Colossian 3 - Put On The New Self
Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 91 viewsNotes
Transcript
Good morning church Pray that everyone was blessed with family time, and good food as we celebrated the birth of Christ what a blessing to share the last message of the year with the Lords beloved flock of FBC, and to any guests joining us this morning
Our text this morning will be in Colossians chapter 3 one of the first books I ever studied, as ryan had asked me to come up and share a message with the mens home it was humbling because I had never taugh anyone before It holds a dear place in my heart,
as I feel like as I was pondering what the theme should be I was thinking of as we are ending this year and moving forward into the next year I wanted to pose the question what is something you are going to leave behind in 2024 as it relates to sin or a habit , it could be coarse joking, sexual sin, anger, an addiction laziness in your own walk, maybe scrolling the phone too much maybe for the younger ones listening to your parents better not questioning them.
and then with that what are you going to take in to 2025 it could be your going to read the bible 5 days a week, to make an effort to pray with your spouse and kids each day or even just pray for your own walk more, to begin to serve on a new minsistry, whatever it may be ask the Lord what would you have me to do this upcoming year not to squander the precious time you have given us hear on earth.
The book of Colossians is a interesting book is it known that Paul is this author of this letter writted around AD 62 after Jesus resurrection
. That he wrote this letter while in his roman imprisonment, he references it in this letter and also found in Acts 27 28 he also wrote ephesians and philemon around the same time
It is believed that while Paul was doing ministry in Ephesus he met a man named epaphras who was from this city of Colossae
he possibly heard the gospel preached from Paul and got saved he commits his life to the resurrected Christ . Then Paul sends him back to his hometown of Colossae to preach the good news of the gospel and the church is established. It is likely that epaphras was with Paul in Rome as he wrote this letter informing of the Good and bad that is taking place.
So whats interesting about this letter is Paul has actually never been there but nonetheless he still cares to write this letter,
I actually read while studying that Colossae was probably the smallest and least important city Paul ever wrote too , yet he did and the HS saw fit to record it in we are reading about it 2000 years later so we know it is of value,
the same could be said for LI a small mountain town no way God cares what goes on here no way he cares about me in this huge world but he dose. He could do great thing through each and every person sitting in this room and he wants too the question is will you let him. That with the faith of a mustard seed he can move mountains whatever stronghold or problem that seems to big in your life, may I remind you that our God is bigger that our God is better he is stronger. That he is graciously standing by waiting for you to simply ask and he will move.
They had a huge issue with false teachers in this city, people who claimed to have the truth but were leading people astray. Very similar to what we see today, its why the text is just as relevant today as it was 2000 years ago. The scriptures always withstand the test of time,
They would try to mix religions. the worship of angels also Early forms of Gnosticism sort of this belief that there is a God or a higher power but we dont actually know who he is, to sort of find God within almost an early day hippie, that God is within us.
They would tell people to practice asetecism which is the belief to disconnect from the world, like these monks who go into caves and just hum all day with very little ouside communication, if any . and little food and water trying to abstain with any pleasures that the world could offer with the belief it will make them closer to God.
There was also teaching other doctrines such as following old jewish traditions such as new moon, sabbath, . abstaing form certain foods and circumsicion. Trying to mix judaism with christianity.
but the issue is what they taught completely discredits Christ and what he said and taught, we do know what God is like through the gospels and OT, we still see this today this primarily white western view that, all paths lead to heaven, which completely disregards and disrespects the work, ministry and divinity of JC. IF that is the case the Jesus went to the cross for nothing it was a waste of time, we can all pack it up and go home
I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.
let that not be the case in your lfie
Chapter 1 begins will a classic Paul giving his thankfulness for thier faith. He says hes heard of thier faith and loves them and is praying for them. while also giving us one of the best description of Christ in the bible 15 -23
Chapter 2 also addresses these false teachers letting the Colossians know not to be led astray and says to walk in christ pursue him do not be captivated by empty philosphy
Then we get to Chapter 3 our text for today and would you all stand with me out of reverence for the word of God, as I read verse 1 -11
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. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.
V1 If then you have been raised with Christ, to those who have put their hope and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that you have came to the realization that we are all sinners in need of a saviour and that Saviour is JC, that the HS has came and dwelt in you and lives in you transferring you from death to life and giving you the abily to live out this Christian life.then this is for you saints, > That you have realized the power the freedom that comes from following JC
and to those here who have not made that decision then I ask that you take an honest look at the chance of it, and hear the word today and I believe God’s word will do the rest do not harden your hearts to God in your life he is knocking at the door .
V2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things of this earth. Paul probably has in mind the empty human traditions such as new moon, angel worship and sabbath that he writes against in chapter 2 that have no eternal value.
This would be too have a heavenly mindset.
The best Christian life is fixed on heaven a constant pursuit of a deeper knowledge of Christ, through studying his word primarily, prayer and fellowship other beilvers, worship. To understand that the earth is passing away and everything along with it. Our houses, cars, our careers, the only thing that will make it glory are those who have built thier lives on the rock who is JC. That alone should make you want to a live a soldout life for Christ.
Too live with a heavenly mindset is putting his desires before your own its living out
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
It will shift the way you talk with others, to be more in sharing your faith knowing the end that awaits those who reject JC which is seperation from him which is hell. Too be more intentional with your conversations it may be awkward to share your faith its not always going to be easy but it is worth it that conversation could change someones whole day.
On thursday I ran into someone who I use to buy weed off of him in HS and he knows about my faith and knows the transformation , and had begin to ask me questions and what not and how he wants to grow in his walk with the Lord but he knows he believes in God but he prioritizes the wrong things and he ask what I was doing and I could tell he wanted to hang so we were able to go and sit down for about hours and jsut get too pour into this brother. becuase I understood this could change everything for him this could change his eternal address. I belive thier will be fruit form what took place that day.
V3-4 For you have died, with Christ referring to how we died with Christ through baptism.
Now this part is not spoken as the same as sanctification as a process but rather it happened all at once, . Its not to say you must die to the world to become dead with Christ but rather it took place when the regeneration of the HS took place when you became a Christian.
We as believers are told to develop this spiritual life in practice, Augustine wrote “No one longs for eternal, incorruptible, and immortal life, unless he is tired of the temporal, corruptible, and mortal life.”
V4 I love how he says when Christ who is your life. He is not an addition to your life but your life, You are not a construction worker who is also a Christian but rather your a christian who dose construction, same for teachers parents, business owner your devotion to Christ comes before everything else in your life. We hear the saying music is his life, or ball is life , or work is his life. Of the Christians it should be said Jesus Christ is thier life.
And when Christ returns you will appear with him in Glory what a glorious promise. That awaits the beloved saints. this should motivate us to have purpose in our conduct, in our speech what we do with our time. to dwell on heavenly things
How many of here like watching tv ?Good, its not bad to admit that I do its okay to have a healthy relationship with those hobbies, but how many of us dont how many of us just get home from work and veg out on the tv or on the tiktok or reels for multiple hours each day?
At the end of it your like what just happened it has been 3 hours, maybe thats jsut me. But the idea bing be a good steward of your time. we have religous freedom to do these things jsut be disicplned not to over indulge let it become an idol. When you had plenty of time to scroll your phone or watch tv, or everything else but no time for the Lord that day? we can do better saints.
V5 Discusses sexual sin, That any form of sexual intercourse outside of marriage, is Fornication-sexual immorality . Dose not matter if your dating that your going to get married until then it is sin. To look to think of someone outside of your spouse in a lustful way is sin. It becomes an idol
V6 These previous sins are part of the way the world lives, and not the way Jesus lives. So every Christian is faced with the question
“Who will I identify with,? the world or with Jesus.” there is no middle ground here. The wrath of God should out the fear of God in you we glamorize hell in todays culture but It is far worse than we can imagine tommorow is not promised do not wait to get right
V7 That you too once walked in them but when before you gave your life over to Christ. That should make us have a love for those still stuggling with that becasue you were once there not to condemn them but too love them
One of the wraths of God we can find in Romans 1 24-25
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
Is that God will give you over to your desires, instead of having conviction for sin their will be none and that is a dangerous place to be.
Before I gave my life to the Lord it was easy to sin there was no remorse as it pertains to selfishness, idolatry, addiction, sexual immorality I could take part in all these things with zero remorse. But when the give your life to JC and the hS resides in you. Therefore
1 Jhn 1 6-7 becomes a reality in our lives
If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
V8 These are all sins that by most Christians may be considered the “little” sins but Paul says our former way living must go ALL these sins must go.
Anger wrath malice, slander, I want you to ask yourself if these describe you more often than not?
Anger are you constantly angry or frustrated with your circumstances or the people around you?, is your life also seem to be in drama with others, are you constantly slandering someone else.
If your thinking to yourself that is me than I want you know that Paul is not saying that person is not beyond hope. That that can all change today. To put these things away and strive toward Christ this needs to be the reality for those who call themselves Christians
We also get all obscene talk, which what would be classified as that ? Well I went to a few different translations
CSB renders it as filthy language
KJV render it as Filthy communication.
NLT Says dirty language
I have heard from other that its okay to use swear words, or curse words because when they wrote the bible they didnt have all the swear words we use now. Such as F word, s word, b word,
Or ive also heard that its okay as long as long as your not cursing someone else but as long as you just use it to like describe things then its fine.
Or people have said Zach i can reach certain people groups with my swearing that you cannot, but we are to be in the world not of the world a key difference
But looking at passages like this and basically all of James 3 that is not the case any body who disagrees i encourage you read james 3
From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water?
the answer is no that filthy language cursing swearing coarse joking, should have no place in the Christian life period. The bible says
For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing,
that we are fragrance of Christ to believers and unbelievers. you may be the only form of a godly person someone meets so its our job to represent him you are a ambassador of Christ. and christ would not be using those word.
so I understand if you are striving toward not using those words and you slip up, but I want it to be clear biblically speaking there is no grounds for it.
V9 the imagery here is like taking off an old set of clothes and putting on a new one As followers of JC these are all things we are too put off, not to lie, in other words don't just talk a big game, its easy to do that oh yeah im a Christian love the Lord , its easy to use Christianese, amen, halleluiah, God bless but rather show that visible change with your actions. By putting those old ways to death.
V10 -11 As we are putting of the old self we are to then put on the new self. Because the new man is renewed in knowledge he is hungry to know what God says in his word. We see its essential to be in the word as the process of reknewing
After the image of its creator… Paul is alluding to gen 1 27 where is God created man in his own image, Adam is regarded as the old man to put off, now we are created after the image of the second adam JC.
Those were all barriers in the ancient roman world but The new man, is not based on race ethnicity, class, or culture, but based on JC.
Read 12-17
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 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. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 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. 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.
A christian life should be marked with these characteristics
V12 As a new man you are whats knows as God’s elect, that he chose you, and called you to himself that you were predestined to follow him. Holy and beloved. Notice how all these qualities he lists are about how we are treat others. Not about our own cleverness.
Compassionate hearts - that we are able too meet others where they are at to sympathize with the pain of others.To be there for others.
Kindess which comes from the greek word Chrestotes in the ancient writing carries this meaning caring for you’r neighbors wellbeing just as much as your own.
Humilty which was not virtuous amongst ancient greeks but was with christianity, goes hand and hand with meekness and patience, - It will effect your attitude towards others, to not dominate, manipulate, or look out for your own best interest. to be patient with others shortcomings and not get angry with them.
V13 tolerance is a virtue within the christian community all though Paul dose not want the colossians to tolerate the false taching he wants them to forgive them,
forgive one another, as Christ forgave you, no matter how significantly they wronged you the burden is on you, and Christ forgave you much. we are to be forgiving
V14- The colossians will never win over these false teacher with just hating on them same goes for us Let the outer garment be Love, that love should be what motivates us, firstly the love of Christ then the love of others, nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care so it is important to love others. you will not win anyone over to Christianity with facts, or head knowledge but with love
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
V15 the peace of Christ which only comes from him, no other thing in this world will give you the same peace that comes from beign communion with JC. This level of security to know that you dont know everything, dont know the best course for your life, but that he dose, it comes with a financial peace, emotioal, spiritual, a life of peace which we are to be thankful for.
But its important to not hes not just talking about indvidual peace but the peace of the body which is a reference to the Church . The church is the bride of Christ which will have peace .The only thing holding back the gates of hell is his bride the Church, without that the world would be a lot darker
People say I have this great relationship with the Lord I love Jesus, but I dont need to go to church, its within. But friend let me tell you are rejecting the bride of Christ.
not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
It was Gods plan from the beginning for us to be in fellowship with other believers, to reject the church is to reject God will for your lives.
Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.
Listen the Church is important and its not the 4 walls we are in right not but rather the people within, Its always the animal that goes off on his own that gets eaten by the lion and the bible likends the devil too a lion,
And I may ruffle some feathers here but the brother that neglects the Church is typically the brother that goes down wierd conspiracy theroies rabbit hole , or flat out demonic doctrines, a lot of it comes down to pride
because there is no one to correct them they wont listen too anyone thier way or the highway and that is the opposite of what God wanted for us do not persecute the bride of Christ often what it comes down to is pride
everyone should have a fellow brother or sister in the Lord who has been walking longer or is more knowledgeable that they can glean knowledge off of because the reality is they likely will have more sound advice then what you would have came up with on your own, the church is not thier to burden you but to help you abstaining form church your only robbing yourselves.
V16-17 What Paul probably has in mind were the teaching about Christ and also the words of Christ himself . Which were part of oral tradition passed on by belivers before the Gospels were written in the early years after Christ asension . So the psalms hymns, and songs were a way of teaching and admonishing, the corprate worship had a teaching through the songs lyrics, which was important in this day. Which as Pastor Jamie said last week we try to model here.
With that we are to let the word dwell in us, by constantly reading and studying and devotionals, worshiping the Lord through music its not just a Pastors, job or man or woman , youth adult everyone is to consume the word, in order to press into spiritual maturity, and the abilty to teach others properly. to prasie the lord,
with everything that you in word or deed, that is the Life of a Christian weather its cleaning a toilet or raising your kids or eating, watching tv, serving at a church, let it be to his glory.
Listen church I want to end this year off with you guys feeling encouraged that this putting off the old and on with the new self is not to look holy or righteous or to mind your p’s and q’s but too understand that JC wants to give you life and life more abundantly,
That going into this new year it dosent have to be the same as any year before that, there is freedom in Jesus name, that there is supernatural power. The abilty to be free from addiction, from idolatry, from feeling like your not enough, from feeling like this life is meaningless, to being a better huband, wife parent, or just Christan in general and it comes from understanding the Gospel that
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
we all fall short we truly do, in all those areas we just discused we fall short at times but God in his fore knowledge knew this would be the case
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
God is holy and perfect and it may not make sense to you but in order for him to be a Fair judge he has too punish sin. And we want God to punish sin it may seem we dont but we do.
but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
But That we can be forgiven for our shortcomings, and promised eternal life even though we dont deserve it. All these Christian fruits mean nothing if you dont understand that. That the peace and forgiveness ia available to all who call on his name.
not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
nothing that we did all that he did and if we belive God was raised from the dead and takes away sins of the world and your faith rests in that you are saved
If your here today and for the first time are coming to this realization then pray with me to invite JC into your life and recieve eternal life, and to those who have already put on the new self for quite some time and you know you have been falling short more than you should and your tired od the same cycle and your ready to break it would you also pray with me as we end in prayer,
