June 16, 2013
Morning Service

Tit 2:13 Looking for the blessed hope, and the appearance of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,

• This has been our theme verse for this study of the Second Coming of Christ.
• We have changed our regular practice of working our way through an entire book to look at what the apostles were given to teach us about this event, thus building our faith.

 

Rom 10:17 Then faith is of hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.

 

Col 3:1-4 If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God.  (2)  Be mindful of things above, not on things on the earth.  (3)  For you died, and your life has been hidden with Christ in God.  (4)  When Christ our Life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.

 

 Col 3:1-4 Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits at the right hand of God.  (2)  Let heaven fill your thoughts.  Do not think only about things down here on earth.  (3)  For you died, and your life has been hidden with Christ in God.  (4)  When Christ, who is your real life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all His glory.

• When he is speaking of being raised with Christ, he is referring to what he said earlier in chapter 2 of this same letter.

Col 2:10-12 And you are complete in Him, who is the Head of all principality and power,  (11)  in whom also you are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ,  (12)  buried with Him in baptism, in whom also you were raised through the faith of the working of God, raising Him from the dead.

• Since we have been raised to this new life we are to have a whole new perspective on things.  We let thoughts of heaven fill our mind, not the cares and worries of this world.  (Farmer)  Our “world view” is to be a heavenly, spiritual, and eternal one.
• A. T. Robertson described it like this: “the Christian is seeking heaven and thinking heaven.  His feet are upon the earth, but his head is with the stars.  He is living like a citizen of heaven here on earth.”
• In our busy, busy world it becomes increasingly difficult to find time to deal with all the things that confront us on a daily basis.  Work issues, home repairs, car repairs, yard upkeep, health issues, insurance, family and taxes just to name a few. Where is God supposed to fit in all that?  He doesn’t, He comes before it all.
• Paul is telling us how we are to approach our life; putting Him first and letting everything else fall into its proper place.
• “Let heaven fill your thoughts.  Do not think only about things down here on earth.”
• What dominates our thoughts?  Is it the cares of this present world?  Do we think on the eternal?

 

Philp 3:20 For our citizenship is in Heaven, from which also we are looking for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,

1Co 6:19-20 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit in you, whom you have of God? And you are not your own, (20)  for you are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.

• We are His. We are to love Him with all our heart, mind, soul and strength.  Our actions, desires, and our thoughts should all be centered on Him.
• Jesus warned us about getting caught up with the affairs of this world in the parable of the sower.  We cannot become the seed that falls into thorny ground.

 

Luke 8:14  And those which fell among thorns are the ones who, when they have heard, go forth and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of life, and do not bear to maturity.

• Don’t become choked down with things of this world.  Keep heaven on your mind and live above these things.

 

Paul told us that we had “died and our life was hidden with Christ in God.” (Verse 3)

 

 Rom 6:4 Therefore we were buried with Him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father; even so we also should walk in newness of life.

• We are given us the chance to start over.  We are given a clean slate and conscience before God.  Why would we go back? 

 

2Co 5:17 So that if anyone is in Christ, that one is a new creature; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

• This new life must include the vision of “setting our minds on things above.”
• Paul encouraged us in the letter to the Philippians to “press towards the goal.”

 

Php 3:12-15  Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect, but I am pressing on, if I may lay hold of that for which I also was taken hold of by Christ Jesus.  (13)  My brothers, I do not count myself to have taken possession, but one thing I do, forgetting the things behind and reaching forward to the things before,  (14)  I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.  (15)  Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, be of this mind. And if in anything you are otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this to you.

• Let this be an encouragement to each of us to press on starting this morning.
• Don’t get consumed by our past, but “forgetting the things behind and reaching forward to the things before.”
• All things that are before us are “new.”  Every day is a new beginning as we are “Looking for the blessed hope, and the appearance of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,
• We are promised that at Christ’s revealing, we shall share in His glory.
• Is this reality to you this morning?  Or does it just seem to be a good ending to a good story?  He is coming again.  You are being given the chance to share in His glory, or you can do nothing and share in His wrath that will come upon those who have never accepted the invitation for a “new life.”

 

Lord, may our minds be filled with thoughts of heaven and Your glory and may our lives reflect those thoughts.