Sermon for Trinity Twelve – Sunday September 8, 2019

Calvary/Marquette ● Soli Deo Gloria

Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father

and the Lord Jesus, the Christ. Amen.

Colossians 3:1–11 (NKJV)

If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. ² Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. ³ For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. ⁴ When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

 

⁵ Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. ⁶ Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, ⁷ in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them.

 

⁸ But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. ⁹ Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, ¹⁰ and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, ¹¹ where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.

In the Name of Jesus, the Christ,

  Dear Fellow Saints raised with Him,

 

It used to be that when you entered the Post Office or some other Government Building, one wall would be dedicated to the 10 Most Wanted Fugitives in the United States.  There, up on the wall, the most wanted criminals’ faces were posted with a listing of the crimes of which they were accused or found guilty.

If we are to believe TV Westerns, it was far more urgent in the Old West.  If you’ve ever watched a western then you probably noticed the posters of wanted criminals posted at the Sheriff’s Office.  If the crime was heinous enough, those criminals were – Wanted Dead or Alive.

 

If there were a big post office or sheriff’s office in heaven…would there be posters of wanted sinners? 

If there were such a thing, then each one of us – by birth and nature – would have our own poster. Wanted – for sins against God’s commandments.  After all, we were all born of sinful parents with a sinful nature.  We were destined to live sinful lives.

God had mercy on us and intervened.  Even though we were born spiritually dead in sins, God cleansed us of sin and made us spiritually alive through the Sacrament of Baptism.  We were reconciled to God through the blood of Jesus and are now part of the family of God.  We are no longer wanted – sought for punishment; but wanted by our God for blessing.

We are – in this world – both sinner and forgiven sinner.  We still have a fallen nature that needs daily to be put off, to be put to death by sorrow over sin and trust in Jesus Christ.  So long as we are ‘in the flesh’ this will be our hourly, our daily battle – to turn from sin to walk according with Christ in the Word and Will of God.

The Colossian Christians were being told that they needed to buy into certain philosophies because they were short of wisdom and understanding.  They were being told that they were short of Christian maturity so they needed to add to their faith obedience to certain rules and regulations.  There was one more problem.

Many of the Colossians had been raised as unbelievers and proponents of false religions.  They were tempted to return to their old lives and the old ways, to follow the lead of their sinful natures.  They were tempted from the inside and the outside to return to earthly, sensual, sinful lives.

The Spirit of God reminded them – and reminds us – that we are DEAD to this world, the old man and his deeds having been put to death, nailed to the cross.  The old man was buried with Christ. We have been raised up with Him to live lives that glorify God.

The Old Man is Wanted Dead…NOT alive!  He urged them, and urges us – to put ‘kill our earthly members’ so that they do not practice sinful activities that would hurt our relationship with God.  He urges us to ‘kill earthly attitudes’ to put off like a dirty garment those sinful attitudes that would hurt our relationship with one another. He shows that earthly divisions drawn by sinful attitudes have no part in our Christian Lives.

All these our God wants Dead…NOT alive.

 

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If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. ² Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.

There are times when the word ‘if’ is a challenge or a demand or even a question.  “If you clean your room…we will go out for ice-cream!”  “If you don’t’ get that room clean…you’ll be grounded.” “If you really cared about your things, you’d keep your room clean.”

This isn’t one of those examples.  When the Holy Spirit directed the Apostle Paul to write ‘If then you were raised with Christ’ he wasn’t calling into question their relationship with Jesus.  In fact, we should think of this more like a statement of fact, like – “Since you were raised with Christ…seek those things which are above.”

It is because we have been raised to spiritual life by Christ in Baptism…that we are urged to actively seek out and set our minds upon Heavenly – not earthly things. There are two verbs here (imperatives) that jump out at us: Seek and Set your mind upon.

 

ü  Seek – It’s easy to get caught up in this world and the things of the world…because there are so many distractions. There are relationships with other people.  There is money and the things that it can buy.  There is sports and entertainment. There isn’t anything innately wrong with these things, until they distract us from Christ and become our reason for living.   Rather than actively seek out earthly things, we are to let our relationship with Jesus guide our choices, and seek those things that benefit our faith in Christ.

ü  Set your Mind On – It isn’t just our decision making from day to day, it’s what we think about.  We are to ponder, to set our mind upon spiritual things, things like the forgiveness of sins, the benefit of prayer, the promises of Christ, spiritual wisdom and understanding.  The fact that Christ is sitting at the right hand of God should comfort and embolden us because He rules all things and directs history for our spiritual and eternal benefit.  If Christ is our life…then He ought to be constantly on our minds.

This doesn’t mean that we don’t take care of our earthly business.  This doesn’t mean that we don’t’ work hard and provide for the needs of our families and those in need…but it does mean that we don’t let earthly things dominate our lives or our thoughts.

Why not?

³ For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. ⁴ When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

 

We died to this world.  We live here, but this isn’t our life.  This is the precursor, the coat room.  Our real life is hidden with Christ in God…but it won’t be hidden forever.  When Christ, who is the way, the truth and the life comes again in glory – then also the fullness of real life will be uncovered.  For now, we only see our real life – like in a foggy bathroom mirror.

This isn’t our life.  Living like everyone else for this world isn’t what our God wants for us.  He wants us to use our bodies to serve His Will not the flesh.

⁵ Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. ⁶ Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, ⁷ in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them.

Now I understand what it means when it says that ‘we died with Christ’ and ‘were buried with Him in Baptism.’ So, what does it mean when it tells us to ‘put to death our members on the earth’?  Well, the word ‘member’ refers to a part or a limb of the body.  These words are similar to the words of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew.   Jesus there warns us all about using the parts of our bodies for sinful purposes (Matthew 18:8-9, NKJV):

 

⁸ “If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life lame or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into the everlasting fire. ⁹ And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire.

 

Jesus isn’t saying that we should literally sever hand and foot or gouge out an eye!  He’s saying that it would be better if we didn’t have the hand or foot or an eye than to use them for sin.  So also, here.  The Holy Spirit is urging us not to use our bodies and minds for sinful purposes…because it could hurt us and our relationship with God.  These five examples are things that are still temptations for human beings today…involving body and mind:

ü  Fornication and Uncleanness are a pair…one specific and the other broad.  The first refers especially to sexual sin, but the second is broader including all manner of perversion.

ü  Passion and Evil Desire are also a pair…the first referring to lust in the heart and the second a burning desire to act upon it.

ü  Covetousness may seem out of place…but it too is an evil desire.  The first four refer to a lust for sex, while covetousness is a lust for money or earthly things.  Covetousness can ultimately become idolatry because it places money and possessions even above God.

No matter what our society things, these activities are neither innocent or natural.  In fact, we might say that to practice these things puts one on God’s most wanted list…and by that, I mean…wanted for judgment and punishment.  It’s because of these types of things that the wrath of God is coming on those whose lives are characterized by a defiance of God’s Law.

The Colossian Christians had once lived and indulged in these sins.  We may be tempted by them…and for this reason we too are warned.  We are warned because it isn’t just the sinful actions themselves, but the sinful attitudes that run alongside them. We are not to allow our bodies to be used for these pursuits and neither are our minds to take up these connected attitudes that go from bad to worse:

⁸ But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. ⁹ Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, ¹⁰ and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him,

It’s the end of a long frustrating day…and it seems that nothing has gone right. On the drive home from work you think about the events of the day and begin to smolder.  When you finally turn in the driveway you notice that your son didn’t mow the lawn like you ask and has broken a window in the house.  What was a smoldering anger suddenly becomes a raging forest fire and you find yourself shouting as the fire rages hot.  It gets worse and before long you are just plain mean, bringing up distant mistakes until it degrades to cursing and finally filthy language and shameful words.

Has this ever happened to you?  If it has, then you understand the progression that these five examples describe.  It describes how anger can rise to the most shameful of words and actions. These are not the kinds of things that our God wants to be in our mouths.

 

These are the kinds of things that ruin our relationships with other human beings.  We are not to entertain them in our minds or give place to the devil (Ephesians 4:26-27). They are like a bad taste in the mouth which we are to spit out…along with lying.  However, to do so we cannot simply rely upon our own ‘strength and will power.’  We need to be turned to the Lord Jesus and His Cross, and pray that the Spirit of God enable us to be ‘kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ has forgiven us.’

All of these things are part of the Old Man, who was put to death with Christ, but who still clings to us like a smelly sweat-soaked filthy shirt.  He will do all that He can to hold us back, to turn us away.  He will seek to destroy our relationship with God and with one another. He is to be daily thrown off like a dirty shirt, because the New Man in us – created and built up by God is being renewed in the image and will of God.

Our God, in renewing the New Man in us teaches us that those old human divisions and distinctions mean nothing in His sight. Where the Old Man is put off, there is only Christ, who is over all and in all those who believe.

¹¹ where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.

These were divisions and distinctions that the Colossians knew and formerly held.  Those who were Greek considered themselves cultured and advancing in wisdom, but looked down on the Jews as an ignorant, backward people.  Those who were Jews looked down on the Greeks as uncircumcised Gentile dogs.  The Barbarians were foreigners to Greek culture but Scythians were considered primitive savages.  Finally, freemen, those who were not slaves looked down as slaves as less than human, simply possessions.

There are different distinctions today.  Today some human beings distinguish one from another on the basis of ability, wealth, race, sex, nationality and skin color.

There is no such distinction with our God.  For whether Greek or Jew, Male or Female, Slave or Free, Black white or otherwise, in being united to Jesus by faith we are united to one another.  We are all one in Christ…and Christ is to be our one focus.  The Holy Spirit also wants these earthly distinctions dead and gone among us…and only He can change it…by continuing to change our hearts and minds by His Word.

These things all…are wanted dead, not alive.  They are not to find a home within us, lest we again be found on God’s most wanted list.

May God grant that they all be eradicated from our hearts and minds.  Amen!