13 Apr Clothed in the Imperishable

Colossians 3:1-17

“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.”

Never knew the day would come where I can reference the Lord of the Rings in my sermon. But I just want to start off by saying that ‘The Lord of the Rings’ is still hands down one of the best trilogies ever.  Can I get a show of hands to see if there are any LOTR fans?  It’s just got everything to make it so awesome!  Beautiful non-CGI scenery, uplifting soundtracks and even the most epic battle scenes between the forces good and evil!  I still remember watching the movies in the cinemas.  You’d go in when it’s still daytime and then come out when it’s nighttime.  And people watched it multiple times!  Safe to say that the franchise was just a complete hit!

And the main focus of the whole epic 12 hour trilogy is on a hobbit called, Frodo and his mission to destroy an evil powerful ring at a volcano called, Mt Doom.  His mission was simple.  All he had to do was just to take the evil ring from point A to point B.  Resist the temptation to wear the ring, destroy the ring and then come home.  Simple right?  But as easy as it sounds, he underestimated the power of the ring.  The longer he carried the ring and kept it in his pocket, the harder it became for him to resist its corrupting power.  And even though he knew not to wear the ring, guess what? He caves in and wore it so many times!  At the end, he gets overtaken by the ring’s influence when he reaches Mt Doom.

As Christians, we have this same struggle with our sins every single day.  We know God hates sin.  We know to flee from sin.  We know to live a holy life.  Yet for some reason we’re still drawn towards committing sin over and over again in our lives.  I’m sure if we were to take a moment to reflect on our hearts tonight, we’ll be able to find the many instances where we’ve made numerous compromises for our sins.  Just think about it, we know not to lie, cheat, steal, gossip, curse, envy and give in to our lustful desires.  But rather than resisting and fleeing from doing such sinful things, what do we do?  We justify our actions.  We get defensive when we’re confronted.  And we push and test the boundaries just so we can get away with it.  We say, “technically… it’s not a lie”, “well… it’s not really sex”, “they’re the ones who cut me off” or “it’s only a paper bag and they make millions”.  And perhaps there’s many of you here tonight that are suffering the consequences of those sinful compromises you made.  Like Frodo, each time we give in to our sinful desires, the more corrupt our hearts become. 

So in our passage tonight, Paul tells us to wake up and get real with our sins.  We need to intentionally deal with our sins because living a sinful lifestyle is no longer in our DNA.  Like changing the clothes we wear, Paul says to put off your old self and put on the new self.  We’ll look at three things tonight, a new identity, off with the old and on with the new.

New Identity

“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.”

Paul begins the passage by also giving the Colossian church a simple mission.  They are to “seek the things that are above” and to set their “minds on the things that are above”.  And do you notice how he says “things above” twice?  If something’s mentioned more than once in the bible, it’s emphasising just how important that thing is.  So here, Paul’s saying that it’s doubly important for the church to be thinking about the “things that are above” and not to the “things that are on earth”.  But hang on a second, does that mean we don’t need to care about our lives on earth? No – that’s not what Paul is saying here.  Rather, what’s he’s telling us to do is to not be caught up with all the worldly things.  Yes, make the most of your God given talents in your workplaces, schools, homes, universities, and churches, but – and this is important – don’t be consumed by the material possessions, wealth, status, recognition, relationships and career, to the point that these matters become your ultimate gain and purpose in life.  Did you get that church? Make the most of the earthly blessings God has given you in your life, but don’t let those earthly blessings become your life.  How we see the things of this earth should pale in comparison to how we see the things that are above. 

So then what are the things above for us to seek and to set our minds upon? The things that are above are the heavenly things.  It’s to know that heaven is “where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God”.  It’s for our hearts to know that Jesus is the sovereign king of the universe and he is sitting on the throne reigning over all things.  Listen, what makes heaven, heaven, is Christ himself and we are to fix our eyes on him.  Not his blessings. But on him!

But how effective would it be if Paul just told us to do this, do that, do this, do that? It wouldn’t be very effective at all right?  I mean parents, would you say that telling your kids to do chores or homework is an easy thing to do? Of course not! Chances are you’ll get “whyyy~?” or they’ll do it, but they’ll do it reluctantly.  Because at the end of the day, it’s only natural for us to only want to do something if we have a good reason to do it.  And that’s what Paul tackles here. 

He reminds us of the single best reason why we can treasure Christ over all things in life.  And it’s because we’ve “been raised with Christ” and the life that we live now is “hidden with Christ in God”.  Meaning that when Jesus died on the cross, our old rebellious life also died with him.  And just as Jesus is alive, we are also given a new life that is unified with him in his resurrection.  Church, we have been given a completely new identity in Christ.  And this new identity enables us to not put our hope on the earthly things but on something coming that’s so much better.  And that is, one day when Christ returns in glory, we will also be glorified with him. We will be glorified with Christ! Just how awesome is that truth!?  It’s right there in verse 4 for us to see! 

When we look to Christ, we begin to see that life is no longer about me and what I can do for myself, but becomes all about who I am in Christ, and what he has done for me.  And it’s so important for us to get this, church.  Because if we don’t get it, we’ll never be able to get real with our sins.  That’s why Paul says it’s doubly important for us to continuously look to, pursue, run after and treasure Christ above all things without an end.  Because Christ is our life!   

But if we’re honest, even though this sounds like a simple thing to do.  Just how much do we fail at doing this?  We know that we have a new identity in Christ and that the worldly things no longer define us.  But can you agree that rather than looking to Christ, we still find ourselves being so consumed with the things on earth?  We get angry when we’re wronged by others, disappointed when we’re not recognised, anxious when our plans fall apart, impatient when things don’t happen in time, the list goes on and on.  But do you know why this happens? It’s because we’re still holding on to our old lives.  Well then what should we do?  

Off With the Old

“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.”

I love the fact that Paul doesn’t mince his words. He straight up directs us what to do.  And that is to “put to death therefore what is earthly in you”.  He’s not beating around the bush.  It’s a graphic depiction of what we ought to do with our sins.  We have to kill it.  There’s simply no other option.  Don’t put it in your pocket.  Don’t sweep it under the rug.  Don’t pretend like it’s not there.  Don’t even try control it.  Like our old worn out clothes, we must get rid of it. 

During the summer the NSW Fire Service imposes what’s called a total fire ban.  Meaning we’re not allowed to light any fires outside.  Not even a matchstick. Why? Because the climate is so dry that all it takes is a single spark on a hot day to start a raging bushfire that just destroys everything in its path!  And just like it, if we leave our sins unchecked, those sins can also start a devastating fire in our hearts that also destroys everything in our lives.  Jonathan Edwards says, “If sin was not restrained, it would immediately turn the soul into fiery oven, or a furnace of fire”.  In other words, if we don’t deal with our sins or take them seriously, that sin that we thought was innocent, that sin we thought was small enough, and that sin that we thought we could hide, is enough to ultimately destroy us and the people around us.  That’s why we need to be intentionally killing our sins.

So Paul then calls out the types of sins that we need to especially be watchful for.  And these are type of sins that we commit against ourselves.  In verse 5 he lists “sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry”.  How confronting is it to know that these are the types of sins that we still struggle with today?  Just like the Roman Greek culture of the Colossian church, our culture also tells us to just follow your heart and indulge in whatever it desires.  It says that it’s okay to engage in sex outside of marriage.  That the right amount of porn isn’t that bad because it makes you feel good.  Like the slogan of the dating service Ashley Madison says – Life is short, Have an affair.  It’s okay, just claim more for yourself on your tax return.  It’s okay just tweak the numbers a little so it balances out.  It’s okay as long as no one knows about it.  And while Paul can’t list out every single sin, we need to especially be on guard for these types of pervasive sins.  Because these types of sins are those done in secret.  We simply don’t want anyone to find out.  And because no one knows about it, we’ll be even more vulnerable to keep doing them. 

And can you also see how easy it is for our sin to grow?  Paul first calls out the action – what we see on the surface – sexual immorality.  Then he zooms back to where it all begins, our hearts.  What ultimately leads us to commit sins begins first with idolatry in our hearts.  There’s first a thought of self-gratification “I want this, I want that”, then that thought festers and grows into a strong desire and passion, then it grows some more until it tips us over the edge and makes us commit immoral acts.  It’s an out of control spiral. 

And it doesn’t stop with us.  Paul then moves on to the next list of sins in verse 8 anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk, and lying.  If the first set of sins corrupt us internally, this next list corrupts us externally in how we relate to one another.  How can we say that we cultivate relationships within our family, our church, or in our MCs if we leave our anger and hatred towards one another just bubble away in our hearts? You can’t!  Church if we don’t address the sin that begins in our hearts, that single spark of temptation, jealousy, or impatience is enough to not only destroy us but also everyone else around us.  And there is a very clear warning for those who practice such things, “On account of these the wrath of God is coming”.  So this is something we shouldn’t take lightly.

But let’s pause for a second and reflect on how we’re responding to what Paul is saying.  Because by default our response will either be, “okay, as long as I don’t do these sins, I’m good!” or “well I’m screwed, no matter how hard I try I keep doing these sins”.  Which one are you?  Church here’s the wake-up call.  Killing your sins never starts with you.  Because you’ll never ever be able to kill your sins by your own strength.  It doesn’t matter how much effort or willpower you exert to stop sinning, you will always fail.  You may have started to take pieces of your dirty clothes off, but you’ll find yourself putting them on again. 

Well then is there anything we can do?  Paul says yes, by remembering “that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self”.  Church, how we begin to kill our sins is not by looking to ourselves, but it’s only by looking to Jesus.  Because when we gaze upon Jesus, we are reminded of the new life that we have been given and the price he paid so that we can have that new life.  The Gospel is the only thing that enables us to naturally put away our old, ragged clothes that are no longer suitable for us anymore.    

For anyone who’s gone on summer camp, you’d know that ‘icky’ feeling after camp when you’ve worn the same clothes for days right? You feel sweaty, oily and gross.  But now imagine you’re stuck wearing the same clothes for months and no matter what you do, you have no way of getting new clothes.  Noone wants to do anything with you.  You’re just unpleasant to be around.  Your clothes are faded, stained, ripped, and just smell so bad.  But then someone comes along and gives you brand-new clothes for free.  And these clothes fit you perfectly, ironed and smell like Cuddly softener.  I’m sure you’d change into them ASAP!  This is the picture of what Jesus has done for us in our lives.  Jesus is that someone who gave us brand-new clothes to wear.  And if you’re wearing these new clean clothes, would you ever want to put on your old, smelly ragged clothes again? No way!  We’d throw them out.  See when we are captivated by Jesus and remember what he’s done for us, Paul says our hearts are “being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator”.  Meaning we can’t help but to put off our old sinful lives and just want to be more like Jesus in all that we think and do.  That’s how we kill our sin.  John Piper says, “the deepest cure for lust is to be intellectually and emotionally staggered by God”.  Church, the more we see Jesus as beautiful, the more we see our sins as ugly.  The more we love Jesus, the more we hate our sins and can’t bear even the thought of doing them.  So tonight ask yourself, do I see Jesus as beautiful? Am I intellectually and emotionally staggered by God?  Can I genuinely say that I’m disgusted when I see my sin? My prayer is that we all have the right responses tonight. 

But here’s what also we need to know.  Being able to put off our old self and kill our sins is only half the picture.  Let’s see what else happens when we put on our brand-new clothes. 

On With the New

“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.”

If Paul previously told us to put away, put off and refrain from doing certain things, he now tells us what we should be doing.  And that is to put on the brand-new clothes Jesus gave us.  And church, the amazing thing about these clothes is that they’re not just any ordinary clothes.  But these are clothes given to those who bear the titles “God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved”.  And Paul says, you and I have these titles.  This is huge and life changing in itself! Because do you know who else was given these titles in the bible?  The nation of Israel.  Deuteronomy 6:6-7 “6For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. 7 It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples”.  See what made Israel holy, chosen and loved by God was not because they were some powerful thriving nation. They were in fact the opposite.  Weak and without any land.  So what made Israel holy, chosen and loved is solely because of who God is in His sovereign goodness.  And like Israel, we are also chosen by God not because of how good we are, but it’s only because God in His sovereign mercy and grace chose you and I to be His people that He loves.  Church if we know this, then we can find the confidence that what propels us to put on our new clothes and do what we are called to do as God’s people, is not dependent on how well we can perform.  Nor is it dependent on how good we are, or how many times we can do the right things. No. But it’s in every way only made possible by God.  Isn’t this just so comforting to know?  

And as God’s people our brand-new clothes allow us to also reflect His character.  Our lives begin to show “compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience” even in the situations we find very hard to do so.  Can you think of anyone you find challenging to deal with?  Growing up I had a relationship that really tested the boundaries, you guessed it …a sibling relationship.  I mean over the course of 30 years whenever my brother didn’t return a favour, help me out, apologise for the infinite things he did wrong or fix a broken promise, what he got from me wasn’t patience and kindness, but World War 3.  How I responded to my brother was solely dependent on his actions towards to me.  It’s a conditional response.  But isn’t this true for most of our relationships today? We’ll only really show compassion, kindness, humility, and patience when it’s only convenient for us or if we’ll get some sort of benefit in return right?  Otherwise we won’t do it.  Church if we truly say that we’re God’s people, then we need to know that there’s to be no room for this sort of response in our lives, especially in this church. 

The church is a very messy place and requires us to be even more compassionate, kind and patient with each other. If you don’t think so, you just haven’t been here long enough.  Because if I just make up 1 sinner here, then ROCK Sydney is home to many sinners.  We’ll be disappointed, annoyed and betrayed over and over again by the people sitting next to us.  I’m sure we’ve all experienced this disappointment before.  Yet Paul calls us to do what in verse 13? Bear with one another, he says “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”.  Meaning despite the inconvenience or that we’ll getting absolutely nothing in return, we’re called to persevere in the bearing and forgiving of our brothers and sisters.  And not only that, like a belt that holds all the pieces of clothing together, Paul says we are to do all these things in what? In love.  Because without love at its core, our actions and words would just be empty and meaningless.  But why is it that we can bear, forgive, and love one another this way? It’s because you and I have experienced this firsthand on a personal level with Jesus.  Even though we’re undeserving and could bring nothing to the table, Jesus continues to love us unconditionally.  When we repeatedly fail, he doesn’t abandon us.  When we find ourselves having sinned countlessly, we find forgiveness.  And so having experienced Jesus’ unconditional love ourselves, we can now also unconditionally love our brothers and sisters without an end.  

And I love how Paul ends with, “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”.  He gives us a beautiful picture of a unified church.  Do you know what happens when we put on our new clothes and reflect God’s character to our brothers and sisters? The church gathers, grows, serves, disciples, and worships together in perfect harmony.  Don’t we want this for our church today?  Paul says in verse 11 “Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all”.  Rather than segregation and division between the young and old, new and mature Christians, rich and poor, morning and afternoon service, single and married, Australian and Indonesian, there is instead unity within the body of the church.  Because what ultimately unifies the church with all its differences and all its shortcomings is not you, me, leaders or our pastors, but Christ himself.  For “Christ is all, and in all”.  This is what it means to “let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts”.  Not just any peace when there’s no conflict, but it’s to let peace itself, Jesus, be the centre of all that we say and do.  Dear brothers and sisters, have we let that peace govern our hearts and our church today?  

To close I just want to say it then doesn’t mean that as Christians we’ll never sin again.  The truth is for so long as we still live on this earth, we’ll still be tempted and prone to committing sin either in our thoughts or by our actions.  But the good news is, unlike our old dirty clothes, the clothes Jesus gives us will never get dirty nor be ruined by sin.  They are imperishable clothes.  How is this possible?  Because the clothes we have put on upon our lives are Jesus’ clothes.  You see when we took off our old dirty clothes, they weren’t just thrown into the bin and forgotten.  Oh no my friend, the price of sin still had to be paid.  Meaning someone had to wear those wretched clothes and be accountable before God.  And that’s what Jesus did.  We can now put on Jesus’ righteous clean clothes because he has put on our sinful dirty clothes.  We are chosen, holy and beloved by God, because Jesus who was the chosen, holy, and beloved Son of God took our place of abandonment. And just as our dirty clothes were stained and torn, so too was his body bloodied and broken when he was nailed to the cross in all pain and agony.  But not only that, for it was also upon the cross that Jesus experienced the sheer brunt of God’s eternal wrath for our sins.  This was the condemnation that you and I deserved but will now never get.  Spurgeon says it’s like Jesus saying this to you, “There, poor sinner, take my garment, and put it on; you shall stand before God as if you were Christ, and I will stand before God as if I had been the sinner; I will suffer in the sinner’s stead, and you shall be rewarded for works that you did not do, but which I did for you”.  Church this beautiful exchange is our guarantee that we are kept secure “hidden with Christ in God”, and nothing can change that. 

We can now confidently strive to do the heavenly things, put to death our sins, and reflect Christ in all our relationships even though we’re still far from perfect, and even when we’ll fail time and time again.  Why? Because when God sees us, He doesn’t see our sin, performance, family history, background, achievements, or failures.  But He sees His son who has covered us with his perfect righteousness. 

Let’s pray.

Discussion questions: