Untitled Sermon (33)

I love being a follower of Jesus. Yes, it can be difficult, yes, there are times when I do not understand why the Bible says something or why God has called us to live a certain way and even times when I am uncomfortable, or wish the Bible said something different. But there is something that really makes me mad, and when we think about the implications of it, it should make us all mad, and some of you have been hurt by this in some way. The thing that makes me angry is when people use faith based, or Christian language to control people, to make people ultimately believe Jesus is not enough and they need something more. Today we continue our series… and in Colossians 2:16-23 we will see Paul warning believers that people want to control them, and will do so using spiritual language showing them what they think true spirituality looks like, while Paul is correcting this and saying we need to hold to the actual Truth. My hope this morning is that we are encouraged and strengthened to be a church that is not easily captivated by righteousness that comes from anything or anyone else other than Christ. Let’s pray and we will dive in. 

Before we dive into the meat of the text, I want to look at the very beginning of what we are reading. Therefore let no one pass judgment on you. This will color what we talk about this morning. There are people who want to lord over you as your judge for what you do and do it from a false sense of authority, and if we are not careful, this can seen convincing. I want to make sure we understand this because we just the word “judge” a little differently. When we say judge we typically mean, at its root, to come to a conclusion. Now in our culture it is an unfair, negative, and demeaning conclusion. It is why we say things like, “don’t judge me.” Like I enjoy something that is seen as strange, or I have a personal practice that some might think is foolish, but do not judge, be nice to me and accept me and even praise me for being authentic. But in this context, this is about people putting themselves as a spiritual authority and condemning others for their lack of righteousness. It is more of a ruling and authoritative place rather than a social idea. So it boils down to if they can make you feel inferior, or reliant on these things, then you will subject yourself to them and their teaching because without them you will not be qualified for salvation. 

And this works itself out by these people trying to judge using methods that convince people they are not righteous simply because of Christ but that they need to do something more. And if you do not follow what they say, then you are not actually saved. The first way they try to control God’s people is through legalistic rituals. These are practices that supposedly show and prove how holy you are. Let’s begin with verse 16… we already briefly touched on the first phrase, so now we begin to get the explanation. Paul is specifically referring to food and drink, or diet, and festivals. There is a clear Jewish flair to this because it is referring to some dietary laws as well as the Sabbath. As a reminder, Colossians is written primarily to a non-Jewish church. The overall message is that you must become Jewish, you must do these certain things, in order to then follow Christ. The mention of food and drink tells us that they were hearing that they must adopt the dietary laws of the Old Covenant in order to actually be a follower of God. 

Jesus Himself actually declares the dietary laws as fulfilled and no longer binding on God’s people. This happens in Mark 7:18-20 18 And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, 19 since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 20 And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him…” And the second is in reference to ritual days. This could be the feasts, celebrations, and Sabbaths that are all laid out in the Old Testament. And because these are all, as Hebrews calls them, as shadow, or a picture of Christ to come that He will completely fulfill. But the idea, the problem, is that these false teachers are using this to control these people. Here is what you need to do in order to be righteous, and if you do not do these things you are do not actually belong to God. You need me to show you the way. 

How do we see today? We do not necessarily experience Judaizers today but we do see this. So we will do this in each of the sections this morning but I want to look at how we see this in the non-Christian culture at large, and how we see it inside Christian culture. In non-Christian culture do we see people say you must follow these rituals that I will tell you how to follow and because I do them and know them I am morally superior? Absolutely. This is where you see cancel culture come into play. You do not look and act the correct certain way, not only will you be looked down on but you will be cut off. Want to prove you are a moral and empathetic person? Post the right things with the right hash tags, then people will think you are moral and sign off on you. It is all about external appearance and jumping through the right hoops in order to be accepted and thought well of by the culture in charge, whatever that means. 

But I want to focus a bit more on the church. This is actually something many of you have experienced and we see in certain traditions. Now of course there are examples that are not even presented Scripture but some people turn into holy laws that must be followed to prove you are a Christian. Examples are dress code, using the right translation, or worship style. And, as we will see with all 3 of our warnings this morning, there is an element of good things that honor can honor God. But we must not take non-primary issues and make them primary. Examples are liturgy and church attendance. 

I am going to repeat this in each section: the Gospel brings us to true unity around the person and work of Jesus Christ alone as the One who can save us and make us right before the holy God, it is not about uniformity and making us all look, talk, act, and behave the exact same. 

The second type of legalism that is being used to control is legalistic mysticism. The idea here is a special relationship or experience with the divine. Let’s read verses 18-19… so we get a similar phrase, let no one disqualify you, as we did to begin our passage. This is language that indicates that the false teachers using this method were being deceptive. Now this is not the Judaizers most likely but other groups of false teachers, again going back to the idea of gnosticism that we have talked about in recent weeks. They have this secret, this higher knowledge that you now need. Jesus is not enough. The Scriptures are not enough. There is more to unlock and these teachers have it. And if you do not follow their prescription, their tactic is to convince you that you are not actually spiritually attuned, you are not a godly person. 

Paul shows three things that these people are pushing that are evidence that they are false teachers. The first is the worship of angels. They had this false humility. If you think you are important enough to talk to God then that is pride, so you are disqualified on behalf of that. Instead, you should go through, what might be described as the spiritual hierarchy, and then through that humble attitude, like we have, then God may hear your requests. While our Catholic friends do not say they worship angels, saints, or Mary, there is a similar idea. That there is something humbling about going to someone else who is closer to God than you and asking them to pray on your behalf. If anybody is telling you to pray to anybody other than the triune God, then ignore them. Praying to an angel does nothing. Praying to Mary does nothing. 

Secondly, they go on about their visions. Like we have this secret knowledge that you do not know about and cannot find in Scripture because we were shown it in a vision. Let me tell you about my vision. And then they place themselves as the authority who can disqualify you because God, or some spirit, is talking directly to them because they are special. There are obvious examples of people being enticed by someone claiming to have a vision from God. The entirety of Mormonism is rooted in that, we have people using things like crystals and tarot cards to gain special knowledge. But when we look in the church we see this as well. God told me this, so who are you to challenge it? Psalm 105:15 and 1 Chronicles 15:22 “Touch not my anointed ones, do my prophets no harm!” If there is a person who positions themselves as an apostle or prophet of God, this is often a verse thrown to keep criticism from themselves. They are the Lord’s anointed, who are you to challenge them? You must submit! And people can be enticed because we have this desire to be close to special and powerful people. And if someone is an anointed one of God, so they claim, that can be a draw. If you ever wonder how some of these people, who will have severe scandals, public scandals, and have podcasts made about their scandals, how they continue to have a platform it is because their prophetic words and seemingly anointed selves can convince people that they are simply being attacked by Satan, and success = God is still being honored by this person. 

Which brings us to the third trait, which I have mentioned they fake humility but Paul says they are puffed up without reason. These false teaches fake humility that deceives people and controls them, but when we use discernment we actually can see that their number one concern is for themselves. I was having a conversation this week with someone and Benny Hinn came up. There is a great book called “God Greed and the Prosperity Gospel” that is helpful here. Heretics like Benny claim to be humble servants but when you look at their lives and their teachings, it is actually clear that it is fake humility and instead they are puffing themselves up. I also think a way we see this in today’s christian culture is that true worship is emotional, or that we are only close to God when we have that special feeling of being close to God.

Because ultimately these spiritual practices that seem enticing, the problem with them, and the ultimate test for them that they will fail, is what they are ultimately holding on to. Verse 19… they are not holding fast to the Head, Jesus Christ. Their ultimate hope is not in the power of Christ to save. This section is about mysticism. There is something mystical about faith. We are desiring to become closer to the creator God, who is spirit. But when we find people going outside of Scripture to do it, going outside of the Gospel, going away from Christ and His work on the cross and resurrection and ascension, then we are actually being controlled, or to use previous language from a couple weeks ago, we are being held captive by those who seek to control instead of lead us to Christ. Without holding to the Head we will end up spiritually malnourished, laying on the ground dying of thirst. But Jesus, as He tells the woman at the well, has water that will make us never thirst. 

I told you all I am going to repeat this in each section: the Gospel brings us to true unity around the person and work of Jesus Christ alone as the One who can save us and make us right before the holy God, there is no secret way to get to Him through saints, Mary, or self proclaimed anointed prophets who get visions from God. 

Alright, one more. This third final way these false teachers tried to control people is through legalistic asceticism. So that is a word we do not often use so let’s quickly define it. It is disciplines and often times denials that are intended to make us more spiritual and draw us closer to the divine. With that in mind let’s read 20-23… The final way there is an attempt at controlling them is in this idea of self denial and these self disciplines that seem special. Now Paul here begins by reminding the church of an important Truth, we have died with Christ. In this case Paul is connecting that specifically to dying to the elemental spirits of the world. 

There is a fascinating passage back in Deuteronomy 32:8 where God says that part of the judgment for the tower of Babel is God gave the nations over to these demonic spiritual beings to be their god, so to speak, and then He chose Israel to be His and how He would bring salvation to the world. This is actually a primary way God hands out justice, by giving people over to the evil they want. Romans 1:24-28, “24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. 28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.” 

Now who is Paul writing to? Not Israel but what would be considered the nations. They have been freed from that bondage. They have been freed from this evil because they have died with Christ. And because they have died with Christ, Paul asks a question, why are you acting like you are still alive to those spirits? It is actually a funny question. It reminds me of this meme from SpongeBob (I bet you did not see that reference coming) where Patrick is talking to some bad guy and the bad guy picks up Patricks wallet… so in this case Paul is going, so these demonic beings demand this kind of behavior, yes, and you are doing this behavior, yes, so are you following after them? And they would say, “no I’m a Christian!” Paul is saying to stop pretending in either direction. If you truly are a disciple of Christ, then do not submit to these false teachings that seem spiritual but in fact are draining your soul. 

Do we see this today? We see it in the work force, I care more because I work more hours. People shame people for their diet. But we see this in the church as well. Now I want to be careful because having spiritual disciplines is a good thing. A book I often recommend and have used many times is Disciplines of a Godly Man by Kent Hughes. But what Paul is referring to is using disinclines to prove how spiritual a person is, thus claiming authority over others because of it. I was in a conversation with a couple friends once where one person was arguing that naps are actually lazy and basically sinful, they dishonor God by wasting time He has given us. So he said something to the effect of “I do not take naps because I want to use that time to do God’s work.” And the other guy was arguing that naps are not lazy and he said, “yes, I do too, after my nap.” I think that line pointed out the absurdity in the argument in the first guy. Our disciplines are not earning the favor of God or proving holiness. When disciplines are in their right place, then they are a tool to use to be close to the Lord but when we are just denying ourselves to deny ourselves and prove and earn righteousness, then we are actually on the fast track to burnout. 

I think one of the most devious ways this plays out in church is the demand churches make on volunteers. Yes, we all need to serve and play a role in the Kingdom work. However, if this comes at the expense of all family time, of all rest, then that will lead to burnout and will hurt the person and the family. Like could you technically do more? Probably. Just give up time with your kids. Give up rest. Or we can put even serving in its proper place, realizing that we are not proving holiness but giving our time sacrificially while also knowing our own boundaries. 

And one final time, I told you all I am going to repeat this in each section: the Gospel brings us to true unity around the person and work of Jesus Christ alone as the One who can save us and make us right before the holy God, there is no way to earn righteousness by denying ourselves pleasures that God has given us to enjoy or by burning out. Our righteousness has been given to us by Jesus alone, which actually has the power to spur us to service for His Kingdom. 

Let’s pray.