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Last week:
Colossians 2:8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.
This week:
Colossians 2:9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form,
10 and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.
11 In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ,
12 having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.
13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins,
14 having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.
15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
ONE THING POSSIBLILITIES:
Don’t live below your privileges in Jesus.
One of the biggest challenges for new Christians is realizing what Jesus has done & what he’s still doing in your heart.
ILLUS: "The Mystery of the Missing Owner" read the headline on an unusual section of the Chicago Tribune on Sunday, February 6, 2005. The supplement was actually a legal notice published by the Illinois State Treasurer’s Office seeking to give money away to rightful owners--the contents of abandoned safe deposit boxes, forgotten bank accounts, security deposit checks, uncashed paychecks, and dividend checks.
More than a billion dollars is owed to nearly five million people and businesses that the Treasurer’s Office could not trace. The front page of the supplement listed the names and last known addresses of 10 individuals or couples each owed over $100,000. And what followed were 116 pages packed tightly with names from Lucilee Aakeberg to Leonard E. Zyzda--113,000 names of people all owed more than $100 in cash and/or stock!
The argument Paul is making is that Christ in his fullness has done for them what nothing else can do. No empty philosophy that man can bring along can do it.
It wasn’t philosophy that did these things for you – it was Jesus.
You know how he changed your heart!
You know what he did.
You know how you used to be.
You know you were hard-hearted, proud, arrogant, self-sufficient, uncaring about things of God.
You know in your mind that you see a good thing in God and his law, but your heart is too weak, selfish and self-centered to do a single thing about it!
1. Jesus gave you FULLNESS FOR YOUR EMPTINESS.
Colossians 2:10 and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.
Every other philosophy, no matter how noble, will not fill the heart.
Only a deep satisfaction in the glory of Jesus will do it.
When you see Jesus and feel Jesus as FULL of everything you need, then you get fullness.
It would be a shame for fullness to be right there, already given to you, and you live below your privileges.
2. Jesus changed your HARD HEART.
Colossians 2:11 In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ,
Circumcision? OK, all the guys get uncomfortable.
Circumcision was one of the signs of the COVENANT in the OT – to join the Jewish religion, you actually had to BE circumcised even if you weren’t as a child. It was the MAIN MARK that you were IN, part of the covenant, the deal with God. Now, we don’t have to do that any more, in a physical sense. (All the men breathed a sigh of relief.)
But the New Testament teaches that circumcision is a symbol of what Christ does in our hearts – that HIS stamp is put on our hearts, and that the mark of a real Christian, a person who is IN – who is part of the covenant – is a changed heart.
Romans 2:29 No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart…
Interestingly, the way this is structured in Greek indicates this is something that happens after baptism. OK, you’ve already been baptized, now, Jesus changes your heart….
This is a good place to tell all of you who are Christians, that you need to seek God to truly change your heart… even more deeply. You need to be filled with the Spirit, entirely sanctified…
You need to put off the sinful nature, and trust in Christ. You may be saved, but there is still a basic selfishness that characterizes your life. You need to surrender that to Christ, and let him defeat your inner enemy, the sinful nature.
ILLUS: Salesman making a sales call, attacked by a bulldog, put a big washtub down over the bulldog and sat on it. Lady came to the door to buy his product, but “I can’t come in, I’ve got to sit on this bulldog.”
It would be a real shame for you live with hardness in your heart, a dull, insensitive heart, when Christ has purchased for you, a changed, circumcised heart.
3. Jesus gave you a NEW LIFE.
12 having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.
13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins,
When Jesus was dead, they took him down from the cross, wrapped him in graveclothes and traditional spices, and took his scarred, broken body, and put him in a borrowed tomb, carved out of solid rock, behind a multi-ton stone, guarded by professional soldiers.
You don’t get much more hopeless than DEAD. Can we agree on that? This is why his disciples were so hopeless.
But on the 3rd day, about dawn, the ground shook, the soldiers fainted, the stone rolled back and Jesus walked out ALIVE, triumphant over death, the most final enemy that we can imagine, the enemy no man has ever beaten.
When you were in sin, you were dead – unable to help yourself, unable to “just do it.” You were bound by the deathly power of sin.
But Jesus took that DEAD person and when you were saved, he washed your sins away with his blood, and the dead became alive.
You’re not hopeless, you’re not powerless, you’re not dead in sin, you’re not a slave to it… you’re FREE!
And wouldn’t it be a shame to walk away from that, because you didn’t know what Jesus had done, and go back to just living out the world’s basic principles?
The basic principles of the world? They didn’t raise you from the dead!!
Don’t live like you’re in the grave, like you’re still dead in sin! You’re raised – you’re alive – you’re privileged!
14 having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.
Colossians 2:14 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. (NAS95)
You owe God.
The law is a certificate of a debt of RIGHTEOUSNESS that you owe God. He is righteous, he created you to glorify Him – and he deserves it. You owe that to Him, he’s your Creator. He made the ground you walk on, the air you breathe, and the feet and lungs you do it with. He gave you the responsibility to obey Him. But you are powerless to keep that law, apart from Christ. You have committed adultery, lusted after women, stolen, coveted what wasn’t yours,
So it works out as being a list of debts that you cannot keep.
Admit it, you can’t be good enough. If you have an ounce of honesty, or a pinch of humility within yourself, you can look at your own heart and say that. When have you been completely honest, not shading the truth to avoid hurting or offending someone? When have you with 100% perfection in your unsaved state ever kept God in first place? Even your obedience is often tainted with the motive of being praised and noticed by men.
And so you are condemned. The law stands over you, with the executioner’s sword ready to strike because you have sinned. You owe, and you cannot pay.
But Jesus came and cancelled that certificate of debt. He paid it, stamped it as paid, and nailed it to his cross.
Jesus paid your bill. Ask your philosophy to do that.
ILLUS: Calvin Miller reminds us of the fable of the little girl whose mother's face was hideously scarred from an early injury. As the little girl grew, made friends, and gained her own identity, she became more and more ashamed of her mother's horrid appearance. As she walked down the street with her mother, she noticed people moving over to the far side of the walk or even crossing the street to avoid them. Gradually, the girl found ways to avoid being with her mother in public. Eventually, the girl became an adult, married, and moved to another town. Her lonely mother suffered financial setbacks and faced basic hunger. Her daughter continued to ignore her, even in such destitute circumstances.
One day the daughter discovered an old diary of her mother's. It described a horrible fire that swept through their home. The mother rushed into the burning house, scooped her daughter into her arms, and ran back out, burning herself beyond belief. The truth dawned on the girl. Her mother's horrific scars came from saving the daughter's life.
A new kind of shame raced through her heart and soul. She went to her mother and threw her arms around what now appeared to be a beautiful face. In tears she expressed her gratitude for all her mother had done. A new love relationship controlled their lives from then on (Miller, Until He Comes, p. 139). (Source: Sermoncentral.com)
Yet, we live as if we are trying to prove something to God, though our bill is paid… looking for something more that we can do to prove we are worthy of heaven.
4. Jesus broke the POWERS OF SATAN that held you.
15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
Satan has you blinded and tied. God the Holy Spirit breaks through from time to time and helps you see that God is good, and that what He calls you to is right and good and just.
Some people try to be Christians, when they are not saved. They try. They show up at church. They try to “do right.” They attempt to keep God’s law. But they are merely awakened sinners, struggling like Paul in Romans 7. They know the right thing, but they are tied to the weight that pulls them down.
Pornography.
Lust.
Lying.
Anger.
Resentment.
Doubt.
It’s as if Satan let you see how good God is, and sent you off to chase Him with a huge rock tied around your ankle.
Jesus has publicly humiliated Satan. Ask your philosophy to do that.
Jesus has done all this – Don’t LIVE BELOW YOUR PRIVILIGES!
A story is told – by Fredrick Beuchner I believe – called “The Happy Hypocrite." It is a story about a man who was born with an awful facial deformity. He grew up alone and lonely. When reaching adulthood, he decided to move from his town to begin a new life. On his way he discovered a beautiful mask that fit his making him look handsome. At first the mask was uncomfortable and he was afraid that people would find out who he really was, but he continued to wear the mask everyday.
In his new hometown, he made many friends and fell in love. But one day a wicked woman from his old home came to his town and discovered this man’s true identity. In front of his friends and fiancé, she forced him to remove his mask. When he removed the mask, it revealed a handsome face. His face had conformed to the mask.
Becoming like Christ is analogous to this. Go ahead and put on Christ. At first it may feel unnatural or uncomfortable, and maybe you may think, “who am I trying to fool?” But everyday just keep putting on Christ and everyday you will grow to look more like him.
HANDOUT:
Colossians 2:8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.
9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form,
How Jesus has changed you:
1. Jesus gave you ______________________________.
Colossians 2:10 and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.
2. Jesus changed your ________________________.
Colossians 2:11 In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism…
Circumcision was the sign of the ___________________________ in the Jewish religion, the sign that you were a part of the people of God.
But in the New Testament:
Romans 2:29 No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit…
3. Jesus gave you a ______________________.
12 having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.
13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins,
14 having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.
The law is a certificate of a debt of _______________________________ that you owe God.
4. Jesus broke the ___________________________ that held you.
15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
Jesus has done all this – Don’t _______________________________________!
