When Christ Is All In All

WHEN CHRIST IS ALL IN ALL--Colossians 3:12-17

Proposition: When Christ is all in all, a true Christian will seek to be obedient to Christ and reach out too others with love with the fullness of God.

Objective: My purpose is to challenge God’s people to fully make Christ all in all and live a life that makes Him preeminent in one’s life.

INTRODUCTION:

Illus: A minister delivered a sermon in fifteen minutes one Sunday morning, which was about half the usual length of his sermons. He explained, “I regret to inform you that my dog, who is very fond of eating paper, ate that portion of my sermon which I was unable to deliver this morning.” After the service, a visitor from another church shook hands with the preacher and said, "Pastor, if that dog of yours has any pups, I want to get one to give to my minister.”

Christ is in you when you trust Christ. “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.” (2:6) A.B. Simpson stated: "There is not an hour of the day or night that I am not conscious of Someone who is closer to me than my heart or my brain. I know that He is living in me, and it is the continual inflowing of the life of Another. If I had not that I could not live." Christ is preeminent in your life when you let Him be “all in all in you.” In 1657, Jeremiah Burroughs: The Apostle Paul was a chosen vessel to bear the name of Christ, to carry it up and down in the world. Indeed, his spirit was full of Christ. He desired to know nothing but Christ, to preach nothing but Christ, to be found in none but Christ. The very name of Christ was delightful to him. He seeks to magnify Christ in all of his epistles. He does not only make Him great but he makes Him all…This is the sum of the gospel and the most supernatural truth revealed in all the Book of God…Christ is all in all in the enjoyment of all. When they enjoy never so much of the creature comforts, Christ is all in all to them…It was the speech of that martyr, John Lambert, "None but Christ, none but Christ." Yea, when he suffered martyrdom for Christ. then none but Christ was dear to him because he saw that Christ was the way of conveying all good to him.,,,Therefore, how should our hearts love Him, prize Him, and rejoice at the very thought of Him?” This section completes Paul’s exhortation to the Christian to live a holy life. It continues the illustration of garments: “Put off … put on” (Col. 3:8-10). He exhorted his readers to put off the grave-clothes of sin and the old life, and to put on the “grace-clothes” of holiness and the new life in Christ. Paul told believers what to put off (vvs. 5-9a), while in 3:9b-11 he describes the believer’s new identity in Christ. Now Paul begins to tell believers what to put on. Paul described what God has done for the believer. In these verses he describes what God expects of the believer in response. A righteous identity must issue in righteous behavior. Such behavior is the outward manifestation of the inward transformation when Christ is all in all, and it is the only sure proof that such transformation has taken place. “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.” “Christ is everything and in us all.” Williams NT

I. PERFORMANCE BASED ON GOD’S GRACE New Deeds (vvs. 12-13) “As the elect of God…Put on”—Since Christ is all , one must remember you are both loved and chosen of God and have been set apart from the world to show what the Lord is truly all in all in your life.

1. Put on compassion (v. 12a) “tender mercies”—Wear Jesus’ compassion. To show compassion you must feel with another. . . and not just for a few seconds. It means entering into the pain of another person and truly sharing that pain. Ray Stedman describes like this: "Compassion is what we would call a ‘heart of pity.’ It is a sense of sympathy, of empathy with someone. Approach life with compassion; that is what Paul is saying. Put it on when you get up in the morning. You are a new man, or new woman; therefore, live that way!"

2. Put on kindness (v. 12b) “kindness”— We live in a harried world. A word or act of kindness can make all the difference. This is to be our attitude in relation to others & the opposite of harshness & severity. "Be ye kind one to another" (Eph. 4:32) is God’s command. "Kindness is action that reveals com-passion, action that arises out of a sense of sympathy. It can take many different forms---a smile, a kind word, a pat on the shoulder, an invitation to lunch, etc. We are to put on compassion & kindness as we start our day & throughout the day.