Hide And Seek

Hide and Seek

Colossians 3:1-17

October 29, 2000

Prop.: We must put off the old man and assume the new in Christ.

Introduction: When I was a kid growing up on the streets of Dorchester, one of my favorite games to play was “Hide and Seek”. We used to play on Tolman Street and Norwood Street. There were lots of places to hide, behind cars, under cars, in doorways, in the lumber yard between the piles of lumber. But I found a hiding place that almost always guaranteed me a win. You remember the rules of Hide and Seek don’t you? One person is chosen to be it. They have to close their eyes, this was usually done leaning on a lamp post in my neigborhood, and count to 100. The players then scatter and look for a place to hide. When “it” finishes the count they opened their eyes and began to seek out those that are hidden. When a hidder was found by the seeker there was a mad rush to “home” (the lamp post) and the first one there won. If the seeker got there first the hidder became it for the next round. We used a variation of that rule in my neighborhood in that while the seeker was seeking elsewhere a hidder could jump from his hiding place and make a wild dash for home. If he got there before the seeker saw him, he or she was exempt from being “it” for the next round. Got it?

I found that the street lights cast a giant shadow right by the front porch of the Lockes house on Tolman Street which was so dark all you had to do was lie down in the shadow and be very still. The shadow was about ten feet from the lamp post. Voila, as soon as the seeker turned her back I was all over that post. Yes. ladies and gentleman, standing before you this morning is the Hide and Seek champion of Dorchester. They never caught on because they never saw where I was coming from.

The text this morning teaches us that we are “hidden in Christ”. What we were before Christ is gone and we stand under the shadow of the cross hidden from our old life. The comment on this verse in the Believers Study Bible reads, "Hidden" expresses a permanent condition created by God in Christ. The fact that the Christian’s old sin nature has been crucified with Christ and buried together with Him in baptism (cf. Rom. 6:35, note) and that he is now liberated, resurrected to live a life pleasing to God, must be accepted "by grace ... through faith" (Eph. 2:8, 9), just as was the initial salvation (cf. 2:6). "Having begun in the Spirit," by allowing God’s power to work in them by faith, believers are not made mature "by the flesh" (Gal. 3:3 Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? ), by striving to live the Christian life in their own power without total dependence on God” Total dependance on God, that’s the key. The Old man was self reliant and willful. The new man is Christ reliant and obediant. So let’s play a little hide and seek with this text shall we.

I. Hide the Old Man, Seek the New

A. Romans 6:6-7 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be

done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin--7 because anyone who has died has been freed

from sin.

1) When Christ came into your life the old self died.

a. This is the point of baptism.

b. The point Paul is making here is this. In baptism the Christian dies and rises again. As the waters

close over him, it is as if he was buried in death; as he emerges from the waters, it is like being

resurrected to a new life. Now, if that is so, the Christian must rise from baptism a different man.

What is the difference? It lies in the fact that now the thoughts of the Christian must be set on

the things which are above. He can no longer be concerned with the trivial passing things of earth;

he must be totally concerned with the eternal truths of heaven. Barclay

B. 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new

has come!

1) The old has gone the new has come. The new man is one’s new, regenerated humanity—including a

new spirit, a new nature, and a new life. Our new spiritual life is a hidden, inner life, that is now in union