Continue in Christ

I have never been a mother. But I have a mother (whom I will be seeing this afternoon) and I live with a mother, and I have 3 sisters and a daughter who are mothers.

One thing I have observed that leads me to believer it is a universal condition of motherhood is that there will be times when fatigue sets in. <<Did I just hear an “Amen”>> swelling in Chase County?

While I have never experienced the fatigue of Motherhood, during my time as a Law Enforcement Chaplain during both the Murrah Bombing in OKC, and the tragedy of 9/11 working with first responders I have learned about a phenomenon called Compassion Fatigue. Psychologist began to identify this phenom around 1995 and have since observed it in Hurricane, Flooding and Tornado responses as well.

Watch this 1 minute clip and see if he may be describing some of your responses to stress - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=be8sNWWBhnE

Now that we find ourselves in the worst pandemic since 1918, many citizens like you and me are beginning to recognize the stress of fear and uncertainty. You don’t have to be a mother or a first responder to sense the fatigue from helping others. When fatigue begins to set in one response is the temptation to abandon course or behave differently.

Today’s text gives us 2 warnings and 3 resources when we sense fatigue setting in.

Transition: The first warning is found in verses 6-7

Stay the Course (Col 2:6-7)

Colossians 2:6–7 ESV:2016

6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

“Therefore, as” and “just as”

1. Paul is creating a contrast—there is one way that is just as they had believed. And there was another way that was different from how they had received Christ.

2. One commentator says it is important for us to consider that what Paul means by “receiving Christ Jesus the Lord” may not be the moment when we acknowledge our sin and receive forgiveness. The receiving is more linked with the “as you were taught” in v. 7. It is the idea of the process that brings a person to understand and accept the Christ story—all that they had learned about who Jesus was and all that he had done.

3. It is as if Paul is saying, “All that you have come to believe about Jesus being the anointed one and God himself” keep on believing that and allow that to come to full fruition.

There is no “bait and switch”! It is not that we get saved by grace, but stay saved by works. It is not that we receive salvation solely by Christ’s works but only mature by our own contributions or discoveries.

4. These 2 verses are a summary of the entire letter and serve as a pivot from the excellencies of Christ up to this point and the steadfastness of the Christian in the rest of the book.

Transition: The reminder to “look back” is paired with a forward-looking warning in verses 8-12…

Never Surrender! (Col 2:8-12)

Colossians 2:8–12 ESV:2016

8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. 11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.

1. The receiving of Christ Jesus the Lord in v. 6 involves a new identity.

Today was to be the day when several of our students would change identity. By switching that tassel they would be changing status from student to graduate. From High Schooler to alumnus.

2. There is a prepositional phrase that occurs 8 times in these 7 verses to describe this new identity – in Him.

a. V.6

b. V.7

c. V. 8 in Christ

d. V.9

e. V.10

f. V.11

g. V.12 with Him (2x)

3. Just as all of our Seniors would now correct anybody who asks, “Don’t you go to CCHS?” All of them would quickly say, “I used to but I graduated”; Paul is saying now that you are in Him, don’t let anybody lie to you that you are still trying to get in!

a. V.8 says that people who follow other religions won’t understand this new identity.

b. Vv.9-10 says what Christ says about you is more important than any other wannabe’s lies

c. V.11 draws upon the Jewish picture of those who were welcomed into their identity as Children of Abraham.

d. V.12 used the picture of water baptism as the profession to others that you are now identified with Christ in His death, burial & resurrection.

Don’t let anyone tell you that you are not what Christ says you are!

Transition: After telling these Christians to Stay the Course, and Never Surrender to lies of the Enemy, He proceeds to describe 3 Results of heeding his warning.

Three Irrevocable Resources

Today people use phrases like “losing one’s salvation” or “leaving the faith”. Others use terms like “security of the believer” to describe salvation. Regardless of if you believe a person can reject his salvation, Paul says that 3 realities are guaranteed and irrevocable.

God Has Made You Alive (Col 2:13)

Colossians 2:13 ESV:2016

13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,

1. A change happens in the spirit of any person who receives Christ Jesus the Lord.

2. Notice the trespasses AND condition of the flesh.

a. The word trespass carries the idea of “a violation of moral standards”. It describes the deeds that we do while spiritually dead.

b. The uncircumcision of your flesh speaks of our humanity—our natural born condition that all of us inherit as part of the human race.

c. As humans we are born spiritually dead, as sinners we have each violated God’s righteous standards.

3. To those who receive Christ Jesus the Lord, God forgives all trespasses and brings our dead spirit to life.

4. In the Apostle John’s first letter he describes several truths that describe the genuinely saved person. I particularly like the way it is translated in the NET Bible

1 John 3:14 NET

14 We know that we have crossed over from death to life because we love our fellow Christians. The one who does not love remains in death.

5. I like the phrase used by many preachers before me, Jesus didn’t die to make bad people good. He died to make dead humans alive.

Transition: Verse 14 tells us what God did (past tense) with the guilt of our trespasses.

God Has Cancelled Your Debt (Col 2:14)

Colossians 2:14 ESV:2016

14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

You may recall that a sign was made and attached above the head of Christ

Matthew 27:37 ESV:2016

37 And over his head they put the charge against him, which read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.”

Charges were literally written and posted. This is the “record of debt” about which Paul is writing.

1. Too many people today refuse to believe the truth that God sets aside the record of our shortcomings by nailing it to the cross. This is God’s way of not only dealing with the fallen nature of our humanity, but also of eradicating the record of our individual faults.

2. Much has been written in recent decades about “forgiving yourself”. I wasn’t able to find anything before the mid-1990s on the subject of shame and guilt turned internal when psychologists began to discuss self-forgiveness.

3. I’ve heard too many people say, “I know God forgives me, but I just can’t seem to forgive myself.” I believe a more biblical response is that we need to start walking in the forgiveness that is ours.

I believe I’ve mentioned before the Southern holiday of Juneteenth. Because one of our history buffs correctly pointed out that I misspoke when I called the “Gettysburg Address” the “Emancipation Proclamation.”

The Proclamation that became official on 1/1/1863 had not been communicated to the slaves in Texas when the Union soldiers arrived on 6/19/1865.

Similarly, in several wars of the last century POW’s continued to be held captive by Armies that had surrendered to conquering forces. In these situations, the POW’s did not need to win their freedom; they needed to act on or live in the freedom that was already theirs.

4. The enemy of our souls wants to falsely accuse and bring up the guilt of our past sins. But God has already dealt with that guilt and nailed it to the cross. It has been expunged from your record!

5. The phrase clause he set aside is a 4-word clause in Paul’s language that literally means “to eliminate from the midst”. Synonyms that may help you to understand what God does with our guilt include: obliterated, purged, erases, deleted, removed, cut, wiped out, rubbed out, crossed out, and edited out.

6. I want us to get the idea of how complete was the cancelling of our sin debt!

Transition: This section concludes with a word about those who would like to drag up the guilt that God has already destroyed.

God Has Disarmed Your Accusers (Col 2:15)

Colossians 2:15 ESV:2016

15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

1. These rulers and authorities refers back to the elemental spirits of v.8 and we will see again next week in v.20.

2. In the first century there were ideas about many gods. Some believed that local gods influenced the lives of local citizens. (remember when Gideon tore down the local idol in our Judges series a couple months back?)

To illustrate the connection between local gods and local communities we only have to reflect back to last Thursday. It was a day when many of us prayed that our God, the God of the Bible, would favorably look upon our country and move our leaders to act in ways that are consistent with His will. If another country had a different god and its citizens believed that their god would bless that country, say one of the Hindu gods acting on behalf of India. In the minds of the people there was a connection between their way of life and the blessing or curse of their gods.

3. Paul is writing that God (the one True God) has disarmed all other supposed sources of authority over all other religious or world systems. Not only has He disarmed them, He has shown the shameful ways that people behave when they live this way. God has proven Christ to be triumphant over all other religious systems by raising Jesus from the dead.

Application

Paul is undermining the old argument of “everybody’s doing it.”

a. Even if everybody was doing it (which is never true), let me give everybody a name. Let’s call everybody by the nickname Bogie.

i. Why is Bogie doing it? Because Bogie thinks doing it is better than not doing it.

ii. Why does Bogie think doing it is worthwhile? Because Bogie’s moral values views it positively.

iii. Who defines Bogie’s morality? Who decides what is good/bad? Right/wrong? Virtue/vice?

iv. Does the arbiter of Bogie’s morality lead to death or life? (Remember 3 weeks ago when we learned that Jesus is the only Way to abundant living?)

v. So if Bogie’s moral center leads to death, and Jesus is the way to life, then Bogies moral center ought to be ashamed of himself.

b. Any claim that denies the forgiveness of v.14 or returns to the death of v.13 is a road to destruction, and is shameful.

Conclusion:

The two warnings of today’s text are “stay the Course” and “Never Surrender”. To those who may become tempted to wander off course or surrender to the accusations of the enemy of our souls I remind you of the words of Winston Churchill on October 29, 1941:

“You cannot tell from appearances how things will go. Sometimes imagination makes things out far worse than they are… Those people who are imaginative see many more dangers than perhaps exist; certainly many more than will happen;… But for everyone, surely, …this is the lesson: never give in, never give in, never, never, never-in nothing, great or small, large or petty – never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”

Colossians 2:6 ESV:2016

6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him,