We’ve
been looking at the apostle Paul’s letter to the Christians at Colossae. As a
reminder, Paul calls himself “an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of
God, and Timothy our brother, to the saints and faithful
brethren in Christ who are at Colossae.” (Colossians 1:1-2). And
because he was an apostle, chosen by God, we are responsible to read his
instructions as flowing inerrantly from the Holy Spirit – even we who live in
another culture and in another time. God’s word is eternal and not bound by
time or culture.
In
the last few weeks, we’ve examined some of the guidance Paul gave his readers –
including us in 2026. He admonished them – and us – to: 1) Be firmly rooted and
built up in Christ. 2) [To] Be alert that they are not taken captive by ungodly
and false philosophies about God and biblical morality. 3) [To] Hold fast to
the unchangeable and undilutable truth that all the fullness of God dwells in
Christ. And finally, 4) That obedient faith in Jesus is fully sufficient for
salvation. Nothing else needs to be – or can be – added to what Jesus has done
for us.
Which
brings us to chapter three where Paul begins with the word “Therefore.” Let
me pause a moment to remind us his ‘therefore’ refers to everything he’d written
in the first two chapters. So, he writes, “Therefore, since you have
been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where
Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things
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 our life, is
revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. Colossians
3:1-4
Some
Bible translations render that first verse, “IF you have been raised up with
Christ,” but the Greek word can also be translated, ‘Since.’ And as we must do whenever we interpret the
Scriptures, context is vital to our interpretation. That’s why ‘Since’ is the better
translation because Paul was writing to Christians – not to unbelievers in
Colossae. And Christians – also called ‘saints – already have been raised with
Christ, as the apostle mentioned already in this letter.
So,
Christians, “Since you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking
the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of
God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on
earth.”
Yes,
all Scripture is divinely inspired by God. But our faith is a rational faith,
and therefore it is reasonable to delve a little further into the question of
‘Why God wants the Christian – who’s already saved, who already belongs to the eternal
family of God – why does God want us to ‘keep seeking’ the things above, where
Christ is?
I’m
sure one reason is because God knows how we are EASILY distracted from truth. Spurious
and ungodly philosophies and doctrines are one reason Christians can become
distracted from Truth – capital ‘T’. And today’s Bible-believing Christian can’t
help to notice how many churches have turned aside to follow Satan, preaching
any number of false doctrines and allowing such sexual perversions into their
fellowships that ought to turn our stomachs. That’s why Paul warned the
Colossians, “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy
and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to
the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to
Christ.” (Colossians 2:8)
But
we can also be distracted from the gospel by the worries and the enticements of
life. With the seed sown among thorns, in the Parable of the Sower, Jesus warned:
“These [people] are the ones who have heard the word, but the
worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the
desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes
unfruitful.” (Mark 4:18-19)
Besides
any of these distractions, bitter and heart-breaking life-circumstances can
also pull us from God, events such as sudden and devastating illness or injury,
or the death of a beloved family member, or chronic financial strains. Take
your pick of any other circumstance that can easily pull us from God. It
happens all the time. I don’t doubt many of you know of people who at one time
followed Christ – until some tragedy struck and they stopped seeking, they
stopped following, they stopped obeying.
Any
of these distractions I’ve just mentioned can draw us from our steadfast walk
along the straight and narrow path to the Kingdom. Surely, that’s why God tells
us to keep seeking. And know this:” ‘Seeking’ doesn’t just happen. It’s
an intentional undertaking. It’s something we determine to do every time
we get out of bed in the morning and start our day with prayer and reading
God’s word if we’re physically able to do so.
We
need to keep seeking Him even when He seems silent. We need to intentionally keep
seeking Him even when circumstances shake us to our very core. The biblically knowledgeable
Christian understands such horrible life-circumstances are not unknown to the
faithful throughout the millennia.
The
Psalmist speaks to such circumstances in Psalm 13. Notice how the plasm begins,
and how it ends: “How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever? How
long will You hide Your face from me? How long shall I take counsel
in my soul, Having sorrow in my heart all the day? . . . But I have trusted in Your
lovingkindness; My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation.” (Psalm
13:1,2,5)
Here
is Psalm 77. Again, notice how it begins, and how it ends: “In the day
of my trouble I sought the Lord; In the night my hand was stretched
out without weariness; My soul refused to be comforted. When I
remember God, then I am disturbed; When I sigh, then my
spirit grows faint . . . I am so troubled that I cannot speak . . . Will
the Lord reject forever? And will He never be favorable again? Has His lovingkindness
ceased forever? Has His promise come to an end forever? Has
God forgotten to be gracious, or has He in anger withdrawn
His compassion? Then I said . . . I shall remember the deeds
of the Lord; Surely I will remember Your wonders of old. I
will meditate on all Your work and muse on Your deeds. Your
way, O God, is holy; What god is great like our God?” (Psalm 77:2-13)
Writing
just before the Babylon army ravaged its way through Jerusalem the prophet
Habakkuk (3:16-18) put his thoughts on parchment for everyone to read: “I
heard and my inward parts trembled, at the sound my lips quivered.
Decay enters my bones, and in my place I tremble because I must wait
quietly . . . for the people to arise who will invade us. [Nevertheless]
Though the fig tree should not blossom and there be no fruit on
the vines, though the yield of the olive should fail and the fields
produce no food, though the flock should be cut off from the fold and
there be no cattle in the stalls, yet I will exult in the Lord,
I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.”
Seeking
God is a choice. Rejoicing in God – despite tragic circumstances is a decision.
Both are intentional. They don’t ‘just happen.’
We
do the right thing when life knocks out our teeth and yet we keep seeking
Christ because we know God is our loving, merciful, and gracious FATHER.
Whatever He allows into our lives – we take refuge in what He has repeatedly
told us: Nothing “will separate us from the love of Christ. [Not] tribulation,
or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril,
or sword.” (Romans 8:35)
Nothing.
I
see I need to move on. So, let’s go back to our text in chapter three and ask
another question: What does it look like when a person continually seeks the
things above, where Christ is?
Well,
Paul delineates through the rest of this chapter what it ought to look like. I’ll
read only portions of his text and without much comment because the results of
our intentional seeking Christ are self-evident for the true Christian:
“Consider the
members of your earthly body as dead to [sexual] immorality, impurity,
passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is
because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons
of disobedience . . . But now you also, put them all
aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from
your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the
old self with its evil practices . . . [But] put on
a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing
with one another and forgiving each other . . . just as the Lord forgave
you, so also should you. Beyond all these things put on love,
which is the perfect bond of unity . . . Whatever you do in word
or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks
through Him to God the Father.” (Colossians 3:5-17)
That’s
quite a list of characteristics and evidence resulting in the man or woman who
is either seeking what it above – or who don’t particularly care to seek Him.
Before
I draw this message to a close in a few more minutes, I want to also speak yet of
one more result we can expect of an intentional seeking the things above, where
Christ is – but first I need to say once again something I have said many times
over the past eleven years that I’ve been pastor here – and this is a
critically important:
If
we have little interest in seeking the things above where Christ is, then it might
mean that we don’t belong to Christ. I hope you realize how serious this point is.
The Lord Jesus warns us several times in the gospels that there will be those
at the Judgment Seat who will stand in utter terror to discover they were not faithful
Christians at all, but rather they’d deceived themselves all along. You can read
what ought to be sobering texts in Matthew 7:21-23, Matthew 25:31-46, and Luke
13:22-28
I
believe it is for that reason that Paul challenged the Corinthians to test
themselves, to ensure they have saving faith. I bring this up again because I
am responsible to God to appeal to all of us – me included – “Test yourselves to
see if you are in the faith; Examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize
this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail
the test?” (2 Corinthians 13:5)
Do
we have a hunger for God’s word? Do we regularly read it, study it, memorize
it? Do we seek the Lord in regular prayer? Do we routinely gather with other
Christians for friendship? Do we take whatever steps we think are necessary to
be more like Jesus, following His commandments more closely with each passing
year of our lives?
So,
let’s look at yet one more expected result of an ongoing, day by day seeking
Christ and living for Him. Here is verse 4 of chapter 3: When
Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed
with Him in glory.
Be
certain of this: One day Jesus WILL be fully revealed to every eye on earth. “Behold,
He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who
pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is
to be. Amen.” (Revelation 1:7) And for an overwhelming majority of humanity,
that will be an incalculably terrifying moment.
At
the Lord’s first advent He came metaphorically as a lamb, a sacrificial lamb whose
mission was to die and make atonement for sinners. As a sacrificial lamb, Jesus
took on Himself the full wrath the Father had against us for our sins. By His
blood He has forever cleansed every sin, every stain, of every penitent sinner
devoted to Christ.
Think
what that means for YOU who have purposely made yourself a bondservant, a slave
of Jesus Christ. What it means for You who intentionally seek the things above,
where Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father. You now – today – you stand
blameless before God. He calls you righteous, justified, forgiven.
But
at Christ’s second advent – which WILL occur because He said it would occur –
at His second advent He will come metaphorically as a Lion – not to save
humanity from the Father wrath, but to execute the Father’s judgment on
all who have scoffed at Christ in their lives, against ALL who have rejected His
atonement. Jew, or non-Jew, atheist or religious, cold to Christ or lukewarm –
no one will escape His judgment.
However,
the good news on the other side of this promised eternal devastation for
the non-Christian is God’s promise to every born-again faithful follower of
Christ. For every Christian, this text in Revelation describes one of the
results we can expect for living a life of seeking and obeying Christ:
“And
I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on
it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges
and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His
head are many diadems . . . He is clothed with a robe
dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the
armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean,
were following Him on white horses. From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so
that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a
rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God,
the Almighty. (Revelation
19:11-15)
My
brothers and sisters – WE will be in that army, clothed in white linen,
following our Lord on white horses.
When
Christ is revealed, every Christian will also be revealed with Him in His glory
at His return to earth. Think what that means for YOU who live a life
intentionally seeking Christ. The world and all the angels in heaven will see
YOU in your glorified body returning with Christ to set up His kingdom on earth
– the place where you and all who have loved the Lord will be for an eternity.
And
what will that eternity look like? We catch only a glimpse in scripture of our
future forever home: Revelation 21 “Then I saw a new heaven and a new
earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is
no longer any sea. . . And I heard a loud voice from the throne,
saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He
will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will
be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes;
and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer
be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have
passed away.” And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I
am making all things new.”
Then He
showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal,
coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its
street. On either side of the river was the tree of life . . .
There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of
the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him; they
will see His face . . .And there will no longer
be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a
lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and
they will reign forever and ever.” Revelation 22:1-5
Let
me repeat something here: We will see His face. His lovely, beautiful,
blinding, precious face – the face even Moses could not see. You might remember
that passage in Exodus when the Lord said to him, “You cannot see My
face, for no man can see Me and live! Then the Lord said, “Behold,
there is a place by Me, and you shall stand there on the
rock; and it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will
put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have
passed by. Then I will take My hand away and you shall see My back,
but My face shall not be seen.” Exodus 33:21-23
You
and I have a choice today, and tomorrow, and every day for the rest of our
lives: We can seek what ultimately amounts to worthless vanity and striving
after wind, filling our days with worldly pleasures and distractions, or we can
spend our days seeking the eternal promises of the Christ’s eternal kingdom.
I
urge you to pray for me, to pray for each other, to pray for yourselves – that
we all learn to seek Christ better than we have in the past. That we learn to keep
seeking Christ better than we have in the past.
Solomon
said it well: “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow
the issues of life.” Proverbs 4:23
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