Colossians 2:6-15
Notes
Transcript
6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. 8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. 11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having 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. 13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
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Today, we are looking at ten verses.
These verses aren’t saying anything new to us… The Bible has a way of repeating, supporting, and reaffirming information continually.
If we’ve read any of the other letters of Paul… we have heard these truths spoken.
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So… you might ask...
Why do we keep coming back to the same ol stuff, over and over again?
Today, I’m going to stand up here and talk about things, I’ve talked about hundreds of times in the past.
What it means to walk with Christ… for real… What it means to waver in our faith… what it means, to truly be united… and wed, with Christ the bridegroom… and what it means to be washed clean from the stain of sin and death.
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Nothing new here.
But… Familiarity, does not necessarily nullify repetition.
Having knowledge, concerning the elements of a truth, does not disqualify the need to repeat those truths.
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We are not machines that need to be programmed once. We are humans… And as humans… we are very complicated. We require constant maintenance.
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Every person who runs their car low on oil, knows, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that they need to check their oil regularly. - Humans have a hard time, maintaining the connection between knowledge, and practice.
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I know I do.
And, since I know many of you very well… I know that you do too.
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This is why, early on in this study, Paul immediately began to emphasize the Gospel… and because of his emphasis in this letter and others… we recognized… that as believers… WE NEED TO INTENTIONALLY SPEAK THE GOSPEL INTO OUR LIVES EVERY DAY.
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As I observe the overall state of the church, and I see where it is doing well, and not doing well… I can confidently say… that if we only had these ten verses to work with…
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And we, as believers, took our knowledge of these ten verses… and fully believed it.... and committed to live it out… - The church would experience a stark transformation.
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So today… YES… very familiar stuff. But it’s not elementary. It’s not basic. This is top level stuff. This is the kind of information, that will not only transform us… but the kind of information… that will change the world.
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So… we have four points in today’s sermon… two weeks in a row that I had sermon points… it’s not a regular thing… but today, we even have a little alliteration.
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point number one.
6-7 / What It Means to walk
6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
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Initial observations here…
This church has been taught about the Gospel… they have been taught about how to walk in Christ. they have been taught about having a faith establishes them.
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And also… they have received this teaching, to the degree, that they have received Jesus as their Lord. - Which means, they received the message, and responded by committing themselves to the Lordship of Jesus.
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So this is the condition that they are in, as Paul is speaking to them in vss 6-7. Now… as those who by faith and commitment are Christians… and those, who by study and attendance, have been taught…
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Paul is encouraging them… to take their faith… and to take their teaching… to the next level.
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They are saved. they are taught. they know stuff… - BUT HERE’S THE BIG QUESTION… -
First off: Are they walking…?
Secondly: Are they rooted, built up, and established?
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Paul essentially equates the two things…
If you are truly walking with Jesus… (and to walk, is a figurative expression meaning, ‘how you live out your life’.) - Then you will be… rooted, built up and established.
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The two are connected.
You have to actively live our your faith… if you want your faith to be a solid, unmoving, and a well founded thing in your life.
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It’s not enough to grow up in church. It’s not enough to grow up in a Christian family. It’s not enough to have the knowledge. It’s not enough to be physically present in church 2-3 times a month. It’s not enough to have church make you feel good. It’s not enough to get excited. It’s not enough to speak in tongues, or claim by faith, a $10,000 bonus check…
It’s not enough to know doctrine, or church history, or the Roman’s Road.
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To be solid… to be grounded… to be established… you have to first… walk.
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Here’s what it means, ‘to walk in Christ’.
It means, that your life, in its entirety, will be lived in just such a way, that God is glorified by it.
In the things we do.
In the things we say.
In our compassion.
In our generosity.
In our wisdom.
In our prayer life.
In our sacrifice....
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Are these things, glorifying God? -
- These are… the practical expressions, of walking in Christ. It’s active, it’s real, it’s intentional...
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And a product of this walk… is a life that is grounded… rooted… and established.
A plant with shallow roots, can easily be pulled. A Good storm can wash it away.
A plant with deep, strong roots… cannot so easily be uprooted.
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The word, ‘established’… means to be standing firm on your feet. - But Paul teaches us a spiritual principle that doesn’t add up in the physical. If you are standing firm, ready for a blow… ready for the ground to move… ready for the ship to lurch… you might not fall down..
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But if you are walking around, your center of balance is on the move… and you are more vulnerable to a fall.
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But the spiritual principle defies the physical logic… To be established in your faith… to be steady, reliable, and certain… you need to be walking. You need to be on the move.
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The word for ‘built up’… means to ‘build something further’. They would use this term, if someone was building a second story on top of their first story house.
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Not only are we to be rooted and established… but we are to be ongoing in the process of building up our current faith.
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Those who are ‘built up’… are those who are continuing to grow. they are not content with the current state of their faith…
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By walking in Christ… by actively living our their lives… they are developing a desire to learn more… to do more… to step out by faith and experience God more…
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A few weeks ago, I talked about those who call themselves ‘former Christians’… who are ‘deconstructing their faith’…
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That would be the opposite of this. If, by walking in Christ, we are motivated to build up our faith… then, to those who are deconstructing their faith… - the obvious void in their life… would obviously be, a lack of actively walking in Christ.
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Sometimes, it’s easy to sum up the state of our walk, by considering the thoughts, opinions, and viewpoints we are forming.
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Are our views on morality, life, marriage, or drunkeness… more influenced by what our society tells us is moral… or by the Bible?
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If we are building upon… we are probably walking.
If we are deconstructing… odds are, we have not been walking for a good while.
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This ties in perfectly to the second point.
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point number two
8 / What it Means to waver
8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.
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If you are rooted. If you are established. If you are building upon your faith… - then you will not, easily be taken captive by the things mentioned here in vs. 8.
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The challenges we face in our society are no different than the challenges they faced in Colossi or Laodacia.
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We are constantly affronted with philosophy. - BTW, this is the only mention of philosophy in the Bible. It spoke to the teachings of the ancient Greek philosophers that the Gentiles grew up with… the things they learned in school… - but in a general sense… it spoke to speculative knowledge.
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Many of us went to schools… and grew up in places… where the majority voice declared ideas that are contrary to the Scriptures. Some folks pressed on, being fully able to hear these ideas, process these ideas, and still conclude… that where they disagree with scripture… scripture is still the authority.
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Parents fear that their children will be led away when they leave home and go to college. Here’s a simple truth.
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If they are not walking in Christ… If they are not actively living out their faith… then their roots will shrivel, they will be unsure on their feet, they will deconstruct… AND THEY WILL BE LED ASTRAY.
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How will it start? They will be taken captive by speculative knowledge.
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But also.. by empty deceit - By a deception, that has no real content.
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Have you noticed… that much of what they tell us… from politics to media… is empty? It is partial in its content. It is intended to create an impression. It is intended to feed a bias.
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And by doing so… it deceives.
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And, if we hold the bias… we like to hear the things that feed our bias. So, when we hear the stuff we like to hear… we are not likely to question it, or test it, or push back on it.
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If we embrace the false philosophy… it will create a bias. If we have a bias, we are easy picking, for deceit that lacks content.
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Is this new stuff?
No… -this is, plain and simple… - HUMAN STUFF. It’s according to human tradition… it is basic… it is elementary. - When you see ‘elemental spirits’… this isn’t speaking about demons or powers or principalities.
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This is speaking of people. This term is literally translated, ‘rudimentary principles’.
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When we see the driving forces of society, worldwide, working to influence and turn the thinking of the people… - when we see this… - we are seeing something that is super common to humans… always has been.. always will be.
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And Paul makes it clear...
This kind of influence, upon the life of the believer, is no according to Christ.
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point number three
9-12 / What it Means to wed
9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. 11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having 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.
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When you are wed to someone… you become one with them.
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This passage… speaks to the oneness, that we are called to have, with Jesus.
This is the rich doctrine… the rich truth… the unmoving principles… the contents… - that we need… to have deep roots… strongly held feet… and ongoing process of ‘building up’… and a strong defense against deceptive thought.
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Here’s something I say, at least 2-3 times a month…
And I will continue to repeat it… because it is a primary, vital, and necessary truth.
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When we stop thinking rightly, about God, and Jesus.... we will start to go astray.
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It is an inevitable fact. Begin to form your own ideas of who God is, based upon the feelings, sympathies, opinions, and empty philosophies that this world is feeding you… Do that… and you will quickly become a person, whose faith is barely recognizable.
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Think wrongly about Jesus… think wrongly about the Gospel… then everything else… will go wrong.
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This is why Paul continues to repeat and re-emphasize the truth of who Jesus is, and what Jesus did. - It is vital. It is again, the reminder, that we need to speak the Gospel into our lives… that we need to know, beyond a shadow of a doubt… who Jesus is, and what Jesus has done for us.
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vs 9… He is fully God.
vs. 10… we have been filled… - literally, ‘fully supplied’ - in Him… by being one with Him.. by walking with Him… - He has given us what we need… and we can be confident of that… because He is the final authority.
vs. 11. In Him… we no longer have to be ruled and dominated by the desires of our flesh.
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He has offered us a different way… to be led, inspired, challenged, and blessed, by following the influence of His Spirit.
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Vs. 12… we identify with His death… in baptism. We identify with His resurrection also, in baptism.
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This past year, I have studied this idea of baptism a little more in depth. - I was first, fascinated by the ideas of infant baptism… where that idea came from in church history… and why. - And then, how after it was formed as a practice in the 4th and 5th century… the church somehow reached back to the Bible, and strung together some ideas to explain it and justify it.
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Infant baptism was the result, of a union between church and state. To insure citizenship in a state, they also had to insure citizenship in a church… -to do this, they established the practice of infant baptism. - In a way, it was a form of census taking…
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This passage became a proof text for infant baptism… a crude explanation being, that baptism was a type of replacement, or symbolic act, of circumcision.
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As I studied this out, I got a deeper understanding of what the Bible clearly says Baptism is. This passage, and another in Romans 6:4… declare it as an act of identification… not with the church, or the state… BUT RATHER… with the miraculous work of of Jesus on the cross and the resurrection that soon followed.
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Baptism is a bold proclamation… which is why there should be witnesses… it’s a bold proclamation… that you are declaring… that you will not live as one who controlled by the desires of the flesh.
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It’s a bold proclamation… that you will… instead… live as one who is mindful of his or her, spiritual and eternal resurrection.
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It is, in a way… a type of spiritual warfare.
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Just as the cross was the ultimate act of spiritual warfare… in baptism, we declare to the witnesses… both human and spiritual… that we fully and completely identify with Jesus...
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And we intent… to not live under the dominion of the flesh.... which is why we are symbolically leaving it int he grave...
But we are going to live… under the guidance of Jesus… spiritually… which is why we come up, out of the grave.
And… btw.... which is why we consider the act if immersion to be symbolically important.
For one: It is, literally, what baptism means..
Two: no one was ever buried in the grave, by having a few pieces of dirt sprinkled on their head.
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Let’s move on…
We’ve talked about...
What it means to walk
What it means to waver
What it means to wed..
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point number four
13-15 / What it Means to wash
13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
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A big part of speaking the Gospel into our life… is being reminded of what has been done on our behalf.
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We were dead… spiritually.
But God made us alive in Jesus.
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We had a debt… We had legal charges against us..
But God canceled all of it.
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these things, were laid upon His son… and nailed to the cross.
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And I love vs. 15.
Not only have we been given life… not only have we had our sins forgiven… not only have our eternal debts been wiped out...
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The rulers and authorities… that once had dominion over us...
The fallen angels… the rebellious elohim that God allowed to rule over the nations at the division of Babel.. - The ones who held geographical and territorial dominion over the other nations… while God gook Israel as His inheritance…
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They have been defeated, and put to shame...
And in Christ… all the nations… All the people… every tribe… every color… every background… has a way to escape the oppressive powers and principalities that once ruled over them.
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God has invited us all, to become His inheritance.
And the rebellious rulers… they are defeated…
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This is what it means… to be washed clean by the blood of the lamb.
We transfer out of the kingdom of darkness… into the Kingdom of light.
We have our debts forgiven.
The legal charges are dropped.
And we are no longer bound, by the lust of the flesh, the eyes, and the pride of life.
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We are free...
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See what I mean about these ten passages?
I can’t believe I managed to get through them in one sermon… It’s kind of like… drinking from the firehose.
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But it’s vital. It’s the truth that points out, addresses, and attacks the human stuff… It is full blast… Gospel in your face.
And we need it. Desperately.
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It’s kind of like… an intense, spiritual work out… and we now need… a bit of a cool down..
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So let’s do that.
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band…