It's All About Jesus (Colossians 2) Series

It’s all about Jesus: Colossians 2

Scott Bayles, pastor

Blooming Grove Christian Church: 10/30/2016

How many of you remember that song by Rolling Stones, I Can’t Get No Satisfaction? How many of you can relate to it? Finding satisfaction in life isn’t easy. All around us people are searching for something to give their lives a boost—to give them meaning and fulfillment. Few people seem content within themselves. A strange and often hard-to-identify inner vacuum gives people an uneasy sense of incompleteness.

I think it starts really young. Even as kids, we experience it. Think back to your childhood, for instance. Did you ever have a Red Rider BB Gun experience? Was there ever a toy that you wanted more than anything you’ve ever wanted before? It was the toy to end all toys. And you were convinced that if mom and dad would just get this toy, you would never, ever ask for another toy as long as you live! This toy would change your life. You wanted this toy so bad that you put it right at the top of your Christmas list… in the middle of July.

For me, that toy was the Sword of Omens from ThunderCats. Anybody else remember ThunderCats!? That was pretty much the coolest cartoon show of the 80s. When I was five to nine years old, I was huge into ThuderCats. It came right after my He-Man stage and right before Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle stage. So one day we’re in the toy store and I see the Lion-O’s Sword of Omens. It had lights and sounds. I went to bed that night dreaming about that toy. I tried to scrape together my allowance, but I only made like 25¢ a day so I calculated that it would take me the rest of my life to save up for this toy sword. So I just begged and pleaded with my parents to get it for me. Finally, I must have just worn my dad down because he bought it for me. I was so excited. I loved that thing and played with it every day for… how long? A week. Maybe two. Then it ended up at the bottom of the toy box, just like every other toy that promised to be the last best toy. It didn’t deliver the lasting satisfaction that I had hoped. It didn’t really fill that void.

Many of us go our whole lives stuck in that cycle. We have this sense of incompleteness or this void in our lives and we try to fill it with all sorts of things. For some it’s a relationship or marriage—we think we’re incomplete because we don’t have a spouse and once we meet Mr. or Ms. Right, then we’ll be whole. For others it’s that ideal job—if we just had a career where we felt like we were doing something worthwhile, then we’d be satisfied. For some maybe it’s that kid you’ve always wanted—you try and try to have children and you think, “If God would just give us a child, then we’d really feel complete.” Of course, the list goes on and on—and some of the things we try to fill that void with are healthier than others. Some people try filling that void with alcohol, drugs, sex, etc., but nothing really ever satisfies. Religion can’t save us. Rules can’t change us. Morality can never give us hope. Philosophy can’t fulfill us. Money will never give us contentment. Success in life won’t give us everything we’re looking for. No human relationship will ever truly complete us.

So what’s the answer? How do we finally fill that inner void? The Answer is—Jesus! It’s all about Jesus. Last Sunday we began this series through the book of Colossians and Paul begins his letter to the Colossians by outlining exactly who Jesus is and his place in the universe, the church and our own lives.

He explained that Jesus is the fullness of God in human form. He is our creator, who spoke the universe into existence. He’s our commander—the head of the church and the cosmos for that matter. And he’s our conciliator—reconciling us to God through his blood on the cross.

But here, in Chapter 2, Paul goes a step further and explains not just who Jesus is, but what he means to us and how to find fulfillment in Christ. He writes, “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness” (Colossians 2:9-10 NIV). Another translation says, “God has made you complete in Christ” (GWT). And another, “so you have everything when you have Christ” (TLB). In other words, we ought to experience a sense of fulfillment and completeness in Christ. Jesus fills that inner vacuum and Jesus is enough!