Jesus-Centered Walking (Centered #2)

The spring after my family and I moved into our current house, I met one of my neighbors for the first time. And it caught me a little off guard when he said, So, I hear you’re a pastor who moved to town to start a new church.

That is the power of a small town. Word had gone before me. So I confirmed it, and he looked at me and asked, How in the world do you even do that? What does that look like?

It turned out my neighbor was Catholic, and that was all he had ever known. He was married in the Catholic church. All three of his children were baptized at the parish here in town. That was his entire frame of reference for church. So the idea of a new neighbor moving to town to start one boggled his mind, and he could not help but ask what that would even look like.

My neighbor is not alone. All of us do this. When we encounter an idea we do not understand, or have only the vaguest notion of, we want to know what it looks like from the inside.

That is the premise behind a video series someone told me about this week, where the host spends a day with people from wildly different walks of life — someone who worked as a spy, someone who escaped North Korea, someone who survived a kidnapping, someone living with PTSD. He spends the day asking questions and interviewing them, wanting to know: what is life like in your shoes? (Before you all reach for your phones, I will warn you that a lot of it is explicit and the subject matter is very edgy, so parents, do not start it in the car unless you want a lot of questions.)

But the premise is exactly what I am after today. I think this is what the Apostle Paul is getting at for his readers.

Where We Are in Colossians

If you were with us last week, you know Paul wrote letters to a number of churches, most of which he had personally planted. There were only two exceptions: Romans, and Colossians.

The reason he did not plant the church in Colossae is that it was a smaller, less strategic city. He went to Ephesus, about a hundred miles west, and planted the church there. We believe a man named Epaphras, whom we met last week in verse 7, traveled back home to Colossae with some other disciples, shared the gospel, some people believed, and a church started. Then Epaphras made his way to Rome, where Paul was imprisoned, and shared the news. Paul was so excited that he wrote them a letter.

That is why today’s passage opens with him saying, essentially, I am thanking God for you, and I am praying for you. But as we learned last week, he also wanted to make sure they truly knew the gospel — and now he wants them to know what life looks like if you do. To use his phrase: what it looks like to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord.

The Text: Colossians 1:9–14

“And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

If You Are Wondering What This Would Look Like

If you came to Christ later in life, you may remember what those days were like — asking yourself what it would even be like to become a Christian. And maybe you are here today, in person or online, not a Christian yet, wondering exactly that.

Years ago I sat down in a booth at my favorite barbecue place in Cedar Rapids across from a young man who had invited me to lunch. I was thrilled, because I knew what the number four special was going to be like. He was nervous — not because of the food, but because of the questions rattling around in his head. He was not a Christian, and I think I was about the only pastor he knew. Something was going on inside him. Something was drawing him. He wanted to know what it would look like if he gave his life to Christ.

If that is you, this is the perfect passage. It gives you a real glimpse of what life looks like if you begin following Jesus.

And if you already follow Christ, this may serve as good reminders. It may show you what God wants to do in you and through you. It may bring back some things that marked the early days of your walk with Jesus that you have quietly drifted away from.

Paul gives us five descriptions of what it looks like to walk with Jesus: being filled, bearing fruit, increasing, being strengthened, and giving thanks.

But before we work through those, we have to deal with something else first.

What Are We Walking On?

Paul uses the word walk. And in order to walk, you have to have ground to walk on. Antigravity boots have not been invented yet.

So what does Paul say we walk upon? We heard it last week: he calls us to build a foundation, to be grounded — to use our series word, to be centered on Christ. And because this theme matters so much to him, he does not just mention it once and move on. He is right back at it in verses 13 and 14.

“He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

Now here is something important. The five descriptors we are about to look at are all verbs, and in each one there are two parties involved — the follower of Jesus has a role, and God is at work too. But in verses 13 and 14 there are two verbs in which mankind has no role at all. It is entirely God.

Delivered

When the gospel came to the people in Colossae, Epaphras brought it. But did Epaphras save them? No. Did they save themselves? No. God delivered them. Some translations use the word rescued. Who did the rescuing? God.

That matters, because sometimes we believe that in order for this relationship with God to begin, it starts with me cleaning up my act. It starts with me quitting the swearing. It starts with me finally reading the Bible, or going to church, or joining a Bible study.

Paul wants them to know: your relationship with God did not start with you. It started with God. He did the work. He delivered you.

And what did he rescue us from? The domain of darkness.

In a lot of ancient literature and in other religions there is this concept that darkness is bad and light is good. It is why in old westerns the villain wore the black hat and the hero wore the white one — never mind that black is my favorite color. And maybe you are like me and you actually love the nighttime, when the sun sets and the stars come out; there is something peaceful about it. That is not what Paul is getting at. But if you have ever walked through a dark room barefoot and stepped on a Lego, you know that light is good. Light would have spared you the pain shooting up your leg and kept certain words off your lips.

Transferred

He rescued us from darkness — and then he did something else. He transferred us, like a college athlete moving from one school to another, out of the domain of darkness and into the kingdom of his beloved Son.

That is the light. Jesus describes himself in John’s Gospel as the light of the world. So if he is the light, he is the king of the kingdom of light — and in his light is his love, his grace, his goodness, his power, and his presence. And God transferred us into that.

But if you are honest with yourself, you may notice a problem. That light has to be perfect, because God is perfect — and I am not. And if you let even the smallest smudge of imperfection into perfection, it is no longer perfect. You have heard the line: if you ever find the perfect church, do not join it, because it will no longer be perfect. Same idea.

Which is why Paul does not stop writing there. He keeps going: we have been transferred into the kingdom of the Son, because it is in Christ that we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

When you use a coupon at the grocery store — and does anyone still use coupons? — you get a discount. Jesus gave his life not to get a discount on you, but to purchase you outright. The penalty for our sin was death, and Jesus went and paid it. Our debt was erased. We are free. Our sins have been forgiven and washed away, and therefore in the eyes of God we are perfect.

That does not mean we now do everything right and never sin again. But in God’s eyes, because of the work of Christ, we are perfect — and we can come into his presence.

Notice the tense

Both of those verbs are past tense.

At our baptism service last month, a guest pastor did a brilliant job explaining how the concept of salvation is elastic — that as you study the Scriptures you find that we have been saved, we are being saved, and we will one day be saved. I think the same applies here. Yes, if you follow Jesus, you are currently being delivered and transferred, and one day when you breathe your last you will enter the kingdom of the beloved Son fully.

But it is also already done in the eyes of God. You have been delivered. You have been transferred. You do not have to keep doing something to earn it, because God has already done it.

That should encourage you and, in a sense, help you rest. Because in the eyes of God you are his child. He would never disown you. He has delivered you and transferred you into the kingdom of his Son, making you his son and his daughter. He is not going to give you back. He wants to keep you forever.

So walking with Jesus is not about trying to impress God, or performing out of duty, or earning something. We live out these five descriptors because this is who we are. We have been delivered. We have been transferred. And because we are now sons and daughters of God, this is how we walk.

1. Being Filled

Verse 9: he prays that they may be filled.

Not full of themselves. Not full from an epic church potluck. Filled with knowledge.

Last week we noted that although Colossae was not a strategic city, it had a reputation for being religiously chaotic — cults, competing philosophies, all kinds of things swirling around. So much so that the Jewish community there was looked down on by Jews elsewhere as having gone liberal, having given in to the philosophies and cults of the day.

Paul wants to protect them. They are going to need knowledge of the gospel, so that when a false gospel or some other wild idea comes through, they do not simply buy in and run with it. They can see it for what it is.

But he does not want knowledge for knowledge’s sake. Paul knows that can be dangerous. In 1 Corinthians 8:1 he writes that knowledge puffs up. When you just soak in information, your ego inflates, along with your sense of self-importance and superiority over others. Paul knows that piling up Bible knowledge can simply make you a jerk — and that does not accomplish what God wants, which is people living like Jesus lived and loving like Jesus loved.

So notice the qualifier: it is knowledge of his will. The knowledge of what God desires, what God wants, where God seems to be working. And when you understand that, it comes with all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

I want that. When I sit one-on-one with someone and they begin to open up, I want wisdom about what to say and what not to say. I want to know where to take them in the Scriptures — how to encourage them, how to challenge them. That kind of spiritual wisdom comes from knowing his will.

2. Increasing

Verse 10 says we are to be increasing in the knowledge of God.

So it is not only being filled with the knowledge of God, it is increasing. Like filling a water balloon — you fill it, and then you can keep filling it, and it keeps expanding.

Many years ago I got to sit down with a pastor I had known online for a couple of years but had never met in person. We were in a bookstore cafe, and he asked me how long my wife and I had been married. At that point it was nine years, and in my mind we were no longer baby marrieds. We were nearly a decade in. So I proudly said nine years.

And he looked at me and said, You barely even know her yet.

I was offended. That is my best friend he is talking about.

Now that we have been married more than twenty-four years, I look back and realize: yes, at nine years we were baby marrieds, and I barely knew her. I know her so much better now. I know what she likes and does not like, the things that light her up, the things she steers clear of. I know her far better.

And where did all that knowledge come from? Experience. I did not sit down with the Book of My Wife and memorize it for an exam. It came from time with her.

It is the same with God. There is time with God in the Word, yes. But there is also time with God gathered with other believers. Time in a small group. Time sitting one-on-one with someone and being encouraged. Time in worship. Time in prayer. You start spending that time, and you will be increasing in the knowledge of God.

3. Bearing Fruit

And we know this is not merely textbook knowledge because of the descriptor that comes just before it, also in verse 10: walking with Jesus looks like bearing fruit in every good work.

Back at Easter of 2020, when we were not permitted to gather, we were trying to figure out what to do. I had come up with a creative idea for that sermon months earlier, and when we could not meet I was crushed — do I just shelve it for a year? Then I thought: what if we got creative and shot it as a short film? So we went out to a family farm belonging to one of our families and filmed it. Some of you remember watching it.

That sermon was on Mark 4, where Jesus tells a parable about four kinds of soil. A farmer goes out to sow, and some seed falls on a hard path so packed down that the seed cannot get in and no roots can grow. Other seed falls on soil it can get into, but the ground is so full of rocks that the roots cannot develop. Other seed takes root and grows up, but thorns and weeds choke it out. And the fourth soil is good enough that the seed goes in, the roots go deep, the plant grows, and you see reproduction thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.

Jesus later tells the disciples that the seed is the gospel. God wants the gospel message of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection to get into your life. He does not want it blocked out by a hard heart. He does not want it stunted by the rocks. He does not want it choked out by a busy schedule. He wants his gospel, his love, and his grace to get into your life, take root, and grow something beautiful. He wants you bearing fruit.

And notice: bearing fruit in every good work. Not just on Sundays. Not just between six and eight when you volunteer somewhere. Every good work — at work, at school, at home, in the neighborhood, with whoever you are with.

4. Being Strengthened

If you are like me, you are thinking: I cannot be on like that all the time. That sounds exhausting.

Which is why Paul’s fourth descriptor is in verse 11: being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might.

This is not about becoming like Samson. The goal of following Jesus is not to make you physically imposing. This is a different kind of strengthening. One New Testament commentator suggests it could be translated empowered with all power, and I like that — the idea that God’s Spirit is empowering us with his power to go bear fruit in every good work, to increase in knowledge, to be filled. His power coming into us, enabling us to do what he calls us to.

And for what? For all endurance and patience.

In case you have not noticed, life is hard. And sometimes following Jesus is harder. If you are not a follower of Jesus yet, some Christian will probably tell you that if you give your life to Jesus everything will get better. I am going to tell you the truth: give your life to Jesus, but do not expect everything to get easier.

Because sometimes it is simply easier to go with the crowd. Easier to give in. Easier to believe what everyone around you believes. Our culture keeps saying things, and sometimes it is just easier to think, you know what, that sounds good — and never mind that it conflicts with what we learn here.

Think about the Colossians. One of the big controversies raging in their day was circumcision. Some Jewish believers who accepted Jesus as Messiah still held to the old forms, and they argued you had to be circumcised — essentially, that you had to become a Jew before you could become a Christian. And we see in Paul’s writing: no, your salvation does not come through the cutting of skin. It comes through Jesus. It is the cutting of your heart, the conviction of your sin, the work of Christ. But that was the debate raging around them, and for some people it was simply easier to give in.

I have honestly never had that debate with anyone. It has faded. Christians today argue about a great many other things, but not that one. And yet the gospel Paul taught the Colossians is still with us.

So endure. Be patient. A lot of what is going on around us — the screaming, the yelling, the certainty that if you do not believe this thing you are beyond the pale — it will fade. Do not give in. Do not fall for it. Paul did not want them giving in to the philosophies and religions and ideas floating around. Stick with Jesus. Stick with the life, death, and resurrection of this Messiah. Let him transfer you into his kingdom, and then simply live out that identity. The things swirling around you will pass.

“With joy”

That might still sound exhausting, which is why he adds two more words: with joy.

Nehemiah 8 tells us that the joy of the Lord is our strength. So if you are struggling to find joy, run to the Lord. His joy will give you strength.

To be open with you: there have been some days these last few years when joy has been hard to find. I do not know if it is the political climate, or the cultural climate, or the weight of trying to faithfully lead a church, or things in personal life — maybe all of it. But there have been days.

And what I have discovered is this. When I take time to sit down and get into God’s Word, it is like a balm on my soul, and the joy starts bubbling back up. When I let myself worship God through a song, the joy creeps back in. When I start praying for you and for these issues, I find myself strengthened. I find myself enduring, wanting to keep leading, wanting to keep loving, being patient with people. The joy returns.

So do you want to endure? Do you want to be strengthened? Run to God. Go to the gospel. Let that reminder give you joy, because the joy of the Lord will be your strength.

5. Giving Thanks

And that joy leads straight to the last descriptor, in verse 12: giving thanks.

When I moved to Cedar Rapids to become a young adult pastor, my direct supervisor was a pastor who had been there long before me and stayed long after, eventually retiring from that church. But before he came there, he led a rescue mission in upstate New York — one of the largest in the entire country. Back in the 1980s their budget crossed a million dollars, which put them among the biggest.

They primarily served men, and they took a holistic approach: helping men get out of homelessness, find housing, find a job, get off drugs and alcohol, and reconnect with family. So often what had happened to these men was broken relationships, and the pain of that drove them toward everything else. And because it was a Christ-centered ministry, they also worked to help these men understand who Jesus is.

He told me that after serving there a few years, he could predict which men coming through would end up back at the mission or in jail, and which ones would actually succeed — keep the job, keep the housing, keep the relationships, and not return to their addictions.

And the thing that let him predict it was gratitude.

The men who showed genuine thankfulness for the programs, the help, and the assistance were the ones who kept the job, kept the house, kept the relationships, and did not go back. The men who were a bit hard-hearted, who went through the motions and participated but had no gratitude in them — those were the ones who lost the job, returned to their addictions, and ended up back at the mission.

There is real power in gratitude. A thankful heart does something in a person.

But you cannot simply wake up tomorrow and decide to have an attitude of gratitude. Well — that is great, do it. But to give thanks, there has to be something or someone you are thankful for. If you are going to give thanks to the Father, you need to know why.

And Paul tells us in the very next phrase: this Father “has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.”

Your sin makes you unqualified to come into the presence of God. But because of God’s work through the cross and the empty grave, he now qualifies you. He makes it so you are accepted. You can come in. You get to share in the inheritance of the saints.

And as we mentioned last week, a saint in Paul’s usage is not someone venerated in a formal process, nor someone who has lived holier than everyone else. A saint is anyone who has put their faith in Jesus. So if you have put your faith in Christ, you are a saint. If you are investigating Christianity, the moment you put your life in Christ, you become a saint — because God washes you of your sin, and in his eyes you are his son, you are his daughter. And you inherit what all the saints inherit: eternal life, God’s presence, his goodness, his character.

Watch What Gratitude Does

Do you realize what happens when you live with this kind of gratitude for the gospel, day in and day out — when this is what you treasure?

You begin to want to be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. You want to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him. You desire to bear fruit in every good work. You want to increase in the knowledge of God. You long to be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy.

And you cannot help but bubble over in giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light — because he has delivered you from the domain of darkness and transferred you to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Let Us Pray

Heavenly Father, help every one of us come into that kingdom of your Son.

For the person who has never surrendered and laid their life down before you — I pray they would be like my friend, who just a few days after that lunch at a barbecue joint gave his life to you. It has been a joy to see the difference it has made in him and in the people around him. Would you write that story again today? Would someone here give their life to you, letting you deliver them from the domain of darkness, deliver them out of their sin, and transfer them into the kingdom of your Son — into your light, your grace, your forgiveness? Let them see that because of Jesus’ work on the cross they can have redemption and the forgiveness of their sins, and become your son and your daughter. Let today be their spiritual birthday.

And then, God, lead them to walk with you. Fill them with the knowledge of your will so they would have spiritual wisdom and understanding. Help them increase in that knowledge. Let them bear fruit, being a blessing to everyone they interact with. Make them strong, and instill in them the strength of your Holy Spirit, so your joy would burst out of them.

And I do not pray this only for the person having their spiritual birthday. I pray it for everyone who has already put their faith in you — that the work you do in brand new believers is the work you keep doing in those who have known you for decades. Because you are never done filling us. There are always ways for us to increase. There is still more fruit to be borne. We need to be strengthened. And if we are honest, we are not always living with thankful hearts.

That is why we keep seeking you, asking you to transform us into the image of your Son. Thank you for these words from Paul, and for how you use them to carve and shape and mold us. Help us keep surrendering, so that you might do these things in us and help us walk in a manner worthy of our precious Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In his name we pray, amen.