Colossians 2:1-15 - At the Center of Our Convictions

I’m someone who desperately needs sleep.

If I don’t get sleep, then I feel like I’m not functioning properly.

I’m far less fun to be around.

I get irritable, I get fussy, I get sharp.

Then I get emotional.

I take sleep very seriously.

You ever have one of those nights where you’re laying in bed and your mind just won’t shut off?

Every 5 minutes closer to the time you have to wake up hope just dwindles.

You’re thinking about stupid stuff - it’s never anything crucial.

If you paid your mortgage or that one embarrassing time in high school when you didn’t read the room and told your crush you really liked them and they turned you down.

I was laying in bed after an exhausting day a few weeks ago and I just could not go to sleep.

I looked at the clock and saw 3AM, and I was desperate.

I began praying for the Lord to let me get to sleep.

Then I realized that I hadn’t prayed about something heavy that had been on my heart.

30 minutes go by, and I’ve laid my soul bear before the Lord.

I’ve prayed over this church and everything that was burdening my heart.

Something is keeping Paul awake at night.

He had heard great things about the Colossians

They loved Jesus, they loved Jesus’s people.

He’s also heard of this group called the Gnostics who have been selling false teaching.

They’re really nice guys

They’re very persuasive

But it’s straight up not biblical

Paul is going to charge them with our big idea:

Big Idea: Jesus is at the center of our convictions

Stand to read

Colossians 2:1–5 ESV

1 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, 2 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 4 I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. 5 For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ.

Leader: This is God’s Word.

Everyone: Thanks be to God.

Context

There were false teachers who made them question the true value of Jesus.

They were introducing philosophy over faith.

What I think/know is more important than what is true.

Paul is sounding the alarms that there is danger here.

He is seeking to prevent the church from falling into false teaching and have them stand firm in the gospel.

Paul writes from a posture of prayer.

Paul works hard praying for them

Encouragement and unity

This type of unity comes from deep genuine love.

Complete understanding of God’s mystery.

We all have different understandings and opinions of how we see the world.

Especially when it comes to spiritual matters.

Paul recognizes that what you think about Jesus will shape your life and it makes all the difference for eternity.

Paul points the to knowing Jesus (v. 3)

Paul is taking a swing at the Gnostic teaching.

They claimed to have the secret way to wisdom and knowledge that was above the Scriptures.

They taught that you could achieve salvation through mystical knowledge, not faith.

They denied the full deity of Jesus

They believed God was incomprehensible and unknowable.

Paul points to Jesus as the treasure of all wisdom and knowledge.

When we love Jesus, love the Bible, love the church, and love one another, then God grows us toward Christ.

Paul’s prayer and concerns is that we grow more toward Christ.

In order for this to happen, Church,

1. We must know and believe who Christ truly is

An issue is many people who bring their own unbiblical ideologies to who they think Jesus is.

This modern philosophy leads us into the worship of preference.

When we neglect to understand God for who He has revealed Himself to be, we make up a god of our own.

We surrender what is true for what makes us feel better.

“I can’t believe in a God who would allow so much evil and suffering to happen in the world.”

We elevate our understanding of who God is based on our own perceptions and preference and not on truth.

This is how churches end up with phrases like “I’m not getting fed.”

This is a common phrase in churches today, and more often than not, it’s a preference issue not a legit biblical issue.

It’s a spirit-sprinkled way of saying, “You’re not doing what I want you to.”

One night, Hilary and I made dinner.

Hilary prepared asparagus and potatoes

I grilled the deer steak

This is one of my favorite meals we have at home.

We told Silas to come and eat and he says, “I’m not hungry. I don’t like it.”

I ate my food before it got cold

Then we forced Silas to sit down and eat because I wasn’t going to hear it at 9:30 “I’m hungry!”

At one point I forced him to take a bite and once the flavor touched his tongue, it was like the greatest thing on earth.

Many people approach the church this way.

“I’m not getting fed” because you refuse to come to the table.

Then when you do, you bring nothing but your preconceived notions of Jesus because you haven’t sat down with God’s Word.

When we substitute God’s Word for our philosophies, when we remove Jesus from the center of our conviction and put ourselves in the middle of it, we’ll starve.

This is why knowing Jesus from the Word is crucial.

This is why Paul calls the Colossians to hold fast to the gospel

Colossians 2:6–8 ESV

6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. 8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

They had received the gospel of Jesus Christ.

They had been changed by the gospel

Now Paul is calling them to have Jesus at the center of their convictions.

Christians must hold fast to sound doctrine that comes from Scripture.

They must be established in the faith

He’s calling the Colossians to remain faithful to Jesus!

Colossians 2:9–10 ESV

9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.

Jesus is the eternal Son of God (v. 9)

Jesus is not part God-part man

Jesus is fully God and fully man.

Jesus is the face of God.

The whole fullness of deity suggests that there is no other god!

There aren’t more ways to heaven than Jesus because in Him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily!

You can’t save yourself and neither can your philosophy.

Another philosophy of the day: More than one way to heaven?!

No! There is one way to be made right with God and it’s through Jesus Christ!

They were filled with Christ (v. 10)

Colossians 2:11–12 ESV

11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.

There’s no one mightier to save than Jesus!

Circumcision of the heart

When Jesus died for their sins,

Their old way of living had been cut away

Baptism

When Jesus rose from the dead, they identified with him!

When they were baptized they went into the water showing Jesus’s burial

They came up risen.

Stay faithful to this amazing Jesus!

This is why, Church

2. We must live rooted in Christ

Value: We stand on the Word

God has revealed Himself through the person and work of Jesus Christ in the Scriptures.

The Bible is sufficient for everything we need to know, love, and follow Jesus.

We’re Bible people.

This is why I want you to bring your Bible to church

What I’m preaching isn’t just about the Bible, but it’s from the Bible.

We need to grow in the knowledge of God to know how to recognize false and harmful teachings that is influencing our lives.

What you believe influences how you live.

Does what I believe stand against the Bible?

Is how I live my life in line with God’s Word?

This means we grow in our knowledge of the Bible.

We have to be rooted and trained in the Word.

This comes from a daily pursuit of Jesus in His Word

What you believe influences how you live.

Donnie Dick, Guns and Hoses, didn’t train. knocked out in 9 seconds.

“I’ll train the night before.”

Goes out, 9 seconds *WAH POW*

Lays him out colder than a block of ice.

Go back to fighting fires, Donnie. You’re not ready for that guy.

Donnie took an involuntary nap because he did not prepare to fight

If we’re not careful, we’ll have the same fate and not even know it.

Paul says a new philosophy will come through and kidnap you, and carry you away from Jesus.

You’ll be living a religious type of life without intimacy with Jesus.

There’s nothing better than being living rooted in Christ!

When we’re rooted in the faith we get to walk in the will of God that He has called us to.

We walk in freedom, joy, and the forgiveness that is found in Jesus!

When we live with Jesus at the center, we’re get to “abound in thanksgiving.”

It wasn’t always this way!

This wasn’t always our story

Paul reminds them as to why we hold so closely to Jesus

Gospel Presentation

Colossians 2:13–15 ESV

13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

We were all once dead in our trespasses

Notice how he says dead.

We weren’t simply struggling with sin.

We weren’t just making poor choices

We had sinned against the God of life and we were dead.

Our sin came with demands of justice.

We deserved hell.

Because God is perfect and holy, He cannot be in the presence of sin.

We deserve wrath

But God is rich in mercy and love.

He is the author of Life

Paul reminds us that God made us alive together with Jesus.

Read v. 13

How’d he do it?

He sent His Son Jesus, who is perfect in every way.

He never sinned and lived in the will of God.

He deserved God’s love.

Jesus exchanged His righteousness for our sins and then died on the cross!

When Jesus died on the cross, God looked at all of our sins and poured out His wrath onto Christ!

Read v. 14

Everything you’ve ever done, Jesus took and nailed it to the cross

Now, the record of sin that has been canceled because Jesus poured His blood on it.

Jesus poured His blood all over your death sentence!

Forgiveness of sins was secured when Jesus died on the cross!

After Jesus died so that we can be forgiven, God raised Him to life demonstrating His victory over sin death and the grave!

He triumphed over every demon that brings any charge against those who trust in Christ!

Now when you put your trust and faith in Jesus alone for salvation, you are completely forgiven of your sins and God give you a new life!

You have a new beginning! You’re a new creation!

This is why our lives are centered on the gospel!

This is why our convictions are based on Jesus!

Because church,

3. We have new life in Christ

We don’t have to wonder into empty philosophy that doesn’t point us to Jesus.

If you’re not a Christian, you can be made alive today.

Turn away from the sin that leads away from a relationship with God.

Leave behind the things that lead to death.

Turn to Jesus

He freely gave up His life on the cross so that you can have eternal life with God through faith.

I want to invite you to come speak with me

“I want to follow Jesus.”

Everyone here has a next step to take toward Jesus, and we want to help you do that.

Take the Next Step:

Identify what is leading you away from the real Jesus, and change.

Leave it.

Put Jesus at the center of your convictions.

Tell someone about what you’ve read in the Bible

Invite someone to be made alive in Christ too.