Kingdom Keys - Colossians Series

So maybe you’ve heard it said, ‘read your bible’ so you tried and failed. Our hope as leaders is that all of us will pick up God’s word and come to understand the true nature of God. After all, the bible is God’s Word curated over centuries detailing His nature, His will, the meaning of life and humanity’s historical interactions with Him. The Bible details the hidden keys to the Kingdom. Hence, the reason we are reviewing a new book each week.

Before we jump into this week’s book, I’d like to set the stage for us by showing a picture of three people and asking a few questions. <picture>

Are all three of these people fans of football?

Which of the three is the most supportive and who’s the least? How did you come to that conclusion?

Of the three, who would you believe is really committed to the game? Why?

It is hard to tell who is the most committed or will be the most committed. Who might become an NFL coach? The young boy might be a NFL quarterback, the colorful fan might be a paid actor, the lady on the end could be the first woman NFL coach. Without really diving into all aspects of the game it's hard to tell the actors from the professionals. The early church was having a lot of issues with men who had never played or studied the game, claiming to know a better way and who were angling to be the next great coach or apostle or church leader.

This week we move to another of Paul’s prison books. It's a letter from a jail, to a new church plant dealing with just such an issue. It was a new religion called Gnosticism - a hybrid religion and philosophy that mixed Christian, Jewish and possibly Pagan beliefs. As the name suggests, they claimed a special supernatural knowledge of God that was necessary to be saved. It must have been troubling to this new church and to the new church leaders to hear other religious leaders claim they had a better handle on the gospel than they did. It’s never easy to defend your faith or even see the subtle error of a so-called christian teacher when you're new to the faith. Epaphras had enough belief to start a church after knowing Paul for a short while, but even he needed a little clarification when the false teachers showed up.

We shouldn’t be too surprised by this. The truth is false teachers have come throughout the ages. They sound good. They use key phrases. They might even quote scripture.

Some of the false teachers of today are: Benny Hinn, Creflo Dollar, and a host of others peddle the prosperity gospel to enrich themselves from their followers’ gifts. Joseph Smith claimed to receive The Book of Mormon from the angel Moroni. Norman Vincent Peale and Robert Schuller along with Joel Osteen also all qualify.

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:15-16a).

False teachers have the following things in common: the source of their preaching/teaching is not grounded in scripture, minimize Jesus, embrace the fallen culture, lack character, promote division, bear no or little fruit, and pursue personal gain over the advance of the Kingdom.

Paul in his letter to the Colossians offers a succinct view of the message of the real teacher/preacher. Let’s open our bibles to Col 3:1.

Since then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

The true good news of Jesus transcends this life and the next. We are raised with Christ according to God’s viewpoint or vantage point. When Christ was raised so we're all of us, the believers - past, present and future. We are no longer dead in our sin but alive with Christ. You are alive forevermore. In your belief, you no longer have to worry about your disqualification or your need to do more to get qualified. A changed heart will naturally hear these next words as a relief that you as a believer have been given the choice to let go of animal/human nature which plaques the world and leads to despair. Let’s go to verse 5. As a believer, we get to…

Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience. 7 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8 But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. 11 Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.