Colossians 2:16-23 - At the center of our worship

We’re getting into the time of year knowns as the “Holidays”

Halloween is in a little over four weeks.

Thanksgiving is four weeks after that.

Christmas is four weeks after that.

I personally believe that Thanksgiving kind of gets robbed.

People are starting to get geeked up about Halloween (or angry),

and that goes through New Years.

There use to be an old rule that you don’t even mention Christmas until the Friday after Thanksgiving.

That’s gone. At one time it was morally repulsive, and now that’s been completely evaporated.

You celebrate Christmas whenever you want to

You can start celebrating Christmas now.

There are people who have already decorated their houses.

What a slap in the face of Thanksgiving.

Lights are already up, and Santa is already bowing down to Jesus in front yards. Christmas music is playing,

So I’m wondering if it’s just going to keep getting pushed further and further back. “Happy Independence Day … and Merry Christmas!”

This time of year you either decorate for Halloween or for Christmas.

Santa Claus will be in stores before everyone is done Trick-or-Treating.

We’re in the clump of the year called “the Holidays,”

Thanksgiving is just kind of in there.

“Thanksgiving is like John the Baptist. It’s just the predecessor of something much greater.” That’s so true.

We like Thanksgiving because it tells us that Christmas is coming.

Paul has just finished reminding them that philosophy human traditions will not save them

Now he’s going to point out that religious activity is but a shadow of Christ.

The people were getting jammed up with religious and spiritual practices that they missed the purpose of the rituals.

They were putting their worship into an activity, not into a person.

Big Idea: Jesus is at the center of our worship

If we aren’t careful, we’ll come into this place and sing these songs

And if we do anything we do rubs against what we associate with the church, then we’re going to have problems.

That is a prime example of worshipping the act of worship over the God we’re worshipping.

Stand to read

Colossians 2:16–19 ESV

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. 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. 18 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, 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.

Leader: This is God’s Word.

Everyone: Thanks be to God.

Context

The Colossians were torn between two maxims

Jewish tradition.

Gnostic mysticism.

The Jews were calling the Christians into question based on what they ate and what they celebrated (vv. 16-17)

They judged the Colossians Christians because they taught that spiritual fullness would be enhanced if you’d return to the dietary laws of the OT.

Before Jesus came, there were certain foods that we clean/unclean, so when you ate what is unclean you’d be unclean yourself.

More than that, the Christians were not observing special Jewish feast days or celebrations.

Paul warns them to refuse to be judged by legalists.

Legalism is intrinsically joyless, surface-level begrudging obedience to the Law.

These are people who believe in the Do/Don’t lists.

“Do this, go to heaven. Don’t do this or you’ll go to hell.”

Their worship was in what they were able to accomplish based on rule following, not in the God they were claiming to obey.

As bad a legalism is, there’s another danger that Paul warns of—mysticism

Read v. 18

Asceticism is a lifestyle without many possessions or luxuries.

It’s an attempt to focus on spiritual matters and not be distracted by the things of the world.

They would reject marriage and sex because it pointed away from God.

They would reject parenthood because it distracted from God.

They would not part take in the good gifts of creation.

It was a self-made religion that produced a lifeless and defensive approach to life.

Their “worship” gave them the impression that they are spiritual because they rejected the good gifts of God.

The Gnostics were trying to disqualify the Christians because they were “too worldly.”

This type of worship was derived from their own understanding of God and their imaginations.

The Gnostics were very deceptive in their approach to worship.

They loved to act humble

They didn’t want to go directly to God because they were “humble,” so they began with angels.

Paul warns against this false humility because they “go on about visions, puffed up without reason by sensuous mind” (v. 18).

Advertising humility is major conceit.

This would breed a look-how-holy-I-am mentality.

There are many self-proclaiming Christians who still hold to this type of mentality when it comes to worship.

If I can just do the right things

If I can just be spiritual enough

What they do is make themselves slaves to religious spirituality.

Neither the hyper-rule-follower nor the hyper-spiritual-hippie who don’t worship Jesus do not know abundant life.

Salvation that is based on our ability to obey rules or our “spiritualism” is no salvation at all.

I almost went to hell over a water bottle once.

I was seven at my uncle’s house. My sister and I were getting ready for bed and I had gotten a water bottle.

I didn’t want to drink the rest of it or deal with it, so I lied.

“What a dumb thing to go to hell over.”

That one comment shaped how I viewed my relationship with God until I heard the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Many people approach Jesus with this Tom and Jerry kind of understanding,

When you’re a good person and do good things, you go to heaven.

When you’re a bad person/do bad things, you go to hell.

This type of ideology is not found in the Scriptures.

What this thought process does is makes us guess what the standard is.

How good do I have to be?

“Well, I’m not saint, but I’m better than that guy.”

The issue is that you’re trying to hit that standard set by religious people, but you’re never going to be “good enough.”

The Bible straight tells us that there are no good people.

Gospel presentation

The Bible talks about how we were dead in our sins

We were disobedient to God and could not make it up to Him.

There is no way possible we could ever meet the standard.

The Jesus of the Bible did not come to save good people.

The Jesus of the Bible came to save sinners.

That good news of the gospel is not our obedience to God, but His faithfulness to us.

God promised that He was going to redeem us back to Himself

He sent His Son, Jesus

Lived perfectly according to the standard.

Lived holy according to God.

Jesus willingly went to the cross to die for our sins.

He laid down His life on the cross so that you can be forgiven of your sins.

How does that work?

Jesus took your sins and gave you His righteousness.

His blood cleanses us from our sins.

Now, when we trust in Jesus alone for salvation, we are made right with God.

He took our condemnation and our punishment, so that we could have the blessing of a relationship with God again!

It’s not through our righteousness that we will stand accepted by God or how good we are.

Church,

We are accepted in Christ.

When you put your faith in Jesus, you are forgiven and accepted by God.

When God raised Jesus from the dead, He showed that we have eternal life in Jesus.

Paul called the Christians to remember this reality.

Don’t forget what Jesus did!

Don’t be judged by legalists/don’t be disqualified by mystics!

Neither of them point to the gospel!

We get to walk in freedom in Christ because of what Jesus did on the cross!

If you’re not a Christian, this could be your story!

Stop trying to earn your salvation!

You can be accepted just because of what Jesus did on the cross.

We don’t have to try to be good enough!

Trust in Jesus’s sacrifice for your sins and turn away from them!

You can have a new life in Christ!

Jesus never ignored sin.

He said, “I love you, and we’ll get to that.”

“I forgive you, now go and sin no more.”

You are approved by God through believing that Jesus actually loves you, not some future version of you when you get yourself together.

This type of freedom leads us into worship!

Not through rituals/regulations but because we get to experiece a real relationship with God through Jesus.

We get to live with Jesus at the center of our worship because He has given us a new life!

This is why Paul reminds them that they have new lives now.

Colossians 2:20–23 ESV

20 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— 21 “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” 22 (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? 23 These have indeed an appearance 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.

These rules that they were trying to follow was abstinence, separation, and purity.

These things have an outward appearance of religion, but it doesn’t stop the sin.

When we try to simply live better lives but don’t truly enjoy Jesus, we miss the gospel.

Self-righteousness/self-made religion does not help us to stop sinning.

Pet Vulture/rabbit

They always go to their nature.

We need to be washed in Jesus’s blood and given a new nature.

There are no second chances to get the law right.

There’s “the blood of Jesus washes away my sins” and “from now on.”

Don’t regress back into the old way of thinking.

Jesus died for our sins! We don’t owe anything anymore!

When we say that He died for all our sins, He died for all of them!

Now we get to enjoy the freedom and security we have in the blood of Jesus.

We get to stand up, take a deep breath, and walk toward Jesus because He has set us free and has given us a new life.

Our new lives have this continual realization of the grace of Christ.

We live in Christ’s freedom

When we realize the depth of God’s love and grace toward us, we will experience a freedom that overflows in worship.

This comes from knowing just how bad our sins are.

There’s nothing we can do to rescue ourselves from our sin.

It was so bad that it took the death of the Son of God to redeem us.

But in His blood, we have a new life.

I get to walk free from any guilt and shame that the devil may bring.

I get to walk in joy because Jesus has called me His friend.

I get to celebrate the cross of Jesus Christ that has rescued me from hell.

There’s nothing else that could do this.

When we have Jesus at the center of our worship, we get to live freely from the rules and regulations that religion tries to put on us.

Take the Next Step

Seek freedom (in Jesus) by following Jesus

Stop believing “I can’t come to Jesus because I can’t live up to His rules.”

Jesus has called you to freedom from sin by believing in Him and following Him.

Not perfectly, but progressively.

Invite someone to freedom.