Study the Word

Guest (Male): Pastor Tom Keller on how to experience God's peace.

Pastor Thom Keller: If you think your salvation is in any way connected to your performance, you will never be at peace with God. Never, impossible. Because you're always going to be running on that treadmill to try to earn his favor, always knowing that you don't deserve it because you messed up because we all mess up. And so there's no peace in being in that treadmill. Where the peace comes from is when you step off that treadmill and say I'm done. This isn't about what I do for Jesus. This is only only about what he has done for me and me living in the reality of that free gift that he gives me.

Guest (Male): From Calvary Chapel Lebanon comes another edition of Study the Word. Pastor Tom Keller will rejoin us in just a moment. We're just getting started in Colossians if you want to head there now. If I was to ask you to take your temperature today, your spiritual temperature that is, would it be hot, cold, or lukewarm? We'll thoughtfully consider that and also make the connection between being at peace with God and having the grace of God. Now as to the dating of this letter, it was written somewhere they believe between 60 to 62 AD while Paul was still a prisoner in Rome.

Paul wrote four prison uh epistles letters in this order, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and then Philemon. Of the book of Colossians, the commentator NT Wright says this, quote, Colossians is one of the shortest of Paul's letters and one of the most exciting. So with that said, let's dig in. Verse one, chapter one, verse one. This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus and from our brother Timothy. Paul includes as an additional author to this letter Paul's protege young Timothy. And then in verse 20 he says Paul chosen by God to be an apostle.

Chosen by God to be an apostle. You know to me it's very sad that Paul had to continually be defending his claim of being one of the apostles. Paul understanding authority knew that before he could speak into the lives of these Christians in Colossae, he needed to first prove that he had the authority to do so. And keep this in mind. Paul had never been to Colossae and Paul had never met these new believers. He did not found this city. He never visited this city. So he didn't plant it. He didn't visit it. He didn't know these people.

And yet he's claiming apostolic authority to speak to them. Now because Paul had not founded this church in Colossae or ever even visited this church, Paul very wisely anticipated his detractors in Colossae saying, who is this Paul anyway? Why should we listen to him? But this was a standard problem that Paul ran into. And he had a standard procedure that he followed to deal with it. He himself would have to put himself forward claiming apostolic authority, claiming to be an apostle. Chosen by God as he says here, 2 Corinthians 10:13. He says we will not boast about things done outside our area of authority.

We will boast only about what has happened within the boundaries of the work God has given us which includes our working with you. We are not reaching beyond these boundaries when we claim authority over you as if we had never visited you. For we were the first to travel all the way to Corinth with the good news of Christ taken from 2 Corinthians then 1 Corinthians chapter nine. But if others think I'm not an apostle, did you hear that? The the pain in that? Even if others think I'm not an apostle, I certainly am to you.

You yourselves are proof that I am the Lord's apostle. And then Galatians 1:2. All the brothers and sisters here join me in sending this letter to the churches of Galatia. Now not everyone is going to agree with what I'm going to say next. But I suspect that the 11 disciples maybe got ahead of themselves when they chose Matthias to replace Judas in Acts chapter one. The reason I say that is because if you remember Luke chapter 24 Jesus speaking he says, behold I send the promise of my father upon you, but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you're endued with power from on high.

Tarry means to wait, to hang out, be still. And that event occurs only in Acts chapter two and in a powerful way in Pentecost. But back in Acts chapter one, before the Holy Spirit came upon them, they were tarrying, waiting. And as they're waiting, Peter gets the idea. And it never says he prayed about it. It never says he got consensus. This is Peter speaking then think Peter who says who's sharing his opinion and says this, Acts chapter one verse 21. Peter speaking. So now we must choose a replacement for Judas from among the men who were with us the entire time we were traveling with the Lord Jesus.

From the time he was baptized by John until the day he was taken from us. Whoever is chosen will join us as a witness of Jesus's resurrection. This is finding a replacement for Judas. And so the Bible says they nominated and they cast lots and chose Matthias. And this Matthias by the way is never heard from again. And they cast lots which was never done again by the apostles because from Pentecost on their actions were directed by the Holy Spirit, not by rolling dice. There was a shift. So my contention is my contention, had the disciples really tarried and waited on the Holy Spirit?

There's a chance I think that God would have guided them to wait for Paul and then give him the title and the authority of an apostle. The difference to Paul would have been huge. In Colossians 1:1, this letter is from Paul chosen not by the apostles, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus and from our brother Timothy. Galatians 1:1 always in the beginning he has to he has to present his authority. This letter is from Paul an apostle. I was not appointed by any group of people or any human authority.

He knows we're going to say that. The apostles didn't appoint you to this position. I was not appointed by any group of people or any human authority but by Jesus Christ himself and by God the father who raised Jesus from the dead. 1 Corinthians chapter nine two, strong statements. Even if others think I'm not an apostle, I certainly am to you. You yourselves are proof that I am the Lord's apostle. And listen always remember this, let this enrich enrich your own Bible study. Just because things happen in the Bible the way they happened doesn't prove that that was God's plan A.

A great case in point is Solomon. Solomon was a great king. But Solomon was not God's plan A to be the next king. Why? How could he have been? He was born out of a relationship between David with and Bathsheba, a woman that David took in adultery, stole from her husband, killed her husband, and then has a child a second child through her named Solomon. How could God's plan A involve him stealing someone's wife? That certainly was not God's plan A. So whatever God's plan A was, we don't know. But it could not have included Solomon.

So those are my thoughts on Paul's apostleship. You need to make up your own mind. I'm not trying to lead you to that. But every time I read Paul pleading for people to accept his apostolic authority, I feel saddened cuz I think you know there might have been another way. Uh going under verse two, it says to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colossae, grace to you and peace from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Here the word in Greek for saints is the Greek word hagias. And this word applies to all of you.

You are if you are in Christ, the Bible calls us collectively saints. It means most holy one, physically pure, morally blameless, consecrated to God. To the saints in Christ Jesus. To the saints in Christ Jesus. McLaren the commentator says, quote, they are saints in Christ Jesus with this union with Christ being the condition on the purity and the consecration. In other words, his holiness is imputed to us, not our own, his righteousness, his holiness. We are clothed in the righteousness of Christ, not ours, his. And one more thing on the word saints. The word saints plural is used 230 times in the Bible and always and only listed in the plural saints with an S, never in the singular.

Why? Because God wants us never to forget that we are collectively saints justified as one family with one father and one savior. All of us because Christ's holiness is imputed to us, all of us together collectively being physically pure and clean, morally blameless and connected to God. Listen to the logic of this plural versus singular. To use the word saint in the singular implies that one is morally blameless. One is physically pure. That one is clean and consecrated. But that only speaks for that one. You are saying, quote, I am spotless and faultless. I am a saint.

I stand before God righteous. But what does that say about what you think about those who are standing next to you? See you may say I'm a saint but I'm not sure about those other believers over there. We are all morally blameless, all physically pure, all clean and consecrated to God, not because of our individual performance, but because of Christ's righteousness having been imputed to us by faith. And understanding that folks levels the ground at the cross because the truth is we are all saints without distinction from one another. Because it's not based in our righteousness, it's based on his righteousness.

And then Paul adds this, may God our father give you grace and peace. May God our father give you grace and peace. Chuck Smith calls these the Siamese twins of the epistles, grace and peace. Those two words are found together and always in that order, grace and peace. They're found 18 times in the New Testament in the first few verses of 17 of the New Testament books. Why? Why grace and peace? And why in that order? Because you will never experience the peace of God. You will never experience peace with God until you first understand the grace of God, until you first live in and under the grace of God.

So what is the grace of God? Ephesians 2:8 and 9 makes it very clear. For by grace you have been saved. You've been saved by grace. For by grace you've been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. So we clearly see in Ephesians two that we are saved by grace not by works lest anyone should boast. And see that's where the peace comes from. If you think your salvation is in any way connected to your performance, you will never be at peace with God.

Never, impossible. Because you're always going to be running on that treadmill to try to earn his favor, always knowing that you don't deserve it because you messed up because we all mess up. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We're going to mess up. And so there's no peace in being in that treadmill. Where the peace comes from is when you step off that treadmill and say I am done. This isn't about me. This is about what this isn't about what I do for Jesus. This is only only about what he has done for me and me living in the reality of that free gift that he gives me.

And then out of that we serve out of a heart of joy wanting to please him, not because we have to earn his favor. Oh it's such a huge difference, such a huge difference. So how does the day's lesson apply to me? Well remember why it is that we can't boast about being saved. It's because our salvation is a gift from God. All because of what Jesus did for you and not because of anything that you did or will do or must do to maintain your salvation. It's like this schematic. Now you would all know that only one of these gears needs to have a power source.

In fact that is in fact why these gears are meshed together. It's to transfer the power from one gear to another but the gear that has the power is being transferred to all those other gears. And I believe in our salvation experience the source of power is connected to the grace gear. And that gear drives faith and works gears. And this is why you will never truly experience peace with God until you understand the grace of God. The second application. Did you pick up in the fact that Colossae its water supply was from snow runoff of Mount Cadmus and was ice cold.

Secondly, did you notice that the second city of this tri-city area Hierapolis its water supply was from hot springs and it was really hot water. And did you then note that the final of these three sister cities Laodicea received its water supply from the hot springs of Hierapolis transported by pipes 6 miles away and that their water was tepid and lukewarm and sick to the stomach made you sick to the stomach. And so in Revelation three God is using all three cities as an object lesson. He says write this letter to the angel of the church in Laodicea.

This is a message from the one who is the amen, the faithful and true witness, beginning of God's new creation. I know all the things you do that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish you were one or the other. But since you are like lukewarm water neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. Now what's interesting about this is this is written to the church. So this cold isn't speaking of unbelievers. It's speaking of believers that are cold. And he says, are you hot? Are you cold? Or are you lukewarm?

And isn't it interesting? I think it's fascinating that he says I'd rather you be cold than lukewarm. It seems to me this is a progression. You're cold, you warm up, you warm up, you warm up, you warm up, and you're hot. That makes sense. How can you make sense out of this? I'd rather you be cold than in between. Now there are a lot of ways to interpret this but I'll tell you one way that I think it makes sense. It's very difficult to understand and hold unto grace. It's a slippery thing. Sue and I when we were in Haiti one time we were asking a missionary, what's the most difficult thing about being a missionary in Haiti?

He said explaining grace. He said in Haiti nobody nobody gets anything for free. Nobody gives you something just to be nice to you. Nobody. So the idea that God would give us salvation, God would give us forgiveness for free, he said it's so difficult to convey that concept. But the truth is it's difficult for us too, isn't it? It's difficult for us to believe he loves us independent of my performance. But here's the problem. We have a difficult time holding unto grace, living in the reality of that. But the unsaved world has absolutely no concept of grace.

They're not saved yet. They don't understand that. All they know is works. All they know. So when you're in a work setting and you want to witness to somebody about Jesus and at the same time you're cursing with all the rest, you're listening to all the dirty jokes, you're telling dirty jokes, you're complaining about your wife or your husband, you're complaining and swearing about the boss and the company. You're doing all that stuff. And then you go to witness for them. You know what that sounds like? You know what they're thinking? This is what they're thinking.

Cuz they they don't understand anything but works. They're saying yeah yeah I hear you. I hear you. Yeah you tell me about your Jesus. Listen to I live a better life than you do. I've heard you talk about your wife. I don't talk about my wife the same way you do in such a negative way. You lose all your credibility. And so I think if you think about it, why did God leave us here? You know I used to want to why why can't I get saved and just go home? Wouldn't that be nice? Sue, Ted and me all go at the same time and that would be wonderful.

Well why doesn't he do that? He knows we'd rather be there than here. I mean we don't know that yet but that's the reality. Why? Because he left us here to do the most important thing he wants us to do and that is share Christ with others so that others can come to Christ. Look he has choreographed you into the lives of others. You're not in your work setting by accident. You're where you are. You're in the school you are. You're in the workplace you are. You're in the neighborhood you are because God has carefully choreographed you into those people's lives.

He's wired you and prepared you to talk to those people about Jesus. But if our actions don't match our words, our witness is shot. And so I think one interpretation of this is God saying this. Listen if you're in the workplace and you're going to you're going to be lukewarm and you're going to get caught up in all that stuff, I'd rather you not tell them you're Christians because you're really messing up the witness for me. If you're hot, that's what I want. But if you're cold, you're not going to be a negative witness. But if you're in that lukewarm stage, you claim Christ but live like the world, live like a devil, I'd rather you be cold then then that in between place.

There are a lot of different ways to interpret that. But it is difficult when you think of the progression, why he wouldn't want you in the middle when warm seems better than cold. It's because in that setting it gets in the way. You know it's been said that when Jesus resurrected and then ascended that he went up to heaven. This is this is not true. Uh just a story. He went up to heaven and he's in heaven looking through a hole in the clouds with a bunch of angels around him. And the angels are looking down at Jerusalem and they're saying, Jesus, what's your plan to win the world to Christ?

What's your plan? And Jesus looked down and he pointed and said those 11 disciples. And the angels gulp and go what's your plan B? You know because they weren't like I'm not the sharpest the sharpest fork in the in the pack. You get that? It makes point never mind. Keep going. But you know the same is true for us. We're his plan A. There is no plan B. It's us. We're who he's left here. We're who he's going to call to witness to your neighbors, to your friends, your family. But that life although we're going to continue to mess up, there has to be a difference between our life and their life that they see.

So our words have credibility. I'll tell you one last story. When Sue and I were youth advisors, we showed a movie one time to the young people and I I this was so impactful. It was about two high school girls. The one both of them were raised in the church and the one was really in fire for God and the other one was just indifferent, didn't want anything to do with it. And so these two started hanging out more and more and she'd ask her, you want to pray for Christ? No she says I don't I don't I don't believe in any of that stuff.

I grew up and I don't believe in any of that stuff. And so they hung out and eventually she kept trying to witness to her. She just shut her down so she stopped trying. One day these two girls in high school in a in a car driving down the road and out of nowhere the unsaved girl says, stop the car. I want to pray to receive Christ. She said what? You want to pray to receive Christ? She said all these months I've been trying to witness to you. You shut me down now out of nowhere you want to receive Christ?

Listen what she said. She said, I've been waiting all my life to find a Christian that looks like the Bible says a Christian should look like. You're her. I want to pray to receive Christ. You know we don't know the impact. You know you may be a business owner, you may be a manager, a supervisor. Do you know there are unsaved people that are going to try to push your buttons just to see what you're made of as it relates to your faith? You're being tested all the time. See I'm not a calculating person like that but there are people that will do that.

They're trying to see how you're going to handle it when your buttons get pushed and it's going to give your witness credibility or they're going to walk away. See we get grace. We understand grace. All they know is works. And if your witness doesn't line up with your words, your message is not credible. Do we have to be perfect? No. But we can't look like the run of the mill. The run of the mill person in the workplace today who lives outside of Christ. We just can't or our witness is gone. Mafat said this, quote, he who is near Christ is near the fire.

And so the way to maintain that spiritual glow is to live close to Christ. Today on Study the Word Pastor Tom Keller has been teaching us from the book of Colossians. You can hear this message again online at ccleb.com or subscribe to our YouTube channel at Calvary Chapel Lebanon. If you'd rather have a CD copy, call us at 717 273 5633. Have you been helped by the ministry? Let us know that. It would be so encouraging to Pastor Tom and the team. Give us a call at 717 273 5633 or write to Study the Word 740 Willow Street Lebanon, Pennsylvania 17046.

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Study the Word with Pastor Tom Keller is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Lebanon, Pennsylvania. May God richly bless you as you study the Word.