Colossians 2:6-15

This week we come to one of the central teachings in the whole of the New Testament about what it looks like to 'walk as a Jesus follower'. If you will turn in your Bibles- does everyone have a Bible? If not, you can follow along as I read up on the screen, but I encourage everyone to get a Bible, get familiar with it and bring it with you to church. It can be a book, an app, a reader or a PC- however you or whatever will get you into the word of God is what I want you to have with you. So, if you'll turn about half way through the New Testament at the back of your Bible, you will find Colossians just after Philippians and just before 1 Thessalonians. So, be finding your way there, turn to Chapter 2 verse 6 and we will be there in a minute.

So, like I mentioned, this part of the New Testament, is going to tell us what being a follower of Jesus looks like; what kinds of things you can expect as one who has given their life over to the King- Jesus! What it looks like to accept Him; what it looks like to know him; what it looks like to die for him- now that got a few eyebrows to lift a little; and what it looks like to live for him. You see, following Jesus isn't a 'part time' job- it's not a part time relationship. Just think about that for a moment: what if you're parents (and some may have experienced something like this) what if your parents had decided when they had YOU to be just a part time parent. You know, there you were, diaper and all, just lying there waiting for someone to feed you, change you, hold you- but your parents were not 'on the clock'- you see it was Monday and your Mom and Dad didn't have to be at parent duty until Wednesday from 12-6! Now, that's ridiculous isn't it? Yes, and so is being a part time Jesus follower- but people do it all the time and I'm guessing, just guessing now, that right here in this church building, we have a few 'part timers'. Now don't be looking down the row or at the heads in front of you- that part timer may be a little closer than you think! Instead, let's go ahead and get our eyes on the scripture before us and dig in to see what it means to be a 'Full time Christian'.

Colossians 2 starting at verse 6:

Col 2:6  Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him,
Col 2:7  rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

Let's stop right here for a moment and see the 'set up' that Paul is giving us here as we begin to dive into the scripture today:
"Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him,"
Anytime we have a 'Therefore' in the scripture what do we need to do?.. Yes, see what it is 'there for'. Now to find the 'there' in the therefore we need to go back into chapter 1 verses 13-14: you see, the therefore in scripture will always lead you back to a 'truth' established earlier that is being expounded on or 'clarified' at the present- "Therefore always leads me back to a Truth that I'm Here for!"

O.k. back to chapter 1 starting at verse 13:

Col 1:13  He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,
Col 1:14  in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
And then to clarify it a little further he says in verses 19-22 of chapter 1:
Col 1:19  For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,
Col 1:20  and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
Col 1:21  And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds,
Col 1:22  he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,

So, there it is- That is what we are Here for!
We are here today, here in church, here with all these others
that are here, here in Colossians 2 stopped at verse 6 to find
out what it means to 'be that person' that we just read about
in chapter 1. But before I ask you a very important question about this reason we are here let me explain to you a little more about what is going on in verse 6:

Col 2:6  Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him,

I think what is important for us to understand here in this statement that is made by Paul, is what he means by 'as you received Christ Jesus the Lord,' You see, that is no little statement no matter how insignificant it may seem! The way the readers of this letter in Colossae had 'received Christ Jesus the Lord' was not a simple raising of the hand, say a few words and then leave church, go about life as usual except now I have a little relief, a little something to go to when the times get rough 'spirituality' that I can 'rely' on. No, what these readers, what Paul himself, was going through to 'receive' Jesus as Lord was a time of persecution that didn't allow you to be 'part' Christian. If you accepted Christ at this time, under the Emperor Nero's reign, you could expect reviling, casting out by your family, being taken prisoner for this 'new' faith (like Paul), being beheaded (like Paul), fed to beasts, slaughtered as a 'gladiator' or maybe being a 'living candle' to light the road to Rome! Wow, what 'prosperity' was found in the gospel! So, what if that door opened up right now and soldiers walked in because this was an illegal assembly of a 'false religion' according to the state- a bigoted religion because of it's narrow views and exclusive claims of divine truth. What if they had the torches lit and the wood outside to hang you on...or even if they weren't right here, right now, but the chance, just the chance of it happening were real- would you? would you raise that hand, say that silent prayer, or would you boldly call on the name of Jesus- no matter what! THAT, is what the Colossian readers of this gospel were facing- that was reality to them. So, did they take it serious when they professed faith in Jesus as Lord- you bet, and I hope that we do too.

Moving on now, the last part of verse 6 and verse 7:

Col 2:6-7 ESV  Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him,  (7)  rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

I was out in the back yard just the other day and I was trying to drive a wood post into the ground. Now a couple of the posts went in really easy but when I got close to the 'established' trees in the back I couldn't drive in the post. You see, the roots had grown so thick and so deep that no matter how hard I tried to pound in the post, it wouldn't do much more than scratch the surface. This is the type of deep rooted faith that we are to have in Jesus; the type of deep rooted faith that it is able to hold up a well established, well built life- a well built walk! So, be thankful 'if' you are there- abound with thanksgiving.

So, here is that hard question I told you was coming: Are you that kind of Jesus follower? If you haven't thought about it before or you know you aren't, the next question is, why? Why would you 'not' think about something as important as this? and, Why would you be in church if you aren't really serious about your walk with Jesus? I mean you could be out biking, boating, shopping, sleeping! If you are here, and you know about the kind of Jesus experience we are talking about, but you are choosing not to follow Him anyway? I just don't see why you would want to be here- but maybe today's scripture is exactly 'why' you're here...maybe.

This next section of chapter 2 we are getting ready to dig into is going to explain why it is important to know where you stand in relation to that all important question, so let's move on to see why it's important to know what kind of Jesus follower you are, and to realize that there is no such thing as a 'Part time Christian'.

Col 2:8  See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.
Col 2:9  For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,
Col 2:10  and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.
Here, once again, Paul is expanding on something he has mentioned previously. Look at verse 4:
Col 2:4  I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments.

So, let's look at these together. He is saying that the arguments that we can be deluded or led off the right path by are not some out of this world crazy talk that you 'know isn't true'; rather, it will be something plausible, something that your mind can easily digest, can relate to! This is what is called in Ephesians 6:11, the wiles, schemes, or the tactics of the devil:

Eph 6:11  Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

Schemes here is the Greek word 'methodia' and you can see what this word looks like in English: method or methods. If you break this word down to it's roots it comes to mean a 'well travelled path' or a 'a path gone over again and again'. So, this scheme of the devil, this 'plausible argument', this 'philosophy and empty deceit' that we are being warned against isn't normally, isn't most of the time, going to be some strange idea that we have heard for the first time. It will be something we have thought about, something we have mulled over, something that 'strikes a chord' in your mind. Notice also that it is, 'according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.' So, this scheme, this plausible argument, this philosophy- which is called 'empty '- is according to human tradition, to worldly standards and not Godly standards. Do you understand what this is saying. You see, worldly standards can 'appear' godly. Jesus knew this, it's why he said in Mark:

Mar 7:6-8 ESV  And he said to them, "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, "'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; (7)  in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.' (8)  You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men."

Now, we may read this and be thinking, 'Yep, those Pharisees were really bad, they were sooo religious but didn't have a 'relationship' with God!' and you would be correct- but that isn't how the people saw it. The Pharisees were respected for their 'closeness' to God. I mean, if you wanted to go to heaven then you wanted to be 'as good as a Pharisee' right? Didn't Jesus even say in Matthew 5:20 that if you want to make it to heaven then 'your righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees and scribes.' ? But down the road a bit He calls them out for their false 'piety' and 'false tradition'.
And really, don't we all get caught up in 'human tradition': order of worship- 'hey, we can't have communion first, it's always done at the end!' or, 'man, I can't believe those people sat where I 'always' sit'. So, what we are being warned about here is not letting 'human tradition' lead us astray. Don't let it lead you down a path of thinking that since you are saved by grace it doesn't matter how you live- thinking that it's OK to drink until you feel the buzz because 'I have freedom in Jesus', or to have sex outside of a marriage between a man and a woman because 'my god is a god of love, he wouldn't condemn people for loving each other', or, 'yeah, I'm a Christian but I don't think god would condemn someone who is a different religion if they are good people, there are a lot of roads to heaven'. Or even, 'the bible may contain the word of God, but it has a lot of places where science has shown it to be outdated, so it may be a good guide for life, and the stories are good teaching tools, but I can't just believe it is actually the 'inspired' word of God' And the beat goes on...!

People can also be pulled away to false religions and philosophies that meet some need within them to 'meet the demands of God'. In other words, we think we need to satisfy God's anger at our sin by doing good things or things that are decreed by our god. This may seem distant to your way of thinking until you realize that following rules for the sake of 'doing the right thing' or, 'because the bible tells me so..' can easily fall into this religious tradition, philosophy of the world, mind set. Our lives begin to be controlled by the thought of not missing that prayer, or part of prayer; by not missing church- no matter what!; not saying, doing or behaving certain ways begin to bring you into bondage instead of freedom. So, there is false and worldly deceit on both ends of the pendulum of everyday existence.
But as we look to the end of the warning in vs. 8 and move into 9 and 10 we see where the protection from being led astray comes from:
and not according to Christ.

Col 2:9  For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,
Col 2:10  and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.

Here once again we see Paul pointing us to Jesus, the Jesus that he has already pointed at in chapter 1:15-20; it is in those verses that verses 9 and 10 are built on:

Col 1:15-20 ESV  He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.  (16)  For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things were created through him and for him.  (17)  And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.  (18)  And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.  (19)  For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,  (20)  and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

What we need to notice in these verses is where Paul says that he (Jesus) created everything "whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things were created through him and for him."
You see, this is the reason we can have confidence that Jesus is able to lead us in such a way that we do not have to fear being 'led astray' by these false teachings and philosophies even though they are empowered and receive their deceptiveness from hell itself! Jesus has the final word, he has the power to defeat the devil and his schemes because Jesus created the devil and he created all those enemies of darkness in the spiritual realm that our battle is against. There is no power on earth or in heaven that Jesus is not pre-eminent; where he is not 'head over every rule and authority'! You see, we are 'made complete in him.' You and I are not half, not partial, but we are complete in Jesus. It is the world and the schemes of the devil that are trying to make you feel that you need more than Jesus to be adequate or to be fulfilled- it's a lie from hell, there in completeness in Jesus: he is all you need, he is the only one who will be able to satisfy the longing of the your soul in it's search for God. When we come to this realization; that Jesus is our completeness, our wholeness and our adequacy- no power in heaven or on earth will be able to shake you or lead you away. Hollow and empty deception, or, false teaching will be made evident because you have the real thing.

I don't know if you have ever heard how they teach the federal agents that work with money how to tell between a real and a counterfeit piece of paper money. Well, the way to teach someone how to tell the real thing from the counterfeit isn't by having them study the counterfeit; it's by having them study and become so familiar with the real thing that the counterfeit is immediately obvious...this is how we are to be with Jesus. Once we come to know him and spend time with him in his word- this is where he reveals himself- once we immerse ourselves into his word and his ways, we won't be able to be led astray, we will know truth and error,  we will know what is hollow, empty and false. As a matter of fact, one of the way's to "learn" money is by  the “touch, tilt, look at, look through.”  test; maybe this would be a good way to look at Jesus! If we know how the 'real Jesus' 'feels' the way that Jesus is shown in the Word and the way he acts, responds, converses and handles situations. We need to know him so well, the 'touch' from all angles, from outside and inside, that no matter what is presented to us we will know if it is true or counterfeit- because we know the 'real Jesus'.

And now we move on to see not that we 'can' overcome the enemy, but the 'why' we can overcome the enemy and the deceptions of the world. In verses 11-14 we will put the magnifying glass on the inner workings of the faith that is able to overcome!

So, Col 2:11-14 ESV 

In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,  (12)  having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.  (13)  And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the un-circumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,  (14)  by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

In these verses we see two 'types' of what our salvation 'is'. It 'is' circumcision and baptism; and in both cases it is not physical circumcision or baptism that is being spoken of. There is a passage in the book of Deuteronomy 30 verse 6 that says,

Deu 30:6 ESV  And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.

And even though this is in the old testament, it is exactly what is being spoken of here. You see, even in the old covenant, people were saved by faith in the coming messiah, Jesus, and his death on the cross. It is this circumcision of the heart that saves us, this letting God cut away the flesh, the old sinful flesh, that cannot inherit eternal life- this is what gives us life and power to overcome. Without the cutting away, the rendering of the flesh over to death, we cannot and will not attain the victory that is spoken of here.

And baptism- now this one can become a little fuzzy to us if we don't realize that this is not- not- the dunking in water that is being spoken of here- this is speaking of the spiritual meaning of baptism. The death of our old self, the burial of this old self and the resurrection of a brand new, completely new life in Jesus. Notice, we are 'buried 'with' him and we are raised 'with' him through faith in the 'powerful working of God'. So, what we need to see here is that is only 'with' Jesus: only because we have died on the cross with Jesus- our sins have been nailed there 'with' him, the sinless son of God! Notice the words in verse 14,

 "by cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross." 

Wow- do you see it there. Look at what this is saying. Back in the time when Jesus was nailed to the cross- his hands pierced through and his feet- one on the other- nailed through: when he was nailed to this cross they also nailed a statement above him that spoke of his crime- do you remember what it said? 'Jesus of Nazareth The King of The Jews'. That was it, the charge against him was actually the truth. But what I want to emphasize here in verse 14 is that it says that 'our' charges- you see, you and I were dead in our trespasses and sins- verse 13- so we had our charges nailed up on that cross of eternal death that we would experience if not for our accepting the free gift of life from Jesus. When we accepted him, God took those charges and nailed them on Jesus' cross! Amazing! He, Jesus, took all my sins- those charges against me- said- "those sins are now satisfied" and when he died on that cross, my sins and yours were done away with- we have now legally been set free from the charges of our sins and only by Jesus, his death alone, am I now able to be set free from the penalty of eternal separation from God and into the glorious hope of heaven and eternal life- only because of him! Our debt has been paid and satisfied in the death of Jesus.

And now, finally in verse 15 he says:

Col 2:15 ESV  He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

Emphasizing, magnifying once again that the rulers of the spiritual realm, these authorities have been marched out in open shame just like captured enemies because of this death on the cross of Jesus. You and I are set free and have victory over the enemy because Jesus died on the cross, took our sins on the cross with him, then he rose from the grave and with him we have and can experience new life and victorious life over the enemy because and only by our death and resurrection- spiritually- with him!

So to go back and see where we have travelled today- we saw that we have been saved and that we will have in this new life, perils along the way that want to trip us, deceive us and trap us. But we have a sure victory over all these if or because we have experienced new life due to our new heart that is given by God in the circumcision or cutting away of the old sinful flesh and the new life that we have by our death and resurrection with Jesus which is figured in baptism and was actually fulfilled on the cross with Christ. And now, because of this we can have victory over the defeated enemy of our souls, since they have been defeated and disarmed by Jesus when he triumphed over them by his death on the cross and resurrection from the grave.
So, I want to end by going back to that first thing we talked about today, that 'part time Christian' question. You see, this victory is available to those who have accepted the gift that Jesus offers, but the offer isn't for Jesus to be Lord of your life along with any other or along with you! No, Jesus is to be Lord of your life period- no other Lords, no other Gods, no other in control. Is that you? Have you made him Lord, or are you just doing the part time Christian gig? This is the question today for you to answer, hopefully you can say that Jesus is the only Lord of your life and that you are a full time Jesus follower, but if not we are going to pray right now, and if you haven't given yourself fully to follow Jesus and you have decided today to do that, to give your life fully to him, then now is the time.

Let's pray....