Date:   03/01/09

Text:   Colossians 2:8-23

Title:   The All Sufficient Christ

Theme: Since Christ possesses the fullness of God, therefore we are to honor him in all

  areas of life.

Introduction:

  For those in the IT field, we have heard this phrase often: Garbage In and Garbage Out. The same is true with us. Good ideas come into our mind, resulting in good behaviors coming out of us. Bad ideas come into our mind, resulting in wrong behaviors. In the 19 th and 20 th century, there was the philosophy named Existentialism. In a nutshell, it means there is no meaning to life, no truth and no absolutes. It started in some major European universities and taught there by philosophers such as Sartre and Søren Kierkegaard . Later, this was picked up by the great painter, Picasso. In many of his paintings, existentialism was clearly evident. To make a long story short, in the 1960's the philosophy of meaningless was seen in many American and European movies, such as “Blow Up”, “the 7 Seals” and “The Graduate”. Many songs by the Beatles and Bob Dylan also reflected such a philosophy. In this so called postmodern world, everywhere we turn, in movies, tv shows, and newspapers, is a picture of no absolutes, everything is relative. What we see today is the full blown logical conclusion of a philosophy that began to take root in the early 20 th century. You see, what goes into our mind, will come out in our behaviors.

Individuals have also shared with me that while growing up, they have never heard their parents say anything positive about them. They could do nothing right. Very often, parents' method of communication was spanking and yelling. So what are they like now as adults? Having poor self-esteem, no confidence, either loners or people pleasers, with little or no social skills. Garbage in and garbage out.

This was what happened to the believers at Colossae . False teachers infiltrated the church and promoted wrong teachings, resulting in wrong behaviors. Their teachings, philosophies or ideas led the believers to focus on external behaviors at the expense of internal significance. Their Christian faith was in danger of turning into meaningless religious activities. So Paul wrote to warn and correct the wrong teachings. Even though this was written to the first century believers, its message is still relevant today. Isn't it true that sometimes we also tend to focus on external activities while ignoring the condition of our hearts?

In Paul's writings, especially in his letter to the Colossians, he usually used the first half of the book to lay out basic doctrines. Then he would plunge into great detail in its application to everyday living. In this passage is the truth that Since Christ possesses the fullness of God, therefore, we are to honor him in all areas of our life.

I •  A philosophy without Christ can lead to legalism.

In vs.8, “ 8 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.” This is Paul's first warning to the Colossian believers that they are to watch out and not blind sighted by a philosophy that originated from human tradition rather than from Christ, it was a philosophy without Christ. Some of the basic teaching in this philosophy was that the Spiritual is good and Material is evil. The path to God is through mediators. Since Jesus was the last mediator, one needs other means of mediation, including certain mysterious knowledge, food regulations and observation of certain dates. If one falls for this, then one would use external behavior as indicators to measure one's spiritual status. It's like; your relationship with God is not complete or full unless you stay away from this food or be sure to keep the Sabbath in this manner. It's like telling you that if you read the bible more, tell more people about Christ, become more involved in the church ministry, then you will gain God's love and he will bless you with health and wealth.

Can we imagine that our relationship with God, or God's love for us is gauged by our external behaviors? Since you missed your devotion 2 days in a row, your relationship with God and his love for you has dropped by 2% points. This will only lead to legalism and judgementalism. This is not freedom in Christ, it is another kind of bondage. So, what's the solution?

1 •  Jesus is God incarnate.

In vs.9, “ 9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,” This is a reference to the fullness of God in Jesus. He is not the last mediator, He is God. God's fullness is in him, meaning that when we see Jesus, we see God. When we believe in Jesus, we believe in God. Jesus is God. Therefore there is no need for any additional mediators between men and God. Not only this, in vs.10, “ 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.” This says that when we are in Christ, when we are connected with him, we too have God's fullness in us. There is no need for other mediators in order to gain God's fullness. How so? In vs.11-15, Paul explained that when we are baptized, we identified with Christ's death and resurrection. And moreover, our sins are also forgiven. So the truth is that all we need is faith in Jesus Christ. When we believe in him, we have his fullness dwell within us. Christ is all we need.

So, how about those spiritual disciplines? How about the Ephesians 4 and listening to the Word projects, or our daily devotions? It's like a parent and child relationship. Children do not need to do anything to gain parent's love. As parents, we love our children unconditionally. They do not have to gain A's, or play piano or any other musical instruments in order to gain parents' love. No, children, in a normal functioning family, are already being loved. And because they are loved, they love their parents, they want to do things that pleases their parents.

We take part and develop the various spiritual disciplines, not to gain God's love, or to make sure Christ is in us, but to express our love for him.

With Christ, we don't need anything else to gain spiritual fullness.

2 •  Christ is the Lord over all.

This is the second time we discuss the lordship of Christ in recent weeks. In vs.15, “ 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.” He is the lord over rulers and authorities, therefore in his sight there is no distinction between the material and the spiritual. The spiritual world is just as real as the material world. They both are under his lordship.

Several years ago a student came and shared with me that she had just become a Christian. She wanted to know what to do with a ? that her family got her from a certain Buddhist temple in Taiwan . This is a piece of paper with certain words on it and is meant to protect her from any harm. She knows she shouldn't have it, but was kind of hard to throw it away or destroy it. Eventually she decided to go ahead and burn it. You see, with Christ as lord over all, there is no need for us to cling on to such ? , for Christ is more powerful than they are.

Christ is the lord over human authorities. I want to approach this from a different perspective. As pastors, ministers, elders, deacons and fellowship coworkers and leaders, do we sometimes elevate human authority above Christ? Sometimes it is very tempting for us to feel that we must have the final word. I can only speak for myself. After being a pastor for some time, one begins to think highly of oneself. Naturally one becomes some kind of authority on who knows what. When I speak I may expect others to listen and agree with me. If not, even though superficially I will say, its ok, but inside me, it is a different story. When I say jump, subconsciously I would say don't ask why but ask how high. Do you see what happens here? I have inadvertently elevated myself above Christ. Only Christ can have that final authority over us. No human authority, no matter how begnin it may be, can supersede Christ's authority. In the context of God's church, no pastor, minister, elder, deacons or fellowship leaders would serve as a general. Our responsibility is not to have others listen to us, but to bring God's people to Christ so they will listen to him. From time to time Cynthia would remind me that there is only one God, and I am not Him.

II •  Religious activities without Christ is without value.

In vs.16 is a second warning, “ Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.” Let no one criticize you on issues of food and keeping certain dates. The philosophy without Christ would advocate not to eat certain food, plus observing and celebrating certain religious festivals, monthly celebrations of the New Moon and weekly observances of the Sabbath. Apparently, the Colossian believers did not join the false teachers in their celebration.

You see, these celebrations in itself are alright. However, in the OT context, these celebrations all point to Christ. When the false teachers celebrated these occasions, they were looking forward to the coming of Messiah. As Paul wrote in vs.17, they are shadows of the Christ that was to come. And now, with Christ, the Messiah has already come, therefore to continue to celebrate it in the manner of the false teachers is wrong.

Besides celebrating the various festivals and restraining from eating certain food, the false teachers also worshipped angels and insisted on asceticism, and they were proud. To them, this was the way to God. Their teaching was one can only come to God, gain spiritual fullness through external means. They ended up with asceticism (as a means to show their humility), keeping various food regulations, observing festival and worshipping angels.

Paul described them in vs.19, “and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.” Do we see what is happening here? with all those religious activities, yet they were not connected with Christ. Yes, they believed in Jesus, but did not believe in his deity. It was Jesus but no Christ. What is the result of such activities without Christ? Vs.23, “These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.” Such religious activities had no value whatsoever. The false teachers thought such practices and observances can bring them closer to God, to gain credit before God. But Paul said that no matter how hard they tried or how religious they may be, it will not bring them any closer to God.

This can be a warning to all of us. We can only see the external, but God looks at the heart. You can come to church every Sunday; attend fellowship and small groups regularly. You can also be active in all kinds of charity work and community services, helping the weak and poor. You may even have signed up for the Ephesians 4 project or Listening to the bible project, but is your heart connected with Christ? To be connected with Christ means that I need to recognize that Jesus is the creator, that he is God. Before him I am to recognize that I am a sinner and my sins have separated me from God. the only way for me to come to God is to believe that Jesus died for my sins on the cross. When I confessed my sins to him, he will forgive my sins, and then place his righteousness on me. So when God looks at me, he sees Christ's righteousness on me, and consider me as his children, as his holy people. By faith I come to him and be connected with him. Once I am connected with Christ, I have his fullness in me. No amount of external effort will bring me any more of God's love and favor. He has already loved and blessed me. All I need is Christ. I want to pause for a moment now, so we can pray together…..

Conclusion:

  Garbage in, garbage out. Some of us may have heard plenty of garbage poured into us during our childhood. We learned that if we were to gain our parents' love, we must do this and that, and meet their standards and expectations. I know some of us may still be trying to please our parents and gain their love by pursuing goals that they may have set for us. Not only towards parents, in many relationships, we may also try to gain other people's attention or love by performance, meeting their needs and standards. We know living like this is can be very miserable; for there is no freedom, but only bondage.

Sometimes we may also sub consciously bring it into our Christian faith. We feel that in order to gain God's love or to achieve spiritual fullness, we are to do certain things. Unknowingly, we may look at certain programs at church, whether it is reading Purpose Driven Life, the Ephesians 4 project, studying the Renovation of Heart, Listening to the bible, or daily devotions, as a means to gain God's love and blessing. We are using our external behaviors and disciplines to gauge our spiritual status; determining God's love for us. This is very misleading.

The scripture clearly tells us that when we are united in Christ, when we are connected with him, we also have the fullness of Christ in us. We are fully and completely loved by God. The challenge in Christian living is then to acknowledge God's lordship in all areas of our life. We develop various spiritual disciplines not to gain brownie points, but because we love him. With Christ in us, we already have the assurance of his presence and love for us.