Matt Nelson - August 28, 2022
Reimagining a Resurrected Life
COLOSSIANS Reimagining a resurrected life 8.28.22 Colossians 3:1-4 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. Christ has already defeated the powers of darkness, but his reconciling rule has not yet been fully established in history N.T. Wright There is a perfect balance here (in Colossians 3) between the ‘already’ and the ‘not yet’ that are so characteristic of Paul’s teaching on the Christian life. The new age has dawned, and Christians already belong to it. The old age, however, is not yet wound up, and until they die (or until the Lord ‘appears’ again in his second coming) their new life will be a secret truth, ‘hidden’ from view. The church is called to believe and embody the kingdom of heaven (things above) by faith, even before they are visible to everyone or seen in their fullness. Dallas Willard For us to live strongly and creatively in the kingdom of heaven, we need to have firmly fixed in our minds what our future is to be like. Colossians 3:5-11 5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. 7 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 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 practices10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. 11 Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. What occupies your mind will largely govern what you do. TRIANGLE OF TRANSFORMATION Think Practices People Work of the Holy Spirit Dallas Willard Spiritual disciplines are any activity within our power that we engage in to enable us to do what we cannot do by direct effort. In the letter to the Colossians, Paul is trying to shape this community in such a way that the story of Jesus becomes the story that determines how they live.
From Series: "Colossians"
In a city dominated by the Roman empire, false teachers, and a blending of beliefs, Paul writes a subversive letter to the church at Colossae calling them to a different way of life. In this letter, Paul invites the church to reshape their imagination around a world saturated with Christ, to stand faithful against the bombardment of false gospels, and to set their hearts, minds, and lives on the reality of the resurrection of Christ.
