Colossians 2:1-15 Complete confidence

Colossians 2:1-15

Last week we spoke about Paul’s willingness to suffer for the gospel, and why. And we were challenged to see that suffering is a fundamental part of being a Christian. In fact, if you are not willing to suffer for the sake of Christ then you are not a Christian! We are called to follow our Master on the road to Calvary. At the base level, suffering is simply the daily denying ourselves – saying no to our sinful nature, and saying yes to Christ. And that is hard!

At most, we may be called to give up our lives for Christ, like many church martyrs through the ages, like many today. Ordinary men and women who are being beaten tortured, have acid thrown in their faces, are maimed, bombed, shot, hung, their property is confiscated, they are spat upon in the streets, they are thrown out of their homes, they are forced to leave their villages, their churches are burned. That is the cost of following Christ. And when you speak to these Christians, our brothers and sisters, they say “I count it as pure joy”. A American missionary was interviewing a group of women believers in India who had been horrifically abused because of their faith. When she expressed her dismay at their suffering their response was remarkable. They said that they pray for us in the West, because “how do you know that you belong to Christ if you do not suffer for Him?”

Paul is willing to suffer for the gospel. Now we see the direction of his suffering. What is his goal?

1. Together we stand in Christ

Paul suffers to tell them the gospel, that the riches and glory of Christ are for Gentiles too. And this is the mystery: Christ in you, the assurance of glory.

And he agonises, presumably in prayer, probably also in writing this letter – he feels deeply for them to be bound by love, and to have confidence in Christ.

I want you to know how much I have agonized for you and for the church at Laodicea, and for many other believers who have never met me personally. 2 I want them to be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love. I want them to have complete confidence that they understand God’s mysterious plan, which is Christ himself. 3 In him lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Did you notice the repeated pattern:
V1 I want – you to know my agony for you
V2 I want – you to be bound by love
V2 I want – you to have complete confidence in CHRIST

And why does Paul want these things? So that you are not deceived

4 I am telling you this so no one will deceive you with well-crafted arguments

How do we defeat such well-crafted arguments (and note they are well-crafted – we can be deceived by them)? By v2 being knit together with love in the gospel, confident that we have all we need in Christ.
Again we see the importance of our church family. We need each other. We need Sunday morning sermons, explaining the truth, pointing us to Christ, driving us to lift our eyes to him. When else in your life do you get the riches of the Bible served up to you? The sermon expounds God’s Word, cutting through our culture, our sins, our excuses and laying us bear – and then comforting us, meeting us in our needs, exactly where we are, giving us encouragement to endure for one more week.
And Wednesday night Bible studies where you get trained to unpack the Bible for yourself. That’s the main goal – teaching you to read and understand the Bible.
And then we put into practice what we have heard the Spirit say to us. And His words are not just words, great knowledge - but they are also Power. As we obey, as we step out in faith – at the moment we step out in faith, trusting God – then the power comes, the ability to do what we have been called to do. But not before. Obedience first, trust first – then power.
We lean on each other, we love each other, we put each other first. We accept each other, we are quick to forgive, we are honest with each other (there’s nothing worse than Christian fakery, fake smiles, fake politeness – let us never let that creep in here. Let us deal with issues quickly, honestly, gently, openly. Sin breeds in darkness).

In the Greek these verses are all run together so reads more like this “I want you to have joined together hearts in assurance of knowledge of mystery of God: Christ, who is the treasure of all wisdom and knowledge”

The word joined together or knit together is the word symbibasthentes which is linked to our English word symbiosis: two different organisms living together as one unit, one creature.
The church is like a solid tree with intertwined trunks, firmly planted on Christ. As Ecclesiastes 4:12 says A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken

Together we will not be held captive

2. Don’t be deceived

Together we will not be held captive.

The following verses unpack that concept of staying bound together in love, with deep confidence in Christ.

He says

Don’t be deceived: be rooted in Christ

Don’t be deceived: philosophies are empty and from spiritual powers and human wisdom, and therefore ultimately nonsense.

Don’t be deceived: you are complete in Christ (he lacks nothing)

Don’t be deceived: Christ is above all other powers

6 And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. 7 Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness. 8 Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ. 9 For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. 10 So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.

A tree is only a strong as its roots. Ever been up in the forest and seen a tree with shallow roots because of rocks? What happens to it? Bang! A church is only as strong as its grip on Christ. If we are not rooted in Christ, it doesn’t matter how united we are – we will fall. We may fall together, and have a great time on the way down, patting ourselves on the back with how “united” we are… but we will crash in disaster if we lose our grip on Christ. How many churches around us are doing or having done exactly that? The Episcopal church in America, the Methodist church, parts of the Anglican church in England, the State church here in Norway – united in opposition to the word of God. It is appalling. So Paul reminds us don’t be deceived – but be rooted in Christ.

Unity is not what is required. Unity IN CHRIST is what we are called to. So feel free to oppose anything in this church which takes us away from Christ, away from his powerful word, away from the simple message of repent and believe. Do not allow us to be united in rebellion against God, because that unity is the unity of the tower of Babel – and we all know how that went! 6 just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. 7 Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him.

And one of the marks of being rooted in Christ is a strong faith and deep thankfulness: 7 Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.
The corollary is, of course, that if you’re full of bitterness and grumbling, if being a Christian is a chore, a bore, another wretched thing to do – perhaps you have forgotten Christ, perhaps you have forgotten the glorious good news of the gospel: that you, a sinner, have been declared righteous in the sight of God Almighty, by pure grace; or perhaps you have never known it, never been rooted in Christ and for the first time need to repent and accept that you cannot save yourself, and let Christ save you.
Are you gripped by Christ? Is he your treasure? Your all-in-all? Are you so rooted in him, so united to him, that wherever he goes you will follow, even if that costs you great suffering, even your very life? 6 just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. 7 Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him.

Don’t be deceived: be rooted in Christ. Build your lives on him.

Why? Because everything else is ultimately empty deception.

Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ. 9 For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body.

Why are they “empty philosophies” high-sounding nonsense”? Well, because they misdiagnose the problem – and with the wrong diagnosis comes the wrong solution. God’s diagnosis is that the problem is sin, the solution is Christ.

It’s like going to the doctor with pneumonia – and he diagnoses a broken foot, and sets your foot in plaster. Now your foot’s in plaster and you’ve still got pneumonia, which will eventually kill you.

These empty philosophies are based on human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world (that is, the devil). Now these are all around, all the voices around us claiming to be the truth and two of the loudest, two which hit closest to home are: feminism and consumerism.

Now there’s some danger in this, because criticising these philosophies so ingrained as “truth” in our society can often overpower the sermon and we forget the point: that Christ is our wisdom and truth, that he has rescued us, that we belong to him, that we were dead because of our sins and now he has made us alive in Christ. That’s what we must remember from this.

But it’s also worth spending some time deconstructing the high-sounding nonsense around us.

So, first feminism.

Remember that all philosophies are attempting to solve the problem of human sin and alienation from God, but blaming something other than sin as the problem, and therefore coming up with the wrong solution.

Feminism identifies men as the problem – not the sin within men, but just men generally. Men are the problem, and so the solution is to get rid of men – oops, that sounds too extreme – get rid of any power men might have over women. So women need to be completely independent of men.

They need to be financially independent, and relationally independent.

So women must now work, because otherwise you are dependent on a man. The feminists paint a picture of women in Important Jobs, changing the world. Of course, as men have known for centuries, there are very few such jobs – most work is a hard slog! And the work women most commonly do is jobs that involve cleaning, organising, packing shelves and cashing up, and looking after other people’s children while they are at work – basically being a housewife but for other people, outside the home. Wow, feminism has really “freed” women hasn’t it? No longer can she work in the home, working for love, working for her own family - but now must work for money, outside the home, neglecting her own family.

Women must also avoid having children, because having children takes up too much time, and makes it impossible to work. Of course, asking women to never have children is a step too far against our biology, so that has been modified to women can have children only if they want them – which has lead to the horrific slaughter of hundreds of thousands of unwanted babies in the womb. As Phillip Jensen, a well-known Australian preacher put it: “any philosophy or worldview which ends up in the systematic slaughter of babies, and majority girl babies, is fundamentally flawed”.
Not to mention the evil of classifying people as either “human beings” or “lump of cells” depending on whether they are WANTED or not.

The impact of feminism over the last 50 to 60 years has been catastrophic. Very few children have grown up in a stable home. Most have experienced multiple break-ups with their parents and their “partners”. Most live in two homes, swapping each week. Would you like that?
Sexual diseases have rapidly increased. Young women are under increasing pressure to prove that they are “sexually liberated” just like men (which is a lie anyway), and are therefore having sexual intercourse much earlier, much more often, and with many more partners. Feminists ranted against the “sex-bargain” of marriage (as they called it): I give you sex, you give me protection and shelter and food. But now women are giving sex and getting…. nothing in return.
Women now experience the curse of men (cursed is the ground because of you – basically, work will suck) AND the curse of women (you will crave your husband’s position, and he will rule over you). And the effect is angry, bitter, overweight, exhausted, divorced women, trying to “have it all”, and then wondering if there is something wrong with them because they can’t squeeze a career, children, husband, friends, family responsibilities, healthy eating, excerecise, a great sex life, and enough sleep into 24 short hours.

Let me tell you something: no-one can. It is impossible. It is a feminist lie to tell you that you can have it all. You must sacrifice something. Something has to give. And it’s normally the children. And then your husband. And then your health, particularly mental health. And your happiness.

I hate feminism, because I love women. Feminism is not about empowering women or setting them free. Feminism is about forcing women to conform to a political idea of how they must be. Just listen to our politicians haranguing women for daring to work, and calling them lazy for staying at home with their young children. Feminism is an abusive ideology, and according to v8, from the pit of hell.

Men are not the problem. Sin is the problem. Sinful men and sinful women. Abusive men should be dealt with, yes – but feminism makes this harder because their solution is always “empower the woman” and so the abuser just says “well, she should have stood up to me. She should have resisted me”. It puts the onus of change on her rather than him, on the victim instead of the abuser. And that’s wrong. Men, what are we doing to stand up against abusive men in our community? What are we doing to encourage men to honour women, to protect them and provide for them?
Let us honour and respect the roles of mother and wife. These are infinitely valuable roles. No-one but you can be a wife to your husband. No-one but you can be a mother to your kids. You are irreplaceable. Anybody can pack fruit at Kiwi. Or process building permits. Or look after other people’s children at SFO.

Husbands, are you honouring your wife in her role as mother, as wife? Are you giving her the space to be a woman? Are you providing and looking after and leading sacrificially – or are you pressuring her to provide for herself and stop being so needy? Have you looked at your budget – is there stuff you can cut so that your wife can be with the kids? It is far more valuable for your kids to have their mom home after school than to have a trip to Disneyland. You cannot pay people to LOVE someone else’s child.

Now for many women the option to stay home does not exist. Many are victim to the ravages of feminism which has destroyed any concept of men providing for women and has left many women alone with the children (because they love their kids), and have to work, often long hours, to provide. As a church, how can we support these women?

8 Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ. 9 For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body.

Consumerism is the other ideology I’d like to examine, more briefly this time. Consumerism is, basically, the idea that if I buy this thing, then I will be happy. It is a materialistic philosophy and the root of our trade and industry, marketing and advertising. Watch the adverts. What do they promise? Happiness. Success. Your life sucks now, but buy our product and your life will change. You are a loser, but spray this deodorant on your armpits and you will be successful and surrounded by beautiful people and have a yacht and a fast car- It’s ludicrous, and we fall for it every time.

Whereas feminism identified men as the problem, and freedom from men as the solution, consumerism identifies “lack of stuff” as the problem and “buying stuff” as the solution. It’s that stupid. But who of us doesn’t get a thrill from getting a new phone. Or a new car. Or a new dress, or so my wife tells me. How often do we sit around thinking “I wish I had that thing. My life would be so much better if I only had that thing”. How long does the thrill last?

It is fleeting, and then something else catches our eye and we are off chasing after the next thing. Consumerism hooks into our sins of discontentment and greed. Consumerism attaches a price tag to everyone and everything, a cost/benefit analysis to everything. Children cost too much, so let’s not have children. An abortion’s much cheaper than a child. And never mind disabled children – those things are expensive! You can never buy what you want if you get stuck with one of those! And so our society quietly eradicates them – almost nine out of ten pregnancies with Down’s in Norway ends in abortion.

It is the reason we are sending more and more asylum seekers home – even if that means sending them to their deaths. It is the reason our formerly wonderful, compassionate country has banned begging. Don’t bother us with your problems, we says, you’re getting in the way of us having more stuff. You cost us too much. One article in VG described Norway as the world’s Bortskjemt drittunge (spoiled brat). We have abandoned Christ and therefore abandoned what made us great.

Consumerism leads to seeing people as either building blocks to getting the stuff we want, or obstacles to getting the stuff we want. It also leaves us open to the debt trap (like credit card debt) and ironically leaves us desperately unhappy and under pressure as the bills mount up and the stuff we have accumulated becomes like a noose around our neck. It’s like the story Jesus told of the rich man who tore down his barns to build bigger barns – to hold all his accumulated wealth. How does that story end? But God said to him, ‘You fool! You will die this very night. Then who will get everything you worked for?’ (Luke 12:20)

It is a fundamentally stupid philosophy – how could more stuff, exactly like the stuff we’ve already got, but a bit shinier, satisfy our deepest longings and cravings and bring happiness and wealth. So stupid, and because we’re greedy, we fall for it every time.

So, how can we start to fight the influence of consumerism over us? One of the Bible’s antidotes is to give away your money (or more correctly, God’s money which he has given to you to use wisely). Giving to gospel work really helps to break the hold that consumerism has over us.
Another is the practice thankfulness, which leads to contentment. Consumerism only thrives in the soil of discontentment. Wanting more. Wanting better. If you are continually thanking and praising God for what he has given you: a warm house, food on the table, a phone that works, socks without holes, whatever – it’s hard for greed to grow.
And stay away from temptation. Don’t go to the shops just to see if you “need something”.
Call your “needs” what they really are: “WANTS”. Challenge yourself with every purchase: do I really need this? Is this greed?
Be generous and hospitable, not “when I have a little bit more, then I can…” but now. If you want to know how to do that – ask my parents. I have watched them live generously my whole life. Learn from them.

So, don’t be deceived by these empty philosophies, but embrace the fullness of Christ

3. The fullness of Christ

So let us now turn from the pale lies of the spiritual powers and lift up our gaze to Christ in all his fullness. Why settle for anything less than him? Why listen to a two-year old explain relativity instead of Einstein? Or why rush over to meet the mayor when the King is in the room?

9 For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. 10 So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.

Christ is supreme. Why settle for second best? We often do, though, don’t we, because it makes us feel in control, important. These empty philosophies are very good at hooking into our sinful desries: our desire to be superior, to have power, to be in control, our greed, our jealousy.

And coming to Christ destroys that. We cannot feel in control, because we are not. We are helpless, we are dependant, and our illusion of being God is destroyed. And oh how we hate that. But it is the truth.

We are helpless to solve the real problem, and that is found in v13 You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away

Diagnosis is death because of sinful nature.

And the cure is spiritual circumcision. And that is something that feminism cannot do, the consumerism cannot do, that chauvinism, capitalism, communism, Nietzsche’s nihilism, or any other –ism cannot do. It cannot solve the problem at the centre of our hearts: that we are spiritually dead, alienated from God and from each other. And that is where all our problems come from.

And only Christ – ONLY Christ – can solve that problem.

11 When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature. 12 For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead. 13 You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. 14 He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. 15 In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.

Why is Christ supreme? Better? Because he dealt with the PROBLEM. Not just plasters on sores, but surgery to cut away dead flesh and graft on new skin.

Our problem is not men, or lack of stuff, but SIN. And only Christ can cut away our sin – circumcise our sin.

We were dead and he has raised us to new life. Let’s celebrate that now as we take communion. Let’s use the time to examine our own lives, our won thinking – let’s confess where we have built our lives on empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense rather than Christ, and let us turn from them and embrace Christ in all his fullness.