In an article in The Weekend Australian (July 11-12, 2020) Dr. Greg Sheridan, writing of the cancel culture forces at work within the West, concludes: ‘The West is under profound challenge internally and externally today. The irrational hatred of the West, within the West, is one symptom of a deep malaise…’

So, how can we live in a rapidly changing and troubled world? We need wisdom, understanding, and the strength to persevere that springs from a growing relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

In the opening lines of chapter 2 of his Letter to the young church in Colossae, Paul the Apostle writes of his agonized striving in prayer for the growth and rich quality of his readers’ faith. And in verses 6 and 7 we find keys that unlock the central theme of his letter. He writes: As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving (2:6-7).

God’s people can waver in their faith in troubled times because there is no change in their life, they are not growing in their relationship with Christ, and they have no heartfelt thanks to God, for who he is and what he has done.

So, let me identify three themes in Colossians 2: 6 and 7.

First, As you received Christ… so now live.

Paul expects the lives of God’s people to be shaped by a heartfelt love for God and a genuine neighbor love – the two themes that we find in the Ten Commandments and in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Having received Christ Jesus the Lord we are now to live in him.

We can think of it like this. When Christ moves into our lives there are many things with which he is not comfortable. There’s a lot of cleaning up to be done, repairs and renovation. But, as anyone who has been involved in renovation and repairs knows, it takes longer and costs much more than originally thought. You only have to watch the program ‘Grand Designs’ to see the truth of this.

It’s like this with our lives. It takes a lot longer and costs a lot more to make our lives a place fit for the king. The challenge is to make Christ Lord in all our affairs.

Paul develops examples of this in the second half of his Letter. In chapter 3:5 he writes: Put to death therefore what is earthly in you:…  Toss out of your life what doesn’t fit this new life with Christ. Is it lust or sexual immorality, evil desire or greed? Is it anger or rage, malice or slander? Do you always tell the truth? These things belong to the old self. Put on the new self which is being renewed after the image of its creator.

Second, As you were rooted… be built up;…

With mixed metaphors, one from botany the other from building, Paul stresses the need for growth. He doesn’t want God’s people to be stunted in their relationship with Christ Jesus.

Yet there are many who have accepted Christ – that he died for their sins – but who have never gone any further. Consequently, their faith has shriveled up and they have neither a biblical framework to discern the issues, nor the resources to remain firm in their faith in changing and uncertain times.

So how does growth occur? By focusing on ritual and ceremony at church? By chasing after ecstatic spiritual experiences?  No. A genuine growth in Christ rarely comes to people who are not spending time in the Scriptures. And this can true of churches. As ceremony increases, sermons become shorter.

There are times when we’re not motivated to dig deeper into the Scriptures. But sometimes God uses sickness or a crisis in life to awaken us to our need to read the Bible. Sometimes it’s not until we see houses and other trophies of the world for what they are – transient trifles that have a fading and passing splendor – that we see the lasting treasure of God’s truth. And that’s when we begin to grow.

As you were taught… be established in the truth, Paul continues.

For some years a little saying kept me focused on my need for consistent Bible reading: ‘No Bible, no breakfast; no prayer, no paper.’ Yes, the danger with this kind of line is that Bible reading and prayer become a law. But if it is taken as a guide it can be a useful reminder of our need for daily Bible reading and prayer. This is how we can grow in our understanding of God and a richer relationship with him.

And thirdly, …abounding in thanksgiving.

To have a thankful heart is to have a contented heart. How often do we get anxious because thankfulness to God is not part of our psyche. The sense of thankfulness within us is a real measure of our growth in Christ. We can’t get taken up with our own desires and moans and groans for long if a spirit of thankfulness to Christ is an essential part of our daily attitude.

When we know deep down in our heart that Christ Jesus is the Lord, that he is our good shepherd bringing good for us out of all the confusion, frustrations and challenges of life, we will find that, quite surprisingly, we will be able to press on with determination and joy in our hearts.

As you have received Christ… so live – honoring Christ through Godly living. As you were rooted… be built up, and as you were taught… be established in the truth – growing in a rich relationship with God through biblical understanding. And, …abounding in thanksgiving – with heartfelt gratitude to God.

A prayer. Lord of all power and might, the author and giver of all good things, graft in our  hearts the love of your Name, increase in us a true faith, nourish us with all goodness, and so by your mercy keep us; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

With the continued spread of Covid-19, concerns are being raised about the mental health of many who have lost their job, experience loneliness, or have a sense of helplessness – especially young adults. That is the generation that will experience the impact of the pandemic on their lives, not just now, but for years to come.

How can we help people, especially the young, find purpose and hope?

In Colossians 1:27 Paul the Apostle summarizes the essence of God’s gospel: Christ in you, the hope of glory. In the preceding two verses and the subsequent two verses he explains how people come to learn this. Speaking of his own ministry, he says that he was called by God to be a minister to serve God’s people and the wider world by making the word of God fully known.

Effective ministry. God’s plan to reveal himself to the world was not through miracles, but through words – spoken and written. Paul saw that it was his task to communicate God’s self-revelation fully and faithfully. This is important. It tells us that we don’t achieve a deeper insight into the Christian faith by having some mystical experience of Christ. The challenge of effective ministry is to equip people of all ages with an understanding of God’s Word so that they are drawn into a true and vital relationship with God through the Lord Jesus Christ.

An effective ministry on Sundays will help God’s people to read the Bible for themselves. Good preaching will enable God’s people to see from where and how preachers have drawn their teaching. As Paul says, the first task of ministry is to make the Word of God known.

Message of ministry. And so Paul speaks of the content of his ministry. For millennia God had kept the essentials of his plans wrapped in confidentiality. But now, Paul tells us, God has chosen to declare himself. His message is for God’s ancient people, the Jewish people, as well as, surprisingly, the non-Jewish world. Paul’s passion was to draw people to the heart of the gospel: Christ in you, the hope of glory.

There is an amazing simplicity to this. It is the kind of marketing line advertisers dream about creating. It can be summarised in just two phrases: Christ in you, and the hope of glory. On the one hand it is about a present experience, Christ in you; on the other hand, it speaks about a future reality: the hope of glory.

For many people Christianity is little more than a moral rule-book they must struggle to observe, or a creed they must mindlessly recite. Christianity for them is legalistic and dull. However, Paul wants us to understand that at the center of Christianity is a relationship. Christianity is about having Christ in our lives through his Spirit.

Many feel cut off from God— sometimes by feelings of failure or unworthiness, by feelings of ignorance or unbelief, or by their life situations. The great news is that if you are looking for God you don’t have to despair. Something has happened that has made it possible for us to experience supernatural reality in our lives – Christ in you.

And with a present experience of the indwelling of the Spirit of Christ, we also have the hope of glory. The presence of Christ in our lives now is only half the story. It is only a foretaste of something far greater that God has in store for the future. Christianity is not just a present experience but a future hope. Glory is waiting for us, Paul says. The good things that we have tasted of Christ living in us now are but a tiny glimpse of our future experience when we live openly in the presence God. The best is yet to be.

It is important to think this through. There are times when we feel disappointed with the way life treats us. In fact you may be disillusioned with Christianity because of life’s experiences: you had thought that becoming a Christian would solve all your problems. You may have thought that whatever was on your heart, you could put it to God, and await for him to act.

But becoming a Christian does not mean this. Our bodies are still subject to sickness, and jobs are still subject to redundancy. What the gospel message offers us in terms of life here and now is not transformed outward circumstances, but transformed inner spiritual resources – Christ in you.

Outwardly our bodies are wasting away, Paul writes elsewhere. Inwardly we are being renewed, day by day. Yes, the Bible speaks of a better world where there is no pain and frustration, or loneliness and grief. But we need to understand that this is a future world that we perceive by faith, not by sight.

However, the hope of glory is not some vague, wistful, ‘maybe it will happen, maybe it won’t, kind of hope’. It is a sure, confident hope, guaranteed by Jesus’ own resurrection from the dead.

How then can we help the many around us – especially the young generation – who feel they have no hope? We need to care for them and pray for them. We need to look for practical ways our local church can support them. For school-aged children and teens, perhaps through an after-school mentoring program which also has Christian education component. We need to pray that we, together with our churches will be proactive in bringing God’s good news to a troubled generation, so that they too may know, Christ in you, the hope of glory.

A prayer. Lord Christ, eternal Word and Light of the Father’s glory: send your light and your truth so that we may both know and proclaim your word of life, to the glory of God the Father; for you now live and reign, God for all eternity. Amen.

God’s people will sometimes have doubts about their faith, for there is much in life that threatens to undermine our confidence in a God who is good. How can a good God allow the continuing spread of the novel coronavirus, not least amongst the poor?

The only sort of faith that is immune to the silent question, ‘How can a good God allow these things’ is a blind faith, a faith that closes its mind to reality. Real faith has to confront the evil and suffering in the world.

Paul the Apostle in his Letter to the Colossians, speaks of humanity being estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds. For many centuries the western world recognized the existence of God, but in recent decades it has arbitrarily dismissed him together with the notions of heaven and hell, good and evil.

Indeed, back in 2011 Jarvis Cocker in an interview with Decca Aitkenhead commented: “I think basically becoming famous has taken the place of going to heaven in modern society, hasn’t it? That’s the place where your dreams will come true. It’s an act of faith now; they think that’s going to sort things out.”

That said, there are some who define themselves as atheist but who say that only Christianity could have changed society from the brutalities of the Roman Empire to a culture where life has been respected. William Wilberforce, for example, because of his Christian faith, was a leader in the movement that legislated against slavery in Britain in 1833.

But I have to say that the step of faith that says God does not exist, not only ignores the evidence and experience of history it does not provide the solution to the ills of the world. A solution that is outside human invention is needed, because as history shows, no human solution has provided or can provide a just and lasting peace.

Let’s think about this. God could have written the universe off as a fiasco. He could have scrapped it and gone back to the drawing board. If the world was going to go this wrong why did he make it in the first place? That would have been an admission of defeat on God’s part. It would have meant that in some measure he couldn’t allow evil because he knew he couldn’t beat it.

The Bible tells us that from the very beginning of time, God was determined to defeat it. He decided on a much more costly strategy. He wouldn’t abandon this evil and ungrateful world that had rejected him. Rather, he would rescue it. Paul tells us here that when Jesus died on the cross he laid the foundation for a just and lasting peace.

Think of it this way. Suppose there is someone very close to you— a wife or husband, a brother or sister or parent – who profoundly hurts you. They trample over your feelings, ignore you, and have no respect for you. In spite of all your kindness they reject you. But now you see them in deep trouble. If you don’t step in to help them, it will be the end for them. What do you do? You could tell them to go to hell.

But supposing when you consult your feelings, you find within your heart a love that wants to see them restored to your family. What do you do then? You have to find the resources within yourself to absorb all the pain, the injury, and the anger, that boils up within you at the very sight of them, so that you can stretch out your hand and help them.

What we see happening on the cross of Jesus Christ is God, finding a way whereby he can absorb within himself the pain, the injury and the anger, that is rightly within him, when he looks at people like you and me who have hurt him and sinned against him.

And, Paul tells us, we know he succeeded, for the growing community of God’s people is the evidence of this. Because of Jesus’ sacrificial death these people have been reconciled with God and have peace with him. They now stand in his sight holy and unstained before him. John Newton who wrote Amazing Grace could say: I once was lost, but now am found…

Furthermore, the reconciliation Jesus has achieved has implications far beyond men and women. It will embrace the whole of the cosmos. From the time of the events recorded in Genesis 3, the universe has been under judgement. Romans 8:20f tells us that the creation was subjected to futility.

Because of Jesus’ death a day will come when God’s people will experience the joy of standing in the presence of Jesus Christ in all his glory. Indeed, we will find our true place in his creation as the new heaven and the new earth of truth and justice, perfection and peace are revealed.

So, when we have times of doubt, it’s useful to ask ourselves afresh whether any information has come to light showing that Jesus’ death and resurrection didn’t actually happen. For if Jesus did die and was raised to life we have the assurance that he is true, and that his promises will one day be perfectly fulfilled. Jesus Christ has provided the solution for a troubled world.

The big question we all need to ask is whether we will turn to him, freely acknowledging him as our Lord and Savior. Furthermore, will we admit that he alone has the authority to present repentant fallen men and women before a holy God, without blemish, freed from all accusation?

In the current crises of Covid-19 and the cultural challenges in the West, is there anywhere can we turn for hope?

We may feel inclined to echo the words of Jean Paul Sartre, the French Existentialist who said, ‘That God does not exist I cannot deny; that my whole being cries out for God, I cannot forget’.

The encouraging news is that historical evidence and human experience point to a solution to Sartre’s crie de coeur. The answer centers on the question, ‘Who is Jesus of Nazareth?’

In Colossians 1:15 Paul the Apostle writes:  Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God,…

We can deny the existence of God, or we can attempt to make images of God, but both are human imaginings that deface the glory of God. I say that even the denial of God’s existence is human imagining, because all around us, especially what are called the laws of nature, point to the existence of a powerful intelligence that created the universe.

For example, against those who say that miracles are inconsistent with the laws of nature, Professor John Lennox, emeritus professor of mathematics at Oxford University comments: ‘From a theistic perspective, the laws of nature predict what is bound to happen if God does not intervene… God’s people understand that the laws of nature are the observable regularities that God the creator has built into the universe.

‘However, such laws don’t prevent God from intervening if he chooses. When he does, we are able to identify the irregularity and speak of it as a miracle’. Jesus’ resurrection, for example, is not the result of a natural mechanism. Rather, as the New Testament says, it happened because God intervened, using his awesome, supernatural power.

The Supremacy of Jesus. To return to Paul’s words, Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God,…

John’s Gospel makes the same point. In the opening lines we read: In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. And in verse 14: And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John makes the connection between the image of God and God in terms of a Father and Son relationship – a relationship that always has existed and always will exist. This is critical, for it tells us that God lives, and acts as a Father, the perfect father. Relationship is the heart-beat of God’s existence.

In Colossians 1 Paul goes on to say: for in the Son all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities …  Paul is telling us that the Son existed before anything else in creation. Logically, he himself was not created. He always existed and always will exist.  Putting these ideas together, we understand that in Jesus, the Son of God, we see God. And because he is also truly human, we see what we were meant to be.

This helps us to understand ourselves and what we are designed for. We are rational because God is rational. We are moral, because God is moral. We have the capacity for relationship because God has always existed in relationship.

We begin to see why Christianity can’t allow itself to be put on the same level as any other religion. Nobody else who has walked this earth could ever be described in terms of such unequivocal divinity as Jesus. He alone is supreme.

Furthermore, we read: By him all things were created,… As the creating agent, Jesus put it all together. And the words, ‘all things were created by him and for him’ tell us that Jesus is also the sustainer of the universe.

When we plumb the depths of the universe, we will find not so much a mathematical equation or a scientific formula, but divinity. Jesus is the logic, the intelligence, the wisdom, who gives the universe its rationality.

This in turn helps us to make sense of our lives in the present and in the future. We see that we’re not just part of a meaningless journey going nowhere. There is a purpose, a goal for us: relationship with God and with one another.

The Source of True Peace. In verse 19 Paul continues: For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.

Too often our world reveals the tragic results of its brokenness: hatred and greed, evil and injustice, suffering and death. Indeed, history shows us only too plainly that we don’t have the resources within us to rescue ourselves from the evil and injustices we have created. None of us is good enough or powerful enough to bring about the kind of peace we long for.

The amazing story of the Bible is that from the very beginning of time, God was not going to reject this evil and ungrateful world, but instead chose to rescue it. Paul is telling us here that when Jesus died God laid the foundation for a just and lasting peace. Through the blood that Jesus shed, God reconciled to himself all things.

One day God is going to make a new heaven and a new earth, where Jesus will reign in truth and goodness, justice and peace forever. But more of this next week.

In the meantime, we need to consider afresh our own understanding of Jesus Christ and our relationship with him. Do we daily turn to him asking for his forgiveness? Furthermore, what are we doing to introduce others to him? Are you even planning to forward this ‘Word’ to start a conversation?

In these troubled times what guidance does the Bible give us on the subject of prayer?

Let’s consider Paul the Apostle’s prayer for God’s people in Colossae. He was writing when Rome’s power was supreme. It was an age preoccupied with entertainment, and plagued by alcoholism and gambling. It was sexually permissive. And slavery with all its abuses was rampant. What we often forget is that the gospel of Jesus Christ triumphed for good in that    world without resorting to arms.

Knowing God. Paul’s prayer of thanks to God, with which he begins, gives way to petition in verse 9. He asks God that the Colossian believers may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,…

As part of his thanks, Paul had just expressed his excitement that God’s good news was growing throughout the world. Yet as he now prays for God’s people, he prays for their growth in spiritual maturity. Why? Would this assist gospel growth in the world? Let me repeat his request: That you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding…

The word spiritual refers to the Holy Spirit. In thanking God for the believers in Colossae, Paul linked the gospel truth and the work of the Spirit. Now, as his prayer continues, he prays that the Spirit will bring Christians into a rich, personal knowledge of God. This knowing God is not filled out through human reasoning or emotions. Rather, it is because he has revealed himself through his Son and by the Holy Spirit.

Spiritual wisdom begins when the Spirit awakens our minds to God in all his power and glory. We also need the Spirit to open our minds to teach us God’s purposes so that we can live wisely in a fallen, fragmented world.

As we come to understand God, we will see that his ways stand in stark contrast to the self-serving human philosophies and lust for power that we see throughout history, such as gave rise to totalitarian extremes last century and the death of countless millions.

But Paul’s prayer is not for a dry religious intellectualism, unrelated to life. His prayer continues: So that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God.

Growing in God and lifestyle. There is a significant link between our growth in knowing God and our lifestyle. We are not simply to adopt the values and lifestyle of the culture – and this may include the church culture – in which we find ourselves. Rather, we are to lead lives worthy of the Lord.

And notice, we will want to live whole-heartedly for the Lord, fully pleasing him. As we come to know God better, we will understand that he made us in his image to experience the full the joys of a trusting relationship with him. From the depths of our hearts we will want to honor him in every part of life.

Furthermore, Paul prays that, with this understanding of God, our lives will bear fruit in every good work. A friend once told me that he begins each day with the prayer: ‘Lord, what good things have you prepared for me to do today?’

Growing in the knowledge of God… We are growing organisms – not robots that have come off the end of the gospel assembly line. As we grow in our understanding and experience of living with God, he will enable us to discern his purposes in the complexities of life. How important it is that we adopt a diet of regular Bible reading and are involved in a church that faithfully teaches the Bible.

Now you may be thinking, ‘This is wonderful, but how can I do it?’ Paul anticipates our question and continues: May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience and with joy,…

He prays that God will equip us with the mentality that tackles the tough issues of life and the stamina to persevere. He asks that we will have the resolution and the determination to stay in the marathon of Godly living. Paul well knows that it is one thing to start, but another to finish.

So he prays that God’s people will have the capacity to survive stressful times with wisdom, overcome insult with composure, and most of all, know that God can be trusted to be working out his all-wise and all-good purposes even when the unexpected occurs.

Joyfully giving thanks to the Father… Not to thank God is to fail to understand the magnitude and depth of his love when he brought us from the rule of darkness to the kingdom of his beloved Son.

God has brought his people from darkness and into the kingdom of the most powerful, righteous and kindest of all kings – Jesus Christ, his Son, our Lord. Surely our only true response must be one of joy and gratitude. We will want to sing!

Indeed, as we grow in the riches of God’s love and as we walk in his ways, God will use our increasingly evident new lifestyle to draw others to the good news under which we now live.

Let’s always pray for growth as we walk joyfully with the Lord.

‘How can we help our broken and divided postmodern world find hope and peace?’

In his Letter to God’s People in Colossae, Paul the Apostle writes of the hope that has awakened their faith in Christ Jesus and their love for one another. He reminds them that this hope is found in God’s good news which is itself gounded on the truth.

What is more, Paul observes that not only were God’s people in Colossae growing in their faith, love and hope, but God’s good news was bearing fruit and growing in the whole world.

These words are very encouraging for us today.

Let’s consider the flow of Paul’s thought: He begins by thanking God, the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ for their faith in Christ Jesus and the love they have for all the saints,… because of the hope laid up for them in heaven (1:3-5). There is a causal link between hope and faith and love. Hope is not the consequence of faith and love. Rather, hope has awakened them.

This is so important. The hope that God’s people have is the motivation for their faith and love.

Let’s consider this. In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul writes of the reality and the significance of Jesus’ physical resurrection from the dead. He points out there that if Jesus did not rise from the dead, our own future resurrection from the dead is negated. Our professed faith would be meaningless and the associated Christian morality a joke. As he says in 1 Corinthians 15:32, if the dead do not rise, we may as well ‘eat and drink, for tomorrow we die’.

But the hope of which Paul speaks in Colossians 1:6 is not simply optimism.

Certain hope. In verses 5b – 6 Paul writes: Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing – as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, …

It’s important to notice the emphasis Paul puts on the word truth. The gospel, he says is literally, the word of the truth. He could have left out any reference to the words the truth, but he doesn’t. He wants to stress that the essence of the Christian message is true.

Reflecting on this, we can see that God’s good news is beyond human invention and imagination. No one of us would have invented a God who was prepared to forgive a self-preoccupied and faithless world by such a costly and humiliating death as occurred at Calvary.

The gospel is also true, historically. Paul implies that that the accounts of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ are no invention. The records are true and trustworthy, supported by eyewitnesses.

Furthermore, the gospel is true experientially. By this I mean that when people put their trust in Jesus Christ who is at the center of the gospel, they discover that their faith is not a hoax.

Response? It is so important we are assured that our own faith and our love for one another as God’s people are grounded in the hope that is laid up for us in heaven. We need to ask ourselves, “Is my faith, love and hope in response to God’s good news?” Paul assures us it is the truth and nothing but the truth.

Indeed, we need to pray that God’s Spirit will awaken within us, as he did in the Colossian Christians, an ever-deepening love for the Lord Jesus Christ, and for his people across social, cultural, and racial divides.

In the 2nd century, God’s people in the Roman world were under great suspicion. Tertullian, one of the church leaders at the time, responded by contrasting Christians with the Roman society: ‘Look, they say, ‘How they (the Christians) love one another; and how they are ready to die for each other’ (for they themselves are readier to kill each other).’

 Furthermore, it’s worth praying for opportunities to talk with others about the inconsistencies and unworkable nature of the diversity that postmodernism is imposing on the western world.

Robert Letham, for example, observes that ‘the world of postmodernism is entirely arbitrary. If the emotions trump reason, we have no rational grounds for anything… Postmodernism cannot stand the test of everyday life’, he says. ‘It does not work, and will not work. It fails the test of Ludwig Wittgenstein, who insisted that language and philosophy must have “cash value” in terms of the real world in which we go about our business from day to day. To do that, we assume that there is an objective world and act accordingly. If there is not, life could not go on’ (Letham, The Holy Trinity, pp.452f).

Because God’s good news is based on the initiative, action and promises of the living God, we can be assured that his word and work will continue in today’s world. God’s passion is to rescue the lost. But we too, have a part to play: the testimony of our faith, the example of our love – which includes forgiving those whom we believe have wronged us – and the reality of the hope we have, will all bear witness to the Lord Jesus Christ. But, above all, we need to pray that God in his mercy will send his Spirit into the world, opening blind eyes to the truth of the hope, the joy, and the peace that God holds out to us.