Colossians: His Lovesong Over Us

So in our second week of going through the book of Colossians, so last week what we said in chapter 1, verses 1 through 14, is we talked about how that Paul is most likely still in prison in Rome.

He's writing a letter to a church that he's never been to, but he's heard about these people in Colossae, which is in like southern Turkey.

And he's heard about these people, he's writing them a letter.

And last week what we what we talked about, what we learned, is that what gives us value and what makes us righteous before God and gives us forgiveness of sins is not what we do, but what Christ has done for us.

And so the Christian faith, the gospel, the gospel is that you are accepted, therefore you obey.

Now, moralism is you obey, therefore you're accepted.

Now, these are two radically different things.

If you mess these two up, it's the difference between freedom and bondage.

All right, so I'll review it again.

I'll say it again.

So the gospel, the Christian gospel, Christian faith is you are accepted by God fully, therefore you obey.

Now, moralism, even a version within a church or within Christianity, anytime you hear anything that has to do with you obey, therefore God accepts you, you've left gospel, you've left the grace of God, you have entered into moralism.

You've entered into what we talked about last week, the kingdom of darkness, a merit-based system that wears you out and basically sets you as your own savior and deliverer rather than Jesus.

So last week we just talked about Paul's writing this.

Can you see him there?

He's in prison.

He's writing this unbelievably good news because, see, he used to do that.

He was in Judaism and he was a Pharisee of Pharisees, so he was like a rule keeper.

He loved the rules, and he was striving and striving and striving, getting more and more and more exhausted as he knew he could never live up to those standards.

And even when he was getting the behavior right, he wasn't getting the inner life right.

And so he knew this.

And can you imagine him in prison, writing this good news, remembering it himself that that life is over with for him, and that he has been delivered from that into a kingdom of light and a kingdom of freedom because of what Jesus has done for him.

And then what we see here in verses 15 through 20, most scholars believe, is a song.

That he breaks out in song.

Isn't that incredible?

He's in there writing all this good news.

It's like it's like it's welling up in him, and he gets he gets so excited, he he just he can't stand it any longer, and he he has to sing.

Uh Laser Show fans, anybody been to the Laser Show?

Willing to admit it?

Let's go let's raise hands today when we do participation.

All right, you've been to the laser show.

All right, uh, here's what the laser show.

In case you haven't been to the laser show and you just moved here or something.

So let's we have Stone Mountain, big granite rock, all right, south uh east of here, about an hour, 45 minutes.

And so what what we do, um, and we, because I used to go to this like every week.

Um, I lived over in that area growing up, and we would just go all the time.

We get the bucket of KFC, you know, like the chicken and the biscuits and the macaroni cheese all in the same bucket.

You know what I'm talking about?

I we would get that in a blanket and frisbees, and we would go to the laser show all the time.

So, and I'm not talking Tuesday night laser show.

Tuesday night laser show, I'm talking Saturday night.

Prime time people watching, you know, it's it's like all of humanity meets at the cross, all of humanity meets on the field in front of Stone Mountain.

This is great people watching.

And so what you do is you get there, you lay your blanket out, and the big side of the mountain, granite rock, big uh carving, like Confederate soldiers, right?

Confederate soldiers, is that right?

All right, so big carving, and and lasers up on the lasers are gonna shoot up on the on the granite rock, and we're gonna play music, and lasers are gonna like do a show with the music, right?

Great tradition, really fun.

Every year it's new, by the way, and it's really always the same.

And so you go out there and and you have your food and you're having a good time, and you get your little light-up bracelet, and you do all of that, and you know the song is coming, right?

Lee Greenwood.

Y'all knew exactly where I was going with.

Right?

If tomorrow all the things were gone, I worked for all my life.

And I had to start again with just my children and my wife.

I mean, I watched a video of it this week, you know, and the eagle comes up, right?

The eagle comes up, and there's like firemen and policemen, and you're getting like everything in you, there's families and cities and the American flag, and everything in you is just getting kind of welled up, and then it comes, right?

The chorus.

Can we sing it together?

And I'm proud to be an American.

Where these time go, I'm free, and I won't forget the man you died, gave that right to me, and I'll gladly stand up next to you in defender still today.

Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land.

Love this land.

God says do you it's a good thing.

Very good.

And there's always a few stand up, right?

Good job, a few of you.

That wasn't planted.

I didn't plant that idea.

And here's what we know, right?

You're hearing the song, and everything in you is welling up, and whether you're playing it cool and you're gonna stay seated, or whether you're gonna stand up, you know, you're singing.

Like you're a horrible person if you're not singing by the end of that song.

Like, I mean, you are just a bad American if you're not singing at the end of that song.

And so this this is this is Paul.

This is Paul.

All of that is welling up in him about the gospel.

All of this excitement and gratitude, and he can stand it no longer.

And he just breaks out in a song and a letter.

And so I don't know what that looks like.

I don't know if he's writing, and then all of a sudden he just drops the pen and he stands up and he's just singing, and then he stops and he writes the lyrics down.

But we're gonna jump into those lyrics in verse 15.

And we're gonna have a kind of a little Bible study here.

We're gonna kind of go kind of verse by verse through here, phrase by phrase.

And there's a little bit of a rhythm.

There's two couplets.

Um, and within these these couplets, because it's a song, um, within these couplets, we we'll see like just high intelligent apprehension.

Um, and what we'll see is there's four he is statements with within these couplets.

Um first couplet, verse 15 and 16.

Verse 15, the Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

So he is the image of the invisible God.

So first he is, Jesus is the image of the invisible God.

So in case you're wondering, right, like you're walking around and you're hearing the news and your friend had a baby, and it was an amazing experience for them, or something great happened to you, and then all of a sudden something horrible happened, and and somebody got sick, or somebody died, or you got sick, or uh, you know, your friend had a baby, but then another friend's baby died, and then you know you're looking at nature and you're having like a wonderful moment and a horrible moment, and you're just wondering, you're like, like, who, like, who is God in all of this, and what is he like?

Like, in case you're wondering that, Paul's saying, well, you can just look at Jesus, and he will that that's who God is.

And the fullness, God's fullness is shown in Jesus.

In Jesus, we have the nature and the being of God perfectly revealed for us.

Now we don't have why all things happen.

That'd be nice.

I would like that.

I would like that chapter in the Bible.

That would be the book I want out of the Bible.

We don't get that book.

But what we do get is we get perfectly revealed nature of God in Jesus.

So we don't have to wonder, like, does he, does he love me?

And what does he care about?

What does he not care about?

What does he want from me?

And what does he not want from me?

Like, like those are things that we can just, we can read about Jesus, and we can know, we can know what how God thinks about us, and what God thinks about the world, and how God deals with with broken, horrible people, how God deals with horrible, self-righteous people, and how God deals with me.

So the first key is Jesus is the image of the invisible God.

The second key is Jesus is firstborn of all creation.

Now, this doesn't refer to time.

So it's not like Jesus is the big brother, and then everybody followed after him.

This is talking about status, importance.

Jesus is the most important of all creation.

Verse 16, for in him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through him and for him.

Everything was created.

See, everything, here's the point, everything was created by him.

And everything was created for him.

We'll talk more about this as we go.

So that's the first couplet, and then we come into this transitional verse, transitional line in verse 17.

He is before all things, so he existed before everything, and in him all things hold together.

So good transitional line of understanding.

How's this world working?

Where did it come from?

How is it holding together?

How does gravity always stay the same?

Right?

There's all these things that we walk around, we just we just think the fact that they're always the same.

How does it stay the same?

He holds everything together.

Second couplet, verses 18 through 20.

Verse 18.

And Jesus is the head of the body, the church.

He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead.

So third he is, Jesus is the head of the body.

So the church, this is what we're talking about.

The church should be about him.

His goodness, his glory, his peace, what he did for you.

A lot of other things the church can have, can dabble in and be about and good things, but ultimately the church is about Jesus.

If you're in a church not talking about Jesus, in the wrong church.

Go find another church.

You don't have to keep coming here.

Just go to another church.

Go to a church that talks about Jesus because the church is about him.

Fourth he is.

Jesus is the beginning and the firstborn.

Again, firstborn, so just prime importance.

Jesus is the beginning and the firstborn among the dead.

So he's the most important of all created beings, and also the most important to have ever died.

And this is referring to his death and his resurrection that we can find our life in.

And then second part of verse 18, because of that, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.

I love that word.

Supreme, right?

The biggest, the best, the most glorious.

The renown.

I think it's probably a year ago we talked about this.

God is all about God.

Like, he's all about himself.

And this is, what are his other options?

I was just kind of running it through my head.

What are his other options?

God to be all about totally, everything that centers around creation?

Well, he created the creation.

That wouldn't make any sense.

Us?

Like who and who of us is worthy of this?

Who of us should the universe revolve around?

Like a celebrity that our culture worships and she exposes her backside on a magazine this week?

Is that it?

Or is it is it like a king who uh who thinks he is like running the world and he's gonna die?

Right?

And he's gonna lose everything.

Like, who is it?

And here's the good news for you and for me.

The good news for you and for me is this is it God is all about himself, which means you don't have to try to force this world to be all about you.

And that is great freedom when you just begin to stop trying to force the whole world to revolve around you.

And we can be relieved by the fact that in everything he might have the supremacy, because we don't have to constantly try to make everything in our lives give us the supremacy.

Verse 19, for God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him.

So Paul's starting to repeat himself a little bit.

It's a song here, it says how songs work.

And through him to reconcile to himself, so through Jesus to reconcile to himself, all things.

So uh all the brokenness one day.

Right?

The state of our world that has so much brokenness, one day all to be reconciled, all to be made right, where there's no fear and there are no more tears.

Through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross.

So reconciliation is not by our own sacrifices, sacrificing ourselves enough to be worthy of something.

It's by his sacrifice.

Okay, quite a song, right?

Quite a song, five verses there.

And Paul comes down from this kind of crazy high of singing and this kind of, you know, this bliss of a moment, and whatever's going on in that prison cell, we don't know, but I'm imagining he was standing up, he was singing, then he gets back down, he writes down these lyrics, and then he he makes it real practical for us.

So, what does all this boil down to?

So two points.

Uh the first is quite philosophical, and then the second gets more practical.

The first is this Jesus is supreme, he is the supreme glory of creation, while he is God's agent of grace in all of creation.

That's a big line.

Let me repeat it in case you're a note-taker, you can write it down.

Jesus is the supreme glory of all creation, while he is God's agent of grace in all of creation.

So you don't have to you don't have to choose between like supreme, glorious, huge God and gracious washes the feet of broken sinners.

What we see in Jesus is that he is that that the whole universe was created through him, and yet that same God washes the feet of sinners.

So what is this what does this mean?

Point number two, more practical.

Jesus is God's grace to you.

I say this every week, but I don't get I don't get tired of saying it.

Jesus is God's grace to you, forever rescuing and freeing you.

This is what it means.

I say it every week because the Bible keeps saying it every week.

Verse 21.

Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.

So we are alienated.

We feel this.

We're bent away.

We're bent away in our minds and our actions.

Right?

And here's what sin is.

Sin is us saying to God, we don't need you.

I don't need you.

I just don't.

I will make it work myself.

And I'm gonna make it work on my path, I will make it work on whatever way I determine a secular path or a religious path.

Maybe you're here, you just don't feel that evil.

I mean, if you read that sentence and you're going, because of your evil behavior, I'm not evil.

I mean, you could even think through, maybe, maybe you've done this, you've lived this way where you, I'm not evil.

I mean, like, I mean, I really, I mean, I look around and you compare yourself to that person who lives that way or thinks that thing, you're like, well, you know, that, those people, whoo, they are evil.

But I'm, I mean, I'm pretty good.

I'm stacking up pretty good in this.

And you do all that, and all the while, at the same time, your faith is in your record.

And you in self-righteousness are saying to God, God, I don't need you.

While that other person that you're judging, that person is saying to God, and their debauchery, I don't need you.

And both are sin.

Both are rebellion, both are alienation to God.

See, we broke up with God.

And we keep trying to break up with God.

Trying to find something else that will fill the role that only he can fill.

Verse 22, but now, story's not over.

That's great, great two words.

But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight without blemish and free from accusation.

I read it this way this week.

See, because of Christ, we are free from the breakup we keep asking for.

Right?

I was thinking about a Seinfeld episode.

Do you remember this Seinfeld episode?

I couldn't remember if it was George or Jerry.

Um, and they go to break up with the girl and she won't let them break up.

Like she keeps refusing the breakup.

Y'all remember this?

Was it George or Jerry?

Anybody confirm this?

Nobody.

Come on, Seinfeld.

It was George?

Okay.

And he just she won't let him break up.

Right?

I mean, this is this is the gospel.

This is Christian faith.

Is us.

We keep saying to God, I don't, I don't need you.

I'm gonna go my own way, and God keep going, no.

No.

Love you too much for that.

And he keeps rescuing us, keeps coming after us, keeps drawing us back.

Maybe those three last words kind of grab you in that verse.

Free from accusation.

Because you'd say, okay, well, I, you know, okay, I'm holy, I get it.

My sin was taken on the cross, and Jesus on the cross, his righteousness is given to me.

I get that.

But those three words, free from accusation, you would say, that is so far from anything in my life.

The truth is, is in Jesus, you are holy and you are beloved, you are fully accepted, you are valued, and you need nothing else.

An accusation comes as we try to add on to Jesus' work for us.

See, see, here's how it works: the more you add to Jesus' work for you, or try to find value outside of Jesus, the more accusation you will hear.

The song of accusation will get louder and louder and louder because you're gonna hear more and more about your shortcomings and your failures and your shame.

It's gonna become your playlist.

The more you try to add to Jesus' work for you, the louder the song of accusation gets.

It's gonna become your playlist.

And you're gonna live by that scorecard of your merit and how you're doing.

You're gonna compare and you're gonna keep trying to present this to God, and you're gonna fall short, and you're gonna be hearing the accusation until you're exhausted and you're finished, but that accusation is absolutely blaring.

But there's another voice.

That's what this verse is saying.

This other voice, though, it brings no glory for you.

Because it's not based on your merit.

It only brings glory to what Jesus has done on the cross.

There's no glory for you that you showed up at church.

There's no glory for you about the load of money you made, or the prestigious job you got or what you drive, or what you do, or the 2.3 pounds you lost, or there's no glory for you.

But it'll free you.

See, we're all trying to pay a price that's already been paid.

And the continual fuel for the Christian life is not trying to get better on our own, it's the gospel itself.

Right?

This is verse 23, the last verse for today.

If you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel.

Right?

So the continued fuel for the Christian life is not trying to get better on your own, but the gospel itself.

That's the that's verse 23.

Do not move from the hope held out in the gospel.

This is the gospel that you heard that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

Verse 23 is clear.

Our only hope is the gospel.

And yet, the Christian life is hard work.

Right?

I mean, I Christian life's hard work.

But it's not hard work at becoming better.

I mean, this is what I've been learning even this week.

I read this article this week, and it's it just kind of destroyed me in a way in a really Good way because it made me realize so much about how, so you know, my whole life I've heard it's about a relationship with Christ.

Okay, I get that's true.

And it broke down that verbiage on how we usually take that in.

How we usually take it in because all human relationships are based on what?

Give and take.

Even marriage is based on give and take.

So this idea of relationship with Christ to some extent, I came away from that and said, all right, well, on some level, I've got to maintain this relationship with Christ.

And what I was learning this week is just that the Christian faith, the gospel sustenance of that verse 23, is not me maintaining the relationship, but that God's relation toward me is set and secure, and the thing that changes is my awareness to his relation toward me.

So the hard work is not maintaining the relationship.

The hard work is to continue in a state of awareness of his relation toward me.

So I don't do any work to change his relation toward me.

That's secure in what Jesus did for me.

The work of the Christian life is to learn more of his character so my awareness of his relation toward me is known.

In high school, uh I made a mixed tape.

Y'all remember mixed tapes?

Anybody make a mixtape?

We have a lot of participation today.

Anybody make a mixtape for a girl?

It was hard work, wasn't it?

I mean, you had to have the dual tape deck thing going, and you had to time it, and then if you waited for a song on the radio, you really had to be patient for that song to kind of kick in and be right there and ready.

Um did anybody make a mixtape with Lee Greenwood on it?

Anybody want to Okay, no.

This is not that safe of a place to admit that.

You know, love tape to a girl, you can admit that.

Lee Greenwood on a mixtape, that's that's your own business.

It was work, right?

Well, that the the my main mixtape of my growing up was my motivational game day mixtape.

And I'm talking, this was before, so those of y'all under like 25, this was before everybody wore headphones everywhere they went.

Right?

Like now either you got the little buds or you have the big ones.

This was the spongies.

You remember the spongy ones, and or the big square tape deck on the on the hip?

And I had a mixtape, and it and pretty much I think it was about 12 consecutive Eye of the Tiger songs, and then it would click and you'd have to open it up and flip the tape and side B, and then there's like 12 more.

And that's our game day.

I mean, that was it, man.

Put it in, and game day was accepted to have on headphones.

The rest of the time, if you walk around with headphones on, I mean, it would have been just kind of bizarre.

But that was my game day tape.

All right, so that was my playlist.

Right?

That's what I listened to, right?

And this is what we do now, right?

We we don't make mixed tapes, we do playlists, right?

And this is the version of mixed tape for today, is our playlist.

And we create, why do we create a playlist?

We create a playlist to create a mood.

Right?

Your workout playlist, your love playlist, your walking playlist, you have all your your party playlist, like you're having people over, and you got the kind of the cool kind of music in the background playlist.

You have all these different playlists, and we create a playlist almost to who we want to be in the moment.

Right?

If only we can play it loud enough, then this playlist could have some effect on us.

Here's the good news there is a playlist playing that never stops.

And it's not from a world of demanding you to do more.

This song never stops.

And it doesn't attempt to transform your mood.

It absolutely transforms the core of who you are and redefines you.

Zephaniah 3, chapter 17.

The Lord your God is with you, the mighty warrior who saves, he will take great delight in you.

In his love, he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.

So scholars say Paul's song started in verse 15 and ended in verse 20.

See, your song will come and go, but his song to you never stops.

And it's in that reality that we have the sustenance, the fuel of our Christian faith.

Let's pray together.

God, thank you for that this morning, that you are singing over us, and that in Jesus we know it.

That you didn't just make this abstract, you didn't make it just philosophical teaching, but that you came into our world, lived amongst us, and died showing your love for us.

God, our awareness of your relation toward us comes and goes.

God, would you help us?

Would you increase our faith?

Would you help us to have to trust in you and that in Jesus we truly are beloved, we truly are accepted, so that we don't have to turn to self-righteous pathways or into secular pathways, but that we can live in a life of being forgiven, where we're not defined and driven by fear and shame.

But that we live day to day that Jesus is enough for us.

And we don't have to add to it.

We thank you.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.