On March 22, 2020, Austin, TX issued a “Shelter At Home” ordinance in our city during the Corona Virus spread. As a result we are encouraged not to leave our homes, unless for essential activities, and as a result we are in our house, or in our PJ’s longer than usual.

In the past, we would have gone throughout the day, or the week, and there might have been passive ways that our heart, soul, mind and strength might have been stirred for the Lord. There might have been a song we heard from someone’s office, there might have been a billboard that peaked our curiosity about the Lord, or even a friendly hello from a passerby might have been a divine hello that we didn’t know we needed. But, these days it seems like we have less of those opportunities, and if we’re not careful we will just keep scrolling our social media or watching re-runs on Netflix.

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On March 13, 2020 AISD issued a statement that our church family would not be able to meet in Pillow Elementary because of the Corona Virus that was spreading through our country, and through our world.

At first, it was a bit of a shock. All those apocalyptic movies I had watched started flooding to my mind like, “I Am Legend” and “World War Z.” Even my children were asking me, “What was it like when you were our age and viruses started shutting down your schools?”

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Colossians 2:16-17, “16 Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day— 17 things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.”

These aren’t men, women, and children who are anti-Jesus. They are pro-Jesus, love Jesus, believe in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, and yet they are getting distracted with these messages that “Jesus isn’t enough” and these messages are going to break down into 4 different categories:  Legalism

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Colossians 2:8, “8 See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.”

• In verse 8 we see the most common reason we see a spiritual lull in life is because we have distractions coming at us every day like, look at verse 8, philosophy, empty deception, tradition of men, and elementary principles of the world.
• The word “philosophy” literally means the love of wisdom, and when you partner this word with “empty deception” it is love for wisdom that is empty and doesn’t bring about any change. It sounds wise, but it is all fluff, it’s elementary, shallow traditions.
• These types of messages are coming at us all the time through movies, books, songs, and even our own thoughts, but in verse 8 the Apostle Paul writes to the Colossian church, “See to it that no one takes you captive.
• The Apostle Paul is using the word “captive” as a sense of urgency, to grab their attention. The word “captive” has a connotation of a soldier losing a battle, and being carried off as a prisoner of war, getting kidnapped, being held hostage by the messages coming at us every day:

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Colossians 2:1, “1 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf and for those who are at Laodicea, and for all those who have not personally seen my face,”

• In verse 1 we are reminded that the Apostle Paul does not know the Colossian church personally. The Colossian church is started by a guy named Epaphras from chapter 1.
• The Apostle Paul is under house arrest in Rome for proclaiming the name of Jesus, and Colossae, Laodicea, Heirapolis are all new churches in the community, false teachers are wrecking havoc on these new churches, so that the Apostle Paul and the church of Colossae (1500 miles away, Austin to Boston) but still the Apostle Paul is struggling for them spiritually.

Colossians 2:1, “1 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf and for those who are at Laodicea, and for all those who have not personally seen my face,”

• When you see the word “struggle” in the original language it is the word “agony,” write that in your notes, because the word “agony” is an athletic metaphor of sweating, straining, and fighting to accomplish a goal, and the Apostle Paul’s goal for the church of Coloasse is to know Jesus and grow in Jesus.

Colossians 2:2-3, “2 that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

• In verses 2-3 there is so much to draw out, but the first characteristic of what it looks like to spiritually fight for one another is, “that their hearts may be encouraged.”
• When the Apostle Paul uses the word “heart” it isn’t an emotional heart like Valentine’s Day, or emotionally feeling close or distant from God, but an “encouraged heart” is an inner strength that comes from knowing Jesus and growing in Jesus that produces a strong heart.
• In the Hebrew culture the “heart” was the inner man or woman. In Hebrew culture the heart was the reference to the inner will, or mind, so that the Hebrew culture didn’t talk about the brain or intellect, but the heart, so that the Apostle Paul is spiritually fighting for the people in Colossae to have strong hearts in Jesus.

Take a moment to examine the men, women, and children in our church family (Community group, ministry team, personal family, sitting shoulder to shoulder) and consider how we might spiritually fight for one another to be strengthened in heart.

Where are there opportunities to remind one another to place our mind on things above, not on things below (Colossians 3:2)? How can we pray for one another, agonize for one another to fill our heart, mind and soul with God’s Word? Where are there moments we can Initiate conversations and hang outs to spiritually fight for one another to have strong hearts in Jesus?

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Colossians 1:9, “9 For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding”

• In verse 9 the Apostle Paul writes these ambiguous phrases, “For this reason” and “Since the day we heard of it” so as a reader you are thinking to yourself, “What reason? Heard of what?”
• In verse 9, the phrase, “for (this) reason” and “since the day we heard of (it)” is a throw back to the “gospel” in verse 5, so that the Apostle Paul is writing to the Colossians to say, “You got the gospel!”

In verse 9, the men, women, and children of this local church in Colossae are in Christ (1-8), but there is some insecurity in their faith in Christ, because there are false teachers in their community who are teaching that their faith in Jesus is just step 1 on their road to spiritual transformation.

It’s like when someone says to you, “You don’t know about Dave’s Ramsey’s book on personal finances?” It can come across like, “Jesus is a good start, but Dave Ramsey changed my life.”

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Colossians 1:1, “1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother.”

• When you study Scripture you always want to draw out the context of what you are reading by identifying the author, and the audience. In verse 1 we see the author is “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ.”
• The Apostle Paul is just a regular guy who has no interest in Jesus, actually opposed to Jesus and Christianity, and he is committing his life to chasing down Christians, throwing them in jail, and putting them to death, BUT in Acts 9 Paul’s life is radically transformed by grace through faith in Jesus, and he spends the rest of his life proclaiming the name of Jesus!

Now, when you study the Scriptures on your own there is a question that is going to pop into your mind, which is, “How can we trust the Scriptures if the Scriptures are written by ordinary people like Paul?”

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