Sermons 2025

Text: Colossians 3:1-11

Outline
1.    We see dead people walking
a.    Dead in our sins and trespasses
2.    Dead can be made alive
a.    Not because we find some kind of medicine, but because we are given the best medicine, JC
3.    Alive people do not return back to death

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Sermon

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

My dear beloved flock, the text for our meditation today is Saint Paul’s letter to the church in Colossae, chapter three verses one through eleven.

Intro: Boys and girls, I pray that you are doing well today. Have you ever seen a poster like this? It is a poster that police used to use many years ago. They would put out this posters and say, “We want this person, dead or alive.” It did not matter if the person was dead or if they were still breathing. The police wanted to protect people from what this evil man was going to do. What would you think if your picture was here? It might be a little bit scary. You might be afraid.

But in Jesus, your picture is here. He wants you, He created, redeemed, and makes you holy. He takes you who were dead and makes you alive. Jesus says, Wanted, Alive! How does being made alive in Christ Jesus show itself in your life? Ponder that question as you hear the rest of the sermon. You may go back to your seats and those who love you.

1.    We see dead people walking

When you look around at other people, what do you see? You might notice the color of their skin. The nice and neat or disheveled appearance of their clothing. If you have eyesight like Sherlock Holmes, you might notice minute details they have a button undone in their shirt, the small tattoos that point to a life of travel and adventure. If you are looking at them as Christ sees them, to quote the movie, The Sixth Sense, you can say “I see dead people.”

As we look at the people in the world around us, and even here at church, we rightly see dead people walking. That is because of our sinful nature. Because of the Fall, Adam and Eve brought upon all of humanity the curse of sin. Our default setting, as Saint Paul says, was one of a corpse. Dead in sins and trespasses. Saint Paul says that this was our former condition before our Baptisms and the creation of faith by the Holy Spirit. We were enslaved to Satan, our sinful nature, and eventually Death itself leading to eternal death.

We were hostile to God and to what He says in His holy Word. Death showed itself in our lives as we follow the ways of our own flesh, gratifying our own desires. We get angry at our neighbor. We look upon others not with love but in wrath and malice, desiring for ourselves the things that they have. We use our words not to build one another up, but to slander others. We gossip and lie about others. We do not use our words to praise God. Rather, obscene talk comes from your mouth. Many times, we still do this today because we have our sinful flesh still clinging to us. Yet, for many in the world today, it is not their former condition, it’s their current condition!

The worst part, what can a dead person do? Nothing! People dead in their sinful nature are trapped. They cannot save themselves. They cannot free themselves and make themselves alive. They are trapped, slaves of Satan and Death until they suffer eternal death forever in the fires of hell.

2.    Dead can be made alive

What then can the dead do? They need to be made alive again, no longer dead. Just think of any zombie movie that you have ever seen, the scientists are always looking for a cure, looking for a way to remove the curse of the undead and make people alive again. We have something better than a scientist’s cure, we have the cure from God Himself for our dead, sin-filled condition.

Indeed those dead in their sins are made alive again in, though, and, because of Jesus Christ. Jesus took upon Himself their death. He was crucified, died, and was buried, so that the dead would not die eternally but have the forgiveness of their sins, the salvation of their souls, and, life everlasting with Him forever. All this He gives graciously in the waters of Holy Baptism. There, the dead come shambling from the grave of death. Their sins are crucified with Christ Jesus, buried in the tomb with Him, and they rise to newness of life forever. The dead are alive! They are freed from Sin, from the Devil, from Death itself by Jesus Christ. He died and rose so that you can live. He says, “Wanted: not dead, but alive forever. I paid your price with My own death and resurrection.”

3.    Alive people do not return back to death.

Because we are alive in Christ, we do not go back to the deadness of our sins. We do not return to the deadness of sinful ways  or gratify their desires. Rather, we live as His alive people in the midst of people dead in their sins. We die to our sinful natures and rise to new life in Christ. We put on Christ, the same way we change clothes daily. That when people look at our thoughts, words, or deeds, they do not see us, rather they see Jesus in us. We set our minds not on what we desire. Rather, we look heavenward. We look to Jesus and set our minds on things above, on doing the good works that He has given us to do as we serve our neighbors in love. We put Christ and His righteousness on ourselves, being renewed in Him, being strengthening by His word and Sacraments in our faith, as we daily grow in His grace, mercy, and love.
As we live out our lives as people made alive in and through Jesus Christ, let us always show grace and mercy to those still dead around us, as we point them to Jesus that they too may live with us in His kingdom forever.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard, and keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.