| Introduction In my elementary school years I had a hard time focusing on my homework. Every afternoon, my mom would sit across the dining table from me and help me with my homework. More often than not, I would lose focus and stare out the big glass doors through which I could see the yard and the street. My mom would say something that makes no sense in English, "Are you thinking about the calf's death?" What my mom was pointing out was that I was not thinking about what I should be thinking. The homework was going to get done by itself and I needed to focus if I was ever to get through it. Paul emphasizes over and over again in Colossians the fundamental importance of clear and straight thinking and how Christ is the measure (standard) for that clear and straight thinking. Paul does for the Colossians what my mom used to do for me in refocusing my thinking to what was of first importance. But instead of asking if they are thinking the calf's death, Paul places before them the magnificent fullness of Christ, 2:1-3. Now he is going to start telling us how focusing on Christ will help us persevere to the end. We will see today that the central message of this letter is an exhortation to remain centered on Christ. I. Remaining Centered on Christ Will Protect Us from Persuasive, but False, Arguments, 4-5. A. This is the first explicit warning against the false teachers. "… from long experience he knows that a work of grace is followed by an attack from the enemy, and that one regular form this attack may take is the clever plausibility of teaching near enough to the truth to be apparently respectable and far enough away from it to be devastating in its effect on individuals and congregations." N.T. Wright B. This = in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 1. Remember that these false teachers weren't discouraging them from believing in Christ. a. They just wanted to add some stuff along the way. b. Christ is a great start to your Christian walk, but if you want to finish strong you need this special knowledge that is a secret to everyone else, but us. 2. The point is that the Colossians already knew the secret – the mystery is Christ and in him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. a. The Colossians needed to know that in order not to be deceived. b. The false teachers have strong arguments delivered in a convincing way. c. It is tempting to follow them if one is not thoroughly convinced that the Christ he learned from the apostles is the true Christ and that the true Christ is sufficient. C. Though Paul is in house arrest in Rome, he is also very much there with the Colossians as they struggle to resist being distracted from Christ, 5. 1. Paul is present in spirit with them in at least four ways. a. Through the apostolic preaching they embraced. b. Through the leaders of the church who were established by the apostolic teaching. c. By both Paul and the Colossians being members of the Body of Christ – even though he is far way, he is still connected with them. d. Through the common bond of striving for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 2. Through whatever reports he had, Paul knew that the Colossians were being faithful to the apostolic teaching and he rejoiced in that. a. It is a great thing to rejoice in right belief on the part of our brethren. b. When he looked at the church in Colossae, Paul saw a church that was functioning like a fine Swiss timepiece! 1) Good order – military term for well-organized columns. a) The Colossians were the opposite of the Corinthian church. b) The church in Corinth was the model of chaos while Colossae was the textbook example of being ready to fight the war that was before them. 2) They were steadfast in their faith a) Grounded, firm, not about to move. b) This is how we resist the enemy. 1 Pt. 5:8-9 – Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. II. Remaining Centered on Christ Will Enable Us to Walk in Him, 6-7. A. Right here, we arrive at the core message of this letter, 6. 1. Notice how much gentler Paul is here than he was with the Galatians who were also facing false teachers. Gal. 3:1-3 – O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?—Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? 2. That's because the Galatian church had capitulated to the false teachers. 3. The point of Colossians and the point of the Christian life: as we have received Christ from the apostles in the NT, we live the rest of our lives in him – both in scope and time. a. Receiving Christ in this context is not the subjective experience of an individual has come to believe in Jesus as his/her Lord and Savior. 1) This is the objective experience of receiving the teaching of whom Jesus is and what he has done for his people. 2) That is handed down to us from the apostles through the Scriptures, particularly the NT. "To 'receive Christ' … is not only a matter of believing 'in' his person; it also involves a commitment to the apostolic teaching bout Christ and his significance." Douglas Moo b. Having received Jesus, we walk in him, that is, we live in him. 1) This is the first command in the letter and the rest of the letter will unpack what walking in Christ means. 2) Speaking of life as a walk is one of Paul's favorite ways to describe what we do here. 3) It is helpful to think of life as a walk. a) It is an active pursuit, not something that happens to us. b) It has a destination, not aimless. 4) The manner of that walk is in Christ, that is, in light of who he is and what he has done. B. Paul helps us understand better what it means to walk in Christ, 7. 1. The first description of our walk in Christ is that it is rooted. a. The imagery breaks down a bit since being rooted and walking don't really go together. b. This is a gardening word – our life is to be rooted, grounded, founded in the faith, that is, in what we have received concerning Christ. 2. The second description of our walk in Christ is that it is built up. a. This is a construction word. b. Not only the foundation of our life is Christ, but also our life is built with Christ. 1) The imagery breaks down a bit again. 2) In construction, one uses different materials for the foundation and the walls. 3) In life, it begins with Christ and it is built up with Christ – Christ alluded to this. Jn. 10:10 – The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have itmore abundantly. 4) This material that builds life as we go is the faith, again what we have received concerning Christ. 3. The third description of our walk in Christ is that it is established. a. Notice that Paul is getting repetitive in his description of our life. 1) Established has hints of being rooted and built up. 2) The nuance is that to be established includes "increasing in inner strength, with the implication of greater firmness of character or attitude…." Louw Nida b. All that happens according to what we were taught – two implications: 2) We can do the Christian life alone. 4. The fourth description of our walk in Christ is that it is full of thanksgiving. a. Abounding =existing in large quantity, overflowing. b. Thanksgiving for what? For what they received. 1) A life of negativity, bitterness, murmuring, complaining is not consistent with faith in Christ. 2) As a matter of fact, as followers of Christ, those are things that must be discarded from our lives. Eph. 4:31-32 – Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. "… true gratitude for God's grace is an important 'offensive' measure against the false teaching…." Douglas Moo C. These four descriptions of walking in Christ teach us that walking in Christ means living with the Gospel ever before us. 1. The truths if the apostolic Gospel must be part of our everyday thinking if we want to resist the enemy, overcome false teaching, and arrive at the end (this is implied in Paul's equating life with walking). 2. What are the elements of the Gospel that must be always present in our thinking? (8 components) a. We are sinners who do not deserve the love of God, just his wrath. b. God would be just and good if he sent all sinners to hell – in other words, he doesn't owe us our salvation. c. There is nothing we can do on our own to change our status before God. d. Jesus Christ offered to take our place and God accepted his offer. e. Jesus Christ took our place by perfectly obeying the law of God as a man, something we absolutely cannot do. f. Jesus Christ took our place by suffering on the cross, in a finite space of time, the infinite wrath of God that we deserve, something we absolutely cannot due. g. God accepted all that Jesus did on our behalf and the proof of that is Jesus's resurrection. h. We make what Christ did our own by believing that Jesus is exactly who the Bible says he is and that what he did in life and in death he did for us. 3. How does keeping these 8 truths before us in daily life help us arrive at the end? a. False teaching will invariably take the focus away from Christ and place it on us – keeping these things constantly before us will help us intuitively recognize wrong focus. b. Keeping these things constantly before us will remind us that this life we now live is the closest we will ever get to hell – the happiest most fulfilling moment in this life is closed to hell than to heaven. c. Keeping these things constantly before us will help us see that the sufferings of this life are not the punishment of an angry God, Christ already took that upon himself, but come from the hand of a loving Father. d. Keeping these constantly before us will keep us humble since at our best we are still deserving of the awfulness of eternity in hell. D. Every moment of anger, discouragement, self-pity, bitterness, personal conflict is a moment of lapse of faith, a moment in which we have taken our eyes from the mirror of the Gospel and have stopped seeing ourselves as we are in ourselves and what we are in Christ.
We have Christ Jesus the Lord. This full title for our Savior emphasizes that last word: LORD. All of this boils down to the most essential confession of the Christian faith. A confession for which Christians through the ages have lived and died. A simple confession made up of just three words: JESUS IS LORD! That's how we have received Jesus. That's how we live in him – JESUS IS LORD!
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