Don't Get Played

When Tami and I were visiting Israel, one of the stops we made was to a place called Mount Bental. Its a military base on the Eastern edge of the Golan Heights, perched high on top of the mountain looking down over the low lands of Syria below. This location played a key role in the six day war. While we were there our guide told us a very interesting story. Back in the early 1930’s, an Israeli spy had been covertly placed in the agricultural industry of the surrounding nations. Through his tenure, one of the key ideas he presented was that eucalyptus trees would play a key role in helping provide stability in the construction of underground bunkers. Eucalyptus trees grow with incredible speed and soon it became common practice that the trees would be planted around all of the bunkers. All along there was a greater plan, the man was sent so that Israel would have a marker to mark the sites of hidden underground bunkers. When the Six Day war came some 30 years later. Guess how they found the enemy bunkers- the clusters of eucalyptus trees, clearly marking each and every underground bunker! This week it occurred to me that in so many ways, the nature of false teaching is the same. On the outside it looks it looks promising, even helpful but the reality is that buried within it is a trap. The danger of false teaching is as real today as it was thousands of years ago. So how do we discern, how do we see through it? It’s here that the book of Colossians speaks so powerfully to us today

If you are just joining us this morning, we are in the midst of this series called “This Changes Everything.” We’re looking at the book of Colossians. The book of Colossians contains some of the most profound insights into who Christ is. It reminds us that He is a member of the holy godhead and the one in which all things hold together. His presence his work changes everything. The entire book of Colossians is devoted to showing us that life is all about Jesus. As the church tried to practically wrestle through what this looks like, false teachers were inventing false doctrines that were deceiving and the Apostle Paul calls out and identifies those false teachings and with stunning clarity reminds us of the danger of these false gospels. So, if you have your bible, open with me to and let’s read together.

I don’t often do this, but I actually want to start at the end of the passage. Paul is going to expose us to three deceptions that plagued the early church and our lives. In verse 23, He writes, “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.” In other words, those in the church were wrestling with how do we grow depeer. How do we experience transformation? They were looking for ways to stop the indulgence of the flesh. These deceptions look really good on the outside. They appear wise but, they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh in fact, they lead us down the wrong path.

Deception #1: My obedience makes me a better Christ follower.

Paul opens in verse 16 by saying let no one pass judgement on you in terms of food and drink. This word to “pass judgement” carries with it the sense of judging on in terms of the rightness of their actions. Paul specifically identifies four main areas where these false teachers were passing judgement on the church namely – food and drink, the observance of a festival or new moon and a sabbath. As the early church grew out of Judaism, one of the great questions was how to the laws of the Old Testament relate with the people of the new covenant? These false teachers in their attempt to reconcile these issues fell into the trap of legalism.

What exactly is legalism? Pastor John Piper defines it when He writes, “…legalism means treating biblical standards of conduct as regulations to be kept by our own power in order to earn God's favor.” In other words, Legalism is rooted in the belief that I can be more right with God by my own effort and adherence to the law. It’s dangerous. Listen to the words of the Apostle Paul in . “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving…” It’s striking to me that no other belief in the whole of Scripture is referred to as the doctrine of demons. It’s the antithesis of the gospel. It moves the gospel of grace to the gospel of performance. It believes that in my obedience to the law, in my keeping certain rules, I can somehow be more right with God. The trap of legalism is that its puts the focus on my performance rather than Christ’s faithfulness.

Here’s why Paul sees this all as pointless. He goes on to say in verse 17 that these things were merely the shadow of the things to come but the substance belongs to Christ. In other words, the law merely pointed towards the idea of righteousness, but righteousness found its ultimate fulfillment in Christ. The purpose of the law was to demonstrate what true righteousness looks like a standard that none of us could live up to. The law was never designed to be an end in itself, it was always designed to point towards Christ.

By nature I can be a kind of perfectionist. Through the years, God has had to work on me in these areas. I can remember a time in college when I came to the realization that what often drives this perfectionism is a fear of never being good enough. One day, as I was praying the Lord just challenged me, Can you do better than me? Can you be more righteous than me? If we’ve been given a new relationship with the one that the law points towards. Why are we afraid of not being good enough? We’re not good enough and that’s why he came.

Deception #2: My religious experiences make me a better Christ Follower

In verse 18, Paul takes aim at a second issue that was confronting the church. Scholars believe that a group of teachers called the Gnostics might have been responsible for this teaching. Much like our modern New Age religion, they called people towards mystical experiences that would give them insights that would give them a next level of spiritual insights. This word for ascetism is often translated as humility in other places. It was used to describe the practice of fasting or other manipulations to induce the body towards having supernatural insights.

Paul looks at this gnostic way of thinking and says don’t them “disqualify” you. The word here for disqualify was used to describe those who had turned the wrong way in a race. We learn just how sideways they had gone. in verse 19 that they were priding themselves in the worship of angels, going on about visions. What Paul will do is move beyond the vision itself to show us the heart underneath it. In verses 18-19, the man is “puffed up without reason in his sensuous or more literally-fleshy- mind. The real issue here is that in their pursuit of visions and the worship of angels they’ve lost the vital and life-giving connection to the head- namely Christ. Think about what a head does. It’s the head that gives direction and understanding. It’s the head that serves as the ultimate authority joining together the whole body.

Apart from that head, the body loses it life giving connection and comes to nothing. Paul echoes this reality in . “And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.”. These false teachers were calling people to abandon what mattered most submitting to a life giving relationship with Christ. It’s really an issue of authority will I live in submission to what God has revealed in His word or pursue something else? The trap of these false experiences is they make my experience a greater authority than Christ.

This week, I found myself asking how does this deception express itself today? To be sure there are gurus and new age teachers that appeal to their personal experience and leadership, but I think the way this heresy expresses itself is far more subtle. Often times, people will read God’s word and say based on their experience that doesn’t apply to them. I’ve walked with people who have said, I know God’s word calls me to be faithful to my spouse. God though has led this wonderful person in my life. I feel closer to him when I’m with this other person. Rather than remaining faithful to the clear commands of Scripture, they look to their own experience as the ultimate authority in their lives. Abandoning or detaching from the head they disqualify themselves in the journey of following Jesus.

Deception #3: My self made religion make me a better Christ follower Verse 20 reminds us that these false teachers were calling people to submit to regulations regarding food. I found myself wrestling with how is this similar or different to legalism? Where legalism is the attempt to force a man-made religion from the that others force on us, this is really an attempt to control my life through my own will and self denial. Rather than embracing a life of surrender in Christ, its rooted in developing regulations to control and overcome the body. a religion on my terms and in my way and it misses everything that life in Christ is truly about.

We’re told in verse 20 that if we’ve died in Christ to the elemental spirits of the world. What’s Paul talking about here? These elementary principles were the rules and regulations about food. It’s a self made religion that’s rooted in what I do. Paul reminds us that in Christ we have died. Listen to His instruction in . “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. “

Dallas Willard once wrote, “People think of religion as a way to add a little God to your life. But Christ says throw your life away. He’s ready to give you a new one.” In other words, Paul is saying, why are you looking to self made religion to pretty up a corpse. If you’ve died in Christ, the call is not to try and reform yourself but to embrace who you’ve already become. The trap of self made religion is modifies behavior not transforms the heart.

Self-made religion is a religion on my terms. It says that Jesus is a good moral teacher who shows us some good principles. It’s the person who reasons, I come to church once a week so I can live as a like. Maybe you’re here and you’ve been trying to fight sin in your own power. You’ve said that you’ll never fall again into that trap of addiction, pride, and legalism but you go there again and again. Christ is saying look at me. What we need isn’t just some small modification we need God to rewrite who we are.

This week as I looked through these deceptions, I began to ask if there was a thread that connected them? Throughout the book, Paul has been reminding us of the superiority of Christ. He is the one to whom and through whom are all things forever. It takes me to the Take home truth of this passage. Don’t be deceived into “me centered” religion but receive the sufficient work of Christ.

One of my favorite stories from Greek Mythology is Jason and the Sirens. The Sirens were monsters with three heads that sang to allure sailors who passed by. When their song heard, each person heard what they most wanted to hear and they’d swim away to their doom. Jason though sought to outwit the sirens. So He recruits Orpheus, god of music, and He calls him to play. As the master musician played, so sweet and beautiful were his tunes that the draw of the sirens just sounded like idiotic noise. Friends the way that we will drown out false teaching is by learning the gift of savoring the beauty love and power of Christ. Legalism is silly next to His grace. No mystical experience could ever overcome the beauty of His love. Perhaps the best way to overcome false teaching is simply to sit at the feet of Jesus and let him transform us.

Lets just take a moment. I wonder where do we need Christ to sing? Lets just take a moment and remember that he is enough.