Reconciliation

Location, location, location-it’s the one thing that matters. So the property Gurus tell us.

This week I read in the news of a very undesirable location. It’s a cottage on a narrow road in a North Wales Village. Sat-nav systems are regularly sending lorries down this road as a short cut. Truckers have slammed into this family home 15 times, wrecking walls and landing the householder with massive repair bills. Her 18 year old daughter moved out after the latest collision, which came within feet of her bedroom.

Sometimes it’s a good idea not just to move out, but to take your house with you. In 1999, Mark and Louise Roberts moved their Lighthouse home in its entirety 17 metres inland. They’d bought the property at Beachy Head, Sussex, two years before. But soon after, a cliff collapsed leaving their home just a few metres from the precipice – and with a strong likelihood of more cliff-falls to come. So they brought in a team of Engineers to underpin the structure and push it to safety.

Let me ask you this: Can you imagine the reverse of that move ever happening? Imagine a family with a great house, in the perfect location. It’s beautiful, it’s got everything they need, and above all it’s secure. But they’re tempted to move the house, to a demolition zone. Is that ever going to happen? Of course not. But the spiritual equivalent of that disastrous move is a very real danger for Christians. It was a real danger for the Colossian Christians. Spiritually speaking, they were in the perfect location. But there were some false teachers in the church – you could call them religious removal men. And these false teachers were trying to get these Christians to move house from a place of security, into a disaster area.

That’s why the apostle Paul put pen to paper to write to the Colossians. And the burden of his letter is “You’ve got it all in Christ, so don’t move!” We need to hear that message as much as the Colossians did, and it comes out particularly clearly in our passage for tonight: Colossians 1 verses 21-23.

My headings are; First: You’ve got it all in Christ, (verses 21-22) and second, so don’t move. (v23)

First, You’ve got it all in Christ. (Colossians 1.21):

“21 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behaviour. 22 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”

‘Before and after’ is a great advertising technique. We’ve all seen the ads – for weight loss programs, oven cleaners, laundry powder and the like. The idea is to contrast the desperate state beforehand, with the incredible difference made by the product. We’re shown a bathroom full of slime, lime and grime, where the most intrepid family members fear to tread. But now, after a squirt and a few wipes, the bathroom is shiny and new.

Paul uses the before and after technique here. Only he’s not trying to sell us something. He’s reminding us what we’ve already got if we’re Christians. Verse 21 is the “before”:

“21 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behaviour.”

That’s how bad it was. You were completely cut off from God. You were estranged. There was no relationship between God and you. And alienation isn’t just something that happened to you. It’s something you did. “21were enemies in your minds because of your evil behaviour.” In other words, you hated God from the core of your being. Your heart was hostile towards God. Why? “21 … because of your evil behaviour.” Today ‘Evil’ is a rarely used word, reserved for terrorists and child-molesters. But evil, according to the Bible, is anything that denies that the world and everything in it belongs to God.
(Colossians 1. 16,)

“… all things were created by him and for him.”

So we were made by God to live in his world his way, reflecting his character and pointing to his glory. But like Adam and eve, we decide that the world is going to be about us. So we live as if we control our own destiny, and as if everything exists for our pleasure. We push God to the margins of our world, if we acknowledge him at all. That’s evil.So we were God’s enemies, but it’s worse than that: God was our enemy too. Flip over to chapter 3 and verse 6. After listing the evil deeds the Colossians did before they were Christians, Paul says (Colossians 3.6):

“6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.”

In other words, evil matters to God. He won’t just let it go. His wrath – his holy, hostile judgement was heading our way. Alienated from God. Enemies of God. Evil. They’re strong words. But we need to own those words and say that’s what we were. That is the mess we were in. That’s the before. Verse 22 is the after. Let’s read that (Colossians 1.22)

“22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death”

This is great news! Relationship has been restored! Hostilities have ceased!
I’m sure you know what it’s like when a relationship with a friend or family member is restored after a period of hostility. There’s great joy and celebration. How much more when we are reconciled to God! There are three things to realize about this reconciliation. Who did the reconciling, how it happened, and when it happened.

So who did it? Who reconciled who? When I sin against Sarah, my wife – perhaps with unkind words, or a thoughtless act – and Sarah is rightly offended and hurt – whose job is it to seek reconciliation? Mine. It’s the responsibility of the person in the wrong to seek reconciliation. I need to go to Sarah and say I’m sorry. I was wrong. Please forgive me. And she does, and we’re reconciled. But I know I need to make the first move. We were in the wrong with God. But who did the reconciling? God did. “He has reconciled you”.

God reconciled us because we could never reconcile him. Our hearts were too hard, and the price was too high. Because our hearts were hard and hostile to God, we couldn’t seek reconciliation. We were God’s enemies right to the core. And even if we did, God can’t be reconciled just like that. You see when Sarah and I need to be reconciled; we can just forgive each other. We can do that because we know the buck doesn’t stop with us. We don’t hold the moral fabric of the universe together. But God does. He made and sustains everything, and to be true to himself, God will not just let evil go. God will not leave sin unpunished. And that punishment is a price we could never pay. You could not reconcile God to yourself. But he has reconciled you to himself.But how did God reconcile us? (Colossians 1.22):

“22 … by Christ's physical body through death”

And verse in verse 20 Paul is talking about the same thing where he says:

“…by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”

Blood is meant to call to mind the violent death of an animal in the Old Testament sacrifices. To deal with sin, an Israelite would put his hands on the head of a sheep or goat and confess his sin over it. Symbolically, he transferred his sin onto the animal, which was then slaughtered. The animal took the place of the sinner, who could then be accepted by God. But it couldn’t be just any animal. The animal had to be “without blemish”. If your sheep had any kind of deformity, it would not be accepted by God in your place. Your substitute had to be without blemish, in order to bear your blemishes.

All this looks forward to Jesus. He was completely unblemished by sin, and so could stand in our place. And Jesus as he hung on the cross absorbed God’s wrath for our sins and made peace between us and God. God reconciled you. He did through the death of his son. But when were you reconciled? Verse 22:

22But now he has reconciled you

It’s done. God achieved your reconciliation when Jesus died. And you received that reconciliation when you heard and believed the gospel. That’s the before and after, but there’s something still to come. Look with me at God’s purpose in your reconciliation (Colossians 1.22):

“22 to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation”.

Back in June Mark, one of our final year students here at church spoke with me. Mark had finished his exams and had just heard that he’d passed! He was pleased to inform me that he was a graduate! I said, not yet Mark – you’re a graduand. A graduand is a student who has passed all the requirements for a degree, but has yet to graduate. For Mark the decisive moment was when he saw his name on that list in the history department. He had qualified. Now there was nothing to do but confidently wait. A few weeks later in July, he was presented before the chancellor, in a graduate’s robes, Mark received his degree, and I trust a great celebration followed. When I spoke with Mark back in June, the decisive day was past, but the glorious day was yet to come.

If you’re a Christian you’re like Mark was as a graduand. The decisive moment is past. God has reconciled you to himself. As Paul says in verse 12, God has “… qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.”The decisive day is past. But we’re waiting for the glorious day, when God presents us

“22 holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation”

This is the day when Jesus returns to judge the world and make everything new. We will have the joy of being presented to God, and all we have in Christ will be celebrated in God’s presence. We are holy because we’re united to Jesus, the holy one. We are without blemish because he who was without sin took our sin and gave us his righteousness. And we’ll be free from accusation because on the cross Jesus was accused and punished in our place.

You were alienated, but you are now reconciled to God, and you will be presented before him, (Jude 24)

“… before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy”.

You’ve got it all in Christ. It may be that as we’ve read these words, you realise that you’re not yet reconciled to God, but you want to be. If that’s you, you need to do three things. First, Admit that you’ve been hostile to God, Second, Thank God that he has reconciled you by Christ’s death. And third, live the rest of your life to please Jesus. If you want to do that, please do tell a Christian friend or tell me, so that you can get some help continuing as a Christian.

First, You’ve got it all in Christ, sosecond, Don’t move This is verse 23:

“23 if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel.”

You’ve got it all, on one condition. If you continue in the faith.

That’s a better translation than ‘your faith’. ‘your faith’ refers to your belief or trust – which is vitally important. But ‘The faith’ is what Christians should believe – where our trust should rest. ‘The faith’ means the teaching about Jesus in the Bible. It’s the same as ‘the gospel’ – the good news that Jesus is fully God, has died to reconcile us to God, is now alive and King of the universe, and will reconcile all things to himself.

Remember Jesus’ story about the two builders? One built his house on the sand and it fell flat, the other built his house on the rock and it stood firm. What made the difference? Location. Paul is saying here in verse 23 that if you’re trusting in Jesus, your house is already built on the rock of the faith – the gospel. You’ve got it all in Christ. So what do we need to do? ‘Continue in the faith’ – or in other words leave the house where it is. ‘established and firm’ or in other words strengthen its foundation and structure. ‘not moved from the hope held out in the gospel’ or in other words Don’t move the house! Remember, the danger at Colossae was the spiritual removal men… false teachers who were tempting the Christians to move away from trusting Christ and build their lives somewhere other than the rock of the gospel. Paul says (Colossians 2.8):

“8 See to it that no-one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.”

This deceptive philosophy was especially dangerous because it might seem harmless. Paul writes (Colossians 2.4):

“4 I tell you this so that no-one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments.”

You see, the false teachers weren’t saying: stop trusting Jesus. But they were saying Jesus is great for starting the Christian life but to go on you need more. The big idea behind that is that Jesus wasn’t fully God, and so we haven’t got it all in Christ. They said there are other ways of getting in touch with God that we also need to utilise. There are certain experiences to have, and certain things to do, which will allow you to progress to the next level, spiritually.

That’s a message we need to beware of today too. We might even find ourselves thinking that way. “Jesus is great for starting the Christian life but to go on, I need more.” We might think there’s more to do. We realise that we are still sinners in practice, and we want to deal with that. But we try and do so by our own will-power, by drawing up and trying to keep a strict set of rules. But Paul says because you’ve got it all in Christ, you don’t need to do this (Colossians 2.20);

“20 Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: 21 Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!?”

And he goes on to say in verse 23:

“23 Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.”

The old, sinful you died when Christ died. So the way to deal with the sin that remains in your life is not by a strict set of self-imposed rules, but by rejoicing in the fact that you have new life In Christ, and then seeking to please him.

We might think there’s more to experience. And others may try to convince us of this, saying things like,” You need to get along to our meetings - you can really feel the presence of God. We’re experiencing angels, our leader is receiving amazing visions, and people are having dramatic manifestations of God’s presence. You need to come and see what’s happening and experience what God is doing” But Paul warns us against any so-called spiritual experience that marginalizes Jesus, (Colossians 2.18):

“18 Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions. 19 He has lost connection with the Head [that’s Christ], from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.”

So don’t be taken in by religious meetings that promise life-changing spiritual experiences, but where the Focus is not firmly on Jesus Christ. It is right that we should want to experience God. But we only experience God through and because of Jesus. God speaks to us through the word of Christ in the Bible, changes us by his Spirit whom Christ gives and who glorifies Christ. We approach God in praise and prayer through Christ, and we’re to live in everything for Christ. That’s true spiritual experience. If we think that there’s more to do, or more to experience, that can too easily turn into building our lives on that doing, or those experiences. So don’t move from the hope held out in the gospel. Paul finishes the section by assuring the Colossians, and us, that the gospel he’s been writing about is genuine. (Colossians 1.23):

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

It’s the gospel they heard from Epaphras. The same gospel that they’d believed and that had changed their lives. It’s the gospel that has been proclaimed to the whole creation. Not yet exhaustively to every single person, but the message has been made public, and it’s for everyone.
And it’s the gospel that Paul serves. It’s as if Paul is saying “I am not spending my whole life spend my whole life preaching something that’s just for beginners – what I preach is the whole gospel. There’s nothing else”

You’ve got it all in Christ, so don’t move. And Paul expects that Christians will continue in the faith. The ‘if’ of verse 23 is a confident if. (Colossians 2.5);

“5 though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit and delight to see how orderly you are and how firm your faith in Christ is.”

So what do we need to do? Paul said continue in your faith, established and firm. If you want to make sure your house stays where it is, you need to check the foundations, and if need be, strengthen them. We’ve already seen that the secure ground we stand on is the finished work of Christ. We were cut off from God but he has reconciled us to himself in Christ. We will be presented before God in Christ. How much do you think about and rejoice in that? If we’re tempted to move away from the gospel it’s because we don’t sufficiently realise and rejoice in the gospel. What God has done for us in Jesus is the best news in the world, but we can easily forget that and take it for granted. Paul tells us that actively reminding yourself of your position in Christ is the number one way to keep going as a Christian. (Colossians 3.1)

“1 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”

Remember that you’ve got it all in Christ. Study the Bible and good Christian books that explore and apply who Jesus is and what he has done. And lastly, give thanks. Five times in Colossians Paul encourages his readers to give thanks or be thankful. I’m sure that’s because giving thanks is the foremost way we remember and rejoice in the gospel.

Let’s do that now as we pray.