Episode 314 - He is Your Life

A continued study of the book of Colossians...Chapter 3:1-4

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Welcome back to another episode of Two Brothers One Bible Podcast. We are coming to you from New Song Baptist Church in Columbia, Tennessee. We really appreciate you listening. And if you're not listening, well, what are you doing here? Yeah. Because this is a listening thing. You're not watching it. That's a good point, Robert. Yeah. Did you uh have you heard heard old timers talk about watching the radio? Yeah. Because, you know, they would sit there, that's all they had. They didn't have TV. Right. So they would watch the radio. Yeah. And that's what people are doing with us. They're watching the podcast. Wow. Even though we're not really out there.

SPEAKER_01 1:05

That's true. Well, they have pictures of us and they're looking at us while we're talking.

SPEAKER_00 1:09

Maybe they do. Maybe. I haven't thought of that. And maybe we should put that picture out there so that they'll know what we look like. Maybe not. Maybe their picture's better than my picture. I like your thinking better. Have some images. Right. That's fine. That's fine. We'll let them do that. Well, I'm Robert Twakefield. I'm Peter Sears. And we are in collections, and what a study this has been so far. Wow. It's just rich. It's just been unreal how much he has packed into such few verses, if you will. Yeah. Because it's just it's just chock full of everything. We've been through the first chapter and the second chapter, so what are we going to do next?

SPEAKER_01 1:49

I planned for chapter three. Look at you. Really? Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:52

That's what we're going to do. Awesome. So your planning was really good.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

Okay. And we're going to start with the first verse.

SPEAKER_00 1:58

So look at you. You are catching on to what we're doing. Fantastic. I like it. Well, in chapter three, uh, we're going to talk about a lot of things, uh, but uh we're going to start, uh, we're going to do verses one through five. Four. That's what I said.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

One through four.

SPEAKER_00 2:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:16

You're just testing me.

SPEAKER_00 2:17

I was just seeing if you were really listening. Okay. All right, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

All right. So Colossians chapter three, verses one through four, and I'm in the NIV translation. Since then you have been raised with Christ. Set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things, for you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

SPEAKER_00 2:50

And that is the word of the Lord. So when we look back at um at chapter two, going into chapter three, he is moving from what uh Christ has done for you to who we are because of what Christ did for us. Right. So it's it's a change here.

SPEAKER_01 3:09

Yeah, and that's why the word sense or therefore as a result, whatever you want to say there, so it's all these things he said previously in chapter two. Exactly. And you have to remember, he he didn't write in chapter and verse. He he wrote a letter. So this is the next paragraph. So he said all these things, and now he says, Because of these things, this is what you ought to do.

SPEAKER_00 3:30

So, you know, I thought it was interesting that he started he started this with a fact. And he started the command, not a command. He says the command, set your hearts, rests on the fact that you've been raised.

SPEAKER_01 3:41

Yeah, and I like that it's it's the past tense. You have been raised. Exactly. Not you will be, or you're in the process of it's already been done. Yeah. Is that is that in the Greek the aorist tense?

SPEAKER_00 3:55

It is in the aorist tense, Robert. Did you see me do that? I know, it's just uncanny. You know, it's it is uncanny that I remember aorist tense. I know. Yeah. And I don't know why I remember that. Yeah. But that's what this is. Yeah. Because it's already been done. It's been done. And it continues to be done, exactly. See there? Yeah. Oh my goodness. Well, let's talk about a little bit of this verse one here. Uh he talks about being raised with Christ. Um, and again, it is the aorist tense. Uh uh the event has been completed. Yeah. Um, it was done to you. God acted, and we respond we received it. And it has ongoing implications, this guy wrote. Yeah. Uh your life now is defined by the resurrection. Yeah. So that is uh that is amazing that he just starts out with a fact and not a command here.

SPEAKER_01 4:41

Yeah, this this whole verse reminds me of someone getting married. Okay. So, you know, uh a man and a woman say, you know, really like each other, we're gonna get married. When when they say their vows, things change. Things are different. That's true. And so this is us being united with Christ. We're we're making a commitment. We're we're pledging our relationship with him. Right. Things need to change. You know, if a man says, you know, I let's get married, but he keeps going out with the guys drinking and and you know, go krausing with other women, and she's gonna say, I I didn't sign up for that. Right. You know, you're still the same guy before we were dating. Yeah, there's no change. Right. And so that's really what Paul is saying here. Because we have been raised with Christ, our heart needs to be on different things.

SPEAKER_00 5:40

That is so good. And I love this part that set your heart. Yes. Uh, because this is a okay, are you ready? Here's a a Greek word here. Uh huh. Zete. Zetite. Okay. I d did you see how it just flows? It's uncanny, right? Thank you very much. Uh you sure you're not Greek? I can promise you I'm not Greek. Uh but the verb means this. It means to think about, it means to pursue. Uh, this verb is talking about crave it. And I like that word.

SPEAKER_01 6:09

I like that too.

SPEAKER_00 6:10

You know, when you set your desires on something, you crave that. If you want a if you want a hamburger, you're really hungry, you crave that. You set your you set your sights on that. Yeah. And so this is the kind of hunger I think that that Paul is talking about here. He's he's talking about aiming your desires and uh chasing after, you know, the dream or your intention of what you want to do.

SPEAKER_01 6:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:33

Um I think this is just a great, a great um little sentence here that he begins chapter three with.

SPEAKER_01 6:39

Yeah, and Paul talks about this a lot, uh, not just here in Colossians, but in other places, you know, what what you think about is what you're going to pursue. Exactly. And so we need to make sure we're thinking about godly things, pursuing godly things. And so, you know, I think your hamburger illustration is just spot on. If if we hunger and thirst for righteousness, oh yeah, then that's what we're gonna find.

SPEAKER_00 7:01

That's exactly right.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

If we're huggering for fleshly, worldly, you know, temporary kind of treasures, then that's what we're gonna pursue.

SPEAKER_00 7:11

You know, and Jesus even talked about that. Yes, he did. You know, he's he's told us that, and then now Paul is simply echoing that. Yeah. We're gonna get into some of these identity uh crises. I like to think of them as identity crises, yeah. Uh, because that we've we could so easily fall into this trap. Yes. And and often have. Um this guy wrote this illustration. He says, uh, a compass doesn't uh create north, it simply aligns to it. There you go. So Paul wants our hearts now to have that magnetic pull to Jesus. Ah, that's that's that's a good. So the second half of verse one talks about where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. And you know what I thought about when I saw seated at the right hand of God? Hebrews. Hebrews. Our Hebrews series, if you have not listened to that, it is one of the it is one of the most exciting series I think we've done. Yeah. I just love it. It's it's it's awesome. It's just so good. And and not because we did the podcast of it, but because Hebrews is good on its own. Oh, it's it's outstanding. But the fact that we talked about seated at the right hand, so talk about seated at the right hand, what that was.

SPEAKER_01 8:20

Well, you know, when when it I mean you just look at the sentence. First he says Christ has been raised. Okay, and then and like you said, it's it's complete. There's there's nothing lacking, there's nothing we come along and do with him. Christ did it all. Right. And then when he got done, he took his rightful seat next to the Father on the right hand side, which was the side side of honor. Okay. And that's where he is. That's where he is, yeah. And and not only is he sitting where he belongs, he's probably sitting where he was sitting before he came to Bethlehem as a child. That's that's where he belongs. Right. But he's there interceding, he's mediating for us. He's saying, That that one's ours, Father. I died for that one.

SPEAKER_00 9:06

That is so good. And the thing that we brought out in Hebrews, in our Hebrews thing, and I'm gonna bring it up again because you know, in case people didn't uh catch that, um, you know, when the priests in the temple, when they when it was their time to serve, yeah, they never sat down. No chairs. There were no chairs in there. They because sin was continuous, and they had to continually offer sacrifices and and continually do the things that God prescribed. Right. When Jesus came as our high priest, yeah, and he sacrificed himself, he sat down.

SPEAKER_01 9:47

Work was done.

SPEAKER_00 9:48

It was finished.

SPEAKER_01 9:49

Like like you said last time, uh Totalist, it is finished. I'm done.

SPEAKER_00 9:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:55

And so he got to take his rightful seat.

SPEAKER_00 9:57

And I think that when he when Paul says where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, you know, that seated, you know, he's done. The sacrifice is complete. Yeah. And there's that's why the the temple curtain tore in two from top to bottom after he died. Yeah. It's no longer necessary. It's not it's not. Isn't that just the fact? That's a fascinating second half of verse one. Yeah, and that's just one verse. I know it's that crazy. Oh, yeah. It's just so good. And let's talk about the right hand of God, because you said something that was a place of authority, but it's but it's more, you know, I think like you said, it's a place of honor.

SPEAKER_01 10:38

It is a place of honor. If you look throughout scripture, I mean, that talks about the right all the time. And and and it's not slanderous against anybody who's left-handed. It's just they they associated the right side with being right.

SPEAKER_00 10:55

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 10:55

And so that's why it it um because he could have just said seated next to God. Oh, exactly. You know, and then then remember the disciples asking asking Jesus, you know, well, can we sit on your right or your left? Right. So they were trying to figure out it's a position of honor.

SPEAKER_00 11:12

Okay. So that's that's verse one. Good job. Thank you very much. We may get through ver four verses. Well, I don't know. But the verse two talks about set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. And so he's moving from affections in verse one to thought patterns in verse two.

SPEAKER_01 11:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:33

Uh set your minds. Uh, that is a word that means adopt a mindset. And how critical, let me ask you this question, how critical do you think it is for us as Christians to adopt a mindset based on what Jesus has said? Golly, it's it's foundational. Because it it shapes everything we do, doesn't it? I mean, uh to me, i if you don't have the mindset, the mind of Christ, right, and set your affections upon him, right, then you're just you're just like a fish out of water.

SPEAKER_01 12:06

Well, it goes back to what you said about a hamburger. If that's all you think about, you're not going to be content until you have a hamburger. Right. And so if our thought is about God, about Jesus, about a relationship, about learning more about Him, about how I can please Him, how I can be in His will. And you know, that's what you think about all the time. Right. You know, and the reality is, as it says in verse 2, our minds are thinking about more earthly things.

SPEAKER_00 12:41

Well, that's that's true. Than it is about heavenly things. And and that's why I think he's uh telling these Colossians to set your minds on these things above.

SPEAKER_01 12:51

Yeah, it's a choice. Yeah, so he says heart in verse one, he says mind in verse two, and and we and for the Greeks that Paul is writing to, they kind of had their anatomy different from ours. Okay. So when they talk about the heart, they think about the center of reasoning, the the what decides things. When they talked about the mind, they thought that was more the emotional place. Okay, so that makes sense. Right. So he's saying in verse one, really let your mind be fixated on the right thing. And now he's saying, May your emotions choose, you know, the the the right path. Right. You know, so that's what he's talking about. You know, the and and we know uh it's been illustrated before that it's kind of like a ship that you know, a ship's made to be on the water, but when the water gets in the ship, you've got problems.

SPEAKER_00 13:48

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 13:49

And and so we're in the world, but when the world gets in us, we've got problems. Oh, that's good. And so we when we start having these appetites, these cravings, these these these thoughts that just dominate our mind that are not godly, that's who we're becoming.

SPEAKER_00 14:09

That's exactly right. Yeah, verse one uh i is like the compass. Yes. And verse two is the map. Absolutely. And so I I think that's really, really important. So verse verse three says, For you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. This is this is one of the most important identity statements that Paul makes in any of his writings, I think. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:33

Just just an opinion. Well, and it's it's not very subtle. No. He says you're dead.

SPEAKER_00 14:38

Yeah. That's what I was gonna talk about. You died. Yeah. Yeah. Uh you're not sick.

SPEAKER_01 14:43

No.

SPEAKER_00 14:44

Uh it's past tense, yeah. It's final. Yep. Uh he's not saying you are dying or you should die. No. He says you died. Yep. The old self is no, it's not just wounded, it's gone. Yeah. And you know, we see this a lot in Paul's writings. Sure we do. Uh, he talks about this a lot about being dead to self. Right. And how hard is it for us to do that? We really struggle with putting ourselves to death.

SPEAKER_01 15:12

Yeah. Well, we we kind of like ourselves.

SPEAKER_00 15:14

Well, you know, we do.

SPEAKER_01 15:15

And and we like what we want to like. That's what Paul's identifying as the problem. If if we allow our old self to live, we're not gonna live for Christ. We're gonna live for self. Right. And so when he's saying, You're dead, we're dead to the things of the world, we're dead to the sin nature, we're we're dead to our ourself. Right. And so now we're alive in Christ. And he points this out so well, but the way he's just very stark about it, you go, when you first read the first three words of of verse three, it's like, what do you mean I'm dead?

SPEAKER_00 15:52

I know.

SPEAKER_01 15:52

But it goes way back to Genesis when when God's giving the tour to Adam and Eve, you know, if you eat this tree, you're gonna die. And they did. Now they didn't fall on the ground. Right. They didn't, you know, their heart didn't stop beating, but they were spiritually dead, and that's what Paul's talking about.

SPEAKER_00 16:13

Oh my goodness. And then he then he says, not only for you died, uh, and your life is now hidden with Christ, your life is hidden. Yeah. Wh which this is some kind of Greek word I can't say, but it means concealed or protected or secured, but not yet fully revealed. Yeah, it's crypto. Krypto, is that how you say that? Yeah, crypto. Okay, crypto. And so this true identity is not visible to the world, but it's wrapped up in Christ's life, is what this uh Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:42

If you want to understand crypto, I would say it'd be like using a a mason jar for canning.

SPEAKER_00 16:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 16:49

So it's it's like you use the words covering, it's it's uh sealed, concealed within it. So it's what you would do to something that's treasured that you want to have forever. Okay. And so we are so when we see hidden, we're thinking it's a mystery, it's it's un but what it is, it's protected. We're protected, and and so it's such a great word.

SPEAKER_00 17:12

And it's such a great word, and and your mason jar is uh illustrations perfect. Yeah. Because you know, you want that for later.

SPEAKER_01 17:19

Right.

SPEAKER_00 17:19

And so, but but you can see the the contents of the jar.

SPEAKER_01 17:22

Well, and we well, we're you know, you're canning, but we're saying we're we're preserving it for later. Preserving it. And that's what we're doing, we're being preserved in Christ.

SPEAKER_00 17:30

Yeah, that that's really good. So that shoots us all the way to verse four. Look at us. I know, and it talks about when Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear uh with him in glory. So Paul is moving from the present identity to our future destiny.

SPEAKER_01 17:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:49

And uh Christ who is your life. It's not it's not Jesus is part of our life, it's not, you know, it's it's Jesus influencing our life, it's not Christ improves our life, price, Christ is our life.

SPEAKER_01 18:03

Yeah, yeah. And you know, and it goes back to these appetites, these cravings. So when when we're fixated on something, we really can't move past it until we satisfy that urge. Right. When Christ and that relationship becomes like heir to us, I I if I don't have time with God, I can't breathe.

SPEAKER_00 18:26

Right.

SPEAKER_01 18:27

When it's like I I can't I can't function, I can't focus, I've gotta have him. That's what he's talking about.

SPEAKER_00 18:35

Yeah. I love the part that says uh you will appear with him in glory.

SPEAKER_01 18:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:40

Yeah. What a great statement that is.

SPEAKER_01 18:42

Well, and that shows how connected we are. When he appears, guess what? You appear too.

SPEAKER_00 18:47

That's right. I didn't think about that.

SPEAKER_01 18:49

You know, and it's not just just where he appears, he appears in glory. We're there with him. He's talking about glorification here. And and uh, well, you know, there's a lot of people that have this attitude about when they first see Jesus, you know, well, I'm I've got questions. He's got some explaining to do. Oh, yeah. Let me tell you, when you're in the presence of Jesus, the only thing on your mind is worship and gratitude.

SPEAKER_00 19:17

Amen to that. Yeah. That's exactly right. Uh, the this to sum this thing up, we could say something along these lines. Christ is not an accessory to your life.

SPEAKER_01 19:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:29

He is your life.

SPEAKER_01 19:32

Absolutely. Well said, Robert. Very good.

SPEAKER_00 19:34

Well, thank you very much. And that's gonna do it for this episode of Two Brothers One Bible Podcast. I'm Robert Wakefield. I'm Peter Sears. And we are going to continue our study in chapter three of Colossians, and we're gonna do more verses. All right. Starting with five. Okay. I've got time just to work out. Oh, good. I'm glad you got time. Yeah. That makes it so much easier. Thanks so much for listening and God bless.