Colossians Final

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11 in whom you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ,

12 having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.

13 And you being dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive with Him, having graciously forgiven us all our transgressions.

14 Having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us which was hostile to us, He also has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

15 Having adisarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them in Him.

16 Therefore, no one is to judge you in food and drink, or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day—

17 things which are only a shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.

18 Let no one keep adefrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, going into detail about visions he has seen, being puffed up for nothing by his fleshly mind,

19 and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.

20 If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees:

21 “Do not handle, nor taste, nor touch”?

22 Which deal with everything destined to perish with use, which are in accordance with the commands and teachings of men;

23 which are matters having, to be sure, a word of wisdom in aself-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.

As we can see paul starts this verse off with so many metaphors,
Circumcisoin and baptism for the jews
Canceling of debts for the tax collectors
overthrowing rulers and authorities for people in the military
He’s trying to hit as many groups at once and remind them what Jesus did
About the cross, and the price he paid
Often times we have to come back to just the cross, it’s the root of it all
Our reset button
In the last supper jesus says do this in remembrance of me
He is the lamb slain before all of foundation
He does this a lot before going into the problems the church is going to
In 1 corinthians he does the same thing in the second chapter, i come declaring knowing nothing but the cross
The begginings of romans he says hes a slave to christ
He always opens up with Jesus because that’s what its all about
Comparison, pride, jealousy, strife, It all occurs in the church when we stray from the cross and depend on man, on ourselves
Let’s look deeper
We can look at these first 5 verses in 3 categories
cleansed, canceled, and crushed

in whom you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ,

12 having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.

Just before paul is telling them ton not be decieved by empty philosphy
One of the philiosphies going around was legalism
Adhering to strict rules to be accepted by God
If you do this, this, and this you will be accepted
Paul was warning them agasint this
The jews were telling people they had to be circumcised to be saved
They were taking a spiritual act, representing being set apart, and putting power on the act
We think it’s silly today but sometimes we think of it this way
Are you saved? I was baptised
Are you saved, im circumcised, im fine
Taking a loot at what you do, instead of your heart
Jesus says he’s after the heart
He cleanses us with a circumcision without hands, removing the body of flesh
in baptism we die with christ, and are raised up again
When we are with God we are a new being, a new creation, made new in Jesus’ name
It isn’t a one time thing that we do, like baptism or circumcision
It’s a lifestyle
We have been removed from the body of the flesh by Jesus
Born and raised again with Jesus in his death
What he calls us to do is to daily live setting aside the desires of the flesh
The people in the church boast about their actions, but their hearts speak a different story
Look into your hearts, where Jesus resides not man, do you live setting aside the flesh?
Following Jesus isn’t a one time decision, it’s a lifetime decision
Everyday you wake up you have to decide and strive to set aside your flesh and live in the spirit
Walk in the spirit, love in the spirit
It’s something i’ve been learning
He cleans us slowly through sanctification
It takes time, but he takes things the world can’t
For some people addictions flee, for others it takes awhile
Paul himself complained about a thorn in his side
But he does

And you being dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive with Him, having graciously forgiven us all our transgressions.

14 Having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us which was hostile to us, He also has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

He has canceled our debts
he has cleansed us once and for all, and canceled all our transgressions against god
We were once dead
But it’s God who has lifted us up, only him
Dead people can’t do anything
All of our lives are a testament to this
Before God i didn’t have any desire to read the bible, pray, talk about God
A slave to my sin
After being saved, I have the desire to do these things
Even being able to think like this, want to worship him is all glory to God
When i look at where i was and where I am now, I know God has transformed me
He has canceled out my debt to God
We serve a perfectly Holy God, and a perfectly Just God
MEaning he has to deal with any sin
But he didn’t take it out on us like we deserved
Jesus took it for us
Roman soldiers would take the crimes of citizens and put it on the cross to show to not go agaisnt the empre
When Jesus went on the cross he took all of our sins
It was nailed to the cross with him
He canceled our debt once and for all
Our burden, our transgression against God had been done
Jesus says it, is , finished
and it was,
Jesus lived the perfect life for us, one that we couldn’t live, and died for us
And through the bsptism of the spirit we are united with him,,
It’s as if We lived that perfect life, and Jesus lived ours
It’s so hard to believe this when we are in the midst of our sin
We screwed up
We deny his presence in our daily times
How could God still love me
Don’t listen to the lies of the devil
We think that pit, that guilt is God looking down at our pitiful lives
Why do i struggle and sin and feel so bad
What if it was a sign of rejoice
That feeling in us is the spirit telling us this isn’t you
We are a new creation
We have been baptised, cleansed
The spirit reminding us we are dead to the flesh come back to the father
How blessed are we to have a God who loves us so much he’ll do anything to get us back
He tugs at us, reminds us, wants us to come back to him
I’d argue if we didn’t have that, no conviction maybe look at your life
Has there been some lines you have crossed
Why do i still struggle with sin
Lucas you don’t know what i Go through
We have fleshly bodies, we live in a world of sin
The difference with Jesus is our destination does not change
The debt has been canceled
My sins have been washed
In the midst of my sin I don’t have to worry about cleaning myself up out of my sin, pulling myself up to achieve God’s good gracess
In the middle of my struggle, when Im failing, i can look up at Jesus and say you are still with me

15 Having disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them in Him.

The romans would hold parades after their succesful conquest
Rolling down the city, plunder, look, chariots the soldiers and generals
Declaring their victory
That’s what Jesus did for us
Not only just earthly rulers and powers
Pharisees, saudicess, the romans
But all the heavenly powers,
Every demon, satan himself, wanted jesus to die
Paint a picture
The whole world, worked against God’s plan to save us
Satan tried to tempt him in the desert
When they saw him on the cross they thought they won
They thought it was the end
The son of GOd put to death
But what they thought was the end, is the beggining of my new life
He rose from the grave
He descended to the dead, declared his victory over all
Death, sin, everything
He made a public display to satan, where is your sting
I hold the victory
Not only have I won, anyone who resides in my I will protect
I intercede for them
You want to throw accusations and sin, I will burden it all
They are blameless and holy now

16 Therefore, no one is to judge you in food and drink, or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day—

17 things which are only a shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.

Food and drink are the old testament laws
Festivals are the yearly Jewish holiday
New moon are the sacrifices on the first of the month
Sabbath day is the day of rest
All of that are old testament acts pointing towards Jesus for us
All a shadow of what to come
All rituals, and rules
But the essence of it all was about Jesus, the lamb destined to be slain before the foundation of the world
Under Jesus we have a new covenant, a new freedom
Love god with all our mind and heart
Love our neighbor as ourselves
There is no need for these anymore because we have the real sacrifice before us
He is our sabbath, we rest from doing works

18 Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, going into detail about visions he has seen, being puffed up for nothing by his fleshly mind,

self abasement, or asceticism is the denial of the flesh, torturing the human body to earn god’s good graces
Legalism to it’s fullest
Do this and this and this and you will earn god’s love
It’s a sick pride for the flesh
Look at me , all i do
outside rituals do not affect inward spirituality
Don’t let people base your inward goodness for outward things
You don’t raise your hands high enough, do not pray loud enough,
But check your own heart
The only thing we can judge on is fruits
the higher role you take the more reposnisbility
Worship angels is a heresy that plagued the area the coloosian heresy
Visions puffed up by a fleshly mind
Be rooted in christ, to know and discern what is right or wrong

19 and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.

Let no one hold you away from the head of it all christ
He is the only source of all spiritual growth
Let no one keep you from holding fast to Jesus, the Head. Every bit of spiritual growth—every joint, every ligament—is from Him and for His glory. Stay connected. Don’t drift.
Before I was born again, I had no desire to read God’s Word, to pray, or to seek Him. Nothing could have stirred that in me except Jesus Himself. If God hadn’t changed my heart, I wouldn’t be here. Even the desire to live for Him is a gift.
Yet somehow, we forget this. We fall back into fleshly thinking—maybe because we live in the flesh every day. But living in the Spirit is a choice, not something that happens by accident. And too often, we settle into the routine of Christianity—check off church, don’t sin, take communion—but forget about Jesus entirely.
That’s exactly what happened in Colossae. I’ve been there myself—proud of what I did for the church, thinking I was better than others. Serving, showing up, doing all the right things—but spiritually dry, disconnected from Christ.
We can’t replace a relationship with God by just doing church things. It’s easy to let weeks turn into months where we’re present physically but absent spiritually. If the worship or sermon doesn’t hit our fleshly standards, we disengage—as if it’s about us.
We must ask: What does my heart say? Am I walking in the Spirit, or performing for man? Do I judge others for how they worship without ever praying for them or checking on their walk?
I’ve done that. I saw people through worldly eyes instead of spiritual ones. I cared more about appearances than hearts.
Your actions might say “Christian”—but what does your heart say?
Outside of Sunday, does your heart long to know God, to speak with Him, to grow in Him?
I can lead prayers and look spiritual on the outside, but only God knows the truth: What do my fruits say? What does my life behind closed doors say?
Let’s stop looking around and start looking up.
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