Colossians 2:6-15 Only Jesus

You are listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Mattawan, Michigan.

I'm glad that you're here. I hope that either you can do one of two things. Either build off the gains that you experienced this past week or really get a fresh start on your week. And I recognize that you're coming from different things that have happened this week and all different kinds of some chaos and some good mixed in with the bad and all of that.

And so I hope that this is kind of like a reset button. I need reset buttons routinely in my week. And gathering together with God's people is one of those weekly resets for me personally. If you think about it, in our gathering when we get together, we get an opportunity to serve others and in that service towards others realize that it's not all about us.

How many of you by the time that maybe Friday, Thursday or Friday rolls around, you can start to kind of think it's about you? Anybody recognize that? And it's about your weekend and it's about what's coming up and about you getting some you time and all of that and I recognize that.

But as we gather together, we also get an opportunity to receive the ministry of others, realizing that we need them as well. And so I think there's something beautiful about the way that God calls the church together and we have this opportunity in the gathering to have a connection time here in the middle and just a moment to interact with each other.

I pray not just, I don't just pray on Sunday mornings for my sermon. I do pray for my sermon, but I pray also for the interactions that we're going to have with one another because we need each other.

And sometimes some of the best things that happen on a Sunday morning are the conversations that happen before, in the middle or after. And so I recognize that and I hope that that's reality. This morning I hope you receive that type of refreshment in serving others and also being served in the gathering this morning.

Jesus as the Answer to Ultimate Meaning

Jesus is the answer. Have you guys ever heard that before? You ever heard that phrase? I think probably most of us have. Yeah, duh. And I think Christians, as Christians we have a tendency sometimes to boil down really magnificent and glorious truths down to just a few words like sound bites and expect everybody to just be in awe of our wittiness or our pithiness or just being able to bring it down succinctly.

But I'm pretty confident that most biology teachers are not going to accept Jesus as the answer to a question about the life cycle of a butterfly, for example. So what do we mean when we say Jesus is the answer?

Or when a history teacher is asking who was the first president of the United States, is Jesus the right answer to that question? I don't think you're going to get credit on an exam for that. But obviously we're talking about something that's more fundamental to our soul, something that's more fundamental about ultimate meaning, ultimate reasons, ultimate things when we talk about Jesus being the answer.

And today, as we jump back into the book of Colossians, Paul is going to build a strong case that it really is all about Jesus. He has certainly been, Paul has certainly been strong in his statements in our text and throughout the book of Colossians so far, talking about Jesus, really strong things that he's had to say about Jesus Christ.

But finally in our text, we're going to get down to the heart of why he has even written this letter and one of the reasons why he's been talking so much about Christ all throughout this text. You see, Paul knew that Christianity, churches, and particularly new Christians and new churches would face opposition to their faith.

And there seems to be every indication that some people in the church of Colossae were suggesting that Jesus was a great starting point. How many of you would agree with that statement? Jesus is a great starting point.

But then they went on to say, maybe you need a little bit more. He's great, good job, you started with Jesus, bravo, you've got the right foundation, but let me build some things on top of that foundation to make you better, to make you stronger, to make you faster and more sleek and efficient in your Christian life.

And so, let me tell you what you really need. Now you, okay, Jesus, great, we've got that, now let's set that aside for a moment and talk about real living, okay? And some of you ought, you recognize how shocked we ought to be at that kind of teaching, but it appears that there are people in Colossae who are saying that kind of thing.

Maybe Jesus isn't quite enough, it's a great place to start, but boy, do you need to do a lot more. And I think this is an issue that is repeated down through the ages in religious movements. It's repeated down through the ages in churches.

It's repeated down through the ages even in the hearts of individuals like you and me. And we can find ourselves, even in ourselves as followers of Jesus, a doubt about whether or not we have it right, whether or not we're doing right, whether or not we have a good healthy relationship with our creator, whether or not Jesus Christ truly is enough.

And so, I mean, we would never say that, would we? We wouldn't get together with other Christians and say, you know, I'm having some doubts here, I'm not quite sure. But if we're honest, that might really be some thinking in the back of our minds when we lay awake at night trying to get to sleep.

Do I have it right, am I in the right place, have I figured things out? And the reality is, the world around us bombards us with all kinds of philosophies. What the text identifies as philosophies or empty deceit or man-made traditions.

And in our knowledge-based information age with the internet, social media, 24 -7 news and talk radio, RSS feeds, podcasts, all different sources of information, do any of you ever feel like you're bombarded with information throughout your week?

You have a lot of selection to choose from, but man, there is stuff coming at us all of.

The time.

We find ourselves surrounded and saturated with all kinds of information. If we're careful to stop and think, we would realize that not all the information that we take in is according to Christ. Not all of it is beneficial, not all of it is valuable, and certainly not all of it is.

True.

And Paul's even going to say some of it's outright deceptive. Some of it comes to us with an ulterior motive to deceive, it's already got that latent and built within it that it is set forward to deceive.

Some of it's not intentionally deceptive, but it's just wrong. Some of it's deceptive. It's got a force behind it, a personality, an intellect behind it that is trying to oppose.

God.

And so Paul's going to spend our several verses this morning reminding us to walk with Jesus. Walk with Him. I hope this is a recentering kind of message for you this week. I hope it brings us back to that which ought to be center, center focus, center stage in our lives, and that is simply Jesus Christ.

That God, I hope, would cut through all the chaos of information that is hitting you and me like wave after wave, and that He would calm our hearts before Him this morning and remind us all that the answer to our chaos is the peace that only Jesus Christ can bring.

To you and me.

So let's open our Bibles to Colossians 2, verses 6 through 15. Again, that's Colossians 2, verses 6 through 15. If you don't have a Bible on your lap or a way to navigate to that, would you do me a.

Favor?

Just raise your hand and Mike will bring you a Bible. We do want everybody to have a copy of the Word of God. I do recommend the ESV app. If you go to any of the different app stores or places you can download apps for your device, there's one called ESV Bible, and that's the one that I personally prefer.

But that's up to you. But let's follow along and read Colossians 2, 6 through 15. This is what God desires for us to hear this morning, and as I march through, I just have a strong sense as I work through the pages of Scripture that He is guiding this process.

Just that we take on the next chunk of Scripture as we go, and this is what He wants us to be reading. Colossians 2, 6 through 15. 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 traditions, 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 flesh, 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. Let's pray as the band comes to lead us in worship this morning.

Father, I want to start off just by thanking you, just the richness and the depth of this text that I've had the privilege of studying, that I get the privilege of preaching and proclaiming this morning, and I, and I do, I count it a privilege to talk about your Son Jesus Christ and His salvation and the great glory and supremacy of Him over all.

Things.

But Father, we recognize that the, I would dare say the majority of the things that we hear in a given week are not according to Christ. We have all different kinds of things that bombard us and philosophies and notions and empty deceit that is out there, ranging from the songs we listen to, the shows we watch, the news that we watch, and Father, just so many things that would bombard us and would seek to take us captive.

So Father, I thank you for your protecting hand over our church, for your guiding and directing hand in our lives, of leading us to faith in you. And Father, I pray that our faith would be stronger because we gather together, we hear and heed the warnings from your Word, and that we tie our roots deeply, that we drive our roots deeply down into Christ, and that we see Him as not just the foundation but the entire building, that we are being built up together into His body.

People who do His bidding, people who are His hands and feet, people who love our community and love those out in our culture enough to bring the gospel and the good news, and warning as well that without Him, there is no hope.

So Father, as we come to sing some songs, I pray that it would be so much more than just an exercise of our vocal cords, so much more than just singing, but it would be our hearts lifted up together as your people before you.

And I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Yeah, you can go ahead and be seated. And just a big thanks to Dave and the band for leading us in worship this morning. Grateful for what they do and that they bring us before the throne of God.

Obviously that's their goal is to kind of fade into the background and lead us to Him, and so I just really appreciate the heart that's in that each week. I encourage you to get comfortable. I know I say this, those of you who are here, it's a broken record, but I like to say it just for everybody's sake to remember there's coffee, there's juice.

Is there juice?

There's coffee, maybe some donut holes, but they're available while supplies last, so feel free to get up and take advantage of that. Also, I had the privilege of sitting in these very seats a couple weeks ago at a meeting that was held here at the school, and I don't know if you noticed this, I don't sit there as long as you do.

I'm usually up here, and I realize how uncomfortable those seats can get. And so I mean it sincerely. Now I know what I'm talking about when I say if you need to get up and stretch in the back, it's not going to distract me, and our goal over the next 30 minutes or so is to keep our focus on God's word.

So if that's a distraction, and I recognize that seat can become a distraction, then just get up and stretch out, and you're not going to bother me if you choose to do that. Now if everybody did that, that would be a little bit weird, but that might be a little distracting, but obviously take advantage of that.

Restrooms, by the way, are out in the hallway. Men's upstairs, take a right upstairs at the end of the hall, and then women's are down in case you need that at any time during the message. And then keep your Bibles open to Colossians 2, 6 through 15.

That's our outline. We're going to walk right through verse by verse and talk about Colossians and what God wants us to know through the Apostle Paul here. So Paul starts off our text this morning in verse 6 with the word therefore, and that always ought to make us wonder like why, how is this connected to what we've read before?

And last week we left off with him rejoicing that the church in Colossae is firm in their faith, they're solid in their faith, and they have embraced the gospel and have clearly received Jesus Christ as their King and their Savior.

So he says, so now he says, in the same way you received Christ Jesus as Lord, he's talking to Christians, he's established that previously, so now he says, in the same way that you received him, walk in him like that.

Follow him in that way. Well you need to consider, and all of us need to consider, and the church in Colossae had to consider, how did they come to know the gospel? How did you come to know the gospel?

How did you come to receive Christ? Think that through. Get that story in your mind. You know your own story, hopefully, and you have a time in your life where you recognize that you were not a Christian prior to that.

You were not necessarily following Christ, and then you were turned from darkness into light and your eyes were opened, and you might not have the date and the time, you might not know the exact time, but you might know generally this summer or whatever, or something to that effect.

How did you receive Christ? I've recently heard several authors speak about the central focus of Christianity being.

Good news.

And we know that, right? We know that the gospel, the word gospel, means good news. So that's exactly what it means, and that's the heart, that's the centerpiece of what it means to be a Christian is a follower of the gospel, a receiver of the gospel, a receiver of good news.

But also in this book that I was reading, they were talking about how it is, Christianity is not a religion first and foremost about a lot of other good things that we could talk about. It is not first and foremost a religion of good behavior, though that's a nice outcome of the gospel, it is not central and primary.

We are also not merely a religion of good feelings, though some in our culture would say, you know, that Christ secures for you all the bliss and all the money and all the wealth if you would just have enough faith in him, that is not, we are out of whack when we make that central because we are not a religion first and foremost about good feelings.

And the central focus of our faith is not, despite what many perceive, good advice or.

Good rules.

Right? Have you ever heard that? Have you, maybe you've been prone to think that way, maybe in the, whatever situation you were raised in, you had some kind of a latent feeling or some sense that bled over into you that religion and that Christianity was primarily about good rules, good ethics or good actions.

And many religions focus their attention on good rules and good behavior and so we could easily be confused. But Christianity is all about good news. Why am I saying this? News is something that needs to be heard, news is something that needs to be disseminated and spread out, and it is something that ultimately needs to be believed.

That is the change. The change comes about in a life when the news that something has happened two thousand years ago that has something to do with you and me, that news, that historical event, it is a proclamation that the price has been paid for you and me.

It's news.

It's been done. And it is a matter of receiving that and that is what he's talking about here to the church in Colossae. So how did you receive Christ? Well someone told you good news. How did they hear that good news?

How did the person who shared that with you hear the good news? Someone brought it to them. But at the end of all that chain is the reality that something that is received must be given. And the good news traces its way back to ultimately the word of God and the way that he has revealed himself, which is a record of the historical events that occurred.

So what did the Colossians receive? What did they receive? They received Jesus Christ and certainly the good news about him, what he had done for.

Them.

News that they believed. And now Paul is telling them, in that same way that you received that news, that same way that you believed it, in the same way that you trusted it, walk now. Live now in that same type of faith.

Take the word, believe the word, trust the word, and walk in him. And walking in Christ, by the way, is a way of life. It's not merely a mental exercise as if to say, I believe that Jesus Christ is Lord, I believe he walked the planet 2 ,000 years ago, I believe he died on a cross, and I receive him and now I go about doing my own thing.

But Paul is saying that those who claim to have received Christ should walk in a different way.

They should look different.

Our lives walk in a different way when we are embraced by Christ and when we in turn embrace him. And walking in Christ is this central way of life. Walking in him looks like sending down roots deep and growing up in him, according to this.

Text.

Turning to him for direction, turning to him for guidance, turning to him for growth. And how many of you have an area in your life you'd like to grow in? Anybody here? I think a lot of us have areas of life that we need to grow in.

Where are we turning to try to grow? It looks, according to the text, like a building steadily being built. Like a plant continually growing. Our lives in Christ are to be one of constant growth. We talk here in terms of maturity, looking like growing in faith, growing in community, growing in service.

And that it's a constant process. You haven't arrived. And if you think you have arrived, you've probably started to die. Because you're not growing anymore when you think you've achieved it, whatever it might be as you define it.

And so it's a constant effort, a constant growing, a constant wrestling, a constant how many of you have ever noticed that fighting sin in your life is like that whack-a-mole.

Game?

I never liked that very much. But you know what I'm talking about, whack-a-mole? The head comes up, you hit that one and another one comes up, you knock that one down and another one comes up. And it's like that in my life.

I don't know if it's like that in yours, but you're like totally owning this mole right here. And then another one pops up. And it's like, oh, bam, and then that one's back up again. And it's like that in our lives.

It's this constant battle, but ongoing growth, doing better at the game the more that you.

Play it, if you will.

Growing and growing and growing. And I want to be clear that the testimony of the New Testament is not one of merely mystical devotion to Jesus Christ. We live in a spirit and a time right now of what I would call growing spiritual mysticism that would encourage kind of mindless meditation.

We live in a very dangerous era where many Christians would look skeptically at deep study and may even outright suggest that the more emotional you get in your faith, the more genuine it must be. Have you sensed that in our culture?

Have you sensed that it's kind of like, well, if you look, the more serious you take it, the more you're just going to be like this emotional mess. But as if we live in a culture that says like, as if studying and thinking too much will kill devotion.

But I don't buy that and I don't believe Paul did either. Look at verse 7. Paul says that they were taught. They were taught. This is not a Christianity is not a check your brain at the door kind of faith.

A person cannot continue to grow in Christ without study. I was just talking with somebody about how people will think in terms of like, does God just speak directly to my heart? Will he just tell you where to go to school?

Will he tell you what to buy? Will he tell you whether or not to buy the car? Do you guys recognize that God can speak to you that way? God can talk to you any way that he chooses, right? But the problem comes in when people say, God told me to fill in the blank and it's something that is clearly opposed to his word.

You ever had anybody tell you that?

I've had people literally tell me, God has just given me a piece about divorcing my wife and sleeping with this other woman and I just have peace about it. I'm good.

It's all right. It's okay. Because God said that.

So God just told me that. Is that a, anybody have an issue with that? A little bit?

I hope a lot.

I hope you have major issues with that kind of notion or even the abuse that would happen in the, at the Bible college that I went to where a guy goes to a girl and says, what? God told me that I'm supposed to, you guys already heard it too, I'm supposed to marry.

You.

What?

Well, what if he didn't tell her that?

You know, it's kind of like, okay, this is not, how does that work? And it's like, well, I guess if I want to obey God, here we go.

I do.

What are we going to do?

Is that the way that that's supposed to work? So, what I want to point out is that you might hear me at times sound like I think that God doesn't speak to you that way, and all I'm trying to do is just trying to correct us from what I see as a slide in our culture to go into the spiritual mysticism instead of rooting ourselves in God's word.

Because I'm convinced that this is the place where you're going to grow the most. This is the place. Now, does God have a concern with, does he at times say you should go to college here or you should go to college there?

Does he at times give us some specificity about who we should marry or things like that or certainly who we shouldn't marry? A lot of that's found right in here, by the way, too, principles and things to live by.

But man, before, you know, if you want to know where to go to school, you want to know whether to buy the car or not, how much are you in here? It doesn't tell you whether to buy a Ford or a Chevy, right?

And you don't even want to buy one of those anyways, I don't know. But it doesn't tell you what car to buy here. But it does give you some principles about how you spend your money, what you do with it, all those kinds of things.

So all that was a little bit of a caveat. But it is just, I think, very important for us to understand how does God speak to us and it is primarily through his word and what he has to say to us here. So we're looking at verse 7.

Paul says that they were taught. And we live in a culture without mental engagement. We live in a culture that would actually think in terms of the more you study, it could actually interfere with your faith.

And I would suggest to you, you're not going to overstudy this. You're not going to get too much of the word of God in you. That's not going to happen. Now, what you do with it is important because you can get bloated, and I think that's one of the problems, you can get bloated on the information and only then get puffed up and proud that I've got so much scripture memorized when that would be an abuse of that.

It's interesting that the grammar doesn't shine through very clearly here in English, but thanksgiving in verse 7 isn't just tacked on at the end of the verse. Look at verse 7 with me. Rooted and built up in him.

These are things that it looks like to walk with Jesus. Rooted and built up in him, established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. And we can look at it and go, oh thanksgiving is the last one of this list.

But the grammar is a little bit confusing here. Paul gives thanksgiving a very central role in the life of a Christian through this text because thanksgiving is the one in the Greek syntax here in the sentence that permeates everything.

It is the point of the verse. As if to say we are rooted in him, built up in him, established in the faith, those things were taught and those things are to be done in a way that overflows us with thanksgiving.

The picture here is a life that is defined by thankfulness. A life defined by thankfulness. And in this concept of thankfulness, think about this in our culture, I believe that thankfulness is a place where I'm convinced that if we grab a hold of it and we really own it and we live it and we embody it, we can rack up some pretty quick wins in our culture.

We can rack up some wins quickly. Not that it's a game, but if you're the one who demonstrates thankfulness in your workplace, you might just stand out. If you're the one who has an attitude overflowing with thankfulness in your neighborhood, you might just stand out.

If you're overflowing in thankfulness in a culture that is constantly grumbling and complaining all around you, you might just stand out enough to have people ask you why you are so thankful. Why are you so positive?

And at that point you have an opportunity, an open door to say I'm thankful for one primary reason and that's that I've been forgiven, that I've got hope, that I've been set free by the blood of Jesus Christ and that gives me thankfulness.

Makes it so that when things don't go my way, I can still be thankful and rejoice and be glad because I've got ultimate hope in Christ. I also believe that thankfulness is at the end of verse 7 because it bridges the gap to Paul's discussion in verse 8.

Verses 6 and 7 are a segue that basically say, hey, I'm going to talk to you about how you should live your life. You should walk with Christ in the same way that you received him. But then in verse 8 he's going to talk about being taken captive by empty philosophies.

Walk with Christ so that you're not taken captive. And I would suggest to you that a person who remains thankful, he's talking about it in verse 7, is thankful for the cross, is less prone to spiritual error, to even doctrinal.

Error.

Have you ever thought about that? That thankfulness is a bit of an inoculation against theological error? If you live a life that is thankful, think about it this way. If I as a pastor think I deserve to be up here preaching, if I think I have somehow earned God's favor and God's attention, then I'm in error.

Rather than being thankful for the gift that God gives to me, if I take that on and I own it and I'm just like, man, I am pretty awesome and I'm all that, then I'm in error. But I'm also right on the cusp, right on the edge of multiplying errors to all of us.

But if I'm thankful to God for the privilege of serving him, because I recognize my own brokenness, if I recognize his great grace toward me in gratitude and thankfulness, then I am in a more safe place.

Does that make sense? Safer. If all of us as a church are more gratitude-centered, then where are our eyes? Our eyes are fixed on who? The giver of the things for which we are thankful. Who's given you what you have?

Who's given you your possessions? Who's given you the ability to make the money to buy the things that you have? Who's given you the family that you have? Who's given you everything? Who's giving you your breath?

Jesus.

So living a life that is thankful helps to inoculate us. If our eyes are fixed on him with thankfulness, we will be less prone to grumble, to complain, and equally to give ourselves too much credit. So in verses 6 and 7, we've seen just a general instruction to keep walking with Jesus, connecting with him through the good news that they received, that we received, and being built up with thankfulness in the faith that we received.

But things turn at verse 8. Paul for the first time in the letter tries to smack us awake. He smacks us awake, smacks the Colossians awake with a very strong word, beware, caution, see to it. All of those are appropriate translations of that Greek phrase that's there.

We see in our translation, see to it, another way is beware, another word is caution, but it's a strong word that is saying, boy, you need to slow down here over these next verses and pay special attention because he's going to ask something of us.

And what he's asking of us is to see to it that no one takes you captive. What?

Captive?

Without warning, Paul sounds the alarm. You are under attack, he says.

What?

Wait, we were just talking about walking with Jesus, we were talking about a life with him, and I thought things were going well, Paul, you've been talking about Jesus, Jesus, Jesus has been really great so far in the church.

I mean, if you're sitting and you're listening to this in the church of Colossae, you're 2 ,000 years ago, give or take, and you're sitting there and you're listening to this read to you for the first time, all of a sudden you're like, what?

Like wake up words, see to it that no one takes you captive, what, where's the enemy?

Who's taking us captive? Is somebody at the door?

Is somebody breaking in? What is going on here? Do you hear the alarm in this? All of a sudden, everything up to this point in the letter has been calm, kind, demure, even complimentary of the church in Colossae.

So far his speech, his written word has been laced with epic explanations of the glory.

Of Jesus Christ.

Then, boom, someone who Paul doesn't name wants to take the church captive. It seems like he probably, he may very well have had someone specific in mind, but in leaving it general, he keeps you and I from getting too specific.

He leaves the caution open so that the church down through the ages would hear this same warning sounded over and over again, beware, beware, beware. Because different church, same problem. You go around the world, visit churches, different churches, same problem, somebody wants to take them captive, everywhere.

Every Christian has an enemy who wants to take them captive. He wants us all to a person to be on the alert. See to it that no one takes you captive. But notice, he isn't saying lock the doors, go arm yourselves, because the enemy is coming to physically attack you, that's, they're going to come and carry you away, that's not what he's saying.

Instead, he clearly identifies the attack, and this is a mental attack, an attack on your mind, an attack on my mind. The enemy is coming with cunning mental force against the church, against you and me.

He is bringing philosophies, he is bringing empty deceit. And I wonder sometimes if Paul was given just a glimpse maybe of our modern era when he wrote some of this stuff because it just resonates with the realities that the church faces still a couple thousand years removed from when he sat down with a pen and paper and parchment and wrote it.

It seems pretty contemporary to say somebody is, there's deceptive thought out there, folks. He's saying that in the first century and it fits in the 21st century. Somebody wants to take you captive in thought.

Paul makes, Paul makes clear here what I was saying earlier, there is a battle, there's a battle for your mind. In the swirling chaos of life where we have a mixture of emotions, a mixture of feelings and personalities and doctrines and philosophies and all these things to measure and weigh, scripture indicates that some of this is not consistent with Jesus Christ.

Some of it is not according to Jesus. And there's an intentionally personal force behind this mental opposition to Christ. There's an intention behind it. In verse 8, the origin, look at verse 8 with me.