You can listen to the full audio of the sermon here: Lives Hidden With Christ I have a confession to make: I am not a details guy. Details and I don’t always get along. I’m more of a “big picture” person—an idea guy. When I plan my preaching calendar, I don’t sit down with a spreadsheet and map out every Sunday months in advance. I usually wrestle with God, asking, “Where are you leading us next?"
Sometimes, this lack of planning gets me into trouble. But occasionally, by the grace (or sovereignty) of God, I stumble into the perfect passage for the perfect moment.
That happened with Colossians 3:1-4. It aligns perfectly with Christ the King Sunday—the day the church historically remembers that Christ is the one who reigns, and we bow our knees to no one but Him.
Paul’s words in Colossians 3 shift from the defensive arguments of chapter 2 (what not to do) to a positive vision of the Christian life. He writes:
“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” — Colossians 3:1-4
These four verses are pregnant with meaning. They tell us who we are, how we should think, and how we should live.
The “Already But Not Yet” Reality
Paul begins with a bold statement: “Since then, you have been raised with Christ."
For the logical thinkers among us, this might sound confusing. You might be thinking, “I haven’t died yet. I’m sitting right here. The world is a mess. How can I be raised?"
Theologians call this being positionally raised. It is a reality that is already true, even if we have not yet experienced the full results.
Think of World War II. There was V-E Day (Victory in Europe) and V-J Day (Victory in Japan). Victory was declared. The war was technically over. Yet, fighting continued in pockets. Following that, we had the Cold War, Korea, and Vietnam—conflicts that were essentially aftershocks of the World War.
Victory had been achieved, but peace had not yet been fully realized.
This is our spiritual reality. The moment Christ was raised on Easter, death was defeated. The moment you trusted Christ, you were raised with Him. That is your position. However, we still live in the “fighting”—the struggle of a fallen world. We must constantly remind ourselves of our positional victory because, frankly, most of us live in fear as if death still wins. But Paul reminds us: It is a finished work.
Setting Your Heart
Because of this reality, Paul commands us to “set your hearts on things above."
The “heart” here represents our deepest longings, passions, and desires. What captures you?
I remember being in my early 20s, working on staff with a campus ministry. I was a massive sports fan. My mood depended entirely on whether my team won or lost. I broke off friendships and got into heated arguments over sports rivalries. Later, I realized how trivial that was, so I swapped sports for politics. I started doing the exact same thing—destroying relationships over political platforms.
I had to learn the hard way that politics and sports are “earthly things.” They are temporal.
To set our hearts on things above means aligning our passions with God’s heart: His vision for justice, grace, mercy, and compassion. When our hearts are captured by the things that matter to Jesus, we transcend the petty bickering of the world. We stop seeing things as black and white dualities and start asking deeper questions: How can we see people reconciled? How can we love the least of these?
Setting Your Mind
Paul continues: “Set your minds on things above." This speaks to our intellect and our strategy.
Growing up, I wanted to be the smartest guy in the room. Later, in ministry, my intellect became obsessed with strategy. How do we grow this? What are the numbers? Let’s copy what the successful people are doing.
Strategy is easy. You can build a massive organization just by copying what is popular in the culture—mimicking concert venues or TED talks. But that is earthly thinking.
When our minds catch up to hearts that are set on Christ, something changes. We stop asking “what works” and start asking “what honors Jesus?” We wrestle with how to implement grace and mercy in a way that is intellectually robust but spiritually faithful.
Hidden with Christ
Paul concludes with a beautiful phrase: “For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God."
If you want to know who you are, look at Jesus. Your life is hidden in His. This means that when the world looks at us, they should get a glimpse of Christ.
The Fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control—is always counter-cultural. There has never been an era in history where these traits were the default human setting. They are distinct. They are different.
When we live this way, people get confused. They wonder why we have peace in chaos or why we offer forgiveness when we’ve been wronged.
There is a famous story about Martin Luther. His parishioners asked him, “Why do you keep preaching the gospel to us week after week? We know it. We’re ready to move on."
Luther replied, “I will stop preaching the gospel when you start looking like a people who believe it."
A Challenge for the Week
The world is constantly trying to undo the work of the Spirit in your life. It tries to replace peace with anxiety and love with division. The only way to push back is to remind yourself, again and again, of who you are.
You have been raised with Christ.
This week, do a little introspection.
- Where is your heart? Is it captured by lesser things, or is it set on the heart of God?
- Where is your mind? Is it consumed by earthly worries, or is it focused on the things above?
Start small. Take five minutes in the morning. Read a few verses of the Psalms or the Gospels. Pray the Lord’s Prayer. Intentionally set your compass to “things above” before the world pulls you down.
Your life is hidden with Christ. Let’s live like it.