Speaker 1: 0:02

Good morning church. We're going to be in Colossians, chapter 2. If you have your Bibles, you can turn there. Colossians, chapter 2. This is our fourth week in the book of Colossians in a six-week series, which means we better get moving if we're going to go from Colossians 2-6 through the end of the book. But we will, and that was all planned and you saw that on the handout cards that we gave out and there's still some there at the beginning.

Speaker 1: 0:34

Today we're picking up here in verse 6 of Colossians 2, and we're continuing looking at this theme of rootedness. Now I'm going to use an opening illustration here that I'm just going to say this up front I try not to be the preacher that gets up and always gives illustrations about sports. I understand not everybody likes sports. I understand that some people don't know what I'm talking about when I talk about certain sports, and I'm going to reuse the exact same illustration I used the last time I preached to an extent, and it was a sports illustration. So I'm sorry for that, but it doesn't really have anything actually to do with sports. Instead it has to do with rootedness. So if you remember, the last time that I preached I talked to you about what has been my baseball team, that I rooted for the oakland athletics and that they use this slogan for a number of years, trying to say hey, you, we are a worthy place to to kind of lay your foundation, you can invest in us, you can buy jerseys, you can do all of these things because we are here. And so they used the phrase rooted in Oakland, and that was their promise that hey, we're not going anywhere, we're going to build a stadium here, whatever it takes. And, as you may not know if you're not a sports fan, they are no longer in Oakland right now. They're playing in Sacramento. They don't have a, they don't have a city at all attached to their name, they're just the athletics, and they are planning to move to Las Vegas. Now here's where the illustration picks up, because where we were, it was like, hey, they weren't actually rooted and we talked about what it means to truly be rooted.

Speaker 1: 2:23

But but what's happening now is they're actually playing a series against the Giants, who are here in the Bay Area. They're in San Francisco and the Giants did something yesterday. So did anybody? Does anybody know what I'm talking about before I say it? Nobody knows. Okay, cool.

Speaker 1: 2:38

So the Giants did this. They put this giant banner on their stadium as all the fans walk in. Because, if you don't know, like every year for the last several years, as interleague play has become a thing, the giants and the a's play each other every year and what has been called the bay bridge series, but obviously it's broken now because they're not across the bridge from each other. So the giants had this giant banner made that basically on one side it said you know, like welcome fans from the 415. That's the, that's the area code for the phone numbers in San Francisco. It said that on one side, in orange. And then it said and also fans from the 510, which is here where we are, it's Oakland, it's the East Bay. And they made this giant banner and they caused kind of a scene because they were basically poking fun at the fact that, hey, if you're a Bay Area baseball fan, you should be a Giants fan because we're rooted here for you and in social media and all of that stuff. They made a whole scene about it. That stuff it made a whole. They made a whole scene about it.

Speaker 1: 3:46

But the thing is, this is what this is. This is why I'm the reason why I'm reusing this illustration, or adding to it with this current event, is because today's text, I'm calling the sermon Rooted, not Robbed, robbed. Rooted not robbed, because in this text what you have is another call to be rooted. In fact, in the book of Colossians, in the overall flow, really, this text, chapter two, verse six, is where the body of the letter starts. So this is where the instructive teaching, the do this, the instructive teaching, the do this, do this, do this portion of the book happens. Everything up to this point has served to be a part in some way of Paul's greeting and introduction. He was connecting himself to them and kind of showing his prayer of thanksgiving for them and all of that.

Speaker 1: 4:42

But now we have a series of commands and instructions that Paul is giving in light of the specific issues that the Colossians are facing, and so he starts out with this teaching to them to again be rooted and the reality of what was happening in the church of Colossae. We've talked about this a little bit. I'll try not to get too deep into it. But the Colossian church, though they had come to faith, though they had had good teaching, though they had, in the words of this text, received Christ, received his gospel, the good news, though they had believed that, though that was true of them, they were in danger because they were following after counterfeit teachings, false teachings. They were being drawn into legalisms, they were being drawn into asceticism, they were being drawn into syncretism and I'll just briefly kind of explain what was going on here. But they were being drawn away from the gospel with the intent of adding to Christ.

Speaker 1: 6:05

But what Paul is writing to them to tell them here is that, no, just you need to be rooted in Christ, because if not, these things will come in claiming to add to Christ, but what they will in fact do is actually rob Christ from you. Meaning that these counterfeit gospels might feel good, they might feel like what you think your faith, your religion is supposed to look like, but in reality they are robbing the truth, the power of the gospel, that in Christ we are complete. And so, with my opening illustration, sure, they were not rooted. And so now, hey, why don't you just switch? Why don't you just come over here? Why don't you just root for us? I don't know what I'm going to do, because it's just baseball. It's not my faith, but I think that it serves as a good illustration for actually what Paul is specifically writing to these Colossians about.

Speaker 1: 7:23

So just to give you a brief overview and there is some debate about the specifics, there's some debate about the specifics of what is sometimes referred to as the Colossian heresy involved. But I would just propose to you this that there seems to be that there seems to be a desire to bring in Jewish customs, like Sabbaths, in a legalistic framework, into the Christian faith. There seems to be a desire to bring in some mystical elements as a requirement for faith, such as the worship of angels and certain experiences, and perhaps even some syncretism or some blending of pagan worship elements into worship. And there also seems to be some amount of a teaching that there was some kind of secret knowledge, some deeper level of knowledge that you could acquire. And so Paul is writing this letter to the church in Colossae, a church he's never been to, that was planted by Epaphras, and he's writing to them to give them this instruction, to let them know that they need to be rooted in the gospel of Jesus Christ and not incorporate these other elements. So I want to give all of that as framework as we read this text. So I'm going to read the text in Colossians, chapter 2, starting in verse 6, and we're going to go through the end of Colossians, chapter 2. To verse six and we're going to go through the end of Colossians, chapter two.

Speaker 1: 9:08

Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus, the Lord, so like, in that same way that you received him, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith. Just as you were taught no secret knowledge, you've already been given all the knowledge, just as you were taught. Abounding in thanksgiving it results in thanksgiving, 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, for in Him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily and you have been filled in Him, who is the head of all rule and authority. In him you were circumcised, with a circumcision made without hands. This is a symbol of faith, meaning hey, this is something that's been done on the inside, not on the outside, by the putting off of the body of flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised Him from the dead and you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, you, god, made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open. Shame by triumphing over them in him. Open shame by triumphing over them in him.

Speaker 1: 11:31

Therefore, let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind and not holding fast to the head from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God. If, with Christ, you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations, do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, referring to things that all perish as they are used according to human precepts and teachings. These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. May God add his blessing to the reading of his word, his blessing for the reading of his word.

Speaker 1: 13:11

There's a lot in this text. There's no way to cover it all, but hopefully, as we go through this text and work through it, hopefully you can see from the truths that are given to us, of who we are in Christ, of the forgiveness and freedom that we have in the gospel, how Jesus is enough. I'm going to start us off with a kind of a one sentence big idea to start us off with a kind of a one-sentence big idea. Sometimes we use this phrase big idea. This is what you go home with, this is what hopefully you go home with, this is hopefully what you take away from this text and as we continue on, we'll come back to this and everything will revolve around.

Speaker 1: 14:02

This idea which I'm going to propose to you is the main idea from the text for us today, and it's this Remain rooted in the all-sufficient Christ. Don't let empty religion rob you. Remain rooted in the all-sufficient Christ. Remain rooted in the all-sufficient Christ. Don't let empty religion rob you. First off, starting with this idea of remaining rooted in Christ, we'll see it in the first two verses, and these two verses are pretty crucial for not just understanding this text but, honestly, for understanding the book as a whole. So in this first section verses 6 and 7, we're going to say remain rooted in Christ just as you received him, or, in other words, don't move past the gospel, grow deeper in it. You see, we often associate the gospel with the moment of conversion, which obviously it's super relevant. It's core, it's central, it is the message by which we come to faith. But it's not just there. And then now we're in and we do something else, and we do something else.

Speaker 1: 15:51

Even this phrase, I have an aversion. I'm going to say this. Some of you may be like why would you not like this? I don't like this phrase receive Christ. It's in the text. It's a good phrase, right, it's in the text. And people will say, well, when did you receive Christ? Or when did you receive Jesus? Or something like that. And I don't like the phrase because of a variety of ways that it can be used, but I want you to notice how it's used in the text. That's actually using it. It's not using it to just refer to this one-time thing.

Speaker 1: 16:26

What does this say, therefore, as you receive Christ Jesus, the Lord, so in that same way, in the same way that you came to faith, walk in him. So the same way you came, meaning, hey God, I am not capable, I am insufficient, I am a sinner, but Jesus has done it all. That same way. That's how we live our daily life. As you receive Christ Jesus as Lord, so walk in him. And what does that look like? It's looks like this rooted and built up in him. He keeps using the example of rooted. Um, you, you kind of have several metaphors here. You have this rooted metaphor. Like implies a stability, a grasping of a foundation. Roots grab the ground. They keep trees from falling over. If the ground fails, that's when trees fall. But when the ground is strong, when the foundation is strong, trees stand. We have the idea of walking, this daily movement by grace. We also have this idea of being built up. He says built up, which has the idea of construction upon that gospel foundation, that we stay rooted and by being rooted we grow. We had this talk in that first sermon about what that growth looks like, that there's this cycle of knowledge that leads to faithfulness, that leads to mission, that kind of goes full circle that leads to more knowledge, which continues to be built up, and then you have this idea of being established or being secure in faith, that as you live this, as you walk a life in the gospel, as you walk that life, you become secure in your faith, not shaky, and this ultimately leads to something. The phrase at the end of these two verses abounding in thanksgiving. In thanksgiving, what does a life walking in the gospel lead to? It leads to a life not of striving, not of exhausting effort, but a life abounding in thanksgiving.

Speaker 1: 19:28

I think we look at a text like not just these two verses but this whole text today, and we think, well, we don't have the Redeemer church heresy. We've got it all figured out. We have 2,000 years of church history. There have been conf years of church history. There have been, um, uh, confessions of faith made, uh, where we have, we have all of these there. There have been all of these errors and mistakes made by the church, but, but, but we've, you know, the God corrected through the reformation and they're all all these steps and and we have a right belief we don't. We don't have the Redeemer church heresy. And we look at this text and we're like so is it relevant to us? How is this relevant to us?

Speaker 1: 20:20

Well, I would say, whether or not we have all the beliefs checked off on the box, I think we still struggle with the very same types of things that are in this text. And when we get into those struggles, when we get into the next two points because we have three points I hope we'll see that. But this first point is so foundational because it is the power by which we don't give in to that kind of religion, that kind of way of exercising our faith, a way that gives into legalism or secret knowledge or whatever it may be. So let's not just jump right past this opening idea of remaining rooted in Christ in the same way that we received him through the gospel, namely not moving past the gospel but growing deeper in it. You see, the Christian life is not about graduating from grace, it's about remaining in it. It's not like we one day on this earth have then put away all sin and we've somehow managed to achieve perfection in life. That's not something we can achieve and that's not our goal. Yes, a goal should be generally not to sin. I'm not saying, don't have a goal of not sinning, but the understanding that, hey, we are still utterly dependent on the good news of Jesus, in the same way we were when we first came to faith. We still need him just as much. That's what it means to remain in grace. And so, as you think of your own life and what you are rooted in, as you think of your own faith, what is your faith rooted in?

Speaker 1: 22:37

You're here. This is Sunday morning. We're here at church. Why did you come? Did you come because you have a job to do, so you came. Do you come because this is just what we're supposed to do? It's sunday, okay, just hold on to that.

Speaker 1: 23:05

What else does your religion? I'm using that word on purpose what else does your religion look like? What does it look like tomorrow? On Monday, maybe you read the Bible, maybe you don't. Maybe you have a dedicated prayer time. Maybe you pray throughout the day. Maybe you talk to people about Jesus, maybe you don't. What does it look like on Thursday? On Saturday? What does it look like on Thursday? On Saturday, what does it look like? I would say it looks very different for each person in this room.

Speaker 1: 23:36

Right, I'm not up here to tell you what it ought to look like, but what I'm asking you right now is what is feeding your roots right now, as you live your life? What is giving you spiritual nourishment? If it's just this, if this is the extent of your faith, well then I'm going to say you're malnourished and starving. If you're saying, well, it's not even this, it's this other thing, well, there is a coming and obviously you're here. So this is a little bit of preaching to the choir, but yes, gathering with Christians is an essential part of what the Christian life needs to look like. But let's rephrase it a little bit differently. Let me say it this way Is your walk with Jesus rooted in grace or are you striving after something? I don't mean to say that pursuing that striving is bad, but I'll say it this way If your Christian walk has become a list of do's and don'ts, of checking boxes, and if you look at your Christian life and you see an intense pressure to perform in order for you to feel good about your faith, rather than being fueled by the thanksgiving that comes, like we see here in verse 7, well then I think you're missing a piece, and the piece is the gospel. It's pretty central.

Speaker 1: 25:45

We're going to look at the next section, verses 8 through 15. In this section, the point in this next section, I'm calling it this don't let anyone rob you by adding to Christ. In other words, christ is fully sufficient, so he needs nothing to be added. Here is the tricky part. Normally, if someone tells you, hey, I'm going to give you more, I'm going to give you something, you don't think, oh, I'm being robbed, right. But what we find here in this text is that the church in Colossae has been given already the gospel. They have received Christ, they know Him and they are now being given more on top of Christ. They're being given more and what is happening is they are essentially, by accepting these things, they are giving up the very good news that they came to faith. With. What does it say?

Speaker 1: 27:13

Verse 8, see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit. You see, the Roman world was a world where there were philosophers. There was all these ideas. It was easy to see the wisdom and try to incorporate that into your faith. Try to incorporate that in what your following Jesus looks like. Don't be taken captive by philosophy or empty deceit according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. Why? Because in Jesus, verse 9, the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily and you have been filled in him verse 10.

Speaker 1: 28:22

This is a profound statement and it's important for a lot of reasons. Obviously, this is a theologically weighty statement, but the theological weight of teaching that Jesus is fully God though, yes, certainly taught here is not the point of this passage. It's not why Paul includes it here. It's a statement of a theological truth and fact that basically is saying hey, because he is fully God and he has been, because he is in you, because you are filled in him, there's no room for anything else. Jesus is your all, he's the whole thing.

Speaker 1: 29:18

Verses 11 through 13,. Your identity is secure. You are spiritually circumcised Circumcision was the mark in the Old Testament of being a covenant member of the family of God and he's saying, hey, you have the covenant mark on your very own soul. It's not a physical thing. And then, even through baptism, you are buried and raised with Christ. And then, in verses 14 through 15, your record of debt is canceled and the spiritual powers, your accusers are disarmed, there is nothing left to fear or to prove what a profound truth it is that your record of debt, my record of debt, is canceled. What did you owe? What did I owe? Well, we're not good people. We don't. We're not good people. We don't profess to be good people. Our debt that we owed was everything, our whole life. It was a debt to give our life to die, and not just to die physically, but to forever be separated from God, eternal death. Yet the debt that we owed by Christ is canceled. It's nailed to the cross with him, and so we don't have anything to fear or to prove. And so we don't have anything to fear or to prove Now, in this text, there's so much here, but I want to ask you what do we like to add to the gospel today?

Speaker 1: 31:35

What do churches add to the gospel? You can probably think of some things. They can look different ways at different times. We like to add rules. We like to add rules like oh, a good Christian looks like this, they dress this way, they listen to this kind of music, they do this kind of thing, they don't do these things. Rules that aren't in scripture, but we like to add them anyway. That's what you might call legalism. We like to add mysticism to the faith, the idea that, hey, your faith needs to look this certain way. If you don't have this emotional reaction, well, there's something wrong. Your faith isn't as deep as mine.

Speaker 1: 32:19

We like to add tribalism. We like to say, oh well, I'm a part of this group, I'm this kind of Christian or I'm that kind of Christian, I'm a part of this group, I'm this kind of Christian or I'm that kind of Christian. And all of a sudden, the true believers that are in another tribe. There's something wrong with them. Like, okay, well, they might be Christians, but we're going to keep them at arm's length. We like to give in to legalism, mysticism, tribalism. Those are just a few ways. And what all three of those do, what all three of those ultimately do in the life of a Christian when you let them in, is they turn your religion the outward and physical and mental exercise of your faith, your religion. They turn it into a performative faith, a performative action, rather than rooted in Christ.

Speaker 1: 33:34

The final point in verses 16 through 23 is this Don't let anyone disqualify you for holding fast to Christ. So in that section we just came out of you really had these ideas that people were struggling with, the asceticism, the philosophy, the empty deceit, these kinds of things. And he's saying, hey, hold fast to those truths, to the truth of Christ. And now he's saying and then, when you do that, people are going to not want to accept your faith. Because well, let's put it this way, if you're giving in to tribalism and you're saying, well, I'm not going to do that, well, you've just potentially put yourself outside of the tribe and now you're the target of them. Or I'm not going to give in to legalism, well, then the legalists might say, oh well, you have a problem.

Speaker 1: 34:47

And what Paul is writing to them here is saying and what Paul is writing to them here is saying, hey, don't let anyone disqualify you for doing what I am teaching you. In other words, don't let others make you feel like you're missing out spiritually when you're actually rooted in Christ. When you're actually rooted in Christ. Therefore, let no one verse 16, pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. Are all of these things bad? Is Paul saying all of these things are bad? No, he's not saying all of these things bad. Is Paul saying all of these things are bad? No, he's not saying all of these things are bad. What he's saying is bad is when they become now, the standard by which you judge, when they become the faith, when they become the religion.

Speaker 1: 35:48

And ultimately, he gives this reason in verse 17. These are a shadow of things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. What does that mean? Well, what does it mean when you see a shadow? When you see a shadow, that means there's something there, right, like something is blocking the light and creating a shadow. What, in this verse, is creating the shadow? What's blocking the light? Well, jesus, jesus is the substance. And so don't get so fixated on the shadow that you lose sight of the one who is standing in the light. But that's what can happen.

Speaker 1: 36:46

Let no one disqualify you verse 18, for insisting. Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism, basically making your life your own life difficult, punishing yourself not enjoying life, your own life difficult, punishing yourself not enjoying life or worship of angels, going on in details about vision puffed up without reason by a sensuous mind not holding fast to the head from which the whole body nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God. Basically, people are going to Christians professing Christians are going to elevate things, make standards out of things that they ought not to do and then hold people to it. Don't let your faithfulness become a way that you get disqualified oh, you're not going to be this, you're not going to be that. Well, no. Instead, stand firm on Christ. Speak truth.

Speaker 1: 38:01

Verse 20,. If, with Christ, you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations? Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch. We give in, we allow these rules to rule over us. These rules might look wise Verse 23,. They have the appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion, but despite the fact that these rules can look wise, they ultimately cannot and do not stop sin. They are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. See legalism, mystical experiences, harsh self-discipline, tribalism, these types of things. They might sometimes give you the appearance of holiness, but they don't make you holy. In fact, they hold you back, they hinder you. And so the question is your walk with Christ alive, or is it just an empty form that you do.

Speaker 1: 39:42

Earlier in this sermon, I asked you to kind of think through your life, why you do what you do. I've used the word religion off and on. We all have a religion, despite the popularity of the phrase, I have a relationship, not a religion. Despite the popularity of the phrase, I have a relationship, not a religion. We all have a religion and it's not bad to have religion, meaning a patterned and intentional outworking of your faith, but it's empty religion. That is the problem. And no matter what we do, we are tempted to give in to empty ritual, empty religion, just doing the things we're supposed to do. Sometimes it goes more deep, sometimes we can feel superior, but also sometimes we can feel made inferior.

Speaker 1: 41:02

I'll give you a couple examples. I'll give you a couple examples. I'll give you a couple examples. I'll ask you these questions.

Speaker 1: 41:09

And all of these things are things that, um, people have told me oh, I feel judged because of this, or I feel, you know, I don't, they don't feel good or whatever. So do you ever feel looked down on for your parenting choices, the way if you have kids, the way you raise your kids, the way you school them, the way you disciple them? Have you ever. Now, if you don't have kids? Maybe you don't, but maybe you have. Even though you don't have kids, maybe you have strong opinions about what that ought to look like. How about political thoughts I think we've all seen this that, like certain political parties become the only viable Christian option, or they become like oh, you have to vote the way I vote, and if you didn't vote the way I voted, if you're not just as upset as I am, if you're not just as excited as I am, well, clearly there's something wrong there. But no, how about the way you choose to take care of your health?

Speaker 1: 42:14

I've been told Christians sometimes struggle with feeling judged about these kinds of things. These are, in one sense, these seem like smaller, less religious parts of our lives, but they're ways that this type of thinking wedges its way in our hearts and we create all of a sudden standards of legalism, of tribalism, that infiltrate the church. None of these issues are black and white spiritual issues. They are all issues that have nuance. They're all issues that are case by case. They're all issues that are difficult, that are case by case. They're all issues that are difficult, but as we seek to live a life rooted in Christ, we need to remember that Christ is indeed all sufficient.

Speaker 1: 43:19

We cannot let empty religion rob us of the freedom, the joy, the life that we have in Jesus. You don't need a spiritual upgrade, you don't need to grow more in order to be close with God. No, instead, you need to remain in Jesus. He is enough. Your sin, your sin, is nailed to the cross, your debt is canceled. You are full in Christ, if indeed you are in Christ, if indeed you are in Christ.

Speaker 1: 44:23

So don't drift, don't be fooled, don't let empty philosophies draw you away, because they are there, and they're not just in the world. They're in the world, but they're also in the church. And so, just like the church in Colossae was being robbed of the grace that they had through Christ, the church today can be robbed of the grace that we have in Christ, of the life that we've been given. So, stay rooted in him. He is your source, your substance, and he is your savior. God, thank you for this text, thank you for Jesus and that through Jesus we have life. Help us, god, to be and remain rooted in him and, just as we came, allow us to continue in the goodness of his grace. In Jesus' name, we pray.