April 13th Sermon

Sunday Morning, April 13, 2025

I am sure you know that today is Palm Sunday, the day the Lord Jesus Christ rode into the city of Jerusalem with crowds surrounding Him shouting Hosanna! The word “hosanna” comes from an ancient Hebrew word that is translated, “save now.” As Jesus entered the city, these words became prophetic because the people were crying out for deliverance, and that is precisely why Jesus had come to Jerusalem: He came to rescue sinners from the penalty, power, and presence of sin. To do that, He would provide Himself as the One and Only sacrifice for sin. Anyone who would trust in Him would be eternally forgiven from all their sins and granted everlasting life.

The repentance for which Jesus called leads to a changed life. His great salvation was never meant for people to think that they could believe in Him and then continue to live in their sinful ways. Jesus called for them to come apart from the sinful world system and live in the righteousness of His kingdom. They were to see themselves as a separate people and conduct themselves as different from the world. Many times, He told people, “Go and sin no more.” He wanted them and He wants us to live our lives as a reflection of His holiness. We are told to be holy because He is holy.

The Old Testament Scriptures commanded this many times. God is vitally interested in how we conduct our lives. The prophet Isaiah said God’s people would hear Him saying, “This is the way, walk in it” (Isaiah 30:21). The “way” was living according to God’s truth found in the Bible. The prophet Jeremiah wrote, “Thus says the Lord, “Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; and you will find rest for your souls”” (Jeremiah 6:16). In the Bible to “walk” according to God’s Word means to live our lives according to His laws and principles. They are practical ways of living out in our lives what God’s Word commands. We read this often in the book of Psalms. For example, Psalm 89:15 tells us to “walk in the light of God’s countenance.” The implication is that God is watching, so our behavior should be what He desires. Psalm 116:9 says, “I shall walk before the Lord in the land of the living.” God knows that we live in a world in which we are surrounded by people who have chosen to rebel and disobey God’s truth. This verse tells us that even though that is true, we must still live godly lives. Psalm 119:35 calls upon the Lord to “Make me walk in the path of Your commandments, for I delight in it.” Instead of being a cumbersome burden, living God’s way is a continuous delight.

There are some who claim to be Christians but you would never know it because of the way they live. However, their sinful lives bear testimony that they never truly embraced Christ as their Lord and are certainly not displaying His righteousness and grace in the way they live. The Apostle John wrote, “And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments” (2 John 6).

How then should we live before an always present God and Savior? In these verses, the Apostle Paul gives several practical ways in which Christians are to live and conduct themselves, both inside and outside the church. These are marks of spiritual maturity for a Christian. I want to make it abundantly clear to you that these are not things we do in order to be saved, but they are ways we are to live because we are saved. Since Christians have the settled conviction that Jesus Christ is Lord of all, they choose to obey Him and live in the light of His sovereign authority.

You may ask, are we required to do these things on our own, in our own strength? The answer is that you and I choose to make these changes in our lives with the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Our obedience enables His supernatural power to work in our lives. Today we will look at five marks of a growing Christian followed by three dynamic and spiritual empowerments given to every believer, love, the peace of Christ, and the word of Christ. We begin with the reality of the Christian faith, that we are holy, beloved, and chosen of God.

THE CHOSEN OF GOD. Colossians 3:12-13

God’s Election. In the first four verses of Colossians chapter three, Paul called on us to assume a “heavenly” perspective on all of life, a viewpoint that emerges from our new identity as those who have died with Christ and been raised with Him, things that occurred immediately when we receive Jesus as our Savior. The specifics of this heavenly perspective are seen from a negative viewpoint in verses five through eleven, where Paul informs us that we are put these vices to death. The Apostle uses the word picture of taking off an old and worn garment and doing away with it. In verses twelve through seventeen, he looks at the same thought from a positive point of view and continues his illustration by telling us to put the new garment provided for us by God’s grace. All Christians should live with these virtues.

What does it mean to “have been chosen of God”? We get the word “election” from the word found in the original language. This means that God has chosen those who have come to receive Christ as Savior. No one becomes a Christian exclusively by their own choice. Instead, Christians are chosen by God. The Lord Jesus taught us this in John 15:16, “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit…” This truth was repeated by Paul in the first chapter of Ephesians, “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4). There are many more verses I could cite, but these alone show that God has chosen all those to whom He gives His pardon from sin and everlasting life. Please keep in mind, that each Christian must come individually and choose to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Has Jesus chosen the Christian? Yes! Has the Christian chosen Jesus? Yes! Both choices show the marvelous mystery of God’s saving grace. Years ago, I had a college professor put it this way, “As I became a Christian, I looked at the gates of heaven from the outside and written there were the words, “Whosoever will may come.” But when I received Christ and went through the gate, I turned around and read the word, “Chosen from the foundation of the world.” Both are God’s truth and both are true about every believer in Christ.

Because of God’s election, it is God’s choice that everyone of His children should be holy and blameless before Him. Holy means to be set apart to living a pure and morally clean life. God called Old Testament Israel to be holy and He now calls those born again through Jesus Christ to be holy and set apart to Him. Beloved means that Christians are objects of the Lord’s special love. Chosen, holy, and beloved were also words used of Israel, but in this dispensation, what was true of Israel is now true of all who come to faith in Christ. The nation Israel has been temporarily set aside and Gentiles are grafted in by faith. The saved in the church are now the chosen, holy, and beloved of God.

Five Essentials of Christian Virtue. In verses five through eleven, Christians were commanded to lay aside the old vices of the flesh and here in verse twelve, we are to put on five specific essentials of Christian virtue. Like the previous vice list, this list of Christian virtues is not exhaustive and we could include essentials from other passages. But here, we will focus on these five. The first virtue is a heart of compassion. This word is also translated tender mercies and tenderhearted mercies. It is an attribute of the Lord Jesus. In Matthew’s gospel it is written, “Seeing the people, [Jesus] felt compassion for them because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36).

Second is kindness. According to Ephesians 2:7, our salvation is a result of God’s kindness toward us. We, in turn, ought to show kindness toward one another. In Galatians 5, kindness is a fruit of walking in the Spirit. The third virtue is humility, which is the opposite of self-love. Humility characterized the Lord Jesus, who said, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30). Based on the Lord Jesus, Paul gave us the best definition of humility in Philippians 2:3-4, “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.”

Gentleness, number four, is defined as the willingness to suffer injury instead of inflicting it. This word was used to describe a soothing breeze and a healing medicine and is much needed in the church today. The fifth is patience. Patience is the opposite of revenge or resentment. It is self-restraint and a calm response in the face of provocation. These five virtues, then, compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience are marks of mature Christian virtue and are goals every believer is called upon to achieve.

Two Elements of Patience. The next two virtues are part of patience. This is discovered by the grammar of the verse since “bearing with one another” and “forgiving each other” are participles that modify patience. “Bearing with one another” or forbearance means to endure, to hold out in spite of persecution, threats, injury indifference or complaint without retaliating. Forgiving one another has the idea of being gracious to other Christians. Clearly, it is more than a matter of enduring the grief and provocations caused by other Christians, we are called to forgive the troublemaker. In this we recall Ephesians 4:32, “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.” In both of these verses the model of forgiveness for each Christian is the Lord Jesus, who forgave us of all our sins. “Whoever has a complaint” indicates that our response must be forgiveness when someone is at fault because of sin, error, or debt. Christians must model the forgiveness of Jesus Christ at home and at church.

PUT ON LOVE. Colossians 3:14

The Greatest of These Is Love. (1 Corinthians 13:13) To apply these five virtues, Paul gives three realities that are required for every Christian in every local church who has seriously chosen to follow and obey the Lord. First, as you would expect, is love. Paul told the Corinthians that of all the characteristics of the Christian faith, the greatest is love. The Bible tells us that God is love and that love is the reason the Lord Jesus was sent to earth to rescue and save lost souls. The New Testament tells us that nothing is acceptable to God if not motivated by love, including knowledge, faith, and obedience. Love is the beauty of the believer, dispelling the ugly sins of the flesh that destroy unity.

The Perfect Bond of Unity. Love is the glue that preserves unity among Christians in the church. Love binds and ties all the other virtues together. In Galatians 5, love is listed as the first fruit of the Spirit from which the other virtues follow. When love rules in our lives and in our church, it unites all these spiritual virtues so that there is a beauty and harmony, indicating spiritual maturity. Love keeps the church balanced and growing. This is the commandment or mandate the Lord Jesus gave to His church, “That we love one another just as He loved us” (John 15:12).

THE PEACE OF CHRIST. Colossians 3:15

Peace Must Rule. The second great reality of the church which is given graciously by the Holy Spirit is peace. The Lord Jesus longs to give His followers peace. In John 14:27, He said, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.” The peace He was speaking of, is what is here called, “the peace of Christ.” It is a calm and enduring conviction that comes from knowing the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the rule or guideline and empowers godly decisions. The peace of Christ becomes the believer’s possession at the moment of salvation because we are justified by faith and as a result of justification, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, as Romans 5:1 reminds us.

Called in One Body. When the peace of Christ rules among Christians, there is a profound unity within the church. Christians serve in a way that perpetuates oneness with the Lord that compels us to deepen our virtues and show that we love the Lord with all of our heart. The offering of thankful hearts reveals to others that peace rules in the church and causes us to focus on what God is doing among us. Peace characterizes a church that is growing in the Lord Jesus Christ.

THE WORD OF CHRIST. Colossians 3:16-17

The Message About Jesus. The third great reality of the church is that it must be focused on the word, or revelation, about Jesus Christ. This is the gospel message that all Christians have been commissioned to take to all nations in order to make disciples. The message about Jesus is the culmination of the Bible’s revelation and its most significant theme because it is the message of eternal salvation by faith in Jesus Christ and it offers complete forgiveness of sin.

It was this to which the Lord referred in Luke 24:27, “Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.” And in verse 44 He said, “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses, and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” The word of Christ is the gospel message about Jesus that the world needs to hear. We are to submit to the demands of this message about Jesus and let it become so deeply implanted within us so as to control our thinking. Under the influence of the Word of Christ, Christians make use of every kind of wisdom to teach and admonish one another.

Singing with Thankfulness to God. God has designed the church to sing. And we are given three categories of songs to sing. First is Psalms, and those are the songs recorded in the book of Psalms and other songs in the Old Testament. Hymns are songs about various attributes and actions of God. Examples are found in Colossians 1:15-20 and Philippians 2:6-10). Spiritual songs are songs about what God has done for us and we find an example in Revelation 5:9-14. No matter which category of music is used, all of it must be done with thankfulness in our hearts to God in worship and praise.

All in the Name of the Lord Jesus. In a final word about the Christian walk, whatever we do, we are to do in the name of the Lord Jesus. The name of Christ means identification because we belong to Jesus Christ. His name means authority and we must do what He commands us to do. By our words and our actions, we should aim to glorify His name.

The five essential Christian virtues found in these verses are compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, and these are marks of a mature Christian. When these function within the three realities of love, the peace of Christ, and the Word of Christ, they enable believers to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Another word to describe this is sanctification which is the process of being made holy by the gracious renewing action of the Holy Spirit. We are justified by faith and justification establishes the right relationship between God and the believer. Sanctification, which is Christian spiritual growth, continues the process to Christian maturity. It is a necessity for every believer in Jesus Christ. We talked earlier about walking with the Lord in the light of His Scripture. Many years ago, I heard a pastor say,

“Your walk talks and your talk talks, but your walk talks louder than your talk talks.”

What does your walk say?

If you have never received Jesus Christ into your life as your personal Lord and Savior, please accept my invitation to receive Him today.