Heavenly Focus - Colossians 3:1-4

1:04As an employer, it's not the nicest thing to go to your employee and ask them to do something, and if they ask you why, to say, because I said so, right? Usually, as an adult, we give answers. We're kind. Even with your fellow church members, if you're giving some advice or you're giving rebuke, you give reasons. It's courteous, it's kind. Well, in our text today, that's what. Paul is going to do. Paul is going to give us a command, but then he's going to take the time to explain the command. And he doesn't have to do this, right? He's an apostle. He has the authority of one being sent by Jesus Christ. He could have just commanded us, but I think he's being gracious. And besides just commanding us, he also explains the command. He gives motivations why we should follow the command. So just to catch us up, Paul spent a good amount of time in chapter one of Colossians talking about the glories of Christ, lifting him up as first overall, saying that he has won the victory and he is above all things. But then in chapter two, he moved on to talk about how we are actually identified with Christ once we become a believer. We are unified with Christ in his death, in his burial, in his resurrection. And so for the believer, what that means is that it would be ridiculous for us to turn back to earthly forms of worship with rules and regulations and rituals because we've already died to those things. We've already been unified to Christ, who is above all things, first overall. He is all we need. We don't need to add anything else. Well, today, in our text, Paul is going to give us the opposite side of that coin.

3:01Last time he said, if you've died to these things, why do you keep living as if you hadn't? Why do you keep worshiping in an earthly way? Well, today he's going to say, if we've been raised, then we should be preoccupied with heavenly things. If we've been raised, then we should be preoccupied with heavenly things. And so that's what Paul is going to command us to do. Paul is going to command us today to think about heaven. That's the command. Think about heaven. Look at Colossians 3, 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.

3:48Set your minds on the things that are above, not on things that are on earth. Why? Verse 3: For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ and God. And when Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Let's pray. Father, as we come to this text, I pray that you would help us to understand it and help us to obey it. Lord, even during the greeting time this morning and the time just talking to believers in this room, there are so many of us here. Who are filled with joy, who had an amazing week with baby bumps and good grades and plans that succeeded.

4:42And Lord, I know that there's also people who have had a hard week with frustrations and setbacks and heartbreak. But Lord, when we come to your word as a family, when we study your word together, It's such a blessing for us that you've given us your word. And that not only that, but in this passage today, you've commanded us to think about our Savior, to think about the place where all of our hope is waiting for us. And so, Lord, I pray that as we study this passage, we'd be able to apply it even this morning, even right now.

5:23In Jesus' name, amen. So, if you are a Christian, then you have been raised with Christ. You have died to the earthly things, but you have also been raised with Christ. And so, we should seek the things above where Christ is. That's our command. And Paul will say it in two different ways. Look at verse 1. If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above. And then look down at verse 2. Set your mind on the things that are above. Set your minds on the things that are above. So he's saying we should search for these things. We should seek out these things that are above. But we should also... So, think about them. That's what he's talking about. Put your mind in heaven. Think about heaven. Think about where Christ is. And this is an active command. What he's saying is something that we're actually supposed to obey. He's not just giving us some innocent little proverb or something like that that it would be good if we listened to. No, he's actually commanding this. He's telling us it's our responsibility to discipline our minds so that we're actually thinking about heaven and not only thinking about earthly things. So, before we go any further, let's do some application right at the beginning. What he's saying is we need to think about these things. So, practically, how do we do this? If you said, tomorrow I'm going to wake up and I'm going to fix my mind on heaven, I'm going to set my mind on the things above. What does that actually mean? Does it mean thinking of clouds or thinking of harps or something like that? What does that actually mean? Well, I think that the answer is the same as the answer has been all throughout the letter of Colossians: that we need to be in the Word. We need to be thinking about it. God has given us so much. He's let us know about heaven itself so we can think about it. He's let us know about Himself.

7:30Who is in heaven? He's let us know about Christ. He's let us know about all of these things. And so we should be spending time in the word. We've seen from the very beginning of Colossians that this is the mark of a worthy walk. Paul says he wants them to walk worthily. And one of the ways they do that is that they need to be filled with knowledge. And what is that knowledge? It's God's Word. And so we've seen this over and over and over throughout this letter. So I just encourage you, if you've seen this over and over and over with us and you still haven't obeyed it, start today. Keep being in God's Word. And I think when he says, seek the things that are above, set your mind on the things that are above, it's a little bit more, maybe a lot more, than just reading and checking off the box, right? Just reading and then moving on and not thinking about it. I think he's encouraging us, he's commanding us to, yes, read it, but also soak in it, chew on it.

8:33Carry it around with us in our minds throughout the day. Keep thinking about it. Keep praying about it. When you read scripture, don't just hurry past it, hurry through it, and then be done with it. Try and read it. Maybe read it again. Think about what it means. And then carry those things throughout the day. Seek the things that are above. So if you are neglecting your time in the word, make the time. And If you're doing it already every day, then maybe spend a little more time, schedule more time, read a little slower, think a little longer.

9:11Some of you, you feel totally lost with this. You would have no idea where to start in the Word of God. But if a boss gave an employee an instruction and they said, I want you to have this taken care of next week. Well, when next week rolls around and the employee hasn't done it, the boss isn't going to like the answer, I didn't know what to do. I just didn't do it. Right? And so that can't be our response. Just because you feel lost in the Word, I encourage you, find an older believer, find a pastor who can help you be steeped in the Word, who can help you know what you are supposed to think. What does it mean to think on these things, to seek the things that are above as you study His Word?

9:57And for those of you who have done this for years, who are experts in the Word, but maybe you haven't been doing it recently, maybe you've grown a little cold, I just encourage you to light the fire again. Spend a little extra time, take it a little slower, and think about it as you go throughout your day. Let Scripture take your mind to heaven, to God Himself, and then fix your mind there. That's the command for today.

10:30Fix your mind in heaven. So spend time in curiosity as you try to get to the bottom of what heaven is like, as you try to get to the bottom of what God is like. Spend time in wonder and in prayer as you study his word. That's our application. Normally we say the application for the end, but this time we have it right at the beginning, right? We've got the command right at the beginning. And the rest of the time, what Paul is going to do, he could have just stopped there and said, fix your mind on heaven. He could have just given the command. But he's going to be gracious enough to give us motivations. And that's our outline for this morning. Three motivations to fix our mind on heaven. Three motivations to fix our mind on heaven. And the first one is that your Savior is there. Your Savior is there. Look at 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.

11:35Christ is there. You've been raised with Christ, and He's there. So we should think about there. That's where He is. So we aren't thinking about the things on the earth because Christ is no longer living with us here on earth. He is in heaven, seated at the right hand of the Father. So we should think about where He is. We hear from all over Scripture that Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father. The Father. If you remember it in Psalm 110, you guys should write that down and look there later. Psalm 110, the first verse is this. The Lord, this is David speaking, okay? The Lord, King David, this is King David speaking. The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. So something special is going on there. If King David, the one who is over the whole kingdom, who's the top over all the earth right now, if he's saying, the Lord, Yahweh, God, says to my Lord, but he's the king, something tricky is going on there, right? He's talking about somebody very special. God said to my Lord. So who could he be talking about? Well, he's talking about the Messiah, the anointed one, who's going to be seated at the right hand of the Father.

13:00At some time in the future, this Messiah, this person that David is calling Lord, he is going to be seated at the right hand of the Father. Then there's going to be a period of time until his enemies are made his footstool. That's what he says. Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. And what Paul is getting at in our passage today is we're in that time period. Christ has been seated at the right hand of the Father. He's still there until his enemies are going to be made his footstool.

13:31Well, this verse is one of the most important verses when we get to the New Testament. They quote it all the time. This verse from Psalm 110. Jesus uses it in Matthew 22. If you remember, towards the end of Jesus' life, everyone is trying to test Jesus. They're trying to trip him up. And so they send the Herodians, a faction of the Jews, and they're going to try and test Jesus, and they fail. They can't trick him. And so then they send the Sadducees, and they fail. They ask Jesus a question, and they can't trick him. Jesus always has an answer. So then the Pharisees say, okay, they all failed. We're going to go take care of them. And they ask him a question, and he puts them to shame, too. But finally, at the very end of all that, Jesus asks them a question. You guys remember this? Jesus asks them a question, and he actually stumps them. They've spent all this time trying to stump him. He stumps them. And the question he asks them is about this verse. He says, How could this Messiah be David's son if David is calling him Lord in Psalm 110? Then it shows up in Peter's sermon that we read today for the scripture reading. In Acts 2, Peter says, Peter is using this to prove that Jesus, even though they've just crucified him, Jesus is now at the right hand of the Father. He is the Christ. He is the Lord. In Revelation 3.21, Jesus will say, the one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my father on his throne. So this is an important idea that Jesus is in heaven, seated at the right hand of the Father. It shows up all over the place. And Paul kind of assumes that you know about that when we read this text. That's why we looked at those other passages. Paul is saying, okay, if he's there, then we should be there in our thoughts.

15:30If Christ is sitting there at the right hand of the Father, then we should be there in our thoughts. We should be thinking about heaven. We should fix our mind on those things. Christ is the one who is first over all. Christ is the one who we are unified with in his death and burial and resurrection. He's the one who's worthy of all praise. And all of the grace that we've received as a believer is because of what Jesus has done. He's our Savior. Everything we have, we owe to Him.

16:07And so it should be easy for us to think about Him, to fix our minds on Him, to fix our minds on where He is. Imagine this husband who has children. He's going to move to a foreign country, but before he does, He has to tie up some loose ends. And so He sends His family to. This foreign country to get their home ready. They've already moved all their money over to the banks in this foreign country. They've moved all their belongings, all their furniture. It's all over there. Everything he has is over there. His family, his money, his stuff. And he's just stuck waiting in our country. I think that that man would be thinking about where he's about to go, right? Everything he has is over there. He can't wait to get over there. He's thinking about it all the time. That's the call for us. Like we sang this morning, all we have is Christ. He's our only hope. He's our deliverer. Christ is the one who all of our hope is tied up in, and so we should fix our thoughts on him and where he is.

17:18That's the command. The hymn says, O soul, are you weary and troubled? No light in the darkness you see? There's light for a look at the Savior in life more abundant and free. So turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. That's what Paul is commanding us to do today. Think about Christ. Think about where he is. And the things of earth are going to grow strangely dim.

17:52They're going to fade as we think about him. The second motivation that we have to fix our thoughts. On heaven is that your life is there. Your Savior is there, and your life is there. 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. Set your minds on the things that are above, not on things that are on earth. Verse 3: For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ and God. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ and God. So when you became a believer, your life was actually deposited into heaven for safekeeping. Your life is with God.

18:52They can't take it away. No one can take it away. That's why Jesus said we don't need to be afraid of those who can just destroy our body. Our life is in safekeeping. Our life is hidden with Christ and in God. That's what he says. It's alongside Christ in heaven. That's where our life is. And it's in God for safekeeping. In a vault that can't be penetrated. You can see already that this supports the first point, right? Christ is the one who has given us life. And so since he's in heaven and he has our life, then we can. Think about him there. But also, this is a huge motivation in itself that our life is hidden away in heaven. Number one, we don't need to fear that our life can be lost. It's a huge encouragement. It's secure. Our life is secure. When we believed in Christ, our life was deposited into a vault and it can't be taken away. And we can have great confidence. One of the things that Daniel Lake used to always tell me when he worked at the hospital was how important it was, maybe especially for a hospital more than anyone else, to have things backed up.

20:13He had to do backup power in case the power failed. He had to do backup data, like all the files on the computer had to be backed up other places. But once you did that, then you never had to be afraid if everything crashed at the hospital, right? Because you've got backups everywhere. You don't need to be worried. Well, in a similar way, our life is backed up in heaven. Maybe even more so, right? Our actual life is in heaven. It's not just a backup. It's there. It's untouchable and unfading.

20:48To use another nerdy example in video games, when you're playing, no matter how immersed you are in the game, You want your character to live, right? You want your character in the video game to live, but no matter how immersed you are, if your character is about to die or get attacked or something, you're never actually fearing for your own life, right? It's just the character's life. You never all of a sudden get terrified and think, oh no, I'm going to die from that monster in the screen, right?

21:23In a similar way, we get to live in this world with a kind of immunity. Nobody can eternally threaten us because our life is somewhere else. It's hidden away. It's protected. So even if we lose this one, it doesn't matter. Our life is hidden in heaven. Another way that this encourages us to think about heaven is that heaven is where our treasure is. You know, what's more valuable than our own life on earth? If all your money was hidden in one place, then you would think about that place a lot. Well, all of our life is hidden in heaven. And so it encourages us to think about it. All of our interests, all of our life is there in Christ. Christ is there. So how can we take our mind off the place where our life is hidden? How can we stop thinking about the place where our treasures are hidden? We shouldn't be able to. We should keep thinking about those things.

22:31Unbelievers, for those of you in the room who have never trusted in Christ, this is what you're missing. You don't have this heavenly deposit. You don't have this impenetrable life that's in safekeeping in heaven. That's just for the believers, those who have trusted in Christ. So, what you see is what you get on this earth. All of it's fading away. It's not going to last long. You don't have this impenetrable life and safekeeping. And so, all of your fears are justified. And beyond what you fear is justified. You don't have assurance. You don't have life hidden in heaven. But you can.

23:20Even today, you could turn to Christ. You could ask him for this life. If you want it, he'll give it to you. You can confess that you're a sinner and you need forgiveness and you need a Savior. In Christ, who is at the Father's right hand, he'll hear you even today from heaven, and he'll forgive you and he'll hide away your life for eternity in safekeeping. Believers, those of you who have already done this, who have already trusted in Christ, I encourage you to dwell on this fact. Keep thinking about it, that your life, it isn't here.

23:59Your life is here. In heaven. Think about the boldness you get when you begin to wrap your mind around that. Think about how temptations to sin fade away at least a little bit more because your life is somewhere else. We can be bold in the face of adversity to the gospel because our life is already taken care of. It's in safekeeping. And when we're engrossed in sin, when we're consumed with anger, I think it's showing that we've lost sight of this, at least a little bit. We've lost sight of the fact that our life is hidden somewhere else. So we don't need to worry so much about things here. We don't need to be repeating in sin. Our life is somewhere else.

24:50So think about heaven. Think about the things above because that's where your life is. The final motivation to fix your thoughts on heaven is that your glory is there. So your Savior is there, your life is there, but also your glory is there, waiting to be revealed if you're a believer. 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. Set your minds on the things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ and God. Verse 4, when Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

25:37So, Christian, there's a day when for you, all three of these motivations are going to show up on the same day. Christ is going to come back to earth. Christ is your life. That's what he says in this passage. Christ is your life. He is the most valuable thing. But also, when he appears, we will appear in glory. That's what Paul says. When Christ comes, if you've already passed away, then you're going to be coming with him. You're going to be appearing with him. If you haven't died, then you're going to be changed into his image in a blink of an eye. 1 Corinthians 15, 51 says, Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep. He's saying, We shall not all die.

26:29But we shall all be changed. So all believers, there are some believers who aren't going to die because some of them are just going to be changed when Christ comes back. Verse 52, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised and perishable, and we shall be changed. In looking forward to this day, changes how we act and what we do even today, as we think about the day when we're going to be changed into his image, when we're made. Like him.

27:02If you've noticed, we're kind of in the middle section of Colossians. And what Paul is doing in this section at the beginning for the first couple chapters, he's mostly done a lot of teaching about who Christ is, about who we are once we become believers in Christ. But then in the second half of Colossians, he's going to give a lot more commands about what we should do, things we need to obey. And we're kind of right in the transition of that.

27:31So as he transitions from the things we know about ourselves, the things we know about Christ, to the things we need to do, the first thing he's saying is, think about those truths that I've just taught you. Think about these things. That's helping us change. As for what we'll actually look like when that day comes, we don't know. We don't know what our glory will look like when Christ's glory is revealed. John even says, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared. So he says, we don't know what we will be, but we know that when he appears, we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is. So even though we don't know what our glory is going to be like, even though we don't know what it's going to look like when we're revealed on that day with Christ, we do know that we're going to be like him.

28:27And that's encouraging. Definitely. How could we not be excited about that? How could we not look forward to that day and cherish that day as a believer when our sins are going to be gone, when temptation is going to be gone, when our Savior is going to be with us, when we're changed to be like him? That's our privilege to think about these things, the things of heaven. But what Paul is saying in our passage today is that it's also our duty, it's our responsibility to force our minds, to discipline our minds, to be thinking about these things. Think about Christ. Think about that our life is hidden in heaven.

29:12So before we close, you might be thinking this is one of the easiest texts in all of Scripture to apply. And it is. It is an easy text to apply. You can go home and apply it today. You can think about the things of heaven today. But I also want to warn you that this is one of the easiest texts to neglect. This is one of the easiest commands to just sweep under the rug because it's in our thoughts.

29:45It's so easy to let our thoughts be crowded in by all the things we need to do for work or all the things we need to do around the house. It's so easy to let our thoughts be crowded in by. Entertainment overload. So we fail to actually follow this command. So even though this is an easy command to follow, a joyful, exciting command to follow, it's also an easy command to forget and neglect. And so I would challenge you this week to not let that happen.

30:23Schedule the time ahead of time. Think about it. Don't just let your time slip away. But even this week, if you normally read the Bible for 30 minutes every day, why don't you schedule an extra 15 just to sit around longer and think about it some more? Pray about it some more. Read it again a little slower. And as you go throughout your day, if you already do those things, then keep thinking about it. Discipline your mind to think, okay, what did I read again today? I'm going to think about that. I'm going to think about where my Savior is in heaven. I'm going to put my mind there where Christ is. Seek the things that are above. That's the command. And it's not burdensome for us to follow. It's a joy to follow. Surely you've seen the motivations, right? Christ is there. Your Savior is there. Your life is there. Your glory is there. But beyond this, as you continue to meditate, there's so many other benefits of doing this. So I just want to sell you on this a little bit more as you think about heaven. There's so many other benefits. First, you're going to understand. Your freedom more, your freedom from rituals. Remember, that's the point he's making. He's saying, You've died to this earth, so you don't need to be caught up in rules and regulations about worship. Instead, you've got the freedom to think about Christ, to think about the things of heaven.

31:49The true believer doesn't need to make rules for himself to add on top of faith in Christ. We already have all that we need, and so we can meditate on what he's done. That's how we begin to worship. We think about Christ, we think about what he's done, where he is. Another benefit: we're going to grow in intimacy with Christ, in friendship with Christ. If we're constantly thinking about the place where he is, if we're constantly bringing him to the top of our minds, if we are heavenly-minded and Christ is in heaven, then we are going to be Christ-minded as well.

32:29And the Christian really has the better end of the deal, right? These other false teachers that are talking to the Colossians, they're saying, Focus so much on these, on what you're eating, focus so much on what you're touching, all these different rules. Well, for the Christian, it's not focus on those things. For the Christian, it's just focus on Christ. Fix your mind on Him, fix your mind on heaven, where He is. 2 Corinthians 3:18 says, And we all With unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. So as we think about Him, as we behold Him, as we think about the Lord, we're becoming more and more like Him. That's another benefit. And third benefit is that we're going to be bold, right? We're going to be free from anxiety. We're not having to always worry and fret about our own death because we know that our life is hidden in heaven.

33:38I don't know about you, but as I grow older, every night when I lay my head down on my pillow, there's always a thought of, you know, my heart could stop tonight. This could be the last time my eyes are ever open on this earth. My lungs could stop working. I might never wake up. And though this terrifies the unbeliever, for the believer, there's peace. Our life isn't hidden here, anyways. Our life is hidden in heaven. It's in safekeeping already. So even if my heart stops beating, even if my lungs stop working, I don't need to be afraid. God has personally taken charge of my own life. He's not going to let it go away.

34:20He's got it in heaven for eternity. So we can be bold. We don't need to be anxious. Final benefit. Benefit is that we're going to have greater humility. We're going to have greater humility. If we're really thinking about the fact that our glory is there, then we aren't going to need to constantly glory in ourselves here. Instead, we can look forward to the day when we're going to be manifested with Christ and realize that glory is so much better. So on this earth, I can be humble. I don't need to be obsessed with my own image, with my own glory. I can be joyful. The young adults just read on Thursday night about in Malachi, it says, on the day that the Lord is revealed, we're going to be so joyful that it's going to be like calves that are let out of a pen and they're bouncing all around and skipping. That's the kind of joy that we're going to have when Christ comes. And so we can have joy here as we're looking forward to that. We can be patient and humble and joyful, even in trials. So if we want freedom from earthly rituals, then we should fix our thoughts on heavenly things. If we want intimacy and friendship with Christ, then we should seek the things above where Christ is. If we want boldness and freedom from anxiety, then we should remember that our life is hidden in God. And if we want to be humble and joyful, then we should remember that the day is coming soon when we'll appear with Christ in glory.

36:00Don't neglect this command. 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 the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ and God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this passage. We thank you for the command that we need to discipline our minds to think about Christ, to think about heaven.

36:39And Lord, I pray that you would help us obey it. I pray, Lord, that even though it's so easy to neglect this command, to sweep it under the rug, to say, I don't know how to fix my thoughts on heaven. I don't know how to read his word. I pray, Lord, that, or read your word. I pray, Lord, that even so, you would help us be disciplined to obey this, that you would help us fix our minds on heaven. Seek the things that are above. Set our minds on the things that are above.

37:15And, Lord, as we do, I pray that it would fill us with joy, fill us with humility and boldness, friendship with you. I pray, Lord, that it would cause us to change and to grow. In Jesus' name, amen.