The Phil Files

Last Updated 10.22.2008

Colossians #12: For 11/9 “Hope’s Horizon” (Colossians 3:1-4)

Notice first the Message translation:

So if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ — that’s where the action is. See things from his perspective.
Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life — even though invisible to spectators — is with Christ in God. He is your life. When Christ (your real life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you’ll show up, too — the real you, the glorious you. (Colossians 3:1-4 MSG)

What is the basis for our hope for the future? Here are some basics of these four verses:

• Vs. 1-2: We have been raised from death to life with Christ!

o This is tied to the reference on baptism where we are buried and raised with Christ through our faith in the power of God (Colossians 2:12; Romans 6:1-14)

o Our continued focus, daily setting our hearts and minds on Christ and focusing on things above (cf. Luke 9:23 – daily), must be our commitment – if we are “serious about living this new resurrection life.”

• Vs. 3: His future is our future!
Because of this new birth, and the death of our old life, we are now joined to Jesus and His exalted position at God’s right hand. Above fate, above the rulers and authorities, our life is kept safe in the very presence of Jesus. His life is our life. His future is our future.
• Vs. 4: Glory awaits us!

Our future is secure because Christ is our life. Because His future is triumphant, and we are tied to Him, our future is triumphant! (cf. Psalm 37:4)

But the real issue for us is this: Where is our treasure? What is our life? Is it really Jesus?

Jesus himself reminded us that where our treasure is, that’s where our heart will be (Matthew 6:18-24). Jesus challenged us to ask ourselves the following questions:

What good will it be for you to gain the whole world, yet forfeit your soul? Or what can you give in exchange for your soul? (Matthew 16:26)

Much of this all boils down to believing Jesus when He says:

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10)

The call from Jesus is to see this gift of new life, this Kingdom way of living (cf. Colossians 1:13-14), as worth everything we have:

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it. (Matthew 13:44-46)

That’s why Jesus called us to seek first His Kingdom and trust God for the rest (Matthew 6:33).

So our key to grabbing onto this message would be to focus on our treasure and where we really think life can be found. What is the treasure we seek? What is the treasure we hold? This is especially powerful since we face the big economic challenges.

Two illustrations right now speak to me about this:

[Our house flooded by sewage right before Thanksgiving. Eating Thanksgiving dinner in a hotel and having a great day. I don’t remember who won the football games, but I do remember our family joy and thanksgiving. We saved our pictures and we were all okay!]
[McDonalds son Tim hiding under the bed during the fire. Lost their new pick up truck that wasn’t insured, but were so thankful to not have lost a son.]

It was just stuff! But how hard it is to really learn this without having to lose so much!

And there is a deeper promise in Colossians 3:1-4.

There are big things, hard losses, where we do lose those we love to accident, tragedy, and death. We still have the pick up truck but not the child. We have the pictures, but not the people. We walk away from the cemetery broken and alone. And this is where a life joined to Jesus means everything.

I’d love to sing the great old hymn, “Heaven Holds All to Me” at this point and ask this key question: is it true? (Two issues.)

We try to make heaven here. We want to guarantee our security for the future. We want to provide our own little heaven here on earth. We’ve been bumped up against the harsh reality that nobody can guarantee these things here. Not a presidential candidate, not the federal government, not the International Monetary Fund. No one. And it’s only our greed or our willful ignorance that would make us think differently. Those who lived through the depression know. I remember dad talking about a prayer session where they hadn’t had meat in a long time and were trying to decide whether to keep the milk cow or slaughter her for meat – they needed meat and weren’t sure they could feed the cow.

I know at funerals there is this great pressure to put everyone into heaven regardless of their trust and surrender to the Lordship of Jesus. So pretty soon, heaven becomes watered down and meaningless because it doesn’t really matter whether a person’s life was really joined to Jesus. But I can assure you, when Jesus was the consuming passion of that person, folks know. Heaven is not Santa Claus and Easter Bunny talk. It is reality. It is assurance. It is hope. And this hope only is given to those whose lives are joined to Jesus.

So the real question is whether our lives are joined to Jesus and whether our hope is in Him or in what is not secure.

All this sounds harsh. At first blush, this doesn’t sound like good news. But it really is IF we hear the call of Jesus to follow Him and be joined to Him. When our lives are joined to Jesus, when He is our life, then the incredible promises of Romans 8 are ours!

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, whol have been called according to his purpose. … Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? … No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:28, 35, 37-39)

Another old hymn to consider is “Jesus is All the World to Me.”

I’d love a testimony video of someone from Carrollton Avenue that lost everything and stayed because they wanted to help the church make an impact on the city. This could be a compilation of video we already have with commentary from our folks that know the person!

Daybreak

Refresh

Sundown
Focus on Jesus’ parable of the “Pearl of Great Price” and the “Treasure Hidden in the Field” and call us to Matthew 6:33.

LIFE Questions