Now if you would take your Bibles in hand and turn with me please to Paul’s letter, first of all, to the Philippians. We come this morning to our last in our short series looking at the teaching of Scripture on the subject of heaven. We’ve considered the history of heaven – its creation and its present state. We’ve considered the future of heaven – what it will be when Christ returns at the end of the age to make all things new. We’ve considered the life of heaven – what will be our great preoccupation there, even the sight and the adoration of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And then last time, we considered the way to heaven – by faith in Christ alone, who is the way and the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through Him.
Now you may recall that we began this whole series by quoting part of the other passage that we are going to read this morning from Colossians chapter 3. We read Colossians 3, verses 1 and 2, which you might say serves as the key text for the whole series where Paul writes, “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 and not on things that are on earth.” And there is a sense in which everything we have done over these five weeks together has been an attempt to obey those commands as clearly as we could; to see the Scriptural teaching on “the things that are above where Christ is, seated at God’s right hand;” to think clearly about heaven. Heavenly-mindedness, Paul is saying in Colossians 3:1-2, is a basic duty of the Christian life. We must be heavenly-minded. Of course Paul expects heavenly-mindedness to require much more than a short five week sermon series. Heavenly-mindedness is the work of a lifetime.
And so today, we are going to go back and we’ll camp out mainly in Colossians chapter 3 and return to Philippians 1 at the end. But we are going to go back to focus on the discipline of heavenly-mindedness itself – what is it, and how do we keep it going; how do we cultivate it and live a heavenly-minded life. We’ll think about two things. First, motives for heavenly-mindedness, and then, the method of heavenly-mindedness, as we find them both in the Scriptures. The motives for heavenly-mindedness and the method of heavenly-mindedness. Before we do that, let’s pause once more and pray and ask for the help of the Lord as we read and study the Scriptures together. Let us all pray.
O Lord, the truth is, so often our minds are fixed on things that are on earth. We are not as heavenly-minded as we ought to be as citizens of heaven united to Christ. So now we pray, send us anew the Holy Spirit who has inspired Your holy, inerrant Word now before us. Give light to our understanding and change our minds, make us indeed heavenly-minded by bringing us to trust in Christ, making Him our life. And then, as we trust in Him, to fill our minds with the hope of heaven that it might change the way we live here on earth, for Your honor and glory in Jesus’ name, amen.
Philippians chapter 1 at the twenty-first verse. This is the Word of God. Paul writes:
“For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.”
Then turn forward a few pages to Paul’s letter to the Colossians, chapter 3, at the first verse. Colossians chapter 3 at verse 1:
“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 in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.”
Amen. Do please keep your Bibles open at Colossians chapter 3 and we’ll refer to it as we go.
The Motives for Heavenly-Mindedness
New Life
Let’s think first of all about motives for heavenly-mindedness. Motives. Why should you be heavenly-minded as a Christian? Well look again at Colossians chapter 3. There are two principle motives supplied by Paul in this passage for heavenly-mindedness – our new life and our new destiny. Our new life and our new destiny. New life, first. New life, Paul says, is a great reason for heavenly-mindedness. So look at verse 1. “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is.” Verse 3, “You died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, you also will appear with Him in glory.” You see, when we become Christians, something far more wonderful, far more mysterious happens than a mere decision on our part to accept the claims of Jesus or to begin to order our lives by a new moral code. It’s not even that we simply attached ourselves to a visible congregation, a church, or have been baptized. Nor is it that we now read our Bibles and pray. Although these are all true, of course they are, of faithful Christians, not one of them can make us a Christian.
No, when you become a Christian, Paul reminds us here we are joined, we are united to Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. And the result of that union is that a decisive, irreversible, pervasive transition has taken place in our hearts, in our souls, in our lives. We are no longer who and what we once were. We are new creation. We are born again. In the passage, Paul actually calls it a kind of death and resurrection. Did you see that in the text? When Jesus died on the cross, there’s a sense in which every believer died along with Him. We died to our old lives. And when He rose, we rose along with Him to a whole new way of living. “You have been raised with Christ,” verse 1. “You died,” verse 3. “Your life is hidden with Christ in God.” That’s where your life is now, Paul says. You are not an earthly person anymore. Your life does not have its fundamental source here in this world. No, you live, as it were, in heaven, and heaven lives in you. All and only because you are in Christ and that is where your life is. Notice again that striking language in verse 3 where we’re told, “Christ is your life.” That’s Paul’s point. You’re alive now in a wholly new way, only because you are joined to Jesus the living one. He is your life. New life.
New Destiny
But also a new destiny. Look again at the end of verse 3 – “when Christ who is your life appears.” So He is coming back to judge the living and the dead one day. And when He appears, Paul says, “you also will appear with Him in glory.” Since you live now in union with Christ, since life flows from Christ into you like sap that flows from the vine into branches that have been grafted into the vine, since Christ is your life, it follows, Paul says, when He comes again in glory, His glory will shine from you. The glorification of a Christian that is our great destiny is still the glory that belongs properly to Jesus. It’s His glory, only it shines out of us as well as from Him. It shines natively in Jesus. It is, as it were, it is indigenous. Glory is indigenous to Jesus Christ. But His glory is going to shine reflectively from all of us like a mirror. The polishing work of God changing us here, polishing away every blemish and stain of sin that will only be finished when we go to be with Jesus, that polished mirror surface will shine and blaze with the reflected majesty of our returning King one day.
And now do you see why Paul brings up these two great poles of Christian experience? It’s beginning in new life and it’s great climax in our glorious future destination where we will be glorified with the glory of the likeness of Christ. What’s the logic for bringing up these two core Christian truths? Well Paul is saying, in effect in the text – do you see this – he’s saying where you come from and where you are going to ought to exercise a controlling influence on how you think and how you live. Where you come from and where you are going to, ought to exert a controlling influence on how you think. When I conducted the graveside service for Dr. Harry Fulcher last week, I was chatting briefly before we began to one of his nephews who is an actor. He does voices in particular. I don’t think I said more than a few brief words to him and he immediately recognized not just my home country but actually my hometown just from my accent. It was actually quite astonishing. Usually people ask if I’m Irish, and at least once I’ve been asked if I was Russian. Very occasionally someone identifies Scotland, but never has anyone here who is not from my homeland identified from my voice that I’m from Glasgow, that I’m a Glaswegian. But this man has an ear for accents and immediately he made the identification. Turns out that even though I live here, I’m still shaped by my life there. And it’s not just my accent; it’s my outlook on life. It’s my way of thinking. It’s my carefree and sunny disposition. Where you are from shapes your mind.
Now if you are a Christian, your life is from Jesus who is seated in heavenly glory at the right hand of the Father. He is your life. That is your home. That’s your country. More fundamental than your family background, more basic than being a Brit or a Scot or a Glaswegian or an American or a Southerner or a Mississippian or a Jacksonian, you are a Christian. You are in Christ. Your real life is in heaven where He is. He is your life. That’s where you’re from. That’s what ought to shape your mindset, your thinking, your attitudes. The Lord Jesus Himself, the fountain of life. That’s what Paul is arguing there in verse 1. Do you see it? “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above. Set your mind on things above, where Christ is.” Where you’re from, where your life is – that should shape your mind.
But not just where you are from, where you are going has a vital role in shaping your mind, your thinking. So a young man wants to be a college athlete. He’s really talented and has a decent chance of going pro one day. He wants to get drafted and play for the NFL. You’ve got to be impressed that I know about the draft and the NFL, surely! But that’s his ambition. That’s where he wants to go. That’s his life destination. Now a scout looking at this young man’s life, his routine, his habits, will be able to tell immediately, wouldn’t he, if he’s really serious about the pursuit of his goal. He would be up long before dawn. He’d be training. He’d always be at the gym. He’d never miss practice. He’d memorize every play. He would be a dependable and reliable and servant-hearted teammate, not egotistical and self-seeking. He would adjust everything – everything, his schedule, his thinking, his behavior, his routine, to achieve his goal. Where he is going shapes how he thinks. “Set your minds on things above, not on things on earth. When Christ who is your life appears, you also will appear with him in glory.” That’s where we’re going. That’s our destination. That’s our goal. We’re bound for glory, heading for heaven, for the presence of the exalted Christ Himself.
Now how ought our minds to work? What ought to preoccupy our thoughts if that is where we are headed, if that is our great destination, if that’s where we really want to be? Your thinking, your mindset, reveals where you are from and it tells us where you are going. If our life is in Christ, If then you have been raised with Christ, if when He appears we also will appear with Him in glory, well then, we need to examine how we think, what we think about, where our minds instinctively turn when nothing else is occupying them. “Set your minds on things above.” That is the only fitting and suitable way to be given these two great realities of new life and a new destiny. The motives for heavenly-mindedness. Do they animate your heart? Do they really shape how you think? The motives for heavenly-mindedness.
The Method of Heavenly-Mindedness
Then, how do we do this? Paul isn’t simply exhorting us, seeking to motivate us. He gets practical and gives us concrete advice, counsel on how to be more heavenly-minded. Four things in particular that we learn about the method for heavenly-mindedness in this passage and in the Philippians 1 passage – meditation, anticipation, mortification and evaluation. That’s the four parts of heavenly-mindedness. Meditation, anticipation, mortification and evaluation.
Meditation
Meditation first of all. It’s right there in verses 1 and 2, isn’t it? “Seek the things above. Set your minds on things that are above.” Those are imperative verbs. They are commands. This is not an optional, negotiable practice. This is a vital duty for every Christian. The word for “seek” in verse 1, “Seek the things above,” actually gets at our wants, our desires, our longings, our loves. It’s a heart word. And the word for “set your minds” in verse 2, on the other hand, speaks to our thought life – our attitudes and convictions and imagination. It’s a head word. And both together really describe vital truths about the art of Christian meditation. You will think about and dwell on what you long for, what you desire, what you love. And you will love for and desire and love what you most dwell on and begin to see as beautiful and true and good. When you become a Christian, you get a new chooser and a new thinker. Right? You get a new heart and a new mind. They are still encumbered by the remnants of sin, our hearts still go astray, our minds still misunderstand the truth, but whereas before we were converted to Christ, our hearts only loved sin, our minds were in spiritual darkness and could not see the loveliness of Christ. Now that we are born again, we have a new desire and a new appetite for Jesus and for a life that will please Him. And our newly enlightened minds begin to see His beauty and goodness and truth with fresh clarity.
And so then, Paul says, since you have this new life, this new chooser and new thinker, this new heart and new mind, since that’s true, now then, he says, “seek the things above.” Learn to long for them. Desire them, love them. And set your minds on things above. Dwell on them. Contemplate them. Reflect on them. Study them. In particular, he focuses our attention on the Lord Jesus Christ. Actually the whole letter to the Colossians is about riveting the attention of the Colossian believers on the supremacy and sufficiency of Jesus Christ alone. When he says, “Set your minds on things alone where Christ is,” he is really saying, “Fix your eyes on Jesus – His glory, His grace, His compassion, His tenderness, His holiness, His sovereignty, who He is, what He has done, His words and ways and works, His death and resurrection, His reign at the right hand of the Father, His ever living to make intercession for you. He is all your heart could need. He is infinitely fascinating, endlessly satisfying. Fix your eyes on Jesus. Set your mind on Jesus.” Meditation.
Before we move on, it gets even more practical if you stay in Colossians 3. Look at the end of this section in verses 16 and 17 where Paul concludes this extended meditation on heavenly-mindedness by adding this. Notice this, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another in all wisdom singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your heart to God.” Christian meditation, understand, isn’t mindless, thoughtless, emotionless. It’s not about breathing and presence. Let’s not confuse it with eastern meditation. Nor is it about the pursuit of ecstasy or some revelation. Christian meditation is about the Word of Christ dwelling in us richly. Paul has no interest in heads and hearts meditating on an invented Jesus or a Christ of our own imaginations. He could not care less how you like to think about Jesus. He only cares about how Christ has revealed Himself in His holy Word. Get the Word into every pore, into every crevice of your soul. Steep in it. Saturate yourself in the Word of Christ.
Now how do you do that? Paul tells you. “Teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs in your hearts to God.” Read it, for sure, but use it. If you are reading it and not using it, don’t be surprised that it does not bear fruit and it’s not really shaping you. A used Bible is a fruitful Bible. Meditation requires us to put it to use, to read it with each other, to speak it to one another, to meditate often upon it and to bring it to bear moment by moment in the challenges and trials and triumphs of every single day. Teach and admonish one another. And sing! Did you know you were engaged in Word ministry every Lord’s Day as you gather as an assembly to sing praises to God? Open your mouth and teach and admonish one another as you sing praise to God. You are preaching the Word to the hearts of your brothers and sisters. That’s a large part of why we come to sing praises to the Lord. We are engaged collectively, together, in an act of ministry and of meditation. Meditation.
Anticipation
And then, anticipation. Remember verse 3. “When Christ who is your life appears, you also will appear with Him in glory.” Why did Paul fix that before our gaze – the coming day, the horizon line when the sun breaks and Christ shall come in glory and the darkness will flee away? Because he wants you to live in the longing and in the eager expectation of that soon approaching dawn because it changes everything. It helps you press on through the dark, doesn’t it, to know that dawn is coming, that dawn is coming. “More than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning, my soul waits for the Lord.” He is coming more certainly than the sunrise. In this dark world of political turmoil, of theological decay in the churches and confusion and moral compromise and collapse in our society, has it ever been more important to lift your eyes to the hills and ask, “From whence doth come mine aide?” and hear the answer, “My safety cometh from the Lord, who heaven and earth hath made.” He is coming. He is coming. And everything one day will be made new. Fix your eyes on that great coming day. Meditation. Anticipation.
Mortification
Thirdly, mortification. Verse 5, “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.” Notice the list there has to do with your head and your heart, not just with your behavior but all the way down into the roots of how you think, what you choose, what you prefer, how you are oriented. And notice what he says to do with your sin. He does not say “manage it.” What does he say? Kill it! Put it to death! You must put them all away, verse 8, “anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices.” You’ve got to kill it. It will take time. It will be painful. Your sin will be slow and reluctant. You must drag it into the light, confess it, own it, turn from it and kill it. Don’t say to yourself, “It’s all good as long as I keep this under control. Everything in moderation, after all. As long as I’m not hurting anyone.” Don’t manage your sin. Managing sin is another name, it’s another name for disobedience. Disobedience justified is sin managed. No, no, kill your sin. Kill it.
Notice how in verses 9 and 10 he changes the metaphor slightly not from killing it but from putting off and then putting on. Do you see that different language? Live this way, he says, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self. And then so he adds in verse 12, “Put on therefore as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness and patience, bearing with one another. And if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other. As the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.” Here’s what heavenly-mindedness looks like in practice, how it changes heads and hearts, attitudes and dispositions.
He’s saying you were in prison, you used to live behind bars, you wore the orange jumpsuit of an inmate. Now, suddenly you have been set free. Your chains have fallen off, the prison doors have been flung wide, you are a free citizen under a bright, free sky once more. So stop wearing the uniform of a prisoner. Dress like a free man, like a free woman. You were enslaved to sin, but you are not a slave anymore. You are free in Christ, so put off the old uniform of your sinful slavery and put on Christlikeness. Put on compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness and patience, bearing with one another, forgiving one another, and above all, put on love. That’s what he says. Here’s heavenly-mindedness in practice. Do you see it? It’s about dressing the part. You’re not a prisoner in the cell block of sin anymore. You are a free citizen of the heavenly kingdom and Christ Himself is your life. So dress the part! Live like a man or a woman in Christ, bound for glory, because that’s who you really are. That’s what Paul is saying. Meditation. Anticipation. Mortification.
Evaluation
And then finally and briefly, evaluation. And by evaluation I mean, “How should heavenly-mindedness change how I assess what really matters in life? How should I think in particular about suffering?” And here’s when I want you to turn back to Philippians chapter 1 from verse 21. Philippians chapter 1 from verse 21 where Paul says:
“To me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.”
So he’s suffering, he’s in jail, and he’s suffering for the sake of Christ. He is actually anticipating his own martyrdom. He thinks that these sufferings are about to lead to his death for his faith. Now how does he think about his own sufferings, about life and death with a heavenly-mindedness? He says, “To live is Christ, to die is gain. If I stay, it will be fruitful labor, a blessing for the church. If I die, I will be with Jesus which is best of all. It’s a win-win.” That’s heavenly-mindedness at work – evaluating life and death in an entirely different perspective. It’s a win-win situation.
Or one more passage – 2 Corinthians 4:16-18. Paul writes about suffering and hardship. “We do not lose heart,” he says. “Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” What’s he talking about there with things that are seen and things that are unseen? He’s talking about setting his mind not on the things of earth but on the things of heaven. He’s talking about heavenly-mindedness and what difference does it make. It means I don’t lose heart. Heavenly-mindedness helps me not to lose heart. How does it help me not to lose heart when things are so very hard? He says, “My sufferings are working an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison for me. And from that vantage point,” he says, “no suffering, however overwhelming it may be to me, is really anything other than a light and momentary affliction, not compared with what it is doing, preparing me, fitting me for heaven, teaching me not to cling to this world and to love the things of the world, but to look to Jesus and to trust in Him.”
“Many years ago,” writes Al Martin, “I was privileged to visit a cemetery in Scotland.” All the best stories come from Scotland. You have probably noticed. “Many years ago I was privileged to visit a cemetery in Scotland where some martyred, covenanter Christians were buried. I came across a statement on one of those tombstones that made an indelible impression on my mind. Speaking of those who had been martyred at the instigation of apostate religious leaders, the inscription was, ‘The prelates’ rage did but chase them up to heaven. The murderous hatred of those persecutors could do nothing more than hasten these loyal believers to heaven.’” And then Martin says, “Likewise, cancer, heart attacks, Alzheimer’s, car accidents and whatever other means God may choose to affect our physical death, all these things can do to the children of God is chase them up to heaven to enjoy in the full consciousness of their existence the blessed reality of complete rest.” That is the evaluation that heavenly-mindedness enables us to make. Whether life or death, it’s win-win. “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” My sufferings, acute, overwhelming, are light and momentary afflictions because they are preparing for me a surpassing weight of glory.
The motive for heavenly-mindedness – New life and a new destiny; where you come from and where you are going to. The method for heavenly-mindedness. Have you got it? Meditation, anticipation, mortification and evaluation. May the Lord help us seek the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. And may we set our minds on things above and not on things that are on the earth so that when Christ who is our life appears, we may indeed also appear with Him in glory. Let us pray.
Our Father, forgive us for our earthly-mindedness. Teach us heavenly-mindedness. Help us to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at Your right hand. Help us, O Lord, to be ready for the day when we go to be with You or You come to take us home. We pray for grace to put off the old life and to put on the new that is renewed in the image of God. For all praise and glory and honor is Yours alone, and we ask it in Your name, amen.