Out with the Old. In with the New.

Welcome

Good morning and welcome. We are so glad you are here today.

We are continuing our study in the book of Colossians this morning. We’ve reached the halfway point in Colossians and this morning we are looking at the beginning of Colossians 3.

In the previous weeks we look at Paul’s introduction and encouraging prayers for the believers in Colossae. We have also looked in the past few weeks at several warning that Paul had for the Colossian church. We covered those in detail, so I won’t spend any time reviewing those. In a nutshell, we have to be aware of any add-ons to the gospel message or trying to require things of people that are not supported by scripture. Paul’s message was that any of these things are treacherous and detrimental to the gospel.

Today, in chapter 3, Paul turns to encouraging believers to put off the old self and begin to take on the transformational lifestyle of the believer in Christ.

Colossians 3:1–11 CSB

1 So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. 5 Therefore, put to death what belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, God’s wrath is coming upon the disobedient, 7 and you once walked in these things when you were living in them. 8 But now, put away all the following: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and filthy language from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self. You are being renewed in knowledge according to the image of your Creator. 11 In Christ there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all.

[pray]

We all have times in our lives where we totally lose our focus and get gripped by the wrong things. It could be:

times of poor health

times of family trouble

times of financial trouble

times when we are completely gripped by sin or addictions in our lives

times we make poor choices and have to pay the consequences

times that others sin against us

We all have times when we lower our eyes from heavenly things and focus on earthly things.

Paul makes a shift in chapter 3 to move from sounding the alarm to reminding the believers in the Colossian church about the basics that they had been taught regarding the Christian life. He wanted to remind them to put off their old carnal selves and put on their newly transformed spiritual selves that are redeemed and forgiven and connected with Christ.

I have told you in the last few weeks...

Principle: Unless a believer understands and comprehends scripture, they can never defend the truth of scripture or declare it properly

Furthermore, without true comprehension, believers will never be able to demonstrate that scripture has had an impact on their lives.

Titus 1:16 CSB

16 They claim to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, and unfit for any good work.

Paul takes the Colossian church back to the basics. He told them to...

I. Seek the Things Above

Let’s take a close look at today’s passage, beginning with verse 1...

A. Raised With Christ

Paul starts out with a conditional statement here. He says...

Colossians 3:1 CSB

1 So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

Can you be both dead and alive at the same time?

This is the question that Paul is answering here. He is saying to the Colossian believers and to us, “If you are alive, act like it!” Your life in Christ should tell you where your focus should be.

We talked about this recently. We know that Jesus died on the cross, he was buried in the grave, he was raised on the third day, and that he was raised up to heaven to be with his Father.

We share in that when we have Christ within us. When we choose Christ to be our Savior, we die to our old nature and begin to take on a new nature. As we continue to grow in Christ, we have his Spirit to help us be more connected with him and to put the character of Christ within us.

This is symbolized by our baptism. When we go into the baptismal waters, you will likely hear the pastor say, “You are buried with Christ and raised to walk in newness of life.” This is exactly what we are talking about.

Seek the things above, where Christ is, and...

B. Set Your Mind on Things Above

In verse 1 Paul said seek the things above and here in verse 2 he says...

Colossians 3:2 CSB

2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.

These are different verbs.

To seek means “to reach out or search for something that someone desires.”

To “set your mind” means “to direct one’s attention and thought to something.”

While these are parallel ideas, the major difference here is the difference between thinking about something and desiring it or yearning for it.

Paul is not talking about material things in these verses. Paul is talking about spiritual matters. The things above are the things like Christ’s character, his presence and the joys of heaven.

The earthly things are the things that consume our minds and consume our days...

material possessions

the accolades of man

money, power, control, advancement

This isn’t really a call to withdraw from all forms of business pursuit or pursuit of a career. We are heaven-focused people living in an earthly world. While we have our needs to meet and our lives to live. We must not forget that we are spiritual beings bound to Christ and to the kingdom of God.

Luke 12:34 CSB

34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Pastor Kent Hughes writes about his dog, Bozie...

Colossians and Philemon—The Supremacy of Christ Instructions Regarding Our Fullness (vv. 1, 2)

I recently played catch with a little dog named Bozie. After spending forty-five minutes tossing the ball for Bozie, I concluded that when she dies an autopsy will reveal she has a tennis ball for a brain! Bozie sleeps with her tennis ball, carries it to her water dish, and can find it wherever it is thrown. Her mind is constantly set on the tennis ball. So it should be with us regarding “things above.”

How many of us have a pet like Bozie?

How many of us have a mind like Bozie? Focused on things that matter little in the grand scheme of things, but are of utmost importance to us here in this world?

C. Died with Christ

I said a few minutes ago that we have died with Christ.

Colossians 3:3 CSB

3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Christ died for us as a substitution for us in paying the price for our sin. However, we die with Christ because we identify with him.

Christ died for sin to bear it’s penalty on our behalf. But he also died unto sin, in order to break its power and its hold over us.

We said this during our study on the Fruit of the Spirit. We receive the Spirit when we accept Christ and his Spirit bind us to Christ.

1 Corinthians 12:13 CSB

13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and we were all given one Spirit to drink.

In addition to dying with Christ, Paul says we are...

D. Hidden in Christ

Colossians 3:3 CSB

3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

We no longer belong to this world. We are citizens of heaven and we find the source of life in Christ.

Because we are hidden in Christ, we have security and satisfaction in him.

Romans 8:31–39 CSB

31 What, then, are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He did not even spare his own Son but gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him grant us everything? 33 Who can bring an accusation against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies. 34 Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is the one who died, but even more, has been raised; he also is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us. 35 Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: Because of you we are being put to death all day long; we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered. 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The Christian life is hidden, because the world is unaware, uneducated, and unbelieving. Each of us is responsible before the Spirit for ourselves and we answer for our own actions and choices. Others may observe. Others may have some indication of how your spiritual life is before God. But only we ourselves can answer to God for what we have done.

This hidden part of us is not motivated by the things of earth, but the things of heaven. It is motivated by hidden things in our spirit.

E. Alive in Christ

Paul continues in verse 4 saying that we find or life in Christ...

Colossians 3:4 CSB

4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Eternal life is not something far off in the future that we will live after Christ returns. Eternal life is now! Eternal life is found in Christ Jesus and is something that his Spirit imparts to us when we choose Christ.

I read a story on social media recently about a practicing witch that came to know Christ and gave up all her lifestyle and choices. She got rid of her books. She changed the way she looked. She died to her old self and became a new creation.

What changed in you when you chose Christ? What did you give up? What could people see in you that was different than it was before?

F. Glorified in Christ

Colossians 3:4 CSB

4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Furthermore, Paul says that we “will appear with him in glory.” This means that while we died with Christ, we will also be glorified with him.

John 17:22 CSB

22 I have given them the glory you have given me, so that they may be one as we are one.

That’s talking about us! If you believe in Christ, that’s talking about you. If you have chosen Christ, that means that you have received a seed of that glory.

II. Kill the Earthly Flesh

Paul goes on to say that not only are we alive in Christ, and dead to sin, but we must continue to put to death our earthly nature...

Colossians 3:5–9 CSB

5 Therefore, put to death what belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, God’s wrath is coming upon the disobedient, 7 and you once walked in these things when you were living in them. 8 But now, put away all the following: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and filthy language from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old self with its practices

Some people love to hear the Good News of the gospel of Jesus Christ. But they can hate what they consider to be the bad news. They don’t want to hear about the negative warnings against sin. They don’t want to be admonished by scripture.

But the negative commands of Jesus and the apostles are inextricably connected to the positive message. They are the other side of the coin, so to speak.

Some people think that they are alone in putting sin to death in themselves.

However, many of us know that the power of Christ is in us through his Spirit. Because we have this power, we can root out these earthly, fleshly desires that are in us.

The evil desires are part of all of us. We get these as a birthday present as part of our human nature. Some of us learn to kill these desires within us sooner than others...

Mark 7:21–23 CSB

21 For from within, out of people’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immoralities, thefts, murders, 22 adulteries, greed, evil actions, deceit, self-indulgence, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within and defile a person.”

I imagine that all of us could name one or two things on this list that we still need to root out of our lives. I promise, I’m not going to tell you mine and I’m not going to ask you to tell me yours.

But I do know human nature and I can still see evidence of some of these things in my own life and at times I observe them in others who proclaim Christ.

This does not mean they are not saved.

It does not mean they are redeemed.

It means that they are a work in progress.

This means that we sometimes have to have a little bit of grace with each other. They say that “ministry is messy” because working with people means that my flaws will rub against your flaws and potentially cause problems between us.

This happens in families. It happens in the workplace. It happens in neighborhoods. It happens in communities. And it also happens in the church.

How do we resolve that? We put the old self to death and we begin the process of ...

III. Put on the New Self

When we have Christ as our Lord, we have a task set before us. The task is to put on the new self and to be renewed...

Colossians 3:10–11 CSB

10 and have put on the new self. You are being renewed in knowledge according to the image of your Creator. 11 In Christ there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all.

These verbs that we translate “put off” and “put on” are not continuing verb actions. They are a single point in time that is connected with your salvation. When we trust Christ and choose him, we undertake this process of putting off the old and putting on the new. We bury the old man and put the new man in control.

A. Being Renewed

However, when we look at this word translated as “being renewed” it is a word that carries forward in time. It says that “you are constantly being renewed in knowledge.” This means that we are constantly in a process of learning and growing spiritually.

This is what we call sanctification, being made holy. We are being made in the image of Christ and in the image of God, our Creator.

I like Warren Wiersbe’s take on this...

The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Eight: Heaven on Earth (Colossians 3:1–11)

We were formed in God’s image, and deformed from God’s image by sin. But through Jesus Christ, we can be transformed into God’s image! We must be renewed in the spirit of our minds (Eph. 4:23). As we grow in knowledge of the Word of God, we will be transformed by the Spirit of God to share in the glorious image of God (2 Cor. 3:18). God transforms us by the renewing of our minds (Rom. 12:2), and this involves the study of God’s Word. It is the truth that sets us free from the old life (John 8:31–32).

B. Christ is All and In All

Paul seems to jump topics here. This statement really connects back to verse 9 where Paul commands, “Do not lie to one another.” He is reminding the saints of Colossae to treat each other properly. In the church we should accept each other in spite of our differences in language or our differences in culture.

He turns to these artificial man-made labels of division that we put on each other...

Colossians 3:11 CSB

11 In Christ there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all.

Christ transcends all of these things both then and now.

Conclusion

We put on the new self by working hard at practicing the Fruit of the Spirit and by being self-aware and careful about how we interact with others around us. We cannot let down our guard. That might be tempting, but letting our feelings and emotions slip in the moment is not the way of the believer in Christ.

What are the Fruit of the Spirit?

Galatians 5:22–23 CSB

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things.

What fruit do you need to put on today?