hold us.

Now, of course, it's easy to wake up, to work out, to drive your whatever, drive to work and sit at the red lights and get frustrated and wait in a carpool, sit in a business meeting, right?

Eat, drink, and be merry, and not really think about any of this.

But then you're finally quiet.

Eventually you're quiet.

And eventually your sinful heart and my sinful heart will say to us, Christ and me.

And you'll think about how you should have worked out longer, and how you should have spoken up in the meeting.

You should have watched one less show, one less glass of wine, you should have read more, you should have ate less, you should have loved more, you should have this, and you should have that, and you will replay everything, some of which probably should be confessed.

But that perfectionism, or maybe the greed or the lust, will start to speak huge shame over you.

But you can remember the gospel.

Jesus is in me.

Christ in me, hope of glory.

As we come alive to Christ's sufficiency, we mature.

Colossians 2, verses 1 through 3.

Colossians 2:1–3

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, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of the full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Paul's heart is to encourage these Christians to root in Jesus and be united in Jesus.

Isn't it interesting?

I could mention all sorts of topics in this room this morning, and we could just be divided.

I could mention certain names and we would be divided.

We could even hate each other pretty quickly.

Isn't it interesting that we when we talk about Jesus, it just never seems to do that?

It just keeps uniting and encouraging.

Point number four is this your soul is fabulously rich in Jesus.

Like, not like not like your college roommate was successful and bought a lake house rich, okay?

Like, that's fantastic.

Great.

Invite me.

Maybe he has a weight, maybe he has a Malibu, okay?

I'm talking like Elon, okay?

Like that's the difference we're talking about.

This is the amount of wealth of identity we have.

That's what Paul is saying here.

You are full assurance of the understanding, the riches of the full assurance.

Fully assured because we are lavishly rich in Christ's wealth of forgiveness and righteousness that we know in the cross.

In verse 2, Paul wants them to know and understand and rest in how wealthy they are, which means that we can stop living the and you life.

Maturity is an understanding the core of your being, of the assurance of the wealth of identity you have as God's beloved child, that is secured on the cross, your sin put upon him, and his righteousness given to you.

So we mature by no longer trying to add to Christ's work for us, but resting in his sufficiency.

By studying Jesus, learning about Jesus, sitting with Jesus, talking to Jesus, hearing Jesus, taking Jesus in deeper and deeper into all that insecurity that you don't want anybody else to know about.

Years ago, we had some friends take in their 10-year-old niece into their home.

This little girl had lived in poverty.

She'd had to fight to sustain her life.

She'd been neglected.

So as soon as she comes into their home, a healthy home, a godly home, everything's provided for her, she began to hoard.

She'd sneak into the kitchen and she would steal boxes of crackers and cookies and take bananas and hide them in her room.

And over and over and over again, our friends would say, Hey, you don't have to do that.

Like, it's all yours.

All the food is yours.

You don't have to hoard.

It will always be there.

But she kept stealing and hoarding.

The work was done, the kitchen was stopped.

So many of us are still living in a state of inner poverty.

And trying to add to it with our work.

When the kitchen is stopped.

And we need to begin to receive.

Maturity is knowing and growing, and the wealth you already have in Jesus.

Christ in you, hope of glory.

Let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, Him we proclaim.

Jesus we marvel at.

We welcome correction.

We welcome refining.

We welcome maturity.

Because Him we proclaim.

Jesus, you are enough.

Forgive us for all the ways we look for sustenance and being stabilized and held by sources that have no capability to hold our hearts.

Would we fall more in love with Jesus this morning?

See him even clearer for how sufficient he is and how he loves us, not as we should be, but as we are right now.

Holy Spirit, would you speak to us individually and as a community?

We welcome confession, conviction, and healing.

And we thank you for the gift of Jesus, who is always enough in Christ's name.

Amen.