And so, we come to the end of our time exploring this short excerpt from Paul\u2019s letter to the Christians living in Colossae. Well, I say the end, it\u2019s the end of the sermon series, but I hope that it\u2019s not the end, but a step in the journey of us being a people who are chosen, forgiving, loving, peaceful, and grateful. If you\u2019ve missed any of these, then do go back and have a look on YT or FB or listen to them on the podcast. Last week Peter focussed our minds and hearts on being a grateful people, and so this week I\u2019m going to concentrate on the first line of that final verse.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n
I wonder what your week has looked like. I wonder what you have done and said this week.<\/p>\n
Looking back at my week I\u2019ve had a number of meetings \u2013 some church business meetings, some 1 on 1 pastoral conversations. I prepared this sermon, and another one for this evening. I took a funeral. They might look like things that it\u2019s obvious that they are things done \u201cin the name of the Lord Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n
I did some other things as well. I watched some TV. I read a book or two. I cooked meals. I put some curtain rails up. Just the normal stuff of life. I wonder if I did them \u201cin the name of the Lord Jesus\u201d.<\/p>\n
What about you. What did you do this week?<\/p>\n
Paul sets the bar pretty high, doesn\u2019t he. He doesn\u2019t say, \u201cSome of the things you do.\u201d or \u201cThe things you do in church.\u201d or \u201cThe things you do on a Sunday.\u201d He says, \u201cWhatever you do.\u201d And not just what you do, but also what you say. All the words that come out of our mouths.<\/p>\n
All of it \u2013 \u201cin the name of the Lord Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, it seems to me that it\u2019s pretty important for us to know what it means to do something \u201cin the name of the Lord Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first clue is that it is not just \u201cin the name of Jesus\u201d but \u201cin the name of the Lord Jesus.\u201d Think about it for a minute \u2013 if Jesus is the Lord, then we are the servants. So when a servant does something in the name of their master, then they are doing it on their behalf, they represent their master in that situation. There might be a sense of it being done with the authority of the Lord. I\u2019m just picturing some guardsmen pounding on the door of some miscreant, shouting, \u201cOpen up in the name of the King.\u201d<\/p>\n
So when someone does something in someone else\u2019s name they represent them, so we represent Jesus in all that we do and say. The question is, do we represent him well?<\/p>\n
There\u2019s another shade of meaning to this that helps us to answer this question. If we see a portrait of someone, we might ask if it is a good representation of the person, meaning is it a good likeness, does it look like them?<\/p>\n
In Jesus we have been adopted as God\u2019s children, we are part of God\u2019s family, we carry the family name. When we do things in that name, we represent the family. We are the portrait of God, of Jesus, that the world sees. Are we a good likeness, do we look like Jesus?<\/p>\n
We will if we truly do things, say things, in his name, as his faithful representatives, with his love, his peace, his forgiveness, with gratitude in our hearts. Are any of these sounding familiar?
\nThis instruction is at the end of this passage because Paul is summarising all that he has said so far \u2013 live as I have just been encouraging you to, and you will act and speak in the name of the Lord Jesus because you will represent him well and you will bear his likeness. You will be Jesus people.<\/p>\n
In our reading from Matthew\u2019s eye witness account of Jesus\u2019 life on earth, we heard Jesus teaching about this same thing. He used the image of good trees that bear good fruit and bad trees that bear bad fruit. It\u2019s common sense isn\u2019t it \u2013 do grapes grow on thorn bushes? Do figs grow on thistles? No \u2013 you can tell what\u2019s going on in someone\u2019s heart by the evidence of what they do and say.<\/p>\n
In Paul\u2019s letter to the church in Galatia he describes this fruit, the fruit of the Spirit, as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Again a lot of overlap with what we\u2019ve been looking at over the last few weeks. This is the fruit that is seen in the lives of those who truly act and speak in Jesus\u2019 name, as Jesus people. <\/p>\n
So, actually, it\u2019s not just about what we do, it\u2019s about how we do it. Let\u2019s think back to my little list of activities from the past week.<\/p>\n
It would be quite possible for me to do all the \u201cChristian\u201d \u201cchurchy\u201d ones in a way which didn\u2019t demonstrate the family likeness, that didn\u2019t represent Jesus well, that weren\u2019t done in Jesus\u2019 name. If I\u2019d approached them with bitterness, been mean to people while I was doing them, hadn\u2019t listened to the people I\u2019d met, if I hadn\u2019t shown any kindness or love, then I wouldn\u2019t have been doing them in Jesus\u2019 name, however worthy they might look written in my diary.<\/p>\n
And all those ordinary things of life? Those things that might not look so Christian. They can all be done in Jesus\u2019 name, if they are done with generosity, care, encouragement, hope, love, joy, and faith.<\/p>\n
Now, back to our reading from Matthew, there is warning here. Another aspect to doing things \u201cin the Lord Jesus\u2019 name.\u201d<\/p>\n
I read a novel recently, a \u201cMaster and Commander\u201d type naval battle type stories. One of the story lines was based around a member of the aristocracy trying to manufacture a conflict with England, on \u201cbehalf\u201d of their King, but without that King\u2019s knowledge, and actually going against what their King had said they wanted to happen. The aristocrat thought he knew better than the King what should be done, and that the King would get in line once the war had begun. The English hero uncovered the plot, delivered the evidence to the King, who was furious and the aristocrat came to a short and unpleasant end.<\/p>\n
Jesus says that it is not just what we say with our lips, \u201cLord, Lord\u201d, or do \u2013 even if that is miracles and driving out demons, that show whether we are his \u2013 but whether or not we do the will of Father God.<\/p>\n
This is the third aspect of saying and doing in the Lord Jesus\u2019 name. We are only true servants if we are being obedient to our Lord \u2013 doing his will and not our own.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n
Or, do expand a bit:<\/p>\n
Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in obedience to God\u2019s will, as a representative of Jesus, who shows the good fruit of the family likeness.<\/p>\n
Now, I don\u2019t want us to get all tied up in knots here, unable to move for fear that something might not be in God\u2019s will.<\/p>\n
There are some things that is fairly clear are ruled out. Murder, adultery, theft, gossip, envy. None of those are God\u2019s will. Some things are definitely God\u2019s will, for instance the two heart commandants to love God and to love each other. Sometimes God will call us to specific tasks at specific times, or steer us away from things. Quite a lot of the time I believe that God says, \u201cYou choose \u2013 I gave you free will for a reason \u2013 it is my will that you use it.\u201d As long as we do this within the restrictions set for us, in line with those commands to love, and with a heart that wants to bear good fruit, it seems to me that we will be living as Jesus people.<\/p>\n
If we don\u2019t really know how what we do can be done in Jesus\u2019 name, then we can ask him. We can say, \u201cLord will you send your Holy Spirit to show me how these things can be done in a way which brings honour to your name, which shows our family likeness? Will you give me opportunities to do this?\u201d<\/p>\n
There is a prayer written by Thomas Merton that I find very helpful, and I\u2019m going to finish with it. As I do, I encourage you to hold your week, either the one past, or the one to come in your mind\u2019s eye, and pray this over it.<\/p>\n
My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following Your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please You does in fact please You. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.<\/p>\n
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that, if I do this, You will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust You always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for You are ever with me, and You will never leave me to face my perils alone. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
And so, we come to the end of our time exploring this short excerpt from Paul\u2019s letter to the Christians living in Colossae. Well, I say the end, it\u2019s the end of the sermon series, but I hope that it\u2019s not the end, but a step in the journey of us being a people who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[431],"tags":[1419,1423],"class_list":["post-1198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wellington","tag-colossians-312-17","tag-matthew-715-23"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1198"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1199,"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1198\/revisions\/1199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}