Sermon Tone Analysis

Captives

This world wants to take you captive!

We need to know and be prepared so not taken captive.

(expand on why, how the world may take you captive; don’t become a prisoner of war)

The false teachers did not concentrate on the lost, but wanted to kidnap, to take hostage, to take captive those who are members of the church.

It is easy to be taken captive if you are ignorant of the truth of God’s Word, you could easily be persuaded by some smooth talking person or good sounding philosophy that is contrary to what the Bible says.

Know what you believe and why you believe it

We need to know the doctrine (teaching) of our faith (on personal level)

We need to know the origin of the teaching

Is the teaching from God or from man?

Is the teaching ground in the world or the Word?

These as well as what we have in, with, and through Christ who paid in full the price for our redemption.

I. Watch out!

You have seen the signs telling you of dangers, that tell you to watch out.

Well there are signs in the Bible too that tell us to spiritually and even physically to watch out too.

Paul speaks in military term about being taken captive, basically becoming a prisoner of war in a literal fashion, isn’t he?

Do we know people who have some form of godliness but deny the whole truth of the whole counsel of God? (2Tim3:5)

How about people who were once with us but have gone out? (1Jn2:18-19)

Watch out for man made traditions (Mt15:1-20; Gal1:14)

Paul speaks of empty philosophy.

He is not saying that all philosophy is bad, but we need to be careful of what philosophy we listen and adhere to.

Is it in alignment with the Bible?

The false teachers teaching is empty (hallow in some versions) it is built on the traditions of man, not God.

Even Paul before His conversion was zealous for what appeared to be good tradition (Gal1:14)

I hope that we can take pride in our bible traditions and if anyone walked in they would see is talking, walking and doing as the Bible says and not a man made tradition.

Beware of the rudiments of this world (Col2:8 from KJV)

The Greek word for rudiments has several meanings.

The elementary sounds or letters, the ABC’s

Basic elements of the universe (2Pt3:10-12)

Basic elements of knowledge of some system (Heb5:12)

Let me give you another to consider

in ancient Greece the meaning was also linked to the elemental spirits of the universe.

To the angels and the like that they believed influenced the heavenly bodies.

(this became a strong tenet o the gnostics in the 2nd century.

You can see the early form being discussed by Paul here too

in ancient Greece the meaning was also linked to the elemental spirits of the universe.

To the angels and the like that they believed influenced the heavenly bodies.

(this became a strong tenet o the gnostics in the 2nd century.

You can see the early form being discussed by Paul here too

Paul warned them in (v.16) just like warning them in (v.8) - one thing that is certain is that True Christian doctrine is not in line with those things as well as we should know not in align with horoscopes, astral charts, ouija board, fortune telling and the like.

The whole zodiac system is contrary to the Word of God.

Even in the O.T. they were taught to stay away from these things

Simple question, why follow empty philosophy when we have all the fullness in Christ?

II.

In Him

Jesus Christ is the fullness o God, and that fullness dwells in the heart of the beleiver

COl2:9-10

Paul gave the answer to have the protection against the empty philosophy and the teaching of the false teachers.

IT IS IN CHRIST (Col2:9, 1:19) also see Mt1:23 - God with us!

Col

The fullness means the sum total o all that is God is found in Christ Jesus, in Him, His being, His attributes.

This became evident when He came and dwelt among man

When Christ rose, He rose in a body, this is the body that suffered, died and descended to set the captives free and then appear before the apostles and others.

Mary and the women did not see a spirit, they saw the Lord.

The men on road to Emmaus did not walk with a spirit they walked with the Lord

Thomas did not stick his fingers into a spirit but into the wounds of the Lord

All things we need are found in Him, we are made complete (v.10) (see Eph3:19 too)

when we are born again, we are not born in need of something more, we are born full, and we share in the fullness of Christ for He lives in us by His Spirit.

look at this

Paul wanted the church to grasp, to understand the love of Christ, the fullness of God!

In Him we find that He is head over every rule and authority (v.10)

(expand on his headship, etc)

In Him you were circumcised with circumcision not made with hands (v.11)

(expand on circumcision)

The Christian needs to understand who Christ is (God in the Flesh, God with us), His deity (He is the one with rule, reign and authority as the Lord of Lord and the King of kings), His fullness (the complete embodiment of God in the flesh).

When we start to grasp that then we can start to grasp what we have in Him!

What we believe matters, and we need to test the teaching against the scripture as the Bereans did.

III.

With Him

The false teachers bringing the threats against the church in Colossi, and even today we see it are made up of several things, empty philosophies, oriental mysticism, astrology and Jewish legalism (today other forms of legalism).

The false teacher wanted to force the converts, the church to submit to Old Testament customs (circumcision) and adhearance to the Law.

Paul now delves into what we have with Christ.

For with Christ is all the sufficiency needed.

And i we are with Him then we have all we need too.

Some questions we can ask of any teaching

Col2:

Where does it put Jesus and His work, teaching?

Does it rob or lower Jesus of His rule, reign, authority?

Jesus Christ came, lived, died and was resurrected so we could be with Him.

He came to give us victory over sin.

What the Law could not do, He did.

We are no longer captives but with Him we have great things.

We were buried in baptism with Him

Does it deny His deity or His humanity?

Expand

Does it try to add to the work of the cross, or is the cross sufficient?

We were raised up with Him

Expand

We were made alive with Him

Expand

The parallel passage you can find in Eph2:1-11; but you can look and study that out yourself

When Christ died, we died with Him, died to sin.

When he was buried, we were buried with Him, our sins buried in waters of baptism, When He rose, we rose with Him to a new life, born again, not regenerated, but new

Eph2:

This all takes place when we have obedient faith then we can know

Because Christ was raised it was possible for us to be raised.

God has forgiven our trespasses

(insert nailed to the cross slide here)

nailed to the cross (v.14)

what was nailed to the cross?