Colossians 2

Colossians 2

09-13-2020

Welcome

If you are just joining us this morning then let me catch you on last week

We started our series in Colossians

Last week we learned that we are to be encouraged because we have the Hope of Jesus Christ in us

We also understand that you and I as believers are to go and share that hope with people

I want to remind you once again that some if not most of you have someone named up there

I hope you have not forgotten that person but that you continue to pray and look for opportunities to share the Gospel with them

This morning we will continue on in our series of Colossians

Remember that Paul probably wrote it or signed it either way it is in the Bible so it is good for us to read and begin to apply

I hope you also went home and began to reread through Colossians 1 and on in to 2 if not the entire book

So we are in Colossians 2 this morning

Colossians 2:1–3 NASB95

1 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf and for those who are at Laodicea, and for all those who have not personally seen my face, 2 that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Paul again is writing to the believers at Colossae and to other believers who are in a town 10 miles away from Colossae

He is wanting to encourage them even though he has not visited them ever

Again church it would be similar to if Billy Graham if he were still alive and decided to write a letter to Maranatha wanting to encourage us because he has heard some great things about us

That is what is happening here

He is writing to the church because he has heard some really good things

These churches must have been doing something right and Paul wanted to simply encourage them

Remember Paul was once Saul and had seen a lot and been around the church scene a lot so he was no stranger to what churches needed

They need encouragement and prayer

Last week we shared with you that there are people in California, Georgia, and Colombia and probably else where that are praying specifically for Maranatha Baptist Fellowship and the work we are doing

Now just a reminder we are to be a humble people so rather than puffing our chests out that should encourage us to continue on seeking the Lord

Paul shares with them he wants them to be encouraged because they have Christ

Paul shares with them it is completely about Christ

Christ is our absolutely everything and in Christ is found everything

Then Paul explains why again he shares this letter

Colossians 2:4–7 NASB95

4 I say this so that no one will delude you with persuasive argument. 5 For even though I am absent in body, nevertheless I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good discipline and the stability of your faith in Christ. 6 Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, 7 having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.

Paul explains again that he is writing the letter to encourage the believers who he is writing too and to warn them

Paul doesn’t want them to be persuaded by persuasive arguments

Paul is warning them that there will some people out there who are not from God but sure sound like

They will use big words and know just enough scripture to be dangerous and use it for their own good

The same warning is to us today

We need to be on alert and run everything we hear through scripture to ensure it is from God

Then Paul encourages them

This is a church who are doing the things to grow in Christ

Those things are to be reading the scripture and doing what it says and spending time in prayer

Christ is firm foundation

Paul says if you are a believer in Jesus Christ meaning you have Jesus in your heart and you have repented and believed

Then walk in Him

We are to walk in the ways of Christ

When we walk in Him we grow our roots in Him and we have a firm foundation in Christ

We are to walk in Him church

We should be rooted in Christ

Then Paul continues to warn them of persuasive people

Colossians 2:8–14 NASB95

8 See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. 9 For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, 10 and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority; 11 and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by 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 When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, 14 having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

There seems to be a few ideas running through these few verses

First

Church just like the believers are Colossae and Laocidea we are to be on alert that we are not swept away with fancy speech

That we are not taken away with worldly philosophy

One of those worldly ideas was that Jesus was not fully God

When you start to think of Jesus as just a good teacher then you have lost the God power

If Jesus was just another good teacher in a long line of good teachers then why are we hear this morning

Pauls explains to the church that Jesus was not just another good teacher

That Jesus was fully God

SCRIPTURE ABOUT BEING FULLING GOD

Also in vs 1 of chapter 1 Paul calls himself an apostele which means he spent time with Jesus Himself

Paul shares what he knows and he knows Jesus

The reason Paul knows Jesus is because of what Jesus did for Paul

Paul shares that as believers we have been circumcised not in the flesh but in the heart and we have been set aside for a good work

It is because of what Jesus did on the cross that Paul talks about

Romans 6:1-7

If we are in Christ then let us walk in Christ

It is because of what Jesus did on the Cross that we have freedom from sin

And it is because Paul knows that personally that he can talk about it

It is because Jesus canceled our debt of sin that we can rejoice this morning that we no longer have to live in sin

we no longer have to struggle against sin

We no longer have to be slaves to sin

This morning if you do not have a personal relationship with Jesus you can leave this place having defeated sin once and for all by repenting and believing

Colossians 2:15–19 NASB95

15 When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him. 16 Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day— 17 things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. 18 Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause 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 which is from God.

Then Paul again warns and encourages them

Galatians 5:13

Don’t allow what Jesus did on the cross to cause you to stumble into sin

Just because Jesus is full of grace doesn’t give you a blank check to sin how you want

Romans 6:1-2

We are to hold fast to what we heard in the beginning to the word of God

ROPE THING (how close can we get to the king with out crossing it will eventually lead us away from Christ)

Rather we need to stay firmly rooted in Christ

Paul is warning them that there will be people who will say you can’t worship God this way or that way

Paul says don’t get into those arguments because the substance is Christ and Christ alone

The Jews would have said you couldn’t eat this or that

Paul says it is all about Christ

Paul also says that is you are doing to cause another brother to stumble you should stop because it is all about Christ

We are to hold firm to Christ because He is our firm foundation not men

If you firm foundation is Maranatha you have missed it

If you firm foundation is Jeremy you have missed it

If you firm foundation is anything other than Christ you have missed it

Paul sums it up very nicely

Colossians 2:20–23 NASB95

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, such as, 21 “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!” 22 (which all refer to things destined to perish with use)—in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? 23 These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.

If you are believer in Christ then why are we so worried about what the world says about you

Why are we trying to live in 2 worlds

The world looks good and sounds good but it serves no value for you

Christ is the true God and is the only salvation

Paul explains if you and I have died to Jesus then that is it our focus and energy should be on Him and not the things of this world

Paul is asking this question why do we look so much like the world

Galatians 2:12-14

Paul is asking peter if you being a jew look like a gentile how can you tell the gentile to look like the Jews

Church

If you being a Christian look like the world how can you tell the world to look like Christ

Church we should stop trying to look so much like the world and work to look more and more like Christ everyday

There are people who believe that if we look enough like the world people will want to come to church and then we can share Jesus with them and then they will be different

No one is knocking the door down because we look like the world

Rather I would say we have seen our attendance grow because God has blessed us because we are being opebiedt to the word of GOd

So let’s continue to be obedient this morning church

We should be encouraged this morning church

We should be on alert because there are false teachers and you and I should run everything through scripture so that we don’t sucome to such teachers

We hold fast to the truth we find in the Bible

Understanding that Jesus is the only way to salvation

As we move into our invitation

If you are here today and do not have a personal relationship with Jesus

I would like to invite you to the front and you can meet with someone who will show you through scripture that Jesus died on the cross to pay for your sin and how you can repent of that sin and believe in Jesus and walk out of this building a new creation

If that is you would you come to the front

Or maybe you are here and you already have a personal relationship and simply need to spend some time in prayer at the altar

Would you be obedient this morning