“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 a life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
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‘Who am I?’ That question is quite easy to answer when you are very young. You are your name. If someone were to ask me at five years old, ‘who are you?’ I wouldn’t hesitate to say, ‘I am Adam.’
The answer changes a bit when you hit adolescence. The answer then is mostly defined by what interests you. ‘Who are you?’ ‘Well, I enjoy classic rock. I’m into martial arts.’
As you continue to mature, you begin to define yourself in terms of tendencies. ‘Who are you?’ ‘Well, I like people, but I need my alone time.’ ‘I enjoy being productive, but it is a struggle to know how best to allocate my time.’
The better you understand yourself, the harder it is to answer the question, ‘who am I?’ If you are a Christian, you really can’t answer the question. You can’t answer the question because who you are is hidden. Your life is hidden with Christ and so you will, in so many ways, remain a mystery to yourself until you see Christ. If you are a Christian, who you are won’t make sense to the world and, at times, will not make sense to you. You will be peculiar because your heart is not your own and your life is not your own. They are with Christ. That is the claim of this sermon. The Christian’s heart is not his own and his life is not his own. They belong to Christ.
We see this in two points. First: set your heart on Christ. Second: find your life in Christ. In verses 1-2, we see that the Christian’s heart must be set on Christ. In verses 3-4, we see that the Christian’s life must be found in Christ.
First: set your heart on Christ. If you are a Christian, your life has more to do with Jesus than it has to do with you because your heart is set on him. That is part of the logic of Paul’s instructions to the Colossians in 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.”
Paul didn’t find his identity in himself—in his interests, in his relationships, in his tendencies. He found his identity in Christ. If you were to ask Paul who he was, he would not be able to answer without reference to Jesus because his heart was set on Jesus. Can you tell someone who you are without reference to Jesus?
Set your heart on where Christ is. “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.”
This isn’t an exhortation to be so focused on heaven that you are of no earthly good. This isn’t a command to think only about the next life. This is a command toput your heart where Christ is, not where you are.
Paul’s spatial language – the phrase ‘things above’ in verses 1 and 2 and ‘earthly things’ in verse 2 – was not intended to divorce this life from the next life. By urging the Colossians to set their mind on things above, he wasn’t calling them to hate this life. That wasn’t Paul. Paul wrote chapter after chapter on marriage, family, singleness, jobs, eating, government, missions – the stuff of this life. By telling the Colossians to, “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,” Paul wasn’t denigrating this life. Rather he was pushing back against false teachers in Colossae who were pulling the Colossian’s hearts away from Christ.
False teachers in Colossae were leading the church astray by prioritizing the spiritual realm over the material world. They saw this material world as bad. “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!” they said. They wanted to be purely spiritual like the angels. This sounded impressive but, Paul said, “Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.”
The spirituality of the false teachers was no spirituality at all. It was an excuse to be sinful. They focused on spirits so they could do whatever they wanted with their bodies. They led people astray by talking about spirituality. They were certainly spiritual but not religious.
By contrast, Paul told the Colossians to set their hearts on the risen Christ.
Rather than seeking to become like the angels, we seek to be like Christ; he is as human as you or I. Rather than seeking to become so spiritual that you are of no earthly good, you follow the one who was truly spiritual – Christ – and he was of more earthly good than any other man.
You become truly spiritually by connecting everything in this life with Jesus. We want to know what marriage has to do with Christ and so we have Ephesians 5, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her… Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.” That’s setting your marriage on Christ.
Being single has to do with Christ. 1 Corinthians 7, “I would like you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord’s affairs - how he can please the Lord. But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world - how he can please his wife - and his interests are divided.” That’s setting your singleness on Christ.
Do you want to know what your job has to do with Christ? Ephesians 5, “Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do.” That’s setting your job on Christ.
Do you want to know what your attitude has to do with Christ? “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.” That’s setting your attitude on Christ.
Setting your heart on things above does not make you too spiritual to be of any earthly good. It makes you like Jesus. He didn’t die and rise again to just save your soul. He wants all of you.
If you believe in Jesus but think he has nothing to do with you parenting, you aren’t setting your heart on Christ.
If you believe in Jesus but think he has little to do with your friendships, you aren’t setting your heart on Christ.
If you say that you believe in Jesus, but find that he has nothing at all to do with the way you live your life, you must question whether you have been raised with him at all.
You might have a worldly point of view. A worldly point of view considers self-denial foolish and treasures on earth wise. A worldly point of view considers humility to be weak and pride to be strong. A worldly point of view considers comfort supreme. A worldly point of view considers the self to be supreme. There is a real difference between the heart set on things above and the heart set on this world. Where is your heart?
If your heart is set on Christ, your life will not make sense to the world. Humilty does not make sense to the world. Self-denial does not make sense to the world. If your life makes sense to the world, recognize that your life is not aligned with that of Jesus. If you are living Jesus’ life, you will be a mystery to the world and as long as you live in this world, your life will be a mystery to you. Your life will be hid with Christ. That is our second point.
Coming to faith in Christ does not give a man a second chance. Coming to faith in Christ doesn’t give a man a thirty-second chance. Coming to faith in Christ puts an end to a man. “For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”
If you are a Christian, you can no longer understand yourself without reference to Christ. You are truly a new person.
Here is one way to think about it: Bethany took the children to Michigan and I stayed in Minnesota. I began the week thinking, ‘this will be nice. I get a bit of quiet time - no diapers. I can rent a manly movie. I can go out to eat,’ and about thirty minutes after she left I was just wandering around the house. I had spent my time picking toys up off the floor and then I had no idea what to do with myself. What do I do now that my family is gone? I didn’t know who I was without relation to my family.
That’s a small picture of what it is like for the Christian. He cannot understand who he is without relation to Christ. ‘What do I want? What should I do? Who am I? I don’t understand me without Jesus.’ The Christian has been so altered by his relationship with Jesus that to understand himself he can no merely longer look inward. He has to look outward. He has to see the risen Christ.
The answer to the question, ‘what is your only comfort in life and in death?’ is also the answer to the question, ‘who am I?’ ‘I am not my own but I belong body and soul in life and in death to my faithful savior Jesus Christ.’ ‘My life is hid with Christ in God.’
Paul put it this way to the Galatians, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Paul defined himself not by himself but by Christ. He found his identity not in being himself but in belonging to Jesus.
If you are a Christian, you are no longer the subject of the verb of your life. Jesus is. You must become more concerned about his reputation that your reputation because your life is about him. You must become more concerned about his will than your will because your life is about him. You must become more concerned with how Jesus sees you than with how you see yourself. You must become more concerned with how Jesus sees other than with how you see those same people.
Living for Jesus changes the equation. Imagine that in your workplace is a man with the most horrible, stressful job you can imagine. You wouldn’t take his job if they quadrupled your pay. You don’t know why he doesn’t just quit. And yet this man is cheerful. He is the most cheerful guy in the office. He’s always got a smile on his face. One day you pull him aside and say, ‘I’m sorry, but I don’t get it. Your job is horrible – objectively it is horrible – and yet you seem to love it. I don’t get it. Do you like this life?’
The man replies, ‘this isn’t my life. This is my life,’ and he pulls out his smartphone and shows you pictures of his kids and his wife. He shows you a text from his son, ‘dad, I can’t wait to go to the game with you tonight.’ He’s got a video of he and his daughter dancing at a daddy-daughter dance. He’s got all sorts of photos of him and his family on vacation all around his office. He tells you, ‘that life seems hidden here, but it is always real to me.’
If you are a Christian, that is you. You are in a fallen world that left to itself truly is without hope. But that isn’t your life - “your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” Your connection to Jesus gives you life just as that man’s connections with his family gives him life. That life was hid from his coworkers. Your life in Christ is hid from the world. They don’t get it, but you do, provided you cling to Christ.
If you are a Christian, your life will not make sense without reference to Christ. Your life won’t make sense to you until you see him. That is part of verse 4, “When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”
You await the return of Christ not only to meet him but also, in a real way, to meet yourself. You will be fully yourself when you appear with him in glory.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer couldn’t understand himself apart from Christ. Before his execution at the hands of the Nazis, he wrote a poem about his life in prison entitled Who am I?
“Who am I? They often tell me I stepped from my cell’s confinement calmly, cheerfully, firmly, like a squire from his country house. Who am I? They often tell me I used to speak to my warders freely and friendly and clearly, As thought it were mine to command. Who am I? They also tell me I bore the days of misfortune equably, smilingly, proudly, like one accustomed to win. Am I then really that which other men tell of? Or am I only what I myself know of myself? Restless and longing and sick, like a bird in a cage, struggling for breath, as though hands were compressing my throat, yearning for colors, for flowers, for the voices of birds, thirsting for words of kindness, for neighborliness, tossing in expectations of great events, powerlessly trembling for friends at an infinite distance, weary and empty at praying, at thinking, at making, faint, and ready to say farewell to it all. Who am I? This or the Other? Am I one person today and tomorrow another? Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others, And before myself a contemptible woebegone weakling? Or is something within me still like a beaten army Fleeing in disorder from victory already achieved? Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine. Whoever I am, Thou knowest, O God, I am thine!”
Who was the true Bonhoeffer – the hero? The weakling? Was he really himself when he was hopeful or when he was mired in sorrow? Was he both? Was he neither? Who was he? He was God’s. His life was hid with Christ in God.
Who are you? Are you God’s? If so, your life is hid. It’s hid with Christ. Don’t expect to understand yourself until you see him. You certainly shouldn’t expect the world to understand you because it doesn’t know him.
Now it is entirely possible that someone here doesn’t know Christ. The reason these people gather in this sanctuary is something of a mystery – do they do it out of mere custom? Is it superstition?
If this is you, consider that these people know something which you don’t. Consider that their hearts are set somewhere other than your heart has ever been set. Consider that they have reasons for what they do and these reasons have to do not with themselves, but with this Jesus. They live differently because their hearts are set on him.
Then consider yourself. Consider your own life. What has setting your heart on earthly things gotten you? What as living for yourself gotten you? Are you satisfied? No, now ask yourself the question with which we began – who are you? You don’t really know, do you?
You can, but it will cost you your life. “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.”
Die to yourself. You have only your wins, your selfishness, and your illusions to lose. Be born again. Become a mystery to the world. Live a life that is about someone more worthy than you. Live a life that is more about Jesus than it is about you. Amen.