LIVING UP TO THE NAME
Text: Colossians 2:6 – 19
Colossians 2:6-19? As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, ?(7)? rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. ? (8)? See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ. ?(9)? For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, ?(10)? and you have come to fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority. ?(11)? In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision, by putting off the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ; ?(12)? when you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. ?(13)? And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, ?(14)? erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross. ?(15)? He disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it. ?(16)? Therefore do not let anyone condemn you in matters of food and drink or of observing festivals, new moons, or sabbaths. ?(17)? These are only a shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. ?(18)? Do not let anyone disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, dwelling on visions, puffed up without cause by a human way of thinking, ?(19)? and not holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows with a growth that is from God.
The present means nothing and the future is gloomy if Christ is not in us. There is a peace that we have only in our relationship with Jesus Christ that we do not have and will not have apart from Jesus. Billy Sunday once said, “Going to church doesn’t make anybody a Christian any more than taking a wheelbarrow into a garage makes them an automobile”. (Michael Hogdon. ed. 1001 Humorous Illustrations for Public Speaking. Grand Rapids: Zondervan. 1994, p. 36). Paul reminds us that we are to be rooted and built up in Christ so that we live up to the name of what it means to be a Christian within and influential in our witness of Christ to others on the outside.
Today we will explore assurance, pardon and pilgrimage.
ASSURANCE
Who doesn’t want assurance?
1) Religious concept: We normally think of assurance as a religious concept. There is not a soul alive who does not want assurance---the certainty of confidence of our salvation in Jesus Christ. The peace that comes from being saved. Who does not want the hope of full assurance till the end (Hebrews 6:11)?
2) Prime Meridian: English astronomer John Flamsteed made it his life’s mission (see McHenry below) to learn how to navigate by the heavens with a chart of 2935 stars (Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Flamsteed . His work is called the Prime Meridian [which] “… is a fixed position by which our knowledge of time and place can be understood [geographically]. The Bible is like that with us. Scripture is our prime meridian. It is the fixed position, given by God himself, through which we can understand who we are, where we are, and where we must go from here” [spiritually]. (Craig Brian Larson and Phyllis Ten Elshoff. eds. 1001 Illsutrations that Connect. [Original Source: — Kenton C. Anderson, Choosing to Preach (Zondervan, 2006) ] Grand Rapids, Zondervan, 2002). . God wants us to have the “fixed position” of spiritual assurance of salvation that gives us the peace of Christ because we belong to Christ who died for us on the cross! When we truly have that peace we truly will know “where we must go from here”. We must go and share the Gospel!
3) Leaning upon God: Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. (6) In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths (NRSV).
What could interfere with our assurance?
1) Captivity warning: Paul was warning them not to be fooled by the idea that you could add things to the Christian faith. In Colossians 2:8 Paul warned about adding philosophy, empty deceit and human traditions that detracted from the truth of the Gospel.
2) Syncretism: Syncretism is a term that describes what Paul was talking about in Colossians 2:8. In the context of the text for today, syncretism is the fusion or combination of religious beliefs or practices. (a paraphrase of the definition given by The Merriam -Webster Dictionary). 1 Corinthians 8:6 says “yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist” (NRSV).
3) Deviating theology: There were people---false teachers who were combining the beliefs of Gnosticism and Judaism. They were tangling up the citizens of the Colossian church with philosophy, astrology (Colossians 2:8), beliefs about imposing circumcision as a “badge of the flesh”(Colossians 2:11, ascetic rules and regulations (2 Col. 2:16) and the worship of angels (Colossians 2:18). (Paraphrase of William Barclay’s summary). For God is not a God of confusion but of peace (1 Corinthians 14:33 ESV).
4) Rooted and built up: “Keep your roots deep in him, build your lives on him, and become stronger in your faith, as you were taught. And be filled with thanksgiving” (Colossians 2:7 GNB).
5) In Christ alone: (the song)
In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song
This cornerstone, this solid ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm
What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease
My comforter, my all in all
Here in the love of Christ I stand
https://gccsatx.com/hymns/in-christ-alone/
PARDON
What does it mean to have our record erased?
1) Pardoned: Jesus “blotted out” (KJV) , “erased” (NRSV)… destroyed the record of the debt we owed, with its requirements that worked against us. He canceled it by nailing it to the cross (Colossians 2:14 CEB).
2) Rejected pardon: Would yo reject being pardoned from a death penalty?
“God chooses to save us. How do you choose to respond? In 1830, George Wilson was convicted of robbing the U.S. mail and was sentenced to be hanged. President Andrew Jackson issued a pardon for Wilson, but he refused to accept it. In an historic Supreme Court decision, the justices concluded that Wilson would have to be executed. “A pardon is a slip of paper,” Chief Justice Marshall wrote in his explanation, “the value of which is determined by the acceptance of the person to be pardoned. If it is refused, it is no pardon. George Wilson must be hanged.”
For some, the pardon comes too late. For others, the pardon is not accepted”. https://www.proclaimsermons.com/illustration.asp?LoggedIn=No&ID=Visitor&illust_type=textsearch&illust_text=pardon If you were sentenced to be hanged and were given a pardon and they were ready to remove the noose would your refuse like George Wilson did?
How is our justification connected with our pardon?
1) Justification: Consider Romans 4:25 Jesus was handed over to be crucified for the forgiveness of our sins and was raised back to life to prove that he had made us right with God! (TPT). The ESV renders that same verse like this: “who was delivered because of our offenses and was raised for our justification” (Romans 4:25).
2) Pre-qualified: Consider Colossians 2: 9 -13: “For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, ?(10)? and you have come to fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority. ?(11)? In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision, by putting off the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ; ?(12)? when you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. ?(13)? And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses (NRSV).
PILGRIMAGE
Why are our assurance and our pardoning so important to our pilgrimage?
1) Our Adversary: We will have days when our faith in God will be tested in times of adversity. Satan, our adversary, looks for opportunities to attack us when we are vulnerable, complacent or overconfident. 1 Peter 5:8 Be alert, be on watch! Your enemy, the Devil, roams around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour (GNB). Rebuke Satan and his attacks in Jesus’s Name!
2) Our past defeats: Satan who attacks us with his fiery darts (Ephesians 6:16), accuses us like a plaintiff, day and night (Revelation 12:10), deceives us (John 8:44), taunts us because he wants to kill, steal and destroy us (John 10:10). Satan wants to continually replay every time we have fallen short and missed the mark of our calling as Christians (see Romans 3:23). When Satan reminds you of your past, remind him of the Blood of Jesus that washes away your sins in God’s eternal covenant (see Hebrews 13:20).
3) Our defense attorney: Consider Revelation 12:10 from The Passion Translation “ Then I heard a triumphant voice in heaven proclaiming: “Now salvation and power are set in place, and the kingdom reign of our God and the ruling authority of his Anointed One are established. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who relentlessly accused them day and night before our God, has now been defeated—cast out once and for all!” Jesus has erased our record. He erased our record when our sins were nailed to the cross (Colossians 2:14). If Jesus God’s only begotten Son set you free, because to know Jesus is to know the truth that sets us free (John 8:32)!
4) Clothed in righteousness: “You have begun to live the new life, in which you are being made new and are becoming like the One who made you. This new life brings you the true knowledge of God” (Colossians 3:10 NCV).
How does God wants us to remember our redemption? Go wants us to remember our victory in Jesus! Who conquered the devil, sin death and the fear of death! God wants us to remember what Jesus has done for us and share with others the goods news of the Gospel.
1) Victory parade: A) Historically, in Roman times the conquerors made a public display of the spoils of their victories. Victorious leaders paraded their conquered and humiliated POW victims in a victory parade as they followed behind victorious leader’s chariot. https://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/gills-exposition-of-the-bible/colossians-2-15.htm
It has been said that sometimes this victory parade was also a death march. ( (https://www.sermonsuite.com/emphasis-preaching-journal/sermon-illustrations-proper-12-ot-17-2022).
B ) The cross was a chariot of triumph. No conqueror could have triumphed so gloriously in his chariot, as Christ did upon the cross. (Geneva Bible Translation Notes from e-Sword). The cross historically was a symbol of death because of how crucifixion had the last word in silencing people, Jesus turned the cross into a victory symbol because He was resurrected for then dead as he conquered the works of the devil, sin death and the fear of death giving all who believe in Him the gift of eternal life!
2) Thankfulness: God does not just want us to say thank you with our words but to live our lives in such a way that we exhibit thankfulness outwardly. Hebrews 12:28 tells us, “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe” (NRSV).
When the Titanic hit an iceberg and sank it was a tragedy. In addition to that tragedy was the unwillingness of those on the life boats to go back after others that they could have saved. Can imagine having to live with that memory knowing that you could have helped to save others? (Tony Evans. Tony Evans’ Book of Illustrations. Chicago: Moody Press, 2009, p. 279). I’ve been to the Titanic exhibit in Pigeon Forge Tennessee where they had conditions that simulated that ice cold water. It was painful to hold your hand in that ice cold water for even a brief amount of time. I cannot imagine leaving people to die in those conditions when I could have done something to save them!
How well do we live up to our name as Christians in our pilgrimage in this life? Are we not ungrateful when we refuse to share the Gospel with the lost? How well do we exhibit genuine and contagious thankfulness and Christian love that makes others want to be saved? Like the song says they will know we are Christians by our love! Evangelism is our mission to seek and save the lost!
In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
