A Life Worthy of God

“A Life Worthy of God” 28 April 2018 Ithaca Presbyterian Church | Jayesh Naran | Colossians 1:1-14 Passage: 1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, 2 To God’s holy people in Colossae, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ: Grace and peace to you from God our Father. 3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people— 5 the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel 6 that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace. 7 You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, 8 and who also told us of your love in the Spirit. 9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, 10 so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, 12 and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. MAIN POINT: Because of the gospel of Jesus Christ, we can live lives that are pleasing to God. Point 1: The foundation on which to build a life pleasing to God (the gospel provides the foundation on which a life pleasing to God is built). Point 2: How to live a life pleasing to God (to live a life pleasing to God, you need a knowledge of God’s will, that comes through the Spirit). Point 3: What a life pleasing to God looks like (bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened to endure, and giving joyful thanks) I want to open this morning with a difficult and maybe personal question: • Do you think that you live a life that is worthy of God? Or let me ask this question another way: • Do you think that you live a life that is pleasing to God in every way? It’s a confronting question – I find it a confronting question – and I wonder what goes through your mind as you think about that question? Do you gravitate towards saying yes, or do you gravitate towards saying no? Or maybe, do you think the question is irrelevant? Do you think that God looks down at you and your life with a big smile on his face, or with a big frown? Or do you think that God doesn’t really care? The reason I ask this question is because this morning we’re starting a new seven-part series in the book of Colossians, and we’re calling the series, A Life Worthy of God. At the beginning of the letter, the Apostle Paul prays for the Colossians, and in chapter 1 verses 9 and 10, he says, “we continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will…etc…so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way.” Paul seems to think that it’s possible to live a life worthy of God, a life that is pleasing to God in every way, and Paul’s basic point throughout this letter is that everything you need to live a life worthy of God and pleasing to God is in Christ. You don’t need to look elsewhere for more resources, or power, or direction, or wisdom; everything you need is in Christ. And so as we work through this letter over the next six weeks, we’re going to revisit this general theme again and again; everything you need to live a life pleasing to God is in Christ. But this week, as we look at the first 14 verses of this letter, we’re just going to focus simply on the fact that it is possible to live a life worthy of God. That’s a large part of Paul’s purpose in writing these verses. And this topic is really important for us to tackle as a church, because there are huge misconceptions and misunderstandings in this area. • Some people think the key to living a life pleasing to God is the law, God’s rules in the Old Testament, and that to please God, we just need to try harder to obey the law. But that route is a huge mistake, and the Apostle Paul himself spills a lot of ink in both his letters to Rome and Galatia explaining why the approach of relying on the law for righteousness is fundamentally flawed. • But then there are other people who think that Jesus’ death on the cross and the forgiveness we have in him means that our lives are automatically pleasing to God irrespective of how we live. That route is also a huge mistake. Nowhere in his letters does Paul make the suggestion that somehow Jesus’ death on the cross somehow excuses us from living good and righteous lives. Those are the two main errors that people fall into, but Paul – in these verses that we are looking at this morning – carefully avoids both those errors. In this passage, Paul praises the Colossians for their faith, love, and hope; and he explains that he is praying for them so that they might live a life worthy of God. And as he does this, he communicates three things: 1) the foundation on which to build a life worthy of God, 2) the means by which we can live a life worthy of God, and finally, 3) the characteristics of a life worthy of God. And we’re going to look those three things this morning, so if you’ve got a Bible there, make sure it’s open at Colossians 1 on page X, or you can follow along on the screen. Firstly, the foundation on which to build a life worthy of God. Notice the first thing that Paul writes in this letter, after his greetings in the first couple verses. He informs the Colossian Christians that he and his fellow workers are always thankful to God when they pray for them. Why are they so thankful? Because their lives are built on a solid foundation. You can see what that solid foundation looks like in verses 3-5. Have a look: 3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people— Paul is so thankful to God that the Colossians’ are solid Christians: which means, their lives are built on the pillars of faith in Jesus Christ, and a love for God’s people. And where does this faith and love they have come from? It comes from a third pillar, which is the hope that they have. Verse 5: 5 the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven… What’s this hope in heaven they have, and where does it come from? Well, Paul writes at the end of verse 5 that the hope that they have comes from the gospel; the true message of the gospel, which, have a look at verse 6, “had come to them and was bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world, just as it had been doing in and among them since the day they heard it and truly understood God’s grace.” And the Colossians had heard this gospel from, verse 7, one of Paul’s fellow workers, Epaphras, “our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf.” The gospel, you see, is a message of hope; it’s a message of hope that spreads and grows like a vine, and it transforms the lives of the people who hear it and accept it. And the message of hope is this: that even though we as human beings are unworthy of God, God is nevertheless inviting anybody and everybody – unworthy as they may be – into his holy family, into the kingdom of his Son Jesus. And God has picked up the tab as it were, he has paid the huge price necessary to make it happen, through the sacrificial death of his Son on the Cross. This is the message of hope that the Colossians heard and received, the message of hope that was bearing fruit and growing in them, the message of hope that caused them to place their faith in Jesus and to love God’s people, and the message that led them to truly understand God’s grace. It’s the gospel, and the gospel is the only foundation on which to build a life that is worthy of God. Now let’s just pause there and ask the question why. Why is it that if we are to live lives worthy of God, they must be built on the foundation of the gospel? Because the truth is that on your own, you can’t live a life worthy of God, it’s impossible. No matter how hard you try, in your own strength, you’ll never be good enough to earn God’s favour, you’ll never be able to live a life worthy of God, because your attempts will always be flawed: because of sin, you will always have mixed motives, and everything you do will be tainted in some way. But by building your life on the gospel, the message of hope that causes you to put your faith in Christ, for the first time, by virtue of the fact that you are connected to Jesus, you are able to live a life that is worthy of God and pleasing to him in every way. By being connected to Christ, you have been given all the resources and power you need in order to live a life worthy of God. Now that’s all a bit abstract, so let me give you an illustration to help explain all of this. I don’t know if you’re familiar with Mark Twain’s novel, The Prince and the Pauper. In the novel, there’s a pauper, Tom Canty, who lives with his abusive father in Offal Court off Pudding Lane, and he meets Prince Edward, the son of Henry VIII, and they realise that they look very similar and that they were born on the same day, and so the two boys decide to swap places temporarily, to see how the other one lives. So here’s Tom Canty, a pauper, a nobody with no hope of royalty, suddenly acting and being treated like he is the Prince of England. And if you’re familiar with the story, you know how the rest goes. Now Tom Canty’s experience is a bit like ours with Jesus Christ. We’re all like paupers, living in Offal Court off Pudding Lane, we’re not worthy to live in the royal palace and there’s nothing we can do in terms of our behaviour that will somehow earn us the right to live in the royal palace with the king. But then one day, the Prince, Jesus Christ comes and tells us, you can have my spot, and I will take yours. I’ll take the cross, you take the crown. And suddenly, we’ve found ourselves in a situation which we have not worked for or earned, we’re living in the royal palace, washed and clean for the first time in our lives, wearing royal clothes that are not ours, and crowns that do not belong to us. We’ve suddenly been handed on a silver platter everything we need in order to be worthy of God. That’s what happens when you become a Christian, that’s the gospel, that’s the message of hope. When you put your faith in Jesus Christ, when you are connected to him, there’s an extraordinary swap that takes place. Jesus takes your sin, and you take his riches. This is called grace, it’s a free gift of God, it’s something that is freely given to you, not something that you earn. That’s what Paul is talking about in verse 6 when he tells the Colossians that when they heard the message of hope, they truly understood God’s grace. This is the grace he is talking about, and this is why if you want to live a life that is worthy of God, you must build your life on the foundation of this message of hope, the foundation of the gospel, the foundation of grace. Because you don’t have any hope of living a life worthy of God otherwise. So that’s the first point Paul makes: the foundation on which to build a life worthy of God is the gospel. Now, just to hammer this point all the way home, notice what Paul then says in verse 9. 9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. This comment might seem a bit strange. Paul has just been describing how well the Colossians have been going, they’re solid Christians, they’ve got faith and love, built on the hope of the gospel. Paul’s heard a glowing report about them from Epaphras, who told them the gospel in the first place. So why would Paul then say, ever since we heard about you, we’ve not stopped praying for you? Why wouldn’t Paul instead say, “ever since we heard about you, we decided to stop praying for you, because Epaphras has told us that you’ve made it. You’ve heard the gospel, you’ve believed it, you love God’s people, that’s great, mission accomplished, go have a happy life, live long and prosper. We’re now going to focus our efforts on some other people who need to hear the gospel.” Why wouldn’t Paul say something like that? The reason Paul had kept praying and had not stopped praying was because Paul knew that there was still much work to be done. The foundation of the gospel had been laid, yes, and now there was work to be done on that foundation. And sometimes as Christians, we can forget that, and find ourselves living unproductive, unfruitful lives. I’ve heard the gospel, I’ve believed the gospel, mission accomplished, I don’t have to do anything else. So I’m just going to put up my feet, sip piña coladas, and wait for Jesus to return. That kind of attitude is wrong. Here’s why it’s wrong. Going back to the Prince and the Pauper illustration, how do you think Tom Canty the pauper acted after he was made a prince? He didn’t act and behave like a pauper any more, he acted like a prince. He acted in line with his new identity; worthy of the palace he had found himself in. It would be inappropriate for him to act in a manner that was incongruent with who he was. And it’s the same for us as Christians. We are called to live lives worthy of the calling we have received. That’s how Paul puts it in Ephesians 4:1. Listen to what he says: “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.” Let me give you another illustration to explain this. Imagine if you had been graciously given a high paying job that you didn’t deserve, a job that you were seriously underqualified for; but the reason you got the job is because the boss really likes you, he really wants you in particular to work for him, and he’s willing to pay whatever it costs to train you up. What are you going to do? Are you going to sit on your backside and say, “I don’t really know how to do this job, but the boss really likes me and I think he’ll just keep paying me irrespective of what I do, so I’m going to put in minimum effort.” Is that what you would do? Or would you instead, in gratitude to the boss who likes you, put in lots of effort, and work hard, and go to lots of training courses and seminars, so that you might live up to job title you’ve been graciously given? Surely, if you fully understood the grace that you had been shown, and you were truly thankful to your boss, you would pick option 2, and you would work hard to live up to your job title. Right? How much more then, do you think that we as Christians ought to strive to live up to – not a job title – but the cosmic title of child of God – if we indeed understand the grace that has been shown to us, and are thankful for it? That’s why Paul keeps praying for the Colossians. He keeps praying for them because there’s still lots more work to be done. Yes, they’ve accepted the gospel and they’ve received God’s grace, and now he wants them to live up to it. He wants them to live lives worthy of God. And so he explains to them, the second point, the means by which they can live lives worthy of God. Have a look at verses 9-10: 9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, 10 so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way… What the Colossians need in order to live lives worthy of God, and what Paul keeps asking God to fill them with, is a knowledge of God’s will. This is not the kind of the knowledge that helps you to choose which cereal God wants you to eat in the morning. This is knowing how God wants you to act and behave generally, in all kinds of situations. And this kind of knowledge comes from the wisdom and understanding that the Holy Spirit provides, you can see that in verse 9 – “through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives.” Once you know how God wants you to live, then you have what you need to live a life worthy of God. And this is something that comes with maturity. A mature Christian – doesn’t matter how old they are – is someone who is always praying, “Lord, give me wisdom and understanding, show me by your Holy Spirit how you want me to live, and convict me of my sin. Show me the parts of my life that are displeasing and dishonouring to you so that I can change and guide me to make choices and decisions that are honouring to you.” That’s how a mature Christian regularly prays for themselves. Do you ever pray prayers like that? The great news is, you can start praying like that tomorrow. If there’s one prayer God is quick to answer, it’s the prayer for wisdom. So pray for it, and pray for it regularly. Because a knowledge of God’s will which comes from the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives is the means by which we can live lives worthy of God and pleasing to him. That’s the second point. So we’ve covered the foundation on which to live a life pleasing to God, the means by which we can live a life worthy of God, and now let’s look at what Paul considers to be the characteristics of a life that is worthy of God. Look at verses 10-12. 10 so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, 12 and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. There are four things Paul mentions there that characterise a life that is worthy of God: 1. Bearing fruit in every good work 2. Growing in the knowledge of God 3. Being strengthened for endurance and patience 4. And giving joyful thanks. Let’s briefly unpack each of those four things. The first characteristic of a life worthy of God is bearing fruit in every good work, which means, not simply doing good things, but bearing fruit while doing good things, which means, making sure that the good things you do come from a good place. There’s lots of ways in which can do good things. You can do good things in a good way, and you can do good things in a bad way. You can do good things out of the joy in your heart for what Christ has done for you, or you can do good things with bitterness and grumbling in your heart. You can do good things out of a desire to serve Christ, or you can do good things out of a desire to serve yourself. You can do good things out of love for Christ’s people, or you can do good things despite the fact that you hate Christ’s people. Bearing fruit in every good work therefore means living in a way that springs from a desire and a devotion to Christ. The second characteristic of a life worthy of God is growing in the knowledge of God, which means putting in effort to get to know him better. Which is why every Christian ought to be disciplined in reading a bit of the Bible every day, or at least, reading it regularly, because that’s one of the major ways in which you can get to know God better. And if that’s too difficult for you to do on your own, you should read it with other people. Or listen to sermons that explain it clearly. Or read books that explain it clearly. If we are truly appreciative of everything God has done for us, then surely we would put in a bit of effort to get to know this God who loves us so much. The third characteristic of a life worthy of God is being strengthened for endurance and patience. One of the main things we’re called to do as Christians is to suffer for Christ and to endure patiently the hardship that comes with following Jesus. And to do that well, we ought to be constantly strengthening ourselves in the power that God provides. We ought to be putting on the armour of God – the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit – so that when trials and difficulties come, we won’t just get knocked down and blown away. And the fourth and final characteristic of a life worthy of God is giving joyful thanks. A life worthy of God is a life that is filled with constant and joyful thankfulness to God for all that he has given to us in Christ, and in case you’ve forgotten what that was, Paul includes a small reminder in verses 12-14: giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. God has done so many good things for us in Christ, we ought to live lives of deep thankfulness to him in response. So that’s what a life worthy of God looks like and is characterised by: Bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened for endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks. As we close, let me ask you a couple questions, in light of all that we’ve looked at this morning: • Firstly, have you laid the foundation of a life worthy of God? Do you have faith, love, and hope; or in other words, have you accepted the gospel? Have you accepted God’s free offer to become one of his children? If you haven’t made that step and you’d like to, either Ian or myself would love to chat with you and help you to make that step. • Secondly, are growing in your knowledge of God’s will – the means to live a life worthy of God? Are you asking God regularly for wisdom, and for him to show you the sin in your life? • And finally, what does your life look like in terms of the characteristics we just looked at before? Are there areas you need to grow in? I’m certain that all of us here this morning, especially myself, could do a better job at living a life worthy of God, worthy of the calling I have received. The good news is that God still loves us when we aren’t worthy; he still cares for us when we fall short; he still forgives us when we sin; and he desires for us to put our sin to death, and to live righteous lives for our own good, and he wants what’s best for us because he has made us his own children in Christ. So out of deep thankfulness to him, for all that he has done for us, let us strive to live lives worthy of him. Let’s pray.