12/12/18
Tom Lowe
Lesson: IVC2 - SUCH PEOPLE DO NOT HOLD FAST TO CHRIST AS THE HEAD, AND FROM WHOM TRUE DIVINE NOURISHMENT COMES (Colossians 2:19)
Introduction:
The focus of verse 19 is “How a Church lives and grows.” In this verse, Paul definitely declares that Jesus is the head of all things. He is the beginning of the creation of God? "By him were all things created.” He is the head of the Church and the Savior of mankind (and He is my Savior too). The first part of the verse refers to Christ as head of His Church (Eph. 1:22; Col. 1:18{3]). The teachers of error did not hold to this fundamental doctrine. And the very fact of the gross error they taught was the result of their rejecting Jesus as very God in flesh and head of the New Testament Church.
Lesson IVC2
(2:19) They have lost connection with the head{2], from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.
All people like this, Paul says, are disloyal to the Head of the body. They lose effective contact with Christ?”And,” he implies, “anyone knows what chance of growth a body has which is severed from its head!” Notice, that here “the head” represents the source of vitality rather than the seat of control. Verse 19 shows Paul employing anatomical terms to describe the body’s functioning?“the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews.” If that verse had occurred in Luke’s Gospel or Acts, we should have said at once, “There is Doctor Luke talking professionally.” Is it possible that one of his medical friend’s phrases lingered in Paul’s memory? At any rate, his point is that the heretical tendencies in Colossae were disrupting Christian fellowship, making it impossible for Christ’s body to grow as God meant it to grow.
Christ is the great Head of the Church. He is the center of its unity, the original source of its life, authority and influence. He founded the Church and gave it shape, symmetry, and durability. He alone is supreme? the Alpha and Omega?the living and only head.
The Church is vitally and essentially united to Christ.?“from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments (joints, bones) and sinews (bands, muscle),” grows as God causes it to grow. Just as the members of the human body are joined to the head, and derive life, motion, and sensation from it by means of arteries, veins, nerves, and other attachments, so the spiritual members of Christ are knit to Him by invisible joints and bands, and depend upon Him for sustenance, character and influence. Every member of Christ’s body is important to the health and growth of the body. No matter what your gift may be, you are important to the church. In fact, some people who may not have spectacular public ministries are probably just as important behind the scenes as those out in public.
The vital union of the Church with Christ is the condition of spiritual growth? “grows as God causes it to grow.” Christ is the divine source of growth, and the church can grow only as it receives nourishment from Him. But if a believer does not draw on the spiritual nourishment that comes from Christ and other Christians, he becomes weak. It is through worship, prayer, and the Word that we draw on the spiritual resources of Christ. The false teachers were not holding to the Head, and therefore they were spiritually undernourished, but they thought they were spiritual experts. Imagine thinking you are a giant when in reality you are a pigmy.
Did you know it is possible to belong to a local church and not draw on the Head and the nourishment of the spiritual body? The false teachers in Colossae sought to introduce their teachings into the local assembly; and if they succeeded, they would have caused the spiritual nourishment to decrease instead of increase. Unless the members of the local assembly abide in Christ, yield to the Spirit, and obey the Word, they cannot experience the life of the Head, Jesus Christ.
The growth of His Church corresponds with its nature? it is divine; it increases with the increase of God. There may be a morbid increase, just as there may be an unnatural enlargement of some part of the human body; but it is only the excessive inflation of worldly splendor and ecclesiastical pretense. Like Jonah’s gourd, such growth may disappear as rapidly as it came. The true increase is that which comes from God, of which He is the source, and active, sustaining influence, and which advances in harmony with His will and purpose. Such an increase can be secured only by vital union with Christ{1].
The false teachers at Colossae could not accept Jesus as God and Savior; they worshiped angels instead. Since they insisted that believers be circumcised after the Law of Moses, they declared by the act of circumcision that God’s grace is not sufficient for salvation and that Jesus did not tell the truth when He said, “It is finished!” If they taught the permanence of Mosaic ceremonies, they mistook the spirit and lost the benefit of the system which He had founded.
If the Mosaic ceremonies were to continue, they denied the finished work of Jesus; they denied that He had completed redemption’s plan? and such teaching is spiritually fatal. “There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end, it leads to death” (Prov. 16:25). So long as a minister holds to the cardinal truths of the Bible, minor misconceptions can be tolerated; but when any preacher denies the cardinal truths?is the paramount truth being the incarnation of Jesus? then Christianity becomes just another worthless religion. Christianity is God’s answer to man’s sin. Christ is the head of Christianity. He is the head of the New Testament Church and He is the Savior of the body.
What Paul is saying to the believers in Colosse is simply this: “Christ is head of the Church; by Him, all the members of the body are brought together, and by Him (the Head of the body), all members are kept together. Every born again believer is connected to the HEAD, and unity of the body with its head is essential to its growth. The fundamental problem with the false teachers is that they were not connected to Christ. If they had been joined to Him, they could not have taught false doctrine or lived evil lives. Anyone who teaches about God without being connected to Him by faith is going to speak falsely about Him.
The cheap familiarity with which some people approach God in prayer, or talk about Him in testimony or conversation sometimes borders on blasphemy. A scholarly pastor once wrote: “Every year makes me tremble at the daring with which people speak of spiritual things.”
There is a fascination with “religious mysticism” that attracts people. Learning mysteries, being initiated into the inner secrets, and having contact with the spirit world all seem exciting.
But these practices are soundly condemned by God. The true Christian glories in Christ, not in his own experience. He follows the Word, led by the Holy Spirit; and as he abides in Christ, he experiences blessing and fruitfulness. He seeks no other experience than that which relates him to the Head, Jesus Christ.
I hope you can say this along with me: “I am so glad the blood of Jesus cleansed and cleanses from all sin (1 John 1:7). I have the blood applied, and I am so glad Christ is my Mediator (1 Tim 2:5). I am so thankful that I am not worshiping angels and that I am not praying to spirits, nor trusting my salvation to mere men. I am trusting in Him TO WHOM ALL POWER IS GIVEN IN HEAVEN AND IN EARTH! I am a member of the New Testament Church of which Jesus is the Head.” All born again believers are members of that body because of the work of the Holy Spirit 1 Cor. 12:12-13), and when the body is full grown, when the Church is complete, it will be caught up into the clouds to meet the Lord Jesus in the air (1 Thess. 4:13-18).
Special notes and Scripture
[1} In scripture there are three symbols employed to represent the union of Christ with His Church? the vine, the body, and the marriage bond.
[2} Paul used the phrase, “They have lost connection with the head” to describes those people who have a loose relationship to Christ. In other words, their head is not screwed on as it should be, by the way.
[3} “And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy” (Col. 1:18).
[4} “For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:13).
