Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz19961020.htm

THRU THE BIBLE SYNTHESIS
"Part L: Colossians - Discerning Errant Pagan Doctrines Through The Doctrine Of Christ's Supremacy"

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

We are bombarded with many different beliefs, and it is often hard to sift them all out to define which is the truth:

(1) Some teach that for specific needs, a Christian should pray to a particular "saint" rather than directly to God for special answers to those needs: the following is a list of those various occupations and their patron saints to whom they are told to pray:

Advertisers in need of help with their businesses

are told to pray to St. Bernardine of Siena.

People with convulsive children are told to pray for results through St. Scholastica.

Those with mentally ill associates are told to pray

for results to St. Dymphna.

Comedians needing help to be funny are told to pray

to St. Vitus.

Administrators in hospitals needing help with public

relations are told to pray to the Apostle Paul.

(The Catholic Encyclopedia, p. 243-244)

Well, is it better to pray to these patron saints for help, or do we pray directly to God?! How do we know for SURE?!

(2) Others believe that when Christ died, He released us

only from the ceremonial Law directives (sacrificial system, etc.) but that Moses' Ten Commandments are still binding, Seventh Day Adventists Believe . . ., p. 243-244. Thus, we should keep the commands regarding honoring parents, having no other gods but God as ours and observing the daily sabbaths as SATURDAY!

Well, should we have met here yesterday and not today!? (3) Some Christians believe that syncopated music is wrong, for it came from ungodly forms of pagan worship in West Africa during the slave trade. Yet, in last Sunday's worship service, a missionary and honorary member of Nepaug Church sang a song from her heart that touched many lives, and it was in syncopated rhythm!

Were we wrong in tolerating such music last Sunday as we have so often before since it was syncopated?! How can we tell?!



(We turn to the "Need" section in our sermon . . . )



Need: "It is hard to know God's TRUTH today in view of the many CONFUSING and CONFLICTING beliefs that abound! Is there a comprehensive way I can SORT OUT errant views to get to truth?!"
  1. When man fell into sin, departing from the God of truth, his VIEW of REALITY became distorted by sinful IMAGINATIONS, making him adopt many errors as truth to his harm. (Ro. 1:18-23)
    1. Though God created the world and set man up as His deputy, sin deposed him, and Satan became ruler on earth, Gn. 1-5; 2 Cor. 4:4.
    2. The process of that fall came through accepting distortions as truth:
      1. Satan placed doubt in Eve's mind that God had really forbidden her to eat the fruit, Gn. 3:1. This statement discredited the transmission of God's command to Eve through Adam!
      2. Eve accepted the assumption that what she had heard from Adam was inaccurate, and added an erroneously IMAGINATIVE, ascetic idea that God wouldn't even let her touch the tree, 3:3b!
      3. Satan used Eve's error, MAGNIFYING it to imply that God was selfish by not letting Eve even touch the tree, thus concluding that Eve could not really die were she to eat its fruit, Gen. 3:4-5.
      4. Misled in part via errant imagination, Eve ate the fruit, Gn. 3:6.
    3. Man's errant imaginations progressed until people in Colossae adopted seeming OPPOSITE beliefs: Ramsay reports that a Jewish lady in the area could be both an honorary synagogue ruler AND a priestess of the imperial cult, Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia ii, p. 637ff, 649ff, 673ff as noted in F. F. Bruce, Ephesians and Colossians, p. 166.
    4. When Christianity came to Colossae, old pagan tendencies toward being misled by imaginations threatened doctrinal purity and godliness:
      1. Early Gnosticism (the belief that matter is innately evil so that God has no direct connection to it, but relates to mortals by a long string of angelic mediators) led Christians to deny Christ had a real body, B.K.C., N.T., p. 677. This opposed Christ's incarnation & resulted in adherents indulging in physical lusts, Ryr. St. Bib., KJV, p. 1770!
      2. Judaistic beliefs were also adopted, leading Christians incorrectly to submit to the Mosaic Law in order to please God, Ibid.
      3. Oriental mysticism was also accepted by these believers, leading some to a false humility and angel worship, Ibid., p. 678-679.
      4. Finally, they turned ascetic as had Eve, advancing non-biblical "don't" regulations authored only by mere men, Ibid., p. 679.
  2. God used Paul's letter to the Colossians to purge the mind of errant pagan ideas by noting Christ's cosmic supremacy for the believer:
    1. Opposite Gnosticism's infatuation with angelic mediators and its disrespect for the material world that rejected Christ's mediatorship, all the fullness of the godhead dwells in Christ in bodily form, 2:8-10.
    2. Opposite submission to the Law, Christ's death ended the Law's rule over the believer in all of its jurisdictions relating to him, Col. 2:11-17.
    3. Opposite mysticism's false humility and angel worship, Christ is the universal Head of the Church Who alone deserves our worship, 2:18f.
    4. Opposite asceticism, the believer's positional death in Christ to the sin nature freed him from its futile self-denial "don't" regulations, 2:20-23
    5. Thus, Christ's Person & Work on Calvary is all in all in every way for the believer so all he is & does flows ONLY from HIM, 1:9-29!
    6. Having established this grand truth, Paul applied it to life so that the believer could function rightly before God (as follows):
      1. The Christian must focus on his All-Sufficient Savior, Col. 3:1-4.
      2. This truth is applied to the various Colossian errors as follows:
        1. Though Gnostics disdained the body, indulging in lust, we are to honor it as Christ's body is physical and honorable, and do so by eluding lust while filling the body's needs, 3:5-10, 18-21.
        2. Though Judaism & asceticism keep rigid taboos, believers are to accept others and tolerate practices "foreign" to their heritage as they are under Christ's jurisdiction, not man's, Col. 3:11-17.
        3. Though mysticism glorifies many beings, Christ is the believer's sole Head, so they are to honor Him alone, 3:16-17.
        4. Accordingly, believers were to relate to others in family, job and church life with God's blessing, Col. 3:18-21, 22-4:1; 4:2-6.
  3. Colossians adds to the "thread of redemption" revealing Christ as the ALL-SUFFICIENT & thus CONFUSION-PROOF Savior, 2:9f.
Application: To sort through man's confusing imaginations to define God's truth, (1) believe on Christ as Savior, Col. 1:13-14; Jn. 3:16. (2) Then, fellowship with Him by (a) confession of sin (1 Jn. 1:9) and (b) reliance on the Holy Spirit for behavior control (Gal. 5:16-23) to (b) obey Scripture, 1 Jn. 2:3-6. (3) Then, sift all confusing beliefs we face through the "grid" of Christ's all-supremacy and all-sufficiency doctrine (II A-F above), and discover God's refreshing truth!

Lesson: Confusing and crippling pagan imaginations can be discerned as errant by the believer through focusing on Christ's cosmic supremacy.

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon . . . )

 The centrality and all-sufficiency of Jesus Christ answers the questions we raised in our sermon introduction as follows:

(1) Regarding whom we should address in prayer for needs, Colossians 2:8-11 warns us against following the traditions of men that detract from Christ. Colossians 2:18-19 orders the believer not to get weighted down with seeking eleva ted beings, but to focus on the sole Head of the Church, Christ. Since 1 Timothy 2:5 notes that there is one mediator between God and man, Christ, and since these other texts warn us about shifting our focus from Him to other intermediaries set up by man, we should pray to God only through Christ.

Thus, the needs of convulsive children, of the mentally ill, of comedians, of hospital administrators seeking better public relations are all to be met in prayer by addressing them to God through Christ alone.

(2) Regarding if we are under the Sabbath day restrictions of the Mosaic Law, Colossians 2:13-17 states that since Christ died to the Law, and since the believer died positionally in Him, he is dead not only to the ceremonial aspects of Moses ' Law, but also to the jurisdiction of the Ten Commandments: Paul orders us not to feel guilty when criticized for not keeping sabbaths or holy days in Col. 3:16, a command from Moses' Ten Commandments! We are removed from the entire jurisdiction of the La w, and we meet on Sundays as that was the habit of Early Church believers, Rv. 1:10.

(3) Regarding syncopated music in Church, Colossians 2:20-23 orders us who are free in Christ not to be subject to man's rules that are not in Scripture. Well, (a) there is no explicit Bible verse that condemns syncop ated music. (b) Also, food offered even to idols is sanctified for believers when sold in the market (1 Cor. 10:25-26). (c) Besides, God led pagan astrologers through use of their practices regarding new stars and sky quadrants to find Christ in Bethlehem (Num. 24:15ff; Mtt. 1:9-10 with Z.P.E.B., v. Five, p. 513). Thus, we are not to forbid even pagan craft forms that are sanctified under the Holy Spirit's control, Rom 14:14a. Sharon Bouffard's presentation last Sunday was thus acceptable to God. (Yet, we should not condemn those who cannot acccept syncopated music, 1Co. 10:28 f.)

Thus, the all-supremacy and all-sufficiency of Christ settle for us what is right and wrong re: man's imaginative ideas!