Untitled Sermon (25)

A random debate I had recently was what is the best sporting event or moment throughout the year. A lot of people say March Madness or the Olympics but my personal favorite, even though it only happens every 4 years, is the World Cup. There is something particularly special and engaging, in my opinion. There are so many iconic moments that soccer, or futbol, fans love to recall and watch replays about. There was a moment in the last decade that was absolutely shocking. Back in 2014 the World Cup took place in Brazil. Brazil is traditionally one of the best countries at the sport and because it was on their home turf they were one of, if not the, favorite to win the whole thing. Then in the semi finals against Germany, the goals came fast. At halftime they were down 5-0, they ended up losing 7-1. Brazil had incredible offense on that team but that day, their defense failed them. I think we like to focus on offense, in sports offense sells more tickets, but a good defense is necessary to ultimately experience victory. We are currently in a series… and today we are in Colossians 2:1-5. In this passage Paul will begin to address the false teaching that he discusses in this letter. But before he dives in to confronting false teaching, we first need to know our defense. Yes we can have every argument against a false teaching and what makes it wrong or damaging, but without our actual defense we will, most likely, eventually be broken down by any number of false teachings. Let’s pray and we will dive in. 

Today we are going to break down our passage by looking at 3 defenses we need in order to combat false teachings. He writes in verse 4… these defenses have a specific goal, that they are not taken away from Christ. If Christ, if the Gospel, is deluded then we no longer have the Truth. Our desire should be to remain in the Truth, and to have the Truth remain in us. So how do we defend ourselves from plausible arguments? From false teachings and ideologies that take us away from the Truth? 

First, defense #1: community. Let’s look at verses 1-2… so this passage begins with Paul talking about his great struggle he has for these people. The ESV does a good job of putting emphasis here on the severity of the struggle because the word here is indicates that it is causing deep agony within him. He wants them to be firm and steadfast in their faith in the face of many challenges and false teachings. What is remarkable about this is that, as we see in verse 1, he has never met these people. There was no social media even so he would not have even known what they look like. But someone he discipled planted this church. 

This might be odd to us because our current culture is individualistic. Caring this deeply about others, especially others you do not know, is simply not how we operate. But caring about, and being cared for, is actually a defense God has given us to protect us from false teachings. It keeps us accountable to other and it reminds us that we are not alone. Does anybody ever watch those discovery channel, or similar, animal shows? Recently Tom Hanks did one on the Americas. I think they are fascinating. Seeing how God has designed everything to work and how intricate creation is truly is a reminder of how precise God was when He created everything. It really reminds you that there is no way that all of this was an accident. But anyway I digress. In those shows there are always scenes where there is a predator like a lion or wolf or shark who is hunting. They follow a group of animals and they are hoping to get ahold of one of them for dinner. Anybody know the typical strategy? It is to separate one of the animals from the rest of the pack. Now that is easiest to do with those who are young, or hurt, or sick. But at the end of the day, the ultimate strategy is to separate their target from the pack. 

1 Peter 5:8, “8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” Satan prowls around like those predators, and the easiest target to deceive is the person who is alone. I truly believe one of the most effective lies he tells and convinces people of is that they are alone, because if they believe they are alone they will act alone and ultimately that will lead to them being alone, an easy target for him. So the defense we must utilize and take advantage of is community. We must be knit together. Not just because we should but because we truly love one another. 

So here is the question from two different directions: do you know people here and are you known by people here? And I do not simply mean do people know your name and what you do for work. I mean are there people who know you, what you struggle with, what is going on in our lives. This does not mean every member at Christ Church needs to know your current sin struggles, but it is important that some do. Even the embarrassing things, it is important people know. When people know you, it is easier, and even possible, to fight temptation, to endure suffering, and to remain connected, fighting the lies that you are alone in whatever it is. When you know people, it informs your prayers for them and not only reminds you that you are not alone but it also grows our love for one another. Now this is not easy, it takes vulnerability, it is a risk, we have fear of not knowing how people will respond. But if we are going to be the community of Jesus followers we want to be, we have to prioritize and live this out. And this will allow us to live out Romans 12:15 ”15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.” 

But just simply having a community is not quite enough defense in and of itself. We also need the defense #2: right belief. Let’s finish reading verse 2-3… to have full assurance, which I am sure we all would love, we must have the understanding and knowledge of Christ. This boils down to knowing the Gospel and knowing what God asks of us. (Present Gospel). We have to know that. We need to also know the basic story of Scripture. One good way to have the right belief that is tied to the historical and orthodox Christian faith is through Creeds and Confessions, or belief statements (explain). This is why we say a creed together once a month. 

Our denomination has a great statement of faith as well. Let me show you an example. It has 10 statements and the first one is about God that says: We believe in one God, Creator of all things, holy, infinitely perfect, and eternally existing in a loving unity of three equally divine Persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Having limitless knowledge and sovereign power, God has graciously purposed from eternity to redeem a people for Himself and to make all things new for His own glory. Another example: We believe that the true church comprises all who have been justified by God's grace through faith alone in Christ alone. They are united by the Holy Spirit in the body of Christ, of which He is the Head. The true church is manifest in local churches, whose membership should be composed only of believers. The Lord Jesus mandated two ordinances, baptism and the Lord’s Supper, which visibly and tangibly express the gospel. Though they are not the means of salvation, when celebrated by the church in genuine faith, these ordinances confirm and nourish the believer.

Using things like this can help us defend well against things that are false. In Ephesians 6:10-20 we have the famous armor of God section. In this passage, 4 times it tells us we need to stand firm, or to stand, in the Truth. As it goes through the various elements of the armor it all goes back to standing. Belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, shield of faith, helmet of salvation, sword of the Spirit, shoes of readiness to share the Gospel. But we must be firm in right belief, right doctrine. This is one of the reasons Christless conservatism is dangerous. Sure, it is great when someone opposed things that are false, but without having the defense of Christ as the Truth it is ultimately lacking the most important thing, where there is all wisdom and knowledge. 

One of my favorite short parables Jesus tells is in Matthew 7:24-27 about building a house. We are told to build our house on what? The rock. This is about foundation. This is about standing firm. If that is not right, I do not care if you have every great sociological and phycological argument why LGBTQ movement is harming kids and women, if it is not built on the ultimate foundation of Truth, which is Christ, then we are missing it completely. 

Paul here is also taking a subtle jab at the actual false teaching saying you think you found this incredible hidden knowledge, I am telling you that the only True knowledge and wisdom is found in God’s true mystery, which was revealed with Christ. Truth is not found within, it is not our feelings, it is not whatever the culture is pushing. Truth is only found in Christ. Everyone agrees finding identity and purpose is a good thing to do. But if that purpose is not rooted in ultimate Truth, Jesus Christ, if our identity is not that we belong to Him, then whatever purpose or identity we find will be destructive and lead us down a dangerous path. 

Which leads to our final defense #3: perseverance. Let’s read verse 4… so Paul does not want these Christians to be deluded, or deceived, by anything. If you go back to verse 23 of chapter 1, we see that Paul wants believers to hold fast, to be firm in their faith. There will come arguments against it, there will be false teachings, there will be those who are wolves in sheep’s clothing, trying to pull you away from the Truth. Right? We see this in a variety of ways, whether it is the prosperity gospel, what I call the destiny gospel (or prosperity gospel lite), progressive Christianity, or just those who outright are anti-Scripture. And just because you remain firm against one false teaching does not mean you will be free from remaining steadfast, from persevering. Perseverance will be a lifelong struggle for each of us. 

Unfortunately satan does not give up. He will continue to push false and harmful ideologies, false and damning gospels, because people fall for them. 1 Timothy 4:3-5 “3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.” Itching ears because it is tempting to believe the false things, in some ways they sound good. Don’t you love your neighbor? Don’t you want to be nice? Don’t you want to be rich? Don’t you want to be healthy? Don’t you want to have fun? But just because something sounds good does not make it true. 

Back in Genesis 3 the serpent asked Eve a question, “did God really say…?” This is the question and it takes endurance to hold firm. It takes perseverance to find the answer Scripture says rather than being fine with the first answer you hear or even trusting what some person says immediately. We are commanded to test everything. Like you should not simply believe my words just because I am up here every week. I implore you to test, to read, to check other good sources, to ask questions, to reach out, and to converse with one another. But ultimately we want it to always come down to honoring Christ, that should always be our ultimate goal, honor Christ to the glory of God. Let’s read verse 5…

Holding firm onto faith is a reason to rejoice. We all know this, it is why we celebrate a life of faith well lived at funerals. We hold up people who lived a life of faithfulness to Jesus as an example for us to follow. But I want us to challenge ourselves to not only admire those who do that but strive to do that ourselves. I mean make it an actual goal, talk about it with family and brothers and sisters in Christ, say I want to be a person in 10, 20, 30, 40, or however many years that people look at and say that I persevered. I held fast to faith. That is a worthy goal, it is something worth striving after. 

How can we put that goal into practice? I want to discuss a few ways we can put this goal into practice. Resist temptation. Repent. Honesty. Spiritual disciplines (prayer, reading, fasting, journaling). Family worship/devotions. Church. 

In the coming weeks we will be a little more specific about false teachings, but we must start with our defense rather than our offense. I think if we did this more than some of the things that often trip up Christians would not be as effective. And 3 great defenses we have are community, right belief, and perseverance. May we be faithful and steadfast to the glory of God. Let’s pray.