A message on why your life doesn’t make sense
“1 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”
“Sometimes my life just don’t make sense at all.” That’s Rich. He’s 38. He grew up in the church, but sometimes church doesn’t make sense to him. Sometimes the Christian life doesn’t make sense to him. Rich is a bit of a mystery to himself. “Sometimes my life just don’t make sense at all.”
You might feel like Rich from time to time. You feel as if your life doesn’t make sense. Your obedience to God doesn’t always make sense. That’s to be expected. It’s to be expected because your life belongs to Jesus and so it won’t make complete sense until you see him. That’s the claim of this sermon: my life is no longer my own. It belongs to Jesus and so it will make sense when I see him.
We will study this in two points. First: set your heart on things above. Second: your life is hid with Christ. In verses 1-2, we see the call to set our hearts on things above. In verses 3-4, we see the reminder that our lives are hid with Christ.
First: set your heart on things above. This section—verses 1-4 of chapter 3—is the big transition in Colossians. Before this, Paul has been talking about what is true— Jesus is the best and God gives the fullness we crave through him. Each argument of this series so far has been aimed proving that. Now Paul begins to talk about what must be done about the fact that Jesus is the best and God offers fullness in him. That’s how Paul’s letters to the churches work—first what’s true then what must be done about it.
We use this same logic quite a bit—first we focus on what’s true; then we focus on what to do about it. Bobby and Alan’s parents figure out how Alan gave Bobby the bloody nose then they decide what to do with Alan. First, they focus on what’s true and then they focus on what to do about it.
To this point, Paul has focused on what’s true. Now he tells us what to do about it; verse 1, “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.”
Since Jesus is the best, set your heart on Jesus. Since God offers fullness through Jesus, set your heart on Jesus. That’s what’s going on with this talk of things above. It’s about what God has done through Christ in contrast with what we try to do to fill ourselves. This is about what Jesus has done, is doing, and will do not on what we have done, are doing, or will do. That’s where we set our hearts.
We’ve already studied what Jesus has done. He put our sinful nature to death by dying for us. He nailed the logbook of our sins to the cross. He disarmed the demonic powers. We find fullness by finding our identity in that—in what Christ has done, not in what we have done. Your football victories no longer define you. What Jesus has done for you defines you. Your worst moments don’t define you. What Jesus has done defines you. He has died for your sins; that’s verse 3, “For you died.” He rose again for your new life; that’s verse 1, “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ.” You now define yourself not by what you’ve done, but by what Jesus has done for you. You set your heart on that; that’s fullness.
You set your hearts on what Christ is doing right now. Presently he is, “seated at the right hand of God,” as verse 1 puts it. This is kingly language. Right now, Christ the king is governing all things so not even a hair can fall from your head without his will. Right now, Christ the king is, by his Spirit, continually giving you all you need to trust and obey him. Right now, Christ the king is working every aspect of your biography out for your ultimate good.
Now you can choose to be defined by what he’s doing right now, or you can choose to be defined by how your life is going right now—your current financial situation or your current relationship status. Setting your heart on things above means that you are choosing to be defined by what Christ is doing right now. That’s fullness.
We’ve seen what Jesus has done. We’ve seen what Jesus is doing. So what will Jesus do in the future? He will return. He will make everything right by way of final judgment. He will make everything right by way of new creation. That’s what’s coming, “When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory,” as verse 4 puts it. That’s the future.
We live in expectation of that. We all live by expectation of some future. This morning you lived by expectation of gathering for worship. You took off your pajamas and put on these clothes because you expected people to see you. You acted in light of your expectation of the future. Our expectations for the future inform always inform we do in the present—that true in business, that’s true in school, that’s true in the Christian life.
Paul was telling the Colossians to live with an eye to the future. We know what it is to live with an eye toward an upcoming vacation—“just two more weeks and I get a break. No work troubles can reach me in the Black Hills. Just me and my snowmobile.” Paul is urging us to set our hearts on Christ’s return the way we set our hearts on vacation—“All that’s left is for Jesus to return. Then there’ll be no troubles at all. He will show others where they’ve been wrong about me and me where they’ve been right. He will show me where I’ve been wrong about others and reveal where I’ve been right. He will make everything right and it will never go wrong again, and that’s where my life is heading.” That’s, “set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.”
This fullness in the present and the future tells us to enjoy the goodness of this life for what it is. This fullness tells us to enjoy it as a foretaste of what’s to come. On Valentine’s Day we had dinner as a family by candlelight. I excused myself to wash my hands, but I actually sat down for a moment and thought to myself, “how did all of this happen? How did I get a wife as good as this? And children always look beautiful by candlelight.” Then I thought that for as good as this is, heaven is even better. As Jeremiah Burroughs put it, “every comfort that the saints have in this world is [a down payment]… of those eternal mercies that the Lord has provided for them.” Setting your heart on Christ’s return, the last judgment, and the new creation makes the sweetness of this life sweeter.
Setting your heart on Christ’s return, the last judgment, and the new creation also eases the bitterness of this life. We use these hopes of the future to ease our current pains just like knowing you will cash a $5 million inheritance check on Tuesday would ease certain frustrations today. A ten-year-old girl who feels left out because she was chosen last for basketball just like she is picked last for everything else can ease that pain by remembering that one day everyone will know that God has picked her for Himself. Jeremiah Burroughs would tell that girl, “One drop of the sweetness of heaven is enough to take away all the sourness and bitterness of all the afflictions in the world.”
Now I hope you can see how applicable looking toward future glory is. It’s not otherworldly. It helps you live in this world. “It is possible to be so heavenly minded that we are of no earthly use,” John Piper admitted, but “I’ve never met one of those people, and I suspect, if I met one, the problem would not be that his mind is full of the glories of heaven, but that his mind is empty and his mouth is full of platitudes. I suspect that for every professing believer who is useless in this world because of other-worldliness, there are a hundred who are useless because of this-worldliness.”
It is the disciples who take Jesus’ return, the last judgment, and the new creation most seriously who make the most difference. They think about their lives in terms of eternity—what will Jesus think about how I’ve used my life? What will the last judgment reveal about me? How am I trying to live out the promise of the new creation today in this decaying one? “If you read history,” wrote CS Lewis, “you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English evangelicals who abolished the slave trade, all left their mark on earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this [one].”
Lewis feared that we Christians have—by and large—stopped living by hope. We’ve stopped living as Jesus’ return is truly meaningful to our lives today. We’ve stopped setting our hearts on Christ. We’ve set our hearts on things below and are focused on the same power games as everyone else in the culture. That’s one reason we are often so unsatisfied as Christians. We must live by hope. It is the Christian way to live. We see why in our second point: your life is hid with Christ.
Now I can say that living by hope in Christ’s return is the Christian way to live because the Christian life is about Christ. It’s not about you or me. You see that in verses 3-4, “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.”
The Christian life is about Christ. We’ve made it about us in an attempt to market the gospel. We’ve turned it into a message about my sins being forgiven and me going to heaven when I die. It’s not. It’s about him. It’s about Christ dying and secondarily about sinners like us being forgiven because of him. It is about him rising and secondarily about mortals like us rising again. It’s not about using Jesus for a better life. It’s not a message of self-fulfillment. It’s a message about Christ’s fullness and that—surprise, surprise—people like us can enjoy the fullness of God.
Christianity is about Christ. It’s about the end of our lives and the beginning of Christ’s life in us—“for you died,” and, “Christ, is your life,” as verses 3 and 4 put it. Christians, as one commentator put it, “have no life of their own since their life is the life of Christ. So their interests must be his interests.” This means that Christians aren’t into feeding the hungry because it’s a good thing to do. We are into it because that’s what Jesus is into. We aren’t into doing a good job at whatever we do because that makes us attractive candidates for employers. We are into that because that’s what Jesus is into. We aren’t into the commandments of God because we are better than anyone. We are into them because that’s the life of love that Jesus is into. He is our life.
He is now our life and so we no longer need to get even with anyone because Christ will judge us all in the end, and that that judgment will be enough for us. We will forgo legitimate pleasures that we could enjoy now by giving to missions so that others can enjoy pleasures eternally. We will refuse to join in the debauchery of the day not just because of our honor but because of Christ’s honor. Our lives become increasingly about him.
That will make us increasingly strange to the world. As John said, “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.”
Our lives won’t make sense to the world. They will be hid from the world as verse 3 puts it, “For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” Think about Hoop’s funeral yesterday. There are people who would say that Hoop simply blinked out of existence Tuesday morning at 8:53. Now it is hard for us to argue conclusively against that because Hoop’s life is currently hidden from us. We don’t see him in glory, but Hoop’s life as a Christian was just as hidden. No random person at the Pizza Ranch could see that he was a beloved child of God and heir of eternal life simply by the way he picked out his fried chicken. The reality of that life is hid.
That’s the Christian life. You are a friend of the God who created everything, but you wait in line at the DMV like everyone else. You are becoming more and more like Jesus, but you are still susceptible to cancer. The Christian life is hid until the final day; that’s verse 4, “When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” The final day is vindication day for the people of God. That’s when who we are becomes obvious.
Until then, though, it’s by faith. By faith you believe your sins are forgiven. By faith you believe that you are fully accepted by God. By faith you believe that Jesus is shepherding you right now. By faith you believe Jesus will return. By faith you believe everything will be made right at the last judgment. By faith you believe that everything will be made new in the new creation. None of that is by sight today. It’s all hid.
Paul told the Colossians all of this because they were looking for fulfillment now. They were looking to be completely satisfied now. The message here is that most of it what matters to the Christian is hid right now. It won’t be revealed until Christ returns.
The Colossians wanted it right now. We tend to want it right now. We are like little kids who want the future today and so we murmur and complain. Calvin’s words on this are quite wise. “It is worthy of observation that our life is said to be hid that we may not murmur or complain if our life being buried under the ignominy of the cross and under various distresses differs nothing from death [so we] may patiently wait for the day of revelation.”
Calvin knew how to wait. Life right now was hard and so he looked forward to what was to come. Calvin had lung troubles, gout, and terrible pain in his bladder and kidneys. He was quite hated in Geneva. People would name their dogs after him and not in an affectionate way. He set his heart on what Christ had done for him, what Christ was doing for him, and what Christ would do for him to find fullness today, but he knew that the full fullness was still to come.
That’s Rich too. He looked to Christ for fullness today but he knew that the full fullness was still to come. “Sometimes my life just don’t make sense at all. When the mountains look so big, and my faith just seems so small. So hold me Jesus ‘cause I’m shaking like a leaf. You have been king of my glory. Won’t you be my prince of peace?”
That’s Rich Mullins at age 38. That singer’s life was hid with Christ. He usually couldn’t tell that he was an astounding picture of new creation—a walking miracle as all Christians are. He was afraid of himself and his own temptations. He struggled with loneliness. He was a mystery to himself. “Sometimes my life just don’t make sense at all.” “The world knows neither Christ nor Christians, and Christians do not even fully know themselves,” as one commentator put it.
That’s your Christian life. It’s by faith and not by sight. That’s why when you see Jesus it will make sense. That’s why you need to set your heart on him now and tomorrow and until you see him face to face. Amen.