Firmly Rooted, Col, 2:6-7

So we are looking at a really precious passage here this morning. There's just a lot of richness in it. So let's go ahead and move into the passage here. These two verses have a lot to tell us. Now, I must say that there's a little bit of an issue. We've got six points here after kind of the introductory phrases.

Most of us only have five fingers on a hand. So I'm trying to figure out exactly how you resolve that. You can borrow one from a neighbor, they get a spare. See Bob, about surgeries, six fingers, is that something they do? Anyway, try to figure out some way to work on it to remember the six points with only five fingers on a hand.

Okay. Anyway, this guy's got no problem. All right. The points we're going to be looking at here after, therefore, you have received Christ Jesus the Lord will be, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted, now being built up in Him, established in your faith, just as you were instructed, overflowing with gratitude. Okay? So, now, let's move into it.

This first word that comes here in this sequence, and he's saying, therefore, in other words, with the idea there is some logic here involved in this. This isn't just a random idea thrown out. This is a logical process that he's put out for us. But therefore, as you have received Christ, this word here, paralambano, and At first, it might be something we think of in terms of, oh, I've received Christ, that is, I've become a Christian, okay?

And at first, that might be what strikes you, but I don't believe that is what Paul is aiming at conveying to us here. What's going on here instead, it's receiving in the sense of detailed teaching, okay? Not just the gospel sufficient to be saved, but all the other teachings that go along with it, the whole counsel of God, as Paul phrased it when he was speaking to the elders at Ephesus in Acts 20. Paul used this word paralimbano in these different passages here, and if we kind of step our way through them, this first one here was one that we looked at this last week, where Paul received teachings regarding the Lord's Table. And he used the word received in that sense. So, specific to the Lord's table. The next one here comes up.

This refers to received in terms of what is necessary for a person to believe in order to be saved. That they believed that Christ died for their sins and was buried and rose again. The fundamentals of the gospel. That's what a person needs to receive in order to be saved.

Then he goes on in writing to the church at Galatia, and he used it here in the sense of all the things that Paul received directly from the Lord. What it turns out is from this verse and on into the rest of the verses that are in the list, the typical and most common sense of this word is the entire teachings that you find in the New Testament. the entire set of teachings that you see that the apostles taught. So even though it has occasionally a couple of narrower usages, the general and most common usage, the widest sense, is everything that was taught, not just what's necessary for salvation or not just what's necessary for the Lord's table.

And so we see it in that sense here in Colossians 2.6.

Now, we have a question. If the people of Colossae had never met Paul, how did that teaching that they had received happen with them? Okay? Nice question to ask. Hey, let's look for an answer about that. It starts off this way. Paul had gone to Ephesus on the second and third journeys that he made on his missionary tours, if you will, in order to see the various cities. The second and third missionary journeys included Ephesus, to the point that when he met with the elders at Ephesus, he says, for three years I have taught you the whole counsel of God. The other thing that we see as we look at him meeting with them, he says, I have been teaching publicly and from house to house, so in several different contexts. For three years I didn't cease to admonish you, so he spent time and he conveyed to them the whole counsel of God.

These are words that he has just used a few verses before in Colossians 1.28. So here's Paul. He had gone from where he was sent, from Antioch, and passed through Ephesus, passing near but around Colossae, from everything we can tell.

But one of the things that shows up as we read the book of Acts, Acts 19.10, says, heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.

That is, all those in the area around Ephesus, because Ephesus was like the capital city of Asia. It was, in fact, the Roman governor's headquarters. All who lived in that area heard the gospel. So even though it says Paul spent his time in Ephesus, the word traveled elsewhere. And so here's Ephesus on the west end of what we now call Turkey. But the entire area around Ephesus received the word, not necessarily by Paul, but by others. Now, it's apparent that the word traveled from Ephesus to Colossae. And what it appears happened is Epaphras, whom we've heard of before, had quite likely spent a good deal of time there in Ephesus learning from Paul and then was able to carry that on over to the church at Colossae and to the neighboring cities of Laodicea and Heropolis. Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, and interestingly, he uses kind of the whole title. Now, the Jews would object to him being recognized as the Messiah. The Messiah? Absolutely not, they would say.

They'd rather do the law themselves. Now, some of you who may be old enough may even recall a television commercial about like that, right? Mother, I'd rather do it myself, okay? This is the cry of the legalists, the Jews. I would rather do it myself, okay? Give me the rules, I'll do it. That's their claim.

The Gnostic false teachers, have a slightly different twist to it, they wouldn't recognize him as the Savior. Because why? Because if you know the right stuff, you can save yourself. That's the Gnostics' teaching. But by saying, no, this is Christ Jesus the Lord, Paul stood in opposition to what either of the groups would say, what either of them would teach. And he'd lay down the truth, and they would see the contrast. The principle, I think, that comes out here is the teaching of the Church is intended by God to lead us to specific and intimate knowledge of the person of Jesus Christ our Lord. Not just to, here's the laws, follow it and we'll see you later. Not just, here's some special knowledge. Oh, are you part of our special group? Okay, then you can have it.

But, the open invitation to all Here is Christ Jesus the Lord. And Paul would teach and admonish every man, every person, every single one throughout the entire area that the Lord had given him charge to communicate the Gospel. The teaching is eternally essential, and God has made it clear that nothing else and no one else will do.

We can't just come and teach you some religious stuff. We can't just come and tell you some nice little Bible stories. Have you ever seen some story books written for kids and it comes across, and I'm not saying we shouldn't write Bible books for kids, but it's easy to have it come across as just sort of a nice myth, a little bubbly account. These are things that are communicated because they are in fact, and the ultimate end of all those nice Bible stories is to point us to Jesus Christ, and nothing less, and no one else.

So what is received here? I think that's important. He's used this word received. What is received? It isn't the law, the stuff that I've got to do. Here's the requirements you've got to fulfill. Not that. It isn't the secret knowledge. If I just know the right stuff, I can know these things that will lead me off into the foggy mists. and then I will have it. No, it's not that. It isn't what, it's a who.

It's receiving Jesus Christ the Lord, and Paul makes it very clear. You know, it's real easy for people to get pointed off in other directions, isn't it? Even coming to a church such as this, it's easy for us to get the idea that, oh, it's just coming here and being in the room, that's what counts. or it's just doing the right stuff, or maybe it's doing the right amount of all the stuff. The focal point Paul makes abundantly clear here, no, it's Christ the Lord. It is Him. That's what counts. That's who counts. Now, get out your six fingers. The first one, he says, Christ the Lord, one, walk in Him. As he presents that, so walk in Him comes here. So walk in Him.

Here's this word walk, and we've talked about this word before. Paul is using it more sparingly in the book of Colossians. It's interesting. It has to do with this daily ordering of one's life, but not just the externals. Here's this key word walk, parapateo, to walk about. It's the idea that comes through there. It's the outward manner of one's life, but not just in an external sense.

It's based on the inner spiritual character and position. That's what he's talking about. As you have been taught about, the position that you have in Him, therefore walk on the basis of what you know about Him and who you are in Him." That's what he's spelling out to them.

Ephesians brings this word up repeatedly, and as we continue studying Ephesians and Colossians, we'll see it several times more there. And here in Colossians, one of the things you notice is that it shows up sprinkled, and it says, once in each chapter. It's something that was not native to the Greeks. It was something that was brought in to the Jewish culture, but apparently well understood enough so that the majority Gentiles would understand what he was saying. Now, let's take an analogy here to perhaps get the point across.

We would have no difficulty looking at some very nice little set of tropical fish that might be swimming about, and that would be fine to all of us, and we might enjoy doing that, even if you were sitting in a dentist's office. Okay. Now, what would startle you, however, if, as I was talking to you, a school of fish just went swimming by right in the middle of the room, okay? That would startle us. Why? It's because that's not the environment for fish, is it? Okay? It would startle you even more if among the fish were some sharks, okay? Even without that, just seeing some fish swimming by between you and me would be a rather startling thing to see because the natural environment for the fish is the water. That's the environment that the fish swim in and they live in.

They move in it. Their flotation up and down is based on the water. They take the water in through their gills. That's where they get their oxygen. Everything that they do is in the environment of the water. That's native to them, and to have them swimming through the air is definitely not natural.

My reason for bringing up fish... You say, what does fish have to do with the context here? As believers, we have an environment as well. It's an environment that's unique, but it's as total and all-encompassing as the fish in the water, and it's this. We have an environment called Christ Jesus the Lord. Notice that He says, He doesn't just say, as you have received, walk. Walk how? Walk in Him.

We have an environment as believers that is entirely in Him. It is an intimate environment. Just like the fish aren't happy to be just close to water, or approximately associated with water, they live in the water. It's a total environment for them. For the believer, spiritually, it is a total environment for us to be in Christ, in Him. A complete and total environment. He says, walk as you have received the Lord Jesus Christ, in Jesus Christ, in Him. He is the complete and total spiritual environment for the believer. Absolutely.

Fish are not happy to be just sprinkled with water. That doesn't work. As a believer, we aren't here to be just sprinkled a little bit with Jesus. We don't get some Jesus dust on us and call that good. Our spiritual environment is entirely in Him. completely, intimately in Him.

He says, so walk in Him. Remember when we studied through the second chapter of Ephesians, we had this comparison that Paul made. He says, here's the believer who is entirely in their trespasses and sins. They are entirely in the lusts of the flesh. Here is the believer in Christ. Now, you and I may be shoulder to shoulder and work right alongside a person who is an unbeliever. It looks like we're right next to them.

Spiritually, guess what? We are in an entirely different environment, completely different environment, because we are in Christ. For the believer, Christ is our spiritual environment. Christ is our spiritual environment. Notice that rather than being physical, like the fish, the believer's environment is spiritual. Rather than being earthly, the believer's environment is heavenly. Here we are with these bodies on planet Earth, our environment spiritually is entirely heavenly.

That's really amazing, but it's absolutely true. And the third thing, rather than being impersonal, like water or air, the believer's environment is spiritual, it's a heavenly environment, is entirely wrapped up in the person of Jesus Christ. It's in Him.

That's the point that Paul makes in Ephesians 1.3 that we looked at some months ago. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing, spiritual, in the heavenly places, heavenly, in Christ. It's in Him entirely.

It's personal, not just impersonal material. When unbelievers look at us, it's like they're looking at the aquarium. It's a world that they don't know. They're seeing something that is entirely unlike the environment that they live in when they look at us. Here is a being living entirely in an environment that is foreign to them. When they look at us, We may think they're just, oh, they're just looking at another human being. No. They're looking at someone who is naturally in an entirely different environment. That environment is Jesus Christ. That environment is intimately Jesus Christ.

Alright, get the six fingers out again. Now, having been firmly rooted, this is the next one here, So the beginning of verse 7 goes like this, having been firmly rooted, and this Greek word is the word that's also used in botany and biological terms for roots. It's a perfect passive participle. Now what does that mean? Let's take a look at the analogy here and then we'll go farther. The believer here is pictured as a tree. Now I've taken you from being a fish to a tree. I hope you can handle that. The believer is pictured as a tree, rooted in Christ. That's the analogy that Paul is clearly drawing here.

Roots, of course, provide water and minerals and stability. Matter of fact, if you ever see a tree uprooted, that's a bad thing. It is the source of the water and the mineral nutrients that the tree needs. It is the source of the stability of the tree, without which it's not going to do well. So he uses that analogy, but there's other reason for it as well. Roots, I say roots, it says roots only. I should say not only, provide that. They only do it because they are an intimate contact.

One of the things you've noticed if you've ever done any digging around with plants, and frankly, I haven't done too many tree removals, but just pulling up plants, you'll notice that the roots put out little tiny rootlets. There is an intimate connection between the soil and the fine particles there and the roots, and the roots go deeper and farther into the soil, touching more and more and more and more of it. Some of the statistics that I've seen so far as the length of actual roots, when you take all those little tiny ones and add them together, it is astounding how long the roots are if you were to take them one by one and put them end to end. Why?

It's because there is an ultimate need for what that soil has to offer. And what the plant gets out of the soil is based on intimate contact, continuing intimate contact. Now, we are in Him. As we look at this, we are in Christ. Christ is the soil. There is continuing intimate contact. From here we get back into the question.

It's a perfect passive participle. What does he mean by that? Why did Paul use that? He used it, it was perfect. That means a completed past action with ongoing results into the future. That's what the perfect tense means, right? Completed past action, ongoing results into the future. There was a completed past rooting.

You have been rooted, not like, boy, someday I hope to be. It sure would be nice if someday I was, or be nice, or, you know, I'm kind of getting rooted sort of a little bit, a little at a time. No. It's a completed past action with ongoing results into the future. It is a passive verb because the rooting is not ours to do. We have been rooted in Him by His doing. It's a done deal. By the way, I never see any threat of unrooting. Just a little clue there in terms of someone worrying about, am I really saved? No threat hung over people's heads of, boy, you better be careful, you get unrooted. Don't find that.

It's also rooted in Him. Christ is the soil in which we've been planted, in whom we're intimately connected. We have in the past been rooted by God in Him as an intimate connection In terms of our position, there is nothing lacking in terms of what it takes to derive all of our resources from Him. There is nothing lacking in terms of what it takes for us to have intimacy in Him. Our position is completely adequate for that. It's all God's doing, and it's a done deal. Alright. Now the third point there, now having been built up in Him, Now being built up.

Now there's a couple of contrasts here. Previously, he relied on a tree and rooting analogy. This is a building analogy. So he's switching from plants to buildings. So we need to get that straight. The other thing is, while we were firmly rooted as a past tense perfect action, completed past action, this is different. Look at it here. Epioca de Mayo. And this one here is a present passive participle.

What is that telling us? We are now in the process of being built up. It is still passive. God is the one doing the building, but it's ongoing. So we have been rooted. It's a done deal. But we are in the process now of being built up. It is still God doing it. It's still in process.

You ever feel like a construction project? You ever feel like, boy, that welding was a little rough. It's the big power saw, that really is a rough job on me. Lord, I wouldn't mind, but man, that drill, three inches wide, does it have to be? We are a construction project, individually, corporately. He's writing to the church together, isn't he? Corporately. It says, you together as a church are a construction project. And it's true of us individually.

Both things are taking place. What's happening in your life and what's happening in my life is part of a dynamic process. The rooting is a completed past action, but the building process is ongoing. It's happening now. And it's happening in each of us individually. It's happening in us as a church body. God is changing He is not changing the character of the people in this body. He is changing the character of the body as a whole. Our position hasn't changed one bit, but he is in the process of working that position into our lives.

Okay. Get the fingers out again. Established in your faith. It's the word established that he used. but it's actually using a different word and a different verb tense. This one here, the King James, is established. It's also a present passive participle, like building. So we can think of it in the same sense here. It's going on right now. It's happening. This being established is happening now. But being passive, It's not you or me who does the establishing. It's God's process. It's something that He does.

Now, established in, and it has there in the New American Standard, your faith, actually the King James carries the meaning better, a Greek definite article, in the faith. So let's take a look at that. In your faith, and by the way, I'm not lisping. It's not in your face, like face, and I'm lisping, it's in your faith. I mean that. Okay. Just want to make sure. Now, so the faith is the idea there.

The idea that he's getting across here is not, oh, faith, oh, there's people of faith and they believe in something. No. It's a specific faith. It's a specific set of doctrines. It is God's intent, Paul makes it clear here, that he is not aiming that we have some vague something that we believe in or that we believe in this little thing and the rest of it we don't know. We have the foggiest idea.

He says there is a specific set of teachings and you are in the process of being established in it. That's precisely what he has in mind. That's what he says right here. That's what he's aiming for. Notice as we go through this that receiving Jesus Christ, as he spells it out here, is a learning process based on teaching and based on increasing specificity.

Notice here that being established in your faith is underscoring the same message. It's the faith, it's a specific set of doctrines, and you're being established in it, made more firm, made more solid in the specific faith, not ambiguity. It is a singular and consistent set of truths. The faith here comes across this way. It isn't just believing something. It isn't just religious in a general kind of way. It's a specific set of teachings and doctrines. It's centered upon a relationship and fellowship with God.

One of the things we've been doing in recent weeks is working through a doctrinal statement. At one point in time, we had draft doctrinal statement out there for people to take a look at. We don't want to have a doctrinal statement be something we say, okay, well, let's get this thing written up and then we'll just sit it on the shelf. The reason for having a doctrinal statement is why?

So we live it. That's Paul's exhortation to the Colossian Church that we're reading about right here. He says, the things that you've been taught about Jesus Christ, not so that we all have this thing and we all say, yeah, you agree, looks good, looks good, okay, sign off, good, on the shelf. But so that it is lived, it is walked. If you say that there is a Trinity, the intent is that it be lived. Not by our strength and power, but by His. But the doctrine is true and real.

Why? Because we're going to walk it. Because we're going to live it. Because it's reality. That's why. If we say that the Bible is inspired by God and infallible, without error, we believe it not because we all want to just think the same and rubber stamp it and have the same belief like a cookie cutter, but because it is the truth and indeed, God intends that we live by this same life, by the very same person of Jesus Christ. That's what He's talking about here. Not just something that we're going to hold on to doggedly because we're really, really, really stubborn. Alright.

Here are some listings, it's not exhaustive, of places in the New Testament where there's reference to the faith. So it's not just something that Paul brings up here, it is something that is laid out repeatedly and is used by the other apostles as well. Now, get the fingers out again. This time we'll go to number five.

As you were instructed, boy, I mean, he keeps underscoring and revisiting this, doesn't he? Receiving has to do with teaching. Being established in the faith has to do with teaching. And now he's saying, as you were instructed. Wow! I think he's trying to get a point across, don't you? Now, he says, you were instructed, this is didasko.

Now, the thing we run into, as we saw before, Paul didn't do the teaching, quite possibly Epaphras, who's mentioned twice in the letter and also once in the letter to Philemon. Regardless of who did the teaching, it seems very clear to Paul in the way he's writing, that however it happened, that he is quite certain that they have been taught well up to this point. Otherwise, he wouldn't be writing like this. In everything he's writing in these two verses, he's assuming that they have been taught well. And so he's writing with that, I would perceive, as a solid assumption.

That is, there's good confirmation that they've been taught well and taught thoroughly. Notice, unlike the Gnostic teachers, that the point, however, is not just to know stuff. We have electives here, five of them on Sunday morning. We meet here in the main service, and teaching is a core part of what we do. We have a Greek class that meets here on Saturday nights. Why? To learn what Scripture is saying. but not just to pack our heads, not just so we know stuff, but so that the focal point is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

That's what it's about. That's what it's for. All right, now, finally get to the last... Now, this is the tough one, because you've got to get that sixth finger somewhere. Okay, she's counting. All right, good. All right, I see her checking. That's great. Overflowing with gratitude is the last point. Notice here, overflowing.

Notice what Paul didn't say. He could have chosen some other words. How about if he said to them, just dripping with gratitude. He didn't say dripping with gratitude. He didn't say flowing with gratitude. He used this word overflowing. And so you might use some analogy like that, or like that. This is for Phil, okay? It's the chocolate fountain thing, see? I don't care what analogy or picture you use. The bottom line, he means overflowing, okay? Alright.

Overflowing with gratitude. Lots of it. Plenty of gratitude. Now, I would venture to say that Paul has a very explicit point to make because he keeps bringing up this gratitude issue with the church at Colossae. We get to the attitude of gratitude here.

This is the word Eucharistia. Good gracing is the idea. Now, Eucharistia, as you probably guessed, is part of a family of words. These are words that are all related. So, the words show up like this. We looked at one of them previously when we looked at Colossians 1-3, where Paul writes, We give thanks, and that's good gracing, to God the Father.

Colossians 1.12 is another one we looked at. Giving thanks, and it's the same Greek word, eucharisteo, to the Father. Now, from this verse on, the giving thanks is all the encouragement to the church at Colossae. The first one, he says, we give thanks. The rest of them is all encouragement for them to give thanks. See the difference there? He's saying implementation in your lives of giving thanks is what we're aiming at here.

When we get to Colossians 2.7, he says, overflowing with gratitude. Overflowing, you get the idea of an abundance. Sometimes when things are overflowing, that's not good. Ever been to that kind of experience? The kids have started something flowing and they plug something up and that's not good. Anyway, stories I won't tell you.

Colossians 3.15, and be thankful. Eucharistos, he's looking for a character of thankfulness, not just action, but a character of thankfulness.

Finally, he goes on in Colossians 3.16, it says, May the word of Christ dwell in you richly. And flowing from that, there's this flowing idea again, is thankfulness in your hearts to God. and finally finishes off towards the end of the book there, an attitude of thanksgiving. He continues in every chapter to focus at least once on this issue of giving thanks and thanksgiving. So the question is, after seeing it here and seeing how often it comes up, why?

Why can't I just enjoy my blessings and call it good? I mean, do I have to be thankful? Oh, okay, let's check it out. One comparison that we can make is in Romans 1.21, where Paul begins a description of a cascade of lack of thankfulness. He says, for even though they knew God, they did not honour him as God or give thanks, because they became futile in their speculations. The unbeliever's cascade of unbelief descends from a waterfall of lacking thankfulness, So, what Paul is making clear in Colossians, he's making abundantly clear by telling them thankfulness, even overflowing with thankfulness, is characteristic of the believer who understands what they have, who understands who they are, who understands how they've been blessed. This isn't something unnatural, except as you compare it to the world. It is perfectly natural for the believer to be thankful because it is a recognition of the overwhelming blessings that we have.

As we saw in Ephesians 2.7, it will take eternity for the Lord to reveal His marvelous grace to us. We're barely getting an inkling. Overflowing thankfulness doesn't seem like too much. It doesn't seem out of line or excessive. Not at all. It's this overflowing thankfulness that is beautiful because it's a full recognition.

It comes from a heart and a mind of full recognition of who we are in Him. It's that environment again. As we look at this passage here, one of the things that becomes abundantly clear is Paul is asking them to walk based on what they know. Do you see that? I mean, three times in this passage he's underscored what they have learned.

God is not asking us to just walk because you're supposed to. He says, I want you to walk because of what you know. There's no encouragement for us to simply walk as human beings here on planet Earth. Give it your human best. Give it the old college try. No. The encouragement here instead is to walk in Him. It's that heavenly, spiritual environment completely in Christ. That's the encouragement. Walk in Him and nowhere else.

Alright. Okay. Last time. Six fingers. So walking him is the encouragement that he has there. Having been firmly rooted, God did it, done deal, past tense, God did the rooting, no threat of unrooting. Now being built up, that's the process that we're in. If you feel like a construction project, perfect. That's exactly what's going on. Established in your faith, and that's a process as well. We're meeting here this morning for that very purpose. We've already been rooted, that's not an issue. But we are being built up, we are being established in the faith. Just as you were instructed, he knows that they have had teaching about this. He's saying, I'm encouraging that all the more. Keep building and keep growing based on the Lord's doing.

And finally, overflowing with gratitude. As you notice that this is the response, the end response of this cascade, if we look at the Romans 1 scenario, you have a cascade that gets darker and darker and darker. This one ends up with, what's the bottom pool of this waterfall? Overflowing with gratitude. Overflowing with gratitude, a recognition of all that the Lord has done and who we are in Him.

Let's pray. Lord, what immense and marvelous things you have done. You have indeed rooted us in the environment of Jesus Christ. We have an intimate relationship with him in our position. And walking in that intimacy with which we've been rooted, in which we've been rooted, is perfectly natural. for the heavenly beings that we are. We thank you for that. Thank you for the process that we're in. And we pray for the heavenly perspective of those processes. We just give you thanks for it. In Jesus' name, Amen.