10/9/2022 - Peace With God

Colossians Series  •  Sermon  •  Submitted
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(Welcome)

Welcome to Central. If this is your first time, I want to say, “Welcome Home!”
As an expository church, we prioritize preaching and teaching that focuses on a Christ-centered, holistic, and sequential approach to Scripture.
We enjoy preaching through books of the Bible and tackling each passage with a high view of Jesus Christ and an intent to be led into worship and transformation by what we find therein.

(Opening Prayer)

Heavenly Father, be glorified this morning as we open your Word.
Open our ears to hear it. Open our minds to understand it. Open our hearts to believe it. Open our mouths to confess it.
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to You today.
In Jesus' Name, Amen.

(Series Introduction)

Today we continue our Colossians series.

(Opening Context)

Paul is writing to a church he has never visited. He doesn’t know these people.
Paul wrote Colossians between 60-62 AD during his first imprisonment in Rome (Acts 28).
Paul also wrote Ephesians, Philippians, and Philemon during this time.
Pastor Epaphras planted the Colossian church and came to Paul because they had problems that needed to be addressed.
Paul writes this letter in the midst of their many heresies with one solution in mind - Correct Christology.
A low view of Christ was the problem, Paul gave us a high view of Christ.
The
Colossians 1:21–23 (ESV)
21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds,
22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,
23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

1. No Christ, No Peace, No Victory

Colossians 1:21 (ESV)
21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds,

Having struck the note of reconciliation as the seventh characteristic of the exalted Christ, Paul then developed that theme. Reconciliation is necessary because people are alienated (“cut off, estranged”) from life and God (Eph. 2:12; 4:18). Before conversion the Colossian believers also were enemies or hostile to God in their minds as well as in their behavior, internally and externally. Sin begins in the heart (Matt. 5:27–28) and manifests itself in overt deeds (Gal. 5:19). (“In the sphere of your evil deeds” is better than NIV‘s because of your evil behavior. People are not inwardly hostile vs. God because of their outward acts of sins; they commit sins because they are inwardly hostile.)

Paul moves from a generic description of God’s act of reconciliation in the world to a specific description of the experience of the Colossian believers.
Once again, there are strong similarities between this text and material in Ephesians.
Broadly speaking, we can observe a common pattern: (a) once you were …, (b) but now God has acted, (c) so now you are.…
This basic pattern is found in this portion of Colossians and also in Ephesians 2:1–10 and 2:11–22. More specifically, we can compare Colossians 1:21–22 with Ephesians 2.
Ephesians 2:12
12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
The New Bible Commentary 1:21–23 Reconciliation Accomplished and Applied

A sharp contrast is drawn between their pre-Christian past and their present standing in Christ. The serious nature of their previous situation only serves to emphasize the wonder of God’s gracious, mighty action of reconciling them, i.e. of making them his friends. Prior to their conversion they were alienated, completely out of harmony with God, trapped in idolatry and slavery to sin. They had been opposed to God in their thinking, and this naturally found visible expression in their evil behaviour (lit. ‘doing evil deeds’).

Although God had accomplished reconciliation and peace through “the blood of his cross” (Col. 1:20), the personal experience of the Colossians prior to their conversion was alienation (Paul returns to the use of the second-person plural “you” in v. 21).
Paul identifies this alienation from God in terms parallel to his prayer in Colossians 1:10.
In both cases he brings actions and thought together.
In Colossians 1:21 he highlights the “total depravity” of alienation from God, impacting both the will and the mind.
In Colossians 1:10 he prays for fruitfulness in good works and growth in knowledge of God.
Alienation was not simply a passive distance from God but an active hostility toward him (Rom. 8:7).
Apart from the work of God the Son, Peace with God is impossible.
(We are the hostile ones who need to be brought back to God)

2. Peace With God is Because of Christ

Colossians 1:22 (ESV)
22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,

Reconciliation of sinners to God is by Christ’s physical body through death. The Gnostic tendency of the Colossian heresy, with its Platonic orientation, denied both Christ’s true humanity and His true deity. As John explained, it is necessary to confess “that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh” (1 John 4:2). Spirits cannot die, and “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Heb. 9:22). In order to redeem humans, Christ Himself must be truly human (cf. 1 Tim. 2:5; Heb. 2:17). Thus Christ’s real physical body and death were necessary for man’s salvation (cf. Rom. 7:4; Heb. 10:10).

Ephesians 2:13–16 (ESV)
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility
15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace,
16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.
The result of Christ’s death is redemptive—to present us holy in His sight.
This may mean judicially perfect as to a believer’s position, or spiritually perfect as to his condition.
Ultimately God envisions both for believers, and Christ’s death is the basis for judicial justification (Rom. 3:21–26), progressive sanctification (Rom. 6–7), and even ultimate glorification (Rom. 8).
As Paul wrote the Ephesians, “He chose us in Him before the Creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight” (Eph. 1:4).
Christians are without blemish (amōmous; correctly translated “blameless” in Eph. 1:4 and Phil. 2:15; “without … blemish” in Eph. 5:27 and “without fault” in Jude 24) in Christ, and also are free from accusation (anenklētous).
This latter Greek word is used five times in the New Testament and only by Paul (here and in 1 Cor. 1:8; 1 Tim. 3:10; Titus 1:6–7).
It connotes one who is unaccused, free from all charges. Satan is “the accuser” (Rev. 12:10), but Christ is their “Advocate” (1 John 2:1) or “Defense” (1 John 2:1) before the Father.
Therefore by the merits of Christ believers are free from every charge (Rom. 8:33). In Christ the accused are unaccused and the condemned are freed.

God’s response to this hostility is to accomplish reconciliation, an act only he could accomplish. The use of the verb apokatallassō (“to reconcile”; Col. 1:22) forms a clear link between what has been said in the preceding section (note the use of the same verb in v. 20) and this passage, and it is clear that the theme of reconciliation is crucial to understanding the change of situation the Colossians have experienced. Whereas the verb katallassō is used several times in Romans and 1 and 2 Corinthians, the compound verb apokatallassō is found only in Ephesians 2:16 and Colossians 1:20 and 22.

The Greek word used here, apokatallassō, refers to the act of restoring a relationship to harmony.
The purpose of Christ’s death on the cross was to bring all things created by Christ and for Christ (Col 1:16) into harmonious relationship.
The believers’ reconciliation has been accomplished “in [Christ’s] body of flesh by his death.”
The Greek phrase here employs two words that might be used to describe someone’s body.
The word sōma is used eight times in various sections of Colossians (1:18, 22, 24; 2:11, 17, 19, 23; 3:15) with a number of different nuances.
For example, in Colossians 1:18 it was used figuratively, in a way similar to 1 Corinthians 12:13, 27.
Here in Colossians 1:22, however, it refers to Jesus’ physical body.
But this term, which might have stood on its own, is combined with the term sarx (“flesh”), which emphasizes its frailty and vulnerability (though not, in this case, its sin).
The key matter relating to Christ’s body here is his death, giving the sense of his “earthly body … subject to death.”
The use of dia followed by the genitive case indicates means: reconciliation comes through Christ’s death.

(Gnosticism Context)

Christ was not an angel or a nonphysical being; He had a body, and He endured suffering and death in His body.
By emphasizing Christ’s physical body, Paul was combatting early gnostic-like influences that could have been at work in Colossae.
Gnostics emphasized spiritual, nonmaterial reality over the material world, prompting some people to deny that Christ had a physical body.
Gnostics wrongly considered material reality to be evil and sought to escape it through abstaining from worldly comforts and pleasures.
While fully developed Gnosticism postdates the NT, the beliefs Paul seems to be addressing here resemble later gnostic thought.
God the Son has brought us back to God the Father.
(The Hope of the Gospel is that Jesus Christ has made peace with God a reality.)

This act of reconciliation accomplished through Christ’s death was not without purpose. The purpose is expressed using an infinitive plus adjectives: “to present you holy and blameless … before him.” Note the recurrence of the adjective hagiois, which was previously used in 1:2, 4, and 12. There the emphasis was on the believers’ status as saints, “holy ones,” definitively set apart for God. In this verse, however, the emphasis shifts to a future hope: that the purpose God is working out in the lives of the Colossians will be brought to completion (cf. Phil. 1:6) and the Colossian Christians will be brought to the point of moral perfection.

Holy describes belonging to or being set apart for God.
The Colossians cannot claim responsibility for their status before God; no human tradition or rule made them holy.
Rather, Christ’s work of reconciliation brought them into relationship with God, making them holy.
Since believers belong to God, they bear His image (3:10), which enables them to live out God’s command to holiness.

3. Peace Remains Only in Christ

Colossians 1:23 (ESV)
23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

The conditional particle (“if”) should be read as indicating a real condition. Paul is not engaging in theological speculation regarding whether a true believer is able to fall away. He is simply warning believers not to fall away! The impact of Paul’s words are well summed up by J. I. Packer: “The only proof of past conversion is present convertedness.”

This reconciliation in Christ comes only by an abiding faith—if you continue in your faith.
The Colossians had a settled faith—established (i.e., “grounded” like a building on a strong foundation) and firm (hedraioi, “seated or settled”; 1 Cor. 7:37; 15:58), so Paul did not doubt that they would continue.
In fact he spoke of the hope (confident expectation) which this gospel of reconciliation provides not only to them but also to the whole world—to every creature under heaven.

Paul seems to be acknowledging that the Colossians are at a crossroads. He charges them to continue trusting in Christ and living out the gospel message. However, they must refuse to observe the rules and traditions of false teachings, which threaten to lead them in a different direction. They must remember that faith in Christ is not simply a way of entering God’s kingdom—it is the way of life within the kingdom (Hab 2:4; Rom 1:17).

Romans 5:1–11 (ESV)
1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,
4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,
5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—
8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
God the Son is God the Way
(We begin this journey, continue this journey, and finish this journey in Christ)

(Response)

(Invite Worship Team)

(All My Bills Paid Illustration)

You bring me a large file full of bills, and you say to me, “Are these bills not against you?”
I answer, “No doubt they are all correct in every item, and they might take me many a month to examine.”
You ask me, “Can you pay them?”
“No, and I do not need to try.”
“But do they not trouble you?”
“No; I can make a pillow of them if that is all, and sleep despite their number and greatness.”
You are wonderstruck to think that I should have such a mass of bills and take the matter so coolly. I ask you to take off these bills from the file one by one, and as you do so you see that they are all receipted. There is a red mark at the bottom of every one. Who troubles himself about a bill when it is paid? “But did you pay those debts?”
“No, not I: I have not paid a penny.”
“Did you not pay part of them?”
“Not I. I never contributed a rusty farthing toward them.”
“Did you not offer a composition?”
“No, not a farthing in the pound.”
“Yet you are perfectly easy.”
“Yes, because he who bore my sins in his own body on the tree took all my debts and paid them for me, and now I am dead to those debts. They have no power over me. I am dead to my sins; Christ suffered instead of me. I have nothing to do with them. They are gone as much as if they had never been committed.”
Charles Spurgeon, 300 Sermon Illustrations from Charles Spurgeon, ed. Elliot Ritzema and Lynnea Smoyer (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2017).
300 Quotations for Preachers from the Reformation Christ Has Given His Victory to Us

Christ’s victory … is the overcoming of the law, of sin, our flesh, the world, the devil, death, hell and all evils; and this his victory he has given to us. Although, then, these tyrants and these enemies of ours accuse us and make us afraid, yet they cannot drive us to despair, nor condemn us; for Christ, whom God the Father has raised up from the dead, is our righteousness and victory.

MARTIN LUTHER

(Closing Tension)

No Christ, No Peace, No Victory
Peace With God Is Because of Christ
Peace Remains Only In Christ

(Response Card)

1. Would you like to become a believer in Jesus Christ? (Yes/No/Already Am)
2. How are you hostile towards God? (Blank Lines)
3. How have you experienced the Peace of God in Christ (Blank Lines)
4. How are you relying on Christ for your peace in this moment? (Blank Lines)
5. How do you need to respond to the preached Word today? (Blank Lines)
6. Do you have any prayer needs today? (Blank Lines)

(Closing)

(Give Response Card instructions, etc.)
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