Jesus Is Enough
Today we’re continuing our teaching series on a book of the bible called Colossians. It’s all about discovering a new life in Christ, and what we’re talking about specifically today is that Jesus is enough...Jesus is enough—to fully satisfy our lives...
But the problem is we’ve been conditioned by our culture to crave more. We’ve been conditioned by our culture to crave things like more success, more recognition, more experiences, more money, so we can buy and do more things. We’ve been conditioned by our culture to think something’s missing in our lives, and if we could have that one more thing, we’d finally be satisfied with life. But that one more thing either never comes, or it never fully satisfies us when it does come. In the words of the famous Philosopher Blaise Pascal, “There’s a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every person, which can’t be satisfied by any created thing. It can only be satisfied by God the Creator, made known through Jesus.” What we’re talking about today, is how we’ve been conditioned by our culture to crave more, but nothing can ever fully satisfy us like our Creator can. Nothing can ever fully satisfy us like Jesus. So let’s turn to Colossians Ch. 1 and get into it. You’ll find Colossians in the last quarter of the Bible, and we’ll be in Colossians Ch. 1:24-2:17. The title of today’s message is: Jesus Is Enough. The big idea of the message is Jesus is enough, so don't go chasing shadows of the Savior...Jesus is enough, so don't go chasing shadows of the Savior...
Here’s your context. The Apostle Paul is the author of this book of the Bible, and he writes this letter to a young 7-10-year-old church called the Colossian Church. It’s located in a city called Colossae, which was a part of the Roman Empire. The Romans believed in worshiping many different gods, so the city was full of temples representing whatever gods they felt could satisfy their needs. They had temples for a fertility god, a prosperity god, a protection god, even a temple for a sewer god!...It makes you wonder how they worshiped in that temple...Did their temple look like a toilet? Did they pass the toilet paper or the offering?...These are some deep theological questions! But my point is they had temples and gods for all kinds of things, and the Colossian Church started mixing their faith in Jesus with some of these other faiths. They started having a Jesus + Something Else theology. So Paul’s about to teach them that it’s Jesus + Nothing Else that equals everything. As we study this text we’ll learn about 1st The Servant, 2nd The Sufficiency, and 3rd The Shadows. We’ll learn about the servant, the sufficiency, and the shadows. But more importantly, we’ll learn that Jesus is enough, so don’t go chasing shadows. Let’s check it out.
Colossians 1:24, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I’m completing in my flesh what’s lacking in Christ’s afflictions for his body, meaning the church. 25 I have become its servant, according to God’s commission given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, 26 the mystery hidden for ages and generations, but now revealed to his saints. 27 God wanted to make known among the Gentiles the glorious wealth of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 We proclaim him, warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 29 I labor for this, striving with his strength that works powerfully in me.” Okay so the first thing we’re learning about is The Servant. Paul says he’s a servant to spreading God’s word. He’s a servant to proclaiming him, to proclaiming Jesus, but he’s also faced a lot of suffering for it! When he says he’s completing what’s lacking in Christ’s afflictions, he isn’t saying the cross is insufficient for salvation—Christ’s work on the cross is fully finished and sufficient. Rather, he’s referring to the suffering that comes as the gospel is carried to the ends of the earth. So what’s lacking isn’t the cross, but the suffering that comes with making that finished work known, and Paul’s willing to face that suffering for the sake of the gospel. He says in 2nd Corinthians 11, “Five times I received forty lashes minus one from the Jews. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning...26 On frequent journeys I faced dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own people, dangers from Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea, and dangers among false brothers; 27 toil and hardship, many sleepless nights, hunger and thirst, often without food, cold, and without clothing.” Paul faced a lot of suffering proclaiming the good news of Jesus. Yet in vs. 24 he says he rejoices in his suffering! How does that happen? How does somebody rejoice in their suffering? How can yourejoice in your suffering? The only way to rejoice in your suffering is to fill your heart with something greater than your suffering...The only way to rejoice in your suffering is to fill your heart with something greater, something more hopeful that you can still cling to in your suffering.
Viktor Frankl realized this when he was put in a Nazi death camp during WWII. He was a Jewish doctor who survived the brutal suffering of the Holocaust. But while he was living in these death camps, he started noticing some people remained strong, while others quickly withered away. What was the difference? It was hope...The difference was hope...He said people quickly withered away when they lost hope, and he gives many examples of this, including one of his friends. Frankl states, “One of my friends in the camp had a dream that the war would end on March 30th. He was convinced the dream was a revelation, but as the date drew near, it became clear that the war wasn’t ending. On March 29th, he began running a temperature. On March 30th, he lost consciousness. On March 31st, he was dead. His loss of hope, lowered his body’s resistance to disease in the camp.” Frankl’s point is when people lose hope, they quickly wither away. City Awakening the way to not wither away in your suffering, the way to still be able to rejoice in your suffering like Paul, is to fill your heart with something greater, something more hopeful than your suffering. Paul’s saying that something greater is Christ...If you fill your heart with something else, if you put your hope in something else, you’ll eventually lose your hope since that something else isn’t eternal. You need to fill your heart with something greater, something eternally hopeful, and that something greater is Christ. When he’s the one who fills your heart, you’ll be able to still rejoice in your suffering like Paul. He’s teaching the Colossians and us to fill our hearts with Christ.
Ch. 2:1, “For I want you to know how greatly I’m struggling for you, for those in Laodicea, and for all who haven’t seen me in person. 2 I want their hearts to be encouraged and joined together in love, so they may have all the riches of complete understanding and have the knowledge of God’s mystery—Christ., 3 In him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 4 I’m saying this so no one will deceive you with arguments that sound reasonable. 5 For I may be absent in body, but I’m with you in spirit, rejoicing to see how well ordered you are and the strength of your faith in Christ.” Paul is warning them to watch out for false teachers who will deceive them. It’s because there were false teachers saying things like: The deeper mysteries of God can only be understood by a few privileged people. But Paul’s saying that isn’t true, because God’s plan for salvation and growth was already made known through Christ. These false teachers are telling them that something is missing in their relationship with Jesus, and they need something more. But Paul’s telling them they already have everything they need for salvation and growth in Christ.
Vs. 6, “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to walk in him, 7 being rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, and overflowing with gratitude. 8 Be careful no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition, based on the elements of the world, rather than Christ.” Paul says after we receive Christ, after we put our faith in Jesus, we need to continue to walk in him. Something we often say in our church is that the gospel is more than a way to eternal life, the gospel IS our life! Jesus is more than a way to eternal life; Jesus IS our life! We don’t just receive Jesus for our eternal salvation; we also need to seek Jesus for our daily transformation. Paul says we need to continue to walk in him! We need to continue being rooted and built up in him! Just like plants receive their nourishment by digging their roots deep into the soil of the earth, we receive our spiritual nourishment by digging our roots deep into the life-giving soil of Christ. We don’t need to uproot our lives and plant our roots in something else. We need to dig our roots deeper in Christ so we can continue growing in him. We don’t need to uproot our lives from Christ to find hope and satisfaction in something else, because we can find all the hope and satisfaction we need in him.
Vs. 9, “For the entire fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily in Christ, 10 and you’ve been filled by him...” Vs. 13, “He made you alive with him, and forgave us of all our trespasses. 14 He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross...” Notice Paul’s digging his roots deep into the gospel, deep into Jesus dying on the cross for our sins. He’s reminding the Colossians they’ve already been filled by him and made alive with him. Without Jesus we’re dead in our relationship with God because of our sins. But vs. 14 says he’s taken our certificate of debt, he’s taken our record of sin, and nailed it to the cross so our sin debt could be paid in full. When we put our faith in Jesus, when we believe he died on the cross for our sins, our sin debt is paid-in-full. But we’re also given a new life and a new eternal relationship with Jesus. We’re given a new life that’s filled by him, made alive with him, which means we can find hope, satisfaction, and fulfillment in him. So what we’re learning about here is The Sufficiency. We’re learning about the sufficiency of Christ, meaning he’s fully God and fully sufficient for our lives. He isn’t partially God and partially sufficient; he’s fully God and fully sufficient for our lives. Anyone who puts their faith in Jesus can be filled by him and find fulfillment in him. If you’re a believer who isn’t finding fulfillment in life, it isn’t because Jesus isn’t sufficient. It’s because you’ve started trying to find fulfillment in something else instead of him. It’s because you’ve started following the cultural craving for more. You’ve started thinking something’s missing in your life, and you need something more. But you aren’t missing anything because you already have everything you need in Christ to live a fully sufficient and satisfied life with him. Our culture has conditioned you to think something’s missing, but you already have everything you need to live a fully sufficient and satisfied life with Christ.
If you’re a skeptic, you’ll never find true fulfillment in life until you find it in him. You can try all you want, but there’s a reason you keep coming up empty, and it’s because you need to find your fulfillment in him. Psychologists talk about something called hedonic adaptation. It’s when our happiness stabilizes back to a baseline level after experiencing positive or negative life events. What they’ve discovered is that it doesn’t matter how hard we run on the hedonic treadmill, chasing things we think will bring us happiness, because it always ends the same. Our happiness in whatever we find will eventually plateau, and we’ll start running on the treadmill again. They’ve even done studies on people who’ve won the lottery. They discovered they have a short-term burst of happiness, but eventually their happiness returns back to their previous levels, while some have even become less happy. Maybe it’s because they finally realized money could buy them some things, but it couldn’t buy them everything. It couldn’t buy them happiness. It’s because our soul isn’t designed to find our greatest satisfaction in created things; it’s designed to find our greatest satisfaction in our Creator. It’s designed to find our greatest satisfaction in Christ. The world promises you fullness, but it only leads to emptiness without Christ. You’ll never find true fulfillment in life until you find it in him...Paul’s sitting in a Roman prison, but he’s still rejoicing! It’s because he knows he still has everything he needs to live a fully sufficient and satisfied life with Christ. He’s still serving, still rejoicing in his suffering, because of the sufficiency of Christ.
Vs. 16, “Therefore, don’t let anyone judge you in regard to food and drink or in the matter of a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day. 17 These are a shadow of what was to come; the substance is Christ.” When Paul talks about not letting anyone judge them regarding the food, drinks, and festivals like the new moon or Sabbath day, those are all Jewish practices and festivals. Some of the false teachers were saying they needed to follow these Jewish practices and festivals. But Paul tells them those practices and festivals were only shadows intended to point to the substance, which is Christ. This is the third and last thing we’re learning about here. We’re learning about The Shadows. We’re learning about these false teachers causing the Colossians to chase shadows of the Savior. They’re causing them to think something’s missing, and they need to do more things like following these Jewish practices and festivals to grow deeper roots with God. The Colossians believed in Jesus for their salvation, but they started developing a Jesus + Something Else theology. So Paul’s reminding them that it’s Jesus + Nothing Else that equals everything. He’s reminding them not to chase shadows of the savior, when they can have the real thing.
See a shadow points to something real, but a shadow isn’t real itself. A shadow moves, but you can’t actually grab it. A shadow has shape, but it doesn’t have substance. It can’t physically help you or satisfy you. I mean if you’re starving, you don’t need the shadow of food, you need the real thing. You don’t need the shadow of brisket, you need a real brisket. City Awakening the reason we sometimes feel like our souls are starving, is because we’re often chasing shadows of the savior instead of the real savior. We’re often chasing Jesus + money. Jesus + career change. Jesus + something else. But that something else is just a shadow of the savior, which means it’ll always leave our souls feeling empty in the end. It might look promising, but it can’t ever fill your soul because it’s just a shadow, not the substance. Some of the shadows you’re chasing aren’t even sinful, but you still need to be careful not to turn them into your savior. They’re shadows, not saviors. They’re shadows, not the substance. Paul says Christ is the Savior! Christ is the substance! So stop chasing shadows, and find salvation and satisfaction in the real savior Jesus.
The big idea of the message is that Jesus is enough, so don't go chasing shadows of the Savior…Jesus is enough—because he’s fully God, which means he can fully save and satisfy our souls. He’s the substance of our life, our salvation, and our satisfaction. But like I said before, we’ve been conditioned by our culture to crave more. We’ve been conditioned by our culture to think something’s missing in our lives, and if we could just have that one more thing, then we’d finally be satisfied with life. If that’s true, then why does having that one more thing never feel like it’s enough?...Why does money not satisfy? Why does success not satisfy? Why does our happiness and pleasure seem to plateau?...Why do we always seem to want one more thing?...It’s because they’re all shadows of the savior. None of it can ever fully satisfy us like Jesus can, because it’s all just shadows of the Savior. So stop chasing shadows, and turn to Jesus as your real Savior. Why chase shadows of the savior, when you can have the real savior Jesus?...Let’s pray…