Sermon Tone Analysis

introduction

God is holy (set apart) and his character is perfect.

By contrast, we are sinful, fallen humans...nowhere near matching the character of God.

But, when God calls us to himself and saves us from sin.

He empowers us to become more like Christ.

Even though this may seem hard, he gives us the power to grow progressively in conformity to Christ.

God’s desire is for us to become more like the ultimate example of him, which is Jesus.

As we grow closer to that goal, we learn in his word how to live and what the christian life should look like.

The Holy Spirit empowers us to live this way.

Other believers in our local church, family or friends exist to help us grow closer to him and to bring others into the family of God.

As we grow in Christlikeness, we shouldn’t confuse the fruit of the spirit in our sanctification with the root of our justification (the work of Christ).

His life, death and resurrection are the only sufficient grounds for right standing before God.

Once you have repented of your sins and confessed your faith in the finished work of Jesus, the Holy Spirit then empowers you to lead lives that are more and more a reflection of Jesus Christ and you will grow in holiness (being set apart) from this world.

Do you know the difference between Sanctification and Justification?

sanctification video

justification video

The central theme of Colossians is the sufficiency of the saving work of Jesus for our salvation.

We need to remember that we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus from beginning to end.

Paul wrote this book and follows the same pattern that we see in most of his letters.

In the first couple chapters he lays the theological foundation and ends with giving ethical instructions.

In chapter 2, Paul warned his readers to avoid being held “captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition, based on the elements of the world, rather than Christ.”

In chapter 3, he shows how to apply the theological truths to the Christian life.

It appears that there were false teachers who were trying to minimize the works of Jesus.

The issue seemed to have been which authority people trust when it comes to determining truth and reality.

While there are countless heresies, cults, false religions, and wordly philosophies, the gospel is for all people throughout all of time.

Just like federal agents, we should study God’s word intently so that we recognize false teachings.

God’s voice draws our thoughts to the things of God.

This starts by connecting the last chapters which spoke about Christ and his gospel being superior to the philosophies of the world.

Moving forward the verses are based on the theological foundation of the supremacy Christ.

Paul tells believers that they have been raised with Christ.

This reference to resurrection refers to a past event: we have been raised.

The reference is to our identification with Jesus in his death, burial, and resurrection.

He means that because of our identification with Jesus we have been granted new life which gives us the capacity to live a new kind of life.

When someone comes to faith in Jesus, they have died to sin and have been raised in Christ.

The concept is when we unite with Christ in his death and resurrection, we are no longer slaves to sin but have been given a new nature.

When we are told to seek the things above, we are commanded to seek the place where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

When he sits on the right hand of God, He demonstrates that he perfectly completed and fulfilled the offices of prophet, priest and king.

In contrast to the false teachers who demoted Jesus, Paul reminds us that Jesus is seated in the position of honor, majesty, and authority.

When we look at Christ sitting, Paul was encouraging us to remain faithful in our obedience to the Lord.

We should know that we don’t depend on our obedience for our salvation.

We see him sitting and can relax because he has completed what he came to do.

We can depend on his finished work.

As he sits on the right hand of God, we know that he intercedes on our behalf which would encourage us toward obedience.

The reality of our resurrection with Jesus should produce in us new motivations and new minds.

Paul then repeats himself differently: Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.

He gives three reasons why we should set our minds on things above.

Notice that these three reasons are connected to the past, present and future.

First, we should set our minds on things above because we died.

This is a past event.

If we remember, Ephesians 2:1-5 tells us that before we came to Christ in repentance, we were dead to our sins.

Romans 6:1-2 asks if we died to sin, how could we still live in it?

Before we put our faith in Christ, we were only able to sin and we weren’t able to do anything that pleased God.

But, when we become born again, saved by grace through faith, we are dead to sin and free to live in faithful obedience.

Second, we should set our minds on things above because our lives are hidden with Christ in God.

This is a current reality.

This term hidden refers to safety or secrecy.

The only reason we can set our minds on things above is because we are in Christ and Christ is in us.

The Spirit in us empowers us to live holy lives.

When we fail to walk in the power of the Spirit, we need to remember the power of Christ’s atoning death and resurrection covers our sin.

This is a comforting reminder of the truth found in John 10:28–29

Another thing to remember is that hidden also means concealed or unseen.

This means that the believer’s life is unknown or not understood by the watching world. 1 John 3:1-2

Third and finally, the reason Paul gives for setting our minds on things above is because we will appear with him in glory.

This is a future hope.

Appears is an open display.

What is hidden will be revealed.

The secret is out.

Another thing, we need to remember that the biblical idea of hope is different from the way we usually use it.

We may say that we hope it rains or that our favorite team wins the game.

We often use this word hope to mean want.

We want is to rain or we want our favorite team to win.

In the Bible, hope is something that is going to happen in the future.

It’s an expectation.

When Paul says we will appear with him in glory, he wasn’t wanting for this to happen, he knew it would.

He was fully assured that this would happen.

In these 4 verses, Paul mentions Christ each time.

This is important as Christ should be central and supreme.

The believer’s identification with Christ brings not only a past break with sin, and a present security but also it means a glorious future.

God’s voice draws us to put to death the earthly nature.

Moving on from the previous 4 verses, we come to a therefore.

This connects the last verses to these coming up.

Those 4 verses serve as the foundation for the initial command to put to death what belongs to your earthly nature.

Paul lists 5 aspects of our earthly nature.

First sexual immorality is a broad term that sometimes translates fornication.

The specific word that Paul used, pornea, is where we get pornography.

This covers sins like premarital sex, homosexuality or any sex that takes place outside the marriage between a man and woman.

Basically, all kinds of sexual immorality are sinful and have no place in the lives of a believer.

Impurity, lust, evil desire, greed is an internal thing.

The thoughts that we have related to sexual immorality are things that we should strive to put to death.

Jesus spoke about this when he gave the sermon on the mount.

Matt.

5:27-28.

A right relationship with God has always been by grace through faith and always includes the whole person-thoughts and actions.

Greed or covetousness is a step out of the sexual arena and into broader internal areas.

This is an internal desire to satiate ourselves with more, more, more.

Paul equates greed to idolatry.

To act as if everything exists for us is to place ourselves in the place of God himself.

Paul gave three reasons that we should put our earthly nature to death.

First, these things belonged to your earthly nature.

Be who you are, not what you had been.

Paul told us that people pursue these earthly desires and pursue earthly philosophies, but those who have been set apart have been given a new nature.