Hope Church LV Sermons
Colossians 3 :: Jesus Changes Lives
Well, Amen. If we're not careful, we're about to have church in here. The very first church that I ever pastored was in a small town in Tennessee. I was a very young pastor. I was 23 years old when I went to pastor this church. 23 years old became pastor of the very first church I'd ever pastored. I had been doing student ministry for almost six years in churches, but this was the first time I was the leader, senior pastor in a church. And I went to this church and I'd only been there about a week or so. We were about to have our first kind of meeting with the leadership team of the church. And when we were getting ready to walk in the door to this leadership meeting at the church, a couple of guys stopped me on my way into the meeting. And they said, pastor, we just want to let you know upfront about, we'll just call him Hank, all right? Hank, who is going to be in this meeting because you need to understand that Hank is, how do we say it pastor? He's kind of negative. And I said, okay, I said, I can deal with negative. They said, well, it's not that he's just negative pastor. You need to understand before you go into this meeting that Hank is against every idea that anybody ever brings up anywhere, anytime. It doesn't matter who it is. He's just always against it. Now here I am, 23 years old, first church I've ever pastored, filled with all kind of ideas and vision and getting ready to walk into my first leadership meeting and they tell him about Hank. And I looked at him and I said, well, how long has Hank been like that? And they said, well, long as Hank's been a part of our church. Well, how long has Hank been a part of our church? And they said, about 20 years. Now here's what bothered me, that that didn't bother them. We've accepted a brand of Christianity in America that says you can walk down an aisle or you can fill out a card or you can get baptized in a baptistry and your life is never changed. Can I just share with you this morning that that is not the Christianity that is taught in the New Testament? The New Testament teaches us a radical way of living. It teaches us a faith that helps us understand Jesus Christ changes lives. Jesus is in the life-changing business. Listen, you'll never convince me that the God who spoke everything you can see, taste, touch, fill or smell, that God who spoke all of that into existence can come to live inside of a person and it not make any difference at all. My story, September of 1989, I was a freshman in college at the University of North Alabama and that night I met Jesus Christ personally. I began a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ came to live in me and as I stand before you today, I'm honest with you, I'm not all the man that I'm supposed to be but thank God I'm not the man I used to be because of a relationship with Jesus, Jesus is changing my life and every one of us who are genuine followers of Jesus Christ should be able to look back in our lives and see evidence of our lives being changed. As a family of faith, we are reading and studying through the book of Colossians. If you have your Bible, I want you to open it to Colossians chapter 3. This morning we're going to read the first few verses from Colossians chapter 3 and the book of Colossians, what we've understood up until this point is that really this whole letter is dealing with the core issue of the gospel and there are two of those core issues that Paul gave us. Number one, who Jesus is in the first half of the letter to the church at Colossae deals with foundational truth about who Jesus Christ is. But the second core truth of the gospel is who I am now because of who Jesus is and the second half of the book of Colossians deals with biblical truth about who we now are because of who Jesus is. Not who we are because of who we are, but who we are because of who he is and everything in the gospel rests on those two realities. Who Jesus is and now my identity, who I am because of who Jesus is. From chapter 3 all way through to the end of this letter Paul is teaching us truth about who we are because of who Jesus is and I've told you this before but I'm going to say it again because it's so important. The greatest thing that could happen to some of you this morning is that you simply begin to believe what the Bible says about you to be true. If you could simply by faith begin to see you the way he now sees you because of Jesus it would radically change your life. So Colossians chapter 3 I want to begin reading in verse number 1 says therefore if you have been raised up with Christ keep seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above not on the things that are on the earth for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. That verse by itself is worth shouting about for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ and if that's not secure enough for you in God. Verse 4 just making sure you all are here. In Christ who is our life is revealed then you also will be revealed with him in glory. What I want to do this morning is I want to give you three key words that you can hang this paragraph of Scripture on and with each of the key words I want to give you a defining statement because these words describe this reality that Jesus changes lives. Here's the first word and we'll spend probably most of our time on the first word but the first word is the word position. It's the word position and the statement that I want to give you is this through my relationship with Christ I have been changed. Read that with me. Position through my relationship with Christ I have been changed. If you have a relationship with Jesus Christ you have been changed. Let me show it to you the way Paul wrote it in another place in the New Testament. Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 3. Listen to what Paul said in Ephesians 1 and 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with, say the next part out loud, every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. You know what that says? Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ now it says who has blessed us. It doesn't say who will bless us. It says who has but you know what he's stating? He's stating something here that is already true about you. It's not something you're waiting on. It's not some second work of grace that you're hoping will come into your life. The Bible here is stating something about you and me that is already 100% true. He says God has already blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. I want to give you something a few weeks ago in our foundations class that I'm doing with our men right now. I read something to them that I want to read to you. I want to put a series of statements on the screen that help you grasp what Paul just said in that verse. Listen to these, based on this verse, everything that Christ has I have. His riches are our riches. His resources are our resources. His righteousness is our righteousness. His power is our power. His privilege is our privilege. His possession is our possession where he is there we are. What he is we are. What he has we have and listen we are those things and have those things because of our relationship to the father through the person of Jesus Christ. Did you see those things on the screen? That's not what you hope to be. That's who you are. It's not who I am because I've earned that. It's not who I am because I necessarily live that way every day. It's who I am because I'm now in Christ Jesus. Now in Colossians, Paul uses three phrases that describe completed action that's already done in our lives. In the verses that I just read for you a moment ago out of Colossians, three times Paul uses a Greek tense that describes an action that's already done. It's already completed. It's already who we are. We're not waiting on it. It's now my identity in the person of Jesus. Here's the three phrases. You have been raised up with Christ. You have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. You have been raised up. You have died. Your life is hidden with Christ in God. Now those three phrases teach us three things about our position. I want to give them to you this morning. Here's the first one. My sin has been dealt with. Say that out loud. My sin has been dealt with. I want you to say it again. My sin has been dealt with. What's the first word? My. Do you believe that? Listen, if you believe that, it changes the way you live. It'll change the way you carry yourself. It'll change the way you see yourself. My sin has been dealt with. Romans 6 and verse 23 says that the wages of sin is what? Death. A wage is something that you earn if you work forty hours this week and you make ten dollars an hour, you've earned four hundred dollars. It's yours. It belongs to you. The Bible says because of sin, we'd all earn something. It's death. It belongs to us. You see, God did not design death. God did not intend death. When God created us, He created us to live forever. But when sin entered the picture, sin brought death into the world and destruction into the world. And when the Bible says the wages of sin is death, one day all of us will die physically because of the curse of sin. But it's not just talking about physical death, it's talking about spiritual death. Because of sin, we're born into this world, dead to God and alive to sin. It's spiritual death, being separated from a relationship with God. But not just physical death and spiritual death, also eternal death. If you die physically separated from God spiritually, you spend eternity separated from God in a place called hell. You say pastor, surely in 2013 you don't believe in a literal place called hell where people spend eternity. Listen, it doesn't matter what I believe. What matters is what the book says. And the book says when we die separated from a relationship with God, we spend eternity separated from God in a place called hell. Now the Bible also tells us it's true the wages of sin is death. But look what the Bible says in Romans 5, 8. But God demonstrated his own love toward us. And while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. When Jesus died, what is the link between his death and me? He took the penalty for my sin. He died physically on the cross. Jesus offered his life. But he didn't just die physically. Jesus died spiritually. Separation happened between God the Father and God the Son. When Jesus cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? It's interesting, it's the only place in the New Testament that Jesus ever referred to him as my God. Everywhere else it was Father. But in that moment he experienced the spiritual aspect of death and was separated from God the Father. But not only did he die physically and spiritually, Jesus was God in the flesh. He was eternal. So it was an eternal death. In every way that death had impacted my life, Jesus died in my place. And now Paul says in Colossians chapter 3, you have died with him. Here's what that means. His death was my death. He died in my place. When he died, I died positionally with him. That means that all of my sin has been atoned for in the sight of God. John MacArthur said it this way. In what sense has the believer died? In the sense that the penalty for sin has been paid, the wages of sin is death, so we must die. By union with Christ, we died the required death in him. Thus the penalty is paid and sin can never claim us again. Its presence and power still affect us, but it cannot condemn us. Listen, that's what Paul wrote in Romans chapter 8. In Romans chapter 8 verse 1, he said, "Therefore, there is now," what does it say? "No condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Here's what that means. All the sin in my past, all the sin in my present and glory to God, all the sin even in my future. He said, "Wait a minute. I got some trouble with that." Hey, have you ever thought when Jesus died, all your sin was in the future. If his death doesn't cover future sin, we all in trouble. All of the sin of my past, all of the sin of my present, all of the sin of my future has already been as atoned for in the person of Jesus Christ. When he died, I died in him. My sin has been dealt with. Listen, here's what that means. If you're in Christ, you will never stand before God for your sin. Some Christians live with this fear of one day. I'm going to stand before God, and He's going to play out the movie of my life and all the bad stuff I've done, all this stuff. It's not what the book says. There is therefore now no condemnation. My sin's been dealt with. Let me give you the answer. My eternity is secure. Listen what Paul says, "You have been raised up with Christ." And then he says, "Your life is hidden with Christ in God." Did you hear the past tense nature of those verses? Your life is hidden. It's already done. Your life has been raised up. It's done. Let me show it to you again in Ephesians where Paul writes. Ephesians chapter two, verse four, look at it on the screen, "But God, being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead and our transgressions made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved." Now listen what he says, and raised us up with Him and seated us. Now help me here for a second. Seated us. Is that past tense? That's already done, right? You hear what he's saying there? My eternity is so secure God the Father already sees me as if I'm seated in the heavenly places with Christ Himself. It's done. I don't hope I'm going to go to heaven when I die. I'm already seated with Christ in the heavenly places. It's done. Then he says we're hidden with Christ in God. The word hidden is a word that means to lock together, to hide something inside of something else. And I love this. That phrase is hidden with Christ is in the passive voice. Now that's important. If something's in the active voice, the subject is doing the action. If this was in the active voice, it would say your life is hidden with Christ in God and it would mean this. I have somehow hidden myself with Christ in God. It's something I did. But it's not in the active voice. It's in the passive voice. It means that somebody acted on me. I didn't hide myself with Christ in God. God Himself hidden me with Christ in God. It's what my eternal security is not based on my faithfulness to Him. It's based on His faithfulness to me. Claude Cranford said it this way. Look at this quote. Our security rests, not in our ability to hold on to Him, but in His ability to hold on to us. If I put myself there, I got to keep myself there. But I didn't put myself there. He put me there. He hid me with Christ in God. The first time I ever went to South Africa was in 1998. My first trip to South Africa, I preached 23 times in six days in Cape Town in Johannesburg. We took a break one afternoon in Cape Town. If you've never been to Cape Town, South Africa, the single most beautiful city in all the world that I've ever seen. It's an amazing city. Right in the middle of Cape Town, South Africa, is what they call Table Mountain. It's a mountain that looks like a table. It's just flat, right at the top. And you can ride this huge cable car up to the top of Table Mountain. And when you get up to the top of Table Mountain, it's very much like this stage right here. I mean, you're thousands of feet up, but you walk to the edge of this flat surface and it's like this. And it just drops straight off, straight down, thousands of feet. And the only thing they have, it's a national park there now. The only thing they have around the top of that on these lookout areas is just some posts with little bitty thin wire to keep you from kind of toppling over the edge. And I'm up there with some of our team that's there. And I'm watching these moms and dads with little kids walk right along the edge of that mountain. And I'm thinking they've lost their mind. Now, if the little child is holding on to the parent's hand, the little child could let go and be in trouble. But if the parent is holding on to the child's hand, you see, it doesn't matter what the little child does. If the parent is the one holding on, here's what I want you to understand about your security in Christ. It's not you holding on. He's the one holding on. Because let's just be honest, if it was us holding on, we're in deep water. You've been hidden with Christ. But then he adds this, with Christ in God. You know what Paul does here? He elevates our eternal security to the unity of the Trinity. I'm not just hidden with Christ. I'm hidden with Christ in God. Here's what that means. In order for me to lose my salvation, there would have to be a breach in the unity of the Trinity. You can't get more secure than that. There's only one thing eternal, and that is the Trinity. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. In order for I've been hidden with Christ in God. Let me tell you something. When you see yourself like that, that'll change the way you don't have to get up today and try to hang on and perform. He's holding on to you. My security is not rooted in me. My security is not found in my performance. My security is found in my position. And I'm hidden with Christ in God. Let me give you a third one. All I need I have in Him. My sins have been dealt with. My eternity is secure. And all I need I have in Him is hidden with Christ in God. Not only is it in the passive voice, it's the only verb in Colossians 3, these verses that I read for you. It's the only one that is also in the perfect tense. Say, what does that mean? Perfect tense is not just completed action, but it's completed action with ongoing continuous results. It's something that's done, but it continues to have effect in my life today. I've been hidden with Christ in God. It is done. It has secured me eternally, but it has also now given me the source for life today. Paul is referring to the spiritual reality that in Christ I've been given everything I need to live a godly life. I want to show it to you more clearly where Peter wrote about it. In 2 Peter 1 verse 3, look at this on the screen. Seeing that his divine power has granted to us, present tense, past tense. Past tense means it's done. His power has already granted to us everything pertaining to what? Life and godliness. How did that happen? Through the true knowledge of him who called it. What does that say? Here's what that says. The moment I came to know Jesus personally, the very moment I came to know Jesus personally by his grace, God's divine power gave me everything I would ever need to ever live a godly life in this world. Sometimes believers struggle with a sense of inadequacy. We tend to take certain people and put them up on a pedestal. Sometimes it happens with your pastors. Some of you will look at one of us and think, wow, if I just had what they have. Or sometimes it happens with your small group leader who teaches the word and who ministers to you and cares for you and you can begin to put them on a pedestal and say, man, I hope one day I can just have what my small group leader has or sometimes it's the people that mentored us or discipled us. We can put them on a pedestal and think if I just had the giftings and the spiritual insight that they have, sometimes it's our mom or dad or grandma or granddad that we're godly, godly people. We can put them on a pedestal and think, man, if I just had what they have, can I tell you what the book says? You do. All that I need, I have in Him. In Christ, you lack nothing to be the man or woman of God. He wants you to be. You lack nothing. I want you to think about that. Well, when you begin to see yourself that way, some of you look at yourselves and think, well, I could never, oh pastor, I need you to share Jesus with my friend. Why don't you share Jesus with your friend? Oh, oh pastor, I need you to talk to my spouse. I need you to talk to my kid. Well, why don't you talk to your child? You know why you say that? Because you don't realize that all you need, you have in Him. Listen, you may not say it the way I'd say it. Let me tell you something. Nobody ever gets right with God because the way I say something. Now, you can articulate some things in a certain way and you can move people emotionally. But every time somebody makes a genuine step towards God, let me tell you who did that, the Holy Spirit of God. It's not your ability to intellectually convince somebody or lay out the argument. Let me tell you what you do. You just open your mouth and you let the Holy Spirit of God use the Word of God in you to speak truth into their life and Jesus can change lives. All I need I have in Him. I want us to say those three things together. Number one, my sin has been dealt with. Let's say my sin has been dealt with. My eternity is secure. Say that my eternity is secure. Now the third one, all I need I have in Him. All I need I have in Him. Let me ask you something. Do you believe that? Then let me give you a life-changing reality. People that is true about me positionally. God is working out in my life practically. You see, everything we just said that's true about us positionally. I have been changed. All that's true. But now that's being worked out in my life practically. That's the second word I want to give you. It's the word practice. And here's the statement. Look at it. The word practice through my pursuit of Christ, I am being changed. Position through my relationship with Christ. I have been changed. It's done. To I now am in Him. But practice through my pursuit of Christ daily, I am being changed. What's true about me positionally, God is working out in my life practically as I pursue Him. That's why in Colossians chapter 3 Paul not only gives us three statements of completed action, he then gives us two imperatives. Keep seeking the things above. And then he says, set your mind on things above. Paul here moves from talking about who we are positionally to challenging us in the area of our practical life. Paul says based on who I now am in Christ, he encourages me to respond. There is a required response to who I now am in Christ. And I want to give it to you in two statements. Here's the first response. The first response is the way I live daily. Keep seeking the things above. That phrase, keep seeking literally means to continuously strive after. And here's what Paul is saying. The life I now live should be a reflection of the position I now have. I'm going to say that again. The life that I now live should be a reflection of the position that I now have. Let me show it to you the way Paul said it in Ephesians. Ephesians 4 verse 1. Listen what he said. Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called. Paul says I implore you, excuse me, to walk worthy in a manner of the calling with which you have been called. Paul says the life that I live should be a reflection of the position that I now have. Now some people would say, well, pastor, if you teach us all that positional truth, my sins dealt with, my eternity secure, doesn't that mean we can just go live how we want to? Well, if you really get it, get a change the way you want to because here's what you find out. That's not who you are anymore. You can try it, but it won't satisfy you. It's not who you are anymore. That's why the most miserable people on planet earth are not safe or not lost people. The most miserable people on planet earth are safe people trying to live like lost people. Because you know what they have? They have an identity crisis. They're living out of something that's not who they are anymore. And some of you in the room, you know it. You're miserable. You are miserable right now because you are trying to live out of the resources of this world and all you need you have in him. And it is ruining your marriage. It's ruining your home. It's ruining your job. It's running your emotional health. It's taking a toll on your life because you are trying to live out of something that's not you anymore. Jesus has changed you. And Paul says, now because of who I am, I am to pursue him daily with the way I live my life. Say, what does that look like? Well, that hope we've given you a target. We call it the life of a Jesus. I want to put this paradigm up on the screen. I want you to see it. We call it the life of a Jesus. We use the words abide, connect, and share. Go ahead and put the whole thing up there. This word abide is a word that deals with my daily pursuit of Christ's time alone with God. This is seeking God's presence. That's what the abide means. That I'm to daily seek the presence of God. The word connect means that I'm to seek God's people. I'm to be in fellowship with them. The word share means I'm to seek God's kingdom and God's activity. When Paul said I'm to keep seeking the things above the way I live my life, this is what he's talking about. This idea of living my life in pursuit of Christ's daily, living my life in connection with other believers and living my life seeking the kingdom of God. That's not just something that we've thrown out at you as a program. We believe that's what a disciple looks like. And when Paul says I'm to live my life now seeking based on the position that I have, that's exactly what he's admonishing us to. So here's what that means. Lay it down on your life. Does the life I live reflect the position that I have? Am I seeking God daily? Am I abiding in Christ? Am I seeking fellowship with other believers? Am I connecting? Am I seeking to join in God's activity locally and globally? That's what Paul means when he says I'm seeking the things that are above. But not only does Paul hear admonishes to seek the things above. The second admonishment is to set your mind on things above. And that that means the way I think continuous. It's not just the way I live daily. It's the way I think continuously. Set your mind. That phrase set your mind means to think or to be devoted. It it means more than just a way of thinking. It includes what you allow your heart to dwell on. Here's what Paul's saying. When I understand who I am in Christ, it should change what I set my heart on. What is your heart set on? And I don't want you to give me the church answer. I want you to think about it in your own heart. What is your heart set on? Money? Success? A bigger house? The next promotion? Paul says, man, we've been given a position that's greater than all that. And we should set our heart on the things above. This week, there's a devotional that I read daily. It's by Henry Blackaby. It's called Experiencing God Day by Day. You can find it online. It's free. If you've never read it, I encourage you to. It's transformational. Experiencing God day by day. And this week on March the 4th, I read as devotional. And I want to share with you two quotes because they fit so timely with this idea of setting your mind. Look at this first quote. The things you allow your mind to dwell on. We'll be revealed by the way you live. Isn't it interesting that Paul said, keep seeking. Here's how I want you to live, but if you're going to live right, set your mind. Because Paul knew what Proverbs says, for as a man thinks within himself, so he is. What you let your heart set on, what you let your mind dwell on, will come out in your life. Let me give you the second quote. What you think about in your unguarded moments reflects what your mind dwells on. See, that's a deeply convicting statement. When you're unguarded, where does your mind run? And I'm going to be honest with you. My mind doesn't always run to the right place. You know what that tells me about me? Man, I need to keep pursuing him because I'm not all the man I'm supposed to be in. Now, I'm not who I use. I'm being chained. It's progressive. But where my mind goes in those unguarded moments reveals what I allow my heart to dwell on. Practice through my pursuit of Christ. I am being changed. But let me leave you on a positive note. Third word is promise. Let me give you a statement. When Christ returns, I will be changed. Verse four, Paul said, "When Christ who is our life is revealed." I'm glad he didn't say if. He said when. When Christ is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him. Let me tell you what that means. What he started in us positionally is now being worked out practically. And we have his promise that he will finish what he started. I don't know about you, but there are some days I get discouraged. I get tired of my flesh. I get tired of the wickedness of my own heart. It's not who I want to be anymore. But everything that's true about me positionally, I didn't complete it yet in my life practice. I get tired of those times when I break the heart of God and break the heart of people around me through my attitudes and actions and words and reactions, but he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. Listen to the way Paul wrote about it in 1 Corinthians 15, "Behold, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed." In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound and the dead in Christ will be raised imperishable and we will all be changed. He will finish what he started. Let me close it one more verse. 1 John 3, 2, "Beloved, now we are children of God, positioned. You don't hope to be, now. My sin is dealt with, my eternity is secure. All I need I have in him now." And it's not yet appeared as what we will be. Practice. It's being worked out. But we know that when he appears, we will be like him's promise because we'll see him as he is.