Sunday, April 19, 2015 am
“IF Then You Were Raised
With Christ” (Part 1)
Colossians 3
This past week, more than once, Joshua made reference to how Colossians
3 as a blueprint for the life of a Christian.
So as a follow-up to his series of lessons, this morning I want
to examine why that is so.
This lesson will not be an exhaustive study of this chapter, but we will
highlight some of things Paul says for these brethren to do.
a.
In this text Paul begins
by describing Christians. We are
raised with Him to walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:3-4).
In Col. 2:20 Paul spoke of them having “died with Christ” and in
verses 11-12 he speaks of them having been “buried with Him in baptism.”
NOW, he speaks of them being “raised” with Him.
The “if” is not really something conditional in this case, but an
observation of fact. Paul is talking to those that ARE Christians and
therefore what he is about to say is commanded of them.
In our language, we might use the word “because” or “since”
instead. See Col. 2:20 and
Phil. 2:1 as examples of this.
b.
Vs. 3 reminds us, “For
you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”
Again, we are reminded- this is
about Christians and the way they live.
a.
Seek those things
– this is where genuine service to God begins.
We remind ourselves that we are serving God!
To do so, we must learn what He desires of us.
To do that we go to where He is.
The “above” in vs. 1-2 is a reference to heaven.
It is “where Christ is,
sitting at the right hand of God.” (cf. Matt. 16:19, Eph. 1:20, Heb.
10:12)
We need to find our instructions from God.
His word comes from heaven.
Consider Matt. 21:25 where Jesus asked, “The baptism of John, was
it from heaven or from men?”
The Jewish leaders knew what Jesus meant when He said, “from heaven”.
It is these things that we “seek”.
The word (ζητέω, zēteō)
describes serious effort to find something.
Rather than a casual seeking, it conveys the idea of
“investigate” or “examine”.
It is a seeking not just to discover something, but rather
seeking to obtain it.
IF we look elsewhere what we find will be inadequate and perhaps even
deceptive. Far too many
today are looking for God in places other than where He is found – in
His word! 2 Tim. 3:16-17.
James 3:17 speaks of “the wisdom
that is from above…”
b.
Set your mind –
It is not enough to look for Him and even to find Him.
Our desire ought to be to be where He is!
Phil. 3:20 describes our citizenship is in heaven.
The idea of this phrase is to make
up your mind that you are going to let the things of heaven govern
your life. When you
find “those things above” you seek to obtain them.
In Matt. 13:44-46 Jesus tells the parables of the hidden treasure and
pearl of great price. In
both instances (difference being one was seeking and the other was
unintentionally discovered) they determined to obtain the treasure.
Where is your treasure? Matt. 6:19-21
c.
In vs.
3-4 of our text our goal is to “appear with Him in glory” or have
opportunity to spend eternity with Him.
a.
Becoming a Christian
means living a changed life.
That is why “repentance” ought to be emphasized and understood BEFORE
one obeys the gospel. It is
repentance that leads to conversion (Ac. 3:19, cf. 2 Cor. 7:10-11).
That means that in becoming a Christian there are things you must
quit doing and other things you must start doing.
Will we obey the command of the Lord for becoming a disciple (Matt.
28:20 – observe all things I have commanded)?
Psalm 15 speaks of the one who may dwell in His tabernacle – it is godly
man whose actions and attitudes are in accord with godliness.
b.
Therefore put to death… Desiring to be with God means we HAVE TO give up sinful
conduct. Several sinful
actions are mentioned here – fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil
desire, covetousness. Such
conduct is destructive to mankind.
c.
Put off these
– in addition to various actions, we are also to put off ungodly
attitudes. Those mentioned
here are anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your
mouth and lying.
NOTICE the nature of these attitudes – they cause enmity between men and
impurity. Notice also that
he says, “put of ALL these” – this describes a particular character.
d.
Put off the old man
– again, the emphasis is change!
Eph. 4:22 is parallel, “But
you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have
been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off,
concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt
according to the deceitful lusts,” (4:20-22)
In 1 Cor. 6:11, “and such were some of you.”
e.
There is a continued
emphasis in scripture about things we must give up to follow God.
James 4:4 tells us “friendship with the world is enmity with God…”
1 Peter 4:1-3 tells us that we have ceased from sin and the we have
spent enough of our lifetimes living ungodly.
Gal. 5:19-21 – the works of the flesh – those who practice such things
will not inherit the kingdom of God!
a.
It is not enough to put
off ungodly practices. While
that is where the transformed life begins, it is not complete until we
have REPLACED ungodliness with godliness.
Matt. 12:43-45 – Jesus taught a parable of a demon cast out who returns
to an unoccupied place Romans 6:13, “And do not present your members
as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God
as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of
righteousness to God.”
Many will be lost because of their failure to obey God’s “positive”
commands.
b.
Put on the new man – when we are baptized, we bury the man of sin and are “raised to walk in
newness of life.” (Rom. 6:3-4)
We are to come out of the waters of baptism a new man.
Eph. 4:23-24 tells us, “and be renewed in the spirit of your mind,
and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in
true righteousness and holiness.”
2 Cor. 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new
creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become
new.”
Gal. 3:27 tells us that
that in baptism we “put on Christ”.
He is our life. He is
our changed conduct.
c.
Demonstrated change –
“put on” tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering,
bearing with one another, forgiving one another.
Put on love – the bond of perfection.
a.
In times past we have
identified peace as the absence of strife.
Our goal as Christians is to have peace with God, with one
another as brethren and as much as depends on us, peace with mankind.
This is a result of a life that is following God’s pattern, at least
where we have control over it.
b.
Live so that you are at
peace with God
– Phil. 4:7, when we pray to God, it can bring about “the peace that
passes understanding.”
Peace with God is a result of our sins being washed away through the
blood of Jesus. And it is a
result of continue faithfulness to Him.
In Phil. 4:9 Paul said, “The things which you learned and
received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be
with you.”
c.
Live so that you are at peace with the world
– Rom. 12:18. NOTE: We
realize this is not always possible in a morally hostile world, but to
the degree we can control it, let us do so!
d.
One body
– in our text, Paul says, “And let the peace of God rule in your
hearts, to which also you were called in one body...” (3:15)
When we as brethren are at peace with God, we will be at peace with one
another! And the converse is
also true – we need to seek peace with our brethren to be at peace with
God.
Gal. 5:15 warns us that if we bite and devour one another we may be
consumed.
Rom. 14:19 calls for us to pursue the things that make for peace and
edification.
We must continually remind ourselves of what “one body” actually means
and strive to achieve and maintain that!
And
thus we can see a broad picture of God’s blueprint for our lives.
If we will strive to apply these qualities, it will help with the
quality of our lives now and give us hope of an even better and eternal
life in the next. Let
us be the disciples God would have us to be.