Sermon artwork

Colossians 3:1-17

Preached by Ben Rolfe on 2nd March 2025

Scripture

3:1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming. 7 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. 8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. 11 Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.

12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

(ESV)

Generated Transcript
Hi, everyone. We're in colossians chapter 3 this morning versus 1 to 17. Since then, you have been raised with Christ. So your heart on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of god. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things, where you died, and your life is now hid with Christ in god.

When Christ, who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature, ****** immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of god is coming, you used to walk in these ways in a if you once lived, but now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these, anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other. Since you taken up your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge, in the image of its creator.

Here, there is no gentile or due, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric varian, scythian, slave, or free, but Christ is all and is in all. Therefore, as god's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with passion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bear with each other and forgive 1 another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the lord forgave you. And over all these virtues, put on love, which binds them altogether in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.

Since as members of 1 body, you are called to peace, and be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish 1 other, with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the spirit, singing to god with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do all of the name of the lord Jesus, giving thanks to god the father through him. Good morning. It's lovely to see you.

I would I love Saskid's introduction. I hope you like to dance. We will you'll be glad to know this sermon does not with that phrase. But I am I am glad you're here, and, it was wonderful to learn scripture together. We are working our way through the book of colossians.

We're into chapter 3 now. My is Ben. I'm 1 of the elders here at Cornerstone. Cornerstone. I did it myself.

That's what happens when you deviate from your notes. You know what it says here? It says, my name is Ben. They have to write me a name down. I promise no more, no more deviation.

Let me, let me pray and as we get, stuck into god's word. Heavenly father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that it is sharper than a double edged sword, and we pray that these words today would change our hearts, our minds, and our actions. Please would you make us more like Christ, our men. Now you might might remember a show back in the 2 thousands, a show, that was presented by Trinity and Suzanne.

You'll see a, a photo behind me, and the show was called Whatnot to wear. Whatnot to wear. And it was a simple concept. It told you what not to wear, but also it gave you a new wardrobe. It told you what to wear.

It said you you don't look good in this, but you do look good in this. Get get rid of those clothes, and put these clothes on, you'll look better in that. It was a it was a personal transformation, really. And maybe that's what you've been thinking Christianity is it's a whole lot of rules. Don't don't do this, but in instead do that.

But as we saw last week, when David shared his sermon, we saw that rules don't actually help. Rules don't get us anywhere. It. So what is Paul saying in this passage that is really different to that? Cause the problem with that show is that it only changed literally the the outer layer.

They only change things skin deep. Clothes change how we look, but but that is about it. A wardrobe of clothes can't actually change our hearts. But these verses will paint a picture of what it looks like to be a Christian. And in this picture we're gonna see today, we're gonna we're gonna zoom in, like you might on a phone or a tablet.

We're gonna zoom in and see 3 different parts of what it means to be a Christian. So just just so you know where we're going, there's the new address, the new wardrobe, and the new church. And the order of those, as we'll see, is important. The new address, the new wardrobe, and the new church. And we we don't want to get to the new wardrobe before we've got the new address.

We can't skip a bit to get there. Now I I remember as a as a young Christian, as a teenager, wondering what now that I'm a Christian, what what what do Christians do? What does this look like day to day? And I remember from last week that we saw that there is freedom, freedom from rules and regulations, but as you think a bit further, you think, well, freedom for what? What what do we do with our Christian freedom.

And you'll you'll see in verse 12 of chapter 3 that Paul instructs us to clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience Paul presents us with a new wardrobe. But before we get to that, I wanna look at our first point, which is our new address. Let me read to you again versus, 1 to 4. Since then, you have been raised with Christ. Set your hearts on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of gods.

Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is, then you will also appear with him in glory. Isn't that such a wonderful verse to read? You have been raised with Christ.

And verse 3, we died our life is now hidden in Christ. The transformation has taken place. The old self has died with Christ, and his resurrection gives us life. We see that in the in the symbol of baptism don't we? With adult baptism where they are dumped under the water.

The water acts as a symbol that we have died to our old sinful ways of life, and we are now alive. We are now alive with Christ. It shows us what is spiritually happened. And can you see how we are united with Jesus? He died.

We die. He lives. We live. And in verse 4, when Christ appeared, his amazing bit, we appear with him in glory. What a wonderful promise Paul gives here.

The life and our future is locked in with Jesus. It's a guarantee. It's a certain guarantee that we will get to heaven. It's more maybe you're at this age thinking about this. It's better than the pension triple lock.

That's how secure it is. For what can be hard is that this reality that I'm talking about is is hidden. You may have noticed, verse 3, and life is now hidden with Christ because changing from an enemy of Jesus to a friend of Jesus doesn't actually look any different, does it? But in reality, what Paul is saying here is that you have a new address. You may have been born in Sunny Tollworth like today, but having become a Christian, you are now a citizen of heaven.

You have a new home. You have a new passport. You're now a dual citizen. And this citizenship has an impact act on your life. And that's why in these verses, Paul gives 2 instructions.

Firstly, to set our hearts on things above, and secondly to set our minds on things above. So our our thoughts, our hearts are no longer to be orientated around earthly things, instead they are to be taken up consumed by heavenly things, by things above. So our hearts, for example, are to love Christ. We are to love the things that he loves. We are to value what he values.

We are to, love him with all of us, with our heart souls and minds. There is longing to spend time with the 1 we love to worship him because he is what our life revolves around. And then also our minds. Our minds are not to be set on earthly things, but instead to be set on heavenly things. And the reason for that is in verse 3.

We have died, and our life is now hidden with Christ. Now to be hidden in Christ means that we are safe and secure in Christ. What could possibly be safer than being with Jesus? So, therefore, our minds are free from those things. Free free like, from things like sin and our worries and our obsessions and our securities in this world.

And our minds can now be used to bring glory to god because we are safe and secure in him. Let me give you an example of what this looked like. In, AD 400, there was an archbishop called, John Kristen, and he was threatened with banishment, from the empress at that time. And he replied to her and said, you can't banish me for this world is my father's house. So she replies and say, but I will kill you.

And he he wisely replies, no, you cannot. For my life is hid with Christ in God. Then she threatens to take away his treasures. No, you cannot. For my treasure is in heaven, and my heart is there.

Can you see how he'd been taken up with these verses? His life had been completely reoriented initiated around Christ, e even in the face of death. Because the things above that we're talking about are to shape and influence the the here and now. So I want to ask you, is this true for you? Do you have a new address?

Have you reorientated your heart and mind around this new address? Has it impact acted your priorities in life. I think it's worth having a think about what that looks like. Let me let me try and think and suggest a few a few ways. First is your heart and your mind consumed by sin?

Is that your number 1 priority? Is that what you desire and love and and seek? Or maybe there's there's an obsession around education and career and money. That is your your number 1. Or rather does your world revolve around yourself?

Are you number 1? Are you the most important 1? And everyone dances to your tune. What would it look like for you to reorientate your lives around heavenly things? It it's it's a bit like if you're if you're moving home, if you've moved from 1 place to a another.

You're in between that stage of, exchange and completion. You're waiting to move, but you haven't yet moved there yet, and you're not there yet. But while you're in the first first home, you're you're thinking about the second home on you because you're leaving here and going there. You might be thinking about the garden or how you can redecorate that room or what you can change or who can have over. You're thinking about the new neighbors and what's to come in the future of new address because now the old address seems less important.

But what's what's more important than where we're going is who's gonna be there. So that's Psalm 84 says this about the lord's dwelling place. How lovely is your dwelling place, Doctor. My soul yearns, even faints for the courts of the lord. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living god.

That'd be wonderful if that was a verse that was true for us. Now having having read and reorientated our lives around these verses in verses 1 to 4. Golden now wants us to give us the new wardrobe, and this is my second point, a new wardrobe. Because the Christian identity that we've just been looking at is linked to the Christian lifestyle. Paul, whenever wants to separate the 2, you can't have 1 without the other because the identity informs our lifestyle.

And as I mentioned, earlier. We can't just jump to verse 12 without understanding the new address because it's the new address that is too truly transformational. So in in verse 12, you'll see that it says to clothe ourselves. Clove ourselves. Because the the contents of the new wardrobe isn't for storage.

It isn't for putting someone just keeping. No. These these are to be worn and to be worn all the time every day. And these aren't just outfits that you wear on the exterior. They aren't like that.

These are different. These are transfer emotional. They are based on who we are as a Christian. But before we get to put on the new clothes, Paul wants to draw our attention attention to some old clothes, some close to take off. And Paul puts us very strongly in these verses.

Have a look at verse 5. Put to death whatever belongs to your earthly nature. And then verse 6, the wrath of god is coming, and verse 8, rid yourselves of such things. We can't just skim over these verses. This is important.

These things need to be got rid of because our our rebellion in these areas, it it grieves the lords. These behaviors are not who we're called to be. And that's why Paul wants to draw our attention to them. There are 5 things to look at first that damage our ****** purity, the ****** immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed. Now if you think about it, any number of sins could be mentioned here, you know, Paul could any number of sins and and put them in this passage.

But it's clear that ****** purity is important to god and amongst his people. So let me, let's walk our way through them briefly before we permanently those of them. Firstly, ****** immorality. I mean, this covers any ****** activity outside of marriage. ****** impurity.

It leaves its mark, and it makes us un clean before god. Last, self centered, selfish, self gratifying behavior, evil desires, desires against god in this area of ex and beyond, and also greed, greed, which is idolatry, a failure to trust god for what we need, and instead taking what we, unhealthily, want for ourselves. Because Christian purity is 1 way that the church is gonna stand out like a beacon in a dark world. I don't I don't think I need to explain the world we live in for you to know how distinctive this would be in the world. Because these behaviors are behaviors that are encouraged.

They are advertised. They are endorsed all the time. Our phones, our TVs, our offices, our class rooms, our conversations are full of it often, and it doesn't take much for our hearts and our minds to become full of it. Now it's it's worth saying that many of us would likely fail hailed in this area. We have sinned against god, but that shouldn't stop us from striving for ****** purity.

We do need to repent of our attitudes and our behaviors against god. We need to ask for forgiveness. And what we don't want is just an appearance of purity. Just this on the outside, that it all looks fine. A bit like a, a green apple.

It might look fine on outside, but inside is rotten. We don't wanna be like that. We want purity through and through complete purity. But when we do fail, when we have sales, we know that we have Jesus, the 1 who is faithful to forgive, the 1 who has died and is now risen again, who will forgive us in And if you've never done that before, then I'll encourage you to think carefully about how you stand before God. Today will be a wonderful day to become a follower of Jesus.

And then in, in verses 8 to 9, Paul asked us to get rid of things that harm relationships. This is category, category number 2. Let me read that to you. But now you must also rid yourselves of such things as these. Anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.

Do not lie to each other since you have taken off your old self with its practices. So we have rage there. It's like a a violent uncontrollable anger. Malice. It's a speech with an ill ill, slander, a desire to damage someone's reputation with our speech.

Cause we must remember that our our tongue has been given to us to bring glory to god to build others up rather than to tear others down. So we need to think about, how we speak to and how we speak about each other. Because it clearly does make matter to god. Why? Why why do these behaviors matter to god?

Well, it's not who you are now. It's not who who we are, now. Have a have a look at verse 12. We're reminded that we are god's chosen people, holy and dearly loved. God has always been a bringing together a people for himself who love god and and love each other.

And god told Abraham this back in the, old testament, the book of Genesis, that he was gonna going to create a people for his own possession and that he would set his love upon them for no other reason than the lord loves you. And these tours that are used in the Old Testament can now be used for the local church. We are to be a holy people, holy means to be, set apart. And Jesus' and resurrection has made this possible. It has brought out forgiveness, and it has enabled us to live by the Holy Spirit in us to make us more like Christ.

It is transformational. Because these sins that Paul is listed, they are sins that break apart relationships. They divide people. They cause friction. They damage marriages.

They create splits in the church. They hurt others. These are important for how god's church is gonna act. And that's why to keep up the clothing analogy, we are to kill it, destroy, burn, and when you favorite word, the jettison. So some it's what planes do.

It's spare fuel. Fuel don't want it anymore. Let's chuck it out the back. There's there's no way of getting it back. It's gone.

We are to jettison these sins. They aren't fit for eBay or vented, no 1 is gonna want them. Now don't even hold on to a thread. These behaviors, these sins are to go. And how are we to do that?

You might ask? Well, it requires our hearts and our minds to be reorientated, to be fixed on things above. It takes the work of the Holy Spirit, transforming our sinful hearts to be more like Christ. I'd like to encourage you to examine your lives, to examine your hearts and your minds, and see which of these sins need to be jettisoned. What do you need to get rid of?

What do you need to, kill? If you're maybe pray own to anger and rage, that I'd encourage you to actively seek to restrain and replace those thoughts. If your if the media you're consuming is full of gossip and slanderous speech, Then get rid of it. Turn it off. Get rid of the TV.

If your social media feed, if that's populated by sexualized images and language and content, then cancel the accounts. If your eyes are wandering to things that they shouldn't do, then stop. Don't go there. Find something good and wholesome to look at. Do whatever it takes to get rid of these sins because because of our new address.

That is not how citizens of the new address are to live. We're to kill, we're to reorientate our lives, we're to pray, we're to ask help from each other. And having jettison the old wardrobe, Paul wants to show us the glorious wonderful new wardrobe in verses 12 and 13. Follow along if you have, a Bible in front of you. Therefore, as god's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.

Bear with each other and forgive 1 another for any of you has a grievance against someone, forgive as the lord forgave you. This is what the Christian should wear. And as we look through the clothes on the rail, as we pull each 1 across, you'll notice that these clothes have been worn before. These clothes have been worn by Jesus. If Jesus showed compassion, then we too should show compassion.

If Christ was known for his kindness, then we too ought to be kind as followers of him. If gentleness and patients were shown by our savior, then we should do the same. I mean, verse verse 13 sums up this sentiment quite well, forgive as the lord forgave you. What these verses are trying to say is we to imitate Christ. And his 5 virtues perfectly describe Jesus.

And just think of the way that he treated the outcasts, the rejected, the sinners, the tax collectors, We are to imitate Christ. So let's, let's look at a few of these items on the rail. Look at, look at the things that we are to wear. First 1, Compash that means, showing concern and and love for the suffering or the lost. Next 1, we need to show kindness and gentleness, especially to those we might find difficult in the church.

I mean, I mean, kindness have been described as like a mellowed wine. It's a a wine that's lost its sharpness, lost its edge. And therefore, we can can be kind to each other. Also, having patience, bearing with 1 another, this isn't always easy, is it? It it literally means to be big hearted.

And there's members of of, of 1 body, you you might have found this that it's hard. We rub each other up the wrong way. We annoy each other. We phrase things badly. But as Christians, we are part of a process called sanctification, where god is making us more like Jesus, and we do need to have patience for that to work.

And then lastly, we're to forgive. We're to forgive just as the lord has forgiven us. I'm putting on these knows is about being remade into god's image. It's a reversal of what happened in the fall in Genesis. And and these virtues, these behaviors, to be worn, you can't just ignore them like most of the stuff you do in TK Max.

Just, you know, shuffle it past. No. All all of these are important. Put them all in your basket. We didn't pro only, they make these changes out of fear, fear of fear of gods, or or they shouldn't be done to try and earn his favor to prove ourselves as a Christian.

No. These changes can be made and the confidence about who god is and the work that he's doing and who he has made us to be. Now the the word us in these verses is is very important. And and that brings me on to the third point of where Paul wants to direct our attention in this big picture. And that is a new church.

Because if you think about it, it's impossible to do these things on your own. It just doesn't work on your own. You need other people around you. To be kind, you need someone else to be kind too. So these behaviors are to be applied particularly in the local church.

And and god knows it's critical for how the local church is going to function. How are we going to treat each other? Because maybe these, attributes aren't at the top of your CV when you're applying for a job. Patients and kindness don't appear there. But in the church, these are critical behaviors.

You'll you'll see the, the us, the local search, we we see that in verse 9, each other. Verse 12, we'll see that Christ is in all. Verse 15. We are members of 1 body, and and verse 16, let the message of Christ dwell among you. As I mentioned earlier, god is making for himself a people or an old testament language and nation.

And many patients in this world, you can see us in the news this week, are marked by their wealth, by their power, by their by their greed, but god's people are to be marked by something else. They're to be marked by holiness. And particularly in this passage, we see its holiness in the area of *** and speech. They are the things that are gonna make the local church distinctive. And both 11 helps to paint this picture further of what this looks like in the local church.

Here, there is no gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised while bear aryan, Sidian, slave, or free, but Christ is all and is in all. Now, if you're into football, which I'm not, you're you're maybe not see this as being too alien. You know, you have the Liverpool fans at 1 end, and the Edmonton fans at the other end, looking at no 1. And that's normal in the football pitch, but not in the church. Here they can mix.

So so for example, bringing, Jews and gentiles together. That that really would have been unheard of, or the slave and the master. What what have they got in common to be mingling together in a church setting? What common grounds they have, but but with Christ, there is a genuine meeting of heart and mind. They now have something in common that draws them together.

So, therefore, in hope church, things like race and wealth, intelligence, our job, our status, they shouldn't create divides amongst us. We don't want those divisions to be here in Hopechurch. So, therefore, the employed and the unemployed, the retired, the young and the old can sit next to each other. Now people from different nations, from different backgrounds can share a meal together. We are now 1 body.

Why? What's the big reason the Paul gives? Because Christ is all. Christ is all. That means that he's all that matters about everything.

Price is all that matters about everything. There's a brilliant example of this in the Ephesians chapter 2 verse 14. Speaking about Jews and gentiles, it says for himself, that's Jesus, is our piece, who made the 2 groups sorry, the 2 groups 1, destroying the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility. And as you look at your spiritual brothers and sisters up and down the rows, you can know that you have something in common, or more importantly, someone in common. Jesus.

You are no longer enemies from different places. If they're under a dividing wall here, that's been destroyed. Because Jesus's reconciling power is about bringing together a new people and new church. And that's why the mark of a Christian is bringing together a seemingly random group of people with different likes and different hobbies from different places and different languages to be united. What a wonderful picture that is.

Cause there are many things that people rally around, aren't there? People rally around a a good cause or a good charity, but you wouldn't really describe them as united, but the church is the reconciling power of Jesus makes us united. And this is a wonderful look at the peace making work that Jesus accomplished from the cross, that it enables and encourages peace amongst us. Now as we bring this into land, let me let me look verse 16 with you. Have a read if you can.

Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish 1 another with all wisdom through Psalms, him names, and songs from the spirit, singing to god with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deeds, do it all in the name of the lord Jesus, giving thanks to god the father through him. So what what does this all look like in the local church? What is it gonna look like as you walk into the doors of Hope Church, Tollworth? What do you see?

What what's in our our DNA. Well, firstly, I hope you see bible teaching. I hope you see spiritual encouragement of each other. I hope you see god being praised. There's so what these verses are drawing our attention to as we teach and admonish 1 another with all wisdom through Psalms, hymns, and songs.

Hopefully, you've witnessed that this morning. And verse 16 says that the message of Christ should dwell among us richly. That means the word is abundantly available. That the word of god is open, for example, it's red, it's listened to its herbs. And the word of Christ, it should be, impacting every ministry that we run.

Every decision that we make should be run run by that. And additionally, there'll be songs. This is why singing so important to us to remind us of biblical truths. That's what your find at Hope Church. And then I I hope at some point you experience gratitude and thankfulness that we give thanks to gods, that we give thanks to each other, and verse 17 summarizes.

It's so well. Do it all in the name of the lord Jesus. Every ministry that takes part in this church should be happening like this, all in the name of the lord Jesus. Now we we've seen earlier in the book of Clossians, that there was a group looking for super spiritual things. They were looking to add things on to Christianity.

But as we've just read, Paul is painting a different picture of the local church. In 1 sense, it's ordinary. Ordinary things are happening amongst us, but what's extraordinary is that the Holy Spirit at work in doing those things. Now having listened to the talk and read these verses, I I realized that you might be asking why, but why is it necessary to have the new in the first place. Or why why have I got get rid of the old self?

I quite like it. I think there's a few reasons. The first 1 is verse 6, which is the wrath of god is coming Jesus will return to judge, and his guilty judgment will either fall upon you, or it will fall upon his son Jesus for those who have put trust in him. He will return to take his people to heaven, and for those who are not in that group, they are bound for hell. And, secondly, to say The best thing about the new address is Christ.

Christ himself will be there in heaven. That that's why we're doing these things because the joy of knowing that 1 day we'll be with Jesus. Or may maybe you've got a different point of view. Maybe you're in the group wondering, what what is so great about this new clothing you talk about? Or or why why bother with the low local church.

Why is that important? But what's wonderful about the local church is it gives us a chance to exercise those gifts, and we get a chance to witness and experience the reverse hustle of man's rebellion against God. God is transforming us bit bit by bit, to be more like Jesus. We're returning to the pre fall Adam, aid in god's image. And therefore, by seeing Christ like people in the local church, we get to see a glimpse of who god is and whose image were made.

And I hope these verses have given you some weighty reasons to to grapple and and to think these things through, to examine your heart and your mind, to think about this new wardrobe to wear, and and to see how that plays out in the the local church. Let me finish with this wonderful, encouragement from verse 17. And what's you do, whether in word or deeds, do it all in the name of the lord Jesus, giving thanks to god the father through him. Let me pray Right? Although we do thank you for your words.

We thank you that you have spoken this morning, and we thank you that you have spoken to us. A reminder that our hearts and minds are to be reoriented stated around you, that these clothes are not just to be looked at, not to be put on the floor. Instead, they are to be worn every day. And we, we pray lord that the Holy Spirit be at work in doing this. We know that through our own efforts, it would be impossible, and there would be no change.

But instead, by your power, we can see change in making us more like Christ. And we pray that these things we have seen about the local church would be true for Hope Church, that you would transform transform all of us to be more like Christ, that you would build each other up, you would help us to focus on the word of gods and proclaiming that, that you would help us and encourage us to sing to each other, that we would love you more, that you will be our all, and that we would give thanks to God the father through Jesus Christ, our men.