Dying & RISING WITH Christ Changes Our Behaviour: Part II
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THE GREAT RENEWAL
THE GREAT RENEWAL
Dear Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, THis morning we come to the heart of what Paul wants to say to Christians tempted to follow false teaching, and seek fullness by false living. While the greatest teaching has come in Chapter 1 with who Christ is,the so-called Christ hymn, remember that hymn is part of a prayer for something to happen to the Col. Christians, not just an exalted theological description of Christ and our world. It’s about how we are to come to fulness or maturity in Christ. It’s is kind of like you could remember a favourite teacher from high school, maybe even a memorable lesson, but chapter 3 is not just the teacher or the lesson, can you remember a parent or mentor speaking into your life situation - ie. give up teaching in Slovakia 24 years old. Letter from my Dad, short phone conversation. heart to heart talk - not just about decision or circumstance and what to do - but from core of who you are and were you are at, commitment to walk with you to seek what is best - and do it in life. As we get to the heart of the letter that is what Paul wants to do with you and me, as recipients of this letter.
n this letter tothe hope you have been overwhelmed by who Jesus Christ really is, and who you have really become in Him. Remember the point of the Christ Hymn - charts… all-sufficiency in creation, but even more in His body the Church. Want ot come to maturity, completion, perfection not through any other means but being in Him. Staying attached to Him as your head and your roots, built on him,so you become.
In this letter to the hope you have been overwhelmed by who Jesus Christ really is, and who you have really become in Him. Remember the point of the Christ Hymn - charts… all-sufficiency in creation, but even more in His body the Church. The climax of this teaching we could say is Christ through his death - reconciled us - presents us holy and blameless and above reproach before God the Father. Big cosmic war - Cross and Resurrection , Ascension where we ware seated with Christ - that’s all like us looking back in the past - remember haredest time in your life - in our world - THE GREAT WAR - and when Paul is talking about us dying to sin in CHRIST and Rising in Christ, when he talks about Christ being for us, talking about the past and it really shaped us, as we areunited in Christ. But now at the climax of his “life-talk” with the Col.. Remember the language has changed from in Christ Christ doing stuff for us, to now WITH CHRIST, Want ot come to maturity, completion, perfection not through any other means than, not just being in Christ, BUT NOW LIVING WITH HIM. Of course Christ’s death resurrection, finished one time acts, but listen carefully, “Your resurrection with Christ must be completed by participation in his heavenly life! That’s what seeking the things above and nothe earthly old life things is about. Tha’ts why you have to be constantly taking out the skeletons in the closet, all the ways you gave your members to service of the old sin nuautre … out with the old. And now the clismax, GRAT WAR in Christ is over, and now live in another ERA. One in which don’t just put faith in Christ’s work in the past, but in whch now dayd by day - you live with Christ, in anew ERA - I call it the The Great REnewal! Staying attached to Him as your head and your roots, built on him,so you become.
That’s why Paul re-invents the vice list, not just a bnunch of sexual sins to catge and control, reinevets vice lists cage those sisn of the tongue - notice that he has hiton two of the great areas of sin that destory community, destory famiies, destory churches - keep us living separate lives inthe dark, destory the rebuiding work of Christ. And he says we have already died in Christ to those sins controling power , but now with Christ need to put and we need put to death - ;
Well now we ar on the postitives - reinvent virtue list, not jsut put … but rising WITH Christ. how do you day by day participate in Christ’s heavenly life here on earth in the middle of the decision, relationships, the opportunities of your day to day life. Figure that out and you have joyful fulness of Christ’s love and peace mre ad more day by day! You see this virtue list they are not actions you can just tape on to your life. They are the ingredients in the “NEW NATURE” you recieve in Christ, but that as v.10 puts
and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
is being renewed after the pattern of Christ. When you choose to live out one of these virtues, in a reltinships a deicison of yourl ife, must see it as an opportunity for you not jjsut to be a nice good perosn, but for Christ’s life in you to grow up and shine out. Remember him being the head of the body the church, the firstborn from the dead that means stpping out of the old life curcified, out of the grave of that kind of living, he steps out of the grace from curcifying and doig away with all the condmenation , to raise up a new humanity, new society - - and we are stepping out of the old way of living with him. That’s what’s at stake with these virtues in your life and mine, will we live with Christ in the daily grind!
HIs positive life lesson talk with us comes in three parts, the new living with Christ actions we must put on as our new wardrobe (v.12-14), the new cooridnating force organizing our lives (v.15), and then the toolsyou need to lend and borrow with each other for that kind of living with Christ to grow among us.
Key Truth: People rising with Christ in daily life, live out love, with Christ’s peace coordinating their days, and relying on God’s Word lent out and borrowed from each other.
Lest you just take these virtues as actions you can tape on to your life, we must begin at the cerntre of his exhortation, which is about how Christ comes into your life reign day by day for His peace!
A. Let Christ’s Peace Coordinate Your Days
We all like a little peace and quiet, can talk of our own personal peace, usually mean some peace and quiet from the hubbub of life. People’s peace is most often an escape even a running away from this world of business and conflict. But you and I are called by God to another peace that this world doesn’t have, though its always aching for it.
And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.
Think of what is offered to you in Christ, the personal peace of the Savior and King of this world! He worked peace on the Cross for you, with God , with each other - King of Peace said:
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
Your world - all the stuff in it - says set your heart on me, seek peace in sports, hobbies, in money , in secure home, parenting, in dating - but it is all peace peace when there is no peace! But Jesus Christ’s personal peace, is that cosmic peace,
and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
when He the reconciler is present, His presence -gives you a peace that passes all understanding, Not tied to your circumstance,s but to His, and He brings that down into your your world!
Do you know that peace, speak to me or an elder - about how it can be yours. But here Paul says that peace of Christ, is supposed to RULE,
You’ve got all these conflicts in your home, at work, got all this sadness, darkness, sin, suffering - diasater lack of peace, you are to let Christ’ peace be the controling factor in how you walk through that,and wth others. Guide your gaols and actions. The word rule actually meant umpire, referee FF Bruce. "Let the peace of Christ be umpire in your heart amidst the conflicts of life. Let it decide what is right. Let it be your counselor."
Illustrate: An old story which comes from the Salvation Army in the last century tells of a strong-willed woman who had been nicknamed "Warrior Brown" because of her fiery temper. She was often belligerent and became enraged whenever she got drunk. Then one day she was converted. Her entire life was wonderfully changed by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. At an open-air meeting a week later, she told everyone what Jesus had done for her. Suddenly a scoffer threw a potato at her, causing a stinging bruise.
Picked it up, put it her in her apron pocket… no one saw it again until Harvest Celebration days, not one came with a a whole sack - an ffering of thanks to the Lord for others. he explained that after the open-air meeting she had cut up and planted the "insulting potato," and what she was now presenting to the Lord was "the increase." Warrior Brown had allowed "the peace of Christ" to be umpire of her life.
How much misery we would avoid if we permitted "the peace of Christ" to umpire in our hearts. How many words we would hold back if he were the arbitrator in our lives. How many sleepless nights we would forego if we did that. How the Church needs this too, "since as members of one body you were called to peace."
Do you get that, as you live up to the calling, to be part of the peace of Christ - you are actually just living as a new participant in Christ’s reconciliing work. God has chosen you to be part of Christ unified body. As that is the cooridinating force in our relationships in home, in church - look what will happen in the body:
that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ,
that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ,
And when the peace of Christ, is coordinating our actions and reactions, when we realize that putting on peace-reigning virtues is’t ultimately about you and I becoming a little nicer, but about Christ reigning in us, Christ’s body unified and working in this world, then you will see how these virtues are so powerful
B. Put On the Virtue of Christian Community: Building-Love is How You Rise with Christ Daily.
Now I could speak on each one of these virtues for some time, but what is the theme that runs through them all? Think back to last weak, two vice lists of 5 vices each what were they focused on - passion sins, and tongue sins - why - community , body of Christ destroying vices we have got not just tame but kill. Well here we have the positive counterpart; a list of 5 Christian community building Virtues.
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,
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.
Focus again on 5 nice habits to grow a little in, but 5 fundamental opportunities for Christ in you, to live out. And these five are summed up in v.14 which ties these 5 actions to the great goal of the letter:
above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
Those five virues are just the details of this new Christ love - agapse love God has poured into our hearts. LIke Fiddle r on the Roff - do you love me - washed your clothes fed your cows, raised kids, sat by - detiled list yes he wants to know if more than actions, over all affection, do you love, but all those actions daily how she loved too. And you want understand those indivdual virtues if you don’t understand the overall goal, the
Remember the theme of the letteer
Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.
Now we see that’s not an individaul thing, can’t come to maturity byyourself, . Not about you, but you in community, in this new body of Christ, the new huamnity , the Church. And each member needs to be doing ints part - like a sinew or ligament of the body, each odiong its work. Do you see thatChristian morality isn’t a matter of be nicer , but of the charity, the new love of grace working out of you to others.
Christian morality is is evdince of inner grace, in our outward behaviour. And the result is what?
Bound together in perfect hamrnoy. Same word for matirty, completeness, maturity. YOu want to know if you are becomiong a mature Christn, told you in Ch1 how much are you abiding in Christ. But now another test is how much are you abiding in His love for others.
This perfect hamrony Christ maies is a bond that procues harmony, put that on!
Here is the test is there any bond, with others in my life, other Christians. Am I growing in that with what
by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.
and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.
Any reaching out to others, feels God is in t. Any let’s have coffee, Or call on telephone send a note.
Understand that love is the bond that hold the church in tact and allows for growth of god to take place in us. Not giving yourself to this bond, as a part supporting others, serving others - no place for God’s growth to take place.
Think who am I to live like that? Well as Paul lists the individual qualities he reminds the, who are you to start living with this new love in real action? Well remember you are CHOSEN And Set apart by God, holy means, , you are bleoved by HIm so - start living as if others that you rub shoulders with - beloved, ones. How?
Bowels of compassion, Random Acts of Kindness in Exeter, why random - last kind thing did to family member, church memeber, neighbour - always bit of surprise undeserved, Humility
Humility: “not overly impressed by sense of one’s self-importance, , in opposition to false humility of Gnostic = appearance only of wisdom, self-made religion… all virtues for true Christain comunity… not dissension like vices of sexual immorality and tongue!
Meekness/Gentleness - real stength not door mat, but strength with holy purpose…
Then heart of the matter, in your bond with others, messy - if here is thrid class conidtional, future possiblity that you should anticipate.
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.
There will be complaints against each other - part of life in fallen world, diversity, but also incomplete - forgiveness is the duralbity of nthis new garment Christ gives us.
These are all actions expected of people Made-new. Bond that it stats to create is part of the pourpose and mysery of life, bond like Triune God - mutaul idnwelling F S HOly Spirit, . Have any of that bond - put on this kind of lvoing action daily .
These are all actions expected of people Made-new. Bond that it stats to create is part of the pourpose and mysery of life, bond like Triune God - mutaul idnwelling F S HOly Spirit, . Have any of that bond - put on this kind of lvoing action daily .
C.S. Lewis -“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”
… . You can have these virtue like taped on … not have love and it doesn’t create God’ growth and body … but if you get this love - you will have all these virtue by the Spirit, now exercise them! Then when you put to death sins of the flesh, tongue , and exercise - love as compassion, kindness, humility, meekness patience, as you forgive people around you - then ou will be living a new member of the body - doing your part as Christ works in you.
Ever think of that , your a part of the body, some hand, feet, some eye, toe, some but connectdd and relying on others - one part never mentioed - can’t just be an appendix. That’s the parralell to Ephesians when each part grows up into the head Christ then:
from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
And sas you love with gifts as member connected to a dfew others here - instead of like false teachers, pride, division - real comjunity marked by theat last command and BE thankful - where love reign, peace of Christ is the goal - there will be gratitude instead of griping! Christ our head, Christ our King and teh Lord of the new temple the new house of God - reigning among us with peace, - he makes us happy
We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you,
But before we leave this high point of the letter, Paul wants to give you the main tool, that can keep you living like this. The comand to let the peace of Christ reign, to put on Love - how do you do that. The focus isn’t on what you do, but on an incredbile power that can be working within you.
C. Relying on Christ's Word, lent out and borrowed from each other.
The climax is Christ’s peace reigning among us as we actually do actions of love, but now Paul outlines how to do that. Rmember this virtue list is a contrast to the ivce list, where the flesh, the old self rules. Remember the two areas - passions. Now passions are not bad if ridden by the Spirit - Problem isn’t strong passions but who is riding them. What direction. So too this second contrast with the second vice list. The sins of tongue, contrasted with
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly,
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.
It is not just that the like the HOly Spirit, the Word of Truth thae gsopel , not the lie of this world, but the truth of CHrist - God man -for us in us with us, that truth must dwell in you, A word meaning - Christ’s Word must have the run of the house of your life. You are to give plenty of room - to gospel word - TOugh time what reach for, down time . Paul sues the exact same language for how the HOoy Spirit fills and dwells us -0 but it is not just that the Word dwells in you. Look how it does:
teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
Do you hear how the Word of Christ is to get into our lives, to direct our Love, to make Christ’s new reign of peace come in our decisions and response to challenges and opprotnuies.
We are to lend God’s word to each other - we are to borrow God’s word when others offer it - is that happening in your life - Ever tell someone something God’s teaching you, ever share a an encouragment a correction a promise of Gods’s wrod suitable for another situation. We are to become skilled in not only teaching Gods’ word in practical ways, but counselling it. And we are to do it in song:
3 categhories of the Psalms here actually - psalams songs, there are hymn - word only used 2x in the NT, but Greek wrote praises offfered to heroes, or gods - in hymns spiritual songs. When you are filled up withthe Word of Christ - not a ritual superficial thing, but deep peneatrating like son g in your heart -= got to share it!
And that brings us to the conclusion when God’s word borrowed and elnt to each other - operating like song of truth that changeds us. Then Paul says,
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.
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.
worship won’t be just what you do in a church service. WOrd and Deed, all of life knowelge and actrions - have the consitency of doinog everything not only in Christ, and now with him. But now you will speak God’s Word and do those actions of love - THROUGH CHRIST -
That’s what it means to have Chirst’s lvoe umprising your life, peace reigning among us, his word dweeling in us. He is our mediateor - we don’t just try to do good the right thing, we live in through Him - ourlives become a thank offering through Christ to God the Father.
CONCLUSION:
Key Truth: People rising with Christ in daily life, live out love, with Christ’s peace coordinating their days, and relying on God’s Word lent out and borrowed from each other.
Friends this is critical for maturity that we move from receiving to practicing that grace in Christ’s body and beyond. We have heard much in the last 3 years of a president to our south - be3ing a narcisist. . But aren’t we all - a bit like that, self-sufficient, think we are not depenent on forgiveness,; Paul says when you receive Christ and his grace, you transfer the centre of gravity of your life from your self to God. YOu humbly see your need to be helped, forgiven, enriched,by God and others, - and this orientation of grace reigns your entire life. Do allts in the name of Christ
Philipp Melanchthon: But this gentleness will never be convenient to proud and ambitious people, who wish wherever they are to be the only wise ones, the only rulers, and to give way to nobody. Paul therefore adds tapeinophrosynēn [humbleness of mind] to it. Proud people are those who see that they possess some endowment—erudition or wealth or some such thing—but reckon this endowment to be greater than it really is, and then trust in it and disparage the rest by comparison. On the other hand, true fear of God begets true humility. Of course, we can be aware that we do indeed possess endowments—but as God’s gift. Then we realize that they are meager, and that most others are richer. Since they are in God’s hand, it can happen that God does not favor us with endowments
… God ofteen uses those with weaker ability but greater grace = Therefore, humble people neither have confidence in their own endowments, nor disparage those of others. Rather, they realize that whether or not our wealth, our abilities, our learning, contribute something useful to us or others, lies in God’s power. They also see that God often shows more favor to those whose abilities are weaker. For instance, he helped David against both Goliath and Saul. In a word, they understand the text “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
Calvin Love - since all things flow from love - xhorts us to CHERISH LOVE AMONG OURSELVES - regulate all by this love, or seek others thigns in vain = For where love is lacking, all these things are sought for in vain. That he may commend it the more, he calls it “the bond of perfection.” By this he means that the choir of all the virtues is comprehended under it. For this truly is the rule of our whole life, and of all our actions, so that everything that is not regulated according to it is faulty, whatever attractiveness it may otherwise possess. This is the reason why it is called here “the bond of perfection”: because there is nothing in our life that is well regulated if it be not directed towards it, but everything that we attempt is mere waste.
Luther bond of perfection not how we’re made right with God, but how we may live perfectly among ourselves as GROWING GOAL = others things will continue rightly in our life IF LOVE FLOURISHES AMONG US - ie start at table, then pew, then neighbour… Now as faith is the centerpiece of Christian existence, so love is also one of the fruits of the Spirit and one of the jewels of adornment, but clearly the best one
MELANCHTON - pretense doesn’t last, not able to bear something… each freely submits to the others and carries their burden, and covers over and puts right their mistakes - not ignore !!! but without expsoing them to ridicule…
None of us complete in self = christaisn are weak indivdually but strong corporately … THankfulness - even privatioins that keep us from greater evil = Every day one can see plenty of people who react very impatiently to the slightest misfortune, and complain about their lot, their poverty, their ill-health, and such inconveniences. Complaints of this kind come from a heart which either feels that God does not care about our affairs, or has a grudge against God, and accuses him of injustice because he allows good things to happen to bad people, and bad things to good; or else because he deals cruelly with us, and seems to be almost delighted at our misfortunes… A certain saying of [Jean] Gerson, that there are more privations than positive things to be grateful for, is worth remembering. That is, if we were not watched over by God, we would fall into far worse evils. He said that that is a more widely evident benefit of God even than the good things which he also gives.
v.15 Kaspar Olevianus reigning peace of Christ = et it is still possible to describe it by reference to the Word of God as a tranquility of mind superior to all understanding, which arises out of an inner glimpse of the serene countenance of God in the face of Christ, or else from the contemplation by faith of an object, namely, the body of Christ, one which was made and stirred up with the purpose of establishing by his blood peace with sin abolished, and the securing of peace by the power of his resurrection. The object is the promise of the broken body of Christ, the symbol of which is the bread of the Lord broken at Communion. For if the body of the eternal Son of God had not been broken, our faith would have no object. Notes on .
The Peace of Christ Is a Deep Root That Will Weather Every Storm. Johannes Bugenhagen: Let the peace of God triumph. He speaks of the peace of God, to which he adds, “in the heart.” The world did not know this peace. In , Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you.” God powerfully centers this peace precisely in himself, so that no injury from neighbors, no adversity and no temptation can cause us to waver. We glory in tribulations. This certainly is the case whenever it seems that we have been abandoned by God and that his peace has vanished without a trace. Even then, because the root grew to profound depths, the tempest has no power to destroy it. On the contrary, it rises up powerfully against this evil, even where victory seemed completely lost. You have an example of this in Paul in . Paul is here calling us to this sort of peace. Where such peace is genuinely absent, it is impossible for love alone to preserve the body of the church. Without this peace, the church would certainly not exist. Annotations 3:15.
Zwingli - mediatate and expound true Psalm not just drone it together… Everyone Must Preach the Gospel with Passion. Peter Martyr Vermigli: We should be ashamed of ourselves because we seldom, if ever, preach the gospel of Christ in the church, and preach it so frigidly that we might easily seem to be engaging ourselves in outside business. No strong feelings are brought to bear, nothing earnest or heartfelt takes place, but rather everything is conducted like some ritual ceremony.
Let nobody make the excuse that this is the job only for bishops and pastors, for Paul in Colossians admonished everybody both that the Word of God should abound in us and that our conversation should always be flavored with the salt of grace so that we may know how we should answer each person. Peter also wants us to be prepared so that we can give an account of that hope which is within us. Strasbourg Oration.
It is possible to have some of the five recommended garments and not have love, but it is impossible to have love and not have all of the five garments. Bruce calls love "the grace that binds all these other graces together." And that it is. The imperative thrust is continuous: keep putting on love over and over and over again.
LOVE CONTINUOUS TENSE = we struggle.. v.14 “
v.15-17
his chapter's text deals with the pleasurable commands which come to the child of God who has put off the old self and put on the new. Specifically, these commands touch on the fullness of Christ's peace (v. 15), the fullness of his word (v. 16), and the fullness of his name (v. 17).
R. E. O. White, the British preacher, observed regarding the fullness which these verses command: "The surest sign that you are carrying a full bucket is wet feet." That is true to our experience, is it not? Whenever we attempt to carry a full bucket to clean the floor or wash the car, we alwaysget wet feet! And when our lives are full, they will overflow.
In many extra-Biblical sources, the Greek word used here referred to the function of one who took it on himself to decide what is right in a contest. The sense here is, "Let the peace of Christ be umpire in your heart amidst the conflicts of life. Let it decide what is right. Let it be your counselor."
ur actions must say that Jesus is and does exactly what he claims! Just a few seconds of sin can disgrace the greatest of names. The Hebrew name Judah means "praise"; the New Testament equivalent is Judas. When our lives are full of Christ, praise to his name in word and deed floods our paths, bringing refreshment to all. What a responsibility is ours!
The fullness of Christ comes from an overflow of his peace and his word and his name. It is also seen in our thankfulness. Verse 15 ends with, "And be thankful." Verse 16 concludes with, "gratitude in your hearts to God." Verse 17 says, "giving thanks to God the Father through him."
The most direct of these exhortations to thankfulness is in verse 15, "And be thankful." Literally it says, "become thankful," because we are to keep on striving for a deeper gratitude than we have yet attained. The word for "thankful" is the word eucharesteo, from which we get the English word Eucharist, another word for the Lord's Supper —a time for giving thanks.
Full pails cannot help but overflow. May each day result in deep thanksgiving.