INVINCIBLE CHURCH 3-24-24

Invincible Church Sermon Notes
3/24/2024
How to be A True Follower of Jesus – part 7
Colossians 2: 2-23
Beginning to End – Teach
Over the last few weeks, we’ve been talking about the Biblical decision, instructions and principles for how to be a true follower of Jesus. The goal is to bring glory to God! God’s plan for all this includes us! He expects us to live and speak the truth about Jesus to the world! Jesus Himself gave us the instructions and a process to get it done!
He tells us to LOVE God and others unconditionally and sacrificially, PRAY continually and be THANKFUL to God for everything! Then to GO -MAKE – and TEACH disciples while we ASK – SEEK and KNOCK on the doors of opportunity that God gives us to get His work done!
The last 6 weeks we’ve covered in more detail God’s plan and strategy, including the first 5 critical action items in the instructions and process from Jesus… being: LOVE – PRAY and BE THANKFUL to God for everything. Then GO into the world and MAKE disciples for Jesus. Today we’re going to talk about the action item to “TEACH”…
Colossians 2:2-23 NIV - 2 My Goal is that they May Be Encouraged in Heart … And United in Love … So that they May Have The Full Riches of Complete Understanding … In Order that they May Know The Mystery of God … Namely … Christ … 3 In Whom are Hidden All The Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge! ... 4 I Tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments. 5 For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in Spirit and delight to see how disciplined you are and how firm your Faith in Christ is. 6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives In Him, 7 rooted and built up In Him, strengthened in The Faith as you were taught, and Overflowing with Thankfulness. 8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. 9 For in Christ all the fullness of The Deity lives in Bodily Form, 10 and In Christ you have been brought to Fullness. He is The Head over every power and authority. 11 In Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self-ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, 12 having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through your Faith in The Working of God, Who raised Him from The Dead. 13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you Alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; He has taken it away, nailing it to The Cross! 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by The Cross. 16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. 17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found In Christ. 18 Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you. Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind. 19 They have lost connection with The Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow! 20 Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules … 21 “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? 22 These rules … Which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. 23 Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body! … But they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.
As a follower of Jesus, we know He’s the answer to everything… and in this passage Paul is specifically telling us that Jesus is the answer to man’s philosophy and ritual! Philosophy is inside the mind of man. Ritual is inside the heart of man. Concerning Christian faith, we know that the term Christian does means believing in Jesus Christ but we also know there’s a big difference in believing in Jesus and belonging to Jesus! A disciple of Jesus follows Him in love and obedience, which means as a true follower of Jesus, we’ve submitted to Him as Lord, Savior and King! We’re in a salvation relationship with Him! Our identity is in Him! He bought us at the highest price to Him! It’s only through His perfect life, death, burial and resurrection that we have the opportunity to be made righteous…
… and be reconciled to God! A lot of people have a head knowledge of Jesus and they call themselves Christians. They profess to believe in Him but they have no interest in following His commands and instruction. They follow a false religious system designed by man.
They’ve never fully submitted to Jesus as Lord and Savior, so they’re not transformed by the Holy Spirit. They aren’t saved and reconciled to God but the people who are saved, are a disciple of Jesus. And Jesus calls us to teach them how to be obedient to His instructions and commands.
In the true God glorifying Christian faith, there’s always been a tension or a fine line between the mind and heart of people when it comes to following Jesus. It’s the two points of contention that everybody has to decide between. Follow Jesus or follow the world!
It’s the danger of forcing mankind’s philosophies into Christianity. It makes the truth seem kind of hazy like steam which eventually evaporates and then there’s the danger of forcing mankind’s rituals into Christianity, which freezes the truth into a very rigid system or a restrictive body like ice which eventually melts away.
The Lord Jesus didn’t say, “I’m the steam of life” … and He didn’t say, “I’m the ice of life”… Jesus said, “I’m the water of life”! So, we need to teach people how to guard against following the false religious systems of mankind’s philosophies and rituals which they call Christianity!
While we’re going through this chapter, we need to make an evaluation of our own spiritual walk as a follower of Jesus to see if we’ve slipped into a false religious system of Christianity! God’s Word tells us that the Christian faith is only Jesus Christ and only Jesus Christ crucified! So, in this passage Paul teaches us about the dangers of…
5 Religious Systems That True Followers of Jesus Must Guard Against
1) Fine-Sounding Arguments (vs 4-7) – Things that drive the church apart are the arguments of men, like claiming people have to possess a certain kind of spirituality – or show evidence that they have special spiritual gifts – or perform certain rituals. But the Bible says, the love of Jesus is what draws the church together and the love of God knits us together as one body! True love for God and others is the only way we’ll ever attain a full understanding of Biblical principles and receive the benefits of learning more about the mystery of God and Jesus.
So, doing what Jesus says proves we love Him and keeps us maturing in the discipleship process. The body of Christ as the church is the foundation of the mystery of God and Jesus. Now, in the Old Testament, God made it clear that He was going to save Gentiles. Last week we saw, beginning on the Day of Pentecost, God called out a body of believers and they were baptized in the spirit to become unified as the body of Christ, known as the church, which is the basis for true Christian faith! Our truth is the Holy Bible in totality, not just in the parts we like.
1 Corinthians 12:12-13 NIV - 12 Just as a Body … Tho’ One … Has many Parts … But All its Many Parts Form One Body … So It Is with Christ! ... 13 For we were All Baptized by One Spirit … So As to Form One Body … Whether Jews or Gentiles … Slave or Free … And we were All Given The One Spirit to Drink!
We’re supposed to be standing shoulder to shoulder as God’s church, fighting the good fight against evil, depravity and the powers of darkness, not wasting time trying to undermine fellow believers because we don’t like their rituals and ceremonies, the way they worship God or how they baptize or the Bible translation they use.
The physical body of Jesus isn’t here anymore! He ascended to heaven to sit at the right hand of God! But the spiritual body of Jesus is still here in the form of the church, made up of the body of believers who follow Him and do His work as His disciples, through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Mankind can’t create a true body of unity. It’s only through the Holy Spirit that we have unity as God’s church! The Holy Spirit puts all believers into unity as the one body of Christ, called the church! And the Bible tells us to keep the unity! One of the biggest problems today is we aren’t doing our part to keep the unity of the church as the one true body of Christ!
2) Hollow and Deceptive Philosophy (vs 8-13) – These are the traditions of men and the ways of the world! The Bible says, “human thinking” and “earthly wisdom” are foolishness in God’s sight because God’s thoughts are infinitely higher and wiser than human thoughts.
False prophets and teachers spew ideas that they’ve conjured up in their own mortal minds. They completely disregard or ignore the truth of God’s Holy Word! Paul traced this kind of deception right back to the spiritual forces of darkness at work in the world!
It proves that philosophy and psychology can’t replace the Bible! We have to know and trust that worldly spiritual powers have been disarmed, disgraced and defeated by Jesus! He’s the head over every power and authority and we’re made complete in Him!
Jesus warns us about false Christs and false prophets! They deny the truth… and they’re always trying to trick God’s people! So, teachers who add to or take away from the simple truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ are teaching hollow and deceptive philosophies!
We have to be keenly aware of anybody teaching the traditions of man over the truth of God! And a lot of slick preachers do a really good job of melding the two together, which creates a false Gospel! We only follow the Word of God… not the word of man!
3) Legal Indebtedness (vs 14-17) – This is talking about the ceremonies – sacrifices and other elements of the old covenant that God requires for forgiveness of sin! The Bible says that these were only a shadow of the good things to come, not God’s permanent plan for salvation.
The law condemned, judged and convicted people! The religious sacrifice system would temporarily pardon them, until the high priest declared the next sin. It was kind of like what we see being done to certain people today were a high-ranking official says find me the man and I’ll assign him a crime!
Jesus fulfilled all the moral and ceremonial laws by living a perfect life and dying a sacrificial death… period! So, Jesus didn’t come to destroy the old religious system, He came to make it right… the way God designed it! He came to finish the old covenant and start the new covenant!
So, Jesus secured our eternal salvation through His fulfillment of the law and prophets! Priests don’t have to enter the holy place to offer sacrifices any more! Jesus has done that for everybody who chooses to submit to Him as Lord, Savior and King… once and for all…
… which means we can get all we’ll ever need to be reconciled to God in and through Jesus! It’s what we’re supposed to be teaching His disciples! The more we learn it, the stronger our faith grows in Him! He’s the only source for spiritual wisdom and knowledge we’ll ever need!
Dr. J Vernon McGee said… the next best thing to knowing the answer is knowing where to find the answer. We need to be teaching disciples that every answer we’ll ever need in our spiritual walk with Jesus in our life on earth is in the Word of God! It’s the simple truth of God’s Word!
And we don’t have to be highly intellectual to preach and teach it! The truth and message is so simple that a child can understand it! One of the enemy’s tricks is to make law so complicated that nobody can fully understand it… whether it’s the law of government or religions!
But God’s law is simple! He gave us 10 of them. They’re all based on unconditional, sacrificial, obedient love! They’re clear boundaries that guide us in living out the 9 action items in the instructions and commands from Jesus that we do because we love Him.
4) False Humility and Worship of Angels (vs 18-19) – This can also be mysticism… but for the sake of identifying and teaching against false Christianity these are denominations that practice spiritual obligations and duties from religious traditions that are created by man!
The origin is usually from some arrogant religious leader/leaders who’d take on or have bestowed on them a religious ranking, title or office that has no Biblical credibility at all! Then, they’d just decide how the denomination would practice faith and worship!
(vs 19) says… they’ve lost connection with the head. The head of the body of the church is Jesus. So, this means that they were only connected to Jesus through intellectual knowledge. They were never in a true salvation relationship with Jesus having been baptized and transformed by the Holy Spirit.
5) Submitting to The World’s Rules (vs 20-23) Pastors who fall into this type of worldly philosophy are usually prideful! They lead from a secular perspective and get caught up in the latest passing fads that are designed by church consultants and para-ministries!
We’ve seen it with our own eyes and thankfully God removed us from it! The longer these pastors use worldly strategies for doing God’s work, the farther away they get from God’s plan. Eventually, they can’t even see their disobedience to God’s Word and plan!
Sadly, they usually become so arrogant, they refuse to listen to advice, counsel, teaching or be held accountable by fellow believers. Now, disciples aren’t just going to know these things. They have to be taught.
The Bible is full of teaching about the benefit of knowledge and wisdom. Both are related but they’re not the same thing! Knowledge is info gained through study, experience or reasoning! Wisdom is the ability to discern or judge what’s true, right and eternal.
Knowledge can exist without wisdom, but wisdom can’t exist without knowledge. So, to gain knowledge of God’s Word, we have to pray, be taught, study and meditate on the entirety of God’s Holy Word!
To gain spiritual wisdom, we have to discern the true, right and proper actions to take in any given circumstance or situation based on the knowledge we’ve acquired from being taught and learning God’s Word! A simple way to say it is… wisdom is the correct application of knowledge.
Knowledge sees the light has turned red… wisdom applies the brakes! Knowledge sees the quicksand… wisdom walks around it. Knowledge is knowing how to start a fire… wisdom is knowing when and where to start it! So, a person can be knowledgeable without being wise!
Knowledge memorizes the 10 Commandments… wisdom obeys them. Knowledge learns all about God… wisdom loves Him unconditionally, sacrificially and obediently. God wants us to know knowledge of Him and He wants us to know what He expects of and from us!
If we’re going to obey Jesus, we have to know and understand His commands and instructions. So, it stands to reason that it’s equally important for us to wisely and properly apply the knowledge from and about God to our life!
Which means knowing facts about God and the Bible is not all there is to wisdom. The book of James tells us that wisdom is a gift from God! God blesses us with wisdom so we can glorify Him and use the knowledge we have of Him to do good. Now. Let’s get busy teaching it…
… because the discipleship process for a follower of Jesus starts with the teaching of Biblical knowledge and wisdom! Staying true to the Biblical principles of truth and teaching is how God imparts the wisdom of Jesus into us through the power of the Holy Spirit!
1 Corinthians 1:30-31 NIV - 30 It Is because of Him That you are In Christ Jesus … Who has Become for Us Wisdom from God … That Is … Our Righteousness … Holiness … And Redemption! ... 31 Therefore … As It Is Written … “Let The One who Boasts … Boast in The Lord!
So, we ought to love the wisdom that God imparts to us, the same way we love Him! Then, love Jesus and others enough to follow His instructions and teach them all about God’s love, truth, wisdom and plan… because every follower of Jesus is called to teach somebody.
Matthew 28:20 NIV - 20 … And Teaching them to “Obey Everything” I have Commanded you! … And Surely I Am With you Always … To The Very End of The Age”!
If each one will teach one, we’ll all become better ambassadors, warriors, servants, saints and disciples of Jesus. The remnant gets stronger and better… God’s kingdom is advanced… and the enemy gets weaker!
The Bible template for the structure of teaching is for all followers of Jesus to teach the truth of the Gospel when God gives us the opportunity, whether it’s in the church, home, office, school room, board room, the job, the street, community, friends… everywhere!
It’s how we “walk in Jesus”! When Paul wrote to Timothy, he emphasized the importance of preaching and teaching the entire Word of God! So, in the mission and ministry of the church, teaching is clearly a critical responsibility for all followers of Jesus!
2 Timothy 4:2 NIV - 2 Preach The Word … Be Prepared in Season … And Out of Season … Correct … Rebuke … And Encourage with Great Patience … And “Careful Instruction” (a.k.a. TEACHING).