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Colossians 2: 13 – 15: The price is paid.

These things are true of every Christian:

• There’s been a great change (13): You are no longer what ‘’you were’’. (See John 5: 24: ‘’I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.’’ You were dead, but you aren’t any longer! (See 3:1; Ephesians 2:1-11). Conversion (or ‘regeneration’) was God’s work; God’s initiative. It is not something anyone can boast about. We didn’t make ourselves alive. ‘’When you were stuck in your old sin-dead life, you were incapable of responding to God. God brought you alive – right along with Christ.’’ The Message.
• There’s been a glorious removal (13b, 14: This is a vivid way of saying that because Jesus was nailed to the cross our sin debt has been cancelled.)What a precious truth is found in just six words: ‘’He forgave us all our sins…’’ A verse in the famous hymn, ‘It is well with my soul’, says: ‘’My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought; my sin, not in part but the whole, is nailed to His cross, and I bear it no more, Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, O my soul.’’ There are things that we have done which could continue to haunt us. But Jesus has decisively dealt with every sin at the cross. Someone said, ‘’God buries our sins in the deepest sea, and puts up a big sign: ‘No Fishing!’ ‘’. In using the words ‘’our’’ and ‘’us’’ Paul identified himself with the people he was writing to. He didn’t stand aloof from them. He recognized that he too was a sinner in need of God’s grace. When a criminal was crucified, a placard was nailed to the cross above where he hung, itemising his ‘sins’; his misdemeanours. (You may remember how this worked out in the case of Jesus: Matthew 27:37. Jesus had committed no crimes, but they had to charge Him with something. So He was crucified on concocted charges.) Paul writes here that the charges ‘’against us’’ were ‘nailed’ to Christ’s cross. What an incomprehensibly merciful thing Jesus did for us by His dying! ‘’Think of it! All sins forgiven, the slate wiped clean, that old arrest warrant cancelled and nailed to Christ’s Cross.’’ The Message.
• There’s been a gigantic win (15): ‘’ He stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross and marched them naked through the streets.’’ The Message. The Bible teaches that when Jesus died on the cross He overcame Satan and all the evil powers in the universe (see also Hebrews 2:14, 15. As David cut off Goliath’s head with the giant’s own sword, so Jesus used Satan’s weapon, death, to defeat him.) Jesus exposed to the universe the utter helplessness of the principalities and powers. Paul uses the picture of a conqueror’s triumphal procession in which prisoners of war were displayed to magnify the Victor’s prowess. As we saw yesterday, Jesus’ victory has massive implications for our own daily struggle with personal evil. We share in His win as we lean on Him. Praise God, we our out from under the domination of sin and the devil. We don’t have to be bullied or dictated to any longer.

Prayer: Lord help me to realise that these things are true of me, because of you.

Jeremiah 7:16-29

‘’Are they not rather harming themselves…’’ (19b).

‘’Walk in all the ways I command you, that it may go well with you.’’ (23b).

These are the alternatives before us: to go God’s way or our own. Both routes have consequences; they lead to destinations. One is good the other is bad.

Ever since the Garden of Eden, Satan has done a great marketing job with sin. He is so persuasive that it continues to fly off the shelves. Demand is sky high for what he is ‘selling’. He’s a sensational ‘salesman’. He is able to package ‘poison’ so effectively that we want it desperately and swallow it down with barely a thought. Initially it may taste good, but we eventually realise that we’re in dire trouble. The truth is that when we sin; when we break God’s laws, we go against the grain of the universe and we destroy ourselves. (In today’s passage, you see how the people of Judah had rejected God’s Word again and again. They had arrived at a point of no return, and their downfall and destruction were inevitable.)

But when we live as God wants us to live, by the power of His Spirit, we find that our health and well-being are wrapped up in travelling this road.

‘’The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace…’’ (Romans 8:6).

Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life.’’ The Message.

‘’We would surely pursue holiness with greater eagerness if we were convinced that it is the way of life and peace.’’ John R.W. Stott: ‘The Message of Romans’, p.224 (‘The Bible speaks today’)

These are the alternatives that are still set before us in life. ‘’Enter through the narrow gate.For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.’’ (Matthew 7:13, 14).

At least superficially, the ‘’broad ‘’ way may look more appealing. But the ‘’narrow’’ road is the one that leads home.

‘’ ‘’But is it me they’re hurting?’’ GOD’s Decree! ‘’Aren’t they just hurting themselves?’’

‘’Live the way I tell you. Do what I command so that your lives will go well.’’ The Message.

Prayer: Lord God, you know what is best for me. I trust your wisdom, and my intention is to take your route through life. But I know I can’t do this without your help. Please be my companion and guide. Help me to lean on your arm.

Jeremiah 7:1-8
‘’Do not trust in deceptive words…’’ (4a).
‘’But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless.’’ (8)
When I was a child, and my mum called me in from play to eat at the table, I was told that first of all I had to wash my hands. I could not come to the table dirty; I had to come clean. That is God’s call here to His people.
We have a responsibility to ensure that everyone who comes through the ‘’gates’’ of the church to worship, hears ‘’the word of the LORD’’ (1, 2). Like Jeremiah and the other prophets, we who lead the church and preach at its services must stand in the counsel of the Lord. His word must first come ‘’to’’ us before it can come through us. Let’s ensure that God’s people are exposed to God’s Word, and not just our thoughts, opinions, anecdotes, jokes etc. If there is to be a ‘famine’ of hearing God’s Word, let it not be on my watch; in the place where I serve. If we do not help people encounter God’s Word, the chances are that we will be serving up ‘’deceptive words’’. False prophets may be popular (for a time) but they destroy people (and themselves.) At the heart of worship you have the hearing of hearing God’s Word. It’s not about guitars, drums and funky performances. Of course, musical instruments and voices can be wonderfully employed in the worship of God. But nothing we do in worship should be divorced from His Word.
However, God’s Word will not always be popular. In it He ‘’commands all people everywhere to repent.’’ (Acts 18:30). This message comes first to ‘’the family of God’’ (1 Peter 4:17). It starts with the church. But the human ‘messenger’ regularly gets ‘shot’. The next four chapters are made up of a series of messages that Jeremiah delivered at the ‘’gate’’ of the temple in Jerusalem, possibly in the latter part of Josiah’s reign. These messages of judgment, delivered in such a public manner, gradually caused the people to turn against the prophet.
God calls us to turn from all sin, and one of those sins is idolatry. The people of Jerusalem thought (deceptively) that because the temple was in their city He would always protect the place. The temple had become an idol for them. As someone said, they were worshipping the temple of the Lord and not the Lord of the temple. By repeating the words ‘’the temple of the LORD’’ in a mantra-like way they thought they could ward off danger (see Matthew 6:7). They were sadly mistaken. God calls us to turn away from all wrong-doing, and this includes a false trust in religious objects, buildings, places and rituals etc. Only through faith in Jesus and His work on the cross can anyone be rescued from ultimate danger. This truth will set you free if you receive it, but many messengers find they have to take a bullet for it. It is not universally popular. Many would prefer to keep playing in the mud and skip tea – however good it smells!
‘’Clean up your act – the way you live, the things you do – so I can make my home with you in this place.’’ The Message.
Pray: Lord, keep us always true to truth, as truth is true to you.

Psalm 117
‘’Praise GOD, everybody! Applaud GOD, all people!’’ The Message.
This is the shortest psalm (and the shortest chapter in the Bible.) It has a world vision. It calls on all nations to worship God. God’s great heart of ‘’love’’ and enduring ‘’faithfulness’’ is towards all He has made.
‘’Psalm 117 reaches into the heart of God’s purposes and out to the remotest bounds of the world.’’J.A.Motyer: ‘New Bible Commentary’, p.564.
In Romans 15:11 Paul quotes verse 1 to argue that from the beginning God’s plan of salvation included the Gentile nations (see Genesis 12:3). As someone put it, ‘If you wanted to give a sweet to a group of children, you could pass the bag round and individually offer one to every child. Or, you could entrust the bag to one and say, ‘Share these with the others.’ This preacher went on to say, ‘God gave Israel the whole bag of sweets and told them to share it with the world!’ God called Israel to be a light to the Gentiles. They were not meant to keep what they had to themselves. They were to view it as a sacred trust. They were intended to share it with others. God’s love to Israel was meant to be a blessing to the whole world, through Jesus the Son of David.
The well-known preacher I mentioned in the former paragraph was leading a service in his church and I heard him pray, ‘Lord, help us to live on a world map.’ That phrase arrested my attention and remains with me. As local churches, we have primary spheres of influence. We are particularly aware of our ‘Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria’ but we must never lose sight of the ‘ends of the earth.’
‘’This short psalm is about a big subject: helping all the nations to praise the Lord. God called Israel to be a blessing to all the nations of the world (Gen.12:1-3), just as He has called His church to take the gospel to the whole world (Matthew 28:18-20).’’ Warren W. Wiersbe: ‘With the Word’, p.385.
‘’The Spirit of Christ is the spirit of missions, and the nearer we get to Him the more intensely missionary we must become.’’ Henry Martyn.
Prayer: Lord, enable us to live on a world map.

 Colossians 1:14-29

As previously noted, Paul did not regard himself as a ‘prima donna’. He was no big shot superstar in his own eyes. He was a ‘’servant’’ of the church (25). This was God’s call on his life. How did he serve the church?

• By presenting ‘’the word of God in its fullness’’ (25b). In particular, this entailed focussing on the Person and work of Christ (25-28). There was much about this message that was kept secret in the past, until the right time came to make it known. It was a ‘’mystery’’ (26), which really means an ‘open secret’. It was a message for Gentiles as well as Jews (27).
• By suffering (24). This is not an easy verse to understand. We may ask, ‘What could possibly be ‘’lacking’’ in ‘’Christ’s afflictions’’? The answer is, of course, nothing! Jesus paid the necessary price for the sins of the whole world when He died on the cross. Nothing needs to be added to His work, and it is blasphemous to suggest otherwise. But the church by its very nature is a suffering church. There is a sense in which Jesus continues to suffer in and with His suffering people (see e.g. Philippians 3:10). From this angle, His sufferings will not be completed until He returns to earth. As long as the gospel is being preached in this world, the church will suffer, and Jesus, the ‘Head’ will continue to experience all the pain in ‘’his body, which is the church.’’ How can my body experience pain without my head also ‘suffering’?
• In the strength of Christ (29). There is a remarkable balance in this verse. Paul worked so hard at his ministry of preaching Christ; bringing people to know Him and helping them to grow in Him. But he knew that he could not do what he did in his own strength. He was completely reliant on Jesus for the ‘’energy’’ to do His work. There was an intense ‘struggle’ involved in all that he did for Christ, and he needed supernatural equipping for it.

We can take heart from Paul and learn from him. Our priority should be to make Jesus known, relying on His strength, and being prepared to struggle and suffer in His cause.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, I rely on your strength to live and speak for you.