Weathered

Did you ever wonder what is the
oldest tree in Colorado? I know that’s random. But I get
curious about things like that from time to time and that particular
question popped into my mind this week in light of the passage
before us. I’ll explain that part as we
go. But isn’t it great that we live in a day when we can pose
these kinds of questions on the internet and get pages and pages
of information all related to our particular question. I did
some digging on the oldest tree this week. And the oldest tree in Colorado
is a bristlecone pine. These are beautiful specimens. And there’s a particularly beautiful
specimen of this tree in Rocky Mountain National Park just an
hour away. We could all jump in my truck and make it there
and observe this tree. Here’s an amazing thing. This
old sample in Rocky Mountain National Park is almost 1,500
years old. They call it the old gnarly tree. Not a very fancy name and there
you have it. I’ve used the word gnarly from
the pulpit. Some of these bristlecone pines
in Colorado, five in fact, are more than 2,500 years old. You see the bristlecone pine
is a tremendously hardy tree. And it’s that particular feature
of this tree that reminded me of our passage this morning. Allow me to explain some of that. If you would take your Bibles
and turn to the book of Colossians and chapter 2, We only began
last week to take up Paul’s lengthy section on the fruit of Christian
ministry. Paul has already told us about
Christ in chapter one. He told us about the ministry,
which coursed into chapter two. But in chapter two, verse four,
he begins to tell us about us. He begins to talk about believers,
the fruit of Christian ministry, and what that fruit should look
like. Just as in the world of agriculture,
so also in the church, where there is sowing, there will be
reaping. There will be a harvest to the
gospel. And not only must the farmer
and the evangelist keep their eyes on the harvest, So also must we. We must evaluate
the fruit of our own lives. But once the crop has been harvested,
there must necessarily be an inspection, as we began to see
last week, a fruit inspection, if you will. As an excellent
spiritual planter, Paul knew that the seed that he was using
was of the highest quality. It was the gospel. And once received
into the soil and germinating and beginning to flourish, it
would eventually produce only excellent fruit. The seeds of
the gospel would only produce the best kind of fruit. There should be no hybrids among
the harvest. There should be no mutants. There
should be no surprises. And so the fruit must be inspected. And this is what Paul turns his
attention to in verses four all the way through verse 23 of chapter
two. It’s a lengthy section all on
one subject, fruit inspection, the quality of the gospel harvest. But rather than himself inspecting
the relative quality of each individual convert, he presents
before us what it is we’re to look for in this harvest, how
we are to examine ourselves, what our lives should look like
if we have been touched and changed by the gospel. We, then, are
the fruit inspectors, Each one of us examining our own hearts
and lives in light of these standards of evaluation. How do we stand
up in the bright light of these points of examination? For our purposes this morning,
I want to go back and we’ll take the passage in its entirety.
Verse four all the way through verse 23. Chapter 2, beginning in verse
4. I say this so that no one will
delude you with persuasive argument. For even though I am absent in
body, nevertheless I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see
your good discipline and the stability of your faith in Christ.
Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk
in him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in him
and established in your faith, just as you were instructed and
overflowing with gratitude. See to it that no one takes you
captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to
the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles
of the world, rather than according to Christ. For in him all the
fullness of deity dwells in bodily form, and in him you have been
made complete. And he is the head over all rule
and authority. And in him you were also circumcised
with a circumcision made without hands in the removal of the body
of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried
with him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with
him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the
dead. When you were dead in your transgressions
and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together
with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having
canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees
against us, which was hostile to us, and He has taken it out
of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When he had disarmed
the rulers and authorities, he made a public display of them,
having triumphed over them through him. Therefore, no one is to
act as your judge in regard to food or drink, or in respect
to a festival or new moon or a Sabbath day, things which are
a mere shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to
Christ. Let no one keep defrauding you
of your prize by the 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. 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. So, as we said, the remainder
of chapter two presents these evaluation points, standards
of measurement of this gospel fruit, And as we noted last week,
there are five of these metrics, five evaluation points, if you
will. We considered the first one last
week, verses four and five, the discernment to be exercised.
And we looked and saw that in great measure, Christians don’t
typically exercise discernment. They just gulp down whatever
is in the Christian marketplace, and suffered the consequences
accordingly. The second examination point
of gospel fruit, which we will tackle this morning, is the steadfastness
to be maintained. This measurement poses the question,
if we have placed our faith in Jesus Christ for salvation, are
we conducting ourselves accordingly? Our lives have been touched not
only by the gospel, but by the God of the gospel, the Lord of
the gospel, the spirit of the gospel. And as such, we should
be in the process of being transformed into the image of Christ. And
then as we observed, there are three additional points of evaluation,
very briefly. The caution to be observed, verses
8 through 12. The regeneration to be enjoyed,
verses 13 through 14. And then lastly, the liberty
to be guarded, verses 15 through 23. We’ll consider all of those
in the weeks to come. For this morning, let’s go back,
if we could, to verses 6 and 7. And let me just say, before we
get too far into this consideration of point number two, the second
evaluation standard, please allow me to highlight some of the features
of these two remarkable verses. Verses six and seven make up
one sentence. And the most important thing
that I’d like to point out is that there are no fewer than
seven verbs in these two verses. I mean, glance down and follow
along as you will, but listen to this. You have received, walk,
which is the only imperative in the list. Pardon me. Rooted, built up, established,
instructed, and overflowing. Seven verbs. And with that, the
structure of this passage begins to emerge. The primary verbs
are the ones in verse six, received and walk. It’s a classic case
of indicative imperative. Because of this, that. Because of this, do that. That’s
the main thought of these two verses. Just as you have received
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him. That will be our point
number one. And those two verbs are followed
by four participles. Don’t hit snooze on me. If you’re struggling to recall
your eighth grade English grammar, we can think of participles as
who verbs or ing verbs. The boy, the one who went to
the store, fell down. That’s a who verb. Or if you
wanted to switch it to an ing verb, the boy running to the
store fell down. Maybe that helps. Now at first
glance, we could take and pool all these four participles together
except that one of them, in verse 7, the word rooted, is in a completely
different form than the other participles. Just bear with me. And that different form sets
it apart from the others. It speaks of action that has
already taken place. It’s already done. when Paul says, having been firmly
rooted. That’s already done. We’ve already
been firmly rooted, and we’ll go on to point out exactly where
and how. That’s our second point. Our
third point follows. It’s the rest of the participles
built on the remaining three. And these all speak of action
that is ongoing. You are being built up. You are
being established. And you are overflowing with
gratitude. And then for good measure, as
I pointed out, there’s a seventh verb woven into that sentence,
which is really just a fact-establishing statement. You were taught. You were instructed. We’ll come
back to that. By any account, that’s a lot
of verbs. And there are verbs, these are verbs that are all
very rich in meaning. And as verbs communicate action,
there’s a lot of action in this one little sentence, so we should
get started. One final comment about our title
this morning, which I very rarely speak about. For more than 30
years, I have subscribed to a service that gives immediate feedback
on my suggested titles. It’s a free service, but it spares
no mercy. If the service does not favor
the title that I present, I immediately receive this service’s unvarnished
opinion. And this week, the service didn’t
much care for my title. I heard, in seminary, That if
you have to explain your title, it’s not a very good title. I
can live with that. I have to live with that because
I have to explain this title this morning. The title is weathered. And immediately
as you hear that, I mean, my mind did the same thing. I had
to look this up. It can refer to physical changes
that take place over time with something that has been subjected
to the elements, weathered. We think of a weathered fence
or a weathered barn, those kinds of things. But it can also, this
word weathered, be used to speak of something or someone who has
endured a difficult season, like the ship that weathered the fierce
storm. And that’s the sense that I’m
using it here this morning, and I think it’s a perfect little
title for our message this morning. If you would, let’s go back and
look at this idea of the believer as having weathered the storms
of life. We’re looking at the chronicles
of a Christian life here, of which there are three this morning,
and the first one is the reasonable exhortation. We find it in verse
6. It’s a reasonable exhortation.
Paul says, therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the
Lord, so walk in him. It’s important to remind ourselves
after this brain-fogging grammar lesson that Paul is providing
for us evaluation points for the examination of ourselves,
our lives as believers, the fruit of the gospel. And we might even
think of these few lines here in verse 6 as the summary of
the entire point that Paul’s making. Paul is providing for
us a reasonable exhortation. If we say this, then we ought
to have that result. If we have received Christ, then
we ought to walk in him. That’s essentially the summary
of this entire point. Glance down, if you would, at
the first line. Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus,
the Lord, and I want you to pause there for just a minute, that
word therefore, that tells us that Paul is drawing a conclusion
here. Based on at least what he has
said in verses four and five, he can reasonably conclude that
these Colossians are believers. He’s heard of them, he’s never
seen them face to face, but from Epaphras he had learned that
they were indeed believers in Christ. In the immediately preceding
verse, Paul had just expressed his eagerness to see, or at least
hear, of their good discipline and their stability of faith.
But really, from the outset of this letter, that’s been the
case. Paul immediately acknowledged the genuineness of the faith
of these believers, thanking God, verse four, since we heard
of your faith in Christ Jesus. Here, Paul says it just a bit
differently, acknowledging that they had received Christ Jesus,
the Lord. This word received, it’s a beautiful,
delicate, intimate little word. It means to take something to
yourself as precious, to draw it near. Matthew quoted the angel’s
use of it in the opening of his gospel when he told Joseph to
take Mary to himself as his wife. Beautiful image. In the gospels
it’s used frequently of Jesus calling the disciples to himself,
kind of a huddle. Paul’s use of this word is rich
as well. He used it to introduce the Lord’s
Supper in 1 Corinthians 11, speaking of what he had received from
the Lord. Jesus himself taught Paul about
the Lord’s table. Paul uses it later, four chapters
later in 1 Corinthians 15, I deliver to, as of first importance, what
also I received.” Paul’s talking there of the gospel, and he says,
look, God taught me this, and I took it in as precious. And
among many other such uses, Paul uses it in his epistle to the
Thessalonians to speak of their warm welcome that they provided
to the gospel. You received, took it in as precious,
the Word of God. You took it in as the Word of
God. And so the use of this word is all the more appropriate in
this particular context when we notice that it was not just
information about Jesus that they received. I want you to
hear that. It wasn’t just information about
Jesus that they received. It was the Lord Jesus Christ
himself. You didn’t simply embrace the
message of the Savior of the world. You embraced the Savior
of the world himself. That’s what Paul says. It’s a
rare thing for Paul to use all three of these words together,
Christ, Jesus, and Lord. Very rare. Christ, the anointed
one, the Messiah, Jesus, the Greek word for Joshua, God is
help or savior. That speaks of his special office. And Lord, acknowledging his sovereign
supremacy over all, we sang about it this morning, that he’s not
only king of the heavens, he’s king of our own hearts. How fitting. As our Lord is seated,
as Paul tells us in Ephesians 1, seated at the right hand in
the heavenly places. We have to believe that Paul
does this intentionally, all three words. He does it intentionally
to drive home this point to his readers, including us, that this
was no casual, ho-hum discovery that they had made. When they
heard of this Savior, they received as most precious no other than
Christ Jesus the Lord. What a joyful gratitude must
have filled their hearts. What a joyful gratitude ought
to fill our own. Now keep in mind, This was not
a region that had been evangelized by Paul himself. Instead, it
was from a man named Epaphras, as we’ve seen, that they had
learned of the gospel. The message of the gospel came
to them by word of mouth, by his teaching. And no matter,
it isn’t the agent of the gospel that matters, rather it is the
gospel brought to life in the sinner by the Holy Spirit that
counts. In a sense, it was from Epaphras
from whom they had received this news, but it was Christ whom
they had received. And if Paul can conclude that
these genuine believers in Christ, then he can insist upon something
more than their initial faith and obedience. His command is
simple enough. Walk. So walk in him. If you have received Christ Jesus
as Lord, precious to your heart and soul, then walk accordingly. This again is what Paul’s often
used metaphor, the Christian walk. We came across it just
recently in Colossians 1.10. Paul didn’t invent the illustration.
This is a well-turned phrase, very familiar. But he makes extensive
use of it in his epistles. In eight of his epistles, he
uses this illustration, and sometimes more than once in the same letter.
In using this illustration, Paul is not speaking about our literal
step-by-step walking. He’s not. He’s referring to the
day-to-day conduct by which a person is characterized, the whole course
of a person’s life. Paul says, effectively, if a
person has received Christ Jesus the Lord, then their walk, their
conduct ought to reflect that. We’re looking at the chronicles
of a Christian life, just stepping back and observing anyone’s Christian
life. We see not only the reasonable
exhortation here to walk in him, but Paul then gives a historical
elucidation. We as believers have been firmly
rooted in him, that is, in Christ. For that, we begin in verse seven. Having been firmly rooted, not only the reasonable exhortation,
but the historical elucidation. Paul is explaining what he has
just said in verse 6. Paul has not spoken the final
word about salvation to these Colossian believers. They had
indeed received Christ Jesus the Lord, but that statement
doesn’t cover all there was to know about their conversion.
And so here at the head of verse seven, Paul mentioned salvation
again, only this time, not so much what happened initially,
but what happened over time. They were in a state of having
been firmly rooted. The first thing I’d tell you
about this particular verb is that it’s passive. It’s not something
that we do to ourselves or for ourselves. This is something
that God, by His Spirit, is doing in us, and to a degree has already
done in us. He rooted us. If you please look
carefully at this verse, verse seven, Paul, a bit more fully,
says there, having been firmly rooted and now being built up
in Him. And we’ll address that second
portion in a minute, what it means to be built up. But it’s
those two little words that I want you to capture in him. That is,
in Christ our Lord, just as the roots of a plant go down into
the soil, so also a believer’s roots are in Christ, in Jesus
the Savior. And just as the roots of the
plant go down into the soil in part to anchor that plant in
place, so also it is for the Christian. And this begins at
the moment of conversion. So there’s a degree in which
the roots have already gone down into the soil, but they will
continue to drive further into the soil. Our roots will continue spiritually
speaking, to drive further into Christ Jesus our Lord. Now in
the plant world, the roots begin to develop long before a sprout
ever appears. It’s an amazing thing. But there
is also this development element to rooting. It’s not like once
they have put down roots, the roots are done growing. new roots are formed, deeper
roots are sent. When Paul says here, having been
firmly rooted, he speaks of development. He speaks of establishing, maturing
over time. And he uses the same image in
the parallel letter to the Ephesians, no surprise. There in Ephesians
3.17, he prays that those believers would be rooted and grounded
in love. So there is this developmental
aspect to this illustration. Now, please remember, this is
a unique verb in these verses. It’s a participle. And there
are three other participles, but this one is what we call
the perfect tense. And as such, it speaks of something
that is done and completed in the past, but it has continuing
impact or action in our lives. And in the case of the Colossian
believers, as with all true believers, their initial profession of faith
in Christ soon put down roots deep Their faith took root deep
into their soul. And this simply tells us who
or what performed the action. As I said, in this process, the
believer is passive. The rooting action is exclusively
something that God has done in the Christian’s life. And Paul
has given his command in verse six, walk in him. So here, Paul
adds to that. He basically tells us how or
why he could even give such a command. We are to walk in him because
he has developed in us deep spiritual roots in our life. This is a
lively and powerful image that Paul presents. It’s taken from
the world of botany. And you know that I love these
illustrations. It’s nothing short of amazing
to watch this part of God’s creation in action. You place a seed in
some soil or water, you add water and weight, and within days,
a small green shoot bursts forth from the soil. That’s the part
you can see, a little miracle from God. What we don’t see and
what we don’t typically take note of is that below the soil
are these fantastic roots, this complex system of roots, far
greater than the portion of the plant that is above the soil.
And these roots are drawing up the moisture and the nutrients
that sustain the plant. And the greater the size of the
plant, the more fantastic the root structure. Amazing. Remember
our tree? Remember our little bristlecone
pine? It’s the root structure of that
tree that enables it to withstand such unbelievably harsh conditions. It’s perfectly designed by God. not just to survive, but to thrive
at super high elevations amid gale force winds, in extreme
cold, in the poorest soil, and even in the severest drought.
All of that simply because of its root structure. If you and I were to sit down
and design a tree, We might come up with a plan
for that tree to send the root directly down 10, 15, 20 feet. That ought to anchor our little
tree. And if we were to plant one of
these little hybrids, it would eventually snap off right at
ground level. God knows this. And so when he
designed the root structure of the bristle-grown pine, he did
so very differently than what we would have done. Instead of
going straight down into the soil, this tree’s roots fan out
in all directions just below ground level. And that shallow
branching effect is, in essence, what enables this tree to withstand
the high winds. And all the while, taking in
whatever moisture and nutrients are available. By the way, that’s
one of the reasons that in an electrical storm, you don’t take
shelter under a pine tree. Because you may very well be
sitting on a root, which is a conductor of that electricity. Well, all
this to say, just like the bristlecone pine, the life-changing gospel
puts down roots in a believer’s life. And these roots are that
which sustain and make the child of God to grow. It’s an amazing
illustration. And that brings us to the third
portion of the chronicles of a Christian life. not only this
reasonable exhortation and the historical elucidation, kind
of what happened behind the scenes, but thirdly, the practical explanation. And we find that in the remainder
of verse seven. Now having been built up in him
and now established in your faith, just as you were instructed in
overflowing with gratitude. As I mentioned earlier, our third
and final point is comprised of these three participles, one
of which is also attended with a factual statement. These three
elements function essentially as a practical explanation of
what it looks like to walk in Christ. The first feature of
walking with Christ is what Paul identifies as being built up
in him. The Christian life is a pursuit
of growing in grace, striving for Christ-likeness. We are in
an ongoing process of being built up. And it’s God, by His Spirit
and His Word, that is doing that work. Paul even employed this
same image back in 123, that we as believers have been firmly
established. Different Greek word, but the
same idea. So that much is true. But the
form of the word here hints strongly at a foundation. That we are
being built as believers upon a foundation. And Paul unmistakably
here tells us what the foundation is. The foundation is Christ. We as believers are being built
upon the unshakable foundation of our Lord Jesus Christ. What a comforting, solidifying,
affirming thought. Well, the second feature of the
Christian’s walk is that of being established in our faith. And this isn’t altogether different
from the first point, Just like the process of being built upon
Christ, being established in our faith is a process too. Where
we are little by little, more and more, being made more confident
in our faith. It’s a process, isn’t it? This feature, however, does not,
it does indicate the idea of confirmation. Often in Paul’s
use of this word, that’s the sense in which he’s using this
word. Listen just briefly, 1 Corinthians
1, 6. He speaks of the testimony concerning
Christ was confirmed in you. Two verses later, 1 Corinthians
1.8, Jesus Christ will confirm you to the end, blameless in
the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. So there’s this idea of confirmation. Listen to this, 2 Corinthians
1.21. He who establishes us with you
in Christ is God. Different translation of the
word in English, but it’s the same Greek word. Confirm, establish. And so this feature speaks of
the hope of completion, the hope of our being or becoming established
in our faith. And Paul reminds the Colossians
that this promise was nothing new. It was exactly what Epaphras,
the teacher, had promised. Paul says it this way, just as
you were instructed, this is nothing new. Paul says that Epaphras,
this faithful teacher, was, as he told these young believers,
exactly what to expect, that they were going to grow in their
faith, that they were going to become more and more established
as believers. They could count on it. They
could count on being established. I know a little wife who faithfully
walked with her husband in this dangerous, idea of planting a
church, her primary prayer was that God would establish us. That word just speaks of a settledness,
stability, confidence. And that’s Paul’s point, that
these believers would come to the point where all their fears,
all their concerns, all their doubts, all their misgivings,
all their tentativeness would fade, and that they would stand
confident in their faith in Christ. There’s a third and final feature
to which Paul directs us. that the one walking in Christ
would be overflowing with gratitude. This one is almost a gimme. Don’t
you almost expect to see thanksgiving at the end of a passage like
this? That the one walking with Christ would be overflowing with
gratitude. Now this word overflowing, it’s
not exclusively a Paul word, but he He uses it plentifully. It’s a favorite word of Paul’s.
Of the nearly 40 times that it’s used, more than half of them
are by Paul. It’s translated into English
with many different English words. Listen just briefly. First Corinthians
14, 12, he tells of those believers to abound for the edification
of the church, overflow, In 1558, he speaks of them as always abounding
in the work of the Lord. In 2 Corinthians 8, 2, speaking
of the Macedonian churches, that their deep poverty overflowed
in the wealth of their liberality. Listen to this translation, Ephesians
1, 7, and 8. He speaks of the riches of his
grace, which he lavished upon us, overflowed. and it’s translated
still differently in 1 Thessalonians 4.1, excel still more, overflow
in your love for one another. Well, that’s just a sampling
of the more than 20 times that Paul uses this word. But when he uses it here in Colossians,
he’s calling these believers to recognize how appropriate
it is for them to be magnanimous in their thanksgiving for the
salvation that they’ve come to know. May I borrow Paul’s illustration
for a minute and stretch it a bit further? I would suggest to you
that this overflowing gratitude is the very means of stimulating
root growth in the establishment of their faith. Think of this. The more we dwell on all that
God the Father, all that Jesus Christ our Savior, and all that
the Holy Spirit has done for our salvation, the deeper our
roots go, don’t they, into Christ, the deeper they’re driven into
our Savior. And so Paul urges these believers
not only the Colossians, but us, to abound and overflow in
their praise to God. Would you join me in doing so?