Colossians 3:1-11 - Live for Heaven While on Earth - Part 1
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Intro:
Intro:
Good evening.
We continue with our series on Colossians tonight looking at the first half of chapter 3 — “Live for Heaven While on Earth.”
This is part 1 of that subject, and then next Sunday, Lord willing, we’ll look at part 2 with the rest of the chapter.
We’re going to begin by reading verses 1-11.
Text:
Text:
If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.
Recalling back to what we studied this morning from verses 11-14, we saw that we were dead before we came to Christ, but then we were saved from our sins through Christ (because of the power of God to resurrect us unto life) when we were baptized into Christ.
Thus going from spiritual death unto spiritual life!
Well, look at verse 1 here — “If then you were raised with Christ, SEEK THOSE THINGS WHICH ARE ABOVE ...”
There is a mindset shift when one becomes a Christian, right?!
We go from being minded on things BELOW (earthly things) to being minded on things ABOVE (heavenly things)!
We seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matt. 6:33).
We experience spiritual transformation that results in the renewing of our mind (Rom. 12:2).
We keep our eyes on Jesus (Heb. 12:2).
I want you to think about that as you experience the grind of day to day Christianity:
Look unto Jesus!
Keep your eyes on above, where Jesus is, sitting at the right hand of God!
When you are going through the day to day grind, remember that Jesus is at the right hand of the throne of God ...
And He is the perfect Mediator between God and man, interceding on your behalf!
Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
It is incredibly easy to get bogged down in life isn’t it?
Just with the day to day grind — If we aren’t careful, the doldrums of life can dominate the thoughts of our mind — We can become CONSUMED with the things of this life:
“I’ve got bills to pay,”
“I’ve got to take the kids to the doctor today,”
“I’ve got to do some work on the house,”
“The yard needs mowing,”
“The kids have extracurricular activities to be dropped off at,”
“I need to fix that leaky faucet,”
“The vehicle needs to go to the mechanic.”
And on and on we could go describing various cares and concerns involving THIS world …
And if we are not extremely careful, those cares and concerns of the world and pursuit of things like money can choke out the Word of God and make us become unfruitful (Matt. 13:22).
We are to set our minds constantly on things above!
We are to lay up for ourselves treasure in heaven (Matt. 6:20)!
Why?
“For YOU died and your life is hidden with Christ in God!” (verse 3 here in Colossians 3)
Thus, for us: “To live is CHRIST, and to die is gain” (Php. 1:21).
Christ IS our life we’re going to see in our next verse!
And we must deny ourselves and pick up our cross DAILY and follow after Him (Luke 9:23)!
When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
This is a promise from the apostle Paul, guided/inspired by the Holy Spirit; thus, this really is a promise from God in heaven that we WILL appear with Him in glory one day!
… But we’ve GOT to make sure that Christ REALLY IS our life!
Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
This is (to use the expression) where we get down to the nitty gritty.
If we are going to seek those things which are above — and we must — Then we have to put to death any and every thing that would try to get back in the way of us and our relationship with Christ!
There are sinful things that we give up when we become a Christian — This is called repentance.
Sometimes, those sins try to creep back in — When they do, we’ve got to put them back to death!
I want to say something that I think it is important to emphasize:
When we think of the doctrine of Christ, we tend to think about the TEACHINGS of Christ — and that would be a correct way to put it.
And the question then becomes — Teachings about what?
Worship? Yes
Plan of salvation? Yes
The church? Yes
But is that it?
What about morality?
Yes!
The doctrine of Christ very much includes MORALITY, which means …
We are going to have to preach against sin aren’t we?
We must preach against sin, and we’ve got to put it to death in our lives.
Paul lists several examples: Fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness which is idolatry.
(And we could list many more).
A faithful preacher, a faithful Bible class teacher, a faithful elder, a faithful deacon, a faithful CHRISTIAN must be willing to “call a spade a spade”; that is, he must be willing to identify that which is sinful.
Someone responds to that with the two commonly misused and abused words — “Judge not!” (Matt. 7:1) - “Judge not that you be not judged!”
And what does the rest of the text say?
“For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.”
In other words, don’t make hypocritical judgments!
Verses 3-5 - “And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them.
Two very apparent teachings here:
First, the wrath of God will come upon the unrepentant sinner, and …
Second, we all ONCE walked in sins when we lived in them … but we should no longer do so!
But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth.
This is just a further listing of sins.
Do we struggle with any of these?
These are some very common sins that God tells us we must put to death.
Remember, the title of our sermon tonight is “Live for Heaven While on Earth” (part 1) …
**Tell me, Christian, how can someone live for HEAVEN and simultaneously live in unrepentant, willful sin???**
The answer is … … … you can’t!
Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him,
How about one more sin that Paul mentions here? Lying.
“Do not lie to one another” - Revelation 21:8 says “all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
So just don’t do it!
Ephesians 4:25 puts it this way: “Therefore, putting away lying, “Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,” for we are members of one another.”
Notice that last part - We “have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the IMAGE of Him who created him ...”
We are to conform to the image of the One Who created us!
Now … Would our Creator lie?!
Would our Creator lie? Would Jesus lie?
Of course the answer is “no!”
“God is not a man, that He should lie!” (Num. 23:19)
“In hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began!” (Titus 1:2)
“It is impossible for God to lie!” (Heb. 6:18)
And we shouldn’t be liars either!
where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.
The ultimate breaking down of all societal barriers is found IN Jesus Christ Who is all in all!
Galatians 3:28 - “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
Let’s keep our eyes fixated on Jesus!
Let’s keep our hearts focused on doing right!
And let’s keep our minds focused on things above!
