In Search of Spiritual Reality

How many of you have shopped for a personal computer in the past two years? If you have, then you’ll know that there are a bewildering array of choices available out there.

The first and most important question that you need to ask when you are shopping for a new computer is: What am I going to use it for? What are my needs?

Am I going to use it mainly for email, or word processing, or surfing the Net? Or do I want to play games on it? Or am I into graphics—retouching my photos in Photoshop? Maybe multi-media is your thing—making digital movies and putting in special effects. Whatever.

Your personal needs will determine the kind of computer you’re going to buy. And there are an incredible number of computer brands to choose from—Dell, Gateway, Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Packard-Bell, Sony, and of course, we can’t forget the Apple Macintosh! Every one of these manufacturers offers a package of hardware, software, and peripherals that will, hopefully, meet your needs.

But many computer buyers are ignoring the estabished brand names in favor of simply putting together a system of their own by assembling hardware components from a number of different manufacturers. So the computer they end up with may not have a brand name on it, but it works great for them. It meets their needs.

This whole scenario is pretty commonplace in the world of computers. But guess what? The same thing is happening in the world of spirituality.

Studies have shown that more and more North Americans are vitally interested in spiritual things. “Spirituality” is very high on their list of priorities. In light of this trend, some experts have declared that we are now living in a “post-secular” age. You look at popular culture—recent movies, TV shows, books, and popular music—you’ll frequently find spiritual themes in them. People have instinctively concluded that you cannot live life as though the “here and now” is all that there is.

So what is it that people looking for? They are searching for spiritual reality. They are looking to make a connection—to build a bridge to a higher power, or a higher plane of existence—that will give their life meaning and purpose. But they’re looking in a particular way. They are literally shopping for spirituality. They have a list of needs and they want to find a spiritual product that will meet their needs.

“I want to feel good about myself. I want something that will help my marriage to work better. I want to grow as an individual. I want something that will help me to feel rooted and centered and at peace in this crazy, fast-changing world.”

Now if you’re shopping for a computer and you walk into a store like Future Shop, you’ll find an incredible variety of computer brands available. Likewise, when you walk into the spiritual marketplace in the year 2000, you’ll find an incredible number of spiritual options—“products” that claim to have the answer for all your needs. Mormonism… New Age… Channelling… Scientology… Eckankar… Falun Gong…Tai Chi…Yoga…you name it! And there are always the old standbys like Judaism… Islam… Hinduism… Buddhism… and Christianity. And they all seem to come in many different flavours.

And just like in the world of computers, people who are confronted with all these spiritual systems, end up deciding to take a little bit of this and a little bit of that and assembling their own private brand of spirituality. And what they come up with doesn’t necessarily have a name to it, but they feel that it’s going to work for them.

So that’s where our society is spiritually at the beginning of the 21st century. And you know what? That’s exactly where people were at ‘way back in the 1st century. We think we’re so modern, but as the Bible says, there’s nothing new under the sun!

Ancient Rome had a lot in common with modern North America—especially in the search for spiritual reality. The Roman Empire was chock full of competing spiritual systems. Some of them were very well established and organized—they had their temples on all the major street corners. On the other hand, some of them were very informal—just small groups of people meeting in homes. Some of these religious systems were supported by the Establishment—they even got government tax money. Some of them were persecuted by the Establishment; they had to go underground.

This was the world into which Jesus Christ was born. It was a world full of people who were searching for spiritual reality.

And Jesus said “If you want to find spiritual reality, you’re looking at it. Follow me. Because I’m the one—the only one—who’ll take you to that higher plane. Because I came from there. And I’m going back there. And I want to take you there with me.”

Now the movement that Jesus started, which became known as Christianity, began to spread explosively through the Mediterranean world.

The individual who did more than anyone else to spread that movement was a man named Paul the Apostle. Over the course of about 25 years, Paul carried that message throughout the Roman Empire. And he established little cell groups of Christians in many of the cities of the Roman Empire. One of the cities he visited was Ephesus, which is located on the western coast of what is now the nation of Turkey.

Ephesus in those days was a major seaport; it was a center of trade and commerce. And Paul went there in the year 53 AD. And he stayed there for a good two years teaching and preaching about Jesus. And he established a strong Christian movement in that city.

During the time that Paul was in Ephesus, people began to fan up into the hills in the interior of what is now Turkey, carrying this revolutionary message about Jesus. They brought that message to the little towns and villages there. One of those little towns was Colosse. It wasn’t very big. It wasn’t very important. It was tucked away in a river valley up in the hills of a region that was called Phrygia.

A man named Epaphras, who happened to be a native of Colosse himself, brought the message of Jesus to the people of his hometown. That’s how there came to be a group of Christians in Colosse.

A few years went by and the Apostle Paul moved on from Ephesus. But the little group of Christians at Colosse continued to grow and flourish—in spite of the fact that they found themselves in a rather difficult spiritual environment.

You see, the region of Phrygia in those days was a place that was just teeming with weird religions, strange cults, and bizarre beliefs. (It was kind of like California is today.) If you were looking for a totally “off-the-wall” religion, you’d probably find it in Phrygia—the region where Colosse was located.

You had all sorts of pagan cults dedicated to the worship of the gods and goddesses of Greek mythology. But you also had several kinds of humanistic philosophies that glorified man’s reasoning and intellect. Remember, the Greeks were noted for producing thinkers like Socrates and Plato and Aristotle.

And then you had several varieties of Judaism which had migrated in from Judea. Some of them were very strict and legalistic, with all sorts of rules about what you could and couldn’t do.

The interesting thing about Phrygia is that these various religious systems and world views didn’t stay in separate boxes. They combined and then they mutated. And you ended up with all sorts of weird combinations. So, for example, you could have a religion that was part Judaism and part Aristotle. Or a philosophy that combined supernatural paganism with secular humanism.

The region of Phrygia, in the first century AD, was like a big religious cafeteria—kind of like North America is today. And people who were searching for spiritual reality would try and blend bits and pieces of all these different beliefs into some sort of coherent system which would help them live their lives.

And the Colossian Christians found themselves right in the middle of that. They were followers of Jesus who were living in a kind of hyper-spiritual environment. And they were having trouble sorting it all out. All around them, there were people saying “Hey, it’s nice that you are a follower of Jesus, but you need to consider some of these other belief systems as well—there are other ideas out there that you should take a look at.”

“Surely you don’t want to be as narrow and dogmatic as to think that Christianity is the only pathway to spiritual reality?” Does that sound familiar? This is what people are saying to Christians today. So the Colossian Christians began to wonder if maybe there wasn’t some truth to that—maybe Jesus wasn’t the only way?

Five years go by. The Apostle Paul is in Rome now. He is under house arrest for preaching about Jesus. And he gets word that the Colossian Christians are wrestling with this issue. So he decides to write a letter to them—and that letter is the letter to the Colossians that is found in our Bible. And over the next several weeks, we’re going to study this letter because we’re facing many of the same questions that the Colossians were.

We are living in the same kind of world they lived in—people are searching for spiritual reality. And people nowadays believe that there can be many pathways to spiritual reality. And people nowadays really frown on you if you think that there’s only one way. That’s unenlightened, that’s intolerant, that’s not being sensitive to diversity, that’s not politically correct.

So we have a lot in common with that little group of Christians in Colosse. So let’s see what Paul wrote to them…

Colossians 1:1-2 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the holy and faithful brothers in Christ at Colosse: Grace and peace to you from God our Father.

Letters in those days were a lot like E-mail is today—they came with a header on them that told you who the letter was from. So verses 1-2 are like the HTML header.

Paul began all his letters like this. He tells them who it is that’s writing, he sends them greetings, and he wishes them grace and peace from the Lord. Then he goes on…

Colossians 1:3 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 that has come to you.

Remember, Paul himself had never been to Colosse. He had never met the Colossian Christians. But he had heard about them. He had heard good things about them. Ever since the Good News about Jesus Christ had come to them, and they had accepted that Good News and believed it, good things had been happening in their lives. They had become Good News people.

Paul says that there were three things in particular that he had heard about these recipients of the Good News:

1. They had a practical faith.

Paul says “I heard about your faith.” Their faith in Jesus Christ was producing visible, tangible results. It was making a practical difference in the way they lived.

The Apostle James says “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds?” If you’re really a Christian, it’s going to show in your life. There’s going to be some evidence. Good News people have practical faith.

2. They had active love.

Paul says “I heard about the love you have for all the saints…” These Colossian believers loved each other. And it showed.

Jesus said “By this will all men know that you are my disciples; if you love one another.” The crucial mark of a Christian is love. And it’s active love. It isn’t just love in words; it’s love in action. Good News people have active love.

3. They had steadfast hope.

Paul says “The faith that you have and the love that you have spring from the hope that you have—the hope that is stored up for you in heaven.”

It’s a hope that says “I believe that God loves me; that God is in control of my life; that I matter to Him; and that my future is bright because God wants me to live with Him forever.” Good News people have steadfast hope.

Now if you are lacking in any of these areas—you don’t have practical faith; you don’t have active love for other people; and you don’t have a steadfast hope about your life and your future, maybe it’s because you have never received the Good News for yourself.

You say: Well how do I do that? How do I become a Good News person?

You become a Good News person by believing the Good News Message—the Gospel about Jesus Christ. The word “gospel” means “good news”. It comes from an old Anglo-Saxon word that means “good spell”; good story. The Gospel tells us that God loves us and cares about us so much that He sent His Son here to die for us—to take the penalty of our sin on his own shoulders.

And simply by believing in Jesus Christ, we can come into fellowship with God. We can have total and complete forgiveness for our sins. And we can begin to discover God’s plan and God’s purpose for our life.

Are you a Good News person this morning? Have you ever placed your trust in Jesus Christ? If you’re not sure, you can do it right now if you want to. Simply say to God in your heart: “Lord, I need you. I need Jesus to be my Savior. I believe that He died for me, and I want to have fellowship with you. I want to know you. I want to be a Good News person—a person with a practical faith; a person who actively loves others; a person who goes through life with a positive outlook because of that steadfast hope that someday I’ll be with you in heaven forever.”

If that’s what you want, why don’t you just go ahead and tell God that. Let’s pause right now and bow our heads and you can pray that prayer where you sit, quietly just talking to God. Let’s all pray.

If you prayed that prayer to receive Jesus Christ as your Savior this morning, I’d like to know about it. So I’m going to ask you to tell me that you did that after the service, OK?

If you are a Good News person, it is because you have based your life on the Good News Message. And Paul talks about the Good News and the results that it produces in verse 6…

All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth.

We live in the information age. We are drowning in a sea of information. We have television, we have the Internet, we have computers, we have millions upon millions of books and magazines and newspapers that are published every year. The knowledge of the human race is increasing exponentially. It doubles about every seven years.

But have you noticed that all this information doesn’t seem to be making a difference with the fundamental problems of humanity? It hasn’t brought about world peace. We still have genocide and warfare—we still have whole countries ruled by tyrants and dictators. Many people in the world are not living in freedom.

We still have poverty and racism. We still struggle with crime and abuse and addiction. Marriages break up and families are devastated at record numbers in the most advanced societies on earth.

Why is this so? Why hasn’t all this information and education made a difference?

It’s because this information comes from us. It’s origin is human. But there’s one piece of information out there that’s not of human origin. It’s the Gospel.

If you’re a stock speculator on Bay Street, what you want is inside information. But if you are a human being trying to put your life together on planet Earth, what you need is OUTSIDE information.

The Good News about Jesus Christ is outside information. It didn’t come from man; it came from God. And it produces several results, as Paul says in verse 6…

1. The Good News has a worldwide impact.

Paul says “All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing”. That was true in the first century and it is true today. The Good News about Jesus Christ has penetrated every corner of the world, has made an impact on every culture, and has changed the lives of people from virtually every ethnic background.

You can go to the remotest regions of central Asia today and find people meeting in simple house churches worshiping and praising Jesus. You can go to the most closed Muslim societies such as you’ll find in Libya, Iran, Afghanistan—societies in which it is a capital crime to become a Christian—and you will find people willing to give their lives to believe in Jesus Christ. The Good News has a worldwide impact.

2. The Good News has a constructive impact.

It produces fruit and grows. There is an inner power to the Good News about Jesus Christ that makes it different from every other piece of information on the planet.

Every so often we hear about another computer virus causing havoc in the computer systems around the world. A computer virus is a piece of code that is embedded into an otherwise innocent computer file. And if that file makes its way onto your computer, the virus activates and begins to destroy things on your hard drive. That’s an example of a piece of information that has within itself a destructive potential.

But the Gospel isn’t like that. The Gospel has within itself the power to change people’s lives for the better. If you let the Gospel into your life, it will make positive change because the Gospel comes from God.

If you were to record the story of every person who has ever had his life changed by believing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the world would not be able to hold the books. Over the past 2,000 years, enemies of the Good News have tried to stamp it out. And yet they have not succeeded. Today, 2,000 years later, there are more people in the world who believe the Gospel than there ever have been at any time in history, and more people believe the Gospel than believe any other belief.

3. The Gospel has an enlightening impact

It helps us to understand God’s grace and truth. Without the Good News about Jesus Christ, we would never really know that God loves us. The Bible says “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” That’s the Good News. And without it, we would never know that God has made a way for us to know him.

So the Gospel—the Good News about Jesus—is a very important message. But it’s a message that needs a messenger.

How did the Colossians learn about the Good News? Well, Paul tells us in verse 7. They learned about it because someone revealed it to them.

You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf…

Remember, Epaphras came from Colosse himself. For whatever reason, he was down in Ephesus when he ran into Paul. And through Paul, he heard the Good News and became a Christian. What did he do next? He went back to Colosse—back to his hometown, back to his friends, back to his family—bringing the Good News. He became a revealer of the Good News.

Now there are several things we learn about Epaphras that made him effective in that role.

1. He had a changed life

His very name tells us that. The name Epaphras is a shortened form of Epaphroditus, which contains the name of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love.

Obviously, Epaphras did not come from a Christian home. He came from a pagan home, where they worshiped Aphrodite—they even named their children after her. But Epaphras became a Christian, one who bore the name of Jesus Christ. His life was changed.

You may think that to become an effective messenger of the Good News, you need to have a Christian pedigree, or a Christian family background, or some sort of Christian training. Let me tell you that the most important component of your effectiveness for Jesus Christ is that your life is changed.

If your life has been changed by Jesus, don’t be afraid to tell people about it.

2. He had a servant’s heart.

Paul called him a “dear fellow servant”. And an effective Good News messenger is going to have a servant’s heart. If you want to really reach people for Christ—if you really want to make an impact on them—learn how to serve.

That means listening to them instead of doing all the talking. That means going out your way to show kindness to them, even if they don’t reciprocate. It means returning blessing for cursing if they turn against you. It means seeking out the poor, the unlovely, the unpopular, and loving them for Jesus’ sake. It means having the mind and the heart of Christ.

Epaphras had a changed life; he had a servant’s heart…

3. Epaphras was a faithful representative of Christ

Paul calls Epaphras “a faithful minister of Christ” and the word minister is the word “diakonos”—the same word that we get our word “deacon” from. It is a word that refers to servant leadership—the same kind of leadership that Christ modeled.

So a Good News messenger needs to be like a little picture of Jesus Christ. There’s a popular Christian song that says “You’re the only Jesus some will ever see.” Ask yourself this question:

“If my friends, or my neighbors, or my family, only knew about Jesus from what they see in me, what would they think about Him?”

Gandhi was one of the great political leaders of our century. He was the father of the independent nation of India—the second most populous nation on earth.

Gandhi was a committed Hindu, but during his days as a student in South Africa, he was very much interested in the Bible. He read the Gospel accounts of the life of Christ, and was seriously considering becoming a follower of Jesus himself.

So he decided to attend a nearby church one Sunday. He intended to ask the pastor how he might become a Christian. But when he entered the white Protestant church, the ushers refused to give him a seat and they suggested that he go and worship with his own people. Gandhi left and never came back.

He left because, although he was attracted to Jesus, he didn’t see any Christians who looked like Jesus and acted like Jesus.

All around us, people are searching for spiritual reality. What are they going to see in you and me that will make them want to consider Jesus?