Streams of Living Water

It has always, and always will be, tempting to look back and to live wishing that the good days would return. So you say, even to yourself if not out loud, “I wish it was like it was in the good old days”. The problem is that the good old days were not as good as we thought they were – time has erased the problems. Never is that more true of the way we view the early New Testament Church – a church which was exponentially growing but had all different kinds of problems. Were these the good old days, or were the days old, but no better than today? I want tonight to conclude our studies in the book of Colossians by looking at the church of the truly good old days – the early church and to compare it with the way we see Church today and perhaps to learn some lessons, both things to avoid and things to imitate. I want to see three things: first, it’s location, second, its leaders, and third, it’s everything.

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Professor Roy Anderson, James Crosby, Philip Green, David Michels, Professor Roger Williams – all of these people (none of whom I know anything about) were Knighted in the 2006 Birthday Honours List. Perhaps there can be no more prestigious earthly roll of honour than to be named on the Queens Birthday list. But there is an even more important roll of honour than that – the roll of honour as working in and for the Kingdom of God. Colossians 4:7-14 record such a roll of honour for us.

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The great Scottish Preacher, Robert Murray McCheyne once wrote, “my people’s greatest need is my personal holiness”. What the world needs more than anything else from Christians, is that we live holy lives – lives transformed and practically demonstrating the truth of the power of the Gospel. Such a need, Paul deals with in Colossians 4:5-6.

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The other day, as I was sorting through material in my office, I came across a book I forgot I had. It was a copy of E.M. Bounds book, ‘Power through Prayer‘. I got it on the recommendation of the former minister of the Tron, Eric Alexander, who told a ministerial fellowship I was privileged to attend, that he reads this particular book once a year. It keeps him focussed upon where the real power in the Christian life comes from - prayer. Through prayer, God re-applies the benefits of believing the Gospel of our crucified and risen Saviour to us, and, through our prayers, He spreads the net out wider and brings in our friends, families and colleagues into the kingdom of Jesus. The apostle Paul knew how vital prayer was in the Christian life - all these commands he has given us regarding our relationships to our husbands, wives, children, parents, employees and employers - he knows that the only place where we can go to get the power to obey is God Himself, and that through prayer. And so, he commands the Colossian Christians to pray.

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It is official – according to the Economist, the British work longer hours than anyone else in the European Union, with nearly a third of our working population working more than 48 hours per week. If that is true, then that third of people devote nearly 50% of their waking hours to their work. If it important that we, as Christians, know how to live holy, Gospel centred lives in our homes, then it is just as important that we know how to live Gospel centred, holy lives in our workplaces. The Bible has much to say about how a Christian should view work and how she should conduct herself in the working environment. Such is the thrust of Paul’s teaching in Colossians 3:22-4:1, where he talks of issue of practical holiness between slaves and their masters –the modern equivalent of which, is the relationship between employers and employees. And so this forms the basis of our study of God’s Word tonight – what impact should the Gospel have upon our attitude to the workplace, and our conduct in the workplace?

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“If you sleep on it, make it up; if you step on it, wipe it up; if you wear it, hang it up; if you drop it, pick it up; if you eat out of it, wash it up; if it rings, answer it; if it howls, feed it.” So says a set of house rules I saw advertised on the internet. We all have our house rules – all the way from ‘mum does it all’ to ‘children do it all’. After all, most of life is lived in the house and if the house isn’t well-ordered, life falls apart. Our first memories are probably of our life in our parental homes – perhaps in front of a fire or playing in the garden. Up until fairly recently, most people also died at home. Life is lived in the home.

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The greatest need of the world around us, and of the church of which we are a member, is that we live holy lives. The word holiness means ‘different’ or ‘separate’. People need to see that Jesus really has made a difference to us; only then will they want the same for themselves. But what will that holiness look like? Last week, we looked at many of the things that if we want to be holy, we need to say goodbye to; but this week, I want to look at some of the things that if we want to be holy, we need to say hello to – things we need to strive for and incorporate into our lives.

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Whenever someone comes to me and says, “I want to become a Christian”, if I feel that they are genuine, I tend to lead them through four steps – first, something to admit – that they are a sinner and need forgiveness; secondly, something to believe – that Jesus died on the cross to make the forgiveness of our sins possible. The fourth thing is something to do – to ask the Lord Jesus to forgive your sins and to commit yourself to Him. But the third thing is something to consider – I always tell them that being a Christian isn’t the easy option; it is not the road of least resistance – rather, it’s a life of self-denial and discipleship.
The major area in which the Christian life isn’t easy is in the area of actively, purposefully, saying goodbye to sin in our lives. We have been saved by grace in Jesus, and now, through the empowering grace of Jesus, we must aim to put any sin we find in ourselves to death. And that is the teaching of Colossians 3:5-11, where Paul now turns his attention to practical issues in the Christian life – namely, living holy lives from day to day.

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Before I went into the ministry, I worked as a Research and Development Engineer for a large building materials company called Lafarge. One of the projects the company was engaged in at the time was the provision of concrete for the military. It was our responsibility to come up with a concrete which could be used on Tank Parade Grounds – a concrete which was strong enough to resist the forces placed upon it by 50 ton tanks turning on their tracks. Most concretes would buckle under the pressure, but it was our job to come up with a mixture which was robust enough to maintain its structural integrity under such conditions. The turning point, you see, is all crucial, and requires more, not less, strength and science.
The same is true in the area of turning doctrinal teaching into practical holiness in the Christian life.

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Yesterday must have been a slow news day. Despite the fact that wars are raging in Iraq and Afghanistan, George Bush is visiting the Middle East and Kenya is in a state of unrest, the lead story on the BT Yahoo News Website was that Tony Blair has sent his first ever text message. Everything else is relegated to second place – the really important thing is that Tony Blair doesn’t know how to use a mobile phone. As amusing as the story is, do you ever feel as if really important things, in life as well as in the news, are somehow relegated to a lower place, whereas really unimportant and insignificant things are promoted to the highest place?

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