Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

We are Doing a Series Called “Christocentric”

It’s All About Having Christ as Our Center

I Started Off the Series with an Illustration of a Man Buying a Painting

He Wanted the Painting to Be the Centerpiece of His House

But He Would Have to Renovate His Entire House to Make that Happen

So That’s Exactly What He Did

He Wanted Himself and Everyone Who Entered His House…

To Admire and Honor His Painting

This Series is to Help Us Be Like that Man

Jesus is Our Painting

And Every Aspect of Our Lives is Our House

As Christians, Jesus Must to Be the Centerpiece of Our Lives

And We Must to Be Willing to Make Whatever Renovations Necessary for that to Happen

The Christocentric Person’s Greatest Desire:

Is for Jesus to Be Admired and Honored Through Us

This Morning We are Looking at Christocentric Church

I Mean By “Church” What the Bible Means By “Church”

The Community of People Who Belong to Jesus

A Christocentric Church is a Community of People Who are Centered on Jesus

We Want to Be a Christocentric Church

But the Problem is:

You Don’t Find Many Churches Like that

What You Find in Many Churches is:

Traditions Being Taught More Than the Gospel

We Looked at that Last Week

Individuals Who are More Self-Centered Than Christ-Centered

Sin Secretly (Or Maybe Even Publicly) Running Rampant Amongst the Members

A So-Called Community of Divided and Detached People

Gossip, Slander, Anger, Grudges, etc.

Does that Sound Like a Christocentric Church to You?

And Yet that’s What We Find in So Many Churches

What Does a Christ-Centered Church Look Like?

Paul is Going to Tell the Colossian Church the Answer to that Very Question

We’re Going to Be in Colossians 3

Colossians 3:1–4 (NASB95)

Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.

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

When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.

Paul Told Us in Col. 2:12 that Being “Raised With Jesus” is Being Baptized into Him

Those Who are Baptized into Jesus Should Keep Seeking/Setting Their Minds on Things Above

To Seek/Set Their Minds on the Kingdom of Heaven

Things that Pertain to the Reign and Rule of King Jesus

This is the Simple Answer to What a Christocentric Church Looks Like

They are a Community of People Who are Seeking the Kingdom of Heaven

They Set Their Minds on King Jesus and the Spread of His Gospel

If We Have Been “Raised/Resurrected with Christ”…

That Implies that We Also Died with Him

And that’s Exactly What Paul Says, “For You Have Died”

We Have Given Our Lives to Jesus

And He has Hidden Our Lives with Himself in the Heavenly Realm

And When He Returns, Our Lives Will Be Revealed With Him in Glory

“Hidden” Carries 2 Ideas

1st, Something that is Hidden is Unseen

We, Nor the World, are Able to Presently See the Life We Will Be Given When Jesus Returns

We Know that Our New Lives Will Be Spent in Glorious Immortal Bodies…

But that Life is Still Hidden at the Moment

2nd, Something is Hidden so it can Be Protected

Those Who Have Died and Resurrected with Jesus Have Our Eternal Lives Protected By Jesus

Our Eternal Life is Secure with Jesus

Jesus is Our Life

He is the Giver, Protector, and Revealer of Our Lives

That Means Exactly What Paul Said to the Galatians

Galatians 2:20 (NASB95)

“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

A Christocentric Church is a Community of People Who Say:

“Our Lives are Not Our Own”

“Jesus is Our Source of Life, and Therefore We Live for Him”

There’s No Room for Self-Cernteredness in a Christocentric Church

Colossians 3:5–7 (NASB95)

Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.

For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience, and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them.

All of These Sinful Desires and Practices Have at Their Very Core this Idea:

“My Life is About Me”

“Forget About Loving God and Loving My Neighbor…”

“I Love Me”

Paul Specifies that Greed is Just a Form of Idolatry

But When it Comes Down to it…

Everything Paul Listed Here is

They are All About Gratifying the World’s Favorite God - Self

These Desires and Practices Come From a Self-Centered Heart

Paul Gives 2 Reasons We Shouldn’t Live By These Desires and Practices

1st, God’s Wrath is Coming for People Who Live this Way

2nd, These are Characteristics of Our Former Life

But as Christians, We Died

We are No Longer Old Humanity

That Old Creation Died

Life is No Longer About Me; It’s About Jesus

And if My Life is About Jesus…

My Life is About Pleasing Him, Not Me

A Christocentric Church is Focused on Jesus, Not Ourselves

Colossians 3:8–11 (NASB95)

But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth.

Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him—a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all.

Since We Have Taken Off the Old Humanity (Like Taking Off Dirty Clothes)…

Along with that Old Humanity Should Be:

Sins of Hot-Temperedness and an Uncontrolled Tongue

Anger, Wrath/Rage, Slander, Abusive Language, Lying

And Sandwiched in Between Those 2 is “Malice”