Living the Risen Life - Pat 1

“Living the Risen Life” – Part 1

Colossians 3:1-11

Scripture Reading Before Sermon

1 Thessalonians 1:8-10 – Those dead in their sin because of their unbelief

8 He (Jesus) will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might 10 on the day he comes to be glorified

Revelation 20:11-15 - Those dead in their sin because of their unbelief

11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. 15 Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

1 Peter 1:3-9– Those who are made alive in Christ

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Introduction

A Christian is someone who…shout it out

· Some are behavior that don’t produce salvation – something we do because we have been redeemed and saved

Sermon Title: “Living the Risen Life”

What we have been studying so far in Colossians is:

· Theological (Doctrine) in VS 1:1-2:23

· These are called “Indicatives”

· The Biblical truths of who Christ is and what He has done for believers

· They are the realities of our new life in Christ

· I’m going to refer to this as “Our Position in Christ”

· Paul now turns to practical living in VS 3:1-4:6

· These are called “Imperatives” – The behaviors we exhibit based on the “Indicatives”

· I’m going to refer to this as “Our Priorities”

· Typical of Paul’s letters

· Paul uses the theological foundation in VS 1:1 – 2:23 to now show how it translates to practical Christian living

· All theology has implications for practical living, and all practical living have theological foundations

· In other words: Our eternal position in Jesus leads to our priorities

Colossians 3:1-11

1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have 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 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming. 7 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. 8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. 11 Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.

Illustration

· Football position and their priority

· In the same way, our position in Jesus because of a saving faith in Him leads to our priorities

· New life = New behaviors

· Because belief and behavior are inseparable

· These new behaviors, or priorities, centers on VS 1:10 - To walk in a manner worthy of the Gospel – Of Jesus

Another aspect is that our behaviors and priorities because of our new life in Jesus, our position, is the evidence of our faith in Jesus

· We can say I’m a Christian, that we have faith all we want

· But if we aren’t living that faith out, if we go to church on Sunday but live like unbelievers the rest of the week:

· We should probably examine ourselves to see if we are truly saved

· This also is counter to evangelism

· If non-believers hear us profess we are Christians but our lifestyle is the same as theirs, why would they want to believe

Illustration

· The quality of your work is evidence of what you have been trained to do

As we study these versus, I also want to use Romans 12:1-2 as a supporting Scripture – in bulletin

· I believe it corresponds well with Colossians 3:1-4

Romans 12:1-2

1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Exegesis

VS 3:1 – The link between the indicatives with the imperatives or our position with our priorities

1 If then you have been raised with Christ

· Already said in 2:12:

12 Having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

· As I mentioned earlier, rest of the letter comes from the reality of our position in Christ- Here, we are raised with Him

· Let’s review this position in 1:1-2:23

· This is a list of Biblical Doctrines or essential beliefs

· They are in the bulletin with the corresponding versus for you go back to on your own

· We’ve learned that by grace through faith, we have received:

o Regeneration:(Old person died, new person alive – Dirty clothes to new clothes) – Born again – raised with Christ – VS 2:9-13

o Justification: God now sees us holy and blameless, set aside for God all because of Jesus – VS 1:21-22

o Reconciliation: Reconciled to a right relationship with God – Eternally separated to eternity with Him - Now children of God - VS 1:2, 1:21-22

o Redemption: All of our sins forgiven – Christ’s blood on cross nailing sins to the cross – VS 1:14, 2:13-14

o Sanctification: Growing and maturing in our faith – becoming more and more like Jesus – Filled with and growing in the knowledge of Christ – have His wisdom and understanding – VS 1:9-10, 2:19

o Salvation: Physical death results in our eternity with God – full assurance of our secured inheritance – We have the hope of glory – VS 1:5, 1:12-14, 1:27

o We have been empowered to live holy and blameless through Christ’s power, empowered with the ability to “walk in Him” (Live in a manner worthy of the Gospel, worthy of Jesus Christ), ability to bear fruit – Impossible to do on our own efforts - Holy Spirit – VS 1:6, 9-11, 2:2-4

Is this you? Are you in this position? Have you received all Jesus has accomplished for you?

· Read these versus again and contemplate on your answers to these questions – paying attention to versus in bulletin

· Only the reality of our position will lead to new priorities

Paul now gives 2 commands for practical living the Christian life – the imperatives

Seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

“Living the Risen Life”

What does seek with you heart and set your minds above mean? – What does this look like – What does it entail?

· Position leads to priorities

· Seeking and setting our minds on earthly things leads to earthly priorities

· This is true for all unbelievers

· In fact, no one seeks God – No one seeks and sets their mind toward Heaven- Psalm 54

· However, even as believers we tend to look to earthly things as well

· So we must always be on guard so as to seek and set our minds on things above

· Seeking and setting our minds on heavenly things leads to heavenly priorities

Let’s look at “Seek with you heart”

· To seek means our focus of attention

· To set our hearts on the long term – eternity

· To pursue the things of Heaven

· The context makes it clear that our primary focus of attention is to be on Christ rather than things on earth

· The reality is that our position in Christ should impact us so significantly that we can’t help but focus our attention on Jesus and the priorities of Heaven

· Paul then says seek the things above where Jesus is “seated at the right hand of God.” That is, he is in the place of honor and authority

o Seek to put Jesus on the throne of your life, to be the King of your life

o Seek to honor Him in the way we live, what our priorities are

· We also seek God’s wisdom and understanding

· We seek to grow and mature in our faith

· We seek His will for our lives

· And His power to carry His will out

· Seek to live out Romans 12:1-2, to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God

Set your mind on things above

· Paul calls for a deliberate act of the mind to focus on the things above

· Means to think about or to concern ourselves with aligning our will with God’s will

· Things of Heaven drive our motivations

· Again, let’s turn to Romans 12:2

· Here Paul says that as believers, our mind is being renewed in Christ

2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

· Like the old person, the old mind has passed away and the new mind is here

· The truth is that we have the mind of Christ

1 Corinthians 2:14-16

14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. 15 The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, 16 for,

“Who has known the mind of the Lord

so as to instruct him?”

But we have the mind of Christ.

· One of the best ways we can set our minds to things above is to study Scripture

Why are we to seek with our hearts and set our mind on things above?

· Paul gives us 2 reasons why as he goes back to the imperatives in VS 3 and 4

· Our position leads to our priorities

The 1st reason why comes in VS 3

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

What does Paul mean by, “Your life is now hidden with Christ in God?”

· Well one, he means we have security in a place of safety in Jesus – both on Earth and the security of salvation

Psalm 27:5-6

5 For in the day of trouble

He will keep me safe in His dwelling;

He will hide me in the shelter of His sacred tent

and set me high upon a rock.

6 Then my head will be exalted

above the enemies who surround me;

at His sacred tent I will sacrifice with shouts of joy;

I will sing and make music to the Lord.

Paul also means our new life in Christ is an inward reality, can’t be seen with human eyes

· People only see the product of this inward reality, our behaviors, but they cannot see the internal motivations for these behaviors

· They also cannot see the hidden work of the Holy Spirit who empowers our behaviors

The 2nd reason why we are to seek and set our mind on things above comes in VS 3:4

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

· Jesus is our life because we are united to the risen Christ by faith

· He’s our life because we belong to Him

And since we are united to Jesus, we will appear with Him in glory:

· Christ will bring us home to eternity when He returns a 2nd time

· The assured promise we have which is the hope of eternal salvation Paul mentioned in VS 1:27

VS 1:27

God’s mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

How can we live following Paul’s commands here; To seek with our hearts and set our minds on things above?

· 1st we have to understand that we don’t have the power to do so in and of ourselves

· Can’t pull up our bootstraps and do our best

· There’s one way and one way only: Coming into a saving faith in Jesus

· Jesus is the only source of power to follow these commands – Through Holy Spirit

· Another way to put it: The power that comes from our position leads to our power to live out our priorities

· We are Empowered to “walk in Christ” (Live in a manner worthy of the Gospel, worthy of Jesus Christ),

· Empowered to bear fruit in every good work

Application: Practical things we can do with what we’ve learned today

Re-read VS 1:1-2:23 to remind us what Paul has been teaching us about our new life in Christ

Then we ask ourselves:

· Is this really me? Is this really my position? Have I truly received all Jesus has accomplished for me?

· Then let’s think about our day to day life:

· Am I showing evidence of my faith and my position in Jesus through my priorities and behaviors?

Let’s also examine ourselves by asking: Are there areas in my lives where I am seeking/setting mind to earthly things?

· Earthly things that drive my behaviors and priorities that I need to put to death?

Or am I seeking and setting my heart and mind on things above where Jesus is seated?

· It is my experience that to establish this mindset requires me to begin each day in prayer and Scripture study

· Find your own ways to help you establish this mindset

Because of my new life in Jesus, am I motivated to seek and set our minds above so I can:

· Grow in my relationship with Jesus?

· Grow and mature in my faith?

· To increase my knowledge of God?

· To know His will for my life?

· So I can live in a manner worthy of Christ – Walking in Him, obedient to Him?

Another practical and beneficial thing we can do is:

· Again, re-read 1:1-2:23

· But this time substitute the plural with the singular

· Personalize the letter as if it were written only to you

· I have a tendency of reading Scripture as learning facts

· This helps me internalizing Paul’s teachings – apply it to my life – to make it more impactful

· When is says: “US and WE” – to “ME and I”

· When Paul says “YOU” add your name to it

· When Paul says “YOU WERE and YOU ARE” us “I WAS and I AM”

· At some points add the word “ME” in the sentence

Let’s finish with two things to take home with us – on bulletin

“The problem is that we aren’t so heavenly minded that we are of no earthly use, but that we tend to be more earthly minded that we are of no heavenly use” – Alistar Beg

From the hymn “I’d Rather Have Jesus” that expresses the idea that Jesus is more valuable than anything on earth

“I’d rather have Jesus than silver and gold;

I’d rather be His than have riches untold;

I’d rather have Jesus than houses or lands;

I’d rather be led by His nail pierced hands;

I’d rather have Jesus than men’s applause;

I’d rather be faithful to His dear cause;

I’d rather have Jesus than worldwide fame;

I’d rather be true to His holy name.”