Sunday 27th April 2014
Bible Reading: Colossians 1:9-14
There are many people who would say that having faith in a supreme being is an attempt to protect ourselves from a harsh glaring reality that there is no big story behind the universe, no purpose or plan, no life beyond this one. Or others might say that people who believe in God see life as altogether darker and gloomier than it really is; sin is not really that dark or bad, it just appears that way because you are looking at it through a lens manufactured by people who don’t want other people to have any fun However most Christians would say that seeing life through the lens of faith is what corrects our vision so that we can see was is truly real, whilst at the same time providing protection from the things in the world that might blind us and harm us.
When Paul was writing to the Christians at Colossae he prays this prayer. “We have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.” (v9)
JB Phillips version of this is: “We are asking God that you may see things as it were from his point of view by being given spiritual insight and understanding.”
What does that mean in everyday life?
1. Perspective
Everyone has a world view.
Whether or not we realise it we all have certain assumptions and biases that
affect the way we view life and reality. Israel Wayne writes this: “A world view is a set of lenses which taint our vision or alter the way we perceive the world around us. Our world view is formed by our education, our upbringing the culture we live in, the books we read, the media we absorb. For many people their world view is simply something they have absorbed through osmosis form their surrounding cultural influences. They have never thought strategically about what they believe and wouldn’t be able to give a rational defence of their beliefs to others.”
How we see the world is our worldview. If you see life as a party then your focus will be on having fun. Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die. It is the philosophy that sees the present as what counts. It is a world view that doesn’t have much time for the idea of life beyond this world.
If you see life as a race you will probably always be trying to get out in front. No one else can overtake you and people like this spend most of their energy trying to be better than anyone else. Coming first is all that matters for them.
If you see your life as a roller coaster then you feel that you have little say in what happens to you because you keep getting thrown all over the place.
There are lots of other pictures that could describe the way people see life. Marathon, minefield, merry go round.
Our world view can be arrived at through our experiences, through our culture and through our personality but often so much of what informs our world view is based on the way things seem to appear, rather than they really are. We can feel like is a roller coaster, a race or a party but that maybe our perception rather than the truth.
Rabbi Harold Kushner, in his book Who Needs God? writes: "Religion is not primarily a set of beliefs, a collection of prayers, or a series of rituals. Religion is first and foremost a way of seeing. It can't change the facts about the world we live in, but it can change the way we see those facts, and that in itself can... make a real difference."
For centuries, people watched the sun rise in the east and set in the west. That was a fact. The sun looked very small compared to our planet. Everyone could see it was so and consequently people believed that the sun revolved around the earth. So when Nicolaus Copernicus suggested the earth revolved around the sun people were outraged. It never occurred to them that they might be seeing with the wrong perspective.
We have just celebrated Easter.
Fact: Friday: Jesus of Nazareth crucified
Disciples Perspective: It’s over
Jesus perspective: It is complete
Angels perspective He is risen
Fact: Peter
denied Jesus
Peter’s
perspective: I’m a failure Jesus perspective: Follow me
Seeing from God’s point of
view is to realise that we can jump to conclusions about what is real and what
is happening if we only judge from our human perspective. Time and time again
the Bible warns against trusting only our human, earthly view of things. Almost
every character we meet in the Bible needs to have their eyes opened to another
reality.
Think about Abram and
Sarai, Sarai actually laughed at an angel because she just couldn’t see from
where she was standing that a woman her age could possibly have a child, let
alone her husband founding a nation.Think about Samuel choosing a king for Israel. God had to keep on saying to him, “The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance but the Lord looks at the heart.
Think about Jesus and his teaching that it is impossible to judge others about the speck in their eye when we can’t see straight because of the plank in our own.
In 2 Corinthians 5:16 Paul writes, “So from now on we regard no one form a worldly point of view, though we once regarded Christ in this way we do so no longer.”
Becoming a Christian had given Paul a wholly different view of life. He saw Jesus differently, he saw other people differently, he saw the future of the world differently, he saw he own mission differently.
2. Pervasion
The people to whom Paul was were living in times very much like ours in
that it was a multi-cultural society where you could take your pick of
beguiling philosophies. On the one hand there were groups who practiced severe
regimes of religious practice that forbade any form of pleasure or physical
comfort and others where “anything goes” was an understatement in terms of
moral behaviour. Paul is confident that in the midst of all this they have heard and received the authentic message of Jesus Christ. But he is concerned about how they see it and how much they are looking at it through the lens of their culture, rather than directly from the life of God within them
Paul prays not just that his readers get to know stuff about how God sees the world but that they might be “filled with the knowledge of God's will. Paul uses two key words here: The word "FILL" (play-ra-o) means to be completely filled or totally controlled.
There are plenty of people in the world who know the facts of the Scripture, who know the facts about God, but it doesn't dominate their life.
Romans 12:2 “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed inwardly by the renewing of your mind.”
JB Phillips has a great translation of this too, “Don’t let the world squeeze you into its own mould but let God re-mould your minds from within.”
3.
Personal
Getting to know God, not rules
or systems but getting to know a person, a living being. Often when we talk
about knowing the will of God we come from a selfish perspective. We want God
to tell us what to do so that things won’t go wrong. We don’t want to make a foolish choice and
end up looking like an idiot in front of others.But God’s point of view doesn’t usually start with what we are doing but who he is and who we are.
All spiritual knowledge starts with God. Before you ask God what He wants you to do you should be asking God to show you who He is.
When we know who he is, that tells us who we are. God is a Father that means I am his child. God is the God who redeems, that means I am a freed slave, God is the God who forgives sin that means I am at peace with him, God is the God who provides that means I have everything I need for life and godliness.
That makes a whole load of difference to how you live your life. You live your life in the light of your relationship with God.
3. Practical Outcome
Here is what he says will happen if God answers his prayer, "And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and with joy give thanks to the Father."
In the Old Testament, knowledge is never theoretical, nor in the New. Knowledge is never speculative, but it is always describes information that changes behaviour.
The Easter message has never been that we come to the cross and get a ticket to put in our pocket and keep until we need it to gain entrance into heaven. Rather Easter is a revelation of the heart of God and how he operates. This is a God who lays down his own life for ours, whose love is unlimited and who conquers through sacrifice. If we are to live life from the perspective of knowing him then the practical outcome will be that we will live out our lives from the basis of those same values.
If you believe and sing at Easter ‘Wondrous cross’
And all of ‘love’ and ‘sorrow’ mingled down,
If you believe your soul cost him this loss
And hail as King the one with thorny crown –
Then how can you – still waste your time with toys
And not give him the very life you owe,
How can your heart be glad with joys
that do not - cannot - crucifixion know?
If you believe in Christ the King of Kings
And you believe in his commands and his decrees
if you accept discipleship and all it brings
then how can you rise from your knees
Without at first agreeing to donate
Your life, your love, your mind, your everything
To one you say is wonderful and great
and in your songs of praise you crown as king.
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