The Life in the Abundant Word (Col. 3:16-17)
Telos: 1) The possibility proposition– You can live the abundant life in Christ by understanding the abundance of the Word of God.
- The obligation proposition- You must live in the abundance of the Word of God by understanding the meaning and the fruit and the method.
- The value proposition – You can enjoy the abundance of the Word of God by pursuing the word of God more passionately than following the worldly desire.
Text:
Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
* Introduction:
1) The church should pursue to live in the abundant Word of God as the ultimate goal of the normal Christian life . We can understand that It is the same to the life filled with the fullness of Holy Spirit through examining the contents of Col. 3:15“Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.“ and Eph. 5:1818 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit,19 speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord,20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ., the twin verses. The scholars assured that Paul wrote two epistles at the same time in the Roman prison because of revealing the same stream and structure in them. When we compared with two things, we can know the thought of the Apostle and also we can understand the meaning of two teaching as the interrelated contents. What is the fullness of Holy Spirit? it means the abundance of the Word of God. What is the abundance of the Word of God? It means the e fullness of the Holy Spirit.
2) The Apostle explains the life that is put on Christ, and now he tells the life that the Word of God rules over us. The life that resembles Christ means the life that the word of God rules over us. After the primitive church received the Holy Spirit they devote themselves to be taught, to have the fellowship, to gather, to pray, to evangelize. Among them the center is the teaching of the Apostle. Acts2:42-47 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
First of all, when the Word of God is entertained in us, the other things shall be solved naturally. So today I want to treat the meaning of the abundance of the word of God and the results in our lives.
1. What is the life filled by the abundant word?
1) Here, the Word means the Scripture that is, the revelation, and to abide in the abundance of the Word means that the word is the king and the Lord that can control the heart and whole lives. It means that the Scripture is the center, standard, criteria of the direction of all thought, all activities and all regulations. ( Ex: It is like searching for all directions on the surface of snow for by marking the center or in the center of seven stars) The Apostle explained the personal metaphor as “to dwell” ( Jn. 1:14-15 the incarnation The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
15 (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”)
) what the Word dwells in us means what God lives in us. Acts 20:32 “Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.reveals more obviously the fact to us. it is to commit them to the Lord and the Word of grace and the Word can strengthen us on strongly and make us to enjoy the heritage in our lives. It reveals that the word stands on the same foundation of the Lord, the source and fountain of the life. The life without the Word means the life without having God, that is, the emptiness
Therefore we have to live according to the direction of the Word. We have to assure few things about the Scripture as the reformers believed on them.
1) the authority of the Scripture – the Scripture = living God
2) The obvious character of the Scripture – Whoever reads the Scripture in his conscience he can find wonderful salvation clearly.
3) The sufficient character of the Scripture – Only the 66 books of the Scripture provide the full, complete salvation to us.
4) The living character of the Scripture. It means that the scripture is alive. We have to make us lived the Scripture in our life. The Scripture is the subjective and I am objective. To abide in the abundance of the Scripture means to pass through the Scripture in all things. As Christ is all in all , the Scripture is all of all. So we should assure the salvation that depended on the revelation. This is the unique view of the Scripture. The view of the Scripture that the forefathers believed on is the character of life of the Scripture. For example, the true manna points Christ. So Jesus emphasizes to eat Christ. To eat it means to believe on it. Actually it is the important issue in our whole life. Matthew 4:4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”emphasizes the life character of scripture. When we know that and abide in it means to abide in the life. We have the spiritual bread through uniting with Christ.
Therefore Why is the abundance of the Word of God the fullness of the Holy Spirit?
Unless we receive the Holy Spirit the Scripture shall be opened in us. The eternal life is not the one among the grace of the Holy Spirit but the whole. For the Holy Spirit himself is the life. So in a meaning the Scripture is able to be the Spirit. My word is the Spirit and the life. The Scripture is the spirit. So to receive the Holy Spirit is to receive the Spirit. Of course, it is another world over to memorize some verses literally. To become the fullness of Holy Spirit is to become the abundance of the Word of God. Then we experienced the presence of God. The reality of the fullness of Holy Spirit is this state. Generally when we try to know the Scripture rightly the presence shall be happened. Ex: the two disciples on the road of Emmaus. Ex: Deuteronomy chapter 6 or, Matthew 4:4 emphasizes the only absolute Scripture. The life is the Word of God.
What is the purpose of covenant people? in order for the word to equip everything when we offered our seat to Him we can experience the abundant grace as Mary did. We have to devote ourselves to the Scripture to make the Word of God to be subjective.
2. Then what fruit was produced to abide in the Scripture?
1) Five commands are the fruit of verse 17. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
After verse 16 soon the word come to us. The word that entered into the inside soon the fruit reveals. Teach, exhort, sing, praise and thank.
(1) he teach the Word of God naturally because the Word of God is alive in him. Where does the wisdom of teachers come out of? I come out of the Word. Look at the decision of Ezra
(2) Where does the character included the love and the generality to us? When we receive the spirit of the Word we can teach them.
(3) And how can the song and praise come out of? When we know the sweet taste of the Word of God we can sing a song.
(4) here does the thanksgiving come out of? As we believe the word of God we can approach to the side of living stream of the eternal life. Actually it is the life of true worship. As the worship cannot control the worship we can do not that. 2) And this command is the means that we abide in the Word of God. Through teaching, exhorting, singing, praising and giving thanksgiving to God we know that the Word of God is the life.
Ex: Look at the revival of Ephesian church and Korean churches.
For three years the apostle Paul taught the Scripture in Ephesus. Understanding the Scripture influenced to the minor Asia and Rome. In the church history true revival was depended on the studying the Scripture. In the case of South Korea, generally 1 week revival was held in the church. Then a certain carried their rices to participate into the conference for eating of the meeting. The passionate studying of the Scripture brought up great revival on 1907.
3. How do we approach to the seat of abundant Word? What is the secret?
1) We have to return to the original point and to accept the same meaning of the fullness of Holy Spirit. In order to know the fullness of Holy Spirit we have to understand the meaning of the abundance of the Word of God first. Because we cannot see the Spirit but can see the word of God, we can easily contact to it.
1) When we read the Scripture we have to expect the fullness of the Holy Spirit and also when we pray and obey the word of God we have to feel the thing and when we take the relationship we have to examine the fellowship in the Word of God. When we evangelize we have to expect the power of the Word of God. And when we serve to our neighbors we have to follow the direction of the Scripture.
2) Where is the example?
Ex: The family of Cornelius
Ex: The history of the Pentecost.
Conclusion:
1) Seek the life that the Word of God abides in us abundantly. We have to devote ourselves to the Scripture. When we concentrate on the Scripture we have to hang on the Word of God as to make money and to take care of the health in our lives. Then we can taste the heaven in the earth.
2) My beloved students, in your life challenge to know the Scripture deeply. Become the specialist of the Scripture.