Freedom
Letters from Prison • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Freedom. It’s a word we use often in this country. That word causes different emotions within us, depending on where we are from and what our experiences have been. As I get older, I’ve thought about this idea that being a Christian is to live a restrained lifestyle. It is viewed as a prison by some. All these rules and parameters. Do this, don’t do that. And yet...the older I get, the more I see the truth of it. Following Jesus is true freedom.
This is exactly what Paul is trying to convey to the new church in Colossae. If you’ll recall from a couple weeks ago, we are looking at the letter to the Colossians that Paul would have sent during his time under house arrest in Rome. Word has gotten to him that there are some false teachings going on in this new church, and he is writing to address some of those. In the beginning of the letter, he lays out the most important thing that they then, and we now, must never forget. Jesus is the messiah, the Christ, the anointed one. And He is supreme in all creation. He was not and is not simply a man, but as Paul puts it, Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God. Through Him God created all things, and God in all His fullness lived in Christ.
So now we look at chapter 2.
1 I want you to know how much I have agonized for you and for the church at Laodicea, and for many other believers who have never met me personally. 2 I want them to be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love. I want them to have complete confidence that they understand God’s mysterious plan, which is Christ himself.
3 In him lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 4 I am telling you this so no one will deceive you with well-crafted arguments. 5 For though I am far away from you, my heart is with you. And I rejoice that you are living as you should and that your faith in Christ is strong.
Let’s stop for a moment. I want you to ask yourself a question before we move on. Do you want Jesus to conform to you, or do you want to conform to Jesus? Because this is the battle in the church. This is why denominations split.
Our world tells us that we can find the truth inside ourselves. When scripture and the words of Christ are clear, we find the truth outside of ourselves. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. In him lie all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. In the words that are recorded. In his actions. But if we we want the Bible, Jesus, to conform to us, it is so easy to be deceived. There are many well crafted arguments that seem to carry weight, and yet lead to foolishness. And we can fall into the trap of looking for our view to be confirmed, and not be transformed by scripture.
6 And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. 7 Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.
There is a line. Just like our timeline, we have BC and AD. Before Christ and Anno Domini, or the year of our lord.
Paul is talking to a group of people that have begun to follow Jesus already. They have been convinced. And now there are those teaching them false things. This is a message we all need. Let our roots grow into Him.
8 Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ.
Don’t miss what he is saying right here. Because it’s the same thing we are dealing with today. There are philosphies and high-sounding nonsense. It sounds good. It makes sense. Maybe even makes us feel good. But where is it coming from. Human thinking AND spiritual powers of this world. If it contradicts the bible, if it goes against the words and actions of Jesus. It is anti-christ. We chase after all kinds of things as if Jesus isn’t enough. But see how he goes on to compare Jesus with those powers.
9 For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. 10 So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.
11 When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature. 12 For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead.
13 You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. 14 He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. 15 In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.
He’s taking what they know about the Jewish custom of circumcision and saying that the baptism covers that. When that happened, they were no longer beholden to the spiritual rulers and authorities. We are victorious over them because we have been laid in the grave and resurrected in this baptism. Now see what he says here.
16 So don’t let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink, or for not celebrating certain holy days or new moon ceremonies or Sabbaths. 17 For these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come. And Christ himself is that reality.
This church in this context has all kinds of belief systems around it. There’s Jewish legalism, greek philosophy, and early gnostic ideas. Let’s look at where we find ourselves today.
We still have legalism, imposing rigid rules beyond Scripture, and progressivism, often prioritizing cultural trends over biblical truth. We face secular humanism, promoting self-reliance and worldly wisdom, and New Age spirituality, blending mysticism with personal enlightenment. Everyone in here leans toward one of these, including me. And we often condemn one another. But the point isn’t that everyone is right...it’s that every one of those standpoints is wrong.
Christ is the holder of truth. Our journey is to conform to Him. To reflect Him.
But people want you to do it their way. If I am legalistic, everyone should be legalistic. If I am “progressive” everyone should be progressive. Paul is telling us that when our focus is on those things, we are missing Christ.
18 Don’t let anyone condemn you by insisting on pious self-denial or the worship of angels, saying they have had visions about these things. Their sinful minds have made them proud, 19 and they are not connected to Christ, the head of the body. For he holds the whole body together with its joints and ligaments, and it grows as God nourishes it.
Imagine for a moment I stood up here and said “Gabriel came to me in a dream, and he shared new information about heaven with me.” And I put a statue of Gabriel up in this church. And I tell you that one of the things that will seperate us from the world is that we don’t eat pizza. That’s the kind of thing they were dealing with. People coming in a claiming to have new truth that is just wrong and comes from their own pride.
Silly example, but now it’s about me and what I have seen. It’s about how wonderful we are and what seperates us. We are now putting angels in a place they shouldn’t be, and I become the head, seperated from God. But people like Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon...that is exactly the kind of thing Paul is talking about here.
20 You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world. So why do you keep on following the rules of the world, such as, 21 “Don’t handle! Don’t taste! Don’t touch!”? 22 Such rules are mere human teachings about things that deteriorate as we use them.
23 These rules may seem wise because they require strong devotion, pious self-denial, and severe bodily discipline. But they provide no help in conquering a person’s evil desires.
Let’s take a moment to unpack that.
From the top. Christ is supreme above all. You have accepted Christ and you have been given new life through Him. Your sins are forgiven by and through Him in His death and resurrection.
And yet you live as you did before. You are swayed. You are following a path that leads away from Jesus. And you are still trying to do it under your own power and wisdom.
Every worldview comes with expectations. Celebrate certain things. Condemn other things. Don’t do this. Do that. But what is it like to be free?
To be free from legalism. To be free from progressivism and agnosticism and humanism. In all of that we still face captivity. We are captive to humanity. Captive to the spiritual powers of this world.
To be free is to not be beholden to something. Here’s something I think we can all agree on. Smoking is not healthy. Nobody wants to be a smoker. But when you are trying to quit there’s still chains. There’s a difference between trying not to smoke, and not even wanting to. It’s the desire.
That’s what following Jesus is about. It’s about giving even the desire to Christ. Experiencing true freedom. That’s the hope and promise of life in Christ.
The great irony is that often we feel overwhelmed by guilt when we come to Christ, and that is because we are fully aware of the way in which we are unalighed with Christ. It’s like when you’re a kid and you don’t care what’s in your food, and then you finally start looking at the ingredients. Wow there’s a lot of bad stuff. But what happens over time? You actually start feeling better. There’s some stuff that’s really hard to stop, but there’s this noticable shift. And then, you start craving the good stuff.
Over time, we start craving God’s will. And just like eating better food, we won’t feel like it’s a prison, we actually feel free from all the garbage we had before.
That’s the freedom we have in Christ. Over time, He changes our nature. Our desire itself.
If you’re struggling today with desire and temptation, be encouraged. You struggle because you are paying attention. Because you desire God’s will. If you are being swayed by things other that Jesus, take a step back and ask the Holy Spirit if you are conforming to Jesus, or if you need Him to be conformed to you.
We all have our own things we need to work on giving to the Lord. Let’s invite Him to work within us.
