Sermon Nuggets Mon Nov 16
Theme -Complete in Christ
Verses Col 2:8-15
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,
10 and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.
Complete in Christ
I had to admit I was surprised when I went into a friend’s house and saw in one of their rooms the poster of the signs of the zodiac. Although my friend was a Christian she would faithfully read her horoscope and take some precautions based on what the statement said.
When I first set up my computer to automatically open to personalized home page a few years ago I could pick some personal data and interests so Yahoo would open with some national, world and local new headline news. I found out how to click one button and get the latest Cambridge weather, Minnesota professional ball team scores but it automatically included other information for your-health news, and generally how the stock market was doing and a horoscope. After a long time I figured out how to eliminate some stuff I didn’t want.
Although it is right in front of me I have never once read my daily horoscope on the internet. There are people who guide their decisions based on what celestial sign they were born under. Some people date others they think their signs are compatible. To read one's horoscope out of curiosity and amusement may be innocent to some. But there are far more that get their guidance for life from the stars. Star gazing is nothing new. In fact it permeated the cultures surrounding Israel and when the Gentiles started coming to faith in Jesus Christ some of them carried over old pagan customs.
Part of the theme of Colossians is to tell the truth from falsehood and making believers beware of how other teachings can mislead them and shipwreck their faith in Christ.
Last week we were talking about the problem of cults and authority in life. We looked at this passage of Scripture and throughout this chapter Paul warns them about making emotional experiences their authority, He warns them about making liberalism or humanism or personal intellect the ultimate authority in life. He cautions them against traditions. Jesus Christ and his word is the only reliable authority for truth. As cults are going around us there are many voices that call us to determine our decisions and use as our direction a variety of sources.
Paul wanted to meet this problem head on in the church. He already made his position clear in his hymn on the supremacy of Christ 1:15-20. Now he applies this truth to details of the false teaching in Colossae. We confronted with evil teaching, most of us attack it and try to point out what is wrong with it, but here the apostle does not do that. He reviews for the Colossian Christians what they already have in Jesus. He calls them back to the truth and sets it before them.
We do well remembering the important truth that we are Complete in Christ.
Pastor Dale
Sermon Nuggets Tues Nov 17
Verses Col 2:8-11
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,
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,
Christ is Complete in Truth
As we remind ourselves of the fullness of Christ, Paul pointed out how Christ more than supplied their needs. Not only could Christians find fullness of life in Christ but Christ also made sacramental rites obsolete and swept away all legalistic demands and took on all the spiritual forces of the enemy. We don’t need other things from us to complete the work of Jesus.
The Christians were in danger then and in danger now when false doctrine creeps into our thinking. Too many groups will seek salvation from Jesus AND something else. It usually includes some legalist requirement to add to the works or words of Jesus.
It is in horror that we are reading and hearing about a young child named Shaniya Davis who was allegedly kidnapped and used for child sex trafficking in North Carolina. People she trusted abuse her and left her for dead.
Much less publicity is given of spiritual kidnappers who take innocent people and lead them to false doctrines and beliefs which keep them in spiritual death. There are many spiritual kidnappers out there taking the unprotected and enslaving them in spiritual bondage and blindness and in the end leave them dead to the Lord. Many uninformed believers fall into falsehood. Many Christians are led astray looking for something more exciting too their faith,
Some of the Spiritual cults make people think something is missing and the Jesus isn't enough. Certainly we want to grow in our understanding of truth revealed in the Bible. We want to experience a closer walk with the Lord. But there is no new truth that we don’t already have, it may be seeking to understand it better. Many teach a different gospel or looking for an inner experience to add to faith in Christ. Dissatisfaction with our spiritual lives causes folks to add to their beliefs and seek things that are new. When someone says there are secrets to ultimate happiness who doesn't want to know the secrets?
A general belief in Paul’s time was that spiritual beings frequently associated with planet and stars -controlled every man's future. This ancient astrology, along with the ideas that secret knowledge enabled man to control the power of these things seemed to creep into false teaching of the Gnostics in Colossae. You don't need the stars when you know the maker of the stars.
Paul shows us that all fullness dwells in Christ. Christ is complete. When you have Jesus you have all of God. We have all of the Holy Spirit. He may not have all of you, but what more do you need? What more can anybody add to that? What new experience, what other additional divine person can you receive than what you have already received when you have Jesus? It may be that we need to discover more of what it means to have Christ in our hearts. That is a lifelong process. We shall always be growing in appreciation and understanding of what it means to have Christ, but the point is -You do not need anything more than you already have in Him. You merely need to understand more of what you have received.
I preached a sermon once entitled “more of Jesus and less of me”. Trying make one point, I was confusing the doctrine that we are complete in Christ. We take too often the me centered faith instead of the Christ centered faith. We do need to take up our cross daily and follow him. We need to give to him our sin and remove those barriers to spiritual intimacy. We may need maturity, but we have been given all things in Christ.
Jesus is complete in truth. There is not more truth spiritually that you need. The Philosophies of this world, the elementary principles are false compared to the truth that is found in Jesus.
When Jesus said "I am the truth." He could say that because He was God. He was the creator. John 2 say in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. vs. 24 the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld the glory, glory as of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth. Because Christ is the creator and upon all power and principles rest there is nothing else that serves as our authority.
Dr. V. Elving Anderson on the nations leading geneticists from the University of Minnesota. and on the board of regents for Bethel for many years, had written a few articles. Many people of the past worshiped the sun, moon or stars, but the Bible teaches that only God is worthy of worship. Pagan worshipers sought "supernatural" explanations for phenomena such as weather, but the Bible demythologizes nature. In our sophisticated age there is still a temptation to indulge in nature worship. Silence about God in nature will end in the deification of nature, and pseudo-religion under the disguise of science which will take the place of religion."
He is making the distinction between science (the discovering of God's world), and scientism, (the faith that says all that exists is natural.) Many make science their religion to explain not how things work, but why they work as well."
Don't be captive by hollow and deceptive philosophy. Paul said it. Dr. Russell Arndt, a retired Chemistry professor at St. Cloud University, said in his writing on Creation and evolution "The evidence clearly points to a creator. Philosophies that exclude Christ are vain and empty. True wisdom must begin with God at the center of the world and explanation stem from Him."
Don’t let the popular New Age phenomena or empty religious fads be something that must be ADDED to your faith. There is completeness in the truth of Jesus through the Bible.
Pastor Dale.
Sermon Nuggets Weds Nov 18
Verses Col 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.
Christ is Complete in Character
Not only is Christ complete in truth as we mentioned yesterday, He is complete also in character. He is the fullness of all deity. I've heard it said by Jehovah Witnesses that nowhere in the Bible does it say that Christ is God, nor does He make any such personal claims. That shows they do not study the Bible. Either they are trying to deceive knowingly or they are ignorant of the many places the divinity of Jesus is stated and implied.
Most versions translate verse 9 “all the fullness of deity lives in bodily form”. Some translate fullness of Godhead which is the same thing. Jesus could not be just a good teacher without accepting Him as the Son of God. He used that term of Himself. To make those claims as C.S. Lewis suggested, would make Jesus a liar or crazy. Who would consider a liar or crazy man a great teacher?
Jesus claimed “I am the son of God”, he said, “before Abraham was born I am" not "I was" or "I will be." but "I am" meaning there never was a time when I ceased to exist.
God said, "this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." Other statements Jesus said of Himself were these: "I have the power to lay down life and I have the power to raise it up again." Jesus said "He who glorifies me glorifies my father," "He that hates me, hates my father. He that loves me, loves my father. I am my Father are one." "He that has seen me has seen my father, he that rejects me rejects my father." "I am the only way to God." "I have all power and authority in heaven and on earth," No human has all authority on earth, not to mention heaven. But He has all power in heaven and on earth. He is the fullness of deity in bodily form.
As the sinless son of God He is complete in character. All the claims God made of himself in the Old Testament are made of Christ in the New Testament: the good shepherd, the way the truth the light; why else did the demons shutter in fear when they were in the presence of Jesus? Fullness means the sum total of all that God is and all His being and all His attributes.
If you want to find one main area with which cults differ from us it is in the understanding of who Jesus Christ is. Most will deny his deity. Most will argue that others are equal or superior authorities. Most will take his view and incorporate other views with them.
Protection against false teaching begins with a realization Jesus Christ is all in all. Christ is complete for salvation. We don't need anything else to have a right relationship with the Father. Jesus conquered all evil on the cross. When we identify with Jesus in his death and burial and resurrection we are completely clean before God. He disarmed Satan and the demons and made a public spectacle of them exposing their deceit and vileness. He triumphed over them and disgraced and defeated them v. 15.
There is nothing else you can add to your salvation. It is not Jesus and something else. It is Jesus alone. It is not Jesus and the church, Jesus and baptism, Jesus and performance. It is not Jesus and a special revelation. It is Jesus alone who saves and believe in his works is enough to save you. All fullness is in Christ.
There is nothing else you need. Christ is complete in truth complete in character and complete in salvation.
Pastor Dale
Sermon Nuggets Thurs Nov 19
Verses- Col 2:11-14
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.
Christ is Complete in Forgiveness
When Gods' Spirit comes into our lives we are made complete the way God intended us to be. We were dead to the Lord and now by faith in the works of Jesus Christ we are made alive. All our sins have been forgiven. We are complete in him because he dwells in us and has that power to bring us spiritual life.
Christ is complete in forgiveness. We are forgiven from all the past. Because of that, we are complete in Christ.
The Gnostic legalists said that Jewish laws could help the believers become more spiritual if they were circumcised and follow certain days and practices- they would be part of the Holy Elite. Paul uses the illustration of circumcision to point to the past.
Circumcision in the Old Testament is when the Jews had the foreskins from the male organ delicately removed. It was an early sign of belonging to God. Paul explains this was a sign of putting off the sinful nature and being in the family of God by means of the covenant.
Thus when our Lord was crucified the sin that he assumed on our behalf was removed. That is the point. The foreskin of the flesh is a symbol of the fallen nature, the flesh, within us. When we become a Christian the past works of the flesh are revealed for what it is, worthless in God's sight. So the figure of uncircumcision represented sin. Uncircumisized lips meant unholy and vile words and lies, gossip, slander. Uncircumcised heart was sinful and corrupt hearts. A circumcised heart was a heart that was seeking Gods' righteousness and holiness not man's fleshly way of doing things.
In a symbolic manner, Christ is the one that circumcises us. He uses some contrasts with a priest when it comes to the past. The Jews had an external surgery. Believers have an internal surgery of their hearts. the Jews had part of their bodies affected, the believers have their whole body of sin removed; the Jewish was done by hands, the believer’s baptism is by Christ through the Holy Spirit. The Jew found no spiritual help in conquering sin; but spiritual circumcision overcomes sin. Christ circumcises us by putting off our sinful nature. He cuts off our fleshly way, or our human way, of doing things.
Sin is no longer an issue in our relationships with God. It may affect our fellowship, but not our relationship. He has fully dealt with it. Our sins have been nailed to the cross so they no longer condemn us. We are freed from the power of evil.
There are many cults and teachings that you have to pay for your sins, or do penance. Some folks never have that assurance of freedom from guilt. But all our sins have been forgiven because our lives have been holy before God in Christ Jesus
The Bible also uses the figure of baptism to symbolize our new life with God. Baptism is that physical and visible form of identifying with Christ and his people. There are similarities of the two symbols. Just as circumcision was outward this didn’t necessarily affect the inward life, so baptism can be an outward action that may not necessarily affect your inward life. Baptism was the sign of knowingly and deliberately leaving one's way of life and beliefs for another. It was a voluntary conscious and deliberate act of the will. But what is points to is the work of the Spirit of God in given us new life from above.
If you have been saved baptism is a matter of public testimony of your new faith in Christ. We are complete in Jesus because of the present relationship we have. We walk with God. Jesus is with us wherever we go. We don't go to church to find him, he is within us. He does not leave us comfortless. We have what we need in this personal and close relationship with the living Lord. This is the abiding with Christ that makes our life an adventure.
Pastor Dale
Sermon Nuggets Fri Nov 20
Verses- Col 2:11-15 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 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, 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.(NIV)
Christ is Complete in Victory
Because in Christ there is complete forgiveness we have hope in the complete victory of Christ over Satan.
Our culture has changed dramatically in the last few years. With many other cultures coming in there are many non Christian religions-Buddhist, Muslims, Hindus, as well as influences of New Age beliefs. The thing that is lacking in non Christian religions is eternal hope. All other religions are mans' way of getting to God. The Bible shows that salvation comes through Christ’s works on the cross as God comes down to man to seek and save the lost. It is not by our striving, but faith in accepting the gift provided by our Lord.
All groups hope they will go to a happy place after death, but do not know for sure. They believe some cosmic force or god will determine if their works were good enough.
Paul gives us confident hope because Jesus took on the very battle against Satan himself. He went to the cross in order that our sins can be canceled and forgiven. Jesus took the worse thing that Satan could throw his way- suffering and death. That is all he can do. But by the power of the Almighty Jesus was able to have Satan play right into his hands. For the grave could not hold him, now no grave of a believer can hold him. That is hope we have at funeral services.
Jesus striped Satan of his power over our lives. v. 15 He disarmed them. We have the power of God to withstand the fiery darts of the evil one. If we understand who we are in Christ and what we have in him, there is no need to be weak, faltering, or failing. The true Christian has been made complete in what Christ has done for us. He has a whole new basis of living.
Paul was not afraid of the truth. But the greatest truth is Jesus Christ. When people are saying you need something more to add to your faith in Christ, beware.
This hope is explained an this passage in three ways. First it is a resurrection from the dead. A dead person cannot help himself. Christ comes and makes one alive. They are now alive to God.
The second figurative expression is canceling the written code. It is paying the debt, or eliminating the IOU. It is paying the price of our bill.
If someone walked into the bank and gave the money for your mortgage the house now is yours free and clear. You owe nothing more. By nailing our debt to the cross we have been purchased by our Lord. We are free from the bondage that Satan had upon us.
The third picture of salvation is like a military victory or triumph over the enemy. Jesus sees His death and resurrection a triumph over the enemy of evil, Satan and all his demons. He won the war over our soul and over Satan's power over us. After a great conquest in that day the king would ride back into his city with his army and behind them bound would be the parade of prisoners on display as defeated for all to see. This is the disarming of the powers and authority and made public spectacle of them.
Christ is complete in his victory and that hope is available to all who believe and receive Jesus is their Lord and Savior. We are complete in Christ.
Pastor Dale
