Live Like God's Beloved

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Steven Lee
Pastor for Preaching & Vision

0:12Well, it's good to be together. And before we open God's word, I just wanna say a special thank you to all those who faithfully preached God's word. In my absence, we have a deep bench of gifted expositors, and for that, I am very grateful. Amen. Join me as we pray and as we open God's word, father in heaven, open our eyes so that we would see what we need to see this morning from your word for our good. Speak by the power of your spirit so that we would hear the very voice of God in this text and be changed and transformed into the likeness of Jesus. Do that for the good of your church, for our joy and for your glory, we pray in Christ's name.

1:16Amen. During my sabbatical, we drove a fair bit about 7,000 miles of driving. That's a lot. And during our road trips, I always wanted to make good time. Some of you dads know what I'm talking about. It is one of those little mental games that I would do. I can't help it, but you know, it'd be like we're driving to Lincoln, Nebraska, put it into the phone and it says, we'll be there in seven hours. You know, arrival time, we'll be 6:00 PM And I tell the kids, we're getting there before 6:00 PM That means when we stop for breaks, you gotta go to the bathroom. We go to the closest gas station off the freeway exit, even if it's a little bit more expensive, we're eating lunch on the road and we're not getting stuck behind any trucks if we can help it. And now, by the way, I'm not encouraging speeding.

2:12If you get a ticket, don't blame me. But why do I do this? It comes rather naturally. It, it comes kind of second nature because I, I, I like to think of myself as an efficient person and, and I like to make good time. And so if the G P Ss says we're gonna get there at six, getting there at 5 55 is better. My identity, my beliefs, my values, my priorities inform how I live. All of us operate out of our identity, even at a subconscious level. And this is precisely what Paul has in view in our text this morning, last week, pastor Ben helped us see that we're to put off sin because that's no longer who we are.

3:01But instead we're to put on Christ because that's who we are now. We've died with Christ, we've been raised with Christ, we've been seated with Christ, we're to walk in Christ. Now this morning, you saw at the beginning there of verse 12 we're to put on, as opposed to the putting off these positive and godly attributes and characteristics that are appropriate for the people of God, he gives us these diverse set of commands that flow out of our new identity that is in Christ. He wants us at a subconscious level and a very conscious level to see our primary identity as being in Christ, because then we'll operate out of that. And, and here he's helping us to do that. Now, why does this matter for us this morning as truth matters for us, uh, because of this, I, I want to illustrate why. A couple weeks ago, there was a congresswoman from South Carolina who made a joke at a prayer breakfast that she turned down intimate relations with her fiance that morning in order to get to the prayer gathering on time.

4:11And if you're a Bible believing, Christian, we know that fornication, marital intimacy outside of marriage is not a, a joking matter, but rather it's a sin, a, a repenting matter. And in response to this kind of the little uproar that came out of that, she tweeted this, or now that it's x I don't know what you say, she xed this or whatever it may be. Uh, she said, I go to church because I'm a sinner and not a saint.

4:42Is she right? I would say yes and no. Yes, Colossians three, seven in these you two once walked. We were all sinners. We all are sinners at one level or another. And yet, if you're in Christ, you are being conformed to the image of Jesus. You are being transformed by Christ. And so what what this sermon aims to do is answer the question, should you think of yourself primarily as a sinner or as a saint this morning? Should you primarily see yourself as a sinner or as a saint? And this is a huge battleground for us in our culture today. Many define themselves. They give themselves a self-perceived identity, and then they conform their world to match that identity.

5:37And instead, God's word tells us who we are. So open your Bibles with me two, Colossians three. We're gonna look at 12 to 17. And let me just tell us where we're going first, we're gonna look at the six imperatives, six commands that come out of this passage. So that's the what must we do. Then we're gonna look, how does Christ enable us to do this? And then third, a, a real brief section, we're gonna talk about how do we now live, how, how do we apply this truth that we get this morning? So look with me, Colossians three, 12 to 17, here we get six imperatives. He's called us to flee from false teaching to, to put on the mind of Christ because we are in Christ.

6:21And so if you're a kid here this morning, I want you to draw a picture of a person on your page, and then you're gonna put clothes on this person, and you're gonna label those clothes with the things that you see in verse 12. Alright, verse 12, first imperative put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, these five things, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. So this is contrasted with the putting off of the old self that we saw in chapter three verse nine. And we're to put on these five virtues, which is contrasted with the vices that we saw earlier in verse eight.

7:02You see that anger and wrath and malice and slander and obscene talk. So basically don't do these things that tear apart the church. If you slander one another, you're gonna tear apart the church. Instead put, put on these other things like humility and gentleness. Now, let, let's look at each of these five things. The first one is compassionate hearts. Some of you grew up reading the King James version where it said the bowels of mercy. Other translations say compassion or heart of mercy, or tender hearted mercy. It's the same two words that are used in Philippians two, one that are translated affection and sympathy.

7:41So the idea here is that believers are to have a disposition of mercy and compassion towards one another. When you interact with a fellow believer, you should not be hardhearted or primarily suspicious or harsh, but were to be kind and compassionate. Kindness leads to our second one. Here we see kindness, very straightforward. Ephesians two, seven says that we've received the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness in Christ Jesus. So it's not just be Minnesota nice, but rather it's to put on the very kindness that characterizes the kindness of God towards his people. Don't be harsh or calloused or cruel.

8:32The third thing we see is humility. This idea of putting others first, like being a servant. It's the disposition of submission like Jesus in Philippians two, eight, Jesus humbled himself to the Father, even to death on a cross. And so this idea of do we look to the interests of others? Is there a genuine concern for what others are experiencing? The fourth thing that's listed is meekness, or it's translated in most major translations as gentleness. This is the same word that's used in the list in Galatians five as the fruits of the spirit that's translated gentleness. And also it's one of the elder qualifications, two Timothy 2 25.

9:19So we're to be gentle and kind towards one another. And then the fifth is patience. This idea and quality of being steadfast and enduring difficulty, it describes God's disposition towards sinners. He's not impatient, but he's patient and long suffering with those who continue to fall short. So these five things, uh, I can summarize as Christ-like attitudes and dispositions, and we're to embody these in our interactions with others. Why? Because we have been on the receiving end of Jesus compassion, Jesus gentleness Jesus kindness and humility and patience. Now, this command is followed in verse 13 with two participial phrases.

10:09So look with me at verse 13, it 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. So these two phrases put kind of flesh on the bone of what he's just commanded. He wants you to put on these Christ-like attitudes. Well, how do I do that? Well, here you go. You're, you're to bear with one another and you're to forgive each other. So he's saying, this is how we do that. How how do you become more gentle? Well, well, you forgive and, and you overlook offenses. Here's where the rubber meets the road.

10:48The hard work of building a harmonious and loving community is when we have to do this hard work. I I I think of it like this. You know, all of this sounds great until we actually have to put it into action. It's like when, when I see pictures of people who exercise a lot, you know, and they got a nice six pack, and I think that would be really nice to have that. And then I think, oh, wait to get that, I gotta cut down my body fat and, and basically not eat. And I think, eh, I like eating. I'll pass on that. Right? And some of us think that way. We would really like a community characterized by compassion and gentleness and kindness and humility. I wish people would be more of that way, but I don't want to be that way when I have to forgive someone who hurts me.

11:34And when someone harms me, and when someone sins against me, this is where the rubber meets the road. Paul is saying, were to put on these Christ-like attitudes and this is how we do it. And, and do you see why? It's because as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Jesus knows this is difficult. He told a whole parable in Matthew 18 specifically about this very idea. Do you remember the one about the king and and his servant, right? A servant comes, he owes this immeasurable large debt, and, and he cries out for compassion and for mercy. And he says, please forgive me. Don't throw me in jail. I have a family to feed and, and children.

12:18And the king looks and has such compassion on him, overwhelmed. And he says, okay, not only will I not throw you in jail, I'm gonna forgive the entire debt. I'm just gonna forgive it all together. And, and then he goes out and he sees another servant that owes him money, just a little tiny sum. And he gets him thrown in jail. And, and Jesus tells the story, the king comes to that servant and questions him. Why didn't you show mercy? In the same way that you received mercy, you had such a huge debt, forgiven and paid for, why didn't you show that to someone else? Our ability to forgive is rooted in having received God, God's forgiveness.

13:05This is the challenge for us this morning to put on these things the second imperative. So the first one is put on these Christ-like attitudes. The second imperative comes in verse 14 and above, all these put on love, which binds everything together, imperfect harmony. There's no verb in this verse in the Greek. And so there's suppli it, the the same verb from verse 12. And so above all is this idea of, uh, more important or, or kind of to bring it all together. This idea of maybe it's like the jacket or the belt that binds everything together with the metaphor of putting on these clothes is love.

13:42Love is the essential ingredient that brings it all together. This is what is commanded of the very people of God. It's what brings all these little different pieces of forgiving and bearing and kindness brings it all together. It's like if you baked croissants or pie crust without butter, what would that look like? What would that turn out to be like? You need the butter to kind of bring it all together to bind it together. In one Corinthians 13, Paul says, if he can do all sorts of things like know all mysteries and speak in the tongues of angels, but have not love, it's useless. And so love must be the underlying motive for what we do. So, so Paul is giving us these really important commands.

14:33Here's the third one in verse 15, to let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body. So now we see a little bit of a metaphor change. It's no longer putting on, like putting on clothing, but rather it's this idea of the peace of Christ that rules in our hearts. So it's like the idea of a umpire or a referee or the peace of Christ as the pilot in the cockpit or the driver's seat of our life. The peace of Christ is the primary decisive factor that determines how we interact with others. So kids, if you're keeping up, draw a heart and you can write the peace of Christ inside.

15:18This idea is that the peace that we have experienced with God, which Paul writes about in Colossians one 20, we've, he's reconciled to himself all things making peace by the blood of his cross. This very peace that we've been reconciled with the Father through Jesus' work now enables us to relate to others and to make all of our decisions based out of peace. This reconciliation rather out of fear and anxiety. How many of us go throughout our day and we make various decisions, we say various things. We we do various things out of fear. Fear of the future, fear of what if? What if I don't take care of myself?

16:01Who else is gonna look out for me, fear, anxiety, anxious of what's going to happen? And he says, let the peace of Christ control you. The fourth imperative is be thankful, almost feels out of place and unexpected. Very simple, very short. It's been a reoccurring theme throughout Colossians. We see it chapter one, verse 12, giving thanks to the Father, chapter two, verse seven, abounding in Thanksgiving. We see it in chapter three. Twice we see it in chapter four. Paul has in view that if we're thankful for what we have, we'll be less likely to grumble about what we don't. That is to characterize the very people of God.

16:41We're thankful for new life and forgiveness of sins and God's immeasurable kindness to us in Christ. We're less likely to grumble about how someone harmed us or hurt us. The fifth imperative is in verse 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. So this is a slightly complex sentence here. Uh, the idea here now is the word of Christ. So the message of Christ, the message of the gospel that reveals Christ is to dwell in our hearts, to dwell inside of us. This means that God's word is to be at the center of who we are and all that we do.

17:31This is why we spend 30, 40, 50 minutes on a given Sunday hearing the scriptures read and hearing God's word preached it's del richly in us, not superficially. Now, this command of letting the word of Christ dwell in you richly is followed by three les teaching admonishing and singing. And so these are the ways in which this is to happen. And, and one, one of the critical questions is, does Psalms hymns and spiritual songs only refer to singing? Or does it refer to teaching and admonishing as well? Are we to do teaching admonishing and then singing Psalm hymns and spiritual songs? Or are we supposed to teach and admonish and sing these things?

18:18I i think it's the latter. Here's how the n I v translates. I think it's a good translation. It says, let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the spirit singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. This is very similar to the construction we find in Ephesians five. Be filled with the spirit. Ephesians five 18 and 19 be filled with the spirit addressing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart. I think what Paul is saying here is that our musical worship psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, that has a critical effect in teaching us what to believe in correcting bad theology. When, when, when you're on your deathbed, what you sing will be what you believe.

19:22I I went back and found a stash of my old CDs when I was a kid, and there's this one secular pop music CD that I won't tell you who, uh, I popped it into the CD player and I was listening to it and I was like, oh, this is terrible. Like the lyrics were terrible. It was all about like, I won't tell you, but it it, it was just like, oh, but guess what that was teaching me about life and theology. And that's what Paul is saying here. The songs that we sing, the lyrics that we sing that's teaching and admonishing and instructing. Now, are, are these these three things, Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, are they the same thing or is it three different things?

20:07I think Psalms refers to the Old Testament Psalms. The word hymn probably refers to written lyrics in praise of God set to music. And then spiritual song could refer to kind of these spontaneous compositions that are prompted by the spirit. And so I don't think it's necessarily three super distinct things, but things that have some overlap. The point here, the main emphasis here is that God's word is essential for the gathered church, both in our singing and in our life together. So teaching admonishing is certainly done by elders within the church. It's one of the elder qualifications be able to teach.

20:48And yet the whole church is to do this to mutually edify and encourage and admonish and to instruct one another through the very things that we say and speak and sing. And now here comes the final imperative, the sixth imperative we see in verse 17, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus. 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. So word or deeded things you say, things you do, and then everything done in the name of the Lord Jesus. So it doesn't mean that Jesus is a magic incantation we throw out whenever we do something. So, so what does it mean then? Well, when you're baptized in Jesus' name, what does that mean?

21:37It means you're coming under the lordship of Jesus. You're saying, I've died to myself. I'm being raised with Christ, and now I'm going to obey all of his teaching. You're coming under the Lordship of Christ. Or if you pray in Jesus' name, which most of us do, what does that mean? It means we're we're approaching the Father in prayer through the work of the Son and by faith in him, right? And, and so here, when he says, do all in the name of Jesus, it's means to do everything by faith in Christ full of thanksgiving for what Christ has accomplished in our lives. So we don't sin in the name of Jesus, but we fight sin by faith because we have died with Christ and raised with Christ, and we have new identities in Christ, very similar to one Corinthians 10 31.

22:30So whether you eat or drink to everything for the glory of God. So here, here's the summary. Paul gives us six imperatives, put on Christ's likeness, put on love. Let the peace of Christ d rule in your heart. Be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you. And then do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus. Six things God's people are to do. Now, Paul seems to establish an impossibly high bar for believers. Doesn't he be kind, be gentle, be compassionate. Be quick to forgive. Let the peace of Christ rule over our decisions and let the word of Christ dwell in us. I don't know about you, but if I hold my life up against this list, these six imperatives, I know that I fall short. I'm not always compassionate.

23:28I'm not always patient. I'm not always loving during those 7,000 miles, I was not always patient with my own children. I wonder if some of you can resonate perhaps even this morning. You can think of specific situations this week where you were prideful, where you were harsh with someone, where you were angry, where you were wishing for someone else's downfall, you were being uncharitable and impatient. Maybe it happened on your drive to church. Maybe you're nursing some grudge or some hurt from long ago or recent and, and you have not forgiven them in your heart, and they may or may not know about it. So, so what do we do with the high bar, the high calling that Paul gives believers here? What, what do we do about the disconnect with what Paul commands in our current behaviors and heart attitudes and dispositions?

24:29We can't just do those things through sheer willpower, which is what leads us to part two. Now, how does Christ enable us to do this? This is where the good news of the gospel comes in, and it's such good news. Paul shows us that we can live differently because we are now different. Our identity is new. If you hear nothing else in this sermon, I want you to hear this because we have been gloriously saved by God, reconciled to the Father through the blood of Jesus. We've died with him, we've been raised with him. We've been seeded with Christ. We now have received new identities. God's spirit dwells within us.

25:18We have been brought into union with Christ himself mysteriously and wonderfully. And so now we can live as those who are truly in Christ in the same way that tadpoles become frogs and little boys grow up to be men and saplings become trees. God's holy and beloved children will become more like Jesus. This is such good news, and it's everywhere in our passage. Look back with me at verse 12. Paul tells us our identity right at the front end, doesn't he? He says, put on. And then he says, make sure you remember who you are.

26:00God's chosen ones holy and beloved. This is who you are. You are loved by God. God chose you before the foundations of the world. He called you while you were still in your sin. He called you out, out of darkness into his marvelous life so that you would have new life. And so when we struggle to love others, we, we, our minds need to go back to this reality. We have been so deeply and profoundly loved by God.

26:35I I didn't understand this as a kid so often. I always thought of God as just angry, arms crossed and saying, you did it again. You sinned again. You sinned again. What's wrong with you? And that's just not the heart of the Father. You're chosen. You're so loved. I know every single way you will sin from now until you die. I know every sin from your past. I know every sin that you will commit today, every sin in your future. And God says, I love you. Christ died for you. And so he chose us to be holy and beloved. This transforms us from the inside out. When we internalize that reality as our identity in verse 13, we forgive because we have first been forgiven.

27:29He's canceled our record of debt by nailing it to the cross. So how can we possibly refuse to forgive others much smaller sins against us? Or in verse 15, we let Christ rule in our hearts why? Because we were called in one body. That's a stunning statement. What does it mean to be called in one body? It means Christ is the head. We have been all brought into union with this one body, Christ's body, us in Him and Him in us. And that is why Christ is to rule our hearts. Verse 15, 16, and 17, three mentions of Thanksgiving or giving thanks. Paul is showing us that gratitude is the gateway to becoming more like Jesus. If we struggle with any of these things, that's any of these six imperatives that are listed out, were to remember what God has done in Christ for us.

28:32It just take a moment later today in whatever area you struggle, you know, maybe it's humility, you know, or, or impatience like I, I'm not as patient as I ought to be. And just reflect upon God's patience with you. All the ways that you fallen short. You didn't listen, you didn't know what to do. And God was so patient, so kind, so gentle. So this morning we asked, are you primarily a sinner or a saint?

29:11In this passage, and I think more broadly in the New Testament, the reminder is yes, we were one sinners. And yes, we still sin, but primarily because we are in Christ, we are saints, we are chosen holy and beloved. We are being conformed into the image of God and to Christ our savior. A primary identity is not defined by your ethnicity or nationality or sexuality. Your marital status, your age, your skin color, your political views, your job, your personality profile or your experiences, your identity is defined by God. And he calls you his beloved one, his chosen and beloved one. And so now live that way. It, it reorients how progressive sanctification works out in our life, doesn't it?

30:06Instead of, oh, I I screwed up again, man, I can never figure it out. What, what's wrong with me? Oh, God's gonna be impatient. And, and, and I'm gonna have some major challenges because I haven't figured this out to he, he's called me his son. He, he's rescued me. He's washing me clean. And so he says, take and eat and go down the paths of righteousness for my namesake. And yet this is only true of those who have died and risen again with Christ, those who are in Christ. And I know that in a group this size, that there are some where this is not true of you yet. And, and our desire is that you would come to understand what it means to be in Christ, to have died with Christ, to be raised with Christ, to have your primary identity defined by Christ.

31:04Because if you're not following him, it means you're an enemy of God and you're under his wrath. And you need to repent and belief to become more like Jesus isn't fundamentally swimming upstream. Sometimes we can feel like that with progressive sanctification. It's just li like those salmon that just go upstream and they're jumping and jumping and they just can't get to the next level. And we feel like, boy, that would be exhausting. It's going downstream because God's grace and his spirit and our new identity is in Christ. Yes, there is a putting to death of sin, but we are becoming who we were truly made to be conformed to the image of Jesus our Savior.

31:54Isn't that good news this morning that God is making us more and more into the image of Christ and we get to sharpen one another and help each other do that? And so when you're sinned against, or or when there's difficult things that come your way, it's an opportunity to put this into effect, to bear with one another and to forgive one another as God is conforming us together as a church that is increasingly like Christ. Now thirdly, how do we live? If we struggle with being compassionate, what can we do? I I just wanna give us really practical help here this morning. I wanna call us to meditate upon the compassion of God toward us.

32:49Whatever your main struggle is, remember, maybe it's impatience or gentleness, meditate upon God's compassion or gentleness or kindness or patience towards us. Uh, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. That we were in the pit and undeserved of his grace. And he drew us out by his kindness. Th think of the story of the prodigal son, when the younger son basically said, I wish he would be dead and give me my inheritance so that I could go. The Father didn't say, you know, good riddance. Whoa, what did he do? He waited for him looking out daily. And when he saw him in the distance, the father with no regard to his own, how he would look, kind of hikes up his garment and runs out and receives him.

33:52And when the older son says, you, you've never given me a lamb. How could you even receive him righteous indignation in a sense. The father doesn't say, doesn't scold him, doesn't chastise him. He says, oh, son, come in, come in. The celebration is for you too. This is the heart of our father this morning that he invites all of his weary and beat down children to come and receive more of his grace. Come, receive, ponder how patient and kind and gracious and compassionate and forgiving that the father has been towards us. And let that spur us on in our sanctification and putting off and putting on, but not from our bootstraps.

34:48But because we're changed and transformed and we received all that God in Christ has promised us. If he's given us Jesus, how will he not with him graciously give us all things that we need for life and godliness? Uh, I I know that there are relationships in here that are strained this morning, maybe decades old. You, you have not forgiven, you don't want to reconcile. You've lost all hope. That talking will do any good for that relationship. You're done. You're calloused, you're exhausted, or you're angry. And yet Jesus calls us to let him sit at the control wheel of our hearts and to say, let me lead you to green pastures. Let me lead you beside still waters.

35:49He wants us to live as those who know the love and forgiveness of Christ and display that love and forgiveness to others, to let it profoundly change us from the inside out. The main point of our passage is that we can now live differently because we are different. Our identity is caught up in Christ, and we're to make Jesus the Lord of our life to come under his lordship. And his lordship is good. We can live differently. We can live like Jesus because we are increasingly becoming more and more like him. And we get to do that together. He's so gracious, so patient, so kind to draw us to himself. So as we go, this passage is not a passage with seven heavy handed commands of, come on guys, get it together.

36:52It's an imitation to say, look at God's kindness in Christ Jesus, to love you. He calls you his chosen ones, holy and beloved. And now Jesus is taking his precious children and carving them and conforming them into his image. He's the master craftsman that takes that block of granite and painfully chips off little pieces until we are his masterpiece. And that's good. It's an imitation to live as you were truly meant to live. For your joy, for his glory, for the advance of the kingdom, and for the joy of this church. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we pray that you would cause these truths to transform us, so that as we walk out of here, we are filled with thanksgiving. Oh, how good you are to love us, to choose us, to wash us, to conform us into the image of Christ. Oh, how gracious you are.

38:11So help us to minister to others out of this overflow of joy and thanksgiving, and help us to fight sin and to put on Christ's likeness because we are being conformed to the image of Jesus. Pray that in your name. Amen.

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Sermon Text

Colossians 3:12-17