The Freedom to Be Christocentric (Colossians 2:8-15)Sunday June 7, 2026
Intro:
What makes a story particularly tragic is the loss of potential. Being poor is unfortunate but having the winning lottery ticket and then having it fall out of your pocket on your walk home is tragedy. Greek playwrights and Shakespeare and movie makers use tragedy to tell important stories. It is not just bad things happening, but bad things happening when tremendous good was right around the next corner.
This is the potential end to the story in Colossae. But the ending had not been written yet.
Main idea: The only defense against getting captured by the enemy is to know Christ, what He has done, and what He has given to you.
Col 2:8-15 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. 9 For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, 10 and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority; 11 and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; 12 having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. 13 When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, 14 having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15 When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.
1. Beware that no one takes you away as spoil.
The verb “takes you captive” means to carry away the spoil.
How could I be captured when my Lord is the fullness of deity? It is not a physical capture, hence the means by which it is accomplished.
Mat 7:15 “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”
How does Christ tell you that you can identify them?
What is freedom?
2. Freedom is the ability to think and do all that man was made to do as determined by God who made him.
To be compassionate, kind, humble, gentle, patient, to bear with all others, forgive all, and to wear God’s love like a second skin. To have Christ’s peace rule our hearts and to always give gratitude to God, to have the mind of God richly dwell within us, and to give that wisdom away - teaching and admonishing others with such joy in our hearts that we are practically singing our gratitude for God to others. And to do all we do in the reputation and character of the Lord.
That is freedom for man - free to be who God has made him to be, freely chosen, freely enjoyed as a child of God. Col 3:12-17.
Col 2:8 Don't let anyone capture you [NLT]
The method is not chains. The method is to capture your heart - where true freedom is - your thinking, intensions, passions, will, intellect, personality.
How do philosophies and lies capture you? If you were attempting to live a good life by force of your own inner will. You would be captured and held prisoner by your own weakness.
The number of philosophies, then and now, are dizzyingly high.
How does Christ set you free, unable to be captured again?
3. Christocentricity:
Character of Christ in Col 2:9-15:
Being God with a human body and making you complete.
Being above all rulers and authority.
He removed your flesh.
Gifts to you:
Buried with Him and raised with Him.
Christ suffered and rose so you could die painlessly and be raised in glory, which in God’s eyes, has already happened.
He disarmed, displayed, and triumphed over the enemy.
How does He triumph over an enemy that He was already Head over? He snatched you out of their hands.
Isa 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, Because the Lord has anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to captives And freedom to prisoners;
Luk 12:4-7 "I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that have no more that they can do. 5 "But I will warn you whom to fear: fear the One who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear Him! 6 "Are not five sparrows sold for two cents? Yet not one of them is forgotten before God. 7 "Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.
Joh 10:27-30 "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; 28 and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. 29 "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. 30 "I and the Father are one."
Summary:
Can I be free? The gospel says you are by Christ. Don’t be taken in by anything else. Christ has completed your identity and your destiny.
What is His role in every area of your life? Christocentric husband, wife, parent, child, worker, church-member, leisure …
All philosophy diminishes Him and elevates you.
Empty deceit: says Christ is good but not enough and you are good enough.
Conclusion:
Do you know what freedom is? Most do not experience freedom because they do not obey the Lord.
To experience freedom one must obey. Paradox confronts us again – to be free you must submit to the Lordship of Christ.
Freedom, like love, is not something you feel. They are something you know and understand. They are of wisdom, and wisdom is knowledge obeyed.
Some people “feel” free when they are slaves to sin, the world, and the devil.
Christ gave us freedom in Himself. He is on the only emancipator. He only takes us to the promised land. We have to obey Him to experience freedom. |