Well, go ahead now and pull out your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Colossians in the New Testament to chapter 3, Colossians chapter 3. Before we hear God's Word read and declared to us, let's pray for the Holy Spirit to help us in our understanding of it. Please pray with me. Heavenly Father, we thank you this evening for your Word and we thank you for the truths that declares to us both of your law and gospel. We pray that you, Lord, would help us to set aside the cares and worries of this day, the cares and worries of this world that so often crowd in on our lives and cause us to forget, Lord, who we are and where we're going as pilgrims in this world to heaven. And so, Lord, we pray that your Spirit would open our hearts to hear, to open our hearts to understand, Lord, who you are and what you have done for us in Christ in His life, death, resurrection, ascension, and His return. And so glorify Yourself through this, Your Word, and the preaching of it. For we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Loved ones, hear now God's Word from Colossians 3, simply verses 1-4. If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. A wonderful passage from Scripture that's echoed in our Catechism in Question and Answer 49 regarding the Ascension. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, as you know, a pilgrim is a traveler. He or she is someone who's intentionally traveling to a specific destination. And along the way to their desired destination, they don't linger or rest anywhere too long before they continue sojourning forward, before they continue marching forward. You see, their focus as a pilgrim is singular. And it's the blessings of that place to which they're going that colors all their decisions. It colors all their actions in this world, in this life along their way. Now, a drifter, on the other hand, is someone who aimlessly wanders from place to place without a particular goal, without a particular destination in mind. He lingers here, he lingers there, following the whims, really, of every distraction along the way. As Christians, we're pilgrims, not drifters. You see, we have a destination. We're going to where our Savior is, where our ascended Christ is now seated at the right hand of God in glory, as Colossians 3.1 says. You see, it's helpful, it's even necessary, for us to view our Christian lives in this world that way. You see, this evening as we commemorate our Lord's ascension to glory, and it's His ascension to glory that reminds us that by God's grace, we're pilgrims. We're pilgrims on the way to that same place of glory where Jesus, our pioneer, has gone before us. See, this is essentially what the Word of God in Colossians 3.4 communicates to us when it says, when Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. How wonderful words to hear. You see, the Lord has appeared already once to redeem our lives from the guilt and shame of our sin, and He's already ascended to heaven in glory. It's where He is now. And when He appears again for the second time, then we who through faith have been hidden in Him, we also will appear with Him in glory. That's the hope to which we've been called. That's the hope to which you've been called. If you name the name of Christ, it's the glory of heaven. The glory of heaven is your home. So, if you're a Christian this evening, that's the blessed place that you're traveling to, loved ones. Heaven, where our Christ is. Now, just a few months ago, I was here and we explored together some of the benefits of Christ's ascension. Perhaps you remember that sermon from Acts chapter 1 there, and we summarized it from the Heidelberg Catechism, question and answer 49, and all that it lays out there, the benefits of Christ's ascension. And this evening, though, we want to consider how we ought to live in light of Christ's ascension and his return from Colossians 3, 1 through 4. You see, this passage, it teaches us to orientate our entire pilgrim lives on earth around that hope of heaven that hope of heaven above where our ascended Christ is right now. And so in light of Christ's ascension, in light of His return, we're called as pilgrims to these three things. To remember what Christ has done for us in the past. And we'll look at the first part of verse 1 and verse 3 for that. And secondly, we're called to recognize what Christ is going to do for us in the future. And we'll look at verse 4 for that. And lastly, we're called as pilgrims in light of Christ's ascension and return to orient our lives in this present life around those things that are above where Christ is. And we'll look at the rest of verse 1 and verse 2 for that. And so let's make a beginning. In the first place, in light of Christ's ascension, we're called as pilgrims to remember what He has done for us in the past. And so look with me tonight at the beginning of verse 1 there. It says, If then you have been raised with Christ. And then also, let your eyes fall down to verse 3 where it says, For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. You see, these statements and all that they communicate to us remind us of what Christ has already done for us in the past. And it's these past things that Christ has done for us along with what He will do in the future as we'll see in a few moments in our second point. It's these things, loved ones, that form the foundation out of which flows the command in the rest of verse 1 and verse 2 to seek the things that are above and to set our minds on the things above. You see, we can't rightly do that without first knowing and experiencing what God has already done for us. In Jesus Christ. So what exactly does the first part of verse 1 and verse 3 here call our attention to? What are we supposed to remember here? Well, the mention of us having died and our lives being hidden with Christ and being raised with Christ, it reminds us of the fact that God has saved us from our sins through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And also His ascension. You see, back in chapter 2, verses 12-14, Paul had already mentioned these things to the Colossians. You see, he says to you who've received the Lord Jesus Christ and who've trusted in Him that you have been buried with Him in baptism in which you were also raised with Him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised Him from the dead. And you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with Him, having forgiven all our trespasses. And verse 14 says, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This He set aside, nailing it to the cross. You see, we've been called, loved ones, to remember that we've all sinned against God. A God who is absolutely just, who's absolutely holy. And our sins have created a debt before God that stands against us, as Colossians 2 just told us. And we're so deep in our sin, we're so deep in our debt of sin before God that on our own, we don't have any hope of paying it off, saving ourselves. You see, we owe God perfect obedience, but we failed in that obedience. Every single one of us here this evening owe God perfect obedience and have failed in that obedience. And because of that, we've incurred His judgment upon ourselves because of our disobedience. In fact, we were conceived and born guilty and polluted by sin because of the disobedience of Adam, our forefather in the Garden of Eden. You see, because of this, we're all born spiritually dead in Adam's original trespass before God. Every single one of us. And then we go on from there to actually sin on our own. And we only add daily to our guilt before God. Daily to our debt that we owe to God. You see, outside of Christ, this is our predicament. Every man, woman, and child is in this predicament outside of Christ. You see, we're dead in our trespasses and sins and cannot pay off the debt that we owe to God. And if we remain in this predicament, even at our physical death, then we'll justly deserve the punishment for our sins, which is eternal punishment in hell. Not fun for us to hear, not enjoyable for us to hear. You see, that's the bad news for all of us if we're outside of Christ. But thankfully, that's not the only news. Thankfully, that's not the only news. You see, there's good news too, loved ones. And here our hearts can rejoice, you see. And that good news is that that same just God who demands obedience and who will punish sinners for their disobedience, this same holy God, He's also merciful. He's also full of forgiveness and love to sinners as well. See, the good news is that God has sent His own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ to become just like us yet without our sin. And He lived that perfect life of obedience on behalf of sinners like you and like me. And He obeyed all of God's commandments. And then He paid the penalty. Then He paid the penalty of God's judgment against sinners by dying for them on the cross. And then awesomely, He rose three days later from the tomb triumphing over sin, triumphing over death, triumphing over the devil. And then he ascended. He ascended to heaven where he now sits in royal victory at God's right hand. And when any sinner trusts in this Jesus, their sins are forgiven. They're taken away in the sight of God. Their record of debt is canceled. The blood of Christ that was shed on the cross has turned away that wrath that was against you if you've trusted in Christ. And not only if you've trusted in Him, not only are your sins forgiven, also you have all the obedience of Christ that He performed during His life credited to you in God's sight. If you've trusted in Him, that is true of you, loved ones, right now, right now. You were declared not guilty in God's sight. And you're also declared not only not guilty, but you're also declared righteous. Righteous in His sight. Hell is no longer your final destination. Heaven is where Christ is now. That is your final destination. You see, by God's Spirit, you've been made alive in Christ and you trusted in Him. This is all of God's grace. All by His grace through faith and not by any of your works, loved ones. Christ's works have become your works. Christ's death, it's become your death. Christ's resurrection has become your resurrection. You've been raised from death to life in Him. And His ascension has also become your ascension to heaven. That's how united to Him you are through faith by the power of the Holy Spirit. You are hidden in Him, loved ones. If then you have been raised with Christ, the text says. If this is true with you, for you, then you have died in Christ and you have been raised in Christ and your life is bound up in Christ. So this evening, if you're struggling with the guilt of your sin and you feel the weight of your sin and you know it, even after you've trusted in Christ and are a Christian, remember these good things. that the Word of God declares to you in the Good News. You are loved in Christ. Your sins are taken away and you are righteous. And you're heaven. Heaven is your destination, loved ones. So your life is entirely bound up with Him. And your hope in this life, it resides in Him in heaven. And this is what we're called to remember as we make our pilgrim way through this world. Christ has saved us in the past and has gone to heaven in glory ahead of us. You see, this forms part of the foundation upon which we're to stand and to set our minds on the things above. That's what we're to do during this life. And in a few moments, we'll learn more about what that means to set our minds upon us. Well, not only does our text call us to remember what Christ has done for us in the past, it also calls us to recognize what Christ is going to do for us in the future. And that's our second point. tonight. Look with me at verse 4 in our text. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Wonderful words to be reminded of, things that we're called to recognize as pilgrims in this world. You see, this truth of Christ's return in glory and our appearing with Him, it forms the other part of the foundation which we're to stand upon and to set our minds on things above. Listen for a moment to what our Lord said to His disciples while He was still here on earth and what He says to us as well through His Word in John chapter 14 verses 1 through 3 as we consider His ascension and His return in glory and our appearance with Him. He says, Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in Me. In My Father's house, our many rooms, if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go to prepare a place for you, there he's talking about his ascension, I will come again and will take you to myself that where I am, you may be also. Awesome words that our Lord speaks to His disciples and to us tonight. I will come again and will take you to Myself, that where I am, you may be also. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. And a little later, in John's Gospel, Jesus prayed these words on our behalf to the Father in His high priestly prayer. In John 17, verse 24, this is what He prayed. Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me may be with me where I am to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. You see, Colossians 3.4, it echoes these things. It tells us that when Christ appears at His second coming, we'll also appear with Him in glory. You see, this is your hope as a pilgrim in this life. That is where you are going. That is your destination. It's the place that Christ has gone before you in His ascension to prepare for you in glory. You are on your way to heaven above. He has called you there. He is faithful to bring you there. This is what your life is all about. It is that great day when He will deliver you there safely. And it's something that we can't fully even comprehend. The glory of that great day. Listen to 1 John 3, verse 2, saying a very similar thing here. Beloved, we are God's children now. And what we will be has not yet appeared. But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him. Because we shall see Him as He is. We will see Him as He is and we will be like Him. We will be face to face with Him when He returns from glory and when He returns in glory. In Philippians 3, verse 20 and 21, it says, But our citizenship is in heaven and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body by the power that enables Him to even subject all things to Himself. Oh, loved ones, what a great day that is going to be when our Lord appears for the second time. When He comes back, He's going to take us to be with Him. And it's going to be glorious. We will be raised up with Him to be with Him face to face. Our bodies will be transformed and glorified. Think about that. Think about that. What a wonderful thing to think about. You see, God's Word, we may not fully understand or comprehend what that day is going to be like when our Lord returns, but thankfully in His Word, He lays out for us what it will be like in a way that we can understand in Revelation chapter 21, verses 1-4. This is what that day will be like, loved ones, when He returns. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God. And listen to these wonderful words, loved ones. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore. For the former things have fallen away. They've passed away. Loved ones, this is the glory that awaits you in Christ. This is the place to which you are traveling as a pilgrim through this present evil age. What a day that's going to be. And so, loved ones, as you consider what Christ has done for you in the past and what He will do for you in the future, delivering you to your inheritance in heaven, I ask you this, are you weary this evening in your Christian pilgrimage? Are you struggling with the sorrow and the suffering of this world of things come upon you that have caused you to take your eyes off that great day and to cause you to wrestle and struggle with doubts and to feel like sometimes you're fumbling and bumbling in this life, making two steps forward and then taking two steps or three steps backward. Perhaps that's you tonight. Perhaps that's you now. But loved ones, remember. Remember that you are a pilgrim. You've been purchased out of your sins. You've been given that hope of heaven. You've been raised to new life in Him. Christ has ascended to heaven to prepare that place for you and He's coming back in glory. And the Word tells you right now that when He appears in glory, then you will also appear with Him in glory. He's faithful to complete that work that He's started in you, loved ones, all the way to the end and to that day of Christ Jesus. That's what He's going to do for you in the future. He's preserving you now for that great day of His return when He comes back from His place of glory in heaven. And so, in light of these things, loved ones, because we've been raised up with Christ and hidden with Him and have that hope of heaven above, because of what Christ has done for us in the past and what He will do in the future, we're called as pilgrims traveling through this world to orient our lives in this present life around those things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God in glory. Look with me at verses 1 and 2. If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is. Seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth. And so now we can begin here to understand and think about this command in this verse is here to set our minds on Christ above, on the things above, on heaven, that great calling that we have. You see, since we share in Christ's resurrection spiritually right now, and we will one day share in His resurrection bodily when He returns and comes again, our interests in this life, they're entirely oriented. They're to be entirely oriented around Him, focused on Him and on heavenly things. We're called to pursue heavenly things while we're passing through this present evil age to that great age to come. And so because of this, loved ones, because of this, we must align all of our own pursuits, all of our own desires in this life with our Lord's pursuits, with His desire, with His will. That's what these verses are ultimately getting at. And let me explain further. You see, Christ, He owns us in body and soul, doesn't He? He's our Lord who has conquered our sin and death and the devil by dying on the cross and rising again from the grave three days later. And those words in verse 1, where Christ is, reminds us that our Lord, after His death, after his resurrection he ascended to glory in heaven Luke 24 verses 50 to 52 it says that Jesus led his disciples out as far as Bethany and lifting up his hands he blessed them and while he blessed them he parted from them and was carried up into heaven and they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy you see Jesus our savior he has bodily ascended to heaven where he is right now, at this very moment, seated at the right hand of God. And that language here that we find in this text, that language of Christ sitting at the right hand of God in verse 1, it originally comes from Psalm 110, verse 1, where King David, you remember, prophetically wrote about the Messiah, wrote about Christ to come under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And there he says, the Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand. until I make your enemies your footstool. You see, Christ's sitting at the right hand of God, it signifies to us, loved ones, that He occupies the highest place of honor, the highest place of preeminence over us before God in heaven. And our catechism explains, as we read earlier in question and answer 50, that the reason Scripture tells us that Christ ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of God is to show us that He is head. That He's the ruler of His church. This is what Philippians 2, verses 8-11 it gets at. And being found in human form, Jesus humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. You see, we no longer belong to ourselves. We belong to our ascended, reigning King, our faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. That's who you belong to right now. And His Spirit, through faith, has raised us up and He's united us to King Jesus and He's seated us with Him in His eternal kingdom in heaven. And so we're first and foremost His subjects in His kingdom. Although we're citizens in the common temporal kingdoms of this world, our lasting primary citizenship resides within the kingdom of heaven. So we ultimately bow before Christ and His majesty alone in this life. And so therefore, as verse 2 of our text this evening says, set your minds on things that are above, not on the things that are on earth. And when the Apostle, when he says there, set your minds on the things that are above, he's not referring to a purely mental or intellectual process. He's not referring to just simply acknowledging the things above, although that's included in the meaning. The core of what God's Word here is commanding us to do is to fundamentally orient our mind and our will around the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God in heaven. That's what we're to do. Loved ones, set your minds. Set your attitude, set all your ambitions, set the whole outlook of your life on heaven above and on Jesus, who's your great God and Savior, your Lord and your rightful King. That's who He is. So don't set your mind and your affections on earthly things. That's what we're being told to do. Set them on heavenly things, not on earthly things. Now, I know how we may think about these things and questions come up in our minds. Well, okay, well, what about things here on earth? Are they unimportant? What these words are calling us to do, it doesn't mean that we're to just sit around thinking pie-in-the-sky thoughts about heaven and ignore the things of life on earth. They're not unimportant. We're still to pursue the things on earth that we're called to do in God's Word and to do so with grateful hearts. And so you who are husbands, you're still to love your wives, laying down your life for her daily as Christ has done for His bride, the church. And you who are wives are to still honor, respect, and submit to your husbands as the church does so unto Christ. And children, you're still to honor and obey your parents in all things. And all of us in our workplaces, we're to pursue our vocations and to do our work with integrity and with excellence. We're still to love our neighbor in this world, caring for them, and to be even eager to serve them with our good works as God commands us to. All of these things, all that God commands us to do in this life, all of them are good and they're important for us to do and pursue in this present life. But we don't place our hope, we don't place our treasure in these things ultimately, do we? we obey our Lord here on earth as pilgrims who are ambassadors of that kingdom of heaven in this world and bearing witness to and pointing a lost and dying hell-bound world to that good news of Jesus Christ. And we do all of these things in the world now as tangible expressions of our thankfulness to God for what He's done for us in Christ already in the past and for what He's promised that He's going to do for us in the future, namely to bring us safely to heaven, to our homeland, to be with our ascended Savior. So yes, the things in this world, yes, they are still important and we're to pursue them and obey God's will in all these things while we're traveling through this present evil age to our final destination, which is heaven. And so setting our minds on the things above, it means longing for, it means looking for and living for heaven's sake, living for Christ in this present life, setting our minds on things above loved ones. It means to live our lives right now with our final destination in mind. It means viewing our pilgrimage on this earth through that vantage point of heaven first above all else. So let that great heavenly hope to which you've been called, loved ones, motivate you and color everything you do in this life. Orient and organize your priorities in this life on earth around heaven's priorities above. You see, that's where you're going. That's your destination. Glory. Live in light of that, loved ones. Live in light of that. Set your minds on that. You see, 1 Peter 1.13, it echoes and summarizes the thoughts here in Colossians 3, verses 1-4 quite well. It says, Therefore, preparing your minds for action and being sober-minded, Set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Oh, and set your minds on that. That grace that's been set before you. Not on the things here on earth. And so in conclusion, loved ones, as you hear these things, you might feel even like a failure in this life. Right now you might feel more like that drifter who's been caught up in the things of this world. You might feel like your faith is so weak and faltering because you've forgotten that you're a pilgrim on the way to Christ above. If we're honest with ourselves, if we're honest with ourselves, we all feel this way often, don't we? We all fall short of perfectly living out this command to set our minds on things above. But thankfully, there's good news for you and I on this Ascension Day. Thankfully, there's good news. You see, we have a good King on our side. He's on your side. You see, He's made this pilgrimage too. He's our pioneer who left the glory of heaven above and He traveled through this world just like we're traveling through it right now. And He was tempted in all things during this life just like us, just like you, just like me. But yet, He never sinned. and with the joy of heaven that was set before Him, He came and He did for us what we couldn't do for ourselves. He saved us by His righteous pilgrim life. He set His mind on heaven above. Perfectly, He did that. And He did it in your place. And He died for all of our failures in doing that. And He rose from the dead. And He's ascended to heaven now in royal victory. And He's seated now there at God's right hand, interceding on your behalf to bring you there safely. So loved ones, in your struggles in their pilgrim life, look to Him. Trust in Him. He loves you. He will never forsake you. And He's promised to return for you. He's promised. And when He who is your life does appear again, then you too will appear with Him in glory. So may God aid us with His grace to live in the meantime as faithful pilgrims on the way to Christ, setting our minds on those things above. Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Word this evening. And we thank You for what You have done for us in Christ in the past. And we thank You for what You will do for us in Him in the future. We thank You for the good news of Jesus Christ. We thank You that heaven is our destination. And so, Lord, help us more and more to live in light of heaven, to set our minds on that great, wonderful day and to run with endurance the race that's been set before us. Lord, we are powerless to do this on our own. Work it in us, we pray, Lord, for we ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.