Senior Pastor Damein Schitter preaches from Colossians 2:6-15; 3:1-4 for our Easter Sunday service, contemplating the promise and transformation brought about by Christ's resurrection. He explains how the resurrection shifts our perspective from being oriented toward death to living with the anticipation of an eternal resurrection, reshaping our present existence with profound cosmic significance.
Senior Pastor Damein Schitter preaches from Colossians 2:6-15; 3:1-4 for our Easter Sunday service, contemplating the promise and transformation brought about by Christ's resurrection. He explains how the resurrection shifts our perspective from being oriented toward death to living with the anticipation of an eternal resurrection, reshaping our present existence with profound cosmic significance.
Hello everyone. This is Pastor Damien. You're listening to Sermon Audio from New City, orlando. At New City, we believe all of us need all of Jesus for all of life. For more resources, visit our website at newcityorlandocom. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 2:Please pray with me the prayer of illumination. Your spirit, god of life. Your spirit raised Jesus from the dead. By your spirit, give us faith, hope and joy in our risen Lord. As we hear your word through Jesus Christ, we pray Amen.
Speaker 2:Today's scripture reading comes from Colossians 2 and 3. Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ, for in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. In him also you are circumcised, with the circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you are also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, god made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him.
Speaker 2:If, then, you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ and God, for when Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. This is God's word. Please be seated.
Speaker 1:Thanks, shannon. Good morning, it's great to see everyone Round two up here. So this you know. I was asked in between services do you want us to record the second sermon, or was the first one good? And I said I like options, so we'll see which one's better. I'm not sure. I hope it's this one for your sake. Well, welcome to New City and happy Easter to everyone. I especially want to again, just as Ben did, extend a welcome to all of our guests. I know that there's family members and people visiting this morning. We're so glad that you're here.
Speaker 1:Well, I want to start off with, actually, a quote that many of us are probably familiar with, and it's a principle that was made famous by a business writer of the last generation named Stephen Covey. And this, one of his many famous principles, is we should begin with the end in mind. And here's a quote by Covey. He says to begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination. It means to know where you're going so that you better understand where you are now and so that the steps you take are always in the right direction. Now, sometimes we simply call this reverse engineering, the fact that many of you are here today. This is not a normal service time. So if you're visiting, you did this and you did it in a different way if you're used to coming at 10.15. Today you had a different service time you had to start with, so that means that your morning looked fundamentally different than it normally does. You had to do a start time of 11.15 and you reverse, engineer backwards to get here on time, or mostly on time, at least by the sermon. So congratulations. We know what it's like to have an end in mind and then for the rest of in this case, the morning or our day, to fall in line with that.
Speaker 1:Now, stephen Covey isn't known for his philosophical nature, but this is actually a very philosophical truth. In fact, the Stoics had this phrase, memento mori, and it's roughly translated remember your death or remember you must die. You see, because philosophically, this idea of beginning with an end in mind scales in terms of time. You could have the end vision of a conversation that is five minutes long and you can begin with the end in mind. And that is five minutes long and you can begin with the end in mind, and that is going to direct the conversation. You can have a new quarterly strategy. But you're beginning with the end in mind, or you could scale to an entire lifetime and recognize your destination. Ultimately is death. As the saying goes, death is still undefeated. Now, this morning we're going to ask is that true? But nevertheless, whatever we are oriented to, it clarifies where we are now. Now, the Stoics didn't have this phrase simply to be morbid, but rather they knew that if we remind ourselves that we die, then it actually clarifies the way we live. That's the way that it works.
Speaker 1:On an even more existential level, the existentialist philosopher Martin Heidegger had a similar take on it. He had this concept called being toward death. And you see, what he was most interested in is how can I live the most authentic life now? By authentic, he meant that he was before our generation. He meant how do I clarify my values? Authentic life now. By authentic, he meant that he was before our generation. He meant how do I clarify my values? How do I clarify my priorities? Well, the way in which I feel some sense of urgency to live in line with my priorities is to face my death. And so he called this being toward death. And this awareness, he said, leads us to an understanding of our life as a whole, and it prompts regular reevaluation of our priorities, values and actions.
Speaker 1:And so here's the through line all the way from Covey to the Stoics, to Martin Heidegger, and that's this Whatever we focus on as our destination will direct our life orientation. I'll say it again when we focus on the proper destination, then we live with a proper orientation. And without an orientation, or even a proper orientation, we do go astray. We end up in places that we never meant to go and we never thought we would end up in. The Stoics actually have another great phrase. They say if you don't know where you're sailing, to no wind is favorable. It doesn't matter where you end up, because you didn't know where you were aiming. And so your destination shapes your orientation in life.
Speaker 1:And the reality is is that many of us here this morning are not living lives oriented toward the proper destination. We're certainly not living lives aimed at the ultimate destination and therefore we're not properly oriented in our lives. Now, none of us set out to be improperly oriented, none of us set out to be aimless in our destination. Sometimes we even start off well, but then the disorienting reality of life happens For some of us. It is an unexpected tragedy. For others it might be a diagnosis, for others it's a broken relationship, for some it's the loss of a job. For many of us it's unmet expectations. Things just aren't going the way I thought they would. And when that happens, that dissonance creates disorientation and we need a way to reorient ourselves. We need something to look to to properly orient us. So, whatever the source or severity of our disorientation in life, whether great or small, the way we reorient is to look back to our proper destination, and in our passage today, paul tells us that the north star for the Christian life is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That is our reorienting reality, and so today I want to explore that in two points, but just briefly.
Speaker 1:The letter that Paul writes to the Colossians if you read it it's a polemical text. He's arguing very clearly against false teachers and I just want you to know that, because that is always underneath the surface of what Paul is writing and in general, these false teachers were insisting on certain practices and rules that filled people with spiritual fullness. That was a key term. Even in our scripture reading, the idea of fullness, or to be filled, showed up a couple of times. And the reality is. You may not think that spiritual fullness is what you're after, but you are. You are certainly after fullness, and everything you've oriented your life toward is directed at finding that fullness. The question is, what's the path to fullness? And Paul is at odds with the false teachers about what will lead to actual fullness. So, to say it simply, the goal that Paul has and the false teachers have are the same a life filled with God but the orientation that brings about that desire is fundamentally different. So I want to explore that this morning. We'll do it in two points.
Speaker 1:The first point is a new status. Paul wants to orient the Colossians to a new status. So let's go back here and let's start in verse 9 of chapter 2. If you have your Bibles, follow with me authority In him also.
Speaker 1:You were circumcised, with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, god made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with his legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. And so fundamentally, in this part of the argument, the polemic that Paul has between him and these false teachers, what he's telling the Colossian Christians is that you have already been given a new status. You don't have to earn this new status. Right, he says you were dead, but now you've been raised with Christ by faith. You see, what he's saying is you have a new status now You're not working for a new status and your new status is alive with Christ.
Speaker 1:Now, that's really important because, just like then, now, the way we orient our lives so often is by the status we have in the group of people we're around, isn't it? It could be something as simple as your airline status, it could be your job title, it could be your social media following, it could be a number of things, but all of these things in our lives orient us according to status, and so often what what happens is because this is true it was true then, it's true now is that we are so prone to be tempted toward a sense of arrogance because of our status. Certainly, comparison, but if we don't really like our status in certain groups of people, we may feel inadequacy, but whenever we feel arrogance, inadequacy, confusion, there's a sense in which there's a gap between a higher status we could have and we're charting a course to try to reach that status. This status actually was given a name, popularized in the 2004 book called Status Anxiety by a British philosopher named Alain de Botton, and I want to read a quote because I think that he summarizes this desire and need, and sometimes fear, of status that we have. This is what he says the attentions of others matter to us because we are afflicted by a congenital uncertainty as to our own value, as a result of which affliction we tend to allow others appraisals to play a determining role in how we see ourselves. Our sense of identity is held captive by the judgments of those we live among. There seems to be a reminiscent language of verse 8 and 9 in chapter 2. When Paul says See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit.
Speaker 1:According to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, there's a fundamental captivity we have as it relates to our status and fundamentally there's two different things. Because Paul is telling them they have a status. It's not that status doesn't matter, it's what's the source of your status. And there are only two sources that are possible. One you can find your status or identity in a status that is achieved, that is, you've achieved it, or you can receive a status. So it's status achieved or status received, and the way in which you lean into life, your posture right there, is fundamentally shaped. Do you receive your status or do you believe you must achieve a status? And of course, if you say achieve, then you never actually achieve it Because you've got to stay on top of your game.
Speaker 1:There's always a new status to find, and so, for Paul, the status that he says Christians have in Christ is one that's received, but the false teachers teach that it must be achieved. And these are two fundamentally different starting points. One starts from below, wherever you want to achieve. For the false teachers it was heavenly fullness, but they viewed themselves as earthly and they needed to chart a course to ascend to a higher level of fullness until they reached the status of heavenly fullness. That was their starting point earth and their own efforts. But Paul said no, it's actually. We have to start where our status actually is, which is in Christ and he's seated at the right hand of God. And so Paul starts with a status that he's received, and it doesn't make him achieve a life. It makes him live his life in light of what he's already received. And these are two fundamental differences, and I just want to point this out because it's really important.
Speaker 1:This struggle, this challenge, this dynamic is flowing through the center of your heart right now. It's always going straight through the center of your very being, and that is is my status achieved or is it received? And I want you to reflect on that just for a moment. You look at your calendar, look at your thought life, look at your emotional life. Which one is more true of you? You live your life as though your status is achieved, always trying to measure up even to your own ideas. Or is it received, where you start from a place of wholeness and fullness and live from there, received or achieved, of course, biblically speaking, in Christ, we are not to achieve a new status, but to receive a new status and then walk in light of that.
Speaker 1:Paul says we were dead and now we're alive in Christ. Listen, that status, a status if you were dead, it doesn't matter. How wealthy you are. It doesn't matter what your job title is. It doesn't matter how much control you have in your life. It doesn't matter how well your kids are doing. You cannot bring yourself to life if you are a dead person. You cannot achieve life if you are dead. That must be received. Think about a person who's dead and is brought back to life. Do they participate in that? No, they receive the gift. And so I'll end this point with this.
Speaker 1:When Paul says that we have a new status, he's not saying that new status is true because it's as if you died with Christ and were raised. No, it's not as if that happened. He says you did die with Christ and are raised. It is completely finished. You have a new status, and this new status is the starting point for a new life, and that's what Paul argues in chapter three and forward. So let's go to chapter three then, and let's look at the verses again, one through four. So in chapter two, we saw we have a new status. Now we see we have a new life.
Speaker 1:Look with me in verse one If, then, you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is. The NIV actually translates this since then you have been raised. What the ESV translators are trying to do is they're trying to keep some of the rhetorical aspects of this, because if I say if, then you have been raised with Christ, you think to yourself well, have I been raised with Christ? And the reality is, is if you believe in him? Yes, you have, and so it causes us to reevaluate again. But I'm fine with NIV as well. You could say if then or since then, because clearly Paul believes. If these people believe in Christ, so they have been raised with him, and since they have, then they should seek the things that are above. So I actually have three sub points in this new life. The first one is when we have a new life, we have a new orientation, and we see that because Paul tells us that we are to seek the things that are above.
Speaker 1:Now, when I use that word seek, sometimes we might think he's telling us to seek things that we don't have yet. That is, to seek to possess something. So many of you are wearing new clothes because you get pictures on Easter Not all of you, I can tell, but some of you did and so the reality is is that to get those new clothes, you had to seek them. You didn't have them right, you had to seek them. Now, that is a way you seek things, but that's not what Paul's talking about. He's not talking about seek something to possess it. He's talking about seek something by orienting yourself to it. For example, jesus says in Matthew 6, seek first the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God cannot be achieved, it can only be received. So what is Jesus saying? He's saying to orient yourself fully to the kingdom of God. This is what Paul means here. Orient yourself to the new status that you have, which is you are raised with Christ. So Paul is saying you can't strive for the heavenly status because you've already freely been given it in Christ. Rather, now that you have that status, you are to live oriented completely to that new reality. Everything in your life is to flow from that new reality. That's been received, not achieved, and so we know what this is like when we focus on something that it directs our life.
Speaker 1:I've shared this story before. Some of you have heard it, but when I was in high school I got really mainly college, but late high school I got really into road cycling. But late high school I got really into road cycling and we would take long rides, and the more I got into it, the larger the groups were, and I'm from southern Indiana, so there were no such thing as bike lanes. We would ride on two-lane highways for long distances and people would throw stuff at us, and we just had to get used to it. But one of the things I learned is that the more people in line and you're doing a lot of motion, I found myself uneasy and I would look at the cars and sort of drift over the cars or I would get too close to the person in front of me. So finally, someone who was more experienced pulled me aside at one stop and he said hey, listen, you need to look exactly where you want to go, because wherever you look, that's where you'll drift. So if you want to hit the tire, look at the tire. If you don't want to hit the tire, look right in front of the tire. If you don't want to get hit by a car, don't look at the cars. Now we know this as drivers, even if you've never ridden a bike on a busy highway is that when you pass a semi and you look at it, if you don't, if you're not careful, you'll drift toward what you're looking at. We know this right. So Paul wants us to orient ourselves toward our new status, because where we orient our vision, that is where we will go. That is the way in which our life will unfold. Now, that's if you know your surroundings, that's if you have the wherewithal to orient yourself.
Speaker 1:But what about when you're disoriented? Because sometimes in life aren't you just disoriented? Sometimes in life aren't things so confusing to you that you never saw them coming? You're not sure how you got there and you're not sure where to go next. You just feel like the waves are coming and you're like a surfer. You just keep being pounded and you don't know which way is up. You need a breath and you don't know where to go. You feel disoriented.
Speaker 1:How do you know how to get reoriented? Or something that I'm sure we've all experienced at some point. If you've ever walked in the woods, on some type of trail, you're walking, and if you're talking to someone or you get lost in your own thoughts, how many of you have found yourself disoriented? All of a sudden, you're like, oh snap, where am I? How did I get here? I don't even know what's happening. Now, if you're like me, how do you get reoriented? Everything looks the same. Well, you turn around and you try to find the place that was the last thing you recognized. Where was the last place you knew where you were? Can you get to that? Can you find that place? Because once you're there, you can reorient yourself. Or think about it one more way. Imagine I invited you after this to drive with me somewhere in Polk County which is south of here, and if me, somewhere in Polk County which is south of here. And if you're from Polk County, which I know some of you are, you know why I'm making this joke. So, polk County.
Speaker 1:Sometimes you feel like you're in the middle of nowhere. Okay, especially from Orlando. But let's say that you're driving and you've never been to where you're going and you lose signal. You have no GPS, but you just keep heading the direction you were heading because you don't know any different. And then you come to a four-way stop and you think well, now what do I do? I could go straight, I could take a right, I could take a left. So, as you're thinking, you recognize there's actually a wooden sign that's been hit by a car and knocked over and it's on the ground. And when you pay attention to the wooden sign. There are actually four signs that point in different directions and they all have the name of a city or a location on them. But it's on the ground and you don't know where you're going. So how do you situate yourself? How do you orient yourself? Well, hopefully you know where you came from and you can pick up the sign and point the arrow toward where you know you came from. And when you do that, all of a sudden you're oriented toward. If I take a right, I go here. If I take a left, I go here. If I go straight, it's going to take me here.
Speaker 1:I think that's actually what Paul is inviting us to do In the disorientation of life. He's calling us to look back to our starting point, and our starting point, he said, the fundamental starting point that we must always start with to orient our life when we're disoriented, is our new status as raised with Christ. That is the truest thing about us, and our status is with Christ, who now is seated in heaven. And so when we find ourselves disoriented in life, paul is saying seek the things that are above with Christ. Not seek to possess, but orient yourself to the things that are true about you, receive it again and again. So when you find yourself disoriented, know that God is with me, god has me. And you might say well, how do you know that? Well, it's because it's in verse three. So look with me at verse three. Paul says for you have died. That's past tense, and your life is hidden. That's present tense. Paul says for you have died. That's past tense and your life is hidden. That's present tense with Christ in God. So this reality is is that not only do we have a new status, but we have a new security. How do I know that?
Speaker 1:This word hidden means two things usually in the Bible. One is that when things are true but hidden, they have an apocalyptic nature to them. An apocalyptic just means revealed. So there are things that we can't see, and we know this because the Bible tells us that there's an unseen realm, for example, and so there may be angels in this room, probably are, but certainly there are elemental spirits in the world that Paul already speaks to in chapter two, and we just don't have eyes always to see them. But we can see them by faith that there's always more happening than we can see. Well, one of those things that's true, that we can't see with our physical eyes, is that new status which we've received. Paul's saying you are resurrected, but when you look at me I don't look that much different than any of you. But Paul says I am resurrected because I trust in Jesus. But that thing is hidden. But it doesn't mean it's not real. But the other thing that hidden means in the Bible is that it's secure, it's safe. So when things are hidden that are real, it means that they're kept safe.
Speaker 1:Now, I thought about this in a conversation in between the first and the second service, and so I hope this clarifies it too. Have you ever had something for your children that are young and it's valuable and it's theirs? And so you say this is for you, but not yet. But it is yours. And they say, oh, I love that, dad, can I keep that in my room? And you say absolutely not, you cannot keep it in your room. Why not? Because you would destroy it, you might break it. I'm going to keep it in my room so that it's safe, so that nothing can break it. Nothing can destroy it. No moth or rust can destroy it here. And so what happens is that this new status is hidden, but it's real and it defines everything about us. And it's not just hidden in that. One day it will be fully revealed when you are raised to newness of life with your resurrection body. But it's also safe, so there's nothing you can do to destroy it. There's nothing anyone can do to destroy it. No calamity, no suffering, no tragedy, no mistake that you make. God has it and he has you. And this is the new security we have in this new life. Not only do we have a new orientation in this new life, not only do we have new security now in this new status, but we also have a new hope.
Speaker 1:Now let's end where I began, and that is one of the wisest things that philosophers have done, human beings have done throughout history, is have a proper orientation to their destination, and we know that it's been death, undefeated, they said. And so there's wisdom in philosophers and Stephen Covey reminding us that whatever your destination is or whatever your limits are, that has to orient your life. There's wisdom there. But think about that phrase that Heidegger had of being toward death. That's true and wise and good if death is the end, but if it's not, it's not spacious enough, it's not capacious enough. It doesn't handle all of reality, because death is real but it's not spacious enough, it's not capacious enough. It doesn't handle all of reality because death is real but it's not final. So what if we said this Our proper orientation to live a well-lived life is not death but resurrection.
Speaker 1:It's actually newness of life. So we don't have being toward death, we have being toward resurrection, and this is what that could look like. We have being toward resurrection and this is what that could look like. Both of them orient us to a certain end and inform our life. But in the first case, that is, if being toward death is all that you have for an authentic life, then you have to strive to make the most of this life, because it's all there is. Whatever we get now, that's it. However virtuous you are now, that's great, but you're dead and it's over. You may have had a happy life, that's not nothing, but it's over at death. That's your destination. That's being toward death. Lots of wisdom there. But what if there was something else? What if there was something more? What if there was being toward resurrection? In that case, we don't strive to make the most of this life, but we steward this life, because this life isn't all, but it does matter when we are being towards resurrection by faith in Jesus. This life matters because it's an internship for the eschaton. It shapes our character now so that we can be entrusted with more then, where all the pain and joy from this life would be redeemed and restored and will be physically resurrected.
Speaker 1:Now what I want to do is end with two quotes that juxtapose these two visions, because we all long for fullness and when we get sober, for whatever reason whether it's tragedy or the grace of God death becomes real to us. It's actually real. We realize that we one day will die and we don't know when that's going to happen, and it will clarify things. It will clarify our values, it will clarify our decisions. It will clarify our decisions. But when that happens inevitably because we're made for more, we're made for fullness we will do everything in our power to try to defeat that death. And in fact it's not sci-fi anymore.
Speaker 1:Transhumanism is in, like mainstream news and media. There are companies that exist now to do research to figure out a way to somehow preserve your consciousness defleshed. So I want to read a quote, because it embodies a way of rejecting being toward death. This is from Oz Guinness. He says about transhumanism, quote the desired liberation is not only from sickness, aging and the countless bodily problems, but total emancipation from biology and the body altogether, an unfleshed future that is free even from death. The vision is of techno-salvation and morphological freedom, that is to say you don't even have to be human anymore if you don't want the liberty to take any bodily form that technology will permit. End quote. So this is a vision of the future to reject being toward death.
Speaker 1:But what Paul wants to orient us to is that Jesus has already done this. Jesus has already defeated death, and he's done it not in a way where you might have a hope by your consciousness, living in a hard drive somewhere, but rather a fully orbed human life in community with God, in the new heavens and the new earth, where you eat with him, you dine with him and you experience life fully, as it was meant to be. So death still happens, but death is a transformation into full humanity. So here's a quote that might summarize that or depict that picture of being towards resurrection. From Russell Moore. He says quote our lives now are shaping us and preparing us for a future rule, and that includes the honing of a conscience and a sense of wisdom and prudence and justice.
Speaker 1:God is teaching us, as he taught our Lord, to learn in little things how to be in charge of great things. Our lives now are an internship for the eschaton. The moment you burst through the mud above your grave, you will begin an exciting new mission, one you couldn't comprehend now if someone told you and many of the things that seem important now whether you're attractive or famous or cancer-free, they'll seem irrelevant. But many of the things that matter little now will take on a cosmic new significance then. This is being toward resurrection. It doesn't minimize this life, it relativizes this life. It reorients you in this life. This life matters, but not because you have to fit everything in before death, but because you're training for life after death, a life that's fully embodied, a life that is received, not achieved.
Speaker 1:And so this morning, on this Easter Sunday, we are invited to a reoriented life in the resurrection. Will you look? Let's pray, father. We are grateful for your goodness and kindness to us. We ask that you would give us eyes to see. Would you open our eyes of faith, the eyes of our heart. Would we see as you see? Would we love as you love, would we be reoriented this morning around this reality, this new status we have? Yes, lord, it is hidden but it's real and it will be revealed and you are keeping it secure for us. Give us faith to see, in Jesus' name. Amen.
Speaker 1:Now's the time, thank you. I love that we got some amens up here up front from the mouth of babes. So this is the time every week where we reflect from what we just heard, and this morning I want to guide us through, maybe a little differently. First, I want to start with the reality, a reminder that faith is one of the gifts of Jesus's resurrection. You see, what Paul tells us is that faith, when we trust in Christ, we are made new creations. And a new creation isn't achieved, it's received. And so, therefore, faith which makes us new creation, faith in Christ, that is a gift and it was purchased for us in resurrection. So praise God for that. And from that, when we come to him now, for some of us, we can come to him in faith for the first time.
Speaker 1:Today, I believe that there are some in here that that could be your reality and the invitation is to come. Come to Jesus and look to him for the first time today. For others, the invitation is to look on him again. Reorient yourself in faith. For the first time in a decade, or for the first time in this season, you recognize this morning I've been living my life as though it needs to be achieved. I've been living on my own. I've been living independently as though that was the goal, rather than dependent upon God. I invite you to reorient yourself on this new status by faith in Christ and for anyone, on either extreme or in between, bring your doubts and see his wounds this morning, ask for faith and receive him. Now let's take a few moments to reflect and pray.