Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Text:

Main Idea:

Look at the Picture of Forgiveness (vs.

13-15)

Introduction

My favorite class in High School was Art.

I loved every aspect of Art class.

From drawing to sculpture to perspective to painting, I loved it all!

Unfortunately, I don’t do much Art these days, but I do truly appreciate the skill and the craft good artists bring to their work.

I especially love a good, realistic painting...

Did you know Paul was an artist?

His canvas was the page and his medium?

Words.

And in , Paul paints some beautiful pictures of the gospel.

What is the Biblical Solution?

While the gospel message is simple, it does, like a diamond, have a multifaceted beauty!

We must not forget what

Main Textual Idea: :1-2

Main Idea: Look at the Stunning Pictures of the Gospel Paul Paints!

Paints

All three pictures painted by the Gospel help us to get the fullest picture of God’s redemptive plan.

Remember what was going on in Colossae!

The pre-Gnostic heresy had come to town and was teaching that their message would add to the gospel and make them more spiritual if they were more Jewish.

If they were circumcised they would be closer to God.

If they had special diets and observed special holy days, then they would become part of the “spiritual elite” in the church.

Paul makes it abundantly clear in this letter that the Christian is not only not subject to the Old Testament legal system, but it is of no spiritual value to them.

Christ and christ alone is more than sufficient every spiritual need of the believer...

Why?

Because we are a part of Christ!

He is the head...

And we who are true Christians are part of His body...

And because we drink of the One Spirit and because we are connected to the head, we need to add nothing else to make us more connected.

So Paul paints three interesting pictures for his readers that help clarify specific aspects of the gospel.

In fact, each portrait he paints shows us three crucial components of the gospel all the while dispelling the idea that more could be added to Christ, the head of all things!

The three pictures are...

Transition:

Look at the Mysterious Picture of Circumcision

Look at the Somber Picture of Baptism

Look at the Powerful Picture of Life

1. Look at the Mysterious Picture of Circumcision (vs.

11)

1. Look at the Complex Picture of Circumcision (vs.

11)

Lead in…To be completely honest, the idea of circumcision is an uncomfortable topic to say the least.

Why would God choose to identify the Jewish male in such a strange way?

Many reasons.

But Paul addressess this issuse because the false teachers were compelling gentile Christians to consider the opperation so they could be considered “more spiritual”.

So in his brilliant way, Paul takes their heretical position on circumcision and turns it into a beautiful picture.

Take a look at the text with me...

Text -

Circumcision is a complex concept that raises important questions.

What is circumcision?

Why is it so important?

What does it represent?

If we can answer these well, we can understand the deeper significance of what Paul is teaching us here.

What is circumcision?

John MacArthur in his comments in Genesis when God commanded Abram to be circumcised...

Why is circumcision so important?

What does circumcision represent?

“Circumcision (cutting away the male foreskin) was not entirely new in this period of history, but the special religious and theocratic significance then applied to it was entirely new, thus identifying the circumcised as belonging to the physical and ethnical lineage of Abraham (cf. ; ).

Without divine revelation, the rite would not have had this distinctive significance, thus it remained a theocratic distinctive of Israel (cf.

v. 13).

There was a health benefit, since disease could be kept in the folds of the foreskin, so that removing it prevented that.

Historically, Jewish women have had the lowest rate of cervical cancer.

But the symbolism had to do with the need to cut away sin and be cleansed.

It was the male organ which most clearly demonstrated the depth of depravity because it carried the seed that produced depraved sinners.

Thus, circumcision symbolized the need for a profoundly deep cleansing to reverse the effects of depravity.”

Circumcision (cutting away the male foreskin) was not entirely new in this period of history, but the special religious and theocratic significance then applied to it was entirely new, thus identifying the circumcised as belonging to the physical and ethnical lineage of Abraham (cf. ; ).

Without divine revelation, the rite would not have had this distinctive significance, thus it remained a theocratic distinctive of Israel (cf.

v. 13).

There was a health benefit, since disease could be kept in the folds of the foreskin, so that removing it prevented that.

Historically, Jewish women have had the lowest rate of cervical cancer.

But the symbolism had to do with the need to cut away sin and be cleansed.

It was the male organ which most clearly demonstrated the depth of depravity because it carried the seed that produced depraved sinners.

Thus, circumcision symbolized the need for a profoundly deep cleansing to reverse the effects of depravity.

John MacArthur Jr., ed., The MacArthur Study Bible, electronic ed.

(Nashville, TN: Word Pub., 1997), 38.

No other religion does this as far as we know.

was by faith before this physical act.

So, there were many reasons why God introduced circumcision.

But understand, even when God commanded Abramam to perform this act, it was not a saving act for Abram had already believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.

It wasn’t for two more chaptes, when Abraham was 99 years old, that as a sign of his covenant with God, he and his male descendants were to be circumcised.

So, for the Jewish people you can understand that circumcision was a very important act.

This was a big deal.

And for the Jew in the time of Paul, you can understand why letting this and other aspects of the Law were so hard to let go!

7

In Colossae, a predominantly gentile area, you can also understand that by participating in such a historical practice, rooted in Jewish tradition would give the idea that it held some spiritual significance.

But Paul is careful to point out in this letter and in other writings that is brings no value whatsoever.

In , Paul is chiding the Jews in Rome for suggesting that they were in some way superior to the gentiles.

He even challenges their adherence to circumstance...

And this is what he is saying in Colossians as well.

Look back with me at verse 11...

Paul told the believers at Colossae that regardless if they had been physically circumcised, they, at the point of their salvation, had been “circumcised with a circumcision made without hands…”

What does this mean?

Well, Paul clarifies what this means in the latter part of verse 11.

“by putting off the body of the flesh…”

When Paul uses the term, “flesh” he means the sinful nature we all have.

Physcial circumcision was a picture of the removal of the sinful flesh that came through Adam because we are all concieved in Adam’s sin.

Paul is saying the physical circumcision has no spiritual benefit.

However, spiritually speaking, the “circumcision made without hands” is significant because in Christ we are dead to sin and we are to count ourselves so.

And it is though our relationship with Christ that we have our old nature removed and we walk in the newness of life...

And this truth is “Stunning” to say the least.

And although it is a strange picture, once you understand that the “circumcision of Christ” is a spiritual / heart matter (:29), you will have a whole new appreciation for what Christ did on the cross for you!