Unlikely People. Unlikely Places. A Sufficient Savior.

Well, friends, every generation throughout church history has wrestled with some of the same struggles we have seen throughout the New Testament.

The temptation, the same struggle or temptation that the church in Colossae struggle with, as we will see, which is false teaching, mysticism, legalism, or any form of teaching that try to tempt Christians to believe in something that is a religion of Jesus plus something else.

This is not anything new.

This is an issue Paul addresses in this letter we'll look at.

This is something we struggle with here as Western Christians here in America, where you see all types of therapeutic language or other forms of modern legalism in which we are also enticed at times to, yes, trust in the gospel, trust in Jesus, and blank.

This is what we're gonna look at this morning.

If you don't have a Bible, feel free to use that Pew Bible in front of you.

You can take that home with you.

We want to make sure everybody has a copy of God's Word.

Uh the big numbers are the chapters and the little numbers are the verses, if you would like to follow along.

But what I'm gonna seek to do in this sermon is to focus on verses one through two and do more of an overview of the entire book of Colossians as we start this new series, as we move through verse by verse through the entire letter to the church and Colossi.

And I think it'd be helpful to just kind of get our bearings a little bit and just kind of assess the landscape, so to speak.

And let's look at the author, who he's writing to, what does he address in this epistle, so that as we move forward, chapter by chapter, verse by verse, we can better appreciate Paul's words to the church and Colossi and to us today.

But I would say the fundamental struggle in this book that Paul is addressing is this teaching to these group of Christians that they need Jesus plus something else.

And Paul wants to help them understand anything added to Jesus is no Jesus at all.

Anything added to the gospel is no gospel at all.

Therefore, remain faithful in the gospel you have received.

So let's just briefly look at verses one through two.

Paul opens up Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God's will, and Timothy, our brother, to the saints in Christ at Colossae, who are faithful brothers and sisters.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

Now I want to just start by looking at the Apostle Paul.

If you've been a Christian for more than a month, you know who Paul is.

He's one of the most significant figures in church history outside of Jesus.

But there's something we learn about Paul's story, how the Lord called him into the office of apostle, that helps us see, even in our own Christian walks, that we should never despise our story, our testimonies, because God most often uses unlikely messengers to accomplish his redemptive purposes.

So notice just, I mean, words have meaning.

There's a lot just in two verses.

He opens up, he says, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God's will.

Notice how he opens the letter.

Trust me, Paul was a master wordsmith.

Everything he put down had meaning.

He doesn't introduce himself casually or assume his authority as an apostle.

He identifies himself specifically as an apostle of Christ Jesus by God's will.

That tells us a few things.

Paul is making it very clear.

I'm not some self-appointed apostle.

I just didn't wake up one day and said, you know what?

I don't like the Pharisee thing.

I think I want to have a career change to be an apostle.

No, he's not self-appointed.

He didn't climb some ecclesiastical ladder or build his own ministry platform.

God effectually called Paul to salvation.

Then he set him apart as an apostle, which simply just means a delegate, a messenger.

He was an apostle of Jesus Christ, proclaiming the ministry of reconciliation, a phrase Paul uses, to proclaim to the Gentiles specifically the message of salvation.

He did not set himself apart.

God set him apart.

And he is an apostle of Christ Jesus.

He's not an apostle of the Jews, he's not an apostle of the Gentiles, he's not an apostle of Rome, of Colossae.

No, he is an apostle of Jesus Christ by God's will.

That's important.

But let's look at the irony here as well.

Because we all know Paul's story.

Who was Paul before God met him on the Damascus road?

Who was Paul before Christ arrested him in salvation on that road?

He was a violent persecutor of the church of Jesus Christ.

Paul made it his mission to stop the spread of the gospel.

That's what he was doing before God saved him.

He was breathing threats and murder against the disciples of Jesus, as we see in Acts chapter 9.

Acts 9 · chapter mention

If you were to pull the early church after Pentecost and said, guys, just for fun, who are some of the top three people you think there is no chance God would save them?

Paul would be at the top of that list.

And yet, God, Jesus meets Paul on the Damascus Road and says, Why are you persecuting me?

Paul comes to faith in Jesus Christ and then is set apart as an apostle to take the gospel to the Gentiles, to name the name of Christ where it has not yet been named.

That is Paul.

That is who is writing this letter.

And to add to his story, this is another prison epistle.

So it seems that Paul wrote both Ephesians and Colossians while he was under Roman prison authority.

And so he's, and you'll see a lot of overlap in Ephesians and Colossians.

Um there's a lot of similarities and overlap where I would say Colossians takes a little more focus on exalting the supremacy of Christ than Ephesians does.

But there's a lot of lot of overlap.

But what's unique is that Paul did not know the church in Colossi, he didn't plant the church, he didn't meet them.

But I'll get to that in a minute.

But just notice Paul certainly would have been on the top of the church.

Like, think about it.

When you read Acts, and when God is like, hey, this guy Paul's coming, and you're gonna pray for him, and these veils, like these scales are gonna fall off his eyes.

Like, do you remember the response?

Like, look, Jesus, are you sure?

Like you said, Paul, right?

Like the Pharisee guy who is arresting us and trying to shut down the spread of your gospel, like him?

That's exactly what the Lord does.

He delights to choose the foolish things of the world from a human perspective to shame the wisdom of the world, because then he gets all the glory.

This is nothing unique to Paul.

I mean, let's just quickly run through the Bible.

God called a murderer named Moses to deliver his people out of Egypt.

He chose a coward named Gideon to defeat an army.

He picked a shepherd boy named David to be one of Israel's greatest kings.

And he transformed a persecutor of the gospel into one of its greatest preachers and defenders.

Just think about that.

This man made it his mission to stop the gospel from spreading, and then God saves him and makes him one of the primary vessels to spread the gospel and plant churches.

I am convinced God has a sense of humor.

Let this encourage us.

If you ever in your Christian walk feel disqualified, if you feel I can't serve God because of my past, or I can't serve God because I'm just always reminded of my weaknesses and shortcomings, or I can't serve God because I don't have the proper credentials.

Listen carefully.

God specializes in using unlikely instruments for his glory.

Sure, some of our past sin and brokenness might hinder some of our ministries or certain ministry contexts.

But friends, if you have the Holy Spirit indwelling you, you are a minister on God's behalf.

Because every last Christian who has been purchased by the blood of Jesus has the biblical mandate to help others follow Jesus as they follow Jesus.

That is everybody's ministry.

If you're a member of Redeemer Church, welcome to the staff.

We all have a ministry of helping one another follow Jesus as we follow Jesus.

And here's the wisdom of God and his sovereignty.

He often uses our brokenness, our insignificance and weakness to further exalt his glory because when people see us do things or we minister to people, God's word, and they grow in Christ, and they're like, Well, well, Cam, you're not that smart.

How on earth did God use you?

And I'm like, Exactly.

It's all about him.

He gets even more glory.

That is what God does.

You may think you're too sinful, you might think you're too ordinary, too broken, but remember, God did not choose Paul because he was qualified.

He effectually called Paul, then qualified him by his grace.

And Jesus made it very clear to Paul, he must suffer many things for my name.

So don't ever think that God is just sitting back saying, Well, I just I can't use Tim or Sally until they build their resume up.

They need to get their spiritual LinkedIn account proper, and then I will invite them to serve me.

If the Lord can use a donkey to minister, he can use you.

I'm not calling you a donkey, I'm just saying.

He has options.

But if you're here this morning and you're an unbeliever and you know it, you may look at your life and think, I can never be a Christian because I've done too much, I've gone too far, there's no way God can show love and forgiveness and mercy to someone like me.

You don't know what I have done.

I don't need to know what you have done, because I know the worst thing about every single Christian in this room.

It's the same thing I know about myself.

You killed Jesus on the cross with your sin.

Friend, if God can save Paul, who refers to himself as the chief of sinners, there is hope for anybody in this room who has yet to believe in Jesus Christ.

And when Paul said, I am the chief of sinners, he wasn't talking about I made a list of all my sins and I've compared them to everybody else, and yep, mine, my list is worse.

No, he was saying, when I look at my heart, I am the worst sinner I know.

And yet God showed mercy and grace to me.

If he can save me, there is hope for anyone.

That is Paul's point when he makes that remark.

The gospel is not for good people who need to clean up their lives.

The gospel is not for good people who just need a little bit of help.

It's for dead people who need a resurrection that only Jesus can supply.

But let's move on to verse two, where we see that God transforms unlikely sinners into saints.

So he says, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God's will, and Timothy our brother, to the saints in Christ at Colossae, who are faithful brothers and sisters, grace to you and peace from God our Father.

And there's so much theology in just one sentence.

Paul addresses this audience as the saints in Christ at Colossi.

So today we often identify ourselves as either Christians or we say we're saved or I'm a believer.

But these are terms that the early church would not have been very familiar with.

They weren't walking around referring to themselves as Christians.

As a matter of fact, they were referred to as those of the way, or the term Christian was actually offensive.

But most often, especially when you look at Paul's letters, the way he describes Christians are those who are in Christ.

You might remember when we looked through uh the book of Ephesians, how we talked about the doctrine of union with Christ.

This is what Paul is identifying here.

He is saying that these Christians are fundamentally in Christ.

That's their main identity marker.

This is this is a profound doctrine, my favorite doctrine to study.

It's fallen on hard times, but it seems like in the past couple of decades it's made a resurgence.

But union with Christ is central to Paul's understanding of the Christian life.

To be in Christ means you are united to Jesus by faith.

Go read Romans 6.

That's a great place to kind of get an understanding of how Paul thought about uh union with Christ.

Jesus' death becomes your death, his baptism becomes your baptism, his resurrection is your resurrection.

That is what it means to be united to Christ.

His resurrection is yours, his life becomes yours.

So before faith in Jesus Christ, these Christians and Colossi and us, before salvation, we are outside of Christ.

We are alienated from Christ, we are at enmity with Christ.

Therefore, there's this barrier, this void of our sin that keeps us from Christ.

And the goal is by God's redemptive work to cross that barrier and get into Christ, so to speak.

I love how one theologian describes union with Christ.

He says, We must understand that as long as Christ remains outside of us and we are separated from him, all that he has suffered and done for the salvation of the human race remains useless and of no value for us.

That's so true.

Union with Christ unites us with the risen Lord.

That's why Paul understood in Galatians 2.20, he understood his Christian life as one interwoven with Jesus'.

He says, I no longer live, I live the life that I live through Christ who lives in me.

And our first reading, it's like, what does that even mean?

Who knows?

But it sounds really dope.

Jesus indwells us.

We are united with him, we are buried with him, baptized into him, raised with him.

But notice that Paul also uses the word saints.

This he refers to these Christians as saints.

This isn't a special title reserved for elite Christians in the church who like glow in the dark if we turn the lights out or something like that, who have a unique level of maturity.

No, this is a fundamental understanding of what it means to be a Christian.

You are a saint.

What does that mean?

In the New Testament, that Greek word for saint simply means set apart.

You once belonged to uh I'm reading through the Gospel of John with my kids right now, and we had the fun interaction where Jesus just goes in on the Pharisees and is like, Y'all are of your father, the devil, and you desire to do your father's will.

Isn't that an offensive message to hear?

When before we came to faith in Christ, we were children of Satan, children of wrath.

We had no desire to serve the Lord.

We belonged to death and darkness.

And then something happened through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

When we repented of our sins and trusted in Jesus for salvation, we became saints.

We were set apart from a world of darkness and sin and death and Satan, and we were set apart unto the Lord as his prized possession, his adopted sons and daughters who will spend eternity with him forever.

Think about what this means.

These Colossian believers were likely former pagans.

So Colossi was not far from Ephesus, which was a huge idol worship pagan hub.

They likely were pagan idol worshipers, immoral, living in sinful ways of life.

And then they heard the gospel of Jesus Christ, believed, and now they are told, You are saints.

You are a new creation.

The old ways, as he gets into in chapter three, in chapter three, verses five through seven, he's encouraging them, because of your new life in Christ, put away your old ways of living.

In Colossians 3, verse 5, he says, Therefore, put to death what belongs to your earthly nature, sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry.

Colossians 3:5

Because of these, God's wrath is coming upon the disobedient.

And listen to this, verse 7, and you once walked past tense in these things when you were living in them.

But now he says, You friends are saints, set apart to the saints in Christ, I colossi, who are faithful brothers and sisters in Christ.

One of my favorite aspects of Paul's writings is he uses this pattern often in which he uh uses gospel indicatives and imperatives.

So in Ephesians, when we looked at Ephesians, chapters one through three are all gospel.

Here's who you are in Christ.

Here's what it means that you were dead in your sins, but then God before the foundations of the earth chose to save you.

He does the same thing in Colossians.

Chapters one and two are primarily mostly unpacking gospel content, who you are in Christ, your identity, your union with Christ.

And then mid-chapter three, it's there's this shift where he says, In light of your new identity, the fact that you're a saint, you're a new creation, here's the Christian ethic.

Here's how you should live in light of your new identity in Christ.

So Paul has this pattern where he wants to show Christians what God has done for us in Christ, which is the indicative, and then he will call his audience to live in light of that reality, which is the imperative.

This is very important.

He's saying, Hey, Christians, you have been raised with Christ, indicative.

Therefore, in chapter 3, verse 1, seek the things that are above, which is an imperative.

So Christian obedience is never disconnected from the gospel.

Christian obedience is never about us just checking some boxes and being legalistic and saying we want to make sure we make it to heaven by doing the right things and not doing dumb things, though that is an aspect of obedience.

We obey because of what we already have in Christ.

We obey the Lord joyfully because we are grateful for what he has done for us in Christ.

That is where we find our motivation for obedience.

And that's why Paul, as a wise apostle, when he writes to these churches, he doesn't always get right to it and say, Hey, stop gossiping, stop committing adultery, stop doing this.

He starts with, hey, let me remind you of who you are.

Let me remind you of who you were before Jesus saved you.

And let me remind you, what does it mean that you are saved?

That you are united with Jesus, that his very righteousness is now your own, that his blood was spilled on your behalf.

Okay, in light, now that I got your attention, in light of that rich gospel truth that God rescued you with, don't talk like that anymore.

Don't steal.

Don't commit adultery.

Don't do anything that would hinder your joy in that type of God who would save a sinner like you.

And I love how Paul, furthermore, he commends the church in Colossae's reputation.

They are a verse 2 faithful brothers and sisters in Christ.

So even though Paul did not plant this church, he did not know the church in Colossae, he never met them, their testimony of faithfulness had reached them through Epaphras.

Let me just say a quick word about the church in Colossae.

I love this.

So the church was planted, according to Colossians and a little bit of what we see elsewhere, by a Paphrist, whom Paul calls a faithful minister of Christ in verse 7.

So Paul has never been to Colossae.

However, while he's in prison, a Paphras comes and visits Paul to encourage him, I would assume, in the faith, but also to report on the church and Colossi and how things are going.

And naturally, I'm sure he probably looked up to Paul as a mentor.

He shares with him here are some struggles the church is facing.

There's some false teaching creeping creeping in, there's some legalistic uh stuff going on where people are trying to get these Christians to still keep the Old Testament law.

And then there's this weird mystical teaching of some being tempted to worship angels and all these things.

And this letter is Paul responding to some of those concerns to help his boy Epaphras out as he seeks to encourage this church.

And this specific letter, as he opens up in verse one, was sent through Timothy, who you're familiar with, to be delivered to the church in Colossae as a source of encouragement and instruction as they seek to faithfully follow God.

So it seems very likely that Epaphras came to faith under Paul's uh ministry.

More than likely, he probably was in Ephesus when Paul was pursuing his missionary journeys there, came to faith in Jesus in Ephesus, and then went back to his hometown of Colossae and preached the gospel.

People came to faith in Jesus, and a church was planted.

Because Ephesians is I'm sorry, Ephesus is only about 120 miles east of Colossae.

So this is all helpful for context.

It's actually a really sweet story when you think about it.

So this brother was probably curious about this the way he was hearing about, went to Ephesus, sat under Paul's preaching, came under the conviction of the Spirit, and then maybe was sent by Paul to go back to his.

Hometown and preached that same gospel there, and the Lord did a redemptive work, and now Apaphras is ministering in his own hometown.

I think that's a that's a beautiful story after his conversion, going back to his own hometown to seek to minister to people who knew him.

But moving on, here's where we see another beautiful pattern.

God used an unlikely convert in Epaphras to plant an unlikely church in Colossae.

What do I mean by that?

So Colossae was not like some large city.

It wasn't some well-known city, it wasn't significant, it was not the center of culture or commerce like Ephesus was.

Ephesus was a focal point in the area.

It was a large city, it was a cultural center.

Colossae was none of those things.

It was a small, relatively insignificant town in the Roman Empire, and yet God had a desire to use Colossi for tremendous significance.

Because God has had his elect scattered across Colossae, whom he decided to bring to saving faith through the proclamation of the gospel.

And he graciously used Epaphras, and I'm sure others to bring his elect to saving faith and his son through the proclamation of the gospel.

And here we are, over 2,000 years later, reading about an insignificant small town called Colossae, trying to learn how we can more faithfully follow Jesus.

Why am I bringing this all up?

I just think these things should not shock us as Christians.

We see examples throughout scripture of God using people in places of little significance from an earthly perspective, but he uses them for his divine purposes.

Let me just give a few.

Peter came from Besseda, a small fishing village off the Sea of Galilee, an educated man and ended up becoming one of the pillars of the early church.

And let's not forget our Savior Himself, who came from Nazareth, a small despised town.

When Nathaniel first encountered Jesus, the Messiah, what did he say?

Can anything good come from Nazareth?

Now you know you're from the trenches.

If someone asks where you're from, and the immediate response is like, ooh, can anything good come from there?

That's where Jesus was from.

He was a savior of the world.

So let's bring this home to us today.

Greensboro is not New York.

It's not LA.

It's not Atlanta.

It's not Charlotte or Raleigh.

However, it doesn't matter.

God is not constrained to what we think is significant, to what we think is influential.

What matters is the gospel of Jesus Christ being proclaimed to the ends of the earth.

What matters is God's elect being called out of darkness into his marvelous light.

All throughout history, God has delighted to choose what is foolish, weak, and insignificant in the world's eyes to accomplish his purposes so that no one can brag or take any credit.

We must guard against getting caught up in the glamour of what some might consider significant ministry.

Like, man, if only I lived in this place, or if only I could minister in this way, if only my this or that friends, no.

Like God doesn't need any of those things.

And praise be to God.

Our God is so sovereign, He is not constrained by place, time, people, and their giftedness.

No, no, no, no.

We are the ones who are joining in what God is already doing across the universe, and we just get to play a role.

It doesn't matter where we're from.

It doesn't matter if, well, if I lived here, I would have a much more significant ministry.

How do you know that?

And how are you even defining significant?

We live in a culture here in America where everything is like, you know, it has to be big.

It's like, you know, you're significant.

We tell our kids when you grow up, you can be whatever you want to be.

It's not true.

You can only be what God wants you to be.

It's like, but we have this culture where we're so trained to like, no, everything has to be like great and significant.

Well, Jesus is the one human being who walked this earth, who should have had significance, and yet he literally humbled himself as a servant, allowed people whom he created and sustained in their very breath to abuse, mock, and eventually kill him, all because he did not want to establish a platform.

He came to save sinners.

It wasn't about him, it was about the glory of his father and the salvation of sinners.

So for those who may feel insignificant, I would say you are, respectfully.

In the grand scheme of things, you are insignificant.

Every last one of us one day is gonna die, and the world is just gonna continue on.

I'm sorry.

Receive it this morning.

However, maybe you think you're insignificant in this way, like my life doesn't matter.

It's just one drop in a big ocean.

Maybe you feel like you're in a dead-end job, a forgotten neighborhood of low little significance, a small circle of influence.

Listen, if you are in Christ and you understand the supremacy and sufficiency of Christ over all things, your life is not insignificant.

Because by the grace of God, He has chosen to use you as an instrument to further his redemptive plan for the universe.

It doesn't get more significant than that.

And I know there's all types of people in this room right now.

Whether you're a parent, a spouse, whether you're single, I don't care what season of life you're in, you have a biblical privilege to help others follow Jesus as you follow Jesus.

That is far more significant than you think.

So why would we ever be tempted to lower from that status to do some other trivial thing that the world says, no, no, no, no.

This is more significant.

Chase this career, then you'll be enough.

Get that education, then you'll be enough.

No, no, no, no, no.

I'm just trying to struggle to be faithful and following Jesus.

That alone is what we are called to do.

So if you feel insignificant, to one degree you are, and to another, you're not, if you understand what true significance is.

We are seeking to be faithful and leaving the results to God.

That is the Christian life.

This church in Colossae was not significant in the world sense.

They didn't have a huge influence.

I mean, I grew up in Southern California, and I remember when I was in middle school, my mom and I we moved to Texas for a year, and I remember my classmates thinking, oh wow, you're from Southern California.

Like, do you live next door to Snoop Dogg?

And have you seen this?

And I'm like, what do you think of California?

Like, it's not, it's not what you think.

But I always thought that was odd when people were like, Well, why would you move away?

California, man, you got everything, you got movies and blah, blah, blah.

And I'm like, when you're from there, it's not significant to you.

It's like I see it all the time.

We can do the same thing as Christians, where we think the grass is greener out there somewhere, as opposed to just being grateful for, like, Lord, what have you placed in front of me right now in this season?

Help me to be a faithful steward of this for your glory and for the good of your people.

Here we are studying a letter of a group of Christians who were not well known throughout the world.

Their city was not well known throughout the world.

And yet the Lord was doing a redemptive work in their city, and now it is inspired, recorded, authoritative scripture for the edification of Christians for centuries to come.

So never downplay what God might be doing in your life.

But a significant battle in a Colossi that Paul addresses is what some theologians refer to as the Colossian heresy.

There is a dangerous blend of false teaching among these Christians that seems to be leading some astray.

Now, Paul and Epaphras, they never give the specifics of what this teaching was, but we can see some hints of it throughout the book.

So what is clear is that there was some kind of blend of some like mysticism in their spirituality, where they were being tempted by false teachings saying, hey, here's a pathway to have deeper intimacy with God by doing these spiritual things that were not in Scripture.

And there was legalism that was creeping in, which is common throughout the New Testament, where you have people coming in saying, Yes, believe in Jesus, believe the gospel, but don't forget to keep the law as well.

And Paul is addressing that as well.

Essentially, these false teachings were teaching these Colossian Christians that Jesus was not enough.

Yes, you need Jesus to start, but then you got to add on to Jesus all these other things to really be spiritual and mature and to have intimacy with God.

And Paul says, no, you do not need Christ plus some secret esoteric knowledge.

You do not need Jesus and some kind of worship of angels added to it.

You do not need Jesus and keeping certain rituals or adherence to special days and dietary laws.

You don't need any of those things because Jesus himself is sufficient for salvation.

And this is not unique to them.

Every generation faces this temptation to add to their faith more than Christ.

Whether it's legalism, which is you need Jesus plus good works, liberalism liberalism, you need Jesus plus some kind of social action, or mysticism, you need Jesus plus a special experience with Jesus.

Paul's answer is the same.

In him, if you're united to Jesus, in him you have been made complete.

Look over at chapter 2, verses 9 through 10.

Paul referring to Jesus, he said, well, actually, let's go to verse 8.

Colossians 2, verse 8.

Colossians 2:8

Paul says, Be careful that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition, based on the elements of the world rather than Christ.

For the entire fullness of God's nature dwells bodily in Christ, and you have been filled by him who is the head over every ruler and authority.

That same counsel in verse 8 applies to us today.

We have Christians who sometimes their faith is more influenced by best-selling books on Amazon that does not share a Christian worldview, by any type of material that is encouraging you to live a life that is Jesus plus A, B, or C.

And it's a little more subtle, I think, in our culture, because in this day and age, if you were a follower of Christ, it was it was clear.

There wasn't like a whole lot of nominal Christianity because there was there were things at stake.

You could lose your job, your home, even your life if you chose to be baptized into a church and follow Jesus.

Not so here in the Bible Belt.

So there's a lot of nominal Christianity.

So there's temptation today where I think it's a little more subtle, where maybe some of us profess to be Christians, and we are, but maybe the way we uh view parenting or our marriage or certain temptations and sins, we kind of like we do this thing where verbally we say, no, I believe in the authority and sufficiency of scripture.

But I really like what this author says about this form of parenting, or how I should function in my marriage, or how I should, you know, view what I I know some Christians see this as sin, but no, I think I think this is okay.

And then we let these things subtly creep in and we start customizing our gospel to say, no, no, no, it's Jesus, and you can have a, b, and c.

Paul is saying, be careful that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition and based on the elements of the world rather than Christ.

But I love verse 9.

For the entire fullness of God's nature dwells bodily in Christ, and you, Christian saint, have been filled by him.

If you are filled with the fullness of Christ, and if the Bible says that the fullness of God and all his deity and transcendence is embodied physically in the person of Jesus Christ, and Christ is the one you're united to as a saint, you don't need anything else.

Why would you want anything else?

You have everything you can ever imagine, and we're gonna spend eternity on the new heaven and new earth just trying to figure out what does it even mean that I'm united to Jesus?

Because that is so transcendent.

And Paul is giving this warning: do not be led astray by these other things.

Jesus is sufficient.

In him, in him alone have you been made complete.

To be honest with you, this is like the main thread of this entire letter to the church in Colossi.

He's trying to help them understand what it means that Christ is both sufficient and supreme.

And here's Paul's answer to the Colossian heresy: the supremacy and the sufficiency of Christ.

Look at Colossians chapter 1, verses 15 through 20.

Colossians 1:15–20

Many debate what's going on here.

It seems that Paul is either breaking out into a hymn, or this is a poem that was circulated throughout the early church, and Paul is using it in his letter.

But either way, I would say that this hymn here in verses 15 through 20 is the focal point of the entire letter.

This is like Paul's thesis statement.

Let's read this together.

Colossians 1, verse 15.

Colossians 1:15

He is the image of the invisible God.

Let me just stop there.

So if any of you are familiar with catechisms, one of the questions is um, does God have a body?

No, God is what?

Spirit.

You cannot see God the Father with your human eyes, he has no body.

But let's look at verse 15 again.

He is the image of the invisible God.

You want to see God?

Look to Jesus.

All right, let me stop.

That's another sermon.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

For everything was created by him in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through him and for him.

He is before all things, and by him all things hold together.

He is also the head of the body of the church.

He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything.

For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile everything to himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross.

Let me just paraphrase that.

Jesus is everything.

Jesus is everything.

Everything was created by Jesus, everything was created for Jesus, everything is sustained by Jesus.

So worship Jesus.

That's what Paul is saying.

Don't let anything else creep in.

Christ is supreme over all of creation, both what we see physically with our eyes, and everything in the spiritual realm we can't see.

He is supreme over all powers and authorities.

As the nation flips out because a dumb tweet, Jesus reminds us, I'm the king of kings over all things.

Calm down.

I'm the one who's really in control.

He is supreme over every life of a believer.

Everything, which in the Greek means everything.

Everything you can fathom in your mind, and even the things you can't fathom, he's boss over that too.

That is who Jesus is.

It is all about God's glory in the face of Jesus Christ.

Why is this important for us Christians?

We don't often realize that we read the Bible with Western American eyes.

We have cultural blind spots that sometimes shape us and we don't even realize it.

We live here in America in a culture that's radically supporting radical individualism, is what I'll call it.

Everything is made an idol out of you.

Life is about your happiness, your comfort, your fulfillment, your self-expression.

But scripture confronts our self-obsession and our radical individualism and tells us a liberating truth.

It's not about you.

That hurts in America.

It's not about you, it's about Jesus and his glory.

And here's the beautiful irony.

When you make your life about exalting the glory of Jesus, you find what you're looking for all along.

When we listen to the world and think we're so significant, we're trying to find fulfillment in relationships, money, career, status, whatever you want to name, we find ourselves empty.

However, when we try to find our fulfillment in our union with Christ, we find what we're looking for all along.

And God says, Yeah, and that's what I designed you for.

Don't believe me?

Okay, let's just read scripture.

Colossians 3, verses 1 through 3.

Colossians 3:1–3

Paul says, So if you have been raised with Christ, again, here's an example of indicatives imperative.

So Paul's going to start with a theological truth, and then how you should think or live in light of it.

Colossians 1, verse, uh Colossians 3, verse 1.

Colossians 3:1

So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.

Why?

For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Now notice what's implied in those verses is Christians, we're called to do stuff.

So the theological reality, if you've been raised with Christ, if you if you've tasted salvation, you're born again, then you need to seek the things above.

You have to actively do that, friends.

You have to train yourself to seek the things above that glorify God.

Why?

Well, because he's seated at the right hand of God, therefore you should set your mind, something else you gotta do, on things above, and on the contrary, not on earthly things.

And then he gives the rationale.

Why?

Well, because you've died.

You've been made new, you've been resurrected spiritually, and now the new life you have is hidden with Christ in God.

You don't have to turn here, but one more verse.

This slaps all of us American Christians in the face.

2 Corinthians 5.15.

Write this one down, tuck it away for later.

2 Corinthians 5.15.

Paul says, referring to Jesus, and he died for all, so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the one who died for them and was raised.

Let me just present a question to all of you to just prayerfully consider later on after at lunch.

If you just look at your life, the past week, past three months, past year, could you with a clear conscience read Paul's words here and say, you know what?

Because Jesus died for me, I could say with confidence, I have been living my life not for myself, but for the one who died and was risen for me.

Because that's what we are called to do.

JC Rao once said, Self is the worst enemy that man ever had, and the greatest idol that man ever worshipped.

I agree.

Self is the worst enemy that man ever had, and the greatest idol that man ever worshipped.

To all the kids in the room, all the kids, I got your attention now, all the kids in the room, let me just encourage you real quick.

Here's your mission.

Ask your parents later on, today or this week, I'll give some grace this time.

Today or later this week, what does it mean that Jesus is sufficient and supreme over all things?

So write it down, rememorize it.

Ask your parents later on, what does it mean that Jesus is sufficient and supreme over all things?

And as they have the conversation with you, it has to be over either ice cream or cookies.

So I'll give you options, parents.

Pastor Cam said so.

But ask that question.

But let me close with just some concluding thoughts here.

As we begin this series, my prayer for all of us is that God will use this leather to this letter to essentially just lift our heads a little bit and help us take our gaze upwards to just really exalt in and understand, comprehend, worship, what does it mean that Jesus is sufficient and supreme over all things?

Because only then can we behold his glory as we should.

I hope that through this letter we understand what does it mean that though God has no body, all of what he embodies is in the face of Jesus Christ.

And so the more we understand who Jesus is, what he accomplished in his earthly ministry on the cross, then the better we get to understand our heavenly Father.

That we would see Jesus more clearly, love him more deeply, and follow him more faithfully as a church family.

For those of you this morning who are believers, I pray that you would be strengthened in your faith as you study this book, equipped to follow Christ.

I would encourage all of you, if you haven't, read the book of Colossians in one sitting.

It won't take long, maybe 20 minutes or so, but it is good to just work through the whole book and be ministered to in that way.

But here's my main prayer, last verse.

If you look at Colossians 1, verses 28 to 29.

Colossians 1:28–29

I told you earlier, every last one of us, if you're in Christ, has a significant ministry and it's to help others follow Jesus as you follow Jesus.

If you need a mission statement, so to speak, something to motivate you and your discipling, let it be Paul's words in Colossians 1, 28 to 29.

He says, We proclaim him, warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

I labor for this, striving with his strength that works powerfully in me.

Whether you're a mom, a dad, a husband, wife, single, if you're discipling anybody, talk like that.

Let that be your motivation.

Whether it's your evangelism, whether it's just discipling someone in your household, proclaim Jesus, warn and teach from God's word with all wisdom, with the goal of presenting everyone mature in Christ and work hard at it, labor for it, but not in your own strength, but with the strength that Jesus Christ supplies.

Let's pray.