Christ, Your Dwelling place: Part 3
Christ, your Dwelling place • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Introduction
Introduction
In Part 1, we saw that we are already part of the vine.
In Part 2, we saw that He has made us one, and glorified us, and poured His love onto us.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
Paul starts this thought that God’s intention was love. The whole idea was God's idea. In Eph 1:4-5 “just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,” it says that in love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself. You getting close to God, it is God’s idea.
Humanity thinks that the world needs better education, treat people better with better words, inclusivity and so on. Humanity thinks we need behaviour reforms. The gospel reveals that it is not about our behaviour but rather it is about our birth.
The core problem was that we were dead in our sins (Eph 2:1) , and God makes us alive together with Christ.
He made us alive with Christ
He made us alive with Christ
But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
Salvation is about being made alive. It is not about behavioural modification but rather it is about being made alive. The Gospel is about being made alive together with Christ, not just alive, bonded and fused and made one. This is not something progressively getting closer to God. We are already in Christ as we saw in Part 1 and Part 2 of this series.
Our whole life should start and be based on the fact that we are one with Christ, and that He is our Lord, He is our Life. Now you are plugged in, and now your life is NOT FOR HIM, but rather your life is FROM HIM.
He raised and seated us with Him
He raised and seated us with Him
and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
We got the best seat in the house, and we have been raised with Him, and we are seated with Him in the heavenly places in Christ. This is the reality in our life. Because of what Jesus did, we are cleaned and closed.
This is the true gospel message, and yes, behaviour flows from it. We change our attitudes and actions. We should make this message our foundation.
If it is God’s idea what kind of job does He do? A perfect job! We are perfectly united to Him.
He is showing off His grace
He is showing off His grace
so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
God is basically showing off His grace. The trinity is celebrating and they are showing off the riches of His grace towards us! He wants to show how enormous and amazing the grace was towards us!
You are complete in Christ
You are complete in Christ
For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority;
In Him, you have been made complete.
Many at times, in our worship services, we see some guy, playing the guitar and saying “God, we need your presence in our life” “ Come down into this place” “ We beg you to come down into this place to bless us with your presence”. Yet, Paul, Peter, James and John never instructs the new testament believers to ask for that. Why? Because we already got Him living inside of us. As mentioned in Acts 17:24 “The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands;” . We are complete in Christ, and we are sealed with Christ and sealed with the Holy Spirit until the day of redemption. That means, we have all we need.
So, we have been asking for patience. Christ, is our patience. We have been asking for love. Christ is our live. This means you dont need a new portion or new anointing or new next thing. You have everything in Christ Jesus.
Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.
Here is an analogy. Lets say we have an oak, and then there is this sapling beside the giant oak. Then the sapling get’s all of its life, all of its nutrients from the great oak. This is not a perfect analogy but it works.
We are grafted into Christ, and we get all our food from Christ who lives in us.
Our flesh has been dealt with
Our flesh has been dealt with
and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ;
Circumcision, is a picture of the taking of old heart, and giving a new heart. Paul talks about this in Romans 2:29, about this inward circumcision.
This is in reference to the fact that we have been crucified with Christ, and the body of sin has been done away with.
The only reason we still sin is not because it’s our nature anymore; it’s only because we haven’t renewed our minds.
But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.
Paul is also using this Col 2:11 to say, that you are no longer in the flesh, but you are in the Spirit. Sometimes, we say that we were walking in the flesh this afternoon. But no, you were walking BY the flesh, but you are IN the Spirit. You were walking according to the flesh, but you are IN the spirit. In other words, you were walking by the flesh, but you are living by the Spirit. Thats why Paul says in Ga 5:25
If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.
You have a permanent new location, in Christ, in the Spirit, hidden in Christ, with God.
If we get a hold of this, we do not have to think of all those passages in the Scripture which talk about living right, and we do not have to wonder how it fits. It’s all about location.
You are IN the spirit (location), therefore talk and walk by the spirit.
We were there in Him throughout His life and death
We were there in Him throughout His life and death
having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
This is not about baptism with water. This is the spiritual baptism talked about in Romans 6:2-4 “May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”
This means that we are placed, in Christ, and inserted completely. This happened before the foundations of the world (Eph 1) and what happened to Jesus, happened to us. This means that we were crucified, buried and raised together with Christ.
All our transgressions have been forgiven, once and for all
All our transgressions have been forgiven, once and for all
When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions,
This talks that all our sins are forgiven, Your past, present and future sins have been forgiven.
All our sins are forgiven once and for all
who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.
When we realize that we are forgiven and cleansed, sanctified and righteous, one with Christ, and that you have been made alive in Christ, it will change us, and we will be equipped to live the life that God wants us to live, inside out.
That means that sin is above you, and since you are in Christ, you will not really want to sin, and that is truth about sin. That you are allergic to sin, and addicted to Jesus.
Change your attitudes
Change your attitudes
Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
Now that you have been given a place of honour, we are allergic to sin.
When someone says “So, can I now sin?”. It is like saying “Can I drink poison?”. Yes, you can drink poison, and die, or you can eat good food and live.
What we see here is that the dignity, honour and placement in Christ, has given us a new way to think, and a new way to act.
Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.
Picture an astronaut in space floating around. He can be thinking about all the things on earth, but he better not. He better be thinking about the source, and what he is connected to, and where he is heading. We are tethered to Him, we are bonded, we are one with Christ.
For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
How many of us think about this and realize that our life has been hidden with Christ in God? Most don’t. We ask people “Hey, hows your life?”. Always, we talk about our circumstances. We should rather be answering “Christ is our life”.
You are worried about your loss of salvation:- you are hidden with Christ in God. You are worried about whether God might be angry with you? You are hidden with Christ in God.
We will be revealed with Him in glory
We will be revealed with Him in glory
When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.
We always talk about the great reveal of Jesus, but Jesus is looking forward to our revelation with Him in glory. This is what Jesus talks about in John 17:24 “Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.”
Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, “The two shall become one flesh.” But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.
We are one spirit with the Lord. Just like sex where there is a physical union, we are joined spiritually with Christ.
Application
Application
Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.
Get away from immorality. Paul is saying that you are not a mortal man, but rather you are a new creation. SO don’t act like a mortal man. You are not an immoral woman. You are the righteousness of God in Christ.
We who have been placed in union with Christ, blessed and one with Christ, do not abuse your earthen vessel.
He is saying that we should make sure to honour God with your body, because the body can be used for good or evil.
Now your self esteem is wrapped up in Christ-esteem. Your value is Christ-value.
We have been bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body.