[Transcript represents full sermon's text]

       Colossians 3, verse 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” (ESV).

       Paul begins dealing with us today—with the Colossians—in calling us all to a higher calling. It’s a higher calling. It’s an awareness in the living out of our lives. It’s not just simply living our lives, but actually living them out in a higher quality, with the understanding that there is more to life than what we see with our eyes, what we see in the physical realm. That’s the way the world lives, right? They live by what they see, what they want, and even what they fear. Desires and fears. These are the two areas of life. We all desire things, and we all fear certain things. They key, the key to life, Paul is telling us today, is to rise above those desires and fears. We know we’re supposed to rise above the fears. We’ve been instructed to do that for many years. But to rise above the desires too, that’s not something that’s talked about all that much.

       People generally, for the most part, base their lives on what they can get. That’s the American way. That’s the way we are taught. We are taught to seek the things that are here, that are on this present earth. Remember, Paul would have this problem with one of his companions, where, he will say later, at the end of his life, “…Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica” (ESV). “[I]n love with the present world.” We are familiar with that, aren’t we? That’s where most of us find ourselves today. Certainly, to be fair, to some degree our world, our outer surroundings, are a bit different for us in present day society, here in America. Why, we are incredibly wealthy compared to the rest of the world. For the vast majority of us, life is good. Life generally goes well. A lot of times we get what we want. The world is good. This is our experience. All this ‘goodness’ makes it even more difficult for us to “seek the things that are above.”

       The call to us today isn’t so much to go out of life—to go out of the world. Or to check out. To become a monk in a monastery. That might be peaceful, and we might be really close to God (or perhaps not), but that’s not practical for us. We have to live out our daily lives—to live in the positions God has placed us in. That’s the way it works, and that’s even what God intends. The call to us today seems more focused on a particular quality that we bring to our life experience. It’s living out the same experience as we would of lived out but with a different focus. It’s having God in perspective. That’s what our enlightenment in coming to know God has done in the first place, in becoming a Christian. It has brought into raw form that which is the reality of the state of the world, that our fleshy bodies are affected by sin. That sin reigns in the world. That other people, besides ourselves, need to come to know this God. That there is this being named Satan, and he reaps havoc on the world. Understanding these varying areas are also part of the enlightenment.

       So, when each of us personally “seek[s] the things that are above,” what we are doing is actually living with the awareness of how things actually are—that the world has been loved by God, that there is hope for us and for everyone, and that Christ’s character traits are that which should be implemented in every situation. We’ve called this in the past becoming more like Jesus. That’s exactly it. For us, as Americans, that may not include persecution like it included for him and the disciplines (or it may), but the point is that we are to try to see everything how he would see it, and to act how we think he would act, or in a way that we believe he would be pleased with. It’s a higher calling than the world, who, again, just lives out basic societal character traits, traits which include immorality, revenge, back stabbing, lying, getting ahead at any cost, not playing by proper rules, whatever you want to name. This is how they live, and we are to live in a different way. To “seek the things that are above.” ‘Above’ things. Things which are like God.

       Jesus would also tell us, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal” (Matthew 6:19, 20, ESV). Much could be said about these verses, but let us focus today on the part of it which pertains, again, to our own desire within ourselves. If we are focused on the earth, and what the earth has to offer, and what the earth can bring to us, we are creating a life for ourselves where all of our worth and value is found here. What is meant is that people can truly care about this world so much that all their attachment is tied here. Tied to a spouse. Tied to children, Tied to a career. Tied to a house. Tied to a collection of cars. Tied to the money in the bank accounts. Tied to making more and more money. It’s all tied here. What happens if part of it, or all of it, disappears? What happens if the family dies? Or suddenly, overnight, all the money is gone? What happens in these cases? It depends on whether we have stored up our value here, or stored up our value there—the ‘there’ being Heaven. If we are storing up our value in Heaven, we hold onto to the things this life has brought us with a loose grip. It’s a loose grip. Nothing held too tightly. The absence of them is the ultimate test.

       It becomes so obvious where a person’s heart is at when they lose these types of things—these people and things that the world has brought to them. We are born into this world bare naked, with nothing. We aren’t born into the world with a bunch of assets. They aren’t attached to us physically. Sure, we may be born into better circumstances than others, but they didn’t come into the world with us when we came into the world. That means they aren’t truly ours. Only our flesh is ours. Nothing outside of that. In that sense, then, just as nothing was attached to us when we came, nothing will be attached us when we leave. And also, that means nothing should be too attached to us as we live—as we live out how many ever years we find that we live. This is where the quality of life comes into focus, and by quality of life it is meant how our awareness of our lives comes to fruition. If we are seeing our lives through a Godly perspective, we understand our relationships with him are really, at the end of the day, all that truly matters. The stuff of the world, even people, are just of the world. If you stop and think about it, for Paul that’s all he pretty much had at the end, his relationship with God. He did say, “Luke alone is with me” (2 Timothy 4:11, ESV). So, he had one person with him—that was it, after everything.

       Verse 2: “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth” (ESV).

       Here comes to us the true obstacle of life—the true obstacle. It has to be that. It has to be the mind. The mind we find, experientially, is the hardest thing to control. It’s the control center of our lives, and yet, most often, we find it is out of control. Not easily tamed, is the mind. We find that the mind is set on a lot of things, and those things can be earthly things if we aren’t careful. To set the mind—to set the mind is to put it in a direction. Are we directionally thinking about things that pertain this earth, how to get more out of this earth? Or are we directionally setting the mind on great things, namely, how to live out the things of the earth with God in focus, living how God wants us to? Just like Jesus said regarding storing up treasures, there are only two directions we can set our minds in. Only two; only two. We can set our minds on an upward direction, toward the greater things, or we can set our minds in a straight direction, toward the earth, or downwards, toward the earth. No matter what we do, we are going to have to deal with the earth, it’s just all in how the things before us are interpreted.

       What often makes life so difficult is dealing with our own minds. It’s not dealing with the external circumstances that is so difficult, though, really we believe that it is the external which is actually the problem. It’s really not the external, though, that’s the problem. The issues comes with our interpretation of the external. When are focused on things from a more Godly mindset, from character traits that represent what both Jesus talked about in his earthly ministry, and those of which Paul also referred to in various places, when we interpret events through those traits and act in accordance with those traits, life becomes so much better. We just do what we need to do without all the drama—all that drama that the mind so often makes. Our minds can be like a spoiled little child when we are focused on the material world, and on what we can get, and how we think people should be treating us. Or, our minds can be like an innocent little child that is always looking to help in a situation, to help others, to see the beauty, to see the purity of life. It’s amazing how those problems that the material or earthly person sees as so big will become so small for the Christian who’s mind is set on the right things. Then that person, who’s mind is right, can truly say, “All that really matters is God.”

       Indeed, a recent life experience really put into perspective the things of this world, how they are viewed, and the true nature of them. When moving across state lines last year to Indiana, it was learned that the Indianans definitely love their sports. It seems that sports are bigger in Indiana even than in Ohio, which may seem hard to believe. Nonetheless, in thinking about all this, and all the sports teams there are in Indiana, one day the mind came to the realization that the whole thing of being associated with a particular sports team was truly meaningless. Take, for instance, that of college football. The speaker had always been a fan of Ohio State, having even attended there for a years time in the Department of Psychology. Nonetheless, it was realized that his fandom tied to Ohio State was simply a matter of circumstances. If the speaker had grown up in Indiana, the tie to a university might have been to Indiana University instead. So, truth be told, the whole thing of being associated to a sports team, that of which pride can even be taken in, was due to circumstances outside the speaker’s control.

       This experience of moving to a different state went to show how meaningless it was, and how even one day all association of sports teams, or truly anything, will be given up. It had never really occurred to the mind that this association of being a sports fan was tied to having lived in Ohio. It might seem obvious, but if the fandom tied behind a sports team is usually regional, in that we were raised in that region, then why is so much pride taken in it? It took the experience of the move to realize the futility of the whole thing. And just like it is with sports, so it is, and will be, with anything, even our own families. A person chooses a spouse. The couple is married. But that relationship is associated with this earth, and does not move beyond. Yet, so much of people’s lives is spent around that marriage relationship. Not that that fact is bad, but an observation is simply being made here. We are so used to setting our minds on the things that pertain to this earth that we do not even realize it. Most of our thoughts, and even what we do in life, seems to be tied to this earth. Therefore, we have to make a concerted effort to focus on the things outside of this world, namely God. It really doesn’t come natural, though, with experience does seem to come the realization that there is more beyond what we see with our eyes. And perhaps as we get older and older, and we see things come and go, the ebb and the flow of life, we realize that everything is temporary, and then we do naturally tend to focus on things which are above.

       Next, in verse 3, Paul gives us the reasoning behind all of this. “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (ESV).

       The longtime Christian should be familiar with the concept as having died with Christ. Paul talked about this with the Roman believers, namely in the famous chapter 6. If we go over there, we read the following: “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:3-4, ESV). So, we see the call then—the call, is to “walk in newness of life.” “Newness of life.” It’s how our lives in Christ should look. This seems to be what Paul is making reference to when he brings up in our verse here, in Colossians 3, of having our lives “hidden with Christ in God.” We have been baptized into Christ’s death in the spiritual baptism that occurs from the moment we believe in Jesus as our Lord and Savior. At that moment, we are buried with him, being united in his death. So, this leads to the result of our lives being “hidden with Christ in God.”

       We could also bring up a cross-reference verse of Ephesians 2:6. There seems to be a lot of parallels between Colossians and Ephesians, and even to some degree the Book of Romans. Nevertheless, Ephesians 2:6 states (let’s actually start in verse 5): “even when we were dead in our trespasses, [God] made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (ESV). It’s that least part that seems to relate to what we are talking about today. So, we have been raised up with Christ and seated with him in the heavenly places, that is, in Heaven. In essence then, it is as Paul has said to us today, “hidden with Christ in God.” We have been made so free from sin, so perfect before God’s eyes, that that is how God sees us. Sure, we are still located on this present earth, but in the spiritual sense we are seated with Christ in Heaven. It’s an incredible thing. It would also mean, or seem to mean, that we could never really fall out of fellowship with God. How could we, if we have been seated in Heaven with him?

       The high calling of the Christian, then, in understanding we are “hidden with Christ in God,” comes in how we live out our lives. Paul is going to get into this a couple verses away, and we are going to talk about that next week specifically. But an overview here, is that of character development and separation from the world. Character development and separation from the world. If we are spiritually up in Heaven with God and Christ, the fact that we are “hidden” in him seems to denote a separation from the world. We are hidden in him, thus separated from the world. That means, again, we don’t find our foundation and our home here on this earth. There’s a separation, and that should come out in how we view ourselves, how we view this life, and consequently how others view us as a result of the first two things. If we are seeing ourselves not belonging to this world, then the world will undoubtedly sense that in some way, shape, or form. If we are trying to align our characters with Christ, in a way that is pleasing to God, that should also resonate in the minds of the world. They should look at each one of us and wonder what is different about us. Hopefully, they will be drawn to that, and then we can tell them when we are asked about it. We can tell them why we are different—different in a good way, and perhaps they follow through in obtaining what we already have.

       Verse 4: “When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (ESV).

       The verse points out for us that while we may be seated with Christ in Heaven, we are also still separated from him in the physical sense. We still live on this earth, and we still live in our human flesh, that flesh which is affected by the sin-nature. It’s that sin nature that tries to draw us away from living like Christ, living in a way that is pleasing to God. So, while we have that spiritual unity, there is also that separation in the sense that we are not holy in this life. We will still make incorrect decisions, no matter how much we don’t want to, and we will struggle in this body to the end. That’s just the way it works. We are still under the curse of sin, the one that God warned Adam about in the Garden, remember, “for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17, ESV). We don’t get to physically be with Christ right now, right at the moment we immediately believe in him, believe in what he accomplished for us. That doesn’t come till later. And that later, why, we don’t actually know when that will be.

       Paul said, “When Christ who is your life appears.” We often don’t think about this verse as being a reference to the Rapture of the Church, but really, if you stop and think about it, it seems that it’s a fair reference to that event. It seems fair because, that’s when we are going to get our new resurrection bodies, when Christ appears in the sky, calling those of us who are alive up to be with him. Even if we die before that event takes place, before the Rapture, we will still obtain our new bodies, those sin-free bodies, at the Rapture. That’s the way it works. Let’s consider that passage, the one Paul said to the Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians 4, starting in verse 15: “For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words” (ESV). Therefore, here Paul gives us a complete summary of what is going to happen, and how the process of which Paul is discussing with the Colossian believers is going to be completed. The spiritual is already done, but at the Rapture the physical part will be added to it.

       Finishing Paul’s verse to the Colossians, “then you also will appear with him in glory.” There it is. There is the completion of the whole project. Amazing it will be, for we will be restored back to the original state, the state of that which Adam and Eve had with God in the Garden. We will be in perfect fellowship with God, without an inkling of sin in the picture. We will be with him “in glory” which means we will be with everyone else who is saved, all those who are also with us “in glory.” That means we will have perfect fellowship with them as well. There won’t be any relational tensions with anyone. Everyone who is saved will be in perfect fellowship one with another. Notice how Paul said when Christ “appears” that “then you also will appear.” So, as Paul told the Thessalonians, we will be “caught up” to the Lord and then “we will always be with the Lord.” That’s the promise; that’s the beauty of the whole thing.

- Daniel Litton