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 Colossians 4. We begin with prayer.
Dear fellow disciples of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ:
- People love to be entertained. It can get so bad that we actually call some people “couch potatoes.” The complaint is that we can become so infatuated with “observing” life that we quit participating in life. Are you going to sit and watch TV all evening, or get up and take a walk or engage in an activity?
- This is actually a much bigger issue. One could ask: Does God want us to merely observe life or to actually live life? And when it comes to the gift of His Son, Whose resurrection victory we celebrate once again today, we might contemplate whether God wishes us to merely “observe” His resurrection, or participate in it?
- Of course, there are many people – unbelievers – who are not even observing what God has done for us in Christ Jesus. There are a variety of reasons for this, principally a rejection of our creaturely relationship with God. So it is good for us to be here and for us to give some respect, deference, and hopefully even thanksgiving to God for what He has done in raising Christ our Savior from death.
- However, it is clear in our text that God’s purpose in all of this is not that we merely “observe” what He has done, but rather that we participate in what He has done for us with a lively faith. In our text Paul refers to this as “having been raised with Christ.” He states it as a fact – to the believers in Colossae: “you have been raised with Christ.”
- Is this God’s will for you in Christ Jesus? Have you been raised with Christ? Or is our relationship with God and the church more one of merely “observing” things, and just having a kind of nice feeling about it? The encouragement of our text is quite profound:
I. God Has A Goal And A Purpose In Christ’s Suffering, Death, And Resurrection – That We Be Raised To New Life With Him
John 3:3 “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a man is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
2 Cor. 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
Gal. 6:15 “For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.”
Tit. 3:4-7 “But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, Whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
Statement: God sent His Son into the world, ordered His suffering and death to pay the consequence of mankind’s sins – all sins, every person’s sins; and raised Him back up to life again in victory over death, NOT just so that we could observe and perhaps conclude: “that was a good plot line.” He did it for us, for our salvation, and so that we could participate and become “a new creation” and have eternal life! His goal was not to please Himself, or make things easier for Himself, or to merely entertain us; His goal was to give back to us what He always intended for us – immortality, eternal life, and a newness of life!
Application: I know of churches that celebrate Easter with great pageantry. I don’t suppose that our service matches up, but our Easter service is almost certainly the fanciest and most involved of the year. But the invitation today is not to be entertained, or even inspired! Rather the invitation, and the purpose of God’s service today is the same as it has been for centuries: to raise us up with Christ! Would it be better to watch a movie about someone going to Hawaii, or to actually go? Would it be better to watch someone win 10 million dollars, or to actually win it?
Transition: God wants us to have the prize, to actually go to heaven, and also to live an enriched, meaningful, purposeful, and elevated life! For:
II. Those Who Are Raised With Christ By Faith Have Been Changed
A. They No Longer Live For Sin But Have Died To It
Text: “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”
Rom. 6:8-12 “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over Him. 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. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.”
B. Rather, Those Who Are Raised With Christ By Faith Seek The Things Above, The Things That Pertain To God And Love
Text: “Seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth.”
Matt. 6:19-21, 33 “”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. . . . But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
Statement: Those raised with Christ know that He is Lord of all, above all things, ruling over all things. Therefore, He is their life now and their future! The things that commonly dominate human thinking and dictate human behavior are seen to be mundane and foolish: pride, wealth, prerogative, privilege, prestige. What good are these temporal and perishing things in comparison to Christ and eternal life in heaven? If you attain them you will likely lose them through aging and senility. And certainly we will lose them when we die!
Application: There is futility in setting our minds on the things that are on earth. This world is passing away. The only future we have is with Christ – in His heavenly kingdom! It is true that others cannot “see” our true life – it is “hidden with Christ in God.” But it is true and real enough – and the evidence is seen in our behavior, not every single individual act – for we still sin much each day, but our true life is seen in the overarching priorities of our lifetime. This is God’s “new creation,” what He seeks to give each of us in the gift of Jesus!
Transition: From a selfish, sinful, and earthbound perspective, this may appear to be suffering loss – the loss of temporal, selfish pleasures. And I suppose an accountant could demonstrate this, how much our of our time spent serving others, and how our offerings have detracted from our net worth. However, from an eternal perspective, nothing on this earth even closely compares with the value of eternal life with God in His new heavenly kingdom! And so:
III. Those Raised With Christ Are Already Looking Forward To Christ’s Glorious Appearing
A. He Is Our Life
B. We Will Appear With Him In Glory
Text: “When Christ Who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.”
Statement: Almost everyone knows that the earth is wearing out, that sooner or later this world will come to an end. It is a wonderful creation – made by God especially for us. But with human sin comes decomposition and decay, and a certain futility and suffering from imperfection. The Scriptures teach that nature itself has been deeply impacted by human sin and God’s curse upon it. We see this in the natural disasters that frequently occur on earth, and the scars on land and in the sea. We can see our own decline and the shame that we have so much amiss in our lives. All of this will change when Christ returns in glory – and when the judgment has concluded He will usher in a new heaven and new earth!
Application: It is cynical to hold on to the old, because the new has not yet appeared. It is settling for a pittance to cling to the things of this earth because they are in hand, and yet suffer the loss of what God has promised is coming! So those who are raised in Christ see the glory of Christ – seated at the right hand of God, Lord of all, and we set our sights on being with Him. So it is that we too have died, and our real life is even now hidden with Christ in God.
Conclusion: This is what God wills and purposes for each of us in the gift of His Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is why Christ really came in human flesh, why He really suffered and died for our sin on the cross, and why He rose again immortal – to give us forgiveness, salvation, and immortality. Why watch the movie when you can participate – by faith in Jesus Christ?
Ah, there is great temptation for us to be mere spiritual “couch potatoes,” to merely take in the pageantry, but to not get out and live! In the death and resurrection of Christ God has called the world to life – new and eternal life! Remember what Jesus said: “I have come that they may have life, and have it abundantly!” [John 10:10] May He grant such abundant life and blessedness to each of us, 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.