LANGUAGE:
Living The Resurrection Life
(Colossians 3:1-10)
We are one week out from Resurrection Sunday . . . how’s resurrected living working out for you? Are you living in despair like the two Emmaus disciples in Luke 24? I paraphrase . . . hoping that Jesus would revolutionize their circumstances, yet despair hung like a storm cloud over their heads. And here we are a week out, how’s the resurrected life working out for you?
These Emmaus guys were in a whirlwind of disappointment despite hearing a couple of lady’s report that the tomb was empty and that they had seen Jesus. But there emotional pain blinded them the reports. Listen carefully . . . like the Emmaus disciples our emotional struggles can blind us to the unleashing of the hope of resurrected power. Lose of hope can overpower the unexpected. And so I ask again, how’s resurrected living working out for you?
In John 11, standing outside out a dead man’s tomb, Martha says to Jesus, if you had been here, my brother would not have died!. Jesus makes this powerful response:
Let’s pray: Heavenly Father, As we turn to Your holy Word, may the Holy Spirit open our minds and help us get a grip on living life under the power of the resurrection. We need You and thank You for the promise of Your help. And we pray this in the name of Jesus, our Lord and Savior. Amen.
As followers of Jesus, because we are untied to Christ’s resurrection, I want to talk to us about what resurrected living looks like.
When Jesus said to Martha outside her brother Lazarus’ tomb, I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die . . . I think the majority of us think like Martha, that the “resurrection is an end of days issues” . . . like after burial or cremation … and that is true, but that’s not the primary emphases of the kind of thinking Jesus wants us to have in our minds when it comes to resurrection.[i] But the Bible tells us that the resurrection of Jesus isn't just something that happens after we die. It is designed to impact how we actually live between the NOW, and the THEN.
Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is meant to make alive what has been dead because of our trespasses and sins; … a release from being captive to the course of this world, and the power of Satan, … a release from the lusts of the flesh, the desires of the mind, and living under the wrath of God in the present and His wrath to come (Ephesians 2:1-3; John 3:36; Romans 5:9).
Because the Bible calls for us to live out the resurrection of Jesus, I raise the question for us, just what does “living the Resurrection” look like today in the midst of a freakish, fearful and frustrating time like none of us have ever experienced before? If you are like me, I want to know what living a resurrected life looks like in the NOW.
I believe God’s Word speaks directly to us as to what resurrection living looks like! The Easter story is meant to speak living hope into us right where we find ourselves today in the midst of pandemics, inflation, shortages, car jacking’s, shootings and war time fever. The resurrected life is meant to set us free from sin and shame of the past; from fear, worry, and anxiety in the present.
The reason why many of us do not experience the resurrection living is because, though being a follower of Christ, we have surrendered to ongoing sinful behavior, disobedience, selfishness and the pressures of the world which operates according to the will of Satan. I love the way Pastor Greg Allen ties the resurrection of Jesus to the NOW of our daily living. … He writes:
Jesus’ resurrection is a life-changing, transforming, soul-saving, historic event that should be experienced by us every moment of every day for the rest of our lives—and then, forever in heaven![ii]
For our focus this morning, turn with me to the letter of Colossians, chap 3, vs1-4. … Here we are told how the resurrection of Jesus is meant to be played out in the NOW of living. …
As we begin, I want us to notice how v1 begins, Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ. … When we acknowledge our sinfulness, confess Jesus as Lord, and believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead (Romans 10:9-11), as Christ was raised physically from death, so we in faith are raised from spiritual death. …
In Romans 6:5–6 (NASB95) we are told that when we accept Christ as our Lord 5we become united with Christ in His death . . . and in His resurrection . . . …
By virtue of faith in Christ, we die to sin and to the world’s way of thinking and doing.[iii] … So Paul tells us in Galatians 2:20 (NASB95)“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. …
The point is, in order for us to have a resurrected life, it begins when we acknowledge that we are spiritually dead in sin in the NOW. … Without that moment, there is NO resurrection life. … Resurrection living begins by acknowledging our spiritual death. …
Now beginning in v1 Paul lays out for us three characteristics of a resurrected life …
A. First, The Resurrection of Jesus brings a new focus to our minds (v1) …
V1, Since you have been raised up with Christ, here’s the first character trait of a resurrected life … keep seeking
the things above, where Christ is, seated at the
right hand of God. …
The resurrected life brings a new focus to our minds … instead of the world around us and our self-centered-ness, we now keep seeking the things above. …
In Matthew 6:33 Jesus said, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. … That is, put the Kingdom of God and His righteousness as the main focus of your life.
The word seek has a powerful bent. … It has the idea of pursuing with deep intentionality. … It’s the idea striving hard after Christ; … it’s the idea of making our attitudes, ambitions; our whole outlook on life as being molded by our relationship with Christ, … that our allegiances to Him takes precedence over all earthly and selfish allegiances.[iv] …
This means that I love Him more than my wife, my husband, my children, my job, my career, my possessions; … in fact I love Him more than my life itself. …
So we’re told here in Colossians 3 that resurrected living seeks our intentionally the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. … To be "in Christ" is to become something we were not before. … Our identity changes from being the fallen version of ourselves, to being associated with the righteousness of Christ. That's who we are to be in the NOW. …
Living the resurrected life is to be intentional in our pursuit after the Christ; we chase after; we track down Christ who is seated at the right hand of God. … We seize them; we hold onto them, we fix our gaze on them; we dig into them; we seek to understand them. … we taste them; we savor them; we treasure them with all of our heart.[v] … As Jesus said, For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (Matthew 6:21) …
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Because Christ dwells in the lofty of places, at the right hand of God . . . we are called to get our thoughts out of the manure gutter; … our thoughts are to be consumed with a desire to know God and to please Him with our lives. …
B. Second, the resurrection life brings a new frame work of thought, v2. That is we think different from our past and our present world. …
V2, Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. … We don’t use the world as our criteria for problem solving. The resurrection life gives us a new intentionality. … The world we live in is not meant to be our center. …
The phrase set your mind on the things above is equivalent to Philippians 2:5, Have this mind in yourselves which was in Christ Jesus. …
Paul is saying, “We are to be shaped in our way of thinking, our emotional life, our pattern of attitudes and responses, our preferences in people and entertainment and clothes and jobs and leisure … our hearts and minds are to be shaped by the realities of God and Christ, where our true life is hidden with Christ in God, our death behind us, and the spectacular public appearance of Christ is before us, looking forward to the time of our appearing with Him in glory.”[vi] …
The point is, in resurrected living we are being shaped and governed by the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. …
To set our minds on the things above is a call for regular interaction and meditation on the Word of God.[vii] … This is not a passive pursuit. We are called to seek it out, to set our minds on. If we don’t set on our minds, we will never have it. … V16, Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. …
C. Third, because of Jesus’ resurrection we are given a new life (vs3-4) …
Vs3-4, 3For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. … 4When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. …
Romans 6:5–6 (NASB95) 5For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, … 6knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; …
As stated in Romans 6, because by our faith in Christ we have died and were buried with Him, we are to break from the things being hammered at us by the ‘woke culture’ forces. Remember the course of this world is driven by Satan. …
Living a resurrection life means to live a life that is renewed in terms of how we live in the present and of our hopes for the future. … Living in the light of the resurrection of Jesus gives us the brightest and happiest prospect of hope anyone can have.[viii] …
1. I want us to notice that Paul makes it clear that before we can experience resurrection living, death comes first—you have died in Christ. … As Christ died to the things of this world, we are to see ourselves as having died with Him. …
Our battle cry is I have been crucified with Christ (Galatians 2:20). … The sinful pleasures and fleshly enticements of this world are no longer to grip our thoughts, eyes, ears, and mind. … We are to understand that we have “died” to the past. … Jesus told His disciples in John 12:25, whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. … 2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” …
2. Second, I want us to notice that when we die in faith our life (becomes) hidden with Christ in God. … That’s why your non-Christian friends don’t understand us. … And may I add, that is why there are times we don’t understand yourself. …
And because Christ dwells in the heavenlies, at the right hand of God, that is where all followers of Christ live now in the present. … Because we are united with Christ in death, burial, and resurrection, and now in life, we are seated with Christ in the heavenlies. … Hidden with Christ in God means we are secure, and unable to be touched by anyone.[ix] …
3. Notice V4 Christ is now our life. … In faith our life is not shared with Christ, but He is now my life. …
John 5:24 (NASB95) whoever hears the word of Christ, and believes Him who sent Him, has eternal life and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. …
4When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. … There is coming a day when we who are hidden in Christ will be fully realized as He is realized. … 1 John 3:3 (NASB95) And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
When Christ returns, revealed in His full glory, we also will be revealed in glory with Him. …
III. TRUTHS THAT SHAPE OUR LIVES
That brings us to Paul’s description of what living the resurrected life means in real time. …
Vs5-95Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. …
6For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience, … 7and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them. … 8But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. … 9Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices,
Living a resurrected life means leaving your past dead and buried and living a new life in Jesus without turning back. … He has set us free from our sins and given us a new identity in Him. … When we choose to follow Him, we are promised victory over sin and death. …
Jesus is calling us to break away from our trespass and sins, leave it all behind us; far behind us! … That would include such things as old relationships, old habits, old mindsets, or even your old life. …
I close with 6 resurrected living life principles: …
1. First, the resurrection living is characterized by cutting away the deadness that once was very much part of us … things such as immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, greed, anger, wrath, meanness, slander, abusive speech, and lying. …
2. Second, the resurrected living is characterized by making Christ your center. …
In Luke 14:25-26 Jesus said to the multitudes, “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.” …
We must never let anything, even close family ties, prevent us from taking a clear stand for Christ. … We dare not disown Christ, nor disobey Him, even if we experience opposition from family. … There’s a chorus we use to sing that goes like this …
Jesus, be the centre
Be my source, be my light
Be my hope, be my song …
Be the fire in my heart
Be the wind in these sails …
Be the reason that I live
Jesus, Jesus[x] …
3. Third, resurrection living is characterized by, in Jesus words, a denial of ourselves, and taking up the cross of Jesus daily and following Him (Matthew 16:24-25)…
To “deny self” is to completely disown the rebellious self which lies at the center of each of our hearts, seeking after its own glory—we must intentionally root it out. …
4. Fourth, resurrection living is characterized by immersing our minds and lives into God’s Word. …
Jesus said it this way in John 8:31–32 (NASB95) 31 “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; … 32and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” … Hebrews 4:12 (NASB95) For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. …
5. Fifth, resurrection living is characterized by living in conjunction with the heavenly reign of Christ …
2 Corinthians 5:14–15 (NASB95) 14For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; … 15and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf. …
Philippians 3:20–21 (NASB95)20For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; … 21who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.
From Charles Spurgeon said, "If our citizenship be in heaven, then we are aliens here; we are strangers and foreigners, pilgrims and sojourners in the earth.[xi] …
Citizens adopt the culture and practices of the nation or kingdom to which they belong. … Every human being is born into the kingdom of this world, in which Satan rules (2 Corinthians 4:4). … Consequently, we grow up adopting the culture, practices, and values that he instigates. … But our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; …
6. Sixth resurrection living is characterized by being an ambassador for reconciliation. …
2 Corinthians 5:18–20 (NASB95) 18Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, … 19namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. … 20Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. …
The main mission or objective of living the resurrected life is to serve as an ambassador of reconciliation by proclaiming that peace with God can be had by faith alone in Christ Jesus. …
1 Peter 3:15, “In your hearts revere Christ as Lord, And always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” …
To “always be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have” … presupposes a resurrected life living out hope in Christ which is visible to others. … When unbelievers see a genuine resurrected life being lived, they will want to know the reason for that hope.[xii] …
As a Follower of Jesus I think everyone of us should have at our front doors—An Amabassador of Christ, the King of Glory, lives here. …
Let’s pray . . . –
God our Father, thank for the words You have given to us that the resurrected life is not exclusively meant for the by-and-by, but for the here and now. That You have laid out for us clearly what living the resurrected life in the here and now looks like. That as we come to the Bible, for us to experience the power of the resurrection, it begins with our coming to terms with our spiritual death.
And so Paul testifies to us, “I have been crucified with Christ; and yet it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me (Galatians 2:20 (NASB95)).
Grant that we respond accordingly, that we might not experience God’s coming wrath, but the grace of our Lord. And that we cling to God’s promise when we confess our sins. For He is faithful and just to forgive our sins on account of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). And in so doing given us the power to live in the here and now the resurrected life.
Amen
[i] Eugene Peterson, Living The Resurrection, Nave Press, 2006
[ii]Greg Allen, Living the Resurrection Life (Colossians 3:1-4) https://bethanybible.org/new/bible-study/am/2013-04-10/living-the-resurrection-life-%E2%80%93-colossians-31-4
[iii] Curtis Vaughan, “Colossians,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Ephesians through Philemon, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 11 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1981), 209.
[iv] Ibid.
[v] John Piper, Seek The Things That Are Above (Colossians 3:1-4), https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/seek-the-things-that-are-above
[vi] Ibid
[vii] Psalm 1 (NASB95)1How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers! 2But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night. 3He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers. 4The wicked are not so, But they are like chaff which the wind drives away. 5Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. 6For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, But the way of the wicked will perish. Philippians 4:8–9 (NASB95) 8Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. 9The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
[viii] Greg Allen, Living the Resurrection Life (Colossians 3:1-4) https://bethanybible.org/new/bible-study/am/2013-04-10/living-the-resurrection-life-%E2%80%93-colossians-31-4
[ix] Peter T. O’Brien, Colossians, Philemon, vol. 44, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1982), 166.
[x] Be The Centre, https://www.allthelyrics.com/lyrics/vineyard/be_the_centre-lyrics-1120988.html
[xi] Dawn Hill, What Does It Mean That Our Citizenship Is in Heaven? https://www.christianity.com/wiki/heaven-and-hell/what-does-it-mean-that-our-citizenship-is-in-heaven.html
[xii] Matthew 5:16 (NASB95) 16“Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.