5 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for a man to humble himself?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
and for lying on sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the LORD ?
6 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
Isaiah 58 : 5-7
The Bible was written, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, by people often familiar with oppression. God is by no means indifferent to injustice and the plight of the oppressed.
He is angry about injustice and oppression and so should we be.
The current joke of an election in Zimbabwe should make your blood boil!!
I am privileged to count a number of Zimbabweans among my friends and knowing them to be such wonderful, generous people makes the crimes of the current Zimbabwean government all the more infuriating.
I guess the question for Christians is how to respond to this kind of obvious oppression?
1) We need to pray, with psalmist -
Arise, O LORD!
Deliver me, O my God!
Strike all my enemies on the jaw;
break the teeth of the wicked.
Psalm 3 : 7
Break the teeth in the mouths of the wicked – remove their power. We know a day is coming when, justice will flow like a river. Until that day we wait.
2) As well as praying and to inform our prayers and action we must take the lead form those living under the oppressive regime. We have an unfortunate tendency to become very cerebral in our response people actually experiencing these things are often far more pragmatic. What are the Christians in Zimbabwe saying and more importantly what is God saying to them?
The answer is both surprising and humbling – their reaction over the past few years has been that God has allowed all this that we see now and have seen for years now for his glory. The church has grown in faith and swelled numerically, lives are being changed, transformed in the midst of this serious oppression.
So we pray, believe and stand with all Zimbabweans asking that God will bring a peaceful resolution to this farce – and yes we get angry!! which should fuel our prayers.
One of the primary jobs of a leader is to encourage, literally to bring courage to.
We can often feel that our primary role is to manage the church or to preach the word or administration the finances. All good and worthy!
6 “Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. 7 Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. 8 Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”
Joshua 1 : 6-9
God takes this approach as He leads Joshua into a new role. God believes more of Joshua than Joshua believes of himself – otherwise there would be no need for encouragement Joshua could just get on with the Job.
God takes the same approach with Gideon.
11 The angel of the LORD came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. 12 When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.”
Judges 6: 11-12
Gideon is not behaving like a warrior, it is probable that no-one who knew Gideon would have recognised him from the angel’s description. God saw what no-one else saw and drew Gideon into his destiny, step one here in the passage was to encourage.
Two things are necessary if we are going to follow God’s example to encourage – both come form God
1) Discernment – who are the warriors in waiting
2) Faith which draws that out of those we disciple
It is a Father’s heart that believes for his children. He is looking to see any spark of gifting or talent which he can encourage.
In a world where there are ‘few fathers’ let God’s leaders take up the challenge and encourage!!
I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.
Romans 1 : 16
Easter has come and gone again, and so soon this year!
The resurrection of Jesus is far too amazing and it’s consequences too far reaching to confine it to a once yearly remembrance service.
Here in the developed world we are in real danger of sanitising this astonishing historical fact. In many cases even the church has sought to make this central, vital, structural element of Christianity more palatable. It does this essentially by denying that it ever happened, happy instead to generalise with talk of ‘the risen-ness if Jesus’ or even further to dismiss the whole matter, content instead to talk about rabbits and chicks.
Here’s the thing… If Jesus didn’t physically rise form the dead he is
A) A liar – he prophesied many times that he would rise
B) Unable to conquer death and therefore unable to save me
C) A sinner paying the price for his own sin
D) Dead, with his bones rotting somewhere outside Jerusalem
If churches are going to take on this stance they must consider where it leads. It leads no-where, we would be left with no message and as the apostle Paul points out
12But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. 15More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. 16For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 17And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.
1 Cor 15 :12-19
BUT HE IS….and we can live in the light of his resurrection. We must live and RECON on him being raised, our whole lives rooted and shaped by this man who was dead and is now alive. It means death holds no fear, it means I have an astonishingly powerful friend, it means I can trust all his other promises, it gives meaning and purpose, it is an unshakable anchor for the soul.
We can boast, with Paul, about Jesus raised from death to life and share dayly it that life.
Preaching through Colossians, as with most of Paul’s letters, we are faced with a glorious explanation of the gospel. This has been a great privilege and also huge fun.
Possibly foolishly I suggested if there were questions that arose from our preaching people should raise them. We need to encourage or people to engage personally with scripture. For people to be mature in faith there needs to be a robust ‘searching’ of the texts.
Having preached through chapter 2 and sought to emphasise that our salvation is based on Jesus finished work and not our behaviour I was pleased that the question came back,
‘What about repentance?’
Another way of putting it is
‘What are we going for, grace or righteousness?’
The question is prompted because ‘grace’ is all one sided. God forgives our sin and causes is to be born again based on what Jesus has done and not on any action of our own. Even the ability to respond in faith is a gift. We were dead and have been made alive with Christ.
Repentance is both an event and an attitude – it is a response to the grace of God. The Gospel reminds us that we are sinners in need of a savour repentance is our response to that fact. It opens the way for God to regenerate us. It is also an attitude of heart, the first beatitude tells us that it is the poor in spirit, those who come to God repentant, not full of their own achievements that inherit the Kingdom. This gratutude, if genuine, doesn’t change to self-confidence once we are in that Kingdom.
The answer to the question, then, ‘is it grace, or righteousness?’ is that it’s both. Grace and only grace produces righteousness. I need the power of God to live out a righteous life, that power is given to me in responce to repentance, which it’s self is a gift from God.
11For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. 12It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives
Titus 2 : 11-12
Grace teaches us.
Any fool can see the problems! It takes leadership to find the solutions!
You don’t have to be around church long to hear people identifying problems. In any organisation there are going to be challenges, difficulties and problems.
I remember doing my work experience 30 years ago in a local garage, it was the guy who swept the workshop who seemed to have the most to say about what was wrong with the business.
There was a reason he was sweeping the floor and others running the business!
When we are tempted to grumble it would serve us well if we stopped, prayed for the solution or for those charged with finding the solution before we shared our ‘considered wisdom’ about what was currently wrong with those around us.
The bible tells us to do everything without grumbling or complaining.
for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe
Philippians 2 13-15
We are given a reason why we shouldn’t complain and that is; that it is God who is ultimately working out His will. This doesn’t mean we never try and solve a problem or suggest better ways of doing things. It does remind us that God is busy working both in us and through is, sometimes the demonstration of this is how we react to challenges.
Good leadership neither jumps, angrily on the complainer or rushes to solve the perceived issue. It considers what has been said and looks to God for wisdom. Remember ultimately God’s glory is the aim for those seeing problems and those trying to solve them.
Pioneering, doing something in a given situation, that has not been done before, is one of the greatest challenges for leaders. The challenge is not only to be living this ourselves but persuading others to do the same. It is by definition one of the things leaders should be doing, and it is at least partly because of this there is always resistance to it.
God has called us to tread unworn paths, to go to places and do things that haven’t been done. This is the nature of Jesus commission for his disciples and, in fact, of the gospel it’s self.
8Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Matthew 28
Apart from the physical aspects of going to ‘all nations’ there is the personal pioneering into each new life that is in need of Jesus. For the Christian this idea of pushing back the boundaries of that has been done and indeed what can be done is to be familiar ground. It may well not be comfortable, we do seem to be creatures of habit, but we should recognise it as authentic Christianity.
Those first disciples were asked to leave their nets, leave the familiar and expected and safe. Their lives were well and truly messed up, from the point of view of a carriers counselor or a financial advisor. Yet it seems that, that is exactly what God wanted. Should we be surprised if what he continues to want us to do still flies in the face of human wisdom, not that we seek foolishness (which is actually the description of someone living with no reference to God The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” Psalm 14 1 ) but Godly wisdom, that comes from above and will say, from time to time, follow me! and the go somewhere we weren’t expecting.
Colossians 2 13
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ.
Paul directs us to consider the dead, for that is what we were.
So what is distinctive about dead people?
Dead people -
- Have no opinions
- Make no contributions
- Initiate nothing
- Offer no assistance
- Cannot make choices
You can probably see where we are going here.
There are two ways that Paul defines our death -
- In your sins
- In the uncircumcision of your sinful nature
You are dead, says Paul, because of what you do and because of who you are. The only room for maneuver is to ask the question, which came first?
Does my sin make me a sinner or do I sin because I am a sinner? Does it matter?
Biblically you sin because you are a sinner.
Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
Psalm 51 v 5
It does matter because if I am a sinner due to accumulation of all my actual sins I have some room to argue may case. I’ve not done so many as the next man! My sins are not as bad as hers!
But I don’t because I’m dead.
Paul ends this verse with the glorious gracious truth.
GOD MADE ME ALIVE WITH CHRIST.
Glory
Paul kicks off the main body of his letter with wonderful encouragement.
‘We always thanks God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you’
Colossians 1 v 3
The church in Colossae was a source of thanksgiving for Paul and his apostolic band. Even though he has never visited Colossae – and considering he’s five years from execution and a prisoner in Rome it’s unlikely that he ever will – he still draws great pleasure and encouragement from them.
What a great goal!! To be a church community that others draw encouragement from, even those who don’t get the chance to visit.
It is certainly our hope here at The Community Church, in Honiton that our faith might cause others to trust Jesus and follow him more closely.
I would also make that a personal prayer, for me and my family, that our lives might cause others to trust Jesus more and trust him for more.
We live in a society with few willing to take a spiritual lead, the trend is to go with what’s popular or palatable. People assume no-one really lives a life that honors Jesus which leads to the assumption that all Christians are basically hypocrites.
In the film ‘a few good men’ the point is made that however powerful or influential you become there are basic values of honesty and integrity that should never be violated. The revolution Jesus brings begins in the human heart, extends to the family then the church and on out to a needy world.
Lord, that these words of Paul to the Colossians might be true of us.
Amen
Grace and peace to you from God our Father
Colossians 1 v 2
We can see this introduction, an introduction Paul makes regularly to his readers, as a throw-away line or an unthinking handshake. Nothing could be further from the truth.
We have here as perfect as is possible a condensed summation of the Gospel.
The goal, the problem that needs solving, is peace with God. Man is not born with it, yet it is vital if eternal life is to be obtained and punishment avoided.
Grace is the means that peace is obtained.
It can only be by God’s unmerited favour (grace) that peace is achieved. His death ,resurrection and ascension have secured for us life and life forever. This is a present comfort and a future hope.
To remind people that this is how everything that follows holds together is both gracious and wise.
What is so amazing about Paul’s letters, and all the more amazing considering we don’t have the other half of these conversations, is how relevant they are to us living in the 21st century. The issues raised by Paul as reasons for concern among the Colossians are the same as those facing Christians and churches now.
The Christians in Colossi were being tempted to add requirements, based on behaviour to the gospel.
Colossians 2 v 8
This temptation continues today, people meet God and experience the power of the Holy Spirit but without good teaching can quickly feel they should be doing something more to contribute to their salvation, if they’re really going to make it.
People will always try and add rules to the gospel – rules (religious rules especially) are a way to control people, usually and misguidedly the idea is that religious rules will make people behave better – they don’t.
Paul’s consistent argument is that it is relationship with Jesus that changes behaviour. It’s how the Christian life starts and how it should continue.
Here the Colossians were being berated by fanatical Jews that they needed to keep the Jewish laws as well as believe in Jesus – these laws included rules about food and circumcision.
We don’t face that but I would suggest the rules we can, sometimes unconsciously add to the gospel relate to class. If your church is predominantly middle class people being saved into it who are not middle class can feel that to really be a Christian they should conform to the predominant class and should dress in a certain way, have a new car and watch certain TV shows.
A famous preacher C.J. Mahaney tells the story of his own conversion. Having just met Jesus and experienced being born again came the unexpected religious hit – he was basically told that Christian boys didn’t have long hair and that he should ‘get a hair cut’. This along with a hundred other unspoken religious laws must be guarded against.
We are often so immersed in these issues we miss them entirely – this is usually the way with culture.
Let’s be careful not to load people down with cultural baggage which can rob them of the joy of following Jesus. God does want to change us but he doesn’t do it by waving a finger and tut-tutting at us. Change is born from a grateful heart in close relationship with Jesus.
