Today was meant to be Part II of our multi-part sermon series on the gospel of Matthew. But for the next three weeks we’ve decided to go a different direction. We’ll pick back up with Matthew in November.
Here’s why we made the change. As pastors, we have been deeply concerned at the state of our flock. Of you.
It’s almost a cliche to say we’re living in “divided times.” But over the last several months, things have seemed to take a turn.
We could point to the rise in political violence such as the murder of the Minnesota lawmakers Melissa Hartman and John Hoffman in June or Charlie Kirk in August.
It could be the increasingly hateful and vile things being said and shared online. Families and friendships are ending because of outrage. Anxiety is rampant, fear is deep, and people are herding into tribes.
And we see the effect this is having on you. We see how the choking smog of hate and division has begun to pollute this community.
And so we’ve decided to address this. For the next three weeks we are going to talk about “the state of things.”
But before we “go there” as a community, I have one request to make of you. I need to ask you to trust me. To trust my intentions with this. If I’ve built up any credibility with you as your pastor, I’m cashing that in right now.
Over these next three weeks we will touch on some hot button issues. Some live wires. And if I don’t frame things in the way you want to hear, you may be tempted to march right out the door.
Please don’t. Stay in the room. Stay in the conversation.
You do not have to agree with everything I say, but please trust my intentions. I care about one thing here: and that is that the kingdom of God takes root in this community. That the love of Christ would guide and shape us into a church of people who look like him.
Let’s listen to the Holy Spirit together and receive his invitation to Grace Church in these extraordinary times.
[PRAY]
GOOD FRUIT
For the next three weeks we’re going to dig in to New Testament book of Colossians. So grab a Bible and turn with me to Colossians 1:9, Page _______.
We’re going to talk a lot more specifically about the world behind the text of Colossians next week, but for now it’s enough to know this:
The Apostle Paul wrote this letter to the church in Colossae when he heard about some concerning theological falsehoods developing there. This letter is his attempt to correct them.
What we’re going to see in this series is that these falsehoods in Colossae are not so different from some of the falsehoods I believe are taking root in the American Church today.
So let’s get into it. Paul explains the spirit of his letter like this:
Colossians 1:9-14
We have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better. We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy, always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light. For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.
Now, there’s a lot here, but in short, Paul wants the church in Colossae to grow… in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge about God. He wants them to go deeper in their faith.
And here’s the reason: verse 10. So that the way they live “will always honor and please the Lord,” and so that their lives “will produce every kind of good fruit.” Fruit like endurance, patience, joy, gratitude…
Put simply, Paul wants the church in Colossae to know Christ, to live like Christ, and to love like Christ.
That seems like a pretty reasonable thing for an apostle to care about, but here’s the rub. There was something going on in the Colossian church that was preventing that from fully happening.
That something was the theological falsehoods that I mentioned before. The reason Paul wrote this letter.
So what was happening? Well, essentially, the church in Colossae was mixing their faith in Jesus with other stuff.
For example, they believed in the salvation of Jesus, but they also put themselves through extreme dietary restrictions and masochism to try and earn God’s favor.
They were supposed to live in the freedom of Christ, but instead were obsessing over religious festivals and holy days. It was very unChristlike legalism.
Finally, and probably most worryingly, the Colossian Christians were mixing worship of Christ with worship of angels and spiritual beings and even elemental powers. They thought these supernatural beings would give them visions and special abilities.
The technical term for what was going on in Colossae is Syncretism - the merging and mixing of different religions
They believed in Jesus. But all this other stuff - especially their allegiance to the powers of this world - was corrupting and poisoning their faith.
Paul wants the church in Colossae to know Christ, to live like Christ, and to love like Christ. He wants them to grow. But this mixing of their faith was preventing that from happening. As Paul says later in the letter,
Colossians 2:20
You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world. So why do you keep on following the rules of the world?
This mixing - this syncretism - has to stop.
MIXING
Ok. Before we keep reading, let’s take a moment to discuss why we’re talking about this right now. Why ditch our original plans to create a sermon series about Colossians? It’s not like the Church today is struggling with new moon festivals or the worship of angels.
That’s true. However, I would argue that, like the Colossians, we in the American Church are falling prey to a dangerous mixing of our own. I believe we are mixing our worship of Jesus with worship of the powers of our world, and this mixing is corrupting our witness.
It is polluting our gospel message. And it is hindering our growth in Christ.
I’ll explain what I mean.
It’s easy to think that the polytheism of the ancient world is long gone. We don’t have temples to Zeus and Isis and the Roman Emperors on every corner.
Our air is not choked with the smoke of countless animal sacrifices being made to this pantheon of gods. We’re not communing with elemental spirits like the Colossian Church.
We don’t believe that stuff anymore. We basically think of these old gods as little more than ancient fairy tales now. Superstition.
But in all my studies about the ancient world, I’ve come to a realization: that religion in the 1st century was a lot less about belief - some kind of mental conviction about the truth of a thing. It was a lot more about behavior.
A person’s religion was not about which gods they thought were real; it was about how they arranged their lives. The temple festivals they attended, the sacrifices they made, who they prayed to for help each morning, how they formed their social identity.
Ancient religion wasn’t about private, internal belief; it was about public, external behavior.
The spiritual powers of this world, which Paul talks about a lot, didn’t have power because people thought they existed. They had power because people lived like they did. Their lives were shaped by these gods.
And this is where things got really tricky for those early Christians. Because following Christ required a whole-life reorientation. And that wasn’t happening in Colossae.
These Colossian Christians believed in Jesus. No doubt. But they were arranging their lives around other gods. Their religion may have looked Christian at first glance, but their behavior proved that they were still bowing the knee to the powers of this world.
Colossians 2:20
You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world. So why do you keep on following the rules of the world?
Their religion had become syncretism.
So that was all true for Colossae. But here’s my point for today: The American Church may proclaim that the pagan gods ended their influence over us long ago. They’re just fairy tales! That’s what we believe. But our behavior is telling a very different story.
I am fully convinced that we have a new pantheon of gods to contend with - the powers of our modern world. For example, the god of prosperity. The god of sex. The god of comfort. The god of safety. The god of influence.
We make sacrifices for these gods. We arrange our lives around serving these gods. They form our identity. They form our community. And because of the worship we offer them, they have developed tremendous power over us.
We believe in Jesus. No doubt. But we are mixing our faith with allegiance to the powers of this world. Look at our behavior. That is our religion.
And just like Paul with Colossae, I am very concerned about this with us. Specifically, when it comes to two “gods” that are consuming our culture right now and that, I believe, are corrupting and polluting the American Church from the inside:
The god of Self
The god of Domination
The god of Self is all about me. Me me me. If you were to go into a temple for the god of Self, instead of seeing a statue of a god, you’d see a mirror. That’s who we’re bowing down to.
For example, many Christians seem to think that the ultimate good for my life is… whatever I say it is. What feels right to me. The identity I choose. The church that makes me feel comfortable.
Gone seem the days of humble submission to whatever God desires for me. The identity he has for me. The community he has planted me in.
Meanwhile, many other people in our culture are outraged when asked to give something up for the greater good. Whether it’s an inconvenience to protect the health of the vulnerable or financial investments to lift up those in poverty. “If it’s not going to benefit me - my freedom, my rights - I don’t want any part of it.”
“The Lord of my life is me.” I see this attitude in the church all the time. The god of Self empowered.
And then there’s the god of Domination. This god is reigning supreme in our culture right now. The god of Domination is worshipped through hate, and there is plenty of hate to go around, including within the Church.
But that hate looks different depending on which tribe you belong to. Here’s how the Christian thinker Phil Vischer (creator of Veggie Tales) put it recently:
Conservatives hate evil. Which sometimes translates into hating those we believe are evil. It's justified, because those people are evil. We've turned them into demons. Manifestations of pure, Satanic evil. And how could I not hate evil?
Liberals hate hate. Which sometimes translates into hating those we believe are spreading hate, or filled with hate. “I hate those who hate." “I will not tolerate those that are intolerant."
One group hates those who promote evil. The other hates those who promote hate. We all arrive at the same place – giving ourselves permission to hate those whom God loves.
-Phil Vischer
And this is when the god of Domination takes hold. Because we can’t live in a world filled with hateful, evil people. They must be done away with.
This is the root of the political and social violence we see everywhere we look. But it is also the reason so many church small groups have imploded, and why family members have stopped talking to one another, and why a single social media post is enough to make you cut someone out of your life.
We are terrified of living in a world in which our enemies win. Which is why they can’t be coexisted with. They must be outcast, humiliated, and destroyed.
The god of Self is worshipped through selfishness. The god of Domination is worshipped through hate. These two “powers” have us in their grip as a society.
We say we believe in Jesus, but look at the behavior of our lives. That is our religion. Look at what the Church in America has become, being discipled by cable news and outrage algorithms:
On the left we see a new secular fundamentalism of so-called “tolerance” which demonizes, shames, and cancels anyone who doesn’t fall in line. And Christians on the left call that justice.
On the right we see a spirit of holy war, a mentality which seeks to utterly dominate our culture with so-called “Christian ideals.” Get in line or get out. And Christians on the right call that truth.
On both sides, we see followers of Christ - invited to die to themselves, to carry their cross, to love their enemies and to surrender to God’s vision for their lives - but responding with, “You can’t tell me what to do.”
This isn’t the gospel. This is syncretism. A mixing of allegiance to Christ and allegiance to the powers of this world. If it’s true, as Paul says, that
Colossians 1:13
[God] has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son.
Past tense - if that’s true, then we, like the Colossians, have some work to do.
We cannot claim to have been set free from the powers of this world if we are still following their rules.
CHRIST ABOVE ALL
So let’s get to work. Because none of us are off the hook here.
It’s easy to point fingers, but if you’re honest, the god of Self and the god of Domination have begun to influence the behavior of your life, haven’t they? I know they have for me.
We are living in a smog-choked miasma of hate, selfishness, tribalism, and fear. We are all being affected by the resurgent powers of our world.
But there is a way to lift our heads out of the filth and begin to recapture a religion that is pure: Single minded devotion to Jesus and behavior that shows our broken world that there is another way to live.
In the next two sermons we are going to get really practical about our behavior. How to reject what Paul calls “empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense,” and actually live differently in these crazy times.
But for today, I simply want us to focus on our devotion. I want us to breathe clean air again by putting the powers of this world in their place and remembering the supremacy of Christ.
And this is where Paul goes next in his letter, as he pleads with the Colossians to end the mixing that’s going on.
Colossians 1:15-20
Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.
He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,
for through him God created everything
in the heavenly realms and on earth.
He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see—
such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.
Everything was created through him and for him. He existed before anything else,
and he holds all creation together.
Christ is also the head of the church,
which is his body.
He is the beginning,
supreme over all who rise from the dead.
So he is first in everything.
For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ,
and through him God reconciled
everything to himself.
He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth
by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.
Let’s ask this question: why does Paul feel the need to hammer home this idea of Christ as supreme? He’s writing to Christians, right?
Well, as we’ve said, the Church in Colossae was mixing their faith in Jesus with worship of other beings and powers. Angels, elemental spirits, etc.
In other words, they were treating Christ as just one power among many. Treating him like just one of the gang.
But to Paul this is absolutely ridiculous. Christ is not one of the gang; he created the gang. He existed before creation itself. He is God in the flesh.
At the end of verse 16 Paul says, Christ made the “rulers and authorities (literally, “powers”) in the unseen world.”
It’s like he’s saying, “What are you doing bowing down to powers which are themselves bowing down to Christ? Why go through them (why mix your faith) when you’ve got direct access to the source of all things?” He goes on in verse 21:
Colossians 1:21-22
You were [God’s] enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.
Again, present tense. This is now. Because of Jesus you are standing in the presence of God. Why bow the knee to anything else?
Christ above all. This idea is how we can breathe the clean air of hope again. By aligning our lives with this truth, I believe we can begin to shed the influence of the god of Self and the god of Domination from our lives.
ANASTASIS
Next week we’ll talk about behavior. This week we’re talking about devotion.
To do that, I want to introduce to you an image which has been very meaningful to me over the last several years. It’s an Eastern Orthodox fresco depicting the resurrection of Christ.
In fact, because we want this to help us all focus our attention on Jesus, we have printouts for each of you. [pass out prints]
The fresco was painted in the 1300s in Chora Church in Constantinople. [images: Chora 1-3]
It’s a gorgeous ancient building which still stands as a museum in Istanbul today. The church is filled with amazing mosaics and frescos depicting many characters and scenes from Scripture.
[images: Anastasis 1-2] But the most spectacular fresco, in my opinion, lies at the end of the burial chapel, where they held funerals. It’s called the “Anastasis,” which means ‘uprising’ or ‘resurrection’ in Greek.
[image: Anastasis 3] The image depicts Christ rising victorious from the grave. But it’s not the resurrection we’re used to seeing - the empty tomb, the sleeping guards, etc. No. This is a depiction of the resurrection on a much more transcendent level.
First, we see Christ standing on the shattered gates of Hades, the realm of the dead. Strewn around are locks and bolts. That door is destroyed. And under his feet is a bound and defeated figure - Hades himself. The god of death.
To either side of Christ are Adam and Eve, representing humanity - representing you and me - being pulled out of their own graves by the risen Christ. You can see their wrists are limp. They have nothing to do with this. It’s all him.
As witnesses to this amazing moment, we see other biblical figures like John the Baptist, King David, Solomon, and Abel, the first human to die.
When I talk about the supremacy of Christ, this is what I mean.
As Paul says in verse 18. “He is supreme over all who rise from the dead.”
And supreme, I would add, over the powers of this world, which are bound and gagged like Hades under his feet and have no control over us anymore.
Every one of us is present in this image. Christ has done this for you and for me.
So how can we still worship the god of Self when it was the god of Self that put us in the grave in the first place? We’re alive now! We’re free! It’s not about me anymore.
And how can we still worship the god of Domination when our savior chose to die for his enemies? How can we still hate those that Christ so deeply loves?
We are all equally helpless in the face of death and we are all equally redeemed through the powerful love of Jesus. There is no place for hate at the foot of the cross. There is no room for fear in the resurrection.
It is time for every one of us to follow Adam and Eve’s example in this image. To fix our eyes on Christ as he pulls us from the darkness.
It is time for us to dedicate ourselves to knowing him, living like him, and loving like him. And to give our devotion - our worship - to no other power.
Christ above all. This is where our healing begins.
[set up communion & reflection]
[PRAY]