Sermon Tone Analysis

——Please Open to Colossians chapter 3——

I wish to speak today of a matter of grave importance for the believer—one that is oft neglected.

It is this – that the death and resurrection of Christ have necessary consequences in how we live our lives.

You may say to me – “this is obvious,” to which I reply, “it is astonishingly neglected”—to the detriment of our Christian lives and churches.

We must live holy lives, and put away our sin.

And we must realize – there are grave consequences when we do not.

Sin is a monster with unsatiable hunger…sin begets greater sin, it is not innocuous, consider:

Hebrews 3:13 warns us that quote “none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”

Sin hardens your soul.

It darkens your desires.

It twists your mind.

Who here is not aware of this, and yet….let

me ask you: Do you take seriously the task of killing your sins?

Sin makes the heart indifferent to sin.

As a Christian, you should be repulsed by what God is repulsed by…

As yourself - are you utterly repulsed by the cave of dragons dwelling in your heart?

Now, I know, I KNOW we are quick to hate external wickedness “out there”—I’m not talking about that right now…

Are you repulsed by yourself, Christian?

If you find yourself content to co-habitate with sin, you’ve been hardened by its deceitfulness.

And sin left living and thriving in you will make you earthly, carnal, impossible to satisfy, restless and ultimately joyless.

Consider David’s experience with sin in Psalm 32:

“For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.

For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.”

Our text this morning is a fairly straightforward text—but let it judge you: do you concern yourselves with killing sin like you ought to?

My aim this morning is to offer aid to the soul that struggles with indwelling sin—to exhort you and encourage you to have mastery over it.

Please open to Colossians chapter 3, and let us read our text this morning: verses 1-8

[Read 3:1-8 & Pray]

Let us briefly consider what Colossians has taught thusfar about the mortification of our sin:

Chapter 1:22 says that Christ,

22 has now reconciled [you] in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, 23 if indeed you continue in the faith...

Christ, the image of the invisible God, the Creator, the head of all things, the one in whom the fulness of God dwells…

…died……so that you could be reconciled to God, being presented as holy and blameless.

The task of killing our sin was one of the aims for which Christ died!

Yet we may question - how can the power to be holy and blameless be conferred on weak and sinful beings like ourselves?

Colossians 1:26-27 says By means of “the glorious mystery once hidden but now disclosed”: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

There exists a spiritual union between Christ and His people—the same union that MARRIAGE was created to illustrate.

“Christ in us” CHANGES things…how could it not?

Chapter 2:11-12 then says “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.”

2 things happen as a result of us being “in Him”:

1) We are circumcised in heart—resulting in being buried with him.

2) We are raised with him to new life.

Circumcision: This was a physical act – and yet it pointed to the hope of a spiritual reality:

Deuteronomy 30:6 says "And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.

"

Without THIS circumcision, one cannot hope to love God with all their hearts and souls.

Without circumcision of heart, we cannot have eternal life, and without it we cannot hope to have mastery over sin.

Paul tells us: all those "in Christ" have been circumcised “with a circumcision made without hands:”

If faith binds you to Christ, then your “body of the flesh” has been cut off and thrown away.

And In THIS way - we were buried with Christ!

Our old self perished at Calvary, You DIED on that cross, and your old self died too.

But there was not only a DEATH in Christ, there was also a RESURRECTIONwith Him.

God made us alive together with Christ.

That old man is dead, including his eternal debts and penalties…in its place is a new life, a new man, modeled after Christ…

One that yearns for obedience, that hates things opposed to God, that strives for holiness and blamelessness.

And here we find the Apostolic expectation for we who have "Christ in us":

we must stop our indulgence of the flesh.

Part of why Jesus died was to help us mortify our sin, and He dwells in us (in part) to aid in that pursuit.

With this as background, Let us begin with chapter 3:1 - If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

Paul, the writer of Colossians, begins with a conditional—if you have been raised with Christ….IF….

If you have been given a new life, your old self being circumcised and buried, then here is the command of the Holy Spirit:

SEEK the things above.

Seek the things above.

What are the things that are above?

The Spirit, knowing our question, inspired this clarification: "the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God."

In a reference to Psalm 110, Paul speaks of Christ in the presence of God—at His right hand.

What heavenly qualities are present in proximity to the Lord of Hosts?

Holiness, Righteousness, Justice, Love, Mercy, Grace, Immortality and Eternal Life…

…those things that are in accordance with God’s perfect unchanging nature!

These are “the things that are above.”

No suggestions are offered in this verse—make no mistake, this is a command.

A specific Greek construction actually, called an imperative.

This is an expectation for you O Church: To seek, that is—to strivefor, to yearn.

[Pause]

[PW] Brothers and sisters: Why do you seek after worldly things?

Why do you desire them, above heavenly things?

What do you think this world can give you that Christ cannot?

[/PW]

We seek what we desire – desire heavenly things!

We lose half the battle here – we want this world!

We want our recreations and our TV shows and our Social Media and our Fame and our Money

[PW] Why do we want that?

[/PW]

Fill your heart with delight for the things for God!

Don’t be diluted in this matter—maybe you need to hear this—you’re not commanded to seek the world.

“Be in the world and not of it”…We’ve become IN the world AND of the world!

Heavenly realities are communicated to us in Christ—who right now sits at the right hand of God…

…and you’re GORGING yourself on…what…?

A further command is given in verse 2: Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth

A contrast here presents itself.

We are men of two worlds, a citizen of one, dwelling in another.

Torn in our minds between the things that are above, and earthly things.

Notice again the command here, this imperative: “Set your minds,”Literally..."think about"

This is not only an act of the mind, but of the WILL.

CHOOSE to think of heavenly things, and not to be consumed by the earthly.

Ponder this question: what occupies your thoughts.

What we think about…we yearn for [beat heart] HERE.

What we yearn for, we think of.

Do you find sin present in abundance?

Consider what it is you set your mind on.

You may guard your actions tightly, but if you have no watchman over your mind—the battle will be swiftly lost.

What entangles you with worldly desire?