Turn with me in your Bibles, if you would, to Colossians chapter 3. I'll be reading verses 1 to 4 of Colossians chapter 3. Hear the word of the Lord. If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Let's pray. Our gracious, magnificent, and holy God, We praise you for the works that you have done in creation and in redemption. And we pray that as we gather as your church, you'd be present with us as your word goes forth. And we pray that that word would be made effective on our hearts by the power of your spirit. Lord, we thank you for your son. who by his life and by his death and chiefly by his resurrection, we are made partakers of his resurrection. God, we pray that you would speak to us as your word goes forth. Amen. You know, for some time now, our culture has been kind of obsessed, in a strange way, with the idea of heaven. I mean, think about all of the bestsellers over the past number of years about people's experiences of heaven. You know, but those ideas about heaven are more often informed by sentiment and a desire for inner peace than they are by what God has actually said about heavenly things. I mean, even over just the past several years, it's astonishing how many frankly, you know, sentimental, but really blasphemous books have been published You have innumerable books about people who went to heaven and came back. And now there's movies and TV shows about experiences of heaven, all of which show the utterly shallow and vacuous attempts of our culture to grasp towards something transcendent. But all of it falls short of what God has actually said about our future hope. Now, this kind of empty thinking is all too prevalent around us. It's not the seeking of heavenly realities that Paul is talking about here in Colossians. Setting our minds on things that are above is not a vague and empty peacefulness of mind to get us through the day. For Paul, the seeking and setting our minds on the things above is full of substance. And that substance centers upon Christ and what he has done for us and the hope that we have in those heavenly realities. Now, as we look at this passage and seek to understand it better, it's important that we see that the message that Paul is presenting here comes within the context of what was taking place in the Church of Colossians. In chapters one and two, Paul lays out a magnificent portrait of Christ, of what he has accomplished, of how it is applied to us, and he's doing this in order to refute a false teaching that's happening in the church. Now, this heresy that was being purported consisted in a denial of the full deity of Christ, which also saw a lack in the sufficiency of Christ's work, so that that in itself would require continued adherence to the law. Rather than seeing Christ as the source for beginning and end of all of redemption and our union with Him, This heresy only saw that we needed Christ for the beginning of salvation, but that we ourselves needed to work in order to attain salvation in the end. So what we see in this passage before us in Colossians 3 is Paul carefully steering the church away from that error and towards a vision of heavenly reality that shows the complete sufficiency of Christ. And this over against the false teachers and what they were purporting. For Paul, Christ is the sole source and content of wisdom, and all earthly attempts at wisdom will ultimately fall short of this heavenly truth. So as we look closely at this passage before us, I want to look at two aspects that Paul brings out. First, I want us to look at the command to seek and set our minds on the things above, and then second, the substance and content of that heavenly mindedness. What we'll see is that the command to seek the things that are above is meant to focus our attention on what is true in heaven and calls us to relinquish all earthly wisdom as it casts our vision towards a heavenly hope and an anticipatory hope of what's to come. Looking at verse 1, Paul says, if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above. Paul here, when he's saying, you have been raised with Christ, is speaking specifically about the present resurrection that the Christian has now. The believer having been united to Christ by faith has been raised presently with him. He's been made alive from the dead by the power of the life-giving Spirit. Paul will also bring into view the consummate resurrection that comes when Christ returns, and he'll bring this into view in verse 4, so that the command to set our minds on the things above is bookended by these two events of resurrection. The resurrection that the believer has now, having been united to Christ, and the resurrection that's to come when Christ returns, and we will be raised with him in imperishable bodies. But here, like I said, in verse one, Paul's particularly concerned with our present resurrection life. He says, if you have been raised with Christ, I know that some of your versions may say, since you have been raised with Christ. That's perfectly within the semantic range of the translation of the preposition that Paul is using here. So the point still stands. So what we see with this if or since is that Paul is using this clause here to ground the necessary consequence of what follows. So if this is true of you, then this ought to and will be true of you, which he'll go on to say. So if it is true that you have been raised with Christ, then you ought and will seek the things that are above. Now I want to point out something that's significant here, in particular. This is a perfect example of how the objective reality of our redemption, that is the work of Christ himself to save us, comes from outside of us, and that this alone is the basis for the command to action. It's not the other way around. The obedience to the command is not the basis for or cause of our salvation. It does not say, if you seek the things above, you will be raised with Christ. No. The life of the believer is a life of resurrection that is seeking for what is already true of them. They are united to him. They are forgiven, are righteous before God, and are heirs of eternal life. The command of this passage is encased within these statements concerning the objective truth of the gospel, and particularly of resurrection life. So, as we move on to this command that Paul offers, We see that grounded in the resurrected life of the believer with Christ, Paul commands us to seek the things that are above. Now, what are those things that are above that Paul is talking about? What is he referring to when he's speaking of these things? Well, it surely isn't a mystical, imaginative vision of heaven that is void of any real content. Rather, it's a heavenly perspective that has Christ and His kingdom as its sole focus. It is a reorientation of our vision that looks up upon Christ, who is reigning from heaven and who is building His kingdom here and now. What the seeking of heaven is, and what it calls for, is a Christward gaze. A Christward gaze that knows the present resurrection and the future resurrection hope of glory in Christ. This is not an introspective gaze looking to have a better life here and now. It's a gazing and grasping for what is true of us in heaven to become true of us in our daily lives. So just as Jesus prays that God's will would be done on earth as it is in heaven, when we seek the things above, heaven comes to bear upon the things of earth. and heavenly reality of our union with Christ shapes our lives and comes to define our understanding of who we are. For those who have trusted in Christ by faith, our relationship, our unbreakable union and communion with the resurrected Lord is what defines our very existence on this planet. Now, as that settles in for a minute, I think that what's abundantly clear to all of us is that there's a tremendous disjunction between the accomplished redemption that we've received and had applied in our union with Christ and our present experience of it as we live as creatures on this earth. There are things that are said to be true of us as Christians that we don't necessarily experience or we don't necessarily feel. We are said to be forgiven, we're said to be righteous, we're said to be freed from the bondage of sin, but we don't necessarily feel as though these things are true of us. especially as we're battling with sin, especially as we're in the midst of suffering, in the midst of trials. And the tendency is to allow our experiences to guide our interpretation of reality rather than what God has actually said. Now, this is illustrated in a unique way in Matthew 16, 23, when Jesus rebukes Peter for failing to grasp the necessity that Christ himself must go to the cross, suffer, and die. We see that Peter failed to see this heavenly plan that God was requiring of Christ. And so, you know, Peter rebuked Jesus And Jesus, in response, strongly rebuked Peter. He did this because Peter's objection to Christ's suffering ultimately amounted to treason. Peter was actually speaking for the enemy at that point, which is why Jesus said, Get behind me, Satan. You are a hindrance to me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God. but on the things of man. Peter was rebuked for his earthly perspective that failed to see what God was accomplishing through the suffering of Jesus. And we see in this that there's a conflict between the things that are above and the things that are of the earth. What we saw in Jesus' rebuke of Peter was the fact that both of those things cannot be held onto. You cannot have earthly wisdom and earthly glory and also hold on to those heavenly realities. So to be set on the things above requires that we grasp for the heavenly and let go of the earthly. But this tension between the resurrection life we live now and the fact that we're still earthbound It's not in vain. This is actually the way in which God has chosen to apply the work of Christ to us, that we would, through faith in Christ, be united to Him, and that the rest of our lives would be lived aspiring to become who we have already been declared to be in Christ, as God continues to apply the work of Christ to us. So when Paul says, set your minds on the things above and not the things of earth, he is calling believers to lay hold of the truth of their position in Christ, which requires that we reinterpret all of life, that we interpret all of our lives, all of our circumstances through a gospel lens that sees where we are at this point in redemptive history, that we have been resurrected with Christ, but we are awaiting a final consummate resurrection, when we can throw off this body of death. Now, this can seem highly theoretical and not very practical, but think about the suffering of being diagnosed with a serious illness, or think of the joy of welcoming a new baby into your family. It is through joys, through suffering, and even the mundane trials of our lives, like getting a flat tire, or missing a doctor's appointment. This is where the theological rubber meets the road. Am I going to be set on the things above or on the things of earth? Am I going to be short-sighted and selfish and allow the world to falsely interpret my circumstances? Or is the work of God in Christ going to have the final say in how I perceive my situation? Now, We saw here Paul's command to set our minds on the things above, which we saw has an antithetical relationship with setting our minds on the things below. And so now Paul shifts in his argument to talking about the grounds for which this heavenly seeking is possible. So why and how is it possible that Christians are commanded to and able to aspire to the heavenly while they are yet earthbound. If we look at verse 3, it gives us two reasons. I'll read verse 3. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ and God. So these two reasons, as Paul says. First, because we have died. And second, because we have died, we have been made alive to resurrection life. Remember that from verse one that Paul had in view. And our lives are now hidden with Christ in God. Now, let's look at these two reasons why and how we can seek the things above. Taking the first reason first, the death that believers have died in Christ is death to the world. Death that results from the release of the penalty of sin and also in a decisive break with the reigning power of sin. The focus of the death that Paul is talking about here is on the break, this decisive break with the reigning power of sin in our union with Christ. When we, by faith, trust in Christ, that reigning power is broken. Listen to what Paul says elsewhere in Romans 6, verses 5 to 7, he says, For if we have been united to him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united to him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. So what we see here is that the death that we have experienced in Christ results in this decisive break from the power of sin so that sin no longer has enslaving power over us. And this is what Paul has in view as he's grounding the command to set our minds on the heavenly and not on the earthly. Reaching for the heavenly and rejecting the earthly is rooted in the fact that sin's power has been broken. Now our lives are to be lived for Christ as we mortify the sin that so easily entangles us on this earth. I think that one of the most damaging schemes of Satan is to deceive believers into thinking that this decisive break has not happened. The last thing that sin wants you to be confident of is that its power is broken. Yes, the battle with sin is real. It will continue until the day we die or until Christ returns, but it is surely not a futile battle. It is a battle that we in Christ are equipped to fight by the power of His Spirit. And so Paul goes on in the next section of chapter three, if you look below the verses that we read, to speak about the characteristics that must be put off, those sins that must be put off from the believer, and those characteristics that must be put on. Now, although this section of Colossians is outside the scope of what we're specifically looking at in these first four verses, Keep in mind that the command here, in the beginning of chapter 3, acts as the foundation for the putting off of sin and the putting on of righteousness. So what is clear is that the seeking and setting of our minds is not merely an intellectual endeavor. It's rooted in practice. And there is no merely intellectual endeavor. Because what we think always works out in what we desire, and what we desire always works itself out into what we do. Now, the second reason that grounds the command of our seeking and setting is that our lives are said to be hidden with Christ in God. Now, what does that mean, that our lives are hidden with Christ in God. It means that the center of our being, having been resurrected from the dead, we were dead in trespasses and sins. We were raised with Christ. The center of our being is located and finds its meaning not on earth, but in heaven, where Christ is. And though our bodies remain on the earth, where heaven, where Christ is, has become our home. And so this is why Paul elsewhere will talk about us being strangers, of having a citizenship of heaven, and of being aliens and sojourners in this world. It is because we're no longer home here. The old world is not our home anymore. Having been resurrected, our home is with Christ. And this being hidden with Christ speaks specifically of our safety. and our security from all that may assail us in this life. This life has no say on our life that is hidden with Christ in God, which will come to pass. And this also speaks to our lives being hidden with Christ in God also speaks of the fact that the heavenly center of our being remains hidden. It's hidden to the world in the sense that what is objectively true of us in Christ has not yet been manifested fully since we are still awaiting that final resurrection and our glorification with Him. This otherworldliness of our lives is hidden so that what is true of us in heaven has yet to be consummately true of us on the earth. Now listen to what Paul says of this in Romans 8, verses 18 to 21. I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope. that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. But this hiddenness of our lives, of our resurrected lives, though it defines our earthly existence, is meant to cast our vision on a future hope of glory. So that as Paul moves down now to verse four, we see that the setting of our minds on the things above is not only meant to redirect our attention from the earthly, but it also points us forward to a future goal. A time when what is in heaven, which is hidden here, will be revealed. So we anticipate in our heavenly vision a time when Christ will return and we will be raised with him in heavenly bodies. When death and sin will give way to peace, to joy, to communion with our Lord. This is what we were created for and it is what we look forward to as we aspire to and anticipate the heavenly. So we here and now are participants in heaven coming to bear upon the earth as the work of Christ is manifested in our lives. And as we gaze upon him and long for his return, we now have a foretaste of heaven that's to come. As we finish up our look at this short passage, I want to make a few brief applications beyond what has already been said. First, we need to correct and not be distracted by the misguided seeking for heaven that we see in the world around us. Maybe our misconceptions of seeking heaven aren't so misguided as the culture we live But we must ensure that our heavenly seeking is rooted in Christ and not in our imaginative dreams of what we wish our future hope to be. These are more often informed by conceptions of earthly perfections rather than Christ-centered realities. I'm sure we've all at times heard appeals to the gospel that focus on a future hope that is more sentimental than it is Christ-centered. We ought not to look to heaven to have things that are earthly and temporary for us to enjoy. Oftentimes, appeals to heaven can be spiritually clothed appeals to long after something that is earthly. our heavenly gaze must be centered upon Christ himself. Now, a second application that I'd want to make from this is in regards to the church. As fellow members of Christ, we are united together in heaven with Christ so that the church itself is an outpost of heaven on earth. When we gather to worship, Christ's kingdom is manifested here in our gathering. As simple as it may seem, as unseemly as it may be perceived by the world, Christ by His Spirit is present here with us. And this is a foretaste of heaven. Though it is imperfect, it is the means through which our heavenward seeking is strengthened as we are nourished by Christ through his word and sacraments. Let us not fail to see the heavenly realities that are being manifested in the church and her worship. And finally, I want to consider the reality of pain and suffering in our lives in view of this heavenly perspective that ought to inform everything that we do. Listen to what Paul here says of suffering in light of our future hope, laid out in 2 Corinthians 4, 16 to 18. Paul says, so we do not lose heart, though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." Notice that Paul here does not deny the reality of suffering. He does not deny the fact that we and our bodies are wasting away. Rather, he makes a comparison. In view of eternity, our greatest pains and struggles are considered light and momentary. Now, this doesn't diminish the reality of our suffering. Rather, it elevates the glory of what is ours in Christ. So, what we have seen this morning in this passage is that the call to seek and set our minds on the things that are above and not on the things on earth is rooted in what Christ has done for us in his death and resurrection. The content and substance of those things is in fact Christ himself and the redemption that he has accomplished for us. So let us, with resurrection life, seek the things that are above as we aspire to what has been brought for us by Christ. And let us wait eagerly for his return and our resurrection to glory. Let us pray. Our gracious God, we are weak, we are frail, we are in the midst of struggles, but Lord, You have given us Christ. You have united us to Him by the power of Your Spirit so that all of our lives can be lived to him and to your glory. Lord, we pray that your word would be impressed upon our hearts by your spirit and that we would be built up in Christ to bring you honor and glory. In Christ's name, amen. Let us respond to God's gracious gospel by singing the words of All for Jesus in your hymnal number 565. All for Jesus, all for Jesus All for Him, all for Jesus, all for God ♪ All my heart and words and feelings ♪ ♪ All my fears and all my doubts ♪ ♪ Let my hands work for His willing ♪ ♪ Let my feet run in His ways ♪ ♪ Let my eyes see Jesus only ♪ ♪ And my lips speak for His name ♪ religions of beauty, we give thee praise and thanks. Most of all, give me thy pleasure, for in Jesus will I trust. Since my eyes have faced not Jesus, ♪ His spirit's vision moving as a crucified ♪ ♪ Our God, Lord, our God, one is He ♪ ♪ Jesus Christ, King of Kings ♪ ♪ His truth, love, and mercy, love, and praise ♪ ♪ His truth, love, and mercy, love, and praise ♪ Hear this blessing from the Lord. Now may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. O say can you see, by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's