Counsel from a Concerned Apostle, Part 3

Today from Chuck Swindoll. Stay with Christ. Keep him in the center. He is supreme. He is our all in all. For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. You are complete through your union with Christ who is the head over every ruler and authority referring again to the demonic realm. He is head over all of that.

By having Christ you have the fullness of God. Welcome to Insight for Living featuring the Bible teaching of Chuck Swindoll. I'm Bill Meyer, your new program host, grateful to be stepping into Dave Spiker's role.

Dave's been a good friend and colleague for many years. On today's program Chuck continues teaching from Colossians chapter 2. This section contains practical wisdom from a seasoned brother in the Christian faith. Paul wanted the Colossians to experience the fullness of their union in Christ.

In the event you missed Friday's program we'll begin with helpful highlights. Chuck titled his message Council from a Concerned Apostle. If nothing else I hope you will pick up from this message today that people matter and your relationship with others is far more important than anything other than your relationship to Christ.

We need each other. Paul begins this second chapter of Colossians continuing with the thought of Christ's power that works within me. He says I want you to know how much I've agonized for you and for the church at Laodicea. He doesn't even know the people. In fact look how he writes I've agonized for you and for the church at Laodicea and for many other believers who have never met me personally.

Paul cares about these people living in Colossae. He said I want anyone to deceive you with their well-crafted arguments for though I am far away from you my heart is with you. Those are words of love by the way. I'm not near you but man I've got you on my heart. I rejoice that you're living as you should and yet your faith in Christ is strong.

I want it to stay strong. In fact while I'm on the subject of a warning let me have you mark some warnings. Verse 4, so no one will deceive you with well-crafted arguments. Verse 8, there's another one, don't let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense. The word capture is to take you captive, to march you into their place where they will hold you captive. It's like an addiction.

You can't get free of some of the cause. Sometime your life is in danger. Look at verse 16, don't let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink or for not celebrating certain holy days or new moon ceremonies or sabbaths. That's a list of legalistic things that the leader is saying you need to start doing or stop doing.

If you don't you won't know the pleasure of God. They give you the list, that's their list, not a biblical list. So he warns them about falling in the trap of a legalist.

Some of you have lived there. You could stand and speak on your own to tell others around you what you went through, not only trying to live up to the list but when you decided to break free from it. You were shunned, you were ostracized and perhaps still are.

This is still going on. Look at 18, don't let anyone condemn you by insisting on pious self-denial or the worship of angels. The whole asceticism that he's emphasizing. Don't let anyone rob you of your prize or disqualify you.

You see now why we need one another? What if Paul weren't there to warn them? They'd fall into the trap. It's very appealing.

If I'm living an isolated life, chances are great that I'll be sucked right into it. You check it out. You check out those that get drawn into cults. They're often isolationists who've gotten a little bit disillusioned in life and this new teaching sounds very attractive.

So no one deceive you with well-crafted arguments. I rejoice that you're living as you should and that your faith in Christ is strong. Isn't that affirmation fabulous?

Don't you love that? He says to them, I commend you for living as you should and your faith in Christ is strong. Notice how he puts it. Your faith in Christ is strong. Each of these is a slap in the Gnostic's face. They're not hearing that their faith in Christ is important.

They're hearing the opposite. It's not really that important. Oh, the apostle says you're strong because your faith in Christ is strong. Never get far from the person of Christ.

When you do, you're headed for trouble. Now, having affirmed them, he gives the basic rudiments of Christianity. Look at them in verses 6 and 7. You talk about verses worth memorizing.

There they are. Colossians 2, 6 and 7 should be on the lips and in the mind of every believer in Christ. Those are two verses that are worth your memorizing.

Listen to them. And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as the Lord, that's salvation. That's the new birth.

Christianity begins for each individual by our putting our faith and trust in Christ, by our accepting him, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the first part. Now notice further on.

You must, he uses the word, you must continue to follow him just as you have trusted in Christ, given him your soul for eternity, so you must begin to walk with him. Now there's more. As you begin to master this walking, you begin to put your roots down. Isn't this fun?

Isn't this great? You're beginning to walk. You have now been birthed. You have now begun to walk. So you grow in Christ and you begin to deepen your roots.

Let your roots grow down into him and let your lives be built on him, not on some high sounding philosophy, not on some slick wording that you're going to pick up from the false teacher. We're birthed. We begin to walk. We put our roots down and then we start to produce. And what do we produce? Thankfulness.

Got your pen ready? I'm going to give you a verse of scripture to put in the margin of Colossians 2, 6 and 7. It's Hebrews 13, 15. Hebrews 13, 15.

Listen to it. By him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is the fruit of lips giving thanks to his name.

By him, none other than the Lord God, let us offer the sacrifice of praise continually, the fruit of lips, giving thanks to his name, naming the name, the name of Christ, giving thanks to his name. And right on the heels of that, there's another warning. That's why we need each other. We need people who warn us. Look at it.

Don't let anyone capture you. That is the idea of lead you away captive with empty philosophies and high sounding nonsense that come from human thinking, from the spiritual powers of this world. It is a subtle reference to the demonic powers. Cults are fed by demonic power. False teachers get their energy from false gods. There's a whole system of demonic authorities that operate in realms all of which are invisible and insidious. You cannot see them. You will not hear them unless they're speaking through the vocal cords of a false teacher. He speaks of them as those that come from human thinking and spiritual powers rather than what?

Look. Look at the end of verse 8. Rather than from Christ, there we are again. Stay with Christ.

Keep him in the center. He is supreme. He is our all in all. Rather than from Christ, for in Christ, and he decides he will just go a little deeper and test their mettle when it comes to the ability to grasp, in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body.

That'll keep us busy for a while. Look at it. In Christ. In no other. Or he would have told us there are others, but in Christ alone lives the fullness of God in a human body. And to make it even better, verse 10, you are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority, referring again to the demonic realm.

He is head over all of that. By having Christ, you have the fullness of God. One man put it this way. It represents the essence of God undivided in its whole fullness dwelling in Christ in his exalted state so that he, Christ, is the essential and adequate image of God. How magnificent must have been the experience of the disciples who walked alongside the one who was full of grace and truth. John admits we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. No wonder their lives were transformed.

No wonder they lost interest in fishing in Galilee and selling or involved in taxing others. Everything focused on the fullness of what they had in Christ. You are complete through your union with Christ.

Will you never forget it? You don't need more if you have Christ. You're not missing anything because with Christ you have the very essence of God. You represented him in human flesh through your union with Christ.

You have him. I like the way Kent Hughes describes this from his book on Colossians. Listen to this illustration. My wife and I once stood on the shore of the vast Pacific Ocean. Two finite dots alongside a seemingly infinite expanse. As we stood there, we reflected that if I were to take a pint jar and allow the ocean to rush into it, in an instant my jar would be filled with the Pacific, the fullness of the Pacific in that jar.

But I could never put the fullness of the Pacific Ocean into my jar. Thinking of Christ, we realize that because he is infinite, he can hold all the fullness of deity. And whenever one of us finite creatures dips the tiny vessel of our life into him, we instantly become full of his fullness.

How great is that? That'll take up your lonely nights and fill it with thoughts like you've rarely had. When you have Christ, you carry within you the very essence of the living God. And that's how the Lord sees you. Complete in Christ. Complete.

Nothing lacking. Before I'm through, I need to get into verses 11 and 12, even though they're a little delicate, because they use a word that is not usually used in public and rarely, if ever, from a pulpit. This is a word that appears in medical places or eight days after birth among the rabbis who were trained to do the work of circumcision. But he isn't referring to a physical circumcision. Think. Read. Listen. When you came to Christ, you were quote, circumcised.

But, and he quickly adds, not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision, the cutting away of your sinful nature. What does that mean? Stay with me.

It means this. When I turn to the Lord Jesus Christ by faith and I trust him and him alone for eternal life, at that moment, sin no longer dominates my life. Until I came to Christ, I couldn't say no. Every temptation was just a matter of time before I yielded. But now that I have Christ and the fullness of God within me, I can say no. Because the power of Christ working through my mind and through my life enables me to resist. The old nature was circumcised in the sense that it lost its power it once had over me.

Now let's read on. For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized, and with him you were raised a new life because you trusted the mighty power of God who raised Christ from the dead. Remember Galatians 2 20? I have been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life that I now live, I live with the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I've been co-buried, co-resurrected, co-ascended with Christ so that I am now complete in him, having the same power he had over sin, I have it within me.

And because of that, he becomes all important to me. Now how does all of this apply? What could we say that could give you something to walk away with and remember? You've listened so carefully and it hasn't been an easy section to explain, but I think you began to get it.

Let me give you three thoughts. One has to do with something you will do once a week. The second has to do with something I'll suggest you do every day. And the third has to do with something you do several times a day.

Here we go. Once a week, affirm and encourage someone you love. Just like Paul tells them, you are strong and I rejoice with you because your faith in Christ is strong. Affirm at least one other person every week.

That's one more than you've affirmed for a long time. So I realize it's a new thought, but how valuable it is. By the way, when you affirm someone, you may want to write them something. Don't send them a text.

Don't put it on a computer. You've got fingers, write it with your own hand. Something happens when it's a handwritten statement of affirmation.

I'll risk a little inside part of our lives. Every once in a while, I'll send Cynthia a love note. What it says is none of your business. But I work on it and I put the wording together in just such a way that I want her to remember it and I'll write it. And then I usually don't have to sign it. I used to sign it Chuck Swindoll. But she realized she knew the handwriting and so I don't have to sign it. But let me tell you what's funny. Every once in a while, she'll take one of my love notes and put it on the mirror in the bathroom, which we share. Put the gold mirror in front of our sink and there it'll be. And I'll read it. Yeah, I remember writing that.

But what's funniest when the kids walk in? Oh, sweetheart, you need so much me. How wonderful to add that you would write that. Those kids have no business reading love notes that I write to my dear wife.

Having a little fun with you. I urge you to write a love note, not just to your partner. Pick someone you really love in the family. One of your kids. You may add a little glycerin tablet because it'll shock them almost to death when they get it. Because some of you can't remember the last time you affirmed the kids. After all, you've been given to criticize them. Really.

I can't find that in the Bible. How about being remembered for your affirmation and encouragement? How about the kids when you're finally gone saying the thing I miss most are the notes you used to send me?

Or it might be a phone call. You're on your way somewhere or maybe you are a long ways away. Just thinking of you today and want you to know how much you mean to me. How grateful I am for whatever. Once a week, once a week affirm and encourage someone you love.

Here's the second. Once a day. Once a day, think of something for which you are grateful and tell the Lord thank you. Once a day, think of something for which you are grateful.

Something will prompt you to think of that. It happened to me today when I drove onto the church property. It was ten minutes until seven this morning. I drove on, there was another car or two here, but I saw three American flags flying.

I hadn't asked anybody to put up the American flags on all three poles. But our very thoughtful custodial staff planned ahead and they put a big flag on this end. Did you notice? If you didn't, you need your eyeglasses changed.

It is huge. And I saw the flags and I said thank you Lord that I live in this country. Thank you. It may be a little thing. Bruce Martin wrote, sometimes when I consider what tremendous consequences come from little things, I'm tempted to think there are no little things. Before you let your head now sunk into the pillow for a night's sleep, find a reason to say thank you Lord for and tell him. This passage says you'll be overflowing with thankfulness. Every day, several times every day, here's your third assignment.

A little simple project. Through the hours of the day, pause on occasion and remind yourself, I am complete in Christ. Tell yourself that. I am complete in Christ. I'm fully accepted by you, dear Father, because of Christ. I'm freed from the domination of sin's control because of what he did for me on the cross. I'm absolutely secure now and forever in my salvation because of Christ. I'm complete in him.

Got it? Let's see how your week looks about a week from now. Bow with me, will you? So much fun to be together, Lord, and it's such a delight to open this magnificent book.

As we see black print on white pages, we realize it isn't just print. It's just truth to live by. Truth, if necessary, to die for. Deliver us from a frivolous, shallow, indifferent spirit in a day in which all of that is so popular. Give us someone to care for, to care about.

Free us to say so. Catch us up short when we resist being vulnerable with words like I love you, I need you, you're important to me. And finally, Lord, thank you for Jesus who loved us and gave himself for us. Thank you. He is our all in all. We need nothing else but him when it comes to eternal life. We worship him now in his great name.

Amen. Well, over the years, we've discovered that Insight for Living listeners are learners. This program attracts an audience that wants to know more about the Bible. So in addition to these daily visits, Insight for Living offers a wide variety of Bible study tools. For instance, Chuck has authored a complete commentary on Colossians.

This book, which also includes his commentary on Philippians and Philemon, can be purchased right now when you go to insight.org slash offer. Or call us. If you're listening in the United States, call 800-772-8888. Recently, the eyes of the world have been focused on Eastern Europe and the unthinkable intrusion on innocent people. Let's be praying for our brothers and sisters in Christ who stand in harm's way and who feel oppression and danger. You'll be pleased to learn that Insight for Living has a strategic outreach to people who live in this part of the world. While we don't fully comprehend their plight, we can certainly deliver hope and encouragement through this program, through the devoted staff that live in this region, and through the additional resources we provide. These ministries are all encompassed under the banner of Vision 195.

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I'm Bill Meyer, your new program host, inviting you to join us again tomorrow, when Chuck Swindoll continues our study in Colossians, right here on Insight for Living. The preceding message, Council from a Concerned Apostle, was copyrighted in 2014 and 2022. And the sound recording was copyrighted in 2022 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.