Rhythms: Leaning to Follow Jesus Together
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The Temptations of the Text
The Temptations of the Text
My temptation early on in preparing for this message was to dwell on verse 16 when talking about learning to live for Jesus.
This passage is tempting:
To read it singularly rather than plurally, so make our learning to follow Jesus a personal journey.
To pay attention only to the imperatives (the things we should do) and ignore the indicatives (who we are in Christ) so to make learning to follow Jesus simply following a list of rules.
But
To understand the concepts of knowledge, wisdom, and Word of Christ to mean something we gain primarily in a classroom setting or church service, so to make discipleship event-oriented rather than a Rhythm of our our everyday.
So I want to journey through this text and point to 3 elements necessary for Learning to Follow Jesus.
In a nutshell, “learning to follow Jesus” is discipleship.
So I want to journey through this text and point to 3 elements necessary for Learning to Follow Jesus.
Being and Making Disciples
Being and Making Disciples
Discipleship is LIFE ALTERING. (3:1-4)
Discipleship is LIFE ALTERING. (3:1-4)
1 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.
The indicative here is important “If you have been raised with Christ” meaning if you are living in the resurrection reality of Jesus
Notice the words of Paul here
Sin paid for, death defeated, a everlasting hope of glorious eternity with Christ.
If that is you THEN, you ought to no longer find the things of this world as satisfying as the things of Christ.
Kanye West just put out an album called “Jesus is King” and it is pretty incredible since in 2013 he put out album call Yeezus with a track titled “I am A God”.
Listening to an interview where he is talking about fighting against pornography, wanting to use his influence and money for Kingdom purposes.
One Christian hip hop artist rejoiced about Kanye’s conversion “That He’s still in the business of saving. That He takes blasphemous lips and turns them into instruments for His praise.”
“for you have died” becoming a Christian requires a death, not just a remodeling. It is a tearing down and restarting.
Because “Christ IS YOUR LIFE”.
Discipleship calls for the CONTINUAL KILLING of SIN. (3:5-10)
Discipleship calls for the CONTINUAL KILLING of SIN. (3:5-10)
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.
The Puritan John Owen wrote a book called the “Mortification of Sin” where he makes the statement “Be killing sin, or sin will be killing you.”
Mortifying sin, in the original sense of the word [not being embarrassed], comes from the Latin for “death” and “to do”. In this sense it has to do with putting something to death, or, more literally, it is “to make dead.”
To kill (mortify) requires that we:
Acknowledge it- rather than justify our sin by coming up with ways our sin isn’t as bad as it may look.
Maybe you do love your BF or GF, but God’s standard is to not have sex before your married and until you acknowledge your sin it will be killing you.
I get that your job is stressful and your wife doesn’t seem as accessible sexually, but porn is adultery and until you acknowledge it it will be killing you
Life isn’t easy and stress does mount, but raging and yelling at your family when things are out of your control is still sinful and if you don’t acknowledge it, it will be killing you.
Confess it- don’t hide, don’t blame dodge, don’t cover it up with religious deeds.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Confess it to God, He already knows it, but tell Him “I get it God, I know this is a sin!!! Now please help!”
Confess it to others and get help.
16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
Repent of it- biblical repentance is not white knuckling your sin, meaning you work really hard to not do it anymore.
It is a turning away from one thing and a turning to another.
Repentance means a turning away from pursuing sin and a turning to pursuing Christ.
This will make more sense as we go further into the passage, but look at vs 9
9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices
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.
Repentance is “putting off the old self” and “putting on the new self”, which happens through coming to know Jesus more and more and becoming more and more like Him.
Discipleship is an ACTIVE REFORMATION of CHARACTER. (3:12-14)
Discipleship is an ACTIVE REFORMATION of CHARACTER. (3:12-14)
Tarzan and Mowgli are good examples of Discipleship
Tarzan and Mowgli are good examples of Discipleship
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.
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.
The killing of sin in our lives allows for the opportunity for Godly character to grow in our lives.
You become like those you live around.
Again, the indicatives (who we are in Christ) drive the imperatives (what we do) here.
AS (because you are) CHOSEN ONES- because God saw fit in His sovereign wisdom and abounding love to chose you in the depths of your sin...
Your holiness and belovedness are byproducts of His divine election, Him calling you to come follow Him.
So out of the identity of being a chosen, holy, and beloved Child of God…may your life be MARKED by these.
Compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, long-suffering, forgiveness, and, most importantly, love.
Discipleship is NURTURED in the CONTEXT of COMMUNITY. (3:12-16)
Discipleship is NURTURED in the CONTEXT of COMMUNITY. (3:12-16)
Each one of these characteristics or imperative statements are plural and meant to be practiced in community.
Matt Chandler points out: “If you’ll look at the list of what we are to put on, they are impossible to put on in private or isolation or simply as individuals. Whether or not compassion, mercy, love are there is revealed in community, not in isolation.”
Our character and the legitimacy of our salvation is tested in our relationships with one another.
John in his first letter makes our care and love for one another 1 of his three tests of true faith in Christ.
20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.
Killing sin, putting on Christ-like character, knowing the Word of Christ… all of these are plural indicatives. Meaning each one of these commands are communal in nature.
If you notice what happens in nearly every TV show and movie and every home with kids when someone is not doing something good…THEY HIDE and they ISOLATE themselves.
That is why Paul says what he does in verse 16
As the WORD LIVES (MAKES ITS HOME) in you teach one another and call each other our in sin.
We need each other, not just to pat one another on the backs and make each other feel good.
We need each other to point out sin, to keep us from living in the dark, and for draw us out into the light of Christ.
There are 2 essential ingredient found in this passage to
There are 2 essential ingredient found in this passage for growing as a disciple of Christ
There are 2 essential ingredient found in this passage to
Christ-centered community
The Word of God- the sword of the Spirit
Discipleship is GUIDED and SHAPED by the WORD of CHRIST. (3:16-17)
Discipleship is GUIDED and SHAPED by the WORD of CHRIST. (3:16-17)
I am skipping over verse 15 for a sec because “The peace of Christ will rule where the Word of Christ dwells.” Not saying Paul got it wrong, but...
Discipleship is marked by growing SATISFACTION and GRATEFULNESS in Christ. (3:15)
Discipleship is marked by growing SATISFACTION and GRATEFULNESS in Christ. (3:15)
So if you are raised by monkeys or wolves, you are probably going to act a lot like them.
Peace here is not the absence of war or conflict as we typically think of it.
And cultural adjustments might be a bit challenging.
It means the same as the word Shalom in Hebrew, completeness and wholeness.
It means that Christ would become the thing that satisfies our cravings and our longings.
Discipleship is ultimately letting Jesus be in us all that we need.
All that we need in our families
All that we need in our work places
All that we need in our lusts and passions
Repentance is ultimately a Word-prompted, community-nurtured turning away from sin and to the all sufficient savior who is all that we need.
Notice that as Paul’s letter continues he does the same thing Peter did in 1 Peter and he did in Ephesians, he starts to apply what he just said in to the everyday circumstances of like.
This is where Learning to follow Jesus happens, not only in a classroom or Sunday service, but in the everyday circumstances of our lives.
So PUT TO DEATH what is early
PUT ON the character of Christ
LET the WORD of CHRIST LIVE IN US
LET THE PEACE OF CHRIST rule in our hearts
AND LET US DO this TOGETHER.