Blowin’ in the Wind

Message Transcription

How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man? How many seas must a white dove sail before she sleeps in the sand? How many times must the cannonballs fly before they're forever banned? The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind. The answer is blowing in the wind. How many years must a mountain exist before it is washed to the sea? How many years can some people exist before they're allowed to be free? How many times can a man turn his head and pretend that he just doesn't see? The answer, my friend, is blowin in the wind. The answer is blowin in the wind. Perhaps you recognize these songs famous lyrics from Bob Dylan's hit blowin in the wind. It was written in 1962. It actually wasn't first recorded by Bob. It was recorded by a couple of other groups, one called the New World Singers, a little less known than Bob Dylan. And then this other trio, Peter, Paul and Mary, made it famous in 1963. In fact, that's when Dylan recorded his own version on his second album. It's an interesting conversation to kind of be in partnership with some of the articles written about this song and listening to Bob talk some about it, because he didn't like to attribute it to anything. Any particular, uh, answer to this question, how long? He would just say, well, the answer is somewhere blowin in the wind.

The song for the last 62 years has prompted and provoked many conversations. It's an anthem heard often at protest rallies. As these questions are being asked, there are questions that humanity has been wrestling with for a long time. Maybe. Perhaps all of time since the garden. What does it mean to be a human? What does it mean to have dignity and value? What does it look like to find ourselves in relationship to others, especially others who are different than us? The lyrics that Bob wrote are profound because they're simple. They keep inviting us to return back once again to this question that that we've been wrestling with, that everyone is wrestling with. How do we define ourselves in relation to other people? Who are we? What does it mean to be human? That's a question that Jesus often taught about throughout the Gospels. In fact, if you follow him around, maybe most notably in the sermon on the Mount, Jesus invites us to imagine a different way of living, a new way of life, of interacting with people, treating them not based on what we want, but on what's best for them. That's certainly the picture that Paul paints. Here is this young church in Colossae is wrestling with who are we? Who are we trying to be? A couple of things about Colossians. This was I did a series on Colossians when I first started here. Friends, that was 12 years ago.

I didn't look like this 12 years ago. Life has been hard as you can, as you can see with your own eyes. A couple of things were happening in Rome in Paul's day, right? And in the the world of the Colossians. Right. Rome was the hope of the world and Rome was in charge. If you can imagine in your own mind, from England to India, for about 1500 years, the Romans were in charge. It's an amazing accomplishment, especially when you think about they did it in relative harmony. Now I realize that's a loaded statement there, but but if you look back through the history of the Roman Empire, you'll see they didn't have civil wars much like we've had in our own country, and we've only been around a couple of hundred years. But Rome did a lot of things. They built roads. In fact, those roads connected people all over literally the known world. They introduced all kinds of laws. They they changed a lot of things. And so this ethos, this idea that that Rome was the hope of the world was a reality in Paul's day and certainly in the day of the Colossian church. But not only that, because of those roads and because of those laws, the world had begun to shrunk, shrink. It shrunk. Now there were ideas and thoughts and beliefs from all over the world, literally moving throughout the Empire that Rome was believed in a polytheistic type of religion, right? Lots of gods of all kinds of things.

In fact, when they would conquer another territory, their goal wasn't to to smash their religion, but rather to find a way to to work it into their system. Oh, yeah. You have those gods. Oh, yeah. They're they're part of these gods. Right. So they were very tolerant of other people's religions. And so we see in Paul's day and certainly since then, this idea of syncretism. Now, I know that may be kind of a $2 word there for you, but that simply means Jesus. Plus, in the day of the Romans, they would conquer your territory, and then they'd try to help you see how your God was just one of the many. So it was your god and these other gods. Well, that Christianity didn't escape from that. There was this idea. Well, Jesus, plus maybe these other gods to help in these situations. And you'll hear even in our text today that that Paul's going to take those two on. He talks about a lot of things in the in his letter to the church. But these two especially are important for us to keep in mind as we listen again to the words that Paul uses to address this young church. In fact, back up a couple of verses. If you have your Bible open up to Colossians one. We'll begin in verse three together.

He starts the letter this way we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all God's people, the faith and the love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven, and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel that has come to you. In the same way the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God's grace. You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, and who also told us of your love in the spirit. Paul starts with this beautiful thank you to God. We thank God for you and he thanks him for a couple of things. Number one, for their faith in Christ and their love of everyone. Right? Paul had never been to Colossae and Epaphras was the one who started the church there. But but he had been converted by Paul in Ephesus. And so Paul is hearing about this amazing church that's really living out their faith in public ways. He says, I'm so thankful. I thank God that your faith was public, but also of your amazing love for one another, and that faith and that love, he says.

It springs from somewhere. It comes from somewhere. It comes from hope. A hope that you encountered. That this world is not the only story that's happening, that there is another realm, another kingdom at work. In fact, it's breaking through into our world every day, a little bit more. And that hope, that hope has been powerful. You see, if you have your hope set on earth and on earthly things, then then what happens here is the definitive thing in your life. And so everything becomes oriented around that. In fact, how we see and how we treat other people is based on that. And if it's just about what happens here, then, then the only thing that you matter to me is what you can do for me now, how can you help my existence now? How can you help me today in this moment? But that's not the way of the Colossians. Paul says, that's not how you've been living. Your hope is stored up in heaven. The gospel is transformed their lives, he says, and it's been transforming all over the world. It's spreading across the city, just like it spread across the known world. For this reason, verse nine, he says, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. In fact, we continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the spirit can give, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord, and please him in every way, bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might, so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.

For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness, and brought us into the kingdom of the son that he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. I, Paul, tells this young church, we have not stopped praying for you, that you'd be filled because they're not fully filled, are they? He says that we're praying over and over. We've not stopped praying that you would be filled so that you could live a life worthy of the gospel, that you could live a life worthy of the Lord and please, God. Well, what does that look like, Paul? He says, it's a it's a life that's marked by bearing fruit, by growing in knowledge, by enduring by patience, by joy, by gratefulness. He says these things are fruit of the spirit. In fact, to the church in Galatia, he'll say, those are evidence. That's the fruit of God's Spirit at work in your life. And again, this is all an outward expression of this inward reality, this new life brought by the Holy Spirit.

It says they get to know who God is, and that starts to change how they live. You see church. That's why it's so important that we gather together every week. We spend time together every week in the word because we're learning more about who God is, about what he thinks and what he hopes. And he dreams for us, how he created us and how he longs for us to be in relationship with him and with one another. And he does this by His Holy Spirit, that God continues to fill us so that we could live a life worthy of the Lord, that we could live in a way that pleases God. And so I want to remind us, when you see a life that's been transformed here, it's not because of we've pulled ourselves up by our own bootstraps. It's not because we're smarter than anybody, or we're more wealthy, or we have better insights. It's because the Holy Spirit has been filling us up with the life of God, has been shaping and forming us through experiences and relationships and getting into the word by wrestling with really hard questions and not settling for simple answers. But instead he's been shaping and forming us into the people God called us and created us to be. Which is why it's so important that we understand who Jesus is. And I think that's why Paul says, let me tell you about who this Jesus is.

He says, the Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. That's a loaded statement right there. We could just spend the rest of the time this morning just reflecting on that, Paul says, if you want to know what God is like, if you want to know what breaks his heart, if you want to know what stirs his love for you, what? What makes him angry, what gets him excited, he says, look and listen to Jesus. That's why we spend time in the Gospels because they give us this picture, this portrait, four different portraits of what Jesus was like when he was here, the kinds of things that he said that we want to understand who God is. Paul says, no problem. Take a look at Jesus. And as we follow Jesus around, we see a number of things of what God is like. But but just a couple, a couple that come to mind. Number one, he's merciful. We read the story in John chapter eight of The Woman Caught in Adultery. Now, again, that's a loaded story. We got a lot to unpack there, but as the story unfolds, what we encounter is this woman facing a situation. There should have been a man there, too, but they were both facing this situation of book, chapter verse. We know what to do with this woman.

And Jesus shows mercy and he shows grace. Or maybe you remember the story over in Luke chapter 19 with Zacchaeus, the tax collector, right, who's clearly not been living in the way that he should have been. Right? So much so that when Jesus speaks to him and goes to his house, and one of the first things Zacchaeus says is, if I've if I've stolen anything from you, I'll pay you back four times. Now, why would he have to say that? Because he had stolen things, right? He had taken money that wasn't his. And he says, I'll give it back to you. I'm sorry. And again, Jesus response to that is, yeah, that's not the only thing you're getting, pal. He says, salvation has come to this home, right? God is merciful and gracious. And if we don't understand it, we can't quite see it. Then Paul says, would you look at Jesus, follow him around, watch how he interacts with people, especially those who who the world and the religious world would consider. Far from him, he says. Watch how he interacts with them. Watch how he talks with them. That's how God is. And not only that, he's powerful. That we see in Jesus in Luke chapter eight, he calms the storm. In Luke 17, he heals ten lepers. In Luke seven, he raises the widow's son. In Mark chapter five, he restores a man. He casts out a legion of demons.

That in and through Jesus we see who God really is. Paul says he's the image. The picture. If you want to know what God looks like, look at Jesus. If you want to know what God thinks about you and you go, yeah, but, Carl, I got a lot of junk in my life. I've got a lot of stuff in my past that I'm not proud of. Things that I wish were were cleaned up and made right, right. He says. Well, look at how Jesus interacted with people like that. I mean, Jesus spent so much time around those people that one of the names that was given to him was Friend of Sinners. And he wore it as an honor. He says he's the image of the invisible God, the firstborn above all creation. That's not just birth order like he was the first one. It's sovereignty. It's he's in charge of. He is over all. For in him all things were created. Things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities. All things have been created through him and for him. Let's think about that for a minute. All things. On earth. Visible, right? If you can see it, hear it, taste it, touch it, smell it. Jesus had a hand in creating that by him and for him and to him and through him. Now we know anything in the world and God's created order.

It can be good and used to reflect the image of Christ and it can be perverted, right? Jesus created it. Not only did he create visible, but the invisible, the rulers and the authorities and the powers. Like this. This also means God designed his world. He created what's visible, but he also created it to actually operate. These invisible things. But but yet the world works in a particular way. You may have heard of this force at some point in your life, when you were climbing up, or trying to jump or trying to run this, this force called gravity, right? It you can't see it. It's this invisible power, this reality. God created that. How we take a breath? How a plant grows? Jesus designed the world to function in the way that it does. These are invisible laws about the realities of the universe. Paul says he's before all things. In him all things hold together. And he's the head of the body, the church. He's the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead. So that in everything he might have supremacy. All right. Remember, in the world of the Colossian church, Rome was the hope of the world. Rome had supremacy as far as the eye could see. Rome was in charge. Their rules were what life was built on. Paul says now. Don't be deceived, friends. There's a reality that's more real than the world you can see around you.

And it was created by and through and for. And two Jesus. And it's continuing to break into this world that we can see. He says he's supreme over all creation. He is the supreme one. He's supreme over creation because he was over creation. But he's also supreme of new creation, right? The firstborn from among the dead. Meaning that what happened in Jesus sets into perspective everything else. You and I included that not only did he create, he also recreates. And in that recreation, we find new life. Paul uses that word reconciled, for God was pleased to have all of his fullness dwell in him. We're getting ready to launch our second kiddo into the world, right? Haley's going to be launched into Nashville, Tennessee. Be where you have been warned. Lipscomb. Haley's coming, and we got several same thing. And it's fun to get to talk to people. Hey, how's Gabe doing? How's Haley doing? How are you feeling about it? I take great joy in watching Gabe discover and use his gifts and begin to step into the life that is his life, right? This. I'm pleased that whatever it was in me that could have been passed on to him has been passed on the good. Paul says God was pleased that all of his fullness would dwell in him in Jesus. You see, once he says you were alienated, you were outside looking in.

You were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now God has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation. If you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. And this is the gospel that you heard that's been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant. Paul says, you were once on the outside looking in, but God reconciled you, the one by and through, and to, and for whom was created all things. The first one to be raised from the dead, Who has sovereignty over the invisible and the visible? He has brought you into the family. Paul says, I'm so thankful. I'm so thankful that you've heard that story, that gospel truth. And not only did you just listen to it, it's now become a part of how you live. I see it in the faith that's evidenced in in how you live. I see it in the relationships, in the way that you love one another. And so we return to those questions that Bob asked us. How many years can some people exist before they're allowed to be free? How many ears must one man have before he can hear people cry? How many deaths will it take until he knows that too many people have died? Dillon's answer is it's blowin in the wind.

Now, what we know is, is Bob was more right than he knew. This blowin in the wind of the Holy Spirit. The pneuma, the breath of God. That by whom and through whom and to whom and for whom all things were created, things visible and invisible. How long? He asked. That's the question that eternity has been asked that creation has been asking. Paul says to the church in Rome, how long until things are made right? See, one of the amazing things about being God's people is, is we can say, well, how about today? How about right now? How about I choose to live the way of Jesus in this moment? Friends, you're going to chase face some moments this week where that question is going to be asked. How long? How much longer? Right now, again, you don't have to look very far. For instance, see, on the horizon there's this political conversation that's trying to answer that question. Well, just wait till November 6th, then. But you and I both know no matter what happens on November 6th, when November 7th comes, that question's coming back. How long? Well, we have the courage to say the answer is blowin in the wind. It's blown in this wind that changed my life. And it taught me to. To rethink my story. That what's real and what's most true about me is, is not how much money I make.

It's not what job I have or what neighborhood I live in, or the kind of car that I drive or the clothes that I wear. It's in how I treat other people. It's in how I ask questions like, how can I put others needs ahead of my own? It's in recognizing that the kingdom is breaking through every day. Will we be a part of what's going on? How long? Father, I pray that you would help us to become an answer to this question this week. That Bob Dylan and so many others have been asking for centuries, millennia, even. How long? How many? Yeah. We see the the beautiful picture of the kingdom that Jesus brought and and ushered into our world. And we long for it to be that way on earth as it is in heaven. I gather there are many who who believe that the answer to this blowing in the wind is by just garnering enough political power that we can force people to do things the way we want them to do it. Yeah, that's never been the way. Would you help us to wake up to that reality again? It's not about power and money. It's about love and compassion and mercy and justice. You got to pray that you would help us to hear that answer blowin in the wind and realize that's the Holy Spirit, that power that created all things visible and invisible that you said.

Now it's at work recreating life in us. Yeah, but you recreate us again this week. Help us to see and hear what? The eyes and the ears of Jesus. Help us to respond to others, especially those with whom we disagree with the kind of compassion and love and tenderness that Jesus showed. Would you help us to encounter those who have lost their way, who are far from you, who have made mistakes and feel the unbearable weight of them every single day? God, would you help us? To be grace filled messengers. God, for those who are on the outside looking in. God, would you remind us we once were there. And so our response to that is just incredible love. Radical love? Yeah. May we live in in a different way in light of this truth that once we two were on the outside looking in. But Jesus, through his physical death on the cross, brought us to new life. As the firstborn over all creation, as the firstborn over new creation, we serve the one who can do anything. Who has the power to heal, to restore, to renew. God, we know one day that that means all things will be made new. And we're trusting and we're hoping and we're believing in that day. But between that day and this God, would you help us as your people to live into that beautiful, beautiful picture? Oh God. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.