Slides: Heart to Heart (Colossians 2:1-5)

Heart to Heart
Colossians 2:1-5 

2:1 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, 2 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 4 I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. 5 For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ.

My True Self

“You may well believe that I remember Narnia, for I am Rilian, Prince of Narnia. While I was enchanted I could not remember my true self.” (C. S. Lewis, The Silver Chair)

Rilian had been under an evil enchantment that kept him from remembering his true self. For an hour each night he would remember, but he’d be strapped into a chair to keep him from escaping, and then he’d be dragged back down into the evil spell and forget his true homeland of Narnia and his true identity as prince. A brave fellowship (Eustace, Jill, and Puddleglum) found and freed him from the chair, enabling him to remember the reality of Narnia and who he really was. Likewise, sometimes we need a band of others to free us and help us to be who we really are in Christ. If you are a real Christian, here is the reality: Christ lives in you, you are royalty, and God’s kingdom is your true home.

Christ in you, the hope of glory

In heart-to-heart connections, you display the unique glory of Christ in you, and you delight in the unique glories of Christ in others. Christians connect in order to share what Christ is doing within us, to battle together against hindrances to Christ within, and to strengthen each other. As Christ in you connects with Christ in me, I grow in Christ’s power, insight, and love.

Connecting (Larry Crabb)

In our flesh dwells no good thing, but Christians are more than flesh. We are now supernatural people, absolutely forgiven, clothed in Christ’s spotless apparel, and gifted with a new heart brimming with wonderful desires to do good. If you believe that the gospel has given life to both of us, then you could learn to release the power of that life within you to nourish the life of goodness within me.

Heart to Heart

1. Hearts battling for each other (2:1,4-5)
• Empathy: feeling what others feel
• Intercession: praying for others
• Encouragement: energizing others
• Warning: protecting others

2. Hearts bonding with each other (2:2-3)
• Bound together in love
• Bound together in understanding
• Bound together in intimacy with Christ

Hearts battling for each other

For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face

Paul cares about people he has never met. His heart is in tune with Christ’s heart and in tune with the hearts of people who have Christ in them, so Paul wants what is best for them: to mature in Christ.

Empathy: feeling what others feel

A heart so in tune with others’ hearts that you feel with them. (empathy: “suffer with”)

… apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant? (2 Cor 11:27-29)

Intercession: praying for others

Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God. (Colossians 4:12)

I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf (Romans 15:30).

“God enabled me so to agonize in prayer, that I was quite wet with sweat, though in the shade, and the wind cool. My soul was drawn out very much for the world; I grasped for multitudes of souls.”

“Had a most fervent wrestle with the Lord tonight for my enemies.” (Diary of David Brainerd)

Encouragement: energize others

“that their hearts may be encouraged”

They sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he arrived and saw the evidence of the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith. (Acts 11:22-24)

An encourager believes in you and comes alongside you to mobilize your Christ-life.

What is the power within us waiting to be released? It is the actual life of God, the energy with which the Father and Son relate to each other, a set of inclinations put in our hearts by the Holy Spirit and kept alive by his presence. It is a power that is most fully released as we develop a compelling and awe-inspiring vision of who another person is and what he or she could become because of the gospel. (Larry Crabb, Connecting)

Warning: protecting others

I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. 

Shortly after the little band of friends rescued Rilian from the silver chair and its evil enchantment, an evil witch-queen tried to persuade them, "There is no Narnia, no Overworld, no sky, no sun, no Aslan.” All of them were getting drowsy and falling under the spell, but Puddleglum forced himself to wake up by putting his hand in the fire. He then told the witch he rejected her miserable underworld and would stick with Aslan and live like a Narnian no matter what. Puddleglum broke the spell, the queen turned into a serpent, and Prince Rilian killed the evil serpent who had been disguised as a beautiful queen.

• Beware of a lousy product in a lovely package: glitzy image, big crowd, catchy soundtrack, grand buildings, smooth talk, studies and statistics, scholarly prestige. The real treasure is Christ.

• Be aware of each other’s vulnerabilities to the world, the flesh, and the devil.

Good Order

For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ.

A Roman military formation would create a roof of shields and a wall of shields on all sides. Their good order blocked arrows from getting through. Paul is glad the Colossian Christians are bonded in Christ and hold their formation in good order so that Satan’s lies don’t get through and pierce them. Each individual Christian must have one's own armor, weapon, and shield (Ephesians 6:10-18), but we must also be a cohesive unit that shields each other and battles for each other. We must not be alone in the fight.

Heart to Heart

1. Hearts battling for each other (2:1,4-5)
• Empathy: feeling what others feel
• Intercession: praying for others
• Encouragement: energizing others
• Warning: protecting others

2. Hearts bonding with each other (2:2-3)
• Bound together in love
• Bound together in understanding
• Bound together in intimacy with Christ

Bound together in love

being knit together in love

… the love that you have for all the saints… your love in the Spirit (Colossians 1:4,8)

The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. (John 17:22-23)

Bound together in understanding

to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding

A mentality of abundance: We are not impoverished orphans afraid of starving if somebody else gets the goodies. In Christ there’s plenty for all, and we learn his riches together. We all get richer as we gladly share together in Christ, understanding His overflowing surplus, not fearing shortages.

Bound together in intimacy with Christ

and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

• Knowledge of Christ is intimacy with Him.

• Your mind believes and seeks Christ’s truth; your heart trusts and relishes Christ’s love.

• You get to know Christ best in community with people united in mind and heart.

Imagine what would happen if parents were less concerned about keeping their kids off drugs and more concerned with their children’s battles to know God. What would it be like if pastors worried less about whether their people were having affairs and more about whether they worshiped? Picture a relationship between friends that dealt less with their financial and romantic problems and more with whether they are experiencing God. The results, I suspect, would likely include fewer kids on drugs, fewer affairs, and fewer nervous breakdowns and failed marriages… It’s time for the people of God to enter the primary battle we’re all fighting, to connect with each other not about our problems but about our desire to know God… Let people know that you’re struggling for them, that you’ve entered the battle for their souls to more fully experience Christ. (Larry Crabb, Connecting)

Heart to Heart

1. Hearts battling for each other (2:1,4-5)
• Empathy: feeling what others feel
• Intercession: praying for others
• Encouragement: energizing others
• Warning: protecting others

2. Hearts bonding with each other (2:2-3)
• Bound together in love
• Bound together in understanding
• Bound together in intimacy with Christ

Like a mighty army
Shoulder to shoulder
Heart to heart