New Life

Butterfly video

https://youtu.be/kVm5k99PnBk

Spring Coming, what things do we look forward to

Green Grass

Leaves on the trees

Baseball

Being Raised with Christ

Last week we spoke on death with Christ and that dying to our old nature. We put the old man to death so to speak as our sins were nailed to the cross and buried in the the tomb with Jesus. Well this week we are going to talk about what it means to be raised with Christ and to put on the new garments or new lifestyle of Christ. This is where our illustration of the Caterpillar comes in. As we watched the video this morning of the caterpiller wriggle it’s little body out of the egg, then eat the egg and live his life, it realizes there is more in store for it. One thing I found interested was it had these devilish looking antennae, and as it shed the old skin/nature those little devil horns disappeared. It was a perfect illustration for our sins going into the tomb as the caterpillar’s old self formed the chrysalis, which reminded me of the tomb. Then as it is resurrected the tomb/chrysalis, falls away and the new life is formed into this pretty butterfly. The once caterpillar is no longer bound to crawl, it can now fly into the life it was intended for. God loves to give us pictures through creation of the gospel doesn’t he. Let’s dig into the word. Prayer

Today’s main theme is Sanctification. So before we read today’s scripture I want to give you the definition of what Sanctification means so that you can highlight the points in your mind as we go along.

sanc·ti·fi·ca·tion

the action of making or declaring something holy

the action or process of being freed from sin or purified

the action of causing something to be or seem morally right or acceptable

Colossians 3:1–17 “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. 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.”

Chapter 3 begins with the words “if then”. What that is stating is the we need to look at the previous scripture. It’s combining the two passages together. Similar words would be therefore or since. So therefore what? What happened before you would have been raised with Christ. We died with him. Since you died with Christ, how did you die with Christ, by repentance of your sinfulness and the acceptance that He is the only way to truly receive salvation. So old nature is dead, in the grave and left there. Now what, now you also have been raised with Christ.

Set your mind on things above

Colossians 3:1–4 “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.”

Galatians 2:20 reiterates this passage as well:

Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

These passages remind us of where we find our hope for life. Life is not always easy, it comes with it’s struggles. But our hope is found in the fact that we will remain in eternity with Jesus. When we rose together with him, we were given eternal life, which is in opposition to what we had before, eternal death. Paul reminds us here to stop focusing on this life and to begin focusing on the life we get when these bodies are through which is affirmed in verse 4 of Colossians 3.

So there are 2 commands here:

Set your heart on things above.

Your “heart” means your desires, the things you long for. We stop desiring the treasures of this world, and begin to desire eternal things. So for example, we desire others to know Jesus as well, that’s an eternal desire.

Set your mind on things above

What it means by the word mind is our set of values.

Let’s think about what sins, the world thinks, well that’s not a really big deal? (Lying, lust, disrespecting parents, gossip, slander, etc)

Our new mindset says, all of those things, even if they seem insignificant to the rest of the world, they are a separation from God.

As believers we are not to let the fallen world we live in control our desires and minds. God sets us apart to be different. He is now employing us to call non-believers in the world to life as they see the change in ours.

An example of this is when we are around others that may use some different verbs and adjectives than we do, I will notice the change in language or they apologize when the cuss. Now I hope I’ve never given those folks the impression that I am condemning them for the grammer they choose. What I hope is happening at a deeper level is that they see God through me.

Put the old life to death (Caterpillar)

Sins of Idolatry

Colossians 3:5–7 “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.”

Once again we are told to put to death the old self or life that we are living. Paul specifically calls out the following:

Fornication —> Sexual sin. 1 Thessalonians 4:3 “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality;”

Uncleanness —> This can translate to impurity. This takes the act of sexual sin further to mean even impure sexual thoughts or lust. Matthew 5:28 “But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Mark 7:21–22 “For from within, out of the heart of man (our desires), come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.”

passion and evil desire —> Again Paul is reiterating how dangerous lust is as it turns from thought to action. All sin begins with letting our thoughts turn into desires, which then turns into action. James 1:15 “Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”

Covetousness —> Translated greed, or that constant desire to gain what you don’t have. This is an all consuming thought. You constantly allow the thought of obtaining an object that it pushes out all thoughts of anything else. Worse yet is when this is something that is forbidden.

Genesis 3:1–7 “Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Temptation) So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise (Covetousness, passion and evil desire), she took of its fruit and ate(Sin), and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.”

James 4:1–3 “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.”

When we succumb to the above practices we are putting ourselves on a pedestal. We are giving in to our own desires. In essence we make ourselves a god that we worship by self pleasing. It’s an act of self worship. And when we are worshiping ourselves we cannot worship God. This principle is held to such a high standard that in Ephesians 5:3 Paul says there cannot even be a hint of anyone of these categories of sin. Ephesians 5:3 But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.

And before Christ we walked in this life and didn’t think much of it. When we are without Christ we live a life to serve ourself. Survival of the fittest type of living. Our life revolved around ourself. And we could never be satisfied, and worse yet, we were doomed to suffer God’s wrath.

Bursitis example, seems fine, then sneaks up on you, and all of a sudden that temptation that turned into a desire, has now come full circle and has completed as an action causing pain in your life and in others.

As we bury these things and put them to death we are becoming sanctified through the power of Christ.

Sins against others

Colossians 3:8–9 “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 (Caterpillar) the old self with its practices”

Anger —> This isn’t your typical I’m upset with someone anger. This anger speaks of an intense feeling of hate for another.

Wrath —> Anger breeds wrath, this is a calculated plot to avenge your anger. Slashing someone’s tires after you waiting for them to get to work because they keep stealing your lunch out of the office refrigerator would be an example of wrath. You had time to come up with a plan. This could lead as far as murder.

Malice and slander —> This is the hurt caused by your words to another. Not accidental, but a planned hurt. Gaslighting, passive aggression, gossip.

Obscene talk —> This is talking bad about another, similar to slander. However, it more specifically is pointing towards blasphemy. So let’s think about this, in who’s image were we created? God’s, so if we are talking bad about another, are we not committing blasphemy against His creation?

Lying —> We all know what that is.

We are commanded to put these things off, to remove them like dirty rags. Paul tells us to remove the “old man”. This doesn’t mean the 85 year old with a walker, no this means the dead life that you lived that was useless. Like a worn out tool that has no purpose anymore.

Becoming a Butterfly

Verse 10 is where Paul begins the transition from the old man to the new man. He begins to explain what Sanctification looks like in the believer. Becoming a sanctified person means to be given a new quality of life. We can see past our own desires and begin to see things the way that God does as we are becoming more like Him. For instance, today’s troubles do not seem so bad when we realize that today is a tiny blip in eternity. Going to work becomes less about the task at hand, and more about loving our coworker like Christ loves them. Now this obviously doesn’t happen overnight, it takes time. We are still going to battle the flesh daily. But as we walk more with Christ, the more we understand how he views creation and we stop thinking we are the most important thing he ever created. He shows us that His love is for all peoples no matter race or social status. So how do we become more like Christ?

Characteristics of Sanctification

Compassionate Hearts —> This gives us the ability to be there in someone else’s time of need. To walk through sorrow with them and help provide comfort.

Kindness —> This generosity and being friendly takes the focus off oneself and shows love to another.

Humility —> Humility allows us to show our lack of ability and wisdom of our own life, and allows us to realize our need for God to guide and direct us. That all good things come through Him and Him alone.

Meekness —> Meekness is a product of humility. It shows self control in a situation where the flesh would create anger and wrath. For example, knowing when someone insults you to not take offense and to let God deal with it. Remembering our value comes from Him and not the world.

Patience —> Also stated as longsuffering in other translations, this is the patience to deal with obstinate people and circumstances. It shows our trust in God.

As Paul closes out this section with verses 13-17 He shows us how we build the characteristics of Sanctification.

Forgiveness —> He reminds us to forgive. When we can’t forgive another we forget that we too were forgiven. But when we do forgive another we are displaying all 5 of the characteristics of sanctification.

He then speaks of love. And that we are to love one another, because love binds all 5 of the characteristics together.

When the peace of Christ rules in our hearts, love and forgiveness are natural responses.

How do we keep the peace of Christ in our heart? He tells us to constantly think of God, other areas of the Bible tells us to pray without ceasing. Here we see in saying worship all day everyday and gives the example of hymns and spiritual songs. However you praise God, just do it always and His peace will dwell with you.

And finally he tells us to do everything in the name of Jesus. We can see how all these acts and thoughts just build on one another and come full circle to help us grow in Jesus.

As we put off our old self and we remove our selfish and sinful desires we begin to put on the new life that Christ has given us. And as we do this we begin to see life changing hope in ourselves and hopefully we are able to spread that to those around us. Our desire will change to match God’s will for our life and we will be drawn closer to Him day by day.

Closing prayer.