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Preacher: Pastor David Ball
Scripture: Colossians 3:1-17
In Colossians 3, Paul continues the theme of the supremacy of Jesus Christ and His sufficient work in our lives. In fact Paul takes it to another level by proclaiming that when we put our faith in Jesus, our lives are hidden with Christ. In light of this joyful assurance we are called to seek the things that are above and to live as the true citizens of God’s glorious kingdom.
Transcript
[Music] well welcome back as we continue our our series on col the book of Colossians uh if you’ve uh missed us I missed any of them I encourage you to go back and you can uh listen to them online uh because there is a lot of information that certainly is uh building uh on each other and building up to where we are today today in chapter three uh but I did get a a chuckle this week uh Jen as she was uh Jen Cruz as she was communicating with uh different Ministry folks and she sent Gracie a text reminding her of what the the passage was for the the children’s ministry time and she said uh yes with sexual immorality and circumcision y all should have a lot of
fun I thought I thought that was great um uh and uh and we’re going to have a lot of fun
too but it really it fits into the context of of Colossians and what they were were dealing with for those who I guess haven’t been with us I’ll give you a little bit of a a quick review and that is the Colossians were a a people who were incredibly insecure uh they were insecure as a as a as a town because they had once been a prosperous City uh that then men had been overtaken by two other cities they had once been the the leading producer of wool and so it was a rich and prosperous town uh but then uh with these other two cities taking over in the the valley region where it’s they were located they kind of became insignificant and you know weren’t really uh uh not many people remembered them in fact of all the letters that Paul wrote to any of uh of the churches this was by far the most insignificant of them uh it wasn’t a major town of influence a major Center of uh of Economic and philosophical and you know all that kind of stuff that uh that that were usually targeted and where usually uh missions uh went out to uh in order to try to influence the greater areas this was a a relatively insignificant little town uh that has uh kind Reminds Me Maybe I lived in Pittsburg for I went to Seminary there and it kind of reminds you of uh of one of the the small steel towns that’s uh kind of been forgotten or you know past its time and they they were feel they so as a people they felt a little bit insecure did I offend any pittsburghers I didn’t mean to I I apologize because oddly enough we have a lot of Pittsburg here at this church we have a lot of Clemson grads and we have a lot of pittsburghers I don’t know what what that’s all about but uh I didn’t mean to offend you in that uh pittsburghers are not insecure any more than the rest of us are um but but the people the Church of ksai were an insecure people and Paul had gotten a report back from a pathis of uh of this other group that had come in and was proclaiming a different gospel now this happens quite often in the churches and usually it’s what we would call the judaizers coming in uh those who would come and tell them that to you have to really be Jewish and follow all the laws and all the ceremonies in order to truly be a Christian and to have any assurance uh of of being God’s people and his children uh and having salvation but this was different this was a group that come in that were were known as the gnostics uh and we’ve talked about them the the word uh ginoso means to know and so the word itself Gnostic it means basically the know-it-alls uh this was a group of people that had what they believed the secret knowledge it was a different religion they had taken little bits of Greg Greek philosophy and uh and Rel religions and they had mixed it with some Jewish ideas and they had kind of put it all together uh they were not a monotheistic religion uh what they saw what they believed was they were dualistic in the sense that all of matter is evil and all that’s spiritual is good and therefore a good God could not have created the bad matter uh I know this gets complicated but it helps to understand what’s going on here uh and so therefore they had God created a whole bunch of lesser gods in order till you finally get to the last one who then uh then that one who was enough far removed from the spiritual holy and Almighty true God that or highest God on the pantheon and then that God created and it was all matter and it was evil that was the G the Greek idea uh and so these folks are coming in now and influencing the church and they’re they’re telling these uh these Christians that no we know the secret knowledge we know how you can get beyond the evil of of Earthly matter and you can transcend and find your way to the ultimate spirituality there’s some Eastern religions that kind of you know get get influenced by this and in fact actually and I’m going to talk about it in just a minute I believe all of our culture and what we don’t even realize is that gnosticism kind of works its way into our lives and our thinking uh as well it had that kind of of influence and so Paul’s incredibly worried about these this these Christians who are already insecure uh who are going to be swept away by these people who come in and say no that gospel that you heard proclaimed to you that’s not good enough you need more you need to be more you need to possess the secret knowledge in order to transcend it all uh and and there were various different groups of gnostics and we don’t know exactly which ones that that were influencing and infecting this church at at colosi um but it continues nosism even today kind of rears its head in our culture uh today uh in this idea of dualism the gnostics uh were Central to their thought is the idea of dualism where the material world as I said a minute ago is seen as corrupt or even an illusion and which is contrasted with the pure spiritual realm well today in our modern culture uh there’s a prevalent dichotomy that’s been drawn between the physical often uh criticized for its environmental impact and consumerism and then the digital virtual which is seen as a space of freedom and identity and exploration or escape from Material uh material constraints you know social media virtual reality and digital identities can be seen as modern equivalence of seeking a higher more authentic self beyond the physical World kind of wild isn’t it I’m getting a little bit beyond my uh my my expertise here but uh but I look these things up so so you you can go and study it more in more details uh but also this idea that gnostics had of knowledge as Liberation again ginoso the word Gnostic if you know the right stuff it’ll bring Liberation uh nosis knowledge is the key to Liberation from the material world they thought offering Enlightenment and a return to the Divine spark within everyone you’re going to have to go read about Nazism because that’s a whole another level but modern culture there’s an emphasis on self- knowledge personal development and Enlightenment through education therapy mindfulness and the self-help culture you know the inter the internet facilitates access to vast knowledge that’s kind of the idea about it it’s what’s going on in the whole artificial intelligence world now and why there’s so much concern about it and what information’s getting pumped into it but the idea is that it might be used to escape or to transcend uh the traditional life constraints or how about a rejection of the conventional Authority that was a very Gnostic idea gnosticism rejected mainstream religion and and cultural Authority seeing them as part of just a flawed Material World they were all they were all evil and so modern culture culture isn’t there there’s a significant skepticism towards traditional institutions like religion government and even science in some circles right conspiracy theories alternative facts and the do-it-yourself approaches to truth can be seen as modern expressions of seeking knowledge outside of established Norms now not all of those are bad and sometimes the the conspiracy theories are true we’re learning that um uh uh how about individualism vers uh collectivism gnostics emphasize that individual journey to Enlightenment That’s What mattered above all else in modern cult on Modern culture there’s a strong individualistic streak isn’t there with personal authenticity self-expression and personal narratives taking presidence over uh Collective Norms or
identity and finally the m ISM gnosticism relied on secret knowledge and mystical experiences in order to to find Salvation and in our modern culture there’s a Resurgence of an interest in mysticism and Tarot tarot cards it’s shocking how much it’s out there and how many especially younger people are are really embracing this whole idea of astrology and other esoteric practices as tools for personal insight and and alternative to traditional spirituality it’s out there right that that’s what’s happening in the culture but where today’s passage is even more prevalent uh is in an the idea of morality and this is what Paul’s speaking directly to the church at kosai because here are some ideas that uh that gnostics had and there was various different groups of gnostics so you know there’s different views about morality uh but not tics uh who again saw all that was the material world as being corrupt and evil and the spiritual realm is the only thing is pure and divine morality in this context had often AR revolved around escaping the material world and its perceived moral corruption and so there was this idea of knowledge over action meaning the ultimate goal of spiritual knowledge which was the knowledge of one’s True Divine Nature uh this often meant the moral actions were secondary to achieving this nosis this knowledge again did you hear that the moral actions were secondary to a achieving this greater knowledge of Enlightenment some nonstic believed that moral laws were part of the material world and that was a deception and thus not truly binding for those who had attained that higher plane of knowledge and being uh and so there was really two responses in the Gnostic world you either became an aesthetic which we heard last week was Paul was criticizing them for meaning that they practiced extreme forms of of aestheticism believing that by denying the body and its desires one could Liberate the soul from the material world but then it’s the other side of it and that’s the libertinism meaning some gnostics groups believe that indulging in worldly pleasures as a way of either to demonstrate their freedom from the material world or to show that these actions had no bearing on their spiritual State at all okay that’s a that that’s enough of gnosticism right uh it’s deep and it’s uh and we’re always learning more uh about it but it was prevalent in the early church and this is what Paul’s looking at he’s looking at this this church that’s being influenced uh and it appears that what they’re being influenced is this libertinism this idea that uh that that moral Behavior does not matter uh or I’ve achieved the highest level of being and therefore it makes no difference what I do in the material world people you know people don’t don’t matter they’re not uh they’re they don’t have worth and dignity in themselves because everything created is bad so gnosticism you either had to be an uh uh become a monk or a nun and and practice all this uh you know this kind of physical Denial in order to elevate into a higher plane of being or you were a libertine meaning you’ve reached the higher place of spiritual being and so now you can do whatever you want all there there are no bounds you can do whatever you want but the Christian Gospel what Paul’s proclaiming is something radically different and it’s as applicable today every bit as much as it was applicable then because our culture has is is leaning more into these ideas of Nazism it’s creeped its way back in maybe the reality is it never really fully went away uh it’s always kind of been there it’s even been in the church you know a lot of Mainline denominational even Protestant churches have embraced a lot of this Gnostic ideals uh but what the gospel tells us and what Paul’s proclaiming is that because we are assured in Christ because we have that assurance that Paul has gone through all of this time in chapters 1 and two saying showing us how Christ is supreme over all of uh eternity he’s he’s Supreme Over All of creation uh he is supreme over his church he’s in charge of it all and then he uses all of his suprem Supremacy for you and for me he used his Supremacy that’s the that’s the good news of the Gospel is that he used it for us and he and not only did he use it once he continues to use it last week we looked at how uh how PA Paul was proclaiming that that you have been rooted and built up in Christ it’s his work in you and you are being strengthened it’s that passive verb that it’s being done to you which gives birth to the active verb of a Heart of Thanksgiving that’s the good news of the Gospel it’s an inside out process there’s the old uh Anglican kind of Mantra that Thomas krer that was a big part of of his beliefs and the English Reformation uh that was what the heart loves the will chooses and the mind
justifies so what does the heart love that’s what Paul is getting at here uh what does the heart or what does the heart love that the will will then choose and the mind will justify youus Lewis uh he said I sometimes wonder whether all pleasures are not just substitutes for Joy said I wonder if all pleasures are not just substitutes for joy and what he meant by that is uh and we’ll get into it in just a middle the scriptures make it very clear psalm 16 makes it clear that in the presence of the Lord is Joy Everlasting and pleasures forever more and so what he’s talking about here is that when we seek joy in all of these other places that we’re going to you know the sexual immorality and all the list and we we’ll go over them in just a minute uh that Paul proclaimed what we’re what people are seeking is a false Joy they’re seeking what can only be found in the presence of God
himself and Paul gives us a reassurance here at the beginning of chapter 3 if you want to open to verse one uh this is this is what we’re told Paul says if then you have been raised with Christ seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God if then meaning going back to all the things he had said in chapter 1 and two all the supremacy of Christ how he’s used that Supremacy for you and me and now he is continuing his work in US of rooting Us in him of strengthening Us in him of building us up in him by the power power of His holy spirit giving us hearts of Thanksgiving if then all of that meaning and you’ve been raised with Christ that that’s the reality that’s the truth of the Gospel is that when you put your faith in Jesus not only have you died with him you’ve been raised to New Life in him and so this isn’t really a question he’s not saying if as if there’s a doubt uh he says if going back all this is true then seek the things that are above then seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God this seek is a command it’s an imperative the seek the the word that that Paul uses here it’s not it’s not an option he goes if you have been raised with Christ which is your reward and is what you are given by faith in Christ his gift to you then seek then seek the things that are above does that word seek it means to search for to desire to strive after to Earnest be Earnest in pursuit of the things that are above in the Greco Roman world the philosophers talked about seeking out wisdom and Truth uh the the Pagan religions of the GRE or Roman World sought after the favor of the Gods make the right sacrifices manipulate them as best you can in order for them to to to act in your favor in the Jewish World seek seeking God was about uh obeying his laws and Commandments in the Christian worldview seeking Jesus and his kingdom over worldly Pursuits is what Paul is saying and these things above what does that mean it literally means seeking the things that are from Heaven seeking the things of Heaven Paul’s saying seek heaven where Christ is this this is what our desire is to be our desire is to be seeking after the things that are above the things that are Heavenly the things that are actually Godly CS Le said has a good quote on this too he says aim at heaven and you’ll get the Earth thrown in AIM at Earth he go aim at Earth and you’ll get neither Paul is saying is seek after the Heavenly things make that your desire make make that your Pursuit make that which you long for where Christ is seated at the right hand of God meaning sitting in the place of authority the place of power the place of influence the place of intimacy with the father that’s where Jesus is at the right hand he shares in God’s dominion over the universe because he’s Supreme over all he has authority over Heaven and Earth and he intercedes on behalf of us and between us and God Jesus sitting at the right hand of the father signifies his ultimate victory over sin and
death Jesus represents us before God and then in verse two Paul says set your minds on the things that are above not on the things that are of Earth meaning have this mindset make this the way that you think think this way have this attitude uh may your life reflect these values and these priorities set your mind on Heavenly things on Heavenly things you know I was trying to think of an example of setting your mind uh upon something and uh the the best example I could think of was my dog Luna or our dog Luna sorry she she does kind of treat me like she’s my dog but uh she’s our family dog uh and uh and she has her mind set pretty much all the time on the ball all she cares about is that that ball is thrown and that she chases it she would Chase it until she dropped dead when you get back in the house she’ll drink some water but then she’ll pick up the ball again and she’ll bring it to you it never ends her mind is always set on the ball that’s what Paul that’s what Paul’s telling us to do to have our minds always set on the Heavenly things the good things where God is where Christ is where and where God is and his presence is the fullness of joy it’s the fullness of joy and Pleasures forever
more what do we set our minds
on when nothing when there’s nothing else to do I mean if you find that space because I’m guessing most of us uh in this this age uh are always having our minds set on something right and if our minds start to be settled into nothing then we quickly find something to fill them uh we we just don’t have the space we don’t have the those moments but you can stop and think even that’s saying something in itself right if if you get to a place where there’s nothing else to set your mind on and things are finally quiet and you have a desperate need to go entertain yourself or to fill it with something else that’s saying something about where your mind is set on but then in verses three and four Paul says for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ and God when Christ who is your life appears then you also will appear with him in glory here Paul is again giving them incredible words of assurance both in their past and in their future both in our past and in our future our past for we have died and our life is now hidden with Christ in God
in our future who Jesus who is our life when he appears then we also will appear with him in glory what Paul’s telling them in this thing is to seek the things above seek the things set your mind on the Heavenly things not so that you may obtain heaven but because in Christ you’re already there
that’s mind-blowing isn’t it that your life is hidden with Christ in the Heavenly Realms meaning you are hidden in Christ it’s promised it’s guaranteed and because it is the joy of the Lord is yours always because you are always set in the presence of God and because of that set your mind on the things of Heaven not on the things of Earth your life is hidden with Christ now so what are these Heavenly things what are the Heavenly things let’s skip ahead before we come back to the bad things uh let’s go which I know you’re all chopping at the bit for right uh let’s go go to verses 12 through 17 and I’ll just I’ll just summarize them but you know put on as God’s chosen ones holy and beloved again these are the things that you are you know this is this is the reality of who we have and who we are in Christ this great assurance that we have put on compassionate Hearts kindness humility meekness patience bearing with one another forgiving each other and above all these put on love which binds everything together in Perfect Harmony that’s that’s the Heavenly stuff that’s what we’re to set our minds on that’s what we’re to be pursuing that’s what we’re to be being about but we’re not to be about all those things as a way of earning heaven we’re to be about those things because we’re already there I don’t mean that this is heaven don’t don’t I’m not this isn’t heresy uh I’m say that it is still the Future Hope but there is the guarantee that he’s saying even now you’re hidden in this Grand mystery you’re hidden in Christ through faith not by your Works you’re there with them and because of that and because of the joy that you know of being in this relationship with God in Christ being hidden in his presence and the Assurance of that seek these things that are above compassion kindness humility meekness patience bearing with one another forgiving each other loving one another those are the things that flow naturally out of it these are the good works right these are the good works that flow naturally out of the assurance that we’ve been given in Christ and when our lives are set and full of this Pursuit then there is no even space for the Earthly things and the fleshy things they aren’t even an issue in our lives but they are they are an issue in our lives even even for those even for us who have been redeemed our minds are not always set where they should be and we and we uh and we fail as well uh to live up to the standard and so why do we continue even though we have these assurances even though our lives are hidden with Christ even though we are we are the beloved and holy in God through what Christ has done for this why do we continue to desire sexual immorality impurity passions evil desires covet I hate that word covetousness it’s hard to say anger wrath malice slander obscene
talk you know if you had just stopped at the first maybe couple of them maybe some of us could say well that is not my problem that’s your problem I am above the fry but I promise you in this list you can’t get you can’t get through anger and wrath and and uh obscene talk and slander at times and even the coveted
covetousness who who doesn’t covet I mean come on married couples when you look at the other Coupes who you know at least in the moment appears to be happy and everything’s going really well and they love each other a lot and uh and then you’re like you CET man I wish we were like that you know they must they must have something that we don’t that’s what coveted is is is it’s a covet it’s impossible word I’m just going to stop using it um that’s what it means it means that we’re seeing what other people have and we’re wanting it for ourselves and we want to make it ours and we Envy it and and we want it I mean it goes physical stuff it goes with the relationships and everything else but why do we continue to desire them we desire them because in our heart of hearts we do not believe that our lives are hidden with Christ and God that’s something that we have we can’t really own we can’t really buy into it fully it just seems too good it seems like too much it seems like I’ve got to do something more I’ve got to be able to earn it earn it that’s because we’re that’s the insecurity in us that’s why Paul was saying he was so worried about them hearing these Gnostic claims and them you know being being uh pulled into it but our lives are hidden in Christ with God we reside with him we’re true Joy dwells and where Pleasures are forever more that’s what we have in Christ that’s what calls us now why does the world seek after these things sexual immorality impurity passions evil desires the other word anger wrath malice slander and obscene talk and that seems to be the normal in culture it’s because their lives aren’t hidden in Christ that should break our hearts they are living in
insecurity if you’re interested in nosism I got I’ll give you some more resources you can read later but the message for us and what God’s wanting our hearts to know today is that may Christ be enough for us that we might find our joy in him and Pleasures forever more to such an extent that our hearts wouldn’t desire anything else amen
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