#312 Colossians Series# 5, Rooted In Christ Jesus The Lord

#312 Colossians Series# 5, Rooted In Christ Jesus The Lord
By: Pastor D. Karl Thomas

Epaphras began a church in Colosse. The work is now experiencing challenges to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Paul sends a letter that asserts the supremacy and sufficiency of Christ.
Jesus is Lord! Therefore He is fully able qualify us as saints.

Primarily written to confront rising heresies (false teachings) of the day.
In a combative tone and abrupt style Paul exalts Christ.
Confronts four basic heresies:
1. Gnosticism 2. Legalism 3. Mysticism     4. Asceticism

Paul gets very personal about his specific responsibility to the call of God on his life.
Chapter 1:24 – 2:5 are filled with first person pronoun “I”.
“Christ in you, the hope of glory… that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.”

Colossians 2:4
“Now this I say lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words.”

3 Major Doctrinal Denials:
1. Denied fullness of Godhead was in Christ.
2. Denied Believer is complete in Christ alone.
3. Asserted that full freedom demanded additional heightened spirituality. You Have To Trade!

Kyle MacDonald (1995) traded his way up from a red paperclip to a house on Main Street, Kipling, Saskatchewan. (14 Trades)
For the record, here’s how the trading went. A red paper clip for a pen in the shape of a fish for a doorknob for a Coleman gas stove for an electric generator for a beer keg and Budweiser sign for a snowmobile for a trip to Yahk, British Columbia for a 3 tonne delivery van for a recording contract for accommodation in a house for a year in Phoenix for an afternoon with Alice Cooper for a Kiss snowglobe for a movie role with Corbin Bernsen … for a house!

Don’t Trade! It’s not worth it! What you have is great!
That’s what Paul was saying!  The FULL life is in Christ!
Being in UNION with Him alone leads to COMPLETENESS!

1. Be Rooted Focus on your UNION with Christ.
1 Corinthians 6:17 “But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.”
1 Corinthians 1:30“God has united you with Christ Jesus … made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin.”  (NLT)

We have a river birch out front … have to keep watering it because its a RIVER BIRCH!!!
Jeremiah 17:7-8
“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, And whose hope is the Lord. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, Which spreads out its roots by the river, And will not fear when heat comes; But its leaf will be green, And will not be anxious in the year of drought, Nor will cease from yielding fruit.”

Colossians 2:6-7, 9-10
“And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. 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.”

“For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.”
Complete:— (pleROo) to fill to the top: so that nothing shall be wanting to full measure, render perfect in every particular.
2. Stay Rooted Refute every challenge to your UNION with Christ!
People have a hard time accepting that Jesus did it ALL!!!
Revelation 3:11 “Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown.”

Colossians 2:8  (NKJV)
“Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.”
Intellectualism:— We can figure it out, Global enlightenment.
1 Corinthians 2:12, 16
“Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God … But we have the mind of Christ.”

Colossians 2:16-17
“So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance (reality) is of Christ.”
Legalism:— salvation is gained through performance.

Galatians 5:1,4
“Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage … You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.”

Colossians 2:18-19 “Don’t let anyone condemn you by insisting on pious self-denial or the worship of angels, saying they have had visions about these things. Their sinful minds have made them proud, and they are not connected to Christ, the head of the body. For he holds the whole body together with its joints and ligaments, and it grows as God nourishes it.”

Mysticism:—immediate spiritual intuition of truths believed to transcend ordinary understanding, or of a direct, intimate union of the soul with God through contemplation or ecstasy.
Don’t elevate the experience over simple union with Christ. 

Acts 19:11 “Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul,…”
2 Corinthians 12:1-2  This boasting will do no good, but I must go on. I will reluctantly tell about visions and revelations from the Lord. I was caught up to the third heaven fourteen years ago.”

Acts 27:23-24
“For there stood by me this night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve, saying, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must be brought before Caesar; and indeed God has granted you all those who sail with you.’”

Colossians 2:20-23
“You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world. So why do you keep on following the rules of the world, such as, “Don’t handle! Don’t taste! Don’t touch!”? …”

“… Such rules are mere human teachings about things that deteriorate as we use them. These rules may seem wise because they require strong devotion, pious self-denial, and severe bodily discipline. But they provide no help in conquering a person’s evil desires.”

“… but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.” (NKJV)
“But they don’t really have any power over our desires. (CEV)
“…illusion of being pious and humble and ascetic. But they’re just another way of showing off, making yourselves look important.” (Message)
Asceticism:— the doctrine that a person can attain a high spiritual and moral state by practicing self-denial, self-mortification, and the like.

Romans 1:16
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.”

3.Been Rooted It’s Done Done Done
Colossians 2:11-15
“In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,…”

“…buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,…”

“…having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.”

It is all done in Christ!
Be Rooted!
Stay Rooted!
Been Rooted!

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