Asbury Free Methodist – March 3, 2024
March 3, 2024 – Colossians 3:1-14
We have been working through a series on Christus Victor over this season of Lent. Christ the Conqueror.
If you have been here for the last couple of weeks, then you will remember that for the past three or four hundred years, the primary metaphor we have used to understand Christ’s work on the cross was a legal metaphor. We had broken God’s laws, and the penalty for that is spiritual death. But Jesus paid our penalty. He took our place. So, to become a Christian means to ask Christ to forgive your sin, to take you sin away. It’s a good metaphor.
But for the first thousand years of church history, the primary metaphor for understanding the cross was Christus Victor. Humanity was trapped by evil, held in the grip of death, captured by sin, and enslaved by Satan, who was the prince of this earth. But Christ came, and he battled evil, sin, Satan, and death and was victorious over them all through his life, death, and resurrection. Christ conquered. Christus Victor.
I believe that as our faith embraces this truth that, we will move toward the life God desires for us. There is a lot of evil in the world and in our hearts, and it needs to be answered by grace and the power of Christ the Conqueror.
Some of you have had insight into your own heart. And you have had Christ draw alongside you as a friend. You have invited him to come into your life as Saviour. You have prayed for him to be a shepherd and guide. But there is a need for more.
In those small hours of the morning, when you look at your life and you question what you see, you want something more. You realize that you have built walls around your soul – and they keep you from engaging life. But how do you pull the walls down- Is Christ sufficient?
Some of you have some significant challenges and, temptations and trials in front of you. You not only need Jesus as a friend to walk with you through these. You need him to come in power and help you overcome these things – Christ is sufficient. – Christus Victor. Some of you are really struggling. I hope that as I lift up Christ this morning, you will see him afresh, and faith will be kindled, and Christ would be allowed to do the work that he has needed to do and wants to do.
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It is my guess that there are very few of you who at one time or another, have not been frustrated with your own heart. You ask questions like, Why do I feel that way? Why did I watch that? Why didn’t I say something? Why do I always respond that way when I get around that person? Why do I get into relationships with people who are bad for me? How come I always give in to that temptation?
There are some of you who feel shame because of things you have done, and you could just “kick yourself.”
What’s worse is if you come to truly come to see your own heart, it can be somewhat depressing. Why is it we treat the rich with more respect than the poor? – The educated with more respect than the uneducated. Why do we judge people based on what they do and ourselves based on the motives behind what we do? Why is it that image is more important than character?
Why are we so good at rationalizing our greed and, materialism and anger? Why is it that we are quick to engage in gossip and slow to engage in blessing? Why do we worry about other people’s humility, and so we don’t say anything that would give them a big head, but we don’t worry about our pride that shows up in either false humility or as judgment? When you see the envy that leads to selfish ambition that leads to both pride and self-hatred, it can be really depressing. When you see your own heart for what it is, it can be depressing.
We can have a number of responses to this kind of insight. We can be like a person who looks in the mirror and doesn’t like what he sees, so he breaks the mirror, thinking that will fix the problem. We see our heart, and then we forget about that insight because it is too painful. We will go to all kinds of efforts to distract ourselves from our hearts.
As Christians, we often have a different response. We pray God take this from me. Remove this evil from my heart. That is not a bad response. But there are some of you who have been praying that prayer for so long you wonder if God can or will.
But then we sing songs like “Purify my heart, let me be like gold and precious silver,” and we mean it. We want the purity of God to reign in our hearts. And we pray all over again. God, change us, meet us where we are at. My question is, how? How does God purify our hearts?
Do we learn to quote scripture as Jesus did in the wilderness when he was confronted with the devil? Do we pray more, fast more, examine ourselves more, engage the spiritual disciplines more? Do we go to church more and take communion more? Do we make choices of the will to do better things.?
We may do all of these things. In fact, it may be imperative that you do some of these things. But our hearts don’t become pure from our strategic initiatives; they become pure when the work of Christ is applied to our lives. But the question is, how does Christ’s work get applied to our lives?
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Come with me to Colossians 3. The first thing you need to learn if you are going to have God purify your life is who you are in him. When you get a proper vision of who you are, you can start to see Christus Victor move in your heart.
Colossians 3:1–4 (NIV)
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
I want you to see who you are as a Christian in these verses. As a Christian, you died. (Verse 3) But verse 1 says you have been raised with Christ. As Christ was raised in newness of life, you have a new life.
When you became a Christian, there was a fundamental part of you that died. As a Christian, a fundamental part of you has Christ as your life. (Verse 4) When Christ is in your life, he is your life.
At the core of who you are is the life of Christ. Or, as the Bible says in another place, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Christ is at the core of who you are.
But there is something else going on here. .
Colossians 3:3 (NIV)
3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
Not only is Christ in you, but you are in Christ in God. You are immersed in God. You are in Christ, and Christ is in God.
Look at how Christ is described here. The vision of Christ here is not that of a friend, or a shepherd, or a lamb. The vision of Christ here is Christus Victor. Notice verse 1. Christ is seated at the right hand of God. That is the position of power.
Ephesians 1:19b–23 (NIV)
That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
The Right hand of God is the position that is above any power or, authority or any rule. God placed all things under Jesus’ feet. He is the head of the church, and he has been given all authority. Christus Victor.
Christus Victor is in you. You are in him. Now the question is, how does that affect dealing with evil in your heart? How does He cause us to be the kind of person we were meant to be?
Look at Colossians 3:5 (NIV)
5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.
Colossians 3:8–10 (NIV)
8 But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.
Let’s jump down to verse 12
Colossians 3:12–15 (NIV)
12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.
How do we put to death the earthly nature and clothe ourselves in righteousness? How do we live like this?
Now, remember Paul is talking to Christians who have died, and at the core of who they are, there is a new person. Christ is in them, and they are in Christ. Yet he says this to them – put to death whatever belongs to your earthly nature. When ever you see evil in your heart, it is part of this earthly nature. This is where things like sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry, spring from.
So, at the core of who you are is the life of Christ, not just Christ the friend or Christ the saviour, but Christus Victor, Christ the conqueror. Somewhere outside the core is this nature that is inclined towards evil.
The command is this. That nature is inclined towards evil – Put it to death. But there is a very important word in verse 5. Put to death, therefore, – Therefore. Because at the core of who you are is Christus Victor. Put to death this other nature. Because you are immersed in God, put to death.
You can’t do this except for the “therefore.” You can’t put to death your earthly nature on your own. It is only because of your union with Christus Victor that this is possible. You are called to partner with Christus Victor to overthrow evil because you can’t do it on your own. You cannot bring righteousness or goodness or godliness to your heart.
But most Christians I know cannot balance these two concepts well. We don’t get the idea of partnership. We usually have one of two responses when we see our earthly nature, as Paul calls it. We pray that God will take care of it, and we don’t do anything about it. Or we use the force of our will to deal with it and leave God out of the picture. But people, you can choose to change your behaviour, but you cannot change your heart. And God will not change your heart without your permission and you active participation. It’s a partnership.
So, how do you partner with Christ to kill your old nature. How do you partner with him to clothe yourself with goodness?
We could talk about spiritual disciplines that create time and space for God to work in our lives. They are important. Or we could talk about decisions of faith, in which you choose to live and make choices based on who the Bible says you are rather than who you feel you are. This is vitally important. But there is something more fundamental going on here that I want us to focus on.
Let me take you back to verse 1.
Colossians 3:1–4 (NIV)
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
The command in these verses is to set our hearts and our minds on things above. This does mean that we are to think about heaven all the time. It means that our hearts’ affections are set on God, and our mind looks at the world with godly eyes. We revel in what is true and good and beautiful. We grieve that which is wicked and evil. Our hearts and minds are living in the Kingdom of God – where God’s rule is acknowledged.
But what is most important about this command, especially when it comes to changing, putting our earthly nature to death and being clothed in righteousness is that when your heart and mind are set on things above, you will hear from God. And you cannot partner with God unless you can hear from God.
That is why I spend so much time urging people to listen to God through his word, through his work around you, and through his Spirit who is in you.
If you are practicing the behaviours that we are told to put to death: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, then you have believed some lies that the devil has placed in your heart and mind. Your faith in the lies of Satan causes you to do what you do. It is only as God speaks to you – that you can see where the lie came from, repent of it and turn to the truth.
If you are in the practice of giving into anger, rage, malice, slander, filthy language and lying, then chances are that you have developed a habit of these things. They were part of the old you. The way to deal with them is by hearing from God, setting your heart and mind on things above so that the habit can be replaced.
If you see that your heart lacks compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. If you find it difficult to bear with others, forgive those who have wronged you, and love people, then God wants to partner with you to develop those traits in you.
But here is what often happens with us. We tell ourselves that we should be more loving or more patient. We tell ourselves that we must learn to be less negative when speaking. Then, we come up with a plan to deal with that. We might pray about it – or not. We might even ask God’s help to do it.
But here is what I have found, if we don’t deal with our issues in God’s way and in God’s order, we will tend to be ineffective and unproductive.
But when you set your mind and heart on things above, God has a way of leading us each step of the way. You may think that loving someone is the issue. But it may be that God would reveal to you where you haven’t forgiven someone or yourself.
It may be that you know you need to deal with a habit, but what drives the habit is a deep lie that God wants to show you and help you put faith in the truth. There may be habits to either rid yourself of or cultivate. However, it is only when you do God’s will in God’s way that you move towards where you want to be.
I have also found that for some of these issues, Christ will not allow us victory until we access people in the community of God. Often, we need their gift of discernment or wisdom. Sometimes, we just need them to pray and listen to God with us.
Christ is victor – even in those places in our hearts that we are still waiting to see change.
Hear the word of the Lord.
2 Peter 1:3–4 (NIV)
3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
His promise is that you have been given everything you need for a godly life. But it comes through our knowledge of him. It comes as we set our minds and our hearts on him.
There is a reason we emphasize discipleship. It is only as we know him and how he wants to work in our lives that we are set free. I encourage you to have faith that Jesus can change you. I encourage you to listen to him, for as you do, things change.
Sermon Questions
Colossians 3:1-15
Introduction
1. What are you celebrating this week?
2. What are you praying about this week?
Digging In
3. Have you ever seen something in your own heart that you wondered if you would ever overcome?
4. Read Colossians 3:1-15 What stands out to you about his passage?
5. Read verses 1-14. What does this tell us about the state/position of a Christian? What do you think that means?
6. Read Ephesians 1:18-23. Put this passage together with the Colossians passage. What does this tell us about the standing of a Christian?
7. Read Colossians 3:5-10. List what belongs to the earthly nature. Is this a complete list? How would you define “the earthly nature,” or the “carnal nature,” or “the flesh?”
8. Read verses 3-12. What are we to be clothed with? What else would you add to this list?
9. Read verses 1-4 again. What does this tell us about how to die to the earthly nature and clothe ourselves in righteousness? How does that work out practically, or what steps could be taken to live out these verses?
10. The sermon said, “You can choose to change your behaviour, but you cannot change your heart. And God will not change your heart without your permission and your active participation.” Do you believe that to be true? What does this mean for the Christian life?
11. Read 2 Peter 1:3-4. Do you believe this? Will you pray to trust God more?