February 10, 2019 – “The Gospel Life: Eternal Truth” by Rev. Cody Sandahl

Lay Reader = Colossians 1:3-10

3In our prayers for you we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 4for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. You have heard of this hope before in the word of the truth, the gospel 6that has come to you. Just as it is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world, so it has been bearing fruit among yourselves from the day you heard it and truly comprehended the grace of God. 7This you learned from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, 8and he has made known to us your love in the Spirit.

9For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God.

Introduction

We are still in our series exploring the Gospel. Last week we talked about the simple power of listening without judgment or agenda. Gospel listening can lead to Gospel transformation. This week we are looking at God’s eternal truth.

There are some things in the Bible that were really useful at the time but less useful today. For instance, God’s pronouncements on where to dig a latrine in Deuteronomy were really useful before sanitation became a thing, but now I would recommend taking advantage of our indoor plumbing instead.

Or the early church had a really big debate about how important the kosher diet rules were when non-Jewish people started following Jesus. They decided those rules didn’t apply if you weren’t Jewish. It was a cultural thing, not part of God’s eternal truth.

But there are some definite threads of eternal truth in the Bible. Not just “truth for 1000 years ago.” Truth for all time. Truth with a capital T. So this week we are trying to reveal some of that eternal truth, because that truth can set us free.

In our text today, Paul is writing to a church that was confused about the eternal truth. Some of the people in the church seemed to want to become hyper Jewish – to put the Pharisees to shame in terms of how strictly they followed the Old Testament Law. Others in the church thought that our world and our bodies were so inherently bad that they didn’t matter.

So one group in the church thought we had to perfect our way to God. And another group in the church thought we were so inherently sinful that we might as well embrace our sinful nature. Listen to how Paul addresses these groups by focusing on the true eternal truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Colossians 1:11-29

11May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully

12giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. 15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; 16for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. 17He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. 19For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross. 21And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him— 23provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith, without shifting from the hope promised by the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven. I, Paul, became a servant of this gospel. 24I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church. 25I became its servant according to God’s commission that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, 26the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations but has now been revealed to his saints. 27To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28It is he whom we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone in all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 29For this I toil and struggle with all the energy that he powerfully inspires within me.

The Creator

I grew up on Lake Austin, and our house was pretty far out of the city proper. To get there, you had to drive down City Park Road. It was a serpentine, wandery road through the unpopulated hill country until you reached Lake Austin and our neighborhood.

And perched atop one of the hills, isolated from almost everyone else, was a large house built by famous local video game designer Richard Garriott. Imagine what an eccentric English-American game designer famous for his Medieval fantasy games would build as his house – picture a castle with secret passages and a vaguely intimidating tone and you’ll be pretty close. And every Halloween, Garriott opened up the house to the public – as a haunted house.

So every Halloween people from miles around came to be frightened and lost within the hallowed halls of Garriott’s mansion.

Reflecting back on this with the benefit of hindsight, I can’t help but wonder. I wonder if Garriott ever laughed as people were frightened inside the secret passages that, to him were just shortcuts to the kitchen. Think about it! To the Halloween crowd, the secret passages were unknown, creepy, scary! But to the builder of the house, they were clever shortcuts. The builder of the house knows where to go. The builder of the house knows what’s behind the door hidden as a bookshelf. The builder of the house knows how to get where he needs to go without getting lost. But the Halloween guest groping around in the dark is lost and scared.

That contrast between the builder of the house and the guest groping in the darkness came back to me as I read our passage today. Paul writes to the Colossians to remember that Jesus is the “firstborn of all creation.” That “in him all things…were created.” That “all things have been created through him and for him.” One of the eternal Truths with a capital T is that God is the Creator.

God is the builder of the house. We are groping around in the darkness. But if we trust the Creator, Paul writes, “he has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son.”

Let’s return to Richard Garriott’s house on Halloween. Imagine that Garriott himself snuck over to you and handed you a set of instructions to get you through the house. Move forward six steps. Turn right when you hear the bats. Go up the stairs – don’t go down! In the room with the mirrors, take the pathway to the right. It seems strange. But is it better to grope around in darkness or trust the instructions of the builder of the house?

As a side note, I’ve met Garriott a few times at game developer conferences, and you’d probably be better off groping in the darkness because he’d totally give you fake instructions just to have more fun. But let’s put that aside for a moment.

God is the builder of the house. God is the Creator. And he gave us instructions on how to get by. People in the past were even kind enough to write down those instructions. How helpful of them!

Is it better to try to grope our way through the darkness of our lives, or follow the seemingly-strange instructions of the Creator? Paul tells us to trust the instructions of the Creator. We don’t know the best way through the house, but God the builder left us instructions. We don’t have to always understand. We don’t have to always be in control. We can trust the Creator. That is an eternal Truth with a capital T.

Do you feel like you’re groping around in the darkness? Do you feel like you don’t know where you’re going? Do you feel like you’re holding tightly onto your life like a cowboy riding a bucking bronco? That only works for eight seconds. You can trust the instructions of the Creator even if you don’t fully understand them. That’s eternal truth with a capital T.

Goodness

Another eternal question that deserves an eternal truth answer is, “What is good?” And really there’s only one thing I know of that almost all of humanity agrees is good. Bacon. But that doesn’t help us in many non-culinary situations.

So how do we know what is good? What is good for me individually? What is good for us as a society? What is good?

Paul writes to the Colossians that in Jesus the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. Jesus is the very embodiment of what God considers good.

Although I have to confess something that we’ve discovered in our Hot Button Theology classes. Sometimes saying, “What would Jesus do?” doesn’t actually result in a clear answer. But we have also discovered that when we are all asking the same question, “What would Jesus do?” – it at least allows us to have a conversation instead of just shouting our opinions at each other.

And sometimes using Jesus as our definition of goodness does give us a clear answer. One of my friends worked retail and she told me about a co-worker who just got dumped by her boyfriend. And her first response was to slash the tires on his car. And she wasn’t ashamed of that – she didn’t feel guilty – she felt proud. She had showed him! She had exacted vengeance!

But if we use Jesus as our definition of goodness, we have to remember what Paul wrote to the church in Rome: “Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord.” Seeking vengeance isn’t what Jesus did. Quite the opposite, in fact.

So, while there isn’t always a straightforward easy answer to “What is good?” in every situation, we at least know where we should look for the answer. Jesus is the definition of goodness. That’s eternal truth with a capital T.

We don’t get to define goodness on our own. Just because I think it doesn’t make it good. Just because I feel it doesn’t make it good. Just because I want it doesn’t make it good. Jesus defines what is good. That’s eternal Truth with a capital T.

So are you debating a course of action? Are you wondering whether to say something or what to say? Are you debating whether you need to act or what you should do? Look to Jesus. Sometimes it’s clear, and sometimes it’s not, but you know where to look. Jesus defines goodness, and that’s eternal truth with a capital T.

Hope

Another eternal question that deserves an eternal answer is, “What is the source of our hope?”

In October of 1929, the stock market experienced Black Thursday and Black Tuesday, a dramatic crash. On Black Thursday, in a span of five hours, more wealth was wiped out than America had spent fighting World War I.

It offered a lesson that we re-learned in 2008 during the Great Recession. Money: doesn’t always grow. The stock market doesn’t always go up. Home values aren’t guaranteed to grow over time. Money is not a source of ultimate hope because it can disappear. Jesus reminds us “do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven.”

In 1977 a best-selling book started a revolution in American exercise. Jim Fixx’s book, The Complete Book of Running, helped kick off a fitness craze that hasn’t stopped yet. He was a big proponent of regular jogging. He highlighted the physical benefits of running. He touted the psychological benefits like self-esteem and experiencing the “runner’s high.” And over the decades since he started that fitness revolution, many of his claims have been upheld by research.

But in 1984, at the not-so-ripe-old-age of 52, Jim Fixx suffered a heart attack right after his daily run. It turns out he couldn’t outrun his family genetics and his heavy smoking earlier in his life.

Health and fitness and strength are not sources of ultimate hope. Health fades – or just suddenly disappears. Father Time remains undefeated! Just last Thursday, I was driving with Charlie in the car, and we had a protected left arrow. We were starting to move forward – slowly because it was very snowy. And a voice in my head said, “STOP!” I’ve learned to listen to that voice, so I slammed the brakes just before a dump truck snow plow went barreling through the intersection where it would have t-boned us on the side we were sitting. That could’ve been it – health isn’t a source of ultimate hope.

Happiness isn’t a great source of ultimate hope, either. When I talk with parents about their hopes for their kids, “happiness” is usually near the top of the list. It’s fine to hope for that, but happiness is very circumstantial. When if your kid has bad luck? Have they failed to live up to your dreams? Or if happiness is your hope, what happens when you grow older and you lose your ability to drive, or have to move out of your beloved home? What happens when most of your friends and family have gone on to heaven before you? What does hope look like if you aren’t experiencing happiness due to life’s circumstances?

Martin Luther King, Jr., gave a speech in Washington DC just a couple of months before his ultimate assassination. And in that speech he said, “We must accept infinite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”

Happy circumstances aren’t infinite, so they can’t be a source of infinite hope.

Health and fitness and strength aren’t infinite, so they can’t be a source of infinite hope.

Wealth and job security aren’t infinite, so they can’t be a source of infinite hope.

Paul writes in v22-23 that God has reconciled us, “provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith, without shifting from the HOPE promised by the Gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven.” The only thing that is infinite is God, so the only source of infinite hope is the Gospel – the Good News of Jesus Christ. That’s it. What is the source of our hope? Not money. Not health. Not happiness. Not what I’ve earned. Our hope comes from the fact that, in Jesus, God chose to bring us back into the fold. Not because we earned it but because God wanted to.

That can’t be changed. There is not market crash that can take that away. There is no health scare that can take that away. There is no unfortunate circumstance that can take that away. That is eternal Truth with a capital T.

Are you losing hope? Are you failing in health or experiencing deep sadness instead of happiness or watching your money disappear? Remember the one thing that never goes away – the love that God has for you simply because God chooses to love you. That’s eternal. That’s infinite hope. That’s eternal Truth with a capital T.

Summary

I love the little summary Paul throws in near the end of our text today. He says “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

That’s really what the Gospel is all about. Christ is in you and me. The Creator is in you and me. The God who is good is in you and me. The God of infinite hope is in you and me.

Paul doesn’t say “Christ is in the best of you – the elite – and they have hope of glory.” No, he says, “Christ in YOU, the hope of glory.” Jesus thinks your body is a good place to live. You might question Jesus’ evaluation of real estate, but it’s true nonetheless. Even if your life is run-down. Even if your life has some cockroaches that scatter when someone shines the light inside. Even if there are holes in the walls or a leaky roof. Even if you’re a bad neighbor. “Christ in YOU, the hope of glory.” That’s infinite. That’s eternal. That’s truth, with a capital T. Amen.