Life in Christ (6)

In Him...

This morning, I’m not here to teach you philosophies. I want you to experience the Living God.

We cannot live apart from Christ.

John 15:5–6 NIV

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.

If you believe that you can make it in life without Jesus Christ as the centre of your life, you are sorely mistaken.

Let’s look at our Scripture this morning,

Colossians 2:6–15 NIV

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. 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. 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. 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, 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. When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. 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. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

We’re going to work through this verse by verse, but pay attention to the statements,

In Him

or

In Christ

Maybe when some of you came to Christ, you were taught, “Just ask Jesus into your heart, and then you will go to Heaven.”

Our Christian walk, our Christian life is much deeper than that.

Paul admonishes us to

Continue to live your lives in Him

We are selling Christ short if we think that we can live however we want to after we have received Him.

Let’s carefully read verse 6.

Colossians 2:6 NIV

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him,

Just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord.

When you receive the Messiah, the Anointed One, Jesus, as Lord which means Master.

People of Paul’s day would have understood slavery quite well.

Slaves submitted to their master’s will. Even in our society today, if you are working for somebody, you might not be hired for too long if you disobey what your boss is asking you to do.

When we receive Jesus Christ as our Lord, we are submitting to His will, plan and purpose for our lives.

Romans 12:1–2 NIV

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Paul didn’t stop there, he said, continue to live your lives in Him.

Here’s how some other translations put it.

Colossians 2:6 (NLT)

...you must continue to follow him.

Colossians 2:6 (NKJV)

...so walk in Him,

If we want to follow Christ, we must deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him.

Sounds a little more than just calling it good after praying the sinner’s prayer.

You definitely can be saved by praying the sinner’s prayer, but it can’t stop there.

We need to keep on keeping on.

Let’s look at verse 7 to see what Paul meant by continuing to live our lives in Him.

Colossians 2:7 NIV

rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

The NKJV also says, “established.”

This spring, I seeded 85 acres of Alfalfa/Bromegrass, and Timothy. As it turned out, it was a very dry summer. Only an inch of rain fell where the seed was planted.

As I drove over it, just on Monday, there had been a lot of rain in harvest time, so the cover crop really came back.

When you get down and look, some of the alfalfa is really coming, and in other places it maybe didn’t catch very well. It’s going to take a bit of time to see if it establishes.

Even in our walk with God, it takes time for us to get rooted and established.

If our roots are shallow, it doesn’t take long for us to give up when the hard times come.

I want to tell you a story called

Deep Roots

Parnell Bailey visited an orange grove where an irrigation pump had broken down. The season was unusually dry and some of the trees were beginning to die for lack of water. The man giving the tour then took Bailey to his own orchard where irrigation was used sparingly. “These trees could go without rain for another 2 weeks,” he said. “You see, when they were young, I frequently kept water from them. This hardship caused them to send their roots deeper into the soil in search of moisture. Now mine are the deepest-rooted trees in the area. While others are being scorched by the sun, these are finding moisture at a greater depth.” (Our Daily Bread)

In Matthew 13, Jesus told a parable of a sower that threw seed on four kinds of soil:

There was:

The path

Rocky Places

Among the thorns

and on

Good soil

For anyone who has farmed or even gardened, you have seen parts of your field or garden that has been productive and those that haven’t been. Let’s hear how Jesus brings this into a spiritual context.

Matthew 13:18–23 NIV

“Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path. The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”

In verse 8, Paul gives a warning to those listening as the letter to the Colossians is read.

Colossians 2:8 NIV

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.

At some point in time, you’re going meet somebody that is smarter than you, that has some really persuasive words.

The NIV uses

hollow and deceptive philosophy

If you break down the word

philosophy

philos - love

sophia - wisdom

so

philosophy is the love of wisdom

If anyone comes teaching any gospel that lowers Christ and raises humans, it’s hollow and deceptive philosophy based on human tradition and elemental forces of this world.

Beware of any argument or pretension that raises itself against the knowledge of Christ.

2 Corinthians 10:3–5 NIV

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

In Christ...

Let’s move on to verse 9.

Colossians 2:9 NIV

For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form,

Colossians 2:9 NLT

For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body.

There is so much to digest here.

John 1:1–3 NKJV

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

John 1:14 NKJV

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

Jesus Christ who is fully God came and made His dwelling place in a human body.

He was no less God, but He didn’t use it to His advantage.

This gives me hope today that when I pray in Jesus’ name that He understands what I’m going through and He has the power to move on my behalf.

In Christ you have been brought to fulness

Colossians 2:10 NIV

and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.

Not only does all the fulness of God dwell in Christ, but you have been brought to fulness. You have been made complete in Christ.

Ephesians 1:3–10 NLT

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding. God has now revealed to us his mysterious will regarding Christ—which is to fulfill his own good plan. And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth.

In Him you were circumcised...

Colossians 2:11–12 NLT

When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature. For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead.

There’s a lot here.

When we follow Christ, our sinful nature has to die.

Why?

Romans 8:6–11 NLT

So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will. That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God. But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.) And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.

How does baptism work?

As Pentecostals, we believe in baptism by immersion. This symbolizes dying to our sinful nature and being raised to life new in Christ.

Baptism is “An outward expression of an inward work.”

We are not saved by being baptized. We are saved by faith in Christ alone.

How do we know that there is power in the blood of Jesus?

Because He is alive.

The angels said on that resurrection morning, “He is not here. He is risen!”

You were dead...

But are now alive...

Colossians 2:13–14 NLT

You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.

Look at the power of what happened on the cross.

When you surrender your life to Christ, instead of being spiritually dead, God makes you alive with Christ.

I think we should be starting to get the point about Christ.

He is not only powerful, but He is all powerful. He is supreme. In Him dwells all the fulness of God in a human body.

He has the power to change our lives, but He has given us a free will to make that choice.

As Joshua said so many years ago,

Choose you this day whom you will serve, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

When we die to our sinful nature. This doesn’t come by hollow and deceptive philosophies, it only comes by the blood of Jesus.

At that point sin doesn’t have power over you. The record of charges against you has been canceled and nailed to the cross.

The writer, Horatio Gates Spafford, wrote the words to the hymn,

It is Well

“My sin—oh, the bliss of this glorious thought—   My sin, not in part, but the whole, Is nailed to His Cross, and I bear it no more;   Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!”

Colossians 2:15 NLT

In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.

Even though it looked like Jesus was defeated on the cross. In the heavenly realm, the opposite happened as Jesus satisfied God’s righteous demands.

I believe that far too many can sing “Victory in Jesus” not understanding that Jesus has disarmed the power of Satan by dying on the cross.

Satan knows that he is defeated, and yet he lies to us.

James 4:6–10 NIV

But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

Let’s give thanks and praise to the Lord for what He has done.

Let’s pray!