Jesus Is Greater Than Your Past Series

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Last week:

Colossians 2:8 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.

This week:

Colossians 2:9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form,

10 and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.

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.

ONE THING POSSIBLILITIES:

Don’t live below your privileges in Jesus.

One of the biggest challenges for new Christians is realizing what Jesus has done & what he’s still doing in your heart.

ILLUS: "The Mystery of the Missing Owner" read the headline on an unusual section of the Chicago Tribune on Sunday, February 6, 2005. The supplement was actually a legal notice published by the Illinois State Treasurer’s Office seeking to give money away to rightful owners--the contents of abandoned safe deposit boxes, forgotten bank accounts, security deposit checks, uncashed paychecks, and dividend checks.

More than a billion dollars is owed to nearly five million people and businesses that the Treasurer’s Office could not trace. The front page of the supplement listed the names and last known addresses of 10 individuals or couples each owed over $100,000. And what followed were 116 pages packed tightly with names from Lucilee Aakeberg to Leonard E. Zyzda--113,000 names of people all owed more than $100 in cash and/or stock!

The argument Paul is making is that Christ in his fullness has done for them what nothing else can do. No empty philosophy that man can bring along can do it.

It wasn’t philosophy that did these things for you – it was Jesus.

You know how he changed your heart!

You know what he did.

You know how you used to be.

You know you were hard-hearted, proud, arrogant, self-sufficient, uncaring about things of God.

You know in your mind that you see a good thing in God and his law, but your heart is too weak, selfish and self-centered to do a single thing about it!

1. Jesus gave you FULLNESS FOR YOUR EMPTINESS.

Colossians 2:10 and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.

Every other philosophy, no matter how noble, will not fill the heart.

Only a deep satisfaction in the glory of Jesus will do it.

When you see Jesus and feel Jesus as FULL of everything you need, then you get fullness.

It would be a shame for fullness to be right there, already given to you, and you live below your privileges.

2. Jesus changed your HARD HEART.

Colossians 2:11 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,

Circumcision? OK, all the guys get uncomfortable.

Circumcision was one of the signs of the COVENANT in the OT – to join the Jewish religion, you actually had to BE circumcised even if you weren’t as a child. It was the MAIN MARK that you were IN, part of the covenant, the deal with God. Now, we don’t have to do that any more, in a physical sense. (All the men breathed a sigh of relief.)

But the New Testament teaches that circumcision is a symbol of what Christ does in our hearts – that HIS stamp is put on our hearts, and that the mark of a real Christian, a person who is IN – who is part of the covenant – is a changed heart.

Romans 2:29 No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart…

Interestingly, the way this is structured in Greek indicates this is something that happens after baptism. OK, you’ve already been baptized, now, Jesus changes your heart….