Looking Up Or Nose To The Ground?

Scripture: Colossians 3:1-4; Psalm 121:1-8

Theme: Looking Up rather than Nose on the Ground

Paul wants to help all of us be able to live a New Life – 1. In Christ we have New DNA 2. In Christ we have a New Perspective

INTRO:

Grace and peace from God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!

I want to talk about living a life of looking up; a life of growing in Christ. That is what our passage centers on this morning.

The Apostle Paul is writing to a newly formed congregation that is very diverse and is dealing with several interesting issues.

One side of the church’s religious DNA was stepped in paganism, mysticism and angelology (the worship of angels). It was nothing for someone on this side of the church to have faithfully served one or more of the local gods and goddesses; the most popular being Zeus, Athena and Artemis.

The other side of the church was dealing with the issue of Jewish legalism. There were many who believed that in order to be a “real follower” of Jesus you had to adhere to all the rules of Judaism; especially those that dealt with special days, special seasons and even special diets.

The Apostle Paul wrote to them to explain that as Born-Again Christ followers they could live above all that noise. They didn’t have to live a life of paganism, nor did they suddenly have to adopt all the rigorous rules of Judaism.

In saying that, we must understand that Paul would have never abandoned nor disregarded the Ten Commandments or the Two Great Commandments of Jesus. Those were bed rock. Those were foundational stones. What he would have gone back on were some of the 613 rules that had attached themselves to Judaism over the years.

Paul was doing his best to help these young disciples in Colossae be able to steer their spiritual boats between Jewish legalism on one side and paganism, mysticism and angelology on the other side.

That was not always an easy thing back then or even today.

+We still have those in the Church at large that love to dabble in astrology, the Zodiac, fortunetelling, angel and saint worship and lean way to far towards Neo-paganism and New Age mysticism.

+We still have those in the church that love to draw red lines around everything that they think is wrong and demand that everyone live according to their standards which many times are not the standards that we find in the Bible.

So, this letter of Paul’s has as much value today as it did 2,000 years ago. The words he shares here in the first 4 verses of chapter 3 are good for us to read, reflect upon and allow the Holy Spirit to teach and guide us.

Let’s look at a couple of the things that Paul wants us to understand:

I. Paul wants us to understand that in Christ we have a new DNA

Repeatedly, the Apostle had to remind his readers that they were now in Christ Jesus, they were new people. They had a new heritage and a new direction. They were no longer the same people they were before they accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior and LORD.

Have you ever participated in one of those ancestry tests?

They are a lot of fun to do. You can order the ones that allow you to send in a little saliva to their labs or you can go more in detail and have some blood work taken.

Either way, it is interesting to get your results.

Recently, ancestry.com sent me some new information concerning a test I took some years ago. They notified me that with their more advanced testing my ancestry is now:

+51% English +22% Scottish

+18% Welsh + 5% German

+2% Norwegian +2% Irish

I think that it is interesting to know where your ancestors came from and how they came to America.

But I don’t think that it is the most important thing. After all, we didn’t get to choose whether we were going to be European, Indian, African, Asian or Hispanic. That was out of our control.

Physically, we all must come from someplace – Europe, Africa, Asia, the Americas etc…

Our writer, the Apostle Paul had a Jewish heritage. In fact, he was able to trace his lineage all the way back to the Tribe of Benjamin (the youngest son of Jacob and Rachel). He was related to such famous people as King Saul, Prince Jonathan and Queen Esther. Not a bad bunch to have in your family tree.

The Colossian Church was made up of people who had all kinds of ancestry. There were people there that had Jewish, Roman, Greek, Egyptian, Persian and Babylonian roots.

Talk about a mixture of radically different traditions in one congregation. They were quite a blend of different cultures and beliefs trying their best to understand one another and live beside one another. All of that had to provide for some interesting conversations, ideologies and cultural beliefs.