Combatting the Flesh

Recap:

Last Week: Continuing in Christ as we received him…not falling into human traditions, etc…remaining rooted in the faith…last week we concluded with the thought that God through Christ cancelled all our debts and put the spiritual rulers to open shame on our behalf through the cross...

This week, we’ll continue on the idea of combatting human ideas/wisdom/etc. and having fullness in Christ.

***Read Passage & Pray

Intro:

I’m not going to ask for a show of hands....but how many of you have been on a diet without lasting effects?

I know it’s a problem that many people have had. You lose weight on the diet and are doing good, and as soon as you’re done you go back to old eating habits and undo the good that the diet had done.

See one of the biggest problems with dieting is that it doesn’t change your taste buds. So when the diet is over, we all go back to our old loves.

I never knew how much I loved pizza until I had been on a diet and couldn’t have pizza for a couple weeks. During that time my desire only grew, it never dwindled, and you better believe when I broke the diet I didn’t take it easy.

So, while self-control is good and necessary, as it is a fruit of the spirit, outward change must be born through an internal transformation.

This goes way beyond dieting and food, which are mere examples, for it encompasses our entire lives as fleshly beings living out spiritual realities in the kingdom of God.

Internal transformation is the only way to have lasting change. The root of the problem, the desire that creates the problem, must be addressed.

This is what Christ offers, and that is what we see in today’s passage.

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Text:

Colossians 2:16–23 (ESV)

16 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.

PAUL COUNTERING - FALSE TEACHERS

EMPHASIZING JEWISH LAWS on GENTILE BELIEVERS.

THESE LAWS were NO LONGER RELEVANT IN CHRIST!

PRONOUNCING JUDGMENT.... TAUGHT the NEED for these EXTRA MEASURES to reach SPIRITUAL FULLNESS.

Doug Moo --- “Because it is in Christ that you have spiritual fullness, Paul is saying, do not let anyone impose upon you a program of spiritual development that does not have Christ at its heart”

17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

The GK word for “SUBSTANCE” some trans. -reality, here is typically translated “BODY”

BDAG: “Substantive reality, the thing itself, the reality in imagery of a body that casts a shadow”

OT LAWS, ETC. ---REPRESENT the REAL THING....BUT AREN’T the REAL THING....CHRIST.

CAN’T DIVORCE the 2......PETER PAN - ONLY 1 to LOSE SHADOW.

WRONG EMPHASIS--- It is the person who casts the shadow, not the shadow that creates the person.

CHRIST FULFILLS or “FILLS FULL” the OT SCRIPTURE........TEMPORARY, POINTED to CHRIST..!

Matthew 5:17 ESV

17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

BROUGHT to FULL EXPRESSION...

Romans 10:4 ESV

4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

GK TELOS ---“END” - ALSO MEANS GOAL, FINISH LINE, ETC.

OTHER THINGS POINTED to CHRIST.....BUT NOW HE’S HERE!

Andrew Knowles - “The rules were the pointers, but Jesus is the point”

IMAGINE ....DATING/ENGAGED.... S/O WRITES LETTER/MESSAGE....THEN VISITS & YOU SPEND TIME READING LETTER & IGNORING THEIR PRESENCE...

WHAT THEY WERE DOING - JEWISH VERSION of CHRISTIANITY

CLAIMED “FULLNESS” BUT MISSING THE REAL THING…JESUS CHRIST…TO WHOM EVERYTHING ELSE POINTED.

****STILL MORAL REQUIREMENTS.... LAW of CHRIST..... HATE = MURDER,,, LUST = ADULTERY

EVERYTHING in OT....INTERPRETED in LIGHT of the NEW.

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18 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,

(V16) First Paul said, “Let no one pass JUDGMENT”......based on WHAT YOU DO.

(V18) Now he says, “Let no one DISQUALIFY you”..... (based on WHAT YOU DON’T do)

DISQUALIFY/CONDEMN..... 1X USE

BDAG: “rob of a prize, condemn”.... it has the SENSE of an UMPIRE ATHLETIC COMPETITION DECIDING AGAINST someone....

Louw-Nida: “to judge as not worthy of a reward, to deprive of a reward”

ATTEMPTING to STRIP COLOSSIANS of PRIZE/REWARD in CHRIST ALONE......

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(V18) insisting on ASCETICISM.... some trans. “PIOUS SELF-DENIAL, FALSE HUMILITY, etc.”

Asceticism (BEST TRANS. IN CONTEXT)

“a person who practices great self-denial (severe self-discipline) and austerities and abstains from worldly comforts and pleasures, (forms of indulgences) esp for religious reasons”

CAN’T ENJOY THINGS---JEWISH FOOD LAWS, CELIBATE, ETC.

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(V18) WORSHIP of ANGELS....VISIONS....ETC. = OVERLY SPIRITUAL, ATTEMPTING to DISQUALIFY OTHERS, BECAUSE THEY DIDN’T HAVE THESE THINGS.

THEY’RE PUFFED UP (PRIDEFUL)---NONSPIRITUAL FLESHLY MIND!

**GREATEST IRONY!.....SUPER SPIRITUAL but PRIDEFUL in their FLESHLY MIND!!

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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.

4 PROBLEMS:

asceticism & angel worship

Overconfident in visions

Pride in their fleshly mind

Not holding to the head, Christ.

LOSING CONNECTION W/ CHRIST on behalf of OTHER THINGS.

CHRIST TOOK BACKSEAT!!

During COVID we found out who/what is “ESSENTIAL”.......THEY TOLD JESUS to STAY HOME!

(V19) CHRIST as the HEAD = AUTHORITY, SOURCE/PROVISION for the BODY, the CHURCH

BODY is ONLY KNIT TOGETHER & STRONG…IF it HOLDS FAST to the HEAD…CHRIST JESUS.

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(V19) GROWTH COMES FROM GOD ALONE!....IT’S CONTINUAL

BODY of CHRIST ISN’T GROWN by METHODS....IDEAS....BUT BY a WORK of GOD....---1 COR. 3

PAUL PLANTED

APOLLOS WATERED

GOD GAVE GROWTH. A

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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—

1st CLASS CONDITIONAL, ASSUMED as TRUE for SAKE of ARGUMENT. “Since with Christ you died”

CONDITIONAL STATEMENT....MAKES READER THINK.

Paul says: “If with Christ you’ve died...”

Reader thinks: “Have I died with Christ? Yes, I have”

Paul: “Well then since you’ve died with Christ....why do you do these things?!”

MAKES US CONSIDER IF WE’VE DIED W/ CHRIST..... & NECESSARY IMPLICATIONS!

CHANGED LIFE....HEAVEN is MY HOME.

DIED W/ CHRIST.....JUST as we SINNED in ADAM.....NOW RAISED to NEW LIFE.

BELIEVERS HAVE DIED to THIS BONDAGE of LEGALISM to LIVE for CHRIST...

GAL. 2:20 CHRIST LIVING IN ME.

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(V20) submitting to regulations....What Regulations?:

21 “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch”

22 (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings?

***TEMPORAL NATURE!....DON’T BE SO EARTHLY FOCUSED…THESE THINGS PERISH W/ USE!

(v23) MANY RULES = HUMAN TRADITION & TEACHING....NOT GOSPEL....NOT FROM GOD.

Andrew Knowles - “such rules are a magnet to people who want to try to earn their salvation”

SALVATION is by GRACE ALONE through FAITH ALONE…NOT WORKS....CHRIST DID the WORK FOR US

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23 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.

NLT: 23 These rules may seem wise because they require strong devotion, pious self-denial, and severe bodily discipline. But they provide no help in conquering a person’s evil desires.

PAUL NOTES here the APPARENT “BENEFITS”… “Indeed”....LOOK GOOD.

SELF-CONTROL = FRUIT of the SPIRIT = GOOD THING.

NO LONGER STARTING W/ 6 COOKIES...

BELIEVERS are CALLED to SELF-DENIAL....DENYING ONESELF, TAKING UP CROSS, FOLLOWING JESUS (MATT. 16:24; LUKE 9:23)

SELF-CONTROL MUST be ROOTED in CHRIST…FRUIT......PRACTICES AREN’T THE ROOT!

KEEP PROPER EMPHASIS… & HEALTHY BALANCE BETWEEN INDULGENCE AND ASCETICISM....

(V23) “Indulgence” - 1X USE

process of securing complete satisfaction or satiety

specifically, “OVER-INDULGENCE” of FLESHLY NATURE/EVIL DESIRES...

The great irony here is that all these things are aimed at the natural flesh, but they actually don’t make a difference in stopping the indulgence of our fleshly nature!

Big Idea: You can’t solve spiritual problems with merely natural solutions, transformation only comes as a work of the Spirit of God through Jesus Christ.

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FALSE TEACHERS....TAKING FOCUS OFF CHRIST....ONTO WORKS.

IRONY - CLAIM IT’LL SUBDUE THE FLESH…BUT INTRODUCES PRIDE & MAKES PROBLEM WORSE!

SALVATION BY GRACE - NO ONE CAN BOAST....

BIGGEST PROBLEM…FALSE TEACHERS FOCUS on HUMAN ABILITY.....Instead, true believers in Christ experience his empowering grace and the ministry of the Holy Spirit to help combat the indulgence of the flesh

CHRIST’S WORK FIXES the ROOT ....SIN.....

MAN’S WORK addresses the BAD FRUIT ONLY....

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IN LIGHT of THIS, PAUL BEGINS ETHICAL COMMANDS....PRACTICAL STUFF....WE’LL TURN to THESE SECTIONS NEXT WEEK

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Takeaways:

CHRIST the GREAT PROBLEM SOLVER....TAKE ISSUES to HIM...

WE DENY SELF & RESIST DEVIL, ETC.

BUT WE NEED HIS STRENGTH TO OVERCOME.

DON’T KEEP YOUR STRUGGLE FROM GOD, HE ALREADY KNOWS ABOUT IT ANYWAYS, SEEK HIM FOR HELP.

ANXIETY & WORRY over FUTURE....GO TO HIM.

STRUGGLING in MARRIAGE....FAITHFULNESS....GO TO HIM.

BURNT OUT.....GO TO HIM.

RESENTFULNESS/UNFORGIVENESS....GO TO HIM.

GUARD your HEART against LEGALISM...

NONE of US ARE BETTER than OTHERS....BECAUSE of WHAT WE DO/DON’T DO.

SALVATION BY GRACE...

BE CAREFUL WHEN ADDING COMMANDMENTS BEYOND WHAT GOD REQUIRES....

CONSIDER… “HAVE I DIED W/ CHRIST?”....IF I’VE DIED TO THIS WORLD, DOES THIS WORLD STILL RULE MY FOCUS?

REVERSE FAMOUS SAYING......DON’T BE SO EARTHLY MINDED THAT YOU’RE NO HEAVENLY GOOD.

*****CLOSE IN PRAYER