from the pulpit at Donnels Creek

Date: August 10, 2025

Lord’s Day: 32

Series: Colossians the Mystery of Christ

Title: Established

Text: Colossians 2:8-15

Many years ago I was on an out of state move, driving and thinking.  I began to consider the long stretches of time I am away from home.  I thought, ya know, I could have a complete other family or marriage or relationship and the family and Tina would not know.  I am sure eventually it would come out, that is why we have Dr. Phil and Jerry Springer.

As I thought about it more I considered all the time that I spend going to estimates.  I have gone all over central ohio and as far away as Kentucky to do an estimate for a job.  Again, gaps of time where I am unaccounted. 

One of the members of our family that you have yet to meet, and most likely won’t, is Loretta.  That name will get Tina’s attention pretty quickly.  She is not a fan of Loretta and you will know why as I explain her.

So I thought I would be cute.  When Tina would ask me where I was going I would say, “I am going to see Loretta.”. She would scowl.  On the way out the door if she did not ask, I would say, “Hey, Loretta and I are going to meet up.”

This became so catchy that even my son-in-law Matt began meeting with Loretta’s sister. 

Now in reality, there is not Loretta.  I hope you know that.  But as time passed I began to consider what I was doing.  Sure, I was trying to be funny.  I was making efforts to be cute and keep Tina on her toes.  She would argue with me and I would just say, “You keep treating me like this, I will go live with Loretta.”

One morning a couple of years ago I was sitting in my office and I was thinking about Loretta.  In reality, I was making a joke out of something very serious.  In fact, it was so serious that in addressing it God made a commandment.

So I decided that maybe it was good for Loretta to disappear.  We have a family text that includes a bunch of people and all of them knew Loretta.  So the best way for Loretta to disappear is to announce it on there and this is what was written:

Loretta Smithereens, 29 of Timbuktu, Ohio Died peacefully in her sleep September 18.  At her side were a variety of stray cats that she attracted through the years.  Her passing was caused by a broken heart encountered when the love of her life reasoned that maybe joking around about breaking a commandment is not as funny as originally thought.  She leaves behind one child who will inherit all her prized collections including a full set of professional bowler Art Bigotti collected plates and various knock off  Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Burberry handbags.  The loss of Loretta comes as a sudden end.

Now, occasionally, remnants of Loretta laughter pops up and you may ponder why I open our time with her today.  It is because I wanted to focus on one particular part of my marriage to Tina (which isn’t joking about adultery). 

Tina and I both met at Graces Garden at Schiller Park in the German Village area of downtown Columbus, Ohio.  Pastor Doyal Jackson officiated the ceremony and did a wonderful job.  As a part of that ceremony we repeated some vows of covenant commitment and then exchanged rings.

I can’t recall exactly what Doyal said but it is not uncommon for the wedding officiant to say something about the ring being a sign of marriage.  Sometimes they will say, the ring is round and never ending which is what our love should be for the other person. But that is the gist of the ring. 

When you look on Tina’s finger and my finger you will see a ring.  These rings are a sign that we are married.  When you look on the hand of a woman or a man and you see a band on the appropriate finger, it means they were married (or widow(wer) were at one time married).

No person with their mental faculties would look at the ring and say, that ring IS the marriage.  The ring is a ring.  The ring can’t do anything.  It is just a ring. 

However, the ring represents something.  It represents that this person is married.  They have taken vows of commitment to each other.

We come to an interesting passage today that builds on where we were last week.  We are looking at Colossians 2:8-15 and the center (where we will spend most of our time) is 2:11-12.

It is here that Paul mentions two things, circumcision and baptism.  Why would he speak on this?  How are they related?  They are both signs.

Just as my ring is the sign of my marriage to Tina, these two ceremonies are a sign of something.  This will be our focus today. 

(bless the message)

Review:

Last week we spent our time in 2:6-7, “As you received Christ, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.”.

How did we receive Christ?  Grace.  We are surrounded by fields full of plants.  When the farmers around us, all the way back in April and May, took to their fields, they planted seed.  We are seeing the result of that planting now.  Corn plants have grown all over. 

The Corn is ROOTED.  It is rooted because it the seed was planted.  No brainer right?

That points to us.  As you received Christ, so walk in him.  God planted the seed.  If God had not planted to the seed we would not grow.  It is an act of His divine grace and mercy. 

So the point last week was, as you received, so walk.  Receive by grace, grow by grace. 

2:8

Then Paul continues: See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according the human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to Christ.

There were influences in that church that were pushing the “Christ AND” theology. It was happening then, it is happening today and it has happened through out time in between then and now. 

I grew up in a denomination that taught Christ AND baptism.  We are going to address baptism today.  Let me be clear, baptism is a sign of saving faith not the source/case of saving faith.  Just like our wedding ring.  It is the sign. We are not baptized TO GAIN salvation.  We are baptized because we have received salvation.

This is the warning from Paul to the Colossian church.  Be careful of what teaching you hear.

Deceitful and harmful leading can come through enticing and deceitful words. He was teaching them, be careful. 

The word here for Captive (NIV, ESV, NASB, CSB) is actually to take off as plunder, like in the spoils of war.  That is the word picture that Paul is painting. Don’t be captured. 

Do you defend your faith like this?  I ask this not as an indictment but often is the case in my life I have not.  I would like to say that I take it a lot more seriously now. 

Do you defend against the way the world reasons?  How does the world reason?

A coupe of weeks ago I went to the ATM and withdrew $500. I was going to take care of an obligation and big bills were perfect.  I chose, fewest bills and then the money dispensed and I drove home.  It was not until later that I realized that the ATM had given me $600.  It was $100 more than what I had punched in. 

I opened the banking APP and made sure I did not miss key and sure enough it said, $500.  So I was like, well, Now I have an extra $100.

THIS IS HOW THE WORLD REASONS IN THIS situation.  What is the worldly philosophy for this extra $100. 

A few thoughts went through my head but the chief thought was, If the ATM had shorted me $20 you know for a fact I would be at that bank the next day pleading my case.  If they had my $20, they are certainly going to want their $100.  I decided to take it back.

The next day came and I had on my chores, go take care of that obligation and then take the $100 back to Huntington Bank.  But much to my surprise when I was paying my bill, I gave them a stack and they checked to make sure I had not just printed these puppies up on the HP.  One of them showed counterfeit.

It was that extra $100.  Not certain what happened in the dispensing at the ATM but in some way, a fake $100 was undetected.  Fortunately, I was able to pay my bill and get on with the day.  But I called the bank and let them know the whole story.

Many of you may be aware of this fact already, but when they train agents to spot counterfeit money they do not deal with a lot of fake bills.  They have them study a real $20, $50 or $100 bill.  Agents spend 12 to 14 weeks in their training and then add to it on the job training.  They know what a real bill is and can spot a fake right away.

As believers, we are to defend against the counterfeit. The best way is to spend time in this word.  Not being led away as spoil of war.  We can detect when the enemy is infiltrating.  Spending time with Godly teachers and writers.

If this time, on Sunday is the only time you are being fed, be prepared to be deceived.  I say this not to shame you.  I say it to alarm you.  I say it to encourage you to take time every day.  (plug the 31 day Proverbs study here if they need help)

Here is the deal on our opening verse 8.  There is nothing wrong with philosophy.  The word is Philo (love, you know it as Philadelphia the city of brotherly love), and the other word Sophia (knowledge).  Love of knowledge.

Paul is warning against empty knowledge.  Deceitful knowledge.  There were those trying to lead the people astray with empty and deceitful knowledge.  Namely, that if they do certain things along with faith, they would be saved.  This is counterfeit.  This is wrong.  This is deceit.

I absolutely love theology and studying theology.  This is no credit to me.  I grew up hating reading.  I could not stand books.  I avoided books as if they had a disease that would kill me.

When God saved me there was a progressive fire that began to burn inside of me.  I began to see the beauty of Christ in theology.  It drew me into the language – I hated to language.  I hated studying English.  I got by with Spanish.  Just enough to do the bare minimum. 

The door opened to people like R.J. Rushdooney, Abraham Kuyper, John Owen, Herman Bavinck, Martin Luther, John Calvin and Greg Bahnsen and Gary Demar and the list goes on and on.  This is the work of God.  I will tell you without Him, I am lazy when it comes to study.

But you don’t have to love these things to be a believer.  Paul’s words to these people were not that they had to know all the weeds. I like the weeds because it gives me a great appreciation, awe and respect for God.  When I see how it all fits together.  It is a thing of beauty. 

Here is the summary of the Gospel: Christ died for our sins, in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.  This is the Gospel.  This is it. 

You don’t have to know philosophy, theology or psychology.  That is the gospel message and the basic kindergarten knowledge. You know this, you can spot a counterfeit.

They were being fed a counterfeit.  They were being told here is what saves you, Jesus AND. . . They were too young, they were too inexperienced to notice the counterfeit and if it was not for Epaphras who went to Paul and brought him into the loop, they would have remained unwise to this.

There were most likely Jews who were telling them that they needed to be circumcised to receive the Grace of God.  You need Jesus and circumcision.

This type of teaching says that the gift of faith in Christ’s atonement is not enough.  You have to add to it.  Which in reality means that if you are adding to it, then God owes you.  It makes God in debt.  God will never be in debt to no one.  But when you say, if you do _________ then you are saved.  Whatever goes in that blank is a act for which you have earned salvation.

Paul does not stop there.  He deals with this circumcision thing.  Which in our day we can’t understand why this is a repeated topic in the New Testament.  It is a private thing we should not talk about in church.  Why are they constantly bringing up this private issue.

So what was the beginning of circumcision?

God calls Abraham in Genesis 12 out of Ur. Tells him I will make you a great nation, I will give you a land and all the families of the earth will be blessed because of you.  Abraham and his wife Sarah did pack up and go but they had no children. After some time passed they still had no children which is a point of issue Abraham brought up before God. God reassures Abraham, you are going to have a child.

After a little more time passed a third time Abraham is told by God that he will have a child. This time a sign is given to Abraham that he and future generations were to partake.  That sign was circumcision. 

All boys from infancy were to have this sign.  They were marked with the sign of being in the covenant community.  But why there?

Scripture does not say directly but does make implications which can’t be ignored:

This is how all the nations of the world were blessed through Father Abraham.  Yet there were those who put more faith in the act of circumcision than in what it represented.

We have a new covenant now and a new covenant sign. Every believer receives this circumcision of the heart.  This was the heart of the message last week.

Paul says, go back to the beginning.  As you received Christ, so walk in Him. 

Each of us who are believers have this mark on our hearts.  It is an act done by God.  As Peter preached to the masses on the Day of Pentecost, they had this mark placed upon their heart.  How do I know?  They asked, what shall we do?  They understood the depth of their sin.  They felt this.  The Spirit had worked in them.

This is on of the Spirit’s works.  Hearts are convicted and turn to the Lord.  It is the circumcision made without hands.

As I look at this passage I pondered, is Paul referring to something metaphorical or literal?  My first take was, this was not literal baptism nor was it literal circumcision.  Like 1 Peter 3:21, it speaks of a figurative baptism.  (All the works in this passage are done by someone else and not the person to whom they are done.

2:11 the circumcision is done without hands (Spirit)

2:12 The faith and the raising is the powerful work of God

2:13 We were dead (not half dead like Princess Bride but fully dead) God made alive

All of these activities were done outside of the believer. 

Looking at some other theologians I found that John Murray, A. Hodge, Douglas Moo and F.F. Bruce agree that this is not literal baptism.  However, John Calvin and Louis Berkhof and Herman Bavinck affirm that it is speaking of literal baptism.

I believe in this case, it can be both.  It is speaking about the literal reality of covenant signs and presents them in their metaphorical sense.  In this case it is possible to be both.

But most importantly is what does this represent.  I have a ring.  I look on my finger and there is a sign that I promised to love and be faithful to a woman.  Those in the world can look at that ring and see. 

You and I have two signs in our covenant with God.  You have been baptized and your heart has received the circumcision of Christ, made without hands.

This is the Ezekiel 36 heart change.  You are not sinless but your life is forever changed in Christ.  There is no outward sign that will MAKE you a believer.  It is only a heart that God has so worked in that it begins to love Jesus and be so changed that obedience is first and foremost important.

It points to Christ who has taken our record of debt and cancelled it(2:14).  The picture provided here is this record of debt being nailed to the cross.

Two pictures here:  Those who were crucified typically had their charges nailed to a sign above them.  Jesus stated He was the king of the Jews.  That is what they put up there. 

On your cross, the cross you and I deserved, our charges.  Jesus died for those charges.  He took the punishment we deserved. 

Additionally, there is evidence that this was literally done in the time of Paul’s writing.  That when a debt was paid, the person to whom the debt was owed would drive a nail in the contract.  Sometimes they would cut it up but it was a public activity that it is known, the debt is paid.

Jesus paid our debt.  He was nailed.  He was the means by which we had our debt paid. 

Colossians 2:6-7; Luke 18:9-14

Quite possibly the first reality program was Gilligan’s Island.  Of course I know that it is a scripted television show and that is the opposite of what they tell us about reality T.V.  They tell us that it is unscripted but if you have watched any of these shows they place on set people who are opposites and then throw gasoline on the cast waiting for explosions.

Consider if you will the cast on Gilligan’s Island. There was the Skipper, the head of the ship and his less than mentally capable first mate. Then the exceedingly rich couple, the brainiac scientist, an everyday girl next-door and a movie start.

What are the chances of all these people being on the same boat?  Next to zero.  But it is okay because it is not real life. It is just a television show where, because of a storm, they all get shipwrecked on an island for years, upon years.  Then finally they are able to get off the island only to get placed back on the island because the less than mentally capable first mate cleaned the compass.

When Gilligan cleaned the compass, he had removed all the magnets. The compass now does not work!

I have had a situation where my “compass” did not work.  Today we all use smartphones for directions. Remember paper road maps?  Remember trip-ticks from AAA?  Remember book atlases?

We sure smartphones now and before the current phone my old phone had something happen to it.  I do not know what it was but when using the map app (which in the moving business that is used often), it had me a mile away from my actual location.

So I am driving down and interstate and it has me over in a field.  I am way out, way over there and the voice lady was not quite sure what to do.  She was on repeat telling me to follow the route (follow the route, please follow the route).

I am following the route!  The lady in the phone has NO idea.

In real life direction means everything. When one gets going in the wrong direction disastrous things happen. You see it in the fake television story of Gilligan’s Island but that reflects real life.

This is our situation in Colossae. Paul, who has never visited this congregation and never met these people, is concerned about the direction of the church. 

Paul, in the opening chapter was already setting the stage for his instructive words to the congregation.  He was laying a foundation in the following ways:

The foundation has been laid with those things. He wanted the readers of his letter to have this firm grasp on some important matters and then iIn our text today he is going to begin addressing seem issues that have crept into the Colossian church.  Here in is the heart of the letter.  This is why Paul was writing Colossians and the Loodiceans (2:1).

Before we look into this text more specifically let us ask the Lord to bless our time together.

He opens this section speaking about a struggle.  The word is agona  (ἀγῶνα).  Sounds like agony right? 

This is the same word used regarding the Greek games (the Olympic games). Think of athletes who are pushing.  For those who have played sports you have been through the 2-a-days and the wind sprints and the conditioning.

I recall the first day of wrestling practice. The coach paired us up with people near the same size and gave us a small area on the mats and blew the whistle and we were the wrestle this person.

After what seemed to be ten minutes both of us were extremely winded, tired and weak.  The coach was like, what is up? You have been at this for 25 seconds.

This is the agony.  The long training sessions to gain the endurance. 

This is the passion of Paul. I am in agony.  I am straining.  I am reaching out with all my strength and I want you to learn this?  With what is Paul concerned?

False teaching.  Paul is going to zero in on some of the issues at both Laodicea and Colossae. 

There is a biblical history on this topic.  As the Hebrew people were coming into the land of Canaan, after they had left Egypt, the Lord gave them instructions.  He told them clearly, remove the people from the land, rid them completely for they will be a snare to you.  They will influence you to be unfaithful to the Lord.

Have you ever felt that for some person or some cause.  Maybe it is a family member or someone with whom you work or possibly someone at school. 

For some reason you have real agony over their situation. They have been distracted by the cares of this world.

We have this in the church here in Colossians.  Some people came in and were influencing negatively. 

This is not limited to Colossae. This was a constant struggle in the New Testament church.  Two thousand years later it is still an issue. 

They were not struggling because they were a young church. That is usually what a pastor would say here.  This is a young church and they are struggling because there are influences that are not good.  Paul is going to address those as we continue in chapter two.  The stark reality is the teaching growth in Christ can come outside of Christ.  This letter is addressing that.  Galatians addressed that.  This issue caught Paul’s attention frequently.

In 1800’s America, there is this thought that the desire should be the first century church.  The dominate thought during this period was that the first century church had everything figured out and was perfectly pure and as time progressed the church became impure. 

This is absurd.  Makes me wonder if they had read the New Testament.

                Acts and Romans issues between Jews and Gentiles in the church

                In Corinth there was accepted sexual immorality & drunkenness at Lord’s Supper

                Galatia was troubled with those teaching there needed to be submission to                                                    circumcision in order to be saved

                Thessolanica was plagued with thinking they missed Jesus’ second coming

                We have already discussed the issue with understanding the nature of Christ

                The idea that salvation came through secret knowledge harmed church for years

So you see the idea that church was better in first century than now is not warranted.  As I have stated several times, we stand on two thousand years of theological things being worked out and debated. 

But again, to say that the problems in Colossae was due to it being a young church is not warranted.  This congregation is nearly 217 years old.  We are not safe from being led astray.  It is the job of the pastorate to watch for wolves.  To watch for error.

Think of the church in general in the United States of America. There is a twitter feed (x) called Protestia.  It is an account which 90% of its content is serious things going wrong in the church.

Let me be clear here and I have said this before.  There are matters of first importance and matters of second importance.  There are matters of Orthodoxy.  I have described it several times as open hand and close hand issues.  I am not referring to open handed things here. When we get to the matters in Colossae, Paul is not referring to open handed things. 

There are people who are meeting this morning who have perverted the Scriptures and are allowing and accepting sexual deviancies.  They think they are redefining marriage, but it can’t be redefined.

I am not kidding when I am telling you there is a church called Bethel Church in Redding CA which has ten thousand members.  There are more than a hundred stories that I could tell you about with this congregation.  One that comes to mind is they put gold colored glitter in the ventilation system.  During the Sunday assembly at the right time they let it fall out of the ceiling and the pastors were claiming that God’s presence was evident in that gold glitter.  The leaders knew that the glitter was in the ventilation system and they knew that it would be cued and it would fall and they told the people, God’s tangible presence is here, look at the glitter, look at this gold dust.

It is not limited to Bethel Church.  There are issues with other congregations like Elevation Church.  Maybe you are not aware of any of these things.  Maybe you wonder well why even bring it up because we will never visit those churches.

It is not that simple.  They all have their own worship music.  If you listen to what is called Christian radio you may have heard some of it.  Elevation worship, Bethel Worship, Hillsong Worship, Maverick City, all of these churches are teaching ungodly things.

As was written in the bulletin a few weeks ago looking into the future we are looking to add to the good stuff that is already here and taking place.  Talked to Nancy and we are seeking at some point to expand on the worship.

As a pastor of the church I have to be on guard.  I have to be looking for potential issues.  This worship music is troubling.  Not only must we watch what we are being taught but we can’t fund those congregations.  You use their music, they receive a royalty.  You use their music you are funding their heresy.

This is a serious issue.  The things that Paul is addressing in Colossae we still face today.  There are people who want to change the gospel of Christ and it is subtle.

I will be very frank with you here, I would not recommend any program on Christian Television.  None.  I have not watched it in years but when I did it was garbage.  Use rabbit ears on your television and they take up about 15 channels in central ohio and very little of what is taught is truth.

This is the state of the church in America.  There are some very wonderful congregations both small and large.  There are some very talented and gifted and theologically correct praise teams.

But this is a matter I take very seriously.  I have watched Christians get so caught up in the beauty of a song or a movie or television show and have not considered the content.

That is the hart of Colossians.  The people had been led astray and Paul was struggling to address this.  With all his energy he was trying to get their attention and correct where they had been led astray.

He did not want them to be diluted with plausible arguments (2:4). He did not want them to be taken captive (2:8) with a bad philosophy or empty deceit.   He wanted them to be wise IN CHRIST. (2.6-7)

Colossians 1:24-29

Colossians 1:21-23

Colossians 1:16-22

Colossians 1:15-23

Colossians 1:15-20

Colossians 1:15-20

Colossians 1:13-20