SPEAKER_01: This morning, our text to study is Colossians and chapter 2.
SPEAKER_01: So let me begin by reading the passage.
SPEAKER_01: Colossians chapter 2, beginning in verse 16 down to the end of the chapter.
SPEAKER_01: Would you follow with me as I read from the Word of God?
SPEAKER_01: 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 Sabbath.
SPEAKER_01: These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: 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, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.
SPEAKER_01: If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in 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.
SPEAKER_01: These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, that they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.
SPEAKER_01: This is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: The Book of Colossians is written to a group of people in what is modern day Turkey who had grown up in an what we could call a religiously pluralistic environment, an environment in which it was just run-of-the-mill ordinary practice to incorporate the insights and traditions of different religions and philosophies and ways of life.
SPEAKER_01: And yet these people had come into contact with the gospel, the proclamation that there is one God who made the heavens and the earth, and this God stands in holy and right judgment over all sin and human evil.
SPEAKER_01: And this God has provided a way of salvation through his eternal Son, who came into the world, taking on human nature and living a perfect and sinless human life.
SPEAKER_01: He then died as a substitute in the place of sinful human beings, dying the death they deserve to die for their sins, and bearing all the judgment that their sins deserve.
SPEAKER_01: He then resurrected from the dead and went back into heaven, where he now offers forgiveness and salvation to all who turn and offer their life to him, calling upon his name and faith.
SPEAKER_01: The Colossians heard this and they believed it.
SPEAKER_01: They'd come to a point of clarity where the truth claims of the gospel resonated with them.
SPEAKER_01: They knew they were true.
SPEAKER_01: They'd come to a place of spiritual clarity where they knew that by believing in Jesus, they had salvation.
SPEAKER_01: They had all that they needed.
SPEAKER_01: They had relationship with God.
SPEAKER_01: They had eternal life secured.
SPEAKER_01: They had the gift of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And yet, as they continued to live their life in this world, trusting in Jesus got a little bit more challenging.
SPEAKER_01: You might think of their situation a little bit like somebody who's learning how to water ski.
SPEAKER_01: Imagine yourself bobbing up and down in the water behind a stationary boat, and your friend from the back of the boat tosses you a rope and says, it's really simple, hold on to the rope.
SPEAKER_01: And you say, This is really clear, my friend, is trustworthy.
SPEAKER_01: I understand the truth claims of water skiing.
SPEAKER_01: Hold on to the rope.
SPEAKER_01: Got it.
SPEAKER_01: Once the boat starts moving, it gets a little bit more challenging.
SPEAKER_01: They had been told that Jesus is the image of the invisible God, that he is the only Savior, the only one who can make you right with God, and by trusting in the gospel, you have everything that you need in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: You just need to hold on to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: But as life just kept going along, they found out that holding on to Christ was more challenging than they had at first imagined.
SPEAKER_01: It's both because there were external temptations they encountered.
SPEAKER_01: They lived in a world where people said, It's great that you believe in Jesus, but you also need these other things in order to have a fully vibrant spiritual life.
SPEAKER_01: But it was also true because of the internal temptations of the human reality, that as you go through life, your moods change and your emotions fluctuate, and what what once seems so clear and real seems to fade in your memory as you go through life and moods and emotions swing.
SPEAKER_01: Paul wrote to these people, experiencing the difficulty of holding fast to Christ as life keeps on moving, with a very simple mission, to anchor them deeper in their connection to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: We looked at chapter 2, verse 6 last week, where Paul gives what is really the thesis statement of the book of Colossians.
SPEAKER_01: Notice that verse again.
SPEAKER_01: Look in your Bibles at Colossians 2, verse 6.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says, Therefore, as you 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.
SPEAKER_01: This is what you need, to be deeper in your roots in Christ, to grow deeper in your connection to Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: For in him and him alone are all your spiritual needs supplied.
SPEAKER_01: And there are genuinely, Paul recognizes, dangers in the world, dangers that would pull you away from Christ or add something to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And Paul says that those dangers really are dangers that would lead you into spiritual captivity.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he says in verse 8.
SPEAKER_01: But we saw last week in verses 9 all the way through 15, he gives the Colossians reasons to know for sure that if you have Christ, you have all that you need for a fully vibrant, satisfying, meaningful spiritual life.
SPEAKER_01: All that you need is in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Because Paul says in verse 9, in him the fullness of deity dwells.
SPEAKER_01: There's nothing of God outside of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: All of Christ is in God, and all of Christ is God.
SPEAKER_01: So that if you need spiritual satisfaction, meaning fulfillment and truth and direction and righteousness and holiness, it's all in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: What you need are deeper and deeper roots in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And Paul says, when you put your faith in Christ, you are united to him in a real, eternal union, so that you died with him on Calvary, and you were raised with him from the tomb, and you're seated with him in heavenly places.
SPEAKER_01: Your life belongs everlastingly to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Spiritual life, then, grows fuller and more vibrant as your roots grow deeper into Christ, who is the fullness of God.
SPEAKER_01: What Paul does in verse 16 and following is he alerts us to three specific spiritual dangers that would seek to distract from or detract from Christ, and in so doing, lead us into spiritual captivity.
SPEAKER_01: So I think that's a helpful heading to study this passage.
SPEAKER_01: Three spiritual dangers that would detract from fullness in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: The first danger Paul alerts us to, we can just call shadows.
SPEAKER_01: Shadows.
SPEAKER_01: That's in verse 16.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 16, Paul says, 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.
SPEAKER_01: And we might be reading through verse 16, and all the way up until the last word say, well, this could be talking about a number of different religious or spiritual groups.
SPEAKER_01: But once you're at the last word, you know that he is talking about Old Testament, Old Covenant worship.
SPEAKER_01: He's talking about, we could say, Judaism.
SPEAKER_01: And it seems that what had happened is that the Colossians, who are largely a Gentile church, you see that in chapter 2, verse 13, where he refers to their uncircumcision of their flesh.
SPEAKER_01: So it seems that they were probably largely a Gentile group of believers who had encountered the gospel and come out of their religiously pluralistic environment to believe in the Jewish Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: And upon believing in the Jewish Messiah, that He's the only appointed God, He's the Son of the God of Israel, the Colossian believers had encountered what was a historically we understand to be a vibrant Jewish group, a Jewish community in Colossae.
SPEAKER_01: And as these Colossian believers had come to believe in the God of Israel and worship the Jewish Messiah and were encountering a Jewish community, they were discovering that they had a thousands-of-year-old tradition and beautiful forms of worship to connect them to God.
SPEAKER_01: And they started to feel like maybe there's something there that I'm lacking.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe in order to worship the God of Israel fully, I need to participate in these Old Testament religious forms.
SPEAKER_01: And what Paul says in verses 16 and 17 is a couple things that I want us to notice first.
SPEAKER_01: I want us to notice that he doesn't say a single negative word about the religious rituals that he mentions in verse 17.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, in all of Paul's ministry, there's not a single negative word uttered about the Sabbath or the festivals or the food laws.
SPEAKER_01: In Romans chapter 7, Paul says that the whole law, the whole law of Moses, and that's where all of these rituals come from, they're revealed by God on Sinai through Moses to the people of Israel, in order to constitute them as a people, in order to give them access to him through religious worship.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says in Romans 7 that the law is holy, righteous, and good.
SPEAKER_01: Leviticus chapter 23, which is the chapter in the Old Testament that gives us all of the feasts summarized, starts with in verse 2 saying, These are my laws.
SPEAKER_01: They belong to God.
SPEAKER_01: So the religious rituals that we're talking about in verse 16 are holy, righteous, and good.
SPEAKER_01: They're divinely revealed forms of worship to constitute Israel as a people.
SPEAKER_01: Paul has not a word negative to say about them.
SPEAKER_01: But he does have a negative word to say about the person who would pass judgment, particularly on a Gentile believer in Christ, standing in judgment over that person and saying, It's good that you believe in Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, but if you don't also practice Old Testament forms of worship, then you're incomplete.
SPEAKER_01: Christ is not sufficient to fill you and commend you entirely to God.
SPEAKER_01: Paul does have something negative to say about that, because he says in verse 17, these are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And we all understand what a shadow is.
SPEAKER_01: A shadow exists because there is a solid substance behind it.
SPEAKER_01: The shadow points you to the solid substance that issues the shadow forth.
SPEAKER_01: That's what Paul says all of old covenant worship was.
SPEAKER_01: Old covenant worship was holy and righteous and good, revealed by God Himself.
SPEAKER_01: But it was always intended in constituting Israel as a people and giving them the law and revealing God in his character and the appropriate way to approach him in worship was always intended to produce the Messiah who would fulfill all of the forms of old covenant worship.
SPEAKER_01: And once the Messiah has come, any Gentile or any Jewish believer who believes in the Messiah of Israel is full and complete, brought into relationship with God through the work of the Messiah, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So Paul says, if you would like to use the old covenant rituals and worships in worship, that's wonderful.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, we see in texts like Acts chapter 21, Paul sometimes did make use of temple worship and the sacrificial system as acceptable forms of worship to God through Christ.
SPEAKER_01: But it would be inappropriate, Paul says, to enforce them as a necessary regulation in order to be commended to God, because they were always shadows pointing to Christ, and if you have Christ, you have the fullness.
SPEAKER_01: So I just want to give you a couple cross-references along these lines.
SPEAKER_01: In 1 Corinthians in chapter 8, verse 8, Paul says, Food will not commend us to God.
SPEAKER_01: We're no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do.
SPEAKER_01: And in Romans in chapter 14, he says, One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike.
SPEAKER_01: Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.
SPEAKER_01: The one who observes the day observes it in honor of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: The one who eats eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains abstains in honor of the Lord, and he gives thanks to God.
SPEAKER_01: Now that could not be said in the Old Covenant.
SPEAKER_01: In the Old Covenant, observance of the food laws and observance of the festivals and the days was a requirement to offer God acceptable worship.
SPEAKER_01: But those all of those laws were pointing to Christ, who is the fullness of God.
SPEAKER_01: And now that he has come, the Mosaic Law has been fulfilled.
SPEAKER_01: And it's what he calls another text in Galatians, indifferent.
SPEAKER_01: You can use it to offer worship to God, but you're not required to.
SPEAKER_01: Why would you go back to the shadow when you have the substance?
SPEAKER_01: Now, I stress this point just because I think that there is a tendency in American evangelicalism to kind of denigrate the Old Testament as though it's something that was bad and needed to get rid of.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, it was inherently flawed.
SPEAKER_01: That's so silly and so disconnected from the scriptures.
SPEAKER_01: The New Covenant so emphatically states that every single word of Old Testament is breathed out by God, holy, righteous, and good.
SPEAKER_01: Paul doesn't have a single negative word to say about it.
SPEAKER_01: What he does say, though, is as good and wonderful as Old Testament ritual forms were, Christ is infinitely better.
SPEAKER_01: What he's doing is saying, How great is Christ?
SPEAKER_01: Why seek fullness anywhere else than Christ?
SPEAKER_01: Now, I think that in Emmanuel Bible Church, it's probably not a strong and ever-present temptation for most of us to say, I'm really lacking in my spiritual life if I don't practice sukkot or Shabbat.
SPEAKER_01: But I do think that there are a number of ways in which the principles that Paul is teaching in these verses would certainly apply to us.
SPEAKER_01: One obvious low-hanging fruit would be the ever-present human tendency to elevate form over substance in worship.
SPEAKER_01: What I mean is this New Covenant community, constituted by Jesus' death and resurrection, is a body that organizes itself and local churches, where you become a Christian, you get baptized into Christ and His church.
SPEAKER_01: You join the church, and the church is a community led by elders and deacons that gathers to worship God, and our worship takes certain forms.
SPEAKER_01: We worship God through songs and prayers and the preaching of the word and the reading of Scripture and the ordinances and giving.
SPEAKER_01: Every Lord's Day, this is what the Lord's Church has been doing for 2,000 years.
SPEAKER_01: All of our worship to God has to take certain forms, and there's an ever-present human tendency to elevate the form of our worship over the substance of our worship.
SPEAKER_01: So, for example, the easiest example to list of this would be elevating the form of our music over the substance of our music.
SPEAKER_01: That is, it's an ever-present tendency in our hearts to make more important the style of music over the substance of our music.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that always a tendency?
SPEAKER_01: One of the first things that you do if you walk into a new church is you just reflexively, instinctively are like, do I like this?
SPEAKER_01: Does this jive with me?
SPEAKER_01: You can't help it.
SPEAKER_01: It's just in our natures.
SPEAKER_01: But as soon as you begin to think along those lines, you need to grab hold of yourself and ask the question, why do we sing?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I have Spotify.
SPEAKER_01: I have heard of a smartphone.
SPEAKER_01: I can sing just fine by myself.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, I'll maybe I'll even be unencumbered in a new way when I don't have strangers around me in this new church.
SPEAKER_01: So why do we sing?
SPEAKER_01: And the reason that the church sings is because we have something to sing about.
SPEAKER_01: God's called us to sing, commanded us to sing, as we'll see in Colossians 3.
SPEAKER_01: We have something to sing about.
SPEAKER_01: So the real question is not, do I like the style of the songs, but is the substance of the songs doing what it's supposed to do?
SPEAKER_01: Namely, leading me to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: The question to ask is, is the substance of the musical worship opening my eyes to more of the glory of Christ?
SPEAKER_01: Are the lyrics of the songs directing me to more of the glory of God in Christ?
SPEAKER_01: And is the music channeling and helping to train me to respond emotionally appropriately to the glory of God revealed in Christ?
SPEAKER_01: We are constantly in danger of elevating form over substance in worship because we're fallen human beings.
SPEAKER_01: We do this in every part of our worship, even the preaching of the word.
SPEAKER_01: A natural human tendency that you are always doing whenever you hear a sermon is, do I like this?
SPEAKER_01: Do I connect with the preacher?
SPEAKER_01: And that could mean a million different things to a million different people.
SPEAKER_01: But that's not the point of preaching.
SPEAKER_01: The point of preaching is to reveal the glory of God in the face of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: So you have to constantly be actively and intentionally drawing your own attention back to what am I getting from the sermon in terms of beholding the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ?
SPEAKER_01: Am I being drawn deeper into the infinite riches of Scripture?
SPEAKER_01: Am I being trained?
SPEAKER_01: Is my heart being compelled to love Christ more, to obey Christ more?
SPEAKER_01: Is the unfolding of God's word in the preaching of his word helping to conform me to the image of Christ?
SPEAKER_01: The substance of worship is what is of significance and lasting value.
SPEAKER_01: The form is just your personal, your personal preferences.
SPEAKER_01: I like you, I care about your preferences, but that's not what we're doing here.
SPEAKER_01: A constant danger is to elevate style over substance, and Paul would call us back to what he says in verse 17, shadows.
SPEAKER_01: But the substance belongs to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: I think there's maybe an even closer analogy to what the Colossians were experiencing that I just want to note before we pass on to the second point.
SPEAKER_01: And that is this if you would think for a moment about, kind of put yourself in the shoes of the Colossians.
SPEAKER_01: They are largely a Gentile congregation who's lived in this pluralistic religious environment, they've heard the gospel, they've believed in Christ, He's the Jewish Messiah, they now worship the God of Israel, they encounter this vibrant Jewish community that has this thousands-of-year-old tradition and these beautiful forms of worship.
SPEAKER_01: As they learn about the history of Israel, they learn that every time that this small little people group had their enemies assailed against them, God preserved them, and God Himself revealed on a mountain with thunder and glory, these perfect forms of worship, means of approaching God and knowing the only holy God.
SPEAKER_01: And as you learn about this, you think, man, so much of my life is so transient and the culture I'm in is so fleeting and frothy, but this is something that has endured through the ages, and I want to be connected to that.
SPEAKER_01: I think that there's something very human about that, wanting to be connected to something that is transcendent.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what I think some of the Colossians were encountering in the Jewish forms of worship.
SPEAKER_01: I think a closer analogy for us would be it is a phenomenon, a kind of subset phenomenon within modern evangelicalism, that there are a minority of people, particularly folks who would probably say that they're somewhat intellectually inclined, who look around the evangelical landscape and say so much of it is so frothy and kind of illegitimate children of Christianity.
SPEAKER_01: Like so many evangelical churches just don't seem connected to the great tradition that was founded on the apostles and prophets.
SPEAKER_01: And then they look to Roman Catholicism or orthodoxy, and they see something that has beautiful forms of worship and says that it has an ancient tradition, and their hearts are drawn to that form of worship.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you experience that, I think that there is something in your heart, you're seeking something natural, normal, good, and healthy in your heart.
SPEAKER_01: But I want to appeal to you on a two basis.
SPEAKER_01: One is much of what is in the evangelical landscape in America is kind of illegitimate Christianity.
SPEAKER_01: Sure.
SPEAKER_01: But there is in genuine Protestantism a rich intellectual doctrinal history.
SPEAKER_01: And it would be good, healthy, and helpful for you to discover that churches like Emmanuel Bible Church and our doctrinal commitments trace our roots back through the Reformers and the Middle Ages and the patristics, right back to the apostles and prophets, the foundation upon which this 2,000-year-old ancient tradition was built.
SPEAKER_01: We all partake in an ancient tradition by confessing the truths that we confess.
SPEAKER_01: It would be good, healthy, and helpful for you to learn a little bit more of that.
SPEAKER_01: But here's a second basis on which I want to appeal to you.
SPEAKER_01: Look at what Paul's referring to in verse 16.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Let no one pass judgment on you in regard to food and drink and festivals and new moons and sabbaths.
SPEAKER_01: These are a shadow, but the substance belongs to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Paul's referring to something so much better than any particular group you're going to discover in ancient history.
SPEAKER_01: There's no group in Italy in the 700s that you're going to read about in a textbook that is more important than the Sabbath.
SPEAKER_01: Paul can look at the forms of worship revealed to Israel on Mount Sinai and say, those are so much better than anything you're going to read about in a high church tradition, and yet in comparison to Christ, they're nothing but a shadow.
SPEAKER_01: What Paul is doing is he's saying, you need to focus your attention like a laser beam upon Christ, Christ, Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And Christ is unveiled for you on the pages of Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: In Christ, the fullness of God is accessible to you, and the fullness of God accessible in the pages of Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: What you need is Christ.
SPEAKER_01: You won't find more of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: By seeking all of these different forms that you're seeking, you'll find more of Christ in the pages of Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Shadows.
SPEAKER_01: Don't succumb to shadows.
SPEAKER_01: Hold fast to Christ, who is the substance.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the second danger Paul alerts us of in this text.
SPEAKER_01: Let's summarize it by saying it's visions.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 18.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 18, Paul writes, Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions.
SPEAKER_01: Let no one disqualify you.
SPEAKER_01: It's a word that means to stand in judgment of you and to pass a judgment that says you're lacking something.
SPEAKER_01: So you can't live a full, whole human life because you're lacking something.
SPEAKER_01: What's the thing that they would say you're lacking?
SPEAKER_01: Look at the rest of what Paul says.
SPEAKER_01: There's three little phrases here.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, insisting on asceticism.
SPEAKER_01: That is some particular religious practice that would enable you and prepare you to have some mystical great experience.
SPEAKER_01: And what kind of experience would that be?
SPEAKER_01: Well, it might be something like worship of angels, which could refer to one of two things.
SPEAKER_01: It could be people who are talking about, I go through these rituals and practices, and it enables me to worship along with the angels in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: There's certainly ancient texts, and even people in the modern world who would say that they have religious experiences in which they get caught up into the heavens and they participate with angelic worship in the heavenly places.
SPEAKER_01: Or it could be referring to actually worshiping angels, in the sense that there were certainly other ancient groups that would say, It's great that you worship Jesus, little pat on the head, but I have access directly to angels to help me in every particular circumstance that I have in life.
SPEAKER_01: And you need that.
SPEAKER_01: In either case, what's happening is that there are people who are coming into the lives of the Colossians and saying, It's great that you worship this Jewish.
SPEAKER_01: Messiah, wonderful, but we have something even more.
SPEAKER_01: And the effect it was having was a sense of intimidation that I'm lacking something because I'm just trying to be faithful and following Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Paul summarizes this phenomenon in the middle of verse 18 by saying that they're going on in detail about visions.
SPEAKER_01: But you might have a footnote on the word visions in your Bible, because uh visions is very specific, and I think Paul's talking about something just even broader.
SPEAKER_01: He says, going on in detail about things they have seen.
SPEAKER_01: That's the summary about what these people are doing.
SPEAKER_01: They're coming to the Colossians and going on in detail about things that they have seen.
SPEAKER_01: Now that happens in the modern day all the time.
SPEAKER_01: All kinds of different forms of this in the charismatic movement.
SPEAKER_01: There was a video doing the rounds a couple of years ago.
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's been a number of years ago now, but I'm getting to be an older youth pastor.
SPEAKER_01: And in this video, it became popular among young people.
SPEAKER_01: There was a very famous leader of a contemporary Christian band giving this testimony of something that happened to her.
SPEAKER_01: And she says, For weeks I was trying to like grow in my faith in Christ by going to a prayer house early in the morning, and I was just being faithful.
SPEAKER_01: Show up at the prayer house and just read my Bible and pray.
SPEAKER_01: I'd go in there every day, every morning, just being faithful, just being faithful, and it was okay.
SPEAKER_01: And then one day, while I was reading my Bible and praying in the morning, the door of the prayer house opened and Jesus walked in.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus walked up to me and I asked him, Jesus, do you love me?
SPEAKER_01: And I he started to laugh and say, Yes, I love you.
SPEAKER_01: And I asked him, How much do you love me, Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: And he spread out his arms and his arms began to get longer and longer and longer and just wrap around the building.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, This much, and my heart, she began to explain how she was overwhelmed and just absolutely ravished with comfort and peace.
SPEAKER_01: What's the effect that that kind of video would have on a young believer?
SPEAKER_01: For many people, there's a sense of intimidation.
SPEAKER_01: They probably wouldn't even use that word, but that's what's happening.
SPEAKER_01: This sense that, hey, I'm doing that.
SPEAKER_01: I'm trying to just be faithful, read my Bible, I'm trying to figure out colloquial, I'm trying to read Revelation, I'm trying to figure out what in the world, trying to be faithful to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: But I don't have that.
SPEAKER_01: I must be missing something.
SPEAKER_01: You see that this comes at us in a million different ways.
SPEAKER_01: One more that I just have to mention.
SPEAKER_01: It is a phenomenon in American society that not a week goes by which you could check the list of best-selling Christian books in America, and within the list of the top few best-selling books in America, there will inevitably always be a book about a trip to heaven, a near-death experience.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, if if that's not the textbook definition about going on in detail about things that they have seen, I don't know what is.
SPEAKER_01: There's no limit to the number of people who will sell you 300 pages of what they have seen.
SPEAKER_01: And the effect of reading and consuming that can be feeling that reading the Bible, spiritual disciplines, membering being a member of the church, sharing the gospel, worshiping with the congregation is just not enough.
SPEAKER_01: I need something more.
SPEAKER_01: When you have that experience, this is what Paul would say to you.
SPEAKER_01: Look at the end of verse 18.
SPEAKER_01: You need to know that such people are puffed up without reason by their sensuous mind.
SPEAKER_01: And that translation, sensuous mind, could also be rendered mind of flesh, would be a very literal translation.
SPEAKER_01: Paul's being ironic here.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying there's people coming to you, going on in details of the things that they have seen, saying that they have access to the heavenlies that you don't have access to.
SPEAKER_01: You need to listen to what they're saying.
SPEAKER_01: And Paul says, actually, that's just coming up from their puffed up imagination.
SPEAKER_01: Their mind actually has no access to the heavens.
SPEAKER_01: They're stuck on earth, just spinning stories.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Verse 19.
SPEAKER_01: Because they're not holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with the growth that is from God.
SPEAKER_01: This is the only kind of growth that is divine, that's real, that's lasting, and it's because it's coming from someone who's holding fast with two hands, holding fast to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Anyone who's going on in details of things that they have seen and not holding fast to Jesus would be illegitimate.
SPEAKER_01: And how do you know that it's not holding fast to the real Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Because the real Jesus is revealed to you in Scripture and nowhere else.
SPEAKER_01: Now I could show that to you in a number of verses, but I can show it to you right here in Colossians.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 18.
SPEAKER_01: Look at the command in verse 18.
SPEAKER_01: It's rendered in the English Standard Version as let no one disqualify you.
SPEAKER_01: It's a fairly rare word in Greek that just means to judge.
SPEAKER_01: To stand over in judgment.
SPEAKER_01: And in the sense of judging, you could, you're, when you're judging someone, you're kind of ruling over them.
SPEAKER_01: You're determining and dictating their outcomes in their life.
SPEAKER_01: In this sense, in verse 18, it's a negative judgment where someone is standing over in judgment and saying you lack something, and so I'm disqualifying you, saying you don't qualify for the fullness of human life.
SPEAKER_01: But Paul uses that word again.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, it's only used one other time in the rest of Scripture, and it's in this passage.
SPEAKER_01: Look over in Colossians 3 in verse 15.
SPEAKER_01: In chapter 3 and verse 15, we get the one other instance of this verb.
SPEAKER_01: Paul writes, Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.
SPEAKER_01: That's the same verb.
SPEAKER_01: Because this idea of judging, you could, depending on the context, has the significance of ruling.
SPEAKER_01: If someone's standing in judgment and determining outcomes in your life, they're having rule in your life.
SPEAKER_01: Paul wants not someone going on in visions to have rule over your life.
SPEAKER_01: He wants the peace of Christ to have the say and the sway in your heart.
SPEAKER_01: Well now look at the rest of this text.
SPEAKER_01: This is something supposed to be going on in your heart.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, in fact, verses 15 and 16 are really a summary of Paul's practical spiritual life teaching that we'll look at in the weeks to come.
SPEAKER_01: But look at what Paul wants happening in your heart.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 15, the peace of Christ is to be ruling in your heart.
SPEAKER_01: And then at the end of verse 16, there's supposed to be thankfulness in your hearts to God.
SPEAKER_01: So that's supposed to be the Christian life.
SPEAKER_01: Peace of Christ ruling in your heart, thankfulness characterizing your heart.
SPEAKER_01: What is going to enable you to do that?
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 16.
SPEAKER_01: Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.
SPEAKER_01: When the word of Christ, which reveals Christ to you, is dwelling in your heart, when the word of God is taking up residence and just living and active in your life and controlling what you think about and controlling how you understand yourself and controlling your ambition and controlling your goals, then when the word of Christ is living and active in your life, then the peace of Christ is going to rule and determine outcomes.
SPEAKER_01: And thankfulness is going to characterize your heart.
SPEAKER_01: The fullness of Christ is revealed to you in the word of Christ in the scriptures.
SPEAKER_01: Fullness of spiritual life, then, is accessed by holding fast to Christ, not to someone going on in details of what they've seen, but by holding fast to the word of Christ and letting it dwell in you richly.
SPEAKER_01: Here's a third danger that Paul shows us in this text.
SPEAKER_01: Let's call it dogmas.
SPEAKER_01: Look down at verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: Look in your Bibles at Colossians 2 and verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says, If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world.
SPEAKER_01: Now, pause for one moment.
SPEAKER_01: Paul's already taught us that we have died with Christ.
SPEAKER_01: If your faith is in Christ, then it's a reality that you are united to Christ in his death.
SPEAKER_01: The old you died and has been risen again, and it now has eternal, immortal human life coming to you when Jesus comes to bring the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: That's real for you.
SPEAKER_01: It's the most real thing about you.
SPEAKER_01: But what Paul is doing in verse 20 by putting it in this conditional form, if you died to the elemental spirits of the world, is he's inviting you to think about the implications.
SPEAKER_01: If you say you're a Christian, what does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: It means that your old person died to this world.
SPEAKER_01: Now actually think about how then should you live your life?
SPEAKER_01: What is the significance of that reality?
SPEAKER_01: What should it look like in your life if you died to this world?
SPEAKER_01: Let's walk through Paul with his logic here.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 20, if you, with Christ, died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations?
SPEAKER_01: Now that little expression, submit to regulations, it's one word in the Greek, and it's the word from which we get our word dogma, which is why I've used dogma for our outline.
SPEAKER_01: The idea is, why do you submit to dogmas?
SPEAKER_01: Now, dogma, of course, isn't inherently some kind of naughty word.
SPEAKER_01: Christian dogma is a good thing.
SPEAKER_01: A Christian dogma would be a truth revealed by God in the scriptures and received by the church.
SPEAKER_01: So Christian dogma would be our bread and meat.
SPEAKER_01: It's our spiritual food, it's the truth of God in Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: What Paul's concerned about is submitting to dogmas, look at verse 22, that are according to human precepts and teachings.
SPEAKER_01: That is, the dogmas, the teachings that come from this world.
SPEAKER_01: He calls them in verse 20 that they're according to the elemental spirits of the world.
SPEAKER_01: Those kinds of teachings you shouldn't submit to anymore.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what are the elemental spirits of the world?
SPEAKER_01: It's a word that Paul uses to refer to what some what someone call the Zeitgeist, the spirit of the age.
SPEAKER_01: That is the principles and the values and the assumptions and the priorities of the world and the culture in which you live and move and have your being.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says, you died to this world.
SPEAKER_01: Those values shouldn't have any more import for you.
SPEAKER_01: Now, how does the spirit of this age operate on our lives?
SPEAKER_01: Verse 21, it offers us a bunch of regulations.
SPEAKER_01: Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch.
SPEAKER_01: Every spirit of every age is going to offer you rules and regulations and principles in order to achieve happiness.
SPEAKER_01: If you want to be happy in life, here are all the things that you need to do.
SPEAKER_01: And human beings are really attracted to a list of things that you can do so that you can take control of your life, and then you can have a full, happy, wonderful human life.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, everybody who operates on social media knows that the key to good clickbait is you need that number in it.
SPEAKER_01: Five things in order to get this, ten ways to achieve X.
SPEAKER_01: The spirit of our age offers all kinds of different principles, rules, and regulations in order for you to be a fully, happy, and flourishing person in this world.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says, here's the problem.
SPEAKER_01: You died to this world.
SPEAKER_01: So even if their regulations work, what does that matter to you?
SPEAKER_01: You're dead.
SPEAKER_01: You don't live here anymore.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a Christian, you died to this world.
SPEAKER_01: This is what he says in verse 23.
SPEAKER_01: They have appearances of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.
SPEAKER_01: They can't stop you from sinning, and that's what you're after.
SPEAKER_01: Your values are to no longer displease your Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Your value is to please the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: That's it.
SPEAKER_01: So you don't need principles that teach you how to live a fully flourishing life in this world.
SPEAKER_01: You're dead to this world and alive to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: All you need is Christ to speak into your life and say, beloved child, this is what I want you to do.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why is it that the principles of this world, the spirit of our age, would have influence on us?
SPEAKER_01: And I think the spirit of this age attacks both from above and below.
SPEAKER_01: This is what I mean.
SPEAKER_01: It's an inevitable reality that when you become a Christian, whether it's as a young person or in your adulthood, you come to clarity and convictions where you believe the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: And like I said at the beginning, the Colossians had come to a place where they had clarity and believed the gospel, and you know that you know God.
SPEAKER_01: As John says in 1 John chapter 2, you're a spiritual babe and you cry out, Ah, but Father, you know God is your father, you know Jesus has saved you.
SPEAKER_01: But as you walk through your life, it will inevitably happen that no matter who you are, you'll find someone a whole lot smarter than you, a whole lot more successful than you, who will say to you, I love that you love Jesus, that's wonderful for you.
SPEAKER_01: But if you really want to have a fully flourishing life, you need this.
SPEAKER_01: And he's smarter than you, she's smarter than you, what are you supposed to do?
SPEAKER_01: Paul wants you to recognize if you have died to the elemental spirits of the world, why as if you were still alive in the world would you submit to their regulations?
SPEAKER_01: You don't need to incorporate their insights into the world in order to live a fully vibrant spiritual life, because you're dead to this world and their insights only pertain to this world.
SPEAKER_01: You need more of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
SPEAKER_01: So, yes, they might be a lot smarter than you and more successful than you, but you're hidden in Christ, who is the fullness of divine wisdom.
SPEAKER_01: He's your identity.
SPEAKER_01: You don't need to incorporate anything from the spirit of this age.
SPEAKER_01: You need more of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: I think the spirit of this age, though, comes at us from below, and what I mean is this: another of the kind of very popular Christian genres of literature, um, not just of books, but also of social media, we could just kind of broad brush call Christian self-help.
SPEAKER_01: That is influencers and authors and speakers who would say, believe in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: This is a Christian book out by a Christian publishing company.
SPEAKER_01: And if you believe in Jesus and follow my rules for life, you'll both have Jesus and all of your goals in this world.
SPEAKER_01: Whether it's parenting, you want to be a certain kind of parent, or career goals, or monetary goals, etc., etc., etc., you can have Jesus and you can have my program of regulations and you can achieve your goals in this world.
SPEAKER_01: There should be red flashing lights in our mind.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says, If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why would you submit to regulations that offer you anything in this world?
SPEAKER_01: There's nothing in this world.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 22.
SPEAKER_01: They refer to things that perish as they're used.
SPEAKER_01: Why are you pursuing things that perish as they are used?
SPEAKER_01: Why are you pursuing the perishable?
SPEAKER_01: You've been called to the imperishable.
SPEAKER_01: Why are you pursuing the transient?
SPEAKER_01: You've been called to the eternal.
SPEAKER_01: The nature of all Christian self-help is what Paul says in verse 23.
SPEAKER_01: They have an appearance of wisdom in this.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to this.
SPEAKER_01: Promoting self-made religion.
SPEAKER_01: That's an incredible word that Paul made up.
SPEAKER_01: It was there's no attestation of this word prior to Paul, and after Paul, it becomes a major word in the history of Christian tradition.
SPEAKER_01: Self-made religion.
SPEAKER_01: He puts together a thelo-tresia.
SPEAKER_01: He puts together two Greek words, thello, what I want, and threskia, worship.
SPEAKER_01: And you make a worship, make a religion that is all about obtaining what I want and being religious about it.
SPEAKER_01: That is so much of what is happening in the world around us.
SPEAKER_01: There are people offering to us, you can have Jesus and be a really good Christian, and you can have everything you want in this world.
SPEAKER_01: And Paul wants to take us by the scruff of our shirt and say, Don't you remember you died to this world.
SPEAKER_01: You don't live here anymore.
SPEAKER_01: You have no goals here, you have no dreams here.
SPEAKER_01: There's nothing here for you.
SPEAKER_01: You are dead.
SPEAKER_01: You don't build houses and have savings and retirement plans for dead people.
SPEAKER_01: Everything you have belongs to the Lord, and everything you have is used for this.
SPEAKER_01: Christ.
SPEAKER_01: So Paul would say, this is where he's going, and where we're going to go next week.
SPEAKER_01: Verse chapter 3, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: When Christ, who is your life, appears, you also will appear with him in glory.
SPEAKER_01: Everything that is offered to you in this world is not even a drop compared to the ocean that Jesus is going to pour upon you in wave after wave after wave of glory and delight and satisfaction forever and ever and ever.
SPEAKER_01: So, Christian, if you died to this world, seek Christ.
SPEAKER_01: If you died to this world, then everything that you have you use for Christ.
SPEAKER_01: If you died to this world, then neither shadows, nor visions, nor dogmas of this world are binding to you because you've been crucified and raised with Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Oh Christ, we do ask you that you would by your spirit that you would cause us to seek you.
SPEAKER_01: We thank you that you have revealed yourself in your word, and we need not wander and wonder how to access you.
SPEAKER_01: I thank you that you have revealed yourself in the pages of Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: I thank you that you have incorporated us in your body, the church.
SPEAKER_01: I thank you that you have given us a mission to proclaim your glories among the nations and a method through loving you and keeping your commands.
SPEAKER_01: All we have is in you, and we lack nothing in you.
SPEAKER_01: So we ask that by your spirit you would cause us to grow deeper in our love for you, higher in our affection for you.
SPEAKER_01: I pray that you would send us out in the world as people who are deeply satisfied in the knowledge of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: We pray that you would make us people who are proclaimers of your glories, that you would give us open doors for the gospel, and that we would make it clear as we ought to make it.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, make us people who live in the grip of awe and wonder that we get to belong to you.
SPEAKER_01: We pray this in Christ's name, Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And now, for a parting word for Pastor Jesse Johnson.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining us.
SPEAKER_00: If you're in the Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: area, I would love to see you at Emanuel Bible Church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information on our church or our current service times, go to IBC.church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: location, go to TMS.edu.
SPEAKER_00: I hope this resource has been a blessing to you and it helps you seek the Lord daily, serve others around you, and share the gospel with boldness.