Colossians 3:1-17

This week pastor Josh continues through the letter to the Colossians as we look at how we can have a higher perspective on life now. 

Transcript

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That Paul wrote. We've been travelling through it for a few weeks now. And this morning we're going to look at a large chunk from chapter three. And I would encourage you if you have a Bible on your phone or one with you to get it out as we'll be going through this chapter together. I'm just going to start by reading from Colossians chapter three. And it says it's a later ton of this way. I can't read that as a pick. Says this If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God, set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you will you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked when you were living in them, but now you must put them all away, anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices, and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here that is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but Christ is all and in all. Put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness and patience, bearing with one another, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you, see you also must forgive, and above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body, and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Amen. I was reading a story this week of a man called Dan Jansen. Does anybody remember Dan Jansen? Didn't think so. And it was before my time. But Dan Jansen was an Olympic speed skater. That was his life. That's what he did for a living. And his plan, he trained all his life to go to the 1988 Olympics in Calgary and try and win a gold medal. Dan Jansen became well known at the time because just before this Olympics, his sister, who was also an Olympic speed skater, tragically passed away. And so Dan was going to these Olympics to try and win a medal in honour of his sister. And it came to the Olympics in Calgary in 1988. And unfortunately, Dan came away with no medals. He didn't win. And so four years later, he was in the Olympics again in France, and he was speed skating again and again trying to win a medal in memory of his sister. But again, there was no medal. And so four years later, 12 years on, he goes to the Winter Olympics in Norway. And at the Winter Olympics in Norway, Dan Jansen won the gold medal for speed skating. As he won it, after he won it, he's doing a victory lap holding his nine-month-old daughter called Jane after his sister. And what's interesting about the story of Dan Jansen is afterwards the interviewer asks him questions and he says, How did you manage to keep on going? How did you manage to deal with that failure time after time with the loss of your sister and all the difficulty that must have been, and continue to keep skating? And in his answer, he goes back to a memory he had when he was 12 years old when his dad was speaking to him. And his dad said to him, Son, life is more than skating in circles. And what Dan said was from that age on, it changed his perspective. It changed his perspective on speed skating. He realized that life was bigger than that. Life was more than just skating around in circles. And so he was able to deal with the failures and the disappointments. And it wasn't that big of a difficulty for him because he realized at such a young age life is bigger than that. He had a higher perspective. Do you ever feel like your life is skating in circles? Like you're going round and round in the same old routines, the same old cycles of life. Work, sleep, work, sleep. The same routines over and over. The weeks tick by. And you see what's interesting about Colossians chapter 3. I think through it, God is calling us to something better. He's calling us to a way of having spiritual significance in this life now. And in Colossians 3, Paul calls us to see life from a bigger picture, from a heavenly perspective, from an eternal perspective. He calls us to look as high as the heavens, to gain perspective on our life on earth now, so that we can stop skating in circles, feeling like life is tedious. And in this passage, he almost uses the opening couple of verses to set out why we should have a higher perspective, a heavenly perspective. In chapters 1 and 2 of the letter to the Colossians, really, Paul is taught a lot in doctrine about why we should believe what we believe. He talks about who Jesus is and really who we can be as Christians. But now when it comes to chapter 3 and later in chapter 4, Paul gets very practical in that. And he tells us that with knowing that we have been raised with Christ, he starts this chapter. He says, If then you've been raised with Christ, what he's saying is that you've been raised with Christ into a new life. And to live that new life, you must have to live in a new way. The reality of us being raised to a new life and Jesus as our Savior is that it should produce in us new motivations and new minds. And he tells us to seek the things that are above. Seek the things that are above, Paul says. Because that's where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God, he says. And again, just as in the earlier chapters of Colossians, Paul is reaffirming Jesus' position of authority. Because false teachers at the time are trying to tear that down. But he's telling us Jesus is seated in his position of honor, of majesty, of authority. He's at the right hand of God. And he contrasts seeking the things above by saying not earthly things. This isn't Paul trying to get us all mystical and just looking at heaven. The famous poet Oliver Wendell Holmes has a famous quote that so some people are so heavenly minded that they're of no earthly good. That's not what Paul is wanting us to be here. What he's saying when he says, set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. He's saying we're not to be concerned as Christians with only what is temporary in this life now. The heavenly, godly values are to consume our thoughts, our actions, our feelings, our ideas. That we should see everything with its eternal impact. That's what Paul's saying here. That we should be thinking, how does what I am doing, how does what I am thinking, how does what I am feeling impact my walk with God? How does it impact the other person's walk with God? Does it glorify God? Does it draw me closer to God? Or does it actually just glorify myself? Does it pull myself away from God? Does it pull the other person away from God? That everything that we do, everything we think, everything we feel, has an eternal impact following. He's telling us that this should be at the forefront of our minds. And he wants us to change, to have this higher perspective, to have this heavenly, eternal perspective. And really, just in these opening couple of verses, he gives us a basis, a reason for this change that he wants us to make. He gives us three reasons, really. He gives us a past reality. He tells us, for you have died. In other words, we've died to sin. We've died to our old life, we've been raised to this new life in Christ. And then he gives us a present truth. He says our life is hidden with Christ in God. In other words, as Christians, we are secure. No one can snatch us away from the palm of Jesus. And then he gives us a future expectation. He says, when Christ, who is your life, appears, then you will also appear with him in glory. He's talking about the future as Christians, we have to look forward to. The future in heaven. No more grief, no more pain, no more suffering. Glory. But he also tells us in that we verse that Christ is life itself. Life is Christ. He is the focus or should be the focus of our aspirations. He is the reason for our existence. As an introduction to what Paul's going on to tell us to do, he's telling us that Jesus is eternal and he's supreme. Paul reminds us where Jesus is seated. And with him is our foundation. Our lives can be transformed. Before that transformation, we need a higher perspective. We need a heavenly, eternal perspective on life. And Paul goes on to tell us exactly how we do that. First of all, Paul tells us, it's actually quite small on the screen. But he tells us, first of all, put to death our earthly ways. He says, put to death, therefore, what is earthly and you. The first way to gain this new perspective on life is to discard behaviors typical of our old life and to display behaviors of our new life, of Christ-like behaviors. See, Christ has changed our life. It's up to us to change our lifestyle. And that starts with discarding the old ways. Paul tells us in verse 5, we are to put to death the practices of the past. I have a few jobs in our household as a husband. One of the main jobs is to kill the spiders in the house. Alana can't stand spiders, and I learnt the hard way that I need to kill them. I can't just brush them away. Because if I brush them away, eventually they will come back. They will multiply and they'll come back. I think that's a little what Paul's taught about here because he tells us to put to death our earthly ways. He's not saying leave it alone for a little while or just brush it away. Because ultimately it will come back. He's saying put it to death. He's using strong language for a reason. In the New Testament, there's lots of images that are used to describe really what life is like as a Christian. We hear talked about an athlete striving to win the race or a faithful soldier enduring hardship or someone wrestling or struggling against a foe. But now Paul uses the image of a ruthless executioner, eliminating our behaviors of the past. Not just temporary, but wiping them out. He gives us almost a list of the things that we must kill. And he doesn't hold back, he goes straight in. The first term that he says is sexual immorality. That's a general term. It's used a lot in churches and it's bashed about a lot. But really what Paul is saying is that God has created sex for a male and a female in the context of marriage. Anything out with that falls under this category. And the next few in the list that he titles impurity, passion, evil desires, that they're all really under that same bracket. The translation for passion could also be translated to lust. What Paul is saying is that Jesus wouldn't walk in any of these sins. So if we identify with him, we won't walk in them either. And we're to put it to death. He then moves on slightly and he mentions covetousness. In other words, greed. The Greek for that word, covetousness, literally means a desire to have more. And Paul says that desire is idolatry. Paul calls this idolatry because ultimately this viewpoint becomes our God instead of God. We have the opinion that we must have more, more money, a new job, a promotion, more cars, the next big thing, always getting something bigger and better. And really, when we we live like that, we we see that we're not content in this life now. And we begin to live as if everything revolves around us, as if everything is for us and about us. But we've already read a few weeks ago in Colossians chapter 1, he tells us that all things were created by God and for God. So when we have that perspective of greed, everything's about us and for us. We need to get more and more and more. It puts us in a position of God, really, or the things that we idolize. Paul tells us to put it to death. Paul wants us to view all of this from a higher perspective. Why? He says in verse 6, on account of these, the wrath of God is coming. There's judgment coming from God. And he says in verse 7, and they reflect the way that we used to live as Christians. Does our life actually look different since we became a Christian? Or does it resemble our old life a little too much? What is it in your life you need to put to death? Christ has changed our life. We have to change our lifestyle. There's things in our life we need to put to death. Get rid of. Secondly, Paul says to put off your old self. Put off your old self. In verse 8, Paul changes the metaphors that he uses, but really the idea is the same. The picture changes, but the idea is the same. Really, again, it's the imagery behind this whole idea of ridding ourselves of our old life. Because we've got a new life with Jesus now. And he says he uses the term putting off. It's like taking off your jacket, discarding an old set of clothes. And again, in verse 8, he lists in this chapter, Paul loves a list. And he lists a lot of behaviors again. And he goes through them. Anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene talk, lies. So run through them quickly. Anger really talk about that slow burning anger that we have in us sometimes. A hatred towards people or towards something. Wrath. He's talking more of an outburst of that anger, like rage, we would maybe call it. Malice. Wishing ill on somebody or causing ill will on somebody, causing hurt and pain, slander, injuring someone's reputation, tearing them down with your words, gossiping, obscene talk. He's talking about abusive language that we use, swearing or lies. It's pretty self-explanatory. But none of this Paul is saying is appropriate behaviour for our new life in Christ. That these remnants of our old life are to be discarded. It's like taking off a jacket. We're to put them off. He tells us, see to it, that you put off the old self and all of its practices. Have we? Have we still got anger within us, resentment, hatred towards people or something? Do we have outbursts of anger or rage? Do we wish ill on people? Or do we cause ill on people? Do we gossip? Do we tear down? Do we slander people? Do we talk in aggressive, abusive ways? Swearing? Do we lie to people or to one another? See, I'm not standing up here saying that I'm all perfect. This isn't the case. Every Christian in this room struggles with all of these things. That's the battle that we're in as Christians. But Paul is telling us that we're to take it off as if we're taking off an old jacket. Put these things off because they're signifiers of our old life. Christ has changed our life. We need to change our lives. They'll put these things off. Put off the old self and all of its practices. And then lastly, he tells us to put on your new self. Put on our new self. Paul has told us that we need a higher heavenly, eternal perspective on life, to live our new lives in Christ. We're to put to death or put off the old ways, our old behaviors. Now he says, put on the new self. If taking off, we were to put off and take off our old dirty, worn-out clothes. This is like we're putting on a brand new set of clothes. The first thing to notice about this new self that we're to put on really is the importance of community for Paul in that. Our old self is gone. And for some of us, that means our old communities are gone, or old relationships are gone as well. And this new self is placed in a new community, the church. And these are all ways he goes on to list that we can act to build up this new community, build up one another as Christians as other believers. Because if you go through these previous lists that we listed off, they're all ways that can damage and disrupt community and disrupt relationships that we have. And our objective, Paul says, as part of this new community, as part of the church together, is to be renewed in knowledge in the image of its creator. He tells us in verse 10. In other words, to become more like Christ. He's telling us to clothe ourselves in Christ's likeness. Paul tells us in this new community that barriers are abolished. The things that divide people in the outside world should not be part of the church. Divisions are no longer for us. Whether that be racial, he says Greek or Jew, whether it's religious, he says circumcised or uncircumcised, cultural, by Barian or Scythian, social, he says slave or free. These barriers are no longer. Why? Because he tells us Christ is all and he's in all. He lives, as Stephen said earlier, in all believers. And our unity is based on that as Christians. All believers are equal. Christ unifies every single one of us. There should be no more divisions. We're to put on the new self. With that, we're placed in a new community. And then in verses 12 to 17, Paul gives us a list of what we are to put into practice as our new self. It gives us a list of the things that we are to put on. First, he tells us though what we are. He says, put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved. Three words that you could just pass over and read over, but actually they're integral for our identity as Christians. First of all, he tells us that we're chosen ones. You're called by God into relationship with Him. He has a calling on your life and He wants you to live in that way. Jesus came and He says, I've come, I've come to give you life and give it abundantly. That's the calling of God on your life and He wants you to live in that way. It says holy. Holy just means set apart. As Christians, we're to be set apart from the outside world. We're to live in a different way. And then, beloved, God loves you. Whether you feel like it or not, God loves you. And he loves you so much that he sent his son to die for you. Because of the sin in our lives, the wrong things that we do. The Bible tells us that the price to pay for sin is death. That is the price that we owe to God, the debt that we couldn't pay for ourselves. God loved us so much, he wanted that relationship with us again. And so he sent his own son, Jesus Christ, to die in our place so that we can be restored to a relationship with Him. That is our identity as Christians. We're chosen by God, we're made holy through the blood of Jesus. We're set Apart from this world, and we're beloved. God loves us. He loves us so much that He sent His Son to die for us. And so we are to clothe ourselves in this new reality, in this new self. And again, He lists behaviors that we are to become like compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forgiveness, love that binds it all together. When you read through these, we're reminded that this is what Christ looks like. You read in the New Testament, the Gospels, and you will see example after example of Christ displaying these behaviors. But is that how someone would describe us? If you were to walk down the street and you met someone who knows me and you ask them to describe me, are these the behaviors that they would describe? That's a tough call. Because I'm sure we all fall short. When I read these this list out, I don't think, oh, that's me. I think, oh, actually, I'm miles off that. It's a tough calling as a Christian. But yeah, earlier in the verse we read that Christ is in all of us. And as Stephen told us in the children's talk, that is what gives us power. That is what transforms us as Christians. When we give our lives to Jesus as our Saviour, He comes and He dwells within our hearts. And He transforms us from the inside out to make us more like Him. To help us grow in these traits, to grow in these ways. Don't beat yourself up if that list doesn't like you. It doesn't look like you. I don't think it looks like a lot of Christians. We've got a long way to go to tick all those boxes. But that is what we're tasked with. It's to become more like Christ, is to clothe ourselves in this new reality, in this new life, in these traits. And then he says, and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. The original word for rule is where we get the word umpire from. You'll see an umpire in tennis or cricket, and really they're the person that's there to make the decisions. If you're ever struggling with a decision, if you're struggling in what you should get rid of in your life or new ways you should live in, what he's saying here is, does Christ give you peace about it? And to do that though, we can't just give ourselves peace about it. We need to say, God, can you give me peace about that situation? Can you give me peace about that relationship? Because if he doesn't, then I think he doesn't want it for us anymore. He's got something better in store, and he wants us to clothe ourselves in that new reality. Let him be the umpire. Let his peace rule in our hearts. This morning. If we want to stop skating in circles, if we want to live from this higher perspective, this heavenly perspective, Paul gives us three ways to do that. He says, put to death our earthly ways. Christ has changed our life. He's transforming us. We need to change our lifestyle. There's certain things we need to kill off in our life. And Paul doesn't mess about when he discusses that. He says, put off our old self. Does our life actually look different now as Christians to what it did beforehand? Can people tell by our lives that we are Christian, that we follow Jesus? Because it should look different. There should be stuff that we've put off. And he tells us to put on the new self. And by doing that, he calls us to unity in community. And he tells us to put on the characteristics of Christ. And that his peace should rule in our hearts. Then he finishes this section in verse 17. And I think really it sums it all up pretty well. He says this whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. All of this is summed up, I think, in verse 17 of what Paul is saying. Because everything we do, the words that we speak, the things that we do, our deeds, it should all be in the name of Jesus. It should all be honoring and glorifying to the name of Jesus. It should be drawing us closer or someone else closer to Jesus or growing our relationship with him. If there's anything in our life that doesn't do that, we need to put it to death. We need to put it off and put on the characteristics of Jesus. And all the while giving thanks to God the Father. Because he is the one who gave his son Jesus for all of us. And now Christ dwells within us. Let us pray this morning. Heavenly Father, we come before you this morning thankful. Thankful that you loved us so much that you sent your Son to die for us. Because of that, we can be restored to relationship with you. And so, Lord, is you now dwell within us as Christians. Help us to put to death the things you want us to put to death in our lives. Help us to put off our old self and put on our new self in you. Help us to grow in these characteristics to become more and more Christ like. And Lord, may your peace rule in our hearts and in everything that we do, our words or our deeds. May it be in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.