In the face of growing syncretism, blending Gentile paganism and Jewish mysticism with Christianity, the apostle Paul wrote to the Colossian church and identified Christ as the only sufficient Savior. He is the only reliable source of knowledge and guidance for your soul. You cannot trust in worldly philosophy. You cannot trust in your knowledge. You cannot trust in your abilities. You cannot trust in empty religious rituals.

Christ is all-sufficient. We need nothing else. We need no one else.

Open up your Bibles to the letter to the Colossians where we find an entire letter that's dedicated to a declaration of what it means to be complete in Jesus Christ, And this is the message of Colossians that Christ is the only sufficient Savior, the only sufficient source of knowledge, and the only sufficient source of guidance for your soul. And the Apostle Paul makes it very clear to this church that you cannot trust in the works of your flesh. You cannot trust in any good work or manifestation of righteousness. You cannot trust in worldly philosophy. You cannot trust in your impressions.

You cannot trust in your background because Christ is the all-sufficient one. He meets every need. We need nothing else. We need no one else. If you have a question, pursuing Christ is the answer.

Do you have a problem? Pursuing Christ is the answer. Are you depressed? Pursuing Christ is the answer. Are you confused?

Pursuing Christ is the answer. Are you trapped in a pattern of sin? Pursuing Christ is the answer. And what we learned from the Apostle Paul is that it's not enough to know what's wrong in the world. It's not enough to be able to diagnose the problems of the world in your workplace or in your church or in your family.

What matters is that you have the discernment that is shaped by the Lord Jesus Christ. And the question that this letter asks every Christian is this, is Christ enough for you? Or are you satisfied enough with the different blessings of this world? Do you require the blessings of this world to be happy, to be satisfied, to get answers? Or are you satisfied with Christ and with Christ alone for everything?

Would you be happy if you had Christ and a reliable car? Or if you took away the reliable car, would you still be happy? Would you be happy if you had Christ and a nice house? Or if you took that away, would you still have Christ alone? Would you be happy if you had a good job or a husband or a wife or a nice husband and a nice wife, could you be happy with Christ alone?

And that's really a question that is implied in this entire letter here. By nature we want replacements for Christ. We want things in addition to Jesus Christ. And Colossians stands as a brilliant testimony that all you need is Christ. If you have Christ, you have everything.

If you have Christ, you can go through anything. If you have Christ, you can be deprived of anything. And it's such a helpful and blessed message. So the supremacy and the centrality of Christ is the heart of the message of Colossians. Now you remember when we were in Ephesians, Ephesians focuses on the body of Christ.

Colossians focuses on the head of the body, Christ himself. Let's talk about the setting of the writing of this letter. The year is 61 or 62 AD and Paul is writing from prison. He's in Rome. He's chained to a Roman prisoner And he's writing Colossians, but he's also most likely writing the other prison epistles.

He is writing Ephesians and Philippians and Philemon, and Colossians is one of the four prison epistles. The writer is Paul. That's stated in the first verse. And in the last verses of Colossians it's revealed that Paul wrote the letter with his own hand. We know that other letters were written as he spoke them and they were written down by someone else, by an amanuensis.

But this one he wrote with his own hands. So you can picture the Apostle Paul. He's in a Roman prison. He's sitting at a writing desk. Nero is the emperor.

And he's actually probably surrounded by a number of the people that he names in this letter. When he was in house arrest in Rome, he was able to go and come and see people, but he was still chained to a Roman guard. And he is sitting at a writing desk and he's writing these letters on parchment. And the Apostle Paul, sitting at that writing desk, he's probably a small man. He's an aging man.

His body has been worn. It has been beaten. Imagine seeing the body of someone who had been stoned several times. Probably has some scars. Probably some broken bones that haven't healed quite right.

And so the Apostle Paul probably wasn't the most compelling figure. He didn't look so much like Zeus. He looked like a broken man, most likely. And the men standing around him Most likely are Onesimus, who was a runaway slave, who ran away from his master in Colossae. Onesimus was the slave of Philemon, who was a member of the church in Colossae.

And the Apostle Paul is going to write from prison to Philemon in order to make peace between this slave owner and this slave who ran away who's in the church there And you have Tychicus is there. He is the one who's going to take the letter to Colossae. And Epaphras is probably there. He's spoken of here. He was an elder in the Church of Colossae.

Now Epaphras, this faithful man who's mentioned a couple of times in Colossians, obviously made the journey from Colossae to Rome. Now this was quite a journey. Colossae is 1300 miles away from Rome. Epaphras and Onesimus have walked 1300 miles. Perhaps some of the journey was taken by ship, but this was a long journey.

To go to and from Colossae would be the same thing as walking from here to San Francisco. Wake Forest to San Francisco is almost, it's actually a little bit fewer miles than it is from Rome to Colossae. So these men invested enormous amount of time. Epaphras came to ask Paul questions that he felt should be answered for the health and the life of the Colossian Church. And so imagine, you know, walking to Austin, Texas and back.

That's the basic distance from Roman Colossae. It's incredible to think of what these men did, and who knows how long it took to take such a journey. The recipients of the letter are mentioned in the letter. Now, in order to consider the recipients of the letter, we have to remember that the Apostle Paul spent almost three years in Ephesus. Now Ephesus was only about a hundred miles east of Colossae.

So there was some geographical proximity that allowed the ministry of the Apostle Paul to have an effect in Colossae. So while there's no evidence that he actually went to Colossae, he without question had an impact there, and if you read in the book of Acts chapter 19 you see particularly that the Apostle Paul's ministry had an effect all throughout Asia of which Colossae would have been included in that. Now Paul mentions particular individuals that he's writing to and he wants it to be greeted, but he's writing to the whole church. Now this was mostly a Gentile church. There were obviously Jews in the area and Jewish heretics who were deceiving some of the Saints there.

The church was faced with false doctrine from both Jewish and pagan sources And you know in Acts 19 we get a sense of the impact of the Apostle Paul on this church where Luke reports all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord. And so the apostle Paul had an effect on this church. Let's talk about the origin of the church. In chapter 1 verses 5 through 7, we learn something about that. We learn that Epaphras was the one that the Lord used to bring the gospel to Colossae, and the Apostle writes, we give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and then He says that they heard the truth of the gospel at the end of verse 5, which has come to you as it has also in the world and is bringing forth fruit.

And then verse 7, as you also learned from Epaphras our dear fellow servant who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf who also declared to us your love in the Spirit. So Epaphras seems to be the one who brought the gospel to the city. Perhaps met the Apostle Paul in Ephesus, made the journey, began to evangelize in Colossae, and a church was born there. Now I want to identify a fourfold purpose of this letter. As you can see this element of your outline, The first purpose of the letter to the Colossians was to protect the church from philosophies and practices that would corrupt them.

The church was in danger of becoming troubled by false doctrine. Worldly philosophy, legalism, these things were whispering in the ears of the Colossians and Paul is writing to encourage them, to stabilize them. He calls them to stand fast. In other words, I think what he's saying is that they haven't embraced these things, but they're hearing the whisperings of them. And he's sort of doing a preemptive attack against these false teachers.

Some scholars who read Colossians say that he was inoculating them against these heresies and these wrong ideas. They hadn't gotten the disease yet. He was going to inoculate them so they wouldn't get it. And they seem to have maybe been influenced by some of the bugs that were flying around to poison them. And so he is most likely making a preemptive attack against these these false teachings and the other thing that we should recognize is that the Apostle Paul is responding to Epaphras's report in verse 7 in chapter 1.

You can see it there. As you also learn from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf who also declared to us your love in the Spirit. So Epaphras is bringing the situation to the Apostle Paul. Again, he's walked 1300 miles to do it and he's gonna walk another 1300 miles back home in order to report the Apostle Paul's remedies for these dangerous things that are whispering in their ears. So there are three particular heresies that the Apostle is addressing, And the first is the Colossian heresy.

Now you don't open up your Bible and read about the Colossian heresy. It's not a category necessarily of Scripture, but the Colossian heresy is pretty easily identified by what you read about the threat that the Colossians were facing. The Colossian heresy was essentially a mixture of Jewish mysticism, pagan Greek philosophy that mingled Jewish rituals, ceremonial laws from the Old Testament, exalting religious performances, and special spiritual knowledge. And it was the blending of these things that was corrupting Christianity. And what the Colossian heresy was was people who were mingling a little bit of Old Testament law, a little bit of Christianity, a little bit of Greek philosophy, and then maybe a little pinch of asceticism.

Something to kind of appeal to various sectors of the marketplace of the mind because people have different inflection points. I mean, people are attracted to certain things. Some people who are attracted to asceticism might not be attracted as much to Greek philosophy, but there's kind of something for everyone. And if you just mix a little bit of this and that in Christianity, then you get this broad, pleasing religion that actually turns out not to be Christianity at all. And that's the danger of syncretism.

Syncretism is always the greatest danger to the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. It can look so harmless to just add a few things to Christianity, but what you end up with when you mix anything with Christ, you have a false gospel and that's the problem that they are dealing with. Now, one of the great illustrations of this can be seen at the foot of Mount Sinai. When Moses went to receive the law from God, down below the people were dancing and having a wonderful time, and Aaron made a golden calf. And this is the kind of syncretism that was threatening the Colossian church.

The golden calf wasn't really a replacement for God. It was brought alongside of God. And they were attempting to worship the true God using this golden calf as a mechanism to remind them of God. And again, it was this mixture that was so dangerous to the people in Moses' day, and it was dangerous to the Colossians as well. And in chapter 2 verse 4 we read, Now this I say, lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words.

So there was quite a forceful persuasion that these things should be incorporated into Christianity. In chapter 2 verse 8, he says, Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of this world, and not according to Christ. And then in chapter 2 verses 16 through 23, so let no one judge you in food or drink or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbath. We'll get to this later, but this was an attack against all these other things that were being added in to the Christian life. And what the Apostle Paul says there in chapter 2 verse 19 that you're not holding fast to the head.

You're adding all these new moons and Sabbaths and all these dietary restrictions and it adds up to one really devastating thing, you're not holding fast to the head. So the first problem was what scholars have called the Kalash Inherency. Secondly, Gnosticism. Gnosticism essentially states that the spirit is good, matter is bad. That everything is of the heart and what you do in the body is immaterial, it's irrelevant.

As a result of this, some actually denied the humanity of Jesus Christ because all matter was evil. Bodies are evil, houses are evil, things are evil. You know, everything of the material world is evil. And the Apostle Paul counters this in chapter 1 verse 22 that they have moved away from the hope of the gospel and in 2 9 he says, For in him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He's saying no, Christ inhabited a body and the body wasn't evil.

The Godhead inhabited that body And so he's trying to attack this whole sort of spirituality that has rejected all material things. It was a heretical idea. You see this idea at many times in history. You're seeing it even now today with a new generation of people who are really spurning all material things. And they want to live in tiny houses, they want to live only out of a backpack, they don't want to own anything.

This is the whole movement of minimalism today. In fact, there was just an article in the New York Times that spoke of this, this whole minimalist movement. I'm gonna actually read the article to my family tonight at the dinner table because it's a, it really is a rejection of the material world and it is false doctrine that deceives you about the nature of life and godliness. And so the Apostle Paul is writing this letter as a warning and Epaphras has come to Paul for advice on how to deal with this. And so the Apostle Paul is giving them a vaccination so that they don't fall in to this false view of knowledge, spirituality, the body, and the material world.

Now the third thing that the apostle is attacking is this elite spirituality. There is a danger when you think that you can do a few things outside of Christ to have some kind of special knowledge. There were teachers who were advocating for these elite spiritual understandings that only a few could have. They would have secret knowledge that only they could know. And where do they get it?

Angels. That's where they're getting it. And so you see in chapter 2 verse 18 the Apostle Paul makes it very clear that they've exalted angels and messages of angels. In other words, they're going outside of Christ to get their spirituality. And so he says that they take delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind." So this longing for special knowledge through revelations by angels is actually exposed as a bunch of false humility, as a bunch of vanity puffed up by a fleshly mind.

A desire to have knowledge outside of Jesus Christ marks you as a vain and puffed up person. You're puffed up because you think there's something greater than Christ and that you somehow, being puffed up, have the ability to gain something of value from something other than Christ like an angel. Now, you know, this is probably not your problem, and it's probably not the problem of the people in our church. They're not going out for angels. I'm not aware of anybody who's trying to get some extra help and knowledge from angels.

Well, I hope not. Well, I'm pretty sure there aren't. But here's the question. Do we look to other sources of wisdom than Christ? Because it's the same root.

You know there are so many self-help tools in this world, thousands of videos, thousands of books that'll try to help you help your way through this world. And in doing so it's easy to forget Christ and even to mix those things with Christ. And so we have to recognize if we're going to other sources of wisdom than Christ because He alone is sufficient. He alone is healing. He alone is good.

There was also the danger of asceticism, not just looking to angels, but seeking spirituality through asceticism, through denying yourself of worldly pleasures. And he mentions this in terms of forbidding foods and certain kinds of drinks. There are certain kinds of foods and drinks that will defile you, so stay away from those. And so people invent all kinds of ways to congratulate themselves for their spirituality. There's a whole movement of people whose entire focus in life is to reduce the amount of trash that they produce because they don't want to pollute the world.

And so they feel good about themselves by having just a little teeny bit of trash that their lives produce. And there's sort of their whole spiritual identity, the whole way that they congratulate themselves for being wonderful people is that they have reduced their trash. But people want to grab onto all kinds of extraneous things to congratulate themselves and to call themselves spiritual, loving, wonderful, beneficial to the earth, and whatever you might say. But here they were forbidding foods and certain drinks. Also they were adding on various legalistic practices to affirm their spirituality so that they could congratulate themselves for the things that they do.

So that they go and participate in these things and get just so motivated, so helped more than anyone else, and they are just so special because of their particular and passionate participation in these kinds of things. And he mentioned some of them. It's godliness by participation in New Moon celebrations, in participation in fastings, in participation in circumcision. And these things just became larger than Christ. They eclipsed Jesus Christ Himself.

They trusted in these things, in these meetings, in these duties, and in these rights more than Jesus Christ. And they were puffed up because they thought themselves to be such good eaters, such new moon and Sabbath keepers. And so this often happens. People can somehow think that they are set right by God because they do all of their religious practices. But what happens when you do that is that often your religious practices are really just for the sake of the religious practices.

You pat yourself on the back for participating in these things. The person can do that with the Sabbath. You can have a high view of the Sabbath and actually have a Christless Sabbath because Jesus Christ is not the center of the Sabbath. It's doing the thing and there are all kinds of manifestations of this in modern times. You have these churches that are just radical, amazing entertainment centers with lights and smoke and thousands of people and just massive, you know, video bombardments of images of all kinds and this amazing environment.

People come and they do that for an hour and they leave and they think, oh, we really got it, but their lives are never really changed because it wasn't Jesus Christ. It was the experience that they were looking for. And in this case, the experience of depriving yourself of food and being this special group of people, this group of people who are having these New Moon celebrations, this group of people who are celebrating the Sabbaths of the ceremonial law in a rigorous way, but Christ wasn't there. They were congratulating themselves in the flesh, And the Apostle Paul is saying that you cannot trust anything of the flesh. And so there was this great focus on spirituality.

And when I read Colossians, I think of modern times, and you know, when you find this devotion to things that are designed to build up your sort of spirituality, you know, environmentalism, psychology, humanism, scientism, environmentalism, All these things are just subsets of what things that people do outside of Christ so that they can feel a sense of spirituality. And they distract from Jesus Christ, from the simplicity that is in Jesus Christ and so Paul is putting his finger on the core problem that always lies at the center of every problem, and that is the centrality of Jesus Christ. We worship Him, and we worship Him alone. And that's why Paul says, Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy. That's in chapter 2 verses 8 through 10.

He calls it deceit. And the result of this was not only just distance with Christ, but also broken relationships and family life, which he addresses in chapter 3. So these three major threats, okay, the Colossian heresy, number one, number two, Gnosticism, and number three, elite knowledge and spirituality. And the essence of all these threats is the blending of Christianity with a little Old Testament law in its ceremonies, a little bit of Christianity, a little bit of Greek philosophy, a little bit of Platonic asceticism, and the Apostle Paul is attacking this Colossian heresy. Now the second objective that the Apostle Paul was focusing in on was to proclaim the absolute sufficiency of Christ as the complete sacrifice which makes every man complete.

You know, one of the songs I love singing in our church is that song, Complete in Thee. Complete in Thee, no work of mine. And this is what the Apostle Paul is speaking of. The whole idea of being complete in Christ is the central matter of this letter. In chapter 1 verse 28 we read that some have denied the sufficiency of Jesus Christ and as a result the apostle states the reason for his writing, and that is to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.

And then in chapter 2 verse 10 he says, And you are complete in Him who is the head of all principality and power. You are complete in Him. Now let that sink down. Complete in Him. You need nothing else.

You know, whatever trouble, whatever confusion, whatever trial you're in, you need to recognize that you are complete in Him. He is the answer and He is the source of all of your deliverance. And so His second objective is to proclaim the absolute sufficiency of Christ. And then thirdly, His third objective was to describe what everyday life looks like under the sufficient work of Christ in chapters 3 and 4. He speaks of how God's plan for your life is to make you complete in Christ.

All you need is Christ to be saved and can be conformed to the image of Christ and what he does is he renews, he transforms, he heals your relationships. And here the Apostle Paul uses the very same outline that he uses in his other letters where he opens with doctrine in the first part of the letter, and then he finishes it with the practical outworkings in everyday life, and he does that in this letter as well. When we get down to the outline portion of the study here today, you'll see how the Apostle does that. And, you know, his objective is to describe this work of Christ in everyday life. And in chapter 1 verses 13 and 14 he says, He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love." And so there's this kingdom transfer that takes place out of darkness and into the kingdom of the Son of His light, into the kingdom of the light of the world.

And then he says in chapter 1 verse 21, And you who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now he has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death to present you holy and blameless and above reproach in His sight." And so this is one of his great objectives is just to explain what it looks like to walk in holiness in your life, and he speaks of these really practical areas. And then his fourth objective is to communicate his love for them, And so you see that from beginning to end. He has very tender words to say to them and about them. He, though he had never been there, he loved them. He had prayed for them.

And he prayed for them all the time. And because of that, he loved them. You know, it was interesting. I was thinking about this today that you can love people you've never met if you pray for them. This happens.

You know, I was speaking to a man who has a mother who doesn't live here. We've not met her, but we've prayed for her many times and there was this prospect of her moving here and it occurred to me when we were talking it was even today I said you know if she moves here and if she comes to this church she's gonna walk into a place where people love her. They love her and they've never met her and they love her because they've been praying for her. If you want to love someone, even someone you don't know, the best way to start that love is to pray for them. It's legitimate to pray for people you don't know or have never met because it does something to you and it prepares you to meet them.

But Paul publicly communicates his love toward people he's never met. He never went to that town. And this, I think, helps us to understand what a beautiful thing it is to be a prayerful person for people that are outside of our own borders. I have the blessing of knowing people in different churches around the United States and it occurs to me very often I love those people. I'm not around them very much but I love them because I pray for them.

And there's tremendous value in the multiplication of love in the world when you pray for people. Pray for people in other churches. Pray for people who are not in churches at all, and your love for them will grow. And the Apostle Paul demonstrates this so beautifully. And prayer not only creates love in your heart for people you don't know, it also creates love in your heart for people who have wronged you.

And this is why Jesus said, pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you. You know, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, because praying for those who have harmed you creates love as well. And so we shouldn't just pray for those we don't know and we like because we don't know them. We should pray for those who are remote from us who we do know who have wronged us because that too creates love. If you want to learn how to love someone you're struggling to love, then prayer is the most important thing that you can do to create love.

Now, how did the Apostle Paul refute all these threats against the church by one way. He argues that Christians are complete in Jesus Christ and this refutes all the syncretistic dangers that He would like to protect them from. Okay, so let's talk about the outline. We're going to walk through the letter beginning in chapter 1, verse 1, but as you can see here in the outline portion of your outline, the first focal point of this letter is the doctrine of Christ and His absolute sufficiency, and that's chapters 1 and 2. And then the second half of the letter has its focus on the work of Christ as the only sufficient work in your life, and that's chapters 3 and 4.

Let's begin to walk through this letter in the time that we have remaining. So we first encounter Paul's joy and gratitude toward the people in the Colossian Church in chapter 1 verse 1 through verse 14 and he begins with these personal greetings Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God and Timothy our brother who is a pastor in Ephesus to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in colossae, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." There's much to learn from the greeting. Paul is an apostle. He is writing with the authority of God. We have Timothy.

He's a brother. He's not an apostle. He's a pastor in the Church of Ephesus and he's writing to believers in that church. He calls them saints who are faithful or saints who believe. And he's saying that saints are people who believe.

Believers are people who are saints. They are consecrated, they are set apart to God, and they are faithful in the sense that they believe. This is a picture of the true church. He gives thanks for their faith in Christ in verses 3 through 8 there in chapter 1. He says, we give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you.

Again, mark that word, praying. This is such an important thing for the growth of love. Praying for you always, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints. So Paul is hearing these reports of how they love all the saints. It was a church full of love.

What a marvelous experience these people were having being loved by all the saints. Why? Because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven. In other words, You're free to love one another when you understand that you're going to heaven, okay, that God's gonna set everything straight. You don't have to set everything straight.

You're not the international policeman. You're not the church policeman. God is going to take care of all these things. You do have responsibilities with your brothers and sisters to speak the truth in love, but that does not deny the fact that when you have your eyes on heaven, you can trust God and love the brethren. You're set free to love when you know the end of all these things.

He says that The truth of the gospel is bringing forth fruit. That's at the end of verse 5 and in verse 6. And then he mentions Epaphras. Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, who has also declared to us your love in the Spirit. Oh, guess what?

The love goes both ways. Not only did Paul love the people in Colossae he'd never met, the people in Colossae actually loved Paul whom they've never met. This is how the body builds itself up in love. Prayer is a central matter of the growing of love in a church, and this is why we should always, always devote ourselves to prayer. I've been so thankful for what a huge percentage of the people in our church go to our weekly prayer times.

Well, you know what? It's a way to grow love, so we should continue that and even more. Then Paul prays for them in verses 9 through 14. Now this is a really critical matter. He speaks of the prayers that they've had for one another, but then he actually prays for them, and I want you to notice nine things that he prays for.

I'm gonna go really quickly. First of all, he prays in verse 9 that they would be filled with the knowledge of His will with all spiritual wisdom and insight. That is so important. Secondly, that they would walk worthy of the Lord. In other words, that in their daily life their walk is consistent with the walk of Jesus Christ.

They're becoming like Him and they're walking like He walked. Number three, that they are fully pleasing Him. Pray for your brothers and sisters that they would please Him in all respects. Number four, that they would be fruitful in every good work. Number five, that they would be increasing in the knowledge of God.

And then in verse 11, number six, they would be strengthened with all might according to His glorious power, not their own, strengthened from heaven by His power. And then number seven, for all patience and long-suffering with joy. In other words, they would suffer long with one another with joy, not complaints. And then number eight, they would give thanks to the Father who has qualified them to be partakers. So those are eight things that the Apostle Paul prays for these people.

It's a great pattern for prayer. Use it. Use it tomorrow. Use it tonight. Pray for somebody, all these things.

You don't know how to pray? Pray Colossians chapter 1 verses 9 through 14 and pray for those eight things that the Apostle mentions. And then the Apostle affirms them that He has delivered them from the power of darkness in chapter 1, 13, and 14. He says, He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love." Wow. That's worthy of a long and wonderful discussion.

The kingdom of the Son of His love. It's remarkable what God has done. This is His kingdom. It is a kingdom of love. And then after completing this introduction of various greetings, He moves into the doctrinal portion, beginning in verse 15, and He begins with the preeminence of Jesus Christ in verses 15 through 18.

This is where the Apostle is trying to set their thinking straight so that they can compare Jesus Christ with all of these other whisperings that they're hearing about. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation, for by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in him all things consist." In other words, he holds all things together. That phrase alone is a wrecking ball to evolution. In other words, all things are actually held together by Him.

You know, things in this world aren't independent entities that go their own way, right? In other words, cells and animals, they don't evolve themselves. They are held together by something else, okay? It's a complete refutation of evolutionism to say that that He holds all things together and all things consist in Him. Matter isn't just going its own random way in the universe and the Apostle Paul destroys that idea.

And He is the head of the body, verse 18, the church who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, and that in all things He may have preeminence. So He is the preeminence and He will have the preeminence throughout your whole life. Nothing will happen to you in your life that somehow will not be a final demonstration of His preeminence. Everything. And that's why you need not fear anything because Jesus Christ has the preeminence.

He had it, He has it, and He will have it for all eternity, and nothing can stay His hand. Now here's what we need to recognize. You're living in a world where his preeminence is not somehow lost. Not for a moment. It's not lost and then regained in heaven.

He has the preeminence now. And this is one of the most important things for young and old people to recognize is that He does in the world according to the power of His own hand. He always has the preeminence. So you never have to worry about what's happening to you. And then He speaks of reconciliation in Christ in chapter 1 verse 19 through 23 and he says that it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself.

It pleases the Father to reconcile all things to Himself. If you want to please your Father in heaven, then work to reconcile all things to Himself. The unbelievers in this world are not reconciled. Pleasing the Father includes working to reconcile sinners to God. It's one of the most pleasing things in the sight of God, to set our hearts to reconciliation.

And he speaks of various things that please the Father there and then the Apostle Paul declares his sacrificial service for Christ in chapter 1 verses 24 through 27 then Paul states the objective of his teaching in chapter 1, 28 and 29. He says, "...Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. To this end I also labor, striving according to the working which works in me mightily." The purpose of Paul's ministry and the purpose of all of our ministries is to present every man complete in Christ. That's the purpose of the role of a father in a home. That's the purpose of a role of a mother with her children.

It's the purpose of the role of church leaders to present every man complete in Jesus Christ. And then we move to chapter 2. He speaks of all the treasures of wisdom being in Christ in verses 1 through 3, I love this phrase in verse 3, "...in whom are hidden all the treasures and wisdom and knowledge." In Jesus Christ is all the treasure of knowledge, And this is why when we get to chapter 3 he says, if you've been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things that are above, because in Him is treasure and it is sufficient. It's the only treasure that you need in this world. And then he speaks of the dangers of false philosophies in chapter 2 verses 4 through 10.

Now this I say, lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words. And he says, he says, walk in him because, in verse 8, you can be cheated. Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. How do you get cheated? How do you get ripped off in this world?

Worldly philosophy. Getting your philosophy from somewhere else other than Christ. That's how you get ripped off. And then he speaks of legalism, which is contrary to Christ. In chapter 2 verses 11 through 15 he's speaking about the sufficiency of Christ for salvation and how legalism would take you away from his sufficiency.

And he speaks of different things that are completed, okay? He says in verse 11, you were circumcised. A circumcised knot made with hands by putting off the body of sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ." He says these physical things are nothing compared to the circumcision of the heart that Jesus Christ has accomplished. That is sufficient. The physical is not sufficient.

The circumcision of the heart is sufficient. So he says you were circumcised, done in the heart. Then he says you were buried in baptism. That's verse 12. Buried with him in baptism.

You were raised up with Him through faith in the working of God who raised Him from the dead. So you were buried, done. It's done. You can't earn it by works of the flesh. You were buried and you were raised up with Him.

It's done. And then he says you were made alive in verse 13 and you being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh he has made alive together with him you were made alive it's done you can't earn it you're not going to get it You're not going to jack it up by new moon celebrations and drinking this and not eating that. It doesn't work like that. And then He says, you are forgiven, having forgiven your trespasses at the end of verse 13, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us and He has taken it out of the way having nailed it to the cross. There is no profit in outward performances and you are forgiven and your sins were nailed to the cross.

I mean think about that for a minute. Do you see how free you are in Christ? All the things that are weighing on your conscience have been nailed to the cross, and you should, in your own mind, move them to that cross and leave them there and you're free. And then he says that principalities are disarmed, Number 15. You notice all these things that are done?

Disarmed. You know, circumcised, buried, made alive, forgiven, and then finally principalities disarmed. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it, in the cross. Done. Disarmed.

Okay? This is the completed work of Jesus Christ. These things are done. It is complete. It is sufficient.

It's all you need. And then he speaks of judging people on the basis of the ceremonial law in chapter 2 verses 16 through 23 and he speaks of these festivals and new moons and Sabbaths. These are all ceremonial law-oriented things. This is not an argument against keeping the Christian Sabbath which was founded in eternity by God who rested on the seventh day, who commanded it before the giving of the law. It is part of the Mosaic law, but it is something greater than the law that God gave to Moses.

And he speaks of the chains of every legalistic religion. He defines it. It's defined by do not taste, do not handle. He says these things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in verse 23 in self-imposed religion. False humility and neglect of the body but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.

In other words, your spirituality is not created by how you keep certain ceremonial laws. It's deeper than that. And then he moves to chapter 3 and he speaks of this living a resurrected life in verse 1 of chapter 3 all the way through 4, chapter 4 verse 6. Now there are nine elements of this resurrected life. First, you seek the things that are above.

That is 1 through 4 in chapter 3. If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on the things on the earth. He is sufficient to create your life from heaven down. And then the second element of the resurrected life is you put sin to death, verse 5 through 7, therefore put to death your members which are on the earth, fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

And then he speaks of various other things, Anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language, lying, you know, put to death the old man. That's the idea. And then he says put on the new man, chapter 3 verses 10 and 11, and then he says put on love in verses 12 through 15 of chapter 3. Therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering, bearing with one another, and forgiving one another. If anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, so also you must do.

But above all these things put on love." Now, Each word in here is a critical definition of love. When he says, put on tender mercies, he's speaking of a heart of compassion. In fact, some of the other translations translated this very way, put on a heart of compassion. Meditate on that. Put on a heart of compassion.

This is what the resurrected life looks like. You have compassion. And then number five, you fill your mind with the Word of God and you share it. Chapter 3 verses 16 and 17, let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. This is the answer to most of our problems and our difficulties.

And then reform your home, number 6, chapter 3 verses 18 through 21, and here the apostle extols the beauty of a Christian home where wives submit to their husbands and husbands love their wives and they're not bitter. To them children obey their parents and fathers aren't provoking their children. And then the seventh matter of this resurrected life is a whole transformation of your work life. You see your work in a totally different context. Most people hate their work in America today.

Most people cannot wait till Friday to get out of there, but he says no. Don't work like that. Work with sincerity of heart, fearing God, and whatever you do, do it heartily as unto the Lord. And he speaks of how you moderate your relationships in your working world and how you see yourself at work. And then moving into chapter 4, he urges to pray earnestly.

This is another matter of the resurrected life. It's a matter of prayer. He says, continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving. So that's how we should pray. Earnestly, vigilant with thanksgiving.

And then redeeming the time. The ninth element of the resurrected life, Verses 5 through 6 in chapter 4. Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside redeeming the time. Let your speech always be with grace seasoned with salt that you may know how to answer each one. And then at the very end of the letter, he delivers his final greetings in chapter 4, verse 7 through 15.

He speaks of Tychicus, a beloved brother. Tychicus, the one who's going to take this letter, he's going to take it off the table that the Apostle Paul has been riding and he's going to roll it up and he's going to walk 1, 300 miles and he's going to take it back to the Colossian Church. And he's called a minister, a diakonos, Same word we get deacon. He's called a fellow servant. And then with Onesimus in verse 9, a faithful and beloved brother.

Here's a man who is a slave who sinned, he ran away from his master, and Paul calls him a beloved brother. His heart had changed, and Paul's sending him back, 1, 300 miles, back to Colossae. Aristarchus most likely was there. Verse 10, Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner greets you. Aristarchus seems to be in prison with him there.

And then Mark, the cousin of Barnabas, and then Jesus who is called justice and then Epaphras in verse 12 who is one of you. Epaphras is there with Paul in prison. He is one of you. He is perhaps going back with these guys to take the letter or maybe not we don't know for sure and then he has these closing exhortations in verses 16 through 18 now when this epistle is read among you see that it is read also in the church of the Laodiceans which is nearby and that you likewise read the epistle from Laodicea. Well we don't have that.

Where's the where's the epistle from Laodicea? We don't have it. And I say to our Kippus, take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord that you may fulfill it. This salutation by my own hand. Remember my chains.

Grace be with you. Amen." So the Apostle Paul here and finally is writing to a church in the midst of a highly pressurized society. It's a wicked and perverse generation. They're being pressured to take on the thoughts of the day and the activities of the day, and He wants them to come away and to see how Christ is the only sufficient Savior. He's the only sufficient source of knowledge.

He's the only sufficient source of guidance for your soul. He meets your every need. You do not need anything else. You did not need anyone else. And that pursuing godliness with Christ, involvement with the church without Christ, performing all kinds of nice things in life is worthless without Jesus Christ because you are complete in Jesus Christ and you don't need anything else.

And so the greatest thing in all of our lives is to, if we've been raised up with Christ, to keep seeking the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God and that's the appeal to the whole church at Colossae. It's the appeal to us, it's the appeal to me, and I pray that God would give us a greater sense of Jesus Christ in all that we're doing. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for sending your son as a sufficient sacrifice, as the sufficient life for us to gaze at. Lord, we praise you for your grace.

We pray that you would help us to fix our minds on all the matters of Jesus Christ in all of our goings in all of our doings and all of our thinking in all of our relationships that Jesus Christ would be pleased. Amen.