Again, John 11, verses 17 through 27, and Colossians 3, verses 1 through 4. Now, when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for days. Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you. Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again. Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? She said to him, yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world. And then Colossians chapter three, verses one through four. 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 things that are above, not on 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. Amen. Let's pray again. Lord, help us as we consider these high and weighty words. Lord, give to us a sober understanding of them and build us up in the faith. Guard us from all distraction and cares of this world. Let us set our attention fully on your son, risen and enthroned at your right hand. For we pray this in his name. Amen. You may be seated. Anything worth doing in life takes a lot of determination and focus, and this is true no matter how old you are. Remember when Owen was just a little baby, just shy of a year old, before he could walk, he could certainly roll. And there was one particular area of our living room that he loved to spend a lot of time, and it was under the couch. amongst the cords of the printer. We were good parents, I promise you that. He was safe, but we could put him down, and then you'd look, and immediately he would be gone, and you'd wonder where he was. And lo and behold, he had rolled underneath the couch to play with these cords. And that was, to us, the epitome of determination and focus. No matter where you put him in the apartment, he always found himself there. So we had to move the printer, of course, because, like I said, we were good parents. He got places, he made himself get to where he wanted to get, he was completely determined, he was motivated, he was focused, he was driven, and he was fueled by a desire for something. Now that's true of all of us, whether young or old, whether generally lazy or generally productive. We are always motivated by something. We are always driven to some end, to some goal, to some focus. Our minds are fixated on something or some things. We are, by nature, people who are determined. What matters is what we are determined for, what focus is in our sights, what we are driven by and driven to. Well, as Paul writes in these opening verses of Colossians 3, he's writing to a Christian church, to saints who are absolutely focused on Christ and absolutely driven to know him and to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ. The problem is they've heard conflicting voices. They've heard the teaching of their church planter, a man named Epaphras. They've heard of Paul and his teachings. They weren't planted directly by Paul, but they appealed to him in a letter, really wanting him to set straight To set straight, sort of the confusing and conflicting teachings they've heard, there have been false teachers who have come and they have said, in order to grow spiritually, in order to be pleasing to God, in order to be a true and full-fledged Christian, you need to add to your faith, very much like the Galatians, you need to add to your faith something beyond Christ. You need to add to him, say, a certain extreme, ascetic, sort of monkish, sort of devotion. You need to follow the new moons and the Sabbaths of the old covenant. You need to be one who is very self-denying. And so they say that the key to spiritual growth is found in such systems, such denials, such devotions, such asceticism. And Paul writes to counteract that teaching to say that no, what you need is Jesus. Like first and foremost, that's all you need is Jesus. And actually through him, you get everything else. If you get him, you get all else that you need. And it's not something that you grab hold of him or you keep your hold on him by some physical or fleshly dependence or devotion. You just seek and must have Jesus because only he will give you eternal life, both now and at the last day. And Paul writes this whole letter to do with that. And what he does is masterful. We saw that kind of this morning when we read from Colossians 3, because he doesn't just say, these false teachers are all wrong. They're all washed up and you should avoid them. He does say that. But then he goes, not just to be negative, he goes to be positive, to put something in the place of his critique, to say, well, this is what you shouldn't do, but conversely, this is what you should do. Like, this is not true teaching, but this is the truth. And that's what he's really doing in chapter three here. and really to the end of the Book of Colossians. But I want us to focus just on these first four verses together this evening. We're on the day in which we tend to think more of the resurrection of the Lord, though we each gather each Lord's Day with that in focus. Perhaps just, it'd be good to remember this even in more detail, because at the basis of everything Paul will say in these four verses is the resurrection. And not just Jesus' resurrection, though that forms a very strong part of the foundation, but ours as well. And what Paul wants the church to know here is that they, we, in order to grow spiritually, in order to live the Christian life, in order to understand more of the Lord, we need the right focus and the right motivation, the right end goal in mind and insight and the right determination to get there. And that is what we have in Jesus Christ, risen and reigning and seated at the Father's right. And that's all we'll see as we go through these verses here. Our two basic points, very simple outline here. You have it in your bulletin. I first see here a call to focus on the risen Christ. Very simple. That is the key to spiritual growth. Keep your eyes set on Jesus. And secondly, excuse me, secondly, he gives us a threefold motivation. Kind of a, here's three things to keep in mind as you would grow in your determination to be more like Jesus and to focus Let's begin as we look in the first two verses of chapter 3 and consider the call to focus on the risen Christ. Look at these verses. It begins with a conditional, which is actually more of just a statement of fact. It says, if then you have been raised with Christ, more likely it's something along the lines of, with the force of, since you have been raised with Christ, since that is true of you already, then seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. And he says this again in verse two, set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. So what do we have here? You have two commands here, two commands that are built on a solid foundation. What is that foundation? As I've already said, it's the resurrection. It's the resurrection first and foremost of Christ, but then also of us in Christ. Now this is what Paul is reminding is already, the Colossians is already true of them. They have died with Christ and they've been raised with him. They have a new life through him. That's all true. It's the undeniable foundational basis of the spiritual life is that you first and foremost have to be alive. And that new life comes through Jesus who died and rose again. It's why we hold fast to the new birth Jesus spoke to Nicodemus of that night when Nicodemus in trembling awe came to him and asked him about spiritual matters. And Jesus said, you must be born again. Well, that language of born again is the language of resurrection. It's language of being brought from death to life. It's language of being born anew and from above from the Lord himself by the power of his spirit. And this is the resurrection. Jesus died, and we died in Him. Jesus was raised, and we have been, as verse 1 says, raised with Christ. This is not a physical resurrection yet, but it is the promise of the physical resurrection to come. It is showing us what we receive as we trust and rely upon Jesus. Is this newness of life which comes through Jesus's own resurrection applied to us? And that's the foundation of all spiritual life. And it's not something that you can accomplish. It's not something you can do. It's something that has to be done for you. It's something that God does for you. Just as Jesus's own death, burial, and resurrection happened totally outside of you two millennia ago, So your salvation and your spiritual resurrection and your new birth happens completely outside of you and by the power of God, just as Jesus' work was accomplished by the power of the Lord. So this is the great basis for the spiritual life. You have been raised with Christ. You are alive already. That means that any spiritual motivation, any spiritual desire, any spiritual focus that you should have is not to become living, to become alive, to become something you're not. It's just to live out who you already are as one who is given new life in Jesus. In other words, as saints. So that's the great foundation for the two commands. that Paul gives here. What are those two commands? The first one is, seek the things that are above. To seek is simply that, to go after something, to seek it out, to strive for it, to make it your aim. And here he's saying, make your aim to be the things that are above. The second aspect of this, in the second command in verse two, is to set your mind on these things that are above, which goes beyond just mere seeking, it deals with your thoughts. In other words, it's saying to think about, ponder, meditate on, dwell on the things that are above. Which as a side note, teaches us that there is a distinctly Christian way to think, to ponder. There's a distinctly Christian way to meditate. And it's something that Paul commands of us, that Jesus shows us in his own life as he went out even before the sun rose or late at night to desolate places to pray as he himself meditated on God's instruction. day and night. So the command here is to seek after and to think about the things that are above. But the big question then is, what are the things that are above? If this is to be an all-consuming focus of our hearts and lives as those who have been born again in Jesus Christ, then what exactly is Paul referring to here? First, let's begin by saying what he's not referring to, what he's not saying. He's not saying, he's not calling the church here to a sort of, as I've said earlier, a monkish devotion. That is, he's not calling us all to at least live like monks and nuns. That is, separate from the world, live entirely outside of the world, and just spend all of our time reading and meditating and praying all day long. Some of you might think that's a pretty good deal, pretty perfect thing that you would love. Some of you might loathe even one second of it. Regardless, that's not what Paul has in mind, so don't worry about it. The quote about someone being too heavenly minded, they're no earthly good, well that might actually apply there to those who think that true spiritual life and spiritual growth and maturity is found in separating from the world and just getting along you and God as long as you can stand it. It's not as well a focus on what commentators have called the furniture of heaven. As glorious as it may be, you find this in some Modern day sort of evangelical piety. It's just like a focus on, you know, the streets of gold, the pearly gates, the mansions of glory. You know, so any talk of heaven, any talk of dwelling upon the Lord is just simply kind of a talk about what is there. but not ultimately Jesus himself. Nor is, and this goes more in lines with Paul's day, especially the false teachers in Colossae, nor is this a call to set our minds on things that are above in the sense of to think about angels or think of what is above around the throne room of God where there is this glorious picture of weird multi-eyed, multi-winged living creatures. Which in the church's past, and especially in the time that Paul is writing the book of Colossians, it is a focus of God's people or of the false teachers themselves trying to influence God's people. They are consumed with thoughts about angels and demons and these living creatures, and it would have driven their thoughts about, well, spirituality. They would be tempted even to worship such angels, which is why the whole book of Hebrews begins with saying, Jesus is better than the angels. It's not just a general statement, it's counteracting a teaching in that day, where the focus of spiritual growth was to be consumed with, and to live in harmony with, and to meditate and dwell upon the living creatures around the throne of God and the various spiritual beings, which we call angels, which he created to serve us for salvation. It's a temptation and it is to be avoided. That is not what Paul is saying here, nor is this something that he's calling us to do that's completely disconnected from our everyday lives. As grandparents, as mothers and fathers, as children, students, husbands and wives, as brothers and sisters. In other words, this is not an impossible or an unreasonable command. This is a call to be focused on the Lord, but to be focused on the Lord exactly who you are right now in your season of life with what God has called you to. This is something that you can obey, again, as a five-year-old or as a 50-year-old. This is It should be a huge help to consider what this is not. But to consider what Paul is speaking of here is simply to read this in context. As is the answer to most biblical questions, context sheds a great light on what is spoken of. So when Paul says, set your minds on things that are above and seek the things that are above well read on and he will say in the end of verse two and not on things that are on earth there's a contrast here and then he'll begin in verse five if you read this morning as our reading of god's law put to death things that are earthly in you in other words the things of earth and then in verse 12 put on then as god's chosen ones and then he goes to describe things that are heavenly meaning that mark the people of God, who belong to the kingdom of God, which is the kingdom of heaven. In other words, he, in this chapter, he tells you exactly what the things above and the things below, the things of earth are. Earthly things are those that belong to this present evil age. You wanna know what they are? Well, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, covetousness, idolatry, anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene talk, lying, sort of disunity, there's all these things, mark this present evil age, like that is the things of earth. And these regular, everyday, pedestrian sins, pedestrian points of focus is what Paul is saying you must put to death. This is not what should command your thoughts, this is not what should drive your seeking and what you should be striving after. And that should, that hits, should hit the church, it definitely hits the culture, because what is our culture driving after? Well, pretty much everything that Paul lists here. Self, satisfaction, sexuality, idolatry, like this drives the world, and it is not to drive God's people. Rather, they are to set their minds on things that are above. Well, then what are they? Well, the things above are those things that characterize the heavenly kingdom of God. This is Paul essentially saying what Jesus said in Matthew 6.33. First, the kingdom of God and his righteousness. All these things will be added to you. This is essentially the Beatitudes here. In a way, the things that are above would be, well, humility, to seek, to be those who are humble. Paul says it in verse 12. Those who are poor in spirit. Seek to be those who mourn frequently and often for their sins. Seek to be those who are meek, who hunger and thirst for righteousness, who long for mercy, who seek purity of heart, are driven by peacemaking, who long for joy even in the midst of persecution. Like this is what Christ has already called you to and equipped you to live out. Here he's saying, let that be your focus, let it be your thought. Or to add to it, think of the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. This is a description of what is above. Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think, set your minds on these things. Or, verse 12, set your minds on and strive after compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, bearing with one another, forgiveness that you show to each other, love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony, The peace of Christ, his word in you, thankfulness, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, admonishing one another with great wisdom, and doing everything in the name of God, in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to the Father through him. These are what characterize the kingdom of God. You see, in true spiritual life, it's wrapped up in realizing this is what Christ has won for you, provided for you, This is what it calls you to, is what equipped you with, now live it out. But above all, you might say, well, how do I do this? I mean, how do I strive after a compassionate heart? It's hard to make myself more compassionate. How do I strive after humility? It seems like a sort of prideful endeavor. I wanna be more humble. How do I strive after meekness? How do I become more patient? I realize I'm very impatient. with those I love the most at times, with those I work with, with my parents, with my children. I'm very impatient. Lord, how do then I put it on? How do I think about it? How do I strive for it? Well, Paul tells us, in a sense, the answer in the rest of these verses. And his answer simply is, well, it's Jesus. Notice what he says here. Seek the things that are above. where Christ is, where he is present. Think of the kingdom, which means we think of the king, the Lord of lords, the king of kings seated at the right hand of God. He is your life. You will appear with him in glory. To say that Christ is seated at the right hand of God is, and it's in the verse one here, is not a description of a location, primarily, as if there is a space and time location that is just slightly to the right of the Lord God Almighty. Rather, it's a description of the Lord's exalted status. Like someone who is called someone's right-hand man, it stresses his authority and his power, that he is, now this is the point of Colossians, preeminent and supreme above all things. Seek Christ first and foremost. Let Him fuel your thoughts. Let Him be that which you set your mind on, because He is exalted and He deserves your thoughts. So this is the desire of Paul here. This is why and how you grow spiritually. You just set your mind fully, completely, wholly on Christ, even as a five-year-old and a 50-year-old, a 10-year-old and a 90-year-old. As a mother, a father, a grandparent, a student, a son, a daughter, as those who are married, as those who are single, this is your calling to set your affection, your heart, your mind, your attention, your devotion upon Jesus himself. And then all these other things will follow, like compassionate hearts, like kindness and humility and patience. Well, that's a high calling. We kinda need some help, I think, to get us there. We need some motivation to put some wind into ourselves. And that's exactly what Paul does. Because he doesn't just give a command, he gives reasons why we should follow this command, why we should seek it out. He gives us reasons why we should, well, rest assured that God is for us and we'll accomplish this in our lives. Look at verse three and four. Four, which is a very important word here. It explains the basis for his commandment here. It's an important word explaining the main Christ-centered motivations for our heavenly focus here. For, he says, you have died and your life is hidden with Christ and God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you will also appear with him in glory. Now this is fascinating. He gives a threefold motivation here. He basically says something is true of your past, something is true of your present, and something is true of your future. And this is what will help you set your attention upon Jesus. Well, first, your past. You have died. That is true of you. You're dead. But you're dead in a particular way. You're dead to sin. You have died with Christ. You've been joined with Christ, united with him, which is the Pauline emphasis of theology. Your life is wrapped up in being joined with Christ himself, connected to him, so much so that his death is your death, his life is your life, his righteousness is your righteousness, his inheritance is your inheritance. What he gained, what he earns, what he receives is not his only. but it is yours in Him." Actually, the way in the New Testament of speaking about a Christian is to say that these are the people who are in Christ, joined to Christ, united to Him. And so Paul says here, based on your union with Christ, you have already died. That's what he says in Galatians 2.20, that I've been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live, it is Christ who lives in me. The life I live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. You have died with Christ. This means your sins are forgiven. The Father has qualified you to take part in the kingdom of his son. This is all Colossians 1. And it's at the beginning. We heard that this morning in our reading of God's assurance of grace and pardon. And so why concern yourself with the things that are above? Why think about Jesus at all? Why ought we? Why should we? is our endeavor to know more of Him and to be known by Him. Well, because we have redemption through Him. We have grace through Him. We have life through Him. We have Him. There is nothing in heaven above or on earth beneath that is our desire other than Him. That is what it means to be a Christian. What do you think about most? What drives you in your life more than anything else? What fuels you like the moment you wake up? Is it first and foremost a desire to honor Christ, to know Him and know Him better? Is it a desire to, in your day-to-day callings, your work with your hands, your jobs, your parenting, your grandparenting, your service, whatever it may be, that in it, your desire to honor Christ? Now we all struggle with selfishness, with pride, with sin, but what is your desire? What do you at least want to do? Even if you say with the Apostle Paul, that which I wanna do, I find myself not doing. Is it to honor Christ? Well, that is the Christian way of living. And if it's not, then examine yourself, test yourself, humble yourself, call again out to the Lord, ask him to change your heart, perhaps even your heart of stone into a heart of flesh. The motivation from our past is to remind ourselves and be reminded by the Lord that we have already died with Christ. We are joined with him, which means we have been raised with him in this first resurrection, the newness of life that we have by the new birth, by trusting in his word and faith. If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above. Why? Because if you've been raised with Christ, You've also died with him. That's the motivation from the past. What about the present? Because there is a motivation from the present as well. It's the second part of this threefold motivation. And he says, right now, your present motivation is this. For you have died, and then, presently, your life is hidden with Christ in God. Christ is your life. gaze upon him. What does it mean to be hidden, by the way? Your life right now is hidden in Christ, and in two ways it can be understood. It means that it's not yet revealed in its fullness. Like, who you are, it's true, it's yours, you possess it, but it's not yet seen in its full possible way. I mean, think of two men. Lazarus, this poor beggar who sat at the gate of a rich man's house, a rich man who was clothed in purple in all manner of wealth and goods, and yet Lazarus who was covered in sores so much that the dogs licked him. Which one truly possesses eternal life in that parable? Well, it's Lazarus rather than the rich man. Which one's life and the true value of it and the true nature of it is hidden? Well, it's Lazarus. In this present moment, he is very much like the Beatitudes, the poor in spirit, who is actually the one who inherits heaven, the meek who inherits the earth. It's the pure in heart are the ones who see God. It's like this is the upside-down nature of God's kingdom. We're nothing in the world's eyes, but we're fools for Christ's sake, yet truly we have eternal life. We reign with him. So our life is hidden in Christ in that way. But it's also hidden in Christ in that we are safe and secure, hidden in that sense, tucked away. No one can take it from us. No one can snatch us from the Father's hand or from Christ's hand. No one can rob us of true life. Our life presently, for this moment, is held safely and securely in the hands of Jesus. He is our life. And so why not set our full attention and affection and devotion and desire to please someone upon him? That's our present. What about our future? Our future motivation is clear here. Verse four, when Christ who is presently your life appears, meaning when he comes again, then you will also appear with him in glory. And when it says in glory, it's not talking about a location. is talking about a state, meaning our experience, is speaking of our own glorification, our own exaltation, our own being made like Jesus, our own being brought to resurrection life in its fullness, our own receiving the new body, like resurrection, the second resurrection, the one that is bodily, that is our being raised from the dead, We have died or are being changed in the moment in the blinking of an eye if Christ returns while we are alive. This is veiled now, is hidden, but it will fully be displayed on that last day when Christ returned. For a little while, we've been made lower than the angels. But when Christ appears, we will shine as those who are blazing forth in glory. Not because of anything good in ourselves and not because we earned it and not because we have somehow driven away by our own devotion or affection or power, the dross that clings to us. But Christ has worked efficiently and effectively to make us like himself, to glorify us even as he's been glorified. This is the future we long for. It's a future of glory. It's a future of being fully human. It's a future of being fully reconciled to God and to each other. It's a future in which we are made perfect in righteousness. and is comforting to us, or it should be a motivation to us now, because it is an assured future. Paul doesn't say here, when Christ, who is your life, appears, then, well, maybe you'll appear with him in glory. Kind of hope this works out for you, Colossian Christians. He doesn't say that. He's absolutely confident you will appear with him in glory. And so right now, we might be really like a bunch of Lazaruses. dressed in dirty rags covered with sores. That's how the world sees us, but our true position is hidden. When Christ comes, we will be robed with the glorious robes of Christ, more beautiful than the stunning dresses or suits any earthly tailor can make. This is what we look forward to, and it stands together with who we presently are, with who we have been, or what has occurred to us, that we've died with Christ, that leads us to set our full attention, our full focus, our full selves upon Jesus Christ. A few points to close this out. Such a focus, like to set our attention upon Christ in this way, as Paul calls us to here, It prepares us for life in this world. Again, this is not some esoteric, abstract life of just empty your mind meditation and bliss. This is what it is to live as true people, as true human beings, as those who have been made right with God and who are fully alive in Christ and then go forth into the world and live and serve and work and labor and and raise families and love one another as who we're supposed to be, as who God redeemed us to be. This is fuel for the everyday ordinary Christian life, which begins with a desire to please the one who has saved us, to seek him, to set our thoughts and attentions upon him. This is the call as well to, yes, in many ways, begin our day by setting our focus upon that which is true, to preach the gospel to ourselves every morning we wake up, to wake up and before our feet hit the ground, in the many ways, remember that we are not our own, but we've been bought with a price, that we are joined with the Son of God, that no matter how the day goes, no matter how things go sideways, the Lord is still with us and we are still with Him. And no matter what people say about us, no matter how they might ridicule us pick us apart and tear us down. Our life is hidden and secure in Christ, and no one can take that from us. They can even take our own bodies. They can take our physical life, but we are still safe. This was the reasoning the early church lived by as they fought beasts in the Roman Colosseum, as they stood before their persecutors, as they said, I think it was Polycarp, one of the earliest Or the church father is saying that you know, you can you can hunt me down and you can take my body But you can never you can never take Christ from me and that is the mindset here that we're called to have and it takes in many ways a Strong will to remind ourselves of these things every morning The world is simple and its temptations vary and they're strong and there are many And only as we set our minds on these things that are not earthly but heavenly will we overcome the things of this world. And God has been so gracious to give us every reason to do this, and even the power to do so through Christ, who is our life. We have right now a present and glorious inheritance waiting for us. Let us turn our eyes upon Jesus, setting our sights on his glorious kingdom, for he is our resurrected and ascended and coming again Lord. Let's pray.