 Paul, are you there? Okay, Paul is not audible. If we could have someone else pray for us. Let this be for the glory of your name. Pray and declare this the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Thank you. I could not hear the first part of the prayer but then finally I was able to hear. I think it's a time lag in the transmission. There's a time lag in the transmission. So I could not hear and then finally I could hear the latter part of the prayer I was able to hear. Thank you so much for praying. Alright then in that case we shall get started with the class. So last week we looked at Colossians chapter 1 and then we moved into Colossians chapter 2 and we just looked at one main concept where these people, the Colossians were in danger of being led away by wrong philosophies and so in verse 8 Colossians chapter 2 verse 8, Paul tells them don't get deceived by empty philosophies because these philosophies do not have any power is what he says and there are two kinds of empty philosophies that he mentions those which are based on the tradition of men and those which are based on the basic principles of the world or like it says in the modern versions based on the elemental spiritual forces of the world. So he warns the Colossian believers not to get deceived by these two types of empty philosophies. So the tradition of men would probably refer to all the rituals and the ceremonies associated with Judaism which some were promoting as being very necessary for salvation on the other hand when we refer to the elemental spiritual forces that would in a way refer to angel worship and wanting to establish contact with spirits, things like that. So these are the two kinds of empty philosophies that Paul asks the Colossian believers to avoid and why does he say that they should avoid it because Christ is the one who is fully divine. So in verse 9 he says for in Christ all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form. So when Jesus took on a human form it's not as though only a little bit of the divinity of God was inside that human body no it says the fullness of the deity the entire divine and divinity of God was inside that human body. So he is obviously the head over every power and authority. Like it says in verse 10 he is the head over every power and authority because in him in his physical body all the fullness of the deity rested and so in verse 10 it says in Christ you have been brought to fullness. So in him the fullness of the deity is residing and through him we can be made full in our lives in what sense it you know John 10 if you remember brings out that very nicely. If we could have someone turn to John chapter 10 verses 7 to 10 and read out that please. John chapter 10 verses 7 to 10 which talks about the kind of fullness which the followers of Christ have John 10 7 to 10 please. Yeah I know if you could have your bibles with you yeah and if any one person can turn to John chapter 10 if you could read out verses 7 to 10 please. John 10 7 to 10 then Jesus said to them again most assuredly I said to you I am the tour of the sea. All whoever came before me are thieves and robbers but the sea did not hear them. I am the tour if anyone enters by me he will be saved and will go in and out and find posture. The thief doesn't come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come that they might that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly. So in this passage Jesus says that anyone who chooses to come into a life through me in me they will have he says they will go in and out and find posture is what he says in verse 9. So he is the true shepherd who can provide us with fullness of full life which is what is repeated in verse 10 where Jesus says I have come that they may have life and have it to the full. So the previous verse which talks about they will come in and go out and find posture that talks about unrestricted movement. You have the freedom to be able to move about and be able to fulfill all that God has for you. A prisoner on the other hand, a slave on the other hand has no freedom of any kind. In everything he is restricted. In his everyday life he can't decide if he wants to do what he does not want to do because he is a slave. He has to follow the slave masters orders. On the other hand what Jesus says is if you come to me he says you will come in and go out and find posture. You have the freedom to live in all that we are meant to have. There are no restrictions except of course to avoid sin because that will only ruin our lives. So Jesus says you will find posture and you will in fact have a life that is to the full in me. So this is basically what Paul is referring to over here. He says it is Christ in whom the fullness of the deity is residing. So if you place your faith in this Christ then he will bring you to fullness and so Paul urges the Colossians and he says do not be deceived and led away by the empty philosophies which are trying to distract you from your following of Christ. So now if we could maybe look at verses 11 up to verse 15, yes. If we could have someone read out for us. So we are looking at Colossians chapter 2 and if someone could read out for us all the way from 11 to 15. Colossians 2 11 to 15. In him you are also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands by putting up the body of the sins of the place by the circumcision of Christ. Buried with him in baptism in which you also were raised with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead and you being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your place he has made a life together with him having forgiven you all trespasses having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us which was contrary to us and he has taken it out the way having nailed it to the cross having disarmed principalities and powers he made a public spectacle of them ramping over them in it. So here he is talking about two things in what way Jesus is superior to the tradition of men and also in what way Jesus is superior to these elemental spiritual forces. So we look at the first two verses verses 11 and 12 over there Paul is saying this what Jesus has to offer is far superior to what the traditions of men can offer. So you can undergo all the mosaic rituals and you will still not have the perfection which Jesus Christ alone can give and so he refers to one of their most important mosaic rituals which is the the ceremony of circumcision because this was supposed to set them apart as the people of God. So every male child would be circumcised to indicate that this child belongs to the living God. So that was the very important ceremony which would set them apart as God's people so now Paul is referring to that and he says even though in the Old Testament this was considered such an important ceremony this ceremony cannot even do for you what Christ has done what Christ has done is far superior. You know on the eighth day when they would take that newborn baby and they would do the circumcision what was basically removed you know you just have some skin and some tissue being removed but over here what Jesus has removed he says your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off. So this is a far superior in the human circumcision just a little bit of skin and tissue of that little baby would be taken off but here your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off you know that's the Romans chapter 6 explains that to us right where there we are told in Romans 6 for we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with the entire the person that you were the old spirit being you know that okay let's you know break up this whole concept we all are spirit beings right we all are spirit beings we have a you know we have a soul which is made up of the mind will and emotions and we live inside a human body our spirit beings but when we were born into this world we were born as sinful fallen spirit beings because we inherited that from Adam so every little baby that is born it is born as a sinful fallen spirit being and then what happens to the moment of salvation Romans chapter 6 verse 6 tells us that moment when we place our faith in Jesus Christ that old sinful fallen spirit being is literally killed crucified are you aware that you were actually crucified that you were killed by God himself you were crucified with Jesus you actually died you stopped living you literally died with him you were crucified with him of course you were also raised with him you know so it's not that you stayed dead how were you raised in that moment through the divine work of the Holy Spirit he rebirthed you as a new living spirit being so the person that you were earlier that sinful fallen spirit being actually died was actually crucified so what rose up with Jesus you know glorified what rose up along with Jesus was this new living spirit which the Holy Spirit had given birth to so what you were that person is actually dead so this is a far superior circumcision ceremony where the entire sinful spirit being that you were was completely put off was completely crucified so a human ceremony at the most it can only symbolically point towards what Jesus you know would achieve later so the human ceremony was pointing towards what Jesus would accomplish so the real circumcision is done by Jesus because with him when he died to represent us we died along with him we were crucified with him that person that you were born as that sinful fallen spirit being that you were born as that person literally got killed that person literally was crucified with Christ died with Christ and when you rose up it was not that person rising up no it was what the Holy Spirit has had had you know rebirthed as a living new spirit that is who you were transformed into so there's a huge difference so that level of circumcision is not something that you know the tradition of men can ever achieve which is why in the Old Testament even the after undergoing that circumcision ceremony even as the child grew up the child would grow up with you know in sinful ways on the other hand after Jesus Christ has done this divine circumcision I know for all of us we can actually live in a new way we don't have to be slaves to sin so this is a far superior circumcision which has given us the power to live in a righteous and holy life we could not have that under the old covenant but we are able to live in a completely new victorious way because the circumcision which Jesus has done is so permanent he has literally killed off the old spirit being that was you and you have been rebirthed as a new creation so yeah so this is regarding the tradition of men in what way what Jesus is offering is superior to what the tradition of men offers let's look at the other aspect about how he is also superior to the spiritual elemental forces so that would be in verses 13 to 15 where Paul explains that when we were living in sin earlier you know when we were living as sinful fallen spirit beings who are helpless who are under the control of the evil one who are under the control of the spirit of the air is what it says so we were under his control we were helpless when we were in that condition we were all prisoners because we were in legal debt to Satan we have covered this concept earlier just as a reminder so once we sinned against God we became debtors we owed God our obedience and we had failed to give him that obedience so now we were in debt to him God deserves perfect obedience perfect righteousness when we withheld that from him we became debtors we failed to give God what is owed to him what rightfully belongs to him we failed to give it and so we are in debt to God we were debtors and so when we were in this fallen debt condition you know Satan swooped in and he took over because we were helpless we were no longer under God's covering he could come and take over you know take us into slavery so we became slaves to Satan we became slaves to sin and so he always Satan always held this over our heads you know that you are debtors you are separated from God unless an atoning sacrifice is made to propitiate for your indebtedness you know someone comes and pays the debt on your behalf until that is done your debts are over your head and Satan holds that over your head and in that way he was holding us prisoner so it's like as if it's a long list of you know debts which each one of us owes every time I sin I am in debt to God so this is long list in fact if you were to produce the legal document and look at the number of debts which I owe to God it's such a huge amount can never ever be repaid so that long list of debts which we owe to God what did Jesus Christ do in that moment when we placed our faith in him you see it was all our all that legal document containing all my debts was nailed to the cross that would be yours 14 where it says having cancelled the charge of our legal indebtedness which stood against us and condemned us he has taken it away nailing it to the cross so that long list of debts which we owe to God that was always standing against us condemning us holding us in bondage to Satan we were in that helpless condition but Jesus he cancelled that debt by paying the price for us took those legal documents which show that we are in debt he nailed it to the cross and he paid it we were unable to pay those debts ever he paid it so now those demonic forces can no longer have any control over us because now we are under a new master you know now Jesus has legally purchased us so now the demonic forces no longer have any control over us so verse 15 it says and having disarmed the powers and authorities he made a public spectacle of them triumphing over them by the cross so earlier they had become our slave masters they could bosses around they could meddle in our lives and bring sickness and you know poverty and strife and violence and all that there was so much that they could do as our slave masters these demonic powers but after having purchased us and set us free from our indebtedness now those things cannot those spirits can no longer have any control over us we are free we are under new management and our new manager is very possessive about us so we are under his protection we are under his care so in that moment of victory on the cross once he has defeated the evil forces on the cross he literally in the spiritual realm all the angels who were watching all the cherubim and the seraphim who were watching in fact even all the demons which were watching in front of everyone he displayed that he has now gained victory for us humans so on our behalf he triumphed over these evil powers and he declared and he said see now you have no control over any person who comes to me and places themselves under under places themselves under my protection so now you cannot touch them anymore they will be mine so he declared to them that that you know he has triumphed over them and now through Jesus we can have we can enjoy that triumph we can enjoy that victory the word that he uses so that is used in this verse it says having disarmed the powers and authorities it's like as if you know all these powers and authorities even if we were to think use modern language it's like as if all these powers and authorities they had these guns and these revolvers they were holding it over our heads they were holding us in bondage no we were in that position but now all that weaponry all those arms have been taken away so if you were to use this kind of modern analogy now those demonic powers do not have guns or revolvers or anything rifles in their hands to wield against us which is why now all that they do is they use trickery they try to use empty philosophies they try to deceive us with lies they try to distract us into sin we will not be under the protective covering of God they're using all of these tactics because now once we become believers they have no rifles against us they have no weapons against us so actually they have been disarmed so we if we were to claim the scriptures and stand on the scriptures and declare and say because this is what is my new status this is what God says I can have in Christ they're actually helpless they don't have revolvers and rifles to forcefully hold over our head and keep us in bondage they can only try to trick us they can only try to draw us away from the protection of God's covering they can use all these strategies and schemes but the power the weapons which they had they have been disarmed they do not have that anymore so Paul is saying why on earth do you want to go and place yourself under those spirits and establish contact with them these people are indulging in spirit worship and all that don't do that he says Jesus Christ disarmed those demons they cannot even have any hold over you if you're a true believer so place yourself under Christ do not be deceived by the elemental forces of the world so what Jesus has done is more powerful than the human circumcision which people can offer what Jesus has done has disarmed the spirits and they can have no hold over us if we claim the scripture because now we are under Christ's covering we are safe under him and and he is the head over every authority okay so this is what he brings out over here in these verses so therefore because of that he says in verse 16 maybe we could have someone read out all the way from 16 to 19 yeah we are in Colossians chapter 2 if someone could read out verses 16 to 19 for us please so let no one judge you in the food or drink or regarding a festival or a new movie or sadats which are a shadow of things to come but the substance is of Christ let no one cheat you of your reward they can be like in first humility and worship of angels including into those things which he has lost in badly fucked up by his fleshly mind and not holding fast to the head from whom all the body nourished and lived together by joints and ligaments grows with the increase that is from God yes thank you so here because the elemental forces cannot offer you something better human traditions cannot offer you something better therefore verse 16 he says therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink with or with regard to a religious festival or a Sabbath day he says here these were the shadows which were pointing to Jesus verse 17 it says these are a shadow of the things that were to come the reality however is found in Christ so now that the reality now that Christ has come we don't need the shadows anymore so what were the some of the shadows that he's mentioning over here earlier they had to be very careful about what they eat and drink because it was symbolically pointing towards those who are clean and those who are unclean so if you follow the food rules which God has laid down and they eat only the clean meat and not the unclean meat that would be an indication that they are a clean set apart people for God and also they would avoid eating certain foods to show that they have been set apart for God and they are clean in him so to symbolic so every time they would avoid eating pork every time they would avoid eating prawns basically they are saying see by keeping away from these unclean foods we are indicating that we are set apart for God and we are clean in him but now the reality has come now it's not our clean our cleanse what's the noun form of clean our cleanliness our cleansed condition is not dependent on what we eat or not eat now who does the cleansing it is Jesus who has cleaned us perfectly totally so now you don't need to avoid certain foods to be declared clean because Jesus by sacrifice completely totally cleansed us so now if you're still holding on to the food rules and say oh I need to avoid this food I need to avoid that food avoiding this foods is not going to make you clean in no way is it going to make you cleaner than anyone else it's priced alone who can completely cleanse us so therefore he says don't let anyone judge you by the way you eat or drink God Christ Jesus has declared you clean so keeping food rules is not in any way going to change you know your status because Christ has completely cleansed you even regarding the Sabbath day because always in the Old Testament you know Jesus said to the Israelites he said keep the Sabbath because you have been set apart for me but now observing the Sabbath day is not going to make you set apart the only thing which can set apart is being in Christ because he is the one who is going to completely circumcise and take away your old self and make you new so what's going to make you set apart now is not following the Sabbath day but rather following Jesus only that can make you set apart and after having talked about this food rules and this Sabbath day and religious day rituals he goes on to say in the same way to not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you so that was regarding the traditions of men now he is talking about this spirit worship so you had these people who would fast and not eat for many days give up all kinds of normal life and you know live in a very painful condition like aesthetics you know they would go away from the comforts of home live in a very you know in a very secluded place where there are no comforts nothing and go without food for many many days they would do all this you know all this false humility to establish contact with those spirit beings very demonic actually very dangerous they were thinking that they are doing something very spiritual but they and in India this is something that you are a concept that we would be familiar with no we are familiar with these I don't know what to call them they call themselves rishis you know I mean so they basically they will start with the comforts of life you know they they wander about they don't have a home and they starve themselves for many many days and their idea is that if they go through all of that then they will become possessed by a spirit and then that through that spirit they will be able to do certain demonic rituals and things like that so those sages are connected to that so there was this sect of Jews who had begun to go into this kind of a weird teaching where they would give up all the comforts of life and they would you know fast and pray and do all of that so that they can establish contact with spirit beings and then they would you know talk about all the things which they have seen in the spiritual realm in verse 18 such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind so once they would make contact with the spirit beings they would have visions they would see things and they would say see I have seen this and they would talk about what they have seen in great detail and everyone would think oh my goodness they had an encounter with supernatural beings and this was what was revealed to them this must be great wisdom so people would have all these wrong impressions about such people and such encounters and this was all highly dangerous and so he says do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you because such people they are puffed up with idle notions what they are thinking and what they are you know so impressed about is actually just idle it's worthless it's of no use so he says you know don't let such people know point fingers at you and say when did you ever have a vision or an encounter on the other hand see I went into the spiritual realm and I saw all these things and I heard these things told to me when did you believers ever have any such encounters you know they may say that so he says don't let such people disqualify you so don't you know you can ignore what they are saying so just for you know for us to have some detail about this first century you know Judaism where there was this one sect of Judaism that was going into all this mysticism they had written all these all these books which you know were actually not true scriptures they were called you know this was a few years before the birth of Jesus there was a lot of writing that was done so you had something called Testament of Job being written the apocalypse of Abraham that was written the ascension of Isaiah which was written you see they are using familiar names which you know the which would be there in your Testament scriptures but even though they are using the names of characters from the true scriptures these writings were written by people who were in no way influenced by the Holy Spirit so some of these writings are today we call them as apocryphal writings so these were all fake writings so the Testament of Job is not providing any true history about what happened to Job it's a lot of fake stories in the same way the apocalypse of Abraham it's not really giving you any historical details about the real Abraham it goes into all kinds of myths and legends and all of that so in these writings in the Testament of Job you know it talks about how the three daughters of Job they are given the language of angels and they begin to praise God in those tongues so it's talking about some kind of encounter with spirit beings and the use of some kind of of a spirit language so you see even before Jesus came already Satan who had been trying to produce some kind of a counterfeit of what the Holy Spirit would release you know in later on in New Testament times so in the same way in the apocalypse of Abraham it talks about how an angel is supposed to come to Abraham and then he teaches him some kind of a some kind of a hymn in a heavenly language and so Abraham begins to recite that and even as Abraham is reciting that the angel joins him and in reciting it so in these false writings what is said they say in this way the humans joined with the angels in worshiping and praising God was basically what was said for instance in this ascension of Isaiah and the apocalypse of Zephaniah what they basically says that Isaiah and Zephaniah they had encounters with these spirits and then with the help of the spirits they began to praise God in the heavenly language they joined the angels in worshiping God and so some of them would even talk about how they have gone into the spiritual realm they have entered into the heavens and seen amazing things do you see they are kind of duplicating what the Holy Spirit actually did for believers but this is a fake duplication which satan is bringing in you know in all of these false writings saying that if you have encounters with angels and worship them along with them you can join and do a good thing just to worship God so they are trying to make it sound spiritual but actually it's involving a lot of demonic activity so this was the mysticism of first century Judaism where it was considered very honorable to join with the angels with the spirits in worshiping God but the kind of spirits that they were contacting are all evil spirits whom Jesus disarmed and made a public spectacle of them you know openly showed that they were defeated that they were disgraced so these mystics of first century Judaism were in fact contacting those kind of fallen spirits and so the spirits were obviously not worshiping God at all and whatever they would have visions they would have shown these people of the spiritual realm would have been all fake, fake images, fake visions which will lead them far away from the truth of God so Paul here is asking the Colossians to avoid such things and he points out one great danger in verse 19 he says they have lost connection with the head from whom the whole body supported and held together by its ligaments and sin gross as God causes it to grow so Jesus Christ is the head of the church we are the body of Christ if we stay connected to the head then we will grow then we will have a future but these people they have gone off into this wrong mystic teachings they have gone off into the traditions of men and they have lost connection with the head so if they have lost connection with the head they are not going to grow anymore once the body is no longer connected to the head it's not going to grow it's just going to die so when Jesus is the head he is the brain he is the one that the rest of the body is connected to as long as we are connected to him there will be growth so it's important to stay connected to him and then in verse 20 he says since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world why as though you still belong to the world you submit to its rules so if you remember when we all were born we were born as sinful fallen spirit beings we were all slaves of these demonic forces of these elemental spiritual forces we were slaves of that but what happened happened to us when we placed our faith in Jesus Christ we were crucified with him we died how can the spiritual elemental forces control someone who is dead you are dead you were their slave but now you are dead you have been happily crucified with Christ they can't control you anymore because you are dead and then you rose up as a new spiritual being under new management you now belong to the kingdom of God so now they can't even touch you so that is the special beautiful privilege which we have so he says this is the experience that you had you were crucified with him and when you were raised up as a new I know as a born again person you were born into a new kingdom where the old kingdom powers cannot even touch you so now why do you want to go back and submit to the rules of that old kingdom he says so do not do that and verse 22 he says these rules which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use are based on merely human commands and teachings so he says if you follow these rules and all of that all of that is just destined to destruction it will all be destroyed one day so do not go back to such things is what he says and then verse 23 he makes a very important statement he says such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom with their self-imposed worship their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence so you know a person who is like self-apart from the rest of society who is living in a hut barely eats any food spends all his time meditating so you know people may think oh what a good man see he is not involved in the world he has set himself apart he is a sage in our Indian terminology he is a rishi so you know they may show respect because this man appears to have the appearance of wisdom it looks like as if he is being very very godly so that is what these Jewish mystics were portraying themselves as so self-imposed worship false humility harsh treatment of the body all this appears like as if it is very godly and something very spiritual but it lacks any value in restraining sensual indulgence when it comes to controlling the evil on the inside you know your wrong attitudes your greed, your pride, your jealousy it can't control those things those are having full reign on the inside on the outside you look very very nice you know you are always fasting, you are always praying, you are always singing hymns so a Jewish mystic would look very nice on the outside but on the inside all the rot is still continuing you know that self-centeredness and that jealousy and that pride the main cause of which Adam and Eve fell and even Satan fell all that is having full reign on the inside so all this outward harsh treatment of the body and all of that didn't really achieve anything on the inside so if you come to Christ he will make that heavenly circumcision where he literally kill you go off, I mean the person that you were and you are reborn as somebody completely new so that Christ alone can do for his people so he says stay under Christ so that you will have the power of Christ in you so then we move into the next chapter so we are looking at Colossians chapter 3 if we could have someone read out for us the first four verses please Colossians 3 verses 1 to 4 please if then you were raised with Christ seek those things which are above which where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God set your mind on things above not on things on earth for you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God amen you said up to 3 for verse 4 too yeah verse 4 okay when Christ who is our life appears then you also will appear with him in glory amen amen so he's talking about how now you know we are connected to Christ it is with him that you got buried you see and then when you rose up along with him you rose up to the glory which he has now risen up to so in every way you are kind of attached to him your life is now in him so he says since you have been raised with him and now you are seated where he is seated therefore your mind also should be where the rest of you is you know so set your mind on the things which are above because now you are linked to Christ you're seated with Christ your life is in Christ so let your mind be where the rest of you is so do not live like you know citizens of the old kingdom still letting your mind wander about in the old kingdom when you're actually belonging to the new kingdom so he says set your things on things above set your mind on things above not on earthly things and then he says this in verses 4 he says you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God when Christ who is your life appears then you also will appear with him in glory is talking about hiddenness and is talking about appearing look at the contrast over here when you died what happened you were crucified with Christ you were buried with him and when you rose up in him now your life is in him so he says here for you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God so when God looks at you he does not see you in all of your imperfections you know every day you're going through a sanctification process every day you're getting more and more refined but you're still not completely perfect right I mean this is a sanctification process we are going through but because you're hidden in Christ when God looks at you he only sees the righteousness of Christ he sees you as perfect in Christ so your life is hidden in Christ and then one day when Christ appears in all of his glory at that time you also will be displayed as glorious in him so you're connected to him in the hiddenness which you're encountering now and you'll also be connected to him in the glory in which he will show himself in his second coming because then all the world which is watching will recognize that we are the ones who are sharing in the glory of this Jesus Christ so he says currently right now you are going through the hidden stage the revealing stage in the glory will happen coming right now you're in the hidden stage so stay hidden stay safe as long as you stay in him you are covered you are protected and you are you know you're clothing yourself every day in the righteousness of Christ and the forces of evil cannot touch you cannot harm you cannot destroy you so he says stay hidden stay safe because that is who you are so then he goes on to give a long list of instructions things that you should be doing which will help you to continue to stay hidden so that you will not expose yourself to danger so we will look at the details of all of that when we come back from our break thank you