The Rich and Glorious Gospel

“Stick with Jesus” 19 May 2018 Ithaca Presbyterian Church | Jayesh Naran | Colossians 2:6-23 Passage: 6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. 8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. 9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10 and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. 11 In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. 16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. 17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.18 Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you. Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind. 19 They have lost connection with the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow. 20 Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: 21 “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? 22 These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. 23 Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. I came across an article this week entitled “5 Reasons Why I Hate Religious Christianity.” It’s a bit of a shocking, in-your-face, clickbait title, it was written by a guy called Tyler Speegle, and the interesting thing about this article is that Tyler Speegle who wrote it is not an atheist, but a Christian. Here’s what he says: I have a confession to make. To some it may sound shocking, especially considering I write faith-based blog posts, but.... I hate religious Christianity. Now, before you think I have gone off the deep end and I’m renouncing my faith - please understand what I mean by religious. When I say religious, I’m not talking about a denomination, a doctrine or even a box you might check off on some paperwork. No, when I say religious what I am talking about is a belief that that says your performance, your devotion, your practices or your morals makes you right with God. The idea that righteousness is achieved, rather than received. That kind of belief - that kind of religion - will suck the life out of you. I know from firsthand experience. And he goes on to his five reasons. Now, we’ll come back to Speegle and his article a bit later, but the reason I mention him here is because the apostle Paul makes a similar kind of argument to the Colossians in the passage that I just read out and that we’re looking at today. But before we get to that, if you’ve just joined us this morning, let me get you up to speed: we’re in the fourth week of our series in Colossians which we’ve called A Life Worthy of God, the apostle Paul is writing this letter to the Christian church at Colossae – which used to be a city in what is now modern day Turkey. And Paul, from what we’ve read so far, is a little anxious and excited for this church all at the same time. Paul is excited for this church because when they heard the gospel, when they heard the good news about Jesus, they believed it. And Paul has heard all about their strong faith in Jesus and also their great love for their new spiritual family (1:4), and he’s really thankful to God for them. But Paul’s also a little anxious for this church. Because he’s not the one who started this church, his colleague Epaphras did, (1:7). And since he didn’t start the church, he hasn’t met all the people at the church – Paul mentions that in 2:1. And that means he’s a little unfamiliar with what their particular struggles are, and he knows that there are lots of dangers in the world – bad ideas and the like – that could wreck their faith. So he lets them know he’s praying his backside off for them – we looked at what he was praying for them a few weeks ago in 1:9ff. And he also lets the Colossians know how much he is striving and contending and suffering for them – you can see that at the end of chapter 1 and the beginning of chapter 2 which we looked at last week. And that brings us to chapter 2:6ff, which I just read out, where Paul now makes his strongest warning in this letter, a warning which seems a little similar to Tyler Speegle’s “5 Reasons Why I Hate Religious Christianity.” Paul essentially says, Stick with Christ, and don’t get sucked in by religion. That’s the general gist of what Paul is on about in these verses, that’s what his clickbait title would be if he was writing a blogpost. And you can see Paul saying this most clearly in the first few verses of what I read out, verses 6-8: 6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. That’s the “stick with Christ” bit. And then he says, 8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. That’s the “don’t get sucked in by religion” bit. “Stick with Christ and don’t get sucked in by religion.” And then in the rest of the passage, in verses 9-23, Paul explains why the Colossians should a) stick with Christ, and then he explains why b) they shouldn’t get sucked in by religion. And that’s what we’ll be looking at this morning. But before we do that, we need to follow in the footsteps of Tyler Speegle and clarify what religion is. Let me read you his definition again. A religion is: a belief that that says your performance, your devotion, your practices or your morals makes you right with God Let me slightly expand that definition to something that the average Australian would describe as a religion. Religion: a system of beliefs about God, and a system of rules, practices, traditions and rituals that are performed in order to earn God’s favour. That’s generally what most Australians think of when they think of religion. It’s a system, of stuff you believe about God, and stuff that you have to do to make him happy, to get into heaven or paradise or wherever. So when you hear me using the word religion this morning, that’s what I’m talking about. Now if that’s what a religion is, then Christianity is not a religion, or at least, the thing that Jesus was trying to kickstart was not religion. Christianity is the polar opposite of religion, the attitude that says that you can get into God’s good books by believing certain things and doing certain things. That’s not what Christianity is about. And yet, sometimes, Christianity gets treated like a religion, and lots of Christians get duped by this “religious Christianity” because it’s seductive – it promises all sorts of things and fools us into thinking that we can control God through our behaviour. But here’s the thing: “religious Christianity” – Christianity treated like a religion is toxic. As Tyler Speegle says, it sucks the life out of you. And it’s really dangerous for Christians because it can derail your faith in Christ; it can lead you away from Christ without you even realising it. Which is why Paul writes so strongly to the Colossians here. Religious Christianity is deadly. And that’s why this morning, we need to hear the reasons or be reminded of the reasons why we need to stick with Jesus, or “continue in Christ” as Paul writes in verse 6, and why we must not get sucked in by religion. So let’s look at those two things. Firstly, why is it so important that the Colossians (and us by extension) stick with Jesus? Why is it so important that they… “continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as [they] were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness”? Paul goes through four reasons the Colossians should stick with Christ in verses 9-15. And his basic argument across the four reasons is, everything you need to spiritually thrive as a human being is in Christ. You don’t need to look anywhere else. So let’s go through the four reasons the Colossians should stick with Christ. Firstly, in Christ they have full access to God. Have a look at verses 9-11: 9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10 and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. What does this mean? This essentially means that Christ is God in the flesh. Christ is God made visible to human beings like us; Christ is God made accessible to human beings like us. Now for a good explanation of what Paul means here, we need to go to Jesus himself in John 14 when he was with his disciples in the upper room just before he was crucified. Jesus says those famous words, 6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” And then Philip asks what appears to be a stupid question: “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” And Jesus almost sounds exasperated by the question in his reply. He says, “Don’t you know me Philip, even after all the time I’ve spent with you? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say that? How can you say, show us the Father? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?” Now that same interconnectedness between Christ and his Father is what Paul is getting at when he says that in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and this is something the disciples did not properly understand, even up to Christ’s resurrection. The disciples didn’t realise that every time they ate breakfast with Jesus, they were eating breakfast with God; that when Jesus was with them in the boat, God was in the boat with them; that every touch by Jesus was a touch by God, every hug from Jesus a hug from God. The disciples didn’t realise that in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, they didn’t realise they had direct access to God because they had direct access to Jesus. And that’s what Paul is reminding the Colossians of here. In Christ, you have access to God, to the one who has authority over everything, because you have been filled by the one who has been filled by God. Stick with Jesus because you have access to God through him. That’s the first reason Paul gives for the Colossians to stick with Christ. Secondly, in Christ they have been totally transformed by him. Paul uses a strange phrase to describe this transformation: he tells the Colossians that they have been “circumcised by Christ” – look at verse 11 to the first part of 13: 11 In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. That’s sounds a bit complex and its a bit of a mouthful, but Paul’s talking about something simple yet profound here. In the OT, the males among God’s people the Israelites would get circumcised as a symbol of their covenant with God, they would literally have a piece of their flesh taken off. Now that physical circumcision was pointing to a time when God’s people – Christians – would also have their flesh taken off, but in a much different sense, in a metaphorical sense. You see, when Paul talks about our flesh, he’s not talking about something physical. Our flesh is the version of ourselves that just wants to satisfy the desires of our body. Our flesh is the ugly version of ourselves that lives in rebellion against God, and that we need to be freed from. My flesh is the version of me that simply does what feels good without any consideration to others, it’s the version of me that I hate, and it’s the version of me that needs to die, and the good news is that it did die, on the cross with Jesus. That’s the incredible transformation that Paul is talking about here. When you become a Christian, when you put your faith in Jesus and are connected to Jesus, guess what? You get a brand new you. The old you dies, and a new you is born. That’s what it means to be circumcised by Christ. Christ takes off your flesh, he removes the old you, and gives you a new you. How does Christ do that? Paul says he does it through his death and resurrection, you can see that in verse 12. When you put your faith in Jesus and are connected to Jesus, which your baptism is a symbol of by the way, you also become connected to his death and resurrection, so much so that you participate in his death and resurrection with him. You go from death to life. Because he died on a cross, you died on a cross with him. And by you, I mean the old version of you. The old version of you dies and is buried with Jesus, and then God resurrects you as he resurrects Jesus. And then all of a sudden, you’re a new you. Now this process isn’t always instantaneous, a lot of the time it develops very slowly as you slowly put more and more faith in Jesus, but if you have solid faith in Jesus now, then you should be able to look at the version of yourself before you had faith and recognise that you were a different person. That’s the transformation we have access to if we are in Christ, and that’s the second reason Paul says the Colossians should stick with Christ. Let me go quickly through the last two. The third reason Paul says that the Colossians should stick with Christ is because they have forgiveness in Christ – you can see that in v13-14. 13b He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.  We have all forgiveness of everything we have ever done wrong if we are in Christ. And the fourth reason the Colossians should stick with Christ is because in Christ they have victory over the powers of darkness (v15). 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. Christ conquered Satan and the powers of darkness on the cross, and if you’re with Christ then you share in his victory. Just like if the Broncos are playing and if you’re rooting for them and they win a game, you share in their victory. So those are the four reasons Paul gives the Colossians to stick with Christ: because in Christ, they have access to God, transformation, forgiveness, and victory. Basically, the Colossians have everything they need in Christ. They don’t need anything else whatsoever in order to have a flourishing a healthy relationship with God. But here’s the thing; it’s so easy to be fooled into thinking that you do need something extra. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that your relationship with God through Jesus isn’t good enough, and that you need to shoosh it up with some religion: with some traditions or rituals or rules. And that’s why Paul now transitions to his second point: why you shouldn’t get sucked in by religion. And he gives three reasons why you shouldn’t be sucked in by religion, which we’ll quickly look at now. Firstly, religion has been superseded by Christ. Have a look at verses 16-17: 16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. 17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. Paul knew that there were people who called themselves Christians who were also Jewish and who were going around and telling all the non-Jewish Christians that if they wanted to really please God, they needed Jesus AND they needed to keep the Jewish laws. Which meant, they needed to avoid certain foods, they needed to celebrate certain Jewish festivals throughout the year, and finally and most importantly, they needed to observe the Sabbath. And what’s Paul’s response to that? He says, these things are the shadow of the things to come, the reality is in Christ. Choosing the path of religion over the path of Jesus is like choosing the wrapping paper over the present. It’s like choosing to watch the movie poster instead of the movie. It’s like choosing to read the book cover instead of the book. You see, the wrapping paper, the movie poster, and the book cover all point to something much better, they are like the shadow of the real thing. By choosing the shadow over the real thing, you’re actually going backwards. Now don’t get me wrong: all those Jewish laws that you find in the OT were given to the Israelites by God, they are divine commands and they are still helpful for us today in the sense that they show us what God is like. But all those laws were designed by God to point us to Jesus, and to a better way of loving him. For example, if all you have is the command, “do not lie”, there’s a million ways you can deceive people and still technically keep the command. But if you have Jesus, then you have a new self that has been transformed and forgiven by Christ that doesn’t want to lie or deceive people. And so if you go back to a religious mindset where you are just trying to keep rules, such as do not lie, you’re actually going backwards. God has replaced the Jewish legal system with Jesus; he’s replaced the shadow with the real thing, so don’t go back to the shadow. That’s Paul’s first reason you shouldn’t be sucked in by religion; it’s been superseded by Jesus. The second reason Paul says you shouldn’t get sucked in by religion is because it severs your relationship with Christ. Have a look at verses 18-19: 18 Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you. Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind. 19 They have lost connection with the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow. Religious people tend to be quite proud and arrogant, especially the kind that were around Colossae in the first century. Because religion is all about what you do for God, and the amazing things that you experience, and how much better at keeping the rules you are than the next guy, it’s quite focussed on you, and it breeds an attitude of self-reliance, which is deadly for a Christian, because Christians are called to rely on Christ, not themselves. And so Paul goes so far to say that people with this self-centred religious attitude have lost connection with the head; that is, they’ve lost connection with Jesus. That’s the second reason you shouldn’t get sucked in by religion: it severs your relationship with Christ. And then the third and final reason Paul says you shouldn’t get sucked into religion is because it doesn’t work; it doesn’t change you into a better person. That’s what he says in verses 20-23. 20 Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: 21 “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? 22 These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. 23 Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. Paul tells the Colossians that even though this religious stuff looks impressive, it looks wise, it looks spiritual, it looks hard-core and committed – it doesn’t actually change you. It might look good on the outside, but it does nothing for you on the inside. So that brings us to the end of the passage: Stick with Christ, Paul says, because in Christ you have access to God, transformation, forgiveness, and victory over the powers of darkness. And don’t get sucked in by religion, because it’s been superseded by Christ, it severs your relationship with him, and it doesn’t work. Now that’s all well and good for the Colossians, but how does this practically help us? What are some situations in our lives where we are tempted to be sucked in by religion? Let me give you a couple situations, and how you can work through them by turning to Christ, rather than by turning to religion. Firstly, let’s say you’re feeling distant from God. It feels like he’s a million miles away, it feels like he is a stranger, and you look around at other Christians and it looks as though they have a much better relationship with God than you. When you look at them sing, they look like they have found some secret source of joy, when you listen to them pray, they just sound so wise and articulate and spiritual. Maybe you feel that God likes these spiritual-looking and spiritual-sounding Christians more than you, maybe you feel that God is more likely to answer their prayers than yours. What do you do? If you went down the religion route, you might try to fix your problems by trying to look and sound more spiritual. You might try to sing more expressively, or you might try to pray more impressively. You might try to read your Bible more often thinking that maybe God will start to like you if you do that. You might even put some bumper stickers on your car to try and get some kudo points from God. Problem is, none of that actually works. You’ll probably still feel just as distant from God. So what would it look like to turn to Christ when you’re feeling distant from God? Well, assuming you already have faith in Christ, instead of trying to fix your problems superficially, you’d talk to him about it. You might say something like, “God I’m feeling distant from you, I feel like you are a million miles away, but I know that you aren’t, because I know that you have filled me with Christ, and I know that in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form. I know that you are in Christ and Christ is in you, and Christ is in me. I believe this Father; help my unbelief. Amen.” That’s what it looks like to turn to Christ when you’re feeling distant from God: you be honest with God and tell him how you feel, and then you continually remind yourself that God actually isn’t distant from you because of Christ. And this is completely different from the religious route, because in the religious route you bypass Christ in order to do a bunch of religious activities that don’t work. Let me give you another scenario. Let’s say you are struggling with secret sin that no one knows about. And you are trying to overcome it, but you can’t. You are filled with guilt over what you’ve been doing, but you can’t get rid of that guilt. What do you do? If you went down the religion route, you might try to enforce some rules upon yourself. You might try to punish yourself in some way when you slip up, or you might try to set up some barriers to make it harder for you to do the thing that you know you shouldn’t be doing. You might even try to do some good activities to somehow offset your bad ones. But the problem here once again is that it’s entirely dependent on you, and not God. So what would it look like to turn to Christ when you are struggling with secret sin? Well, assuming again that you have faith in Christ, you would firstly recognise that you already have the full forgiveness of God in Christ. And knowing that you’ve already been forgiven frees you up to confess your sin. You’re free to confess your sin to God himself, and you’re free to confess your sin to others to ask for help and for accountability, because you have already been ultimately forgiven. And then finally, moving forward, you’d recognise that this life of deliberate sin isn’t who you are. The old you died with Christ; you are a new you. You don’t have to live this way, you’ve been set free from sin in Christ. And meditating on your new identity – and meditating on the joy that comes from the freedom that Christ brings – actually brings about real change and transformation in your life. Those are some of the ways in which we can turn to Christ in our lives, instead of religion, which draws us away from Christ, and doesn’t ultimately work. Let me close with some words from our old friend Tyler Speegle. He says this: For years, I lived a life believing that God loved me because of what I did for Him. I looked at my church attendance, my Bible reading, my prayer time and my service as things that kept me on “God’s good side” and what “saved” me. The problem with this kind of belief though is that it will enslave you to performing religious duties. The moment you begin to read the Bible less or pray less you will start to feel guilty. The truth is - you will never be able to pray enough, serve enough or read your Bible enough to earn anything from God. God doesn’t love you because of what you’ve done; God loves you because of what Jesus has done for you. He desires devotion that is inspired by a relationship, not an obligation. If you are exhausted in your efforts to earn your way onto God’s good side then there is good news, because God wants you to come just as you are. He invites you to an abundant life defined by relationship instead of dry, mechanical religion. Religion doesn’t save, Jesus does. Let’s pray.