Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

For those of you who don’t know, this is the Washington Monument in Washington DC.

When people go to see it, they are amazed by it’s shear size.

It is the world’s tallest predominately stone structure in the world and measures around 555 feet and is made mostly of marble, granite, limestone, and sandstone.

This tall monument casts quite a shadow as we see in this picture.

The shadow is interesting and fun to see but it is unlikely that most people would go Washington DC in order to only see the shadow of the monument and ignore the gigantic structure that is causing the shadow!

Yet that is what many do today.

Many today spend their time looking at the shadows instead of the Savior.

Many today ignore the Savior and focus on things that are much inferior.

Join me as we read God’s Word:

Let us pray.

Prayer

Today we are going to discuss three ways the Savior surpasses everything else.

The first is:

I.

The Savior Surpasses the Shadow (16-17)

What are people casting judgments on the Colossian church about here?

They are saying that they need to be celebrating religious rituals in order to be right with God.

We definitely see a flavor of the Judaizers here discussing festivals and Sabbath regulations but there is likely some other religious activity that is being brought in here as well.

These false teachers are trying to keep the regulations of the law that were fulfilled by Christ.

They are encouraging people to try to work for their salvation instead of relying on the grace of Jesus Christ.

There is a direct attack on Christian liberty and freedom in Christ here.

And we see this today as well.

Churches seem to go off the rails in many different ways as false philosophies enter the church.

It may be an extreme view of experientialism or mysticism where people exalt experiences over exposition of God’s Word.

The experiences and revelations that they have through meditation are what really matters to them.

It isn’t the Word of God that is final - instead it is their emotions and spiritual revelations.

Or they may go off toward traditionalism and legalism with certain practices that need to be done in order to be holy.

An unwritten list of do’s and do not’s may be what fills the minds of the church instead of the Word of God.

Obviously we today are going to be under the microscope of such churches and teachers.

And we obviously cannot keep people from passing false judgments on us.

But we can determine whether these false judgments change how we worship God and live our lives.

So many people seem to really care what others think about them.

They are controlled by the opinions of others.

They are impacted by every snarky word that someone else says.

And they are influenced by influencers who are not there to encourage a holy life and holy living.

So if I may ask you...

Who is your greatest influencer?

I pray that it is Jesus Christ and not someone on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

I pray that it is not even some teacher that has a podcast and is given a voice in our society that uses it for airing out their own opinions.

What Jesus says is what matters.

Other’s opinions will fade away and vanish but His Word lasts forever.

Measure everything by His Word.

Don’t misunderstand this section of Scripture.

Some of us may have strong convictions on certain things that are given to us by God.

Some of us may need to avoid certain drinks and certain foods in order to live a more holy life.

Frankly there are some good arguments for some of these issues that I will likely preach on in the future.

Yet we must not make a law where God has not made a law.

We are to obey Christ.

We are to obey everything that He commands.

And we are not to add to what He commands and place that on others.

This is legalism my friends.

And it destroys Christian freedom and joy.

It robs a church of its life.

Legalism is a choking force on the body.

It keeps the body from being dependent on Christ and makes the body dependent on the ideas of man.

Jesus taught very harshly regarding legalism:

This is a great picture of the religious leaders making up rules and obeying the ones they made up but ignoring the commands of God!

God was clear on what He taught about making vows:

Yet the religious rulers made exceptions from their own minds.

There is no end to the pit of legalism.

Let’s jump into verse 17 as Paul makes a case for not practicing a works-based righteousness.

Not only do we need to avoid legalism and following the law of man instead of the commands of God - but we also need to not rely on the foreshadowing practices of the Old Testament that were fulfilled by Christ in order to have a right relationship with Christ.

I am going to mention a couple of high points here:

1.

The Passover (Exodus 12:1-9, Numbers 26:16-25, Leviticus 23:5, Deuteronomy 16:1-8)

The Passover was a celebration of the escape from Egypt.

The final and tenth plague on Egypt was the death of the firstborn and the Angel of Death passed over and spared all of the houses that had the blood of a lamb over the doors of the houses.

This was a beautiful celebration for Israel.

Yet it is only a shadow of what God would do in the future.

We know now that Christ became the Passover lamb.

His blood was spilled and placed on us so that we might have forgiveness of sins and so that eternal death would pass over us and we are given eternal life instead.

As wonderful as the Passover was for Israel - it was only a shadow of the more full and beautiful Passover that was to be experiences through the sacrificial death of Christ.

2. The Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:1-34; Exodus 30:10-30; Numbers 29:7-11)

On this particular day, also referred to as Yom Kippur, the high priest would go into the Holy of Holies on behalf of the people.

This was the only day in which he could do this.

He had to bathe himself and put on special garments before doing this.

He had to first sacrifice a bull for a sin offering for himself and his family.

He was to sprinkle this blood on the ark of the covenant.

Then there were two goats that were brought forth - one was sacrificed for the sins of the people and the other was called the scapegoat and was released outside the camp after confessing over it the rebellion and wickedness of the people which was to be forgiven.

This occured year after year.

Yet Christ was both the sacrifice and the scapegoat.

He suffered outside the camp like the scapegoat did.

And He bled and died like the sacrificed goat did.

Yet, He did not need to make a sacrifice for Himself like the priest.

He is perfect and needed no bull to cover His sins.

Our Great High Priest in Christ is much better than the priests of the law.

Not only that - His sacrifice was once for all!

His sacrifice was done once and for all.

It is finished is what He said!

Brothers and sisters - let us never worship the shadow instead of the Savior.

Learning about the Old Testament law, festivals, rituals, the Passover, and the Day of Atonement is very helpful in understanding the character and Person of Jesus Christ.

I would highly recommend studying these things and seeing how they point to Christ.

But we must be very careful to avoid letting these things become the main thing.

Christ must always be the center of everything and the Head of the body of believers.

Anything that usurps His authority must be cast aside.

Whether it is a religious ritual or man’s ideas.

Whether is an Old Testament festival or even a church event or outreach that has become the main thing the church is about instead of Jesus.

Never trade the substance for the shadow.

Never exalt the shadow over the Savior.

Scripture References: Matthew 23:16-17, Deuteronomy 23:21, John 19:30