Growing Up in Faith and Love
Download MP3Good morning. Good morning. We are gonna be in Colossians this morning. We've been in our study of John's gospel for a number of weeks now, but for the next 6 weeks, we're actually gonna be studying some various texts, during this summer preaching schedule. We'll be back in John's gospel in August.
Joel Brooks:So hold all the stuff you've learned so far. Put a pen in it. We'll we'll be right back to it in no time. But today, we're gonna be in Paul's letter to the Colossian church. And, I'm really excited for us to be spending, this morning in this text, because I've been studying it for a number of years now, as part of some school work that I'm doing.
Joel Brooks:And and I continually am surprised at just how practical, and and how much the context of Colossae really intersects with where we are in our culture, and in our context today. I'm amazed at the practical theology, the issues of government, the issues of ethics, the issues of family life. All these things that are going on in this letter. What I'd like for us to do is to get our bearings with what's happening in this context of Colossae. Paul is the one who is writing this letter to this church in a very small town.
Joel Brooks:It's on the Lycus River. It's near the cities of Laodicea and Heropolis, close to Ephesus. Like, that's the biggest city nearby is Ephesus. And Paul had been preaching to these people in Ephesus, and people from Ephesus had made their way to Colossae, preaching the gospel, and as these Christians started coming together, a new church had formed there. So Paul is writing a letter to a group of people that he hasn't met before, but he's heard a lot about the struggles that they were going through.
Joel Brooks:These young Christians, they trusted in Christ. They were good in their discipline. They were good in trusting in him. They believed in Jesus, but they had a lot of questions about what it meant to follow him. What it meant to be a disciple in the day to day life there in Colossae.
Joel Brooks:And so within this small group, part of the problem that was happening is that these false teachers had come in. They they came into the group, and they started telling the people there, they started telling the Christians that they too were Christian, but that they had they had insight into the mystery of God. They had these things. They knew hidden things about God that they didn't know, and they were going to lead them in that way. That, yes, they needed to trust and and believe in Jesus, but there were some other things that they needed to believe, and other practices that they needed to do to actually be right with God.
Joel Brooks:It wasn't enough just to believe in Jesus. There was something more. And these false teachers had gotten a really good footing within this community. People were listening to them, and they were getting very confused. And what started to happen was not all that unique.
Joel Brooks:People started compromising the gospel. The cultural pressure came in, the confusion set in, and they started to compromise. It it happened back then in Colossae. It happens today. And within this confusion, Paul decides to address their concerns.
Joel Brooks:He he wants to talk about what is truth and and how to know fact from fiction. He he wants to tell them what they are supposed to believe and how really they're supposed to live. It's not just doctrinal knowledge that they are curious for. It's they want to know how to live and follow Jesus. So Paul writes them this letter.
Joel Brooks:He begins not by addressing these, immediate concerns about ethics, how to live. It actually begins in that first chapter, which we looked at a number of months ago, just exalting who Jesus is. Before we get to the nitty gritty of of how do we live and and and what are the implications of this gospel, he just wants to start with, who is this glorious Jesus? And so he spends this first chapter kind of giving this hymn, this song of who this Jesus is. Celebrating that, glorifying him.
Joel Brooks:But then, he does transition into talking about these issues that they're facing. And it's so pertinent for so many different reasons, not only for the culture at large that we have today, but for the culture of our own hearts. And so, let's turn our attention here. It's in your worship guides. We're in Colossians.
Joel Brooks:We'll be starting with verse 28 of chapter 1, and let us listen carefully, for this is God's word. We proclaim him, Jesus. Warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone complete in Christ. For this purpose, I also labor striving according to his power, which mightily works within me. For I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf and for those who are at Laodicea and for all those who have not personally seen my face, that their hearts may be encouraged having been knit together in love and attaining to all the riches that comes from full assurance of understanding resulting in a true knowledge of God's mystery.
Joel Brooks:That is Christ himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And I say this so that no one will delude you with persuasive argument. For even though I am absent in body, nevertheless, I'm 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, established in your faith just as you were instructed and overflowing with gratitude. Let's pray.
Joel Brooks:Almighty God, we need to hear from you today. We need you to open our ears to hear you, our eyes to see you, our hearts to receive you. Help us to understand your declared word and to respond with our whole hearts today. Spirit, we trust you in this time to grow us into maturity in Christ. It's in His name that we pray these things.
Joel Brooks:Amen. So Paul says all of that to the Colossian Christians. He speaks these words and he wants to start off by telling them that he has been struggling for them. He's been striving. And really, what the picture he's painting there is that he hasn't seen them face to face.
Joel Brooks:They don't know him, but he has been striving for them in prayer. He's been praying for them. He's been interceding for them. He's been going to God and praying for their resolve and their strength, that they would be resilient Christians in the midst of chaos. So what does he want for them?
Joel Brooks:What does he want for these Colossians? Well, first, he knows that God's grace is transformative. He knows that this Gospel that has gone out to them, that they have received, that they've been instructed in, that they that they do believe, that it changes them. It does not leave them just as they are, but it transforms them. And he wants to see these people grow up.
Joel Brooks:Paul wants, and he says this, in verse 28 there. He says, that he wants to present everyone complete. That means mature in Christ. That's what he wants for them. He wants them to be mature in Christ.
Joel Brooks:He wants them to grow into that maturity and that assurance of faith. He describes these things in detail in chapter 2, what he's really desiring for them. And I want to break it down into 2 things. Two things that Paul is desiring for the Colossian Christians, and I think ultimately God is desiring for each and every Christian. The first one is this.
Joel Brooks:He desires that their hearts would be strengthened and that they would grow in love. The second thing is this. He wants them to reach the riches of assurance. He wants them to find and to know and to live in the treasure that is assurance in Jesus. So those two things, I think that we can summarize in a maturity of love and a maturity of faith.
Joel Brooks:That's what he's longing to see in these Colossian Christians. And so as he struggles for them in prayer, as he's been praying for them, as he hears from Epaphras, who is the person that likely took the gospel to these Colossian Christians and is now reporting back to Paul as to what's going on there. And he's burdened that these people are coming in and deceiving these young Christians. Epiphras is burdened by all this, and he transfers that burden to Paul, who's now striving for them, and he wants to see them grow up to be mature in love and in faith. That's what he's longing for.
Joel Brooks:Now, growing up is a critical part of life, and a critical part of life in Christ. But I would say that, growing up in general does not really have that great of a connotation in our culture. You've probably even heard of people using the Peter Pan Syndrome to to describe a lot of people in in our culture today, where we just don't want to grow up. We don't want to take on responsibility. We don't want to be living lives that are sacrificial.
Joel Brooks:We don't want to live lives that that go with what Paul says to the Philippians, where he says that you would count others more important than yourselves. We don't want to do that. I've been playing a lot of Peter Pan lately. Not, I hope, in my emotional development, but but as a father, I'm asked 3 to 20 times a day to pretend to be Peter Pan. My oldest, June, gets in bed, she's windy, I'm supposed to wake her up looking for my shadow.
Joel Brooks:I know the whole script, and so does she, which means I get in trouble if I miss anything. It's kind of freaky sometimes. She will quote it back to me. But one thing that Peter does say is that growing up is a barbaric thing. It's barbaric, and it's full of inconveniences.
Joel Brooks:And it is full of inconveniences. It's inconvenient to count someone else as more important than yourself. Takes a great deal of sacrifice. It takes a great deal of maturity, and that's why you have to grow into it. And that's what Paul wants for these Colossian Christians.
Joel Brooks:He wants them to be mature. He wants them to grow up. That can be a hard thing to do. Look at in verses 1 and 2 of chapter 2. He wants them to grow up and to mature in love.
Joel Brooks:He says that in that their hearts may be encouraged having been knit together in love. That knit together carries this image not only of unity and being knit together as a as that body of Christians, but also the knitting together of just growing up in one's self, that you would grow up in love. And then, a maturity in faith. He says that attaining to all the riches that comes from the full assurance of understanding resulting in a true knowledge of God's mystery that is Christ himself. And it's important for us to grow in and and mature in love and faith together.
Joel Brooks:These these have to happen together, because it's tempting to grow in one without the other. And surely, you know people who have grown in love, but not faith, or faith and not love. Some of us were those people. Some of us are those people where we are tempted to say, loving is essential. It's it's what Jesus calls us to do.
Joel Brooks:Jesus God is love and Jesus loves, and so our primary thing is to be loving like Jesus. And it's essential and that's true, but it's not left on its own. Or you know those people, or are those people who, would say, it's about faith. It's about knowing the faith. It's about knowing doctrine, and knowing what we believe, and having convictions.
Joel Brooks:It's about that, but they but they don't know love. They haven't matured or grown up in love. And Paul is saying that these things must go together. That we have that love, which is compassionate, that grows in a compassion for people around us, especially the marginalized and the least of these, that we would have a compassion that would grow in us, and that we would also have a passion for what God has said and his truth, which is Christ. Paul uses that language of the mystery of God, the language of the false teachers to speak to the Colossians and say, we have heard the mystery of God, and his name is Christ.
Joel Brooks:His name is Jesus. He is that mystery revealed, and we must grow in both compassion and passion. And if we forsake one for the other, we will we will go adrift. So let's examine this. Let's examine these two aims, these what Paul wants, these two things for the Colossians to mature in love and to mature in faith.
Joel Brooks:To examine that, we need to ask 2 questions. 1st, what does it mean to grow up in love? And then, what does it mean to grow up in faith? We have to get the heart of the meaning here of what these things ultimately mean, because otherwise we can just nod our heads and say, that sounds pretty nice. It's kind of a clean, tidy way to talk about these things.
Joel Brooks:We nod our heads, and we go to Red Lobster. But that's not what we're doing here. All right? What do these things mean? What do they mean?
Joel Brooks:Because if we can get to the meaning of it, then it might actually start showing up in our lives. Now, when you were a kid, did did your parents ever take you to like the the side, like a door frame or on your wall somewhere and and make a little mark on the door as to how tall you are. We've been doing that, for a couple of years now. I'm already trying to think of when we move, how I get that out. I know it probably would just be ripping it off of the wall, but that seems a little insane.
Joel Brooks:But, but you mark these different points of growth, and that's really what we need is a growth chart. We need to know what does maturity look like? Because if we know what it looks like, and we can understand what it means, then we can actually start to assess if we are actually growing up or not. And if we're growing up in 1 and maybe perhaps not the other. Are we growing up in these things?
Joel Brooks:And so, we need to know what maturity looks like, because if we just go by with maybe how you're feeling today, we can end up with a really unhealthy understanding of maturity. Maybe you feel spiritually wonderful today. You feel 7 feet tall, fire coming from your eyeballs, like you just you feel great right now. Or maybe you feel really weak. Maybe you you feel spiritually fragile.
Joel Brooks:Our feelings are important and we need to pay attention to our feelings and need to be honest with our feelings, but we are not merely the sum of our feelings. We often need to remember that. You're not just the sum of your emotions, and we need a holistic understanding of what maturity in Christ is. We need those markings on the door frame to help us see what God is doing in our lives. What he is doing.
Joel Brooks:Not to mark our personal accomplishments, but to mark what he is doing in growing us into maturity in Christ. Too often, we make maturity about what we aren't doing. It's just, I stop this sin, or I've at least restrained some sin in my life. It's it's less in my life, and that's really how we do that. And of course, putting sin to death is is a critical part of maturing in Christ.
Joel Brooks:But we often make the mistake of considering those sin battles the entirety of Christian growth. And not only is that shortsighted of a holistic maturity, but it's also quite frequently a result of either false confidence, false confidence in our maturity, or unnecessary despair as to our lack of maturity. Yes. Ceasing sinful behavior is an essential part of obeying Jesus, but it's not the single sole issue of maturity. So again, we're faced with this question.
Joel Brooks:What does it mean to grow up in love and in faith? Maturing in love means this, that we are growing in our love for God and love for one another. This means adoration for God and affection for one another. When we are maturing in love, we become people who are compassionate towards our neighbors, regardless of merit, regardless of any form of distinction. When we are maturing in love, we seek the welfare of our neighbor, not just the mere protection of our preferences or comforts.
Joel Brooks:It's not for selfish reasons that we do this. It's purely out of a transformed heart that we love those around us, especially those whom we can gain nothing, from whom we can gain nothing. Well, you might have these people in your life, those people that you don't stand to gain anything from loving them well. In fact, you might just stand to lose because they are a burden. They they take and they take, emotionally or otherwise.
Joel Brooks:And you are already thinking of some of those people right now, those people that are hard to love, where it takes a lot out of you to love them well. And what I would like to say to you is that the fact that those people are coming to your mind, that is an evidence of God's work in maturing you. Those people that are so hard to love, that spring to your mind, that are exhausting at times, that you think, I don't know if I can go another month, or another week, or another day like this. And maybe you even have some of those friends, kind of Job friends that are like, yeah, you this person is just too much. But you are giving and giving, and you are sacrificially loving them.
Joel Brooks:I would just like to say to you, see that as an evidence, not of your great goodness of personality. We all know that's not true. See this as God growing you up into maturity, to love those people who might not even love you back, who might even despise you back, or resist you as an evidence of His work and what He is accomplishing in you. Maturity and love brings about a unity within the household of God. Both the small household, the local church and the church universal.
Joel Brooks:This is what Paul is also talking about here and then being knit together in love. He's saying this to the Colossians, and he also says this in another place. That's First Corinthians 13. If you've been to a wedding this summer, it's wedding season. You're hearing it all the time.
Joel Brooks:I have sensory memories, like if I soon as I start hearing 1st Corinthians 13, I can smell a boutonniere, and I'm worried that I'm locking my legs. Like, that's I just think I'm going to pass out at any moment. I don't even think about locking my legs until she tells me, don't lock your legs. And then I'm like, maybe I am. Maybe I've started locking my legs, and I'm going to be the reason this whole thing unravels.
Joel Brooks:So far, not yet, but anything can happen. So now, you know what I'm thinking. Am I locking my legs now? We'll see. If I go down, who's left to preach?
Joel Brooks:Somebody. Somebody is going to have to run up here and grab the mic. So at the risk of all these sensory memories coming up, we're gonna look, we're gonna do the hard work of listening, to Paul, as he is writing to that Corinthian church, like the Colossians who are having all of this turmoil within their church family. All of this turmoil is going on, and he's wanting to speak into it about what maturity and love really is. And so, I pray that we hear this in a fresh and new manner.
Joel Brooks:Paul's letter to the Corinthians chapter 13. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I'm a noisy gong or a clinging symbol. And if I have prophetic powers and I understand understand all mysteries and all knowledge and I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all that I have and if I deliver my body up to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind.
Joel Brooks:Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.
Joel Brooks:Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away. As for tongues, they will cease. As for knowledge, it will pass away.
Joel Brooks:For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child. I thought like a child. I reasoned like a child, but when I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now, we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.
Joel Brooks:Now I know in part, then I shall fully know even as I have been fully known. So now, faith, hope and love abide. These 3. But the greatest of these is love. Paul is describing maturity and love.
Joel Brooks:He's describing something that, yes, has its place within a marriage, but it is so much bigger than that. I mean, Paul is saying that maturity and love is critical for the follower of Christ. And as he goes as far as to say, and and perhaps you heard the the words kind of resonate from Colossians to the Corinthians. He says that that if I were to understand all the mysteries, and if I had all the understanding, and if I had all of the faith, but I didn't have love, he goes to the core of his identity. I am nothing.
Joel Brooks:I am nothing, if I don't have this love. You can have all the right doctrine, all the right theological answers, all the understanding, but if you don't have love, you are nothing. So what does this love look like? It's patient and kind. It doesn't envy or boast.
Joel Brooks:It isn't arrogant or rude. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, and it never ends. And that doesn't mean that kind of love doesn't abandon the truth or rejoice in wrongdoing. It rejoices in the truth. But it's not arrogant or rude.
Joel Brooks:This isn't easy love. This isn't bumper sticker love. This isn't hashtag love. This isn't cheap love. This is divine love.
Joel Brooks:It's sacrificial, and we're called to grow up in it. We can't go on like children, talking like children, acting like children, thinking like children. We have to learn to love compassionately, and sacrificially. And that kind of love is inextricably tied to trust in Christ. Faith.
Joel Brooks:Maturity and love is intertwined with maturity in faith. So what does it mean to grow up in faith? It means becoming increasingly passionate about the mystery of God, which is Jesus. We mature in faith when we become passionate about the truth of God, which is the person of Christ and his gospel. Paul wants these Colossian Christians to have clarity and strong understanding of Jesus and his gospel.
Joel Brooks:Because he wants them to experience those riches, those treasures found in assurance. Maturity and faith means we are increasing in our passion for Jesus. And and that that passion looks like a lot of different things, and I want to highlight 2. 1, it is trust in Jesus, and 2, it's obedience to Jesus. That's what love looks like in John 15 when John is when Jesus is is talking to his disciples about abiding in him and loving him, abiding in his love, he says, what does that look like?
Joel Brooks:It's obeying my commandments. That's what it looks like. It's obedience. It's knowing what I have said and obeying me. Earlier this month, I did, the theological talk back at Avondale Brewery on doubt and the believers.
Joel Brooks:It's one of my favorite things that I've ever done in in ministry and and I It was it was a lot of fun. I got to talk with a number of you afterwards and and email and sitting down. And and one of the things that came up a couple of times was when it comes to doubt and the believer, what about assurance? Isn't there assurance that that is to be had? Isn't there a confidence and a conviction that's that's there for us?
Joel Brooks:Because I said that every Christian should be prepared for and readied and expect doubt. So the question becomes, what about assurance? So my answer to that is, yes. Full assurance is possible for the Christian. But we need to zero in on what that assurance is concerning.
Joel Brooks:Paul is not talking about an assurance of all things theological. He isn't saying that doubt is no longer possible for the Christian rather, Paul is saying that when it comes to the good news of Jesus, not just theories about Jesus, ideas, opinions, but when it comes to Jesus himself, you can be sure that God has begun to accomplish all that he has promised to rescue, to restore for life with God reconciled to God that he's begun to accomplish all of these things through Jesus. Of him, you can be assured. Now, remember that this phrase, this full assurance of understanding, that's actually another one of those lines that the false teachers would come in and use. And what he is saying here is that you can have this, when it comes to the person of Jesus, that that mystery has been revealed.
Joel Brooks:That confidence is here to be found because that mystery is Jesus, and he has been revealed to us. His gospel has come to us. We have received it and believed. These riches of full assurance of understanding, this clear understanding of Jesus is what we're called to. That assurance is there for us.
Joel Brooks:And why is it so critical to grow in trust and obedience? It's because delusion is out there. These false teachers that that came in to the Colossian church. That's the reason that Paul is saying these things. Look at verse 4.
Joel Brooks:He says, I say this that no one will delude you with persuasive argument. That's why he says this. He's not saying unreasonable argument, he's not saying that these the things that these people are coming in and saying is untenable. It makes sense. They've got a good argument.
Joel Brooks:They've got a great story. It was a good testimony. I I heard it. I It it moved me. It's plausible.
Joel Brooks:It makes sense, and he says, I'm writing to you because I want you to be firmly established in these things. Because when these voices come and come, they will, you need to know where you stand. That's why he's writing these things. There is delusion. There are plausible arguments.
Joel Brooks:There are persuasive people who stand against trusting in Christ and obeying him. And we can't sit by and pretend like culture doesn't have a strong current. It does. The culture of our own hearts, and the culture at large around us. There's a strong current to it.
Joel Brooks:And we need to be aware of that. We need to have mature eyes to see those things. To know where we stand. And as Paul is calling them to hold fast to what you have received, which is Christ and his gospel. Not an assurance of every theological question that could ever come up.
Joel Brooks:But an assurance in Jesus and a trust in him. You know that our culture is strong. You know that the current of our culture is strong pressing in from many different directions. And so here here's the comment that you would maybe perhaps assume would need to to come on after a week as we've had. I'm not gonna presume to know what your opinions might be on this week's Supreme Court ruling.
Joel Brooks:For two reasons, I'm not going to presume that. Number 1: you are a complex individual with complex thoughts and emotions considering the theological, political, and social implications. And secondly, we're not friends on Facebook. So I don't I don't just automatically know all the things that you must think right now. But I will presume this.
Joel Brooks:I will presume that you are feeling the strong current of culture. Or from those that are glad for the decision and those who are railing against that decision and the people in between. You feel, I presume that you feel that because you're paying attention. You're paying attention. You're listening.
Joel Brooks:You're reading. You're hearing. And you have you have your own opinions, and emotions, and complex thoughts, but you're hearing all of this and we know that culture is strong. We can be swayed in many different directions on many different topics. This was so true for Paul and the Colossian church.
Joel Brooks:They felt the current of culture. They felt those pressures. And when their good friends started believing what these people had come in to start saying, hey, you have to go back to the law when it comes to what you can eat. You can't just eat anything. You have to obey the ceremonial law.
Joel Brooks:You can't You're not saved. You're not a Christian. You're not a you're not a true follower of Jesus if you eat these things or act in these ways or be near these people. And so, this tension builds up, and they're wondering, what do I believe? And Paul says, therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him being firmly rooted and now being built up in him, established in your faith just as you were instructed and overflowing in gratitude.
Joel Brooks:You are rooted because God has rooted you. You are being built up because God is building you up. You are being established because God is establishing you. And the evidence of these things is not just that you make all the right moral decisions, it's that you're thankful for it. That you're thankful for what God has done for you in Christ Jesus, And that you can stand on his word, you can stand under the authority of the scriptures and what he has told us.
Joel Brooks:You can hear his commandments and strive to live trusting him and obeying him. And in all of that, be thankful. So questions for us to consider. Questions of reflection. We need to ask, am I increasing in compassion and passion?
Joel Brooks:Am I increasing in that love and faith? Am I growing up in these things? A compassion for others and a passion for Christ and his gospel. And the second question is this. Am I thankful?
Joel Brooks:Am I overflowing with that gratitude? Because if I'm not, I'm probably not paying attention, at least not to what matters most. Am I thankful? Am I living into this call to grow up in love and in faith to trust and obey my Lord. Let's pray.
Joel Brooks:God, help us as we move now to this table of remembrance. Help us by your spirit to to commune with you, our Lord Jesus. We pray these things in his name. Amen.
