IN
Christ
Pastor
Ryan Freeman
Payson
Christian Church
8/24/14
Hook: Storms
Colossians 2:6-19 Message
From the Shadows to the Substance
6-7 My counsel for you is simple and
straightforward: Just go ahead with what you’ve been given. You received Christ
Jesus, the Master; now live him. You’re deeply rooted in him. You’re well
constructed upon him. You know your way around the faith. Now do what you’ve
been taught. School’s out; quit studying the subject and start living it! And
let your living spill over into thanksgiving.
8-10 Watch out for people who try to dazzle you with
big words and intellectual double-talk. They want to drag you off into endless
arguments that never amount to anything. They spread their ideas through the
empty traditions of human beings and the empty superstitions of spirit beings.
But that’s not the way of Christ. Everything of God gets expressed in him, so
you can see and hear him clearly. You don’t need a telescope, a microscope, or
a horoscope to realize the fullness of Christ, and the emptiness of the
universe without him. When you come to him, that fullness comes together for
you, too. His power extends over everything.
11-15 Entering into this fullness is not something
you figure out or achieve. It’s not a matter of being circumcised or keeping a
long list of laws. No, you’re already in—insiders—not through some secretive
initiation rite but rather through what Christ has already gone through for
you, destroying the power of sin. If it’s an initiation ritual you’re after,
you’ve already been through it by submitting to baptism. Going under the water
was a burial of your old life; coming up out of it was a resurrection, God
raising you from the dead as he did Christ. When you were stuck in your old
sin-dead life, you were incapable of responding to God. God brought you
alive—right along with Christ! Think of it! All sins forgiven, the slate wiped
clean, that old arrest warrant canceled and nailed to Christ’s cross. He
stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at
the Cross and marched them naked through the streets.
16-17 So don’t put up with anyone pressuring you in
details of diet, worship services, or holy days. All those things are mere
shadows cast before what was to come; the substance is Christ.
18-19 Don’t tolerate people who try to run your
life, ordering you to bow and scrape, insisting that you join their obsession
with angels and that you seek out visions. They’re a lot of hot air, that’s all
they are. They’re completely out of touch with the source of life, Christ, who
puts us together in one piece, whose very breath and blood flow through us. He
is the Head and we are the body. We can grow up healthy in God only as he
nourishes us.
What does it mean 'to be in Christ'?
Paul (or Tim) says it all the time- Jesus talks
about being 'in God'... what does this even mean?
I have a hard time imagining it, myself. Earlier
this last week, I missed one of my most favorite events in the whole world (and
no, it wasn't the new Dr. Who season...)... Monday, I helped someone move to
Nebraska- and while it was hot and arid out west, here... sometime in the
morning, we had a thunderstorm. It's one of my most favorite things to slowly
wake up to the sounds of a storm. At first it's usually that low, rolling
tremor of thunder- or the steady drumming of rain on your window. Or maybe it's
even the feel of the wind outside creaking the wooden frames of your house...
however the case... it's my favorite thing.
And I think it’s my favorite thing because when it
happens, you're in it. Cozy underneath your sheets- there is an ambiance or a
vibe- a something which paints the moment with its own unique feel. You are in
a storm all around you. To my best understanding, being 'in Christ' is like
being in the best sort of storm. It embraces you with its own personality. The
dark shadows play across the floor through the rain-splattered windows. When you’re 'in' something, you are one
with it. You don't just have a place, you are in place. It's easy to say,
but wait- this doesn't make sense, what am I doing? That's just the trick-
Jesus does this, making you one with him. There is no thinking or logicing just
how or what or why things must be a certain way. There is no worrying about how
good or not good you are- how well so and so thinks of you or whether that
dress looks good on you. It simply is. You simply are. It's like being with
someone who you love after a long while, and sharing unspoken conversations
just with a bare flick of the eye or nod of the head. A touch. A smirk. A
whisper.
We often use poetic expression because we are
touching realms which elude common expression. The inconceivable. The wonder-full.
Have you ever tried to imagine what the 'end game'
of Christianity might look like. How do things go, how must things be once the
lights are flicked off of the whole history of the tired world and every last
prophecy is fulfilled down to the last timely, holy sneeze? Lots of people
through the ages have worked tirelessly try to figure this all out. Just try
and guess how many trees have died for theology... I think it's funny when
someone thinks they've 'figured it all out finally'... every now and again you
see someone pick a date for the end. Bomb shelters are built. Walmarts have
sudden record spurts for the kind of goods only die-heart survivalists usually
go in for... while the rest of us wait for the inevitable fallout. I think one
of the biggest reasons why people try and figure it all out is because they
think the Bible or Christianity is some sort of master sudoku, just waiting to
be puzzled all out. We crave a guarantee on safety and security. It's why we
have life insurance and make sure our cars are covered. I think Jesus knows
this. And he also knows that only actual caliber of safety and security we need
is being IN Him. And I think this is exactly where Jesus is radically different
from all that. Just try getting relationship insurance. Ever tried changing the
emotional oil of your spouse? Or replaced a balding head like you would tires?
Or trading in the one you’re married to for a long time for someone new? It
typically isn't done. You don't do it. People like you and I don't work like that.
You
don't 'figure out' Jesus. You have a relationship with him.
When certain people are regularly around long enough, they usually begin to
have a dynamic influence over and through your own life. Other people rub off
on you. Ever since I worked at Ayerco, I can’t really stop slurring my words.
Thanks Quincy...
You adopt character this way. Or not.
There are a lot of ways people do Christianity.
According to the internet's most viable source, Wikipedia, there are over
41,000 different denominations across the planet.
Jesus is the sort of guy who, if you spent any
amount of time around, you can’t help but have him rub off on you. Who God is is infectious. When you’re in a storm
all around, it’s the closest thing I can think of to being IN Jesus, too. You
are hidden in him. Your identity is lost in his. The two become one. There is
less thinking and more being.
So, when others try to sell you on a new way to
figure it all out- when others impose a certain way of doing things- when the apocalypse
is nigh, whether it be sign-wielding street preachers or subtle cultural
power-coops... remember Jesus isn't there, either. That tomb is empty. A lot of
times what people try so desperately to persuade you of are actually only
speaking whatever comes out of their own deepest fears.
I love near the end of this section, where Paul (or
Timothy) says in verse 17:
"These are a shadow of the things that were to
come, the reality, however, is found IN CHRIST."
When you close your eyes for the last time, and open
your real eyes for the first time, the closest, most poetic expression God uses
to describe what it will be like is a wedding and a feast. Some of us recently
attended weddings, or can remember our own... it really, truly is something
like that.
The reality is IN Christ.
Like the best feast.
Like the happiest wedding.
Like the coziest storm.
Like what you read? Join in with your own insights, stories and art- send them to ryanpfreeman1@aol.com. Thanks and God bless -Ryan
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