Shadows and Substance

One thing that we can sometimes forget when it comes to the Bible is that it is a book from history. I don’t mean that it is just an old book written thousands of years ago but what I mean is that the contents of this book takes place in history. The authors of Scripture are writing to real people in real places and they are writing often in response to real events that are happening. So much of Paul’s letters are Paul writing to a church or an individual to answer questions or address concerns in regards to things that are happening. The Bible was not written to address purely hypothetical situations. The Bible addresses real people in real time at real places. That’s what we see Paul doing for the church in Colossae. There were things that were happening in Colossae that Paul felt had to be addressed. There was false teaching and false teachers that were starting to make their ways into the church and Paul knew that those teachings needed to be corrected. He knew that the church had to be warned about the dangers of those things. But here is the beauty of having the Holy Spirit being the author of Scripture: Everything that Paul addressed in the 1st century continues to be relevant to us. The Bible has never stopped being relevant. It’s as relevant today as the day it was written. I have taught verse by verse through books of the Bible with teenagers for 10 years and not everyone has liked that. I’ve had previous pastors challenge me on it and parents challenge me on it because they think that they could get more out of some other form of teaching. I’ve heard, “How are you going to make this relevant for kids? How are you going to make a book like Exodus relevant for teenagers?” My answer quickly turned to: I can’t make it what it already is. What we are going to see tonight is Paul addressing a number of different false teachings that were impacting the Colossians and we’re gonna be able to see that what they were getting caught up in really is not much different than the false teaching that we see in churches today. Let’s pray and then we will read Colossians 2:13-23

Colossians 2:13–23 NASB95

When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him. Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day— things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God. If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!” (which all refer to things destined to perish with use)—in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.

The Good News

What I want to do quickly is look at verses 13-15. Those 3 verses are the assurance for what Paul says in verses 16-23. Verses 13-15 is Paul’s argument as to why the false teachings that we read about in the rest of the verses have no claim on us and we shouldn’t even associate with those that teach such things. What does Paul say in these first 3 verses that we read then? Well he reminds the Colossians first of their standing before God prior to their salvation. He said that they were dead in their transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh. Before we come to Christ, you are not dying to sin, you are totally dead in sin. You heard me say that last month when we looked at Colossians 1. No the unconverted man or woman is as dead spiritually as one could possibly be and that is why we need Christ to raise us to life spiritually. That is why God must always be the One that moves towards us first because we have no life or motivation to move towards Him. We are totally attached to our sin nature and unless Christ first deals with that sin nature, we will never be able to do it ourselves. So we see the negative in those first few words but then Paul gives us the great contrast. We were dead in our sins but God makes us alive together with Christ. Not only that He completely forgives us all our transgressions. Jesus doesn’t just forgive you of some sin, He forgives you of all sin. I think that even here we need to stop and address something that I have heard from different people and even from different denominations or churches. I’m sure that some of you guys have heard people say that Jesus absolutely saves you from your sins but there is a chance that if you sin really badly before you die that you won’t actually go to Heaven. My Nana grew up hearing that and my Nana is a strong Christian. But growing up she heard that she can have faith, live a great life, but if she has one bad thought about Jesus on her death bed that it’s all over. What a fearful way to look at faith. What a fearful way to look at forgiveness. Is that what Paul teaches in these verses? Is that the testimony of Scripture? No, Paul says that Christ has forgiven us ALL our transgressions. That means that His forgiveness covers every sin that we made before we came to faith and it is sufficient to cover every sin that we commit after we come to faith. In verse 14, Paul stresses all the more what Christ has done for us by saying, “Having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.” We have sinned horribly against the Lord. The debt that we owe is something that we cannot pay but notice that Jesus has completely cancelled the debt that we owe, He has taken it completely out of the way and nailed our debt to the cross. If we have no debt, If Jesus has taken the debt and paid it in full, we cannot be charged for something that has already been paid for! The record of our wrongs has been done away with! I remember hearing David Platt tell a story years ago that has really captured just how powerful this is. Platt told a story about a business man that bought a Rolls Royce. If you aren’t sure what that is, it’s a really expensive car. It’s a several hundred thousand dollars car. The Rolls Royce that the business man bought was advertised as the car that would never break down. One day he’s out driving it and it just so happens to break down. He calls up the Rolls Royce dealership and tells them what happened and Rolls Royce sends a mechanic out to the man by a helicopter. He fixes the car and the man goes on his way and he thinks to himself, “That’s not gonna be cheap.” A few weeks go by and he didn’t get a bill so he calls Rolls Royce again and says, “I’d like to get this whole thing behind me and pay the bill for my broken down car.” The Rolls Royce worker says, “Sir, I’m sorry. But we have absolutely no record of anything having ever gone wrong with your car.” That’s what God does with our debt. Because of Jesus Christ, God looks at every single Christian and says, “I have no record of any wrong happening in your life.” David Platt says, “For all who turn from themselves and their sin to trust in Christ as savior and king, the God of the universe looks at your life and says, “I have absolutely no record of anything ever having gone wrong in your life.” In fact, because we are clothed in Christ, he says the exact opposite: “I have a record of everything having gone right in your life.” We have a scandalously merciful Savior.” Because all of this has happened, because Christ through His public death on the cross and resurrection, He has triumphed over and disarmed all the rulers and authorities of this world. This means that Jesus Christ has the final say and absolute authority over all things. He is sovereign over all nations and all people groups. He is sovereign over Heaven above and Hell below. Because Christ sets the Christian free, they do not have to be enslaved to the false teachings and teachers that the world offers.

3 Aspects of False Teachings

So what are the false teachings that Paul talks about in these verses? There are 3 main ones that we will talk about that we see in verses 16-23 and we will see what the dangers are in all of them. We don’t have time to reread all of these verses so I would encourage you to just have your Bibles open to try and follow along. The first false teaching that Paul warns about in verses 16-17 is something called legalism. Paul says that no one is to act as a judge in regard to food or drinks or days of worship and what he means by that is that Christians are not to treat man made rules as Gospel centered truths or commands. Really what Paul is warning against is a faith + works model of salvation. This model says that Christ does have the work of salvation and your works do the other half and when you put those together, you get a completely saved person. But we are not saved by works, we aren’t saved by the law, we are saved by grace. Paul says in Galatians 5:1 “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.” In Colossae, the false teachers wanted the church to put itself under the burden of man made laws and requirements. They were saying that in order to be a real Christian, not only did you need to submit to Christ but you also had to keep certain Jewish traditions in order to be a real Christian. We are not required to have certain religious festivals that the Jews would follow because these things were a shadow of what was to come in Jesus. John MacArthur says, “Paul’s point is simple: true spirituality does not consist merely of keeping external rules, but of having an inner relationship with Jesus Christ.” The second false teaching that Paul warns about is something called mysticism. This can be seen in Colossians 2:18–19 and we will read that again: “Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God.” In this mysticism, we see the gnosticism that was starting to grow around and in the church. Paul is warning about this greater stress on spiritual things and not in a good way. These false teachers were advocating for worshipping angels which was a common practice at the time. They believed that the marks of true spirituality came from visions and hidden knowledge that would be revealed. Understand though that even if someone claims to have a vision and they claim to be a Christian, that doesn’t mean that it’s true or that we should even take it into consideration. In Deuteronomy 13:1–3 the Lord says to the people of Israel, “If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods (whom you have not known) and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for the Lord your God is testing you to find out if you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.” The Lord is saying, “Even if you see miracles or hear of signs or visions, that is not a sure sign that they are telling the truth or that I have sent them.” Everything that we need to truly know the Lord comes from the Bible. If there was something that you really needed to know in order to be saved, God would have put it in His Word. We’ll talk a bit more about what this looks like today in a couple minutes. The third false teaching that Paul addresses is what is known as asceticism. We see this in verses 20-23. Paul addresses the “commands” of “do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!” What asceticism or an ascetic is is someone that lives in a state of constant self denial because they think that makes them more spiritual. Or that it makes them a real Christian in comparison to everyone else. The false teachers in Colossae were saying that if they wanted to be closer to God, all they had to do was push themselves a little lower, to deny themselves a little bit more but that isn’t what makes a Christian a Christian. A lot of Ascetics try to show themselves off as some great spiritual person when really what they are doing is taking eyes from God and trying to place the focus on themselves. These people really want attention. Jesus warned against this in Matthew 6:16-18

Matthew 6:16–18 NASB95

“Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. “But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

The pharisees were often guilty of asceticism. There isn’t anything wrong with giving things up for Christ. We will ultimately need to give things up for Christ. But we don’t do it in an attempt to look spiritual, we do it as an act of service. Missionaries give up quite a bit to take the Gospel to the world but they hopefully don’t do it to give themselves the glory or to portray themselves as these great spiritual giants. When it comes to the content that we take in, we need to ask the question: Is this religious or is it Christian? To be a Christian is to be religious but being religious does not make a Christian.

How to Stand Against False Teachings

So with the couple minutes that we have left, what do we do with false teachings? Before even we get to that, where do we see these exact sort of teachings today in the 21st century? I sort have mentioned a couple of times how legalism finds its way into the church. Any place you see a church that says you have to do x in order to be saved, you will find a legalistic church. Now we absolutely need to come in faith to be saved. That’s the command of Scripture. We also need to repent of sins but what we don’t need to do is work for our salvation. We are to work out our salvation, not work for our salvation. That’s what Paul says in Philippians 2:12. Our salvation is not by our works but our salvation will be seen through our works. What about mysticism? Now I could go on a righteous rant about this because this really bothers me. Look at something like the prosperity Gospel. Look at these “pastors” that say, “God gave me this vision that it is in God’s will for you to be healed of this cancer. Or it is God’s will for you to be healthy and wealthy.” That is such a false gospel that has condemned an unheard of number of people. Satan has used the prosperity gospel to his advantage and it is largely because it sounds like the truth but it isn’t the real Gospel. One of the clear signs of this is that the prosperity Gospel, while it references Christ, doesn’t allow Christ to be the center of attention. Instead, who is? It’s largely you isn’t it? God wants YOU to be happy! God wants YOU to be rich! God wants YOU to give so that YOU will get back. Mysticism uses words from Christianity but Christ never seems to be the focus. Look at something like all of these books and movies about people that go to Heaven and come back. If you’ve ever read or watched any of these things, have you noticed what the focal point is? It’s always external things. Movies and books like Heaven is For Real, 90 Minutes in Heaven, What I Saw in Heaven, The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven, My Journey to Heaven, Flight to Heaven, To Heaven and Back, and 9 Days in Heaven. The most popular one Heaven is For Real, this 4 year old boy claims to have gone to Heaven where he sat on Jesus’ lap and angels came and sang to him. He claims to have gotten wings and a halo but he didn’t like them. He claims that the Holy Spirit is the color blue. Do you know what we should notice in all of what these books claim? That the things which they note is not the glory and excellency of Jesus Christ. Heaven is all about God’s glory. The authors of these books focus more on external wants and images that tickle the brain but they don’t have Christ at the center. One thing too that we need to be careful with is these so called religious revivals that spring up from time to time. A couple years ago there was a “revival” at Asbury University in Kentucky. For 3 weeks thousands of people came to Asbury but do you know what was absent at this revival? Preaching the Word of God. Something else that seems to be a “Mystic go to” is an over emphasis on the Holy Spirit. People have the tendency to want to call on a greater manifestation of the Holy Spirit or a giving of spiritual gifts but they miss that the role of the Holy Spirit is not to point people to Himself, it’s to point people to Christ. Jesus says in John 15:26, “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me.” So you see all of this desire for spiritual gifts, these visions and angelic visits, they really point away from Christ and towards one’s self. Lastly, when we look at asceticism today, we see plenty of teachers that are willing to say, that we can’t have anything or do anything fun if we want to be followers of Christ. There is a huge difference between Godly denial and self righteous denial. We freely give as an act of service to God, not as a tool of earning His approval or salvation and we certainly don’t do it to bring attention to ourselves. Everything that we do must be done to the glory of God. Now how do we battle these temptations? How can we make sure that what is spoken of is really what God has said? Look to the Book yourself. When it comes to studying the Bible, the worst question that you can ask in a Bible study is, “What do you think?” Who cares what you think? You didn’t write it and you weren’t there when it was written. What matters is what does Matthew, Mark, Luke and John think. What did Paul think when he wrote it? What did David or Moses or Isaiah mean? There is only 1 interpretation of Scripture and that is God’s interpretation. There is 1 interpretation but there are loads of application. Don’t get application confused with interpretation. Don’t follow teachers that make you the star in redemptive history. Study the Word. Take every thing that you have heard and see how it lines up with Scripture. God is His own interpreter and He will make it plain. We want you to be great students of Scripture. We want you to be faithful disciples. If there is anything that we as leaders can do to help you with that, please do not leave here tonight without letting us know. Let’s pray and then we’ll head to small groups.