Is The Gospel Enough, Is Jesus Enough?
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Good Morning Church Family. Have you ever had the opportunity to be on the customer service side of things? Perhaps you’ve been there. Perhaps not. Some might say, I live in customer service. Giving service can be rewarding and fulfilling. It also can have it’s downside. One characteristic when customer service can be hard can be managing difficult requests, or trying to deliver a level of service that is above and beyond the norm. Sometimes when we deal with those hard requests, have you experienced the situation where the customer aligned with the thought — the customer is always right? I know some of you have been in that situation. What did you do when the customer wasn’t satisfied? Generally, we try to address and offer solution to the challenge. If you’re dealing with a hard situation, the solution might not be enough. So, perhaps you try again. May that solution is not enough. This could prompt the though — when do we get over the threshold, or what would be enough.
When Paul was writing to the church in Colossi, he wrote to address some challenges that were bring introduced by the false teacher. The thought was these introductions began to usher in questions. Some teaching were challenging Jesus’ claim and deity. In short, questions could have been circling what would be enough, what is enough. Which bring us to the title of our message this morning — Is The Gospel Enough, Is Jesus Christ Enough. If you have your Bible’s with you this morning, I invite you to open your Bibles to the book of Colossians. Let begin reading in Chapter 2 beginning in verse number 6.
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.
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.
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, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
Pastoral Prayer
Pastoral Prayer
[Display Verse 6 & 7]
Paul begins by answering the question is Christ enough. This is still a question that stands today. In fact, we don’t have to travel very far to discover other gospels. If we consider the supremacy of Jesus’ work on the cross, His death on the cross is sufficient, complete and perfect. Notice how Paul opens the conversation. He opens with a reminder, “as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord.” This is powerful!
The Colossians “received” Christ Jesus. Receiving means more than simply accepting Him. The Colossians received the teaching handed down about Jesus. Allow me to back up for just a moment. The cart is getting ahead of the horse a bit. The Colossians received the teaching about CHRIST! The church received him as the “CHRIST,” the Anointed one, the Messiah. The received the One who fulfilled all the Messianic prophesies of the the Old Testament. He was their Divine Prophet, Priest and King. They also received Him as “Jesus.” Jesus was the person who was rooted into our humanity. He is God incarnate! Now notice the descriptive word “Lord.” The way Lord is used here, it’s thought, this title is acting as a comprehensive title. It’s summing up all that the Colossians has received. They received full knowledge of his teaching, who he is, and recognized him as Sovereign. This receiving and acknowledgement still holds true today. This is how we have received “Christ Jesus the Lord.” The driving point is that the Colossians would remain safe from spiritual seduction if they continued to “walk in him.”
We face a similar spiritual seductions today. Many times, seduction can be right at our finder tips. Sometimes we might face a breeze of seduction, other times seduction might feel like Gale Force Winds. If we’re faced with a breeze or winds, how do we withstand? Take a look at Paul’s elaboration in verse 7.
Paul mentions rooted. Why is it important to be rooted? Think of a tree. I’ve had the suspended pleasure of pulling up tree. Some easy, some not so much. The trees that had deep roots where more of a challenge. The roots helped support the tree, especially during high wind storms. It’s also interesting to see Paul talk about being “built up in him.” When we being to build up, it’s easy to think of a building. Buildings are built up. But where does the building begin? It begins with the foundation. The foundation is the critical part of the building. It supports everything. Perhaps you’ve seen a failed foundation? When there’s a failed foundation, the structure is compromised. In receiving “Christ Jesus the Lord,” we’ve received the best foundation anyone could hope for. As we continue to learn and build on Jesus, a product of that is we learn about him. Our faith begins to grow and becomes established in new ways. Our faith becomes more and more stable, where our faith can be seen as the mortar that’s helping to hold the building together. Paul says, “abounding in thanksgiving.” This demonstrates the fruit of thankfulness.
When I was growing up, my grandparents had many fruit trees. One of my favorite was the pear trees. They tasted SO GOOD. But, I also remember how many pears there were. There was so many, it was hard to contain them all. That’s like the thankfulness Paul is talking about. The thanksgiving is “abounding,” there is so much of it.
The clarification that’s being brought forward is: you have the gospel, you’re firmly rooted, continue to grow in the truth “you were taught.” Being firmly rooted is more important that what can be seen about ground. If you can think back to a picture, perhaps you’ve seen, where trees were laid down following a significant wind storm. Sometimes you’ll see huge tree with a small root ball knocked over, where it could have been thought, a tree of that size — I would have thought it would have had more established roots. If you’re taking notes, look up Psalm #1 (it talks about the importance and significance of begin established.)
Verses 6 and 7 can be thought of as a leading up to the points in verse 8 and following.
[Display Verse 8]
Verse number 8 is all about a warning. We can think of it as the yellow caution light, or a safeguard against seduction. The warning here is to HAVE YOUR EYES OPEN! Paul talks about “see to ti that no one take you captive by the philosophy and empty deceit. The philosophy that’s talked about there is human reasoning, intellectualism.
This charge seems important. It’s important because the philosophies of the words (as Paul says) empty deceit. They’re tempting. They sound good. They taste good. Perhaps you’ve heard me mention the phrase ‘empty calories’. Now, I like chips, skittles and fish sticks as much as the next person. Their nutritional value is low to zero. We often know we should be taking in stuff with better nutritional value. A false gospel is just that. It’s empty calories. It’s miss leading.
A false gospel that’s alive and well is the ‘Good Guy Goes’ or ‘I’m A Good Person Gospel’. This says because you’re ‘good’ enough, that’s enough for passage into heaven. That’s false! With this type of philosophy there’s no hope. It would be like being blind in a dark room searching for a black cat. The thing about this type of false gospel is it can be taken as truth or fact because it talked about long enough and often enough.
[Display Verses 9 & 10]
These gospels and philosophies can be tempting. They sound good. Here’s a great feature of God’s Word. God’s Word gives is the tools to to resist, and that’s what we find in verses 9 and 10. We come to an understanding to who Jesus is, and an understanding of who we are in Him.
Here he proclaims the abundance through Christ. The world looked to the philosophies and traditions of men, worshiping philosophy and planets, but they had received truth. They had been born again in Christ, made part of His body, in who dwells the fullness of the Godhead in bodily form. There was no need to bother with the deceit of men, they had the assurance of a risen Lord who possesses and portrays the very essence of God.
Jesus can do this because he’s the God-Man. He’s fully God and fully man. Deity became manifest. We see evidence of that in John 1:1 and the beginning verses of 1st John Chapter 1. Jesus is not some legend passed down through tradition of folk lore. Like the Colossians, we’ve received absolute truth in Jesus. We have truth about His work. We see the true passion of God in how He he has gifted this information to us. There is no need to search after another Jesus or system. As a believer in Jesus Christ, you already have everything you need. That’s because you are connected to Jesus! You share in His fullness. You are made complete “in Him.”
That’s part of the saturation point in verse 10. This is comforting and profound. A believer in Jesus Christ, you have assurance Christ Himself, “who is the head of all rule and authority.” I don’t know about you. That deserves a WOW factor. You, as a believer, are secure in Him. You lack nothing in the Lord. There is nothing in life or death that’s beyond His sovereign control. Jesus is all anyone should need.
[Display Verses 11 & 12]
Verses 11 and 12 just came up on the screen. If you consider verse 10 packaged with 11 and 12. These describe the moment Jesus comes to dwell in you. You’re filled. You’ve gone through a spiritual circumcision. The old person was put to death with Jesus, and was buried. The new person is “raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God.” That means, the grave clothes of the old life behind are left behind.
We can rejoice in the truth that the grave clothes are truly gone because of the assurance seen in verses 13, 14 and 15.
[Display Verses 13 to 15]
These verses help describe in some powerful word pictures the perfect and completed work of Jesus on the cross. Trespasses are forgiven. When Jesus paid for our sin, the debt was canceled. Cancelling is like having the document destroyed that recorded our infractions. It’s gone. It no longer exists. The worlds best forensic teams could not re-construct the record.
If you have doubt if our sins are really gone, look to the second half of verse 14, where the Bible says “this he set aside, nailing it to the cross.” I don’t know about you, that sound pretty final to me. Our Lord nailed our sin to the cross of Calvary as He bled and died not just for sins of you who are sitting here, or watching, but for the world.
Application
Application
Jesus’ death left a conquered enemy. The victory was won as Jesus bore our sin on the cross, bled, died and rose again. We’re the one’s who benefit from this work.
There is only one way, that way is through Jesus Christ! As John records:
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Folks, it’s about Jesus. It always has been. Today we can be grateful for the Passion of God, that we have truth. Is The Gospel Enough, Is Jesus Enough? YES and YES!
There’s no need to seek anything more than Jesus or add to Jesus. His work is sufficient, perfect and compete.
If you need rejoicing - rejoice in truth! Rejoice that salvation is secure, rejoice that you can be complete “in Him,” you no longer have to trust in cain deceits or philosophies of the world.
Allow Jesus to fill your life. If you’re not a believer in Jesus Christ, your sin can be forgiven. You can receive forgiveness. Why not look to Jesus Christ the Lord for salvation? Place your faith in the eternal, victorious risen Christ!
Closing Prayer
Closing Prayer