"Union With Christ”

Sin is a category without meaning except in reference to God. A Calvin and Hobbes comic strip illustrates this in an endearing way. Calvin, a little boy, is hurtling down a snowy slope on a sled with his friend Hobbes, a tiger, conducting a discussion about sin (the wildly improbable nature of this scene is part of its charm). Here is the dialogue:

Calvin: I'm getting nervous about Christmas.

Hobbes: You're worried you haven't been good?

Calvin: That's just the question. It's all relative. What's Santa's definition? How good do you have to be to qualify as good? I haven't killed anybody. That's good, right? I haven't committed any felonies. I didn't start any wars. … Wouldn't you say that's pretty good? Wouldn't you say I should get lots of presents?

Hobbes: But maybe good is more than the absence of bad.

Calvin: See, that's what worries me.

The insufficiencies that we may feel on our part is much of the reason why we can be susceptible to teaching that promise a full life with things in addition to Christ. We feel like we need more because either we are taught that we need more or we don’t believe that Christ is enough. Or maybe its because we believe that we are not enough even with Christ so we go seeking more. It is way more than clear that Christ, the Holy Spirit and the scriptures are way more than enough for life and godliness. So why do we feel like He is not enough for life? One of the big cues to help us see the problem is seeing the effects of sin. The reason we feel like Christ is not enough is because He will bring us what we need for life and godliness, not power, pleasure, profit and popularity. But in sin that is what we desire. He wont’t help us to sin. He won’t give us what is bad for us no matter how good we think it might be. If it is sin we want, the world does a great job of giving what we want. That is why we are so susceptible to the ways and patterns of this world.

Today we will see just how emphatic the scriptures are about the sufficiency and supremacy of Christ, but for many of us the issue is not that we don’t believe that Christ is enough for life and godliness. We just don’t want that life and godliness. This is where the gospel comes in. Let’s take a look at our passage today.

Colossians 2:9–10 NLT

For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.

The grass withers the flower fades but the world of our God stands forever.

Full

Complete

Saved

The first thing we will look at today how the fullness of God is at work in Christ at all times. Second, we will see that we are complete because we are filled with a fountain that will not fail. Finally, we will see that all of this is possible because of the work that Christ did in bringing salvation to His people.

Thesis: Though sin and the pattern of this world cause us to question the sufficiency of Christ, it is the power of the Holy Spirit and the truth of scripture that will cause us to see that Christ is enough and if all we have is Christ we have more than enough.

I. Full

- All that we need for life and godliness.

A. So remember the problem is that false teachers have infiltrated the church in Colosse and are causing doubt. Not doubt that Christ is the way, but doubt that Christ is the only way. What is interesting...

B. The church in Colossae was not like the church in Corinth. The Corinthians were actually boastful and became arrogant in their understanding of what they have in Christ.

1 Corinthians 4:8 NLT

You think you already have everything you need. You think you are already rich. You have begun to reign in God’s kingdom without us! I wish you really were reigning already, for then we would be reigning with you.

Colossians 2:18 NLT

Don’t let anyone condemn you by insisting on pious self-denial or the worship of angels, saying they have had visions about these things. Their sinful minds have made them proud,

C. The Colossians were in a different place. The false teachers were telling them that they could not come to fulfillment or completeness in Christ or at least in Christ alone. Paul and Timothy are telling them that this was not true at all.

D. Again, if you are familiar with Gnostic teachings of the time… the Great Logos would make contact though a series of emanations from the heavens in which Christ was the last one. He was not the only way to the Father, but one of many ways.

E. Paul and Timothy declare that we can see the fullness of God and the power of God in all creation as we look around us. We see the work and fullness of God all around us, but in Christ we actually see the face of God. And the fullness we have is a fullness at hand. This is the beauty of Paul’s use of the greek … we translate dwell. It points us to the picture of the tabernacle. The temple was the place where the presence of God abides with his people… clearly pictured. Clearly communicated. And that is the impact of what the apostle desires to communicate. Christ is God with us. Emmanuel.

John 1:14 NLT

So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.

F. He is the fullness of the presence of God here on earth. Another way we diminish the supremacy and sufficiency of Christ today. Why are ministries still raising money for us to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem? Is the true temple not enough? The temple built on the temple mount was there to teach us about the coming of Christ. The temple is a type and a shadow.

Matthew 12:6 NLT

I tell you, there is one here who is even greater than the Temple!

G. Types and shadows are like blue prints. They point us to the reality. The temple the sacrifices, the feats, the priests, all point us to Christ. They were like blue prints. Would it not be weird that after the house was built when we wanted to take shelter, instead of going into the house, we cover ourselves with the blue prints. What does it say about us? What does it say about the house?

H. What if instead of talking to Jeanine I would talk to a picture that I hung up in my living room. When I would talk to her I would talk to the picture… when I left to go to work I kissed the picture good bye instead of Jeanine. What would that say about me… even worse, what would that say about her.

I. Do we not understand just how demeaning it would be to our Lord that we want to go back to the picture. The presence of God will no longer be there. Christ is now the fullness of God and the reality. But Shane, don’t we want to go to the place where the Spirit of God dwells. Is there something wrong with the spirit of God dwelling with you right now?

J. As Christians, we are the body of Christ. We are the temple of the Spirit of God. You want to go where the Spirit of God dwells… come hang out with me.

K. Christ is the true temple. Christ is the way the Spirit of God dwells with His people and now that Christ is in heaven the Holy Spirit is here dwelling with us… who Paul calls the temple of the Holy Spirit. Let’s not diminish Him? Let’s not diminish the incredible thing that the Lord has given us. And if the Holy Spirit dwells with us now… how incomplete can we be?

II. Complete

- He made us complete in Him.

A. We are in Christ. We are in Christ. And if Christ is the fullness of what it is to be God we have more than enough… matter of fact, he is overflowing. For if we share in Christ, we are part of Christ… we are united with Christ, here it is… If we are one with Christ. How can we ever say that we are incomplete in anyway? He is the fullness and we are full in Christ. We are complete in Christ.

B. If we are full in Christ who is the fullness, why in the world would we go looking for anything else? This is why we should not be deceived. When you are full after eating, do you go looking for other food?

Hendrickson writes, “in Christ you have reached the Source whence flows the stream of blessings that supplies whatever you need for this life and for the next. Abide, therefore, in him, and you will continue to experience that “out of his fulness we all receive grace upon grace.

John 1:16 NLT

From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another.

C. But as we will see from the greek rendering that idea given is this...The Colossians will have no interest in listening to the false teachers once they realize that they are already “filled.”

Dr. Doug Moo writes, In him, and in him alone, God has decisively and exhaustively revealed himself. All that we can know or experience of God is therefore found in our relationship with him.

D. Christ is all we need and the scriptures say we are in Him. So if all we have is Christ what more do we need? If we are truly Christians, then the question is what else do we want? Here is something beautiful...

Alexander Maclaren writes, Though all the earth were covered with helpers and lovers of my soul, “as the sand by the sea shore innumerable,” and all the heavens were sown with faces of angels who cared for me and succoured me, thick as the stars in the milky way—all could not do for me what I need. Yea, though all these were gathered into one mighty and loving creature, even he were no sufficient stay for one soul of man. We want more than creature help. We need the whole fulness of the Godhead to draw from. It is all there in Christ, for each of us. Whosoever will, let him draw freely. Why should we leave the fountain of living waters to hew out for ourselves, with infinite pains, broken cisterns that can hold no water? All we need is in Christ. Let us lift our eyes from the low earth and all creatures, and behold “no man any more,” as Lord and Helper, “save Jesus only,” “that we may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

E. If then Christ is the fountain that will never fail and will always fill then why do we keep seeking out broken cisterns that can hold no water?

Jeremiah 2:13 NLT

“For my people have done two evil things: They have abandoned me— the fountain of living water. And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all!

F. Why do we do this? Why indeed.

III. Saved

- Life and life more abundant.

A. I think in the end. We struggle because we are more enslaved by sin then we think. I mean what do you think it Christianity would be like if we actually believed everything in the scriptures. What if everyday we really woke up knowing that our life here on earth is just a tiny point in time. What if we really lived our lives storing up treasure in heaven? What if we really believed that wisdom was more precious than rubies?

B. That is our real problem isn’t it. O ye of little faith. We struggle with believing that Christ is all we need. We struggle with it… it just can’t be. It’s to good to be true. Or maybe He is not the kind of God we want. Remember the Jewish leaders… Christ was not the kind of Messiah that they wanted. They wanted the warrior who would free them from the Romans.

C. We look for love in all the wrong places because we are looking for the wrong things. The problem is, we want what Christ does not give. That is why we look elsewhere. That is why we find ourselves in the mess we are in sometimes. Thats why we sin. We want to sin. We crave our sin. And if we can get our cake and eat it too thats what we try to do. And if we try to get our cake and eat it too we seek things apart from Christ. That is why we get caught in false teaching. It’s like they help us get as much from the world as possible and still go to heaven. They appeal to what we desire deep down in our hearts.

D. And our culture has deceived us into thinking that what we desire deep down in our heart is good. Its worthwhile. Its who I am. But the scriptures do not teach us this… It gives us a warning.

Jeremiah 17:9 NLT

“The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?

E. It is our nature. It is the flesh. It is the reality of sin. And with this sin comes judgement. The judgement is real. It is eternal. It is torment. But can we be saved from this?

F. Yes we can be saved. There is salvation for us. And it belongs to the Lord and to the Lord alone. There is no name under heaven by which men can be saved. Jesus said I am the way the truth and the life no one comes to the Father except by me. And what did Christ do?

G. Jesus died for our sins according to the scriptures and he was buried and he was raised from the third day according to the scriptures. The saying is trust worthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners. Christ came to seek and save that which was lost. By His wounds we are healed.

H. The wonderful promises continue. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved. All who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

I.