Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

Last week we looked at verses 11-12 of and I was not able to wrap them up as well as I had hoped so I would like to begin this morning with that.

Col. 2:11-2

In looking at these verses and asking ourselves the question, Why does it matter that we are in Christ?

we come to a couple of conclusions.

First of all, to be in Christ, means to place our faith in Him.

That we believe fully in His saving work on the cross.

That he alone offers true forgiveness.

It is only when we are in Christ, that the change within our hearts begins to happen.

This is important, and this is needed because without this change of heart, our focus will always be ourselves.

Our focus will always be the bigger, better, badder self.

What can I do to grow myself.

This is the exact opposite of what Christ calls us as Christians to do.

About 1/3 of the one another commands in scripture deal with unity in the church

Be at peace with one another ()

Don’t grumble among one another ()

Be of the same mind with one another (, )

Accept one another () to name a few.

Another 1/3 deal with instruct Christians to love one another.

Love one another (, , ; ; , ; ; , , ; )

Through love, serve one another ()

Tolerate one another in love ()

About 15% deal with an attitude of humility.

Give preference to one another in honor ()

Regard one another as more important than yourselves ()

Serve one another ()

Wash one another’s feet ()

Don’t be haughty: be of the same mind ()

Be subject to one another ()

Clothe yourselves in humility toward one another ()

The rest deal with other relationships and actions between believers that come from these first 3 categories.

Do not judge one another, and don’t put a stumbling block in a brother’s way ()

Bear one another’s burdens ()

Speak truth to one another ()

Don’t lie to one another ()

Comfort one another concerning the resurrection ()

Encourage and build up one another ()

Stimulate one another to love and good deeds ()

Pray for one another ()

Be hospitable to one another ()

The key to all of this is the circumcised heart that is done so by a circumcision made without hands.

The heart of stone that has been replaced with a heart of flesh.

This of course is displayed outwardly through baptism.

We are buried and raised with Jesus into new life.

Baptism is an important step for a believer.

It is a statement, a commitment that you now follow Christ.

That He is in you.

That your heart, your desires, your innermost being, is being changed and molded into the likeness of Jesus.

When we are in Christ, we have a that is more than simply in Jesus, it is a faith in the power of God, who raised Jesus from the dead.

It is faith to believe that God raises from the dead.

It is a marker that we belong to a new world, where the rulers of the old world have no authority.

The ‘heavenly’ life which Christians now enjoy does not escape the rigours and temptations of earthly existence, but becomes on the contrary more than ever committed to working out the meaning of Christ’s death and resurrection in practical human life

That is what I had hoped to say last week but my mind was not all with me last week.

Today I would like to continue on through our passage asking the same question.

Why does it matter that we are in Christ?

Read

You who were dead in your trespasses.

V. 13

Have you ever been caught red handed?

I remember when I was little, I must not have eaten my dinner or something and was sneaking out of my room to get a snack bar.

My dad caught me and sent me back to my room without a snack.

Maybe you have had a similar experience, caught with you hand in the cookie jar so to speak.

That is a description of where we start off in our passage today.

And you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh.

This really helps us to see the importance of our question.

Why does it matter that we are in Christ?

It matters that we are in Christ because of the forgiveness that we find in Him.

Whether we acknowledge it or accept it or not, we are all sinners, each and every day.

We have no hope apart from our status in Jesus.

We read in scripture that we know sin because of the Law.

The Law reveals our sinful nature.

Ro. 7:7-

Ro. 7:18

This is the importance of Christ in you, and Christ in me.

That as the end of verse 13 says

God made you all alive together with Him, showing himself to be gracious by forgiving us all our sins.

The verb there for God made you all alive together is in reference to

A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed.

συζωοποιέωThe ref. is to people who were dead in their sins, but through union w.

Christ have been made alive by God together w. him.

There is truly some irony here in our minds though.

How is it that we are made alive when we are already living?

We must understand the effects that sin truly has on us.

We must have a perspective on sin and death.

Without Christ, we are nothing more than dead men walking.

Charles Ryrie writes in his basic theology book

Cut flowers well illustrate living human beings who do good things but who nevertheless are spiritually dead.

Is the blossom that has been cut from the plant alive or dead?

At first it is beautiful and fragrant, and in combination with other cut flowers, it may grace the finest home, church, or occasion.

It looks alive; it is useful; but it is in reality dead, for it has been severed from the life of the plant that produced it.

At this point the illustration breaks down, for it is not possible to give the flower new and eternal life, something God can do for the one who believes in the Lord Jesus.

That is the reason when we look at the text, the word for forgiven,

to show oneself gracious by forgiving wrongdoing, forgive, pardon

This shows us the the love, the mercy, the grace that God has.

The word also carries the idea of canceling a sum of money that is owed which leads us into our next verse where Paul continues to show why it matters that we are in Christ.

The record of debt canceled.

V.14-15

Verse 14 begins giving us a metaphor from the legal world.

The word for record of debt has a literal meaning of a hand written document, specifically a record of indebtedness.

Paul is using this word picture here for his readers to show each person’s indebtedness to God because of sin.