Faith Training
Notes
Transcript
Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
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. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. 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, 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. 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, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.
If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.
Scripture: Colossians 2:6-23
Sermon Title: Faith Training
We are now on week 3 of our 5 week study through the book of Colossians. Just to review—week 1 we heard Paul’s encouragement for the church to treasure the inheritance of life now and in the resurrection—to know and live out of what Jesus reveals to us. Last week we focused on the 9 verses at the core of chapter 1—where Paul lifts up Christ and his supremacy over all things, including the church and our redemption. Now this morning we head into the bulk of chapter 2. We will hear Paul repeat a few things about the divine nature of Christ and also some of the things that the Colossian church was being confronted by, but at the heart of this message are the role of faith for believers, how faith competes against other perspectives, and the freedom that faith opens up in everyday life.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, I recently saw a TV commercial for a one-time use medication that proposes if we can do something small just one time to prevent a medical issue, why wouldn’t we choose to do that. If eating one stalk of broccoli would stop cancer, most people would probably eat a piece of broccoli. If doing one push-up would prevent heart disease, wouldn’t we all drop and give it 1. If just one yoga pose, one piece of fruit were all it took to stay healthy, wouldn’t we make time and put effort into doing those things.
I think there are many people who wonder if, and also who truly believe, that Christian faith is just like that medication. They might occasionally say they believe in God or in Jesus to others, they give thanks to him when something really good happens, but by and large, there is no evidence of that belief, that joy, that faith in their daily lives. These people feel like coming to faith is the big accomplishment, and they have arrived. To have faith is a necessary end goal in anyone’s life; it is a checkmark that one can feel at peace when they think they have taken care of it. If you can feel like you have God on your side, then why wouldn’t you do that?
Contrary to that type of thinking that exists in our world today, Paul turns a corner where we started our reading this morning,, and he wrote, “Just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.” Continue to live is not just a piece of advice—if you like how this feels, if you have time for it then make sure you get it in—no, it is a command for these believers. Having faith is not the accomplishment—true faith is a lifelong journey and commitment to God. It is not something that is done one time or on occasion, but it is part of who believers are; one’s identity is changed by faith.
If faith is in you, then it should have roots that go down but also show visible growth, built up in God. Like young plants send down roots to take up nutrients and to establish their place, so too faith is described as taking root in believers and with maturity it increases—both of those things are the results of the work that God does. We do not have a source of faith that belongs to us; it is only in God and the dwelling of his Spirit in us. That maturity and building up can happen when believers seek to know more about God, seek to know his will for their lives and the world, and seek to greater understand what his grace is about.
Not only is God doing work of setting roots and growing up believers, but he also strengthens our faith—we are fortified in our knowledge and trust in who God is. The truth of the gospel and of God’s work in all things is greater supported as life continues, as faith is nurtured. People desiring to truly know God cannot expect faith just to be a one-time event, something that you only look to when life is rough, or credit only when things are going well. Faith transforms those who have received it. The last piece in this opening list that follows the command to continue is that believers would overflow with thankfulness. Here we see that the walk of faith bears fruit. It will not simply be an internal transformation, but faith enables and causes believers to respond. The primary receiver of faith’s response is the faith-giver, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Paul began this part of his letter to the Colossian church and its neighbors because they needed that foundation and understanding of how faith is to be in their lives. Remember these were young believers; they needed to be taught that what had begun in them had to continue. Their faith needed to increase so that they would not be taken by hollow, substance-lacking philosophies and ideologies, human traditions and principles. Here we move into the second major point that we find, faith competes against other perspectives.
With as much as the apostle draws reference to circumcision, to religious festivals, to the Sabbath day, to human commands and teachings throughout this section, it is very likely that some form of Judaism had made its presence known in Colosse. Paul needed to warn the church—all of the practices and the regulations, the attempts to do things to qualify for righteousness—it is worthless. Paul, at the command of God, was encouraging them to just focus on Christ. He told them, bodily circumcision is not necessary because Christ provides for your spiritual circumcision—you are united with him in his death by baptism, and with his resurrection by your faith which brings resurrection to new life.
The interaction between the Gentiles in the early church and Jews that were in that church as well as those that lived under religious Judaism made living in faith a very difficult thing in the first century. Often the Jews wanted to lift up that God had chosen them first—that they knew what was really right to do. Their faith with all of its practices was how real believers should live. But Christ’s coming fulfilled all of those ceremonial laws; he fulfilled all of the sacrifices, the festivals, and the strict religion. Being people of faith in Christ means you are forgiven, and it means the papers detailing the debts accumulated by our sins have been nailed to the cross and destroyed—there are no new debts to be inflicted upon believers. Paul communicated they were not to let anyone, man or woman, ruler or leader in the name of the church, tell them that there was something else they needed or had to do in addition to Christ.
One of the questions that has been on my mind as we have been looking through Colossians is what would ideologies or perspectives would Paul or another early church apostle warn against today? What out in the world is likely to deceive the church by putting something empty in front of us but causing us to think its valuable? Certainly there are practices that some believers still put under religion—there are people telling believers they must believe in Christ and also do this to be saved. To attend church so often, to pray so many times a day, to never touch a drop of alcohol. While transformation in Christ hopefully leads us to want to worship more with the body, to desire to communicate with our Father more regularly, to be of sober-mind and not mock those who struggle as well as those choosing not drink—we do not find hard and fast stipulations on them in Scripture that we should add to believing in Christ for salvation. Faith still competes against human-imposed regulations and traditions.
We also find here, in verse eight, the church is warned against “hollow and deceptive philosophy…the basic principles of this world rather than Christ.” I wonder if the apostles would warn people of faith today against a lot of what we might call “positive thinking.” Motivational, self-esteem boosting, feel good language that comes from anyone and anywhere. I think of what I see often on Facebook or on posters; a couple words or one line that is intended to change our demeanor. Do not get me wrong, I love a good motivational speech, I love when someone speaks passionately from their heart, but too often positive sayings and inspirational quotes can draw us away from what the Word of God tells us.
The world encourages us to win, to tolerate and celebrate everyone, to be happy all the time—but God’s word tells us that life is about submitting to him, to live in his intended design, and to be willing to suffer. I do not have anyone in particular from this congregation in my mind—but there are many in the church in America today would rather spend their time looking up quotes online than being fed by God’s Word. The church needs to come back to Christ; true faith calls us to discern all things according to him and his teaching. True faith competes against the philosophies of the world as well as of the church that are not rooted in God’s truth.
It can seem like faith is restrictive—but Paul’s message is just the opposite, brothers and sisters. Here we arrive at our third point this morning —true faith in Jesus Christ frees us to live life every day to its fullest. Paul asks the question, “Why do you submit to [the world’s] rules [even though you do not belong to it]?” That is not to say that there are not healthy rules and boundaries for Christian living—we will run into those in the next couple weeks. It is to say, however, there are things that they were doing or thinking they should be doing as binding for their faith, their spiritual walk—that had no spiritual purpose.
At the heart of what Paul warned against in the human traditions, the religious practices that had some influence on this church, was what was at stake by practicing or not practicing. It was not that Gentiles could not share in the celebrations that their Jewish brothers and sisters practiced, but it was a matter of feeling the necessity to practice those things. Again, faith in Christ and living in faith was all they needed! If the Jewish practices somehow made them feel superior in their faith, that was an issue. And likewise the Jews were not in any place to look down on their Gentile brothers and sisters for not living in the same manner as they did. One believer was not greater or lesser, they were all free so long as they believed in Christ, his forgiveness of their sins, and him being the one who was and is over all things.
To this end, our passage closes with Paul basically saying, “There are things that look good, that appear wise—‘with self-imposed worship, false humility, and harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.’” In our Christian freedom, there is much we are permitted to do. God welcomes us to enjoy his creation, to treasure the wonderful works of his hands. We are free to do that; but there’s also a point where our freedom allows to enjoy something so much that we would rather be satisfied with the created than the Creator. We would rather get our fill on that which we can come into contact with than by faith in the unseen. In freedom there is necessary room for us to be restrained but Paul says simply following all of these human traditions and customs is not going to provide you that restraint.
The only thing that can restain our sensual or our fleshly desires is that which is provided for us in commitment by God. The only way we can experience freedom well is by being filled by his grace through faith with the desire to live for his glory. We have the freedom to worship God in a variety of ways—in his house with song and voice and offering, in the fields, in our homes, on the basketball or volleyball court or on the sideline. We have the freedom also to go our own direction. It is only when we follow the command not given simply by Paul but by our Lord to continue to grow into the faith given to us that we can know what it means to live in righteous freedom.
As we live and walk in faith, brothers and sisters, seek to be built up by God more and more each day. Like those who train for physical endurance, the training of faith is never done. In understanding God and what he offers to us through Jesus that we have the ability to live in thanks for what he has done. Thankful living is what frees us from being bound to rules, bound to customs, bound to satisfying what others tell us we ought to be doing. Thankful living also instills in us love that we can show hospitality and seek to build up others in the body headed by Christ and always being grown by God. Rather than trying to do faith with human standards, let us use the freedom given us by our faith in Jesus to show and to tell others the wonderful things he has done. Amen.