Colossians

The Structure of our Worship

Christ Church on June 14, 2020

Introduction

We assemble here week after week to worship God in the name of Christ in the power of the Spirit. This is what we do. But it is also important for us to understand what we are doing, and why we are doing it. Otherwise we will drift into a mindless routine—which is quite different from a Spirit-led routine.

The Text

And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ. As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving (Col. 2:4-7).

Summary of the Text

In verse 4, Paul warns against the seductive power of a certain kind of religious approach, the kind that always fails to approach Christ. Even though Paul was not present with the Colossians (v. 5), he was with them in spirit. He rejoiced as he beheld their order (taxis), and the rock-solid nature of their faith in Jesus Christ. This word taxis is a military term, and should be understood as a kind of regimentation. But note that this order was both disciplined and alive. It was not an orderly row of gravestones, but rather it was the order of a military troop, arms at the ready. It was more than such order that pleased Paul, but it was certainly not less.

Paul then urged the Colossians to walk in Christ Jesus in just the same way they had received Him initially (v. 6), which was of course by grace through faith. As they did so, they would be rooted and built up in the Christian faith, in just the way they had been taught. The overflow of this, when it is happening, is an abundance of gratitude. As with all things of this nature, we measure whether or not it is happening by the fruit. That said, why do we do what we do?

The Structure of Our Worship

Consider first the broad outline of our worship service. We find five basic elements here. Take a look at your bulletin as we consider this. Notice that the first and last elements are the Call to Worship and the Commissioning. These are the book-ends of our service. The church is the called out gathering. The word for church (ekklesia) means “called out.” So at the start of the service, we call you in, and at the end of the service we send you out. You are sent out with a blessing and a task.

So the first invites us in from the world to assemble before the Lord to worship Him. The last sends us out into the world in order to function as ambassadors of Christ and of His gospel. If we have learned rightly, when we are being sent out into the world, we are letting the clutch out. Worship is the engine, but we have to let the clutch out.

Then there are the central three elements of our worship.

Confession of Sin—we wipe our feet at the door.

Consecration—we offer ourselves up to God as living sacrifices.

Communion—we sit down for table fellowship with our God.

These follow a basic biblical pattern of sacrifice. In the worship of the older covenant, God commonly required three kinds of sacrifices together. Whenever they are mentioned together, they come in this order. First was the guilt offering (confession of sin: Lev. 17), then there is the ascension or burnt offering (consecration: Lev. 16:24-25), and then comes the peace offering (communion: Dt. 12:17-19). We see this overall pattern in Lev. 9 and 2 Chron. 29:20-36.

Our name for worship that deliberately and self-consciously follows this basic pattern is called covenant renewal worship. This is not because the covenant was going to expire, like a lease. It is an everlasting covenant. But it is also organic and alive, and needs to be nourished and fed.

Filling the Structure In

We find in various places of Scripture that certain particular practices are called for in New Covenant worship. So one of the things we therefore do is look at the nature of that practice and decide where it would best fit within this general structure. For example, the Bible requires the public reading of Scripture in worship (1 Tim. 4:13). So where do we put it? It seems to fit best under Consecration. The Bible commands us to sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs (Eph. 5:19). Where do we place the different kinds of songs? We would put penitential songs at the time of confession, for example. We are commanded to have preaching (1 Tim. 4:2). Where does that go? In doing this, we are seeking to be obedient while arranging our worship intelligently.

Posture and Demeanor

A very common temptation among the Reformed is to over-engineer the intellectual aspects of our faith. Reason and systematics have their necessary place, but that is not every place. Reformed people need to be reminded that they have bodies, and that these too are involved in worship. This is why we lift up holy hands in the Doxology (1 Tim. 2:8), and why we kneel in confession (Ps. 95:6). We stand in order to show deep respect for God’s Word (Neh. 8:5). Our overall demeanor is to be solemnity mixed with gladness. “I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord” (Ps. 122:1).

A Conversation Between God and His People

Worship is a time of meeting. During this time, God speaks to the people through His ordained representatives (as in the Scripture reading, assurance of pardon, or the sermon). During this time, the people also speak to God, either through their appointed representatives (as in the prayers of petition), or all together with one voice (as with a hymn or psalm, or the creed). We should therefore learn how to think of the worship service as a large conversation, with a direction and a theme, and not as a disparate collection of random spiritual artifacts, crammed into a shoebox.

In the Call to Worship: God says, “Come, meet with Me now.” We say, “First, let us praise Your majesty.” Having done so, God warns us through the Exhortation not to approach Him with unclean hearts. We respond by Confession. God responds by declaring that we have Assurance of Pardon. This is a conversation in which you all are called to actively participate. And so on, through the rest of the service. As you do, you are following the most important conversation in the world, which is between God and His people.

Worship is Warfare

One other thing. And last, we return to the passage in Colossians. The order we are cultivating here is not the order of porcelain figurines in a china hutch, neatly arranged on a shelf. The order we are pursuing is alive and disciplined, the order of a well-trained military unit. And why? Because every Lord’s Day we go into battle. But as God’s people we fight on earth from the high ground of heaven. There will be more on this next week when we consider the point of our worship.

All About Jesus

In the meantime, whether we are considering the regimented array of our forces, or the reason for the war, never forget that everything is all about Jesus, all the time. He is the crucified one, He is the risen one, and He is the ruling one. And make sure you consider these things by faith, such that they include you and your family.

Colossians (Mike Lawyer and Brian Marr)

Christ Church on June 11, 2020

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For You Serve the Lord Christ (Colossians 4)

Christ Church on January 26, 2020

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Review

1:27 “To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” The presence of Christ in your life should point your attention to a future glory. 2:6 “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him.” The kind of Christian that perseveres to that future glory is the kind of Christian who continues walking daily in faith. 3:2 “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.” The way that you walk daily in faith is by having your mind fixed on the resurrected Christ in heaven. But how do you fix your eyes on that which cannot be presently seen? He can be seen, because his body is all around you.

The Body of Christ

The body of Christ is before you in the web of human relationships into which each and every one of you have been woven.

3:18-19 Marriages

Wives, submit to your own husbands. What the secular world wants to pathologize, is simply the clear teaching of Scripture. A wife is commanded to submit to her husband. This carries with it two important qualifiers. First, she is to submit to her own husband and not any other man. Second, her submission is to be “in the Lord.”

Husbands, love your wives. Men your bar is too low for what you consider to be love. Your wife is an end to be pursued like you would any other ambition. One simple way to know whether or not you are actively pursuing your wife is to look to see if there is bitterness or resentment in your heart towards her.

3:20-21 Children and Parents

Children, obey your parents. This pleases God. Generational harmony is the key to culture building and covenantal blessing (Eph. 6:2-3). You give to yourself when you obey your parents.

Fathers, their obedience is actually to God and not to you. So your authority is not a dog whistle that you get to blow to impress people with your kids obedience. Parent their hearts, pointing them to Christ. And if they follow Christ, you will keep them because Christ has kept them.

3:22-4:1 At Work

Employees and Bosses, your contracted labor is a service that you offer before God, a labor that his word governs. Men, you especially are prone to exempt your careers from the rule of God in order to make room for fleshly ambition.

Serving Christ

Wherever we go, we are wrapped up in layers of authority and submission. But every authority that you submit to, you submit to because God would have you do it.

This is radically freeing because it means that you are actually being called to submit to one and only one – the Lord Jesus Christ. He alone is worthy of your submission.

Set Your Mind on Things Above (Colossians 3)

Christ Church on January 19, 2020

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1-4 Union with Christ

Remember that the “mystery” that Paul has been unpacking for us is that the body of Christ is both the incarnate reality of the God-man Jesus Christ, and also the picture of the church with Christ as its head. But if we, the church, are Christ’s body, then that means that wherever the head has gone, he takes us with him. And so when Christ sits down on his throne in heaven, he sits there with all his body with him. As the body of Christ we share in the events of Christ’s death, burial, resurrection, ascension into heaven, and enthronement at the right hand of the Father. And if that is the case, then that is where our attention ought to be.

5-11 Put to Death

“Now, it being our duty to mortify, to be killing of sin whilst it is in us, we must be at work. He that is appointed to kill an enemy, if he leave striking before the other ceases living, does but half his work,” John Owen, The Mortification of Sin. If you are in this new man, with Christ as your head, then you are therefore called to a life of putting sin to death. This is the ongoing work of persevering faith. And at the root of mortifying your sin, is the question of where are your eyes.

Your heart follows your eyes. Where do you put your eyes? We lift up our heart to the Lord because we lift up our eyes to the Lord. So where are your eyes? Paul calls covetousness idolatry (v. 5, cf. Eph. 5:5) because your heart follows your eyes as your prayer will follow your longing. The mortification of a sin starts with your eyes.

A Dilemma

But here is the problem. I am telling you that the mortification of your sin depends on you looking to Christ and not looking at the enticements of the flesh. But the problem is that Christ, currently seated in heaven, cannot currently be seen. He inhabits what is still a future glory for us, a glory that “eye has not seen, nor ear heard . . .” (1 Cor. 2:9, cf. 1 Tim. 1:17). And, on the other hand, those things that you are not to be looking at are all quite visible.

12-17 Put on Love

But you do have Christ before you because you have the body of Christ, the church that surrounds you now. Love is what holds the body together (v. 14, cf. 2:19). Love makes visible to us what is currently removed from our senses – Christ (1 John 4:20). The difficulty is that you must remember that God defines this love, not you.

So Walk in Him (Colossians 2)

Christ Church on January 12, 2020

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Paul’s Concern

Last week, Paul told the Colossians that they have Christ in them, the hope of a future glory (1:27). And because of this future glory, Paul is laboring to exhort the Colossians to live a life growing in faithfulness. But he is concerned because their long-term perseverance in the faith seems to be threatened. He hinted at that in the previous chapter (1:23). But now he gets more explicit about his concerns. He has “a great conflict” for them (v. 1). He is concerned about the people that they are talking to, who threaten to deceive them with persuasive word (v. 4) and cheat them through philosophy and empty deceit (v. 8).

The Root of the Problem

Paul unpacked for us in the previous chapter the redemptive work of Christ. Now he identifies the real root of this error as a challenge to the sufficiency of Christ (v. 8). This is the error of “Christ plus something else.” The saints at Colossae have mixed their faith in Christ with

A fascination with extra-biblical teaching (v. 8 and 22)
A commitment to the law that was the shadow of Christ rather than the reality of the Christ who has come (v. 11, 14, 16)
A fixation with a power structure that has passed away (15 and 18)
An asceticism born of prideful human wisdom rather than humble submission to God (21 and 23)

Paul has two fundamental answers to the erring Colossians.

Complete in Christ

A right understanding of who Christ is should eliminate the need to add anything to Christ. Paul returns to the image of a body with Christ as its head (v. 19), which he actually introduced previously (1:18). Our union with Christ means that we are complete in him (v. 9-10) because we share in all his victorious work (v. 11-15).

So Walk in Him

The difficulty we have is that we forget. We grow cold (Rev. 3:15). We begin in the Spirit and then shift to the flesh (Gal. 3:3). We think that the work of salvation was merely a first step that we can somehow then improve upon with our own accessorizing. But Paul says that we must continue to walk in Christ, in the same way that we began in Christ – through the simplicity of faith in the complete and total sufficiency of the work of Christ (v. 6-7). This is the only foundation on which we can build (1 Cor. 3:11-15). And the clear indicator that Paul has given us to demonstrate whether or not we are building on that foundation is gratitude (v. 7).