St. Luke’s Evangelical Lutheran Church – Watertown, WI
Pastor Mark Gartner
Sermon for Pentecost 10 – August 9^th and 12^th, 2001

Dear children of God set free from our sin to live for our Savior,

Why are you here today? Why have you taken the time out your busy schedule to come to church? Why have you given up valuable relaxation time to come and worship today? Why do you give a regular and proportionate amount of your income to the church? Why do you volunteer your precious time to be on the Boards and Committees? Why do you teach Sunday School or attend the other various activities here at St. Luke’s? In short we might ask ourselves, "Why don't we live as the world lives?" What makes us different than many of the other people that live on this earth? We could continue all day with questions like we just asked.

By these questions I am trying to point something out for all of us here today. Can you figure out what point I am trying to bring across? Are we trying to point out that Christians (especially those here at St. Luke’s) are much better people than the unbelievers of this world? Certainly not! What we want to see today is the fact that we as Christians are different. We act different. We think different. We talk different. Our hearts are different. We are all together different than the unbelieving world around us. The reason there is a difference is because the fullness of Christ lives in us and we are led to live in Christ. With the thought of living in Christ in our minds let us meditate on that theme.

Continue to live in Christ. That is the essence of our lives as Christians. We are alive. We are living. Paul makes this point very clear in our text. He tells us why we live in Christ. Paul was writing to the people at Colosse. The Colossians were having trouble with false teachers coming and trying to lead them away from the true gospel message. The false teachers were telling the Colossians that they had a "more complete" gospel to offer them. They preached that both faith and works were needed to be They taught that the work which Christ did on cross of Calvary was not quite enough to save people and a person needed to do works of his own to make himself full or complete in God’s eyes. Paul wastes no time in refuting this false claim of these false teachers. In v.9 he tells us why we live in Christ., "For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ."

We have been given true fullness in Christ. This erases all the ideas of the false teachers who said they knew where to find true "fullness" in different places than in Christ. Christ was more than the average human being. Christ was more than a very good and moral person whose example we should follow. Christ was true God in whom all the Deity of God dwelled, "For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form." He was both man and God at the same time. This is a mystery, which we can never explain, in human terms. This is a mystery which we take hold of through faith which is worked in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. This was the perfect Savior who was able to keep all God’s laws perfectly and also die for the sins of all people.

By these words Paul sets the whole tone for why we live in Christ. By letting us know that Christ was true God and that all he did was perfect and right as God alone can do. We can now see where our life comes from. We can now see why we live in Christ. We may live in this world, but we are not a part of this world. We live in Christ. Paul uses a picture to describe just what he means by telling us that we are alive in Christ. Alive as we all know is the opposite of being dead. Either you are dead or you are alive. It is the same for all people in a spiritual way. Either you are dead spiritually or you are alive spiritually. At birth all people are dead in their sins. Paul tells us this very thing in v.13 when he writes to the Colossians and to us, "When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature."

This shoots down any of the false teachings, which say that people are basically good and that we have enough good in us to choose our Savior. Wrong! We were dead. When you are dead you can do nothing at all. When we were dead in our sins, we did not know of our Savior and his plan of salvation. In fact when we were dead in our sins, we lived contrary to anything God taught. We could have cared less about what God said or wanted us to do. And no one not one single person can say that this didn't apply to them. We were all born in sin, and were dead in our sins. This is the truth that God wants all people to know. When we were dead in our sins, we were destined to die eternally in hell.

Not too long ago one of the top news stories was the tragic story of the young boy who was attacked by an 8-foot bull shark off the coast of Florida. He almost lost his arm and his life. He was literally in the jaws of death, but his life was saved by his uncle who wrestled the shark to shore where they were able to pry his mouth open and save the boy. That boy went from an almost certain death to a chance to live again. In the same way death and sin had a strangle hold on our hearts. We were most certainly going to die eternally, but God wrestled the devil on the cross and saved our souls from sin and its destruction. Jesus gave us life. He changed us from a life of being dead in our sins to a life of being alive in Christ. It wasn't anything we did. Paul writes clear words, which tell us, "In him (Christ) you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature....with a circumcision done by Christ." Paul also tells us, "God made you alive with Christ." God rescued us from the depths of our sin. He rescued us and made us alive by the gift of his Son.

Paul tells us that when Christ died and was raised from the dead, we also died and were raised to life in Christ. This might sound odd. We died. This doesn't sound like a vote of confidence, but it is these words that give us our hope and assurance. We died with Christ means that our sins have been put on the cross with Christ. Paul tells us, "having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through faith in the power of God who raised him from the dead." We were made alive through our baptism as Paul tells us. Through baptism God gave us a new life. He worked faith in our hearts through the Holy Spirit working through the means of grace. Baptism is our life. Baptism is with us every day of our lives. Baptism continues to give us strength until the day that we die. What a blessing God has given us in the Word and Sacraments. He has led us to faith and has strengthened that faith through the same Means. Why are we alive and living for Christ? It is because of the gift of faith, which God has given to us. It is the new life that we have as the message of the Jesus’ work comes to us through the Word and the Sacraments.

Jesus is the only reason that we are alive. But we don’t just want to sit back and admire all that Jesus has done to make us alive. Paul writes to the Colossians to tell them how to continue to live in Christ. The first thing that we want to remember and notice from the words of Paul is that Paul not once mentions what we have to do to live in Christ. Paul doesn't want any misunderstanding to arise from his words that in some way we are to help God out or that our salvation rests on something we have to add to Christ's salvation. From the first words we can see that it all rest in Christ. The only way that we can remain firm against the ways of the devil and his evil people is to first of all be rooted in Christ, "continue to live in him, ⁷rooted and built up in him." Paul is using the picture of a tree to show where our strength as Christians comes from. A tree is only as strong and sturdy as its roots are. If the roots are dead so is the tree. It is the same way with a Christian. \

The main thing that we can do to live for Jesus is to make him first in our lives. Job one is to dig deeper and deeper into God’s love as it is given to us in the Bible. A Christians' faith will die fast, if it is rooted in the ways of the world, or if the roots are not firmly grounded in Christ and his Word. What nourishment does the world offer us? None! What nourishment do we get, if we look to God's Word once in while or not at all? Not much! What nourishment can we find from neglecting the Sacraments that God has given us for our strength? Not much! Paul was warning the Colossians to be on their guard for those who teach false and deceptive teachings. He warns them that there are going to be many who want to lead us away, but there is only one who is our true root and that is Christ. Take the time to open the bible and see all the joy that God has revealed to us. Take the time to grow daily as the Holy Spirit opens our hearts and minds through the studying of his Word. God will not disappoint us. He has promised us that if we are firmly rooted in him and His Word, we can accomplish everything.

Upon Christ and the life he has given us we continue to grow and be built up. We never stop building upward. We never want to settle for anything but the best. To put this in spiritual terms, we never want to say that we already know enough about God. We never want to think that our faith is strong enough and we can take a break from growing through the Word. We never want to stop living for Christ and in Christ. We never want to underestimate the power of the Devil and our Sinful Nature. The day this happens is the day that Satan gets his foot in the door.

All this leads us to the natural response that follows from realizing all that God has given us in his Son, Jesus Christ. He has rescued us from death and given us life. He has given us his Word and strengthens us through that Word and the Sacraments. He has conquered Satan and his forces. All this leads us to be overflowing with thanks. We can thank him with our words as we thank him at the dinner table. We can thank him at night for guiding me through another day against Satan. We can thank God as we sit at work and realize the great joy we have of knowing we are alive in Christ. We can thank God as we come to church and join our fellow Christians in worshipping our saving God. The list is endless. As you leave this building today remember what Jesus has done to bring us the eternal life won for us on the cross of Calvary. With this in our hearts we can continue to live in Christ as Paul has encouraged us today through the powerful words of God’s gospel. Amen.