Christ Is All - the Christ-Centred Life — J. Glyn Owen

The Peace, Word, and Name of Christ in Colossians 3

Will you kindly turn in your Bibles to the book of Colossians, Paul's letter written to the church at Colossae, and we are going to read as the basis of our meditation this morning the passage that comes next in order, namely verses 15 to 17.

Chapter 3 verses 15 to 17 in the Epistle to the Colossians. I am reading from the New International Version. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts since as members of one body you were called to peace and be thankful.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom and as you sing songs, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Now Paul has been very clearly outlining the duty of every Christian man and woman, not only in ancient Colossae, but in the Church of Jesus Christ anywhere and at any time, everywhere and at all time.

Looking back over this chapter 3 you will notice that he has been telling us quite clearly in unambiguous terms that as sure as we are Christian, as sure as we are men and women in Christ, then we should be busy.

We should be doing something. First of all he puts our duties in terms of negatives. He says there are certain things that we should be getting rid of. The metaphor is one of unclothing, disrobing, taking things off as you would take a garment off and throw it on one side.

What he says is that all the characteristic features of our old Adamic and fallen nature we should get rid of. If we are really men and women in Christ then there is our inspiration and there is our strength and there is our grace.

We should be getting hold of the old pattern of living and putting it all on one side. I'm sure all of us from time to time say concerning a suit of clothes or what have you, now I've had done with that and we pack it out and we get, pack it and get rid of it.

Paul says that we should do that kind of thing with every aspect of behavior that relates to our old Adamic nature. But he doesn't end there. He says that we should be constantly robing ourselves with the graces of our Lord Jesus Christ.

That we should be regularly coming to the wardrobe of divine grace and and from there receiving grace upon grace and clothing ourselves spiritually with these beautiful garments that God has given us.

And when we feel we're reasonably clad we should belt the whole thing with a girdle of agape, of love. And so we should go out into each new day and into each new week as men and women that are clothed spiritually for the task to which God has called us.

The Centrality of Christ in the Christian Life

Now the paragraph before us today takes us one step further and this is dominated by the theme of the centrality of Jesus Christ in the ongoing Christian life. You may always know whether a man is growing Christianly by this.

Is Jesus Christ central in his thinking, in his acting, in his living, in his planning, in his desiring, in his motivation? Is self central? Is this world central? Or is the Lord Jesus Christ right in the center of it all so that a man can say as the Apostle himself did, to me to live is Christ.

There you see Jesus Christ is dead center. Everything else, everything else must take its due place around the centerpiece which is the living reigning Lord Jesus Christ. Allow me to ask you therefore right at the outset this morning whether Jesus Christ is central in your thinking, in your living, in your learning, in your acting, whatever else you do.

Now this is brought out by the use of three verbs found in each of these three verses before us this morning. And for those of you who read the Greek New Testament and quite a number do, let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.

These verbs are in the subjunctive. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly. And then whatever you do, do it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. The peace of God ruling in the heart, the Word of God richly dwelling with it within, the Word of Christ rather, and then the name of Christ sovereign over all else.

I want us to look at these three this morning in turn and as we look at them we shall see the ongoing Christian life as the Apostle and mouthpiece of the living Lord would address us and wants us as a community of people and as individuals to live in this 20th century.

The Peace of Christ and Its Inward Rule

Now first of all the peace of Christ and its inward ruling. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts since as members of one body you were called to peace and be thankful. Now lest the readers of the King James Version may think that we've played a trick here just in order to have everything circle around the Lord Jesus Christ.

The King James Version says let the peace of God. Really these modern versions are more accurate when they refer to the peace of Christ because we now have older manuscripts that take us back nearer to the New Testament era and they all have the peace of Christ rather than the peace of God.

Not that there is any major theological distinction but it does give us a particular concept of the peace that we are to allow to rule in our hearts. It's not simply the peace of a God we have never seen but the peace of the God revealed in Jesus Christ the man of Nazareth.

Now let's examine this. The peace of Christ ruling in the heart. First of all what did Paul mean by the peace of Christ? What's involved there? Well one wonders how much Paul would put into that phrase.

I believe that he probably meant not simply the peace which Jesus Christ purchased for us. He did purchase our peace by the blood of his cross. We are told that in Ephesians. He came and preached peace to them that were near that is to the Jewish community and to those that were afar off.

He himself says Paul in another place is the embodiment of peace. Christ is our peace. I have a feeling however that the Apostle Paul would also imply and involve in this phrase the peace Jesus Christ himself enjoyed.

Surely this was one of the most remarkable of all things in the experience of our Lord Jesus Christ. How he enjoyed peace with God. If you'd like to put it differently you can think of his life as a life of perfect harmony with his father.

There was never a jarring note. There was never a battle to be fought. On one occasion in the garden of Gethsemane it appears that Jesus had a doubt as to whether the cup was absolutely necessary after all.

And so he came and he asked the father. Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me. But when according to the father it was known to be impossible to bed that cup. On he went with a willingness and a dedication that is evident in the record.

He was led as a lamb to the slaughter. No man takes my life from me he says but I lay it down of myself. In other words he never fought with his father. He was never at variance with his father. Because of that he might have to face the opposition of men.

But in the midst of it all even when the cross emerged on the horizon Jesus had peace. So that he could turn to his disciples and say this remarkable thing. He could say to them now he says not as the world gives do I give to you.

I'm going to give you something that the world could never give. My way of endowing you as my people is quite different from that of the world. Not as the world give give I to you. I'm going to give you my own people.

That in the first place reveals the fact that in the depth of his soul our Lord Jesus had peace with his father. There was the perfect harmony of the obedient son concerning whom the father more than once said.

This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Now the Apostle Paul would have us enjoy that peace in our hearts. Just imagine it. Are you going through any period of trouble and trial and difficulty at the moment?

Is it very boisterous in your life? Are there things that harass you from day to day? They wait you at the dawn of each new day and they're with you in the evening when you go to bed at night. Listen my friend it is the plan and the purpose of God that his people should know this quality of peace.

The peace of God which passeth all understanding. But now here's another thought. That peace according to the Paul is meant to rule in our heart. The peace of Christ is meant to rule in the hearts of the redeemed.

The noun that corresponds to the verb here would be translated umpire or referee if you like or arbiter. It was very often and most generally used in connection with the Olympic Games where you would have referees or umpires.

And of course you you know what would be done if there was a question about anything. The appeal was made to the referee and his word was final in all matters. Now says Paul the peace of Christ flood your heart, fill your heart and as he does so, as it does so, let it be the umpire, the referee that determines right and wrong.

What's he getting at? The notion is that as those who are in Christ, as those who have been crucified with Christ and are risen with Christ and ascended in Christ to the heavenly places. All that's in the background and are awaiting the coming glory of Christ when we shall be glorified with him, we have his peace.

As those who are going on in the Christian life casting off the things of darkness and putting on the raiment of light. As those who know something of an ongoing work of grace and not something that happened 40 years ago and period.

As those who know an ongoing work of grace in our hearts. Now says Paul there's the peace of God also in your heart. As sure as you're getting rid of that which is evil and that which is tainted by the flesh and as sure as you're coming to a divine wardrobe and putting on the beauties of your Lord's grace, more and more you're going on with him.

You're growing up into him and you'll know his peace. Now he says you're to judge things by means of that peace. What he had in mind probably was something like this. Here you have an alternative. Will I choose this or that way?

Shall I join that group and what they believe and the way they live or shall I join this group? Shall I embark upon this particular mode of living and behavior or shall I turn my back upon that and go this way?

You judge what is right or wrong says the Apostle Paul by the peace of God in your heart. If you can contemplate going on this particular way or that particular way and the peace of God in your heart is undisturbed, it remains and it deepens, then of course it must be right.

But if you have a sense of the impropriety of it, if you're afraid that the dove of peace is going to leave its perch in your heart, don't do it. Now word of warning, this is not a message to the carnal Christian stuck in the mud refusing to leave his sin.

Now let's be sure about that. I must put my neck on the line. This is not the kind of argument that a man or a woman is to bring forward who is living in open sin, not necessarily immorality, but other kinds of sin.

And you're stuck in the mud. You were born again, but you've never grown up. You're just a little babe in Christ, carnal as carnal can be in your own soul. And you argue, I don't see anything wrong in this or I don't see anything wrong in that.

This is not for you. Paul addresses these words only to men and women who are casting off the works of darkness, who are putting off the things of the old Adamic nature, and who are putting on the things that are in Christ Jesus.

If you're in that process, if you're really living the Christian life day by day, then this applies to you. You may depend upon it, says Paul. The peace of God in your heart is a barometer which will indicate right or wrong, nearness to him or distance from him.

That's not all. We have all been called to enjoy this quality of peace within the community of the body of Christ. Since us members of one body you were called, says Paul. This experience of peace is no fanciful addition to the Christian program.

It is an integral part of our high calling, and it is to be enjoyed in the fellowship of God's people. In other words, our attitude, attitudes to each other. My attitude to everyone else in the fellowship of the body of Christ is to be determined by this one principle.

You know we have over the years gained a concept of church membership which is so far from church membership in the New Testament as to be incapable of recognition. The member of the body of Christ, as understood in the New Testament, is a person who is sensitive to what he says or how he looks at his brother or sister.

And there's a deep sensitivity here, and by the knowledge of the Spirit's pleasure or displeasure in his heart, a person is able to do or not to do, to say or not to say what he had in mind. In the fellowship of believing men and women, you and I are meant to practice and enjoy the experience of this peace of God brought down to earth.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, I trust you and I know something of this. But if you don't take the church seriously, and you don't relate to other Christians properly, you're not within reach of it. If you're living an independent life, if you're treating yourself as the only child in the family, a spoiled child, living all on your own, off of the tangent, going your own sweet way, my friend, you can't know anything of this maturity.

Anything that you may have which approximates it only approximates it. Can I just say a word about this? This calling should make us intensely and increasingly grateful. It's a kind of afterthought. Paul puts it in tersely, and be thankful.

Now there are men and women here this morning who will know what this means. I know. Be thankful that you know anything about the peace of God. Remember who you were. Remember what you were. Remember where you've been.

Remember the pit from which you've been brought up, and the rock from which you've been hewn. Remember the way Satan had mauled you and marred your testimony, but you have the peace purchased by the blood of Christ, ministered by the Spirit of Christ, perfected by the Word of God.

If you have that peace, you don't need to be told, be thankful. For there is nothing in this world to compare with this little bit of heaven that the Spirit by the blood brings into the heart of the believer, the peace of God and the peace that is with God.

The Word of Christ and Its Rich Indwelling

That brings me to the second main point here. The first, the peace of Christ and its inward ruling. The second, the Word of Christ and its rich indwelling. Another subjunctive, let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to the Lord.

Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly. The Word of Christ indwelling, that's the main thought here. And dwelling deeply, dwelling deeply. You see, the Colossians had already received the Word of Christ.

They'd received the gospel. But what Paul wants is that the Word that they had initially received should get deeper and deeper into their subconscious minds, into their hearts, into the soil of their spiritual beings, until there it thrives, a plant of heaven planted in the soil of earth.

Now by the Word of Christ, of course, this is meant as teaching in its broad, sweet, and full significance, both as evangel and as ethic. The Word of Christ is the teaching or the doctrine that he has given us, and given us, as Paul often says, as a sacred deposit on trust.

That we should keep it safely in one sense, but that we should pass it on to others in another sense. We keep it in order to pass it on. We see that no one, no one steals anything from it. No one robs it of its wholeness.

We keep it in that sense, but we keep it in that sense in order to pass it on in all its divine glory and potential to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Jesus Christ. It represents the fruit of three and a half years public ministry upon earth, and actually practically corresponds to the entirety of our New Testament.

Now notice, the Word of Christ is meant to dwell in us, and dwell deeply. That is, first of all, it's to have a permanent abode in us. I was talking to someone not all that long ago, and the image came through quite clearly that his concept of being under the Word of God was that of coming to church and being preached at, as he put it, and being engaged in having to think of the Scriptures for a half an hour or three quarters or so, and go away, and come back another Lord's Day.

And he lived by this. Now you see, this concept that Paul has here is quite contrary to that. You and I are not to be arrested by the Word of God occasionally, and made to think about it occasionally, and for a limited length of time, then to cast off its influence and go our own sweet way until we are arrested again, and we have to think again.

But the Word of God that we hear is to dwell in us. We take it with us. We remember it, its impact, its influence, its message, its significance. It sinks into the depths of the soul. Now I guess I've seen no one, none of the commentators suggest this, but it seems to me that there may very well be here a reference to the parable of the sower and the soil.

You remember, for example, taking Luke's version, two illustrations of the soil that simply did not take in the seed properly. There was a third, but we mentioned two only. First of all, there was the seed that was sown by the wayside.

You remember, the wayside. It's the path around the strip that had been sown in, and some of the seed had fallen on the pathway, but there were so many people walking on the pathway that the path was hard, and when the seed fell on the path, when it didn't penetrate.

And you remember, you remember what happened in our Lord's parable. The birds of the air came, and my, they've got great eyes. They don't need spectacles. They just look down, and they see, and they saw that there was a little meal there, and down they came, and they got rid of it all in no time, and there was no seed.

In the soil that is. There are some Christians who are like that, and I have no doubt that there will be some of us who will leave this service this morning, and everything that is said is just like that.

It'll be like seed falling on very hard soil, and in no time the birds of worldly influence will have been after us, and before we've had our lunch today, we'll have forgotten all about the Word of God.

But then there's the other. Luke in this parable also refers to the seed that was sown on the rock, or better, on rocky soil, because the picture there is of a thin layer of soil, a topsoil, very thin, not deep, and it is on top of a thicker layer of rock.

So as you look at it, you see some soil, but underneath there is the rock, and now the sower is sowing his seed, you see, and some falls into this soil. Now because the rock maintains the heat better than the earth generally, there is warmth there, and so the seed germinates very, very quickly.

It brings forth fruit. I mean it germinates. You can see the little flower, or whatever it is, coming up almost immediately. There's immediate response, but it can't grow, because there's no way whereby its roots can go down and maintain its nourishment.

It can't find subsistence. It can't find nourishment, because the rock underneath has been broken. Brothers and sisters, I find that this is one of the most challenging pictures in the whole of the book.

I wonder whether I'm speaking to someone here this morning, and you and I have made an immediate response to the gospel of Jesus Christ, but the rock of the heart has never been broken. The heart of stone has never been taken out, and so there is no rootage, and everything you hear, you might sit at the feet of an archangel, nay, nay, of the incarnate Lord himself, and you'd not grow in the Christian life, because the rock has not been broken.

There's a massive rock that has to be broken and taken out, and you have to receive a new heart in its place. Now there are many professing Christians who have never known that. Paul is here requiring of us that the Word of Christ should be allowed to dwell in the very depths of our being.

Get right in. Not just into the mind momentarily, but into the memory, into the subconscious, into the heart, into the feeling, so that the whole of one's inner life is radically transformed by the Word of the Living God.

The Word of Christ in Teaching and Worship

Now notice, the richly indwelling Word should then become the richly outgoing Word. Call your attention to this. If we don't call attention to this, then we're going to miss something very precious here, and I don't want to be guilty of it.

As you teach and counsel or admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God, if the Word of Christ dwells in us richly, then it should of necessity find an avenue for expression, for us to express its message and its meaning in life.

An impression that begets no expression becomes a depression. That's why you have so many depressed Christians. Now you will ask, what more does it mean than what we've already referred to? For the Word of God, the Word of Christ to dwell in us richly.

Well look at this. In reply I would say from this verse 16, that it does not simply refer to the depths of its indwelling, but also to such things as the wisdom it imparts and the worship it inspires.

Paul goes on immediately, you see, and he says in the light of what he said. Now he says, as you teach, let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly as as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom.

In other words, the Word of God dwelling deeply in the soul of a man, so that in consequence the Word along with the Spirit of Christ working together in that man's life, and he enjoys the peace that Christ gives as an arbiter and a referee concerning right and wrong.

As this proceeds, you will notice that a man has wisdom to admonish or to teach others. And Paul says that this is something that should be seen in people. The Apostle is here addressing not Christian pastors or ministers or teachers in that sense.

He is addressing the whole church here. So that you see, he is expecting that a wisdom of God should be manifest in the way that a Sunday school teacher teaches a Sunday school class, or a Bible class leader leads his class.

In other words, my friend, if the peace of God, the peace of Christ is dwelling within me, and the Word of Christ is richly indwelling me, then something should be evident. This, that I am wise in my teaching, and that I admonish people wisely, and that I shall never say the wrong things to people and send them in the wrong direction.

When the Word of Christ dwells in us richly, it imparts a quality of wisdom to teach and to admonish. And let me repeat, it is something that should be seen in every child of God. But now, along with that, the worship it inspires.

As you sing, this is something else that goes on at the same time. As you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts, notice the concept of gratitude in these three verses. Giving thanks, or gratitude, it comes in the three verses.

If the Word of God dwells in us richly, then it will create in us an attitude of worship. Yes, worship, even though we have to get rid of questionable things out of our lives. Worship in the process of coming to the wardrobe which is Christ Jesus our Lord, for grace upon grace.

Worship whatever the cost. Worship especially as the piece of Christ begins to rule within. Worship as the Word of God imparts inward wisdom. Worship, worship, worship, not just on the Lord's Day, but at any time, anywhere, everywhere.

If you can confine your worship to one single hour in the week, brother or sister, there's something radically wrong. You are blind and you need your eyes open still. You are, you are, you are incapable of understanding the things of the gospel.

God requires the worship of the whole heart all the time. As all these things are going on, says Paul, what's happening in the heart? Oh, you're making melody and music to your God. In psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, you're going about and there is this Godward side of your life.

Friends, do we know anything about it? What catches your eye? Now I don't want to dwell at any length as to the division of these three here. Now lots of arguments have taken place in the church about how you divide these.

Psalms and psalms and psalms, some people say. Well, I think that Dr. Hendrickson, in a very incisive comment, puts it like this. All in all, he says, it would seem that when in Colossians 3 .16 the Apostle uses these three terms, apparently distinguishing them, at least to some extent, the term psalms as reference, at least mainly to the Old Testament Psalter, hymns mainly to New Testament songs of praise to God or to Christ, and spiritual songs or odes as they are called, mainly to any other sacred songs dwelling on the theme, on one theme or another, than Christ and the Father.

But something related to spiritual matters, whatever their nature, he proceeds to say, this threefold mode of praise must be offered in a spirit of thankfulness. And to crown the whole of this passage this morning there is one other thing, and it is a capstone here.

The Name of Christ and Its Absolute Authority

The peace of Christ and its inward ruling, the word of Christ and its rich indwelling, the name of Christ and its absolute overruling. Notice verse 17, and whatever you do, now this covers everything, nothing could be more general than that, and whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus.

And again notice, giving thanks to God the Father through him. My, how this man, how this man expected us to praise God. Do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus. The name of Jesus Christ should dominate the whole of the Christian's life.

That means of course that we act because of our confessed relationship to him. It means that we act and we live as we do because we are his representatives in this world. It means that we act and live as we do because we are concerned for his glory.

And it means too that we act consciously by his authority. What right does a man to stand in a pulpit on the Lord's Day morning and say these things to many, if not all, present who are much wiser than himself?

What right does any man to stand before a group of people and say these things with a dogmatism that you have heard this morning? Well I'll tell you, and the only right is this, that one does it in the authority and with the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ.

All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore, or if you want it in pictorial form, come with Peter and John day after Pentecost. And they're going to the house of prayer.

Bless them. They went to that old temple with its formality, even though the fullness of the Spirit has been flooded into their souls. They go back into the temple at the hour of prayer. Yeah? And as they go, what do they see but a man lame from his womb sitting at the outside the gate, the beautiful gate of the temple, to make matters worse.

The beautiful gate and this ugly scene of a man lame from birth. No one could do anything for him. Now bless them. They kind of gave him a little gift, threw their coins to him, and that helped him along and enabled him to keep body and soul together.

But they really couldn't help the man's physical condition until Peter and John came. And I guess he was expecting money from them too. Well it makes it clear that he was. He asked and answered them. Peter said, Now man, we're not like these other folk.

We just haven't got a pocket. We don't have, we don't have, we don't have silver and gold. Silver and gold have I none, but I have something. In the name, in the authority, because I've been sent by one with all authority, in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, stand up, rise up.

And if I understand the full significance of this statement here, I believe there are things that the church that is in living touch with the reigning Lord. There are things that we should be doing in his name and with his authority still, that would make the worldlings say, God is in that place.

A Christ-Centred Life of Wholehearted Obedience

And I close with this. The name of the Lord Jesus Christ is to integrate thus the whole of life. Whatever you do, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God and the Father through him.

Your life is to be so Christ-centered that as you go along, this is your one main ambition. And this is the thread that is to run through every thought and every deed and every desire and every aspect of your life.

Christ dominates the whole. Brothers and sisters, I confess to you this morning, I feel very unworthy of preaching this. What do we know of this, this, this, this, this golden thread running through all our lives, giving meaning to every word and every look and every desire and every motion of the spirit and every imagination, says Paul, this is the way we should be looking at things.

If you are in Christ Jesus, crucified with him, risen with him, reigning with him, this is your life. Now don't you push it off to anybody else. This is your life, believer. You may be a visitor in Knox this morning.

I want to, I want to bring this to you. This is your life, man or woman, in Christ, as well as to those who regularly worship here on the Lord's Day and were members of this community. This is my life to be, of which I am very unworthy.

May the grace of God be given us then on this another Lord's Day, another earthly Sabbath on our earthly pilgrimage. May the grace of God be given us first of all to see the plan, see the line, see the route that has been planned for us, the duty that has been set before us.

Prayer for a Christ-Centred Christian Profession

And as the Spirit and the Word work within us, may we know that wholesome desire that becomes an ultimate determination in the soul. We can feebly say, even with the Apostle, to me to live is Christ. Our Heavenly Father, the first thing that we must need to do when we have been browsing on your Word and have been looking at ourselves in it as in a mirror is to acknowledge that we have not obeyed, and we are not what we have been called to be, but we desire to be what we are not.

We yearn, O Lord, by the grace of your Spirit to be like our blessed Redeemer. We covet for your glory that you will make the formalities of our Christian profession to be dynamized with reality, that we may be living epistles known for who we are and what we are by all men, and read by them, and understood by them as our being the workmanship of the ruling reigning King of kings and Lord of lords, our crucified, slain, sovereign Jesus Christ.

Put your hand upon each of us then this morning, we pray, and draw us closer to yourself, binding us there. Keep us loyal through him who loved us and gave himself for us. Amen.