Put to death that which is earthly.
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Intro
Intro
Why did Jesus come to earth?
Why did he live?
Why did he teach?
Why did he die?
As I was traveling with Fred Jones to Butte this week for our monthly ministerial prayer time we had a conversation about the great commission.
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
The point we focused on was the teaching them to observe.
The NIV is a little more forward with their translation stating teaching them to obey.
That is the idea here, to persist in obedience.
Myself and many others I think often fall short of this.
It is very easy to teach the commandments to obey from scripture but it is a different story in teaching others to obey.
Look at the ten commandments for example
3 “You shall have no other gods before me.
You shall not make for yourself idols.
You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Honor your father and your mother.
13 “You shall not murder.
14 “You shall not commit adultery.
15 “You shall not steal.
16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet your neighbor’s house.
I have just taught you the ten facets of the Law that was given to moses.
Do you necessarily feel compelled to obey them though?
This along with many other texts in scripture, the one another’s for instance in the New Testament can easily be explained as to what they are, but what about to actually obey them?
This was the point that Jesus was trying to get across to the rich ruler in Luke 18.
18 And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 19 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 20 You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’ ” 21 And he said, “All these I have kept from my youth.” 22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
I believe the ruler was sincere when he said he had kept these commandments.
Jesus though knew there had to be more.
Jesus did not just want the mans actions, he wanted His heart.
This is where teachers often fall short. I can teach you about scripture and the commands of God until we are all blue in the face.
But but about teaching to persist in obedience, to actually pay attention to the commands, to fulfill them. To actually have them impact your life.
That is the difficulty. In part I can’t do this. I can present the information and try to model it as best I can but ultimately it is between you and the Holy Spirit working in your life to make any sort of change.
That is the point that Jesus was getting at with the rich ruler.
He was trying to get to his heart.
Are you asking the same question?
What must I do to inherit eternal life?
The answer is the same for each and every one of us.
Not that we have to take vows of poverty. That was the rich rulers specific vice that was holding him back.
23 But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.
There is a response required on the hearers part.
We aren’t told what the rich ruler actually did. Did he go home and do as Jesus commanded, or did he go home and think Jesus was crazy?
We can take the example to heart though. What holds us back from making the choice to obey Jesus with our lives?
To get to heart, the motives, the inner workings of ourselves takes compulsion. It often takes someone compelling us toward something and it takes the working of the Holy Spirit.
It also takes work on our part. We must respond.
To give a personal example, the series events that led up to my recommitting my life to the lord happened over about a 3 year process that I am aware of. I am sure it was actually much longer but that is when I started to notice.
It took so long, and God used some rather extreme measures to get my attention because my most frequent response was to go back to living life as I had, until I took a step in obedience.
This is the goal that I hope to accomplish today and as we continue our time in God’s word.
I hope to encourage us to take steps in obedience.
Our enemy, the devil, knows God’s word better than we ever will, the difference comes though in the fact that we can obey, whereas he does not.
Read Col. 3:5-11
Christ is all.
Christ is all.
I would like to first begin by jumping to verse 11 briefly and then we will go and build back up to it as well.
but Christ is all, and in all.
Paul is concluding this short section by showing some polar opposites and descriptions of individuals that especially from a Jewish mindset, one would not be expected to be saved.
The point for the Colossians and the point for us is that the Gospel, does not give one group of people a higher value than another.
God doesn’t play favorites, Those who are saved, God saves for the same end. All believers are equal in Christ regardless of class.
Christ is all and in all echoes Paul’s teaching in Col. 1:15-20. That hymn of his praise and declaration of the importance of Christ.
Jesus is the measure by which everything is defined. He is what truly matters.
When we recognize this fact, that Christ is everything and in everything, we have a true foundation to build on.
We have a point to launch from and also a point to build to.
Christ is all and it is Christ that drives believers to obedience.
Put to death what is earthly in you. V.5-6
Put to death what is earthly in you. V.5-6
With that perspective I would like to jump back to verse 5.
5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
This section is linked to the previous by the word therefore.
The idea is that since we are to have a heavenly mind set, we should be eager to get rid of behavior and thinking that does not reflect that mind set.
The verse begins with the command, put to death.
Put to death what is earthly in you.
Taking verses 1-4 into consideration, those that are not above. Those things that are not all good, or righteous, or heavenly.
Literally stop them with lethal force.
Stand your ground. Draw weapon and take aim at what is earthly within you.
You died with Christ, you have been united with Him.
Therefore put to death.
You are united with Jesus, now become what you are. Become what He wants you to become.
We who by our faith in Jesus, have died to the elemental forces of the world, and to the power of sin, because of our union with Christ are to become dead to sin in our everyday life.
Our putting sin to death is both demanded by our unification with Christ and also directly empowered by it.
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: Colossians and Philemon 2. Putting off the Practices of the “Old Self” (3:5–11)
Union with Christ, because it puts us in a new relationship to sin and brings us into the sphere of the Spirit’s power, will impact the way we live. Ultimately, then, the imperative “put to death” in this verse must be viewed as a call to respond to, and cooperate with, the transformative power that is already operative within us.
How is your relationship with Jesus?
Do you see or feel the transformative power at work within you?
One thing people often refer to it as is their conscience.
Are you standing your ground, ready to use lethal force to stop sin in your life?
Paul is telling us through his commands that the old nature is not renewed or reformed, it is put to death.
This forceful imagers shows us that Christian renewal is not simply a cosmetic overhaul of our sinful personalities.
We don’t add on a veneer of Christian values that only laminates our old nature and its value system.
We don’t just put on our church clothes over our old clothes and show up on Sunday.
The Old must be stripped of and thrown away.
We need more than small minor adjustments, we must die with Christ to be born again.
This idea hearkens back to John 3 with Jesus teaching Nicodemus that you Must be born again.
When we ask God into our lives, we might think that he takes a little look around and says, well this isn’t too bad, just needs a little cleaning, maybe some fresh paint.
What we don’t realize is that after the first bit, realizing God is there with us now, He is actually driving up with the wrecking ball.
The reality is that our foundation is cracked and he is going to remake us from scratch into the image of His son.
The reason for this as we will see in Paul’s list of vices, is that he desire for more experiences and pleasures has taken root in our hearts.
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: Colossians and Philemon 2. Putting off the Practices of the “Old Self” (3:5–11)
sins arise because people have an uncontrolled desire for more and more “experiences” and “pleasures”; and such a desire is nothing less than a form of idolatry. It is not necessary, then, to suppose that the Colossian Christians were particularly guilty of such sins. Rather, the list reflects the kinds of sins to which Gentiles who came to Christ were generally prone.
That list of course as we see from Israel’s history applies to all mankind. The Jews and false teachers however pointed it out more as being accepted among the gentiles.
We of course are gentiles.
The NIV Application Commentary: Colossians and Philemon Contemporary Significance
The commitment to get rid of sin, Paul implies, cannot be accomplished by gradual degrees and with minor repairs. The whole foundation must be replaced, and the sooner we allow God to tear it down and start the rebuilding process, the sooner we avert the catastrophe of having the whole house come crashing down around our heads when the weight of sin becomes too much.
The list Paul gives,
sexual immorality, impurity or moral corruption, passion or strong desires and in the context lustful, evil desire especially for things that are forbidden, and covetousness or greediness, a desire to have more than what one is due.
This final one which Paul points to as idolatry, can really be source for these other sins. In all reality, most all sin can be traced back to idolatry, placing either ourselves our something else before God.
It is extremely important for us to address sin in our lives.
Ephesians has a close parallel to this in 5:5
5 For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
It is because of this idolatry, that as verse 6 in Col. 3 says
6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming.
Let me illustrate this another way for us.
Think for a moment that you are on a trip.
On this trip you learn that the water that is available has not passed the purity test.
The bacteria level is slightly above the acceptable level.
You are told that the water won’t hurt you to drink.
Would you drink it? Would you risk getting sick?
The NIV Application Commentary: Colossians and Philemon Contemporary Significance
If we felt the same way about the sin in our lives as we do about the water we drink, we probably would not comfort ourselves that the pollution level is only a fraction over the acceptable level. We would ignore the assurances from our culture that a little sin does not do that much harm. In Christ there is zero tolerance for any pollution, and radical measures need to be taken to eliminate the problem.
Think of some of the extreme imagery that Jesus used to describe dealing with sin.
43 And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. 45 And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. 47 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, 48 ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’
Conclusion
Conclusion
New life in Christ requires us to put to death what is earthly within us.
That is more than casting off a few vices and augmenting our spiritual life with regular church attendance.
These are good but as Paul said in 2:23 that they without Christ, are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.
If we truly call ourselves Christians, it is more than simply trying to do better, making piecemeal progress here and there.
E.D. Martin states
The NIV Application Commentary: Colossians and Philemon Contemporary Significance
The process as described is not a matter of gradually changing the old into something better, but of progressively actualizing the already-existing new creation
As a Christian, we can not move in and out of Christ’s lordship whenever it becomes convenient or inconvenient.
The NIV Application Commentary: Colossians and Philemon Contemporary Significance
Even when it seems that we have gotten away with our sin, it gestates within us. Consequently, Paul insists, our unethical behavior, which belongs to our old life, must be discarded like old rags or cut out like a cancerous tumor before it destroys us.
We must remember as 3:5 says, the wrath of God is coming.
Can we really put to death the earthly nature within us?
Is transformation possible?
It must be, otherwise we would not be told to do so.
We do it by taking steps of obedience.
Not through our own will power, but through the power that comes from having been raised with Christ through faith, and through the one who raised Him from the dead.
Through acts of obedience by our faith in Christ the seemingly irresistible compulsion to sin is replaced with the irresistible power of God.