Hold fast

Scripture Reading:  John 15:4-6

Text:  Colossians 2:16-23

Introduction: I have to tell you this story as it fits in with our passage today.  A few months ago I was in Taco Bell in Colorado Springs.  There was quite a line and the guy at the register was muddling through his first day solo.  As I was standing in line thinking about what to order, I noticed an older lady with a brown paper sack.  She would open it and look inside and close it quick and look around to see if anyone was watching her.  Pretty soon she would open it again and peek in and close it quick.  This took place for about four or five minutes.  Then I noticed a guy start heading toward her.  I wasn’t paying much attention until I heard the lady yell out, Stop Thief.  The guy had ripped the bag out of her hand and took off out the door.  Instinct kicked in and I took off after him into the parking lot.  Now he was bigger than me but I was faster and I caught him about half way through the lot.  I tackled him and wrestled the bag away, he jumped up and took off.  Curiosity was killing me so I opened the bag and you will never believe what was in it.  Bologna, just like this story!!  While the story may not be true the lesson is the world is trying to steal away the fact that as a believer you have a firm footing and a solid faith.  Don’t let them rob you of this truth.

Central Idea:  Believers in Christ “must hold fast” to Him because we have been “made complete.”

Main Transition:  Today the message that Paul writes to the Colossians, God is using in our lives and should cause a reaction in our spiritual lives.  There are three areas of pressure that Paul deals with.  All three of these are part of the Colossian heresy and in fact are all three still present in our “religious world,” and I use that term to refer to all groups that are supposedly religious.  In fact as we study them I am sure that you will draw circles around those groups, even some conservative groups that are falling into the same sins that Paul was warning about.  The first pressure is of legalism, the second pressure is of pursuing religious experience, and finally the pressure of pursuing self-denial.  

I.  The Pressure of Legalism (16-17)

            A.  The teaching of the false teachers (16)

1.  The areas of legalism that were affecting the Colossian church were from the Jews who demanded that if you want to be saved you had to practice the rituals of Judaism.

            a.  The first area was what one could eat and drink

            b.  They also had festivals to observe

c.  Then there is the new moon – The new moon was the day in which the sacrifices were made.

d.      The Sabbath day –

1. This is one of the Ten Commandments, but is never reiterated in the New Testament and in fact the only early church service that we are able to enter into is in Acts 20 and it was held on Sunday not Saturday which is the Sabbath.

2.  The one command that is given is that you should not forsake the gathering together as believers.

2.  There are those in our world today that do this very same thing, so what should ….

            B.  The response of the grounded believer (16)

1.      Paul’s response to the pressure from the legalism is that we should not let any one intimidate us by it.

2.      The purpose of the pressure is to cause us to consider the ritual more than Christ, this should not happen, yet it does over and over again.

3.      Paul begins this verse with “therefore,” that means we must look back to see why we should act the way God has instructed Paul to teach us. 

a.       Start with verse 13-15

b.  in light of the fact that there is nothing that we can do to add to salvation and nothing that we can take away, why are you pressured to do something that is trying to add to salvation?

c.  If you believe that verse 14 is true, that Christ took your statement of sins and nailed them to the cross then don’t let those who say that you should practice rituals convince you that you are doing anything to help in salvation.

d.  Notice who is not active in verse 14, you, you are just the poor sinner who has your account read off, you are not holding the nail, or the hammer, or even the statement.  Christ nailed your sins to the cross, you are the reason He is there but you did nothing in the process of salvation.  And praise the Lord you didn’t!!

C.     The problem of the shadow (17)

1.      Paul says that the rituals and activities of the Jews were established to point to Christ and that they are merely shadows of the reality

2.      The reality is Christ and throughout the Old Testament these rituals were intended to point to Christ.

3.      Those that still practiced them were so absorbed with the shadow that they missed the reality.  The shadow has no value it merely tells you that there is a reality that is causing it.

Transition:  It is easy at this point to say I know someone like that.  This should not be our response.  Our response should look at our own lives, and at our church family.  While we may not practice these things as a church body we might on our own.  Take an honest look at your life and ask the question, “Are you devaluing salvation by you own legalism?”  Don’t get robbed by the trap of legalism.  But for us this next area may be more of a problem

II.  The Pressure of pursuing religious experience (18-19)

            A.  Don’t be robbed by the pressure (18a)

1.  Those who practiced the Colossian heresy were claiming a secret and mystical union with God, They were seeking to sway those that followed the Word of God.

2.  Paul’s challenge to the church was to not allow these heretic the ability to play the spiritual referees.  They were trying to disqualify the church based on their own set of rules.

3.  The rules that they wanted the church to live by are based on their own desires and selfish ambitions.

B.  Following after religious experience (18b) – There are three areas of experiential religion that confronted the Colossian church.

1.  Self-abasement – This is false humility that truly is merely ugly pride that they are delighting in.

2.  Worship of angels – This is by far a greater problem then the false humility and this was a problem for hundreds of years in Colossae, but it is present again in our world, especially those that are seeking to experience religion.  Matthew 4:10 Jesus tells Satan, “You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.”  

3.  Visions – In addition to the two other issues those involved in the Colossian heresy were into they also saw visions.  On these visions they were taking their stand, this is how they justified their teachings and who could argue with them as no one else experienced the same vision.

C.     Hold fast to Christ (19)

1.      These that practice such things are not part of the body of Christ, and they should not intimidate believers into following after there theories and experiences.

2.      These are not spiritual elite as they believed themselves to be, instead, they are inflated by their own selves by their fleshly minds.

3.      True spiritual growth only comes from Christ, our Scripture reading today from John reveals to us that we find our life sustaining support from Christ.

Illustration:  John MacArthur There is a tendency to move from objective to subjective, to shift our focus from Christ to experience.  We like the Colossians must not be intimidated by those who would make something other than knowing Christ through His Word a requirement for spiritual maturity.”

Transition:  Most of those that get robbed of their prize do so because of this area of experience.  Stand firm in Christ, understand that there is no secret knowledge.  Understand that we are to hold fast to Christ which sustains and holds the whole body together.  Don’t be robbed of your blessings of the body of Christ.

III.  The pressure of pursuing self-denial (20-23)

            A.  Are you grounded in Christ? (20)          

                        1.  Paul now turns from the heresy to the Christian and refers directly to us

2.  He asks us a very startling question, “Why if you are a Christian do you live by the world’s means?

3.  Believers because of our union with Christ we are set free from man-made rules designed to promote spirituality, through the use of self-denial.

B.     Life under the teachings of men (21-22)

1.      Those who practice self-denial do so because they feel that it makes them more holy have misunderstood the point of Christ’s death, and more sinister than that believe that they have something to contribute to the sacrifice of the perfect Lamb of God.

Illustration:  I recently had an encounter with a gentleman here in town that was intriguing to me.  He is a religious man and we discussed his church and ours, we talked about his pastor’s education and we so forth.  We then talked about Lent and the fact that he was going to deny himself something for a period of time in order to please the Lord.  The sad reality is that he is seeking to earn his way to heaven on a ticket that has already been paid for and is just waiting for him to pick it up.

2.      This type of self denial is useless because as Paul says it focuses on the things that are perishable

C.     Self made religions (23)

1.      The reason that self-denial is impotent is found in this verse

2.      While on the outside the acts of self-denial might make one appear more spiritual it is drive by the lust and the desire of fleshly indulgences.

3.      It is a vain attempt to appear more holy than others.

Illustration:  During the age of the monasteries people believed that the body was evil and that it had to be beaten into submission.  In fact, Simeon Stylites, who died in 459 spent the last 36 years of his life atop a fifty-foot pillar.  He mistakenly thought that the path to spirituality lay in exposing his body to the elements and withdraw from the world.

Conclusion:  Our world is filled with the confusion of religions.  The sad fact about it is that this is all controlled by Satan in an effort to destroy the church founded on Christ.  Paul has addressed an area that answers so many questions about the actions and functions of the church.  If you are involved in any of these areas that Paul mentions today it is time to step back and consider how you now should respond.  Someone has stolen from you, don’t let them keep it up.  After Paul spends so much time on the sufficiency of Christ why would you go back to living the way of the world?  All of these world systems base their thinking on the idea that we are not complete and that salvation is not finished, But Paul began this instruction with the first part of verse 10, “and in Him you have been made complete.”  Our salvation is based on nothing less than the complete and finalized power of God.  Don’t let the world steal that from you.