Sermon Tone Analysis

Overall tone of the sermon

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Tone of specific sentences

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Anger
Disgust
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Analytical
Confident
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Social Tendencies
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Anger
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(read 2:4-12) Looking back to last week we saw this Dangerous Deception in false teaching in vv 4, 8 (read them).
So, in paying too much attention to fine-sounding arguments can deceive us about spiritual truth.
We saw that the teachers themselves, are probably not denying that Christ was central to God’s saving purposes.
They seem rather to be arguing that certain practices must be added on in order to achieve true spiritual fulfillment.
But, for Paul, in this case, addition means subtraction: one cannot “add” to Christ without,
in effect, subtracting from his exclusive place in creation and in salvation history.
This is Deceptive Danger to us.
The Divine Testimony told to us (v9-12)This is an amazing testimony over us!
We are filled by the One who has the entire fullness of God’s nature dwelling bodily and by the One who is over every ruler and authority.
Believers have had a spiritual circumcision performed upon them, having the power of our sinful impulses stripped away by the grace of God.
Being united to Christ in His death and resurrection we receive this forgiveness of our sin.
Paul is reminding us that our being raise with Christ provides all the power we need
to conquer sinful impulses, not an external ritual.
So we’ve got this Deceptive Danger to us.
(v4,8)
The Divine Testimony told to us (v9-12)
The Simple Solution for us to obey (v5-7) It’s to walk in the light of who we are in Christ.
5 "For I may be absent in body, but I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see how well ordered you are and the strength of your faith in Christ.
6 "So then, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, 7 "being rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, and overflowing with gratitude.”
()
So here’s Paul warning them in v4 and v8 but he’s locked up in a Romans prison under house arrest so what gives them the right to warn them or rebuke them?
The answer is his presence is with them “in spirit.”.
5 "For I may be absent in body, but I am with you in spirit,
Here, the immediate reference may be, indeed, to Paul’s own “spirit,” it is his spirit as taken up into the Holy Spirit.
His “presence” with the Colossians, then, is not a simple “you will be in my thoughts and prayers,” but
involves a profound corporate sense of identity,
based on and mediated by the Spirit of God.
It is on the basis of this union,
effected in and by Christ and
mediated by the Spirit,
that Paul can address the Colossian Christians.
Moo, D. J. (2008).
The letters to the Colossians and to Philemon (p.
173).
Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Pub.
Co.
He not only warns them but also delights to see them.
rejoicing to see how well ordered you are and the strength of your faith in Christ.
Look at those two descriptions, “well ordered” and “strength” the strength of your faith in Christ.
These are actually military words.
Paul is like a general, inspecting his troops and rejoicing to see that they are
displaying the disciplined formation (taxis) and
strong force (stereōma)
that they will need to fight the false teachers.
The first, translated ‘well ordered’, describes the way that soldiers on the battlefield would close ranks to prevent enemy penetration.
During the Napoleonic wars, one of the duties of British sergeants was to repeat the command, ‘Close up!’
Even as some fell to enemy gunfire and the ranks were thinned, it was vital to close up.
Gaps can be exploited.
It seems that the believers in Colosse were good at holding one another up.
Desertions were few.
Generally speaking, nerve held because each one
supported and sustained
the spirits of his neighbor
and when the honorably wounded had to quit the fray, others would step into the ranks.
Paul also commended their ‘steadfastness’.
Their strength.
Their ‘faith in Christ’ was not flimsy.
It had a persistent quality to it.
This forcasted well for the future.
The church in Colosse faced a genuine threat, but
it had already learned the knack of closing ranks
in a stout, enduring fashion.
And although he was not physically present, Paul stood in the ranks alongside his fellow soldiers.
By point of application for our church family:
Would he see the same qualities in us?
And are we as ready as he was to see where the ranks are being thinned by enemy action and to step boldly into the breach?
To stand in the gap?
Then we come up to (really the heart) of the book of Colossians.
In vv6,7 God succinctly summarizes the simple response that He wants from his followers.
(read 2:6-7).
Let’s remember what Paul prayed for them (1:10-12) and what’s at stake (1:23)
23 "if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith and are not shifted away from the hope of the gospel that you heard.
...” ()
6 "So then, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him,
Arthur, J. P. (2007).
Christ All-Sufficient: Colossians and Philemon Simply Explained (pp.
79–80).
Darlington, England: Evangelical Press.
Moo, D. J. (2008).
The letters to the Colossians and to Philemon (p.
174).
Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Pub.
Co.
6 "So then, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him,
The first part of the verse concisely restates the key theological argument of the letter:
Jesus Christ is Lord, and we have been brought under that umbrella at salvation.
It is noticeable that the Christ whom we receive is ‘the Lord’.
All Christians receive ‘the Lord’.
Nothing else is possible.
That is who Jesus is.
Even so, there are teachers who say that the Christian life takes place in two stages:
at the outset, we receive Christ as Savior;
further down the road, some, but not all,
further down the road, some, but not all, believers receive him as Lord.
Teaching of this kind is a terrible distortion of the gospel.
Growth in grace ceases to be a binding obligation for all believers and becomes an optional extra for an elite handful.
Isaac Watts’ words, ‘Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all’, lose all their force.
A godly life is no longer the least that a grateful heart can bring to Christ; it is merely a laudable aspiration for those who feel drawn to it because they like that sort of thing, those who, by temperament, are natural enthusiasts.
believers receive him as Lord.
Teaching of this kind is a terrible distortion of the gospel.
Growth in grace ceases to be a binding obligation for all believers and
becomes an optional extra for an elite handful.
Isaac Watts’ words, ‘Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all’, lose all their force.
A godly life is no longer the least that a grateful heart can bring to Christ;
it is merely a commendable aspiration for those enthusiast who feel drawn to it because they like that sort of thing.
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