Spotify for Podcasters has changed their platform. It is no longer a seamless application. Fortunately I was able to get this message download it via a file. If I figure out how to make new episodes you’ll see them posted. Otherwise thank you for listening and I’ll just see how the Lord leads. Using this platform has been helping me dig into the word of God, and I just share what I find. Keep digging on your own. The book of Colossians ends with tons of examples of church relationships.: husbands, wives, children, parents, masters, slaves, etc. In chapter 4, Paul mentions about a dozen groups or individuals that he fellowships with even from prison. This simply isn’t small talk this is Paul’s enjoyment of the new man, even from prison. Get ready, watch, we found pursuing Christ every day and in everything in these last days.

 Steve

Setting our affection on the things above means this is where the Christ has preeminence over all things.This is the atmosphere of the throne- Christ all and in all.

We know the world below demands we live according to its atmosphere: religion, human government, politics, education, culture, philosophy, sports, etc. all set a tone that is not according to Christ who is above.

There is , however, an atmosphere that we are to enjoy on earth and is called the One New Man, which is not just an alternative to the worlds atmosphere, but rather the unveiling of the mystery hidden through all the previous ages. The New man touches His purpose and desire from eternity past and His goal for eternity future on the earth.

The New Man has a visible expression and a testimony of Jesus on the earth. It is an atmosphere where it is impossible for individuality or distinctions to prevail or have a place because Christ is all and in all! (vs.11).

Verses 12-15 describe the visible, touchable, tangible atmosphere of this New Man. It is forgiving, loving ,peaceful etc . This is an atmosphere where Christs life is flowing through the saints to all the members. This New Man brings the things above down to the world below. The world sees this atmosphere where Christ flows as a place on earth that sets the tone for Gods purpose and becomes a place that establishes dominion over the worlds atmosphere of religion, human government, politics, education, culture, philosophy, sports, etc.

The New Man breathes His disposition, offers His forgiveness, demonstrates His love and arbitrates His peace (12-15).

The old man cannot live in this atmosphere because It is cannot thrive. The flesh is exposed and self is terminated. This New Man atmosphere is what God is longing for on the earth today where you live.

And have put on the new man, which is being renewed unto full knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, Where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all and in all." (Colossians 3:10-11)

A life that is set on the things above, is receiving that life for a particular purpose. That purpose is the creation of the new man.

We cannot think of the new man as only Christ in you. It is Christ in as the hope of glory, the desire of His expression. Praise the Lord Christ is in you, but you and Jesus do not make up the new man. The new man has two parts, quite simply the head and the body. The head we know is Christ and the body is the expression Christ through the many members. You see ? This is the hope of His glory. This is why Paul told the believers to cling to the Head (2:19) because this evaporated all of the things that are below, the false, teaching, the culture, the world, the philosophy, the law, the man made ordinances and the self. Our occupation in our daily life and in everything is to hold the head. This may seem like the goal of Christians as individuals, but it is not. The goal is for the head to fill you up as a member of the body and then for you to richly supply the saints with His Life. This supply of His life knits us all together, we all become connective tissue that stimulates the growth of the rest of the body. This is what it means to grow with the growth of God." (Colossians 2:19)This growth is the expression of His glory.

This means the new man emerges as all the members are receiving life supply from the throne or the Head. Each member then allows his life to flow through them as a means of supplying this rich life of Christ to the rest of the body. This is how the new man is formed.

The Christian life therefore is constantly for the production of the new man wherever you live. A Christian cannot isolate himself from other believers. A Christian cannot grow apart from other believers. We may have extenuating circumstances, like Paul, who was in prison, but you see, in chapter 4, that he did everything he could to Supply and be supplied by other members of the body.

In conclusion, the church is where there cannot be a bunch of distinctive Christians. It’s a place! Christ has a location! And it’s in his body where there cannot be a Jew and a Greek, cultured and uncultured, etc. etc. your distinction cannot exist simultaneously in the body. Your self cannot exist here.

What is here in the church then? It’s a place where Christ is all and in all.

This little phrase, Christ, all, and in all, is a summation of chapter 1, where Christ is presented as the one who is in all things above all things accomplishes all things, is holding all things together, and in all things he is having the preeminence. Where on the Earth can we see this kind of Christ? Only among the saints who have this revelation of the New Man. Get to know the new man.

.The eternal goal of God is poured out from the throne. The new Jerusalem is the culmination of man’s enjoyment of His life poured out from the throne.

The churches in all localities are to typify, be a Testimony, or a lampstand of what it looks like to live by this throne. In Revelation, chapter 1-3 we see Christ ministering to the churches as the Spirit and the Word to produce the new man which will culminate in the new Jerusalem.

To hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches is a church that is setting their affection on things above, on Christ, who is their life.

Just consider Isaiah‘s experience in Isaiah 6. He was before the throne, witnessing endless praise, and exaltation of the Seraphim before the throne. He was distressed because of his uncleanness, and the uncleanness of the people of Israel. Well, God cared for Isaiah so that he could receive a Supply from the throne for that situation.

Now compare this to our ability to come before the throne in Colossians 3:1-2.

We are hidden with Christ in God! This is our situation today in relationship to the throne. We have all access to come boldly to the throne, live by the throne, to set our affections on the throne. There Christ, who is our life, is supplying us moment by moment with his life. Interceding for us. Ministrying for us. And above all administrating God’s eternal purpose to do something. That’s something is the creation of the new man which is foundational to the new Jerusalem which is above.

The new man emerges on the Earth as believers set their affections on the throne, where we enjoy Christ as our constant life.

"And he showed me a river of water of life, bright as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb in the middle of its street." (Revelation 22:1)

We need revelation, however, to see that Christ is administrating continuously from before the throne for the life of all the churches:

"John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is coming, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, And from Jesus Christ, the faithful Witness, the Firstborn of the dead, and the Ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and has released us from our sins by His blood" (Revelation 1:4-5)

Now

"…, He who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands:" (Revelation 2:1)

"In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting on a high and lofty throne, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Seraphim hovered over Him, each having six wings: With two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to the other, saying: Holy, holy, holy, Jehovah of hosts; / The whole earth is filled with His glory. …Then I said, Woe is me, for I am finished! / For I am a man of unclean lips, / And in the midst of a people of unclean lips I dwell; / Yet my eyes have seen the King, Jehovah of hosts." (Isaiah 6:1-5)

"If therefore you were raised together with Christ, seek the things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things which are above, not on the things which are on the earth." (Colossians 3:1-2)

"Put to death therefore your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and greediness, which is idolatry; Because of which things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience; In which you also once walked, when you lived in these things. But now, you also, put away all these things: wrath, anger, malice, blasphemy, foul abusive language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his practices" (Colossians 3:5-9)

We have no capacity to accomplish the content of these verses without understanding the previous 4 verses. So many believers are lost in the Christian struggle, gritting their spiritual teeth striving to mortify the words and deeds of the flesh and put off the old man! Let us consider a few important things in these verse:

1. The word “therefore” in verse 6 ( and verse 12) means what we are instructed here to do In these verses is because of what has taken place in the previous 4 verses! In short the old man is put off, mortified and cast off because we now have Christ as our Life.

2. The phrase “since you have put off the old man with his practices" is in the aorist tense. IIt happened in the past and it’s done, once and for all. This indicates that the putting off the old man is not up to our future performance but rather a constant realization that the victory has been achieved through Christ.

3. Finally, the old man is just that, old. It is the former life. The Christian life, we shall see,is about living in the realm of the new man. New means something that has never been seen before. The old is something that has been dealt with, a “has- been” and has no place with Christ on the throne, it has been crucified and no longer has vitality. Old!

So all of these things: to put to death, to cast off, or to put off are not commandments for us to keep, but Irather realities that we need to enjoy with Christ as our life. They are declarations of what has happened through Christ, and declare what has happened through Christ is supplied to us from the throne, therefore set your affections there, where your life is now hidden in Christ with the Father.

The life of Christ is also now in you, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Therefore, the imperative to “ set your affections on things above.” Is an all inclusive imperative. To set your mind on the things above is to enjoy the reality of the old man’s demise and of the new man’s existence. This is so practical! What are you doing, what are you watching, where are you going, what are you uttering, feeling, thinking????? We interrupt the flesh, the self, the ‘old man “ by setting our affections on this Christ, who is our life! It’s all really true ! Christ is my life! He dealt with everything through his crucifixion, and then buried it all and left it there, arose into the newness of life, and then took it to the throne, declaring the culmination of it all! And then he dispensed this life into my spirit! His life is my life as I experience an endless supply from the throne. So right now , Jesus, I just set my mind on you, these things , and praise your name.

This does not mean we are perfect, that the flesh will never rise up and seek to defeat us, but it means the principalities and powers of that realm are once and for all defeated, and I am now wired to receive and enjoy the very life of Jesus Christ 24/7.

So brother, sister, set your mind on that, and that alone!

"For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ our life is manifested, then you also will be manifested with Him in glory." (Colossians 3:3-4)

Living the life where we seek the things above, where we set our affections on the things obove has nothing to do with our performance. It is,rather, our point of reference and the position from which we live.

The contrast here in Colossians is the below life and the above life. We wake up and by default begin our day in neutral. Without the setting, and the seeking above, we will automatically gravitate towards the below life. We find ourselves just coasting through the day and picking up speed as we are swept along by the life below. Unfortunately that then becomes our point of reference and our position from which we handle everything that comes our way. We find ourselves living by our environment, by the atmosphere around us, by our feelings within us, and we all can testify what this looks like at the end of the day.

Paul says in Colossians 3:3 “ you are dead.” That seems like an unattractive statement, but actually, it is most wonderful, because it simply says we don’t have to live this below life anymore. Jesus took care of that! And now “your life is hidden with Christ in God.” Amen!

Consider the position of Christ and the Father on the throne above (3:1-2): it is a honored, authoritative, victorious, secure, seated, finished, satisfied and glorious position. All that God desired for us from eternity past and into eternity future is seated right there with Christ in the Father. Now, look and see where you are. Hidden with Christ in God! This is your real position, and nothing can change it.

This is the above andcan be our point of reference in regard to everything. So, Seek the above. Set your affections there.

This is why it is important to wake up and spend time with Jesus as early as possible. By default, we will gravitate to the below life, but praise the Lord we are dead, and Christ has brought us into the above life. And from there we are able to receive the Life because we know from there the Spirit of Christ has been poured out. That above life has been transmitted into our spirit. "And if Christ is in you . . . the spirit is life" (Romans 8:10 )

Now, here is another contrast: the hidden life and the manifested life. The hidden life is the “above” life and it is intended to become a manifested life, not just in the future, but in our daily “below” life as we set our affections above.

Saints, the life in you is supplied from the life above. This life is longing to be manifested below. This life is the resurrection life, it is the crucified life, and it is this hidden life that is with Christ in God.

So, where is your affections right now? Where is your mind? Interrupt that! Right now set your affections on what is true. Peruse Christ, His person and His work. Love Him, sing to Him, open up to Him because this is your position in reality. Allow His life in you to be manifested from the throne in all your living. Praise the Lord!

"Always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body;

for we who live are always delivered unto death on account of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh;" (2 Corinthians 4:10,11)

Paul urges all believers to set our affection on that which is above. What is above? Christ is there. And he is sitting at the right hand of the father. This is the eternal glorification of Christ from eternity past. To sit down at the right hand of the father indicates that man has now been brought before the throne of God. The glorification of Christ means that we can now be supplied with God’s life.

Paul urges us to seek, and to set our mind on the Christ, who is above. We no longer are chained to the things which are below. Those are the negative things that he mentioned in Colossians 2 : the sin, the guilt and condemnation, the powers and principalities, the culture, the teaching, the philosophy, the religion, and on, and on! Do not set your affection there, but set your heart up on the Christ.

Why? Because the throne of glory is the source from where we receive the supply of all of God‘s life that has been purposed for us from eternity past. All the riches of God, all that God desires a man to be on the Earth, to live on the Earth, the reality of all things on the Earth. All of it is in this Christ now seated beside the father above. This is where we need to set our heart, because this Christ, seated on this thrown is from whence all of what God desires for us flows from.

Jesus intimated that he wanted to get inside man and be his satisfying supply : "Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes into Me, as the Scripture said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. But this He said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed into Him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified." (John 7:37-39)

So In order for Jesus to be your constant daily supply he must be exalted on the throne!

Eventually in Acts 2 the Holy Spirit came and here’s what Peter had to say about that, "This Jesus God has raised up, of which we all are witnesses. Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God and having received the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father, He has poured out this which you both see and hear." (Acts 2:32-33)

Jesus ascended into heaven and was glorified at the right hand of the father. Then the father gave Jesus something. The father gave him the Holy Spirit as promised. The father GAVE Him to Jesus! Why? Because Jesus was now glorified and all of his person and life could now be mixed into the Holy Spirt. "So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul”; the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit." (1 Corinthians 15:45).

So brothers and sisters this is the Spirit that was poured out up on all the followers and Believers of Jesus. The Holy Spirit contains the very life of Jesus Christ as the Spirit. if you have theSpirit of God, you must have the indwelling Christ who is now seated at the right hand of the Father.

So from your spirit, set your heart above, not on things below,, and receive right now the thrones’ supply.

““Holding the Head” is the conclusion of Paul’s discourse. Recall how Paul comes to this conclusion.

In chapter 1, he displays the all sufficiency of this rich Christ.

In chapter 2:9 he says Christ displayed all these riches as the fullness of God when he was on earth bodily.

2:10 states we have received all of this fullness.

2:11-13 describes how we have received this fullness, through faith in the operation of God. That operation is the cross, the burial, and the resurrection.

2:14-15 provides us with the assurance that God at the cross dealt with all the guilt and condemnation, and he removed any authority that says otherwise. This is our eternal warranty that nothing can ever change what his Son did on the cross. This means Christ is our life and he is in us eternally and nothing can prevent us from enjoying his fullness.

In between all of these verses Paul mentions the kind of things that try and keep us from enjoying this fullness. This is why he puts the little word “not” in front of “holding the Head “ (2:19).

This little word “not” is saying, “You’ve got the fullness in you, through the operation of Almighty God at the cross and He has provided His eternal Warranty that it all is true, and yet you are living by something other than the fullness!?”

That is NOT holding the Head!

So the obvious response should be

“Hold The Head!”

Everything else is a shadow, the food, the drink, the Sabbath, the Jewish celebrations, etc. (16-17). They all pointed to Christ, but He came. He’s now installed in you as your life, as the fullness, the Head (10), you are complete in him. Hold the head! He is the reality of all those things.

Or some say, “don’t handle that, touch that, or taste that” (21). They attempt, even with good intentions, and even Bible-based principles to govern your Christian life. These things have no value in dealing or curbing the indulgences of your flesh (22-23).

Hold the Head! You’ve got the one who did it all, conquered it all, and perfectly pleased the Heavenly Father now living in you as the Head. You are complete in him, and he in you!

This is why Paul says that these other things will rob you of your prize, which is Christ (18). To the lay hold of this prize is to lay hold of this Reality which is to lay hold of the Head.

Saints, there is no other way to live the Christian life. Christ, as your H ead is in you sending constant signals regarding every aspect of your daily life. This is the rich supply that the Head gives you. And this rich supply is not simply for you as an individual, No! These impulses are a supply intended so as to knit us together with all the saints, nourishing one another, that the church might grow with the growth of God.

Living by this revelation produces the church. Just consider, when you come in to physical contact with other saints, who have been living by this Head supply, there is a spiritual knitting together. We can’t just talk about the weather or how are you doing? I’m good, etc. We’ve been living by the Head! This living, holding the head, gushes out and into all of our conversation and worship. This is the growth of God.

Paul will reveal this more in the next two chapters. For now let us enjoy the revelation that the Head is actually in you. And then let us seize hold of our head, Jesus, as we live by the constant supply of his impulses in every aspect of our living. Amen.

"Stripping off the rulers and the authorities, He made a display of them openly, triumphing over them in it." (Colossians 2:15) The cross is not only an erasing of all that condemns us but it is also a stripping away the power of all opposing rulers and authorities once and for all. Any future dealings with powers that oppose God have already been defeated on the cross. This is why Paul was able make such statements in Romans chapter 8: “What shall we say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? Who shall lay any charges against Gods elect? Who, or what can separate us from the love of God?”

Nothing!

These rulers and powers, however, are able to manifest themselves through a speaking. They seek to delude us with persuasive speech (vs4) spoil us through philosophical reasoning (8) judge us by telling what we should do (16), defraud us by telling what we shouldn’t do (18-21). It is all a “reasonable” speaking that seeks to nullify the fullness we have in Christ. This is why in Colossians.2:10 he says we are “complete in Christ, who is head over all rule and authority”

This means Christ is head over all of the speaking. The “speakers” can be Satan (the accuser of the brethren), religion, teaching, culture, government, worldly wisdom etc. It is a false speaking that seeks to usurp the Headship of Christ. It appeals as a reasonable speaking but seeks to deny that Christ is our life and that he is enough.

We need to recognize that this speaking, manifests itself as a reasoning in our mind. It is a speaking over us, about us, a speaking that seems true about ourselves, or about our environment, or about the situations that we are dealing with, about the times we live in, about things that occur in our daily and in our worldly life. However “reasonable “ it is not according to Christ (8) nor does it hold him up as the Head. (19)

What we need to realize is that the power of the cross includes the removing of this speaking, this authority that seeks to rule over us. God took this authority out of the way when Jesus died on the cross. Through Christ, he triumphed over them once and for all.

Why does he still allow them to have breathing room? I can’t answer that perfectly but I do know in His wisdom all of it is used to wake me up and drive me to Christ, to his fullness!

Know that “in all these things we more than conquer through Him who loved us.”

And be persuaded that nothing,

“no principalities, nothing present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:37-39)

What happened on the cross has solidified our relationship with the father, and has terminated the “wanna be” power of any kind of ruler or authority that would seek to infiltrate our reasoning and dissuade us from the fullness we have in Christ.

"Wiping out (or erasing) the handwriting in ordinances, which was against us, which was contrary to us; and He has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross." (Colossians 2:14)

The operation of God eternally puts us In Christ, thus we are said to be complete in Him (2:10).This is an unbelievable yet true operation (11-13), but there’s more!While Jesus was on the cross bleeding for our offenses God was nailing something else to the cross: The handwriting of ordinances.

What is that? When a criminal was crucified, it was customary to identify their guilt. A placard often followed with them on their journey to the cross, and then was nailed on the cross with them. On that placard was their guilty charges and reasons why they were being crucified.

I do not know about you, but I am guilty. Like Paul said in Romans 7 there is something good in me that wants to keep the law, but oh wretched man, that I am, who can deliver me ?! The handwriting of the law exposed Paul’s, guilt and condemnation. This is the purpose of the law. Let the law expose your wretchedness. Say God, “I am wretched! The law reveals it.

I am condemned, and I am guilty. The placard is not big enough to display my guilt.”

But look what God did, he nailed that placard on the cross with Jesus.

It says here in verse 14 in effect that our failure to keep those ordinances were contrary to us or against us. In the context of Colossians 2 this means our guilty verdict was opposing our opportunity to enjoy the fullness described in verses 9 and 10. That means whatever was happening on the cross could not be ours because of what was written on that placard. But then read…”He took it out of the way. It was hanging around our neck, condemning us, but He removes it out of the way and nails it to the cross of His Son.

Now look at it! Erased, Wiped clean!

The charges aren’t just dropped, but the debt is fully paid for, satisfied, and all God sees is a pure white placard. There’s nothing there!

No wonder Paul continued to say in Romans 7, “thanks be to God, who has delivered me through Jesus Christ his Son. Therefore, there is no condemnation, ever, to those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Rom.8:1)

The blood has cleansed us from all unrighteousness.The Father then erased the hand writing of ordinances that would otherwise indicate us as guilty, and He nailed THAT to the cross!

Oh praise the Lord!