Supreme Freedom – Colossians 2:8-21 – Part 2

Posted on October 9, 2021 by dkoop

In the last post we looked at the fact that we can be captured, kidnapped or hauled away by deceptive, hollow, human philosophy.  These along with  legalism, mysticism and asceticism will take away our freedom and put us in a bondage of:  following rules, praying to spirits and angels, and harming our bodies.

In today’s post we will see that we also have:

Freedom from Sin and Death

11 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,
12 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. 13 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, 14 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. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.  Colossians 2:11-15

External Circumcision Vs. Internal Circumcision.

The Jews had a really hard time believing that the Gentiles didn’t have to be circumcised.  The Jews, because they had for centuries lived a certain way, circumcision was a part of life, it’s what it meant to be a Jew, to believe that the Gentiles didn’t have to go through that ceremony was very hard for them to accept.  So many of them wanted to continue to have the Gentile believers, if they were going to be Christians, be circumcised first.

Circumcision symbolized an external sign of a covenant between God and Israel, it showed the Jews that the Gentiles were different from them.  They had a physical sign that showed that she was different than all the other nations in the world at that time.  Even though the early church finally decided that the Gentiles didn’t have to become circumcised to become Christians there were obviously some people who were still trying to make Gentile believers be circumcised.

Galatians 6:15 “Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new creation.”

Here Paul speaks to this idea that it’s not the external that matters but what happens in the heart.  It was always that way.  God had the Jews be circumcised externally but just because you were circumcised externally did not mean hat you were a true believer in the Messiah.  God was always asking them to have their heart circumcised, to love Him, to obey Him, to serve Him.  And Paul contrasts that here.

Paul said that is no good!  Verse 11 “In Him you also were circumcised in the putting off of sinful nature not with the circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ.  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.”

Circumcision in this passage represents the cutting away of our carnal nature and we see this in Jesus’ death on the cross.  When He died He was cast out, He was cut away from God and all of human efforts ceased.  No longer any reason to try by human effort because Jesus took care of it on the cross.  He pictures that on the cross.

Then He goes into baptism and says baptism is the new outward symbol of our internal faith in Christ.  That we have a new life in Christ that allows us to have that circumcision of the heart that’s always been there for us.  It gives us that new heart that’s able, has the capacity to love God, to obey Him and to serve Him.  We have that new circumcision of the heart that gives us the ability to love God.

The Legal Code Condemned Us. 

The next set of contrasts in this passage was a legal code.  Verse 14 “Having canceled the written code with its regulations that were against us and that stood opposed to us, He took it away and nailed 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 third comparison we see was the Law of Moses, a legal code and it condemned us.  But the contrast is that Christ doesn’t condemn us.  He forgives us.

Most Christians tend to think of the law as bad.  The law is Old Testament and grace is New Testament.  But the law had a planned purpose by God that was good.  In Galatians 3:24 it says, “The law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.”  The Bible says that the purpose of the law was to tell us God has standards and lays them out very clearly.  The law also tells us the penalty if you break one of those laws.  And it also points out the impossibility of any one of us keeping that law perfectly.  It shows us that we need a savior.  The law had a purpose that God used that was very effective.

The thing about the law that caused the problem here is that the law did require perfection.  Absolutely.  The law says you must keep this law perfectly every day of your life or you will stand condemned.  But I have a real hard time being perfect no matter how hard I try.  So every one of us stand condemned by this law that requires perfection.  None of us can live up to it.  It was God’s standard, it’s the way it had to be, but we all stand condemned by it.

But the contrast is what Jesus did with that condemnation.  What it says in verse 14 that He did is He canceled the written code that was over us.  We deserved the condemnation.  We are imperfect.  We have broken God’s laws.  So we stand condemned.  He took that and He did something different with it.  Verse 14 “When I was dead (and here’s another contrast) in the uncircumcision of my sinful nature He made me alive with Christ.  He forgave all my sins having cancelled the written code with its regulations that was against us and stood opposed to us.  He took it away by nailing it to the cross.” 

Sin is no longer an issue in my relationship with Jesus Christ because He took the code that was against me, took the condemnation on Himself so I am no longer condemned.  That is news that I have to remind myself every day of my life.  Because I am so aware of my sin.  I am so aware of my inadequacies, my failures, of the areas that I struggle with.  I struggle and struggle and I still blow it and I make these vows to God that this will never happen again and yet it does.  I’m so aware every day about how far I fall short of that code.  What I have to remind myself is that in Jesus Christ there is no condemnation.  Romans 8:1 says, “Therefore there is now no condemnation.”  It doesn’t say a little pinch of it is still there.  There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.

In that time it was the custom when someone was executed, when they were crucified to write on the placard what the person had done wrong.  Then they would take that placard and put it above the person on the cross, nail it above their head, so that everybody who walked by could see what this person had done and Rome was punishing them.  They could see the kind of punishment Rome took out on people who didn’t obey her laws.  Pilate wrote on the placard that was above Jesus “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.”  He wrote that in three languages.  What he was saying was “This man’s sin?  Disloyalty to Caesar.  He thinks he’s king.”  Everybody who walked by could see, “This man claimed to be king instead of Caesar.”  When God looked down do you really think that God was impressed by Pilate’s little sign, as if that’s the reason Jesus died?  No.  Pilate may have put a sign that said, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews,” and think that’s why He died.  But God saw instead a sign that read, “The Law, the broken Law.”

So when Jesus Christ died what God saw was the broken law that Jesus was dying for all of us to pay that penalty.  By His dying, Jesus settled every claim against us.  There are no more claims to be thrown at us.  Jesus settled them by dying under that placard of broken law.

Because our sins was nailed to the cross there’s no more condemnation.  The code has been cancelled.  Why did He do it?  Because He loved us.

Evil Authorities and Christ’s Triumph Over Them. 

In verse 15 he says, “And having disarmed the powers He made a public spectacle of them triumphing over them by the cross.”  Paul teaches frequently in his writing that there was an unseen world and it’s filled with spirits.  Not dead spirits.  I’m not teaching that people who die are now these spirits wandering around.  The Bible doesn’t teach that at all.  But the Bible does teach that when Satan fell from heaven a third of the angels fell with him that they are the ones who wander, they are the evil spirits and then there are God’s spirits – the angels – the good spirits that are angels and they are also in this unseen world.

Paul calls them authorities and powers and spiritual beings.  Ephesians 6:12 “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm.”  They are there.  The Bible makes it clear that spirits good and evil are around us whether we can see them or not.  And they had power over us before we came to Christ.  So here’s the contrast.  Verse 15 “Christ has triumphed over them.”  When it says that He disarmed them, that’s the word he stripped them.  He stripped them of their power, He stripped them of their ability to hurt us any more, to have anything to do with us.

Evidently these evil spirits were gloating when Jesus died on the cross.  I just know that Satan and all of his army of evil angels were gloating to think that they had won.  But in the ultimate Jesus went to those spirits and proclaimed His victory, “You didn’t win!  God won!  I’m here!  I’m back.  You guys are history.”  And the Bible says in Gen 3:15  “he will crush your head,

and you will strike his heel.”   & Rev 20:10   And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, Colossians 2:15 says that He disarmed those powers and authorities and He took captive.  He did a parade in the unseen world of all those evil spirits dragging them through the streets saying, “I won!  Forget it guys!  I won!  You didn’t win.”  The Bible says He disarmed them.  He made sport of them.  He made fun of them.  They have no power over us anymore.  Jesus has triumphed!

Because of Christ, we have freedom from sin and death.

Darrell

www.Upwards.Church

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Supreme Freedom – Colossians 2: 8-21- Part 1

Posted on October 9, 2021 by dkoop

A parent’s worst nightmare is their child not coming back from school. Unfortunately, kidnapping statistics show that this nightmare turned into reality for many families, as they suffered such a worse-than-death fate not to see their beloved kid ever again.

Top Kidnapping Stats and Facts (Editor’s Pick)

  • More than 460,000 children go missing every year
  • 12+ years old children are the kidnapping victims in around 80% of all cases that include minors
  • Girls from 12 to 17 years of age are the most typical victims of abduction
  • Human trafficking is a $150 billion-worth industry
  • 99% of sex trafficking victims are females
  • The United States, Mexico, and the Philippines were the three worst countries for human trafficking

I want to do everything in my power to make sure to protect my family from being kidnapped.

Using the same language our passage today issues a warning of being kidnapped spiritually.  No one can snatch us away from the love of God, but we can allow ourselves to be taken away into captivity and lose our freedom.  How does this happen?

Let’s look at our text together:

8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.  Colossians 2:8 (NIV)

The words “take you captive” means, abducted, kidnapped, bound and carried away causing you to lose your freedom.

Paul says don’t let false teachings do that to you.  Don’t let false teachings and false teachers grab hold of you, kidnap you, carry you away and hold you hostage.  Because just as certain as physically some one was held hostage their freedom was taken from them, if you are taken by false teachings and false doctrines Paul says your freedom will be taken from you in that exact same way.  He warns these people not to be taken by false teachings.

What were the philosophies that threatened the Colossians?  A whole bunch of them.  Most of them mixed Judaism and Gnosticism together.  But there were three that are mentioned in this passage, three philosophies that threatened to kidnap the Colossians.

  1. The first is legalism.  Following man made rules V. 16 “Don’t let anybody judge you by what you eat or drink.”  Evidently the Christians there were being judged by exactly that.  He says don’t do that.  That will kidnap you and take you away from the truth.  He says “Don’t let anybody judge you in regard to what you eat or drink or in regard to a religious festival, a new moon celebration or a Sabbath day.” A new moon celebration, the Jewish calendar was tied to the moon and a new moon celebration was every 28 days there was a new moon and there was a celebration that went along with that.  It had to do with the calendar.
  1. The second philosophy that threatened to take the Colossians captive was mysticism in verse 18.  He says, “Don’t let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you from the prize.”  Worship of Angels Gnosticism was a system of beliefs that felt like man was not good enough in and of himself to talk directly to God.  We needed intermediaries between us and God.  They felt that there were angels and they were arranged in an hierarchy and that the angels got better and better and more and more powerful as you moved up the line until you could eventually get to God.  They felt like these angels all had names like Wisdom, an angel called Power, an angel called Reason.  You had to acknowledge these angels and you had to placate them to get anywhere in your spiritual life.  They felt that every single person starts in a state of total ignorance of spirituality but as you talk to these angels and have more and more contact with them you can eventually find the oneness that is in all.

Does this sound at all vaguely familiar to something that comes down the pipes these days?  It’s exactly the same.  This is the kind of philosophy that the Gnostics propagated.  Contact with angels.

This kind of New Age teaching is what was permeating the church at Colossae.  This was the threat they were facing, this concept of a philosophy that was manmade and promises to move you above yourself.  Doesn’t New Age philosophy promises to move you out of yourself?  Move you to the god within you?  It sounds so humble.  It sounded humble when the Gnostics talked about it.  “I can’t go to God.  I have to go through angels.  I can’t possibly approach God.  I have to go through an angel.”  It’s the ultimate form of pride because it says God in His revealed word doesn’t tell the truth.  God in His revealed word says there is one mediator between Him and man, the man Jesus Christ.  No angels, no spirit beings, no spirit guides, No looking deep inside.  It’s you going to Jesus Christ and making a connection with God.

The truth is that Jesus is the mediator.

  1. The third gospel that was threatening them was asceticism. Verses 20-23 has the concept of Don’t touch, Don’t handle, Don’t taste. Don’t do anything that has to do with the physical world.  There were some people in that time who felt like the way to please God, the way to really get on God’s good side was an extreme form of self-abuse.  That the body was bad.  The body was evil.  So if you hit yourself with whips, if you starved yourself, if you slept on beds that were cold rather than putting a blanket on yourself somehow you were earning spiritual brownie points and this made you more acceptable to God.  Asceticism was one of those philosophies that threatens to kidnap us and still today if we think that we can get God’s favor by harming ourselves.

Paul says in those verses 20-23 that it looks real good on the outside and other people who see that you do those kind of things, practice that form of extreme self denial Paul says it looks so good on the outside.  People will think you’re so super spiritual.  But what little you gain by that is completely lost in the end because in God’s eyes it means nothing.  So really you don’t gain anything by practicing asceticism.

God answers to man’s deep longing to know truth is only found in Jesus Christ.  It’s not found in punishing yourself.  It’s not found in angels.  It’s not found in following man made rules.  It’s only found in Jesus Christ.

The true teaching is the contrast that goes with these.  No matter how elaborate or complex these philosophies were they all had one thing in common.  They were very empty and hollow.  He says back in verse 8 “These philosophies are hollow and deceptive.”  *It’s like those chocolate Easter Bunnies.  They look so cute on the outside and you take a big bite and there’s absolutely nothing but air.  What a let down!  That’s what happens if we look to philosophy of human origin.  Mankind’s thinking.  It’s empty.  It leaves you with nothing.

Paul says in contrast the truth is in Christ you have everything.  .  Verse 9 “For in Christ all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form. You have been given fullness in Christ who is the head over every power and authority.”  One of the translations says, “I am complete in Christ.”

The Greek word for “fullness” is pleroma.  It was a word that Gnostics liked to use because it meant fullness.  They thought that pleroma was what they were looking for.  It meant all the fullness of deity.  They thought that by going through the angels one step at a time that they could get to that pleroma.  And Jesus Christ was like the ABCs.  He was for the people who were just getting initiated.  He was one of the little stepping stones that could get you to pleroma.

But God says, no.  Rather than Jesus being a stepping stone to fullness, completeness.  Jesus Christ is fullness, He is completeness.  Because He contains all of God.  Jesus is part of the trinity – Jesus, the Father, the Holy Spirit.  Each one of them is fully God.  They have separate personalities but each one is fully God.  *So when you have Jesus Christ you have God.  You have everything you can possibly need.  You don’t have to search for anything else.  You don’t have to search for pleroma.  It is in Him.

So why would you need a false teacher?  Why would you need a man made philosophy.  If you’ve got it in Jesus Christ there’s no need to search anywhere else.

So we have freedom from hollow human philosophy, in the next post we will see that we have freedom from the penalty of sin and of death.

Darrell

www.Upwards.Church

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Supreme Hope – Colossians 1:25-27

Posted on September 29, 2021 by dkoop

In the Survival Journal.com they state, “One of the common rules we have amongst survivalists and preppers is called the Rule of Threes.”

The Survival Rule of 3’s States That You Can:

  • Survive Three Weeks Without Food
  • Survive Three Days Without Water
  • Survive Three Hours Without Shelter
  • Survive Three Minutes Without Oxygen
  • Survive Three Seconds Without Hope

Wow, three seconds without hope.  I find it interesting that among survivalists that they would put such a high priority on hope.   Here’s what they say,

“The Survival Rules Explained: Let’s break down this rule of survival piece by piece so you best understand it and why it’s important for us to remember ‘3 Seconds Without Hope’  A big part of why preparation is so crucial is so that you don’t panic! If you panic, you’re done. The first part of the rule of 3’s in survival states that you can only survive three seconds without hope. So be prepared for emergencies before they happen so you’re prepared.” They explain that preparation brings confidence and hope which is vital.

To survive in today’s hostile environment to our faith, our passage shows us the hope we have in Jesus! We see that we can grow in our confidence and be prepared against doubt, false teaching and keep our hope alive in Christ.

The key verse in this passage is verse 27:  “…Christ in you the HOPE of Glory.”

Let’s break it down from the beginning staring with verse 25 with Paul explaining how we get prepared with the hope we have in Christ.

Paul had referred to himself as “a servant of this gospel.” Paul’s service came because of God’s commission. No human had commissioned Paul; no human authority had called him; instead, Jesus Christ himself had spoken to him (Acts 9:4-6). Paul’s credentials as an apostle need never be questioned. Although Paul was called after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, he and the other apostles were called by Jesus Christ and God the Father, and they answered to God as their final authority.

Paul explained that this commission was given to him for you, that is, for Gentile congregations such as the one in Colosse. When Paul was commissioned by God, the focus of his ministry was made clear. God said of Paul, “This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles” (Acts 9:15 niv). Paul was keenly aware of who had commissioned him, to whom he had been commissioned, and what he had been called to do.

He was commissioned to make the word of God fully known.NRSV The heresy in Colosse drained hope from Christ followers by claiming the need for mystical knowledge, and that only a few could find it.  When Paul wrote of making God’s word fully known to all the believers, he was pointing out once again that God’s word is for all people. They could have all the wisdom they needed to be saved and to grow in Christ.

1:26 The MYSTERY which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but NOW has been revealed to His saints.NKJV

What is this mystery?  There are some things God reveals to no one. Deuteronomy 29:29 says, “The Lord our God has secrets known to no one.” Still other things were hidden in the Old Testament but have now been revealed in the New. The New Testament calls them mysteries (mustērion). Paul’s use of this word is not to indicate a secret teaching, rite, or ceremony revealed only to some elite initiates (as in the mystery religions), but truth revealed to all believers in the New Testament. This truth, that has now been revealed to His saints, is that which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, namely the Old Testament era and people. Now refers to the time of the writing of the New Testament.

27 For God wanted them to know that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles, too. 

One of the greatest scientists of our time was Albert Einstein. He was a man who was so focused on his scientific theories. He was so focused, he often neglected even the simplest things of life, such as personal appearance (as evidenced by his hair). One time, Albert Einstein was taking a train out of town for a speaking engagement. As he sat in his seat engrossed in his work, the conductor stopped by to punch his ticket. Looking up in shock, Einstein realized he didn’t know what he had done with his ticket. Frantically, he began to search his coat pockets, and then his briefcase.  Gently, the conductor said, “We all know who you are, Dr. Einstein. I’m sure you bought ticket. Don’t worry about it.”

But, as the conductor moved along, he looked back to see Einstein on his hands and knees searching under the seats for his ticket. The conductor walked back, “Dr. Einstein, please, don’t worry about it. I know who you are.”   Exasperated, Einstein looked up and said, “I, too, know who I am. What I don’t know is where I’m going.”

The Christians at Colossae had gotten to the point that they weren’t sure where they were going because somebody had begun to convince them that they weren’t going to heaven. Somebody had slipped into their midst and begun to tell them they weren’t acceptable to God

They weren’t even sure who they were. To understand what was going on here, it helps to realize that back in the days of this letter – behind the scenes – there was a spiritual battle taking place

The congregation at Colossae was composed of Gentile believers. A Gentile was anyone who was not of Jewish descent. (I asked the audience on Sunday how many of them had “Jewish blood” in their veins? Only one raised their hand. “The rest of you are all Gentiles”)

Gentiles had always been despised by God’s people. The Jews referred to them as dogs, and perhaps had even worse names for them. Jews refused to spend any time with them if they could avoid it. Jews wouldn’t eat with them, work for them, play with them. If a Jew purchased anything from a Gentile, the product was washed to cleanse it the filth of those who had no part in God’s covenant.

So when the church early got started it is no surprise that there were no Gentiles in the church. After the church had established itself in Jerusalem, God moved Philip to share the Good News with an Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts 8 who believed and was baptized.  In Acts 9 God called Paul to “take my message to the Gentiles.” In Acts 10 God led the Apostle Peter to he household of a Roman Centurion named Cornelius to preach the Gospel to him and his family who all believed and were baptized.

As more and more Gentiles came to Christ, the apostles and church leaders met together to decide what to do about all the gentiles coming to faith in Chris in Acts 15: They agreed that God was drawing them and giving them the Holy Spirit as they believed (Acts 15:8) that they were acceptable just as they were – no circumcision required, no need to follow Jewish laws, or customs.

What Paul was telling the Colossians that there was something these false teachers didn’t understand.  “The mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, is now disclosed to the saints. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery,”

And, what was that mystery? It’s…”Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Colossians 1:26-27

Of all the mysteries God has revealed in the New Testament, the most profound is Christ in you, the hope of glory. The Old Testament predicted the coming of the Messiah. But the idea that He would actually live in His redeemed church, made up mostly of Gentiles, was new and mind-blowing!  The New Testament is clear that Christ, by the Holy Spirit, takes up permanent residence in all believers (cf. Rom. 8:9; 1 Cor. 6:19, 20). The revelation of the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles awaited the New Testament (Eph. 3:3-6).

Believers, both Jew and Gentile, now possess the surpassing riches of the indwelling Christ (John 14:23; Gal. 2:20)! The church is described as “the temple of the living God; just as God said, ‘I will dwell in them and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people’” (2 Cor. 6:16).

That Christ indwells all believers is the source for their hope of glory and is the subject or theme of the gospel ministry. What makes the gospel attractive is not just that it promises present joy and help, but that it promises eternal honor, blessing, and glory. When Christ comes to live in a believer, His presence is the anchor of the promise of heaven—the guarantee of future bliss eternally. In the reality that Christ is living in the Christian is the experience of new life and hope of eternal glory!

  • The Gentile believers in Colossae were already saved
  • The Gentile believers were already acceptable before God.
  • And the Gentile believers there already had the hope of living in Glory.

Why, because Christ was living inside of them. They were acceptable just as they were!

The hope was this: That God would let anybody be acceptable to Him through faith in Christ.

The hope was that God would allow those who had been His enemies to now be called His friends

Now that’s a supreme hope!

Darrell

www.Upwards.Church

Watch Messages: YouTube-Upwards Church

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Additional Sources:  John MacArthur, MacArthur New Testament Commentary – Colossians and Philemon, (Chicago: Moody Press, 1992), WORDsearch CROSS e-book, 78.

 

 

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Supreme God – Colossians 1:13-21

Posted on September 25, 2021 by dkoop

Today we continue our series in Colossians called “Supreme Life,” because Colossians describes Christ as being supreme.  Here’s a reminder of  how the dictionary defines supreme:

Supreme– 1: highest in rank or authority. 2: highest in degree or quality. Merriam Webster Dictionary

Supreme defines Christ well!

As we take a look at this second half of chapter one of Colossians, I want to remind you that Jesus Christ is not only Supreme but He’s also God. 

That’s what Colossians 1 is all about.  Colossians of all the books in the New Testament emphasizes Jesus as God; savior, creator, sustainer, head of the church, and Lord of all.

The Bible is written not just for us to think about facts and figures.  It’s written to help us understand how God wants to fit into our lives.  These verses in Colossians 1 are not just how Jesus Christ should be God, but that He is.  As we read through this let’s not  hear them as facts for somebody to understand.  Hear them as truths to start to live out.

First of all Colossians 1:13-14 reminds us that …

13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.  NIV

I.  He is Savior – Thank Him for My Salvation.

One of the keys is to build into our lives is a regular habit of thanking Him for our salvation.  If you really take the time to thank Him for the things that He’s done for you as a Christian it tends to cause Him to rise up above all those things and causes you and I to see Him as God.

Paul in chapter 1 gives a list of some of those things.  What do we thank Jesus for?

Verse 13 for the fact that He’s rescued us from the dominion of darkness.  That’s not Darth Vader.  That’s Satan’s dominion.  And He has brought us into the kingdom of the Son that He loves in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sin.  Four thanksgivings that can transform your life

  1. Thank Him that He rescued us.  Have you seen that TV show “Rescue 9-1-1”?  This is Rescue Colossians 1.  He delivered us from the dominion of darkness and He brought us into the kingdom of His Son who He loves.

You and I don’t even know how incredible that is.  We don’t see how dark darkness really is yet because we’re still on this earth.  And we don’t see how bright God really is because we’re still on this earth.  But He rescued us.  It’s the greatest rescue that’s ever happened.  For you as a believer it’s already happened in your life.  It’s as if you were on the edge of a cliff and the branch was breaking and you were about to fall and Christ reached down and rescues you.  So if you want to sing “He rescued me,” you can as a believer in Christ.

  1. He transported us. He transported us from one place to another.  It’s a picture of some things that some of you who’ve studied the Old Testament might be familiar with.  You remember in the Old Testament when an attacking army would come in they would, often instead of totally wiping out a country kidnap an entire country and take them home with them.  That happened in the Old Testament with Israel.  The Babylonians came in and instead of wiping out the country they took all the people from one country and took them over to another country.  That’s the picture.  That’s the word that’s used here.  That’s what’s happened to you and I as believers.  We’ve been taken from one country to another country.  It’s not talking about physically but spiritually.  We have a new home.  The Bible tells us we are no longer citizens of this earth but we are citizens of heaven.

In Bible times, most of the time, this picture is used is used of someone who’s defeated having to go against their will to a country where they would be oppressed.  In this case Jesus Christ is taking us from a place of defeat, a country of defeat – earth – and He’s already taken us to be a citizen of heaven.  I think a lot of people think, “I’m going to be a citizen of heaven when I die.  Right now I’m a citizen of this earth.”  But that is not what the Bible teaches about us.  One of the things you can thank Him for is that your address is already changed.  Your name is already written in His book.  He’s already transported us.  That’s something to thank God for.

  1. We can also thank Him for the fact that He has redeemed us. That means He’s paid a price for us. He brought us.  Not with gold or silver, but with his blood.
  1. He has forgiven us. We talked about this a little bit last time.  Let me just remind you again what better thing could you thank God for than the fact that all of your sins – all of your sins – are forgiven by Jesus Christ’s death on the cross.  Wow!

Let’s thank Him for being Savior and next let’s recognize the truth about Jesus.

Colossians 1:15-18

II.  He is God – Believe the Truth about Him.

The Colossians faced a heresy.  It was a mixture of Gnosticism and Judaism and a bunch of their own things all together that was stealing from them the truth about Jesus Christ.

Let me take a minute to explain.  I think it’s important to understand what they faced so you can understand what we face.  One of the beliefs that they faced was that God, the God that you and I talk about, was not actually the creator of earth.  The reason they thought that is they had a belief that everything material, everything that you can see and touch and feel, our bodies and everything else, was evil.  The Bible doesn’t teach that by the way.  Some of you might believe that, you may have even been taught that.  But the Bible doesn’t teach that.  But they believed that everything created was evil.  It was made out of evil matter.  But God who was perfectly good could not make something that was evil.  So they had this idea that God in order to create the earth had to do something.  They said God created a little bit smaller God.

Here’s what the Gnostics taught.  The God who created the universe was not “up there”.  The god who created the universe was way down here.  In fact according to their belief there were millions of gods between that God and this god until they got a small enough god to create the universe.

Anytime somebody tries to make God smaller than He actually is that’s called false teaching.  They believed in this so much that they believed that Jesus couldn’t have been born as a man because being a man would be evil.  They believed that Jesus actually was born as a man and at His baptism the Spirit came upon Him.  “Docetic” was the belief that the Spirit came upon Him and at that moment He became God and so He could no longer touch the earth.  So they believed that He never even touched anybody.  They believed He didn’t even touch the earth.  They said when He walked He didn’t leave any footprints.  Because He actually walked just that far above the ground because the world was so evil.  Isn’t that a strange way of thinking about God?

We’ve got a lot of strange ways of thinking about God now too.  Anything that diminishes the truth about who Jesus really is – keeps us from seeing Him as God.  The truth about Christ is incredibly important.  The world misses that.  They say, “Jesus was just a good teacher.  He was just a prophet.   The truth about Christ is awesomely important. He is God, He is the savior of your life.

False teachers usually don’t deny Christ.  They simply try to dethrone Him.  Make Him a little bit smaller.  They don’t deny Him prominence.  They say He can be out in front.  But they deny Him preeminence – He can’t be first.  They don’t deny Jesus can be a way.  It’s just really hard for a false teacher to say that Jesus is the way.  So Paul wrote and said, “If you really want to know Christ is God here’s some truths we all need to know.”  Eight truths.

  1. Christ is the Visible Representation of God.

  Verse 15 “He is the image of the invisible God,

We know that God is a Spirit.  So by “image of God” it means that all the characteristics of God were in the person of Jesus Christ.

He was also man so He had a human body.  He was the only person who was both God and man.  One hundred percent God and one hundred percent man a hundred percent of the time.

Every other truth of Christianity grows out of this one truth.  That’s why anytime somebody wants to destroy the truth about who Christ is, this truth is attacked.

Let me make it more personal.  That’s why anytime Satan wants to keep you from living out the truth of Jesus’ as God he starts to gnaw away at this truth.  And he is in some of your lives.  We live in a world today where sometimes we feel embarrassed to say that Jesus is the way.  He is.  Or sometimes people attack you and say, “What kind of judgmental person are you?”  It’s not judgmental to tell the truth.  If you see somebody driving the wrong way on the freeway and you point it out that’s not judgmental.  You should honk at them.  You should let them know.

  1. Christ is the firstborn. the firstborn of all creation.”

This is a word I know a lot of you looked at and said, “I read this thing about the Trinity and Jesus always has been God and He wasn’t created by God.  He was God.  I know He was born as a man but what does this mean He was firstborn?  Does that mean that there was a birth that happened in heaven?”  No.  That’s not taught anywhere in the Bible.  In fact, the reason we’re confused is that this term “firstborn” is unfamiliar to us.  It wouldn’t have been unfamiliar to them in their day.  The term “firstborn” to them was a term of position.  It didn’t have so much to do with the order that you were born but the position that you were given.  In fact, if you read in the Old Testament you see that sometimes even if you were born in a different order on human terms somebody would be given the position of being the firstborn in the family.

God created Adam who was the first man.  The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians that the second man is Jesus.  God decided to give Jesus that place of prominence and preeminence.  He gets all the rights.  He gets all the privileges of the firstborn.  Not that He was born; it’s the position that God gave to Him.

So anytime someone says, “You say Jesus is God and He wasn’t born.  It says He’s firstborn.”  Just say “That’s not a word that talks about birth.  It’s a word that talks about position.”  The Jew of that day would have understood it very well.  That’s what the word is all about.  The position of Christ is all the inheritance of the universe is His.

Psalm 89:27 one of the titles of the Messiah, the Promised One that’s going to come, is “firstborn”.

So that’s part of who Jesus is.  He above all of creation has been given the rights.

  1. Christ is the Creator.  “For by Him all things were created.  Things in heaven and things on earth.  Visible and invisible.  Whether throne or powers or rulers or authorities, all things were created by Him.”  Is he just trying to be clear?  Don’t miss this, he says.  Everything is created by Him.  Somehow in the mystery of how God worked things out Jesus was given the job of creation.  In Genesis you read all of God was involved in creation at a certain point but Jesus was given the particular privilege of being named the creator of the heavens and earth.

Obviously later in our history Jesus came into this world.  It’s always amazing to think of the fact that He who created this world walked on this world.  The hand that created this world figuratively touched this world in reality.  The hands in the carpenter shop when Jesus was a boy and worked on the wood to make a  table or chair, those are the same hands that made that wood.  The hand, when Jesus was setting with 5000, that divided the loaves and the fish, those were the same hands that made the wheat and the fish that swam in the sea.  The hands that stretched themselves out to receive the nails on the cross, those were the same hands that made the iron from which those nails were made, that made the wood that formed that hammer, that made the people that drove in those nails.  Our creator walked this earth.  Jesus Christ is the creator.

Paul said when you think about who God is, when you think about who Jesus is if you want to keep them in first place don’t forget who He is.  He made it all.  He’s the creator of heaven and earth.  Not only creator…  

  1. Christ is the Owner. “All things were created by Him and for Him.”

“by Him and for Him.” Two words that are very important.

Do you ever wake up in the morning feeling like, “I think everything should be for me today.  It’s my birthday or whatever.  Today’s the day when everything should be for me.  It should all work out my way today.  I feel like all the attention should come my way.”  Do you ever feel that way?

The truth of this world is it’s all created for Him.  Every day is His birthday.  It’s all created for Him.  This entire world is not only made by Jesus but for Him, for His glory, for His pleasure, for His joy.  That helps you stop living as a selfish owner and start living as a loving steward of God’s creation.

There was a Dutch theologian that said this about the fact that Jesus is the owner.  “When Jesus looks at His universe from His exalted throne at the right hand of the Father and He sees the great galaxies whirling in space, the planets and the people upon the planet, all the minute details of life here including the details of our individual lives there is nothing that He sees anywhere of which He cannot say, ‘Mine’.”  It’s all His.

Some people are denying Him His rightful place but the Bible tells us that one day every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord.  “It’s Yours, Lord.”  Better sooner than later.

Not only is Christ the creator and owner but…

  1. Christ is the sustainer. “He is before all things and in Him all things hold together.”  Vs 17

Paul goes on to say as he talks about the truth of who Jesus really is in verse 17, Everything holds together in Him.  We all need to understand this if we’re going to live out the truth of Jesus being in first place of our life.  He didn’t just wind up the universe and let it start to tick down.  He’s the sustainer.  “In Him all things hold together.”  He’s intimately involved in every tick of the universe.  All the laws of physics, all the laws of gravity, all the laws of energy and biology, all that holds this world together – they are daily living expressions of His creative mind.  If God ceased to exist this world would cease to exist.  It’s all because of Him.  It’s all happening, not just at the beginning, but right now because of Him.  That changes the way you think about life.

When physicists – especially particle physicists, those people who study atoms – get together they try to figure out things that you and I don’t try to figure out like atoms and things smaller than that called electrons and things smaller called quarks.  They’ve even got something smaller than that but they couldn’t figure out a name so they called it a “glueon” because it holds things together.

Here’s what one particle physicist from Cornell said about what holds the universe together:  “Particle physicists such as myself want to know what are the fundamental invisible building blocks from which all the matter of the universe is made.  What are the basic interactions that glue these building blocks together to make the matter that we see around us?  Most of us think that the current picture we have is incomplete and there’s something deeper.  There’s something more fundamental working behind what we know.  The excitement of our work is we are constantly probing for the chink in the armor of our current understanding that will reveal some clue of the most profound and fundamental structure that’s underneath.”

All they’ve got to do is real Colossians 1.  The structure underneath it all is Jesus Christ.  The power that holds the universe together, my life together, is Jesus Christ.  That’s how great is the power of God.

Paul begins to get a little bit more personal.  Let’s go from creation, he said, to you, to your church and what’s happening there.

  1. Christ is the head of the body (the church) “And he is the head of the body, the church”

That’s the truth about who Jesus really is.  He’s not somebody who’s watching the church from afar.  He is the head of the church.

The head of this church is not me or you.  The head of this church is Jesus Christ.  He’s the one that we follow together.  He’s given us different gifts.  Some gifts of leadership, some gifts of teaching, some gifts of mercy.  We all have different gifts.  But all of those gifts are like the arms and the legs.  The head is Jesus Christ.

As a kid we had chickens, and sometimes dad would decide that we had too many roosters and it was time for some fried chicken.  He would cut off the head and I tried not to laugh but it starts to run around in circles, running into trees, flopping on the ground, it was a chicken with its head cut off.

Sometimes we can become like that in God’s church.  We must make sure that it never happens.  There’s lots of activities but no direction.  There’s lots of energy but there’s no purpose.  Jesus Christ is the head of this church and if you ever see anything happen in this church that makes you think that He isn’t, shout it out.  We want Jesus to be the head.

  1. Jesus Christ is also the beginning of the church. “He is the head of the church, the beginning.

He originated it, He’s the operator of it.  He’s the founder and the facilitator.  He’s the beginner and the builder.  Jesus talked to Peter about the church and said, “I will build My church.”  He started it and He builds it.

  1. Jesus Christ is also the firstborn from the dead – our hope. “The firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.”

This phrase might be confusing to some of you.  He’s the firstborn, the first resurrected.  Wasn’t there some other people resurrected?  Like Lazarus?  So wasn’t Jesus the second or third?

Lazarus in technical terms was not resurrected.  Jesus brought Lazarus out of that tomb.  But some years later he died again.  The body that Jesus brought out of that tomb – Lazarus’ body – died again.  So he was resuscitated for a while eventually to die again.  Jesus, when He came back from the dead, the body that He got, the resurrected body, it will never die.  It’s an eternal body.  That’s the hope.

I don’t want Lazarus’ kind of resurrection for a few years.  I want Jesus’ kind of resurrection.  That’s where the hope is.  Paul says, “You want to know the truth about Jesus?  He’s the first resurrected.”

We know we’ve recognized the truth about Jesus when it changes our lives. Look at the list of truths about Jesus Christ.  That really changes how we act.

  • He is God.  That means I can depend on Him.
  • He’s the firstborn.  That means I’m going to look to Him as the leader.
  • He is the creator.  That means I know that He understands everything about me.
  • He is the owner.  That means I give it all back to Him.
  • He’s the sustainer.  That means I depend on Him.
  • He’s the head of the body.  That means I look to Him for direction.
  • He’s the beginning of the church.  That means I praise Him.
  • He’s the first resurrected.  That means He gives me hope.

We could make a list of dozens of other things that it means along with those truths about Jesus Christ.  When I talk about the truth, I like to talk about three levels.  First we learn it, then we love it, then we live it.  This learning this list of truths about Christ is not enough.  We have to fall in love with the fact that He’s my creator.  But then we have to live it.  We have to say, “How am I going to live today the truth that Jesus Christ made me?  How is that going to make me feel differently about myself and the opportunities that come into my life?”  That’s why Paul says, “If you really want to put Christ in first place don’t let anybody steal the truth about who He is.”

Colossians 1:19-20.  Paul ends all this up by saying very simply “For God was pleased to have all the fullness dwell in Him and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things whether things on earth or things in heaven making peace through His blood shed on the cross.”

In order to live in commitment to the truth about Jesus, we must all recognize and refuse the temptation to lessen Him (make Him less than He really is).  Some people try to treat Jesus like the English treat their kings and queens.  They have a queen but there’s no power.  It’s somebody to honor and somebody to rejoice in and somebody to talk about and write about in the gossip columns.  But if the Queen of England ever said, “We’re going to war and I order us to do this,” the people would rise up and say, “Sorry!  That’s Parliament’s job.  That’s not your job.  You’re just there in a place of honor.”

Sometimes we treat Jesus like that.  And guess who the Parliament is in that case?  We are.  “Jesus, I want You to be Lord.  I want You to be the one that I follow.  But when it comes to the day to day decisions of life, I’m going to make them.  Because I’m closer to the situation.”  Refuse the temptation to lessen Him.

Paul says two things that help us refuse that temptation:

  1. Refuse the temptation to lessen Him in relationship to God.  “All the fullness dwells in Him.”  The temptation is to say maybe just part of God was in Jesus.  Maybe just the Spirit of God or the joy of God or the teaching of God.  But Paul makes it very clear.  “All the fullness.”  “Fullness” literally means the “sum total”.  The bottom line.  If you added up all your life what would the bottom line be?  If you add up everything about the life of Jesus Christ, the bottom line is God.  He’s God.  So Paul says don’t let anybody lessen Him.  He is God.  “All of the fullness of God dwells in Him.”  He even used a word that the Gnostics liked to use, the false teachers like to use.  They say it’s somewhere else.  The truth is it’s “in God.”

2.   Refuse the temptation to lessen Him in relationship to Creation. He says, “All things were reconciled through Christ.” He’s reconciled all things.  All things.  There will be those who reject that reconciliation while they’re here on this earth but everyone has the opportunity for it.

Jesus died for all mankind. 

And not only that but notice it says, “All things are reconciled in Christ.”  In Romans 8 the Bible tells us that Jesus died that not only we – you and I – could be set free from sin, but all creation could somehow be set free from sin.  Somehow God’s going to recreate everything someday.  God has a plan that’s bigger than we think sometimes.  All things reconciled in Him.

This is tough for some people.  Some people want to say some things are reconciled in Christ.  “Let’s say Americans and Europeans.  But all these people that were born over in the middle East, China let’s say they’re reconciled some other way because that’s their culture.”  The American culture is just as far from being reconciled through Christ culturally as the Chinese culture.  It’s not a matter of culture.  It’s a matter of truth.  Paul says, “the truth is all things are reconciled in Christ.”

Some people call this the scandal of exclusivity.  When we say it’s exclusively Christ, that’s when people’s eyes go blank when we talk to them about Christ.  Or when we talk about how much Jesus means to us and how much He’s changed our lives, they say that’s great.  But when we say He’s the only way people will go, “Now you’re into fanaticism.  Now you’re over the edge.”  It temps us in our culture to say, maybe there is another way.

All roads do not lead to God.  There’s only one way to God and that’s through Jesus Christ.  That’s why Paul wrote, “All things are reconciled in Him.”  Don’t miss this truth.

The fact that I know the way and that you know the way to Jesus Christ is not a matter of I think I’m better than someone else.  It’s not that I think I’m more knowledgeable than someone else.  It’s just that I have received the same gift that’s offered to everyone else.

What was God reconciling?  Not just people but all of His creation.  And how did God do it?  He did it by making peace through His blood.  He did it through blood.  He did it by dying for us.

Colossians 1:21-23

III.  Christ is God and Transforms Us.   

At the end of this section Paul talks about our past and our future.  He talks about what we were and what we will become because of Jesus Christ.  He lists three things that we used to be and three things that we can become.

“Once you were alienated from God and you were enemies in your mind because of your evil behavior.  But now He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death in order to present you holy in His sight without blemish and free from accusation.”

He uses three striking words to describe our condition prior to Christ.  You were 1.alienated.  You were 2. enemies in your mind.  You had 3. evil behavior.

I think that describes us well, but some may think, “I tried to be a pretty good person.”  The truth is we tend to evaluate ourselves by comparing our lives to other people around us.  These are words of truth about the condition of all mankind without Christ.  We’re separated from God.  We’re enemies.  We don’t want God’s influence in our lives because He cuts in on what we want to do.  And we do wrong things.

Trusting God for the future begins with being honest about your past.  But then he turns to the future.  He turns to the now and what God’s doing in our lives.  He gives the three words to express our condition after the cross:

  1. Holy (from alienated to holy, that’s a pretty big jump!) The aim of God’s reconciliation in our lives is holiness. It changes who we are.  “Holiness” means “set apart”.  Separated.  New character, the character of Christ.
  2. We’re without Blemish.
  3. We’re free from Accusation.

That’s how God sees us because of Christ!  “Holy, without blemish and free from accusation,” Do you see yourself that way? Do you accuse yourself of past mistakes or let others accuse you?  In Christ you are clean, holy, and righteous.  It’s time we live those truths.

Look through these truths in this passage and think, “How am I going to live this out?  How am I going to live out the fact that Christ is my savior? Christ is my creator?  How am I going to live out the fact that He is sustainer?  How is the fact that He’s the owner going to change the way I treat my business or my family?  How is the fact that He’s the head of the church going to change the way I think about my gifts and talents?”  Do you ever picture who you are in Christ?  Throughout the Bible we’re encouraged and challenged to visualize who we are in Christ: holy (set apart), without blemish (clean) and without accusation (not carrying around guilt or shame.)

I want Jesus to be God in my life and I think that you do too.  We’ve learned some powerful truths in Colossians 1:13-22.  I encourage us this week to put some of these things to work.  Not just to learn it, not even just to love it, but to live out the truth that Jesus Christ in ALL things is God.

Darrell

www.Upwards.Church

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