In the first message of our series on the Parables of Jesus, I gave the following definition of a parable; Parables as Jesus used them are fictional illustrations taken from real life situations, which teach a spiritual lesson. Now by that definition, I do not think that the story we have in front of us today strictly qualifies as a parable.  And the reason I say that is because I don’t believe that it is fictional.  I think it’s an actual story about two real people.  I think that is evident because this is the only so called parable in which Jesus uses personal names of the people involved.  The rich man is not named, but Lazarus is, and so is Abraham.  I think these are real people, in a real life situation.  Furthermore, though by a somewhat lesser evidence, there is no qualifying statement which is sometimes found in other parables to identify it as such.  But that is a lessor qualification.  I think the primary reason for it to be a true life story is the use of personal names.

It’s comparable to me giving an illustration today in my message and I mention Nick and tell you some story about him, and then afterwards one of you comes up to me to ask some more information about what I had said.  Imagine if my response was “Oh, that’s not really true about Nick.  I just made it all up.”  I think you would find it very disconcerting that I had made up a story about Nick and presented it as true, but in fact it was not true.  And I think that is a good analogy for this story. Jesus presented it as a story concerning real people.  We certainly know that Abraham was a real person, and so it would be very odd if Jesus was to say certain things about him that were not true.  So I don’t believe it to be a parable in the sense that it’s a fictional story.

However, the purpose of an illustration is very similar to that of a parable. It is meant to be used as a mechanism by which to teach a lesson or a central doctrine.  As you know, I frequently use illustrations from real life in my preaching.  And so though today’s story is not a parable per se, in that it is not fictional, yet it serves a similar purpose, and so we will include it in this series.  Furthermore, most Christian literature considers it to be one of the foremost parables, so  I would be remiss if I didn’t include it.

But it’s important that we understand that this is a actual story from real life. It’s important because a lot of theologians have dismissed some important doctrines which this story illustrates, because it does not fit with their doctrines concerning eschatology or their doctrine of eternal punishment and so forth.  And they dismiss it because they say that this is a parable which Jesus made up, and therefore certain elements are not necessarily as He represented them.  I find that interpretation to be entirely unacceptable. The parables that Jesus gave were always founded in reality.  He wasn’t telling fables about mythical talking creatures. When Jesus gave a parable about a sower going out to sow, it was based entirely upon real situations.  Chances are there were sowers working on the hillside even as He spoke. But in any event, in an agrarian society such as they lived in, the basic elements of the story would have been one that they could readily identify with and understand because they were true to life.

So because this is a real life illustration with real events, it provides us with an important insights into the afterlife, particularly that time period which precedes the resurrection.  Now those insights are incidental to the central point of the illustration, but nevertheless they are important for us to consider.  But the central point of this illustration is to teach the eternal consequences of a life that is not rich towards God.  If you recall in our last parable, the central thought was the rich fool was rich in the world’s goods, but was not rich towards God.  And God required of him his soul.  This illustration builds on that by showing the eternal consequences of a life that is not rich towards God.

Let’s look then at the story.  There are two primary characters, the rich man and Lazarus the beggar.  They lived in close proximity to one another, and died in a similar time period. Jesus describes the rich man first.

19.“Now there was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, joyously living in splendor every day.”  I find it interesting that this man is not named.  In his life on earth, he probably had a name that everyone knew, that everyone associated with wealth.  Maybe his last name was Rothschild or Dupont. I doubt it, but whatever his name was, in heaven it was not recorded in the book of life, and so his name is unimportant. He has no eternal legacy.

Now this man was very rich. How rich? He habitually dressed in purple, the clothing of royalty. Purple die was very expensive in those days and reserved for the finest fabrics you could buy. “Joyously living in splendor everyday.”  The KJV says that he fared sumptuously everyday.  So he ate expensive foods, not just occasionally, but everyday.  He lived in luxury, enjoying all that the best of life had to offer.

I just returned from a trip to the Keys.  And while I was there I took my morning run through the multimillion dollar neighborhoods, and walked in the evenings around the marinas where the rich docked their million dollar yachts.  It was hard not to be impressed by the luxurious lifestyle that it seemed a lot of people are able to enjoy.  One neighborhood which we could not even enter without a pass had it’s own private airfield so the residents could fly in and out on their private planes.  I was told the houses started at 10 million.  It’s hard to imagine being that rich.  This man lived an opulent, luxurious lifestyle.

I notice something else Jesus described about this guy.  He said he lived joyously.  Eat, drink and be merry.  I think if you’re rich it’s possible to find a certain degree of  joy, happiness in the pleasures of this world.  And the pursuit of that pleasure can eclipse any concern you might have about the after life, because you’re so busy pursuing pleasure right now.

At the polar opposite end of the social spectrum, Lazarus was a  beggar who it would seem was lame, possibly paralyzed.  He had to be laid at the rich man’s gate.  That became his spot, his only hope of getting food or financial help.  There wasn’t government programs in those days to take care of people in his kind of condition.  Possibly as a result of his paralysis, he was covered with sores and the dogs in the street would come up to an lick them, showing more concern for him than anyone else did, particularly the rich man.  Lazarus was unable to fend for himself.  He was eager to eat from the crumbs, the garbage really, that came from the rich man’s table.

Jesus indicated that both men died, presumably at very near the same time.  He describes it in this way, vs.22, “Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried.”

Not only was there a great contrast in the lives of these two men, but there is also a great contrast in their deaths.  The poor man, Lazarus died, and Jesus said that he was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom.  According to Jewish tradition, Abraham’s Bosom was an rabbinical idiom which refers to the custom of reclining on couches at table, which was prevalent among the Jews, an arrangement which brought the head of one person almost into the bosom of the one who sat or reclined above him. To “be in Abraham’s bosom” thus meant to enjoy happiness and rest at the banquet in Paradise.  Abraham was considered the father of the faithful, and Lazarus then would be the son who has been gathered to his father’s, which is another common expression of the Old Testament saints concerning death.

I think a lot of commentators not only gloss over what Jesus said about this place, but also over the fact that Jesus said the angels carried Lazarus to Paradise.  I don’t  know if any of you remember the television show that used to be on about 20 years ago now, I think, called “Touched by an Angel.” I wasn’t particularly a big fan of the show.  I really am not a fan of any of Hollywood’s attempts at Christian themed movies or shows.  I’d rather not watch them, and would warn you  not allow your doctrine to be formed or influenced by Hollywood’s interpretation of the Bible.  But in that case, they may have gotten the idea correct that at the death of a saint, the angels of God are in attendance awaiting for the moment of their death. God knows the number of our days when as yet there were none of them, and He sends His messengers to attend us in those final moments, and they take our soul to Paradise. Psalm 116:15 says, “Precious in the sight of the LORD [is] the death of his saints.”  There may not have been a funeral on earth for Lazarus, no one cared when he died, but God cared, and He ushered Lazarus’s soul to Paradise by a procession of angels.

That same angelic accompaniment is not mentioned for the unsaved dead.  Perhaps Satan sends his fallen angels to claim the souls of the unsaved dead.  We don’t know.  But since they are held captive by Satan in life, it may be that he interns their soul in death.  The sting of death after all is Satan’s weapon against man.  But that is speculation on my part.  Jesus doesn’t tell us exactly how it happens, only that the rich man ends up in torment in Hades.

The rich man, Jesus said, was buried.  No burial was mentioned for Lazarus. It would have been customary for the poor man to be unceremoniously buried in an unmarked grave or perhaps even his body thrown on the trash heap outside of town.  The rich man though I’m sure had a great funeral.  He had five brothers who still lived, and I’m sure that half the town turned out to mourn the loss of this rich man.  But as the accolades are being said concerning him, and the priest was undoubtedly telling everyone how wonderful he had been, at that very moment his soul was in torment in the flames of Hades.

As the rich man was in Hades, he looked up and saw Lazarus at Abraham’s side. Vs23 “In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried out and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.’”

Even in his death, even in torment, this rich man showed his true nature in the way that he wanted to use Lazarus to lessen his torment.  He had no regard for Lazarus in his life, and he obviously has no regard for Lazarus now.  And yet this poor man had been his neighbor, laying constantly at his gate, begging for food and for help.  It’s clear that the rich man knew Lazarus, even to the point of knowing his name. He must have despised him being outside of his fine home, of being a constant pest, a constant reminder of the frailty of the flesh.  And even after death, his contempt of Lazarus is evident in his asking Abraham to send him to serve himself.  It’s also a tragic irony that this man who was once rich and feasted lavishly everyday, is now begging for even a drop of water.

But Abraham denied his request.  Vs 25 “But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony.’” During his life, the rich man enjoyed every comfort that Lazarus had lacked. Now in an ironic twist of fate, their situations were  reversed.

Not only did Abraham deny his request to send Lazarus, but Abraham explained why it was impossible.  And in this response we gain some insight into what Hades is like.  Abraham says in vs 26 “And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over from here to you will not be able, and [that] none may cross over from there to us.”

The traditional Jewish teaching was that Hades was the abode of the dead, where the souls of men await the resurrection.  In the Old Testament it’s called Sheol in Hebrew.  But in the Greek it’s called Hades.  As Jesus indicates in this story, Hades is comprised of two compartments, an upper and lower chamber.  The upper chamber is Paradise, or as Jesus calls it, Abraham’s bosom.  The lower part is the place of torment, which is generally referred to as Hades or hell.

The resurrection is not referenced here by Jesus, but in John 5:28 Jesus says this concerning the resurrection; “Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice,  and will come forth; those who did the good [deeds] to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil [deeds] to a resurrection of judgment.”  

Those two resurrections are talked about in Revelation 20, the resurrection to life, which is the resurrection of the saved, and the resurrection of the dead who are judged according to their works and cast into the Lake of Fire. But Jesus does not give us any information about the resurrection here, but only speaks concerning the intermediate abode of the dead in the time before HIs second coming.  And of that place we find most of our insight in this passage.  

I want to emphasize some things that we can learn from this description. In Paradise or in Hades, there is consciousness.  It is not soul sleep, it is body sleep.  The body sleeps until the resurrection, but the soul is alive and conscious. In the case of those in Paradise, they are gathered to their relatives who were saved and have died before.  There is a reunion of the saved who have died.  David said concerning his baby son who died, “I will go to him, but he will not return to me.”  In Paradise we will know and be known.  We will be recognizable in a way that may not be understandable now.  The soul must bear the imprint of the body to be recognizable.  Samuel was recognized when he came up from Paradise to speak to Saul. Moses and Elijah were recognizable at the transfiguration.  And so as well Abraham and Lazarus are recognized here in this story.

Furthermore, we learn that Paradise is a place of rest.  It is a place of comfort.  It is a place of communication. Hades as the compartment of torment on the other hand is just that, a place of torment.  It is a place of flames.  It is a place of thirst. But it too is a place of cognizance.  It too is a place of communication at least to some degree.  It is a place of remorse. And it is a place of recompense.  From other scriptures we know that it is not the final judgment nor the final punishment, but it’s the temporary abode of those who are doomed to eternal punishment by their deeds on earth.

And finally, as Jesus revealed by Abraham’s words, there is a great chasm between the two, that no one can cross.  That separation is fixed, and what is done is done.  There are no second chances. There is no way to escape once you are dead.  The only escape from Hades will be at the resurrection, but that will be only to make eternal that which was already evident, either a resurrection to a new body and a new life for those in Paradise, or to a resurrection of the dead which is the second death and eternal damnation in the Lake of Fire.

It really is a tragic, horrible end for those who are without the Lord.  We do ourselves or our loved ones no favors by ignoring the consequences of rejecting Christ.  Not everyone goes to heaven when they die and it’s a terrible lie to tell people that they do.  To give them a false hope.  The rich man probably didn’t really believe in the realities of eternity when he was alive on the earth.  But he certainly believed now.  And because he realized the reality of hell, the awfulness of his predicament, he wanted to save his family from joining him there.  Notice what he asks of Abraham in vs 27 “And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, that you send him to my father’s house–  for I have five brothers–in order that he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’”

I give him credit for his compassion for his family.  He shows a lot more compassion than what he showed Lazarus during his life.  But it’s too late to save him.  And his request shows that his heart is still selfish, wanting Lazarus to do his bidding. By the way, the sin of the rich man that Jesus highlights that disqualifies this man from Paradise is the sin of not loving his neighbor as himself.  It’s not being rich.  It’s not being a drunkard or adulterer or any other number of moral failings.  The condemning sin which Jesus highlights Is the sin of not loving your neighbor as yourself.

Jesus was asked on one occasion what was the foremost commandment, and He answered, “To love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.” I think we all fail miserably in that.  We have all sinned against God by failing the foremost commandment and that alone is enough to condemn us to hell.  But then Jesus said the second greatest commandment is like it, and that is to love your neighbor as yourself.  And I am sure that we all have failed to keep that commandment.  That failure alone in God’s eyes is reason enough for eternal damnation. This rich man was guilty on both counts, but Jesus only highlights the second commandment, because it is evidence that he also failed in the first.

Jesus is not saying that we are saved by our works.  We are not saved by doing social work.  But what He is saying is that not loving your neighbor as yourself is evidence that you are not saved.  Our desire to keep God’s commandments are proof of our faith.  And the lack of evidence on this man’s part was proof that he was not a child of God.  

Well, Abraham’s answer to this man’s request to send Lazarus (once again you see the attitude of this man towards Lazarus even in Hades) to his brothers to tell them the gospel is denied. Vs 29 “But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ But he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!’ But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’”

The rich man recognized that his unsaved brothers needed a change of heart in order to be awakened to their state of spiritual peril.  And so the rich man asked for Lazarus to be sent to warn his five brothers so that they would not have to experience the same torment he was experiencing.

But Abraham said the  brothers already had the Old Testament writings, and it would accomplish nothing to send Lazarus to warn them. He said if their hearts were hardened against the warnings of Moses and the Prophets in the scriptures, then his brothers would not repent even if Lazarus were to rise from the dead and speak to them.

It’s ironic that there was another man named Lazarus who was a personal friend of Jesus.  And this Lazarus also died, but Jesus raised him from the dead.  The Bible records how many people would come to see Lazarus who had been raised from the dead, and though a few believed as a result of seeing him, for the most part the vast multitudes did not believe.  They looked upon it as a curiosity.  But they did not believe unto salvation.

In the same way, those among Jesus’ listeners whose hearts were hardened toward God’s Word would refuse to repent and believe even after Jesus was raised from the dead.  But the warning of this story should be  clear: now is the time to repent and to secure our eternal

security.  Because once we die, it’s too late.  Now is the day of salvation.  Now is the opportunity to believe in Jesus Christ for our righteousness so that we might be saved.

And for those of us who have believed unto salvation, if we really loved our neighbor as ourselves as we are commanded to do, then should we not do everything we can to introduce them to the gospel of Jesus Christ, that they might not go to eternal punishment, but that they might be received into life? If we truly believed what Jesus said concerning death, then certainly that must be our mission in life, to win our neighbors and loved ones to Christ.  Let us not be so preoccupied pursuing the pleasures of this world that we fail to prepare for the next.

Today we are beginning a series on the parables of Jesus.  This is a deviation of sorts from the way in which I normally  preach.  I have never actually done a series before in 15 years of preaching.  I always rely on what is called expositional preaching, which takes a book of the Bible and then goes through it verse by verse, and chapter by chapter.

But even though I will be doing a series, I will still be using an expositional style.  I’m not going to start doing topical messages where you bounce all around in the Bible trying to find texts to support your thesis.  But we will continue to study the word to determine what the Holy Spirit is saying in that passage.

Now that being said, that brings us to the purpose of parables.   Traditionally, Bible scholars used to approach parables like interpreting an allegory.  They sought to discover all the possible hidden meanings in every word.  But that isn’t how a parable should be considered.  If you follow that line of reasoning, then you end up deducing all kinds of erroneous observations.

An early church figure by the name of John Chrysostom is quoted as saying, “It is not right to search curiously, and word by word, into all things in a parable; but when we have learned the object for which it was composed, we are to reap this, and not to busy ourselves about anything further.”

The way a parable was intended by Christ was to teach usually one major doctrine or principle. Sometimes there can be more than one, but generally speaking we should try to discern the major central thought that is being presented.  Sometimes that is given to us in the scripture.  Sometimes it is given in an interpretation.  And sometimes it is left up to us to figure out.

But that brings us to another aspect of parables.  And that is that generally speaking they are illustrations.  When a speaker gives a speech, he will often use an illustration to help explain a point that he is making.  And that is primarily the purpose that Jesus uses as well.  But I’m afraid that oftentimes today the illustrations that are used in a sermon are not employed to make a point more understandable.  But oftentimes they seem to have little relevance to the main point of the message at all.  They are often just sentimental stories that are given to break up the monotony of the sermon.  After the sermon, people often remember an illustration, but couldn’t tell you what the scripture was.

Jesus, however, is the master of the message, and thus a master of the parable.  Parables as Jesus used them are fictional representations taken from real life situations, which teach a spiritual lesson.  He spoke as one with authority.  Consequently, even His enemies said about Him in John 7:47, “No one ever spoke like this man!”  And we know that to be true because Jesus was the very incarnation of truth.  He was the incarnation of the word of God.  And so what He said was from God.

The word parable is from the Greek word “parabole” which means to come alongside.  We see the root of that word in our language today, with words such a parallel, or paralegal.  A parable, then, is given alongside teaching in order to illustrate a concept or clarify meaning.  

But there is another purpose of a parable, and that is it can also be used to conceal a meaning. It is given to provide a principle or doctrine to those with understanding, but to conceal it to those who cannot understand.  For instance, in Mark 4:9 Jesus concluded the parable of the sower by saying,  “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”  Now why would someone say that?  

The answer becomes more apparent in the Greek.  The Greek word for obedience is “hupakoue” – which includes “akoue” – the word translated as hearing.  So when Jesus says “He who has ears to hear, let him hear” He is saying not just to hear the words that are being

said, but to understand and obey his teaching.  To hear and to obey.

So to those who have ears to hear, parables bring a deeper understanding of the things of God resulting in obedience. But to those who do not have ears to hear, parables are instruments of concealing and obscuring the mystery of the kingdom of God. God’s word brings either salvation or condemnation upon the hearer.  So Jesus’ use of parables reflects his two-fold mission of salvation and judgment upon the world.  As Jesus said in Matthew 10:34-35, I have come not to bring peace but a sword.  Jesus is both the cornerstone of the church and a rock of stumbling and offense to those who reject the truth. He offers salvation to all who believe, and judgment upon those who do not. And His use of parables accomplishes both or either of those objectives. 

Now today we are looking at the first parable in our series, which may be called the Parable of the Unjust Judge. Sadly, we live in a fallen world.  And in this fallen world we find ourselves victims of hatred, of oppression, of persecution, of lies, slander and even worse crimes.  Our recourse in society is to go to the courts, to a judge, which can help us get justice.  But as is indicated in this parable by Jesus, not all judges appointed by man are people of good character.  In fact, often times such unjust judges are corrupt and out for personal gain.

As we have already said, the purpose of the parable is to teach or illustrate one central principle. And to our great advantage, this parable begins with the Holy Spirit  telling us that central principle.  The key to the parable is hanging on the doorknob, so to speak.  In vs 1, it says, “Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart.”  So at the outset, Luke reveals the goal of the parable of the unjust judge.  Jesus tells this parable so that the listeners “ought always to pray and not lose heart.” This parable teaches the value of persistent prayer in the midst of difficulty and trouble.

In order to teach this principle of the effectiveness of persistent prayer, Jesus tells the story of a widow who had no one to protect her against her adversary.  In the culture of that day, a widow was practically helpless.  Without a husband, she had very little rights.  She had very little opportunity for work in that society.  Jesus tells the story of a widow who had been treated

unjustly, and whose only hope was to find justice at the hands of the judge.  This would have been a civil judge.  But as a widow would more than likely have no property or resources to persuade or influence the judge, he had little interest in helping her.

The Bible teaches that we are sort of like this widow.  We have an adversary who is the devil. 1Peter 5:8 says,  “Be of sober [spirit,] be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”  We have no resources with which to fight him on our own.  Our only hope is to go to God, the righteous judge, and plead for help from Him.

In this story, the widow went to plead her case before a judge who does not fear God nor regard man.  Notice that description by Jesus in vs 2, “there was a judge who did not fear God and did not respect man.”  He was guilty of breaking the greatest commandment, to love God, and the second commandment, to love your neighbor.  Obviously, this judge was not concerned about justice.  And that was probably a familiar situation in that day, especially in the case of Roman courts.  The judges were notorious for accepting bribes and getting paid off to render a sympathetic judgment.  That’s why I said the widow was particularly helpless and of little interest to the judge.  Because widows typically were without financial resources.  That’s why James 1:27 tells us as Christians to visit the orphans and widows.  Two groups of people in that society particularly that were socially and financially bankrupt and without resources.

Even today in our society, I am afraid, we have seen a decline in the character of sitting justices in America.  Many of them seem more than willing to give favor to an agenda and interpret the law for the sake of their political party.  But justice should not play favorites. It should not reinterpret the law. It should not use unbalanced scales.

But this widow doesn’t give up, even though the judge is disinterested.  She is persistent.  Vs 3, “she kept coming to him, saying, ‘Give me legal protection from my opponent.”  Jesus indicates here the value of persistence, of perseverance in prayer.  I think that is really the central point that He is making. After all, Luke identifies that thought as the central teaching of this parable saying in vs 1, Jesus “was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart.”  So her persistence in coming back to the judge is the principle that is applicable to effective prayer.

I’ve read a lot of commentaries about this parable, and some of them want to restrict this prayer to only a prayer that Jesus will return.  In other words, the persistent prayer that Jesus wants us to make is the prayer for the second coming.  And they derive that idea from the last verse, vs 8, which says, “However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” So they say that this prayer is limited to eschatological prayer.  But I think that unnecessary restricts this parable.  I don’t think that Jesus is trying to narrow it down like that.  The widow is pleading for protection from her adversary.  That would indicate that our prayers for anything by which we feel we are being attacked, or unjustly treated, or anything which we have no defense against, would come under the same category as the widow’s appeal.

Notice it was her not the content of her pleading that was the deciding factor, but the persistence of her pleading that won her case.  It says in vs 4 “For a while he was unwilling; but afterward he said to himself, ‘Even though I do not fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow bothers me, I will give her legal protection, otherwise by continually coming she will wear me out.’”  Her continually coming to him wore him out.  Her persistence was the key, not her plea. 

When the widow first sought the judge’s help, he refused to help her. Even when the judge refused to help her a second time, she would not take “no” for an answer. But because of her persistence, her continually coming to Him, the judge finally grew weary and granted her request.  The original language of the text literally says she will give him a black eye.  Her persistence is buffeting the judge.  She is going to war with the judge.  It reminds us of Jacob wrestling with the Lord until dawn saying, “I will not let you go until you bless me.” That kind of persistence in prayer is rewarded.

Charles Spurgeon said about this principle of persistence in prayer; ““Too many prayers are like boy’s runaway knocks, given, and then the giver is away before the door can be opened.” I used to love knocking on doors and then running away as a kid.  Nowadays, you can’t play that game.  They are going to catch you on their webcam on their porch.  But persistence is the key to opening the door.

Now the other key to understanding this parable is by recognizing that it shows a contrast between how human judges behave and how God behaves.  It is not teaching us that we have to keep coming to God because He is like the unjust judge and doesn’t really care about our problems.  But Jesus is showing a contrast between an unrighteous judge and God. If the unjust judge answers the widow’s request, how much more will the righteous judge, our God and Father, answer us when we call upon Him.  It’s a contrast of extremes, not of similarities.

We live in a society as Americans when we are always concerned about our rights. Unfortunately we are seeing our rights being taken away at an unprecedented pace over the last year or so. We would hope that our justice system would stand up for our rights and protect them, but sadly that doesn’t seem to be the case more often than not.  But even if God’s people are exploited and treated unjustly, we are not to seek vengeance upon those that take advantage of us.  Romans 12:19 says  “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. 

There is coming a day of reckoning, a day of judgment, when God will right all wrongs. When God will judge every thought, and every act.  God will judge the judges.  God will judge the rulers, the authorities of this earth.  We are assured in scripture that day is coming.  And in that way I concur with the interpretation I mentioned earlier that says we are told here to pray for the second coming.  Certainly we should.  And we can look forward to seeing justice served on that day, especially if we did not see it in our lifetime.

If you do a word search in the Bible for the phrase “how long” you will find 131 references, many of them in the form of a prayer.  It was a frequent question of the Psalmists.  For instance listen to David in Psalm 13:1-2, “How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? 2 How long shall I take counsel in my soul, [Having] sorrow in my heart all the day? How long will my enemy be exalted over me?”  And we see it expressed in Revelation as the martyred Christians who were persecuted unto death cry to the Lord, “how long” until they are revenged.  Rev. 6:10 “and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”

Not every appeal to our Heavenly Father will be answered in our timing.  But every prayer will be answered in God’s timing. God will repay.  Many of us wonder during our days at the injustice in the world.  We wonder about the cheating and the corruption in our political system. In a sense our politicians are our judges. They decide our laws.  They interpret our laws and apply or dismiss our laws according to their own corrupt desires.  We seem to have no leverage to do get any justice.  We feel helpless.  But we must not take our own revenge. But as Romans 12:19 says, “Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath [of God,] for it is written, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY,” says the Lord.”

In the book of Exodus, God reveals Himself as the one who hears the prayers of His suffering people and liberates them from bondage.  They cried out to the Lord for 400 years before He brought about their deliverance. The exodus from Egypt is a foretaste of the greater exodus in the New Testament, when God delivers His people from the world, the flesh, and the devil. But  we haven’t seen that deliverance completed as of yet. However, we are assured that it is coming. We still live in the flesh and in the world and the devil still goes about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.  

So we pray, we pray consistently, we pray persistently, and we know that we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, who intercedes on our behalf and who has broken the power of sin and the  devil. And so we are confident that He hears us and He will help us in our time of need.  But as the text I quoted from Revelation should show, and history shows, we may not always see that deliverance in the time and manner that we would like.  We may be persecuted and even die for our faith.  We may pass from this earth without ever being vindicated from our enemies and injustices.  But Jesus promises that we will prevail with God, because He loves us as His children and their is no injustice with God.

Jesus taught us this parable so that we would persevere in prayer and not lose heart. To lose heart is to be discouraged, to give up hope.  I’m afraid that a lot of Christians lose heart because they don’t get the answer to their prayers, and consequently lose faith in God.  Jesus indicates that  in vs 8,  “However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”  I think that indicates that when Jesus comes again, there will be some who have become discouraged, who have given up hope in seeing a divine resolution to their problems, and consequently have strayed from the faith.  Since they feel the Lord won’t help them, they then take whatever natural means they could find to get a resolution to their problems.  But our task is to remain faithful.  To trust God. To persevere even when we don’t get the response we are looking for.

But Jesus’s own language seems to lend itself to the idea of a quick  response to our prayers.  Notice in vs 7 He says, “now, will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them?”  And in vs 8, there is another indication of a quick response; “I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”

And I can only believe that Jesus spoke twice about the Lord’s quick response to prayer in order to give us hope that we may receive an answer while we are still living.  David, the psalmist, who constantly cried out to God in prayer, “O Lord, how long!” How long will You keep silent?  How long will you turn away from me?  How long until you answer me? That same David also prayed in Psalm 27:13, “I would have despaired] unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD In the land of the living.”  

Thank God that Jesus included those phrases in the parable.  But what seems quick or timely to us is not always quick and immediate in the plan of God.  Jesus said, “I come quickly.” But it’s two thousand years now and He still hasn’t come back.  But God also knows that we are but flesh. He knows that we have immediate needs.  And He will help us in real time when it serves the will of God to do so. Our responsibility is not to dictate to God the terms, ours is just to plead our case with persistence until He gives us an answer.  

Yesterday I heard a song on some radio station by the late Janis Joplin.  Most of you probably know who she was, but if not, she was a very famous rock singer from the sixties.  She sang with a rather bluesy, barroom style.   The song that I heard on the radio was “Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes-Benz.”  I think she did it all acoustic. 

If you haven’t ever heard the song, it is an irreverent prayer done in song, in which she asks the Lord for three things; a Mercedes-Benz, a color tv, and a night on the town.  The song was recorded in one take, and she performed it live that night on October 1st, 1970. That was the last song she recorded. Three days later she died from a heroin overdose.  

I’m sure that she sang the song as an irreverent kind of joke.  She probably didn’t seriously consider it a prayer.  But the fact is, that she asked the Lord for the wrong thing.  She never got her requests answered  and if she had, it really wouldn’t have changed anything.  She probably would still have died from an overdose. But she should have asked the Lord for eternal life. That’s a prayer that God promises to answer.  The Bible promises that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. That prayer for Jesus to save is one that is guaranteed an answer.  And it is one that will last eternally.

God is not a genie at our beck and call.  We aren’t told to ask for three wishes and He will make them come true. There isn’t some magic incantation that we can recite that assures us of the answer that we want.  John said that if we ask anything according to God’s will, He hears us. And God is not willing that any should perish but all should come to repentance.  

If you are here today and you have never been saved then that is the prayer that you need to pray.   You must come to God in repentance and faith, realizing you are lost and helpless, and your only hope is in Jesus Christ, and call upon Him to save you.  And He will do it.  You can be born into the kingdom of God, and all the blessings that come from salvation.  He is waiting and willing  for you to call upon Him.  I pray that you don’t wait, for today is the acceptable day of salvation.  

Last week I remarked about how Paul in his imprisonment is believed to have had a guard chained to him at all times. And I made note of the fact that the scripture says that as a result of being in close proximity to Paul for many hours every day, every day of the week, for two years, many of the Praetorian guard became believers in Christ. And I posed the question to you, that those who are in close proximity to you in work or in some endeavor that you are a part of, would they end up becoming a Christian on the basis of your testimony to them for all those hours you spend together?

Well, in this passage, we see more people that were a part of the Apostle’s daily life while he was in prison. Now this was a prison, yet not like what we might think of today. It was his own rented quarters, a private house, but in which he was imprisoned and unable to leave. But it’s evident that he was able to receive visitors there, and perhaps some of them were even able to stay in the house.

So Paul actually had a church in his prison. And that should serve to be a reminder to us, that the church is not a building, it’s not an organization. The church does not consist of a lot of programs or special events. You know, we sometimes see people leave our church because they want more of what they think the church is supposed to be. And a lot of times it’s something like a church that has a good youth group program, or children’s ministry. Or they claim they are looking for a way to be involved in a church that has resources like financial or marriage counseling that are better suited to their talents.

But here in Paul’s prison church we see that the church is just people that are committed to Christ, that are committed to one another, and are committed to the spread of the gospel. Now if you remember in this epistle back in chapter 3, Paul made an appeal to the Colossians to be the church, saying “since you have been raised up with Christ,” or since they had received new life in Christ, keep your focus on things above and not things on earth. And then Paul gives a series of practical admonitions of how we are to live now as the church.

The church is made up of Christians. We are the church. And so though this section might easily be dismissed as just a series of personal greetings and so forth, I think Paul might also be displaying a group of people from his church, who were living illustrations of what it means to be the church of Christ, whose focus are on things above, and not the things of this earth.

So I want to try to take each person that Paul mentions here, and give each a vignette of sorts which I hope will show their ministry to the church, which should serve as a model for the church today.

Paul’s first mention is a man named Tychicus. He is a man with a servant’s heart. Paul says in vs 7, “As to all my affairs, Tychicus, [our] beloved brother and faithful servant and fellow bond-servant in the Lord, will bring you information.”

The name Tychicus means fortunate. And he was certainly fortunate because of the time that he spent with the apostle Paul. He’s mentioned in five different places in scripture, and each time only very briefly. But from these references we can determine that Tychicus was a faithful servant of Paul throughout his ministry.

We hear initially about Tychicus in Acts 20. Paul is collecting offerings from the churches in Macedonia for the saints in Jerusalem. And he is joined by Tychicus in his journey. In those days journey’s such as this were quite difficult affairs. You couldn’t just book a ticket on an airline. Such journeys often took months. But Tychicus left his home and family to travel with Paul, perhaps to provide security for Paul. I get the feeling that Tychicus was a very capable man, physically speaking as well as spiritually. We see Tychicus making many such trips in which he safeguarded something valuable and important for the churches. He had to travel through all kinds of terrain, over the sea, in all kinds of weather, sleeping often out in the open at night, on guard against all kinds of robbers and thieves who preyed upon the traveler.

We see him again in Titus 3:12. Paul sends him to Titus, possibly to relieve Titus as a substitute pastor while Titus visits Paul in Nicopolis. (Nick Demopolis’s hometown) That shows that not only was Tychicus very capable physically, but he was capable spiritually as well. He is able to sub for the pastor, Titus.

And in 2 Timothy 4:12, we see a similar situation with Timothy. Paul wants Timothy to come to him and bring his cloak and parchments, and he sends Tychicus to hold down the fort for Timothy. This is probably near the end of Paul’s life, and we can see that Tychicus has obviously matured as a Christian, from just a man with a servant’s heart, to a man that could take the pulpit so to speak from a person such as Timothy who was Paul’s prodigy and who would take up the mantle of Paul when he was gone.

The first time that Paul was in prison in Rome is when he writes the letter to the Colossians. And Tychicus has been with Paul at that point about 4 years. And Paul indicates in this epistle that he is going to send this letter by Tychicus. But it wasn’t just this letter, but it’s also believed that he carried the letter to the Ephesians as well as the epistle to Philemon. Just imagine the importance of that trip. Three of the Bible’s epistles were under the care and guardianship of Tychicus. Not only does that indicate a servant’s heart, but a faithful man. A man that would not let anything stop him or deter him. I can’t help but think of this guy as a former soldier who had been converted and discipled by Paul. I cannot prove that of course. But I look forward to meeting this guy one day in heaven. He was a tough, very capable, disciplined, determined and faithful soldier of Christ who Paul leaned on quite heavily. Thank God for men like Tychicus.

Paul calls him a beloved brother, a faithful servant and a fellow bond servant in the Lord. That’s a pretty high commendation. In 1Cor. 4:2 Paul speaks of a servant of Christ being a steward, one to whom is entrusted something, and he says in that passage, “Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.” There is no higher commendation that a man is found to be faithful.

The second man mentioned here is Onesimus. Paul says he that accompanying Tychicus on this journey is Onesimus, vs. 9, “and with him Onesimus, [our] faithful and beloved brother, who is one of your [number.] They will inform you about the whole situation here.” Onesimus is a man with a sinful past. Now all of us have sinful pasts. But if we have been raised up with Christ, then our old past should be in the past, and all things have become new. Onesimus had a past, but he became a new creation who God can use in His kingdom.

Now if we know who Onesimus is, then we can understand why Tychicus is bringing a letter to Philemon as well as to the church at Ephesus and Colossae. If you have read the letter to Philemon, then you know the story. Onesimus was the slave of Philemon who it would seem had stolen something and ran away from Philemon. That was an offense that in those days was punishable by death. But as providence would have it, Onesimus ended up in Rome, and somehow or another ended up being led to Christ by the apostle Paul.

Now when Paul learned of Onesimus’s background, he realized the connection, because Paul had also led Philemon to the Lord. And furthermore the church at Colossae met at Philemon’s house. That indicates that he was a wealthy man as he would have the biggest house suitable for holding church. Somehow in his journey’s Paul had led Philemon to the Lord because he says in the letter, “you owe to me even your own self as well.” So in the letter, which Onesimus and Tychicus are delivering, are instructions for Philemon to forgive Onesimus, and whatever he owed Philemon from the theft, to charge it to Paul’s account.

What is also very interesting is that there is a letter that has been found which is written by Ignatius, one of the early church fathers just after the death of the apostles, and he is writing to the church at Colossae, in which he mentions the pastor of their church, who is none other than Onesimus. Imagine that. A former runaway slave, a criminal, who repents and is restored to his master, and eventually ends up becoming the pastor of the church there at Colossae. What a wonderful testimony of the grace of God upon sinners, that He is able to make all things new, and use even the least of us as examples of His grace.

Next, Paul mentions a man named Aristarchus, who he describes as my fellow prisoner. We might say about Aristarchus as a man with a sympathetic heart. Now Aristarchus’ name appears elsewhere in the New Testament in association with the town of Thessalonica. Aristarchus is mentioned about 5 times in scripture. You might remember on one occasion he was with Paul in Ephesus, and he and Gaius were arrested. It seems quite likely that Aristarchus continued with Paul in his ministry because the next time we see him he is boarding the ship with Paul on his way to Rome. If so, that could be the reason Paul calls him his fellow prisoner. It would seem that he continued with Paul throughout his imprisonment, and he did so because he was sympathetic towards Paul, and wanted to share his burden. He was willing to forego his own liberty to help Paul spread the gospel.

The fourth man Paul mentions is a man whom we might say is given a second chance. Really that is true about all Christians, but we see it illustrated here particularly in the case of Mark. He describes him as “Barnabas’s cousin Mark (about whom you received instructions; if he comes to you, welcome him).”

You may remember Mark who went with Paul and Barnabas on missionary journey and somewhere along the way he decided he wanted to go back home. We don’t know the reason but it may have been loneliness or just missing home. He was a young man. Later, when Barnabas wanted to take Mark along on another missionary trip, Paul wouldn’t hear of it, because he considered Mark a deserter.They ended up getting in such a disagreement about it, that Paul and Barnabas split up, with Barnabas taking along Mark on a missions trip, and Paul taking Silas on another.

Well, by the time of this letter some time has passed, and it’s obvious that Mark has matured as a Christian and is now reconciled to Paul. In fact, later on Paul will say in 2 Timothy 4:11, “Take Mark and bring him with you, for he’s profitable to me for the ministry.” That was near the end of Paul’s life. But what is also very interesting is that somewhere along the way Mark became a prodigy of Peter. And after years of spending time with Peter God used Mark through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to write the Gospel of Mark.

So it should be very encouraging for us to see that God is the God of second chances. Even when we are faithless, He remains faithful. God is a God of reconciliation, and He has chosen to use us, the weak things, to do mighty things for Him.

Another man is mentioned here in this closing passage by Paul. One that I’m sure you have never heard of. In vs 11, speaking of the coming of Mark Paul adds, “and [also] Jesus who is called Justus; these are the only fellow workers for the kingdom of God who are from the circumcision, and they have proved to be an encouragement to me.”

I suppose that they called him Justus rather than Jesus because he did not consider himself fit to be called Jesus. Even though in Hebrew Jesus was Joshua and it was a fairly common name. But interestingly, the name Justus means righteous. So we have some indication from his name that this was a man who was committed in his faith. And that is what we might say concerning Justus, he was a man with a strong commitment.

Now what gives us that idea is that Paul says Justus and Mark and Aristarchus are the only fellow workers for the kingdom of God who are from the circumcision. What that indicates is that they were the only Jewish men who were working with Paul. Whenever Paul went into a new area he always began by ministering to the Jewish community. And it took a lot of commitment for a Jewish man to leave his people and all the heritage and traditions of the Jewish religion and follow someone like Paul. It would seem that only these three men were all that had come out from among the Jews. And Paul says that they were a source of encouragement to him.

Let’s look at the next person, Epaphras. Vs. 12 “Epaphras, who is one of your number, a bondslave of Jesus Christ, sends you his greetings, always laboring earnestly for you in his prayers, that you may stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God. For I testify for him that he has a deep concern for you and for those who are in Laodicea and Hierapolis.” We might say that Epaphras was a man of single purpose.

Epaphras was the pastor of the church at Colossae. He had come to Rome to tell Paul the trouble that the false teachers were teaching to the Colossians. And Paul is writing this letter to the Colossians in answer to what Epaphras has told him. Epaphras is going to stay awhile longer and spend more time with Paul. So Paul says he sends his greeting.

Notice that Paul says this pastor is always laboring for them in his prayers. A pastor should be a man of prayer and always be lifting up his people before the Lord. Furthermore, this pastor is concerned that they become mature in their faith. He is not just interested in filling an auditorium or even with just making converts. But he is concerned that they know the will of God and are completed in their faith. Not remaining infants, but mature. That’s the hallmark of a godly pastor. To disciple and shepherd his church.

He says in vs 13, “For I testify for him that he has a deep concern for you and for those who are in Laodicea and Hierapolis.” That word translated as a deep concern is more literally translated as much toil or great pain. His concern over his church is such that it causes him pain, he suffers because of his deep concern for the church. And that’s why he labors so intensely in prayer. He contends with God in prayer for his church. That’s the kind of leadership we see in a man like Moses who regularly went to bat for his people before the Lord, even to the point of wishing that he might be accursed in their place. Paul said the same thing about his countrymen. That’s the purpose of a pastor, to see His people come to maturity in Christ.

The next one Paul mentions is Luke. Now he should be a familiar figure to us all. Paul says in vs 14, “Luke, the beloved physician, sends you his greetings.” Luke was a physician. He attended to Paul. Paul, we believe, had problems with his eyes. Some say that it was the result of the Damascus road experience. Some say that the situation with his eyes might have been the thorn in the flesh that he asked God to take from him three times, and God did not. But God did give Dr. Luke to be a companion of Paul, to minister to him. God gave Paul his own personal physician.

Luke is a great illustration of a man who had a talent to offer to God. And he gave his talent to God, and God took his talent and gave him back a gift that was much greater. He gave up his practice in medicine, but he gained the privilege of being used by the Holy Spirit to write two of the books of the New Testament; the gospel of Luke, and the book of Acts. The gift that this man gave to the church, not just of that period, but for over 2000 years is something that cannot be compared to whatever fortunes that he might have given up for the sake of following Christ.

The last guy that Paul mentions is Demas. Demas was a man that seemed to be in good standing at that time, but in fact he had a sad future. In 2 Timothy 4:9, Paul says to Timothy, “Make every effort to come to me soon; for Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.” Demas abandoned Paul because he fell in love with the world. Demas is like a lot of people in the church today. They hang in for a while, they are around for a while, but they end up loving this present world more than they love God. It’s a life in contrast to chapter 3 vs 1, “since you have been raised up with Christ, then keep seeking the things above. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.” But for so many people like Demas, the things of this earth have a greater allure and they end up turning back to this present world and forsake the things of God. Perhaps Demas never was saved, we don’t know. But he certainly made a bad trade, giving up the eternal rewards of heaven for the temporary pleasures of this world.

Paul closes the letter in vs 15 saying, “Greet the brethren who are in Laodicea and also Nympha and the church that is in her house. When this letter is read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans; and you, for your part read my letter [that is coming] from Laodicea. Say to Archippus, ‘Take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, that you may fulfill it.’ I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. Remember my imprisonment. Grace be with you.

Notice that the church at Laodicea met at the house of Nympha. Laodicea was a neighboring town, sort of like Bethany is to Rehoboth. So there was a house church in Laodicea that met int he house of Nympha. We saw earlier that same situation in Colossae, where they met at the house of Philemon. Now neither Nympha nor Philemon are pastors, but they probably were wealthy enough to have a large house which served as the meeting place for the church. But even with a large house, it’s doubtful that these churches had more than 75 people or so in their congregation. Probably a lot less than that.

I think that Christianity today has gotten the wrong idea of what a church should look like. It’s evident from biblical history that those churches were small, intimate groups of people meeting together and serving one another in house churches. Today the church in America for the most part is the polar opposite. Pastors don’t even know the majority of their congregations names. Paul indicates an intimate knowledge of the people in his church and those churches that he had visited. And I think that kind of relationship is important if you are going to make diisciples, and fulfill the completion of their spiritual maturity as Epaphras was praying for his church.

The last person we should question is who is Archippus mentioned in vs17? Paul says to him, “Take heed of the ministry which you have received in the Lord that you may fulfill it.” In Philemon we read, “To the beloved Apphia, Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house.” Commentators believe that Apphia was Philemon’s wife and Archippus was Philemon’s son. Now Paul calls him a fellow soldier, but that may not be a reference to the military, but to a calling of God on his life to go into the ministry. And that seems to agree with the context of Colossians where Paul says take heed of the ministry which you have received in the Lord that you may fulfill it. Paul is encouraging him to continue to follow the Lord’s leading in his life. To continue to fulfill the ministry which God has given him to do. And in a prophetic sense, he is encouraging you and I to fulfill our ministry which we have been given in the Lord.

All of the people here mentioned at the close of this letter have a ministry. Most of them seem to be fulfilling it. Demas did not. He deserted. Mark deserted for a while as well, but he came back and accomplished great things for God. Archippus is just starting out it would seem. And Paul is encouraging him to complete his ministry, to fulfill it.

We are the church. We are the people God has chosen for ministry in this community. I hope you know what ministry you have been called to fulfill. We have all been called to be ministers of the kingdom of God, ambassadors of Christ. I urge you by the Spirit of God to be found faithful in completing your ministry. And if you are found faithful in the little things, then God will entrust you with greater things. I pray for each of you today, take heed of the ministry which you have received in the Lord that you may fulfill it.

Our speech is indicative of what we believe. Jesus said in Matt. 15:18 “But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man.” Your heart is revealed by your speech. There used to be a saying that I heard when I was growing up, which was the way to a man’s heart is through his mouth. I guess that was an inducement to young ladies that if they wanted to land a husband, they needed to be able to cook a good meal. I think that sort of thinking is out of vogue now. Nowadays, they just need to know how to text some nice restaurant and they can have it delivered.

But what Paul is indicating here in this passage before us is that which is in the heart comes out of the mouth. And if we have a new heart, since we are a new creation in Christ, we should be characterized by a new type of speech.

James speaking of the speech says in James 3:11 “Can a fountain send out from the same opening [both] fresh and bitter [water?]” Our new lives ought to reflect a new way of speaking, a new pattern of speech. And so this brief section of scripture here at the end of this little epistle is about this new speech that we should have in this new life we have in Christ.

Now there are four patterns of speech, or four areas of speech that Paul talks about here which should be emblematic of our new life in Christ. And the first is what we might call the speech of prayer. That’s found in vs 2, “Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving.” Prayer should be the primary element in our speech as we live out this new life in the Spirit. Prayer is spiritual communication with God. And if we are “in Christ” and we are to walk by the Spirit and not by the flesh, then it stands to reason that we are in constant communication with God. He is the Master and Commander of our lives, and if we are to live as He would have us live, in His power, then we must be in constant communication with Him.

I cannot imagine deliberately sinning, or preparing to sin, and praying beforehand, can you? Prayer precludes sin. If you are tempted to sin, and someone asks you to pray, you would have to be so convicted that it would prevent you from continuing in that sin. Prayer is a preventive. Jesus said in Matt.26:41 “Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

And prayer is a restorative. When you sin, you have the immediate recourse to prayer and cleansing and restoration. 1John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” And furthermore, you might say that prayer is a preparative. It prepares you to walk by the Spirit, so that you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. It prepares you to receive the power to do the will of God.

Now Paul speaks here of a devotion to prayer. Devote can be translated to mean to continue, to persevere, to constantly engage in. It’s to have a constant attitude of prayer. 1Thess. 5:17 says, “pray without ceasing.” And Eph 6:18 says, “With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints.” We should constantly be in communication with the Lord who is the source of our life. It’s the primary speech pattern of the new life.

I think prayer is the most under appreciated aspect of the Christian life. And it’s also probably the most misunderstood. Let me clarify something else about prayer. Prayer is not speaking in tongues in an unknown language to God, where you have no idea what you have said. That makes no sense whatsoever. It’s not the Holy Spirit praying through your lips. The Holy Spirit doesn’t need your lips to communicate to the Father. Prayer must be articulate, it must be intelligent. Prayer must be meaningful. Prayer is not meaningless repetition. Jesus said in Matt. 6:7 “And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words.” So this idea that speaking in tongues is prayer to God is just not biblical. At it’s best it is meaningless repetition that means nothing to you and consequently accomplishes nothing with God.

Paul says continue or devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it. In the KJV it says keeping watch in prayer. Some theologians have said that word “watch” refers to looking for the second advent of the Lord, or the second coming of Christ. The idea of watching is sometimes associated in scripture with Jesus Christ coming back. That expectation should certainly color our lives. It should be something we expect to happen at any time. We should live in the constant expectancy and hope that today might be the day that the Lord returns.

But I don’t think that is what Paul means when he says keep alert or keep watch. I think it goes back to what Jesus said which I quoted before from Matthew 26:41 “Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” I think keep watching in prayer or keep alert in prayer is reminiscent of Peter’s admonition in 1Peter 5:8 “Be of sober [spirit,] be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” Be on the alert in prayer, because it is the Lord who will deliver you from the jaws of the lion. We don’t see the devil, but we can be on the alert for his schemes through prayer.

And our prayers to that effect should be coupled with thanksgiving, Paul says. Now that does not mean that we dutifully check off a list of things we thank God for so we can then move on to our petitions. But what it does indicate is that thankfulness precludes envy and dissatisfaction. If we remind ourselves of what we have to be thankful for, then we are less likely to find ourselves dissatisfied and grumpy about what lot our lives have been given. Even in the midst of troubles and trials and tribulations, Paul found plenty to be thankful for. Remember he is writing this epistle from prison, while in chains. And yet he starts the epistle in chapter one vs three saying, “We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you.” We need to cultivate an attitude of thankfulness, regardless of our immediate circumstances. So the new life should be characterized by new speech which continues in prayer.

The second attribute of speech in this new life is the speech, not of prayer, but verse 3 and 4, the speech of proclamation. “praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned; that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak.”  Twice you see the word “speak.”  Once you see the phrase, “the word.”  Once you see the word “clear.”  And all of those words have to do with of the speech of proclamation. 

Notice that Paul says pray that God will open to us a door for the word, that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ. The mystery of Christ is simply the gospel. Our new speech in this new life should be that which speaks forth the gospel as revealed by the word. We are ministers of the word. You are ministers, not in the sense of a pastor, but in the sense of an official, an ambassador of the kingdom of God. It’s important that you know the word. It’s important that you are able to proclaim the word. To share the word.

Paul wrote something very similar in Ephesians 6:19, “Pray for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.”  He says pray for me that I might be bold; pray for me that a door for the Word might be opened up.  This man was aware that he had been given a mission, a ministry.  He didn’t ask them to pray for his personal needs.  He didn’t say, “Pray for me that I’ll hold up under the stress.”  He didn’t say, “Pray for me that I get released from prison.”  He just said, “Pray for me, that I’ll open my mouth, and find an open door to proclaim the Word.”

The priority of this new speech is the proclamation of the gospel. That was Paul’s priority, and it should be our priority. I’m afraid that far too often though its not something we think too much about. We’re too concerned about whether or not we might offend someone. We are too concerned that it might seem awkward to talk about the gospel. But the gospel really is the most important thing in the world, that people might know how they can be made right with God and receive eternal life.

We need to pray, like Paul, that God would open a door for us to speak to our friends and loved ones concerning the gospel. To have an open door means to have an opportunity. You know, when I seek the Lord’s will concerning things I ask Him to either open or shut the door. And I can tell you that the majority of the time it seems that God shuts the door. And the way that I think God leads me is that there is only one door left that seems to be open. But then we have to walk through that door. God is not going to carry us across the threshold. But He will open a door for us to proclaim the gospel if we ask Him to.

In Revelation, chapter 3, verse 7, it says this: “To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These things says He that is holy, He that is true, He that has the key of David, He that opens and no man shuts; and shuts, and no man opens.”  He says, “I know your works: I have set before you an open door.” God can and will open a door for us to proclaim His gospel.

Paul goes on to say in vs 4, “that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak.”  I’m afraid sometimes that a good message proclaimed in a bad way will do just about as much harm as a bad message.  Paul asks for prayer that he would speak the way he should, and that he would speak it correctly, to speak the way God would have him speak about the gospel.

You know, there are a number of ways that you can speak the gospel incorrectly. I will give you four ways which it is commonly presented incorrectly. One, is the experience centered proclamation. That’s where someone gets up and tells a story of how their life was changed. They never really present the gospel, or the word of God, just the experience that happened to them, whatever that might be. And so the hearer may be drawn to have a similar experience, but he doesn’t understand what’s involved in salvation according to the word.

The second way to falsely proclaim, is what might be called an ego-centric proclamation. You appeal to their ego. To their desires. Christ can solve all your problems. Christ can heal you, restore your marriage, help you financially. And so the person responds on that basis, expecting God to solve all their problems. And so often they end up disillusioned and end up falling away because Christ didn’t deliver in the way they thought He should.

The third way can be called expedience proclamation, where all you want is some sort of commitment, regardless of what they know or don’t know. Those kinds of presentations often rely on another method, which is emotional proclamation, where the emotions are manipulated to get people to respond. The music is playing softly, the appeal is couched in some heartbreaking story, and the person starts crying, and they respond with an emotional commitment to something that they think has to do with God, but they don’t really know what happened other than they felt something or had some sort of emotional experience.

Paul says, let me speak in a way that is clear, that makes clear the truth of the gospel, and let me proclaim it as God would have me to do it. That should be our goal as well.

The third way our speech is different now that we are Christians is the new man is going to have the speech of what we might call performance. Verse 5: “Walk in wisdom toward them that are outside, redeeming the time.” Here he’s talking about the speech of performance, or how you act. 

Have you ever heard the saying, “Your actions are so loud I cannot hear what you are saying?” What Paul is indicating here is a lifestyle that speaks louder than your words. Walk, he says. That’s lifestyle. That’s behavior. What you do comes before what you say. People aren’t going to listen to you prattle on about the Lord if your actions are contrary to His teaching.

Paul is talking about our testimony before outsiders; meaning those outside the church. These are the unsaved. He says walk or act with wisdom towards those who are unsaved. What does he mean by wisdom? A wisdom of this world? Are we to make sure we talk in a way that is hip, that is relevant, so that the people of the world think we’re cool and they will listen to us? Are we to model the look and dress and behavior and sounds of the world so that they will accept us and then listen to us? Is that what he is saying?

It certainly seems to be the way a lot of churches today interpret this. One well known church in Chicago a number of years ago, which became a model for most of the large modern churches today, in the beginning of their ministry they sent out a questionnaire to the community, and they asked them what features that turned them off about church, and what kind of things that they would like to see in a church. And after all the responses were evaluated, they designed their church to be like what the unsaved people in the community wanted to see. They called it the seeker friendly church. And they were very popular for a while and built a mega church that became a template for hundreds of other churches to emulate. But is that walking in wisdom towards outsiders? I don’t think that is what Paul is talking about.

It simply means walking in the wisdom of the word. Colossians 1:9,“For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; That you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing.”  You have been saved, you have been given wisdom to understand the mystery of the gospel. And you need to be filled with the wisdom of godly living that you might walk in it. Wisdom is the application of knowledge.  Especially in our testimony to the unsaved, we need to live lives that are a reflection of Christ. We need to apply the truth of the gospel to our daily lives. We need to live godly. We need to avoid the temptations of the world. We need to put on the behaviors which Paul enumerated in the previous chapter.

Here is walking in wisdom. Ch. 3:12-17 “So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. Beyond all these things [put on] love, which is the perfect bond of unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms [and] hymns [and] spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Whatever you do in word or deed, [do] all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.” That’s walking in wisdom, and we should make sure that our lives exemplify that lifestyle to the eyes of a watching world.

Then he says, “Redeeming the time,” that’s the literal translation of the end of vs 5. What does that mean?  Time there is not kronos, from which we chronology or chronograph, which means time in terms of clock time.  It is kairos, which means time in terms of opportunity.  It should translate “making the most of every opportunity.”  Psalm 90 says “So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.”  It’s a matter of making the most of opportunity.  You know, opportunity is fleeting.  Life is short.  People are dying.  You don’t know how much time you have.  Jesus is coming soon. So make the most of the opportunity that you have to speak the truth to someone.

The Bible talks about the door being shut.  The Bible talks about the night that’s coming, when no man can work.  The Bible talks about Jesus removing the candlestick which is the light of the church. It’s important that we recognize that time is fleeting, and opportunity doesn’t always give us a second chance. You have today. You have the opportunity today to make sure you have said everything that can be said to your loved one or to your friend or co worker. The night is coming when no man can work.

That leads us to the fourth type of speech characteristic of the new life – the speech of perfection. Vs 6 “Let your speech always be with grace, [as though] seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.” Now this phrase, “Let your speech be always with grace.”  He’s talking about our general conversation.  The mouth of a Christian should utter the speech of perfection.  Never out of the mouth of a Christian should come that stuff that Paul listed in chapter 3: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech and lying.

But rather Paul says let your mouth speak graciousness.  What is courteous, what is kind, what is tasteful.  What is purposeful, what is complimenting, what is gentle, what is truthful, what is loving, what is thoughtful.  Not bitter, abrasive, vindictive, sarcastic, angry, cutting, boastful, none of those things should characterize your speech.  Your speech should be gracious.

Then Paul adds, “Seasoned with salt.”  Not just gracious, but your speech ought to be worth something. Salt was used for money in those days. Salt was also used as a preservative to stop corruption. Salt was used to cleanse as well. So your speech should be a purifier that prevents corruption.  Your speech should act as a purifying, wholesome, cleansing influence, rescuing the sinner from the corruption that is in the world.

The Greeks had another thought here.  They said the idea of salt was the idea of wit.  And wit is the ability to say just the right thing at just the right time.  There is a saying which was penned by Shakespeare which is; “brevity is the soul of wit.” It means the essence of an effective statement lies in its concise wording and delivery.

And isn’t that what Paul is saying?  “That you may know how you ought to answer every man.”  You’ve got the right answer for just the right time, and just the right person.   The right word at the right time to the right person, the speech of perfection. And that perfect speech is gained through prayer, through the study of God’s word, and through practice in proclamation.

I can tell you from experience that you get better at articulating the gospel the more that you do it. The more you practice it the more comfortable you become, and the better you become at finding the right words. A lot of people are afraid of speaking to someone about the gospel because they have never done it. They’re afraid that they won’t know what to say. But the fact is that God can help you know what to say. And as you step out in faith, and are obedient to His command to be a witness, He not only will provide the help you need, but you will develop more confidence and competence as you commit yourself to doing it.

Well, thank God we have a new life in Christ. An as a result we are to have a new type of speech. Devote yourselves to prayer. Pray that a door would be opened for proclamation of the gospel. Then act in wisdom towards those who are outsiders, making the most of every opportunity. And finally, practice the speech of perfection; Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.” May God grant us the desire to obey His will in our speech.

In chapters one and two, Paul has expressed a litany of doctrinal principles that we have in Christ. He has shared his concerns about false doctrines that were permeating the church. But now in chapter three we see a change in his approach. His concern now is not so much doctrinal as it is practical. Not that doctrine isn’t practical. It is very much so. But it’s the application of doctrine which is what we mean by practical.

Now as we look at this first verse, we notice that it begins with the word “if.” In this case that word does not indicate something questionable, but it would be better if it were translated “since.” All the doctrine which has been said previously in Colossians up to this point has established the fact of our salvation. So Paul is not now questioning our salvation with the word “if”, but he is going to build on that fact, and so he begins with “since.”

Vs 1 then says, “Therefore if (or since) you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” Now to understand what is meant here, we need to flip back to the previous chapter and look at verse 20 which starts in a very similar fashion; “If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!”

We can apply the same translation of the word “if” to “since” in this verse as well. So notice then what Paul is saying. He says in 2:20, “since you have died with Christ…” And now in 3:1 he says “since you have been raised up with Christ…” Now that should help us to understand what he’s talking about in vs 1. He is speaking of our conversion, our death and spiritual resurrection to new life through our representative Jesus Christ.

Perhaps we can get another perspective of what he is talking about by looking at Rom 6:2-11 “How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with [Him] in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be [in the likeness] of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with [Him,] in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

Ok then, it should be clear that Paul is referencing our salvation, illustrated by baptism – the fact that we have died with Christ, died to the old sin nature, and in effect buried with Him. So that since we have died with Christ, the sin nature no longer has dominion over us. We are made new creations. We are raised from death to a new life in Christ.

So since we have died with Christ, we have also been raised with Him to live a new life. Baptism symbolizes this fact. It’s an outward illustration of what has transpired inwardly. If we have died with Him, then we are raised with Him to newness of life. So that we walk in newness of life. We walk by the spirit and not according to the flesh. Our focus isn’t on temporal things, but our focus is on eternal things.

And that’s exactly what Paul indicates here in vs 1. “Since you have been raised up with Christ keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” So now that we have been converted from death to life, Paul says we are to keep seeking the things above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. We have a different outlook, a different perspective. It’s a spiritual perspective. It’s a Christ centered perspective.

Notice a couple of things that Paul says of Christ. Christ is in heaven with God. He is alive, eternal in the heavens. He is seated; that indicates that His work is finished. His redemptive, representative work on our behalf is finished. And at the right hand of God indicates the place of honor and privilege. It indicates the place of intercession.

Consider what Hebrews 7:24-27 “but Jesus, on the other hand, because He continues forever, holds His priesthood permanently. Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens; who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the [sins] of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.”

I like that phrase; “he is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him.” Our eternal security rests in the eternal Son who lives forever, and is above all rule and authority, having paid the price for our sins, who was the perfect, complete and final sacrifice so that we might be made complete and perfect in Him. And He intercedes on our behalf at the right hand of God. The favored, privileged position whereby He is able to save us forever by His power, and by His righteousness.

So since you have been raised up with Christ, since you have been reconciled, redeemed, justified, sanctified, cleansed, made new, forgiven, given new life in Christ, then keep looking to Christ. He is our example, He is our Help, He is our Comforter, He is our Guide, He is our Shepherd. He is our Master. He is our Lord. Keep looking to Him for everything relating to this new life. Keep pursuing Christ, keep following Christ. Keep seeking Christ. As James says, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.”

Now how do we do that in practical ways? Paul says in vs 2, “[by setting] your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.” I like the KJV rendering of this verse better actually. It says, “Set your affection on things above, not on things that are on the earth.” I like that word affection because it indicates this is a matter of the heart. Now the mind is a part of what is referred to as the heart, but affection indicates what you desire, what you admire, what you like or don’t like. As Proverbs 23:7 says, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” So you can think with your heart. The natural man is ruled by his heart, he is ruled by his affections. The heart by the way refers to the seat of your emotions, your will and your intellect. And part of our salvation experience is that we have a change of heart. We are given a new heart.

Ezekiel 36:25-27 speaking prophetically of this conversion God will says, “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.” So if we are given a new heart then we will have new desires, new affections and a new mind.

So let us set, affix, focus our affections, our minds, on things above. I have two dogs that live in our house, Maggie, an older lab, and Jackson, a young Siberian Husky. They have completely different personalities and temperaments. But they are both alike in one respect. When we sit down to eat at the dinner table, they sit up on their haunches with their ears erect, and their gaze fixed resolutely on us. They are not distracted by anything else, they watch us intently. I sometimes can’t help but think God created dogs to teach us how we are to act in our relationship with Him.

Dogs cannot understand everything we humans are doing. They have to look to us to feed them, to water them, to take them for a walk. They are totally dependent upon us whether they realize it or not. And when it comes to food, they want to sit where they can get an uninterrupted, unobstructed view of everything we are doing.

Perhaps that’s sort of the idea of how we should set our attention on Christ. Christ is the source of our life and so we should be looking to Him for our satisfaction. Paul understands though that our affections can be turned back to the things of the world. And our love of the world keeps us from unaffected love of God. Jesus said in Luke 12:34 “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

I’m reminded of Lot’s wife. Remember how the angel of the Lord told them as he was delivering them from the impending destruction, to not look back. But Lot’s wife did look back, and she was turned into a pillar of salt. That serves as a great lesson to not look back at the former things of the natural man. To look back with affection on the things of the world leads to destruction. But now that we have a new life, we need to have a new purpose, a new perspective, new desires. And seek those things which are above, not the things of earth.

That of course does not mean that we go live in a monastery or something and forego all earthly necessities, or earthly pleasures that God has given us to enjoy like marriage and children and even the work of our hands. But what it means is those things are not the focus of our lives now. We are no longer wrapped up in our careers, focused on society, or even all wrapped up in our family or those we love. We have a higher calling, a higher devotion, and consequently, a spiritual perspective. We look beyond the immediate to the eternal. We have a new heart with different affections. And our supreme affection is for Christ.

Vs 3 says, “For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” Now we have already discussed this aspect of dying with Christ. But what does it mean our new life is hidden with Christ? I think it means that the new life is spiritual, and not physical. Our spirit is made alive, is made new when we are born again. It was made new in Christ. As He was raised from the dead, so are we. But from outward appearances, there is very little physically to suggest that. It’s an inward transformation, not a physical one per se. Certainly, there will be behavior differences between the old and the new life, but as far as appearances go, there is very little.

But also the word hidden indicates our spiritual union with Christ. We are now part of His body, the church. He is in us, and we are in Him. Furthermore the word hidden also indicates security. We are hidden in Him means that we are safe in Him, we are secure in Him, we are protected in Him. It is a common theme in the Psalms to speak of being in the shadow of His wings. It’s a place of refuge from destruction. So whatever destruction that may lay wait for us, we find refuge under His wings, and we are hidden in Him. In a manner of speaking, we are born again and like the offspring of an eagle who provides for and protects her young until they are mature, so we are kept hidden in Christ, protected, provided for, until the day of our completion.

In that day we will no longer stay hidden. In vs 4 Paul says, “When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.” There will be a day when Christ will come to earth again, visibly, physically. He will come in power. He will come to claim HIs kingdom. And in that day we that are saved will also be revealed physically in a new body.

1John 3:2 says, “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.” When Jesus returns, the dead in Christ shall rise first, then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together to be with the Lord. And this old body will be changed to that which is incorruptible and undefiled, and from that which is temporary to immortal. Then we will be revealed in all our glory, for we shall be like Him and share in His glory.

So since this is who we are, and who we will be revealed to be, let us act like the people that Christ has redeemed for His own. Let us behave as children of God. Let us live the kind of lifestyle that comes as a result of our new life in Christ.

Let’s look at it this way. You were dead in your sins. You were by nature corrupt and vile. But , now you have been washed, cleansed, regenerated. You are made new. It’s like your mother making you take a bath when you were little, and then saying to you, “Son, you have just taken a bath, now don’t you dare put those old dirty clothes back on. Put on some fresh, clean clothes. That’s basically what Paul is saying in the remainder of this chapter. You have been given a bath spiritually. Now first of all put away the old dirty clothes of the past, and then put on these new clean clothes of righteousness.

Unfortunately, we are only going to have the time today to talk about what you need to put off. Next week we will look at what you need to put on. Here then in vs 5, is what Paul says we need to put to death. “Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.”

Have you ever gotten your clothes so filthy that there was nothing left to do but throw them away? That’s how Paul describes these sins. They need to be put to death. Put to death the sinful way of life which belongs to your old nature. And the first one that you must put to death is immorality. That word refers to all forms of sexual intercourse outside of God honored marriage. It’s what is called “fornication” elsewhere in Scripture; and adultery, which is sexual misbehavior by a married person with someone other than his or her mate. This is to be “put to death” by all Christians. The Word of God is absolutely clear on this. Eph. 5:5 says, “For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.” Anything having to do with fornication outside of marriage cannot be something we engage in in this new life.

The second sin is “impurity.” It is the word for “uncleanness.” It refers to being corrupted, depraved, indecent. It may simply be expressed as hedonism. Then he says put off passion. Passion is being inflamed with desire for something. The Bible speaks of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. Passion is closely related to lust. Lust consumes, and it is never satisfied. It only craves more and more, often leading to the destruction of that individual.

Evil desire is a lust for evil. Lust leads to even more vileness, which is a desire for evil. And then Paul mentions greed. Greed is covetousness. Greed is desiring more than what you have, more than what God has given to you. Ambition is one thing, in your career, or in your business dealings it’s fine to have ambition. But greed is the evil side of ambition. It’s wanting more than is right. It’s wanting what someone else has. Its’ wanting something that doesn’t rightfully belong to you. And Paul says greed is idolatry. Idolatry is worshipping something, isn’t it? And it’s possible to be guilty of idolatry because of your desire for a woman, or a man, or a car, or a house, or anything that you prioritize ahead of your relationship with God.

But as Christians we too often tend to accept these practices and to excuse or overlook the error of those who fall into them. The apostle says there are two things wrong that that acceptance. First, he says in vs 6, “For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience.”

The wrath of God is the judicial response of God to evil. In many cases, it is the inherent destruction that such sins carry with them. If you get drunk, for instance, there is an inherent judgment that is a part of drunkenness. It might mean that you wreck your car, or lose your life in some drunken accident, or you lose your family. It’s not always the same thing in every case, but all sin is destructive, and there are inherent consequences to sin that are part of the wrath of God.

But as a child of God, should you revert to your old desires and fall back into one of these evil practices, then you can expect God to discipline you as a son. And that too is a part of the wrath of God. In speaking of striving against the sinful nature, the author of Hebrews tells us in chapter 12:6 “FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES.” If you’re a child of God and you continue in sin, you can expect Him to discipline you. You will face the wrath of God.

The second reason Paul gives is stated in verse 7: “and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them.” That kind of sinful lifestyle isn’t what God has saved you to live. It’s a part of the past life. And that past life is one that brings destruction and it caused the death penalty to be placed upon us. It’s not who we are made to be in Christ. We are a new creation. 2Co 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone [is] in Christ, [he is] a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” We are no longer walking the old paths, but walk in a new way, the way of Christ.

Peter said in [1Pe 4:3 NASB] 3 For the time already past is sufficient [for you] to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties and abominable idolatries.” That time past should have been sufficient for you to realize the end of that life is destructive, and damning. Why would you turn back after being washed and cleaned up and put back on those filthy clothes? You have a new resource, a new power, a new life, a Savior who will help you in every moment of temptation, and by His power you can put that old lifestyle away. You can put it to death.

Then Paul takes us to a deeper level, to our inner attitudes in Vs 8, “But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, [and] abusive speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its [evil] practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him—“

In this new life we are now different, therefore we should act differently. Our heart is different. We have new affections. You are to put off your old self. Paul described this earlier in this letter as “being circumcised with Christ.” A cutting off of the flesh. You are no longer what you once were. You have “put on the new self,” which is growing and increasing in knowledge of righteousness. The more you learn about this new life the more you will find you can put away the old. It is increasing in knowledge, growing into the image of Christ. Children grow up to look like their parents. So we should grow up to look like Christ.

So Paul gives us a list of attitudes to renounce. First, he says we no longer are to give way to anger. Anger is contrary to acting in love. As believers, we must not act in anger any more. We must not give way to anger. The Lord said to Cain, “why are you angry?” “Sin is crouching at the door, and it’s desire is for you, but you must master it.” Put anger away. It leads to sin.

The second word is “wrath.” This refers to vindictiveness. It’s taking your anger out on someone else. And wrath is closely related to the next word, malice. Malice is the hidden hatred of the heart. It’s acting in spite. Then related to that is slander. Slander is speaking ill of someone to injure them. I think we are guilty of all these sins of the tongue more than we would like to admit. James says in James 3:6 “And the tongue is a fire, the [very] world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of [our] life, and is set on fire by hell.” What comes out of the mouth reveals the heart.

The next phrase is abusive speech. I think that covers a lot of territory. It’s not just cursing. It’s demeaning someone. It’s talking down to someone. It’s abusing your authority over someone by what you say to them. Your words can wound deeper than any sword.

And then lying. Lying is bearing false witness. It’s one of the 10 commandments. It’s representing something falsely. How often do we do that? I think we do it without thinking sometimes. We may even excuse it as a means of trying to protect someone. But as Christians we are to be the ambassadors of truth. What we say must be trustworthy. We must be able to be believed, because we speak for God. So false witness, lying is something we must put off, and ultimately put to death.

And Paul speaks of that change in a positive way saying, “Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its [evil] practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him—“ Notice the conjunctive “Since” you laid aside the old self. I pray that is true. Past tense. That you have died to the old man with Christ. You have laid it aside. You no longer carry with you the remnants of that old nature. Put it to death. God has given us a new life, put it on. He has clothed you in righteousness, wear it. Practice righteousness. Practice holiness. Practice walking in His steps day by day, hour by hour. Keeping your gaze fixed on Him who will keep you, and sustain you, and hold you as you draw near to Him.

Notice Paul speaks of this new life as a renewal to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him. As we look at Christ, we learn how we can be conformed to His image. We learn to be like Christ by looking at Christ. And then in our daily walk we practice what we have learned. We walk in HIs footsteps.

Peter said in 1Peter 2:21 “For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps.” That is what this new life is all about. Christ has called us, saved us out of the life we once lived, the life dominated by sin, by evil passions and attitudes. And now by faith in Him we have been washed, we have been cleansed, made new, and like children we walk in HIs footsteps, follow in His example in our actions and in our attitudes.

Next week we will see more specifically those things we are to put on in this walk of faith in Christ. But for now, I hope it’s sufficient to recognize those elements of the past life that need to be put off and put to death, in light of who we are in Christ. Paul says no matter our heritage, there is no physical distinction in our life with Christ, no matter if we are Greek or Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all. He is our life. He is our affection. He is our example. He is our Lord.

I trust that you are hidden in Christ. I hope that He is your Savior and Lord. Faith in Him is the beginning of this new life. He has made salvation available to all who believe in Him and confess Him as Lord. You can have that eternal life in Christ today.

Last week in the previous passage we looked at what Paul describes as the fullness of our salvation.  We said that in Christ we have all the benefits of our salvation complete.  There is no need to seek some sort of higher knowledge, or add some philosophy or experience in order to have all that need.  We are made completely saved in Christ.

This week, we’re looking at the remainder of this chapter in which Paul continues with that line of thought, but he now is going to counter specific false doctrines which were being circulated in the church of Colossae.  In these last eight verses, Paul  gives us three areas of false teaching that were pervasive in the Colossian church, and I believe are still in effect in the 21st century church as well. 

These three areas of false teaching Paul addresses are legalism, spiritualism or mysticism, and asceticism. And I hope to explain what those doctrines look like as we go through this passage. There is an ancient Chinese proverb which says, “Know thy enemy.”  And I think it is very helpful to us to unmask these false doctrines so that we might know better how to defend our faith against the deception and attacks of the enemy. 

So first of all, Paul warns against what we may call legalism.  He says in vs 16, “Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day—“  Now as we have always been taught to do, we must look back to see what “therefore” refers to.  Because what he says after “therefore” is contingent on what he said previously.  And as I said a moment ago, “therefore” refers to the fullness of salvation which we have in Christ.  Our salvation needs nothing other than what Christ has procured for us through His death and resurrection.  We don’t need Christ plus mysticism or Christ plus legalism, or Christ plus asceticism.  Christ alone is sufficient for all our spiritual needs.

But Paul wants to address some specific issues that were being taught at the church in Colossae. And the first one is that of legalism. In previous messages we have called the false teaching that was being offered in the Colossian church Gnostic Judaism.  You’re not going to find that title in Wikipedia.  Gnosticism would seem to have become popular a number of years after this epistle.  But it seems with Paul’s emphasis on the worship of angels and the subject of spirituality that the roots of Gnosticism had already begun infiltrating the church. 

Judaism of course is a reference to the religion of the Pharisees – Jews that put a great deal of emphasis on the outward appearance of things in relation to the law, but of whom Jesus said they were like whitewashed tombs  – clean and white on the outside, but rotten and corrupted on the inside. But the system of Judaism claimed spirituality based on keeping the law and ceremonies, as well as certain traditions passed down from their leaders.

So combining those two false teachings produces what we call Gnostic Judaism.  Paul first describes those areas which we might term as legalism.  They have to do with the law, or the keeping of the law.  It would seem that they refer to Judaism and the practices of eating only certain foods and drink. 

Some of those restrictions on food and drink had been given to the Jews in the Mosaic law.  The purpose of them was either to create a unique situation or to keep them from eating something that would be harmful to them physically or nutritionally. Primarily the issue, in the old covenant was that God wanted a peculiar people. God wanted a people set apart from the rest of the world by a different lifestyle, and one of the ways He did that was by prescribing a different diet. Because of their diet, the Jews were socially distant from the people of the country they were living in because they couldn’t eat together. And that was the plan of God for them. He didn’t want them to intermingle. He wanted them to be separate from the pagan world. 

So God gave these laws to the Jews, but in the new covenant, those laws were set aside.  In Acts 10, there is the account of Peter on the rooftop when God gave him a vision of all sorts of clean and unclean animals and God told him to kill and eat, and that all meat was declared clean.  Then in  Acts 15 that principle is elaborated upon by the apostles in Jerusalem to say that none of the old dietary restrictions were to be put upon the Gentile church. And that principle is echoed repeatedly in the New Testament.  For instance, Romans 14:17 says, “for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

But as we probably all are aware, the Jews didn’t stop with just restrictions on food, but they had added all types of traditions to the law, very often with elaborate ceremonies like hand washing which were not dictated by the commandments. And it would seem that sort of thing was being advocated in Colossae. 

So to paraphrase Paul, he says, “Don’t be deceived; don’t be tricked. Don’t let anybody judge you on the basis of what you eat or drink. Don’t let anybody evaluate your spirituality on that basis. And you know the same thing happens in Christianity today in many circles. Some sects teach that you must keep the dietary laws of the Jews.  Others teach you must be vegetarian. There will always be people who want to judge everyone’s spirituality by what they do externally: how they eat, what they eat, how they drink or what they drink, whether they keep certain rituals and requirements which they think are necessary to be spiritual.  

But the problem with that kind of spiritual evaluation is this: that somebody who isn’t a true Christian can qualify on the basis of their works.  So a test of your Christianity, it produces a false positive, so to speak.  It’s not that true Christians won’t manifest some different behavior than the world, but the problem is that those who aren’t  can always conform to some external standard. And so judging by that type of standard doesn’t reveal true spirituality.

Galatians 5:1 speaks to this principle, saying,  “For freedom, Christ has set us free; therefore, stand fast and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” Christ set you free to live as free; so don’t go back to legalism. That’s the yoke of bondage which Peter said neither they nor the patriarchs had been able to bear.

And then Paul adds in vs 16, “Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day—” – don’t let these false teachers try to define your spirituality by whether you go to the Passover, or the Pentecost, or the Feast of Tabernacles, or the Feast of Lights, or any of those ceremonies and holy days which were prescribed by the law – “or a new moon” – Numbers 28 tells us that the sacrifice was made on the first day of the month of the new moon – “or of a Sabbath day.”

So you have annual observances, and monthly observances and weekly observances. Rituals, ceremonies, what were called holy days.  That’s where we get our word holiday, by the way, from holy days.  There are a number of various groups through the centuries who have advocated either a return to the Jewish Sabbath, Saturday, or they want to ascribe Sabbath restrictions on Sunday, as the Sunday Sabbath. But the scripture doesn’t teach either one of those.

I remember though back in my twenties when I was not living for the Lord.  And I came under the influence of someone who was a Seventh Day Adventist.  And I had never given much thought to the Sabbath before that time.  And I became really confused about whether or not it was necessary to keep the Sabbath and return to Saturday observance.  

But this passage here makes it clear that no one is to be your judge in regards to keeping the Sabbath.  Romans 14 says “One person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike.”  And in the early days of the church there were people who were being converted out of Judaism, and their conscience bothered them concerning the Sabbath.  Paul allowed such to do as their conscience dictated.  But it was never ok to be taught that that keeping the Sabbath is a necessary requirement for salvation, or to achieve some higher spiritual plane.  It’s a ceremony that speaks of a future fulfillment in Christ.  Hebrews 4:9 teaches that the Sabbath rest is fulfilled in Christ for us,  having accomplished His finished work on the cross, having sat down at the Father’s right hand. So as was the practice of the early church, we worship on the Lord’s Day, the first day of the week, which is Sunday. And we have been set free from the restrictions of the Sabbath.

And I will make one last point about the Sabbath.  And that is that those who practice it do not really practice it according to the Law.  You can be very glad that we are not under that yoke any longer.  In Judaism it was a burden, it was not the rest that God intended it to be.

Now the rebuttal to all these legalistic doctrines is found in vs 17. [These] “things which are a [mere] shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.”  These ceremonial, ritualistic things are a foreshadow. But the reality, the fulfillment is Christ. All these laws and all these legalistic things, they were just shadow. A shadow just anticipates the arrival of somebody, and when He comes, and you no longer need the shadow. Or another way of saying it, they were pictures, and when you have the reality, you no longer need the picture. 

Here’s the principle. Spirituality is not a matter of adding some external ritual or ceremony, but  its’a matter of the invisible attributes, a matter of the heart and your relationship with Jesus Christ.   So Paul is saying don’t let anybody intimidate you by the fact that if don’t do something, therefore you’re not spiritual.” It’s a matter of the heart, not external rituals.

Now the second area of concern in this false teaching in Colossae is what I am calling spiritualism or mysticism.  And we find Paul’s admonition concerning that in vs 18 and 19. “Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on [visions] he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind,  and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God.”

Now don’t be confused, we are to be spiritual, but spiritualism is not spiritual.  It’s perhaps better called mysticism. What is mysticism?” Mysticism is a deeper or higher experience which one believes gives them an exalted knowledge of God or the mysteries of God. It’s like saying, “Well, I’ve had an experience that I can’t define, but I’ve touched God, or have come to understand something from God.”

Now what Paul says is that kind of thing can make you believe you have missed out on all that God has for you because you haven’t had a particular experience. He says that teaching defrauds you of the prize.  What is the prize?  It’s a full, complete, relationship with Jesus Christ.  It’s knowing all that He has for you and being content in that knowledge. It’s peace with God.  It’s assurance.  And as Paul indicates in this statement about the growth of the body it’s spiritual maturity. You cannot have spiritual maturity if you think that it comes from a false source rather than from following Christ completely.  If you’re seeking spiritual maturity from some sort of fake mystical experience then you’re going to miss out on the real prize of spiritual maturity.

Now Paul gives some examples of mysticism, or false spirituality which were being promoted in the church.  “Delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind.” 

Delighting in self-abasement is another way of saying they delight in humility.  I would suggest he’s talking about fake humility.  It’s humility on parade.  The Pharisees loved to be seen fasting and wearing sack cloth and ashes.  That’s a false humility on parade.  I’m afraid we see a version of that today often times at Lent, with people advertising that they are fasting by going around with ashes on their face. Another way that is done is through restrictions in dress, by only wearing certain somber colors, or not allowing cosmetics or jewelry, or even avoiding hygienic practices. A look at church history reveals many things like that in practice from time to time. But whatever means by which it occurs, they were advocating some sort of self abasement by which they thought they achieved spirituality. 

And next, Paul says they worshipped angels, verse 18. What does that mean? This is where the Gnostic influence comes in, by the worship of angels.  They believed that they could achieve higher knowledge through the angels.  But the scripture says that there is one mediator between God and man. And who is that? Jesus Christ. But they were being urged to worship angels, denying the one mediator between God and man.

There is ample evidence at this particular time in Colossae that angel worship was very prevalent. But the scripture tells us that angel worship is forbidden. In Revelation, when John tried to worship an angel, twice the angel said, “Get up, do not worship me; I am a fellow servant of yours. Worship God.” Even the angels forbid us to worship them, unless, of course, they are fallen angels.  And I think that perhaps a lot of angel worship is really worship of fallen angels who reveal themselves as angels of light.

The next example he gives of false humility is those that take their stand on visions they have seen. You know, the funny thing is, I’ve never had a vision. In 62 years I’ve never seen anything. But these people who want to tell you the latest dream they had, the latest vision, the word that God spoke to them can be sort of intimidating. They are typically super pious, self-humiliating, having talked with angels, seen visions, received special revelations, claiming all sorts of amazing stuff. And the rest of us poor folks, we’re left to sitting around at Bible study, just trying to understand what it says on the page.

And that indicates the heart of the problem.  Rather than the word of God being sufficient, these people seek another revelation, a more distinctly personal word from God, a special vision from God.  And that serves to undermine the authority of God’s word.  They dare not say that God’s word is not authoritative, but in practice they reveal it’s not enough, they want God to speak directly to them.  I cannot tell you the number of people that I have talked to that claim that God has verbally, distinctly spoken to them in a verbal way.  And when those people say that sort of thing, there is nothing you can really say in return, other than “that’s nice.”  But in my mind I want to say, “why you?”  I mean, the prophets of old may have only heard from God once in their lifetime or not at all, and there are hundreds of years in history when no one heard a word from God, and yet God seems to speak to these people frequently, and about the most mundane subjects, like where to find a parking space at the mall.  It’s amazing.  It’s false spirituality.  It’s false humility.  But as Peter said, we have the prophetic word made more sure.  We have God’s word written down for us.  And it is more than sufficient for every need.

The last example may just be more of summary of their attitude, rather than a false doctrine, per se.  Paul says they are “inflated without cause by his fleshly mind.”  In other words, they have a big ego, but they have no basis for it. A big ego is a person that is prideful. Paul says they have nothing to be prideful about. They are fleshly.  That’s the opposite of spiritual.  They think they are spiritual, but they are fleshly. I see that every time I turn on TBN.  I try not to turn that stuff on.  About the only time I ever see it is when I’m in a hotel room and I turn on the TV.  But these people parading around as super spiritual, claiming all sorts of special powers, hearing from God, naming and claiming all sorts of things, and yet their lifestyle reveals that they are all about the flesh.  They are all about money.  And they fly private jets and live in lavish houses and so forth.  Inflated without cause in their fleshly minds.

Against that false spirituality Paul gives the correct principle in vs19 “and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God.”  Spiritual maturity, spiritual growth, comes from holding fast to the head.  And the head of the body is Christ.  It’s not Christ plus something else.  It’s just Christ.  He is sufficient. His word is sufficient. Obedience to Christ produces spiritual maturity.  It’s very notable that those who want to claim all these experiences tend to put a very low value on obedience.  They value experience, but they don’t value obedience.  But that does’t produce spiritual maturity, it only produces mysticism, which is the devil’s duplication of the real thing.

The third area of false teaching pervading the church of the Colossians is asceticism. The dictionary defines an ascetic as somebody who lives a life of rigorous self-denial. An ascetic is somebody who sells everything and goes and lives in a monastery. Self imposed discipline and abstention.  The idea that the only way to be truly spiritual people are the people is to become monks or nuns and go live in a monastery. Or the only truly spiritual people are the people who have nothing, sell everything and live in absolute, abject poverty.

Paul speaks to that false teaching in vs 20-23;  “If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as,  “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!” (which all [refer] [to] things destined to perish with use)–in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, [but are] of no value against fleshly indulgence.”

Paul says if Christ is your representative, and you are in Christ, then you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world. Things like eating, drinking, being consumed with bodily functions, with the basic principles of living.  With Christ we have died to the natural man, and now we live in the spirit.  That doesn’t mean we stop eating or sleeping or working, etc.  But those things are no longer the reason for our life.  We have a higher purpose. And since these elementary things no longer control us, neither does neglecting them or depriving yourself of them lead to a higher spirituality. 

Spiritual purity, holiness is not found in denial of the body.  The ascetics of the past have thought that the path to holiness was to deny any bodily pleasure, to eat only bread and water, to forego sex in marriage, to go live on a mountain alone, to go without washing, or living without basic human necessities.  But Paul is saying if we are saved, then the body has already died with Christ.  Those things do not rule us.  But we now live in the Spirit.  And to deny these things of the flesh does not affect our spirituality.

Look at vs 21, “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!” You can almost hear the super pious tone in which someone might say that.  As if denying such things invoked a higher spiritual quality. He says saying such things refer to things destined to perish with use. The question then is why are you attributing eternal value to that which is passing away? 

Now when he says “in accordance to the commandments and teaching of men”  I think Paul is referring here to the commandments and the traditions of the Jews which had the semblance of holiness, but in fact were not a means of holiness.  They were for a time and a particular people, to be a picture of what was to be true in Christ.  I think this is further evidence of the Gnostic Judaism type of false doctrine that was pervasive in the church.  It somehow incorporated these ascetic restrictions on food and handling and touching of various things which were considered unclean. 

Paul gives his rebuttal to this false teaching in Vs23, “These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.”

On the outside, it looks like you are holy because of these restrictions you have.  But Paul says that these outward manifestations are of no real value when it comes to indulging in the lusts of the flesh. 

So how do we guard against fleshly indulgence? Gal 5:16 tells us, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.”  Walk by the Spirit is not worshipping angels, or seeing visions, or having experiences, it’s simply living according to the word of God which is authored by the Holy Spirit.  There is nothing mystical about it.  There is no mystical bypass around the spiritual discipline which produces spiritual maturity.  Just trust and obey. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. As Jesus said, “you are my disciples if you do what I command you.”  God has given us His word that we might know all that He has for us, and all that He requires of us.  Let us devote ourselves to that, and do not let anyone mislead us to think that we can achieve spirituality apart from clinging only to Christ.