The Letter to the Colossian Church- 8

Subtitle: The Victory of Christ vs The Deceivers- 1

Colossians 2:16-19.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, August 31, 2025.

Paul has just warned them about those false teachers who would come around trying to draw them away from what they have in Christ.  Now, he moves to some practical commands regarding those teachers.

Let’s look at our passage.

Some practical implications of Christ’s victory

Verse 15 ended with a powerful statement of Christ’s victory over the spiritual powers of the heavens who are operating on the earth.  “When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over theme through Him.” 

These hostile spiritual powers were impotent and unwitting while Christ was saving us at the cross.  In light of this victory over all authorities, our champion delivers us out from under their domain of darkness and allows us to enter his kingdom (Colossians 1:13).  This reality should affect how we live and act in this life.

Paul says in verse 16, “Let no one judge you in regard to…”  Before we get into the areas that he mentions, notice that these teachers are making judgments about what the Colossian Christians are doing, how they are living, and what they believe.  When he says not to let them judge you, he is talking about how we can let the judgments of others impact us; we can accept them and be influenced by them.  You cannot stop a person from judging you, but you can make a choice to ignore it. 

Of course, Paul is not talking about the judgments of godly teachers.  In fact, he is making a judgment about these false teachers and the Christians of Colossae listening to them.  This is not a theoretical banning of judgments, but rather, a situational rejection of the type of judgments that are made by these men.  Christians should never have an attitude that says, “I don’t have to listen to anyone!”  That kind of approach to the Christian life will get you into trouble quickly.  However, there is a flip-side to this issue of judgments that Paul is treating here.  These teachers are not standing on the teachings of Christ and his apostles.  Their judgments serve the purpose of pulling these Christians away from both the teachings of Christ and a true saving-relationship with him.

We do not need to fear judgments, but the Lord’s judgment is the only one that matters in the end.  We can trust God’s judgments because He does so for our good and to deliver us from evil.

One of the areas that these teachers loved to make judgments had to do with food and drink.  If a teacher had a Jewish background, this would involve the dietary restrictions of the Law and the traditions that were built up around them.  They would point to certain foods as forbidden.  However, some of the Greek philosophies and religions had similar ascetic ideas regarding food and drink.  Christ taught that a person is not defiled by any foods.  For Jews, the Messiah had cleansed the foods forbidden under the Law so that his followers could eat anything.  This was reiterated by Paul many times, but 1 Timothy 4:3-4 says it very succinctly.  Thus, Christians do not look to food and drink as the means by which we make ourselves acceptable to God.

The same point is then made concerning the area of special days.  These false teachers emphasized observing special days as a part of their judgments.  The Lord had given Israel seven feasts to observe, and of these, three required males to go to Jerusalem.  Judgments could be about observing the days, period, or about how well one observed them.

We could do the same thing today with special days within Christianity.  Is my relationship with Christ affected by how well I do Christmas or Easter?  The mentality that looks to such special days as a means of connection to God does not understand what Jesus has done.

We should celebrate what Christ has done by loving him with all our heart, mind and body and by serving his purposes and mission.  We should not require the observance of festivals and even Sabbaths.

We might ask why these things were in the Law of Moses if they would not continue to be important under the Messiah.  Paul explains the purpose of the food laws and the special day laws.  They were never about making Jews acceptable to God, i.e., there was never anything inherently good or bad about them.  They only became moral issues because God had commanded them.

This distinction within the Law of Moses is important.  Some laws were inherently moral such as the law, “You shall not murder.”  There will never be a time when this becomes okay.  Yet, the laws concerning foods and special days were only moral because it was God commanding them.  His purpose had to do with pointing forward to the Anointed One that He would send to save humanity. 

Paul uses the idea of a shadow.  A shadow requires something of substance to exist, but it is not that substance itself.  These things were shadows that were being cast from the One who is the Messiah.  We can picture that shadow being cast back in time from Jesus to the making of the Mosaic covenant.  However, since Jesus was “slain from the foundation of the earth,” we could also think of the shadow being cast forward from the beginning to that day.  Regardless, the food laws and special days were pointing to Messiah somehow.

What were they pointing out?  The special days all point to the critical redemptive work of Messiah among Israel and the Gentiles.  Acts 10 reveals that the food laws were symbolic of the defiled Gentile nations that had been dispossessed by God.  Until Messiah paid the price for sins, they were a defiling influence and Israel needed to guard themselves from that.  Yet, at the cross, Jesus makes it possible for the defiled person to be made clean.  The symbol is no longer needed because Jesus had fulfilled the thing that it was reflecting.

So, Christians should not let judgments about foods and special days be used as a means of coming between us and Jesus.  Yet, this does not mean a person cannot sin with food.  Gluttony is still wrong because a person’s affections are grossly connected to the food.  Such crossings of proper boundaries are a sign of idolatry.  I am asking the food to be something in my life that it was never created to be.

Paul then moves on to another practical implication.  He tells them to let no one be cheating them.  This is similar to judging, but it has a slightly different feel.  Imagine an umpire that keeps calling strikes when it is clearly a ball.  That umpire would be cheating you out of taking your base.   By listening to the judgments of these men, you would be letting them keep you from what God has for you.  They are not really authorized to umpire your life, but you can submit to them as an umpire.  Paul goes on to describe these cheaters so that they will be easily recognized.

These teachers delight in self-abasement.  This has the sense of a lowliness of mind, which is generally good.  But these men “delight” in looking humble.  Their intentions are wrong.  They would look lowly of mind to a novice, but they will not submit to the teachings of Christ.  Thus, they are not truly lowly.  They put on a superficial show of humility, but it is always self-serving.

They also delight in worshipping angels, or hierarchies of spiritual beings.  They would promote particular angels as intermediaries between God and man.  They loved to build systems of particular spiritual beings that were to be called upon and worshipped in order to please God.

Of course, they were condemned by the early Church.  Yet, down through the ages, the veneration of saints has reduplicated this penchant.  There is only one mediator between God and man, the man Jesus.  We need to get back to approaching Jesus alone as our means of approaching the Father.

They also were standing upon what they had seen.  Some version will supply the word vision, which is likely the point that Paul is making.  The problem isn’t the visions per se.  Didn’t the apostle Paul have visions?  The problem is that their visions are not connected to Christ, the Head, nor to His apostles.  Paul’s vision was firmly on the foundation of Christ and his apostles.  But these false teachers refuse to stand upon Christ.  Instead, they stand upon their own imaginations, detached  from the Truth of God, and contradictory to it.

These teachers are also “inflated without cause by [their] fleshly mind.”  They are not lowly of mind at all.  Instead, their fleshly mind has inflated their ego.  They have become puffed up, and their view of themselves is not connected to the Truth of God.

Lastly, these teachers do not hold fast to the Head, from whom the entire body grows the growth of God.  It is not enough to have a place in your system for Jesus, if it is diminished from who he really is.  Jesus is the one to whom we must hold fast.  He is the Head of the Church and believers.  He is the Head of the New Creation.  Thus, these teachers were not operating under his authority.

It is only our connection to the One True Head of the Church that supplies what is needed, and holds the body of Christ together.  When this is happening, then we can grow the growth of God as opposed to the growth of the world.  This is both individually and corporately.

These men have either detached from Christ, or were never attached in the first place.  Without Christ, there is no supply of life, no bond of the Spirit, and no growth of God.  May God help us to keep our eyes upon Christ, his apostles, and the Scriptures which detail their message and work.

Victory of Christ 1 audio

The Letter to the Colossian Church- 07

Subtitle: The Dangers around Them-2

Colossians 2:9-15.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, August 24, 2025.

We continue looking at the danger that the Colossian Christians faced of teachers who would try to take them captive through wise sounding ideas.  Of course today, such teachers are readily available on the internet.  It is the same danger, but we face far more of it.

Paul had challenged them in verses 6 and 7 to walk in Christ.  When we are positively focused on Jesus, it is our best defense against false teachers.

In verse 8, Paul identified the roots of the attacks from these teachers on the Gospel of Christ.  These teachers were using philosophy and empty deceit that was often mixed with religion and personal visions.

Let’s pick it up at verse 9.

The benefits of being in Christ

When a person understands what they actually have in Christ, they are not susceptible to these philosophies and vain deceptions that false teachers use.  They are looking for people who are hungry for something more.  This is why Paul has emphasized over and over that we have everything we need in Christ.

Verse 9 ties back to chapter 1 verse 19.  There, in the hymn to the Son of God’s love, Paul made the statement that “it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fulness to dwell in him.  In chapter 2 verse 9, this statement is made again, but some more exact language is added.

The first word added is the word “deity.”  Although “the fulness” was strongly connected with the concept of God and deity, Paul adds the word deity so that there is no  question.  The fullness of deity dwells in Jesus.  The believer needs to understand that there is nothing about what makes the Father to be God that isn’t fully present in Jesus.  We can use ideas like omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence as a starting place.  There does not exist a “greater fullness” of deity than exists in Jesus.

Paul also adds the adverb “bodily.”  Part of the attacks against Christians had to do with the inability to accept that full deity could exist in human form.  It was common for these teachers to diminish the man Jesus and treat the “spirit of Christ” as something separate.  Yet, they still sought to attach themselves to Christianity because it would make it easier for them to draw Christians after them.

Jesus has full deity, and yet, he is fully man, body and all.  This bodily emphasis shuts down the penchant for Greek thinkers to view the body as evil or incompatible with full deity.  This is the one you are following.  He is fully God.

Secondly, You are complete in him who is the head over all rule and authority (v. 10).  The word for complete here is the idea of being fully supplied.  Jesus has full deity, and in him, you are fully supplied for whatever you may face.  Essentially, there is nothing you need that hasn’t already been supplied for you.

Notice that Paul emphasizes that Christ is “the head” over all rule and authority.  This would be over human authorities for sure, but Paul is more focused on spiritual rulers and authorities.  These false teachers loved to project spiritual hierarchies that one could discover and benefit from them.  However, Paul shuts that down.  There is no higher authority than Jesus.  No other spiritual entity can give benefits to you that are greater than those Christ gives, and without his approval.  These fallen spiritual beings that were being worshipped by the Gentile world have no power and authority over Jesus.  It is the other way around.

So, why is it that Christians sometimes feel like there must be something more than what we have?  This can be for various reasons. 

One reason is that you may not be completely trusting Christ.  If we are only half-hearted in our “walk” with Christ, sometimes trying his way, sometimes listening to the world, then the Holy Spirit will stir up in you a holy discomfort so that you will press into Christ more.  You need to take Christ seriously.

Another reason could be that you are paying too much attention to the messaging of the world around you.  The world is great at telling you that you need to act now, or you will not get what you want.  It stirs up an unholy dissatisfaction with life and the supply of Christ because he is not supplying the whims of your flesh.

Also, you may simply be a weak human who is learning how to trust in the power of Christ, rather than the feelings of your flesh.  We walk by faith not by sight, nor by feelings.  Those moments of “feeling”  like there should be more is a test to double down and trust the Lord.  Lean into the supply of the Christ: the Word of God, the Holy Spirit’s help, and mature believers in Christ who can help you.

In verse 11, Paul shows them some of the things they have in Christ that are connected to what the false teachers were often promoting.  One of those teachings had to do with Gentiles being circumcised.  Paul tells them that they were circumcised without hands, in Christ.  This is a clear reference to a spiritual circumcision of the heart, which is done by the Holy Spirit.  We’ve seen this before in the Old Testament.  Even as Moses is declaring God’s love of physically circumcising Hebrew boys on the 8^th day, we find passages that emphasize a circumcision of the heart (Deuteronomy 10:16).  The Lord spoke to Israel through Jeremiah about this as well (Jeremiah 4:3-4).  Here is Deuteronomy 30:6.  “Moreover, the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.”

The physical circumcision of a child was representative of a greater circumcision of the heart.  It would remove the barrier of the desires of our flesh from between  us and the LORD.  It would allow for a relationship of love.

Christians, even Gentiles, have had their hearts circumcised by the Holy Spirit, the greater circumcision.  They do not need to go back and do the physical.

Yet, there is a second layer to this teaching.  Though Christians have been spiritually circumcised in heart, everything that Jesus did in the body as the perfect man is applied to them.  Our faith in Christ allows his perfect work to apply to us.  Thus, Jesus was physically circumcised on the 8^th day.  That act doesn’t save us, but it does apply to us.  His circumcision is our circumcision by faith.

We see this same mechanism in verse 12 concerning water baptism.  Water baptism symbolizes the death and resurrection of Jesus.  Jesus died to this world and its false life, and was raised up to live the true life that God the Father had for him.  When we are water baptized, we are identifying with Jesus.  Just as he died to this world (literally), we die to this world (spiritually),  Of course, we will physically die and be physically resurrected one day too.  However, we do not have to wait until then to have the benefits of his death and resurrection apply to us. 

We are identifying with what Jesus did and what will one day be done for us, but we are also participating in his death and resurrection spiritually.  We continue to physically live, but we do so with the same attitude and heart that Jesus had.  We do not live for this world or our flesh and its desires.  Instead, we live for the will and plan of God the Father through the Son of His love.  Jesus is the victor over the worst that the devil can throw at us.  This victory also belongs to those who are in Christ today.  The same power that raised Christ from the dead works in us to break free from the hold that wicked spiritual beings have had on us through our sin.

We have been raised up already by the Spirit through our faith in Christ and the working of God.  We are alive to God and His purposes while remaining dead to the world and its purposes.  This is not a mere mental trick.  This sinful world and the sinful spirit-rulers crucified the Lord of Glory.  Do you think Jesus is interested in anything they have to offer now?  He wasn’t interested when he was in mortal flesh, and he is even less interested now that he is in immortal flesh.

The sin of this world, my own included, will only lead to death and judgment before God.  This brings us to verse 13.

All of these benefits of Christ come to us while we are yet sinners.  Paul reminds them that they were dead in their transgressions and in the uncircumcision of their flesh.  It was precisely in such a condition that Christ made us alive together with Him.  You are alive spiritually, which allows you to hear and to be led by God.  All of this is possible because Jesus has forgiven us all of our sins and transgressions.  Of course, Christ didn’t just willy nilly zap you.  It was your faith in him that becomes the channel of God’s grace to you through the forgiveness of Jesus.
This leads to a Holy-Spirit-influenced digression by Paul.

How can Jesus simply forgive us our sins?  The short answer is that he has died in our place as a substitute.  He paid our penalty for us.  Yet, it is deeper than that.

Paul pictures Jesus at the cross with a sign above his head that was supposed to list the charge against him.  However, Pilate put on the sign, “King of the Jews.”

Of course, the charges against Jesus were bogus, and he was not worthy of being put to death.  Yet, if you and I were put on a cross, there would be all kinds of true charges that could be placed on our cross.  This is what Paul is talking about when he mentions the hand writing document of decrees that are against us.  Some versions couch this in debt terminology.  That is okay, if we think of it as a moral debt.  Yet, in light of the experience of Jesus on the cross, it is probably better to see this as a document of the charges for which we have been found guilty.

As Christ is nailed to the cross, so too the accusations against him and us are nailed there too.  In Christ, our accusations and charges are nailed along with his.  The fact that Jesus would purposefully do this is a powerful act of love.  Our charges are stuck there on his cross forever, unable for any spiritual being to take them down and try to pin them against us again.  Jesus has cleared the way for us to approach the Father and come into His presence.  If God does this for us, then what spiritual being could stand against Him and us?

Satan is the origin of the concept of lawfare.  It has been his only weapon against humanity.  He has always used the law as a weapon against God and his human imagers.  Why didn’t God stop him from tricking Adam and Eve?  A deeper question would be this.  Why didn’t Adam and Eve (and you and I for that matter) remain faithful to the God who had only done us good?

In verse 15, most translations say that Jesus “disarmed the rulers and authorities.”  Of course, he was not disarming Herod and Caesar.  It is talking about Satan and his cohorts.  Yet, the word for disarmed is about more than simply taking a weapon from Satan.  These continual charges and accusations of Satan against humans have been taken by Jesus and publicly nailed to a cross.  The accusers are not only disarmed, but also disbarred.  They have nothing with which to approach heaven and accuse us, and they have lost access to make such accusations.  The power of this lawfare has been ended in Christ.

Satan has always played the cool lawyer.  He can always point to the action of others and present his own in their best light.  However, his actions with Jesus publicly demonstrate his true heart.  If given the chance, he would kill God.  His accusations have nothing to do with true righteousness.  He does not really desire social justice.  This is only a convenient placard that he uses to retain the color of law.  At the cross, Jesus made a public spectacle of just how wicked the devil is, and just how loving and gracious the Father is.  He triumphs not only over the devil’s plan, but over the devil’s argument.  He is our champion, and the devil is powerless to do anything about it.

This means that we have a choice.  Whose on the LORD’s side?  He can cover every single sin of ever single person that has ever lived on earth.  Yet, God is giving us a choice to walk away from the powers of this world, and to turn towards Jesus, who is the Messiah of God.  The character of both has been put on display once and for all.  The devil is a self-righteous, lawfare operating, spiritual being whose future is to be walled off from God’s good creation by the Lake of Fire for eternity.  Yet, Jesus is the one who took  your punishment upon himself so that you could be set free from your sins and live in God’s good creation forever.  If you haven’t yet, make the choice today to turn from your sins and turn towards the One who saves sinner!

Dangers 2 audio

The Letter to the Colossian Church- 06

Subtitle: The Dangers around Them

Colossians 2:6-8.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, August 17, 2025.

As Paul finishes laying out his struggle to present them as complete in Jesus Christ, he now moves to instruct them about the dangers to their faith.

Let’s look at our passage.

Paul’s charge to them (v. 6-7)

Before Paul gets into the dangers specifically, he gives them a command or charge.  The best defense is a good offense.  Thus, Paul instructs them on what they should be doing.  If they will do these things, then it will be much easier for them to stand against the dangers to their faith.

He first tells them to walk in Christ in the same way that they had received him.  He knew exactly what they had been taught about Jesus the Christ.  Epaphras had been part of his ministry.  He had then gone back home to share the Gospel.  Since the churches started in Colossae and the areas around it, Epaphras had visited Paul in Rome, telling him of the faith of these Colossians.  It is good to have a good start, but he wants them to continue in it.

Now, there are lots of groups today that have received something different than the teachings of the Apostles of Jesus.  Some haven’t received anything, and others have been raised in a cult or drawn into one.  Paul is not telling them they can’t ask questions, and that they should do what he says.  Rather, he is addressing the dangers around them.

There is a strength to being busy about the things that you should be.  But, if I am lazy and don’t do “the chores,” if I am diverted and focused on amusements, then I am susceptible to many troubles.  If you have received the truth about Christ, then you have received all that you need; so, stick with him!

This metaphor of walking is used to describe a person who is living life in a particular way.  Our choices and actions are supposed to be based upon the teachings and the example of Jesus and his apostles.  The New Testament is the sure, confirmed, word of God.  People often mention that there are other books that were thrown out of the Bible, usually referring to the “gnostic gospels.”  These showed up in the second and third centuries by gnostic teachers who were trying to hybridize Christian teachings so that they would fit with their ideas.  Notice that we are in danger too!  We are in danger of being led to push the Bible aside and follow after other writings that have nothing to do with One True Jesus.

We are following Christ while we are also “in him.”  He is our ark of safety (think Noah) that will bring us through this world.  Thus, we are given multiple ways of looking at our life in Christ.  We are walking the path he has blazed before us, while he also helps us through the Holy Spirit, and we are in him like a branch is in the vine.

They had received the teaching of how to follow Christ.  They had also received Christ by the leading of the Holy Spirit.  It was not just a matter of information.  Thus, these people need to continue to be led by the Holy Spirit, instead of teachers who are led by a false spirit.

What does walking with Christ look like?  Be a person of the Word of God.  Study it prayerfully, seeking to know God’s character and will for you.  Be a person of prayer.  “Lord, I need you.”  Be a person of the Spirit, trusting God to lead you.  And, be a person who is living out the righteousness of Jesus.  Anything that pulls you away from these things is not of God.

Paul then introduces another metaphor: a plant, or a tree.  They had been firmly rooted in Christ.  This should remind us of the parable of the soils.  We want to be good soil so that the word of God can grow in our lives and bring forth a fruitfulness in our life that comes from Christ.  Our soil is not static.  We may need to roll some rocks out of our soil to increase the depth, and we may need to pull some weeds (the cares of this life) to increase fruitfulness.  We may need to even break up hardened soil in our life due to people trampling our hearts.  These dangers had been surmounted by them.  They had been firmly rooted.

A gardener doesn’t give up just because weeds keep cropping up.  They don’t try another plot, looking for one that doesn’t produce any weeds.  No, pulling weeds is part of growing a garden. 

There is a time to look at our roots and ask the question, “Am I firmly rooted?”  We should be stuck, or frozen, in this analysis.  Instead, we turn to God in prayer and ask Him to help you to become firmly rooted, past tense, so that you can move on to fruitfulness.

And then, Paul pulls out another metaphor, that of a building.  This is pictured as currently happening in their lives.  They are being built up in Christ.  Those who are firmly rooted in Christ will grow spiritually.  This growth of a plant can be likened to the growth of a building project.

Throughout this passage, Paul has been talking to them as a group, the “you” is plural throughout.  We can understand the growth of a plant in comparison to a building project.  Yet, this building metaphor reminds us how our individual growth is tied into and part of the group growth.  We are each like living stones that are being placed next to other stones.  This is Jesus creating a temple for God (in you as an individual, but also in us as a Church) out of believers.  This is what Peter is talking about in 1 Peter 2:4-5.

“And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

He then mentions that they are established in their faith.  Established has the idea of that which has been made firm and sure.  The established person will not be moved away from their faith in Christ, in his work, and in his teachings.  He ties this back to the way that they had received Christ (“Just as you were instructed”). 

I am reminded of a saint named Polycarp.  He lived from 69 AD to 155 AD in the town of Smyrna.  At some point persecution came to his city, and Polycarp was challenged to renounce Christ or be put to death.  Polycarp was an old man and replied that he had served Christ a long time, and Christ had never done him wrong.  Why would he turn against Jesus now?  Of course, Polycarp was then martyred for his faith in Jesus.  His faith in Christ was well established, firm and sure.

How can you and I be like that?  We can be like that because it is not just you holding on to Jesus.  It is also Jesus holding on to  you.  Walk with Jesus, and he will draw you closer and closer to himself.

Paul then ends with reminding them to be overflowing with gratitude, thankfulness, or thanksgiving.  The things he has mentioned before this can lead to frustrations and difficulty.  However, the Christian is to walk, to live, with an attitude of thanks to God.

If we approach life as if we don’t have what we should have, then we are lying against God who supplies everything we need.  We also make ourselves ripe for charlatans who will come along and lead us away from Christ.  Instead of being satisfied with the supply from Christ, we are hungry for something more.  Beware, it will find you, and then you will find that it is not something more at all.

Instead of complaining, we can trust God.  “I don’t know how, but my God shall supply, and has supplied, all my needs!”

Instead of being infected with materialistic envy, we should not just be grateful.  We should be overflowing with it!

See that no one takes you captive (v. 8)

No matter how well you are walking, growing, and being built up in Christ, people will come along who desire to take you captive.  The picture is that of being dragged off into exile, out of Jesus (he is the Promise Land spiritually, until he returns to take up the kingdoms of the world).

These charlatans can drag unsuspecting Christians completely away from Jesus to something else, or they can convince us to believe a twisted version of Jesus and the Gospel.  This can be done in a way that is like the Greeks, and it can be done in a way that is like the Jews.  This form is really the most dangerous because it can claim that you are still walking in Christ.  Listen, just because a teacher uses biblical terminology doesn’t mean that they are actually giving you the words of Christ and his apostles.  You have to check it against the Bible itself.

Notice that Paul tells them to “see to it.”  We need to be vigilant and watchful so that we are not taken out of Christ.  Watchfulness means that we are in prayer about the things we believe.  We prayerfully watch our lives for what the Spirit of God says for us to do, and against what He may warn us.

He then warns them about the tactics or approach of these charlatans.  They use philosophies and empty deceptions.  The Greeks had many philosophical schools that attempted to give wisdom through human reasoning.  These were often attached to the religious ideas of a society.  Even some of the Jews, during the centuries leading up to the time of Jesus, had reinterpreted the Old Testament through the teachings of these philosophical schools.  These philosophical schools had an appearance of wisdom, but in the end, they were not source in the Jesus the Christ.

On top of the philosophical schools, there were teachers who dabbled in philosophy and religion to the point of teaching a hodgepodge of ideas.  They would attempt to wow people into listening to them and giving them accolades, power, even wealth.

In some ways, this is how the average American lives today.  We are very eclectic, picking and choosing from many different philosophies, religions,  and sources of knowledge.  We tend to believe what we feel sounds the best.  This is a good way to be misled.

The problem with these philosophies and empty deceptions is that their source is found in the “traditions of men.”  Even if you start with truth, traditions can build up over time and insulate us from truth and to something else.

The traditions of men use human reasoning in order to make the “system” better.  These are the accumulated ideas of smart guys over the years.  Over time, we can reason ourselves away from the trunk of the tree, out on a limb, and then saw the limb off behind us.

So far, I have focused on the human aspect of this.  Yet, there is a spiritual aspect.  The Greeks had the same dynamic as the Jews did in this regard.  Romans chapter one and two describe how our penchant for following our own wisdom instead of God’s, and worshipping the creation instead of the Creator, leads to a debased mind.  It leads to a person, a society, that is given over to the things they have chosen.

These charlatans also emphasized the “elementary principles of the world.”  There is some debate about what is actually meant by this phrase, but the best understanding is that it points to the underlying assumptions that lie beneath the world view of a society and its religion.  In order to reason and apply logic, certain axioms and principles are generally accepted as true, whether they can be proven or not.  They are generally treated as self-evident on the level of one plus one equals two.

A common elementary principle of the Greek and Roman world is that matter and material things are bad, or at least tend towards evil.  On the other hand, the spirit is good, or tends toward good.  Such elementary principles often clashed with the revelation of God in the Bible and through His Apostles.  Did Jesus come in the flesh?  They would reason that if he truly was God, then he couldn’t be actually flesh.  

Teachers who ran into Christianity recognized that it was a powerful vehicle for promoting ideas.  They would then try to “perfect” it by making it fit into their elementary principles.  This retooling of Christianity brought about the gnostic gospels over the centuries following the spread of the Gospel of Christ by the true Apostles.

We see similar things in the American society.  Certain things have become so ingrained in the culture that people do not question it, and even twist the Scripture to fit with it.  An example can be seen in the American dream.  Typically, it is said that the American dream is for your kids to have it better than you did.  Stories of immigrants who have worked themselves to death to make it better for their kids are real and commendable.  However, the real American dream, the one that caused the first waves of people to these shores was much different.  It was all about the freedom to worship God without governmental interference and controlling national churches. 

The problem with all of these things is that Jesus Christ is not the source of them.  Thus, Paul ends verse 8 with the phrase, “not according to Christ.”  The Colossians had received truth that was built upon what Jesus taught through the work of the Apostles.  This is the truth that has been revealed from the One who created all things and is even now recreating them. 

Jesus is recreating all things, starting with humans, starting with us.  Humans were the last to be created in the old creation, but they are the first thing recreated in the new one.  The philosophers, proponents of false religions, and those pushing empty deceptions, have nothing to do with the new creation.  They are all stuck messing around with the old creation, which is passing away.

Philosophy and human reasoning have often been employed to first draw us beyond what Scripture says.  If we can be led to trust in things that are beyond Scripture, then we can be led to discount Scripture altogether.

There are lots of slick teachers out there who want to take you captive, whether for their ego, wealth, or pleasures.  We must walk in Christ as the Bible teaches and watch out for these charlatans.  Ask yourself this.  Am I a part of the New Creation of Jesus Christ, or am I a part of the old creation, which is destined to be destroyed?

Let’s put our trust in Christ and live in the joy that belongs to those who know that they have all they need for life and godliness in Jesus!

Dangers Audio

The Acts of the Apostles 39

Subtitle: Saul Preaches at Damascus

Acts 9:20-25.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on March 12, 2023.

We have come to the point where Jesus has dramatically saved the life of Saul of Tarsus.  Last week, I mentioned how he was prayed for by Ananias and received his sight.  He was also water baptized and filled with the Spirit too.  This put Saul on a different trajectory than his namesake, King Saul.

It is a wonderful thing when a person is confronted with Jesus, and they surrender to him in faith.  Saul's complete about face.  May God help us to see hungry people seeking Jesus and finding him.  May we be a people who are still excited about the amazing grace of Jesus in our lives.

Let's look at our passage.

Saul is a new man in Christ Jesus

We can talk about becoming a new man in the natural.  Maybe we find some kind of regimen that will whip us into shape and revamp our life physically.  Of course, even if you really do well at that, it is still a losing battle.  In the end, you are mortal and cannot stay ahead of death.

Yes, scientists are working hard to overcome the mortality issue.  Even if they are able to conquer death, so to speak, science cannot fix sin in the heart of people.  A laboratory may be able to lobotomize a man, but they cannot fix his soul and heart.  Science can create technical solutions to issues, but it can't tell you if you should deploy them or not, whether it is good or bad.

Without something outside of us to which we are accountable, our "morality" will be like the waves of the sea, wishy-washy.  Perhaps we will be moved by the group one way, until a new majority shows up and the waves moves another direction.  This is true and good now.  No.  Now this over here is true and good, ad infinitum.  Whether it be a majority group, or a tyrant, this crazy world of changing truths falls woefully short of creating true change in a person's heart.

Saul becomes a new man spiritually rather than naturally.  He can actually see the reality of his life and the life of people around him because he is truly listening to the Creator of the universe.  If we needed proof of Saul's conversion, we see it in the activity following his healing and conversion.

Jesus had given him his mission in at least one vision, if not two.  He didn't need any more proof.  Of course, we might complain that God hasn't given us a vision.  However, God has given you enough evidence to believe upon Him.  Don't play the game of withholding your faith from Him because He hasn't given you a particular experience.  Yes, He loves you, but He's not playing games.

Saul is no longer a student of Rabbi Gamaliel of the school of Hillel.  He is now a follower of Rabbi Yeshua!

We are told that Saul "immediately" preaches Jesus in the synagogues.  That word can mean in the next second, but it also allows for context.  If he was saved on a Tuesday, then it would mean that he preached in the synagogue that Friday/Saturday.  Thus, immediately can mean at the next available opportunity.

The emphasis of his preaching is the amazing reality that Jesus truly was the Messiah, or Christ.  Jesus was the one that they had been waiting for God to send.  God had promised that an Anointed One would come and deliver Israel, but even more, he would be a redeemer of Israel.  These prophecies in the Old Testament stated that one from the line of David would not only fix Israel, but even the nations.  However, they had been under the domination of foreign powers for over 586 years.  It is hard to keep the faith that God is going to save you that long.

He also emphasizes that this Messiah was also the Son of God.  If you pay attention to the words of Jesus, then you will notice that Jesus actually emphasizes Son of Man regarding himself, rather than Son of God.  It is true that these words have a layer of meaning that is essentially "human" for the former and "divine" for the latter.  Yet, there is more going on here than that.

The phrase "Son of Man" is not a denial of the divinity of Jesus.  Rather, Jesus is using a phrase that is also a technical phrase from Old Testament prophecy, particularly in Daniel 7. For example, if I use the word "rapture" in a church setting, many Christians will immediately think of prophecies in the New Testament that speak of a catching up of believers to be with Jesus in the air.  However, a non-Christian may hear that word and only think of a poetic use of ecstatic joy and delight.  Of course, they wouldn't be wrong that this is part of its meaning, but they would be missing the critical theological significance.  The same is true with the Son of Man.

In Daniel 7, we have the Ancient of Days, God, seated on His throne with other thrones around him.  The final beast-empire of the earth is slain before Him and the government taken from it.  Next we see "And behold, One like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him."  Notice that the great powers of the earth are described as beasts though comprised of men.  They are beasts of men ruling in a beastly way.  However, this one who is like a human receives a kingdom from the Ancient of Days that never ends.  Thus, his heart and his rule will not be beastly, but human, i.e., it will have the proper relational love that should exist in any governance.

Yet, there are some powerful things signaled in the text.  This one like a human rides the clouds to the Father.  This is no mere mortal.  Biblically speaking this is language used of God, or the gods.  It is considered divine activity.  Jesus emphasized this in Matthew 26:64 when he responded to high priest.  They understood the connotation that he was making and accused him of blasphemy.  On top of this, we have the fact that his kingdom is everlasting and the peoples of the earth will "serve" him, a word used of service to a deity.

So you see, Son of Man is not contradictory of Son of God.  In fact, it actually embraces the phrase Son of God and adds to it prophetic significance.  Jesus was revealing that he was that strange, unique God-man that Scripture revealed.

I know that I took some time with this, but this is what Saul is preaching.  Jesus is the Son of David, but even more, he is the Son of God.  He has a divine origin.  We see this in the way the Gospels treat the origin of Jesus.  Matthew, Mark, and Luke focus upon the human origin of Jesus in their story without denying his divinity.  In a sense, they write their accounts as it was experienced.  He was born, ministered, and then we figured out who he was!  John, however, begins with a focus on the eternal origin of Jesus.  "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God...and the Word became flesh (human) and dwelt among us..."  This is Jesus spoken of from God's experience, stepping into the world and taking on an additional nature of a human.  Of course, we may wonder how that is possible.  The answer would be that God created humans in a way that made it possible for Him to take on our nature.  Who'd have thunk it?  This is His artistic flourish as the Creator.

Saul is preaching to believers in the Father.  They worship Him with songs, readings, and prayers.  However, they don't know His Messiah, and that He had come to save them.  They didn't know the Father's salvation yet.  If there is one thing we should learn from the Old Testament, it is this.  All people, even religious people, who have the truth of God in their hands, need a spiritual transformation.  The same thing can happen to them that happened to the nations at the time of the Tower of Babel.  They had been exchanging truth for a lie, little by little, until they cooperated with Nimrod.  God judged it and handed them over to those "gods" they were seeking.  Over the centuries, and millennia, they became so dark that they were cutting hearts out of live victims for their so-called gods.

The people who heard Saul preaching about the Messiah having come were amazed at the idea, but the real source of their amazement is Saul's complete turn around.  He was fighting against them one day, and then became one of their strongest proponents the next day.  This is just how radically Jesus can change, transform, a life.  Or better, we could say that Jesus is able to save even the chief of sinners!

At the heart of the teachings of Jesus and his apostles, we have this idea of spiritual transformation.  Saul would later write in 2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

I grew up in the Church, but I did not live for Jesus during my teenage years.  My freshman year in college began with too much partying and running around.  However, Jesus confronted me and I yielded to him.  He radically changed my life.  A friend that I used to run around with told me one day that he had talked to his mom about me.  She told him that I was just going through a "religious phase."  Well, here we are 35 years later, and I'm still going strong in this "religious phase," hallelujah!  Listen, Jesus did not come to give us a "religious phase," even though some people approach it this way.  He came to transform our lives.  It is not enough to have the truth.  It is not enough to look like you are following Jesus.  Judas followed Jesus!  But, when it really mattered, Judas betrayed the Lord Jesus with a kiss in the middle of  the night.  Let us not settle for having the right religion.  We must be transformed by Jesus!

In verse 22, we are told that Saul increased in strength.  Luke is showing us that God's blessing was upon Saul.  He is not talking about physical strength, but spiritual.  Saul made a 180 degree turn from fight God and His Holy Spirit to working with Them.  This required spiritual growth.  He grew in hearing the Holy Spirit and cooperating with Him.  He grew in his ability to be convincing to others.  Of course, his familiarity with the Old Testament would help.  However, Saul would have to let go of a lot of rabbinical teaching, and some parts would be retained and redeemed by the mind of Christ.

Saul had lots of natural gifts.  He could learn material, and was very industrious with lots of desire to move ahead, to prove himself.  However, natural talents that are not surrendered to God's direction will get in the way.  Later, Saul would say in Philippians 3:8 that all of his accomplishments in the natural were rubbish.  They were meaningless if he didn't have Jesus.

The word in verse 22 for "proving" has the sense of knitting two things together.  They believed in a coming Messiah, but they also believed that Jesus was poles apart from what Messiah would be.  Saul's preaching brought those things together in people's minds and knit them together, each stitch a different point.  Another way to see it is the knitting the person to the view that Jesus is Messiah.  Either way, he was convincing people, proving to them, that Jesus is the Messiah.

Always remember that spiritual growth is the result of a living connection to Jesus that is lived out in faith.  True spiritual growth is also always connected to the blessing of God. 

The blessing of God is a multi-faceted thing.  It doesn't look just one particular way.  We have to be careful that we do not equate the blessing of God with everything going well, and getting all the stuff we want.  In this land of plenty, it is easy to make the blessing of God be a very material thing.  I have a nice, big house, retirement nest egg, lucrative business/job, etc.  Saul is a blessed man, but remember the words of Jesus.  "I will show him [Saul] how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake."

Let me just say this.  To suffer for Jesus is a great honor and blessing.  To be martyred for Christ is also great honor and blessing.  You might have to put that one in the "To Be Believed Later" file.  We should never try to make these things happen.  Instead, we are following Jesus and letting him show us how we are to honor him and how he will bless us.  The cross was the most blessed place in the universe, but it sure didn't look like it when it was happening.  Remember that!   Yet, your life doesn't have to look like that to be blessed.  Trust Jesus!

It is like you see Jesus saying to you, "Come follow me!" and you really want to follow him.  But then, you see him going to a cross, and your flesh is saying, "I'm not following that guy; He's crazy!"  However, after the resurrection, you are like, "Crazy like a fox.  Wow!"  Even then, after such an emotional rollercoaster, you find yourself torn.  Your flesh shrinks back from one who tells you to pick up your cross and follow him, and yet your spirit desires to come out after him.

It is one thing for Peter to ask Jesus to come out on the water when he saw him walking on it.  However, no one was asking Jesus to come on the cross with him.  They all hid, and Peter chief among them.  God understand this about us, and works with us to bring to the place of faith and courage, where we can follow him by faith.

Verse 23 opens up with "Now after many days were past..."  There is a lot more time in that phrase then we may assume.  Galatians 1 gives some more details about this period.  There we are told that Saul left Damascus to go into Arabia, and then came back.  Three years transpires in this "many days."  For perspective, we need to understand that Arabia is a very general term that basically means desert.  If you left Damascus going south, southeast, you were basically in Arabia.  If you kept going you could make all the way to the Arabian Peninsula.  We don't exactly know where and how far Saul went into Arabia.  He seems to be getting away to go out into the wilderness. 

Regardless, it is about three years at the point that things change in Damascus.  Saul is preaching and God is blessing him.  However, the Jews of Damascus begin to plot to kill Saul.  Now, it is one thing to be in a foreign land and they don't like you.  However, this is Saul's own people.  Yet, he had been just like them, not to long ago.

It is not that he isn't blessed anymore.  The devil isn't stationary.  He's working to neutralize the work of God.  However, God isn't static either.  God sees what the devil is trying, and folds it into His plan, which is not for Saul to die yet.  Thus, the plot becomes known to Saul, though we are not told how.  Jesus has more work for Saul to do.  As the resistance against Saul increases, God is teaching Saul to identify with the sufferings of Jesus, to join him in those sufferings.  This is a intimacy that we can experience with Jesus.  Yes, suffering for Christ is a blessing, though our flesh does not believe it for one moment.

When Jesus miraculously supplied bread in the wilderness, the people were all gung-ho for him.  But, later they cried out "Crucify him!"  People are fickle.  We cannot let ourselves be stuck looking at people and hoping that lots of them will embrace us.  One day you may see great fruit, and then boom, the next day they are calling for your head, and that's okay, if God is with you.

This part of the story reminds me of the prophet Jeremiah in chapter eleven of his book.  Verses 18-22 describe a group of people in Anathoth who were plotting to kill Jeremiah.  God reveals to Jeremiah what they are plotting and says that He will punish them.  If you look at Jeremiah 1:1, you will see that Anathoth is Jeremiah's hometown, and it is filled with priests!  This town of priests are secretly plotting to assassinate one of their local boys.  Jeremiah had become the opposite of a hometown hero.  Even more interesting is the fact that Jeremiah uses language that clearly borrows from Isaiah 53 (written some 100 years earlier).  He was like a docile "lamb brought to the slaughter," and the people wanted to "cut him off from the land of the living."  Jeremiah is basically looking at the mistreated individual of Isaiah 53 (who would eventually be Jesus) and says, "I can identify with that!"

Though some of the Damascene Jews were waiting outside of the city gates to kill Saul, God out-foxed them by making the plot known to Saul, and the Christians out-foxed them by letting Saul out of a window in the wall with a rope and a basket in the dead of night.  Yes, great Saul who had marched to the city with strong men to arrest Christians was now sneaking out of the city by night.

We might think Saul should have walked out of the city daring them to try and touch him.  Surely, God's angels would protect him.  Perhaps, an army of angels would march out of the desert and escort Saul out of the city.  How cool would that be?  However, God delivers Saul with a much more humble method, which seems absolutely appropriate for a man who had had a big ego.

We must be careful that we are not presumptuous about how God should save us.  Don't assume.  Through prayer, seek God for the answer that He is giving, and not that one that your flesh is providing.

Perhaps you are hearing this and thinking to yourself, "That's a nice story, but stuff like that never happens for me.  God didn't do that for me."  Of course, you are not Saul in those circumstances.  Even in that day, countless Christians could have complained that God didn't give them the visions that Saul had, or the mission that He gave to Saul.  Don't give yourself over to envy and complaining against God.  Stop looking at what God might be doing through others and being envious over it.  Stop looking at what God isn't doing in your life and whining over it.  Rather, turn to God in prayer and seek Him.  Don't just seek Him to get visions and a cool mission.  Seek Him because He is worthy to be found.  Intimacy and relationship with Jesus is far more important, and yet, believe you me, He will give you plenty of tasks and you will see fruit, if you keep your eyes on Him!

Let's be a people pressing into Jesus in order to have intimacy with him, to know him better.  Then, we will be a transformed person who is capable of being used to draw others to Christ Jesus.  Only Jesus can tell you all the things that you have to go through for him, and only Jesus can prepare your heart to thrive in the midst of it!

Saul Preaches audio