Colossians 3:12-17 - Put Them On
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
[INTER] What will help us be more like Jesus?
To be more like Jesus should be our ambition, but not everything that seems helpful will actually help us be more like Jesus.
[CONTEXT] In the Colossian church, apparently some false teachers had come in teaching that the Colossians could be made more holy, more enlightened, more like Jesus if they looked to themselves.
These false teachers were calling the Colossians to look to self-made religion, self-abasement, and severe treatment of the body as avenues of holiness or enlightenment.
But contrary to the false teachers, the Apostle Paul held up Jesus Christ as preeminent and called the Colossian believers to look to Him.
At the beginning of Colossians 3, Paul call on them to set their minds on Christ.
Just after that he called them to consider the members of their earthly body as dead to sin; he called them to put aside all sinful things.
But in Colossians 3:12-17, Paul calls the Colossian believers to put on the character of Christ.
The call that Paul issued to the Colossians is the call God issues to us by His Spirit through His Word this morning.
We must put on the character of Christ in our individual lives and in the life of the church.
Follow along as I read Colossians 3:12-17.
[READING - Colossians 3:12-17]
12 So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. 14 Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. 15 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 richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.
[PRAYER]
[ILLUS] Have you ever seen that show Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition?
In that show, fitness expert, Chris Powell, lives with people who are in desperate need of transformation.
His clients are dangerously overweight and will die unless there is a drastic change.
In a single episode, participants develop new habits, drop weight, and then present themselves to family and friends in a dramatic reveal.
In that reveal, the participant is a new person.
They’re wearing new clothes.
They’re committed to a new lifestyle.
And everyone is blow away by the transformation.
[CIT] In our passage this morning, Paul wants the Colossian believers to understand that an even more staggering transformation has taken place in them.
God has made them new people through faith in Christ.
God has called them to clothe themselves with Christlikeness.
God has called them to a new lifestyle—a lifestyle that has the exaltation of Jesus Christ at the center of everything.
[TURN] Even though we don’t deserve it, God graciously sends Jesus to—not just live with us—but to live in us.
And in doing so, God makes all who trust in Jesus into new people who are called to put on the new clothing of Christlikeness and take up a new lifestyle of exalting Christ.
[AIM] This morning if we have trusted in Jesus Christ, that is what we need to see in Colossians 3:12-17—you need to see the new you, your new clothes, and your new lifestyle.
[TS] Let’s take a closer look at each of these…
Major Ideas
Major Ideas
#1: The New You (Col. 3:12a)
#1: The New You (Col. 3:12a)
Colossians 3:12 (NASB95)
12 So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved…
[EXP] This the reality of who we are in Christ; we are the chosen of God.
When were we chosen?
Before the foundations of the earth.
Where were we chosen?
In Christ.
Ephesians 1:3-4 says…
Ephesians 1:3–4 (NASB95)
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.
Why were we chosen?
Not because of anything we had done, but to display the glory of God in salvation.
First Peter 2:9 says…
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
How were we chosen?
By the sovereign power of God.
In John 15:16, Jesus said…
John 15:16 (NASB95)
16 “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit…
What Jesus first said to His Apostles is true for all His followers: We did not choose Him; He chose us.
And what were we chosen to be?
In the language of Colossians 3:12, we were chose to be holy and beloved.
That is, because of the great love with which God loved us, we were chosen to be beloved children of God who walk in holiness, who behave righteously, who live in agreement with God’s Word.
This is our new identity in Jesus Christ.
[ILLUS] Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher was a German Protestant theologian who lived from 1768-1834.
As an old man he once sat alone on a bench in a city park suffering with an identity crisis.
As a younger man, he had done much to shape modern thought, but perhaps he was now trying to figure out who he was in his older years?
A policeman on patrol mistook him for a vagrant, approached him, and shook him trying to break his trance-like stare.
“Who are you?” the policeman demanded.
Schleiermacher replied sadly, “I wish I knew.”
[APP] Christian, do you know who you are? I do believe that Paul wished the Colossian Christians knew who they were, and I do believe that God wants you to know who you are, believer.
You are the chosen of God!
You are the chosen of God by His grace!
You are the chosen of God through faith in His Son who died to pay the price for your sins and rose from the dead to make you right with God!
You are the chosen of God in Jesus Christ from before the foundation of the world!
You are the chosen of God holy and beloved!
This is your new identity.
This is the new you.
[TS] And along with the new you, comes your new clothing…
#2: Your New Clothes (Col. 3:12-16)
#2: Your New Clothes (Col. 3:12-16)
12 So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience;
[EXP] Focus on the phrase “put on” in v. 12. What does this mean?
That phrase is from one Greek word that means “to put on clothes” or “envelope in”. In other words, Paul told the Colossians to clothe themselves or envelope themselves in compassion, kindness, humility, etc.
Some English translations like the NIV and the NLT actually have that phrase as clothe yourselves rather than put on, but its the same idea—to put on is the idea of clothing ourselves or covering ourselves in Christlike virtues.
But we should also notice that to put on or clothe ourselves in these qualities requires intentional effort.
We won’t just have these qualities on.
We must put them on.
We must intentionally clothe ourselves with the character of Christ.
The first piece of Christlike character we must clothe ourselves with is compassion.
Heartfelt compassion is moved by suffering and works to alleviate it.
Jesus was perfectly compassionate. Matthew 9:36 tells us…
36 Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.
The second Christlike characteristic we must put on is kindness.
Kindness is goodness of heart that works toward the good of others.
In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus called us to be kind to our neighbors in need.
The third characteristic we must put on is humility.
Humility is not thinking poorly of ourselves but valuing and loving ourselves properly. The meaning of humility is captured well in Romans 12:3, which says, “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment…”
In Matthew 11:29 Jesus described Himself as gentle and humble in heart.
And gentleness is the fourth characteristic of Christ we are to put on.
To be gentle is to be mild or kind in temperament or character.
Gentleness is not weakness, but utilizes patient words and kind touches rather than harsh words and hard touches.
Patience is the fifth characteristic with which we are to clothe ourselves.
Patience is “the capacity to tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without becoming angry or upset,” (Concise Oxford English Dictionary).
Jesus is perfectly patient. In 1 Timothy 1:16, Paul said that as Jesus saved him, He demonstrated perfect patience with Paul, the chief of sinners, as an example to others who would believe.
Then we come to Colossians 3:13…
13 bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.
Forbearance is the sixth characteristic.
This is bearing with one another, accepting one another despite our faults; it is, in general, just putting up with one another.
Romans 15:7 says…
7 Therefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God.
Forgiveness is the seventh characteristic of Christ that we must put on.
To forgive is to let go of offenses against us.
Just as Jesus has forgiven us our offenses against Him, we should forgive others their offenses against us.
Above all else is the eighth characteristic, which is love…
14 Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.
Love ties everything else together.
It is the crowning grace.
It is the primary fruit of the Spirit.
It is the fulfillment of the Law of God.
This is the final and most important new article of clothing for the follower of Jesus.
What is love?
10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
[ILLUS] In the 1800s, the famous evangelist, D. L. Moody, led a Sunday School for children. There was a child in his class whose family moved away to another part of the city.
Despite a distance of five miles, the little boy kept showing up for Sunday School, walking past many other churches along the way.
Someone finally asked him, “Why do you walk so far, past so many other churches to go there?”
The boy replied, “Because they love a fella’ over there.”
[APP] Jesus said that we would be known by our love for one another. I hope that is true at Emmanuel; I hope that we are known by our love for one another.
I hope that when someone asks you why you go to Emmanuel, why you drive by so many other churches on the way here, that you can honestly answer, “Because they love me so well.”
[EXP] In Colossians 3:15-16, Paul moved from clothing the individual Christian in the virtues of Christ to encouraging the church, the one body of Christ, in a few more virtues of Christ.
Look at Colossians 3:15-16…
15 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 richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
When we individually clothe ourselves with the virtues of Christ, the peace of Christ rules in our lives and in the life of the church, the body of Christ.
The peace of Christ refers to reconciliation; if we have trusted Jesus for salvation, we have been reconciled to God and reconciled to one another. In Christ, we are one with one another.
Thus, the peace of Christ rules—i.e., it acts as a judge or decider in Christian relationships.
The peace of Christ rules in favor of whatever encourages our unity.
The peace of Christ rules against whatever disturbs our unity.
Thankfulness (at the end of v. 15) is the indicator that the peace of Christ is ruling our hearts. It also shows up in vv. 16, 17.
In v. 15, we are told to be thankful.
In the context of v. 15, we are to be thankful for the peace of God that rules the body of Christ.
In v. 16, we are told to sing with thanksgiving in our hearts to God.
And in v. 17, we are told to give thanks through Jesus to God the Father.
Colossian 3:16 - “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you...” The word of Christ refers to the message of the Gospel which is the overarching storyline of Scripture.
It richly dwells in us as we dwell on it’s richness. We dwell on the Gospel, which is God’s graciousness to us in Jesus Christ, by teaching, admonition, and singing.
The word of Christ dwells in us richly as we teach the Gospel to one another with all wisdom.
The word of Christ dwells in us richly as we admonish or counsel one another in the way of the Gospel with all wisdom.
The word of Christ dwells in us richly as we sing the Gospel to one another with with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.
[ILLUS] Pliny the Younger was a Roman governor in the province of Bithynia-Pontus (modern-day Turkey) during the reign of Emperor Trajan.
He wrote hundreds of letters, which give us a look into life in the Roman Empire during that time.
Pliny’s letters are especially interesting to us Christians because he wrote about his encounters with Christians and describes Christianity from the viewpoint of a Roman non-believer.
One of the things that Pliny reported to Trajan was the way in which the Christians met on a fixed day before dawn and recited a hymn to Christ as God.
Almost a hundreds years later, the Christian apologist and theologian, Tertullian, described how Christians gathered in his context.
Believers brought in water to wash their hands and lights so they could see, but then each believer was invited to sing to God in the presence of the others from what he knew of the holy Scriptures or from his own heart.
For millennia now, the word of Christ has been dwelling in us richly through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.
[APP] Let us make sure we do our part to keep it going.
[TS] So far, we’ve seen that we have a new identity in Christ, and that means we are to dress differently in our day to day living—we are to put on or clothe ourselves in Christlikeness.
Everything that we just talked about from compassion in v. 12 to the word of Christ in v. 16—those are all characteristics of God preeminently displayed in Jesus Christ and reproduced in the followers of Christ.
But now in v. 17 we come to your new lifestyle.
As a follower of Jesus, you are a new creation.
As a follower of Jesus, you put on new characteristics.
And as a follower Jesus, you live a new kind of lifestyle.
#3: Your New Lifestyle (Col. 3:17)
#3: Your New Lifestyle (Col. 3:17)
17 Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.
[EXP] Paul knows that he hasn’t covered everything, so he says to the Colossians believers, “Whatever you do...” The principle Paul gives in v. 17 is an umbrella policy for Christian living—it covers everything.
Our policy is to be this: Whatever we do in word or deed, we will do it in obedience to Jesus Christ and for the glory of Jesus Christ.
And we give “thanks through Jesus to God the Father” for this, but why?
Because He has prepared all the whatevers for us so that we could bring glory to Christ through them. Ephesians 2:10 says…
10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
This is our new lifestyle: doing everything in the name of the Lord Jesus.
[ILLUS] Puritan pastor John Carter once visited a tanner who was busily working when Carter tapped him on the shoulder.
Turning around, the tanner was startled, “Sir, I am ashamed that you should find me thus.”
Carter replied, “Let Christ, when he cometh, find me so doing.”
The tanner said, “What? Doing this?”
The Pastor Carter answered, “Yes, faithfully performing the duties of my calling.”
Carter’s point was that whatever we do—whether tanning hides or preaching sermons—we ought to do it faithfully.
[APP] We ought to do all that we do so that Jesus is glorified.
[TS]…
Conclusion
Conclusion
If you are in Christ Jesus, you are new, so put on your new clothes of Christlikeness, and do everything for His glory.
[PRAYER]