Sermon

Sermon # 1024
January 16, 2011
Colossians 3:1-17
Dr. Ed Pettus

“Spiritual Formation in Christ”

Jesus once said: “The Kingdom of the heavens is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened” (Matthew 13:33).

Any of you who have ever baked bread know the truth behind Jesus’ statement. A bit of yeast affects the entire loaf in such a way that permeates the loaf. The yeast infuses all the other ingredients giving the bread its fullness. The kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God, is the yeast of our life. A bit of the kingdom mixed into our lives will permeate everything about us. No part of our life is unaffected by the kingdom of God. A passage of scripture memorized and lived out will affect all our life. A prayer for us, or by us, will change our life. The routine of worship will enrich our being. A Christian spiritual discipline practiced will reform our spirit.

Today I want to lift up spiritual formation in Christ, the “yeast” of spiritual growth. There are a lot of religions and movements and philosophies in the world that speak of the spiritual, that offer opportunities for spiritual formation. But when we refer to spiritual formation, it is, or should always be, spiritual formation in Christ. Christian spiritual formation is about taking on the character of Christ. Spiritual formation is about the change of mind, attitude, and disposition that leads us to be like Christ. Spiritual formation in Christ is about finding ways to infuse a little spiritual yeast into our lives.

Colossians is a good book to study for spiritual formation. Colossians 1-2 engage us in what Dallas Willard calls – enthralling the mind with Christ. The first two chapters of Colossians teach of the supremacy of Christ in all things. All things were created in him and through him. Paul realized the number of philosophies of the world that threatened the life of the church: “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ.” And then he speaks of the supremacy of Christ: “For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have come to fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority. 11In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision, by putting off the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ; when you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead... If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the universe, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world?” (Colossians 2:8-12, 20).
Christ’s authority is over all things. These writings encourage us to be enthralled with Christ’s supremacy or authority, to be gripped and captivated by the person of Jesus Christ.

When Paul moves to Colossians 3-4, he engages us in the objective of becoming Christ-like. The task in this teaching is to remove all the responses or tendencies of our life that oppose the kingdom of God. The metaphor Paul uses is an outward object to speak of an inward condition: clothing. The church was called to “change clothes.” Put on the fresh garment of Christ. Discard the old clothes – those tattered old clothes of evil desires, malice, slander and the like. They were to strip off the old self with its practices. In spiritual terms this meant being crucified with Christ, an action symbolized at our baptism. In practical terms this meant a change in disposition. We cannot simply keep living the same old life that sins against God and against one another.

To change our clothes is to take off the old, bad habits of our lives. Paul lists some inappropriate activity. He may have been listing some activities he had observed in the community or simply taking some random behaviors he knew to be inappropriate. Paul lists examples of inappropriate behavior for Christians. They are all old clothes to be removed. Take off those old rags of sexual promiscuity, impurity, lust, doing whatever you feel like whenever you feel like it, and grabbing whatever attracts your fancy. Take off the clothes of bad tempers, irritability, meanness, lying, and toss them in the fire.

Once those clothes are removed we are given new clothes to wear. Paul says: “As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony” (3:12-14).

Above all, out on love – putting on love. Love the Lord with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. Faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love. Love is that favorite shirt that you like to put on in the evenings to relax. Love is that comfortable pair of shoes that you wear when you go out for the day.

Paul gives us some ideas of what wearing these clothes looks like when he says, “And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (3:15-17).


Paul tells us to do something – to take off the old, put something to death, kill it, hang it on the cross and to put on something else – the character of Christ. Paul does not really tell us HOW to do this. Perhaps this is what he means by the phrase in Philippians “work out your salvation” (Philippians 2:12). Work out what you need to do to live in responsive obedience to Christ. Within the framework of salvation, tend to your life as faithful disciples seeking to please God and grow in Christ.

Did everyone who read what Paul wrote to the Colossians understand what to do and how to do it? How do we do put off the old and put on the new? Well I suggested two weeks ago that we keep the Lord always before us according to Psalm 16:8. I lifted up Paul’s letter of Philippians last Sunday that we seek to know Christ. Today we are looking more specifically at what Psalm 16 and Philippians 3 and Colossians 3 can mean for our life – that some things will be crucified in our life as we seek to keep the Lord ever before us and some things, godly things, will take their place when we are seeking to know Christ.

There are many things the scriptures reveal to us as specific acts of obedience: seeking first the kingdom of God (Matthew 6:33); loving God and neighbor (Matthew 22:34-40); studying and meditation on scripture (Psalm 1, Proverbs 4:20-23); pursuing God (Psalm 42; 63); worship (Psalm 95:6).

We also learn from what Jesus did: he prayed, he got away for times of solitude and silence, he studied the word of God, he worshipped, he served and taught and preached and healed and showed compassion and treated others with dignity and fairness and kindness and love. The classic spiritual disciplines enable us to be formed in Christ and to have Christ formed in us. Practicing silence offers us the time to escape from the constant noise of life. It frees us from feeling like we have to always have something to say. Solitude places us in a position away from people, phones, internet, television – and isolates us in a positive way so that we might focus on being with God. Be still and know that God is God (Psalm 46). Study of the word enhances our experience of worship and worship feeds our study of the word.

One thing we might consider is asking ourselves when we are going about our daily tasks with the thought of Paul’s words in our minds: Do all things in the name of Jesus…ask ourselves - can I do this or that in the name of Jesus? Is this activity or action something I can truly do in the name of Jesus?

Spiritual formation in Christ is a life long journey. It takes a plan to put to death the earthly. It takes discipline to hang on the cross those things that reject Christ. It takes a plan to put on the heavenly, to seek the things that are above. It takes effort.

Dallas Willard in his book The Great Omission, points out eight issues dealing with spiritual formation in Christ:

1. The first is obedience. Spiritual formation in Christ deals with obedience to Christ’s life and teaching – obedience to the Christ.
2. The second is spirituality, that is, it is a matter of spirit. It is “from above”, like the wind. We cannot see it. And living in a visual oriented culture, we tend to discount the spiritual.
3. Third, spiritual formation is living from the reality of God. This means trusting that the reality presented us in Jesus Christ is the truth! We trust the Bible. We trust God. We trust that we live in the kingdom of God today.
4. Fourth is that spirituality is supernatural. This is again the recognition that our Christian spirituality is from above, from the Spirit, and therefore, from God – God is at work in you.
5. Fifth, spiritual formation is about the process of shaping our spirit – in the sense of shaping our will, shaping the heart to automatically bring us to act and live as citizens of heaven.
6. Sixth, spiritual formation reworks the whole self. We are transformed in this formation spirit, soul, and body. We are not primarily seeking to control actions through this work, but to rework the self in such a way that our actions naturally or supernaturally become natural to us – seeking to get this spiritual yeast to permeate our life.
7. Seventh, transforming our thought life, setting God always before us. Spiritual formation changes how we think.
8. Eighth and last! I mentioned this last Sunday when speaking about grace and works. Grace is not opposed to effort but grace is opposed to earning. Earning is an attitude, effort is an action. Spiritual formation in Christ takes effort and it is only by God’s grace that we can take action to grow in Christ.


Spiritual formation in Christ entails obedience, a matter of spirit, lived from the reality of God, supernatural, shaping our will, shaping the whole being, transforming our thoughts, and takes effort! Put off the old garment of earthly desires and put on the new garment of Christ.

“[So] let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts…be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another…sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Colossian 3:15-17). Amen.