I Don’t Understand the “K” and the “W!”

Text: Colossians 1:9-14

Focus: Being Like Christ

Function: To help people HUMBLY be obedient to God

Form: expository

Intro:

Title: “I don't understand the K and the W!”

• I asked a youth once: “what part of the word no don't you understand?”

• He replied: “The K and the W!”

• Of course you understand that he was talking about know is in knowledge.

• And it is a good question, why is there a silent k and a silent w?

• But, he was upset when I told him that I could explain the silent k and w.

• You see, the Greek word of knowledge is gnosis. And, it starts with the letter g, but the g is also silent, so the English transliteration kept the silent letter there as well.

• Having thought I “got him” in his answer, he then asked me: “what is the g silent in the Greek?

• And, I had no answer.

• And he said: “stop showing off!”

• Now this was a sort of play on words where he and I were trying to know, where the word: “know” comes from.

• It was a play to show off what we knew.

Now this text recounts a prayer that the Apostle has for this young church. He says, verse 9, that they were praying that these believers be filled with wisdom and knowledge of Christ, and he goes on to explain four benefits of that wisdom and knowledge that will help us live lives that reflect Jesus to a world that is dying.

How many know that knowledge, without wisdom is meaningless? If we know something, especially spiritual truth and it doesn't add to Christlike living, then we have failed to apply wisdom to what we know.

For example, showing off, to that youth, wasn't really wise was it? Because: the truth didn't help or change the problem. We were still conflicted with the original reason I had to say “no!”

But there is more. Knowledge, and the unwise abuse of it was a real problem in the Church at Collosse.

We are studying Colossians for the next 4 weeks. Brother Paul felt compelled to write the letter because a certain heresy had sprung up in the church there.

And the name of the cult, took its name from the Greek word “gnosis.” The cult, heresy, was a group of people who called themselves the Gnostics.

They believed that the more Bible knowledge you had, then you would be more saved.

Now, we teach that studying God's Word will be a great blessing to us. David said: I have hidden your Word in my heart, so that I don't offend you, Oh God. (Psalm 119:11)

Now, being “more saved” is the problem. My friend and I decided to skip school one day. His father came home unexpectedly and figured out we were at his house. We were hiding in the closet and he walked right to the closet, opened the door and pointed his finger at us: “What are you doing here?”

My friend said that we “kinda' skipped” school that day.

His dad, with the veins popping out of his neck said: “There is no kinda skipping, you are either there or you aren't”

And then the hammer of discipline fell on us.

You see, you can't be “more saved.” You can't be “less saved.” Salvation is a covenant that God makes with us when we trust Him. After that point, it isn't up to us anymore. Salvation, and living like Jesus wants us to live, is HIS job, worked in us, through HIS Spirit, the Holy Spirit.

Now, to be fair, there was a little bit more, or maybe even a major problem with this cult. When they talked about knowledge they were saying that we can only know Jesus by study. They denied that we know Jesus primarily by His Holy Spirit living inside of us. “You ask me how I know He lives? He lives within my heart.” And the reason they denied it was because they believed that it was impossible for Jesus to actually be God/Man in the same body. They considered Jesus to be just a well made angel, completely a Spiritual being, not human at all. They believed this because they saw how sinful humanity is, and for God's seed to have mixed chromosomes with Mary's egg would have meant that Jesus was born with a corrupt, sinful nature.

This particular group then, made Christianity into a whole different set of rules that we looked at when we studied Galatians. They believed that anything that was fleshly was evil. They believed that sex between a man and wife was a sin. They were a group of Christians who defined themselves by all the things they didn't do.

They were really a mixture of Christianity and Hinduism. The Hindu priest would go on an hundred day fast, and if he survived, he was supposed to be able to open up the spiritual world and see visions and give prophecies for the rest of his life.

So, for the gnostic Christian, the faith wasn't faith at all, it was again that old problem of human effort. The sin of making ourselves worthy of being called Jesus' disciples.

The more detached they became from earthly pleasures, the more spiritual they thought they would become.

Now, the person who has pleasure, money, food, sex, alcohol, power or prestige as their god isn't going to be a spiritual person.

But God gave us all those things for our blessing and enjoyment.

So, they were pretty sure they were on the right track because they would never be caught sinning again if they never did anything.

They lived Christian lives without any real risk.

You see, and he says this later, their rules had a kind of appearance of looking spiritual, but they really detracted people from living by faith in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Paul is a great teacher, he starts our where they are, and then gently shows them how they got sidetracked. Later on, his correction won't be as gentle, but he starts this teaching where they are.

He wants them to mix wisdom with their so called knowledge.

He teaches them that when we live Spirit controlled lives, this mixture of wisdom and knowledge will surface in our character and it will give us 4 benefits: 1). the ability and desire to continue the work of Jesus by doing good works. 2). The ability to keep on learning as they grow in Christ. 3). The ability to keep hopeful during trials and 4). the ability to worship God in all things.

1: The ability to do good works:

Verse 10: ¹⁰so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God.

Ephesians 2:10 tells us that God saved us, not as a fire escape from hell, but He saved us to do good works.

He wants us to please Him. He wants people to see Jesus reflected in the way we love others, they way we forgive others, they way we encourage others, the way we spend our money and our free time. There is no way we can make ourselves worthy of God's love. But, I love my daddy. I believe that in heaven, he can see me know. I want to “keep faith” with him. I want him to be proud of me.

We take this as a sacred privilege to be Christ's ambassadors to a sick and hurting world.

So Paul contradicts the Colossians' form of holiness. Their holiness was based on the sins or pleasures that they didn't do. None of that pleases Christ. He wants them to bear fruit with good deeds.

Being Holy doesn't start by obeying a list of don'ts, it is defined by doing good.

So, you can tell is you are truly spiritual by the good things you do, not the things you don't do.

1. Keep on learning. Again, verse 10, growing in wisdom and knowledge as we are doing good works.

When we are found being faithful to do the good works, we experience this kind of partnership with God. And then, the Holy Spirit begins helping us to see and do more and more.

For 3 years now, I have watched Dan Trego conduct bible study on Wednesday nights at the day care center in Tijuana. The first year we were there, although he was a believer, he had never been baptized and that year, he was baptized in the Pacific ocean.

This couple is faithfully doing the work of God, the good works Jesus did while on earth. They don't tithe. They give 100% of all they have to serve Jesus. Of all the money they make, they use as little as possible of it to live on and the rest goes to the ministry.

And you should see how he has grown in his bible knowledge and teaching ability. He has no formal theological education, but the wisdom and ability to teach about Jesus from the scriptures just keeps on growing every single year.

Because he serves by doing good, he is growing in wisdom and knowledge. And that is what this text says.

I had a pastor once who wasn't “feeding me” in the word. It was funny, because when we first attended that church, he was a great preacher.

What happened was one Sunday night, while I was assisting the husband of a woman who was giving us a gospel concert as a guest, the husband went up to the stage to sing a song with his wife and I was there to take over if he got called down there.

Right after I sat there, in the “drivers seat” of the soundboard the senior pastor was in my face, yelling at me because thy husband of that woman had the volume up too loud.

I took offense with the pastor and then his preaching got bad. I was pretty sure that God was judging him for his pride. Then, one day, while not at church where I should have been, God convicted me of my unforgiveness toward him. God showed me that pastors are human also, and if I expected perfection out of him, then I wasn't looking at Jesus.

In my living room, I got off the couch and on my knees and asked God to forgive me, and I forgave him. To this day, that pastor has no idea that this happened. And about the forgiveness thing, the pastor has no idea what happened. The “forgive 7 times 70 in one day” principle was far from being used up.

But you know what? All of a sudden his preaching got good again, and I was “getting fed” again.

You see what I am saying? When we walk in obedience, in this case, I had to forgive the pastor, God feeds us His word. That pastor didn't change preaching during that time. I changed. God changed me.

A lot of Christians leave churches because they are no longer “getting fed.” In 24 years, I have a pretty good track record, only 3 families have left my ministry “because they weren't getting fed.” Or only 3 that I know of. Generally, the reason gets back to me so it may be pretty close.

I see it happen, though. They get busy in their lives, too many things to do, so serving others gets lower and lower on their list. They buy a cottage, they take on a second job, it becomes convenient for them to go somewhere where all the work is done for them by the pastoral staff and for a while they grow, but then the same thing happens, they get dissatisfied and start attending somewhere else.

Listen, when we are faithful and obedient to love others they way Jesus loved them. When we do it physically, then God sends His refreshing Spirit into us and then we increase in wisdom and knowledge.

The Colossians had it backward, they thought the more they knew and the less pleasure they allowed themselves, the more spiritual they would become.

Too many Christians, especially Christians in our culture, keep waiting to obey God and serve until they get just a little more knowledge, skill, or free time. They expect the Church to provide that growth for them. But there comes a time when they just have to do it.

Your spiritual growth is not based on the quality of the ministry at your church, it is based on your obedience to God expressed in the way you serve others.

I can't grow this church. Only you can. I can't bring the anointing of the Holy Spirit here, only you can. And, it happens by our obedience to give our time, talent and treasure to the work that Jesus has called us to do.

God doesn't want us merely baptizing people and calling them “safe from hell.” No, He said: baptize, teach and make disciples. A disciple is one who reflects his teacher, in that case, it is Jesus.

3). Strength to endure. Verse: ¹¹May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience...

Endure everything with patience. What do we have to endure? (ASK) Our reaction can and should be, in the midst of trials, a certain hope that Jesus is with us.

That is living by faith. It isn't easy. I have faith for ministry, that God is going to take care of problems in the ministry. I believe that God is going to change hearts and draw people to Jesus, just like He is doing with us. I don't worry too much about the trials here, I don't worry about being liked, I only concern myself with doing the right thing and being faithful. God will always provide.

On the other hand, Kathy has faith for our family. This woman is a true prayer warrior. I am praying that God would destroy strongholds of satanic powers that keep nations, cities, states and people in bondage. Kathy prays that God would set free the family, the church people. If you have a pressing need and want prayer, seek her out as well. That woman has a direct line to God.

All of this comes by the Holy Spirit.

And finally 4). The Holy Spirit gives us worship.

It directly ties in to the last point about strength for trials. Don Wollery said: “why should I be afraid of dying, I am ready, I got Jesus in my heart.”

I love the way Peterson points out the benefit of salvation also for the here and now.

Look at the last verses from The Message: It is (the) strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that he has for us. ^13-14God rescued us from dead-end alleys and dark dungeons. He's set us up in the kingdom of the Son he loves so much, the Son who got us out of the pit we were in, got rid of the sins we were doomed to keep repeating.

When he thinks about what God has done and is still doing in us, the body of Christ, the church, he breaks out in praise and worship.

We know we are saved. We know that the covenant for our salvation is based on God's ability to keep it, not ours.

But the Apostle also wants us to rejoice in the freedom God gives us from self-destruction. Rescued from dead-end alleys and dungeons.

This service of others inspired Christian living is true holiness.