Our New Life Together: Colossians 3:12-17

We're taking a little break this week from our series in Genesis, this week and the next.

This morning to focus on community, our new life together.

What is God's intentions for us as a community?

A people of his own.

And so I want us to turn this morning to Colossians 3, 12 through 17.

As we look at that together, Colossians 3.

Put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness and patience, bearing with one another, and if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which you indeed were called in one body, and be thankful.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Let us pray.

Lord, we thank you for your word to us.

We pray even now that by your Spirit you would enable us to receive this heavenly bread.

Apply it to our hearts that we might receive it and live in response to your call upon our lives.

Lord, we ask and pray that you would be powerfully working within us.

All for your glory in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So over the course of history, there have been many discussions that have arisen with respect to the unity and purity of the church.

And while debates have been had as to what makes a church more or less pure, no one has claimed to have found the perfect church.

The Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon said it better than anyone else.

He said, if I had never joined a church till I found one that was perfect, I should never have joined one at all.

And the moment I did join it, if I had found one, I should have spoiled it.

For it would not have been a perfect church after I had become a member of it.

Still, imperfect as it is, it is the dearest place on earth to us.

I heartily agree with that.

Imperfect, yes, but still the dearest place on earth to us.

Every church needs maturity, every church needs growth.

That's just a reality of living in a fallen world, this side of heaven.

But one of the characteristics central to a church's vitality is effective fellowship.

And if you're somewhat new to us as a church, if you're maybe even here for the first time this morning, uh the primary context for fellowship in a church of our size takes place in what we call covenant fellowship groups.

Fellowship certainly isn't limited to a covenant fellowship group.

We don't want you to get the impression that fellowship doesn't happen outside of those.

Certainly it can happen far more frequently and it can happen in varying contexts, but we would say that it is a primary or key way in which we seek to foster the kind of biblical fellowship that God would have us to foster.

And so because we believe in the importance of biblical fellowship, we're we're actually having a meet and greet, as was mentioned by Ryan in a prayer after the service down in the fellowship hall, where you have the opportunity to meet some of the leaders and hosts, those who are meeting together, these little kingdom outposts, you might say, all over the city, in order to come together throughout the week, joining together to seek to cultivate this kind of fellowship.

And so would love for you to grow in fellowship with others here.

And it might be a good thing, just even now, just to look around the room, just to take a glance.

Is there anyone in this room who you might say that's true of you?

That you are walking closely together with a few, not a crowd, but walking with a few that you can be known by and can know.

It's a good thing occasionally to just take a glance at one another and say we're part of the same body.

We need each other, we need to share life with each other.

And so there are three pursuits that come from this passage that we're to seek after as we live in fellowship with one another.

The first is to pursue fellowship with Christ.

The second is to pursue transformation with one another after Christ's likeness.

And the third is to pursue one another's benefit with thanksgiving.

And so, first, pursue fellowship with Christ.

The beginning of this chapter, you won't find it in your bulletin, but if you have your Bible and you look to Colossians 3:1, you'll see that at the beginning of this chapter, verse 1, it reads, If then you have been raised with Christ, and then again, verse 3, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Colossians 3:1

And in verse 4, when Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Notice the repetition in these three instances of the withness that we share in Christ.

Raised with Christ, hidden with Christ, to appear with Christ in glory.

Our primary calling is to be with Jesus together.

We're not called first and foremost to a set of skills to develop, a series of practices to perform, or some form of service.

Our primary calling is not to grow in organization or ministry or go on a mission trip.

Our primary calling is to be with Christ.

And we see that in the Gospel of Mark 3, 13 through 15, where we read that Jesus appointed the 12.

We saw that in the passage we read earlier.

We read that Jesus appointed the twelve whom he named apostles so that they might be with him.

And by virtue of that withness, would then send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons.

The prioritization is intentional.

And so notice that this is during his earthly ministry.

But as it relates to you and I, the difference, the only difference, the only real difference here in one sense is that we're now called to fellowship with him, no, not on earth, but in heaven through the Spirit.

But here's what I want you to see.

Before the disciples were called to do anything, their primary call was to be with Jesus.

And that's not the same thing as being in relationship.

You can be in relationship with someone and be opposed in every way.

Even if that's maybe a family member.

You're related, but you're not necessarily agreed on anything.

That's the idea behind what Jesus was saying in the passage earlier that was read.

When his own family were saying that he had lost his mind, he was saying, well, yes, they might be of the same kin.

But it's those who do the will of God who are family.

That is the life of Christ.

And allows their thoughts and their attitudes and their aspirations and their feelings and their talk and their behavior to be shaped by Christ, who shares in that spiritual life and fellowship with Him.

He says, those are my family.

Because what does fellowship mean?

Well, fellowship means in the Greek sharing, to share in.

So what did that look like for the disciples?

Well, it meant observing his example, the way he interacted with them and others that Jesus interacted with.

It meant receiving and appropriating his rebukes and correction and love.

Sharing in these things together.

Being with him.

Why?

Because so much of life is caught, not only taught.

We often learn better, I think, by example than we often do, just by concepts and principles and precepts.

You see, sadly, this kind of fellowship is not always the case in the church.

There was a church in Revelation whose members had been born again.

They were an active church.

But they were a church with resources.

And in relying on these resources, Jesus was being kept on the outside.

And so he says, if you will repent, I am knocking at the door.

I am ready and willing to dine with you.

I'm ready to fellowship with you.

I mean, can you imagine that?

You're even with your own family, perhaps.

You're inside, you're enjoying time together, and there's a member outside the door knocking, wanting to get in, but they're on the outside.

How much more when it comes to the creator of the universe.

How sad it is when Christ is left outside the fellowship of his own people.

And why that's sad is because Jesus has chosen you for the very purpose that you and I would be with him.

He has chosen you for that reason.

And so, in a sense, the gospel restructures our self-understanding because it says that you and I don't earn our acceptance.

We are accepted because he chose us.

It also restructures the way we think about ourselves in community because it says that we don't make community, we're born into community.

We're given a new identity, and that is of being holy and beloved.

And so it's not just that we need to be with him, but that he desires to be with us.

That's the gospel.

And so let me give a specific application.

When you meet in your covenant fellowship group, your primary calling is to be with Christ and Him with you.

If humbling ourselves and acknowledging our need for Jesus isn't part of our time as we gather, if we settle for tea and coffee and snacks or dinner, although all of those things can foster meaningful fellowship or interactions, if all of that takes place and yet we haven't got a sense of Jesus' presence, then that might be earthly fellowship, but it's not biblical fellowship.

Biblical fellowship, you see, penetrates into heaven itself.

And that's why it's so precious and has the potential to be immensely life-giving.

So much of fellowship falls short of that.

Because you see, the conditional clause here is important.

It assumes the new birth.

If then you have been raised with Christ, the apostle says.

That if implies union with Christ.

The sense is like that of a marriage, a covenant commitment.

That's why we call our fellowship groups covenant fellowship groups.

It communicates this shared sense of commitment to Christ and to one another.

A shared togethering in this life, journeying together.

And so, yeah, it's the question.

So, how does this change our the way we fellowship?

And the answer again is given in the prior verses, chapter 3, verse 1.

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

Set your minds on things that are above, not things that are on earth.

And so again, practically speaking, what this means is that when you're sitting together, gathered in a home, we are there together to pursue heavenly realities.

Many of you have many meetings.

You don't just need another meeting to add to your schedule.

You're busy enough.

We don't need just another meeting, but we do need to pursue these heavenly realities and experience them.

It can happen in the context of a fellowship group.

If you meet with a few sisters at the park or a few brothers for breakfast, Christ is still seated at the right hand of God.

The heavenly realities are just as available through the Spirit.

So although the relational context might take on various forms and sizes, those things can change.

Whether a few, a small gathering, a larger gathering, whatever form and size, whatever place, this life is always available to us.

But it needs to be sought after.

Seek, the apostle says, seek the things that are above.

Set your minds on things that are above.

They need to be pursued, he's saying.

Anything that you and I receive from heaven is brought to us by the Holy Spirit.

If you have tried to fetch something of heaven yourself, you you might want it with a passion.

But without the Spirit, it's impossible.

It's that reality that brings us all to a level footing.

And so to ask this morning, is the Holy Spirit's influence something we pray for when we meet together.

I'm convicted that I need that more myself.

Fellowship is an immense gift, and it's something to be pursued.

When we pursue fellowship with Christ, though, through the Word and the Spirit together, when we pursue that, our expectations for transformation are never too high.

And that makes for a really good gathering.

That makes for great fellowship.

And so pursue Christ and his fellowship.

The second is pursue transformation with one another after Christ's likeness.

Verse 12 through 15 describe this set of what we might call heavenly graces.

You might think of them like clothes that we put on and keep putting on.

The idea is of a continuous presence.

We need to keep doing it.

But we don't have time to address each of them this specifically this morning, but we all know what they taste like when we're met with them, right?

You know what kindness looks like when it greets you.

You know what a compassionate heart looks like when you're met with it.

Kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forbearance, forgiveness.

These are heavenly blessings.

And you see why that why so much of Christian fellowship is hard is because by nature we're more like George Bernard Shore, who once wrote a letter to Churchill, and the letter read, Enclose are two tickets to the opening night of my first play.

Bring a friend if you have one.

Churchill replied, Dear Mr.

Shaw, unfortunately I'll be unable to attend the opening night of your play due to a prior engagement.

Please send me tickets for a second night if you have one.

I think we're supposed to see a little bit of the playfulness in those exchanges.

But you might say there is a small hint of in these interactions of insult that belongs to the world rather than the blessing of a heavenly nature.

By nature, our words and attitudes are earthly and downward spiraling, right?

Not of a heavenly air in the form of love and life words that build up.

And so we could probably all think of many interactions that are a lot worse than the one that I just mentioned.

But what is true of the human condition and what makes fellowship so hard is when we give way to this earthly way of engagement.

And so think about kindness.

It's one thing to think and to believe you're kind when you're lying alone on the couch by yourself.

But it's really only tested in community.

It's when the pressures of others are, uh other people's expectations are placed on us, when something's required of us that we don't want to do, when we rub up against sin in others, that we're really forced to assess this honestly.

Am I really kind?

And so if I'm harsh and I react to someone with a critical spirit, I'm I'm called to kill that attitude.

I'm to kill the earthly impulse that desire is to serve out that harshness to them.

And I'm to put on kindness, humility, and patience.

That's what he's saying here.

Put off, put on.

That's a continuous work that we're to be engaged in and fellowship with one another.

That's the work we're called to, to put off, to put on.

But that doesn't mean morality.

Right?

Because the the work of the Spirit is his work is a deep one.

And so the difference is that holiness also draws not only a withness with Christ, but a withness with the Holy Spirit.

I liken it to being out in the garden.

I remember one of my first jobs as a youth who was working for a farmer who uh employed me to go out in the middle of a uh a crop that he had planted.

It's a huge field, and it had this luscious new crop that was growing.

And my job was to go and it was to pull out anything yellow, which signaled wild turnip.

And uh it was a terrible job.

Uh but, you know, he he he wanted me to do it because it meant that in pulling these out, the crop could grow healthy without being overtaken by this insidious weed that yielded no fruit.

And here's the thing he didn't send me out with a weed trimmer, only to just mow those things down at the surface because he knew that that would just pop straight back up.

I had to pull out each one by the roots.

And in the same way, the Spirit works in us not only to go after the habit of sin, the thing that we might see for us, but also goes after its root, the motivation, the wants, the loves that give birth to it.

So we ask ourselves, why did I react harshly?

What was it?

It made me want to respond to that person in such a way.

And so the Spirit works in that way to move deeply to our motivations, to assist our motivations, and then works to bring the cross of Christ close.

All right, which is to remind us that in this case, our harshness belongs to Christ's death.

And to put it off.

But in place of that, to put on the heavenly grace of kindness, which belongs to our new life with Christ, the way in which he treats us.

It's a witness that we share with the Holy Spirit.

And you see, the beauty of this work that the Spirit does is that in doing so, He strengthens us by reinforcing the heavenly grace and all these other graces within us.

I saw our neighbors yesterday sawing more grass seed.

And I've already got grass laid down.

The point is to thicken the grass by adding more grass to it of the good kind so that weeds don't have the room to sprout up.

The Holy Spirit, when he meets us in this way, begins to thicken and reinforce those pleasing heavenly graces within us.

Fetching for us what belongs to this new life that we have with him in Christ and in heaven.

The truth is that you are God's field.

And he would have you possess a harvest, a great crop of heavenly graces, and to minister and edify one another through those graces.

That is heavenly fellowship.

And why we do this together, not in isolation, is because when we observe for one another that we're prone to the same passions, we're prone to the same struggles, we're prone to share the same concerns as others.

What makes for great fellowship is that in seeing that others are able to put them off through the Spirit's help, to be self-denying, to be heavenly, holy, we're encouraged to press on in the Christian life in our own struggle against sin.

The vulnerability that's shared in fellowship can be used as ministry to one another to keep us pressing on and opposing sin to grow these heavenly graces.

And so pursue transformation and fellowship with one another after Christ's likeness.

And then third, pursue one another's benefit with thankfulness.

Verse 16 and 17 apply to our resurrection life with Christ, towards uh really it's the mutifull the mutual edification of one another.

Notice the repeated refrain to be thankful.

It appears three times from the end of uh for the yeah, from the end of verse 15 to verse 17, three times.

Thankfulness, in other words, is contagious.

It's to be immersed in the life and the fellowship of a body.

Thankfulness is something that doesn't take God or one another for granted.

We all know what it's like to be around thankful people, I think.

Not entitled people, not people who assume or presume upon one another, but are thankful.

Recognize that all is a gift.

Everything good that comes from God is a gift to be thankful for.

It's an awareness that all good things are God's gifts.

And we can do that in whatever we do.

When we teach, when we admonish one another, when we engage with one another.

All of these things are vital to our fellowship together as a family, to enliven one another, to stir up one another, to foster the kind of godliness and sanctification of each person.

And as we know, it's not something that we can hurry.

Our growth is not something that we can hurry.

It's a complex process.

It can't be put into a simple formula.

There are no shortcuts to this kind of life together.

A theologian Michael Kruger says it this way: He says, You need someone to stoke the fire in you to keep you on the right track, to help you get up when you don't want to, and to shake you occasionally to tell you to get it together.

You need to be part of a team with teammates who will help, encourage, push, rebuke, and love you, and whom you can help encourage, push, rebuke, and love.

If not, you are going to have to face all the challenges of life by yourself, with no one there to lift and stir you up.

You will find it hard to keep going on in the Christian faith.

That's the gift of fellowship.

Others who are there to lift us up, to stir us up.

Again, are you looking to do that with anyone?

Do you have anyone who's fighting for your own heart in that way?

I wonder if you came here this morning with that pursuit in mind, that you might have the word of God dwelling in you richly, so that you might be able to edify someone else as it does so.

We can do that when we come together, if that word is indeed dwelling in us richly.

One theologian once said, he said, While the Lord has a dish for every particular soul that truly serves him, there's a special goodness when a multitude of dishes come together to create a spiritual feast.

I like that.

In other words, you have your dish.

But think about it, when you sit at the table and shear a meal.

Sometimes we've had this when we begin our small group, we begin with a meal, and uh we all bring a dish.

It turns into a feast.

But think about that spiritually.

Each person bringing not only a physical dish of food, but a spiritual dish of how the spirit has been working in their own hearts richly through the word.

I've been able to enjoy some wonderful spiritual feasts in my life.

And it's been when those I've been blessed to walk closely with have sought to bring a dish, to share how the gospel is changing them in the real nitty-gritty day-to-day life.

It's also been when many of you have shear testimonies of God's sanctifying work.

You each have bought a dish.

Many of us enjoy the likes of the Thanksgiving service.

You are called to bring a dish.

And you share your thanksgiving to God, the way in which He has meant you.

And it turns into a spiritual feast every year.

It's been when a few have shared a word that has been applied wisely, and I've been given the sense that the Spirit has given them insight to put wind in my sails.

When you bring your dish, you can be part of creating a feast with others when the Holy Spirit is at work in your own heart and the word of God dwells richly.

And friends, that's also true when it comes to song.

How thankful, how thankful I am for psalms, for hymns, for spiritual songs.

In my own life, I've had times when just an ordinary day-to-day life, I'm stewing on anxious thoughts and uh simmering away only to have a song turned on or present some glorious truth.

And before you know it, it's it's met me and it's lifted my spirit.

I like to whistle, so sometimes it comes out with whistling as well.

But that's owing to someone's willingness to edify through a spiritual song.

And the reason for it is because we're not only people of mind but of emotion.

Right?

The gospel is meant to be sung.

It's meant to stir us up and stir our affections for greater love to Christ, greater love for one another.

And you might not know it, but uh Ben actually does the service to us all by putting together a playlist every week of the songs that we're gonna sing in worship.

And uh I should probably, I don't know if I need to credit other people, but that's that's that's edifying.

It was a blessing to me this morning to be on the way into church, to put on that playlist, and to be edified by those songs.

We have access to radio, we have access to playlists.

But I was also more blessed in hearing those songs sung by you this morning.

The ability to come together and to sing together to create a spiritual feast.

We were meant to sing, we were meant to be engaged in song together.

I know many of you do that and experience that joy of edifying one another in song and singing together, whether it's in a fellowship group or whether it's in other occasions.

Our small group grabs everyone together at the end and sings the doxology together, and it's a blessing to see young and old join together, praising God.

There's richness in being able to sing, the gift of music, how wonderful the songs and psalms, spiritual songs are to edify one another.

And so that is the edifying work of fellowship, the gift of biblical fellowship that we have to offer one another.

And so, in all things, let's let's seek what's above where Christ is.

Let's pursue fellowship with Christ, let's pursue transformation with one another, and let's pursue one another's benefit and do so with thankfulness.

Amen.

Let's pray.

Our Lord, we we thank you for being with us.

Lord, we thank you for being with us now.

We thank you for your word.

We thank you for the invitation you give us, the rich invitation you give us to fellowship with you.

O Lord, it's been good for my own heart to be reminded of the preciousness of that fellowship that we share with you.

And it's been good for me to be reminded of how I can enrich fellowship with others.

So, Lord, we ask, we pray, would you continue to spur us on?

Lord, would you strengthen us to pursue these things?

That we might truly be becoming of the community that you would have us to be.

And all these things we give you thanks in Jesus' name.

Amen.