11 minute read
My Pulpit Message notes
from TT 145
by TIMES TODAY
Grow in Fullness in Christ
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Many people wear all kinds of insurances. Some have protection charms on their wrists, some bracelet that is never removed supposed to protect them from evil eyes etc.
Visiting one of my relatives abroad they made a wonderful breakfast for me where fruits and vegetables are mixed together in a juicer and after serving the drinking they came with a huge bottle of multicoloured stuff that we were supposed to take which they said were multivitamins, they were food supplements; calcium, omega 3, phosphate and yet they did all these things away from the food that when you eat the food, you have to supplement with these vitamins.
- Paul by the inspiration of God writes to the believers in Colosse. What God is speaking to them and to us today is that Jesus plus nothing is equals to everything.
- The believers in Colosse were concern. Were they going to cut the tape of the race successfully? Were they going to finish their journey/marathon in Christ successfully? Were they going to win that commendation award having finished with Jesus only? So they began having some supplements/ substitutes/multi-vitamins to add to/fortify Jesus.
W. I. N
- As God was speaking to the Colossians He is speaking to us so that we may be able to cut the tape at the end of our salvation journey and WIN because of these three points: -
1. Warning (Colossians 2:8-23)
2. Instructions (Colossians 2:6-7, 9-23) 3.
N-nth factor/degree (Colossians 2:9-23)
Warning (Colossians 2:8-23)
- The gospel that is being presented to the believer in Colosse is not only, don’t look for more apart from Jesus, it is, why look for more? For He is sufficient.
- Paul is writing a warning to believers, a church that had been planted by Epaphras, a church that he had never visited, but a church that was growing as described in 1:2
He is not writing to people who are outside of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is people who have received Christ, who love Jesus, who have confessed their sins, peoples whose names are written in the book of life and yet he has a stern warning for them. ‘Be careful /beware/see to it that you are not taken captive.”
- Paul is not concerned that they are going to lose their salvation, or that their eternal security is at jeopardy, or that the way they are going they might knock the doors of heaven and it wont they opened, but he is concerned that their life before heaven would be worthless. That the life God has for them on earth, as citizens of heaven, but ambassadors here would be compromised and so he issues a warning; beware, be careful, see to it that you are not taken captive.
- Like us, when they received Christ they were very happy and thought now it is like how you used to drive on Waiyaki Way, before the Express Way came and have to do all kinds of dodging.
- They believed once you receive Christ, you just wait for heaven. God had a message for them that there is more than just waiting for heaven. Yes it is there and is secure, but like Paul says in 2 Peter 1:8, make your faith productive. And so Paul writes to them and gives them a warning, beware, see to it that you are not taken advantage of.
Col 2:8 “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy”
- The battle is in the mind. There are these thoughts / ideologies/ philosophies / ways of doing things that are trying to squeeze you into their own mould to think in a certain way. Paul warns them to be careful not to be dependent on human tradition, or elemental spiritual forces that have become the patrons of the way you do things
- Verses 9-23 he gives more explanation of what these things are: Verse 16
He goes on listing these things, but I don’t know if you have noticed that in the book of Galatians warning them about these same things, but in the book of Galatians, he gives specific and detailed explanations as to what these philosophies are, what these things he is warning them against are. But in Colossians, he does not spend as much time detailing what the problems are, what he is warning them against, he spends a lot more time giving them what the solution is;
- Paul is warning them just like he did to the Galatians, but more in details. He asked the Galatians, this was a race you were running well by grace through faith, but who cut in on you, who bewitched you? Because the issues of circumcision, certain diets, certain days, the moon,etc, the issues of the philosophy of the day, all those were confusing God’s people that were making them unproductive in their faith as they lived here even as they waited for heaven. So he gives them a stern warning.
In verse 22 he tells them, ‘and anyway, even the observance of these things does not add any value in restraining you from sexual indulgence. So be warned!
- You can be sincere, but be sincerely wrong! Jus the fact that you have pressed the accelerator to the bottom for four or five hours doesn’t mean that you have gotten to Mombasa. You have to be on Mombasa Road, the road that leads to Mombasa for that action to mean anything. And so he warns them sternly.
Instructions (Colossians 2:6-7, 9-23)
- “Therefore, just as you received Jesus Christ as Lord, continue that way.”
- Paul is saying, think back, how did you receive Jesus Christ? Was it through these hollow philosophies? Was is through the circumcision? Was it though the diets, what to eat, what not to eat, what to handle what not to handle? Was is by observing special days? Did you receive Christ by all these things? No! You received Christ, and just as Paul said to the Ephesians in 2:8-9,
So if your salvation began with surrender, dear Colossians, in that same way is who your salvation is going to grow.
- If you began in surrender, if you are justified by grace through faith, then your sanctification, your life here on earth as you wait for our Saviour, cleanses you to be more Christlike is also going to happen the same way by surrender, by grace through faith, is not going to take cooking aides, multivitamins or supplements because Jesus is enough. Jesus plus nothing equals everything. And so he tells them, it is Jesus and Jesus alone.
- One commentator says the word ‘in Him’ is used in the short passage is no less than 14, because our ability to move from glory to glory in our walk with God and be able to cut that tape, and win is going to take being in Him.
- Many times we forget, we imagine although we began by grace through faith in act of surrender to the LORD, we imagine that we must work for the rest. No! It is the same way.
- Paul uses a metaphor for construction. He said, if the foundation began, so in this same way, the way you are rooted (an agricultural metaphor) then the construction of stone upon stone, course one, two, three, four is going to be the same way.
- Paul uses construction language. First he talks about the foundation, rooted. Then, built-up, the course work of stone upon stone. But then knowing that it will beed concrete pillars, he says, strengthened, because this building is going high. It has to have a secure foundation by grace. Then course upon course, built-up by grace. The pillars that hold and strengthened the sides and the top again strengthened, by the same grace.
- So to win it takes three things, first he writes a warning, that Jesus needs no additives, He is sufficient. then he goes into these instructions, then he goes to the Nth factor/degree.
N-nth factor/degree (Colossians 2:9-23)
- This is where the whole theme of the book of Colossians comes from. It is as if God is juxtaposing for us Christ verses these additives/cooking aides, multivitamins, supplements and showing the excellence of Christ, even so incomparable because he completely goes beyond them to the Nth degree.
- I recently listened to a preacher who was saying, when we look at these things that we add on to Christ that make us ineffective and unproductive in our faith, it is because we are trying to use a weighting scale, we do some good things to counter off our bad things. But he makes it abundantly clear that Christianity is not a weighing scale religion, but is a Cross relationship.
- Why? Because he makes it abundantly clear in His word that Jesus is sufficient, He is authenticated and then verse 9, “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form,”
- Whatever substance, the very essence of who God is, is in Christ, in His appearance in bodily form. In verse 10, this Christ is so excellent to the Nth degree that He is the head of every power, and authority.
- Verse 13. He is the only One who is able to offer forgiveness and cancel the charge that was held against us.
- Verse 15 we are told how and He, Christ the only One having deserved the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them at the cross. Incomparable, our Christ.
- Verse 17, that all these things that were …in our eyes to try to supplement what Jesus began when we received Him, they are but a shadow. These traditions, they are but a shadow, but when Christ appeared He was the real and to the Nth degree, sufficient One for you and I.
- We all realise that shadows are harmless. If the sun was just over me to my back, the shadow it would cast to the front would be taller than I am. But it can cause no effect on those in front of me. All it is, is a shadow.
- These things that you and I have taken up and gobbling them, one after the other cannot be compared with Christ, because He is sufficient, the very essence of God.
- Meditate and think of your life, what is the propulsion of your life? I am not debating that you have surrendered your life to Christ, but like the Colossians, we are being warned that there are philosophies/ideologies that sound very good, godly, that are very sincere, but are sincerely wrong. It is like friendly fire.
- Is God asking you to surrender and to receive that instruction just as you began, just as your spiritual life started by grace, that you would continue it by grace.
- The devil has a desire and it is for us to use these vitamins, multivitamins, supplements that are incomparable to the glory of One who God was pleased to dwell in His full essence and instead of having the ‘IV’ as it were, of the Holy Spirit fuelling and generating and propelling us everyday to live for God, you and I are depending on cramps on the floor, of special days, of human traditions.
- I invite those of us who have received Christ, but have added other things for our protection, for example, wearing protection charms to protect you as you go through this world as you wait for heaven, thrown them at the feet of Christ, and say, on Christ, the Solid Rock, I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.
- Take a second look at Jesus Christ. Look at the Nth degree of who He is. In essence God (Col 2:9) and what He had done. Done a circumcision on us that is beyond the hands of men and cancelling our debt of sin that no supplement could do. Look at the Majesty of Jesus, who comes against these philosophies and disarms them all and has Majesty over them. Look at the soon coming King, this One whom everything else is a shadow. He alone is real.
