Main Scripture: Colossians 3:1-4
“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”
Main Idea: Knowing who Jesus Christ is and our identity in Him, changes the way that we live and what we live for.
• If we know that not only have we died with Christ to our old way of living but we have been resurrected with Christ to new life, it will change how we live and what we live for.
• Our life is not our own, it is now bound up with and inextricably linked to Christ’s life now, even though we may not fully see how.
“Having Christ is having everything. He is the center of our resurrection life, and the conscious preoccupation of the believer is to be on Christ” -John McArthur
1. Because our life is with Christ we are to seek the things above
Verse 1 “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.”
• This world is not where our true life is. Our life is with Christ and so we should seek to live life now as if we are already with Christ.
• This requires a response of faith – faith believing that we have indeed been resurrected with Christ and even though we do not yet fully see what that resurrection life is, we are to seek to live with Him now.
Hebrews 11:13-16 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.
• As Christians – those who have been raised with Christ - we are to be seeking a homeland and that homeland is not here – it is above with Christ.
• We don’t live for earthly treasures any longer because we have received the Pearl of great price – Christ Himself. We have the One in who are all riches of wisdom and understanding – our life is now with Christ, in whom all the fullness of God dwells.
Ephesians 2:6 (God) “raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus”
Philippians 3:20 “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself”
• In order to relate to this world rightly, we have to leave the mindset of the world behind and seek to have a heavenly perspective and a heavenly mindset and then and only then will we be able to minister to those in the world and be a light in the world.
• Seeking the things above, is seeking to become in reality what we already are in position with Christ. It is seeking to live up to our position.
2. Because our life is with Christ, we are to set our minds on the things above
Verse 2: “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”
“Since His people share His risen life, their interests are now centered in Him; His interests, in fact, have become theirs. They must therefore pursue those things which belong to the heavenly realm where He reigns; their mind, their attitude, their ambition, their whole outlook must be characterized by their living bond with the ascended Christ.” – FF Bruce
• Any and all emphasis on living ethical lives here on earth comes from the objective motivation of what Christ has accomplished for us and in our place, and who we are in Him.
• Setting our “minds on things above” is letting our motives and our values and our desires and goals and outlook on life be completely changed as we renew our mind with God’s Word and think His thoughts after Him.
Romans 12:2 "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."
• Those who have been born again already belong to the age which is to come when He will complete all things
3. Because our life is with Christ, we are secure in God above
“…where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God… your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Philippians 2:10-11 “…at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Isaiah 6:3 “And one called to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!"”
• This Christ is the One in whom we are hidden and kept safe.
• Our lives are in fact now hidden with Him. Our life is so bound up with Him that we are inseparable from Him and we are safely hidden from death with God. No power of hell and no scheme of man can ever pluck us from His hand.
“my life is all wrapped up with Jesus Christ and you know God doesn't see me apart from Him and God doesn't see Him apart from me. Is that staggering? God looks at Jesus Christ and sees John MacArthur. God looks at John MacArthur and sees Jesus Christ, That's what it means that my life is hidden with Christ in God.” – John McArthur
• Even though we may die for Christ here, nothing can take away our life that is hidden in Him above. This hope, this confident expectation is to motivate us and remind us to not live for this kingdom, nor the riches or comforts it contains.
Hebrews 11:24-26 By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.
• We are to be living for the day when Christ appears, and our motivation is to be firmly grounded in knowing that we will be with Him in glory.
Hebrews 9:27-28 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, 28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
1 John 3:2 “Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.”
"The veil which now shrouds your higher life from others, and even partly from yourselves, will then be withdrawn. The world which persecutes, despises, ignores now, will then be blinded with the dazzling glory of the revelation.” –Lightfoot
Potential Caregroup Application Questions :
1. Where (and how) are we tempted to find our identity in people or earthly things?
2. How does this misplaced identity affect what we are seeking and what we are setting our minds on?
3. What does it mean that we have been raised with Christ and He is our life?
4. What are we seeking in our life that is not from above? (Riches? Respect? Position? Power? Influence? Possessions?) How can we identify where this is the case?
5. How does knowing that we’ve died, we’ve been raised to life and are hidden with Him free us from living to get the things of this earth? How does this change what we live for?
6. What would be different in our lives if we lived as if heaven is our true home (because it is)?
7. How does knowing our life is hidden with Christ in God increase our faith for every day living?
8. How does knowing that we will be revealed with Christ in glory when He returns give us hope?
9. How can we practically remind ourselves & each other that heaven is our home regularly?
