Living Alive

Introduction

Mission emphasis Sunday

Baby’s first steps

Life in Christ is walking out what Jesus has worked in us. (Pause)

But how do we get there?

Our Responsibility is to keep Christ close (v. 6-8)

Read Colossians 2:6-8

Our responsibility is to keep Christ close.

What’s amazing is that Paul’s prayer for them in 1:10-11 to live a life that honors the Lord mirrors his command here in v. 6-7: “being rooted” / “bearing fruit” , “built up” / “increasing” , “established” / “being strengthened” , “overflowing with gratitude” / “giving thanks”. His petitions in prayer turn into directives for us to live a life of deep intimacy with Christ.

Walk IN HIM—> Active voice: the first command in Colossians.

GROUNDED: Rooted IN HIM- Paul uses a few different metaphors to help us to understand what life in Christ looks like when we keep Jesus close. The first one is being “rooted”. It’s a horticultural metaphor to describe our positional status in the Lord. God uses this type of language in a few different places in Scripture that come to my mind like Psalm 1 where the happy man is “like a tree planted beside flowing streams that bear its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.” And Jesus’ words in John 15 referring to the vine and the branches as He instructs the disciples to “remain” in Him. In order to mature in our walk with Christ, we must be nourished by the source of life, Jesus himself. Roots provide access to the source of life, but they also provide stability and they keep us from shifting!

GROWING: Built up IN HIM- Paul shifts to a construction metaphor “built up” to describe our spiritual progress. We are being formed together and growing together “into a holy temple” 1 Pet. 2:5

1 Peter 2:5 ESV

you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Be grounded and growing!

Established in faith—> Jesus+ nothing = Everything. When you are deeply rooted in Jesus and built up in Jesus you will be established with a firm faith in Jesus that can’t be wavered and can’t be snatched away from you.

GRATEFUL: Abounding in Thanksgiving —> Active voice-

The first three (rooted, built up, established) are all in the passive form, which emphasizes God’s role in accomplishing our grounding and growth. However, “overflowing with gratitude” is in the active voice which highlights our RESPONSE to God’s REDEMPTIVE and RENEWING work on our behalf. Thanksgiving is a consistent theme throughout the letter and is meant to characterize the life of the believer.

A fruit of maturity in a believer is a life of GROWING gratitude. (REPEAT)

Thankfulness and trust walk TOGETHER.

v.8 Don’t try to be relevant to the culture. Paul warns that you will be held captive. (PAUSE) The deceptive teaching of this world distorts its victim’s entire perspective: “philosophy” (Philo Sophias or the “love of wisdom”); it’s misleading and worthless “empty deceit”; and it’s not according to God’s truth but “based on human tradition”. There is a key phrase here is “not according to Christ.” The foundational flaw of the “elemental spirits or principles” that these false teachers were trying to persuade the Colossians and Paul is warning against is the DISTORTION or DENIAL of the person and work of Jesus. Any teaching that devalues and dethrones Christ as the only source of true fulfillment in life is dangerous and will lead to a dried out, uprooted, and wrecked faith.

False teaching DECEIVES us and DENIES Christ, faithful teaching EDIFIES us because it EXALTS Christ.

Word definition and Illustration (Football): Paralambano- The word received means “to bring to one’s side” or “to bring close”. Considering culture, keep Christ close! The adversary is trying to make you fumble.

What is a picture of receiving Christ but not keeping him close?

Read your Bible on Sunday, but not through the week

Praise with my mouth on Sunday but slander others through the week

My mouth says I love Jesus, but my bank account doesn’t

Walking with Christ

How do you walk in Christ, keep Christ close, and make sure that you’re not led astray? You have to know and be sure of your identity in Jesus and your position before God!

Our Identity is vertical, not horizontal (v. 9-12)

Read Colossians 2:9-12

Everyone functions out of their identity: What identity are you functioning out of?

Your Job

Your Relationships/marriage

Your Sexuality

The Sport you play

The Money you make

Your Pastoral role*** @ me

Your identity can’t be seen horizontally, because God hardwired us to get it vertically. You were never meant to function out of an identity that was derived from within you or contrived by you or those around you. Where do I get that from? Verse 11: as a new creation in Christ, you were meant to put off the body of the flesh, buried with him in baptism (that means you have died!)

When we don’t walk in Him, we forfeit the full experience of salvation. Ephesians 4:14 “so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.” When we function in our horizontal identities in the worldly things that we try to elevate in our lives we forfeit the full experience of salvation!

Fullness: The idea here excludes room for any other competing doctrines or practices. 1:19 says that “God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him (Christ)”

Paul is saying that because the fullness of God dwells in the Son of God Jesus, there is nowhere else you can turn to find fulfillment outside of Jesus. HE IS IT! Anything else is a waste of your time and will come up empty. So keep Christ close! The phrase “in him” is used 7 times in this passage. In Christ is where our identity lies.

Do you long to experience His fullness?

Here is the beautiful truth that lodges deep in our soul when we put ALL of our trust in Jesus as our everything. Because Christ is not lacking in any way; that means, in him neither are we! Look back just a few verses to see something really telling. v. 3 and 4 that in Christ are hidden ALL the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And he says that so that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. Again, in Christ you have FULLNESS. You have the FULL TREASURE. You are full of wisdom and knowledge in Christ. And not just in wisdom and in knowledge. But the prayer in Ephesians 3:17-19 says “May Christ dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” Since we are rooted and grounded in love extending down or branches extending up so that you may greater understand the LOVE THAT CHRIST HAS FOR US! It’s not just wisdom and knowledge but in LOVE! When you are filled with Christ you are also filled with all the love of God too!

Circumcision: It was a sign of the covenant of God starting in Genesis 17 as an outward sign of the belonging to God’s people. However, even in the Old Testament God indicates that it has to happen internally in your heart for it to take any real change. Dueteronomy 30:6. The real circumcision has to happen in the heart producing love for God. What is going on will be done internally by God not by hands. (This is why we say that baptism doesn’t save you because it is a symbol of what has happened in your heart)

The reality of what is happening when you’re putting your faith in Christ is death to your flesh and becoming alive to the Spirit of God. You are no longer governed by the flesh and its passions and desires! Cross Ref: Romans 6:12 “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.”

Christ is our fullness and all that we will ever need. And he has also given us a new heart. It’s through Christ’s substitute for us on the Cross (his entire body), not just a piece of flesh, that our hearts are able to be spiritually circumcised and converted.

So our identity: we have been filled by Christ with the fullness of himself. Those who have faith are united with him, buried with him, and raised with him. This is what it means to put your identity in the vertical not the horizontal.

This speaks to our Identity in union with Christ, which has a direct effect on our position before God.

Our Position is paid in full (v. 13-15)

Read Colossians 2:13-15

These three verses may be one of the greatest passages in the Bible about what really happened when Christ died. Position in Christ has to do with our legal standing before God…legally am I guilty or not guilty? Am I a debtor or am I a free man? Am I God’s enemy or His friend? Understanding these verses and the implications to then how we walk with Christ is transformational. When I look at these verses I see a few different things:

We were legally condemned: we were dead in trespasses and sins. All humans are spiritually dead and blind to the reality of the glory of Christ. We are as dead to spiritual truth as a human corpse is dead to being touched. Paul describes the legal nature of this condition “the record of debt that stood against us with it’s legal demands.” We weren’t just spiritually dead, but legally condemned by this long record of sins that stood against us!

Our debt was NAILED!: God took that long list, put it in the hand of Christ, and drove the spike through it and through his hand so that he became a substitute for us, bearing the punishment for the record of our debts in his own death.

Our debt was CANCELLED: verse 14 says that Christ’s death on the cross “cancelled the record of debt that stood against us with it’s legal demands.” It is cancelled! AMEN! The debt is cancelled because the debt of punishment that we owed to the justice of God was paid in the punishment of Christ.

Our record was set aside: Example of expungement. Paul says “This he set aside” Literally, it says he “took it out of the midst” In other words, in the courtroom of heaven, where the record of debt guarantees our condemnation, NOBODY CAN FIND IT. It’s taken away…but where did it go? “As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.” (Psalm 103:12)

I am forgiven: So, our sins have been nailed, the record of debt is taken away, which means we are forgiven. He applies to us personally what Christ accomplished perfectly. When we are united to Christ by faith, his punishment becomes ours and his righteousness becomes ours.

I am made alive: Paul says “God made you alive together with him.” Because our sins are forgiven, he makes us eternally alive. Now, we’re no longer corpse that can’t be touched by spiritual reality. We see Christ for who he is, and we prefer him, treasure him, love him, and trust him above all things!

Because of that: THE DEVIL IS DISARMED! Something amazing has happened to the rulers and authorities. Verse 15 says “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.” The word disarmed literally means “stripped.” So what we see in verse 15 is that just when people thought that Jesus was being stripped of his clothing, shamed in nakedness at his final trial, and led to Calvary…what was really happening was the reverse. Satan and his demonic forces were being stripped. They were being shamed. They were being led to defeat.

Satan by his own name is the great accuser. He can condemn us in one way...only by valid accusations against us of our own sin before a holy God. If he can do that, we are done for! If he can make our sins stick in the courtroom of heaven before the judge of the universe, we are DOOMED and hopeless. But the point of v. 13 and 14 is that the record that Satan could use against us and condemn us has been nailed to the cross! The one damning weapon that Satan has, which is our unforgiven sin, has been stripped out of his hands! We have no more condemnation because of Jesus amen?! Our sin has already been punished. Our sin has already been taken away. Our sin has been nailed to the cross. We can’t be accused with it anymore!

And we no longer have to fear death! Satan’s other tactic is what Hebrews 2:15 says “those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.” When Christ died in our place he took the sting out of death because he took sin out of death. He can’t hold us in bondage anymore because of our position before God that was bought by Jesus on the cross and secured through His resurrection! Jesus has disarmed Satan of our condemnation and our fear of dying, because the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law, and all of it has been satisfied and punished on the cross!

Land the Plane

So don’t coast!

Life in Christ is walking out what Jesus has worked in us.

Jesus has worked in us an identity

We have the responsibility to keep Christ close to us as we have received Him as Lord. Our identity is centered in Christ not in anything else. And our position is paid in full. Through