June 25, 2017 | Pastor John Bayles | Things that Deceive: The Jewish Influence | Colossians 2:16-23

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June 25, 2017 | Pastor John Bayles | Things that Deceive: The Jewish Influence | Colossians 2:16-23

Things that Deceive: The Jewish Influence
Col.2:16-23

In the previous verse (2:15), Paul comes to the conclusion and confession that in Christ, all the pagan frauds of authority have been exposed and disarmed. This conclusion was used to silence the influence of the pagan Roman philosophies and practices. In this current text, Paul will address the second, yet equally influential syncretistic influence to the Colossian Church: the Jewish influence. He opens his exhortation with a discussion of Jewish legalistic food laws being imposed upon these new believers by the false (non-eschatological, non-new age) Jewish ideology which he found both in Corinthian and Roman churches. His opening “Therefore,” is there for the repudiation of the Jewish legalistic influence based on the same foundation as the previous Roman pagan discussion: Christ is supreme over all philosophies and practices! As Paul concludes: “And (in Him - v.11), having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross” (Col.2:15).

June 18, 2017 | Pastor John Bayles | The Unimpeachable Authority of Christ | Colossians 2:9-15

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June 18, 2017 | Pastor John Bayles | The Unimpeachable Authority of Christ | Colossians 2:9-15

The Unimpeachable Authority of Christ
Colossians 2:9-15

Today we will see that It is not what the cross did to Jesus, it what Jesus did to sin, our sin by the use of he cross. It is what Jesus did to the pagan practices of this world by the use of the cross. It is what Jesus did to Satan’s fraudulent rulership of the earth (and all those powers who claim the same fraudulent claim to the lives of men and women in every age), using the instrument of the cross. This the work of Christ Jesus our Lord.

June 11, 2017 | Pastor John Bayles | Things that Deceive: The Pagan Influence | Colossians 2:6-15

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June 11, 2017 | Pastor John Bayles | Things that Deceive: The Pagan Influence | Colossians 2:6-15

Things that Deceive: The Pagan Influence
Colossians 2:6-15

In today’s text we have a unique, yet familiar challenge. What was common to the recipients of this letter and to the Apostle Paul is more distant to our contemporary experience. We can bring some historical context to the passage, but in part (or in whole) we are seeking to understand pagan religious language and practice which is largely lost to us today. This dynamic is something we have seen in many portions of our study of the Scriptures. This does not however mean that there is a wealth of application which is maintained which thunders into our present lives.

We will begin with verse 6, which sets the verse we left off with last time. This is because it serves as the conclusion to the earlier passage and also forms the foundation for the verses that follow. In summary, we understand the view that Christ is supreme to all religious forms: those which have substance only in the thinking of the pagan mind (those forms which are imaginations) and those religious forms which touch the human experience on a substantive level - they are real, but wrong; they have form, but are forbidden. They have power and an authority, but have been dominated over by the living Christ at the cross.

June 4, 2017 | Reverend Keith Williams | Sifted Faith | Luke 22:31-34

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June 4, 2017 | Reverend Keith Williams | Sifted Faith | Luke 22:31-34