How To Live As Reflections Of Christ

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How To Live As Reflections of Christ

In a Cold, Cruel & Harsh World

Colossians 3:12-14 & Isaiah 58:8-12

Today, sitting here: we are gathered as the Body of Christ. So the first truth for us to consider today is this: WE ARE THE BODY OF CHRIST. The Body of Christ: that is what we are called, and that is what we are by God’s grace to be.

We are to represent Christ alive in us, as we are living, and going through life in the world. That is what it means that our body is the temple of God. He lives is us; and He wants to radiate out of us in our words, attitudes, and actions.

God wants to empower us as we talk, as we live, as we think, and as we act. God wants to flow out of us, and into this sin-sickened and sin-darkened world. That is a description of what we read about in the New Testament. People living Christ in a Christ-less world.

We were saved to spend the rest of our lives being the only reflection of Christ most people will ever get to see. There are people in our life that we will become the closest thing to Jesus Christ they will ever see.

Wow, that is a big thought. That leads us to the second truth we need to consider:

LIVING A CHRIST-REFLECTING LIFE IS POSSIBLE

God tasked us with living a Christ-reflecting life, no matter what the world, society, or cultural norms around us may be. That call to reflect God in our lives has always been the same for every believer from the Garden of Eden onward.

Joseph did in Egypt. Way back 4,000 years ago, in mighty, pyramid-building Egypt, a lowly, sold-into-slavery, all alone and away from his family young man named Joseph—lived reflecting God in such a way that Pharaoh and others said that the Spirit of God was in him. Listen to Gen. 41:38:

Genesis 41:38 (NKJV)And Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom is the Spirit of God?”

Daniel did in Babylon. The same was said of the man Daniel, who lived in such a way that 2,500 years ago, as a prisoner of war, carried away captive by the army that slaughtered his people and destroyed his nation—he stood reflecting God before the King of Babylon. Listen to Daniel 5:14:

Transcript

Let’s open our Bibles to, right here, Colossians 3, and I want to explain to you what we’re doing. Colossians 3 is where we’re starting, connecting to Isaiah 58. Now, there is a constant need we have to understand the connection between the Old and the New Testament. The greatest connection is God inspired both of them, and that the character of God revealed in both of them is the absolute pure and holy truth of God, of a changeless God, and He’s the same in the Old and the New Testament. But, theologians put it this way. They say the Old Testament is Christ concealed. I guess I should use the white marker. Concealed. And the New Testament is Christ revealed. And so, what we see is, in the Old Testament, there are all these truths about Christ that are revealed, the fullness of them in the New Testament, and we’re going to see that connection today. Everything that Isaiah talks about as the blessings of a compassionate lifestyle, we see in the New Testament is Christ in us, the hope of glory. And the way you have the compassion that we’ve been reading about in Isaiah 58 is by putting on Christ, as Paul explains. So, our topic. How?

The one desire I have, and you can check out as soon as you get to this, as soon as you hear the how, you can just start thinking about other things, but I would like to challenge you this morning with how to live as a reflection of Christ. Now, by the way, the only way to have the compassion that we’ve been reading about in Isaiah 58, and the only way to have the compassion that we’re to put on in Colossians 3, is by being a reflection of Christ.

Did you know that you and I are supposed to be like little windows, little mirrors, little epistles, Paul called it, that, that have the image of Christ and when people look at us as we go through the world, they see Christ living in the world. Wow. Did you know that’s what we’re supposed to be? We’re not supposed to be successful whatever’s. That’s nice. It’s temporary. It’s nice. But the real success is to the extent that you and I reflect Jesus Christ in our businesses, in our academics, in our families, in our marriages, in our education, in our whatever, our amusements, recreation, and athletics, and everything else. The gauge of life’s- whether or not it’s successful- is to the extent that we reflect Christ. Now, all of us struggle with reflecting Him.

In fact, talking about Father’s Day, I can talk about one of the first sad events in married life for me. I’ll never forget. I was a newlywed living in Los Angeles before she cut my tie off. We were riding in the car to work, and we lived one and a half hours from work. Every day, we drove a minimum of one and a half hours one way to work, downtown L.A. It was only 24 miles. It took an hour and a half to go 24 miles. Sitting still, six lanes wide by twice. Twelve lanes of traffic, inching along to downtown or going the other way. We were sitting there, and Bonnie, we ate our breakfast in the car, we had our devotions in the car, we caught up on the day in the car, we had ninety minutes, it was great for married life. And all of a sudden, Bonnie was sitting there, it was the time that she pulled out from her purse the equipment that women use to get ready, and she pulled out that equipment, and she went, oh no. And she said, Honey, my eyes have turned orange. It’s the smog. And it was horrible smog in the 80’s, and you couldn’t even see the downtown. And Bonnie was sitting there, looking at herself, reflected in that little mirror that opens up and has the bottom part and the top part, and you use it and stuff. And she was looking in that, and she said, Honey, my eyes have turned orange from the smog. And she was so sad. And I was driving, and I said, let me see that for a second. And I took it and without her looking I took her mirror, and I went like this, and I rubbed it. On the elbow of my shirt and looked at it and rubbed it and I shut it, and I said here look again I think the smog is gone and she popped it open. She went my eyes are beautiful white again What happened, and it was all the stuff caked on the mirror that had made it look orange. Did you know and it wasn’t reflecting correctly? Do you know what happens to most of us? We’re supposed to live at work at school in our neighborhood in our families as reflections of Christ and all of a sudden, we look orange because we don’t know how to keep on that reflection because we live in a cold, cruel, polluted, harsh world. So that’s what we’re looking at. How do you keep the clear, vivid reflection of Christ?

Let’s begin. Number one. Today we’re sitting here gathered as the body of Christ. The first truth for us to consider today is we are the body of Christ. The body of Christ is what God calls us, it’s what we are by God’s grace to be. When you and I were saved, we were planted into the body of Christ. We were designed as a living part of a system. All the systems of the body work together to be one body, and if one part doesn’t work it affects the other part, we have systemic problems. That’s what you and I are each a piece of Christ’s body in this local place Living out Christ in this world. That’s what He called us to be. We are to represent Christ alive in us as living and going through life in the world. That means that our body is the temple of God. Do you understand when it says, what? Know you not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, He’s in you. Whom you have of God. You’re not your own. You’re bought at a price. Do you realize what that means? It means we’re supposed to be going around, and everyone sees God shining out. It’s like we’re this lighthouse. And God is supposed to be shining out. He lives inside of us as a temple. And everywhere we go, when we go into a classroom, when we go into work, when we walk down our street, whether we are aware of it or not, God wants to be radiating out of us. What we say, how we react, what we’re thinking, what we do. He wants to reflect and radiate out. That’s what He wants. He wants to radiate out of us in our words and attitudes and actions. And God wants to empower us as we talk. To talk in a way that’s seasoned with His grace. He wants to, like your dishwasher has a little thing you open up and put jet dry in there so that it won’t have little spots on your dishes and your glasses. He wants to put into us His power so that everything that flows out of us has a trace of His glorious grace flowing out of us. That’s His plan. And so, God wants us to flow out Him into this world that’s sin sickened. So, we’re all around sick people that have sin sickness and we radiate the healing life of Christ. And we bring hope.

I went to a study this week and I; it was a whole bunch of people, and they came out and they said at the end, it was very interesting, one of the people said, you represented the hope of Christ to me. And I thought I didn’t do that on my own. I can’t bring the hope of Christ to people, but Christ in me, the hope of glory, can flow out. That’s what God wants us to do everywhere we are. We go into a sin darkened world, and we light it up. This is a description of what we’re reading about in the New Testament. When you read Acts and the Epistles, it’s people deployed by God as the temple of the living God, as the body of Christ on the Earth, radiating out God’s presence.

I was a truck driver in Central Michigan. I lived in East Lansing and worked in the Lower Peninsula for a trucking company. I delivered, Vern Cullum was the owner, and I delivered batteries, a deck of batteries for a launch battery company. I remember every time I would park my truck and come into the break room, it always got quiet. It would be, you could hear them in the garage carrying on in there. I would swing the door open, and as soon as they saw me, it went, and they all would look at me. I’d say, what’s wrong? They said, when you’re here, we can’t tell our stories. They called me the deacon. And I said I appreciate that you don’t tell your exploits with every girl you met at the bar last night in vivid detail, which is what they did. I remember the first time I sat in that break room, and they were, it was an unbelievable, it could have been a movie or something. And I stood up, and I said, that, I cannot sit and listen to that. It dishonors the Lord. And I went out and drank my coffee out in the garage. And they all just watched me go out. And what’s interesting is, I never said that again. But every time I walked in. And you know what that is? They acknowledged, whether they liked it or not, that I represented God. And they’d never met anybody that did. And when their wife had a tumor or their mother was in critical condition, they didn’t go to their sleazy buddies that told salacious stories. They came to me, and they said, can you say a prayer for my wife? Because they knew I represented God. I’m part of the body of Christ. See, that’s what God wants us to do. We were saved to spend the rest of our life being the only reflection of Christ that most people will ever get to see. Where you work, where you live, where you go to school, where you athleticize, you may be the only representative of Christ. Do people know? Do they see Him reflected? Do they feel His presence? Because you’re there, the demons know. Do you remember in Acts, the seven sons of Sceva, this guy was purporting to be a, an exorcist and the demon said, Jesus, we know Paul, we know who are you? Demons know the legit, the real thing. They know that it’s Christ in us. That’s a big thought.

That leads us to the second truth. Living a Christ reflecting life is possible. Did you know that? It doesn’t matter how bad a situation, how awful how struggling we are what a difficult upbringing or wrecked life we’ve had. It is possible to have a Christ reflecting life. And that’s what the Scriptures are about. We are tasked by God with living a Christ reflecting life, no matter what the world, the society, the culture norms are around us. When I worked at that battery company delivering batteries, I remember signing on. I got paid $6 an hour in 1973. Or two, I don’t remember which year. I was working at Bill Knapp’s for $1.75, and $6 was a big deal. It was more than triple. And I remember standing in front of the owner, and he said, I’m tasking, I’m giving you the responsibility for these accounts. I was all over it. If I wanted to keep my job, I knew what my task, what my job description, what I was given to do. When you and I got saved, we were tasked by God with living a Christ reflecting life. And that call to reflect God in our lives has always been the same. Both in the Old and in the New Testament.

For example, Joseph. Remember Joseph? Joseph in Egypt, way back 4,000 years ago in mighty pyramid building Egypt, a lowly, sold into slavery, all alone and away from his family, young man named Joseph. And he lived reflecting God in such a way that the king of Egypt, the God that they worshipped, said to his servants, now this is the original NSA. God was recording their thoughts and conversation. Now NSA can only get our electronic stuff. God gets our feelings and thoughts and words and everything. And writes it down. He has a record of everything. Of everything you’ve ever said or done or thought or wanted to do. Unless it’s been erased by the blood of Christ. But that’s not what we’re on this morning, but it’s true. And Pharaoh, God records, said to his servants as he looked at Joseph, and he was looking at him in the distance, can we find such a one as this? A man in whom is the Spirit of God? Joseph lived in such a way, as this sold into slavery, thrown into prison, condemned unjustly, pursued by this woman of illicit desire. That man lived in Egypt in such a way that the Pharaoh said he has the Spirit of God in him. Do people think that about us? When you walk into the break rooms of life, do the people that know you go, that would not be proper to say, when they’re here. Do they even know that you’re the temple of God? That’s an interesting thought.

How about Daniel? The same was said of the man Daniel. That’s what Daniel did in Babylon. He lived in such a way that 2,500 years ago, as a prisoner of war, carried away captive by the army that slaughtered his people and destroyed his nation, he stood reflecting God in such a way that the king of Babylon said, I’ve heard about you. I’ve heard of you. People talk about you. They know that you pray with your window open looking toward Jerusalem. They know that you won’t partake in the pagan, idolatrous stuff that’s the fabric of Babylon. We know about you, and that the Spirit of God is in you. This is 2,500 years ago. And this is a man that didn’t have his parents riding him saying, you need to read your Bible, you need to go to church, and you need to stop, stay away from that and this. It was just him and the Lord. See, God can do anything that we invite him to do in our lives.

What we’re going to see this morning is how. It’s by invitation. What do you think Daniel was doing three times a day? Praying. to the Lord. He’s saying, Lord what was that last chorus? I need you. Oh, I need you. Babylon is really hard to live in. And I’m faced and confronted with such evil. But I want You more than the evil. And, boy, does God respond to that. And it says, light and understanding and excellent wisdom are found in you. People saw God. Now we don’t, it’s 11:10. We don’t really need to say any more. I had, did you know, this is, what am I, starting soon my eighth year here? I had someone say to me my first year, they say, I don’t like to come to Sunday evening because you give us too much to think about Sunday morning. And I don’t want another batch on Sunday night. By the way, that person’s here this morning. I saw him. And they don’t come to every Sunday night. I’m still saying too much, but it’s all right.

But we should not merely be hearers of the Word, but doers. If Daniel, how much of the Bible did he have? He certainly didn’t have all the stuff we have. He didn’t have all these accountability groups and Bible study groups and online stuff and have the Bible read to him, on an app. He’s had the Spirit of God. Wow. Living a Christ reflecting life is possible. First point, we’re the body of Christ.

Second point, we can reflect Christ out of our lives, even in a harsh, cruel world. And that’s our text in Colossians 3. So, let’s all turn to Colossians 3 if you’re not there already. We’re going to read verses 12 onward. But we are tasked by God To make a choice to every day put on Christ, so that He is visible in our lives. And when we don’t reflect Him, we have a mechanism to restart and to say, if we confess our sins, He’s faithful and just to already have forgiven us our sins and to cleanse us so that we can boldly go through life. Continuing to reflect Christ. It’s not one, one bad move and you’re disqualified from reflecting Christ. We’re to be reflecting Him lifelong. And God is a God of new beginnings, and we just hand Him our little mirror and let Him go [Dr. Barnett uses hand motions to illustrate cleaning the mirror] and get the orange so we reflect Christ clearly. That’s what Colossians is about. And as I read this, when we reflect Christ in any way, we’ll see in Colossians 3, it is proof of the grace of God. Because only God can make a fallen, frail sinner to reflect a glorious God.

One of my Bible studies this week a small group that I meet with, it’s really good. And one of the people said, I don’t pray that much because, you know, I’m not sure if anything will happen if I pray, and I don’t want to be disappointed by asking and something not happen. Colossians 3:12 onward, gives you stuff that you can bet your life on, that if you ask, God is just all over it waiting to do these things. Now you might ask for good looks, I’m not sure He’ll do that. You might ask for riches; not sure He’ll do that. You might ask for good health, it might not be His plan. You might ask to get an A on the test that you really didn’t study for, and you shouldn’t get an A. And I’m not sure He’ll do that. But this is all stuff, every bit of what we’re going to read here. God is longing to do these things if we ask. Okay, Colossians 3. And by the way, if Christ is not seen in our life by people around us, it’s because we don’t want Him to be. It’s not because God is unable to shine through us. We must want Him to be reflected in our lives. We must ask Him to reflect His grace and power through us. And that’s what Paul’s explaining to the Colossians, okay? So that’s the context. Colossians 3.

Let’s all stand together for the reading of God’s word. Hold your Bible, follow along with me. I know the thought begins in verse 1, but for the sake of the time we have, I’ll start in verse 12. And I’m going to emphasize some words, four of them to be exact. And as you’re following along, I hope those jump off the page because we can reflect Christ. But this text tells us how. Okay? Here we go.

Verse 12. “Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved,” Now look closely. “Put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long suffering; bearing with one another, forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so also you must do”. Verse 14. But above all these things put on love, which is a bond of perfection. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful”. Verse 16, “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts the LORD. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the LORD Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”

Did you catch the two lets and the two put ons? If you saw them, say yes. Did you know, if you remember I told you when we started this, it’s like you’re sitting at a table, and we’re having a Bible study and like at a coffee shop or something. Did you know when I read this verse with those that I disciple, I look at them and I say, hey, that’s a nice shirt you have on. How’d you get that on? Did it attack you and knock you down and get on you? Or did you take it out of your drawer or off the hanger and choose it and put it on? That’s what this is talking about. God is not going to knock you over and wrestle you to the floor and say come on, I’m going to do this to you. You have to invite, welcome, ask for all these things, and God is all over it. But we are responsible to ask for Him to clothe us, to put on, to welcome in this into our life. Let’s bow.

Father in Heaven, I pray You’d teach us how to make it a regular part of our life.

Say, Lord, I need You. I need Your patience. Instead of saying, that’s just how I am. I want You to change me. I invite You to give me Your love so I can sacrifice for people that I don’t even like, but I can love them. Because You promised me, if I ask, that Your Spirit will supply love from the very innermost parts of my being. I want and need You. And You have told us that whatever we ask in Your name that You’ll do it. And in Your name means it’s what You want. It’s not what we want. It’s when we see what You want, and we want it too. And I pray that this morning we would start wanting what You want and asking You to change us. And that we might be the reflection of Christ that people in our home need to see and people at work need to see and our relatives need to see. And I pray that You’d be glorified as we are amazed at how You change us when we ask You to. So, show us that this morning in the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.

And you may be seated. And as you’re seated, each of us today is either becoming more and more a reflection of our cold, cruel culture. Might add murderous, heinous, murderous culture. I mean the news this week. Whichever part of the news you saw or even noticed. Whether it’s Charleston or New Orleans, you know. Heinous, murderous, cold hearted, cruel culture. And either we’re becoming more and more a reflection of that, more and more detached, we’re more distant, we’re less warm, less giving, less interested, less seeking and reaching out, and more withdrawn, and more protective. Either we’re becoming a reflection of our cold, cruel culture, or we’re more and more a reflection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It’s a choice. It doesn’t just happen. It’s not, I’ll just become Christlike, if He wants me to be. He already wants me to be. I have to choose to put on, to clothe myself to put off concerning the old man, be renewed, and put on the new man. That’s the bottom line.

So how do we live as reflections of Christ in our cold, cruel, harsh world? Think about what we just read. We’re reading from the book of what? What book did we just open to? Colossians. Colossians is a book written to a city called Colossae, and it’s still there. If Turkey is shaped like this, I know Michigan is, like this, but Turkey is like this. And it, by the way, did you see at the airport they have that little guy, Bonnie, just chuckles every time. If you’re on the second floor of the airport, they have the little Michigander going. Or is it? There we go. Now don’t laugh about that because I was taught that in school, but if you’re from Michigan, you were too. And I remember I was on a cruise boat once between the Isle of Patmos and Santorini at a table of fifteen people I’d never met before in my life, and we were going around the table introducing ourselves, and I said, I’m from Michigan. And the lady across the table, Bonnie was sitting next to me, snickering, and the lady across the table says, I am too. And she pointed to her city, and I pointed to Lansing, and she pointed to hers. And Bonnie went, why did she do that? I said, we all learn that in school. And Turkey, in the middle of it, is Colossae.

Turkey was the Roman province of Asia. It was called in Biblical times. That huge place has more Roman buildings than all of Italy. It has more Greek temples than all of Greece. And it has more Biblical sites than all of Israel. It was the epicenter of the ancient Roman world. And right in the heart of it was Colossae. And the Roman culture was not known for gentleness. Romans delighted in power, in might, in crushing defeats of their enemies. And if you lived long enough in a harsh, cold, cruel world, slowly, that hardness rubs off. We read in the news about all these atrocities with the ISIL, IS, the Sunni radicals, whatever designation they’re calling them these days. It’s not new. It’s just we’re hearing about it. This is how humans have always been. In Asia Minor, when the emperor didn’t like Christianity in the 90’s A.D., he had the Roman centurions take the first Christian out of a village in Turkey, and they held him up, the centurion held him over their head, on the edge of a cliff, and they threw him off, and they smashed below, with the whole town was brought out to watch this. Then they said, if you’re a Christian, we’re going to throw you off the cliff, take a step forward. If you’re not a Christian, take a step back. Whoa. Boy, that’s the moment of truth. And that’s what the people in Colossae grew up around. Hard, cruel, harsh. And each of us today is either becoming more and more a reflection of where we live, or more and more reflection of who owns us and who lives within us and flows out of us.

Who did you reflect most clearly this past week? What we see on the news or Christ? Honestly, answer inside. Who did people see as you were driving down the road? When they flip their fingers at you, is it because you’re so Christlike? When they, when you leave their presence and they’re seething, is it because they’re so convicted of their foul, contumacious talk? Is that what? Is it Christ we’re reflecting? See, that’s, we need to get down to really thinking about this. This is not, like a museum where we’re looking at stuff from the past. It’s real! And Christ wants to change us! And the way you reach where you live is just letting Christ reflect it out. That’s the whole goal He has. Don’t even have to go anywhere else. Just right here.

Did you reflect Christ in your attitudes? Did you reflect Christ in your words? Did you reflect Christ in your compassion for the poor, the needy, the outcast, the hungry? That are in this harsh culture around us? See that’s, either we’re becoming more detached, cool, and distant, or we’re becoming more tender, and compassionate, and Christlike. The Scriptures say in 1 Corinthians 15:33 that evil company corrupts good manners. Evil company, cold cruel culture, corrupts this Christlike compassion. And what happens is, without us putting off, every time we act un-Christlike, and being renewed and putting on, back on Christ likeness, if we don’t regularly do that, the good manners of compassion Prompted by Christ, get worn away, forgotten, and all too soon, gone.

I was, Bonnie and I were, out to dinner with a dear couple friends of ours this week, and businessman, he was talking about where his business is. This week, they had a brownout. Now in Lawton, where we live, we had a blackout. Our, from 10 o’clock on Monday morning until about midnight on Monday night, we had no power. And if you don’t have power in Lawton, with a well, you don’t have water either. And we happened to have a house full of guests. And so, we trucked all the way to the church and got these big white buckets and filled them up with water. Because if you have guests in your house and you don’t have water, and they use the facilities, you have to it was quite a sight, to see us bringing water from the church and flushing our toilets because we were in this blackout. But that has nothing to do with what I’m talking about. It’s a brownout now with our friend’s business. The blackout there was brown. They said, what do you mean brownout? He said, have you ever seen the lights dip? He said, if they’re not at full power and they start going 20, 25, 30 percent decrease and it’s just the lights dim.

He said, do you know what that does to high tech equipment? He said it destroys it, and he said I was running through my business shutting off machines, and the last one I didn’t get to in time and it destroyed the machine because it was on a brownout system, and he watched me says, are you listening to me? He was telling the story because I was just starting to think, and I said, wait a minute. When a machine designed to operate at full power doesn’t get full power it destroys? It just breaks it? He said, yeah. I said, wow, that explains a lot of Christians I know. They were, we were designed to operate at full power, and we’re operating at tepid power.

We’re not allowing Christ, in fact, the person in my Bible study said that. They said, I’m afraid to pray, I’m not sure if it’ll work, if God will do anything. That’s a brownout. And that’s, see, we need to believe God for what He promised and not operate with this evil company corrupting us. How do we get this compassion that we’re talking about?

Compassion comes by putting on Christ. Compassion comes by embracing Christ’s desires for us. He said, I want you, Colossians 3:12, I want you to put these things on. Paul calls this putting on Christ. It’s us wanting what God wants so much we ask for it. Have you ever had children that wanted something, and they just wouldn’t stop asking for it?

Remember Jesus told the story about the widow that kept coming to the judge and saying, I need this, I need justice. And the widow and the judge says, I’m just going to give it to her because she’s wearing me down. And then Jesus says, how much more will your Heavenly Father give you what you ask? Are we asking? Are we saying, God, I want Christ in me to be compassionate. I want to allow him to live instead of me.

Do you remember this Spring where I was telling the story about the Lawton bicycles and I talked about how they just whiz around, but then the flat tire ones, that they’re just, they’re red faced and, remember all that? And then I went on to talk about that to do with the Spirit of God and surrendering to God’s Spirit. Did you know that getting compassion is much in that illustration, fixing the flat tire? Or I also told the story of, if you want to have a new driver in your car, the present driver has to pull off to the side, turn the car off, park it on the side, get out, walk around the car, open the door, and say, now you drive. Give them the keys and get in, buckle in, and let them take off. See, being driven by another. is being filled and controlled by the Holy Spirit. But it starts by us pulling over, surrendering, giving up the control, getting out of the driver’s seat and going around. That’s what Colossians 3 is about. Saying, Lord, I invite you. I invite you to display yourself through me.

Now, back to the world of Colossians. I was in seminary at Dallas Seminary for ten years. A slow learner. I was in school, I started in Hazlitt School in 1962, and I was continuously enrolled in school until 1999. For thirty-seven years I was always in school. Ten of those years I was at Dallas. And I’ll never forget what one of my professors said. He said, this is how you describe he described the first century. He said the first century world, Colossians was written in, taxes were high, wages were low, hypocrisy was rampant, honesty was rare, freedom was gone, Roman rule was hard, the rich only got richer, the poor were always struggling, morality was ebbing, rebellion was brewing, and cruelty was reigning. That sounds like 2015 to me. We live in the same world that Christ told them, in their harsh world, to put on compassion. We live in the same world. And to the Romans of Colossae, Paul exhorted them to put on Christ in some powerful ways.

Now, for our last few moments turn back to Colossians. I mean to Isaiah 58. Okay, and we’re just going to stay there. So go to Isaiah 58. And what I’d like to do is, I’d like to show you Christ concealed in the Old Testament and point out Christ revealed in the New Testament. Okay, so here’s what we do.

First of all, in Isaiah 58, starting in verse 10, God said to the Old Testament believers that would respond to Him, if you extend your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul, this is what I’m going to do for you. In other words, if you choose to have My love for the strangers and needy around you, and your own countrymen, I will bless you. That’s the Old Testament. In the New Testament, we’re to seek to display Christ’s love. And Jesus said, we’re to do that. Remember, we started back with the alms giving and the fasting and all that stuff in the Sermon on the Mount for the poor, the needy, the outcasts, and the afflicted that are around us in society. So that’s our goal.

So how do we do that? Compassionate people, both in the Old Testament and today, are merely reflecting Christ. We’re not by nature compassionate. We’re not by nature moved with other’s needs. We’re wired to be moved with our own needs. And it has to be a rewiring that gets us to change. By the way what’s interesting, Paul said this, as you receive Christ Jesus as Lord, so walk in Him. Did you catch that? The way you got saved is the way you live the Christian life. How did I get saved? There’s only one way to get saved. Whosoever shall call, confess with their mouth, cry out to God verbally. The Bible says, unless you call on the name of the Lord, you can’t be saved. In other words, it’s not osmotic. It isn’t just being here, it isn’t just being in a Christian home, it isn’t your parents doing something to you, or someone else doing something to you. It’s me personally reaching out in faith to the Lord. As you receive the Lord, reaching out in faith to Him, is the same way we walk this Christian life. Compassionate people just reach out and ask for the power of God to reflect Christ’s compassion. And what does that look like?

God said, this is what will trail the lives of those that reach out and ask for my blessing.

Once when I was out at Grace Community Church many years ago, they asked me if I would take ninety senior citizens on a cruise. And I said, I don’t want to go on a cruise with ninety old people. But they said, come on. And I said, okay. And so, I did. Now I’m an old person, and I’m glad I went on that cruise because I’ve never been able to do it again. But we were sailing all over. It was very expensive, and I was teaching the Bible every day. And one day, Bonnie and I went to the back of the ship, and we were leaning over the rail in the darkness of night, and we looked out the back. And the phytoplankton, light emitting plankton, because of the ship’s big, propellers, it was stirring them up, and there were twin trails of light, as far as we could see, behind the ship. And I thought, this ship, going through life, is leaving a wake of light in the darkness. God says, this is what will be in the wake, in the trail.

This is what I pour out as you go through life. If you go through it My way, My blessings will follow you. That’s Psalm 23. Surely goodness and mercy will follow you all the days of your life.

What is, what do His blessings look like? Number one, Isaiah 58. Now let’s just go through every verse, and then we have ten minutes, and we’ll go.

Number one. This is what God says. Isaiah 58, and verse 8, and the first part of it. It says, “Then your light will break forth like the morning.” If you have all this compassion, your light will break forth like the morning. Now look at chapter, verse 10, the second half of it. “Then your light”, 10b, “your light will dawn in the darkness, and your darkness will be as noonday.” What is that? The Lord said, I’m going to give you what I call enlightened living. Now what does that mean? The question, are we reflecting what Jesus promised to do with us in John 8:12? Do you know what John 8:12 says? It says, if you will follow Me, you will not walk in darkness, but you will have the light of life.

We were, remember we had a blackout in Lawton. No power. And I realized that I had a light source in my pocket. It’s my phone, that’s my camera, that’s also a flashlight. Very expensive flashlight, by the way. And I took that, and I said, my kids taught me if you swipe up from the bottom, in the bottom left corner, see? Is it working? Does anybody see this? Say yes. Okay, in a dark room, if we were all fleeing for our lives, and you couldn’t see where you were going, and I had that in my pocket, and I did not bring it out, I would be remiss, right?

You know what the Lord says? You’re going through life, and everybody is shuttling along in the darkness in this collapsing building of our world, and everybody doesn’t know where they are, and we are carrying with us the light of life. And Jesus said, you won’t walk through life in the darkness, and you will have within you the light of life. The light that leads people to life. Wow, are we reflecting that in our life? Is your and my life an enlightened life that people see the light of Christ?

Look at this next part of verse 58. And your healing will spring forth speedily. This healing actually speaks of a renewing strengthening and what it’s talking about is Christ’s promise. In fact, John 4:32, the disciples came to Him and said, how are you doing all this? And Jesus said in John 4:32, I have food to eat that you don’t know about. I am energized by doing God’s will. I have a supernatural, what the writer of Hebrews, chapter 7, verse 14 says, I live after the power of an endless life, and so should all of you. Do you and I go through life with this strength. People say, how are you making it? And you say, it’s not me. It’s Christ in me, the hope of glory, Colossians 1:27. It’s Christ living through me.

Here’s another one. The last part of verse, or actually the third segment of verse 8, “your righteousness shall go before you.” You know what I call that? Holy living. Are we reflecting what Jesus promised? Jesus said in Matthew 5:6 that if you hunger and thirst after His righteousness, He’ll fill us with that righteousness. By the way, what is holy living? Is holy living acting like a prune? Kind of, that’s bad, that’s all bad, no. Do you know what holiness means? It means set apart for another. For sanctification, holiness, the whole idea is something that belongs to someone else and you think so much of them you don’t want to harm it.

That reminds me of when I first met Bonnie, May 1st, 1983. I was the butler for an advanced neurosurgeon. He made $3,000 every half hour. They flew him all over the country. He fixed people that got smashed heads. And he was just amazing. And he had an amazing home too. And he had seven cars. Nine fireplaces. I was the butler. I knew all, everything that he had. And so, I used to manage all that stuff as I was going to seminary. And when I met Bonnie I had this 1969 Caprice that had holes in the floor from the rust of Michigan and it rained a lot where I lived and so I had bought rubber mats to cover the holes, but when I met her it was raining and I wanted to take her someplace, but when you go through a mud puddle in my car, the water came into the car. And so, I asked the surgeon, I said, could I borrow some of your cars? Oh, he says, yeah, take. So, the first seven dates with Bonnie. I took a different one of his cars. The first one was one of those stretch limos with several, layers in the back and the darkened windows and the lights on the side. And I pulled up, took three parking spaces at her dorm, and ushered her out and took her in. The next night I took her in this really low, kind of Maserati, floor, ground hugging sports car. The next night, the big tire one. You had a ladder that you went up, and it was like getting into a dump truck. It was so big tire, and you just dominated the road. And I went through all of them, and finally the eighth date was my caprice. And the door was rusted, and it hardly opened, and the seat was all fraying. And I said, I’m so sorry you have to ride in this car tonight. She said, why, is it different? She’d never noticed the other seven cars. And what I thought about was those cars that, that she hadn’t noticed, I had been so cautious with them because they belonged to the doctor. And when I drove the big tire thing, I didn’t go off the road, and when I drove the little sports car, I didn’t hit any curbs, and when I drove the Mercedes 560 that was gleaming, I was I parked in two parking spaces, I didn’t want anything to happen to it. Because it was set apart.

Do you and I reflect, Jesus, that we’re not our own? This isn’t my body. I can’t take it anywhere I want to take it. I can’t do anything with it I want to do. I can’t even put on anything I want to put on. It’s not my body that I’m clothing or amusing. It belongs to someone else. Do we reflect that? See, that’s why they stopped talking in the break room when I was a truck driver. Because I said, God in me does not appreciate hearing those filthy stories. So, I’m leaving. I’m taking him out of the room. By the way, He’s staying in the room. He’s listening.

But, next one. Secured living. Do you see what it says at the end of verse 8? And I’ve got to finish these. It says, the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Have you ever watched the president with all these people with the little earpieces in, and the dark glasses, and they’ve got their guns, and the secret service surrounds them like a phalanx, and they’re just right there, and they’ll throw themselves and protect him? God says, I’ll be your security detail going through life. Look what it says at the end of verse 8. The Lord will be your rear guard. His glorious presence will be your rear guard. That’s a reflection of what Jesus says right here in Matthew 28. He says, Lo, I am with you always. You cannot leave My presence. I am constantly with you, and you should not fear.

Did you read Drudge this week? Red headline. The head of Deutsche Bank, I think it is, multi-billion-dollar international banking system. You know what the man said? It’s time to put cash in your mattress. They said there’s a global event that’s going to, and it sounds like Y2K, but at least it’s a German, not some Christian saying it, but what he’s saying is there’s instability out there in the financial markets. Did you know the world lives in fear of cancer or crashes or… God says, don’t live that way. Let me be your rear guard.

I will, verse 9, whatever you ask in My name, Godward Living. Verse 9, He says when you cry, the Lord will answer, and so we’re supposed to call unto Him. Verse 11, the Lord says, I will guide you continually. You can go through life knowing that I’m directing you.

And He ends with this. Satisfied living. Jesus promised we’d have this abundant life. And then finally, 11b, I will satisfy your soul in drought. All of these are reflections of Christ. That one is neat. Jesus said, if you come to Me, you’ll never hunger, and out of you will flow, with verse 38, rivers of living water.

Do we have this kind of life? It’s impossible. But Christ in us, it’s possible. But it only happens when we invite Him to live out through us, to shine out through us, to flow out from us. It isn’t us. It isn’t me trying harder. It’s never about us. So, as we go today, is Christ reflecting His love through you? Let’s all stand. As you stand, wherever you’re going from this building, you might be going to a place where you’re the only reflection of Christ that person will ever be near in their lifetime. Is Christ reflecting His love through you? He wants to. The only hold up is, are we inviting, welcoming, asking for Him to change us and to clothe us so that we look, and act, and live, and speak, and respond like Christ? Let’s bow for a word of prayer.

Father in Heaven, I thank You for today that we could gather as Your body. Now, we’re leaving as individual temples of the holy God of the universe. And we’re supposed to permeate wherever we go with Your presence and reflect You. But that only happens if we ask. So, I ask, in the name of Jesus, that You would change me and every one of us in this room to be more Christlike in some area that You’re touching right now. And may we be amazed. when You respond and change us. And may You be glorified as we live out Christ in our world. And we’ll thank You in the precious name of Jesus and all of God’s people said, amen. God bless you as you go.

Today, sitting here: we are gathered as the Body of Christ. So the first truth for us to consider today is this:

We are the Body of Christ

The Body of Christ: that is what we are called, and that is what we are by God’s grace to be.

Wow, that is a big thought. That leads us to the second truth we need to consider:

Living a Christ-Reflecting Life is Possible

We were tasked by God, with living a Christ-reflecting life, no matter what the world, the society, or the cultural norms around us may be. That call to reflect God in our lives has always been the same for every believer from the Garden of Eden onward.

Joseph did in Egypt. Way back in 4,000 years ago in mighty, pyramid building Egypt, a lowly, sold-into-slavery, all alone and away from his family young man named Joseph—lived reflecting God in such a way that Pharaoh and others said that the Spirit of the God was in him. Listen to Gen. 41:38:

Genesis 41:38 (NKJV)And Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom is the Spirit of God?”

Daniel did in Babylon. The same was said of the man Daniel, who lived in such a way that 2,500 years ago, as a prisoner of war, carried away captive by the army that slaughtered his people and destroyed his nation—he stood reflecting God before the King of Babylon. Listen to Daniel 5:14:

Daniel 5:14 (NKJV) I have heard of you, that the Spirit of God is in you, and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom are found in you.

That leads us to our first text in Colossians 3:12-14. The next truth we will see is this:

We Can Reflect Christ in Harsh Surroundings

When we reflect Christ in any way, it is a proof of the grace of God. Only God can make us fallen, frail sinners to be a reflection of His glorious power. So it is all God’s work to make us reflectors, but it is our choice to want Him to be seen in us.

If Christ is not seen in our life, by people around us, it is because we don’t want Him to be; not because God is unable to shine through us. We must want to reflect Him. We must ask to be reflections of His grace and power. That is what Paul explained to the Colossians. Please stand with me and listen to God speaking through Paul to these early believers, and to each of us today:

Open there with me to Colossians 3:12-17 (NKJV)

12 Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. 14 But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. 15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. 17 And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

Pray

How To Live As Reflections of Christ In a Cold, Cruel & Harsh World

The world of the New Testament was a hard world.

Roman culture was not known for gentleness. Romans delighted in power, in might, and in crushing defeats of their enemies. If you live long enough in a harsh, cold, cruel world, slowly that hardness rubs off.

Each of us today is either becoming more and more a reflection of our cold cruel culture, or more and more a reflection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Who did you reflect most clearly this past week?

Did you reflect Christ in your attitudes?

Did you reflect Christ in your words?

Did you reflect Christ in your compassion for the poor, needy, outcast, and hungry, or the harsh culture around us?

Evil company corrupts good manners as Paul said in 1 Cor. 15:33, quoting a Greek poet. The good manners of compassion, prompted by Christ can get worn away, forgotten, and soon all too absent.

That’s why to the city smack-dab in the middle of the epicenter of Roman culture, Paul writes these words about compassion.

Compassion Comes By Putting on Christ

Compassion comes by embracing Christ’s desires for us. Paul calls this “putting on Christ”. We want what God wants so much that we ask for Him to change us. Jesus Christ in me is compassionate, whenever I allow Him to live instead of me.

Remember this Spring when we studied the Spirit of God? Surrendering to God’s Spirit is much like driving a car. When we are the driver, if we want a new driver we steer to the edge. Stop and put the car in park.

Then we take out the keys, get out, walk around to the passenger side and allow another driver to sit behind the wheel. Then as we hand over the keys and seat belt in, we are being driven by another. In the life of a believer that Another is the spirit of God. When He is allowed to drive He displays or reflects Christ.

Now back to the world of Colossians 3. One professor back at Dallas Seminary used to describe the 1st Century this way—

“Taxes were high; wages were low, hypocrisy was rampant; honesty was rare. Freedom was gone; Roman rule was hard. The rich were getting richer; the poor were always struggling. Morality was ebbing; rebellion was brewing; cruelty was reigning.”[1]

To the Romans of Colossi Paul exhorted them to “put on Christ” in some very powerful ways. One way to live out the truths of Col. 3:12-14 is what we see in Isaiah 58. God there explains how we should:

Seek to Display Christ’s love for the poor, needy, outcast & afflicted in society around us.

Isaiah 58:10 If you extend your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul,

We are to notice and respond to the needy that God has placed in our path. It was those who walked along the same road with the Good Samaritan that Jesus condemned. Not everyone was responsible for the man beaten and left for dead along the road. Just those who traveled that road.

We are responsible to have love and compassion for those who God places along the road of our lives. Remember that our love and compassion is contagious?

It is Christ in me the hope of glory, that is what God has planned, designed
, and desired from us. Listen to what Paul says in:

Colossians 1:27 (NKJV) To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Compassionate People Just Reflect Christ’s Compassion

In this sin-parched world, we are overflowing with Spirit of God generated streams of living water.

In this sin-darkened world, we are reflecting the Light of the World who lives in us.

In this sin-cursed and starving world, we are sharing the Bread of Life who lives in us.

In this sin-enslaved world we know the Truth who lives within us, and can point people to how He can set them free.

In this sin-blinded world we have had our sight restored by the touch of Jesus and we want all we meet to also feel His touch and have their eyes opened as they are turned from darkness to light.

That is the abundant life with which:

God Promises to Bless His Followers

Isaiah next lists of the ten blessings God pours out through His Spirit into the lives of those who follow Him, love Him, and serve Him.

Each of these blessings are just reflections of Christ living in us, shing through us, and flowing out of us. It isn’t us. It is never about us.

Isaiah 58:8a Then your light shall break forth like the morning. 10b Then your light shall dawn in the darkness, And your darkness shall be as the noonday.

We can call this the Enlightened Living that Jesus spoke of when He promised in the Gospels to all that follow Him, that they would “not walk in darkness…but have the light of life”.

Are we reflecting what Jesus promised in John 8:12 (NKJV): Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”

Isaiah 58:8b Your healing shall spring forth speedily.

We can call this the Strengthened Living that Jesus spoke of when He promised in the Gospels to all that follow Him, that they would like Him “have food to eat ye know not of…”

Are we reflecting what Jesus promised in John 4:32 (NKJV): But He said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.”

Isaiah 58:8c And your righteousness shall go before you.

We can call this the Holy Living that Jesus spoke of when He promised in the Gospels to all that follow Him, that they would “hunger and thirst after righteousness.”

Are we reflecting what Jesus promised in Mt. 5:6 (NKJV): Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled.

Isaiah 58:8d The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.

We can call this the Secured Living that Jesus spoke of when He promised in the Gospels to all that follow Him, that they would know that “Lo I am with you always…”

Are we reflecting what Jesus promised in Mt. 28:20 (NKJV): teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

Isaiah 58:9 Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; You shall cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’

We can call this the Godward Living that Jesus spoke of when He promised in the Gospels to all that follow Him, that they would find that “whatever you ask…I will do it.”

Are we reflecting what Jesus promised in John 15:16 (NKJV): You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.

Isaiah 58:11a The Lord will guide you continually.

We can call this the Confident Living that Jesus spoke of when He promised in the Gospels to all that follow Him, that they would have “My peace I give unto you…”

Are we reflecting what Jesus promised in John 14:27 (NKJV): Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

Isaiah 58:11b And satisfy your soul in drought.

We can call this the Satisfied Living that Jesus spoke of when He promised in the Gospels to all that follow Him, that they would have “Life, and live more abundant…”

Are we reflecting what Jesus promised in John 10:10 (NKJV): The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

Isaiah 58:11c And strengthen your bones; You shall be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.

We can call this the Renewed Living that Jesus spoke of when He promised in the Gospels to all that follow Him, that they would have “never thirst…out of him flow rivers of living water…”

Are we reflecting what Jesus promised in John 6:35 (NKJV): And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. John 7:37-38 (NKJV): On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. 38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”

Putting On Christ Allows Him to Be Seen

Each of these blessings are just reflections of Christ living in us, shining through us, and flowing out of us.

It isn’t us. It is never about us.

Is Christ reflecting His LOVE through you?

In the Old Testament is Christ concealed; and in the New Testament is Christ revealed.

How’s Your Reflection of God Today?

[1] Author unknown.