Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

We’re continuing to look at this study in Colossians 3, wherein Paul is exhorting his readers, spurring them on, to live lives that are in accordance with their great salvation.

In other words, we are called as Christians to live lives that our consistent with our profession of faith.

Why?

Because the Gospel changes us!!

The power of God, through the proclamation of the Gospel, brings about radical change.

In fact, this is the goal of salvation… to conform us once against into the likeness of our Saviour Jesus Christ.

To bring us back to a point where we perfectly image God in this world.

This is very important for us to keep in mind.

Everything that Paul is teaching here in terms of what it looks like to live a life that has been transformed by the Gospel, flows out of the work that this Gospel does within the hearts of those transformed by it.

Some implications of that...

This transformation requires the Gospel to have worked in us.

We must have come to repentance and faith in Christ if this transformation is going to take place.

We must have a relationship with Christ.

Further to that, we need to keep fixing our eyes on the Gospel truths in order for this transformation to take place.

We’ve already considered together our identity, and the fact that we are united with Christ.

We are thus to be setting our minds on things above… on that which is glorious, that which is accordance with God.

We considered that part of that involves putting off of old practices, those practices that are in accordance our flesh, and the world’s way of thinking and living.

That really just speaks to living according to the sinful man - the first Adam, who was fallen.

We considered last time the call to renew our thinking.

Our patterns of thinking, what we think, how we think, should be in accordance with the truth.

Our thinking should be transformed by the truth of God’s Word, by the realities of the Gospel, and as these truths pervade our thinking, our transformed life will flow out of that.

And that leads us to consider what that transformed life is going to look like.

What are the marks of this transformed life.

This begins already in verse 10…

The parallel equivalent of this in the book of Ephesians is Ephesians 4:24

In summary form, we are being conformed into the image of Jesus Christ, who is the very Son of God, and the full revelation of God’s character and nature.

What we will see as we work our way through these characteristics that mark the one clothed in the new self is that they mark our manner of relating to others.

The manner in which we engage with and relate to others is the essential and critical distinctive of a person clothed with Christ.

Our love for God is primary.

But the extent of our love for God, and the purity of our love for God will be marked by the manner in which we relate to others.

With that in mind, consider the first aspect of this new self.

1.

A New Identity (v.11)

In verse 11 of our text we read…

The very first thing that we must note as we consider ourselves to be clothed in the likeness of Christ is that our transformation as we are renewed in the image of our Creator results in all artificial barriers of distinction being broken down.

We must see this!!

The distinctions that mark the world are artificial, and cannot persist among those redeemed and renewed in their minds.

The Gospel transforms our thinking such that we no longer think in terms of the usual social or cultural barriers.

The only distinctive is Christian, or unbeliever!

No Greek or Jew

This is the distinctive of national or ethnic pride.

In our day, this is akin to the cultural distinctives that play out in society.

But in Biblical days, this was a massive dividing factor.

That was real distinction.

For the Jews, the Greeks were unclean.

They were separated from God.

They did not have access to God, at least not in the same way as the Jews did.

But Paul says here that these distinctives, that were extremely powerful in the minds of the people of that day, were actually broken down.

They should not present a barrier.

In speaking about the Gospel work and the unity that it ought to create, Paul says in...

The walls of hostility have been broken.

There is no difference.

As Paul then goes on, he says that there is neither Circumcised nor uncircumcised.

This is a religious distinctive.

Obviously, this ties in with Jew and Greek... but there is a specific religious connotation here.

Now, clearly this is saying that there is to be no distinction based on these religious convictions.

In particular, the force is directed towards one of the key markers that determined a person to be faithful to Judaism, and thus (in the mind of the Jew) faithful to God.

To the Jew, circumcision was the sign of the Covenant.

Without this sign, you were not considered to be part of the covenant community of God.

And what Paul is saying here is that this covenant sign is no longer applicable.

Whether you are a Jew, and so circumcised in your flesh, or whether a Gentile, and therefore uncircumcised, you are equal and the same, if you are in Christ.

Again, this would have been something radical within the minds of the first century readers of this letter.

There was significant difficulty, particularly for the Jews, to get past this important point.

There was a special council convened to argue this very point.

We read that in Acts 15.

Paul’s letter to the Galatians was written, at least in part, with this specific distinction being addressed.

But Christ breaks down these markers that present a barrier.

Paul says that when you are in Christ, there is no distinction.

Paul then goes on to mention Barbarian and Scythian.

Both these groups were particularly noted for their very cruel behaviour and generally uncivilised actions.

What Paul is saying here is that even those from these groups who are in Christ are not to be excluded from fellowship, and the unity that ought to prevail.

And then finally, he mentions that there is neither Slave nor Free.

In other words, there is to be a unity across economic barriers.

There is to be a unity beyond class barriers.

There is to be a unity across whatever social barriers may otherwise exist.

Why is that?

Paul gives us the answer here…

Christ is all and is in all.

The fact is that all that matters really is Christ, and the work that Christ has or has not done within your heart.

Friends, we need to understand this in terms of our contemporary situation.

If we have been united with God through Christ, then we are united with one another with a pround and supernatural unity that transcends all barriers.

Furthermore, due to the supernatural nature of the unity that we have through Christ, we ought to see deep relationships fostered between us as God’s people, across all these potential barriers.

In other words, we cannot merely come together on a Sunday morning, and say that we worship God together, but then as soon as the service is over, we go away and join the groups of people that best fit with us.

We ought to be able to go out of a service and connect with those of diverse backgrounds, and find a connection with them that is rooted in Christ.

In Compelling Community, Jamie Dunlop / Mark Dever write:

Our world’s history is a long story of tribal conflict where no one is closer than those who are family.

That is, with one critical exception of course: the local church.

When two people share Christ—even if everything else is different—they are closer than even blood ties could ever bring them.

Again, they are the family of God.

(p.

26)

They go on to write:

If community in your local church is not dependent on God’s supernatural Spirit for its lifeblood, it is not evidently supernatural.

If it is not evidently supernatural, it is counterfeit community.

It’s posing as biblical community but fails to accomplish its purpose.

It fails to show off the wisdom of God to the world.

(pp.

36-37).

Our new identity in Christ leads to a new community rooted and grounded in Christ.

Secondly…

2. Garments of Grace (v.12)

Paul goes on in verse 12 to say...