26.06.11 AM Sermon Christ and the Christian Experience # 6
Focused on Christ (Col 3:1-11) - Living with Christ (Col 3:1-4)
We come to chapter three in Paul’s letter to the Colossians.
Here, Paul states that at the very heart of the Christian experience is Christ. He must be our centre.
If we are to live authentic Christian lives, then our lives must be focused upon Christ - All of our living must be drawn from his resurrection life, lived under his liberating authority and lead to his greater glory.
He states in this chapter that we should be those who are living with Christ (v1-4), living in Christ (v5-11); living like Christ (v12-14); living under Christ (v15-16) and living for Christ (v17).
This morning in the first four verses we shall be considering what it is to live with Christ (v1-4).
To live with someone, as many of us will have discovered, has a profound effect upon us.
To live with a spouse, or a brother or sister, or parent, or friend means that, to a lesser or greater degree, each person is affected by the other or others.
When the Christian lives with Christ, there is an effect.
To live with him is to invite a transformation of life and lifestyle.
And Paul highlights four aspects of our lives as we live with Christ.
Our position, priorities, predicament and our prospect.
1. Our Position (v1)
Paul ends chapter two on what may seem a bit of a downcast note – that authentic Christian living only begins when a person has died with Christ and no longer responds to the other voices which clamour for attention and allegiance. It is essential to die to the old self, to the old ways, to the old life. As John Piper puts it. It is better to lose your life than to waste it.
But, though to be dead to those pestering, tempting voices may be a relief, in itself it is not a life.
Christianity is at its heart about life, life which comes about through death and resurrection.
So Paul begins chapter 3 by continuing “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ …”
After Good Friday came Easter Sunday - the one without the other is an incomplete and inadequate gospel.
They belong together and are both to be part of the Christian’s experience.
After all, Christ came in order that we might have life and have it to the full.
Paul sets out this issue more fully in his letter to the Romans (6:4-5,8,11) “We were … buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. … if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. … count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
Paul states that this is a fact of Christian experience, it is the basic truth of what it means to be a Christian.
A Christian shares in the death and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, it is not something that a Christian has to work up to, or graduate to after a certain degree of holiness has been attained - this is the starting position, the default position.
Again, Paul takes the opportunity to remind his readers of Christ’s pre-eminence – that this is the Jesus who is “seated at the right hand of God.”
In other words, he is above all and over all and all enemies are under his feet.
But what is incredible is that Paul continues by saying that the position that Christ occupies in heaven is one which believers share with him.
(Eph 2:6) “God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus …”
The seat of victory in heaven is not only his but ours as well!
Sometimes you’ll be asked where you stand on a particular issue, you need to nail your colours to the mast.
Well, Paul says that the position of the Christian is in Christ, and that position is in the heavenly realms.
Therefore, when we face our enemy, may we remember where we actually stand.
That we are alongside Christ Jesus, we are with him. He is by our side.
And he has victory over all the dark spiritual forces, Satan and his demons, all the rulers of this world are in submission to him, all fears, all threats, all opposition finds their place under him.
He has defeated sin, nailing it to the cross, and overcome death through his resurrection from the grave.
Death could not hold on to him – he has escaped its grasp.
So, since we now share the risen life of the exalted one we need not be disturbed by that which comes against us.
So many believers are living defeated, despondent, despairing, downcast, depressed lives because they do not have the confidence which comes from knowing what their true position is in Christ.
2. Our Priorities (v1-2)
Now that we are aware of our position, this should determine our priorities.
Since now we live with this risen and exalted Christ we should “set our hearts on things above and set our minds on things above, not on earthly things.”
Our will, our emotions, our intellect should be focused upon Christ. The intentional, emotional and intellectual aspects of life are to be focused upon, brought into line with and submitted to Christ Jesus.
Now, the fact that we have been raised with Christ does not mean that we have instantly become perfect, far from it, and Paul here uses Greek words which indicate that we are to aim at, keep seeking, be intent on, fix our thoughts on and give our minds to things above - We are to demonstrate real determination if we are to overcome sin and establish a new set of Christ-centred priorities.
Without effort on our part to prioritise, the things of this world will smother and choke our life in Christ.
Jesus warns in one of his parables how (Matthew 13:22) “the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth [can] choke [our life in Christ] making it unfruitful.”
Thankfully, the presence and power of the Holy Spirit enables the life of Christ to be and grow within us.
Paul states, (Philippians 4:13) “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”
Paul is encouraging us to have a heavenly agenda which works itself out by faith in the arena of this world whilst we still are called to reside here.
God does not remove us from the material, economic, social and political spheres of life, but he does call each follower of Christ to live life differently, as Christ is living his life out through us.
3. Our Predicament (v3)
So, we know that our position is with Christ, and therefore we have a new set of priorities, to know him and to make him known through the living of our lives, but we see that we have a predicament : For the time being the lives of Christians are “now hidden with Christ in God.”
Now, some take this phrase to mean that Christians are to consider themselves safe in Christ, untouchable for eternity, once saved, always saved. This may be, but I think that Paul is not talking about this here.
Rather, what he is admitting is the perplexing truth that the divine mystery which has been disclosed to believers has not been revealed to everyone and the truth lies concealed to many.
He has already written in chapter 1 about “… the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints.” (Colossians 1:26) (see also 2 Cor 4)
And therefore just as the truth remains hidden, so the true identity of those who are in Christ is also hidden – those in the light are hidden from those who are in the darkness.
It’s almost as if Christians are spies in a foreign land, with hidden identities.
Paul is voicing here the perplexity and perhaps frustration the Christian feels from being caught between times.
The kingdom of God has already been established but has is not yet consummated.
Salvation is already a present reality but is not yet completed.
On the one hand we can speak of being saved, having died and risen with Christ. On the other hand we have not yet arrived and there is much of the risen life of Christ that has not yet been comprehended.
We live in the tension of the ‘already’ and the ‘not yet’ of the kingdom of God.
Now, much is hidden, and the church and its message is veiled.
We remember how (Luke 10:21) “Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.”
We should therefore not be surprised if our agendas, motives, ways, means, come into painful conflict with those of this world.
As Paul puts it in Romans 8:18-19 “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.”
4. Our Prospect (v4)
If at the moment our “lives are hidden with Christ in God”, one day it is all set to change.
“When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”
The truth and the people of the truth will no longer be concealed.
Believers will no longer be unrecognised and Christ will no longer be unacknowledged.
His second “glorious appearance” will be in magnificent splendour - The glory of his person and majesty will be seen by all and “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
The curtain of heaven will be drawn back and all will see the truth about Jesus.
The hidden period for Christians will be at an end and in that day they will share the glory of Jesus just as they have shared his life.
Paul reminds Christians that Christ is their life - He is the one “who is your life”.
Apart from Christ, we have no life, just existence, and a futile one at that.
But Christ invests our lives with meaning and purpose.
However, sadly, Christians forget this truth and try to live their lives apart from Christ, or are content to push him to the side, living as though he were incidental to their lives.
Rather than being incidental, he needs and deserves to be central.
It’s like the elderly crofter in his old crofter’s cottage, on a remote Scottish island, where electricity had only been brought to the island in the 1960s, when he was asked what different the advent of electricity had made to him, he answered. “It’s marvellous. Every night when it gets dark I can turn on the electric light. It’s so much easier to find and light by oil lamp that way. And once my oil lamp is lit, I turn the electric light off again.”
So many Christians are living as though they were not with Christ, as though they were not seated with Christ in the heavenly realms, as though the risen life of Christ was not available to them. And they try to eek out their existence in denial of Christ’s resurrection power, trying to get by on their own.
Paul, in his letter presents these blazing facts:
- The Christian has been raised with Christ.
- Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
- Our lives are now hidden with Christ in God.
- But when Christ appears - then we also will appear with him in glory.
We are united in Christ’s death, resurrection and exaltation, and one day will be united with him in his glorification.
Since this is so, we should keep our eyes fixed on heavenly things.
Just as a compass always seeks true North, so our lives should always be orientated towards Christ.
Bishop Handley Moule wrote:
“Here is St. Paul’s programme, his prescription, for the blessed life, the transfigured life, at Colosse. Live in heaven, that you may live on earth. … Live in recollecting and conscious union with him who is there, but who is at the same time in you, your life. Live in the continual confession to you own souls that you died his death, and live his life, and are with him ... on his throne; and then bring this to bear upon the temptation of your path.”
This is what it means to live with Christ who is seated at the right hand of God.
Questions to Ponder
Sunday 26thJune 2011
Read Colossians 3:1-4
1. It has been said that “you become what you think.” Discuss why and to what extent you agree or disagree with this statement.
2. Which of the words or phrases in verses 1-4 speaks to you the most and why?
3. What do these four verses tell us about Jesus Christ? Maybe you want to use these verses to help you to focus upon Jesus in worship – perhaps stating or singing out loud the truth contained in these scriptures.
4. What is Paul meaning when he says that the believer has “been raised with Christ”? How would the accepting of this truth and living it out affect your day to day life? Why do so many Christians live as though it were not true?
5. How can we ensure that we set our ‘hearts’ and ‘minds’ on things above and not on earthly things? (see also Hebrews 3:1,12:2, 2 Corinthians 4:18). What is the difference here between our ‘heart’ and our ‘mind’? Notice that this is a command to a group of people, rather than an individual – therefore, how can we encourage one another to do this also? What ‘earthly things’ are distracting or detracting you (or us as church) from fully following Jesus and what are you (we) going to do about it?
6. Is it true that we can be “Too heavenly minded to be any earthy good” according to Paul?
7. When Paul reminds the Christian, “for you died” – why is this important to keep remembering? And how does this fact relate to what he then goes on to say in v5-10. What was Jesus meaning when he spoke the words recorded in John 12:24-25?
8. Is Christ “your life”? (v4) If not, why not? If so, then is there anything that is preventing you from living life to the full? (John 10:10)