Last Days Steve Jones

Paul urges all believers to set our affection on that which is above. What is above? Christ is there. And he is sitting at the right hand of the father. This is the eternal glorification of Christ from eternity past. To sit down at the right hand of the father indicates that man has now been brought before the throne of God. The glorification of Christ means that we can now be supplied with God’s life.

Paul urges us to seek, and to set our mind on the Christ, who is above. We no longer are chained to the things which are below. Those are the negative things that he mentioned in Colossians 2 : the sin, the guilt and condemnation, the powers and principalities, the culture, the teaching, the philosophy, the religion, and on, and on! Do not set your affection there, but set your heart up on the Christ.

Why? Because the throne of glory is the source from where we receive the supply of all of God‘s life that has been purposed for us from eternity past. All the riches of God, all that God desires a man to be on the Earth, to live on the Earth, the reality of all things on the Earth. All of it is in this Christ now seated beside the father above. This is where we need to set our heart, because this Christ, seated on this thrown is from whence all of what God desires for us flows from.

Jesus intimated that he wanted to get inside man and be his satisfying supply : "Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes into Me, as the Scripture said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. But this He said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed into Him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified." (John 7:37-39)
So In order for Jesus to be your constant daily supply he must be exalted on the throne!

Eventually in Acts 2 the Holy Spirit came and here’s what Peter had to say about that, "This Jesus God has raised up, of which we all are witnesses. Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God and having received the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father, He has poured out this which you both see and hear." (Acts 2:32-33)
Jesus ascended into heaven and was glorified at the right hand of the father. Then the father gave Jesus something. The father gave him the Holy Spirit as promised. The father GAVE Him to Jesus! Why? Because Jesus was now glorified and all of his person and life could now be mixed into the Holy Spirt. "So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul”; the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit." (1 Corinthians 15:45).

So brothers and sisters this is the Spirit that was poured out up on all the followers and Believers of Jesus. The Holy Spirit contains the very life of Jesus Christ as the Spirit. if you have theSpirit of God, you must have the indwelling Christ who is now seated at the right hand of the Father.

So from your spirit, set your heart above, not on things below,, and receive right now the thrones’ supply.

““Holding the Head” is the conclusion of Paul’s discourse. Recall how Paul comes to this conclusion.
In chapter 1, he displays the all sufficiency of this rich Christ.
In chapter 2:9 he says Christ displayed all these riches as the fullness of God when he was on earth bodily.
2:10 states we have received all of this fullness.

2:11-13 describes how we have received this fullness, through faith in the operation of God. That operation is the cross, the burial, and the resurrection.

2:14-15 provides us with the assurance that God at the cross dealt with all the guilt and condemnation, and he removed any authority that says otherwise. This is our eternal warranty that nothing can ever change what his Son did on the cross. This means Christ is our life and he is in us eternally and nothing can prevent us from enjoying his fullness.

In between all of these verses Paul mentions the kind of things that try and keep us from enjoying this fullness. This is why he puts the little word “not” in front of “holding the Head “ (2:19).
This little word “not” is saying, “You’ve got the fullness in you, through the operation of Almighty God at the cross and He has provided His eternal Warranty that it all is true, and yet you are living by something other than the fullness!?”
That is NOT holding the Head!

So the obvious response should be
“Hold The Head!”
Everything else is a shadow, the food, the drink, the Sabbath, the Jewish celebrations, etc. (16-17). They all pointed to Christ, but He came. He’s now installed in you as your life, as the fullness, the Head (10), you are complete in him. Hold the head! He is the reality of all those things.

Or some say, “don’t handle that, touch that, or taste that” (21). They attempt, even with good intentions, and even Bible-based principles to govern your Christian life. These things have no value in dealing or curbing the indulgences of your flesh (22-23).
Hold the Head! You’ve got the one who did it all, conquered it all, and perfectly pleased the Heavenly Father now living in you as the Head. You are complete in him, and he in you!
This is why Paul says that these other things will rob you of your prize, which is Christ (18). To the lay hold of this prize is to lay hold of this Reality which is to lay hold of the Head.

Saints, there is no other way to live the Christian life. Christ, as your H ead is in you sending constant signals regarding every aspect of your daily life. This is the rich supply that the Head gives you. And this rich supply is not simply for you as an individual, No! These impulses are a supply intended so as to knit us together with all the saints, nourishing one another, that the church might grow with the growth of God.
Living by this revelation produces the church. Just consider, when you come in to physical contact with other saints, who have been living by this Head supply, there is a spiritual knitting together. We can’t just talk about the weather or how are you doing? I’m good, etc. We’ve been living by the Head! This living, holding the head, gushes out and into all of our conversation and worship. This is the growth of God.

Paul will reveal this more in the next two chapters. For now let us enjoy the revelation that the Head is actually in you. And then let us seize hold of our head, Jesus, as we live by the constant supply of his impulses in every aspect of our living. Amen.

"Stripping off the rulers and the authorities, He made a display of them openly, triumphing over them in it." (Colossians 2:15) The cross is not only an erasing of all that condemns us but it is also a stripping away the power of all opposing rulers and authorities once and for all. Any future dealings with powers that oppose God have already been defeated on the cross. This is why Paul was able make such statements in Romans chapter 8: “What shall we say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? Who shall lay any charges against Gods elect? Who, or what can separate us from the love of God?”
Nothing!
These rulers and powers, however, are able to manifest themselves through a speaking. They seek to delude us with persuasive speech (vs4) spoil us through philosophical reasoning (8) judge us by telling what we should do (16), defraud us by telling what we shouldn’t do (18-21). It is all a “reasonable” speaking that seeks to nullify the fullness we have in Christ. This is why in Colossians.2:10 he says we are “complete in Christ, who is head over all rule and authority”
This means Christ is head over all of the speaking. The “speakers” can be Satan (the accuser of the brethren), religion, teaching, culture, government, worldly wisdom etc. It is a false speaking that seeks to usurp the Headship of Christ. It appeals as a reasonable speaking but seeks to deny that Christ is our life and that he is enough.
We need to recognize that this speaking, manifests itself as a reasoning in our mind. It is a speaking over us, about us, a speaking that seems true about ourselves, or about our environment, or about the situations that we are dealing with, about the times we live in, about things that occur in our daily and in our worldly life. However “reasonable “ it is not according to Christ (8) nor does it hold him up as the Head. (19)
What we need to realize is that the power of the cross includes the removing of this speaking, this authority that seeks to rule over us. God took this authority out of the way when Jesus died on the cross. Through Christ, he triumphed over them once and for all.
Why does he still allow them to have breathing room? I can’t answer that perfectly but I do know in His wisdom all of it is used to wake me up and drive me to Christ, to his fullness!

Know that “in all these things we more than conquer through Him who loved us.”
And be persuaded that nothing,
“no principalities, nothing present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:37-39)

What happened on the cross has solidified our relationship with the father, and has terminated the “wanna be” power of any kind of ruler or authority that would seek to infiltrate our reasoning and dissuade us from the fullness we have in Christ.

"Wiping out (or erasing) the handwriting in ordinances, which was against us, which was contrary to us; and He has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross." (Colossians 2:14)

The operation of God eternally puts us In Christ, thus we are said to be complete in Him (2:10).This is an unbelievable yet true operation (11-13), but there’s more!While Jesus was on the cross bleeding for our offenses God was nailing something else to the cross: The handwriting of ordinances.

What is that? When a criminal was crucified, it was customary to identify their guilt. A placard often followed with them on their journey to the cross, and then was nailed on the cross with them. On that placard was their guilty charges and reasons why they were being crucified.
I do not know about you, but I am guilty. Like Paul said in Romans 7 there is something good in me that wants to keep the law, but oh wretched man, that I am, who can deliver me ?! The handwriting of the law exposed Paul’s, guilt and condemnation. This is the purpose of the law. Let the law expose your wretchedness. Say God, “I am wretched! The law reveals it.
I am condemned, and I am guilty. The placard is not big enough to display my guilt.”
But look what God did, he nailed that placard on the cross with Jesus.
It says here in verse 14 in effect that our failure to keep those ordinances were contrary to us or against us. In the context of Colossians 2 this means our guilty verdict was opposing our opportunity to enjoy the fullness described in verses 9 and 10. That means whatever was happening on the cross could not be ours because of what was written on that placard. But then read…”He took it out of the way. It was hanging around our neck, condemning us, but He removes it out of the way and nails it to the cross of His Son.
Now look at it! Erased, Wiped clean!
The charges aren’t just dropped, but the debt is fully paid for, satisfied, and all God sees is a pure white placard. There’s nothing there!
No wonder Paul continued to say in Romans 7, “thanks be to God, who has delivered me through Jesus Christ his Son. Therefore, there is no condemnation, ever, to those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Rom.8:1)
The blood has cleansed us from all unrighteousness.The Father then erased the hand writing of ordinances that would otherwise indicate us as guilty, and He nailed THAT to the cross!
Oh praise the Lord!

It is one thing to realize that in Christ, all the fullness of God dwelt. (2:9).It is quite another thing to see that we are complete in Christ. (2:10). We have received the fullness. But, it is still another huge thing to allow this fullness to operate in our lives. In other words, are we living by the Christ who is in us? Is he the "Head of all (other) rule and authority” in our daily living?

Verse 12 says there is a requirement of faith on our part in this operation of God. God has done something in our being through Christ that this fullness might be ours. Do you believe it?

At first glance, we might categorize verse 11 through 13+ as verses describing our ability to identify with what Christ done. He died. We died, he was buried. We were buried, and he arose, so we arose, however, this is more than simply doctrinally or historically, identifying with Christ.
These verses describe the operation of God. This operation of God are not things that only happened in the past through Christ, but they are the fullness that is in us. He is the means whereby we enjoy him as our fullness.
Verse 11 says he circumcised us. Our flesh has been cut away entirely through the work of Christ on the cross. This circumcising Christ lives in us, as the one who’s freed us from our flesh, our self. We no longer need to reference our self at all. Christ is our source. He is our fullness through what he has done upon the Cross. This is why Paul says I am crucified with Christ, and I, my flesh, no longer lives.
Then he says we are buried together with him (12). The operation of God has taken us to the grave. What else are you going to do with something that has died? The operation of God discards the dead flesh once and for all. Christ took our sinful flesh to the grave. According to the operation of God, Christ, who knew no sin, officiated over the burial of all of it. That which has died, has life no more.

And then most wonderfully we go with him into resurrection. This resurrection is a living. It is His life now constantly supplied as our life. This operation of God after cutting us open, so to speak, dealing with our sinful flesh, officially burying our offensive flesh, then brought us together with Christ into the newness of his life. This life of Christ has been installed in us. This is the fullness that we have received! This is the operation of God! Do you believe it?
This is why Paul could say, "As therefore you have received the Christ, Jesus the Lord, walk in Him," (Colossians 2:6). How? Through faith in the operation of God! You received this life now walk in this life. Walking in the life, the fullness, is the evidence of our faith in the Christian life.
We live the Christian life through faith in the operation of God!

Colossians 2:9-10 are certainly verses for the believer to know and recall. More than that they are a reality that we live by. They actually summarize what we’ve learned in Colossians. They are the riches we are to enjoy, the treasure we need to find, and the prize we need to run after.

Verse 9 declares that all the fullness was seen in Jesus when he was on the Earth. This means all the riches, the treasure, and the prize are in this fullness. This Fullness was on display when Jesus was on the Earth, and then verse 10 says that this Fullness is now in you. You are complete in him. And in the context of chapter 2, you are not to add anything to that Fullness! How could we and why would we?!

Read John chapter 1 the first 16 verses. Get into the excitement of John. We saw Jesus! He was the very speaking of God in the flesh, the word! And in him was life, and his life is the light to all mankind. Verse 16 we have received his Fullness. What does that mean? The Fullness IS the word, the life and the light all compacted in this Fullness that we have received. What we saw is now in us as the Fullness!

And then John adds we are receiving this Fullness grace upon grace, upon grace, meaning that Grace is a Supply of the Fullness. Saints, just wake up and breathe and I guarantee you you’re going to need the the grace of God, which is the Fullness that we have received through the Christ that now lives in our spirit. This is how we live! Grace upon grace upon grace. The supply of the Fullness becomes a never ending fountain of life.
He tells the Colossian Saints don’t live by anything else. In this episode, I have asked you to politely examine the preaching and teaching that you’re hearing today. At the end of most messages, we are being urged to do something, to be something, to get something more, to be more relevant in this day and age or even to have a new experience. I understand this. There is an urgency on the part of any good minister to challenge the people of God in these last days, however, I don’t hear much that directs saints to get to the fullness in you. They may even direct you to depend on the power of God, but do we know that this power comes from the Fullness that’s deposited in our spirit?

To not urge saints to live by the Fullness means death. That simply means there’s a lack of life in those challenges. We need life!We need to live by the Fullness. Do you realize Jesus,bodily, as a man , completely lived by the Fullness of the father. In other words, the father was enough. If he lived by the Fullness, why should we not live by the Fullness that is in us?
All the things that we are asked to do, all the changes we are asked to make, and all the challenges presented to us through preaching are in the Fullness. Find the Fullness, live by the Fullness grace by grace by grace, and all of these things preached to us will be added unto us out of His Fullness.