Hidden in Christ: Union with Christ with Sinclair Ferguson

now we're turning again to our study together in the theme of union with christ and in some ways we're coming to the biggest passage of all remember we thought a little about galatians chapter 2 verse 20 union with christ in a nutshell we looked at romans 6 verses 1 through 14 and we placed union with christ under a kind of microscope and saw that it was a much bigger picture but now we're we're going to take the panoramic view and turn to colossians chapter 3 and the first 17 verses and it will take us i think a couple of sessions to get through the wonderfully rich material that paul gives to us here in this passage it's helpful i think when we study colossians to remember the background reading any new testament letter as we sometimes say is like listening to one end of a telephone conversation in a way you've got to make up the other end to understand what's being said and the same is true of the background to pause letters we can't always be clear exactly what was going on we pick up hints by the way he responds often to false teaching and there was false teaching either already in colossae or coming to colossae and the apostle paul is wanting to give his christian friends their counsel it was probably especially important for him to do that because he'd never been at seams in colossae the colossian church had been planted when he was in ephesus uh perhaps epaphras who is mentioned in this letter was one of the pastors of the church perhaps he'd been converted he had certainly visited paul had preached the gospel and then there seems to have been false teaching making its way at least into the city and perhaps into the church and i think probably part of that false teaching began like this well the gospel that you heard from epaphras that came of course from the apostle paul that was okay but don't you find some disappointment in your christian life these were young christians have you discovered that the christian life isn't all that you imagined it might be finding yourself struggling well we have come to teach you how to deal with that and so these false teachers either already were or soon would be saying now yes it's great to trust in jesus christ but there are also these principles and laws that you need to follow these spiritual laws and they emphasize that they were spiritual and it looks from what paul says that they were saying if you really want to have fullness of life then if you glance down at the end of chapter two you'll notice that they were saying well there there are certain things you you need to do in terms of your diet there's a way you need to live in terms of getting in touch with nature you know there are there are certain kinds of rhythms that will help you in the christian life and they were saying this is the way to fullness and we're used to this kind of thing aren't we uh people who appear in the media especially perhaps on television because it seems for some reason rather that's the more expensive medium but it therefore is the medium that brings in the most money who will say now what you got in your church was okay but it's this ministry that will give you the super blas this will bring you to the fullness and paul is saying to these colossian christians do not be deceived by this false teaching because you have already come to fullness of life in jesus christ there is nothing to be added to him so what you need is not to add to jesus christ to fill up what is lacking in jesus christ what you need to know is the fullness that's already there for you in jesus christ this is the real problem the real problem is you've received christ but you haven't yet fully grasped what it means to receive christ and all the riches of god's grace that are found in jesus christ and so he's urging them in chapter two when he says you've received all fullness in christ in verses 9 and 10 not to be deceived but to be rooted and built up in him and to walk in him and if you read your way through colossians you'll notice how he keeps on returning to what has become our theme in these studies it's knowing who you are in jesus christ and knowing who jesus christ is for you that's your fullness so live out of that fullness and you will find that those false teachers will not be able to get their murky paws upon you and mar your christian life and here as i said i think we have perhaps the most panoramic view in the new testament of what it means for us to be united to jesus christ and i want us to think especially first of all about what he says in verses one through four of chapter three because we're back to the same principle you've come to fullness of life in jesus christ first of all because that has given you a new identity now we've explored this under the microscope you're united to christ in his death and resurrection but you notice now paul stretches this just look at his words he says you've been raised with christ so seek the things that are above where christ is seated at the right hand of god set your minds and things that are above not on things that are on earth for you have died and your life is hidden with christ in god and when christ who is your life appears then you also will appear with him in glory so now he's saying you're so united to christ that you were united to him in his death united to him in his burial united to him in his resurrection united to him in his ascension your life is hidden with christ in god your united to him in his heavenly session and reign and when he appears he will not reappear without you when he appears isn't this an amazing statement then you also will appear with him in glory uh the the early fathers used to have a lovely way of putting this that the reformers also echoed our lord jesus christ considers himself incomplete without us isn't that something we're not worthy of that in fact we feel so unworthy of that there's something in us that refuses to believe it how could this possibly be true but because he has become the second man and the last adam because he's united us to himself he now considers himself to be incomplete without us so that if i can put it this way he has already said to his father i'm not going back unless they're coming with me to appear with me in glory and i know this is something that we we don't think this way naturally may i repeat that from what we've seen before i understand none of us thinks of ourselves naturally this way but what paul is saying you're no longer supposed to think of yourself naturally now that you're a believer you've got to think about yourself biblically to believe what the gospel provides for you a good number of years ago now i read a very moving book by the philosopher and nicholas waltersdorf many of you will know his name it's called lament for a son and it's a it's a narrative rather like c c.s lewis's book written after his wife died it's the narrative story of how his son died in a climbing accident i think when he was in his early 20s and there's a sentence in that book that that struck me very forcefully some of you will appreciate this i think from your own experience uh professor walter staff writes now if anyone wants to know who nicholas walter stark is he needs to know i am a man who lost his son i am a man who lost his son perhaps you have been in that situation or lost a brother or one of those experiences that marks you for the rest of your life and and means that you you live in a kind of world of your own that most people know nothing about but if they really want to get into the inner circle of your life they need to know this about you as walters says i am a man who lost his son now transfer that way of thinking to what paul is saying here paul is saying here if anyone wants to know who i am they need to know i am somebody who died with christ was buried with christ was raised with christ ascended with christ my true life is hidden with christ in god and when christ appears he will not appear without me that's amazing that he will not appear without i'm not going it's it's not that he's saying this the way our children or our grandchildren says i'm not going it's not stubborn resistance to his father it's part of his covenant with his father ask of me and i will give you the nations for your inheritance the father said to him and now he's claiming his people from among the nations and his father is delighted that he so is united to his people he's not coming back without them but for the moment says paul our lives are hidden with christ in god you remember john's version of the same at the beginning of first john chapter three he says we are already the children of god but it does not yet appear what we shall be but when he appears we shall be like him and that's true isn't it christians do shine in the world people see the grace of christ in your life they don't really know who you are unless they're christians because your true life is hidden with christ in god some of you will be familiar uh with the way in which christians have i think quite often describe this as what they call positional truth i don't know if that's a an expression you're familiar with often i hear people say this is positional truth i think i want to say that's okay but it's not good enough this is not just positional truth as though there were some other kind of truth this is the truth about you this is not just a position that you hold this is the deepest reality of your life if you're a christian this isn't make believe this isn't a fiction this says paul is the reality of our christian lives and he says if this is true then we need to set our minds on it and that means setting our minds on the things that are above not on the things that are on earth you see he's saying we've been raised into this new order this new humanity in jesus christ and so we've got to learn to think that way we don't naturally think that way because we bring into the christian life the old mindset often don't we the old instinct and we need the word of god to grind away at our thinking so that we understand who we really are so the new identity that we're given in christ leads of course to a new mentality we seek the things that are above we fix our gaze upon our lord jesus christ in whom our lives are hidden and we fill our hearts with devotion to him in the church i served a number of years ago i always seem to be asked to be involved in any appointment to the staff that would have to do with any kind of pastoral care from children through to elderly and so the candidates were always hauled into my office poor things eventually to be grilled and i then discovered that there was a question i always asked and especially the youth staff always passed on to the candidates he's bound to ask you this question uh and it was this what do you think about when you've got nothing else to think about what do you think about when you've got nothing else to think about now why ask that question because it would be an index of the affections wouldn't it you you when you have nothing else that's that's focusing your mind when your mind is free where does it drift where does it drift and paul is saying you need to learn more and more for your mind to drift to the lord jesus christ now if somebody said to me you know i think about my mum and dad but you know that certainly to me would have been better than you know i think about the new york yankees but thinking about the new york yankees might be better than thinking about the atlanta braves for all i knew how would i know anything about that but it's when we've nothing else to think about that often the the drift of our affections comes out and you notice that paul uses these two kinds of things if you've been raised with christ set your mind on things that are above because that's where your real life is hidden with christ and god and as we've already seen it says we set our mind on these things that our affections follow so that when we begin to flow bling like john bunyan we sometimes find our affections flowing to the lord jesus when our our minds are kind of empty you know we're not sitting there thinking i must remember colossians 3 or romans 6 or galatians 2 or romans 5 12-21 or the whole of the epistle to the ephesians but it's it's so become part of our instinct that our minds drift to the sheer privilege of being a child of god and being united to the lord jesus christ and we shouldn't leave this point without remembering that paul has taught us who jesus christ is in colossians 1 verses 15 to 20. paul does not focus so much on union as on union to jesus christ and our enjoyment of that union is is going to be in direct proportion to our knowledge of the lord jesus so that in chapter 1 verses 15 to 20 he's told us he's the image of the invisible god he's the creator of things visible and invisible he sustains all things he's the head of the body the church he is the one in whom the fullness of god is pleased to dwell he is the one who has reconciled to himself the family on heaven and the family on earth by making peace by the blood of his cross this is this is what's sometimes called a cosmic vision of the lord jesus christ so to be united to him well this is privilege beyond measure and when i have nothing else to think about and my mind drifts to the fact that my true life is hidden with him in heaven then my life begins to be suffused with thanksgiving and with praise because i've been given a new identity because i've begun to develop a new mentality and also because and this is so wonderful as we've already hinted i've been given a new sense of destiny yes my identity is now hidden from this world and actually to a certain extent is hidden from me and your identity is hidden from me but my destiny is that when he appears i will appear with him not only that but when i appear with him i will be like him what does that mean you know i think sometimes we can grasp what the new testament is teaching us if we think about it this way on that day what god has done in you by his spirit transforming you into the likeness of the lord jesus what he has done inside will appear outside you will at the moment you are an inside outside person but then you will become an outside inside outside person and sometimes i think of meeting people that i've known who have been believers and have have lived their own often modest simple christian lives and i think of meeting them in the new heavens and the new earth and i suspect the first thing i will say to them is this oh so that's who you really were that's who you really were the grace of the lord jesus christ working in our hearts you know the world is all jumbled up the people who have prominence in the church are probably not the most important people in the church you know you love to think about about this future day when god will take all the jigsaw puzzle pieces of all of our experience and of all of our churches and throw them onto an almost infinitely large table and they will begin almost harry potter-like to sort themselves out and and actually we will see what he was really doing and through whom he was really doing it some of you have maybe heard me say before that i was converted listening in part to the testimony of a young businessman who had been moved to an office in my home city and as young businessmen do he was getting to know all the departments on this he did that he often walked past what they used to call a typing pool and he noticed there was a typewriter in that room going with a consistency he he recognized the particular typewriter although he couldn't see the typist and this was like a fish hook in his brain and he he said to a colleague in some irritation why is that typewriter always going with the same consistency and the colleague i don't think he was a christian just said casually well that's so-and-so she's a christian and he began to think what on earth can be the connection between how she works and the fact that she's a christian and it led to his conversion i'd love to end the story by saying they met fell in love and got married but i don't think that happened but i've often thought this that one day by god's grace i may meet that typist and there will be something about her that will put on display how important her faithful consistency in union with jesus christ has been in my life and then when christ who is our life appears she will appear with him in glory the wonderful things that god does in hidden people who are united to jesus christ and that's who most of us are hidden people but one day it will all become clear because we're united to the lord jesus christ you

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Keywords: hidden in christ, union with christ, hidden in jesus, union with jesus, in christ, jesus christ, sinclair ferguson, united to jesus, united to christ, christians, christian, christianity, faith, the christian life, the gospel, the power of the gospel, hearts, minds, identity, mentality, destiny, reformed, reformed theology, theology, god, the bible, ligonier ministries, bible study, union with christ ligonier, union with christ doctrine, bible study lessons, bible study with me

Id: yBKr6uQLdno

Length: 23min 26sec (1406 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 17 2021