Introduction: Grace be to you and peace, from God our Father, and from our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. Our text is the Epistle Lesson just read, from Col. 3. We begin with prayer.
Dear fellow disciples of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ:
- Perspective – what your vantage point is, and your angle of vision, is extremely important. Think about our beautiful mountains – how different they appear from different directions, from different distances.
- Our text for this morning challenges us, encouraging us to a different perspective in how we view our life in this world. What we see all around us is the grist of life – how we will make a living, what we are going to eat, what we’ll wear, and what enjoyable things we want to do. But Paul urges you in our text to “set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”
- To do so requires a change of perspective, and understanding our “closeness” to God. The things that are on the earth are tangible, and close at hand. God for the most part is intangible, unseen, and He has yet to appear “in glory,” although His love, forgiveness, and salvation accomplished in His death and resurrection is glorious! However, we read about these things rather than experiencing them first hand. So it is difficult to set our minds on the future – unless we see how closely God has bound us to Himself in Christ Jesus even here and now.
- To understand this we must consider what Paul says about us:
I. Christians Have Already Died, And Our Real Life Is Now Hidden
Text: “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”
A. We Of Course At One Time Were Dead In Trespasses And Sins
Eph. 2:1-3 “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience – among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”
B. But Through Baptism And Faith We Have Now Died To Sin
Rom. 6:3,4 “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death.”
Rom. 6:6-8 “We know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him.”
Rom. 6:10,11 “For the death He died He died to sin, once for all, but the life He lives He lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
II. So Believers In Christ Have Received Forgiveness, Cleansing From All Sin, Eternal Life And Salvation – Which Has Raised Us With Christ To A New And Eternal Life
Eph. 2:4-8 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.”
Statement: This is the reality that serves as the foundation and basis for Paul encouraging us to have a new perspective, and to set our minds “on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” We were dead in our trespasses and sins, but Christ has taken away the sin of the world – we are forgiven and cleansed of all sin and guilt. We died to self and sin in baptism – and have been raised to a new life in Christ’s resurrection. We are now saved and alive forever by God’s grace, by the gift of God.
This is all real now – “He raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” BUT the true glory of these blessings will not be manifest and apparent until “the coming ages.” Still, even now “you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
Application: Again, this is not immediately tangible, or visible the same way that clothes, food, riches, and luxuries are visible to us. But it is just as real – for God’s Word asserts that it is so. We are now joined to Christ, so that as the apostle Paul stated: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” [Gal. 2:20] So the reality is stated in our text, in regard to you: “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”
Transition: So we celebrate Christ’s resurrection, but it is we who are also raised with Him, for:
III. Believers In Christ Are Now Bound To Him, And To Nothing Else
A. We Now Seek The Things That Are Above, And Set Our Minds On These Things, Where Christ Is Seated At The Right Hand Of God
Eph. 2:6 “He has raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”
Matt. 6:19-21 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Matt. 25:34-36 “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty and you gave Me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed Me, I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you visited Me, I was in prison and you came to Me. . . . Inasmuch as you have done it to one of the least of these my brothers, you have done it unto Me.’”
B. So Our Lifestyle Has Changed – We Have Died To Self, Our Life Is Hidden With Christ In God, And So We Joyfully Look Forward To His Coming And Our Glorification With Him
Text: “You have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ Who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.”
Phil. 3:20,21 “Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, Who will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body, by the power that enables Him even to subject all things to Himself.”
Statement: So it is not so much that we no longer use the things of things of this world, but how we use them. And certainly our aspirations, our life-goals have changed dramatically. Our goal is not earthly wealth and ease, privilege and rest, others serving us – but rather to deny ourselves and to serve Jesus by serving others and giving to others.
Application: What enables and compels this change is a new and different perspective, that of faith – knowing what God has done for us and the certainty of unimaginable blessings and joy in the coming age. It is Christ’s death and resurrection that fuels this “resurrection” to newness of life within the children of God, those who know and believe His great love for us.
Conclusion: We pray this “death” to self for all of you, and rejoice that you also have been “RAISED WITH CHRIST,” so that your life is even now hidden with Christ in God! May Easter, the celebration of Christ’s resurrection, bring not just joy to us, but also the power of a new life! Amen.
Votum: And the peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds in the true faith, which is in Christ Jesus, even unto life everlasting, Amen.