YOU CAN’T SEE THIS
Q & A ON COLOSSIANS 3
JOHN CENA ILLUSTRATION: For those that follow professional wrestling, I know that none of you do (30 years ago most of us did, that’s why Hulk Hogan became a household name—sadly he is becoming a household name again for all the wrong reasons). But for the one of you that does, there is a character out there named John Cena. And in order to antagonize his opponent, he waves his hand in front of his face using wrestling sign language to state “You Can’t See This.” The message sort of means “you can’t touch this” and refers to himself. Perhaps, another way of saying it is that “you are out of my league.”
TRANSITION: You know what, God IS out of our league. But despite being out of our league, he joined us in ours. And this lesson is going to focus on us putting on our new self. More importantly, putting aside the camoflouge we wear around the world and putting on a new piece of clothing called Christlikeness.
BIBLE VERSE: COLOSSIANS 3:10-12
…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 in all. Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.
1. Verse 10 tells us to put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
Question A: What is the new self? And how do we put it on?
In a general sense, the “new self” here makes mention to the new person created after salvation has occurred. Baptism is the metaphor represented in this manner. After a person accepts Christ as their savior and gets baptized, the symbolic gesture that PERSON A has been buried in the water and PERSON B arises out of the water alive in Christ is one idea of the new self (leaders, you may want to talk to the students about baptism here, there exists a good chance that someone who knows the Lord may not have been baptized yet).
In addition, notice that Paul uses a key word here, the command order “put.” Why is this significant? The short version answer is that Paul wants to use a clothing metaphor here just like he used when he tells us to “put on the full armor of God.” We should wear our new lives outwardly just as we wear new clothing.
Paul has been using an aorist tense of two participles suggesting that something has already happened but needs to happen again. What? Yeah, think about it…how can someone who is in Christ and has a new self put a new self one when he is wearing it already? I mean, since we are one with Christ the moment we accept him, why would Paul suggest to the believers to wear something that they wake up already having on—a new self?
So what is Paul exactly saying? The long answer here is that Paul is continuing on a long term discussion that begins in Colossians 2:11 and elsewhere in the scripture, and that is that becoming Christlike is an ongoing process. For many people who give their life to Christ, they can remember the very place and moment they made such a decision. But for others it is a process. And for everyone who does accept Christ, the process never stops. I guess that I am trying to say that Paul is trying to say, is that every day we are new again. I am not the Christian today that I was yesterday. I am not the believer today that I was 5 years ago. And if I would wake up every morning and put on my Jesus, the person I am will be completely different 5 years from now. My name will still be Tom Papez, but I will be a NEW Tom Papez and hopefully much improved.
CHEESE EXAMPLE: This may be a distant try here, but there is a product that is forever changing while its being created, the product is cheese. So a person gets some milk and a couple of different things, shakes it well, and makes cheese (I really am being vague on the actual creation of cheese here so forgive me kind cheesemakers). But if that person continues to shake it, maybe add a couple of things, the cheese is now a different variety of cheese. It’s still the same, but it’s different—it’s new.
POINT: THE LORD WANTS US TO NOT BE LIKE WE ARE—HE WANTS US TO BE NEW. Make sense?
THE RACHEL HELD EVANS EXAMPLE: Has anyone ever heard of Rachel Held Evans? I hadn’t. But in her opinion, she went to an extreme for one year in order to re-organize her life around the scriptures. Now I don’t recommend exactly what she did because for most it just isn’t necessary, but for her it was something she felt she had to do. She went to the extreme to become “an absolutely Biblical housewife.” What did she do? What did she not do is the better question.
She began calling her husband her Lord as Sarah called Abraham. She praised her husband at the city gates by holding up signs for him as he drove off to work. When she was negative, she put coins into a negative jar and punished herself by separating herself from the family by going onto the roof for brief periods of time. Even during a certain time of the month, she followed the Old Testament by living outside in a tent until she was once again ceremoniously clean.
Now I am not saying that any of that is necessary. But, what would you do to fix something that God has told you to fix. I am not saying we have to go that extreme. But maybe we do?
2. What else are we supposed to “Put On?”
Specifically, according to this verse, we are to PUT ON…COMPASSIONATE HEARTS, KINDNESS, HUMILITY, MEEKNESS, AND PATIENCE. Notice a couple of things here…
A) Put on is a command, so placing these 5 things into our heart is NOT optional, it’s a requirement.
B) Put on is also the phrase when applying to spiritual warfare. Scripture says to Put On The Full Armor of God. So part of this reference has a more military meaning than it first appears.
C) Put on and its elements here once again applies to virtues that produce holiness. We need to become holy as Christ is holy.
CAMO ILLUSTRATION: Though putting on compassionate hearts does imply a matter of opinion. As a believer, I can’t walk (nor would I) through the youth group and say “there’s a compassionate heart,” there’s NOT a compassionate heart, “ etc. But we all can see when someone puts on a fake heart to cover up their true identity. For example, let me ask, what color uniforms does our American military wear? Everyone answers camoflouge. And there are multiple kinds, the traditional green camo or the new more modern brown camo that is being used in our desert wars (I imagine there is also a white camo for snow, but I am just guessing). But did you know our government is currently checking out a new camo design? And they’re not checking it out to see if it’s better, they’re checking it out to see how much more it costs. See, the new design is called “MULTICAM.” It looks three dimensional and almost computer-like designed. But because of its breakthrough dark and light design, it really does make someone look invisible. I saw a picture of a man wearing multicam and I could not tell where he was seated until the picture producers pointed him out.
So what’s the point with this illustration? It’s simple. What are you wearing? Are you wearing compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience…or…are you wearing multicam and just blending in?
CLOSE: WEIRD THINGS HAPPEN. So how can a person tell if they are wearing Christlikeness or Worldly Camo. Well, one way is to see one’s reaction during a time of crisis, or a time when something odd happens.
How do you react when someone wrongs you at school? Vengeance? Peace?
You know, mean comments from classmates come out of the blue in the same way a shark may fall out of the sky on a random golf course. How do you react? What is your first reaction?
Tom, that’s an odd example you just mentioned, where did that come from? That’s a good question. It came from an actual episode that happened a few weeks ago. On San Juan Hills Golf Club on October 22nd, a 2 foot long live Leopard Shark fell from the sky and landed on the 12th tee. Yeah, wild huh? No one really has any explanation for it, other than to say it must have been the wind (do you believe that…I surely don’t).
Well, your friends saying something at an instant has the same shocking affect of a shark landing in your front yard. What is your reaction? What is your reaction? What is your reaction? What is your reaction? You’ve got to tell yourself that. Put on the Christlikeness response.