The Wisdom of God is Greater Than the Wisdom of the World

Series: Colossians: Greater Than...

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“Greater Wisdom” // Message @ JRCC – Sunday, Nov 4, 2018
Text: Colossians 1:21-2:7 // Series: “Greater Than”
My name is Brad. I’m part of the teaching and leadership team here at
Jericho Ridge. I want to welcome you to come on back in and take you
seats and we’ll continue with our teaching time together. Some of you
know a bit about my personal faith journey… I’ve shared it in these spaces
before. And some of you have reflected how it mirrored some of your own
experiences. You see, I was raised in a small town, in a very conservative
setting. My parents came to faith when I was a young boy and we started
going to a small country church to “get some religion”. If you were to ask
me during that season of life “what is Christianity all about, Brad?” I would
have said something like
Don’t do bad things (God will not be angry)
Getting the list just right was quite important
So you didn’t lie, you didn’t drink, you didn’t have sex with people you
weren’t married to… The list was a pretty long one. But I would have also
said that you should
Do good things (God will love & bless you)
Getting the rituals just right was quite important
You should go to church. Read you Bible pray every day. Give money
away, etc. I became really, really, good at this game. I memorized all the
right Bible verses. I went to the right schools and camps. But there was
just one problem with this. I was jumping through all the hoops and doing
all of the right things, but I knew that the deepest parts of me were not
really experiencing any lasting transformation. I was playing at religion.
Philosopher and author Dr. Dallas Willard in his exceptional book “The
Divine Conspiracy” calls this the “gospel of sin management”. It’s like
putting on a mask and pretending on the outside that you have it all
together and that you are doing great! You can convince people that you
are a really good person. But are not dealing with the real issue.
This fall at Jericho, in addition to moving into our new permanent home, we
are working our way through one of the most intriguing books of the Bible
for people who are looking to go beyond a gospel of sin management and
get at the root of the challenges and glorious possibilities of a personal,
dynamic transformative encounter with the living God. It’s a book in the
New Testament called Colossians and it was written under the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit by an influential leader in the early Christian moment
named Paul. He wrote to a group of people in the ancient city of Colossae
who were trying to follow God in the way of Jesus with some advice for the
journey. He writes to explain to them how Jesus is Greater Than anything
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You see, the Colossian Christians had come out of a culture that was all
about rule keeping. They had grown up leaning to manage or placate the
gods by appeasing them with the right offerings. They had been taught
how to worship the empire by paying your taxes and keeping your head
down. They knew just how to do the right rituals so that the moon and the
starts were aligned and their businesses would do well. Or so they
thought. When they came to saving faith, they brought with them a lot of
these ideas about how to relate to God. Paul has to write to them with
corrective instruction letting them know that the One true God doesn’t want
a relationship with humanity based on manipulation or empty rituals.
Pastor Wally took us last weekend through the section in chapter 1 of
Colossians that scholars believe is the earliest Christian hymn or poetic
song. So I want us to pick up right at the end of that section. Turn with me
in your Bibles or on your devices to Colossians 1:21 (I’ll be reading from
the New Living Translation and the text will come up on the screens).
Slide – Col 1:21-22
The book of Colossians paints the picture that the core of Christianity is
contained in this kind of bad news / good news intersection...
What’s the Bad News?
1. The BAD NEWS is personal; not generic
My evil thoughts & actions separated me from God
All of the major world religions will have some teachings or ideas as to
what is wrong with the world. Some of them will grant that a generic sense
of evil exists. But Christianity takes that another step further and reminds
us that what is wrong with the world isn’t just out there. It’s in here (heart).
After surviving the horrors of the Russian Gulag work camps, novelists
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote that “The line between good and evil passes
not through states nor between classes, not political parties either - but
right through every human heart.” The bad news is personal. It’s that
 Our minds, our wills & our behaviours evidence opposition to
God!
 This creates separation greater than we can fix ourselves
Colossians uses very strong language to describe the dire nature of our
predicament. We were far away from God. We were enemies of God. We
were separated from God. YET while we were still in this state, God chose
to act. This is the good news. And friends, this is the greatest story of
redemption and reconciliation that history has ever known. Because God’s
love moves God to act. And you see, just like the bad news is personal,
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2) The GOOD NEWS is also deeply personal
Christ’s work of reconciliation had not only cosmic reconciliatory
impact; it has personal implications
Look at the number of times that the text uses personal pronouns…
 God has reconciled YOU to Himself (1:22a)
 God has brought YOU into His own presence (1:22b)
There are two images that Paul uses to help his readers and us to
understand what is going on. One is the language for his Jewish readers
of the Old Testament sacrificial system. In the Old Testament, when you
brought an offering to God, it had to be a spotless lamb. No defects. Not
second best. It had to be perfect. And so Paul picks up on this language
and says when you come into a relationship with God through trusting in
Jesus, you are ushered into God’s presence and you stand there as
Old Testament worship language: “holy / blameless”
That is an incredibly powerful truth that is deeper and richer than anything
that a gospel of sin management could ever hope to achieve! Perfection!
Legal / Debt Language: “without a single fault”
The second image uses here is from the world of commerce and
economics. In the ancient world, if you needed to borrow money, you didn’t
have credit cards or a sophisticated banking system. You went to a friend
or business person of means and you said “I need to borrow some money
from you. I will pay it back” and so you would write down on a ledger how
much you were indebted to them. How much you owed them. You
essentially were bound to them as a creditor, legally you are in the hole. It
is like that Credit Counselling society ad where debt is on your back. Paul
is using the same image and saying “because of your evil thoughts and
actions, you are in a deficit position. You are in the hole when it comes to
holiness. But what Christ did on the cross was not just demonstrate that
God is greater than the powers and principalities and that God is supreme
over all creation, BUT Christ also accomplished something deeply
personal for you and me. He took that debt and he PAID it. He cancelled
it. And so when you come to God through Christ, you come un-indebted
because It’s as if there was a giant IOU written over your life and Christ
ripped it up! “Jesus PAID it all / all to Him I owe / Sin had left a crimson
stain / He washed it white as snow”. This is the part God’s Part to Play in the story of Redemption
PAST (justification) - Christ has reconciled you to God on the cross
PRESENT (sanctification) - God is refashioning your life to resemble Christ
FUTURE (glorification) - God intends for us to enjoy fully that which we presently await in hope
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We have to keep going because I’m only apparently on point 1 of 4 so let’s
pause for a moment here & think about the Implication and Application:
Confidence comes not from what we DO; but in resting in what Christ
has DONE
One of our core values is Transformational Truth and that means that each
of us is at a different place on our journey of transformation. But it also
means that none of us have fully arrived. I want to assure you that
There are “no perfect people allowed” at Jericho
So if you are in process, you are welcome to join us for the journey.
Because we are learning to draw our worth and our identity not from what
we do but from whose we are. Resting in the finished and ongoing work of
Christ who is transforming us. Let’s keep going. We are going to see that
while God has done God’s part, you and I also have a part to play…
Slide – Colossians 1:23
When I was a teenager, I took sailing lessons. And I apparently
successfully passed my White Sail 1. I don’t put it on my resume. One of
the things they taught us was how to tie knots. Like proper sailing and
boating knots. How many of you can tie a good knot? I realized this
spring up at Camp Bob that I had totally forgotten how to tie a good knot.
So if it was up to me, I would tie a boat up to the dock, and in the morning,
we would all find the my knot didn’t hold and the boat had drifted out into
middle of the lake. This is the image used in this verse… That God has
done God’s part – bringing us close to God in Christ. But…
Photo: BOAT (Our Part to play: DON’T DRIFT). To continue to believe
this truth and stand firmly in it. How do I do this, Brad, you might ask?
Some of it is spiritual practices. Continued, regular connection with a
community of faith that can hold you when your own faith is weak.
Personal practices like Scripture intake (Project 3:45 on our app).
Practices like silence and solitude so you can hear God speak to you.
Let me ask you this. Implication and Application:
Are there area(s) of “drift” you can detect in your spiritual life? - In God’s grace & strength, what action(s) could you take to
prevent you from drifting any further?
You might need an accountability relationship or a small group or a
spiritual director. Do whatever you can, by God’s strength, not to drift.
Let’s keep moving finish out Ch. 1 …3 slides – Colossians 1:24-29
The big thing that struck me again in this section was simply that
3) The GOOD NEWS is for SHARING
This message is for everyone
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In Colossae, there was a religious system called Gnosticism which was a
kind of cult based on secret knowledge. If you knew the right words and
phrases you were in. If you paid the entrance fee to the right people, you
were in. If you dressed the right way and had the right connections or the
right heritage, you were in. But Christ came to bust up all that kind of
religious exclusivism. He extends the table to all.
 God’s deepest desire is to reveal the riches and glory of Christ
to the world & invite all to share in His love
 This building has a role to play in that declaration
Recent statistics tell us that 1,000 people per month are moving into the
neighbourhood and making the city of Surrey their home. Willoughby is
around half way through its build out. So we have a story to share not only
with the nations, but also with our neighbours who number in the 100,000+
Here’s where I sometimes get tripped up. I think to myself, well, if I start
telling my neighbours about God’s love and goodness, they will put my life
under the microscope and start to say things like “that’s all fine and good
but Sumer sure doesn’t’ drive like a Christian!” or “He doesn’t seem to
parent like a Christian! I’ve heard him yell at his kids!” Sometimes we
think we have to have it all together before we venture out into
conversation with others. This is one reason why I love Paul’s honesty. He
talks about how he struggles and works and doesn’t’ always get it right.
But we are also assured that [3) The GOOD NEWS is for SHARING]
Flaws or deficiencies in us as messengers does not invalidate the
Message
Can I get an AMEN? The reason for this is that
The “mighty power” does not come from the moral perfection of the
messengers but from God (1:29)
Now, don’t hear what I am not saying. This doesn’t’ mean you can be a
jerk and go around witnessing. It simply means that your flaws and my
flaws should not prevent us from bold witness and invitation! Christ is at
work in our city, in the lives of your friends and neighbours opening up their
hearts. Our job is to pray, and to pay attention and to remember that we
don’t’ do the life change part – that is God’s mighty power at work.
Friends, in this space, we have already heard testimony today about
hundreds and hundreds of lives that have been radically and powerfully
transformed. Now the torch is being handed to us. We have our part to
play in this place, in this time in history. I want us to be found faithful, not
perfect, but faithful in continuing to hold forth the word of truth and life here
at 19533 64th Avenue!
How are we going to do this? Well let’s keep reading in chapter 2:1-5
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2 slides – Colossians 2:1-5
One of the exciting things that happens as we develop in our faith is that
4) The GOOD NEWS produces GOOD FRUIT in our lives personally
and in the Church
 Encouragement (2:2) & thanksgiving (2:7)
 Knit together by strong ties of love (2:2)
 Confidence in & understanding of God’s plan (2:2)
 Wisdom & Knowledge (2:3)
 Strong faith that can withstand storms (2:4)
These are things I want for my own life, for our church! I need to gather
together for encouragement when things are hard. I need to be together
publically giving thanks to God for God’s goodness and favour and love
poured out so generously into our lives for the sake of the world.
The phrase that keeps coming to the surface for me is that we are “Knit
together in strong ties of love”. My grandmother was a knitter. She could
take individual threads that were different colours and different fibres come
from different places and she could knit them together into something
beautiful and useful. Some of you are knitters. You know what I am taking
about. Last weekend, Meg and David and Denise McFarland and I had
the privilege to attend a conference in North Carolina where local author
Sarah Bessey was speaking. She is a knitter and she had a line that I
thought was so funny. She said “If Harry Potter has taught us nothing, it is
to never underestimate the women who knit. That is just good theology.”
But Jericho and friends, I want you to hear this… God is knitting us
together in a fresh and exciting way here in this space. I have a sense that
God is just getting started with us. From 14 years ago when Jericho Ridge
first launched in the cafeteria at RE Mountain then we moved to the ½
gym, then across to the LEC then this fall over to Port Kells and now to this
space, God is knitting us together in love for the sake of a world that needs
to taste and see and experience, not just another religious institution or a
bunch of people who follow the right rules. God is knitting us together
because this city and the people in your complex and the people in your
family and at your school and workplace need to taste and see a people
who are knit together not by God’s goodness and God’s love. They don’t
need to see a group that follows all the rules perfectly. Clayton and
Willoughby and our world needs to see a people who are confident in
God’s plan, whose faith sustains them in the storms of life and who are
deeply and passionately committed to sharing the love of God with the
world. God is knitting us together in love so that many, many others can
join us in this journey of experiencing and living in His love. What a
privilege!
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Implication and Application:
What are the characteristics we want to have define this era for
Jericho Ridge?
Image: All we Knit is Love
One of the best ways I know how to celebrate this is to come to the table,
as Jesus modelled for us with his own disciples. He took bread, which He
said represented His body broken for a needy world. He took the cup,
which He said was a sign of His blood, poured out for the forgiveness of
sins. And Christ invited them to partake. Even the ones who would betray
him. Even the ones who were not sure they believed in all of this crap.
Jesus still invited them to the table. With their doubts and with their fears
and failures. And so when we set the table here at Jericho, I want to
remind us that this is not OUR table. It is Christ’s table. And so Christ
gets to set the agenda and the terms of reference.
During communion, we remember the things that Christ is speaking
over us…
 “You are accepted because of what God has done not because
of what you have done” – God demonstrates His own love for us in
this, not that we have a building, but that while we were still sinners,
Christ died for us.
 “I will strengthen & empower you for witness” – where you have
fallen short or kept silent, come to the table in repentance but also
come in faith asking God to give you courage and boldness.
When we come to this table, Christ is speaking something over us, but we
are also speaking and declaring something
And the things we are speaking back to God…
 “THANK YOU!”
We are proclaiming and announcing our participation in God’s good work.
We are proclaiming and declaring our gratitude that the arms of God are
open wide to receive all who come to Him. And if you have never taken
that step, today is your day. You do this by simply agreeing with God and
saying “Yes, today I put my trust in You. I acknowledge that my thoughts
and actions have separated me from You. I want to come home. I want to
be part of your forever family. I want to receive your love and forgiveness”
If that’s you today the table is open for you. Come talk to me before you go
The worship team is going to come. The servers will distribute the
elements, the bread, the cup, and I would ask that you hold them until you
are instructed to partake as we will partake all together as a declaration of
unity and faith. The elements are not for people who are perfect. 

What is Christianity all about? Is it about being a good person or is there something more to it than that? Join the people of Jericho as we kick off our time together in our new building with a message on the depth of God's wisdom and plan

Speaker: Brad Sumner

November 4, 2018
Colossians 1:21-2:7

Brad Sumner

Lead Pastor

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