The Truth Shall Set You Free
30th January 2005, Contemporary Worship
Colossians 3:1-17 (The Message)
1. If you look closely at the noticeboard outside you will see the logo of the Anglican Communion – the compass rose, with the cross at the centre and the motto (John 8:32) The Truth shall set you free.
2. Freedom is the theme of Colossians, freedom from sin, freedom from idolatry, freedom from the demonic powers of the world.
3. We live in a world that does not know that it is enslaved.
a. We have talked endlessly this week about the Holocaust, and yet we cannot find the political will to end disease, debt, and trade rules which kill millions. We have not noticed that we are enslaved by power.
b. We have talked endlessly about global warming, and yet we have not even begun to imagine that we could live better with fewer things. We have not noticed that we are enslaved by money.
c. We pass endless laws and hold deep debates about the protection of children, while drive parents to work ever harder, and see less and less of each other and their sons and daughters. We have not noticed that we are enslaved by ambition.
d. I am not a great believer in talking about demonic forces. The problems with the world are fundamentally problems with human beings, and not things which we can reasonably blame on cute little creatures with horns. But we have made some mighty and ravenous forces in this world, drugs, prostitution, unemployment, the arms industry, pollution, debt, television … There are powers in this world, made by Human Beings, but bigger than human beings, and sometimes they give every appearance of having a destructive life of their own.
4. Because we live in a world that is, in this sense, demon infested, it is a big step to come to Christ.
5. We live in a culture that, some people say, has not place for religion. I think this is wrong. Our culture and our time has two places for religion.
a. The first is in the rubbish bin. You would think from the way it is sometimes presented that the major evils in world history were the results of religion. We have plenty to be ashamed of, but the cataclysmic destructive power of secular and atheistical regimes makes our darkest sins pale by comparison.
b. The second is at the snack bar. Our culture says about religions what is says about relationships: you choose your own package, negotiate your own price, and live by it as long as you choose to.
6. Colossians says that coming to Christ is not like that. It is one of those big things, like starting a job, buying a house, getting married, having a baby – they are only beginnings. There is no going back, but there is no staying still where you are either.
7. Nothing changes life like Christ. Please do not deceive yourselves. It is really important for us to realise that by giving our lives to Christ we have done something that really does not fit very well with our tidy middle class lives, our career plans, our expectations of safety, privacy and comfort. That is not the kind of person Jesus is.
8. Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life--even though invisible to spectators--is with Christ in God. He is your life. And that means killing off everything connected with that way of death: sexual promiscuity, impurity, lust, doing whatever you feel like whenever you feel like it, and grabbing whatever attracts your fancy. That's a life shaped by things and feelings instead of by God.
9. I hope that most of you here have seen the Matrix. There is a central scene which expresses the choice we are faced with when we come to Christ.
Morpheus: It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.
Neo: What truth?
Morpheus: That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else, you were born into bondage, born inside a prison that you cannot smell, taste, or touch. A prison for your mind. Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself. (Produces a box containing two colored pills, one blue and one red.) This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill, the story ends, you awake in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes. (Pause. Neo reaches for the red pill.) Remember: all I’m offering is the truth, nothing more. (Neo swallows the red pill with a glass of water.)
10. We have come here because we took the Red pill. It is a wonderful real world that we have woken up to, but now we have to get to work and live in it.
11. We have got new eyes. What do they see?
12. They see what Christ sees. Think of those eyes. They see the glory of God, the wonder of the angels. They see sickness and misery and sin, discrimination, pride, greed and despair. And somehow within all this they see hope. Those eyes are our eyes, if we dare to look through them.
13. We have got new lives. What are they like?
14. They are like Christ’s life. Think of that weary wandering preacher, struggling by main force to make God’s life possible in human beings. That is our life. 2So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. 13Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offence. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. 14And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It's your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.
15. It is not easy. Our old selves – tidy, genial, self centred, self seeking, is going to fight every inch of the way. Loving people is not cosy, it is hard work. Forgiving people properly is a major undertaking.
16. But that is what we are here for. We are here to become ourselves, as God meant us to be, as Jesus died for us to be, as the Holy Spirit lives in us to be. The Truth shall set you free. We are here to be free loving beings, re-made in God’s image. If we will let him. The master can remake us, minute by minute, relationship by relationship, so that everyone here (mention some names) is ready for a relationship, eternal, without darkness and without hiding, with god