Christ the King Colossians 1:10-20

Christ the King (21^st November 2010)

Colossians 1:10-20

 

 

This Sunday is known as Christ the King.  But what does it mean to have Christ as our King?  How does it affect our lives?   What are the things that we have to do that will please our King? 

When it comes to pleasing God we often think about how we behave and what we do.   You may think of certain experiences: that you have been baptized, that you come to church regularly or that you read your Bible.  Or you may say that if you don’t smoke, or drink alcohol, or gamble you are pleasing God. Or you may say that if you keep the tradition of the church, or if you exercise the gifts of the Spirit, then you are pleasing God.   But these are all external things.  In fact, if we listen closely to what we are saying we are really implying that the person who pleases God is the one who is like us.  We define pleasing God by our experience and beliefs, and we get critical of people who are not like us.

But this morning we need to find a better approach as outlined by Paul, to give us some ideas on what a life that pleases God looks like.  We see four characteristics of a life pleasing to the Lord, who is our King. They are revealed by four participles in verses 10-12. They are: “bearing fruit”; “growing in knowledge”; “being strengthened”; and “giving thanks”. Let’s look at each one of them more closely.

The first point is: the life that pleases God bears fruit. Jesus has reminded the disciples with these words: “I am the vine and you are the branches.”   We are more familiar with fruit trees rather than grapes.  If Jesus was talking about a fruit tree he was referring to himself as the trunk.  The life of the tree is from the trunk and it is supplied to the branches. There it reproduces itself through the branches in the form of fruit.

Remember that branches are not designed to produce fruit: only to bear it. They are totally dependant on the tree trunk for fruit.  When we talk about the Christian life, we are referring to the fact that we are the branches and the fruit is produced in us by the Holy Spirit.  The fruit is not made or produced by you or me. We often get it wrong, thinking that our goodness is the result of our own making or production.  That is why some good Christians become proud of themselves and judgemental of others: they forget it is the Holy Spirit who is at work in them.

So what then is our responsibility? Our responsibility as a believer is to abide in Christ, to live in dependency upon him through a constant yielding to the Holy Spirit for life.  As Christians we are not working hard trying to produce fruit: all we need is to remain with the vine and trust it to provide life for us, to enable us to bear fruit.  For fruit to reach maturity, it has to go through certain process: fruit does not appear all at once. First there is the flower or blossom, then a tiny fruit, which develops to maturity and all this while, the branch must continue to draw life from the vine.

That is what our life as Christian is like. It is a life that on daily dependence upon Christ and a life that yields to the Holy Spirit moment by moment.  God never intended you and I to struggle to become good people.  All he wants is for us to allow Christ to his live through us. He is the vine – the fruit producer. We are the branches – fruit bearers. And these are all possible not because we are good people. They are possible because we stick to the prescription of Jesus: “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.”   We don’t cut ourselves of the church (the Body of Christ) in order to bear more fruit: instead we seek to draw closer to Him and the fruit will come naturally.  It’s not a matter of trying harder to become good, but drawing closer to him.

The second point is: the life that pleases God is one that yearns to know God better.  The life that pleases God is the one that “keeps on growing in knowledge.”  It is continually seeking to know God better. When we talk about this it is good to remember two things: 

First, growing in the knowledge of God is not the same as seeking to learn how to get more from God.   Many of us are only concerned with how we get God to answer our prayers, and to meet our needs and get rid of our problems. Imagine if your children came to you only when they wanted something from you, would you feel that they loved you?  Surely not!  You would feel that they are just using you.  So if your intention of praying or studying the Bible is just to get God’s blessing, then you do not really love God: you are only using Him to get what you want.

Second, growing in the knowledge of God is not the same as growing in knowledge about God.  There is always a danger of substituting facts for a relationship.  We can spend all our time mastering information about God and not have a relationship with God.  We need to understand that the life that pleases God is the one that yearns to know more God so that they can love him better.  We do not read the Bible primarily for factual information but to discern the heart of God, and to look for direction in life.   Likewise, our prayers must not be totally consumed with requests. We pray to develop our relationship with God.  We want to learn something that will help us to know and love God better.

The next point is that the life that pleases God endures troubled times and is patient with difficult people and situations. Paul tells the Colossians that a life that pleases God is one that is “being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might…”  But notice the purpose of this power: it is given so we might “have great endurance and patience.”

The Word for endurance (or perseverance) literally means to “remain under” or “to hold on”.  It is a strength that helps us endure the troubled times of life. The word for patience has reference to our dealing with difficult people. God gives us the strength to be patient with those people who give us problems.

It has taken me a long time to understand the work of God: how he gives us the strength, how he fulfils his promises, and how he is in control of circumstances.  I still don’t always understand what God is doing but I know he has a purpose.  When we look at God and understand our circumstances in this manner, we begin to trust.  We don’t walk away and give up because things don’t happen as we anticipate it to be.  We don’t despair: instead we hang on tighter.

Being strong in the times of trouble is difficult.  Trying to be patient with difficult people is no easy task.  Without the help of Jesus our natural reaction will be anger.  But when we are in Christ he begins to give us a different perspective, often reminding us that we too can be difficult persons at times. 

Finally, the life that pleases God is the life that lived gratefully. You see when Paul begins his letter of encouragement to the church in Colossae he gives them the big picture.  Paul lets them know that he is praying for nothing less than for them to possess full knowledge of God’s will and for them to be empowered by the might of Almighty God Himself.  Paul does not begin with the details of what he wants to share with them.  He paints a very big picture of his hopes, dreams, and prayers for the church.  Why is this important?

It is important because our failure to see the big picture often causes us to complain about so many things.   Today people complain about traffic jams: they forget many years ago we didn’t have cars for transport.   We complain about our income being not enough, forgetting that at one time many years ago we did not have an income.  We complain how hard life is: try living in a country like Afghanistan, Somalia or North Korea.  We complain about our food, forgetting that millions of people in the world have very little to eat.    We complain about our church, forgetting that there are many Christians in Brunei have no church building to worship in.  We still think that God has not given us enough.  Or we think that if God really loved us we would have less problems and more money; more influence and less illness; more good times and less difficult times.

We need to see the big picture. We need to remember where we were in the past and how life was like then; we need to see where we are now; and we need to have vision for the future.  When we see the big picture, it helps us to be grateful and we make fewer complaints.    

That was why when Paul wrote this letter to the Colossians, he showed them the big picture and pointed to the goal.  We are still working towards that goal, and we are not there yet.  Knowing the big picture also means that we cannot bear fruit apart from Christ.  We cannot become good by trying to be good.  We need the help of God and that is why we need to draw closer to God.

If we have been Christians for a long time, but we don’t feel anything so special about being Christians, it is possible that our religion has been nothing more than doing the external things.   When we fail to see the church in the big picture we have very narrow understanding of what the church is all about.  We shall start to think of the church works as merely Sunday services, Bible studies, fellowship gatherings, fund raising, building projects or conducting seminars.  These projects and activities are important but they are just some of the things that we do in church, which lead us into the bigger picture.   

But where are we really?  Are we making any impact in the world that we live in?   Do people see our faith in our living?  Do they see it in the way we handle tough times, and how we deal with difficult people?  Do they see it in the way we talk about people who are different from us, or the way we talk about other Christians?  Do they see it in our business ethics?  Can you say that you are setting an example for others to follow?  

The theme Christ the King reminds us that Jesus must be King in our lives. But what do we see what we look at your own lives?  Are we growing in the knowledge of God and growing in our relationship with him?  Are we doing anything to help the church, which is the Body of Christ – or do we just complain about the church?  Are we living gratefully – always thanking God for the blessing that surrounds us?   Do we appreciate the Christian life that we have now?  Are we working to improve our relationship with Jesus?   These are tough questions, but they are questions we cannot ignore.