Hope Church LV Sermons
Colossians 2 :: Jesus is Enough
As a church family, we are studying, verse by verse, through the New Testament book of Colossians. So if you have a copy of the Scriptures today, go ahead and take it and open up to Colossians chapter 2. And over the past few weeks, there's been a word that we've been talking about. Several weeks ago, Pastor Tom talked about this word. Last week, Vance talked around this word, and we're going to talk about it again today because the content that the Apostle Paul is going to be writing about centers around this word, and here's the word, counterfeit. If you were to Google the word counterfeit, here's what would pop up in Webster's dictionary, made in imitation of something else, with the intent to deceive. That's what this word counterfeit means. Now, at least for me, when I hear the word counterfeit, what I think about first is money, because one of the things that a lot of people attempt to imitate with the intent to deceive is money. So, I did some research this week really examining how much counterfeit money is really in circulation here in our culture. I found an article by USA Today, and I found some interesting information. Here's what the article said. The amount of counterfeit money being accepted by consumers and stores in the USA is climbing as crooks are increasingly using inexpensive home computers and printers to produce phony money. And within the article, there was a chart, and that chart showed just how much counterfeit money in our culture is on the rise. It started in 1999. Did you know that in 1999, the Secret Service apprehended $39 million in counterfeit bills? Fast forward to 2006, the Secret Service apprehended $62 million in counterfeit bills. And then the most recent data we have is 2011. And what the study shows is that the Secret Service seized $261 million in counterfeit money. That's a lot of money. Now even though that's less than 1% of the overall currency in circulation in our country, it still communicates a very important reality. That in the world we live in, there is both real money and counterfeit money. And what we established last Sunday is that the same thing is true about the gospel. But just like with money, there is a growing circulation of the counterfeit gospel in our culture. And it's that reality that really burdened the Apostle Paul as he writes what he writes in Colossians chapter 2. He starts in verse 8 and he says, "I'm really burdened that some of you believers may be taken captive by false teaching and that you may miss the very essence of following Jesus." And then he goes on in verse 9 and 10 and says, "Here's why I want you to understand what following Jesus is all about." He says in verse 9, "A non-negotiable truth about Jesus." He says, "Jesus is God." He says, "Everything that God is, Jesus is with skin all." And then he moves to verse 10 and he shares another weighty truth. But this truth is not about Jesus. This truth is about us as believers and here's what he says. He says, "In Christ, every believer has been made complete." And he says, "Any teaching that you hear that says you have not been made whole and complete in Christ is a worthless and counterfeit gospel." Because here's what Paul knew. He knew that one of the most significant things that can happen for any believer is that we begin to see ourselves according to the truth of what the Bible says about us. And in the text we're about to read, here's what's going on. The false teachers are questioning the sufficiency of Jesus. That's what's happening. They're questioning the sufficiency of Christ. And the rest of Paul's letter here in Colossians is dedicated to helping Christians understand who they are in Christ. So look in your Bible, Colossians chapter 2, I'm going to begin reading in verse 16. You can also pull this up on your smartphone or on your iPad. Here's what the Bible says in Colossians chapter 2 starting in verse 16. "Therefore, no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day. Things which are a mere shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self abasement and the worship of the angels. Taking his stand on visions he has seen inflated without cause by his fleshly mind and not holding fast to the head from whom the entire body being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments grows with a growth which is from God." Verse 20. If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why as if you were living in the world that you submit yourself to decrees such as do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, which all refer to things destined to perish with use in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men, these are matters which have to be sure the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence. We have quite a task this morning as we look to unpack and understand the scripture. And here's the way I want to put it together. I want to share with you this morning three realities about the sufficiency of Jesus. And what Paul really does in this text is he exposes the lie. He pinpoints the lie of the false teachers, and then he shares a biblical reality to clarify the truth. So that's what I want us to do this morning. I want to pinpoint for us the lie in each of these sections of scripture. And then I want to share with you a reality, a truth that can help bring clarity to the lie that the false teachers were communicating. Paul starts here by saying the word therefore. He's saying in light of everything I've just communicated, remember that you are complete in Christ. He says don't let anyone judge you what was happening is the false teachers were not just being critical of the believers. They weren't just saying, hey, you're foolish. No, they were saying because you choose to believe what you believe, God's judgment is going to be on your life. They took it a step further. And here's the first lie in verse 16 that the apostle Paul pinpoints, Jesus plus performance. And here's the essence of what the false teachers were saying. There is something other than Jesus that makes me right with God. This lie was prevalent in this culture and it's where Paul starts in verse 16. The people who believe this lie lived with a lot of fear. I mean, you can imagine if you think that you not only need Jesus, but you need Jesus plus performance every day you have the fear of thinking, am I making God happy? You live with the fear of, yes, Jesus saved me, but now I have to work. I have to figure it out on my own. That entire thought process is a religious system that revolves around human achievement and is in direct contradiction to the teachings of Jesus in the New Testament. Paul mentions two here in the text, what they ate and drank and how they celebrated special holidays. They were putting in a box to say, if you're really going to follow Jesus, that's great, but you must also do these things. And in essence, what Paul clarifies is, listen, you're focused on all these things that you must do. He says it's not about the rules, it's about a relationship. He uses the language that those things in the law are a mere shadow. And they were given to give an outline of Christ who was to come. But now Christ has come, he's the substance. So there's no need for us to continue to pursue or focus on the shadow. Now we're to pursue and focus on Jesus. That's what he clarifies. That trap was very prevalent in Paul's day. And listen, that trap is still very prevalent in our day. I dare say there are some people in our service today. And you think that yes, Jesus loves you, yes, you have a relationship with him. But you still need to perform in order to be right with God. Listen, that's wrong. There was a time in my life where I felt that same way. I grew up in a church called Valley View Baptist Church, grew up there as a young child. I actually came to Christ in that church and I am incredibly grateful for the heritage and the people who made an investment in my life while I was at that church. But for a lot of the time I was there, they were sharing truth with me from a genuine heart. But I had a wrong mindset about what following Jesus was all about. I can remember as a seventh grader, every Sunday morning, I would go to what was called Sunday school. Some of you know what that is, some of you don't know what that is. But we would sit in a Sunday school class and we would always start the same way. We would take role. And when that happened, my teacher would bring out an envelope and I actually found a picture of the envelope. It's not exactly HD, but you can see it. You'll notice on the far left, there's a list of boxes. And really all this was was a time of accountability for our class. But I didn't see it that way. My teacher would say Travis, are you present? And I said I hope so, and he would check that box for me. Then he'd go the next box, say Travis, did you bring your Bible? I said no, actually I left it at my house, okay, you didn't get that box. He'd go the next one, Travis, did you read your Bible? Travis, did you study your lesson? Travis, do you have an offering for today? Well, no, not really, I actually don't. And so my week became consumed with filling in those boxes. Now listen, that wasn't the way he intended it. Those things are great if you're doing them because you have a relationship with God. Where it's dangerous is when we do those things to try to earn a relationship with God. You see, I'd miss the very essence of what following Jesus was all about. Here's the reality. I want you to understand this morning to combat with this lie. Here's the reality, only Jesus can make me right with God. Only Jesus can make me right with God. You see, it's a healthy practice in the life of a believer to study the Bible and to give and to attend service and to study the scriptures. But we do not do those things in order to make God happy. We do those things because he has saved us and we do them out of the overflow of our love relationship with him. If you're here today and there is any part of you that feels you have to work in order to make God happy, I want you to understand that in Christ, you are made complete. And here's why that's so important because it's impossible to be trying to earn God's acceptance and walking an intimacy with him at the same time. You can't do both. You can't be trying to earn someone's acceptance and growing an intimacy with them at the same time. And the beautiful thing about Christianity is that only in Jesus can we be made complete. It's not our works, it's not our performance, it's not what we do. Only in him, our completion is not based on our performance. That's what that means. That means that his love for you and me does not go up and down based on the type of week that we have. The Bible says he has accepted us, he has embraced us. Why? Because of Jesus. Here's the real important question that all of us have to settle in our hearts if we're going to walk in God's design for relationship with him. Here's the question. What does it take for God to fully accept me? Because here's what I know. In all of us, every one of us in the room, there's this thought. And the thought's there because of what we've done, what we've said, the mistakes we've made, what we failed to do, and here's the thought we all have. I'm not good enough. We all think that. We all have this feeling in our hearts that we're really not good enough for God to fully accept us. And so here's what we do. Because we know we're not good enough, we try to work or perform or do in order to try to make up the gap. We all do that. Want to read you a verse of Scripture that will hopefully bring some peace and clarity this morning. In 1 Timothy, chapter 2, the Bible says, "For there is one God and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all." Now, I've underlined that word ransom because it's very important. Here's what the word ransom means. It means a payment for the release of someone in captivity. It's what the word ransom means. So I want to read that verse again with that definition in mind. 1 Timothy 2 says, "For there is one God and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a payment for the release of someone in captivity." Here's what that's teaching us, that wrestling in your heart to try to work because you know you're not good enough, you know something needs to be done to be right with God. Here's what the Scripture's saying, "That work was done, but it was done by Jesus. And everything He did brings us to a place of completion and rightness with God. The greatest thing you can embrace today as a believer is that all the work, all the doing, all the performance was taken care of through the person of Jesus Christ and now He invites us to know Him and walk with Him by faith and through Christ God fully accepts us." To the point that Romans 8 says, "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus." The central message of the Bible is that we are not good enough in Adam, but in Christ we are made alive to God. Listen to this application statement, "As a follower of Jesus, there is nothing I can do to make myself more acceptable or less acceptable to God." There's nothing you can do today that can make you as a Christian more acceptable or less acceptable to God. And listen, every time that you struggle with who you were in Adam, you must cling to the reality of who you are now in Christ. The Bible gives numerous pictures that we can understand to describe how we've been accepted by our Heavenly Father. The New Testament actually has five words that communicate the significance of salvation, redemption, justification, forgiveness, reconciliation, and adoption. Word adoption is a powerful word and a powerful picture. Romans 8 says this, "For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again." What does that mean? Well, if I think I'm having to work for God to accept me, I live with a constant fear of, "Am I really doing enough?" But look what the Scripture goes on to say. But you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba, Father," that could literally be translated, "Daddy." Here's what Lance Witt says about Romans 8. "There's a huge difference between being a son or daughter and being an employee. A company has a transactional relationship with an employee. You produce, you're in. You don't produce, you're out. Your compensation is connected to your contribution, but it's different being a son or daughter. You are family. Your place is not dependent on your performance. As a son, my value is intrinsic, not transactional." What does it take for God to fully accept us? That's what it takes. It takes us putting our faith in the finished work and life of Jesus. You see, only in Him can we be made right with God. That's the first lie that Paul goes up against. There's this lie that there's something other than Jesus that makes me right with God. What Paul teaches us here is that only Jesus can make us right with God. There's the second lie that we read in this text. The first one was Jesus plus performance. The second lie is Jesus plus experience. Here's the essence of this lie. There is something other than Jesus that deepens my intimacy with God. That was the message of the false teachers. They said, "Yeah, Jesus is great, but there's something other than Jesus that you need in order to deepen your intimacy with God." Look at verse 18 and 19. He says, "Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God." The other trap is that the false teacher said, "You need a certain experience beyond what you walk in your relationship with Jesus." Now we could list a lot of examples about what this looks like, but here's the very essence of this teaching. I'm to focus on the way I feel more than a relationship with Jesus. And what this lie was doing, it was devaluing the authority of scripture and truth and elevating experience. The first lie elevated performance, the second lie in this text, elevates experience. This lie said, "I need all that Jesus is, but I also need an experience." I want to challenge you today like I challenge myself this week as I was studying this text. If you are pursuing an experience more than you are pursuing Jesus, you are no longer living out biblical Christianity. If you find that the thing you feel like you need is an experience more than you need to deepen your walk with Jesus, you are no longer following the pattern of biblical Christianity in the New Testament. John Piper said this, I love this statement. He said, "Salvation is not good news if it only saves from hell and not for God. This is not good news. If it only gives relief from guilt and doesn't open the way to God, justification is not good news. If it only makes us legally acceptable to God, but doesn't bring fellowship with God. Redemption is not good news. If it only liberates us from bondage, but doesn't bring us to God. And adoption is not good news if it only puts us in the Father's family but not in His arms." That was the lie that those things only got you so far and there was something else that was necessary to deepen your relationship with God. But here's the truth. Here's the reality that goes directly in opposition to this second lie. Jesus is enough. Jesus is enough. The false teacher is saying he's not enough. You need this specific experience. You need to feel this specific way. You need this to take place if you're really going to deepen your intimacy with God. But what Paul says here is look the head. The primary thing you need to walk with God is a relationship with Jesus. He says he's enough. He's sufficient to the point that in 2 Peter chapter 1, here's what the Bible says, "Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of Him who called us." It doesn't say you have partially been given. It says we've been given everything as it pertains to life and godliness. A relationship with God begins and ends with following Jesus. And as we think about this idea of experience, I think there are two that a lot of us really, really wrestle with and that are more prevalent than the other ones. And I want to point those out very quickly. The first experience that in some ways we may sense that we need is this, an experience of emotion. For some people, they believe they need their emotions to be stirred in order to draw close to God. Listen, I love coming to worship here at Hope every Sunday. I mean, the fact that I'm a pastor here is just icing on the cake. I love to worship here. But when I walk onto this campus every Sunday, I'm not coming in order to make up a gap that is lacking in my relationship with God. My pursuit of Jesus, my relationship with Him is everything I need. It's enough for me to experience intimacy with God. And we must be very, very careful that when we come to an event like this or a Christian retreat or a Christian concert that we have a right perspective, that those things are ways we can be encouraged, ways we can be challenged in our relationship with God. But ultimately, Jesus Christ is enough. We are not called to live independence on church. We are called to live independence on Jesus. But it's very easy to slide into a mindset that says, I need this certain song or a choir or certain lighting or a certain pastor or a certain location or a large crowd in order to draw near to God. That's wrong. Our prayer every weekend as we gather here for worship is that everything we do in this place would simply shine a spotlight on Jesus. Any instance, when God is at work, we will always be pointed to a closer walk with Jesus. Any instance, any time you would say, man, God's at work in my life, God's activity always points us to a deeper relationship with Jesus. And if it doesn't, it's simply a fleshly emotion. The Holy Spirit will always point you to Jesus. Anytime God's at work, we are always directed and pointed to Him. Here's a second experience that I think a lot of people wrestle with, not only an experience of emotion, but also an experience of tradition. For some people, they believe they need things to take place in a certain order in order to draw near to God. Here's what that sounds like. I can only meet with God if I'm dressed in a certain attire. I can only meet with God if we sing a certain song. I can only meet with God if the preacher uses a certain translation of the Bible. Come on now. I can only meet with God if things happen in a certain order. Here's the heartbreak in reality. There are people in our country, in our city, and in our church who are running from experience to experience to experience, thinking, they are making up what is lacking in their relationship with God. All the while, they are complete in Christ. Jesus, He's enough. He's sufficient. Here's the third lie that Paul points out in these verses. Jesus plus doing without. Here's the essence of this lie. There is something other than Jesus that can transform my life. You see it through verses 20 to 23, there's the do not, do not, do not. These false teachers were saying, listen, there's some things you need to do. You need to do without if your life is really going to be changed. This lie calls people to do harsh things in an attempt to bring about holiness. The message was this, look at what I'm doing without in order to make God happy. This lifestyle was defined by a false humility that said, I can transform my life from the outside in. It was a message that said, I can clean myself up, but here's what I want to contrast that with this morning. The lie was Jesus plus doing without, here's the reality. Only Jesus can transform my life. The only way my life is going to be changed is through a love relationship with Jesus. As we think about transformation, there are really two ways that people view transformation. Here's the first one. I can change myself from the outside in, focusing on the external activities in an attempt to cover up or justify the inside. This was the message of the false teachers. The message was, I can change myself from the outside in. Through outside intervention, I can make myself holy. Here's the point though, sin is not just around us. Sin is in us and there's no discipline or activity we can do that can remove the sin from inside of us. You see, our flesh is not getting better. Our flesh is getting worse and we cannot transform ourselves. Dr. Ian Thomas said this, "What a relief. It must be for you to discover that in all your attempts to harness the flesh in the service of Jesus Christ and in all your painful endeavors to introduce it to godly principles of life and conduct, God has never expected anything of you, but the hopeless failure you have been." You've been trying to do the impossible. Listen, there may be some people today and you think, "Travis, look at all the things I'm doing without. I'm making myself more holy." No, you're not. Transformation cannot happen from the outside in, but here's the second way that we can view transformation. That is the biblical way inside out, focusing on intimacy with God that produces a changed life on the outside. God's plan is to conform every person into the image of his son Jesus. He does this through a process called transformation that happens from the inside out. In verse 20, he says a really important phrase. He says, "If you have died with Christ," let me ask you something. How much trying can a dead person do? You see, as a part of following Jesus as a part of being transformed, I'm to identify with him and his death and saying, "Lord, my will, my feelings, my desires, I am identifying with your death on the cross, but I'm also identifying with your resurrected life and living independence on you, and out of the overflow of my love relationship with you, I can be transformed from the inside out, making us a perfect vessel for God to shape, mold, and to use. Only Jesus can change my life." Some of the most, the most miserable people on the planet are believers who are trying to live the Christian life out of their own resources. There's nothing more frustrating than that. Trying to appear a certain way or come across as a certain level all the while you know in your heart that it's your flesh, it's your effort, it's your trying, and not the life of Jesus being pressed out through you. There are probably some people here today, and you would never say this out loud, but the lie you're believing is that there is something other than Jesus that makes you right with God. I want you to hear this biblical truth this morning, only Jesus can make you right with God. I'd imagine there are some other people here, and the lie you're believing is that you need Jesus plus an experience. Here's the biblical truth I want you to hear. Jesus is enough. He's sufficient. Everything God desires to do in your life. He will do in the context of your love relationship with the sun Jesus. There's probably another group of people here, and here's the lie you're believing. You need Jesus plus doing without. You're trying hard to transform yourself, but guess what? You're fighting a losing battle because only Jesus can transform your life. Here's the question I want to ask you, and then we're going to move to a time of invitation. Are you complicating the gospel? That's what the false teachers were doing. They were making this thing way more complicated than it really was. I can boil the whole thing down to three words. You see, what does this whole thing about following Jesus, what's it all about, three words, abide, connect, and share? As believers, the consuming passion of our lives is to be an abiding relationship with God through the person of Jesus, connecting with God's family and community, and sharing in the mission of Christ. That's the whole thing. Paul wrote to Timothy and he said, "Don't be distracted from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ." That's my challenge today. Don't be distracted by a counterfeit message that adds to the gospel. Understand what matters most, what our lives are supposed to be defined by, a relationship with God, a relationship with God's family, and a relationship with the world. Jesus is enough. [BLANK_AUDIO]