Life in Christ: Free / Colossians 3:15–4:1 / Sally Agostino

Now, last week Lance talked to us about our identity in Christ, our new identity in Christ.

He talked about throwing off the vices and putting on the virtues, that new identity that we've already been given and we need to step into.

And if you weren't here last week, I highly encourage you to go back, have a look at the live stream, check out the sermon last week.

It was exceptional.

And it really is the build-up to what we're talking about today.

Because today we're talking about peace.

I'm going to take this reading in two chunks.

The peace part and then the hard bit, right?

So let's start with Colossians 3, verses 15 to 17.

Colossians 3:15–17

You can have a look, look that up in your Bible or check it out on the screen.

Paul says this as part of his letter to the Colossians let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.

Since as members of one body you were called to peace.

And be thankful, let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, through psalms, through hymns, through songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.

And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

What a beautiful reading.

These people who've gathered in a home to hear this letter from Paul have been told that Christ is everything.

He's done all the work, put off what you were, put on what you've become, and have peace.

Let peace rule in your hearts.

And I want the peace of Christ ruling in my heart.

Do you want the peace of Christ ruling in your heart?

I absolutely do, you absolutely do, especially in a world that doesn't seem to be displaying much of it.

Especially in a world where we hear about another conflict, another war.

In a world where we hear about a friend whose marriage is breaking up, when we hear about a mother and son on the streets of Melbourne who go in for a medical appointment and end up in a violent situation.

When we're confronted with all the news of the week, we want peace.

We want peace in us and we want peace for our world.

So these are beautiful, beautiful words.

And Paul goes on to talk about this corporate setting, this church setting.

As you gather, sing, read psalms.

We've done both this morning.

And these guys and all the band that gather at 7.30 on a Sunday morning when most of us are asleep, practicing and making a way for us to be able to gather and to sing and to worship.

Give them a little clap, I think.

So they give us this amazing opportunity to come to our living God, to come to Christ who is Lord of all, and to together to sing praise and to say, God, you're it.

Jesus, you're King.

And it's like this is just getting better and better, this Colossian stuff.

What a great letter.

And then he says, not only when you gather, but when you go home.

Let the peace of Christ rule in your heart when you go home.

Because home is where we're truly ourselves.

Home is where we take off the niceness and we just become ourselves.

He says, the peace of Christ needs to rule there as well.

And so he goes on to say this, and we're going to continue our reading.

Colossians 3 18 to 4.1.

He says, When you go home, wives, submit to your husbands as is fitting in the Lord.

Husbands, love your wives and don't be harsh with them.

Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.

Fathers, do not embitter or frustrate your children, or they'll become discouraged.

Slaves obey your earthly masters in everything and do it not only when their eye is on you and to carry their favour, but with sincerity of heart and with reverence for the Lord.

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as if working for the Lord, and not for human masters, since you know that you'll receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward.

It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for their wrongs, and there is no favoritism.

Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a master in heaven.

I feel like Paul has gone from saying, Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, let's sing together.

And it's all feeling good, and there are warm vibes, and then we go into this.

Now, this is confronting in the 21st century.

But I need to say this is confronting in the 21st century for some, not all, in completely different ways than it was confronting to that group of people sitting in a living room hearing that letter from Paul in Colossae.

And I think it's really important for us to understand that, that it was radical and it was hard in very different ways than it is today.

These words have always been radical, just to be clear.

They've always been a radical instruction, but it's just different now to then.

So let me let me pull out my my little tiny prop here.

Because it's been a while.

Do I have permission?

It's been a while.

So, and reuse, recycle, you might have seen these scales before.

I wouldn't recommend putting your Woolworths produce on these scales.

They're not, they're not, they've they've pretty, they're for looks, they're not they're not designed for so we'll see if this works, right?

But I want you to just get a really good glimpse, and this is something you know, but sometimes it's good to see it visually.

Men in the first century, in that uh Roman world, remember this was predominantly written to people who weren't Jewish, um, but but everywhere, men ruled the day.

And so if a man was to go out on the street, he would be the one with the power to make some change.

People get out of my way.

This is my world.

And when a man went home and he spoke to his wife, he is the one who is in charge of her.

She can't own property, she can't have the kind of say that he has in that home.

He has the power at home.

And when one of his children come to him and they say, Dad, stop, don't talk to me now.

I'm doing something, the child would say, Okay.

Because the husband, the father has power in that home.

This is the way society was set up.

This is, we're not talking right or wrong here.

This is exactly how it was.

That the children didn't have power, the dad had power.

You would own a slave.

That was common practice in Roman society.

You would have a slave or slaves, depending on where you were in the social status.

You had power over those slaves.

This was a man's world.

This was absolutely a man's world.

And so we read these verses and we have some issues sometimes with the word submission and the word obey, but let's think about what these verses meant for a man sitting in that room in that first century context.

It was the the scales were very much tipped in his favor, and these words were confronting.

As Lord Acton would say, centuries later, my dad used to quote this to me all the time: power tends to corrupt.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

And so we know that there was huge assumptions about what was going to happen in a Roman household.

We know that as people sat down to have this letter read to them, there were all kinds of feelings in the room, just like there are all kinds of feelings in the room this morning.

I want us to use our imagination and to think about what it was like hearing these verses, hearing this letter in that living room for that first time.

As a Gentile man who's been brought up to worship all kinds of gods with the power of the Roman Empire.

Don't think for a second men were safe.

They were not safe.

This was a power-driven world.

But when they went home, they had control over their families.

They feel like they are in control at home.

And for these people, all of them, they had been this, had this fresh revelation about Jesus who has the power.

Jesus, who's the creator of the universe, a Father God who loves them, and they've gathered together as the church to hear this good news.

These men have said, I have stepped away from worshipping gods who have power and control over me and who I have to shift and change my behaviour for.

I have freedom.

So they sit and they hear this message.

And the letter starts off and establishes that Jesus is the image of the invisible God, and they're like, this is good news.

The next part of the letter says that Jesus is the head over every power and authority.

Grasp for a minute what it means to be sitting in a context where the Roman Empire has the power and control over everything.

And Paul's letter says, no.

Jesus has power and control over everything.

And there's even better news.

Your life is now hidden with Christ.

So we now have access to that power and control and that love and that salvation and that freedom.

This letter is good news.

Then the letter goes on to say there is no longer Jew or Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised.

Wait, that means as a Gentile, I'm included.

This is good news.

But there's also no barbarian, no Scythian, no slave or free.

This is messing with our scales.

This idea that there is equality and that Christ is king above all of this, this is getting a little confronting.

Then we sing together, we pray together.

That's hard because my wife and my children, my slaves, are welcome into that, but okay.

But then it gets hard.

Then it gets really hard.

Because it says, wives, submit to your husbands.

Great tick.

That is a given in his environment.

Then it says, husbands, love your wives.

I'm not suggesting for a second that husbands didn't love their wives, but there was no Roman instruction anywhere to suggest that a husband should love a wife.

That's just the reality of the context of that first century world.

They weren't instructed anywhere else to love their wives.

And in Ephesians, love your wives as Christ loved the church and laid his life down for her.

This is this is this is wrong to those first century ears.

Children, obey your parents, and fathers and parents don't embitter them, don't frustrate them.

And as a as a dad at that time, you weren't, the emotions of your child, they weren't on your radar.

Not by context, they weren't.

They might have been because this is your child, but there was nothing to suggest you should consider how your child felt.

They were your property, that's the reality.

They were your property, they were part of adding to your status.

And so to be told that you need to not frustrate them, that you need to allow for them in the space of your world, this is confronting.

It just is.

And your slaves, now I know there's a big chunk of what slaves need to do for masters, work as though you're working for God and not for these masters, but then for for those who are in charge of slaves who own humans, treat them with fairness and respect.

In that Roman world, slaves were more like a tool that you use in your home.

You use that tool until it breaks, and then you get another one.

Treat them with fairness and respect.

This is messing with the social order.

A hundred percent messing with all of it.

Does Paul not realize that to treat slaves with dignity and respect is putting an enormous strain on society?

There were so many slaves.

If we suddenly have to be treating them with dignity and respect and giving them a rest day, say, or, you know, as this plays out practically, our society can't afford that.

What kind of woke teaching is this?

I'm not suggesting for one second that that's how every man in that room felt.

But culturally, this is how it was.

Culturally, this was radical teaching from the opposite way than we think.

Then imagine what it's like sitting in that room in that first century as a wife, as a child, or as a slave.

And a wife hears, submit to your husband, and she goes, Yep.

Husbands love your wives.

How would that have felt that you've never heard it before?

The room goes still.

Will he listen to this?

What will happen when I go home?

Will he respond to putting on the virtues of Christ?

A child sitting in the corner quietly playing because they can be seen and not heard.

And they hear that they need to obey their parents, and they're like, he, she, of course, of course I need to obey my parents.

And then the fathers, don't frustrate your children, don't embitter them.

And the child looks up from whatever they're doing and can feel something shifting in the room.

They're not quite sure what it is, but something's moving here.

There's something that's working against everything that child has experienced.

Similarly, with a slave, they hear that they are to serve their master as if they're serving Christ.

And that shifts their perspective, but then bam, out of the middle of nowhere.

Masters are to give respect.

Respect.

That's unbelievable.

That the slave thinks, sitting in the shadows in the corner of that room, that could change everything.

And I wonder if it will.

Can you see how we come at these verses with our very 2026 eyes?

But actually they meant something radical from the opposite direction.

And everyone in that room, Bar Nan, hears this.

Whether they're on the street, whether they're in our business, or whether they're in our home.

The peace of Christ should disrupt the ways we use power.

Back then and today.

Because we all have power.

Every single one of us in this room has power.

And how we use it is being spoken to here by Paul.

And how we use our power today is incredibly important.

So I think about this idea of peace.

Let the peace of Christ rule in your heart.

And if I was sitting in that room that first time that letter was read, no matter who I am, I'm thinking, this is not peace, this is chaos.

You're messing with the social order.

So what does it look like to have the peace of Christ rule in your heart when actually what we're doing is disrupting the normal processes and standards?

But I think sometimes we misunderstand peace.

Let's step aside for a second and think about Jesus, who is the Prince of Peace, right?

Did he walk around with a massive basket of dried flowers and just fling them out to people and say, peace to you and peace to you?

Is that how he operated in peace?

Did he sit and make little daisy chains in between teaching moments?

He might have, actually, I don't know.

I kind of like the thought now I say it out loud.

But we know that Jesus didn't come with the kind of peace that didn't disrupt power.

He spoke to it.

Because peace isn't about avoiding conflict.

Peace is about working through all kinds of injustices and disagreements to reach peace.

We know that he came to include the marginalized, which was disruptive.

He turned over tables in the temple because it was wrong.

He called out religious leaders because they were abusing their power.

He went to a violent death that we might have peace with God.

So when we have the peace of Christ ruling in our hearts, that's not a passive kumbaya statement.

That's something quite different.

It's not everyone just stop arguing.

We're just going to get along.

It's not that.

Sometimes peace requires disturbing false peace.

Sometimes what looks like peace is actually just the absence of resistance because one person has all the power in the room.

That's not peace.

That's control.

So with all of that in mind, and we've covered off on the first century, let's step into today.

It's good to know, it's good to understand, gives us a bit of context, helps us to understand how confronting all of that was.

But let's now work backwards.

Slaves and masters, children and parents, husbands and wives.

So thankfully, we don't have slavery in the world today.

Please, someone argue with me.

Yes, we do.

50 million, it's estimated, slaves in the world today.

And so I just want to put that as a, I want that to sit there for us to just keep remembering and advocating for, praying for, giving to organizations that are bringing human trafficking to an end.

Can I hear you say yes?

We don't have slaves in our homes today, right?

Can we agree on that part?

But we do all, most, some, go off to a workplace where we have bosses.

We either are a boss or we have a boss or both.

And so perhaps this is where we take this instruction.

Because we might feel like a slave to our workplace at different times.

We might feel like we're trying to draw workers into a space where they're actually doing a good day's work.

This is where we can really play out with this instruction.

How do we let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts in our workplace?

What does bringing peace look like in our workplace?

Because a lot of this is household instructions.

Intentionally, Paul is doing that.

But I know that here today we have people who are single, we have people who are widowed, we have people who are divorced, we have people who are retired and aren't going to work.

And I just want to acknowledge that in the room, that this idea of peace ruling in our hearts, we will be speaking to contexts that don't mean anything to you.

But overall, there is a lesson for each of us as we read through these Colossians verses.

And for all of us, no matter what context we find ourselves in, whatever you do, Paul says, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord and not for human masters.

Have you ever had a bad boss?

I had a boss who used to walk in and just start yelling at anyone and anything.

He was clearly frustrated with his life and was frustrated that he just wasn't getting enough out of us.

To have a bad boss and to then just say, whatever you do, do it as working for God instead of working for people, that is incredibly difficult to hear.

You might have a bad boss right now.

I was talking to someone from our congregation this week, Gary, he's probably here.

Morning, Gary.

He worked in finance for years.

And he knows what it is to be a boss of a lot of people and a lot of money.

He knows what it is to have people who you need to stand up for.

He knows what it is to work in complex works and work environments.

And he says, as a Christian, you go to work with every intention of standing your ground, of putting on virtue, of living your identity in Christ, being authentic to your faith, but somehow the workplace is constantly trying to mould you into their ethic, into their work practice.

Does anyone relate to that?

It can be difficult to be who you're called to be.

And Gary gave this example to me just this week.

He said, in a workplace a long time ago, when he was in charge of a lot of people, he and another man were in charge, but the other man was just ever so slightly above him because he owned more shares.

And so a young girl in the office got pregnant very young and had to take maternity leave.

Now, back in the day, there wasn't the provision there is now, but there was a responsibility to hold that person's job until if and when they came back.

His colleague wasn't very happy with that plan.

Just seemed inconvenient.

Because really, she didn't deserve respect.

She didn't deserve the dignity.

And so when she did come back into the workplace, he just used his own strategy.

I'm just going to make life really, really, really difficult for her until she leaves.

It took a matter of weeks until this girl walked out of his office, said to Gary, I'm I'm out.

And she walked downstairs to gather her things, and he followed her down there and said, Please don't go.

We can make this work.

You can leave, but actually, then he's just one.

And her coming into work, if someone had said to her, work as though you're working for God and put up with anything, just hear clearly, that is not the message.

We all in our workplaces need to be thinking about the people who are on the edges, who aren't in a situation where they're receiving justice, and we need to speak.

And actually, Gary said it was a bit like putting a target on his back when he stood up for her.

But sometimes that's what it takes.

So when we're thinking about peace at work, it's not just do what your boss says or be nice to your workers because that would be good.

Think about those, the ways that we can work against false peace.

Who do you need to advocate for?

Who isn't included right now?

Who isn't in the room?

How can you balance the scales for those who don't have power?

Children and parents.

Now, I don't want to speak a lot to this.

Andrew's going to come back to this next week, but I want to make one or two observations as a person who has managed by this by the you know nails on the edge of the seat, who has managed to bring children from little to my parenting responsibilities are pretty much over, more or less.

This observation I make, there is so much information about how to be a good parent.

So much information.

We're told so many things about how we can damage our children.

We don't want to bring them up with dysfunction.

We want to do it right.

And what I observe is that this can paralyze parents.

It can bring them to a point where they're not sure which way they should turn, left or right.

Should I say anything?

Should I discipline?

How do I discipline?

How do I do that without destroying my child?

And so I say this one thing.

My one piece of parenting advice is surprisingly simple and incredibly difficult.

Work on yourself.

Work on who you are.

Deal with your faith and your past and your insecurities and your fears and your core beliefs.

That's the best parenting advice I can give you.

Because we're told that fathers shouldn't embitter their children or they'll be discouraged.

None of us want to discourage those we love.

We want them to flourish.

So let's work on ourselves.

Here we go.

Wives and husbands.

Wives and husbands.

I heard a lot of these sermons when I was growing up, and they were angled in a certain way.

And there is an absolute truth to everything I was told as a young adult in a pretty conservative environment.

And there are also some other things that we need to be told.

How do husbands and wives find peace?

Happy wife, happy life.

Oh, okay.

That didn't that didn't spark anything, did it?

We know it's not that simple.

And if we want to get real specific, we can look up the Greek words.

They hold some value here.

So the word submit, hypertasso, is in the middle voice, and that means it comes from the person.

It doesn't come externally.

So if a wife is to submit to her husband, she does that voluntarily.

It can't be forced on her, it can't be placed on her.

This is a voluntary and loving act from a wife to a husband.

And it's important.

Should wives submit to their husbands?

Yes.

100% yes.

That is an important piece of instruction that we've been given by Paul in this letter and throughout the Bible.

And do we need to submit to each other?

Yes.

100% yes.

Ephesians tells us before it says wives, submit to your husbands, it says submit to one another, husbands and wives.

I'm not trying to make it an equal ground, but I am saying submission is a mutual act.

Men, do you need to love your wives as Christ loved the church?

Yes.

100% yes.

And do wives need to love their husbands?

Absolutely yes.

And the reality is we want to get to the place where we can say the terms don't matter.

We don't go looking for definitions, we don't force anything on anyone.

We say, because I am submitting to you, I am submitting to you, I am loving you, I am loving you, that the words and the terms and the Greek don't matter.

That's our aim.

That the peace of Christ would live in our hearts in a way that changes us.

Take off vices, put on virtues.

I do want to say, and it has to be said, there is zero permission for one person to dominate another, to abuse another financially, physically, emotionally.

There is zero permission, there is zero tolerance in our community for that.

That is not what this is saying.

Submit to each other, love one another.

And if there's a unique role to play in that, play it.

Work it out amongst yourselves as a couple.

And I had a lot to work on when we got married.

We'd throw this terms, these terms to each other.

Submit, love, no, submit, love.

You know, as young couples do.

And actually we got to a point, and I can picture the room, the moment, where we said, I don't think this is gonna work.

We were this this close to saying we can't, we just can't do this.

Because this is hard.

This is so hard.

And we had a lot of work to do on ourselves.

Before we just, you know, went over the cliff and said, okay, we're done, we agreed that under God, with his love and instruction, we would work on ourselves.

We found a counselor, and then later we found a psychologist, and then later we found someone else.

This is hard.

Marriage is hard because to live in peace and be fully yourself in a broken marriage with the carnage of, for some of you, difficult upbringings that have scarred and made life difficult for you.

This is a hard instruction and completely doable with the grace of Christ, completely healable no matter where you've come from, and we can be the peace of Christ to a broken world.

It is totally doable.

So, how do we find peace, live in peace, bring peace to our broken world as we consider marriage?

And I want to I want to broaden it.

How do we respond to the opposite sex in any context?

I want to speak to what's happening in our world at the moment.

The gender wars are raging, absolutely raging.

And the internet is a very real player.

The gender wars, just to be fair, have been raging since the fall.

But the added fuel to the gender wars right now is our wonderful internet.

And what those algorithms are saying to us, they're saying to men, you're the victim.

You're the victim.

Women have all the power.

If you're on the right algorithm, that's what it's saying to you.

You need to claim it back.

And if you're on the right algorithm, or the wrong algorithm, as a woman, all you're hearing is men are evil.

They've messed it up beyond repair.

Take the power.

That's what we're being told, and our young people are being told it in ways that most of us it would make our hair curl.

The internet tells both sides the other is the enemy because division gets clicks and rage sells.

And there is a lot of money to be made when we hate each other.

May that not be our story, New Hope.

Let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts.

May this be a place where the algorithm doesn't get to disciple us.

So where does this leave us?

Paul began by saying, Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.

And we've discovered the peace of Christ isn't passive, doesn't mean just keeping everybody happy, doesn't mean avoiding difficult conversations or forcing your will on another or tolerating injustice.

It certainly doesn't mean using your power to get your own way.

The peace of Christ means allowing Jesus to rule in the way we use whatever power we've been given.

At work, in our marriages, with our children, in our friendships, when we're online, and most certainly when we're in church.

The question isn't how do I win?

The question is how does the peace of Christ rule here?

I acknowledge some marriages don't and haven't worked out.

No judgment from me.

Some parents are estranged from their children, some workplaces are a mess, but we can all work on ourselves to bring that peace of Christ to rule in our own heart and then to spill out to others.

Would you stand with me?

In a moment, the band will play for us, and I would love for us to take an opportunity to pray.

Now, as parents in the room who have to collect children, I actually want to give you this opportunity first.

So we're going to have some our prayer team and a couple of staff gathering around the sides and the back of the room.

So speaking to parents first, I would love to invite you to take some time, either as an individual or as a couple, to go and find someone from the prayer team.

And for you, it might be that you just you just want to flourish in your marriage, and you figure if someone's giving me an invitation for someone to pray for me, I'm going to take it, or we're going to take it.

The prayer team have some anointing oil.

If you just say, anoint our marriage, or anoint me as an individual.

Take that opportunity as we begin to sing.

And then for the rest of us, once you see that the parents have had a go, because they then have to go back to their seats or back upstairs, that's our opportunity to go and receive prayer.

Maybe it's prayer for a relationship in your life that you know needs repair.

Maybe it's a prayer for how you control the power, how you use the power in your life.

Maybe it's about a difficult conversation or a place that you need God to work and to heal and to bring peace.

However, you would like someone to pray for you, go to those team members and just briefly ask what you'd like prayer for and allow them to give you that space.

This is not the end of the work.

If you're going there and saying we need healing in our marriage, this is the beginning of the work, not the end.

But prayer unlocks something, gives us a head start as we begin to do that hard work.

So will you take this opportunity to pray as we sing together?