Sermon Tone Analysis

In Christ

Colossians 2:6-23

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Introduction

What a great day it is for the church today.

Whenever we have a baptism, it is a day of rejoicing and celebration.

But what is this really all about?

When you observe the procedures we go through as they have had baptism classes, as we heard their testimonies and affirmed them for baptism and church membership and now as we have a special service of baptism, it might simply look like church business.

Certainly we have church structures related to what is happening here today, but that is not what the center is.

The center is Jesus and before we hear the girl’s testimonies, I would like to point to that center.

Please open your Bibles to Colossians 2:6-23.

There are many wonderful thoughts in this passage which point to Jesus.

These thoughts are summarized in verse 6 which says, “Just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him.”

Those who are being baptized are declaring that they have received Christ Jesus as Lord.

What does that mean?

Because they are being baptized, they are saying something about the life they intend to live.

What does that life look like?

Let us examine God’s Word to help us answer these questions.

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I.

You Received Christ

Baptism is a way of saying to the world, “I have received Christ.”

What happens when we receive Christ?

!! A.                 You Have Fullness in Christ

In Colossians 2:9-10 we read, "For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority."

To have received Christ means that “…you have been given fullness in Christ…”

            What good news this is!

We know that we are sinners and often we loath our weaknesses and our failures.

What good news to learn that we have been given fullness in Christ!

What does this fullness consist of?

Don’t you hate it when you do a puzzle and find that there are pieces missing?

What are the pieces that are missing in us which make us incomplete?

We are incomplete in that we are sinners, but Christ died to forgive our sins.

We were sinners, but now we are saints.

We are incomplete in that we fall short of the glory of God, but in Christ we come to share that glory as we read in John 17:22, "I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one…" The life we live is lived in weakness, but in Christ we have been given power.

The life we live is often empty, but in Christ we are given abundant life as we read in John 10:10.

Our bodies are subject to decay, but in Christ, we are going to receive bodies that are incorruptible.

In all of these ways we have been given fullness.

That fullness is given to us in Christ.

Jesus has made us complete and when you are being baptized you are saying, “Look what Jesus has done!”

!! B.                 The Sinful Nature Has Been Put Off By Christ

How can that be when we know what we are, that we are sinners and fail to measure up to what God wants us to be? Colossians 2:11 answers that question when it says, "In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ…"

Circumcision is a physical surgery with an Old Testament background which came to have a spiritual meaning.

That imagery assures us with somewhat violent language that sin has been removed from our life.

We have a number of Schubert Chokecherry trees in our yard.

They are susceptible to black knot which is an ugly growth on the branches, which if not removed will eventually kill the tree.

Every year or two, I remove the black knot wherever I find it.

It is something in the nature of the tree to be susceptible to this disease.

If there was something that could be done to change the nature of the tree so that black knot would not happen, that would be great, but I don’t know of any such treatment.

Black knot is like sin.

It is an ugliness that shows itself in our life because it is within our nature to sin and if we don’t remove it, it will eventually kill us.

This verse tells us very good news.

When we receive Christ, sin has been cut off.

Not just the evidences of sin, but that something within our heart that makes us susceptible to sin so that we can begin to live without the inevitability of sin.

When you are being baptized, you are saying, “Yes!

My sin nature has been cut off.”

Once again it is important for us to note that this removal of the sin nature has happened through Christ.

It is what He has done which has made it possible for us to have our sin nature removed.

!! C.

You Were Buried and Raised With Christ

Another way of looking at what has happened is with the imagery of baptism in Colossians 2:12 where we read, "…having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead."

This is a very radical statement.

Baptism doesn’t just imply that our life has been washed clean of sin.

It isn’t even only that we have been given power tools for holy living.

Baptism implies that a death has taken place.

That is deep and profound.

Jesus died for sin and when we are baptized, we identify with that death.

When you die of cancer you beat the disease.

It can no longer grow in your body.

If we have died to sin, it means that sin no longer has any right to our life because we have died to it.

Of course, if you die of cancer it is not only the cancer that stops growing, you stop living.

But, Jesus has done something else.

Resurrection is a totally unexpected thing in terms of the human experience.

Many people still doubt that Jesus rose from the dead because we don’t experience such things in this world.

Just as amazing is the truth revealed in this verse.

When you are being baptized, you are declaring that not only have you died, but you have also been made alive in Christ.

When we look at our lives and know that we still sin, it is hard for us to grasp that we have actually been raised to a new life which is a life apart from sin.

In Christ, we are participate in His resurrection.

A life of holiness and obedience becomes possible because we have been raised.

But again we need to remember that this death to sin and resurrection to life happen in Christ.

Death to sin and resurrection does not happen because we have lived an exemplary life or been particularly good.

It happens by faith in God, as the text points out.

We are alive to the new possibility of a victorious holy life only in the power and presence of Jesus in our life.

!! D.                You Were Made Alive In Christ

Another way of looking at what has happened when we receive Christ is found in Colossians 2:13-15 where we read, "When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ.

He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.

And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross."

This adds two other aspects of what has happened in believing in Christ and which you are declaring in baptism.

The phrase “…canceled the written code…” suggests that there are charges which have been laid against us.

The charges against us are that we are guilty of rebellion against God, but in Christ those charges have been dropped.

The other thing which this verse assures us of is that all the powers which are against us have been disarmed.

If you were held hostage and an armed person held a gun to you, you would have little chance of escape.

If a stronger person came into the room and took the gun away from the hostage taker, his power would be removed and you would be free.

That is what has happened.

Satan was the one whose power kept us in bondage.

But on the cross, Jesus Christ has taken away the power of Satan.

It is removed and he has no power over us anymore.

Jesus is the stronger man.

He has nailed the charges against us to the cross and He has removed the power of the enemy.

What powerful truths!

The most wonderful thing about these truths is that every one of them is true in Jesus!

Over and over again, at least 6 times we read the phrase “in Christ” in this passage.