Colossians chapter 3:1-4

Transcription

1 Colossians chapter 3:1-4 1 Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at Godʼs right hand. 2 Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. 3 For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory. We have now reached the centre point of the theology of this letter. Paul has been arguing for believers to put Christ at the centre of their thinking, and now he sets out how the believer should think which then affects the way in which they should live (3:5-4:1). Paul introduces the idea that our focus and our thoughts should be centered on heaven and not on earth. He doesnʼt dismiss the physical, far from it, Paul is very concerned that people donʼt get caught up in a heresy of the worship of angels (2:18), or falling into the trap of believing that spiritual things are good and physical things are evil. His teaching is very consistent with a holistic life - spirit-soul-body. What is key in this passage is the fundamental change that needs to take place in our thinking if we are to live an effective and productive spiritual life. Elsewhere in the letters Paul writes I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation (Phil 4:12) a bold statement if ever there was one! Paul has already declared in this letter I am glad when I suffer for you in my body (1:24), these are either the rantings of a masochist or someone who has got a secret formulae for life, a mystery that means that he can rise above the problems, trials and persecutions that he seemed to face on a daily basis. Just about anyone would like to know a secret that allows people to rise above difficulty. Paulʼs message in Colossians is to enable believers to have complete confidence that they understand Godʼs mysterious plan (2:2) and he prays that God will give them a complete knowledge of his will, spiritual wisdom and understanding so that their lives will produce every kind of good fruit (2:9-10). He has been brewing up to these few verses through the letter - hope reserved for you in heaven (1:5); we are transferred into the Kingdom of his dear Son (1:13); Jesus made peace between heaven and earth (1:20); treasures of wisdom hidden in Jesus (2:3) - and now he sets out the truth clearly and for all to understand. So hold onto your seats, these few verses could rock the way that you see everything, the way you choose to live your life, your approach to situations - it may be hard to adjust, but it is the life of a Kingdom bringer! Since you have been raised with Christ (v1) - Paul has spent most of chapter 2 reinforcing our status buried with Christ when you were baptised and raised to new life (2:12). It is very easy in the emotional turbulent lives we lead to loose sight of the spiritual reality of our new birth. We may not feel resurrected, or may not feel we have a new life, but that is our reality - whether we feel it or not. We don't have to wait for the end times to be raised, we are raised now. The truth of scripture is that we have been raised, we have the real resurrection life surging through our lives, we are imbibed with the same Stewart Keiller Feb 2010! page 1

2 power that brought Jesus back to life! He that is in my is greater than he that is in the world (1 Jn 4:4), we are not given a spirit of timidity but power (2 Tim 1:7), we have everything we need for life because of Godʼs power (2 Pet 1:3). Christ does the resurrection, Christ does the empowering, Christ gives us his power - but donʼt loose sight of the fact that you have the power! YOU. You may have power because of his lavish grace, but donʼt loose sight of the fact that YOU HAVE POWER! set your sights on the realities of heaven - setting your heart or sights on something is to seek out or keep on seeking something. The believer needs to keep on seeing the things of heaven! This seeking is an active part of what we are supposed to do (Mt 6:33; Rom 2:7) Reality is not just physical reality. Spiritual reality is very real, just because it is invisible, or because you canʼt use your physical senses to understand spiritual things doesnʼt make it unreal. You have been given a spirit to understand spiritual things. Christianity has tended to dilute the reality of spiritual things but an authentic Christianity is manifesting or revealing spiritual things. Jesus came to earth declaring that the kingdom of heaven was at hand (Mt 4:17), his sermon on the mount promised the kingdom to the poor in spirit (Mt 5:3) and the persecuted (Mt 5:10) this was a kingdom that was coming in greater reality, Jesus and his disciples (including us) have the job of revealing this invisible reality to the physical realm. The gospel of Matthew is full of kingdom promises We are to store up treasure in heaven (6:21) Seek the kingdom above everything else (6:33) You can only get into the kingdom through a narrow gate (7:13) Healing, casting out demons and resurrection are fixtures of the arrival of the kingdom (10:7-8) Jesus told stories to communicate the mystery of the kingdom (13) Paul is telling us that our eyes, energies and efforts need to be focussed on the reality of heaven, then in the power of the Holy Spirit we become co-workers in the revealing of heaven on earth. The literal original greek on this phrase is the up seek - be pursuers and hunters of the higher things. where Christ sits in the place of honor at Godʼs right hand - remember that the primary aim of this letter is to establish the superiority of Jesus, so our focus is to be on the heavenly reality where Jesus is triumphant. Jesus ascended to the heavenly realms in a cloud of glory (Acts 1), sitting now as God the Fatherʼs right hand man (Mk 16:19), the great high priest interceding before God (Heb 4:14), Christ who has all authorities and powers submitted to him (1Pet 3:22). Being at Godʼs right hand means the place of supreme privilege and divine authority, Ps 110:1 describes this as the place of honour, with enemies made a footstool. Paul has been making clear in his letter that our growth as believers comes from Christ so it is only natural that we seek to align ourselves with where the source of our growth is, heaven! Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. - Now here comes the key. Getting the way you think sorted is one of the biggest battles that you will have to face. Bishop Lightfoot, a famous theologian, says you must not only seek heaven, you must also think heaven. If we are honest, most of us have a battle in the mind. This can be letting unbelief eat into the way we think, allowing ourselves to be controlled by emotions, being cynical about spiritual truth, internal logical arguments, fighting the reality of the word with the reality of our circumstances, or allowing desire to overtake us. When we become born again we actually get renewed and have the mind of Christ (1 Cor Stewart Keiller Feb 2010! page 2

3 2:16). Now that is a bold statement, why donʼt I think like Christ all the time if I have his mind. One of the features of Paulʼs theology is the idea of now and not yet, we have something and something is yet to come. Spiritual fact = we have the mind of Christ Spiritual fact = we are being transformed by the renewal of our minds (Rom 12:2) Sanctification is the theological term for this, we are in process, something of massive proportions happens when we are born again, yet we spend our lives on earth being renewed, and one day the renewal will be complete! I have been saved, I am being saved and I will be saved! For some of us this is hard to get, but to the Hebrew mind it makes perfect sense, and if we are to understand the way God thinks then we have to start thinking differently. What you gaze on is what you become. Paul provokes us to be very conscious of how we spend our thinking time, what are we spending our time doing? A heavenly focus is really important, we gaze on eternal things then we become more effective as an agent of heavenly transformation. We focus on what paul calls earthly things we become more earthly. In our visually overstimulated world we are bombarded with sensual stimulation. We feel lonely without music playing, the TV becomes a comfort, the computer soaks up our attention. Too much stimulation will dull us to spiritual things, it is why quiet retreat should be a feature of all our lives, there is something about the denial of sensual appetites that allows the spiritual to bubble up. The Psalmist cries out be still and know that I am God (Ps 46:10) with good reason. If you spend all your time surfing internet porn sites then of course you are going to fuel lust in your life. If you spend all your time at work then of course you are going to loose perspective on life. If you spend all your time running after your children then your family becomes your God. Now of course the internet is not all bad, work is fundamentally good and children are of course our passion - but just about anything can absorb your time and attention. If it is totally absorbing, no matter how good, then you will loose heavenly perspective on life and begin to make poor choices and poor decisions. However, if we prioritise the heavenly focus, the we condition our minds to make decisions the align with our heavenly home. Take money for example. If we are storing up our treasure in heaven (Matthew 6:21) then God is our supply. Your employer is not your supply, God is your provider. The promise to the tither (someone who gives 10% of their income to the kingdom) is that God will open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing for you (Mal 3:10) he even says test him in this! This is a practical example about where you focus, do we think with a lack mindset or do we think with a heavenly mindset. Haggai the prophet got very forceful with the people of God because they were spending all their money on DIY and home improvements that they had completely forgotten about the dwelling of God! (Hag 1:4). Our thinking affects everything we do. Most of us believe all sorts of lies about ourselves... iʼll never amount to anything i'm not sure God is listening to me my relationships are always going to fail iʼm never going to have money Stewart Keiller Feb 2010! page 3

4 These are all called ungodly beliefs and we need to replace them with what God thinks about us - we need to align our minds and beliefs with what God thinks about us. That is what it means to think about the things of heaven. Having worked myself in a business for 15 years which didnʼt seem to be at all spiritual I understand the conflict that a phrase like this can cause. It is all well and good for you people in ministry to focus on heavenly things but what I do is not heavenly. Well, that is actually a lie! When I was in business I had a conviction that what I was doing was God ordained, I prayed for my business, I sought the Lordʼs guidance in what I did, as far as I was concerned I was as much in ministry as anyone standing on the platform on a Sunday. Donʼt be robbed of your destiny by allowing a lie to enter into your thinking, you may be doing a mundane job but it is every much a ministry as anyone else. What you need to do is orientate your thinking to heaven in your work - guaranteed things will change when you do! For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God - Paul returns to the death to the world and alive to Christ motif. Remember the reason for being baptised is that we display to the powers and principalities a demonstration that we have finished with the old life and have a new life. My old self has been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me (Gal 2:20) the only issue is do you believe it? Some suggestions for changing the way you think Write down statements from scripture that speak of who you are. Then read them to yourself on a regular basis. Begin to identify things that you think about yourself that are not true and write a statement that is true. You may need some help to do this. If you are filling your head space with too much television or too much of anything, look to find a way of replacing some of it e.g. podcasts, worship music, scripture! When you find yourself in an unhelpful conversation with others, just quietly withdraw, donʼt try and tell others off, that is judgementalism, just deal with your bit. Make sure you are dwelling on good stuff - in in doubt read the psalms! hidden is a wonderful idea. You are hidden in Jesus, he is protecting you, he is holding you close, he is covering you. Jesus was desperate to gather his people as a hen gathers chicks (Mt 23:37) and the psalmist sang about being hidden in the shadow of Godʼs wings (Ps 17:8). Spiritual covering is the desire of a Father to cover his children. When as leaders we talk about covering, we are not talking about controlling but rather hiding. When someone makes a mess of their lives, or fails morally, we have no desire to expose them but rather cover them. Not cover up but cover over, be protectors! There is a theme in this letter about hidden and revealed, things of the kingdom are hidden but are in the process of being revealed or will one day be revealed. There is much about our true identities as believers that is hidden although real, we are in the process of revealing the hidden truth of the kingdom in our behaviour and demonstration of power. And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world - The believer is mandated with revealing the mystery of the Kingdom, that is our job, to open up the mystery of heaven. However, here in this sentence we get a glimpse of the hope of our future, the eschatology. This passage seems to refer to the final revealing of Jesus to the whole world, when Jesus returns. Jesus promised to return to the earth to wrap up everything, to deal with the consequences of sin, to destroy Satan and his minions, to establish his spiritual kingdom permanently, to renew the earth, to reign forever! Be in no doubt, the Lamb Wins! There may well be some degree of trouble that believers will face, Stewart Keiller Feb 2010! page 4

5 there may be persecution, we may even have to endure a huge physical battle, but with the reality of this teaching dug into our psycheʼs, with an understanding that we are seated with Christ in heavenly places (Eph 2:6) then we will overcome and have the strength to endure... don't loose sight of the fact that the lamb wins! 1 you will share in all his glory - Glory is the expressed nature of God, it is the outward radiance of his divine personality, it is literally God expressed. Glory is the sum total of God s attributes it is the nearest we come to describing God in one word R.T.Kendall In Jesus we see the glory of God, Jesus the logos word of God which makes visible the doxa glory of God. The living Word makes visible the nature of God. We will struggle to get our heads around the glory because ultimately it is a spiritual phenomenon, in fact mind alone will never comprehend glory because if we leave our minds to fathom the essential divine nature of God we will clearly limit the depth of the character of God. Britain has embassies all around the world, like any sovereign country. Each embassy has an Ambassador, they are the representative of the the State of Great Britain where ever they are, in fact each embassy is a piece of Great Britain where ever it is, and the Ambassador is backed up with the full force of the British Government. So when you have an audience with the Ambassador you are meeting with the British Government, everything is invested in those people - we would probably go to war for one of them! In one person the glory of the British Government (you may laugh at the idea of Britain having glory, but surely it can be a Great nation) is invested. A weak illustration, but summed up in one man, Jesus Christ we can begin to fathom the glory, if we allow our spirits loose inside us we can connect with heaven and sense the meaning of glory... we get to share in his glory on earth now and in the end of time in the fullness of his glory. 2 1 The most brilliant book on the subject of the end times which is very balanced is And the Lamb Wins by Simon Ponsonby published by David C Cook. 2 My book Pearl Hunters is to be published at Easter 2010 by Integrity where I examine the subject of Glory in a chapter. Stewart Keiller Feb 2010! page 5