It’s all about Jesus: Colossians 2
Scott Bayles, pastor
Blooming Grove Christian Church: 10/30/2016
How many of you remember that song by Rolling Stones, I Can’t Get No Satisfaction? How many of you can relate to it? Finding satisfaction in life isn’t easy. All around us people are searching for something to give their lives a boost—to give them meaning and fulfillment. Few people seem content within themselves. A strange and often hard-to-identify inner vacuum gives people an uneasy sense of incompleteness.
I think it starts really young. Even as kids, we experience it. Think back to your childhood, for instance. Did you ever have a Red Rider BB Gun experience? Was there ever a toy that you wanted more than anything you’ve ever wanted before? It was the toy to end all toys. And you were convinced that if mom and dad would just get this toy, you would never, ever ask for another toy as long as you live! This toy would change your life. You wanted this toy so bad that you put it right at the top of your Christmas list… in the middle of July.
For me, that toy was the Sword of Omens from ThunderCats. Anybody else remember ThunderCats!? That was pretty much the coolest cartoon show of the 80s. When I was five to nine years old, I was huge into ThuderCats. It came right after my He-Man stage and right before Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle stage. So one day we’re in the toy store and I see the Lion-O’s Sword of Omens. It had lights and sounds. I went to bed that night dreaming about that toy. I tried to scrape together my allowance, but I only made like 25¢ a day so I calculated that it would take me the rest of my life to save up for this toy sword. So I just begged and pleaded with my parents to get it for me. Finally, I must have just worn my dad down because he bought it for me. I was so excited. I loved that thing and played with it every day for… how long? A week. Maybe two. Then it ended up at the bottom of the toy box, just like every other toy that promised to be the last best toy. It didn’t deliver the lasting satisfaction that I had hoped. It didn’t really fill that void.
Many of us go our whole lives stuck in that cycle. We have this sense of incompleteness or this void in our lives and we try to fill it with all sorts of things. For some it’s a relationship or marriage—we think we’re incomplete because we don’t have a spouse and once we meet Mr. or Ms. Right, then we’ll be whole. For others it’s that ideal job—if we just had a career where we felt like we were doing something worthwhile, then we’d be satisfied. For some maybe it’s that kid you’ve always wanted—you try and try to have children and you think, “If God would just give us a child, then we’d really feel complete.” Of course, the list goes on and on—and some of the things we try to fill that void with are healthier than others. Some people try filling that void with alcohol, drugs, sex, etc., but nothing really ever satisfies. Religion can’t save us. Rules can’t change us. Morality can never give us hope. Philosophy can’t fulfill us. Money will never give us contentment. Success in life won’t give us everything we’re looking for. No human relationship will ever truly complete us.
So what’s the answer? How do we finally fill that inner void? The Answer is—Jesus! It’s all about Jesus. Last Sunday we began this series through the book of Colossians and Paul begins his letter to the Colossians by outlining exactly who Jesus is and his place in the universe, the church and our own lives.
He explained that Jesus is the fullness of God in human form. He is our creator, who spoke the universe into existence. He’s our commander—the head of the church and the cosmos for that matter. And he’s our conciliator—reconciling us to God through his blood on the cross.
But here, in Chapter 2, Paul goes a step further and explains not just who Jesus is, but what he means to us and how to find fulfillment in Christ. He writes, “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness” (Colossians 2:9-10 NIV). Another translation says, “God has made you complete in Christ” (GWT). And another, “so you have everything when you have Christ” (TLB). In other words, we ought to experience a sense of fulfillment and completeness in Christ. Jesus fills that inner vacuum and Jesus is enough!
Unfortunately, not every Christian has that experience. I would say more often than not, a new believer puts their faith in Jesus and they experience the joy, peace, and excitement for a few weeks, but after a while Jesus ends up at the bottom of the toy box. Why is that? And, if Jesus really is our “all in all,” how can we experience completeness in Christ? Thankfully Paul answers that question.
Let me highlight three keys to experiencing fulfillment in Jesus found in Colossians 2. First, Paul says, we need to continue in Jesus.
• CONTINUE IN JESUS
Paul writes, “As you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so continue to live in him” (Colossians 2:6 NCV). Continue in him.
Like I said, what happens in the lives of many believers is that put their faith in Jesus, accepting him as Lord and Savior, and they’re super excited about it at first: “It’s all about Jesus! Jesus saved me! Jesus loves me! I’ve got a fresh start, clean slate. My debt has been paid! I’ve been redeemed!” But then as the newness wears off in the months and years ahead, they lose their enthusiasm for Jesus and just sort of move on to the next new thing.
That’s essentially what was happening to the Colossians. They had started this spiritual journey with Jesus, but now they were being lured away by all these other worldviews and religions that promised fulfillment and satisfaction—Jewish legalism, Eastern philosophy, pagan astrology, mysticism, etc. Colossea had become a melting pot of philosophy and religion. So some of the Christians were thinking, “Well, I tried Jesus and that was pretty cool. Maybe now I’ll try emperor worship or astrology.” And Paul is saying, “No! You started in Jesus, you need to continue in Jesus!”
In other words, a wishy-washy Christian is never going to experience satisfaction in Christ. If you want to experience the fullness of Jesus in your life, you’ve got to be all in. It takes complete commitment, total dedication, 100%. Jesus doesn’t want just some of your life; he wants all of your life!
MSNBC recently did a report on the new Vegetarians. Christy Pug, age 28 captured the report, when she said, “I usually eat vegetarian. But I really like Bacon.” She represents a growing number of people who refer to themselves as flexitarians. Most of the time they will refuse to eat meat, but once in a while they make an exception. Christy explains it this way, “I really like vegetarian food, but I’m not 100 percent committed.” Flexitarian is a good way to describe how many people today view their commitments. Flexitarians are committed until it becomes inconvenient or uncomfortable or until something else catches their eye. And that’s the way many Christians approach their commitment to Jesus. And so they will say, I want to follow Jesus but don’t ask me to forgive the person who hurt me. Don’t ask me to release that bitterness and resentment, I’m not going to let that go. I want to follow Jesus but don’t ask me to give a percentage of my money. I worked hard for that. I’ll follow Jesus but don’t talking to me about my sex life. I love Jesus but this area of my life…when I’m with these friends…when I am at this place…I’m not 100 % committed.
Life in Christ isn’t something you can do part-time or half-way. It’s all or nothing. “As you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so continue to live in him” (Colossians 2:6 NCV). Continuing in Christ is the first key to finding fulfillment in Jesus. The second key is connecting to Jesus.
• CONNECT TO JESUS
Whether we’re talking about a phone call, a fuel line, or an electrical appliance—connections are vital. And the same is true in our spiritual life.
If we want to experience satisfaction and fulfillment, we have to connect to Jesus. Paul continues, “Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him” (Colossians 2:7 NLT). This is such a beautiful picture of the intimacy and connectedness that Christians ought to experience with Jesus.
In fact, Jesus himself used a similar illustration when he said that he is the vine and we are the branches, and the only way for us to bear fruit is by staying connected to Jesus. Jesus is our lifeline, funneling his love, peace and power into our lives through his Spirit. If you uproot a plant, disconnecting it from the life-giving soil, it will wither and die. Disconnect a Christian from Christ and the same thing happens to our spirits.
Your relationship with Jesus is just that--a relationship. Relationships only grow and deepen when we stay connected. Ashley and I have been married for almost twelve years now. Imagine if, after we said our vows and exchanged rings, we continued to live in separate houses. We might get excited when we ran into each other at Wal-Mart or even go on a date every once in a while, but we spent most of our time apart. How satisfying and fulfilling does that relationship sound? Not very, right? And it probably wouldn’t last too long either. If you want to have meaningful marriage, you have to put time and energy into each other. You have to be together!
The same is true in our relationship with Jesus. We get out of it, what we put into it. So how do we connect with Jesus?
I think the first and most obvious way is through prayer, worship and Scripture. Do you remember the old Verizon commercials with the guy walking all over the country—a swamp in Florida, an office building in Los Angeles, a sewer in New York, cornfield in Illinois—and everywhere he went, he’d say, “Can you hear me now? Good.” Prayer is our wireless connection to Jesus. You can be anywhere on the planet—alone in your room, behind the wheel of the car, in the middle of a meeting, in classroom full of kids—and you turn mind toward heaven and say, “Jesus, I love you. Jesus, I need you. Jesus, I’m confused and frustrated right now. Jesus, thank you.” Relationship require communication—that’s how we connect. Prayer is our means of communicating and connecting with Jesus. Scripture is his way of communicating with us.
Do any of have that one friend that’s always talking about themselves—their problems, their plans, their needs—and they never let you get a word in edgewise? We do the same thing to Jesus when we pray, but we don’t open our Bibles and listen.
The best thing we can do to connect with Jesus is set aside a little bit of quiet time each day to pray intentionally and get into Scripture. But that’s not all. Jesus actually gives us another way to connect with him.
Jesus says, “I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love…. This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you” (John 15:9-12 NLT).
In other words, when we walking in obedience and loving other people, we are actually drawing closer to Jesus—our roots are growing down into him and we’re building our lives on him.
So through prayer, worship, Scripture, obedience, and showing his love to others we can strengthen our connection to Christ. When we stay connected to him, we can experience fulfillment and satisfaction. Paul mentions one last key to finding fullness in Jesus and that’s by being captured by Jesus.
• CAPTURED BY JESUS
First, we have to continue in Jesus. Furthermore, we have to connect with Jesus. Finally, we have to be captured by Jesus. Paul continues, “Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ” (Colossians 2:8 NLT).
The word translated “captured” in this verse has the idea of being kidnapped and carried away. At a spiritual level, that’s what was happening with many of the Christians in Colossae. Like many of the Stoic and Epicurean philosophers, the Colossians loved sitting around philosophizing—exchanging ideas, thoughts, and theories about life the universe and everything.
Now there’s certainly nothing wrong with the exchange of ideas or the pursuit of wisdom and knowledge. But the problem was—many of their thoughts and theories simply weren’t true. They weren’t grounded in reality and they weren’t consistent with Christianity or a Biblical worldview. Yet, many of the Colossians were getting caught up and carried away with these new and novel ideas.
This same this still happens to unsuspecting Christians today. An endless list of worldviews parade through our culture today— Deism, Naturalism, Materialism, Nihilism, Existentialism, Eastern Pantheism, and New Age or New Consciousness. Add to that a panoply of religions—the Mormon Church and the Jehovah’s Witnesses are parodies of Christianity. Islam ardently and often violently opposes Christianity at every turn. Scientology and Kabala have celebrity endorsements. Bahá’í claims to consolidate Christianity, Islam, and several other religions into one. Perhaps, the greatest lie of postmodernism is that it just doesn’t matter what you believe—that truth is relative and what’s true for you may not be true for me.
Countless Christians have abandoned their faith, leaving Jesus at the bottom of the toy box, in exchange for these and other “empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense.” But what Paul is saying is—if you’re going to get carried away, get carried away by Jesus. There is more to Jesus than we could ever wrap our minds around. If we’re going to sit around philosophizing, let’s talk about Jesus. Let’s talk about the deity or Jesus. Let’s talk about the humanity of Jesus. Let’s talk about the compassion of Jesus. Let’s talk about the love of Jesus. Let’s talk about the grace of Jesus. Let’s talk about the cross of Jesus. Let’s get caught up and carried away by Jesus. It’s all about Jesus!
Conclusion
We were designed and built to find fulfillment in Jesus. That’s why so many people, maybe even some of you, have felt like there is something more, something missing in their lives.
It’s Jesus that saves us. Jesus changes us. Jesus fills us and fulfills us, he meets our deepest longings for something more. If you miss Jesus, you miss everything. But if you find Jesus—if you continue in Jesus, connect with Jesus, and get carried away by Jesus—you have found everything. If you forget everything else I’ve said today, write this down and remember it: Jesus is enough!
Invitation
Next week, we’ll continue on through Colossians and see how our relationship with Jesus ought to impact various areas of our lives.
In the meantime, if you’re ready to put your faith and hope in Jesus or you need help continuing in him or connecting with him—then I’d like to help. If you long to experience a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment in Jesus, then I want to invite you pray with me: “Lord Jesus. We praise you for who you are. You are our strength and shield. You are our help in times of trouble and our hope for tomorrow. Jesus, you are our all in all, and I just pray that you would enable and empower us to continue what we started when we accepted you as Lord. Help us to stick with you, to connect with you personally and intimately. And Lord let us be captured by you—heart, mind, and soul. Let us seek satisfaction and find fulfillment in you and you alone. Amen.”
