Ep 90 – Colossians Pt 2

Hi there, how exciting it is to go into the epistle of the colossians that speaks of the preeminence of jesus christ proto tacos. I mean he is the highest, he is the ultimate, there is none other that is beyond him. Every name that is named in heaven on earth and under the earth every tongue will confess that jesus christ is lord curios, yahweh to the glory of God the father. And so we’re gonna study colossians because the gnostics were just all over the place trying to diminish and attack the very deity of jesus christ that this man in the flesh is God. But they said no he’s not and there are more spiritual beings than him, other spiritual beings than him. So we’re looking now at chapter two, which is really the real key passage, especially verse nine and 10 that explain this, let’s go into the discussion with Vicki and me and follow the bible study Hi again Tom and Vicki with, it’s all greek to me and today we’re gonna be looking at colossians, chapter two, the preeminence of christ is the theme verse 18 of chapter one is the key verse, but we want to continue because there’s no chapter division and we want to continue on the thought proto tacos, you know, you have the application like for instance In Matthew, Chapter six, verse 33 seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these other things will be added onto you now, that’s one of the impact verses because that’s how you apply the fact that Jesus should be first in my life. Uh and there are many verses like that, we’re gonna see that at the end of the program. But Vicky, we’re gonna just begin now to just go back and look at this, that he’s the head of the body, the firstborn from the dead, that he himself will come to that first place and everything. And then the outline that we gave Christ preeminence declared in Chapter one. It was also now it’s defended in chapter two. In these three areas. Beware of empty philosophies and in order to really get a handle on that, we’re gonna just ask Vicki to read those 10 verses from chapter two verse one through 10. For I want you to know how great a struggle I have had on your behalf and for those who are at lay of the CIA and for all those who have not personally seen my face, that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love and attaining to the full wealth that comes with from full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery that is christ himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And I say this in order that no one may delude you with persuasive argument for even though I am absent in body. Nevertheless, I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good discipline and the stability of your faith in christ as you therefore have received christ, jesus the Lord. So walk in him having been firmly rooted and being built up in him and established in your faith just as you were instructed and with overflowing with gratitude. See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world rather than according to christ. For in him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form and in him you have been made complete and he is the head over all rule and authority. So you see in those 1st 10 verses it is warning us. The warning is that. And and it comes down to verse verse nine for in him all the fullness, the aroma, all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form. And uh So we want to look at some of the the and then again, it’s also a warning in verse 18, let no one keep defrauding you of your price. That is Christ by delighting itself a basement and worship of angels. Taking his stand on visions he has seen inflated without cause by his fleshly mind. Again, it’s repeating this just like in the first eight verses and then going to the heart of what the attack was theologically and the teaching going away from christ and how these different aspects were attacking the pro toto cause the supremacy the deity of jesus christ. So here we’re gonna look at a few of the, the aesthetics were doing this. Let me let me see if we can look at some of these in verse 19 willing self basement worship of angels. Walking into a false spiritual experience throughout through demon visions, uh self arrogance and delusion through demonic control inflated without cause by his fleshly mind. These are the pseudo spirituality, false humility and asceticism that was going on back then in the first century and God allowed us to have the apostle paul. Uh God gave his word to combat all this, all this nonsense and false teaching that the apostle paul uh gave us the truth in the scriptures. Now he gives us the picture to keep ourselves growing and protected in our spiritual growth and unity with christ the head and the brothers and sisters uh are the body, the power, we have the work there, which is a place under one’s grasp to control. And uh the provision is epi ne which is uh like a dance back in those days. They provided everything that was needed for a big production, proper, proper, proper, properly uh lavishly supplied and suitable to outfit everything needed to accompany a grand objective, a grand event. And uh so christ holds fast, we’re supposed to hold fast to christ the head and not let anything take us away from that. Then there was the partnership here, vaso is the word used there that we’re together going on a ship the same direction. Then he talks about this participation of the body interconnecting with one another and he continues to give them the progress of that body. The productive growth of sano is growing in a healthy way because these other false religious activity, beating up the body, worshiping angels were not causing growth in faith, the life of faith and finally the submitting ourselves to decrease. They were they were doing all kinds of laws and and decreased dogmatism. Dogmatism, is there literally why are you being dogma ties or overridden would decrease And he talks about this that don’t do this and gives us some solutions in colossians two concerning the preeminence of our Lord, jesus christ. If you’ve died with christ to the elementary principles of the world wide as if you were living in the world. Do you submit yourself to decrees such as don’t handle don’t taste, don’t touch which all refer to things destined to perish with the using in accordance with the commandments of men and the teachings of men. Of course the Lord had so much to say about the teachings of men in Matthew 15 1 through three and Mark 71 through nine. There’s so many passages that deal with the teachings of men that contradict the word of God that they engage or make void the word of God because of the the teachings of men. So we want to start with what it’s talking about in verse nine and 10 for in him, all the fullness of deity dwells. This is the pivotal point that the apostle ball is coming through the pivotal point to fight all these heresies and attacks from the gnostics about putting confidence in angels, they’re worshiping or beating up their body or having all kinds of rules and regulations. And he uses this greek word play Roma. And let’s talk about this fullness and what it meant. Uh, oma, the sum total the fullness, even superabundance from the word and Vincent in his, in his excellent greek word. Studies was uh he says this was this fullness was used by the gnostics, by the gnostic teachers in a technical sense to express the sum total of the divine powers and attributes. So, this word fullness really was talking about the God or the supreme being and and paul is using now he redeems this word, he brings it out of the, the heathen and the and the greek mindset and he makes it now a gospel word. And he says, this play Roma is jesus, christ in bodily form. The fullness of the deity of the divine father son and Holy spirit are now in this man. It’s just incredible to me. So pick it up from there, knowing God’s fullness brings his dimensional life uh and uh grow and so that the soul to grows in conformity of christ Ephesians 3, 18 through 20 refers to this describing the spiritual life of the infinite access of the Lord’s height depth intersecting the the beginning from the ending, the width and the breadth and the to know the love of christ which surpasses knowledge. This is really to be filled with all the fullness of God that says you experience God that way. Now there are certain places in scripture that use this word and when it and I’ll just let you go through these. You don’t have to read all the verses Vicky but just identify where these places are. It’s used as a patch put on an old garment or an unstrung old garment. The patch will tear away from it. So it’s used in Matthew 9 16 with that to fill up the whole garment that that patch will be used. It’s also used as a basket. The basket full. Okay, it’s also picked up 12 baskets left over when he fed the 5000. They were all full. Yeah. And then then you have the the other synonyms with large basket fulls and then his fullness in the fourth point here john 1 16 for of his fullness we have all received grace upon grace. So again, this is another word. Right, So you have here the Lord saying that jesus christ fullness remember in john one here he in the beginning was the word, the word was with God. The word was God or God was the word and of his fullness all of it. The Father. The Son, the Holy Spirit. We have all received grace upon Grace. So it uses it in that sense. Number five. The fullness of the jews. Now, if their transgression is riches for the world and their failure is riches for the gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be, romans? 11 12 and then six is the fullness of the gentiles When they complete totally complete. It’s talking about the fullness of the Law is what love. It says. Love does no wrong to its neighbor. Therefore, love is the fullness of the fulfillment of the law. The whole law has one objective and that is to create in us the ability to love one another. You know, that’s what it’s saying there. The fullness of the blessing of christ romans 15 25. I know that when I come to you I will come in the fullness of the blessing of christ and then nine. The fullness of the earth for the earth is the Lord’s and all It contains all. It contains every part of what it contains. The fullness of time. Galatians 44, When the fullness of time came God sent forth his son born of a woman born under the Law to redeem those under the law. The fullness of the times, plural Ephesians 1. 10 with a view to an administration, suitable for the for most of the times. And then Vicky. Well, I’d like to just read this verse also. I didn’t finish it before. it was in verse nine that we were looking at the play drama for in him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form and the verse 10 says, and in him you have been made complete and he is the head over all rule and authority. And you know, he he is the one who had completed us by his death burial and resurrection. That we are now free to have a relationship with God, that we can say our father who art in heaven. And uh christ paid that price for us. None of us could ever pay for the deaths of our sins. How we have offended God, even after he’s forgiven us, we still fall sometimes, but God has always allowed us to come back and humble ourselves. If we humble ourselves, we can confess our sins and he is faithful. And just to forgive us from our sins and cleanse us from all in righteousness. And he cleans the slate once again that we can have that relationship with him if I offend you and I humble myself and I apologize, you don’t tell me about it the next day. You don’t remind me. Well, remember when you did this, you did that and that’s offensive and human relationships. But to accept God’s total forgiveness. The blood of christ cleanses us from all sin. I love it. Vicky, I love it verse 10 and in him you have been made complete chelios and he is the head over all, rule and authority. So the fact that in jesus was the fullness of the deity and that he now touches us. This is the practical aspect of this word. Fullness. Yeah. So it’s the divine nature. It’s the it’s God himself in the flesh. But so so what somebody will ask well, because now he can touch me and complete me and bring me to what I’m supposed to be. And that’s so powerful. The fullness of God christ love Ephesians 3 19. The fullness of christ the mature believer, The fullness that dwells in christ colossians 1 19. For it was the father’s good pleasure that all the fullness to dwell in him. He didn’t somehow, you know, elect himself, he the father the son and the holy Spirit uh in eternity were the ones that tribunal created this plan and sent forth. Jesus God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him would not perish but have eternal life for God did not send his son in the world to condemn the world, that the world through him should be saved. So this, this was God’s full plan that the father’s good pleasure, All the fullness to dwell in Jesus Christ, all of the Godhead, all of that fullness. All the fullness of deity dwelling Colossians 2 9. It was the father’s good pleasure again for all the fullness to dwell in him. And uh it’s just fabulous to see these words how this word fullness was being used by the gnostics to talk about some perceived spiritual attainment through some kind of external and and through dogmas and through beating up their body and through worshiping angels and all and keeping days and, and but now God is saying, no, no, no, it’s all in jesus christ, in his death, in his burial and in his resurrection. And you look at chapter two Vicki, just look at as it continues. Maybe we can kinda, you see in verse 11, it’s talking about the body and buried with him in baptism 12 13. Uh, that that our sins have been laid on him, made you alive together uh, with him having forgiven us all our transgressions, verse 14 read 14 and 50. I just love this. Having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us. And he has taken it out of the way having nailed it to the cross when he had disarmed the rulers and authorities, he made a public display of them having triumphed over them through him. So here he gives us the total solution that the demonic world, the spirit world has been publicly uh, defeated all of our sins have been put on the cross. All of the dog was the, the, the, the rap sheet as the, as you will like they do in in the police department keeps a keeps a running tab on all the evil that somebody has done from the time they were nine years old when they got arrested to the time they were 19, they may have been arrested 20 times. That’s called a rap sheet. They put it all there, I have one of my friends that’s got over 40 things on his rap sheet and and they keep a running tab and yet God says he nailed it to the cross, taking it out of the way. And this is what we have in jesus christ and then right after that if you notice, therefore let no one act as your judge in regard to your food and drink and respect the festivals or new moon or sabbath day, which are a mere shadow of the things to come. But the substance belongs to christ. Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize. And by delighting in self a basement and worship of angels and uh taking his standing visions he has seen inflated without cause by his fleshly mind and not holding to the head. So that whole thing Vicki is talking about, look, this is why christ has been presented as God in the flesh who went to the cross who bled and died, who publicly exposed the demonic world and took our sins upon himself. Last statement about that from you for me is that he didn’t leave us homeless, he left his spirit inside of us. So we now have him living inside of us. We don’t have to go far away. We can just call out to him wherever we are on this planet. It’s very powerful, isn’t it? And so this whole chapter, Yeah, and this whole chapter dealing with this idea of fullness and presenting this gnostic thought and word right here and and now redeeming it with the concept of the gospel all over it. That jesus, the man, in fact is God in the flesh, the divine, all of the father, the Son and the Holy spirit Are the God has as it says in in verse nine. For in him all the fullness of the deity dwells in Bodily form. God bless you. The passage I want to look at right now is found in colossians, chapter two verse eight. See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to christ verse nine. For in him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form and in him you have been made complete and he is the head over all, rule and authority. Listen verse nine, you can’t get it any more clear than that that in him in this person, jesus christ in his in the flesh, jesus in the flesh, meaning jesus is the the fullness play Roma of the Godhead father Son and Holy Spirit are in jesus christ, in bodily form. Now the teaching here is the incarnation, it’s the deity of the man. Jesus christ. There are many places that clearly show that let me just start with john chapter one, he’s referred to as the life in john 14, the eternal life in john 3 15 and 16. The resurrection and the life in verse chapter five, verse 29. The bread of life in john 6 35. The light of life in john 8 12. The abundant life in john 10 10 and the way the truth and the life in john 14 6, jesus christ it says about him and john 11 in the beginning was the word, the word was with God and God was the word this eternal being referred to as the logos is God. And then in verse 14 it says that the word, this logos became emerged not started when he, when he was born in Bethlehem, he was already existed. He emerged came into a different, a different form of the form of flesh, the form of a man in the flesh verse 14 and he dwelt among us and we beheld his glory. The glory as of the only begotten from the father mano, Yannis full of grace, Harris and Alethea truth. This is the incarnation. Let me give you another versus scripture in the gospel of john chapter eight, the Lord jesus christ is speaking to the Pharisees. They can’t understand what he’s saying. Uh you know, and he says, uh the jews verse 57 it says, and is starting with verse 54 but I’m gonna go down to verse 57. The jews therefore said to him, are you, you’re not yet 50 years old and have you seen Abraham and jesus said to them, be truly truly. And by the way, he said this 25 times in the gospel of john, I mean, I mean truly, truly verily verily, you can count on this whenever he used this. The apostle john used this double a word truly truly or verily verily, I mean, I mean is the word in greek. He meant you better take notice of this. This is really important. He said, I say to you before Abraham was I am and therefore they picked up stones to throw at him. But Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple. They knew that he meant that he was God in the flesh, that he was claiming to be God. And so they, they thought justified in taking stones to kill him for blasphemy in Philippians. Chapter two, beginning with verse uh you know, there’s so many places to start, but look at verse seven, it says he emptied himself. Chapter two, verse seven taking the form of a bond servant and being made in likeness of men and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. Therefore, God highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name. That at the name of jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that jesus christ is Lord to the glory of God, the father. So he already existed as God. He says that verse seven and eight. And yet we have a hard time with this jesus, The man was gone. And then the last piece is revelation. Chapter Revelation. Chapter one. It talks about the fact that he’s referred to as the alpha, the omega, the beginning and the end. That says that in chapter one and verse uh eight talks about the fact that he loves us and released us from our sins by his blood. And then it says in verse eight, I am the alpha and the omega says, the Lord God who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty, This is God. But it uses the same words in revelation 22 I want to just show you this. It says this in verse uh, chapter 22 in verse 13, I am the alpha and the omega, the first and the last same exact thing, the beginning and the end and then it talks about who it is that speaking, he says, I jesus verse 16 have sent mine angels to testify to you these things for the church is I am the root and the offspring of David. In other words, I was before David and I’m also after David, the offspring, the Bright and morning star. Now, here’s the invitation, the Spirit verse 17 and the bride say, come, let the one who here say come and let the one who is thirsty. Come and let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost. Listen to me, my friend, Jesus is God in the flesh. He came from eternity. He stepped into time. He is God in the flesh. He went to the cross as a sacrifice, the lamb of God to take away the sins of the world. He is the proto, he the firstborn and he conquered death. He is the firstborn in the church. He’s the firstborn from the dead. And he right now is knocking on your door and he wants you to repent and accept him as your personal savior. And if you don’t have him as the number one person in your life, if you are a believer, but you’re not letting him rule your life today. You need to say, oh, father, God, thank you for saving me, jesus. I know you’re my savior. I know you are the one that I’m supposed to be living for. Please forgive me. I want to come back and ask you to forgive me and cleanse me like Peter did when he came back and repented and asked the Lord to forgive him. And the Lord will ask you, do you love me more than these? I don’t know what it is that you’re looking at, but he’s gotta be first. Don’t leave your what revelation talks about this. Don’t leave your what? Your first love revelation. Chapter two. Speaking to the Ephesians, believers speaking to the pastor of that effusion church, you need to make him first in your life. Don’t walk away from letting him be your first love. Your greatest love to love him with all your heart and soul and mind and strength. God bless you Until next time. It’s all greek to me.