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Father in heaven, we thank you so much that you are bigger, better, kinder than we know. Please help us to know a little bit more through your word this morning – for the glory of your name and the substance of our happiness, Amen.

In 1944 C.S Lewis was invited to give a talk, on any subject of his choosing, to a bunch of undergraduate students in Kings College London. And of all the things he could have spoken about, he chose to issue a warning. It was a warning about the desire that all human beings have of wanting to be on the “inside” of some group or other, and the corresponding fear or being left out. He said that this desire, if not carefully watched, has the capacity to make:

Men who are not yet very bad, do very bad things.

Listen to this:

To nine out of ten of you the choice which could lead to [becoming a scoundrel] will come, when it does come, in no very dramatic colours. Obviously bad men, obviously threatening or bribing, will almost certainly not appear.Over a drink, or a cup of coffee, disguised as triviality and sandwiched between two jokes, from the lips of a man, or woman, whom you have recently been getting to know rather better and whom you hope to know better still—just at the moment when you are most anxious not to appear crude, or naïf or a prig—the hint will come. It will be the hint of something which the public, the ignorant, romantic public, would never understand: something which even the outsiders in your own profession are apt to make a fuss about: but something, says your new friend, which “we”—and at the word “we” you try not to blush for mere pleasure—something “we always do.[C.S. Lewis, The Inner Ring].

Just think about the implications of that if it is true. It would mean that 9 out of 10 undergraduate students would be tempted to sell out their principles simply out of a desire to be liked by someone they admired. Is that believable? I wasn’t one of the people to whom he made that prophecy, but I find it rings true for me. I know that feeling of wanting to be on the inside of a group I admire. I know the pressure of wanting to be liked by the guys on the rugby team, and how it just seems like an elementary principle that the more you can drink the more you’re admired. I say all this this morning because our passage contains a warning. Colossians 2.8, Paul says:

See to it no one takes you captive [and it is not by violence – it’s by] philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to elemental spirits of the world.

Thinking in terms of groups or rings, if you are a Christian, Paul wants you to think of yourself as being “IN Christ.” It comes up again and again. Colossians 2.10 – you have been filled in Christ. Colossians 2.11 – you have been circumcised in Christ. Colossians 2.12 you have been buried with Christ, and also raised with him. Now think of what it would mean to be taken captive; it would mean being lured away from Christ by some other group. Who knows what that might have been in 1st century Colossae – maybe the impressive and severe lifestyle of the stoics? Maybe the extravagant lifestyle of the cult of Artemis or Aphrodyte – or some other elemental spirit of the world. But the strength of the kidnappers is in their lure. And the defence of the Christians is that Christ is better and that Christ has won. To be taken captive by these empty philosophies and elemental spirits is to be taken captive by losers. Colossians 2.15 (Paul says) God has:

disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in Christ.

So the warning: Don’t be taken captive by the captives. The captives can offer only empty promises and faint imitations of the real thing, which is found in Christ. In Christ, Paul says – you’ve really been filled, you’ve really been circumcised, and you’ve really been made alive.

1. In Christ you have really been filled.

The strength of the kidnappers is in their lure. They promise fulfilment. Back in the first century people probably didn’t buy magical tablets for decoration – they probably brought them because they thought they would actually allow them to exert some control over their life. To them, not buying a magical tablet might have seemed as crazy as turning down a promotion. What?! Don’t you want to be happy? Paul’s counter to the lure of fulfilment from any philosophy that’s not according to Christ is to say that in Christ is all the fullness of God. Where will you go for fulfilment if you go away from him? When the moment of temptation comes? When that person from that group you want to be a part of approaches you and asks you to forget your integrity, forget your Christian principles, forget Christ, and join in with all the other sensible, sane people and get on with the business of living? In that moment, who will you look to for fulfilment? Christ who is the fountain of every blessing we enjoy? Or the group that tries to fill itself on empty deceit?

Here is the promise; in Christ you will find fulfilment and satisfaction, because in Christ dwells the fullness of God. In Christ, you will find substance and nourishment. One of the things we want to do as a church is help one another live according to Christ. The metric of all our ministry is: “does this help people live according to Christ?” Does it make Christ known? So this week the JPC hockey team organised a sports quiz at Kingston Park Stadium; it was wonderfully attended by a good number not from JPC. But it wasn’t just a quiz. At the half way point the quiz master gave a short talk showing people that Jesus said the Kingdom of heaven is like a merchant who finds a pearl of great value, it’s so valuable it’s worth selling everything to get. He made Christ known. Because he knew, and the hockey team knew, that in Christ the fullness of God dwells, and that the only way to happiness is to come to him and live according to him.

The kidnappers try to lure away with the promise of fulfilment. Paul says: In Christ you are already full. And the kidnappers try to lure away by undermining our assurance that we are in Christ. That is why Paul talks of circumcision here. Let me give some context. Reading the scholars, there seems to be a discussion about whether this was circumcision in obedience to the Jewish law, or whether it was circumcision in a more general, pagan sense of initiation. There seems to be an agreement that this was not like the Galatian Christian problem, about Jewish teachers trying to get new Christians to become Jewish. This seems to be a kind of severe form of initiation, demonstrating commitment of the initiate and his hostility to his own body. So the attack on assurance comes by saying: How do you know you’re really included in Christ? Where’s your show of commitment? They could point to their initiates and say we are united by our commitment to higher living, our hatred of the flesh, our shared bond. We know who’s of us and who is not of us. What about you? To which Paul responds by saying:

2. In Christ, you really have been circumcised.

Colossians 2.11:

In Christ also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.

Again, there is discussion around these verses about what does putting off the body of the flesh mean. And on balance, I think it is a reference to the death of Christ. Paul has said, in Christ the fullness of deity dwells bodily. And then he says in Christ you were circumcised by putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. And I think the idea is this: you false teachers think you’ve shown commitment against the flesh by chopping off your foreskins? When Christ came in the body – he was completely cut off. His body was mutilated beyond recognition on the cross. The full wrath of God against sin was poured out on Christ and he was totally cut off, and then discarded in a tomb. You think you have demonstrated a commitment against the flesh? You guys are amateurs. The knife hasn’t gone deep enough.

Whereas for the person trusting in Christ, they have been included in his circumcision; that is, his total stripping off of the body of the flesh. Let me put it this way: Have you ever done something which caused you to hate yourself? Have you ever done something you were so ashamed of that you felt the need to punish yourself? Paul is saying two things here to you;
i). You cannot punish yourself enough; there is no action you can take against yourself which can fix the damage you’ve caused others, and there is no damage you can do to yourself which will fix you so that you won’t hurt others again.
ii). He’s saying you do not need to punish yourself. Because Christ has died for you. His death is intended to be counted as your death – if you will come to him.

The way Paul wants you to think of yourself is being “IN Christ.” That is his death is your death. The wrath of God that fell on him, has passed over you too. The justice of God that was satisfied on the cross, is satisfied for you too. And the sign of inclusion into that is the sign of baptism, which only happens once. A person is baptised once, because Christ died once, never to die again. And in Christ they are raised to new life, as Christ was raised on Easter Sunday. So Paul looks at these false teachers, these kidnappers, and says your circumcision rites and initiations are just shadows of the substance that is found in Christ. And then he says to the Colossians and to us:

3. In Christ, you have really been raised to new life.

Colossians 2.13:

And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive, together with Christ….

The picture is of a man on death row; alive in all the technical sense of moving, respiring, eating and excreting and so on, but dead in the very real sense of having no future. Dead man walking is a phrase some of us may have heard before. Before a person comes to Christ, Paul says, they were dead in their trespasses, under a sentence of death. But when a person comes to Christ, God makes them alive in an instant – by removing the death penalty (second half of Colossians 2.13-14):

God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.

The thing that feeds our assurance that we are alive, according to Paul, is NOT how active we feel or how happy or how untroubled our conscience is. The thing that feeds our assurance is whether the sentence we were under has been removed. And the place we look to see if the sentence has been removed is the cross (second half of Colossians 2.14):

This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

Paul wants us to start to think of ourselves as being IN Christ. If you are IN Christ, then you have been on the Cross IN Christ – and the sentence of death has been carried out on you IN Christ. The record of your wrong doing, with its legal demands for death sentence, has been disposed of.

I don’t know what kind of week you have had. I don’t know where you have been tempted to turn away from Christ, or to look to other things to satisfy you that are not according to Christ. I don’t know what disappointments each one of us is carrying, or what sense of shame. If coming to church has been a struggle for you today, I just want to say well done for coming. I want you to hear Christ tell you this morning: “Come to me; stay with me; let me protect you; let me nourish you.”

This passage is a warning, so let me offer my judgement on where we should take care. We should take care on what we watch. Those of us of a certain generation; youtube, tik-tok, Hollywood, Netflix. How many hours a day are we being discipled by what we watch? What is it teaching us to love? What does it teach us to hope for? How much of it is according to Christ? We should take care of the groups we want to be a part of. Lewis’ warning (the desire to be on the inside, and not to be on the outside, of a group) is one of the most subtle desires which is able to make a not very bad man do very bad things. Whose approval and acceptance do you crave? On what terms do they give it? Is it according to Christ? Or will they require that you deny Christ?

Paul’s defence against the kidnappers is that Christ is better and that Christ has won. Our happiness in the moment of temptation will depend on whether we can look the person we fear and admire in the eye and believe in our hearts that Christ is better and that Christ has won. So as we close, I’d like to give us a few moments to think of a practical thing you can do that will nurture your love for Christ. Let’s be a church where we help one another nurture love for Christ; Homegroups, Focus, CYFA, Transit – let’s ask one another how we are nurturing love for Christ, and let’s help one another do so. Let me pray and then we’ll sing:

Father in heaven, we thank you so much for giving us Christ, and in Christ drawing us to yourself. We thank you that in Him we are truly filled, we are truly included, and we are truly alive. Please help us to grow up and live according to him, and not be taken captive by empty deceit and vain ideas. In Jesus’ name, Amen.