Christ is All
Sermon Notes
Navigating the road to freedom
Canopy is a family of house churches learning to live free.
We’ve talked often over the past several months about what that journey to freedom involves.
Particularly, we’ve focused on the wilderness aspect of the journey, as God’s favorite strategy seems to be to set His people free and then lead them into the wilderness where He works their new freedom into them.
One of the things that I’ve been thinking about a lot over the past couple of weeks in particular is how important navigation is on any journey.
Whenever we set out on any journey, we have to keep three things in mind, where we’re coming from, where we are, and where we’re going.
For much of the history of the world, this process of navigation has been a very intentional one that often required a great deal of skill.
Think of boats making their way across vast oceans. They needed skilled navigators who ensured that their port of origin was always behind them and their destination always before them using the stars and geographical markers to tell them that they were still heading in the right direction.
And, this work of navigating was often a full-time job as even a slight lapse could result in small drift, which doesn’t seem like much in the short term, but over the course of a long journey results in a different of hundreds of miles.
We don’t think much about this now because we have GPS devices to do all of the work, but keep in mind that they are, in fact, doing that work. They are constantly calculating and triangulating to get an accurate read on where you’ve come from, where you are, and where you’re going.
Today, I want to suggest that navigation is just as important for us on this journey of freedom that we’re on, especially when you consider the complicating factors of this particular journey.
The road that leads to life is narrow and few find it, according to Jesus in Matthew 7.
The other road is much more conspicuous and much easier.
The road that leads to life leads through territory hostile to those traveling that road.
So, the question I want to consider today is, how do we navigate this road to freedom? And, the answer is found in Colossians 3:
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3:1-4)
Setup
Start with identity.
It’s important to remember that all of this conversation about a journey into freedom is about becoming something that we already are.
We are not working our way into identity but working from identity.
So, Paul says, “If this is who you already are, then act like it.”
You used to live on the streets, and you thought like you lived on the streets.
Now, your address is the palace, so wherever you happen to find yourself in any particular moment, act like you’re a royal.
The question that we’re addressing here today, of course, is, how do I know if I’m doing that? How do I know if I am living out of my identity or if I’m living on the basis of muscle memory?
This is a vital question that requires a lot of humility and a lot of intentionality.
If we are not daily asking the question, “Where is this coming from? Is this above or below? Is this who I was or who I am?” then there’s a better than average chance that we’ll wind up trying to drag stuff from the streets into the palace and calling it “royal” just because we’re the ones who brought it in. What I mean is, we’ll end up baptizing our old ways, calling them Christian, just because we’re now Christian, and this is the most dangerous thing of all. It ought not be especially surprising or disconcerting when the world acts like the world, nor should we be terribly worried when Christians act like the world and, realizing it, confess and repent. But it ought to shake us to our core when the Christians act like the world and label their (our) actions Christian. When we do this, we not only lose our way but we also lose the capacity to lead other on that way. There is much at stake here.
And, my friends, at the risk of being too heavy here, that’s exactly what I see happening in the world today. It kills me to look around at the world and see Christians living their lives just like everyone else and calling it Christian.
I suppose this kind of stuff always happens, but it’s so clear and so devastating right now with everything that’s happening in our world.
I see Christians on the news or on social media posting their thoughts and opinions on coronavirus or racism or anything else, and there is no discernable difference between their (our) voices and those in the world. They (we) sound like our parents or our friends or our university professors or whichever news outlet we prefer, and when that happens we become useless. We simply add to the noise and it would be better if we were just silent. As Jesus says, “What do you do when salt loses its saltiness? You throw it out?” It has lost all capacity to season and preserve. We were created to have a unique and prophetic voice, to lead others into the freedom that we have found and are finding, but when we christen our own preferences, opinions, dreams, and agendas, and call them Christian, we lost the ability to do that.
So, how do we make sure we’re not doing that? How do we make sure we’re still walking that narrow road that leads to life (freedom)? Three points. We ask the three questions that shape any journey: where did we start? Where are we now? Where are we going? Paul lays each of those out for us here.
You died (where you started)
Your life is hidden with Christ in God (where you are)
You will appear with Him in glory (where you’re going)
Three points
So, where did this journey to freedom begin? With our death.
It’s really important that we begin at the right starting point, or we’ll never end up where we want to go. Even a slight change in trajectory can wind up with us missing our mark by thousands of miles.
And, it’s vital that we recognize that our journey into freedom began the moment we died.
You see, we’ve talked often about how Jesus came to set us free from any power that would oppress or enslave us, but one thing we haven’t talked about nearly often enough is that we are complicit in our own oppression. We are not simply victims of a tyrannical system; we are ourselves the tyrants. We are not simply suffering under the empire; we are a part of it.
The Bible makes this clear time and time again, that we were not innocent suffers before Jesus found us but rather that we were a part of the system that creates the suffering. One of the clearest examples of this is in 2 Corinthians 2, where Paul says:
But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. (2 Corinthians 2:14)
I used to really love that verse until the NIV translated it more accurately. It used to say, “Thanks be to God who always leads us in triumphal procession and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him.”
But, the new version of the NIV (the NNIV) translates it much more historically accurately. The picture here is not one of a king leading a bunch of victorious soldiers but rather a bunch of conquered prisoners.
You see, Jesus didn’t just save us; He conquered us. He doesn’t just come to rescue us but to rescue us by killing us. It wasn’t just the oppressive powers that stood in the way of our freedom. It was us. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said it like this, “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.”
Why is it important that we start there? Well, because if we don’t, start from that place, no matter how far we go, we’ll never end up at freedom.
If we start with the idea that Jesus came to be an add-on to an otherwise alright life, that He came to help us accomplish our goals, achieve our dreams, that He came to provide good counsel when have big decisions to make, that He came to provide emotional stability, that He came to make a few tweaks and changes to an otherwise functioning system, we’ll miss Him entirely.
Make no mistake about it. He came to kill us, and in so doing, to save us.
And, this means that when we come to Him we lay everything at His feet. Whoever we were before that encounter, we will not be after. There’s this great apocryphal story about St. Augustine…
It is no longer I: all opinions, all coping mechanism, all modes of operation, all dreams, ambitions, agendas, all ideas about the way things are or should be. Everything dies with Him.
And, this leads to the second question: “Where are we now?”
Your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
The question we have to ask ourselves is if this journey began not simply with Jesus as our savior but Jesus as our conqueror, what does that make Him now?
You see, if He’s just our Savior, then He shows up and saves us from whatever peril we were in, and now we get to enjoy the benefits of being saved.
But, if the way He saved us is by overthrowing us, conquering us, then, what does that make Him? Well, our Lord and King. We now belong to Him. Our stories are now swept up into His. As Paul says it here, our lives, our very identities are now hidden in Him. In Galatians, he says it even more forcefully:
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)
And, this, I think, is what the earliest Christians meant when they used the “body of Christ” language. This was not some cute metaphor or image but was rather for them, a literal reality. They saw, that the moment they bowed a knee to King Jesus and were filled by His Spirit, their stories ended, and they were caught up into His. They literally saw themselves as living the life of Jesus in their own bodies by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Now, I know that this is a terribly un-American thing to be saying on the 4th of July weekend, which I love, by the way. But, according to this passage, and the whole of the Bible, independence ought not be our goal. If we would truly live free, the only way is by burying ourselves deeply in Him. Being entirely dependent on Him to tell us who we are, what we should think, how we should act, what we should do? Now, I’m not saying that we become mindless; God obviously created and loves the human mind. But, a mind that has not been submitted to Christ and is, therefore, not being renewed by Christ can never achieve the Kingdom of God, can never be truly free.
You see, if He’s savior, then we thank Him and go about our business. But, if He’s Lord, then we do whatever He says.
So, we died, and our lives are now hidden with Christ in God. That just leaves the final point.
And, when Christ who is your life appears, you also will appear with Him in glory.
I’ll never forget the first time I drove down from my home in Montana to Southern California. We had been driving straight down I-15 for about a thousand miles. We were somewhere in the middle of nowhere at 1 in the morning. Pitch black, nothing for miles in every direction, and then suddenly the sky ahead started to brighten, it kept getting brighter and brighter until we came over a hill, and there sprawled across the desert floor were the lights of Las Vegas. Now, it’s not nearly as impressive to me anymore, but as a 14-year-old kid from Montana, it was a sight to behold.
See, I used to think about this verse only in terms of the Second Coming. When Jesus comes back, we will rise and be glorified with Him.
And, that is certainly present here, but remember the Kingdom of God is both already and not yet.
So, there is not only a sense of something sudden that will happen when Jesus returns but also of a process of becoming that is already well underway.
Back in the book of 2 Corinthians, chapter 3, Paul says:
And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18)
In other words, yes, Jesus is coming back to bring about the resurrection and restoration of all things, and when He does, we will rise into our full inheritance and the full realization of the Kingdom of God.
But in the meantime, we are not sitting back passively waiting for Him to show up. We are actively being transformed into His image with ever increasing glory. As He descends to be with us; we rise to meet Him.
If our future is glory, what does that say about our present? It says that it should be growing increasingly glorious, which doesn’t mean easier but rather more like Him.
So, if these are the three points our journey—where we started, where we are, and where we’re going—how do we use these points to make sure that we’re still on that path?
Am I humbly aware of my own heart and open to the possibility that I may be trying to revive things that Jesus has crucified?
Have I not only accepted Jesus as Savior but also bowed to Him as Lord? Am I willing to do whatever He asks of me? Am I listening?
Am I becoming more like Him? Is the Spirit producing the fruit of Jesus in my life?