"Awaken ..."
Notes
Transcript
Illus: Millie and waking me up at Taylor’s house in Abilene …
So, kind of by way of review, what we covered last time I preached a couple of weeks ago, Paul started off by saying, "Put to death therefore what is earthly in you…"
If you remember what we talked about last week, that language Paul uses, "to put to death," was a strong, commanding language. It wasn't kind of that subtle suggestion.
If you use the analogy of weeds, he wasn't saying, "Hey, you just really need to make sure and get all the weeds down to the ground level."
He was saying, "No, you need to uproot those things. Take these off. Take them from you. These things need to have no part of you. Put these things to death. Murder these things in you."
The plea really in that text is not to play with our sin. It's to take seriously the effects of sin and to be putting those things to death.
This week with the same kind of oomph, the same kind of strong language, Paul is going to urge us then to put something on. Essentially this is what he will say… “Wake Up!”
If that's what it means to put these things to death, the things that run contrary to Christian life, what then should we then put on that is consistent with the Christian life?
It takes us to our passage here today. We're going to be in verses 12 through 16. Let's read those together, and then we'll start taking a deep dive into them. Read: Colossians 3:12-16
12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,
13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.
16 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.
The distinctiveness of this passage and really this entire chapter is these two passages are both indicative for what it means to be a Christian and instructive for how to be a Christian.
A British preacher once said (in reference to this passage) a sure way to know if your bucket is full is if your feet and ankles are wet.
The lens we're going to use when approaching this passage today is what overflows in our lives both in individuals and as a community reflects what we worship.
Paul is urging the Christian community to reflect both individually and corporately the Christ they worship.
What's interesting about the passage we're going to dive into is it kind of feels like three different sermons, but they really do begin to flow into one another.
The first one is Paul is going to list these five virtues or attitudes that, as those who are in Christ, we put these things on.
These are contrasted to the five vices he lists in the previous passage we are to take off or put to death.
Following the attitudes, we as a community are called to put these virtues on display or in action, as it changes the way we interact with one another and the world.
Then lastly, Paul exhorts us as a body of Christ to live for new things in a new way. So you have attitudes, actions, and exhortations. Let's get started.
Verse 12. Before Paul lists the attitudes we are to have in reflecting Christ, he starts by saying this in verse 12. He says, "Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved…"
What is this "put on"? As I mentioned earlier, this is the same kind of strong language he used at the beginning of the other passage when he says, "Put these things to death."
This isn't kind of that suggestive, "Hey, this would be a good idea." The best way I can explain this is the difference is, when your child comes down the stairs wearing something you don't want them to wear.
This isn't, "Hey, it would be a good idea if maybe next time you thought about putting on something different." It's, "No. Get back upstairs. Change your clothes. It's unacceptable."
That's the kind of strong language he is saying. "This is what you are to wear," because the clothing reference here is an appeal to a more drastic change.
He is not saying these things, putting on these things, doing these things is going to make you a Christian any more than parking a horse in a garage is going to make it a car.
What he is saying then is putting these things on rightly reflects on the outside what's happened inside.
What's happened inside? Galatians 2:20 says it this way. It says, "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me."
20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
When Christ lives in us, we put on these things. But before he gets to that, what does he say? Who does he call us? Who is he addressing?
"Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved…" We must get this before we can understand or walk out anything that comes next.
The God of the universe, before anything else was created set His sights on saving you. Your redemption was gloriously particular. God's grace toward you was absolutely intentional.
Christ wasn't plan B. He was the plan from the beginning of time. He would send his Son to rescue, redeem you. It's this grace that empowers our obedience.
We'll look at these following things, these following commands, much differently when we see them through the lens of what Christ has done for us.
Our feet will get wet with these attitudes, these virtues, when our buckets are full with this identity that we are holy, chosen, and beloved.
As those who are holy, chosen, and beloved, we clothe ourselves with these attitudes. He lists five of them. He says compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.
I hope this helps you. It helped me when I was working through it to see these virtues, these attitudes, as having a cascading effect, beginning with compassion.
The order here matters, compassion being kind of the umbrella virtue that begins to kind of cascade, roll into the others, or produce the others, affect the others.
Compassion here is the exhortation. As you put on Christ, start with the eyes. See how God sees with compassion and mercy.
I have corrective lenses. When I get up in the morning, I start my day with grabbing my glasses before I do anything else. Why? I think that's kind of self-explanatory how that would probably go. Right?
I have to see correctly before we can begin to do everything correctly. If we don't see right, then everything else will just begin to get out of place or off.
How differently would we approach ourselves, one another, and even the world as we know it if we strived to see how God sees?
We could start here, Christian, with seeing yourself how God sees you: holy, chosen, beloved. Overflowing from this compassion, this mercy we view from, we have kindness and humility.
I have kind of a working definition for these two that I've been using: kindness is a Christlike attitude toward others and humility is a Christlike attitude toward oneself.
A Christlike attitude is the Philippians 2 ethic where it says Jesus surrendered His rights. He emptied Himself. He became nothing. He laid himself down that He might lift us up.
This is that Christlike attitude. Kindness is that Christlike orientation toward others, and humility is that Christlike orientation toward ourselves.
Kindness, compassion, cascade to kindness and humility, which cascade to gentleness and patience.
The definition I have for gentleness here is kindness and humility together in our approach toward others, and patience is kindness and humility in our response to others.
Let me give an example of how this works itself out in Christian communities, of how kindness and humility overflow to gentleness and patience. Illus: Church pews vs chairs (Jim)
As we approached this conversation together, what made this conversation go so dramatically different than others was this. We both approached each other with kindness first.
Honestly, at the beginning of the conversation, we started at very, very different ends of the spectrum. But by the end, we were heard, understood, unified.
We were able to pray together and worship together. It was beautiful. It was beautiful! It all started with compassion, and overflowing from compassion with kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.
The product of that was unity and worship.
These are the kinds of interactions that are to mark the people of God. This is how we image Christ individually and corporately. We clothe ourselves in these attitudes.
In verse 13, we see these five virtues or attitudes put into action. Read Colossians 3:13
13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
We see bearing and forgiving are the two actions that mark the Christian community. What does it mean to bear with one another?
This phrase "to bear up" means literally to hold up, to support, to buttress, to have something lean against you or even to restrain. The context here is not short-term, like to catch something.
It's more long-term. To lift up. To support. What does it mean for us as a Christian community to bear with one another like this? This isn't to react. This is to support.
I'd like to talk through this in two different categories. First is internal and then external. If you're going to walk with me in life, you're going to get two different types of baggage, right?
You're going to get the stuff that's inside of me, all that dirty stuff. My personality, my wounds and weaknesses, all the things that happen that go on inside of me in my heart.
You're also going to get the stuff that goes on outside of me, the external. You're going to get suffering. You're going to get celebration. You're going to get sickness.
You're going to get tragedy. Bearing with one another means we're in for the long haul. We support one another in suffering, and we seek to restrain one another in struggle.
The Christian community has a regular diet of suffering and celebration, and we pull up the table to both. Why? Because the ethic of the kingdom is grace, not reciprocity. It's not about what I can get/give.
That's what it means to bear with one another. Then he says forgiving one another, because the primary currency of the Christian community is grace.
Christ not only establishes the pattern of forgiveness but also the possibility of forgiveness. Why? Because we who have been forgiven much are to forgive much.
Following Christ means walking the road He walked, and in order to forgive us He had to die. Forgiveness is relinquishment. It is a laying down.
No one can take it from us, any more than anyone could take the life of Jesus if He had not laid it down of His own will. But we can do as He did.
We can offer it up, writing off whatever loss it may entail, in the sure knowledge that the man who loses his life or his reputation or his face or anything else for the sake of Christ will save it.
Then Paul ties up this section with this statement. He says, "And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony."
If all these virtues make up the garment of Christ we're to put on, love acts as the belt that holds all of these virtues together.
What do we know about love? In Galatians 5, love is the active expression of a justifying faith. It's the primary fruit of the Spirit. 1 Corinthians 13. Love is the supreme Christian grace.
All the commandments are summed up in love. These virtues attain their full power only when they are united and empowered by love. We have seen attitudes, actions, and now we move on.
Lastly, in verses 15 to 16, Paul exhorts the Christian community. Read Colossians 3:15-16 We have these exhortations, kind of the bookends being peace and word.
15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.
16 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.
"…let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts… Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly…" Then we have this bridge in the middle. I want to start first with peace.
The peace Paul mentioned here is one he consistently highlights as one of the key blessings of the Christian experience.
It's that eschatological state of cosmic redemption that the Old Testament prophets were anticipating. It's the knowing that we have been reconciled to God.
Before Christ we were far from God. We were at enmity with God. We were strangers and aliens. We were dead in our sins and trespasses with no hope in the world.
In Christ though, God brings those who are far off. He brings them near. Those who are strangers and aliens He makes sons and daughters in the household of God.
Those who are dead, He breathes life into us. When we are united with Christ, the Bible says the dividing wall of hostility comes down. In the cross, He kills the hostility.
Paul is saying here let the peace of God rule your hearts. Let the peace of God, that we have been reconciled to God, that we are no longer strangers… We're adopted sons and daughters.
We're coheirs. That is our reality now. We are no longer those who are far off. We are near. We're no longer those who are dead. We are alive. We who have been reconciled to God have peace.
Paul is speaking here of how this peace needs to be applied to our lives, saying it needs to rule in your life. It needs to be the primary arbiter in your life, the primary decision factor in your life.
Why? Because the reality that we have been reconciled to God should fundamentally change everything about your life.
Why is that? Because the reality that we've been reconciled to God fundamentally changes everything about who you are.
This peace that we are sons and daughters, that we have been reconciled to God, should change everything. Let this peace rule and reign in your heart.
Then, secondly, he gets to this sentence, this three-word sentence right here. He says, "And be thankful." At first glance, it feels like this sentence is kind of out of place.
If you're a parent, you might pick up on what Paul is doing here. Why? Because one of the primary things we're trying to instill in our kids consistently is gratitude. Gratitude!
Why? Because they just don't know in their little minds how good the gifts in life they have are. They just come to expect it. This gets challenged with Christmas and birthdays.
The presents get to be more and more and start to become an expectation. You can start to see the kids lose some of there gratitude as they tear through them wanting to see what’s next!
So, what do we do as parents and grandparents? We remind them to say thank you for each gift. We ask who it was from and say thank you.
If you look here, Paul is trying to parent us. He is trying to say we just talked about the peace of God, that we have been reconciled to God.
That fundamentally changes everything about who you are and your world. What does he say next? He says, "And be thankful." Be grateful!
You have the supreme gift. Don't move past this. You didn't do anything to earn this or deserve this. It is a gift from God. You have been reconciled to God. You have peace. Be thankful.
Be grateful. Why? Because gratitude is the primary indicator of peace. If you know what God has done, you are grateful.
What he is saying next is he doesn't say the Word of God. He says, "…the word of Christ dwell in you richly…" The Word of God is common in the New Testament, but the word of Christ as seen here only occurs in Hebrews 6.
Paul is not referring here to the word of message that Christ proclaims but rather the message that proclaims Christ, or the word of the gospel.
What he is saying is the message of the gospel needs to be central to the Christian community. "…dwell in you richly…" It needs to be central to our activities, our worship, as we teach, admonishing one another.
Why? Because as we've talked about being reconciled to God. We have been made messengers of reconciliation. The hope of Christ now lives in us. We have peace through God through Christ.
I want to close here how Paul chooses to close our time. He says, "Let the word of Christ [this gospel] 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."
We sang a song right before I came out called "King of My Heart." In the second verse of this song, this is how it goes. I want us to just think and consider this as we close.
Let the King of my heart be the wind inside my sails, the anchor in the waves. Oh, he is my song. Let the King of my heart be the fire inside my vein, the echo of my days. Oh, he is my song.
How do we worship differently singing songs, hymns, and spiritual songs with thankfulness in our hearts to God when it comes from a reality that we now have peace in God, peace with God through Christ?
We now have the word of the gospel and have been sent on mission. Let's stand together and sing, church, as those who have embraced this reality and walked in this reality.
I just want to say if you're sitting out there this morning and you're just going, "Man, this is kind of far for me…"
Maybe when I say chosen, holy, and beloved, you cringe because you just don't feel chosen, holy, and beloved.
You feel wretched. You feel sinful. You feel dirty. You feel far from God. You feel ashamed.
Let me just encourage you that the God of the universe before anything else was made set His sights on you.
His arms are not too short to reach you. You are never too far from Him to bring you near. Maybe your response this morning isn't thankfulness for peace.
Maybe your response this morning is to cry out for peace to a God who hears and is waiting to respond with life.
Wherever you are this morning, those who are far from God or those who are in Christ, let our response be this…
…thankfulness in our hearts to God that we have been reconciled to him and that we now have this word of Christ, this gospel, to carry out.