Sermon Tone Analysis

Sermon Scripture

Colossians 2:8

The dominate theme throughout all of scripture is the finished work of Jesus Christ.

It is upon that theme, and that teaching that we pick up at in verse 8

In chapter 1 of Colossians the Holy Spirit reminds us through Paul of whom we preach.

Colossians 1:

Interpretive Note:

The Holy Spirit does not give us options to fill in the blanks.

“If you’ve been raised with Christ” - first class condition - meaning: you certainly have.

“Seek those things which are above” - the Holy Spirit does not expect you to fill in the blanks, “what are the things that are above”

“whom we preach, warning/teaching every man - the Holy Spirit does not expect you to fill in the blanks, “warning/teaching everyman what?”

We don’t have the right to suggest that we know what teaching and admonishing every man in all wisdom is.

When the Holy Spirit uses the word “sophia” for wisdom, it is alway referring to the word of God.

The Word of God is the only source of truth and true wisdom.

Not other books or media or think groups…not even experience.

Oh dear saints, don’t get caught in this “student of experience” mentality as though you experience develops some form of truth for you.

Don’t you know that when you look at your experiences you are not looking at truth.

An experience is an observation of something, but it is not a developing of, nor a proclamation of truth.

To base truth upon experience is to base truth upon self as it’s source and - not to offend anyone - but you are by no means the source of any truth.

This book (the Bible) is truth.

If you want to know truth, you cannot be so lazy or prideful as to base it on experience, preference or anothers “expertiese”.

So then, when I say that we do not fill in the blanks of “what are the admonisings and teachings of the Word of God”, that leaves us dependant upon the text to be given the answer.

Chapter 2 is an outline of those.

And it is that so that we might be comforted in the Lord.

, ought not to be passages which leave the congregation with burden over sin, but rather with comfort in the Lord.

Colossians 2:

Colossians 2:

Theres no hopelessness in this, there is now weighing down of conviction to urge you to labor out of guilt.

Oh, but you can know that such guilt will be the them of much religion.

It will seek to weigh down the saints and lead them astray from such a blessed assurance and into a self striving, personal choice of righteousness in which one would so easily forget and be led astray from that which is the elementary teachings and principles of Christiandom.

Mankind uses such words that sound right but in truth are not.

“If you receive Christ the Lord because you believe then so walk in him,” your belief will be told to be due to some kind of brilliance of choice on your part, where you were able in self to establish the need, desire and ablity to preform.

Such a gospel framed in such a self-reliant way leads to one also considering their walk that way.

On the otherhand, if you look to the Word of God (as the source of truth) and realize that you recieve the Lord Jesus Christ freely as a gift, soley by grace, and if you make it anything other than grace then it’s not grace, then in the same way, you recieve how you walk.

It is God who works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.

I give you, that from our side of this it appears hard to understand or even times where one might think He made a mistake, but when we peer into truth over circumstance we are made certain that He does not.

Oh how this pesimistic world can take it’s toll upon us and grieve the soul.

The world always wants a fallout, allways wants a blame thrown, and vengance had.

So bad things happen and the christian who preaches soveirgnty of God all of a sudden jumps in on the pecimism and throws sin or choice or fallen state into the mix rather than the hope of truth.

Now I’m not saying that sin is true…please don’t hear that.

I am saying that sin does not trump God’s soverignty.

I am saying that in a sin fallen world, God is working in you dear saint to do of His good pleasure.

That is a truth to sustain us and give us hope rather trapping us in the pesimism of current circumstance.

In other words, it is not just in some part of your life when you try hard enough that you triumph.

That would remove grace.

It is in all of your life that He causes you to triumph.

God always gives you the victory.

For you to say that it doesn’t appear that way, well beloved, that does not change the truth of the word of God.

Your present experience does not trump the eternal Word of God in the truth category, or in any category.

And I say praise God for that.

Oh the burden that is rolled away when we realize that God has taken the major obligation of our lives as in chapter 2 verse 7:

Rooted: God said I did that

built up: God says Im doing that

established in the faith: God says Im doing that

Those are all passive.

They are not exhortation of what you ought to do, but rather proclamations of things that you ought to realize.

God undertakes the rooting, building up, establishing of the faith and the teaching or instructing.

And it is there in verse seven that the “passives” end with, “overflowing with grattitude” or “abounding in thanksgiving”.

That is your responsibility: grattitude, thanksgiving.

You cannot properly give thanks unless you realize who God is and what He has done.

Anything less that will be a shallow form of thanksgiving, a shallow worship.

And yet that is where so many churches are living.

In a shallow, personal works based thanksgiving.

Most “churches” and thus christians in those churches are living in a experiential sham rather than a true realization of the person and purpose of the Almighty God.

“We’ve got to do more, we’ve got to work harder, we’ve got to adapt to the times, we’ve got to strategize better”…and on and on the cries of the church go out and these cries are nothing more than empty deception and philosophy of ministry that is taking the multitudes captive, and they are all rooted in traditions of man that early church was freed from and that later again protatism was purposed to break out of and yet in this day has gripped so firmly back onto.

Look at verse ten and the gravitous of the statement given:

All mighty God has declared you to be complete in Him.

Philosohy, empty deceit, tradition of men, the elementary principles of the world can not comprehend your completeness in Christ, nor can it be married together with it.

They are lies only to make you think that you are less than and to lead you away from Christ.

But God has declared you complete in Him and so you are.

Now the rest of the chapter is a seven fold description of that completness.

The first of the seven is circumsision

Not one comentary that I have observed would state or suggest that the circumcision in vs.11 is physical.

The expression used in vs 11 is actually “made without hands”.

It is a “putting off of the sins of” or more rightly understood as “the old man”.

In other words, you did not cease being human, nor is this putting off something that you are striving for.

It is something already done.

Don’t spend your life doing something that God has already done.

Much more beneficial is to know what God has given you to know.... says, “Do not lie to one another...seeing that you have already put off the old man and have already put on the new self.

It has already been done and you didn’t do it, God did…How?

In the circumsision of Christ.

In putting off the old man (not your human body) and putting on or being in the circumsision of Christ.

When Christ was cut off, your old man was cut off.

Thats not your battle.

That is why God can speak such comfort and give such victory.

The circumsision of verse 11 is being described as “not man made” and that has been my consistent finding in every reference that I have examined.

Yet, the interesting part is that I have yet to find a reference that will say that the next one is not “water baptism”.

Baptism

So while everyone agrees that the first one is not physical circumsision, all of a sudden we jump to a position that says “been buried with Him in baptism” not only includes water which isn’t mentioned but is an actual physical event (the right of water baptism) whereby everytime someone comes to Christ and is baptised that Christ is again buried and they with Him.

I just cannot believe that.

No pun intended, but that just doesn’t hold water to me.

I struggle to comprehend how the Christian community can make “the baptism” here to be some kind of a water right.

Now again, I am not trying to upset anyone who holds the water right of baptism as precious and I do want to be careful with it.

Remember baptism is a untranslated word.

It is a greek word…beta…alpha..paw...

I don’t know why the translators won’t translated.

The first description of water baptism is that Christ might be made manifest to Israel.

(ironic that Southern Baptist rarely preach on this verse)

I have spoken before, that I don’t believe that water baptism is intended in the scripture unless water is spoken.

So when you have baptism without the mention of water, I don’t see it as water baptism.