Teaching the Faith

Sermon by The Rt. Rev. Michael Stead on Colossians Chap 2 6-15

Rt. Rev. Michael Stead</em> uses Colossians Chap 2 6-15 to answer the question How do you keep going strongly as a Christian? 

Answer? By keeping on exactly as we were when we first came to know Jesus.
Our nature makes us want change. To get a better experience. But this mustn't apply to our Christian faith. Once we come to know Jesus we have it all!.

Trying to move on from Jesus means you move away from him

Here is my transcript taken from the Youtube video...

Father, we thank you for your word and as we come to that word now, we pray that your spirit would be our teacher and guide to lead us into all truth for Jesus sake. Amen.

Just a moment ago in the confirmation I prayed for each of the confirmees that God would enable them to continue yours forever. It's a prayer that they will run the Christian race for all of their lives.

Keep going strongly as a Christian

What is the key to doing that? How do you keep going strongly as a Christian? 

That is the question that Paul is answering in the passage we just had read to us from Colossians Chapter 2 and to help us appreciate just how important it is to get this right I want to talk to you about Coca-Cola. Now let me hesitate to say I speak neither in praise or condemnation of the beverage itself.  I specifically want to talk about Coke slogans.

A few years ago, Coke changed its slogan. The slogan for coke now is Real Magic.

Now the fact that there are no gasps of shock from the congregation tells me that you haven't quite grasped the significance of what I've just told you. I need you to know that Coke changing its slogan is not just an isolated event. On the contrary it is a deep and disturbing pattern. In my lifetime alone, the slogan for Coke has changed 18 times.

See how many of these slogans you recognise. Coke is the real thing. Coke adds life. Coke is it. You can't beat the feeling. Always Coca-Cola. Enjoy. Real. Live on the Coke side of life. Open happiness, share a coke. Real taste. Taste the feeling. Together tastes better. And now, real magic.

Now you are probably wondering what's my point. Here's my point Coke is supposed to be always but the slogan is always changing. After 100 years of marketing Coke, surely they would have found the right slogan by now! Do they employ marketing morons?

We get bored when things stay the same

No, the issue is that there's not something wrong with Coke but there's actually something wrong with us, the consumers of Coke. Coke has to keep changing its slogan because, as human beings, we always crave change. We're always looking for some new thing. Something special.  We get bored when things stay the same. That's why Coke has to keep reinventing itself every three years. 

We are faddish. Many of you will have a favourite food. Right? But is there anyone that would be happy to eat that favourite food morning noon and night every meal for the rest of your life? No. We change our clothes, we change our hairstyles, our jobs, our hobbies and that's just because that's what we're like. We get bored when things stay the same.

Temptation to spice up the Christian Life

Paul wrote the letter to the church at Colossae because the Christians there were in danger of getting bored with Jesus. They were getting bored with the old, old message about forgiveness of sins that comes through the cross and the danger, not just for them but that's the danger for us, is that we will get tired of the same old story. And we want to spice up our Christian lives with something new and different and exciting and so having started with Jesus, people think that you've got to find some new thing to take you to the next spiritual level.

Back in the first century people had come to the church at Colossae and told them they needed something extra. Yes, yes it was wonderful they'd started the Christian life with Jesus. Good on you! But there were next steps you needed to take.

Just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him

In Colossians 2, Paul is utterly rejecting that idea that you have to move on from Christ, that you can go to the next level from him. The key to going on as a Christian is in Colossians 2 verse 6. ‘Just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him’.

This is perhaps the most important verse in the entire letter. The way you go on in the Christian life for our confirmees and for every single one of us is the way that you began it. 

You begin the Christian life by receiving Christ Jesus as Lord. It's when you say “Jesus, I submit my life to you. I want to follow you as my king”. And that's the way that you go on in the Christian life. To live out what it means to have Jesus as your Lord in every part of your life. The Lord of your relationships, the Lord of your thoughts, the Lord of your tongue, the Lord of your wallet, the Lord of your ambitions.

It's not a matter of a new spiritual technique or new secret knowledge to take you to the next level. Going on in the Christian life is not about leaving Jesus behind it's about growing in him.

In verse 7, Paul uses the metaphor of a tree to capture this idea. A tree doesn't grow by transplanting itself to new soil every few years. A tree grows where it is planted.

Grow in your Christian life like a tree

I am not much of a gardener but this I know. Agapanthus is not a tree. I say that because we have clumps of Agapanthus at home and I know that I can hack them apart and I can transplant bits of Agapanthus anywhere around the garden and they'll happily grow and thrive wherever I put them because they just kind of sit on top of the ground, they don't really go down. Every single time.

But every single time I try and transplant a tree and do the same thing, move it around the garden, I kill it. Every single time! That is because trees grow where they are planted.

Be rooted and built up in Jesus

Trees grow in two ways. They grow roots down and they grow branches up. Christian growth is the same. Paul says that we are to be rooted and built up in Jesus. Strengthened in the faith as you were taught. Our roots are that part of us that goes down deeply into Christ as we grow in our knowledge an understanding of the faith that we were taught. Again, part of the prayer that I prayed for the confirmees is that they will feed on Christ and send their roots down into him.

I became a Christian when I was a child and I think all I could have told you at the time was I know that Jesus had died for me so that I could be forgiven. I couldn't have explained the theology of the Cross. I couldn't have explained a whole lot of things, but I didn't need to do that in order to be saved.

Grow roots into the Gospel

Since that time my roots have gone deeper and deeper into the ‘soil’ of the Gospel. I've got into God's word, and I understand more and more of what it was that Jesus did for me and the more I discovered, the more I realised there is still yet more to discover. I fully expect that a lifetime of reading the Bible is never going to exhaust the depths of what I'm going to find there about God's love for me in Jesus. 

Like a tree my roots can keep on going down deep, deep, deep into that gospel soil. And the more I do this, the more like a tree I withstand the buffets of life. The deeper the roots of a tree go, the more it can withstand the wind and the and the rain that buffets against it. And that's been my experience too. A blessed assurance, which we’ll sing of later, has come from knowing these truths deeply embedded within me. 

But Christian growth is not just about sending roots down, it's also sending branches up. Fruit on the tree as it were. It's about a life a Christian life that produces fruit having been planted in Christ. If my life is centred on Christ then people should be able to see the fruit of that in the way that I live my daily life.

The Christian life – growing deeper roots and bearing fruit

Colossians 2 ought to prompt all of us to ask ourselves the question - is my Christian life like this, both roots and fruits?

Those two verses, verses six and seven, have told us what to do to go on as a Christian, how can we go on as a Christian. Just as you started, continue on in Christ.

What not to do

The remainder of our reading today tells us what not to do. This is Paul countering the false teaching that was coming in Colossae. He says in verse 8  “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy that depends on human traditions and the elemental spiritual forces of this world, rather than on Christ.” That is, Paul is saying watch out. Watch out for those who come with human philosophies and practises that sound like they're giving you a pathway to a higher spirituality.

A little later on in the letter, Paul describes some particular examples that which were confronting the church at Colossae. Verse 16 he refers to being judged based on what you eat or drink or with regard to a religious festival a new moon celebration or a Sabbath day. Or, a little later, delighting in false humility and the worship of angels.

Now I'm sure all of that can sound super spiritual, observing special festivals, pledging yourself to heroic deprivation, entering into mystic states, experiencing visions and the angelic world. Paul says this is just a human way of thinking, it's a human tradition.

Temptation of wanting a spiritual uplift

Now I suspect that those particular examples are not things that are confronting you, that they're not really examples in the modern church because we've actually heard what Paul said 2000 years ago. But there is still a real danger here for Christians.

I've been a Christian since I was a child and I confess that there are times when my Christian life my spiritual life feels a bit flat. I suspect that might be your experience too. There are times that I feel like I need that little kind of spiritual shot in the arm, some experience to make my Christian life vibrant and fresh. And so the danger is real that, in pursuing those things, you and I might drift away from Jesus.

You can't find spiritual fulfilment anywhere else than in Christ

Paul wrote this letter to prevent them, prevent us, from doing that. He’s saying you can't find spiritual fulfilment anywhere else than in Christ. That is because. Verse 9, “In Christ all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form”.

Earlier in the letter, in chapter one, Paul has sketched out just how amazing Jesus is. He is the image of the invisible God, the first born overall creation. Christ is fully and completely God and there is, in fact, nothing less than God come in human form. And then comes the amazing bit, in verse 10, “Jesus is fully, fully, fully God.” verse 10, “and you have come to fullness in him”. Jesus is the way that we will find fullness spiritual fullness, every kind of fullness, is found in him.

Receivers of Jesus Christ as Lord have everything that belongs to Jesus 

If you are in Christ, if you have received Jesus Christ as Lord, if you've been incorporated into him - everything that belongs to Jesus now belongs to you. There is no possibility of finding spiritual fullness anywhere else in the cosmos. Certainly not if it's involving walking away from Jesus.  Paul unpacks why that is so in the rest of the passage and he does that by flipping the arguments of his opponents.

Their first argument was “Jesus isn't enough you need to be circumcised” and Paul responds to that in verses 10-12. And then their second argument is “Jesus isn't enough, you need to keep all the laws and the festivals in God's law” and Paul's response to that is in verses 13 to 15.

You are not saved by physical acts such as baptism or circumcision

So, briefly then, what are the arguments about circumcision? In verses 10-12. In the Old Testament, circumcision, physical circumcision that is, was the outward marker that someone belonged to the people of God. Circumcision was the outward sign of the covenant that God had made with the nation of Israel. And Paul reassures the Colossians that they don't need that outward sign of circumcision anymore because they have received spiritual circumcision, as it were, as he describes it in verse 11. “A circumcision not performed by human hands”. They've been circumcised by Christ. This spiritual circumcision is a metaphor for what happens at baptism when you are baptised into Christ. Verse 11 again, “Your whole self, ruled by the flesh, was put off.”

You might have heard that the promises that Kylie made at just prior to her baptism. That she was turning her back on the world, the flesh and the devil. Paul is reminding the Colossian Christians and us that we have received what that Old Testament circumcision pointed to. That is, it was about membership in the people of God. That's what baptism has symbolised you for us. That is because verse 12 “You we were buried with him, buried with Christ in baptism in which we will also be raised with him through our faith in the working of God”. The baptism here that Paul is talking about is the inward spiritual baptism that takes place when a person becomes a Christian, when we die to our old life when self ruled the throne, and we rise to the new life with Jesus on the throne. 

Baptism with water is the outward sign of that inward spiritual baptism into Christ and Paul's point is that spiritual baptism, that spiritual circumcision, that's what counts. You don't need the physical circumcision in the flesh that Paul’s opponents were saying “No, no, you need that in order to really, really  be a Christian”.

The second leg of Paul’s argument against his opponents is in the verses 13 to 15. This is where Paul responds to those who were saying, “No, no, you've got to keep the rules and regulations of the law if you're going to be a true-blue Christian.”

You are not saved by keeping the law but by Grace

Paul reminds the Colossians that keeping the law was not the thing that saved them. Rather, verse 13, “They were dead in their sins and in the uncircumcision of their flesh when God made them alive in Christ.” That is, they didn't earn God's forgiveness because they’d obeyed the law, all the rules and regulations. In fact, they couldn't obey. Instead, God forgave them. They didn't earn forgiveness; it was given to them. Literally the forgive word here is the grace word. God graced them. God freely gave them what they could not have earned for themselves – forgiveness.  Paul's point is that obeying the law is not the thing that started the Christian life, so how can obeying the law be the necessary pathway to going on as the Christian?

God has cancelled the charge of our legal indebtedness because of our sins

In verse 14 Paul takes the argument one step further. He says God has cancelled the charge of our legal indebtedness which stood against us and condemned us. He has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.

Imagine a list somewhere of everything that you have ever done wrong. For me that would be a very, very long list. Every time that I've broken God's law, every thought that doesn't live up to what God calls me. That would be just a terrifyingly long list. That list rightly stands against me as a sinner. Paul’s point is, God has cancelled it. It's like he's taken out the list, that IOU, that debt towards God and he's he stamped it ‘Paid in Full’. Paid because Jesus has paid that price. God nailed it to the cross when Jesus died there. By dying in our place, Jesus has, verse 15, disarmed the powers and authorities. He's made a public spectacle of them triumphing over them by the cross. 

We are not worthy – Satan’s true accusation

The power that Satan has over humanity is the accusation that we are not worthy. And that that's a true accusation. As I said this is the list of all the things that I've done wrong, the things that you've done wrong, would be a very long list and if we had to pay the debt for all the things that we had done wrong, Satan would rightly say “No hope this one is not worthy to be in your presence God.” But Jesus breaks that power. 

I'm reminded of a line in one of my favourite hymns. The  hymn is Before the throne of God above. [see video below] And the couplet, it goes like this “When Satan tempts me to despair and tells me of the guilt within, upward I look and see him there, who made an end to all my sin”. That legal indebtedness, that charge against us nailed to the cross there with Jesus.  

Christians have all they need by their faith in Jesus

Paul is a making sure that the Christians are not led astray, not being too tricked into thinking that they need to do more in order to earn God's forgiveness. To keep the law the rules and the regulations in order to make God love them more. No, they've already got all they need in Jesus. That's not taking the next step in the Christian life, that's actually taking a step away from Jesus. Paul’s point, although not his language, is that Jesus, not coke, is the real thing. Not Coke, not always Coca-Cola. But always Jesus!

Trying to move on from Jesus means you move away from him

In the Christian life you cannot move on from Jesus to something else because to move on from Jesus is to move away from him. Spiritual maturity is not going to be found in chasing after human philosophy or human wisdom or submitting ourselves to human rules and regulations. Rather the way forward in the Christian life is the way that we began. 

Just as we received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live our lives in him. 

We must be like trees which do not move an inch from where they were planted but instead send down roots deep into the soil of the gospel by which we were saved. And devote ourselves to growing fruits as we continue to have lives which are transformed by knowing Christ and honouring him as Lord.

Let me pray. Heavenly father we thank you that you have given us everything we need for spiritual life in the Lord Jesus. Father, we pray that you would enable us to continue yours forever by continuing in our Christian life just as we began it. By receiving Christ Jesus as Lord and living in him in whose name we pray. Amen.

The Hymn Bishop Michael quoted from in his sermon...