| “Standing Confident in a Hopeless Age” Colossians 1:21-23 Pastor Don Baron |
| Sermons |
There is a very sad story about Alizabeth Barrett Browning, the
famous authoress.
Her parents so totally disapproved of the man she married that
they disowned her.
Almost weekly, she wrote love letters to her mother & father,
asking for a reconciliation.
They never once replied.
After ten years of one-way letter-writing, Elizabeth received
a huge box in the mail.
She opened it and was shocked & heartbroken.
The box contained ten years’ worth of weekly letters to
her parents.
Not one of them had been opened!
I have an even sadder story of rejected reconciliation.
God has written loads of love letters to us seeking
reconciliation.
Every Christian sermon is one of His love letters.
Every life that shines forth Jesus is a living love letter.
And some of His love letters are contained in this book.
Yet many, many people are living far from God.
Many people don’t even know about His letters.
Others know about them, but
ignore them
or return them unopened.
Two weeks ago, we began working our way through one of
His wonderful love letters in the Bible.
It was written by God thru His friend Paul, and sent to the
people in a city in today’s Turkey called Colossae.
But He intends the letter for you and me, too.
Last week, we spent some time with what is one of the deepest
parts of the letter.
Let me try to summarize it – by way of review if you were
here, and by way of introduction if you weren’t:
(Transparency)
It’s all about Jesus, and here’s a simple summary:
When God comes to us, His name is Jesus Christ.
He made the universe; it is His.
He holds the universe together every moment.
When His universe got broken, it cost Him His life to fix it.
When he returned from the dead, He began to fix His
universe by creating a new human race to live in it.
He is to be supreme in everything.
Now that’s saying a lot.
But it doesn’t yet sound like much of a love letter, does it.
It’s kind of impersonal
It tells all about Him and who He is and what He’s done.
But now we come to today’s part of the letter where God gets
very personal.
He begins it by writing: “And YOU…”
Col.1:21-23 - p. 1165
Chinese: p.
There are two major words in this passage that I hope you will
never forget.
They are the basic two words of all of God’s love letters
to us:
v. 21 ALIENATED
v. 22 RECONCILED
One is in the past: “ONCE you were alienated…”
One is in the present: “But NOW He has reconciled you…”
Let’s look at them in more detail, shall we?
1. ALIENATED
A terrible word.
Some of us know what it is to be aliens –
Either you’re an immigrant to this country…
Or you’ve lived overseas.
(my experience in Japan – shave ice?)
It means that you don’t really belong.
You are excluded from many rights & privileges.
You often don’t know what’s really going on around you.
You are a stranger.
Sometimes you may feel very alone.
You may even meet hostility.
To be “alienated” is even worse than being an “alien.”
It means you’ve been deprived of something you once had.
It means a destroyed relationship, a broken friendship.
Our letter says that “you were alienated from God.”
You may say to yourself, “Wait a minute!
“I don’t deserve that.
“I’m not a bad person.
“I’ve tried to be kind to people,
and to be a good husband or wife
or a good employee
or a good parent.”
famous authoress.
Her parents so totally disapproved of the man she married that
they disowned her.
Almost weekly, she wrote love letters to her mother & father,
asking for a reconciliation.
They never once replied.
After ten years of one-way letter-writing, Elizabeth received
a huge box in the mail.
She opened it and was shocked & heartbroken.
The box contained ten years’ worth of weekly letters to
her parents.
Not one of them had been opened!
I have an even sadder story of rejected reconciliation.
God has written loads of love letters to us seeking
reconciliation.
Every Christian sermon is one of His love letters.
Every life that shines forth Jesus is a living love letter.
And some of His love letters are contained in this book.
Yet many, many people are living far from God.
Many people don’t even know about His letters.
Others know about them, but
ignore them
or return them unopened.
Two weeks ago, we began working our way through one of
His wonderful love letters in the Bible.
It was written by God thru His friend Paul, and sent to the
people in a city in today’s Turkey called Colossae.
But He intends the letter for you and me, too.
Last week, we spent some time with what is one of the deepest
parts of the letter.
Let me try to summarize it – by way of review if you were
here, and by way of introduction if you weren’t:
(Transparency)
It’s all about Jesus, and here’s a simple summary:
When God comes to us, His name is Jesus Christ.
He made the universe; it is His.
He holds the universe together every moment.
When His universe got broken, it cost Him His life to fix it.
When he returned from the dead, He began to fix His
universe by creating a new human race to live in it.
He is to be supreme in everything.
Now that’s saying a lot.
But it doesn’t yet sound like much of a love letter, does it.
It’s kind of impersonal
It tells all about Him and who He is and what He’s done.
But now we come to today’s part of the letter where God gets
very personal.
He begins it by writing: “And YOU…”
Col.1:21-23 - p. 1165
Chinese: p.
There are two major words in this passage that I hope you will
never forget.
They are the basic two words of all of God’s love letters
to us:
v. 21 ALIENATED
v. 22 RECONCILED
One is in the past: “ONCE you were alienated…”
One is in the present: “But NOW He has reconciled you…”
Let’s look at them in more detail, shall we?
1. ALIENATED
A terrible word.
Some of us know what it is to be aliens –
Either you’re an immigrant to this country…
Or you’ve lived overseas.
(my experience in Japan – shave ice?)
It means that you don’t really belong.
You are excluded from many rights & privileges.
You often don’t know what’s really going on around you.
You are a stranger.
Sometimes you may feel very alone.
You may even meet hostility.
To be “alienated” is even worse than being an “alien.”
It means you’ve been deprived of something you once had.
It means a destroyed relationship, a broken friendship.
Our letter says that “you were alienated from God.”
You may say to yourself, “Wait a minute!
“I don’t deserve that.
“I’m not a bad person.
“I’ve tried to be kind to people,
and to be a good husband or wife
or a good employee
or a good parent.”
But God is talking about something much deeper
than outward behavior.
He’s talking about an attitude.
And every one of us has an attitude problem when it
comes to God.
We ignore Him;
Whole days go by without thinking about Him.
We live as if He doesn’t exist – or at least that He is
very unimportant.
Matter of fact, He is anything but “supreme” in our lives.
That’s why the letter says (v. 21) we “were enemies in
our minds.”
Why, that’s even worse than the evil behavior that flows
from our minds!
What God seeks more than anything else is an intimate
relationship with you.
He made you to be His friend, and you are
ignoring Him!
In fact, you are replacing Him with something else
in your life: your job, your $, your ambitions,
your possessions, maybe even your children.
Without a word, you’ve been telling Him, “I’ll do things
my way.”
You’re lifestyle has been shouting, in the words of a
famous poem:
“I am the captain of my soul; I am the master of my fate.”
And you’re not.
He is.
You’re missing the whole point of your life, because you were
made for fellowship with Him.
You’re alienated from God.
And if He is the one who made all things,
owns all things,
holds it all together,
and loves you so much…
well, that’s serious.
2. RECONCILED
“But NOW…” (v. 22)
Isn’t that great?
That “Once you were” has been wiped out by “But now
He has”
God refuses to leave you as an alien.
He is bent on making you a “naturalized” citizen.
Actually, a “supernaturalized” citizen – because it’s a
miracle every time an alienated person is
changed to a RECONCILED person.
That’s what He loves to do!
That’s what made Him willing to step into your shoes
and take on Himself the consequences of your
alienation from God.
It took a cross to make it happen.
A cross where God Himself took responsibility for your
distance from God…
…your disinterest in His friendship.
Finally, you learn to look at the cross and cry out,
“Love so amazing, so divine, demands my life,
my soul, my all!”
Now, because of His sacrifice on the cross, He
counts you as His dear friend.
Now Jesus presents you to His Father as one who is
“holy, without blemish, free from accusation.” (v.22)
He has nothing against you, because His Son has wiped
the record clean.
He counts you forgiven…not guilty.
He counts you as His friend.
At the cross, God was reconciled with you.
It remains only for you to be reconciled with Him!
Even as I speak, He is enabling you to say,
“Yes! I want this. I can hardly believe it, but
I am God’s friend!”
And what is going to happen to you (v. 23) as you grow in this
trust relationship with Jesus Christ, is that you will find your
life becoming solid & firm, built on a strong foundation
that can withstand life’s crises.
You have become a person of hope – a rare commodity in our
present world.
You are able to look to the future, both in time and eternity,
with peace – the knowledge that all will end well
Your Friend has gone ahead of you and is preparing the
way.
(story of man & son who collected a priceless treasure of paintings; son went to
war, was killed on front line; he received a portrait of his son from his son’s good
friend; after man’s death, auction of his priceless paintings was begun with his son’
s portrait; went for $10, then auction was over; “whoever takes the son gets it all.”
Jesus is God’s love letter to you.
Fail to take the Son and you lose all.
Take His Son and all that God has is yours!
than outward behavior.
He’s talking about an attitude.
And every one of us has an attitude problem when it
comes to God.
We ignore Him;
Whole days go by without thinking about Him.
We live as if He doesn’t exist – or at least that He is
very unimportant.
Matter of fact, He is anything but “supreme” in our lives.
That’s why the letter says (v. 21) we “were enemies in
our minds.”
Why, that’s even worse than the evil behavior that flows
from our minds!
What God seeks more than anything else is an intimate
relationship with you.
He made you to be His friend, and you are
ignoring Him!
In fact, you are replacing Him with something else
in your life: your job, your $, your ambitions,
your possessions, maybe even your children.
Without a word, you’ve been telling Him, “I’ll do things
my way.”
You’re lifestyle has been shouting, in the words of a
famous poem:
“I am the captain of my soul; I am the master of my fate.”
And you’re not.
He is.
You’re missing the whole point of your life, because you were
made for fellowship with Him.
You’re alienated from God.
And if He is the one who made all things,
owns all things,
holds it all together,
and loves you so much…
well, that’s serious.
2. RECONCILED
“But NOW…” (v. 22)
Isn’t that great?
That “Once you were” has been wiped out by “But now
He has”
God refuses to leave you as an alien.
He is bent on making you a “naturalized” citizen.
Actually, a “supernaturalized” citizen – because it’s a
miracle every time an alienated person is
changed to a RECONCILED person.
That’s what He loves to do!
That’s what made Him willing to step into your shoes
and take on Himself the consequences of your
alienation from God.
It took a cross to make it happen.
A cross where God Himself took responsibility for your
distance from God…
…your disinterest in His friendship.
Finally, you learn to look at the cross and cry out,
“Love so amazing, so divine, demands my life,
my soul, my all!”
Now, because of His sacrifice on the cross, He
counts you as His dear friend.
Now Jesus presents you to His Father as one who is
“holy, without blemish, free from accusation.” (v.22)
He has nothing against you, because His Son has wiped
the record clean.
He counts you forgiven…not guilty.
He counts you as His friend.
At the cross, God was reconciled with you.
It remains only for you to be reconciled with Him!
Even as I speak, He is enabling you to say,
“Yes! I want this. I can hardly believe it, but
I am God’s friend!”
And what is going to happen to you (v. 23) as you grow in this
trust relationship with Jesus Christ, is that you will find your
life becoming solid & firm, built on a strong foundation
that can withstand life’s crises.
You have become a person of hope – a rare commodity in our
present world.
You are able to look to the future, both in time and eternity,
with peace – the knowledge that all will end well
Your Friend has gone ahead of you and is preparing the
way.
(story of man & son who collected a priceless treasure of paintings; son went to
war, was killed on front line; he received a portrait of his son from his son’s good
friend; after man’s death, auction of his priceless paintings was begun with his son’
s portrait; went for $10, then auction was over; “whoever takes the son gets it all.”
Jesus is God’s love letter to you.
Fail to take the Son and you lose all.
Take His Son and all that God has is yours!
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