Humanity 2.0: "All in the Name of the Lord Jesus"

Below is the outline (with bullet applications) we gave everyone for the sermon I preached last Lord's Day evening. President Philip Ryken of Wheaton College, former pastor of the historic Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, preached in our morning service. At our evening gathering, I joked that there's nothing quite like preaching your first sermon right after the preaching of President Doctor Philip Ryken of the historic Tenth Presbyterian Church.

Humanity 2.0: "All in the Name of the Lord Jesus” (Col. 3:12-17)

I. By What Authority Do You Do What You Do?

II. All in the Name of the Lord Jesus (v. 17):

            A. The structure, emphasis, theme: Col. 3:17 and 2:6-7 (and 3:1).

            B. The “new man/humanity” in Christ: “Christ is all, and in all!”

            (Col. 3:9-11).

III. The Christian’s Christian Clothing (vv. 12-14):

            A. “Then/therefore” (v. 12): what’s it there for? Verses 9-11 and the 

            new humanity.

            B.  Do you know yourself? Elect, holy, loved.

            C. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Wear his graces like a garment.

IV. The Body’s Body Language (vv. 15-16):

            A. Let Christ’s peace control your hearts.

            B. Let Christ’s word dwell within you.

            C. Guard yourselves with gratitude.

V. How Do We Wear and Bear This? Seven Brief Bullet Points.

• First, guard yourselves with gratitude (Col. 3:15, 17). The grateful person does not easily become resentful or envious or embittered or callous or careless or lifeless or loveless or. . . .

• Second, take in God’s word daily (Col. 3:16). Read your Bibles. Do it with your families, with siblings in Christ, with friends. Take in God’s word alone. Read it. Reread it. And reread it again. Regularly receive the word in faith at our Sunday gatherings. Hear it. Hear it again. And again. Think and pray it over. Talk about it with others. Speak it to others in the body. Gossip the Gospel.

• Third, devote yourselves to prayer (Col. 4:2, 12). You couldn’t save yourself, and you can’t sanctify yourself or others. You had to call on the name of the living Lord for salvation; you must call on the name of the living Lord for sanctification.

• Fourth, trust the Lord’s word about body life. He knows better than we do how to do this thing. He’s wiser than we are. Trust him. Even when (especially when) his word runs counter to our thinking. “But you don’t understand how he/she did this, and then said that. . . .” Trust him. Forgive. Put up with. Love. Let peace rule.

• Fifth, obey the Lord Jesus (Col. 3:17). Resolve to keep his commands in the power of his powerful Spirit. If Baal is lord, obey him. If modern consensus is lord, obey it. If you are your lord, then do it your way. But if Jesus is Lord of all, obey him—in everything, always! Jesus is Lord of all.

• Sixth, set your minds on things above, not on things on the earth (Col. 3:2). If our minds are stuffed with the world, heaven won’t dwell within our body, our church.

• Seventh, put to death the deeds of the body of the old man (Col. 3:5-9) that hinder living out the life of the new humanity in the New Man, the Second Adam (1 Cor. 15:22), our Lord Jesus.