Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Point #1

Colossians 2:6; John 1:12-13; Ephesians 3:11; Philippians 2:9-11; Hebrews 13:8

So then - in light of all that I’ve said - because you are so ordered and your faith is so strong you are proving what we know about you through the testimony of Epaphras.

That you have received Christ Jesus as Lord.

This is the only place in all of Scripture that this phrase is uttered.

Receive Christ Jesus as Lord.

This is an interesting turn of phrase that really has been replaced in our modern era with the more amiable sounding phrase “accept Christ Jesus”.

And in substituting one word for another we’ve really done a disservice to those we’ve witnessed to, to the Church and more importantly to Christ Himself.

You see

There is a significant difference between receiving something and accepting it.

This is a great time of year.

Not only are we only a few days away from spring - despite the current weather conditions - we’re also only a few days away from some momentous moments in the lives of people all around the nation.

No I’m not talking about tax refund day - although that is a nice day for anyone who receives one.

I’m talking about the letters that are either now being mailed or are just about to be mailed that let high school students know of their acceptance into college.

Those are very important and joyful letters - but not a single student would say that they accepted the school but that they were accepted by the school.

Another example is the information that is soon to go out regarding those members of the Navy who are eligible for the Chief’s Board.

Later in July or early August they will find out whether they have been accepted into that august body of military leadership.

But even as arrogant or self-confident as some of those Sailors might be they would never say that they accepted the Chief’s Mess but that the Mess accepted them.

But that doesn’t diminish the benefits that are bestowed on the recipients.

For those who are in Christ and in receipt of Him John tells us what those benefits are.

The issue is one of a greater accepting the lesser.

The greater being the school or the Chief’s Mess and the lesser being the student or sailor.

The greater being Christ and the lesser being the sinner.

The greater doesn’t need the acceptance of the lesser - the lesser needs to receive something from the greater to help further him in life.

The analogy falls apart a little bit because the students or those sailors have to demonstrate some measure of worth in order to be accepted by the school or organization but when it comes to salvation it is the sovereign will of Christ that is the determinant factor in who is accepted and who isn’t.

From the Baptist Faith and Message

“Election is the gracious purpose of God, according to which He regenerates, justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies sinners.

It is consistent with the free agency of man, and comprehends all the means in connection with the end.

It is the glorious display of God's sovereign goodness, and is infinitely wise, holy, and unchangeable.”

This doesn’t alleviate us from the responsibility of evangelism though - we may not be responsible for someone being saved because it is God’s sovereign will but we also have no idea who God has or hasn’t decreed and so we still should reach out to everyone and leave it in His hands.

Pursuant to this last week I challenged each of you to identify two people - one person outside the church for whom you commit to praying and seeking to share the Gospel and one person inside the church that you will commit to discipling and helping them grow further in their faith.

And let me say this loud and clear - there are some here in this room who say that they accepted Jesus when what they really mean is that they received Him.

They rightly understood their sin, the fact that they stood condemned and that the only way for them to be saved was for them to throw themselves at Jesus feet - much like the leper in Mark 1 does - and say if you are willing you can make me clean.

But there may also be some here who think that Jesus needed their acceptance - like the old picture that has been given of Revelation 3:20 that Jesus is standing at the door of the sinners heart and he’s knocking like some sort of beggar and when the door doesn’t open to Him He just moves on to another door.

And it is that belief that has caused so much mischief and problems in the church world today - it’s really that belief that can’t stomach the next phrase that Paul uses.

See Paul doesn’t say here that we are to receive Christ Jesus as our Savior.

It’s easy for us to say that - just about anyone can and is willing to say that.

Jesus wants to pay for my sins - that’s great news.

I’ll be happy to let Him do that.

In fact if that was the Christian message there would be on offense to the Gospel.

We live in the Midelome housing complex over by University High School.

Out my back window or off my back porch I can look out over Pines South Cemetery and see the Mormon complex that is out on 27 just past Albertsons.

It’s a heart breaking site to me and every time I look at it I pray that God closes it down.

But I know one other thing about that complex - I could leave here and drive over there and if they let me get into their pulpit I could bring the message to them that they could receive Jesus Christ as Savior and they would be glad to hear it.

The same thing with any Catholic church or Jehovah’s Witness Hall.

We’re happy to accept Him as our Savior - but Paul doesn’t leave us there and we can’t leave people there either.

Paul says that we receive Jesus Christ as Lord.

And this is a sticking point.

We don’t want Him to be our Lord.

We’re willing to accept Him as our Savior because it doesn’t really require that much of a change from us.

- He pays for our sins and we get a blank check to live however we choose knowing that our sins are paid for.

But the Christian life doesn’t work like that.

See Christ died to be our Savior but He rose from the dead to be our Lord.

In fact if all He was meant to be was our Savior there really was no requirement for Him to rise from the dead at all.

He could have just stayed dead.

After all Scripture says that the shedding of blood is required for the remission of sins - it doesn’t say that the sacrifice has to rise from the dead afterward.

But Christ was no mere simple sacrifice and while the forgiveness of sins was certainly in view when He went to the cross there was something more.

He was proclaiming His lordship over all of creation, over sin and over death, and it was for that purpose that Paul would refer to in Ephesians 3:11

and that He would be given a new name after He had accomplished all that He had come for - the name of Lord

Paul acknowledges that this is the condition of the Colossian church as he says that they have received Him in this way and now he reiterates to them - continue to live in Him.

This is the first of five interesting participles that Paul uses in this passage because the verb “continue to live” is in the present active form - meaning that it is a continuous action that is accomplished by the person to whom the command is being given.

Paul is essentially saying to the Colossians “stay where you are.”

don’t move, don’t waiver, don’t wander off.

You know it’s interesting that this verse is sandwiched between two assertions from Paul to not be captured by the current philosophies or reasonable ideas of the day.

For 2,000 years the Christian message has remained more or less the same.

Yes there were the dark ages where we almost lost the Gospel that necessitated the Reformation and the reclamation of the core tenets of the truth but even the existence of men who were willing to stand up for those beliefs prove that those truths were still available and still being taught unchanged.

Yet as you look at the annals of human history worldviews and mindsets have changed at an almost dizzying pace over the last 2000 years.

In the days when Paul was writing there were the stoics and the epicureans, then there were various philosophies during the middle ages until the Rennaisance and then the Enlightenment which has led to in recent years modernism, humanism and now post-modernism.

Each one was a reaction to the one before it - modernism and post-modernism.

Modernism was the idea that humans could capitalize on their potential and create and examine the facts to make things better.

Post-modernism has given rise to the idea that there is no absolute truth and that truth is basically like beauty, in the eye of the beholder.

Each of these philosophies built on and contradicted one another and yet for 2000 years Biblical Christianity has remained the same.

And this is because

At its root Christianity is more about a person than it is about an ideology.

The person never changes and so the belief never changes.

So Paul could very confidently advise his readers to stay where you are and its why we can still “continue to live in Him”.

Paul tells his readers, and by extension us, this and then he says and here’s how.

Point #2

Colossians 2:7a; Psalm 1:1-3; John 15:4-5; Romans 11:24; 1 Peter 2:4-6; Ephesians 2:20-21;

Having just given an active command to live in Him, Paul makes three statements that on the surface seem to build on his assertion that it is up to us to “continue to live in Him”.

But each of these statements is in the passive voice meaning that the subject of the verb (us) is being acted upon by an outside force (God) to accomplish the actions called for by the verb.

He’s going to give three examples - one from agriculture, one from construction and the third from the commercial world to demonstrate the totality of our Christian life.

He starts off saying “being rooted”.

This verb is not only passive but it is also in the perfect tense - meaning it is an action that has been completed.

I don’t normally like to give a lot of the grammar because it can sometimes seem dry but this is so beautiful that I really can’t help but explain this to you in these terms because in our English translations we miss the beauty of all that Paul is saying here.

He says that we have been rooted in Christ.

There is a sense in which this is an echo of Psalm 1

But there’s more to this than simply being planted beside the stream - what Paul is saying is that we are actually rooted IN Christ.

This is what Christ taught His disciples about the vine and the branches.

In John 15 Christ taught them

Picking up on this in his epistle to the Romans Paul would expand the vine analogy even further to include the Gentiles

This is a completed action - if you have received Christ as Lord you are rooted in Him.

You can’t do it for yourself - but He willingly makes you a part of His very body when you receive Him as Lord.

This is complete assurance right here - we are rooted in Christ and nothing can take us out of Him.

If you are here this morning and you’re doubting our wavering in your faith wondering if you are really saved or are really a Christian take comfort in these two words - being rooted.

You are rooted in Christ, the Father has planted you there and nothing can take you out.

And we are not merely rooted but

We are being built up.

Here, Paul goes back to the present tense highlighting the fact that this is a continual process in the believers life - that we are constantly being built up into something.