Woven in Christ

Woven in Christ Woven in the Word - Colossians 3:16 I collect hobbies. I brew beer, roast coffee, just learned how to make candles. And for a hot second, I started learning how to knit. Which was silly, because let’s be honest: I was never going to stick with that. Learning just the basics of knitting amazed me at how intricate our world is. Did you know that an average adult sweater has over 70,000 stitches in it? You look at the yarn and it’s nothing remarkable. You look at a stitch and think no big deal. But with time, perseverance, skill, and 70,000 stitches, you can make that yarn and those stitches into something far greater than the sum of its parts. Today we are beginning a sermon series called Woven in the Word, based on our theme verse, Colossians 3:16: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” All you have in this verse is the Word and us. Yet, when we are woven in the Word, a glorious picture emerges. Teaching, wisdom, singing, gratitude, relationship, love, richly dwelling in Christ. When we are woven in the Word together, the church comes out looking a lot like Jesus. And that is amazing. For the next 5 weeks, we are going to take a strand of Col. 3:16 and pull on it and see where it takes us. The first words are “let the Word of Christ….” Today’s sermon is called, “Woven in Christ.” We are going to look at the idea of union with Christ and how it informs this verse. 1. The Word in Us St. Paul refers to our union with Christ 216 times in his New Testament writings. “In Christ; with him; one with Christ; in him.” 216 times! Union with Christ is an immensely important doctrine. But I wouldn’t want to give them impression that we are most interested in the idea of it. Our theology is there to describe ​reality​. Philip Graham Ryken describes it this way: “The doctrine of union with Christ teaches that the Holy Spirit joins believers to Jesus by faith, and that by virtue of this spiritual bond we both receive Christ himself and all his benefits.” Union with Christ is a spiritual reality generously given by God and received by faith. It is an incomparable treasure that we ought to prize above all others. What does it mean to “receive Christ and all his benefits?” The Bible doesn’t give us a dictionary definition, but a series of metaphors for us to mine to more deeply understand our 1 union with Christ. I’d like to take this point to obey Col. 3:16, let the Word of Christ dwell in us richly, and meditate with you on these biblical metaphors. 1) Life The first one comes from Jesus himself in John 15:3-7: Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, & I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. Jesus himself tells us we are united to him like a vine is connected to its branches. If we don’t abide, remain, stay, hold tight to Christ, then we wither up and die. But in Christ, we have l​ ife​. Receiving Christ and his benefits means first receiving spiritual life. Gospel means good news, but to receive it, we have to admit to bad news first. The bad news is I’m dead. Without Christ, I’m a dead branch. Spiritually, I have no life in me. I can only get life if I’m connected to the vine. In receiving Christ, God does a miracle in us by the Holy Spirit, the miracle of regeneration. Dead people can’t believe in Christ; only live ones can. Regeneration is when God gives us his own life through Christ to make us alive by faith in him. It is mysterious, miraculous, and we could go on looking into it. But the first thing we receive in our union with Christ is life itself. Praise God! He gives us LIFE! Jesus Christ received death on our behalf so that he could give us life. Praise him! 2) Love Ephesians 5:25-27, 31-32 gives us our next metaphor: Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.… Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. The Apostle Paul draws on the most intimate, loving relationship humans can experience and says, “union with Christ is like that.” In marriage, you are exposed, your secrets are out, you know and are known by the other. And the beauty of marriage is that, even though that person 2 knows what you look like naked and what you smell like on a hot day, they still accept you. Welcome you. Love you. Receiving Christ and his benefits means secondly, receiving his ​love​. It’s one thing to be loved by a spouse or a friend. It’s another thing to be loved by God. Our human relationships will always be tainted by selfishness. Reticence. Insecurity. Shame. God’s love in Christ knows none of these things. His love is top shelf, pure, 100 proof. It is never adulterated, filtered or watered down. God is love, and in union with Christ we are inseparably married to love himself. Praise God! He gives us his love in Christ! 3) Presence Ephesians 2:19–22 is the last union with Christ metaphor we will look at today: So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. St. Paul is mixing up his metaphors here, and I love it. He says we are members of God’s household; also, we’re the house. I’m trying to imagine my children growing to giant proportion so that they can both be members of my household and the house in which I live at the same time. It’s a funny picture. But that is what this is saying: we live with God and he lives with us. Receiving Christ and his benefits means lastly, receiving his ​presence​. In our union with Christ, there is no way to get away from him. We live IN HIM. He lives IN US by the power of his Holy Spirit. We are his house! We live in his house! God is with us and will never leave us or forsake us. Neither height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord! If you are in Christ, you may feel lonely. But you will NEVER be alone again. God’s presence is with you always because you are united to Christ! These are radical, transformative truths! We were dead, but now we’re alive in Christ! We were alienated from God, but now we’re drawn into the intimate embrace of his eternal love! We were spiritually alone and without hope, but now we are united to him, his people, and will be forever blessed with his presence! Union with Christ may be the brightest shining star in the universe of God’s grace. It’s the sun in the gospel solar system, the brightest shining jewel in God’s crown of redemption. God’s grace unites us to Christ Jesus. And ANYONE can come to Jesus. But no one who comes can stay the same. Grace changes everything because grace unites us to Christ. 3 Are you united to Christ? Have you put your faith in him? If you’re here today and you aren’t sure you believe in Christ––or you’re sure that you don’t––I pray you would come to know God’s life, love, and presence in Christ. I pray you would open yourself to God and all his joy, peace and blessing. We won’t hard sell you and we won’t try to change you. As a church, all we want is to show you Jesus. We let him do the changing. Do you believe he is the Son of God who died to save you from sin and death? If you believe, you are united to him! You can’t believe and sprinkle a little Jesus on the main course of your life. By faith his life is now yours, his love is yours, his presence is with you forever. Jesus won’t let you stay the same. Let his grace change everything for you! [​Pray here???​] 2. Worship From Us During the Civil War, as the Union marched south to defeat the Confederacy, Abraham Lincoln made a visit to Richmond, VA, the Confederate capital. It was a dangerous trip; at any point an embittered southerner could have taken a shot at the president. But he went anyway. Upon entering the city, a small group of black laborers surrounded him, shouting things like, “Bless the Lord! There is the great Messiah! Glory Hallelujah!” They began to kneel before Lincoln, but he responded, “Don’t kneel to me, that is not right. You must kneel to God only, and thank him for the liberty you will hereafter enjoy.” Why did those freed slaves kneel to Lincoln? Why did they shout and praise him? Because something had fundamentally changed! They were slaves, but now they were free! Out of that change came praise, joy, worship. That should be us in Christ! In Christ, something far greater than earthly freedom has changed in us. T ​ he Word in us should lead to worship from us​. Look again at Colossians 3:16: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” Christ in us produces a new life in the Christian community. A life of joy and worship. A life of honesty; singing; gratitude; relationship. That new, changed life is a living sacrifice of worship to our gracious God! Shortly after the freed slaves fell at Lincoln’s feet, he went back to Washington. But in Christ, God is with us by the Spirit! He invites us to make our home with him, like those slaves going back to the White House with the president and sleeping down the hall for the rest of their lives! 4 That is who we are in Christ; freed slaves, living in his glorious house, enjoying a life and an intimate love and a gracious presence we could never have earned. It’s precisely what Colossians 3:1–4 is saying: If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Do you know what these verses are saying? All the things in this world that distract us and rob us of true joy aren’t as REAL as our union with Christ! We have DIED to this world! Our life is hidden with Christ in God. Our real life, our real home, our real Father, our true love are all in heaven. The things in this world are all shadow and mist compared to the solid, sure promise of our Creator and Redeemer. The things in our lives that distract and spoil our worship are like specks of dust floating in the air compared to the all-surpassing treasure of our union with Christ! The Word––Jesus Christ Himself––is IN us!!! And the Word being in us should evoke worship from us. How do we remember these things? How do we live as if this world is all shadow and compared to our true home in heaven? How do I live out of the spiritual reality that I am united with Christ even now, even though he is seated at the right hand of God? This is how you remember. Here. The church, the people of God, the community of the redeemed. Because, you see, union with Christ CANNOT be an individualistic thing. It’s impossible. For to be united to Christ IS to be united with each other. That’s why Col. 3:16 says all it does. Teach and admonish. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Express your gratitude to God with and for one another. Sounds like how the church is supposed to be. We aren’t here for tradition or external religion. We're here for Jesus. We’re here to live out our union with Christ together. We’re here to be woven in Christ, woven in the Word, woven together as the church. Because we haven’t been invited to some White House, the seat of a national power that will be here today and gone tomorrow. No, we’ve been invited by King Jesus himself to the heavenly Jerusalem. Not only someday in the future, but we are with him even now. Because we are united to him by grace, because he has given us his life and his love, he will be present with us always. 5