In Christ - Colossians — Anton Bosch

The Supremacy of Christ in Colossians

Turn with me to the book of Colossians and for our Visitors we have been working our way through the Bible one book per week from the book of Genesis and I don't I've lost track how long we've been at this now, but it's over a year now and We're now finally in the book of Colossians and what we've been doing is giving an introduction to the book in the adult Bible class in the mornings and then in the in the morning service we go into one aspect of the book one particular verse or a different aspect of the book one particular story or one particular chapter.

And so we're in the book of Colossians this morning. And I want to speak to you about the theme one of the themes in the book of Colossians is in Christ in Christ now just to recap for those who were in Sunday school that one of the Problems that Paul addresses in the city of Colossi.

Colossi was a Multi-ethnic city very close to Laodicea in Eastern Turkey. Today we used to be Asia Minor and one of the problems in the city was that there were many many Different religions and people were trying to synchronize these different religions and we call the technical term for that is syncretism.

Synchronizing these different religions and picking and choosing different aspects of these religions and putting them all together. To create some kind of new doctrine and today we have a similar version which is called New Age.

Syncretism and the Loss of Christ’s Preeminence

Now part of the problem in that whole process what happened then and what happens today is that the importance of Jesus Christ? Was minimized so Jesus was no longer the central figure. Jesus was no longer the one mediator between God man.

One of the things that he writes in here is about people who worship angels. And why do people worship angels or saints or any other? Created thing is simply because Jesus is no longer in that preeminent position as the one mediator between God and man.

And so we need somebody else or something else to take Jesus's place to mediate on our behalf before God. And so we can put angels in there. We can put a man in there. We can put a church in there. We can put a religion in there.

We can put whatever you like and these people were amongst other things putting in these these angels. The problem is as we define this morning. Is that any? Religion whether it's a Christian religion or not a Christian religion any religion that deprives Jesus of his preeminent position is a false religion any form of Christianity and any form of any other religion that does not afford to Jesus that position of being the king of kings and the Lord of Lords the one mediator between God and man the one through whom we have to go to to get into the presence and to get anything from God the moment we Minimize Jesus the moment we say we need Jesus plus we need the angels or we need Jesus plus we need the Saints.

So we need Jesus plus something else or we take Jesus out of the picture altogether. And of course, that's very popular today because the name of Jesus is offensive. We don't most people don't have a problem with the concept of God this catch-all hold-all God who's whatever you like him to be most people don't have a problem with that.

But many people have a problem with Jesus Christ and that was what these people were doing. And so one of the reasons that Paul writes this letter one of the things he's trying to do is he's trying to re-establish the importance of Jesus Christ and so let's read from chapter 2 and the first 10 verses together Colossians chapter 2 this verse 1 through verse 10.

I want you to know what a great conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea and For as many as have not seen my face in the flesh that their hearts may be encouraged being knit together in love and Attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding.

To the knowledge of the mystery of God both of the Father and of Christ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Now this I say lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words for though I am absent in the flesh yet.

Am I with you in spirit? Rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ as you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord. So walk in him rooted and built up in him and Established in the faith as you have been taught abounding in it with thanksgiving.

But where lest anyone cheat you through philosophy or empty deceit according to the tradition of men according to the basic principles of the world. And not according to Christ for in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and you are complete in him who is the head of all principality and power.

The “In Christ” Theme in Colossians

Now I lost count because I didn't write it down. But for those who were in the Sunday school, you can use the notes that I gave you this morning and on the backside I gave you a list of the verses that speak about in Christ or in him if you if you didn't get one if you went in Sunday school then Speaks to one of the ushers at the back and we'll we'll be sure to get you a copy of these.

But but there must be I guess 15 or 18 different verses in these four chapters that speaks about in him in him in Christ in Christ over and over and over and so what Paul is Establishing for these Colossians is the fact that everything is in Jesus in Christ and I'm going to look at some of these.

I'm not going to look at the whole list. But I'm going to look at some of them and we'll begin in chapter 1 and verse 2. And he begins his letter and he writes to the Saints and the faithful brethren in Christ.

Brethren in Christ. Now I know in this country many people call other people brother. Even though they may not be brothers in the flesh. They may not be blood brothers. So maybe they are of the same tribe or they have the same color skin and we call them brothers.

And so that's legitimate, I guess but but Paul is saying that we are brothers in Christ the basis on which we are able to call one another brother and I'm not saying it's wrong for people out there to call One another brother, but the basis on which we call one another brother is that we are in Christ.

If I am in Christ and you are in Christ, he is saying we are brothers. We are brothers and Remember Jesus. They call Jesus and they said to him, you know. You've got to stop preaching because your mother and your brothers are outside.

They want to speak to you and Jesus said who is my brother and who who is my mother and who are my brothers? He says my brothers are those who do the will of the Father and so, how do we become a brother and You'll notice that It doesn't speak about sisters.

It's only Israel like this part. Only the brothers count. No, obviously he's including the sisters. How do we can become brothers and sisters by becoming? Part of Jesus being in Christ. Being born again being part of the family of God being able to call God our Father.

Now this is important because remember the background against which he was writing and the problem that we have a similar background today. And that is that we are being told today. We're all children of God.

It doesn't matter what religion you are. It doesn't matter what background you doesn't matter what you believe. We're after all we're all children of God. We're all brothers and sisters. Now Paul is actually directly refuting that and he says we are brothers only in Christ.

We are children of God in the sense that we're all made by God. But we're really true children of God only when we have accepted God as our Father and Jesus as our Savior. Then in verse 4 He speaks about faith in Christ since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus your faith in Christ Jesus now again, he's not saying since we heard about your face.

This is a these are not A little unimportant semantical things. This is not arguing about little words that are not that important these are very very important words and We know that many people have faith today.

We say as long as you have faith. But he is not saying as long as you have faith. He's saying as we have faith in Christ Jesus these little Meanings of words are very very important when you come to your relationship with God and You may be aware that Prince Charles Who is at the moment as the potential successor of the throne when the Queen dies one day?

It doesn't look like it's ever gonna happen. But if he does succeed the throne, he's made a very clear statement. Concerning one of these titles one of the titles of the King of England or the Queen of England is that he or she is the defender of the faith.

Technically, they are the head of the church. They technically take in the Anglican Church or the Episcopalian Church the place of the Pope but in a slightly different way, and so one of the titles is the defender of the faith and Prince Charles is not a believer and he is very new age and so he has made a statement and he said that when he if he was to ascend the throne he would Change the title.

He would not be the defender of the faith, but he would be the defender of faith. Just one little preposition. We say well, that's not very important. No. It's very very important because he is saying he is not a defender of the faith of the Christian faith.

But he will be a defender of all kinds of faith. Now Paul is saying I have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus. Many people today have faith in their church. Many people have faith in their faith. Many people have faith in their ability to improve their lives and to be better as far as God is concerned and to Improve themselves and work there and earn their salvation.

We have faith in all sorts of things. But Paul is really saying there's only one face. There's only one place to put your trust. There's only one thing that you need to believe in that has any value in any merit and that is faith in Christ Jesus.

Faith in Christ Jesus. Now, he's gonna come back to that because I'm going down in In sequence here. Let's go to verse 14 chapter 1 verse 14 in whom Let's begin verse 13. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of his love in Whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins.

Redemption Through Christ’s Blood

In Jesus we have redemption. There is redemption in no other. You know, we use these terms so loosely today, and I'm sorry if it becomes a technical thing this morning. But we use these terms so incredibly loosely today and and we speak about a murderer or a criminal.

Who has redeemed himself? By Doing some good deed or by you know doing community service or whatever it is has redeemed himself. But Paul is saying the redemption is in Christ Jesus the only way in which we can be redeemed is through his blood and he specifies that there is a price that had to Be paid for our sins.

Our forgiveness does not come free. There is a price and that price was paid by Jesus at the cross of Calvary as he shed his blood and as he gave His life and he paid the price of our redemption the price of our forgetful for our sins.

And so the redemption is not in ourselves. It is not in our works. It's not in our religiosity. It's not anything that we have done, but it is in him in whom we have redemption. Through his blood the forgiveness of sins.

Now, that's a wonderful thing and this is a wonderfully positive book. I really enjoy the book of Colossians because it really focuses on Jesus much more than it does on me and then in verse 19 and I'm going to pick up three different verses out of sequence now, but they are connected together chapter 1 and verse Sorry, where am I?

Verse 19. For it pleased the father that in him all the fullness should dwell. All the fullness should dwell. Let me give you the other verses and you'll see the connection between them chapter 2 verse 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and Knowledge and in chapter 2 verse 9 for in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.

The Fullness of God Dwelling in Christ

So he's saying in three verses three different things that are to be found in Jesus and first 19 it says it pleased now there's that little word for so you've got to go back to the previous verses to understand what he's writing about and He's speaking about creation.

Verse 15 is the image of the invisible God firstborn of all creation for by him all things were created. That are in the heavens and so on. He's before all things verse 17. He is the head of the body and.

Then it says that it pleased the father that in him all the fullness should dwell. So so what's he saying? He's saying the fullness of everything is in Jesus. Creation is incomplete without Jesus. The church is incomplete without Jesus.

Everything is incomplete without him. He is the one that fills everything and everything is filled in him. But it goes further than that because it says that in him is the fullness of the Godhead. Now one of the problems that he was addressing here remember was that they minimize Jesus they demoted Jesus and The same way as they do today and I said what Jesus was maybe an angel or he was a prophet or he was some great man.

But Paul is saying in him dwells the fullness of the Godhead. In other words When Jesus came to us he was he was a man. But in him was also the fullness of God in other words not just a part of God. But everything of God the completeness all of God's power all of God's wisdom all of God's knowledge all of God's power and an eternal Existence everything about God was in Jesus.

Now that's that's an amazing thing. So he contains the fullness of God. But then you'll see a little bit later. That he speaks not only about what we are in Christ. But about what that that that that not only are we in him, but he is in us.

Now that's it. That's it. That's a mind-blowing thought so in Jesus is the fullness of the Godhead. But Jesus is in us and that gives us tremendous potential. To become what God wants us to be. Because he is placed within us.

Much of the potential that God has now this can become a dangerous teaching and some people push that a little bit too far. But you can see that we have great potential. So so in him dwells all The fullness and then in verse chapter 2 verse 3 in him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Now it's interesting that here it doesn't say that all the treasures and of wisdom and knowledge are in him. But it says they are hidden in him. So when you see Jesus, you don't suddenly you're not suddenly confronted with all the treasures of knowledge and of wisdom.

But they're there they just have to be uncovered and One of the themes that Paul picks up here in the book of Colossians is the deeper life that we need to get deeper into Christ and One of the wonderful things about serving the Lord and one of the wonderful things about being in him and him being in us.

Is the more the deeper we go the more we discover about God's knowledge and about God's wisdom. And every day with Jesus every day, we read the scriptures every day. We walk with him we we discover new things about him.

New wisdom and new knowledge about God is revealed to us. And that's that's a wonderful thing and there are treasures of knowledge and of wisdom. The world seeks for knowledge and looks for wisdom in all sorts of places trying to learn about this and trying to Discipline their minds and they think well, you know, if only I can know this and if only I can know that.

And sometimes I go into a bookstore into a into a library and I look at all the books and I Wish I had that God had equipped me with a scanner here at the top of my head. So I can just take these books and just scan them through and just absorb all of the Information that's in these in these books.

But you know even if we were able to absorb all the knowledge in all the books in the world We would still not have All the knowledge. Why. Because it's all hidden in Christ. And you don't have to read all the books in the world.

You just need to get to know Jesus. Get to know his word walk with him and slowly but surely you'll uncover Knowledge and wisdom not just about spiritual things. But about life about the meaning of life about how to live our lives.

Everything that we need to know are to be found in Jesus because all the treasures of knowledge and the wisdom are hidden in him. And then verse 9 of chapter 2. In him dwells all the fullness of the godhead in a bodily form.

Christ in Us, the Hope of Glory

Let's go back to chapter 1 and verse 27. Chapter 1 verse 27. To them god will to make known that they are the riches of the glory of his mystery among the gentiles which is christ in you the hope Of glory christ in you the hope of glory.

Now he's elevating jesus and he's showing us how great jesus is and I trust that by the end of this morning that we will have a fresh understanding and appreciation for The greatness and the fullness and the completeness and the wonder and the preeminence and the importance and the value of jesus.

And of the value of being in jesus. But more than that he says not only are we in him but he is in us. He is in us now. He says this is a mystery. How can jesus who contains all of the fullness of the godhead?

How can he be in us? I don't understand that. And I think that's why paul says it's a mystery, but it's still a truth. That he is in us remember in john chapter 1 verse 12 for as many as received him.

To them he gave the right to become the sons of god. And so somehow we children are able to understand this far better than us adults. And we're able to explain to a child about about receiving jesus and jesus coming to live in your heart.

And paul is speaking about this. But he's speaking about it in a far more profound way. And I I trust that maybe as we live our lives as we walk before the lord. That we would seek his face and allow him just to explain to us and to reveal to us the implications and the wonders of just and the reality of of christ in us the hope of glory.

Preaching Christ and Being Made Perfect in Him

And then verse 28 He says him we preach Him we preach remember. This is one of the themes in many of paul's books. He says we're not preaching ourselves. We're not preaching our church. We're not preaching a religion.

We're preaching jesus. Here's our message him we preach wanting every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in christ jesus perfect in christ jesus. You get people who are called perfectionists.

They're really a pain to live with. Everything has to be perfect. Perfect but you know god's Goal for us. Is that we should become perfect? He wants us to become perfect. The problem is how do we become perfect because the longer we serve him the more we become aware of our imperfections.

We become aware of the fact that you know, we don't really Measure up to who he is. But here is the key and here's the answer how will we ever find perfection in christ in him. We can and do and will become perfect and that's the purpose of the whole christian life.

Is that he is he is changing us from our imperfection? Into his perfection from our own weaknesses and our own shortcomings all have sinned and come short of the glory of god. So there's god's glory. There's god's perfection and we all come short of that.

But you know the wonderful thing that he is doing is he's changing us. And he's shaping us and paul speaks about this in corinthians. And he says that he's changing us from one level of glory to another he's not just changing us from being gross to being glorious.

But in fact, he he transforms us from one level of glory to another so the moment we are saved. We already have some kind of glory. Not in an earthly sense, but because we are in christ. And we we know that you can take you can take a um an uneducated heathen man out of the jungle.

And clean him up. And dress him up in the finest suit. And suddenly he looks different. Appearances are so important. And the world knows this very well. And so they're always making sure that they drive the right car that they wear the right clothes that they have the right bling that everything because because.

That tells people who you are now. Of course that becomes a shallow superficial thing. But he's saying that when we're in christ. In other words when we when we put him on. Suddenly we're changed. And when god looks at me and that's the wonderful thing.

He doesn't see my imperfections. He doesn't see my weaknesses. He doesn't see my sins. He sees the perfection of jesus. And so we're able to be hidden in jesus. We're able to put him on and folk. While that doesn't make us super human beings.

At the same time. This is a wonderful truth that makes us acceptable to god and many of us struggle with our own that our view of ourselves our own self image. And we say but you know, I just mess up all the time I just don't make the grade.

I just somehow am not I just i'm just not what I should be. But you know, he is making us perfect and as long as we're in jesus. We're perfect. Doesn't mean that we don't sin doesn't mean we don't make mistakes.

But remember his blood is able to cleanse us and to wash us. And we're able to be clothed with his righteousness we're able to be clothed with his glory and with his perfection. And that's a wonderful reality.

Now, I know that these are deep concepts that are very hard for us to understand and for an even harder for me to explain. But I trust that somehow as we as we work through this and that you go home and as you study through this This book these realities would and truth would dawn upon our hearts.

That we are amongst other things we are made Perfect that he may present every man perfect in christ jesus. Now there are many people in the world who have attained to some degree of perfection. Everything is their hair is perfectly groomed their nails are perfectly manicured they wear exactly the right clothes.

Everything looks to be everything's just together. But you know when god looks at them they're a mess. Because it's only when we're in jesus. That we may be presented perfect. And then in verse chapter 2 verse 5.

Steadfast Faith in Christ

Now remember he began right back in chapter 1 verse 4 and he spoke about the faith in christ not faith in anything else. But faith in christ. But now he's taking that one step further and in verse 5 of chapter 2 He says for though I am absent in the flesh yet.

I'm in the spirit. Rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in christ. So We begin with believing in jesus putting our faith and our trust and our confidence in him. But now he's taking it one step further and he says it's not just beginning by putting our trust in him many people Get saved.

They pray the sinner's prayer. They say I put my trust in jesus. I believed in jesus. But now paul is speaking about a little bit more than that he's speaking about a steadfastness of faith. Now a steadfastness to me means two things.

The one is that it is ongoing. Not that they believed at one time and they let up on believing they're no longer believing. But steadfastness of faith means that they're constantly and continuing to believe.

He says I thank god for that. And I trust that god is able to or that if paul was to look at us as a congregation and as At us individually that he'd be able to say I thank god for your steadfastness of faith.

Not that you remember in the previous book that he wrote the book of philippians last week. He speaks about the philippians who gave money and then stopped giving and then they gave again at another time.

That's not steadfastness. That's being sporadic. Some of us believe in a sporadic way we believe from time to time. Sometimes we have faith. Sometimes we don't. Sometimes we believe in god. Sometimes we believe in ourselves.

Sometimes we believe in something else. Now he says steadfastness of faith ongoing. But steadfastness also speaks to me of not being up and down. Not being cyclical or cyclical. And so some people have great faith at some times.

I have very little faith at another that's not being steadfast. Steadfast means I continue. But it also means that I continue. Not going up and down but increasing. In fact, I should be if i'm going anywhere.

I should be increasing in my faith. But not being up and down now. We know that this is one of the problems when we're young christians. He speaks about paul speaks about this in a book of ephesians and i've quoted in the article this morning tossed to and fro.

By every wind of doctrine up and down. That's that's the way children are. That's the way teenagers are very difficult. When you're my age to relate to teenagers because you never know where you're at with them.

One day they're up and the next day they're down now. Very difficult to deal with christians who are that way. One day they're rejoicing and they worship in god and the next day they Don't know where up and down.

No, he speaks about a steadfastness. Of faith now that steadfastness comes as a result of maturity. In christ growing up in him, but it also comes as a result of being built and founded upon the rock Christ that brings stability that brings steadfastness when i'm built on something else if my life is built on my experiences or on my circumstances or On the stock exchange or on the money market or whatever else it is.

On my job, it's going to not be a steadfast faith. But if it's built on jesus, it will be a steadfast faith. But the faith is in christ the steadfastness of your faith in christ then chapter 2 and verse 6.

Walking in Christ Daily

As you therefore have received christ jesus the lord so walk in him. Walk in him now remember in the previous few books. We saw how that paul spoke in in several books about the fact that we need to walk in the spirit.

We need to walk after him. But here he's saying we need to walk in him walk in him. Now remember we said walking means progress progression it means heading somewhere. It doesn't mean sitting down. It doesn't mean lying down.

It means moving forward moving ahead. And he is saying that we need to be walking in christ. Now, what does that mean? Well, you can make it as complicated as you like to me. It simply means. Now remember that he spoke about the fact that we are in christ.

We're in christ. Now the problem is that some of us are in christ in the service in the meeting. But the moment we leave here. We leave him behind. Because he lives in this building, doesn't he? No. But some of us leave him behind and there we go walking and we live our lives.

We walk our walk. But we're walking outside of him we've left him behind. Now he says if i'm going to be walking I need to be walking in him. In other words, I need to be surrounded by him. I need to be moving.

With him and in him. I shouldn't be running ahead and doing things that he is not when he's not with me. I suppose in a in a sense you see these uh these pictures of um of of people in in uh in the cartoons Fighting the war there's this comic strip guy.

I forget his name rodney. I don't know if you come across rodney. I think he's a british cartoonist, but but this guy fights these. These these these battles and he and he has these these branches and he looks like a tree when he's all camouflaged with this tree.

And so he's he's he's he's walking in this tree. So you see this tree walking. And I suppose that's a picture of us walking in jesus. When remember we spoke about the fact that we are perfect in him but the problem is that we Should not just be in him from time to time and that's what he is saying.

We should remain in him. We should continue in him. And so when when I walk out there in the world when I leave this this building this morning Jesus should be going with me not just holding my hand, but I should be in him immersed in him.

My thoughts must be his thoughts my desires his desires. And so we need to be walking in him. Not just seated in him. Remember ephesians spoke about the fact that we are seated in him. But here he's speaking about walking in in chapter 2 verse 7 that we Are rooted and built up in him.

And established in the faith as you've been taught abounding in it with thanksgiving rooted. And built up in him now. Again, two different things and these are two opposites. We are rooted going down.

But we are built up in him. Now if you're going to build something You have to go down before you can go up. And all over the city you see them building new buildings. And the first thing they do is they go down.

And they lay the foundations. And once they've laid the foundations They can begin to build up. Now the deeper the foundations are the higher the building will be and you look at the world trade center.

When they when the whole thing was blown up and they began to clean up you could Begin to get an idea of how deep those foundations go. They go very very deep. And so the deeper the foundations are the higher the building will be.

The shallower your foundations. The lower the building will be. The one is connected to the other. Now Are we rooted in him? How deep do our roots go? How deep does our foundation go in christ? That will determine how High we will be able to build up in him.

Trees are different different trees have different root systems. I understand that the redwood trees, although they're very very high. Their roots are very shallow. They don't have a central root that goes all the way down and so unless they support one another they can't stand on their own if they They'll just blow over.

Because they have these incredibly shallow root systems. And so for a big tree to be able to survive the storms the roots need to go down very very deep. And we as christians need to be going deep in our relationship with jesus.

This is one of the problems of modern christianity is that many christians walk in relationship with god is very shallow. It's just emotional and they feel good because the worship is good or because you know things are going well and The preaching is encouraging and i'm feeling blessed and so I you know, everything's wonderful, but it's a shallow emotional thing.

Now we need to be rooted in him. We need to have our roots and our our foundations and our anchor going deep in christ. And when that happens We will not be blown over. But it also means that we can begin to build up, but you remember jesus speaks about a foolish man.

Who didn't want to lay foundations and so he just built on the sand when the storm came. The whole thing blew over but then he speaks about another man in the book of luke and you remember what he says about this other guy.

He built on the rock but more important than that and that's the part we often miss in that story. It says that this man dug dug deep. And founded his house upon the rock. It seems that both of them built on the same place.

But the one's just built on the surface. The other one dug deep. Until he found that rock and he founded his house upon that rock and when the storms came the house was able to stand. And so what are we building on?

How deep are we going in our relationship with christ? How shallow is it? And i've just been again. And some of you know the situation of someone that we've been ministering to very recently very close to us.