COLOSSIANS 2 YOU ARE COMPLETE IN JESUS2020 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Colossians 2 You Are Complete In Jesus

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2020. Well, as we look at Colossians chapter 2 this morning, I've titled the message, You Are Complete in Jesus. And I really want you to know and understand that you are complete in Jesus. That in Jesus, you have everything that you need.

everything that would be necessary for you for this life, for a relationship with God, for the challenges that you face, everything that you need to know God and to be right with God, everything that you need to have those experiences of a spiritual nature, all that you need for eternity, it is found in Jesus. You are complete in Jesus.

This idea of completion speaks of a maturity or a fullness. The great Greek scholar Kenneth Wiest puts it this way in his translation of this verse. He says, you are in him having been completely filled full with the present result that you are in a state of fullness. Really emphasizing that current condition. You are completely filled full with

with the present result, so that even now, that you are complete in Christ, not just in the sense of, you know, as you first gave your heart to the Lord and prayed that prayer and accepted Jesus as your Savior and you were filled full in that moment, but that in Jesus, we live in a perpetual state of fullness, that we have all that we need, that we have all that we can have in Jesus.

It doesn't always feel that way. And sometimes we lose sight of the reality. And Colossians is really one of those books that remind us of the importance of knowing and understanding doctrine. Because as false teachers crept into the church at Colossae, the Apostle Paul is writing to correct that false doctrine, to keep them on a solid ground, a solid track in their relationship with the Lord.

And there were teachers coming in who were saying, well, you're not really complete. You know what? You need something more. You need something else. There is something lacking in your relationship with God. Jesus himself is not sufficient for you. Jesus is not enough. And Paul here is going to great lengths to make sure we understand. No, that is not the truth. You are complete in Jesus.

Like I said, it doesn't always feel that way, though. Last week, I think it was last week, might have been a couple weeks ago, but I gave Jonathan the keys to my car. He had to run an errand real quick, and his car was parked in a way that it would be a distraction to service, and so I gave him my keys, and he went on his way. He came back and said, you were out of gas.

And I was like, well, I know how much gas is in the car. I know you had enough to go there and go back, but he doesn't know my car as well as I do, right? So he's like, no, no, I had to put gas because you didn't have enough. He didn't feel like the tank was full. And for sure, the tank wasn't all the way full, but it was full enough for him to be able to run his errand without. But I thank you, Jonathan, for giving me some gas. I haven't had to put gas all week. It's great.

We don't always feel full, right? We look at the thing, we look at the situation, we look at the bearings and the things that are happening around us and we're like, I don't know if Jesus is enough. I don't know if that's sufficient for my situation. And Paul here wants us to know you are complete in him even when you feel like the gauge is too low, even when you feel like there's not enough there. Everything that you need for a relationship with God, everything that you need for righteousness, everything that you need for holy living,

It's found in Jesus Christ and you have it. You have that fullness in him. Listen, if you live for another hundred years, you are complete in Jesus the whole time. Or if instead the doctor says you have three months to live and now you're going to be facing some difficult situations and challenges that you never thought. You are complete in Jesus. You have everything that you need in him. No matter who wins the election in just a few weeks.

Please understand and know you are complete in Jesus and the outcome will not change that one bit. Whatever family challenges you face or maybe searching for and seeking for a family, you need to know that you are complete in Jesus. If you achieve the career of your dreams, you need to know that you are complete in Jesus. Or if instead you're on the endless job search, never quite settling in, never quite finding that,

you're complete in Jesus. If your husband forces you to move to Texas, you're complete in Jesus. Or if you're stuck here to survive in California, you're complete in Jesus. If you get sent out onto the mission field, you're complete in Jesus. If you get sent out to Mission Viejo, you're complete in Jesus. No matter what happens around us, we have the fullness of everything so that in the present state, we are full in Jesus.

And as Paul is making this point here in Colossians chapter 2, he gives with this message, this emphasis, four warnings to the church at Colossae. And so I want to walk you through those four warnings as we work our way through some of these verses to help us be alert, to be warned, to understand the need for us to grasp hold of this truth. I am complete. I am full in Jesus.

We're going to start in verses 1 through 7 for point number 1, and that is let no one talk you out of a focus on Jesus. The first warning Paul gives we find in verse 4, but let me just kind of give a little bit of the context. So starting in verse 1, it says this,

that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Now this I say, lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words.

Here Paul is writing to the church at Colossae. He's never been there, but he's concerned for them and trying to protect them and help them through this situation where this false doctrine has crept into the church and these teachers have come in to lead the people away from Jesus. And as he's talking to them, he says in verse 3 that in Jesus are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Now, as he talks about these treasures and knowledge being hidden in Jesus, the idea is not that they're hidden in the sense that you can't discover them. The idea is that that's where they're stored. Like, all that we need, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are stored in Jesus. That in Jesus, we have access to that vast resource of wisdom and knowledge that he has, and all of the treasure of wisdom and knowledge is found in Jesus.

The false teachers that were coming in, they had a variety of different things that they were teaching in the church. It consisted of some elements of mysticism, some astrology, some philosophy, and some legalism based out of Judaism. And so there was this mixture of all of these things that were being taught. One of the emphasis was on that wisdom and knowledge that you could have if you followed this other person or listened to their doctrine or their teaching.

And Paul here is saying, no, we need to go back to understanding that we have all that we need, all the wisdom, all the knowledge, it's found in Jesus. It's hidden in Christ. And he says in verse 4, I say this, lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words. Here's the warning. There is a danger, he says. The danger is that you would be deceived by persuasive words.

The deception that you need additional wisdom and knowledge. The deception that you need something that Jesus cannot provide you. The deception that you need some extra wisdom or extra insight to have better access to God or better relationship with God. And there is a reality of deception.

I know it's easy for us to read this this morning and think, well, that's never going to happen to me. Look at me. I'm at church on Sunday morning. I'm not worried about deception. That's not a big deal. It's not something that's a real threat for us. But the reality is deception is a reality. And there is a need for us to be on guard against things that will lead us away from the simplicity of Jesus Christ. There is a reality of deception. And deceivers...

Well, they don't come in, obviously, you know, with false doctrine. They come in with partial truths and very persuasive words. It's very convincing. If you've ever taken a speech class, you know, there's a kind of speech called a persuasive speech. And you have to give a persuasive speech as part of that class. And there's many different techniques to use. And there are some people who are really good at

at persuasive speeches. And they can present arguments that are nonsense, but they are so convincing. They are so persuasive. And they can grab our attention, grab our emotions, grab our hearts, and lead us down a path of deception. Paul says, I'm wanting you to know everything that you need is found in Jesus. Grasp hold of that so that no matter how persuasive someone might be, they won't be able to convince you.

to take your focus off of Jesus and to start pursuing something else. Pastor Charles Spurgeon says, talking about the false teachers, he says, they did not openly contradict the gospel. They pretended to have a great affection for it. And then they tried to tear the very heart out of it with their enticing words of man's wisdom. And so talking about God and saying, I love God and talking about Jesus and saying, I love Jesus,

isn't necessarily a guarantee that there is not persuasive words of deception that are going on. We need to listen for the truth about Jesus Christ and the things that are being said. We need to validate and verify the things that we hear by the scriptures that are speaking of Jesus. Jesus says, these are they which testify of me. Everything that we need, all wisdom and all knowledge that we need is found in Jesus.

Jumping to verse six and seven here in Colossians 2, it says, as you have therefore received Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him, established in the faith as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. As you have received Jesus, you believed in Jesus, you received that gift of life and forgiveness that he offered in the same way that

Paul says, walk in him. That doesn't change. You keep believing in Jesus. You keep receiving from him all that he has for you. You keep trusting him for right standing before God. And so you walk in him, but you're also rooted in him. That you grow roots down deep, that you establish yourself in the faith, he says. Be established in the faith. Have a strong foundation on the word of God and be built up in him.

So there's a strong foundation of doctrine, and then there's a strong building that results. That is the building up or the life that is lived on top of that foundation. And so he says, abound in that with thanksgiving. Let no one talk you out of a focus on Jesus. Maintain your perspective. Jesus has all wisdom and all knowledge that you need. Now that doesn't mean that

He's not going to use people in your life to teach you and instruct you. That doesn't mean I don't listen to anybody. I only listen to Jesus, right? Jesus also has given us the body of Christ. He is also, you know, going to use people around us and things in our lives to speak to us and move. But the point is we need to maintain our focus on the Lord throughout all of that.

And everything that moves us, we are to check and validate and verify, Jesus, is this you? Is this from you? Is this part of my walk with you? And so the first warning here is to let no one talk you out of a focus on Jesus. Moving on to verses 8 through 15, the second warning that Paul gives is in verse 8. Here's point number two. Let no one carry you away from trusting Jesus.

In verse 8, he says, The warning here Paul gives in verse 8, Beware, watch out. There is the danger of,

of being cheated, Paul says, through philosophy and empty deceit. This word cheat, it means to carry off as a captive, to be led away, to be taken away captive. It's the idea of being kidnapped or, you know, kind of like a prisoner of war in victory, that you would be carried away captive.

Paul says, look, there's a battle going on and there's a battle for your mind, for your heart, for your soul. And there is this goal of carrying you away. The enemy wants to carry you away from the things of God. He wants to cheat you, to lead you off, to lead you astray. And one of the methods that he incorporates is philosophy and empty deceit.

Now, philosophy, just the word by itself, it means a love of wisdom. And philosophy and that kind of thing isn't necessarily evil. But what Paul is talking about here is a philosophy that is not consistent with the things of God. And there are philosophies, there's lots of different philosophies that can be presented and brought to us. And going back to the previous, right, they're persuasive, they sound really good, they sound really wise, they sound great.

But here Paul is talking about they're empty and they're deceitful. They're filled with lies. It sounds great, paints a great picture. Man, it just ties everything together. It seems just to fit so perfectly, but it's an empty deceit. Another thing that the enemy uses to try to lead us astray is the tradition of men. Traditions, things that we built up, doctrines that we create ourselves as humanity. Pastor Warren Wiersbe says, the important thing about any teaching is its origin.

Did it come from God or did it come from man? And we need to be checking out these things and understanding where it's coming from and verifying, does this come from God? Another tactic or avenue that the enemy comes at us, he says, watch out so that no one cheats you according to the basic principles of the world. The basic principles of the world. Now, looking at this, Bible scholars have understood and determined that

This is part of the astrology portion of the Colossian heresy. The basic principles, these are speaking to some mysticism and understandings that they had about astrology of the day. And so as he's talking about this, he's warning against things that would deceive us, that would carry us off captive.

in the realm of astrology. And I don't know who needs to hear this, but it was on my heart pretty strong. And so I want to share with you this quote from Pastor Warren Wiersbe. He says, The whole zodiac system is contrary to the teaching of the Word of God.

The Christian who dabbles in mysticism and the occult is only asking for trouble. There is a worldview, a philosophy, an idea in regards to astrology that is really dangerous and has no part and no place in our life because everything that we need is found in Jesus Christ.

Everything that we need, we need to look to Jesus for. We need to trust in Jesus for all of those things, for the direction that we need, for the security that we need, for the hope that we need. Let no one carry you away from trusting in Jesus. Not with philosophies, not with astrology, not with traditions, not with great sounding doctrines. Again, he connects it in verse nine, for in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.

You have everything that you need because Jesus is the fullness of God. And verse 10, and you are complete in him. You're complete. You're finished. You're full. That doesn't mean you've reached the destination yet, right? It's like when you fill up your tank, your tank is full, right? You have everything you need to get to your destination. That's the way that it is. We have everything that we need to walk this life, to walk this course that has been set before us.

Now he goes on in verse 11 through 15 to give some kind of practical examples. He says in verse 11, in him you were circumcised with the circumcision made without hands. And without getting into all the details of these things here, this practice of circumcision in Judaism was in the old covenant, part of the old system and not required for believers in Jesus. But the false teachers were saying, look, if you really want to have a changed life,

If you really want to have access to God and a special place in God's heart, then you'll go back and follow those things. And Paul says, no, you're complete in Jesus. There's no greater special spot that you can get in God's heart. As we think about Pastor Appreciation Day, sometimes people get in their mind that pastors have a special access to God, a special place in God's heart. They have this special, unique relationship with God. That's just not true.

We have different roles in the body of Christ, but we all have the same place in God's heart. We all have the same access to God. We all have the same, well, God gives us his ear just as much to you or to me that we have the ability to talk with God and walk with God. We don't need to trust in some ritual or some right or some position or some service or some activity to have that access to God.

In verse 12, he talks about baptism. He said, you were buried with him in baptism and you were raised with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead. You're complete, you're full. You've been included with him in his death and burial and resurrection as demonstrated by baptism. You have forgiveness. In verse 13, he says, look, you were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, but he made you alive, having forgiven you all trespasses.

You don't need more to be forgiven. You don't need something else to be forgiven. You have Christ. And believing in Jesus Christ, you are forgiven. In verse 14, he talks about the requirements of the law, the handwriting of requirements that was against us. You don't need something more. And again, the false teachers who are coming in, you know, would give this list of things that you have to do if you really want to be right with God.

If you really want to have, you know, that kind of forgiveness or that kind of relationship with God, Paul here is saying Jesus has wiped out those requirements. You don't have to keep this list of rules in order to know God or walk with God. And then in verse 15, he talks about disarming principalities and powers, talking about the spiritual forces of the enemy.

And the false leaders would come in and say, if you really want to have victory over the devil, right? If you really want to defeat the devil, then here's what you need to do. You need something more than Jesus. And Paul is saying, no, Jesus disarmed the principalities and powers and you're complete in him. You have him, you have everything that you need. So let no one carry you away from trusting in Jesus.

Let no one cause you to place your eyes, to place your hope, to place your trust in something else. To do so would be a grave mistake. The Lord speaking to his people through the prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah chapter 2 said, My people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

Two evils, the Lord says, they've committed. First of all, they've forsaken me. I'm the fountain of living water. I have everything that you need. And that's the first evil, forsaking God who is everything that you need. Secondly, to make for yourself your own cisterns, but they're always going to be broken. Our own systems, whatever we come up with, whatever some brilliant person comes up with, it's always going to be broken because of our sinfulness. Let no one

Carry you away from trusting in Jesus. Well, let's look at verse 16 and 17 for point number three this morning. Let no one take you off the course Jesus has given you. Let no one take you off the course that Jesus has given you. Verse 16, so let no one judge you in food or in drink or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.

So here he gives the third warning, and that is let no one judge you in food or drink or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths. Don't let anyone judge you in regard to these old covenant practices of the law. Don't let anybody judge you in regards to legalistic rules and regulations is what Paul is talking about. Pastor Warren Wiersbe says the false teachers were claiming a deeper spiritual life for all who would practice the law.

Outwardly, their practices seemed to be spiritual, but in actual fact, these practices accomplished nothing spiritual. We need to make sure that we do not allow anyone to take us off course into legalism, that we are saved by grace through faith. But it's not just that initial salvation. We walk in Christ by grace through faith. We continue our relationship with God by grace through faith.

That is how we begin, and that is how we continue. That is the course that the Lord has set for us. Paul goes on to say, look, all of these things are a shadow of things to come. There was an appeal and a desire to go back to that old covenant, and Paul is saying, look, those things were shadows pointing to Jesus. They're fulfilled in Jesus. You don't have to go back and practice those things because you have the fulfillment of them in Christ.

But I find it interesting here in verse 16 when he says, so let no one judge you. I've pointed this out a few times, but when the scripture talks about things like this, when Paul says, let no one judge you, he's not saying, here's what you should do. If you hear about someone judging you, you should go chase them down and force them to stop judging you. No, that's not what God is saying here. What he's saying is do not let their opinions shape your doctrine or change you.

the instruction that God has given to you. Don't let people's opinions change what it is that God has said. In 1 Kings chapter 13, there's an interesting account of a prophet. We don't have his name. He's just referred to as a man of God who is used by God to pronounce a prophecy against Jeroboam, the king of Israel. Now, God gave him specific instructions as he went and delivered this message to

God said, don't eat bread or drink water. Just go deliver the message and come straight back. Don't stop for a meal. Don't, you know, stop and hang out, but just go and deliver the message and return right away. And so he goes and he delivers the message. But as he's on his way back, another guy comes who used to be a prophet of the Lord. He goes to that prophet who delivered the message and said, hey, why don't you come home with me? I'd like to just have you at my house and host you for the night. And he goes,

Would you please come? And he said, no, I can't. God told me, don't eat bread, don't drink water, but just go straight back. Well, this other guy says, you know, I'm also a prophet. And the Lord told me to tell you, you should come back and hang out with me at my house. And so this man of God listened to this other guy and went home.

As a result, the Lord spoke to that man of God and said, you disobeyed. I told you. Why did you let this other guy, just because he claimed to speak on my name, just because he claimed to speak on my behalf, why did you let this other guy persuade you to throw off the course that I gave you? This is something that is important to understand and something that does happen. We need to know the Lord and to know what it is that he has set before us.

Now, in regards to eating and drinking and all of these festivals and things, the Apostle Paul is saying, look, if you want to participate in those things, you're free to do that in Christ. You can do that. It doesn't change your access to God. Don't let this other person come in and say, you have to do this in order to be right with God. Because that's not the course that God has given to us. He's given us a course of access to God by faith in Jesus Christ. You're complete in him.

There are convictions that God will give you that are different than the people around you. And some things in your life perhaps would be interpreted as legalism by somebody else. And sometimes we interpret the things that God has given to us as things that everybody else should do. And so then we try to, you know, apply those rules to everybody else. But we need to understand that there's a course that God has set before us. It doesn't involve legalism, but it perhaps might involve practicing some things that are particular to us and unique to us.

Don't let anyone take you off the course that Jesus has given to you. And if you think, hey, I'm okay eating on, you know, this day, or I'm okay...

fasting on that day, or I'm okay not fasting on this day, or I'm okay, you know, handling this situation differently. That's okay. The Lord has given us room for flexibility and individuality in his relationship with us. Let no one take you off of the course that Jesus has given you. Now, the requirement for this is to know the course that Jesus has given you. And so again, you're complete in him. Stay close to him. Know what he has for you,

more than you listen to what others say that you should do. Well, finally, verses 18 and 19, point number four this morning is let no one disqualify you from rewards in Jesus. Let no one disqualify you. Verse 18 says, let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind.

Here in this final warning for this morning, Paul says, Because that word cheat, we saw the word cheat a few verses earlier, but this is a different word.

This word cheat speaks of deciding against as an umpire or as a referee. One definition puts it to defraud of the prize of victory. To defraud of the prize of victory. This is the idea of being disqualified that you don't get the prize because of some means or some matter of disqualification. And perhaps you might think of

Lance Armstrong, right? Remember a few years back and admitted to taking those illegal substances, and so he was stripped of some medals. He was defrauded of the prize that he had been given because, well, it was discovered, it was found out that he had not competed according to the rules. Maybe a more recent example is the Houston Astros. I feel like it's a touchy subject, so I don't want to bring that one up, but maybe they should have been defrauded of the prize. Let no one defraud you.

There's reward that God has for you. But there's also the danger, and here's the warning that Paul's giving, of missing out on the reward that God has for you. And there is an enemy who wants to trip you up so that you miss out on that reward. Some of the ways and tactics that he uses to trip us up is false humility. He says in verse 18, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels. Again, this Colossian heresy is,

incorporated all these different elements of legalism, mysticism, worship of angels. And it was apparently, again, we're discerning this from the book of Colossians, but it seems that they were substituting or putting angels kind of as a mediator position between the people and the Lord. But it was a fake humility. It was like, you know what? Jesus is so righteous. Right?

And God is so holy, we can't go straight to him. And so we need to have these angels that we contact and connect with and talk to. And they then, you know, intercede on our behalf. And so there's this mediator layer in between us and God. And it sounds humble the way they present it, right? It sounds like it's humility, but it's false humility because it's a rejection of what God has said.

Paul tells us in 1 Timothy 2, verse 5, there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus. There is one mediator, it's Jesus. And there is no need for mediators in between. And when we insert mediators in between, that's false humility. That's throwing off what God has said. And we can maybe present it well, and it can be presented well. But it's not real humility. And it's a tactic, a technique of the enemy to disqualify us

from the rewards that we have in Christ. This idea of visions being vainly puffed up, all of this, you know, consumes with, consists of this doctrine that was built up by what's called Gnosticism. And the idea that there is this, you know, secret high-level information that you can have and then you can really know God and really be spiritual.

It's a self-righteousness. False humility turns out to be self-righteousness. This teaching and these doctrines don't contribute to our rewards in Christ, but instead take away from. The reality is, in verse 19, not holding fast to the head. See, the problem is, and the reason why it disqualifies us, is because we stop holding fast to the head, which is Jesus Christ. The whole body is nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments. We're all joined together and

attached to the head, but when we detach from the head, we lose out on the rewards that God has for us. We lose out on things that God wants to do in our lives and the ways that God wants to work through us and in us. And so here in Colossians chapter 2, Paul says, look, you are complete in Jesus. You need to know that, grasp hold of that truth, and don't let anybody talk you out of a focus on Jesus.

Let no one carry you away from trusting Jesus, trusting these other rituals or these other practices instead. No, no. Trust in Christ and what he has done for you. Let no one take you off of the course that Jesus has given to you. And let no one disqualify you from rewards in Jesus. You're complete in him. Again, even if you live another hundred years.

Even if tomorrow technology changes and it's like a whole new world that we're living in that we never would have anticipated. Even if you enter into a new season that you didn't anticipate. If you find the career of your dreams or you never find a job again. If you live in this place or that place, no matter who wins the election, no matter what life throws at you tomorrow, or 10 years from now, or 50 years from now, you are complete in Jesus.

Look to him, trust in him, listen to him, and walk with him. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your word and these great reminders of all that we have in you. I pray that you would help us to be steadfast, to be established in you, not persuaded, not deceived, Lord, but that we would lay hold of your truth and never waver from it. Teach us, God, to trust you, to hear your voice, to walk with you, to know that you

Lord, even when we don't feel complete, Lord, even when the tank feels empty or it seems like we just don't have what we need for the situations of this life, help us not to then turn to other avenues and other sources, but help us to turn towards you again, to call out to you, to rely upon you, to trust in you. Lord, to let you show us the way and to give us the wisdom to provide for our needs, Lord, to meet us where we're at.

And so, Lord, keep us in that place of dependence, knowing that we are complete in you. You are the one we need. You are the one we want. Thank you, God, for your goodness. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of his word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.