Colossians 1:1-14

            {Prayer}

            Bob Newhart on the Bob Newhart show plays a psychiatrist. In one episode, a client arrives at his office and he explains his billing. “I charge five dollars for the first five minutes. Any time after that is free. Is that acceptable?” The woman can’t believe it. She says, “Of course. That’s wonderful. But really? Five dollars, total?” Newhart says, “Oh, I can guarantee our session won’t last more than five minutes. That’s why I only charge five dollars. Go!” She says, “What do you mean?”

            {Video clip}

            This whole conversation is funny, but ridiculous. But what makes it so ridiculous? It’s built on the absorbed idea that we can conquer a character flaw or fear with just two words. “Stop it!” If it was only that easy.

            So how does real and lasting change happen? Well this is where we turn to Paul’s letter to the Colossians. His answer is also only two words. But the thing is, these two words have power. These two words have real power to change us. These two words Paul says are “The Gospel.” Back in Paul’s day, back in the first century, “the Gospel” meant “news of victory.” Often used in politics and warfare, when someone said ho euangellion, which is Greek for “the Gospel,” they were announcing news of a great and awesome victory.

            Paul is writing to the Colossians while he is a prisoner in Rome. His friend, Epaphras, who started the church in Colossae, told Paul about the false teachers in the church. False teachers say, “The Gospel doesn’t change you. You need more.” Paul though counters with, “The Gospel changes you. You need nothing else.”

            At the beginning of a new year, it’s easy to ask, “what do you need changed in your life?” But this more than a new year question, it’s an important life question. Do you have a bad attitude toward your job? Do you have a guilty conscience about the past? Do you spend too much money? What do you really need changed? Are you dishonest? Overly critical? Do you worry all the time? Real and lasting change only happens through the Christ-centered Gospel. This is Paul’s point as he opens this letter.

            We are changed by the Gospel. Paul says, “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 you have for all the saints— the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel” (Colossians 1:3-5).

            The reason we get stuck living with hurts, hang-ups, and hell is because we have no hope. Hope believes that tomorrow will be better than today. But if I think that tomorrow is going to be the same as today, then I have no hope. If I don’t have hope, I don’t change, and I stay stuck.

            But Paul says we have hope! We have “hope that is stored up for us in heaven.” There will be a tomorrow when God will change us and we’ll be perfect, we’ll be whole and sinless forever! And when we were baptized, when we came to faith, that change began!

            From this hope, faith and love spring up! Faith is directed towards God and my relationship with Him. Love is directed towards others and my relationship with them. You see … hope changes us by changing our relationships with God and others. So the Gospel is Christ’s victory for us. But Paul goes on.

            “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (1:13-14). “Brought”, that is a technical term. It means a wholesale move from one culture to another. Because of sin, and the sin of others, we regularly live in defeat, despair, and deep darkness. We live on a street called “Dead End.”

            But because of the Gospel, we have a new address. Paul says our new address is “The kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” Forgiveness of sins means that we get a clean slate, we have a new start, a fresh beginning. We don’t live in the past. We don’t rehash the past. We aren’t bound to the past. Tomorrow will be better than today!

            The Gospel is Christ’s victory for us! We need nothing else! Not more effort. Not more work. Not more sweat and blood. No more sweat and blood because the sweat and blood have already been poured out by Jesus on the cross for you!

            The Gospel is not only Christ’s victory for us, it also Christ’s victory in us. Paul says that “all over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing in you since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth” (1:6).

            The way we begin is the way we continue. We don’t begin with what Christ has done and then graduate to what we do. We don’t begin with faith in Christ and then graduate to faith in ourselves. We don’t begin with His promise and then graduate to our performance. No, Paul says in Colossians 2(:6) “just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him.”

            False teachers will say “The Gospel doesn’t change you. You need something more.” Paul though counters saying “The Gospel changes you. You need nothing else.” I don’t change by doing my best for Christ. I change by Christ doing His best in me. Let me say that again. I don’t change by doing my best for Christ. I change by Christ doing His best in me.

            Ever see the movie, A Beautiful Mind? Russell Crowe stars in this true story about John Nash, a Nobel Prize winner in Economics. Nash though suffers from schizophrenia. However, the viewer is unaware of this because most of the movie is about Nash’s delusions. These delusions include a roommate named Charles, a little girl named Marcie, and an agent of the government named Parcher. All of the characters in the story turn out to be figments of Nash’s imagination.

            Nash lives in a fantasy world with these people until one day he realizes that the little girl, Marcie – who by this time Nash has known for years – has never aged a day in her life. It’s at that point that John Nash begins to recover his sanity. In the final scene of the movie, when Nash receives the Nobel Prize for Economics, he’s asked if he still sees Charles, Marcie, and Parcher. Of course the viewer knows that he does because Charles, Marcie, and Parcher are sitting in the front row. Nash replies, “Yes, I see them. But I don’t listen to them anymore.”

            Sitting in the front row today are three of my delusional companions. Their names? Obsessive control, obsessive perfection, and obsessive fear. They seem so real saying, “ditch this Gospel thing. Listen to us and we’ll tell you what’s really real. And it’s this … live with us, obsessive control, obsessive perfection, and obsessive fear.”

            I see these delusional companions of mine, but I don’t listen to them anymore. And why is that? Two words. Not “Stop it!” but rather, “The Gospel!” And what is the Gospel? The Gospel is Christ’s victory for us as we have the hope of a better tomorrow. The Gospel is Christ’s victory in us as we have the Holy Spirit today! And when I sin, when I listen to these delusional companions, when I fail and lose hope for tomorrow … I can turn back to the Gospel because this Gospel changes us. We need nothing else. Amen.

            The peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, now and forever. Amen.