Col No.20 Christ our life

Now let's read together from John's Gospel in the 15th chapter, the Gospel of John, chapter 15, and let's enjoy reading the first ten verses of that rather wonderful passage of Scripture. Historically one of the national emblems, symbols of the Jewish nation was the vine, and here the Lord Jesus takes that emblem and He deduces certain lessons from it, recognizing that if the Jewish people are the vine, then the Father must be the gardener, the husbandman, and the Church of Jesus really, He is saying, is the true vine, and that vine is to be cultivated and pruned by the Heavenly Father. So let's read with meaning those first ten verses, please join me as we read it together.

I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit He taketh away, and every branch that beareth fruit He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches.

He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered.

And men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit, so shall ye be my disciples.

As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. Continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.

Amen. Now, for those who are new to our fellowship, let me explain that it's our practice on a Sunday morning, in particular, to work our way through one of the books of the Bible and to apply its lessons to our lives in the 20th century. We believe that the Word of God is ever contemporary.

That means it's always relevant. It has meaning for you and for me today. And we have just started to enter into the third chapter of Paul's letter to the Colossians.

Let me remind people who gather here regularly that in moving into these last two chapters of this letter which this early Christian wrote, we are discovering, or shall discover, that there's a change of content and the objective is a little different. In the previous chapter, you remember, the Apostle Paul has been so concerned because there have been those amongst the Christian community at Colossae, as there are always those present in any Christian community through any church age, who are trying to dislodge the Christians from their simple faith in the Lord Jesus. So he spends a lot of time dealing with these folks who are adding to the Gospel, who claim a greater revelation.

And there's an amount of argument and great theological reasoning that are to be discovered within the first and second chapters of this magnificent epistle. But when you move into the third and the fourth, you find something is different. No longer is Paul reasoning with the heretics.

He believes that their arguments have completely caved in. They are groundless over against the logic of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So what does he do in these two chapters? Well, he works out in practice some of the theological principles in the first and second chapters.

You'll find that the Apostle makes a habit of doing this sort of thing in many of the letters that he writes. For instance, in the opening chapters of the epistle to the Ephesians, he deals with grey doctrinal truths. And then in the closing chapters, he takes those truths and he applies them and shows that Christianity affects a person from Monday through to Saturday, as well as being something that interests him and compels his worship on the Lord's Day.

So in these two chapters here, you get a good illustration. You will find the Apostle Paul, from the fifth verse onwards of the third chapter, telling Christian people what they are to put off as far as bad practices are concerned. You will see him from the twelfth verse and onwards telling them what they are to clothe themselves with, how they are to conduct their affairs and cultivate their personalities by the power of the Holy Spirit.

More than this, from the eighteenth verse through to the twenty-first, he will make some reference to how a Christian family circle should operate, what mum and dad should be like, and how they should control the children, and how children should look up to their parents because they're Christians. Very, very practical application of the Gospel message. And if you'll allow the terminology from the twenty-second verse down to the first of the fourth chapter, he deals with industrial relations, how an employer should have responsibility to his employee, and vice versa.

And in the third verse of the fourth chapter, he deals with the mystery and the majesty of prayer, that verse being coupled to the second. And also he enjoins that the Christian person in the fifth and sixth verses should be careful about what they say and how they should use their time. And then from the eighth verse, or rather from the seventh verse down to the end, he brings personal greetings from his friends who want to say hello to the people in Colossae and send love in the name of Jesus.

So you see, we are really in for a delightful series of practical studies on the Sunday mornings that are to follow, as we lift out these principles and we apply them to our own hearts, and realise just how wonderful Christianity is, not just the religion of a Sunday. God forbid, that would be pure philosophy. It's rather a practical thing.

It must work itself out as a father, as an employer, in the way that I speak, in the way that I use my time, my Christian faith. It must condition, it must control me, otherwise it's not the faith of the New Testament. And it's vital, I say, in these days that we realise this, that the Christian gospel affects man in the whop and whoop of his personality.

It affects him throughout the week, and it makes him, or should make him, and if it doesn't make him, then something is wrong. A better employer, a better employee, a better husband, a better wife, a better child, because he belongs, she belongs to Jesus Christ. Well, as I say, all that is the prospectus that opens out in front of us, the vista that we see as we enter into these third and fourth chapters of this very practical dissertation.

But we have this morning to try to deal with, and it will be a miracle if we get through, the contents, the teaching of the first four verses of this chapter. Sometimes one of the best ways to deal with a passage of Scripture is to pick out what strikes you as being the fulcrum, that is the kernel of the teaching. And I have suggested that the fourth verse in this opening passage contains the key text, Christ who is our life.

This is how Paul understands the Christian, what controls the Christian, what is it that causes him to act in the way he does, why is he different from somebody else? Well, Christ is our life. I remind you that the apostle has done none other thing than this in the first two chapters, than emphasize the supremacy of Jesus. He tells us, you recall when we were dealing with it in the opening chapter, that the gospel which he preaches is verse 27, Christ in you, the hope of glory.

He tells us in the 28th verse that he goes around the Roman Empire preaching, warning men and women, teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. You go through to the second chapter and you find exactly the same thing, the supremacy of Jesus highlighted. In Jesus verse 3 are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Verse 6, as ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. Verse 9, for in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. There can be no doubt about it.

The apostle has been declaring as his major argument that the Christian is one who has responded to the claims of Jesus Christ upon his life. The Christian is the person who has surrendered to Jesus and believed that when he died on the cross, he died to make it possible for his sins to be forgiven and for him to know new life, resurrection life, so that he can be described as a person who is controlled by Jesus. Christ is our life.

Right, that's the seed text, that's the way to understand these four verses. It's the fulcrum on which the argument swings. And you will see as I try to break this open into a scheme so that it will help you to memorise it, that in the opening verse in particular, we discover that the person who has life in Jesus has first of all been raised in him.

If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above. Also we notice, continuing our scheme, following it through, that the person who has been raised by him is also regulated by him. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

You no longer are an independent entity. You're merged into Christ. He controls you.

You're raised in him. You're regulated by him. And what's more, it says the apostle in the fourth verse, the day is coming when Christ shall return, and when he comes, you will be revealed with him.

When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye appear also with him in glory. Raised in him, regulated by him, revealed with him. These are the three necessary things that follow when a man claims that Jesus Christ is his life.

Well, let's have a look at that first thing which the apostle draws to our attention. We are raised in Christ. If ye then be risen with Christ.

Have you noticed, incidentally, how that seems to be contradictory to something that he said a little while before? Look at the 20th verse of the previous chapter. Wherefore, if ye be dead with Christ, and now the first verse here, if ye then be risen with Christ. What is Paul talking about? Is this a negation? This first verse with what he has been saying previously? No, not a bit.

You see, you can describe conversion in two ways. You can say that conversion is a death, and you can say that conversion is a resurrection. A person who has been converted has died to one way of life, and he has been raised to a new way of life.

So, death and resurrection are two sides of the same coin, as they illustrate, as they define what conversion is all about. If ye then be risen with Christ. Now, the apostle there is not suggesting that there's a possibility that the Colossian Christians were not risen with Christ.

Actually, the New International Version's rendering here is much to be preferred to the Authorized Version. Since ye be risen with Christ, certain things follow. The man, the woman who claims to be a Christian has not only participated in the death of Christ, he or she shares in the resurrection of Jesus.

Now, this is no new teaching. Come back to the twelfth verse of the second chapter. Here, the apostle, you remember, was talking about Christian baptism.

We bless God that here in the tabernacle, this baptismal pool that's hidden from view at the moment has been opened on several occasions this past year and will be opened next Sunday evening as well. And what happens when a person is baptized? Well, as they're immersed in water, they are saying that that stands for the life which they used to live but no longer holds them. They died to the old way of life.

They were buried. As Jesus was killed on the cross, as he was crucified for the sins of the world, so when we're baptized, we confess that there was a point in our lives when we so identified ourselves with the death of Jesus that we said, yes, and when Christ died on the cross, I died with him. I made an observation last week, which I still would claim without being proud to be a profound one, you cannot say that Jesus has died for you unless you believe and show that you have died with Jesus.

But the converse of that is also true. The Christian is not a person who only believes in the resurrection of Jesus. Rather, he's a person who believes that he has risen with Christ.

There are some who believe that resurrection life starts at the grave. You wait until your old heart refuses to sustain physical life any longer, and there you are completely helpless. So someone, you can't do it for yourself, brings up tribes or Dillastons or one of the other agents and they come along and they deal with your body.

And then your soul, that's gone to be with the Lord. And eternal life starts right then. Not a bit, my friend.

Eternal life starts the moment that you confess Jesus is Lord. And that eternal life which you have then will never perish. So Jesus, when he's speaking to that distressed woman, says, do you not believe that I am the resurrection and the life? He that liveth and believeth in me shall never die.

It's impossible. Impossible for the Christian to die. Die physically, yes, but not die spiritually.

And that resurrection life is something which he receives when he trusts Jesus as Lord. So there we are in the resurrection garden, let's suggest. Some 2,000 years ago, we were with Mary of Magdalene.

We were with the other womenfolk, or we were with the disciples later on. And we investigate. Alongside them, we put our head inside the tomb and we find that there is no Christ there.

We wonder for a moment just what has happened. Has the body been taken? Has it been snatched away? Has it been stolen? And then it dawns upon us that death could not keep its prey. Jesus, my Savior, he tore the bars away.

Jesus, my Lord, the one that they pinned to the cross, the one who died for the sins of the world, has demonstrated that he's the Son of God by being raised in the power of an endless life. I, says the apostle, and as he was raised, so you will be raised also. And writing to the Corinthians, he says, Christ is the first fruits, the beginning of the harvest, the indication that there's more to come.

So as he lives, we live also, enjoying the benefits of the resurrection life of Jesus even now. I wonder if you understand this. Listen to the apostle as he makes it very clear to the Roman church, the sixth chapter in the fourth verse.

Therefore, we are buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall also in the likeness of his resurrection. Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him and so on.

Now, if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over him. And he takes up that argument and he brings it to the attention of the Christians at Corinth when he refers to all that Jesus has achieved on their behalf.

But now is Christ risen from the dead, 1 Corinthians 15, 20, and become the first fruits of them that slept. Verse 22, for as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. Now, what are we saying? Well, in case you've lost the gist of the argument, we're saying this, that a person who describes himself in terms of Christ being his life is one who has been raised by him.

Now, not only in the resurrection that is to come, the resurrection of your immortal body to immortality, the resurrection of your corruptible body to incorruption, but right now you have known a resurrection that is more miraculous than that of Lazarus. Do you know that? A resurrection that was greater than some of the miracles of the Old Testament where people came back to life. If you are a Christian, you're a supernatural person.

And how has that resurrection been achieved? Well, you must come back to verse 13 of the previous chapter to understand, or rather the 12th verse to understand, buried with him in baptism, where also ye are risen with him through the face of the operation of God who hath raised him from the dead. New International Version supplies the word, the power of God. How was Jesus raised from the dead? Well, Romans chapter 1 tells you he was raised by the power of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of holiness, by the power of God, entered into that tomb and brought new life to Jesus Christ.

And when Paul writes to the church at Ephesus in the first chapter of that glorious, in the first verse of that glorious second chapter, he says, you were dead in trespasses and in sins, but Christ has quickened you. And if you are raised in him, the next step, which is logical, is that you must be regulated by him. So you come to the third verse.

Your life is hid with Christ in God. No longer does the Christian take over the wheel of his ship. He hands it over to the pilot, Jesus.

No longer is he in charge of the battalion that might describe his life. He submits to the authority of the captain of his salvation, even Jesus. So, you see, the Christian is not an independent entity.

He is locked up in the very life of Jesus. Did we not discover this from the apostles teaching in the 19th verse of the previous chapter? He speaks of Jesus being the head and the Christian church being the body. Now the head presides over your body.

If it doesn't, you're really in trouble. But generally speaking, assuming that you've got good health and a good mentality, you do what your head tells you to do. We have a word for people who don't.

Now, in the Christian faith, in the Christian analogy, it is Jesus who controls the body. Our life is hid with Christ in God. Jesus is our life.

Therefore he regulates. Therefore, he has jurisdiction over us. If a man who was dead suddenly came to life, he would no longer want to be in a sepulcher in a grave.

He would immediately endeavour to break the bands that bind him, to open up the earth and to get as far removed from the sepulcher as he possibly can. Only a dead man is content with a grave. Now, the Christian, this man who spiritually was dead and has been raised to newness of life in Jesus, has his life so regulated that, verse 2, he sets his affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

The latter are like the ornaments, if you like, of death. They stand for the grave clothes, the dampness, the darkness, the canality of death and of of the living death of life without Jesus. But the man who has been raised by Jesus, he doesn't want any of these things anymore.

He separates himself from the sepulcher. He doesn't want those grave clothes. He doesn't want that coffin.

He realises that in the tomb there is no environment in which he is destined to live. He's bound for a new life with Christ, so he sets his affections on things which are above. And it's just the devil who comes along and tries from time to time to dislodge him and to persuade him to put his eyes downwards instead of upwards and get involved in the canality of things and hooked on a materialism that is contrary to the teaching and the life of Jesus.

Set your affection on things above. Seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God, says the beloved Apostle John. Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

These things the person who's not a Christian cannot understand. Why do a few hundred people come together on what might have been quite a nice sunny morning? I'm not too sure if the sun is still shining at the moment, but why here in June do you get people coming together to listen to the exposition of Scripture? Why do you get them bowing their heads? Why do you get them coming around a table like this and taking a piece of bread and a drink of wine? It makes nonsense. Of course it makes nonsense to the unbeliever.

It can't make sense. There's no rationality to him. Why? Because he hasn't been raised.

He's not been regulated by Jesus. But once you have fallen in love with Jesus Christ, then the things that used to bind, they bind no more. The thing that you used to offer obeisance and adoration to is no longer your God or God's.

There's only one God. There's only one Jesus Christ. There's only one salvation.

And the Christian lives out his life determinedly to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, to glory only in the cross, to set his affections on things above. Do you know how you could translate that? Relish heavenly things. I was a lad back in the north of England.

My mum would often endeavor to satisfy the huge appetite of my brother and I by dumplings. The dumplings would be made even more tasty by a sauce that the people or strange people in the north of England have called relish. And we used to apply this with, used to apply liberal amounts on our dinner.

Made it taste really nice. We relished in it. The Christian who's been raised to newness of life in Jesus, who is regulated by the Savior, he relishes heavenly things.

I find it absolutely incomprehensible that any Christian should discover or tell me that Bible study is a hard discipline to involve in. I find it very, very difficult to understand how prayer, admitting to the fact that there are periods when we may be somewhat depressed spiritually, but on the whole, how prayer can be a hard thing to maintain. I don't have to discipline my wife to tell her that I love her.

I don't have to control myself to ensure that I engage in conversation once or twice during the day with her. It springs naturally because there's a love which controls our relationship. As it is on the earthly, so even more wonderful on the heavenly, those who've been raised by him are also regulated by him.

Our conversation, says the Apostle Paul, or if you want a better translation, our citizenship is in heaven, Philippians 3.20. And we are but pilgrims as Bunyan so well discerned as he was in jail there in Bedford. We are as pilgrims going through. We've left the cave of this world.

We've been raised to newness of life in Jesus, and we're setting our affections on the things which are above. Loving, relishing fellowship with the Father, the Son, and with the Spirit, and with our brothers and sisters in the redeemed community. Raised in him, regulated by him, yes.

And one day, and time has almost beaten me, we shall be revealed with him. Revealed with him. Jesus Christ is coming back again.

I thank God for that doctrine. I read the newspapers, and I get absolutely depressed and despondent. I read of things that happen in our country, and sometimes my heart turns inward, and I get ashamed to be British of some of the things that are happening.

Maybe you German folks can't understand this. Maybe it's not as bad in Germany, but some of the things that happen in our country we're not very proud of these days. And we listen to the media as it comes over and tells us of certain problems that we're having, the earth running out of its natural resources, the problem of ecology, of men polluting the very handiwork that God has been the architect of.

And we wonder where on earth everything's heading up to, and what's going to happen. And then we come back to the fact that Jesus said, when there's war, and rumors of war, when men are looking this way and that way for guidance, when there are so many voices endeavoring to fool sheep and to lead them astray, look up, for your redemption draws nigh. You see, the last chapter of the human book is God's chapter.

And actually, he was authorizing the lot in the first instance. But there are some who don't believe that the intervening chapters between creation and the end of the world have been written or in the control of God. Now, says God, the day is coming when that Jesus Christ who was born as an infant in Bethlehem, who came incognito, unknown, who knew the cynicism and the mockery of a hostile world, who was the butt of the Roman soldiers, who was the target of the devil, the day is coming when he shall be revealed in power and in great glory.

And the Bible says this, my dear Christian brother and sister, if we suffer with him, we shall be glorified with him. The day is coming when the angelic host and the hosts in hell itself and the unbelievers of this world shall see Jesus. Every eye shall see him.

And what's more, they will not only see the Christ, they will see the redeemed humanity who are being glorified by his gospel. The father shall point to Lucifer, the evil one, and he'll say, you see those people. You thought you had created havoc on my creation.

You brought into this world the principle of sin. You infected all humanity. You waged war against me.

But look at those people. See what my son has done. He has retrieved the situation.

I glorified him on earth. I shall glorify him in heaven. And one day his whole glory shall be seen throughout the whole of the universe.

And all shall confess not only that Jesus Christ is Lord, but shall marvel at what Jesus Christ has done with his church. Then, says Jesus, Matthew 13, and I haven't yet time to read verses 41 to 43, but here's a summary. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun, and the whole of creation shall realize that this despised community of Christians of international character who believe the Bible, who trusted the cross of Christ for their salvation, who knew the infilling of the spirit, who knew difficulties in their Christian pilgrimage, are indeed those whose hands, who have the hand of God upon them.

And when Christ, who is our life, is manifested, they shall appear with him, sharing in his glory. If Christ is your life, then, my friend, you've been raised in him. You're regulated by him.

And one day you'll be revealed in glory with him. Praise be unto God. And Father God, we bless you that Christ, for so many, many people here, is our life.

We thank you that our faith is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. We glory not in ourselves, but in him. We offer control again to you, blessed son of God of our lives, and ask that everything may be regulated and ordered by you.

And we look forward to that great day when you shall come again. And I'll be with all the friends here, with these dear German students. We ask that you'll bless them and embrace them in the love of Calvary, and use their young lives for your honor and for your glory there in their great country.

And Father, we ask for your blessing upon us likewise, and prepare our hearts for coming around this table for Jesus' sake. Amen.