Alive! in Peace

Introduction

Hello Calvary! Welcome. If you’ve been here for the last couple of months we have been going through a series called “Alive!” The series is based on and it centers around the statement “Since we have been made alive in Christ we are free to live like Christ.” Over the last few weeks we have looked at how to be setting aside our old lives and setting our sights on our new life in Christ. We’ve been looking at how Christ transforms us so we actually become MORE of ourselves as we come closer to the image of God, Jesus. Phil talked about how our new self, our new identity is rooted in the love God has for us.

Morning Calvary! For those of you that have been with us over the last month and a half or so we’ve been going through a series called “Alive!” This series has been on . It’s centered around the idea “Since we are made alive in Christ we are free to live like Christ.” The verse we’re going to look at today is verse 15. And if the overall theme of this series is that “Since we are made alive in Christ we are free to live like Christ.” Then the theme of today’s passage is “Since we are made alive in Christ we are free to live in peace like Christ.”

So I want us to reread this passage and stop at verse 15 today which is where we’re going to focus in on today.

English Standard Version Chapter 3

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.

Introduction & Recap

Hello Calvary! Welcome. If you’ve been here for the last couple of months we have been going through a series called “Alive!” The series is based on and it centers around the statement “Since we have been made alive in Christ we are free to live like Christ.” Over the last few weeks we have looked at how to be setting aside our old lives and setting our sights on our new life in Christ. We’ve been looking at how Christ transforms us so we actually become MORE of ourselves as we come closer to the image of God, Jesus. Phil talked about how our new self, our new identity is rooted in the love God has for us.

How is Christ an example of peace

So I want us to reread this passage and stop at verse 15 today which is where we’re going to focus in on today.

English Standard Version Chapter 3

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.

What is the peace of Christ?

So off the bat there are a few questions about this passage. The first one is “What is the peace of Christ?” When I think of the peace of Christ one of the things that jumps out at me is an image of Jesus sitting in the boat during the storm. The boat is rocking, the disciples are going nuts, and Jesus is just taking a snooze. Not bothered, just completely rock solid. Is that what this is talking about?

Is it talking about peace with God, peace with other people, inner peace? I think the answer is yes. All 3.

Where does the peace with God come from? Well if we’re looking at

What does it mean to have the peace of Christ “rule” our hearts?

So the passage we’re

How does this make us alive?

If you have been watching the news this week you may have heard that the peace talks between USA and North Korea have fallen through and been cancelled. A high-tension standoff had finally started to look like it was going to turn to peace only to have that hope, at least for now, torn away.

What is the peace of Christ?

Where does unity come from?

How does this free us to live like Christ?

How does that lead to thankfulness?

The natural response to a life lived like Christ

Wrap-up

What is the peace of Christ?

Looking at this passage it seems to have a few themes, peace, unity, and thankfulness. So I want to be clear about where I’m going with this sermon off the bat because I think they are all tied together and they all link up with this main idea. Like I said the main point of this sermon series is that “Since we are made alive with Christ we are free to live like Christ.” The point of this verse and today’s sermon is that “since we are made alive with Christ we are free to live in peace like Christ.”

What does it mean to live in peace like Christ? How did Christ demonstrate peace in his life? Well there are a few ways that Christ demonstrated what it means to live in peace.

Peace with God

First off he demonstrated that what it’s like to live in peace with God.

Inner Peace

Secondly Jesus demonstrated inner peace. Jesus despite his circumstances always displayed a constant calmness in the face of despair.

Peace with others

So off the bat there are a few questions about this passage. One of the the first most obvious questions from this passage is “What is the peace of Christ?” If we’reWhen I think of the peace of Christ one of the things that jumps out at me is an image of Jesus sitting in the boat during the storm. The boat is rocking, the disciples are going nuts, and Jesus is just taking a snooze. Not bothered, just completely rock solid. Is that what this is talking about?

Is it talking about peace with God, inner peace, peace with other people? I think the answer is yes. All 3.

Where does the peace with God come from? Well if we’re looking at

What does it mean to have the peace of Christ “rule” our hearts?

A few weeks ago, the conflict in Syria, which has lasted for over 7 years now, looked like it might actually get worse. Bringing even more conflict to the region as forces from Iran fired on Israeli forces. The next day Israel responded and fired on several of Iran’s facilities and forces in Syria. Although neither nation has since escalated the conflict, tension and the possibility of war still lingers.

How does this make us alive?

Where does unity come from?

In North America school shootings, political polarization, stress, anxiety and depression are all seemingly on the rise and it is easy to feel like peace is nowhere on the horizon.

How does this free us to live like Christ?

By the end of our exploration of this passage I hope that we’ll all have a little better idea of why we seem to have so little peace, and what hope of peace we have to offer the world.

How does that lead to thankfulness?

Like I said earlier we are looking at today.

The natural response to a life lived like Christ

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.

Wrap-up

So, like I said this verse centers on peace. But as we look at this verse today it’s important to keep in mind that this verse isn’t meant to be read alone. It’s part of the larger theme we’ve been looking at and part of the larger letter that Paul is writing to Colossae. A lot of what we have seen so far in this series and what is talked about earlier in this letter has included a theme of identity.

While identity doesn’t seem to come up in our specific verse it’s the building block for it. We’re going to see that our new identity, leads to peace, which brings unity, resulting in thankfulness. Four points. New Identity, peace, unity and thankfulness. That’s where we’re going with this passage. So, let’s stand together and read through and then we’ll dive right in. Join me.

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.

Thank you very much you can be seated.

Identity

So, starting with identity. In a minute I’m going to recap where we’ve been and what we’ve learned about Christian identity the past several weeks but first I want to just take a second and talk about how our culture and how the Colossians culture would have viewed identity. Outside of Christianity there are two primary models for how you build identity. The traditional model, which is how the Colossians would have viewed identity, and the modern model which is how our culture views identity.

All of the models assume that the world is not as it should be. That there is chaos and disunity in the world. The traditional or Colossian model for identity is that the problem, what is pulling us into chaos, is people acting in their own best interest rather than for the sake of order and society. In this model what favors the individual is evil. Your identity is defined by those outside of you. What matters in this model is putting yourself and your own desires aside for the greater good.

How our culture views identity is flipped from the traditional model. What brings chaos is trying to confine individuals by placing rules and societal expectations on them. The pressure society places on people is what’s evil and what matters is being true to your own heart and desires. You’re to live a life governed entirely by yourself and no one else. If you can live in a way that you stand out as an individual then you’ve lived a worthy life.

So, now it’s time to recap where we’ve been the last few weeks. What is the Christian view of identity? Well so far this series we’ve been focussing on how life in Christ is better, more alive than the life we had before. In verses 9 & 10 it states

“you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, being renewed in knowledge after the image of it’s creator.”

That is Jesus. So, it’s saying Christ gives us a new self, a new identity, that we’re free to put off our old self, that what governed our old life no longer defines us. That now we’re free to be more and more like Jesus.

Then in verse 12-14 it says

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.

This is stating our new identity. Our identity is chosen, holy and beloved. Then he goes on to say how we can clothe ourselves with Jesus’ attributes; with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forgiveness and love. That we are free to be our very best and truest selves. That our new identity looks and smells like Jesus.

So, if we had to cycle back to those diagrams for identity how does the Christian model look compared to the modern and traditional ones? Well, the Christian model is like the other two in it assumes life isn’t what it should be. But then Jesus comes on the scene and lives the perfect life to give us new life. He beats out the antagonists of sin and death and wins. Our part in the story comes after the models already done. Our life before Christ is stuck in one of the two other models. After Christ we’re at the end. Our identity is established.

Peace

So now, after all that buildup, it’s finally time for todays verse. How does all of this talk on identity lead to peace?

“And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts…”

Well first off, this new identity leads to peace with God because of how Jesus enters the model and defeats the antagonist. Earlier in Colossians Paul states:

“For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.”

Then if we look again at verse ## which we saw earlier this series Paul says

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.

In other words, Christ in his death put to death our old identity and what we used to live in to bring us new identity and peace with God.

In addition to peace with God, our new identity in Christ brings us peace with ourselves, or inner peace. How does it do that?

Well it gives us inner peace because we can approach our actions knowing that they’re not what define us. We’re not defined by what we do but what Jesus has done for us. When you live as if what you do will be what defines you then it adds infinite pressure to every action. Each of the other two models your outcome and identity are contingent on what you do. Either you do good for others or do good for yourself and you’re judged by either side. But if our identity comes from knowing how truly loved we are by our heavenly father then we can have peace in the midst of any difficult decision because we know it will not change how he sees us. Our worth is not dependent on our actions.

So now it’s confession time. Although mentally I am fully on board with this view of identity, I don’t think I see this practically in my life. Although all of this sounds great a lot of the time it doesn’t really feel like it is penetrating and making a difference. I hear this and then I look at how often I don’t have peace, how often I’m stressed and anxious and there is a part of me that just doesn’t believe it.

Preparing for this sermon had me feeling pretty inadequate. I felt like someone with a little more experience, who got this better should be tackling this. When I get ready for a sermon I stress about it as if you’re all going to be sitting with clipboards grading me on how well I do. Today I’m talking about how our identity is rooted in Christ and that leads to inner peace, but I feel like practically I’m living like I’m defined by what everybody else says about me. Getting ready for today I definitely wouldn’t call what I was feeling “peace.” A lot of the time I feel like my actions, how well I preach this sermon, will be responsible for how well God is able to work in your lives. Living like my actions are what define me.

But Calvary, that’s actually part of the good news. God’s affirmation of my identity is not dependent on how well I get it. In fact, he assumes we won’t get it and that we will need reminding and an explanation. I mean that’s the reason this whole book of Colossians exists. It exists because people in Colossae were already forgetting the identity they had in Jesus and what it meant for them. So, God had Paul remind them. It exists for us for the same reason. To remind us of what matters and who we really are.

The whole reason we have the spiritual disciplines: reading scripture, prayer, fasting, fellowship, communion, baptism, worship; is to remind us of who God is, what he’s done for us, who we are in light of that and how that changes how we see the world. What Jesus did for us was once and for all, but actually understanding that, growing in it and letting it be how we see ourselves and live our life is a lifelong process. That’s what sanctification is. It’s learning to live in light of what has already been done for you. And that is part of the peace that we have. We don’t have to get it all right away. We can have peace in knowing that this walk and understanding this identity is a process.

Unity

So, our identity in Christ gives us peace with God, inner peace, and then it gives us peace with others which leads us to unity. Read again with me verse 15

“And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body.”

It gives us peace and unity with others for a few reasons. The first reason our new identity in Jesus gives us peace with others is because we are not dependent on them for our validation and identity. In the traditional model of identity your group defines your identity. So, if that group identity is challenged or belittled then it leads to conflict and disunity.

In the modern model your identity is self defined but we are still social beings. So even though who you are is self determined you are still looking to others for validation and affirmation. If others do not affirm or validate how you’ve defined your identity then that leads to hurt, bitterness and resentment.

Each model can ultimately lead to conflict, disunity and polarization. Each model ultimately almost always leads to a lack of peace with others. Especially those of the opposite viewpoint. But if your identity is already affirmed and you are called loved by God then it doesn’t matter if that is challenged or upheld by others. They’re not where you are looking for your affirmation or validation so what they say and do is not what defines you.

The second reason our new identity in Jesus gives us peace with others is that it changes how we view others. When we know that we have been given an identity where we’re loved and holy regardless of the fact that we are not worthy it is inherently humbling. Nothing we do or achieve had anything to do with the fact that we’re loved and accepted. We also know that Jesus has that same love and view of others. We can see our own failures and short comings and know that we are not defined by them. In the same way we can see the failures, weaknesses and sin of others and know that is not what defines them. Jesus loved US while we were his enemies so we can see others in exactly the same light. The peace that Christ gives us in our identity as loved children gives us a peace in how we see others.

And the third reason our new identity in Jesus gives us peace with others is that we don’t grow in this identity alone. We get to be a part of how God leads others through understanding his love. We’re united in that we all have brokenness that God addresses and he uses us to bring about his healing and change in others.

I mentioned how I often don’t feel like I am living in the peace that should come out of the confidence and assurance that comes from knowing I’m loved. But God has been using others to show me that I am growing in it. I may not always see the change that is happening in me but others often do and encourage me in it. I haven’t completely seen my fear and anxiety go away, but conversation and wisdom from others has helped me to grow in my awareness of what my anxieties are and where they come from and helped remind me where my identity should be coming from when I’m questioning it. I may feel like I’m struggling with the same old issues but I am growing to be more like Christ, more confident in my identity with time thanks to the love and investment of others in my life. God has placed great people in my life and in this church who are open about the brokenness they experience and how Jesus brings healing, purpose and life into that. All of us are united in building each other to know and see Jesus more every day. We are called to one body to walk in peace and unity in our identity in Christ.

Thankfulness

That leads us to the last section of our passage today and our response.

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.

In light of all God has done for us, what he is doing in our lives and the people that he has brought into it we have a lot to be thankful for. Today is volunteer appreciation Sunday and we are so thankful for each and every one of you who has committed to building others up in Christ through your service. Whether that service is through one of the ministries of this church or anything else.

As I wrap up I’m just going to call the worship team up and leave you with some questions. If one of them jumps out at you I just want to encourage you to spend some time processing and thinking of how you can respond.

1) What is God wanting to show you about your identity today?

2) Where do you need to see the peace of Jesus today?

3) Is there someone you should encourage in the growth you have seen in them?

4) Is there someone you need to thank for how they have helped you believe and grow?

Let’s pray.