The Heavenly-Minded Life: Living IN Christ
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Introduction:
Introduction:
Purpose of Colossians:
Paul wrote Colossians to warn the believers of doctrinal error and to spur them to continued growth in Christ. The first half of the Book of Colossians is a theological treatise that includes one of the most profound presentations of Christology anywhere in the New Testament. The second half is a mini-ethics course, addressing every area of Christian life. Paul progresses from the individual life to the home and family, from work to the way we should treat others. The theme of this book is the Lordship of Jesus Christ and His sufficiency in meeting our needs in every area.
Got Questions (Online)
The Heavenly-Minded Life:
Living IN Christ: We will be REVEALED with Him
Living ACCORDING TO Christ: We need RENEWED to be like Him
Living FOR Christ: We need RELATIONSHIPS focused on Him
Passage:
Passage:
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. 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. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. 18 Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. 19 Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them. 20 Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. 21 Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged. 22 Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. 23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. 25 For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality.
Prayer
Prayer
I. Seeking things above.
I. Seeking things above.
How are we to seek?
Set Your Heart - Present Imperative
Persistent - Continuous, Ongoing Effort
1 And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. 2 He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. 3 And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ 4 For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’ ”
What are these things above?
1 The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”
His Power - Over All
His Presence - In All
We do this because we identify with Christ in His being raised from death, and ascending to His throne as Sovereign Lord over all creation.
Where is our identity?
Material - Spend for image, not the product or need of it.
Immaterial - Status, position, advancement, etc.
Where does your mind wander when you have nothing else to do? Or breaks your focus?
The Christian:
The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Eight: Heaven on Earth (Colossians 3:1–11)
The word if does not suggest that Paul’s readers might not have been “risen with Christ”; for all of us, as believers, are identified with Christ in death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. The word since gives the truer meaning of the word. Our exalted position in Christ is not a hypothetical thing, or a goal for which we strive. It is an accomplished fact.
Does Christ dominate our thoughts, does our mind regularly look to Him and things above?
Seek, or set our hearts…then set our minds...
II. Setting Our Minds on things above.
II. Setting Our Minds on things above.
The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Eight: Heaven on Earth (Colossians 3:1–11)
But how do we “seek those things which are above”? The secret is found in Colossians 3:2: “Habitually set your mind—your attention—on things above, not on things on the earth” (literal translation). Our feet must be on earth, but our minds must be in heaven. This is not to suggest that (as D.L. Moody used to say) we become “so heavenly minded that we are no earthly good.” It means that the practical everyday affairs of life get their direction from Christ in heaven. It means further that we look at earth from heaven’s point of view.
Heart - Desires, Moral, Motivation
Mind - Values, Mental, Mind
Virtues, we will look at next time (vv. 12-ff)
What do we value?
Clenched VS Open-handed relationship to earthly things.
19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! 24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
III. Our life is Hidden With Christ.
III. Our life is Hidden With Christ.
The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Eight: Heaven on Earth (Colossians 3:1–11)
“Hidden in Christ” means security and satisfaction. The eminent Greek scholar, Dr. A.T. Robertson, comments on this: “So here we are in Christ who is in God, and no burglar, not even Satan himself, can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:31–39)” (Paul and the Intellectuals, Broadman, p. 98).
Hidden - Imperfect Tense
Active and ongoing in the present, currently without end.
7 So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
IV. Christ, our life, will Reveal Us With Himself In Glory.
IV. Christ, our life, will Reveal Us With Himself In Glory.
20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Eight: Heaven on Earth (Colossians 3:1–11)
According to the Apostle Paul, we have already been glorified! (Rom. 8:30) This glory simply has not yet been revealed. Christ has already given us His glory (John 17:22), but the full revelation of the glory awaits the return of the Saviour (Rom. 8:17–25).
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Eight: Heaven on Earth (Colossians 3:1–11)
We must constantly keep our affection and our attention fixed on the things of heaven, through the Word and prayer, as well as through worship and service. We can enjoy “days of heaven upon the earth” (Deut. 11:21) if we will keep our hearts and minds in the heavenlies.
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
Thesis:
Thesis:
We have been raised with Christ to newness of life and we must now live unto His return, where He will reveal Himself and His people in Glory
Prayer
Prayer