Rooted in Christ

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.

Therefore—a word that introduces a conclusion

Maybe a course of action based on a point that you have made

--”the car is almost out of gas. THEREFORE, take it down to Casey’s and put some gas in it”

My car’s tires were bad. THEREFORE I took it to reliable tire and had them put some new tires on it

And always, when you read this word “therefore” in the Bible, you need to recognize that the author is about to make an important conclusion

And introduce a course of action based on something that he has said earlier

In this case, we have a pretty big “THEREFORE”

Therefore...

Since we have recognized the preeminence of Jesus

And since we have recognized that He is worth suffering joyfully for

These are both truths that we need to respond to

Because recognizing the truth about Jesus requires a response from us.

In this short passage we read today there are 3 more actions and responses

A. As you received....so walk in Him

B. As you were rooted…be built up in Him

C. As you were taught…be established in Him

As you received Christ Jesus the LORD

As you received Christ Jesus the LORD

This is the statement that we are going to make a conclusion from

So, if we are going to make some conclusions from that statement, it seems reasonable to investigate this statement a little farther and ask some questions about it

Have you received Christ Jesus as LORD

If so, how? What did it look like? Do you remember doing that?

And if you received Him as LORD at one time, are you still receiving Him as LORD?

You know, as I look around this room, I think it’s probably pretty safe to say that a good many of us, can remember a time when we “received Christ Jesus as LORD”

My question is, do we remember that time? If so, HOW was it?

Do you remember what the experience was like?

What did it take for you to come to the place of receiving Jesus as LORD?

Did you know that you needed Him?

And are you still receiving Him as LORD even today?

What does it mean to receive Christ Jesus as LORD?

What does the Bible say about receiving Jesus

As we look back on the life of Jesus, we see various ways that people received Him

The disciples (at least some of them) received Him as a conquering hero, the one who would overthrow their oppressors and sit on the throne of David

The religious leaders received Him as some kind of religious madman, one who was to be avoided at all costs, and one who needed to be disposed of lest He lead the people astray

The Romans received Him, as someone whom they could tolerate if He didn’t cause too much trouble

The common people (many of them anyway) received him as a worker of miracles, someone fascinating and someone who taught them clearly and simply, unlike the religious leaders

But how did Jesus say that He wanted to be received?

Mark 10:13–15 “13 And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. 14 But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. 15 Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.””

There are two remarkable things from this little passage:

We receive the Kingdom of God

We talk about receiving Jesus as our personal Savior

But Jesus didn’t talk like that. He didn’t talk about us receiving Him as our personal savior

Now, that doesn’t mean that we don’t have personal responsibility to respond to Him. We do!

But Jesus didn’t talk about being a personal Savior

Instead, He talked A LOT about the Kingdom of God

In Mark chapter 1, it says that Jesus came in Galilee preaching this message:

“The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe the gospel!”

What is the gospel? Well according to Jesus, it is this: It’s the message that the Kingdom of God is at hand

Jesus came to establish the rule, the reign, the authority of God on this earth in a new way. To establish Himself as King. The One foretold by the prophets

“the time is fulfilled”—in other words, this is what the prophets were talking about

This is something that that I want to explore further with you in the future, but i emphasize it because I think that sometimes we get caught up in the teaching of our evangelical brothers and sisters, and we see the idea of the Kingdom being mainly a future thing…during the millenium

And I would say to you that the Kingdom is NOW

And when we talk about receiving Jesus we are actually talking about receiving the KINGDOM

Which makes sense with what Paul says in Colossians 2. He said, “You have received Him as LORD”

You have received Him as King. why? Because you are in His Kingdom

And we receive that Kingdom like little children

you know, I had to think of a little child going to school for the first time

for the first 4 or 5 years, this child has been under the direct authority of his mom and dad

But then, you take him to school and you tell him, “Ok, now remember you need to listen to your teacher. You need to obey your teacher. You need to obey the principal”

And the child says, “OK”, and he goes into this new place and (at least ideally), he recognizes the teacher as his new authority

Now, I know that every analogy breaks down somewhere

But you think about a child and the way that he adapts to a new authority structure

and it’s a small picture of what Jesus is saying about receiving HIm and His Kingdom

Jesus, you are my new authority. I’m moving into your Kingdom…You are my King. My allegiance is to you

So, walk in Him

So, now that you have received Jesus Christ as LORD, as King

Now that you have moved into His Kingdom

So, walk, or continue to walk in Him

Here is a little two word phrase that’s going to appear a few more times in the following verses—6 times anyway, at least this phrase or variants of it

“in Him”

Now that you have received Christ and He is your King, now your responsibility is to walk in Him

Notice the active nature of this statement

But he says, “Walk in Him”

This idea of “being in Christ” is something that I really started to think about when we went through the Gospel of John

Because it’s not something that I really thought about when I was younger. I didn’t really hear it emphasized from the pulpit

Because it’s in John chapter 15 that Jesus really starts to stress this idea of being “in Him”

“Abide in me”

And then in His prayer for His disciples, He prays with this same idea in mind—I in them, them in me, I in the Father, the Father in me

This unity between Jesus and His Father and with us as His followers

In Him. When you start to look for this phrase, you find that it shows up over and over again in the NT

Again, this is an idea that is much deeper and comprehensive than the language that we often employ to describe salvation

We tend to think of salvation as an answer to the question “do you know where you are going when you die?”

“Ask Jesus into your heart so that you go to Heaven when you die”

This is a deep and abiding union with God through the work of Jesus Christ

It speaks of trust and faith--

we as Believers throwing all that we have on the work that He has done

Knowing that on our own, we have nothing worth offering God

“Walk”—implies a daily abiding—in Him is where we make our home. We’ve taken up residence In Him

It implies a daily discipleship

Our life, the direction of our life, our decisions, our daily choices, our relationships, what we do with our money, all of that, these things are ALL in Christ and therefore under His Lordship and His rule as King

You know, over the church retreat, I was talking with some guys and we started talking about some things that make us different as Mennonites (anabaptists)

Why have we typically believed differently about things like

going to war or using force

voting

Serving on juries

dressing differently

Living differently

Those things that make us unique

Well, it’s because we believe that we are Kingdom citizens

And in the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, our first and primary allegiance is to Him. And we can’t let anything come between us and Him

have we always gotten it right? No. But that is the heart behind some of this

So Paul says, Since you have received Jesus as King

Not “If”

Paul didn’t sit around thinking about, “let’s see. I’ve received Jesus has Savior. But have I received Him as Lord and master?

For him, as it should be for us, it is all one and the same

, walk in Him

CONTINUE TO LIVE IN HIM

What is your walk like?

Are you walking in Him?

As you were rooted...

Rooted and grounded

This probably brings any different number of pictures to our mind

I always think of a tree

It’s amazing what a tree can endure when it has roots that go deep and are grounded

Winds, drought, having a limb break off or get cut off, disease, scarring

a tree can grow at the most unlikely of places as well

in a cliff

In a desert

in salt water

It all depends on how deep its roots go, how well it was grounded

You know, as people, we like to know that we have a firm foundation, something to stand on, somewhere to place our trust and our identity

And there are a lot of things that can serve as a foundation “of sorts” for people.

For men, it can tend to be our occupation or our jobs

Our foundation lies in what we do

We feel rooted in that.

And we might fear the thought of that ever being taken away from us

Not because we fear that we won’t be able to make money, but because there is this big “identity” piece to it

This is where my roots are. This is who I am

For others, it might be in our possessions

There is so much security, we feel, in what we own

For many of us, we feel rooted in our church denomination, or our style of worship

identity for us as Mennonites is such a

What, or whom are you rooted in?

Paul would say here, we need to be rooted in Christ

In Psalms 1, we are familiar with the picture that is given there of a man who delights in the law of the LORD. He is like a tree whose roots go down to the water

But God foretold of a time when the law would be written on our hearts.

And Jesus came and said, “I am the fulfillment of the Law”. And now, we are to be rooted in Him.

He needs to be our foundation

1 Corinthians 3:10–11 “10 According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. 11 For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”

I think that we all need to prayerfully examine our lives and ask the question, “Where am I rooted?”

Am I truly rooted in Jesus? If everything in my life was taken away, but I still had Jesus, would I survive?

Would I have that firm foundation?

Would I be like that tree whose roots go down to the water?

If we are rooted in Him, if He is our foundation, then

Be built up in Him

If you are rooted, in Him, then there should be evidence of that

That you are growing, being built up

One of Pauls desires for the Colossian believers is that they will grow

In his prayer for them in chapter 1, he prays this:

Colossians 1:9–11 “9 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy;”

He talks about bearing fruit, being strengthened.

That is the result of being rooted in Christ Jesus, that your life begins to bear fruit

This past spring, we planted some tomato plants, and they did really well.

They looked great anyway

But we weren’t sure that they were going to bear fruit

They finally did, but for a while I was wondering, “What’s the point? Maybe I should just pull them up”

The Holy Spirit desires our lives to bear fruit

And the only way that will happen is if we are rooted in Jesus

So, the question is, are you bearing fruit?

I think everyone does bear fruit. The question is, what kind of fruit are you bearing

Love—joy

Love—peace

Love—patience and forgiveness

If so, then that is evidence that you are rooted in Christ and are being built up in Him

As you have been taught…be established in the faith

This is much the same picture of being rooted and built up in Christ

Have you been taught? Are you being taught?

Are you continuing to learn

Occasionally we read this word in Scripture--”established”

What does it mean to be established?

When I read this word, I think of being

fixed

Completed

Like a house. You can build a new house, put the siding and windows on it,

And from the outside it looks really good. IT is a house.

You can even have the counters done and the flooring in

But yet it’s still just a house. It hasn’t been established as a home yet

It’s not until a family moves in there and gets all their stuff in there and things up on the walls, that this building is established as a home

It is functioning as it was meant to function

So, Paul ties being taught to being established

One who has been taught and is continuing to be taught, continuing to learn and put that into practice in their lives

is someone who is established…they are functioning as a Believer should function

They don’t just look good from the outside

But they are grabbing hold of the words of Scripture. They are grabbing hold of the words of Jesus and these are becoming part of their lives in an active way.

And established person is

One who himself is a faithful disciple

This person is disciplined in their Christian life.

The practices that have been taught to them are part of their lives in a way that is personal

Things like:

Fasting

Giving

Serving

Praying for others

Encouraging others

These are things that have moved from someone else’s idea of the Christian walk, to things that I do because I want to follow Jesus

One who teaches others to be faithful disciples

I think that this is so important. This is evidence of being an established Believer—when you are able to take what you are taught and offer that to others

I believe that this should be our goal, our aim…to disciple others

And I know that this takes being intentional

And many of us never get there. We are busy, we’ve got lots going on

And…many of us feel like we have nothing to offer.

We think, yeah, I know that Jesus said to make disciples. And I would like to disciple somone, but, I just don’t know if I have much to offer

Well, I’m here to say to you, especially to those of us who are adults and have known Jesus for a long time, “YOU DO HAVE SOMETHING TO OFFER”

And there are younger men and women, men and women who are newer in the faith than you are, and they need you

And honest question. “If I really don’t have much to offer to someone younger or newer than me, Am I really established in the faith?”

Am I really able to function as Jesus intends for me to function?

Something for us to think about

Overflowing, abounding in Thanksgiving

You know, I’ve said this before, but honest confession, I feel like I’m the last one who should be talking about thanksgiving

It’s an area that the Holy Spirit has had to convict me on

But when you are reminded about who Jesus is and that He is worthy of all that I can give Him

Should not this be part of my life as a response to Him?

Thankfulness, gratefulness