Christus Victor Does Not Need Help

6 · Uses a (possibly remembered) Farside cartoon to illustrate the concept that perceived friends can actually be parasites—setting up the analogy for how spiritual threats attach to Christ

Do you ever have these experiences where you remember something, but you're not sure if it happened or if you just made it up? I have those a lot. And I've always had a very vibrant imagination.

And I seem to remember a Farside cartoon, but I'm not sure if this is real or if it's just me. If it's me, I'm hilarious. I think I remember a Farside cartoon where a man is talking to his doctor, and his name is Jim or something like that, and he says, so doctor, you're telling me that all this time I've had a friend who stuck with me in good and bad times.

And the doctor says, no Jim, I'm telling you, you have a tapeworm.

7 · Makes the central diagnostic claim that modern threats to Christ are not explicit competitors but parasites that seek to supplement His work rather than replace it

Most of the threats to Christ these days are not, and we talked a lot about this in 1 John, are not stark competitors that stand explicitly against Christ.

They are parasites that seek to join in and add to the work of Christ. And so if we're asking a Christus Victor question, what does it mean for Jesus to rule at the right hand of the Father these days, making everything his footstool, subduing all of his enemies, I'd say, well, most of his enemies are parasites.

8 · Uses a contemporary medical reference (ivermectin as anti-parasitic) to reinforce the parasitic threat metaphor in a culturally specific way

Most of what's happening now in Christendom is kind of on the ivermectin front. That word would have gotten me, our live stream banned from YouTube a couple years ago for other reasons.

9 · Identifies the central spiritual battle as recognizing and rejecting forces that affirm Christ's finished work while insisting on supplemental requirements—linking this directly to personal joy and freedom

All that to say that actually the battle to be done, and this shows up in the New Testament, we saw this a ton in 1 John, the battle to be done these days is primarily to identify those spiritual forces who essentially say, yeah, Jesus said it is finished, but there's a little bit more we need to do.

That's where most of Christ's competition lie, in our world anyway. And in your personal life, your personal experience, the joy of Jesus, this is what is going to do you and your personal joy and freedom and liberty the most damage.

10 · Transitions from the theological diagnosis to the primary text, identifying Colossians 2:13-15 as a key Christus Victor passage embedded in practical instruction for believers

So I want to apply these Christus Victor concepts to our personal lives. Now, it just so happens that one of the most prominent Christus Victor passages in the New Testament is in Colossians 2, Colossians 2, 13 through 15.

But that passage is rooted in a bunch of instruction just for average Christians to experience the joy that is their rightful heritage in Christ.

11 · Outlines the literary structure of Colossians 2 as an alternating pattern between declarations of Christ's sufficiency and identification of parasitic competitors

We're going to actually work through the whole chapter today. I wanted to show you just the structure of it. The structure is pretty simple. Starts with an introduction. And then Paul just alternates between two concepts.

Christ is more than enough. Some parasite making a promise. Some parasitical, I'm over here too and I can help promise. That's a competitor to Christ. A restatement, Christ is more than enough.

Back to more of the parasites. And this is just the way that this chapter plays out. You'll see it as we work our way through it.

12 · Reads and labels Colossians 2:1-2 as Paul's introduction expressing his pastoral concern for the Colossian believers

So starting in Colossians 2, verse 1.

For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, be knit together in love.

Introduction.

13 · Expounds Colossians 2:2-3, highlighting Paul's use of universal language ('all,' 'fullness') to emphasize that all treasures of wisdom and knowledge are located exclusively in Christ

Now we get our first Christ is more than enough. By the way, in these sections, look for these universals like all or fullness or look for those big words because that's Paul saying Christ is it.

Everything. To reach the riches of full assurance of understanding the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Where are all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge located? They're in Christ. You don't need to go anywhere else, Paul's saying.

14 · Identifies Colossians 2:4 as Paul's first warning about the threat of plausible but deceptive arguments—the parasitic competitors

Now he deals with the parasite problem in verse 4.

I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments.

15 · Expounds Colossians 2:5-7, emphasizing Paul's call to remain rooted exclusively in Christ using agricultural metaphors of rootedness and growth—no additional sources required

Now he goes back to Christ in verse 5. For though I am absent in the body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ.

He's talking about stay put, firmness, order. Don't flake out. Therefore, as you've received Christ Jesus as Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him, established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

You don't need to go anywhere else, Colossians. You have Christ. You can stay rooted in him forever and grow as much as you'll ever need to grow. You don't need to pick up roots or send one tendril into another source.

Christ is enough.

16 · Reads Colossians 2:8, identifying it as Paul's warning against being taken captive by philosophy and empty deceit rooted in human tradition and 'elemental spirits'—the parasitic alternatives

Now back to verse 8 and a parasitic promise. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world.

17 · Reads the major theological section (Colossians 2:9-14), emphasizing the fullness of deity in Christ, believers' completeness in Him, spiritual circumcision, baptism union, resurrection, forgiveness, and the cancellation of all debt

Now the big section, a big Christ is more than enough section. Verse 9 through 15. And not according to Christ, for in him the fullness of deity dwells bodily. And you have been filled in him.

Fullness, filled. This is enough, guys. This is enough. Who is the head of all rule and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.

And you, who were dead in your trespasses, in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God has made alive together with him, having forgiven all, having forgiven us, all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us and its legal demands.

This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

18 · Highlights Colossians 2:15 as the climactic Christus Victor statement, showing Christ's public triumph over spiritual rulers and authorities—emphasizing that victory is located exclusively in Him

Now here's your big Christus Victor statement. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him.

Where do we get victory for our enemies? In Christ. Where do we win? Where do we gain the upper hand? In Christ.

19 · Identifies Colossians 2:16 as Paul warning against parasitic judgment concerning dietary laws and religious calendars

Back to verse 16, a parasitic promise.

Therefore, let no one pass judgment on you, questions of food and drink, with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.

20 · Expounds Colossians 2:17, declaring that Old Testament practices were shadows pointing to Christ who is the substance

Back to Christ. Those are shadows of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

21 · Reads Colossians 2:18, cataloging additional parasitic practices: asceticism, angel worship, and claims to special visions rooted in sensuous pride

More parasites. Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind.

22 · Expounds Colossians 2:19, using the metaphor of Christ as the head of the body to show that adding to Christ would create a spiritual monstrosity—a body with two heads

Christ is more than enough, verse 19, and not holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.

He's trying to say, to add to Christ is to try to add a second head to your body. Nonsense. Don't make yourself out to be an existential or spiritual or devotional monster.

23 · Reads Colossians 2:20-23, Paul's conclusion that dying with Christ means death to the elemental spirits, and that ascetic regulations—though appearing wise—have no value in restraining the flesh

Conclusion, verse 20, If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you are still alive to the world, do you submit to regulations, do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, referring to things that all perish as they are used, according to human precepts and teachings?

These have indeed, listen to this, I'm going to make an interesting point here. These indeed have the appearance of wisdom in promoting a self-made religion and asceticism and severity of the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

24 · Shifts to direct pastoral address, warning that the devil can hijack even good desires to lead believers into bad decisions—a sobering reality of spiritual warfare

Now here I just want to stop and make a pastoral point, a friendly encouragement. I hope you understand that the devil can use your good desires to lead you to bad decisions.

Well, that's kind of stinky, isn't it? Wouldn't it be nice if we just, if we, it's hard enough to have good desires. You're telling me that even after I get them, I still have tests to pass?

Yeah, that's, that's what the Bible teaches.

25 · Expounds the Colossians' underlying desire for holiness, showing how this good desire created an opening for deception—the parasitic offers of asceticism and mysticism exploited their legitimate hunger for purity

You see how he ended that? We're seeing something, an insight into the Colossians' desires.

They want help overcoming their sensuous flesh. Well, that's a really good desire. This is just a quick plug for this reminder that your desires for good things can still lead you to make bad decisions.

They sort of actually create like an opening for the world, the flesh, and the devil to lead you down other trails.

26 · Identifies the social pressure dimension in Colossians—the desire to belong to family and community made them susceptible to returning to cultural practices Christ freed them from, because Christian culture was thin while their former cultures (Judaism/paganism) were thick with emotional associations

And I'd say in addition to wanting to be free of the pollution of the sensual flesh, they just wanted to have good relationships with their community and with their family.

That's a good desire too. But this passage is packed with social pressure. Like this passage is packed with social pressure. And remember, there's no Christian culture at this time.

I'll talk more about that in the application. There's only the cultures they left. Like there's a very little, Christian culture at this point is very thin, but the cultures that they left, whether that be Judaism or paganism, is very thick.

So it's sort of be like, you know, when they talk about hand washing or a new moon Sabbath or something, it's sort of like the smell that pumpkin pie has on most of us. There's a sense in which all of that stuff, like that's where my family is.

That's where my friends are. That's where my coworkers are. And the desire to belong makes you susceptible to being invited back into this stuff that Christ died to set them free of.

27 · Identifies the third good desire—to know God better—and shows how even this most fundamental spiritual desire can be hijacked by those presenting alternative revelations, false Christs, or supplemental knowledge claims

And I think most importantly, they wanted to know God better. Like you, Chris, you mean to tell me that we live in such a messed up world that a person can desire to know God better and that desire can be hijacked by evil and led to something wrong?

I'm sorry. I really am sorry. I wish it wasn't so, but it is so. Even your desire to know God better can be hijacked by someone that presents to you an alternative Christ.

So the Colossians have some good desires and even those good desires are open to being hijacked.

28 · Transitions from exposition to application, articulating the sermon's pastoral aim: personal freedom through singular allegiance to Christ as the only authority, ruler, and king

Now, this is the Christus Victor sermon for your particular soul.

My aim is for you to be free in a way that is only possible because you only have one ruler, one authority, one king, not six.

I want you to have one person that gets to tell you what to do fundamentally. I want you to really be free of all of the various hooks, all of the various reigns that the world, the flesh, and the devil could use to steer you, and I want you to just be Christ's.

That's it.

29 · States the requirement for personal freedom: Jesus must rule and subdue the parasitic enemies who affirm His finished work while insisting on supplements—even when those supplements claim to serve good desires

And in order for that to happen, Jesus has to rule and subdue the kinds of enemies that we deal with most often, and those are the kinds of enemies that say, it is finished, well, sure, but, nope.

Nope. It's finished. Don't need to add anything else, even for the service of good desires.

30 · Introduces the key exegetical focus on the Greek word 'stoicheia,' repeated in verses 8 and 20, which frames the passage's argument about parasitic spiritual forces

So, this whole passage has some literary framing that we have to understand in order to break free of all this, and it's framed around one key Greek word that's repeated twice, once in verse 8, and another time in verse 20, and that Greek word is stoikia.

31 · Provides etymological and semantic analysis of 'stoicheia,' tracing its meaning from 'order/first principles' through 'elements' to its New Testament usage as 'the old order/old system' with both spiritual and principial dimensions

Now, I think we probably have different Bible versions open, I would guess. So, you see here in the ESV that we've got elemental spirits.

Okay? That's the word for stoikia. Stoikia. I think NIV says principles, or principalities. I think there's a bunch of different ways to translate this, and the truth is is that this word has a lot of controversy behind it.

Let me break it down to you and give you the safest, most kind of Aristotelian mean version of a definition. The root of the idea is order.

Stoikia was essentially this idea of ABC. It was this idea of first things. And it really quickly, within ancient literature, began to be associated with the elements.

Remember the wind, earth, fire, water stuff that the ancients believed. And then, of course, that concept had something to do with the spirits, the gods that were overseeing these things.

And so, by the time this word is being used in the New Testament, it just means the old order, something like that, the old system.

32 · Provides the working definition for the sermon: stoicheia are 'cultural solutions to universally perceived metaphysical problems,' acknowledging the technical language while promising explanation

Here's the definition that I think is both the safest and probably the most accurate of anything that I found.

The stoikia are cultural solutions to universally perceived metaphysical problems. I'm using a lot of big words today, just so you know, if you're visiting, don't do this all the time.

And I don't think my big words will, like, if you don't know what these words are, I always kind of explain them anyway. Don't be intimidated by them.

33 · Identifies the two universal metaphysical questions humans have asked since the Fall: revelation (what is God like?) and purification (how can I be clean before Him?)—establishing the twin categories that structure the analysis

There's this idea that, well, this is absolutely biblical, that there have been fundamental questions gnawing away at the human heart from the very beginning after the fall.

And those fundamental questions, I think, could be broken down into basically this question. What is God like and what must I do to serve Him in a way that pleases Him and secures me in His blessing and not His judgment?

Something like that. It all kind of breaks down, and we'll work through these categories, into revelation and purification. What is God like and how can I be sure that I am clean before Him?

34 · Asserts the universality and innate nature of these metaphysical questions, rejecting atheism as a default position and affirming that knowledge of God, moral obligation, and judgment are intuitive human knowledge

And the Bible teaches very clearly that these questions have been a part of the human heart throughout all ages and all places amongst all people.

There's no default factory setting for atheism. The default factory setting for every human being is that there is a God. I'm supposed to serve Him.

If I do that right, I'm blessed. If I do that wrong, I'm cursed. Death isn't the end. It's the pivot into judgment. These are things people have intuitively understood forever.

35 · Establishes that stoicheia represent cultural strategies for answering the two universal questions (revelation and purification), and that all non-Christian religions answer these questions in fundamentally similar ways

And this word stoichia seems to represent the overarching way that cultures have tried to answer those two questions.

What is God like? What am I supposed to do in response to what God is like? Revelation and purification.

Those are going to be the main categories you see in our passage. Revelation strategies. Cultural answers to what is God like?

Purification strategies. Cultural answers to how do I deal with the fact that I know I've sinned or how do I deal with the fact that I want God to see me as good, as righteous, and so forth.

These are the two kind of ways that the world has processed this information. Every religion that exists is just answering these two questions.

And generally speaking, I would say more than generally speaking, all religions, except for Christianity, answer them in sort of the same ways.

36 · Explains the universality of religious concepts as rooted in the limited number of possible answers to the same questions, then invites the congregation to identify revelation vs

When people point to the universality of certain concepts within all religions, it's because they're all trying to answer the same couple questions.

And there are really only so many possible answers to these questions. So what is the stoikia? What are the elemental spirits? Are they spirits? Maybe.

Are they principles? Very clearly they are principles. You can see that in the text itself. Look at verse 16. Listen for, you decide, we won't separate, I won't give you labels for all this, but listen for revelation strategies, what is God like, and purification strategies, how do I prepare myself to meet God?

He just lists a bunch of stuff. See if you can figure out which one of these is going on, which of the two.

37 · Re-reads Colossians 2:16-20 to demonstrate the stoicheia in action through specific practices: dietary laws, festivals (purification strategies) and angel worship, visions (revelation strategies)

Verse 16, therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.

These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind and not holding fast to the head.

Verse 20, if with Christ you died to the elemental spirits, that's our word, stoicheia again, why, as if you were still alive to the world, do you submit to regulations, do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, referring to all these things that are perished as they are used.

That's what the stoicheia is doing.

38 · Universalizes the Colossian challenge to the congregation—everyone has ancestors who left stoicheia for Christ, and everyone still faces the pull of these cultural-spiritual systems

We all come from, in some sense, a tradition that was answering these questions apart from Christ. Whether it happened in our childhood or in our great, great, great, great grandfather's childhood, every single person in this room has an ancestor that left the stoicheia and clung to Christ.

Like, that's what we've all had to experience at one level and in reality we're still dealing with this challenge. That's why it's in the Bible. We're still dealing with it and I'll explain why or how in a minute.

39 · Establishes the first major theological claim: Christ is the final and complete revelation of God, requiring no supplemental sources of divine knowledge

So what Paul's doing in Colossians 2 is he's saying Christ is the final revelation. You don't need to look anywhere else to figure out what God is like.

Christ is the final revelation. He starts talking that way in Colossians 1. Remember, he is the image of the invisible God.

40 · Expounds Colossians 2:6-10 showing Paul's argument against supplemental revelation: believers must remain rooted in Christ alone because the fullness of deity dwells in Him bodily—no additional revelation is needed or possible

And then as he's actually handling this sense of the stoicheia, these elementary principles or trying to describe what God is like, Paul's like, stop it, stop it.

We know what God is like. Look at verse 6, Colossians 2. Therefore, as you've received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. Here's as we know what God is like, verse 9.

For in Him, the fullness of deity dwells bodily. We know what God is like because we know Christ. and in Him, the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.

There's not any peace of God to find anywhere else. It's all in Christ. And you have been filled in Him who is the head of all rule and authority.

41 · Establishes the second major theological claim: Christ is the final purification, contrasting the outside-in approach of all other religions (clean your behavior to purify your soul) with Christ's completed purification work

So He's saying, stop looking for visions, new revelation, other sources that show you what God is like. We know what God is like because we have Christ. And then He says, not only is Jesus the final revelation, but He's the final purification.

You don't need to be thinking about how all the ways that you need to act to prepare, to make yourself acceptable with God. The stoichia take, universally, every other religion takes an outside-in approach.

Let's clean up this and hopefully it soaks in to our souls and our hearts.

42 · Uses personal experience with Asian cultural practices (tai chi, tea ceremony) to illustrate the stoicheia concept concretely—showing how the Zen principle 'purify your soul by purifying your movements' is a cultural purification strategy built into everyday practice

I'm going to talk here in a minute about culture, but maybe I'll just take a quick little jaunt real quickly, something I learned this week.

All right. You know I'm in Asia more than I used to be, right? So a lot more than I used to be. I never thought I'd be an Asia guy. It's never on my plans. But anyway, you know, when you travel there, you'll see a lot of older people doing slow motion Kung Fu.

Right? And that's all I'm going to do, just this much. And I'm like, well, that's kind of cool. I don't really, I mean, I can imagine that's good for your body and so forth. And like, you know, anyway, I thought about it, like, why are we all doing slow motion Karate?

But I kind of moved on pretty quick, you know, and just accepted it. But then I became introduced to the tea ceremony, like, which is, you know, in multiple Asian cultures. I think of Japanese tea ceremony.

But you'll notice the same kind of thing. Like, I'm moving the cup over in a very predictable, almost dance. And then I'm pouring in a very predictable way with a particular angle of the cup and all of this stuff.

And finally, I was like, okay, I've had enough. There has to be something to the slow motion Asian thing. which seems to translate also into, you know, driving. Hey, we got to have some fun, you know, just laid up right there for me.

Sorry. But anyway, so did you know that this is all rooted in one of the concepts within Zen? And that is, you know, which is a religious concept that we purify our souls by purifying our movements?

Like, that so much of the cultural downstream effect of slow motion karate or tea ceremony, this is a fundamental idea. We purify our souls by purifying our movements.

And the more pure our movements are, that has an effect on our souls. So this is a stoikia. It's a cultural answer to a metaphysical question developed apart from Christ.

And they're everywhere. They're just everywhere.

43 · Brief pastoral aside preparing the congregation for later application about stoicheia existing even in Christian families

You wouldn't believe the number that exists in your own family even if your family is a Christian family. I'll talk to you more about that in a moment.

44 · Identifies circumcision of the heart as the biblical metaphor for internal transformation, tracing the promise through the Mosaic covenant and the prophets, establishing the inside-out pattern of God's purification work

So Paul says that Christ is not only the final revelation, but he's the final purification. And he uses what is the essential metaphor in the Bible for internal transformation. And that is the circumcision of the heart.

It's something God promised the Jews even as he was issuing the law to them. The day will come when I will circumcise your heart. It's the promise of renewal at the end of judgment in the prophets. I will put my law into your heart. I will give you a new heart, a heart of flesh in replacement of a heart of stone.

45 · Expounds Colossians 2:11-15 showing that Christ's circumcision is spiritual (made without hands), accomplished through union with Him in death and resurrection, resulting in complete debt cancellation—which itself disarms spiritual rulers and authorities

And so in verse 11 through 15, Paul says, Christ is the final purification. You don't need to look to any other system to make you acceptable to God.

In him, you also were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism in which you also were raised with him.

And he concludes all this by saying, Jesus Christ has canceled any record of debt that could possibly exist against you. And it is in this way he disarms the rulers and authorities.

46 · Uses a childhood horseback riding story to illustrate the concept of 'spitting the bit'—the horse rejecting control by rejecting the mechanism of control, setting up the metaphor for spiritual freedom

Here's the goal. This is what I want for you personally. When I was a kid, you know, I thank my parents for doing these little efforts to, you know, expand our horizons.

And at some point, I wonder what the parental talk was about this, but they decided we needed to go horseback riding. We weren't really a horse family, you know. So we went to one of these places where you, you know, you rent a horse.

And this was my first experience on horses. I've had terrible horse experiences. Only my wife knows the level of horse trauma I've dealt with. But anyway, so I get on this horse and I'm nervous and I'm a gangly, you know, anemic, sickly kid.

Not the, you know, not the mountain of masculinity you see today. I used to, you know. I was the quintessential nervous 90 pound weakling. And the horse could feel it.

And I'm on this horse and it does this thing which is kind of a funny, I love the phrase, it spits the bit. It just says, no, I'm not letting you control my head.

It essentially, the horse essentially said, you're not that guy, pal. You know, you're not that guy. And the horse just said, I will not be led. And it did that by getting rid as quickly as it could the bit that would control it.

47 · Applies the horse illustration to spiritual freedom—envisions life free from guilt manipulation, peer pressure, and all competing authorities because Christ has fully revealed God and fully purified believers

Wouldn't it be nice if the world had nothing on you? Wouldn't it be nice if you were invulnerable to peer pressure, even in your own home, even in your own family?

Wouldn't it be nice if all of your guilt was taken away never to return so that never once again could anyone manipulate you whether you realize it or not into behaving the way that they want you to for the purposes they have in mind?

Wouldn't it be nice to just be people who have spit the bit and said, no, Christ is king, thank you very much. all of the competitors need not apply.

The stoichia have nothing to offer me. Christ is the full revelation of God and Christ is the full purification of my sinful soul. That's what we want in our lives.

48 · Transitions from exposition to structured application, announcing four application points

Now, let's talk about how we apply this concept that we've seen in Colossians 2. We've got four points of application.

49 · Establishes the theological understanding of culture: deriving from 'cultus' (worship), culture is essentially equivalent to stoicheia—collective answers to revelation and purification questions, with no such thing as neutral culture

The first one is that we as Christians generally do not think rightly about culture and I want to just do a quick you know, five minute discussion and I take culture itself comes from the word cultus which means worship and I take the word stoicheia and culture to be maybe not synonymous but basically the same thing.

It's what people when they get in groups produce to answer basic questions that are nagging at their souls. What is God like?

What do I have to do to be on his good side? What happens when a bunch of people repeatedly ask that question over years is a culture. Every culture that exists in the world is that extrapolated out into particular practices and so forth and if you look closely enough and ask enough whys you will find like I said with the Japanese tea ceremony shocking shockingly spiritual reasons for everything a culture does.

Really I don't believe is such a thing as neutral culture. It's all rooted out of these fundamental questions.

50 · Distinguishes thick culture (explicitly religious) from thin culture (implicitly religious through metaphor and extraction), using the example of worship songs vs

Now some culture is explicitly religious and some is implicitly religious. I think this is another thing to understand about culture. I call it thick culture and thin culture.

In every area of culture whether we're talking about art or music or architecture every area of culture has thick and thin versions. Thick culture is explicitly religious. It's explicitly religious. Every culture has explicit religion and then thin culture is where those explicit ideas exist but they're not pronounced.

They're in the soup but they're not chunky. Let me give you an example. If I wrote a song about Jesus on the cross I would be producing thick culture.

If I wrote a song about how much I love my wife I would be watering down everything I said about Jesus and his bride into a song about my wife.

The thin culture is a song about romance but we're told explicitly in Ephesians 5 what is my love for my wife but a metaphor for understanding Christ and the church.

All culture is handling deep questions it's just not all of it is just using formal names and labels and some of it's extracted or diluted into metaphor and so on and so forth.

51 · Applies the culture-as-worship concept: calls for discrimination in media consumption (recognizing all culture embeds stoicheia) and active Christian cultural production in both thick and thin forms, explicitly rejecting the idea that culture wars distract from the gospel

And all that to just say when you are consuming culture you need to understand you are consuming worship. Probably like you know amongst my top 10 old man fears as I talk to younger people is how indiscriminate they are in their media consumption.

I just want to remind you that everybody who ever made anything has answers to questions like what is God like and how do I make myself right in his eyes and those questions and answers are stoicheia and they you're watching stoicheia you're listening to stoicheia so understand what culture is and then also understand this we as Christians should be putting Christ as Lord in our hearts and then making things we should make things we should make thick culture worship!

whatever and we should make thin culture we should make songs about marriage and about mountains and we should do paintings and we should build spaces and we should make friendships and build careers and make families and so forth with Christ as Lord and all of that is a new culture we are so grateful to have lived in 2000 years of that happening let's be discriminant about what we're consuming and where it's coming from and also be eager to make more of it and let's just be done with the nonsense that to engage in the culture wars is a distraction from the gospel the word literally culture the word literally means worship in some ways the culture wars are just the worship wars just in thick and thin versions so that's one way we can apply this

52 · Addresses the scholarly debate about whether stoicheia are human or demonic in origin, concluding that the biblical evidence supports both—they are human traditions that can become strongholds for spiritual entities

what else oh consider the source of the stoicheia the big question in all the commentaries is are these old elementary principles just from men or are they actually from demons and you'll see this wrestling in all the commentaries well there's evidence to suggest it's from men verse 8 philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition verse 22 human commands and doctrines but on the other hand there's tons of evidence to suggest that there are spiritual indeed demonic elements associated with this I'm running out of time so I won't go through the whole thing but 2nd corinthians 10 tells us very clearly that ideas can be become strongholds for spiritual entities

53 · Uses the Pharisees as a historical example of stoicheia disguised as God's word, showing how Jesus's Sermon on the Mount directly confronted the mislabeling of human commands as divine commands

and I would point to the Pharisees as a great example of this they were a collection of stoicheia that was disguised as God's word ask yourself this question why did Jesus enter in his first sermon saying you've heard it said but I tell you he's not saying the Old Testament said but here's the New Testament he's saying a bunch of people have mislabeled the commandments of man as the commandments of God and I'm here to set the record straight actually Jesus' first work was to detach people from stoicheia from the hearsay the religious hearsay not the actual word of God

54 · Applies the human-and-demonic nature of stoicheia to cultural engagement, warning that no ideas are neutral and some are inhabited by spiritual forces

so all that to say consider the fact that when you are dealing with this question of cultural engagement the other voices that exist consider the fact that the Bible says that there's no such thing as a neutral idea and that ideas can actually inhabit spirits that's something to think about

55 · First personal application point: good desires create openings for deception and detours from Christ

now let's get just more personal I think it's just good to remember the basic mechanics that are presented as we consider these things and the first one is this understand that your good desires can become opportunities for deception fitting into your family growing in practical holiness even good things can become opportunities for a detour away from Christ

56 · Second personal application: the temptation is not to replace Christ but to supplement Him, which offends God's jealousy—He will not share His glory in revelation or purification

remember that the temptation most likely won't be to replace Christ just to give him a hand but the Bible says that our God is a jealous God and he says I will not give my glory to another the greatest way to offend him is to suggest that he needs help revealing God or purifying you from your many sins

57 · Third personal application: the enemy's goal is to create confusion between God's word and man's word, creating an 'indecipherable salad'—protection comes through knowing Scripture

one of the enemy's main goals in your life guys would be to mix up God's word with man's word in your mind so that you don't know which is which that'd be one of God's that'd be one of the enemy's main goals is to create a kind of indecipherable salad in your head it's like I don't know it's like are these bacon bits God or you know like what category are these things the more you know the word the safer you will be from this but it's very clear that right from the very beginning Satan garden all the way through this is one of God's one of the devil's principal goals to mix up what God says and what is said about what God says

58 · Fourth personal application: personal Christus Victor—freedom and peace come from rejecting all competitors, staying rooted in Christ, experiencing guilt-free living because Christ ended sin's claim and filled believers completely

and fourth you can experience personal Christus Victor the personal peace that comes from Christ as King ruling when you spit the bit when you fight against all of this and you stay rooted to Christ you'd be surprised how incredibly free it is out here to quote a famous YouTuber it's incredibly free out here guys it's because Jesus has made an end to all of my sin and the enemy no longer has any candles to guide me through guilt I'm not searching out there for insight into who God is I know Christ not only do I know Christ I'm filled with Christ the fullness of him who feels all in all

59 · Holiday-specific application: be alert to stoicheia operating even in Christian families—non-Christian ideas disguised as Christian wisdom through cultural mixing over time

and finally as we navigate the holidays I want you to consider the stoicheia that you're regularly exposed to even in your Christian family let alone your non-Christian family here's the idea I want to sensitize you to there are non-Christian ideas hiding in your Christian home platitudes instincts approaches that are not Christ but they become mixed up through culture through tradition through time be a diligent observer and seek to discern the difference

60 · Lists common family stoicheia as concrete examples: hyper-responsibility, peacemaking at all costs, performance-based belonging, and opposite extremes of emotional expression—showing how these contradict biblical truth

you know there's some common family stoicheia hyper responsibility if I don't hold everything together everything falls apart well actually read Colossians 1 it's not us holding everything together peacemaking at all costs how many marriages have been absolutely shredded because one partner has decided peace at the cost of sin and silence peace at all costs performance based belonging I am loved because I am useful some families have the stoicheia of feelings or everything and some families have the stoicheia of feelings or nothing

61 · Concluding application synthesizing the sermon's call: set apart Christ as Lord, affirming Him as the full revelation and full purification, rejecting all supplemental assistance

but if you want to experience the kind of peace that Jesus has come to bring not only at a cosmic level but in your own heart you'll do as Paul commands us to do and say set apart Christ is Lord he is the full revelation of who God is like what God is like and he is the purification for my sins no other assistance need apply

62 · Closing prayer asking the Holy Spirit to expose temptations to depart from pure devotion to Christ, bring clarity in discerning false guides, and magnify Christ's true sufficiency in believers' hearts

let me lead us in prayer and then we'll introduce communion Father God we praise your holy name for your faithful delivery of the one true Christ would you Lord your Holy Spirit help us to see where the temptation has entered to depart from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ would you help us see it in the self talk that we engage in on our own the kind of culture we engage in the kind of culture we consume the family stories about the meaning of life and about identity and about success that we all have to sort through and figure out bring clarity Lord remove all of the false guides the false gospels those things that say implicitly that Christ is actually not enough and make Christ as big as he really is in our hearts!