Ep 91- Colossians Pt 3

Hi there tom Harris with. It’s all greek to me and we’re studying the third chapter of the epistle to the colossians, Vicki and I are gonna just have a back and forth, study, come and join us. We’re so grateful that you’re back. Let’s see what we can learn together. Hey, welcome back to the preeminence of christ colossians 123 and four. And today we’re gonna look at the preeminence of christ uh, demonstrated. How do we apply this? And of course we, the way we receive christ, we walk in christ uh, the way by faith and we’re gonna look at that the preeminence of christ demonstrated. And it starts off right in the beginning. And I think Vicki, if you’ll pick up these 1st 11 verses uh, for personal purity, how it impacts us. And then we’ll look at the uh, the passages in the power point. If then 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 of the earth for you have died. And your life is hidden with christ and God when christ, who is our life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory. Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil, desire and greed, which accounts to amounts to idolatry for it is on account of these things that the Wrath of God will come and in them. You once walked when you were living in them, but now you also put them all aside, anger, wrath, malice, slander and abusive speech from your mouth do not lie to one another. Since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices and have put on the new self who is being renewed in true knowledge according to the image of the one who created him, a renewal in which there is no distinction between greek and jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, scythian slave and Freeman. But christ is all. And in all. So here is the practical application to the theology, to the belief system and how it impacts our behavior. You know? And this is the amazing thing about Christianity is not just a bunch of dogmas, it’s not just principles and teachings and uh intellectual stuff. It is theology, it is doctrine, it is teaching, but but it it’s applied to everyday life and that’s what this chapter begins to do here in our personal purity. So if christ, I mean, here’s the here’s the presupposition right here in verse one, Vicki of chapter three, if then you have been raised up with christ. So that’s the pre supposition, it’s amazing. And and and and asked that question. It says, keep seeking the things above, where christ is seated in at the right hand of God, set your mind on things above and none of the things that are on the earth. So here, I mean, it’s talking about his enthronement, right? But before that, what do you have, you have his, we talked about his incarnation, you know, we talked about his, the fact of his, his crucifixion, his resurrection, his exaltation, and ascending back to heaven and now his enthronement and glorification. So he, what he’s saying is the Apostle paul is saying, take this full spectrum from before he came on earth to what he did on earth, to where he’s at right now. And how we’re connected to him gives us the power to be able to have purity in our personal life, to have the power to be this way. So, you know, you take a how do you, how do you see this? Well, he gives us the terms a couple of times put off and put on, So we actually have to do something when we accepted christ as our savior, we put off, we have to mentally and behaviorally set our mind on the truth. I’m not that person anymore. I’m not gonna allow those things come out of me of my inner nature. I no longer am that person I have put on christ. His spirit lives in me. The spirit of God’s convicts us. If you read the bible every day, you will have the ability through the power of God’s word to recognize who you are and how to really please God and who he is and what that connection is all about and being his child, what that means. I trust my father when when he was alive on this earth, I knew he would help me in any situation. All I had to do was ask, you know, it’s interesting you use that word uh, put off, you know, put off, put them all aside or put off uh, the, the, the old person, the old man and then you put on uh the new person. Uh, it talks about this, this it’s a clothing expression, taking off a dirty garment, throwing it away, putting on being, you’re actually falling into the new garment, literally what it’s talking about here. Put on a heart of compassion. Uh, it goes on in the second part of this. But yeah, I love that uh, image of taking off the clothing, the old man totally done away with and putting on the new the new man. That’s what it’s talking about right there in our, in our power point. Just a beautiful expression of this and all positional e That we have that relationship in Jesus Christ. Now, let’s let’s let’s go on here. So the second part of this Christian fellowship 12 through 17. But before we go there, uh, the acts the motives and the actions here. So you have in verse five immorality, impurity, passion, evil, desire, greed, uh, lie, don’t lie to one another and you have greed with its evil practices. You have the personal sin. You have the social sin, you have the feelings, you have the speech all of this, the junk. But now when you look at this list of the old man and the old man is supposed to be put off, you know, were crucified with christ were done away with look at that list. Vicki immorality, cornea impurity, Garcia, passion, pathos, evil desire. Epitome agreed xia idolatry, idolatry to anger or ye wrath, famous malice, Sakia slander of las villas femia literally blasphemy. You can do this both to God and the man abusive speech is crow is to uh lying. This is the production of this the old man, this old paleo Sandra post this old nature And here in a very practical sense, God gives us this dichotomy, huh? Isn’t this amazing? And what is the solution putting sin? The old man to death? There’s the solution right? There have anything to say about that. I believe that God had the power to nail that old nature to the cross and forgive us. And whenever lifts up its ugly head, we just remind yourself, hey, that person’s dead. I’m a new creation in christ. Therefore if anyone is in christ, he’s a new creation, Old things have passed away, New things have come. That’s right. By the way, you’ve just introduced our our word for the third chapter, which is the word new neos in time, recent hasn’t been there before and Kano’s in character totally changed in our character and here we have really the character of jesus christ. This is all the character. He’s in us now through the Holy spirit, as you said before. But go ahead and you read the I read the bad list. You you read the good list, compassion. I’ll be the Greek one. Okay, good kindness, humility to rossini gentleness, priorities, patience, macro femia. This is patience with people to have a long fuse is different than IPO money, patients with circumstances bearing with one another is a new home. Forgiving carrizo man. This is not the fee forgiveness. This is the forgiveness as a result of God’s redemptive work on the cross. It’s it flows from grace, forgiveness. This word from Harris, love, peace, thankful aristos dwell within the word in Nikko and singing and serving so like an old, you know, so you have this new person that never existed before that just recently showed up in in time And that’s the word, nails is used over here in uh, in Colossians chapter three referring to this new man that is there now, uh, it’s just uh, it’s just fabulous and we never existed before. We came to Jesus Christ in this person And then our character to now there are other verses that use this Kano’s character like second Corinthians 5 17. Therefore, if anyone is in christ, he’s a new creature. The new covenant is a which in character is different and all of these verses that deal with that aspect of the character, keano’s beautiful. And then of course we have uh let’s go on. We go to the Old Self colossians 39 B. Second Corinthians 5 17. Therefore, if any man is in christ, he’s a new creature. The old things have passed away. This is the roman 66 passage. And uh it just uh powerful to think that God has dealt with the sin nature knowing this, that our old self Palios entre post literally the old self okay, was crucified with him. So we’re not dealing with the old Self when we’re dealing with sin today because that person was crucified with christ. We’re dealing with the flesh. That’s different. That’s different than the old man or the paleo Sandra pose, you see. So the old man Lynskey writes about this. He says the old man is gone, replaced by the new man stripped off, done away with. Okay. And uh he writes the old man is not converted. He cannot be, he is not renewed. He can only be replaced by the new man. Total replacement. And the flesh includes all the sinful desires, drives and passions associated with our imaginations. So the old man is gone. What we’re dealing with today is the flesh. That’s our biggest problem romans 8 23. The presence of the unredeemed flesh causes us to groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons. The redemption of our body. Now this new man has a new identity. This is what God has done. And he also has the new icon. There are 12 characteristics in this new icon. Where’s this found in colossians? The third chapter of Colossians. The preeminence of christ How it actually is worked out in our life, how we demonstrate that he’s number one, the way we are thinking, how we by faith are positional e connected to jesus christ in his incarnation, in his holy life, in his crucifixion, in his resurrection and his ascension and his enthronement and his glorification. And now how do those thoughts impact me? Well, I’m gonna I’m gonna live a pure life. I’m gonna not be involved in the filth of the old man. The old man was crucified and now it says in verse 11 that this there’s a renewal a renewal in which there is no distinction between greek and jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, Barbarian scythian slave and Freeman. But christ is all. And in all, it’s interesting that there are no ethnic divisions. There are no religious divisions, relations. Three talks about other divisions, male or female. You know, it talks about other divisions uh, that in christ, we don’t have social divisions, we don’t have religious, uh, all of the ceremonial uh, distinctions. We don’t have the various cultures there, christ is all and then all. Look at verse 12 and so those who have been chosen of God noted the three things here, chosen of God, Holy and beloved, this is who we are now God God chose us. We’re we’re holy and beloved by God, this is such an incredible thought, put on, he says now like the clothing that you talked about, put on, uh, a heart of compassion kindness. So now we go into what this, who this new icon, this person of jesus christ is and this is what God is doing. These nine christ like attitudes, three spiritual priorities. Uh, and the attitudes are listed here in verse beginning with verse 12, compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, bearing with one another, forgiving each other. Whoever has a complaint against anyone just as the Lord forgave you. So We’re supposed to forgive other people just in the same way 70 times seven and beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. Notice the, these three phenomenal things here. The peace of christ, the word of christ and the name of christ and notice the peace of christ, okay, uh, rule in your heart, which indeed you were called in in one body. That word rule, remember what I told you about that word. Uh, he is the referee. So the peace of christ is supposed to give us insight into who’s running my life. If I don’t have any peace, if there’s always fighting and struggling and you know, uh, something’s wrong. God is blowing the whistle on me and say, hey, hey christ is not first in your life, you’re blowing it and you need to take, uh, you need to take a back seat and start thinking about, hey, wait a minute the referee, he’s the referee. So talk about that a little bit. Well he stops us, you know, when you’re doing something wrong, the ref goes, hey, you and then he tells you what the rule, the word of christ and then the next thing you have is the power of christ or the name of christ to be able to change. Uh, that’s the only way and that’s what it’s saying here. I love it, I love it. Let the word of christ rule in your heart, uh dwelling in you with all wisdom, teaching, admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and this is the key to the spiritual life. How are you gonna be able to implement the, the incarnation? How are you gonna be able to implement the resurrection, the ascension, the, the enthronement cry the reality of christ. How does it happen without this book? It’s impossible. Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. So talk about that for a little bit. The importance of the word of God and and how to implement the, and demonstrate the life of christ, the preeminence of christ in our life and how that works. It’s our daily bread, number one, how many days can you go without even a slice of daily bread, you would you become weak, but if you really don’t eat like jesus for 40 days and 40 nights. I mean it was supernatural people. I know other humans have done it, but when we don’t have that spiritual food, the encouragement, the word of God encourages us, it gives us power. You know, we have supernatural power from the word of God and it enters into this father and child relationship to me. That’s so important for all the people on the planet who haven’t had a great relationship with a father or a mother or you were adopted by somebody. And you Matthew when jesus says pray this way, our father who art in heaven and he wants us to come to him? He longs for us. I would feel terrible if my Children had a great need and they never spoke to me about it. And I found out they were destitute somewhere or something. This is what I’m asking, how do you have the preeminence of how is christ first in your life? If you don’t listen to him in prayer, if you’re not talking to him in prayer? If you’re not reading your bible to hear what he’s got to say, If you’re not sharing that with other people, how is he first? Could he be first? If you don’t ever read your bible, could he be first if you don’t ever pray or don’t ever share of your wealth or your time, your energy with others. I I think the reading of scripture for me is my daily bread and I really try to do it first before I go around and do a whole bunch of stuff because somehow it then it gets pushed to the end of the day, life is busy but we have to make our priorities. You have spiritual priorities. Yeah, those are the three spiritual priorities, the qualities of christ and then the spiritual priorities and that’s it. Until next time We’ve been looking at the theology of Chapter one and 2 and trying to apply it, here we go and how to demonstrate the preeminence of Jesus Christ. You have to be dead buried and raised again and that’s what he starts when he starts not in the beginning of when jesus was born and how he lived a sinless life and how he went and sacrificed himself on the cross for our sins, was buried and rose again from the dead and ascended back to his throne and was seated on the throne. But it starts with if you have been raised up with christ and we’re seated with him in heavenly places, our minds should be set on the things above and none of the things that are on earth because we’ve died and our life is hidden with christ in God. This is what the whole application now of this preeminence of jesus christ that he’s first in our life is all about and it starts with personal purity, how this impacts me personally. And then christian fellowship as the screen says, put off the old man and put on the new man. And then it gives us specifics like the old man with all the junk that we’ve talked about this already. The immorality, impurity, passion, evil, desire, greed, idolatry, anger, wrath, malice, slander, abusive speech, lying God has nailed all these dogmas. It says in Colossians two verse 14 and 15. All this list this this rap sheet that was against us everything we’ve done in our lifetime nailed it to the cross, jesus christ shed his blood. The lamb of God shed his blood so we could be forgiven. And he is the one that makes this real that we can die with christ on the cross. We can be buried with him by faith in him position. Aly we’re dead with him. Were buried with him and we rise with him. And then you have the benefit of of after the cross after you’ve believed after. You’ve repented after you’ve accepted him as your personal savior. Now you have the new life, this new, this new nails which never existed before, but now has the character, the new character that we can have, which is the character of jesus christ, the compassion, the kindness, the humility to pino Franzini, the gentleness, prior priorities, priorities rather the patients, the macro femia long suffering, which is the first uh adjective or definition of love, true love bearing with one another for forgiving each other beautiful work for forgive because it’s based on his shed blood. His what he did on the cross is the redemptive lamb of God. His love copy. His piece is thankful that we have now the ability of that we can be grateful and then we begin to live in the word and we start singing. These are these are results of the uh the new life and it talks about this uh there are there are this new identity what God has done and the new icon the 12 characteristics first the first nine that we just went over and then the peace of christ which is like a which is like a referee blowing the whistle uh Ravello giving us the bravo literally the you know you’re doing it the right way or not and then we we don’t have peace. So we have these beautiful attributes that can give us a sense of uh you know it’s like a thermometer or a sense of giving us a consciousness that when we’re off base or we’re doing we’re doing it the way God wants us to do it. And isn’t it wonderful that the holy spirit of God lives inside of us? It’s not just a bunch of rules externally but God lives inside of us and and as christ is formed in us as it says in colossians one that we become mature and we become more like jesus christ. And then not only the peace of christ, but how do you know whether something is right or wrong? Because we have the word of christ, The word of christ and the name and the power of jesus christ for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord. Whether you don’t know him, have never even been introduced to him, you’ve never had any real contact with him personally. That is you confess your sins, you open your heart, you ask him to forgive you. It says this in romans chapter 10 and verse eight. This is the word of faith that we’re preaching that if you confess with your mouth that jesus the man jesus is the Lord. And that if you confess that with your mouth and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved because with the mouth you confessing with the heart, you believe there is no distinction between male or female jew and greek. The same Lord is rich on to all who call upon him. And that’s the last point here in verse 19 of this chapter 17, whatever you do in word or deed, do all the name of the Lord jesus, giving thanks through him to God the father. The Lord jesus christ wants us to actually reach up and call on his name and this is a beautiful chapter of the power of peace. The power of the word of christ and the power of the name of christ and crying out to him listen the scripture and we tried to kind of compact these three words proto tacos in chapter 10 me in chapter two and and nails and Kano’s in chapter three concerning the new life that we have in christ. It never existed before and we have a new character. We just went over those characteristics of jesus christ and here’s how you can do it. You’re sitting there saying how does this happen to me? You can actually reach up by prayer into the heavens and say father God I confess with my mouth I’m a sinner, jesus, I’m asking you to forgive me and I believe that you died on the cross, you were buried and rose again. Please come in my heart and save me today. And listen, it’s a simple prayer of faith and then you begin to read the bible and God will expose it to you. The mystery of christ will become real to you and we’ll look at that next week