Tag: Colossians 2

October 13th 2024: Evan Millership

Published on by Penuel Baptist RochLeave a comment

To watch this service, click on the link to our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/mFtGTSmiAjA?si=hRzgjPisDUiKC27r

Colossians 2:6-15

Christmas is coming! Lights will be lit on trees. People will be busy getting presents for hundreds of family members. Maybe you are looking for offers, for Black Friday discount. Offers are everywhere. Everyone wants a deal. In the passage of scripture we are reading today, Paul is offering Jesus, 100% Jesus. Is 100% of what you need. That is what the whole book of Colossians is about. The church in Colossae was a young church. Some were saying Jesus is good, but we need more. Paul says no! His entire book of Colossians says you need Jesus and nothing else.

In Colossians chapter 2 Paul says that now you have come to the gospel, you need to be full in Jesus. I have 4 points for you: if you are following Jesus, you are: satisfied, set apart, liberated and encouraged.

  1. If you are following Jesus you are satisfied (verses 9-11).

Paul starts strong. He says Jesus is God. All of God is in Jesus. The whole fullness of the deity is in Jesus. That is who He is. Jesus is God made man. He is 100% God, 100% man. This is mind blowing but real. The great ‘I AM’ becomes a man. The one who cast the stars into space and named them – that is Jesus. Incredible! Paul goes on, because Jesus is the fullness of God, if you follow Him you have all you need.

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.” (Colossians 1:15-19).

In Colossians 2:9 Paul echoes what he has said in Colossians 1, “For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.” He is the head of every power and authority. Paul says Jesus is above all of them. Why do you need anything else? Nothing compares to Jesus. This is the gospel. We forget about Jesus in our daily living. Jesus needs to be where we go to. Subtle steps lead us away from Jesus. I am a good cook, but the other day I cooked Spaghetti Bolognese and it was just OK. It ruined my evening. If I am really thinking about Jesus, who cares what a Bolognese tastes like when the God of the universe loves me? I was caught up in my pride.

Subtly and slowly our lives move away from God. Jesus is waiting for us to take us back to Him. He wants us to find all we need in Him. Jesus wants to give us Himself because it is the best thing you can find. C.S. Lewis states, “It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” In Jesus we can be satisfied.

  • In Jesus we can be set apart (verse 11-12).

Paul talks about circumcision. To be circumcised means to be set apart. Physical circumcision is a physical sign. Paul says if you follow Jesus, you are also set apart. “Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.” (Ephesians 1:4). To be set apart for God is to be holy. If you follow Jesus you are set apart, part of a special group. It is not just a status. A Christian is a completely new being. Baptism is a public declaration that I follow Jesus. As you go through the waters of baptism you are killing the old self. Then, as you were raised up, you’re a new person in Jesus. It is a metaphor. Everything I loved before is second now to Jesus. Sometimes, it feels I’ve been baptised, set apart. But sometimes I feel do I have enough strength to get to heaven? Paul appears to hear these questions. He says the very power that raises Jesus from the dead and keeps Him in heaven is the same power that keeps the Christian for heaven.

  • In Jesus you can be liberated (verses 13-15).

When you were dead, God made you alive in Christ. If you do not follow Jesus, you are dead, as was everyone before they followed Jesus. But here, Paul tells us, while you were dead, God made you alive in Jesus. God forgave us all our sins. How? “And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.” (verses 13-14).

How do we live when we were enemies of God? Christ died in our place. Jesus is perfect. He died in my place taking all of the evil I do. Amazing! Every prideful thought, every hateful thought, every sin – past, present and future evil is nailed! Gone! He has taken these. Praise the Lord, oh my soul. Your sins, if you follow Jesus, do not exist! For the Christian, it is as if the God of the universe, the one who is sovereign over everything, has said, “Not guilty,” Because Jesus paid for it Himself. We are freed from our sins.

“He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.” (verse 15). Paul is writing from Roman times. If a Roman general had done well, he may have been given a triumph – a parade. This was praise for the general. The enemy leader would be dragged behind him in chains. When we apply it to this passage, death is a defeated enemy. He is not coming back.

  • In Jesus we can be encouraged.

Maybe you are thinking, ‘I’ve heard it all before.’ I say, ‘Hear it again.’ It echoes across every page of the Bible. This is the story. See what God has done, is doing, and will do. Look around the world, in the news, at work, in school – everything seems to be falling apart. Do I give up? Jesus is life. He has everything in hand. God is in control. The God who is in control has given Himself for us. He has set us apart and liberated us. If you follow Jesus, He says, ‘Mine.’

2 Corinthians 6 quotes God from the Old Testament. Paul says, “As God has said:

“I will dwell in them
And walk among them.
I will be their God …

“I will be a Father to you,
    and you will be my sons and daughters,
says the Lord Almighty.”


Be at peace, sons and daughters of heaven. Lift your eyes to heaven. Jesus is calling you home. If you don’t follow Jesus now, everything is waiting for you to follow Him. If you follow Him, be encouraged because heaven is waiting.

C.S. Lewis writes, “All their life in this world and all their adventures had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.”

Jesus is all you need. 100%. There is nothing else that you need. Everything will die and pass away, but Jesus will remain. If you are not a Christian today, Jesus is offered to you. In Him you can be satisfied, set apart, liberated and encouraged.

If you are a follower of Jesus today, see that you are satisfied, set apart, liberated and encouraged.

September 15th 2019: Alan Davison

Published on by Penuel Baptist RochLeave a comment

Alan Davison - Sept19‘Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught,
abounding in thanksgiving.’
Colossians 2:6-7

There are a lot of things in our lives we learn but we hope we will never have to do again. Sometimes, some believe they need to hear the gospel, respond to it be saved, but then think they don’t need to carry on with it. They believe they don’t need daily repentance, they don’t need to continually come back to Jesus.

The Church at Colossae was doing quite well. Paul had not been there but had received detailed reports from Epaphras (Colossians 1:7-8). However, Paul was concerned that the Colossians were under threat of false teachers coming in and belittling Christ. Some of the false teachers were on about needing special knowledge. None of this really matters if all they offer is ‘something’ and Christ. Paul’s concern is that persuasive words might have the Colossians looking for something else. Paul is writing to Christians, reminding them the gospel is the foundation upon which they are to dwell.

‘Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord.’ Paul says the Colossians have received Christ Jesus. The gospel is an invitation to all. It gives ‘all the treasure of wisdom and knowledge’ (Colossians 2:3). For us to be aware of the preciousness of Christ we have knowledge of Christ but also wisdom to go on in the faith. Paul commends the Colossians for their order and steadfastness (v5).

1 Chronicles 12:38: all these men of war came to Hebron with a loyal heart. They knew their place in the line of battle. They also had loyal hearts. They were steadfast in the cause. We need both of these attributes.

Paul ends the 6th verse with ‘The Lord.’ He emphasises a lofty view of Christ. He wants the Colossians, and us, to come back to the fact that Jesus is Lord. They and we are to continue in Him. We must come to Christ and Him alone. There are no other qualifications. We don’t need anything else. Acts 16:30-31. Don’t over-complicate the gospel.

‘So walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving’ (Colossians 2:7). This is Paul’s slogan for Christian living. We know the Jews used this to behave in a morally upright manner. To accept Christ is not only to know about Him, it’s also to accept Christ Himself. We’re in a living relationship with Christ, we’re in Christ.

Our walk is to be rooted and built up. Start with a firm foundation – Christ. Draw spiritual nourishment from Christ (v 19). We are to meditate on God’s words as we seek to walk. Once we have settled on a foundation, then we need to build upon it. It’s an ongoing process. Seek to build on the foundation of Christ under His leadership. The building process can and will take time.

A proper building requires patience. God has a great deal of patience with His children and knows how much we can handle at a time. Jesus is perfect but we don’t always hold on to Him as we should. So we seek to strengthen our faith and increase its tenacity under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the power of Jesus Christ. The more faith we have in Jesus, the less we will struggle on in ourselves and the more we will come to Him in prayer. We retain the same gospel principles and seek to put these into practise.

In our spiritual lives we can all go through periods when we go spiritually off the boil. We need to look back at the basics, look back at the foundation, how far we have come. Paul ends by saying we should do all this ‘abounding in thanksgiving.’ Such a thankfulness speaks of God rather than ourselves. It is of joy. If we do struggle, look to the cross and marvel at His grace.