Christ Alone : Colossians 2 - Sermon 9th November 2025 AM

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Morning everybody. If you'd like to look up Colossians chapter 2.

Colossians 2 · chapter mention

Just as you accepted Jesus Christ as Lord, you must continue to follow Him.

Let your roots grow down deep 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 overthrow with thankfulness. Verse 8.

Do not let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense

that comes from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world,

rather than from Christ.

For in Christ, all the fullness of God dwells in human body,

So you are also complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over

every ruler and authority.

When you came to Christ, you were circumcised, but not by a physical procedure.

Christ performed a spiritual circumcision, the cutting away of your sinful nature.

For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized, and with him you were

raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God who raised Christ from the dead.

You were dead because of your sins and because of your sinful nature was not yet cut away.

Then God made you alive with Christ for he forgave you all your sins.

He canceled the record of charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.

In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities.

He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.

So don't let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink or for not celebrating

certain holidays or new moon ceremonies or Sabbaths.

For these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come and Christ himself is that reality.

Don't let anyone condemn you by insisting on pious self-denial or 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 joints and ligaments

and grows as God nourishes it.

You have died with Christ and he has set you free from spiritual powers of this

world. So do not keep following the rules of this world.

Don't handle, don't taste, don't touch. Such rules are merely 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. Let's pray.

Dear Lord, your word is for us to learn from.

It is your word and everything that we need for living with you and in you.

So, Lord, as we reflect upon your word now, I pray that your Holy Spirit would

speak to us in a way that we would not only learn, but we would be able to apply

what you have taught us into our lives.

So I pray this in your name. Amen.

It's a scary thought that soon Christmas celebrations will be upon us.

I was in the shops last week and all the Christmas stuff is already out.

And just in case you were wondering, if you went to Phil Greenlee's Facebook

post from last night, there's a Christmas reminder that it is officially upon us.

That doesn't mean that you don't change your way from reading your Bible on

your device and go to Facebook and look at Phil Greenlee's stuff.

There's a saying we hear every Christmas time, isn't there? Don't leave Christ out of Christmas.

But maybe we need actually a saying that happens every day of the,

all year round, every day of the week, that says don't leave Christ out of Christianity.

Because out of all the spiritual dangers that we face in this world,

none's more deceptive than wrong Christian thinking.

Thinking that sounds spiritual, but quietly shifts our practice away from keeping

Christ at the center. Right?

Over the years, no doubt, it's the same for you. You've had plenty of knocks

on the doors from all different organizations and religious groups that would

want to have a conversation with you.

Especially around Christmas time, you get that even more that's happening.

Now, while they want to speak about a whole series of things.

I really enjoy the engagement of it because I always try to flip it around and

say, what do you think about Jesus? What do you think about Christ?

A few years ago, a mate of mine, Ross, told me about a really interesting encounter

that he experienced as he opened up the door at Christmastime to find two men standing there.

They said, we're from the Society of Mary.

We're concerned that there's not enough devotion to Mary among Catholics,

especially around Christmastime.

Ross smiled and said, well, you're struck out here. I'm a Presbyterian minister.

But never to waste a good door-knocking opportunity. He asked them,

why do you go from door to door at Christmastime talking about Mary when you

can be telling people about Jesus?

They had a good discussion. That's not the way he put it.

But then he closed the door and admitted that he felt quite angry,

not at them personally, but because they had so devalued Jesus in everything that they said.

Of course, they're not the only ones.

Much of modern Christianity does the same thing.

Whether it focuses on our spiritual

experiences whether others focus on

psychology and self-improvement whether it's

focusing on personal development or family success these all may sound good

and they are good to think about those things but if the pushes the margins

and Jesus is knocked out of the whole equation it is empty as empty ever gets Yes.

But this isn't new. Paul faced the same problem at Colossae.

As I mentioned last week, he never visited the church, but through his disciple

Epaphras, he heard about false teachers who were promoting dangerous blend of

ideas and teaching, often called the Colossian heresy.

And it was a mix of philosophy where human wisdom and reasoning came to the fore and legalism,

where Jewish ritual pushed Christ out and mysticism where visions and angels

took the place of walking in and with Jesus for asceticism,

which just was this harsh denial of anything person so that you suffered your way into the kingdom.

And all of this had one thing in common, it took the focus away from Jesus Christ.

So Paul writes his letter to anchor them in the truth of who Jesus is.

And we looked at that last week in chapter one.

He declares Jesus as the creator, as the sustainer, the visible image of the

invisible God, the supreme one, not one over many, but the only one,

the only one and true God.

And then in chapter two, he brings that theology down to practical levels,

stuff we can get our head around, some good stuff this morning.

First of all, he says, keep the main thing, the main thing,

Again, from verses 6 and 7 And now,

just as you accept Jesus Christ as Lord You must continue to follow him Let

your roots grow down deep into him 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.

First of all, continue in the same way you began.

You began your Christian life with Jesus, in Jesus, only through Jesus.

So continue in Christ as you walk with him.

The Christian life doesn't not only begin with Christ and then move on to philosophy

or ritual or liturgy of some institutional church. It begins with Jesus at the

core and continues with Christ and Christ alone.

That's why we have in our vision statement, we know Christ, we grow in Christ,

we show Christ to each other in the world.

That's why we have Christ at our center. It's not just we know Jesus and then

you go on a roster and then you start to work around the church and then you

start to work at a couple of events.

No, you know Jesus and then you grow in him by your connection and walking with

him but primarily through his word and through his spirit, you're able to show

Christ to each other in this world.

Our church should be a living example of us as Christians walking in Christ

and continuing in Christ.

Now, we're going to flesh that out a little bit, what that means.

The second thing is that as Christ was enough to save you, therefore he is enough, full stop.

The first message I said is enough to sustain you, but he's enough for everything in our life.

The Colossians were being tempted by people saying, Jesus is great,

but you need something more.

You need some special knowledge, some secret wisdom, some extra rituals that

you need to go through in order for you to walk appropriately with God.

It's the same kind of drift that we see here today. Jesus is great,

but you need some new spiritual method.

You need a new podcast. You need a self-help plan. You need some mystical experience.

You need something else, something extra.

But no one really says that, do they? No one comes, you don't go into a church

and you don't find out someone says, well, Jesus has saved you,

but now you need something extra. No, it's subtle.

But it's the ethos of a group or a church when its values drift from the truth,

when thinking shifts, the practice will soon follow.

People will either become very legalistic, where you must, and I'll judge you

if you don't, or very liberal, who am I to judge anything? Away you just go.

And the moment we think Jesus needs a little help from our culture or a cultural

update or make Jesus more relevant, we've lost sight of him altogether.

We don't need a cultural update. We don't need an update on the Bible of its relevance.

It is totally relevant for us. It's like buying a brand new computer.

It's designed for everything that you need, but somehow imagine,

or you might imagine, that downloading some sketchy third-party software that

promises to make it faster is what you need.

And so you install it, and then suddenly it starts glitching and starts freezing.

And I phoned my wife and say, the computer's broken, which I did.

The problem wasn't the computer. The problem was me.

I thought I'd reprogram this Windows computer. So eventually I bought a Mac

so I can't actually get to the programming aspects of it because I'm so tempted

to try to make it faster, make it better, make it happen.

And it's the same sort of thing if we try to add to Jesus, he is perfect and

all that we need for life and all that we need for living. and if we add anything

to him, then the system breaks down, breaks down from what he has designed it to be.

The moment we start bolting on extras or rules or rituals or fad or gaining

an update from our culture, we break down what God has perfectly designed in life with him.

So Christ is enough, fully enough for you.

So stay fixed on Jesus. And Paul gives his vivid image.

Deeply fixed in Christ, like a tree whose roots go down deep into the ground.

Even in drought and even in flood, we draw strength from below.

If your roots are deep in Jesus, his word, his presence, his love will stand you firm in any season.

Reminds me of Psalm 1, doesn't it? Blessed is the one who does not walk in the

counsel of the wicked, in the first seed of scoffers standing apart of sinners,

but their delight is in the law of the Lord.

And on the law of the Lord, they'll meditate day and night.

And they'll be like trees firmly planted by streams of water.

So when the rain comes, blood comes, everything else, they will prosper.

But the people who don't do that, they're not so. They're like chaff that just gets blown away.

So whatever the righteous person will do will stand in the day of judgment and

the way of the wicked will perish.

That's what Psalm 1 says. This is what this is saying here.

Paul is saying to you that let your roots go deeply into Jesus.

And it's like a gum tree. You see it in massive drought situations where this

thing's alive and flourishing. Where's this getting its water from?

Not from the surface level because it's dry, it's in drought.

And so deep down, they have anchored their roots in the stream systems underneath the earth.

And we're to do the same. We are to anchor our roots. And it's the same in flood.

You'll see flood all around and those trees are standing firm and strong because

their roots are down deep.

Now, let's talk about the flood a little bit.

Sometimes we can be in a church environment where we go, isn't this unreal?

It's fantastic. Look at the experience. experiences that I'm going on,

it's flooding in and all the things that are happening within our world.

And we think to ourselves, it's flood, bring it on, bring it on, bring it on, bring it on.

But if our roots aren't down deep, well, then we will just float away and drop

under false teaching and false expectations as we would as if we were in a church

where it was dry and desert,

and we tried to build the church on things that are not sustainable and not Jesus.

So he says, be built up in him. He shifts from farming to constructions.

He says, you know, even though things are looking good for you,

you're built every brick by brick on God's grace, on God's foundation,

on Jesus' foundation, and everything must rest on him.

I mean, you wouldn't build a house on a crooked foundation and hope the roof

just lines up at the end of it.

Sometimes when things look off in life and look off in church,

it's not about fixing the roof.

And so aesthetically, it makes it look good.

It's about fixing the foundation where we stand.

Do we stand with Christ on his word, walking in his word?

So therefore, we are fixed deeply in Christ. We're building our life on him.

We're strengthened in the faith you were taught. Who from? The apostles. the Bible.

Don't chase novelty. The gospel you receive is the truth of what you need and

don't have a restless heart that looks for something new instead of something that's true.

At a church one time and I took a group of people along to this church and at

the front of their church, they had the values of the church that we went into.

And I looked at their values and one of their values was that the Bible contains the Word of God.

I thought how true not.

The Bible doesn't contain the Word of God. It is the Word of God in every every way, shape, or form.

And it's not for me to interpret of what it contains and what part contains

God's word and what part doesn't.

And it was very easy to see how that worked through in practice because as we

sang worship, we sang a song that talked about the mother, father,

daughter, sister, grandmother, I think it was even, God.

And I thought, how do we get to that point? It's because they have not founded

themselves on the truth and strengthened themselves on the truth of God.

What does that do when we strengthen ourselves and found ourselves in the truth of God?

It helps us to overflow with thankfulness.

No matter, see, look at the Psalm 1 thing. The wind will come,

the waves will blow, The streams will rise. The floods will happen.

Life will be messy and it will have everything that life contains.

But we're able to stand firm in the thankfulness of God, knowing he is fully

in control and our roots deep in him means that we are standing in his grace, the fruit of his grace.

You remember all we have is in Christ, forgiveness, adoption,

purpose, and hope, we cannot help but be thankful.

And thankfulness keeps our faith warm and our hearts humble.

Sounds good, doesn't it? Paul's got it there. We just go out into our world,

strengthening, standing, strong, and he says, be warned,

see to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy.

Not be fooled. Don't let anyone rob you of your fullness you already have in Christ.

And Paul warns us against four traps.

We're going to look at them very briefly. One is for philosophy.

The trap is when human wisdom replaces God's revelation.

In Paul's day, people tried to reason their way to God.

Today, we almost do the same. I think we try to make him explainable or manageable

or more rational or more helpful in our thinking.

But when we do that, we start worshipping God and we start worshipping our own ideas of God.

And we think sometimes the smarter that we are, the better it is.

But really, the smarter that we become, the smaller that God becomes.

When someone says, I've read the Bible already, it's like saying,

I know everything that there is after the first date of meeting somebody.

And you know that's not true for those who are in relationship.

You know that when you meet somebody, the first date is generally nothing.

You kind of get to know each other, maybe even exchange numbers and emails.

And if it's Susan's case, I didn't even get that.

So how do you get to know someone? We spend time with them. You know about them.

You get to know what they like. You get to know what they think about.

You get to know what values they have.

You get to know them deep down to the core. And that's why the study of God's

word is not a literary study of God's word.

It is a relationship manual where you learn about him, you learn about life,

you learn about what life's going to be like together, you learn about your

relationship with him. And it goes way beyond the,

human reasoning and thinking. It goes into divine revelation where he reveals

himself to you and how that will impact you.

How small is my box that I fit God in or how big is it?

And it's the same with you. What size box do you have that you try to fit God

in? Is it more about your reasoning?

And then right at the end of the day, if you really want to know about relationship,

you kind of open up God's word, you flick around a bit, and then you find out

some helpful verses, which they are helpful, and then you move on with life?

Or are you immersed into your relationship with God, knowing that he has you

first in his mind and wants you to walk with him every step of the way?

Don't get caught up in philosophies and our own thinking, thinking we're more

than we are, because we're not.

Don't get caught up in legalism when rules replace relationship.

We don't want human wisdom to replace relationship rather than God's revelation.

We don't want rules to replace relationship.

Don't let anyone condemn you, it says in verse 16 and 17, for what you eat or

what you drink or for celebrating holy days,

for these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come,

and Christ himself is the reality.

All of those Old Testament rituals were shadows is pointing to Jesus, the substance.

And now he has come, we no longer need the shadow. We have Jesus.

Who says, in the past, God spoke to our forefathers at many times in various ways.

In these last days, he has revealed himself to us in his son,

who is the exact representation of his being, the one who created everything. That's Jesus.

All of the many ways and various times that he revealed himself in the Old Testament

was to point to the absolute revelation in Jesus.

So as we look at Jesus, we no longer see a shadow. We see God himself.

False message, you are free in Christ. Your faith is not about checking religious boxes.

True spirituality is knowing and trusting and following Jesus.

And don't let anyone convince you otherwise.

It's not about legalism. It's not about rule keeping.

It's not about checking all the boxes, nor is it about mysticism.

When experience replaces the cross.

It says, don't let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you.

And false teachers claim special visions and angelic encounters.

And Paul says, they have lost their connection with the head, who is Jesus.

Now mysticism looks spiritual. Spiritual experiences look right.

They look spiritual, but it can make people proud and self-focus and more about

the experience than they are

about the one who they're seeking to be connected to, about God himself.

Spiritual highs are not the same as spiritual health. Can we get that?

We can be on a spiritual high and we can be walking with Jesus,

but that doesn't mean we're spiritually connected to him.

Last one is asceticism, when self-denial replaces heart transformation.

Do not hand or do not taste, do not touch. There's the things that you're told

from a legalistic perspective.

These have the appearance of wisdom, but lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.

Asceticism says, holiness comes from punishing the body and avoiding pleasure.

Paul says, it might look wise, but

it doesn't change the heart we don't do that

do we we don't think that

the disciplines that we are doing are

going to make us more holy or do

we think which i think is the right way of moving is that the disciplines that

we develop in our life grows and strengthens our relationship with jesus as

we walk with him the more i get into god's word the more i listen to him the

more i pray the more I listened to him, the more I.

Disciplined in my Christian life, the more I connect with him.

There was a great book and we were told to read it.

And I thought, oh, great. It's called The Imitation of Christ by Thomas Akempis.

And it was a primary learning document. If you go through theology,

you have to look at a primary document.

And this is monk that got it right, that he understood what it meant to walk

with Jesus in really hard language to understand.

That's part of the reason why they give it to you, I think, just to make you think.

But he got right. The imitation of Jesus is found in the disciplines that we

develop through the Holy Spirit,

the disciplines of listening to God, the disciplines of bringing ourselves before

him in sacrifice and humility before him, the disciplines in service.

True holiness doesn't come from the outside in

it comes from the inside out and god is

the only one who can change our heart and so

that's why hebrews talks about and says that the word of god will cut through

all of the stuff that happens in your life divide bone from marrow and judge

the thoughts and the intentions of the heart and i want god through his word

to judge the thoughts and the intentions of my heart, as you should too.

Read God's word and ask him, judge my heart so that I might walk in a way that

honors you and that I might have victory and freedom in life as you bring me

out of the stuff that's happening in my life and into a life of forgiveness,

empowerment, and change as the Holy Spirit starts to work in my life.

The question I want to leave you with. Have you kept the main thing, the main thing?

Remember Paul's four warnings. Don't let human wisdom replace God's revelation.

Stand against it. Is all human wisdom wrong? Absolutely not.

If it replaces the revelation of God, absolutely wrong.

When rules replace relationship, check that box out,

throw it out, and start to develop your relationship, and then you'll develop

the disciplines of life rather than rules and relationship.

It will be relationship, and you follow Christ out of your heart and out of

the Holy Spirit working in you.

When experience replaces the cross, we need to think about it.

When self-denial replaces heart transformation, we need to desire of God that

he would transform our heart so we would walk with him.

Once again, true holiness comes from, it doesn't come from the outside,

it comes from the inside out.

And only Christ, through his word, empowered by the Holy Spirit,

as we walk with him daily, can our heart be transformed. Let's pray.

We do thank you, Lord, that Paul didn't leave the Colossian church in deep, deep,

very true and profound theology, but started to bring it home about things that

were happening in their life and how Satan was using every single thing that

he possibly could to take their focus away from Jesus.

And he will use that today, so I pray, Lord, against him. Amen.

Your Holy Spirit will bring to mind times when we are not walking in relationship

with you, but rather bring to mind, Lord, the freedom that you have provided

and the empowerment that you have provided for your spirit.

So as we read your word, we're reading the words of the living God to us.

When we put things in life, the disciplines in life, we will not think that

it's checking any boxes, but rather those disciplines in life are forming and

developing our relationship with you.

Help us, Lord, when people think that spiritual experience and the spiritual

things of this world take the place of our relationship with the living God.

Help us, Lord, to be holy, set apart for you.

And I pray this in your name. Amen. you.