Christ Jesus Is Lord, Therefore Walk In Him

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0:12Let me ask God for help. Our Father, just as the toddlers in our nursery down the hall are learning to walk. So am I learning to walk, give me and, and all of us spiritual muscle and balance and help us fix our eyes on Jesus. Now, in these next minutes, I ask in his name, amen. Here at the outset, I wanna pose five questions. First of all, what does this text that Boaz just read show us? It's showing us we have eyes showing us something of Jesus. What does it show us? Question number two, what does it tell us about believers, those who have received Jesus as Lord, as we see it described in verse six there. Third question, what is one of the most important truths in the universe? Question number four.

1:21So what? So it tells us about Jesus. So it tells us about believers. So it tells us about one of the most important truths in the universe. So what, what difference does it make? What does it, what difference does it make if you believe it or not? And the fifth question, what does this role of cash register tape have to do with anything? By the end of this message, I want us to embrace verse six. I hope you have it open in front of you. Chuck Swindall said, you won't find a better snapshot of the Christian faith than the punchy little letter from the apostle Paul, which we call, Colossians calls it a punchy little letter.

2:07And what does he mean by little? It can take me a couple of hours to read a magazine or my tax forms, but the other day I read the entire letter to the Colossians in little less than 12 minutes. So it's a little letter and the theme of this entire punchy little letter is the centrality and the divinity of the Jesus that you've just been singing about. If you were wondering perhaps what is all of history about what is the universe about, the answer is Jesus, he's that central. Can we sum up the four chapters? We're preaching our way all through four chapters of Colossians here in this pulpit this summer. Can we sum up those four chapters, this punchy little Colossians, some say that verses six and seven that we just read.

3:09That is the sum. Therefore, as you have received Christ, Jesus says, Lord, so walk in him now we see that it starts with the word therefore, which means that this verse is hanging on everything that preceded it. And I'm just gonna go back through chapters one and two and pull out just 10 things that the therefore is referring to. Number one, grace to you and peace from God the Father. There's an enabling grace that is being aimed at you, delivered to you, if that's truth. Therefore, and then we go into verse six. Number two, you have hope laid up for you in heaven. Number three, that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for all in endurance and patience with joy, there's a bundle.

4:15Therefore, if that's true, then we go into verse six or number four, because the Father has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light number five, because he has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Therefore, verse six, number six, and because Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, and by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. Whether thrones are dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him.

4:56And he is before all things. And in him all things hold together and he is the head of the body, the church. He's the beginning, the firstborn from the dead that in everything he might be preeminent. Therefore, verse six, number seven, and because of him, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, making peace by the blood of the cross. We're going there today, the blood of the cross. I'm getting all this from chapter one, verse six says, therefore it's referring to all this stuff, number eight. And because you who once were alienated and hostile in mind doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, Christ in you, the hope of glory. Number 10, Christ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Therefore, That's what the therefore is referring to. Therefore, as you received Christ, Jesus the Lord, what? What Christ Jesus, this all the stuff that we just reviewed, that's the Christ Jesus that you received.

6:24Therefore walk in him rooted and built up in him and established in the faith just as you were taught abounding in thanksgiving giving. Now look at verse six. As you received Christ as Lord. So walk accordingly. What does this text verses six through 15, tell us about Jesus. That's the first question I asked at the beginning. What does it show us about Jesus? Well, in verse six, he's the predicted Messiah, the Christ. Also in verse six, he's Lord, he has all authority in heaven and in earth. Now just pause. He has authority over fish. He can make them jump into a net or not. He can make them multiply enough to feed 5,000. Just like that.

7:21He has authority over wind and waves and leprosy and demons and crowds and Pilate and Herod and his own tongue. You have authority over your own tongue. We find in verse eight about this Jesus, that he's not an invention of human tradition. He's something other than that. Verse nine, the whole fullness of the Didi of God dwells bodily in him. Jesus is God the creator. Final judge, verse 10. We see that he's the head of all rule and authority. This will be important to us in just a moment. Verse 12. He's buried and raised, recently had a conversation with an Islamic neighbor who doesn't believe that Jesus was buried cuz he doesn't believe Jesus died. Well, he died, he was buried and raised. Verse 14, we learned that he nailed the record of debt to the cross as a, as a carpenter's son. He's good with nails.

8:42Really good righteously. Good. So question number one, what are we? What are we shown about Jesus? We're shown a number of things that's just in these verses that doesn't even include what we just saw in chapter one and what we're gonna see in chapters three and four. Second question, what does this text tell us about believers? Those who have received Christ? Jesus says, Lord, well they're rooted. We see the word rooted there. Believers are not like this Canadian smoke just blowing around. They're tethered, They're built up, not stagnant, but growing. They're established. We see in this text taught fastened to the truth, anchored they're spiritually circumcised, buried, raised and made alive.

9:40Part of which means their faculties are enlivened what they formerly couldn't taste. Now they can taste what they formally couldn't see. Now they can see what they formally couldn't hear. Now they have ears to hear it and they are forgiven. Anybody here ever need to be forgiven of anything? Okay, a dozen of you, those dozen are now forgiving. The rest of you liars, who we're gonna see when we get to verse 14, that our record of sins is canceled and our accusers disarmed. So we're shown something of Jesus. Were shown something of believers. And the third question, which I actually listed I think as the fourth question is, so what? So what?

10:35Well, the answer is in verse six, therefore as you receive Christ, Jesus the Lord, so walk, behave certain ways, demonstrate appropriate ethical conduct. In light of all these things that we've just reviewed, demonstrate patterns of behavior that reflect certain priorities that one thing is more important than another thing it should show in the way we live.

11:12Jesus didn't just die for my past forgiveness, though that would be wonderfully amazing all by itself. Hallelujah. He didn't just die for our future resurrection, which is very hope giving and becomes more and more hopeful the longer I live. But he also died for everything we're facing in the here and now how to walk. So I'm asking you now to join me in moving through the rest of this text to look a bit more closely at some of the good news. In this punchy little letter of Colossians, I'm going to allege to you that the main thought is verse six. Therefore, as you received Christ, Jesus says Lord.

12:01So walk in him now. Let's look together at verse seven. What happens if a person is rooted and built up and established in the faith? Well, here's one answer, verse seven, the answer from this text, he abounds in thanksgiving, gratitude is a fruit of being rooted. The roots produce the fruit of gratitude as were built up. So here's a little self-check, then am I more likely to overflow with gratitude or am I more likely to grouse and complain and mumble?

12:57Now what does this text verse eight now I'm looking at say, is part of the walking answer, don't be taken captive. See to it. See to it. It can be translated as be continually being aware. Be continually being aware. Don't fall asleep at the switch. See to it that you're not taken captive or kidnapped in a fallen world. Some of our, our positive doings depend upon our negative donting.

13:47In order to do some stuff, you gotta not do some stuff You wanna get to your destination, don't have a crash. You wanna raise a good garden? Don't let the weeds get away from you. You wanna grill burgers. Don't run out of propane in your grill. There are some dues that depend upon whether you are alert about the don'ts. And Paul is saying here, don't let it happen. Don't be taken captive. See to it. So there's actually a positive seeing to it, a positive alertness that avoids the negative being taken captive. There's a a positive checking your propane tank that avoids running out of propane in the middle of frying the burgers on your grill.

14:42Notice we walk, not alone, but in him. It's as though Christ is living his life through us. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy. Now a person might say philosophy, but I'm not a philosophy major. I don't read Kant and Nietzche and Aristotle and all those guys. Frankly, I'm not interested in them. So I don't have anything to worry about, right? I'm not gonna be taken captive by any philosophy. I don't read any philosophy. Well, philosophies are not necessarily academic or formal. People like you and me have varying philosophies on everything from whether children should receive allowances to when to trade vehicles.

15:39Should you run it into the ground or should you trade it off while it still has some value? There's different philosophies there. We have philosophies about global climate dynamics and birth control and how to change the oil in your car and debt. There's different philosophies about whether it qualifies as potato salad, if it doesn't have eggs, whether a team should use zone defense or man to man. There's a zillion other things. We are walking bundles of philosophies. You don't have to read. Socrates philosophies are all around us and in us. So philosophy isn't per se by itself intrinsically evil, but it is dangerous When we see it in the verse.

16:41It's according to human tradition and to elemental spirits of the world. Now you might wonder what, what are those? I mean, I thought about trying to come up with a, a list of common philosophies that are at work right now. But I think the keys in the very next phrase, not according to Christ or thus say it, the Lord built on what Paul calls empty deceit. If it's not according to Christ, watch out.

17:20See to it that it doesn't take you captive. Such ways of thinking always spring from a fundamental error in one's approach to the written word of God. To think and believe contrary to the Bible is to think and believe contrary to Christ, to think not according to Christ. So a philosophy can be any human bent, any human opinion. It's manmade talk show hosts and authors and sportscasters and playwrights and psychologists and bloggers, each of them individually and all of them combined are philosophers and they add nothing to what is in Christ. So don't be taken captive.

18:15We live according to godly standards, not as a means of achieving spiritual vitality, but as a means of expressing in actions what we actually believe. That's what verse six was saying. So you've received Christ Jesus says, Lord, so walk. You believe Jesus is Lord. Act like it, show it Now, we often fall prey to judging according to human tradition, including outward appearances and such traditions are not necessarily formal. We default all kinds of manmade rules and things that fail to produce heart change. So we, we can judge people by hour to appearances. Pimples, what's that? Tell us about a person. Rust or no rust on their vehicle.

19:11You know, we walk out in the parking lot. Do we kinda make judgements about the owners even if we don't know them? Never met 'em, don't know who they are or the number of gables on the front of their house or whether they're blonde or they have any hair, whether they're athletic, the number of athletic, uh, of academic degrees they have. I was thinking of this the other day. They have high cheekbones.

19:50Keep moving. Sam. He He's a Packer fan. Ooh yeah, I heard it come from over there. Yeah, he can't be an elder at this church. What about the person's weight or their accent or they live on Lake Minnetonka or they homeschool or they're black or they're white or they're Asian. They drive one of those, they carry, he's a cop, he's a pastor. And you could no doubt add others that are coming to your mind about ways that we make judgements about the value and the credibility of a person by outward appearances. Oh, be careful. Those are human traditions. They may or may not have much legitimacy when when Jesus came, there was nothing outward about him that would cause us to honor him.

21:21He had so much baggage they said about him. We know his mom and dad. We know he, he's from Nazareth. We know who he is. If he comes from Nazareth, he can't be nothing. He didn't keep the Sabbath the way they thought he should. He didn't love the temple the way they thought he should. He didn't carry out ritual purity the way they thought he should. He was therefore in their eyes a blas femur crazy man in league with the devil.

21:59He hung between two thieves for crying out loud. And if we err in sizing up Jesus according to the flesh, we will also end up earring in sizing up one another according to the flesh. So observe being taken captive by philosophy and empty deceit is easy. It's easy to be taken captive and it's as old as the garden of Eden. Ephesians one, three for I'm afraid that as the serpent deceived eve by his cu cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. It happened to eve, it can happen to you. Paul was concerned for the Ephesians that it might happen. See to it, he's saying in this text there's a legend.

22:52It's a legend of a man who stood preaching at the gates of Sodom. And he was asked, why do you keep on preaching when they never change? And he replied, I keep on preaching so they don't change me. Now verse nine, we arrive at one of the most important truths in the universe. Here it is for in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily. Ladies and gentlemen, Jesus is God Could be argued that the main theme of the letter of Colossians is the divine fullness of Christ. Notice in our text the centrality of Christ, which can be seen in several ways, including prepositions in him and with him. In verse 10, you see filled in him, verse 11, circumcised in him.

24:03Verse 12, buried with him. Verse 12 raised with him. Verse 13, alive together with him. Which is why elsewhere Paul could say, I'm crucified with Christ. The entire Christian experience of a person is in Christ. Now we come to verse 10, and I will confess to you, I pause and I'm stunned. It says in him the whole fullness of Deedee dwells bodily, and shocker, you have been filled in him.

24:42Think of the possibilities. It does not mean that you are God. But this remarkable statement says, believers share in his power and authority by virtue of our union with him. And the question is what power? It's the power to resist sin. More of that in a moment. So according to this verse, who is Jesus? He's the head of all rule and authority. That includes wherever there's a sphere that has authority, he has authority over humans. Human authority, spiritual authority, biological authority over plants and animals. Angelic authority, astronomical meteorological authority over planets and stars and the weather and the sky that you can see out these windows.

25:33All authority in heaven and on earth is his. Moving to verse 11, the putting off of the flesh is not the ridding of our bodies. Some have interpreted that way. It means you know when we die, that's not what he's referring to. It's the derailing of the dominance of the sinful human nature with its corrupt desires. There's an overcoming of our past desires when we're born, again, born in Christ. The physical body does present us with problems, but it's not the source of evil, it's just the battleground where it takes place. Christian freedom Is freedom to, we're not yet free from sin, but we're free to resist it.

26:33Augustine described it like this. He said there were four categories before Adam and Eve fell into sin. They were able to sin. That was the first category, able to sin. Once they fell, they were not able to not sin. That's you and me. We've inherited that from them. So the first category was they weren't able to sin. Next category, they're not able to not sin, they can't stop. Third category is when we're reborn, when we're born again, then we're able to not sin first category was able to sin. Second category, not able to not sin. Third category, able to not sin. Those of you who are born again, you're able, it's a possibility that you not sin.

27:33And the fourth category will be when we're glorified in heaven and then we'll not be able to sin, not able to sin. I don't know if you caught all four of those categories in the beginning, they were able to sin and they were not able to not sin. Now we're born again and we're able to not sin and eventually we'll not be able to sin. Bring it on. I say this new freedom to resist sin is spiritual. It's not a matter of physical circumcision or physical baptism. Our freedom establishing union with Christ is, and you can see it in the text, look for the phrase through faith or look for the phrase without hands.

28:22It's a circumcision without hands. It's a baptism through faith. Now, I wrote four pages of sermon notes just on this and I don't have time to give it to you. So if you wanna get it from me later, you can get it for 29 95. And in one sense, Christ's death is what he does for us outside of us, but that's not all. He also does something in us both something objective in history outside of us and something inside of us. There's this circumcision without hands. The cutting away of sinful desires of flesh. Christ changes our desires and there's resurrection power making us alive. New birth, we taste and see things that we didn't taste and see before.

29:28I'm gonna move to verse 13. Christian, do you see And really believe all your sins are forgiven, having forgiven us all our trespasses. Which ones? Oh verses 13 through 15 will have to do with being forgiven next week. Picking it up in verse 16 will have to do with being free. But here we're focusing on being forgiven. So go to verse 14. Christ's death on the cross defeated two of our greatest opponents. One is the record of debt. We see it in verse 14. And in verse 15, we'll see that he defeated the rulers and authorities that want to accuse us of sin. Now our text this morning highlights just one of the accomplishments that the cross achieves for us.

30:31The accomplishments of the cross are many. For example, propitiation, that is removing God's wrath at our sin. The cross accomplishes our redemption. That is it purchases our our true freedom from spiritual captivity. The cross accomplishes our reconciliation, restoring our relationship with the Father brought near, nearby the blood of Christ. The Bible says the cross accomplishes ification, making peace by the blood of the cross, which was in the last chapter, Colossians chapter one. And there's more that the cross accomplishes, but the accomplishment of the cross highlighted in our text here is this one justification settling.

31:20God's acceptance Justified is a courtroom word. You're either guilt as charged or declared to be justified in right standing with the law. So I brought this cash register tape here and I need a volunteer to come on up here and help me. Is there a volunteer in the house who would wanna come up here and help me? You don't have to say anything, just come on. Come on up here.

31:51One of the stewards. Excellent. I'm gonna get my microphone right here down in your face and you say your name. Ellie Stewart. Ellie Stewart. Okay, here's your job. Take this pencil and we're gonna stick this roll of cash. Register tape on there. We'll do it where everybody can see it right here. Stick that in there like that. Okay? And I'm gonna hold on to this end. And you hold those two ends and you just slowly walk toward that door back there. Okay? Just keep going, just keep going. That's your job. Thank you. Alright. Now, if my sins were individually listed on a cash register tape like this, and let's just assume that we could list to keep going. You're doing fine.

32:4610 sins per inch, let's say then on this roll of tape, oh, she's doing a good job. Isn't she doing a good job? If we had only 10 per inch, we could list 15,600 of my sins on here. You can go right out the door Uhhuh. But let's just calculate at my tender age, if I'd sinned only seven times a day, only seven, I've sinned over 186,000. That's just seven a day. I've probably sinned more than seven times during this sermon, which means if we're gonna list all of my sins, we're gonna need 11 more rolls of this and it's gonna be out that door and out in the parking lot and down the street.

34:04Now our text says that Jesus takes the record of my sins, the legal record against me and wads it up and nails it to the cross. And then now I've got in my wallet here, an old receipt that I keep meaning to take back to the proprietor to do some business with. And the longer I hold it in my wallet, the more faded it gets. I don't know if you can even see on there, it's pretty faded. It's what happens from perspiration and moisture and stuff. Well, Jesus takes the record of my sins, pours his blood all over it.

34:58There's nothing there. It's as white as snow. There is no record of my sin or yours believer. That's in verse 14. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. When your accuser brings the matter of your sins to heaven's courtroom, the resurrected Jesus steps forward and says what he said to Thomas, here are my wounds. Check it out. Those sins need to be punished. They've been punished, case dismissed.

35:52Canceling the record of our sins in verse 14 is one of the more profoundly important reasons why in verse seven we can abound in Thanksgiving. So in verse 14, we see the crucial role of the cross of grotesque method of shaming and killing victims. When we see that Jesus died not for his own sins, but for the sins of Sam Crabtree so that Sam could be restored to God forever. We begin to see the wonder of the cross. It's precisely at the cross where God himself against the darkest and most hostile backdrop of evil shows climatically what wondrous love he has for his people. Rascals like Sam Crabtree, who are trusting in Jesus Christ alone for the forgiveness of their sin.

36:43The cross of Christ renders unnecessary. Any further human traditions as requirements. No more requirements, they've been fulfilled. It's not the law that's removed, but it's power to condemn us that's been removed, absorbed by Christ in his sacrificial accomplishment on the cross. Now verse 15 says that Jesus triumphs to consider the cross an event of triumph, kind of strikes our world as being upside down. Crucifixions mean shame not triumph unless a divine miracle is underway. What? Divine wisdom in verse 15, Jesus can disarm the rulers and authorities because we already saw on verse 10, he has all authority over them. He has the authority.

37:49Verse six. Therefore, as you receive Christ, Jesus as the Lord, so walk in him, he has authority. Dearly beloved, he's on the throne, he's in charge and he's here right now exercising this same triumphant authority over rulers and authorities right now, this minute in this room. So we make our boast in the crucified risen one. One Corinthians one 30 says, in because of him, you are in Christ Jesus.

38:27So let the one who boasts boast in the Lord. Conclusion. Therefore, as you have received Christ, Jesus says, Lord, sounds familiar. It's in verse six. This is the conclusion we're ending where we started. Therefore, as you have received Christ, Jesus says Lord. So walk in him, 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, who nailed the record of our sins to the cross and triumphed over the rulers and authorities that want to accuse us.

39:07Father in heaven. I ask that you'd give us the grace that Paul prayed for at the beginning of Colossians, the enabling grace to see to it that no one takes us captive with these human traditions and these philosophies and not according to Christ, but that we would receive him Christ Jesus as Lord. And so now walk in Him. I ask in his name, amen.

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