Colossians 3:1-4: Head in Heaven, Feet Firmly Planted

Colossians: The Supremacy of Christ   •  Sermon  •  Submitted
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Introduction

Good morning,
Welcome to Santa Cruz Baptist Church, the second week of our outside edition. If you have your Bibles with you this morning, I would appreciate it if you opened up to Colossians chapter 3. There are sermon notes for you notetakers out there.
While you turn to Colossians 3, I wonder how many of you might share this experience, I am aware that several of you could, in fact, speak to it with far more authority than I could. But our text this morning bears a resemblance to the preparation that goes into international travel and extended stay. For those of you who have spent an extended time away from your native country, you might reflect on how you got ready for the trip or re-location.
You learned the language to some degree usually proportional to the duration of your stay.
You collected supplies.
You prepared your documents.
You studied the culture...
ate the food,
drank the cultural drinks,
learned the standard dress,
looked into the history, norms, and important social customs.
In effect you sought out and set your mind on the culture which you intended on joining. You began a sort of progressive transition in which you acclimated to the environment you would one day find yourself in.
That is what our text is fundamentally about, preparing for our eventual arrival in the kingdom of heaven by studying its culture and living as one of its citizens now.
If the previous section of text warned us against leveraging heavenly visions for authority or power grabs. This text invites us to seek eternal life in a legitimate form of other worldly thought. Reflecting on the location of Christ right now and our place with him.
Let’s pray as we seek to unpack this dynamic.

Prayer

Father in Heaven,
Those words, “in heaven”, can be so ethereal and surreal. Yet they are—according to this text—our reality. Give me clear speech this morning to articulate the meaning of this text, give us an awareness of spirit and mind to grapple with our nature as kingdom citizens. Allow this text to simultaneously humble and embolden us.
Amen.

Read

Our passage this morning is tied back into last weeks passage and actually the week before as well, so I am going to do a little abridge reading to ease us into the text and give us a bit of context. So I will read as one unit Colossians 2:11-13 and 2:20, then 3:1-4

11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses

20 If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— 21 “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch”

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.

Raised

Do you see how isolating the main concepts from their associated applications and explanations gives us a sort of flow of thought for Paul?
We can see now that our baptism acts as a reenactment of us dying, being buried, and resurrecting. Then Paul asks us why we live the way we do giving into legalism and exerting legalistic rules on others if we are dead to worldly patterns—which legalism is one.
Now in our text Paul begins to explain the reciprocal of that. Having died to worldly patterns we are raised again to pursue heavenly ones.
So he writes,

If then you have been raised with Christ

A few things to point out.
“IF” is a subjunctive, meaning there is a condition to fulfilling this command. You cannot accomplish what Paul is laying out in these verses if the IF is not met.
“HAVE BEEN RAISED” is passive and aorist in construction, which means that this action is something that happens to you (passive) and it is something which has been completed but has on going implications (aorist). Christians are not in the process of being raised. Rather, you have been raised, you are now alive, and you therefore now live.
Let’s go back to this word “RAISED” for a second. Isn’t the resurrection something that happens to us in the future? Yes, there is coming a day of total and holistic resurrection when Christ brings his kingdom into full realization. But those in Christ are also resurrected now spiritually. Having been spiritually dead, unable to live a life pleasing to God we have been made alive to love, follow, and please him today.
As one commentator put it:

Without denying the reality of a future resurrection with Christ, Paul, following his typical “already/not yet” paradigm, asserts that those who belong to Christ have already experienced a “spiritual” resurrection with Christ. Because they are “in him” and Christ has himself been raised to sit at the right hand of the Father, so believers can be said to have been “raised with” him.

“WITH CHRIST” might be the most important words here because they get to the very heart of Colossians. Much of this letter concerns the intensity of the Christian’s relationship with Christ.
You see the heartbeat of the Christian life is identification with Christ.
Much has been made in data and statistical measurements for Christianity about shrinking attendance at local churches.
Now that being a Christian is socially costly some are leaving the faith or simply trying to engage in a less obtrusive manner. In other words, many are seeking religion in a loose association with Jesus rather than identification with Jesus.
But this is demonstrably unbiblical.
As Australian pastor Richard Chin points out, is like loose association with an airplane. Loose association will get you none of the benefits of the airplane. You won’t arrive with the plane at its destination by watching it take off, by having your parents on the plane, by helping your children board the plan, by driving down the runway next to the plane, by dedicatedly reading the departures and arrivals board on the airline’s website. The only way you get the benefits is by being in the plane.
Similarly, one must be in Christ having been buried and resurrected with him to receive any of the benefits of Christ.
So IF we have been raised, “THEN” what are we supposed to do? Look at the rest of the verse:

Seek

seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

We are supposed to seek things.
First thing to point out is...

The verb is a present imperative, suggesting a continuing action: “Keep on seeking.”

To seek is to look for, search, maybe to ask about or inquire, even to insist, strive, endeavor to obtain.
Seeking something requires active, intentional pursuit.
Active — You don’t seek something sitting on the couch. Seeking requires action, movement, energy.
Intentional — You are unlikely to succeed in seeking with aimless or arbitrary activity. Any actual seeking is thoughtful and careful. It applies reason and strategy in order to meet the goal of discovery or finding.
If this text wasn’t divinely inspired I would be tempted to revert back to my recent past as a teacher and deduct points for Paul’s vagueness. “THE THINGS”? What things are we to seek?
Paul helps us out with three phrases:
These things are above deals primarily with the Jewish understanding of the universe that placed the human realm between the realm of God (above) and the dead (below). Consider that Jesus ascended into heaven. He ascended literally, but it is sort of odd to think if you start in Jerusalem and just start rising into the air, eventually into the atmosphere, and from their into outer-space until you eventually reach the throne room of God. Rather Jesus literally ascended at least in part to play off the hebraic understanding of the cosmos.
Thus things above is explained as, where Christ is.
And unpacked further with “at God’s right hand.”
This third clause gives us a little more to reflect on as the concept of God’s right hand is famously biblical. In fact, the most common Old Testament passage referenced in the New Testament is Psalm 110.

110 A PSALM OF DAVID.

1  The LORD says to my Lord:

“Sit at my right hand,

until I make your enemies your footstool.”

2  The LORD sends forth from Zion

your mighty scepter.

Rule in the midst of your enemies!

3  Your people will offer themselves freely

on the day of your power,

in holy garments;

from the womb of the morning,

the dew of your youth will be yours.

4  The LORD has sworn

and will not change his mind,

“You are a priest forever

after the order of Melchizedek.”

5  The Lord is at your right hand;

he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.

6  He will execute judgment among the nations,

filling them with corpses;

he will shatter chiefs

over the wide earth.

7  He will drink from the brook by the way;

therefore he will lift up his head.

Here you have king David speaking to God—the LORD—speaks of his lord. But who on earth would be the lord of the King if not YHWH himself?
Combining Psalm 110 with Colossians 3 we can see that “my lord of Psalm 110 is Christ. The Son of God and the eternal King of God’s kingdom.
The Psalm is littered with kingdom imagery:
A mighty scepter the symbol of royal power.
The mention of rule and power.
What about Melchizedek?
A mysterious character in the Old Testament, Genesis 14:17-24 to be precise.

17 After his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley). 18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.)

He was a king. More specifically the King of Salem or shalom. Thus the King of peace.
The name Melchizedek, as well, means king of righteousness.
And Genesis tells us “he was a priest of God most high.”
All this to say “the things that are above” are best categorized as things of Christ’s kingdom. Consider Christ’s own words from Matthew 6:

19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

To put it succinctly:

Believers “seek the things above” by deliberately and daily committing ourselves to the values of the heavenly kingdom and living out of those values.

Set

Paul goes on to add to seeking, that we must do some setting:

2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

This is a regular concern for Paul who writes in Romans

5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.

Similarly Philippians 4

8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things

The scriptures present a decidedly contemplative. That doesn’t mean that the Christian faith is for the academics, but rather it calls us to reflection.
As one commentator explains:
Paul calls for a deliberate act of the mind to focus on the things above… calling Christians to direct their minds away from “things that are on earth.”
Wilson, Expository Commentary: Ephesians - Philemon, 240.
The Bible scholar Ken Berding writes,
The word translated mind or mindset concerns more, however, than just your thinking processes, even if that is a significant part of it. In addition to what you think about the word also probably refers to what you desire and the way your life is directed to what you desire. I'm talking about the overall orientation of your life (including what you think about) and whether your thoughts and desires are directed toward the things of the spirit or whether they are directed toward the flesh.
Another commentator states:

that one’s attitudes, ambitions, and whole outlook on life are molded by Christ’s relation to the believer, and that one’s allegiance to him takes precedence over all earthly allegiances.

As we, Christians, are called to seek the things of the Kingdom, we too are called to deliberately direct our minds, attitudes, and even ambitions to Heaven.
One of my favorite hymns (one which we sung this morning) puts this idea into our own mouths with the lyrics
Jesus, All For Jesus, All I Am And Have And Ever Hope To Be.
All Of My Ambitions, Hopes And Plans I Surrender These Into Your Hands.
For It’s Only In Your Will That I Am Free
It is important to note that when Paul directs us away from earthly things, he does not intend us to forgo or withdraw from society entirely.
As Pastor Kent Hughes,
We must note that Paul is not suggesting that the Christian withdraw from Commerce and any possibility of prominence or achievement. Taken to absurdity, there would never be a Christian surgeon Or chief; There would be no excellence. The difference is that the Christian is no longer to see these things as if they are all that matter. Moreover, his mind-set is to be dominated by “the things that are above”. Paul is precise in his command: “set your minds on the things that are above” and Keep it that way. Implicit here is the idea of concentration... We must also remember that our mind-set is a deliberate act of the will.
Hughes, Preach the Word: Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon, 297.

Dead

Paul ties this seeking and setting to the logic of your death and resurrection in Christ.

For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Let’s be clear here. This concept of hiddenness of life is about two things:
Security — if our lives are hidden in Christ then they are hidden in a secure place where as the hymnist says:
No power of hell, no scheme of man, Can ever pluck me from His hand:
Revealing — all things in the Bible that are hidden are hidden to in order to be revealed. The message of the gospel was hidden at first, the way of blessing to all nations was hidden, those in Christ are hidden, but hidden to be revealed
So this claim is fundamentally about the waiting for the time in which Christ is revealed and we with him.

Alive

Thus Paul follows up with...

When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

This is the hope of the Colossians. Paul told us as much in the first verses of the letter:

we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel,

Notice how the hope and the gospel are connected. The logic of the Christian faith is thus this:
Hear the Gospel,
Believe the Gospel,
Place your hope in Heaven in Christ,
and watch your faith in Christ and love for the saints grow.

Conclusion

The new age of the Kingdom is coming, it is already here in part and in as much as Christ’s kingdom has broken into this world—to that extent—the kingdom can be experienced in this life.
So why do we not experience it? Why do so many of us find Paul’s joy and Peter’s dedication so foreign.
Often it is because the misunderstand eternal life. The promise of Heaven is not merely the extension of biological life on into infinity with the frustrating obstacles of everyday life removed.
Eternal life is about life to the full, which is life in God’s presence.
We often don’t experience eternal life because FOMO. Fear of missing out. We think setting our minds fully on Heaven will result in a diminishment of pleasure and joy.
With the exception of scripture, no other author presents as potent a cure as C. S. Lewis:
It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.We are seeking and setting, recognizing the gospel of life from death by the power of God’s grace.
- Lewis, Weight of Glory,
That is only one of the criticisms which Heavenly minded. We may also be in the crosshairs of the Marxist criticism that such exhortations to the focus on the Kingdom is an opiate dulling our senses.
Again Lewis dealt with such criticism in Mere Christianity:
This does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history you will find that the Christians who did the most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next period. The apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English evangelicals who abolished the slave trade, All left their mark on earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at heaven and you will get earth “thrown in” : aim at earth and you will get neither. It seems a strange rule but something like it can be seen at work in other matters.
Lewis, Mere Christianity, 134.
Thinking about Heaven does not make this life irrelevant. Rather it understands appropriately that thinking about Heaven tells us how this world ought to be. As such seeking the things above will encourage us to strive for justice and mercy, truth and love.
Think about what the world would look like if 2.6 billion Christians in it strived to look like Jesus. We would see glimpses of the Kingdom everywhere we looked.
For now we wait, but but this season of CoronaVirus disruption has modified the way I understand waiting. You see there are really two kinds of waiting.
ONE TYPE came after the initial disruption of the pandemic started to wind down, many of us got used to the new working, family, and social procedures CoronaVirus inflected upon our society. If you had any free time left it was mostly spent in waiting—it might have been the sort of frenetic waiting of taking up a new hobby, but it was still ultimately passive in relationship to the desire. In other words, your sourdough starter didn’t make it okay that you couldn’t gather with friends, go on a normal date with your significant other, or blow off some steam in your city softball league. It was mere filling time in anticipation of the end of all this craziness.
THE SECOND kind of waiting is the sort of productive and active waiting that I most associate with celebrations. Think about a wedding, where the parties prepare their attire (gown or dress and a tux or suit), the location (often decorating or hunting for a place prepared by natural or purposeful beauty), the notifications (engagement announcements, save-the-dates, invitations).
The latter is what Paul is calling us too. A productive and active waiting, in which our minds are deliberately and anticipatory directed to our savior in Heaven.
For we have died and our lives are hidden in Christ with God. So that when Christ appears we too will appear with him to the glory of God and to experience unbridled goodness in his presence. Until then, Santa Cruz Baptist, seek and set your minds on Heaven’s King.
Let’s pray.
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