Risen With Christ

In the book of Colossians, Colossians, the third chapter, ye then be arisen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is in Christ, who is our light, shall appear, then shall ye also appear.

Mortify therefore ye members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, covetousness, which is adultery. For the sake of the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience. Ye also put off all these, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds.

Put on the new man, which is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, thivian. If any man have a foe also, do ye. On these opening verses, if ye then be arisen with Christ, now Easter has come again, and tonight, thirty for millions, it will be a little saddened by the fact that it makes for a great many people, marks the end of all spirit friends now, I suppose.

If ye then be arisen with Christ, seek those things which are above. And I'd like to point out to you that Christ's triumph over death was the, it was everything to these enraptured believers of the first. First, it was amazement.

This became to the first Christians the reason for everything. This battle shout, that he is risen, and it became a ring in their faces toward a new. They did not celebrate.

Here, if then ye be risen with Christ, but I want you to know that an if of uncertainty, the force of the word, he says, since ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things, says Paul, we must say. This is not as vague as it may sound, or validate the flesh. It shall fix, and it fix, and it stay fixed.

And Paul is not black, nor white, nor red, nor yellow. The Christian church is not Canadian, nor American, nor British, nor German. Christ is out of the grave and is alive to be present to those who have faith, and he's here now.

Christ lived because he gave us all. Christ gave us all, and because he gave us all this year, we tried it. Starting, we're a people, we're a spiritual, partly of this world, and partly of the world above.

I don't think it's New Testament at all. I think that it came to us because of the expecting to bless me and keep me on my way, and every time it used to be wonderful. We take it, and then we're supposed to tie us on top of that.

Now, yourself to him. Somebody says, are you preaching now? Well, you may get more. I wouldn't get more, but I can't do to have it.

Well, he says, your life is to preach it. Your life, your safety and strength and assurance, and here's the cure of all fear. Your life is hid with Christ in God.

He shall appear just as the bride who must be separated for a little while from her bridegroom, writes him letters eager and sends him telegrams. You can't know any more. Creeping intimacy.

Let us take it, take it as one more step in his heart. He suffered, but that's an accomplished fact. The second accomplished fact is that we are risen with him.

Now it's our business to cultivate this, to seek those things which are above us, that we may be better Christians next year than we've been this. Amen. End of sermon.