Focus on the King

Great to see everyone this morning, and thankful that you are here today, and let’s open our Bibles to the book of Colossians, and as you’re doing that, let me just say how much I enjoyed going to camp also, and Blake and Danielle were great assets to us, as well as Mary Jo, and tremendous assets, and another person who went, she’s not a member here, but she’s related to Wanda and John.

Is Ashley Ebar. And so she went. She was one of our counselors. It was a great week. The kids had a really good time and they did some wonderful things and they learned a lot about the last week of Christ is what we studied about at camp this past week. And so it was a great week and we really had a good time. We got to bond together with the kids.

And really enjoyed fellowship with one another. Okay, so we’re going to look at Christ the King this morning. I know that this is the first Sunday theme of our month, and we’re going to take a look at specifically the idea of focusing on Christ.

But let’s remember, this is the theme of the book of Colossians, Christ the King. Colossians 1, 13 through 14. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. And so, Christ is the King of this kingdom.

There is this kingdom, and it belongs to the Son of His love, and that is Jesus Christ. And so Christ is King, and that’s the theme of Colossians. And we’ve seen how He’s above all things. He is preeminent. He’s above the angels. He’s above everyone.

And in Colossians chapter 2, we see how there were competitors with Christ, but that we are not supposed to listen to those things. In fact, that’s the whole point of the book of Colossians is that there are competitors to Christ out there, but that as Christians, Christ must reign supreme in our lives.

And now, in chapter 3, the Apostle Paul is going to get us to focus on Christ, to focus on the King, and that’s what we have here in Colossians 3 and verses 1 through 4. Let’s read that together. If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

There’s three things here that we’re going to focus on as we focus on the King. So that’s what this section is about. Look, focusing on Christ the King. Not on the things that are on the earth, but the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

First of all, we’re going to see the priorities of the King. He has priorities, and we need to adopt those priorities into our lives. We’re going to see the person of the King, His person, and then finally, His promise. Priorities, person, promise.

Think about those three things as we look at this section of Colossians 3. First of all, His priorities. The King has a set of priorities. And we need to adopt those priorities within our lives. Think about what He says here.

If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Raised with Christ. Christians have been raised with Christ. Think about this. This is what baptism is all about. Colossians chapter 2, verses 12 through 13, buried with Him in baptism in which you also were raised with Him.

Through faith in the working of God. Notice what it says, “…who raised Him from the dead, and you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses.” Raised from the dead, Jesus was.

And when we are baptized, we are raised with Him. Death, burial, resurrection, all enacted here in the act of baptism. And when we’re raised, we are made alive together with Him because we’ve been forgiven all of our trespasses. That’s the point where a person goes from being dead in sin to being alive with Christ. That’s the point where we’re forgiven of all of our sins.

And so the Christian is raised with Christ. It’s also stated in Romans chapter 6, verses 3 through 4. Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus, were baptized into His death? Therefore, we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. When does that newness of life take place? When we’re raised with Him. Colossians 3, verse 1. Continuing, if then you were raised with Christ, that is, in light of the fact that you have a new life.

A new life. In light of the fact that your sins have been forgiven and been put away from you. In light of the fact that Christ was raised from the dead to a new life, and now we get to experience that new life.

Then do this. Seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Seek those things which are above. You see, this is about His priorities. We’ve been raised with Him. Now we need to adopt His priorities. The things which are above. Think about what Jesus said in Matthew 6, verses 19 through 21.

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Where is your treasure?

That’s a great question that we each need to ask ourselves. Are our treasures in heaven? And what does it mean to have our treasures in heaven? Well, just think about what Jesus did. Just think about the life that He lived. He touched people’s lives. He healed them. He cast out demons.

He demonstrated that He loved people by the life that He lived and by the death that He died. His treasures were in heaven. They were not on earth. Jesus didn’t make a million dollars before He was 30. Jesus didn’t have a fancy house.

Jesus didn’t travel to all kinds of places in the world. His treasures were in heaven. Where is our treasure? Because that is exactly where our heart will be. Jesus said this, Matthew 6, 24, “…no one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” You see, this is not a both-and situation.

It’s not that, well, we can have what we want here and then we can have what we want there. Jesus is saying, no, you can’t serve those two masters. One of them is going to want your heart. One of them is going to take your heart. It’s either going to be the mammon or it’s going to be God.

Which one will we be loyal to? Which one will we despise? The directive, the priority of Jesus Christ, with whom we have been raised, is this. Seek the things which are above. Seek the things which are above. Think about Matthew 6, verses 31 through 33. Therefore, do not worry saying, what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear for after these things the Gentiles seek? For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added to you. Do we trust Jesus Christ? Do we trust God to give us what we need?

Seek the things which are above. If then you are raised with Christ, seek the things which are above where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. That is where Christ is. Think about, while we can’t see it, but we can envision it, right?

Surrounding Him, the seraphim flying around and honoring Him and worshiping Him. We have a picture of that in Revelation 4 and 5. And on His right hand sits Jesus Christ. It was prophesied that it would be so in Psalm 110 and verse 1.

And Jesus Himself said before Pilate, or before Caiaphas, the high priest, the Son of Man will sit on the right hand of the power of God. And that’s where He is. And in Acts 2, verses 32 through 33, Jesus demonstrated that He was sitting at the right hand of the Father by sending the Holy Spirit.

Peter said, this Jesus God has raised up, of which we’re all witnesses. Therefore, being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this, which you now see in here, the right hand of God. That’s where Jesus is sitting. Seek the things which are above, where Christ is. And so we focus on His person, thinking about who He is and what He represents.

You know, I love that song, Higher Ground. You remember that song, Higher Ground? I’m walking on the upward way, new heights I’m gaining every day. Still praying as I onward bound, Lord, plant my feet on higher ground. That’s what we’re talking about here.

Planting our feet on higher ground, looking up to Jesus Christ, where He is sitting at the right hand of God. Setting our affections on things that are above, not on worldly things, but on heavenly things, spiritual things. And Jesus Christ did that, and He wants us to do that too. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.

The earth has a tremendous amount of allure. The world that surrounds us on a daily basis. Oh, and the world can make those things look so attractive. Just watch a television commercial sometime. They never tell the truth. You will be the most beautiful person ever.

You will be the happiest person ever. You will have all of the attention of the persons of the opposite sex. You will be the best. That’s what those television commercials say. And now they’re commercials, you know, on our little screens, right? You’re scrolling through Facebook. There’s Dr. Squatch, you know, saying how much you can attract women and stuff like that. No.

No, no, no. That’s the world. That’s the appeal of the world. The world is trying to get us to fall into its trap. But you know what? That’s just another way of sin competing with God. And there’s an old spiritual. Look this up on YouTube when you’re interested in listening to some music. An old spiritual. Sin will take you farther than you want to go. Keep you longer than you want to stay. Pay a price that’s higher than you want to pay. Oh, yes. Sin is the problem.

And the world loves sin, and the world promotes sin. Jesus said, if you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. That’s what Jesus said about the world, that it hates Christians.

Do you find yourself in love with the world? Remember 1 John 2, 15 through 17. Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it.

But he who does the will of God abides forever. The world cannot give you what you are looking for. James would put it like this, Adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?

Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. They had the same problems we have today. They had the same temptations, the same trials, the same difficulties, but they knew that the solution was not in pursuing the things of the world. Those things can never satisfy.

And so set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things of the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. We died when we came to Jesus Christ and heard His word and believed it. We repented of our sins.

Repentance is a change of mind that results in a reformation of life. And that change of mind led us then to be baptized into Christ so that our sins could be forgiven. And that’s where we die. You die with Christ in baptism. The old man of sin is buried. And he’s supposed to stay buried. You died.

That’s what Paul’s talking about there. He’s talking about dying to self, dying to sin, dying to the lusts of the flesh. You died. Think about what Jesus said, Matthew 16, 25 through 26. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

For what profit it is to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? Try to make a life, the world says. Get all the gusto you can get, the world says. Live for yourself, the world says. Jesus says that’s a sure way to destruction.

That’s the sure way to losing your life. Because what happens when you give yourself to all those things at the end of your life? You realize all you’ve done is spend your time pursuing things that mean absolutely nothing. But what if we give ourselves to Jesus? What if we give our life to Him? What happens then?

We actually make a life, and we can look back on a life of service and gratitude, a life filled with love and joy and peace. I’ll never forget sitting across the kitchen table from my mother when we were planning for her 50th wedding anniversary, And by the way, I think this year was 50, 58 maybe? I don’t know. They’re getting close to 60. But we were planning our 50th. And I put together a slide show that had all these pictures and I was showing it to her and she was watching the slides from their youth, you know, when they just first got married.

She started crying and she just looked at me and she said, I’ve lived a good life. I’ve lived a good life. Because she was a Christian. Paul said, I’ve been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.

And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. When we make Christ our life, things go so much better. Paul talked about always caring about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I die daily, he said. 1 Corinthians 15, 31. I die daily. What do I die to? The things of the world. The things that are ephemeral, that are passing, that have no permanent value. So set your mind on the things above, not on the things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

For you’re all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. We are enrobed in Christ as Christians. And that means there’s neither Jew nor Greek, there’s neither slave nor free, there’s neither male nor female, for we’re all one in Christ Jesus.

And if you’re Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise. In Christ Jesus, that’s where we’re at. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

Likewise, you also consider yourself to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Romans 6, 11. The Christian lives in Christ. That’s where he lives. And so the person of Christ. Well, let’s think about the King’s promise. The King’s priorities, the King’s person, the King’s promise. When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you will also appear with Him in glory.

Christ is our life. Think about John 5, verse 21. For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will. And when we are in Christ, we have life. Eternal life. Life that will raise us from the dead. Because as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself. John 5, verse 26.

Look at John 14, 6. Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. In 1 John 5, verse 12 says, He who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life. It’s as simple as that. Life is in the Son.

When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Think about John 5, 28-29, Jesus said, Do not marvel at this, for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth.

Those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions that were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you, Jesus said. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.

Now think about that, the promise of Jesus Christ that we will have eternal life with Him. Paul said, near His death, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me in that day, and not to me only, but to all of those who have loved His appearing.

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power both now and forever. Amen. Focus on the King. Focus on the King. That’s what we’ve got to do. Don’t let everything else distract you.

Don’t let everything else interfere with your relationship with God and Christ. Focus on the King. Think about where He is, what He is doing, and how we can be with Him one day. Do you need to begin focusing on the King in your life? We’ve talked about what to do to become a child of God in this lesson.

Hearing His Word and believing it, repenting of sin, confessing Jesus as Lord and King and being baptized for the forgiveness of sins. That’s how you start focusing on the King. Do you need to do that in your life? If you do, we’re ready to help you. You can come right now while together we stand and while we sing.

End of transcript. Thank you for reading along!