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I would like your Bible to be open to is Colossians 3:16.
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 God.
This is a verse from our Wednesday evening Bible study this past week. It is a command from Paul to Christians. And, I think it would make a great motto for our church. For it is my desire for us as a church to truly...
I. Know Christ
To know Christ we must know his Word. It is like someone saying "God isn't close. I don't know His will." So you hand them a Bible and they toss it aside. "God isn't close I don't know His will. Why is God so far away." So you pick the Bible up a again and give it to them. Once again they push it aside. "Where is God, I don't think he cares anymore." To know Christ and to know God means knowing His Word. And knowing God's Word does not simply mean intellectual assent to what it says. Many a theologian and many a Mormon know what Scripture says without ascribing to it the depth of its truth and proper authority for one's life. Simply knowing about Scripture does not make one a Christian. In the same way, the presence of oxygen does not mean there will be a fire, but fire cannot exist without oxygen. Spiritual maturity and righteous will also not exist without a true knowledge of Christ and his life giving and sustaining Word.
Look at what the command is here in Colossians 3:16. Broken down to its simplest form it is, "Let the word dwell." What does it mean to dwell?
While on vacation, we visited Canyon de Chelly in northeast Arizona. It is a beautiful red rock canyon which was once inhabited by the Anistazi Indians. The Indians built their homes into the sides of the canyon walls which provided excellent protection, a great vantage point, and a continual flow of water in the spring. These homes are usually called cliff dwellings. Simply a place where people lived--made their home. That is pretty much the definition of the Greek word enoikeo here. It literally means "in house." This is a term we hear quite often today. Certain care facilities have "in house" physicians. Rap artists at concerts talk about how their fellow "musicians" are "in da house."
This is a command to have the Word of Christ "in da house." The form of the word is a present active imperative. Imperative means it is a (what?) command. Active means that you must do it yourself--must make an effort. And, the present tense suggests (what?) that is to be done continually. Therefore, we must continually let, or perhaps even more strongly stated, make the Word of Christ dwell--make its home in us. Paul also tacks on an important adverb here to the command. Do you see it? To what extent or at what level are we to make the Word of Christ dwell in us? It is to dwell richly or in abundant measures. The Word of Christ it to fill up our house. It is to be in us, to live in us fully. That is how we will truly know Christ.
There are three essential areas to making God's Word dwell in you fully. 1) Study 2) meditation and 3) application.
1. Study is what we do here Sunday morning and Sunday evening and Wednesday evening. A year ago I described my vision for Sun Valley as a church which Teaches God's Word. And, I think that is something we are doing. It has been pretty direct sometimes, and even a little painful, but in that sermon I said:
You see God's Word pierces our hearts, and sometimes it hurts, and makes us feel uncomfortable, uneasy. That is good. It is intended. There will be times, when you may walk out of the Sunday service or out of a Bible Study, and feel uncomfortable. Do you know what that means? The teacher or pastor has been judgmental? Mean? Unfair? No...it means that God's word, which is pure truth, is piercing your heart and God is working in your life, and that is a good thing.
The study of God's Word must be our prime focus. It should be what the Christian loves to do almost more than anything else. It was so exciting for Michelle and I to have the opportunity to visit Grace Community Church (John MacArthur's Church in Sun Valley California) while on vacation. During the message, I looked across row after row of people with guess what in their laps? No. Well worn Bibles. Bibles that had worn covers and wrinkled pages--notes shoved in--passages underlined and highlighted. This was a church that loves to study God's Word. It just about brought me to tears. I know, pastors are a little weird sometimes about that, but people, nothing excites me more than being around people who love to study God's Word. I want our church to be known for its knowledge and love of God's Word--for us to be a church of well-worn Bibles, and hearts fully loaded with the Word of Christ.
2. Study and meditation should be what we are doing in our own personal devotions and reading of God's Word on a daily basis. Hopefully we have raised some issues this past year which have sent you to God's Word more than ever before. I hope that you can speak like Jeremiah the prophet who said,
When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart's delight, for I bear your name, O LORD God Almighty.
As Christians this kind of love for God's word is absolutely essential. Think about how much you love your spouse, or your children, or your parents. Do you love God's Word with the same fervor and dedication?
3. Application is the essential outflow of the Christian who has God's Word dwelling fully in their life. And that is the basis of my second desire for Sun Valley.
II. Making Christ Known
The application of Christ's Word involves spiritual growth, righteousness, holiness, prayer, wisdom and discernment, service, and evangelism and discipleship. I am so confident in the power of God's Word, that I believe if we properly make God's Word dwell in us, all of those things will follow naturally, just as fresh water flows from fresh springs.
Do you remember the Great Commission found at the end of Matthew's Gospel? What does it say? Go and make Christians. Go and get people saved. Go and entertain. Go and build fancy churches. No. There is only one command there. Make disciples. This is done, Jesus says, by teaching them everything he has commanded, and by baptizing them.
Evangelism isn't saving people or bringing people to salvation. Only God saves people. Only God brings people to Christ. Evangelism is proclaiming the good news. That is what the word means. Making known the good news of Jesus Christ. When God's Word is made known, He makes things happen. People are saved! Isaiah 55:10-11 confirms this by saying,
As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, 11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
God uses us to make his message known. The author of Hebrews says that the Word of God is living and active. It isn't just black words on white pages. It is alive and has great power and great authority. That is why we must know it and then proclaim it. In fact, as we have been studying in 1 Peter, that is our purpose as Christians and as a church. 1 Peter 2:9 says,
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
Modern Christianity has fallen away from these two ideas though. In fact some major evangelical ministers even say that it is a no no to teach doctrine and the deep spiritual truths of scripture to their people for fear they will become confused. This isn't new. The church has been here before. The names have changes and so have the methods, but the problem is the same. It was some of these very ideas that caused the reformers of the 16th century to stand up and demand a return to the truths of God's Word and the importance of studying it. The doctrines they espoused often drew the scorn of the people and the established church, but the rediscovery of God's Word as the bases of all the church's work brought about the greatest revival in the history of the church. And yet we still sell it short today. And utter many of the same curses on theology and sound scriptural doctrine that were uttered then.
Example. In July of 1536, a French reformer by the name of John Calvin was on his way to Strasbourg with the intention of simply continuing his study of God's Word and perhaps writing more fully on it. However, he was forced to detour through Geneva Switzerland. Geneva had been known for its immorality. After being in San Francisco on our trip, I think I know why Calvin didn't want to stay there.
At one point, being that it was a Catholic city, the city leaders felt that perhaps the could effect some change on the behavior of the city be declaring it a Protestant city. And do you know what happened? Nothing. It was about this time when Calvin ended up in Geneva. He was persuaded to stay and begin preaching in the city. Verse by verse, Calvin taught from scripture the reform ideas of the sovereignty of God and his supremacy in the plan of salvation, and man's sinful nature. Can you guess how that went over in an immoral city. Lead balloon. He was despised and forced to leave the city. This was no problem for Calvin, he moved to Strasbourg and enjoyed it greatly. Years later in 1541, Calvin was asked to return to Geneva, and reluctantly agreed. Upon his return, it was even said that he picked up his first sermon from the same spot he had left off years before. It was God's Word that was of prime importance. It was an uphill battle, but Calvin's preaching and teaching from God's Word over the next 14 years completely turned the city of Geneva upside down, or rather rightside up. The principles of lay person involvement and the church's care for the underprivileged become a model for all of Europe. Many came to see the work first hand and returned to their own countries preaching with power the Word of God and spreading the Gospel of Christ worldwide.
Well that certainly flies in the face of most modern church growth movements. But when it was tried again by Jonathan Edwards and others in America several centuries later, it produced similar results, leading to what became known as The Great Awakening.
The church has been called to make Christ known. And we cannot make Christ known if we scorn His teachings in His word. If there is to be a revival again in this country, it will be because the church again returns to the teaching of doctrine rather than pop psychology and positive thinking. Paul issued the decree in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 that,
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
God's Word must be studied and meditated upon and then acted upon. It must be made known. Corporately and individually. Sun Valley Church proclaims the Word of Christ. The members of Sun Valley Church must also make known God's word within their own sphere of influence. There are people in your family and at your school or at your place of business or in your neighborhood who need to have the Word of God proclaimed to them. We are not responsible for the outcome--God will take care of that--but we are responsible as Paul commanded, to "be prepared in season and out of season."
That preparation involves knowing Christ and his Word. My heart's desire is that Sun Valley will be a church which loves to study God's Word. A church known for its students of the Bible. A church that truly knows Christ. If we don't know Christ and his Word fully, we can't worship him correctly. How can we worship what we don't know. We can't evangelize correctly. How can we do what Christ commissioned us to do unless we understand what that commission was.
Let me encourage you to attend our Bible Studies and Sunday Evening Study. Let me also really encourage you to attend our 6 week Sunday School class following the worship service next week which will center around Making Christ known with our spheres of influence. Let me also remind you of the importance of personal time spent in God's Word. Ask yourself what gets more usage in your house, the remote control or your Bible.
Study, meditation, and application.
Will you commit with me this morning that as a church and individuals we will strive to know Christ and make him known?