The Final Word
Notes
Transcript
It is good to “be back in the saddle” this morning. I’ll be honest, I was grateful for a break, but over the past couple weeks I have genuinely missed opening the Word of God and preaching to you. However, I’m grateful for what & who we got to hear from. I wanted to say thank you for your generosity the past few weeks to our missionaries. We were able to give about $5k to support them and their ministries. Praise God for that! Thank you for your giving. In the coming weeks we’ll have some more updates on missions giving for 2026. Crazy to think that we’re already starting to plan that far ahead.
Also this morning before we jump into Colossians, I wanted to give you a bit of an update on what the next couple of months will look like. As many of you know, I am now in the thick of watermelon harvest. We are cranking in multiple locations and I’d greatly appreciate your prayers for the Lord’s provision. Because of that I’ll be preaching much less often. Will is going to take on as much as he can, but we’ll continue to have some guest preachers over the next few weeks. This year we’re going to try something a little different—they won’t continue walking us through Colossians. Not trying to be selfish, but that is something I wanted to lead us through together. Typically I love the consistency of walking through a book, but hopefully a little variety will spice things up and keep you on your toes each week.
Now with that all being said, if you have your Bibles, and I hope you do, please open them to the book of Colossians 2. Our focus this morning is going to be verses 16-23, but I want to go ahead and back all the way up to verse 8 to give us a little bit of a running start. Remember, we’re now fully in the second half of the book. Paul began by giving us some really rich, and beautiful theology and now he is taking that theology and applying it specifically to this church at Colossae. V8 shows us the overarching problem that the church faced, and v16-23 are really an expansion or explanation of what specifically is happening. So Will preached on v8-15 which setup what we’re really going to look at today. You can go back and listen to his sermon on our podcasts if you missed it, but hopefully just reading the text will bring some things back to memory. Let’s read Col. 2:8-23, pray, and then dive into our text.
See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
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. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. 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.
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? 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.
This is God’s Word. Thanks be to God. Let’s pray.
A couple nights ago we turned on the movie Mighty Ducks 2. Anybody remember that movie? One of the good ones. If you remember in that movie Coach Bombay was called up to coach the US Jr olympic hockey team. He get’s half of his old squad from the first movie plus a few new kids and begins to form the team. Things start off great till the face the daunting Icelanders who absolutely destroy them. All the sudden pressure begins to mount on Coach Bombay so he turns the pressure up on his kids. Now instead of just playing the game for the love of the game he starts to be harsh with them. He begins to add levels to their workouts. He begins to belittle them and make them feel less than so that in the end the kids are all ready to quit—at least quit him. But finally, after a little soul searching and ultimately a return to playing a little “backyard” hockey, he remembers his first love. He realizes that in order for these kids to have a chance to win they’d have to play together, and play for the reason they play at all—they love it. And as they returned to that love, they found they were free to play.
While the context is not the same, I do think Paul’s message is actually not to dissimilar. You see what these verses show us is the heart of the reason Paul wrote this letter. We see here that there were threats from within and without that called for the church at Colossae to do more in order to really experience and know the God who created them. If they were to grow in spirituality, or holiness, or even to experience all that life has to offer, then there were certain things that they must do, or not do, in order to get there, but what Paul tells them today is that growth isn’t found in adding things to their faith. Growth is found only in Christ. Adding to things to their faith isn’t going to bring them some sort of spiritual fulfillment, rather, they must return to their first love; they must hold fast to what brought them life in the first place. As Martin Luther once said, “To grow in Christ is to begin again.” Growth is found only in Christ. That’s Paul’s main point of these verses and it’s our too. Paul makes that point in two different ways. First, he says the church at Colossae must beware.
Beware
Beware
Starting in Col 2:16 Paul says this:
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.
Therefore. Because of what he has just expounded on—that in Christ they are alive and that all of their trespasses and debts toward God have been cancelled and that they have victory over the rulers and authorities in Jesus. Because of that they are not to let anyone pass judgment on them in these certain areas.
The philosophy’s, deceit, and human traditions mentioned back in v8 have something to do with food & drink, holidays, & Sabbath. Now, those terms give us a little context clue as to one of the groups of people that likely was trying to influence this church. Festivals, new moons & Sabbath were all Jewish holidays. They were things commanded by God to His people. Scholars even say that the tense of these words indicate that these Jewish influences could’ve been coming from within the church itself, not just the outside Jewish community. So Paul instructs the church to beware. Beware of their judgement, and don’t let it influence you. But it doesn’t stop there. Then in Col. 2:18 he says:
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,
Of all of the verses most debated in this book Col. 2:18 takes the cake. It’s difficult to interpret and can be looked at with multiple different nuances. I don’t really know Greek, so I have to trust those studies of those who do. I believe the ESV is a faithful translation to what Paul originally intended, but still, what do these words mean? Asceticism, or translated in some other versions as false humility, is a form of self-discipline, often harmful, to try and train the body to go without. So if we look back to verse 16 where he mentions food and drink then we can see that this asceticism probably called for extreme fasting or not participating in the festivals commanded in the Old Testament.
Worship of angels is extremely difficult to interpret and there’s multiple views of what Paul intended, but I think Paul includes this and going on about visions because these are two things that Jews likely wouldn’t have been participating in. This would’ve been much more common amongst the Roman pagan worshippers of Colossae. They would’ve been arguing that the church was failing to reach the spiritual planes that were available to them through extreme asceticism. Those who were pressuring the church were going on arrogantly about what they had experienced and in doing so were telling the church that their lack of spiritual experiences were proof that they were actually disqualified from approval by God or the gods. What they were insisting on was some form of syncretism—they wanted the church to add to, or sync up their faith with these additional practices. So what does Paul warn them to do? Beware.
But like he does so often, Paul doesn’t just tell them what to beware of, he tells them why they should beware of this outside teaching. From those within the church or within Judaism who were imposing participation in or abstention from these festivals Paul reminds the church the purpose of these festivals. Why did God instruct his people to take a Sabbath? Why did he instruct them to observe certain festivals like the feast of booths or passover? Why did he have instructions about the new moon? The purpose of all of those things was to point to something greater. They called the people of God to remember the work of God, both past, present and future. It would remind them of what God had done to deliver his people in the past, but ultimately that he had a plan and was going to redeem his people for all of time. These festivals were just the shadow of the reality. They weren’t the substance.
Have you ever seen that old Peter Pan movie? The cartoon one? You remember when Peter Pan’s sneaks into Wendy & the children’s room—which is creepy in it’s own right, but that’s besides the point—to find his shadow. Nana, their dog had caught it and Wendy was keeping it safe for him. Now, can you imagine if the whole movie was built around the premise of not just chasing after that shadow, but also following it wherever it goes? It would’ve been an interesting turn of events, especially if that whole time Peter had been flying around in the background. We would’ve all been wondering why would they play with shadows when they could actually fly with Peter!
Paul is saying that these things that they’re being judged about are only shadows that point to something greater.
But it’s not just that these are a shadow, it’s that those who are insisting on these things are “puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind.” That word sensuous in our translation is the same word translated elsewhere as flesh or fleshly. What Paul is saying is that the teachings of these people are puffed up, they’re arrogant, for no reason of substance, and they’re worldly oriented.
Now here’s the folly of those two things—that they’re a shadow and arrogantly world oriented—if you look down to Col. 2:21-23 Paul gets to where these things take you. First, he quotes what the instructions from these groups would’ve included:
“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? 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.
Paul I think intentionally chose those phrases because they’re all encompassing. Do not taste obviously refers to food and drink and abstention from them. Do not handle and touch carry connotations of both ritual and sexual purity.
But there’s 3 problems with these rules. First, they’re temporary: “referring to things that all perish.” Do you remember Jesus’ instruction in Mark 7:18-19? The Pharisees had gathered with Jesus and his disciples and they began to chastise Jesus because his disciples had not properly washed their hands before they eat. In fact, listen to their accusation in Mark 7:5
And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?”
Jesus banters back and forth with them for a minute before retreating with his disciples. They asked him what he was talking about and Jesus responds in Mark 7:18-19:
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, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.)
You see that food you eat might satisfy you for a minute, but it is eventually passed. Now I’m not trying to be gross, but what Paul is actually doing is saying that the value of the teaching of these false teachers and the asceticism they insist on the the festivals they demand be observed all have the same temporary value as the food you consume. It might seem good for a few minutes but in the end you know where it’s going to end?
The second problem with this philosophy is that is carries the appearance of wisdom, but it is ultimately based on human precepts and teachings. On face value it seems to work and possibly even promote some sort of spiritual value. Moreover, the people who participate in it seem so confident—puffed up is actually the word, or arrogant. But it is ultimately self-made, and, thus, self-promoting. And in the end where does that lead them?
The third folly of these arguments is that in the end, it doesn’t give you what you need. Paul says, “It is of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.” Throughout the NT we see that giving into the flesh, indulging it, is a sinful thing. Jesus, Paul, all talk about it. In fact, Paul is going to give us a list of here to put off in the next section. So what do we do? We tend to make some sort of religion, or partake in asceticism by being severe to our body so that we stop indulging. Self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body might seem like a good thing, but in the end they’re really just enabling the indulgence of the flesh vs stopping it. Let me illustrate this…
Do you remember the show, “America’s Biggest Loser”? Full disclosure, I’ve never really watched it. So they bring on all these incredibly obese people and challenge them in front of a whole team to lose weight. They get trainers and start working out and eating right so that they stop indulging their flesh’s desire to eat. But what was giving into the flesh in regard to food and drink is now just an opportunity for their flesh to conquer other desires. Their replacing their indulgence to desire food with another to conquer that desire, but at the end of the day what is still controlling them? Food! One commentary summarizes Paul’s critique well: “Their professed object is to lift men out of the lower life, while in point of fact they only plunge them into it more deeply—concentrating all thought and effort on purely material things.”
How does this play out in our world?
Insistence on participating in things: Good Friday
Insistence on abstaining from things: Halloween, Christmas, Easter
So Paul warns the church to beware. Beware of false teaching & syncretism. Don’t let their judgment of you or disqualification of you have an affect on you. Instead, you must hold fast to Christ. That’s our second point.
Hold fast to Christ
Hold fast to Christ
Paul doesn’t just leave the church with warnings and explain the problems with what they were being threatened. He tells them where truth and hope can be found. If “stopping the indulgence of the flesh” is the goal then there is a way to do it, it’s just not found in either of these extremes. I think there’s 5 ways in which Paul tells us why we hold fast to Christ in this passage. We’ve kinda already looked at one and some are just the inverse of the negatives of this text.
We’ve already talked about observing or not observing holidays & Sabbaths. They don’t stop the flesh. In fact, regardless of which extreme you fall on they give opportunity for the flesh. So instead of looking at shadows, you look at the substance. We’ve already seen how these holidays God gave where to point to him. Sabbath rest, which man, after 3 days of school and a little bit of watermelon harvest boy was I ready for it, reminds that while I was made to work, toil wasn’t supposed to be a part of it. God rested on day 7 to enjoy his work. But when sin entered the world, toil became a part of our work. Sabbath reminds us that we were created for more and in Jesus we find that Sabbath. We find the rest that our hearts long for. He is the substance everything else is a shadow.
We hold fast to Jesus because he is the substance, and Paul tells us to hold fast to Jesus because he is the opposite of these false teachers—he is humble. They are puffed up without reason, Jesus is gentle and lowly. They insist on following certain practices, Jesus just opens his arms and says, “Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” You see, that rest we talked about, here it is. It’s in him. It’s in the humble savior, not the arrogant teacher. In fact, what was the problem here? They were being judged and disqualified by these false teachers, but did Jesus do for us? He was judged. He stood before the high priest and was judged as a blasphemer. He was crucified and in his crucifixion he went before the ultimate judge-God. Yet God didn’t find him guilty, but instead sufficient. Sufficient to pay for your sin and mine. Sufficient to fill the gap, to bridge the great divide between God and man. Now, because Jesus was judged we don’t have to be. He was humble enough to take our place. Yet, he didn’t just take our place, what does Paul say happens to those who trust in Jesus’ sacrifice for their own? Col 1:12
giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.
The threats of the false teachers were judgment and disqualification—both of which our humble savior has taken care of for you. He qualified you and was judged for you. So hold fast to him.
He is the substance. He is humble. He is also eternal. Remember, one of the problems with these false teachers is that everything they insisted upon had to do with temporary things. But how does Paul describe Jesus in Col 1:15-17
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
He is the source of all creation. He is the purpose of all creation. He has always existed for all of time, so why run to temporary measures to stop the flesh? Run to the eternal savior who redeems you from it.
The philosophies, empty deceit, and traditions insisted upon appeared to wise, at least according to worldly standards. It seemed to work. But look at Col 2:3
in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
The wisdom of the world is folly with God. Jesus is wisdom personified. James warns of the wisdom that these false teachers were giving. it may have looked good but was ultimately rooted in selfish ambition. Look at James 3:14-18
But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
That’s not just the wisdom that Jesus provides, it’s who Jesus is. He is peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. He gives peace. So don’t run to worldly wisdom, hold fast to the fountain of wisdom.
So Jesus is the substance. Jesus is humble. He is eternal, and he is wisdom. The last reason why we hold fast to Jesus is because he is the source of growth. Do you remember what these verses all flow out of? It’s why we backed up this morning to v8. Look back with me to Col. 2:13
And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,
What did God do to us through Jesus? He made us alive with him. If it wasn’t for Christ we would still be wondering in worldly wisdom how to deal with our deepest problems, but through Jesus we find life, but not just life, growth.
Look back to Col. 2:19
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.
He makes us alive, he holds us together, and he causes us to grow. It’s all a work of Jesus. Now, there’s two really important takeaways for us in this verse in particular. Paul it seems like quite intentionally here inserts the phrase, “from whom the whole body.” It seems as if he’s been speaking individualistically from the start…”let no one pass judgment on you” & “Let no one disqualify you.” But he switches here to not individualistic growth, but to the whole body. We can look at the rest of his letters and know that when he’s discussing the body he’s discussing the church. Paul is saying here that growth doesn’t happen when the hand stays attached to the hand. He’s saying that growth happens when the hand stays connected to the arm which is connected the shoulder which is connected to the neck which is connected to the hand. In other words, growth doesn’t happen in isolation, it happens within biblical community. If you are not plugged into the body of Christ then you are not growing.
Now I don’t want to insist on something that Paul isn’t insisting on. My aim has been to show you how adding to your faith doesn’t gain you anything. You’re free to grow in Christ by holding fast to him. But one of the ways you hold fast to him is to plug into community. SO how can you do that here in a way that doesn’t indulge the flesh but is actually running in free pursuit of Christ? I think the key to that is found in Col. 2:20
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—
You see, Paul is actually functioning on a presumption. The presumption is that with Christ you died. That moment you placed your faith in him you put to death your will and submitted to His. You threw away your “righteousness” and took on his. This is why Jesus would say in the gospels Luke 9:23 “And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” To hold fast to Christ and to grow in Christ is to die to yourself. It’s to give up you and your wants to get more of him and his life. So before we get to what that functionally looks like, the first big question today for you is have you died to the elemental spirits of the world? Or are you still live according to them? Are you still trusting in your righteousness based off of what you have or haven’t handled, or tasted, or touched, or seen or said or participated in? Or are you trusting in the death of Jesus, submitting yourself to it and walking in the freedom of new life that’s only found in him? If not, then the call from this passage today isn’t to add to your life for righteousness, but to give yours up and trust in his.
Now if you have trusted in Christ and you do desire to grow in him—which if you don’t then you probably haven’t trusted in him—I go back to the question of how can you grow in Christ here at LBC? Can I take just a sec and tell you of the opportunities here to grow as part of the body?
Life @ Liberty
SS (adults, kids, students)
Wed. night events (KidZone, youth group) Need volunteers
Men’s DGroups
Women’s Bible Study in Sept.
Now I want to be clear, your participation in these things don’t qualify you or disqualify you for righteousness; that comes by faith alone in Christ alone. However, if Christ is in you, you will desire to participate in the body that he holds together and grows together. Because as you do, what you’ll find is that you aren’t really giving up anything to grow, you’re receiving growth as you give up.
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