Deeply Rooted in Christ

 The Preeminence of Christ

Deeply Rooted In Christ

Col. 2:1-15

Last week Walt laid out for us Paul's burden that the believers in Colossae mature as disciples of Christ and pressed on us the call for all of us to mature as believers. That theme continues into chapter 2 as Paul stresses how hard he is working and praying towards the goal of seeing them mature in Christ.

²⁸ Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. ²⁹ For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

2 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, ² that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, ³ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Col. 1:28-2:3

The word "struggling" in 1:29 and 2:1 come from the Greek word agonizomai from which we get the word agony. He's working hard - striving, struggling, toiling, agonizing - over their growth in maturity. One thing this tells us is that spiritual maturity isn't something that just happens with time. Aging happens with time - we don't have to do anything in order to age - but we have to work energetically and intentionally in order to grow in spiritual maturity. It's something we can't do alone - we need God's power working in us - but it's also not something that happens apart from our efforts.

It's worth pausing for a moment for each of us to consider this question: am I working hard to grow as a disciple of Christ? Am I putting in the effort, the time, the intentionality that it takes to mature? Is growing as a follower of Christ of the highest priority to me, or have I allowed other things to become more important in my life?

Pray

Beginning in verse 4, Paul is warning them that there are very real enemies of Christ that will try to destroy our faith. Throughout this section he uses military words to convey the reality that we are in a war whether we like it or not. Walt notified you last week that you've been enrolled in a course called ministry. I need to break the news that you've been enlisted into the army of God to fight a spiritual war. And one of the dangers we need to watch out for is being deluded or deceived by "plausible arguments" (vs. 4).

In his book, The Art of War, Sun Tzu writes, "All warfare is based on deception." British General Isaac Brock took that to heart when his small army of 300 soldiers had the task of taking Fort Detroit with its 2000 U.S. troops, almost 7 times larger than the British force. Brock gave out spare uniforms to the accompanying militia to give the US army the impression he had twice as many dreaded red coats in his army than he did. He also had war chief Tecumseh parade the same warriors over and over again through a gap in the treeline in front of the fort, giving the American soldiers the impression that there were thousands of Indians who had joined the Red Coats to swarm the fort. American commander William Hull was overcome with fear and surrendered the fort without a fight to the much smaller British force. Hull was later convicted of cowardice, and Brock was knighted for his military genius.

Plausible arguments means that the deceptions the enemies of Christ will use to try to move us away from Christ will seem credible, believable, even reasonable. If our faith isn't grounded deeply in the riches and knowledge of Christ, we will be vulnerable to surrendering our faith in the truth of Jesus Christ for a well-designed lie. Can you imagine how William Hull and his men felt when they found out they had surrendered the fort to a small British force that could never have taken the fort had they stood their ground? The riches of knowledge and understanding and wisdom that are in Christ are infinite and impenetrable, and the arguments of the enemy will one day be seen for what they are, weak and pathetic deceptions that have no power at all, except to the point that we surrender the fort, surrender our faith, to them. If we listen to lies, they build a stronghold in our hearts and minds that can become very powerful - not because the lies themselves are powerful - but because the grip they have on us is powerful.

We are at war, and we need to deepen and strengthen our faith in Christ so that we're tearing down forts, not surrendering our fort to the enemy. Paul says as much in 2 Cor. 10:

For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh.  For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.  We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ…2 Cor. 10:3-5

The Colossian church isn't in imminent danger of surrendering the fort to plausible arguments, in fact. like a general inspecting the troops Paul rejoices to see their good order and firmness of faith; military terms that describe an army that is ready for the fight and committed to never surrendering the fort. But that good order and firmness of faith needs to be guarded carefully.

⁶ Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, ⁷ rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

It's not enough to come to Christ and hang out. There are tremendous pressures, both outside and inside the church, working to move us away from Christ. Satan doesn't really care what you believe, as long as you don't have a living, growing faith in Christ. Satan's just as happy for you to be an atheist, a Buddhist, a Satanist, or someone who professes faith in Christ as long as that profession has no effect on how you live and has no authority over what you accept as truth or reject as lie.

When I was in Florida I was able to get some time with Matt Slack, and at one point he was telling me about a nearby mega-church that was moving away from Christ as the only way to salvation towards Christ as one way among many to salvation. The church leadership were debating and discussing this movement and the only reason the church congregation learned of it was that one of the pastors wrote an email discussing this change and meant to send it to the other pastors, but accidentally sent it to a third of the church instead. The cat was out of the bag. But it doesn't seem to have upset too many in the church. In fact, Matt met a guy from there who talked about the "positivity" of their message. If we aren't grounded in our faith then accepting that there are many ways to God - including Jesus - will seem more open-minded, more tolerant, less exclusive. It will feel right because it goes with the flow of our culture instead of standing against it. But for those grounded firmly in Christ, we will see it as the apostasy and heresy that it is.

Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord - in the way that you first received him as the Lord of all and the Lord of your life and bowed your knee in submission to him, keep walking in that faith, let your roots go deep, do things to constantly build your faith in Christ up so that your faith gets stronger, not weaker, over time. I was having a conversation about some of these things with my son Matthew and son in law Jordan, and Matthew said, "maybe this is just the falling away that the Bible says will happen." He's right, the Bible says in the last days there will be a great falling away. You don't fall away from a faith you never professed or ground you never possessed. The falling away will be within the church and will be men and women who once professed faith in Christ but, like that church in Sarasota, will give in to pressures to move away from that profession. Not necessarily to a denial of Christ, but to an accommodation of anti-biblical arguments that trump fealty to Christ. He becomes one of the things we believe in, one of the ways to God. The Bible says that in the last days there will be many believers and whole churches that surrender the fort to the enemy due to plausible, credible sounding lies.

Verse 8 - "see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to Christ."

Paul warns us about the empty teachings based on cultural traditions that are infused with demonic deception. The word "elemental spirits" probably refers to demonic spirits that are constantly working to lead souls away from Christ. The word "taken captive" is a rarely used verb that means to be snatched away. Make sure you aren't snatched away or kidnapped by philosophies that sound plausible, but are demonically designed to lead you away from Christ and take your soul captive. Paul will unpack some of the empty philosophies he's talking about later in the chapter, but I want to reinforce for us how serious this is.

When I was a little kid, it was drummed into my head not to talk to strangers and never accept a ride from a stranger, no matter how nice they seemed, even if they offered me candy. Tragically children and adults are snatched away every year by people who masquerade as nice people but are evil people with evil intentions. Satan designs plausible arguments to move you and me away from Christ so that he can snatch us away. His intentions are only and always total evil. When someone falls prey to his deception, they think they've found something wonderful. It appeals to their natural desires, it flows with the currents of the culture, and it makes sense, but his delight is to rip our souls apart and see us damned for eternity. It often amazes me just how cruel Satan is. They say that sociopaths feel no empathy for human suffering - Satan is a sociopath on steroids. There is no human tragedy that moves the slightest compassion in Satan and the most horrific human suffering brings his dark soul whatever happiness he can feel. All the human suffering accumulated in the world and throughout history not only delights him, it is at least indirectly his doing. Satan is our settled enemy. He might offer you candy, but his desire for you is nothing but dark. Paul does with the Colossian church what my parents did with me: they armed me by pulling away the "nice" façade and informing me of the evil intentions of such strangers and the tragic consequences (without going into detail) of being snatched by one of them. Paul says, see to it that you aren't snatched away from Christ by these nice sounding invitations. I like that - see to it - we're not helpless victims, we have the ability to choose to get into the car, and we have the ability to say, "no way."

Christian, be resolved in your commitment to Christ. See to it. It doesn't matter how many people are falling away from the faith - truth is never determined by majority opinion. The truth is unwavering, unmoving, unchangeable. Truth doesn't bend or twist according to our preferences or cultural sensibilities. If someone or something is trying to move you away from the truth that is in Christ, don't flirt with it, don't compromise with it, and don't get all philosophical about it. See to it! Tell the creepy guy standing by the car offering you the candy of some sweet sounding set of beliefs to get lost. No way I'm getting in that car of plausible arguments and empty deceit with you! We are at war with an enemy that means our souls no good!

But Christ means us only good. Once again we are reminded that in Christ the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily. All that God is, Jesus is, because Jesus is God. And when we received Christ, we also were filled in him. What the enemy offers us is empty, but what Christ offers us is full - full of love, full of grace, full of life, full of joy, full of freedom from sin, full of hope, full of God!!

Christ has effectively dealt with our flesh, not by reforming it, not by restricting it, but by cutting it off and killing it. Paul mixes the metaphors of circumcision and death to describe what Christ has done on the cross to save us from our flesh. Circumcision was a sign of God's covenant with the Jews, but physical circumcision was never meant to be a channel of grace, it was meant to symbolize spiritual circumcision of the heart, whereby God cut the carnal power of our flesh off from the heart so that we would want to obey God from the heart. In an even more powerful metaphor, we have died with Christ and have been buried with him. Death is a very effective antidote to the flesh. The most carnal, fleshly sinner has no impulse to sin once they die. Corpses have no fleshly desires anymore. No greed, no lust, no selfishness, no rage, no lying. And it's not that corpses are able to somehow control those fleshly urges. Those urges are no more. Death ends fleshly desires incredibly effectively.

When we come to Christ in faith, God the Holy Spirit circumcises our heart, removing the flesh so that we want to obey Him. There is still a war between the flesh and the Spirit, but the flesh is no longer the ruling power in us. The Spirit of God is the ruling power in us. And just as God raised Christ from the dead, we who were once dead in our sin and trespasses have been raised in newness of life in Christ.

And the legal document against us, the record of debts that we owed to God, was nailed to the cross so that we could be forgiven. Jesus paid for all our debts on the cross. When we stand before God on judgment day, we will not owe God anything, we will not have to repay God for any of our sins. Why? Jesus paid it all! All to him I owe! Sin had left a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow!

All of this accomplished by Jesus on the cross. Here's the beautiful irony that Paul points out. When the religious leaders condemned Christ to be crucified and watched him be nailed to the cross and hoisted up in naked humiliation before the world, they thought they had disarmed this dangerous upstart, shamed him, and triumphed over him! I believe the dark powers of Satan thought the same thing - they thought they had disarmed God the Son, shamed him before the world, and triumphed over him by putting him to death.

Little did they know that Jesus was turning the tables on them. On the cross Jesus stripped Satan and his minions of their power, the power of sin. The record of our sins, that Satan delighted to use against us, was nailed to the cross and paid for in full, emptying that legal document of any hold over us. Jesus embarrassed and devastated Satan and his minions at the cross. Sometimes we might think of the cross as the point at which it looked like Satan had won the victory. There was a song that said, "It may be Friday, but Sunday's coming!" implying this might seem to be a day of defeat, but the victory is coming! But the cross wasn't a place of temporary defeat, the cross was the battlefield on which Jesus won the decisive victory.

“We are not to regard the cross as defeat and the resurrection as victory. Rather, the cross was the victory won, and the resurrection the victory endorsed, proclaimed and demonstrated. ‘It was impossible for death to keep its hold on Him’, because death had already been defeated.” - John Stott

The cross isn't the most eloquent religious message out there. It doesn't have the sophisticated and savvy packaging that some philosophies have. In fact, Paul says in 1 Cor. that the message of the cross comes off as downright foolish. Believing in Jesus and the cross for our salvation opens us for ridicule from those who have embraced plausible, and cooler, religious ideals. What the message of the cross has going for it isn’t it's packaging, it's its power. It's not plausible, it's truth. It's not hollow, it's the fullness of God. It's not powerless to save us, it is the power of God for our salvation. See to it that no one, and nothing, ever moves you from Christ and the message of the cross!

Pray.