Colossians 2:9-3:1
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Colossians 2:9-3:1
Colossians 2:9-3:1
Good morning church! We are so glad that you have joined us this morning, whether in person or online. We are in Colossians 2 this morning if you want to begin turning there. Those of you watching this this morning, or perhaps at a later date, we want to encourage you to join us in person if at all possible. And if you live too far away, please consider a local fellowship in your area, if you don’t know of a good one, email the church and we will try to find one with you.
I’m thankful for the technology that allows us to do what we do. Most of us have benefitted from it at one time or another when we were sick, or vehicles broke down, but much of the work the Lord intends to do in us, and through us, occurs when we physically gather together.
Speaking of that, I was contacted by a couple that have recently moved from the Eddington area to Orono, Maine and they are unable to drive. If you are able to provide transportation to them, or are willing to be put on a rotating schedule for that, please let Nick or Andy know that.
SO, let me encourage you to fellowship, to pray, to minister to one another right after our service. We have a cafe, right behind you with coffee and snacks. All of that has been provided by the Lord, so we don’t charge you for it. We just want you to enjoy it and to be the church to one another.
Please join me in prayer...
Let’s pick up where we left off, look at verse 9 with me church…Colossians 2:9-10
9 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;
10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.
Vs. 9
For in Him, who is Paul talking about? Jesus. So in Jesus, dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. This was a declarative statement from Paul concerning the deity of Jesus. I’ve mentioned the issue of Gnosticism a few times already in this study, understand that this was written before Gnosticism was even formally developed or designed, so when I say that, I’m comparing the mysticism that was going on, the separation of flesh and spirit, in these early forms, to what we later see in the heresy of Gnosticism.
But make no mistake here, Paul is saying Jesus is fully God. God the Father, God the Spirit, are in Him physically, not just a spirit or an essence, but in bodily form.
Vs.10
Paul says you are complete in Him. I mentioned when we started this book that the first two chapters were doctrine and the last two application or how to walk in that doctrine as a follower of Jesus.
There are some things that I pray stick out in your head from this passage the first is this…You are complete in Him… Understand again that Paul was dealing with a multitude of issues within this church that he had never been to, didn’t plant the church, and had not yet visited the church.
Last week we talked about intellectualism. You had to study under this person, or at this institution, or in our world have a certain level or particular degree. Remember from verse 3 Colossians 2:3
3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
and we ended on a warning in verse 8 Col 2:8
8 Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.
If you go off and get a degree from a secular university today what are you likely to receive? An education of the philosophy and tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. Again, I’m not knocking education, I’m an advocate of it, just understand that truth is found in Jesus…and Col 2:10
10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.
And He is the head, above all principality and power. Some want to argue the spiritual side of that and say it speaks of angels, fallen angels, and spiritual beings, others argue that Jesus is the authority above all power, earthly rulers, spiritual and civic leaders, regardless of separation of church and state…the heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord. I think the argue ends…where is says is the head of all...
Now in verse 11 Paul transitions to a different topic and he does so using language that we might not be totally comfortable with, but understand the language he uses here in context is so important…let me read a couple of verses…Col 2:11-12
11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,
12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
Doesn’t that seem a little awkward? How he uses the word baptism…that’s not what I’m talking about is it....Circumcision...
Now if this were our men’s breakfast…this would be pretty easy, and probably handled differently. Honestly, I thought of a whole bunch of ways to put this to them, that I thought would make sense, and stick in their hearts and minds…but it wasn’t right for us.
You remember how I always encourage those that are teaching to ask the Lord, for this group of people, for this time, what is it Lord that you want to say…well, I really, really, had to do that here and I’m glad I did because it forced me to listen and to look at this in a different way.
Do you guys remember the summer before last, we had a couple of midweek studies on studying our Bibles? It was a miniature hermeneutics class. That’s what theologians call the proper method of studying and interpreting the scriptures. If you were with us this hopefully will sound familiar, if you weren’t I’ll summarize a couple of weeks of teaching with the basic principles.
What does is say? What does is mean? and How does is apply to us?
What does it say? To us, this is what is says....CIRCUMCISION!!!
We see the word and things begin to get a little uncomfortable am I right? Especially like that. More than once as a pastor I’ve thought man I wish a different word was used here, or it was explained in a different way. But remember the What does it say? question… it’s not always what does it say to us in 2022 in Old Town, Maine, because Paul wasn’t living in our time, our culture, or even our geography.
To us circumcision is an optional medical procedure done at the time of the birth of a biological male, happy to explain that if I need to after the service. But it is based on the feelings and impressions of the parents, and their perceived medical advantages or disadvantages, but more important than all of that, it is very, very private. Something that we don’t talk about or discuss. None of us in this room know the percentage of males that are circumcised here and those that are not.
That is how our culture used to be about most medical things, and I think that is good, and that includes your vaccination status, and other peoples vaccination status. I mean who cares which of us over 50 have had the shingles shot, it’s none of your business! Sorry, back to circumcision.
It’s a private thing, typically not something that is discussed, even among young parents. Why? Because our kids grow up and down there is none of your business. What we forget is that our culture was not theirs... and circumcision in Paul’s time, in Paul’s culture, in Paul’s geography it was something entirely different.
Paul was a studied Jewish Rabbi. Circumcision in Paul’s time, in his day, under the Old Testament covenant with God was a big deal. It was part of the covenant that God made with Abraham, the father of Israel, when he, and every male living in his household was circumcised. It was a physical mark of the covenant in their flesh. Gen 17:13 says...
13 He who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money must be circumcised, and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.
After this every male baby born to Jewish parents was circumcised on the eighth day after birth, and it was a celebration. It was a mark that made this little boy different from those that were not part of the covenant people of God. He was set apart, he belonged to God and was under His covenant, His protection.
Even in families that weren’t strictly religious, culturally, it was a big deal and on the eighth day, the new son was circumcised in the presence of their godparents, friends, and relatives. He now had the mark of a Jewish male, the same as his father, and his father before him. He took the mark of his father. Huge significance to all of this when Paul was writing.
Except now, Jesus had made a new covenant, and He died and rose again for both Jew and Gentile, but the gentiles hadn’t received the mark. And there were some in the church that were saying, OK, we get it. You guys can be saved now too, but first line up there’s something we need to take care of. Yes, Jesus died on the cross to save you from your sins, and in that He defeated death, but if you don’t drop your drawers its no good for you…and Paul is saying, wait! Hold on, no circumcision, no feasts or festivals, no religious rituals, all that stuff was just a shadow of the one to come, all of that was fulfilled in Jesus!
So again he says in verse 11 Col 2:11
11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,
The mark, the setting apart for God has already been done for you. No longer in a physical sense, but in a circumcision not made with hands. That sinful nature, the sin of the flesh, in Christ that has been cut away. Someone told me recently that I had been really putting an emphasis on being a new creation in Christ…and that reminded me of what a great picture of this that is....2 Cor 5:17
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
That is exactly what Paul is describing here for us…Col 2:11-12
11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,
putting off the body of the sins of the flesh…if you are in Christ, you are a new creation; old things have passed away....verse 12 Col 2:
12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,
A new creation, old things buried with Him in baptism and raised new with Him through faith, in the working of God, not a cutting away of the flesh. Paul is saying here that all of us before Jesus, and any of us without Jesus, are dead in our trespasses, remember trespasses are crossing a boundary set by God. He draws the lines, not us...
notice a couple of things here, they matter very much he says you…that means you, if you hear my voice, or are somehow reading these words, you without Jesus you are dead. In Romans Paul says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and later in the same book he says the wages for that or the cost of it is death.
He simplifies it for us here and says, you being dead, not struggling, not sick in need of treatment of ill in need of a doctor, no he says you being dead needed a Savior, and in Him you were circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, and now, and only now because Jesus made us alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses… verse 14 Col 2:14
14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
Do you guys get the picture that Paul is drawing here. Just as physical circumcision was the cutting away of the flesh to mark the Jews as the covenant people of God, just as that mark made them like their earthly father.
Jesus took that sin, that record against us, that debt that we owed…I was reminded of a time when our kids were little and we had a hospital bill at St. Joe’s that we just couldn’t pay, there wasn’t enough credit on my card to pay it that way, and I didn’t know what to do. I was working hard, had a young family, but it was a debt that I simply could not pay…someone told me that the hospital might be willing to work out a payment plan.
So I contacted them, and they were willing to do that, but told me they had a program that we could apply for based on our income, that might help reduce the overall amount. I submitted the application, and they contacted me to let me know, the debt was not reduced, it was forgiven, it was gone. It was so amazing! But it was nothing like the weight of sin.
Jesus did not seal our record, or expunge our charges, He took everything that was against us, and when those spikes when through His hands and his feet, they also nailed all of what was charged against us to the cross as well. Never to be brought up, but forever taken out of the way. Buried there, and as He was raised from the dead, so were we to new life in Him, a life that would now cause us to look like our Heavenly Father, because of Jesus, if we have asked Him to be our Savior, and place our faith and trust in Him for salvation. If you haven’t done that…please don’t leave here without doing so today. I know there are some that need to do that.
Remember, not sick, not struggling, but dead in need of a Savior.
Vs. 15 Col 2:15
15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.
For a moment in time, Satan may have thought he beat Jesus, by manipulating and controlling the people and the authorities of the day into sentencing an innocent Savior to the Cross, but He triumphed over them all when He rose from the dead. Verse 16 starts with SO, I want you to see that, because all of this is tied to the cross. New Gentile believers, you don’t have to get physical skin cut away, your sinful flesh has been cut away by Jesus, and....because of the cross, you are now under grace… Col 2:16-17
16 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths,
17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.
Paul is talking about legalism here… we are saved through faith in Jesus and His finished work of the cross…So, Paul says, so because of that…Let no one judge you… in food, in drink, regarding festivals or ceremonies or sabbaths… Paul says all of that is legalism. And we know in the church love covers a multitude of sins, people are different, we may different convictions concerning what Paul calls doubtful things. But he says not this, don’t allow legalism in the church in His church… I don’t even want to paint it as a wicked things that is done despitefully, I think that much of legalism is well intended and done out of love.
Let me give you an example. Adam and Eve are in the garden of Eden. Genesis chapter 2… Gen 2:15-17
Genesis 2:15–17 (NKJV)
15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.
16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat;
17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
When we turn to the next chapter and find the serpent with Eve, look at it with me and see what it says....Gen 3:1-4
Genesis 3:1–4 (NKJV)
1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”
2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden;
3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ”
4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.
Let me ask you a question, did God say they couldn’t touch the fruit? You can look back at chapter 2 verse 17....just don’t eat it. Where did Eve get that they couldn’t touch it? I’m guessing from a well intended, loving, legalistic husband. Eve, look at all that God has given us, plants and animals, water to drink, food to eat, we can eat of any tree in the garden, except for that one, we can’t eat that fruit, don’t even touch it!
Is that how it went down? I don’t know, the Bible doesn’t say, but look what happens next, because I think it shows us one of the dangers of legalism....verse 5 in chapter 3…Gen 3:5-6
Genesis 3:5–6 (NKJV)
5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit... and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.
She took of its fruit....pause there for a second because I’ll bet she did. Adam said I wasn’t even to touch it, but I did and nothing happened…and then she ate…and she was done.
When we are legalists in the church, or with our kids, and we set up all these boundaries and fences, or rules and regulations against things that God doesn’t what happens? They are tested…and they find out that they aren’t true, and they question the truth of the rest..So Paul says don’t let this happen…again verse 16 Col 2:16
16 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths,
Now that last one is interesting…let no one judge you regarding sabbaths…I mentioned that one of the possible problems in the church in Colossae was legalistic Judaism. If you want to be a Christian, you first have to get circumcised, you have to eat kosher, you have to keep the sabbath…and that piece, the sabbath piece gets mushed into some areas of Christianity still today...
I’m speaking cautiously here, because I just took some of our leadership to a conference that was all about finding rest in God. Resting in God is a great thing. Jesus said “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. So that is a good thing, I’m not saying that is a bad thing, but I am saying that all of what we have in the Old Testament was a shadow of the real thing that was to come, Jesus.
You might say well God commanded the Sabbath, He modeled the sabbath for us by resting, so I’m keeping the Sabbath on the 7th day. OK. But now don’t (verse 16) judge me, condemn others in the church because they don’t. Do you know that all of the 10 commandments that are in the old testament are repeated, found in the New Testament except for one!?! Don’t Lie, don’t commit adultery, no idols, all of them except for one, do you know which one? Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy. You can’t find a verse in the new covenant, new testament that commands you to keep the Sabbath.
Do you know why? The Sabbath is a picture of your rest from your labor and what, or I should say who is the fulfillment of that? Jesus. He completed the work on the cross so we can now rest in Him. I was walking though the woods yesterday thinking about all these things, and do you know what I was doing? Resting in Jesus. I’m doing it today and everyday. Look, again, Paul gives liberty in these things, if you want to keep the day, keep the day, don’t put it on others, I want to rest in Him everyday.
But that is just one of the ways that we can get legalistic and push our personal convictions on others, Paul says that is not allowed! What other ways can we do that in the church? You didn’t get the jab did you, that vaccine is the mark of the beast ya know. OOPS, I said that was nobody’s business and I didn’t want to hear talk of it.
Not sure if you’ve heard, but I became a grandfather last week. There’s lots of cool stuff about it, that will probably get mixed into the messages for the next few years, so pray that Jesus comes back soon. But one of the cool things is reflecting back to when we were young parents, and everything was brand new. Exciting and scary. We wanted to do everything right, and fortunately, we were young had zero experience, but like all new parents were the experts on what to do and what not to do.
Until our church at the time got into this book that was out there. AND it wasn’t just our church, it was our Christian pediatrician’s church too. We had to get this book, called growing kids God’s way, which was awesome for a legalistic law enforcement officer. Because now, if we weren’t growing kids God’s way, we were doing it the wrong way. AND I tried to follow that book, and I watched my wife sit in the hallway and cry as I tried to make our newborn adjust to our world and settle himself in his crib.
I which the Apostle Paul hit me in the head with a brick and said, hey, let no one judge you for this stupid legalistic stuff.
What about Home Schooling? Now I think home schooling is awesome, we home schooled some of our kids some of the time. But what happens if you can’t, or your not called to, you’re condemned for sending your kids to the government schools. Paul says, don’t allow that garbage. He says, in verse 18.. Col 2:18-19
18 Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,
19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God.
Let know one cheat you of your reward… that is another terrible thing about legalism gang, it cheats you. Once you do anything legalistically, religiously, you are being robbed. Meaning I have to keep the sabbath to be right with God, then what are you doing, trading Jesus for that thing. Because you are now reliant on that thing and you are being cheated.
I’m right with God, because I get up at 4 a.m. everyday and do this, or I follow the Daniel Diet, what ever it is, you are trading away Jesus for that thing, if you have become dependent upon that thing. Remember, remember, remember, You are complete in Him… So, Col 2:18-19
18 Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,
19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God.
This is the mysticism stuff the worship of angels and spirits, the things that can’t be seen…hold fast to the Head, who is Jesus. Verse 20 Col 2:20-23
20 Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations—
21 “Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,”
22 which all concern things which perish with the using—according to the commandments and doctrines of men?
23 These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.
Vs. 23 where this says have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, the KJV says “Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship” I will do this, or not do this not touch, taste, or handle by the strength of my own will…good luck with that, you are on the road to defeat.
Asceticism. Severe self discipline, denial, punishment, etc.
You are complete in Jesus…Verse one from chapter three tells us. Col 3:1
1 If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.
Don’t be distracted by any other thing…seek Jesus, sabbath in Jesus, rest in Him. Remember verse 6 from last week Col 2:6
6 As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,
Grace and Peace!