Otherworldly People

Opening and prayer

You can turn to 2 Thessalonians 2. A lot of scriptures again today. It's last week and you're welcome to keep up with as many of them as you'd like. You're also welcome to get the recording and go back through them. I'll try to read all of them.

You can go as fast as you want with your fingers through the pages of the Word. We'll get to 2 Thessalonians in just a minute here. Let's just ask the Lord for His grace to look into the Word. Father, you've given us this book and it is so out of step with the lives that we see whirling around us in this world. I pray that we may, through it, become people who love Jesus Christ more, who reflect the glory of our Father in this world.

I pray, Lord, that in that way, that you might fit us for your eternal kingdom. I ask that we would, by the lives that we live, adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour, and others may be drawn to, attracted to the glory of God that shines forth from the face of Christ reflected in us by the Spirit. We ask for your blessing now upon this time as we look at the theme of holiness that you have called us to in this world. We pray for much grace through your word today. In Christ's name, Amen.

Where we left off: God's holiness is his otherworldliness

You recall from last week that we discovered that God's holiness is his otherworldliness. He is unique, utterly distinct, separate from, above, beyond, and unlike anything in this world. There is nothing to which we may compare him. God's holiness is God's unlikeness. You recall also that we saw that the Old Testament pictures God's holiness by the shape of this created world.

We exist below and under and within. He exists above and beyond and away. The height of the heavens above us, a boundary that we cannot penetrate, gives us a visual representation of what it means that God is holy. He dwells in the high and holy place, inhabiting eternity. He dwells in another world.

God is holy, and he calls us to be holy also. 1 Peter 1.15, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. What does it mean for an earthbound human being to be holy? Throughout the Bible we read the word sanctify or sanctification.

How Scripture speaks of sanctification

To be sanctified is to be made holy. Sanctification is the process of being made holy. And the scripture gives us two statements about how we become holy or sanctified. The first thing we find in the Bible is that God sanctifies his people. He makes them holy.

Exodus 31, 13. You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, above all, you shall keep my Sabbaths that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you. We won't dive into how that works, but it had to do with their keeping of the Sabbath, and the main point is that God is the one who sanctifies his people in the Old Testament. He's the one who makes them holy. In the New Testament, we find the same thing.

You're in 2 Thessalonians 2, look at verse 13. But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by God, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. God chose his people to be saved through the Spirit's work to sanctify them. The Spirit of God is the one who makes us holy. God sanctifies his people.

You can see the same thing if you want to flip over to 1 Corinthians 1. 1 Corinthians 1, we'll look at verse 2. Paul says that he writes this epistle to the church of God that is in Corinth. to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus. So not only does the Spirit sanctify, but our sanctification is in Christ Jesus.

We now, in Christ, have been called, he says, to be saints. God saves us by uniting us to Christ, and now in Christ we are sanctified. These people whom God has sanctified are then called saints or holy ones, sanctified ones. Every Christian is a saint because God has sanctified his people by joining us to Jesus Christ. And you're just welcome to turn to chapter 6 in 1 Corinthians if you'd like, or listen.

Paul puts both of these together in verse 11. You were sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. So how does sanctification come about? by the Spirit and in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Every person in Christ is sanctified and by joining us to him, by giving us the Spirit at our conversion, God sanctifies every one of his children.

Now we are saints and that status as saints never changes. But Scripture is also equally clear that while we have been sanctified, we are not yet sanctified. Listen to 2 Corinthians 7, verse 1. Beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement, bringing holiness to completion. Holiness or sanctification is not yet complete.

We must cleanse ourselves from defilements and bring holiness to completion. Sanctification, that is an ongoing process in the Christian life. And the scripture tells us that one day when Christ appears, the process will be complete and we will be sanctified entirely. Listen to 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 23. Now, may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely.

And may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so God has sanctified us, and he will yet one day sanctify us. And in between, we are called to grow in holiness. We are to cleanse ourselves and bring holiness to completion. We are to pursue holiness, Hebrews 12.

What the first and final day of sanctification show us

Fourteen, strive for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. So what is this holiness that we are to pursue? What does it mean for us earthbound creatures to be holy as the God above beyond is holy? Well, let's start here. I should have had you turn to 1 Thessalonians 5, so turn there with me.

1 Thessalonians 5, verse 23. Notice what Paul puts together here. Now, may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. And may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Sanctification is complete when our Lord Jesus Christ comes again.

Okay? So when we are completely sanctified on that day, what will it look like? What will holiness look like when the process is done? This final sanctification, when our sanctification is complete, occurs on the day when we are taken out of this world into another one. At the coming of Christ, we will be removed quite physically from this earth.

Caught up. And that's what 1 Thessalonians 4 calls our attention to. The Lord will descend from heaven, we will rise to meet the Lord in the air, and that is what final sanctification will involve, being taken out of this world. What happens to us at the end? What happens to us at initial sanctification?

We want to know what it looks like in here. What happens at the end and what happens at the beginning? Well, at the end, we are physically removed from this world. What happens at the beginning? The initial point of sanctification.

Well, think of the first day of your walk with Christ. How did God sanctify you on that day? And we've already seen the two answers the New Testament gives. We've seen that God sanctified us then, back then, in two ways. First, he united us to Christ.

That means we're no longer a part of the fallen race in Adam. We are now in Christ. And having been joined to Christ now, we exist in a different category to the rest of humanity. We are part of a new human race, not the one in Adam, the one in Christ. We have been re-categorized.

And being joined to Christ then, we have been raised up with him to sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Our sanctifying union with Christ means that God has raised us up out of this world in Christ into the world above. And so Paul tells us now that our life is in the heavens, Colossians 3, 1 through 4. Set your mind upon things above because that's where your life is. Jesus is there.

Don't dwell on the things on this earth. The sanctification in Christ means we are no longer a part of this perishing world and the humanity that inhabits it. We are in Christ. And the second way that God sanctified us at conversion was not only by joining us to Christ, but also by giving us the Spirit. We saw this in 2 Thessalonians 2.

13, the initial passage, God says that he chose us for salvation through the Spirit's work to sanctify us. By giving us the Spirit then, what has God done? By giving us the Spirit, he has joined us to the new creation. Because this is what we saw all the way through the Old Testament. Remember that as we've read the Old Testament?

The promise throughout all the Old Testament prophets was, I will pour out my spirit upon this dead and barren and sin-cursed world, and it will spring to life in a new creation. The Spirit will bring a new world to life when Messiah comes. And this is what happened when the Spirit descended at Pentecost. It brought to life a new people, Jew and Gentile in one body. He brought to life the people of the resurrection.

People of the new creation, by giving us the Spirit then God has broken our link with this dead and dying world by implanting the seed of his Spirit within us. He has destined us for the world to come, the world of life, the world above. And this is why Paul says that God's gift of the Spirit is a guarantee that we will inherit that new world, that the Spirit will bring to life. And so our sanctification on the first, And final day takes this shape. By joining us to Christ, by giving us His Spirit, the link that binds us to this present world is severed.

And we have been whisked away out of this world to another world. We are citizens of a new world. And at present, Paul says, we sit in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. Can you believe that? the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.

And we are sitting there with him or we await his appearance from heaven to take even our physical bodies into the presence of God. And thus sanctification is all about otherworldliness. God's work to sanctify us makes us people of another world. This world is not our home. It's not our place.

God's work of sanctification does not make us more a part of this world, but less a part of it. He has worked to sever our natural connection to this world by joining us to Christ, by giving us his spirit, and through the gospel, filling us with hope of inheriting the world to come. That's your world now. If you're in Christ, you are an otherworldly person. This is why Christ has died.

Holiness is more than morality

He says in John 17, 24, Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am. That they may see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. So that's final and initial sanctification. So what does the sanctification we must pursue look like? Well, I want to acknowledge right away that this sanctification, our ongoing process of sanctification, involves abstaining from sin.

Scripture says that many times. Listen to, you know what Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 1 through 7, the will of God is your sanctification, that you possess your vessel in honor. and abstain from sexual immorality. Holiness and sanctification is abstaining from sin. You cannot be holy if you are engaging in sin.

And so when Hebrews 12, 14 tells us that we must pursue holiness and that without it we will not see the Lord, a huge part of that sanctification that we must pursue is avoiding sin and living a life of righteousness. But holiness is much deeper than simply living a good, upright, moral life. Christian holiness is not simply morality. Rather, it is otherworldliness. And let me show you several passages that make that clear.

Turn to 1 Corinthians 7. 1 Corinthians 7. I'm not going to read too much here. But I want you to see what Paul says in verse 34. This is the passage about virgins and married and unmarried women.

1 Corinthians 7, verse 34. Notice what Paul says here. The unmarried or betrothed woman is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit. But the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please her husband. Paul says holiness and worldliness in contrast here.

And what's the nature of each? Well, the unmarried woman is anxious about holiness while the married woman is anxious about things of this world. The unmarried woman is not distracted by worldly things. And what is surprising here is what those worldly things are. Is it murder and adultery?

It's pleasing her husband that is put into the category of worldly things. while the unmarried woman is not distracted by such worldly things and may devote herself to holiness in both body and spirit. Holiness is not, then, the opposite of sinfulness. Rather, it is otherworldliness, that is, living with your attention not bound to the things of this world, even though those things may be very good things. Pleasing one's husband is not a sinful thing.

It's just a thing that's a part of this world. Marriage, like every family relationship, is a thing of this creation. No family relationship survives this world. We're not going to be clustered in families according to last name in heaven. Rather, there will be one family, God's family.

Family relationships in this world were created by God in the shape that they were to put on display the relationship of the Father and the Son, and with the Father and the Son, all of his people that will exist in the new world for all eternity. And so marriage is momentary, because when the reality dawns, the picture disappears. When Christ and his people dwell forever in matrimonial union, There is no need for the picture anymore. And that's why Jesus calls us to leave father and mother in order to enter into this new world, the eternal kingdom that he has come to bring. You cannot be holy if your life is taken up with the things of this world.

Do not seek what the nations seek

And in this passage, that simply looks like being totally bound up in how you can make your husband happy. The single woman then, Paul says, is at an advantage because she's not tethered nearly so closely to this world. Holiness is not simply morality then, but otherworldliness. I want to show you this in another passage in the New Testament. Look at Matthew chapter six.

I do have six points of what this actually means for us today coming at the end, but I want to make the point that the holiness Jesus calls us to is so much more than simply avoiding sin. It is actually the positive pursuit of an entirely new world. Matthew chapter 6, look at verse 25. I tell you, do not be anxious about your life. What was the married woman anxious about?

She's anxious about pleasing her husband. Jesus says here, don't get anxious about the things of this world. What you will eat, what you'll drink, nor about your body, what you will put on, is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at verse 32. The Gentiles seek after all these things.

And your heavenly father knows that you need them all, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. Here's another passage about anxieties over things in this world. Things in this world that become a heavy burden over which we become anxious because they mean so much to us. These anxieties cause us to seek these things, just as the Gentiles are seeking these things. And what's in view here?

Food? Shelter? Drink? Any other pursuits? What else do we pursue?

What do the Gentiles pursue in this world? Well, yes, they pursue sin, but they're also all about health crazes and fixed-up houses. cultural titles, boats, business plans, and vacations, substances, pets. Jesus tells us here that the Gentiles are on the hunt for stuff in this world. They're seeking it.

It captures their attention. They devote their time and energy to obtaining it. They are tethered to this world, everything in it. Jesus admonishes us, don't be like the Gentiles. That is the nations in all of this.

Jesus is, I think by using the word nations or Gentiles here, I think he's looking back at the Old Testament where God told his people, be holy, don't be like all the nations. Be holy as I am holy. So Jesus is calling His people to not be like the nations, that is to be holy. What does that mean? Well, quite startlingly, Jesus says, stop seeking what the Gentiles seek.

Food and clothing, stop seeking it. Your father knows you need it. Seek first his kingdom and righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. In other words, holiness is living for, or being occupied with, your heart's love set upon another world, another kingdom. The world could come.

Not the stuff of this world. If Jesus is concerned that even our pursuit of food and shelter may be misplaced, and may be unduly tethered to this world, what would he say about our plans for a big business? Or our infatuation with money? our cultural patterns or our love affairs with fine food, substances or the easy life. Holiness is not a matter of legality and morality.

It's not a matter of keeping your nose clean. It is a matter of what our hearts seek because God has saved us for another world. And it is that kingdom and its righteousness We must pursue and God tells us why it is foolish to pursue the things of this world and a second Peter chapter 3 2nd Peter chapter 3 Verse 10 but the day of the Lord will come like a thief and The heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness? Everything in this world will be dissolved.

That's not just talking about six-story houses that you're hoping to retire in. That's talking about everything in this world. Every single thing will be dissolved. So what does it mean then to live a holy life? A pat on the back that you strive for at work, human affirmation will die with this world.

If that's what you live for, you are living for the stuff that won't last. Peter says, instead, you are to be people who live lives of holiness, that is, otherworldliness. Live for a world that will last. What happens when we spend our time pursuing things on this earth? Well, if that's all that catches your attention, if that's all that you live for, there's nothing higher in your world than what you can see with your eyes in this world.

The rich fool and a world that is passing away

There's nothing higher than that in your life. Whether that be family relationships, or a better paying job, or a house you can't stop reorganizing and cleaning, or lawns and gardens and bank accounts and boats and statuses and titles and garages full of stuff. If you can't find anything better than that to live for, if that's all your life consists of, where will that all come out? Turn to Luke 12. Poignant passage.

This is, I think, the one passage in this sermon that doesn't have the word holiness in it, but I think that holiness is all the way through it. Luke 12, verse 13, someone in the crowd said to him, teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. But he said to him, man, who made me a judge or arbiter over you? And he said to them, take care. Be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.

Your life is not in this world. Here's a man very occupied with making sure he gets his fair slice of this world. And Jesus says, take care, your life doesn't consist in the stuff in this world. Instead he tells him a parable saying, the land of a rich man produced plentifully. And he thought to himself, what shall I do if I have nowhere to store my crops?

And he said, I will do this, I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. I will say to my soul, soul, you have ample goods laid out for many years. In other words, he's prepared for this life, he's set. Come, relax, eat, drink, and be merry. And God said to him, you fool, this night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?

So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. Don't throw your life away. Do not labor for the means which perishes. Are you preparing for this world or the one to come? You're super.

house renovations, business plans. Stop putting your hope in all that is in this world. It is perishing. It will not satisfy your eternal soul. It may tickle your pleasures for a time, but it will damn your soul if you pursue it.

Because Jesus says through the Apostle John, do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the things the flesh desires, and the things the eyes lust after, and the boastful pride of life, these things are not from the Father. They are of the world, and the world is passing away. But he who does the will of my Father abides forever.

When Jesus comes to take his people into the other world, he will leave behind all of those who have lived for this world and the pleasures of it. The status and the joy they could get out of it while it lasted. It is true that you only go around once. But it is not true that you should live for all the pleasures you can get out of this world on your one go around. Rather, it is true that you should live for the world that isn't to go around, but instead is a come and stay forever sort of a world.

The world is passing away and so Jesus admonishes us, do not love it. Whatever your heart takes hold of becomes the anchor to which you are attached. Anchor your soul to this world by loving it and you will not abide forever. With this world, you will pass away. Cling to it now, and Jesus will leave you to it when he returns.

Six ways to live as otherworldly people

And when it perishes, so too will you. So then how do we live in this world? We are married and have kids, right? We just have to go to work tomorrow, right? How do we live as holy people, otherworldly people, in this world?

Here are six things, briefly, that I think we find in Scripture. First, I don't know where you're at, but you can turn to 1 Peter, if you like, 1 Peter chapter 2. How do we live as otherworldly people? And I would like to say that we express our otherworldliness, one of the ways we do that, is by joining and submitting ourselves to our local church. First Peter chapter 2 verse 5, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

First night, you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, so that you may amass a garage full of stuff, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who calls you out of darkness into his marvelous light. And apparently we do that together as a nation and a priesthood. God created us as his people not to exist in isolation but to exist as a holy nation and a holy people. And by joining you to Christ and giving you the spirit, God has made you a member of a new human race that is not of this world. And you take part in that and you express your citizenship in that other world, in that new world.

You express it today by living as a member of the body of Christ. together proclaiming the excellencies of the one who called you from darkness into another world, into the world of His marvelous light. A local church is where you exist, where you express your otherworldliness. It's the one time during the week when you are called to visibly lay down the things of this world and walk into another world. They take part in the new human race.

That's why we don't bring the things of this world to church with us. It's why we must sometimes very painfully make decisions to lay down the things of this world in order to partake of our place in this new world. It's why we give up our time for three or four hours a week. It's why we give up our monies in this world to be here and to support what is happening. This is why we love the people who are destined for the new world.

It's where we talk about the new world together. It's where we sing about it and celebrate the feast that tells us the new world's coming. Do this until I come. Did Jesus not say we eat this feast with him now, but one day we'll eat it with him in the kingdom? The local church is the place where we visibly express our allegiance to and pursuit of another world.

These are the people who are going to that other world. It's the people you'll live with in that other world. forever. And we begin worshipping the God of that world together here now. Number two, we live a holy life in this world by despising the stuff and glory of this world.

Don't covet either a new boat or the praise of others. I heard about a woman recently who has tried to make her hairstyling routine, don't take this as a legalistic burden now, okay, ladies. I heard about a woman who has tried to make her hairstyling routine in the morning as simple as her husband's. Why? Because she doesn't want to live for the glory that comes from having a fancy hairstyle in this world.

Rather, she would like to redeem that time to devote it to showing the love of Christ to those around her. not crimping in front of the mirror so that everyone will love her. I think she's living for another world, and I think she's living for another's praise. So what must you give up to more readily live for another world? Number three, use the things that you have in this world for the kingdom.

A job is part of this world. Nobody's going to work. It's eternal rest in the kingdom. Nobody's going to work in heaven. So use your job in this world for the world to come.

How do you do that? Your job is not a means of having a bigger life in this world. You aren't just contributing by your job to the success of the business or helping the shareholders get better returns. They're all going to die and you will also. Perhaps tonight.

And what happens to your super then? You will stand before Christ. So labor for his pleasure, Colossians 3, verse 23 to 24, whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that when we step into the world to come from the Lord, you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the master of another world, Jesus Christ. And work in this world so that you have something to give.

Ephesians 4.28, let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor doing honest work with his own hands so that he may have something to share with anyone who is in need. Christianity condemns thievery. It also condemns hard workers who keep everything they make for themselves. Christianity commends working to give to those in need and laying up treasure in the world to come.

So do you use your money and time to give? In places where no one could pay you back with the stuff of this world? Isn't this what Jesus says? Look, invite the poor because they can't pay you back and then your reward will be great in heaven. Marriage is a part of this world.

So use your marriage for the other world by displaying Christ's love and the church's submission to Christ in your marriage. Prioritize your marriage not as an end in itself, as though it were some eternal thing. Instead, prioritize your marriage for the sake of Christ. And to put on display in this world the glory of that world where Christ dwells forever in perfect matrimonial and covenantal union with his saints. Use your marriage to display that.

Your house is part of this world, so use it for the world to come. Fix it up by all means. Fix it up and add an addition so you can use it for hospitality. Have a barbecue and invite your unsaved neighbors over. Show hospitality to the saints.

Give. That's how a holy person uses his house and his table in this world. Listen to Romans chapter 12, verse 13. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Wrongs done against you are a thing of this world, are they not?

There will be no wrongs committed against us in the world to come. So use the wrongs that have been committed against you in this world for the sake of the world to come. How do you do that? Show that the world to come is real by leaving the vengeance to God in the world to come. Not seeking to get it today in this world.

Live like there's a just and righteous world to come that you will inherit. by not exacting justice and vengeance today and holding grudges and penalizing everyone who wrongs you, whether by harsh words or by that barrage of words that you want to say to them in your brain, all day long as you wash dishes. That's what you're doing, right? You're getting vengeance, at least in this courtroom up here. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God.

That would be from the world to come. Leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he's thirsty, give him something to drink, for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head. It is unholy to pursue vengeance toward others in our heads today or to their faces.

It does not mean that justice should not prevail, but vengeance and justice are two different things. Live instead for another world. Use your family relationships. The relationships in this church, they are a thing of this world. Cornerstone Reformed Baptist will not exist in there, but the people will go there, but there'll be one church, not many small ones.

So use the local church and your family in this world, that would be your physical family, to show what God's family is like. Not to seek love and acceptance in earth, your relationships for yourself that will last only for a lifetime. Your local church family is the family of the new world. And so love your brothers and sisters earnestly. Romans chapter 12 verse 10, love one another with brotherly affection and outdo one another in showing honor.

So that's number three, use stuff you've got in this world for the sake of the world to come. Number four, fix your eyes on the day of your death. It may come tonight. And then, whose will your business be? Or your house?

Will you take your garden with you? Or your car? So why invest so much in it today? Why let it wrap its tentacles around your heart so that you love it? Fix your eyes on the day of your death, Ecclesiastes 7, verse 12.

It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart. Number five, fix your mind on the promises of God. You're still in 1 Peter, I think. Just turn to 2 Peter, chapter three. We read this passage earlier.

Since everything's gonna be burned up, then live a life of holiness. The earth will be dissolved, everything burned up, Peter says, and so holiness is waiting for, look at verse 12, it's waiting for the coming of the day of God. It's living with that expectation. Holiness then is living for another world, and how do we do that? Verse 13, look at verse 13.

According to his promise, we wait for that new world in which righteousness dwells. You will only live this sort of otherworldly life if the hope of the world to come burns bright before you today. And what stirs up our hope of the world to come? And the answer is in verse 13, the promises of God. And so according to his promise, we are waiting for a new heavens and a new earth.

Holiness is otherworldliness, and it is God's promises that fuel our holiness in this world. The promises of God hold up to you the glories of the world to come so that we can see it now, even from a distance. And so holiness is living your life today with your minds fixed upon the promises of God so that the gleam of the glory of the world to come reflects in your eye as you live your life today. And number six, live a life of love. Repeatedly, the New Testament connects holiness and love.

The way to live a life of holiness is to live a life of self-sacrificing, active, self-forgetful, outgoing love. Why? Because holiness is otherworldliness. We live for that other world because of the promises of God that we will inherit it, and such promises fuel our hope of obtaining it, And the result of that hope, Colossians 1.9, is love.

Conclusion: if God is holy, you can love

Live a life of love. It is the best antidote to the attractions of this world and the power of its temptations over you. Lay down your life in love. So in conclusion, is your God holy? Is he the God of another world?

So we must live for another world. You claim he is your God. You claim your hope is to go to another world, to be with him. You claim Jesus died to take you out of this world. You claim that God has joined you to Christ and raised you up to sit in heavenly places.

So fix your eyes, Paul says in Colossians 3, upon that world. Set your minds upon things above, where Christ sits. at the right hand of God. And don't anyone think that that means nothing for the world below because Colossians 3, beginning in verse 5, has so much to say about how we live our lives as part of this world below today. But we live it with our minds fastened upon the world to come.

So while you are here, live a life of love for others around you. Care for your husband's needs and honor him rather than belittle him because You are bound up, not because you are bound up in this world and your marriage, but because you're going to another world to inherit something, life, where you will live under the light of God's love. Think of that person who took so much from you and your kids. She robbed you of safety or pleasure or joy in this world. And the loss is great.

She has robbed you, has she really? Has she really stolen your life? Only if your life is in this world. But if your life is in the world to come, that's untouchable by anybody in this world. Your life is safe with Christ in God.

God promises that he will set every wrong right. And so that's our life. We haven't lost a thing in this world. You live now under the protection of a God who one day set it all right. Empowered by that hope, you can let it go.

If God is holy, you can love, not grasp. If God is holy, you can love, not clutch. You can love without withdrawing. You can love and not get angry. You can love and not fight.

You can love and not keep. You can love and not demand. You can let go of this world. You're destined for another world. And Jesus Christ has died to set the hope of its glory before us.

And so now we have opportunity to live into the calling with which we have been called. We're not living to obtain. We're living because we have already obtained in Jesus Christ. That, I think, is what it means from the New Testament to be holy. Lord God, I ask that as we observe this Lord's Supper now, that it may prepare us for the week to come, if we look away from ourselves, up into the heavens where Christ sits at the right hand of the throne of God.

This is where our life is, for we are saved only in him. So Lord, I pray that you would give us grace this week, set our minds above, and I pray that this Lord's Supper might prepare us first step of that this week. We ask in his name. Amen.