Above All: A Study of Colossians
Colossians 2:8-15
Pastor Jefferson M. Williams
Chenoa Baptist Church
05-29-2022
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In Mississippi, I used to drive over to a friend’s church on my lunch break and sit in his auditorium. They had worship music quietly playing and it was a place of peace in the middle of my hectic days.
Brad, the pastor of of the church, would come in and check in with me but would leave me alone to be with God.
One day, he came in and sat down next to me and said, “You love the Spirit, I can tell. But you only dip your toe in the river. God wants you to dive in head first.”
I knew what he was trying to say. He would have agreed that I was definitely born again, but he wanted me to know that there was “more.” For him, the more was speaking in tongues and other charismatic gifts which I didn’t have but needed to go “deeper with God.”
I don’t remember exactly what I told him but it was basically, “Jesus plus nothing equals everything.” I didn’t need another experience, deeper knowledge, or to read a book of the secrets to fullness of God.
This attitude isn’t new. In fact, it’s as old as the letter to the Colossians. False teachers were telling these new believers the same thing.
It was a mix of Jewish legalism, Gnosticism, local folk religion, and Christianity.
Gnostics believed that they had special insight into spiritually realities. They would say that Jesus dying on the cross was wonderful and I’m glad you believe that. But that’s not enough.
We know this from Paul’s use of the term “fullness,” that we will see it our study this morning. Obviously, these teachers were spreading the idea that putting your faith in Jesus was just the first step and there were additional, secret steps, you needed to take to be a real Christian.
Paul answers by showing the Colossians the absolutely supremacy and sufficiency of Christ for their salvation and their walk in this world.
Review
Last week, Paul gave his first command to the Colossians:
“Just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live (walk) your lives in Him.”
He then gave four word pictures to show what that walk looks like.
Tree - rooted
Building - built up
Student - established in the faith
Overflowing River - overflowing thankfulness for what God has done for us in Christ
Remember, if you miss a sermon, you can always watch it on demand on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, or on our website.
Turn with me to Colossians 2:8-15.
Prayer.
3. Watch out for Pirates
“See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.” (Col 2:8)
The first thing Paul wants to make clear is that these false teachers deny Christ.
“See to it” can be translated “watch out” or “beware” or “if you value your spiritual freedom, stay away.” The implication is that these believers hadn’t fallen for the false teaching…yet.
The word translated “captive” is only used here in the Bible and it is a vivid word picture that would have terrified the Colossian Christians.
It’s the picture of pirates attacking a ship and taking everyone prisoners. Or a slave trader kidnapping people. Or a victorious general taking humans as plunder back to his land.
How is this done? Through “hollow and deceptive philosophy.”
“Hollow” means empty, devoid of intellectual, moral, or spiritual value.
Don’t read this as Paul thought “philosophy” was bad. Philosophy means love of wisdom. It’s a way of organizing ways of thinking about the world.
Today, millions of people follow modern day philosophies espoused by people like Oprah, Joel Osteen, Dr. Phil, Tony Robbins, and Jordan Peterson, and others. Brilliant, charismatic, but in the end, their self help advice is spiritual impotent to affect heart change.
Paul gives us three elements of the false teaching in Colossae:
It was “according to human tradition.”
[Fiddler on the Roof clip - Tradition]
First, it’s important to note that tradition isn’t bad. It can ground a person or group. But when the traditions become entrenched, “We’ve always done it that way,” they become a barrier to growth.
Jesus didn’t hold anything back when confronting the Pharisees about their traditions:
“So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?” He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:
“‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’
You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.” (Mark 7:5-6).
This human tradition, as well see, had to do with Jewish observances of special days or dietary laws.
Did you know that in Virginia it’s against the law to play with a yo-yo on Sundays?
In Louisiana, it’s against the law to have turtle races within 100 yards of a church?
In Arkansas, there is a law on the books that prohibits women from wearing red to church?
And in West Virginia, there is a law that prohibits pastors from telling jokes from the pulpit?
It’s easy to spot false teachers - they always add or subtract from Jesus and the Bible. It becomes more about human rules than God’s grace.
It’s the Bible plus the Book of Mormon.
It’s the Bible plus the Pearl of Great Price for The Jehovah’s Witnesses.
But nowadays it can be a very subtle.
Some churches say that you have to use this program, and only this program, to disciple new Christians.
Some churches tell people that there is only one correct translation of the Bible and all other transitions, aren’t just wrong but evil.
In my first year here, we had a visitor fill out a visitor card and said that he liked the service but he wouldn’t be back until we used the correct translation of the Bible.
After I graduated seminary, we developed a routine. On Sunday night, we had date night. We would make milkshakes and watch “Lois and Clark: the New Adventures of Superman.” It was our time.
Except that a friend of ours chided us for “skipping church.” But we had gone to church that morning. No, he meant Sunday night service. We didn’t allow ourselves to be guilted into going and enjoyed our milkshakes.
Some churches make it very clear who is welcome to come based on their dress code.
This is a real sign from a Baptist church. [Show picture].
We have a dress code here…wear clothes!
Our Catholic friends would say that church tradition and the Bible are equal. This is simply not true. The Bible is our guide and our source and our life.
So this false philosophy was all about human made rules. But it was also “according to the elemental spiritual forces of the world.”
This phrase is hard to translate. It means something lined up in a row like “ABCs” or “123s.” It can mean the basics, like in math or physics. It can also mean the basic elemental forces - air, earth, fire, water. Or it can mean spiritual beings, that we will learn next week the false teachers encouraged the Colossians to worship.
When I was in college, a friend called me and asked me to come over. When I got there, she opened her drawers and started pulling out crystals. They were in her drawers, under her mattress, in her closet, in her desk.
Her mother had put them there to protect her daughter from evil spirits.
That very night, my friend ended up in the emergency room with appendicitis and her mother yelled at me in the waiting room, blaming me for removing the crystals and taking away the protection.
I tried to explain to her that crystals are just rocks and they had nothing to do with appendicitis. The sad thing is that this woman would have called herself a Christian.
I know Christians that read their horoscope or consults psychics. This is the same false teaching just in different clothing.
Ultimately, the false teaching was not according to Christ.
Douglas Moo writes,
“Christ is the one in whom, God is exclusively to be found, the One through whom the world was created, the One who has defeated all the hostile powers.”
Here’s a test one pastor gave:
Is the teaching genuine or deceptive?
Is the teaching filled with human tradition or is it revelation from God?
Is it according to forces of the world or according to Christ?
What’s the antidote to this false teaching?
Fullness and Freedom
“For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.” (Col 2:9-10)
The false teachers spread a philosophy that was hollow and deceptive, according to human traditions and elemental forces of the world.
Paul’s response? Fullness and freedom are only found in Jesus!
In the Old Testament, God’s presence dwelt in the Tabernacle and the Temple.
But John wrote:
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” (John 1:14)
Matthew tells us His name shall be Immanuel, which means God with us! (See Matthew 1:23)
This Deity lives in “bodily form.”
Greeks believed that the spiritual world was good and the visible, material world is bad. The false teachers claimed that Jesus was just one of the iterations from God.
But Jesus was not a iteration or emanation of God. He is the fullness of God. This means He is the totality of Divine powers and attributes.
And then Paul writes the Colossians have been brought to “fullness” in Him.
The Colossian believers didn’t have to try to learn the secret knowledge of the Gnostics to experience fullness. Jesus is enough. You are complete in Him! David Guzik states that this is a “fact to be enjoyed not a status to be achieved.”
And Jesus is head over every power and authority. In chapter one, Paul wrote:
“For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.” (Col 1:16)
Jesus reigns over the elemental forces, over angelic beings, good or bad, and over everything else in all creation.
Paul insists that our identities must be rooted, built up, established in Christ.
He circumcised our hearts
“In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ…” (v.11)
Now remember who the Colossians were. They were Gentile believers. But Paul writes that they were circumcised - past tense. But he is not talking about the physical act of cutting away the foreskin that was the sign of the covenant for the Jews.
This is another word picture. Circumcision here represents Jesus’s death. His entire body was stripped away and when He died, by virtue of us being “in Christ,” we died to our old sinful ways.
Paul encouraged the Gentiles in Ephesus:
“Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands)— remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” (Eph 2:11-13)
Some of the false teachers may have been telling these Gentiles, “Hey, you’re saved? Good for you. But now, you need to go another step and be circumcised.
Paul makes it clear that it is the blood of Christ that saves totally, Jew and Gentile. Nothing more, nothing less.
“A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code.” (Romans 2:28-29)
Again, it all has to do with being “in Christ.”
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Cor 5:17).
B. He conquered over death
“…having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.” (v. 12)
In these verse, Paul is really laying the foundation for combating false teaching - the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In Him, when He died, we died. In Him, when He was buried, we were buried.
Baptism is a beautiful word picture of this reality. Last week, when Missy and David were baptized, they preached a sermon without saying a word. That’s why we baptized by immersion.
Going down into the water represents the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus and, in baptism, we publicly identify with him.
Paul wrote the Roman Church:
“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” (Rom 6:1-4)
First, baptism isn’t something more. It’s not added to our salvation.
I grew up in a denomination that believed you had to be baptized to be saved. I asked my mother once, “What if a person places his faith and trust in Jesus in the pew and then gets up to walk the aisle to get baptized and has a heart attack?” My mother just shook her head and said, “I don’t want to know.”
Baptism is simply the next step, an outward expression of an inwards reality. The water isn’t magic.
In a book called “A Day No Pigs Would Die,” an aunt chastises her nephew for using bad grammar and tells him a “fearing Baptist” would do better in English.
This young boy thought to himself:
“That was it! That was the time my heart almost stopped. I’d heard about Baptists from Jacob Henry’s mother. According to her, Baptists were a strange lot. They put you in the water to see how holy you were. They ducked you under the water three times. Didn’t matter if you could swim or not. If you didn’t come up, you got dead and you mortal soul went to hell. But if you did come up, it was even worse. You had to be a Baptist!”
Romans 10:9 makes it clear what salvation is based on
“…if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Rom 10:9)
C. He Made You Alive
“When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ…” (v. 13)
Paul continues to extol what Jesus did for those who are “in him.”
First, it is absolutely important to understand our spiritual condition before Jesus.
We weren’t sick in need of a doctor. We were dead in need of a Savior.
That’s why I never say that I “accepted Christ.” Dead things don’t accept anything. They are dead. They have to be made alive. And that what God did through Christ.
In Ephesians,
“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been save.” (Eph 2:1-5)
D. He canceled our debts, forgive our sins
“He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.” (v. 13b-14)
What else did He do? He forgave some of our sins? He forgive half of our sins? No! He forgive all our sins! All!
In Isaiah,
“I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.” (Is 43:25)
David wrote in the Psalms:
“As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.” (Psalm 103:12)
All He asks is that we agree with Him about our sin:
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
He canceled our debts. This means to obliterate, disappear by wiping, blotting out of the written record.
It’s a picture of an IOU that humanity signed stated that we would keep God’s laws. Obviously, we failed at this spectacularly.
This fact separated us from God and, even worse, brought condemnation.
He “nailed it to the cross.” Above the person being crucified, there was a placard that announced his crimes. Above Jesus head, the sign read, “King of the Jews.”
So Jesus took the IOU and payed it Himself by dying in our place to pay the penalty for our sins.
“Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they were saying: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!” (Rev 5:11-12)
The writer of Hebrews wrote:
“For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.” (Hebrews 9:15)
We are free! Free from shame, guilt, and condemnation!
“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.” (Rom 8:2)
Horatio Spafford wrote these words that we sang just a minute ago:
My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought (a thought)
My sin, not in part, but the whole (every bit, every bit, all of it)
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more (yes)
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul
E. He totally conquered the enemy and won the victory
“And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” (v. 15)
Not only did He make us alive, forgave our sins, canceled our debts, and He conquered the enemy.
Jesus disarmed the powers and authority. Imagine that you and I are sitting in my car and there is a bee in the vehicle. You tell me that you are allergic to bees and you are scared. What if I reached out and catch the bee with my hand and allow it to sting me? Then when it buzzed around us you had no reason to be afraid anymore. It’s a stingerless bee.
That’s what Jesus did. He stripped these demonic spirits of their victory, publicly. When they thought satan had won, Jesus’s death upon the cross was the death blow to satan’s kingdom!
Let’s be honest this morning. It sure doesn’t seem like satan’s stinger is gone. In the past ten days, there have been mass shootings at a grocery store in New York, a church in Florida, and an elementary school in Texas.
Is it about guns? Yes.
Is it about mental health? Yes
Is it about angry young men? Yes
Is it about school safety? Yes
Is it about police response? Yes
Anyone who says no to one of the these is either a politician or a cable news network trying to sell you things.
Yes satan’s stinger is gone. But he still can cause chaos. There is still evil in this world. And it seems to Maxine and I that America is being judged for our sin.
You may say, “That’s right, our terrible, sinful, Godless country is getting what it deserves!”
But remember judgement starts with the house of God. This week, the Southern Baptist Convention released a secret document of the known sexual predators caught in Baptist churches of all kinds - pastors, music ministers, youth pastors, elders, deacons, Sunday school teachers, bus drivers, and volunteers. The list is online and it is 205 pages long!
“…if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” (2 Chron 7:14)
Paul has in mind a Roman victory parade.
We were captives of satan but now:
But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. (2 Cor 2:14)
If you searched your entire life, you won’t find a better leader to follow than Jesus and you won’t find a better offer made than new life in Christ.
Ending Video: You’ve been Remade - Tenth Avenue North
