Complete in Christ

Colossians 2:8-23

After Paul shares the integrity of his life (1:24-29) and the burden of his heart (2:1-7) he moves on to directly confront the problem in the Colossian church. False teachers had entered the church. They were drawing people away from Christ and to a man-made religion. The heresy they proclaimed is not laid out in detail for us. We don’t know many specifics about the belief system of these men. What we do know is what they were teaching was causing people to trust less in Christ and more in other things.

Anything that draws us away from the person and sufficiency of Christ is heresy. I don’t have to fully understand a false religion to know it’s false. I don’t have to read a whole book or study all the tenants of a faith to recognize heresy. When a religion makes salvation dependent on anyone or anything other than Christ, that’s enough for me.

This evening we look at two very simple things: The warning of Paul and the work of Christ.

I. The Warning of Paul (8-10, 16-23).

Look at verse 8- Paul says “See to it”- watch out, be careful, beware

“that no one takes you captive” means “to carry off booty.” False teachers are coming into the church trying to overtake it and you are their booty. You are their prize. You are their target.

A warning sign of a false teacher is they try and remove you from a Bible believing church. They’ll say “Come join us!”

Mormons

Jehovah Witness

Seventh Day Adventists

We get upset when the preacher says anything about these groups. The truth is they target people who already go to church and try to pull them away.

What are their sources to do this with?

“Philosophy”- They’re going to share some philosophy, some belief system they’ve memorized. They’ll have just enough Bible to suck you in. Every faction has a philosophy and every philosophy has talking points.

“empty deceit” There’s no substance to anything they say.

“human tradition” This teaching was handed down to them by people not God.

“elemental spirits of the world” refers back to the basics. In other words, the false teachers often try to take a person backwards, into the Old Covenant specifically.

Look at the end of verse 8. “And not according to Christ.” The false teachers are leading people away from Christ and to philosophy, vain deceit, traditions of men and the rudiments of this world.

Look at verse 9. Paul says in Christ dwells all of the fullness of deity dwells bodily. In other words, Christ is all we need. Christ is God! Look at verse 10. He says we are complete in Christ. Why would we look for sufficiency in anything other than Christ?

Now we get more specific. We’re going to look at what Paul warns the Colossians about. We see three things:

1. Legalism (16-17) The belief that strict obedience to God’s laws makes one righteous. Notice Paul says “Let no one pass judgment on you”. In other words, don’t let them convince you you’re wrong when you know what the Scripture says.

There were people in the Colossian church who were trying to convince the church to live by the Old Testament Law. When people refused they judged them. Paul said don’t let that happen!

Don’t let them judge you because of what you eat. In the Old Covenant certain foods were off limits. They were considered unclean. The Bible doesn’t tell us exactly why they were unclean so all we can do is speculate.

Some say it was all about hygiene.

Some say the food represented our relation to God as image bearers. In other words, only certain animals could be sacrificed to God and if God only receives certain animals then we should do the same.

Some say it was to keep Israel separate from the pagan nations. If you couldn’t eat with someone then you couldn’t do much at all with them. So the laws were a safeguard. They made Israel unique.

When we come to the New Testament we see those laws are done away with.

Peter saw his vision in Acts 10. He saw all these unclean animals and heard a voice that said “Rise and eat!”

He had to be told three times before he would obey.

Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:4 every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving.

Paul said in Romans 14:14 “I know and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself.”

Fry a catfish, boil a shrimp, roast an oyster, barbeque a hog! It’s ok! Jesus made it ok! If anyone who tells you you’re sinning because you have a cup of coffee or a glass of tea tell them to have a coke and smile! Don’t let them judge you because of what you eat!

Don’t let them judge you because of festivals. They were telling the folks they had to keep Passover, Feast of Tabernacles, and many other so called holy festivals.

Don’t let them judge you on the Sabbath. Some were saying don’t do a thing on Saturday! We’ve got groups out there today who go so far as to say if you don’t worship God on Saturday then you’ve taken the mark of the beast. Foolishness! I’ll tell you why:

The Sabbath was a sign between God and Israel (Ex 31:16)

The OT never condemns a Gentile for not keeping the Sabbath

No one before Moses kept the Sabbath

Jesus never condemned one person for not keeping the Sabbath

The New Testament doesn’t command us to observe the Sabbath one time!

The Jerusalem council did not mention the Sabbath (Acts 15)

NT worship is on the first day of the week (Acts 20:7).

Paul said it was a matter of liberty in Romans 14:5

Why shouldn’t we allow people to judge us over these things? Look at verse 17.

These things are a shadow of Christ. The Law is fulfilled in Christ! The shadow is not greater than the reality.

When it comes to Food, Christ is the Bread of Life (J 6:41)

When it comes to Festivals, Christ is my Passover (1 Cor. 5:7)

When it comes to the Sabbath, Christ is my Sabbath (Hebrews 4:1-11).

The shadows of the Old Testament were meant to build an anticipation within us for the reality that was coming. It’s foolish to return to shadows when you have the real thing. It’s like clinging to the marriage ceremony rather than enjoying the marriage itself. There are a lot of shadows in a marriage ceremony.

White- represents the purity of the bride

Giving of the Bride represents the approval of the parents

Ring represents an unending bond

Veil represents the invitation to intimacy

All that is beautiful but it’s all a shadow. The shadow of the ceremony is nothing compared to the intimacy of the marriage. After the wedding what do the couple want to do? They want to leave!

You don’t enjoy marriage with the shadows. You enjoy it with the reality. It’s foolish to cling to shadows, symbols when you have the intimacy of Christ.

2. Mysticism. The belief that direct knowledge of God can be attained through subjective experience.

Look at verse 18. Paul says “Let no man disqualify you” The word disqualify means “to act as an umpire”. These false teachers are like spiritual referees. They’re standing at home plate and calling you out. Paul says to quit letting them do that.

Some of them claimed ultra-spiritual experiences like communicating with angels or seeing visions. While they pretended to be humble they were actually puffed up and proud. They saw themselves as more spiritual than others.

The problem was they weren’t connected to Christ (19). Maybe they did communicate with spiritual beings, maybe they did see visions. That doesn’t mean they were from God.

Joseph Smith said he communicated with an angel and received revelation which led to the book of Mormon. I have no doubt he had a spiritual experience. The problem is the spirits he was communicating with were not of God.

Every vision is not from God. Every angel is not from God. Every revelation is not from God. We measure truth by the Word of God not the mystical experiences of people.

You say “I heard from an angel!” I don’t care. I don’t talk to angels.

You say “I had a vision!” I don’t care. I have a Savior so I don’t need your angels and I have a Bible so I don’t need your visions.

3. Asceticism (20-23). The belief that abstaining from pleasure brings one closer to God.

Paul says these people won’t touch certain thing, taste certain things or handle certain things. They’re careful. In verse 23 he says they neglect their body.

They think that starving themselves, denying themselves gets them closer to God. Paul says none of that stuff is of any benefit.

Celibacy is an example of this. Gandhi did that at around age 37 even though he was married. If God hasn’t called you to be married that’s one thing. But being celibate doesn’t make a person more spiritual.

Starving yourself.

Doing some outrageous act. Simeon the Stylite lived for 37 years on an elevated platform. People came from everywhere to witness his commitment.

What did Jesus say about this? He said if you’re going to fast don’t let anyone know you are. Don’t try and look pitiful. Some folks do these outrageous things so you’ll think they’re spiritual. Paul said you can go so far as to give your body to be burned but if you don’t have the love of Christ you have nothing! These things can’t change the heart. They don’t help in our struggle against sin.

Paul tells the Colossians not to be deceived by the legalism, mysticism and asceticism of the false teachers.

II. The Work of Christ (11-15).

1. Circumcision without hands (11).

To the Jews circumcision was the sign of the covenant. The cutting away of the flesh symbolized that something needed to be removed at the most intimate of places.

Paul says we have a circumcision made without hands. In other words, God has circumcised us. He has cut something away. Paul says he has cut away the body of our flesh.

Jesus has removed something for us. He has removed our heart of stone and cast it away. He has replaced it with a heart of flesh (Ez. 36:26). God has circumcised our hearts! Old things have passed away (2 Cor. 5:17).

We have also been removed from the kingdom of darkness and placed in the kingdom of light.

2. Raised to a new life (12).

Just as circumcision was a symbol of salvation so is baptism. Just as Christ was dead in that grave we were dead in our sins. And just as Christ rose from His grave, Christ has quickened us, resurrected us from our spiritual graves.

Circumcision symbolizes something removed. Baptism symbolizes someone is risen. We have a new life in Christ.

3. Forgiven (13).

Look at the end of verse 13 “having forgiven us all our trespasses”. Notice that’s connected to your conversion. When you are made alive you are forgiven.

How do I know I’m forgiven? I’ve been converted. I’ve been born again! I know I’ve been forgiven because I know I’ve been converted (regenerated).

4. Free (14).

Paul describes our relationship to the law. He calls it the “record of debt”. He says it was:

Against us- it was the evidence that we were sinners.

It stood opposed to us as a witness in court.

In our way (He set it aside)- it kept us from forgiveness and God.

“Nailing it to the cross” The Romans would write down a person’s crime and nail it to their cross. The writing was in indictment against the victim. Jesus indictment read “King of the Jews”.

You and I had a list of crimes. Our crimes involved breaking God’s law. All our sins have been recorded.

We have put things before God

We have worshipped idols

We have taken the Lord’s name in vain

We have lied

We have stolen

We have been covetous

We have committed adultery

We have dishonored our parents

All our sins, written down, Paul says were nailed to the cross. Christ was punished as if He had been an idolatrous, blaspheming liar who killed, stole and committed unthinkable immoral acts.

Because Christ died in our place He blotted out all the indictments against us. He paid the price. The phrase “blotted out” means “canceled”. Canceled means it isn’t coming back. It’s like CSI Miami, it’s gone and the best you can get is reruns.

5. Victorious (15).

The rulers and authorities mentioned here are demonic beings. Satan and his host have been defeated. They are trying to take the Colossians captive (8) but the reality is they have been taken captive.

Look at the end of verse 15. He says, “He put them to open shame, by triumphing over them.”

In Paul’s day Generals would parade the army they defeated through the streets of Rome. They would make an open show of the people they defeated.

Paul says Jesus is our great General. Through the cross and the resurrection he has defeated Satan. One of these days we’ll see that. The whole world will watch Christ eternally judge Satan and all who follow Him.

Because Christ is victorious we are victorious.

Because of Christ we are complete, circumcised in heart, risen to a new life, forgiven, free and victorious.

The One thing- All I need is found in Christ.