What should a Christ Follower look like?
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Introduction
Introduction
Good Morning.....
Can we chat for a moment?
Before we get going this morning I want to speak in regards to last week. I spoke about our place in this world as Christians and my objective each week will always be to bring the teaching of Scripture into a modern context.
The things we are dealing with in this life are often tough, stressful and frightening. The pandemic is no exception to any of those. But there are many joys in this life too and the biggest one is the reason I even spoke about that last week. Jesus is our hope and there is only one way to get that hope out there. US.
Mike A/B
Our world needs hope. They need Jesus and we have to be the ones to take Him to them.
And we can’t forget we are sinful people, we mess up and that amount of grace needed is immense…God grants that to us..thank goodness. I am no exception to that. Even last week I mentioned my lack of fear during this pandemic and that was honest, but understand something and I hope you took that the way I intended it....I by no means am perfect and struggle with many things and I sin daily. We are all in this boat together. Which is another reason I always want to impress upon us that we need to be together. We can’t do this without one another.
But hope that we needed and need daily is the same hope our world needs.
Let me remind us of Paul’s words.
21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
It was clear what Paul is saying....Our life is supposed to be all about Jesus and if we die…then we have received the full reward which is way better then this life. This place is not our home. When we are in Christ, our address is Heaven.
Paul even goes on after that verse-
22 If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. 23 I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.
It’s clear from this what our hearts desire should be and why are mission should be that much more imperative.
I also want you all to know something. My objective each week is to relay the teaching of scripture, not to make you feel bad....but to challenge you and myself each week with what God expects of us. It’s not always easy and it’s not always pleasant, but it will always be beneficial and life giving.
And if you are ever sitting there thinking he is talking about me or speaking directly to me....I’m not, but maybe God is.
I have a great care and love for you all. So, please know that the things preached and taught on never come from a position of wanting to hurt feelings or make someone feel bad. But it’s the truth of God’s Word and the hope of Jesus that people need and we need to be reminded of daily and weekly.
And if you are sitting there thinking, “oh, someone must have said something.” No one did. The Lord just moved me to further explain and clarify this morning. And more than anything express my love for God’s people.
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Ok....I’ll jump off that now. If you have your Bible open up to Colossians chapter 3.
Last week, we covered some tough topics that we struggle with. And Paul laid out this list for us of the things we literally need to be fleeing from and putting away.
Let’s remind ourselves-
Sexual Immorality
Impurity
Lust
Evil Desires
Greed
All summed up as idolatry
And then Paul goes on-
Anger, Wrath, Malice, Slander, and filthy language.
And lying.
These are all the things we must be putting off from ourselves as new creations in Christ.
If you struggle with any of those, you should be focused on it, praying daily, having someone holding you accountable.
But the first step is recognizing that sin area in your life to deal with it. We are no longer slaves to our sin, but we still do it and so we need to fight back against it.
One of the main points from last week was this-
As believers, we have to nurture and grow into the image of Christ.
As believers, we have to nurture and grow into the image of Christ.
And to do that we must be preoccupied with Jesus. And Paul gives us today what we should be preoccupying ourselves with as we flee the evil tendencies in our life.
Please stand...
12 Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive. 14 Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. 15 And let the peace of Christ, to which you were also called in one body, rule your hearts. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17 And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Pray
Paul perfectly constructs this section of Colossians. Prior to this, he has described what to put off, what is our identity and now lists the expectations that come with being a follower of Christ.
If you are a parent- did you ever have expectations for your kids?
Why?
For any of us, whether a parent, a teacher, manager and boss…we have expectations for others. And as we see,
Expectations are biblical.
Expectations are biblical.
God has them for his people. He has them for the things we need to avoid and He has them for the things we need to be striving towards.
And that is the main focus of our passage today and it shapes for us what a follower of Christ should look like, particularly to the world around us.
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Therefore/Put on then
Paul begins verse 12 by reminding us of God’s majesty, sovereignty and power.
And this is how God instructed Paul to begin this...God’s chosen ones...
Do not forget that, when you are in Christ, you have been chosen.
Do not forget that, when you are in Christ, you have been chosen.
Regardless of what we may or may not like to think, ultimately God chose us, it wasn’t our decision alone to accept Him. Remember, this has to be the way, if not, we could brag about how we chose God.
16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
But also, this is something that is amazing....how blessed to think and know that He chose you and me. And furthermore, this idea... at one point was merely for the nation of Isreal, but through Christ, all were being grafted in to the family of God. Church, we are told the gate is narrow because regardless there will always be people that close their hearts off to Jesus and reject Him, but in the midst of that…we have a God that looked upon each of us that know Him and He said yes.
How beautiful and amazing that truth is. And even more so that qualifies us holy and beloved.
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Greek Alert
Then in verse 12....
Hagios(ah-e-os) means set apart, separate.
Colossians: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary The Performance of the New Man
God chose believers out of the mainstream of mankind and drew them to Himself. They are different from the world. When believers fail to act differently from the world, they violate the very purpose of their calling.
The line in the sand has been drawn by Jesus. We have to be separate from this world in every aspect. And because we are new creations, and remember from last week, that doesn’t all come instantly, we have to work at it to make sure we are doing our very best to be separate.
As believers, we should not find ourselves sympathizing with worldly issues but instead we should be transforming into the image of Christ.
As believers, we should not find ourselves sympathizing with worldly issues but instead we should be transforming into the image of Christ.
That is the expectation God has set and what Paul is getting at here. And that we literally should be putting these things on.
The Greek word in-v-o for put on plainly means to put on clothes, so this expectation and list means we should be slipping right into these things.
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So, after that intro, Paul gets right down to it.
What should we be transformed into and put on?
Compassion
Kindness
Humility
Gentleness
Patience
Bearing with and Forgiveness
Love
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These are the qualities that result in action we should have.
We are going to break these down but somewhat quickly...
Our need to be compassionate stems directly from Jesus-
36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
James speaks this to us-
11 Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.
We have a command here to show mercy and sympathy to those who are in need or struggling. Not with a critical spirit or harsh condemnation which is something the world offers. That is the first command here
Cancel Culture/Sympathizing if....
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He comes to a closely related action and that is kindness. This is meant to be a level of grace that really diminishes any level of harshness towards another.
Jesus summed this up for us when he spoke about His yoke-
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Jesus may have been pointed and spoke with amazing truth, but it always originated from a position of kindness.
We further see this idea drawn out in the parable of the good Samaritan in how we should treat others, particularly if they are opposed to us.
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This next one is difficult, especially when you get to the core of the Greek. At one point, it was viewed with a negative lens, but Christianity made it into a virtue. Humility or a humble spirit, is hard. It has to be something that comes from a genuine heart and likewise it has to be something we allow ourselves to be honest with ourselves when we lack it.
We can’t hide behind this facade because then we won’t grow. That was the issue with the false teachers. They hid behind fake humility but constantly promoted and propped themselves up.
This virtue is probably the most important if we are tracking them, because it battles probably the worst thing we fight that launches our sinfulness..... and that’s pride.
Most lists and admonitions in the N.T. point us to be humble and Jesus himself was the extreme example of this. Even finalizing it prior to his Crucifixion by getting down and washing the feet of His disciples.
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Now, gentleness, which is the next virtue could be closely related to humility. It’s something that we must exhibit in our lives that basically says, I understand my place and regardless of anything, this is how I’m going to handle myself, even in the face of extreme sin.
And the reality is, it’s something that the Holy Spirit produces in us.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
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Patience is something we must desire in ourselves....
16 But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.
When we know Jesus it’s his level of patience that should flow through our veins.
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Bearing with one another brings about this idea of truly turning the other cheek. In 1 Corinthians, the Corinthians were becoming so disgusted with one another, they were taking each other to court. This is not supposed to be the case because for us to fight, quarrel and need to be found right is already a defeat.
2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,
We must persevere against the desire to win at all costs, particularly against our fellow believer.
If your trying to win and get your way and keep running into roadblock after roadblock....understand this, there are times when God wants us to push on, but generally that should be a sign that God probably doesn’t want you to continue on, especially if there is unforgiveness and pride in the equation.
Instead, we should strive to be found like the Thessalonians.
4 Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring.
Letting it go, turning the cheek, loving no matter what...
But, ultimately, loving them enough to forgive by means of grace and moving on.
Remember, these things combat the things we are attempting to flee.
Patience battles against anger, kindness against slander, gentleness and humility against evil desire, humility against lies....These are our battle tactics.
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We must put on all these things for the sake of Christ, so the world sees us as set apart.
We must put on all these things for the sake of Christ, so the world sees us as set apart.
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And here is the truth that pulls every one of these things.
LOVE.
To truly battle the things of this world, we must possess the love of Christ.
To truly battle the things of this world, we must possess the love of Christ.
This is literally the glue that holds it all together.
1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
If we feel no love for our fellow believers and non believers too, then we do no possess the love of Christ…plain and simple.
It’s because of that love that we can battle the sin that seeks to derail us.
We love because he first loved us....that is the genesis of our love…and he goes on to tell us-
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
It’s a double edged sword....if we love Jesus, then we will keep his commands....hold his expectations and certainly show and express love for His people.
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And to sum all this up.....Paul wants us to understand as we put off the old and put on the new what that should look like.
As new creations, we should be all about peace, all about the Word and all about Christ.
As new creations, we should be all about peace, all about the Word and all about Christ.
There it is…As we realize, Christ is all and in all, we are new creations.
First, we are to let Jesus rule us. That means take over or take control of us. That means we have to submit.
Have you fully submitted to that? Or are you still calling the shots in some areas?
But then that peace that comes from Christ actually means a pact or treaty but also the idea of security. When we are a peace with God, we have entered into an agreement and are secure in that.
1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
And to obtain and maintain a level of peace you must be thankful in all you do. Thanks is a major theme here and throughout Scripture. If you aren’t finding yourself being thankful to God and what He is doing, you won’t have peace.
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The Word is core to us.
It also points us directly to Jesus.
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Understand this…all these virtues.....kindness, love, peace…flow from a person who is allowing their life to be controlled by Scripture. If you are struggling with these things and seeing more of the qualities you need to be fleeing and putting off....check your Scripture intake, your study of it, your reading of it, your meditating on it.
It’s difficult for us to allow the things Paul wants us avoid to take root when we are filling ourselves with truth and Godly virtues.....when we fill up on these things…the others can’t help but flow out and away from us.
That’s what Paul means when he says we will let it richly dwell in us and it’s teaching will be evident and we will have no choice but to sing songs of praise to God.
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Paul ends this section with this final wrap up.
No matter what we do, do it for Christ.
That means, it doesn't matter what it is we are doing or saying…we have to ask ourselves-
Is it honoring our Lord?
Does it glorify Him?
Is the way I just spoke to that person, did it represent Jesus?
Is my motivation for doing this rooted in advancing the Gospel?
and so on and so on...
All these things Paul just talked to us about....are wrapped up in our motivation to do it because of the sacrifice Jesus made for us.
It’s always about Jesus.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Gospel
We need to make sure we are focusing and allowing ourselves to be consumed by the right things....And Paul has laid that foundation for us here.
Peace of Christ
Word of Christ
and Christ Himself.
We are to be a people that are on mission each and everyday to share Jesus with those around us because we love them and desire for them to know Him. God has left that part of the mission up to us.
And while we are doing that, we must be growing in our relationship with Him and becoming more and more in His image by putting off all those bad things and putting on all these amazing, Godly qualities that He has given us.
We just need to be focused on them by reading and pouring ourselves in His scriptures.
This is what a Christ follower looks like...
Someone who is preoccupied with everything that is Jesus- His Word, His Virtues and Himself.
Pray