A message on finding satisfaction in Christ
“6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live 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 basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.
9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10 and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.
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This morning we are going to think about Caleb. Throughout this series in Colossians, we’ve been thinking about made-up people in real life situations. Caleb is in his mid-20’s. He grew up in the church and is thankful for that. He appreciates the time and effort that the church has put into him over the years. Now Caleb is working about two hours from where he grew up and has been part of a church in that town.
Caleb likes his job. He likes the friends he is making. Life is good, but he is unsatisfied, and he doesn’t know why. He wants something more but doesn’t know what. He’s a bit concerned about that because he watches people closely and notices thirty-year-olds and forty-year-olds and fifty-year-olds jumping from relationship to relationship, from job to job, and from experience to experience looking for something, saying that each change is going to be the one that makes the difference, but it never seems to make a difference at all. Then it is on to another relationship, another experience, another job. Caleb doesn’t want to wind up in such a spiral, but he doesn’t know how to avoid it. If this morning’s passage were preached at Caleb’s church, it would tell him that the answer is rather simple but that it needs to be followed. Caleb needs to find fullness by continuing in Christ. That’s what this passage has to say to you and me too—we find fullness by continuing in Christ. That’s the claim of this sermon.
We will study this in three points. First: continue in Christ. Second: don’t be taken captive. Third: fullness in Christ. In verses 6-7, we see the call to continue in Christ. In verse 8, we see the call not to be taken captive. In verses 9-10, we see the call to enjoy fullness in Christ.
First: continue in Christ. The Colossians were beginning to look for satisfaction in all the wrong places. They were beginning to act like Caleb’s coworkers. They wanted something new. Paul told them to dig deeper into Jesus; that’s verse 6, “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”
This language of “in him”—live in him, rooted in him, built up in him—is about belonging to Christ. He is your faithful king who works all things for your good. You are his faithful subject who promises to trust him and do all he says. You live in his realm. He is your Lord.
It’s incredibly easy to say that Jesus is Lord of our lives then live as if he isn’t really in charge of anything. We begin to live as if the Democrats or the Republicans really are in charge. We begin to live as if our boss’s mood swings really are in charge. We begin to live as if our circumstances are really in charge. This is a call to live as if Jesus is in charge. “You received Christ Jesus as Lord. Live as if he is king of everything and you are subject to him in everything.” Continue in him. If you want satisfaction in him, that’s part of it.
Another of thinking way about this is “being rooted in him” as verse 7 puts it. This is the verse behind the name of Katie Scholten—now VanZee’s—plant and coffee shop in Rock Valley. If you could pull the picture up. This is on paper towel in the restroom there. I have to fight the impulse to use that power towel to dry my hands after washing, and there is a note reminding people not to do that because apparently people have given in to that impulse. Now you see those plants at the bottom of the paper towel. They are rooted in the soil. This is a lovely organic image for the Christian life. If you are rooted in Christ, you will grow, grow grow. The message here is to be rooted in Christ.
The idea is that you get nourishment from whatever you put your roots into. If you put your roots into the uncertainty of worry, you will get what worry can offer you. If you put your roots into the twisted pride that judging others offers, you will get what judging others can give you. If you put your roots into Jesus, you get what Jesus can offer you. We are nourished—or poisoned—by what we put our roots into. Paul tells us to put our roots into Christ. That’s what the counselors teach the Cadets to do through their lessons. That’s what they do when they share stories about their own lives and what Jesus has done for them.
Yet another way of thinking about continuing in Christ is in terms of building; “built up in him,” as verse 7 puts it. Here Christ is the foundation and we are built on him. Think of it in terms of Legos. Apparently, there is a Lego store opening in Sioux Falls. Now, if you want to build any large structure with Legos you can’t just start on the carpet. You need one of those green or grey ten inch by ten-inch bases. You start with that foundation and then you can build your structure. That foundation gives sturdiness to your structure.
Building on Christ gives sturdiness to the structure of your life. That’s what Jesus says at the end of the Sermon on the Mount. He says, “everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock,” or, “everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his Lego cabin on a base rather than on the carpet.”
You build your life with that foundation by believing that Jesus is right when he tells you who is blessed. You do that by doing what Jesus says to do with your words. You do that by doing what Jesus says to do with your body. You do that by doing what Jesus says to do in your relationships. You do that by doing what Jesus says to do with your money. You do that by doing what Jesus says to do with your time. You do that by doing what Jesus says to do with your thought life. That is the Sermon on the Mount.
There’s another aspect to continuing in Christ. It’s giving thanks; “overflowing with thankfulness,” as verse 7 puts it. Let’s review just a bit of what we’ve studied in Colossians to this point. We’ve seen that you are invited into a life filled with faith and love because of what God has promised to do for you in the future. You are currently being strengthened by God’s almighty power so that you can live a life that pleases him no matter your circumstances. You will inherit the new creation. You are redeemed from slavery to sin. You have been brought from darkness into light. As you continue trusting and living out trust—in other words obeying—you have the confidence that you are without blemish and free from accusation. The more seriously you take that, you more thankful you will be.
Our problem is that we regularly forget. We forget what we should remember, and we remember what we should forget. Circumstances don’t determine whether thanksgiving makes sense. What you are remembering determines whether thanksgiving makes sense. This letter demonstrates this. I’m going to need some congregation participation here. What’s the first section header of this letter? Turn back to Colossians 1 and someone read the first header for me. Thanksgiving. Anyone remember where Paul wrote this letter? Right, from prison. Paul is giving thanks in prison because he’s practicing faith and continuing in Christ. This is the faith he is calling the Colossians to practice. This is the faith the Spirit is calling us to practice from the youngest Cadet to the oldest counselor—all of us. Now there is an alternative to continuing in Christ and we see it our second point: don’t be taken captive.
Paul explained what continuing in Christ looked like because he feared that some in Colossae wouldn’t continue in Christ. He feared that people would aimlessly drift into something else. That concern is valid today. Plenty of people in this nation have drifted into something other than continuing in Christ. Now, they might not say they are no longer Christians, but are they seeking to live under his authority, putting their roots into him, building their lives on him, giving thanks for what he has done and is doing?
So, Paul has explained what continuing in Christ looks like. Now he gives his attention to warning against drift; verse 8, “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.”
There is a lot of debate about what’s going on here, but there is certainly the familiar trouble of the Judaizers here. You see this in the words “human traditions” in verse 8. These traditions were hedges that the Jews put up around the law of Moses. They made additional rules to encourage people to keep the actual rules. For example, to encourage everyone to keep the Sabbath, the Jews determined the number of steps that could be taken on the Sabbath. They encouraged not working by banning walking long distances. You certainly aren’t working if you’re not walking. They added additional rules to make sure that people kept the real rule. What happened, though, was that people started treated the additional rules as the real rule. They thought that walking more than ¾ of a mile on the Sabbath was a sin and so the Pharisees watched Jesus and his disciples to see how far they walked on the Sabbath.
Legalism arose as well. A man could worry himself sick on the Sabbath—refusing to trust that God would meet his needs for the week ahead—and still think he kept the Sabbath because he didn’t walk more than ¾ of a mile. In reality, that man broke the Sabbath. He refused to trust that God would take care of his needs, which is what taking a day off from meeting your needs is all about. He thought he didn’t sin though because he kept the tradition; he didn’t walk more than ¾ of a mile. The traditions allowed people to keep man made rules while breaking the word of God. Jesus took aim at this regularly. It’s worth considering in what ways we might put a hedge around God’s commands thinking that we are encouraging obedience. It’s worth considering in what we ways we might judge others for not keeping what are merely our traditions that we’ve used to encourage obedience. Now these traditions can be fine and often helpful in and of themselves. The trouble comes in when we say that our traditions are God’s commands.
So, there is a Judiazing element to this and also likely a Greek element. That’s probably what’s going on with, “the basic principles of this world,” in verse 8. There is a lot of debate about these basic principles, but we’re going to take them as the elements of the ancient world—water, earth, fire, air, and ether. Ether was thought of as stillness or nothingness. The Greeks thought that every physical thing could be broken down into those five elements. Now that might sound silly to us but there are plenty of people today who think that every living thing can be understood in terms of evolution, and that therefore you are nothing more than an evolved animal. There are plenty of people who think that everything can be understood in terms of electrical impulses, and that therefore your thoughts are nothing more than electrical impulses pulsing in the grey matter in your head. There is a very human tendency to explain everything from the ground up—from what we think we think we can demonstrate. This tendency is always hostile to truth that can only be revealed. This way of thinking, in other words, depends on the basic principles rather than on Christ as verse 8 puts it. It is hostile to faith.
You can go wrong by requiring traditions. You can go wrong by thinking what everyone around you thinks—the basic principles of this world. You go right by continuing in Christ, by being rooted in Christ, by building your life on Christ, by giving thanks because of Christ. That’s the call for Caleb in 2022 just as it was for the Colossians in the first century. That’s the call for you. That’s the call because that’s where fullness is found. That’s our final point: fullness in Christ.
Nothing can offer what Christ can offer. No relationship, no job, no experience, no human tradition, no basic principle of this world. Nothing you want can offer what Christ can offer because Christ is God; look at verse 9, “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.”
The Colossians were starting to look for satisfaction elsewhere. They thought that maybe their lives would be better if they kept the Jewish traditions. “Of course God isn’t blessing your business. You are walking more than ¾ of a mile on the Sabbath.” “I can tell you why you don’t feel clean on the inside: you aren’t keeping the ritual cleanings for your outsides.” They thought that maybe borrowing from what everyone around them was saying would make them feel alive.
Now, we offer our own explanations for our lack of satisfaction. On the Jewish tradition side, we talk about the right spiritual disciplines, or the latest spiritual book, or this or that preacher. We add something to Jesus as a requirement. “Of course you aren’t happy in your marriage. You need to go to this or that conference.” “For your kids to turn out right, you need Jesus plus something else.” On the Greek thought side, we talk about what the church can learn from the American way of doing things. “The word of God and power of the Spirit aren’t enough. We need to help God out.” Paul would tell us American Christians what he told those Colossian Christians, “in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.” In other words, double down on Jesus. Double down on Jesus in your marriage. What are his promises? What are his commands? Double down on Jesus with your kids? What are his promises? What are his commands? Double down on Jesus in the church. What are his promises? What are his commands? He’s God. Why go anywhere else?
Now the question here for each of us is whether Jesus is enough for us. It’s a valid question. It’s the question Paul puts to the Colossians in dozens of different ways in the letter. It’s the question because if Jesus is enough, why look anywhere else? Why think that this next relationship, this next experience, or this next job is what’s going to make your life worth living if your life is already worth living because of Jesus?
This is about fullness in Jesus; verse 10, “and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.” It doesn’t get any better than Jesus. He is better than anything you can imagine. If you believe that, Paul’s words to the Colossians will help you each step of the way. If you don’t think Jesus is better, than Paul can’t really offer you much because Jesus is what he has to offer. I can’t offer you much because Jesus is what I have to offer. No preacher can offer you much because Jesus is all they can really offer. More to the point, God can’t really offer you much because Jesus is what He has to offer.
Christ is the banquet that God sets out for a hungry world. Too many people spend their lives looking everywhere else and grumbling because nothing they find satisfies. It’s never enough—never hot enough, cold enough, fresh enough, experienced enough, bold enough, careful enough, new enough, familiar enough, exciting enough, dependable enough. It’s never enough. God offers Himself to the world in Christ saying, “if this isn’t enough for you, nothing ever will be and you will spend eternity unsatisfied.” The question for all of us is, “is Jesus enough?”
That’s the question for you Cadets. That’s the question for you Cadet counselors. That’s the question for me. That’s the question for everyone. That’s the question for Caleb. What does Caleb need to do? He needs to find his fullness in Christ. He needs to live as if Jesus is his faithful king who will work all things for his good and as if he is Jesus’ faithful subject who will do whatever Jesus says because the king knows best. He needs to put his roots deeper into Jesus. He needs to put the Lego blocks of his life firmly to the base of Jesus. That’s a life that overflows with thanksgiving. That’s the satisfying life. You know where to find it. Amen.