Our Rule For Life
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The words that we will consider this morning are found in the letter to the Colossians chapter 3…
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 also will appear with him in glory.
I’ll remind you that we have been discussing where we as a church as going. Talking about the mindset of the elders of providence, and I might add more than the Elders but the leadership at providence as a whole. Answering the question, what is the Lord desiring us to become? What will the next ten years look like for us?
We began by considering the one to whom we look for guidance, and provision, and sustainence. Our eyes are on the Lord. We then defined that this is not a religious affection, nor are we following him out of obligation or merely to do churchry christiany things, but because we as elders have experienced God, and knowing him to be faithful, strong and true. Knowing him to be the creator of all things. Knowing him to be worthy of all our praise and honor. Knowing Him to be the source of life. We desire to obey Him.
The source of life. Look at your bibles, Colossians 3:1… Do you see this statment there? If then, you have been raised with Christ, Paul says. KNowing that we are following the Lord, knowing that we need more than religiosity, we see here our starting place. Have YOU been raised with Christ? What does that mean? Well flip back to Colossians 2:12 Paul describes it like this…
having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.
Without Christ we are without God. Many people are willing to say, yes I believe in a God. But according to the Bible, that is not the christian faith. Many are willing to say they believe in God, but what about The Lord Jesus Christ? We see here that without Christ we are without God and we have not been raised from the dead. Without Christ, we are dead. Yet, God has shown us his love for us in this way, he crucified Jesus…
How was that loving to you? The killing of Jesus. How was it loving for him to kill him, and then raised him from the dead? Look at verse 13-14..
And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
God crucified Jesus and raised him from the dead that you might know what it means to be forgiven of your sin. There was a legal debt that stood in the way of us getting to God. Of us being able to count God as our father instead of our enemy. In the eyes of God there were not enough bulls and goats to sacrifice on earth to cover the sin of one man let alone all those who would believe. Many decent men and women have died but here are not enough decent men and women to die for the sin of all of those who would believe.
Thus Jesus came, Jesus the son of God, the second person of the trinity, stepped down from heaven, to take the form of a man. To live a perfect and sinless life. To obey the father even to the point of death on a cross.
My friends, this is the love of God for you. While you were still sinners, Christ died for you. There is nothing in heaven and on earth more valuable than His son, and yet he gave Him up because he saw how helpless we were.
We could run and run, we could chase after God, but never get to him because we ourselves could never purchase enough blood to cleanse our sin and purify our hearts and minds to the holiness that is required to stand Holy, and righteous, and forgiven before God.
My Friends, this is good new for you and me. This may be stuff that you have put off because yu have heard it a thousand times… It might be information you have locked away because you knew a self proclaimed christian who abused you or who simply was a terrible witness. Maybe you are sitting here this morning and have never believed this religious mumbo jumbo… Wherever you may be, let me say, I personally could not risk losing this kind of love. Nor do I want you too.
People might say, why do bad things happen to good people if God is so loving? To which I would say, he allowed the worst of all to happen to his own son! Stripped naked, beaten, flogged, tore apart by whips, a crown of thorns driven into his head, nails hammered into his wrists and his feet, left with all of that agonizing pain to suffocate slowly, all the while knowing his best friend and mother is watching…He did this, for the glory of his father, but at the end of the day, he did it so that you could be forgiven.
Back to verse 1 of Chapter 3… This Jesus rose from the dead that you might be raised to new life. That you might also come to the cross, lay down your life and stop living it your way, and turn to God to live his way.
I tell you all of this because it is first and foremost true. Second I tell you this because what is there that I could offer you that is more loving? That because of Jesus’ death God will forgive your sin and look on you in love rather than with anger and wrath? Third, I tell you this because your very eternity hangs in the balance and how you take this and believe this will affect your life after death. Lastly I remind you of this todaay because this is the whole launching point of everything that we as a church do.
Paul writing to the church at Colossai says if then you have been raised with Christ… Is it true? Have you been raised with him? Are you a professing Christian? Yes... Then live like it… What do you mean, Paul? Well the work before you is to set your minds on things that are above. Where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above and not on earth… That is a curious statement. What does he mean by it?
Look back at verse 20 of chapter 2… Colossians 2:20-23
If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.
Paul says relgions of the world can only make it hard for you to live as a Christian. Submitting themselves to a rule of law that they MUST do what needs to be done to win favor with their god. The world understands this way of thinking and is quite happy with it. Kneel and pray three times a day, and then you will win favor with Allah, empty your mind in yoga and maybe youll find favor with some vauge deity, practice confession and take the eucherist and wear your rosary then youll find favor with the god of the catholic church.
Or even more frightnesing is where the period of the enlightenment got us. David Hume, Immanuel Kant, Fredrich Nietzsche, they were all great philosophers of the enlightenment. Hume believed in God but could not believe in miracles. Thus, if you follow that Jesus was not raised from the dead. Kant believed in God but did not believe that truth was absolute, meaning Jesus could or could not have existed.. who knows… Nietzche is more popular than hume or kant but was the one who coined the phrase that God is dead… The result of his thinking was what some consider a cosmic vertigo… Everything, everything is subjective and meaningless.
These are elemental spirits of the world. Whether you are following a religious rule, or a philosophical rule, they are elemental spirits that the devil uses to bind you and blind you. They all have the appearance of wisdom, but they are of no value in bringing thanksgiving to God or holiness to you soul, of which you will not see God.
So, if you have died with Christ, have you not died to these elemental spirits? Paul asks them, then why do you keep trying to keep them?
My friends, let Christ liberate you this morning… The only rule that he has for you, is Himself. Look at verse 3-4…
Those who love Christ are hidden in Christ.
Not you as a person, but your soul. You don’t have to become a hermit. You have to live in the world, but not like the world. If your life is hidden with Christ, it is already secured in heaven. You are his. Not the world’s. You might have experienced this before…
In your home there are a certain set of rules for dinner time. Growing up we were not allowed to sing at the table. I can still here it now… But at my table, as long as you are not being obnoxious, sing all you want.
Paul is saying, there are rules to take part in the religion of the world. And they vary so you never know which ones are expected of you. But in worship of the one true God there is one rule, Christ. Take off the world and put on Christ. Pursue Jesus. Verse 4 says that when Christ who is... your... life appears then you will appear with him in glory.
We all like the glory part, but the precursor is this… Is Christ your life? Christ laid down his life so that you might find yours in him. He died so that you may live in him. Many people want the promises of Christianity, but believe they are going to heaven because they are a good person. They beleive that they did good enough… they are at least a good person, so why wouldn’t God look on them with mercy. My friends, God doesn’t work that way. If Christ is not your life, you will have no life in God.
Which is why I want to close by talking about our goals and mission as a Church. Our goal as Christians must always be this,
“To glorify God and enjoy him forever”… (Psalm 73. Psalm 86, Isaiah 12:2, Isaiah 42:8, Isaiah 60:21, Matthew 5:16, Romans 11:36, 1 Corinthians 10:31, 2 Corinthians 5:9, Philippians 4:4, Revelation 4:11, Revelation 21:3-4)
This is our goal. See this one string banjo… We have one string that we must always play and come back to. Glorify God… Gloruify God… Glorify God…
What else does he deserve? He have provided to us the greatest salvation! Not from all our enemies on earth, but from the greatest enemy, death… Why should i fear death? I have assurance with God! I am going to his side, I will be with him where there is neither pain nor sorrow. Where the harms of this earth can’t touch me anymore!… Bring him glory. Bring him honor and praise…
But how do we get there? How does one come to live like this because it is not a natural disposition. It is not a natural way of thinking.... The answer is that someone comes to play this one string over and over again through our mission… A mission is what we will do to get to our goal. So what is our mission?
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
My friends, our mission is simple. Welcome people into the church through baptism, then teach them about Jesus and hold them accountable to that teaching. We have to take them both seriously though. It will not happen on its own.... Take baptism for example… How many of you take baptism seriously?
Here is a baptism questionaire from a chruch in south asia… Lets see if you were asked these questions.
Are you willing to leave home and lose the blessing of your father?
Are you willing to lose your job?
Are you willing to go to the village and those who persecute you, forgive them, and share the love christ with them?
Are you willing to give and offering to the Lord?
Are you willing to be beaten rather than deny your faith?
Are you willing to go to prision?
Are you willing to die for Jesus?
Do you really believe that Jesus is lord? Do you really believe that Jesus loved you so much that he died for you? If the answer to these questions is no, should you be baptized…? Probably not, for we follow in his footsteps, carrying our cross so that others might believe and enjoy him the way we do.
But its not to late to grow in love with Christ so that you may answer these questions yes.... if we continue to be faithful to teach the word as the Lord asked us to he will move in you and grow your heart to where you can say “yes” to all of these questions without fear.
Our mission as a church is to see to it that the word is given. Because the only way one can grow in glorifying God is through the teaching of the word. Jesus said baptize them and teach them to obey my commands.
Its a pretty crazy thing for a church to say that we are simply going to preach and teach the bible and hold people to it. But that is the statement we as elders are moving toward. We will have VBS, we will have our homecoming celebration, we will have events, yes… But we will also have discipline and follow matthew 18 which we looked at not too long ago.
Our rule for life is Christ. Does it help us become more christlike? If the answer is no, it will not be a priority. If the answer is yes, bring it on in the Lords leading.
Our mission as a church must be focused on taking off the world and putting on Christ because Christ is our rule and our measurment for life.
We want to be like him because out of thanksgiving our hearts overflow with gratitude because of what he has done for us and called us to. Christ is our life. We want to have all of him, so that in all of our life, whether we are eating, or sleeping, orstudying at college, or going to work, or walking down the road, or attending bible study, or buying a car or a house, or raising children, or mowing the grass, or standig by the side of the death bed of a loved one… We can do all things to the glory of God alone.